Build A Bear- Birthday Weekend!

Ruthie's birthday fun continued the next day! After church we went to Cheesecake Factory to eat lunch... I love that place! And then on to Build A Bear to use the gift cards Aunt Mardi and Uncle Jack and Aunt Judy gave her. She's been eying this horse there for weeks. Every time we go in she goes RIGHT for the Horsey! She just loves it. And, each time we walk out without the horsey and say, "bye bye horsey" and she does so well with out throwing the littlest of fits.

So- finally for her birthday- we walked in and she got to make her own horsey and take it home. Ya' all she is in love. When we got to the area to pick a name we gave her several choices. Buttercup was top of my list. But, my daughter has a much better sense of naming stuffed animals and so her animal will forever be named, "Horsey Pony". I thought it was very original!! :)


She picked out some clothes complete with panties... we're in the potty training mode... and some accessories for the beach. I mean- what is a horse supposed to do w/ out a towel and sunscreen at the beach? :)

As tired as she was (no nap) she had so much fun and completely soaked in the experience. She loved making her Horsey Pony. And now, we have a third child, named Horsey Pony. She takes her everywhere!! :)

In the mall on our way to Build A Bear


Finally able to pick out the horsey!!


Kissing the heart before she put it in!


Stuffing Horsey Pony


Bathing Horsey Pony


Dressed, named, and paid for... now it is hers... and she's not letting go!!


Completely worn out and ready for BED... Mommy even gave in and gave her the binkie....


Totally happy after a wonderful, full, fun birthday weekend. Ruthie and Mommy with ALL 3 Ming Mings and her Horsey Pony!!

Father's Day 2009

We had so much fun on Father's Day...

First- when we woke up Ruthie brought Tony his surprise (or "pa-prise" according to Ruthie) which was a picture thing that I made... will post a pic later...

Then we headed to church and managed to get there relatively on time!!! An accomplishment for our group!

Then we met Mardi, Jack and family at the airport- we did the ultimate staycation- we ate at the airport and watched the planes. One of Ruthie's favorite things!!

After the airport we headed over to the mall and the boys plus Bailey did some indoor surfing!! :) They had a blast!!

Here are some pics from our day!
Emma awake with her fingers in her mouth...


Tony and his girls... walking around the airport!!


Emma asleep with her fingers in her mouth...


Looking at the model of the planes...


more models!


Daddy and Ruthie on the top of the parking garage watching the planes land and take off!! (Emma was asleep so we didn't want to wake her to take this pic!!)



Daddy surfing


Bailey Surfing


Luke surfing


Waiting in line for their turn!!


Jack surfing

Video that I promised

I promised you a video in that last post... but forgot to add it. So here it is...

This was us late one night after Ruthie had gone to bed...

Gasparilla Kid's Parade!!

Saturday we had SO much fun at the Gasparilla Kids Parade!! We went early to get a good seat (and we really did get a good seat!) We brought food and blankets and had so much fun before it started!! We can't wait to do it again next year- but we want to do it bigger and better!! We have already made our plans for our new and improved plan for enjoying the kids parade!! :)

Here are some cute pics from our day!

Christmas 2008

Ok- I've SO been procrastinating... I even joined Face book in an effort to feel "updated" but have yet to post on the blog about Christmas... almost a MONTH ago!! :) So- I'll spare you every little detail- and hope that the pics tell the story!! :)

Ruthie's favorite pre-Christmas toy- Reindeer antlers!! She loved to wear them on her eyes-like sunglasses- and then crawl all around the house. Amazingly enough- she never bumped into any furniture!! :) It was really cute!!



Our family after Christmas Eve candle light service. One of my favorite traditions!! After the service we went to Carrabbas to eat- it was YUMMY!!!



Santa's gifts Christmas morning!! She loved her play food and tea set!! (I loved her cute Christmas PJ's!!)


After seeing what Santa brought, opening stockings, and eating homemade cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs for breakfast- we ripped into the presents under the tree! This magna-doodle was a gift from Mommy and Daddy!



She loves to draw!


And this stroller was is so much fun!! Her baby loves to go for walks and eat in this stroller. Ruthie is such a good little mommy!


After a wonderful morning at home, we went to Grandma and Paw-Paw's house for dinner (around 3 pm). She thought the musical decorations were so much FUN!! I don't have many pictures of this part of our day- I must have been pooped by then!! :) But, my mom was with us as was Tony's sister Mardi and her family! We had a lot of fun and eat wonderful yummy food- again!


The next day Uncle Matt and Aunt Rachel (Sa-chel as Ruthie says) came from Orlando to have "Christmas" again! On Sat. morning we eat monkey bread (do you see a theme with our Christmas... eat-eat-eat!) and opened presents!!



Ruthie playing peek-a-boo with Uncle Matt while the girls were helping to get dinner on the table!!


We forgot to get a full family pic before Matt and Rachel went back to Orlando- so here is half the family- next to the Christmas tree!! :)

M-I-C -K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!

This past weekend we took our first family (with Ruthie) trip to Disney World!! We had a wonderful blessing of a FREE trip. My mom was at a conference in the Coronado Springs resort (a Disney resort) so she invited us to share her room. And, my brother's wife's family works at Disney and they got us into the park for free. Our entire trip (minus the gas) cost us about $5!! Talk about a blessing!!

We were supposed to leave on Thursday night when Tony got home from work. However, Ruthie's 2nd and 3rd trip to the pediatrician for an ear infection(s) that wouldn't go away got in our way. Poor Ruthie. She was SO pathetic. She DIDN'T feel well at ALL. She just sat around, and cried. Of course, she didn't sleep at night or eat much at all! We actually took her on Monday the first time and by Thursday when she was still running a fever and crying her head off at night, I took her back. That was Thursday. I thought he'd just change antibiotics and we'd be off. (Yes, I just admitted that I was taking my sick girl to Disney...but it was FREE) That's actually what he did, but he said come back tomorrow morning I want to check it out again. Which we did, and he then changed her medicine again because he could finally see that she had a STAFF infection in her middle ear and an outer ear infection. CRAZY. So, again we changed the medicine and went on our merry way. PRAISE THE LORD!! The third times the charm... she started feeling better after one day of the new meds!

ANYWAY

We were intending to take Ruthie to the Magic Kingdom where kids reign supreme, but once we got there we found out that because of an unscheduled "Regis and Kelly" taping that the Magic Kingdom was closed to cast members and their guests!

So, we quickly decided on another park and ended up at Hollywood Studios. We had a SUPER day. God blessed us with seeing Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck right as we entered the Park!! She did so well with those cute characters... She kissed Minnie's nose and Daisy's bill.

The best stunt show I've ever seen is their stunt show with cars. It's like the driving they do on the movie "drifting" I spent the entire show going... "oh"... "oh-no".... "woah" Because I thought they were going to hit each other. They were driving SO fast and close together. Ruthie, by the way, slept through the entire LOUD thing!! :)

At the end of the day, when it had gotten dark, we were able to see the "Osborne Family Festival of Lights". It's like 5 million lights or some crazy number. They had originally belonged to ONE family, and after some disputes with his neighbors he donated them to Disney to display at Christmas time. They played REAL Christmas music and it was just beautiful. When Ruthie saw the lights she used both hands to point and said, "Oh, WOW" over and over. It was totally cute. To top it all off, they at certain times during the light festival they had SNOW machines at the tops of the buildings.... and it SNOWED in FL!! (Except without the cold, and the bad driving, and the snow days!)

Anyway, after a week and a half of no sleep (due to Ruthie's ear infections....yes plural) over Thanksgiving, we were really excited to share this special weekend!! :) Enjoy the pictures below.

Friday afternoon at the resort's gift shop. We had fun looking at all the cool things. She liked these ears the best! Please don't mind the ketchup ALL over her face. She's just recently gotten into "dipping" and ketchup is one of her favorites. To put it mildly, she isn't the neatest dipper!


Saturday Morning- Ready to see Mickey!! We're on the boat to get to Magic Kingdom...


Tony and I on the same boat... it's almost empty because we're actually going BACK to the parking lot to get a different disney bus to take us to the Hollywood Studio's Park.


The only part of the Magic Kingdom we'd see that day... (boo hoo) The castle from afar!


Us with Minnie and Daisy... if you enlarge it you can see the PRECIOUS look on Ruthie's face. She's going in to kiss Minnie's nose!!


By this time in the day, she was needing another dose of medicine and Mr. Incredible scared her just a bit. She didn't want me to stand by him!


Uncle Matt and Aunt Rachel on the San Francisco street!


Daddy, Uncle Matt, and Ruthie waiting for the car stunt show


The amazing stunt show in action (remember, Ruthie is sleeping!)


Our fam with our special glasses!


With both pointer fingers point and say, "OH WOW!"


Ruthie reaching for the snow... which you can't see in the picture! Also note, that by this time of the day/night, one of her pig tails was completely OUT!!