Luke and Ruby October, 2017

As I was scrolling through my past posts, I realized that I had not ever posted the pictures we had taken to document Ruby turning four. Because they change so often, I have tried to take photos to document the kids about every six months near either Luke or Ruby's birthday.   For Ruby's birthday I was happy when my friend Kim had an opening that we could make work.  My plan had been just to have her shoot Ruby, but at the last minute I decided to take Luke as well and I was thrilled at the pictures that I got of the two of them.  We had a lot of fun at the shoot and I loved how the pictures really captured their amazing personalities.

This little one completely melts my heart.  The other day, completely out of the blue, she told me "mama, I love you more than Jesus and everyone".  She loves to play Eeny Meeny Miney Moe to make all of her decisions, like which underwear to wear, and what book to read.  Lately she has started using this method to decide who she likes best in the family - she always rigs it to land on me

Luke truly is the best boy - he amazes me daily with his sweetness.  A few weeks ago he volunteered the list of his favorite girls....in order:  Peyton, Mama, Ruby, Halli, Mrs. Fox, and Robber Girls (I guess the bad girls are a little alluring).  I felt pretty good about landing in second place.  If I can just hold onto that position for the next 20 years, I will feel pretty good about myself as his mama.

Luke has learned how to tell jokes and it is hysterical.  Sometimes they are funny ones that he heard somewhere else.  Most of the time they are his own creation which makes it even better.

Luke only had 17 months alone in the house before Ruby made her grand entrance, we tease that she must have been so anxious to get here and join her big brother.  Watching these two together is one of my very favorite things.  Sure, they tease and fight more than I would like, but most of the time they play games, make up stories, create fantasy worlds to role play, and have the best time together.  I hope they will always be great friends and supports for each other.

We were just about finished with the shoot when Kim said she wanted to do a few pictures with me and the kids together.  I immediately started telling her all of the reasons that I didn't want to be photographed - not the right outfit, still had gym hair, this was really just to show off my cute kids, etc. etc.  Luckily, I got past the excuses quickly and decided that my dirty hair was no excuse to miss a memory with my babies.  She had us sit together and asked me to tell the kids the story of when Ruby was born.  I talked while she shot and pictures are pure magic.