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Country Coastal Laundry Room

Hi friends!

Hope you are doing well! I can’t believe we have already been in our home for two years. We are slowly but surely working on completing the rooms one at a time. Today I am sharing our Coastal country laundry room. A lot of thought was put in our laundry room when we designed it in our home build. We wanted a room that was cat friendly, with plenty of storage, and counter space to do laundry. Check out all the details of our coastal country laundry room below.

One thing we wanted was a space for rolling laundry baskets. It makes it so much easier for moving clothes to and from bedrooms. Saves your back from having to carry heavy loads. Also when kids get muddy from outside they can easily just throw their dirty clothes in the dirty hamper. Our laundry room is located next to the mudroom which makes it more convenient.

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Another thing we added into our laundry room were hidden cat spaces. Instead of more cabinets we kept the space empty for our cats’ litter box. We made sure to add outlets below so we could plug in our litter box and air sanitizer, and hid then using these cute cafe curtains. I hate the smell and look of litter boxes. But these cafe curtains were such a great solution. We also added this hidden kick drawer for our cat bowls. Love how easy it is to kick open and close. We also had a cabinet designated for cat food storage and for them to hide in if they wanted to. The cute hole cut out leads straight to the litter box. These cute hidden cat spaces are functional yet aesthetically pleasing.

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I know sign decor is no longer a thing in the decor world, but in Texas praising the Lord is always in style. I had gotten this years ago for our first home and I just love it. It is a constant reminder of our purpose here.

Another must have to our laundry space was a huge apron sink. It’s great for hand washing clothes, and watering my indoor plants. We also added a cleaning closet with outlets for our cordless vacuum. If you are planning to build I highly suggest putting a plug outlet in your closets. We love having all our cleaning supplies out of sight.

We decided to stack our washer and dryer to save on counter space.  I wanted to make sure we had counter space to fold clothes, and with our 8×12 ft U shape laundry room this was the best option. I was worried it would be too high, but at 5’2″ reaching the top buttons was not a problem for me, even with our large capacity washer and dryers. It’s nice not having to bend over so much to get clothes out. 

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We used this peel and stick wallpaper for the walls. I have a love and hate relationship with peel and stick, because it doesn’t stick on as well, but for the price it’s worth it. I love the deer design because it gives ode to all the deer that roam on our farm. It brings a little outside nature in. And one last thing the color of our cabinets and trim is sea salt by Sherwin Williams. The color really goes well with our coastal country theme.

I love how our coastal country room laundry room turned out. It’s been a labor of love and it’s everything I could want in a laundry room. Beautiful, functional, and cat friendly. I hope you enjoyed this tour of our coastal country laundry room. Check out more home room tours here!

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Seville Classics
Preprinted Minimalist Home Laundry Bathroom Labels for Organizing
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Family

38 Years Hallelujah

Hi friends!

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a birthday post. But funny thing is the last time I did I turned 36 and celebrated my birthday at the Galvez with my family. This time I had a girl’s night at the Grand Galvez with my girl friends for a fun Palm Royale themed birthday. As you can see the Grand Galvez is my favorite hotel and one of my favorite places to celebrate my birthday.

This year turning 38 I feel like I’ve grown so much and finally in a point in my life where I get where God is taking me. I have had the biggest revelation after taking a social media break for lent. This is my first year I no longer depend on social media marketing and it’s been freeing. God has been so faithful in allowing us to depend sole on Josh, and allowing me to focus on raising our babies. It was a hard transition at first with Josh being gone, but for the first time this year I finally feel like I got my life together. I’m back in the gym after four years. This is the first year in 6 years I’m not pregnant. I feel like my body is healing and growing stronger. And for the first time I finally finished reading the Bible, and spiritually I feel closer to God than I have ever felt.

I hear God better. I no longer rely on my own understanding, and instead I pray for guidance on everything. It’s been so eye opening, and honestly relieved me of so much anxiety and stress. For the first time I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be.

 

 

Honestly I couldn’t ask for a better life. It’s everything I could dream of and more.  Thankful for this life God has given me, for pushing me, breaking me, and molding me to the person that I am today. I know with God all things are possible. I hope in my life that who ever I meet I can spread God’s love and light. I want them to feel loved, to feel worthy, and to feel they are enough. Thankful for this life and thankful for each and everyone of you who have taken the time to read this.

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Family

Charlotte Grace Is One

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing well! I can’t believe our sweet Charlotte Grace is one. Time flies especially when you are the fourth child. We had an intimate birthday with our family for Charlotte’s 1st birthday. I love having an intimate birthday with just family for their first birthday because they get all the attention and it isn’t as overwhelming. We did a hearts and bow theme for her birthday and it turned out so cute! Check out more of Charlotte’s many first and details of her birthday below!

My first:

1. Word – Jayden

2. Kiss – mama

3. Crawling – 8 months

4. Taking steps – 11 months

5. Walking – Not quite yet

6. Bobo – None yet thank goodness!

7. Beach – 2 months

8. Trip – Waco to the Polar Express Train

9. Tooth – 7 months – she has several

10. Smile – 2nd day after she was born

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Thankful for our sweet family and celebrating our beautiful girl. Watching her grow has been such a joy! Happy birthday to my sweet Charlotte Grace. We love you so much!

Check out her birth story here.

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Mini Flora Dress
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Family

2025 Family Christmas Card Photos

Hi friends,

It’s been awhile since my last post but we have been so busy with school and the holidays! But we were able to take our annual Christmas photos with our dear friend Yash who has been taking our pictures since Jayden was a baby. He basically is like family. Every year I look back at these photos and seen how much we have grown as a family and it brings me so much joy. I am truly thankful and blessed for our beautiful family. Check out our full photoshoot below!

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This year will be Charlotte’s first Christmas with us as a family of six. Can’t believe she will be ten months by Christmas. Time flies by so fast with little ones. We have made the most with creating all the Christmas memories with our little ones. We are truly blessed. Honestly I know I’m creating the memories that I will look back thirty years from now and smile. Hope ya’ll have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Dawn

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Family

Daisy’s Second Birthday

Hi friends!

Hope you are doing well! I can’t believe our sweet Daisy girl is two. Last week we celebrated Daisy’s second birthday with our family. We kept it simple and did a fun make your own slider station and did a fun Daisy balloon garland for her birthday. Check out more details below!

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My sweet little Daisy is entering my favorite stage. The wild but fun twos! I love that her personality is coming in. She loves pushing boundaries, but she does it in such a cute mischievous way. She definitely has my personality. Thankful to be her momma and to watch her grow. We are truly blessed!

Check out Daisy’s 1st birthday here!

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MacKenzie Childs Enamel Everything Bowl
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Powder Bath Reveal

vessel sink, dark blue wall color, black sink, plaid wallpaper

Hi friends!

Hope you are doing well! Today I wanted to share our powder bathroom reveal. We have been working on this for awhile now but we finally finished the wallpaper and trim and I love how it turned out. If you want to make your home look designer but don’t have a big budget I say do your bathrooms. It is such a small space but packs a punch, and the powder bath is one of the most used by our guest. Check out our full powder room below!

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I love all the details of our powder bath, from the seat warming bidet, to our unique hand carved marble vessel sink. I love how it looks like a piece of art. We also did marble checkered floors in this bathroom in continuation of our entry marble floors. One thing we wanted to make sure was to have a cohesive theme to our home and having checkered floors in one thing you will see in our wet spaces like our mudroom and laundry room as well.

This plaid wallpaper turned out so beautifully. You can see the before video before without the wallpaper here. We wanted to continue this moody Duke grey color into our office and the wallpaper as well. It really coordinates well since they are right next to each other. We are currently working on finishing the office as well but until then check out more home room reveals here!

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Bathroom Basin Vessel Sink
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Family

First Family Farm Photoshoot – Eleven Year Anniversary

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing well! We celebrated our eleven year wedding anniversary and to commemorate this special day we had our first professional family farm photoshoot taking in front of our home we custom built and moved into a year ago. I remember taking these photos five years ago when we first bought our dream farm and there was nothing on it but these beautiful oak trees. Back then it was just the three of us and now we are a family of six with three cats, one dog, six chickens, and two goats. Oh how times have changed. God has truly blessed us! I knew when I saw this land that this was where we needed to be. It took us a while to get there but I am so thankful we kept pushing through and now we are here.  Scroll down to see our full family farm shoot below.

 

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A lot can happen in five years let alone eleven. Our marriage has been through so much and because of our faith we have come out stronger because of it. I truly believe God doesn’t give you something you cannot handle. And with steady faith, a dream, and a whole lot of love God has shown us a life greater than we could have ever imagined. We are so beyond blessed and to imagine eleven years ago we had nothing to our name but our faith in God’s plans and our deep love for each other. Thankful for these past eleven years doing life with my best friend, and our beautiful family. Our children are the greatest example of God’s love.

Read more of our love story here.

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Family

The Girls Baptism Reception

baptism reception, baby dedication, baptism, food

Hey friends,

Hope you are doing well! Another big milestone for our family, our girls got baptized! It’s been a long time coming, but with the home build, having back to back pregnancies, and Josh’s crazy work schedule there was never the perfect time. But we decided to go ahead without Josh since we never had a time that worked with his schedule. I’m so thankful for our family who were able to make it. It was such a big moment in our girls’ lives. We ended up hosting our family at our home for the reception, and it was a nice intimate family celebration.  Check out more of our baptism reception below!

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We are so thankful for our family who came to support our sweet girls baptism. I love how everything turned out. You can see more of the set up process in this video of the baptism reception. Also check out past family celebrations and milestones here!

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Family

Ella Turns Three – Butterfly Birthday

Hi friends,

Today I am sharing a recap of Ella’s third butterfly birthday. I can’t believe my sweet baby girl is three. Where did the time go? I still can remember her birth. It was the most traumatizing and difficult birth experience I’ve had. Thankfully Ella was strong and healthy and she has thrived ever since. The past year was probably the most challenging year for me as a parent. I’ve never experienced terrible two’s with Jayden, so it was a definitely a learning experience as a mom with Ella.

Ella has always been a smart independent girl. She marches at the beat of her own drum, and if she doesn’t want to do something she won’t do it without some convincing. Potty training was a feat on its own. I just remember Jayden being potty trained in one week. Ella took several months. But to my defense I was pregnant and had juggling a newborn. But now we are officially potty trained and my gosh I feel like we just leveled up as parents lol! But really though Ella is so much easier, calmer, listens better now that she is three. Now its her sister’s Daisy turn for the terrible twos lol! Pray for us!

But all jokes aside we are so thankful for our sweet girl! We know those “difficult” times don’t last long, and is all part of growing up and us learning as we go as parents. Ella is my little mini me when it comes to her strong willed personality and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I love that she isn’t easily persuaded and she is so independent. This girl is so smart. She loves singing all of her Jesus songs, and its the cutest! She currently loves cats, Gabby Cat, princess dresses, painting, stickers, lipsticks, and accessories. She is definitely a little fashionista in the making, and I love it! It’s such a fun stage to play dress up!

For her birthday we decided to do a butterfly birthday theme. She loves wearing butterfly wings and accessories. It turned out so cute! Check out more details below!

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Love celebrating our little Princess Ella. I wish I had taken more pictures but we were so busy getting everything ready I was only able to capture a little bit. You can see more of her party in this video. You can check out her past birthdays here!

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Family

Charlotte Grace’ Birth Story

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing well! It’s been a crazy busy couple of weeks. In fact I can’t believe we are already half way to March. Last month on February 19th at 2am our sweet Charlotte Grace made her debut. It was my first natural birth, and I can’t wait to share the full birth story with you. I am so thankful I was able to have this amazing birth experience, especially after having my past two birth experiences with Ella and Daisy. Read more of Charlotte Grace’s birth story below!

Daisy wasn’t too happy about not being the baby anymore!

My sweetest little blessings! How did I get so lucky to be their mama. Love how our lifestyle photoshoot as a family of six turned out in our home. We took this in Charlotte’s future room with all the little antique baby pieces I got her. I am definitely leaning into the vintage classic vibes with this girl. It is just fitting with her name.

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Charlotte Grace’s Birth Story

 

So it was the Tuesday after her scheduled due date and we had tried every labor inducing trick you could think of. By the time we went to the doctor we were 3 cm dilated which was a good sign. We did schedule an induction for that Thursday just in case she didn’t come out on her own for safety precautions.

I remember that night deciding I needed to get my nails done before baby arrived. As I was getting my pedicure I started getting contractions that were eighteen minutes apart. I didn’t want to get my hopes too high because I have been having Braxton hicks contraction for the past two week that would go away after going to bed.

When I got home I decided to go to bed and get some sleep around 10pm. At 10:30 my water broke as I was laying in bed. This was the first time my water broke naturally. Minutes later my contractions started to speed up five minutes apart. Josh called his dad to come over so he could watch the kids while we went to the hospital. He arrived 40 minutes later and we still had an hour drive to the hospital. By then I was 4 minutes apart.

Laboring in the car wasn’t so bad as there was no one on the road, and I could time out when my contractions would hit. I honestly didn’t think the labor pains were that painful. By the time we reached the hospital and admitted into triage at 1am I was already 7 cm dilated. By then the nurse didn’t recommend I get an epidural because the baby was coming fast. At that time I still could endure the labor pain, and I did want to have a natural unmedicated birth so I opted to go without it.

Within the hour my labor pains intensified, and I could feel so much pressure like I was having constipation. I knew she was coming fast. I remember peeing all over the bed and telling the nurse I need to push her out now! They brought in the doctor, and I could feel the ring of fire. And that was when I felt all the pain for that minute I was about to push her out, I looked at Josh and said “I can’t do this” He looked down there and then at me and said “Yes you can, because I see her coming.”  Those words gave me so much strength and in two pushes she flew out of there so fast the doctor had to catch her!

I remember the second she came out I felt a since of relief and euphoria. I couldn’t even feel the pain anymore. I was in literal shock that she came out so fast. They definitely did not have to worry about jaundice or her lungs because this girl was so red and loud! Also with a head full of hair! I was so relieved when she came out so strong and healthy, and getting to hold her in my arms seemed so surreal. Those nine months of carrying her and wondering what she would be like to having her in my arms, as perfect as God made her. The miracle of a child being born never gets old. It’s truly the greatest blessing.

Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.

We didn’t have a lot of photos at the hospital because we were their for only a night! It was the quickest hospital stay we had ever had. We were able to get home to our other babies much sooner than expected, and it was nice to be able to be together as a family of six. Honestly could not have asked for a better experience. Maybe next time we will have a home birth!

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Family

Holiday Maternity Photos – Baby #4

Hi friends,

Hope you are doing well! It’s been a crazy couple of months with the holidays and then baby girl made her arrival. I almost forgot to post our holiday maternity photos we took! I love documenting this time, because I always feel so amazed of what my body can do when I am pregnant. Check out our in holiday maternity photos we did over the holidays with our family. I love how they turned out!

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Do you remember this maternity dress from a previous shoot? I wore this same dress in Hawaii when I was pregnant with Ella in this post. I am so glad I got to wear it again for this moody holiday maternity photoshoot. It is definitely harder to get everyone in the same frame when you have two very active toddlers. But we wouldn’t want it any other way. So thankful for another sweet little babe. It is truly a blessing!

 

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Photos by BanAvenue Photography

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Family

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years 2025

 

Hi friends!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years 2025! Hope you are having a wonderful start to your New Year. It’s been a busy couple weeks for us with the holidays, being pregnant, and my husband being gone for weeks at a time as a Captain for his job. But I wanted to share our yearly Christmas card photos and share our message for the New Year. We have so much to be thankful for including finishing and moving into our new home. Plus baby number four will be arriving soon! Here is a recap of our past year below!

2024 Yearly Recap

2024 hasn’t been without its ups and downs with the death of Josh’s beloved grandmother, my third miscarriage and cancer scare earlier in the year, plus emergency gallbladder surgery! My health was definitely something I battled with earlier this year, so being able to have a healthy pregnancy has been a blessing. I don’t take any of it for granted.

Also with Josh’s new job he has been gone for weeks at a time, which honestly has been hard emotionally, but we are so thankful for all the help we have with our family and our neighbors while he has been gone. It has been harder physically with my pregnancy, but God has given me the strength to push through and I’m so thankful. I feel like superwoman some days lol!

We started home schooling Jayden in 2024 and it’s the best decision we have made. I feel like he is more challenged with the curriculum that we have for him, and I also get to have him home more. We also have a small homeschool community that we are so thankful for. Jayden is doing well in school, taekwondo, and is starting basketball for the first time this year. I don’t feel so bad when he does all these extracurricular activities because I don’t have to sacrifice the time he is with his family since he is homeschooled. We also have the best neighborhood kids that Jayden get’s to play with so he get’s tons of socialization. I’m so thankful we finally went the homeschool route, it has been the best thing for our family and Jayden.

The girls are doing well. Daisy had that second degree burn earlier this past year that we had to deal with, when hot water spilled on her at a restaurant. She has been a trooper through it all and has healed so well. She really is our sunshine baby and I’m so thankful she continues to thrive through adversity. Ella is as smart as can be, but also just as stubborn. We are in the process of potty training her and it has been a longer process than with Jayden. But we are making progress. I love her little personality though. She is too smart for her own good.

Happy New Years 2025!

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We are so thankful for our growing family. Even through the ups and downs at least we have each other. Thankful for all 2024 has brought us, the good and the bad, because it has made us stronger as a family. We look forward to 2025 and most of all bringing another sweet babe into this world!

Happy New Years 2025!

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Photos by BanAvenue Photography

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