A Family Who Walks Together

Saturday was the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition 5K for our area. My family (the ones who could make it) got together to walk for my aunt. My aunt is now on her 6th week of chemo is is doing well. She has had several rough days but that is to be expected. 

I love how in the before picture we are standing close and hugging each other and in the after picture no one is touching :) We all got a little hot and stinky that morning, lol!

My aunt was unable to make it to the walk so she and everyone who couldn't make the early morning hours met us for lunch.

My mom, my uncle and my aunt. 

A few of us that happened to be around during the picture taking.

Ronny was on call Saturday so he wasn't able to make the race. He volunteered to keep the kids for me so I wouldn't have to wake them up early. He took them to get donuts and to the park to play. The kids had so much fun spending time with daddy!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for the group of women I am blessed to call friends. First let me say I am extremely close to my family. My mother and my sister are truly my best friends. But, having lived away from home for a few years and not always having family around was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. I learned about true friendship. The kind of friendships that are like family. I believe people enter your life for a reason. Maybe you are supposed to learn from them, maybe them from you. But, I believe every friend you make was for a reason. I like thinking that too. I look at where I'm at in my life and couldn't imagine being a wife and mother without the support of of my friends. Ladies who just understand. Some days that's all I need is someone to say 'I get it'. I am blessed because I am surrounded by a group of women who I am continuously learning from, growing from, encouraged by and just down right a blast to be around.

I'm thankful that as I was typing the above paragraph my hubby got home from work! Seriously!! It's 136pm here and he just walked through the door. I love days like this!

I'm thankful for the sound of little feet that was running round the kitchen this morning. It really does sound like pitter patter :)

I'm thankful for the cooler weather we have been having. It has been so nice getting the kids outside and watching them play. 

I am thankful for nap time. Both kids are actually sleeping at the same time! Some days it really is the small things :)

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for my parents. Everyone says it but I know it to be true, I have the best parents in the world.

I'm thankful for my husband who is the best father I could have ever asked for for my children. One of his dreams was to play ball with our kids in the yard. Watching them play together is heaven on earth. 

I'm thankful for Madison and her 1,000 watt smile.

I'm thankful for Mason and the little man he his growing into. Oh, and his fashion sense.

 

Home Improvements

Slowly but surely we are getting around to doing our long list of home improvements we wanted to do. I blogged before about paining the kitchen, but now I have hardware! I did end up taking the vases down and I added three hanging candle holders. I never realized how nice it is to have that additional counter space. I had always had something on that counter and now that it is empty I'm finding I use it a lot, especially when we are entertaining. 

It's amazing to me how something so simple as a couple knobs really adds character to the room. All we have left to do in the kitchen is tiling the island. 

We also finally painted the kids rooms. Mason wanted blue, shocker! That of course is his favorite color and he wanted a car room. I'm still in the process of finding old car decor to go in his room but so far we have a good start. Madison's room is a butterfly theme. Aside from a few pieces of decor here and there for Mason's room all we have left to do in their rooms is get new beds. I'm planning on doing that sometime this Spring. 

Since we weren't quite ready to start the tile project in the kitchen Ronny decided he wanted to put crown molding in the entry way. After countless hours of watching the DIY channel, he decided he was ready. I was a little nervous going into it because we have a circular entry way. But, my amazing hubby pulled it off. Now we are just trying to decide if we are going to add crown molding to the inner circle of the ceiling. More than likely we are, but he wanted to see how it looked with just the one layer. 

I guess I should add he did have a little help from Miss Madie!

Next up, after we finish the second layer of crown molding and tile the island, is the guest bathroom and the kids bathroom. 

First Day of School

First let me start by saying I've been a little MIA lately. We have had a crazy busy summer but now that both kids are in school and we are going to get back on a schedule I hope to find more time to get back into my blogging routine. 

It's the first day of school in the Ford house. Mason is in the 3's class and Madison will be in the 12-17 month class. Both kids did great! 

I love these guys!!

A Broken Heart

Beware! This is not a fun post but it's weighing on my heart.

 Last week my aunt, my heart, my second mom was hospitalized with symptoms of liver disease. After a week long hospital visit, multiple tests, and a roller coaster of emotions we found out her liver was fine but she is in late stages of ovarian cancer. It hit us like a ton of bricks. The doctors discussed treatment options and her prognosis but in the end they told her 5 years. 5 years, really?!? After everyone left and it started sinking in her question to me was 'What do you do with that, knowing you have a time limit?' With a lump in my throat the only thing that came to mind was, you make it count. Is it a blessing or a curse to know you have a certain amount of time to live? I believe all of our time here is limited but most of us don't know what it's limited to. Is it better to go suddenly or know our expiration date?

It has me thinking about that Tim McGraw song 'Live Like You Were Dying' (Ronny by the way laughs when I tell him this. He says the concert is still fresh on my mind, lol). I would like to think I would want to know. To make sure I make every moment count. To do everything I wanted to do. Say everything I wanted to say. To be the person I wanted to be. To really LIVE the way I would want to live. 

This past week has really made me think about everything. All of a sudden it doesn't matter if my kitchen is dirty or the toys are picked up but what matters is that day I spent quality time with my kids and Ronny. I'm starting to realize the small things really are small so why am I sweating them. In the end I want to make memories with them. We are all on borrowed time and we never know when the Lord is going to call us home. All we can do is love and live with all of our heart. 

Hug your loved ones, you never know if that will be your last. Say I love you, you never know if you'll get another chance. Make each day count. My heart is broken for my aunt but I know everything happens for a reason and He is in control. I'm going to make what time I have left with her as special as I can and make as many memories as I can. I'm going to make it count!

Painting and a Few Phone Pics

This week my project was painting the kitchen. With some help from a few friends it's now complete. I finally have my red kitchen! I've wanted a red kitchen for as long as Ronny and I have been married. I'm so happy with the way the color turned out. I'm not sure I'm going to keep the vases there, I love them and so I'm stalling on taking them down but I think it is too much with them in front of the red paint. Up next, hadware for the cabinets and tiling the island then moving on to the kids bathroom. 

These are a few pictures off my phone. I love these little guys!

And after a fun filled summer day this is usually how they end up. 

They are so peaceful when they're like this :)

A Busy Start to Summer

Things have been a  little busy around here the past few weeks. I'm finally getting around to starting all my projects around the house. We have been in this house for a year and a half and I still feel like I have so much I need/want to do to the house. It is a never ending project! I started with painting the kids rooms. Now that I'm done with that I can finish getting their furniture and finish with the decor. Next, I'm going to work on their bathroom and painting the kitchen. I took a few pictures during the painting but haven't taken any after pictures. 

The kids went to a friends house to play the other day and I had 3 hours of uninterrupted time. I decided to do something for myself, something I wanted to do instead of something I had to do. So, I scrapbooked. It felt so good! It was like seeing an old friend again after a long time apart. I'm so behind on scrapbooking that I've actually skipped a few years just to make it easier to catch up and even doing that I'm just now in May of last year. I just scrapbooked Madison's birth. But, I was able to work on it and it made me realize how much I want to set aside time to continue to do something just for me. 

This weekend I was able to squeeze in two girls nights out! I'm not sure how that happened, other than I have the best husband in the world :) Friday night, a good friend called last minute and we decided to do dinner and drinks. Saturday night my sister and I went to the Tim McGraw & Kenny Chesney concert. Oh, it was fun! It was a great concert, so good I woke up Sunday with no voice, lol!

I've also tried to squeeze in some quality time with the kids by themselves. My parents watched Madison one afternoon so I could take Mason to see Madagascar and Mason hung out with Ronny one day so I could spend time with Madison. I love spending time with each of them alone. I think they like it too, Mason has already asked me when we are going to the movies again :)

Since Disney

It has been two weeks since we got back from Disney World and things have not slowed down. We celebrated Mother's Day. Ronny really made it a special day for me. Mason made me a card at Mother's Day Out and gave me a flower to plant in the flower bed. I need to just say, I LOVE his teachers!

Ronny and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary. Twelve years, 2 kids, 2 cities, 5 addresses, 2 graduations, 3 dogs, 5 cars later I'm still as happy and in love as I was 12 years ago. This is my favorite wedding picture of us. We were so young and had no idea what was in store for us. It has been a great ride and I would not have chose anyone else to take along on this adventure than him!

Mason's last day of school was Wednesday. They had a splash day complete with sno-cones and a pizza party. Mason had a blast with all his friends. I can not believe how fast they year went. He is getting so big!

And, a last day of school always leads to a first day of summer. I asked Mason what he wanted to do and he said stay home and play. So, we kicked off the summer with a nice day at home and both kids played hard.

I'm looking forward to this summer!

Vacation

Last week we took our first 'real' family vacation. We took the kids to Disney World. Everyone had a blast. The kids were actually better than I thought they would be. I had low expectations for the trip since we were going with a three year old and a one year old but they were so good! Even Miss Madie enjoyed seeing the characters and riding the rides.

Mason's favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride.

Goofy was Madie's favorite.

Mason's favorite was Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan.

Miss Madie was just along for the ride! :)

And during our down time all we needed was stickers!

It was so much fun experiencing it through the eyes of a three year old. The smile on Mason's face and the gasps when he saw Buzz and Woody and saw the castle made my heart melt. I'm already looking forward to our next trip.