In case you hadn't heard the good news...

... we finally bought a house and we have MOVED!!!

 We told the boys in May about our upcoming move...

the news sent Noah right into a packing FRenZy with all his toys!

The first thing he packed was the furniture from their firestation/police station playhouse.

It all happened rather quickly... not the house hunting thing. That took 2 1/2 L.O.N.G. years.  I was pretty impatient through it all.  I am NOT naturally a patient person.  I knew sure and well that the house hunting process was probably dragging along because my Father in Heaven was possibly trying to teach me HOW to be patient.  At times I tried to run ahead, other times I dragged my feet; I tried to be optimistic but most of the time I pouted and threw temper tantrums... for 2 1/2 LONG years I wanted a house of my own.  I wasn't expecting to find and buy my dream home, but something that suited all of the needs of our growing family.  I thought it would be simple to buy a house. We had the $$$money$$$ saved up and sitting there in our savings, a pre-approval letter from our lender and enlisted the help of a very experienced Real Estate agent. The news media and everyone around us were telling us it was a "buyers market".  Ahem... we were totally deceived! We learned the hard way that yes, while prices on homes right now are AMAZING and down right cheap, working and negotiating with 3RD parties (the banks) is mayhem and sort of like a caucus race- you get NO WHERE! We looked at THOUSANDS of homes on the MLS (that's no exaggeration), walked through HUNDREDS of homes in the valley (some I LOVED, some I ran from) and submitted countless offers on homes we "thought" were the one.  2 years ago, we were a week away from closing on one house in Orem... it was an older, smaller home in a really great neighborhood but a week before the closing date, our gut instincts and a couple other kinks encouraged us to back out of the deal.  In hindsight, I am SO glad we did!  After that, we found the twin home in American Fork that we rented and called home for nearly 2 years.  Just over a year ago, we submitted an offer to buy another beautiful home in Saratoga Springs.  It was bigger, brand new and had a gorgeous view of the lake and the valley.  Our offer was immediately accepted and sent into the bank and before we knew it, we were FINALLY under contract!  I had visions of our family "living" in that home nearly every night as I laid down to sleep. I woke up every morning, 366 mornings to be exact, thinking "today's going to be the day the bank accepts our offer and we start the closing process"... The year came and went, the 3RD party (Bank of America) really dragged their feet... days, weeks, months and finally a YEAR passed still without hearing their decision as to what they'd agree to sell the home to us for (it was a short sale). Our future was beginning to look so bleak... we really just wanted to move into a home of our own.  We were tired of paying another persons mortgage. We prayed every night as a family to find a home that we could afford and that also suited all of our needs with room to grow into, but we still had nothing.  It was SO frustrating!  We continued to look every day on the MLS for new options; new homes were posted, some captured our attention so we'd go to walk through it but NOTHING was shouting "THIS IS IT! THIS IS THE HOME YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR".  Some of the homes were way overpriced, some had yards that were too small for our 4 growing boys, some homes had too many things that would be too expensive to fix, some homes were just disgusting (I'm talking bloody boogers all over the walls!), some homes had bedrooms that were the size of a broom closet and one home we found and loved everything about didn't have a pantry and there was no place to put one, so we let it pass us by.  Then, one morning, the morning of April 28TH to be exact, I logged onto the MLS  and found a new home listed with a bank approved price that sounded to good to be true!  I read over all the homes details; I checked the square footage: 4300 square feet; the lot size: .30 acres; the location: The Ranches; the year the home was built: 2006... you get the picture... I looked at the price on the home again highly speculative that SOMETHING had to be wrong with the home (perhaps a foundation problem???) and my gut told me to call our agent IMMEDIATELY to arrange a walk through on the property.  Normally I let Spencer talk to our agent and set up appointments, but Spencer had just left for work teaching at the Junior High.  Something inside me told me this couldn't wait till he got off work; that I needed to call our agent immediately- so I did.  He was sort of surprised to hear from me.  I was sort of nervous to ask him to call about this new house since I knew he knew I still LOVED the other house in Saratoga Springs.  He complied though and made the call.  He arranged to have us walk through the home the very next day.

The following day as Spencer and I were driving out to The Ranches to look at the house, we received a call from our agent.  The bank had finally made a decision on the home in Saratoga Springs.  They decided on a selling price and had a date they wanted to close by.  The price was pretty steep; $25K more than what our initial offer was BUT we'd waited for so long, we figured we could come up with the extra money and close.  We were just minutes away from seeing the home in The Ranches when this conversation with our agent was taking place; Spencer considered just accepting the banks offer and turning around before ever seeing the other house BUT I said "NO, let's still it"... besides in my mind, I was still fairly positive something was wrong with the house and we wouldn't like it anyhow.  I just wanted to see the place just to make sure we didn't regret any decision later in the future. We drove up to the house.  It looked pretty nice from the outside.  It had a lawn in the front yard already; that was a big plus. Most the homes we'd seen still had yet to have lawns or any sort of landscaping done in the front.  The lawn was pretty brown and dry, but surely it just needed some water.  We knocked on the front door; a guy in his twenties opened the door.  He had a bloody wad of tissue stuck up his nose. Gross!  I wanted to puke and bust out laughing at the same time (I mean really, who answers a door to strangers like that?! As it turns out, he wasn't the owner, just the owners son).  Spencer and our agent (whom we'd met there) introduced themselves and without a word the guy let us in.  I recognized the layout of the home.  We'd seen the same layout the summer before on a home near the lake in Saratoga Springs.  We absolutely LOVED that home, but didn't try to buy it because it had MAJOR foundation problems.  Aha! I knew there was something too good to be true about the price on this home.  It probably had foundation problems of its own just like the other house.  We looked VERY carefully at all the walls, doorways and corners of the house. Nothing.  I felt pretty uncomfortable walking through the home since clearly there was still a family living there.  They had JUNK and clutter all over the place!  I mean probably 96% of the house was FILLED top to bottom with their junk and filth.  We opened the door to one room only to find a huge space filled with boxes!  I mistakened the room for just being a storage closet, but our agent informed us it was in fact the mudroom.  The door to the garage was just concealed behind all the junk. Spencer and I kept the examination on the home short. My O.C.D. kicked in and I had to get out of the house, the mess was really freaking me in (just to note:  I don't really have O.C.D., I'm just a clean freak and function better when things are organized and clean).  I'd made up my mind anyhow.  I knew the house was a killer deal; it had potential and the yard was huge! I was certain I knew that Spencer would LOVE it and want to put on offer on it, but of course I still wanted the other home, the one in Saratoga Springs that is.  I didn't want to give up the GORGEOUS view of the lake or the white plantation shutters in the home.  I know, those are pretty lame reasons for not liking this new home, but seriously, plantation shutters cost a fortune and this new house doesn't have them. The people had just hung up some seriously ugly curtains and broken shades.  I kept my opinion to myself, even when Spencer and our agent asked me what I thought about the house.  It didn't matter though; this was the first time Spencer told me, "I don't even care what your opinion is really at the moment, I like the house, it's a GR8T deal, it's bigger than the other home and still $50K less than it at the same time.  I'm putting an offer in on the home right now whether you want me to or not".  I didn't want to make a fuss in front of our agent, so I kept my mouth shut and anyhow, I knew deep down in my heart that Spencer was right.  This home, aside from the ugly window coverings and not having a view of the lake was better.  Our agent submitted our offer to the sellers immediately and the following day we were under contract (just in time for the government tax credit- wahoo!).  I didn't keep my mouth shut for long though as the days were progressing and we were getting closer and closer to our closing date; I cried and argued with Spencer.  I tried and tried to get him to cancel our contract and just accept the deal on the house in Saratoga Springs.  Selfishly I didn't want to give up the plantation shutters or the lake view.  I didn't want to move to Eagle Mountain either.  I was afraid it was a forgotten wasteland out there.  Spencer refused to cancel the contract and told me if I wanted it canceled so badly to do it myself.  I never had the nerve to do it myself though.  Thank goodness too!  That would have been the biggest mistake!!! As it turns out, I don't always know WHAT I want or what is best for me! After about a week of pouting, I finally accepted the fact that if all went according as planned, we were moving to The Ranches; of course it made it easier to accept and helped that we have a swimming pool just around the corner from us that is included in our H.O.A. and we're surrounded by a golf course so Spencer can take the boys golfing when ever he wants (he already took them the first week we moved here; Noah got in trouble because he tried to drive off with the golf cart as Spencer was putting the ball).  The sellers bank gave us 3 weeks to close on the house. June 4TH was our closing date. That's practically next to impossible to do, but we'd been wanting a home of our own now for 2 1/2 years so we were going to do everything we could to make it possible, plus we had T.H.E. B.E.S.T. lender who worked round the clock with his team to make it happen.  In fact, he had everything ready to close 3 days early! Talk about on the ball... Now the only problem was getting the sellers to corporate; with just 4 days left till our closing day, they still hadn't started packing or moving their junk.  We were worried we'd have to evict them and that could be both costly and take a while, not to mention they could do some major damage to the home too.  They told their agent they weren't thinking of moving out until the 12TH! That's 8 days AFTER our closing date! The thought really just angered us to think that finally, we'd bought a home but another family would still be living in it on our time and our money!  The afternoon Spencer went to go sign the papers with the closers, our agent still couldn't get a hold of the seller and sellers agent after 3 days of trying; there was a VERY good chance the seller wouldn't show up to sign the papers by the closing date and then the deal would be broken.  They would loose nothing because they had nothing to loose and we would loose EVERYTHING: our dreams, time and money we invested in the inspection, the appraisal and closing costs.  It was a terrible idea to even ponder.  Luckily though, the owner showed up to sign the papers and the house became ours on June 2ND.  We still didn't have the keys to the house yet though; we were giving the sellers cash for keys, so when our agent informed them that we refused to pay them cash for keys if they didn't have the keys to us on the original closing date (the 4TH) that scared some sense into them and they started packing and moving!  Spencer was supposed to receive the keys by 10p.m. on the 4TH but by that evening we got a call from the sellers agent.  The good news: they'd moved everything out of the house.  The bad news: they left behind a lot of trash and left the place pretty dirty.  Their agent was actually pretty embarrassed so he asked if he could use money from his own pocket to have maids come in that following morning and clean out the whole place.  He promised to then give the keys to Spencer by noon on the 5TH.  We didn't really want to deal with their mess, so of course we accepted his offer.  That night, I couldn't sleep.  I tossed and turned; I worried about the house we now owned.  I'd only seen it twice, very briefly.  I wasn't even sure what kind of condition the carpets or the paint on the walls were in.  I thought for sure we'd have to replace both.  I was actually terrified of what condition the house would be in once we got the keys to it.  That having been said, I wish all my friends and family members could have seen the look on mine and Spencer's faces when we walked into the house the following day!!!  It was not anything like what we were expecting!  We knew we'd gotten a good deal on the home, but REALLY, we were never expecting the AMAZING deal we got. (Our agent later told us that he believes the house was probably approved by the previous owners bank for a low ball price because the owners had so much junk and clutter in the home the appraiser probably couldn't see all the upgrades to make an accurate appraisal. The owner also owned 9 other properties in the area that the bank was desperate to sell so the bank was probably just set on making "x amount" back from the sale of all the homes so they probably just divided the homes up and were selling them at the same price.  I'm guessing this is the case because the home across the street from us is for sale as well and it belonged to these previous owners... it's being sold for the same price we paid for our house, only the house across the street is 700 square feet smaller than ours and it doesn't have any of the upgrades our house has. It sucks for the bank taking such a big loss, but it worked out swell in our favor!). The house was still a little dirty, but we weren't worried because we hired some maids to come and clean it the following day.  The house really looked like it was brand new aside from a broken door handle on the front door, a missing screen from an upstairs window, a broken dishwasher (which we've already replaced), a kitchen sink that isn't attached to the granite counter top but instead is being held up by two 2x4, a couple of small holes in doors were the door stoppers made holes and a hole in the wall (which looks like somebody punched the hole in the wall because it wasn't there when we walked through the house 4 days before closing).  The carpets were in terrific condition and cleaned up really well with a shampoo job and the paint job was nearly perfect.  The fixtures through out the entire house are all really nice; I really wasn't expecting such nice fixtures.  The house we'd walked through while the previous owners were still living here compared to the same house that we now own looks SO totally different; like night and day difference!  Remember that mudroom I mentioned earlier that I first mistook for being a storage closet???  This is it.  

It's actually to be honest, on of my favorite rooms in the house.  It has hooks on the wall for coats and hats and the bench (I LOVE the bench) has a lid that lifts up and a storage space below with which we can use to store some of the boys sporting equipment.  I LOVE it!!! And as if it's not already fabulous (it's sort of plain looking, I admit) I already have plans to give it a face lift!  I just need to add a little white Beadboard to the wall, some paneling on the front of the bench, a shelf and some molding above the hooks, a hinge on the bench lid so the boys don't get their fingers pinched and some cushions on the bench itself... it's going to look like a room fromThe Pottery Barn catalog, minus all the extra expense.

Enough said... I LOVE my house.  It's perfect in every way.  I'm a little bit embarrassed I was being such a brat about it and making such a fuss when Spencer first decided to buy it and I didn't want him to.  I'm glad he didn't listen to me when I begged him to cancel the contract.  It has some work on it that needs to be done; nothing big; just some minor cosmetic changes like my mudroom idea above.  The front yard grass was looking pretty dead when we first bought the house, but after a month, with a little bit of help, it's looking good and our neighbors are all really surprised at how well it's returned to life.  The backyard is still just dirt and weeds but that will all change hopefully by next year and as for those ugly tattered window treatments I mentioned previously, the last owners took most of them with them!  I was so RELIEVED!  I've done some homework and gotten a couple of price estimates done on our windows in our home and we've decided to put white plantation shutters in the house.  All the shutters for the windows upstairs and a for a couple of windows on our main floor are scheduled to be installed sometime next week!  I can't wait because right now we look kinda ghetto with a black sheet hanging from our family room window and I'm pretty sure our neighbors have gotten an eyeful at least a time or two whenever we decide to use our master bathroom upstairs (the shower is all glass and there's a huge open window right next to the shower).  Really I try my best to be modest, even in the middle of the night, but there have been at least 10 or 11 times I forget that somebody might be watching.  Oops!

We took some time to move into our new place from our old place since the old place was still in our name until last week.  I thought it would be bittersweet moving from our old place; I even thought I'd cry a little bit, but nothing of the sort was felt.  While we made some wonderful memories in our last place as a family, our new place has felt like home since day one.  The move proved to be somewhat of a challenge this turn around since now we have 4 young boys (I don't know how I would have ever survived the move had I been pregnant). We've acquired so many things (90% of it belongs to the kids) and here I thought I was pretty good at purging and keeping organized. It's been a challenge trying to figure out where to put things, not because we don't have the storage space but because I'm just not familiar with the spaces yet.  Our boys were pretty good little movers.  The first thing we moved into the new house was my grandpas boat he built; we found a place for it in the family room in a nook just above the fire place.  The boat looks beautiful there.  Afterward, I decided the next items of business I should probably move and arrange in the new house is the boys toy room; that way they could play while I unpacked things elsewhere in the house.  They helped me move all their games and toys in one afternoon! Oh funny story... the first day while I was packing our belongings, Ian came running into my bathroom, he'd shoved a Kix cereal up his nose again and it was stuck.  I told you this last move was more than challenging! Lucky for me, my sister and in laws helped watch the boys during the time I was packing and moving most of our stuff.  It's now been a month since we've been living in the new house and 90% of our stuff has been unpacked; pictures and decorations still need to be hung and the garage is a total mess that needs to be dealt one of these cooler afternoons/evenings.  It's been exhausting moving and caring for the boys both at the same time; they're so used to doing fun things and going places often I've felt a little guilty because it's summer time when we should be out EVERY day worshipping the sun, doing swim lessons, enjoying soccer games, playing at Seven Peaks Waterpark but really we haven't done any of those things just yet because I've been stuck inside the house unpacking.  We're getting there though and that's not to say that we haven't been enjoying A LOT of pool time!  We go pretty much every day when we can (not this week though- Ian and Cohen have the runs and I'm not even going to take my chances going in the pool with them in their state of condition).  Noah's swimming skills have improved; he's getting to be a much stronger swimmer and even swims out to the deep end on his own!  Of course I still make him use arm floaties in case he gets tired.  Some days I'll take all 4 boys to the pool by myself, and some days I'll take just the older ones.  I've been at night to swim with just Noah... it's so fun to swim in the evening and I get just a little bit nostalgic thinking of my own childhood when my dad would come home from work in the evenings and swim outside with us.   I LOVE having the pool nearby and the best part is that it doesn't cost us a penny! 

Our neighbors have all been super friendly and helpful. One neighbor next to us even mowed our lawn the day after we moved in!  It's quiet out here, but not a wasteland like I feared it would be.  It's even actually quite beautiful in the evenings with the sunsets.  At times I'll take the boys on walks around the neighborhood; they like to ride their scooters while I push the baby in the stroller.  We're already a side show at church and in the neighborhood; apparently it's not so common anymore for moms to have 4 kids ages 4, 3, 2 and almost 1, especially all boys! Yes, we stand out where ever we go.

Anyhow, I think it's probably about time I wrap things up.  It would be an understatement to say we got a good deal... try saying an AMAZING deal!  I know without a question in my mind, that THIS is where we were meant to be.  It took 2 1/2 LONG years to find it but it's been so totally worth it, and for all those times I thought our prayers of finding a home would NEVER be answered, I was FAITHLESS... I should have known better that in time we'd find a home. Our agent teased us and told us we could probably turn around and list this house on the market immediately and get at least another $60K in equity... the thought is tempting but I don't know that we're in the mood to wait on another home or deal with 3RD parties anymore! We're planning on keeping it for a little while.

No worries, more pictures of our house will come soon... I would just like to hang up some pictures and decorations first before unveiling it to everyone.

And oh yeah... one last thing in addition... within just less than a week after closing on the house, Spencer was offered a job!!!  It's a position teaching English at a new Junior High in the Jordan School District.  If you live in Utah and have watched the news recently, you probably understand that being offered a teaching position/contract in the Jordan School District right now is a MIRACLE!  Hundreds of teachers and staff in the district were just laid off because of budget cuts.  Spencer has another 4 weeks of school left before he finishes his Masters program, but even so, the district has agreed to pay him a little bit more because he'll have his Masters degree. This is another blessing because other school districts in the state right now won't even look at an applicant with a Masters degree because they can't afford to pay them the extra.  He was offered the job by one of his former university teachers while he was in class.  She walked in the classroom suddenly, looked at him, and asked him if he wanted a teaching position, to which he obviously said "Yes!".  She told him there was a teacher retiring at her school she taught at and she was the head of the English department.... she needed someone to fill that empty spot and the first person who came to mind was Spencer (that's probably just because he's the BESTEST English teacher ever! I am just kinda kidding around of course; I know that "bestest" isn't really a word, but he really is an excellent teacher and students LOVE him).  Isn't that pretty amazing how just after finding a house, he scored a teaching position?!  Everything we worried about for so long is finally starting to fall in place. He starts teaching this fall.  It will be a little bit of a commute but whatev. I'm so stinkin' excited for him!

Okay, I'm done with my rant about the house and the new job.  Should you think you'll need our new address, please email me or call me. 

Oh, one last additional note.  I thought I'd add this last picture.  The last owner liked art.  They had art hung and plastered up on all the walls everywhere in the house; especially the master bedroom.  It wasn't your typical contemporary or Monet art either; it was like weird hippie inspirational art.  It was all over the bedroom, from floor to ceiling with ferns and plants hanging all over the room as well. It was just weird, sorry, I know that's vague but I have no other words to explain it.  When we received the keys to our new home, we were quite delighted with how nicely it cleaned up, but more impressed that the previous owners didn't leave any of their junk behind... that is until Spencer found this drawing...

... it was taped onto the ceiling of the master bedroom, right above where the previous owners probably positioned their bed.  The drawing is of a man, sitting on a bed, staring at piles of cash sitting on the opposite end of his bed.  Hmm...  Weird. That's the kind of weird art I was talking about.  It's weird AND funny though at the same time.  For now, we've decided to leave the picture taped in its original place.

Oh yeah... Look at which two boys now share a bedroom together!  Ian and Cohen.  Cohen's been promoted from the crib to the bunk bed.  He sleeps on the top bunk while Ian sleeps on the bottom; that's because if Cohen sleeps on the bottom bunk he spends a couple of hours flipping the bedroom light on and off! It's SO ANNOYING! As evident from the picture below, HE LOVES his new bed and sharing the room with just Ian (Noah and Bentley both have their own rooms).