Ruby is 3 months

I love this girl. She is so so so good. She is still a good sleeper (though she's gotten up one the past two nights, hopefully it's just a growth spurt) and she hardly ever gets upset at me. The kids still love her, and she gives her biggest smiles to them. Really, most of the time I think they must be annoying her, but she sure loves them! Her newest skills are increased head lifting ability and she's really been working on getting that fist in her mouth. She's still looking at those toys, and every once in a while she'll bat at them and something cool will happen. She is such a verbal baby, and will coo and smile at anyone who will pay attention to her. She's also working on growing some hair, and (holding breath) it's looking a lot redder than expected. Only time will tell... Ok, four kids is a lot, I'll be the first to admit it, but I sure am glad we have her. Couldn't imagine our family without our Ruby Lu:)

PS I just took her pictures in whatever random outfit she happened to be wearing that day... my mom happened to see her that same day and said "nobody's going to lose this baby in the mall..." Apparently it was a bit bright. But I LOVE her hot pink flame babylegs:)

Christmas Eve

We live in California. Right? So most of our Christmas Eve was spent outside in beautiful weather. Instead of wrestling with a flash for the indoor festivities (which involved eating copious amounts of pizza and the crazy crazy CRAZINESS of the cousin present exchanges) I decided to document Christmas Eve on the trampoline. My kids are very into zombies lately, thanks to Zombie Farm and Plants Vs Zombies, so even though the other kiddos have better parents that don't allow them to play those games, my kids could model zombies perfectly. In an attempt to actually get some pictures of them, I got on the trampoline and told them to pretend to be zombies. Then I would jump right next to them and shout "wake up zombies!!!!" I know. Very Christmasish.

But I kind of love the pictures:)

How very very blessed we are to live so close to so many cousins. Even though we have some in Bakersfield and some in Ukiah (not for long!), we are able to get together often enough that the kids LOVE each other and play so well together. Really, there is nothing better. Merry Christmas!

Family Pics

Thanks, Lora! It's hard to get all four kids and one silly husband to smile:) I kind of love them all, (the kids, that is) even though there are so many of them. It's weird to look at pictures and see how big we have become!

Rocketship.

I'm so behind. I've been meaning to do this post forever...

Last month I spent $95 on just diapers and wipes. That makes for a lot of diaper boxes. Apparently, it was worth the money, because not only do I REFUSE to do cloth diapers, I don't care how many landfills I'm filling, but just look at what can be done with the boxes...

I took these pictures just as I was leaving for a rare night out to the movies with the girls. All I know is that it had to be dark so they could use their headlamps (it is dark in space, don't you know?) and that there were a lot of commands coming from Mission Control (Jared and Ruby) on the couch. These kiddos LOVE to play rocketship with their daddy, it makes me so happy to watch!

And again.

How am I not supposed to laugh?

Sam forgot to put his underwear on before putting on his pajamas. This is how the conversation went.

"Sam, how did you forget your underwear. That's just not possible"

(eyes wide and very serious) "Yes it is. It just happened!"

"I think your brain is someplace else."

"No it's not. My brain is in my head. It can't go someplace else. It can't fly away like a bird."

Oh, sammy sammy...

Sam strikes again.

Jared - "When's the last time I wanted your grubby hands in the way when I was reading a book?"

Sam - "I don't know... HEY! There was never even a FIRST time!"

Exactly Sam. That's the point... how smart you are:)

As I was in the kitchen cleaning up (the scraps of the cookies on the cookie sheet:) he emerges from the bathroom. "Mom, do we keep all the doors and windows closed at night?"

Yes, Sam

"Good, then the vampire bats won't get in."

Oh, now I'm relieved, we'll be saved from the vampire bats:)

Me "I hate tomato worms!!!! They're the grossest things ever!!!"

Sam "But they're not in my 100 grossest things book. Poop is, though."

Sam and Pearl were playing outside. I went to leave and asked them what they were doing.

Pearl "we're having a funeral for a lizzard."

Sam (eyes wide) "yeah, mom, it's DEAD!!!!"

Good good. I'm glad we're not having a funeral for a live lizzard...

This was just today folks. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a hard time EVER taking him seriously:)

My Favorite.

She has slept from 8:00 at night to a little after 7 am for two nights in a row. Not only that, I put her in her crib STILL AWAKE and walk away...

This makes her my favorite infant I've ever had.

Plus she looks pretty adorable in her uniform of patterned onesies and baby legs. Poor kid, she never gets to get dressed:)

She's lost her crooked smile. She has a real one now. Maybe some neurons made a connection. Though I'm happy her brain is working better, I'll miss her lopsided smiles.

She's starting to look at her toys now. She just knows they're cool. She hasn't figured out what to do with them yet, but she's studying it out.

She'll coo at just about anyone right after a feeding. What a happy happy girl!

Santa Claus 2

Here are the rest of the kiddos with Santa... Pearl asked for Spy Gear... Sam asked for a pogo stick and a hex bug crab... Max asked for a big trampoline... and Ruby just wondered what was going on:)

Santa

Just a teaser. But really. I think he's the cutest thing in the whole wide world. Except for maybe Ruby. Ok, and Sam and Pearl:)

Oh Sam...

Sammy and I had a dentist appointment today, so I picked him up early and we had a lunch date. I thought if I really took the time to listen, I might have a clue as to what is going on in that brain of his. I listened, and this us what I got...

"look, mom, angry eyebrows!" (holding the crust of his french bread in a v shape above his eyes.)

"mom, did you know you can eat the soft inside parts of the bread without your teeth? Well, you need your teeth to bite it off, but that's it!"

Sam, can I have a bite of your cookie? (the huge one at la bou that's bigger than his head). "No."

What's going on in there? Not much.