Whats going on at our house this week

There's lots of this

and this

and this

Not a bad week!

Back!

Its been a few weeks since I've blogged and a lot has been going on here. This past week, we were fortunate enough to have Ruthie's Grandma and Great Grandma come spend the week with us!

We had lots of fun, playing with presents and boxes

Working in the yard and planting new trees (and weeding)

eating out (a lot...YUM!)

and being outside in the beautiful weather!

As usual the week went by way too fast, but we sure loved spending time with you!

Summer time!

Every year we are fortunate enough to have Grandma and Grandpa trek all the way from the Pacific Northwest and visit us over the summer. This year we were able to spend almost three weeks with Grandma, 10 days with Grandpa and a surprise 8 days with Auntie Jessica! It was a great time!

We had a great time hanging out


reading books


snuggling Ruthie


playing INTENSE, almost 'get your hands taken off' games of dutch blitz (If you haven't heard of it, you should definitely get this card game, it is so much fun!!).


having family photo shoots on the beach (with Ruthie in the cutest dress courtesy of Aunt Nana!)


celebrating Grandma's birthday early


and Ruthie thought she was looking in a mirror :-) and LOVED IT!
We also ate like we were on vacation which was delicious! Jay and Joel went deep sea fishing one day, so we had fish for dinner and all sorts of other great food. Diet starts now!!


We had a great time having everyone here and are so fortunate that Ruthie has so many people who love her and want to spend time with her!


Lastly, here is one of the sweetest pictures so far of Ruthie. I know I say it all the time, but I really can't hardly stand how sweet she is!

Name, No problem

I have always loved the name Ruth, it was my Grandma's name and she was someone I admired and loved like crazy. She was an amazing woman, incredibly selfless and always giving, a phenomenal cook, She was one of the funniest women I've ever met, she always had a joke, I wish I'd recorded all of them!
She was beautiful and overall one of my favorite people on earth (now in Heaven). Some of my favorite memories growing up are with her at her home. She could make a feast like you couldn't believe. Every Sunday, there were about 3 meat choices, 5 or more veggies, a potato dish, a pasta dish, and at least 3 dessert options. It was incredible and I have no idea how she did it. She absolutely loved everyone getting together and eating and enjoying each other. Another thing she was known for was her party mix. She would make gallons of the stuff at Christmas and she would put everything possible in it, it was delicious! I think thats why I'm addicted to the stuff, although mine isn't near as good as hers! I have an envelope I keep in my purse of two recipes she gave me a few years ago, she told me what she remembered of her yellow cake with chocolate icing (sounds simple but I've never had any so good, its my favorite dessert to this day), and her "soup". It was more of a stew and starts with a backbone which is a little intimidating to me :-). I have no idea how you even buy a backbone! I haven't tried either recipe yet and I'm sure they wouldn't be as good as hers. She was a little bit of this and a little bit of that kind of cook, very hard to replicate and completely irreplaceable. Probably the last year of her life we had a Monday manicure date. It is a time I completely treasure and loved being with her, just the two of us. I've always loved her and her name because it is a constant reminder of who she was and the kind of person she was.

When Joel and I met and got married we would occasionally talk about what we might name our kids. Actually, what pretty much happened was we vetoed a whole lot of names, but never Ruth. We always both loved it, which I thought was pretty amazing since its not a common name and can be thought of as an older name. We always came back to it and I think within an hour of finding out she was a girl, we were done and had decided her name. It was one of the easiest things we've done, we both love it and we both love what it represents.

Although we've decided to name her Ruthie and not Ruth, it is a complete honor to be able to name her after someone so amazing. She very much exemplified the Ruth in the bible, a constant companion, always thinking of others and loved wholeheartedly. We don't think she could have a better name. I know she would be so crazy about Ruthie as she loved all of her Grandchildren and great-grandchildren deeply. She always wanted the babies to be around! I miss her like crazy and can't wait to tell Ruthie all about her!