Room by Room

I love being a home owner. I would gladly trade the 650 square foot apartment for our house any day. But with great space comes great responsibility.With that being said, I have to say with the craziness that is life... we have kind of let certain areas go. Last week during my Monday off, I decided it was time to get my hands dirty. I mean really dirty. Our pantry has been a place of costly frustration. We have spend unnecessary amounts of money on items we already had but just couldn't find. I decided project productivity was a must. Here is a video (excuse my voice) to Ray showing him the mess that I created. Enjoy!


After realizing the mess that I had created, I threw a small pity party for myself. Once I emptied all pieces from the pantry it was sure an easier task. We do have a lot of great space here. I hope this will help our little family to stay clean and organized. And this video will be a great reminder why we should NEVER let it get this bad again.

On this Saturday, we are "enjoying" a Zellner work day in the casa. Who's idea was this again? Oh that's right... mine sadly. While I feel we tried to take on a bit too much in a short time period, I do feel that we were pretty successful. My goal was our closet, bathroom, and bedroom while Ray made delicious crescent roll and turkey sausage gravy biscuits. He then mastered the kitchen and living room. We are still not finished as I would love to tackle the laundry room and garage. Those can wait for another day. I'm still in denial about unpacking the upstairs. I figure that can wait until the summer. If we haven't used it yet, is it really necessary?!? I'm sure more will be updated as we go ROOM by ROOM in our quest to fill our house. Wishing you a productive Saturday!

  Before

After

Our White Return!

During our trip to Sugar Land, I had received a text that said, "Hurry home. It's snowing!" I was so excited to hear that our home in Northern Dallas was covered in beautiful, white snow. Sadly our Houston temperatures were in the mid 70s. Our Christmas day had even been hit with countless power outages due to the wind and cold front that quickly came flooding in. We returned from our trip Thursday afternoon to snow still on the ground. I was so excited to see that we hadn't missed a white Christmas! When we came inside the house, boy was it cold. This is what our thermometer read. I quickly turned up the heat.

After a quick lunch at Chick-fil-a and a stop to pick up our pups, we enjoyed a few pictures in the snow.  

Toby has mastered his look of apology. I'm sure he ate something he shouldn't have. I just love this sweet, but super spoiled baby. ANYWAY... I loved our white return. It was good to see our furbabes. We spent the rest of the afternoon, house a mess and laundry all over the floor, in the bed watching movies and relaxing.

Christmas Fondue Fun with the Fants!

On Thursday night,

After the day was done,

Our Fant friends came over
For some fondue fun!With hot chocolate and marshmellows,

And our fondue treat,

A night of friendships,
Can't be beat!

To our Fant friends
We are thankful for you,

and big boy Bryson,

And for the sweet twins too! 

Best Part of My Day!

With preparation for conference, and a full afternoon of meeting with the parents, I will have to say that this is definitely the best part of my day. The afternoons have been absolutely beautiful here in North Dallas. Both Toby and even our little lady have enjoyed spending time outside. While our hound dog is eagerly searching for bunnies, our Mattie Mae is a snuggler... even if that means coming in between Mama and Daddy on the couch.

Lately at the Zellner home things have been really busy. I feel so badly about neglecting friends and family. I feel I am constantly on the go... which is good, but I really do enjoy "unplugging" myself from the world and coming here. It's been a good way for us to reconnect on our day while getting some good outside patio time. We do look forward to the moments that we can share this time with our own kiddos but again that's definitely a day at a time sort of thing here. I'm reminded that God has sure provided me with my number one and really do enjoy the moments that everything else is just a blur. So here is to those few moments, far and in between as they may be... but here is to my best part of my day!

Feels Like Home

Song in my head at the moment...

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me

It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me

It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong.

One of my favorite past times this summer has developed into a new shopping addiction for our house. Now I will be honest, this was an acquired activity. Previously when we would go out, I would find a few pieces here and there, but was never sure of our desired look or how it would be used. Now... I have loved adding cute pieces of decor to make our house a home. It sure feels like home to me!

Enjoy a few pictures of our Friday shopping trip.

 Mattie loves our new gray ruffled pillow from Target

 Toby and Mattie's new dog toy bin from Homegoods

 Cherry wood framed mirror, dog toy bin, and rearranged decor pieces 

 View of our living room from the kitchen 

Television stand from Ashley Furniture 

Fireplace decor

Spring Patio Update

What an absolutely gorgeous weekend! This weekend after a wonderful service at the Heights, the husband and I decided to make our way to Walmart and Calloway Nursery to pick up a few Spring essentials. One of Ray and my favorite things to do now that we have beautiful Spring weather is to come home and enjoy time on our patio with the pups. So today we decided to Spring it up a bit. Here are a few photos of our Spring patio update. 

We have enjoyed beautiful days on the patio

Lazy Sunday

This weekend has been a whirlwind of exciting activities. From Friday's preparation, to Saturday's birthday celebration, we are happy but exhausted. This morning we awoke to more crazy storms, but quickly made our way to church as the husband and I would be serving our week in Joyland with the 4 year olds. This morning we had an excited bunch of kiddos that were filled to brim with energy. After several cute lessons and crafts, it was time to leave and return home. Today has been a great day of relaxation, of filling up the sink with dirty dishes, leaving the clothes baskets filled, munching on unhealthy food (this one I'm sure to regret tomorrow when we go to the gym;) playing with the pups, and watching a few redbox movies. I wish everyone a wonderful Sunday... especially a lazy one!

First Week's Random Ramblings!

This marks the first full week of home ownership for the Zellners. With the help of friends, we have packed, moved, unpacked, purchased some necessities... and some pieces we wanted, and have made our house a home. Now there are so many things that have yet to be done. I would have thought we would be further along with our unpacking; however, today we did make quite a bit of headway. We have been given the gift of a washer as well as a gift of a grill. We are so incredibly thankful for such amazing gifts and cannot wait to put both fully to use. From all the amazing words of encouragement and support we received, we are just constantly humbled by this experience as it is an adventure we've been patiently or impatiently waiting on for some time. Now we know that we will have our ups and downs with this next step as we've already experienced a jungle, a small ant infestation, some wasp nests that will need to be removed, but all in all things are going great. Anyway, here are a few random ramblings that have come to mind over this process.

1. It is amazing how many bathroom choices we now have.
2. This is the first time that we have had double sinks and we do not have to share.
3. Wood floors are beautiful but will take A LOT of work to keep them clean.
4. We now have a LOT more space to clean as compared to our 650 square foot apartment.
5. We can pick up our own mail in our front yard as compared to walking to the other side of the complex.
6. I love having a backyard.
7. We rarely use our front door.
8. We had previously found out that we were able to wash the couch cushion covers and so we did. They look great!
9. We bought patio furniture yesterday and cannot wait for it to be set up on Wednesday.
10. It was really exciting to do mundane things like put out the trashcans, send your first letter, and/or hear your door bell ring.

More ramblings are sure to follow. Stay tuned.

Welcome Home!

Ray and I couldn't be more excited to begin the journey of home ownership. And as the words on the front door mat read... welcome! Welcome to the next steps in our lives. The opportunity that we have been dreaming of. A place that we can call ours and a place to grow our little family... in the near future. The next pictures represent the past week of moving and the adjustments that follow. We truly are blessed. Thank you all for the words of encouragement as we are so excited for this exciting opportunity. Enjoy the next steps and WELCOME!


Friday night... our first night in our brand new home. The husband and I enjoyed a champagne toast. Yes this is a picture of our "house wine" that my sister-in-law gave us a few years ago but I just thought it represented the moment so perfectly.


Ray and our kiddos after a long exploration of the grounds. Poor Mattie kept jumping back into the car as she thought we would be returning to the apartment. She is still a bit confused but will hopefully get acclimated soon. Friday night, the husband and I borrowed a queen blow up air matress and slept in the master with the pups. At 3AM I was ready to begin our day, but sadly we wouldn't be waking up until 8AM. That next morning, we got up, enjoyed some breakfast, picked up the rental truck and were on our way. By 10AM we were at the old apartment with moving boxes in hand. We cannot thank our friends enough for their help.


After an hour of loading several vehicles and the truck, we were on our way home! I couldn't believe how quickly we were moved out. I give our moving people 2 thumbs up for sure! When we arrived I could not believe I was looking at OUR HOUSE! It was a bit of a jungle as the last owner had not mowed or taken care of any landscape for the last month, but at this point I was so excited to finally be home.



After our move, some whole foods pizza and wings, we said good-bye to our friends and hello to delivery men dropping off our new washer. A huge thank you goes out to my mother and father-in-law for our gift. It could not have been better timing. We are so appreciative! Within minutes it was set up and the cleaning began. How amazing it is to wash and dry your clothes where the machines actually work. No more double drying for this family. No wonder so many clothing pieces shrunk. ha! We then made our way to Target for a few home essentials. But we couldn't leave without a new bed for the kiddos.



On Monday, we came home to this beautiful orchid sitting on our porch from our Realtor. We could not have been more thankful to have her expertise and help on such an important task.



While I am a bit limited in some of my decoration, I did add a few Easter pieces of decor to our dining room table and look forward to the many trips to continue the beautification process of the house.


One of my favorite things to do is to sit outside on our back porch and play with the pups. This is definitely something I couldn't wait for... to have a yard for the dogs and of course a place to entertain.



So here's to home ownership, the ups and downs, and all the in betweens! I am absolutely excited about the journey ahead! Welcome Home!