One day over Christmas Ruby was having a bit of a rough time listening and obeying so I decided to take her outside for a little break. It was a beautiful, mild day and the one-on-one time seemed to help her attitude improve a bit. This little rocky beach is right across from my parents’ house.
Joe’s half-birthday is Christmas Day (convenient, no?). He is such a joy and we are so very grateful for our sweet boy. A few days before this his first tooth popped, and now he has four!
Ruby and Joe had so much fun hanging out with all of their cousins over Christmas at Mama and PopPop’s house. The grown-ups had so much fun watching them.
So I am more than two months behind in my posting of silly pictures. These have been a very busy two months, and with Joe on the move I am finding it harder to get good shots. Rather than dwell on all that I am going to attempt to catch up. Most of these pictures will be unedited or this will never get done. Onward!
Back in December Elise, Rachel, Matt, Ruby, Joe, Noah, and I all went on a White House tour. It was decorated for Christmas and an acapella group was singing carols. All in all a lovely, memorable day.
A few things I saw while walking around Capitol Hill:
…also known as “Auntie Dweesie.”
Impressive double-nephew-hold:
Enjoying spiked paleo hot chocolate and a sleeping Joey in front of the fire:
Our last morning in New York we walked over to Rockefeller Center. Ruby gasped when she saw the tree.
So today we did it.
We took the plunge.
We bought a minivan.
After months of deliberation and test drives and research we finally decided that a minivan would be much more practical for our family than an SUV with a third row. The real deal breaker was our need to fit our stroller in the trunk behind the third row, which is only possible with HUGE SUVs that get terrible gas mileage. So we had pretty much decided on a minivan but figured we would wait until a third child was on the way to actually purchase one.
Then the other day I was contemplating our next few months of near-constant travel, with extended family and winter coats and Christmas gifts driving up and down the eastern seaboard, and all of a sudden my beloved Subaru Impreza wagon seemed to shrink considerably.
Today we looked at the Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey and decided on the Honda Odyssey Touring edition. It is so much nicer than any other car I have ever owned and we are all pretty excited about it. Ruby especially loves pushing the button to automatically open and close the doors.
Saying goodbye to my Subaru:
Joe loves the leather seats:
We are officially *that* family:
We drove back from New Jersey last night and got in late, so the kids and I were tired today. We didn’t do much and just stuck around the house all day. Ruby passed out on the couch for a few hours, which was a nice break for me. Joe was happy to have me all to himself for a little bit.
Loudmouth Mommy 