I have had a TON of questions about my blog.  Not just about how I created it, but why I created it as well. I decided to write a post to explain a few things.

Taking this blogging journey was scary, to say the least, but so worth it.  Being a stay at home mama is seriously something that I’m so passionate about.  I truly feel blessed that Davis works as hard as he does for us to be able to do that.  I know being a stay at home mom isn’t for everyone, but for me, it’s a dream come true.  Being a mommy is my passion.  My life revolves around my kids and I live every day for them and Davis.  With that being said,  a stay at home mama is, at times, also a very lonely job.  Having no adult contact some days can drive me crazy.  Thankfully Walt is starting to have full conversations so I can give the birds a rest (JK).  My goal with this blog is to inspire other mamas to see the fun side of mom life.  I love being inspired by other mamas through social media, and I hope that I can inspire people as well.

WHY

My sweet Mother-In-Law gifted me a camera about a year ago, which is really where it all started.  I dove headfirst into YouTube tutorials about editing and lighting.  Every free second that I had was dedicated to learning everything I could about my new camera.  It was just a hobby at first, something to do for myself; a creative outlet.  I absolutely loved being able to capture my family’s lives in high-quality captures. I started posting our day to day lives on Instagram to document some of the pictures I was taking and, the more I posted, the more my pictures were being noticed.  Over the past few months as my account has grown, I’ve encountered a network of supportive mamas, and I now call several of them my friends.  It’s just so great seeing women support other women and not tearing them down.

I’ve always wanted to start a blog.  I actually did start one a year ago, but I wasn’t brave enough to put myself out there at the time.  The encouragement that I have gotten from my family and my Instagram community has made me feel so confident that I finally did it.  I’m so proud of my blog and what it means to me.  I have gotten so much positive feedback from people and it just means the world to me.  I love hearing how my blog is real life and uplifting to so many mamas.  Motherhood isn’t easy peasy for anyone all the time, and I’m happy to share the hard moments as well as the great ones.

I also use my blog to collaborate with my favorite brands to help promote their products.  Doing this has actually started an income for my family.  Davis is super happy about this because it helps fund my baby clothes shopping addiction, haha.  It’s a real problem, but I just can’t help myself!  My babies are just SO cute!

HOW

Okay, that was a long why, but it was important.  Now, onto the how.  When it came time to setup the website for the blog, we didn’t really know where to start.  We originally signed up for a wordpress.com site but quickly changed courses after realizing the limits of its customization.  Davis was helping me because it is VERY overwhelming setting up a website.  There was a ton to learn, and it’s not exactly easy to figure it all out.  We settled on an optimized wordpress hosting solution through Bluehost, and went to work customizing the site.  I scoured the Internet for the look that I wanted for the site, and I ended up finding a premium wordpress template on Etsy that had 95% of what I was looking for.  I loaded the template onto the site and worked with the developer to make it my own.  She was extremely helpful, answering all of my questions and helping me with several customizations.

After nailing down the look of the blog, Davis and I spent a few weeks building the site exactly how I wanted it.  I would give him directions on what I liked, and he would try to find a way make it happen.  It was a fun, challenging project for him, and since neither one of us had ever built a site before, we were relying pretty heavily on forums and DIY website design blog posts for direction.  We read through list after list of recommendations on the best plugins for newsletters, security, analytics, SEO, etc.  He made sure the site had everything I wanted from a functionality standpoint and spent a great deal of time testing everything to make certain it would work the way I wanted.  Once everything passed the test, I went ahead and authored a few posts so the site would already have content for visitors to read when it went live.  After I had penned a post for every category, I crossed my fingers and clicked the button to launch the site.

WHEN

There is never really a perfect moment in life for me to just do something for myself.  As I said, I devote my life to being a mama and wife, and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of “me” time.  A lot of thought, research, and prayers for guidance went into the blog before it ever was a real blog.  I was back and forth on if the timing was right, could I really do it with a newborn and a tot, is this what I’m supposed to do?  Davis gave me the last little bit of confidence that I needed in myself to do it.  So I just did it one day when both the boys were napping.  It didn’t happen overnight either.  Davis and I stayed awake late into the night and woke up early in the mornings to work on it.  It had become our third baby.  Davis has been so supportive of me and the blog.  He’s not only tremendously helped me set up the blog, but he watches the babies anytime I ask so I can work on it too.

I’m so thankful for everyone that has supported me!  Thank you for all of your encouraging words and taking the time to follow along with my family through our life!