Two of my sisters came over to watch Lil’ J and Big T as my husband and I set out for the events of Closing Day. I’m capitalizing it like a holiday because it really was a day-long process.

It seemed fitting that Lee Lee was the one to stick by us all day since she’s the one that really brought this whole thing on. Third child. Bigger home. But since we were going for the bigger house it felt right to go for the whole shebang. To stop suppressing a dream I’d shoved aside for years. A dream to have land to learn, live and play on. To run around and get dirty in. And space for our kids to grow and have all their friends over.

It wasn’t until I decided that for sure, this was going to happen that things started to fall into place. Then it just grew and grew from there.

We wanted a home with about an acre of land, we got two.

We wanted to save and put 50% down and we put 51% (this doesn’t seem like much but trust me, it is).

We have everything we love about our current home but an office for me to work in. A real playroom space for the kids. And a media room where I’m certain a majority of our time will be spent crammed in there together.

Walking through the home one final time and seeing the finishing touches going up gave me chills.

I could barely contain my excitement as I walked through the finished kitchen. And when I looked outside in the backyard and saw the huge boulders that I was tripping over earlier this year, moved and lined around the beautiful oak trees I almost cried.

My dream house. We did it.

On the way to closing my husband delicately handed me the cashiers check that is literally our life savings and we joked about our reactions if it were to fly out the car window.  

At the title office we signed loads and loads of paperwork and accepted many congratulatory handshakes. But it wasn’t until I was handed the keys and a bottle of champaign (ha!) that it began to sink in.

We did it.

My husband and I drove to our new house and dropped off a couple of TVs and security cameras to be installed tomorrow. And after seeing a few spiders scurrying by I scheduled pest control. The rest of our things get moved tomorrow.

Before then we will bring the kids by with a couple of items of their choosing to begin our lives here. But we have one more night at this beloved home of ours before we start our new adventure.

Every single day I wake up and say a prayer of gratitude for another day of life. Waking up in our new home will be a daily reminder of the incredible power of setting goals, visualizing and working hard and making things happen.

You’d better believe I’ll be reminding my kids of our story. How their parents got married as young college students, donated blood plasma for savings and saved and saved for 14 years then built the house of our dreams.

As we drove away, keys in hand it hit us. Wow. I looked over at my husband wondering what wise words of wisdom he may add to the moment. He looked at me and said “We started at the bottom, now we’re here.” Only he would quote Drake in a moment like this.

We are. We did it.

This isn’t the end of our story. Though the house has the bones of our dreams with just the right amount of rooms and yard, we didn’t spend much on builder upgrades. We got basic flooring, lighting and paint. We don’t own a kitchen table anymore (ours broke and I haven’t found the right one to replace it) so we are using a $39 folding table for now.

Our well worn loved family room furniture is going to have a new place in our media room, which means no living room furniture for now.

We’ve never really done much changing or improvements after moving into a place but I hope this time will be different. Maybe I’ll learn some handy skills, or get brave and dabble in some DIY. We own the place so we can do what we want!

I have visions of built in cabinets, hard floors downstairs, a new refrigerator and beautiful painted walls. Some fruit trees and a garden in the backyard. And a playscape that’s not falling to pieces. One our baby can swing on and the big kids will still enjoy. My husband wants a basketball hoop to teach the kids to shoot on, and eventually a sports court in our backyard.

Maybe this will be the home I finally learn to cook in… Or maybe let’s not get carried away.

We got the keys to our dream house, and it’s going to be a long road to making it a home. But what’s the rush? We are going to take it slow and enjoy the journey and for now, celebrate the fact that we did it!

What do you get when you order a jumbo box of Bounty Quick-Size Paper Towels from Amazon and accidentally place the order twice? In my case, extra moving boxes and move-out cleaning supplies!

Yea, you read right. Last week I mentioned how anxious I was about a few things that were still up in the air. Selling our condo, an award nomination and a pending offer on what’s to be my dream house. Well, we wound up being three for three on good news. Though I’m wanting to knock on wood before we celebrate the selling of our condo until this Friday when we close.

As my husband put it, we’re up three on game four in the finals, but he doesn’t want to celebrate just yet.

I am celebrating my huge award honor (post coming on that very soon) and the fact that we are UNDER CONTRACT on a new home. WHAT?!

Almost exactly five years ago I snapped this picture of my kiddos in front of our soon-to-be dream home. I couldn’t imagine moving again. In fact I’m pretty sure I promised my husband I wouldn’t. I wound up leaving my full-time job at the news station and planned to be at home with the kids and chill and whatnot. Ya, know, keep blogging and see where that took me. Never did I dream my side hustle would turn into something so much more.

Then you probably remember the moment I announced meeting Oprah changed my life, and it’s time I let my dreams get even bigger.

I honestly didn’t even get a chance to put this thing on my vision board. But I woke up every day dreaming about it, and went to bed thinking about it, and I knew this could happen. The hardest part would be convincing my husband. Well, turns out if you show him enough pictures of man caves and third car garages, and all of the things you can do with a huge backyard, even he too can be a believer.

There will most definitely be way more updates to fill you in on during the process. While this isn’t our first rodeo, it’s going to be a lot different given how much more space we will have, and the fact that in the middle of it all we’ll be adding a plus one. We likely won’t be moving until November at the earliest, and I’m preparing myself for potential weather delays that could even put us in after the New Year, so we’ll see.

So for now, all of these Bounty Quick-Size Paper Towels will be used as I nest for our baby girl (Sneaky) coming in just a couple of months, and you know I’ll be folding the boxes for packing later this year. I should make some kind of spring cleaning/baby nesting list but I usually prefer to just go with what the urges tell me to do when the mood strikes. I’m hoping to clean out my daughter’s closet, get rid of the clothes that no longer fit her, and make some room for her little sister to share. Then clean out the cupboards and wipe everything down before adding bottles and such.

Since I ordered extra, we’re also planning to donate some extra paper towels and cleaning supplies to some refugees in our area. And then whatever we still have I’m sure will come in handy to tackle the many many messes big and small that come from kids and babies. Super soaking paper towels always get some use around here. To help stock-up for your own home, right now you can head to Amazon and use the promo code: “5QUICKBOUNTY” for $5 off your order. At check out, don’t forget to apply the extra $2 off coupon – that’s a total savings of $7!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Bounty. The opinions and text are all mine.

When I as a little girl I loved to sing, and I thought I was amazing. My friends and family told me I was good. I’m pretty sure if American Idol had been around when I was younger I would have been one of those awful people who really thinks they’re good. I would love to have a great singing voice and be able to serenade my husband and children with sweet melodies. Well, I serenade them anyway but not with anything that sounds remotely pleasant.

As much as I wish I had a beautiful singing voice (I still am in denial and think at one time I once did), if I could choose once talent to be great at (and if enjoyment came with the ability) I would choose cooking.

Every once in awhile I get a burst of ambition to learn how to whip up something new in my crockpot, but most of the time I stick to the staple meals which come from my freezer.

I’m getting a new kitchen in three weeks and I’m so hoping it comes with a dash of domestic ambition. I’m envisioning myself cooking delicious meals with my kids by my side, making memories making food together. I guess we’ll see about that.

When we bought the house it came with a “free kitchen upgrade” which at first glance I thought “What? who cares?” But all of the extra fun little features like pennant lights over the island, upgraded granite counters and fancy stained cabinets–It’s got me thinking the kitchen won’t be that bad. Who knows, maybe it’ll light the fire of desire for me to whip up come homemade grub.

My house isn’t quite complete but most all of the “guts” are inside. Almost every day I take the kids down and we check out the progress. About a week ago I took a few pictures of the progress. We just left a birthday party and my daughter’s face was a painted butterfly.

We’re getting all of the light fixtures and covering this week, and aside from the carpet, most everything else is inside–Our paint, trim, tile flooring, counter tops, and my favorite feature–Our jetted tub. We are packing now, and we’ve agreed to hire movers to pack whatever we don’t, and move us entirely.

Every time we visit the house my daughter is excited to look at our backyard, which is currently a pile of dirt, but soon enough will actually be a backyard. I’ve been super dorky lately and excited to test out the lighting in different areas in the house. The sun sets behind us so the family room, backyard, and Big T’s room will have great light. In the morning the playroom will have better light. That’s where this window sill is. I’m planning to sew up a nice little seat cushion for it, and some decorative cushions. That is, once I figure out what colors I’m going with in this room.

It’s designed to be formal living and dining rooms but with two small kids there will be nothing formal about our house for a while. Traditional, however, I’m ok with. But I don’t want that to mean boring. The color teal has been on my mind lately so I’m thinking beige and teal with maybe an orange accent? Or perhaps kelly green instead of teal. I have no idea what I’m talking about right now. All I know is I found the couch I want but it’s like $1200 from Pottery Barn Teen, and I’m thinking I need to find a cheaper imposter to save myself nightmares of my children ruining my overpriced play couch.

So any of you deal shoppers, let me know what you know!

That room is also going to serve as a space for my office nook, so I’d like to make it a space that’s cute for sharing.

Ok I take it back… Forget being good at singing or cooking, I want the skills to style a house. Pinterest help me!

We met with our builder’s construction manager this week and it got me excited all over again for our new home.

After going through all of the details and upgrades we bought, we drove over and saw the foundation going down.

Good news is, things should finally be picking up, and the framing should get started this week. Bad news is apparently there’s a shortage of construction workers after the housing crash of 2008 and the recent building boom. So the original estimated close date of mid-October may turn out to be mid-December. But let’s hope it doesn’t take that long.

For some reason I have all of these random ideals and unrealistic expectations tied to moving into a new home. They start out normal then get pretty extreme… For me.

When we move, I’m going to get new cute bedroom furniture. And a nice shag rug for the living room.

I want a Roomba, but I don’t want to use it on this old place. I’ll open it once we’re in the new house.

I’ll also start cleaning then.

Those cute little parties I keep bookmarking on Pinterest? Yea, I’m gonna throw one… Once I move.

That’s also when I’ll finally kick the kids out of our bedroom.

I’ll never miss a Sunday service, once we move.

When I move, I’ll actually use my kitchen.

And plant a garden.

And I’ll be nicer to my dog.

The list goes on.

Life’s gonna be great. In 2-4 months.