“Home Town” stars Erin and Ben Napier are savoring each moment with their daughters, Helen, 4, and Mae, 17 months.
“We know this is fleeting,” Erin, 37, told People. “I feel like we are in the middle of living the best years of our life. I’m very aware of it, and I want to keep it somehow.”
Recently, the Napiers moved into a newly renovated home not far from their old place in Laurel, Mississippi. Ben, 39, explained to People that they had outgrown their 1925 Craftsman-style house.
“Once you add a swing set, a dog, a kiddie pool and a rabbit cage, suddenly the yard that felt huge in the beginning starts feeling a lot smaller,” Ben said. He noted that due to the success of their HGTV series, they also needed more privacy.
“We couldn’t really use our front yard. We were limited to the backyard,” he said.
The rural location suits preschooler Helen, who Ben said “has always known that she wanted to be a country girl.” He described their new six-bedroom home as a place where “the girls can run wild and get filthy.”
Ben and Erin will celebrate their 14-year wedding anniversary on Nov. 22. The couple met while attending Jones Junior College in Mississippi.
“Ben is the biggest crush I’ve ever had in my life and now he’s my husband and it’s crazy to me,” Erin told TODAY Parents earlier this year.
The feeling is mutual. Ben recalled to TODAY the first time he noticed Erin on campus.
“She was walking across the student union in loose fitting jeans and she had on a tight yellow T-shirt and she had short hair,” he said. “It was very unique for a small school in southern Mississippi. There was an inner confidence there that allowed her to be able to do that. She just carried herself differently.”
“My mom always told me I would know that I found ‘the one’ when I was with someone that I didn’t want to stop talking to,” he added. “And here we are.”
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