Family Photo Session #3

Military Family Pictures (ACU's)

Hey Dolls!!!

Hope everyone's week has been a great one so far. 

Mines been busy but good. Getting a little sick since I thought it would be a great idea to pressure wash the outside of my house in 40 degree weather.

I know, I know... DUMB. But to my defense I blame it on my bad OCD lol 

**sigh** 

I wanted to punch myself in the eye but of course I didn't because I don't want a black eye lol 

Anywhoooooo we had another session of Army pictures done in August 2013.

My husband took pictures in his Dress Blues & we also decided to do family pictures in his ACU's (regular everyday Army uniform)

We used our photographer again Billy Rae from Brim Design

Check her work out: 

https://www.facebook.com/BRIMdesign

She took us to an old vintage style train station in downtown Southern Pines in NC.  

We walked through downtown Southern Pines & took pictures in random places. 

One of the places was a restaurant with a Spaniard style. It had a beautiful water fountain so we took a few pics their. 

(The Photpgrapher wanted me to take my heels off uuuuuuugh I have this thing about getting my feet dirty. I almost died  I wanted to scream & cry lol)

We also took pictures in front of an American flag on the side of a building in a alley. We're rebels, we know lol 

This "L.O.V.E" picture makes me laugh every time I see it! 

Because my husband struggled to do this one! This isn't even how we were suppose to take it. But this is what worked best for him lmao

Aaaaaaand as we were about to leave my husband said their was a pose he wanted to do... 

Yep this one! Now let's be honest I'm not a small girl lol I'm thick so I thought I was gonna break his back lol 

But it came out really cute! 

He brags that it was his idea everytime someone says that they like it. 

I'm definitely glad we took these pictures. We did a total of 3 sessions with Billy Rae & now we have tons of amazing pictures all over our home. 

We have a fall session come up at the end of November & I can't wait! I have tons of picture ideas

             (Damn you Pinterest! Lol)

After this NO MORE PICS scouts honor. Well that is until the summer of 2014 comes around then we get to take our traditional yearly family pics. 

                            Smooches ~Bets

 

Family Photo Session #2

Dress Blues Military Pictures

Hi love bugs!!!

Hope everyone had a great week! I'v been so READY for this weekend! 

I'm doing my huge fall cleaning & organizing. We still haven't completely unpacked & we moved in 6 1/2 months ago (don't judge my life lol) 

Iv been cleaning our home like craaaaazzzyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

Anywho since Veterans Day just passed I wanted to share some Military pictures we took in August 2013. I didn't have my blog up at that time so I decided to share them now. 

We took our first official family pictures in July so we set two Military photo sessions in August. 

We're an Army family so this was a huge must! 

I'm a big picture person so I wanted to put up Army pictures in our house, as well as send our parents pictures. We live far from our families & both our moms love seeing my husband in his uniform. 

Here are a few of the pictures we took. These are a few of my favorites! 

My absolut favorite is the close up with our last name Alvarez.

Most of the pics are Pinterest inspired **again Hi my name is Betsy & I'm a Pinterest hardcore addict lol**

We took our pictures at an old school vintage train station. It was honestly one of the cutest train station I'v ever seen! 

The setting was perfect! 

Since our house is modern, clean lines with a vintage flare. 

The brick & the train tracks fit right into the theme in our home.

The photographer we used was the same one in our first family picture session. 

Her name is Billy Rae & she's absolutly amazing! 

A young girl with tons of talent! 

Check her out:

https://www.facebook.com/BRIMdesign

These pictures went up on canvasses that I did myself. 

              (Tutorial coming soon) 

 

Some people asked me why did we take military pictures... My answer WHY NOT!

We're an Army family, this is a milestone in our life that we'll look back on & share with our kids & grandchildren one day. 

It's definitely a great memory to look back on after my husband retires. 

To all the ones who gave their lives, to the past & present soldiers 

HAPPY VETERANS DAY! 

                            Smooches ~Bets

Halloween Party 2013

Hi Dolls!!!

Hope everyone had a great & safe Halloween! 

I can't believe how fast this year has been passing by. 

Halloween has already come & gone (Instert sad face here) 

But the one thing I can say is we had a successful & absolutely fun Halloween party again this year!!! 

Life's been so hectic so Ashley & myself (the friend I throw it with every year) didn't get to plan like we did for the 2012 Halloween Party. (check out the post)

But it was so much fun! 

                 (Via Hayden Williams)

We ordered our Halloween cake again & did our Halloween goodie bags for the kids. Unfortunately I was so busy cooking all the food & making custom desserts that I didn't get to take pictures of all the decor. 

But let me tell you that it was a lot of work decorating our new house. 

We went from decorating a 1500 sqft home to a 3500 sqft home & it still looked empty (that's what are butts get for waiting last minute) 

Despite buying $100 dollars more of decorations it still didn't seem like enough! Next year I'm definitely planning this party 2 months ahead & decorating early. 

These were some of the desserts I made with the help of my husbands friend who stayed the night so I put him to work lol & Ashley made the spider deviled eggs. 

All the desserts were Pinterest inspired.

**sigh**

Hi my name is Betsy & I'm a Pinterest addict lol 

(Halloween dessert tutorials coming soon)

This year I swear I thought I wasn't going to dress up... I went to Spirit Halloween 5 different times with no luck! 

But 4 days before the party it was crunch time & I had no choice but to get something. To make it worse my husband wanted matching customers again which made it harder for me (I swear I wanted to punch him in the throat lol)

But it worked out. We went as a Cowboy & Cowgirl Sheriff. I really hated the costume but the pictures came out cute. My husband always makes our costumes look great, he's such a hottie. **blushes** 

And let me tell you he really gets into character lol it never fails!

My friends all looked great! 

It helps that their all hot tho lol they could all wear garbage bags & still look great! 

This year we played a few games with the kids, we didn't get to all the games tho. The kids were all wanting to play with the Wii & PS3. 

We danced the night away like always, we played limbo & OMG it was hilarious to see a bunch of intoxicated people almost break their backs lol 

(That was our friend Jose's ideas) lol 

And don't be alarmed, the guy with the blonde wig (Javi) was Miley Cyrus & he was twerking the night away lol

                      (Taking shots) 

The limbo that almost killed everyone lol 

There was about 10 people doing it & let me tell you EVERYONE got really into it!

We're all in our mid 20's to 30 & with a little liquid courage you feel about 18-19 lol 

Here's a picture of some of the guys in their costumes (on the top)

& a picture of some of my girls in their fab costumes (bottom half)

These are some of the random pictures through out the night. 

I have all the pictures of both Halloween parties from 2012 & 2013 on my Instagram (TheBossBets) &

The guy that caused everyone to have back pain thanks to his limbo idea lol is the guy in the ostrich costume, that's Jose theirs never a dull moment with him lol 

Man I look at all these pictures & just laugh! 

That night was one of the funnest nights Iv had in awhile. 

I think everyone woke up with a hangover thanks to Ashley's jungle juice lol 

We're definitely looking forward to next years Halloween party... I already started planning it. Next year will be epic, that's for sure. 

What's your favorite Halloween memory? 

                           Smooches ~Bets

Family Photo Session #1

Vintage Farm Summer Family Pictures

Heyyyyyyyy Dolls!!!

Weeeeelp it's Fall now & I can say I'm defiantly missing the summer! 

The one thing I really really wanted to do was take Vintage Farm Style family pictures.

We moved into our new home in April 2013 & I wanted to start a family tradition to take pictures every year. 

Our house is 3500 sqft so I have tons of wall space to fill up. 

Our house has very modern furniture but it has a vintage twist as far as the nick nacks & vintage shutters/doors I have hanging around the house. 

So in July 2013 these were the summer pictures we took. 

I looked through FB for photgraphers & I stumbled across this talented young girl named Billy Rae. 

So I gave her a try! BOY OH BOY did I love her work! 

Soooooo now she's stuck with us lol 

Check her out: 

https://www.facebook.com/BRIMdesign

We met up about an hour away in this tiny little town in the middle of no where. 

Took pictures against an old wood vintage house (it look like a shack lol)

Near by was a gazebo in which we took a few pictures. This is one of my favs

Then we drove about 10 minutes to a lake. Where there was a small bridge.

                    (Picture below) 

This was the last picture we took, we took tons more but these were a few of my favs I wanted to share. 

All the above pictures were blown up & put on canvases by little o'l meeeee.

             (Tutorial coming soon)

I'm honestly in love with our first set of pictures! These are our first official family pictures & I honestly think they came out amazing! 

I definitely love being married & starting all kinds of traditions with my husband.

Can't wait to continue this tradition & just watch our family grow. 

 

Do you have an great family traditions? 

                           Smooches ~Bets  

 

Halloween Party 2012

2012 Party Recap!!!

Hi Loves!!! **waves**

I wanted to do a Halloween  2012 recap.

Halloween is one of my absolut favorite holidays... Yesssssss for me it's a holiday. 

Don't judge my life lol 

2012 was my 1st Halloween Party ever. My friend Ashley & I decided it would be something we would do every year together. 

                 (Via Hayden Williams) 

Halloween is definitely NOT what it use to be when I was growing up (I'm an 80's baby) 

It seems like it's getting more & more dangerous to take kids out to trick or treat. 

So this was a MUST! The only rule was EVERYONE has to wear a costume, paint your face or wear a mask! 

So 2 months before the party we went out & bought $300.00 worth of Halloween decorations (from the Dollar Store) we ordered a cake & cooked. 

The great thing about our friends is we cook but everyone brings a dish of something & alcohol. 

Here's a picture of our cake! Everyone absolutely love it! We made goodie bags for the kids as well. 

We made a dessert table (sorry about the bad pictures) 

We did tons of Halloween theme desserts for the kids.

Here are some of the decorations, I have hundreds of pictures but unfortunately I can't post them all (insert sad face here)

The outside of the house was a graveyard with body parts everywhere. It was pretty cool. 

We had over 40 friends plus all thier kids crammed into our little 1500 sqft house lol plus the garage which was the mancave.

Everyone had amazing costumes!!!  

My husband & myself went as the big bad wolf & little red ridinghood. 

(We bought our costumes at Spirit Halloween) 

We had such an amazing great night! We all danced, played beer pong & pool. 

It's honestly now something I look forward to every single year! 

Great friends, great music, great food, great costumes & games. Can't beat that! 

I look forward to making it bigger & better every year! 

What do you do for Halloween every year? 

                   

                             Smooches ~Bets 

We Bought Our 1st Home!

Home Sweet Home!!!

Hi Love bugs!!!

So the amazing news is we finally bought our 1st home! (April 18, 2013)

These are the blue prints & lay out.

                       (First Floor) 

The first floor has a 2 car garage, formal dinning room, family room w/fire place, walk-in coat closet, kitchen w/bar & breakfast nook, laundry room w/linen closet, master bedroom w/a huge walk-in closet & garden tub, master bathroom, a half bath & a screened in porch. 

                      (Second Floor) 

The second floor has 3 out of the 4 bedrooms (all the bedrooms have walk-in closets), a huge bonuce room (turned office) 2 full bathrooms & a loft (turned mancave)

We feel absolutly blessed to have this 3500 sqft beauty!  

So glad I can share this great news. 

                         Smooches ~Bets

House Tour Before Pictures

House Tour Before Pictures 

Helloooooo Dolls!!!

I'm extremely excited to share some amazing news with you. 

               **drum roll please**

We are the proud new 1st time owners of this beauty!!!! Eeeeeeekkkkkkkk

(Purchased April 2013)

                      (Here's a tour) 

                   (Front of the house)

Let me tell you how we stumbled on it. First of all we were renting a house that we had a 2 year lease on. We had currently been living in this house for 1 year & 4 months. My plan was since the lease was up in November of 2013 we can start looking at homes in the summer. We figured our next step was to buy a home. Since we were already renting for the past 4 years ever since I moved to NC from FL (my husband decided to ruin my life & reenlist lol) we decided that renting wasn't going to continue to be an option. 

The fact that we had great credit & we were still renting really bothered me. 

                   (Back of the house)

My husband on the other hand was mortified to own a home... WHY, well I have no idea.

He says it's because of course as an Army family you move around often. But that happens with any military family. 

For me that wasn't about to stop me.

But I gave in & left the whole home buying thing alone.

I remember packing up to go to my sisters wedding in Florida & out of the blue I receive a call from the property manager saying the owner who was stationed in Korea decided he wanted to sale the home so we had 30 days to move. 

Yes 30 DAMN DAYSSSSSSSSS! 30!!!!!!!

I swear I thought I was going to have a heart attack (mind you I have heart problems as it is)

I called my husband in tears (he was at work) & I told him. My husband said ok baby so what are you going to do??? 

That's right!!! What am I going to do because he had no clue on how to look for an apt or home lol 

                 **cue horror music**

   (Living Room, it's pretty big the picture doesn't show that to well)

Everything ALWAYS falls on me. My husband says I'm the brains of the operation & he's the muscle

(At this point I needed his muscles to pick me up off the floor as I was sobbing lol)

I remembered my friend she was a loan officer & her husband was a realtor so I text her asking her WTH should I do.  I mean if you think about it, it takes 30-45 days to close on a home & I was scared we were literally going to be homeless.

My girl was amazing!!! She called me & we did the whole loan process over the phone. We got pre approved & she asked me if I wanted to start looking that day. 

I told her I was on my way out of the state but I made an appointment with her husband, sent him a list of over 20 new homes & he set everything up for us.  

                             (Kitchen)

When we came back home to NC from FL it was game on! 

With in a week of looking at homes we stumbled upon our home.

It wasn't on my list but we went to go look at a home that was my top choice. When we get there the house was still being built!!! If I wanted the house I had to wait 2 months. Uuuuuuggggggh I was so stressed out I broke down. 

So our friend Carlos said what about that house.  I told him NOOOOOO if it's not on the list I don't want to look at it but he walked over with my husband to this house & left me behind lol I had no choice but to walk over. 

& OMG this house had EVERYTHING on our must have list. The only thing missing was an island in the kitchen & a 5th bedroom (which was going to be my husbands gym)

                 (Bar & Breakfast Nook)

I was completely SOLD!!! All the houses after that were nothing to me lol 

I wanted this house & I wanted the house NOW! 

The house had a pending status... It sat their for 1 whole year because someone built their dream house but there financing fell threw. That's just heartbreaking!!! 

But the way I saw it was that this was gods push for us (especially my husband) to not let fear lead us.

The house was waiting for us. 

We put in our offer & they said YES! 

                (Formal Dinning Room)

This is how amazing our friends were. Instead of closing within 30 days we closed in just14 days!!! 

We moved in the day after we received the keys. 

Then get this!!!!

The owner said that he didn't want us to move because it was going to cost him money!!!!

Get the heck out of here... I told him we signed papers already & we had already purchased a home... 6 1/2 months later his house is still sitting there with a rent or buy option. 

            (Loft Area- Turned Man Cave)

                     (Master Bedroom)

                      (Master Bathroom)

                     (Master Bathroom)

                (Master Walk-in Closet)

          (Bounce Room-Turned Office) 

The house is beautiful & full of tons of space. We don't have kids yet, we had decided to wait. It's been already 6 years & now we're ready to start our family. 

Our plan for now is once we get started god willing we can have them back to back. 

We want 4-5 kids so this house is perfect. 

The house is 3500 sqft. 2 car garage, laundry room with a big storage closet, a huge linen closet, a huge walk-in coat closet in the entrance, 4 bedrooms all with big walk-in closets (master bedroom/2 guest bedrooms & a nursery), kitchen with all stainless steal appliances, a Formal Dinning room, bar & breakfast nook, a huge bonuce room (turned office), a family room, upstairs loft (turned mancave), 4 bathrooms, a screened in porch & a huge fenced backyard. 

We're absolutely in LOVE with our new blessing! 

Our 2 yorkies love love love it! We can't wait to hear little foot steps running around making memories.  

Have you made your 1st home purchase yet? 

Feel free to leave a comment & share your story. 

                            Smooches ~Bets