What you missed Part 2 - 2011

And the fun continues in 2011...
January 2011
My 33rd birthday. Birthday dinner with Matt & Evie Stark and then cupcakes at The Cup (formerly The Cupcakery).

My favorite St. Louis cupcake - The Confetti from The Cup

February 2011
The Auto Show!!!! This is when once again, Daryl tries to convince me that the Minivan is the way to go. I end up stepping in and out of the SUVs and the BMW convertibles instead.

Aidan &Reese "driving"

My birthday present to my friend Evie. She loves Twilight, I do not. I love to tease her about it and she is determined to convert me. We had dinner at Wasabi and I brought cupcakes from The Cup

Evie and her "boyfriend"

Cupcakes for the birthday girl from The Cup

Making Valentines



I don't know why we need to wear costumes to make Valentine's but we do.

Then, our world was completely rocked (and NOT in a good way) when Daryl's father suffered a massive heart attack over President's Day weekend while visiting my sister-in-law in Tennessee. He spent a month and a half in ICU, he was brought back to life at least 4 times, and after a lot of prayer and bedside manner, he was on the road to recovery. Amen to that!!

March 2011
New Orleans for my friends Nikki and Jeff's wedding. Here's just a sneak peak at our photos, So many details, I should really do a separate post.

dinner at Acme Oyster Bar

Beignets

Aidan at Cafe Beignet.

We ate at Cafe Beignet 4 times during our trip.

Nikki & Jeff got married in front of St. Louis Cathedral. It was so amazing.

Could this be any more perfect?

Back in St. Louis....




Our first trip to the dentist

April 2011
Reese and I donated our hair to Locks of Love.

Reese before

My stylist Sarah worked so well with Reese

Baby's first blow-out

Reese after

Me before

After

A St. Louis celebration for Nikki & Jeff

Nikki's bouquet is in the vase on the left. It is made entirely out of broaches. It is entirely beautiful.

One of the best things about April?? Baseball season begins!!

Right before our first Cardinal Game of the season, we hung around City Garden and admired the butterfly displays.

Tickets please...

pink cotton candy - could anything be more delicious?

Gourley family photo at the Ballpark

We walked in the March for Babies 2011 walk in Forest Park. This is our second time walking. This time we walked with our friends The Gehebs. Their daughter Addie is a beautiful little miracle. She was born at 26 weeks and spent the first few months of her life at St. Louis Children's Hospital in the NICU. It was a honor and priveledge to walk with her.

Our Team Addie's Admirers

Look at all the walkers

My friend Sarah and Addie

Sarah, Addie, Ollie (Addie' big brother) and Phil by Addie's sign.

 Time to decorate Easter Eggs!

Aidan's eggs

Reese the egg decorator.

The finished product. They are getting better and better every year. Minimal cracks this time!

The kids each picked out a bear to make for Pappy to welcome him home. They haven't seen him in almost 2 months and were very excited for him to come home! We've spent the past two months talking about how Pappy is doing and learning about your heart and how it functions. We were all looking forward to getting back to normal and having Pappy (aka the FIL) back home with us.

Aidan's John Deer Bear.

Reese's bear has a pink shirt.

We met our friends in New Town, St. Charles for an Easter Egg hunt.

at the egg hunt with our baskets

a proper welcome home

We were so happy to have him back home! We just weren't ready to let him go and I really missed having someone to argue with! The two months without him were probably the most awful time we've ever experienced. We've been staying with the in-laws for over a year now and the kids have really enjoyed seeing their Mimi and Pappy everyday, so I had a lot of explaining to do when he just didn't come home right away. We were very honest with the kids and told them exactly what was happening with Pappy, to the extent that a 3 and 4 year old could understand. They were far more understanding than I originally thought they would be.

Reese would tell perfect strangers that her Pappy was sick and Mimi was in Tennessee with him. At one point a conversation with a woman at the Mc Donald's playland went like this...

Reese: Hey, old lady! My Pappy is sick.
Old Lady: Oh?
Reese: Yeah, he's sick. Mimi and Pappy are in Tennessee
Old Lady: (staring with a confused look on her face at me) Oh, I'm so sorry.
Reese: That's okay. He's sick. Needs his heart fixed.

Aidan decided that he wanted to know all about the human heart, so we headed to Borders to get some answers. He got a great book about the human body and we read all about the heart and I explained to him where the blockages were and why Pappy needed to get better. He decided he was going to build a robot to fix Pappy's heart.

He's finally back where he belongs!

With Pappy home, we could have a proper Easter.

Aidan and Reese in their Easter outfits

May 2011

The pirate cakes I made.

Aidan's fifth birthday party with a Pirate theme

Arrg matey!!

Aidan and his parrot. Every pirate needs a parrot for his shoulder.

We also celebrated Mother's Day...

Aidan & my Mom

Cousin time - Trisitian, Elijah, Aidan & Reese

Me and my boyfriend, Mr. Gourley

Daryl, Diana (his mama aka the MIL), Natalie (Daryl's sister, my SIL)

June 2011

Summer Regional Meeting in Indianapolis, IN.
We were a table host at the Awards Dinner, the theme of the dinner was The Greatest Region on Earth/Circus. Sadly (for me only) this was not a contest for the best decorations.

Andrea & I rocking our best look yet.

our table. Daryl and I built our own big top.

our resident clown, Aidan

We also visited the Indianapolis Childrens Museum.

Reese at the Barbie exhibit

July 2011
So much to celebrate in July - Daryl's birthday, Guy's 16th birthday (our nephew), and Reese's 4th birthday!

At the Veiled Profit Parade for the 4th of July

 Reese's birthday party at The Cup. We decorated cupcakes and consumed a lot of frosting and sprinkles.

custom aprons for all of the guests

the birthday girl, Reese

our team of bakers

cupcake decorators in action

Reese tasting her masterpiece

Noah proving that cupcake decorating is serious business.

Jude needs more sprinkles!!!

Candles for all the birthday people - Reese, Guy, and Daryl

Levi (nephew) is such a champ pushing Reese and Reagan around the yard. There is no battery in this jeep so he really is working as hard as his face looks pushing these girls around.

August 2011
My sister Emily graduates from college

My sister Emily and I at Navy Pier for her graduation

Emily, John, Tristian & Elijah

August was a big deal for us because we finally moved back into our loft. We hired very talented contractors to make a few big changes in the loft and we finally moved back in! It was a bittersweet move. We were sad to say goodbye to the inlaws, but excited to be living back in our beloved loft in downtown St. Louis. Before you feel too sorry for all of us, we are only about 25 minutes from the inlaws. We also reduced our commute to work from 20 miles down to 0.75 miles, yes, that's right people, 0.75 miles. We are back to what we love...downtown living.

Our living room (painting in progress) - windows to Aidan's new room with a storage closet below.

Aidan's lofted bedroom

More big changes... back to school - Aidan to Kindgergarten and Reese starts preK.

school supply shopping with Reese

Reese in her school uniform with her Lady Bug lunch box (Thank you Rappaports!) and her Barbie backpack.

Aidan in his uniform with his Spiderman backpack

And even more big changes....Our friends the Starks welcome baby girl, London Adele.

London and her beautiful grandmas Sandy and Debbie

September 2011
Mr. Gourley goes vegan. As a follow up to the trauma we all experienced during my FIL's heart attack and after an unforable cholesterol screening, Mr. Gourley decides "no food with a face or a mother." We are forever changed. Hummus is now our new best friend. I now share my steak with Aidan. We are all working through trying new recipes and figuring out how to cook family meals. It's been a rocky start and I didn't think it would last, but he's really surprised me.


October 2011
Daryl runs the Rock & Roll Marathon in St. Louis. This is his second marathon, his first was in Nashville

too cool for school

Yes, people he runs in khaki shorts.

The family there to support our runner.

Halloween was all about the superheros this year.

Batman, of course

Supergirl

Trick or treating with Captain America (Carson), an Astronaut (Noah), Batman (Aidan) and Supergirl (Reese)

We also had a visit from my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jill.

checking out the flamingos with Reese

Jeff really tried to get Reese to take a picture with him, but she was too frightened.

November 2011
We got to hang out with our friends The Rappaports for a football themed party. We are always the unpopular ones because we bring a little New York with us. FYI - Mr. Rappaport is from Philly (he can't help it).

supporting our favorite football team

My brother Gideon and my future sister-in-law Heather visited us.

Aidan & Gideon in City Garden

Heather & Gideon came with gifts for the kids

So much to be thankful this year including vegan pumpkin pie, which I made specially for my vegan boyfriend and it was actually quite fantastic!!

Daryl, Diana (the MIL) and Natalie (the SIL) at the parade

My friend Lisa working with Louie the Lightning Bug, Ameren UE's balloon

Me, Mr. Gourley, Natalie and Tim, and the top of my MIL's head (clearly this photo was taken by one of the kids)

Family photo in City Garden

During their visit, we were able to celebrate Natalie's birthday.

The birthday girl, Natalie

We visited Santa at Macy's this year with the Prestons. I can't seem to locate the photos, but I can tell you that Reese did not cry this year. She was excited to see Santa and tell him exactly what she wanted - a Christmas Barbie and an Ariel doll. Aidan asked for a Wii and a Zombie Lab.
December 2011
We started a new tradition. We adopted an Elf on The Shelf. We named him Romeo. Romeo got into all kinds of trouble.

He was later joined by Juliet

I have no idea how old Juliet is, but she is vintage. Juliet is actually one of Daryl's grandmother's elves.  I love that we have a little piece of her to celebrate the holidays every year going forward. It means so much since both kids did not get to meet her.
We also celebrate Hanukkah, unfortunately we were not able to be with my mom this year, but she sent the kids their present and thanks to Steve Jobs, she was able to be on the phone with them while they opened it.

They were so excited!!!

We also love the menorah that my sister Emily gave us a few years ago. This is by far the best Hanukkah playset I've ever seen and the kids love to get it out and play with it.

We also made gingerbread houses. It seemed like a great activity and all was going well until the period of time in between assembly and decorating that they are supposed to dry overnight. They did dry overnight, just in our dogs Tyson & Haley's bellys. It was a sad morning waking up to mere crumbs. I improvised and made new houses out of graham crackers. See below.

Reese's gingerbread house

Aidan's gingerbread house

Now that we are back in our loft our traditional Christmas Eve celebration of appetizers and opening stockings is back on!

I found this set of "N" "O" "E" "L" mugs on-line. They are a vintage set from the early 1980's (I think). Daryl's mom has the set that used to belong to Grandma (same grandma as the elves). The set is always on the counter during Christmastime and Daryl likes to move the mugs around to spell out anything other than "NOEL" - usually "LEON" and "LENO" are his go-to moves.

Natalie and the "NOEL" mugs

Natalie & Reese

Stocking time

Our cousins Brent & Rebecca started U-City Family Church (service at the Tivoli Theater) in September and it celebrated it's first Christmas service. How did we celebrate?? A pancake breakfast in the lobby and the kids wore their pajamas.

Rebecca and Lincoln

Wearing jammies at church

Each year we attempt a family photo with the inlaws and all the grandkids. Some are better than others, but rarely is there a photo where everyone is perfect. This is what happens...

Oh well.

2011 - That's a wrap.