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.

Weight Watchers

So, Jared and I started Weight Watchers together about 6 weeks ago. Together, we have 100 pounds to lose (actually, split pretty evenly too. Ok, I have five more pounds to lose than him...) As of this week we've lost 24 pounds together. (and yes, Jared has lost more than me, but he's a man, so I'm not taking it personally). Quite an achievement. He can wear a suit he hasn't worn in a while, and I noticed last night at taekwondo that he's looking a lot better in his uniform, namely the shirt that used to accentuate his belly is now baggy there. Nice job, honey! Looking good!!!

Ruby's 2 month pictures

Here she is, two months old. I really can't believe it. She continues to be a sweet sweet baby. At her 2 month checkup yesterday, she was exactly 10 pounds. This makes her 25% for weight, 25% for height, and 35% for head circumference, which is a first for us. They boys have always had little heads. Which means she has to work harder at tummy time to get that huge noggin up:)

It was our last visit to this pediatrician, who has seen the kids since Pearl's first newborn visit. She will be sorely missed. Especially when she looked at the growth rate and mentioned that Ruby's rate of growth has slowed considerably, then in the next breath said that it was probably genetics working on her. How nice is it to have a pediatrician who knows without looking it up that all my other kiddos were 5-15% kids? Sigh.

Anyways, she's a perfect angel, one of her favorite things to do is lay on the bed and watch me fold laundry, which is win-win, because I can get something done:) She's spendidly arrayed in pinks and purples daily, but no pants, since I have discovered that it is SO MUCH EASIER to change diapers when they wear babylegs instead of pants.

She smiles and coos quite a bit, she's really got a nice sound repitoire, I would know:)

Still so so much work to lift that head....
And now she's tired:)

Sundays

This is what I found when I came home from choir. I think the fact that the boys still have their matching ties on is especially precious:)

Twins

For years, one of the joys of my life has been dressing Sam and Max in matching outfits. Every Sunday for church, probably since Max was 6 months old, they've been matching, or at least coordinating for church. In fact, their current outfits of khakis, long sleeved dress shirts, and matching ties is SO ADORABLE and I just haven't gotten around to taking a picture of it. But, I digress. I also love to put them in matching jammies. Such as seen in this fuzzy picture I snapped in the the dark in our hotel room without a flash (thus the fuzzy, I had to hold the camera still for like 2 whole seconds WHILE pulling the curtians back a bit... just enough to get the shot without waking them up...)

Anyways, one of the first things that Pearl asked me about when we found out we were having a girl, was could they wear matching outfits. Not so easy to do when there is a nine year age difference, as opposed to a three year one. But, I managed to find one (actually two) at Osh Kosh. Pearl is wearing the size below the largest available, and Ruby is wearing the size above the smallest available. And, of course, they were on clearance. Thank heavens for the internet! Ruby's been getting pudgy so I thought it was time to try the 3-6 month clothes... and this was the first outfit we had to try:)

These girls are so pretty they make my heart hurt.
And we see the full effect with the matching leggings:)
I think they love each other. Which is good. They'll be sharing a room for a while.
Love my girls! (so so fun that I can say "girls" instead of "girl" now!)

PS Don't tell Pearl but I did find them a pair of matching jammies for christmas!!!! She'll be so excited!!!!

The Beach

We kind of have a tradition of taking the kids on a mini vacation during thanksgiving week. We like to go Monday/Tuesday while most people are still working. I approached Jared with this last week, and my thought was, "let's take the kids to the beach." (I love the beach. I'm pretty sure it's not a vacation if there is no beach involved.) Jared's idea was "let's take the kids to the mountains." We live in California, so we decided to do both, as well as visit my sister in Ukiah. All those goals in a short time made for a lot of time in the car...

So, since Jared insisted that we NOT go straight to Ukiah and head to her local beach, but first go south to San Francisco so we could then drive back up the coast (I know, I thought it was crazy, but, whatever) we left the house at 8:30 in the morning and didn't get to the beach until 3:00. We made a LOT of stops, and had to nurse the baby almost every time. The most hilarious one was the first one we made... we hadn't had breakfast yet, so we stopped for 45 minutes to eat and feed the baby before we even got on the freeway. Then, as we were getting on the freeway, we realized we only had about 1/3 of a tank of gas, so we stopped AGAIN 45 mintues later. Then, driving through San Francisco, we found the most country like place (a huge green belt with a playground) to stop. Apparently we're not city folk.

Anyways, we finally made it to the beach, and it was beautiful. Worth the drive.

Isn't she pretty? She's at a kind of (ok, REALLY) annoying age, but when I look at her I still think she's just a pretty girl.

And the boys... yup, they were once again not allowed to wear pants at the beach. It's just safer that way.
Sam and his sand angel.

This was Ruby's first beach trip. She spent the first half doing her favorite activity...
then the rest of the time wondering why there was so much wind.
The saturday before we were to leave, I asked Jared if we were really going to the beach, because I said if we were that I was going to buy a tripod at target. He looked at me for a minute, sighed, then admitted that he'd had one in the trunk of his car for a month to give me for christmas. So, we brought it, and I was able to use my remote to get us some family pictures on the beach:)
Us. On a side note, I decided that this is going to be my weight watchers before picture. I've been going for a little over a month now (lost 8 pounds, wahooo!) and still haven't taken a picture. This one is good... you can see my body but I don't look all miserable to be fat. We'll check in again in another 45 pounds or so...
The beach was fun. More about our trip to the mountains later:)

Baby Quilt

This is my friend Luan. She is amazing, a true artist. I think if you asked her, she would say quilting is a hobby. But I kind of think it's a necessity for her. My first Luan quilt was purchased by my mother in law, Sherry, who just happens to be a very close friend of Luan's. It's currently on my bed, it's moved around over the past ten years, but every once in a while I get sick of my duvet cover and it gets moved from the living room couch back to my bed. I love it.

When Max was born, she gifted me a quilt for him. One of these days, I'll have to take pictures of his quilt too, because I absolutely love it. You see, Luan is a true artist, with the eye and the ability to take these tiny scraps of fabric, (even ones that would be ugly on their own) that I would probably throw away and make a masterpiece. So, when it was time for the big kids to get new bedding, I decided I'd rather spend the money on something so genuine than on another quilt from pottery barn kids that they would grow out of, so I bought one for Pearl and one for Sam. It's been about 6 months since I purchased them, and every time I walk by I have to look at them again, they are that beautiful. She now sells them on Etsy, you can see her shop here.

So, needless to say, I was thrilled when she said I could come pick out a quilt for Ruby. I know how much time goes into these quilts, it's an amazing gift.

The deal is, Luan gets to hold the baby while I pick out the quilt. Both parties involved (meaning Ruby and Luan) were quite happy about it.

Here is the one I picked. Not like I could have gone wrong, but Pearl's quilt is really bright with a lot of orange overtones, so I wanted something that would coordinate. This one happens to have been a joint effort between my friend Darlene, who made the squares in the middle then donated them to Luan. Then, Luan put it all together and added the boarders. So so crazy cute!
This pattern is called a Dresden Plate. I have always loved them, all flowery looking, and they're mainly the reason I picked this quilt. The yellow middles make my happy. I still don't see how she can take such a hodgepodge of colors and patterns and make them into such a cohesive picture! Then, she finishes it all off by hand quilting every seam. Gorgeous.
Max decided that the stripey pattern on the boarder was a road.
See, he even told me:)

It's nice and big, so it ends up being a fabulous place to chill...

and to practice lifting your head,
or NOT lifting your head as the case may be...
and to spend quality time with your big brother.
Or, to get poked, if your big brother happens to be Max:)
I love it so much, thank you thank you thank you Luan!