Snowy January Weekend

We had a fun winter wonderland this weekend with Grandad & Mimi visiting. Here are a BUNCH of pictures from the snow!

Going for a walk around the park


Sarah looked cozy & snuggly in her snow suit before going outside






Our neighbor Ryan shared his sled with us




Another neighbor let us borrow their purple tube - notice how scared Caroline looks! Fortunately for her, it went REALLY slowly down the hill.



Two babies! The girls & I went for a walk on our own, so I strapped Sarah to my front side and Caroline to my back. I wonder how many moms have tried the Bjorn-on-front, Ergo-on-back approach. It works remarkably well!

January Miscellaneous

Assortment of pictures from January

Grandmommy reading to Sarah & Rachel

The newest member of the Ruvo family -- Stella Rebecca -- born Nov. 10th, just 3 1/2 weeks after Sarah

Dressed & ready for pajama day at school

Rachel playing "school" with her snugglies, baby dolls, and Sarah

Heather Price came to visit & meet snuggly Sarah

Smiley Sarah

Here's a cute picture of Sarah being super smiley.

It's moments like these, when she smiles so happily, and charms anyone around her, that make up for the middle-of-the-night wake-ups! How can I resent getting up for someone so adorable?!!!

(Click on the picture for a much better sized image of our happy girl)

More bath pictures of Sarah

It's hard to believe that Sarah is growing so fast! She is already 12 weeks old.
Here are a few recent bath time pictures.

In the last one, she's studying her hand, which seems to be a new and exciting activity for her.

Brian and the girls

Cute picture of Brian with the girls

Hurricanes Game

On Sunday night, all 5 of us went to a Hurricanes hockey game... here are some pictures of the action. The 'Canes won 4-1, and we all had a great time.

Sarah doesn't have a hockey jersey, but she does have a Hurricanes baby cap....

Flamenco Dancers

Back in 1994, when I spent a semester in Valencia, Spain, I met my friend MariTrini, who is from Valencia -- and we've stayed in touch ever since. She has watched our girls grow up (from afar), by keeping tabs on the blog and through our e-mail correspondence. Knowing how much Rachel & Caroline love to play dress-up, she bought and sent us these Spanish dresses -- which arrived in the mail yesterday.
Enjoy the photos of my fancy Spanish flamenco dancers!

Happy New Year!

We hope you had a Happy New Year celebration to begin 2010. We are super excited to have started the new year with a new house in Pine Knoll Shores (basically Atlantic Beach, NC). We bought the house to have our own place near the beach, but also as a home base for Brian & Mark's fishing boat and fishing gear. Now we can all spend the weekend together whenever Brian heads East for a fishing adventure.

New Year's weekend was our first time to spend the night in the new house, and it was lots of fun for all of us!

View of the house from the street

View of the house from the back

The house sits on a canal with easy boat access

Living Room (we were lucky that the house came somewhat furnished)

Rachel & Caroline are very excited about their mermaid bedroom decor -- we plan to get bunk beds for this room.

View of the canal from the kitchen window (not a bad view while washing dishes!!)

Out for a stroll on New Year's Day



All the action wore Sarah out!

Rachel's picture of the house, the stairs, the bedrooms, and the L-shaped couch

All 6 Vandersea grandkids! Tucker, Caroline, Neils, Sarah, Rachel, & Chase.
We spent New Year's afternoon at Mark & Miriam's house, where we enjoyed a delicious feast.


Back at home -- the girls LOVE getting to hold Sarah, who was happy to smile for these photos!


Robert, Lo, & Emma Rose came over to see the new house -- here's Caroline talking to Emma Rose.