It's so good to be home!

Some of you may know that we moved out of my inlaws and in to a home of our own.
It has been a long LONG time coming and has been a huge work in progress, still is.
We have put a lot of time, a lot of hard work, a lot of sweat + tears, and a lot of money in to this place that we now get to call our home. I'm so grateful for the people that have helped us pull this off; family, and a few of the sweetest and greatest friends! Thank you, thank you from the very most bottom part of my heart. We needed you, and are so thankful for you!

This was a HUD home. The day we went through it was the first and the only house that we looked at! How's that for taking a big leap? That same day we had to make an offer on it. With HUD homes they don't tell you if anyone else has bid or how high or low they may have offered. It was as is. The people before us made holes in the wall, taken all appliances, took the garage door, and we knew it needed a lot of work and a lot of love. (But love is just what we could give the place) We let our realtor know our offer and she had told me we probably wouldn't hear back for a few more weeks. I stressed majorly. I really wanted to live basically next door, to my husbands brother and his little family! The next day I had gotten a phone call. We got the house! WHAT?!! Woah. Well that all happened a lot quicker than I had imagined. Overwhelmed, stressed, excited, antsy, anxious, and just joy filled my heart!
The process was long, and it was hard! We had a whole bunch of hoops and hurdles to jump through and at times we thought it'd be better to back out. We hung in there though! We
closed on our house two days after Kueyn was born as well as sold one of our cars! What can I say? Adulting at its very finest! --Well, without further a do. Here's our little home!

The Kitchen

You guys, redoing cupboards is no joke. Thank you to my big sister, Amy for taking on the task of helping me. They live in Texas and when they came to visit her and her husband both apologized for not being able to help more! She did a lot of the work on the cupboards and then taught me so I could do it on my own. Spencer painted a wall for us and fast too!
We cleaned, sanded, painted, and stained the edges of our cupboards. Later on, we will add door knobs and decorations will go on top of the cupboards. We also hung two decorative shelves above the table:)

We really lucked out because my sister in laws parents were redoing their kitchen and gave us the dishwasher, microwave, and stove + the chandelier above the kitchen table all for free. My mom also gave us her fridge because she wanted a new one :) Like I said we got really lucky! Thanks everyone.

Shiplap Wall

First we painted the entire wall the blue/gray color the rest of the house is. My mom and Jace measured everything out and put the marks on the wall. We had our system down and rocked it! It was really a pretty quick process! --I admit that I did make a fuss about a tv being hung on this wall and refuse to let anything else find it's place there. Haha! I just really really love it!

I sanded each and every board.

My mom and Jace would place every board on the wall and then nail it in. Later on came the painting!

I'm not joking when I say that we painted literally every single wall in this place..I can now tell you that I never want to paint another wall in my entire life. It was brutal, friends. Worth it? Definitely...but brutal!

We had the downstairs, and all of the bedrooms upstairs textured. That costed a pretty penny and we low balled how much paint we would need for the place. My sweet father in law + my loving husband framed every single window in our house and they look absolutely beautiful now! Pictures don't do it justice.

Jace says he got the TV and I got the furniture. Let's be honest, I would have settled for the much cheaper furniture but he got what he wanted ;) Okay okay fine, I am really REALLY happy that we ended up with these babies. I wanted gray --That's what I got. They are super comfortable and we love the wedge that has a shelf and outlets for phones + anything else in the middle. I also love love love the main piece. If you notice in the pictures the middle folds down and up. Meaning we can have it down to hold our drinks and for an arm rest, or to lay Kueyn in the corner OR we can have it up and sit right next to each other. Ashley furniture you can thank me later for the advertisement for any readers.

DownStairs Bathroom

I am so in love with this room. My mom and I shiplapped that wall very very last minute + we did it without any men! :)
If any of you know my mom she is truly an angel and the most handy one at that! She took the toilets out too.
Thanks mom!
We painted this bathroom a Yellow-ish creamy color, took out the vanity, got a new mirror, new light fixture + new sink and hung some shelves. We just had to replace both toilets, because ew! The germaphobe in me definitely came out!

I decided to decorate this bathroom in London decor because my husband served his mission there. It's still not finished completely but hopefully soon I'll find the missing pieces and it will all come together!

The stairs

My sweet inlaws came over twice and painted this for us. You can't really tell but my father in law made a plank to be able to get to the tippy top! And the framed window --Pictured below. I told you they were beautiful!

Upstairs Bathroom

We painted the entire bathroom the same pretty yellow-ish cream color that we did downstairs and decided to pull the laminate flooring out and get it tiled. My moms neighbor boys did the downstairs bathroom and the upstairs and we couldn't be more happy with how it turned out! Thank goodness my mom knows how to clean a shower! It was the most disgusting thing you guys! Thanks to her it's good as new --although, I miss my inlaws shower. Embarrassingly enough, the first 3 weeks we were in this house I still went down to their house to shower! haha.

This is the before picture of Kueyn's bedroom and right now it's just a room of boxes and things waiting to be put in their right places. His crib isn't even in there yet! Like I said, it's all a big work in progress. It is painted though, the same light blue color :)

Kyren's room. Multiple times we would ask Kyren which room was his and he would go back and forth between the two. Eventually, this is the one he stuck with. It's more like a toy room with a bed in it ;) Like we have said many times in this post...there is work to be done! There will be things hung on the wall, curtains up, and decorations. We just haven't gotten there just yet!

He slept in that big boy bed like a champ. The first night we were here we put him in it and thought it'd be a rough long night. It turns out he went right to sleep and didn't come in to our room at all the entire night. It was the strangest + greatest thing. We haven't been so lucky lately, he climbs out and literally destroys his room. He get's destructive and throws everything..not to play with it, just to make a mess. Two year olds!

Master Bedroom

--All of the doors in the house were that creamy color. So this Summer we will be taking them all of, going outside, and spraying them a bright beautiful white! I couldn't be more excited to get that done and over with! I'm welcoming the sunshine with open and big arms!

all downstairs was this dark dark red color. Originally I wanted a gray with a slight blue tint. It is definitely blue but I'm happy with it!

We are all still adjusting. In fact, I've had the hardest time of all. I genuinely and truly love my in-laws with everything in me! Living there was the greatest thing that could have happened for me personally. Kyren was truly the happiest playing downstairs with his grandparents and knowing we were just upstairs. I bawled my eyes out the moment we pulled out of the driveway and there are days that my heart truly hurts to be there again...But we welcome this new adventure and are excited to have a place to call ours!

Again, I can't thank everyone enough. Thank you for painting, thank you for cleaning, thank you for offering your opinions on where shelves should be hung, thank you for bringing us food, thank you for watching our boys, thank you for making this place exactly what I wanted it to be. You're all the very best there is, and I mean it!

Thanks for reading, xoxo!

You matter.

I was able to attend a Momday Conference at the beginning of March with my sweetest mom and baby sister. It was just what my mommy heart needed. It touched me in all the right places and gave me all of the warm fuzzies.
--And thankfully so.

These are a few things that I hope that I can remember.
1- Fill my Mom account.
2- Why talk others down? Why can't we all be up?!!
--it all begins with one single thought. and every single thought matters!
3- Sisterhood.
4- Own it. Be unapologetic and intentional with the things you say + love.

Let's start with #1. Why do we as mom's or even women (atleast I know I do) feel selfish when we go to Target and leave with the jeans we had to have? I know that I do. Girl if those cute jeans make your little butt look fine + fill your mom cup then for heck sakes. Buy the jeans! If it's that bright red lipstick that does the trick and helps you get through the day, wear the bright red lipstick EVERY single day. I don't care if it's a daily Kit Kat or an Almond Snickers or the almost $3.00 Fiiz Drink... I don't care what it is. If it's going to fill up your mom account so that you can take and take and keep taking from it then do it! When you feel good, when you take a minute, or even two hours for yourself, then your kids (your husband, your family, your neighbors, etc) will all end up benefiting.

Oh good, we made it to #2. Why talk others down? When we look at those small squares on Instagram what goes through our heads? and then what kind of emotions come from that? If we think "Oh my gosh! She's so lucky she won a free trip to Disneyland. -Oh hey there jealousy- When we walk in to the room and see a pile of clothes on the ground and we think "ugh! Both the hanger and the closet are right there. Can he not hang them up? I'm not his mom." -Oh my gosh. I'm so mad- It all begins from one single thought. Why can't we be happy for the girl who won a trip to disneyland? Why can't we walk in to the closet and see that pile of clothes and think oh my husband was in such a big hurry to play with the boys that he tossed his clothes. If we could make our minds change their way of thinking how much happier could we be and how much happier would we be for others? I want to be genuinely happy for my friends + my family who are going places, who are chasing their dreams, who are successful, who are happy with what they have. Why do we have to knock someone else down to their knees in order to build ourselves up? Why can't they be great and why can't I?

Oh hi #3. Sisterhood. I was raised with 3 sisters and then married in to a family and got even more. --I know, the luckiest. I also have a tribe of "sisters" I have a bunch of girl friends to add to those sweetest sisters who I deeply love and who lift me up always. I feel so blessed to be surrounded in person, and social media with women who continually build me up, who tell me I can do hard things, who come to my DoTERRA parties just to show their support, who text me just to ask how I'm doing. Let's lift each other up --As friends, as sisters, as moms, and as women!

Last #4. Own it! Own who you are, where you're at, and what you have! What do you say when someone asks you what you do? I used to say "Oh I'm JUST a mom" and then a 'but' would follow. NO NO NO! You're not JUST a mom. You're the very best mom! Be proud of the homemaker that you are and those babies that fight you for naps, and cry for who knows why. Some of you may work out of the home and to you I say own it. You leave your babies to work and then come home and you keep working the rest of the night! Don't feel guilty. You own it because that is hard! Maybe you work everyday all day long and you barely get to see your husband because the two of you are making your dreams come true. So what do you do? You own it, and you rock it! Don't be sorry for the human that you beautifully are! There once was a time that we didn't think twice about what we posted on social media, or what time it was posted, or how many likes that picture (close to our hearts) received, and so what if you posted twice in one day?!! I forever want to be unapologetic and intentional with the things that I post, that I share, that I say and most of all that I love!

Aren't we all just trying to do and be our very best? For ourselves, for our littlest humans, for our fur babies, and for the family members who fill our lives with so much joy? Life is hard so lets not be so hard on the people around us and most importantly ourselves. Let's be compassionate + uplifting. Let's be endearing, and genuine. Let's be unapologetic and intentional with our actions and thoughts. Let's remember who we are and what that means! Let's think highly of others and highly of ourselves. And for those wondering who you are, search for it, and find it...and last but certainly not least. OWN IT!!!