The VanGessel Family

What We Have Been Up To

2010-05-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

We took a little trip to Fred Howard Beach last weekend since we haven't been there in a while. The beach was wonderful, and the water was just cool enough for relief from the muggy heat we've been having. Here is our shell princess castle we made and soon destroyed.
look at my little babies, they are growing up so fast! It makes me happy to get pictures of them together, getting along, I hope these moments will last forever.

Grace and I decided to make some new flower clips for her hair, since she lost her favorite pink one. Her life is full of drama. We went to pick out a new pink flower and ended up getting one of each color, since princesses need every color. When I tried to take a picture of grace with the new clips, Elliott decided he NEEDED to be in the picture. So we gave him a flower, but then he insisted if one person was getting their picture taken, everyone needed to get their picture taken... including daddy... notice the shorts.
look how pretty they turned out! yay for cute hair flowers!

and just for the heck of it, here is my newest BIG project. This is one of our new rooms for the church nursery. We just got everything moved in, now it's time to decorate and design. It was such a quick move I didn't get to do the decorating and designing before everything was moved in. I really like this new room better than the last, and so far it's worked out great for kids church. Should be a fun project!

So that's the latest! more to come i'm sure!:)

fishing trip with cuke

2009-08-10T18:50:00.001-07:00

I had to post some pictures of this, it's too cute. My middle little brother Luke took Grace fishing for the first time. All he could catch with her were these tiny little things, and Grace kept insisting that he catch something smaller. wait til you see the size of these things...

YEP... THEY WERE HUGE! SHE CAUGHT A FISH THIS BIG!

EWWW.... WORMS! (or snakes as she called them first) she did finally touch them... once.

she thinks she's big stuff... and is already asking to go again. PLEASE UNCLE CUKE

Sarah's wedding

2009-08-03T12:15:00.001-07:00

okay I said I would post a blog about my cousin Sarah's wedding so here it is...grace is getting ready before the big event.... Sarah had all the girls lined up to get our hair done at aunt Linda and uncle Ron's house... her friend did a great job! Grace sat like a big girl reading her wedding hair style magazine to pick her do.here is the bride.... hiding before the ceremony starts... good luck you know.:) and bill never saw her.after a beautiful ceremony... we all ran outside to, you know, throw rice for the love birds. get it sarah? (she just loves birds) ha ha... okay she might be deathly afraid, same thing. here is my little family hanging out waiting for the bride and groom. the kids always smile so nice.
and here we are me and my little man bustin a move on the dance floor. (notice everyone else is eating.) our timing is just never right.
and last but not least grace leading her first victim (great grandpa) to the middle of the dance floor. She danced with just about everyone, even stealing the groom for a round or two. and she stayed up waaayyy past her bedtime... she just didn't want the party to end. No one did, and so therefor the party will continue on in our hearts, until the next in the pavlansky/dobus line gets hitched. uh hem (LUKE) :) CONGRATULATIONS SARAH AND BILL! THANK YOU FOR LETTING US BE A PART OF YOUR SPECIAL DAY!

p.s. i want to apologize for the unlined sentences above, my lack of computer skills has somehow managed to do that and not be able to fix it.

trip up north

2009-07-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

a long post but i wanted to put pictures from our trip up to the great midwest on here. I'm missing a few big events, like my Cousins wedding, but i'll make that another post. We had an amazing trip. It was so much fun, and I can't wait to go up again sometime.

elliott's first word...

2009-05-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

so of course he won't say it real loud when i video him, but he is saying doggie clear as day. YAY! my little baby's first word. i'm a proud mommy.

a message for grace's penpals

2009-05-22T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! Thank you for the movie message! That was so neat to see everybody! I love getting your letters and being your pen pal! i hope you all have a great day!

cloudy in florida? no way

2009-05-20T06:01:00.000-07:00

it's an absolutely cloudy, dreary day down here in Florida today. so all you midwestern hoosiers and buckeys go ahead enjoy the day, i'm not going to talk about how it's always sunny with a high of 80. okay okay it's been a high of like 89. but still it's been really nice, and we do get a breeze off the gulf. this week has been a rainy week though. and it's supposed to be a rainy rest of the week. so i shall blog to keep busy inside. (since i have NO projects or cleaning that i SHOULD be doing) isn't that the way it goes? blogging is way more fun than dishes or laundry or picking up toys (actually i really like to do laundry so let's scratch that one off) anyway... so i wanted to post of few pictures like this one above of mike and grace. I wanted to do a serious photo shoot, and no one wanted to cooperate. i thought this picture was a cute daddy daughter snapshot :) since this is what they are always doing.

awe... grace and elliott sitting together in a picture. how cute.... since it was the ONLY one i got. she has sort of gotten past the i don't want to sit by my goey brother stage, but now he has moved into the i don't want to sit by my girly sister stage. i promised a real men wear pink picture to chelsea so here it is, and he's holding a flower. granted he took it from grace about 5 seconds earlier just to bother her. brothers.
and this is mothers day. Elliott kept bringing me a rose, and then taking it back so he could give it to me again later. i guess he was trying to get the mileage out of that rose. thinking maybe mommy will think i got her a dozen.
here's grace, she such a big girl learning to count on her fingers. it's tough though. the finger part i mean. she can almost get to ten in order. it's just the 4, 5, 6 she forgets in the middle. we're working on it, 4, 5, 6, aren't that important anyway. notice the tongue sticking out. yeah... that's hereditary. i still get chapped lips when i'm working on something difficult. and last but not least... the photo below has to be one of the worst kids park playground toys i've ever seen.a purple scary sharp tooth dinosaur. yeah i called it sharptooth, for all you "land before time" fans out there. it could have been anything a horse, a kangaroo, but a scary dinosaur for little kids? someone needs to talk to the subcommittee of the parks and recreation department about this.:) okay the kids didn't really care. it was a fun ride. oh look at that... the sun is out. gotta go.

special armienian rabbits and a visit to the midwest

2009-05-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

well I (katie) had the chance to fly up to Indiana and Ohio this past weekend for my very special cousins bridal shower. Luke and his fiance Chelsea picked me up from the Ft. Wayne airport and on the way home luke and his sixth animal sense spots a huge frog on 3. and what does he do? he plays dr. dolittle and U-ies himself back around to not just see it again but to take mr. toad for a wild ride. I'm sorry but it was one gross looking frog. i'll bet it was a girl frog on her way to the vera bradley outlet sale. and in that case it would be awful to make it so far only to be dropped off back in the boondocks of k'ville, and heaven knows you don't mess with a girl and her vera. which by the way, i had the pleasure of making a first time stop at. If you are the kind of person who likes to shove her way through to snatch up the best of the best deals (and i am) then that was the place to be. we (chelsea and I) then made our way to sarah's place for an evening of GIRL STUFF. things i can't tell you. what happens at girls night, stays at girls night, or leaks into the bridal shower the next day. :) but the ice was great. on the way home we made a pit stop in ft. wayne to eat at fazzoli's, and it has been such a long time since i ate at the BREADSTICK HEAVEN! so that was nice, and then we headed back to the spaw place to play a serious game of balderdash. I must admit, I LOVE board games, i really really love them, but i am the crappiest balderdash player the world has ever seen. the special armienian rabbits off the bat is what hurt me. it went down hill after that. i think i about peed my pants. an apology to my sister in law for losing her those points. it's not my fault i couldn't read the cards everytime ben turned the lights off to poop. ha ha. a great evening with my brothers, and their girls. the next day i had the priveledge of meeting the adorable miss audrey bigelow. i new she was excited about seeing me too, i could tell by the quiet snoring. so ashley and audrey were a nice ending to a great weekend. now here i am back in florida. can't wait to see eveyone in June! I'll be bringing my whole family! so until the next blog in 4 or 5 months.... :)

spring.

2009-04-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

it's spring and it's starting to get hot out instead of warm, but that means the gulf is warming up and we can finally start swimming season! yay! We had our first annual palm harbor citrus festival this past week, very exciting. the spin and puke rides, the ferris wheel set up in 4 hours, the demon throw you around upside down in a cage holding on by a saftey pin ride, the carnies with their 5 dollars a throw game holding their newborn baby in one hand and smoking with the other, and the best fair food in the whole wide world... elephant ears! and we loved every minute of it.

it was fun to watch the kids faces when they saw all the lights and people. it was like seeing it all again for the first time. another great start to the spring is our new walking adventures, Mom and I have started exploring all the county parks and walking trails. fun stuff.

oh I also thought i would add some Easter pictures for fun.

GRACE'S PEE POTTY

2009-02-04T09:50:00.000-08:00

I was so excited when my little girl ran up to me yelling pee potty mommy pee potty! i screeched and grabbed her hand and said yay! let's go pee on the potty! as we walk to the bathroom she's looks at me saying "no mommy, pee potty pee potty!" she insisted she didn't need to go potty, and hadn't already gone. i was so confused, and then multiple times throughout the day she would look at me with longing in her eyes and say, pee potty mommy? agh... i don't know what you want little girl! so finally frustrated and tired of her dumb mommy not understanding she started to set up her animals and try to pull out her little dora table, and that's when i realized.... TEA PARTY!

Mr. Elephant was a very polite tea party guest.
Elliott was also invited by grace. here he is noticing Mr. Elephant hasn't eaten his cookie.
hm... i'll take that.

so...all she had wanted was a tea party and i kept dragging her to the bathroom. i'm sorry grace, next time i'll figure it out. next day mike comes up to me, Katie I don't know what she wants, she keeps yelling hotsauce at me! what is she saying? well duh mike hopscotch... come on. a two year old chatterbox is worse than sudoku puzzel, i swear.

CHRISTMAS TIME

2009-01-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

so this is way way behind... but i wanted to put the pictures up anyway... we're gonna work our way to today. so first past post.

"Santa claus is coming HOME..." she repeated over and over as we drove to the christmas eve service at the church. Grace was so excited about this santa claus guy who was bringing her present the next day. She expected him to show up in his bright red fire truck since that's the only way she had ever seen him (in a parade) She was pretty good about not getting into mommy and daddy's closet to sneak peak the presents, but elliott found them and opened three. I'm gonna have to watch him next year. Then christmas morning the kids were so cute when they saw the presents under the tree.

Elliott in his christmas suit! BABY's First christmas
Uncle Luke helped Mike put up the Kid's swingset for christmas...

white thanksgiving

2009-01-05T10:20:00.000-08:00

We ended up having a white thankgiving this year instead of a white christmas. It was so much fun and it was the grace and elliott's first road trip. We were able to see family in Ohio, and Indiana! We were so lucky to make it to the Pavlansky thanksgiving, AND the Vangessel thanksgiving! It was nice to see everyone, and elliott met some people for the first time. It was a great Thanksgiving!

Elliott and Mommy out in the snow!

Grace with her Godparents. Uncle Luke and Aunt Chelsea! and Isabelle the dog.

Here is our Family snowman. yeah, we didn't have a carrot so he has a football nose.

He was so happy to play in the snow.

Elliott attacking the Spaws christmas tree. Both kids love the christmas lights and ornaments! It was a great trip and we can't wait to go visit again...

cookie monster

2009-01-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

Grace makes cookies...

first the package, well, half the package... which she had to taste...

then she rolled out the dough, or smashed it into the cutting board.. this she had to taste...

then she shaped the cookies into half moons... or are those bites? oh yeah, bites.

after the cookies were baked, she made frosting, which she had to taste... and then dumped on the cookies.

TA DA! COOKIES! M...M....MMM...

Grace's Birthday

2009-01-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

This is late in posting, but I wanted to put some pictures up. This past november my baby girl turned two years old! I can't believe how fast it goes by. She is such a big girl, and so smart. On her birthday we had a small party and grace took getting ready very seriously. She got into my makeup and put pretties on!

Her favorite was the blush.... she looked very sunburned that night.

happy birthday baby!

She got a kitchen! She loves to cook... I mean LOVES to cook!

is this a typical little brother move or what?!

we celebrated in style with carebear theme... cake made by mommy and grandma.

and then she blows out the candles... concetrating very hard on each candle...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE!

milestones

2008-10-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

another week. another blog. good news for mike, his bone has healed. now he just has to get through therapy to get his ankle working again. grace hit a big milestone this last week.... SHE WENT POOPY ON THE POTTY! YAY! i know it's a long road ahead, but it's one less diaper to be changed. We were so proud of her that she got a poopy on the potty party! and i pulled a mom move and called about a million people to tell them that my daughter went potty. and for a breif second inbetween calls i thought, what has my life become? and then there was an answer on the other line and i shout She went potty on the big girl potty! yep, that's what my life has become... the life of a mommy, and i wouldn't have it any other way. Elliott also made some big steps this week... he's crawling, and pulling himself to standing. a very exciting week! okay and now for the pictures...

i had to put this one up, because this has been grace's obsession this summer, Bees. she loves bees. how does a bee go grace? "beeeeee" and they go up high. she is going to be a bee for halloween, and this pool floaty is her favorite of all bees. so much that i bought like 5 of them.

elliott is too little for the big kid pool so here he is soaking up the sun in his pool. he kept crawling out of it so grace gave him a ball to play with. too bad it's twice his size.

do you see mike in the background... stubborn man, has his walking cast on and is out chopping down bushes.

and i love this pictures. it is elliott in one shot. clapping and sticking out his tongue. he is always sticking out his tongue. the drool from his teething, and you can kind of see his bottom teeth. he's up to four now! big stuff. thinks he can eat all big people food. too bad so sad.

2008-09-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

She said I had to write one!

I'm sitting in bed with little Elliott snoring next to me. The little guy finally gave in and fell asleep. As for me, I have one awesome scare and 3 little bumps right above my left ankle. I've started therapy, and man is it ever boring. I feel pretty good on my ankle but they want me to go really slow. I guess the good thing is that I'm still at home with the fam and getting a bunch of things done around the house.

so....lets go over the broken ankle time killers.

1.babysitting...wait, guess I should say parenting

2.youth group

3.rock the universe

4.da beach

5.tv shows:

Ramsey kitchen nightmare

salon takeover

espn

rays bball

tori & dean

Millionaire listings

airline

Rachel Zoe

office

ace of cakes

colts games

Olympics

feasting on waves

and last but not least..

NOGIN!

Well, if you have made this far in my first posting I congratulate you and apologize. I promise that next time it might be more interesting.

Now enjoy some pics my beautiful wife took at the beach.

I especially like the one were the boats are going to collide.

~mike~

how cool is it, that this is less 5 miles from our house. not that we can see it directly but we can go drive up on the shore and see this almost any night.

summer is over... but not in florida

2008-09-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

the last couple of months have past by so fast. Mike is still at home with a healing ankle. My robo husband will probably be going back to work in the next few weeks. His wide variety of hardware in his ankle seems to be holding up and he's been walking with a little crutch support and a walking cast. you would think he would be a big baby and be laid up this whole time, but he has been a Huge help and i'm going to miss him when he going back to work. we've had fun taking little trips to the parks and working on our house. one of the fun places we went was to edgewater park and marina. grace loves boats! it sounds like a mixture of butt and boat, since we've been watching alot of Nemo, and they call it a butt, she gets a little confused. this picture was taking right before we almost lost her stuffed kitty to the fishes, but mommy saved it just in time.
the park is really cool, it has a big playground in the shape of a big ship. figures i didn't get a good picture of the ship part. grace learned to go across the bridge by herself, and she made a new friend Jasmine, that she chased around yelling "come on" "come on".
another fun summer activity has been sidewalk chalk! unfortunatly my can't stay out of our yard neighbor washed all their pictures off our front porch. but now we have a beautiful whole drive way display! these are from front porch coloring. it was more grace and mommy coloring than elliott, he tasted all the flavors for us though. for future reference, none of them taste good.

Elliott's first cookie. We figured it was time, since he now has four teeth! two minutes after the cookie he had uncontrolable energy so cookies are a special occasion kind of thing.
just a cute picture of my mischievious daughter following me around. "mama mama! mama!"
bath time at the vangessel house is great fun. and i'm loving that i have the embarrassing pictures to show at graduation parties. suprisingly most of the time they get along in the bathtub. most of the time. she claims her side and he just kind of scoots his little butt along with the current. this time the waves sent him to the faucet. and this boy loves discovering new things. i love the way his eyes light up when he finds something new.

see this picture proves my chidren can play nice together. two seconds later elliott grabbed the boat/butt from grace but i'm pretty sure if my memory serves correct she didn't mind and played with something else!

even though i know it's nothing like having twins sometimes it feels like it. especially when i see pictures like this
and just for fun i thought i would add some pictures i took when we were trying elliotts halloween costume on. this is one stinkin cute skunk!
after a few minutes he was tired of posing for pictures. and i'm tired of posting this blog, so....
SMELL YA LATER!

been too long here's why

2008-07-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

So I know I have really slacked when it comes to posting any blogs, but there is a reason... well two reasons. First reason is that we just moved to a new house, and well that is enough but a week ago mike decided to be the second reason and break his ankle. So between the house and mike we've been a little busy. Now that we're finally starting to break into the house and getting into a routine, well kinda, hopefully i'll become a 2 star blogger instead of a one star. we'll see... So we moved into this new house, and there are so many projects we're working on. The worst are in the past though. first we scraped the popcorn ceiling off, and then we took about 3 rooms of wallpaper down. um... let's see update on the kids. Elliott is on to cereals, and jumping in his seat, and rolling over. Grace is a chatter box and has started singing to everything. her favorite is itsy bitsy spider, WITH the hand motions. oh and she can count! two, two, tee, two, two, sticks, dah dah, two, two, two! alright that's all i've got for now.. more another time. sorry all the pictures are in the beginning, i'm way too lazy tonight to move suff around.

fondue party and baby boat

2008-06-13T08:43:00.001-07:00

so i know it was forever ago, but i still wanted to post. while luke and chelsea were down we had a fondue party for... the first episode of ......SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE (my absolutely favoritest show ever!) however... i am having a hard time getting my fondue pictures on here. sorry. i know you were all dying to see them. I DO have pictures of the baby boat though... here is my little man in his remote control baby pool boat. how awesome is that!

sooo cool....

woo hoo! check out eli in the wavebaby

uncle luke drove and i survived!

CHICKS DIG BOYS WITH BOATS!

a long day

2008-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

so uncle luke and aunt chelsea are down here visiting! yay! and it's been a fun few days so far... the other day chelsea and i took the kids for a walk, and went shopping, and hung out at the house and watched cartoons with grace. yesterday we had a fondue party! yum! and we bought a baby boat. both of these things are seperate blog worthy. so be on the look out for those. i just wanted to share some of our day...

ELLIOTTS FIRST SWING RIDE!

AUNT CHELSEA'S SO MUCH FUN!

GRACE FOUND SOME STICKERS... AND GOT A POPSICLE!

TIME TO SETTLE DOWN AND WATCH A FEW CARTOONS IN OUR PAJAMEES...

NIGH NIGHT EVERYBODY! GRANDPA AND ELLIOTT ARE ALREADY ASLEEP...

sleeping angels

2008-05-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

sometimes... usually around 2 pm... the soundtrack of my life becomes a screaming nightmare... and then moments like this happen and i fall back in love with being the mother. they are beautiful, precious gifts. here is a sunday afternoon nap on our bed that melted my heart.

another beach day

2008-05-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

what can i say. we live by the beach.... i know i know i have alot of beach pictures blogged but i can't help it. it's like if we lived up north and every picture had snow in it :)

and she's off... not even at the beach two minutes and she's running to the water.

elliotts first sand experience. kinda ify about the whole situation.

SAND SOCCER!

awe... my little man is so CUTE! look at those cheeks.

So this picture begins... da da da.... THE SAND CASTLE COMPETITION! on your mark get set.... BUILD!

she starts off helping uncle seth build a base...

but she realizes quickly that he's doing fine...

and she becomes distracted by all the shells and rocks around her...

she then remembers her duty as a daughter... and rushes to ....

her daddy's side... will this be a victory push for daddy?! to find out tune in next time to sand castle battles.

Charlie stinks

2008-05-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

yeah he does. he stinks. i think it's the humidity. the minute he hits the florida air, he stinks. poor pup. the kids don't care though. they love their puppy and he loves them back. he wakes them up with dog kisses in the mornings and torments them just as much as they do him. he loves these kids.

Elliott and Charlie taking a snooze

Grace and Charlie. She's trying to get him to move. he won't budge. he weighs just a tad bit more than she does. he got his beard cut off this weekend... so picture him without the bleached out gotee. he hated every minute of it all. it was a hair cut and a bath! we're so mean. so enough about the dog. Let's talk about the kids. These are from a couple weeks ago but i love these pictures.

this is grace cuddling a blanket made by cousin Morgan. She loves this blanket. why wouldn't she? it's hot pink and has flamingos on it!

and then baby elliott is growing up so fast. he's turning into a little man. he is quite the little flirt. smiles at all the ladies at church. he is such a happy baby. I'm so lucky to have had two sweet babies.

turkey ducks and snoop dogg

2008-05-05T22:53:00.001-07:00

GO to bed Katie! it's two in the morning, nothing is on but infomercials and snoop dogg's reality show on E. everyone is asleep! what is wrong with yo? ha yo. that's from the tiredness and snoop influence. I am tired but feel the need to blog... because once again i'm late on my blog. so sorry to those of you who count on my blogs. i don't even have a good excuse for missing friday. um... so i have a picture for everyone here. this is a in nonscientific terms a turkey duck. they are pretty much a cross between a duck and a turkey. this picture is actually as pretty as they get. in fact this is the prettiest i've ever seen. i should have picked a more realistic turkey duck. they have got to be the ugliest birds in florida. they are slow and never get out of the road. they hiss and attack young children in strollers because too many people feed them. we run when we're walking grace in the park and they start migrating our way. really there are only two ways to view a turkey duck. you feel bad for them, or you just don't like them. no one can love a turkey duck. i take that back. God i'm sure loves the turkey ducks. that's because he's patient and kind. (and i'm sure he feels bad since he created man and what did man do? breed turkey ducks.) alright it's late so i am definatly going to bed now. i'll have to for real blog another day soon.

the $5 elephant pool

2008-04-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

So mom bought this elephant pool for the kids. it's bright pink and sprays water out the back of it's head.

i know i know. but it was FIVE dollars!

and they love it. grace wanted to sit on the edge of the pool. like i said before... she wades.

elliott actually liked being in the pool. when i took him out he would cry, if i put him back in he stopped. UNTIL grace started splashing... then he was done. It was the best 5 bucks ever spent.

that was yesterday. today i took Grace to the beach again with some of our friends. fun but.... she wanted to help mommy put sunscreen on, and well mommy didn't want grace's kid super duper sunblock. but grace insisted so I now have handprints on my arms and legs. thanks grace, it's not like noone knew i was a mom. while we were playing in the sand and this little girl comes running up to us crying and grabbing christy's hand saying "I'm lost and I don't know where my mommy is!" and so Christy starts walking her down the beach and doesn't get two steps before her mom saw her and came running. as they walked away we heard "i'm sorry... i was chasing a seagull and got lost!" poor girl will remember that for the rest of her life. oh and then tonight mike made my box that i've been begging for.... AND we had a dance party with grace... she's such a good dancer. ha ha. so fun week. hope everyone else had a good week. hm... guess that's all for now.

More stuff...

2008-04-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

well darn it, I had something I wanted to blog about and forgot. how silly. I guess I was distracted.

Can I help you?

TOO CLOSE!

Grace! what was I wanting to blog about? you don't know?

hm........

oh yeah! We went to the beach! Gotta post some beach pictures. It was the first time this year Grace went in the water, and Elliotts first time ever in the gulf. It was a GORGEOUS day! full of fun and excitement. I gotta tell you some pointers if you ever go to the beach with grace.

She loves to play in the water, but only goes out up to her ankles. she's a wader.

Be prepared she is way too cute for her own good, and she knows it!

And most important.... there will be a time when you have to collect rocks.

and sift sand.... that's just how she rolls.

Elliott is much easier.

slather him up with sunblock and let the girls drool.

It was a good day at the beach!

Fun and Games with Mike

2008-04-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

okay, so my last blog was quick and i would have more time, but it didn't work out that way.... so......... i was dying to post these pictures of mike.

This is just the beginning of the game "pile the most on mike"

WOW that's alot of stuff!

GO SETH! I think he might win with the stapler add.

After everything was taken back off, and he's still sawing logs... I love him.

2008-04-18T18:45:00.001-07:00

So I am the worst blogger ever! I need to apologize for not blogging last week. I was helping with a concert at the church and completely forgot. Last week was a very busy week. I started Zumba class and it is so fun! I feel like a complete idiot in there, but it's fun. I tried out the Salsa class and well...while Alfredo (yes that's his name) is an amazing dancer, I have a hard time watching a guy shimmy and shake his butt better than most women ever will. And that's what I've been up to. No wait! I forgot to mention that I was working with Christy on the church nursery and busted out an old fashioned Katie mishap. I electricuted myself, and then got my fingers stuck in the rocking ottoman! it was awful! Mike this week has been busted his butt to get the house ready because.... Mama bear was making a visit! she's rocking Elliott as we speak, or I guess as I blog. He was also running the sound for the concert at the church. There is more for the mike update this week... My sweet darling amazing wonderful husband fell asleep in the recliner at my parents on a visit over there. I wasn't going to do anything, and I didn't... (got that mike) but mom and seth wanted to pick on him. Originally they were going to throw things at him, but it turned into a much more exciting event. He was so asleep that they decided to play a game. To see who could stack the most objects on him without him waking up. After 40 things or so it got boring, so then they tried to take everything off him before he woke up. and they did...ha ha. he had no clue until I showed him the pictures later. I'll post the pictures on the next blog. I need to go put the babies in bed. more in a little bit.

update on the family

2008-04-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

So we have increased our family by one more. Mike, Katie, Grace, and now Elliott.

He was born February 8th, at 1:40 in the morning. 7lbs 15 oz. and 21 inches long. He has dark brown hair(which is almost due for a cut) and blue eyes.

He's growing and at about two months is starting to respond to talking. not much, but some coos and smiles. I like to think he's a mama's boy, but it might be too early to tell. Grace is definatly a daddy's girl though.

She is becoming such a stinker. She is throwing fits, and causing mommy and daddy quite the headache, but they are becoming shorter, so i'm hoping this phase will end someday. We still love her! She is learning so much.

Her favorite past times now are coloring (with pens or markers) and watching cartoons, especially blues clues, dora the explorer, and the backyardagains. She is also a fabulous dancer. She'll dance to anything! the spin move is her favorite.

she also loves the beach.

Our dog Charlie is still Charlie. big, stinky, and dumb. he's very good with the kids, and when he's not sleeping in the nursery with them, he's taking over grace's princess tent.

Mike is still working for Brinks. hasn't fallen through an attic yet. He's doing just fine. and I am just a stay at home mom for awhile. Keeping busy with the kids, the house, and selling paintings when i get the chance. So my new goal is to keep updating this blog on a regular basis, so we can keep everybody up on what's going on with the vangessels. Hope everyone is having a great night.

An Early Halloween

2007-10-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Since mommy has to work on trick or treat night, we decided to have an early pumpkin day. We headed over to the presbyterian church off main street dunedin, and they had set up a pumpkin patch. Grace was amazed at all the pumpkins. she oohed and ahhhed over them, pointing at each one.

so we let her pick out her own little own and got pumpkins for the rest of the family to carve.

We had to dress her up so i could see her in her little purple monster costume. It fit her too well.

Then we all carved our pumpkins. Grace kept trying to eat the pumpkin guts. soooo gross.

She loves pumpkins. It all made my night. It was one of the best halloweens yet.

Next Top Model!

2007-10-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

Grace and Mommy recently had a photo shoot out by the pool. Grace was being her cute self until we brought out her blue doggie. Then she just wanted to play on it and push it all around, it was all over after that.

October 12th Baby Steps

2007-10-12T18:10:00.001-07:00

Grace turned 11 months today. one month and she'll be the big 1. I don't think walking is too far away. She's standing by herself for short periods of time, and she walks holding mommy or daddy's hand. Baby Elliott is kicking all the time, I'm thinking future Pele, Mike's hoping for a future colts player. Charlie our dog, is um... Charlie. he stinks right now, but i'm pregnant... so he always stinks. He and Grace play pretty well together, unless she makes a bolt for the dog bowl, then he bulldozes her over until she changes her mind. Our house is messy, my fault. Mike's too busy working and giving foot rubs to do anything and i'm too busy working and getting footrubs, and Grace just isn't pulling her weight around the house.

and so it begins...

2007-09-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

Hi. so, here it is... our first blog. I guess we should start by updating everyone on our family. Mike and I added our first addition November 12th 2006.

Grace Ann VanGessel

She's been growing up so fast.

Now she's ten months old and she's a little stinker, takes after her dad I think.

I think she will make a great big sister though.... We are expecting number two in february

More to come...