Vandervaart Family

Well, I clearly have A LOT to catch up on and I will do my best to remember the details from December. Mostly consisted of some fantastic times with wonderful family and friends.

In early December, we went to see Santa - I really hope one of these years we can get a good picture. Claire did great, Grace was bored and Jake looks like he is angry!

Pete and I had my holiday work parties over the same weekend. We went to mine in Cleveland on Friday night and then went to his on Saturday night. We were so thankful my mom came into town and took care of the kids both nights!

We took the girls to the dentist. Claire gets called back and goes back all by herself and then when she is done, we all go back with Grace. Claire is such a big supporter. Her she is holding Grace's hand!

The following are pictures of the kids from Christmas time

Vandervaart Cousins at Christmas

This year for New Year's Eve, Pete and I went up to Cleveland to their new casino. We had a really good time and it was the first time we have ever done New Year's Eve just the two of us.

The following pictures are from Christmas in Indianapolis

Our family tradition - homemade pizza on Christmas Eve

This is how the girls were standing at the beginning of church :)

Christmas Morning at our house

Christmas evening at the Vandervaarts

November started out with one of our favorite events for 2012 - Beth and Matt's wedding! We had an absolute blast and the girls felt so special being a part of the "Gala". The weather certainly did not agree with the day but everything else went off without a hitch. It was a fabulous day!

After the wedding we had a celebration for Grace's birthday in Indy with my family and then came back to Ohio and had a celebration that following weekend. Grace had a great birthday and I can't believe she is already 3 years old!

The next weekend we decorated for the holidays and had our 2nd annual "Friend's Thanksgiving" party. It is a nice event that gets just the adults together to relax and have a good time as the holiday season approaches. This year I came up with some "Minute to Win It" games for the men and women to compete with. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast that night! The newlyweds (Beth and Matt) were able to drive over for the evening as well!

We spent Thanksgiving here with Pete's family and had a wonderfully relaxing holiday weekend. I worked on Thanksgiving and then went Black Friday shopping around 10 pm until 4 am. It was nuts! My friend, Trina met up with me and we had a lot of fun facing the crazy crowds together!

The final week in November, Pete worked evening shift which meant for a long and stressful week for our family!

Claire is growing up so fast - she no longer takes a nap unless I need her to (i.e. I work that night). She started playing Mario Kart on the Wii and she loves it! It is so funny to watch her while she plays because she will yell things at the TV like "Come on, lady, MOVE!" or "Did my friends go this way?" She is such a delight but certainly our #1 talker - she won't stop talking to me or asking me questions as I try and write this! :)

Grace has turned three and plays the part! Whoever said Terrible Twos? Definitely Terrible Threes for us over here! She is stubborn and gives stone-cold looks! She will drop to her knees in a heartbeat. Then, she'll turn around and be the sweetest little dear and give me little kisses and long hugs. I could do without the tantrums, but luckily it is just a phase...(right? please?!)

Jake is ALL BOY! The other day he was "helping" carry Grace's shirt into the bathroom and decided the best place to put it was in the toilet. He takes any Christmas ornament he can get, yells "ball" and chucks it across the room. Many ornaments have broken...what can ya do? Today at the dentist office, there were three trash cans in the lobby. He just kept taking the three trash cans and carrying them all around the lobby and rearranging them. Luckily, we were the first appointment so they were empty. Boys will be boys.

Here are pictures from our month of November...

These are pictures from the wedding and prep before the wedding:

Jake and Bently - best buds

We found a local grocery store had kid carts to push around - BEST. IDEA. EVER.

Great Grandma and Grandpa came to visit for Grace's birthday

Claire REALLY liked seeing them and we had to laugh when Grammy and her mom walked in and she yelled "Look mom!! Grammy is here and so is my old grandma!"

We promptly emphasized that she is Great-Grandma