We be Bloggin...Part II

So a really funny thing happened tonight. As a family we were all together and I Googled Andrea's name and nothing interesting popped up until we came across our good old blog. As we started to view all of our old posts, we again remembered why we started a blog in the first place...to keep a history of our goings on. It was a good time to look at old pictures, watch funny family videos, and read strange stories from our past. We decided to get our blog going again so that we can document our families growth and experiences. So hopefully in the next few days more posts will be coming as we try to bridge the gap since our last post.

Dallin Turns 8!!

Dallin turned 8 on December 6. We had lots of fun. We had pizza, chips, cake, and ice cream (Dallin's favorites). Grandma Wendy, BreAnne, Judge, and Nick came up for the fun. Dallin got a new bike from us, a basketball from Grandma Hatch, and some cool Bakugan stuff from the Tippets clan. He also got money from his Dad, and great grandmothers. We try to encourage him to save it for something bigger, but it is always burning a hole in his pocket. I think he had a good time. BreAnne made him the adorable giant cupcake, and I made him just a plain old cake. Doesn't he look so enthusiastic.

This is what happened when BreAnne and I tried to kiss him on the cheek.

And this is what happened with the giant cupcake....Darn Uncle Nick.

We are so happy to have Dallin a part of our family. He is always making us laugh. We are so excited that he has chosen to be baptized. He will be baptized on January 2. We invite anyone who would like to atttend. I will get the address to you soon.

As for the rest of us, we are all doing well. Still getting settled in our house, but we are enjoying it, and are excited to spend Christmas in our first house. Sorry for not posting more often, things have been crazy lately. If anyone wants to come visit us in our new house, we would love to have you.

Update

We are officially homeowners!! After signing many, many documents. More to come after the big move.

Trick or Treat

Are You Kidding?

What a week! Not sure whether to laugh or cry. So the house we put an offer on in Centerville is most likely not going to pan out. The lender called us on Monday to inform us that we had to carry flood insurance, because this home was in a flood plain. At no time during this process, was it disclosed to us that we were required to carry flood insurance. Flood insurance---$141 per month (not including homeowners insurance). Thats right, $1700 per year. This completely defeated our purpose of trying to stay within a certain budget. With our repairs addendum, we submitted a much lower offer to off set the cost of the insurance, but the sellers are more then likely not going to accept it.

We waited for a month so the sellers could find a place in St. George, which put us way behind schedule of finding another place in order to close by November 30. Our lender said we would have to have another house under contract no later than this Friday in order to have funding go through by the end of November. We looked at houses with my brother last night in Woods Cross, which around here is not considred the best place to live, but we think the neighborhood looks like a good, family oriented area. The houses are smaller but newer. I am still not ready to make a decision. Hopefully, we will come to conclusions soon. Maybe we will wait.

House Update

The home that we have under contract is in Centerville, which is right next to Bountiful. We are very happy to be staying close to Chris's work, and love the Centerville/Bountiful area. We looked at a lot of houses closer to the Layton area because they were more in our price range, but we really didn't want to move from this area. We like Chris to be close to work. Real estate in Bountiful and Centerville is really expensive.

This house was listed on Monday, my brother (our agent) took us to look at in on Wednesday; and there were two offers on it by Thursday. We liked the house quite a bit, but weren't set on it because it isn't quite as big as we wanted; and it pretty much doesn't have a backyard. It does have however; a new furnace, new central air, a new H2O Water heater; a new kitchen which comes with all of the appliances, and it is very clean and taken care of. We had been looking for weeks, and looked at many houses. We liked a few, but they were not in the location that we wanted, and some were priced higher then we wanted to go. Overall, we think this is a great starter home for us. We have to start somewhere, right. At least that is what Chris has been telling me--I'm not a very good risk taker.

Because there were mutiple offers each party could put in there max price they would pay for the home. Our offer beat over the others by just a little (at least that is what the listing agent said :). I have had my worries, but feel good about this house. It is in an awesome location; and it was priced well for the area.

The couple that live in the house are retiring to St. George; and so they are looking for a place to buy. We have to wait until they find a place---hopefully this weekend. If they don't find a new home, we are not tied to the contract. More than likely we won't be moving until the middle of November. We will keep you updated. When we do move, we could use all the help we can get.

Under Contract...Scared to Death!!

We finally did it. We bought a house (as long as everything goes through okay). I practically had a nervous breakdown, havn't slept in days, and may have said a few bad words. Chris of course has been completely calm during the entire process. The new house even comes with a 100% retro bathroom. Check it out here http://www.circlepix.com/tour.htm?id=745068&mls_tour=1.