FullyBucks

We are the champions, my friend....

2009-02-16T22:10:00.012-05:00

So I wouldn't be a true Gator if I didn't mention that 2009 also started out with yet ANOTHER Gator Championship. The Florida Gators are the College Football National Champions....AGAIN!

It was the best game...along with the spanking they handed to UGA in Nov and the stomping they gave to Alabama in the SEC Championship game in Dec.
That is all I will say...because that is all that NEEDS to be said.
Well that and...
GO GATORS!!

Celebrate good times C'mon!

2009-02-15T14:19:00.033-05:00

In January we celebrated Ian's 3rd birthday. I can NOT believe my baby is 3 already! He is such a big boy. Grandma Liz made a firetruck cake for him that he loved! He is so into firetrucks...although getting too close to one scares him...

We didn't have an official party for him, but we celebrated his and my mom's birthday at my aunt and uncle's house on the same day. My mom made his cake and I made her cake...an ice cream cake! My first one ever and it came out quite yummy I must say!

We also invited Ian's BFF Lauren to go to Imagine It! The Children's Museum in downtown Atlanta. It really isn't a museum, not in the sense that you normally think of a museum. It is more of an exploration museum...lots of stuff to climb on and play with. Take a look at the PHOTOS and you will see what I mean.

Lauren & Ian posing for a picture!

In addition to celebrating at home we also had a celebration at "school"! His friend Kaitlyn shares the same birthday so we had a joint party with his class at TSG Daycare (Turner Second Generation). We had ice cream and rice krispy treats....mmmmm....

So happy 3rd birthday my sweet little boy! I hope you have many, many more very happy days just like this one. You are my heart. I love you more than you will ever know!

Slackety slack!

2009-02-14T18:40:00.020-05:00

OK so I have been slacking on the blogging. I knew this would happen....I can't even remember my own address (that is another posting don't worry) let alone to update a blog!
So here I am about to update the last 3 months of 2008.
Ready....................................
Set....................................
Goooo..................................

October 2008:
Maggie was Tinker belle, Ian was a fireman for Halloween.
(Thanks to Aunt Lisa who found the costume I wanted with all the gadgets! YAY AUNT LISA!)

We went to Turner for Trick or Treat on Turner Street, our yearly event that is actually before Halloween. It is usually a mad house, but this year was quite tame due to the restriction on guests. It's fun, but geared more for older kids in my opinion. We ate a bag lunch, hung out for about an hour and then headed home as Maggie proceeded to have her 6pm meltdown. Good times.
On Halloween we took them trick or treating. Ian was all gung ho at first, but then once he realized he had to go ask strangers for candy (gasp!) he said NO THANKS! I don't need candy THAT bad. He did end up braving one house to ask "Trick or Treat", but other than that if home owners were nice enough, they walked down to the stroller and he asked them from the safety of his transportation. He ended up with about 7 pieces of candy I think.

For more October photos click HERE.

November was fun!
We went down to Florida for Thanksgiving and did all kinds of awesome stuff. I mean what could be more awesome than visiting family...
We went swimming in the Kendrick's new pool (YES in November!), we went to Lion Country Safari (AND fed a giraffe! SO COOL!), and we went to Patrick's book signing and then out to party...sans kids! THAT was the coolest!
We all had a fantastic time...just check out the PHOTOS for proof.

December went super fast!
We stayed home for Christmas and celebrated with my mom, aunt and uncle and cousins. It was nice to be able to just relax a little bit for once! The Saturday after Christmas we drove (yes- drove!) to Michigan to see Jeff's family. It was a really long drive (about 13 hours), but the kids were actually pretty good…up until the last 2 hours or so. Then they started to get REALLY antsy. Especially Maggie! She doesn’t really get too distracted by the DVD player unfortunately. We stayed there for about 5 days and then headed to Ohio to visit our friends the Millers. We had SO much fun with them. Ian ran around with Maryn the whole 2 days we were there. We were even supposed to only stay one night, but we were having such a good time we decided to stay an extra night. TOTALLY worth it! That trip actually started our 2009 off to the perfect start- even though I DID lock the keys in the car while we were at the park and Maggie fell down your stairs…still…we all had a blast.

Thanks, Miller family, for showing us a great time!

And thus ends 2008 for the VanderRoest's! It was a pretty good year as Jeff finally found a new job in May, not his dream job, but it is better than unemployment and I got another raise/promotion in October which is helping us out tremendously!

We hope 2009 treats us well and that you have a wonderful year as well!

Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus....RUN!!!

2008-11-19T21:08:00.006-05:00

Well today was the obligatory visit to see Santa. While I know deep in my heart that this is not going to go well, I still plan it. I search for the right outfits, new shoes, I get Ian a haircut, baths the night before...all that fun stuff. All the while knowing how this is truly going go. I talk to Ian the whole time telling him who we are going to see and what we are going to do and he says over and over "Yeah! Yeah!"

Me: Are you going to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what you want for Christmas?
Ian: Yes!
Me: really?
Ian Yes!

2min before sitting on Santa's lap

ME: Are you ready? You want to sit on Santa's lap?
Ian: NOOOO! NO MOMMY NO!!!

And the outcome:

Oh right...like you expected anything less???

Orange & Blue

2008-11-02T13:15:00.012-05:00

Orange and blue, orange and blue
GO GATORS GO!

The FL-GA game was this weekend and man did it ROCK! I was feeling a little nervous before the game, but after seeing the Gators roll over the Dawgs in the first quarter, I started feeling pretty good! Seeing as we watched the game with some GA alumni, we didn't do any smack talking...not that we make a practice of doing that normally.
I was looking forward to a good game and the Gators certainly showed up for one. They not only won, but completely shut down the Dawgs with a 49-10 score. The only touchdown UGA scored was in the last quarter...it was beautiful.
Here are a couple of photos from our afternoon at the Montembeau's.
And as always...GOOOOOO GATORS!

The art of smiling

2008-10-17T23:19:00.004-04:00

Ian has realized he can "fake smile" to appease mommy when she has the camera out and he is trying to watch Dora or Diego. I don't find it very amusing.
Apparently he does....he keeps doing it.
August....

September....

October....

He also seems to know how to make my heart melt...he can keep doing that...I LOVE it!

Diamonds are a girls best friend...

2008-10-17T22:59:00.007-04:00

And apparently so are plastic toy links (a.k.a. bracelets)! Maggie has this new fascination with bracelets. If it has a hole in the middle of it and fits over her hand it instantly becomes a bracelet. It is really cute, but she becomes sort of obsessed with them. Last weekend she had 9-10 of these "bracelets" on her arm. They took up her entire forearm! And she holds her hand in the air so they don't fall off too. It is quite amusing. She wears them from the minute she wakes up, during mealtimes and naps and even in the bath. She gets quite upset when I take them off at bedtime. Diva at 1. What happens when they get older and find REAL jewelery??
I'm scared.

Showing off her bangles!

Putting on the last bracelet and clapping at herself for doing such a great job!

Something about Maggie...

2008-10-06T13:52:00.013-04:00

I have learned something about girls. They are not always as calm and quiet as one might expect. They aren't always pretty little girls who like to sit and read quietly or play with dolls pretending to be the mommy. No...rather they can be loud, somewhat whiney, and certainly know what they want even if they can't tell you in words.
Or is that just MY child? I KNOW Ian was not like this...especially that whiney little "uh, uh, uh" at the end of this clip. (FYI: be sure your speakersa are not too loud for this one)

I also know they aren't quite as timid as I thought maybe a girl would be. In fact, Maggie seems to be quite the daredevil. The below clip has become almost a nightly ritual for her after bath and pajamas. The girl is crazy I tell you...check her out.

I am sure I have a lot more to learn about little girls as Maggie has just turned 1 year. I can only imagine what the upcoming years will bring us! So while I marvel at the tiny human Maggie is and the amazing (and scary) things she attempts on a daily basis, I also know she is cuddly, kissy, and smells so yummy. She has soft red hair that curls slightly at the base of her neck when it is damp and blue eyes that smile even when she isn't. She is my "lovey love", whines and all!

Here fishy, fishy...

2008-10-04T00:11:00.006-04:00

The Friday before Maggie's birthday party we went to the Georgia Aquarium with Grandma Margie. This was Ian's third time and Maggie's first. Ian was ready to run through all of the displays especially the room with the huge viewing window. I guess he thought the fish could get out and did not want to go near the glass. Maggie, on the other hand, thought she was on Deadliest Catch and ran right up to the glass.
It was a long morning and it completely wore us all out I think, but it was fun!

Click on the photo to see more photos or click here.

You can never have too much fun

2008-10-03T23:18:00.006-04:00

Two weeks ago we had a birthday party for Maggie...okay...THREE birthday parties. We had one at school with her school friends, one at home just the 4 of us (both on her actual birthday) and one at home with her other friends...okay...OUR friends! Don't judge...all parents do that for their child's first birthday.
Anyway...she seemed to enjoy all of them! She loved being the center of attention at school, she LOVED the cupcake at home, and she was in heaven being the princess for the morning.
I thought I had learned with Ian not to make such a big deal on a first birthday, but I just can not help myself. Jeff would love it if I could. Maybe with #3 I will learn to scale it down (HAHA! Just kidding...maybe). But seriously, this time we did a brunch and it was SO much better than doing an afternoon party. For us anyway. We had mimosas for the adults and apple juice/milk for the kids and a bunch of YUMMY breakfasts foods. We started mid-morning and by 12:30 everyone had gone home for nap time! We had time to clean while the kids slept and then everyone had the rest of their Saturday to do what they wanted to do....PERFECT! This did, however, turn into a dual birthday party. Some close friends of ours were in town with their baby and it was actually HIS birthday that day...so we had one big party for both kids! It was a lot of fun and great to celebrate with them!

So here are some photos..

Being the center of attention at school...
.

Chowing on her cupcake at home...

In heaven as Princess Maggie...

And our co-birthday boy Jack! A total ladies man!

SO through all of this I have realized, yet again, that I am NOT a party planner. I would so much rather attend and socialize than plan and host. I am not a good host...not for more than 4 people. I get flustered...stuck on the details. ME a last born child stuck on details...that's just not right and it makes me uncomfortable.

If you want to see more photos you can go here or here.

crazy 2 year old speak

2008-09-30T22:42:00.003-04:00

I am not sure this qualifies as an explanation however, this is Ian telling me what a fullybucks is. I am still not sure what it is to be honest. And the beginning of this video makes me think daycare is secretly teaching some foreign language...what do you think - Chinese? nah. Russian? nah. Maybe it's some really cool language I don't even know about...
Whatever it is...good luck figuring this one out.
One thing I know...he is too cute at the end of the video.

Anything can happen...

2008-09-27T22:57:00.003-04:00

What started as a horrible football afternoon turned into a not too bad one. While my team lost...so did one of the ones I hate. YAY. Gotta love college football. Anything can happen. Anything.
Case in point- I started a blog.

I know I will get crap for this being my first official posting. but I didn't know what else to write and this is what I am thinking at the moment.
That...and I think I have one more phone call to make to J Costa.....