Happy Thanksgiving!!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all! We spent a pretty low-key day at my parents and Josh's parents, but I definitely ate way too much food! Above, Emaline got some practice at taking out the "turkey juice" so Nana could make some yummy gravy. We started off at my parents around 1pm and got to visit with Stephani's in-laws, Bill & Sophie, who were in town from Florida. Then Emaline passed out after her two helpings of stuffing. We then headed home to pick up daddy (poor guy had to work all week!) and had another great meal at his parents house. Finally, I think we were so full and so tired we decided to head home and go straight to bed!

We are very thankful for another year of good health and close family and friends. Now we can't wait for Christmas to come and around the corner another little lady will make her debut :-) Hope everyone has a great start to their holiday season.

Welcome Mallory Elaine...

On Sunday, November 23rd, our good friends Tricia and Conor welcomed their first little bundle of joy, Mallory Elaine at 3pm in the afternoon weighing in at 7lbs. 2oz and 20in. long! We are so happy for them and so glad that Trish did a great job and thankfully had no complications. We made it to the hospital to see the newest girl added to the circle and she is absolutely adorable! She has a perfect little head of hair too! I can't wait to get all these girls together... so exciting!

Emaline Loves to Party!

Last weekend we ventured out to Foristell for Emaline's 2nd cousin Katie's 8th birthday party. It was good to get out and see some of the family and Emaline had a great time playing with the kids and running around the house! I hope Katie enjoyed her party and gifts, cause we did!

End of October, Starting of November Pics...

Just thought I would share some photos from my Mom's camera that they have been taking of Emaline while I was away in Mexico for my friend Robyn's wedding. No...I haven't been gone long, just slacking at my blog. So here are some fun things we did during Oct./Nov. at Nana's house. Including decorating pumpkins and playing in all the colorful leaves!

Now we'll be gearing up for Thanksgiving soon and Christmas following! I really can't believe it.

Ryane's Trip to Mexico for Robyn & Cory's Wedding

I travelled to sunny Mexico this past weekend for my good friend, Robyn's wedding. It felt like the shortest trip I've ever taken, but it was well worth it to see my friend get blissfully hitched. The resort we stayed in was the Secrets Maroma Beach and it was really, really nice. The rooms were pretty nice and spacious and I even got a swim-out patio! I felt very pampered, especially since I was all alone. It would have been ten times better, I think, if Josh would have been able to join me. Oh well, maybe next year!

The ceremony was beautiful out on the beach at sunset (except for the killer mosquitos, they had some bad rains earlier in the week...) and the reception dinner was held inside at the main lobby building in a little intimate ballroom just for us 14 people. It was great. I was really glad to have been a part of this special time in their lives and I couldn't imagine two better people to enjoy this kind of happiness. We wish you all the best Robyn & Cory! Love you! Also thanks to the whole Cooper Clan for taking care of me :-)

Robyn's Bachelorette Party

We had Robyn's bachelorette party for her on Nov. 1st...the same night as her fiance, Cory. That wasn't a big surprise since I know they really wanted to meet up and spend more time together :-). We started out with a drink at Double D Lounge at 6:30pm, followed up by some dinner at Benton Park Cafe at 8pm. I was really impressed with the food here and definitely recommend it! You can get breakfast any time of day and in my book, that's awesome! We then handed out a couple gifts for the bride-to-be and then off to the bars! We started out at Jive & Wail in Maplewood and it slowly started to go downhill from there. Way too many drinks being handed out! Obviously, I was the sober witness to all this and from where I was standing it was pretty hilarious. It was great to see Robyn let loose a little bit and have a good time. Since we really didn't have many more places in mind, we ended up going back to the Double D and there is where we hooked up with the men. At around 1:30am, I called it quits and the rest of the parties got on one of the buses and headed out to Colombo's. From what I hear, it was back to Robyn & Cory's after that and everyone went to bed. Good times had by all. Thanks to Donna, Rick, Sarah and Kelly for putting on a great party!

Halloween Card 08-Smilebox

Make a Smilebox postcard

Happy Halloween!

This is the second year we got to take Emaline out for Halloween and some trick or treating, although this time around she really knew what was going on! We had a great night starting with my parents, my sister and her husband and Kaya come over to have our traditional meatball sandwiches for dinner and getting pictures of the kids. Emaline was so excited to get her costume on when she knew she would be going house to house to get some tooth decaying loot. Unfortunately, Josh had to work early that night, so he didn't get a chance to walk around with her this year :-(, so hopefully next year. Emaline climbed in her wagon and we strapped in Kaya for the initial start out and then she never got in the wagon again after the first house! For her "real" first time I think she did very well. She always said "trick or treat" and "thank you" after her conquests. I was very proud. Her and Lt. Dan were a hit and were even told they had the best costume on the block! We also got to see her cousins and Grandma Audrey before the night ended and ate quite a few pieces of candy :-). Its funny, now she wakes up every morning asking if we are going trick or treating again...I hope this excitement stays with her for every holiday throughout her teen years as it did for me. I love Halloween and can't wait to make many more costumes and thoroughly brush teeth every year.

Boo at the Zoo!

Yesterday we took Emaline to Boo at the Zoo this year on probably one of the best days of the week! St. John's Mercy Children's Hospital puts on this event every year and all the proceeds go to the hospital. Its fun to run through the zoo during the night and they have Halloween displays throughout the whole park with sponsors giving out candy in the main pavillion area. We saw lots of graveyards, ghost pirates, mine shaft ghosts, a monster house and the Scare-ousel. It was $5 to get in and lots of fun watching Emaline run around getting treats and checking out everyone's costumes. I didn't put Em in her costume cause I figured the hat would get a little frustrating for her and she'll have plenty of time to wear her costume tonight! Thanks to Nana and Pepere for tagging along with us to check out the fun!

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I think every year at some point during the fall we will make the trip to Rombach's Farm in Chesterfield for their annual pumpkin patch event. They have pumpkins, animals and games throughout all of October and November. This year it was a fly-by the seat of our pants outing since Josh was off and the weather was nice. It was me, Josh, Emaline and Nana and it didn't last very long since Emaline was apparently in no mood to pick out pumpkins...she was basically in the mood to try and climb onto all the tractors, run away from us and want to get into the big kid bouncers (which she would have been clobbered in). So instead we snapped a few photos with Dad, big pumpkins and a couple goats. After she was bribed with a twist lollipop by Nana...When we did go in the afternoon, it unfortunately had gotten cloudy and pretty windy and all the bright sunshine had disappeared. I'm glad we got to make a visit though, especially on a week day when it wasn't very crowded. :-) Next year should be an interesting visit with the baby and Emaline (both possibly running around).