happy cow-loween!

Move over RuBEE, there's a new calf in town...

Ruby went trick or treating for the first time this year! We went with our friend Daphne aka "Dumbo" (and her parents Jon and Camille) from down the way. When I started taking pics of the precious little ones and a friendly black cat, my camera inconveniently told me I needed to charge the battery pack... CURSES!!

Ruby didn't quite get the "trick or treat" but she was great at the "thank you" and "bye bye"... and Josh and I made out with a nice little stash of candy stored safely in our freezer!

Sir Dominic

Uncle Dominic was in town for a visit... unfortunately Sunday we had to say goodbye. He's off on many more adventures but we were lucky enough to have him here for a few weeks and it was so fun watching him interact with Ruby. We love watching our friends play with her... and maybe even more so when they have a British accent and call her "a little princess." I mean - he would know, right??

officially fall!

We made it to the pumpkin patch today! It was GORGEOUS out and since we went at an off time, we had the majority of the patch to ourselves. Hay mazes, pumpkins galore, goats, chickens, bunnies, and a train with their own Old Faithful... pretty great...

surprise!

30 is a milestone. And this year, my older brother is 30. Say what?? So what did the family do? Flew up to Portland and had a party for him... without him knowing a thing about it! Nonna, Papa, Little Bro and Girlfriend, and the Dunlop crew made our way up to Oregon and with Older Bro's Girlfriend's help, we pulled it off!





Portland is an awesome city. The siblings and significant others took a day to tour the city and eat our way through it... local coffee shop, local beer sampling, local burger joint, local bakery, local food trucks... notice a trend? I love it. Portland is all about things being local. And the neighborhoods are so quaint and just gorgeous.







And oh did we eat...




The house my parents rented was huge... so of course Ruby loved exploring...

(yes, we put a coffee filter on her head...)

Overall, a great family trip. Can't wait to do it again! Happy birthday, brother!!

stamp of approval

Ruby REALLY approves of the new truck...




Ruby can't get enough time in the driver's seat of Daddy's new car... don't grow up too fast, baby!! *sigh* 17 months old to 17 years old will happen too quickly I'm sure!

SEVENTEEN months!!

Time is flying by and Ruby is now a little girl! She is so smart and such an explorer. She understands SO MUCH. She can point out characters in books. Answer questions. Act out orders. She dropped some graham cracker on the carpet and when I said "Ruby, you dropped some" she looked around to find the dropped piece, picked it up, went to the garbage can, and threw it away. I mean, monkey see, monkey do, right? Yesterday was another example - she was wearing Uncle Dominic's hat (more on his visit later!) and then dropped it on the floor. I asked her "Ruby, can you give Dominic his hat?" and she looked at me, at Dominic, and at the hat and did just what I asked... of course she got a BIG round of applause after that :) She has had a rough month of sickness, and also a busy month of traveling (I think the two go hand in hand)... but is on the mend.

(poor sick baby...)

seriously! so sick... poor thing...