Home Sweet Home: Outdoor Space

We finished our home officially in early April, and I'll chronicle the space throughout the blog this summer. We'll begin with the view from outside and the yard.

I've always loved the combination of navy & crisp white, so we went bold and painted the house Sherwin Williams Salty Dog with ultra white trim. I love it! It's the perfect backdrop for Auburn decor & patriotic decor! We also chose to do cedar columns on the front & back porches. 

We designed the house with two big porches. The first several pictures here are of the front of the house, and the last picture directly above is of the back porch. The front porch goes to the garage, so it's not a full length of the house but the back one is across the whole length of the house. I wanted the front door & back door to be exactly across the house from each other, and I chose identical double doors for these spaces. The clear pane windows allow for lots of natural light & large viewing areas. We included two skinny windows to flank the front door & one skinny window with one picture window to frame the back door. Each kiddo has two skinny windows with capability to open and get a good breeze & fresh air. The master window is a large picture window and our master bathroom window is a frosted picture window. I'll include pictures below of the building process so you can see some of the windows. 

We've come a long way! 

Our views are incredible & truly the vision we had in mind when imagining property that we might own one day. God surely showed His plan & we are overwhelmed in gratitude. 

This is the view from the front porch. 

(our little well house before we made a door for it and planted grass seed.)

This is some of the view from the back. 

We haven't explored every piece of the property yet and are grateful to do so over time. 

I'll include room by room updates as we venture through the summer!

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Big Changes

Once again, unintentionally, I have skipped several weeks between updates. Fortunately, we're less than 2 weeks from summer break and I'll have a little more free time. I finished my current doctoral term and (after advice from my husband and mom) am taking the summer off, so I have a break from that til end of August! 

We've had lots of big changes around here so let's get to it. 

First up, in late April right after my birthday, we added two puppies to our family! Meet Zuzu (black) and Stormy (brindle) !

Akuna likes them sometimes. 

And the girls love him! He entered their pen on his own, but otherwise he roams the house without them pestering him. We got them when they were six & a half weeks old and they are nine & a half weeks old now. They're doing well but we can still improve on the "going outside for pottying" bit. :)

The other big news is.... that I'm leaving my job as a teacher. I've decided to pursue a job where I can work from home most of the time, and therefore be more available for my kids during the course of the school year. I'll finish out the school year and will get one week of summer break before I start my new job in June. I'm very excited for the freedoms that will come with it and the increased availability for my children. We plan to live it up during our week off together before I begin learning my new role. I'll be sad to leave my students and teacher friends but it's time and I feel called by God to do this different route. 

Lots of news that I dropped in this post, and I will try not to go so long between updates now that my evenings will be more free. 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba 

Spring Break Recap

 Well now that it's nearly 3 weeks post Spring Break for us, how about a Spring Break recap???

We weren't sure we were going to take a Spring Break trip this year since we just finished the house, but the ocean was calling and I just had to get my family down there! So we booked a quick Friday-Sunday trip and it was perfect. The best little respite to recharge for the next quarter of school and to relax a little bit after all of the stress and hassle of building a home!

This time we rented a raised bungalow in the same RV park we've been renting from for a couple of years now. 

Here's my grown Michael boy showing off the king-size bed. 

Noah made himself right at home! (And so did Avery's dolls). 

I'm not certain of why she chose this pose, but all three kids thought the house was "luxurious."

Avery requested that I help her hang up all of her clothes. 

Here's Noah showing off the huge shower! 

Still exploring!

After checking in, we made our way to the beach to get in a good beach time since the following day was supposed to be rainy. 

The kids enjoyed playing in the little tide pool that formed on the sand. 

For dinner, we ordered takeout (seafood for the kids, Korean food for Aaron and myself) and ate it on the deck! This was so nice!

The following morning, I took the kids to the RV park playground. 

Avery's souvenir of choice was a pink turtle appropriately named "Pinky Winky." 

Later that day we took the kids to a playground in the town we stay in. They've recently added these gigantic cloth coverings. 

For dinner (as is tradition) we took the kids to a Mexican restaurant and they ordered dessert for dinner!

That evening, we loaded up for another quick beach trip. This time we focused on just going for a walk since we couldn't swim due to rip tide. 

I love these kids so much!

We love the photo bomber picture!

I love my family so much and spending time at the beach together is so fun and relaxing. We go any chance we get just to get away and reconnect as our own little grouping of 5. 

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Easter

We started our Easter with a Sonrise Service & church breakfast. I LOVE Easter and attending Sonrise Service! It was such an enjoyable time, and although it was windy, it was so nice for it not to be raining. This year all of the kiddos came & I want to say this is the first year we took them. In the past, Aaron & I have traded off on who attended and the other would arrive with the kiddos & the breakfast dish. But we knew the kids would do well in attending and they did! It was very enjoyable!

Easter baskets for the kids were very low-key this year. Every kid got a book and candy and a coupon for a new pair of shoes. We took them to pick out their shoes last night & all 3 are wearing their new shoes today. 

We hosted Easter dinner in our new home! Aaron has been DREAMING of hosting at our new place & I was so excited for him that it was finally time!

After dinner, we haphazardly hid eggs for the kids in the backyard. We actually think one of Noah's eggs is still out there somewhere! The kids had a blast searching together for the eggs. They've enjoyed the spoils of their search since!

What a wonderful weekend! 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba