Far, Far Away

Written by Shannon Leigh

Ruby's squeaky little girl voice absolutely melts me. She has always been quite articulate and easy to understand but her voice is just so girly.

A few weeks ago she stayed with my parents while I shot a wedding.  It happened to be the night of the infamous super moon and my mom and dad took her out to see it.  Apparently Ruby loved it and thought it was great.

We talk about the moon and stars a lot.  She has always been intrigued by them and we discuss them with her often.  We ask "who made the moon?" And she promptly answers "God made the moon."  Then we ask "who made the stars."  She answers "God made the stars."  It's a bit of a game we play.

One night we were on our way home from youth group and the moon was shining bright.  Ruby caught sight of it and shouted,
"Wook Mommy, wook! It's the super moon!  (pause pause pause, and in a sigh she said) It's far, far away...I can't weach it."

Melt my heart my precious one.  Please stay this innocent forever.

Catching Up

Written by Shannon Leigh

Life is absolutely crazy.
I mean crazy, crazy.
So many things are going on around these parts that my poor wittle blog has been completely neglected.  No offense blog, but you are THE LEAST of my concerns at this point.

The most SIGNIFICANT news is that sweet, beautiful, precious Ruby is going to be a...

I am currently 15 weeks and according to a 14 week sonogram, it appears to be a MISTER (a very obvious mister)!
To be perfectly honest we were a little shocked that we would be having a boy, but after a few weeks we are getting used the idea and getting pretty pumped.
Ruby is going to be a GREAT big sister and we can't wait to meet sweet little mister.

I felt pretty icky for the first 12 weeks and I kept falling and knocking things over (I am clumsy ordinarily but this was intense).  Now that I am in the 2nd trimester I feel MUCH better and have much more energy.  Praise the good Lord.

I plan on doing a maternity series at some point… but we'll see.  Like I said, we've got a LOT going on these days.

In other significant news, we sold our house!  Our sweet little cottage, sigh.
We bought it after only being married for a few months and we have spent the last 4 years there.  We brought home a puppy there, and (more importantly) it's the place where we brought home our first baby.  It's going to be strange to call any other place home.
What's even stranger?  We are going to be renting for the next 6 months while the other house is finished. We are on quite the adventure but I am ready for the challenge (I think).

We signed a lease starting June 15th and we close on our current house on July 1st.  I am really going to miss our little town (mostly walks to the library and post office) but we're ready to move on too.  We have already packed all the stuff we don't need for the next 6 months and we are going to work on packing the kitchen this week.  It's no fun to live amongst boxes but it's a means to an end.  The duplex we are renting is on a pond with a great little walking path around it so I think we will enjoy that a lot.  It's also on a golf course so I KNOW Matt will be happy.

I am really looking forward to this whole process being over but if that were the case, that means that Ruby's time as an only child would be over forever and THAT makes me want to die and cry and fall to emotional pieces.  I guess all mothers feel this way but man oh man it's pretty intense (blame it on the pregnancy hormones).
Will I love our next child the same way that I love Ruby?  Will I be able to give Ruby enough attention?  What's it going to be like to raise a BOY?  I know the Lord will provide answers to all of these things in time but the fears still keep creeping in.

On top of being pregnant and hormonal, having a (now fit throwing) toddler, and moving (TWICE), work is NUTS.  I am shooting lots of weddings this year (most of which happen to be in the FALL).  I am going to be large and in charge by that point but I am certainly going to give them my utmost attention.  We'll take all the prayers we can get:)

I think that about sums it up.  Life is CRAZY but GOOD.
I'll leave you with some cute pictures of Ruby because who doesn't love cute Ruby pictures.

Betty Crocker

Written by Shannon Leigh

Sweet darling girl LOVES to BAKE!

 Boy oh boy.

She would bake all day if she had her way.

She pushes a kitchen chair up to the counter and climbs up on top to peer into the mixer.

She's always up for licking the spoon and stirring the batter.

She does a pretty great job at it too.

I fear she has inherited Matt's sweet tooth.

I'm soaking up these sweet days with my little girl,

baking, baking, & baking away.

8 Years

Written by Shannon Leigh

Spring is a busy season for us.

We celebrate lots of great things including:

Matt's birthday

Ruby's birthday

My Father-in-law's birthday

Our dating anniversary

My sister's birthday

Easter

My sister-in-law's birthday

My birthday

My Mother-in-law's birthday

Mother's Day

See?

It's a lot of stuff.  A lot of great stuff.

I am always up for a reason to celebrate.

TODAY marks 8 years since Matt and I's first date.  Seriously?  

You can read the really romantic story HERE.

On a completely different note, back in March of 2006, Matt was turning 25.  

I threw him a "Quarter of a Century" surprise party in my apartment (shared with 4 other girls) and everyone was asked to bring a few quarters with them.

He probably used them to go to the batting cage.

And since I know you want to see what my handsome hubby looked like at 25… 

OH how I loved him in those glasses.

That Face...

Written by Shannon Leigh

There is just something about it.  I love the way she looks in this picture.


I take lots of photos and technically speaking this image is kind of awful.
But this is how I will always see my sweet Ruby- pensive, sweet, innocent.  A brown eyed, blonde hair picture of sweetness.

{Ruby on the morning of her 2nd birthday}

The table she is sitting at is the table that my sisteres and I grew up playing at.  My mom had it made for us when we were littles, and she gave it to me a few weeks ago.
We officially got rid of Ruby's high chair (put it in storage) and now she eats most of her meals at that table.  It's been a bit of  learning process for all of us but it certainly saves my back from lifting her.

I plan on painting/sprucing it up at some point but I just need to find the time, isn't that always the case?

{Birthday donut, terrified of fire}

Speaking of her 2nd birthday...
Here are Ruby's 2 Year Stats:
27 pounds
34 inches

I'm on it

Written by Shannon Leigh

Let me preface by saying that I am generally a procrastinator.
I just need  a little pressure to get any work done.  It's just the way I am.

That being said I feel like I need to give myself some sort of reward or at least a pat on the back for my recent work.  Why you ask?  Well, it's still MARCH and I already finished Ruby's 2nd year album!

We're talking 182 pages of work, every one of them filled with Ruby-goodnes.  I know I know, I can't get enough of her.
I  ordered through Blurb (of course) and I should have it in my hands within the week!
I guess I should thank Blurb for having their %25 off sale.  It's really what got me going.

I am sure I will have a few sneak peeks once it comes in but in the meantime here are a few of my favorite layouts. (Try and ignore all of the white space, the pages are white so it probably looks kind of funny without a border, use your imagination).

Pinwheels & Pearls: Ruby turns 2!

Written by Shannon Leigh

I still can't believe that I have a 2 year old.

Everyone told me that she would grow fast but it feels like I blinked and my baby is gone!  Now I have a precious little girl who brings us so much joy.

This years party theme was Pinwheels and Pearls, at least that's what I am calling it (there were more pinwheels than pearls).

The invites were printed on white card stock and I rounded the corners.  I scanned some fabric I had laying around the house to make the background and I fashioned some pinwheels using tan felt and the same fabric for the inside.  Go here to see a tutorial on how to make the felt pinwheels.

I used the same scanned fabric and placed it to the inside of the envelopes for a punch of color.  As you can see I had to use 2 different types of envelopes because I refused to go buy anything.  I just used what I had on hand and it seemed to work out fine!

I made Ruby's initials in yarn wrapped letters.  View tutorial HERE.  Those boogers are harder and more time consuming than they look but I LOVED how they turned out.

I also stacked 2 draws we found at a thrift store in the middle of the table.  We painted them and added new hardware since they were pretty worn out.  It was the perfect centerpiece and it made a great place to place forks and napkins.

I got to reuse the hats and garland from last year (woo hoo).   I strung up some pictures from the past 12 months on an old frame with some homemade sparkly pink clothespins.

I whipped up a quick table runner with a ruffled edge in vibrant hues (I am so glad I did- it added a nice pop of color).

I spray painted glass bottles in a sparkly pink spray paint which was super easy.  I then adorned them with large pinwheels  (hey it's cheaper than flowers).
I also painted a few small chalkboards white and glued pearl strands on the inside of the frame.  They were super girly and now I can use them over and over again for various things.  

On the Menu:

Chocolate Cake with Salted Carmel Frosing

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Fluff Icing

Chocolate covered pretzels with both white and dark chocolate

Hot Ham and Cheese Sliders

Brie and Apricot Preserves Pastry

Taco Cheese Ball

Garlic Spread

Pinwheel wraps

Peach Punch

Strawberry Limeade

I made Ruby a large personal pumpkin cupcake so she'd have something to munch on.  She seemed to enjoy it except for the candle part, she is terrified of fire.

Isn't my niece Riley adorable in her party hat?

Overall, the day was GREAT.

She was spoiled rotten by our families and she was as sweet as sugar the whole day.  She gave everyone hugs and kisses and thanked everyone for her gifts.

I wish I could relive days like this.  But hey ,there's always NEXT year.