Ahhhh...

I had the perfect day last weekend.  This was my view -

 The plus side of living in timeshares for the next month is access to some fun pools.  We spent an entire day at the pool last weekend and it was fabulous.  The boys had SO much fun swimming with Daddy while Mommy had fun taking pictures -

Vance is saying "Mom why aren't you swimming with us?!"  I decided it to take a break from the picture-taking and take part in the fun.  The pool was at the perfect temperature.  I had fun swimming with the boys even if there aren't any pictures to prove it (Chad is slacking on picture duty).

 I wasn't sure if Keller would like swimming, but I apparently didn't need to worry.  He loved it.  He would run in, jump off the side, and thought splashing was hilarious.  When I got out to read for a little bit, Keller was more than happy to come relax in the chair next to me.  He sat there for over an hour!!!

The beach ball we brought was a huge hit!

 Vance never tires of swimming.  When everyone else is ready to go he is still going strong.  Lucky for us there were a few other kids to keep him entertained. 

 Later that day my parent's came down to go swimming with us too.  We grilled some hamburgers, pineapple, and onions.  We topped off the burgers with a little mango salso and BBQ sauce and it was summer perfection!!!  We will definitely be making these delicious burgers again :)

I think our season passes to Wet-N-Wild will get lots of use this summer!

Timeshares

I thought I should do one more little update about our journey to becoming homeowners again.  We are living in timeshares (yes, timeshares) for the next month while we wait for the loan to close.

Back in the beginning of the year my parents said it was okay if we stayed with them until after April 15th (tax day for Chad), but after that if there was still no time frame on the house we needed to move out.  I don't blame them.  Obviously we couldn't go on living with them indefinitely.  Unfortunately for us the house took forever and by the time we got our approval letter we were already 90% moved out.

The Waldrons have a timeshare and about 50,000 points were going to expire.  They said we could use the points if we wanted.  After browsing the timeshare website for HOURS to figure out how to make the points last the longest time possible we finally got everything booked.  We were able to make the 50,000 points last 4 weeks.  We still had to pay the reservation fees but it only added up to about $900 for the month so I don't think that's too shabby!  Unfortunately we couldn't stay at the same place the entire time, so every 5-7 days we have to move.

 The plus side is all of the resorts have awesome pools, fitness centers, and some have tennis courts.  They all have at least partial kitchens so we can still cook.  We did our best to really pair down what we need so we don't have to lug around a ton of stuff from place to place.  So far it hasn't been too bad.

Here's to our month long...umm...staycation???  I'm sure we will be even MORE grateful for our house by the time we finally get to move in after all the timeshares.

Home Update!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Short version - Our short sale got approved at the price we offered.  We have until May 20th to close.  Everything looks great with our loan and we should be homeowners again next month!!!

Now for the long version.  I haven't ever really blogged about our journey to become homeowners again so let me start from the beginning.

We short sold our first house way back in November 2009.  In order to get a FHA loan you have to wait 3 years so we weren't eligible to buy again until November 2012.  We started looking at homes and got pre-qualified in October. 

There is a severe shortage of supply of homes in Las Vegas right now.  Almost everything on the market gets immediately bought up by investors who are willing to pay cash and often times are willing to pay above list price.  Both are things I am not able/willing to do.  Just about every newly listed home starts a bidding war between a minimum of 3-5 offers.  We started the process with a bleak outlook.

With my job (an appraiser), I have access to the local MLS so I started looking for homes.  By the time I put in all of my criteria there were only about 8 options.  I wasn't even being overly picky and I searched a huge area and still only 8 options.  After looking at pictures I narrowed it down to only 2 possibilities - both were short sales.  One I really liked and one I was medium on but decided it might be worth taking a look at.

We decided to go look at the house I really liked and I fell in love.  It is the one and only house we looked at!  It is in Southern Highlands in a small gated development.  It has a really open floorplan that I absolutely love.  I will give more details at the end of the post.

We put in an offer at list price on October 31, 2012.  With so many eager buyers, even getting your offer accepted by the sellers on a short sale can be difficult.  Our offer was accepted on November 7, 2012 and the short sale process began.  We made a conscious effort to not get our hopes up, but there were a few things working in our favor.  The property had been on the market for over a month, it was listed at a price an appraisal would support, and there was only 1 loan (2nds usually kill short sales).  Now we just had to wait.

In December we got approval, but then the stupid bank sold our loan.  Now we had to start the short sale approval process all over with the new bank in the end of December.

On February 7, 2013 the new bank had all of the paperwork, BPOs, appraisals, addendums, etc. they needed and said they would approve/reject the short sale within 30 days.  March 7th came and went with no update.  Then they said the file had to go under an additional review because the bank was losing such a large amount on the home.  Those two weeks came and went.  Nothing.  The next update said 7-10 days for a response.  After 12 business days they said we had underwriter approval and investor approval and we were just waiting on director approval (a thing I had never heard of before).  That was supposed to take one week.  Of course it took longer.  Finally we got word we had director approval.  The letter of approval had been generated but had to go through quality control which could take 24-48 hours.  It took longer.

On April 19, 2013 we finally received the letter!!!  Our short sale was approved at the price we offered.  We have until May 20th to close our loan.  If we don't close by the 20th then we have to start the whole process over again (which will NOT happen).  I have already met with the loan officer and our file being processed with an estimated close date of May 17th.

The home:
-2,398 square feet
-3 bedrooms + huge loft
-small formal living room with vaulted ceilings
-huge kitchen island
-enormous great room downstairs
-2 car garage
-medium sized backyard. It has an open patio and room for a trampoline but not as big as I was hoping for
$179,900

I think it is big enough for us to be comfortable for a long time (who knows maybe even forever) but not so big that it's a burden.  It is dirty and desparately needs new flooring and paint.  Hopefully we will be able to do at least some of it before we move in and the rest we will just have to live with temporarily.  This is a long term house so we will just have to plug away at projects/decorating/furnishing slowly but surely.

I am also really excited about our loan.  We have an FHA loan locked at 3.375% interest.  The lender has an incentive program that should cover almost all of our closing costs.  Our mortgage will only be about $1,200 which makes me SO happy!  Our first house which was only 1,298 square feet we had over 7% interest and our interest only payment was almost $1,600! 

We feel so blessed that everything has worked out (albeit it took a little longer than we were hoping).  I have never been one to believe a house was meant to be, but I sincerely believe that we were meant to buy this house.  It seems like an impossibly perfect storm had to happen in order for us to get the house and it did!  We are so looking forward to being homeowners again!!!

Keller video

Love this boy showing off how he can say "eyes" and "nose."  He can also show off his teeth with a big cheesy grin.  Too dang cute!

Banana Bread

Vance recently watched a show where they made banana bread.  Ever since he has been asking me to make some banana bread with him.  I decided the family baking expert, Leslie, to assist us.  She is always looking for someone to bake with her so it worked out perfect.

First she had the boys read the recipe and gather all of the ingredients.  Good thing she helped them read a little because we could have had some VERY interesting tasting bread :)

 Aunt Leslie was so patient with Colton and Vance.  She even let them break the eggs (and later pick out the shells).  

 Keller decided baking wasn't for him and did the dishes (aka played in the sink with cups) while we finished making the bread.

 Colton and Vance snuck a few chocolate chips in their mouth during the process.  Little stinkers!

Here they are ready to put their masterpieces in the oven.  So dang cute!

 Since all of the baking stuff was out I decided to be a good wife and make some cookies to take into Chad's office.  Everyone has been working so many hours I decided a cookie might help relieve the stress for at least a few minutes :)

 Chad said my cookies were a huge hit and they were gone in like an hour.  He also said I earned him a few bonus points. Way to go me!

Thanks Aunt Leslie! You really do rock!

Now I need Vance to want to go do a craft or an organizing project so we can capitalize on Aunt Amy's skills :)

April Fool's Day

I normally don't really do anything funny for April Fool's Day but I have been feeling guilty about being stressed with the kiddos.  This year I decided we needed something light-hearted and silly so I threw together a Fool's Dinner.

 

I wanted Vance to be a part of the planning so after I got off work I explained April Fool's Day to him.  I told him my idea of having a funny dinner and asked him what his ideas were.  He was SO excited.  We came home after soccer practice and started setting everything up.

 

We used paper for the placemats and gave everyone a crayon to draw with.  Instead of napkins, everyone had a few pieces of toilet paper.

 

I told Vance we needed something funny to put in the middle of the table and he came up with Keller's toilet and some fake flowers.  I actually thought it was hysterical and perfect for our dinner!

 

Then came the wardrobe.  We decided everyone should wear something crazy.  We kept it simple with Keller - underwear over his shorts. 

The highlight of Vance was his silly hair - half spiky and half smooth.  He also wore mismatch socks and clothes.

I did my mess to mismatch and think I looked pretty good too.



It was easy to get Grandma to join in the fun -

Grandpa took a little more convincing.  He kept asking, "Now what exactly are we doing?"  However once he got on board I think he took the prize for the best silly outfit.  Church clothes, mismatch boots, and a swimsuit. - CLASSY!

 

 We started with our lemonade which was actually jello that you couldn't drink.  Vance was in on this trick with me and giggled so hard when Grandma and Grandpa tried to drink their jello.

 Next up on the agenda was dessert before dinner.  We started with a scoop of ice cream. I think this is something I could get used to. :)

 Then I had one last trick up my sleeve that I didn't tell Vance about.  I told him I made a special cake for dinner.  He was excited...

 Then we cut into it and he realized it was meatloaf and mashed potatoes! I have seen this idea a few times so we gave it a try.  It was cute and yummy!  I think all but one small piece got eaten.

I think we may have created a new tradition.  Maybe next year Chad will be able to slip away from work for a little bit to be silly with us.

 

I did get Chad with the "I'm pregnant" joke though.  I found a google image of a positive pregnancy test where the background looked like the inside of our house.  I sent him a picture message that said "Surprise??!!"  He knows how baby hungry I am so it actually worked.  He immediately called me and tentatively said, "Hello?"  I shouted "Happy April Fool's Day!"

Easter Shoes

I have been on the hunt for a new pair of workout shoes.  The ones I currently have are getting pretty worn out and they aren't wearing evenly.  I feel like they are forcing my foot towards the inside off the sole.  It is fine when you are just walking but miserably uncomfortable when you are doing a high impact workout.  I decided a pair of Easter shoes was in order.

 

I knew I wanted something bright.  Neon is the rage in workout stuff right now.  After trying on at least 15 different pairs of shoes I finally found a pair that fit just right.  I am in love!!!  They are ridiculously bright and so over the top - just how I wanted them :)

 

 

Hopefully they make me run faster and workout harder :)

Thank you Easter bunny!  You found exactly what I wanted.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!!!

 

The kids woke up and found their Easter presents from Mom and Dad (the bunny wasn't coming until later.  They each got some new church clothes, a pinwheel, and one toy.

Vance -

 Keller -

We hung out that morning and then got ready for church in our new clothes.  Chad and I decided our new clothes from the wedding would be perfect for Easter.  Then I made everyone get together for a few pictures before church.  The family picture above was an Easter miracle - it was the first take and we used the timer to take it ourselves!

 I think my boys look so dang handsome in their new church clothes.  Studs.  Absolute studs!

 After church the family came over for a delicious dinner.  My mom made cafe rio pork and cilantro dressing.  It was a lot of work for her, but the results were mouth-watering!  After dinner the kids went and played outside while the Easter bunny got everything ready.

The big present from the Easter bunny were Wet-n-Wild season tickets so everything in the basket was water themed: beach towel, flip flips, matching swimsuits, pool towels, sunscreen, etc.  They also got a chocolate bunny and some peeps because it is Easter after all.

 This year we did our Easter egg hunt a little different.  Each kid had 24 eggs with candy and 1 one with money.  BUT you could only pick up the eggs that had your name on it.  It made the hunt last longer because the kids really had to search for their eggs instead of just making a mad dash.  It was also nice for my little ones that they had time to actually get a few eggs.  The system has a few kinks but we will fix those next year :)

 The kids lined up youngest to oldest and headed out for the hunt!

 Keller was hysterical to watch.  All of his eggs were on the grass in plain sight.  He would pick up one egg at a time, open it up, eat the candy, and chuck the egg back on the grass.  I think it took him like 20 minutes to get all of his eggs but he sure enjoyed the hunting (aka eating).

 Grandpa, Grandma & Grandma Great had a great time just watching all of the kids search for their eggs.

 Vance was just so excited he was basically running in circles.  The longer the hunt went on, the more methodical he got in his searching.  He had so much fun and was very excited when he opened up his money egg.

We counted up the egss to make sure everyone had their 25 and then opened them all up.  Way to much chocolate at my house now!

 We gave each of the boys a chocolate bunny.  Vance was too into everything else to care about his, but Keller is another story.  I love the picture of him opening up the bunny on the top right.  It's like he is saying, "Oh my heck! Is this chocolate? How awesome?!"  He walked around chopping on that thing like nobody's business.  Everyone was literally laughing out loud.

 Briton's eggs were hid eggsceptionally (haha) hard.  She could not find her last egg.  This picture captures her eggsasperation (man I can't stop myself now) perfectly.  She did finally find her last egg :)

 We finished the night off with Easter bingo and Grandma reading a great story about Christ and the resurrection.  The little boys seemed to thoroughly enjoy sitting on Grandma Great's lap to listen to the story.

We had a great Easter and we hope you did too!