Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas!



Dearest Loved Ones,

Christmas is the time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. A time filled with laughter from family and friends like you. Christmas cannot pass without wishing you a Merry Christmas. You have brought happiness and joy to our lives. These holiday season greetings are the most special gift from our family to yours.
The year has been very kind to our family, the blessings have been enormous and the year generally a memorable one. Most significantly, we bought our first house in April. After many months of renovations, we finally moved into our new home in June. We feel extremely blessed and it is truly empowering being a new homeowner. If you haven’t stopped by yet, please take the time to visit us during this coming New Year.

Ray is still working at First Interlock and I joined in working with him in May. We love what we do, and it is a great feeling to go home at the end of the day, knowing that we made a difference in helping get drunk drivers off the streets. Also we truly feel blessed that we both have jobs in this tough economy.

Rayce will be 4 next month and he is currently enrolled in Rio Rancho Head start. He absolutely loves school and has many friends. He growing and learning in abundance. His class is bilingual so, he is having fun learning Spanish as a second language. Right now, he is the only one in his class that knows all his colors in English and Spanish, as well as the alphabet. We are so proud of him!

Rayna will be 2 in April. She has been going to a home daycare since I started working in May. She also has many friends and looks forward to going there. Rayna is our typical girly, girl. She loves shoes, clothes, and her bows. I love her little diva personality! It truly brightens our day.

In closing, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with surprises and blessings. May the Lord shower you with happiness and fortune this coming year.

Merry Christmas everyone,


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Christmas Cards

This year I am trying something new, and therefore I am currently in search of the perfect Christmas card. Shutterfly has an awesome 2010 Holiday Collection of Christmas cards. The only problem is… they have so many wonderful designs to choose from. You can get 1 photo, 2 photos, or multiple photos, but I think I have it narrowed down to a few. But, I need your help in deciding. These are just examples and of course our family photo will be included. Out of a possible 221 5x7 cards my favorites are:

1. Most Wonderful Story




2. Holiday Love Sketch




3. Retro Flakes












So what do you think? As you can see I like the 1 photo option but, I need your help! Ideas, input, votes? If I get some good feedback on these cards, I would like to continue to use Shutterfly for years to come. It is so exciting and it surely beats out... sitting down, at the kitchen table, for countless and countless hours, writing out my Christmas cards the old fashioned way.

I have even thought about using their Birthday Cards for parties to come. Also, if you haven't checked out Shutterfly, I suggest you head on over and check out their awesome selection of cards for any occasion! They even have New Year's Invitations! This is so exciting and I can't wait to hear the rants and raves about my Photo Christmas Cards this year.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Kitchen In Progress

As most of you know, we bought a new house in April of 2010. Our original goal, was to refinish the cabinets and get all new appliances. Upon refinishing the cabinets, they began to fall apart, which left us with no choice but to gut the entire kitchen. Eek! Follow along and see my kitchen in progress...

Prior to the attempt to refinish cabinets...


Entire kitchen gutted...


Kitchen 85% complete...


All I was for Christmas is a complete kitchen! It has been almost 8 months and it's time to demand my finished kitchen. Stay tuned...

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

18 months!

I cannot believe my little lady is half way to 2! Where has the time gone? Why did she have to grow so quickly? The once most needy baby, ever has turned into quite the pleasant toddler. She is so easy to please and is a complete joy to be around. I love her little curious personality. She is always eager and ready to learn. Soaking in a much as she can.

She also has a vocabulary like you wouldn't believe. Already attempting sentances, ABC's and 123's. She loves to dance and sing. And those curls? Who could forget the curls?

I love my little lady more than words can express. She brings pure joy to my day and I can't wait to watch her grow. Happy half way to 2, Rayna!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

It's that time of year again...

Sneezing, sniffles, coughing, you name it, Rayce has had it. Current diagnosis, Pertussis. Since starting Head Start (in August) my poor little guy has caught everything under the sun. He has been sick non-stop. He is just one of those kids that is sick all the time. I have tried every vitamin and herbal supplement out there to no avail. I just keep telling myself he will have one strong immune system when he gets older. One can only hope right?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Rayce's Evalutation

As soon as we walked in the building, I knew this wasn’t going to go well. There was people everywhere and a ton of kids. As I suspected, Rayce immediately threw himself on the floor and stiffened like a board. I tried talking to him, asked him if he wanted to play, you know, just tried to get him to calm down. He wanted nothing to do with anything. Thankfully someone came from around the corner and said he needs out of here. She swooped him up and took him into a quit building. I started to cry. I think mainly because I was finally relieved. Relieved that someone finally understood what I had been feeling and going through for years. Usually we just get stares and no one really ever cared to help. I then knew we were in the right place.

We got into the other building, but Rayce was still out of it and screaming so, I said give him a min he will come to. She started going over the paper work with us and as soon as everyone left him alone he started lining up the blocks by color. She finished going over the paper work, asked me a ton of questions, and then began the evaluation. I listened while they worked with him and thought he did really well. Then, she went over everything with me, she basically said she is concerned about a lot of his behavior, and his language skills. She said his social interaction is really impaired and his communication skills are really limited. She said she would ask him a question but he never had an answer. He always said, “I don’t know or that one”.

She said we should receive a letter within a couple weeks with a detailed report and some “interventions” or things he needs to work on. Then, they would bring him back in about a month and re-test him. She said she has a clear understanding of what is going on, but that the government says they have to do it this way. Then, I made the mistake of asking her what she observed. I couldn't just wait for the letter lol. She told me she saw a lot of autistic characteristics but not enough to be classified as full-blown. She said we are mostly dealing with PDD-NOS basically autism at a high functioning level.

Initially I was in shock. It's not exactly something you want to hear. DH and I fought the whole way home because he doesn’t think anything is wrong with his son. I tried to explain to him that these are professionals that have an education. They are not just some Joe who thought it would be fun to diagnosis your son today. He wanted to hear none of it, and we really haven’t talked about it since. I did some reading on PDD-NOS. The more I read I quickly knew she was dead on. I know we have a long road ahead of us, but I am so happy that Rayce will finally get the help he needs. I’m excited to get the ball rolling.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Princess Party!





Last 6 months in review..

When I last left off Rayna was 6 months old, and we had just sold our house only to land us in one GIANT nightmare. My oh my, how things can change in 6 short months.

After we sold our house we found ourselves living out of bags and boxes with family. First, we stayed with daddies aunt. She was so nice to open up her house to us, but the space was just too small. So, we soon found ourselves living in Santa Fe with daddies mom. It was a MUCH bigger space, but we were 45 minutes from home. Missing our friends and family, we tried to adjust while we searched for a new home.

In the mean time, it was time to try and give potty training a go with Rayce. At first he was no where near ready. He would scream and kick, just plain out refuse to sit on the thing. Several accidents and tears later, I decided it was time to give potty training a break and give it a go later on. Looking back I'm so glad we did this.

Before I knew it, it was time for the holiday's. Spending the holiday's away from home was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in awhile. It was a very depressing time for me actually. It was just not the same. But we made it through.

Then, somewhere in all the holiday madness, Daddy lost his job. How could this happen? All of our dreams of becoming new home owners quickly came crashing down. Left once again left feeling hopeless, we quickly learned to lean on each other. We came to terms with the situation and decided to use the time to spend some much needed family time together.

Daddy quickly found a new job and we decided it was time to move back home. We would continue our quest in finding a new home. Trying once again to conquer our dreams of becoming new home owners. We would run into many obstacles along the way but, we refused to give up. We are now 1 week away from closing! Drained, tired, and frustrated, we are so glad the process is finally going to be over with.

Our little princess just turned 1 and Rayce is now 3 and fully potty trained. They say, "what makes you weak can only make you stronger". I can honestly say, (now that I see a light at the end of the tunnel)that I hold this to be true. I feel like a better woman, wife, and mom because we were able to over come such a stressful time in our lives.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Look who is 1



It's hard to believe, what a long way she has come. This once inconsolable infant, is now a happy thriving toddler. Our first months were very, very dark. But, now that we have overcome, she is my everything. I love her with all that is in me! She brightens my day and soothes my nights. Happy 1st Birthday princess!! You are a true diva at heart.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Getting into the groove

Again! Talking about the blog grove that is. There’s just something about springtime it gets my motor running. I start to think of all the wonderful things I’d like to be doing and blogging is one of them. My blog has been horribly neglected and when I look back on it I think of all the memories I didn’t jot down. Oh well.

So here I go again, attempting to get back on the blog train again. I probably don’t have any readers left, but I’m off to recruit some now!

Also, in just one short month my little princess will be 1. I cannot believe how time flies. I’m sad yet looking forward to toddler hood with her. She is a complete joy to be around and I think it’s only going to get better from here on!