while he was (supposed to be) sleeping

mateo has been getting pretty "creative" these days during naptimes and bedtimes.  one afternoon i came in to find every single one of his toy vehicles lined up at the door.  another day i found him asleep on the changing table instead of his bed.  one morning this past week he woke up extra early and pushed a chair to the kitchen counter, climbed up to the countertop, and dug around the top shelves until he found luke's secret stash of m&ms and ate them to his heart's content until he woke us up with a confession.

ruby is 1!

 

 our littlest ruby is already 1!  we celebrated her day with a little morning brunch.

tia sarah spent the weekend with us.  she played with ruby while hanging up little decorations that tia ashlei and i made earlier in the week.

 

ruby's cousin oliver came over to celebrate and they practiced their standing-against-chairs-skills.

 

so sweet, that little girl of my heart.

  

we had coffee and a sort of attempt at strawberry champagne, luke made a frittata with rainbow chard and sweet potatoes, and pan catalan, tia ashlei brought an amazing fruit salad, and i made the lemon poppyseed muffins i'd made last year while i was in early labor.

 

we had a little art project time of making flower crowns and tall crowns, and then we opened a few gifts.  mateo chose a pinwheel for ruby.

 

mateo took (pretend) photos of cousin oliver in his crown.

 

 me and my best girlfriends.  :)

 

i was stressing a bit about what to give ruby.  i knew exactly what i wanted to give mateo for his 1st birthday, but ruby has so much already because of him, so we weren't so sure what she would really enjoy.  in the end, we gave her a miniature version of a water bottle like mine, and i tried to make a doll for her inspired by one i'd seen in a window downtown. 

 

ruby liked the doll, but mateo liked it more, and tia sarah liked it even more.  :)

 

mateo showed her how to use all her new things.  i know he is excited for his own upcoming birthday after celebrating mine, ruby's, and his uncle's these past few weeks.

 

cousin oliver and uncle brian worked their new crowns.

 

ruby was the only one who absolutely refused to wear a crown.  :)

we made a little ruby collage.  she is so good at going along with everything we do, and so good at allowing a more demanding toddler to get the attention so often, so i really, really, really wanted to give her this day of her in the spotlight.

 

here she is having lunch in her birthday kitchen.

 

we made little beaded hearts for hanging as party favors.  i have struggled this year with not having enough time to accomplish what i had hoped.  her party was the same - so many ideas but not really enough time to realize them.  i'd wanted to make a few more brunch-y things, i'd wanted to buy her some fresh flowers, i'd wanted to give her a simple birthday balloon.  i was thankful that all of her party guests were so patient and so helpful.  i think one of the things having her has taught me is to let things go and be ok with it.

 

 she and mateo didn't nap on her birthday so instead of making dinner and cake that night, we ordered every curry available at our favorite thai restaurant to eat at home and put them to bed early.

  

the next evening we made her a lemon birthday cake with beet cream cheese icing.  we realized mid-making that we only had 1 lemon left for her cake, so we added the zest of some oranges and some grapefruit.  it turned out yummy (and sour).  the beets made the cream cheese icing an unreal shade of pink and was super sweet, but somehow the sour matched the sweet and we all enjoyed it. 

she ate really delicately actually and didn't make the mess we anticipated.  

 oh ruby sue, we love you so much.  happy 1st year.

we went to grand falls

back when i worked at the flagstaff visitor center i would once in a great while be asked about grand falls (also known as chocolate falls or mud falls).  they are a set of water falls on navajo land about 30 miles from flagstaff.  the road to get to them is unpaved and bumpy so the short drive to get there ends up taking about 2 hours.  on top of that, you never know for sure if the falls are running.  they aren't very well known so even the directions to get there are a bit confusing.  luke and i had never been but always hoped to go so we finally made the time during his spring break.

 the drive was bumpy but beautiful, and when we arrived we saw the prettiest view of the peaks.  we were the only people there for an hour or so.

we hiked around the top of the falls and looked into the canyon.  the water was running - not raging but not dry either.

 we debated hiking down and i'm so glad we decided to do it.  the falls were so much larger from down below, and inside the canyon were unbelievable rock formations and even a hidden little green valley that reminded us of backpacking through the pyrenees.  :)

we spent hours exploring until we ran out of snacks and camera batteries and sunscreen.  

 

before taking the photo below, i tossed off my glasses so i wouldn't have glare-eyes as usual and i totally forgot about them.  i hope someone found them so they didn't add to the litter in the colorado river!

our photos aren't that nice since we were there in the middle of the day, but the canyon and the falls were really gorgeous.  think falls-in-a-canyon/views-down-a-river/pretty-drive-on-the-navajo-land/more-obscure-northern-arizona-attraction.  we already want to go back and plan to spend more time there.

if you go, you can call the flagstaff visitor center before to find out your chances of seeing water there.  these are the directions we used to find it:

From Flagstaff: follow 89A North to Townsend Winona Road. Turn right onto Townsend Winona Road and follow about 8.25 miles to Leupp Road. Turn Left (North) onto Leupp Road and follow about 13 miles to Indian Route 70.  Turn left onto IR 70 and follow North for just over 9 miles. You are looking for a left spur turnoff that takes you a short distance up to the edge of the canyon. There are about 3 different spurs that lead to the same campground area. If you go to far you will run into the river, simply back track as you just missed it. For a smoother ride pass Route 70 and keep going another 7.5 miles to a left turnoff for IR 6910. Note: This is Indian Reservation Land. The road signage is almost non-existent. So you may have to do a little search and find. 

 

happy easter!

 

things have changed so much since last year.

at 11 months ruby

 :: has the most glorious chubby cheeks ::

:: and still gets comments daily on them, as well as her big blue eyes ::

:: loves to wave goodbye to her papi when he leaves for work, and loves to watch for him riding home every evening ::

:: is an expert at pulling books off of shelves ::

:: is taking much longer naps (2 hours instead of 40 minutes), hooray! ::

:: is slowly sleeping longer and better at night ::

:: asks for us to turn music on so she can dance - this girl loves to dance ::

:: wants all elecronics - phones and cameras especially ::

:: is so very accomadating to her mama who finds her all sorts of old clothes to wear ::

:: loves to cuddle and says "ah ah ah" with her head on our shoulder ::

:: is back in the stage of wanting to be held by us at all times ::

:: gets upset if you wash your hands or brush your teeth without doing hers ::

:: has 7 teeth ::

:: and a great belly laugh :: 

:: (and a great belly) ::

:: is a fast crawler ::

 :: has oh so much love for her brother (i think i say that every month), the feeling is mutual ::

:: also has started "fighting" with him a little - over water bottles, toys, and stroller time ::

:: is a toughie and doesn't always lose the battle ::

:: has developed a mega scream/squawk when she's upset :: 

:: says "mama" to me, in all sort of lovely and desperate and happy and sad ways ::

:: is half asleep in my lap as i type, nursing on and off and tugging at her hair ::

:: was due on this very day last year ::

:: is the sweetest little joy in our life we could have ever dreamed of ::

our endless spring break

we have been having so much fun this month - spring breaking, family visiting, mucho hiking, east coast traveling, craft nights and cooking class, hunger gaming, fondue-ing, beer brewing, and tomorrow we leave town to spend a few days in sedona.  luke is still working in between all the fun stuff, but we are trying to pretend that his spring break is lasting several weeks.

both babies are napping which might just give me enough time to look through and share a few photos.