We Closed!!!!!

Well it finally happened after almost 6 years we are homeowners again. It was a long and grueling process but in the end the house we got was worth the wait. :) We found out we had closed at 4 pm today (Friday), when we got the call we were so excited, we thought we were going to have to wait until after the Memorial Day to close. So being true to our promise we all put on our swimming suits and headed over for our first swim. Here are a few pictures of us this evening....


Blake loves his new swing set and jumps on the swings every time we go over to just hang out in our backyard. Hey now we have the key! We can actually get inside.


Elizabeth and Kayla waiting for us to get ready for the big jump...


Fake pose before we have the count down. 3-2-1 JUMP!!!!



I was a little nervous to jump in, it has been raining all week and I thought it would be really cold but it wasn't the water felt great.


Jared trying out the diving board, we had thought at one point we would get rid of the diving board for safety reasons, I doubt that's going to happen though... Diving boards are too much fun. :) Well tomorrow is going to be a fun day, yay we get to pack and haul stuff over to the new house all day long, bleh.... Can't wait for the work to be over with. Goodnight everyone.

Hawaiian Luau

Even though Elizabeth's birthday is not until the end of July we usually have a "fake" birthday party for her at the end of the school year so it is easier to get all of her friends together. This year Elizabeth fell in love with some Hawaiian invitations, so a Hawaiian Luau we had! The night before the party Elizabeth and I went to the 99cent store and found hula hoops, grass skirts, beach balls and other great Luau decorations. When the girls arrived they each received a lei and began making flowers out of tissue paper. While the girls made their flowers I began whipping up Mango/Pineapple/OJ/Strawberry/Guava fruit smoothies. They were a big hit. We had a hula hoop contest (we thought the hula hoops were not going to work because we bought them at the 99cent store and none of us in our family could get them to work but apparently it is just us lame Dutton's that can't hula hoop :)) They had a limbo contest and Kayla won. We had a relay race where the girls had to put on grass skirts, flip flops, sun glasses, straw hats, leis, and carry a beach ball. They dressed and then ran around the "island" and quickly took everything off for the next girl to put on. It was a big hit and really fun. I also made coconut cupcakes that the girls are eating in this picture. Elizabeth sure is pretty silly when you get her around all of her friends. We are pretty sad to be leaving this great group of girls but with Elizabeths fun personality I'm sure she wont have much trouble finding new friends.









Jared took Blake to an urban lake to go fishing while we had our Luau. Not thinking he took the camera with him in case he caught a fish! About thirty minutes into the party I went to get the camera and could not find it! After calling Jared to learn he had taken it (which he felt bad about) I had to call our next door neighbor and borrow their camera. Oh well it worked out. Elizabeth got mostly jewlery from her friends, which she has been wearing all week. Her friend Jenny made her a rag time High School musical quilt, I was very impressed that she took so much time to make Elizabeth such a thoughtful present. Jenny's mom told me that on their way over to the party Jenny had put a kitten into her bag to also give to Elizabeth for her birthday.... Good thing her mom found out before it got here!
Well this saturday we will be again having another Hawaiian Luau. Apparently Kayla is old enough now to realize that she too needs a "fake" birthday party before school is out and we move away from all of her friends.

Angels

Last night (the Saturday before Mother's Day) Kayla gave the prayer and asked that when the primary was singing for the moms during church that the angels would touch my heart. How sweet is that. So this morning when she came to sit back down after the primary had sung I told her how the Angels had touched my heart while she was singing. :) I love my Kayla what a sweety.

Buying a house!

Jenny and I are in escrow on a new 1988 vintage house! As mentioned in my super fun Home AC Service post, we're in the inspection period. Neither of us can wait to close on it and get moved in! Here are some pics:

Here she is. The grass isn't looking quite as nice as it was the day these pictures were taken, but still pretty good. Can't wait to take the sign down.

Yeah, that's a 3 car garage and a RV gate!

Not a huge fan of the flooring, the wood is a little light and the carpet is a little dark, but it'll work. The paint on the other hand, has to go.

Should be fun painting the walls with the vaulted ceilings. We're debating scraping the popcorn from the ceilings while we're at it.

My TV room! Perfect shape and nice size. Can't wait to fill it up.

Appliances still in place, and look, nice ceiling fans! Corian counter tops, nice looking layout, and my favorite, maple cabinets. Hooray, not ugly!

We were hoping the house we bought would have gas, so it'll take some getting used to the electric stove, at least it looks good.

Ahh, the wonderful crap collection counter, where everything without a place goes.

Hidden buttons on the dishwasher. Now Blake won't start it when it's empty, stop it when it's full and change all the settings every day (or at least until he figures out how to open it)

Looking from the master bedroom, across the entryway and into the TV room. That closet on the right is under the stairs and unfinished inside, super cool.

That's the same cool closet with a view into the master bath.

This is where I will be brushing my teeth. Maybe I'll even get my own sink so I can have one free from toothpaste :-D.

Looking down the stairs, not a bad view, hopefully the bars for the banister will keep the kids on the stairs when they tumble down!

Another shot of the kitchen looking into the TV room. Not sure what to do with the niche, the girls think our hamster Spotty should reside there.

Hrm, a little tuscany in my house? I've never been a big fan of those types of sinks, but the faucet got me hooked, watching water fall over the spillway on the faucet and imagining wier calculations in my head.

The upstairs bathroom. Sure to be the subject of time sharing issues when the girls get older.

The back porch and view of grassy area. Wow, the grass is still alive, I'm sure to fix that problem with my greenish thumb!

The piece de resistance, the saltwater diving pool, diving board and all. I've been hoping for *a* pool, and a few houses we bid on actually had diving pools, but saltwater? Am I dreaming?

Funny rocky area. That's the 3rd bay of the garage sticking out (or, in it's present state, studio apartment). Not sure what to do with this area, more grass, garden, ash tree. We're going to have to do something to shade that wall from the afternoon sun.

That's the play area in the back. Nice slide and swing set. I think it is about a year and a half old but looks like the sprinklers are taking their toll.

Overall the house is excellent. The upgrades are very nice (hello ceiling fans) and for the most part in line with what I would have liked to do myself. I think the most disconcerting thing about the house is that the previous homeowners were unable to keep it. They did a lot of very nice things to the house, and must have been good people because unlike many of the foreclosures we have seen they kept the interior of the house in excellent condition. A few homes we have looked at were completely trashed and/or stripped by the previous owners. Hopefully they will be able to find an equally nice house when they are ready to purchase again, I know the pain of moving from a nice house into less than ideal conditions. I'm happy to finally be moving back into a nice house, it's been ages! :-D

House

Well I wanted to wait until after our inspection to announce that we are in escrow on a house. The inspection went really well and there are only a few minor things that came up. It still isn't a done deal, we still have to get the appraisal done and all of the loan worked out but it seems like it will probably work out. So after 7 offers over the last year we are finally almost done! We are getting pretty excited.
We took the kids to see it yesterday during the inspection and they are in love, especially because they are all going to get their own rooms. Kayla called the pink room no surprise there. Blake will get the room next to Kayla and Elizabeth gets the biggest room that is bright orange. They are anxiously planning how they will decorate. :)
The house is only a half a mile from Jared's sister Angie so we will be close to our new cousin Zad. The house is also fairly close to my Aunt Gail, Mimi, and Papa which will be really nice. It has a salt water diving pool and a three car garage that Jared is really excited about and I get a new kitchen equipped with stainless steel appliances. We are set to close at the end of May but have our loan agent trying to get it done sooner. We decided that right after we sign the papers we are going to all jump in the pool, even if it is cold.
So I will keep everyone updated, cross your fingers.

Easter pics

I just thought I would post these pictures of our Easter/Blake's birthday weekend. I have already posted about all the festivities a little earlier this week.

Old cars, what a pain

Earlier this week I took my 95 Avalon to Big O tires to get it aligned, what a big can of worms that brought about. They informed me that they would not be able to do the alignment because my inner tie rod was really loose so that needed to be fixed first, quoting me at 200 bucks for the fix. Well being married to the handiest man alive Jared and I decided that he would do the fix and it would only end up costing us around 40 bucks. Hrm, well once Jared started getting everything off he found more and more things that needed to be replaced , great. Once he had it all taken apart Blake got into the front seat and began playing with the steering wheel, apparently when it is all taken apart if you turn the wheel really hard you can ruin your rack and pinion. So now we get to replace that too, thanks Blake. I think we have already spent over $400 bucks and still have a more to spend for the alignment and new tires. Stupid old cars, what a pain...