This whole building process has been a little surreal to us.

Now that it's coming to a close it's been so fun to look back on the last 5 months.

We had our FINAL walk through yesterday with our builder
( basically just 3 hours of lots of manuals of how to work the place HA )
and in one week, we get to officially make this house a HOME!
( I cannot believe we move in next weekend! )

Rewind time a little..

During Aaron's final months of Law School we looked into the option to build our first home.

For months we researched and went to model home after model home after model home.
With this being our first home, we budgeted both options of buying an existing home vs. building etc.

After lots of research, we found the area we wanted to live in and found a little floor plan that fit our stage of life perfectly.
 But somehow things just kept getting in the way and we kept pushing it back and pushing it back.

Fast forward a few more months and a couple too many bumps on the road of pregnancy :) ...
Aaron knowing my state of mind called me one day and said,
"Sweetheart. Let's do it. TODAY. Let's sign the papers and let's build this thing!"

One of THE BEST decisions we ever made.

Aaron knew we both needed something to keep our minds busy and not focus on the "complicated parts",

so that's just what we did.

That night we went and chose a floor plan, chose a lot, picked a builder and signed the papers.
Boom boom boom boom.

( Ryan at his future stomping grounds ^^ )

We got home really late that night and I remember being a little shocked, we both looked at each other like
"wait... did we just do that?!"

Next thing we knew we were in the design center feeling slightly overwhelmed HA. ^^

I had a color scheme in my head and knew EXACTLY what I wanted.

I wanted a bright, light, clean lined, and cozy looking home.
 I really wanted that to come across through the colors I chose.

Of course, with this being our first home and wanting to be selective of where we spent our money, we picked and chose where to upgrade.

( still no cabinet knobs and a few other things but it's coming! ^^ )

Because we are having to get a lot of new decor and some new furniture for this home, I have been raiding Marshalls Homegoods and TJ Maxx!

Decor and furniture have been piling up in our garage!
Ha needless to say, my husband is obviously thrilled to come home from work and see my new finds taking up garage space :)
I'm so excited to see how it all comes together!

As far as kitchen details and home details, colors, etc. I promise I will get to all of those!

I will be picturing it as it gets clean / decorated and as we get settled :)
Ryan asks me every day "New house mommy?" So, we made a paper chain.
8 links and counting until he can run around and tear the place up for good :)
So excited.

The best Shrimp tacos in all the land.

( and sweet potato fries are my weakness )

My in-laws got my youngest brother a marshmallow gun shooter.

It's only taken a month to post all the odds and end pictures from Christmas time :/
However each picture tells a story and I wanted to remember it all.
Best December.
Best people.
Happiest New Year celebration.

I am over the moon excited for the sponsor post of mine today!
Alexa is a dear friend to me and I love her sweet little family.
She blogs over at "He and I" and she is incredibly talented.
I am always loving photography tips so here you go!

5 Secrets for Photographing your Toddler

Let Them Play : Toddlers are wiggly and active, so one of the best ways to get natural, candid shots is to just let them play! Let them run and jump and dig and swing and twirl. You’re not only getting a great photo, but also capturing their personality. Bring your camera on your next adventure and let them run wild!

 Thanks Alexa!

Side note...

 I'm slightly convinced that her little girl and Ryan are soulmates.

Here's to crossing our fingers our set up works one day!

Happy Friday! XO

Packing and decluttering.
and packing. and packing. and packing.

It actually feels really good.
And I haven't minded the whole process... YET.
( Knock on wood )

I'm one of those people that loves to organize and LOVES the feeling you get after taking a load of trash to the dumpster knowing you just got rid of all that extra STUFF laying around your house.
( I'm a little weird )


( "where's Ryan!?!?" ^^ )

I have come to realize that I am NOT sentimental about many objects.
( I'm pretty fast to throw things away to avoid having extra "STUFF" laying around )
However, when it comes to clothes,
I have to admit, I am a bit of a hoarder.

I finally took my mom's advice- to take Opera's advice HA
and get rid of everything I never wear and every clothing item I think to myself, "one day I may wear it".
Because chances are, I won't wear it.

My mom is the queen of getting rid of things that don't need to be kept to take up "space".

10 trash bags to Goodwill later and some money made from selling stuff to Plato's closet and I feel so fresh and replenished!
I told Aaron I was going to make money and buy decor for our new house HA.
I don't think he actually thought I really would.
#proudwifemoment


In the middle of all packing chaos,
we all came down with the flu.
Awesome.
I am one that is an AVID vitamin taker and health nut and I do not remember the last time I got sick like this!
2 weeks of sickness is just NO FUN.


Lots of soup ( Thanks to my mother - in - law ) and cuddles and we somehow made it out alive ;)



Today was the first day Ry and I actually got out and went somewhere ^^
We have been little "sickies'" cooped up!
And it felt so good to be outside again.


House. House. House. House.
Gosh we are so excited.
We have our final walk through in a week and then we close the week after that.
I will be talking more on the process later.. but it has been a dream process. we have loved every minute of building our first home.

I put our family room furniture on Craiglist 2 days ago thinking to myself, "hopefully it will sell in the next few weeks before we move"
( All furniture we have had since being first married but a little different style than our new house will be - hence the reason for selling )

Little did I know what would happen that day...

5 minutes after I put my couch on, I got a call from someone.... SOLD.
Coffee table and end tables - SOLD 30 minutes after listing it.
The sweet man that came to pick up the coffee tables asked if I was selling any decor...
He ended up buying everything - decor wise - in our family room - Clock, florals, lamps, etc.
then asked if he could buy our kitchen table.
Why not?!
( we were going to sell the table eventually, in the next few weeks, just maybe not right there and then but oh well! )

HAHA so moral of the story...
we have NOTHING on the bottom floor of our town home!

No couch, no table, everything is off the walls,
and we still have 2 weeks in this place.

It's a blessing it all sold so fast.. but now what? HA


Aaron made quite the bed of blankets on the floor the other night to watch a movie,
and we will somehow make meals work on the floor for the next 2 weeks HA.
( It's slightly pathetic! )

We did get a new couch and it will be arriving at our new home the weekend we move in.
As for the kitchen table, I guess we need to find one ASAP.

It's crazy over here, and so busy but we are trying to soak in the whole process.

We are just pretty excited us little sickies' made it out of the house today - OHH the little things!

P.S. have you seen THIS music video? Ry and I are loving this new song - Ryan has asked to dance to it every morning for the past week.