milestones, man. milestones.

it has been a pretty busy few days around here. it started up with ruby turning 2 years old last friday, march 15th. the day flew by, as we were preparing for her big toy story party on saturday & she was also quickly coming down with a nasty cold. since respiratory problems are so prevalent in people diagnosed with SMA, our pediatrician takes any cough ruby has seriously & pretty much treats it right away. so, in addition to running party errands on friday, we also made a quick stop to the doctors office & then the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics before heading to T's sister's & fiancé's apartment building to set up for the par-tay. it was so helpful to be able to set up the party decorations, at least partly, the night before the party.

the party went down on saturday (after yet more errand running, of course!) & it was a great success! it was PACKED. we had around 40 people at the party, including about 12 kids from babies through elementary school. many of our close friends came & it was fantastic to see so many people who love ruby come out to celebrate. it was a quick & crazy party. some of the pictures i have aren't the best because the apartment was so bright (& beautiful!) & I didn't edit them, so hopefully you can make them out okay. ruby got a TON of gifts & it currently looks like toy story exploded in our living took. we had (delicious!) baskin robbins ice cream crunch cake and some snacky-type food. everything turned out & looked great! and I have to give (many, many) thanks to T, Lu, Lisa, & my mom who helped SO much with setting it all up. and also to several of our friends who lent us tables and chairs so we didn't have to sit (& eat!) on the floor. :) last year, after ruby's rainbow party, i said I'd go easy on the big parties in the coming years, but i just don't see that happening anymore. i love planning them & it's a wonderful excuse to celebrate ruby & all she brings to our lives.

ruby also had her two year check up on monday. it went great & she barely cried. yay! she is still on her usual growth curve (10% for weight, 25% for height). no shots either, which was fantastic! basically, it was just a check-in & all is well. the biggest change is she can ride front-facing in her car seat now & use toothpaste with fluoride. like I said, nothing too crazy. but after the last few months we've had, no news is good news for us.

and lastly, ruby moved on up to the next classroom at daycare - the early preschool classroom. I was a little nervous but made sure to put on a happy, positive face for ruby. and she did great! no tears when i dropped her off & when i called to check on her in the afternoon, her teacher said she was having no problems with the transition & she's enjoying getting to know ruby.

so, lots of stuff going on & all of it GOOD. and we like good news. here are some pictures i took the last few days of all the fun we've had.

two.

only 22 minutes left before this day ends. the day my sweet girl was born, already (and in some ways, just) two years ago.
it still surprises me some days that we have a toddler. but ruby never let's us forget it. she is skilled at the toddler ways already. she is so much cooler than I could have ever imagined she would be.

happy birthday, sunshine girl. we love you, ruby harper.

christmas happiness

can't believe how quickly christmas came & went this year. i don't think it helps that it was on a tuesday, either. we had a few years when it was attached to weekends & that was good stuff. anyway, while we are trying to get back into the swing of things, we are happy to have some wonderful christmas memories from this year.

ruby & i made the trek up to minnesota by ourselves last weekend. overall, ruby did great & we even dodged a big snowstorm so that was a relief. we stayed at my oldest sister's home and i got to see ALL of my family, which is no small task. all six of my siblings, plus 8 nieces/nephews, plus all 3 of my parents were in one place at one time & i LOVED it. the only draw back was that T couldn't come with us. but when we came back christmas eve, we got to spend that evening & all of christmas day with him, which was a wonderful time.

here's a photo bomb of some good times, christmas style!

ruby found her cousin's "um- ella!!" 

view from my sister's front yard. she lives in the country, which made for a perfectly relaxing trip.

fun with grandma della

cousins hard at work (aka unwrapping presents)

"holy crap!! check out my new ride! it comes with a WAND!" 

someone loves their auntie lisa

i can't tell you the sheer joy ruby had when playing at Bounce World. homegirl was losing her ever- loving mind. and also, i think i had just as much fun as she did. 

there is little more wonderful than the friendship found in a cousin.

"cheese!!" having lunch with her cousin, teagan.

omg.yay.christmas.toms.

our week in iphone pics: april 30 - may 5, 2012

well, another week is in the books. and it was a pretty good one. full of our favorite things - family time, food, snuggles and tickle-attacks, reading, and even a special event tossed in. check it out!



1. ruby wasn't quite ready to start the week so back to bed she headed.  2.
snuggles with ruby's cat-bestie, peyton. 3. attempting to snuggle said cat.
3. after-bath-snuggles (the best kind, in my opinion) .4. tambourine-playing
fool. 5. new trick: stacking blocks. and getting quite good at it, i must say.

1. two thumbs (er, fingers) up for standing on her own! 2. keeping our pearly
whites pearly. 3. tickle-time with dad. 4. little birdie eats cheese. 5. sid the science
kid. have you seen this show? it's on pbs. it is seriously awesome. 6. that's a tomato,
ruby, not an apple. but don't let me get in the way of you enjoying the heck outta it.
7. reading books before bed with dad.

1. we went to a 5K walk with our friends. this little guy, xander, is about six months 
younger than ruby and full of smiles. ruby was a little slower to warm up, but
2. soon enough she was eating fruity cherrios and singing songs. 3. playing in the
grass, waiting for dad to get home. 4. tossing a ball around with mom. 5. check out
my new car air freshener from bath and body! love it! (and shout out to my friend, anna,
for giving me the heads up on them! you saved my stinkin' car.) 6. and what would
any day (or hour, rather) be if ruby wasn't reading a book?

it's time to play catch-up for a bit...

so, i'm going to go waaaay back. over a month, exactly. the last month has been a whirlwind of events from ruby's first birthday party to doctors appointments to vacation to more doctors appointments and finally (i think. i hope!) dwindling down to our entire household getting over some crazy flu-cold-kill-me-now bug. it's all been nuts, but most parts of it have been seriously awesome.
and it all started out with ruby's rainbow-filled party. and let me tell you. it was glorious. it was colorful. and full of family and friends. and food. and one happy little birthday girl. (take a moment to prepare yourself for the photo bomb that is to come) and then check it out!

i decided to do a build-your-own-sandwich bar since i could incorporate pretty much every color of the rainbow that way and we wouldn't have to worry about cooking or keeping anything warm.
it worked out great and it looked awesome!

i made the "happy birthday, ruby" banner. i found these pendants pre-cut in the scrapbooking section of our JoAnn's, then just cut out white card stock, free-handed the letters, glued them on the pendants, and strung white yard through each. easy-peasy. nothing fancy but it looked cute.

the rainbows continue... i can't recall where i saw this (someone on pinterest, of course!) but i loved the idea of putting all the natural sodas and drinks in rainbow order. and (again from pinterest. obviously.) the rainbow fruit kabobs. one of my moms had the brilliant idea of dipping the marshmallow on the end (for the cloud, of course!) in white chocolate and then cover in rainbow sprinkles. it's all in the details, ya know? and we did go a little overboard with the details. well, I did. everyone just kindly obliged by wishes. :)

one of my favorite decorations was the wreath i made. which, you can't see very well here. ah well. anyway, it was white yarn wrapped around the wreath with felt flowers and sparkly buttons as the flower centers. then i glued on "happy birthday". it looked adorable. i'm in the process now of ripping off the "happy birthday" and putting on "ruby harper" so we can keep it hung up in her room. it was kinda a pain in the bum to wrap all that yarn,
but it turned out great so that's okay.

and then i got candy, candy, candy. in every color of the rainbow. and believe you me. we had loads! i just finally got rid of the last of it by bringing a little to work with me every day until it the pile was gone. although, i gotta say - starburst jelly beans are kinda the bomb.

more shots of candy. and the cake. of course. you can probably guess what the big surprise is there. more to come...

and lastly, for decorations, i strung up on rainbow ribbon each of her monthly pics from birth to 11 months. and yeah, i kinda definitely got all kinds of emotional putting this together.
oy. my girl is getting so big.

i feel like there should be music playing when you get to this picture. pardon the cake-covered fork messing up this picture. that being said, can i just tell you - this cake was every single bit (probably even more) as good as it looks. our friend, sarah, makes cakes as a side business and her recipes are to. die. for. the girl's got some serious skill. i mean, the color was perfect and the taste fantastic. i will not even attempt to lie - i ate this cake for breakfast for about a week after the party.
yup. i have no shame.

and speaking of no shame, here's ruby stuffing her face with the glorious goodness that is cake. actually, she mostly just grabbed it in huge handfulls, rubbed her hands together and all over everything, and then repeated this process until it looked like this...

so, i think she had fun. :)

had to get in some pictures with the fam...

ruby with her aunties candice and rhonda

with all of her grandparents! from the left, T's dad and mom, my mom, and my other mom, and dad
(ruby's the one in the middle, for those of you still in awe of the cake) ;)

family photo time. ruby seems to be enjoying herself. oh, and in case you're wondering, those are two balloons, one tied to each of ruby's wrists. it was pretty funny during the party, if you weren't sure where she was, just looked for the balloons floating around as she crawled. i'll have to remember this trick when she's older and we're at amusement parks and such. or the mall.
although, that probaby wouldn't go over to well with her. but i digress.

my absolute favorite.

this isn't the most exciting picture but we were opening presents here. i had suggested books for ruby. mostly because she has a bunch of toys that she doesn't really even play with but she loves to read. (and yes, that is a giant giraffe in the background. ruby's aunties went all out.) all together, ruby ended up with around 30 books, which she's been tearing through. (not literally, thank goodness). we've loved all the new choices we have. and i'm psyched we have some of the classics now - a bunch of dr. seuss, where the wild things are, courdoroy, to name a few.



and let's just say, you know it was a good party when...