Favorites From The Decade

Happy Friday, friends! And Happy New Year! I hope you had a great time celebrating the new decade that’s upon us and that your year is already off to a good start. I plan on sharing more about our family time over the winter break in the next few days to come, but first, I want to take a look back on some of my favorite memories from the past decade. 

We all know how quickly things can change in a year, but man oh man, what does 10 years do for someone. Marriage, kids, a hedgehog, rabbit, and a partridge in a pear tree. It would of course be impossible for me to list everything here, and some of these are probably really obvious if you’ve been a loyal reader of mine. There have also been some hard times, challenging times, and extremely sad moments mixed in as well, but I want to focus on the good things and look at the years to come with a grateful heart. It’s always nice to look back on things and relive some moments. I feel incredibly blessed and I’m so thankful for God’s hand upon our lives. The crazy part is, when I think about the last decade, I realize I’ve been blogging for more than half of it. Say what?! Seriously. That’s how quickly time flies. 

where else to start these memories than what kicked off the last decade for us. Eric and I were married in 2010 and we’ll be celebrating our 10 year anniversary this year. That in itself is just mind blowing. I mean that in the best way possible. It’s just crazy to think how it doesn’t feel like it’s been 10 years, and knowing where our life has taken us in those 10 years has been amazing. I’m not sure what we’ll be doing for our big milestone anniversary just yet. We were thinking of a big trip, but I’m not sure what we will end up doing. Either way, it really doesn’t matter what we do to celebrate, it matters that we’re together. I still remember so much from our big day and how much fun we had celebrating. I shared more about our wedding before if you’d like to get caught up here.

if we follow the old saying, first comes love, then comes marriage, then you know what’s next. A few years later that is. The funny thing is, when we got married the next question we got bombarded with was, when are we going to have kids? At first I didn’t think much of it, but when it seems like that’s the next step you have to do, it gets old after awhile. Eric and I wanted to enjoy being married, creating our own memories, building our finances, and not having any regrets. We really just wanted to continue our time as Eric and Sierra before creating little extensions of us. When the time felt right, we were more than excited to start our growing family. In 2013 we welcomed our first son, 2015 our second son, 2017 we said goodbye to our sweet angel in heaven, and 2018 we had our 3rd son. The even crazier part to think is, at the end of this decade I’ll have a 16, 14, and 11 year old. Time, please slow down. My children are one of my greatest blessings, and traveling on this journey of motherhood over the last decade has been one of the hardest, most amazing, wonderful, and precious opportunities I have ever been given. We aren’t sure what this new decade will hold for us, and if we’re officially comfortable saying we are done having kids, but we trust God has a plan for us and we also know that we’d be 100% ok if this is what our family looks like from here on out.

i realized in the last decade that traveling to new places, enjoying culture and new experiences became a huge passion of mine. I never really had the chance to go many places when I was younger since travel was never really a priority for my parents. I’ve been on over 25 different trips in the past decade with 17 of them being to different countries. I say that not to brag in any way, shape, or form, it’s just something we enjoy doing together as a family. Most people think we are nuts for packing our kids up and taking them to Europe, but I’ve learned more than anything in the past decade, and in motherhood, that you know your children best and every family has different goals, priorities, and parenting styles. We have two trips booked for this year coming up in February and April, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year, and new decade will bring.

it only seemed fitting that with our love for traveling, family adventures, and exploring, came the next steps in making that happen more often. Not really. If I’m being honest, I never thought about owning an Airstream. It’s not that I didn’t want one, I just never really saw us toting around in one. I mean, now it makes complete sense, but before that they were just cool to see every now and then. Anyway, I’ve also learning in marriage that you are a supporter of your significant other’s passions, hopes, and dreams. For me, that comes easy with Eric. He has always had an entrepreneurial mindset, ever since I met him back in little old 2001 (yup, we old). I mean, the guy sold things he would find on the side of road on ebay and craigslist before many people even knew what either of those were. Ok, I get off on tangents pretty easily, so let’s get back to the Airstream. If anyone wants to know some more Eric stories we can table that for another day. Ok, ok, one more. We did own an ice cream truck but that was so last, last decade (2000s). Well, here we are. Now the proud owners for our 1978 Airstream that has been on over 10 trips and created some great times for us. I still have yet to reveal the whole completed inside project (such a bad blogger), but I promise, guys, it’s coming this decade 😉

some of you might remember that I’ve tossed around on here or shared more on my insta stories that we also have a passion for real estate. Over the past decade we’ve had the opportunity to own 8 homes (not all at the same time. Maybe one day. That would be pretty awesome) and are also landlords. We did our first flip this year that recently sold in November and went for over the asking price. I’m not so sure I loved flipping in general, and I’ll never, say never, but I have a feeling that won’t be the last one we do. Here are some before and after pics of our most recent work. This is more of a hobby for us right now but you never know what the next decade holds or where this will take us. For now, I have a lot of fun using a sledgehammer, finding deals, picking out paint colors, and pushing any type of creativity that we might have. We also bought our long-term home and did a major full home renovation on it, and are still working on some things. It’s been a huge blessing and we love the land we have.

we can put all the big monumental moments aside, all the travel, all the things, and what it comes down to is spending time with my people. Those moments where we are just us, fully present, fully engaged, and enjoying life’s little moments. Just last night we let the boys stay up a little later, put on their pjs, and run around outside with them with sparklers. No cameras, no phones, just us and a bunch of laughter. It really doesn’t get much better than that. I made the decision this year (or really last year. I still need to get used to what year we’re in) to put my professional career on hold. It’s not easy stepping away from a career of over 10 years, but I also don’t have regrets. My family is everything. I’m not sure what the future holds for me in that area, but I am extremely thankful for the opportunities that do come my way and the time I get to soak up with my boys as they grow.

and speaking of opportunities, this is where the candid side of me comes out. I never want to come off sounding ungrateful, trying to sound like a know-it-all, or putting others down, I still have a ton to learn about this whole blogging world, but I’ve also learned a few things along the way. This is where I like to speak freely and openly about things because I think a lot of us sugarcoat it at times, and I also believe knowledge is power. I’ve also come across some pretty misleading get rich quick blog posts that are floating around out there, so I like to share my two cents every now then. This could probably be a post in itself (which I might do. If it’s something you’d like me to expand more on let me know in the comments), but in general I am one of those people that thinks being a blogger and an influencer are two separate things. I have a very different community here in my blogging network and a very different community over on my social media platforms. I’m not exactly sure why that is. It could be different content shared, tastes, who’s actively reading both, or who knows what. For me, if you’re on instagram that doesn’t make you a blogger, and if you’re a great blogger that doesn’t make you good at capturing an audience on instagram. That’s just how it is. But what I am extremely thankful for this decade is having the opportunity to grow both platforms over the past few years. Of course there are still goals that I’d like to have and room to improve even more, but the progress I have made I am happy with. I’ve had the chance to work with some pretty high profile brands and land over four figure deals consistently. I’ve used my professional background to stand firm in negotiations and not be afraid to walk away from low paying deals and standing up for my worth. I’m not sure where these next few years will take me with this crazy world of blogging and social media, but for now, I’m enjoying the opportunities I’ve had to share my stories and real life experiences with others, the connections I’ve made, and the friendships I’ve formed along the way. Most importantly, I’m thankful for you. For navigating this journey with me, supporting me, challenging me to be better, and genuinely enjoying what I share. We’re only as good as our last post, so let’s make them all count.

Here’s to making 2020 a great one and I hope you have a wonderful first weekend of the decade!