Pizza night!

So there's a Friday night tradition that my aunt Ginny and uncle Rich in Iowa hold dear...pizza nights. From what I understand, they have people over to their house and order pizza most Friday nights...friends & family alike. While I've never been to Iowa for a pizza night, whenever my aunt and uncle come to town, they bring the tradition with them.

We missed out on their recent visit to the Lou due to the plague that cursed our house for two weeks after Xmas, but their son (my cousin Brian) and his wife and kids were in town this weekend, so we got another shot at pizza night tonight.

It's always awesome to see my cousins and family that I don't get to see all that often, even though many of them do live in St. Louis -- and tonight was a really fun, but rare chance to see all 5 great grandkids together. Yes, it was chaotic...but it was so much fun watching all of them, wondering if that's what my cousins and I were like back in the day.

They were roaring, hopping like frogs, counting and even reciting spanish to each other. Ok, so Ryan just ran around and watched - but he still had fun. Best of all, we got a shot of great grandma with all of her great-grandkids. I love it. More than you can know.

From left to right, that's Haedyn, Great Grandma Jinnie, Cooper, Grace, Ryan and Natalie.

Yes, my kid's the only one not smiling...but he doesn't quite understand the idea of group photos yet. :) Regardless, it's still a great shot that we'll treasure for a long time to come.

Golden Arches

It had to happen at some point, right? Ryan has accompanied us to McDonalds a time or two in his life, but never really eaten there...until today. Stephen and I took him as a treat (after he patiently hung out with us on a few errands this morning) and today, Ryan had his very first happy meal.

Seriously, it was a very happy meal. :) Ryan was all smiles:

Let's just say that chicken nuggets were a hit:

Ok, ok, so were the fries:

Here's Ryan and daddy with the famous arches:

Ryan's favorite part of the meal? Probably the Alvin and the Chipmunks "The Squeakquel" toy - a little girl chipmunk that says "it's so beautiful" when you push her head. You can bet we heard that line about 1,000 times on the short car ride home.

All in all, Ryan went through another rite of passage to toddlerdom today -- add that to his newfound ability to spin until he's so dizzy he falls down, to "wink" (i.e. squinting both eyes like he's eating something really sour), and his slowly increasing vocabulary (i.e. saying "backpack" when he sees Dora the Explorer, "papa" anytime he sees a man in a hat, etc.) and you've got a kid who is growing up fast!

Now that things have settled down from the holidays and we're all well again after a long bout with a nasty cold virus, I hope to be posting more often. Love to you all!

Holiday-palooza

Hello, everyone! The Trammell house is recovering from our Christmas and New Year celebrations...unfortunately with nasty colds. While we're quarantined, I thought I'd post just a few pics from the last weeks to share some of our fun and excitement. Apparently I was so busy having fun that I took very few pictures. (whoops)

We celebrated Christmas with the Mungenast family on xmas eve, and the Trammell family on xmas day. Stephen's parents stayed with us over the holiday, so Ryan got some quality time with Grandma and Papa Trammell and loved every minute. Next, cousin Jayden from Tulsa came to visit, along with Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Zach and cousins Tyler and Conner from Virginia. They stayed for the week after xmas. We had a full house, but it was so much fun!

Ryan isn't quite ready to hold his own with his 8.5, 6.5 and 3.5 yr-old cousins. While he can't keep up, he still had fun watching them playing and being entertained by their funny faces, hugs and kisses. He also is beginning to work on his first set of molars, so he was extra drooly and whiny, which was awesome. Add in his cold and you've got a recipe for an extra fun toddler... :) Despite all the drool and snot, we truly enjoyed our holidays this year!

People often say that Ryan "looks like a little man," so we dressed him like a little gentleman for xmas eve:

Ryan and cousin Haedyn (22 months) had a ball on xmas eve playing with bows, new toys and each other. The vast majority of the time, they looooove each other (hence this smooch):

But sometimes, things get a little competitive, especially when they stay up waaaay past their bedtimes, hence the following shove: (I love that I caught this at the perfect moment..it makes me giggle every time I look at it, so I had to share)

Santa even paid us a visit at Nana and Papa Mungenast's house on xmas eve!

Ryan was super excited about his loot from Santa, including his new favorite lounge spot, his personalized mini arm chair.

Here's a cute shot of Ryan looking like a little elf:

Aunt Karyn, Uncle Lucas and cousin Autumn (1 day older than Ryan) joined us on xmas day, along with Grandma and Papa Trammell, and the kids had a ball playing around each other. Autumn has recently started saying "Ra Ra" when she sees Ryan (or Stephen or me for that matter), and Ryan loves it so much that he too says "Ra Ra" now.

Here's a shot of all the cousins on the Trammell side -- a rare photo opp: (from left to right - Autumn, 14 months; Jayden, 8.5; Ryan, 14 months; Conner, 3.5; and Tyler, 6.5)

Going in to the holidays, I'll admit that I was a little worried that I'd be so busy playing hostess that I wouldn't get to enjoy them as much -- and coming out of a crazy two weeks, I can honestly say that I loved every minute and I'm so grateful that we were able to spend as much time as we did with our family.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2010!