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 Mood Booster I Needed

I've been unhappy lately.

I mean, I'm happy...but I'm not.

Does that make any sense?

I'm happy with life and marriage...

 

But this Winter...the snow...the cold...it's really made me depressed.

I've been trying all KINDS of things to brighten my mood a little, and boost those "feel good" endorphins...I work out really hard every day to boost those feel good hormones...to get that "high"....

And while I'll have a good "mood boost" after an amazing sweat session, it's temporary because I have to go outside eventually. 

And I have to realize it's ridiculously cold and the ground is still covered with snow/ice.

But...

Our family received AMAZING news this week.

WE SOLD OUR HOUSE IN CALIFORNIA!

It was JUST what I needed to boost my mood and make me smile.

Our house has been on the market since the holidays.

We had several offers.

We had offers fall through.

We spent a ton of money to fix little things on the house.

(It's amazing how much you find out is wrong with your house when you try to sell it.)

We were paying the mortgage on our house in CA AND rent on the house we currently live in.

The house was sucking our bank account dry the past few months.

It was stressful.

But we ended up selling it for more than what we had asked for, and made a 29% profit on it!

I'd say that's some STELLAR news!

This was our family's first home.

It was a small, modest town house in South Orange County that cost a small fortune for us...lol.

It was the home we brought our daughter home to from the hospital.

 It was the home we made so many memories in attempting DIY projects to save money.

 Those projects that my hubby insisted would only take "a day or two" that would take him a week...

 Or the ones he said would take a week that would take him months....lol

 It was OUR home, and the first big decision as a married couple that we made together when we bought it.

It's a little bittersweet to let go of it.

I hope the new young couple that just bought it will enjoy all the headaches that come with it because those headaches of home ownership will turn into lasting memories.

And one last thing that's put a little pep in my step...

Our family is going back to the OC for one glorious week at the end of the month for Spring Break and my 30TH BIRTHDAY!

I'm hoping we get a photo like the one above while we are there with our extra family member that we've acquired since leaving the beautiful and sunny California.

I can't wait to see my best friend, feel sand beneath my feet, eat some amazing Mexican food, and soak up every bit of Vitamin D I can.

My husband may be coming back to New England alone....

Ice Dams?

 Ever heard of an ice dam?

Neither have I until I moved to this part of the country.

Basically, ice dams happen in your home when you get snow, the snow melts, the water runs into tiny little cracks and crevices on your roof, the water freezes overnight in the cracks, the next day, the water starts to melt (due to the sun or poor insulation), and it starts leaking into your house.

Yeah...we have those.

It's not fun to have leaks in random parts of your house. 

Oh, and we are expecting another 6-8 inches of snow tomorrow followed by rain towards the end of the week which could possibly make our little problem a big problem.

 

Nick is leaving today, and I was originally pretty pumped because it's his last week away.
But now that I have to deal with these ice dams and leaks, I'm not too happy about him leaving.

I've always thought Boston/New England would be a cool place to just visit.
There's so much history here and just some really cool things about it that you can't find anywhere else in the country.
Now that I've lived here, and it's put such a sour taste in my mouth, I'll be ok if I never come back to this part of the country ever again when Nick is done here.

I'm so over this.

As you can see, Mattis was not impressed with the snow or the snow attire.

He's definitely my son!

Hello, 1st Day of Winter

It's December 21st.

The OFFICIAL first day of Winter.

So far, we have built our first snowman of the season...

 And by "we", I mean Dannika and Nick, cause EVERYONE knows that this girl doesn't play in snow!

 AND YES...OUR SNOWMAN IS A DALLAS COWBOYS FAN!

BOOYAH!

My "punkin" had her last day of school for 2013.

I absolutely can not fathom the fact that this time next year, she will be a Kindergartener.

Seriously.

When did this happen?!

Last night, we put the kids in their Christmas jammies, got hot chocolate at Dunkin Donuts, turned on Christmas music on Pandora, and drove around town to different neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.

 Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this idea, but I'm glad we did it!

On a side note, people in Orange County are so over the top with everything, and I was expecting the same out here (not knowing any better). 

While we did see some gorgeous lights, and Dannika thought ALL of the houses that had any sort of light was "beautiful and amazing", none of them really compared to the lights people put up in Southern California.

I blame the weather.

No one wants to spend hours outside in the freezing cold (like my husband did) to put up lights. 

I get it, New England...I forgive you, cause I sympathize with you and hate the cold too.

 After we got home, we sat in the living room and just hung out as a family watching TV.

 It was a perfect evening.

I find it harder during the holidays to find the motivation to work out daily.

I have managed to get my butt off the couch AT LEAST 5 times a week to crossfit and spin.

So we are renting our home here in Massachusetts, because we have no reason to ever want to move back here once the military takes us away from here again.

I forgot how nice it was to own a house, until we became renters again.

In the home we own in California, we had granite counter tops in every room in the house, and it's a little luxury that we took for granted until we moved to a home without one.

If you've never had the pleasure of having granite...it will seriously change your life...

Ok...maybe not your life, but it is really nice.

Thank God that our landlord wanted granite put into our house.

She let us pick out the granite, the sinks, the fixtures...everything.

She just wrote the check.

Oh, how we've missed you granite.

Lastly, my daughter and I wanted a "mommy/daughter" day.

She packed her little purse with lip gloss, bracelets, toys, and other knick knacks, and she couldn't wait for it to be "just us girls".

We were going to go to Michael's to buy arts and crafts suppies, then head to Ben & Jerry's for milkshakes.

WEEELLLL....

I forgot it's the last weekend before Christmas.

The traffic was crazy....horrendous....

And after 30 minutes sitting still, we turned around and headed home.

Dannika was so heartbroken, and I felt so bad.

So we ended up stopping at the CVS next to our house to get her a candy bar.

And in my best twangy Texas accent...

"People have dang lost their dang minds out there!"

I hope everyone's done with their Christmas shopping, and are getting to enjoy these last few days before the big day!

Merry Christmas!

Just a Few Christmas Traditions

It's snowy, icy, rainy, slushy, and just plain depressing outside today.

I think my poor hubby got sick this weekend spending hours outside on the roof putting up our Christmas lights.

Note...it took 2 days, 4 hours, and 2 trips to Michaels to finish our lights.

Not to mention, I made him take the first string of lights he did on our roof down because I didn't like the color! 

Thank God for a patient husband!

But they look awesome! (Thanks honey...)

I love Christmas time.

It's not just because of the decorating, the lights, the trees, the gift giving, and the music.

I love it because it's a time of year when a LOT of people celebrate Christ.

I think that's a great reason to celebrate!

I also love family traditions. 

I think it's important to have on going family traditions, because I want my kids to grow up and have fond memories of their childhood at home.

We always put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving and take it down the day after the New Year.

This year we put it before we left for our Texas trip since we weren't going to be home for the day after Thanksgiving.

(and yes...I have a fake tree because I don't want to clean up after a real tree)

Every year, each person in our little family gets to pick out a special ornament to add to the family Christmas tree (of course, I picked out Mattis's this year since he OBVIOUSLY can't pick out his own yet).

I write the year and the name of the person who it belongs to somewhere on the ornament.

It's a lot of fun to see what ornaments we picked out in the previous years as we decorate our tree each year.

I also do a yearly "family ornament" with a family photo on it.

It's cool to see how our family has changed over the years as we put up our tree.

Our family does two Christmas trees.

We do our "Family tree" and our "Marine Corps tree".

Our Marine tree has all Marine Corps related ornaments and patriotic colors on it.

I buy new ones every year to add to it.

The family tree on top and the Marine Corps tree on bottom.

Our two trees :-)

Every year, we send out a family Christmas card to our close friends and family.

And my awesome husband is always more than willing to endure a family photo session every year for the Christmas card.

This year, we had a friend of mine from high school take our photos while we were in Houston.

He owns his own photography business, and after stalking his Facebook page for months, I decided to hit him up when we were home.

If you're in the Houston area check out Danny Boyle Photography!

In the recent years, I've become a huge fan of Tiny Prints to make our cards.

They have such amazing and professional quality cards, adorable templates, great customer service (I've only had to use them once for a problem with shipping), and for the quality of the card you get, the price is well worth it!

So I present to you...

The 2013 Romer Family Christmas Card!

What are your family traditions?