Home Sweet Home

I’ve been in my house now for over a month, and thanks to my wonderful sisters I now have a home!

Jenny and Jessica flew in for the weekend to help me go shopping and get my house in order.  It was wonderful! I love spending any time I can with them and what better way to do that then spend over 11 hours shopping!!!! Friday was the marathon shopping day.  We left around noon, made it to 19 stores, and finally made it home around 11pm.  Here are some fun pictures throughout the day:



Shopping is exhausting!! Jess and I were beat and we still had 4 stores to go!

We could not have bought one more thing, there was no more space! 

It doesn't look like much, but we bought  A LOT!

Home at 11pm and the fun didn't stop there -  Here's Jen hard at work!

Here are a few before pictures...

The amazing thing is everything was delivered the next day, and it looks amazing.  I love it! Here are the after pictures....

Saturday I invited Annie & Steve, Brandon & Shabbi, and Jared & Katie over for a little get together.  It was fun to visit in my newly furnished living room and have the fireplace going!

Jenny and Jessica did a ton of work and there was not really much down time.  Too many pictures to hang and things to do. 

There is always time to snap a few fun pictures though!

It is rather lonely now and I didn’t want Jenny and Jess to go.  I’m so lucky to have awesome sisters willing to give of their time to help me get my house looking nice.  They did a great job! Thanks Jen and Jess! Love you!



$5 Goes A Long Way

Does it seem like Christmas was about 8 months ago to you, too? Hard to believe it was only last month, and I do apologize for being slow at getting pictures up.  All I have to say is I had a wonderful Christmas in Seattle with Brent & Ashley, Ryan & Marcela (and their cute kids), and Momisita! The four day weekend was complete with great company, great food, great movies, and even some brain teasers! Thanks WeWa peeps for a very relaxing Christmas weekend- it was totally worth the 5 bucks!

Ashley's super cute Christmas flower!

Christmas Eve was spent at Ryan and Marcela's house.  They invited their neighbor's over and we enjoyed a nice evening.  We even had carolers perform for us! 

Ryan is such an Engineer! This was his plan for getting dinner on the table at 5pm sharp!

Reyes wasn't a dragon all the time!

Ryan waxed domestic and sewed Camila's angel costume.

Ryan's Chief Wise Man costume... Jared, you've got some competition in the drama department!

The Nativity was great!

The audience!

Christmas morning we went to sacrament meeting before coming home and opening presents.  I really enjoyed the hour long program where a few people shared their thoughts about their favorite Christmas hymn and then the congregation sang that hymn.  It was great!

Ashley made Brent a manly apron!

Watch out, Ashley is now armed and dangerous!

Brent put together a brain teaser which had to be solved in order for Mom to know where her gift was hidden.  It was hard, but we had a good time figuring them out!

Marcela and I enjoying Christmas Day!

Ryan, are you really that much taller than me? I look really short in this picture!

Uncle Gary joined us for Christmas dinner.

Brent put on a great meal for Boxing Day and we got to use the fancy dishes!

We kidnapped Ryan and headed to the movies, but not before I got one last

picture with Marcela and Camila!

Our obligatory scrunch picture.  Yep, we went to Mission Impossible 3!

Good times! So, the five bucks got me a lot! Brent was a great chauffeur and we stopped at like every Starbucks out there to find the cinnamon dulce syrup- what a guy! He also ironed my church shirt, made delicious food, and gave me a place to sleep.  I am spoiled!!!

So, here is why I joke about the $5.  Christmas dinner was held at Brent and Ashley's house and a few days before leaving for Seattle Ashley sent out an e-mail inviting people to Christmas dinner and she stated that admission was $5.  Not exactly sure how to take that, are you serious? Is this just a joke? I really didn't think I had a redneck brother, but perhaps the fancy feast they were planning was a bit pricey and every dollar helps! Turns out it was just a joke, and the joke just kept getting better and better all weekend long!

Now that we're almost done with January... HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's hoping 2012 is a great year!

Homeowner

On December 15th I signed 48 papers to make it official... I am now a homeowner! It was pretty fast how it all happened, too.  Here is the timeline:

Friday, October 21, 2011, while in Park City enjoying a fabulous weekend, I got an e-mail  from my Realtor asking if I was interested in seeing the house that just came available. 

Tuesday, October 25th - saw the house and immediately knew that it was my house.

Saturday, November 5th - Submitted the offer.  That was the first opportunity I had to meet up with my Realtor and submit an offer since I was in Utah (again) for the Halloween Half Marathon.

Thursday, November 10th - learned that I got the house and it was under contract.

A lot of inspections, information gathering, figuring, and planning took place from November 11th- December 15th when I signed the papers and received the keys.  It was a busy time, but it wasn't overly difficult.  I had a great realtor and a fabulous bank which made the process very easy for me.

Friday and Saturday, December 16th and 17th I hired painters to come paint the whole house.  Had I been okay with the house being a bright yellow the house would have been completely move in ready and I wouldn't have had to do anything.  Here are some before and after pictures, but the pictures really don't do it justice.

BEFORE



All the bathrooms were a sea green color, even the ceiling!

AFTER

 I took this during the painting as a comparison.  The left wall has not yet been painted.

Dining Room

Living Room- I love my red wall!

 The other angle in the living room.

Master Bedroom- I love my blue wall, too!

My Patio

My Shed

The majority of my stuff was moved in on Monday, December 19th and now comes the joy of getting unpacked and settled.  The good news is as of yesterday (1/7/12) all my stuff is finally moved out of my apartment! Right now I feel like I am camping in my own house since it is a disaster with boxes everywhere and I am living out of a suitcase, but it is still so nice to come home to my house! My red wall and beautiful picture (which did make it safely to Denver) make me smile!

Now you will all have to come visit me and help me hang all my pictures! :^)