I love this little round faced, rosy cheeked, wide eyed beauty that I get to spend every day with.

I sure love my girl.

A Big Birthday Party For A Big Birthday Girl

This weekend we threw a birthday carnival for my birthday girl.

It was weeks in the making and in my opinion, it went smashingly!

I bought a kit on Etsy which allowed me to print off everything and put it together.

Invitations, decorations, party hats, signs, and pretty much everything else you need for a carnival birthday.

I was exhausted after it was over, but it was so worth it!

Ps: I never thought I'd be that mom that throws the massive party for their kid that won't even remember it. But I am, and I loved how it all turned out!

The birthday girl coming out to see her party

I love this dress I found in an antique store a few weeks ago. The red and white stripes reminded me of a vintage circus

The dessert table, and a very festive great grandpa.



I LOVE how her cake turned out, and I kept the mini banner to put in her baby book. 

Carnival games

 Awesome friends making popcorn and cotton candy, which was a hit!

 Rubes loved the bean bag toss we made



We also set up a photobooth with tons of fun props for the guests to take pictures, and I'm going to send them out with the thank you cards. It was a big hit!

And this awesome couple flew in from California JUST for Ruby's party! How amazing is that?!

Kristen is one of my best friends and Ruby's godmother (ya ya, I know Mormons don't really have godparents, but whatever, Ruby does, and Kristen is amazing at it.)

(ps I don't know why these look so washed out on blogger, they look normal otherwise)

Ruby was showered with lots of great presents from friends and family, and then we stripped her down to her skivvies and let her have at her cake!

Which she obviously really enjoyed!

I really couldn't have been happier with the way it all turned out.

Everyone seemed to have a great time, kids and adults alike, and despite Ruby being super tired and clingy, I think she had a fun time too.

We love our Ruby girl!

1

Today, my baby girl turns one.

ONE.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad.

She has grown up so fast!

It seems like just yesterday I was here:

And now we're here:

Ruby Mae brings me so much joy and happiness every day.

I am completely enamored with her.

Her smile, her laugh, her kisses, her constant wonder at this big world around her.

And I want to give her the whole world. 

Happy Birthday baby girl.

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always.

For all of eternity, my baby you'll be.

Scrunchies Are In

I love my scrunchie faced girl

Mother Nature

had a present waiting for me when I woke up this morning. (finally!)

I didn't even have to get out of bed to know what it was...the feeling that little humans were dancing on my insides and trying to crawl their way out of my body told me just what I needed to know.

It's aaalllll gooooddd though.

This means we're on our journey to eventually have #2, take two.

Here's to hoping it'll be sooner, rather than later. :)

Ps: it also isn't so bad because I woke up with Little Miss's bum in my face.

I love her in bed with me

Shmoctober

is over.

And I realized I pretty much only posted about our loss.

Downer.

While it was pretty much what consumed most of our thoughts, emotions, and energy for the month, there were also many many good things that happened in October.

And before I forget all of them, I want to quickly recap the highlights...considering Turkey Day and Christmas are literally around the corner.

Every October my mom's whole side of the family does the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk in celebration of our Grammy who is a 5 year survivor! I not only walk for Grammy, but for my mom, my sisters, myself, and now for my baby girl.

4 generations:

Then a few days later my mom, sisters, and myself had the opportunity to go to Time Out For Women.

My great dad got us a hotel for the night so it was a girl's weekend! There were laughs, tears, and even some wetting of the pants! {not it!}

(stupid blogger rotated it)


We also go to the demolition derby every year at the state fair.
 Oddly enough, for a family of girls, we really enjoy this!
Nothing better than the smell of grease everywhere, indian fry bread (which for the second year in a row made me sick. thankfully though this year didn't include barfing in those sick nasty bathrooms), and cars slamming into each other!

And yes, I was in a wheelchair. This was just a few days after passing and I was still so weak there's no way I would have lasted walking around all day.
 Doctor's orders!

Then came Ruby girl's first Halloween! She was a ladybug-meets-fairy-princess-thing. Not quite sure, but at least she looked cute! We went to our neighborhood carnival....

then finished up that night by having our annual family pumpkin carving! This year we made it into a contest!

 Ruby girl cheered us on from the sidelines...

And I won! Dwight Schrute is always a winner...and Erik is always the creeper in the background.

On actual Halloween we just passed out candy with my parents...and as you can see someone had a good time!

And to end the Halloween season, we went to a party with a bunch of our friends. It was really a lot of fun!

We had Simon & Garfunkel, Buddha, Doc Brown, Ricky Bobby, some tourists, a sexy pirate, and I'm not sure what Albert and I were doing...but can you tell what we went as?

Hint: our shirts say "So Bright" & "So Vivid."

All in all, when trying to look at the positive side of things, October was good to us!

My Ruby Blue

Ruby loves me.

Like, she reaaaallllyyy loves me.

Lately I'm the only one she'll go to, and sometimes she likes to literally stay up ALL night because the second I put her in her crib she screams hysterically and says mama mama over and over, forcing me to drive around at 2 am to put her to sleep, only to have her wake up and hour later ready to play, leaving me very very grumpy and passed out on the couch while grandpa plays with her until six thirty am.

And then I come home from the procedure (rescheduled to today) and all she wants is mama mama mama.

I love it, I do. It melts my heart and makes me exhausted all at the same time.

And then, I discover pictures like this. (thanks Mandy!)

And I forget about the exhasution part, and my heart just turns into a pile of mush on the floor. 

This Week's Schedule:

*Blood transfusion

*D&C

*Papa's skin cancer surgery

Bring. It. On.