Ryane's Big 30th Bash

Well, the day has come to where I guess I should be considered a "real adult". Although, I still don't act like it. Yes, I celebrated my 30th birthday on Nov. 9th (my actual birthday is the 13th, in case you'd like to know) with my friends and family at Llywelyn's Pub in the Central West End. Stephani, my sister, did all of the planning while Josh did all the purchasing...She reserved the upstairs loft and it couldn't have been more perfect. We noshed on appetizers and fried chips and drank many o' beverages. Mainly of the adult variety. We had a lot of fun and was so glad and thankful to see all of my family and many of my friends. Emaline ran around the bar like a mad woman and danced for all who would watch her. She was a hit! Oh and don't think the fun stopped there...I proceeded to have Josh drive me to Carson's in Soulard for a little karaoke, where I sang a little Fiona Apple and Prince. A very interesting combination...thankfully we don't have pictures and/or video of those performances. From there I made a risky trip across the river into Illinois to take my first and last steps into POPS Nightclub. Really not a place for those of a weak constitution. Home at 3:30am...wow that will probably never happen again! (well....maybe one of these days) It was a great birthday and I thank everyone who shared it with me!!

A Couple More Halloween Pics and Kayleigh's Birthday

Here are just a couple cute pictures of Emaline from Halloween that I forgot to add before hand. This was when we went to Josh's Uncle Bob's Halloween Party and it was a great time. Lots of kiddos for Emaline to run around with!

Kayleigh's birthday was Nov. 2nd (I know, I'm just getting around to this...sorry Kayleigh!) and she came home for the weekend and we were all excited to celebrate with her. We went to dinner at McGurk's Irish Pub in Soulard and had a good time eating good food while rockin' out on the patio (thankfully it was heated!). We then came home and had cake and opened presents. Pretty low key, but none-the-less awesome. Its always good to visit with Kayleigh since we don't get to see her too often, but that is definitely going to change with the upcoming holidays! Woo hoo!!

Halloween 2007

Make your own slide shows and scrapbooks

We finally made it to Halloween! It was a wonderful night with lots of kids running amok around the neighborhood. My parents and my good friend Mike came over to celebrate this sweets focused holiday with meatball sandwiches and a few brewskies. At least that was what we tried to eat in between the doorbell ringing every five seconds. Another year of great costumes, good kids and interesting jokes...the whole street was buzzing due to our fun neighbors (good friends of Josh's cousin) putting up their haunted house in their backyard again. These people mean business! Last night was the first year I've actually gone through and from what I saw they are good at what they do. Very impressive for building it in the backyard. I hear its just gonna get better and better every year! Josh's mom, sister and cousins also stopped by the house to see Miss Em before heading to the haunted house. Emaline wanted to constantly run out the door to follow all the kiddos, so I know this will surely become one of her favorite holidays. I had a great time and hope it will be just fun next year (hopefully with the same mild weather....).

Even Pepere got into the spirit!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday we introduced Emaline to the "Pumpkin Patch". It was a whole family outing (including Kayleigh, Yeah!) for fall as well as Stephani's Birthday (Happy Birthday Steph!). We waited for a nice fall day, one that wasn't 90 degrees and this is what we got: windy. It was so windy on our video all you can hear is, "shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". Thankfully though it as sunny and fairly dry. Emaline had a lot of fun riding around in the pumpkin cart and even got to pick her own little fall souvenir. We got a couple big pumpkins to carve and Stephani bought a giant gourd for her front porch. Also Miss Em got to see some farm animals up close and personal and really enjoyed the chickens and the calf. I only wish everyone was there to see her roam freely in the fields, she loved every minute of it. Lots of sleep for everyone afterwards...

Emaline's Many Hairstyles

A showcase of many of my baby's adorable looks:

"Bathtime Beauty"

"Chicken Butt Wake Up"

"Brushing My Teeth Mini Pigtails"

Josh's Almost Finished Cabinets

Progress!! The super garage is coming together. After lots of hard work by both Josh and Joe, I can see that these boys have some talent. Obviously they will need more practice to be able to put in my "super kitchen", but they are well on their way. Right now Josh is in the midst of trying to organize and put everything where he wants it. This should be tough because sometimes Josh is the most organized person I know and then others he is absolute worst. Hopefully this will make him put all this tools, toys, G.I.Joes, etc. away and out of Emaline's delicate baby hands. Here are a few more close ups of what he has done so far:

This is the inside of the cabinet where Josh will charge all his tools.

Happy Birthday Josh and Robyn!

I'd like to give a big shout out to my friend Robyn for her birthday today. Ah, if only I were going to be 25 like her...

As for Josh's birthday, well that was Saturday, but he was so busy out drinkin' it up for a bachelor party we didn't even get to celebrate until tonight! We just went for a quiet family dinner with my parents, my sister and Josh's sister to Outback Steakhouse. Nothing fancy, but nice to sit and eat and chat. Emaline had a baby steak...well, we brought home a baby steak. I wish we could've done something more exciting for Josh's birthday, but we always seem to be so busy around that weekend.

For example, we had Josh's friend Conor's 30th Birthday at Big Daddy's in Soulard last Friday night. It was great to get out and spend another "couple" night together. Of course Conor and Josh got a little tipsy and we stopped for Taco Bell at 1:30am. Sign of a good evening.

*Thanks to Tricia for this lovely shot.

Meeting Grandma Little

A week ago yesterday we got to introduce Emaline to one of her other Great-Grandmothers. We went to Josh's cousin, Aiden's 2nd birthday and Grandma Little was there to spend some time with the family. It was great for Emaline to meet another generation of the Little family and wish that we saw her more often! It was nice to visit with the family and watch the kiddos run around like crazy. The only thing that would've made the day better would have been if Grandpa was there...he's busy workin' out on that road!

Dancin' Queen!

Emaline basically has two kinds of dance moves, which is hilarious. Her first is just moving her arms and hands up and down, then her second is getting to some serious groovin'. She does little squats and just moves her body up and down. I love it. This little girl absolutely loves two things: music and food. Ahh...just like her mommy. Hold on, need to wipe this chocolate ice cream off my face...okay, back to my talented child. Here are some clips:

3 Years Down, A Lot to Go

Coincidentally, Emaline's birthday is the exact same day as our anniversary, so we got to celebrate this weekend with a low key dinner Sunday night at Maggiano's in Richmond Heights. It was really some great food and we got to sit at a little booth just big enough for two people. I had the veal and mushroom ravioli (fantastic!) and Josh had the braised beef cannelloni (very tasty, especially if you like pot roast). It was also fun cause the moment we sat down, Josh knocked over my very full glass of red wine on the table adjacent to us. Luckily, no one was sitting there, but it was quite a mess. Thankfully, I called over one of the nice busboys and told him I was sorry we made such a mess, his response to this with a huge smile was, "Don't worry, I love to clean". I think he was being sarcastic, I would've been. It was definitely nice to talk and act like "real adults" and have real conversations, but we did rush home after dinner to be with our little lady. Only after stopping at Cold Stone Creamery for a special treat...