Happy Holidays!

Missing in Action?

Hell no!

Missing the action is what you be!

So, um, it's been four months since we posted. Sorry. Life is bizzay. We have not fallen off the face of the earth. We do want to stay in touch with everybody. It's just hard, but please, email us, call us, send us mail. We do exist and we will talk.

Anyway, Katie is going to write this update so away she goes: (I'll do the pics. Sorry the photos are out of order, computer issues.)

Since it has been sooooo incredibly long, we will go month by month for a quick update.

Here we GO!

August
Brian and I celebrated our 4-year Anniversary by going to Las Vegas for a nice relaxing drinking, eating, gambling and sleeping fiesta. We went with our friends Nick and Jess and had a blast. The weather was great as well as the entertainment.
Oh what fun to be able to sit down and eat an entire HOT meal without any distractions!! Another thing that sounds so simple taking a shower.....Oh it was pure bliss to take a shower without any kiddos coming in and asking "Hey mom are you taking a shower?" or wondering what kind of mischief they are getting into as you take your 2 minute shower. After indulging Italian Gelato and sleeping in, it was quickly back to reality.

Brian and I both had birthdays.
We attended our friend Tony's vows, which were celebrated in a beautiful Catholic church (Church of St. Thomas Moore), and we continue to pray for him as he continues his journey in becoming a Jesuit priest.

September
The entire Vnak Family went on a road trip to Chicago and then South Bend for ND vs San Diego. The boys are good travelers. I think they pointed out every bus, car transporter, and semi-truck from here to there. We stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Chicago Thursday night and had a great time. Tom, Joe, and Peter love to visit their Uncle Ric, Auntie Neigh Neigh, cousin Julie and Olivia. It was so cute...we were getting T and J ready for bed that night when they said, "Uncle Ric made this bed up just for us." "Isn't that sooo nice?"
The next morning we were up and off to South Bend. On the ride down, T and J had to listen to the Marching Band over and over again. After talking months about going to ND, we were finally there. Tom is sitting in the back of the van...as soon as Brian parks....Tom yells out "THIS IS THIS THE NOTRE DAME!" It is a moment Brian and I will never forget.
After unloading the Quad stroller, I was off to the bookstore and Brian was off to give the boys a tour of campus. When I caught up with them, T and J were giving me the tour. "There is the golden gnome, and that is the dorm daddy lived in, and that is where mommy and daddy got married." We walked to band practice and T, J, and Peter had a fun time listening to the band and pointing out all the instruments. It is there that we caught up with Marie, her sister, and little Sean. We had a nice and shall we say chaotic dinner with them and then it was off to Michigan for a quick night of sleep.
Saturday we were up bright and early and headed to Mothballs tailgate. It was so wonderful to see all of our friends. The boys had a blast too, playing catch with the football, skipping around campus and watching the band march to the stadium.
While everyone else headed to the game we headed out of town back to Chicago to spend the night with Nick and Jess. It was there that we watched the game and after getting the boys to sleep we learned from the masters how to play guitar hero!
Sunday was a very long day of driving home!

The rest of Septembers seems like a Blur. The boys had fun playing outside in the leaves and helping grandpa and daddy rake up all the leaves.

October
Brian and I were able to get away again to go to ND vs Stanford. We left Thursday and stayed with our friends Beth and Angelo and then drove down with them to ND for the weekend. It was also very relaxing and nice to get away and do adult activities.

Halloween! Tom and Joe dressed up as fire fighters. Their auntie neigh neigh and uncle Ric surprised them with fire fighter raincoats, hats and rubber boots when we came to visit. So you are thinking well, what was Peter? What else, but their cute Dalmatian. They had fun going to their great aunt and uncle's houses, going to grandmas for dinner and then trick or treating to a few houses. What they enjoyed the most was handing out candy at the door. Our neighborhood is full of kids some small and some large. (Large as in college students dressed up as marijuana leaves)
Brian's mom came over so we could go out to my cousins Halloween party! It was very fun! Brian dressed up as an investment banker on Wall Street. (Cardboard sign will work for food or coke) I on the other hand was Nancy Pelosi. Good times.

November
Man, I don’t even remembered what happened. I started taking Tom and Joe to the library on Thursday mornings for story time, while Grandpa Vnak came over to play with Peter. T and J seem to enjoy seeing other kids and learning new songs and listening to stories.

The boys also enjoy going to their favorite stores…Target and Home Depot! Even at home, they play downstairs with their mini-coops (big cars) and pretend they are going to the store. They have their coupons and shopping list in the back compartments. “I have to go to the store now. I need to get what is on my list. Now, let me see…. what’s on my list…oh yeah, I need toilet paper.”

I wonder where they get that?

We had a good Thanksgiving. Both my sister and I had to work Evening shift that day, so we celebrated on Friday. We are extremely grateful for our health, happiness and for our jobs these days.

December
December was a very busy month, filled with lots of friends and family and we loved every bit of it.
We celebrated Peter’s 1St Birthday Party on Saturday December 13th. Snowman was the theme and Peter enjoyed eating his snowman cake with a fork to our surprise. The other kids at the party, Tom, Joe, Braden and their friend Michael had a lot of fun helping Peter open his gifts. He received some real fun toys and books. Auntie Meredith got him a frog tent and put it together that night. The kids had blast!!! Thank you Auntie Meredith!

I ended working a bit more than I had anticipated before Christmas this year. We had on-line learning, meetings and classes to attend for new monitors and equipment we will be getting in the hospital. So I ended up working 4 eves in a row the weekend before Christmas. It made it hard to get shopping and wrapping done as well as baking.

Brian and I hosted Christmas for my side of the family on Christmas Eve. Brian made a fabulous dinner, which consisted of sweet potato and ham soup, wild rice medley, green beans, and a crown pork roast. For dessert, we had apple crisp and plenty of cookies.

It was a special time, because my grandma was able to be with us and see and enjoy all 6 of her GREAT grandkids.

Tom, Joe, and Braden were more into opening gifts this year than last. Thomas was more concerned about picking up all the wrapping paper and ribbon and putting it in the garbage bag than his presents.

My parents, sisters and their families, grandma, aunt and uncle along with my cousins came as well as Brian’s parents. Good times!!

Christmas day we went to church after the boys opened their gifts from Santa. They got a play kitchen and new VACCUUMS!! For the last 2 months, Tom and Joe would say, “I want Santa to bring me a new vacuum.” Our boys are clean freaks…just the way I like them. HA!

We then went to my parent’s house for breakfast then home to take a nap followed up by going to Brian’s parents house for Christmas dinner and gift opening. Grandpa Vnak got them a remote control car, which they love to play with.

After Christmas, we were able to get together with our friend Tony who was on break from his studies at Loyola. It is always a great time with him. Brian made some great tasting ribs for us. We were then able to get together with another high school friend. A night out on the town was so enjoyable. We went to a quaint restaurant called the 112-eatery downtown Minneapolis.

January
To bring in the New Year….this is exciting folks……hold on….I worked and Brian stayed home alone. Told you it was exciting.

Lately we have been trying to recover from all the Holiday festivities. The boys have had colds on and off and Peter has had a double ear infection. This week I will take him in for his one-year check up.

Prince Peter is walking all over the place now and crawling up on furniture and fireplaces. He shakes his head no, says go, go, go, momma and dada, and Joe. He signs for more and points to EVERYTHING! He loves to eat!!

Tom is our little helper. He likes to help with cooking and cleaning. He loves to play with his trains, blocks, and legos. He also enjoys playing outside with grandpa and Joe. He loves to watch imagination movers and Thomas the train.

Joe is our free spirit. The kid wants to stay in his pj’s all day and likes to go bare foot in the middle of winter. He also enjoys playing with his cars, trucks, legos and such. He likes to sit next to Tom and watch their morning cartoons together. Joe’s new word ridiculous comes out “This is pediculous”.

Brian got a new acoustic guitar for Christmas from Santa, which he is enjoying. Look out everyone the new Dave Matthews is on his way.

So here it is another blog posting. Can you believe it? I won’t say when we will write again, because you never know with the Vnaks. It is always on my list of things to do, but sleeping usually beats writing the blog posting. Sorry!





Peter sipping a beer with his God Parents


Sometimes playing outside is way too exhausting


Christmas Joy!


Snowman with the first snowfall


Halloween



His Royal Cuteness



The Real Joe the Plumber


Summer fun in the backyard


Tom and Joe with Tree Pre-Decoration


Vegas Crew. We went on our first vacation in over two years to Vegas without the Kids. Good times were had.


Vegas Lovers!


Petee's first swim!


Blue Steel


Manly Pushups. Can you do 25 pushups with an unbalanced 100 pounds on your back? Probably.


ND Band. WE took the fam to ND for a game. The goys were enamored with the band. All is right in the world.

Pete being cute on the roadtrip in the car. Except for the last three hours of the roadtrip where he proceeded to cry almost the entire time and we had to stop every 20 minutes.


Petee in backyard with Vnak smile


Men's Club in the pool


Pete first crawling


So, we are in the middle of remodeling one of our bathrooms. Problem is, said bathroom is in between both boys bedrooms. So my time to work is very limited. One night I was measuring something and fell asleep sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Katie caught it. Blast!

Joe tree climbing this fall.


Pete first standing


The Vnak 5 @ ND


Joe making the most of tailgating


TOm in leaves


JOe in leaves


Pete on his cell phone.

Chicago Baby!

So the Vnaks were off on National Lampoons Very Vnak Vacation to Chicago 2008!

We left on Wednesday July 23rd and returned to MPLS on Saturday July 26 (so that we would have Sunday to recoup).

The trip went as well as we could have hoped since we obviously not following any strict schedule in terms of nap times and such.

On Wednesday we were able to drive three hours to Wisconsin Dells and then stopped for picnic lunch so Tom and Joe would be able to exercise their little legs. Now, you think in the water capitol of America you would be able to find a nice public park to have a quickie (lunch that is). But hark, it tis not. But we turned off on some random street and saw playground. Paydirt we thought. So we pull, had a nice lunch on a covered picnic table and then had a park to play on until I finally realized, "Hey Katie, I think this it the common grounds for a trailer park community. And so it was. A nice man came up to Katie and asked her if she was here visiting friends to which she aptly replied, "Well yes, the Andersons!" Well done hon.

So we continued our travels and made it over the boarder into Illinois when Peter decided he had had enough, so we were forced to pull over and layout a blanket for him to roll around on for a while. What insued was one of our most productive photo shoots with Mr. Luscious.




We stayed with Uncle RIck and Auntie Naenae in St. Charles and had a wonderful meal at Portillos. Afterwards, the boys had their first experience of sleeping in the same bed since they were little tykes and boy was it funny. They both slept on an inflatable mattress, so Katie and I stayed in the room until they fell asleep. Joe decides to take his feet and poke Tom in the side. "Stop it. Stop poking me!" Tom tells Joe as he keeps scooting away from Joe. Joe wouldn't stop so Dad had to go over and tell Joe to stop. Peace and quiet....for one minute. All of sudden you see Joe slowly lift of his leg, move it over towards Tom and start tapping him in the head with his foot. I'm doing everything I can to not burst into laughter. Joe definitely gets the antagonistic bug from momma.

On Thursday we headed out to the Lincoln Park zoo. Great zoo and it was free! The boys enjoyed all the animals, but took particular liking to the monkey drinking from the waterfall, the swimming polar bears, and the dolphins. The trip to the zoo also marked the debut of our new SUV.



Apparently, we an exhibit at the zoo as more people commented about us and stroller (both directly and indirectly) than I every could have imagined. "Wow, that's a great stoller!' "Man, that is some serious strolling!" "Where is the 4th one?" "That is Cadelliac!" "Do they know they are missing one?"

Peter wasn't quite as happy at the photo shoot in front of the conservatory:



This picture is a picture of an Ardvark's ardvark. Courtesy of and Copyright 2008, Katie Vnak.



She did take at least one appropriate picture:



Would somebody please get this guy some Viagra?




And finally, for all of you ludicrous liberals, behold the beauty of a CFL lightbulb! Ooh, it's so green.



AFter the zoo we headed off to our hotel, The W Lakeshore. Yes, I brought my family to a W hotel. For those of you who don't know, the W hotels are supposed to be these hip, luxurious, posh, first class hotels. Well, I wanted to slap the prententiousness of their experience in the face by bringing my family to roost for two days, especially since I was using hotel points and didn't have to pay for the room. Ha! But then we arrived at the W, and the hotel slapped me right back in my face with $50 a day for parking. Are you kidding me? Thanks for having such great roads Illinois!

That night we met the Lambrechts for dinner. Not surprisingly, we ended up walking about 10 miles to a restaurant that had clearly been out of business for a number of months. And I thought we didn't get out very often. ;) We ended up at a nice family Italian restaurant and had an extremely chaotic dinner as T&J had pretty much not had a nap all day. It was good times though and we would have enjoyed more but Jess was committed to studying for the bar exam. Thanks again to them for meeting us! The first night in the hotel couldn't have better, except I had to remove the boxspring from the mattress as it would have been a long for either Tom or Joe if he fell off.

On Friday, we headed over to Shedd's aquarium which was nice in concept but an absolute zoo with little kids from every single summer program in Chicago attending. We saw some neat stuff, but all in all, it was more work than it was worth. The boys enjoyed seeing real crabs, giant frogs, dolphins, turtles.

That night we met Mothball for dinner and afterwards went to the beach for a little post dinner skinny dip. Tom and Joe didn't like the feeling of beach sand on their feet at first as evidenced by this video (look out technology, here I come!).

I tried, their was an error uploading. Better luck next year.

But after I walked them out to the water and they were able to "Put my tooties in the water" as they put, they were fine. I was able to get some nice shots of them. We had to park and haul the kids to our destination which ended up being boarded made reservations at wonderful restaurant that no longer exists.

Tom's got his Vnak face all figured out!


Here's the boys sailing away.


The Vnak fam on tour.



Saturday we were up and out of the W. We drove north along the lake shore checking out some of the big homes on the lake and ended up in Waukegan to meet Angelo and Beth for lunch. We had a nice time at Chili's and it was good to catch up. Afterwards we headed home, stopping again in the Dells to see what a drained Lake Delton looked like. Crazy bidness.

The vacation was a success and they will hopefully only get easier and easier as everyone, including ourselves, grows up more and more.

Are next vacation may be closer than we thought though, as Tom and Joe ask if they can go to "Sehcago" everyday.

That said, we're bringing the whole fam down to ND for the home opener against San Diego State. Should be a blast!

Pictures! Finally!

All has been well at the Vnak household. We finally have finished our kitchen remodel which turned out super sweet. Lots of work but a great project. We tore out two walls, added an island, new lighting, and a new floor. I like to think it tripled the value of our house. I enjoy living in my fantasy world.

Anyway, we celebrated Tom and Joe's 2nd Birthday this past Saturday. Their birthday was back in May, but we had to delay one month for various reasons. THe party was a good time.

Prior the party, Katie took, TOm, Joe, and Peter to the zoo with her sisters (Kelly and Molly) and their children, Braden, Brett, and Elana. Kind of crazy hauling the crew. See the pictures below.

Peter is the bomb. He is such a happy baby. HE's been having some digestive issues, so Katie has been on a no milk, no soy diet which is crazy. You can get by without milk, but soy is in everything, it honestly eliminates 80% of what a person typically eats. Anyway, check out the pictures below.



HEre is Peter sucking his thumb is the totally hip way he does. No tight fist here. Just a cool thumb grazing over his nose.


We bought the boys a bicycle trailer. So I take them on rides to the Park on such. They enjoy, I get some exercise and some sun. IT's lot harder biking when you are towing 60+ pounds.


Peter in his bouncy seat.


PEter chilling topless.


Katie, TOm and Joe.


We are working on potty training TOm and Joe. Joe is inspecting his bank deposit.


Here's Tom being our little GAP model.


Here are TOm, Braden, and Joe on the picnic.


Here's all the babies,


Here's the crazy train. WHo wants a piece?


HEre's Peter being stupa cute! Oh, those cheeks!


Here's TOm and JOe getting ready for their Bday party.


Getting excited to see all the party guests.


Birthday cake.


Happy BIrthday Tom and Joe!


Making a wish and blowing out candles.


Joe puts on his new bicycle helmet!