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| Does this girl look ready to party or what?! |
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| All dressed up in her birthday outfit from Grammy Joanne! |
Ruby made a New Year's resolution to become a for real walker. (Stephen has informed me that babies are not considered "walkers" until they have taken at least 10 steps in a row. She is a pretty dedicated resolution follow through-er because the day after New Year's she took 14! Since then it's been pretty constant with her walking here and there. Every time I would try to get a video of her or even encourage her, she'd just grin at me and then plop right down on her bum to crawl instead. I FINALLY got a video of her walking on her birthday. :)
Ruby now has four teeth which she loves to use in order to crunch things. Her hair is coming in more, but it still so fine I can barely fit a few clips in her hair. She has thinned out a ton with all her movin' and groovin' these days. She is starting to say a lot more. She can say, "Hi" "Bu-bye" "Hey" "Baby" "Patti-cake" (while clapping her hands), "Happy Birthday - Happy "Bay", "Tom" (thanks to her Uncle Tom's brainwashing), "Hello - "aye-o" (while putting something that's supposed to be a phone up to her ear), "Nae-Nae" (as of today she started saying that - I believe it's her Auntie Janae) :), "Mommy", "Daddy", "Papa" - for her Grandpas. "Ball" and "No no"
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| This girl just can't hold still no matter what bribery is offered. :) |
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| A blurry smile :) |
SO - Ruby completely knows what "No" means...so much so that while she is doing something she knows she is not supposed to - such as climbing up Ross's picnic table, getting into a stack of papers, attempting to get in a garbage can, or trying to climb in the bathtub - she chants, "No no no no, no no no no." Every. Time. It's like my little alert signal - so if I hear "No no no no" she's letting you know she is totally doing something not allowed. Maybe it's her desire to live a life of excitement - setting off alarms on purpose while trying to get away with the crime - all for the thrill of it. Silly girl.
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| The best laying down shot I could get - all the other she was attacking my paper! |
A few things she loves:
Poking any and everything
Putting her finger in your mouth when you feed her a bottle.
Feeding herself - finger foods are the best.
Veggie Burgers
"Lil' Crunchies" by Gerber (cheetos type things)
Yoghurt...seriously if she sees it she will block any spoon full of anything else coming her way until you give her the yoghurt.
Climbing up everything - especially Ross's picnic table and his bed.
Mimicking your sounds.
Walking
Crawling at high speeds
Turning the pages of books
Pushing buttons
Pulling every bow I ever try to put in her hair off and handing it back to me like "nice try Mom"
Playing "Get you" games
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| Just walking around - no big deal. |
I decided her party had to be something "Ruby" so we did a spin off of the cute book, "The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" by Don and Audrey Wood. My great friend Kim used her amazing skills to make cute invitations - which I can't figure out how to save as an image - I will add it as soon as I do.
I looked up a sweet strawberry cake pop idea and they turned out pretty sweet. We had some other strawberry themed treats as well. Needless to say we were all sugared out by the end.
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| The party - I was extremely proud of my birthday sign I designed and made myself. :) |
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| My strawberry cake pops - they turned out! |
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| We had to have chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate like in the book. :) (Even though we didn't end up making the hot chocolate). |
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| Ruby's strawberry cake |
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| Strawberry lemonade |
We just had Steve and my family get together and had a grand ol' time. We visited, Ross and Ruby ate up all the attention, we read the book,
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| "Nae-Nae" snuggles :) |
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| Uncle Dallas used his sweet awesome art skills and made an amazing strawberry for our game! |
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| Ross on the hunt for toys |
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| Ruby struttin' her stuff :) |
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| Some more posing :) |
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| My birthday girl! |
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| Enjoying some Uncle time :) |
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| And some more uncle time! |
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| Patti-cake time! |
played pin the glasses on the strawberry,
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| Ross participated but he was more into squirting everyone with his squirt gun :) - He's all boy! :) |
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| Rachel had some spacial issues ;) |
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| Grandpa was closer :) |
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| And "Ludder - aka "other" - according to Ross - Grandpa beat Rachel in the farthest off course contest. :) |
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| Ruby sporting the party favors :) |
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| Cousin Alex looked quite stylish! |
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| Ruby couldn't recognize anyone...it got kind of upsetting :) |
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| Ross was also NOT okay with everyone's glasses - as you can tell :) Alex preferred to go without as well :) |
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| Ruby STILL not okay with Uncle Michael's glasses. |
opened presents, - she got a great ladybug shapes toy from her Auntie Janae and Uncle Dallas, a funpad and to DIE for outfit from her Auntie Rachel and Uncle Dain, a snuggly cute bear from her Auntie Beka and Uncle Nathan, A cute Pascal the Chameleon from Tangled from her Uncle Young, a fabulous Book of Mormon ABC book and Book of Mormon cartoon from Grandma and Grandpa White, some ADORABLE clothes and a play vanity and purse with accessories from Grandma and Grandpa Staheli. She loved all of them!
and sang and watched Ruby blow out her candle and sample the cake.
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| Photo bomber! |
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| A little help blowing out the candle - Ross is totally committed. Ruby is amazed :) |
Ruby decided to follow girlie instincts and was SO not into getting into the cake. She would wipe the frosting off her hands onto her belly and ended up just sticking both her feet in the cake instead. :)
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| Giving the cake the boot. |
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| "This stuff is sticky!" |
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| "Let's just wipe this off" |
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| Her face says it all - that frosting was homemade too! |
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| She is "All done" |
BUT - when we put a cake pop in her hand she was ALL over that.
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| She's definitely a cake pop girl :) Something to hold on to - she's all in. |
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| Ross was waiting all day for these babies. The minute he saw them he kept asking to have one. He hung in there - and was rewarded handsomely. :) |
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| Ross commanding attention :) |
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| Alex critiquing the party :) |
Her party went QUITE late - everyone had a great time and she was the PERFECT hostess - loved everybody, smiled and laughed with everyone, and said, "Hi" when the came and, "Bye" when they left. :)
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| The party girl :) |
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| Fingers must be inserted into mouths if bottles are to be given. |
Her birthday morning Ross suggested birthday pancakes which Ruby was all for. She opened her present from us - snack cup, snacks, and some toy dishes. Ross quickly commandeered the play knives (since he's not allowed to play with real ones). Ruby took a very refreshing birthday nap before church and was fairly pleasant throughout church (Sacrament meeting being last at 2:30 didn't help anybody). She then had seconds of a refreshing nap after church, had her mother hound her trying to get birthday pictures, and enjoyed her favorite veggie burger for dinner followed by a nice bottle before bed.
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| R for Ruby birthday pancake! |
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| Delish :) |
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| Cutie :) |
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| Opening her present :) Ross likes to help :) |
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| He was so sweet to Ruby for her birthday and was excited for her party and presents. Also - apples are delicious. |
She is quite the party girl and has loved every minute.
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| Sweet girl :) |
Ruby has the sweetest spirit about her. She is our happy, fun loving, sweet little girl. She always has a smile ready - even if she is sad for a moment, it is usually so easy to make her smile again. She is so trusting and loving to all. She loves to play and follow other kids around trying to figure out how to do what they're doing. She adores Ross, her Daddy, and Mommy. She makes our family even more of a close and loving family. She has been nothing but a joy to have and we are so excited for all the years and adventures ahead with her! Happy Birthday Miss Ruby Jubilee! We love you. :)
