My family of 6 and my twin sister's family of 6 had a spring break trip to St. Louis planned last year, but we didn't get to go because of covid. This year, we planned a spring break trip to Laguna Beach, Florida and had the best time! It's part of Panama City Beach. We chose this beach since we heard it was nice and quiet, but it was close enough t[...]
Many of you know that we sold this multi level custom house and finally closed on this house TODAY (March 22nd)!! Our family had such amazing memories in this custom home that we built in 2018. I love the fact that it's a modern home located in Iowa out in the country. I'm sure going to miss the country view from the backyard. The view is incr[...]
My twin sister (Niña) and her husband moved into their home a couple months ago, and they cannot get internet to their home until the area is developed. They both work from home and have 4 kids. It’s been a struggle they said. When we moved into our rental, I was rubbing in Niña’s face that we had internet right when we[...]
Here's a follow up of my THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN BUILDING A HOUSE post. Let's talk floor plans. As we finalize our floor plan for the new house, I realized I never shared this process with you all with our previous house. Blaine and I loved our first home in Urbandale (12 years ago), and it was a split level. We decided to do something similar[...]
**Update! She landed her aerial at Dance Champs Dance Competition on April 10, 2021! https://youtu.be/9gighfkmHPU Original Post: The Dance Avenue attended the Celebrity Dance Competition in Ames this past weekend. Check out the video of Mariah's solo choreographed by Amber Martin! https://youtu.be/o0sClu_0DKs I'm so proud of her![...]
The Dance Avenue attended the Celebrity Dance Competition in Ames this past weekend. Check out the video of their "Think" routine choreographed by Amber Martin! Mariah is the zookeeper. :) https://youtu.be/HSHFkG22i6o Their dance placed 1st in their category and 5th overall in the Junior Group. Here are some photos![...]
Ok, I probably should have explained before keeping you all hanging from my IG stories I posted. We moved into the rental last Saturday and have already received 2 noise complaints. Our first one was last Sunday evening around 8pm. That Sunday was our 1st full day at the rental. The 2nd complaint was yesterday around 8pm. The first[...]
From my last post, March 10th was (supposed to be) the big day! That morning, I made the kids wake up early to take photos before school. Not only that, I made them wear "nice" clothes. Let's just say they were NOT happy with me, but the last time we had a family photo outside of our house was October 2018 which was when we moved in. It just made[...]
If you had read my LIFE UPDATE BLOG POST, one of the news was that we are moving into a townhome while we build again. Well, we are all moved into our rental! Since people have been asking what it looks like, here are some photos I took before we moved in. I'm glad I did because I'm currently sitting here surrounded by boxes. It has 3 bedrooms a[...]
If you're reading this, you might be considering building or maybe you're just curious. This blog post is a long time coming. There's a lot to say and am finally getting a chance to sit down and write it all for you! Spring of 2018, my husband (Blaine) and I built a custom house... without using a builder which is INSANE! I still can't belie[...]