Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Baby Time #2

We are excited to be adding another baby to our little family in just a few short months!  February 17th is the due date which will put Ruby and the baby about 26 months apart.  My pregnancy has gone very smoothly thus far and pray that it continues to go that way.  Ruby absolutely loves babies right now, especially her new cousin, Tate.  We hope her love for babies continues when she has her very own brother or sister!  She will have lots of adjustments in the near future, including a move to one of the downstairs bedrooms.  Hopefully she deals with that alright!  We aren't finding out the gender of the baby.  When we ask Ruby if she wants a girl or boy baby she just says, "girl or boy" so apparently she isn't picky!  ;)  

Practicing for the real thing!  I'd say she's quite proud!....


and pretty silly... we call this "crazy face"...


...and concentrating very intently :)


Ruby with her new cousin Tate.  She LOVES giving him kisses... so far he is very patient with his active cousin.  ;)


20 weeks :)


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Tatum Gray

My brother and his wife had their baby on September 6th.  He weighed right at 7 pounds and was 20 inches long.  He has adorable fuzzy brown hair and really long feet and hands!  We knew he was a boy for quite some time now but Ruby was the only one who knew his name!  Uncle Kenny and Aunt Carrie shared it with her one night when they were babysitting and she kept a good secret!  ;)  We had so much fun visiting Tate the day he was born and Ruby seemed to be quite smitten!  We love you, Tate!





Hawkeye Nation's newest and cutest fan!  :)



Tate's Paparazzi ;)




Papa Gary

This has been an adventurous summer for Paul's parents.  His dad officially retired from being a pastor in the Reformed Church of America.  They have been at their current church in Sibley, Iowa for 22 years.  Since the retirement, they have moved to Williamsburg, Iowa where Gary has found a part-time job as a chaplain at a senior living center.  Although leaving a church and community where you raised three boys was quite difficult, he is quite excited about the job and we know he will do a great job as it seems to fit him very well!  Ruth will continue to teach for Minnesota West and will have to do some traveling over the next year but will hopefully seek employment a little closer to home for the next school year.  They are now a little farther away but we know we will see them just as much!

We traveled to Iowa City and Williamsburg the weekend they moved.  We stayed with Jon, Stef, and Sydney as Gary and Ruth were busy trying to get settled.  We love their new house and the town of Williamsburg seems to be a very nice community.

The weekend in Iowa City proved to be an interesting one.  Paul and Jon played (or attempted to play) in a flag football tournament.  Paul was able to play all 6 games resulting in a lot of complaining in the night and days to follow as 6 games makes for one sore 30 year old.  :)  Jon, however, only played the first game because he broke his foot.  Stef met Jon at the ER where he received good care :) and a boot.  The broken foot has come at somewhat of an inopportune time as Jon and Stef have "inherited" a dog for the next two years.  Stef's brother and his family moved to Hawaii for two years and decided not to put their dog through 120 days of quarantine.  Lucy is quite a good dog but requires two good legs to give her plenty of walks and potty breaks throughout the day!  



We plan to make another trip to the Iowa City/Williamsburg area soon and will hopefully return with more pictures of Gary and Ruth's new house.  

Summer Visitors

We had some great friends from Iowa City stop by for the day and Ruby had a wonderful time with their little guy, Jack.



One of my college roommates also visited in late summer with her husband.  We had a wonderful weekend with them and have one picture to document their stay.