Bowbenie Baby

TA-DAH! Ruby-roo at 9 months.

Thank you, THANK YOU, ThAnK yOu, Shannon-bow-bowbenie!!! I heart these photos so much!

Wordless Wednesday

D is THREE!

Super Dylan FINALLY turned 3! He's been pretending for a week. :) He is such a cutie and just so much fun to be around. He definitely has his daddy's great sense of humor, already makes up his own little jokes, and quotes funny parts from movies. He's also recently started talking really clearly and showing an interest in coloring, puzzles, and reading. Favorites include: superheroes, esp. Batman, hotdogs, peanut butter, chocolate and gum. He also likes to exercise. Dylan has a very special relationship with each of us and loves his one on one time with us all.

Since Dylan has very few friends besides us, and our family all lives far away, we decided to do a family getaway for his big day. We'd been meaning to go on a staycation at one of the resorts, and started planning it for his birthday weekend. With a little nudging from Kaden, we changed plans, and decided why not drive to Cali to see our cousins instead? The Christensen Gang graciously opened their home to us and helped us party for 3 days straight. 3 days of fun for our big 3 year old, right?

Day 1, we hit a new beach to us in Aliso. The weather was perfect, the waves were huge, and there was a fun playground for the kiddies. We picnicked, relaxed, then spent the afternoon at the pool. Later that night us adults got to sneak away for dinner...so nice! (Who's birthday is this, anyway?)

Day 2, D's actual birthday, we spent the day at the bay. This was a new place for us all and we fell in love! Such a perfect place for families to spend the day. Nice shallow water, good swimming places, play areas, swings, and stuff for older kids to do, too. Kaden & Dylan loved the swings and we all had a good time. After swimming in the afternoon, we had a BBQ that evening, and cake balls & presents for the birthday boy. He was in heaven! What's better than cousins, sword balloons, chocolate cake balls, and new toys? Nothing I can think of for a 3 year old boy!

Day 3, we swam to our hearts content and had Wahoo's by the pool. Kaden shared his monster truck love with our boys and soon they were all over the place making up fun games. It was hard to say goodbye, but good times were had by all!

A VeRy special thank you to Barbara and her boys for PaRtYiNg with us! We love & miss you so much, but are happy we're only half a day away!

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy's Little Girl

9 months on planet earth and Ruby-girl is changing faster than the speed of light! Eating food.

Not just baby food, but the good stuff...grown up food. She has started rejecting the healthy

veggie mixes that she used to love and will only be tricked into them on occasion.

She loves bananas, puffs, O's, peas and pasta and prefers to feed herself! She also loves her sippy cup.

Ruby-roo is on the move! She's all over eth place and is trying to keep up with those brothers. We think

the hard floors hurt her little knees, but she army crawls like a pro all over the house! She loves it

when we have the music on and almost always starts bopping her little head around to the beat.

I'm pretty sure she showing an early preference to Jack Johnson. ;) She loves it when I dance with

her and twirl her around in circles. She's started pulling herself up to standing with furniture and

bathing in the big tub with her brothers. Tonight she tried both! I have to watch her like a hawk!

She loves playing with the boys and giving them kisses and loves, and maybe a few innocent love

bites.

Speaking of love, Ruby started saying DADA about a week ago, and FINALLY started babbling Mama

today. About stinkin' time! Ben was getting a big kick out of it. She loves her daddy so much and

just lights up whenever he comes into the room. Every night he rocks her and sings I Am a Child

of God until she nods off to sleep. So sweet!

My friend, Shannon, asked if she could shoot some photos of Ruby for an etsy job she was working on.

The vendor makes headbands and trades photos for her products. Since I love Shannon, photos of

Ruby, headbands, and etsy, how could I say no?!? Here's our little super model! ;)

This one's my fav.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/53763596/light-blue-petite-dainty-sequin-flower

This Old House

It seems they don't make houses like they used to. We moved here to our first brand new home 4 1/2 years ago. Last month the A/C went out and we had to have 4 different service guys out to fix it. Thankfully the kids and I were still in OR, so Ben was able to get it working again before we arrived home. Next in line were the dryer and dishwasher. Luckily one service call covered both appliances and they were quick, easy, & relatively inexpensive fixes. (BTW...my handyman recommends running your dishwasher empty with CLR once every 3 or 4 months to keep the jets from getting clogged up.) It was an expensive July.

A few years into our time here, we had our carpets cleaned professionally. Since that time, it was never really clean again. I think it was treated with some type of scotch guard, and instead of helping stains come out, it attracted more dirt to those areas making it worse. It also bubbled around the edges and since we spend the majority of our time here, it made my life miserable. I could vaccuum, steam clean, spot clean, you name it, and nothing made a difference. I HATED IT! Don't even get me started on the wear pattern.

BEFORE

The reason we had kids. ;)

Kaleb's handiwork

Hard at work, or hardly working?

This was their favorite part!

Leaving our mark!

My last birthday (in Jan.) I was granted the wish to redo the family room flooring. It took me several months to figure out I wanted wood, and several more to choose a color & type. (I may have a little more of my parents in me than I'd like to admit!) We ended up putting in a laminate wood floor by ourselves. It was truly a team effort, though Ben did most of the handiwork. I'm so proud of him for doing such an amazing job & love, love, love that I now have a beautiful, clean floor for baby girl to army crawl all over.

AFTER!

Ruby taking her first face plant on the new floor. :( She pulled herself to standing at the ottoman, so I whipped out the camera, just as she let go!