Our Christmas

For Christmas this year we enjoyed our first holiday in our home as a family of four. When plans changed with my family's christmas get together, we decided to stay home in Stillwater. Our little family really enjoyed celebrating together, and especially starting new tradition. Ruby Kay at age really understood Christmas, and it was special for Ben and I to blend our childhood traditions to begin ones for our family. Highlights of this year were our Church's Christmas Eve service, reading the Christmas story in pajamas by the fire, leaving homemade cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and his reindeer, stockings and presents in the morning, and making a big Christmas Meal for dinner.

Ft. Worth Stockyards

For our Thanksgiving break this year we visited Ben's brother, Daniel in Texas. We spent the day in Fort Worth Stockyards, where their family had visited on a past vacation. We enjoyed a good Barbeque lunch and afterwards we explored the downtown area besides the stockyards.

It's always a treat to enjoy Dublin Dr. Pepper when in Texas.

Happy Easter

Kennedy Frances, almost 4 months

Snack time at MDO

Countryside's Egg Hunt

Decorating eggs with Papa and Mimi

Easter Sunday 2016

Happy Easter! 

We had a great time celebrating Easter this year, especially since it was Kennedy's first one. Ruby Kay also is beginning to understand holidays more and loved going on two egg hunts this year. Her sweet Mothers Day Out does such a good job celebrating the holidays, and including us parents for their parties.  On Thursday, Ben's came in town for a few days before Easter, and brought a Easter basket with goodies for the girls. We enjoying dyeing egg, and spending time together. Both of the girls love their Mimi and Papa so much. Jake and Sue also watched both girls while Ben and I went to the movies one afternoon. That was such a treat!

Life with these two girls and their Daddy is so sweet. This year I am thankful for Jesus' Ressurection and the gift of life that he provides! We had a busy week full of egg hunts and easter baskets, and althought they were fun- I hope next year to teach RK more about the real reason we celebrate Easter. As I write this, RK is saying "my bunny give me doctor set" over and over. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We spent the day at Papa and Mimi's house, and had a great time. Ben and I went out to a special dinner last night, so we had a chill day at home with Ben's parents. We started the day with pink and red pancakes, played outside, went on a walk to the nearby lake, and made chocolate covered strawberries.

I sewed a simple heart onto a plain grey t-shirt for RK to wear today. It was an easy project that made our day feel fun and festive. I wanted to take pictures of her shirt to remember, and let Ruby Kay see herself in the camera which resulted in these cute faces.

Happy Day of Love!

elephant rides, ox cart rides, and bamboo rafting in thailand

while we were in thailand for our family's christmas this past year, we spent a morning being tourists. growing up, we rode elephants countless times since we had mission trips frequently visiting that wanted to see the elephants. it was so special to be able to include ben and ruby kay on this part of my life.

ruby kay and aunt marisa. it was so sweet to my thailand sister love on my girl. especially after years of me being the aunt, it was fun to let her take a turn being ruby kay's auntie.

little girl was a little timid around the big elephants. i couldn't blame her though, when i was little they used to terrify me!

sugar cane and bananas to feed the hungry elephants, or in some cases the elephant trainers. i'm pretty sure lori and hayley's elephant trainer ate their sugar cane instead of giving it to their elephant.

 ruby kay with her papa and daddy. one lucky girl.

 i already miss this tropical paradise!

 ox cart rides!

after sitting still during the elephant show, rk wanted me to take her on a walk.

ellanora and her nina. 

one of my favorite pictures of ruby kay and i together in my favorite country.

Labor Day in the Arkansas Outdoors

For Labor Day this year, we drove up to a waterfall in Bella Vista with some of our friends. We made the rookie move of forgetting our daughter's swimsuit, swim diaper, and water shoes. Despite the mistake, we had a great time and enjoyed splashing in the waterfall. We love our friends so much and are so thankful for friends who have kids with similar ages to Ruby Kay. It is so refreshing to be around people who understand the ups and downs of parenting and being go-with-the-flow when it comes to life.

It has been so fun to see our little girl become an adventurer. The older she gets, the more curious she becomes. It is such a cool thing to be able to see her grow up, and we are so proud of our sweet girl. Next year she will probably be jumping off the waterfalls!

ruby kay's first birthday party

for ruby kay's first birthday, we had a flamingo themed party in the evening to celebrate with friends and family. we reserved a gazebo at a local park in fayetteville, and decorated everything in shades of pink. since we had been travelling for the three weeks leading up to her birthday, we tried to keep everything simple and easy. i tried to take pictures all throughout our day, since both sets of grandparents were out of town.  

we kept the menu simple, since we had an evening party. our guests enjoyed cupcakes, candy, and drinks. ben jumped on opportunity to get his favorite birthday cake oreo's.

i printed off a few favorite instagrams from our year with rk. when i picked them up from walgreens, i almost got teary eyed seeing her transformation in picture form starting as a brand new baby to a walking toddler! the first year really does go by so fast! the first picture of her is still so special to me, because it's the first time i saw what she looked liked while waiting for the nurses to bring her to me after my c-section!

after waiting to find out if ruby kay was a boy or girl until she was born, i thought it might be appropriate to go all out with the pink theme. also, pink decorations are so easy to find!

sisters, but missing one!

i spy a little girl who found the apple juice!

ruby kay's "smash cake" was simple: white cake and frosting with sprinkles. she surprised us all by being polite and slow with her cake. ben and i both expected her to dig right in and make a mess! i guess we might be able to save money on etiquette school in the future. :)

 

we had such a nice evening celebrating our little girl. we are so proud of her, and are grateful to God for making us her parents. she has taught so much about selflessness and love, and has made our year so sweet. here's to many more with our sweet girl! thanks to everyone who made her day so special too. we are so blessed by our friends and family, and feel so special when people love our little girl!