Home Renovation Time

We have loved our simple, comfy home for almost 10 years and have been grateful for the protection and peace it has provided us and our family. Our home was built in December of 2008 and we moved in June of 2011. The home was only lived in for 6 months and then the family foreclosed on the home and it sat vacant for almost 2 years. Although a sad situation for the previous owners, it has been a huge blessing for us. The timing, the price, the location, everything. With that said, after almost 13 years it has been time to do some updates. We have been planning projects for a while, but with the pandemic taking its toll on our income and building supplies and contractors and such, we had been waiting. Somehow the stars all aligned and aligned a little too well :) All of the people we had bids for things on the home could do it all at once. So, great for just knocking it out, not so great on the bank account! 

We started with the fence. It has been knocked down for a while and with the past storm it took its toll. We have townhomes behind us, so getting all three neighbors behind and to the sides to agree was a little tricky, but thankfully it was a success and we have a new fence!

This was before....

After!! It looks great and I love having a pretty, secure fence to look at as I type this post!

While the fence was being installed, we had our contractor Godofredo renovate our upstairs bathroom. The vanity was falling apart, and I could not clean the bathtub no matter how much I tried. As you know in Houston, mold is an annoying fact of life. So, since the kids no longer need a bathtub, we converted it to a bigger shower. 

Before...

During...

After!

I love it! It was hard to choose what I wanted in there, but I like it and am happy with my design choices!

Finally, we remodeled the dining room to make it an office. When Ragnar works from home, it is hard cause he has no where to go that is quiet, so we wanted to add some doors and transform it from a dining room to an office!

During..

After..

They did a great job and I am happy with how it turned out.

We added a few new rugs and we are almost finished!

I am grateful for the chance we have had to make some updates and am happy with the companies we chose to help make it what we invisioned!

Ella's First Homecoming Dance!

Saturday night Ella went with a big group of friends to her first Atascocita High School Homecoming dance. She has a great group of friends and I am so grateful that she has people who she can surround herself with that are interested in her, support her, and have similar standards. 

She looked beautiful and I am proud of the girl she is becoming!

There were 19 kids. Only a couple of them are 16 years old and had dates, but most of them just went together in a big group just to have fun!

Who knew you would have to take as many pictures on a homecoming dance night as you would for your wedding day!!!

Beautiful girls!

This is her good friend Cayden. 

They took pictures, went to dinner at Italiano's, then went to the dance. Some of them went to watch a movie afterwards, but she came home. I am glad she had a great first experience, and even happier that she says she much prefers church dances :)

Quick visit!

My sister Marisa came to town for a few days with her youngest son Grayson to celebrate my mom's 65th birthday! I hardly took any pictures, but we had a fun time catching up and talking. On my mom's birthday we went to lunch at CeCe's and I had the biggest pancake ever! Then we went for a pedicure and shopped for a minute. Afterward we met my family, brothers family, and sisters for a nice dinner at Acadia grill. It was delicious! 

This was the only picture we took of us!

My mom really doesn't love having her own picture taken, but memories mom, memories..they have to be documented sometimes! We sure love her and I am so grateful for the endless sacrifices she has made for me. She is a wonderful support to me and an awesome mother and grandmother! Love you mom!

Houston Interactive Aquairum

The kids had Fall break a couple weeks ago. It seems like our kids are never in school, haha. Our district has SO many breaks. We tried to make the most of it and went to Rocket's games, played kickball, games, and went to this new Houston Aquarium with my parents and sister. 

We had a fun time trying out this new adventure! There were sting rays, sharks, fish, bunnies, turtles, so many things!

Grandpa paid for an interactive experience with the Lemurs and the kids loved having them all around them and petting them. 

There was a space for birds and reptiles and all sorts of things. 

They got to feed the camels. This one was only 5 months old. 

The warthogs and pigs kept eating all the kids shoelaces :) haha

We had a fun time and it was nice to try something new!