That thing we eat on...

We have a new dining table...and it is gorgeous, and solid hard wood. Not to mention it was pretty cheap, as far as furniture sets go. You probably can't see the leaf seam in the above picture but this table opens up in the middle to add a leaf and the whole thing then becomes square..which is the kind of table I love. Two people can fit on each side that way. Square tables are my favorite. Isn't that color just amazing?...love it.

While Daddy and Grandpa put it together, Logan climbed into the packaging. He was soo entertained. (Got a really cute video, but the file is too large, and I'm too lazy to cut it).

..."Look Mom at the mess I made for you to clean up!"
Yes, there was a huge styrofoam snow pile afterward, but it was worth it :)

Halloween, New House, and Thanksgiving

I found my camera!

We have been so busy! I've already talked a lot about our new home in my last post so we'll just get straight to the pictures :) There are A LOT; this will be a super long post. If you want a closer look on some of the photos, I think you can just click on them.

Front of the house.
Front door/entry. Please don't mind the boxes and stuff. We're still placing stuff the way we want it :)
View from entry & looking down the hall to main living space. The door to the end of the hallway is a nice little half bathroom. And the doorway on the left wall that you can't really see (before you get to the door at the end) is the basement. Across from the basement door is the door to to the garage.View from down the hall looking back to the front door.
The kitchen, turning left from last picture.
Dining area & backyard door- behind the kitchen. Love the card table? haha. We're getting a new dining set soon.
Living room/TV room - left of dining. Getting ready for Christmas!
Back to the front door and up the stairs. There is a window on the front wall of the house that shines into the stairway. Just a nice little accent.
Looking back down the stairs.Logan climbing the steps! We had one scary moment where he was sitting at the top of the stairs and leaned over to grab a toy he'd dropped climbing up and nearly somersaulted down. Luckily mommy was sitting there with him!

Top of the stairs. Door just to the right is the master bedroom. Next door (moving around right to left) is the second bathroom. Next is Logan's room, then the other bedroom/study (can't see that door). Just around the corner to the left is the laundry room.
Master bdr. We have our own bathroom and walk in closet :D
Second bathroom. The master bath is practically the same except it has more counter space and draws.
Logan's room (naptime!).
Study/2nd bedroom.
Laundry.
Basement stairs.
Around the corner from the stairs...
Open basement space. There's potential for a bathroom and a very large living space or bedroom(s).
Back of the house (out the back door from the dining area).

View from the back of the house. Looking west. Where is my beautiful ocean?? Oh yeah it's about 600 miles that way. That big pile of dirt is where one more street of townhomes will be. Bye bye pretty view in a couple years.Here's Logan getting read for trick-or-treating! (This was before the move). Smile Logan! He was a teddy bear :)Out getting candy!
...and a quick picture we took on Thanksgiving.
We hope you enjoyed all the photos! We are loving our new home and are so grateful for all the good things in our lives. We are grateful for Tyler's job and willingness to let me stay home with Logan and providing such a beautiful home for us. We are so blessed; we know that not many people in this world have the comfort of a lovely home and close family that we do. We are so grateful for our little boy. He is the greatest joy in the world. We love you!

Home Sweet Home

We are all moved into our new home!! We closed on the 6th and got our keys on the 12th. On the morning of the 14th, friends and family came over early and we started moving. It only took us an hour to get everything in the truck and we made one trip. Bye American Fork! You were a fun place to live.

We love it here so far. Saratoga Springs, UT is pretty rural so everything looks so open and spacious outside; it's really beautiful. I really wish I could find my camera!! Somewhere in the move, I misplaced it. I can't imagine I left it at our old apartment. I'm sure as soon as I find it, my next post will be full of pictures. Skype is the only way I've been able to show people around. Haha, carrying my laptop around is kind of silly, but I know some people were anxious to see our new place too, and a tour is better than pictures.

Our new home is a townhouse, so we do share walls with the homes on either side of us. The front of our home faces East and the back, West. While the sun does shine right through our windows most of the time, it's actually been nice. The snow melts quickly on our driveway and in the backyard, and it keeps our heating needs low during this cold weather. Can't say I'm excited for the same effect in the summertime though.

We live a stone's throw (well, a really long one) from a Wal-mart and other various shops. The city is rather new that even satellite images from Google won't show you anything. Of course, I have no idea how often that updates.

Upstairs are the three bedrooms and 2 full baths, a small linen closet and a separate laundry room (yesssssss...). The main floor has the kitchen, dining and family room, as well as a nice half bath. And then we have a large unfinished basement. I can imagine how I would do the basement if we had the means to finish it, so at least there's some good potential there.

Saying we love it here doesn't even come close. Tyler described it like being on vacation. Hahah! I'll search more for my camera and post some pictures as soon as I can!

Waiting for Murphy

Hey everyone!

Well, the townhome is coming along great! So far we've picked out the carpet and we're waiting for it to be put it so we can get on with the final inspection and then CLOSE on this deal. As of right now, our closing date is the 27th, but it could be possible to have it

sooner; we don't want it any sooner than that though. I just hope the builders don't mind the wait if that is the case. So far, Murphy's Law doesn't apply to us. (I REALLY hope I didn't jinx us there).

In the world outside the work towards our new home, we've finally picked Logan's halloween costume. He is going to be the cutest little teddy bear ever. We also went out and got Logan a new winter church outfit. He was looking SOO good at church yesterday. I need to get pictures of all this stuff.

Have a happy week everyone! No doubt there will be pictures soon of our new house, halloween and everything to replace the boring wall of text that has overrun this blog.

That's the One!

Our house hunting search appears to be at an end. After looking all over an astounding number of websites and driving all over Utah County in search of what we hope to call home, Tyler and I have found it...hopefully. Last Thursday night we sat down with the owner of a beautiful townhome development and made an offer. The website for the townhomes is here.

We are now under contract and could be closing on the deal as soon as the last week in October. If you look at the pictures and floorplan on the website, our townhome is slightly different. We have a one-car garage instead of two, which also means the rest of the house is a tad more scrunched than that floor plan shows. Our kitchen will not have an island (but that's ok! We love it anyway) and the square footage is slightly less. Even so, the whole place feels spacious and I'd love to have family and friends come visit.

We feel really really good about this place. It's well under the price that we decided would be the highest we are willing to go, and for the last couple of days, the national mortgage rate thing has dropped. Things seem to be working out pretty much perfectly. We're just waiting for our offer to be accepted. According to our real estate agent (who is the most helpful person I've ever met - we could not have gotten a better one) the offer shouldn't have any problems. Pretty much the only thing we negotiated into the asking price was a free refrigerator. Hehe!

I can't wait to have a home that we can truly call ours. I can't wait to finally paint the walls a color I want, except that the paint they already use as standard isn't bad at all; I like it. We will have a small backyard that is just for us, with grass and plants and space for Logan to run around, not like our weird apartment yard which pretty much limits Logan to playing in the parking lot or sidewalks. This new place has a wonderful little community park for him to play. Most of the other residents are young people very close to our ages and stage in life, so I'm glad that Logan (and us too) have the potential to make a lot of friends his age and who are close by.

Some other great perks of us buying at this time are: 1) Utah passed a grant not too long ago that GIVES $4,000 to ANY Utah homebuyer that purchases a home not previously lived in. The $4,000 can only be used to bring down the principle of your loan, or used toward closing costs. This is not just free money. This place qualifies. It's new construction. We'd be the first to live there. Yay. 2) The federal government is GIVING first time homebuyers $8,000 on their next tax return if they buy a home before Dececember 1, 2009. This grant is for anyone, anywhere, not just in Utah. So, basically, our closing costs are being paid for at no expense to us, and we're getting $8,000 extra dollars in our bank account next spring at tax time. Which is pretty much awesome because then we can use half of that to pay for our next little bundle of joy. NO we are not pregnant, but hopefully next year :)

We hope everyone if having a wonderful start to Fall. I love this time of year. I hate the cold but the love and peace this time of the year brings is one of the best things about life. As much as we strive to keep those feelings with us all year 'round, it's always nice to just sit back and enjoy it. To our friends and family, we love you all so much. We pray all the time for those of you who are having tough times. We think about you all very often and can't wait for the next time we see you again. Happy Fall everyone!