10 months

(Picture is from a mini photo shoot I did this week. More to come soon!)

My little sweetie is 10 months old. Isn't she so cute? I can't get enough of her. Her little personality is getting stronger everyday and she is so much fun! She crawls everywhere and loves to be with the big kids. They think she is pretty neat too and love to crawl around with her. She is a great nighttime sleeper; although wakes up way too early. She is a good napper too although she has been on a napping strike lately. I can get so frustrated with the whole sleeping thing and then I go into her and see her adorable smile with her little tongue sticking out at me and suddenly none of it matters anymore. She babbles all day long but doesn't say anything of real meaning. We all love to babble back to her. She is a good eater although she is suddenly on an orange vegetable only diet. She only wants to eat squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Silly girl! We just love our little Ruby.

Does this bike make my van's butt look too big?

The minivan just got a whole lot cooler. However, don't try to drive over any kind of bump because the back will scrape like crazy. As newlyweds I wanted to get a dirt bike. I sold my last bike to buy Jenn a promise ring. Jenn said I couldn't get a bike until we had a baby, now we've got three so we figured I should at least have one bike. Its a 2007 KTM 450 sx. That's right ladies, this bike is all motocross, and you guessed it, it freakin rips. Now if I could find the time to ride it, I'd be in business.

San Diego Part 2

The rest of our trip was spent at Sea World and Lego Land. It was a lot of fun seeing the kids so excited about everything that we did and saw. I just love seeing my kids happy. All of them were so good. We really didn't even have any tantrums. Our only set back was that Collin managed to skin his knee every day that we were there. Not too bad!

Sophie's favorite part of the entire vacation was getting a toy! That is the whole reason she wanted to go on vacation. But after much prodding we were finally able to get her to tell us what she liked best (other than the toy). She said the dolphins. One reason we wanted to go to Sea World is as of right now Sophie wants to be a dolphin trainer when she grows up. It was priceless to see her face when she looked into the tank and saw the dolphins. I wish that I could have captured it ... but I was dealing with a screaming baby ... and even if I wasn't I am sure I still would have missed it. But there was so much excitement!

The dolphin kept splashing water over the wall of the tank and Sophie was giving it kisses.

And RRRR that stupid backpack. It is right in the middle of my cute pic.

Collin's favorite part of the trip was touching the rays. He really got into the hands on part of things. He also really liked touching and holding the star fish.

You were supposed to keep the star fish under the water so it could breathe, but the water was FREEZING. So cold it made you hands throb in a matter of seconds. So Collin kept lifting them out. I couldn't pass up just one picture of it in his hand!

Lego Land was fun too. The kids loved it. I was amazed at all of the characters made out of legos. They were incredible.

"HELP!" Collin is being eaten by a man eating shark!

Collin had fun posing for me with the lego guys.

I am not sure who is more scary. Collin or the dinosaur?

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures at Lego Land. We spent most of our time riding rides. And despite what the pictures show, Ruby was with us on this vacation. She just managed to avoid the camera! Thanks Mom and Dad for a great vacation. We had so much fun and hope that you did too.

San Diego Part 1

So we have been very lucky to have a vacation 2 weekends in a row. I totally felt a little bummed when we returned home from the last one because I no longer have any fun getaway to look forward to in the near or distant future. Sigh... This time our getaway was with the kids and grandma and grandpa. We had a great time.

Our first day at San Diego we spent at the beach (Everyone except grandpa and Ruby. She was so tired and needed to take a good nap back at the hotel). To say that the kids loved it would be an understatement. They had so much fun. And holy cow were they ever coated in sand. They were walking sand sculptures. Sophie wouldn't let us rinse her off at the beach side shower, so she traveled back to the hotel still completely covered in sand. Good thing we had a rental car!

The beach was so pretty and the weather was perfect. On top of this pier is hotel rooms. How fun is that? I would love to stay right on the pier. We however, did not! I so want to live near the beach. So much fun!

Sophie loved writing in the sand. Ever since she started Kindergarten she is a writing machine! The sand was her never ending notebook.

Of course they made a sandcastle

i ♥ faces- Blue

The theme is Blue this week at i ♥ faces and I just couldn't resist posting a pic of this cutie. He is my best friends little guy and I was so excited that she asked me to take his pictures. He was just so sweet and cuddly. I fell in love. This was my favorite pic and I just love his sparkly eyes and happy grin with the pop of blue behind him.

Butterflies

One of the presents Sophie got for her birthday was a Butterfly Pavilion. After receiving it we quickly sent away for our caterpillars and before we knew it we had 10 caterpillars eating and growing before our eyes. It was so fun to watch them grow and change. Soon they were big and fat and they began forming their chrysalides. We watched and we waited and before too long our beautiful butterflies were emerging. It was so cool and the kids loved watching them fly around. We fed them for a couple of days and then I was finally able to convince Sophie to release them.

It was kind of a waiting game releasing 10 butterflies. Sophie and Collin anxiously stood and watched being careful not to lean over the pavilion too much in fear one of the butterflies would suddenly decide it was time to leave and fly right into their face.

Still waiting . . .

Every time one flew away the kids would get so excited and yell "bye" and wave them off on their new journey.

Now when we see a butterfly Sophie says "Look! It is one of my butterflies. It came for a visit!"

Reno Air Races; Fly Low Fly Fast Turn Left

Our trip to Reno was so much fun. It was nice to spend so much time with Logan without the kids. Most of it was spent at the air show where we watched a lot of planes.

Logan's favorite part of the races was "The Blue Angels." Just their pre-flight presentation was incredible and their flying was amazing.

The best way to describe the races is Nascar with planes. It was pretty neat to watch the planes races around the oval and make their passes. It is incredible how fast and low to the ground they fly. It does the body good to get your red neck on every now and then.