We got an offer on on our house on the 22 of July--3 days before Alison got married. We countered, he accepted the counter on the evening of the 24th. Yay! We were so excited. The close date was set for August 19th which was less than 4 weeks away. But the kids were supposed to start school on the 19th, so I figured it was better to find something before then anyway, so we sign on the dotted line.
Mira bought herself some panda socks and wanted to show them off.
Ariana hung out with Jules a lot while they were here and I appreciated it a lot.
Then Alison got married, of course. On the 25th. I helped decorate for the reception, then got myself ready, got my kids ready, then did Alison's hair and went with her to the temple because she asked me to be her escort (this is basically a person who's gone through for this particular thing before that helps guide the new person and help with anything they need). After she and James were sealed, we went out and had pictures taken with the all the family members, and then while they had couple pictures taken, we went with the girls and got some ice cream. We had to be at the reception place by 4 because they were having a ring exchange ceremony and they'd asked me to video it. I don't think I did a great job. I've never video'd anything in my life. Then we had dinner and the reception and when that was over, we helped clean everything up. It was a crazy, long day, but I think it went off the way Alison and my mom had planned.
This is a cake topper that Cecily made for Alison a couple days before the wedding. She's so funny and creative.
This is me squished into the back seat of Alison's car with the petticoat and James' suit on the way to the temple.
They were all cozy in the front seat.
Outside after the sealing.
All the girls were flower girls and wore pink leotards with gray tulle skirts. They were adorable.
My dad started coloring at the reception and my mom wanted me to take a picture to commemorate the momentous occasion.
Jules got a flower girl skirt, too. I kind of adore her.
I always love having family in town and most of my mom's side of the family came. So Friday, the day after the wedding, I invited everyone to come to our house to hang out. It was kind of packed, since we don't have a huge house or open great room, but it made my soul happy to soak up time with my extended family. Me, and Lavi and Andrew and Ava, and Bill and Carolina and Lucas, went to the Bean Museum for part of the day. We saw the live animal show and got to pet the ball python.
This is an artistic grouping Cecily insisted I take a picture of. She made it out of everything she got at the wedding reception.
Saturday morning we went bowling with the Hills and Staleys and Kathy. I got second place score behind Andrew and Emilia bowled without bumpers for the first time and did really well, too.
Saturday afternoon we went and looked at 4 more houses. When we started this process and brought our thoughts and feelings to Heavenly Father in prayer, we felt directed to look in Pleasant Grove and the surrounding area. That was puzzling to us because it wouldn't make Steve's commute very much shorter, the kids have no friends there, and it's an expensive area of the valley to live in. Nonetheless, we diligently searched that area and looked at houses there. Prior to this point we'd probably made Ben (who is our realtor) take us to see 35 or more houses (just now, we could think of 25 and I know we're not remembering them all). That's not including the 20 or so open houses we went to ourselves. We'd offered on one house in Pleasant Grove, but because the purchase would have to be contingent on selling our house and our house wasn't on the market yet, they declined our offer. They told us they would reconsider it once our house was on the market. So we busted our butts and got it listed within 5 days. The very next day, the owner of that house accepted an offer from someone else. Argh. Often, we'd see a house in that area we'd be interested in and it would go under contract before we could even go see it 2 days later. The ones we could go see were often old and badly in need of updates that Steve was loath to do, or they were strangely laid out, or were priced too high for the market or our budget. Sometimes they were all of the above! It started to become a very frustrating process. I didn't understand why we'd be told to look in that area if there wasn't going to be anything available to purchase there.
So being under contract, I thought for sure God would clear a path for us to find a home. But none of the four we looked at that Saturday after Alison's wedding were anything to write home about. There were a couple that had potential, but after praying over them we felt like they weren't going to be the right fit for our family. We were feeling desperate though. If we didn't get under contract within the next couple days, we wouldn't be able to originate a loan in time to move into our new house the same day we moved out of the old one.
Sunday, the next day, we took a break from house hunting. Instead, we invited the Staleys to eat dinner with us. Steve cooked the whole meal for 12 people! He's so great.
The kids also found 2 praying mantises that night and Cecily has been fascinated with bugs lately, so we had to take pictures.
So Monday we went to see a For Sale By Owner way up in Cedar Hills. It was really nice and big, but Cedar Hills is about as far away from anything as you can get and the yard was small and had no privacy because the HOA required everyone to have a wrought-iron back fence even though it backed onto the street that everyone used to enter the neighborhood. We still considered buying that one though.
We set up with Ben to take us to see 4 more houses in Lehi, the next day on Tuesday the 30th. And another 4 throughout northern Utah County on Wednesday the 31st. We went into those two searches determined to just pick SOMETHING so we could get moving on the loan process--and stop making Ben take us to see houses. Despite that, we didn't love anything we saw. 13 houses in 5 days and nothing. But still determined, we picked the house that had the most things we liked and took it to the Lord in prayer. The answer we got was a distinct, "No." By this time, I was getting quite a bit discouraged and frustrated with God. We were willing to live wherever he wanted us to. We were willing to push our budget limits or live in a cheap ugly home if he wanted us to. We were willing to try being landlords, fix something up, or have no yard whatsoever even though I love gardening (we looked at one with .06 acres). But everything we looked at that we would even consider, when we prayed about it, we kept getting "No." I felt so crazy!
Finally, Steve found a place in Orem that he made Ben take him to on Thursday the 1st. He was excited about the neighborhood and it was a decent split-level home. When he told Ben he wanted to see it, Ben asked if there was anything else I wanted to see. I looked through all the listings for the bajillionth time and found 2 in Saratoga Springs I was excited about. Steve had outright refused to live in Saratoga Springs, because like Cedar Hills, it's pretty far out there on the other side of the valley. But I asked Steve about them and he said, "At this point, I'm willing to consider anything." Surprised, I decided to pray about it before sending the MLS #s to Ben. If God was just going to tell us "No" again, I didn't see the point in making Ben drive to any more houses. When I prayed, I got a very strong reply that if we liked them, He'd say "yes" to offering on them. Excited, I sent the numbers to Ben. He texted back later that day to tell me both of those houses had gone under contract.
That really felt like a blow. Why had I gotten such a distinct "yes" feeling if the houses were just going to be pulled out from under us? I was really mad that day. I generally make it a policy to not get mad at God, but that day I was mad. Furious. I felt like God hated us and was just messing with us. Sending us on a wild goose chase for his own amusement.
Steve came home from looking at the Orem house excited. He wanted to put in an offer. I told him I didn't care one whit what we did. He tried to convince me to be reasonable, but I was too stubborn. He went ahead and put in an offer. Ben contacted us the next day saying they'd gotten another offer that was higher than ours. We increased our bid to 3k over their asking price with no closing costs. And we still didn't get the house.
Two days later, Saturday, I'd cooled off a bit and was feeling more hopeful. I found 4 houses with open houses that I thought would be interesting to look at. So Steve and I found a sitter for the older three, took the baby, and drove to 4 different open houses--Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, and Springville.
And we liked all of them.
All of them! To the point that we didn't know how we'd choose just one to offer on. We knew the kids would like the Lehi one and the Springville one. Lehi because it had a neighborhood pool and fun kids stuff built-in and the Springville one because they could stay at their same school. But we both thought the American Fork one would be the best investment. After praying about it, we actually decided to offer on the Lehi one, even though it was one of the most expensive houses we'd looked it. It would have shortened Steve's commute enough (5 minutes!) that we'd save a lot of money in gas, so it evened out the cost a little. We found out the Lehi one wasn't considering offers until Monday though, so we put in an offer on the American Fork one. We didn't get it. Surprise surprise. The Lehi owners countered our offer. It was a terrible counter. But we really didn't want to look for more houses. So we debated and debated and debated. Finally, Monday at noon, after another prayer, I had the idea to take my parents to look at the Lehi house with me again. It was unfinished in the basement, but it had been plumbed for a kitchen, so it had the potential to be a small airbnb. But with them not wanting to come down on their price, it was going to be hard to finish the basement with our current cash flow. So my parents kindly agreed to see it with me and Ben kindly agreed to take us, and the owners kindly agreed to let us come on short notice. After walking through it again and considering all the factors, it just didn't feel like it was worth what they were asking. So we declined their counter and walked away.
Since Ben was already out, he asked if we wanted to go see any more houses. He's nice like that. So we gave him 3 more. We're nice like that.
2 of the houses were in Saratoga Springs and one was in Orem. One of the houses in Saratoga Springs was very modern and had beautiful finishings upstairs and felt like it had been trashed in the basement. It was in a gorgeous community though. I felt at home there the moment we drove into it. And it had a pool! And it's own boat dock into Utah Lake! The kids would LOVE it. The next house was nice also. Big and nicely finished and it backed onto the community green space, so we'd have no backdoor neighbors. The yard wasn't as big as I would have hoped, but I could live with that. Unfortunately, that place didn't have a neighborhood pool. The Orem place was nothing spectacular. I also had realized that day that a for sale by owner that we'd looked at back in June near our house was still for sale. And they'd dropped the price 20k. It would have put our payments almost as low as what we have now and we'd have 1000 more square feet. We liked the financial flexibility that would give us. And it would let the kids stay at their school. It wasn't a great layout, but at that price, you can live with a lot. So we prayed about buying that one.
As Steve put it, the answer we felt was, "Well, if you really want... But what about that second one in Saratoga Springs?" We both felt that way and we were surprised. It would push our budget. And it was in Saratoga Springs. And it didn't have a pool. Both of us felt that way though, so after a few more prayers, we put in an offer. That was Wednesday. Thursday, they accepted our offer.
WAHOO!!
Finally, we found a house! And we're excited about it. It really is a nice house. We're excited to start a new adventure there. You can see all the pictures at this link if you're interested: coldwellbankerhomes.com/ut/saratoga-springs/1256-s-parkside-dr/pid_31679577/
Sadly, there's no way we're going to get a loan originated and signed in 21 days. So now we have the adventure of trying to find a place to rent in Springville for 1 month that won't cost the life of our next child (we won't be having another one, don't worry, that was a joke), or we get to live with my parents for 2 1/2 weeks. The kids start school on the 19th, so we don't have a lot of flexibility as to where we could rent. I'm looking into some basement apartments in the ward, so hopefully something will work out.
On top of all that, we've been packing up the house, having fiascos with the buyer's due diligence, and trying not to ignore the children 24/7. If you want to read about the latest fiasco, you can read my review here: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/117806712834520671921/place/ChIJt-tCYVj0UocRtY3kNDy5LcY/@40.5136404,-111.7016338,10z/data=!4m6!1m5!8m4!1e1!2s117806712834520671921!3m1!1e1?hl=en-US
I feel so much more at ease now that we have a house under contract. And Heavenly Father is helping me to see that he was guiding us the whole way, I just didn't have the bigger picture to make sense of it all. I still wish he would have been willing to show us the bigger picture, or at least enough to make me not feel like a crazy person. But He works in mysterious ways, right? I guess I need to be more willing to not see the end from the beginning and relax into the wave.
Cecily wanted to make a Baymax (from the movie Big Hero 6) one day. It was really random because we haven't watched the movie in like 2 years. I think it was just an excuse to eat marshmallows and chocolate chips.
Jules is still exceptionally cute. And sleeping like a champ.
I take the kids to get snow cones on a regular basis. I don't usually get one, but black cherry was calling my name that day.
Lizzy often comes with us on these outings. We really like her. She's one of Emilia's two best friends.
Cecily inside the bell.
Cecily under the bell. If you open the picture and look at it closely, you can see all her natural beauty shining through in this picture. *heart eyes*
I didn't even know Cecily had found another praying mantis until I took the pictures off my phone and saw these. She's brave.
After a long day last week, we took the girls out for ice cream at our favorite place, Farr's Fresh.
Cecily made a crown for Jules one day.
That same day, Mira accidentally dropped a weight on Cecily's foot. To make up for it, she treated the patient to all the best care.
Another friend of Cecily's.
Update: Our mortgage banker, the ever wonderful Ryan Harding, has agreed to try to get our loan done as soon as possible, since the sellers of our new house want to move as soon as they can. So we decided to stay with my parents, since it looks like we won't have to impose on them for 2 1/2 weeks and moving beds and other furniture to another apartment would be a lot more work.
