Emily Virginia is here!

We welcomed Emily Virginia to our family at 1:50 a.m. on July 11th and she's the most perfect, adorable little baby. We are so happy, so blessed and so grateful for her health and her sweet, calm little personality. Life at home is great so far -- big brother Ryan is loving having her around and already proving to be quite helpful with diaper changes and showering his sister with love.

Below are a handful of photos from the past few days -- enjoy!

The new family of four.

Ryan meets his little sister.

Our sweet little Emily.

Tweet tweet - isn't she precious?

We love our pink, and our giant headbands. :)

Don't you just want to kiss that little face?

Many thanks to our family and friends for all the love, prayers and help -- we appreciate all that you do to support us, more than you can ever know.

All our love to you!

New cousin!

It's a banner year for babies in our combined extended families. Ryan welcomed new cousin Everly Rose from afar in early May, and this week he got to welcome Leighton Elise in person.

The whole way to the hospital I was peppered with questions like "Can I sing to Leighton? Will she like my do-do-do song? What about twinkle twinkle? Can I hold her? Can I snuggle her?" Clearly we've been prepping for a baby in our house too. :) Here's a shot of the proud cousin and his new little friend.
We're hoping to add little sister to the mix here very soon, and cousin "Buddy" soon after that. This fall, Ryan will get yet another little cousin -- so that makes 5 new babies in 2011, and a whole lot of fun! Fingers crossed that our next post will be to introduce you to our new addition!

Fireman Ryan

About a week ago, Ryan got to experience something pretty amazing for a 2.5-yr old. My uncle and godfather is a firefighter and paramedic for the city of Creve Coeur, and Uncle Russ (& Aunt Gayle too) gave us the tour of a lifetime.

Ryan has a play firehouse in his room and plays with his firemen and fire truck every single day, so what a treat it was to see the real thing up close! Every single person at the fire house was so kind to us and went out of their way to make Ryan's evening there special -- the people of Creve Coeur are truly lucky to have such wonderful men taking care of them!

Here's a shot of Ryan in his new fireman hat and badge in the garage of the fire house.

Uncle Russ let Ryan explore every inch of the fire truck and ambulance. Ryan is just old enough to ask a zillion questions, so here's Uncle Russ explaining "what does the orange 'clock' do?" (a.k.a., gauges):

It took a little while to warm up to the idea of actually getting in the fire truck, but once he did, the only thing that got Ryan out of the driver's seat was an actual call where the truck was needed.

While Uncle Russ was out on a call, Fireman Scott continued the tour, even putting on his full fire gear for Ryan. (And believe me, it was H-O-T that day, so this guy is dedicated.)

Scott also helped Ryan explore the firetruck and its equipment, including an axe that was bigger than Ryan. :)

A second call came in while we were there, and Scott even let Ryan "help" push the button that activated the alarm/signal on the street to stop traffic so that the ambulance could turn out of the station. It is literally the stuff 2.5-yr old dreams are made of! Ryan also got to watch firemen slide down the pole and was even able to climb the training tower at the back of the station and look out over the city at the top (I think he would have climbed those stairs all day if we'd let him.) To top it all off, once Uncle Russ was back from his call, he took us inside and showed us the kitchen, lounge, sleeping quarters and gym.

We are so blessed to have family who share their time and talents with us, and as you'd imagine, "Uncle Rust" (as Ryan calls him) is a frequent source of conversation at our house these days, and all his firehouse goodies have been keeping us busy ever since our visit. We hope to soon deliver some sweet treats to the firemen as a thank you for letting us invade their station for so long that evening.

Until next time!

Catching Up

Despite our lack of frequent blogging, the fun at our house never seems to stop (ok, ok - except during marathon tantrums, daddy's business trips and the awesome times when Ryan chooses to "scold" me out of the blue at the supermarket loudly). Seriously though, we have been busy (with fun things, more often than not), and I thought I'd share a few quick photos from recent months.

Ryan's taken a big interest in helping with anything and everything - laundry, cooking, yard work, you name it. It's great - but you have to be willing to accept his style of doing things...like how he sets the table. Interestingly, he sometimes ends up with three place settings and Stephen and I lose out, especially if pancakes are at stake, as they were here.
We took a trip to Ohio in April to visit grandma and grandpa Trammell and Ryan had a ball, of course. We even visited the Columbus Zoo. Ryan is at the blissful age where he knows no fear, so he even enjoyed petting a snake at the reptile house with zero hesitation (sorry Aunt Kelly).
This Easter marked Ryan's second time dyeing eggs, and even now, a month later, he's still asking to do it again. He loves coloring, painting and stamping, so we've been making messes in our kitchen on a regular basis. Here's a shot of the proud lil guy with his freshly dyed eggs.
Ryan has always loved ice cream, especially if it has whipped cream or sprinkles on it. Of course, he also loves going to our local custard shop - Fritz's. In fact, every time we pass the street it's on, he calls out loudly "that's the way to the ice cream place!"
Last, but not least, we hit another fun milestone this weekend. Nana and I took Ryan to see his first real movie in a theater - Rio. Ryan danced to the music and watched every second of the whole film, which is not something I could have pictured him doing until very recently. He really is growing up so fast! Here's a shot of him in his big guy movie seat.
We're ready for summer and little sister to join us soon. Until next time!

Need a giggle? I've got plenty...

One fun part of being a parent is gathering a zillion music-playing, spanish-speaking, wiggling, and/or motorized toys. While incessant playing of these toys can sometimes grate on one's nerves (especially if there's more than one going at once), kids love them, and watching their faces light up and hearing their giggles makes it all worthwhile.

Yesterday our neighbors gifted us with our latest and greatest singing/dancing character - and well, I could describe it...or I could just show it to you.




See how much Ryan loves it? How can I not love it too? What I would give to be 2.5 again for a day, just to feel that simple joy and laugh myself into a fit. Cheers!

Ryan & Haedyn's 1st Circus

We may not have elephants and men shooting out of cannons at our house, but to me, everyday life with a 2-yr old often feels like a circus. When I heard that the real circus (Shriners) was coming to town, I decided that it'd be fun to take cousin Haedyn and Aunt Kelly with our family for Haedyn's birthday gift.

While I was a little nervous about the kids' attention spans, they both were entertained through to the very end (or at least, really close to it). We got them the most obnoxious light-up toys in the arena -- and it was awesome to see them enjoy all the music, animals and performers.

Here's the cutest shot ever of the two cousins during intermission - precious!

Here's a glimpse at the cheering coming from our row -- it was so fun to watch them get excited about each little thing:

Here's my best attempt to show you the awesomeness that is our new circus souveniers (read: obnoxious, strobing light sticks). Yes, the pic is super blurry, but they are also that disorienting. Come visit us and Ryan will shove it in your face, I promise. :)

Poor Aunt Kelly - she had that light stick in her face (courtesy of my son) for most of the show, and even let Ryan play with her jewelry throughout the performance. She's a darn fine godmother. :)

Here's a cute parting shot of Haedyn with her uncle Stephen.
Until our next adventure!

Where did the time go?

It's been far too long since I posted anything! Somewhere between being pregnant (and sick for the first 16 or 17 weeks) and it being the dead of winter with nothing major to photograph, I lost track of time and neglected the blog.

We spent much of the last few months cooped up inside, doing a lot of coloring, painting and playing in our mess of toys, but we did get to enjoy the snow a few times. Here's a shot of Ryan's sweet snowsuit (thanks, grandma and grandpa Trammell!):

Ryan and daddy even got to build a snow "club house" in the front yard:
Ryan is constantly surprising me with how grown up he acts and sounds. He has the vocabulary and pronunciation of a kindergardener in many aspects, which is awesome and also a little challenging at times. While he's certainly still a strong-willed little dude, he's also the sweetest kid I know. I am starting to wonder how challenging it will be for him to share his mommy with a baby. Pray for us now. :)

Here are a few recent glimpses of Ryan sans snow gear. First, a cute shot of my little dude enjoying a party favor from cousin Haedyn's 3rd b-day party:

And next, an updated video of his sweet dance moves:

In addition to building snow forts and having daily dance parties, we also are preparing to add a baby girl to our family in early July -- that's right, Ryan's going to be a big brother, and as he so aptly puts it, "The baby's in mommy's belly and she's not comin' out yet...she has a lot of growin' to do." We're reading books about being a big brother, starting to buy little sister some cute outfits and of course, getting the much anticipated "Big Boy Room" ready. (Photos to come soon!)

We're so blessed and ready to grow our family, and promise to keep sharing tidbits about our lives here (on a more frequent basis). Happy weekend!