Successful Halloween!

Princess Dorothy herself
The whole crew

I'm usually really boring and never dress up for Halloween, so I decided to change that this year and we decided to all dress up like the Wizard of Oz characters.  I figured I'd better do it soon since each year I have less and less say in what Ruby is for Halloween, so here you have it.  We told Ruby all month long that she was going to be "Princess Dorothy" for Halloween because I was afraid she would have a tantrum thinking she had to be something besides a princess...and I must say it worked well!  In fact, I think she's the cutest "Princess Dorothy" I've ever seen.  And the Tin Man, well, I KNOW I've never seen a better looking Tin Man.  I wish the picture showed his legs and feet, we made his legs out of flexible vent ducts and they looked pretty good.  I'd like to think that we'll all dress up again next year because it was a blast but we'll have to see...it was a lot of work!!  I guess if I wouldn't wait till Halloween morning to put them together, it wouldn't be so bad.  Oh, by the way, we even won the award for the overall best costume and third place for our chili in the chili cook off at the ward party.  Happy Halloween everyone!!!

He's One!

The cake
My little firefighter
mmmmhhh!
Looking for any crumbs he can find leftover!

I can't believe my baby is already one!!  He's not really a baby anymore...I guess we should stop calling him Baby Jake.  We had a little first birthday party for Jacob on Saturday, thanks to all those who came.  I thought I would post some of his favorite things and things he is doing at his 1st birthday:

His first word:  dood (good)

His newest favorite word:  Mmmmhhh (he says it whenever he eats anything new)

His favorite toy:  Ruby's princess books and dollies (He only wants them because he knows it makes her mad when he takes them...it's amazing how fast they pick up on these things)

His favorite song:  "If you're happy and you know it" (He's recently learned all three verses...my favorite is when he shouts Hooray!)

His favorite place in the house:  Ruby's bookshelf (He empties it appx. 20 times/day!)

His favorite food:  sweet potatoes

His favorite person:  Mommy (That one is just for me to feel good:-))

He's not walking yet, but has recently mastered what we call the stinkbug crawl, where he crawls on his feet instead of his knees.  I'm sure it won't be too long before he's walking.  I can't believe how much babies learn and change in their first year!  He has been just about the best baby EVER and we're glad we have him.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE JAKE!!

First Haircut

Before the first haircut
She wasn't super thrilled at the thought of getting a haircut...
but I guess when your're two, a sucker can fix almost anything!
The after pictures
So it's probably pitiful that Ruby is over two and a half, and she just got her first haircut yesterday, but I couldn't imagine cutting off all of her cute curls.  I guess I shouldn't have been worried, because there are still plenty of curls left!!  We have been talking for the last few days about getting a haircut (hoping to make it really fun and exciting and something to look forward to :)) and Ruby seemed really excited about it until we got there.  You can tell from the picture right before we started that she wasn't too happy about the idea, but luckily I brought plenty of suckers and a portable DVD player with Finding Nemo.  Once she started cutting her hair, it was like she didn't even notice.  She got about 5 inches cut off, who knew she had so much hair!  Anyway, in my opinion, the wait was worth it, thanks for the cute haircut Dianna!

Little Artist

Ruby's newest thing is painting. Check out the concentration!

My Big Boy

Little Jake's favorite food has recently become puffs . . . because he can feed himself. I love these pictures with the puff stuck to his face, and he had no idea for the longest time, he just kept chow-ing!!

My sweet sweet baby boy!!!
My little boy is growing up so fast, I can hardly believe it. He is already 8 months old, and on May 23rd he got his first tooth. The day before he cut it through he was a little grumpy and had a fever, I've decided if that's all I have to deal with when he teeths, I've got NOTHING to complain about!! I took this picture to show his tooth, which I'm not sure you can actually see, but he's pretty cute anyway. He is almost ready to takeoff crawling, constantly on his hands and knees, or hands and feet, but he still just goes backwards and spins circles (he does do that well though!), and this afternoon I went in to check on him after laying him in his crib for a nap, and he was sitting up just staring at me as I tried to sneak in the door. He has never even been close to sitting himself up when I've been watching him, babies are SO SNEAKY!!!

Ruby Funnies

Every night before we tuck Ruby in bed we help her say her prayers. Most of the time she still just repeats what we say, but the other night as I was helping her to say her prayers, she decided to go off on her own, and thank Heavenly Father for what SHE wanted to thank Him for . . . it went something like this. "thank thee this day, thank thee cotta cheese (cottage cheese), thank thee cewol (cereal), bless this day."

A couple of weeks ago, as we were heading to Thanksgiving Point to revisit the Tulip Festival, we passed a Pepsi truck, and Ruby said, "look mama, daddy's yucky water!" Jake's favorite drink is Pepsi, much to my chagrin, and Ruby wants a drink of his drink every time he has it, but I always tell her that it is "yucky water" in hopes that she will stop asking for it. I guess it's not helping, because she has started ASKING for yucky water.

OKAERINASAI!!!

Jake and his mission companion, Timothy Canham
Our trip to temple square with Hiromi
Savannah, Ruby, and Jake taking a spin on the go-cart
Jersie, Ruby, and Connor at Thanksgiving Point.

This week was a fun filled week at our house. Last week Jake had a work trip to Atlanta, and while he was there one of his mission companions was also there visiting his mother-in-law, so Jake got to see him a little bit. Then last Saturday, the 3rd of May, we went to the airport to pick up a friend of mine from Japan, Hiromi. We got to play all week while she was here and had a lot of fun. We went to temple square, went shopping, went to the petting zoo at thanksgiving point, went to Leamington to ride go-carts, etc. etc. My house had seriously suffered from the week full of fun, but it was definately worth it! Before Hiromi came, I tried to prepare Ruby by speaking Japanese to her now and then, but every time I did, Ruby would get soooooo mad at me, because she couldn't understand what I was saying. It made me nervous for this week, because I thought Ruby would be grumpy all week with us speaking Japanese, but it turns out, she LOVED having Hiromi here. I'm sure it helped that Hiromi brought her toys, and played with her a lot, and it was cute because she was pretty sad when Hiromi left. It was fun for me to watch them play together and communicate together, and it didn't even matter that they don't speak the same language. By the end of the week, we even got Ruby to say her name, only it didn't sound like Hiromi, it sounded like Hoaneemoanee. Two-year-olds are the best!!! Well, we were sad to see the week come to a close, but I must say, it was so good for me, not only to see a good friend who I hadn't seen for a long time, but also to be reminded of how important family and friends are. She reminded me over and over of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and knows us, and especially of what a wonderful family I have been blessed with. I wouldn't trade my Big Jake, Ruby, and Little Jake for ANYTHING!! Thanks to my family and Hiromi for such a fun week!!!

school busses and choo-choos

Miriam and Matt invited us to go to the carnival by the Provo Towne Center last Saturday and Ruby thought her dreams had come true!!! She absolutely LOVES school busses and every time we pass one while driving in the car she says "Mommy, ride school bus" over and over. So the thought of DRIVING a school bus was almost too much excitement for a two year old to handle!!
Ruby and Savannah driving the car. I was almost as exciting as the bus!
Jake and Matt took Savannah and Ruby on this little roller coaster and they surprisingly both loved it . . . it's a good thing because it cost $12.00 for the four of them to ride it for a couple of minutes . . . oh well, the looks on the girls' faces was worth more than $12. After they got off, Ruby kept saying choo-choo over and over, and I finally figured out that she thought the roller coaster was a choo-choo and wanted to ride it again.

A few days ago Ruby found her winter hat out of a drawer in her room, and discovered a new love of it. For a couple of days, I would find her in random places with it on. The funniest was when she wouldn't leave the house without it, and I'm sure the neighbors were laughing when they saw her come out of the house in her shorts, short sleeves and her winter hat. Kids are the BEST!

This is how little Jake enjoyed the tulip festival . . . covered up in his stroller chillin' with a toy!


I love these action shots of Ruby!!

Last Friday, the 18th we went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point. Here are a few pictures from it. You would probably think there would be a few pictures of tulips here, but here are a couple of the reasons why there aren't.

#1 The grassy hill was a much bigger hit for Ruby than walking around looking at flowers.

#2 The flowers were hardly in bloom yet . . . maybe we'll have to try again at the end of the festival.

Even though there weren't a ton of flowers though, we had a blast. I love watching Ruby giggle and have so much fun. It's one thing that makes being a mom so much fun!!!

New Room

Isn't he HANDSOME!?!
My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and we were originally planning on going to Salt Lake to eat at our favorite sushi joint, and have a day out, but I decided if Jake was taking the day off (he doesn't get too many of those) I wanted him to work on our room. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am the queen of procrastination (NOT something to be proud of) and I work better under pressure. So we decided about a week before we were having new bedroom furniture delivered that we should put up some faux paneling, or maybe I should say we decided that Jake should put up some faux paneling. Anyway, poor Jake, I worked him hard ALL weekend to get it finished in time. Literally, he really DID have to BEG me to go to bed at
1:30 am instead of doing one more coat of paint. Anyway, I hated the lime green paint color when we first put it on, and was convinced that I was going to pay someone to come and repaint it, but after we got our bedding and I saw how good it looked together, I love it!! So, thank you honey for the new room, it looks awesome, and I thought it was a great birthday present! I love you lots and lots!!!

zoo time

They were all worn out after a day at the zoo!

Ruby and her cousin Bri
Little Jake and Livvy sitting in an egg
Meet Ruby the turtle


A couple of weeks ago we went to the zoo with my sister Tonya and her kids, and my sister in law Heidi and her kids. Ruby's favorite thing by far at the zoo was the playground. . . maybe we should just stick to the park. . . it's a lot cheaper! We'll try again and maybe the animals will be a bigger hit.

Our little guy

I can't get over how fast babies grow up!! My baby Jake is already six months old! Yikes!!!!!! It seemed like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. He is such a good baby and I'm thinking that Heavenly Father just blessed me with an extra good baby because I have a two year old to try to keep out of trouble too. Jacob finally rolled over for the first time on March 31st, and he is now all over the place! He started eating rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and obviously from the picture he loves it! He can already tell when I am getting it ready and gets so excited. I have to tell you what a funny little guy he is. He loves to jump up and down on my lap and last Sunday, I had him with me during singing time in Primary. Every time the music would start to play and the kids would start to sing, he would go absolutely crazy jumping on my lap and giggling. Then the music would stop and he would calm down, only to start again when the music started. All the kids around me were laughing...maybe I shouldn't take him to Primary anymore he is such a distraction...but it was pretty cute.

shoeson, hair pretties, and talking on the phone

I've decided I'm really bad at the whole blogging thing, but I think I will get better as time goes on. I always forget to take my camera when we go do fun things and I kind of figure no one wants to look unless there are pictures to look at. But since this might be my best attempt at keeping a journal, I figure I better keep trying.
So, as Ruby gets older and older and talks more and more, it's funny to me all the things she says. She is constantly cracking me up! She loves to talk on the phone and it makes me realize what I must say a lot on the phone, because she will get my phone and hold it to her ear with her shoulder and just ramble on and on. A few examples that I've heard her say recently are "sooo.......... uh-huh....... anyway, see ya yater (later)..." I must run my words together too, because Ruby thinks a lot of things have a lot longer names than they really do. For example, shoes are shoeson (because I always ask her to put her shoes on), bibs are bibons, pants are pantson, diapers are diaperchange (when she needs a new diaper, she always asks for a new diaperchange), etc. It's funny the things we don't think about because we have spoken english since we can remember.
As for Ruby's hair pretties, anyone looking at this blog can tell that my daughter has some pretty out of control hair. It is incredibly curly and she always asks for "hair pitties" (pretties) but within a few minutes she has usually pulled them out. I included a couple of pictures to see the before and after picture. I love all her curls, especially when her hair is done, but probably 90% of the time it looks like the afro in the top picture. She is such a sweetheart, afro or not!!

Ruby's first cooking

So this year on St. Patrick's day, I decided to make a big St. Patty's dinner, and I have to say, it was actually pretty good. Ruby helped make the Irish Soda Bread, which was a lot of fun. She poured ingredients in, stirred, and best of all got really messy! We may have ended up with a few of the ingredients being mostly outside of the bowl instead of inside, but it was well worth the fun. Here's a picture of the finished product, and the little cook.

Ruby's TWO

So I guess I'm about a month and a half behind, but I still can't believe our baby girl is two years old already!! She's pretty cute, if you ask me. She absolutely LOVES kitty's so this is the birthday cake I came up with.....Hello Kitty. Needless to say she loved it! All day long she kept saying kitty cake, kitty cake, kitty cake. So at the young age of two years old, some of Ruby's favorite things are: kitty's, her blankie, bubbles, cheese, anything with sugar in it, reading story books, singing songs, sitting on the potty, slides, and running, running, and more running. One of MY favorite things to see Ruby do is when she gets up in the morning and hears little Jake talking in his bed she will go in and climb up his crib to say good morning. To see the smiles on both hers and little Jake's faces is priceless!! Anyway, even though it's a month and a half late, Happy Birthday Ruby! I am so greatful for you in my life and I love you!!!

Jaker's and his first helicopter ride

So, we went to Hawaii in January and I'm just barely figuring out this whole blogging thing, but I had to post this picture of little Jacob and his first helicopter ride. He seemed to like it, in fact he actually slept through most of it. I'm sorry you have to watch a video to see how stinkin' cute he looked in his little life vest and ear phones, but big Jake thought it would be a great idea to only pack one camera (the video one) instead of the still camera as well in order to save space on our trip to Hawaii, and I haven't figured out how to take still photos off our video camera yet. Anyway, now I'm just rambling. Anyway, we got to take a wonderful trip to Maui in January and see and do all sorts of fun things. We were worried we would miss out on a lot by taking a three month old baby with us, but he was an absolute ANGEL the whole trip. He just slept and would wake up and coo to anyone who would talk to him, then he would sleep some more. We got to go whale watching, take a helicopter tour around Maui, go to a Luau, spend time with really fun friends, I got an AWESOME massage, Jake did a little cliff jumping, etc. etc. and we just relaxed and enjoyed. It was a much needed break from the real world!!! Also, much thanks to Miriam and Matt for watching our little Ruby while we were gone!!!

Our Little Dipper

Ruby has a new obsession.......dipping.........EVERYTHING! It started in January shortly before her 2nd birthday and it really doesn't matter what it is. Don't get me wrong, she would gladly dip everything in Ranch if I would let her, but since I won't she likes to dip in anything. A couple of her favorites are toast in oatmeal and toast/crackers/pretty much anything in water. Sounds yummy doesn't it!