Welcome, Daniel Isaac!

On August 18 at 9:37 am, little Daniel Issac joined the party at 21 inches long and 8 lbs., 14 oz. He's sweet as pie and is so loved by many already, but it should be noted that I spent >20 hours in a car to meet him, so I feel like "Best Auntie" was an earned title. Note: I still loathe toll roads, all of Canada and public restrooms. But this boy? Love him.

In related news, I recently started having a love affair
with hot rollers. Best life idea, ever.

Because when you run out of creative things to write, you just post old pictures and let everyone 'ooh' and 'aah'.

 Baby Kristi.
I am delicious.

 Halloween...maybe 1985 or 1986?

I look so amused. 

 Once a diva, always a diva.

With Grandma Neveau.

I miss her all the time.

The original Kardashians (Kelli, Kristi and Kyle)

with our Momager.

Kelli's costume, while awesome in theory,

was a logistical nightmare.

This is why everyone says Alex looks just like Kyle.

BECAUSE HE DOES.

Who cancels Halloween?

The entire state of Connecticut, that's who. I guess an unexpected hammering of snow will do that to you.

Kelli said it was like a movie - trees down everywhere, no power, and utter chaos. They are safe and sound, but what an experience!

And so, October 2011 marked the first time my sweet 'lil Samuel saw snow. And it was DELIGHTFUL. He loves the white fluffly stuff almost as much as his Aunt Kristi. Behold:


 

Yes, as crazy as it looks, that's a totally legit video taken in Kelli's front yard on October 29, 2011. Mother Nature is NOT fooling around, people. Also? Hi, Ruth!

If you're having a case of the Mondays...

I implore you to look at this and not smile:

You're welcome.

Dear Thursday: please end.

Because when Thursday is over, that means that it's Friday, which also means that it is the DAY MY SISTER FINALLY CARTS HER ARSE BACK TO MICHIGAN. Oh, and she's also bringing her handsome hubby & that sweet little chubby-cheeked nephew of mine.

But really? It's all about the sister. Like, GET. HERE. NOW.

Those of you with a sister get me. And those with a sister living practically on the other side of the Moon (which is just due east of Connecticut) totally get me. I'll probably never be ok with the fact that she lives in CT nor will I ever get used to these once-a-year-and-every-other-year-at-Christmas visits, but I will cherish them when they come.

And Friday? It's COMING.

Look out, Detroit. This crazy duo is getting all sorts of reunited.

And before my phone starts blowing up with texts from the self-proclaimed "forgotten child" Kyle, you know I love you dearly. And also? Thank you for living in Michigan so I can see your face any time I want. Don't tell Kelli and the others (hey, they might be out there), but you're you're my favorite on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and every other Sunday.

Niephew is a NEPHEW!

It's a BOY!

Samuel Jeffrey Turner was born at 4:15 am on Feb. 13 @ 8 oz. 10 lbs & 20 in. via c-section after THIRTY HOURS and FORTY FIVE minutes of labor. My sister is a saint.

He's perfect and precious and I simply could not love him more.

And also? Alex totally got it right:


Sorry it's sideways. FB won't let me rotate it for some reason.

Showered With Love.

Mom, Jill and I hosted Kelli and David's baby shower the weekend of Thanksgiving. And for a girl that loves themed events, this might have been one of my best yet.

K & D had a bird theme at their wedding, so I took the graphic from their invitations (created by the incredibly talented Jackie at blue soleil design) and added a little nest to it. INSTANT THEME.

"The Turners are expanding their nest!"

Mom took the rest and ran with it to create the perfect "shabby chic" look we were going for. We lined the tables with brown paper and cute green and white polka dot wrapping paper and placed crayons around so our guests could doodle on the paper.

We also placed "tweet" bags at each place setting filled with birdseed for guests to take home for the birdies in their neck of the woods. The menu was soup in bread bowls, so the spoons were placed in a glass canning jar at each table.

Some of the tables had canning jars filled with birdseed with twig branches coming out of them. On the branches we hung small glass bird ornaments, also for the guests to take home.

On the appetizer and dessert table we had some yummy snacks and cuppycakes with toasted coconut and M&Ms on top to look like little bird nests. Oh, and look closely at the plates - can you BELIEVE we found those to match everything? Hobby Lobby rules.

We also placed white onesies at each table in varying sizes with fabric markers. Each table got artistic and created special and unique onesies for lil' niephew. It turned out to be a lovely day and niephew got LOADS of new stuff. (S)he is very loved!

And if you ever needed a reason to not hire Joe and me to bake the desserts for your next function...

A Fun Comparison.

As you may recall from a recent announcement, my sister is expecting my first niephew (niece+nephew because they are not finding out the sex) on or around Feb. 14, 2011. She's 27 weeks as of now, so I thought it might be fun to see me at 27 weeks with WIP and her at 27 weeks with niephew.

Kelli is a shortie pants, so I think she's carrying niephew much higher than I carried WIP. What do you think?

 Me 'n WIP.

Kelli 'n niephew.

Como Say Whaaa?

Yesterday, I heard the following words/phrases uttered from some of the most brilliant minds in the industry:

• Reduplicate.
• Over redundant.

For real. And no, I don't work in the Department of Redundancy Department. But I do think it's fun to reduplicate some over redundancies on le blog. It makes me feel smart, if nothing else.

In unrelated news, today is the day Kelli and David COULD find out le sex of my niephew. But they are electing not to, which is absolutely going to be the death of me. I do not understand how anyone could possibly NOT find out. I'm a planner. A know-er. A do-er. A re-duplicater.

Oh, and their baby shower? I'm attempting to top the greatest wedding shower/bachelorette party of all time, but I'm not sure if it will be possible. Mostly because I can't obsess over all things blue or pink for an over-the-top theme. This gender neutral stuff is really for the birds. A hint, perhaps?

Listen Up!

I have an announcement to make: I'm expecting!











...a niece or nephew!

Bwaaahahaha. That was a mean trick, no?

Anyway, on or around February 14, Kelli will birth little "Baby Valentine" and make my Mom the happiest woman in the galaxy with grandbaby #2. Seriously. I think the woman was born to be a Grandma. For the record, I am what one could call over le moon about this news...except for one peeny, weeny detail that is may-jah-ly getting in my way: the entire state of Connecticut.

CT is not MI. And thusly, I cannot see my sister every day. I cannot rub her belly whenever I want. I cannot pick her up randomly one night to go on an adventure to Meijer to curb her latest cheesy poof craving. I cannot leave work and show up at the hospital 10 minutes after her water breaks in a state of panic/elation. I cannot visit her every single day after the baby is born and laugh as she hooks herself up to the "milking machine." Basically, I can't do all the amazing things she did for me while I was pregnant. And it sucks. A great, great deal.

But, the upside of this is that I'M GETTING A NIEPHEW! That's what I've nicknamed le babe. They will not find out the sex, so I can't specifically say 'neice' or 'nephew'. And so, I combined the two words and made up my own. Niece + Nephew = Niephew! In related news, I always get the i-e arrangement in niece wrong. Thank you, schpellchek.

Now, it's time to plan a shower with Mom and Jill!!

Notes To Self.

1) Draft blog post regarding Alex's 15 month checkup. Should highlight: hatred of shots, love of pediatrician, denial of toddler status.

2) Inform readers that another CSN giveaway is on the horizon. You're welcome.

3) Post adorable pictures from picking Kelli up from the airport. Check.

4) Admit openly that I have an obsession with baby Crocs and madras shorts with polos, as exhibited above and below...and pretty much every other picture currently on file. Popped collar optional.

5) Take a brief blogging hiatus while sister is in town. Through next Friday, if you're wondering.

FRIDAY!

I am so excited that today is Friday for the manymany reasons I shall list henceforth: (I love that word.)

1. A group of girlie friends are coming over tonight for fondue and cosmos. NO BOYS ALLOWED! Joey and Alex will be banished to the upstairs and only allowed to show their countenances when they deliver us cocktails. I even have a bell to ring when our glasses are empty. Muah ha ha...

2. Tomorrow, my blonde counterpart is flying in from the Windy City to visit and deliver my newest 1154 Lill creation. Scads of shopping, wine consumption and tickling of Alex will be on the menu for the day. Yes, she loves me enough to fly here for the day.

3. Today begins le countdown - 2 weeks until we're on a plane to visit Kelli and David! Does anyone have a magical time machine that will make the next two weeks breeze by? I can pay you in Starbuckies.

Speaking of Starbuckies, my morning java got cold and I'm still drinking it. Here's my conundrum for the day: I love iced coffee, but I hate hot coffee when it gets cold. That's weird.

And What A Weekend It Was!

My big sister is MARRIED! It all feels like a dream...but it was an awesome weekend. And despite the fact that it was late November in mid-northernish Michigan, the weather was incredible. I'll be sure to post some of the profesh pics when she gets them, but here are some to tide you over:


The new Mr. & Mrs. Turner! She was a stunning bride.


The whole fam-damily.

With my fab SIL, Jill. Also a good shot of the flowers. They were SO cool!

My boys. Alex's tux was ridiculously adorable. Bowtie and EVERYTHING!

Rockin' out to the Gator (aka "Takin' Care of Business"). It should be noted that there has never been one event (prom, homecoming, weddings...even my OWN) that I did not do the Gator proudly from start to finish. Six-and-a-half minutes of pure, sweaty dancin' goodness.

For now, I must go clean my house tornado-style in preparation for Thanskgiving festivities. Yes, we're hosting. I don't know what I was thinking, either.

Just Call Me Martha.

As previously mentioned, last weekend's festivities were a smashing success.

Up first, the Tiffany's theme shower. The tables were decorated with bride and groom gift boxes (tied w/ a Tiffany blue ribbin, natch) and inside were ring pops for each guest! Each placesetting also had a "BINGO" card with a twist. In place of the traditional letters, we used "KELLI" and DAVID" and instead of just a number, each of the squares had something that was meaningful to their relationship. Kelli and David would draw a letter and a space between presents, and the first person at each table to get a "KELLI" or "DAVID" won the centerpiece, which was a box wrapped in signature Tiffany blue with an authentically tied Tiffany ribbon (thanks, Sarah!). Each box was filled with random goodies like notecards, candles, bath accessories, etc.

The cake (from The Home Bakery in Rochester) made me want to pee my pants. Honestly, when I walked in to to pick it up I squealed with delight and jumped around like a potty training 4-year old. And for what it's worth, it tasted just as good as it looked.



Here's the bride and groom as they made their grand entrance. Don't you just love that they matched the theme? It gives me organizational goosebumps!



After lunch (which was delish!), presents and cake, a limo picked up the ladies that were staying for the bachelorette festivities. Of course, we had to get a pimp shot of Alex in his very first limo. Ladies' man, what?!?



No sooner had we kicked Alex out, David wanted to give his bride a final toast before her big night out:



Our first stop was a wine tasting at Fieldstone Winery in Rochester. We tasted 8 wines and sampled various cheeses. I know, so posh, right?

Our next stop was TCBY, Kelli's absolute favorite treat...as if you couldn't tell from this picture:



Here's the whole gang...I'm quite sure TCBY didn't expect us to pull up that night:



From there, we headed back to la casa de VW, where we dined on a QDoba nacho bar (another of Kelli's faves) and played games and opened gifts that made Kelli turn 17 shades of red. She would kill me if I posted any of those, so I will leave it up to your imagination. Let's just say that David will not be disappointed on the eve of Nov. 22. :)

Lost & Found.

I've lost my mind. If you happen to find it, please return to sender ASAP.

This Saturday is Kelli's bridal shower and bachelorette party. Yeah, you read that one right...both. It has to be a 2-4-1 kinda day because her time here in the Pleasant Peninsula is limited.

So this means as MOH Extraordinaire I must cram all the energies typically used to throw 2 kick ass parties into one 24-hour period. As such, I have twice as much to do and half the time to do it in. Add to that the fact that I have a life, an almost 6-month old, a husband that requires nearly as much attention (love you, baby) and a job that is salsa dancing on the single last nerve I have left and you can see how I'm a little overloaded.

You might think that I'm complaining, but I assure you I'm not. I thrive in freak-out-stress mode. It's actually when I do some of my best work. And, there's not a thing in the world I wouldn't do for my sister (or brother). If she wanted her shower to be a tea party theme on the Great Wall of China I would use every trick in the book to make it happen.

However, please don't expect much blogertainment this week from me. I'll try to garner at least one laugh a day, but cannot guarantee it.

Oh, and lest I forget...vote for Alex!

Hump Day!

Weeeeeeee! It's the middle of the week!

I don't know that I've fully expressed my excitement on the blog that I get to see my sister this weekend. Insert screams of delight here.

Mom, Alex and I are cartin' it to Connecticut to attend Kelli and David's bridal shower out there. Yes, we are driving. Yes, it makes me want to kill myself. No, I'm not sure I'll survive.

We're actually taking the shortcut through Canada. I know, crazy...who travels somewhere via car when the shortcut is through Canada? It's also a perk because I don't have to drive through Pennsylvania, which I'm quite sure is the worst state in the galaxy. It. Never. Ends.

We're leaving at the ass crack of dawn on Friday so that Alex can be sleeping in the carseat as long as possible. He gets sweaty in that thing, you know.

Should Monday roll around and I'm not back in action, wait until at least Thursday to contact the authorities. Tell them to look for me somewhere north of Narnia.

Turner & Co.

Since invitations have been mailed (and received), I can finally reveal some of the exciting details for Kelli and David's shower. For those not in the know, Kelli's trading in 'Talicska' for 'Turner' on November 22. Which is rather exciting because her monogram won't change!

Since all things wedding must have themes, the theme for the Michigan shower Mom and I are hosting will be "Turner & Co." <--I know, right?!?

Here's how the fab invitations turned out (designed, of course, by Jackie of bleu soleil design):

(click image to enlarge)

They were tied with a white satin ribbon and adorned with a sparkly "gift tag" that read: You're Invited. Basically the single greatest invitation to ever be mailed.

I can't reveal much more right now since most of the details must remain a surprise for Kelli and David until that day, but I promise you it will be fab. And I will provide and in-depth review on Oct. 12.

Thursdays = Lame.

Today is Thursday. Which gives me slight anxiety because I feel like I never really got to give Wednesday the respect it so deserves since I didn't REALIZE it was Wednesday until 10 p.m.

Thursday is not Hump Day. Thursday is not Friday. Thursday is basically an in-between, sucky day that pretends to be Friday, but fails miserably. Epically, even.

So, in a feeble attempt to make it suck less, I am going to shower and take my babe out for an afternoon in Royal Oak with Aunt Kelli and Aunt Sarah. Take that, Thursday.

The Adventures of WIP

Little WIP had quite the weekend! It started on Thursday night with a long overdue visit from Jamie and continued into Friday evening with quite the social gathering at the VeeDub household. We had about 20 or so people over to celebrate Halloween and Kelli's birthday, and it was probably the most excitement WIP has experienced in the last 3 or so months! Thanks to some unseasonably awesome weather, we had a fire in the backyard (or a "driveway" fire, as some city-slickers called it) had some of about.com's "famous chili," roasted some s'mores and ransacked the sweets the kiddos didn't take.

Sidebar: We had about 30 trick-or-treaters on Halloween. A few times, I put the bowl at their level and told the kids "you can pick one treat." And wouldn't you know, some of the little greedy monsters took HANDFULS! A note on my anticipated parenting style: when an adult tells WIP that (s)he can take one of something, you best believe that grubby little hand will be taking ONE candy from the bowl. I'm just sayin'...

Anyway, back to the adventures of the weekend. On Saturday morning, Joe, Kelli, Dave and I drove to Auburn to celebrate Kelli's birth with the fam: Mom, Dad, Kyle, Jill, G-ma T, G-pa N and Aunt Theresa. Mom made a deeee-licious dinner and some of her best ice cream cake, ever. (WIP's a BIG, BIG fan of the ice cream cake.) It's also worth mentioning that it took Kelli FOUR breaths to blow out all her candles.

Kelli opened presents and we just chilled for awhile...and then the adventure began. We hopped in the car and headed to a restaurant we were falsely led to believe was a mere hour away. 67,492 miles and 7 panic attacks later, we arrived at "The Bank" in Shanghai, er, Port Austin. I attempted to jump out the window of the Buick at least a half dozen times on the neverending journey and managed to keep the others in the car entertained with some Grammy-worthy renditions of the "Song That Never Ends." I honestly thought we would never, ever, ever, ever, ever arrive at our destination. But, we did. And I survived. Barely.

Sunday was a day of (much needed) rest and relaxation. We only ventured out into the great unknown for a mere 45 minutes - to buy a dining room table!

Woooot! One more room almost complete in the house, then onto WIP's nursery. Oy.

Remember to vote tomorrow! (And because I"m the queen of "free," don't forget that you can get a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme, a free tall coffee at Starbucks and a free cone at Ben and Jerry's just for showing your "I voted!" sticker. If that's not incentive, I don't know what is!!)