Wow!

Who knows what inspired this hysteria, but Ruby was just waiting in the car with Sam when she developed a crazy personality. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Honey!

Sam and I celebrated his 28th birthday today in Fort Wayne. We picniced at Foster Park, the sight of our first date (this time around). We walked around and enjoyed the flowers.

They were gorgeous and we made sure to take pictures of the ones we want in our garden someday.

Wouldn't that be lovely to have in your front yard.

This was the heart shaped gazebo in the Bridal Glen.

Happy Birthday, Love of My Life!!

Zoo Crew

Our summer is just full of activities with the Skinners. Aunt Sandra treated us all to a day at the zoo. Ruby overheated and needed a Dora popsicle to cool down. I think the ants probably loved our little bench when we left. It was all covered in melted popsicle.

Our girls just kind of sat around all day.

We had to get a picture in front of the pretty butterflies.

Wow that's a big lion. Todd kept pointing out that this lion was a cousin to Bob the lion in the African exhibit.

And here is our zoo crew.

Fourth of July

Ruby and cousin George got to play together over the holiday weekend. She was dressed up in her festive stars and stripes dress that we have been waiting forever to wear.

A Day at the Beach

Ignore the pregnant Mama and focus on the happy baby at the bottom of the picture. Ruby loved her first trip to the beach. She was rediculously happy to be in the water. She rejected the shallow end and pointed out towards the deep stuff. I think she really liked the floating and swimming around with Mommy there as a safety net.

When she finally discovered the sand she had a blast. And like everything else, some ended up in her mouth and some in her diaper.

Daddy showing off his little sunbathing beauty.

The Skinners had fun at the beach as well. We love having you home, Skinners.

1st Birthday Party!

Ruby looked like a little Birthday Princess.

There were cupcakes galore. It was the theme of the party. Shalon even bought Ruby a cupcake apron.

She had to have one for each hand.

And, of course, chocolate was the favorite.

There were no crumbs left on her seat or tray by the time she was done. All you could see was some frosting on her face. She didn't want to waste any cupcake.

Isn't she so cute.

Daddy helped her open her gifts. Everyone was so sweet and generous. Thank you, everyone.

Paper!!

She loved her baby doll.

And her new stroller for pushing the baby was a hit as well.

Sly Hands and Cheerios

Ruby's reach is lengthening as i found out last night when I heard the crash of cheerios to the floor.

She graciously offered some to her mother.

And when it was time to get up she took some with her.

Cousins

Tayden and Ruby just love each other. Really, they only show kind affection towards one another. He feeds her his bananas and holds her hands to get her to walk and she just adores him. They are so cute together.


The kids loved playing around on our couch yesterday. The whole family came over and they piled on the couch. No nap time for these guys.

Of course, I hovered near to make sure there were no casualties to the hard wood floor.

Ice Cream

Ruby had her first ice cream cone today.


I think she liked it. What do you think?

Garden Time

So, I can't tell you how excited I am that it is garden season again. We are still not done planting at the Pattersons' because of the blessed rain and busy schedules, but soon. Last night my father and Ruby and I planted corn, beets, green beans, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. There is so much in the ground already that has started sprouting. It's beautiful (pictures to come). I do believe that I will scrapbook about it this year.



Funny story about my dad, Ruby and I planting last night. So, Ruby was sitting in her stroller, watching us lay plants in the ground. My dad kept joking about the moon coming up as he was bending over in front of poor Ruby. I took his place when he went to get more water and then I hear "Laura, don't traumatize my grandaughter, let me do that," to which I replied, "And that won't traumatize her." Then he points to my pregnant belly and tells me he is talking about that grandaughter (by the way, we think we are having a girl). I told him I thought he was talking about Ruby. We both just laughed and continued on our merry planting way.



Yes, we are having a girl, well 80% sure we are having a girl. The first time they tried to look, she crossed her legs, the umbilical cord was in between her knees and she had her hands over her special area. Modest little thing, huh. On Monday they checked again and she moved around the entire time, but no little boy parts stuck out, so girl it is.

Any votes on the the name? We are sticking with the whole "Our little Gem" theme for our daughters. We have chosen Annalyse Margarite, which Margarite means Pearl or we also like the name Bella Joia (sounds like Joya), which is Portuguese for Beautiful Gem. We have been very torn between these names. Well, we have until October to decide.

Mudpies Anyone?

So I ate dirt, so what!


Ruby helped garden yesterday. She discovered that dirt and rocks are more fun to play in than sitting in a stroller while watching mom.

Would you like a mudpie?

Really, Ruby thought they were quite tasty.

My little garden gnome.

Zollman/Meyer Clan

Zollmans and Meyers are coming over for lunch tomorrow. Nana and Papa bought the groceries and brought them over. Here is just the main course ingredients. That's right, that's a ten pound log of hamburger. It takes alot to feed this clan.

Potty Time

Ruby had a really bad bottom rash so we spent the morning airing her out. I put down a big blanket to catch all the stuff a diaper normally would. Yuck! It definately did the job. That wasn't fun for mommy, but Ruby really enjoyed her freedom. :)

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Yesterday was our second anniversary and although I did not remember that yesterday was THE day we still managed to make it special. Seriously, how pregnant and brain dead am I that I did not remember my own anniversary. I blame it on the pregnancy, which means I blame it on Sam. We laughed at the fact that I have been pregnant for both of our anniversaries and we did get pregnant on our honeymoon (which was followed by a miscarriage), so maybe we were even pregnant on the evening of our sealing. Weird, sad and funny all at the same time. Maybe that was even an overshare for you all, but we got a kick out of it.

To celebrate this wonderous anniversary we went all out and ate at the finest restaurant our budget could afford. That's right, we ate McDonald's ;) Then we went two blocks uptown to the Strand and watched Iron Man 2 for only nine dollars. Great movie, by the way. It was way better than the first.

Truly we had a great night. I'm married to the most wonderful man. He works so hard to provide for and care for his family. He also was not offended that I did not remember the anniversary either, which is wonderful as well. Love you dear.

Ruby News

Ruby is ten months old now and her personality is definately coming through loud and clear. She has always been a sweetie, but she also has an ornary said. Of course, that only comes from the Zollman side. This is a facial expression that we love dearly.

Sam is Ruby's favorite person. She isn't happy in the morning until she sees her daddy. She kicks and squeals when he walks in a room. Sam calls her his little "babydoll" all the time and the other day Ruby called him babydoll back. Too cute.

That's right, my little girl is a talker. Ruby can say "amen", "all done", "more", "babydoll", "apple" and a few other words here and there. In fact, after the sacrament was passed in church yesterday and everyone had said "amen", Ruby echoed "amen" very loudly. I think everyone heard her.

One more cute story. Ruby is the gassiest and poohingest girl ever. She will read this one day and yell at me I know. The other day was playing on the floor in the living room and passed gas very loudly and for a long length of time. She looked around the room and behind her to find out where that loud sound was coming from that had so rudely and loudly disrupted her play. HALARIOUS!

Frankenmuth Couple's Retreat

Sam and I attended a Strong Bonds couples retreat for National Guard couples in Frankenmuth, MI. It was so wonderful. We stayed at the Bavarian Inn, which was very impressive. This place had five levels. The bottom level was the family fun center with six different pools and a waterfall. It had a huge arcade area for families, an inside jungle gym, and miniature golf, plus gift shops. It was grand. National Guard paid for everything which was wonderful and what's even better is that they paid us both for being there. Of course, that check won't come for a couple of weeks.

Here is the back side of the Inn. We crossed the covered bridge to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant to take this picture. At first they tried to give us a bedroom with two double beds. Being that this was our first time alone, that is without a baby, in nine months we immediately changed that to a king size.

We went sight seeing at Bronner's Christmas store. Sam lept at the chance to talk to the big guy in red.

The picture is suppose to go the other way, but oh well. This is just a glimpse of the endless sea of bobbles and tree decorations at Bronner's.

My handsome hubby. We attended classes throughout the weekend that taught couples how to better communicate. The room above where he is standing was one of our classrooms.

This was the view from our balcony. They had the tower below chained off so we couldn't climb up in it to see the view. It felt like we were in Harry Potter or something.