Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas Day

A new car from Santa.









________________________________________
Christmas dinner has been at my grandparent's ever since I was little. The tradition continues and all of the grandchildren and their families celebrate Christmas at my grandparents farm.

Ruthie's first Christmas dinner-ham, potatoes, home grown corn and homemade noodles.

My grandma giving Ruthie a treat.

My brother Chris, cousin Michelle, and my mom posing around my grandparents

Cousins around the tree before opening gifts.

Ready to try on her new tennis shoes.



Olivia and girls laying on her new body pillow.

Ruthie was into SO much stuff at my grandparents house. She was always getting into something that she wasn't suppose to. Good thing, nothing was broken.
______________________________________________

Then it off to my mom's house for Christmas.







The bubble wrap was more fun than her gifts. Go figure.

18 months old

Today Ruthie had her 18 month appointment. She is doing very well for her age. Almost everyday, Ruth is trying to say a new word. We are working with animal sounds now. She likes Old MacDonald sang to her and the sounds on her See n' Say. Ruth is also very mobile for 18 months as she tries to keep up with 3 older siblings.
The doctor says she is as big as an average 27 month old toddler. What a big girl you are. I know you will slow down in your growing. Our other children were in the 90% all through their toddler years but now when comparing them to their peers, they are average for both height and weight.


You weigh 27 lbs 12 ounces
You wear a size 2T
You wear a size 6 shoe

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Love for Hats

Ruthie LOVES to put hats on. Here she is sporting my hat for winter.

Vacation Begins

Christmas vacation has officially started for us. Once I got home from work, we headed out to McDonalds to eat supper. Then we drove around to see Christmas lights in the area.

Ruthie showing her finger with ketchup on it.


Andrew eating a BLT chicken sandwich.


Even teachers enjoy the time off from school to spend time with our family.





Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lookin' Out the Window

Bedtime Look

Miss Ruthie is a very busy 18 month year old. Here she is strutting around wearing Clare's snow boots. Ruthie LOVES to put on shoes and thought she would try boots tonight with her PJ's. As you can tell, she is showing off a little skin. She now can and likes to unzip her pajamas.


'Cheese'

Olivia-photographer

Santa Time

This past week, I took Clare and Ruthie to see Santa. Clare wasn't afraid to talk to Santa this year and asked him to bring a ladybug pillow pet. Ruthie wanted nothing to do with Santa, just like last year. I tried to have her sit by Clare but she just screamed!! I gave the camera to Andrew and he took the one and only photo with Santa.



However, Ruthie didn't mind the Christmas tree cake from Santa. This was her first Little Debbie cake. I tried to give her little at a time, but she wanted to carry the whole thing. I let her eat it while Clare was writing her note to Santa. She devoured the cake. My girl loves her sweets like her mama.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sunday

This was the first time in about 6 months that the whole family has gone to church together. With Ruthie being more mobile we divide up and go to mass separately on Sundays. The weather is ridiculously cold here so we thought we all try to go to mass all together and give it a shot. Ruth didn't do too bad. She managed to stay in the pew up until communion. Not bad for a 18 month year old.

My mom is here this weekend, so she was able to take a family photo of us. This is also tricky these days. Getting everyone to look at the camera at once is a struggle.


Visit to Omaha

Last weekend we were able to make a quick trip to Omaha. I was able to see some friends over dinner. Sorry no pictures of my friends and I. However, Joseph didn't mind getting his picture with me. He is 8 months today!! What a cutie he is!!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Birth Annoucement

Hopscotch Time Pink Birth Announcement
Find hundreds of elegant baby birth announcements at Shutterfly.com.
View the entire collection of cards.

Baby Ruth

Click here to view this photo book larger

2009 Year end review

Click here to view this photo book larger

Scrapbooking vs Shutterfly??

For over 10 years, I have put MANY hours into scrapbooking. My first book I created was my wedding album. At the time it was the best I could do to preserve one of the best days of my life. As I look back at my album, scrapbooking has changed in so many ways. It has become more digital and more cost effective with the help of Shutterfly. I'm not sure when I started to use Shutterfly, but I absolutely LOVE this site.

Each year, I have created 12 month calendars for my family. The family members that receive these calendars truly enjoy and look forward to them each year in Dec. The calendars are easy to create and the site is user friendly too. The variety of backgrounds to choose from are awesome and a great way to personalize the calendar as well.

Last year, I created a Shutterfly book, basically for me. I do not have a scrapbook for myself anymore. Finding time to actually sit down with photos and cutting and deciding how to arrange the photos and then selecting the paper is very time consuming. However I do have 4 books that I work on for my children. Finding the time to scrapbook is getting more and more difficult. Anyway, I thought I would make a book that has photos I didn't scrapbook in my children's books. My family and I LOVE looking at photos and I take plenty of photos to look at. The book was easy to create and took only a few hours on the computer to do in the comfort of my home. I have started a book to recap 2010, but so far I'm in the month of April. Hopefully over winter break, I'll have some time to work on it.

Another book I made is of my 4th daughter. Shutterfly always has great deals and promotions. This book was completely free. I was sent this offer via email and at first I wasn't sure what I could make a book about. Then it came to me... I just had a baby at the time and there isn't a better way to have lasting memories of her first few weeks than to have them in a book.

I have also used Shutterfly when creating the birth announcement of my 4th daughter. There were so many options to select from. The quality of all of Shutterfly's projects are top notch!!

The quality of all of Shutterfly's projects are top notch!! And prices are reasonable too.

During the Christmas season, I am always trying to find the right card to send out to family and friends. Shutterfly has a ton of styles to select from when finding the perfect card. I need to take some time to snap photos of the kids so I can send out my Shutterfly Xmas card out. Can't wait!!

Everyone likes to receive things if they are free, right??? Well, Shutterfly is offering an awesome deal to anyone who posts about their services and links their products. IF you chose to do so, then Shutterfly will give you 50 FREE cards. Doesn't that ROCK!!! 50 cards free cards could save you anywhere from $25-45. It is simple. If interested, click this link: http://bit.ly/sfly2010