Amanda Robbins Photography

Check out some of her other shots and blog here:

amandarobbinsphoto.com

Nothing excites me more than photos of my family. Some people do not feel the need to update family photos every year and I understand that, but for me, it's imperative. And honestly, when the babies are small, I like to get them taken every few months because they change SOOO much. When my Butterball was about 9 months old, we were introduced to a wonderful, young mother named Amanda Robbins. She was just starting her photography business and needed to get a portfolio going, so she was offering sessions at a FANTASTIC price. My husband and I figured we would give her a try and if we weren't impressed, no harm would be done. Boy, were we impressed!! Amanda has since become my go-to gal for family photos and for the last three years she has captured everything from birthday celebrations to maternity announcements and more. I honestly feel as if I would be totally lost without her. She has practically become an extension of our family and the greatest thing about that is that she has seen this family at our worst. The patience she has to keep snapping away as someone is crying, yelling, sweating, hair blowing in the wind, running around after kids, etc. She has dealt with us being late because of traffic (on more than one occasion), she has dealt with last minute location changes, horse bites, angry children, killer bugs, treacherous heat and more. And somehow, every time, without fail....she delivers the most beautiful photos that make my black heart melt.

Nowadays, her business is huge. She does shoots almost every weekend and has been KILLING it in the wedding world recently. My husband and I noticed her talent LONG ago when she was just starting and we love getting to see how much she has grown and how she is taking over the photography world in Hampton Roads. If you are in need of updated photos, please contact her. You WILL NOT be disappointed. She's available to travel, she will help you with locations and posing, and she will make you feel beautiful and comfortable! She's just absolutely the best!

Here are some of my favorite shots she has taken on our family since July 2013: 

 

 

Check out her Facebook page here:

www.facebook.com/amandarobbinsphotography/

The recipe I get asked about ALL the time.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

My sister could probably eat macaroni and cheese everyday, but about 14 years, she stopped making the ghetto boxed kind and started making this delicious recipe. A few years later, I moved to Richmond and was lucky enough to get the recipe from her to bring with me. It has lasted me 11 glorious years and I still think it's one of the best meals ever. I make it often because my husband and children LOVE it. And I make it even more often because it is my "go to" item to bring to any parties or family gathers. Every time I share it with others they ask what the recipe is. So today I will share (my version) with the world.

Ingredients: 

3 cups of shredded cheddar (PLEASE BE ADVISED that my family would not survive without cheese and we eat a lot of it, but you really only need 2 cups)

2-3 slice of cheddar cheese (We use colby jack and monterey)

1 egg

1/2 tsp of dry mustard

1/4 tsp of pepper (1 tsp of salt is optional, I personally omit)

1 tbs of cornstarch

2 tbs of butter

2 cups of milk 

2 cups of elbow noodles

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350. Boil noodles until al dente and strain. Mix milk, butter, shredded cheese, dry mustard, pepper, egg, and cornstarch. Add cooked noodles and mix again. Use cooking spray to cover large baking bowl or dish. Pour in mixture. Top with cheese slices. Bake for 30 minutes. Serves 6. (This is totally personal preference, but I like to take the dish out of the oven half way through baking and mix it well with the spoon just to make sure everything is baking evenly.)

You will not regret making this recipe and you will ditch the boxed mac and cheese you were using before!

Operation: FIX THIS HOME

My husband and I feel very blessed that we were able to purchase our first home 6 months after getting married at only 25 years old. BUT, this is not our "forever" home. Every neighborhood has its pros and cons and ours is no different. Same goes for our actual home; there are things we love and things we hate. Unfortunately, we are stuck here until we pay off our school loans and can afford to build our forever home somewhere in the country with lots of land.

So until then...we will organize, we will redecorate, we will remodel, we will slowly but surely make this house a home and more importantly, improve it as much as possible for resell. You would think by what I'm saying we have only been here a few months, but it's actually been 4 years. Within weeks of moving into our home, we found out we were expecting. That really slowed the process of getting our house together. And just when we thought we were ready to get started again on home improvements, we were expecting again. I wouldn't change the timeline of our marriage, children, etc. for all the money in the world, but now that the girls are almost 4 and 2, we are ready to seriously start getting this home together for several different reasons.

We recently had our roof done. CHECK! Next is our master bath, which shockingly has been OUT OF ORDER since we moved in due to a broken shower pan. Once we realized the entire bathroom would need to be gutted to fix it, we placed this remodeling task on the back burner, but we are currently tackling it. Luckily, I married the perfect kind of man...the man that can do/fix anything. DIY projects are scary thoughts for the inexperienced, but with Stephen, they are a blessing (mostly because it saves us $$$). So far, we have only done the demolition. However, we have no timeline, which I think makes for the best kind of remodels. We have an additional full bath upstairs, so we aren't bathing in our sinks or anything. Here are some before photos:

As you can see, this is the original bathroom from when this home was built almost 50 years ago. I guess back then muted pink was a big hit for bathrooms. Even worse, our other bath is guacamole green, but that project is probably years away.

In addition to these serious remodeling tasks, we are doing some other smaller ones. I am currently in the process of putting our girls into one room. They are close in age and they are literally only in their rooms to get dressed and sleep, so they don't need a lot of individual space. That means that we will officially have a guest bedroom and our 4th bedroom is S L O W L Y becoming an updated office/classroom for the girls. *We still have not decided whether we are homeschooling (probably not), but we needed an area for what preschool work we are/will be doing because the playroom is not an area that I (or anyone else) would consider conducive with learning.*

Next up this summer is lots of landscaping work and eventually, a fence for the backyard (this project may be further away than I'd like).

What projects are you tackling in your home currently? What "dream" projects do you have in mind?