Two little turtles

Last weekend, was the much anticipated celebration in honor of my sister-in-law and two little girls on the way. It was hosted at my house, but many amazing ladies helped to pull the special event together. I'm going to mostly let the photos tell the story. It was such a fun day!

My sister made this! She's so talented!

 

The beautiful mommy-to-be and I!



 

 

 

the Sea-Turtle/Under Water Theme decorations turned out so so cute!

 

 

 



 

 

Delicious and super cute themed food!!

 

 

 Pinterest-worthy desserts!

 

  

The cutest gifts for Baby A & Baby B :)

 

 

and probably the funniest and most awkward gift: a framed baby picture of my brother...

 



 

 

Mommy holding the two very quickly dressed babies from the Pairs Dress-the-Twins Relay Race. Each pair could use only 2 hands - so that's one hand each, to put an article of clothing on the baby, then pass it to the next pair. Team Baby B was the winner!! but just barely... :) It was hilarious to see 40 ladies get really into this game!

 

 

 And I'll end with two really excited Aunties :)

 

Thank you to everyone who helped out to throw this beautiful shower for Paula and the twins. What a perfect day celebrating two little turtles who will make their debut in a few months. We love you both so much already Baby A & Baby B!

New Flooring - Before & After

Let me preface this post by saying that this whole project was started in early December and now we are in what month...? February?! What a project it's been and I am so so glad it's finally over. 

Marc and I knew right when we moved into the house that we would eventually want to rip out the carpet and put in hardwood in the living areas and new carpet in the bedrooms, we just weren't quite sure when we'd do it. Now that we're married and considering adding a dog to our family, we decided it was time to get this project out of the way.

 

To paint an accurate picture - this is what the living & dining rooms looked like before we moved in, so this is the previous owner's stuff... UGLY! haha.

 



Hi Kelly! :)

 

 

First, we started by ripping out the old carpet in the dining, living & family rooms, and the hallway. That was a pretty easy task, removing all the staples from the subfloor was the worst part - can you say blisters on our hands?! 

 Check out this beautiful linoleum from the 70s and some sort of odd electrical mat (we are thinking maybe it was a motion sensor for the alarm system)...

As you can see, the floor was covered in stains. The previous home owners had small dogs who had lots of accidents in the house and I guess they never cleaned up after them, because this spot below on the subfloor was STILL WET!! Talk about disgusting. We knew there was a carpet stain there and had cleaned it many times to try to get the smell out, but we never knew the extent of the damage. After using pet stain remover and bleach, Marc ended up chipping out the first layer of the subfloor, pouring in bleach then filling it with wood filler. THEN painting the problem areas with odor blocking paint. I think we finally got it....hopefully our house will smell normal soon!

Then, it was finally time to start laying down the laminate. After at least a month of research and bringing home samples from flooring stores, we chose the Select Surfaces Canyon Oak from SAM's Club which we found to be great quality for a great price! We also purchased their standard Premier from Armstrong underlayment. Since the laminate came with a pad already on the back, we opted not to upgrade the underlayment and have found that it was a good choice. When we walk on the floors, there is no "clicking" or echo sounds - great sound barrier!


The main reason this flooring took us so long was maneuvering from room to room, doorjams and around the oddly shaped kitchen cabinets. Lots of precise measuring, double checking, precise cutting (we borrowed my dad's chop saw and my uncle's small table saw and even used a handsaw for some of the intricate cuts and doorjams, all tools are a must!!). This is not a project for someone looking for a mindless update, it took lots of concentration, calculating and precision to make it come out right - just to give you an idea, each piece must be at least 12" long and 2" wide, so we had to measure the whole house and anticipate how long rows would be so we didn't get to the end and be left with a 5" gap... Lots of work!!


 Here is our first room transition!

In the kitchen, we decided to get a new dishwasher since the old one was on its way out anyways, plus the laminate is so thick that it would be a huge hassle to get the old one out after we put the flooring down. We are so happy with it! It runs so quietly and matches our fridge perfectly. Plus, Best Buy delivers the new one and hauls away the old one for FREE!! This is the link to the one we got. 

In the picture above, you can see the difficult angles of the kitchen cabinet/counter on the left of the photo - it's like a half-hexagon shape. That was a doosie!!

And so, I'd like to present, after 3 months of LONG, HARD work, the finished product!

still no furniture... :) but check out those baseboards!

 

the new beautiful "wedding wall" & new carpet in the bedrooms!

 

Also, here is a great shot from my beautiful sister-in-law's baby shower last weekend which was 100% our motivation for finishing the floors and baseboards last week! I will post more about the shower in a future post, so this is just a teaser.

 

 It turned out so perfectly and I can't wait to meet my little nieces in June! Now that the floors are done, I am excited to decorate the rest of the house since we have been putting off a lot of it since the carpet was so gross. We are so proud of ourselves for laying all the flooring ourselves! And thanks to our parents for helping with the finishing touches!

 

2013: What a year!

I can very easily say that 2013 has been one of fastest years of my life. I can't believe all that's happened in the past 12 months:

our engagement, wedding planning, becoming an Auntie, making lots of improvements to our new house

my best friend and I both getting married within a few months of each other, an amazing honeymoon in Hawaii, accepting the role of Matron of Honor for another great friend's wedding next year

traveling around the country for work, especially to Kentucky and watching horse races at Churchill Downs, witnessing AHS Water Polo history and they clenched the NCS Championship

another whirlwind holiday season filled with family, my Nana going to heaven and seeing my family gather around each other showing so much love and support, spending extra time with the grandparents that are still with us

then saying goodbye in style to that crazy, wonderful, busy, unforgettable year!

2014 has so much in store for the Fisher family:

some expected changes and some surprises, times of joy and surely times of struggle. we'll take it all on together. 

finishing the biggest home project thus far (new flooring throughout!), job changes, a quick visit to New Orleans, grad school, our nephew's 1st birthday, a trip to London, more wedding festivities, our one year anniversary, and many more! 

I am so lucky and blessed to get to share all these past memories and future moments with my family and friends. Here's to a fabulous year done, and another one just begun!

Our wedding day was...

September 14, 2013 was:

hands down, the most fun, love-filled, exciting, nervewracking, day of my life.

a day where we were surrounded by 105 of the most loving, supportive and party-ready family and friends.

planned down to the minute, and that plan was executed flawlessly by a team of said loved ones.

when our families witnessed our raw emotions as we said the vows we had written to each other.

a day my inner diva came out and I kicked out a couple of wedding crashing cougars.

when my family realized I married an amazing dancer.

the day I realized I have an obvious obsession with lists - according to all the speeches people gave for us.

photographed beautifully by our amazing photographer and friend, Kevin.

the best day of my life.

~~~

Now that I have settled back into reality after nearly a month of wedding and honeymoon bliss, I am planning to put together several posts on our wedding and honeymoon. We should be receiving our professional wedding photos in a few weeks, so that's when I'll do most of the posting. I realize this will likely take me months to put together, but I am going to split it up like this: 

• The Prep
• Ceremony
• Cocktail Hour
• Dinner, Toasts & Speeches 
• Dancing the night away
• I Do for Ice Cream
• Wedding Party
• Favorite Photos
• Honeymoon - Oahu
• Honeymoon - Kauai

Here are just a few favorites from the KP Mora Photography blog: