Christmas Cards and Santa pictures

Last year I had these goofy holiday ears to put on Ryan and Gizmo for our family Christmas photos. Ryan is actually wearing a Santa hat made for a dog - I didn't put the chin strap around him though. Ryan couldn't sit up on his own and in total I probably took 10 pictures. Each time he'd lean further and further towards Gizmo until he eventually leaned on her. This was the last picture and the one I ended up sending out. At that time, it was the closed Gizmo allowed Ryan to get to her.





Fast forward one year. The goofy ears have popped up again. These are at least made for a human, though as you will see the human wearing them isn't fond of them. After many previous years of being subject to holiday ears, I found Gizmo a jingle bell collar to wear instead. I'm sure she was grateful to wear that, but again as you'll see - not grateful to be getting her picture taken and/or not grateful to be so close to Ryan again.

Ryan is a one trick pony. His trick - clapping. Though not always willing to do so for strangers he claps when happy, excited, proud of himself, or when something amuses him. Here I guess he was happy I took the ears off.

These next two photos were taken the next day (thus a different outfit for Ryan). In this one, Gizmo is trying to eat Ryan. Yeah, right. She was yawning out of boredom probably. Honestly, I'm surprised Gizmo's breath didn't knock Ryan over. Instead he seems to be thinking, "My Gizmo, what big teeth you have."

How I ever got Thing 1 and Thing 2 to sit together in the rocking chair like this I'll never know. Gizmo still shows that same "I can't believe I'm doing this" expression that she shows in all photos involving her and Ryan. And Ryan would like nothing more than to remove the antlers. But of all 20 some odd pictures I took, this one below and the one of Ryan clapping with Gizmo did make the 2009 card cut.

Dean didn't want to miss out on going to see Santa with Ryan so we waited until today (Monday) to do so. Since he's off this week we figured today might be our best shot at beating the lines and we were right. We were third in line, we could take our own photos - plus they provided us a free 4x6 and Santa was very friendly and had a real beard! I had a suspicion that Ryan would cry, but small fry did great! So where was this Super Santa you ask, none other than Bass Pro Shop. There was an entire activity area surrounding Santa's cottage. You could drive radio controlled cars, color, write letters to Santa, watch the Polar Express train circle a track, even shoot Red Rifle or bows and arrows in certain spots. I must admit though, it was kind of strange to see other kids shooting at deer while we're waiting in line to see Santa. All in all a great time and we'll go back again!

November

November was quite the month for the Stoeber family. Out came the winter clothes, we ended this session of play class, and Ryan took his first flight. Although there are plenty of pictures here, there were still many more that didn't make the blog cut.

I loved this argyle sweater and couldn't pass up the chance to photograph Ryan in it.

Last day of play class. Ryan wored a fire fighter's turtleneck and fleece hat. I'm on one side of the plexiglass and he's on the other.

We made to to Las Vegas without any tirades on the plane!!! Nana, Grandpa, Dean, Ryan, and I visited Ethel's Chocolate Factory. Ryan didn't become "a kid in a candy store" until we stepped outside where he was surrounded by garbage cans. They are his new favorite things. He talks to them and waves his hands where and whenever we see them.

Went to Lucille's, an awesome southern style BBQ place. Ryan was getting restless so I decided to play "Will Ryan eat this?" this was his expression after trying a pickle for the first time.

For my birthday, Meema and Meepa got us tickets to see the Cirque de Soleil show, "O". It was AMAZING!!! Here's a self taken picture of Dean and me beforehand.

While in Las Vegas, we celebrated Christmas on Thanksgiving morning. The paper kept Ryan entertained while all of us opened gifts.

Grandpa with his gifts.

Nana with her new television.

Ryan playing peek-a-boo with Precious. Poor dog didn't know what to think of Ryan. They did play well together. Precious must've slept for days after we left. Gizmo got to catch up one some sleept while we were away. That is when she wasn't wandering the streets of Dixon.

The turkey kicked in on Dean.

Seeing that it was 60 and sunny the day after Thanksgiving and we weren't doing any shopping, we decided to walk/play off our Thanksgiving meal by hitting the park.

I lost count of how many pictures it took before we finally got one of him looking at the camera.

The amazing thing about the two pictures above - Dean and I both have bums small enough to fit on the slide!

Compare this picture of Ryan, to the one below of Dean. Wow, what a resemblance!

Our last day in Las Vegas, we finally took some still shots. Here's Ryan with his Grandpa and Nana.

Add dad to the mix.

Lastly, the 3 of us.

latest tricks and landscapes

Our way of enjoying this recent bout of Indian Summer has been to head out to the local parks and forest preserves. This top picture was taken at our neighborhood park. The man was flying this gigantic kite. He wore this belt around his waist and had to guide it with both arms. It was very cool. However it took him longer to set up and take down than the length of time he spent flying it. It must've been tough to fly.


We tried a new forest preserve Monday and Tuesday. Monday Ryan lost his shoe. Fortunately it was recovered. Here are some pictures from there.

And when we're not going out and about, we've been working on tricks. While he still hasn't yet mastered (or even achieved for that matter) the art of waving, here are a few of the things Ryan has picked up on. Adjust your volume.

Halloween 2009

To go along with the deep, monstery-sounding voice he sometimes uses, I decided to dress Ryan as a devil this year. Little guy almost slept through trick-or-treating! He finally woke from his nap about 2:00. After he ate lunch, I attempted to give him a goatie and eyebrows but he wasn't very cooperative. Dean is very happy that Ryan didn't like wearing make-up.



Complete! He must've looked scary, 'cause Gizmo appears slightly spooked in the background.

Ryan and our neighbor Erin (the little cat) rode in our new wagon as we went to about 7 houses on our street. It was windy and chilly.

Here's our little angel, posing in her costume. Even with about 10 safety pins in it, I couldn't get the wings and halo to stay up. I should've waited until I dressed Ryan so I could get their picture together, but by the time Ryan was up and dressed, I was tired of trying to fix Gizmo's costume. I ended up putting her in her Illini jersey (maybe that was the good luck they needed, they killed Michigan!). This is the one good picture I got of her.

Birthday Party

In honor of Ryan's first birthday a few weeks ago, we had a small get together over the weekend.

A lot of pictures were taken, unfortunately I didn't upload them in the right order, so below you'll see a mish-mash of photos.





We have 3 ways of 4 generations in our family. Gramma Pat wasn't feeling well (get well soon!) so we couldn't take 2 of the generation pictures, but here is the one we could. Ryan with me, Meema, and Grandma Katie.



Dean and Grandma Katie reading to cousin Ava and Ryan.



Ryan and Meepa - don't know why it's blurry.

Ryan with cousins Adam and Ava playing with a new toy!

Ryan and Daddy wearing the outfit Dean got him for his birthday.

Ryan and his pumpkin birthday cake. If you look closely you'll see that they have the same teeth!

Our friend and neighbor, Erin. She's a little Steelers fan.

Although they look alike, they aren't brothers, rather cousins - Ryan and Nathan. They, too, kind of have the same teeth!

Ryan and Nathan playing peek-a-boo. I guess they also have the same pants!

Attempting to eat a piece of cake. All in all not too bad, though I think more ended up on the floor than in his mouth.

Cousin Adam coming in to clean up the pieces.

Taking a ride in his new wagon!

Whoops, guess I posted this one twice.It was a great party and fun day altogether. By the end of it all, even Gizmo was pooped. Thanks to friends and family for coming and all the wonderful gifts!

Pumpkins and Sesame Street Clothes

I've always been somewhat of a creative person, however I'm not at all artistic. So this year I was determined to have carved pumpkins (since I was a little pre-occupied last year at this time). I consulted my bible "Family Fun Magazine" for some cute, easy ideas.


I call this guy, the first trick-or-treater of 2009. I've had this stand for a few years, but this is only the second time I've used it, first in this house.

Both these guys came from this October's magazine. Dean thinks the one below looks Asian. He was supposed to have small white gourds inserted to represent big pupils. But I didn't use a large enough pumpkin to be able to do that.

And for the second part of the title - Sesame Street Clothes. This Elmo outift was a hand-me-over from Aunt Sherry. It's sized 6-9 months. But only lately has it been cold enough to put on Ryan. Unfortunately the legs are short, so he probably won't get a chance to wear it again. It was quite the site though, he was standing on one side of the kitchen table, and Dean and I on the other. All we could see of him were the Elmo eyes at the top of the sweatshirt.

This outfit came from our friends, the Kirk Family. They know how much Dean, I mean Ryan :) likes the Sesame Street character pop-up toy we have - especially Cookie Monster (C is for Cookie that's good enough for me, yum-yum-yum-yum-yum)