OUR 2019 HOLIDAY CARDS + ANOTHER BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

I feel like I’ve been making a lot of “big announcements” here, but we have had some life changes and it feels like I’ve been holding it in for a while and I’m dying to share it with you!

MY DRESS || MY SHOES || LIPSTICK IN ‘LIGHT MY FIRE’

BRADLEY’S SHIRT

CASH’S SHIRT || CASH’S SWEATER

ELI’S SWEATER

I mailed off our Christmas cards yesterday and it felt so good to get that checked off my list. I’m really feeling a pop of red this year (which is a little unusual for me) so I decided to run with it for our Christmas cards. I fell in love with this dress from my holiday dresses post (which is unfortunately sold out), and tailored the boys outfits around a red/black/grey/tartan theme. The best part for the boys outfits is that I literally laid down before my 26 minute nap one day and ordered them on my phone from my Target app. I narrowed it down to what was in stock in my local target, selected all my kids sizes and it was ready for my to drive up and pick up 2 hours later.

– SHOP THE POST –

I made our holiday cards this year with Minted. I’ve trusted them for multiple years with our cards and they offer such classy and chic designs on high quality paper. They just announced that they extended their Cyber Monday sale through today, so you can still get 25% off your holiday cars (with code: CM2019) and free shipping. There is still plenty of time to get your cards mailed out!

Another announcement…

So our holiday card was extra special this year. Not only are we having a new baby, but we have another really big change happening that we have been keeping quiet over the last few months….

We are building a house!! I’m being totally honest…I never ever thought I would say those words. Living in California has kind of made me immune to that idea. But the other half of this announcement is that we aren’t building a house in California. We are building a house in Charlottesville, Virginia! If you can’t believe that, I am right there with you! I can’t believe it either!

I knew there was going to need to be a move..

For the past year or so I’ve known that Pasadena isn’t going to be our forever home. It breaks my heart a bit because we love it here. However there are just some factors to city living that make it a little tricky to raise a growing family. I had no idea where we would purchase our first home though. We always figured it would be somewhere in Southern California, so we’ve kept our eyes peeled (and Realtor.com apps open). We’ve driven to cities that we thought might be a good fit, but we never got that feeling like we were where our family was supposed to be.

A little over a year ago, Garrett started working with a firm in Charlottesville. He visited the firm last year and couldn’t stop talking about how amazing Charlottesville was. I just rolled my eyes and told him to keep dreaming. There was no way I was moving across the country.

My answer…

For months and months I prayed about where our family needed to be, and one day I decided that I needed to see Charlottesville for myself. Garrett was already heading out there for work so I told him if we were really serious about finding the right place for our family that I needed to give Charlottesville a true chance. I treated the trip as if we were going to move there. I knew I would have one shot to take in the city and see if this was actually something worth considering.

While we were there we toured the elementary schools, met with a realtor, checked out the city, went to church, etc. And almost the whole trip there I walked around with a lump in my throat. I just kept thinking “the boys would love it here”. I felt it deep in my bones. Charlottesville is beautiful. It’s a really great mixture of land and trees with a cute city charm. There is a downtown area that we fell in love with and I love that there is a University in town. It’s close to DC, New York, South Carolina, DISNEY WORLD…so many new places we can explore.

The actual sign..

Our realtor showed us a newer development where they are building homes and we drove around some of the lots. We pulled up to a lot in a cul de sac situated in the same location that our current home is in our current cul de sac. I looked at the street sign, and the street name was the exact same street name as our current street name. I mean…I’ve been praying for a sign, but this couldn’t have been a clearer answer!

As we flew home I kept quietly wiping away tears. They were mostly happy tears but also freak out tears. How do we tell the boys? How do we tell our family? Are we crazy? But anytime I thought about not moving and staying in California, my mind went blank and I felt fear and panic well up in my chest. It was like I couldn’t see the kind of future I envision for my family here. And I could vividly picture what life would be like for my family in Charlottesville.

Sinking in..

After a few more weeks of trying to process everything, we decided that Charlottesville is the right place for our new home. It still doesn’t feel real, and probably won’t for some time! I will have the baby here in California in May and sometime in July make the big move! So until then I have lots of planning and designing and I am so excited. I’ve been working on plans and colors and designs for the new house and I’m really excited for a place I can make 100% my own! I can’t wait to share this crazy process with you all!