More Obsessions with Berries and Updates

Well we did some legendary berry picking.  It was a beautiful morning and Ross and Ruby did great!  Ruby was strapped to Steve and snoozed most of the time, and Ross, after eating about 40 marionberries, actually helped pick them.  I reminded him to only pick the dark ones so he kept telling me the entire time "Only dark ones! Only dark ones!" and he did a great job getting all the good ones.  Also that meant I didn't have to bend over to get them since he had the lower area covered.  We went to town on marionberries and then filled a second bucket with raspberries and blackberries.  Ross and I had to take a break after a while and explored the farm animals and toys outside.  Our hands got all stained - those marionberries have quite the juice stain.  We loved it though - and you can guess when we did that night!  We're berry crazy I tell you!  We made a batch of marionberry jam and one of a quadruple berry - strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry.  DELICIOUS.  We had one casualty of the quad berry jam.  Steve sustained a burned finger thus dropping the newly filled jar all over the floor....it melted a little paint of the wall too...hmmmm.  Oh well - good memory right?  It was a good excuse to mop the floor that needed it desperately anyway.  

This was from our strawberry craze a few weeks ago.  I made Steve lug these babies around while I socialized with all our friends we ran into. :)

Ross ready to do some berry picking - all these pics are from my cheapo phone since I forgot my camera.

Getting "the dark" berries.

Our great little helper. :)

 

Our stained hands...that sort of rubbed off and didn't show up well in the camera.

The marionberries...mmmmm

Steve and Ruby both NOT looking at the camera

Ruby looking.  Steve trying to tell me that Ross has run off.  Love the concern in his face.

We saw some piggies...it was extremely stinky in the barn - I only lasted maybe 2 minutes.

Bawking at some chickens

Swingin' - Ross wanted to go back and see the chickens.

The farm - Steve and Ross are back there.

 

The fruits...mmmm - jam!

Yes - there are two rows of these babies :)

More news...we've been attempting to get Ross a little more excited about potty training.  I'm pretty sure we're not going to fully do it until after we get back from my sister's wedding in August, but we've at least got to get him warmed up to the idea.  He doesn't even like having his pants off let alone his diaper!  We checked out a potty kit from the library that has lots of books and a DVD about using the potty.  The books were okay - but he has a new love for "Go Potty Go" and Parker Panda who sings songs that will NEVER get out of your head.  I've teased Stephen that he has a new favorite song, because he's gone around all week singing "Babies use diapers...and that's okay....Go, Potty, Go! Go, Potty Go!".  Haha - seriously - he's always singing it.  The rule with Ross is that he can only watch it if he sits on his potty without his pants or diaper the whole time.  He's agreed to this - and even went in it one time!  He wasn't really thrilled about it until I told him he did it just like Parker Panda...his new best friend.  He still prefers to do his business in his diaper, but likes to tell us right after and get changed.  The signs are presenting themselves!  It will be interesting seeing how this goes as first time potty trainers.

I love how he has his tractors giving him some moral support. ;)

Money shot...blackmail money that is. ;)

Ruby continues to enjoy any and every form of socializing.  If she ever catches my eye she is just bursting at the seams - she LOVES talking with you, being tickled, and kissed.  She rolls all over the place now and even looks like she's trying to use it for transportation.  I have a feeling she'll be all over the place when she's mobile - oh dear.  She's been eating rice cereal and oatmeal the last couple weeks, but it got a bit stopped up the other day.  It was SO sad.  She was her happy ol' self until she had to go and then it was NOT fun.  We took a little break from solids (which was kind of nice actually - I miss JUST nursing) and are working our way back up again.  We're going to try some veggies this week.  This last Sunday I pulled out a beautiful little Mexican dress Steve and I bought on our honeymoon for whenever we had a baby girl someday.  Just short of five years later...we have an adorable baby girl modeling it for us now. :)  
 

She looks ADORABLE in this dress :)

Ross also looked extremely handsome in his shirt and tie.  When his shirt was tucked in he looked like a little missionary...oh my heart!

Doing some serious studying :)

Sibling study time

Staring contest!

Ruby one - Ross gave her a brother victory kiss.

Steve LOVING his stethoscope. :)

Steve has been keeping up with he PT reading (amazing he has that dedication during the summer!) and is getting pretty dedicated to working out - he even completed 5 1/2 miles tonight.  I did some Insanity workouts with him earlier today and about died, but it feels good. :) Life is good - oh so good.