Mighty Mud Mania 2010

Mighty Mud Mania is an annual event in Scottsdale where all those rules about getting dirty go out the window. Check it out here. We'd love to have you join us next year!

At first, Ruby was content just being a spectator.

But she quickly picked up on what was going on.

Carter was digging the idea of mud pies.


They both built sand castles for a while.

This picture explains the diaper full of sand the next day.

We played 'til we were ready to drop from the heat and excitement. After a hose down from the volunteers, we headed home. Carter was disappointed to learn he has to wait a whole year to do it again.

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Gila Valley Temple Open House (May 15, 2010)

I love to see the temple!
We went inside one day
To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen and to pray.

For the temple is a holy place
Where we were sealed together.
As a Child of God, I've learned this truth:
A Family Is Forever!
(adapted from this)

We had the opportunity to attend the new Gila Valley Temple's open house. It's about a three-hour drive from our home, but we felt it was well worth it and very important to make the effort. Although this is one of three new temple in the works here in Arizona right now, who knows if we'll even be here or able to go when the other two are eventually finished.

Carter was excited about it all the way there. He asked if they had a "play place" inside the new temple. ;) He was remembering when we went to the Mesa temple to have Ruby sealed to us in December and the kids got to play in the temple nursery while we waited. In the temple, Carter was intrigued with the flooring. He kept wanting to bend over and touch the carpets in the different rooms. They had different textures and were all SO beautiful and clean. I never would have notice the carpet if not for Carter! Love that kid!
Being in the temple together is such a peaceful experience! I felt so much love for my family and such gratitude that we've been sealed together as a family forever. I feel a little bit sad for people who don't get to take each child to the temple because of the beautiful plan of adoption. My most treasured moments are being in the sealing room and having my children, all dressed in spotless white, brought into the room and over to Shane and I. I may not get to experience birthing my babies, but this is, I believe, a pretty great trade off for adoptive parents!

I'm so glad we went! It was extra fun for us that we happened to run into our friends, Devin, Andrea, Andin and Cambria and got to go through together. Added bonus: Andrea is a fantastic photographer! She took these pictures for us and I'm so grateful! You can see more of her pictures from that day here.

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April 2010 Recap

Ruby's first ponytail - 4/1/2010

I adore this picture...I'm wearing her in the sling and she is enjoying the full-service treatment!

Papago Park-4/2/2010
My cute friend Jenny invited the kids and me to hang out with her and her family at Papago Park for an Easter Egg hunt and picnic. I'd never been, so it was lots of fun and the weather was awesome. Carter even found the "golden egg" with money in it! I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few of the kids hanging out.

Hugo is one of Carter's favorite buddies.
Carter and Lacy had fun rolling eggs down the hill.

Acacia came too. She's a fabulous babysitter and a sweetheart!
Bunny Day and General Conference - 4/3/2010
It was the tradition in my family growing up to celebrate "Bunny Day" on the Saturday before Easter every year. The Easter Bunny brings us treats on Saturday so that we can focus on Jesus and the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Carter especially loved his Transformer's coloring book.
I think Ruby liked her stuffed bunny.

Shane made Carter's favorite: star-shaped "egg-in-a-holes" sprinkled with cheese.
It was LDS General Conference weekend the same weekend as Easter, so we enjoyed snuggling and hanging out together all weekend watching conference. Growing up, my siblings and I made "nests" of blankets and pillows from which we watched the conference each Spring and Fall. Shane tried to show Carter how to build a proper nest and CJ had fun with it...until it was time to clean up and put it all away of course.
We took a walk between sessions.

Brad's Mission Call! - 4/6/2010
If you read the blog regularly (or know us personally at all), you know we have a very close relationship with Shane's Uncle Joe and Aunt Claudia. They live just a few blocks away and have been so wonderful to us since we arrived in AZ four years ago. Carter and Ruby know them as Nana and Grandpa. Carter said Nana before Momma, I'm pretty sure.

Anyhow, Bradley (Joe and Claudia's son) received his LDS mission call to the Chile Santiago North mission. We are so excited for him! He will be a hard-working, wonderful missionary. I found out a few days after he got his call that his mission president will be Presidente May, who was in my stake in Valencia growing up, and then moved to UT around the time my parents did. Elder Hilton will be in great hands there with Presidente and Hermana May! Brad graduates from high school at the end of May and reports to the Missionary Training Center on June 16th. Brad's mission call was especially exciting for the family because Brad is the youngest child, only boy, and will be only one to serve a full-time mission (as a young adult anyway) of his siblings.
Here is Elder Hilton with his proud parents.

Fun side note: The map in the background was posted after Brad's papers were turned in and the wait for his call began. The colored markers were guesses from friends and family of where Brad's call would be to. Joe, Brad's dad, noticed nobody had guessed Chile just a couple of days before the call was opened and tagged it as his guess.

Ruby is eight months old - 4/18/2010
Shane already posted a bunch of eight month pictures, but I wanted to include this one in the April recap to note that she was not only standing, but taking steps at eight months. I was not encouraging this. I absolutely blame her father...and I have witnesses.
Oh, but I do have to say she melts me. {swoon}

Rocker, Parties, & Prom - 4/24/2010
Carter for some reason has a love for rock and roll. He often asks us to "rock" with him. We've scored some sweet band equipment from yard sales and a clearance sale and now we have three toy guitars and a toy microphone with karaoke machine. We jam a lot. Fast forward to cute Cambria's dress-up birthday party. We gave Carter all his dress-up options (Spiderman, pirate, etc.) and he chose rocker. Love these pictures Shane took before the party.

{Notice cliche "Mom" tattoo I drew on his right shoulder and scorpion tattoo dad gave him on his left forearm.}

Carter and Ruby went with Shane to a second friend's party that afternoon while I had the pleasure of taking pictures of Brad and his darling date, Allison, before their prom. I had so much fun with them. Thanks you two!


Lastly, I spent most of April working furiously in every spare moment to prepare for the opening of my etsy shop, Ruby Jane Boutique, and Boutique in the Barn (which was May 1st). The boutique was a lot of fun and although the shop only has one listing so far, it will have many more items listed soon!

Thanks for all your support everyone!

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March 2010 family recap

Although the first item of business actually occurred at the end of February, it didn't really sink in until March. We bought a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan! This is life changing people. In August, we will celebrate our 9th anniversary. We've never had two cars before. Heck, there have been times in our marriage where we have been completely carless. I can't even tell you how spoiled I feel. There have been many weeks where I haven't been out in the daylight with the exception of going to church on Sundays. As Aunt Claudia (aka Nana) described it, we didn't purchase a car, we put a down payment on freedom.

We ended up taking 200 miles and 35 hours worth of road trips the next three weekends. It was both fun and exhausting. The end result is that we're ruined now. I don't think we could take a road trip with our kiddos in our Accord again. The minivan is so much more comfortable, spacious, and convenient for traveling.

The sunroof is great in Arizona.

Navigation and lots of buttons that Carter loves to explore.

And the DVD player was the luxury/necessity that kept Carter sane when Ruby was fussy.


Ruby hit her seven month mark in March. She accomplished quite a lot and we have been floundering to keep up with her. Just off the top of my head, she started clapping, crawling, pulling up, standing (she constantly has a bruised forehead from all the spills she's taken, about half of them thanks to Carter), talking (mama, baa for bath, and dadada for dad), and signing (she just signs bath anytime she thinks there's hope, like when we change her clothes or diaper -- baths are her favorite activity). She moved into size 4 diapers, 12 month clothes, and 18 month pajamas. She endured yet another fight with an ear infection (I think this is her 4th since December) and a cold, and her top four teeth moved in, leaving us awake many nights. What a doll baby though. She has never had to work hard to keep us wrapped around her chubby little fingers!

St. Patrick's Day brought us to the table for a festive breakfast. Inspired by my creative friend Andrea, I decided to serve green pancakes with buttermilk syrup, green eggs and ham. We also used green dishes. Carter thought it was fun, so mission accomplished, right?
Carter got an overdue haircut. These were the before pictures, but I totally spaced out taking an after pic...still, I love his faces in these. They are so HIM.

Just a couple of our favorite quotes by Carter this month:
*While pushing his forearm up into a faux muscular bulge, he exclaimed, "It's a tree mountain! It grows up two times! See Mom?" And then he did it again, this time with sound effect to indicate growing, "Wooooopt!"
* While eating oatmeal for breakfast, Carter noticed Ruby crawl into the kitchen and look up at him. He explained, "Rube smelled my oatmeal and it smelled tasty. And she looked around and around and around and she said, 'Hooray! Where my oatmeal?!'"

We rented a beautiful house in Moab, UT over the weekend of March 19th for the 2010 Canyonlands 1/2 marathon and 5-mile race. Shane ran the 1/2 marathon and I the 5-mile. Shane did pretty darn well for not running for the three weeks prior to the race (since he ran Ragnar). I finished. And not in last place! So, I have to admit I was pretty proud of myself. It might not seem like much, but 5 miles for me was scary. My heart kept having freaky palpitations and I could barely walk for days following the race. I even ended up at Urgent Care thinking I might have a fracture in my foot, but the doctor said it's a bad strain/sprain and could take up to 8 months to heal. But I finished!

As an added bonus, we had visitors in Moab. Shane's parents and youngest siblings, Joseph and Sarah, stayed with us the first night and took care of Carter and Ruby during the race. My two oldest nieces, Eliza and Lizzie, joined us the afternoon following the race. They stayed with us that night and we had a blast! Thank you all for making the drive. It made the trip so much more fun!
We also were happy to get to see/meet adoption friends at the race! Here I am with the famous (in the adoption world) Mrs. R! I hate this picture of myself, but had to include it for the love of adoption!
We went out to lunch afterward together and I just wish we would have had more time to spend with those fab girls. Thanks to Lindsey (aka Mrs. R), we planned ahead to do the race together. You can see her post about the race here. Adoption rocks!!!

Shane had the chance to meet up with a friend from high school (at the zoo with the kids) while I was at an adoption workshop on the 27th. Here are a few pictures from that day.

I was working feverishly preparing items for the Boutique in the Barn.

I had a lot of fun being part of a Spring swap.


Carter talked us into showing him how to use the camera (under our close supervision - it's heavy) and ended up with some surprisingly nice shots, all things considered.

This one was with a timer, but Carter composed it.

After seeing his excitement with photography, Shane gave him his old camera phone and put it in airplane mode. He gets so excited and comes running in to tell us when he takes pictures of Ruby, or the ceiling fan, or his subject of choice - his finger half covering the lens. Love that boy!

Last, but certainly not least, we were saddened to learn of the loss of Shane's Uncle Kevin. It was a blessing to be able to make the trip to gather with everyone in celebrating his life. What a beautiful, faithful family he has here to take care of one another in his absence. In closing, I just want to say that our thoughts and prayers continue to be with Kevin's wonderful family. We're so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel in our lives!

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Just Another Day at the Park

It finally cooled off enough that we could go to the park in the middle of the day. We'll miss the swimming weather, but we're ready for fall in Phoenix!

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