Happy Day For Us!!

Every Sunday night I talk to my parents about the week and what's going on. A couple weeks before Christmas during one call my parents told me that they had stopped by a family friends house in my home ward in Rocklin and they were talking to them and found out that their daughter who lived in Payson was moving to Fiji with her family for a job for the church and had put their house up for sale. My Dad said we should go check it out. I didn't think much of it...like we could really afford a house right now! The next Sunday they brought it up again this time telling us that there was a loan available through the government that basically goes off income and told us to talk to the daughter that owned the home and just see what the deal was. I talked to Trent and we figured it couldn't hurt to check it out. Worse case scenario we couldn't afford it and we walk away. Best case we could afford it and we could move into a home and out of our 840 sq ft apartment!!

I started emailing Charley (girl who owns the home that is from my home ward in Rocklin) about the house and the loan process. We looked at pictures on zillow and started talking more and more about it. We left for California and spent HOURS and HOURS talking about it and figuring out budget and what we could/couldn't afford. I started working with the USDA and figured out that we pre-qualifed to fill out the application. We got emailed the application and started working on it over Christmas break and started gathering the documentation they needed to be handed in with the 29 page application!

There were a lot of things that you had to have in order to even be able to fill out the application. You had to fit the following criteria:

-No bankruptcy
-No foreclosure
-Two years of on time rental payment history
-At least a 650 credit score
- Less than 20% debt to income ratio
- No late payments to creditors in the last 2 years
- Steady income for at least 1 year

and the list goes on and on. We had to wait until the 6th of January until we were back from California before we could turn in the completed application in their office. We then had to wait almost 2 weeks for them to review our file, do a credit & background check, and then give us the final approval or decline of our application. It was a L-O-N-G two weeks! I called/emailed every day and asked for case updates and statuses. I kept finding out they needed additional information they hadn't previously asked for and I would do anything I could to gather it and have it back to them within hours of their request. Needless to say the first couple weeks of January were stressful. One month before this we hadn't even been looking at moving and things were fine but all of the sudden there was a glimmer of hope that we could get out of our tiny place and into a home of our own and we turned into crazy caged animals!

On  January 16th another family put an offer on the home and I lost it...I felt like the home was slipping away from us. The thing is that we have all our eggs in one basket. It's either we get this home or we stay where we are until Trent graduates at the end of this year. This is where knowing the sellers came in handy. They really wanted us to be in their home and had faith that things were working out how they were because we were meant to buy their home so they put in a ridiculous counteroffer and the next day we put in our own offer which they accepted and signed - such a relief!

On January 17th we finally got the approval on our application and ordered the appraisal! Such a happy day I was seriously so happy! Monday was Martin Luther King day so NOTHING happened on our account...painful! We ordered and paid for the inspection and it was completed on January 23rd. We were slowly making progress. The final steps were getting the appraisal completed and attending a Saturday New Home Owners class and then we could start the closing process on the home. WELL one week after the appraisal was ordered it still hadn't been scheduled. So irritating. I have to pay for the appraisal in my closing costs so why can't I just schedule it and pay for it now myself?! I am not patient when it comes to things that are not in my control!! This whole process has been a great teaching moment but I still have zero patience!!

Finally on January 27th the appraisal got scheduled for the next day!! Things were moving!!The appraisal was completed and I contacted USDA to see if there was anything else I needed to do. Every day it was a no...no...we are good...nothing else. Then one day it was you never completed a termite inspection! Well yeah I haven't done a termite inspection because you never told me I had to! I started making calls and found a company in Santaquin that could come out that same day and do the inspection so I had them do it and paid them to get the report to me ASAP. The next morning I emailed the termite report to USDA and asked AGAIN if there was anything else they needed. Of course it was a no. Just waiting on the appraisal now!

On January 30th the appraisal came back at $3000 more than our offer!! Such a relief. I was bawling I was so happy! This was our last hurdle before we could start closing documents. I talked to our loan officer at USDA and she said to prepare for a Feb 20th close date! It was time to start packing!!

On Friday morning I contacted USDA once again and asked if there was anything the sellers needed to do for the close before they left for Fiji. She must not have been aware of this because she said that if they are in Fiji when we close then we have to sign our paperwork and then send it to them in Fiji where they have to take it to the American Consulate and have it signed. It can take weeks to get an appointment there and you can't do it until you go in person to their office in Fiji so we could be looking at closing even farther out than Feb 20th...bummer of a Friday!

That weekend we started packing up stuff anyway. The move was coming we just didn't know when for sure. We gathered boxes and packed up some stuff we knew we could do without for a month if we had to. On Tuesday Feb 4th we found out that the title company was preparing all the documents they needed for the seller to sign so that we could close early! Vito and Charley went in on Thursday morning before they left town and signed all the documents that they needed to! The title company started preparing the buyer paperwork and told me they would call me tomorrow (Friday Feb 7th) once it was all completed so I could come up and sign my life away!!

Friday morning dragged by painfully slow. My loan officer said that she couldn't process the transfer of funds request for the loan until documents were signed so we were going to go sign but not be able to officially close until funds were received which could be Monday. Fine by me! We were still like 13 days ahead of schedule!! Finally I got the call and headed to Sandy to sign paperwork at 11:00am. We signed our life away until 2047 and became (almost) official home owners!!

Since we had the keys and access to the house that Charley left with us before they moved out we went over that weekend and started painting and cleaning to prepare for the big move! I couldn't believe that 54 days after first learning about a home for sale we were moving in! It's crazy how things all worked out and I know we were meant to be in this home! We found this sweet note and treat from the Qaqa's when we first walked into OUR new home!!

These next month was a blur of moving, packing, cleaning, birthday parties (3 to be exact!), soccer tournaments, and a baptism! More to come on all of that!!

Riley Bree

Oh Riley...where do I even begin to start with this one...Let's just say we call her our little angel monster for a reason. She is like a Jekyll and Hyde tornado. Always causing chaos and confusion and destroying anything she touches,  but sometimes she is happy and sometimes she is a hellion!

Riley is now 2 1/2 but if you ask her she will tell you she is 4 every.single.time. Her favorite things to do are steal toys from her sisters, break anything she can get her hands on, scream at the top of her lungs, do anything but sleep and go to bed at a normal time, and lie about everything and anything.

She loves eating macaroni and cheese and rice and any kind of fruit she can get her hands on. Her drink of choice is Pepsi (she gets it from her Dad!). It's pretty funny when you go out to eat and the waitress asks her what she wants to drink and she asks for a Pepsi. The look on the waitress' face is priceless!

She LOVES going to church and every morning she asks if it is "church day" yet! She barely makes it through Sacrament meeting before she runs to Nursery. After church she loves to show us the pictures she drew and sing us the songs she learned.  In the last couple of months she has started singing more and more and I love walking past her room and hearing her sing songs while she plays! Right now her favorite song is "That Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys.She also loves to sit and watch video clips on the iPad from the movie Frozen and sing along to the songs! Last night I was laying down with her so she could go to sleep and I though she was about asleep when she rolled over an inch away from my face and asked me if I wanted to build a snowman!

She really likes to watch movies and goes through spurts where she watches one movie over and over and over before she will move on to the next one. During Christmas it was the Polar Express. Right after Christmas it was Monster's University and now it is The Bee Movie.

She loves to play with babies, dolls, Barbie's. Anything she can pretend to be a mother to! If you are missing something the chances are high that Riley has it stuffed in her Minnie Mouse suitcase she got for Christmas or one of her purses.

She really is a character and can pull the funniest faces and has us laughing one minute and wanting to pull our hair out the next! She is doing a really good job of helping us not want anymore children!! We love her to pieces though and wouldn't sell her no matter how many times we have threatened to!

Lexi Lou Who

Life is crazy. I keep waiting for life to slow down but it never does...it just gets crazier! This whole routinely blogging thing might not make it for very long! Before I quit though I need to give an update on each kid at least! Next up is Alexis Kamryn:

Lexi is currently 4 going on 16! She always keeps us laughing with her comments and questions! She loves changing her clothes 10 times a day and leaving clothes in a huge pile in her room. She does NOT like having to clean unless it is organizing the drawers in the bathroom. That is the only thing she likes to do cleaning wise!

She goes to preschool 3 times a week right now and loves coming home and telling us about the letter she learned that day and all the fun activities she did. She gets to take treats about twice a month and they like them to follow the color or letter of the week and she has a blast going to the store to pick out things to take. One week we took orange juice, oreos, and orange cheese for the letter o week. I didn't say she picks out the most appetizing treat combinations but hey no one can say I picked them out for her! Her class has 8 children in it and they are all girls which Lexi loves! She has made so many new friends this year!


Last year we signed her up for a soccer team in Salem since she has been begging to play for a long time. Every game she would ask to be goalie so that she could sit at the end of the field and practice her somersaults and cartwheels. We knew right then that she needed to take gymnastics and not pursue soccer anymore!

Once a week she has a gymnastics class in Salem and she LOVES it. Love isn't a strong enough word to describe her feelings. She likes to practice at home and asked Santa to bring her a balance beam so she could practice at home. She tells me that some day she is going to do "nym-nastics" in the Olympics. Way to aim high my girl! Everyday she asks if it is Monday yet so she can go to class! She can't wait until she can do flips on the balance beam like the big girls!

Lexi has been planning her friend birthday party since she was 2. I told her she couldn't have a friend birthday party until she was in school. Since she started school in September she can hardly contain herself. Her party theme has changed 20 different times but if you ask her today she will tell you that she is having a Frozen birthday party and they are going to sing and dance to the Frozen songs and build a snowman and then have lots of candy. She cracks me up.

2013 was a rough year for Lexi's poor little body. It started in April when she was running with the iPad and fell and hit her chin on the corner of it and split it open. She had to get 2 stitches. This happend one year TO THE DATE from her first set of stitches on her eyebrow from falling on the computer chair!

In July we were having a family party and rented a blow up water slide. She went down and the bottom of the slide she was crying and said her toe hurt. We thought she just stepped on something in the grass and got her dried off and looked at her baby toe...yeah it was basically ripped in half and barely hanging on. She had x-rays taken and found it was a clean slice through and not broken so she just got 3 stitches in her baby toe to hold it back together. That was NOT a fun one to try and keep clean and keep her off her foot for a couple days!

Then in August we went to the BYU women's soccer team and Lexi got bit by a mosquito on her cheek. Before she went to bed her face started to swell up. We decided to let her go to sleep and see if it was worse in the morning and if it was then we would take her to the instacare...well she woke up the next morning looking like this...holy scary! We took her in and got her some antibiotics and were told to go home and if the swelling continued to get worse after taking the medicine to come back in because it would mean there was a deeper infection and could spread to her eyes. Yikes! Lucky for us it went down and in a couple of days we had our cute little Lexi back! She REFUSED to go to church that day because she didn't want her teacher to see her like this! (I don't blame her!)

Needless to say she always keeps us on our feet with her random injuries! Despite the numerous trips to the instacare and medical bills we love her so much and are glad she is part of our family!

Welcome Back!

It is been over a year since I last blogged...so sad! Life gets busy and unfortunately my blog suffered which means my journal suffered too because I used my blog as my journal for our life! To hopefully get back into the swing of things I thought I would make one post about each of us to give you an update on where we are at! First up is Erika!

Erika still enjoys school more than any child ever should! She loves learning and constantly amazes us with the stuff she picks up on so quickly! She hates when school is cancelled for the day and dreads summer time where she is off for 3 months...whose child is this?!

She loves to read and can blow through a large chapter book in no time flat! For Christmas Santa brought her a Kindle Fire HDX so that she can read more and more whenever she wants! Whenever we go anywhere in the car she has to bring it with her so she can read!

At the end of last summer Erika tried out for a competitive soccer league in Spanish Fork and beat out a bunch of other girls to take the last opening on the team. Tryouts are in June and we didn't think about it soon enough but then we heard through the grapevine that one team was losing a girl and that they were holding tryouts again so we jumped at the chance!

She plays forward and even scored quite a few goals! She was ranked #13 out of all the girls in the Utah County competitive soccer league! We had fun going to games twice a week for a couple months to cheer on #14. They are now doing indoor league and will go to a tournament in St. George in February.

When she isn't at school or going to soccer practice/games she spends her limited free time playing with her friends in the ward that live a couple houses down or doing art projects! She is such a big helper and is the best big sister any Mother could ask for! She does like to tease her sisters a lot but what sibling doesn't do that?!

We love having Erika as part of our family and love the light she brings into our house! Her new years resolution for this year was to read the scriptures more, be nicer to her sisters, and save her money. Pretty good ones if you ask me!

One Last Camping Trip

This past weekend we decided to go on one last camping trip of the season since we didn't have to teach our Sunday School class. We invited to the family to go with us and by the time Friday rolled around we were all ready to head up the canyon and get away for a much needed break!

We just headed up Spanish Fork Canyon. It is so nice to be able to just drive 15 minutes away and be able to camp for free! The weather was beautiful.

The scenery was AMAZING! All of the trees were changing colors so it was so beautiful! Riley spent about 90% of the weekend sitting in either this car:

or this car! She was so good all weekend and had so much fun being able to roam around and get as dirty as she wanted to! I am pretty sure she probably ate about a pound of dirt and 5 or 6 rocks!

Erika was such a good helper and would take the kids on walks everywhere!

When they weren't going on walks they had fun coloring every rock in sight with the sidewalk chalk!

Smile Erika!

 The little ones had fun too. The only problem was we learned they couldn't share a container of chalk! That is okay though cause Wal-Mart had them on sale a couple months ago for a quarter a container so we bought 4 of them for the trailer! Everyone gets their own to play with!

On Saturday after breakfast Papa took the girls to find the perfect walking stick. Lexi refused to stand by Erika for the picture so here is Erika with her walking stick....

 and here is stinky pants herself!

 After sticks were found and bags were packed with juice boxes and bags of muddy buddies they were ready for their hike!

While they were getting ready for their hike we got talking about Indians. Riley was busy drawing all over her face with the sidewalk chalk so Papa helped her out and made her a little Indian Princess!

Apparently Riley thought it was more fun to draw on her face and lick the chalk then it was to draw on rocks!

While the big kids when on a hike this little one took a nap so I could spend some time relaxing and reading!

After they got back we had some snacks. Lexi apparently only likes the cheese out of the cracker and cheese snack packages and likes it put directly on her tongue instead of on a cracker...GROSS!

After resting for a little while we went on a family walk to check out more pretty parts of the canyon. Lexi found some pretty leafs that she was collecting and asked to have one in her hair so she could be a Leaf Princess!

 Family walk time is the best ever! I sure do love my family!

That night for dinner we had tin foil dinners...my favorite!! Here is the assembly line to create your own tin foil dinner!

Apparently we were all really hungry because we sat and stared at the fire just waiting for our yummy dinner to be done!

Riley CHOWED down on dinner that night. She apparently loves tin foil dinners too! She also had about 8 little cherry tomatoes as well!

On Sunday we hung out and relaxed for a little and then started to clean up camp. Just as we were hooking up the trailer to the truck it started to pour! Talk about perfect timing! We hooked up the trailer and through in the last couple things and headed out! It was a fun weekend and I am sad that camping season is now over!