Our Little Flower Girl

This past Saturday Ruthie made her debut as a flower girl in Madeline and Charlie's wedding. We started the day out early by getting her hair rolled by JoJo. The booster seat helped out tremendously. Mother is usually have to chase her all over the place to get them in.

Enjoying a little time in the sun while her hair dries

Nana and JoJo went with us to the church early for pictures to help get Ruthie ready and to help me keep my sanity. haha

All dressed and ready to go strike a pose for photos

Playing outside Paris Yates Chapel

Showing out for the big girls

Taking a little rest

I loved these picture of her in the window. JoJo sat her up there just to see and I think they turned out so good

Ruthie did as well as I think any 18 month old flower girl would do. We placed Pop E down front so that she could see him because we all know she runs to him every time he is near. Right before she was suppose to go down I was trying to give her the flowers she was suppose to carry. She didn't want to take them. I kept telling her she had to take them to Pop E in a minute. When her time came to go she went running down after the ring bearer. She got half way and turned around and came back to me. I pointed to Pop E and she took off again. She made it halfway once again and came back. I was about to scoop her up and forget it, but she just wanted her flowers. She remembered she was suppose to take them to him. So, she got her flowers and off she went. This time all the way down!! Yay! The wedding was gorgeous! Thank you Madeline and Charlie for letting us share in your very special day!

Blowing kisses with Pop E to the bridal party on the double decker bus

The reception was so much fun! It was beautiful, food was great & the band was wonderful. We all enjoyed ourselves so much. Ruthie especially liked the dance floor and candy bar

Dancing with Pop E

Telling Connor all about it. He was the ring bearer in the wedding. She liked him much more than he did her. haha! By the end of the night he had warmed up to her though. Ruthie tends to be a little too much sometimes for other children. She never meets a stranger & wants to be all up in your business right from the get go

Fun at the Zoo

This past weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the zoo. Ruthie loved it. She was really into to looking at all the animals. I think she enjoyed the people watching just as much though. We all had a great time!

Showing JoJo the "kitty kitty's"

Ruthie and Daddy checking out the chick chick's

Playing on the playground with Kaylee

Swim Lessons

Last week Ruthie started her ISR swim classes again. It is survival swim and I am amazed and what they can do with children. Last year she learned to roll to float until someone could get to her. This year she is starting to learn to actually swim to find the bar to get out of the pool. The video below is her accomplishments. This is on day 4 of lessons. I am so proud of her and can't wait to see what all she learns this year. I am sure more videos will make the blog as she makes more progress

Easter 2010

We had a wonderful Easter. I love Easter Sunday for so many reasons. The main reason being that is a reminder of the sacrifice that Christ made for us. Easter service is always such a blessing. Other things that I look forward to about Easter is seeing everyone dressed in their best duds, little girls with frilly dresses and big hair bows, little boys with smocked jon jons and knee socks, time spent with family, Easter baskets filled with goodies, and egg hunts. This year we had lots of all of the above. Ruthie is at such a fun age. It is so heart warming to see her so excited about every little thing!

We woke up Easter morning to see what all the Easter bunny had brought. Ruthie went through every item several times. She had to show us each thing as she took it out.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny brought

Modeling her new flower head band

We then got dressed and headed to church for a wonderful service. After church, we went to JoJo and Papa's for lunch and a little egg hunting

So excited about the duck Mawmaw Beth gave her

Ruthie and Kaylee checking out their baskets from JoJo and Papa. Ruthie needs a little assistance picking it up. It was stuffed with goodies

Our little family

MawMaw Beth with her 2 namesakes. Ruthie Elizabeth and Kaylee Elizabeth

JoJo and Papa with their girls

Kaylee, Ruthie & Aunt Lori

The annual hunt in the yard with Kaylee and Emma

Ruthie in the dogwood. This dogwood has been in the edge of my great-grandmother's yard my entire life. Who knows how long ago it was planted there. Lots and lots of family photos have been made in front of this tree.

That afternoon we went to MawMaw Louie's to see the Whitley gang. Ruthie had such a good time entertaining everyone and getting more Easter goodies

All smiles about her basket from PawPaw, Granna & Aunt Brit

Hunting eggs with PawPaw

After all that fun, Ruthie was exhausted to we went home for a nap before going to Pop E's and Nana's for dinner that night.

Ruthie checking out what the Easter bunny left there

Pop E and Ruthie checking out her new DJ Lance hat

Egg Hunts

Ruthie was a full force egg hunter this year. She loved it! The Wednesday before Easter we had a spur of the moment egg hunt at Mother's house with Kaylee and 2 of her friends. At that time they were predicting rain for Easter weekend and we didn't want to miss the annual hunt. Ruthie did all the hunting the first round, then we hid them for Kaylee and the girls for them to find

Ready to hunt

Taking a break in JoJo's daffodils

Hunting with the help of Aunt Lori and Kaylee

This was the funniest part of the afternoon. After Kaylee and the girls had finished hunting their eggs, they sat down to have a picture made. They had a fierce competition going for who had found the most. Ruthie took full opportunity of them taking their eyes off of the their baskets and starting throwing them. They were scrambling all over the place trying to gather them back up because they had not done their count yet. Ruthie thought this was hilarious which made her continue to toss them every time they just about had them all picked up. We laughed and laughed. She is such a character.

On the Saturday before Easter, we went to the local hunt at the park. Ruthie had just as much fun watching the other children and she did picking up eggs. They had eggs everywhere. She ended up with 44. She could have had more, but I decided we needed to go ahead and count what we had and check for prize eggs. She didn't get a prize egg, but she came home with $0.85 and tons of candy.

Her look of determination

On the go getting those eggs

Checking out her loot

First Hair Cut

We have been really busy the last couple of weeks, so the blog has been on the back burner. I am working on catching everything up.

Ruthie had her first hair cut a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't much of a cut. I just wanted the everything evened up. It was starting to look "stringy" My Aunt Kim did the honors of her first hair cut and that is special in itself to me. There was no way she was sitting still in a chair, so I held her and she ate cookies. It went very smoothly. Thank you Aunt Kim!