Parties & Fun Get Togethers

Fun times between Christmas and New Years.

Ruby and cousin Hannah at Please Touch Museum

Rubes having a ball in the "grocery store".

Hannah and Ruby working on their "patients" at the Childrens Hospital area. Ruby seemed to remember her favorite doll from the last time we were there. She picked him up...

...and immediately stripped him of his clothes. Yes, that's what you think it is. The dolls are all anatomically correct. Thankfully, she didn't play with it and make a big deal out of it this time, yelling Mommy Mommy! LOOK! What that??? like on our last visit. LOL!

It's also a good thing we named her Ruby since red is her favorite color and the first one she picks on most occasions. Here she is trying on shoes at the "shoe store". This museum is so cute. Really a fun day for the kids. Fun for me to hang with Kelly too! She such a sweet and wonderful person. We always have such a great time together.

Hannah with mom Kelly on the carousel

Me and Rubes on the carousel.

On another day we went to my cousin Angie's for an after Christmas party. I so love that they always do it after the holiday so we get to see everyone. We almost didn't go cause Ruby has a pretty bad cold, but evidently a lot of people have colds and no one minded...so off we went.

Rubes had a blast. She just LOVES seeing her cousins and we could hardly tear her away from them when it was time to go.

Here she is with Alessia.

And here with Lessi's sister Nina. Such sweet girls! These two are always inseparable when we get together. I came upstairs at one point and Nina and her friends were just dressing Ruby up with necklaces and bracelets while Ruby sat there happily soaking up all the love and attention. And then they gave her a present - a Baby Alive that they all poured over at the table for at least an hour. So funny. I had the same doll when I was little and it was my favorite thing ever. I still remember begging my mom and Santa for it. Luckily, the new version only pees and doesn't poop like the one I had. Yuck!

Me and my cousin Gina.

Me and the hubs...a shot taken by Ruby. And after that the camera disappeared. She took it and ran off for like a half hour. Brought it back when the battery died. The next day I charged it to find a lot of shots like this:

This one is my cousin Michael (who she just adores!) There were a lot of smiling headshots, a lot of shots of the Christmas tree, Nina, and misc bows around the house. So cute to see her view of the party!

B4 she grabbed the camera I managed to get this one of me and my bro, Jason...

...and me and my little miss before she was off and running again!

So wonderful to see my family and spend time with them. I have a LOT of cousins and I love them dearly. It's always great when they are all at one place and I get to spend time with them all.

Snow Days

Sometimes the best days are the ones you don't plan for. You have no expectations about how the day should go. You just go with it. Such were our snow days. Been cleaning and putting things away as we've been playing and singing and dancing. There have been lazy afternoons in front of the tube and warm nights by the fire. Good stuff! A few highlights:

 Ruby's joy when she got her first dinner in her new Tinkerbell dinnerware.

Finally getting her to try on that dress and laughing as she didn't ever want to take it off!

Watching her so happy and comfortable in her home and with her sweet things. Thinking how very lucky we are to have this child in our lives.

Watching with great pride as she has learned to draw and write more and more. That art easel is the best thing I have ever purchased. Gave it to her b4 Christmas because she was with me when I found it on sale for on $29! She's on it every single day. My friend Dawn bought her these cool markers that look like paint brushes and she loves 'em.

Her tracing and writing is really coming along! So proud I had to post a pic! She can write some letters pretty well by herself - like "U" and "Y" and "M". Here I wrote Daddy and Mommy in yellow and she wrote over them with the blue. Such a good job that I was all teary eyed! (The "Ruby" in green and "Daddy" in purple were written by me). She's come so far in just a year.

Here she traced her name and did a pretty darn good job I think! Seems to write better with her right hand and yet she uses her left to color, paint, and draw most of the time. Interesting.

And this! We could not believe it. I drew the shapes at the top (in yellow) but she drew this picture entirely on her own! This morning when she saw me put the pic on here she exclaimed "Lasso!" I hadn't realized it before but she drew her "boy" with a lasso! Love this creativity from our lil cowgirl!

And one of the sweetest moments... all of us snuggled on the couch to watch Nanny McPhee 2. Such a sweet movie. Ruby just loved it. We all did. Was really a nice night. Love moments like that when times just seems to slow down and we all just snuggle and smile. Life is good.

Christmas 2010 - Part Two

Christmas morning. Approximately 8 am.

Mommy hears her stir and says "Morning Rubes! Look Santa was here!"

Ruby: "Uh? Santa??? Okay!" and gets up

Oh! Stocking! Get stool!

Gotta love morning hair.

Happy with her new little "friends".

First glance at the presents. I so wanted a video but Jeff forgot and her reactions were rather subdued thanks to a head cold. Still it was a nice morning. She spent time happily playing with each and every toy.

Very serious about the nail polish. Jeff & I have since had at least 5 "manicures" each!

Little power nap in the car. Love this pose.

My brother Dave very happy with his Fisher Price toys. His favorite when he was a kid.

This is over at my mom's house.

Grandma helps Ruby open her presents.

Wearing the presents: A Princess Tiana dress, gloves, crown, and necklace. So cute!

My handsome hubs in one of the sweaters I got him.

Ruby and David playing with his toys.

David and my sweet Uncle Bob

Opening presents at Grammy & Pappy's house later that day.

Loving her Leap Frog game.

LOVE this sweet nightgown! A gift from Jeff's parents. They were so, so good to us. Hardly got any pics there cause we were too busy having fun. Had a real nice dinner with them and spent the night. A great day with both our families!

And one last pic...

A bevy of little beauties! Rubes snuggled up at home on the couch the next day (still in her jammies) while the snow came tumbling down. She's been carrying around this group of dolls for 2 days now and it's pretty cute. They come with her everywhere. Usually Jessie, Woody, and Buzz are with her, too. Getting pretty crowded in that bed of hers!

Christmas 2010 - Part One

The table ready for Christmas eve.

Table for 3 this year. It was much fancier than the meal, LOL. I didn't pull the turkey out soon enough and it wasn't thawed! So in a pinch, we went to our fav local Italian store that sells homemade pasta and the yummiest marinara sauce. It saved our dinner and everyone was happy. (Thankfully, I have an easy crowd here). The Christmas cookies WERE made by me though and quite good if I do say so myself!

Daddy and Ruby dressed for church.

Mom and Rubes in our shades of purple. 

Ruby wanted the camera and actually took this pic of Jeff and I. Not bad kid!

We went to a beautiful service that had a live nativity scene complete with animals. Ruby was awed by it and was enjoying all the music and drama until we got to the last half hour. Was getting a bit sleepy by then and it was a 2 hour service. Still, she snuggled in Daddy's arms and listened quietly. It was really nice. They had a huge choir which Ruby never saw before and she really enjoyed it. Her mouth formed a big O as she tried to mimic the choir and sing along.

Being silly and riding her little stick horse back at home.

Bossing the dog who was afraid of her and that horse!

This was a fun moment. We let her open a gift Christmas eve. It was a bag with jammies and slippers. Well, she ripped into the bag and tossed the paper and the PJ's on the floor without a second thought! I was laughing, trying to tell her they were in there too, but she was to enamored with her Elmo slippers.

I am still trying to show her the jammies (and get her in them) but to no avail. It's all about Elmo. :-)

Finally in her jammies and still thinking those things are the greatest ever.

I love Max looking on, wondering what all the fuss is about!

Being silly and singing at this point.

After HOURS of trying to get her to sleep, she was finally out around (gasp) 11. I guess she was just too excited. I laid upstairs for at least and hour singing and singing until I could no longer. I finally just turned the light out and pretended to sleep. Thought I was going to fall asleep until 15 minutes later I heard snoring! Hallalujah! Ran downstairs as quietly and quickly as I could. Daddy & I got to work, filled her stocking and set the stage for Christmas morning.