Sunday, December 30, 2007

happy new year!

Our favorite Christmas present, Ruby

We had such a good trip in Florida. Ruby did really well the whole time. John & I could tell that she was a bit stressed, but she was still really happy and friendly with everyone. Ruby was so happy to be home though! When we got into our house, she just smiled at everything and shook, she was so excited.
I know most of you live in FL, but if you don't, we had gorgeous weather. It was sunny and warm. Ruby could be seen in just her diaper several times, she was so hot. Her Christmas outfits didn't get much wear, unfortunately, she was just too warm.
We really loved visiting everyone and especially introducing Ruby to friends & family. John & I were having so much fun that we forgot to take some great pictures. I really regret that. There were a bunch of people that we didn't get to see though, and we're so sad about that. I guess you will just have to come to Oregon to visit.
Here are some of our pictures.

Ruby & Nana

Giant Ruby with 6-week-old Kylee. Me & my friend from college, Christi

Ruby & Lourdes, my good friend from high school

Ruby & Tina, my other good friend from high school

picture by Lourdes

Ruby & Papa

Ruby & Gramps

Ruby & Grandma

Uncle Eddie, Aunt Bri & us in our matching Christmas pajamas made by Grandma

Picture by Gramps

Back home in the cute little poncho Grandma made for Ruby

Sunday, December 16, 2007

new video



I get misty every time I watch this. Ruby makes us so proud! John had been reading this book with her over and over. This was the 5th time in a row. He called me in the room after the 3rd time because she waited until he was done reading and then turned the page EVERY TIME! In the video, she's a bit distracted by the camera - this kid loves the camera, but she still shows off her new trick a bunch. Enjoy.

Today we were out at the grocery store and John and I got samples of chocolate, yes, chocolate. Isn't that the best free sample you've every heard of? We were eating it and Ruby watched us and started chewing, as she always does when we eat. She reached out for it, then got all fussy. This is the first time she's watched us eat and been fussy because she couldn't. She was hungry anyway, but didn't realize it until she saw us munching. This kid loves to eat. (As you can tell.)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

butterball



The butterball, I mean, Ruby



visited the doctor yesterday for her check-up. She weighs 18 1/2 lbs. and is 26 3/4" long! So she has grown almost 6" since birth and over 11 lbs! She is still above the 90th percentile for her weight. The picture above is from October. She's actually thinned out a bit since then, or grown longer, I guess.
But she is very healthy. The dr. was pleased about everything and she was very brave during her shots. Mama & Dada were too, I might add.

Monday, December 10, 2007

this is how weekends should be


We got our Christmas tree up this weekend. Ruby is in mouth-open, big-eyes, awe over it every time she sees it. We bought it from a lot to benefit a local mission. (We didn't know that at first, we just saw the sign that said, "All trees $20". A local tree farmer donates the trees to the mission. The people have to go out and cut them down themselves, then they sell them for $20 each, any size. The tree is beautiful, but, um, wasn't exactly cut by professionals. The trunk was really crooked and we think our saw is somewhere in FL and didn't make the trip out to OR with us. John is so handy, he used his pocket knife to try and even it out. I said try. After we got it up and decorated it and went to sleep, it toppled over in the middle of the night. Ha!

Sunday was perfect though. Ruby slept in. Friends came over for lunch and they brought presents! We had yummy lunch. IT SNOWED AGAIN! It still didn't stick, but I don't care, I love looking at it coming down. We all took a nap. I took a nice, hot bath with some new bath salts (part of the present from the friends) and we baked Christmas cookies.

Tina and Lourdes, where were you? You're supposed to be baking cookies with me!

Friday, December 07, 2007

big day for Ruby

Today started off normally enough. John worked from home, Ruby was as cute as always. Then at lunch, the mailman rang the doorbell to deliver a package for Ruby. Not too out of the ordinary. But the package was a gift from my aunt. It was a book, called The Mitten, which I love, but we didn't have it. I know all the teachers out there just gasped. And these...



Not a great photo, I know, but its the mittens that I knit for my grandma last Christmas, right before she passed away. I'm so glad that I get to wear them now. They remind me of her and she was one of the reasons (my other grandma the other reason) I learned how to knit. She cried when she got them. She cried at a lot of things at the end of her life, but I really think she knew that these were special for her.

Okay, so why is this post titled big day for Ruby, you ask? Well, we were at our baby class today. And Ruby rolled over 3 times in the span of 10 minutes or so. She's been working so hard at this. She's rolled before, but afterwards couldn't remember how to do it. She's been getting so frustrated lately trying and trying to do it again. Well it seems shes got it down now. All the moms in the class clapped for Ruby. Yay!

Tonight was John's work holiday party. It was at Gathering Together Farm (which is really the only reason why I agreed to go instead of saying, "No, I think I'll stay home and put Ruby to bed." The food there is AMAZING!). We knew it would be a late night for Ruby, but we thought we'd try it. She did really well. She let other people hold her and touch her face and everything. And McQueens, you'll appreciate this: One woman said to John, "Is Ruby's middle name, Rose?" John said, "No, but it could easily be. We considered it." You see, many women in John's family have the middle name Rose.

Our drive home from the farm was not fun. Ruby was over-tired and couldn't calm herself down, even with a stop to nurse. She fell asleep about 2 minutes before we pulled up in front of our house and had to wake her up. Hopefully tomorrow she won't remember the trauma of it all.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

dandelion trees


In between rain showers, Ruby and I got out on a couple of walks. It was so lovely. I would look in one direction and it seemed like it would storm any second, another direction and there were blue skies. We saw two rainbows! Ruby got to swing again in the park. This time it wasn't so cold and she knew what she was doing. She giggled the whole time. I can't explain to you how cute it was. I collected some evergreen branches that fell in the storm. So now I have to try to figure out what to do with them. Wreath? Garland? Other ideas? I've been busy working on presents, but I can't tell you what I've been up to. You won't get it out of Ruby, either. She's good at keeping secrets.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

the storm

I was reading a news report this morning about how bad the storms were out here. We're okay - it was really windy and rainy, but not too bad at all. Some of the climbing roses are damaged and we had some water in our basement, but that has happened before.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

cuteness

We had our first snow fall here on Friday! Of course, if you saw it and you grew up in a northern state, you would probably not call it snow, but I grew up in Florida. So, snow it was. There were big flakes mixed in with the rain. None of it stuck, but it was pretty and exciting.

Ruby & I were in our baby class when I saw it. She was too distracted by the babies and toys. A little baby sitting next to us captured Ruby's attention and they both reached out to touch each other. Ruby started giggling and kissing her (Annabel's) face over and over. It was so adorable. She would lean in for a kiss and then start cracking up. I felt like my heart was going to explode. She is such a sweet baby!