ballerina

when i was a little girl, my mom enrolled me in tap, ballet, and jazz dance lessons. i loved it so freaking much. and, i got very excited about the outfits i got to wear. always full of sequins and sparkles. inspired by my little dancing self, my mom found this leotard and tutu and obviously couldn't say no. i tend to keep the frills and over-the-top girlie stuff to a minimum around here so this probably fills the quota for the next year but even i think we can all agree... oh. my. cuteness.

here's ruby reading, saying hi to me, and saying "enough pictures, ma!"
(and don't worry - that's an old debit card. which is not to say
that she doesn't go through T's wallet already or anything.
heaven help us when the teenage years come...)

                                little ballerina checking herself out                                          

some sweet details

wordless-ish wednesday: a little fun outside

i was able to get home early on tuesday and so we got some extra family time. we spent a little time outside and it was quite lovely. and check out ruby's mad walking skills. go, girl, go!

ruby antics

ruby has long been known as a trickster. when i was still expecting ruby, T's sister, candice, got a reading and the woman foretold that ruby would keep us on our toes all while also keeping us laughing. and that is absolutely the case. with ruby, every day is filled with moments like this...

T: "ruby, don't touch that."

ruby looks at me, like "is he trying to tell me what to do?"

"watch this, old man."

"uh-huh. that's right. whatcha gonna do about it?"
(notice her finger still on the 360 power button)

"yeah, i'm talking to YOU. i said, whatcha gonna do about it?"

"aha! you'll do nothing! why? because i'm cute. duh!"

and i just cannot forget this one. monday, i was driving ruby and i home from work and daycare. i was on the phone with a friend when i looked in the backseat and saw ruby doing something i'd never seen her do before. and i could not stop laughing. seriously, whose kid starts undressing themselves whilst strapped in the car seat?? in fact, it's probably a good thing she was strapped in, or the chick would've been buck naked before i exited the freeway! oy vey. love this kid.



dreaming. pnw style.

to write this post, i have to go back. way back to march 2009 when T and i took a trip to seattle. there wasn't a particular reason why we chose seattle for vacation. our trip was in april so we weren't exactly going for the sun. (we're kinda like that, though. we've yet to go on a "tropical" vacation. we are city-walking, shopping, people-watching, find-the-local-secrets vacation kinda people. but i should say, in a surprising twist, it was freaking hot and i got a sunburn on that trip. not the norm, i know, but a pleasant surprise.)

so, anyway, we loved seattle. and about half way through the trip, we had a conversation about moving to the pacific northwest. and that day, it was like my life opened up. like i knew there was something missing before then i just didn't know what it was. it's really hard to explain. i've tried. but i'll try again. i guess, at that point in my life i'd earned both a bachelors and masters degree in social welfare, i'd met, fallen in love with, and married my best friend, and we were trying to start a family. i was pretty much where anyone would want to be in life. i mean, i was where i wanted to be in my life. but yet there was always some draw in me to be somewhere else. the idea of something else, something more sat inside me.

i had always wanted to visit seattle. something about the city, i don't know. i'd never been and didn't know anyone who lived there. i just felt that the area would suit me somehow. and i wasn't wrong. flying in, as the earth began to cover in more and more green, i immediately fell in love. seriously, i remember the way i felt so clearly. so, long story short, it turned into a dream vacation that in turn helped me dream for a new, very different, future.

so that was three year ago. we still want to move and i've spent countless hours doing internet research on different areas to possibly live in. the more we talked about it, the more we considered expanding our potential locations outside of seattle, but still in the pnw. i have a cousin that lives in portland so i started to talk to her about how she likes the city. the more i learned about portland, the more it seemed to be a good fit for us. it's a smaller city, similar to milwaukee, which i love. microbreweries abounding? yes, please. and still absolutely green and beautiful.

we knew we had to visit, of course, and check it out, at the very least. it took a bit but we finally got a trip planned for march of this year. i've got a ton of pictures and experiences that i want to share from our trip, but that's for later this week. first, i wanted to share a little background for our trip out there and why it was so an important.

we've still a lot of planning, saving, and more planning to do before we can move. and i'm not so naive to think that it will be easy to just up and leave. we have incredible friends here and good, stable jobs. we don't live anywhere near my family so i'll be used to that part, but still, we also won't be able to plan a weekend to visit them at the last minute. and as for T's family, they've always lived close and have been able to see ruby almost weekly since she's been born. so i know it will be hard for them to be away from her and us.

but with all of that said, all i can think of is a quote that i've seen -

i'd rather have a life of "oh, wells" than a life of "what ifs"

and i think that pretty much sums it up. maybe we will hate it one day when we move. maybe we will cry every day because we miss our families, our friends, and the sun. but at least then we will know and won't have to wonder what might have been.

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?

flashback friday: everybody loves a wedding!

lately, i've been lucky enough to have the time and energy and fun stuff to blog about so i've got loads of memories that i want to document here. but, i also love the idea of "flashback fridays" so that's what's on deck for today.

and it's a fun one! our wedding. it was a perfect day. sunny, light breeze, 75 degrees. i couldn't have dreamed for a more perfect day. and, appropriately enough, it was on a friday instead of the usual saturday. which is a very good thing because the day after our wedding, it started to rain. and it rained pretty much all day, every day, for the next 8 days. not that it bothered us too much since we were on our honeymoon in sedona. :) but that's another post. for today, here's a stroll down memory lane, to the day of our wedding.

married!

one of my favorites.

perfection.

catching up (again): easter dress

yeah, i know. easter was quite a while ago. but mid march to mid april was seriously rough for us. ruby was sick for over a month, and then we were on vacation, and then she was kind enough to pass along her sickness to us. so i'm still trying to catch up on all the fun that we did have in between that stuff. and one of those fun times was easter.

when i was a little girl, i remember my mom taking me to the store each easter to pick out a dress. and the dress had to have a bonnet, too. i love that i have a little girl now to continue that tradition. last year we picked out a little dress and bonnet for (then) 8-week-old ruby. it didn't even fit her. she was drowning in it. but it had to be done. i didn't start blogging until ruby was about 3 months old, so here's a never-before-seen pic of little ms. ruby and me celebrating her first easter together, with kisses.

so, the tradition continued this year. but there was a sweet little twist on it. the dress and bonnet in the picture (s) below are actually hand-me-downs from ruby's older cousins, teagan and maren. my sister, lisa (their mama), handed down some (and by some i mean, 4 rubbermaid containers full) of clothes for ruby. it was so generous of them to share with us and it's great to see ruby toddling around in her cousins duds.

the morning of easter, i dressed ruby up, gave her her basket of easter eggs and plopped her in the front yard to play. i took a lot of pictures. little girl in a bonnet (plus those shoes!) = super photo ops. ultimately, we ended up with a wardrobe change because ruby couldn't crawl around in this dress and she was getting mighty frustrated about it. so i put her in another dress from her cousins, put a sweater over the dress, left the bonnet on, and we headed off for a walk to the coffee shop for some breakfast. a lovely morning, indeed.

i introduced ruby to dandelions. in usual ruby-fashion, she tried to eat it.

wardrobe change! conveniently enough, the bonnet matched the new
dress so ruby demanded she keep it on. sheesh, diva.

"oh, hi mom. i got an egg."

flirting with people at the coffee shop. those shoes just kill me. super cute.