hey ed, lets build these? ok

lots and lots of rain

is what we have in phoenix right now. yipee!!! i do love a rainy week.

papa

we just love our grandpa. since ruby was unable to pronounce his name and settled on 'bop' we decided maybe we should try something easier, so for now he is 'pa pa'. we'll see what happens.
nothing like some precious smiles, which i recently read in the 'baby book' are true smiles of contentment at this age...so there must be something special about that 'bop'. we love you!

how we spend a lot of time

just bouncing on the bed, reading book after book, and cuddling with Declan...getting him to smile...his latest trick. he is definitley mr. smiles these days. unfortunately i never get it on camera.

while in ruby's room...here is the rocking chair i painted a rediculously loud yellow for her christmas present. done while still pregnant of course. and a lovely cushion made from an old table cloth i've had forever.

one of miss ruby's fave books right now. im not sure if she really gets it but she sure does love looking at it. most of the time these days she just says 'me' when picking out a book and then plops down to look through the pages. i only get the joy of reading them to her sometimes. oh, miss independent.

oh, and i recently made her some bunting to hang above her bed which she loves to point at and name colors....and Declan seems to enjoy it as well. gigi and grandpa gave us those giant letter cards which we hung with close pins above the bed so we can switch them out and look at new letters, words and colors.

for some reason ruby cant get the pig sound and continually makes a cow like sound for the pig. oh , someday.

happiness around the blogs lately

just some pics i really liked. enjoy.

and more of our day...

which i forgot to mention; nose kisses were simply hysterically funny as well.

warm winter days

make me oh so happy. it was just one of those good days spent mostly outside. i decided to forgo worring about laundry and stuff, so for the afternoon Ruby and I cleaned up the backyard...colored...played ball...ate lots of grapes....had a coke....and a general good time until Ed came home, Declan woke up hungry and Ruby pooped...big. And then we just kept playing, grilled hot dogs and had a delicious salad and let Ruby get really dirty while Declan worked up some serious gas to get extremely angry about. and all in all it could not have been a better day.the end.

wanna piece of chocolate?

probably not anymore.

merry christmas and a happy 2010!!

twas a lovely and i must say rather exhausting Christmas this year! we started celebrating on the Eve with the McHale family over. it was fabulous night...having everyone together, staying up late, catching up and just being together....if only we could get Mike and Kelly in town it would be even more fabulous! Anyhow, I do just love how Christmas is a reason for us all to hang out, a reason to eat too many mint chocolate cookies, a reason to stay up waaay too late and be deleriously tired but full of glee all the same, and so many other reasons i could go on and on.

Then on to New Years; a very quiet one this year indeed. We went to mass (where Ruby was having some real difficulty with her quiet voice), ordered italian food, and went home to watch 'Miracle on 34th St' as a fam...listening to Ruby say Ho Hoooo (her code word for Santa). I lamely fell asleep with Ruby while Ed stayed up for Harry Potter and woke me to say Happy New Year.
A great year indeed. Many thanks and so many blessings. Here's to making 2010 even better!