Baby T Turns One

Baby T turned one this past week.  Josh and I drove down from Iowa City to St. Louis for his party.  Because of the freezing rain/ice storm this weekend, we were only able to spend a couple hours visiting.  It was incredible to see how much Baby T has grown up in the past year.  My heart melted when he wanted to hold my hand while he walked around with the gift Emily gave him...for like 30 minutes straight.  T, I could hold your hand for hours.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend.  I cannot wait until I get to hang out with T again.  Also, seeing Heather and Dan was pretty great, too.  When they lived down the street from me, we had no idea how good we had it.  It's hard to have them so far away.  I cried for the first hour of the drive back to Iowa City.  Emily says when we're old and retired, we can all live on the same street in a retirement community in Florida.  I really hope that happens, because living so far away from friends stinks.

Below is proof of the crazy freezing rain/ice storm.  Also, I'm a little ashamed of myself for not having an actual window scraper in my car.  However, I found a paint stirrer in my trunk; it proved  quite effective in removing the ice.

Baby Fever

I haven't caught the baby fever that seems to be sweeping my friends (yet), however I have an appreciation for babies.  I think Jessica's Baby J is super cool (she's like a miniature Jessica), and Heather's sweet Baby T melts my heart (just scroll down to see some adorable pictures).  I had the pleasure of spending Sunday through Wednesday in St. Louis with Heather and her family.  I miss having Heather living less than five minutes from my house, so spending any amount of time with her is always special.  In the past few months, I can't believe how much Baby T has grown and developed.  He can crawl like crazy now (I'm pretty sure he'll be a track star), and pulls himself up on whatever he can grab (furniture, people, etc.).  Here are just a few pictures from my STL adventure (including a trip to the zoo - scratch number 12 off my 30 before 30 list!).  I can't wait to go back and visit again.  STL is actually quite lovely in the fall. 

Happy baby pulled himself up on the sofa.

Baby with bunny ears

STL Zoo

 

He makes the cutest faces!

Sweet Alison loves to cuddle up on the sofa (especially during nap time).

Seriously, you can't help but love this little guy!

Alison missed me very much!

Group photos are hard with kids and dogs.  Lesson learned.

Sweet Baby T

I kept having to back up to take this photo since Baby T kept speeding up his crawl.

Sweet Little Guy

Baby T is six months old. How did that even happen? I still remember when Heather told me she was pregnant. We were on our way to dinner at El Azteca in Ankeny (I was driving Big Blue, Josh's truck), and while we were stopped at the stop light at Oralabor and Delaware, she blurted out she was pregnant. So, needless to say, she didn't have a margarita at dinner. Anyway, Baby T just had his pictures taken by Melanie Haynes, and I had to share. Be prepared for your heart to be stolen. He's pretty adorable.

I'm pretty sure that's Heather's smile.

Dani's Bridal Shower

Saturday was Dani's bridal shower.  In typical Kappa fashion, most of our pledge class attended.  Heather came from St. Louis, and Amy, Karissa and Michaun came from Chicago.  We also had the appearance of two sweet babies - Baby J and Baby T.  The bridal shower was at the Penoach Winery in Adel.  After that, we had pole dancing lessons at Kees Camp.  Then, we went to dinner at Aparre and out to Waukee for drinks.  I actually stayed out until the bars closed at 2.  It's a record.  Mark that one down, folks.  It won't happen again for a while.

Danie, the future bride-to-be

I made a great auntie!  Love you, Baby T!

Karissa, Katie, Amy, Lindsay and Michaun

Heather and Baby T

Jessica and Baby J

Baby T and Baby J playing together

Swapping spit!

Kappas!

The best karaoke song ever - Fresh Prince of Bel Aire

My BFF's baby

One of my best friends used to live about 5 minutes away from my house.  Then, her husband got transferred to St. Louis.  That's not exactly in my neighborhood.  It's actually 309 miles from my house (unless I drive some random way thanks to Google Maps).  Anyway, I hate living so far away from her.  Especially when she had Baby T.  He is probably the cutest little nugget I've ever seen.

What a dreamy little guy!

These are more of his newborn pictures.  I keep a tab open on my computer so I can see what he looks like at any given moment.  I miss him (and his mommy and daddy).  I hope someday we can live in the same hood again.  Those were the days...