15 Months and a Heat Wave

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We celebrated by having Paul's parents, brother Joel, and a couple friends over for some March Madness watching and supper. But it was too nice to be inside the whole day so we spent much of the day out on the deck with breaks every now and then to check on the scores. Ruby also turned 15 months today and is as silly as ever. I really don't understand where she gets the silliness from. ;)

She had her 15 mo. appt. a week ago and is starting to slim down a bit. However she is very tall! She weighed 24 pounds 6 oz (79%) and was 32 inches tall (97%). Ruby is starting to learn more words...some of which are ball, cracker, water, and no. We are also quite sure she can say Hattie and Joel. We will work on the rest of the family members soon! ;) She had her first time-out the other day... she kept touching the TV and thought it was funny. She kept doing it so we put her in timeout for one minute! Ha! I can't say it helped 100% but she's improving! ;) She absolutely LOVES being outside which she has gotten to do a lot lately since the highs have been in the 70s for almost a week now!

My Egghead, My Valentine

Paul has a new hobby... grilling. But not just regular grilling... grilling on the BGE ~ otherwise known as the Big Green Egg. My dad got him started with this over the summer. The BGE is a ceramic smoker that uses charcoal or wood chips. A couple days before Valentines Day, he got a second Egg. I decided this would be his Valentines gift. ;) My dad then built him his own special table for his two Eggs to sit in. I think he is officially an Egghead now. After all, he even takes pictures of the food he makes on his Eggs! But I can't complain... it's all delicious! He has used it throughout our mild South Dakota winter, and so far he has made ribs (our old fave!), a whole chicken (our current fave!), potatoes, steaks, brats, asparagus, and even a pizza!

Pictured with Paul: My dad, also an owner of two Eggs, and my brother, who just received his first Egg for his birthday!

Cities Trip

In early February we took a little trip to the Twin Cities to meet up with Jon, Stef, and Sydney. We stayed at a hotel right near the Mall of America with an awesome pool for our girls. They absolutely loved the pool. The first night we spent nearly four hours in the pool area!

We also spent quite a bit of time at the Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America. Ruby was able to experience her first roller coaster, ferris wheel, carousel, and many other rides. At first we weren't sure of her feelings about them, but after the first afternoon, she loved them all!

The best hugger in town

She gives the best hugs, I swear! ;)

My little helper!

Iowa City in January

Last week we traveled to Iowa City for a few days. We were able to meet up with our good friends, the Beimers and the Kallemeyns. Here is Paul and Ruby with Scott and Lauren Kallemeyn. Lauren is just 7 weeks younger than Ruby. ;)

We headed to an Iowa Women's basketball game with Jon and Stef. Ruby loved the action and especially the pep band.

Nicole and Lauren met us for swimming one morning. The girls had a lot of fun!

We were also able to go to a Lone Tree basketball game. It was very nice to see some of my old friends!

Christmas

Better late than never, right?! I figured since January is about over, I better update the blog or January will be non-existent on my blog profile! Paul worked over Christmas so Ruby and I headed to Sibley for a few days without him. Then we celebrated with Paul's family Dec.30 and 31st at our house. It was a lot of fun...except I ended up getting sick so Ruth and Stef ended up taking care of every meal and all the cleanup, so I felt really bad about that since I was supposed to be the host...oh, and it was our 7th anniversary on the 31st too. We had plans to go out with Jon, Stef, and Joel, but I ruined those plans...I was in bed by 9:30. Happy New Year! Good memories! :) We then drove back to Sibley on January 1st and celebrated with my family. It was a wonderful time and Ruby enjoyed opening her presents and playing with the boxes they came in!

My family:

My parents, Bill and LaDonn

Paul, me, Ruby, my sister Hattie, my sister-in-law Carrie, and my brother Kenny

Paul's Family:

Paul's dad Gary, brother Joel

Paul, me, Ruby, Paul's mom Ruth, niece Sydney, sister-in-law Stef, and brother Jon

My Aunt Susan and her kids were here from Colorado for the holidays so we had to take them to Peach Wave. We are hoping to make a trip to see them for Turner's graduation in May.