We're back!

After what seemed like an eternity we are back up and running with internet service. We closed on our new house in St. Charles, MO two weeks ago and love it here! We took the girls to the St. Louis Science Museum today and Aubrey had a blast! Eva slept in her sling the entire time, so I'm sure she enjoyed it as well. As far as pictures...they will be coming soon. We have been so busy with the unpacking and sleepless nights that I admit I have been neglecting my camera since we moved here. I will put on some pictures from our outing today, but there arent' any of Eva since she was all snuggled up and you couldn't even see her sweet face. I will take pictures tomorrow and upload them so you can see how much our little Eva has changed. Once I get things situated around the house we will put up some pictures so you can see our new living arrangements! We have so much to be thankful for, and are so grateful for this time in our lives. We got our house in VA on the market and the first person to look at it made an offer. Granted, it wasn't what we were hoping for, but with the way the market is we were able to negotiate a price that we were both comfortable with and look forward to closing on Sept 26 (*fingers crossed*)! Both our girls are growing so fast. Aubrey had her 18 month check up and is weighing in at a whopping 22 lb 15 oz (25th percentile). She is in the 95th perentile for her height, so we have a tall slender one on our hands (we have no idea where she gets that from)! Eva had her one month check up and is also gaining weight. She came in at an astounding 9 lb 10 oz, which means she is gaining roughly a pound a week! Her arms and legs are chunky and her double chin grows every day :)! All in all, life is great, and we're grateful for such wonderful family and friends to share it with!

This was the shoe from the tallest man in the world. He as almost 9 feet tall and wore a size 34 she by the time he was 16!
Playing in the teepee

A special thanks to Maryn for the dress Aubrey is wearing. I know you sent it for Eva to wear next summer, but I thought it was TOO adorable to keep in a closet for a year, and it fit Aubrey perfectly (and looked so dang cute on her)! Thanks for keeping our girls stylish :) Maryn!

Introducing to society...Evalyn Marie Lenahan

I know everyone is DYING to see pictures of our newest addition, so without further adue we would like to introduce you to Evalyn Marie Lenahan. She was born on Sunday, July 20 at 5:30 p.m. Ryan flew into town Saturday night and we went to bed at 12:30. I woke him up at 5:30 to get ready to go to the hospital. We arried at the hospital at 7 am with contractions every 5 minutes apart and dilated to a 3. They got to 3-4 minutes and then at 11:30 all but stopped! They were ready to send us home, to come back the next day for our scheduled inducement. However, someone forgot to actually schedule it with the hospital and they weren't able to get us in until wed or thursday (and Ryan had to fly back on sunday). That would only give Ryan 2 days at home with us before leaving again, and that was not ok with me. Needless to say, they let us stay in the hospital and started me on pitocin around 12:45. I don't remember exactly what time it was, but once I hit 6 cm they broke my water. They asked when I wanted my epidural, and up to that point my contractions were completely bearable so I told them I would wait a little longer. I spent the entire time out of bed walking around and mostly just chilling on the birthing ball while Ryan massaged my back and put wet washcloths on my forehead. They decided to check me again, and as soon as I crawled back into bed the contractions felt much much worse. Needless to say, I was now ready for the epidural. Only problem was that by this point I was dilated to 9.5 and nearly ready to push. So much for the epidural! I started pushing and she was out in no time at all. Long story short...I was grateful for the natural experience, but I'll be honest...I missed my epidural. But the result was priceless...and here she is!

Who says prearranged marriages are no good?

Well, we think we may have found the one for Aubrey. As parents we seem to know what's best for our kids, and we're happy to announce that Gabe could quite possibly be "the one". He invited Aubrey over for a swim the other day and they loved it! They loved it so much that he invited her back the very next day and they swam again. To show her appreciation, Aubrey smothered Gabe with kisses! Here are some of my favs from the day!

Look at those faces...what a riot!

One of many kisses of the day!

Gabe got Aubrey first...

but Aubrey quickly retaliated!

Those curls kill me...I just love 'em (thanks daddy for passing them onto our daughter)

more kisses...

Who says you can't mix business with pleasure ;)!

Thanks Jenny for sending us copies of these pictures. I will be sure to post more pictures from our trip to St. Louis and Texas as soon as I find the cable to connect my camera to the computer! Until then...enjoy and we'll post again after this baby comes on MONDAY!

Our crazy lives...

We have been in St. Louis for the past week and a half and have fallen in love with the area! There is so much to do (and the best part is that most everything is free). We went to the zoo last weekend (free) and had a blast. Unfortunately, in our quick departure, I left our cable that uploads our pictures to the computer in BV. I found some cute older ones that I will post, but I will give an update, as a lot has happened in the past week and a half. Aubrey and I made a new best friend named Angela. She is our realtor here and we spent a good three days with her last week looking at homes. The good news is that we have found one, and have a contract on it! It is a 4 BR, 2 BA split level in Saint Charles, MO with a HUGE backyard (which means we will get a dog soon). We fell in love with the house the minute we walked through it and are excited to close on August 4th. Aubrey also made another friend, this one a doctor. Aubrey got pink eye and an ear infection our first week here, but the medicine has helped and she is doing much better!

Aubrey and I fly down to Dallas tonight for a Smith family reunion, and Ryan will join us Friday evening. Ryan will fly back to STL while Aubrey and mommy drive back to VA with Grandma and Grandpa Smith, and Charlie where we will stay until the baby is born. Then in August we will fly to STL permanently and move into our new home! July and August will be months of big change for us!

Ryan is really enjoying his new job and even got invited by some big shot in corporate to a spin class. So Ryan got up bright and early this morning for a 5:30 a.m. spin class. I can just picure him on a stationary bike :)! He's doing really well and learning a lot. He took a practice test for his series 7 (or maybe it was his 63) liscence yesterday, and his boss said he shouldn't have any trouble passing. We'll keep our fingers crossed and our knees bent (as my dad would say), but know the Lord will continute to bless our quickly growing family.
Well, that is more than enough reading for one sitting (if anyone is still reading by this point), so until we get that darn cable back...enjoy these old pics of Aubrey from the library in Lexington!

Uncle Charlie's graduation

I know this video is sideways, but it was too cute not to post! Our little helper. She loves to observe people and mimicks just about everything she sees.

Memorial Day bliss!

We had a blast on Memorial day with Grandma and Grandpa Smith. They took the three of us to the Virginia Safari Park and it was quite the experience! Aubrey absolutely loved the animals and got excited everytime one came up to the car. She would take one piece of grain from the bucket and hold it out for the animals to come and eat. Unfortunately, mommy is a bit overprotective and made sure the animals mouths never came close to her tiny fingers. The animals loved eating out of the buckets, and one animal even stole the bucket of feed out of Ryan's hands. One bucket down, three left. Then, the same animal went up to my mom and stole the bucket of feed out of her hands too. Another bucket down. Needless to say, we laughed until our sides hurt, and made lots of new "friends". We will certainly miss Buena Vista, and living so close to family! Enjoy some pictures from our trip to the park and then scroll to the end for the update on our job search -- we've finally made up our minds (don't skip to the end :)!

Yes, Aubrey is out of her car seat, but that is kosher at the safari park. It just wouldn't have been the same sitting in a car seat while the animals walked around outside the car. She loved it!

I've never seen a zebra this close up before! It was neat for Aubrey to see some of the animals we read about in her books up close and personal.
An ostrich...this was another first for me.
Watoosee catle...never even heard of one until I saw it at the park. They were pretty intimidating and one of them tried to attack my mom and get her food. It was funny to watch my mom pull back and roll up her window as fast as she did!
This llama looked like it had a glass eye, so naturally we had to take a picture and document it :)!
Here is a video of mom feeding one of the ostriches. They were a riot to watch eat!




Ok, so the promised update. Ryan interviewed in Atlanta, Roanoke, and St. Louis. St. Louis was our number one choice, for a number of reasons, and we had already heard back from the other two (they both wanted him). Wachovia Securities flew him out to St. Louis on a Wed. and they called him on Friday to offer him the position. The official offer wasn't available until after he passed his drug/fingerprint test and backround check (we were really nervous about that ;). Well, they finally came back with the official offer (numbers and dates and all) today and was actually considerably more than we were expecting. Ryan starts his new job with Wachovia Securities on June 16 (only two weeks away). Aubrey and I will stay here in VA (for insurance purposes) until the baby is born in July. We will really miss Ryan, but are so proud of him and how hard he has worked to provide for our growing family! So, if anyone is ever in the St. Louis area...you have some friends to visit and a place to stay :)!

A month's worth of life in a single post...I am good!

Ok, so I know it's been forever since we've posted anything, but it has been an exciting, and eventful, month for the Lenahan clan. We took a trip down to Atlanta for one of Ryan's high school best friend's wedding...CONGRATS Kent and Holly! Ryan had job interviews in Atlanta, Roanoke, and St. Louis. I'll bet you're just dying to know which job we are taking (my amazing husband was offered all 3 jobs -- no surprise to me), but you'll have to check back later for an updated post about all of that. We got our tax return and thought we'd buy Aubrey a pool to play in since it is definitely warming up around these parts. Aaron, Mary, Georgi, and Hannah visited and Georgi was baptized...CONGRATS Georgi. We had a combined birthday party for Grandpa and Georgi and just enjoyed spending time with family. That has been our month in a nutshell, so scroll down for the proof of it all!

RANDOM PICS OF AUBREY...she is growing so fast and is SO much fun, and quite creative!

Aubrey is such a girl. She found one of my slips so Ryan turned it into a dress for her. Then she had to have the heels and necklace to go with it all. Our little fashonista (although we don't expect to see people walking around in a slip dress in public...what you people do in your own homes is your business ;)

Aubrey loves pens (she drew on the wall for the first time this month) so we're trying to teach her to write on paper and not the wall.

We just loved this picture...it really shows off her gorgeous eyes and dimple.

Aubrey loves to play the "where's Aubrey game" and believe it or not that is what she is doing here. She looks mad, but really is a happy little girl.

Aubrey and her friend Alexys found a box to play in and it occupied them for quite some time!

Ryan comes home from working out in the morning and makes a protein shake. Aubrey LOVES to sit down with him and share a shake with her daddy! Got milk anyone?

Aubrey's new position...she squats for everything!

SWIMMING FUN!

She spent the ENTIRE time climbing in and out, and very little time actually "swimming", but they had a blast!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGI!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
I had to put this picture up because it reminded me of the time that Will bought Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure for dad for Christmas (because Will really liked it). My mom gave my dad Enchanted as one of his gifts becasue she really liked it. The truth is that dad really liked it as well, so it ended up being a hit!





KENT AND HOLLY'S WEDDING!

Ryan and "the boys" from high school.

While we were in Atlanta, Scotty brought his dog Bentley with him and Aubrey just went nuts! He is the sweetest dog you will ever meet and the only damage done was when Bentley got excited and accidently knocked Aubrey over with his tail! She just followed him around and gave him kisses (yes, sloppy kisses). One of these days we'll get a dog.


Aubrey learned how to climb up on the table and thought she was such big stuff!

Aubrey was obsessed with the way her dress twirled when she spun around. She may have been the only one dancing at the time, but she sure entertained herself!

Aubrey discovered that Bentley likes her animal crackers just as much as she does!

Here is Aubrey and daddy sharing a protein shake in the morning. She is talking more and it is so fun to watch and hear!