Ruby's 1st Birthday!

My little baby turned 1 on September 9. I can't believe she is already one! This first year has flown by! I still remember the day I brought her home like it was yesterday. It was October 26, 2008, a sunday. I had seen a sign for shorkie puppies the day before on my way to work. This is the kind of dog I knew I wanted eventually. I was not financially ready to bring home a puppy but I wanted to go look for fun anyway. So Lexi, Holly, Brit, Lynsie, Morgan, and myself went for a Sunday night ride to look at them. All of the puppies were so stinkin cute but Ruby and I had an instant connection. She just looked into my eyes and I knew she was meant to be my daughter. So, I was in a little bit of a bind because I knew I would have to borrow a small chunck of money(only like $400) from the parentals in order to bring her home. I called my mom from there and told her how cute this little puppy was and that it was necessary for me to get her because a connection like this doesn't come around very often. But she wasn't buyin it. I felt like crying. I NEEDED this puppy. So, I told the breeders that I would maybe be back with my parents. I just knew if they could see her, they would know I needed her! After some begging my parents finally agreed to come look at her with me. On the way there I pretty much had them convinced to loan me the money. I am pretty sure it was love at first sight with them too! We chatted with the breeders for about ten minutes, then my dad pulled out the magic checkbook and we were on our way with precious little Ruby in tow! She has been a perfect puppy ever since and I don't know what I would do without her! Anytime I am sad, she cuddles right up with me and cheers me up! I love love love her! I held her birthday party on September 26 at my parent's house. It was just a small gathering of close friends and dogs, but it was perfect. Ruby has not been able to stop talking about it!

A LOOK AT HER FIRST YEAR OF LIFE...

Learning to eat

Her first play date with Mylie and Shadie

Her first haircut

Just tiny cuteness

Her first winter with her adorable coat

Her first bath

This is when she got fixed. She was supposed to wear this thing all the time but she hated it so it was her goal to get it off. I am so glaad that surgery is over with. I did not like to see her sore and groggy.

I can't figure out how to flip this but it is too precious not to post.

NOW FOR THE BIRTHDAY BASH....

At the party we served, hot DOGS, spaghetti salad, chips, grapes and cake and ice cream.

Once again I can't get this to flip but had to post it. You might not think this looks too appetizing, but thankfully this one was just for the dogs to enjoy. I found the recipe online and I think it was quite a hit.

Here is Ruby trying her very first birthday cake. She loved it!

Out of all the dogs, Shadie definitely liked the cake the most. I think she ended up having like four pieces!

Ruby got lots of fun things for her birthday! She is so grateful for everything!

Aubrie and Miah got her this giant bone as a joke, but the funny thing is she LOVES it! She works on it everyday and she has almost got a little piece off. It'll probably last her until her next birthday!

Aubrie really wanted all the dogs to race, but I wasn't sure if it would work. It ended up being the highlight of the party! We did two races, and Oreo won them both. Ruby got confused both times and stopped in the middle of it.

THE GUESTS INCLUDED...

Aunt Lexi and Snickers (who is looking extremely mangy)

Aunt Britney, Aunt Morgan, and friends Miley and Shadie

Great Grandma and Grandpa Boyd and friend Perry. Ruby wants to extend a special thanks to them for coming because they traveled all the way from Pocatello to be with her on her special day.

Grandma and Grandpa Gunter and BEST FRIEND Oreo

Aunt Aubrie and Uncle Miah

Aunt Jill

Aunt BreeAnn and Aunt Hollie

Ruby was quite exhausted after such a fun party! Thanks everyone that came! I know Ruby really appreciated it and so did I!

Labor Day Camping!

Over Labor Day weekend Britney, BreeAnn, Lynsie, Hollie and I decided we would be adventurous outdoor girls and go camping! People told us that we couldn't consider it real camping since we were at Crystal Hot Springs, but I consider pretty much anything outside of the comfort of my own home real camping. I mean, we had to build our own fire, set up a tent(which BreeAnn and Hollie actually already had done when we got there. Thanks guys!) , and WALK to the bathroom facilities. Totally camping. We were a little nervous that Crystal was going to be pretty ghetto, but it was way fun! When I say it was way fun, I am blocking the memories of everyone torturing me with talk of scary stories and creepy movies. I will admit that my reaction to such talk can egg on certain people's need to keep the torture going, but it in no way makes sending really creepy text messages from anonymous numbers ok. So, besides being scared out of my mind, the trip was great and I think we are going to make it a tradition!

On Friday night we got there later than we planned so we decided to drive into Brigham City for an experience at the local sit down Pizza Hut. Yum!

On Sunday we decided to just relax and be lazy all day...well until Lynsie would not hear of such nonsense. I mean who just relaxes when their camping? Crazy, I know. So, she gaves us a few options and we chose to play a 2 hour game of ipod idol. It even included a round of dancing and singing. I think the woman trying to take a nap next to us was probably not thrilled.

Lynsie managed to show me once again how disgusting she can be with this little concoction. She would cover gummy worms in easy cheese! Isn't that nasty? Yes, it is. She tried to sneak one in between two club crackers for me to eat. Luckily, I didn't fall for her trickery.

After ipod idol Lynsie did let us have a little rest time that was very much appreciated and enjoyed!

Sunday night we decided to burn the rest of our fire wood since it would be our last night camping. My friends introduced me to a delicious treat...DOUGH BOYS! Britney insists that I have had one at girl's camp before but I know I would remember such scrumptiousness. I was seriously in love with these things. You just take biscuits and roll them out and then wrap them around a wooden dowel. Then you hold them over the fire until they are a beautiful golden brown and top them with whatever you want! We had this raspberry honey butter up there that was the perfect topping. So AMAZING. Everywhere go we manage to run into the most interestingly weird people! This definitely held true for our little camping trip. At some point during our fire, Lynsie and I decided to start some sort of chant. It was really fun! But when two people came strolling down the walk, we thought they were going to get mad at us for being so loud because the entire campground had pretty much been dead silent for the last two hours. Instead, they asked us to perform the chant for them so we all gladly did! Then they took us to meet some of their friends that were having a bonfire in the field. We became quite attached to our little friends and spent some time having Pete play us some songs on his guitar. They even hung out with us the next day at the pool! They were a teeny bit crazy, but so funny! This is us with Pete and Eno.

The funny thing about Eno is that we had seen him earlier in the day and were dying to meet him because we were convinced that he was Embry from Jacob's pack? I mean he is screaming werewolf! He let me touch his hair. And I also forced him to howl at the moon.

I think he is performing the song he wrote for us right here. It was very tender.

On Monday we just swam at the pool and then went home. Thanks for such a fun trip guys!

It's Like Pone!

A few weeks ago my mom's sister and her kids came to visit from Arizona and Nebraska. We always have so much fun when we get together! I wish we could see each other more often. While they were here we had a BBQ, went to Lagoon, and to a family reunion. We would go to Nebraska like once a year or something growing up and I always looked so forward to it. And I would bawl when it was time to leave and beg my mom to buy me a plane ticket for a week later. My cousin shanae and I were like best friends and I just wanted to live there so we could have fun all the time. Anyway, hopefully we can see them again soon!

We had a random family reunion in Twin Falls. I didn't know 75% of the people that were there but it was still fun I guess. This is just the portion of my grandma and grandpa's family that was there.
Sometimes I make people, like my cousin Skyler, hold Ruby for a picture. I know they will appreciate the memories some day.

Here is my mom and my favorite auntie Lori!

I am pretyy bugged right now cause both of these pictures randomly flipped but it is just too late and I am just too tired to try and figure out how to make them right. Anyway, I don't usually purchase a poncho, but the people coming off the ride were looking a little too wet for my taste.

My point exactly.

One of my favorite things about their visit was playing the rhyme game with my cousins Shanae and Skyler while we were waiting in line for rides at Lagoon. We would just start rhyming words and whoever couldn't come up with one lost. Shanae went to great lengths to try to win and it provided for a few great laughs. Here are some examples:

1. Rhyming words like pole, stole, knoll, etc. Shanae exclaims enstole! We politely ask her to us it in a sentence and she replies, "Like they enstole information into my brain." We say, "Do you mean instill?" And she replies, "Well it's like the past tense of intstill." Good to know!

2. Rhyming words like lull, bull, skull, etc. Shanae says shull. We as her to use it in a sentence and she says, "I want to wrap my warm shull around me."

3. Rhyming words like cone, bone, loan, etc. Shanae says pone. When we ask her to use it in a sentence she says in a very matter of fact tone, "It's like pone!" Like we would just accept that as the sentence! I later learned that pone is really a word. It has something to do with corn. But Shanae had no idea what she was talking about. Thanks for the laughs Nater!

Wendy's Wonderful Wedding!

On August 8 one of my best friends, Wendy, got married!! She was the first girl from our group of friends to get hitched and it felt so weird! It made me feel so extremely old. But the day was perfect for them. Beautiful sunny weather, gorgeous temple, stunning dress...the whole works! Congratulations Wendy and Kory!

A Look Back At Some Old Times....

Well I am obviously a spitting image of Mulan, Jill is a roock star...but what are Kenzie, Wendy, and Cambria?? Maybe gangters. I just can't be sure.

This is us after the 9th grade dance. I remember that we were all so disappointed that Cambria couldn't come. We thought this was a huge moment in our lives and we wanted to ALL be together. So she came with Renee to drop us off (tee hee) and came to dinner with us after.

This is us with our favorite young women's leader ever! Her name is Lisa and she was our leader when were just wee little beehives and we all just became great friends with her.

She is a bit of emotinal an gal.

We thought this was pretty funny. Wendy did not enjoy it so much.

Brooke was not able to come to the temple because she was a leader at EFY so we were finally all together for the reception! It was my goal of the day to get a picture with all six of us. Even though I hardly hang out with these girls anymore, I will always consider them some of my best friends. I love them all so much and feel so lucky to have had such great friends growing up!

Well I guess you should all be looking for my save the dates in the mail cause I am GETTING MARRIED!!! Not really. But I did fight down a six year old girl for this bouquet. She obviously wasn't going to be next!