Ruth's Birthday Party

We had a small family party this year for Ruth's birthday.  Grandma Jones sent this AWESOME card.  I think I'm going to frame it!

Aunt Bekah made this CUTE decoration for Ruth's room.  The colors are perfect!

ZhuZhu Pets.  They're so cute!  (and non-stinky)

I spent so much time on the cake I forgot to do my hair and actually get dressed....oh well.

I ran out of time, I could have done so much more!  I'll plan better next time.  This one was fun.  The towers are made out of Rice Krispy treats!!  (came up with that myself, thank you very much).

It's Finally Spring!!

Welcome Spring!!

Gareth the stud.

These are a couple pictures I took with my phone.  Just to show how awesome Gareth is.

Our Princess is SIX!

We've told her over and over again to stop growing up, but Ruth REFUSES to stop!  This was our princess on her first birthday:

Then she had to go and hit age two:

And three (glad that year is over):

Here she is at four (didn't get birthday pics that year):

Here she is at five:

And now Ruth is SIX!

Ruth is such a joy to have in our family.  She has a great, positive attitude (most of the time).  She is SO friendly and makes friends so easily.  We love hearing her using her imagination.  Ruth loves school.  Her favorite subjects are math and science.  She doesn't do much of those at school so we do them at home.  She is also very artistic and loves to draw pictures and tell stories about them.  We love that Ruth is already thinking about the environment and ways to take care of the earth and her community.  Whenever she sees trash on the ground she picks it up to throw it away (no matter how disgusting it is...).  Ruth is VERY good at reading (but she hates to sit down to read....too much energy).  She is a very good big sister and loves to play with her brothers.  Gareth and Ronan both adore her.

We're having some trouble adjusting to how popular she's become over the past few weeks since the weather got warm.  We get our doorbell rung at least 4 times a day with kids asking if she can play.  Sometimes I get jealous!  She's growing too fast.  The other day during one of her thoughtful moments she said "Mom, I'm going to miss you when I move out, but I'll still visit."  That moment is so far away, but it'll be here all too soon.

WE LOVE YOU RUTH!!

Our Monkey is a Monkey

 Ever since Ruth was a baby we've called her "Monkey Girl."  We have had good reason too.  Ruth climbs on EVERYTHING.  Seriously, next time you see her, just watch her.  If she's standing in the middle of a room, she'll find something to climb on.  Even if it's just a shoe or a toy.  She also loves to climb on people....which is turning out to be really bad for my back.  When we were living in Logan, we had a huge slide (probably about 7-8 feet tall---one of those old silver metal-type slides) in our back yard.  Ruth mastered climbing up that slide BEFORE she could walk. Here's a picture of her climbing on the couch (yes, this is also before she could walk).

So honestly, it shouldn't have been surprising or anything to us when Ruth discovered the tree in our backyard.  Let's just say they have a relationship.  Ruth climbs the tree every chance she gets.  Since she has afternoon Kindergarten, she'll climb the tree in the morning before school.  As soon as she gets home from school she is back up in the tree.  Sometimes she's up there with friends, other times it's just her and Lizzy.  Yes, Lizzy is the tree.  She named her.  Ruth enjoys talking to the tree.  She also likes to adorn her with various items (ie. hats, scarfs, shoes, socks).

Gareth tried to climb the tree.  Once.  As you can see from this picture, he didn't really feel very comfortable up there.

We really love our Monkey Girl and we love that she loves to climb.  We're thinking of trying to find some place that will do rock climbing lessons this summer.  She'd love that.

So please, next time you're on your knees please send out a prayer for our monkey.  A broken arm would ruin her whole summer.