Snow Day!!!

Hey Friends :) I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! The Fordham Five had a wonderful holiday...lots of stops along the way and very busy but so worth it. It's always such a blessing to be able to spend time with friends and family during the holidays! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little worried about the babies with all the germs and flu bugs that seem to be going around but so far, so good! We took lots of pictures of all the Christmas gatherings and I will share them later this week...Santa was very good to miss Rylee and her Christmas spirit was absolutely adorable this year...it was magical to see the innocence of Christmas through a child's eyes and I look forward to many more years of Christmas magic to come!
Anyways, we got some fresh snow a couple of days ago in the Rochester area and I wanted to share some daddy and Rylee pictures from their fun snow day! They were outside for an hour or two and I heard lots of giggling coming from outside so I got a little break from the babies and snuck upstairs to check on Chris and buggy and they were SO CUTE...laughing and playing together and having so much fun so of course I had to sneak some pics of my loves!

The sound of Rylee's giggles and the smile on her face during the sledding was priceless! I'm so thankful to be home on maternity leave during this cold, snowy winter...I love being snuggled inside with my girls and I love that Chris has gotten to be home with us for the last few weeks. He goes back to work tomorrow morning...I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous to do it all on my own but I had a "test drive" the week before Christmas...it was hard at times but I just need to figure out a schedule and settle into a routine...I feel confident that I'll find a rhythm and it will all be just fine but I am nervous! Deep breaths, deep breaths! Rylee's home with me for Monday and Tuesday and will be back at daycare with her friends on Wednesday...if I don't get to more posts until Wednesday it's because I have my hands full with three little ones all by myself ;) I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and a happy holiday! Oh yeah, and I have a happy update about the twins...Maysen and Parker are finally up to 7pounds...YAY ladybugs!!!! Our pediatrician told me this last Friday that I finally get to be a 'normal mom' with 'normal babies' which means nursing them on demand and no longer having to supplement them with bottles...I'm hoping this will free up some of my time during the day because that's pretty much all I do is nurse them and then pump/bottle feed them. It was a very happy, very proud moment for Chris and me because it's hard not to second guess things with one newborn let alone two and now we know that we were doing everything right! They are healthy and happy and absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

xoxo,

Amanda



DRUMROLL Please!!! Now Introducing...

Maysen Rae & Parker LeAnn

Our little angels!!!

Maysen Rae and Parker LeAnn joined our family on Friday, November 23rd, 2012 at 37 weeks pregnant and we are so in love with our new little lovies...they are absolutely perfect...so beautiful and so very sweet...just like their big sister, Rylee Jane! Maysen arrived at 3:17pm and Parker followed, arriving at 3:19pm. They both weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces...talk about identical!!! Maysen was 18 1/2 inches long and Parker was 18 3/4 inches long. I have to dedicate a separate post for their birth story because it is just way too crazy not to have it's own spotlight...I'm still in shock about how fast they arrived that sometimes it doesn't even feel real!

{Parker on the left and Maysen on the right}

Words cannot express how much I love my little girls...they are the greatest, most beautiful gifts from God and I honestly could never put into words how much my heart belongs to them...I feel like I was put on this earth to be their mommy...it's the best feeling ever. I often wonder...is this really my life?! How did I get so lucky to marry my soulmate, my best friend...and then be blessed with these beautiful angels?! Okay. someone pinch me!!!

{Our three angels...I am so, so in love with them! Parker on bottom, Maysen hugging on top!}

I have so many updates to share with you guys...SO many! I haven't blogged for a few months because I was just so caught up in spending every spare moment with Rylee as I knew when her baby sisters joined our family, life was never going to be the same for her...for any of us! We wanted to make sure we did as many fun, one-on-one things with Rylee and we were so busy finishing up on house projects that my crazy, hormonal self NEEDED to be done before the babies came home with us! Sometimes I look back to how hormonal I got at the end...just being so un-Godly uncomfortable that it's still amazing to me that my husband still loves me as much as he does, lol! Anyways, like I have mentioned before, I really do love writing...it's such an escape for me and I need something to call my own! I love sharing with others our fun ideas about home DIY projects and house updates and mostly, all the amazing trials and tribulations that come with raising children! I want to share this journey of being a mommy to three little girls (the good, the bad...and the best!), I want to tell you all about my pregnancy with twins (what differed being preggo with one versus two buggies and answer any questions you may have), I want to gush to you about my amazing husband...my very best friend and what an amazing daddy he is...I want to share with you all about the last year with house updates...Chris and I have worked so hard to make changes and updates and now our home is a place that we love even more than we could have ever imagined and we still have so many more projects on our to-do list! So...with all of that being said, I promise to be better and stick with this blog and hope that people will follow along and enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoy writing them. I have lots of plans in place and so much to tell you....so follow along with me and enjoy the ride.

xoxo,

Amanda

 



Life Changes

Happy Hump Day Friends :)
Today I thought I'd tell you all a little about all the changes that the Fordham Fam has made since finding out we were expecting.............TWINS!
First and foremost, we've done A LOT of laughing because during stressful times (ie. like re-working our budget a million times to make sure that we are going to be financially okay once these two little love bugs arrive...after all that stress, you pretty much feel like you just want to curl up and cry with all the uncertainties and unanswered questions! *sigh*) Daddy says..."no cryin' mama...just laughing!" That hubby of mine, let me tell you, he is my rock...my soul-mate...my very best friend! I'm the "stressor, the do-er, the planner" of the family and he's a lot more laid back and just knows in his heart that everything will just work out like it's supposed to...like he always says, God would not have blessed us with two babies at once if we were not going to be able to handle it...Amen honey!
We literally laugh about everything now...we just have to...it keeps us sane! We have made sure to spend every extra second we have spending quality time with our first love, Rylee Jane because we know how big of a change this will be for her too! She is always rubbing my belly and kissing her baby "siksters" and although I anticipate some jealous bugs from her, I think she's going to be the best big sister in the world...she is just so gentle and kind and LOVES to share! Hopefully she will stay like that when her baby sisters are actually home with us...time will tell!
One of the biggest changes that we've had to make is....................we had to get a..............are you ready for it................................a MINI-VAN (cue the laughter...it's okay...I still can barely even say the words MINI-VAN out loud without a smirk on my face! haha!) I was always that girl that said...no matter what, under no circumstances...will I ever drive a mini-van!!!!! And that of course was before I ever thought, in a million years, that we would be having two babies at the same time! Before the new wheels, I had a Hyundai Sonata that I absolutely ADORED! It was such a nice car...we purchased it shortly before Rylee arrived as we knew we needed something bigger than my little Saturn car and something much more reliable...that beauty had such a nice ride...so smooth and comfy! But we knew immediately that the Sonata was not going to fit THREE car seats so we began the search for a new "family vehicle." We got a pretty big reality check almost immediately that there was no way we were going to be able to afford a nice, SUV that would comfortably fit all of us and furthermore, the gas prices for an SUV would be outrageous...so sadly, my hopes for a cool mom vehicle dwindled and we narrowed our search to mini-vans! Chris was tickled pink about this...thought having a van would be so cool because they are just so roomy and comfortable and his humor quickly pulled me out of my "feel sorry for myself funk!" We lucked out and found a very nice, 2010 Chrysler Town and Country (the Touring edition!) This baby is fully loaded with leather seats that are heated none-the-less, two drop-down DVD players for the munchkins and a touch screen navigation system, back up camera, memory for thousands of songs, etc...you name it, this baby had it, lol :) It's still not what I ever imagined myself driving as a 28 year old but it's not about me anymore...that changed the second Rylee Jane came into this world! It really is nice...and we are very fortunate to have found it for such a good deal. It's a beautiful dark-gray color and the interior is all light gray...really pretty! Picture this...me and the hubs drop the buggy off at daycare, run through a coffee drive-thru and jam out to old-school Snoop Dog while crusin' around in the MINI-VAN...yep...we went there :) And we laughed the entire time!
Other changes we've had to make are down-grading our cellphone plans to save money as well as turning our cable off...poor Chris...right around football/hockey season but for $80.00 a month just for basic cable (damn you CHARTER! Rochester only has one cable company and they are not willing to wheel and deal at all...boo to the hoo!) we just couldn't keep it around! We are trying to cut back in every area that we feel is not a necessity...at least until these little bundles arrive so we know where we're at financially and then if we're doing okay, we will slowly start bringing some of the luxury items back into our lives...but for now, it's games and music and having tea parties with our lady bug...and I'm LOVING every second of it! It's a very humbling feeling to know that you can live with less and it just feels good to be in control of our finances...it makes me feel more in control of everything and right now, I need that! One more thing that I wanted to share with you guys is this HILARIOUS video that my aunt sent me...said it reminds her of what our lives will be like with three kids...and because Chris and I have gotten so good at having a great sense of humor...I could totally see us bustin' out in a rap someday...haha!!!
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

http://www.dump.com/parentsrap/

xoxo,

Amanda

The BIG Gender Reveal!!!!!!

Hi friends :)
So...this is a very special post as I will reveal what these two little buggy's are...are they boys?! are they girls?! or one of each?! I can tell you that from the moment we knew we were having twins, I knew I wanted to try to do something really special to tell our friends and family what the gender of the little babes were! I saw on pinterest many different ideas...mostly the infamous "cut into the middle of the cake to see what color frosting" idea appeared but there were a couple ideas that showed the couple opening a box with the color of gender (blue or pink) helium-filled balloons coming out of the box and floating into the sky; I instantly thought this was so adorable but wanted to put our own little spin on it so I thought to myself..."self, why not have buggy open the box at her birthday party?!!!" How PERFECT!!! Instead of the box saying.....boy? or girl? ours would say........brothers?! sisters?! a brother and a sister?! Now...the catch was having to wait and keep this GIANT, HUMONGOUS secret for ONE MONTH...that's right friends...ONE WHOLE MONTH! And if you know me well at all, I'm so bad at keeping huge, exciting news in!!! It was pure hell knowing for an entire month when the most important people in our lives weren't in on the big news...I also don't have a poker face to save my life...I literally cannot lie...I like break out into hives and get all red in the face so when our family continued to ask us when our ultrasound was, we just told them it was...August 22nd...which was not a total lie because we really did have another ultrasound today (we have to have them on a monthly basis now until these little lovies arrive just to make sure they are growing and developing on track...even the healthiest of twin pregnancies are still considered high risk so they do what they can to very carefully monitor the mama's and the babies! There were many questions about having to wait "extra long" and we just said that it probably had something to do with it being multiples, lol! So anyways, as we tried to avoid the questions as much as possible, we waited and waited and then buggy's birthday party FINALLY arrived...it was SOOOO EXCITING to see the precious surprised look on everyone's faces as we opened a present that looked like this:

We just took an old box that we had from buggy's kitchen set and wrapped it in plain brown paper and me and my wanna-be artistic skills decorated it up! The orginal plan obviously was to have Rylee open the gift to unveil the gender of her baby siblings but we saved this gift until the very end...she had opened many gifts already and she was pretty much over it so Chris and I had to open it for her!!! Click on the link below of a video that my bestie and her hubby took for us...they were in on the big surprise but still had no idea what the box contained!!! (Thanks Bridg for being my personal photographer and videographer on Rylee's special day! xoxo!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQFZdB8vqjY

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DRUMROLL........................................................

Yep...that's right friends........TWO more baby GIRLS!!!! We are SO excited...and we feel so blessed and so happy. Rylee Jane has said from the very beginning that her "baby siksters" were in mommy's tummy...it's like she had this wierd intuition and knew all along! I thought FOR SURE that we were having two boys...or maybe one of each...but never ever did I think that we were having TWO more girls! And...NONE of our family thought girls either so that really added to the shock factor :) We always said that we wanted to have four little bambinos so perhaps that fourth will be a little boy for Chris...besides, as excited and blessed as I feel to have two more precious little girls, I would also like to know what it's like to have a little boy too...but at the end of the day, it's all up to God and I know that and believe that with all my heart...our family will be whatever it will be...and we will be happy and feel so fullfilled and blessed NO MATTER WHAT :) We had another ultrasound today that again confirmed that they are both 100% baby girls...they were just adorable today...holding hands and moving around together...it's still just so surreal that there are two babies in my tummy...it's just incredible! I'll have to post some belly pics on here before my belly gets too big, lol ;) My belly measured at 31 weeks today when I'm only really 24 weeks...Good Lord, I feel so huge already! When I compare pics from when I was pregnant with buggy, I'm really not that much bigger than I was with her but the measurements are much farther ahead...they keep telling me "this is perfectly normal" but I'm not going to lie when I say that I get a little anxiety wondering how my body is going to house these two little beauties for another few months!? I just trust that God will see us and the more importantly, these two little babies through this journey!

Well...hope you enjoyed the big surprise as much as our family and I!

xoxo,

Amanda



Happy Birthday To My Sweet Rylee Jane

A birthday letter to my sweet baby girl....
Dear Rylee Jane,
I can hardly believe that two years ago today (12:32am to be exact!) your daddy and I were laying eyes on you for the very first time...it's safe to say that this was without a doubt, love at first sight. You are the most amazing, most beautiful little girl...I love you more than you will ever know. You are my sunshine on a rainy day...you inspire me and make me want to try harder than I've ever tried at anything before. I am so in love with being your mommy...I love everything about being your mommy. You make me laugh and you fill my heart with so much joy that most days, I feel like I could literally burst! There are no words to truly describe how special you are to me...my first born, my lady bug, my everything. I hope that you always know how much your daddy and I love you unconditionally and I hope you always follow your dreams and follow your heart...you have the most gentle soul and you are already so caring and genuinely concerned for others when they are hurting...this is such a special quality and I'm so proud of the little lady you are becoming.
A quote from one of your favorite books (and mine too!) is "heaven blew every trumpet and every horn on the wonderful, marvelous night that you were born!" And I believe that heaven continues to blow every trumpet and every horn in your honor because you are truly an angel from God...I love you more than life itself my sweet, beautiful baby girl. Happy birthday my love!
Xoxo,
mama

M.I.A.

It's hard to believe that it's been FOUR months since my last post...where does the time go?! I have SO much to update you on...so much has changed in our lives since my last post!!! We have been so busy with so many house updates that I can't wait to share with you...and I have lots of buggy fun to share with you too...speaking of my lady bug......she is going to be TWO tomorrow (GASP)!!! I can hardly believe it...like seriously every time I think about her being two, it brings tears to my eyes. The biggest news of all though...bigger than house updates and birthdays is............Chris and I found out right around Easter time that we were going to have another little buggy!!!! We knew that come March, we were going to start 'trying' and by that I mean...just go with it and have fun and when God blessed us with another baby, we knew that the timing would be meant to be...much to our surprise, we got pregnant right away and I got that big fat POSITIVE right before Easter! We were so shocked and SOOO excited! With your second pregnancy, at our clinic anyways, they don't want you to come in until around 10 weeks...it was the longest 10 weeks of my life because I was so sick this time around...I kept thinking to myself...it's gotta be a boy because I was just so sick. Every time I would try to get out of bed, I'd have to crawl right back and get into the fetal position and sleep it off. Thank GOD I have a very flexible job which allows me to work from home at times because I literally don't know how I would have gotten myself up and ready and into the office...I made sure to schedule all appointments with clients late in the afternoon and even then, I still felt terrible! Ughhh...not missing those days FOR SURE :) In mid-May, we finally got to go in for our first OB appointment (it was on a Wednesday.) It was very procedural, like the first OB appointments tend to be and then we were able to hear our little buggy's heartbeat...strong and fast!!! We were floating on cloud 9!!! We knew that we conceived the bug in March but I wasn't 100% as to when so they had us come back two days later for an early ultrasound to determine due date....that was when our lives forever changed...............................
We were called into the office...it was an elderly man ultrasound tech who at first glance seemed to be a little "up-tight" and wanted to get right down to business! He put the wand on my tummy and and pushed a couple of buttons and all of the sudden he says............."uh oh, what do we got goin' on here??" I looked at my hubby and my heart just sank...he squeezed my hand feeling my angst as I thought for sure that something was wrong...he then went on to say..."well, can you guys see the screen okay...what do we got going on here...can you count?!!!!????" Yes friends, he asked us if we could count which could only mean one thing..........................TWO fluttering heart beats in our little jelly bean-blobs that we could see on the screen!!! It was indescribable...so much emotion, so many racing-thoughts...just so much all at once! God is so amazing and even though I did...and still do have many fears about all the "what if's," (especially finances...daycare will be...are you sitting down??? $1800/month for all three babes...that is just insane to me but what do you do?!) I do know in my heart that God blessed us with two little miracles because he knows that we can handle it! Chris and I have always said from the beginning that we wanted four kiddos...I guess we're well on our way, lol! We laughed for a good five minutes and then our ultrasound tech, who turned out to be very warm and kind, went on with the ultrasound; he did end up moving our due date back a week so it went from December 6th to December 14th but either way, with twins, we keep hearing....prepare for November sometime!!! It's been months since we first found out and it's still just so shocking! I'm so happy and I feel so blessed. Our little ladybug always says that it's "her baby siksters" in mommy's tummy....we will see if she's right...I will share the big gender reveal with you this week!!!!
So...I know they say excuses are like "butt-holes" (pardon the visual! hehe!) because "everyone has one and they usually stink"...but I would say that my excuse for taking a break from my little blog is a pretty darn good one! I have really missed it this summer though...I recently made a promise to myself that I would do something for myself...aside from the daily grind of being a mommy and a wife. I need and crave this creative outlet and the hubs has so many things he still does...like plays hockey and softball, etc...and once I became a mommy, I just kind of stopped having much of a life. Don't get me wrong...my pride and joy is being at home with Rylee and Chris but I also need some "me time" too!!! So anyways, no more breaks (well...maybe a couple brief ones when the twins arrive!!) but I'm back and ready as I'll ever be to show you guys all of our hard work on our beautiful little home...It was hard...and tedious at times...and we still have a big laundry list of "to-do's" but so far, everything looks great and I'm so happy with the results! I also am back and more ready than ever to share the rest of my journey with you guys of this twin pregnancy and becoming a mommy of THREE...wow, still can't believe it! So much to be thankful for...................
I missed you and I'm so happy to be back!
Xoxo,
Amanda 

House Updates!

Hi friends :) So...once again, I've been slacking so bad with blog entries. I can't even tell you how busy life has been...yikes! I kind of feel like life will never slow down but my hubby keeps reassuring me that eventually it will...he's been putting in a lot of extra hours at work and then the minute he walks in the door, he is downstairs working on the basement (which by the way...is really coming along!!! I could scream I'm so excited...they started on the sheet rock and it is making such a HUGE difference!! My next update will be pics of the basement!) I do feel though once we finally have all the house projects done, life will settle down and we will have more time to just focus on family! Thank you LORD!
The list of To-Do's for the upstairs is slowly but surely getting crossed off! I have 80% of all the trim, windows and doors painted...I only have buggy's room to do and the baseboard trim of the "future nursery" to do which means that I have done the baseboards, windows, door trim in the bathroom, master bedroom, future nursery windows, hallway, living room and kitchen! Painting has literally been the story of my life for months now! We have purchased all new 6-panel doors to replace all the bedroom (3) doors and a linen closet door replacement as well; they are pre-primed white but need to be finished in the same paint that we have already painted all the other trim...we're waiting to "jig" the doors to match the existing hardware and then we can paint them. We are LOVING all the newly painted trim...it makes everything look so much more bright and cheery and is making our little home look so much bigger!

 As promised to keep it real from the very beginning...here's the future nursery which is currently the "dump room!" haha! Oh my gosh, so embarrassing but with the basement currently being a construction zone, we have limited space so right now, it's just the catch all room which is making me crazy but it will all be over soon enough :)

 A close up of the newly painted windows in the garbage dump future nursery! I only have the baseboard to do in this room!

 Our new closet doors which my clever hubby came up with...we took the old flat, oak stained doors off and removed and saved all the old hardware that allowed the closet doors to slide back and forth; we then bought the new, paneled doors and screwed the old hardware to the backs and they work just like the old ones did...only look a million times better! They are a tad long and are rubbing a bit on the hardwood so Chris needs to cut the bottoms a bit but that can definitely wait until the other to-do's are done! These are only primed (came that way) so we still need to paint these along with the other doors but this is exactly what all the doors to the bedrooms will look like as well!

 The hallway with white trim and new school-house light fixture which we love so much! Around $25 with tax at Lowe's...ummmm, you can't beat that :)

 More trim shots of the hallway.

And finally got the built-in hutch painted as well; As you can see, the inside shelves are still not painted and it's something that I'll probably do "some day" but because we need as much storage as we can get, I plan to find some fun fabric and make a little curtain to put in the inside of the hutch so we can use the inside for storage versus displaying my fun fiesta dishes...because also on the list of to-do's are floating shelves for in the kitchen which I will happily display my fun dishes there instead!!

We still have to paint ALL THE WALLS upstairs as well...we plan to paint buggy's room a different color for her big-girl room that she will get his summer, we have to paint the hallway and living room which will all be one color and then we have to paint the kitchen! Ughhh...many more hours of a paint brush in my hand!!! But once it's all done, it's going to be so beautiful, I can't wait!

Here's a pic of the colors we are crushing on:

 Never mind the ugly, off-white light switch (which have all been switched out upstairs for nice, bright white ones but still haven't done this one yet!) They are all in the gray-beige family..."greige" which we really love. The new furniture we plan on buying for upstairs (the two couches and chair that are currently upstairs will go downstairs) is a really light linen colored couch with a dark brown, espresso-like leather chair so I feel like we can't go with a "cool-gray" but more of a "warm-gray" will be perfect! We really like either Behr Wheat Bread or Ben Moore Revere Pewter.

 This one shows our change of heart for the kitchen...originally we were going to go with a pretty glass tile back splash shown in this post but after giving it more thought, we felt like it might make the kitchen feel closed in...we are still going with the same solid-quartz counter top in a putty color but instead, we are doing the plain white, subway tiles for the back splash! It's going to really open our kitchen up and the picture doesn't really do it justice but the paint color we are 99% sure we are going with is Ben Moore Rockport

Speaking of kitchen...here you can see all the new painted trim around the windows...it's amazing how much it opened things up...such a bright feeling! We also replaced the two lights for the school-house lights as well...it really looks kind of retro! We are loving the changes so far and we are just so excited to see our vision finally all come together!

Also, because I'm a little inpatient, I needed to give the family room a face lift for now...until we can paint and get the new furniture here, I HAD to get rid of the dark red and gold accents (if only I knew then what I know now!)...they were dragging my new bright and cheery trim down...we got rid of all the old and added some things that we had from the old master bedroom...I also got some new throw pillows as well as some new curtain panels (cheap cheap from Target!) It's not what I want long-term but it'll do for now...it's so much more springy in our home now and I LOVE it :)

 Yeah that's right...I'm a "Real Housewife Junkie" and proud of it ;) Here's our floating shelf in the living room with new digs!

 New white curtain panels which once we paint, we will be hanging them almost to the ceiling...they are the 93" panels and will really open up the room once they are hung at a taller height! That's my $5 Goodwill lamp find (yay me!) And that hideous front door...also on the list to replace but probably not till next Spring! Priorities, priorities!

And our new, cute little zig-zag throw pillows that I got super cheap from amazon.com and they just add a little Cheer to the room!

Well, that's it for updates...I actually have many more to share with you but I can't put them all into one post...more to come this week (I promise!) of the basement...you guys are going to be shocked at how different it looks....SOOOOOOOOO excited :)

I hope you guys are having a good week so far...Happy Hump Day!

xoxo,

Amanda





Oh how I have missed you!

Hi friends! It's been soooo long since my last post...I know I only have 5 amazing followers right now but I do apologize for not writing in so long. I have always promised to keep it real so to be honest, I've been in a funk lately and I think I was just running myself on empty! I work in child protection (which I LOVE!) but it is a very hard job and sometimes it really pulls at my heart strings and as much as I try to "leave work at work," I'm not always successful! So anyways, the last few weeks have been tough at work so every second I have when I'm not at work, I have been hugging my lady bug so tight and spending that quality time with my cute little family! Chris has been really busy at work too so the little time that we do have, we've been taking full advantage of! I am feeling much better this week...more rejuvenated and ready to rock and roll on my little blog love! I have SO MUCH to share with you guys (and yes, I remembered to take pictures this time!) I promise to get lots of pictures up and share with you all the things that have been changing in our home! Both the hubs and I are so excited about all the things that are changing and we are going full throttle now as we are just so anxious to get everything done! We were at a little bit of a halt because we I really, really, REALLY wanted to take a wall out in our upstairs living room to open things up but sadly, after lots of research and multiple trips up to the attic, we have decided that it will be FAR TOO MUCH work than it is probably worth...here's why: our little ranch style home was built in the 1950's and that is when the homes were being built much, MUCH different than they are now...now a days you can pretty much take out any wall in a house without it effecting any other walls but the wall that I so desperately wanted to take out just happens to be a load bearing wall (boo to the hoo!) which means that we would have to break up the concrete in the basement and pour new footings to accommodate the extra weight which = major halt on the basement getting finished which = one very, very sad mama! So...after a long debate, we have decided to skip the demolition upstairs for now and focus on getting that basement done...it's not a completely done deal however because on the list of things to do is also re-shingling our roof and once they are up there, they are going to see if there's any way they can add some more structural design which means that we could perhaps take the wall out at a later time (yesssssssss, there is still hope!) And if not, it's okay because I have to keep reminding myself that as much as we LOVE our house, it's not our "forever home" because we want to have 3 or 4 little buggy's and there just isn't enough room for a big family where we're at now. I was only upset for like an hour and then I got over it! We have been working hard on getting all of our trim painted upstairs and we picked out new paint colors for the kitchen and upstairs living room/hallway! We have picked out new furniture for upstairs because all our furniture that we currently have upstairs (which is far too "large scale" will be going downstairs once finished) and I picked out all new bedding/paint/accessories for buggy's "big girl" room makeover! I am not afraid to admit that I have decorator's ADD right now so I am just writing things down and putting together "room boards" with paint swatches, pictures of furniture, fabrics, etc...I'm a "big picture" kind of gal and I need to see it all put together before I'm ready to spend the big bucks!
So anyways, we have been busy little bees and I can't wait to show you guys all the changes! I hope you all are having a good week so far...I now the Fordham fam is...we are LOVING this spring weather and we have been enjoying family walks every evening and snuggling in with all the windows open at night...so refreshing! I have to get back to "my real job" now but I missed my blog so much so I needed to write a post today...it always makes me feel better to get my thoughts out! Before I leave for the day, I wanted to share this picture with you from a couple of weeks ago when my brother was home...(he's the one with the tatoo.)

We got a hotel room for something different to do and with a little help from the men in the family, we were able to get Zach in the pool and he LOVED it! Then we went from the pool to the hot tub and he loved that even more...my mom then called the staff in Duluth immediately that next Monday morning to request that they start pool therapy since he loved it so much and he kept commenting on how much more loose he felt! I can't tell you how nice it was to do something "normal" with him...I still pray literally every day for him to be healed physically and mentally...I would give almost anything in the world to just have a "normal" conversation with my brother...I think that's what kills me the most...not being able to talk like we used to. He's one of my very best friends and I love him more than life! So please, keep on praying for Zach...to finish strong and to overcome all of this!
And one more pic of me with my two loves...you should have seen buggy in her bikini...OH MY GOSH, SO CUTE :)

Have a happy Tuesday!

xoxo, Amanda

The Master Bedroom REVEAL!!!

Hi Friends! So...I have a VERY exciting reveal for you today...one that I've we've been working on for a couple of weeks ;) Yes...my lovely hubby did help me paint the bedroom this last weekend but this room has been a work-in-progress for weeks now; first we de-cluttered/cleaned the entire room...then, we ripped all of the quarter-round off of the baseboard trim to prepare for me painting our oak trim a beautiful shade of crisp white (for step-by-step directions of how we are painting our trim, see this post.) After the trim was painted and fully dried, we put new quarter-round on (we bought the pre-primed stuff and only had to use one coat of our trim paint...it's fairly inexpensive and it is an extra step we are willing to take to ensure no messy paint jobs getting onto our beautiful, original hardwood floors!)
I have to admit that I was so excited about this project that I forgot to take before pics...I know, I know...I should know better by now but sometimes I get so overwhelmed with excitement that it takes over my brain and body and I just dive right in without taking before shots...I promise to be better :)

Here are some pics of the "after" with the trim painted:

 Because I forgot to take the before pics, here is a picture of what our walls were before; they were a tan and a burnt orange; we had a really pretty burnt orange quilt with gold and teal accents...I know it doesn't sound "that pretty" but it really did look good together; I would describe it as very warm and romantic and as much as I loved the cozy/warmth/romantic feel of our bedroom, it was time for a change! Both Chris and I were craving a lighter, more airy feel so I searched for months (literally months because I'm SO indecisive!) for new bedding; I finally decided to go with this beautiful set below from West Elm; I ordered both the quilt set with euro shams that's a really pretty shade of brown/grey and then the duvet cover and shams is the Ikat pattern with a color pallet of cool greys and warm browns/tans and white...it's SO pretty! Anyways, after I did my happy dance when that big brown West Elm box arrived on our front door step, the hunt for the perfect paint color was in full force!

 Again, as you can see...this mama is a bit indecisive ;) After having anxiety attacks thinking long and hard, I narrowed it down to two choices...I know, we are talking major progress! haha!

After we had it narrowed down to the two choices, I literally could NOT choose...you'd think I was making a choice that would affect the rest of my life the way I was up in arms about it...my lover bug of a husband (thank God he loves me for me...quirks and all!) helped me rationalize this choice and we just decided on one and went with it...no turning back...................well, that is until we spent all Friday night priming (we had to take this extra step due to our dark, burnt orange walls) and got up bright and early Saturday morning so excited to get that new beloved color on the walls...I opened the can and had this horrible feeling...like someone punched me in the stomach (I know, a bit dramatic but that's how I felt!) because it just didn't 'seem' like the same color as the swatch...I painted some on the wall anyways and that bad feeling in my stomach just got worse...it looked like the same exact tan that we had just got done covering up and we went through far too much work to not have a change...so there we sat, coffee in hand and literally watched the paint dry just to be 100% sure that we still wouldn't like it when it was dry...after about 20 minutes, it was dry to the touch and you guessed it, we still didn't like it :( Boo to the Hoo! I had a pitty party for about 5 minutes until Chris, that little lovey, cheered me right up by cracking some inappropriate jokes! I can always count on him to make me laugh! Anyways, away we went, back to Lowe's, to get the other color that we were previously deciphering between...all I can say is although it totally sucks that we wasted $30 on a can of paint, I am SO glad that we went back for the more "grey" version of the colors because we are both blissfully in love with our new bedroom color! Here is the big reveal..............and P.S. our room looks SO MUCH bigger with the new paint color, the new window treatments (hung them high and wide to give the illusion of much bigger windows...and it worked!) I go in there every chance I get and I just look around and smile...A LOT! And I even pet our new bedding because it makes me so happy :) That makes two rooms done (bathroom and now our bedroom) and only two more bedrooms (buggy's room and future nursery), living room, kitchen and basement to go! Ughh...back to reality as that is still quite the list but we are having fun as we go...and that's all that matters right?!

Hope you guys love it as much as I do!!!

 Our little make-shift window seat <3

 One of our most favorite wedding gifts...a personalized "Amanda and Chris Fordham" sign that just happened to be grey and black...again, how perfect! We hung it above our closet and it looks so good there...and yes, the closet doors still need to be painted! They are hideous slider doors that are so old but for now, they will have to work!

One last close up of the new bedding set...looks good eh?!

What do you guys think?! I'm dying to know :) Any big projects you guys are crossing off your lists as well?!

Oh...and one more thing............lady bug turned 18 MONTHS yesterday...man does time fly by! I can hardly believe that she has been here for 18 months already...I honestly cannot imagine our lives without her...she brings SO MUCH joy and happiness to our lives!

xoxo,

Amanda

Valentine Fun!

Hi guys! Hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day...I know I did; I got to "work from home" with my little lady bug because our daycare mom is sick so my day was filled with lots of X's and O's!!!
I know the big Love Day is already over but it's never to late to share all the fun Valentine Fun we had goin' on at the Fordham household!
Our decorations this year were kinda lame but that's because with all these house renovations we are working on, it was hard to find the time to decorate...I LOVE Valentine's Day so with all the wonderful ideas found on Pinterest, I have big plans for next year!

 Here I just used the candles and hurricanes that I had used for my Christmas decorations and replaced the pine cones with candy-conversation hearts; I bought two bags from Wally-World for about $5...we ate the leftovers...after handing each other one by one and reading the little love notes! haha! I know, I admit, we are really lame ;)

It was easy, cheap and added some Valentine Fun to our table!

I picked up these little love birds at Kohl's on clearance (I think they were around $15 for the pair!) I just couldn't resist...they were so cute and buggy liked them too...they will probably go in her room eventually.
Yep, that's it for decorations...like I said, kinda lame this year but that just means next year is going to rock your socks off!!
We made Valentine's peanut butter cookies that were mmm...mmm...GOOD! I love anything that has peanut butter and anything that has chocolate so naturally, the peanut butter blossom cookies are my fav! I always make them at Christmas time with the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in the middle and when I was strolling through the Valentine aisle at TarJay, I saw the Reese's Hearts and I thought they would be PERFECT for some Valentine's cookies! SOOOOOO simple...I never claimed to be Betty Crocker but I sure do love how easy she makes it for those of us who are not so good in the kitchen:

 All you do is follow the directions on the back; cookie mix, 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp of water and 1 egg...mix until dough forms...roll into balls; roll around in sugar and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes; while the cookies are in the oven, I unwrapped and ate the hearts and when the cookies were done, I immediately pushed the hearts into the cookies and they melted down a bit into the cookie but still kept their cute heart shapes! Delish and SO EASY :)

TaaDaaaa!

Rylee had a Valentine Party at daycare on Monday (they celebrated a day early because some of the kiddos were going to be gone...it's a good thing they did the party a day early since our daycare mom was sick yesterday!) Anyways, I wanted to do a homemade Valentine treat for Rylee to share with her friends versus the store-bought ones so after snooping around on again, Pinterest (Yes, I fully admit I am addicted!) I put together a few different ideas to make them our own; this is what we came up with:

"Bear Hugs for Friends! Love, Rylee"





I just mixed the four different kinds of Teddy Grahams with gummy bears and filled the treat bags full! Then I made homemade gift tags with scrapbook paper and personalized them for all of her little friends :) Rylee snacked while mama worked!

They were a hit at the party!

And lastly, I had to do a quick client visit last night and when I got home, I came home to these:

Beeeeaaaaaauuuuutiful flowers from my hubs and a cute little love bug from my buggy :) How cute and SO SWEET...I am one lucky gal!

So how bout you guys, did you have a good Lover's Day?! I sure hope so!

xoxo,

Amanda