Announcement

Of course she wouldn't look at the camera, but it's true. Ruby's going to be a big sister! We are super excited and yet some days when I'm running around after Red and completely exhausted I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into. I'm due April 8 and the Doc guessed another girl this week, but it's still early to confirm it. Either way, we're just praying for a healthy baby and no bedrest like last time. Twelve weeks on bedrest with a toddler would be way worse than last time so say a prayer for me!

First Day of School

Excited to go to school!

Today was Ruby's first day of preschool or Mother's Day Out. She'll only go 2 days a week for 3 hours but I'm hoping it will be really good for her. Maybe she'll learn to share and begin to be ok with not being the center of attention 24 hours a day! One day a week while she's there I'm going to a women's Bible study at another church and the other day I'm FREE!! When I dropped her off she had to be pried out of my arms screaming just like every time we take her to church nursery. But I stood around the corner for a minute and she evenutally calmed down. But when I got back-oh my!! I wish I had had a video camera. Or at least a strong drink for the teachers. All 12 kids were screaming!!!I think after the first mom got there they all realized their mommies weren't there and they lost it. It was pretty funny! But after Ruby saw me she went back for one more handful of goldfish so I think she must have done ok most of the time.

She would not put on her back-pack because she wanted the name sticker off her cup!

Once we got to the church she wanted her bag on

Telling Bibby all about school

Summer Surprise

Summer is coming to an end this weekend and even though we had fun this summer, I'm ready for fall! Bring on the cool weather, fall fairs and skinny jeans (and of course, football!). In our house, football picture day marks the end of summer. The picture always makes us laugh because they are so staged but its a good way to ensure that we have a family picture at least once a year and its fun to look back at how we've changed over just 7 years. I had to wake Ruby up bright and early so she was determined not to smile-instead she looks asian. We're proud of our Coach and "Go Longhorns!".

My cousin asked me to send her a recipe this week for a cookbook that her work is putting together. She works for an oncologist so it will be a fundraisor for cancer research which is great and dear to both of us. I was searching for the perfect recipe to submit in memory of Mama Jackie and today I found it. I was looking in one of her old cookbooks which she heavily supplemented with hand written recipes and newspaper clippings. I came across this recipe card that she must have filled out for someone else since the top line says "From the kitchen of Mama Jackie". She started making this dish a few years ago for a family gathering and we all loved it, especially my sister. I'm pretty sure she made up the name just to make us laugh, but it stuck. So here's Mama Jackie's Summer Surprise. Make it this weekend for your Labor Day festivities before all the fruit of the summer is gone!

I love her extra tips on the back! My mom started adding mango to the mix and its delish! Enjoy!

Wednesday Night Fun

Yesterday Rubes took a 4 hour nap. She rocks! But after dinner that meant she had lots of energy to expend. First we went to the playground. Then we hit up the sprinkler. And she must have worn herself out because this morning she slept until 10:30!! Yeah, she rocks!

Grandaddy taught her how to drink water from the hose this weekend

 

Taking a break

 

Love that smile and those rolls!

I heart the iphone

 Thank goodness for technology! I love my job, but at the same time it really does pain me each time I leave my little red head. I know she's always in good hands, but I always feel like I'm missing out on something. Luckily Korey and my mom like to send me pictures & videos to keep me updated. I was at work last night and scrolling through my pictures and couldn't help but share. Gosh, I love her!



Doctor bag on head-why not?



Sombreros with Daddy



Making a mess as usual! (Please excuse the make-shift closet in the background-we live in a basement remember)



At McDonalds with Bibby (a no-no with Mommy)



Bath time



A few weeks ago, our friend Justin of 375 Photography took Ruby's pictures. I've turned out not to be the mom that gets professional pictures at perfect intervals. My sister did pics at 5 mos, my mom took Ruby to the cheezy place at the mall around 7 months because I never took her for 6 months and then Justin did family photos around 10 months. So to keep things consistent, this time we went with 15 1/2 months.

Justin did a great job! I love the pictures! No, she's not smiling in most of them. And she's probably not cooperating the way we wanted her to in each shot. But that's my Ruby-crazy red hair and a mind of her own. These are just a few favs.

Party Pics

 I just sat down to blog and realized my SD card is in Korey's computer. Bummer. But I also realized I never posted pictures from Ruby's birthday party and those are saved on this computer. So, here they are 3 months later! We had a Cowboys and Indians party and it was so much fun! And what started out as a small get together, ended up a huge gathering! But I wouldn't trade it. We had all the people who mean the most to us and have been there to support us in raising such a sweet little girl! The cupcake stand was from our wedding I just spray painted it and then hot-glued rope to it. And I bought all the cowboys and indians and gold coins on amazon. We also had chili and hot pimento cheese dip. Yum!



My mom made Ruby's little dress the night before. It didn't quite fit, but it was super cute! And those are her new boots from Uncle Tim and Aunt Amy.

Our sweet family

Are these not the cutest 3 cowboys you've ever seen?

Ruby's friend Ethan

Ruby and her Aunt K-K

Aunt  Ra-Ra and Uncle Mikey

My sweet baby girl. I can't believe she's 1 (and now almost 16 months old!). She's changed so much just in the last few months. She's a walking, talking silly little girl!

Earth Day Week

Two weekends ago, Ruby and I planted our garden. This year, we turned the deck into a big patio garden with potted plants. My parents backyard doesn't really have anywhere to plant a real garden and this way when we find a house I can take everything with me. I've been waiting all winter to plant my garden. The idea of fresh pesto and off the vine tomatoes fill my dreams all winter long. Seriously. This year we aren't doing the co-op for a few reasons and I'm really going to miss it. I know my husband won't miss each weeks mystery greens on his plate at night, but I will. I'm already planning a stop by some local farmers markets to pick up some chard and collards. I'm salivating again.

The two people who taught me to love planting a garden are no longer just a phone call away for me to compare tomato species. And I can't just drive over to my grandmothers house to see how many squash and zucchini plants my uncle talked her into planting this year and then laugh about how she said she wasn't going to do it after last years overly fruitful crop. And I can't go by her house on my way home from work to find her outside in her "work" clothes, SAS sandals and sunvisor picking green tomatoes to fry me for dinner. And I can't talk about the latest Bon Appetite or Food&Wine issues with my Uncle Harold over a gourmet dinner that he made with fresh ingredients from out back. I miss them both terribly. Terribly. But I'm so glad they passed on their loves to me. So while we planted I couldn't help but remember them and be thankful. And because Mama Jackie always said to do it, I plant two of everything for cross pollination and use marigolds as bug deterrents. If she said it, I believe it.

So, Ruby helped me plant. I used the word "help" very loosely. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. We planted Better Boys, Romas, Japanese eggplant, jalapenos, banana peppers, basil, parsley, sage, thyme, oregano, rosemary and cilantro and strawberries. I've still got some okra and squash that I need to find a place to put in the ground. And I'm going to make one more trip to get some cherry or grape tomatoes because best friend Kelly loves them so much. It wouldn't be summer without her eating them straight out of the colander in the sink as we talk. Next year, or maybe even this year if I get around to it, I want to do some lettuce, greens, and root vegetables. And maybe some beans. My dad is working on starting a greenhouse at the lake property so with a little more research we might have our hands really dirty in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted. For now we will water and wait.

P.S. I have my eye on a composter for the back yard. And a pet bunny for all organic manure. Please pass this info to my husband if he should happen to ask you for suggestions for an appropriate Earth Day gift for his hippie wife.

This is what happens when you put a pretty pretty princess shovel full of manure in your mouth. Not fun!

Spring Break

It's spring break around here, which means that Korey is off for the week. Yay! Because I'm teaching college students this semester, my spring break was a few weeks ago so I had to work this week. Besides going to the lake last weekend and to the zoo we've mainly stayed at home and played. So the other day I heard Ruby and Korey playing in the playroom and walked around the corner to find the above scene. Yep, Korey's in the tunnel and Ruby is looking at him like he's crazy!

Welcome Spring!

Spring is here which means we have begun our weekend trips out to the lake house. Yay!! It only took us a few minutes to realize that this years lake activities will be much different than last year. Last year, our little one wasn't mobile and adventurous. This year, she is! She loved every minute of it and wore us all out!

Here she is last year on the Gator and then this year she's taken over the driver's seat. She climbs up there all by herself and bounces up and down to signal that she's ready to go. She'll ride for hours all over the property with her daddy Don and Bibby.

  I know her hat makes her look like a boy, but its better than putting SPF on every hour.

This is the view down the driveway-I love it! 

Always on the go!

Sharing snacks with her favorite two people...ok, favorite mammals.

That's why I love him!

Yesterday, I worked both jobs in one day. First I taught nursing students on an adult med-surg floor from 6-2pm. Then I came home, napped, showered and headed to the Children's Hospital to work from 5pm-1:30am. It was exhausting and I don't recommend it. But it allowed me to have all last weekend off so that we could go to the lake so it was worth it. Despite the double shifts, we had made plans to go to the zoo today while Korey is off on spring break. So while I was at work I called Ko to ask him to get everything ready. Because he's slightly ADD, he asked me to email him a list. So I did. Here's it is: (side note-as moms we do this every single day, everywhere we go and don't think twice about it, right?)

-Find a soft cooler bag that will fit in the bottom of the stroller.
-Make you and I a turkey(or whatever you want) sandwich.
-Make Ruby a PBJ-like half the PB and J that you put on last time.
-Put some chips in a zip lock for you and me
-Cookies in a bag for you, me and MJ
-2 cokes for you and me
-Plenty of goldfish in her little cup
-A fruit cup
-Yogurt
-Any other snacks that we have that she likes
-And a cup that won’t leak with milk in it-the thermos is probably best
-No straws, no glass-Zoo rules!
-Also can you take the tray off the stroller? I think she’ll ride better if she can see. Or we can take the   umbrella, except that the cooler won’t fit. But there may be lockers. Whatever you think.
-Also-we can probably consolidate her diaper bag into her little owl back pack. Diapers, wipes, pacis, boogie wipes. Either pink hat or braves hat.
-Maybe a water cup. Change of clothes.
-And we’ll need the camera. Man, her stuff weighs more than her chucky bootie!


This is his reply which made me laugh at loud:

How bout instead of all of these instructions we eat a hot dog at the zoo. Ok great. See you in the morning!!


I will commend him and say that when I got up this morning after just 4 hours of sleep, I was expecting to fork over an hours worth of pay on hot dogs at the zoo. But to my surprise, the cooler was packed, the diaper bag was consolidated and and the stroller was ready. Yay! Go Daddy!

By the way-I think its weird that they serve hot dogs and hamburgers at the zoo anyway. Seems like a vegetarian menu would be more appropriate but no one asked me.

 Ruby loved the petting zoo. Despite the fact that it was only goats and sheep, she would walk up to each one and say "mooooo". I'm pretty sure she would have stayed there all day. Zoe and Grammie joined us on our adventure. Sweet cousins-too bad they wouldn't look at me while playing with their goat brushes!

Because of spring break, it was REALLY crowded! So we enjoyed our perfectly packed lunches on the ground. I can't wait to go back on a school day!

Moving On

Nope, not moving yet. Still in the parents basement. But we are moving from one gold shoe to the next. Sunday morning after I got Ruby dressed, I put on her gold shoes that she had worn just days ago. And either she had a major growth spurt overnight or I'm a really terrible mother for cramming her foot into itty bitty shoes. The new ones are a little big still, but aren't they awesome? How could I pass up an infant, gold, gladiator sandal that was on sale and said couture on the box? I couldn't.

Finally

Please excuse the 3 month blog hiatus. I don't have my own laptop anymore and I have a 13 month old that doesn't care if her mama updates the blog. She's a busy busy girl! She's walking, and usually running, and getting into everything. She's sweet as can be though! The 1st birthday party was a hit, and exhausting, and I'll get back to that soon.

    For now, I'm posting pictures of girls night. Last night six of us got together for a much needed and much enjoyed girls night. These are 5 friends that I've known for most of my life and even though we don't see each other often, when we do, we have so much fun catching up!

We picked a dish off of Pioneer Woman's website and split up the ingredients for everyone to bring and then made dinner together. It was so much fun! The recipe had a long list of ingredients with lots of prep work so it was a great dish to make together.
And it made so much food! Thanks girls for a great evening! Lets do it again soon!

And here's one picture of my precious Ruby and one of her new favorite activities. The warm weather provides hours of entertainment on the deck. She loves it! Now I just need to figure out a way to keep a hat on her little red head!