Mama and Papa's 40th Anniversary

Sunday, June 20th, was Mama and Papa Rau's 40th Anniversary. Friday night we had a celebration at Favazza's on the Hill. All 6 kids were there along with my Grandma and Uncle Chris and Aunt Janice.

Our family at dinner.

We decided to get a formal photograph done of all 6 kids, plus spouses and grandkids for their present. We had this scheduled back in May, but were rained out. We gave them a card with a note in it telling them about the photograph. I can't wait to have it done!

Mom and Dad

Dane was taking a little walk with Aunt Janice.

One of the tables

The other table

Dane was very good even though we were there for 2 hours!

He read some books, ate some snacks,

and hung out with anyone that wanted to come talk with him.

Claire moved over by Dane for a bit and Trey came to visit.

What a fun evening and a great milestone to celebrate!

Father's Day

We enjoyed celebrating Dave's "First Father's Day" this weekend. Sunday morning Dave and I went to church by ourselves. It used to work out perfect for us. Dane would take his morning nap during the church service and sleep quietly in my arms. Now Dane likes to wave his arms around and talk loudly during church service. It has been decided that he will start going to the nursery. This Sunday he was lucky and got to hang out with Mama and Papa while they got ready for Father's Day brunch at their house.

After church everyone headed over to Mama and Papa's house for brunch. The grandkids gave Papa a present that we worked on last week. We went down to Busch Stadium and found the brick that Papa bought.

All of the grandkids in their Cardinal gear!
Dane checking out the stadium.

All the grandkids

I forgot to get a picture of the finished product. We had all of the pictures framed for Papa.

It turned out looking pretty good.

Dave got his first father's day card from Dane and enjoyed doing some shopping. He got a First Father's Day card from Mama and a gift card. I think he enjoyed his gifts.

In the afternoon we headed to Uncle Chris's house for the Annual Father's Day BBQ. Dinner was absolutely delicious! Dane loved the hamburgers, potatoes, and green bean casserole.

Daddy and Dane hanging out at Uncle Chris's house.

Dane was also excited to give Darnel his first Godfather Father's Day card.

Dane thinks Uncle T.J. is pretty cool

since he will let him play with his blackberry and Mommy won't!

A great day with family and very thankful for all the dads in our lives!

Dane is 11 Months Old Today!

I just can not believe Dane is 11 months old! Time has gone by so fast! It is hard to believe that we will be celebrating his first birthday next month!

We celebrated today by spending the day with Mama, Aunt Katie, Aunt Kara, and Claire. (Taylor, Delaney, and Trey had Vacation Bible School this week) We went to get snow cones at Tropical Moose in Downtown Kirkwood. Dane LOVED it! He helped me with mine and then went to Aunt Katie to help her with hers!

Claire enjoying her snowcone.

We were hoping to do a weight and height check on Dane tonight, but we just got home from Mama and Papa's house and Dane is sound asleep in bed. He is a solid guy! He seems to be growing a little taller. He was only in the 30% in length at his 9 month appointment. Maybe we will try tomorrow night!

Now that I am home on summer vacation we have been busier than ever. We enjoy daily walks, sometimes two, swimming, play dates, shopping, overnights at Mama and Papa's house, and weekly outings with cousins! We have been having so much fun!

Dane is eating like a champ! He pretty much eats whatever we have for dinner, unless we are having steak. He is not the neatest eater, but we are working on that. He only takes a bottle at bedtime now.

Dane is moving at lightening speed these days. He can crawl faster than ever and has been cruising around the furniture quite quickly as well. He LOVES to push chairs around. Mama says she sees him walking very soon!

He loves to climb stairs, though we usually put a stop to this before he gets too far.

Dane continues to love books and will pull his basket of books over, dump it out, and start reading away!

Once a week, from 9am-1pm, Dane goes up the street to play with his friend Mikaela so that I can get some things done at home. I pay Mikaela, but honestly the whole family babysits Dane. They love him! Even Mikaela's 14 year old brother said, "Stephanie, don't you think mom should have another baby?" Grace just about died!

While Dane was gone last week I cleaned out his drawers and closet and packed up so many things that he doesn't use anymore. It made me sad.

Even though he is getting so big he is still my sweet baby boy. He gives me lots of hugs and kisses and he will snuggle with me for an afternoon nap. We are enjoying every minute of our summer together! Now if summer would just slow down a bit so he will slow down as well!

Dane Loves His Food!

I remember the first time I met Katie's boyfriend, Tom. We were talking about eating and he said, "I am not really a big eater." I thought to myself, "Boy are you going to be surprised by us. This family LOVES to eat." It seems that no matter what we do we involve food in some way. It just seems to make it more fun!

Well Dane seems to have been born into the right family. He LOVES his food! There really hasn't been anything that I have given him that he hasn't eaten.

Taco meat and peas

This is a picture of him eating neatly.

It doesn't happen much or for long.

He does use his spoon every once in a while,

but usually just holds it.

Ravioli and carrots
Pizza

Pasta and mixed veggies

This picture was taken right after he decided the plate wasn't

needed anymore and turned it upside down on his tray.

Today Dane went down the street to his friend's house so he could hang out with Mykayla (his high school babysitter and her mom, Grace) for a few hours while I did some deep cleaning. I had packed Dane a nice lunch of bologna, cheese, crackers, and applesauce. Mykayla said he ate great and was then sitting there hanging out while her and her mom ate lunch. He reached over and grabbed pineapple right out of Grace's hand as she was eating her lunch. She said was worried because she didn't know if he could have it, but he LOVED it. Then Grace was holding him while she dished up some banana pudding for her kids and Dane reached right into the bowl with his hand and scooped up a big handful and shoved it in his mouth.

So he LOVES to eat, but we need to work on his manners!

Race for a Cure

Today was Race for a Cure in St. Louis! My mom, my sisters, and I have done Race for a Cure for many years. Last year I did it when I was 8 months pregnant!

We headed downtown about 7:00 this morning for the 5K. There is always a lot to see before the race actually starts. It is a very moving morning and I am amazed every year at the energy and spirit there. Today there were 71,000 people there! WOW!

Mom, Kara, Me, Amy, and Claire before the race

Mom and me!
Sweet Claire Bear in her pink ribbon shirt!

The back of my mom's shirt

There are several points throughout the race when you can see the huge crowd of people in front of you! Amazing!

It was so, so, so hot this year!

St. Louis Fire Department provided sprinklers at several points throughout the race.

Water stations and several bands kept us going.

I wish I would have taken a picture of the little boy, probably about 12 years old, playing his guitar at one of the corners. Bet he has never played for 71,000 people before!

Wentzville Fire Department's Pink Truck

All the girls with the firefighter and his pink gear!

And the finish! There is special side for survivors to go through.

They get a rose and there is always lots of cheering!

A very special tradition for the girls in our family. There are already talks of getting a hotel room downtown next year, attending Pray for a Cure at Christ Church Cathedral at 6:45 the morning of the race, and enjoying all the the action again!

How Did He Get Up There???

Tonight before bed Dane and I were rolling a ball back and forth and I went to get it from under the entertainment center....when I turned around I saw this little guy sitting up in his chair looking oh so adorable. How in the world did he get up there?

So I took him off and put him on the floor to play ball and see if he would show me his little trick.

He did!

He crawled right over to his chair and used all his strength.

He did a lot of wiggling.

He pulled on the arm of the chair.
Then he turned around and looked at me like it was no big deal!

He kind of looks like he is used to having his picture taken alot!

A Trip to the Zoo

Monday we headed to the St. Louis Zoo! It was Delaney's birthday and we let her pick where she wanted to go. Mama and Papa are Grandparent Zoo Friends at the St. Louis Zoo. This comes with many, many benefits which are so fun for us to enjoy! We are so lucky they have done this for the grandkids!

We started out at the Children's Zoo. We first went to pet and brush the goats.

Dane wasn't so sure about them at first.

He warmed up to them a bit and smiled.
Finally decided he wanted to pet one.

Delaney had her best friend, Rylee, with us for the day.

The girls took turns pushing Claire and Dane.
I see good babysitters in the future!

In the hippos mouth-

Dane wouldn't take his hand out of his mouth and

Claire didn't want to be in the hippos mouth,

so this is the best picture I could get!

Delaney rode down the slide with Dane.

He came down giggling. He loved it!

Taken Monday, June 7th at the Children's Zoo.

Taken in September 2009 at the Children's Zoo.

Dane checking out the potbelly pig.

There was a little boat in the Children's Zoo.

Dane had a ball steering the boat.

Aunt Amy helped Dane GENTLY pet the guinea pig.

Having a snack break

Holding Hands!

We headed to the Sea Lion show after the Children's Zoo. We got there early so we could get good seats. Dane took a little cat nap before it started.

Sea Lion Show

Dane was amazed watching the sea lions.

We rode the carousel

and the train.

We were at the zoo for about 4 hours and were very busy.

We took full advantage of Mama and Papa's Zoo Friends Membership. We got free parking, free sea lion show tickets, saw the stingrays for a reduced price, rode the carousel, and rode the train. We figured it up and we would have spent $88 for all of us to do everything we did, instead it cost us $10.50 and Mama and Papa still have lots of passes left and have already renewed their membership for us next year!

Thank you Mama and Papa!

We were ready for lunch so we headed to the U City Loop for lunch at Fitz's.

Dane read some books before lunch and was super good

even though we had a VERY, VERY slow waiter.

Delaney got a big surprise when the waiter brought her a huge ice cream float for her birthday!

She shared with everyone. Dane loved it and would grunt very loudly if I didn't get him another bite fast enough!

We are loving our outings and the kids are having so much fun.

Dane always falls right to sleep as soon as we get in the car to head home.