2 days old!

The next morning Ruby practiced her Blue Steel. 

Lu and I went for a walk early to beat the dang Alabama heat. We got a call from bubba letting us know that the pediatrician had come by and Ruby was being released from the Nicu. They don’t really know why her heart rate was so erratic, but she has a small murmur (all my kids do) and pda, which is a valve that usually closes at birth, but hers didn’t. Anyway, they gave her a bath and brought her to their room. We picked up lunch and headed to meet our newest little lady!

She is newborn goofy and so beautiful. Don’t mind Jeanne in the back. 🤣

She has the sweetest little squeaky cry and she makes tiny Henry look like a big boy. 

Lu and I couldn’t wait to get a bow on her little head. 

We took some pics of the sweet little family for their announcements. 

They processed their traumatic birth a little bit. I encouraged them to write down their experiences and validated what a wild entrance to parenthood they had. 

When they started getting tired we headed out for some groceries. It was so bright that I thought Henry was sleeping but he was just guarding his eyes. 

Don’t mind my crazy eyes. We got groceries for the week plus enough to make a few freezer meals from Aldi, Wally, and some It’s a girl! balloons from dollar tree. 

We got back to bubbas house at 6 and we had the best night. We watched reality tv and paused it a million times to chat about it and it was so fun to get alone time with Alexis. We stayed up way too late and we were all excited for Rubylicious to come home the next day!

On the road again

Jeanne finally got to meet Ruby Thursday morning. They were so excited to see her together. 

We headed out at 7am and grabbed an early lunch on the road. In the spirit of teaching kids to fly, I gave D my credit card so she could be a big girl on her own. 

We’re listening to an executive functioning book and we chatted and we each did our own thing. And we always stop at Buc-cee’s. 

We got to Lu’s around 3:00, dropped the girls off to care for the boys while Damian works, and Lexi Lu and Henner’s and I began leg 2 of my road trip from SC to AL. Bubba sent us pictures throughout the day and those arm rolls are doing the most!

We stopped for dinner at Zaxby’s and Henry shared some of my water. His little hair poof on top!

He was a pretty good boy, only cried a few times. Ruby still hadn’t gotten a bath, but we all admired her beautiful hair anyway. 

Back rolls too!

Bubba said we should stop by the hospital before going to his house, so at 11:30 we rolled up on Flowers Memorial. 

We visited with Christian and Jeanne in their room until they were able to walk down to the Nicu to see Ms. Ruby. Christian asked the nurse if they could bring her to the window so we could see her and we gave them our best smiles and story of how we just drove in from MD. Long story short, our sweet talking worked. And those 2 cousins recognized each other from heaven before they were born. Ruby opened her eyes and Henners put his hand on the window and watched her and smiled - it was really the sweetest thing. We all about died and Chris told us the nurses were still talking about it the next day. 

It was a 14 hour driving day for me, so long but so worth it. 

Last day of school 2025!

We made it! I loooooove the last day of school!

I think as a younger mom Delaney’s style would have really irked me, but I really don’t care anymore. 5 kids have worn me down. 🤣

So I told her to give me 7 fingers for finishing 7th grade and she thought it should be 8 for being an official 8th grader, so we did both. 

Frankie’s first and last day outfits were almost identical.

A freshman no more!

She’s excited to start at the tech center next year and to know the ropes of high school now. 

And how is this chic a senior? No really, how???

She’ll be driving to school and getting out early next year and probably getting a job and it’s all wild. A wild ride!

High school girlies!

I love seeing the poses they come up with. This is an oldie but goodie. 

I love to decorate for the day and it’s usually just like this, sidewalk chalk and balloons, sometimes streamers. I will say all 6 of my first balloons popped so I had to redo them smaller with less air before they got home. 

Matt and I met them on the porch as they got off the bus. 

Thrilled!

D to the one!

Summer!

They had a temple trip that afternoon that no one was thrilled to go on because they wanted to celebrate the day lazily. The youth met at a park and made wraps for dinner and were supposed to play games in the cars on the way up, but our night got so exciting I didn’t even find out about that. 

Pablo dropped off some golf equipment bubba bought off Facebook marketplace for us to take down to him also. 

So the girls left and around 5:20 and Matt and I went for a walk. I looked at my phone and was like, nah, I don’t need it. 

We walked for 30 minutes and then walked around our yard for another 5 minutes and walked in the house to my phone ringing. It was Alexis. She was like “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?! Ruby’s born!”

Bubbas been teasing that for at least a month so I was like, no she’s not, what’s up? It took a few times for her to tell me till I actually believed it. 

So. Jeanne went to the Dr on Tuesday (due date) and everything was fine and scheduled induction for Thursday, but they had them come in Wednesday night to start an induction balloon. They went to put the baby monitor on and noticed Ruby’s heart rate was weird. Called the Dr in and 2 minutes later she was in the OR for an emergency c-section. Ruby’s heart rate got down to 60/bpm and was all over the place so they acted quickly. Jeanne was put under and Christian wasn’t allowed in. 

I got home right after he had texted that they told him Ruby was fine and they were working on Jeanne, but he hadn’t gotten to see either of them yet. 

We hopped on a call and he was so upset and helpless. He was finally able to see Ruby through the nursery glass as they worked on her. He was torn between checking on Jeanne and staying watching Ruby, poor guy. 

He finally got to see Jeanne after about 2 hours and we got to FaceTime after about 3 hours and she was up and talking. She wasn’t able to get down to the nicu till the next morning, so that was awful, but she was able to see pictures and Christian went back and forth. 

5:15 arriving at the hospital 

5:24. And Ruby was born at 5:51. It was crazy fast. 

I talked to the girls when they got home from the temple and we all agreed to leave the next morning. so they packed that night, dirty clothes and all because we hadn’t had a washing machine for over a week, and we were up and in the car by 6:30! Crazy fast and a few days earlier than we’d planned, but on our way!

Ps - her baby shower was strawberry themed and we call her our strawberry girl so of course she had to make a dramatic entrance for the full strawberry moon! Of course. 

Bye boys and field day

The crew left Sunday morning during stake conference, which wasn’t ideal, but fine. I’m terrible with pictures so I wanted a few with the 3 boys. Carter was being weird and it made for such funny pictures!

He was like “I am in the picture! I am happy!” 🤣

Silly, lovely boys!

Stake conference was wonderful, cute Adeline gave a sweet talk and it was fun to cheer her on. The rest of our Sunday was blessedly and needfully quiet. 

I actually read the LMS smore this week and our girl was in there twice. This one is funny. 🤣

And then from Battle of the Books. Unfortunately she didn’t love it this year so won’t be continuing. 

That Monday I went to the eye dr and had my eyes dilated, so I came home and took a nap because obviously. I also grocery shopped and caught up on all the things. That night we revelled in our free night - no piano or dance! Freedom!

On Tuesday I volunteered for field day. I love being with the kids, but field day is always hot and crazy and I finally cracked the code! Volunteer at the snack bar! We were inside giving snacks for Paws tickets and it really hit at my efficiency strengths. It was my first year though, and because we didn’t have any experience, we ended up running out of almost everything before 1/2 of the 7th graders came, and that 1/2 included Delaney. Whoops. I’ll know better for next year. I grabbed a quick pic of these cute girls when they ran to say hi to me as I walked in. 

I brought Delaney home early with me and Frankie went to tumbling and we prepped for the last day of school! 

Tuesday was also precious Ruby’s due date and she was so kind to not be born before school got out. Dramatics to come!

Last performance

Our downstairs air conditioner is on the fritz so this is our living room now. So white trashy. It’s funny because Alli was sent this AC as a mistake years ago and gave it to us and it’s come in so handy the last few years. 

We weren’t quite sure when Alexis and Damian were going to leave and since they’re only 6 hours away it can really be any time of day. They decided to stay Saturday and after a game and breakfast, we all got to work. Delaney said she wanted to make rice and eggs, and we thought she was just being Hawaiian like Matt and I, but what she actually meant was that she wanted to make okada fried rice. She was very disappointed in her rice, but very lucky she has a brother in law (and dad) that will eat anything. 

We were able to get Adi’s new sleep number bed set up and take Frankie’s broken bed down and move Adi’s bed to Frankie’s room and Adi’s old mattress to Delaney. It was a big bed switcheroo. Fyi - I broke Frankie’s bed moving it one day. 😕

Delaney and I went to her Saturday performance together. I took a little car nap, and when I got out of the car my phone finally started working and I saw that Delaney and Ms Marschall - who happens to be an assistant principal at LMS and also a dance mom in D’s class had been texting me that Delaney forgot her white headband. I was able to get ahold of Matt and he jumped in the car and got her the headband before her performance, but her texts to me were hilarious. 

A small sampling:

PLESSE WHERE IS IT THEYRE MAKING ME WEAR TAPE😭😭😭😭😭

please I’m about to pass away

everyone is commenting on my tape😑

IS HE CLOSE(I am on the verge of a mental breakdown)

YES HOLY CRAP I WAS ABOUT TO START SOBBING THANKKKK YOUUUU

Her makeshift tape headband:

I quickly grabbed a pic. I hate when they ban them.  



It was another lovely night and after we gathered with the other dancers from the ward.  Cute girls!

The Wiests came that night which was so sweet. It was also the adult session of stake conference which I hated missing, but family first and I wouldn’t miss Delaney’s sweet performance. 

Cute school/ballet friends. 

We talked on the way home and Delaney told me she’d like to continue dance, so 🎉. I was hoping she’d come to it on her own. She’s really hoping to move up to the next level so 🙏🏻.