Christmas Recap

I've been bad. I know! Lots has actually happened and I haven't made the time for blogging. One of my goals for this year is to get better, heck get a few more followers. :)

Here's a quick recap of Christmas...yes CHRISTMAS peoples! It's only been a week and a half so get off my bootay.

I'll start with showing you a few pics of my living room, foyer and dining room. Just a few touches that made our home feel a little more christmasey.

My cozy living room area-notice fire going and all my christmas cards on my mantel.

Robert's grandmother passed away before the holidays last year (or 2009) and this Nativity set was passed down to him after her passing. We have to display it since it's a family tradition handed down to him. One day, when the girls are older I'll have it under a tree or over by fireplace or something. Avonlea is into EVERYTHING and this is way too fragil! Actually even Arianna my 3 year old wanted to play with them as if they were Barbies or something and I had to yell at her several times to GET AWAY! I think Robert would freak if something happened to this.

My foyer...blue and silver

Last year after having Avonlea, we decided to purchase a 'fun' christmas tree for the girls to decorate. We had a lot of fun! Arianna really enjoyed it and Avonlea really thought she was helping. It was cute. We went with an old theme I had (silver and blue) until the girls collect whatever ornaments they bring home from school or the oraments they'll pick out after christmas every year.

Our trees. The girls fun tree with silver and blue with multi color lights (not my favorite but it's not for me). And our somewhat not finished yet pretty tree. It's chocolate browns, golds and lime green. I absolutely love-once it's all complete of course (yep no bow, crazy ribbon, angel, star, etc...I will next year though!).

Christmas Eve-Ruiz family comes to mi casa! The fun we have together! We always have so much fun. We are the typical Hispanic family....LOUD and probably annoying to most who don't understand us. I don't think Robert will ever get over the fact that we AREN'T arguing. haha. The only white guy-besides my blonde girls of course!

Here we are eating! What we do best! We're all about my momma's puerto rican speciality yummy arroz con gandoles and so much more!

It took us over 2 hours to open presents! Literally. We always open presents at midnight/christmas morning/Christmas eve-whatever you want to call it. I've asked for earlier as we take so long and I'm old now. It takes more than 2 people to convince my big familia to change the hour of opening gifts since it takes us so dang long.

Reason: because we watch everyone open each present. It's fun and we know whether they like what we've picked out for them and to see the excitment on their faces is the best!

It was 3:30am before I got to bed to then wake up with my child poking me in the forhead to get up at 6:30am so she could play with her toys. Talk about no sleep! oh and in case you are wondering...the kids open their presents at 8pm and then go to bed.

The kids (4 to be exact-one on the way from my sister)

After opening gifts we all sit together on the floor and then take group pictures...something we do each year!

My girls in their christmas jammies before going to bed on Christmas Eve. They are my life.

Front view of my fireplace-see if you can find yours. :)

Christmas Day!

The Eddy Household. This is their living room peoples! Look at all those gifts! the couch was filled too! It was insane. Truly insane. I really am grateful at how much the girls are loved, but this is a little too much!!!!! I feel as though they can't learn the true meaning of Christmas when there's this many gifts. This goes for both families. I don't know....just sayin'. I don't want them to think that christmas is all about gifts...and of course I told my girls that the true meaning of christmas is Christ and how God gave his son to us and how God is love. Of course at 3 years old though, it's a bit hard to really understand this. She (Arianna) really wanted to rip open presents.

Here's Avonlea, a little grumpy, but ready to get those presents open!!

Can you tell Arianna is a little too excited! I thought this was funny! 'gotta get to the big gift, big gift, big gift!' Look at her hair at how fast she turned around to open more.

Showing off her Princess Barbie doll collection.

Avonlea opening presents..isn't she just precious!

Robert's family is very giving and I love them very much for wanting to give them lots, but at the same time I'd rather them put that money towards a college fund. Because later, they'll truly appreciate it more than toys.

And finally the girls and me once again on Christmas night. This is sad, but I can find a picture of the 4 us of together. I was horrible this year at taking pictures of Robert and the girls together and just getting some of us the family. And for some reason I didn't take many pictures while at the Eddy's! At least not of all us together. I know they took some so I'll have to get copies.

Any whoodles, there you have it. Our Christmas was fun as usual. It only gets better each year. I enjoy both my families and look forward to all our future christmas's together.

Unexpected things just happen...

What do you do when you hear bad news? Do you start thinking bad thoughts, do you go into quiet mode, or does it just depend on the situation? Well I have to just say, life just sometimes isn't fair.

Well, I heard bad news today. My mom called me today to tell me the unexpected. She's got breast cancer AGAIN! When I thought things were just turning around with her and she was beginnig to feel so much better she has to go through it all over again. The cancer has come back. I hate that word. I seriously just ran the Susan Komen 5k in her honor because I was so proud of her for succeeding and overcoming breast cancer. It frustrates me really, however I'm no one to question God. God has everything under control, God took care of her the first time and I know he'll once more do it again.

My mom is having to do Chemo once again and suffer thruogh the devestation of losing her hair all over again. A woman's pride right?! Why am I even thinking about her hair? I couldn't help but cry as soon as I got off the phone with her. I wouldn't do it while on the phone with her. I started thinking things I probably shouldn't have been thinking about. My mom is so strong. She was strong and was able to make it through the first time okay. I couldn't help but think about how I may not have my mom around for much longer and it just tore me up. My mom and I are so close! I couldn't imagine my life without her. I'm being selfish obviously, but I tried to stop myself and started thinking positive thoughts and how she was fine the first time and how she'll get through it again.

This time around she will not be getting radiation. The Dr. said it was too much on her body to go through it again. They discussed she will have a mastectomy this time around with reconstruction in the future. Her cancer is stage 2 as it was the first time but agressive. Her dr. said it's a 'mean' cancer so they need to get on it quickly so it doesn't spread, we hope and pray it isn't in her lymphnodes. She will start everything as soon as thanksgiving passes.

For anyone who reads this blog, please keep my mom in your prayers. She's a tough one, but I know it wears on her. She needs strength to get through this once again and for the second time look back and say..."I made it through with God's help!" God works in miraculous ways and I know He'll help her through. I want to be able to run the Susan Komen again and know she's overcomed it again and once and for all!

Wha...what! FREE Holiday Cards?!

Yep you read right!

Who doesn't like getting stuff for FREE?! Shutterfly is giving away 50 free christmas cards to all who blog about them. This couldn't have come at a more perfect time. We're getting our family christmas pictures done in a few days and this is perfect!!! They have so many awesome holiday cards to choose from too! It's actually quite hard to pick because they have over 700 choices!! Yep, something for everyone. Its given me so many ideas as to how I want to lay out my cards.

Check out these links on what Shutterfly has to offer:

Holiday Cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

Calendars are great addition to any working mom's office, fridge, desk, etc...: http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Choose your own card/invitation and URL from our Cards & Stationery page

If you are interested in receiving free holiday cards (you're crazy if you aren't), click on the link below, fill out the form and simply wait for their reply.

http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

Check them out facebook and twitter and click the 'like' button. :)

Here are some of my favorites:

Happy Shopping!

I naturally tend to go to simple, yet classy. I love this!

I saw this one and automatically was drawn to it. I see Avonlea and Arianna on each side with Robert and I in the middle. Too cute!

I love personality pictures and love the amount of pictures on this card.

This one is just so fun. I love the black and white with touches of hot colors.

I like the simplicity of this one. I'm a brown traditional girl. For this card, I would make it a family group photo.

Whoville's Cindy Lou Who and Baby Grinch

Last year I thought we did a pretty good job at dressing up the girls for Fall Festival/Halloween. Arianna was the cutest skunk and Avonlea was the cutest infant bunny.

This year we decided to be a little more creative...our girls were characters from the movie 'The Grinch who stole Christmas". We wanted to be funny and different. Most toddlers and little girls are princess's (?) or fairies right?! Nothing wrong with this, but every little girl looks the same. So here is my little whoviller....Cindy Lou Who.

People...I had to be creative with this one...i used pipe cleaners and bobby pins to put her hair up like this with a TON of hair spray. The dress, which I believe is perfect and so Dr. Seusish I literally found at Once Upon a Child for $4.50 and the cape was borrowed. This was the cheapest costume EVA!
She loved the makeup most of all of course!


Now to our little grinch. Sad you are probably thinking..but the girl is 15 months and has yet to get a head full of hair...so why not make her baby grinch right?!

Here we are starting out.

She got so mad, but who can blame her right?! Poor thing. I can't help but laugh and was laughing so hard then too. I about peed my pants.

So on Avonlea, my grinchy grinch-I spent $3.00 on her little santa outfit..which is a 6-9 month old outfit actually. She's very small for her age really. I spent more on Avonlea than I did on Arianna-only by a dollar though. I also bought this hunter green sleeper for $1.50 at Goodwill and then her face paint was a $1. Overall together on the girls I spent less than $10 people!!! I don't think I could pull this off again.

The baby Grinch...she looks dirty huh?! I wish it could have been better, but people got the idea being side Arianna.

We had so much fun and they got a lot of attention! More Arianna because of the hair but Avonlea because she just looked funny and icky. There were a lot of people who obviously didn't know us and would say..."His little grinch outfit is so funny" or "Is he okay?" lol...no one knew she was a she/girl. I mean look at her...she's green with barely any hair. It only makes sense I guess that people would think this.

Here are my whovillers

And by the end of the night she was out!!! She had too much fun. Avonlea too of course.

A night I'll never forget and will have fun sharing for years to come with my girls. How shall we top this off next year...any ideas? :)

A Great Song!

I heard this song on the radio and absolutely loved it! I wanted to share because it's beautiful. I could listen to it several times because it's so good. Makes me happy and emotional all at the same time. Sometimes we all need that extra strength to push on and believe! Please listen.

1st week of school for my girls

My girls started school last week and what a week it has been. It was a bit rough and difficult for me but after several weeks of doing research I settled for Little People's Ink Preschool.

I was looking for several things in particular: A scheduled daily routine, curriculm, clean place, caring teachers (I know they all behave well when you first meet them, but mom's can sometimes sense this), outside playgound (surprisingly some schools didn't have one), affordable somewhat (ridiculous how much it costs! thank God we've begun their college savings), small and personable, and a place that would write down their daily activities. There's more to that list but well I would be on here forever!

I wasn't so worried for Arianna as I knew she was ready to be in a school. I was actually excited for her. I knew she'd tell me all about her day and activities. She has also talked about school for a long time now. It was a surprise to her when I told her she was going to start school early rather than at 4 years old. She's always told people she was starting school when she turned 4. The girl has got her birthday cakes planned already until she's 5..no joke! Any whoodles, she was thrilled about starting school! I love seeing my girl happy. However, Arianna was a bit disappointed when she thought she'd be picked up by an actual bus. When Monday arrived and she thought a bus was coming to get her, I had to tell her the bus was our yellow ford escape. Her disappointment showed on her face and I couldn't help but laugh. Her face went into this serious deep and confused look.

As for Avonlea, my little baby girl, barely 15 months...I was worried about. She can't talk really, but a few simple words like momma and dada. I knew she wouldn't be able to tell me about her day which worried me a bit. The school also told me she'd be sleeping on a mat on the floor and that just tore me up! I told them it would just be impossible and they reassured me she would pick up on it after some time and seeing other little ones doing it as well. She's use to having rails around her and not getting up and moving as she pleases. She also is used to having 4 hours of nap time. Avonlea is also drinking milk every 4 hours or so and I wanted to make sure they'd be giving her milk as she needed it. As you can read I was worried. But turns out things are going okay and I think she'll get use to it. I'm still a bit worried about naps as she's only had less than 2 hours of nap a day since she started last week, but hopefully things will get better with nap times.

This is Arianna's classroom. This is Avonlea's classroom.

Here's Arianna, her first day of school. She was so excited to wear her backpack and take her strawberry shortcake play doll! Girls at school the first day. I couldn't get one of Avonlea. Too distracted with magazines.

Arianna enjoying herself during playtime outside. She's got a little friend named Leah.

Here's Avonlea with her new little buddy Riley. He looks out for her. She was supposedly crying the other day for me and he went over to her little cubby hole, got her blanket and brought it to her. I thought that was so cute and sweet. (Yes, she looks like a little boy and the shirt is red, but it has a bow on the neck line. If you look hard enough you can see it on the right! :) ).

What I was most worried about was the napping on the mat thing...well I think it's working. Look-a-hea! Is she not precious?! I was so happy to get this picture from the teacher. She knew I was so worried. It still breaks my heart because I think she's too little to be on a mat, but I know I can't keep her a baby forever.

A little closer! I want to pick her up and hold her so badly.

Just a few more pictures...as you can see again..I couldn't get Avonlea to look at me. Doesn't Arianna look like such a big girl..she's only 3!

The week went really well and Arianna was ready for Monday to roll around. She's enjoying school. Teresa, the teacher, seemed to be so surprised at how smart she is. I simply looked at her and said, "well of course she's smart, she's my daughter!" I was happy to hear this because I know she truly is a smart girl. Avonlea did really well besides the napping thing. She'll get use to it. I know she will.