First comes love, then comes marriage...

Here are some pictures of Aaron proposing to Meagan! These pictures made me cry, and Todd cry, and when I saw Todd cry I cried again. The one that got to me most was of their hands because I could see Aaron's little boy hand mixed up in the hand that was holding on to the girl he wants to marry. Then when I was talking to my Mom and sister about how that picture made me cry, I started crying. Now I'm crying again writing about it, what is wrong with me! So here's the scoop on the engagement. Mexico, beach, bonfire, heart in the sand, and the best part? Aaron knocked it out of the park by hiring a photographer to sneak pics of the whole thing. Can't believe he's going to be a husband, that he's going to have a wife, that he'll be MARRIED. Crazy. Meagan is absolutely divine ~  loves the Lord, sweet heart, fun, cutest little thing, loves vintage {a plus in my book;)} and apparently she stole Aaron's heart which means she's pretty dang fabulous. Aaron is amazing, goes to Africa and Haiti to help orphanages, Master's degree from Whitworth, won Daffodil Educator of the Year, soccer and coach extraordinaire, plays every instrument under the sun, really well, cute as can be, just took 1st place in his Martial Arts competition. This guy has it going on, so if Meagan won him over, that tells you what kind of girl she is. Couldn't be happier she said "yes!" Wish they weren't on the west side, but know we have forever ahead of us. Congratulations you two love birds, happily ever after is just around the corner....Ok, back tracking here, I just realized that family is going to think, Mexico, by themselves? How very naughty! No, they had family with them to ruin the fun;)

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I am a Christmas junkie, I just love everything about this season. And on the last day of break, I'm always sad to say goodbye to carefree days with the kids. I hate real life, real life sucks. Christmas break life is much, much more fun. I was telling a friend that I was sad to see Ella go off to school today and she asked "why?! I LOVE when school starts back up!" And don't get me wrong, it's not all sugar cookies and cocoa around here with these kids, and they definitely don't poop rainbows, but I do love being cozied up at home together and not being a slave to the schedule. So here's a run down of how the Rufflings rocked out Christmas this year, and I even included pictures to change things up;) Hope your CHRISTmas was MeRrY!
Both of the kids had Christmas programs just before school let out for break. Of course, being a kindergartner, it was Dawson's first and I wish so badly that I'd had the camera on video when he went up on stage with his class. His expression and demeanor were so hilarious, he clearly would've rather been at the dentist than singing in front of everyone. Todd was away on business but my Mom was in town and I was so glad she was there with me to see it. No way to describe it adequately, I couldn't stop laughing. I did snap a picture that gives you an idea of his overall thoughts on the snowman song they were performing. He also did the hand motions WAY over dramatically which had us all cracking up. When it came to the "5 bright blue mittens" part he would wave his hands so fast and hard, and he had his neck sticking out and eyes wide as if he were saying "what are you looking at?"

I love this picture of Dawson and his best school buddy, Jack. I was trying to get Dawson to smile and Jack reached over and gently tickled under his chin to try and get him to smile. How cute is that?!

Snuggles with Ninny

making out in the parking lot after Dawson's program

Ella's concert followed a few nights later and even though it was a long one, I think of all the years we've been at NWC, it was the best. Except that there was standing room only! No big deal for those of us that had to take kids to the foyer, a lot. Ella is in the Pure Joy choir at school and she also had a cymbal part in one of the songs, and played the recorder. I of course missed both because I was one of those people in the foyer. Another awesome part about it, besides missing my daughter sing and do her instrument, was that I turned the camera on to take pictures and the battery was dead. Perfect. Bah Humbug. Luckily Todd took this quick one with his phone.

 And then, let the official break begin!

 We did LoTs of baking, and subsequently, lots of eating. Every day we did one or two things for about a week.

Charlie is such a sweetheart. I asked all the kids to stand together so I could get a picture of them baking, and he insisted that I get in it. I love how thoughtful he is.

I even made a little craft ~ this dove garland took me about 6 days to complete even though it only entailed about an hour of work. Christmas break is really translated "double the work, double the cleaning, double the cooking, double the activities ~ so for Mom it is the opposite of a break!"

Some of us were able to sneak in a little nap on the couch:) Love those lashes and lips, sweet boy.

More snowball fights!

Mitchy had fun playing in the soapy water, maybe I'll train him for the dish washing position sooner than later.

Attempting to get a decent picture of the kids in front of the tree:)

We've had a good amount of snow, but then it kinda disappeared just before Christmas. This was not good. So the kids and I prayed and prayed for a white Christmas, not just for us but for my Mom, she loves the snow but doesn't get much where they live. The snow started to fall late on the 23rd, I almost woke the kids up to see the big, *beautiful flakes* coming down. But they had gone to bed late and I knew we had a big day ahead of us, so I let them sleep. Oh and the horrible gasp Todd made when I mentioned waking them up sorta sealed the deal. When we woke up Christmas Eve, our little world was a magical snowglobe. So we took a walk that morning with the kids...

Later that afternoon it was time for our usual Griswald, I mean Ruff Family Christmas Eve. We were blessed to celebrate Christmas with 20 crazy family members:)

My beautiful niece, Rachel

Torre, Ella and Gabe

Ava and Dawson

Dawson was VERY excited about his Angry Birds figurines!

Aaron and Meagan, soon to be...Mrs. Ruff! Our biggest, bestest Christmas break news is that Aaron proposed to this sweet girl, we are over the moon for them!! More pics on that to come! 

Aunt Stephy got all of the kids games, here she is playing one with Mitchy:)

Ella is decked out in Nerf bullets, ready for war with cousin Gabe

My other beautiful {and goofy} niece Bethanne and Todd's cousin, Nathan

Our Adam, healthy and cancer free, thank the Lord. Although he had an EKG scheduled for the day after Christmas for some concerns his doctor had. This kid keeps stressing us out. 

Christmas morning! The boys had thee best bed heads, wish these pictures did justice to their wacky hair

Mitchy still loves cows, he wanted the "baby" version of the big cow Aunt Stephy got him when we moved. He named his new cow Squeaky

I got Ella this teacher kit, now she can boss the world around in style

This is a terrible picture of Charlie, but one of the only ones I got on Christmas! And it shows what was left of his black eye;) I took a handful of pics that morning and nothing the rest of the day with my family, oops.

All Dawson wanted for Christmas was a pair of cowboy boots and a toy rifle, I think he liked it;)

My favorite gift, Dawson made this nativity set for me at school, I absolutely cherish it

My Mom remembered that he wanted a slushy maker , so my parents bought it for him. Took about 12 pounds of patience to make one icee, but it was well worth it {at least Dawson thought so}

I got Todd one of those remote controlled helicopters, here he is trying it out in our empty {but almost done!} room

Leave it to our kids to quickly discover that the pointer from Ella's teacher kit can also be put to good use as a nose picker. Charlie exclaimed "see, I can pick my nose and not wash my hands!" We are so proud

My parents got Charlie a train engineer costume and Mitchy a construction worker costume. Charlie put his on first thing the next morning:)

And that next morning happens to be my baby boy's birthday. The suckiest birthday ever is the day after Christmas! I will feel guilty the rest of my life that I couldn't push him out 40 minutes earlier. Even Christmas day is better than the day after! Here is party, party hat and rifle on his birthday morn

Dawson wanted to go sledding for his birthday, so the whole fam was heading out to meet here and go when I heard a bump and a cry...It was Charlie, he needed stitches, again. I knew of all the kids, Charlie would love sledding probably the most so I felt so bad for him. Even though I knew right away he needed to go in, it was classic text book, I still called Dr. Thompson to try to get out of it. No luck, they sent him to SHMC. So Todd took care of that so I could be with Dawson. Not a fun choice to make between comforting Charlie and wanting to be there for Big D on his special day. But this smile was the cure-all! The birthday boy flying down the hill in his new Angry Bird hat from Aunt Steph and Uncle Dave!

Love this picture of Ella getting air on her sled!

Papa and Dawson!

I wasn't sure if Mitchy would like sledding but he loved it! He actually went speeding down the hill by himself for his first run, on his tummy, and I didn't know until he was well on his way! It is a steep hill too, it even got my adrenaline pumping so I can't believe he was brave enough to do it by himself!

My crazy parents

My snow bunny, such a little athlete. I love how her tongue is hanging out the side of her mouth, she does this when she's concentrating, so cute

Charlie and Daddy finally made it home to celebrate the rest of the Dawson's birthday with us. Chuckles has been to the ER for stitches twice in 3 months! That plus his visit for croup makes 3 trips in just over a year. This child should be in bubble wrap.

 Dawson's party is next weekend, but we of course had to celebrate his official birthday with a special night out. He was all about this chocolate lava cake.

One night over break we got a sitter and went on a double date with our friends, Dan and Erin. They live on the South Hill, and the restaurant we were going to is about 20 blocks from their house, so we walked through Manito and up the hill through the snow. It was so pretty in the park at night, and walking down the tree lined streets by all the houses decorated in lights, blanketed in white. We ate a delicious meal and had a blast, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It was super icy and thanks to my idiotic choice of leather boots that had absolutely no traction, Erin and I had to walk arm and arm the whole way home, giggling like little girls:)

We s-l-o-w-l-y started moving the kids into their "new" rooms, and Todd and I into ours.  

We figured we should use the extra time off to get beds taken apart and put together, curtains and blinds up, dressers and closets re-organized and moved...It was bittersweet to move the twins out of their cribs and into a big bed. We would've done it sooner but have had all 4 kids in one room, so it was more efficient space wise. We've had a crib {or 3!} up in our house for 9 and a half years, hard to say goodbye to those precious memories and that chapter of our lives. I had a good cry, then got back to work and cleaned the floor while all the beds were out of the room. Charlie helped, he likes to squeeze the almond oil soap on the floor for me.

Last snuggles in their cozy cribs

Of course Dawson wants to help when there's power tools involved;) I remember buying these cribs for the twins and how Todd and I were in a little bit of sticker shock buying 2 more at once when we had one at home! But Dawson was so little that we couldn't pass his down to one of them yet. Can't believe how quickly the time passes. Sigh...

 Another one of Daddy's helpers. Charlie has his Mommy's sense of personal space;)

First night in a big boy bed, together! I bought a twin headboard over the summer, but we would still need one more, and 2 mattresses, so for now we put them in the queen bed we already have. They love it, all snuggled up;) 

Nigh-night, The End