Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Adorable Adele

Little Miss Adele Elizabeth Rubin was born on Friday, April 13th, 2012. After mama, Sara, went through more than 15 hours of labor, we are so glad you arrived!



We are so incredibly blessed to have this little lady in our lives. We met her last weekend when we were visiting Mike and Sara in Omaha and will make sure to post lots of pictures of that trip!



Welcome to the world Adele, we're so glad you're here!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Zoo Day!


I had no idea that the Minnesota Zoo was so great! Usually when I think of zoos I immediately go to the San Diego Zoo and Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. I guess I didn't realize that even though Minnesota is a bit chillier than San Diego, OK, who am I kidding much colder than San Diego in the winter months...they can still have a fantastic outdoor zoo!

We took a visit when Ryan's parents and Miss Abbie were in town and had a blast!

A stop at the aquarium proved fun as Ryan spotted the dolphins.


We got a close up look at some wild turkeys.


And this Cheetah was pacing frantically, about 5 feet in front of us...I wasn't sure the chain link fence was the safest, so I kept my distance and zoomed in. :)


This Grizzly Bear gave us quite the show as he jumped up and down on that tree branch.


And we realized that Lola must have friends at the zoo, after seeing a black furry item that looked very close to our beloved pup.

Denise purchased a season pass that works at any U.S. zoo, so I have a feeling we'll be back sooner rather than later!

Monday, April 23, 2012

Another Walk

We really like to walk, if you haven't caught on already, we do that a lot.
Here are some recent shots from our walk around Purgatory Lake.
Yeah- its called Purgatory Lake, weird, I know. But once you get used to it, there have been some silly jokes that have come out of it.


Coordinated photo op looks


Sticks! Score!


Me and Lola

One Tired Girl

Sunday, April 22, 2012

CHEESE!

Cheese!!
Happy Sunday



- love Lola

Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Rare Moment

Like I mentioned in this post, I don't seem to have a lot of photos of Lola and myself. I'm usually the one behind the camera capturing the memories. So while Ryan and Lola have a myriad of pictures together, there are rare moments when I get a picture with Lola too.

I'm doing my best to help the situation and instead of just hoping that Ryan or someone else will take the picture, I'm reverting back to my high school and early college years and asking "would you take a picture of us." Its not that its the picture itself that matters, but the memory that goes along with it.

My father in law is a photographer that has been able to catch some great images of us as a family and we always joke with him that if there isn't a photo of the event...it didn't happen. :) I know this isn't true, but I'm a visual person. So when I see an image that I love dearly of a time in life that may span months or years back it cues up my memory and brings me back to that time.

Like this one:
This is a photo from my 21st birthday, the end of our Junior year of college. Ryan and I were "just friends" at the time and had gone to a Fraternity/Sorority dance called the Country Club dance a few months prior. We were re-enacting a photo from that night. I say that this is the moment when I knew we were something more, even though we didn't officially start dating until 4-5 months later. I love this picture, because to me it signifies something new...our future together before we even knew it.

And this one:
Pardon the scantily clad-ness, we were on the beach after all. This picture makes me smile every time I see it. I'm not sure what was just said, but we're both laughing and happy. We were definitely already in love here, and 6 months later we were engaged.

And finally, this last one:
This one melts my heart
This is me and my dad. And if you haven't already heard the story. This was the night of our wedding rehearsal. We were running around most of the day and finally the rehearsal was about to begin. My fantastic personal attendant and great friend, Laura Farrell, was lining us all up to enter the church. One by one the bridesmaids and groomsmen started entering. When my sister and Nik (our maid of honor and best man) were the next to leave my dad suck out his elbow for me to hang onto and we both looked at each other and started sobbing. We cried all the way down the aisle and then realized the enormity of the moment. I am so incredibly glad we have this picture.

And now, a recent shot. One of me and my baby, Lola.

Granted, her black fur makes her really hard to see, you can still pick out the whites of her eyes and her looking up at me. This is a great picture and one that I absolutely love, even though my nostril is the size of the moon.

So, I'm going to do a better job of asking for more pictures please. And hopefully you'll get to see a lot more of me and ryan or me and lola on here soon. :)

Friday, April 20, 2012

"Oh Say Can You See..."

With the move to Minnesota we've been able to spend some time with Ryan's Minnesota family- Aunt Kim and Uncle Greg and their sons, Josh & Colton. It's been fun when they visit us and when we've gone to Josh's hockey game, but this time it was Colton's turn to shine!

When we heard that Colton's choir was going to sing at the Target Center before the Timberwolves game, we knew we had to go and witness this momentous event.

Here is the choir getting all set up and ready to sing-


And here they go ladies and gentlemen- Colton has the purple shirt on, in the far right of the picture.


And walking off after a job well done


The choir sounded great, and what a fun experience for these young high schoolers! Definitely something they'll never forget!

oh- and we were there too :)

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Stephy's Visit


I love love love when we have visitors. Did you get that? I LOVE IT! It may be the motherly instinct in me that wants to be able to focus on others and give them a fun, relaxed and enjoyable stay. I like to take care of people, and I think its a fun change of pace to have a visitor.

Luckily, I get this opportunity when my friend Steph comes to visit us in Minnesota! She comes for work about 3 times a year and last time she was here for Halloween. This year, she was able to join us in the beginning of March, and we had a blast! We went shopping one day and found these adorable owl mugs. Of course, we purchased them!


We had a great time with Stephy and are hoping to plan a trip to Dallas this fall! YAY! :)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Lola, Ryan and Easter Blessings


I really should count how many pictures I have on this blog of Ryan and Lola. And then I should count how many pictures there are of me on this blog. I bet Ryan and Lola have 10 times more pictures than I do. But, then again I'm usually the one behind the camera...I think a lot of women can relate :)

Sometimes I relish the quiet moments. If you read often, you know that there are times that I may be crafting for a week or baking or cooking...scratch that, I'm probably not cooking. But there are also moments, especially on our weekends where Ryan and I just hang out in our fireplace room and just sit. No books, no phones, no noise, just us, and Lola.


Sometimes this leads to naps. But most of the time we just sit and chat. I think a lot of the craziness that is in our lives today stems from constant connectivity. I am a culprit of this, for sure. Before my smart phone days I did a pretty good job disconnecting when I arrived at home. But that also means that I didn't get the latest face book update or work email either. And sometimes that's OK.

I want to challenge myself this Easter weekend to disconnect from phone, only checking it 3 times during the day rather than the 20+ I probably do. And relish in God's glory. In the blessing that he gave to us by sending his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. I can't imagine a greater love.

I always love Easter weekend, and usually we're traveling to see family. This weekend, it will most likely be just the 3 of us as we're patiently awaiting the arrival of Baby Rubin. I know we'll have quiet moments and I'm really looking forward to them.

We hope your Easter weekend is relaxing and filled with family and reflection.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Leap Day Snow!

With the wonderful spring weather we've been having lately, I can't believe my pictures when I look to the last day of February and see this...

Yep, we had a freak Leap Day Snowstorm on the last day of February, and we haven't seen snow since then! Ha, take that winter! As you all know, I do like me some snow...but I like snow when its November/December, I'm inside curled up by the fire with hot chocolate in my hand, a good book to read and Lola curled up at my feet.

Not when its 1 week before Easter! And in the Midwest, that has definitely happened before! Let's hope that the snow is gone for good this year....of course until November :)

Ryan and I have a bet, I don't remember what we actually bet, but I said we wouldn't get another snow this winter/spring. I think I'm winning :)

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

All Dressed Up

...with somewhere to go!

My company usually holds an employee only holiday party before Christmas. But because of the hustle and bustle of that time of year, they wait until the end of February to celebrate with co-workers and their families. That's right, we get 2 parties to celebrate the holidays! woo!

So, the last weekend in February, Ryan and I got all dressed up and hit the C+M Mardi Gras Party! We had such a great time and relaxed with co-workers, ate some great food and had some drinks. Of course, I only remembered to take a few pictures before we left rather than together at the event, but I guess this will work :)

I would also like to take this time to congratulate my hubby on such a fantastic accomplishment. I know I mentioned it in this post with Lola, but I want to say it again. I mean, how can you look at that picture below and not see a transformation!? Way to go babe! Lola and I are so proud of you and your healthy weight loss goal.

Lola giving Dad a hand :)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Bows Bows and Bows


So I decided that since I have a niece and a soon-to-be niece that I needed to make something girly one day. And what's girlier than adorable bows?

I, of course found the tutorial on pinterest, and after wrangling some headbands, fabric scraps, my glue gun and assorted buttons I was on a mission.

Close up of a blue and pink bow


Of course, I forgot to take pictures while I was actually making them, but this tutorial will help if you're interested. I love that they are not the huge Gerbera daisy bows that seem larger than the baby herself.


And here is my beautiful niece modeling one.


:) i love how they turned out...and I love her.