Wow- A lot has happened since Ruby's second birthday! First, for anyone who doesn't know already...

Yes! Ruby is going to be a big sister! We think that she is going to be an excellent big sister and a huge help, she loves her big sister kit that a super nice and talented friend made for her, to prep her in all the ways she can help us with the new little one. The due date is February 21st, but if this one is anything like their big sister, they will be late to the party. As this child will be completing the Badertscher family we are going to let the gender be a surprise, and what a wonderful surprise it will be!

To get Ruby ready we have already made a remarkably smooth transition to her big girl bed. We are in the process of turning the guest room into the nursery and are making some real progress there as well.

We had a great trip to Gillette for Great Grandma Liz's 75th Birthday (Hope you don't mind us sharing that Grandma!)

Ruby is definitely her mother's child and loves Halloween, she has picked out her costume- a triceratops. (Pictures to come soon) She also loves the Halloween section at Target and requests to look every time we are there. She has a few Halloween shirts and wears them a ton, and really likes her new skeleton shirt. For some reason cute ghosts and black kittens freak her out but she really likes skeletons. When asked why she replied "They are funny and they like to dance." She really enjoyed the pumpkin patch and talks about it frequently, and of course the delicious pumpkin bread (of which she pretty much ate all the icing off and then a few bites of the bread). She also points out the huge blow up jack-o-lantern on top of the Halloween store we drive by every day, saying, "There's the pumpkin! He's a happy pumpkin! There's a skeleton too, Mommy!" Literally every day I hear this.

Ruby also really enjoys helping us with the leaves in the back yard.

 And a Happy Halloween pic showing off our creepy/somewhat cute skeleton shirts.

What Ruby is really into right now...

• Pretending she is a doctor/dentist- "Open up please!", "You need a check-up!" 
• Puzzles- we bought her a 12 piece Snoopy Halloween puzzle for a dollar and she can put the puzzle together completely on her own. I think this is a sign of pure genius but that's just her mother's opinion. :)
• Horses- she has named her big stuffed horse Tawny from her Barbie book that has a horse. 
• Reading- of course, I doubt that will change and we are happy about that!
• She is starting to get more into baby dolls, she is still freaked out by most of them but she has a few plush ones that she likes and she likes to take care of them and feed them their bottles. 
• Spelling her name- a trick she loves to show off for friends.