My Baby's 2!

Where does the time go?!! My sweetie pie is two! We love her so much. She is such a funny little girl- full of personality! She is such a good talker, gets smarter every day, and keeps our family laughing. I wish I could freeze time and enjoy this stage a little longer, but I say that about every stage my girls hit. Ruby is feisty, she's independent but clingy, she is dramatic, a comedian, curious, happy.  Our girl's a little bit of everything!

For her birthday, we kept it a little low-key since she was so overwhelmed by it all last year. Our little family went to see "Arthur Christmas", visit Santa, and have Chick-Fil-A during the day. Then Ruby got a good nap and had her favorite, pizza, for dinner. Family came over for a "Rapunzel" themed party. Ruby loved it! She had so much fun and I was glad she enjoyed it this year!

Birthday breakfast!

Pretty in pink!

She is so my girl.  This is the reaction we got every time she opened clothes! She loves clothes! Each time she opened an outfit, she'd say, "I try it on."

Me & my Rubycakes with her pretty purple cake.

I made her a book that is all about her, filled with pictures of her. It's a new favorite!

Daddy & his girl

What is this face about?!

She loves her new dolly. She's such a good mommy.

After a while, Ruby realized that Isabelle was faster at opening her presents, so she'd just hand her the gift and say, "open it Sissy."

Ruby and her favorite person, her sissy. Two of my favorite people too!

Of course she had help with the candles. She had no other choice.

Having a little more cake after all of the guests were gone.

Day after her birthday with all of her fun gifts! Isabelle couldn't wait for Ruby to take a nap so she could play with all of the new toys by herself! After each present was opened, Isabelle would say, "We're sharing, huh Mom?"

There are so many fun things that I want to remember about Ruby at this age. Here are a few.
* She can count to ten, and almost 20, just skipping a few numbers.
*She knows the alphabet.
*She's like a little sponge. She picks up so quickly on songs. She knows all of Isabelle's preschool songs, Christmas songs, Tangled songs and exact words to the movie, and Justin Bieber songs. This morning I heard her telling James, "bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish; how many pieces do you wish?" I didn't even know she'd ever heard that!
*She is Isabelle's little shadow. It drives Sissy crazy sometimes! Lately everything Isabelle says, Ruby copies it, but says it louder.
*She loves Santa and isn't even nervous to sit on his lap. She tells him what she wants every time.
*The doctor says she is the size of a 2 1/2 year old. Hard to believe she can be so big with so little that she seems to eat. She is 93% for height and 60% for weight. Must be the french fry and mac 'n cheese diet.
*She loves clothes. She wants to wear a pretty skirt every day, or her Halloween fairy costume or Belle costume. If I take her to her closet, she usually wants to wear her leopard tutu or a church dress. I pick something and she points to something else and says, "how bout this?"
*She is very helpful. The other day Isabelle was going potty and yelled "I'm done!" Ruby yelled, "ok, I come wipe you!"
*She is an artist and is always coloring. Doesn't matter how much paper she has, she always turns to coloring on herself!
*When she wants to make a statement lately, she adds the word "eber" (ever) at the end of her sentence. "I not wear shoes eber." "I watch TV eber!" It's pretty funny!
*She likes to be pretty and wants to wear makeup. She likes me to put mascara on her and tells me, "I got blue eyes Mommy."

I could go on and on! She is such a hilarious little one and we are so grateful to have her in our family! Love you Ruby!

I am thankful...

*For my two sweet, beautiful, funny daughters who make me smile every day. And I'm thankful I have the chance to stay home with them.
*For my gorgeous, hard-working husband. I love laughing with him and watching him with our girls.
*For the sweet angel kicking around inside of me.
*For my parents. They are supportive and help us all of the time. They are always there to lend a hand and will do anything for us.
*For good family and friends all around us.
 *For the gospel. I can't imagine living without it. It brings me joy and is the only way I can make it through difficult times.
*For good health. And for modern medical care. It amazes me.
*To live in America. I am so thankful for our freedoms, and for those who fight to protect our freedoms. And I'm thankful for their families who allow them to do so.
*For modern conveniences. I do love my car, my cell phone, running water, a microwave. I wouldn't have made a good pioneer.
*For my home. It's warm and cozy and a safe haven for my family.
*Just to be alive and to get to enjoy each day with my family. I'm thankful for the little moments that make life so special. I truly love my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a Little Halloween

The girls loved Halloween this year! Isabelle was a flapper and Ruby was a fairy. Ruby loved her costume and likes to wear it around the house a lot. She was a little mad when she couldn't wear it to church the other day, but ended up calling her church dress her costume. I was just glad Isabelle found a cute costume, because when we first started talking about Halloween, she was planning on being a horse. So, when she wanted the flapper costume, I jumped on the opportunity!

We had lots of fun painting our pumpkins this year. Ruby is constantly asking where her pumpkin is and telling us she wants to paint it. They turned out cute, especially James' minion (spelling?) pumpkin, from Despicable Me.

We went to a trunk-or-treat at my sister's church a few days before Halloween. On Halloween day, Isabelle had her preschool party, we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood, then did some more collecting with cousins in my brother's neighborhood. It seems that the girls have been eating candy non-stop since Halloween. Ruby likes to take one bite out of each piece, and then we chuck the rest. There has been way too much chocolate around here lately- not good at all for me!

Anyway, we had a fun Halloween holiday. My favorite part has been listening to the girls sing Isabelle's preschool Halloween songs over and over! So cute!

Tooth Fairy Visits

My baby girl is growing up way too fast! I keep telling her to stay little, but she tells me you have to turn different numbers. I think she's way too young to be losing teeth though.

A couple weeks ago she came to me crying that her teeth were hurting her when she was eating an apple. Turned out her two front bottom teeth were loose- so loose that one came out the next night. James pulled it and it only hurt her for a second she said. The tooth fairy brought her $1.50 and let her keep her tooth since we wrote a note asking if she could. A week later the second tooth came out. Isabelle pulled it herself while we were driving on the freeway. She was so excited that night that she could hardly sleep. In fact I'm surprised the tooth fairy even had time to come before Isabelle came in our room to get James to show him her dollar.

She looks super cute with her missing teeth! I've been a little sentimental about it because they were the first two little teeth she got, and one of my favorite pictures of her is framed in her bedroom wher she just has those two cute teeth. It's been fun watching her get so excited about it!

Ready for the tooth fairy!

Showing off her missing tooth

And then they were both gone...

Our Long Gone Summer

We sure are missing summer around here. I have such a hard time letting go of warm nights with sunlight that goes on and on! Cold air and darkness aren't my thing. Since summer flew by without me doing any blogging, I thought I should at least put up some pics to remind me of the good times.

I was sick from this pregnancy the entire summer, but it didn't stop us from having fun! I guess that's one of the ways that fall has has blessed my life with- I feel great and am in the enjoyable part of pregnancy! I do love a crisp fall day, and wish it would last a long time because I dread winter!

We got to go swimming in my aunt's beautiful pool a lot! It is such a perfect pool- warm, not crowded! We loved it!

We went to Lagoon once a week. Ruby was scared the first couple of times, but was a pro by the end! Nothing better than spending a summer evening having a blast with cousins!

We took a fun overnighter to Park City. We swam, shopped, ate, and went to the Alpine Slide.

We hit up the Weber County Fair and ended the summer (before we left for Disneyland) with a night at the State Fair. Our girls are both pretty obsessed with horses so they loved their pony rides!

We've had a tradition of going to the Horse n Hitch Parade for the past few years.

 I always wish summer would hang around a while longer. It goes by way too fast. Before we knew it, it was time for Isabelle's second year of preschool to start! I can't believe how big my girls are getting! Isabelle has a very busy schedule with school three days a week and dance and gymnastics too. Plus, she likes to fit in lots of playdates each week.

 Now, just because, some other of my fave pics of the summer...

Picture overload! It's how I'll remember the beautiful summer with my beautiful family!