Happy Birthday Suzy!!

This is a shout out to my sister Suzy, whos birthday is today. Even though she feels old to be 23, she deserves a little praise on her birthday. Suzy is really the best sister, sister-in-law, and Aunt in the world. I have been so proud of her over the past year. She has graduated from college, has transitioned well into the working world (she is a RN at Barnes), and is now getting married to a great guy (Clayton, we love you too) this coming May. It is hard to believe my little sis has grown up so much.
Sammy loves his Aunt Su-su (as he says) and rightfully so. You can just tell she loves him to death and gives him all of her attention when he is around. You Mom's out there know what a great feeling it is to see someone else love your kids almost as much as you do.
Anyway, Suzy, Happy Birthday! Your 23rd year looks to be another exciting one.

We love you,
Rikki, Gregg and Sam

Let the season begin!!

What a fun weekend! Julie and Jeff Hagar (friends from college who lives in Atlanta), my parents, and Gregg's cousin Amanda (who goes to school at Truman) all came and stayed with us this weekend.
My parents were nice enough to watch Sam while Gregg and I went with the Hagar's to the Mizzou-Ill game. Of course my parents (and Sam) did come in the afternoon for some tailgating but left before the game to watch the game from the comforts of our living room. From what I hear Sam did stay awake for a lot of the game and loved to yell "Touchdown!"
We did a lot of tailgate hopping at the stadium and were able to meet up with a lot of friends and family. My sis, Suzy and Clayton and the Mignerone's also went to the game with us. Of course we enjoyed the Mizzou victory- Go Tigers!!



Sam and I are headed to Marshall on Wed to help prepare for Wade and Ashley's wedding. I am sure we will keep you updated and have lots of pics/stories to tell after the wedding.

We got ya!

While talking to my Mom late last week, I could tell that she, 1. Was getting a little worried about getting everything done for my brother Wade and Ashley's wedding (which is Sept 6 at my parents house), 2. Really missing Sammy. So Gregg and I decided to drive to Marshall on Saturday morning to surprise them and of course help out a little. My Mom was surprised to say the least. We were really glad we went, we had a great time and I think we helped out some anyway.
Sam absolutely loves being at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He just runs the whole time we are there. There is just so much to get into out there on the farm and he can't decide what he wants to get into from one moment to the next. His favorite thing to do though is ride the riding lawn mower with Grandpa. Unfortunately, we forgot our camera in our last minute packing but here are some pics from earlier this summer of Sam at the farm.





















Sam is going to be the ring bearer in Wade and Ashley's wedding. While we were there this weekend we figured we needed to start practicing this whole walking down the aisle thing. We bribed him with some snacks at the end of the aisle, hoping this works for the big day. Here is a video I took on my phone, as you can see we may get him down the aisle but will have no control over his speed.

Steely Dan

My sister, Suzy and I took our dad last night to see Steely Dan in ooncert at the Fabulous Fox. It is a fabulous place to watch a concert. In typical fashion we procrastinated on buying the tix and ended up buying them on craigslist. We didn't think they would be great seats but at least we were there. The seats were in middle balcony but were still very good seats.
The only disappointment of the night was that not a single person in our section got up to dance. We held out to the very end of the concert but couldn't resisting standing and dancing. There were actually people who got up and walked to sit in front of us. Oh well- Suzy and I had to dance to at least a couple songs with our Dad while he was watching his favorite band ever.
It was a fun night- I hope we do it again on the next tour.

AHHHH.....Fantasy Football season is here

We started this fine Sunday morning with our friends the Winker's coming over bright and early for Gregg and Mark's Fantasy Football draft. Unfortunately the season is here. Don't get me wrong, I am happy that Gregg has a hobby that he enjoys, that is relatively harmless. It is also good to see him talking to his friends in NY more throughout NFL season, even if the conversations always revolve around trades and over analyzation of each player he has on his team. I just dread the late hours of research, distracted thoughts on possible trades whenever I am trying to talk to Gregg, and several months of not being able to get much accomplished on the weekend, specifically Sunday.
All this being said, we did have a great visit with the Winker's. Ben and Sam are becoming quite the buddies; and Sam really loves his Baby Eli. He just wants to love and kiss on Eli the whole time he is here. He became very concerned today about keeping a pacifer in Eli's mouth. If Sam noticed Eli fussing, he would scramble to find his pacifier and put it right in Eli's mouth for him. It was very cute. Here is a pic of Sam helping little Eli out

Until next time Ben.....

Hope to do it again soon, Winkers, even if it does revolve around Fantasy Football:)

Where has the summer gone?

I know I probably say this every summer...and spring and fall. I definitely don't say it in the winter, but really this summer has vanished. It is already mid-August! We are sad to see the summer nearing the end but on the other hand are excited about the fall, especially Mizzou football! We received our Mizzou-Illinois tickets in the mail today. They are definitely nose bleed seats but we will be excited to be there anyway. Sam is very excited also, his favorite book these days is "Hello Truman"- the story of Truman, the Mizzou mascot. Everytime he sees Truman in a picture, t-shirt or whatever he says "Hello", hasn't got the Truman yet but good enough. He also loves the part in the book where they say the M-I-Z Z-O-U cheer. He pumps his hand in the air and attempts saying the letters, it is actually pretty close at times. Surely in a few weeks, he will have it down and be officially ready for the season.
Getting back to the summer ending soon, here are some of our favorite pics from this summer. Hope you enjoy.
He is going to hate me for the one if the giraffe boots but he insisted on putting those on one day when we were airing his bottom out from a case of diaper rash. The other pics are of: Sam with Grandma and Grandpa at Julie's wedding; enjoying an ice cream sandwich after being totally filthy at Grandma and Grandpa's house; Jake Quigley and Sam on our trip to NY; and our best attempt at trying to get a picture of all of the cousins together (after that we determined that was nearly an impossible task:)

Time to breathe...

I have been trying to get this blog going but have been so overwhelmed this summer. We are so busy all the time. I feel like we take tons of pictures and I don't even know where to begin on telling the tales of the Jost family. This August has started out being kind of quiet- we were actually home all weekend this past weekend. I decided that a quiet weekend would be a good place to start.

Our "quiet" weekend included hanging out with our friends the VanRonzelen's on Friday, going to the Zoo on Saturday morning, having Aunt Suzy and Uncle Clayton over Saturday, and starting the process of staining Sam's new swing set (which was kindly given to us by our neighbors).

The rest of the summer has of course revolved around our Sammy. He is growing up right before our eyes. This is such a fun age but boy does he keep us busy. He is saying new words everyday and it is amazing to see how much more he understands the world around him. On top of this we have traveled to weddings (including one in Chicago), have reduced ourselves to only have one mortgage (we rented our other house), made many fun trips to see Grandma/Grandpa Gauldin, gotten a little more settled in our new house, enjoyed getting to know our new neighborhood, and are preparing for the other Gauldin children's weddings (Wade in Ashley Sept. 6 and Suzy/Clayton May 16).

So hopefully we keep up on this but here is a start anyway.