December Recap

I didn't post much this past month due to holiday craziness, but it's been an awesome month and Ruby's second Christmas was very special this year.  Here are some highlights from the month:

Christmas in Florida

We were so blessed to be able to spend Christmas with Noa's family this year.  It was crazy and fun to go to the beach on Christmas Day!

Walking!  Sort of....

Ruby is starting to walk.  She's been able to stand, push, and cruise along furniture for a couple of months now, but at the beginning of December (December 2nd, to be exact), she took her first steps.  She can take about 5 - 10 steps on her own now and she loves to walk while holding on to someone's finger.  She did a lot of this kind of walking in Florida.  It won't be too long now before she's toddling along on her own.

Mike, Jess, and Brady Visit

Early in December we had a wonderful visit with the Apostles.  Our visits together are even more meaningful now that we have children.  It is touching to see these two together as they grow and become part of our families.

First Snow!

We had our first snow of the season and it was a big one!  We lost power for a full day, which made staying home with a toddler very interesting to say the least.  It was beautiful though and I just love when it snows during the Christmas season.

New Furniture

Our Christmas gifts to each other now reside in our large living room.  I'm so glad to finally have seating in this space, as Ruby will begin to use this space more for playtime and I'll have a place to sit.  I'm already scheming on how to decorate and light up this spot, but for now I'm enjoying our new additions.

New Ride!

Ruby got her "big girl" car seat that will hopefully stay with her for many, many years.  We chose a Diono Radian RXT for her and so far, she seems to like it and it traveled well to Florida.

Hope that your Christmas and New Years was a fun, blessed event!  

We look forward to what next year will bring!  Bring on 2013!

Christmas in Florida

This year we celebrated Christmas down south in Florida.  Noa's parents recently finished building a house and two of his sisters also live in the area.  Plus, all three of his sisters hadn't yet met Ruby in person, so it was only fitting for us to go there to celebrate.  

I'll be honest, it was not easy flying with her this time.  She had moments of fussiness that made people turn around and probably question whether a baby was being tormented or not.  Thankfully she did eventually sleep, but we were pretty exhausted when we arrived to our destination.

After a good nap and a snack (for all of us), we were back to normal and ready to celebrate with the family and enjoy the new house.  One of the first things we did as all together was have some family portraits done.  We haven't done something like this in awhile, so we were due.  Here are some of my favorites:

The "normal" family shot:

The "fun" family shot (by the way, I don't even remember what was so funny):

The proud grandparents and the tired baby (note to self: try not to schedule photos during naptime):

The montage of "Ruby's First Steps" (okay, technically they aren't her first steps, but she is at the learning-to-walk stage where she really only takes 4 to 5 steps at a time before falling down):

I just love this one of Megan and Anya (Noa's younger sisters, Ruby's aunts) in front of the Christmas tree:

Christmas Eve came all too quickly.  We got Ruby all dressed up for the church service at Boca Raton Community Church (which was an awesome service).  We did some practice walking in her Christmas dress (a gift from Oma) and new shoes.

It was her first candlelight service.  I liked that they had glow sticks for the kiddos.  

After church we indulged in pizza and a swim in the heated pool. I'll admit, it was strange to be swimming on Christmas Eve, but really fun and refreshing.  Plus, it was at night and we got to swim with the changing pool lights (they change color) and gas lanterns by the house.

We also spent the evening decorating stockings.  Noa's dad had picked up some giant stockings at the dollar store with the intent of us decorating them.  It was a great idea and lots of fun...however, we shouldn't have waited until the night before Christmas to do this. 

The glitter glue didn't dry overnight and we found glitter smeared on each other's stockings, the stairs, floors, and even ourselves when we went to move them.  We were still able to stuff them and in the end, they looked pretty hilarious on the stairs.  So it wasn't all bad.

One of Ruby's favorite gifts was a suitcase called a Trunki (and her Trunki is actually named "Ruby").  This small suitcase is on wheels and can be used to push or ride on by a child. She loved pushing it all around the living room.

After presents and a morning nap for Ruby, we headed down to the beach.  This was Ruby's first time at the beach and I was a little nervous knowing she's not a big fan of water (bathtime has become a battle in recent months).  So, instead of focusing on the ocean, we let her explore the sand.  At first, she wasn't so sure and she stayed very close to mama:

She got some encouragement from her cousin:

Soon, she was covered in sand and tossing it around.  I'm glad she didn't develop some weird fear of sand.  It's hard enough having her afraid of water:

We also practiced walking in the sand.

Later, the whole family enjoyed a turkey feast for dinner.  It was absolutely delicious and I still regret eating so fast.

  It was such a fun, memorable Christmas in Florida, surrounded by those we love so much.  More photos to come!

Get 'Er Done!

We are getting things done around here.  We're taking our to-do list and crossing things off!  I love doing that!

A big project that has taken us a few months is that yard project, or rather the area around the back fence.  It was overgrown and untamed and frankly, pretty unsightly.  Not only was it ugly to us, but this area can be seen by our neighbors across the street and I'm sure they did not appreciate the view.  Here's what it looked like a couple of years ago when we first put in the fence.

Now, imagine it even worse.  The side bushes were twice that size and the weeds had taken over.  WE basically had to clear it (Noa did a lot of the work, often in the rain), put in some new soil and mulch, and plant new bushes and shrubs.  It was quite an undertaking since neither of us have a green thumb.  So, with a little help from a local nursery, we ended up with this:

I'm really happy with the plants we picked out. We have some davidii viburnum, wax myrtles, nandinas ...(granted, we had to learn what these were) but I think they'll look great once they grow up and fill out.  One plant, that's especially fun is the ruby slippers hydrangea plant. Betcha can't figure out why we picked this one (it'll grow nice and big someday)...

This is our Gold Rider Leyland Cypress, the first tree we planted in the back.

And this is another kind of cypress...a Hinoki Cypress.  This little Japanese tree is really fun and full of personality.  I love the way the branches are shaped.  Eventually this will block a lot of the gate view, which is what we are going for.  Plus, it makes me think of Japan, which makes me smile.

Here's the comparison (and yes, the grass is greener in the first pic...we're looking at the plants, people):

We are pleased with it.  Now we just need those plants to fill in a little and maybe get the grass a little greener.

Other projects have included painting the laundry room.  That was actually done by Mike and Noa.  I love the color.  Now I just need to find a cute way to organize all my laundry supplies.  Please ignore the chaos on the shelf.

And, we're starting to get some furniture in our large living room - which is a huge undertaking considering I'm pretty picky about furniture.   This has been a couple of years in the making here. Thankfully, I'm super happy about finding a couch and chair that we like - in gray - for this space.  The space isn't done, but definitely usable.  Now I don't feel as weird about having people come over and hang out on the floor.

Some of the recent projects have been unintentional, like trying to get wax out of the carpet.  I *may* have had an incident with my Scentsy burner on my way out the door the other day.  Oopsie.

 Thankfully, Google helped me find a solution.  I simply cut up some paper bags, laid them on top of the wax and grabbed my iron.  I set the iron to high (no steam) and ironed the paper.  The wax melted up onto the sheets of brown paper.

After ironing the majority of the wax off, I used basic carpet cleaner to get any leftover residue out.  Voila!  A clean and wax-free carpet!

This photo doesn't really do it justice because of the shadowing, but you get the idea.

Love the feeling of accomplishment!  Woohoo!