Starting out the New Year right!

I'm sure you don't want to here about our house searches, but we are so excited we can't hold it in. This last month we sold my Jeep and that provided us with a great down payment for a house. We met with the bank and got pre-approved on the 17th of December. We then met with our Realtor on the 18th. Unfortunately he was leaving for Christmas that weekend. He sent us some listings through email while he was gone. We were so excited to see some of them, we drove around and peaked in windows.


Our realtor got back yesterday and is going to take us to look at 3-4 of the houses we want to see, tomorrow. I'm so excited I can barely sit still. This is way more exciting than Christmas (not saying I don't love the ballroom dancing lessons Loren got me), but I've always wanted a house and now the time is coming.


Here are some of the house we will be looking at. There is benefits and downfalls for each house. From all the pictures, peaking in the windows, and location; Loren and I are liking the first one the most. It has 1522 sf, 3 bed, 2 bath, family room, bonus room (we like this option), dining room, and huge kitchen. We'll have to see tomorrow what everything else looks like inside, but we really like this one. Oh, and it sits on a .24 acres. This would give us an area for a huge garden. I'm sure I'll keep you posted on what happens. Hope you all have a great New Year!

Christmas Lights

Loren and I have a tradition of going to look at Christmas lights each year. We don't look for just any lights though. We are looking for the most outrageous and goddy looking houses. Here are the one's on the this years list. We made it a double date by taking our friends Justin and Amanda out to Nampa to our favorite restaurant. Then we started by looking at this house in Nampa. The lights cross the street onto the neighboring property, has a working 21 foot tall fariswheel, a lit up igloo, four working train sets, and to top it off; Santa was in the igloo passing out hot cocoa and candy canes. It was totally worth the drive.After looking at the amazing house in Nampa, we wanted to show our friends the neighborhood that had lighted trees along the drive and almost every house was lit. This is the best house out of them all.We then headed up to the hill. You can see this house from anywhere in Boise. The back yard is decorated in an angel. Sorry the picture is so blurry, but we were far away without a flash.
This is the view from the front yard. There were cars lined up all the way down the street, so we decided to get out and walk. And good thing we did.
This is the view of the front yard on the left side of the driveway. This is the view of the front yard on the right side of the driveway. We couldn't believe our eyes. They had everything and anything with a light on it. These houses were great. I can't image the time and energy it takes to put it all up and down, but just think of the electric bill. I do believe that these houses will be a tradition every year.

So it's finally here...

The sale of the Jeep is finally here. While in Rexburg this past weekend getting our eyes checked and visiting family, we got a call from someone interested in the Jeep. They had gotten the info off of Craigs list and wanted to know more about it. We pointed them to the ad on Cars.com. They decided to buy it sight unseen. They ended up being from Rexburg, so we drove back to Boise Sunday night (7 hour trip with the snow, yuck) and brought my father-in-law back with us. He took off Monday morning with the Jeep, and by 5:00pm that day we had the money in our hands. We just can't believe it. We haven't had any calls within the past 2-3 months. I guess this economy and weather isn't Jeep buying time. Our prayers were finally answered. They wanted it in time for Christmas. How exciting for us. With the sell of the Jeep we will have a nice down payment for a house. Now the new adventure begins...buying a home.

Beautiful Sunset

Last night before we went to dinner, Loren called me out to look at the sky. The past two evenings the sunsets have been so beautiful. This is a view from our front door.

New Haircut

It's been months since my last hair cut and my hair was getting way too long. So I told my hairdresser to do anything she wants. I got a new dark color with some red and an A-line cut. I love it. I've never had my hair cut like this. The pictures were taken pretty late last night, so sorry about the bad photos.

Life's too busy

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Life has just gotten so busy. Work has really picked up since most of the accounting team is now in the new building. I feel like things at work are just piling up, and all I'm doing is playing catch up. Me being at home sick today isn't going to help either.

I also got a calling in the Ward. I'm the Valiant 9 class. My first week teaching was last week, and I'll tell you...those kids are wild. I'm very excited about this calling though. I've taken time preparing the lessons and also making a FHE packet out of each lesson for future use.

Recently we had a craft activity night for relief society and I chose two projects. I love them. They came out so well. I can't wait to do the block pictures of my children.