A Very Newport Christmas!

Hello friends and loved ones!

I know I am way too late, but I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We went to Christmas eve service at Watermark and Macaroni Grill dinner. MK was quite the pill at dinner on Christmas Eve, always keeping us on our toes and reminding us that we are getting closer to the terrible twos every day!

Christmas morning was just our family in our house, exactly how we wanted it! MK woke up in her own bed, we had breakfast, read the Christmas story from Luke and thanked baby Jesus for coming to earth and then opened our presents. We gave her a babydoll and stroller and a couple of books and puzzles. My parents got her some precious outfits and her Great Ody gave her a life sized baby panda bear that MK was afraid of!

After present opening and MK's nap we headed out to the airport to Orange County. My sisters, brother in law and parents were in Newport Beach for Christmas so we flew out to join them for Christmas night  through New Years. MK sat in our laps for the 3 hour flight and she did great, especially considering that she had an ear and sinus infection!

We have been having a blast here in Newport! My parents rented a house right on the boardwalk and beach and all 9 of us are staying in it! MK spent the first night in a pack n play in our room and after waking up every two hours cause she realized we were right there, she got moved to my parents closet. My dad can't wait to get her up and he's been getting her up early every morning. They get to have MK-Poppy time for an hour every morning until we all get up... can you say spoiled! She's perfected the art of begging from her aunties and they can't say no to her "peas" and sign language. They may have created a monster. That's gonna be fun to retrain when we get home!

I am loving the sister time and soaking it in as much as possible since I don't know that next time we will all be together again. I adore my sisters and wish we lived closer.

Mike and I are having a blast together too. We have several great babysitters here so we are filling up our quality time tanks!

Here are some pics of our adventures:

MK and Daddy!

Mommy and Maddie walking on the beach!

She loves the sand!

Love these guys!

Maddie is flying!

Have a wonderful last couple of days of 2011!
Love yall,
The Vogs

Lately...

Maddie has been a busy bee...

Trying on dad's shoes... might be 15 sizes too big Maddie! 

Playing with friends at the Galleria Mall's play ground

Stealing Mommy's diet Dr. Pepper... at least it's diet! 

Learning how to get on the piano bench...

Successes! Now she can serenade us whenever she wants.

Breakfast date with this little lovable guy... MK called dibs on this precious little Combs when he was born!

We are antsy for Christmas and for Daddy to get off of work for a whole week!!! We are keeping our tradition of Christmas Eve service at Watermark and Macaroni Grill dinner afterwards. Christmas morning will be so fun with MK this year... I can't wait to see the joy on her face when she opens her present from Mike and I! Christmas day will be an adventurous day since we'll be flying to California to spend a week in New Port Beach with my parents. Hopefully there won't be many people flying on Christmas so MK can get her own seat... fingers crossed and prayers sent! The 3+ hour flight will be our longest yet, and I am expecting her to have a meltdown around 1.5 hours.

I hope that you can take a moment to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas these next few days. Gifts, decorations and Santa is all great, but have you received the GREATEST gift yet? You don't want to miss out on that one, it's life changing!

Love you all,
The Vogs

Opps, forgot pictures of the party! :)

All of the beautiful mommies and babies at the party! 

Maddie was only happy with santa if Mommy was right there!

Party Favors!

Maddie's handprint Rudolph!

Yep, I'm that mom who throws her child on santa's lap for the token "screaming on santa" picture! This is classic. 

Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Vogs

"Mommy and Me" Christmas Party/Cookie Swap Review

Phew am I exhausted! Yesterday was my first annual kiddos Christmas party and cookie swap and it was so fun! We had 10 mommies and 14 babies ranging in age from 8 weeks to almost 3yrs, and it was very much a controlled (sometimes bordering on uncontrolled!) chaos. There was never not a child crying, especially when Santa came to visit! Maddie was not a huge fan of sitting on Santa's lap. She even cried when he came in the front door! What is it about a man in a red suit with a beard that freaks little kids out?!? Our santa was Mike's co-workers dad and he was fantastic! So sweet with the little ones and he definitely looked the part. If he will brave this crowd again, he's hired for next year too.
Every kid (except for the little babes) made a hand print reindeer. So easy to do, but so cute! I'm gonna do a handprint craft every year so we can see how big our little ones are getting every Christmas season.
I made curried chicken salad for lunch and a sweet mommy friend brought a salad. A lot of the moms asked for my curried chicken salad recipe so I'll post it here for all the blog readers to enjoy:

Curry Chicken Salad (adapted from a recipe in my Vera Bradley cookbook)
White meat from 1 Rotisserie chicken (I use lemon pepper seasoned chicken)
Green or red grapes quartered
2-3 sticks of celery chopped
(You can add chopped almonds or walnuts, but i didn't this time!)
1 Cup Light Mayo
1/2 C Skim milk
2 TBS Curry powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

-Combine chicken, grapes, celery and nuts in a large bowl
-In a seperate bowl whisk together milk and mayo until smooth, then add curry powder, salt and pepper
-Stir dressing into chicken mixture until chicken mixture is coated well.
-It's best when refrigerated for a couple hours.
-Serve on a salad or croissants, or if you're like me, just eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon!

The kids ate PB&Js that I cut out to look like gingerbread men with a cookie cutter.

Every guest also brough 2 dozen cookies and we had a cookie swap at the end. The cookies were so yummy! Thanks everyone for participating!

As a party favor, I gave every kid a book on the first Christmas. Even though Santa was there and we made reindeer crafts, I wanted everyone to know that the reason for our celebration is that Christ came down to earth as a baby as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I think we loose that in the busy commercial Christmas season. I want all of those precious little ones at my party to know the love their Savior has for them, and to know the richness of being in a relationship with Him.

I learned a lot about my self yesterday during the party too... I can keep my cool under utter chaos! I wasn't stressed out that my house looked like a tornado had swept through. I was just enjoying the moment... I have come a very long way! I thank Maddie and Jesus for that! They both have taught me a lot about letting go and enjoying the ride.

Like I said in the beginning, this was the start of my annual party... can't wait to see what next year is like!

Love you all,
Katy

DIY Christmas part 1- Maddie's headboard

Don't worry dear friends and family, your christmas presents will not be revealed in this post, that's in the works for after christmas! About 90% of our christmas presents this year were handmade/DIY, I can't wait to share with you how we did it! Since MK can't read, and doesn't know how to access the blog yet, I thought I would share part of her Christmas present from Mike and I. We are starting to get her big girl bed/bedding/room together so that when she decides that it's time to switch, we are ready! I have been doing a lot of reading and research on the signs/timing of (most obviously, climbing out of the crib) of moving to a bed. I've had several friends whose babes were 18 months old when they made the big switch, and that's almost two months away!

Maddie's big girl bedding- found at TJ Maxx over the summer for $25

So, my task was to find a headboard and footboard for MK. We had a twin mattress set (mine/Mike's from college that was nasty, I talked Mike into getting a new one for MK!) and twin frame, so all we needed was a cute headboard and footboard. I found one at Divine Consign in August. I've mentioned this consignment sale on my blog before... seriously people, if you have kids or are having a kid in the near future GO! The next sale is in March. Anyway, the headboard and footboard were in great condition, the prefect shape and only $8! The only problem, they were an ugly yellowish-gold color....YUCK! Problem easily solved with a quick sanding and several coats of white paint (a quart of white paint at Lowes was about $10, I would have gotten a few tester cans for $3 each but they were out...I have 3/4 of the can left), but it was still lacking something... So, I decided to upholster the inner section of the headboard! I've never done anything like this before, but I'd seen tutorials before on HGTV and I was pretty sure I could do it. Here is how I did it:

1. I picked up a yard of 1/2" foam and a yard of fabric that coordinates to her bedding from the local fabric store. The foam was $9.99/yard and the fabric was $4.99/yard.

2. I traced the inside of the headboard using newspaper ads, they were the only thing big enough that I had lying around.

Tracing the inside of the headboard.

3.I traced the pattern onto the foam and then cut out the shape with scissors.I also cut the 90 degree edge off with the scissors to give the upholstered part a less boxy shape.

Tracing the pattern onto the foam and cutting out!

4. I set the foam inside the headboard and stretched out the fabric. I folded the fabric in half and doubled it up so that the green foam wouldn't show through my fabric and to make the green pop a little more. Be careful if do that using a pattern, because it might show through the top layer, but with my tiny polka-dots it wasn't an issue. Next, using a staple gun, staple the fabric and foam to the headboard running your staple gun along the edge of the headboard as close as you can. I spaced my staples pretty close together (a few centimeters) so that the fabric wouldn't pull and rip.

Stapling is very cathartic! 

5. Next, cut the excess fabric as close as possible, but don't rip the fabric!

No ripping!

6. Lastly, hot glue a decorative trim on the inside of the headboard to cover up your staples. This trim was $5 for 4 yards, and I have about 1/2 a yard left to make a pillow with!

Hot glue gone in hand, and ready to go!

 That's it, as easy as it sounds! Here are some final pics and some out-takes from our photo session! 

Bedding, pillow sham (green, blue,pink flowers),  curtain and headboard all together!

Someone had to get in on the action! 

You turn your attention to taking pics for one minute and it looks like a category 4 hurricane has swept through and she's putting on her dirty clothes! Oh to have eyes on the back of my head!

So, all in all we paid about $29 for the whole project, not bad for a custom upholstered headboard!

Merry Christmas Maddie Kate!

Love,
The Vogs

Christmas events + Dates with hubs + sweet Maddie= Great weekend!

Hey all,
We've had a fun weekend around here, so I wanted to share what we did!

Friday:

Baby doll getting a diaper change!

Maddie  rocked and rolled on her new doggie guitar, and changed her baby's diaper NUMEROUS times! She would get so mad when it fell off. I don't think baby wears size 4 diapers!

Rocking out with her guitar!

Friday night we babysat a good friend's little girl and Mike and I cuddled up on the couch to watch Mission Impossible 1. I haven't seen any of the Mission Impossible movies (I grew up with 3 sisters- no surprise there!) so Mike is making it his personal mission to make me watch all of them so we can go see the new one in theaters soon... YAY! (Sarcastic!) I did love snuggling up with my man and watching a movie though, it's been way to long since we've done that! At home dates are the best!

Saturday:
Mike, Maddie and I went to the Buiding Blocks Christmas brunch at Watermark. We are so blessed to have such an amazing church with great programs for young moms and kids. Our two Watermark besties were there too! These three little girls are going to be trouble in a few years!

Maddie in front of a tree at Watermark

The girls and their daddies! Maddie & Mike, Mckinley & Matt, and Lilleigh & Brendon.

They had PRC (our worship leader) play christmas carols and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. It was so fun! Afterwards we attempted to get a picture of the girls in front of the Christmas tree, and lets just say they were not wanting to cooperate! Here is the best one!

Lil, Maddie and McK- the three musketeers!

Saturday night we had "Vogelaar" Christmas with Mike's sister since she is flying out to Prague next weekend. We celebrated with homemade BBQ chicken pizza, presents and RGIII's heisman win! So proud to be a Baylor Bear, and may have cried a few tears during his acceptance speech.

Sic 'em RGIII!!!

Sunday:
We went to 9am church as usual, and then Mike and I went on a date to a couples massage class. It was so fun! We learned how to give an hour long massage of the back, neck and shoulders using proper massage technique and posture. Definitely the most unique date we have even been on, but it was a blast. Mike says I have a future in massage therapy, I think he was just inflating my ego so I would practice more on him! Maddie hung out with Caleb and Sallie our sweet down the street neighbors and community group members. They took her to the park and wore her out! She didn't want any dinner, just her bed after her play date with the Deans. She slept from 615 to 715! Thanks Deanos! Play date next sunday? ;)

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! It wasn't long enough for me... we've got a busy, fun week ahead of us including a "Mommy and Me" christmas party and cookie swap at our house on weds, community group Christmas dinner weds night, finishing up Mike's christmas shopping (it's impossible to shop for him!), and another day date this weekend!

Love,
The Vogs

Maddie update: 15 months!

I thought I would start updating on MK for family and friends who aren’t on facebook that we don’t get to see all the time!

MK at our Christmas Card Photo-shoot!

 My baby goobie girl is growing up so fast! I can’t believe she is already 15 months (actually almost 16 now!). She is moving towards toddlerhood at a rapid pace!

Stats:

Weight: 25lb 6.5oz (90%)

Height: 33in (>95%)

Compared to her daddy at 15 months: 32in and 28lb

Compared to her mommy at 15 months: 32in and 23.75lb

*so, basically, she’s going to be HUGE, I am starting to pray for a tall husband now!*

She is walking, climbing and has started running in place when she’s either really angry or excited.

Her favorite word is “Jesus” which sounds like “Cheezit” and she likes to say “Hi” to everyone she meets.

Her favorite toy is anything that looks like a phone, which she puts to her ear and talks into like a phone saying “hi” and some other babbles that I can’t understand. She also really loves the piano, both our baby grand in the living room and her Fisher Price toy piano.

I think MK is in “big sister training” mode (although there is no news to report on that subject!). She has started trying to put diapers on everything! Nutcracker man, baby doll, her stuffed animals! She also tries to “feed” her animals and baby doll her sippy cup. Oh, I hope she’s that helpful when she’s called up to the big sister big leagues!

She has also started to give snuggles and kisses a lot. Oh boy do I love those!

Last week in Florida for Thanksgiving, she fell in love with Poppy (aka my dad). She would only go to him, hung out with him in his office for hours and when they dropped us off at the airport, she cried for 15 minutes after he gave her a hug goodbye and left (she has NEVER done that with us!). It makes my heart melt! MK received the sweetest note in the mail from him this week telling her how much he missed her. Thankfully the two will be reunited at the Fields' Family Reunion in Cali after christmas! 

She is so much fun! 

Goobs- I love you stinky! You make me proud to be your momma. I pray that Jesus will continue to reveal Himself to you and that you will fall in love with Him one day!

Love yall,

The Vogs

Trying something new!

So, my last thankful post was from the iPad... And although I put spaces between the lines, they obviously did not show up! So now I am updating my blog from my new iPhone (thanks to my parents for this early Christmas present!) I am hoping this app will help me keep on top of the blog. I have so many things I want to post, but finding the time to log into the desktop with.a busy 15 month old is hard! So I am going I really try a lot harder to make more of an effort, while not sacrificing any of my previous time with mk during the day or mike at night!

Speaking of iPhones, how did I ever live without one? This thing is awesome and dangerous at the same time. Should I really be this connected all the time? I am currently battling with that one! An iPad at home is one thing, but this attached to my hand everywhere is a different story! Don't get me wrong though, I am not complaining!

Here are some iPhone pics to show you what we've been up to!

Stay tuned for a couple posts this week on what the Lord is teaching me and one on our thrifty DIY Christmas!

Love y'all,
The Vogs

Thankful day 4&5

Day 4- ice cream! I know this is so shallow, but i love ice cream...and so does my dad. so we are enjoying having a partner in crime to indulge in some mid day icream with! Love u dad! Day 5- new life The past few weeks two of my baylor friends announced that they were pregnant, and both of these babies are miracles! One mom has a genetic condition and was told that she had a very small chance of getting pregnant, she is having her second this summer! The other is a dear friend who struggled with infertility and underwent several rounds of fertility treatments... She is due in early june! It is so clear in scripture that God is the author of life, just check these out: Isaiah 46: 3-4 "...and you whom i have upheld since your birth, and have carried you since you were born. Even to your old age and grey hairs i am He, i am He who will sustain you. I have made you and i will carry you; i will sustain you and i will rescue you. Job 10:10 "you guided my conception and formed me in the womb." I am so thankful for his hand on these dear friends and giving them new lives! We had a wonderful thanksgiving with complete with a turkey bowl, a turkey feast and 4 generations of Johnson/Fields/Vogelaars! Happy black friday! We arent going anywhere near any retail stores today! Love, The Vogs

Thankful day 2&3

So, I missed a day... does traveling to FL on a 6:15am flight with a 15 month old buy me any grace?

Day 2- 6am flights!
Actually, If we didn't have to wake up at 4am to catch our flight, I would take a 6am flight every time! They had 15 extra seats on our flight, which means that MK got her own seat! She slept the whole flight and did great! Thank you Lord for that tiny blessing that started our long day of traveling off well.

Day 3- the Fields Family...get ready for some awesome old pics!

Fields girls Christmas pictures 2007.

Fields girls in Vero Beach, FL summer of 1996

3 generations of Fields girls at Baylor Homecoming 2010

My mom and dad's christmas card picture 2010

We are here in Vero Beach visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. I have the best parents in the world! I am so thankful that God allowed me to be born into the Fields Family! This is the first time in 3 years of marriage that Mike and I have been in Florida without my sisters, and although we are loving the one on one time with Mom and Dad, I miss my sisters! I can't wait to see them in a couple weeks for our California christmas/new years celebration! 

Today we are in thanksgiving meal preparation mode, so i've gotta go make myself useful!

What are you thankful for today? Thank the Giver of every good thing today for the blessings in your life. Reflect on James 1:17 this Thanksgiving holiday!

Love,

Katy

Thankful- Day 1

This week, I am reflecting on what I am thankful for... each day I will post something new!

Today, I am thankful for my sweet family. I have the best husband and the cutest, sweetest, most kissable baby girl in the whole world! Here is a sneak peak of our 2011 Christmas card pics to show off these blessings in my life!


Pics taken at our church, Watermark.... LOVE this white stone!



M&M, I love you more than life! I thank God for you every day.

Love,
Katy/Mama

He is faithful!

Yesterday in church, my dear friend Randi ministered to me in a way that I don't think she even knows. I was sitting next to her and her husband and listening to her sing during worship made me cry. You see, Randi was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of October, and is starting on the incredibly long and painful journey of fighting her cancer. She and her husband from the very beginning have remained firm in their faith. You can check out their incredible journey at their blog : treasuresinheaven.blogspot.com 

So, back to Sunday. We were singing Matt Redmon's song "Never Once"... listen to it here : 

For me to sing "You are faithful" to my savior was an easy overflow of my heart. He has been so faithful to me. He is faithful to forgive my sins, to provide for our family, to bring Mike and Maddie into my life, to be my comforter and protector. But, would I be singing with the joy and passion that Randi sang if I had breast cancer? If my world as I knew it was crashing down, would I sing "You are faithful God?" Do I trust the Lord enough? Randi does, and it is such a beautiful thing to witness. She knows, like the song says, that the Lord is with her, He never leaves her and He is her source of joy, hope and peace. I hope you know Him and can experience that peace whenever your life is turned upside down. 

On a less serious note, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my sweet angel that we took this weekend...we had a fun filled weekend with Maddie's bff Mckinley (Randi's daughter). We watched Mckinley while the Widemans had a night on the town in Ft. Worth and we had such a blast with the "twins" as we so lovingly call them. It was a great training opportunity for Maddie, she wasn't doing great a sharing her toys and liked to take Mckinley's milk from her. 

The twins during our photoshoot in the nature preserve by our house!

My joyful girl! 

Hope y'all have a wonderful week...can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? I can't! I am so excited to spend the holiday with my parents again this year and to remember every blessing the Lord has given me and to give Him thanks! 

Love y'all!

Katy

Our sick little honey bee

What would we do without our froggie humidifier and Zarbee's honey cough medicine?

I was going to do a post on Halloween, but we are sick in our house today. Silly Croup! Any suggestions for how to keep your little one's immune system healthy this time of year? She's getting her flu shot in a couple weeks, so I am hoping that helps. My precious MK has been sick every week for the past month with something new (stomach bug, hand foot mouth, croup). We are desperate for a healthy week around here! Gotta remember: it's just a season, I have to be thankful that I have a precious babe to nurse back to health and MK is extra cuddly when she's sick so I've gotta take advantage of this!

Here is our feeble attempt at a Halloween post: I will show you a picture of my adorable little honey bee. She LOVED trick or treating, loved saying "thank you" to everyone who gave her candy...I have such a polite little one! She didn't get to eat any candy (which didn't go over too well with her), but she did get some candy corn when we got home... I think I may have created a candy corn monster! :)

Today, we are going to cuddle on the couch, drink lots of fluids and enjoy the smell of homemade chicken soup on the stove!

Nothing better for the sickies than homemade chicken soup!

Hope you are staying healthy!

The Vogs