So very happy for you! Thank you for sharing this journey with us! Especially those of us who have been following you from before you and Sam were married. I love seeing your pure joy and excitement. What a special time! 💜🔑
That board book you made for Lyla is adorable, and the wedding picture of everyone was perfect for the end of the book. Love the picture of Charley being included 🙂 Congratulations on purchasing a home. What an exciting time for your family! I appreciated hearing your story of how you and Sam decided to settle in Chicago. I'm a long time viewer, but only knew bits and pieces of your background story.
Congratulations! It’s such a grown up thing to do, buying your 1st house. I hope that the 3 of you will be very happy there. Like you, when I was growing up we moved 5 times before I was 18. Since we married we’ve had 2 homes and the one we’re in now we will have been here 22 years in January. My daughter only remembers this one as she was 2 when we moved in and it’s lovely to have that kind of stability, in that she knows where she’s from and where home is xx
🔑Congratulations on the new home! It’s such a great feeling knowing your baby is going to grow up in the new house you’re buying! My fiancé is an electrician btw and it might be relatively easy to add overhead lights since you have closet lights. They’d have to extend the wires or pull new ones, but I wouldn’t think it’d be terribly complicated. 💡
🗝️I had to use a skeleton key for your classic first home. Ceiling lights are not hard as long as the wiring and breaker box can handle the additions. Good luck and many blessings make this home your own. Book is adorable. She’ll love it!
Bones (layout/size) and location are so much more important than the look of the home honestly! You can always do the work to update it as you live in the space and envision your perfect spaces after you've lived there for a bit, especially if you end up staying long term, it does not have to be a beautiful place to start and you guys get a blank slate to do whatever you want! We bought a historic home that is amazing and we really love, but once reality hit, we realized we got in a little bit over our heads with the size of the mortgage and the amount of work of such a home while also being afraid to touch anything so I don't ruin the charm of the home. Now that we've been here a few years (and are in the process of setting up a nursery which is our first fun project here!), it's great, but we definitely had a little bit of buyer's remorse at first haha. Sometimes I wish I had bought a fixer upper built around the 50s-80s though (Our house is 140 years old) haha
Oh my gosh!! Our house is luckily not THAT old, so hopefully it won't be too bad in terms the work, but we agree that we would rather have the right bones and location and we can update other things as time goes on!
Congratulations!!! So exciting to have a house all your own. Make it livable but don’t feel pressured to make all the big changes too quickly. Can’t wait to see y’all settling in. So fun!
I know by now you’ve named your goals but everywhere you, Sam and Lyla live will be a home. You’re settling into your first house and no matter how long you live there it will always be the first. Totally get that you’re not doing a PWL membership. I follow Matt D’Avella and he just relaunched his podcast. Attached to that is a patreon where he share the unedited version of the podcast with tangent conversations that didn’t make the cut. It’s the raw soundtrack so super easy for him and makes passive income 🔑
On your youtube subscription, i understood what you would be adding and i thought it was an amazing idea for those of us who love vlog type stuff. Maybe in the future you can revisit.
🔑 Looking at the date I just remembered that tomorrow will be the anniversary of the day I did the legal paperwork that made me the owner of my apartment. That was 13 years ago! It was cute seeing your daughter trying chocolate ice cream! And the book you made her was cute too.
🔑 Congratulations!! 🎉 What a fabulous way to start off 2025…moving into your new “enduring” home!! I’ve never liked the phrase “forever home” either. I absolutely LOVE that book you made for your daughter! What a special and clever gift ❤
🔑 my daughter used to love pictures as well, whenever she saw herself we used to say ‘that’s you’. Fast forward to when she started daycare and they asked her what her name was……she said ‘that’s you’ 🙈🤣
🔑 congrats Laken, Sam and Lyla !! So exciting for the new home news 🎉
So very happy for you! Thank you for sharing this journey with us! Especially those of us who have been following you from before you and Sam were married. I love seeing your pure joy and excitement. What a special time! 💜🔑
That board book you made for Lyla is adorable, and the wedding picture of everyone was perfect for the end of the book. Love the picture of Charley being included 🙂
Congratulations on purchasing a home. What an exciting time for your family!
I appreciated hearing your story of how you and Sam decided to settle in Chicago. I'm a long time viewer, but only knew bits and pieces of your background story.
Thank you!! I am so glad that you enjoyed that story! I wasn't sure how much of that I'd shared in the past!
Congratulations! It’s such a grown up thing to do, buying your 1st house. I hope that the 3 of you will be very happy there. Like you, when I was growing up we moved 5 times before I was 18. Since we married we’ve had 2 homes and the one we’re in now we will have been here 22 years in January. My daughter only remembers this one as she was 2 when we moved in and it’s lovely to have that kind of stability, in that she knows where she’s from and where home is xx
Aw I love that so much!
Aw, my grandpa gave me my first taste of a chocolate shake and it’s one of my most favorite and precious photos!
🗝️ congratulations Laken!! So exciting on this new chapter and step! ❤️✨ 🏠
Congrats on the house🎉🎉🎉
That book is stinkin precious 😍 ❤️
🔑Congratulations on your new house! And hooray for Lyla getting her first taste of chocolate ice cream! 🍨
🔑Congratulations on the new home! It’s such a great feeling knowing your baby is going to grow up in the new house you’re buying!
My fiancé is an electrician btw and it might be relatively easy to add overhead lights since you have closet lights. They’d have to extend the wires or pull new ones, but I wouldn’t think it’d be terribly complicated. 💡
Thank you! Our contractor also thought it would be pretty simple!
Congrats on becoming a home owner! May you have many many years of memories with Lyla there ! that book for Lyla was such a sweet idea - Love it !!!🥰
Thank you so much!
🗝️I had to use a skeleton key for your classic first home. Ceiling lights are not hard as long as the wiring and breaker box can handle the additions. Good luck and many blessings make this home your own.
Book is adorable. She’ll love it!
Thank you so much!!!
I’m super happy, excited and proud of how your beautiful family is growing. 🎉
Thank you for choosing us as your friends someone to talk to.
I’ll be here ready to subscribe for more content when you’re ready!
🔑 your towel looked like a classic little black dress - congratulations 🥂
Bones (layout/size) and location are so much more important than the look of the home honestly! You can always do the work to update it as you live in the space and envision your perfect spaces after you've lived there for a bit, especially if you end up staying long term, it does not have to be a beautiful place to start and you guys get a blank slate to do whatever you want!
We bought a historic home that is amazing and we really love, but once reality hit, we realized we got in a little bit over our heads with the size of the mortgage and the amount of work of such a home while also being afraid to touch anything so I don't ruin the charm of the home. Now that we've been here a few years (and are in the process of setting up a nursery which is our first fun project here!), it's great, but we definitely had a little bit of buyer's remorse at first haha. Sometimes I wish I had bought a fixer upper built around the 50s-80s though (Our house is 140 years old) haha
Oh my gosh!! Our house is luckily not THAT old, so hopefully it won't be too bad in terms the work, but we agree that we would rather have the right bones and location and we can update other things as time goes on!
Congratulations!! 🔑🎉
🔑 Layla is so cute with the stuffed animals and ice cream!!
Thank you for considering the community in your thoughts to be a pay option. I’m so so so grateful.
Congratulations on the new home!
🔑 love how the board book turned out!
Me too!!
I love Snapfish! We always get our cards and photo gifts from them. Congratulations! 🗝
🗝 congratulations!
I love Lila’s book!
🔑. Also as someone who bought a house that was built in the 50’s lamps are the way to go. None of our rooms have overhead lights. So lots of lamps.
Oh wow! We did ask the contractor to include in the estimate, but we'll see!
Congratulations!!! So exciting to have a house all your own. Make it livable but don’t feel pressured to make all the big changes too quickly. Can’t wait to see y’all settling in. So fun!
Thank you so much!!
🗝️ congratulations!!
🔑 Congratulations!!
🔑 Congratulations!
It blows my mind that for the largest purchase of our lives we only look at it a couple of times! 🗝❤
That is so true!!!
Congratulations!!!
Omg the board book gift is amazing!! 🔑
🔑 Congratulations!!🍾🎉
🗝️ Congrats!
🔑 Yay!
I know by now you’ve named your goals but everywhere you, Sam and Lyla live will be a home. You’re settling into your first house and no matter how long you live there it will always be the first.
Totally get that you’re not doing a PWL membership. I follow Matt D’Avella and he just relaunched his podcast. Attached to that is a patreon where he share the unedited version of the podcast with tangent conversations that didn’t make the cut. It’s the raw soundtrack so super easy for him and makes passive income 🔑
Thank you so much!! I did end up using the word "new"! But first would have been a great option!
🗝
My favorite Vlogmas day so far 🔑
On your youtube subscription, i understood what you would be adding and i thought it was an amazing idea for those of us who love vlog type stuff. Maybe in the future you can revisit.
Thanks so much!!!
🔑 Congratulations on your house!
Congratulations 🎉
🔑 Looking at the date I just remembered that tomorrow will be the anniversary of the day I did the legal paperwork that made me the owner of my apartment. That was 13 years ago! It was cute seeing your daughter trying chocolate ice cream! And the book you made her was cute too.
🔑
🗝️
🔑 Congratulations!! 🎉 What a fabulous way to start off 2025…moving into your new “enduring” home!! I’ve never liked the phrase “forever home” either. I absolutely LOVE that book you made for your daughter! What a special and clever gift ❤
Thank you so much!! I ended up just using the word "new", but I like that word too!!
🔑🎉
🔑🗝️
🗝️😍
🔑🗝️🔐
🔑🫶🏻
🔑 my daughter used to love pictures as well, whenever she saw herself we used to say ‘that’s you’. Fast forward to when she started daycare and they asked her what her name was……she said ‘that’s you’ 🙈🤣
Hahaha that's amazing!!
I’m super happy, excited and proud of how your beautiful family is growing. 🎉
Thank you for choosing us as your friends someone to talk to.
Always!! :)
🔑 Congratulations!!
🔑 Congratulations!
🔑
🗝️
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑
🔑