Last Week in September...

New this week... Aurelia has begun "growling". She and Frida "play tugg" with Frida's chew toys and right before she grabs the toy, she "growls"! Its kinda cute!


Monday kind of flew by us, maybe it was the crappy weather we had outside or maybe its that we had so much "work" to do! Good thing she got a break...(don't worry, the cap was on...no Mountain Dew for this babe!)

Bouncing...thats her new favorite thing to do in her excersaucer!
Along with growling and bouncing, she is definately on the move! She's so fast, you can't even catch all limbs moving...ha ha!
On Thursday, we had a playdate with Jaime and Aston. Here she is before we left... The two little ones were so much fun to watch! They started off by showing off their toys, Aston with his vacuum and remote, Ari with her keys and phone! Aston showed how he could toddle and Ari showed how she could crawl. Then they had lunch together and just kind of "cave-man" grunted at each other. After lunch, they rolled around the floor (Aston can walk, but it was so nice of him to come down to Ari's level...ha ha!) and "read" some books to (over) eachother...they were so comfortable that Ari would rest her head on Aston's lap and Aston just wanted to be close to her! It was so much fun! THANKS again, Jaime and Aston! Afterwards, Aurelia was just wiped...

We were saddened by the news of Great Grandma Wand's passing on Thursday night. We are just fortunate that we had the time with her that we did and that Aurelia got to meet her Great Grandmother.

We had some big plans for the weekend and beginning of next week...here's Ari getting her beauty rest... On Friday, we had some places that we needed to run to...here she is ready to roll...
Also new this week, Ari Vail is standing! She has now decided to pull herself up in her crib or on us!

On Saturday, Mommy had a booth for Pampered Chef and Daddy and Ari killed some time shopping while waiting for me to finish up...
On Sunday, we braved our crappy weather and went to Minnesota Harvest and picked out our pumpkins, as well as some yummy apple treats! It was so much fun!

8 months!

New This Week: tried her first meat...turkey! Did NOT like it! Very similar reaction to avocado...very dramatic! Little stinker!
Also new this week...Aurelia has gotten into dancing! She loves the song "Alice the Camel" and during the "boom, boom, booms" she shakes her little head! It's so freak'n cute!

Monday, Ari spent the afternoon with her Daddy! Mommy picked up an earlier shift at work and she and Daddy had some Father-Daughter time...
We had a very relaxing day on Tuesday....Ari Vail stayed in her PJ's for most of the day!
Aurelia Vail turned 8 months old on Wednesday...another month flew by! We decided to try avocado again and...suprise...she LOVED it! Little goofball! She actually wanted that over her squash! She was a little too busy "reading" her book to look at the camera today...Also, tonight, when she was with her Daddy, they had Monsters, Inc. playing in the background as she played in her excersaucer and every once in a while she'd look up and "talk" to Boo and let out a yell! I guess she has a new favorite movie!
Thursday, we got ready to go visit Great Grandma Wand...it was so nice to see everyone at Tony and Deb's...even got to see Poppa!
On Friday, we did some shopping and ran some errands...most of all, Aurelia had shoes on...and LEFT them on!! She was pretty excited about her little sneaks...then we picked up Zach from the U and had a nice dinner at our house! It was nice to catch up with him and hear all about the happenings as a Freshman!
Saturday, we let Daddy sleep in and spent the morning watching some Baby Einstien and playing, with Frida...quite the little multi-tasker!
Sunday, was a relaxing day, spent most of the afternoon outside, enjoying the beautiful weather! Ari and Mommy sat on the swing and then played on her blanket. Every once in a while she'd get excited with Frida running by that she'd start to crawl off the blanket and "forget" that she didn't like the grass touching her! She'd crawl off the edge of the blanket a foot or so and then raise her hand and just look at me, like she was frozen! She only did it a couple of times! Also, on Sunday, she ate her first "finger" foods...little Gerber cheese sticks and veggie wheels...she LOVED them! It was really cute to hear her crunch away with her two little teeth!

We are SITTING!!!!

New this week: Aurelia Vail is sitting! She has been sitting on her own for a minute here and there for a little while, but as of Tuesday night, she has decided to sit on her own for quite some time! She would topple over a little and then put her little chubby arm out for support and push herself back up...soooo cute to watch her work at sitting!
Also, this week...she is now pointing...she points at our pointer, Frida's nose, pictures in her book, Mommy's jewelry, etc...it's so much fun to watch her focus and "work" on pointing!
Monday, we were back to our routine...playtime and naps! And of course the bottles and food in between! Oh and diapers! Here she is helping to feed herself...
Tuesday, we attempted to do pigtails again and we had success!


We did some shopping on Wednesday, before Mommy had to go to work...but we did get in a shot of her sitting on her own... Happy Birthday, Uncle JonJon!!!
We spent the day with Tia Bria, doing some bridesmaid dress shopping!!! We tried on so many dresses, we forgot to take a picture for Thursday! We'll have to make up for it on the weekend! Auntie Chelsea came over on Thursday afternoon, so that we could celebrate her birthday...we did so by doing our annual cupcake baking! I think our designs get better with every year...ha ha!
On Friday, we had planned on going to the Renaissaunce Festival with Auntie Chelsea and Uncle JonJon to celebrate their birthdays, but after being in the car for almost 2 hours we found out it was closed on Fridays!!! OOPS!! Here is Ari, being very patient with us... So we decided to do some shopping instead...all was not lost! We then met up with Tia Bria and Charlie, and Grandma Bena and Grandpa Steve for a great dinner to continue to celebrate!
Uncle JonJon stayed the night with us on Friday night...and we got to messing around with Daddy's hat...
We had a nice relaxing Saturday...watched a movie, took a nice nap, and did some reading and here she is getting ready for bed...
Sunday Yaya and Poppa came over and we had a nice lunch with them! We played and the guys watched the Vikings game...a great end to a great week!

Back to Minnesota...

We got back around 9:30 on Monday morning, after our 20 hour car ride! And we ALL were so glad to be out of the car...especially Daddy! Poor guy, drove all but 3 hours! All in all, it was a terrific trip and the little ones did amazing in the car! We will definately do it again!
Tuesday, Mommy and Daddy had to get back to reality and work...but Aurelia was just chill'n in her "my uncle rocks" (THX Uncle Jon Jon) onsie, enjoying her bottle (THX Tio Ramon and Auntie D) on the couch, watching some Curious George! Its a rough one!
We tried to get caught up on some housework before work and Ari Vail was back on her schedule and happy as usual! Here's a good shot of her two little teeth...
On Thursday, Ari and I spent the day with G-Grandma Wand. We picked her up at Tony and Deb's and took her to her massage, followed by an appointment at G-Uncle Kevin's clinic...here she is, reading her book while we wait...
We spent Friday making Ari's food and then Grandma Bena came up for the evening. She babysat Ari while Mommy and Daddy went out and celebrated our 4th Anniversary at a great place in Minneapolis! It was a lot of fun!
Unfortunately, Mommy had to work the weekend but we were able to have a great brunch on Sunday morning with our friends, Amanda, Chad, and Gavin!

New this week: Aurelia definately does NOT like avocado...very dramatic!!! ha ha!

Our Week at Wuelo's!

We were able to get to Houston early on Sunday afternoon. The newly remodeled kitchen looked really great! They did an awesome job!
We were lucky enough to be in Houston for Wuelo's official 50th birthday on Monday! Here is Ari, accidentally sticking her toes in Wuelo's cake...
Monday night, we enjoyed a good ol' Viking vs Texans pre-season game...yay Vikings!
Most of the week we spent watching the guys finish up the kitchen (Daddy loved this!), doing some shopping for Wuelo's party on Saturday, and most of all relaxing and enjoying the company! She got in some good zzzz's! We did a LOT of playing too!
Here is Ari, relaxing on Friday...
Friday night, we got to see Tio Cheech's football game...all I can say is "wow"! Those Texans sure take their football seriously! It was a ton of fun and we were happy to be there to cheer on the Lobos! Tio Ramon and Auntie D joined us in Houston late Friday night.
Saturday, we spent the day getting ready for the big party... and just hanging out...
Here's Auntie D and her Baby Ari, enjoying the party...The party was a lot of fun and we were so happy to see everyone! Wuelo was a good sport and seemed to be having a great time...
We were sad to leave, and enjoyed every minute of our time in Fort Worth and in Houston! Baby Vail will miss her Wuelo and Grandma Texas and her Tio Cheech!!! I'm sure Frida will miss Pietre, Baby Girl and especially Radar!!
We headed back on Sunday afternoon for our 20 hour car ride back to Minneapolis. Ari and Frida did amazingly well. And Mommy was sooooo lucky that Daddy drove all but 3 hours of the way back! We were blessed with great little travelers and an awesome vacation!!!

New this week: other than our 1st major road trip, Aurelia has started to say "ba-ba-ba" and more importantly, "ma-ma-ma"!!!

Last Week in August...

Aurelia spent her Monday with her Grandma Bena, since Mommy picked up a day shift...Ari LOVES to look at books and magazines now and "kiss" the faces! It's so cute! Here she is reading to Grandma!



Here are a couple of more pictures from her day with Grandma Bena!
"Talking" to Grandma Bena...
Loving her giraff from Como Zoo...
Getting her lion...
"Um, I don't think you should do that" ~ Frida...
We missed a picture on Tuesday, probably due to running around, doing last minute errands for our upcoming trip!
As we all ran around on Wednesday, packing, Aurelia kept her cool...here she is enjoying her teething biscuit...
We decided to leave for our big road trip on Thursday evening. We figured we'd beat the weekend traffic and let Ari do some much needed sleeping on most of the ride...worked like a charm! She and Frida slept the first 10 hours...it was soooo nice! When she woke up Friday morning, we only had about 4 hours to go before we were in Fort Worth! Here she is after a very good sleep...
We got to Tio Ramon and Auntie D's around 1:30 and had a chance to take an afternoon nap and unwind before they got home from work. We enjoyed a very yummy dinner at a sushi restaurant (Mommy was really craving that!!!).
Mommy got to spend Saturday morning with Auntie D, while Ari got some quality time in with her Tio Ramon and Daddy... In the afternoon we did some shopping for Wuelo's upcoming birthday and then had a great BBQ gathering in the afternoon! We got to see Karl and Kimberly and Peggy, as well as Vanessa and her new friend! It was so much fun and was accompanied by some great Texas fajitas!! Thanks Tio Ramon!!!
We left Fort Worth and headed for Houston on Sunday afternoon...again, we were blessed with great little travelers!

New this week: we have a 2nd tooth!!!