Thanksgiving 2013

I feel like we have so much to be thankful for this year.  Two beautiful babies, three big kids, everyone healthy, a handsome husband that takes care of us, and lots of extended family to share it all with.  I started out the day with a work out at the gym with Jesse, then headed to Santaquin for dinner.  Both my parents are great cooks so dinner is always delicious.  Basically the day consisted of a little cooking, a little work, and a lot of eating and hanging out.  Perfect.

Grandpa thought it would be a great trick to teach
All of the grandkids the fun of eating whipped cream
Directly from the can.
Luke, apparently enjoyed it.  

By far my favorite moment of the day.
Gavin was worried that Luke was getting too far away
So he made sure to shepherd him back,
I love that Luke has such great cousins

Tim's parents are currently serving a mission but still live at home.  They were busy with those responsibilities on Thanksgiving Day so they invited everyone up for a second celebration on Saturday.  Tim was thrilled to have a second Thanksgiving dinner and Luke loved playing with another set of cousins.  Ruby was just happy to be the center of attention and basked in all of the love.

Hot Pots

One of Tim's favorite places to go is to the "hot pots" in Spanish Fork Canyon.  On Monday he and Everest took advantage of the warm fall weather and headed out for one last hike for the season.  The water in the pools was a really interesting color of blue.  Tim said that he hasn't ever seen it that color before - it must have had something to do with the mineral content in late fall.  Looks like a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Ruby - One Month

One month and Miss Ruby has completely captured our hearts.  Luke especially loves her, he runs to find her as soon as he wakes up and spends a lot of his time smiling and pointing at her.  We are feeling so blessed and lucky to have Ruby and her sweet spirit as part of our family.  She is a very good natured baby and only cries if she is really overdue for a feeding.  From the beginning she has slept for stretches of about 4 hours and the last few nights has been sleeping about 6 hours.  It's even easier to enjoy her when we are well rested. From the beginning she has had a very strong neck and now can hold her head up and turn around to observe her surroundings.  Luke was really sick last week but luckily she did not seem to catch anything despite a lot of loves from Luke. She eats at least four ounces each feeding and seems to be growing and changing daily.  I wish there were a way to slow down time.  Instead, I spend as much time as possible on the couch loving and snuggling this little Princess Pie.

Ruby has started to smile when you talk to her.

It's hard to catch her smile on camera,

But here's a little one.

She spends most of her time with a very serious look on her face.

I love this shot because you can see how long she is.

It may look like she is a little unsure

But this little girl loves her daddy.

Showing off her big, alert, blue eyes.

Ruby was pretty excited to celebrate her first Halloween 

Ruby isn't sure about the bath,

But doesn't cry unless she gets really cold.

I have missed getting pictures of everyone who has visited but 

We have loved being able to show her off and 

Share her with others.

It took all month but we finally got a picture of

All five kids together.

Newborn Ruby McKena

We are so fortunate to have Jami and her amazing photography skills.  We wanted to get Ruby's first shoot done when she was about a week old and still very new.  I knew from Luke's newborn shoot that I should plan for a long session and not expect her to "cooperate".  Good thing I started with those expectations.  She normally spends the entire day sleeping but it took hours of rocking, feeding, calming, and a lot of patience to get our shots.  By the time we were done Jami and I were worn out and roasting (we had to keep the studio extra warm for her) but it was completely worth it.  I absolutely love the finished product and how perfectly she captured Ruby's sweet personality.