Ruby 1.0

Happy Birthday, Ruby!!! 

Ryan and I are still trying to figure out how this teeny tiny baby in teeny tiny diapers that were still too big

Turned into this excited little girl in a "big girl" high chair overnight.

I can't believe how quickly time has gone by this year and how  my sweet, tiny baby has evolved into this amazing, talkative, busy, happy, inquisitive, wonderful little girl with wild blue eyes and even wilder curly hair (Monkey Jammies courtesy of Nona). 

Ruby had a wonderful 1st birthday. We postponed a big celebration on the day of to be with more of the family up in Colorado at a later date. Instead I took the day off work to hang out with her and we opened presents with Ryan when he came home from work.

Daddy was a very good sport and dressed appropriately for the party :)

He helped to model cute outfits and explain to Ruby the finer points of crushed velvet couture sweat suits. 

We opened boxes sent with love.....

and took very careful measures with the scissors....

We learned how to dial our new Telephone...

and immediately learned how to torment Diesel with it....

 

We played with our new game, Peek a Shoe, which is a game with a very enthusiastic Octopus in Sneakers who swallows little plastic balls then hides them under his shoes for Ruby to find. 

 Ruby had her 12 month check up and shots that morning, so presents and the cupcakes that were supposed to follow were cut short by a desperate need for bedtime after such a long day.  This left Dad playing "Peek-a-Shoe" all by himself....

At our 12 month check up the doctor said that Ruby is such a smart, social, fun little person.  Ruby is now 24 pounds, 30.5" tall, and in the 75th percentile for both. She talked in the doctors office the entire time, excitedly showed off her shoes to the nurses, and called the Giraffe on the wall a "dog" over and over again.  They gave her credit for it anyway. :) Shots are never any fun, but Ruby got her first Lollipop afterwards and gave the nurse a big smile and a "yum" as a peace offering when it was all said and done.

Our darling daughter is VERY talkative. She says many things with a very sure, assertive tone even though we're not quite sure what the words are yet.  She does say and know 'dog', 'ball', 'Dees' ( for Diesel), 'mama', 'dada', 'yum', and what i think is "that"....  but the jury is still out on that one. 

Ruby's favorite past time lately is looking at pictures.  She loves to walk around the house and look at all of the pictures of family and friends that we have in frames.  She'll point me to go all over the house to look at pictures.  Her favorite "book" to "read" is the calendar Uncle Kenny made us for Christmas last year with the pictures of every one's animals.  She will crawl to the kitchen where the calendar hangs, point to it on the wall and say "dog" until I get it down for her.  She'll sit in my lap and we will "read' the months and talk about the dogs and cats over and over.  Bella, Abby, Riley and Mobey and Blue and Violet's pages make her smile the most.  She's not quite sure what the cats are, she sort of flips past them to get to the dogs.  She likes dogs. :) 

   Here's a little collection of some of my favorite pictures of our baby over the last year.  There are literally hundreds, and this post took me hours to write because i got so lost in the magic of just how much a littler person can change in the course of 12 months. 

We've learned that Blog Season and Wedding Season don't work so well together.  We had our last busy wedding day of the year today so I'm hoping that the blog post will again be more frequent - especially now that we're on the brink of walking and talking and so many more exciting changes! 

Love, Kelli

Vacation to Eden

We just took our first family vacation to see Ruby's Grandma Dave and Grandma Anne (my dad and step mom) in Montana! The scenery was amazing, the company divine, and the accommodations 5 star. Its an Eden on earth - so much green grass and gorgeous weather. Ryan and I were both raised mountain kids so we felt right at home and didn't want to leave. Dad and Anne have done an amazing job making a good vacation spot for us to come visit! :) Dad built the timber frame home they live in, they have horses, and gardens with the most amazing fresh vegetables, and a greenhouse with the best tomatoes I've ever eaten. We also spent our days floating the Bitterroot River in a drift boat and fly fishing, getting to know the horses, and spending lots of quality grandma and grandpa time together since this was the first time they've gotten to meet Ruby!
Here are a few pictures of my dads house - The scenery up there is unreal. They're surrounded by fields and mountains and have the most amazing 360 degree of the best this country has to offer in our opinion.




These are some panoramic shots of the inside of the house





Here's a few shots of the lake - Ryan and Dad getting the boat ready for us to float a 7 mile stretch of this incredible river. There are a few spots on the side that i'd be perfectly happy to put up a tent and retire. It's so relaxing and perfect.










We caught some fish in our adventures. Here's my favorite - we call him Earl. He was gigantic....

This helps put his size into perspective - next to the proud fisherman :)

I caught one too!


We went to Lolo Hot Springs with Dad and Anne. The area up there is where they shot parts of the movie A River Runs Through It. The pool was the perfect temperature - especially for Ruby. She caught a little cold on the way up from the germy airplane, but she had so much fun swimming with Grandma Annie in the water!







We also rode horses! Ruby was lucky enough to get rides from Mae and Tide! She really seemed to like the rocking motion even though her face looks a little bewildered.



Mae was even nice enough to let me and Ryan ride her and get our first lessons in Equestrian riding from Mae's owner Cathy.


We had such a great time, and while it's good to be home - the desert leaves a little to be desired in comparisson. :) Thank you, daddy and Anne, for making our vacation absolutely incredible and memorable!

Moments.... (aka big, giant, ridiculous summer post)

The last few weeks have been filled with these incredible moments that have made me realize that my little baby is not going to be a baby much longer. She's evolving from this tiny, helpless, adorable little infant to an independent, curious, exciting little person. She's closer to being 1 year old than she is to being brand new and I feel this tiny little (or maybe big, giant) twinge in my heart when I think about all that we've accomplished and all the little tiny moments we have yet to discover....

Lately, Ruby insists on "helping" mama with everything.

Laundry for instance, is a very fun chore.

She's getting a little neater when it comes to eating.... sort of.


Diesel is very inconspicuous and sneaky about helping her clean up though....


Helping Mama with makeup is a new favorite morning game. My girl has good taste...she only eats the expensive ones.


She's also started this thing where she crawls right over to the scale in the bathroom when I'm getting ready in the morning and just screams at it... of course she's completely ridiculous when I don't have my camera. That's how most photo opportunities go, I'm learning. I tell her that only Mommy is allowed to talk like that to the scale, but clearly it's done something that she simply will not stand for....



Swim lessons might have to be a whole separate post...but we have to show you her new "keeni". Nona sent a swimming suit for her and we took the opportunity to model it for everyone via text message while Ryan and his immediate family were in Texas visiting Uncle Reid.





Here's a sneak peak at our little baby fish. She loved the water and all of the excitement of the other kids in the class.




I have started to train for a 5k in the fall. It sort of symbolizes the end of a period of almost two years of events I never would have imagined I would be lucky enough to experience. Pregnancy was a surprise and something I was told that because of my Diabetes, might never happen, or happen successfully... and then there it was...this little bump that kept growing and flourishing despite the doubts my body could handle it...

And then with minor hiccups...our baby girl was born - as perfect as any baby of a non-Diabetic mama would be... (minus all those little pesky tubes)

She's growing into this amazing little lady, and she's helping her mama grow too...

She's taught me from the first positive pregnancy test (because there were like, 12 pregnancy tests taken for validation...) that just because someone says that if you are 'x' you cannot/should not/could not be 'y'... does not mean you have to listen. You are only limited by yourself....

and these little fiery eyes know that already


I'm sore and tired right now... my house is a mess and my laundry pile seems insurmountable. There are dishes in my sink and I desperately need to clean my bathrooms.

But my baby...

she looks like this:

and my family looks like this:

and everything seems right in the world....

I thank God for little moments like this.


Until next time...


"Show me a day when the world wasn't new." Sister Barbara Hance