( almost ALL decor in my home is from Marshalls. I am such a believer in that place! )


Notice the tag on the bottom of the cake plate.
I left that there on purpose for a "real life" feel HA.
I ALWAYS wait about a week or so to take tags off.
I think it's so helpful to bring decor home and display it in your home to see how you feel about it after a few days.
There have been decor items that I absolutely LOVED in the store and after a few days of having them in my home I realized I didn't care for them as much as I thought I did HA.
( P.S. I WILL be taking the tag off of this cake platter. I love it )

Simple and bright. My kitchen makes me happy.

Happy Friday All!

XO

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.

My Outfit Details : Polka Dot Sweater || BOOTS [ I got them at Nordstrom Rack but these are similar and On Sale at Macy's HERE! ]
Ryan's Outfit: Sweater [ On Sale! ] || Shoes [ On Sale! ] || Black Skinny Jeans

Aaron and I about had a heartattack this weekend when we turned down our future street and saw the tip of our house rooftop!

We couldn't believe it was OURS.
WHAT?!

Goodness, we are so excited.

Anyone that has built before knows that it's quite the process
SO seeing the frame almost finished is kind of a big deal.

Here's to listening to my first Christmas song while running today,
Making THESE yummy things for the 3rd week in a row,
and listening to HER on repeat.

Happy Tuesday!

"24."

HA.

A little bit of what went on this week.

Talk about the most stressful BEST thing ever.

I don't think I slept.

You don't usually hear from my husband,

( a sneak peak at my bathroom ahhhh )

Tip #1: If you are building a home.

it will be SO overwhelming if you aren't sure.

It totally helped them to direct us to the right color scheme and I could easily pick out what I wanted.

I was like a little kid at Disney.

TIP 2: As this is our first home and obviously not wanting to break the bank,

we wrote down priorities of what we wanted upgraded and what we could live with "standard." HA

ALMOST everything is an upgrade.

Be prepared to spend a little penny or 5.

Example : White cabinets? Upgrade Level D what the heck!?

Um. I want my whole main floor in white cabinets.

My sweet husband is such a trooper.

Good thing he loves me lots! HA

My big priorities were my kitchen, my flooring, and my master bathroom.

I could live with standard white doors, standard porch lights, standard garage door, ETC.

Just go into the whole thing knowing where you can cut back and where you want to splurge a little!

TIP 3: ENJOY IT!

It can be overwhelming and stressful or it can be totally exciting and hilarious.

My husband and I were in heaven.

( actually he said he was just in heaven watching me be in heaven haha I'm pretty sure it stressed him out )

This is seriously a dream come true for me!

After signing a million and one papers this morning.

BOOM we are ready to build.

I cannot wait to see it all come together. 

I'm a first timer in this whole thing so I will definitely post about the process!

P.S. thanks for all the sweet comments and emails from my little blurb yesterday.

You guys are the sweetest. XO

NBD this Cars Bubble Blowing Machine has just taken over our life.
He is obsessed.
It's half off right now and if you have a little toddler I would highly suggest you invest 10 dollars for their happiness :)


Ryan's first pair of Nike Frees to match the rest of us. Kills me.
(( you can find them HERE ))


When did you get so big child!?!?


Football season is totally here.
Yay for Fall!!
(( Even though it is still so dang hot in Texas - I like the thought of Fall HA ))



Said goodbye to the most beautiful mountains today! ( more to come on our little Utah trip soon! )


ANNND for the really exciting part,

Last week we signed the papers on our very first little HOME!!!!
We chose a floor plan and decided to build.

Oh my gosh, we are so excited.
(( Slightly clueless about what we are doing, but so excited! ))

It's been in the making for a while,
but because of a couple bumps in the road we are just now making it official  :)

YAY!

I have to pick out everything in my whole house THIS WEEK
( talk about pressure )
and they start building in about 3 weeks!

Aaron got his first REAL life paycheck as an attorney - SO WEIRD!

We are just feeling like mega adults right now and we are pretty giddy about it.

Happy Happy Friday Darlings!
XO