The Birthday Girl

Here is a play by play of the birthday festivities for Ruby's big day. First of all, you can tell that she is pretty excited to be the birthday girl. Do you know that she kept this little hat on the entire night? It was so cute.
So next comes the cake. We made Pinkalicious cupcakes (from a favorite book) and of course the anticipation is always "What are they going to do with it?" As you can see, Ruby very timidly decides to touch this pink thing and see what it is all about. She then tastes the frosting and likes it. But what do we expect her to do with it??So now she is calling to her mom, "Ahhhhhh!" (which we translated to mean, "Come feed me!")Instead mom attempts to encourage her to grab it on her own. She refuses to grab on to it, however, and so just ends up with a very messy hand. And what in the world do we expect her to do with that??So mom caves in and feeds her. But Ruby is only interested in the frosting. Mom, thinking that she needs to enjoy the full wonderfulness of cake, forces a big ol' bite of cake in her mouth.Ruby is NOT impressed! Too many people watching, too much attention, and "Why can't I just lick the frosting in peace!!" So thus ends the great cupcake experiment.We still have presents to open, however! This present we're all looking at here is the little book that Tyler bought her with his own money. (Sweet!) Well, she loves this book! In fact, through all the rest of the present opening, can you see what she is holding on to? The little book! We thought about trying to force her to put it down, to enjoy her other toys, but we learned our lesson with the cake and just let her enjoy her book. Tyler was so proud! So there's our birthday girl! Sweet, sweet girl.

Happy First Birthday Ruby!!

Little Ruby is one year old!! I know I keep saying this, but I cannot believe that she is this old! When I think back to her birth - seven days overdue, German hospital, movers coming 10 days later - it seems like an eternity has passed. But as I look at these pictures, and look at Ruby, I can hardly believe that a year has passed. Ruby has always been so happy, so content, and so sweet. And she is tiny, too! I think that she might weight 17 pounds by now, so she is really helping in the allusion that I still have a tiny baby. None of us can imagine our life without her! We love you Ruby!! Happy Birthday.

Our yard project

For those of you who haven't heard, we have been undertaking a MAJOR yard overhaul these past few weeks. When we bought this house, only about half of the backyard was completed. The back half was as wild as can be - and not in a nice way. It was full of rocks and weeds, and was basically a real mess. And let's face it. Builders aren't landscapers and they really don't put in the highest quality grass and shrubs. So we're facing this major project, and frankly not at all excited about putting in a bunch more of this terrible grass that we currently had. So thanks to an unusually large tax refund, and landscape companies that are willing to bargain for business, we ripped out all of our existing grass and shrubs and re-did the whole yard! Of course this entailed extending the sprinklers, getting a blueprint for what we wanted the new yard to look like, and harassing poor unsuspecting neighbors (and neighbors of friends!) about their type of grass. We were quite annoying, I'm sure. But at the end of the day (well, more accurately, at the end of 13 days of a 5 man team working 10 hour days) we have a beautiful new yard!! It has been very, very exciting to watch the progress, and to see our idea turn into reality. So I realize that we've included about as many pictures of this yard as people add of a newborn child, but hey...we're excited! The first 4 pictures are the "before" pictures, followed by two "during" pictures, and then the finished product! Well, almost. We still have lights that will go up in the trees in the backyard, a raised garden bed over on the side (in the big empty rectangle) and then our fire pit and additional chairs to go in the crushed granite seating area. Wish us luck in the upkeep! We may never be seen again, since we'll be mowing and weeding every weekend away. Oh well. P.S. I have no idea why or how this font is underlined. No clue. Nor how to change it. Sorry!








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Ruby's Mischief

I love this little Ruby! Even when she is destroying the kitchen, sneaking into the kid's candy stash, or coating her hair and face in chocolate chip cookie, she is still such a sweetie. Look at that little face! How can you do anything other than just laugh and snap a picture? Am I just getting old? Am I turning into a softy? I do try and tell her no on occasion, and she just smiles her little smile - usually even laughs at my feeble attempts to discipline her - but she heads on to something new. If all babies were this easy, I think I would have 100!