Christmas & Ruby's 4th birthday

Christmas was so much fun! Ruby was so into it this year with Santa and everything and Beckett was just having the best time and totally enjoying new toys. Christmas Eve Ruby was having the hardest time falling asleep, we kept checking on her and I think she was up past 10! But I totally get it because I was the same way as a kid. It's too exciting to sleep!

For Ruby's birthday we kind of spread it out over two days. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve we let Ruby open her presents. It was kind of a fun event because there's a lot to do at night and the afternoon was going kind of slow. So I think that was a good idea. Christmas Eve we did the classic PJ's and this year I also got them a stuffed animal. We had an elf doorbell ditch them at the door. I made an actual dinner- homemade chicken strips, potatoes and green beans. That was a big deal because I started working the beginning of December and it really threw off my cooking game. Not that I was much of a cook before but... we had been eating a lot of take out. After the kids were in their beds we did some furious wrapping because I had done none beforehand. Every time I said I needed to wrap, Ronnie would start doing beep box, haha. (Get it, rapping?! Lol) I wrapped allll the presents in the time it took Ronnie to build Beckett's new little tikes cozy coupe (a gift from Oma & Grandad!). I told him I think I could have done it faster because I actually read directions but he doesn't think so. He had out power tools and everything, haha.

Christmas night we went over to my Aunt Gerri's house and she made a delicious roast beef (which reminded me of home, my dad always made that!) and we brought cupcakes so we could sing to Ruby and let her blow out the candles. Beckett fell asleep on the way to Aunt Gerri's, slept through the entire dinner, the way home and through the night. So he slept 5 pm-8 am the next morning! Christmas really tired that kid out!

^After church on Christmas Eve!

^Opening her birthday presents while being a bumble bee :) I made sure to get different wrapping paper from Christmas!

Christmas Eve PJ pictures! They were really not cooperating with my vision for cute PJ pictures! Haha what can you expect especially when one is a 2 year old! 

^Forcing the 2 year old to take a picture with me because we match!

 ^Cookies for Santa! We baked them Christmas Eve. He also got orange soda (that was all Ruby's idea, it's her favorite) and she drew this awesome picture.

 ^ We decorated Ruby's door for when she woke up in the morning. I did this last year and she totally remembered it! She was telling me all about it a few weeks ago so I decided I had to do it again! 

^Finding all the candy in his stocking!

^She got a puppy surprise! One of my favorite presents I got as a kid.

^I couldn't resist getting this for Beckett because he is always saying "yee-haw!" He is so cute. 

Beckett's big gift from us, the SEA PATROLLER. If you're a paw patrol fan you know this is a big deal haha. He played with it the whole day! Also, notice the car behind him (the one that took Ronnie so long to build lol)!! It's been a big hit at our house. And... notice how it's still dark outside! They were up at 6:30 o_O

^What Ruby asked Santa for, it is a Sea pony from the my little pony movie, kind of a weird thing really!! But she talked about it everyday coming up to Christmas so it was really exciting! And wow look at that post Christmas mess!

^A Rapunzel play doh hair creator... I don't now how to explain it haha but it was a big hit. Hours of fun!

^Ronnie made us his family's traditional Christmas breakfast- biscuits and gravy!

^I have been wanting to make special stockings for a couple years now and decided this was the year! Probably not the best idea since I also started a new job at the same time. I was scrambling to get these done. And I only finished 3 out of 4 by Christmas. Ronnie's was done the day after Christmas. He still had a place holder but I still felt a little bad. But, his did turn out the best! If you didn't know, my maiden name is Foote and my mom made us similar stockings(with the toes) when we were little and decorated them by hand, so I wanted to carry on that tradition as well! I think they are so fun and a creative idea by my mom!

 The birthday girl!! This shirt was made by her Oma! I can't believe she is 4. It's so fun that we can have actual conversations now. The whining I could do without, haha. Is that a 4 year old thing?! But she really is a sweetheart and so fun to do things with because she gets so excited about everything. This whole time of year makes me so sentimental to that Christmas morning 4 years ago when I became a mom. Just the best gift ever.

This whole Christmas season was just a blast. There are a couple cute things Ruby would say that I don't want to forget. Once we were in target looking at Christmas decorations, and Ruby said "look at those Christmas socks!" (she was pointing at stocking). Anytime we read a book about baby Jesus she always called the angels, fairies, haha. And when we would talk about Christmas Eve she would call it Christmas evening. 

And of course I can't forget the whole reason for Christmas, the birth of our Savior. I love this time of year because it really renews my testimony of Jesus Christ and his love for us. 

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! Thanks for reading! :)

Beckett James: 2 years old

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile, and I started but then I forgot! Beckett turned 2 years old last month! He is becoming such a big boy. I took him out the day before his birthday to Noble Woods Park, this really pretty park close to our house with the tallest trees and took some pictures. I will share some below. But first here's a little bit about our Beckett at 2 years old. I'm sorry it got a little long but I just started listing all the things I didn't want to forget about this cute kid. This blog has become my journal. I never want to forget this sweet time in our lives!

Beckett is so much fun. He is really sweet and cuddly. But he also has this in-grown sense that he needs to wrestle as much as possible. He tries to wrestle everyone in the family. Ruby does not appreciate this, haha. He loves to climb on top of our heads as high as he can go. We call him our sour patch kid because he goes from super sweet to not, so fast.
He is talking really well, and much more than Ruby at his age. Although she has really caught up lately. It's been fun having 2 year old conversations, something we were not used to. I'm sure it has helped being around an older sister. He still has funny ways of saying things, like "neh" for more and "ah ee" for open. For the longest time if you asked him what color anything was he would yell "YELLOW" really loud, but he is finally starting to say other colors too and get them right even. I think his favorite is still yellow though.
Whenever daddy goes to work he runs to the door and says "hug kiss". It's so sweet. I love when he tells me "I love you nonny". He loves working out in the garage with daddy, he calls dirt bikes "mo mo rides". He will say things like "I fix it" and likes to put nails and bolts into any little holes he can find. He also does that inside the house too, like how he stuffed marshmallows in the little holes in the vacuum, dinosaurs in the guitar, and pennies in the humidifier vent.
He loves dinosaurs, Choo choos, cars and motorcycles.
He will eat almost anything which is a relief especially since Ruby is so super picky. So I'm trying to keep that going. His favorite food is probably "cheese sticks" and strawberries.
Whenever he hurts himself at all, even if it's really little he will come to me saying "owie" and will not stop whining about it until I kiss it or acknowledge it in some way and then I'll say are you ok and he says "yeah" and he's fine then.
He is still a very big boy. At his 2 year check up he was 33 lbs (95th percentile) and 36 3/4 inches (95th percentile). He's wearing 2T-3T clothes.
I feel like we are doing a little better in the biting department, fingers crossed! It's been awhile since he bit anyone. I would get so nervous taking him anywhere with other kids. I have to watch him so closely so I can intervene really fast. Him and Ruby are getting along a little better lately. They even play together sometimes and it makes me so happy.
He began climbing out of his crib before he turned 2. So we took off the side of his crib, because we didn't want him to hurt himself. I was so sad because I wanted to keep him in the crib till he was 3. He used to go right to sleep. Now it is so hard. It is really difficult to get a toddler to stay in a bed! Help!! He has also stopped napping. That one was coming for awhile, but the crib situation sealed the deal. It's been a hard transition for me to not have a quiet time for myself, haha. We are still figuring this out. So funny how each kid is different and you have to figure things out all over again. But we sure do love this kid! All the time I can't believe how cute he is.

Ok that was a lot. And now here are a lot of pictures. We went out a little late so it was kind of dark and my pictures got a little blurry. But I still like them :) I am still getting the hang of my camera and this low lighting was good practice.

 ^Dancing! 

 ^One of his favorite moves

 ^ Super blurry but I feel like it really captures her personality. 

 ^That face! So Beckett. 

 ^This one is so Beckett too.

 ^Testing out his new vans, a birthday present!

^I love his cute little profile

^I love the progression of those photos

^I'm so glad they have each other to play with

 ^ I love this one, they were doing more crazy dance moves

 ^Gah, I love this one too 

 ^ Looking at his daddy here

 ^Glad I got a picture with his dimples :)

^ Love my girl, Ruby. She has gotten so BIG lately. In a lot of ways. Cant' believe we will have a 4 year old in less than 3 months.