Finally

We have some very good news we'd like to share.  After four years of people asking when we planned to have baby number two, we're happy to say the day has finally come.  Come May 3, 2013, our sweet Ruby girl will be an only child no more.  She has been praying for a baby brother or sister for quite some time now, and she is super excited that her prayers have been answered.  She does not however think it's "very fair" that she has to wait so long to meet her sibling.  She's also quite positive it's going to be a girl.  :  )

Ruby was the first person we told and we let her break the news to both of her Grandmas and Grandpas at dinner last night.  She did a great job keeping the secret until I gave her the go ahead, which was a small miracle.

A five year spread between kids was definitely not what I had planned for our family, but as we all know, life rarely goes according to our plans.   Regardless, I am so excited to be a momma all over again, and as an only child, I am super excited for Ruby to be a big sister.  The look on her face when I told her was priceless, and I can't even imagine the smile when she meets her brother/sister for the first time.  One of many amazing memories to come I'm sure.

Because She's Blave

Today was my baby girl's first day of preschool. We've been talking it up ALL Summer, but especially the last month. This past week every time we'd ask Ru if she was excited to start school, the answer was the same. " I'm not afraid of pleschool. I'm a blave girl." We sometimes like to replace our R's with L's. : ) Well apparently our plan worked because it wasn't just talk, the girl took her first day of school in stride. As you can tell by the first photo, she was nothing but excited!

Showing off her Monkey Pack-Pack

Walking to School

Crossing with Daddy

Teddy Bear Preschool

All Summer long EVERY time we drove by this sign, she would proclaim "There's my pleschool!" And when we weren't passing by, she would ask if we could drive by her preschool. When I would explain that we weren't anywhere near her school, I was usually given the typical "Awwww" response.

With her best bud Hudson

Love this expression...maybe a tad nervous?

Nope, this is one brave girl!

I was fully expecting a meltdown at some point. I thought she would be brave until she realized this was "for reals". I'm so glad she proved me wrong. Because she was so happy and excited, I was able to leave her without a single tear shed. Her best buddy Hudson is in the same class with her and I think that helped her to feel more comfortable from the get go. Her teacher also earned major Brownie points right off the bat by noticing her new shoes, "They're HELLO KITTY!" she yelled with pure excitement. NOTHING excites my girl more than a new pair of shoes, so her birthday shoes (courtesy of Ebby Debi) that we saved for the first day of school were an awesome ice breaker. You don't even know how that makes my heart smile, because what, more than new shoes totally encompasses that first day experience? Nothing I say. Nothing!

About to enter her class for the very first time!

Getting her name tag on.

So she went right in, talked to her teacher like they were old chums and went to town doing all sorts of fun things. She's already chosen what she wants to take to class for show & tell on Thursday, and ever since I told her she'll get to wear her costume to school for a Halloween Parade, Halloween cannot come soon enough! We celebrated her big day with lunch at Chik-fil-a with best buddies Hudson and Clara. I couldn't have asked for a better first day, this mommas heart is quite full tonight.

Birds Of A Feather...

Flock together!

Since we had coordinating hair accessories this morning, thought I might as well document the fact that for the most part, this is the look on my baby's face when i check her into Sunday School. That is unless her regular teacher, Miss Bekah isn't there...then it gets dicey. Sunday mornings are so much happier now that I don't have to spend the entire service wondering how she's doing and sneaking out to check on her. Turns out consistancy ( of going EVERY week and to the same service) has it's rewards. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the two year old class gets animal cookies and fruit gummies, a definite menu upgrade from the grahm crackers in the toddler class. Happy Sunday everyone!

My Funny Valentines...

No romantic dinner for two for the Greens this year. Daniel had to work most of the day so we celebrated family style. We started the morning with opening a few "Valentine Treats" and followed it up with a good old game of Candy Land. After that we dined on a very fancy lunch at McDonald's with the other Amanda Green. She captured the fabulous photo above. This is Ruby's "pirate face", or the look she gives us anytime we ask her to smile for a photo. It's usually accompanied by a "shiver me timbers" and it cracks me up!

In her Valentines "dancing dress" with her new heart sunnies...

Since miss thang is a bit on the spoiled side (think only grand child), i thought it would be good if she got into the practice of taking goodies to other people instead of always being on the receiving end. With that in mind i picked up a few goodies at Target and made a little assembly line for Ru so she could stuff the goody bags. After she filled them i got to try out my new Cricut machine to make the tags and i must say it was love at first print. i can't wait for my next excuse to use it.


On Valentine's Day, Ruby delivered her treats to all ten of the neighbor kids and she loved every moment of it. Here she is with her friend Ryan who lives next door to us. Ryan is two years older than Ruby and i'm pretty sure she thinks she's the bees knees! ; )

I love any excuse to decorate and Valentine's is no exception. In addition to my new go to holiday craft of bunting, i also discovered Acrylic Paint Pens at Michael's that are meant for writing on glass. Perfect for the person who has a HUGE window hanging on their wall right? What, you don't have a ginormous re purposed window salvaged from your parents window renovation project hanging in your house?!? : ) I'm always looking for ways to decorate this beast around the holidays and these markers fit the bill perfectly, but you could also use it on mirrors. Much easier cleanup than lipstick i would think. i will probably be investing in a few more colors and putting them to use on birthdays and other special occasions. When you're sick of it, comes right off with a little rubbing alcohol, easy peasy! please excuse my not so cute writing...



Hope you and yours had a very happy heart day...how did you spend your Valentines?

What Went Down & What's Going Out...

I'm not gonna lie, 2010 hasn't been the easiest year, but we still have much to be thankful for. And easy isn't really what life is all about is it? Life is about struggles and how you deal with them and the decisions you make in the process. And often times in between or even in the midst of the struggles the Lord chooses to bless you or perhaps just make you more aware of the ways in which He has already blessed you. For me this past year has really been about learning to be content in the now even if it isn't the now you had mapped out in your mind. I wanted to make a list for myself so that when i look back at 2010 i won't just remember the difficulties, as we have a tendency to do, but appreciate the blessings and be thankful for what we have.
This year:

I lost my grandma at the age of 92.
This was a huge loss, but I was lucky to have had her for so long. But i still miss her. a lot. of all my grandparents she is the one i felt the closest to. She was an unselfish servant, a prayer warrior and the best little italian cook you ever met. That and she buttered an english muffin to perfection. This is a fact.

We moved. Again. Third move in six years.
We swear this is our last move until we buy a house, which will hopefully occur in some time in the next decade. We found the right place at the right time, pay less rent no longer live on a main road.

We got a roommate.
Daniel's sister Amanda moved back to Cali and now lives with us. She is a huge part of what afforded us the opportunity to move into a nicer place. This transistion went even better than i could have hoped for and i'm so glad we all decided to go for it. Ruby LOVES having her Onnie at "her house" and i love having a partner in crime for my numerous ColdStone runs.

Daniel got a new job.
After almost exactly two years of praying for a new opportunity, he was hired on as a captain at STA Jets. PRAISE THE LORD!

My dream came true.
For as long as i can remember when people asked me what i wanted to do when i grew up, my answer was always the same; "get married and have kids." Let me say it hasn't always gone like i had hoped and planned for, but the Lord has given me my greatest desire, to be a stay at home mom. I would love to have quit my job the minute i found out i was pregnant, but it wasn't in the cards until April of 2010, two months short of Ruby's second birthday. I will be eternally grateful to Daniel who has taken this huge leap of faith and carried the burden of being the sole provider for our family. I am SO blessed to be able to watch my daughter grow and learn each and every day and i never want to take that for granted.

I started a new hobby.
I didn't get too far, but i have started learning how to sew. My mother in law has been a patient teacher and my first projects include crayon rolls for Ruby's birthday party favors and a cute little cupcake for her halloween costume. I hope to do more and more as each year passes.

So now that you know what i'm thankful for i thought i'd also share with you my resolutions for 2011. I am typically not one for New Year's Resolutions. I'd like to say that's because i have it so together, but alas, if you have known me for longer than 5minutes, you know that is not the case. Truth be told i don't make them because i know i won't keep them. it's almost as if i'm beating myself to the punch and choosing not to set myself up for failure. What kind of screwed up type of thinking is that, i mean is it any less of a failure if i opt not to put it down on paper or even worse, on the blog for the world (i use that term loosely, {5 faithful followers}) to see? Of course not!

Realistically i am not going to hold to all, or even just one of my resolutions 100%, but that isn't the point. The point is to try and learn, grow and become a better person for the next 365 days. Even if that's just a slight improvement from where i stand today, it's still an improvement right? So with that said, i'm putting my resolutions out there, for you to read so that you can help hold me accountable. Without further adieu, here we go!

To read my Bible, more consistently.

To spend more QUALITY time with my Ru Bear Pie

Patience. i'm already sorry that i put this one out there, need i say more?

Complain less.

Contain my anger in the car and keep my road rage limited to internal dialogue, rather than subject my poor unsuspecting passengers to the crazy!

To cook at least 3 meals a week.

Indulge in more spontaneity and let go of rigidity. (is that a word?)


Obviously there are in depth personal details that go along with each of those, but i'll spare you the gory details. I really look forward to having goals in the New Year, it seems rather ridiculous to have opted out of this tradition in hindsight, after all i have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Here's to doing my best and not giving up even after i fall short. Are you making any resolutions? What will you do better in 2011?

Sew Sweet!

In keeping with last year's chicken costume, we decided to continue on with the food theme, and this year Ru went as a a cupcake. More specifically a "pink cake with spinkles." Seems quite fitting seeing as how, a) I often refer to her as my little cupcake and b) she LOVES making AND eating them. This years inspiration was courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids. Besides the fact I wasn't about to spend $59- on something that gets worn once, I would like to maintain the tradition of homemade costumes as long as possible. It really is a fun process, even if it doesn't turn out exactly like the picture. Ommie Sandy and I had a fun time experimenting on this costume seeing as how we had no pattern to follow. Although I left all the tricky parts up to Ommie, I am quite proud of the fact that I sewed the mini cupcake she wore in her hair

by myself, entirely by hand.


Prior to this, I has never sewn anything by hand other than a button! This little project has definitely motivated me to continue sewing on a regular basis and increase my needle know how. Despite the fact Ru didn't really like wearing the cake on her head due to the wobble factor it had going on, she did really enjoy serving it with her "afternoon tea" prior to me sewing it into her hairband. I think it would be fun to create some more faux food to go with the kitchen set my little cupcake will be getting for Christmas. Shhhh, don't let the cat out of the bag. Oh, who am I kidding ? I've already told her if she is a good girl, Santa might bring her her very own pink kitchen. No...we're not excited for Christmas around here at all!

This door looks awful familiar...

Where's daddy bear?

Not the best picture I know, but this face just cracks me up!

Sneak Peak

This was last year's costume sneak peak...and in case you missed this post,

no she wasn't a sumo, she was a chicken.

And here we have this years not so sneak peak...can you guess what she is going to be? Cuz if not, that's a bad sign seeing as how the costume is nearly complete. Ommy Sandy came through yet again. This year we didn't have the advantage of a pattern, all we had to go on was a picture. So stay tuned for the finished product. I'm off to attempt my first softie creation today, I'm hoping it will be the icing on the cake. ; )