Avonlea

This little girl cracks me up! She's a character or a 'ham' as Robert would call her. She's got such a funny little personality. She's not shy and she makes everyone around her laugh so hard. Avonlea loves any attention she can get!

So in her honor, I put a few some funny pictures of her on here because, well, they're just too cute not to share. Her little blonde white head and pigtails crack me up!

I loved this pic of her minus the shadow
"Pssss, come over here, I've got a little secret..."

"I'm bored..please stop it with all these pictures!"

Avonlea's face is priceless: "Ewww, whatcha talkin' about'?!

And well, she just looks funny in this one. You also can't even freakin' see the little hair she does have-it's so white-blonde!!!

Avonlea is at a funny age. I'm enjoying and soaking it all in before she grows up. :(

I'm 30! Eeeekkkk!

Happy Birthday to me!

The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets.

Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

~ Allen Hervey

Good bye 20's...

I can't believe it, but I'm leaving my 20's for good! I will be introduced to the big 3-0 come Sunday. OMG!!!  I seriously feel, well I don't know how I feel. I'm a bit scared yet ready to face the unknown road ahead of me in my 30's. I hear the 30's are the new 20's. You basically learn from your 20's how not to be in your 30's right? So that's the approach I'm taking! This weekend will be a weekend I'll NEVER EVER forget. At least I hope. I'm celebrating all.weekend.long. Yep! Call me crazy, but that's how it's gonna be.

The 20's have brought me to who I am today. There are so many sweet memories. I married, graduated college, got a professional job, have owned 3 homes, became an aunt for the first time, had 2 beautiful girls and since then have become a stay at home mom. That's a lot of great stuff but I also went through some not so good moments which I won't mention, but it molded me into a stronger person and I'm still going through things now that are slowly shaping me and who I am. However, with all this said, I don't want to freeze time nor do I want to go back. I definitely want to move ahead and embrace my new life in the 30's. The reality of turning 30 is that...it's just that. I'm heading down a road that I'm not sure about. I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next year or years. That's what scares me a bit, but I know that only God will continue to guide and lead me in the right direction.

So 30's, I'm here...I'm ready! My life is just about to begin. Life is life and it'll happen as it's supposed to. I accept it-life and myself and the the way the world is. Thinking positively.

I'm making sure we get a picture just like this tonight!
Faces and everything! lol

Urban Street/Abstract Art

My little sister Damaris had an art show last weekend. I was so excited for her and ready to see her art work on display. She was a part of the Franklin Art Scene at the Damico Gallery. Lots of people came out. This is like an upidy artsy thing-I think-in Franklin...wine, cracker, and cheeses are provided at very gallery around downtown Franklin and a lot of people come to just stare at art for minutes at a time. Kinda funny when you see people stand in front of an art piece for so long you start to wonder. It was exciting to see people stand in front of my sisters art work for long periods of time. Hopefully a good thing. ;)

The owner of this gallery noticed her art and asked if she could display her art work at his gallery for this particular event. I think that's pretty cool and says a lot. Her style: Urban Street-Abstract. It's not my style necessarily but I think she's good. I couldn't do it. Check out her website here!

The owner made her a special sign to go along with her display.

Her art work-The one to the left is a painting of one of my sisters and her baby.
The other is dedicated to my mom who went through breast cancer

More down the wall.

She named this one after her boyfriend 'Ray' :)
He's a muscian so it makes sense.

I think this was my favorite

My sis and boyfriend

Proud of my little sister

You In Shape

If you are a subscriber to Shape Magazine you'll notice a cute very fit girl on page 149. Guess who that is?? That my friends is my sister-in-law Angela who was featured on the November 3oth anniversary issue. Yep. I have to brag right?! We've got a celebrity in our family. :) She's extremely fit. Works out just about every day without skipping a beat and eats super healthy. Angela is very committed and an inspiration to many.

 She truly deserved this. I'm extremely proud of her as it was her goal to be in a magazine and she was picked. Yay!

ow'd they know about her? Well, she entered her name, sent her picture and story and she was chosen from among hundreds-who knows maybe more. Angela's worked really hard. Check out her story if you're a subscriber or if you're at any of your local stores. Just walk yourself over to the magazine aisle and you'll see her there (page 149).

7lbs of candy!

Last week was Halloween, what I refer to as a celebration of Fall. Our church puts a big Fall Festival party the day of Halloween to provide parents/children a safe environment to keep kiddos off the streets.  It is a great way to share in the "holiday" but a bit differently. Hundreds of kids come out and the church turns into a crazy chucky cheeses.

My oldest was a boring, yet beautiful princess (she wouldn't let us choose for her or dress her as we wanted) and my little one-who we can get away with anything right now because she doesn't care, went as the cutest little stinker/skunk (which we did to Arianna at about that age too). Parents, take advantage of your kids who know nothing right now. It's so fun to play with them. bwhahaha. You may remember this from last year (poor little girl, but it was hilarious!!!).

My oldest Arianna-I refered to her as a little rennaisance princess

She was so excited that I put makeup on her and made her hair into an up do.
She does make one pretty princess!

My skunk Avonlea-we told her she was a kitty and she was so excited. lol

Isn't that the cutest costume-she honestly stole the show..she was the talk of the night.

Her aunt Angela (Robs sister) and uncle Randy joined us in the fun!

As did her grandparents

Family picture moment!



Of course it wouldn't be a party without the jumpy's and slides

The amount of candy the church had was ridiculous!

7lbs of candy later, we left. Overall we had a ton of fun and the girls had way too much fun! I love that our church is able to do this every year. I'm already thinking ahead of what I could dress Avonlea as next year because it'll be the last year I'll be able to dress her as I want without her saying she wants to be a princess (nothing wrong with being a princess...just a bit boring since every girl is a princess). 

Walking to 'Save the ta-tas'

The Susan Komen 5k 'Race for the Cure' was last weekend. I was so excited when my mom and my aunt Debbie decided to do it. Both women have gone through breast cancer and because of the strength God's given them, they've successfully defeated it. I ran it last year in my mom's honor because she had just finished going through the difficulties of the disease (cancer/chemo). It was so hard on her....and then, at about this time last year, the unexpected happened. You may remember this post I wrote that my mom once again got breast cancer for the second time. It was a tough time for the family, but you know...God truly is in control of everything and once again, my strong and beautiful mother made it through successfully. I can't even imagine going through chemo and then doing it all over again. It's been a hard few years for my mom, but my goodness how I admire the woman!
So my entire family-kids and all (minus one, Eunice) was able to walk the walk. It was so much fun and so exciting.  Here are a few pictures of our day:

Survived and Defeated the cancer-Aunt Debbie and my mom
the women I honor

A celebration in their honor-a parade

The Fam



The Ruiz clan-all kids, yes, even my radiant and invisible
white child to the right

The gals

I was so proud that my husband was able to come and support

My cute parents

Aunt Debbie with my sisters

My sister and her husband who also came out

My big girl

And Avonlea who wasn't too thrilled-but once we started she was fine

Aunt Debbie walking hand in hand with the kiddos-Isn't this cute?!

Yay we did it-3.1 miles completed!!!

Thanks Debbie for being such a huge supporter of my mother and for 
making it through a hard battle

Proud of you mom and Debbie!

I'll continue doing this because I love you both so much

The race was a success and we all got emotional at the end. Thank you God for making these women so strong. They have amazing testimonies to share in the years to come!
So are you in next year??

A visit to the Amish

Once again my love and obsession for the Amish dragged me over to Amishville. Arianna was on fall break as was Kristy my best friend who is a teacher. We took advantage of their day off. We actually went to buy pumpkins...and for $.50 and $1.00 you can't beat that price. I also bought peanut brittle and red and green bellpeppers. Because the Amish don't believe in getting their pictures made, I have to sneak some...yeah of their houses, hoping they're in the background somewhere. :)

 The fact that they live without technology amazes me.

I think Arianna is becoming obsessed like her momma.
She asked a ton of questions as to why they live as they do.

All their homes are plain white with no shutters and no window covers.

Overall the day was nice and we enjoyed our time out there. I want to be like best friends with them so they'll invite me into their homes. I'll be going back in the spring I'm sure-maybe then. :) I just need to go to the same house everytime.