And on June 11th I....

...blogged a LOT. Someone (other than my husband!) please see the 8 posts below so my afternoon will seem worthwhile! ;)

And here are a few more pictures... just because!

Ruby all pretty for her first attendance at a wedding.

Ruby rockin' in her new jumperoo!

Daddy's girl!

Playing with Cousin Sydney!

Slobbery kisses for Daddy!

Ruby and Jenny... Jenny will be taking over for me as Head Cross Country Coach at Lone Tree. I can't think of a better person to take over! She will do great! Good luck, Jenny! :)

Meet ELLA

This is Ella. She is one of my cross country runners. Even though I won't be coaching at Lone Tree next year, she will always be one of MY cross country runners. Although I could probably devote a post to each and every runner on my team, because they are all equally cool kids, Ella and I seemed to get the closest throughout our years together. She is one of a kind, I tell ya. This girl is so sweet, determined, humble, and kind-hearted. She loves competition and puts forth her best effort in ALL she does. I have often said that I hope Ruby grows up to have many of the same qualities that Ella has. I will miss her next year! (But I have promised her and the rest of my team that I WILL be at a meet next year. And I've already marked my calendar for the STATE meet that they WILL be at!) So Ella, this post is for you! Thank you for being you! Keep working hard and text me whenever! ;)

5 Boys... and the ZOO

I just had to share this...! When I found out last year that I would be teaching 3rd grade, one thing I thought of right away was the end of the year field trip to the ZOO! I LOVE the zoo! As the end of the year approached, I shared my love (and weird phobia... I love animals but really don't want to touch them... even dogs scare me!) of the zoo with my students and I'm pretty sure I was just as excited as they were! The zoo has a rule that there be an adult for every 5 students so that meant I basically got to hang out at the zoo with only 5 students! Pretty cool! I definitely hand-picked these 5 boys for myself for many reasons. One has Ausbergers, a couple of them have ADHD, and a few of them have less than ideal home lives. Now, don't get me wrong, they ALL have VERY, VERY loving parents. But one of the boy's parents are going through a divorce and a couple of them expressed to me that they had never been to a zoo in their entire third grade lives. We also got to cross the Mississippi on our way to the zoo - another first for several students. I just wanted these boys in MY group so I could make sure we had a BLAST at the zoo. And that we did! It was great! They definitely thought we needed to run from one area of the zoo to the other so they kept me on my toes! It seriously was great though! And this picture is just too awesome not to share!

Side note: after school got out, one of the boy's parents were arrested for having a meth lab IN their home. It seriously broke my heart to hear that one. So if you have an extra few minutes to just pray for these kiddos, I would sure appreciate it and the miracle of prayer is so powerful that it just might make a difference in these boys' lives.

SUE

Ruby's first day with Sue.

Ruby's last day with Sue.

Sue was Ruby's AWESOME "daycare lady" (babysitter just seems like such an immature term!) and boy was she AWESOME!!!! I'm not sure how Sue does it, but she takes the best care of several teachers' kiddos during the school year. Although I'm super excited to get to hang out with my cutie every day next school year, we will definitely miss Sue! Thank you Sue!

Five Months

Ruby really seemed to learn a lot right around 5 months. She learned how to roll over about a week before she turned 5 months (but she has only figured out how to roll from her back to her stomach).

Ruby also found her toes...

...started eating rice cereal...

...and learned how to read.

Oh nevermind... it's upside down.

...and backwards!

Joel Graduates!

Paul's younger brother, Joel, graduated from the University of Iowa's Pharmacy School in May. He will now be moving to Sioux Falls, SD to do a one-year (which could turn into a possible two-year) residency. He found an apartment about a mile from our new house so we will be excited to see him often! (Speaking of new house...we move in a week...!) Joel has already moved and is busy studying for his upcoming test. Good luck, Joel!

Joel and his two adorable nieces! They love him and want everyone to know he's single!!!

Ruby and Papa Gary! Love this pic!

Great Gma Ruth and Great Uncle Greg came from Michigan to help Joel celebrate, so Ruby got to meet them for the first time!

Baptism

On May 8th, Ruby was baptized back in our hometown church. It was very special as Paul's dad was able to baptize Ruby and my dad was the assisting elder. Ruby is such a happy baby, but of course, she decided to cry before, during, and after the baptism! I think she played a bit too hard on Saturday with all the family around and when Sunday came, she was just so tired, she didn't even know what to do!

Paul's family! Unfortunately, we don't have any more pictures from the baptism, but my mom took lots of great family shots. They are all on Facebook and for some reason I couldn't copy them into our IPhoto.
Sydney was hilarious all weekend long, which isn't unusual! This girl cracks us up ALL the time! Jon and Stef had been preparing Sydney all week for the baptism, which included answering lots of questions about what baptism was all about. Evidently, Sydney grasped that something would happen with water. So during Ruby's bath, Sydney shouted, "Baptize her! Baptize her!" It was really cute!

The other funny Sydney story occurred after baptism while we were taking family photos in the front of church. We asked Sydney if she wanted to hold Ruby for a few pictures. Of course, she was super excited to do so! So we got Sydney sat down on the top step (looking back on this, we probably could have found a better spot!). Then we placed Ruby on her lap. They both did great and we got some awesome pictures of them! After about 5 pictures from everyone's cameras, we were done and started putting the cameras away. Sydney realized this, and decided that since pictures were over, she didn't need to hold Ruby anymore and simply let go. Ruby tumbled down one step! Luckily, I was two steps down and caught her before she went any further! Sydney said, "She's kind of slippery!" We all laughed, Ruby seemed unaware of what just happened, and we all wished we could've gotten it on camera!!!!

At least we got her to smile afterwards! My parents had many family members over to their house for lunch after the baptism. It was wonderful to have them all there! I think we counted about 50 people! Thanks mom and dad!

Easter

I guess you could say I'm a bit behind on my blogging... and I can't even say I've been that busy... writing has never been a favorite of mine, so I guess I've just put other things above the blog! So anyway, here are some Easter pics in June (ugh, so embarrassing!).

I had a wonderful 4-day weekend with my cute little lady! Paul had to work on Good Friday and the Monday after Easter but we had a great Easter just staying at home in Iowa City. Paul's brother Joel joined us for Easter lunch as he stayed in IC as well.

Four Months

Ruby weighed over 14 pounds at her 4 month checkup. And as you can see, she was SO happy before the shots, and so sad afterwards. The nurses accused me of being a mean mom with the camera (I think they were kidding!) but I just couldn't help it! I still think she's just the cutest little thing when she cries!