A Test of Marriage

There is no better test of the strength of our marriage than Christmas time.

Poor Nick gets tasked every year with putting up the Christmas lights outside of our home.

Although, I have volunteered to do it, and he refuses to let me, so I don't get why he complains....psh!

It usually goes something like this..

Me: Hey babe, will you put up the lights outside?

Nick: (begrudgingly) yeah....

Me: Well, if you're not gonna be happy about it, I can just do them...

Nick: NO...I'll do them. Just tell me how you want them.

Me: (gives him some sort of vague instructions like "just put them on the roof")

Then of course it's freezing the day I want him to put up lights, so I choose to sit inside my nice warm house while Nick freezes his butt off on a ladder with a string of lights.

(10 Minutes later)

Me: (walks outside and stands in the street to inspect Nick's work)

Nick: What? You don't like them. Something is wrong....

Me: No...well....nevermind. It's fine. Just leave them.

Nick: I can tell you don't like them. Tell me EXACTLY how you want them. I'll fix it.

Me: Well...if you insist. I wanted them this way (making vague gestures). You don't have to pull ALL of the lights down. Just that one section over there (pointing vaguely). 

Nick: (Rips whole string of lights down) I'm just gonna start over....

Me: You didn't have to get all pissy and pull ALL of them down.

Nick: Nope...I'm gonna do them right....

(15 minutes later)

Me: (walks outside to inspect)

Nick: What now?!

Me: Nothing! They look fine!

Nick: No, you don't like something.

Me: THEY'RE FINE! Leave them alone!

Nick: Whatever, they're staying up. 

It's truly an ordeal, and a test of the strength of our marriage.

I am happy to say that our marriage has survived every single Christmas light debacle. 

And he really did do a fantastic job.

Not only did he somehow manage to get this giant wreath hanging above our garage, but he strung lights on every peak of our house.

And he built this Christmas tree for me out of an old pallet!

I always try and get them matching Christmas jammies, but we decided to just go with a theme this year.

Fleece Christmas jammies....Mattis in green with Santas on them, and Dannika in red with snowmen.

 

My kids call this "mama's fancy tree".

We've always done a family tree and a Marine Corps tree.

This year, Nick let me have the Marine Corps tree to do as I please, and we combined the family and Marine tree together.

Coffee table centerpiece

Our family/Marine Corps tree

Dining room centerpiece

Above the piano .

Found these Christmas trees that are paper machéd with sheet music!

Decorating the house for Christmas is always such a fun time for me.

I know that Nick secretly enjoys being outside on a ladder hanging up lights for me too.

He may not admit it, but the look on his face when the lights turn on for the first time is priceless!

What kind of decorating do you do?

Dining Room Decor

Since we bought our house, I've made quite an effort to make it feel "homey" while putting my personality into the decor.
One of my favorite parts of our house is our dining room.

We don't have a formal dining room in our house, so our one dining room is our everything dining room.

I love that Nick built our amazingly chic farmhouse table for me to fit in our space.

I love the floating "dry bar" that Nick also built for me (although, I want to raise the mirror up a little bit...hey, maybe tonight!).

I love the chandelier.

I love the big window that brings in so much natural light into it.

I love it.

I'm also not into "matchy matchy" furniture sets like I used to when I first got married and was furnishing my entire house with matching furniture sets.

Hence the reason why the end chairs are different than the chairs closest to the dry bar, and the reason why the chairs closest to the dry bar don't match the bench.

This week, I went to World Market to just browse, and ended up getting inspiration for an awesome centerpiece for our dining room table.

I bought the tray ($20), the candles (can't remember the price), candle holders ($17 a piece), and the fake white flowers ($5) from World Market.

The turquoise candle in front is from target ($13).

The bottle of wine is an expensive bottle of merlot that Nick got me for our 7th anniversary (we are not drinking it until our 10th anniversary).

The two glass jars next to the turquoise candles are actually gifts from our relatives in England.

They had stilton cheese in it (sort of like blue cheese), and now they're empty.

I love the little bit of elegance it brings into our cozy dining room.

I light the candles when Mattis goes to bed, and just stare at them.

This is our second home we've owned, and our 6th home that we've lived in.
It's by far my favorite...
Probably because we're back in good ole Texas...

Valentine's Day recap

I hope everyone had a FABULOUS Valentine's Day!

Mine was nothing short of amazing.

I got to spend it with the ones I love most (hubby and the kids)!

I honestly can't remember the last time Nick and I went out to eat ON Valentine's Day.

I dread fighting the crowds, and since we live in a college town, Valentine's Day here is like Valentine's Day on crack!

Last year, I cooked filet mignons for Nick and me, and we enjoyed it peacefully alone in our home with wine after we put the kids to bed.

So here's our Valentine's Day recap of 2015!

We started our day planting our spring garden!!

Can i just add that I am SO GRATEFUL that I no longer live in a place with actual winters!

This is the life I love!

After gardening, I took a shower, and came out to our patio setup for a Valentine's day date in our backyard!

Hubby wins!

We had sushi delivered to our house.

We fed the kids first, and let them run free in the backyard.

While they entertained themselves, Nick and I enjoyed our sushi, enjoyed uninterrupted conversation, and watched our kids play. 

We sat outside until it got dark!

At the end of the night, we finshed off with a bottle of Messina Hof's almond champagne.

Messina Hof is a winery local to this area, and the last time we went there for dinner, we picked up a bottle of this deliciousness.

We were waiting for a fun occasion to have it!

And of course, before bed, we watched some Fresh Prince!!

How was your Valentine's Day?

Dannika's Room Tour

Dannika's bedroom is not completely finished yet, but I figured I'd go ahead and give y'all a mini sneak peak.

I'll be sure to post the "final product" of her room once it's exactly how I want it (which may be never at the amount of indecisiveness I am currently having with it).

But enjoy for now!

So we let Dannika choose her paint for her room this time.

She actually originally chose this fuschia type color, and I talked her down into a baby pink (whew!).

She actually has the largest walk in closet in the house....for real....I'm jealous.

See those two photos hanging up on the left side? 

They look a little awkwardly placed right now, but it's because I can't decide on the type of nightstand I want to put there under neath those photos.

Also, that elegant ballerina art piece that is hanging above her bed was given to me by my mom.

It used to hang in Dannika's Aunt Lydi's room.

I also purchased a chandelier to hang above her bed that you can't really see in these photos.

On the other side of her bed, we built a "floating desk" for her.

My plans are to get her a new comforter.

It doesn't really match this room (it matched her last room).

The comforter just makes it feel like pink just straight up threw up in here.

I know she loves pink, but I think a different colored bed spread will tone it down a lot, and make the pink that she has on her walls pop more. 

Right now, I feel like it just kinda gets washed away into the "sea of pinknesss".

I can't help it that I have a daughter obsessed with pink....

House Sneak Peek

I finally feel a little more "settled" in our new home.

It's still not completely organized the way I want it, and we still have a few more DIY projects to do.

But I've been getting a ton of people ask me for some pictures of the house.

I've been reluctant, because I was planning on doing one big blog post once our house was just the way I wanted it.

I realized this weekend that it'll be another few months before it's totally how I want it.

So I figured I'd give y'all a little tease.

When we started house hunting, I had a short list of "non negotiables".

Things that I ABSOLUTELY needed in a home, and if a house we looked at was missing any of these, it was automatically a "no go".

Although this is not our "forever home", this was the second home we have purchased together, and I wanted to make sure it was what I wanted to live in for the short 3 years we are here.

1. ONE STORY.

I never ever ever would buy a two story house, nor do I ever want to live in a two story house ever again (if we can help it). 

Our home that we rented in Massachusetts was a 2600 square foot, two story home, and I HATED IT.

The upstairs never got much love, and the laundry room was in the basement.

It was just inconvenient for me.

2. Open concept

I wanted a kitchen that opened up to the living room.

The last time we had a kitchen that was open to the living room was when we lived in our teeny tiny 800 square foot apartment in San Clemente (before we had kids).

After having kids, I wanted a kitchen that I could cook at while watching the family hang out in the living room.

3. Larger master bedroom/suite

We ended up with a huge master bedroom with a den (which is our office/moto room) attached to it separately.

It also has a nice little bathroom with his/her sinks, large soaking tub, a shower, and a walk in closet.

4. Indoor laundry room.

Our town house in California that we owned had the washer and dryer out in our garage...I hated it.

Our house in Massachusetts had the washer and dryer in the cold, scary basement...I hated it.

I needed a laundry room inside the house, and I finally got it!

5. Fenced backyard with lots of room for entertainment.

We scored with this.

We have a large backyard with a humongous new deck...perfect for entertaining!

So these were my 5 "non negotiables", and I'm so thankful that our realtor worked with us to find our perfect, temporary, Texas home.

Shameless plug goes to our awesome realtor Jason Handy with Andrea Peters Realtors (Keller Williams)

Here is a small sneak peek...

Remember that GORGEOUS Restoration Hardware knockoff table that Nick and I built together in Massachusetts??

Well that thing seats 8 people, and it didn't fit in our dining room, so Nick built me a new one!

The old one is currently sitting on our nice deck, and being used as a picnic table for outdoor BBQ's and entertaining!

This one seats 6.

I want two beautiful high back end chairs for it, but I haven't found the "perfect" ones yet.

The hunt continues.

Also, we are still in the process of finishing our "floating dry bar" (against the wall under the mirror in the pic).

We are planning on adding a wine rack underneath it, lifting the mirror up, and adding some shelves for "top shelf liquors".

While the kitchen is not very big, it is what "sold" me on this house.

It's so "quaint" and so "perfect" for me...for now.

It's open to the living room...

 It boasts GORGEOUS gray/white granite counter tops with subway tile back splash...

The cabinets are completely custom...

Big pantry...

Large, deep under mount kitchen sink without a divider....(seriously, if you've never owned a sink without that pesky divider, you should...it'll change your life...)

Oh, and check out that sweet gas stove with a DOUBLE OVEN!!!!

I've already gotten some use of that double oven feature.

It's seriously amazing to cook two things at the same time at different temperatures...

I'm I've already become spoiled...

 I have a little coffee bar next to the fridge.

And we purchased our new "smart" fridge...

The previous owners had a similar one, but they decided at the last minute, they wanted to take their fridge with them to their new home.

 bar area...

So there's a little tease for y'all!

As we finish up the rest of the house, I'll start posting more blogs about each room!!!

The Struggle Is Real

In our almost 7 years of marriage, this home is our 5th home we've lived in.

When we first got married, we lived briefly in Nick's bachelor pad apartment with his roommate.

When we got our first little apartment, we furnished it ourselves with lots of IKEA furniture.

We bought furniture to fit our small space, and it worked well in that space with the layout of our apartment.

When we bought our first townhome, our furniture that we had from our original apartment didn't quite work out with the layout of our new home.

It was a perfect excuse for us to get rid of our IKEA furniture and upgrade to "grown up" furniture.

I bought furniture that fit the layout of the townhouse we lived in, and it was perfect.

Then we moved from our little townhouse to this giant 2600 square foot house in Massachusetts.

Our stuff that had fit so nicely in our little OC townhouse just seemed so small in such a big house.

We made it work though, and the only thing we ended up replacing was our dining room table.

We built a huge farmhouse style table for our huge dining room.

So here we are in our new house in Texas...

Our huge dining room does not fit in our dining room, so it has sadly turned into an outdoor table.

Which is actually fine, because we have this awesome backyard and HUGE deck to host BBQ's and parties in, so it works.

Nick and I are planning on building another table together.

Also, our living room layout is so different from our last house, and I'm having such a hard time finding a way to make our furniture work.

I really just want to say screw it, and buy a new couch that fits and works in the lay out of this house.

I know Nick would not agree with me on that....

I mean seriously though...

With as much as we move as military families, it really does suck trying to figure out how to make your furniture from your old house work in your new house.

I've moved the couches and chairs in our living room a dozen times already, and can't get fully satisfied.

Oh the struggle....

The struggle is real....

On a brighter note...

Our second child FINALLY has some photos of him up on our walls!!!!!!!

It only took a year.

Our home is no longer a Dannika shrine (as some have called it)....

Just a funny photo I snapped of my Mattis...

Fell asleep just like that on his rocking chair.

Guess he was tired...

Life in College Station

Sorry I've been so "out of it" with blogging and stuff.

I keep up with most of y'all on Instagram (if you have one), and if I get a quick minute, I'll head to your blog to skim through what I've missed.

But I sincerely apologize for giving no love to y'all.

I've been painstakingly going through hundreds of boxes full of our life, and to be honest, it's been quite exhausting (to say the least).

We are in the process of doing a few cool DIY projects for our new house (on top of unpacking the million boxes of "stuff" we have), so I'll do a post on that some other time.

Oh yeah, our "stuff" finally arrived....3 weeks later than our anticipated date.

But like I said, as much as it sucked the last 3 weeks, our family made the best of it, and I did very little complaining.

After all, no use complaining over a service the military provides for FREE.

If you're gonna complain, "move yo own dayum self!", and you can do everything the way YOU want it.

So here's a little update on our happy little life in this happy little town called College Station...

I've done a lot more running since moving here to try and get my body acclimatized faster to the heat and humidity. 

Two laps around my neighborhood is 5 miles, which is a perfect distance to get acclimatized...not too long...not too short.

I had Nick bring Mattis to the park down the street from our house, and met up with them after my run :)

I've ALWAYS been a die hard Aggie...I mean...I DID grow up here and was brainwashed.

I've slowly turned the rest of my family into Aggies, and now that Nick will officially be a part of the FIGHTIN' TEXAS AGGIE CLASS OF 2017, he has embraced the spirit of Aggieland.

He even threw away most of his Alabama gear (except for a baseball hat that he has worn at almost every important family milestone).

Since our furniture took so long to arrive, every weekend, we loaded up the car and drove down the Houston to my parents house (an hour and a half away).

Free food, a nice bed, and lots of cuddle time with the grandkids for my parents!! It's a win/win!!

Last weekend, we BBQ'ed at my parent's friends house.

This is my gorgeous mama and me!

Since I had no cooking utensils, or anything in my kitchen for the last 3 weeks, we ate out pretty much every single day.

It was nice at first...

Then it got old...real quick.

I don't want to see the inside of a restaurant for a very long time...

Oh, did I mention our kids are not well behaved at restaraunts? 

See below...

The day our stuff arrived....

The happiest most stressful day ever.

We live half a mile away from Dannika's school.

I LOVE walking her to and from school every day.

I love seeing all the parents walking their own kids, the kids riding their bikes/scooters...

I love how everyone waves at us and tells us hello...

Sometimes, I feel like I am living in an episode of Leave It To Beaver/The Brady Bunch...

Well, this guy sometimes gets bored on our walks to school...

Oh, and the neighborhood conveniently paved this walkway that takes us straight to her school from our neighborhood.

The walk is gorgeous.

(note: no Fall colors here. LUSH green trees....New England can keep their orange, red, and yellow DYING leaves.)

To me, Fall means "death"...everything is dying, and the horrible winter (for New England and all places cold) is approaching.

We walked Dannika to school today, and I realized Nick was wearing his OCS sweatshirt that had "Drill or Kill" written on the back with blood splatter on it.

Not appropriate for elementary school campuses....lol.

So life in CSTX is awesome.

I love being back in the town I grew up in.

I love the look on our neighbor's faces when I tell them I grew up here.

Most people in this town are either students or affiliated with the University in some way.

There's not TOO many of us "townies" here.

I love all the big trucks, country accents, the friendly strangers, our amazing new house, our neighbors, our neighborhood......

Honestly, I can't think of ONE single negative thing about this place.

I count my blessings every day, and every prayer I've said since moving here has been filled with gratitude towards God for bringing me back.

Life. Is. Good.