Ruby Genevieve

well hello! i'm baaaaaack. or should i say, WE are back. a very tiny someone joined our family two weeks ago. i am finally getting around to updating and introducing my little bundle of joy. ruby genevieve (or as we like to call her, "ru") was born tuesday 4/9/13 at 11:35pm. my labor was pretty fast and easy and i could not have asked or a better birth experience. we are so in love with ruby and the past two weeks have been the best of my life. i am so glad that she is here and i have been soaking up every sweet second with my girl.

ruby is an absolute dream. i am crossing my fingers that she will keep up her awesome sleeping habits because it has made the adjustment to having a newborn easier than we had planned. right now her favorite activities are eating and sleeping (i mean who doesn't love that combo?) in fact she has been feeding so much lately that we have nicknamed her "ruby on the booby", a nickname i'm sure she will love to be reminded of when she is older.

we have had fun venturing out a little with our babe around seattle, and i have some photos to share later with the highlights. nick has to go back to work on wednesday and i will miss this sweet time we have had together. it will be summer before we know it, and the perks of teacher life mean that ruby and i will have him back again all to ourselves very soon.

here are some photos from ruby's recent newborn shoot. we wanted to get them done in her first few days but alas we had to deal with some mild jaundice, so we had a few more doctor appointments than we had planned and had to push the shoot out.

we are lucky to be friends with the amazing Alex Garland who took these photos for us.

these are my people

these are my people. you know those friends that just make everything okay? these are the friends that you can go a long time without seeing and when you get together it's like no time has passed at all. we have watched each other grow as individuals and couples and now we are all going to be parents together. leticia and michael welcomed sophia last january, nick and i with ruby (any freaking day now) and tiff and jer with little aiden coming in june. i can't wait for our kids to meet. i love them all so much.

with tiff and jer in texas we don't get to spend enough time together. they've been visiting this past week and i am so sad to see them go back to texas tomorrow. next time i see tiff will be with our babies! tiff you better be ready to facetime me every. single. day. when that kid comes!

we had a blast roaming the little college town where we all met seven years ago. so many memories. the six of us are about to become the nine of us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 p.s. if you buy a nice camera, just go ahead and forget it at home all the time. take pictures with your iphone. damnit! :(

 

any day now

this is what i've been waiting for

since the day i first heard my due date, i immediately thought "when spring is here, she will be here." today is the first day of spring.

seattle is especially beautiful in the spring time. everything feels so fresh and full of possibility. like a new beginning. oh, the new beginnings that will come this spring. i have waited and waited for the buds to pop out on the trees that line our street. i have waited and waited for this babe. i have been telling nick that as soon as i see those cherry blossoms, i will know that it is time to meet her. so, welcome spring. i've been waiting for you.

a ridiculous story and some super attractive photos to go with it

sunday was a day of nesting for both nick and i. i waddled my way down to the laundry room to wash the last of the baby clothes and blankets. i stopped on the way down to the laundry room (apartment life) at the mailboxes.

the table under the mailboxes has an unspoken rule in our building. you can put things down there that are free for anyone to take. one tenant regularly puts recent issues of glamour and people magazine after she gets done reading them, so i typically score with those. the rest is usually old cd's, trinkets from vacations long ago and wine racks that no one really cares about. but oh the score that i found on saturday! an exercise ball! i had just been contemplating buying an exercise ball to get my bounce on once i hit 37 weeks. i read that this is a must have in the last weeks of pregnancy. so what are the odds that there, on our "free shit" table, would be the pink exercise ball of my dreams? it was a sign right? so i snatched it up and headed back upstairs to share my awesome find with nick.

i was greeted in our hallway by our neighbor, who then asked about my pregnancy. and you know me, i am super shy about my pregnancy and all. NHAAAAT. so i told her about my plan for the exercise ball and all that i had read about it on the babycenter and what to expect forums. she found it thrilling, i'm sure. she then offered me her foot pump to blow up the ball, which was awesome because i actually hadn't even thought about how i was going to inflate it yet.

just as i was approaching our apartment with our new treasures nick came out into the hall. before he could say anything i excitedly told him about the ball and how much i had been needing this ball. how much money this would save us! and what are the odds, that someone would put this very ball that i needed down on the free shit table?! WHAT. ARE. THE. ODDS. this has to mean something!

nick proceeded to tell me that the ball was ours. it had been sitting on our top shelf in our coat closet that he was currently cleaning out. it had been there for years. while i was downstairs doing laundry he had been trying to go through the closet and get rid of excess items during his man nesting. he had just carried it down to put it on the table five minutes before i snagged it.

okay so this does mean something. i'm a hoarder. and apparently so disorganized that i don't even know what i have.

hmmm. i think i have a ways to go on the nesting.

but he was a good sport. he inflated my ball and it was time to get bouncin.

and what better time to bounce than while watching the bachelor?

i realized during the proposal that i was bouncing about a mile a minute. sorry ruby.

but hey look! that is sean proposing to my hometown girl catherine! maybe i'll run into them in seattle one day. and i will ask sean to take off his shirt.

the end.

the nest

after a beautiful baby shower today i am ready to get down to some serious nesting. i keep saying i am so ready for baby- but by ready for her i mean emotionally. i feel like her room and this apartment are nowhere near ready! my to-do list seems to be never ending.being sick the last week has really slowed me down. i guess it is okay if she hangs out in there for a bit longer. 

ermergersh it's friiiiday

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!!!

oh man i have really been looking forward to the weekend. having the dreaded influenza means that i have been stuck at home by myself all week. nick has been so busy not only with work deadlines but also with finishing up his last class of his masters degree coursework! i have been so bored and lonely i have been carrying on conversations with my cat all week. yikes. but that's not the point here. the point is: no more school for nick is huge for us- it means my mister now has his evenings free for me and and another little special lady coming soon :)

and now that i am officially past the contagious point i can hopefully get out and do something fun this weekend. i'm thinking baby shower, coffee dates, an ikea run for the last of my nesting needs, and of course... thrifting!

happy weekend to you!

xo

lauren & ruby