9 Month Checkup

Ruby had her 9 month well-check this week...and the results are in: she is indeed our super skinny girl. She weighed 15 lbs 15 oz (5th percentile) and was 26 1/2 inches long (40th percentile). We saw a different doctor today than usual and got drilled with questions about how much she was eating, if she seemed happy and healthy, and whether we were skinny kids growing up. And we told her that our girl loves to eat...a lot. Ruby has a huge appetite and could probably eat either one of us under the table. So she's our string bean and is oh so cute. And will probably be wearing her 12 month clothes when she's two. But we wouldn't have her any other way.

Family Pictures

While we were in Phoenix I wanted to take some family pics...especially since the last nice ones we have was when Ruby was two months old. They turned out super cute and we have some great memories.

Christmas

Christmas Eve we all went to the park and Ruby had so much fun swinging. When we visited Beeville she sat on our laps and swung for the first time, but in Phoenix she sat in the bucket swing all by herself. She smiled the whole time and I think our girl is going to be into extreme sports, because the higher she went the bigger she smiled.

Annie and I spent the afternoon getting Christmas Eve dinner ready and it was delicious. We decided to forgo tradition and have tamales, rice, beans and mango salsa and it was really good. After all, if you're in Arizona, why not try something a little tex-mex? And then we had profiteroles for dessert (cream puffs with peppermint ice cream and chocolate sauce...yum!)


We sang a few carols and read the story of Jesus' birth and tried to get Lilly to bed. After about an hour and a half, she finally fell asleep, Santa came and we crashed hard.

Christmas morning was spent checking out all the loot from Santa...though lots of credit has to be given to Lilly: when she woke up she wanted to see whether Santa read the note she left him and ate her cookies instead of seeing what he brought her. All the girls were very spoiled by Santa.



If you look closely in this next picture you can see Ruby's two little diamonds. So cute!


The rest of the day was spent playing with our new toys from Santa and family and enjoying spending time together. It was a magical couple of days.

Visiting Phoenix

We spent the last week and a half in Phoenix, Arizona visiting my sister and her family. We had a great time! The weather was absolutely gorgeous...forget this cold weather in West Virginia! It was heaven being able to walk around in short sleeve shirts and not to have to bundle Ruby up in layers and layers. Plus, Ruby had a blast playing with another little baby her age. Ruby and Ivy crawled around together, followed each other every where and they loved it. And Lilly positively doted on Ruby. Our girl had such a great time with her cousins.




We went to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights and Ruby was awed by the spectacle...the music, lights and all the people around her fascinated her. I have to admit, it was a little odd seeing palm trees done up with Christmas lights.




We also took a trip to the zoo and Ruby had a great time seeing the animals. She especially loved an exhibit called Monkey Village. We were able to walk into the enclosure and tiny monkeys roam around free, so Ruby was able to see some very close. But the thing she loved the most was the merry-go-round.



And for you Morgantownians, we saw Joe and Aubry Luma for a few minutes. They're doing great and Brinn is as cute as ever. She enjoyed playing the piano with Ruby and Lilly.



And of course we just had a great time hanging out, laughing at all the antics of such cute little girls, playing games, eating way too much food and just having fun. But then there was Christmas....

Merry Christmas!

Bobby, Ruby and I would just like to wish all our friends and family a Merry Christmas. We hope you enjoy time spent with loved ones remembering the true spirit of this season: our Savior and everything He did for us. We are truly blessed and this is a wonderful time of year to remember that. We can't wait to share with you the new memories we made this Christmas and how much fun we had together. We love you.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

With all the hub-bub of the Christmas season, this week is definitely not going to see as many posts as usual. So this little bit of cuteness is going to have to tide you over until we can get back in the swing of things.

Finger Foods

Ruby is getting better and better at eating finger foods. She doesn't quite have the pincer grasp down yet, which means she usually ends up shoving all of her fingers in her mouth along with whatever she's trying to eat...but more food is now ending up in her mouth versus down her bib, which is a big step!

Here's our girl in action. And if you listen at the beginning, you'll hear Daddy singing to his girl and see what she does when she hears music.

Socks

So here's Ruby's typical day: Wake up and eat and play. Take socks off. Mommy or Daddy puts socks back on. Repeat. Take a nap. Wake up and eat and play. Take socks off. Mommy or Daddy puts socks back on. Repeat. Take a nap. Wake up and eat and play. Take socks off. Mommy or Daddy puts socks back on. Repeat. Take a bath, get jammies on (Aha! A footed sleeper, so she can't take her socks off!) and go to bed.

This girl is in love with taking her socks off. At any given time you can bet she's wandering around the house with one naked little foot. Her favorite activities include pulling all her books off the shelf and taking socks off. She's addicted.


And it's not like she takes her socks off just to do it...She loves to play with her socks. She waves them around and pulls them and chews them. Socks are a lot of fun in her world. We've stopped worrying about whether her feet are cold because there's just no point. Short of making her wear her footie pajamas all day long, there's nothing we can do. Besides, it just makes those cute little toes so much easier to munch on.

Pull Ups

Ruby has started trying to pull herself up on things the last few days. She gets to her knees and then can't get any further, which leads to a lot of frustration on her part. We'll sit on the couch and she'll crawl over with a big grin on her face and try to pull up and join us. Only she can't. Then she gets mad. She hangs onto the couch and says, "Rrrrrrr" and if that doesn't get us to help her then she cries. That'll usually get her what she wants.

She's so cute to watch though. Her little face gets scrunchy and then the thumb finds its way to her mouth. There's nothing the thumb can't fix.

Smile!

As I've mentioned before, we have one little girl who is extremely happy to get her picture taken. The camera comes out and she starts smiling. There's no need on our part to do crazy antics to try and coerce smiles from her. So I was taking pictures of her one evening. She started with her beautiful, everyday grins...and then the photo shoot quickly degenerated into silliness as she posed and produced silly smiles and we had so much fun.




And here's a little video of the fun Ruby has when she's getting her picture taken:

Christmas is fun again...

Don't get me wrong...I adore Christmas. I always have, even when I spent a good 8 years in retail which can really make you jaded and bitter about the Christmas season. Must be the insane, angry shoppers. Or the fact that you're covered with glitter for 2 straight months. But that could not deter me! I love the music, the lights, the food, the family, and the beautiful spirit that surrounds this time of year. When I was little I loved Santa. As I grew up I loved the celebration of Christ and especially spending time with family. The 2 years that I wasn't able to go home for Christmas (because of work and the fact that home was too far away) were hard and I relished the next year that Bobby and I were able to celebrate with my family together. It became a time of togetherness and remembering each other and what our Savior did for us.

But something happened this year that has reinvigorated my already pretty healthy Christmas spirit...that something's name is Ruby. Case in point: We went to Walmart today. They were playing holiday music. I sang, out loud, to Ruby the whole time. We walked through the Christmas aisle and I showed her all the sparkly, glittery glory. I love Christmas with my girl. I remember how I felt about it when I was a child. Christmas was fun. I can't wait for the 25th...sure, she won't remember this Christmas, but in a couple years she'll start too and we're going to have a good time. I guarantee it.

Brrrr....It's Cold!

We've finally hit winter here in West Virginia. It took a while, though, but that's just fine by us. The warmer fall weather has been nice, especially thinking about having a little peanut to keep bundled up and warm. It's been easy to just pack her up and go without worrying about her freezing. But now that the cold weather and snow are here, Ruby's got a mommy who's trying to be vigilant about keeping all those cute-little-munchable extremities roasty toasty. And Ruby doesn't exactly appreciate it. She hates getting her mittens on. But boy does she look cute!


And just so that everyone knows....we've accepted the offer in Beeville, TX. So this cold weather thing will soon be a very distant thing of the past. After a lot of talking and prayer we decided it's what's best for us now, so we're taking the plunge and heading to lands unknown. We're excited to have a job and to see what our new opportunity will bring our little family of three!

Her Cuteness

Peek-a-Boo

Ruby loves to play peek-a-boo. It's one of her favorite games and she can have a nearly endless amount of fun watching something disappear and then suddenly pop back into site. She giggles, she smiles, she loves it.

She was playing under the chair in the living room, minding her own business, when Daddy's jacket fell from the chair onto her, covering her head. I was sitting on the couch working on the computer and didn't see all of this happening. I started to hear little giggles coming from Ruby's direction and looked to see what was going on. I saw this:


So I got down on the floor next to her and started whispering, "Ruuuuby. Ruuuuuby. Where's my Ruuuuuby?" She started giggling even more, and when she finally emerged, this is what I got:

Happy Birthday Bobby!

So Fast

It's funny how when Ruby starts doing new things, she suddenly comes up with a whole slew of new developments. Case in point...within the last two weeks all of these have happened or are now starting to happen:

1. Crawling...this girl is on the move! She was really active when she inch-wormed, but now I think she loves how much faster she can go.
2. Self Feeding...she graduated to being spoon fed purees that have some chunks in them, but now she's starting to put food in her mouth herself.
3. Getting her first tooth...it's now sharp and pointy but hasn't fully emerged yet.
4. Clapping...I tried so hard to get this on camera, but as soon as she saw what I was up to it was over.
5. Sitting up by herself...she's been able to sit unsupported for a while but has just started getting into that position by herself

This little girl is getting so big so fast, I can't believe how the time has flown by. We stopped by the dental school and ate lunch with Bobby this week and she was the hit of the day. Everyone loves her the moment they see her and she is more than happy to give her huge, gummy grins to any one who wants them. When Bobby and I told people that she was already 8 months old (almost 9!) I had to stop and just think to myself how amazing that is. I love Ruby so much and sometimes I feel like time is slipping away from me. I'm always so excited to see what she's going to do next in her development, but I want to hold onto these moments because they're so enchanting.

Bobby and I are so lucky to have been blessed and entrusted with such a precious little spirit. Ruby, we love you.

New Developments

Ruby started inch-worming every where about two months ago. It was her way to go any where she wanted and when she had her mind set on something, man, was she fast! She had been worming her way around for so long that Bobby and I wondered if she would skip crawling altogether. She just didn't seem to have any desire to do it.

Then about a week ago she started to crawl short distances...as in a foot. If there was something close to her she wanted, she'd crawl. If she needed to book it across the room, the worm won out.

Then yesterday, it was like the inchworm was forgotten and never had existed. This girl is now officially a crawler!

Bath Time

Ruby's loving her baths these days. She sits up now, plays with her toys and loves it when Daddy squirts her with water.

Thanksgiving

We're back! We finally got the computer back last night...it seems to be working just fine. Darn it. We were hoping for a new computer. Oh well. But now that we're up and running again you can see some more of the cuteness that is Ruby.

We had a great Thanksgiving. It was just the three of us and was nice and laid back. We had a great dinner and really just enjoyed being together as a family which is what I'm most thankful for.


We had to include this picture of Ruby eating. Bobby gets a kick out of her every time she eats because she just about dislocates her jaw with how wide she opens her mouth. This girl loves her food!


Ruby totally cracks us up: whenever we want to take a picture of her we don't have to do a thing to get her to smile. She knows she's supposed to and she is extremely cheesy about it.

Blog Hiatus

We're going to be sans computer for a couple weeks. It's been giving us some trouble for a while now and we finally decided to try and get it fixed while the warranty is still in effect, so we're shipping the computer off to the hospital. Hopefully it'll come back to us good as new...or maybe we'll be able to get a new one :)

Either way, there won't be much new going on the blog until we're up and running again. As soon as we've got a computer in our hands again you can bet there will be some new cute pictures of Ruby for all to see.

A new way to play with old toys...

Ruby plays with her floor gym once in a while now. It's just not quite as fun as it used to be. But today she found a way to make this old toy new again...

A Visitor

Bobby's niece Rachael was in our neck of the woods this weekend and decided to stop by on her way back to California. We had a great time hanging out with her for a couple hours and Ruby loved meeting a new cousin.



We love you Rachael...Ruby can't wait to see you again soon!

One thing that I'm thankful for...

My family. I grew up in a warm, loving home where I always felt nurtured, cared for and totally accepted as myself. My parents are wonderful examples to me and I always have so much fun visiting with them. And I love how much Bobby likes to spend time with them, too. And now that Ruby's here, it's so much fun seeing them being doting grandparents and knowing that Ruby has a couple more people on this earth who love her almost as much as we do.

My siblings are so much fun to hang out with and I'm always excited for the next time we're going to see each other. We laugh, cry, share in hilarity and disappointment and through it all we love each other to pieces. Oh, and by the way twin sister of mine (you know who you are) you need to update your blog...I'm suffering from niece withdrawal.

I love you guys!

Piano Playing

Ruby has enjoyed banging on our piano for a few weeks now. It's gotten so that she knows exactly what a piano is and what she's supposed to do with one: every time we go to church and she's near a piano, she lunges for it and happily slaps her little hands on the keys. This girl is going to make beautiful music one day.

One thing that I'm thankful for...

Ruby. Gosh that little girly is just about the cutest thing in the entire world. When I was pregnant I was so excited for her to be born so that I could finally meet her, but those first few days were rough! There were times I couldn't think straight and I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. So many mothers say that the newborn stage is divine and they love it...I struggled to get through it. But little by little this peanut became a bigger and bigger part of my heart and now I can't look at her without thinking about how in love with her I am.

I'm so thankful for Ruby and her sweetness, curiosity, giggles and for the moments when I'm next to her and she just rests her hand on my cheek and looks in my eyes.

One thing that I'm thankful for...

My husband. Bobby is such a wonderful husband and father. He works so hard in school so that one day he'll be able to be a great dentist and to provide for our family. He tells me everyday how much he loves me and he's willing to help me around the house when I'm too tired and burnt out to do it myself.

He's also a great daddy. I knew he would be, but I don't think he ever thought he would love it as much as he does. He loves coming home to his girl and playing with her and seeing her grow and laugh and scoot across the room. Ruby loves her daddy too and always has humongous smiles for him when he comes home. I have a feeling she's going to be a daddy's girl through and through.

I'm so grateful that I found such a kind, spiritual, loving man and that I was smart enough to marry him.

It's Always Fun When Grandparents Come!

We've loved spending the last few days with my parents. They always have such a great time with Ruby and we love having them in our home. We had a great time, as always, and it's always hard to say goodbye.

We took walks, ate some yummy treats, played games and had so much fun together.

Grandma and Grandpa decided that Ruby needed a ball and we'd go to the store the next day to get her one. I told Bobby about this plan and he said, "We have a little soccer ball in the car she could play with, don't we?" And I replied, "Yes, but Grandpa really wants to buy her a ball." Bobby is just now learning about how spoiled a little girl can get by her doting grandparents. So we headed out to the store the next day to get Ruby her first ball.


Grandma gave Ruby horsey rides.



Grandpa read stories.


And Ruby just can't wait until she can see her Grandma and Grandpa Somers again.

In a Cage

We put up a baby gate in the doorway going into our kitchen. It's a pretty treacherous area for a little peanut: there's stairs going to the basement and a step down into our little entryway...not to mention all sorts of perils in the kitchen. Needless to say a gate helped with our peace of mind.

Now that Ruby's on the move she frequently camps out next to the gate and gazes into the kitchen. I think she know how much fun she's missing.

In the Curtains

Ruby's exersaucer is next to a window in our living room. Whenever the curtains are open she loves to play with the sheer and grabs it whenever she can. This was the first time, though, that she decided it would be fun to play in the curtain.

Helping with the laundry...

Bummer

Well, Arizona has pretty much been knocked off the list of possibilities for a job right now. SRTA (the licensing board exam that Bobby's going to take) isn't accepted in Arizona...their website showed it listed, but oops it's not. So unless we get an absolutely, ridiculously fabulous offer from Arizona (which would then persuade Bobby to shell out more money to take the exam there), that won't be where we're headed.

So, now the job hunt continues with Arizona now in dead last (though we're still crossing our fingers that a great job could suddenly pop up there). And it's still a place we might be able to eventually end up...Bobby's checking to see if they'll accept dentists who have experience and then move into the state.

Our trip to Beeville is coming up in a couple weeks and there's also some potential in Austin, TX and some leads in Virginia right now. We'll keep you up to date as we know more.

New Places to Play

Inchworm

Ruby's been inchworming across the house for about a week now. She's loved the liberation of going where ever she wants, however, like rolling she now can find herself in some sticky situations. Case in point: this morning I was playing the piano in her room and she was exploring. I wasn't paying attention to her until I looked down and saw her trying to wriggle her way out from under the piano bench. She was having quite a time of it too, what with my feet in the way, the bench's legs and my tote bag, she was getting a little frustrated. Luckily she was able to give me a big smile when I just had to take a picture.

Grandma Berry

Grandma, I just wanted to tell you that I love you so much and hope you feel better!

Love,
Ruby

Rural Rotation...The End

Woohoo! We're done! This week was Bobby's last week of rural rotation and today we're all at home enjoying being a family living in the same house again. This last 6 weeks has flown by, though, and we've had some fun experiences in Cowen, West Virginia and Bobby has loved being in a real practice. He's not so excited to have to return to school next week.

Ruby and I drove down for our last visit on Tuesday. We ate lunch at the Hilltop Diner one last time (Bobby had liver again...there was no way he was going to pass that up!) and we got a shake from Depot Dairy (the hot dog stand in town)and ate it at the Big Ditch Lake. How did it receive it's name? Because as the locals say, "I could walk across that lake!"

Needless to say, it's a beautiful spot and we enjoyed the cool autumn air and the beautiful trees.



Ruby took her last bath in the sink.


And here's a funny face she's been making lately...We call it her little-old-lady face:


We're so grateful to the Hamrick's for their hospitality in giving Bobby a place to stay and a spot roomy enough that Ruby and I were able to come see him during the week. We had a great time visiting with them and getting to know them. They are beautiful people.

The Job Search

So Bobby graduates in May and apparently it's a good idea to have a job when one goes out into the world to try and make a living. Who'd have thought? Well, he's been furiously on the hunt for about a month now. We're working with some dental recruiters out west and we're hoping we can find a job in Utah or Arizona, but we'll take what we can get. Case in point: our only real opportunity at the moment is in Beeville, Texas. Hmmm...never heard of Beeville? Neither had we. It's a small town of 13,000 and is in between San Antonio and Corpus Christi.

When Bobby told me about this I was less than thrilled. The town has a Walmart, one grocery store with a couple mom-and-pops stores and that's about it. A few restaurants. And an LDS branch. Not quite what I was expecting out of our new home.

We've got a visit scheduled just before Thanksgiving to get a tour of the town and the dental practice and to see if this is something we could do. Let's just say that there's going to be a lot of prayer involved in this decision, because as of right now I'm not feeling it at all. But, that said, if it's what we feel is right and what our Heavenly Father wants us to do, we'll do it.

So, friends and family, please keep us in your prayers that we'll be able to find work that will be good for our family....and hopefully keep us closer to you.

Piggy Back

We had to do some yard work this weekend and Ruby had just woken up from her nap so we decided to take her along. She hasn't ridden in the Ergo on my back yet, so we gave it a try to see if she'd like it. Did she ever! Much better than riding on the front. She was quite content to look around and see what we were up to while taking it easy on my back.

On The Verge