alllllviiinnnnnn!!!!!!

No photos to go with this post, but Ryan and I met Nana (my mom) for lunch and...Ryan's first movie in a movie theater! We saw Alvin and the Chipmunks, which wasn't as terrible as I expected it to be. He wasn't heavy enough to keep the theater seat down, so we had to be creative with coat placement, etc. He stared at the screen in amazement and didn't even move for about the first 20 minutes, then he crawled over to me, snuggled up on my chest, and slept for the rest of the movie. :-) Can't wait to see this one in March! Too bad it won't be out for his birthday....

Happy New Year, everyone! Some friends of ours are having a kid-friendly party tonight, but we're not sure if we're going yet or not. What a great idea, though! It's so hard to find a baby-sitter on nights like this!

school pictures

Isn't my little man looking so grown up? I can't stand it! Don't you just want to give him a kiss and a squeeze?? I wish they would have varied the poses a bit, but overall I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.


















I'm pretty sure this will be my last post before Christmas (and possibly for the year), so Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas traditions

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Last year, Ryan was only 10 months old at Christmas and, although he liked looking at the lights on the trees and playing with wrapping paper, he wasn't really into the holiday. This year he's definitely more excited...he loves "re-decorating" the tree every night, and now that we've had our first snowfall, I'm expecting to find him and Tony having a snowball fight when I get home tonight. So I'm trying to come up with traditions for us...from cookie baking to going downtown to look at the lights on the Circle, to each of us getting to open one present on Christmas Eve, and that present will be a new pair of pajamas to sleep in that night. What are some other ideas?

I have to admit, I've been avoiding Michael's because I think it would be very hard not to purchase all of the Martha Stewart Christmas crafts. I stopped by on my lunch break yesterday to pick up some supplies for a bridal shower I'm hosting, and scored this cute project on clearance for $9! Can't wait to get it put together...we're a few days behind on it!

florida pics - finally!

Jenni convinced me it was time to get my butt in gear and post some pics from our recent vacation to Florida - so here they are!
Okay, blogger sucks and won't let me add text where I want to for captions. :-(

At the park near my Dad's apartment.

















First time at the ocean!






















On a dolphin-sighting boat tour.
Mama and baby dolphin right by the boat!

Thanksgiving Day at the park near my brother's house.

This is Ryan's cousin Skylar pushing him on the swing - too cute! Can you believe she is 6 months older than Ry?

may the force be with you

and again!

Last night before getting into the bathtub, I stripped Ryan down and put him on his little potty. He freaked out and stood up immediately, and then ran out of the bathroom (stupid me for not shutting the door). I yell to Tony that there is a naked baby on the loose, so we're running around trying to catch him before he pees everywhere. We made it back to the bathroom, and Ryan lifted the lid on the big toilet...so we put him on it and he peed! Such a good boy! We, of course, made a huge deal out of it and danced around to celebrate. My boy is getting so big!

This weekend we have plans to go to Beasley's Orchard, now that Fall weather has finally arrived! I can't wait! Ryan had a blast sitting with the pumpkins last year...I can't wait to see how much fun he has actually running around and picking out his own pumpkin this year! I hope he likes apple cider as much as I do (are toddlers even allowed to drink cider? I know I couldn't when I was pregnant...).

No new news about Dad. They are still trying to find another hospital to transfer him to...are there really that many people with heart problems in Florida that they can't find ONE SINGLE BED???? I told him he needs to come up here for treatment anyway, but he didn't seem too excited about that idea. ;-)

Car shopping tonight after work...not sure what I want and I have a feeling we'll just end up fixing the Escape. But it's fun to look and dream at least!

just had to share

update

Hello! Here's a quick update while I eat my lunch....

Dad is still in the hospital, and his condition appears to be stable. They keep pumping him full of blood thinner medication and are preparing to transfer him to a facility with a better cardio unit. Please keep him in your prayers.

Saturday was our 6th wedding anniversary, and Sunday was Tony's 34th birthday! My how time flies! I had 13 rolls of film developed over the weekend, and here are a few of my favorites:

18 (almost 20) month update

We had Ryan's latest well-baby visit on Friday, so I thought I would post his stats:
Weight: 26 pounds (50%, a little down from our last visit, but he was wearing clothes then)
Height: 33 inches (50%)
Head Circumference: 49 centimeters (75%)

I have about 20 rolls of film to get developed, so I should have new pics sometime in the near future. Stay tuned! Especially for the pics of him in his new suit at Stephanie and Louis's wedding! Such a fun and special night!

In the meantime, here are two pics that my dear friend Tania just sent me. Peanut and I met her for lunch last weekend to say good-bye...she is getting ready to move back home to Missouri. We are going to miss her a lot! Thanks for sending us these, hon! I hardly have any of just me and the wee one! :-)

new pics!

Okay, Jenni has been way better at keeping up her blog than me, so I'm inspired to post tonight, even though I have a lot of packing to do, plus I'm exahusted. Here are some recent pics:

Baking cookies with Mama:

Discovering worms in the garden (gotta love the dirt under his fingernails - what a boy!):

Petting a shark at the zoo:

Riding the carousel (is that spelled right? one of those words that just looks weird...):

oh yeah, he's still got it

And I still love him after all these years! He was always my favorite...I was never swayed by Donnie or Jordan (and Jon and Danny never stood a chance - ew). :-) Thank goodness Jenni had her camera phone with her because this was the same day I broke my camera at our stupid Gymboree class! :-(

Okay, I don't know if it sounds terrible for you guys. It plays fine off my computer, but I think uploading it to the blog messed it up. Oh well, enjoy the eye candy at least!

my 10 names

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current street name)
   Mitzi Picadilly
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav icecream flavor, favorite cookie)
   Rocky Road Chocolate Chip
3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
   jkee
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
   Blue Elephant
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
   Marie Indianapolis
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
   Keeje
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink, put "The" in the beginning)
   The Red Lemonade
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
   Willie Austin
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy)
   Vanilla Whatchamacallit
10. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother & father's middle name)
    Annette Conway

fun at the fair

We had a great time at the fair and with Ryan's first pony ride (well, donkey ride I guess). Then home for some fun in the pool and with the McDonald's stand!

mia

Sorry to have been MIA! Life just gets in the way of blogging sometimes (and I'm out of the habit of doing this!). Not much new in our world...man, is it hot this week! Tony and Ryan have been playing in the pool and the sprinkler every afternoon before I get home, and Ryan loves running around in just a diaper!

I lost my Blackberry last week at the Nora Target, in case anyone finds it. :-( I miss it a lot.

I bought a purse! I know this is nothing special to most women, but I stopped carrying a purse several years ago. I have a little wallet keychain thing from Coach that I regularly use, but in the last few weeks have found myself wishing I had a purse to hold all of my stuff. So I got one.

Ryan went to his first concert last Tuesday! Dave and Rae played a free concert at one of the local parks, so we had a picnic dinner with our friends Jenni, Leah, Kaden, Hannah, and Cody! It was a lot of fun, and we could still hear the music while the kids played on the playground! Excellent! But I forgot to take my camera with us. :-(

Speaking of Jenni, here are some pictures she recently gave me of one of our playdates! I think Ryan spent most of his time eyeing whatever Leah and Kaden were playing with! :-)

simpsonize us!

Okay, so the official "Simpsonize Me" site is terrible...if you can actually get it to load, none of the pictures you upload will actually work! So...this is the best we could do. :-)

ready to ride

It took a couple of tries, but now Ryan LOVES his helmet and riding in his trailer behind daddy's bike. Every time he is in the garage, he bee-lines for the bike and climbs into his seat with his little stuffed rhino!

some recent pics

Here are some pics from a recent shoot with baby Ani...little Anisten Lea was born June 24th...Ryan can't wait until she is 16 and can date! :-)

This one was used for her birth announcements:

I just love this one:

And here are some of Ryan from the 4th of July parade!