Still no word....

Wed. morning the underwriter informed our lender that she could not overlook the lack of the 2 year employment. Our lender asked why she couldn't do that when she gave us a list to do to be approved and we did everything she had asked. She said she'd look over it all again and get back to him yesterday afternoon. No surprise here that we still haven't heard from her. Maybe tommorrow??????

We couldn't move in this weekend anyways. We finally got the green tag today meaning we can finally have our electricity turned on. The power company however hasn't received the clearance papers. When they do the power can be turned on the next buisness day. If the company gets the papers tommorrow we could pay an extra $150 to have same day power service. Being we still don't know about our loan I figure it's not worth getting the power turned on. Besides I can think of a lot of other things I could use the $150 for.

No word...

Our lender told us that generally we would hear back from the underwriter in 24 hours. 24hours was up yesterday about noon. (I'm not watching the clock ha ha ha.) I called our lender at 4:30 last night. He still hadn't heard but he did e-mail the underwriter before he left his office. So hopefully TODAY we will hear back.

Could it be faith...

This afternoon I was informed our lender has found a bank in Ohio who may overlook our less then 2 years employment. Yippee. We won't hear back until Tuesday. If all goes well we can still close the first week in April. So everybody say a little prayer that we will only be homeless for a week instead of 2 months.

When you think things can't get much worse.....

We took a little trip to Utah to see family and had a wonderful time. We were suppose to be moving TODAY so Kory and I came home wed. evening and left the kids in Hurricane with their grandparents. After we moved my parents would bring the kiddos to us probably next weekend.

We had stopped for gas in Flagstaff when we got the call. The bank will not allow us to move into the house until we close. (This is normal routine but we were told we could go ahead and move in regardless of the closing date.) Due to our idiotic contractor who has taken 12 months we were scheduled to close the end of March but is now the 1 st week in April (cross our fingers it's that soon). We have to be out of our duplex March 31st leaving us 7 days without a home. We don't know where are litttle family or our things are going to go.

It was at this point Kory and I thought with all the problems during the past 12 months it can't get much worse. But oh how it can.

Yesterday morning as I started to pack I got a phone call from our lender. He informed me that we were no longer approved for our loan (would have been nice if we would have mentioned this 2 weeks ago or maybe a month ago when in his words everything was coming along nicely.) We have been approved for 9 months. With the economy the way it is banks and lenders have changed some rules and regulations. A stated income loan use to require proof of employment for 1 full year with the current employee. Now the majority of loans want proof of 2 full years. Our company was established on June 1st 2005. This makes us 2 months shy of 2 full years.
So far he can't find a lender with a realistic rate.He did find someone but our rate would be over 9% and $2000 a month. I told him NO WAY!!! He would like us to work out something so that we don't close until June 1st. This now makes us homeless for over 2 months. We are not quite sure what we are going to do. Kory keeps saying we just need to have faith that everything will work out. I hope he's right.

Girl's Bedroom In The Making

This is Madelyn and Emily's room before anything was done.


It's not quite done but getting closer. Maddie saw it this morning she said,"my room is soooo buutiful".

Working on the Kitchen

This was the kitchen before.
Taking a lunch break. The kids thought is was the funnest to sit in our new pantry shelf to eat lunch.
This is the almost finished product. The appliances and countertops need to be placed and the 2 spice rack doors where left at the shop. The counter tops come in on tuesday so sometime soon our kitchen will be complete.I love just looking at it. This will be our biggest and most beautiful kitchen we have ever had.
The wood is Walnut. When Kory brought home a sample of what he had already ordered I wasn't too impressed. I didn't tell him but I thought it was too dark and just ugly. The cabinets are still dark but they have so much color. I'm definitely impressed.

Working on the house.

We finally got a call back from our carpet installers. We are on the schedule for Wed. morning at 8:30. This house has been taking so long and now it seems to be going so fast. I love it. We are so close to being done.

This is our den. It's completely done. Yeah !!!! Meaning the touch-up paint, baseboard, flooring and outlet covers are finished. All thats left is a good sweeping. Someone said, "You are 1/9th of the way done." Being we have 9 rooms I guess he was right. I have a friend that is coming over and drawing pictures on the walls. What you see is going to be around the window and closet. On top of the door is a big flower in the middle of a vine. Everything was drawn today and tommorrow we will paint (the vines green, flowers and butterflies pink and red). Hopefully we will get it all painted. It shouldn't take to long but having 4 children to watch (keeping them out of the paint and out of the way of the men) we'll see how long it takes. I hope to be able to post picts of the newly painted murals tommorrow. Wish us luck!!

Packing !

So the packing has begun. Packing with 3 small children at home has been quite the experience. They want to help so much. We are going to make a trip to Utah for a few days to install a job for Kory's parents. Being the trailor will be empty Kory hopes to move when we get back. This will have us moving Thursday March 22. This is in 14 days but we will be gone about 5 of these days. I'm feeling just a little STRESSED!!

I'm hoping to take each day at a time. The touch up painting should be completed today. Kory is going to have our employees come help at the house tommorrow. The goal is to have the rest of the flooring, baseboards and kitchen cabinets installed by moday so that carpet can be layed on Tuesday.(Then I can post our before and after picts.) New Beginnings will be over on Sunday. YIPEE!!! I'll have a few days to pack the house up. We'll head for Utah for a much needed break and then move the day after we get home leaving me a whole week to get our duplex clean.We can then start to enjoy living in our very own house. YEAH!!! I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Something not right.

Sunday morning Kory and I had an appt. with the Stake Presidency. I felt a little rushed as I was trying to get everything together (diaper bag, church bag, my lesson materials and the kids dressed with hair and teeth brushed) not knowing if we'd have time to come home before our church meetings started. I was the first one dressed and ready to go but I felt a little "off" but I couldn't pin point what it was. We went to our appt. had a little time left over so we went home for 20 min. and headed for church. I was still feeling "off". I didn't feel prepared to teach my lesson so I kept thinking my lesson was the cause of me not feeling right.

After church we had been invited to a friends for dinner and a game. We went home changed our clothes, baked the rolls and left once again. I really felt different, I didn't feel sick but just different, something wasn't right. When we got to our friends my right foot was aching so I kicked my shoes off. At 8:30 my friend picked up my shoes and asked "Tina are these your shoes?" Glancing at them I replied "Looks like mine." She started to laugh and said "Seriously these are yours, you were wearing 2 different pairs of shoes." I was mortified. It's hard to believe that almost the entire day I was wearing 2 different shoes and didn't realize it and the fact that NOBODY else noticed or they just didn't say anything.

It's no wonder before church I felt like I was going to loose a shoe while wearing nylons and after church my right foot felt so tight now wearing socks. It's obvious why I felt "off" the entire day.

30 Day Notice

Friday morning I took our rent check along with a 30 day notice letter. We have until March 31 to be in our new house. This project has been going on for so long it's hard to believe in 27 days I will be turning over our keys to our duplex. Kory and I have been married for 5 years and in that time have moved 7 times. This move will be move #8. We have never lived anywhere for more then a year until we got into this duplex. We had sufficient bedrooms, bathrooms, a garage and a fenced back yard. What else besides our own house could we have asked for? We will have been living in our duplex 2 years this April. Our duplex has become our home. I think I'm going to miss it a little. I guess I'll get over it. As much as I hate moving I am excited for this move. We plan to live in this house for many many years to come.

Sleeping Beauty

This is what I stumbled upon yesterday afternoon about 3:30. She must have been quite tired to fall asleep on the hard kitchen floor.

Emily's sitting up.

She turned 5 months last week. Time goes by way too fast. These are pictures of Emily sitting up over the past 2 weeks. In this picture she was still having a hard time sitting up. She learned very quickly to use her little chubby hands as support.
This was her last Sunday. A friend gave her this barrett. She has so much hair it stayed all through church. It's different to see her wearing a barrett other than a headband. I think it makes her look older.
I took this picture last night. She doesn't need her hands to support her anymore. She does very well sitting on her own. It's great having Emily sit on her own. She can entertain herself longer with her toys than when she was just laying on her back or tummy.
It's fun to see her developing, to see her discovering new things. I'm saddened my baby is no longer in the newborn stage. That stage they cuddle and sleep on your chest. All they do is eat and sleep. To me it is so easy to care for them. That newborn smell. Oh well ! I also love the stage she is currently in. So easily entertained. She's always happy. She's very content to sit by herself and watch the commotion going on around her. How she's starting to giggle when we play pat- a- cake.

Valentines Day

Today the kids glued "Sweet Hearts" onto a heart shaped paper plate using frosting. This kept them busy for at least an hour. They had so much fun.








Everyone had their own box of chocolates including Emily. Who's going to eat hers? Thankfully there are only 4 pieces of candy in these boxes. It took Hunter and Maddie all of 30 sec. to inhale them.


Our decorated kitchen table. The kids love to help decorate for the holidays.
They love the streamers and of course the balloons. Lets not forget all the candy sprinkled across the table.



This is our Valentines dinner that we actually had last night. Tonight we had mutual at 6:30 and tommorrow Kory plays ball at 6:30 so we celebrated last night. This was the first time I made this special drink called "Lover's Potion". It consists of pink lemonade, raspberry sherbert and lemon/lime soda. It was pretty good.

What is this?

Hunter found this under the couch. He said "Look Dad it's a coin".
Daddy: Yes, thats a dime.
Hunter: No, it's a coin.
Daddy: It's also called a dime.
Hunter: No, it's a coin.
Maddie: Na uh, it's money
Daddy: It's a dime.
Hunter: NO! It's a COIN!
Mommy: laughing
Maddie: NOOOOO! It's money.
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy: laughing harder
Hunter: IT'S A COIN !!
Maddie: NO! IT'S MONEY!!
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy:still laughting
Daddy: Who's turn is it to say our family prayer? I think it's
mommy's turn.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!!
Maddie: ITS MONEY!
Daddy: It's a dime.
Mommy: Laughing too hard. Must be sleep deprived as tears are rolling down her cheeks.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!
Maddie: IT'S MONEY! Mommy are you sad?
Daddy: It's a dime. Just say the prayer mommy.
Mommy: No mommy's not sad. It is mommy's bedtime. Mommy can't stop laughing. Daddy you better say it tonight.
Hunter: IT'S A COIN!
Maddie: IT'S MONEY
Daddy: IT'S A DIME. BE QUIET I'M GOING TO SAY THE PRAYER.
Mommy: Still laughing un-controllably

King and Queen

While waiting for paint to dry Hunter and Madelyn played King of the hill. Maddie was Queen of the Hill. She was to scared to stand up.







Hunter was King of the mountain. This child of course had no fear to stand up. He was quite proud of himself for climbing all the way up.







Way to go Maddie! She may have been to scared to stand on the hill but the mountain didn't stop her and she did stand up on it. Maybe it was because brother was there to help her along the way.

Our 1st day of painting.

This is Maddie's bedroom before the fun of painting began. A friend gave us a few cans of paint. Maddie wanted her walls pink but with free yellow paint I talked her into it.





The kids had a blast heping with the painting. I think in the end they got more paint on the floor and themselves than the walls.

Madelyn loves her bedroom. Her room will be so cute with her bright pink bedspread against the bright yellow.
Hunter was quite dissapointed we ran out of time to paint his room but hopefully this week I will get his done.


This is Maddie's bedroom after most of the painting. We are going to paint the top of the wall a very light beige color that will match the rest of the house. There are several cracks near the ceiling that need to be fixed before we can paint that part. The cracks are suppose to be fixed throughout the house this week.

This is more of our free paint. There are definitely more important things that need to be done but because the house hasn't been set we decided to go ahead with painting the pop outs.





Around the front door and windows are completely done. We didn't have a tall enough ladder to get the rain gutters near the top of the house. We still have the window pop outs on the side of the house and the back of the house to do.


It's so much fun to know this is our house and we can do what we want with it. The kids had a blast helping out. Our first day of painting went very well. This week however I think I will try to get someone to watch my kids for a couple hours at least one day this week so I can get more done. I know we have several hours, several long evenings and several days worth of work to do being we still have so much to paint, a kitchen to remodel and flooring to lay but it will be worth it.

I don't have to cook.

Today was the second time a group of 6 of us all got together and swapped dinners. Each is to make a dinner that would fit in a 9x13 pan. Instead of making 1 for your own family you make 6. One for your self and 5 for others. We did this 2 weeks ago and we all really liked it so we've done it again.

Last time I made a soup. This time I
made Chicken Enchilada's. Since we were locked out of our house Saturday. Kory helped me make all 6 pans. It's definitely a lot of work but so worth it. I have 5 fresh dinners in my freezer plus 2 dinners from last time that we haven't had yet.

This has been just wonderful. I don't know why it took so long to do this. I would definitely recommend this to everyone.

Emily's new high chair.

One of the items being given away this past Thursday was a high chair. We did not have one and figured it was time that Emily could probably use it. She looks so tiny sitting in this big chair. It was so much easier to feed her this way. I am so thankful to have a high chair again.




At dinner time Emily is usually sitting in her swing in the family room. She's started to cry at dinner time for the rest of us. It's like she smells the food and wants some too . Now she sits in her high chair and watches us all eat. I feel guilty eating in front of her. Looking into her eyes you can see her wanting food too. I need to get her some crackers/cookies for her to nibble on while we all eat. Thanks to the high chair she's much happier at dinner time.


An accomplishment for Emily. She's learning to hold her own bottle of juice.

Locked Out!

Thursday I went to a sister in another wards house to pick up several baby items for different sisters in our ward. It was a very cold and windy day. I was a wimp and decided instead of delivering these items that I would do it first thing Friday morning. After delivering the baby items I wanted to drive by our house to see if it had been set so Kory could start building the wall Sarurday morning.

Friday morning Mandy P. called and asked if I could watch her kids at 3:30. I had a list of stuff that I wanted to get done before I had extra children so at 9:45 am I threw the kids in the car and drove to April's to drop off the baby gear. While unloading my van keys kept getting in the way so I threw them in the baby's car seat and continued to unload. Before completely unloading Emily became quite fussy. I knew that she was hungry so we all went inside so I could feed Emily. When Emily was full and happy again I went outside to load everyone up to discover the van was locked. I called Kory to come to my rescue but he was working out in Chino Valley and didn't have a car at the moment to come help. I borrowed a truck (that wasn't being used becuase it over heats when it is started) and drove to our duplex to find that every door and window was locked. There was no way to get inside. I drove back to April's and called the police dept. they no longer unlock locked vehicles due to liability issues. I called several locksmiths but the entire town must have locked themselves out of something because they were all going to be at least 4-5 hours which would be about 3:30 when I was suppose to be home to babysit. So I ended up hanging our between April's and Melissa's until a little after 3 when Mandy's husband came and picked us up to took us to his house. They left on their errand returning at 6. Kory was installing a job and things just weren't going smoothly so he didn't pick us up until 8:45pm. I have never been so glad to be home. Not that it was bad hanging out with friends all day. It's the little things we missed like diapers in Emily's size, Emily's bottle with her special juice, the comfort of being home.

Since I didn't get the chance to drive by our house Friday we packed the kids up and headed to the new house Saturday morning. Wouldn't ya know we got their to discover the house was locked up. For almost an entire year now we could get in through the back door but someone locked it up good. So now we get to wait until a key is mailed to us which will hopefully be this coming week. So all of you who are waiting to see pictures your going to have to wait another week ( I hope thats all it will be).

30 Day Notice????

Tommorrow is the 1st. Rent is due. This afternoon I should be getting a phone call to say whether or not to give our 30 day notice.

The septic tank will be installed and done this coming Monday. The house should be set and the inside put together this coming week.

I'm still being told we will be closing in 2 weeks.

We are going to bring in several loads of dirt to the front of the house. We'll probably have 1 maybe 2 stairs to the front door but that should be it.

There were too many cars behind me so I didn't take a picture of the back of the house but it will need a lot more dirt than the front. Kory would like to build a deck out the back door.

We walked through the house a few weeks ago and weren't terrible impressed. We've decided to do a little remodeling. We are going to add a wall that will seperate the kitchen, dining room and family room. The kitchen currently has the same amount of cabinets I currently have (3 lower cabinets, 3 uppper cabinets with 2 more uppers that are smaller above the stove and refrigerator.) Adding this wall will allow us to turn the kitchen into a U shape. It's giving us another wall to put cabinets against along with a pantry that we other wise wouldn't have.

This Saturday Kory hopes to start building the wall. March 8, 2006 was when we sent our 10% down. It's hard to believe how fast this year has gone by and how long this process has taken. We have been given so many different dates that we would be able to move that we've lost the excitement over the past several months. However I am starting to get that excitement again. We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So hopefully 4 weeks from this weekend we will be moving.