We Are Alive and Well

Here are a ton of random pictures of what we have been up to for the past 4 months! It seems like time has flown by lately as Ruby is already over 8 months old! She has had a lot of firsts lately as she has gotten her first two bottom teeth a couple of months ago.  She has learned to sit up and now army crawl and is so close to regular crawling! She eats all sorts of baby food and now feeds herself with starter finger foods! She is our petit little one with a huge smile!! She already shows signs of fitting right in with her older siblings as she has learned how to turn on and off her emotions when she doesn't get what she wants.  I don't know how but she does and it is like a light switch. 

Life has been very busy lately but we are having a great time and loving life.  We are especially grateful for the spring weather and the beautiful surroundings.  Everything is so green and pretty and full of life! Easter was nice this year.  The first pictures show our Easter this year.  Hopefully you enjoy the pictures and maybe it won't be too long before the next post, but don't hold your breath.  

 These two are classic Ruby when she turns it "on"! These are our beautiful nieces and handsome nephew  on the porch swing at grandmas on Easter. Ruby was fine and happy in Jordan's arms until I come walking up wanting a picture. Boy did she not like that.  Once she saw me she turned on the flood gates and make sure everyone knew that she wanted her mom to hold her not Jordan any longer.  This happens all the time and it drives me crazy! The one below is her mad that I put her down to take her picture.  Once she realized that she wasn't going to die out of my arms, then she was just fine. 

 We were sure glad that Batman decided to show up on Easter.  Who needs the Easter Bunny anyways? Batman will protect us way better than a oversized bunny! 

 My sister in law Hilary and her three cute girls came to visit the first week of April.  It was so fun to have them! We love it when we get to play with our Bates cousins as it doesn't happen often enough! It was a "french braid weekend" with I think everyone that had long enough hair to braid was in french braids.  I love each of these pictures as not a single on has everyone looking and happy.  These are great- with my kids have naked and all. 

 This is our Ruby Valentine.  She isn't convinced that she did anything to save the day like our book says.  She still made a cute prop for our Valentines Day picture! 

 This is Miles one of our Johnson cousins who lives across the street from us.  He got a book from the library one day- the chapter book Robin Hood.  Burke loves everything about Robin Hood and has the same book and loves it! Even though it has more words and phrases that I don't even understand the fact that it is about Robin Hood he still loves me to read it to him.  So Miles got the book from the library and came over and asked to read it to Burke! It was so cute to see both of them sitting on Burke's bed for about a half hour while Miles read it to a four year old!  I had to snap a picture to remember sweet Miles thinking how much Burke would love it if he read him the Robin Hood book! 

I had to at least document that we did get some snow this year.  It has been such a mild winter that we probably got only two or three major snow storms in the valley here! Both the kids got their snow gear on to go play out in it. So fun.  Boy how do I not miss the cold weather.  Here's to the next 6 months of nice warm weather!! Yippee!! 

First Day of School

Here for the record are Emma and Burke's first day of school pictures way back from August of 2011. Hey I had just had a baby. At least the pictures were taken right? Anyways, I have been going through our pictures and stumbled upon these. Thought they were fun. Emma started Kindergarten this year and Burke is in preschool.

Rubers

Here are some recent pictures of our Ruby! Is she not the cutest thing ever! I love the fact that I had a strong influence on my other two kids eye color. They both have such dark brown eyes and I love it. But I also love that Ruby's are totally different than the other two. She is different in a lot of ways. Burke and Emma look so much alike, hair and eye color as well as skin color. But this Ruby is throwing us for a curve. She is fair skinned and has almost blueish grayish eye color! She looks a ton like my dad and what I looked like as a baby (except the eye color)! It is fun to see the differences!

Rubers is 5 months already!! Boy it is crazy how time passes! She is super sweet and smiley! We think we have a daddy's girl on our hands. She is in love with her daddy! Every time she sees him she gets this HUGE smile on her face and starts chatting away with him! He loves it! Enjoy! The one below is obviously from Christmas of which I still have to post! Someday right?!

Ruby's Story

Ruby Jane

Here I am below at the hospital right before I was induced. That's right I had to be induced again for the third time. Technically I chose to be induced, but for good reason. My due date was the day before Burke's 4th birthday. And we didn't want to chance having her on his birthday so we chose to be induced four days before his birthday. Now, my doctor and I both were certain this child would come way before her due date considering I was dilated to a 4, about 75% effaced and my cervix was super soft for about a month. But no, she was nice and comfy inside me and that is where she would stay until the induction date. I kept on having braxton hicks contractions (like the last 4 months) thinking any day near the end I would going into labor but I never did. My body was ready, but the contractions wouldn't come. Since I really wanted to experience going into labor myself with out PIT, I asked the doctor to just see if breaking my water would send me into labor without having to use PIT. And sure enough no more than about 20 min after he broke my water I was starting to have real contractions!! This is what I had been waiting for for 9+ months! I was welcoming the pain! It was cool, until the started hurting really really bad. I was contemplating going without an epidural, but who am I kidding. That pain is unreal. So, I finally told the nurse I'd like one and sure enough the doc was doing another epidural right then and that I would have to wait for mine. The contractions got worse and worse and finally it was my turn to have the epidural. I think we barely got it in and working before I was to push. It didn't work as well as the other two I've had. I felt more and could move my legs more than with the others but luckily there was little pain which was a huge blessing! I also did go really numb after the baby came. Ironic.

When they broke my water I was at a 6 or so. It took about two hours from that time until the baby was out. Quick, that's how I like it! I did have to push for about 15 minutes or so- which was way longer than with the other two. The reason could have been because Ruby was way bigger than the others were. They ended up giving me a kick of PIT when I was pushing to help make the contractions harder so I would feel the need to push. (It sort of slowed down near the end and that probably contributed to a longer delivery as well.)

Well, Ruby was born at 11:53 am and was 7 lbs 8 oz measuring 20 1/4 inches long. We are proud and grateful to say that she is healthy, strong and very very beautiful. Her heart was checked out to make sure they didn't miss anything in utero and sure enough, she passed with flying colors. We are sure grateful for a healthy baby!

Grandma Johnson brought big bro and big sis down to the hospital to see their new little sister! they were so thrilled to see her and hold her. Burke was very hyper at the hospital. He just wanted to hold her every second he was there. Emma was very calm and very motherly with the baby. She was helpful and knew how to hold her carefully and to be gentle with her.

We are so grateful she is here in our family. I can't believe it has been over a month since she was born! I'm sure I missed some details in her story, but that is pretty much it. Stay tuned for more posts: Ruby's blessing, First day of school, soccer and a summer time wrap up! (Can't believe it is already fall. I wanted summer to be over with so bad so I could have this baby since my pregnancy was horrible, and now I am wishing the warm weather would stick around for a little while longer. The winters are just too long and too cold for my bones. Oh well. )

Ruby

Our little Ruby finally made her presence known about a month ago. I can't believe I am finally posting again. The last post I wrote was when we announced that I was pregnant with her and now I am announcing her birth. Awesome. Regardless, she is here, she is healthy, she is adorable and she is our little Ruby Jane! So much has happened over the past month and more that I don't know what to write. So, I am just going to post pictures so I can get to bed soon because she is already down for the night. My sleep clock is ticking. So, please enjoy pictures from her first photo shoot that my good friend Becky Phillips took with Phillips Photography.