no me gusta blogspot

so apparently it's not a great idea to upload directly from your big fancy camera and not shrink photo sizes first. because if you do this then you blog becomes "full" and you can't blog anymore.

whomp whomp whomp.

didn't want to leave you all hanging, so that's what's up. it's a bummer too because i've got all sorts of stuff to bore entertain you with.....

Halloween 2012

We had a lot of fun Halloween events this year, so I'm going to throw them all in one post and just warn you this is very picture heavy. But cute picture heavy....at least I think so!

The first Haloween-y thing we did was go to pumpkin carving party a couple threw from our church. They have an awesome backyard and it was set up with tables for us to eat dinner and then carve away. Ruby did wonderful even thoguh it was waaay past her bedtime.

The Luksys. They sit where others stand.

They had glow bracelets...Ruby was in love.

Thought the pumpkin gunk would be a fun sensory experience. She wasn't having any part of it.

Somehow this didn't win her over either....


Baby girl's first Halloween costume! She even left the hat on, which was a miracle, I think she knew how cute it was :)

Our little strawberry!



A couple from church threw a baby Halloween party. Basically a chance for us to get the babes together and oh and ah over their incredible collective cuteness.

 

Seven babies under 2 years old- craziness!

Okay, fast forward to actual Halloween day. While we were waiting on Andy to get home from work and get our fun night started we took a few pics in the yard....

Had to take a few pumpkin pics of course!

Snuggling with frankenstein

After we gobbled down a quick dinner, we headed out to visit our friends. A lot of our friends live in the neighborhood about a mile from us and Ruby still does pretty awful in the car so we decided to bike. It made it even more fun!

Right before we headed out to trick or treat

A few of the friends we visited.....

ps. i know my captions and spacing is all wonky. i cannot figure out blogger these days and have kind of just given up....anyone who knows how to fix any of this please msg/email me b/c I definitely don't have the time or energy to switch to another publisher.....

It's crazy what can happen.....

in one year!

the infamous pumpkin picture

much happier pumpkin-free!

a normal day

Okay, I meant to do this when she was a newborn, then again at 6 months, but I kept forgetting. I want to have this to look back on and remember how simple and fun life was a one year old. So, finally a couple weeks ago I just committed to taking a bunch of pictures and documenting our day day. Here it is....


MORNING

7am- Andy is already up and I wake up to Ruby babbling in her crib. I love just watching her on the monitor play and talk but this morning I get up so we can get the day started like we always do...just waking up slowly together snuggling in the rocker.

I get Ruby snuggles....

Andy gets to cook breakfast, doesn't seem fair does it? I think we still do this because morning time was Ruby's longest nursing time and I miss that

 Then we head out for a morning walk, we don't get to do this everyday, but try to at least a couple times a week. It's nice to have some time to just talk with Andy before we go our separate ways.

After about a mile Andy heads to work and we wave bye bye to him. Ruby still waves towards herself, it's so cute.

8am-Once we get home it's breakfast time for Ruby. She gets milk, cheerios, eggs, and pears.



Then we play on the floor for awhile, currently she is loving the plastic container our pasta was in last night and she practices putting coasters in it. Only the best for our kid ;)


9am- Nap time! She goes right down after a little bit of rocking. Then I get to shower and have big plans to be productive but end up watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" instead and writing a few emails to friends. She wakes up after only an hour.

10am- Since we have  a few hours before lunch time and we didn't leave the house yesterday I decide we definitely need a little outing. So I try to find some pants that will fit her since it's cooling down a little but with no luck. So, I put her in some leg warmers and she looks a little crazy but eh, if there's ever time you can pull off zebra shoes, rainbow striped leg warmers, and a polka dotted skirts, it's when you are a one year old so we just go with it.

We go walk around the Halloween store and Old Navy. I return a pair of colored skinny jeans that I ultimately decided I'm  not cool enough for. The sales lady tells me I am skinny, then I kiss her on the lips...okay, not really, but almost...
 

Ruby's first Halloween costume, which I later decide I don't like and return for (what I think) is a much cuter one

12pm- Lunch Time! Ruby and I both eat leftover spaghetti.  She also gets some oranges and broccoli. She throws every last bit of the broccoli on the floor.

1pm- Cleaned up from lunch (she is a very slow eater) we have some time before nap so I just lay on the floor and she hands me things and I get excited about it and she laughs. Fun times.

2pm- NAP TIME! Ruby goes down and I search craigslist for a jogging stroller, then try to clean up a little but. There may or may not have been a teeny bit of facebook snuck in there too ;)

3pm- The last hour or so before Andy gets home is always the longest, I think, especially on days like this, where it's just been the two of us all day, we need Andy to come home and "entertain" us. Today we hang out on the deck, I blow bubbles and she is not into them at all and just wants to hold Molly's disgusting, covered in mud and slobber. Germs help build the immune system right? Little girl's bound to have one kicking immune system with my "eh" approach to germs.

 4pm- Andy calls and says he got some good news at work today. I have dinner planned but it's nothing exciting so I decide I can kill two birds with one stone and we can celebrate Andy's success AND I don't have to cook dinner by going out. I pack Ruby up and tell Andy we are on our way to pick him up.

5pm- Sharing some chicken fajitas at Taco Cabana....yes, it's lame that we live in Austin, Texas, where there is arguable some of the best Mexican food restaurants around yet we eat at Taco Cabana. What can I say? It's cheap (we can eat for $10) and our loud baby doesn't get the stink eye she might get if we went to a nicer restaurant. It's amazing how our eating our options now factor in where we can get the least amount of stink eye. Tonight we splurged and ordered nachos too, yeah, the Luksys's know how to party ;) 

Then we return Ruby's costume to Old Navy and go walk around REI for a bit before heading home. With Ruby's early bedtime it makes most nights out feel a little rushed. But then, we also get some down time after she goes to bed too which is nice.

not from this particular night, but I forgot to take a picture and couldn't resist posting this preciousness

So, there it is. Nothing too exciting (or even exciting at all) but it's a pretty typical day. We have lots of fun, I can't imagine not being with her all day because she is just growing up so fast. Nearly everyday I have something new she's done to tell Andy that night (yesterday it was that she can point to things she wants now). The best and also most challenging part of my role as a stay at home mom is the simplicity of it all. I love that it's me and her all day and I know what to do to make her happy. However every day is basically eat, play, sleep, play, eat, play, sleep, play, eat, play. It can be monotonous at time, but is getting so much better with her becoming more social and having some friends close that stay home as well. We are also in weekly mom group and Bible study that takes up a big chunk of two days a week. Those breaks are good for both of us from each other.

Before I stayed home I knew it wasn't meant for everyone, but I now believe it is a true calling. That whole "best and hardest" job you'll ever have thing is so true for me. We are really enjoying life right now with our sweet baby girl.

I am going to try to do this every six months or so, but if my track record is any indication it may be a little longer before our next "normal day" update.

12 Month

 One year. We got there. There was blood, sweat, and lots of tears (on both sides) along the way but what a wonderful year. I knew it would be so fun to have a kid but we just love it and talk nearly daily about how blessed we are that we get to be her parents. I have a feeling I will say this every single year of her life (maybe not so much those teenage years) but it just keeps getting better and better. We are learning about our girl and who she is. And she happens to be kinda awesome.

Alright let's do some stats:
Weight: 19lbs 14oz (30%)
Heighth: 29 1/4 in (54%)
Head: 44cm (38%)

-She has eight teeth and doctor said he felt her molars about to come in. Eeek.Poor girl.

-Still wears 9 month clothing, has a few 6 month outfits that still fit. Since she has been wearing the same clothes for many many months now, this means most of her clothes have seen better days, ready for her to move up a clothing size. At the rate she's going she will be able to wear the 18mo clothes I have for her this winter, next Christmas!

-Started doing some signing to us! She can sign "more" and "all done". It's pretty cool and I'm even more motivated to work on other signs now.

-Love music, taking things out of boxes, string of any kind, stickers, pretend talking on her phone, any kind of nursery rhymes with hand gestures, crunching up paper, and following Molly around.

-Biggest news is that she is WALKING! It's just so crazy to see walk around like no big deal. She took her first step about a month ago but now she can walk across the living room no problem. If she's holding my hand she can walk as far as she wants.

Walking fool!

Discovering the world

It's really hard to get a good picture of her these days b/c she's either moving around too fast or focused on something and then I take it away so she will look at me and then she throws a fit (thus this picture)

She got sick one night and it was just the saddest thing ever to see her so pitiful, but she wanted to snuggle and be held so I was also happy to do so!

Since none of her pants really fit I sewed her up some leg warmers. I love them b/c you don't have to take anything off to change her diaper.

More obsessed than ever with Molly!

Tutu and wings from the Mapes!

The diaper bag is emptied out at least once a day

Got some legos for her birthday from my grandma, she loooooves them. Can't put them together but loves stashing them in weird places and pulling them apart.

I always wanted a feisty girl and boy did God deliver on that one. If she's not happy then she definitely let's you know it.

First time at the park with dad, he was impressed at how good she was at climbing up the stairs!

Loves to swing

Ruby Ann has made us an even happier family...

The most exciting blog post you will ever read.......about shelves....

So a month or two ago I was out and about meeting some friends for lunch and when it came time to leave....the car wouldn't go. It was awesome timing though because Ruby was overdue for a nap and we had friends with us, one of which was only a couple weeks old. So, yeah, super awesome. So, our other friend came back and picked us all up and took us home and Andy borrowed a truck from a friend to come possibly haul the car back to our house. He gets up there and, of course, the car starts right up! So he comes all the way back home to get me so we can get the car. Wow, if you are still reading this, you are either 1) bored to tears 2) my mom.

Anyways, here's what came of this big fiasco. When we went back up there, where were across the street from the greatest store that ever was. IKEA baby! So, after I batted my eyelashes a few times at Andy he agreed we should make the most of having a truck. I mean,  clearly the universe was telling us to buy lots of stuff at Ikea, who am I to argue with that?

So we bought shelving. Man did I take the scenic route to get to that or what? Let's get on the pictures!

Ruby very excited about all the big boxes to crawl on

BEFORE- too small and way too sad of a bookshelf

Okay, so sad little bookshelf needed a new home and I had the perfect place- she is now the new and improved happy craft bookshelf in the back of my closet!

Before- look at all that wasted waste just begging to be used

My own little craft corner...well not a corner...my own little craft cove! I like that even better, it's like where pirates would craft!

So eventually the guest room with be Ruby's room and since it's the way bigger of the two bedrooms then it will also be kinda the playroom as well. So, we wanted mucho shelving for mucho kid stuff. For now it does look kinda empty but when you live in a 1300 square foot house, you don't get "empty" very much so I'm relishing all the empty shelves and completely empty bins. I have zero doubt they will be filled one day with all sorts of blocks, books, art supplies, old pb&j's that I don't find stashed away till I smell them out.....awww....it will be so fun!

Since this room is right next to Ruby's and the tinniest little noise wakes her up we couldn't do any of the assembly while she was asleep. She was not thrilled with the only way we found to contain her while we had tools and tiny little screws she was obsessed with.

Added some fabric to the back for a little fun/we had to rip out the chair rail and I didn't want to fix it

Okay, the 2nd shelf we bought was for our bedroom. We loved our office in there so we needed some more storage space for all our staplers. Love it.