Family Pictures

So we had some family pics while we were in Utah and they turned out pretty good - considering our kids weren't so excited to get pictures taken.  Clark Goldsberry took them for us.  He did a terrific job!

Auntie with her niece :)

Love the squinch picture :)

Steve's siblings :) 

My favorite family picture of us. :)

We had to bribe Ross with fruit loops to hold still for the picture.

Girl pic!  Minus Ruby - she was recuperating

Guys pic - my husband is gorgeous!

Playing with a phone...

Shhhh!  I'm talking!

Love her chub poking out. :)

Gonna run through a sprinkler...

Right over the top...

The excitement wearing off...

Traumatization wearing in....

Recovering...

Getting over it.

I love my life.:)

Strawberry Jam and Lincoln City Kite Festival

So a rare treasure here that only shows up in the month of June is the Hood Strawberries....oh how I wish I could pass the taste of these strawberries onto you - they are AMAZING.  They don't travel well so they stick around here and they are only in season in June.  Of course since we've missed about half of June I went crazy as soon as we got back.... we bought two full flats of strawberries and went to town making strawberry jam (as well as eating every other strawberry while we de-stemmed them).  Very satisfied. :)

 

Saturday morning we decided to pack up and head for the kite festival in Lincoln City.  Since this is our last summer here we have some serious bucket list checking off to do.  The drive was an hour and forty five minutes which was chunk change compared to the 13 hour ordeal we dealt with last week. The drive was much prettier too.  We got to Lincoln City, fed Ruby, and hunted for a parking spot for about 45 minutes before we got out a third of a mile away. The view was breathtaking though and the day was gorgeous.  
 

Headin' in

This boy was ready for some kites!

We got there to find the wind was 1 mph....haha.  Of course - in Oregon - where it's ALWAYS windy on the coast, it's nothing but clear skies and zero wind when it's kite festival time.  There were a few kites up - which was impressive without any wind, but the big ones never left the sand unfortunately.  We thoroughly enjoyed the beach though.  Ross finally got over his fear of sand touching his feet after I threw him into the waves.  Then he never wanted to leave.  He dug in the sand, played in the waves, attempted to fly a kite (at least we have it as a souvenir), and played in the sand some more.  We soaked up the sun that felt so good and then meandered back to our car (it was a bit of a trek back up).  

No kites...and not so sure about the sand yet.

These were the only kites that made it up. :)

He's still not so sure about the sand.

Ruby took a cat nap

Almost sold on the sand now...

There were LOADS of people there - the most I've ever seen at a beach!

Trying to fly a kite. ;)

Chillin' with dad.

Daddy/Daughter time.

After feeding Ruby we went to Captain Dan's Pirate Pastry Shop  where I had the best Marionberry and Creamcheese Turnover ever!  Steve and I gobbled it up while Ross decided to snack on goldfish instead. :)  We went to J's Fish 'n Chips for dinner - also insanely delicious and headed home.  It was a perfect beach day - just sad we didn't get to see the awesome kites.  A lose-win situation I think.  All in all - success. :)

Steve LOVED this view. :)

Have I mentioned I love Oregon? :)

Our Buddy Ross

Ross is just more and more of a little person with a whole mind of his own and a huge desire to decide when/where/how he will do things, and does a very clear job of communicating that desire. :)  I still just want to eat him up all the time.  This little boy of mine melts my heart every day.  He has recently gotten into proclaiming his greetings to the world whenever he walks in the room.  Whoever is in there he always yells, "Hey Dad!" or "Hey Mom!" or "Hellooooo!" with a huge grin on his face.  My mother-in-law described him being this little guy who sees everyone placed here to make him happy and we're all his world...which is exactly right.  He gets really excited whenever he recognizes something he's learned and likes to shout it out repeatedly until I repeat it back to him.  

Nothing cooler than reading books with your hat backwards

He LOVES to play with his trucks and tractors still and has lately gotten into Monster Trucks.  Steve and I have decided we've been indulging him a bit too much with trucks so we're trying to expand his horizons.  At the library I only got him one truck book and the rest about animals, counting, ABCs, and colors...guess which one he keeps reverting back to?  The Monster Truck book.  Oh well - we'll keep trying.

He was loved and coddled like crazy in Utah and is now relearning how to share.  His good buddy Wes came back for a week from Connecticut and they both had a little revisit to that idea of sharing. :)  They had fun catching up though - we even got to go to his fun Elmo birthday party before he left back to Connecticut.
 

Thumbing through a few books while the boys catch up.

"This is a really good one!"

Ross's vocabulary is expanding and he's using more sentences which still floor me a little - he's grasping so many more concepts (though he still thinks knowing colors is dumb and a waste of time), and is always overhearing my and Steve's conversations - especially when they are about him.  He always chimes in whenever we're telling a story about Ross.  He loves Ruby and likes to hold her or her hands all the time.  I LOVE watching them interact with each other.  It melts my heart every time.  I'm sure the sibling fights will show up soon enough, but I'd like to think these two will be best buds.  

Ross loves a good cuddle, still hooks his feet over each other when he sits - like when he was a baby. I've also found that dancing is a new favorite of his.  It involves running around in circles and waving your arms like a gorilla - super fun!  He loves singing and will sing songs to himself all the time - like "Choo choo choo -what's coming down the track?" or "Fee-fi-fiddle-ee-i-o, fee-fi-fiddle-ee-i-o-o-o-o,Fee-fi-fiddle-ee-i-oooooo!  Strummin' on the ol' banjo!" (Yelled at the end of course).  He also likes to say "L, M, N, O, P" for whenever he's telling me he sees letters in the alphabet.  If we're meeting some friends and they want a high five, Ross likes to look at me with a big ol' cheeser first before consenting to give a high five.

He likes playing ball outside with dad and having a good swing at the swings and collecting pine cones to throw somewhere as well.  He gets up around 8 in the morning, has breakfast, plays/helps mom and dad with housework, has a snack around 10, lunch around noon, and a nap around 1:30 or 2 until 4:30 or 5.  We have dinner and play some more before the bedtime routine of bath(every other night), brush teeth, pjs, scriptures, prayers, stories, a song, and bed at 8 or 8:30.  Ruby does the same thing with us.  I'm liking more of this family togetherness with scriptures, prayers, and bed routine - it feels oh so good!  
 

Ross was holding Rubes...and decided he was done before I could get the camera out - love these faces. :)

Ross is remembering things a lot longer these days which is fun (and not so fun sometimes) and likes to connect things he knows with all the new things around him.  I love reading books with him more and more. He's more interested every time we read one.  He's my little snuggle bug too.  I have a song I made up for him and one for Ruby and he's always asking me to sing them to him.  I love it.  He's still his dad's number one fan and always wants to know where he is if he's not in the room.

Potty training feels like it's around the corner...sigh.  I've dreaded this from the day he was born.  We've found that Ross likes to box himself in a corner when it's time to do his "business" and tells us "Ross poop right there" when he does it.  Hilarious!  We've got to start gearing up for it and also start thinking about a toddler bed....which will also be crazy with how active he is when he sleeps.  Oh well - there's always a new step to take. :)

Who is that hiding?

I guess we'll never know...he won't show us. :)  He's too cool in his hat.

Ross is just growing into the cutest little boy that I love more and more.  He likes to wrestle and run with his dad, but he can be so sweet and sensitive to Ruby and me.  He tells me with a heartbreaking frown on his face that his "tummy hurts" whenever his feelings get a little hurt or he feels bad about something.  He's a bit dramatic when he gets hurt at times, but can also be fairly easily distracted.  I love my Rosco bug and can't handle him getting so big! 

He's SUCH a good brother :)

He is the handsomest boy in the world - just like his Daddy. :)

 

5 Month Old Rubes

We were in Utah when Ruby turned 5 months so her photo shoot was taken abroad. :)  She's still growing like crazy.  She's 18lbs 6 oz - still above the 95th percentile, 26 inches long - 73rd percentile, and her head circumference is 17 1/4 inches which is the 90th percentile.
 

It's gotten a bit tricky to get her to smile for the camera - she gets too interested in the camera itself.  I have to play some serious peek-a-boo.

Currently she LOVES to blow raspberries.  On our trip, since Ruby was our bunk mate, we would usually wake up to her blowing raspberries as our alarm clock.  She still is extremely social.  I think she's working on being "discovered" by Hollywood, because she will smile at anyone and everyone.  She even laughs quite easily - she's a very agreeable person to be around.  Our Rubes also feels like she has to play catch up with her brother since she sees him running and rolling around everywhere all the time.  She rolled over from her back to her belly for the first time on the 21st of June. Ross was 7 months old when he went from the back to the belly - given he was much shorter than Ruby and didn't have a sibling to keep up with. :)  

LOVE her smile!

I have also noticed how girly Ruby is - she's been admiring her hands a lot lately - like she's inspecting her nails...and then she grabs it and puts it in her mouth!  She's really quite good at grabbing toys and other things you put in front of her.  She certainly has a voice and squeals VERY much like a girl too.  She always wants to be where the fun is and will squawk and squeal until you give her some attention or put her in the middle of it where she immediately flashes her smile and good looks to you in return.  Moving and shakin' is also something she has to be doing.  I can tell she's going to be all over the place once she starts crawling - she's always interested in what's going on.  Even feeding her - she gets distracted quite easily and wants to know what's up with Ross or Steve.  She still adores Ross and her Daddy above the moon and the stars.  Anytime they talk to her she can't ever stop smiling.  She loves it.  

I love that she's a girl who knows what she wants - she knows when she's done eating, when she wants to be moved, when she wants attention, and when she wants to go to sleep.  I love that she knows who she is already - that quality is going to be very much needed throughout her life.  There are too many conflicting stereotypes out in the world that disagree with one another and more importantly - the Gospel of Jesus Christ - that we need more men and women who know who they are and aren't afraid to stand for what's true and right - no matter how sweet and enticing the bad is portrayed.  Ruby is going to make a difference in this world I think, and I'm so grateful to be her mother.  

We tried rice cereal for the first time yesterday.  I started it sooner with Ross because he was always a hungry baby.  Ruby hasn't been so much, and I figured it was just easier putting it off.  She was ready and raring to go with the spoon.  I thickened it a bit today and she polished it all off.  She looked like Quasimodo eating though.  No matter what I did, she preferred hunching down to the side (to get closer to the spoon I hadn't even raised to her mouth yet) and then keeping her head tilted while I put the spoon of food into her mouth.  I would try and raise the spoon up high when to get her to sit up, but she would automatically hunch back down one I got the spoon close enough to her.  I'm amazed at how quickly she has taken the spoon. 

More than ready to eat!

First bite...hmmmm

She's still thinking about it.

Sold!

To the Quasimodo in the Bumbo. :)

Ruby has also gotten better at holding up her head and is working on sitting up.  She still likes laying on her back with you talking to her or pumping her cute chubby legs.  She was spoiled rotten by grandparents, aunts, and uncles who would hold her and walk her around to see everything.  Her hair is slowly growing - he little bald spot in the back is just starting to get hair back.  I'm dying to put cute barrettes in her hair, but we're still in the headband phase of life. :)  

Ruby's routine goes wake up and eat around 7:30-8AM, play/adore Ross, goes down for a nap between 9:30-10, sleeps till 11:30 or noon, eats again (this is when we've tried the rice cereal), plays, we go for a walk or outside, naps again starting around 1:30 or 2 until about 4, eats, hanging out for a while, watches me make dinner (when I actually make it), naps again around 6 until just before 7, and eats around 7:30 before bedtime at 8PM.  I then wake her up one time before I go to bed to feed her once more in the dark and she goes right back to bed.  She's pretty good at sleeping through the night, but she's gotten extremely good at getting out of her miracle swaddle, but won't sleep unless she's wrapped back up in it - little stinker.  So usually I'll wake up to re-swaddle her once more around 5 or 6 and go back to sleep until 8.  It'll be nice when she sleeps without the swaddle.  I have a feeling we're getting close to not swaddling.

Anyway - this girl continues to get cuter, and I keep falling in love with her over and over and can't seem to convince her to stop growing, because I can't get enough of my baby Rubies.  Love her!