Ruby Update

It's been forever since my last Ruby update. I missed her last update at her previous vet appointment, my sweet girl was sick so blogging was not the priority at that moment. Today Ruby had her VERY last vet appointment (for the next 6 months that is). She weighed in at a whopping 17.2 pounds. Today she had her "big girl" vaccinations. Ruby did great and was so excited to see everyone at the doctor's office. They love on her so much. The nurse asked me if she could take her in their back room to visit and play with everyone while I waited in the patient room for the doctor. She said everyone was excited to see her on the list of patients today. She was gone a good 10 minutes but it made me smile to hear everyone back there talking and playing with her. I laughed a bit while I was sitting by myself in the room waiting for the doctor because I remember being in the same position with my children when they were just babies. The nurses always took them to visit because they were so overly friendly and pretty darn adorable at all of their well check appointments. Yes, I know Ruby is just a dog but it just made me realize how lucky we are to have Ruby as our family pet, she really is such a sweetheart and fits in with us so well. Ruby is 100 % potty trained. Yay! She still gets into trouble sometimes (she's still a puppy) and we are working on teaching her not to jump up on people when she sees them or plays. She has a bad habit of running behind our couch (I can't stand it) hopefully she will fatten up some more and won't be able to fit behind there anymore. Ruby has this adorable new thing that she does. Along with wagging her tail when she meets new friends or is excited to see someone or us she will wiggle her little bum back and forth pretty dramatically. It's hilarious! She also has this squeaky monkey that she chews on and she will "sing/howl" with it when she chews it. It's a crack-up. Ruby channels Snoopy with her sleeping positions and snoring (which is REALLY loud). We sure love our Ruby so much, even when she decides to play in the mud and require an emergency bath at the most stressful time of the day for me. Enjoy the picture I took of her above with my phone while at the vet today. I'm really sad her dark widow's peak has disappeared and has gone all blonde above her eyes. It must be the Arizona sun or something because I'm noticing Brooke's hair become lighter as well. Enjoy!

Getting My DIY On

I have been wanting to buy a cute little chalkboard to use as a fun photo prop for my sweet ones. Since spray painting Brooke's frames for her room weeks ago it has sparked a spray painting frenzy for me. Who knew playing around with frames and spray paint could be so much fun!? I was bored last weekend and decided to run on over to Wal-Mart to buy a few cheap supplies and make my chalkboard. It came out so SUPER cute! Frame: $5.00 Red Spray Paint: $3.00 ish? Chalkboard Spray Paint: $3.00 ish? Spray Paint Primer: Free (I had it on hand) Total: About $12 with tax give or take. The great part is now I have a new can of spray paint color and chalkboard spray paint to make a few more if I'd like too. Awesome!! I took the photos above with my phone, I was too lazy to run upstairs to get my camera...must move the camera downstairs!!

Brooke's Room Make-over

What inspires a room make-over? A few weeks ago Brooke lost her front tooth. It's amazing to me how much more grown up she looks to me and in that instant I decided she needed a room make-over to accommodate her more "grown-up" self. I liked her room before (I have a blog entry of her room in April 2011) but there is always room for improvement, plus I had a pretty nice budget to play around with this time around. After Christmas I had bought the kids a super cute kitchen set from Pottery Barn Kids. Without fail, every single time we visited that store my kids were drawn to it, played with it, loved it. So I decided to save up and when I had enough I'd splurge...they loved playing with it right? I finally had enough to buy the set, I settled on two pieces, brought them home and the kids played with them a whopping 20 minutes. Fast forward two months and the kitchen sat and sat and sat untouched in the playroom. I was so fed up with having spent that much (it was a VERY pretty penny) that I phoned the store asked if I could return the set since I still had my receipts and the set was in brand spanking new condition with zero finger prints and they agreed but could only issue me store credit. I settled for that. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided to use the store credit as my budget for Brooke's room make-over. I was able to purchase her a canopy, cork board, new bedding, accessories that include her two hanging birds, butterflies I pinned to her canopy, dream wall decor above her headboard and wall decals below the cork board. The frames I purchased at Ikea and spray painted them (FYI PRIME before spray painting!). I over bought the frames and ended up with an extra so I decided to place the extra frame around her cuckoo. I'm still trying to figure out how to hang that frame without the ugly white nails showing. I still need to put pictures in her frames and there is one more accessory I want to purchase (its a fairy doll with brown hair at Pottery Barn Kids) but it needs to wait because my budget is currently at $0. I also want to buy a chalkboard I saw that is shaped like a house for the wall next to her closet. It's pretty large and so is the price. There is much more I wish I could have done and hopefully maybe in time I can do it...someday. I had so much fun re-decorating Brooke's room and my sweet girl loves it too. She actually spends a lot more time in her room now than she did before. Brody is up next...my little boy is not so little anymore and is making the transition to his big boy bed. Soon there will be no need for a crib and I can create a fun, adventurous little boy's room for him. Enjoy! p.s. I think figured out my flash...I love the last picture, the lighting makes her room look angelic!

All I Want For Christmas Is......

....my front tooth!!! Look who lost her front tooth! Here is how it happened. We were all at church and Brooke was snacking on crackers next to Oma. Brooke must have bitten into her cracker awkwardly because her tooth was literally knocked loose...so loose that it bleeding and my poor little drama queen became scared and worried. I took her to the bathroom where we cleaned it up and stopped the bleeding. After church we came home and we had her work on pulling it out (it was very loose) and about an hour later it was out (thanks to me). The tooth fairy came once again and left her a dollar, or as Brooke calls it "paper money." We spend the evening watching old home movies of Brooke when she was a baby and I could not help but ball my head off. I can't believe my sweet little baby girl is almost a first grader!!! Before bed Brooke was admiring her new smile in her bathroom mirror, I walk in and she said said "Mom I totally look like a first grader now." I LOVE that girl of mine. Her comment sent a pain through my heart because yes my dear you do look like a first grader now. I quickly set out on a mission on Tuesday, I completely redecorated her room...like everything. I had planned it all out the day before and she was so surprised when she came home from school that day. I still have a few little adjustments to make and I can't wait to post pictures of it. I'm no decorator but it turned out gorgeous! I'm so excited for her!

When Oma Comes To Visit We.....

...have SO much fun! My sweet mom came to visit us for almost an entire week. It was so much fun! I love visiting with my mom. The kids were in heaven to have their Oma here. I felt so bad because she could not sit on the couch and rest for a second without having both of them hanging on her, that went on the entire week. Brooke and Brody sure love their Oma so much. Ruby loved visiting with my mom too. The days were spent taking Brooke to and from school, running errands and walking Ruby around the lake. The evenings were wonderful. They were spent relaxing on my rocking chairs on the porch while the kids colored with sidewalk chalk enjoying otter pops. We even spent the evenings on the porch after the kids were asleep with Ruby, it was so very peaceful. The weather was gorgeous the entire week. We sure miss having my mom here and it broke my heart to see the kids crying the morning she left. I'll sure treasure the time we spent together that week. We love and miss you Oma!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

May 1st we celebrated Bryan's birthday! We went to breakfast at Chompie's in Chandler and spent the rest of the morning shopping for a new suit for Bryan. I had purchased a new suit for him for his birthday but the color really was not to his liking so we returned it and found one he really liked. I spent the rest of the afternoon baking his requested treat, German Chocolate cupcakes, making pulled beef tacos for dinner and decorating the kitchen for his birthday. We had such fun day together! Happy 32nd Birthday Bryan! We love you!

Arbor Day

This entire week was TOUGH! Poor Brooke was fighting some strange cold virus. I picked her up early from school on Monday because she was not feeling well. I figured she was just coming down with the same cold Brody had just finished fighting. I kept her home Tuesday to allow her time to rest, she pretty much seemed to feel better and was back to her normal self. Tuesday night she had a low grade fever so I kept her home that Wednesday since she woke up congested. By Wednesday afternoon she complained about her stomach and that she had to throw up, she spent close to 30 minutes in the bathroom crying and there was nothing I could do or say to calm her down. That night the fever returned...I was so bummed out because I just could not figure this bug out and I started to feel sick myself. By Thursday morning Brooke said her ear was hurting so I called her doctor and got in that morning, I thought to myself this has got to be the end of this bug. The doctor saw us and sure enough she had an ear infection...a "really bad one" per the doctor. He prescribed meds and a follow up appointment. The doctor said she should have some relief by tomorrow. Friday morning.....the minute she woke up the poor thing was in terrible pain, so much that she could not eat. I began to feel nervous, after 3 doses of her meds I thought by now she should be feeling slightly better. I gave her children's advil and had her take a nap, after her nap she was even worse. My "mom" insticts kept telling me to call the doctor but I felt silly doing so because we were just there the day before. I did anyway and he had us come in. After checking her ear he was very happy I had brought her back because her eardrum had ruptured now causing her to have a middle ear infection and he said in her case hers was pretty bad. So on top of her antibiotics she now has eardrops with antibiotics and steroids to help heal her infection. The poor thing has been miserable. Advil buys us a few hours and on Saturday we ventured out for 30 minutes or so to our community Arbor Day Celebration. It was so much fun. There was face painting, ballons, a petting zoo, pony rides, a bounce house, free trees, bake sale and raffle, plus free hot dogs, chips and water! Everything but the bake sale and raffle was free...I LOVE our neighborhood and community so much and the fun FREE events they provide. It was so nice to get out and see my little girl smile and be pain free even if it was just for a little while. Bryan was in awe of the petting zoo, he took the kids and took pictures with his phone. He said the animals were extremely well trained and the owners were awesome. I love the pictures he took. Brody won't stay still for more than 4 seconds but I'm glad he at least got one of him. I'm SO thankful we have the most incredible pediatrician for the kids. The kids and I adore him. Even though he had already seen us the previous day ( literally less than 24 hours ago) for an ear infection he didn't even hesitate the next day when I called and explained that something just was not right and he fit us in right away to see HIM, he didn't bum us off to one of the other 3 doctors there. That is how great he is. He reminds me so much of Bryan's late Grandpa Albee and he even looks and speaks just like him too. Amazing doctors like him are such a blessing!