Dane and Max

It has been neat to watch Dane and Max lately. Max used to pretty much just stay away from us if we were holding Dane. He really just ignored the fact that he was there. Then he slowly started to sit closer and closer to us, but still paid no attention to the fact that we had Dane. Recently Max would sniff Dane, but still kept his distance. I then noticed Max licking Dane's hand. I definitely tried to put a stop to that because it happened right about the same time that Dane started putting everything, including his hands, in his mouth. One morning I watched as Max walked into the living room. He caught Dane's eye and Dane followed him as he walked across the room and jumped up on the ottoman. Now if Dave or I are holding Dane and Max comes over to us Dane will try to reach out and touch Max.

Monday evening Dane was taking his little catnap after coming home from daycare. He fell asleep and I laid him on a blanket on the floor. When I turned around this is what I saw.....

little Max curled up with Dane for a nap.

They both are quite the cuddlers, so I am hoping they will be nap partners in the future.

Christmas Break.....is over

It's over.....no more days like this for a while.

It seems like December 18th at 3:00 was just yesterday. It was such a great feeling when the bell rang at 3:00 and I knew I had 16 days to spend with Dane. Now they are over. We had a great time! We spent lots of time with family. Dane was entertained by cousins and loved on by grandparents. On days when we were home we spent a majority of the day in our comfy clothes, sitting in the oversized chair, looking at the Christmas tree, and catching up on shows recorded on the DVR (I think I watched shows recorded in October!)

I never take Christmas down until Epiphany on January 6th, but this year I did it early. Dane and I were up at 6:30 this morning and I thought Wednesday is January 6th and I KNOW I will never have time to take Christmas down on a week night. Saturday we have plans and Sunday we will be in St. Louis for Taylor's Confirmation. I just got busy and got it done. It is all packed up and Dave will move it to the garage tomorrow. Then we got some organizational supplies at Lowes for all of Dane's new toys. I have ironed Dane's and my clothes for the week and packed up some stuff to take to Miss Sue's tomorrow morning. All I have to do now is make bottles and then I GUESS we are ready for tomorrow morning.

I just read Dane his bedtime story, A Snowy Day, and he is off to bed. I am checking the weather forecast to see if there is a chance of a snowy day anytime soon. Already looking forward to my next break to hang with my little man.

New Years Family Fun

We headed to St. Louis on New Years Eve and since Dave was on vacation for a couple days we stayed up there for an extended New Years visit.

We spent New Years as a family. My parents had a little family New Years Eve party at their house. We were there, along with my sister, Amy, and her family, and Aunt Katie stopped by for a visit before her night out. We had appetizers and had a fun night of Wii playing and movie watching. There was a point when I thought I might not make it to midnight, but I did.

New Years Eve

Mama and Dane
Mommy and Dane

Dane was in a good mood and actually didn't even want to go to sleep.

The girls on New Years Eve

Mama and the grandkids

Dane has been chewing on everything lately! He entertained us for a few minutes when I was changing him into his pjs.

The Wii players look very serious

Playing Wii

On New Years Day my mom always invites all of us over for the day. We have our traditional New Years Day meal of shrimp and BBQ ham and then she also will pull out any left overs from the holidays and try to get rid of it because of course we all start diets every year on January 2nd.

The Frost kids along with Dave, Dane, and I had spent the night. Papa got up and made breakfast for all of us. Aunt Katie came over for breakfast. Aunt Amy and Uncle Darnel enjoyed their morning of sleeping late with no kids at home and came in a little later, along with Aunt Kara, Uncle Steve, and Claire. We hung out and ate and watched football all day. It was so nice and relaxing because it was freezing cold outside and even snowed a bit. I actually stayed in my pjs all day until mom and I decided to run to Walmart for some Tylenol in case Dane's teeth bothered him over night. While we were out we picked up the movie The Proposal and Mama, Papa, Dave, and I watched it in the evening.

I will have to let Miss Sue know that if Dane is spoiled when he goes back on Monday it is not only my fault. Mama and Dane took a nap together on New Years Day. Dane slept for quite a bit.

Saturday morning Dane slept until 7:30! We got up and hung out at Mama and Papa's, then Dave and I got ready for a little time out. Mama and Papa babysat Dane and Dave and I went out for the afternoon. We were going to go see a movie, but decided not to. We ended up just walking around the mall and hanging out. We headed back to Mama and Papa's house around dinner time. After dinner and watching a little football we headed back home so we could spend all day Sunday getting ready to get back into our routine on Monday morning!

2009- A Great Year

2009, the year in review. What a great year!

January- The first month of the year was a bit rough for me, I was sick pretty much 24 hours a day. However, we heard Sweet Baby Dane's heartbeat for the first time.

February- In February we got a call that we had an offer on our house. This was a bit of a surprise since they had not shown our house in at least two months. We were excited about an offer, but we tried to contain ourselves to see what exactly would happen.

Sweet Baby Claire was born on February 15th. Proud Parents- Steve and Kara Emerson. We were excited to have another niece and the Frost kids were so excited to finally have a cousin.

All the girls with Kara and Claire

Sweet Baby Claire

March-I remember March 4th like it was yesterday. It was a GREAT, but EXHAUSTING day. Dave picked me up at noon from school and we headed up to the dr. We met with my dr first, then headed over for the big ultrasound. We found out that we were having a sweet baby boy. The ultrasound looked perfect. We called family and stopped by my parents to share the news. We then headed back down 55 and stopped in Ste Genevieve to make an offer on a house. Such a full day!

It's a boy!

I'm so cute!

On March 24th we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.

On March 30th we closed on our house in Chester. I remember coming home and Dave saying, "Well we are officially homeless. We just sold our house in Chester and haven't officially bought our house in Ste. Genevieve yet. On March 31st we signed the papers for our house in Ste. Genevieve. Our house in Chester had been on the market for EXACTLY two years.

April- Dave and I headed to the doctor on Friday of the weekend that we were moving. The dr looked at Dave and said, "She is to supervise only." I could definitely handle that. With the help of family and friends we were in our house in record time.

Our house in Ste. Genevieve, MO

May- With so many big events going on this pregnancy was going very fast. In May my brother married Ashley. It was a great day! We had beautiful weather, lots of family and friends, and a lot of fun. Plus we got to add another girl to our Rau Girls Club.

School ended in May and we began spending the summer months preparing for our baby boy.

June- In June I had three baby showers! I think there was only one weekend when I didn't have one. My best friends, Rhonda and Jesika, threw a shower in Ste Genevieve for all of my friends down this way. Then my sisters threw a shower for me in St. Louis for my family and friends in St. Louis. My last shower was the traditional shower thrown at my Grandma's house for family.

Shower at mom's

Rhonda, Jesika, and I

With all of the wonderful things we got at the showers we were starting to set up Dane's room.

July- I love to go back and read the posts from my sisters' blogs about the day Dane was born.

Check out Katie's Blog

PreInduction Girls Night Out http://katiesfavphotos.blogspot.com/2009/07/totally-normal.html

Dane is Here http://katiesfavphotos.blogspot.com/2009/07/dane-leroy-has-arrived.html

In Love http://katiesfavphotos.blogspot.com/2009/07/in-love.html

Amy's Blog

http://frost5.blogspot.com/2009/07/baby-dane-is-here.html

Our sweet baby boy was born at 5:29 p.m. on July 21, 2009. The best day ever!

August- Dave and I were both on leave from work for the month (well I was off longer than the month). We spent the month hanging out with our little man. We had weekly dr appointments because he wasn't gaining weight as quickly as he should have been (you would never know that now!) We spent some time taking rides since we couldn't really go anywhere. We had LOTS of visits from family and friends.

Dane-One month

(hard to believe those newborn clothes were big on him)

Just 20 days after Dane was born, my best friend, Rhonda, had a sweet baby boy, Thomas. One of Dane's first little friends.

September- I was still on maternity leave so Dane and I spent our days together. We would play and take LONG walks around the lake. We spent some days with Rhonda and Thomas and Kara and Claire.

Dane is two months old

October- On October 1st I went back to work. I hated leaving Dane everyday, but I was able to find the most amazing babysitter.

Dane is three months old

We celebrated Dane's First Halloween

November- Dane was baptized at Kirkwood United Methodist Church

We had so much to be thankful for as we celebrated Dane's First Thanksgiving

December- A month full of memories. Dane experienced family traditions and we made some new ones of our own. We celebrated Dane's First Christmas.

Dane saw Santa for the 1st time

We have had a wonderful year filled with great times with family and friends. Our little man has made us so happy and we love being parents. In 2010 we will cherish memories of family and friends and look forward to many more.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day we headed over to my Grandma's house for dinner and more gift giving. My grandma is amazing. She makes the entire Christmas dinner for 19 people, buys gifts for all, and does stockings! She also has trays of many different kinds of cookies that she has baked and set around the house. I ate a ton!

Our Family at Grandma's House

Grandma with 5 of her Great Grandchildren
Dane and his Great Grandma

Getting ready to open gifts...it was a full house!

Opening gifts

Dane got a Baby Einstein movie from Great Grandma

Dane also got a Santa that talked. He loved playing with Uncle T.J. and Santa

After gift opening the guys watched football until dinner.

This was Dane's last Christmas party. He had celebrated 5 times and was exhausted.

Christmas Morning at Mama and Papa's

We spent the night at Mama and Papa's house on Christmas Eve along with Aunt Tammy and Uncle John, and Aunt Katie. Everyone else came over at 9:00 on Christmas Morning.

On Christmas Eve "Santa" will not put any presents under the tree or fill stockings until everyone is in bed. My mom absolutely loves buying gifts for everyone. We keep telling her she should scale things back a bit, but she doesn't.

Mama leaves cookies for Santa.

I am looking forward to the year that Dane can help her put the cookies and milk out.

Dane loved to look at her Christmas tree in the family room.
13 stockings hung and 5 stockings laying on the floor for the grandchildren because she just couldn't fit anymore on the mantle.

Growing up we never traveled on holidays. We always woke up at home on Christmas morning. We were so lucky to have family living close. Even though we only live 45 minutes from mama and papa, since we celebrate Rau Family Christmas on Christmas Eve, then gather again on Christmas morning it is just easier to spend the night. Santa can't go to all of the houses in one night so he came to our house earlier. I was trying to think of a special tradition for Dane on Christmas morning since a majority of the time he will probably not be at home. I decided that Dane would get one present on Christmas morning from Mommy and Daddy.

Ready to unwrap!

Every year we will give Dane a Christmas movie that he can watch while he waits for family to arrive to open gifts.

Dane didn't watch the movie this year. He was too tired after unwrapping just one present.

Aunt Katie and Dane waiting to start unwrapping.

Daddy and Dane

Our family on Christmas morning

We still open gifts the way we did when we were little. It takes quite a while. We start with the youngest and open one at a time. Now we add in spouses and grandchildren as well. It is quite the event, especially for spouses that came from smaller families. Like I said earlier, my mom loves to buy gifts, so it takes several rounds to open all the gifts.

With two "First Christmases" it was especially fun this year.

Claire

Trey and Delaney and their Snuggies. They were so excited.

Taylor and her digital camera

Even though Dane had no idea what was going on he still got soo excited when I would help him open a gift.

Look what I got, my first basketball!

Loved to open the presents!

What is this?

A choo choo

Good thing Daddy brought his truck.....sooo many toys!

Our family has really grown over the years. We have added 4 husbands, 1 wife, 3 nieces and 2 nephews. We decided to start drawing names. The siblings draw names and then the spouses draw names. We still buy for all of the nieces and nephews because it is so much fun.

One of my favorite gifts was this necklace from my brother, T.J., and his wife, Ashley. It has Dane's name engraved on the front and his birthdate on the back. I love it!

Mama and Dane taking a break from unwrapping!

Taylor, Dane's newest babysitter

All of the cousins Christmas Morning in their Christmas PJs.

Mama and her grandchildren

This picture is a family tradition. When we were little they used to videotape us running down the steps, then we would have to stand on the stairs for the still shot.

Rau kids and spouses

The Boys!

Every year it is a huge dilemma on what to get my parents. This year, after about 100 emails, we finally decided on a present. My parents have always talked about how neat it would be to get a hotel room downtown to watch the Fair St. Louis fireworks on 4th of July. We got them an archview room at the Millennium Hotel in downtown St. Louis for the 4th of July. They loved it and were so surprised. Of course they said they want us all to come with them. My sister in law, Ashley, made this neat picture with a tag on it that said, "Merry Christmas. Enjoy the 4th of July fireworks from your archview room at the Millennium Hotel."

Dane's First Christmas Outfit on for Christmas Day

I love Christmas morning at my parent's house. My mom loves traditions and she has so many neat ones. It is exciting to think of Dane being part of everything.

After the two hour gift opening event we all got ready to head to my Grandma's house for Christmas dinner and more gift giving.