Say "ESCROW"!!!!

Our Moving Mess!

After waiting 4+ months, we had the best Christmas present ever in getting a closing date for our new home. We signed the papers on January 8th and moved in on the 16th. We couldn't believe the welcome we received as Elder's Quorum members, neighbors, and family poured in to help us out... I'm sure we had over 10 big, strapping guys to do heavy lifting.

We actually had the unlikely problem of not having enough big, heavy items to keep the mensfolk satisfied. Just try & direct them to a box labeled towels and they'd roll thier eyes like "Puh-lease! Give me a real challenge lady!" I think a fistfight almost broke out over who got to move the last bookcase...

Anyway, we are in the house and loving it! The luxury of having a REAL closet is almost beyond comprehension and the novelty of having a FULL bath (not to mention more than 1) won't be wearing off soon.

Seriously, the ward & neighborhood are the most welcoming and friendly we've ever been in, though they didn't waste any time in getting us callings! Nate & I were set apart yesterday to be Sunday School teachers for the 14-18 year old class (which happens to have 18 (yes, 18) students in it and we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting on Valentine's day. We're a little nervous about Sunday School, because of size and other special challenges, but it will be fun serving together and we have some great ideas to get everyone involved and excited.

The infamous "handprint" room... that's the second coat of
some ultra expensive primer going up. Yikes!!!

The lattice coming down.
(so it wasn't the first thing I did after all, but we're quite happy with the results)

Wallpaper removal mess.

We even conned some family into helping.

Merry Christmas, Part Deux

I'm so glad we were able to spend time with so many of those we love this holiday season and sad that we missed a few of you. We had a very excellent Christmas holiday, made even better by the knowledge that our offer on the house in Enoch was accepted! I just got word today that the appraisal is done and we might be able to close as soon as January 8th.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the Douglas' in Hurricane. It was wonderful to have Grandma Wood as well as Cec & Diane, Tommy & Hani, Jim & Jess, and Zack & Trevor. We watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas, read stories, sang songs, and just had a great time the night before Christmas.

Christmas morning Lincoln shocked us by being wide awake at 5:00 AM (which he never does), so we have to assume he realized it was Christmas. His big present was a Little Tikes pick-up truck just his size. We were are waiting with baited breath to see a big reaction, but in typical mellow Lincoln style he just stared at it for a minute and then casually sauntered over to take it for a spin. We know he liked it though, because he refused to get out of the truck, refused to open any other presents, and basically ignored the rest of us for the first couple of hours after he got it. It's definitely true love. He even goes so far as to include his truck when he makes the rounds with goodnight hugs & kisses. It's hysterical!

Nate & I had fun too... he got the new Call of Duty game he'd been drooling over and I got a beautiful cashmere sweater. More than anything though it was fun to enjoy Lincoln's reactions!!! After pigging out all day we heading to Parowan and did a family gift exchange there and then we headed to Cedar to go see Sherlock Holmes. It was great to be able to spend time with both our families.

We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season as well!

Lincoln & Cousin Trevor watching Mr. Kruger's Christmas

Behold the Christmas bounty! This is all of Lincoln's stuff.

Back to the Future: An oldie, but a goodie!

What you lookin' at Willis??

Merry Christmas!

Lincoln learned a new phrase on the way to Grandma's house. He's a pretty cute kid, if I do say so myself.

Winter Wonderland

My brother Nate got married a year ago to a lovely gal Cynthia (you may remember a note of panic in a wedding cake post around that time) and I am so proud to say that they were sealed today as a family (including little Xander).

Any of you who know me know that I love to plan parties and I can be a bit of a theme Nazi when it gets right down to it. It should come as no surprise that I ended up being the unofficial wedding planner for the open house they opted to have in honor of the big event.

To set the stage, the theme was a winter wonderland (no blaring Christmas references or reindeer sweaters) with shades of blue, silver, and white. It was at my parents new house and was created by a team of highly skilled professionals (including my Dad & little bro) that I bossed around something fierce these last few days. It turned out lovely, if I do say so myself!

Here are some pictures:

The rumors are true...

...we've moved!

Just a few days after my vent we got the call that everything was finalized and we signed the papers that night. It's a huge relief, but we are totally homeless at the moment. We've been bouncing around (first at Nate's parents house and now at my parent's house) while we search for a new abode.

We've had a plethora of offers out on the table, but none of them have panned out (definitely not for lack of trying, let me tell you). Our top contender of the moment has been on our books since August and we still haven't received an answer to our offer because it's a short sale that has been delayed up the wazoo. The last we heard we *might* hear something before Christmas, but since we've been told "just another week" about 10 times, we aren't placing any bets.

Here's the lowdown of our number one pick of the moment: 3 bed/3 bath on a 1/2 acre with a detached shop and shed. It's fully landscaped and fenced and has a finished basement to boot. It's in Enoch, about a block from my sister's house, in a really family friendly, young area.

Here it is: (What do you think? Is it worth the wait?)

Attention: All New Posts!

Yes, I finally did it. I updated the blog. A lot has happened in the last few months since I posted and I still have more to add, but this will give you an idea of where we are at.

By the way, please scroll down to May because I finally published an old post with some funny video of Linkmeister.

The Waiting Game: Everybody Loses!

Arrgh! I used to think I was a pretty patient person, but lately things have gotten out of control. I'm no longer waiting for something specific anymore... I'm just waiting to reach a point in my life where I'm done waiting.

To answer the questions that we have gotten time and again, and you may even be wondering right now, NO we have not sold our house, NO we have not gotten a new house, and NO we have not left Hurricane (although YES we have moved out of our house). Let's discuss each question:

• No, we have not sold our house:
  We got our home under contract with a really lovely couple on August 14th. They wanted to close in the first week of October and we asked for a few extra weeks because we didn't know where exactly we were going to go. Then we discovered we could stay with either of of our parents so we went back to the earlier day (Oct. 8th). Needless to say there were delays from the get-go and the 8th became the 15th, the 15th became the 22nd, and the 22nd blossomed into the 29th. Since we never suspected it would drag on like this we were totally out of the home by the 10th of October and staying with the Douglas'.
  
  Needless to say it is now November 12th, we are on our third extension addendum, and we still have not closed! The new day is supposedly November 20th, but I'm not placing any bets. The sad thing is that it isn't in our control or our buyer's control at all. It's just the bank (down with Bank of America!) and USDA Rural Development that are incredibly slow. Our poor buyers have been in a motel since Oct. 31st because they thought we would be closed by the first week in November and we have totally crashed the Douglas' for more than a month. Insanity!!!
  

• No, we have not gotten a new house:
  We have been looking for houses even before we sold ours. I'll admit we've been a little picky because we simply don't want to have to move again (and finding a good deal wouldn't be bad either), but we've had offers on a few places that haven't panned out. Most of you know about the Utah Trail house in Enoch. It's by my sister and is in a great family neighborhood. It's a short-sale that we put an offer on before Labor Day.
  
  We'd checked in with the bank a few times before they told us at the beginning of October, "We'll have an answer for you at the end of the month, but don't call back before the 26th or we'll make you wait two weeks longer." That is a direct quote (and guess which bank??? Bank of America strikes again!). A call on the 26th told us to wait another week because they just hadn't had a chance to look at it yet. A call on the 5th told us that they'd looked at it, but couldn't make a decision until they reassessed the property. This week they told us there was some kind of discrepancy between the two independent assessments and they had ordered and they now would have to do a formal appraisal... which they said we might hear back by, oh, the 22nd or so of December. DECEMBER.
  
  We really haven't found anything else that is screaming out to us, except another short sale, and judging by the timeline we are on with the first one we'll be lucky to hear anything by Labor Day.
  

• No, we have not left Hurricane:
  We originally stayed with our in-laws so we could be near the house to clean it, get the mail, etc. for those few days before we closed. As our deadline kept getting extended so did our stay here. The master plan at the moment is actually to head to Parowan to stay in my parent's basement (words I never thought I'd utter). LOL. We should be down there (regardless of closing) by November 15th.
  
  To sum up, we are waiting to close on our house & waiting to find/contract/close on a new house (which we will be extremely lucky to do before the end of the year). We each have a suitcase with our clothes and pretty much everything else is in storage. It's been frustrating, but Nate & I are both very aware of how lucky we are. First of all we found buyers in a horrible housing market, we got the price we needed, and we have great families that have opened their doors and given us a place to stay.
  
  We will very, very relieved when the waiting game is over!

Cake Wars 2009

The Competitors:

• Jon: 21 yr. old telemarketer & Rasta enthusiast
• Jenny: 28 yr. old former teacher & Food Network aficionado

The Challenge:

• Pick a theme for your cake design from the official "Hat o' Themes" that was filled with the help of Mel & Shell.
• Using the communal (and limited) cake decorating supplies frost & decorate a 8-inch round cake in under 10 minutes.
• The cakes will be judged on three criteria: Technique, originality, and adherence to theme.

Entry # 1: Jenny Chosen Theme: Space Camp

Description: "The first thought that popped into my head was to use a spaceship in some way. I didn't have time to to do any elaborate piping, but by putting on smooth base coat of frosting I was able to fashion a rocket ship out of M&M's and add piped stars and a little bit of a border. The candles as the rocket boosters was a last minute inspiration."

Entry #2: Jon Chosen Theme: High School Sports Injuries

Description: "It's basically a football field made of red licorice sting and green icing. I have no idea how Jenny got the icing smooth because all we had was a plastic spoon & plastic butter knife. I did pink on the sides and white on the top. I sculpted football players with toothpicks & gumdrops, as well as a football. If you look close you'll see one of the players is actually held in a freeze-frame type position diving for the football which is soaring into the endzone. I even fashioned a pair of rudimentary goalposts with candles & candy."

The Winner (now two years running): Jenny

Confidential to Jon:
You'd better bring it next year sucka!

Fun with Cousins

We visited Mel & Ry's a little while back and the kids had a blast together. I took some pictures of the little cutie pies having fun.

Road Trip!

This post is so last July. Literally.

We went to Texas this last July for a family reunion on the Douglas side and it was so great to see all of our long lost family. Surprisingly, the drive wasn't too bad, despite strapping in a very active 18 month old. We actually caravaned with Nate's brother Jim & they loaned us a few of their kids every so often to keep LJ busy. Our time in Texas was awesome, so here are some highlights:

We went to bounce house center that was a huge building just filled with bounce slides and obstacle courses. It was really fun, but it got a little competitive! All I can say is, I'm definitely not in the best shape these days. Whew!

Dan & Shelby getting ready to race.

Getting ready to go into the Fort Worth Zoo
& styling some fab reunion t-shirts.

LJ making a new friend. That little lizard was going bonkers!

Lincoln gave into the power of sleep somewhere
after Texas Wild but before Penguin Paradise.

The gang... we had quite a crowd.

We did a lot of other fun things that I didn't get pictures of, but overall it was a great trip with lots of great memories. A huge thanks to Dan & Shelby for hosting it and for the good meals and the good times. We miss you guys already!!!