Friday Photo Dump

It’s time to dump my camera and iphone again.

Here is what the Swenson household has been up too:

I took Stella to see Thriller by Odyssey Dance Theater.

This girl creeped us out some; her eyes are just freaky.

We celebrated Ruby’s 2nd Birthday:

Ruby Breakfast

Morning scripture study

We made sure to read this Ruby scripture

(Jex forgot where the camera was; there must have been a cute girl walking by)

Sporting our red for Ruby 

Go team Ruby!!

We had lots of visitors this week.

My friend Leslie came to visit from Alabama.

This is her baby girl Emma with my kids.  My niece Norah is in the middle.  She stayed with us for 5 days while her parents were away.

My mom, sisters, nieces and nephews came for weekend.  I don’t have one.single.picture of us together.  There I go again forgetting to use my camera again.  I guess we were just having too much fun.

I do however have a picture of the Fazookie that we had for lunch… (what does this say about me; that food is more important then people?)

…and some pictures of Tess at the jump zone that we took all the kids too.

Tess is intrigued with her scriptures and pretends to read them.  It is soo cute.

I made 90 sugar cookies for our church daddy-daughter date.

Dr. Nerdy and Rockin’ Stella on their date.

I spent an evening getting ready for Tessa’s birthday.

Stay tuned; more to come about the little 4 year old soon.

Happy Birthday Angel Baby.

Ruby June would be 2 today.

Oh, how we all miss her.

My sister Kristin is celebrating Ruby and her 15 days on earth, with 15 days of giveaways.

All of the giveaways can be found on my sister Kristin’s blog.

You won’t want to miss it.

Show your love to Ruby by entering the giveaways.

Make sure to check in each day to see what is being given away.

I am giveaway #1, so follow this link to Kristin’s blog to check it out.

…and enter so I can send YOU all the free goodies I have picked out.

Here on JandA&Co. I am honoring Ruby’s birthday by sharing a FREE printable that I made to celebrate her life.

It is a collection of quotes full of goodness. 

Just like Ruby, a sweet baby that is full of goodness.

You can download it here.

This page is designed to be printed as an 8x10.  I printed mine at the local print shop.

Then each little card can be cut into 2x3 inch cards.

They look adorable pinned on a bulletin board to serve as a reminder of the important things.

They would also be great to print and attach to gifts as a little gift tag.

Any way you choose to use them; please use them for good.

Let them serve as a reminder of the sweet little angel we miss so dearly.

That little angel who lives with Jesus now.

Happy Birthday Ruby.

The Swenson family misses you.

We are all wearing red today. 

I know red is your favorite color.

We hope you are eating red velvet cake today.

I bet red velvet cake from heaven’s bakery tastes better than what we can buy here; I bet it is heavenly.

We love you.

Winner of Ruby’s Giveaway.

Thank you to everyone who participated in Ruby’s Giveaway. 

I counted 33 acts of kindness left in comments on my blog in honor of Ruby.  WOW!!! what a tribute to Ruby and her parents.

…and the winner is.

Alesha.

Alesha, contact me with your address and I will send this special gift your way.

Thanks again to everyone.

Ruby’s Giveaway.

I am so excited.  Today is my day to host Ruby’s giveaway.

Ruby was born to my sister and her husband a year ago.  She spent 15 short days here on earth. 

Kristin, family and friends have been hosting 15 days of giveaways to celebrate her life.

If you missed any of it, you can see what is being given away here.

I am excited to share this with you.

I am giving away something that is special to me. 

As you know, I love to celebrate Birthdays.

My giveaway is full of great birthday essentials.

Throwing a beautiful celebration starts in the kitchen.

Here is what my giveaway includes:

An angel cookie cutter for Kristin’s sweet angel baby.

Red towels, red spatula, and red measuring spoons to help bake a special birthday surprise.

Red polka-dot cupcake liners, along with these great liners that represents her so well.

…and my favorite part of the giveaway:

A special Ruby cake plate.

I love cake plates, and believe that are a great addition to any party.

In fact, Kristin bought this same cake plate for Ruby’s party.  You can see it here.

To be a part of this giveaway, just leave me a comment telling me how you celebrate your loved ones birthdays.

To  get a second entry, leave me a comment sharing a random act of kindness that you participated in to honor Ruby. (Kristin and Jared’s wish for Ruby’s birthday.)

Giveaway will end Monday evening at 10pm.

Winner will be announced on Tuesday morning.  Don’t forget to include your email address so I can contact you.

Thank you for celebrating with our family and my sister’s family.

Celebrating for Little Miss Ruby

Our family has had a wonderful week of celebrating Baby Ruby.  I can’t believe that a year has gone by already. It has been so special to celebrate the birth of a beautiful girl. 

My sister and her husband hosted a little party for Ruby last Saturday.  Ruby would have been one on the 11th of October.  Kristin put together the sweetest party at Ruby’s grave.  Friends and Family came to help celebrate.  To see Ruby’s special party go here.

I wanted to be a part of that celebration so badly.  I even looked in to flights, but it ended up being a weekend that Jonathan had a conference.  Because I couldn’t go to the party, I decided that we would have our own Ruby celebration here in PA. It helped me so much.  I hate being a way from our family.  I hated even more that I couldn’t be there for Kristin and Jared.  This way I felt like I was there for them, even far away. It is so important to me that my kids always remember their cousin. It also helped my heart too.

We started out by wearing Red for Ruby on her Birthday.

We all also wore our Red Ruby power bracelets that day as well.

On Saturday, we spent the day planning the big party.

The kids helped me by making all the decorations.  I think they enjoyed being a part of it, and doing something for Ruby.

We started the night off by letting off a balloon with a birthday wish for Ruby.  This was something that they did at Ruby’s party in Utah.

 

I wanted to make sure we did it here in PA also.

We sang “I am a child of God”, before we released the balloons. It was a special moment for our kids and us.

After the balloon release, we celebrated with a special dinner of heart shaped meat-loaf, and all the extras.

I enjoyed making dinner.  I put a lot of effort in to it.  I went the extra mile; it was a special dinner.  It was one of those afternoons, of just doing something special for someone that I love.

 

Making dinner for Ruby brought peace to my heart.  I knew I couldn’t be there for her party, but I could do something special to celebrate her.

After dinner, we all sang Happy Birthday, and then made a wish and blew out her candle.

 

I made special red velvet cupcakes for the occasion.

…with some special help from Tess.

We all had such a great night.  I am so thankful that we could come together as a family and celebrate our niece and cousin.  I am also thankful for my sister and Jared.  They have been such wonderful examples to our family.  They are strong and amazing parents.

In honor of Ruby, we were asked to do a random act of kindness.  My family made red cookies, and gave them to their bus driver.

Thank you to those of you who participated in this, and did your own random act of kindness.

If you would like to make your own Ruby cookies, here is the simple recipe:

  Don’t forget Ruby’s 15 days of giveaways are still going on.  Check it out here.  Make sure to come back tomorrow.  It is my day to host the giveaway.

Happy Birthday Ruby. I love you.  Eat some heavenly cake for me.

 

 

Enjoying Pennsylvania

Our family is trying really hard to live it up here in the East. 

Our time here is short; so it’s important that we make the most of it.

There is so much to see and do, so we are trying to do as much as we can.

Here are a few things we have enjoyed since we have been here.

The beautiful farms and countryside.

I am in love with Strasburg in Lancaster county.  It is the cutest little town. We stumbled on this neat little band concert one evening; so charming.

 

It is also Amish Country.

It is fun to drive around this town full of old charm.

It has a great railroad that you can ride.  We are hoping to make time for this.

We enjoyed a Saturday in Hershey, at Chocolate World.

The kids had so much fun taking the tour, I think we did it 3 or 4 times. 

 

It was fun to hear all about how the city of Hershey was made, and how Hershey chocolate came to be.

We really wanted to take the kids to Hershey Park.  The more we read about it, it seemed like the kids wouldn’t be able to ride a lot of the rides because of their height.  We opted to take a trip to Lancaster over Labor Day weekend.

We stayed in a Hotel, which is magical for a child…

…and did what every good set of parents would do:

 

We let them jump on the bed.

The next morning, we took the kids to Dutch Wonderland.  Which is an amusement park that is well-suited to our kids ages.

We had a blast.  I love hanging out as a family.

As you all know, our family loves baseball. 

We had to make sure we made it to an Orioles game while we were here.

Camden Yards is really neat.  The kids loved being at the ballpark.

We have also enjoyed being a part of a soccer team.  It is nice to be a part of something after only a few months of being here.

Jex and Stella have a chance to run around and play with all their friends from church, and it makes them so Happy. 

What else I love about PA:

the fall leaves on all the old established trees in these historic neighborhoods

roadside stands and farmers markets everywhere

beautiful farmland

What I hope to visit before we move:

Washington D.C.

New York City

Gettysburg

I am grateful for opportunities to experience new things. 

It is never easy to move to a new place, but I enjoying finding the good in life and new places.

Don’t forget to check out Ruby’s giveaway today.  It is Awesome.

Day one giveaway is still open.  It is the most adorable mobile that my sister made.  It is beautiful.  Go here to enter to win.