Fall 2012

Four score and seven years ago....I wrote my last post. :) Time for a little catch up in photos.

Back in September, we made our annual trek to pick apples at Eckert's. As usual, we had a blast and Ryan loved helping bake a pie afterwards.

October brought our first time carving a pumpkin with the kiddos. Ryan drew the face. :)


Here's the obligatory costume shot of my little ladybug and Dash (from The Incredibles). Ryan was very into trick or treating this year, and Emily was a good sport and tagged along.


Ryan turned 4 with an Incredibles birthday party with family.


And yes, everyone donned a superhero mask. :)

We got Ryan a powerwheels car for his bday. He terrorizes our cul-de-sac anytime the weather is warm enough. Emily loves riding shotgun too.

We've lucked out with some unseasonably warm weather recently -- here's a cute shot of the two kiddos having fun together.

We spent Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa Trammell in Ohio. Ryan got a special treat, as Grandpa worked long and hard to get his childhood electric train running again. As you can imagine, it was a huge hit.

We took the kids to a breakfast with Santa this morning that was a lot of fun - Emily did pretty well with Santa so long as mommy and daddy stayed close.

I hope you enjoyed a few updated snapshots of our crazy little life. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Bye bye summer

The summer heat is starting to ease up (a tiny bit at least) and school has started again so I thought it was time to share some photos from our little corner of the world.

We had a fun visit with the Trammell siblings and cousins in July -- a lot of quality play time, and Ryan came away from it asking about his "best friends" Jayden, Tyler & Conner...so sweet. :) Stephen and I couldn't believe how much the boys had changed since we last saw them. And we finally got to meet Emily's partner-in-crime, Everly, who is as crazy as Emily...so they got along great of course. Here's a shot of all 8 Trammell cousins.

Emily is growing like a weed, and making me crazy with her cuteness and her energy. I love my little girl, but I don't remember finding Ryan on top of a table at this age...or him trying to put his toys on the stove while I'm cooking...or digging trash out of the trash can for fun. She certainly keeps me on my toes. She's even recently proved that she can scale the ladder of our backyard playset by herself to play in the raised fort. At 13 months. Yeah. I know. I'm tired. All the time. But it's a good tired. :) Here's a shot of her enjoying a more calm activity in the backyard.

Ryan is our little scientist -- observing the most minute detail and asking questions that grow more complicated by the day. He just started preschool again and LOVES his classroom. He and his friend Mary (from last year) are sharing a cubby this year and seem attached at the hip. Here's a shot of him on his first day. Can you see how excited he was?

  

Ryan seems to have inherited his daddy's love of cars. He's able to identify the make and model of all of his 30 or so matchbox cars, notices car grills, colors, wheels, etc. on the road and of course, loves washing them with daddy - be it in the driveway or heading to the car wash. His favorite part though? Daddy lets him "drive" to pull the car in the garage once they are finished.

In preparation for our summer weekend at the lake, we roasted s'mores for the first time with Ryan -- and he fell in love, of course. Who wouldn't?

We took a trip with the Mungenast family to Tablerock Lake last weekend and while Emily brought along an awesome cold to share with the family, we all still had a great time. Here's Emily and daddy enjoying the scenery.

Ryan and Haedyn dug hanging out together -- whether it was throwing rocks in the lake together, fishing, floating, boating or as seen here -- puddle jumping in the rain (ok...so there weren't any puddles, but I convinced them that the lake was a GIANT puddle).

The trip was filled with "firsts" for Ryan -- first fish caught...

...first tubing experience...

...first waverunner ride....

As you can imagine, this trip was like heaven for our little dude. Now I'm ready for some cool, crisp air for all the fun that fall brings. Until next time!

Happy Birthday, Emily!

My baby turned one this week. it seems that overnight she has started walking, expressing herself (verbally & with sign language), and playing like a toddler. She knows how to let us know what she wants or needs and she doesn't take the abuse her brother dishes out lying down anymore. She's my sweet, happy, gorgeous, funny, independent, rough-and-tumble little girl. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here we are at her party - just a small gathering with family at home, but she loved every moment.

I made her a rose cake (& a rose "smash cake") for the occasion. Super easy and pretty darn pretty.

Well, until she smashed it, that is.

Emily's party weekend was the last of a few really, really hot weeks in the Lou, so we're thankful to have the triple-digit temps behind us and to be able to get outdoors again to play!

Ryan finally caught the elusive ice cream man. It's a rite of passage as a kid, and now Ryan can say that he's done it. Though he was quite confused looking at all the frozen pop options, as he was looking for straight up ice cream -- like a scoop on a cone. But bless his little heart, he picked "the blue fox" a.k.a. Sonic the Hedgehog on a stick. With gumball eyes. And blue ice cream that took some SERIOUS soap and washcloth scrubbing to get off his face. But it was all worth it.

 

Ryan's had a busy summer with swimming lessons, zoo classes, mad science class & vacation bible school. I'm shaking my head frequently, wondering where my little kid went and when he transformed into this mini adult. Both Ryan and Emily make our lives so much fun, and the best is truly yet to come.

Hi, everyone! Summer is off to a roaring start at our house.  The last few weeks have been full of fun and I've got the bags under my eyes to prove it. Ha. We took a trip to Ohio to visit grandma and grandpa Trammell just after Memorial day and packed a lot of fun into that long weekend at the zoo, a huge art fair downtown and a PGA golf tournament in town. We then came home and jumped right in to 2 full weeks of daily swim lessons for Ryan.

On top of all our summer fun, Emily has started walking -- it's exciting, and a little scary. I'm looking forward to our activities slowing down for a few weeks leading up to Emily's birthday and just enjoying the season.  I can't believe she is almost 1 already! Here's a few recent photos of our summer fun - enjoy!

Here's a shot of my sweet little girl - her curls are the most precious thing I've ever seen. I may be partial though...

Here we are at the Columbus zoo - amazing! We visited a grizzly bear up close - Emily kept growling at it and smiling. :)

Ryan loved the petting zoo and didn't exit until he'd pet every goat at least once.

Ryan and daddy posed at the aquarium at the Columbus zoo. Love this shot.

We visited the St. Joe church carnival this past weekend -- I somehow ended up with identical photos to our visit two years ago. Kind of fun to compare. 2010 vs. 2012...pretty cute. :)

Now that Emily's super mobile, I often find the kiddos "wrestling" -- They both seem to enjoy it, and Ryan is careful...for the most part...but it's still surreal. We have kids old enough to wrestle each other - crazy.

Ryan dug his swimming lessons -- we need a loooot more, but he's a little fish these days with a little more confidence.

Love to you all!

Spring Fun

Springtime is always so much fun with little kids around. The weather here has been nothing short of a miracle -- lots of sunshine and warm temperatures has meant a lot of fun outdoors time recently, which is always a nice change of pace after being stuck inside for the winter. Here are a few shots of the kids in recent weeks - enjoy!

Ryan had fun coloring eggs, and even was able to use his color-blending skills to make a "greeny-bluey one" on his own (his new favorite color).

We finally made it to SLU for the Alumni Association's annual hunt, and now we understand why people rave about it. It was a really fun, well-organized event and Ryan had a ball. That's him, out in front, sprinting for the eggs. We had attended a church hunt the week prior where he only got 1 egg (spent the hunt watching other kids rather than hunting!) so he had learned his lesson and bolted off the starting line this time around.
You can't let Easter go by without putting bunny ears on a baby, right?
Here are both of my little munchkins in their Easter outfits.
The Easter bunny left Ryan a sweet new kite that is really easy to fly (thank goodness!) and Ryan was a pro in no time at all. I have fond memories of running down the street with my siblings and neighborhood friends, pulling our kites behind us. This one took no running, just lifted it and away it went. I was amazed (& relieved)!
This is one of Ryan's favorite activities these days -- taking his dozens of matchbox cars and building a parking lot, parking garage or car wash out of blocks. It's hard to tell here, but his cars are neatly parked between blocks in that long line, and boy is he proud. :)
Ryan made his very first trip to the pediatric dentist today for a checkup. He was so sweet and cooperative -- I was so proud!
Emily is growing like a weed -- babbling, feeding herself table food, crawling all over the place and pulling herself up on toys and furniture. She keeps us on our toes and idolizes Ryan -- it's adorable to watch them interact and play together. Here's a recent shot of her sweet little mug. (and for the Mungenast family, isn't it eerie how much she looks like Lauren's baby face in this pic?)
Love to you all!

Cuteness abounds

With a 3-year old and a 7.5-month old at our house, things are never boring, rarely quiet and often crazy cute. We keep busy with Ryan's nursery school, playdates, errands and lots of very repetetive imaginary play. Emily is growing so fast and learning new baby tricks all the time. She sits up well now (well, most of the time) and claps and waves. She's even getting her first two teeth at the moment (yay!) Here is a sampling of some recent cuteness in our neck of the woods.

Ryan has enjoyed the two small snowfalls we've had in the last two months, even if the fun is short-lived:
He also really digs all things sweets these days. He loves pretending that he's making or selling donuts, ice cream and cupcakes and of course he loves enjoying the real deal too. Here he is baking some M&M cookies recently:
Baking with a 3-year old is quite messy, as you'd might imagine - but the photos are priceless, right?
Thanks to our very mild winter, Emily's been able to discover the joy of swinging outside. As you'd expect, she's a big fan:
Ryan has been digging the warm weather as well, of course:
Emily is sitting more and more steadily each day. Here's our big girl showing off her skills:
I'll leave you with a short video of one of Emily's favorite new tricks. Enjoy!