F-i-v-e!

(Drum roll please) Vincent was born & then........ Hugo turned five! July was a busy month, folks! Woo hoo, my boy's birthdays are only 6 days apart & I think it's absolutely fantastic. This means mama gets to plan insanely awesome joint birthday parties from here on out. If you know anything about me & my love for party planning then you know this thrills my heart.  Hugo's birthday was a bit low-key this year due to baby "V's" birth, but next year's birthday festivities are going to be epic!

This year was all about superheroes, naturally. Hugo requested Captain America attire being as how he has multiple Batman & Spiderman costumes already. He thinks the mask is a little too big, but he loves the shield that actually flies like a frisbee. We tested it out at Dragon Park after we chomped on some delicious pizza & guzzled down our coke icees from our family hangout Pizza Perfect.

Welcome to the Circus Vincent the Strongman!

Introducing Vincent Enrique Ruiz born at Vanderbilt Hospital on Saturday, 7/21/12 at 12:53 pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 13 oz & was 20 inches long. Whew! That was a long nine months, but it was certainly worth the wait!

Baby Vincent was born with a cleft lip & palate which was revealed at our five month pregnancy ultrasound. We have been working with a team of specialists from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital since his diagnosis & have been incredibly pleased with their friendly support & warmth. Even though we were sad with the news we feel blessed to have this opportunity to grow in love & deepen our ability to nurture this little soul who chose us as his mama & papi. We feel extremely honored & welcome him to travel with us, The Roaming Ruizes, in this adventure we call LIFE!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Our little Vincent Price is expected to arrive today. Will he? Or will he keep us waiting?

Happy 4th of July!

Come one! Come all! The Roaming Ruizes Circus is coming to town!

Jenny & Jairo's circus themed baby shower presents: Vincent the Strongman!

The magic is in the hole!

In honor of our first wedding anniversary we woke up early to get donut holes & coffee in our donut cups. 

May 13th!

We salute moms everywhere! An extra "Happy Mother's Day" to Amanda Ruiz & Lois Hendrick: two incredible women we respect for raising us & not going completely mad in the process.

Cinco de Jairo

Cinco de Jairo celebrates 8 years of Jairo working at Emma.

Fitting that we went to a former Emma co-worker's wedding this afternoon. Congratulations Jake & Erin!

Jake & Jairo.

The wedding reception was at the Berger Building. Mr. Elephant makes a unique guest.

The Goonies Never Say Die!

I took a trip down nostalgia lane this afternoon when I escorted Hugo to The Belcourt to watch The Goonies. I actually got chills at certain parts of the film. Of course it was one of my favorite childhood movies, but the fact that less than a year ago we visited some of the very same places it was filmed created a feeling of slight euphoria.

Confessions of Chunk.

Mother Earth

We love you Mother Earth.

"E" is for Earth.

In honor of Earth Day Hugo & I read the book "We are Extremely Very Good Recyclers" from the Charlie & Lola series to learn more about respecting the Earth by recycling. This evening we are going to put up our tree poster & every time we recycle an item we add a leaf to our tree. When we have added 100 leaves to the poster we get to buy our own tree & plant it!

Coming soon to a theater near you! Happy Friday the 13th!

Our little Vincent Price is scheduled to make his debut 3 months from now on Friday, July 13th! It should be spine chilling!

See the resemblance:

Vincent Price

Blow out my candles........(inhale)

Ah, Jenny's birthday. And what does Jenny want for her birthday? ICE CREAM, of course! Baskin Robbins ice cream to be exact. More specifically, a clown cone! Jairo got rocky road on a sugar cone which Jenny greedily scarfed down half of after hers. Yummy!

Food being the theme, we got to eat with Jenny's mom and step-dad at Spaghetti Factory as well (fyi, it is one of our favorite places to have dinner for family night). On Sunday, for Easter, we get bunny cake! Mama Lois always gets a Baskin Robbin's bunny cake for Jenny every year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We celebrated with Phineas & Ferb Live in Birmingham, AL.

Of course, Perry the Platypus (aka Agent P) was our favorite part of the show. We even got a fun Perry cup with a snow cone as a souvenir! Rock on, Perry!

The week before St. Patrick's Day we watched "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" in preparation for our Irish culture celebration. Of course, Mama fell asleep halfway through the movie as usual. The leprechauns were furious! Hugo's favorite color is green & St. Patrick's Day is one of his favorites automatically. The Little People were appeased by his mutual respect temporarily, but we are still waiting for our pot of gold!

My Funny Valentine

Nothing says "Happy Valentine's" like marshmallow hearts.

Target had the perfect Valentine display.

Happy (Chinese) New Year and welcome to The Roaming Ruizes blog!

Happy New Year 2012: The Year of the Dragon!  We're late ringing in the official New Year here in the States, so we opted to start ours by the Chinese calendar.

Meet our baby dragon. We might have a little Bruce Lee debuting in July since it feels like there has been some serious Kung Fu going on in Jenny's belly.

Karate Chop!

To kick off our New Year's celebration we ate Chinese food & watched The Karate Kid. Now the Roaming Ruizes are ready to tour China!