A Virginia Visit!

Many weeks ago (before my trip to Brazil), RyGuy and I traveled down to visit BF Kimmy, my BF-in-law and their daughter Ally! We were so excited to go see them (we haven't seen them since Christmas!) and celebrate Kimmy's 28th Birthday! And it's lucky we went to visit -- they will actually be moving soon because of a new job! We are excited because they will be much closer to us, but we will miss their cute VA home!

As always, below are some pictures for your enjoyment!

Uncle Ry showing Ally how to blow some bubbles!
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Ally liked the bubbles ... but maybe the stick a bit more!
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So cute!
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We spent a great day at the pool! Ally is so cute!
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I think she had a great time! We did!
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Ally trying to play video games with Daddy & Uncle Ry!
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Happy Birthday BF Kimmy!
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Seriously, ridiculously cute!
Can't believe she is ONE already!!
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Can't wait to visit you at your new place, Miss Ally!
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Showers & Floods!

I just HAD to blog about Joe flooding our lab today. Because he didn't want me to tell the world that he let a tank overflow. All over the lab. Into the hallway.

As for showers, we have another one this weekend! Matty (whom I started grad school with) and his wife Em are having a baby girl in a few months! And we're excited to celebrate!

This is the first "couples" shower I've ever been in charge of! I am thinking the typical baby shower games might not be appropriate! Maybe just some baby trivia? And lots of champagne punch??

I hope Matty & Em have a good time!

Berry's March for Babies!

My friends Becky & Colin will be taking part in this year's March of Dimes March for Babies!

Colin is an adorable little guy and I am so excited that he is already trying to do good in the world (he's not even 1-year-old yet!)! Click here to read Becky's post about it!

Please consider making a donation by either clicking through Becky's blog or clicking on the widget below! I know lots of my readers have had baby during this last "year of the baby", so I hope you consider giving just $5 or $10!



Thanks everyone!!!! And best of luck to Becky & Colin!

A is for Adorable Ally!

Yep, my best friend Kimmy has the cutest kid!

Year of the Baby!

As the year of the baby is coming to a close ...

I threw one more baby shower this past weekend!

It was for Ry's big sister Lor!

She and her husband have been trying to adopt for as long as I have known them & they're finally getting a little girl from China!!

Meet Hannah Rose Han Yun!

We had a great time at the shower, we loved painting and decorating her Tinkerbell bedroom, we've bought her lots of presents and now we can't wait to meet Hannah!!!

Buffalo, Baptism, Babies & Nephew

The title of this post really is alliterative, as Nephew's name starts with a B also! Oh alliteration!

As per usual, Ry & I had a super fabulous time in Buffalo!

We spent some good times with the folks and the lil' bro & his awesome gf. Lots of yummy Buffalo food and lots of cards (fun new rummy game!)! There's just something great about sitting around the table in the backyard and playing cards with the family! After staying up late (almost midnight!), we all got up at 8am to try to get some Wiis (Nephew's 5th birthday is coming up soon!), but didn't get any (though I think we're up to a combined 4 systems now!!)!

We also spent a beautiful day at the zoo with Nephew, big bro and sis-in-law. It's been years since I went to the Buffalo Zoo (since Nephew was only 2!), so I was excited. It looked great, there was an animal I had never even heard of in the new rainforest exhibit, and I think we all had a super great time! I also got to go to Nephew's house and meet his cute little bunny (named Mojo, after Transformers!)!

And the main event -- the whole reason we drove the 6+ hours home -- the baptism of baby Ally! I forgot to bring my camera, but she was the cutest thing in her beautiful white dress! And she didn't cry at all when the water was poured over her head! And we celebrated with a picnic at a local park. It was great to see everyone -- including little Nolan (see below), the son of our good friend (and my junior prom date!). It was chilly, but I think we all had too much fun to care!
We can't wait for our next visit -- just a few weeks until Nephew's birthday party!

I swear my Nephew will be some sort of scientist someday!
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"Aunt Sneks, why do you always have to take so many photos of me??"
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Baby Nolan is the cutest! He really like pulling my hair!
(I think the drizzle also helped to make my hair look oh-so-cute)

Too much time in the basement men's room ...

It's not what the title leads you to think ...

My scientific laboratory is acutally in the men's room in the basement of the science building.

And, really, a converted bathroom/locker room/shower room without windows (and thus outside light) is ideal for a fish laboratory.

But lately, I have spent far too much time there!

This semester I am not teaching and I am my advisor's research assistant (or ... as I like to say .. I'm my advisor's bitch).

Most graduate students would be thrilled to avoid teaching and get to spend all of their time in the lab! And I am.

It's just a lot of time in a hot (92 degrees) room, alone, with only a couple hundred fish to talk to. And I need to be there at "dawn", which means I have to be to work and ready to collect data at 7am. And, because the rest of my depatment does not function before noon, most meetings are after 4pm, so I rarely get home before 5:30 (more like 6). Thus, the 10 or 11 hour days are starting to take their toll ...

So today I found myself especially cranky. And maybe not 100% nice to everyone. And maybe I just need to get out of the men's room ...

Good thing Ry & I are headed to the B-lo for Baby Ally's baptism! Yay for a whole weekend away from work filled with family and friends (including a visit to the zoo with my awesome Nephew!!!)!!

Nephew & Every Step

Have I mentioned Nephew lately?


He's not even 5 yet and he's already doing some good in the world!

On September 13th, Nephew is doing the Every Step -- The walk for universal newborn screening -- sponsored by the Hunter's Hope Foundation.

If you're a non-Buffalonian and are unfamiliar with the Hunter's Hope Foundation, it is in honor of Hunter Kelly, the son of Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly. Hunter was born with a horrible disease that affected all of his neurons and nerves. If he had been properly diagnosed as a baby, he would have been able to receive a transplant and his hopes of survival would have increased tremendously. Unfortunately, Hunter Kelly was repeatedly misdiagnosed. The Kelly family is now working to enact laws that will require all newborns in the US to be screened for diseases that can be treated. They have already worked to pass laws in NY State and the Every Step Walk will raise funds for more legislation, research, and care for babies and their families!

As it was the "Year of the Baby", I hope that some of you could take a few minutes to sponsor Nephew in honor of all of the newborns! Just $5 will really make a difference!

To donate, just click HERE, then click the SPONSORSHIP tab, then SPONSOR NOW!, then fill out the fields with Nephew's name, his team (Savings Safari Team) and then all of your information and click away! I just did it and it only took 2 minutes!!

Thanks friends for being so generous!!!!

I'm in love with a girl ...

Ry & I had such a wonderful time this past weekend visiting little Ally in VA!! We were so excited to meet her and are so happy to have a new little "niece"! It's fun to be "Aunt" and "Uncle"!

It was great to just hang out with BF Kimmy, her hubby, Anna & Gorgeous too! We play cards, watched some olympics and even took Ally to her very first fair!! Check out the video below to see me realize one of my dreams in life -- riding a mechanical bull!!!!!!

I'm just so happy for BF Kimmy & my BF-in-law! They have the cutest daughter and she is just so happy! I can't wait to see you all again in B-lo in a few weeks!!!

Cutie Baby Ally!

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RyGuy and Ally ... Isn't the expression great?
She's all "Really??! You're letting Uncle RyGuy hold me?"
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I just wanted to take her home with us!!
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So much fun at the fair!
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Ally's enjoying her first pig races!!!
(My first pig races too!)
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So excited!! I actually rode the bull!
(Anna did too, but I figured I should only humiliate myself with a blog video!)

Can't wait to meet her!

Just another day or so until I FINALLY meet BF Baby Ally!!

Just look at this photo of her! Can you blame me for being so excited??
(and not only is she so friggin' cute, but she's also wearing the fish dress I sent her!)

Oh, and I am excited to see BF Kimmy, BF-in-law, and the newly married Anna & Gorgeous too!

YAY for super-fun, non-working weekends!!!!!!

Welcome BF Baby!!!!

Alyssa Lynn, 6-28-08, 6lbs 13oz!

My best friend Kimmy and her husband (my therefore, best-friend-in-law) had their baby in the very early hours of Saturday morning (I have never been more excited to get a 4am phone call!!!!!)! Just 2 hours after celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary!

I just knew it was going to be a girl (they didn't find out the sex until she was born, which I think is the super coolest thing)!

And I am so excited to have a little girl to take to the zoo and on the carousel and go Target shopping with me & her mom! I can't wait to meet her!

(And I'll post more pictures when I get them!)

Congratulations
BF Kimmy & BF-in-law!!

BF Baby

Oh, I almost forgot -- now that BF Kimmy's shower is over, I can show you all the baby blankets that I knit for her baby (whom I will from now on refer to as BF Baby, as he/she is the baby of my Best Friend! And she/he does not yet have a name!!)!

Because I am just so excited about BF Baby, I knit 2 blankets! Actually, I started one before BF Baby was even conceived, but it took me this long to finish it!

The light green and white stipped blanket is made out of a giant ball of self-striping boucle yarn. I just knit on the diagonal, adding a stitch at the start of each row, and then decreasing stitch at the start of each row after I was about half way through the yarn. It was easy, but took time because it is thin yarn on small needles (size 8, I think).

The dark green one is a modified Big Bad Baby Blanket. I made it out of Wool Ease Thick n' Quick yarn on a size 13 needle, with less stitches than the pattern called for, so it wasn't too huge a blanket. I just love the pattern, which is difficult to see here, but is basically a square with a seed-stitch border around the edge and then 4 alternating blocks in the center. It's my favorite pattern to knit and this new bigger yarn makes it look very fun!

I hope BF Baby and her parents enjoy them for years to come!

Showered!

For those of you dying to know -- Shower Weekend was a massive success!!

BF Kimmy's Baby Shower was a wonderful event full of lots of green and lots of frogs and lots of fun!! I am just so excited that my bestest friend (for 20 years now!!!) is having a baby! And I am so happy for her and her husband Bill that they got so many wonderful gifts last weekend and so much love from everyone!

Anna's Wedding Shower (which began just 20 hours after the baby shower ended) also went fabulously! Lots of fun had by all and lots of gifts for Anna & George to start their married life with! (Umm.. however, I am a horrible MOH and failed to take ANY photos. I suck!)

I realized something though, that I had previously failed to notice as a shower-giving friend: Moms are crazy. The only real stress associated with each shower was with the Mothers of my girlfriends. Baby Shower Mom hated the ugly room we had the shower in and was upset about the lack of seat assignments. Wedding Shower Mom was in arms over the fact that we didn't buy those pastel mints (gag me) to put on the tables and that another bridesmaid and I kept telling her to sit down and enjoy herself rather than running everything. I always tried to be nice to the Moms, but ultimately I feel like my role is to make the mom-to-be and the bride happy. Who knew that showers could make Moms so crazy?? Luckily, I am sure my mother will be totally calm whenever I get around to having my showers. We'll just share a few drinks and have a good time (right Mom?)!

Cake from Kimmy's shower (made by Bill's Aunt, not a professional bakery!)

The 3 girls!
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In addition to all of the Shower-Craziness, I was also able to spend some time with my awesome family! I had dinner with everyone (from Buffalo's famous Chinese/pizza/wing/bar restaurant), caught a movie and did some shopping with Kel (my lil' bro's gf), watched Nephew play some soccer (perhaps full-contact sports are not his thing, but he wants to be an animal rescuer anyway, so lay-off!), had a super fun time at a party thrown by my sis-in-law (and bought lots of yummy treats), and enjoyed having the "Sneks Girls" (Mom, sis-in-law, Kel and me) at both of the showers! I also enjoyed the whole 6 hours I spent with Ry!!

An action shot of my favorite Nephew at soccer!!!

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Oh, and did I mention that my car had to stay in Buffalo while I came back to the Little Town with my mom's car (Thanks Mom!) because I HAD to give a final??

Overall though, I think the weekend was a HUGE success!! And I already miss all my friends & family!!

It's a Boy!

Welcome to the world little Nolan Lloyd!

Our good friends Dr. D & A welcomed their first child into the world this weekend! Ry & I are so excited for them and look forward to many more funny stories of parenthood (already Dad has almost been peed on!)!

Mommy A is my hero. This little guy was almost 10 lbs! She is a strong lady and Nolan is lucky to have such great parents!

We hope to come visit you all in the midwest sometime in the next few months!

Nolan was the first to receive one of the hand-knitted baby blankets that I have been working on this year (aka "The year of the baby"). Because I had previously made his mom a scarf out of green Wool Ease, I decided that he needed a blue blanket made of Wool Ease Thick & Quick. For all of you knitters out there -- I totally recommend it! It's machine washable, not itchy, and it is a super quick knit. The pattern is just a diagonal baby blanket knit on size 15 needles. I loved it so much I had to run out and buy more of this yarn!

Hope you enjoy your blankie, Nolan! Be good for Mom & Dad!