Friday, December 30, 2011

Our first official Fordham Family Christmas!

Happy Friday everyone! Seems like forever since I've tended to my little lovey I call "Lovin' Life As Mommy And Wife" but we have been busy little beavers with all of the holiday hustle and bustle! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas; I know we did!
We started out on Christmas Eve with our tradition of sweet rolls...there's nothing better than the smell of cinnamon spreading throughout our tiny little house while we anxiously awaited for them to be done so that we could enjoy the deliciousness :) mmm mmm...GOOD! Me and the hubs and our little buggy boo just relaxed all day until we had to get to the Swenson's for Christmas; it's always been at Chris' grandma and grandpa's house but as they get older, it's just getting to be too much so this year, it was hosted at a hotel in Rochester so all the kiddos could splash and play in the pool...they LOVED it...including miss Rylee!
Rylee swimming with auntie Amy (my SIL.)
 Then Santa came!!!!!! All the kids were SO EXCITED...except for mine :) I was so shocked at her reaction as she literally is little miss social butterfly! But NOT with Mr. Claus...she took one look at him and just started screaming! So that is why my lovely husband is sitting on his lap....hahahahaha! I couldn't as you can see below I was busy getting the whole thing on video...you never know when a little black-mail may come in handy (totally kidding hun bun!)
Group pic of all the little cousins filled with so much joy and excited to see Santa...ohhhhh to have that Christmas magic again! I can't wait for it to come alive again in Rylee and all our future little Fordham buggies...or as Chris would say, the Fordham Hockey Team! (Ugghh...can you imagine?! Sorry but this gal is taking it one baby at a time!)
Family pic with Santa...again, Rylee was less than thrilled about this!

So, after we had spent a few hours swimming, being traumatized by Santa, enjoying our time with Santa and celebrating family, we were off to celebrate more family with my dad, my awesome bonus mom, Shannon, my siblings and my adorable nephews! Every year, it is tradition to have scalloped potatoes with ham and then we open presents (one person, one gift at a time so that everyone sees what everyone gets!) and then.....are you ready for it....drum roll..............................we watch TBS 24 hours of A Christmas Story!!!! My absolute favorite Christmas movie of all times...I don't really know why...maybe it's the part where Randy gets stuck in his snow suit or when Ralphy gets his tongue stuck to the light pole or when the dad gets the leg lamp and the mom is mortified....or then again, maybe it's the ending when the family is forced to go to a restaurant for dinner as the damn neighbor dogs got in and ate their turkey dinner and while at the restaurant, the Chinese people can't sing the the Christmas carols right! Haha! I'm laughing out loud right now just thinking about it. My whole family dreads watching it every year...everyone says "it's so dumb Manda, do we have to?!" But they do and they pretend to enjoy it because I love it and it's become tradition!
 Rylee with Grandma Shannon and her little reindeer antlers!
 Rylee just waking up...time to open presents!
 So excited about all her new toys!
 My nephew, Collin lovin' life after he opened his mega nerf gun!
 My nephew, Wyatt, LOVING his new tools and tool bench...present from his daddy was definitely the hit of the night. He even told us that he was going to change his name to Bob so he could be "Bob the Builder" too! So darn cute!
 The newest addition, my nephew, Waylonn, getting excited about all the wrapping paper he gets to crumple up and put in his mouth :)
 Uncle Cody helping Collin put together his lego set and little miss sugarplum patiently watching them!
 Wyatt taking a break from building me a "red house" to pose for a picture!
And last but not least......me and my lovely new COACH purse...LOVE!
So then after we all snuggled in to watch the Christmas Story, we headed home to wait for Santa to come. We got up Christmas morning and went to church and then went to my grandma's house! It was such a great feeling to be back out on the farm for Christmas day as that has been our tradition for as long as I can remember...but ever since my brother's accident, we haven't been able to go to grandma's but Zach keeps working really hard in his therapies and was able to walk inside the farm this year versus years past, we were unable to get him inside. He had to have lots of help but it was the best feeling ever to see him walk into the house...my dream come true! Okay, whew, getting all teary-eyed here...back to business :) Christmas at grandma's was great...so nice to have everyone together back out at the farm...the way Christmas should be.
 Rylee in her little Christmas dress.
 Rylee and uncle Zach.
 Rylee and mama :) She was not too pleased with the dress and was getting grumpy at this point...so one last picture with nana and then it was time to get in her comfies!
 Rylee and her nana (my mama!)
 Good Lord, she got a play kitchen folks...ugghhh, she LOVES it and I love that she loves it (thank you mom, love you mom, thank you mom!!) but seriously, it just does not fit in our little house and if you can remember from a previous post...the basement is NOT finished yet! *sigh* I guess I will just have to let my OCD regarding cleanliness and clutter go for awhile but now the hubs really needs to get his booty in gear with that basement of ours! Love ya babe ;)

 Had to throw this one in there because little Waylonn is just so stickin' CUTE. I sure do love my boys...poor Rylee is totally outnumbered!
 Lovin' up on her new monkey friend...she fricken LOVES this thing! We haven't named her/him yet...any suggestions?! The monks is like three times her size and she is obsessed with her/him...in fact, this morning, I went to get her out of her crib and she kept pointing and fussing because we were leaving her room without her friend...yes, he is now sitting next to her on the couch watching Baby Einstein as I type this! Haha, Rylee's first best friend, well...that is, aside from her mommy and daddy.
So then, after we spent the better half of the day at grandma's, we ventured back into town to go to Chris's grandma Jane's...oh how I love her! That is where Rylee's middle name comes from...sweet, little grandma Jane; she's just someone everyone admires. Such a hard-working gal even in her old age...she's not going to let anything or anyone slow her down! She always fixes a gourmet meal, which was the LAST thing that we needed after eating pretty much non-stop the last two days but to appease everyone, we ate yet again! Good Lord Jillian Michael's, mama's really gonna need your help to start my 2012 out the right way ;) Then...finally it was time to go home and snuggle in so that Rylee could open her gifts from mom and dad and Santa of course. She was really cranky at this point but we made due with the little window of time we had left before she was ready for bed....this my friends, is why we will be doing things a little different next year because once again, there was no time left for our little family to enjoy Christmas just us!
 Proof that my little buggy boo had a case of the Mondays (haha, sorry, couldn't resist...gotta love the movie Office Space!) but she was seriously so over Christmas :(
 Daddy and Rylee...Baby Einstein got her attention and then she was in a better mood!
 Aww...love them to the heavens and back!

 Her sweet new doggy guitar...it's awesome and she loves it! Nice work Santa!
 Chris getting ready to open his gifts from Rylee and me...we agreed that we would do something very small this year as all extra $$$ is going towards our basement and other upgrades. He was more than pleased with his new jammies from my all time fav, The GAP and.......................
His new robe :) He'd die if he knew this was on here...good thing he doesn't check it very often, whew! I just couldn't resist...he just looked so cute in his new jammies and new robe, which by the way, he asked for as he was getting sick of running from our newly finished bathroom downstairs in his skivies to our bedroom upstairs, especially since our windows are almost always open and our little, old neighbors are almost always home! Haha! So for my present, Chris made me the most adorable, special, thoughtful card...it was just perfect. I would take a homemade card over a store bought one ANY DAY! Then included in my lovely card was a coupon book for lots of wonderful coupons like date night, love slave for a day, massage...and others that I won't mention...wink, wink, nudge, nudge :) What a guy, such a sweetie! So that's it in a nutshell...our first, official Fordham Family Christmas...it was great and we're already looking forward to next year! The holidays are just such a special time...absolutely love this time of year. Have a great day!
xoxo,
Amanda



1 comment:

  1. Love that you started this blog so now I can keep up!!! That picture of Chris...cracked me up so much and SUPER CUTE coach purse...love it!!!!

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