Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts
Master Bedroom
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
After having Sawyer, room sharing, and feeling like our whole house had been taken over by baby stuff, we really wanted to make our master bedroom our own space! I didn’t want to buy new furniture, but wanted to make some simple changes to freshen things up.
The walls are Polar Bear by Behr, which is the same color as the playroom. This is a really bright white, and we probably should’ve gone with something a little creamier. It ended up looking great though, and makes our room feel a lot larger.
Daniel and I made the barn door, which took a few weeks because we always have to take 10 trips to home depot. I love how it looks, and it even gave us some space back in the room because our french doors used to stick out.
Our previous bedding was so worn out that I knew it was time for an upgrade. Linens and Hutch is hands down the nicest bedding I’ve ever owned. They made it super easy with their bed in a box option that gets you started with everything you need then you can just choose from duvet covers. The sheets are amazingly soft, and surprisingly it doesn’t collect the cat and dog hair as much as our old set. I love the soft grey stripes that still keep our room bright and airy.
The Artifact Uprising frames are my favorite! They are simple yet elegant. You upload your pictures, choose the frames, and then they send them to you ready to hang! I’d never had our photos framed before so that was incredible.
These lamps from Hudson Valley Lighting are so fun and modern. They’re little enough that all the nightstand space isn’t taken up, and add more touches of gold to the room. They have a dimmer which is perfect for the evening and early morning!
We also got the coolest light bulbs from LIFX that change to any color you want, can be adjusted a million different ways, and change to the best of music! We’ve definitely had a few dance parties with these.
I’m so excited to have a place for Daniel and I to retreat and unwind at the end of the day!
BEFORE
Budget cuts to become a SAHM
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Daniel and I have lived a really comfy lifestyle. Two incomes, a mortgage, two car payments, lots of eating out, and vacations. When we first got married we lived off of Daniel’s income, saved all of mine for a house, invested 30% into retirement and were still able to buy/do whatever we wanted! We thought we had it all figured out. This adulting thing was easy! Until we bought a house.... draining a huge chunk of our savings account. Then I needed a new car because mine was the one my parents bought for my 16th birthday. The older we got the more things we had to add into our budget, and eventually it seemed like we had to have two incomes to survive. We laughed at the idea of being able to afford living with one income. Not because we had actually done the math, thought about what we could cut out, or even really discussed it, but we were both certain that it wasn’t possible for us.
Once Daniel felt God telling him that I should stay home, we crunched the numbers. We both expected the worst. That we would have to sell the house, move in with my parents, drain our savings account. All the things we had worked so hard for didn’t seem quite as important anymore. Based on our budget we are making a few changes that have made it possible for me to stay home!
One Car
We are selling Daniel’s truck. My husband is so incredibly selfless! By selling his truck we are able to pay off his truck loan, and my car loan! That means NO MORE CAR PAYMENTS! We will start saving for another car when we are able to, but for now we are a one car household. No car payments is around $10,000 a year back in our pockets. This also saves us about $1200 in gas!
No Cable
We cancelled our cable! We still have Hulu and Netflix so the only show we can’t watch anymore is Big Brother. 😭 Cable was costing us over $1000 a year! Not worth it.
Insurance
We found a better deal for home and car insurance! Every year your insurance rates increase without any call or notice from the company. Shop around for insurance whenever you feel like your bill is getting too high! This is saving us almost $2000 a year.
Phones
Daniel and I got suckered into one of those pay for your phone monthly deals with Sprint, which was costing us a TON of money. We went ahead and paid our phones off, and are canceling Spring to switch to Walmart Family Mobile. Both of those adjustments save us over a $1000 per year.
Food
Sorry friends, but we will not be going out to dinner anymore!! We will just have to go to eachother’s houses instead. 🤣 We are sticking to a very strict food budget each month. Which means I have to cook a lot.... I’ll let you know if my skills improve. I’m embarrassed to say that this change is saving us around $4000 a year. 🙈
Shopping/Random Luxury Expenses
I don’t have an exact number for how much this is saving us, but it’s a lot. We are habitual Amazon Prime users. It’s an addiction. It takes all of the effort out of spending money so that it almost doesn’t even feel like we are spending any! We agreed to $25 each every month to spend however we’d like. I’ll be using mine on Chick-fil-A waffle fries which are $2... so I can have 12.5 large waffle fries a month. 🤣
Subscriptions
We found ALL of our random subcriptions and cancelled the ones we could. Including Amazon Music Unlimited, Cinemark Movie Club, CBS, and a lot of others that I can’t remember. Canceling those uneccesary subscriptions is saving us around $500 a year.
Just from those changes we are saving close to 20,000 dollars a year!!! We decided sacrificing some of the luxuries is totally worth me staying home with our kids. I’ll be sharing about Financial Peace University soon. It has been a life saver to us when it comes to financial planning.
Obviously these changes wouldn't work for anyone, but we really had no idea that we were wasting so much money every month! Even if you don't have to make financial changes, it's worth looking over your budget to see what you are willing to live without.
Happy 26 Years Daniel!
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
My love has been around for 26 years today!!! He is closer to 30 than 20. What an old man 🤣
Daniel's my person. I didn't know you could be so intimately connected to someone until I met him. It's seriously like we are one person. There are so many things I love about him but here are a few of my favs!
One.
His mustache. Yep, I've grown to embrace the stache. There may have been tears once when he pretended he was shaving it.
Two.
The way he looks at Sawyer. Oh my gosh 😍 I can't handle how much he loves her. It's seriously like the earth stops when they look at each other.
Three.
How he constantly puts others before himself. This man wants nothing but the best for Sawyer and I. He gives us his all, and then some. On top of that all he does at work is care for others!!! So 24/7 he's caring for and loving on others!
Four.
His dad jokes. For real this guy has been practicing dad jokes for YEARS in preparation for Sawyer. She will either embrace it, or be super embarrassed forever.
Five.
How adventurous he is! Daniel constantly wants to do something, go somewhere, and experience new things. He pushes me to get out of my comfort zone, forget the schedules and planning, and just have fun!! If it wasn't for Daniel, I would probably spend 6 out of 7 days at home!
I obvi love a million more things about Daniel, but I'm gonna leave y'all with just five because I'd rather spend his birthday with him than just talking about him! 😉
xoxo,
kelsey
Happy Father's Day Daniel!
Sunday, June 17, 2018
It's super obvious how much I love Daniel. If you talk to me for longer than 5 minutes I'm liable to say "my husband" multiple times. I'm so proud to be married to him, sooo I brag about him all the time. I've always loved him, but I've never admired him as much as a do now. I adore his relationship with our daughter so much, and know that it will grow as she does.
My Favorite Daddy Daughter Moments:
- The endless mustache kisses he gives her (you'll get used to it girl 🤣)
- Dance sessions to oldies music
- Watching them nap together in the recliner
- Disney singalongs
- Worship music at bedtime
- Bath time playing
- Face timing with daddy at the fire station
- Reading "Fire Fire" over and over again every night
I already have hundreds of memories of them together, and I know every year I'll have more and more. Nothing is sweeter than watching Daniel be a loving father to his daughter. Sawyer will always know her worth, be confident, and have loving arms to hold her because of her daddy. Happy Father's Day Daniel. We love you!
xoxo,
kelsey
Crowson Party of Two
Friday, June 8, 2018
Before we were a party of three, it was just the two of us. I married my best friend, and have never looked back! Our wedding was so beautiful that I felt like National Bestfriend Day was the perfect time to share it.
Marry your best friend. There's nothing better.
xoxo,
kelsey
Photography // Emily Nicole Photo
Venue // Flying V Ranch
Dress // Lulu's Bridal
Suits // Brooks Brothers
Hair & Makeup // Jennifer Arizpe
Mom Life as a Firefighter's Wife
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
When Daniel and I first got married I hated when he went to work. I was anxious about being alone in our home. I had never spent nights alone before. I went from living with my parents, to living with roommates in college, back to living with my parents, then got married! So marrying a man that works 24 hour shifts was a huge adjustment. I had no idea what I was in for as a firefighter’s wife. I realized that I was going to be married to Daniel forever so I better get used to his schedule. It probably wouldn’t be so hard if I wasn’t so in love/slightly obsessed with my hubby. 🤣 I know some firefighter wives that look forward to that 24 hours, while I found myself dreading it.
At first I would basically stay home and wait for him, which made me pretty miserable. I finally decided to make plans on the days he was gone. That gave me the opportunity to hang out with my girlfriends, mom, or do girl things without feeling like I was missing out on time with Daniel. It also gave me the time to do laundry and clean the house so that we could enjoy each other and relax whenever he’s home. I finally figured out how to handle the firefighter wife schedule, and then we had Sawyer. So I now had to learn how to be a firefighter wife with babies.
Daniel took an entire month off work, which was the BEST. (Read my blog about how awesome he is here.) Being able to take off large chunks of time is another perk of being a firefighter. We are always able to take vacations whenever we want because if he takes off 1 shift it’s like taking off 3! It completely spoiled me that he was off for so long, and I knew that when he went back to work it would be a huge adjustment just like when we were newlyweds. Isolating myself was the worst thing I could do with a newborn, so I always make plans for the days he’s gone. Even if it’s just lunch with a friend, I have to get out of the house. I also try to get grocery shopping, laundry, and a little cleaning done. That’s a lot harder now that we have a newborn, but I still want to make the most of my time with Daniel rather than cleaning when he’s home. I go easy on myself when he’s not there though. If I don’t get to everything then it’s no big deal, if there’s a few dirty dishes left in the sink, or laundry in the dryer I try not to stress out.
Daniel and I want to make it a habit to facetime with Sawyer while he’s a work, and we’ve started that regularly. Even though she doesn’t understand facetime, Daniel still loves seeing her and talking to her. I also send him snapchats of her all day long. Imagine leaving your newborn baby for 24 hours. (crying face) It’s hard for me to be alone, but it’s even harder for him to be away. Then sometimes he gets home, and hasn’t slept in 24 hours so all he wants to do is hold his daughter but has to sleep instead.
His schedule has a few downsides, but it’s the best for our family! As a teacher, I get entire summers off and big breaks throughout the school year. We are able to spend so much family time together while most dads would be at a 9-5 job year round. It also means that we don’t have to do fulltime childcare. Daniel is able to be home with Sawyer 2/3 days while I’m at work, and the other day Sawyer will go to my mom’s house. Having the entire summer before I go back to work is so great, and we have so much time to get used to being parents. Once I go back to work I will have to get used to working all day, and then having our baby alone all night.
I am so thankful for my amazing husband who is so passionate about his career. He loves us both so much, and wants to spend every moment possible with us but is also such an amazing provider. Handling those 24 hours apart is a small challenge, but truly blesses our family by allowing him to be home for 48 hours! God gave him the calling to be a firefighter so that he would have a schedule that allows him to be home with our babes. God knew exactly what He was doing when He planned out our life.
xoxo,
kelsey
Daniel's Paternity Leave
Friday, May 4, 2018
Today is Daniel's first day back at work! When we first decided for him to take a full month off for paternity leave it seemed like forever. A whole month with my husband and new baby, what a dream. It was a dream, but like dreams you wake up and it feels like a lifetime ago. I woke up this morning to my hubby heading off to work, and reality hit that it was back to normal life. We had created this little bubble of love and joy to get used to our new addition, but it's back to real life!
I am thankful for a husband who feels called to be a daddy as much (or more) as I am meant to be a mama. That was one of his biggest selling points when we were dating. I could just tell that he would be an encouraging, loving, and caring dad to our babes. He has proved me right over and over again this month, and I know he will for the rest of forever.
Daniel is the best in a lot of ways, but this time it's because he took off a whole month to take care of Sawyer and I. So many people talk about how hard the first month is, and don't get me wrong it is hard! Really hard, mentally and emotionally exhausting, and a complete adjustment. We are such selfish people that having to put aside our own wants and needs for this itsy bitsy baby is tough. It would have been a million times more challenging if I was doing it alone. Daniel has basically done everything for Sawyer and I so that I could recover from having a baby and really focus on breastfeeding and bonding!
Just to put how much he has done for us into perspective, I've changed 2-3 poopy diapers total. Babies poop A LOT.... so I have been completely spoiled this month. I may have to Facetime Daniel for help when she poops while he's gone. I'm also doing my first load of laundry today since she was born. Which is completely insane because I used to do all of the laundry. I also didn't have to lift a finger in the kitchen to make food, make a plate, or even grab a water bottle for the entire first week home. Anytime I tried to clean or help around the house, he would tell me to go sit down and he'd take care of it. I have felt so loved and cared for his entire month off.
Daniel also got to spend so much bonding time with Sawyer. It's a lot harder for dads to bond with newborns that first month because they're not breastfeeding, and they didn't get to experience birth first hand. Daniel worked so hard to establish a bond with Sawyer immediately. He constantly had skin to skin time with her, and spent hours cuddling with her. I feel like they've bonded just as well, if not better, than Sawyer and I. Watching him with our daughter are some of the sweetest moments I've ever experienced.
I'm in awe of my husband. Thinking back to this past month, I would have unlimited babies with him because who wouldn't! I could never have scored a better man, forever boyfriend, husband, and daddy to my babies.
xoxo,
kelsey
