Christmas Firsts!!

We were so excited for this Christmas to come around as it was Ruthie's first Christmas! We were also excited because family was coming. My brother and sister-in-law came in from Maryland, my grandparents (Ruthie's greats) came in from Deerfield Beach and my dad came from Fort Lauderdale (although my dad had to leave before Christmas).

All were very excited to see Ruthie and gave her so much attention... which she soaked up and loved every minute of!

We started out Christmas eve at Dinner over looking the water... It was beautiful. From there we went to our church and had a lovely Christmas eve service. I love this service. I think it is my absolute favorite service at church and probably my favorite part of Christmas. It is such a wonderful time to celebrate the GOOD NEWS by celebrating the baby who brought it to us!



The whole group out by the water after dinner.



Tony, Myself, and Ruthie (yes, completely sacked out!) after dinner by the water.




The three of us at church after the service (for which she was completely awake for!! She didn't even try to eat the candles while we sang!!)

After the Christmas eve service, we came home, fed Ruthie, bathed Ruthie, nursed Ruthie and put her to bed. All before the big guy could even begin to arrive, if you know what I mean! I finally know what Christmas eve is like after children!! (We didn't get to bed until 2:30 am. ) I was also preparing for hosting my first Christmas breakfast- which went very well I must say. We had Bacon, Egg, and Cheese strata and French Toast Souffle (you can find the recipe at southern girls home cookin) Tony was working on a very special Christmas gift a plaster pair of Ruthie's hands. SO CUTE!!!

After breakfast was over and we opened the wrapped Santa presents & her stocking (I don't know how Santa does your presents but for Ruthie some are wrapped and some are left unwrapped!) We all went to my mom's house for presents and dinner! We had so many presents for Ruthie (mostly from grandparents and great grandparents... we tried not to go overboard) That we were opening 2 and 3 presents for every one of everyone else! Ruthie was so over worked by opening presents she had to take a rest right in the middle!! Obviously we did most of the unwrapping!! But, she did like to play with the wrapping paper balls~!




Santa Loot!



4 Generations together for Christmas!



The Christmas tree at my mom's!! (With more loot!!)



Our Family on Christmas



The whole family on Christmas



Resting between presents!


Ready to eat my Christmas dinner!!


All in all, the day was wonderful. Good times, Great family, Yummy food.

5 Month Old!!!

We can hardly believe our Sweet Pea is 5 months old already!!! Time totally flies!! Here's a summary of what she did while she was four months old:

* She rolled over!!! See her new trick here She can't roll over from her back to her tummy (she probably could, but she hasn't. She much prefers to look at the world while laying on her back! She's almost made it from her back to her tummy...so look out for an update!)

* She blows raspberries! She doesn't do this often, but she has done it a couple of times. And when she first learned how to do it she did it all the time. Perhaps the newness has worn off for a while!! (Raspberries are not fun while feeding her cereal!)

* She tried some veggies: Sweet potatos (her favorite!!) and Green Beans (these are coming along)

* She tried more fruits: Apples (a very yummy breakfast food!)

* She learned how to squeal! She likes to hear herself making this noise! It's so cute.

* She is chewing on her fingers ALL the time! She always has her fingers or her thumb in her mouth. Sometimes she gets both hands in there. It is so cute because she have as many fingers from both hands that she can possibly fit in her mouth and then when she catches your eye she smiles a really big grin. But, all you can see are her cute cheeks smiling around both of her hands that are stuffed in her mouth!! :)

*One of our favorite times is the first smile of the morning. She wakes up on the dot at about 7:30 -7:45am and she will sing, talk, and coo until you get her out of bed (a very happy morning baby!) But the best is when you walk into her room to pick her up in the morning she greets you with one of her biggest smiles. It's like she's saying "Good morning, I missed you and I love you!" She is so sweet!

* When she's really happy or she's communicating how much she loves us she smiles real big, brings her hands to her head to hold her hair, and then wiggles her hips back and forth. Then she brings her knees up! This is done at any time of the day when she's particularly happy, but is always done after her big smile first thing in the morning!

* She's reaching out to touch things now. She holds her hand out to touch our dog, Beethoven, and he is so sweet with her. She reaches for everything. She has even begun to reach for my hair, not to pull it, but to hold and twirl it likes she does her own hair. Such a loving and sweet gesture. When you're talking to her she reaches up to touch your face. What amazes us is how gentle she is. She caresses your face gently (most of the time) and pats it so lovingly. It's enough to get even the hardest of hearts, so you know how much it melt mine!!!

* Consistently taking a 1 1/2 hour to 2 hour nap each afternoon. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I don't know why or how, but we've been working really hard at being home and being consistent with the afternoon nap. And, it has done wonders for her sleeping patterns during the day.

*Still going to bed about 9:00 each night and sleeping through until 7:30 in the morning. She used to wake up for her binkie and music, but she doesn't do that much anymore. She must be a sound sleeper!

*She had her first Thanksgiving.

*She had her first theatrical debut as baby Jesus!

*She weighs 13 pounds and 13 ounces.

* She had her first round of antibiotics and steroids for a pretty bad upper respiratory infection.

* She can pick up her binkie and put it in her mouth when she wants it. This is a new step in her fine motor skills. Last month (while she was 3 months) she mastered the art of taking it out and putting it in. But, she's moved on to picking it up and putting it in. :)

* She found her toes... which is very evident by 95 % of the pictures!!!

Here are a few sweet pics from this past month:



Here she is all bundled up because we got really cold. It was at least down to 40 degrees when we woke up and by the time we braved the cold it was at least 60 degrees.... cold huh? :)




Example number one of playing with my toes!!!






This is a good example of my two favorite things to do: 1. play with my toes 2. chew on my fingers. I get my two fingers in my mouth and hook them on my bottom lip. :) It's so cute!



This is a picture of Ruthie playing with one of her toys. It's a rattle, but she likes to get it on her wrist and wear it like a bracelet. Guess my indoctrination that started from day one about the beauty of jewelry is starting to pay off!

Baby Jesus part 1 & 2- updated!

This has been a VERY busy week for our church and Ruthie has been a part of everything!! :) It started on Thursday night with a live nativity. We had a donkey, 2 goats, 2 sheep and some chickens along with Shepherds, Mary, Joseph, and Ruthie as Baby Jesus!! It was so sweet to see all the little kids touching the animals and taking part of the living nativity sceen. I'm sure those children will never forget it. As a mommy, it was such an awesome experience (and Humbling) to see my sweet little one playing the role of our baby Messiah. The Prince of Peace and King of Kings. I thought about what Mary might have been thinking as she tried to get Baby Jesus on a schedule so she could JUST GET SOMETHING FINISHED!!! I thought about how special it probably was to feed the Lord of Lords. And, I wondered if his poopie was stinky, and his spit up not so sweet. I felt very close to Mary and her baby Messiah that night.

Ruthie did an excellent job!!! NOT ONE LITTLE WHIMPER! I think she even had fun!! She LOVED looking at all the people and animals and was quite wide awake for the whole thing!

Then, Sunday night we had our Christmas Cantata and Children's play all wrapped up in one: What God Wants for Christmas. Again, Ruthie was baby Jesus. It was so cute as all the children in our church participated in some way. They were dancing with ribbons and some of the boys played the shepherds and the sheep and cows (SO CUTE!) I was in charge of the dessert bar afterwards, so once I got my little dumpling on and off the stage I headed back to make sure our other sweet treats were ready! My Sweetie was perfect! She was sleeping at first, and woke up on stage when one of the musical numbers got a little loud. After looking around a bit to figure out where in the world she was and what in the world was going on around her, she settled in for the show. Again, not one little whimper or cry. She enjoyed the entire event!

My wonderful husband has captured all of this fun on film (both moving and still) and I'll post a few of the best for you to enjoy!! :)



This is the whole picturesque scene!



A few sheep and goats!



Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus ...



Mary & Baby Jesus in the play






A Sweet Little Cow!!!

Giggle

Be sure to turn up the volume on your computer for this video. Mommy makes a silly fool of herself to induce sweet giggles from Ruthie! Enjoy!!

What's a girl to do?

Well, I have to share my wonder... Ruthie has been taking a nap and she's coming to the 2 hour mark. What a wonderful afternoon nap!! This might not be a blogg-able event for some babies, but my Ruthie loves to take little cat naps. In fact somedays she doesn't nap for more than 2 hours the ENTIRE DAY!! (and that record is accomplished 20-30 minutes at a time!)

But, this afternoon I knew she was particularly tired so I fed her and put her down for a nap. (That takes her out of her usual routine of eat-Play-nap.

This is all I got done in my two hours...

separated the week's worth of laundry
ate lunch
put in a load of laundry
folded two loads of laundry
packaged things for the mail
figured out dinner and started to thaw the meat
did the dishes, started the dishwasher
went to the bathroom :) (Sometimes that is quite an accomplishment!)
called a pampered chef customer
talked to my mom
BLOGGED
put away my loot from the Target run this morning
created my grocery list

I feel very good about my time to myself. I wondering how much longer she's going to sleep... let's see what else I can get done?!!!

My New Trick

Watch this to see Ruthie's newest trick!! One day she just did it!! And I have secretly (ok, not so secretly) worried about her holding up her head. You never know what the next day will bring! Enjoy my little lovie!!

Sweet Pea

I know I'm a little biased, but really who couldn't just love this sweet little girl. We are so incredibly blessed by our daughter...what a joy it is to be her parents...

Thankful Things

Even though Thanksgiving has been run over by the sounds of credit cards being swiped (from crazy shoppers), and Ho Ho Ho (from shopping mall santas), and crinkle wrinkle (from packages being wrapped).... I am still very thankful for my family. My incredible, loving, Godly, and patient husband and my beautiful, sweet, happy, smiling loving daughter have made this Thanksgiving and Holiday season VERY bright!

We spent Thanksgiving with Tony's family!!! It was a lot of fun and there was A LOT of good food!! And the reason I haven't blogged about it is because of BLACK FRIDAY!!! Yes, I am a crazy woman with a crazy family....After all of the turkey and ham was consumed his sister and her husband and Tony and me all stayed up ALL night long to wait in the Best Buy line. My little sweetie was cuddled and covered snugly in her car-seat/stroller/portable bed while we waited in line from 2 am to 5 am to get a super deal on a TV..not for us...for them!!

Black Friday shopping is something Tony's family has done for many years. I am a new found convert of the FUN (?) of getting up early, battling large mean crowds to find a deal.... but you know, it kind of grows on you!! Tony and my sole purchase you ask? Did we get an amazing 52" flat screen for $5? Did we land a hot I-Phone for $20? No I respond loudly- We got 2 ten packs of hot wheels for $5!!! Hot wheels you ask... I thought you had a little girl...Funny...the hot wheels aren't for us...they're for me to sell on ebay!!! But, the laughing we did and the fun we had was totally worth the lack of sleep. It really didn't hit us until the next day!!

But, here are some pictures from the more traditional part of our Thanksgiving Day!!


Paw-Paw the turkey and ham smoking extraordinaire!!




Mom Z and me in the kitchen!



Mom Z and Tony and Ruthie



Ready for her first Thanksgiving dinner - Cereal and Sweet Potatoes!!!




Luke and Uncle Tony playing with Transformers!! :) Once a kid always a kid!!

4 Months Old!! (About a week ago...)

Ruthie is 4 months old and has been busy growing and developing during this last month! Here's a short list of the things that she accomplished during her 3rd month!

* She went out of state for the first time...we went to GA to visit family read about it here

* She giggled right out loud (10/30/07). It was such a fun moment to hear her sweet laugh. Her giggle continues to morph into a full belly laugh. We're not quite there yet...but it is such a joy to see and here her giggle

* Her coos started out very soft quiet sounds that she graced us with occasionally. We were always so excited to hear her talk. This month her coos went from that soft quiet sound to a more throaty, louder "oh" sound. She spent several weeks perfecting the "oh". Then she moved on to "Uh-oh", "ah", and "ah-goo". Now, her sounds are squeals of delight and these louder, more frequent vowel and vowel constant combos. In fact, we can rarely get her to be quiet!! It's the best to have the house full of sound!!!

* She now puts her binkie in and takes it out. It's so cute to see the accomplished look on her face when she actually gets it in the right way!!

* She learned how to sneeze with out spewing the binkie out of her mouth!

* She had her first solids: rice cereal and her first fruit: Bananas

* She still likes to look at fans and lights

* She loves her hanging toys even more. She grabs the rings they're hanging on and pulls them down to her mouth! She even got one off the ring the other day!

* She chews on EVERYTHING!

* During bath time she kicks her legs so much she scoots down 1/2 way down the bath-tub mat and she flails her arms in delight! She still loves that tub-time.

* Doing great with lifting her head. She's getting it way off the blanket and flying like super-baby!

* She's turned to face the world in her baby bajorn!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy from the past month:

32 & 4 in Ft. Lauderdale

Nope, it's not a secret code to an off shore bank account...don't I wish... it's a one line summary of our weekend!! We visited my grandparents (Ruthie's Great Grandparents) in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend, and Ruthie and I had a birthday there!!! On Sunday, I turned 32 (ouch) and Ruthie turned 4 months (TIME IS FLYING!!!) But, the most important part of our weekend was spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and watching Ruthie love on them. It is so amazing what God does for us. He loves us so much that he gives us such special time. I see the earthly representation of God's love in my Grandpa. He is so sweet and kind. It was such a joy to watch him love on Ruthie.

I also was touched watching my grandma (Ruthie's namesake) interact with Ruthie. We named our first born after my grandma because we pray that Ruthie grows up to be just like Grandma Ruth. She is hard working, tender and kind, and loves her family and her God with all her heart. She is a picture of Proverbs 31. I am very blessed to have her as my Grandma.

Sunday (our birthdays) we spent going to church, going out to dinner, and then we had to say goodbye and drive home (Don't get me started on the drive home...Lets just say it started out at 6:00 with us heading to Miami instead of Naples and ended at 2:30 AM with two dogs, one baby- who was awake- and two cars loaded with stuff- putting gas and air in our tires to make it home !!! There's got to be a God lesson in there somewhere...)

Anyway, here are a few picture from our sweet weekend!!


Great Grandma Ruth & Ruthie




Great Grandpa Bill & Ruthie




The crew at an outdoor mall on Saturday



My honey and Me



Getting ready for Church



Grandpa Fogle joined us for a Birthday dinner!



Grandma, Grandpa, and Me at Houstons, my favorite restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale. It sits on the intercostal waterway and it is BEAUTIFUL!! We sat outside so we could enjoy the weather, the boats, and the water...along with the company!!



Happy Birthday, from my sweetheart!



Too much fun for our little girl...over and out!!