Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Tyler's parents invited us to go to Sunriver with them for Memorial Day Weekend.  We jumped at the chance and left Thursday after work.  We were there until Monday and the weather was much more pleasant than we had anticipated.  We rode bikes, shopped, played games, ate yummy food, swam, hot tubbed, made tinfoil dinners in the fireplace, Tyler and his dad went golfing, and Susie and I got massages.  It was my first ever massage and it was a-ma-zing!  I would highly recommend one to anyone that gets the chance to go. Oh and we also had fun with an app on Dad's Ipad. 

 

House Post

I wanted to document our house buying process. We have been looking at houses since April 2012. We were seriously considering a house and put an offer on it in May of last year. It fell through and we were super bummed. What a huge blessing that was! In the fall of last year we started looking super seriously again. We got pre-approved and we were ready. We would check the website at least once a day... usually more. We walked through countless houses and none of them gave us a good feeling. We were really hoping to stay in our current ward boundaries.  However, I don't think that was part of the plan. We were feeling pretty discouraged in February when our lease was up. We decided to go ahead and do a month to month hoping that something would come along and it did!! In March, Tyler's mom saw on Facebook that someone they knew got a job offer and would be moving. This was on a Saturday. Tyler called them to see if we could come look at their house. They told us they would like to wait until Friday to do some things first. Monday came and they called us saying they had a few people interested and would we like to see it that night. We had already set up an appointment to see another house and decided to see the Pratt's house right after. We walked through the Pratt's house and I fell in love. It felt like home. The backyard was perfect, it had a living and family room, and 4 bedrooms. After we got in the car I looked at Tyler and he couldn't stop smiling. I asked him what he thought. He told me he didn't like it... Very funny!!! NOT! I said "you're lying". I told him I loved it and we should buy it. Many people don't know this, but we are both super afraid to commit. This was a huge decision! The biggest we've ever made and it was scary. We went to Tyler's parents afterward to get Addy and told them how much we loved the house. It was well within our budget. We decided that we would think about it for a few days and then let the Pratts know. We told Tyler's parents this and they told us we shouldn't wait if we were serious about it. So... The same night we looked it at we put an offer in. We called the Pratts and offered them full asking price with a small carpet allowance. He said he would discuss it with his wife and let us know. Longest half hour ever!!! He called back and said they accepted and he would call the others that had looked at it and tell them they had accepted an offer. At this point, Tyler and I got even more nervous, mostly Tyler. :) Had we made the right decision? What now? 

We called the bank and our pre approval had expired. I guess they only last for 90 days.  We talked to our bank and she said she didn't think we could get a loan at this point. What??!! Since Tyler basically works from commission he isn't guaranteed a salary, which makes banks nervous. We were feeling a bit defeated. Tyler's parents had recently used Key Bank and gave us a contact there. We called and he said they have a special type of loan called "doctors and dentists loan", however, it required 10% down instead of 3.5%. That's a huge difference. Luckily, by the time closing came around we had enough. 

There was another bump in the road when the appraisal came back pretty low. We felt bad for the Pratts, but there was no way the bank would lend us more than the appraised value and we didn't want to pay more than that value. After a couple days of going back and forth, the Pratts agreed to come down to that price. On May 10th we closed!! It seemed way to easy.  

Now we are just super anxious to get into our house. The Pratts are basically renting from us until June 8th when we will live in our house. It can't come soon enough! 

I feel super blessed that everything worked out the way that it did. We will be able to stay in this house for a long time, at least until Tyler's students loans are paid off and hopefully longer. 

April 2013

~We've been staying busy trying to get everything in line for our house. 
~Camilla and I took our kids to the Children's Museum in Pendleton.  The girls had fun.  I thought it was kind of lame, but I think that is because I was comparing it to Portland... which there is totally no comparison. 
~Lots of playing with cousins and new friends.
~We have a new addition to our family!  Addy got her first pet.  Boy, is she sooo excited!  We got a bunny.  Her name is Daily.  She is living at our friends house until we move in.  We go over often to play with our bunny. 
~We went on a family date to dinner and then got "Wreck it Ralph" to watch as a family.
~My mom and brother came to visit for a few days.
~Started weeding and hoeing our new garden to get it ready for planting. 
~I went to "mom's day" at Addy's preschool.  She got to paint my fingernails.  I got to play outside with her, share a snack, and spend time with her at school!