Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to all! We didn't do much that exciting, except Emaline wore her little heart dress and ate probably too much chocolate. She got a lovely red hippo from her Aunt Stephy and some fun books from Nana & Pepere. All of us (that includes Josh) went to my parents' house for dinner and dessert. As per usual, everything was great. Here are a few other photos of the day:

Stephani's Baby Shower

We had my sister, Stephani's baby shower yesterday at my house. It turned out really well! As most of you know, I'm not really the "event planner extraordinaire", but somehow me, my mom and my other sister, Kayleigh, pulled through. It was a great turn out and Steph really cleaned up on goodies for the baby! It was really laid back and I think everyone who came out had a fun time. We had it catered by St. Louis Bread/Panera and it was great! Very affordable too, which is always a plus. We had soup, sandwiches, salad, cookies, chips, pickles, etc. and it was all really good. Then we of course played some typical baby shower games which I think everyone appreciated. The first was the "guess that baby food in the jar" game, then we did the melted candy bar in the diaper. Now for those of you those of you who have never played it, it can be pretty gross. Then we tested everyone's brains with a little word jamble and finally cake and then presents, yeah! (the best part) I'm pretty sure Stephani had a wonderful time with everyone and was grateful for everyone who came and brought her a little something for her new little one! Can't wait to meet her! Here are a few more pictures of the day:

"We're streaking. We're going up through the quad to the gymnasium."

Just like Frank the Tank and those before him, Emaline made a streaking run just before her bath a few weeks ago. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mom, we're streaking. We're going up through the quad to the gynasium". I replied, "who's streaking?"
"There's, there's more coming", she hesitated. It was then that I told her to take off my new running shoes and get in the tub.

Are You Funny?

We really have been relaxin' around here and haven't done much in the way of exciting things. Josh has been home for the past 2 weeks doing some DEA training, so its like we're a real family, with sit down dinners and trips to the park and everything! It really has been great. I was going through some files on the 'ol computadora about a week ago and was watching a couple videos of Emaline. There is one, which I'm sure everyone has seen, which showcases her laughing every time I say, "Are you funny?". Its actually pretty adorable and I know you all would love to see it again, although I sound like a total psycho in it. So here is that version that was taken in January of 2007.

Now I decided to do a little experiment a year later and see if she would laugh when saying, "are you funny?"--lo and behold the child is still a little laughter bug. I think its so funny to see her grow and start to become so independant and strong willed (she gets that from her father), but I can still lay her down and make her laugh. I almost don't want her to get any older from this point on, but hey, what can you do? I honestly can't wait to see her with her new cousin come March. Hopefully it will prepare her for another baby in the house--no, no news to report yet, but luckily sometime this year. Here is the updated video of laughing fits I love taken this January.

Emaline's First Haircut

Our little girl got her first "trim" today! Not that Emaline's hair was growing at an exponential rate or anything, but she was starting to take on the term "shaggy". I took her to my hairdresser and friend Ammie and she watched Mommy get a haircut first and thought it was hilarious. Then we plopped her on top of a step-stool on the chair and put this fancy smock on her. She actually sat there! It was great, she did so good and A LOT better than I expected, probably due to the fact that I brought snacks for her. This kid will sit and stay still as long as there is food available, especially food she likes (i.e. snacks). So here are the pictures of her getting her hair trimmed and eating veggie puffs. What a life....

And here she is all finished!

New Years Resolutions

Obviously this isn't me, but we did buy one of these confounded machines after the holidays. You won't get to see my new svelte legs until after I've been running 10 miles a day...well, we'll see what happens. I did buy this model since I'm much more of a speed walker than a runner, so we'll see how well these little cross arms work. I am pretty proud of myself though and I have used it everyday since we got it except one. Now that the week we've had it is over, I hope I can continue this trend. Thanks to everyone who gave us gift cards over the holidays cause this is what it went towards! I'll hopefully have some results posted over the course of the next few months (keep your fingers crossed). Now I just need to find a way to get Josh to walk in real clothes, not just his bathrobe....

We (I mean, Ryane) Got a New Car!!

Well we have said good-bye to our little Ford Focus and bought a 2008 Chevy Equinox. It was time for some much needed room for the inside of the car. Its a metallic gold color (Sandstone, sounds fancy, right?) and is the LT1 trim. Its pretty sweet, lots of room, easy to manuever, attractive interior w/ a much needed iPod jack, and decent gas mileage. I of course have put unnecessary mileage on it since I have to drive it everywhere, but hey, everyone does that with a new car, right? Here are some pics of the interior:

Where is the Focus you ask? Well, I sold it to a foreign exchange student from China attending Wash U. I put it up on Craigslist on Tues and it was gone by Saturday of that same week. She was a good little car and I'm sure the little girl that got her will hopefully take good care of it. Here is a tribute picture of the Focus, we'll miss you girl!

XOXO Little Focus....

New Years 2008!

We rang the new year in pretty much the same way as last year, but fewer family members :-(. Unfortunately, Josh had to work New Year's Eve, as well as New Year's Day so mine and Emaline's plan was to go to dinner at Kitaro (where Emaline learned very quickly how to use chopsticks) in O'Fallon with my sister, her husband, my parents and youngest sister. Thankfully Josh did get to join us for dinner and in full police uniform no less! It was a great night in my opinion: family, food, drinks and games! After dinner we retreated to Stephani's house and proceeded to have some mean rounds of (electronic) Catchphrase. Thanks to Uncle Richard and Aunt Connie for getting my parents that game, it rocks! I'm pretty sure I was the star player...although I know Adham will fight me for it! Here are some snapshots of the evening, but really I didn't take many since I was busy kickin' butt in Catchphrase.

Christmas 2007

Ah, another Christmas has come and gone and we couldn't have asked for a better one (except to have Josh off the whole time). Lots of celebrating was enjoyed and with that LOTS of food eaten...hopefully I'll have money left over to buy that treadmill I have been wanting. We started the celebrating on Sunday, the 23rd with visiting with Josh's Grandmother, Aunt & Uncle and cousins. It was nice for everyone to sit have time to catch up and exchange gifts with the kids. Emaline had quite the time running around after all the her bigger cousins. All the kids got a long great and it was a fun evening for us. (Still waiting for the pictures of that night--hint, hint Angie).

Then the following night on Christmas Eve we went back over to Josh's parents house to do our family gift exchange. Emaline can't get enough of her cousin Madisyn and loves play with her, especially when Maddie likes to "play school" and teach Emaline stuff. It was classic. Everyone ate and drank merrily and we all got way too much stuff than we needed. I also had to open most of Emaline's presents since she really wasn't too interested in anything unless she was holding it.

As for our Christmas morning, you ask? Well Daddy came home from a long night of fighting crime to find Emaline in the living room eyeing her new goodies. Yes, Santa had indeed come to the house and dropped off a couple things he thought she would like. This included a new "big girl" chair, a new blankie, and some Little People. She loves them Little People! We then threw on our shoes and ventured over to Nana and Pepere's house while Josh slept. Of course it was the usual (and mighty tasty) cinnamon rolls for breakfast with an added sausage casserole for us meat eaters and on to the task for the day: destroying the living room with paper, plastic and boxes. Although we didn't break our record, we did end up opening gifts for roughly 3.5 hours. I love it and so did Miss Em--although, she didn't really respond to the opening of gifts, she did like what came from it. Then she had a nap, Josh came over and opened his gifts, then we went back home to get cleaned up and finally Emaline and I went back to have dinner. Christmas was definitely busy this year! Here are a few more shots of Christmas Day.

Rob Your Neighbor, Dec 22nd, 2007

Our annual "Rob Your Neighbor" shindig was this past weekend, held at Jack Patrick's downtown and yet again we have another year where we drink a little too much, eat a little too much and give crappy meaningless gifts to one another. It really is one of my favorite events of the year. Although, we did miss one of our girls this year, Liz, my heartfelt apologies go out to you since you missed getting a random empty bottle of booze and/or a Rubik's cube. Obviously this is a "gag gift" party and I'm sure all of you that have these types of parties (i.e., "White Elephant" or "Pass the Trash") know that much debauchery ensues. I must say, Josh and I had a great time (thanks for being sober driver, honey!) with friends that we haven't seen in far too long and getting to have some "adult fun". No bad party stories to tell, just good clean (somewhat) fun. I loved catching up with everyone and seeing all the great gifts brought to the table. What did we receive you ask? Well, I'll show you:

A lovely Cardinal home plate to hang on our wall and various old records, yeah for RYN!! We gave a completely 80s skort suit that my mother wore almost 20 yrs ago and various knick-knacks from the parent's basement. Here is the picture of Cara, who was fortunate enough to pick up that box with the suit in it:

It was a really fun night and I'm glad that we got to see our good friends. Merry Christmas everyone! Here are various pictures from the rest of the evening.