Team V.

So I'm a day late in posting this but I really wanted to link up with Kelly over at Kelly's Korner for her "Show Us Your Life" series, this week focusing on your family! At first this was a bit daunting I wanted to share everyone in my family with all of you but she focused hers on her immediate family so for today that's who I'll be sharing.

And trust me that's quite a few people as is.

I've talked about my family here before in one of my very first posts, so you can get some more background info here if you are interested. Today I'm just going to share a lot of photos and a few words about how much I love this crazy bunch. I think I will break this into two posts though because my immediate family alone consists of 7 people.


Let's start with Mom and Dad. My parents will be celebrating their 32nd anniversary this year. Through 5 kids, 4 states, 8 homes, college and career changes, ups and downs highs and lows my parents have been an incredible rock for myself and my siblings. They always put family first and I grew up with such a strong sense of family and togetherness because of them. We always sat down for dinner together, on weekends we almost always had breakfast and lunch together, we had family day every Sunday, we went on family vacations every year a lot of times several times a year. My parents would do anything for us, and trust me they have, they're the kind of parents that would drop everything to be by your side or walk you through a difficult time. I hold such a deep appreciation for family because they have given me such a wonderful sense of it and have modeled what family truly means.

My mother is incredibly creative, she is wonder woman and can do anything that she sets her mind to, and I know that my sister and I get our determination from her. She has an incredible attention to detail and made everything from Saturday morning breakfast to Christmas special and magical for us. She's the mom who handmade our Halloween costumes, she helped us make homemade valentines every year, she made individual baby doll quilts for my friends and I one year as birthday party favors, she's sung Opera at Carnegie hall, she plays guitar and piano, she's an amazing painter and she raised 5 crazy kids, which is a feat in itself.

Attention to detail is one of her talents. Their apt in NYC is something out of a magazine. luv.

When I think about my childhood I think about just how special every moment was, even the everyday stuff like picnics in the back yard she managed to make it feel special and precious. She's always talked about her Aunt Alice, and how she had the ability to make the simple things seem rare and magical, I always think that my mom is my version of "Aunt Alice". She's a very special lady.

Mommy and I at the Boathouse in NYC

My dad is hands down one of the funniest people I know. Growing up he was our in house comedian and always had my siblings and I rolling on the floor laughing while my mom rolled her eyes and tried to conceal her laughter from the sidelines. We were essentially his home audience.

Dad and I on the roof of his office in NYC

He packed our lunches every day and drove us to school, we always looked forward to his silly notes or drawings on our paper lunch bags and his affinity with tin foil. (everything, even chips were wrapped in tin foil... who knows?) He has an incredible work ethic and has done an amazing job of working hard for our family.

My dad the "lumber jack"

Anyone who supports a family of 7 and still manages to have a strong home presence and make sure that all of his children have a relationship with him is an amazing father in my opinion. I love spending time with my dad, I loved our drives home from college together, summer vacations together and weekend family adventures. He instilled a love for music in me and along with my mom also plays guitar. He is always there for me and has been an amazing support for me in school, jobs, and life. I am so lucky to have him as my father.

So I guess that's really where the story starts with these two people. Like any parent child relationship we've had our ups and downs, but I can honestly say that I've been very lucky to have a very close relationship with my parents and through it all I can look back on my childhood with incredibly fond memories of both of them. I am so looking forward to spending time with them very soon when I head to NYC in April. Up next the siblings...

Happy weekend everybody and make sure to let your parents know how much you love them!

XOXO- Miss V