La Torreta del Lago

Wiggly wittle won..

Last weekend we made a quick get away to La Torreta del Lago (a resort on Lake Conroe) with some friends. Even though it wasn't super sunny, it was warm enough to play in the sand by the lake and float around in the pools.


Ruby loved the platform bed. It was the perfect size for climbing up and down.


Demonstrating her pterodactyl walk at the splash pad.


Me and my babycakes in the big kid splash zone.

The only downer was that the power went out for 3 and half hours, so we had to climb the dark stairwell to our rooms...not cool...especially since the emergency lights were out and we had to use flashlights. Luckily, it was resolved by the time we got back from dinner.


Floating with Daddy. She doesn't look really amused with the life jacket, does she?


Some day these two are going to get married. I'll save this picture of them in their matching bibs for the wedding picture slide show. :)



Once all the babies were asleep we wheeled Ruby down the hall in her hotel crib into our friend's room and all the adults stayed up until 2 am playing games and visiting like a bunch of teenagers in the adjoining room. In the end we still got a decent amount of sleep because Ruby slept in (thank heaven for black out curtains).


I love those fierce little piggy tails. It's my new favorite way to style Little Miss Ruby's hair.


Our traditional stretch armstrong shot.


Building, er, destroying sand castles with her buddies Ian and Joseph.

It was fun, fun, fun from the time we arrived to the time we left.


Getting her feet wet in the lake.


Snack time! Look, our little monkey can hold her own banana now.



We are really becoming fans of these quick 2 day, 1 night stay-cations. It's nice to get out of the house and do something together as a family. Plus, since everything is close by traveling isn't a major issue and we're not gone long enough to mess up Roo's schedule. We are definitely planning more quick trips to get us through the summer.


Looks cozy, right?

14 months (warning: this is a long update)

Ruby Girl turned 14 months about 2 weeks ago, but she's doing so many fun things that I had to document it before I forget it all.

First of all, this girl LOVES water in all forms-- drinking fountains, lakes, pools, tubs, and especially water bottles. If she sees you drinking from a bottle she'll sign "water" over and over until you share a little with her (beware of backwash, though).

She also has decided that she loves her Sarah Willett blanket. It had been in the closet for the past few months, but I recently brought it out when a friend's baby was visiting and she hasn't put it down since. She loves to carry it around the house like Linus (from the Peanuts cartoon) and lay down on the carpet next to it. So cute!



Sometimes she says "jesh" (which I'm pretty sure is "yes") or "yeah". Whenever she sees a phone she puts it to her ear and says, "Dada." Today we heard her say, "dank you" and "uh-oh" for the first time. Occasionally she still says "Mama," but most of the time she communicates through sign language. Her newest signs are: crackers, tree, horse, duck/bird (they're very similar, she signs the same for both), rain, wind, apple, dirty, diaper, signing time, phone, outside, play, and thank you.

Her favorite activities are playing outside, petting Scout (she's surprisingly gentle about it), and coloring. If I put the crayons up she'll go to the counter and point to them until I take them down and let her color. Once she saw me lay on my tummy to color with her, so that's how she does it all the time now. It's quite adorable! I do have to watch her like a hawk when she has them, though, because a few days ago she tested them on the kitchen cupboards (luckily, it came right off) and then proceeded to taste test them (so, that's why they're non-toxic!).



Our little munchkin still isn't much of an eater. In fact, she's pretty much given up pureed baby food; which I'm happy about as long as she bumps up her consumption of finger foods. Oh, little one... I guess she does like some finger foods. Last week she discovered the bowl of chocolate mini eggs. She stood directly in front of it and pointed. Neither Brandon or myself thought she'd like it so we let her try it. BIG MISTAKE! The girl loves chocolate! For the next few days she'd randomly walk over to the bowl and sign "eat." Good thing we only bought one small bag...





She also recently discovered that she likes to feed herself yogurt. As you can tell from the pictures, there's a reason why we only give her yogurt with dinner (it's just before bath time).

And last, but not least, Baby Girl cut some molars. I know she has at least 2. It's quite possible that she has more, but the little stinker won't let me do much inspecting.

I love how independent she's becoming, but at the same time I can't believe my baby is a 14 month old toddler. They grow too quickly, don't they?

Easter

I love Easter and springtime...fresh flowers, buds on trees, baby animals, chocolate, sundresses and sandals, the hope of months of sunshine, and of course a chance to celebrate and reflect on the wonderful life and resurrection of our Savior. It really is a great time of year.



Since General Conference fell on Easter Sunday this year Ruby wore her Easter dress to church the Sunday before Easter. I found it about 2 months ago and fell in love immediately. Doesn't it remind you of a yummy little cupcake? My friend Leslie reminded me that I might like this color combination as it is almost identical to how I painted her room.



Me thinks she is right...





Anyway, on Easter morning Ruby got to play with the toys/headbands that the Easter Bunny left behind for her. She especially loved the crayons! (Maybe we have a little artist on our hands.) Then we took her outside for an egg hunt.







Too bad it was drizzling, but it didn't seem to stop her. She mostly would walk around with one egg in each hand and then point to the eggs that she wanted Daddy to pick up and put in her basket. Later she realized that it is fun to open and close the eggs and throw them in her chair. She wasn't interested in the cheerios inside, though, luckily we have a puppy who was!



Just before the first session of conference we had a scrumptious brunch with our "Texas family" and a couple from Brandon's work....german pancakes, fresh fruit, homemade sticky buns, bacon (and turkey bacon), arrapas (did I spell that right?), and lots of juice. It was delish!!!!! Thanks everyone for pitching in-- it was way easier than a traditional Easter dinner to prepare and clean up.



During conference Ruby napped and played with Sean (our friends' 6 mo. old). We were touched by the messages that we could listen to and are excited to catch up on the others that we missed.



After conference the partying didn't stop-- we had lunch with our neighbors (the rest of our "Texas family"). So, we got some ham and rolls after all!

It was a wonderful day. We hope that the rest of you were able to get together with your friends and family to celebrate. May the reason for Easter-- the resurrection of our Lord and Savior-- be ever present in your hearts and minds.

Simple Equation

Brandon had Good Friday off of work + free night's stay at the Marriott Residence Inn (thanks to all those points Brandon has accumulated traveling) + the itch to see Austin = cheap, fun, quick, weekend get away


Root beer? Gross! You drink it, Daddy!


Make that sound again!


My turn. I want to try to make that sound, too.


Ruby and Daddy at the capitol.


The famous one arm close up angle


Ruby is obsessed with water. The drinking fountains through out the capitol were her favorite attractions!


Taking a rest with Roo Bear

Some thoughts on Austin:
Downtown has some REALLY beautiful parks and trails, but it isn't very family-friendly. While you can bring your dog just about anywhere, some of the restaurants we tried to eat at didn't even have high chairs. We saw more homeless people (including one who wet his pants right in front of us) than we did in New Orleans and the traffic was terrible. I wasn't too impressed, but Brandon really loved the mountain biking access and I have to admit it was beautiful. I'd be willing to give it a second chance as long as we got a free hotel room again and had some "local" friends to show us around.

J-Dawg and Ben and Charlotte!!!

Ben and Lotte


J-Dawg and Charlotte


Jamie (aka J-Dawg), Ben, and their adorable little baby Charlotte were in Austin visiting their family last week and decided to make a day trip to Houston to visit us (and one of Ben's old roommates)-- Yay!


Ruby helping Charlotte bounce


Charlotte looks a little unsure about this situation.

A little background... Jamie and I taught together for 2 years in Utah. She is wet-your-pants funny and inspiring to be around. At the school where we worked she was the cool teacher-- you know, the type that every kid wants because she's so crafty and fun and parents love because she puts so much effort into her lessons. Once we played Thing One and Thing Two for the Dr. Seuss assembly, but that is a story for another day...


Charlotte 4 mo, Ruby 14 mo


A little snack for the road trip back to Austin

Anyway, the three of them stopped by for a few hours and we got a chance to get caught up (Ben is going to medical school in Chicago and Jamie is teaching in the inner city). Ruby loved Baby Charlotte and was sad when she woke up in the morning to find Little Lotte gone. Seriously, she probably signed "baby" for at least 12 hours after they left. In all honesty, I was a little sad, too-- I mean look how precious she is!

We LuV GrAnDMa RuBy!

Last week my grandma (Ruby's namesake) came to visit. We did all kinds of fun things like...



SHOP
Seriously, way easier to do tag team style-- I actually had time to try clothes on. The last time I went clothes shopping with Ruby by myself she only lasted long enough for me to buy half a swimsuit.



Funny tidbit... at nearly every store we went to Grandma would pick up something for Ruby and say, "Oh, we'll save this for Easter." Usually it wasn't 10 minutes later that Little Ruby would be playing with it and Grandma would say, "Well, I'm not going to be here for Easter..." Grandmas are great at spoiling, aren't they?



PLAY @ THE PARK





We went several times-- and, of course, Grandma couldn't resist buying Roo Bear her first set of sand toys so that she'd stop "borrowing" toys from the other kids.




EAT


More crackers, please!


Someone loves straws and big kid cups-- oh boy!



Oh boy, did we eat! It's probably going to take me weeks to recover from all the fine dinning we did. We ate at the waterway by the mall twice. Ruby loved watching the boats come in and even shared some of her goldfish crackers with the fish and ducks.


How is this the only picture I got of me and my grandma all week?

BAKE



Every time Grandma comes to town we find a crafty project to attempt together. In years past she taught me a little about flower arrangements, cake decorating, cooking, and sewing. This year we tried something that neither one of us had ever done-- cake decorating with fondant. A friend shared her yummy marshmallow fondant icing recipe and after lots of work we were pleased with the result, but it was so time consuming and sticky that it will probably be awhile before I make it again.

VISIT


Ruby's favorite thing to do with Great Grandma-- go for a horsey ride. She'd walk up to Grandma's leg and bounce up and down until Grandma got the hint and gave her a horsey ride (complete with sound effects).



I have always loved to hear stories about my grandparents, and up until now I thought I had heard almost all of them. Last week my grandma shared some priceless stories with me about her life. I hope to post some of them within the next few weeks so that they can be a part of our family history forever. I don't ever want to forget the great legacy of faith, love, and patience that she has begun for all of us.



We sure love Grandma Ruby and feel blessed that she is such a big part of our life. We loved every minute of her visit and hope she can come back soon.