Ruthie, can you wink?

So apparently when I wink, I open my mouth really wide, so now instead of doing anything with her eyes, this is what Ruthie does when you ask her to wink.


It is HILARIOUS, and man what a tongue!!! Noni all the way.

She's really happy about it.

Gigi, look how cute this outfit is!! I love it!

Just a picture

of me and my favorite girl. This probably one of my favorite pictures of her yet! I love her expression, she looks like such a big girl to me.

Hi Ho! HI Ho! Its off the Mullet goes!

Hallelujah! Ruthie's Daddy finally acknowledged the mullet rat-tail Ruthie had going on and that he was okay with me cutting it! YIPEE!! I don't know if I can adequately convey how excited I was when I got the go ahead to cut it off and that he understood that just because the back is long doesn't make her look more like a girl, because it really just made her look like a ragamuffin.

Side note, what was I thinking that cutting a 14 month old's hair would be easy. I actually thought I could cut layers in it?????? I'm just glad I cut any hair and didn't cut her neck! It is not easy to cut a baby's hair, and while it is definitely not even, it is no longer a mullet and that makes this Mama very happy!

I also thought it would be easy to get a straight on shot of the back of her hair.

Wrong.

This is the best I can do. Trust me it looks 200% better.

Excuse Me? I'm 6 what?

Somehow crazy to me, I realized this week I am now 6 months pregnant with our sweet, second baby girl. I 100% cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going by, I think the next time I blink I'm going to be at home with a sweet new angel baby who sleeps through the night and a toddler who absolutely loves her and being a big sister (thats what happens in my head, no need to tell me it'll be any different, I like thinking that way).

Today marks 24 weeks and since I haven't done really any survey's this pregnancy, I guess its time to do one!


How far along? 24 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Holy Canoli. 18 pounds at my last doctors appointment. I'm up to 130 and I'm sure growing by the day. I couldn't believe how much I gained already and then I realized its been 6 months and thats what happens when you're pregnant....and then I ate more pizza.

Maternity clothes? Oh yeah. Summer maternity clothes are tougher for me than winter was. They have all these cute maternity dresses that are perfect for the heat, but they are not perfect for chasing a 14 month old around. I have one pair of shorts that are non-maternity that I can wear, and one pair of maternity shorts that just fit strange. I've been wearing my maternity jeans rolled up like capris, but lately its been too hot for that.

Stretch marks? Not yet.

Sleep: Pretty good, the snoogle takes up so much room and takes quite sometime to roll over and move around. I wake up with a pretty serious backache, but I know thats just part of it.

Best moment this week: I've started to see her move from the outside. I first felt her move around week 21 1/2 and Joel was able to to feel her kick about week 22. I can't believe how big she is now because I feel her one multiple sides of my stomach at once! Again, I'm just now realizing just how far along I am and how close we are to meeting her!

Movement: I think I just answered this one.

Food cravings: trouble. bottom line. I bought nutella (at costco no less) and it is trouble. big trouble. I'm still loving salty stuff, and I think I could eat watermelon all day every day. That would be much better than nutella.

Gender: Girl girl girl!

Belly Button in or out? Oh man, freak me out belly button. It is majorly threatening to stick out and it is really freaking me out. It didn't pot with Ruthie and I do not want it to pop out, there is just something that weirds me out about it. I know its ridiculous, but its just one of those things.

Wedding rings on or off? On.

What I miss: I don't know, I'm liking this stage.

What I am looking forward to: Of course meeting our sweet girl, choosing a name that we're happy with, figuring out the pseudo-nursery situation, getting started on our house projects (Nesting is in FULL swing).

Other: Heartburn, welcome back. I didn't miss you. Thankfully, I also bought tums at Costco last time and they're still good! The heat is also no joke. Its not that I'm just hot, its that it turns me into a slug, I can't stand it. I walk 25 feet outside and I'm wiped out. I've started to take Ruthie to little things around here that are inside and its really been a lot nicer. Although I think the beach is calling us again, but we're getting close to not being able to go by ourselves because pulling the stroller over the walkover by myself is getting to be too much. I can't stand that I might not be able to do that anymore, but baby comes first and I need to realize that when I'm breathing hard and wiped out its not good for her.

I don't have a sideways shot so you can't the full effect of the belly, but for now, this will have to do! Not much longer!

July 4th!

Wow, its been a while. I think the blog just takes a backseat to summer fun. We've had a great past few weeks, particularly July 4th. I think that may be one of my top weeks of the year mainly because it is the week my parents and sisters (and families) rent a house in our neighborhood and for one week I can live in my pretend ideal world of walking over to my parents and sister's houses and seeing them whenever I want!

Ruthie loved getting to see and play with her cousins.How cute is this picture, it was when Ruthie realized she was sitting on top of Matt, I thought it was so sweet!

There of course was a lot of surfing

We spent one day out on the boat at the sand bar and had an absolute blast. Ruthie absolutely loves it.

The kids caught a crab

The boys went fishing and caught a few baby sharks (and Joel fed his phone to the waterway....oops!). We also learned never to get rid of any old phones. We kept our old phones for Ruthie to play with, and after 2 minutes activating it online, Joel has a phone that works and Ruthie still has one play phone.

Candid shot of Joel and I relaxing on the beach while Ruthie is playing with her cousins.

Gigi in her stylish cover-up. You should be in a magazine Gigi!

Girl cousins!
A little swingingPlaying on the beach



Its always really sad when the week comes to an end but I am so thankful for the one week we have where we can all be together and live in my pretend ideal world ;-). This week makes Ruthie really happy!

Molars, Molars, Molars and Molars

About the first week of June Ruthie started majorly chewing on things and sleeping a lot. I've been thinking she was getting more teeth for about the last 5 months and just resigned that I have no idea about teeth anymore. Then all of a sudden, voila! FOUR MOLARS at once.

We were thankful they all came in at once and she can get them over with. The bottom ones broke through first and the top ones are almost through. I can't believe how long they take to come through and just how huge those teeth are!

She's handled them pretty well, considering getting four big teeth at once. She's had times of being fussy and clingy and times of not sleeping. I don't know if right before they came in she was loading up on sleep, because she rebelled against napping for the past 2 weeks. There were a few nights of being up in the middle of the night where she was just pitiful.Thankfully, the past two days she has gone back to sleeping like normal and it is wonderful. I am very thankful for ibuprofen and orajel.

She is now up to 12 teeth and I can't believe it! I don't have any pictures of her teeth, so here are some pictures of her current favorite thing to do.

Does she run into things?
Why yes, she does.

She absolutely thinks this is hilarious and I think she might always walk around with a shirt or some piece of clothing on her head if she could. I have no idea where she keeps finding these clothes because I never leave clothes, clean or dirty, sitting around....ahem.

Funny girl!

Our New Closet

I am in love. I can't believe how much more space we have and how much I love it! We got some new shelving from lowes and also some that our neighbors (have I mentioned how much we love our neighbors, what a blessing!) were getting rid of.

The Before


The After

I love it. Now I just need to keep it looking like that :-)! Thank you Joel once again for finding more space where we didn't think there was any. I love it!