2008 in Review

2008 brought many weddings, babies and changes in our lives. Here's our year in review:

January - Nothing really exciting happened in January.

February - I had my one year anniversary with the Alton Police Department!!! I am still loving it today.

March - Steve had a scare when I totalled my squad car in a traffic crash while on duty. There were no visible injuries other than a burn on my chin from the deployment of the airbags, but I had a pretty bad concussion and no short term memory for close to two weeks. Steve's patience was definitely tested.

April - Some of our good friends, Sara & Scott, delivered their first child, Adam. He's super cute and all boy. Steve celebrated a promotion with Liberty Bank and was transferred to the Belthalto branch.

May - Steve found himself another year older and now sharing his birthday with his cousin Ashley's new daughter, Lucy. She too is super cute.

June - We celebrated our one year anniversary! Sometimes it's hard to believe we made it this far, other days it seems like we just met. Steve's sister Kacy also married her beau, Kyle. It was a beautiful wedding and we loved being able to participate. Thanks for including us!

July - Our friend James celebrated the birth of his son, Schafer. Congrats James! Steve bought a scooter to save money while gas prices were through the roof. He was so cute tooling all around town.

August - We got a hot tub!!!! Steve's cousin Johnny and his wife, Mary, were SUPER generous and gave us their old hot tub. Steve solicited our friends from STL to move the tub from The Lair's back yard onto the trailer and then I solicited a bunch of guys from work to move the tub from the trailer to the pad built by Steve and my dad. I was expecting this grandious effort complete with grunting and sweat pouring, but I was SORELY disappointed. They made it look absolutely effortless.

September - Steve and our friend, Amy, threw a surprise party for my birthday at the house. It was a luau theme and a ton of fun. I didn't even have to cook anything! It was great to have all the family and friends together (even though I felt a little under the weather)

October - The first found us on an airplane en route to Phoenix, Arizona. We went to Arizona so Steve could be the best man in his best friend Brandon's wedding. Mary was a beautiful bride and we even managed to fit in a trip to the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous. On the 3rd our niece, Eva Grace Riney, was born to Sam and Kate. Patrick makes a great big brother and Sam and Kate are handling two children smashingly. In the middle of the week I worked on my first CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) class in an instructor role. It's awesome that I am actually using my Communications degree while working in this field!

November - I had to work on Thanksgiving Day, so Steve spent the day with his families and I stopped at my parents' house in between calls. The day after Thanksgiving we all traveled to Chicago to celebrate Christmas with the Hatfields and PawPaw's 80th Birthday. It was lovely having everyone together in one place. That virtually never happens.

December - On the 2nd Steve's cousin Jeremy was blessed with a baby girl, Kiera Vivenne Bright. She is absolutely beautiful and doing wonderfully. She's now off the respirator and gaining weight and strength. On the 8th Steve started a new job with Regions Bank. He misses the people at Liberty, but is very optimistic about the growth potential. Some of the Alpha Phi girls got together for an annual ornament exchange and it was great to spend time with everyone and their families. If only we lived closer so we could get together more often. On the 17th Sam turned 30! Kate and I arranged for his best friend, Shawn, to fly into town and surprise him. It was great. The family all went to eat at Bella Milano and then us young folk went to Dave & Buster's to play. I had to work on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we have been hitting all the families since.

The whole year has really been a whirlwind, but we have been able to reflect on how blessed we are and thank our friends and family for everything.

Steve Leaves Liberty

Monday Steve started a new job. He has left Liberty is now at Regions Bank in Granite City. So far, he loves it! It's a little better pay and a LOT more growth opportunity. We are very optomistic about the change.

YAY Family!!!

Thanksgiving was great. I worked Thanksgiving Day, but Steve hit both of his families and my dad's family was in town from Chicago and Milwaukee, so it was great to catch up. My nephew, Patrick, and my cousin Sarah's daughter, Casey, were too cute. Patrick was absolutely enthralled by another kid being around so they could play. We did our Christmas exchange that Wednesday and then lunch on Thanksgiving Day. Since my parents live in the city, it was nice to be able to stop in for a plate of goodness. Thanks!

Friday morning, Mom, Sam, Kate, Patrick, Eva and I drove up to Chicago to meet up with my mom's family for a lovely Christmas gathering and to celebrate my PawPaw's 80th birthday. My dad and Steve then rode the last train out of Alton up and met us there.

It was great getting to be around the whole family. That never happens! Megan and Jaime's kids are growing like weeds and all the kids played together so very well. I have pictures from the gatherings, but I will have to add those later as I have apparently not yet loaded them on this computer.

I hope this note finds everyone well and in good spirits for the next holiday. Love you all!

What I'm Thankful For - 2008

A friend of mine from high school used to always make a list of each thing for which he was thankful. The last couple of years I have tried to do the same. I mean, really it's what Thanksgiving should be about right? You should each make your own whether you share it with the masses, or keep it for yourself, it really helps put you in the spirit for the upcoming holiday. The following is my list of things for which I am thankful this year:

1. My husband, Steve - for all the love and all the fights...my life would not be as full without him.

2. Our puppy dog, Toby - he gives unconditional love and will do whatever he can to make us smile.

3. My neice, Eva, and nephew, Patrick - who knew you could love two little people so much?

4. My family - The Rineys, The Hejnas, and The Sifrigs. Each has a special place in my heart.

5. Good friends - We are blessed to have so many more than below.

6. My job - The schedule sometimes is rough, but it stays interesting

7. Helping Others - Steve and I put together one of the events for St. Baldrick's to raise money for kid's cancer research

8. Our First Year Wedding Anniversary - Steve had the florist do a remake of my wedding bouquet. It was fabulous!

9. Taking Scooter Rides - Steve rode more than I did, but it was fun to go through town on it

10. Kacy & Kyle's Wedding - It was a truly wonderful day guys...thanks for including us...we love you!

11. Completed House Projects - The hot tub is great and SO relaxing!

12. Days on the lake - Thanks Tim! Miss you!!!

13. Birthday Surprises - Steve and Amy threw me a birthday luau. It was great!

14. The Grand Canyon - It was absolutely breath taking

15. Pumpkin Picking with the fam - Patrick was so cute running to all of the pumpkins. It was ADORABLE!!!

Cleaning Day!

Steve and I spent the entire day cleaning, re-arranging, and just generally re-organizing our house with the help of my parents.

It was FABULOUS!!! Organization truly is my bliss.

The whole thing started because my Aunt Beck and Uncle Pete gifted us a second refrigerator so we would have more storage room. SO, we had to find a place to fit the fridge in our teeny house.

It fit quite well in the back room one I purged some stuff. I was a throwing away machine today. Mom had to stop me a couple of times before I threw away something I actually needed. Thanks again Mom!

Steve and Dad installed the fridge and hooked up the icemaker (YAY! We will have ice on a regular basis now.) They also hung the new curtain rods in the living room and dining room. And finally, they fixed our long broken grill! (Now we will have ice AND grilled meat! I won't know how to act.)

It was so cute watching the my men do the "manly" jobs around the house. I kept Mom busy too though. While the boys were installing the fridge Toby and I locked ourselves in the bedroom and then I cleaned out my closet and moved my summer attire to the garage and unpacked the sweaters.

Once Mom got here she joined right in on the action. She and I finished the backing for the living room curtains (we bought thermal panels for the back to save energy and hopefully save us some money). Soon after that was done the boys decided they were hungry so we made a food run. Once everyone had eaten Mom and I cleaned, scrubbed and re-arranged the mud room.

All in all, it was a great day with family. You can't ask for too many of those. We only wish all of our family lived as close so we could spend more time with them.

Below are some pics of the results of our hard work. If you haven't been to our house, you probably can't appreciate the change, but like a doof, I forgot to take "before" pics. We love you all!

Whaddya think?

Steve and Toby were pretty pooped after a long day of work

And the mud room...I know not very exciting.

We finally decided to blog

People keep asking us what's new and exciting in our lives. We don't feel like there is anything to tell when people ask, but this way we can give you all a weekly or bi-weekly update so everyone can stay in the loop.

It seems like this year has FLOWN by. Steve is still working at Liberty Bank and is in school at Lewis & Clark. I am still an Alton Police Officer and love it!

Toby is about as big as we think he is going to get, but he is doing so well. We went to Gordon Moore Park to have family photos taken last week (For our Christmas cards) and he was too funny. I swear we thought he was going to jump in the lake at LEAST five times.

Steve and I are trying to figure out what we are doing for the upcoming holidays since I have to work. Juggling all the families is tiring, but worth it in the end.

Please drop by often and fill us in on the happenings in your lives too. We love you all!
Em & Steve