{Home Series} First Home Tour Part 2

If you're just joining in, yesterday I posted the exterior and downstairs of our first home in Houston. Today I'm continuing with the upstairs. I wasn't crazy about the grandma looking floral carpet, but it was new upon move in and H didn't want to rip it out and change it. 

There were 3 bedrooms upstairs, a washer and dryer and 2 full baths. The rooms were on the small side but still ample space for us. One thing I don't miss is the squeaky floors. I had to be like a ninja sometimes trying to leave a room after putting the girls down for a nap or bedtime.

The nursery was my favorite room in the house. When we first moved in, we were approaching the second year of trying to conceive our second baby. I purposely kept the room empty until I got pregnant. I remember I used to sit in there and pray, sometimes cry after I miscarried in 2009.  Decorating the room throughout our years there as our family grew is something I will never forget.

If you want to see the original post where I did my nursery reveal and the products that went into it, you can click here and it will take you to it.

I hope you enjoyed taking a tour of our first home!

{Home Series} First Home Tour Part 1

Happy Tuesday! I know it's been a good 1 to 2 weeks since I've blogged. It's just been so hard lately with the way I've been feeling, keeping up with 3 girls and running a business. I am really going to make it a point to keep blogging regularly. I love having an outlet to get some of my thoughts out and share what I know and love. 

I've had several people ask in the past to do a house tour and I just never got around to it. When we were getting our house in Houston ready to sell, I took all the pictures that were used on the listing, so I have plenty of pictures to share now. Just to give a little background in case you missed the announcement. We moved from Houston to Boca last month. My husband was transferred for work and we only had a month and a half to sell our house and find another one in Florida. We are currently renting a condo so we can get to know the area. We are loving Boca, but we aren't used to renting. It's not ours and doesn't feel like home. I miss all the natural light we used to get in our first home, I miss the space, a backyard, and being able to decorate. Other than new sheets and little small things, I have not bought any new decor nor do I plan too until we are in our own home later this year when our lease is up. I seriously cannot wait! 

When we were first looking for our home in Houston, I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it quickly grew on me. I loved the Victorian style, the stained glass windows and all the unique features it had. It really was gorgeous and while I wish I could have done more projects, you know how life goes. There was pregnancies and new babies and life just happened. I will forever cherish all the memories we had in our first home.

The backyard was constantly a work in progress, but most of the time it was neglected. We did a lot of work in the beginning, but with my husband's work schedule and commute, it just didn't leave a lot of time for him to spend on it. When we first bought it, there was bamboo EVERYWHERE! There was so much it had pushed the fence out on one part and we had to take out all the bamboo and have the fence replaced. What I loved about the backyard was the deck (great for parties!) and the built in cooling mist. Truth be told we hardly ever used the mist though. 

Let's move on to the inside. I really loved the floor to ceiling windows throughout the whole downstairs and while I wasn't a fan of our out dated kitchen, I did love the natural light and looking outside during meals. Of course I always wondered if our neighbors across the street could see in into our kitchen through their upstairs. I could see a little into their upstairs bedrooms at night so I'm guessing the answer is yes. Oops! Because there was quite a few times I'd forget and walk in the kitchen at night to get some water in a little nightgown. 

The work we did do downstairs while living there was strip, sand and paint the front door, paint the living room, tear down the wallpaper in the kitchen, and replace the floor with marble. The kitchen was another one of those unfinished projects.

That concludes the downstairs. Not pictured was a small hallway between the kitchen and the dining room where the half bathroom was. Check back tomorrow for a tour of the upstairs.

Have a great Tuesday!

Sugar Sand Park

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a good weekend. We really didn't do much this weekend for a change other than run some errands, grocery shopping and watching the Superbowl on Sunday. I still haven't been feeling great so it's been a struggle these days keeping up with the kids. Last weekend we did check out an awesome park in Boca called Sugar sand park. It's a really neat place to take the kids. It has an amazing playground, science explorium, theatre, nature trails and a carousel. 

The kids really didn't want to leave, but they begrudgingly obliged after bribing them with a carousel ride. It's only $1 to ride which is pretty cool. I definitely see H and I bringing the kids here often. 

The evolution of the diaper bag

Then: Classy leather $248 Ralph Lauren tote.

Now: Flimsy canvas $5 Old Navy tote with the San Francisco bridge in a heart. (I've never even been to San Francisco.)

If you have more than 2 kids and they are 3 and under you probably know how just trying to get out of the house is a job! I used to pack all my things neatly in my RL tote before the straps got ruined from lugging all their things around, and these days I'm throwing random things that I think the kids might need in this Old Navy tote and hurrying them out of the house. 

Sometimes I don't even bring my purse too and just throw my wallet in there as long as the rest of the house is going in there. Vanity be damned. My shoulder hurts dagnabbit! I'm just bringing one bag. In all seriousness though, I will be looking for another bag soon. I need something with compartments so I'm not taking 10 minutes just to locate my keys. 

Our weekend (Miami & Key Biscayne)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Ours was good. I love being so close to everything. This past Saturday we ventured briefly into Miami and then Key Biscayne. We parked near south beach and walked a little along Ocean drive and checked out an art deco festival that was going on. We also went by the beach but we didn't get in. The water was beautiful! Afterwards we had some cuban food at a quaint little cafe called tinta y cafe and then we headed to Key Biscayne for about 2 hours. Layla, Serena and H got in the water, but Mariam and I hung back. We don't like to get in the water when it's cold so we just sat around enjoying the view and playing with the sand.

Sunday was a lazy day. I've been feeling under the weather a bit and had plans to take the girls to the part while H watched football, but I ended up just staying home and we spent more time on our phones and tablets than we should have. Yesterday we spent the day exploring the city of Delray Beach which is only about 15 miles away. I'll do a separate post on that another day.

I love taking pictures of my family, however trying to get them to take pictures of me can be like pulling teeth sometimes. H doesn't mind too much, but he ends up getting shots like the one above. I guess that's what timers are for. 

Have a great Tuesday!

All moved in!

Finally we got our internet set up in our new place! We've only been using our data on our phones and it's so slow here. Now we've got the wifi going so I can start blogging again. I've missed it! 

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks here and I am loving this gorgeous city! Even driving to and from the store or Serena's school is just peaceful. It also feels very safe. In several of the forums I read back when I was researching Boca, I read a lot of comments about people being rude, but I haven't seen that yet. Most people seem pretty nice and the girls and I get a lot of smiles. Serena is settling nicely in her new school and made friends the first day she was there. She's such a social butterfly. We also found our new church and got Serena back in choir. 

Layla and Mariam settled in just fine as well. They ask about my parents and my inlaws, but they haven't mentioned the old house at all. My friend mentioned that small children associate home with being where ever their things are, so I guess that's why they feel at home. As far as H, he is loving his new work place. His hours are fantastic and he no longer has to drive far. Since we've been here, we've checked out the beach twice, took the girls to pony rides and checked out a couple nature centers. There's just so much to do and we are in a great spot to be able to travel to neighboring cities. West Palm Beach is only 30 minutes away and Miami is 40 minutes away. We've also got the keys 3 hours away and Disney World 3 and a half hours away. There are also 2 airports 30 minutes away. 

I've take a ton of pictures on my phone, but my phone has been acting weird lately so it's not letting me email the pictures to myself. Hopefully once it's working right I can share pictures from the first two weeks. I'll start taking pictures with my camera again soon so stay tuned. ;)

Have a great 3 day weekend!

We've moved!

Good-bye Texas, hello Boca Raton, Florida! 

Now you know the reason for my less than frequent posting lately. Things have just been crazy with getting everything in order for our big move. H got a job transfer in November with a start date of January 2nd, so we had to quickly get our house in order and put it on the market. By a stroke of luck we sold it the first day it went on the market. The first couple that saw it fell in love with our Victorian house, so it was a huge blessing to be able to sell the house quickly. The closing wasn't until December, but everything went smoothly. 

However we had a second hurdle of having to find a new home. We flew out to Boca a few weekends ago to look at a few houses with our realtor, but we didn't find anything we liked. We only had one day to look and it just wasn't enough time. So for the meantime, we are going to be renting a condo as we get to know the area and then find a house. We are so excited about moving. In the beginning we were nervous and wondering if we were making the right decision, but the pros outweighed the cons. Boca is beautiful and known for their A-rated schools and Serena is going to be zoned to the best middle school  in Boca. That was a huge selling point for us. Not too mention--the beach! We are only going to be about 10 miles from it. There is going to be so much more to do outdoors as a family as opposed to Houston. The cost of living is higher, but the quality of life is going to be better. Also, H is going to be super close to work and work shorter hours. No more hour to an hour and a half commute! We just arrived yesterday so we've got a lot to do! I can't wait to share updates on our new adventure.