Our house

Here are some pictures of our house from the builder's website.  My blog layout cuts the edges off, too bad.  Just click on the pictures & I think you should be able to see them full size. (and what's with this underlining, I just don't know!)

Awesome kitchen!!!
The backyard is going to take some major work.  The basement is a walkout so there is a big hole to deal with.
The master bedroom.
Part of the playroom.  The kids think this is really cool.

Closed, finally!

We closed on our house yesterday.  Whew.  We chose the house that we'd loved way back in September.  After seeing all the other houses recently we would have regretted not going with our initial choice.  There are things I don't like about it (small family room & lot), but there are many more good things that I do like (huge kitchen, beautiful flooring, nice neighborhood, master on main. etc.).

We were excited, nervous, & a bit scared to see our new mortgage payment (yikes!).  Todd was a little sad to not buy a house in Alpine, he's ALWAYS wanted to live there.  My feelings right now on Alpine is that it's pricey, prestigious, & very inconvenient to anywhere else we need to be.  Also, the house we somewhat liked there was not quite right for us.  I am happy with American Fork which is much closer to everything (except the mountains, that's what Todd does not like).  

We won't move for a while.  We've got some appliances to buy & blinds to have installed & I just don't want to move in the dead of winter.

House hunters

We have been house hunting a bit this week.  While in Rochester we had friends who looked at 60 houses or so before moving to Salt Lake.  We thought that was incredible.  Well, we've looked at maybe 15 in the past couple of weeks.  I am exhausted!  They are starting to blur together.  There is one that might be a possibility, but it would take a few changes (new paint being a major one!).  To top off the stress of our house hunting, the one that we have been under contract on could potentially close this week (finally), but we are no longer sure that it's what or where we really want to be.  If I could take my favorite features from both houses & put them together then things would be great.

We are hoping to make a decision this week & then just look forward to moving, somewhere!

House update, ha!

I wish I had something to really update about our home buying right now.  It does not seem to be going anywhere!

To recap.... we found a great house in mid September.  We had just started working with our bank to get preapproved for a loan.  This was the week that stocks & banks & everything really started to go downhill, fast.  Not a good time to be trying to get a loan.  Finally, we tried another bank that Todd has some ties to through someone at work & we were finally approved.  This was mid October.  We made our offer & the sellers were thrilled.  They took it to their bank & told us it would be a few days.  

Well, a month almost to the day later, they came back telling us the bank had finally accepted.  They would just have to do a home refinance on their current home to make up the difference in what they were losing on the construction loan for our house.  The bank wanted the closing before the end of the year, preferably before Christmas.  That was fine with us.  The sellers still had a few things to finish on the house to get the completion certificate.    We set closing for the 10th of December since Todd had that day off.

December 8th came & the house was still not done, but we got a home inspection done.  For the most part it looked good.

December 19th came (the date the bank wanted us to close on).  The house was not done yet & the sellers did not have the financing they needed.  

December 31 came.  Nothing.  I think the house was done by now.

Todd & I were not too worried until January hit.  We have no closing in sight.  We have started to look at other homes.  Last week we looked at a few.  None quite fit the bill.  We've liked some house plans, but the location is not what we want & one did not pass the "smell test" (you know how important that one is!  Something just was not right).  Others have just been terrible houses, poor layouts, small bathrooms, bad workmanship, on & on.

We called the sellers after looking at these other houses to let them know we will not wait forever & have started looking at other homes.  They contacted their bank again.  It sounds like this has made the bank reconsider refinancing for them, but who knows!  I'll believe it when I see it.

Today we looked at one & would have been happy to have put an offer in but we don't have loan approval for the amount (it's a bit more than the one we are currently under contract on).   We'll keep looking.  

So that's the story for now.  Hopefully there will be some more news, real news soon.  This is getting old!

oh what a night

This evening at dinner Emma did "the cough".  You know, the one that you expect something more than just a cough to come.  Well, she ate, then started fussing, then did "the cough" with results.  So gross.  Good thing I'm not feeling too gaggy myself or that would have been really bad.  

Todd had planned to take the big kids to a movie, so they headed out.  Emma was sick a few more times, poor kid.  I got her to bed at 7 & proceeded to lysol everything.  As I was spraying in the playroom downstairs the carbon monoxide/poisonous gas monitor started screeching.  I really dislike that thing.  Every time I spray lysol anywhere in the house it seems to go off.  I was afraid it would wake Emma so I tossed it into the garage.  It was quite for a while so I threw it on the back porch.  Once again, quite for a while, then it must have been lonely or something.

Mason came home from the movie all excited.  Sarah darted right into the bathroom.  I feared she was sick or something.  When I checked on her a few minutes later I saw the problem that she did not want me to know about.  

She had been chewing gum when they got to the theater.  They got seated with popcorn & she was not sure what to do with her gum.  Good girl, she did not want to drop it on the floor.  But, instead she tried somewhere else, behind her ear (I'd overheard her & Mary Jane talking about gum there during their sleepover).  Unfortunately she had her hair in a headband (as usual) but it was kind of all over the place (also as usual).  The gum ended up in all the hair next to her ear.  Lovely.  So, we did the peanut butter trick then washed her out in the kitchen sink.  She now thinks she has bald spots since I pulled a lot of hair out with the gum & is afraid of smelling like peanut butter tomorrow at school.

Motherhood is so glamorous! 

Sarah's first day of first grade, for the third time

Sarah started over, again today.  During the Christmas break we received a letter from her teacher that she had been granted a scholarship for a masters degree program at BYU & would no longer be teaching Sarah's class.  I really liked her teacher & was not happy about this, especially since Sarah had been put into this class after school had already started.

Anyway, last week Sarah had a substitute all week.  On Friday I got to meet her new teacher.  She is young & cute & seemed very excited about the class.  I was just grateful they had found a teacher & not just put the students all back with their original teachers from the beginning of the year.  Sarah had a good teacher, but it would have been hard to jump into a new class.

Today Sarah was very nervous to go to school.  She came home higher than a kite.  Her teacher had the room all decorated like a camp or something & calls it "Camp Davis" (her name is Mrs. Davis).  Sarah got to bring home one of the class pets, a stuffed bear, for a sleepover.  Anyway, I think this new teacher is going to be just fine.  She has some great ideas & seemed to get the kids excited today.

So now, if we ever get our house (more to post about that sometime) I've been saying that we should move Sarah to her new school, just so she could have her fourth first grade teacher!

Visit to great grandparents

We visited Todd's grandparents last week.  This stove was great grandma's when she was little, so it's 85 years old.  The kids think it's great.
Sarah & great grandma Call.  She just had her 89th birthday.
Sarah with great grandpa.  He's 93 (I think!).
Emma was too tired to give hugs.  She just wanted to go home.

Mason giving his buy hugs.

It's neat to have grandparents.  Great Grandpa always has a story for us.

After Christmas

Todd spent the day after Christmas shoveling snow & snow & more snow.  It probably took him about 3 hours.  Saturday he found a store that still had snowblowers & bought a really big one.  Now he can do the driveway in about 20 minutes.  Nice.

Sarah had fun playing with our Chevron cars.  We got a bunch of them.
Emma liked all the boxes, as expected.
Mason's into pirates right now.
Mary Jane came for a sleepover.  On Saturday we went sledding with some of my nieces & nephew.  It was a cold & breezy day, but everyone seemed to have fun!

Christmas Day, finally!

Christmas day, finally!

I got up around 7 or so.  Nobody was stirring & Todd was not home yet, so I decided to get dressed.  I got out of the shower to Mason telling me his new pajamas were stinky.  Hmm.  He'd wet the bed (something he's maybe done three times).  So, I made him pose in front of the tree then he got a bath & some old pajamas (covered feet as he calls them).

We got "wiggle racers" as my kids call them.  Santa did not quite get them put together.
A clean, dry Mason &  an Emma woken up a little too early.  Todd was not home yet, but on his way.  I let the kids dig into their stockings but had to wait to open the rest.
The mess after everything had been opened.  Lots of fun things!

Emma thought these cars were great.
Family picture at Grandma & Grandpa Loveridge's house.  My mom always does each family picture in front of the tree.  This was our first one since Mason was a newborn.  
Emma with Grandpa Loveridge.  She liked him because he'd give her cookies.
Mason in his new cowboy hat.

After the fun at my parents' house, we headed to the Call's.  We gave Todd's mom this picture of the Salt Lake Temple.  Her several times great grandfather had carved these words on the temple.
Emma snuggled up to Grandpa Call.  She was worn out.
Emma's end to Christmas 2008.

We then got to drive home in a TERRIBLE snowstorm.  Normally it takes about 45 minutes from Bountiful to Highland.  I took 1 1/2 hours.  The road we take east to our house was closed due to high winds & blowing snow.  It was quite an adventure!  Luckily Todd had the day after Christmas off as well as the weekend.  It was great!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve turned out fun, for all of us but Todd.  He was on call.  He was called in at 7:30 am & did not arrive home again until 7:30 am on Christmas morning.  He'd gotten a little sleep during that time.

I took the kids swimming with my sisters & their kids.  Emma had a bad cold, so she stayed on the side with Lynda.  It was kind of a good thing she did not feel too hot, she was more willing to just sit in the stroller that way.

Jonah, Mason, & Isaac on the slide.
Sarah not wanting to get out, even though we'd been there nearly two hours.
Mason, Sarah, & Emma before opening their Christmas Eve pajamas.
Becky, Sarah, Mom, Mason, Dad, Emma.  They came for dinner so we would not be too lonely for Christmas Eve.
Not one of our better pictures!  I think I'm the only one with my eyes somewhat open.

Random December things

I never posted about Mason's extended family party.  Here he is in the cape & mask Lynda made for him.  He was so excited to get this present.  He's been into superheros lately.
Sarah's gingerbread play at school.  She was sick (with the strep that was not diagnosed the first time I took her in), but she went to be in the play anyway.
Sarah with Mrs. Gay & Lauren.
A really big snowstorm the week of Christmas.  We live at the end of a cul-de-sac.  The kids were thrilled to see the pile of snow the snowplow left in front of our house.  In Rochester the neighborhood boys all built a fort in a huge pile like this.  Sarah & Mason were happy to get this pile all to themselves!