'Tis Autumn

Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Crisp mornings. Leaves changing color. Soups, roasted veggies, gingersnaps, pumpkin pie. Fires in fireplaces. How I love this season!

We are just getting a few of those cooler mornings now and I'm so loving it. Hung up a few decorations and am getting ready for Halloween, hey rides, harvest days, Thanksgiving... all the fun this season has to offer. It's also the season of change and I love to get organized, get back in a routine, and get a fresh start with diet/exercise. I'm back to working, too, which is great. Have 2 gigs lined up in October singing with my new band. Refreshed my whole website www.macimiller.com (with the help of an awesome friend of mine). I'm marketing and selling my music again and also booked 4 trade shows. Feels good!

Ruby continues to love school. While I enjoy my free time, I sure do miss my lil bug and can't wait till she bounces out the school door and tells me all she did that day. Still trying to come up with lots of unique/fun stuff for us to do after school. Thanks for all your great suggestions on the last post! Arts & crafts and rock/leaf collecting are among her favorites. Need to find a few interesting new crafts...do send any over that you love!

Last weekend we hit our 1st harvest festival with some friends. Was a nice day for the kids...and for us!

The kids were so into decorating their 1st pumpkins of the year.

A sweet lady that owns Alpaca's taught Ruby how to use a spindle to make the yarn. Well the lil Miss thought she was Sleeping Beauty. She was so into it.

Yesterday after school we got a couple more pumpkins. Starting early this year...may have quite the collection by Halloween! I love how much more creative she is getting. She calls this her rainbow pumpkin and made big stripes.

And, of course, the little pumpkin had to match.

This is the 1st time I've seen her paint something and than outline it in another color. Definitely more imagination coming out.

Left her alone for all of 5 minutes and returned to find a very green daughter. LOL, she was so cute I just started laughing. Although her arms were covered she somehow managed to not get any on the chair, the table or her face. A tiny bit in the hair. She told me "Mommy, I FROG!" LOL! Anyway...let's just say she enjoyed this thoroughly! :-)

We let all the art dry on the table overnight.

...and today I surprised her after school with it all proudly displayed. Is this great fall decor or what? To this proud Momma, it is seriously the prettiest fall art I've ever seen.

And last, but not least, are these not the snuggliest Halloween jammies ever?

Happy Fall!!!!

A Week In Fashion

Really nothing much to talk about over here. Just same ole same. School for Ruby. Work for me (rehearsing, online marketing and the like) and work for Jeff. Housekeeping, laundry, endless amount of dishes to do... (insert over-exaggerated yawn here). Really an uneventful week except for the little miss and her fashion. So without further adu...I give you a week in fashion:

Lil sassy pants must have known how cute she looked this day. I was just dying for the 1st chilly day to put this ensemble on her.

Got those fab boots at Nordstrom Rack. Love! (And so does she).

Trying to chase the lil bug down the yard to get a picture was not easy...but fun!

"I'm faster than you-oo!" 

And yes. She was.

Finally snuck around and got her b4 she went back to hiding behind the tree. :-)

Pink outfit by Naartjie with converse pink sneakers. Love it as much as Ruby does. And Ruby LOVES her pink!

Silly lil miss in Naartjie sweat suit. Could have just gobbled her up in this. She was so cuddly and cute this day - both in looks and personality - I just wanted to play hooky, keep her home, and snuggle all day. I didn't as my better judgement got me, but, man, was I tempted. 

Sassafrass

Bright and dotty

And today...Ruby's pick. We like our polka dots and she picked a red outfit to match her cowboy boots she wanted to wear today. Glad I bought those things big. She is wearing them OUT. Must say I love her in red. Ok, I love her in anything. My sweet lil fashionista. Is it time to pick her up yet?

Need to think of something fun to do after school today. We don't have any extra curricular activities yet and I am pulled between her boredom and not wanting to tire her out too much. So what do you do? What fun after school stuff do you do with your pre-k aged kids? Would love to hear your ideas!

Family Day

Yesterday was our official "Gotcha" Day. The day we went to the orphanage that fateful day 2 years ago and took her home with us forever. 

Driving away from the baby home with my sweet girl in my arms. There was no better feeling in the world! As my friend, Anna, said at that moment "No words, Jenny. No words." And she was right. No words could capture how we felt that day.

Back at Anna's beautiful hotel (Ekman Garden Resort) as a family.

Loving on our baby girl.

With our dear friend Anna at the baby home with Khun Wailai, the orphanage director.

So how we did spend our special family day? Together. And although it was "Gotcha" day and not a Thai holiday, we chose to celebrate who she is and the beautiful country she came from. First we looked at photos of our 1st days together. We watched a cute Thai movie (free English version now at ON DEMAND) called The Blue Elephant. (Ruby LOVES this movie). We went out for yummy Thai food for dinner. And we gave her a little Thai doll I had waiting for her upstairs for 3 years. Here are some shots from the day...

Mommy & Rubes hanging on the porch:

Daddy & Ruby at the restaurant:

Love her hanging on her Daddy's neck. So sweet! Can't believe I failed to get a shot of all 3 of us together. But I guess by the time we started eating that yummy Thai food, it never entered our minds!

A very special day/night for our little family!

Our Ruby...2 Years Later

The first day we met. Sept 13, 2009.

Today, Sept 13, 2011.

Our Ruby. Part Princess. Part dare-devil. Loves her rides fast and spinning. Totally gets bored on the kiddie rides. This kid is a thrill seeker! Loves to climb, jump, hang and swing like the silly little monkey she is. She doesn't walk. She bounces, jumps, flutters, or skips. Not kidding. Mostly skips around like a little fairy with her hands flailing about. She twirls and tosses her hair like a little princess and jumps in puddles like a little boy. With a mischievous little smile on her face on the latter. Been taking to calling her Sassafrass these days due to her ever-silly, sassy nature. Cracks us up. Not just sometimes, but almost ALL the time. The other day I put her in the car for school and was like "do you have lipstick on?" Little sneaky bugger went in to her vanity and got some sparkly gloss and put it on for school." Oh my. I would have made her wipe it off but she smiled so cute and actually got it on her lips and not all over her face this time. She was so proud of herself. LOL, it's only light pink sparkles...why not? She is growing so fast. Sprouting up like crazy. And LOVES to talk about how big she is. At 40" she is tall enough to ride the big rides at Disney and is WAY excited about that. Oh, how she chats up a storm now. Seriously funny little conversations. She will not only excitedly chat our ears off but she will act things out and is highly animated. It is so cute. She notices EVERYTHING and will point out stuff that I don't even notice. Very observant, this one! Oh, and she's a back seat driver. "SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!" when she sees a yellow light. "Go, Mommy! GO!" when the light turns green and I am still busy doing something and not going yet. The little miss doesn't miss a trick so I have to be on my toes! 

Sesame, a few weeks ago.

With Grover, last weekend.

Oh so content getting her face done. Love the folded hands.

kissy face

4 going on 14

Ready to climb

Loving on Daddy

Her current favs: All her dollies, horsies, and fairies get play time. Any "little" toy. Like little dolls and figurines, those rubber balls you get out of the machines for a quarter...anything miniature that she can carry around in her many little purses. Loves bath time cause, of course, that involves water and the kid LOVES water. She plays with her mermaids and this diver she calls "Daddy Swimmer Guy" lol. Could be in there for an hour if I let her. Loves to play board games and has to win. Is very competitive these days and has to "win" everything, in fact. Loves her princess dominoes. Plays with them for an hour at a time. And loves collecting rocks and sticks. Enjoys picking flowers and nature, too. Still all about accessories. Will play dress up with her friends but not much on her own. BUT, she'll play with shoes, jewelry, and/or magic wands on a daily basis. Thinks face painting is the main reason we go to Sesame, lol, and the best thing on the planet. Especially excited if they put "lipstix" on her. She will pucker into every mirror or glass surface available the first 1/2 hour. Seriously.

But most of all this kid has a heart of gold. So caring and sweet I can hardly believe sometimes how lucky I am. If someone coughs or has the hiccups, she will go running in the kitchen and grab a bottle of water. Says excuse me and please and thank you 99% of the time. Gets up each morning with a sweet closed mouth smile that melts my heart. She's finally getting dressed head to toe by herself and undressed and into her jammies at night. Sleeping in her own "princess" bed and very proud of herself. Loves to giggle, hide, and pretend. Has such a sense of humor and quite the imagination! She still loves to snuggle, to hug, to touch the faces of the people she loves and just stare for a minute. She is so loving. And oh she cares. About people, other kids that are crying somewhere, animals, if the flowers have enough water, and if the streets are cleaned up. The other day as we were leaving Sesame Place, we she spotted a juice box on the street. Sometimes we will stop and clean up some trash when we see it but someone else's sticky juice box was not entering my car. I told her don't worry, they have someone that comes and cleans up later. She said "Oh! I have seen him! He clean up like this" she said with a wide sweeping motion. There are lots of guys (and girls) that have brooms and a dust/trash pans and clean around the park so she must have been talking about that. I got her settled in her car seat and got in. She said "Mommy?" "Yes, Ruby?" "I wanna do that. I wanna clean up when I grow up". What a proud Mommy I am. And what a kid. We can't imagine life without her.

Today is the 2 year anniversary of the day we first met. Only 2 short years and yet we have packed so much life...so much love...so many memories into them. And to think, we have so many more! Our lives have been blessed beyond measure with this sweet girl.

Dear Ruby, you are so deeply, so truly loved. I thank God for you every day. Thank you for being in our lives and making us the happiest parents on the planet!

Morning Tea

Lil miss wanted to have a quick tea party before school one morning last week.

"Want some Mommy?"

Sassy gal loves to wink!

Happy play time and then off to school!

The whole first week of school went SO well. In fact, when I picked her up on Friday I said, "No school tomorrow, Ruby. It's the weekend!" Her reply: "Aww.. I LOVE school!" Well, how about that? A far cry from last year! So so happy to see her loving school and having a great time this year. Just incredible. Was happy and bounced out of bed this morning. 

We had a great time this weekend. Friday I treated her to ice cream and the rides at the mall. Saturday we took her to Sesame Place. Spent the whole day and since Daddy was along she go to go on every ride. Was in her full glory! At one point she kissed both of our hands and said "I love you, Daddy! I love you, Mommy!" Boy if she's this excited over Sesame (where she's been many times b4) WAIT until she sees Disney! I can hardly wait to see her face! 

Happy Monday! Have a beautiful week!