Category Archives: life

life, lifestyle, New Year

2025 Recap, Grief, and Tomorrow

It is already January 15th, and I have not posted my annual one and only blog post of the year, my New Year’s post. I cannot believe that is all I got out last year. Not going to lie, I am a bit disappointed in myself. I have several unfinished posts in my drafts, but none I ever got to finishing and posting. My goal last year was twelve posts, one post a month. That is totally doable, but I did not prioritize. I will try again this year. 

2025 was a year, in fact, it has been the hardest year of my life so far. The first seven months were great. My two little sisters both had baby showers and new babies. A new nephew in April and a new niece in July. Our large family just keeps getting bigger. But then… one of the worst things imaginable happened. 

On July 25th, by Dad got into a bad accident. On August 3rd, we lost him. Even though we are approaching the six month mark, it still feels like yesterday. I still get flashes from the hospital every day like little jump attacks. I still can go from totally happy to fighting back tears in an instant, or sobbing alone in my car. I still have the urge to call him every single day. 

It is so easy to think that life isn’t fair. Lately, it has felt that way. It was only two years before my Dad passed that my husband’s Dad passed. The thoughts have crossed my mind multiple times, “How come WE do not get to have dads?”, “How come we didn’t get to keep even one of them?”.

Leading up to my Dad’s accident, the idea of forever good-byes was really getting to me. In stories, books, movies, a good bye was sending me over the edge. Perhaps it was a warning. A warning that I was getting a forever good bye. The permanence of it still has yet to sink in. When I think about what happened, I cannot help but think it is fake news. Like no, this is not my life, that could not happen. But it did, and it is permanent. An irreversible change. We KNOW death is permanent. But when it happens this close to you, to someone that has been your constant for your entire life, the someone that was not supposed to go yet because you had so much more you needed him for, when that happens, the realization of how irreversible death is hits you in the face like you never truly knew what death meant. 

“…the realization of how irreversible death is hits you in the face like you never truly knew what death meant.”

Although I have a ton of family, I have such a sense of aloneness. Not in the way of feeling lonely, but feeling like I am on my own now. One of my sisters and I discussed this. Yes we are in our thirties, but I feel like a kid still. Who is supposed to guide me or look after me now? I am an adult with a family of my own, but I still always had my dad. The reminder that I once was a kid and he raised me. But he always told us that he did his job. That if he were to die today, he knew us girls would be okay. We will be. He raised us well, but that does not mean we will ever stop needing him.

Now we have reached 2026, a new year, and I have to say that my dad passed LAST year. I do not feel ready for that. It feels like he left us yesterday. We had a Celebration of Life for him last September. WHAT?! Lunacy. I remember feeling like I was at a fake event, living an imposter moment. 

Yet the strange thing through all of this grief is that life goes on. We have kept on living. He would want us to, but there is also no choice. Time moves on and us with it. We have the choice on how we live it, but there is no stopping each tomorrow from coming. 

My son is two now, and he is who keeps me moving. His world is full of discovery and new things. Continuing to see the world through his eyes keeps me moving forward. I do not want to hinder his childhood because I feel like I cannot move. 

He saw me start to cry the other day because I listened to one of my Dad’s old voicemails. My son was all smiling and talking and saw my tears and stopped and looked so concerned. He said, “Mommy sad,” and gave me a hug. I needed it. And then we moved back on to playing with monster trucks. 

I am not quite sure where I am going with this. Just know that I am still here despite the last year. I am working to continue to show up for my family and for myself. I am working to raise my son in a way that would make his Papa proud. 

Queue “It’s a Great Day to be Alive” (my Dad’s favorite song) because it is. Each day is a gift, and we need to remember that. 

Cheers to tomorrow. I love you Dad. 

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life, lifestyle, Motherhood, New Year

Hello 2025

It is that time of year again where I write my blog post about all of my New Year’s goals and acknowledge that it has been forever since I have been on here and blah blah blah.

Well, it is a new year, it has been a long time since I have written, and it is okay. I am actually proud that last year I wrote six blogs, it was definitely an improvement from the year prior. Of course I have a goal to post more this year, I want to publish a blog once a month (at the very least). I think that is doable. The hold back I have had with posting I think, is that my content is changing so much. I have been in a shift, really for the last few years, where my blog and I are evolving. We started off silly and tragic, then shifted fully into style and fashion, now… we have been trying to figure it out. So much has happened over the last four and a half years, both good and bad, but priorities and just life itself has changed. I met the love of my life, married him, and had the best baby boy ever (who is now a one year old toddler and is absolutely everywhere).

I still love style and fashion, but to be honest, I have let it slide… A LOT. It is something I want to get back into this year, mostly for the reason that I want to feel good about myself. I have written time and time again, that feeling good in an outfit gives you such a sense of confidence, and I want that back. I need that back. So I am making changes this year.

The last two years I have had the same New Year’s resolution: Change My Entire Outlook On Life (see the 2023 post here and the 2024 post here). How naive of me to think my entire life could change in a year, and even after adding a bonus second year. My sister and I talked IN DEPTH about changing our entire lives, and we still discuss it today. We came to the conclusion that year one was a “prep” year. Although things did not LOOK different with us, we felt different, our minds were different and changing. Year two was when I thought it would all be put into action, but I am still not there yet. You always hear change doesn’t happen over night. I KNOW this, but here we are on year three and still working towards our goal.

I think part of the delay (for lack of a better word) is that along my way on this journey, I am figuring out exactly what my goal(s) in life is and fine tuning it. It is funny how one of my goals last year, and is again this year, is to slow down, and then realizing all of this change is SLOW. I guess it all goes together and is a lesson to be learned.

This past year, and mostly the last few months, I have been able to envision CLEARLY what I want for my life and my family’s lives, and it makes me so excited. I day dream about it all the time and it is like watching a preview to a movie I really want to see. My husband and I want to move. We do not want to stay in California. He never has (and has left once before), I don’t know if I ever cared too much about moving. I think I thought about it more when my sister moved out of state, but even then I had no plans. But when I met my husband for the first time in Montana, my eyes were opened. I still don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful place. A place that just gives you feelings. I just felt such a sense of peace out in the open land, away from a big city, with fresh air and mountains. I want that. I want to feel like that every day. It took me a while to admit that. I thought about it A LOT to myself, but was afraid what it would mean to say it out loud. What actions it would spark. I have never moved away like that. The farthest I have lived is Orange County. But I am ready, and not just ready, EXCITED and CRAVING. I want it. I want the change. I want a new place for my son to explore (not that he has explored a lot here, he has only been walking since November, but I want him to grow up somewhere else).

So what do my husband and I envision for us? We want land, we want to build a house and a shop (maybe even together), and we want simple. I want our dogs to have room to run, I want goats and chickens, he wants horses and cows, I am determined to add in a donkey and alpaca somehow 😆. I just want the simple, slow life where we spend our days and nights together and exploring. I want my son and future children to play outside and not care about screens. I want to have to drag them inside when it is time for dinner. I want summer dinners outside under beautiful sunsets, and family time around a fire pit under the stars. I want a cozy house when it is winter, with a wood burning fire place and piles of warm blankets. I want both of our families to come camp on our property and just let the cousins run wild and all be together. I dream of all of this. I yearn for it. The want is clawing at me in a motivating way.

I know there is a trend of this lifestyle. It can be seen all over social media. But I have made it a point to start following all of those accounts that have the lifestyle I dream about, and I watch their posts and stories not in comparison, but as inspiration. It is like a live vision board that constantly gets updated with new things.

What are my goals for this year then?

  • Work towards our family vision, which is definitely a work in progress and will take some time
  • I want to continue to slow down. I have learned it is a practice, you cannot just decide to slow down, especially when you have been a go-go-go girl all of your life like me
    • Not only do I want to slow down for myself, but I want to slow down for my son. I do not want him to have a rushed and stressed mentality like I have and grew up with
  • Along with slowing down, I want to be more intentional with my time. This has a lot of factors:
    • I don’t want to waste my time on useless things, like scrolling social media endlessly. I want to scroll with a purpose, or give myself an allotted time and stick with it
    • I try really hard to be intentional with my son, but there is always room for improvement
    • I need more intentional time with my husband
    • I don’t want to waste my time on drama, or complaining, or gossiping. I have much better uses for it
    • Lastly, I don’t want to give my time to people who do not deserve it or do not respect it
  • As always, I want to read and write more
  • I want to make more homemade food (my husband is the chef, but I have had such a spark to expand my cooking skills and make more things from scratch)
  • I want to get healthy
  • My last goal, which is a new one for me… I want to be more adventurous this year. This doesn’t mean crazy things. One idea I have already is to kayak. We live on a lake. My husband and our roommate have kayaks that they never take out. I want to get my own kayak and have family outings on the lake. I want to go camp more places. I want to do more hikes or explore more places nearby or close enough to be a day trip
    • I can be such a homebody, which is fine, but I need to push myself to get out there. I know once I finally get out there, it is so worth it. I think my struggle is that our family is so busy already, adding in new things can feel exhausting. There needs to be a balance of activities and recoup weekends at home.

Of course I have more small goals within all of these goals, but this is the general idea. I am excited for this year. I really feel deep down that this is going to be a year of significant changes in myself. I am pointed in the direction I want, and I am going to keep working and building until I get to where I want, giving myself grace where I need it. Change is slow, and slow is okay. Slow is what we want. Cheers to 2025 ✨

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beauty, life, lifestyle, the.B.Law

Clean Teeth, Warm Heart

Hello there!

Want to know a fun fact? I recently celebrated my one year anniversary of getting my braces off 😆. Yes it has been a year and yes I am still a psycho about my teeth (or at least I try to be). I brush, I floss, I whiten… and now I have a new product I love. Did you know, that there are probiotics for your teeth?! I was not aware of this, until my friends at Smile Brilliant reached out to me.

I have had the privilege of working with Smile Brilliant multiple times, and now we are doing our fourth project together! They are a brand and a company I have grown to trust and love, as I literally use their products every day. Their newest addition though, is Dental Probiotics. You chew one a day (at night after brushing your teeth) and you are all set! So quick and easy to add into your routine, and they taste good too (like, for real).

I know we hear about “regular” probiotics all the time, so what are dental probiotics good for? Um a bunch of things. Allow me to enlighten you. They allow healthy bacteria in your mouth AND in your sinuses! Yeah remember? These things are connected. They also help fight plaque build-up and decay, as well as supports good breath. Aside from these great results, the dental probiotics also help build your immunity. YES! These little chewables can help your cold/flu immune support. That is one thing I thought was really great about them. The more to help me not get sick, the better. Also, anything that helps my sinuses, count me in on that too.

One more cool thing, they also have Oral Probiotics for kids! Which is great considering I feel like I only get sick after I have been around my nieces and nephews…

I recommend giving them a try. The bottle is a 30 day supply, so perfect to try out for a month.

But also while I am at it, let me remind you of their other great products I love. LIKE THEIR TEETH WHITENING. This is definitely something I am trying to keep up on since I have my wedding coming up. I love the custom trays, and the results are great and lasting. Which is especially good since I love my coffee. Read up on my latest review of their custom whitening trays here, they are bomb!

But the product I use every day is Smile Brilliant’s CariPro Electric Tooth brush. I even got my fiancé and one of our roommates to start using one too. I just love how it has multiple settings, like SENSITIVE, for my always sensitive teeth. My review of the best tooth brush here.

If you do check Smile Brilliant out, which you should, be sure to use my code THEBLAW20 for 20% off!

Love yous! – B

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life, lifestyle

Pull Me Out of This Funk

Has anyone else felt a lack of motivation or inspiration lately? I have been feeling it bad. Always busy and always tired, so when I finally have a moment of nothing, I want to do nothing. It has been quite frustrating. There are so many things I need/want to do. LIKE WORK OUT FOR ONE. Write blogs, read, put cute outfits together for darn sake to make me feel better about life, or you know… WEDDING PLAN! I have had motivation for nothing. I am ready for change. I need to pull myself out of this funk. It is like my brain is ready to do things but my body won’t follow. BUT NOW IT IS TIME. SO until I can fully pull myself out of this slump, here are some super small things that make me happy and are helping to pull me through:

  • Homemade honey lavender lattes in my cute mugs (no offense to the not cute mugs)
  • Sitting on my back porch
  • Listening to the geese in the lake (as annoying as they are while I am trying to sleep)
  • Re-watching every episode of Selling Sunset
  • My fiancé cooking me dinner
  • Watching The Ranch with my fiancé while we eat dinner
  • The sun going down late
  • Watching the little kids play on the beach
  • Trips to Hobby Lobby
  • The fact that I realized I have kept a plant alive since we moved in

All tips for motivation or inspiration welcome.

Thanks – B

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life, Style, the.B.Law

Pumpkin Patch Round Two

Sunday my sister, niece and I went to a huge pumpkin patch over in Yucaipa/Redlands. I took Dakota to this pumpkin patch last year and it was crazy then, but we were not prepared for the craziness this year. We got there later than we intended, 2pm, and just getting off on the exit was backed up. Parking was a joke, Nicole pulled into the first lot (a construction site not affiliated with the patch) and it was $20! Nicole didn’t want to drive farther so she just parked there. Once we got to the entrance of the pumpkin patch we were shocked yet again. The line to get into this place was insane! It was literally like getting into Disneyland. The line went through the entire parking lot and out of it FOR A PUMPKIN PATCH. Luckily it mostly moved fast. Once we were in we went to buy drinks because it was so hot and again WAITED IN LINE, like 45 minutes to buy bottled water. After water we finally got tickets and got Dakota on some rides and then the three of us went into the petting zoo. It was a day with a lot of waiting BUT it was still fun. Not going to lie though, I don’t know if I would want to go again next year if it is getting that crowded, I don’t know if it is worth it. Hopefully next month though we get to go to the apple orchard in Oak Glen because that is were I really wanted to go.

Now on to what is really important, my outfit for the pumpkin patch, DUH! I am just kidding, this outfit was nothing special but I do want to point out how amazing this v-neck is. I stalked and stalked this striped tee during the Nordstrom Anniversary sale until I found my size and I am so happy I prevailed in that mission. This has become my favorite casual top this season. It is super soft and light and goes with just about everything on the weekends. Whenever I do not know what to wear I just throw this on and either easy tuck it or tie a knot in the front or on the side and it is perfect. For the patch I paired it with my Adidas (also from the Nordstrom sale) and it was a comfy casual/athleisure outfit. I’m telling you, if you are looking for the perfect tee then check out this one, I will link below and it comes in 7 colors and is under $20!

Shop the look: Top | Jeans | Shoes | Sunnies

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life, lifestyle, Style, the.B.Law

Mexico: Part 3 – The Wedding

Saturday was the wedding, which was set to start at noon so we didn’t have all day to get ready. My older sister wanted us to meet to get ready at 8am. To my surprise I woke up feeling fine that morning. I will elaborate more in part 4, but the day before we got a little wild.

After waking up we realized it was storming outside, like BAD. When we got to my sister’s room you could tell she was a little nervous, after all the ceremony was supposed to be on the beach. Every time thunder would sound we made a joke and would do a drumroll so she couldn’t hear it. As we approached the final hour before the ceremony the wedding planner called to let her know they were going to have to move the ceremony and the cocktail hour inside. To be honest that really sucked. The whole idea of this destination wedding was to be able to have it on the beach. We stayed positive though and although the wedding couldn’t be where she planned, she still got to marry her husband and it was beautiful.

Luckily, and somewhat annoyingly, the rain stopped during the wedding, figures. So at least we got to go take a bunch of pictures outside in front of the water. Hiring a photographer from the resort was really expensive so I brought my camera and my sister’s friend took all of the pictures. None of us are professionals, but we took pictures the best we could and my sister’s other friend who is a photographer offered to edit them for her so it worked out. After all of our photos we had about 3 hours to kill before dinner so we all got in our swim suits and went to the lagoon.

My sister and I had a plan to do hers and her husband’s first dance before dinner down by the beach, and we also had a surprise for my dad that they could do the father daughter dance. Even though it wasn’t a traditional wedding I wanted to make sure that she didn’t miss out on anything. We used a bluetooth speaker and just held it as they danced. We even made them do a bouquet and garter toss.

Dinner was at the Italian restaurant and was great. The best man got to do his speech, which he told me he was going to wing so he had to go first so I could save the night with my prepared one (LOL!), then I did my maid of honor speech and made everyone cry, GOALS! It was a good night, but was about to get even better.

The club/bar on the adult side is Club Heaven. There is a huge bar inside with another room with pool tables and all that. On the other side is a night club. We got to the bar at 8pm and found out the club didn’t open until 11pm EVEN though all the lights were already on and flashing. My sister REALLY wanted to go so we waited around in that bar for 3 hours passing time… with games and drinks… and when I say drinks I mean shots. My little sister made up a game where we had to place guesses of where different people were from. Then her boyfriend would go ask and losers had to take a shot. Well put it this way, I didn’t win once. Finally though, 3 hours and like 8 shots later, the club opened! All of the “kids” went AND MY DAD. He was probably the craziest one out on the dance floor. There were not that many people dancing when we first got in, but we started our little dance circle and people were trying to join us! It was hilarious and so much fun. We didn’t care that we looked like fools, we were just having a good time and danced for 2 hours straight. It was easily the best night of the trip.

Last part will be all of the fun stuff we did like excursions! Stay tuned!





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life, lifestyle, the.B.Law

27 Years

Well Brittany, welcome to 27. How strange is it that I am in my late 20’s? It doesn’t feel right to me for some reason. This past Saturday my boyfriend, one sister, friends, and I went to Lazy Dog for my birthday and on the way there all of these thoughts were going through my head like what am I doing with my life? I feel like I am at a time in my life where it is hard to not compare myself to my friends. We are all mostly the same age yet half are married, some have already bought a house, and even having babies now. As for me, I share a one bedroom apartment with my boyfriend and we are no where near getting engaged, but rather trying to stay afloat so we can make a life for ourselves… eventually. I feel like that is my go to word, “well it will happen, eventually”. It is easy to fall into the down feeling of things not going the way you thought they were. I think that is the problem, we, or at least I, had and still have all of these expectations of how my life would go and it is just not happening.

What made me feel better about this was finally opening up to a couple of my girls and realizing that they felt the same but in their own ways. Talking about it helped and the fact that we now constantly remind each other that it just isn’t our time. My bfffff posted a good blog the other night called Timeline, and she used this quote (I am not sure where she got it from):

Remember that the timeline of your love life will always be the right timeline for you. Who cares if your one friend got married at 24 or your other friend got engaged at 29 or your sister had her first baby at 31. Remember that whichever way your life works out is the exact way it is supposed to work out.

I keep reminding myself that I am unique and I do not want to be like everyone else. The time for my life to fall together in the way I want it to is coming. I have to trust in God’s timing, be patient, and be happy for what I have because truly I am very fortunate. I have a loving family, the most perfect sisters in the world, a boyfriend that I love and I know I want to spend my life with, and the most amazing best friends. I truly do have it all when I think about it. So here is to turning 27. I want this to be the year I MAKE things happen, not just WAIT for them to happen.

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