11 months...and 1st CHRISTMAS!!!

New this week: besides turning 11 months and experiencing her 1st Christmas, Aurelia has decided to start puckering up...sometimes mixing an open-mouthed kiss with a pucker! Also, one of her new words this week is "Papa"...aka Grandpa Jeff! She looked right at him, pointed, and said, "Papa"...very cute! Oh, and she also knows what a duck says, "quack, quack". And when asked if she "has a frog in (her) throat?", she does a little fake cough! What a little ham!
We opened up some more 12 Days of Christmas gifts on Monday...she's really getting good at it!
Then Tio Ramon and Auntie D flew in late in the evening.
On Tuesday, we went shopping with Grandma Bena! It was so much fun to shop with everyone; Daddy, Tio Ramon, Auntie D, Tia Bria, Charlie, and Uncle JonJon!
Aurelia turned 11 months old on Wednesday! We just can't believe how fast this year is flying by! It was a busy day with packing for our trip to Harmony! We did take a break to open gifts from Wuelo and Grandma Texas. We ALL got some great gifts and enjoyed opening them! THANKS Wuelo, Grandma Texas, and Tio Cheech!!! We miss you guys!
We braved the storm by leaving VERY early on Thursday morning...off to Grandmother's house we go...in the snow storm!!! It was a slow ride, but we made it safely and were so happy to be at Grandma's! We attended the church service in our pretties! Aurelia was listening so nicely during the service, that when Father was talking about the manger, every time he said cow (several times!) she said "moo"! It was sooo funny! But at least she was listening! After Church, we had a beautiful and absolutely wonderful meal at Grandma Bena's and then we opened gifts! Ari had sooo much fun!
Tia Bria and Charlie braved the weather on Friday morning and arrived on Christmas morning in Harmony, just in time to open presents! We had so much fun opening presents, so much fun, it just wore Ari out... she was getting so tired that she began to open gifts laying down! So we snuck in a quick nap and then headed to GG and Great Grandpa's for a quick visit! It was so nice to get to see everyone! Then we headed to Yaya and Papa's for more gift opening and a wonderful dinner! Miss Ari Vail got soooo much for Christmas, Santa was really really good to us! It was a challenge to get all the gifts home, and now our house looks like Toys R Us! It has been so much fun watching her get excited about her gifts! Thank you everyone for everything!!
On Saturday, we all got dressed up for our formal pictures that Grandma Bena has been wanting to get done for the last 3 years! We're really excited to see how they turned out! Then we put on our winter gear and headed to the Farm for some outdoor winter pictures that our Whitney took for us! Sooo anxious to see how those turned out too! After all the glam shots, we got our sledding gear on and enjoyed a good ol Minnesota winter day!

On Sunday, we were sad to say our good-bye's to everyone, packed up our presents, and spent the day in Preston with Yaya and Papa! It was very relaxing before our trip back to the Cities.
We had a busy, but wonderful first Christmas as a little family!

Getting ready for our first Christmas...

New This Week: Waving "hi" and "bye" and saying "puppy" very clearly and you can kind of make out "kitty" when she finds Kitty or Piggy. The other funny thing that Aurelia has started doing this week is yelling down the stairs from her highchair to "Babe" aka. Daddy! She has heard me holler down to him and has now began doing the same...kinda funny to hear her yell, "Babe" and then wait for a response from him! Also, Ari has started throwing up her hands when we say "ta-da" and with the season that we are in, she now throws her hands up when we say "touch down"! Very cute!

On Monday, Ari Vail and Mommy joined Auntie Chelsea at the Mall to do some shopping...it was a great Girls' day! We started the day with a nice lunch and continued to have a relaxing shopping day, and ended the day with Aurelia sleeping and Mommy and Auntie Chelsea having a much needed/wanted ice cream!!! It was a great day!
Grandma Bena and Grandpa Steve have started the tradition of the 12 Days of Christmas... It has been so much fun to watch her open her little gifts! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
On Wednesday, our little family decided to visit "A Day in the Life of an Elf" at the Downtown Macy's and sit on Santa's Lap! For a couple of days before, Mommy had been very excited about Santa and pointing him out EVERYWHERE! The day of, Aurelia was excited to be there and look at the display... BUT when it came time to sit on his lap...she wanted nothing to do with it! We have the classic baby pic with Santa...back arched, dress up around the waste, terrified look on her face, wanting nothing but to be off of his lap! It was quite comical!
Continuing the 12 Days of Christmas...




I think she's getting the hang of it!
Aurelia and Mommy went out for the last of the shopping, here she is ready to go and waving to Daddy!

Saturday was the Wand Christmas...again, it was nice to see everyone. G-Grandma Wand's presence was missed, but it was nice to see some of her traditions have been carried on. Ari got some wonderful gifts and we were glad she's had some practice opening already! Thank you all for a wonderful time!
Our plans for Sunday changed at the last minute, but it all worked out. It ended up being a very relaxed day, getting the last of our cards out and wrapping the gifts. Mommy and Daddy were up until 3, watching movies and wraping gifts! It was a late night, but a lot of fun!
Here is this year's Christmas card! We really waited until the deadline, but we got them done!
And here is a scene from our home...Frida enjoying our tree, being cozy and warm near the fire...

G-Grandpa's 75th birthday!

New this week: When asked, "what does the cow say?" Aurelia answers, "moo"! It is so cute! Also new this week...waffles! Ari has decided that she loves waffles, so in the morning, she, Mommy, and Frida all have waffles!

Monday, was the aftermath of our Texas trip...She was so excited to be able to relax and play with her toys and watch her Sesame Street!
Ari Vail is on the go...ALL the time...our daily pictures are getting harder and harder!
On Tuesday, Yaya came up to the Cities to do some shopping and then stayed over for a fun night with us!
We had quite a bit of snow on Wednesday and there was no way we were going to be going anywhere (except work :-( ha ha!), so we had a PJ day!
She really enjoys her breakfast! Especially when it's blueberry waffles!
Friday was a very busy day...we went for our Stroller Strides workout and shopped some with Jaime and Aston, dropped off some items with some friends, and then packed for our weekend in Harmony! Here she is watching Mommy running around, trying to get everything organized and ready to go! On the way to Harmony, we stopped in Preston and visited with Yaya and Papa!
We spent Saturday, baking cookies and getting ready for Sunday. Saturday night, we went to Decorah to celebrate G-Grandpa Cremer's 75th birthday! It was a really nice dinner with great company!
On Sunday, we spent the morning at GG's for our Annual Cookie Bake! It was so much fun! We even got to meet our newest cousin, Dreigh...What a happy little cutie!
It was a great weekend!

Texas...Wuela Julia's 90th!

New This Week: Aurelia is loving noodles, especially with cheese! Making the "ba-ba" sound with her hand and mouth is also pretty new. And her NEW favorite thing is to tell us "no, no" by shaking her head (very similar to her dance move!).

We started out our week with a good workout at Stroller Strides, followed by finishing up our Christmas shopping...it was a bit much for Miss Ari...
Here is Aurelia eating her cheesy noodles...
On Wednesday, we were very busy packing for our trip to see Wuela Julia for her 90th birthday celebration! Here is Ari checking out her suitcase, making sure everything she needs is packed...
while she watched Sesame Street...
We left for Texas, bright and early on Thursday morning...this was Aurelia's 2nd plane ride and 3rd time to Texas. She was an old pro! Here she is looking at her Auntie D on the flight...
And keeping herself entertained with all her toys... We got to Harlingen around 11 and had a great lunch at the Country Club with Grandma Bena, Tia Lena, Tia Fina, and some of our cousins! Then we picked up the Renya girls at the airport and made our way back to Wuela Julia's, so that Aurelia could meet her Great Grandmother! At first, she wasn't quite sure what to do, but I think she knew that Wuela was important...she let her hold her and even leaned in slowly to give her a nice little kiss. It was really sweet! Then Wuela gave her a little Dora blanket that she had made and Ari LOVED it! She just kept patting it and pointing at the little cartoons on it.
We were fortunate to be able to stay with our cousins, Leo and Kathy, the ammenities were wonderful! We all had our own room/bathroom and great food!!!
On Friday, we spent the day with Wuelo, Grandma Texas, and Tio Cheech. We went over to G-Grandma Stephanie's and had some playtime over there. We gave Grandma Texas her chocolates that Ari had picked out for her birthday. In the afternoon we visited more family and Aurelia got to meet some more cousins that all she wanted to do was squeeze their cheeks and kiss them! It was really cute!
Auntie D and Tio Ramon arrived in the Valley on Saturday morning, in time for Wuela's party to start. Grandma Bena, Nuno, and Jesse really did a wonderful job getting the party organized! Everything looked beautiful and tasted wonderful! It was soooo much fun to see most of the family; which was around the 100 mark! We got to see family that most of us hadn't seen in over 10 years! Along with Wuela turning 90, it was also our cousin Lori's (from Cali) 27th birthday! Tio Ramon and Auntie D announced that they were going to have a baby. AND Vanessa announced that she and Demarcus were engaged! So it was a wonderful day to celebrate!!!
Unfortunately, Sunday we had to jet out bright and early. We were fortunate to see Wuelo, Tio Ramon and Auntie D before we left...all in all, it was a fantastic trip, short, but fantastic!!

10 Months...and 1st Thanksgiving!!!

New This Week: Aurelia is now giving (open-mouthed!) kisses and high 5's!

10 months old! Aurelia Vail is in the double digit months! Here she is, waking up from her nap... And watching some Curious George with Mommy, had a nice relaxing first day of her 10th month...
Tuesday, we spent playing...here she is playing with Frida...
And so that her buddies didn't feel sad, she played with Kitty and Piggy too!
Ari had her very first Thankgiving! We spent the day at G-Uncle Tony & G-Aunt Deb's, they had a very nice spread of yummy food and great company with the Wands and the Wuebkers! Afterwards, we drove to Preston and stayed there with Yaya and Papa. We spent the day in Harmony on Friday celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandma Bena and Grandpa Steve. We even got to see Uncle JonJon, who we haven't seen in a couple of months! We ended up driving back to the Cities on Saturday after a nice meal in Preston. It was a nice couple of days and fun to spend time with everyone!
On Sunday, Daddy put up the outside decorations and Mommy put up the inside decorations...including the tree! And then it was time to watch the Vikings with her Daddy...


Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We are truly thankful for our family and feel so blessed to have all that we do!

November Continued...

New This Week: Aurelia now makes fish-lips...on command! Daddy will say "Fish-lips" and she puckers right up! It is so cute!

Monday was Grandma Bena's birthday, so we had a nice lunch in Rochester with her. After lunch, we stopped and visited Auntie Chelsea and got to see Yaya and Papa too! So we had a great day in Rochester! Here is Ari after our little day-trip, enjoying her time out of the carseat!
Tuesday, we did our usual play-thing...Frida must have rubbed her the wrong way...she was just "chewing" her out...Frida = streak at bottom of screen
Wednesday was a PJ day...Mommy was just too busy getting ready for our time in Harmony! But for some reason, I don't think Ari minded!
Thursday, we got packed up and left for Harmony....the day just flew by and we forgot to take a picture!
We spent Friday at Grandma Bena's, with a quick lunch visit with Yaya! Tia Bria joined us after lunch, so we had a great afternoon with the Girls! The day flew and we squeezed in a picture while she took her afternoon nap... GG, Great Grandpa, and the rest of the Cremer gang came over for a nice dinner that night. It was sooooo much fun to watch Aurelia and Chase play together! She just wanted to hug and kiss him, but Chase wanted her to just come after him! It was really great to see them interact! Chase would get the toys out of the toy closet and Ari would go through them...It'll be so much fun at Christmas!!
Mommy had her Pampered Chef booth at the Holiday Festival on Saturday morning, so Aurelia spent the morning with Grandma Bena and Tia Bria...they did some shopping around town and had a fun day! By the time we headed back to the Cities, Ari was so tired, she was crawling into her carseat so that she could go to sleep!
Daddy let Mommy sleep in on Sunday, so he and Ari Vail spent the morning getting ready for a day full of football!

November...

New this week: Aurelia is now saying "baby"! She will look at a baby and say it proudly! Along with Mama, Dada, Baba, she also is saying something that sounds like Gama! We were shopping with Grandma Bena and Tia Bria and she looked at Grandma and pointed and said "Gama"! And then the next morning she said it over and over! We caught it on video! Too cute! Her little photo albums are a hoot...she looks at all the family members and points out the baby (aka, her!)...but I guess saying the family member's titles/names must be paying off, I guess she IS listening/learning!

Monday was a busy day, playing!
Tuesday, Ari decided that she wanted to play in her shoes (thanks, Tio Ramon and Auntie D!!), and chose her fire-fighter boots! And she actually kept them on her feet!!! Okay, so at least one stayed on!
I had to take a picture of her multi-tasking...playing and watching her Sesame Street... I just thought this was too cute...playing so hard and standing alone...
Wednesday...just rolled around...
Thursday, we had a Girl's day with Tia Bria and Grandma Bena...we started the day with some wedding shopping, with a little mall time in the middle...along with some cake-tasting! We had such a full, fun day, that we forgot to take the picture of the day!
She got a couple of treats at the mall on Thursday, that she spent the day on Friday making the intro's to the rest of the gang...Kitty, meet Thanksgiving Puppy...ha ha!

Saturday, Ari spent the day with her Daddy, since Mommy had a Pampered Chef thing at the Convention Center, followed by a fun family night together!
It was a typical relaxing Sunday, Daddy watched football, and Mommy and Ari played...it was a perfect day!