No.

Sometimes the answer is no even though you want so badly for it to be yes.

Remember that adorable, brand new house in the cute town called Forest Grove? The one that sits on a hill and has a cute community park? The one that would fit a ginormous shop to build our next boat? The one that we spent hours researching, emailing questions, and had multiple meetings about? 

Well, we have decided not to get it. 

When I first told my mom that we weren't feeling right about it, she was pretty shocked. Not many people go through the process and huge ordeal we went through just to walk away. But, after praying about it, we knew what we needed to do. 

Well, here's the full story. About a month ago we met with the city of Forest Grove to make sure we could build our shop on the property. They said we were good to go and I couldn't believe it! Everything was coming together perfectly and we were planning to put an offer in about a month (today actually). As we were walking out to our car, feeling so happy, I checked my phone and saw I had an email from my realtor. The realtor at Hayden Homes (the builder of our cute house) told us that there was someone VERY interested in our lot and he was probably going to be putting an offer in soon. What?!?! "Our" lot wasn't even released yet, so we felt pretty safe in knowing it wasn't going to be snatched from us. I called my realtor who called Hayden Homes and we decided that we had to put in an offer ASAP so we wouldn't lose the only lot in the community that would fit our shop. We both felt SO stressed and overwhelmed. I was sick to my stomach all weekend. 

A few days later, we received the contract from Hayden Homes. We had been praying to know what to do and we were constantly going back and forth. Something just didn't feel right. We decided that we weren't ready to sign the contract, even if that meant losing the lot. Once we made that decision, we immediately felt such relief. My three-day-long tummy ache was gone, just like that. 

So we knew we weren't ready to sign the contract right then, but we weren't ready to completely walk away either. So we did more praying, more thinking, and more planning. 

First up, we measured our current backyard and figured out that we can fit our new boat back there. It won't be in a nice shop, but Landon will be able to build the boat in a covered, temporary shelter. 

I also went through two years worth of our budget to figure out our "average" monthly expenses. With the new house, our mortgage payment would only be a tiny bit more than our current mortgage so we didn't think it would be a big deal. Also, our current house has gone up in value so much, we were going to be able to put 25% down on the new house, which seems unbelievable. We could definitely "afford" the new house and new payment. But, our current mortgage is going to be $200 cheaper in 3 years when we can get rid of our mortgage insurance. With that in mind, our new mortgage payment (without MI) is going to be cheaper than some people pay for a 2 bedroom apartment in our area. It is ridiculously cheap. It will feel like we are living in our house for free. We got such a good deal on our house because we bought it when the market was at it's lowest low and interest rates were still in the 3% range. How were we supposed to walk away from that?! Just because we could "afford" to buy the new house, doesn't mean we should. 

Remember our priority? It is to have a family. That means I will be staying home to take care of our kids someday and we will be down to one income. Money will be tighter, not only because we won't have my income, but I've heard that kids are expensive ;) So with our current house, we will be able to live comfortably without stressing about money. That is worth WAY more to me than having a nice house with a nice shop. Stressing about money is NOT fun. It is comforting to know that even if Landon lost his job and he had to get a job at McDonalds, we could afford our mortgage. Hopefully we won't ever be in that situation, but you NEVER know. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.

Another thing, we love our current house. It is plenty big (2200 square feet, 4 bedrooms), in a culdesac, great neighbors and friends, and close to everything. Yes, it is "older" and I have lovely brass doorknobs and oak cabinets, but it's still very cute and was very well taken care of. Plus, there's a little thing called remodeling :)

After doing more thinking and constantly discussing the pros and cons, it was clear that we needed to stay in our house. We feel SO happy about our decision and even though we didn't know why we felt unsure about it a month ago, we know now. Heavenly Father has a different plan for us and I have a feeling that one day I will look back on this post and just laugh because it will all make sense. 

There was no major red flag, we can afford the new house, and we loved everything about it, but after thinking about it we decided it wasn't the best decision. Even though we wanted it SO bad, it is actually pretty easy to just walk away. 

I am so grateful for prayer and for a loving Heavenly Father who guides me along. In my patriarchal blessing, there's a part that talks about how much Heavenly Father is watching over, protecting, and guiding me and that most of the time I don't even realize how much He is helping me. But I have been trying more and more to recognize His hand in my life. There are so many little decisions that I have made that lead to such great things, so I'm going to continue to trust in Him and His plan for me. I know it will all work out and one day we will understand completely why we aren't supposed to move right now. 

House Hunt.

Well, we are on the hunt again. It seems like we just barely moved into our house but we have actually been here for over two years now. We weren't planning on leaving it so soon because we really love it and love our neighbors, so this is bittersweet...

We have actually been looking since August but it is taking us for-ev-er to find something that will work for us. We aren't just moving to move... we are moving because we need a bigger yard to build a shop so Landon can build our next boat. And let me tell you, what we are looking for is pretty much impossible to find.

Oregon has an "urban growth boundary." This basically means that the government is restricting where house developments can be built because they want to preserve the countryside. The rolling hills and trees and farmland really are beautiful... but the problem is there are thousands of people moving into the area because of Intel's growth, but there's no room to put them! So what happens is neighborhoods are being built with houses that are almost stacked on top of each other... which means, no yard. No yard means no room for an 18 x 45 shop.

Image via http://freeassociationdesign.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/postcards-from-the-edge/

The houses that do have room for a shop are the houses that were built before I was born. We don't want to live in a gross, old house and have to deal with remodeling. Plus, in an older neighborhood there won't be as many "young" families. And we want to live in a cute neighborhood filled with kids for our future kids. So you can see why we've struggled finding something...

darling houses, but you could reach out your window and touch your neighbor's hand. Image via

For awhile we were looking to buy our own plot of land and build a custom home. The more we looked into it, the more we realized it wouldn't work. In order to build a custom home on your own land, you need to get a "construction loan" and these have really high interest rates. We want to stay away from those. Although we really did fall in love with this property...

Then we started looking at houses in the boonies, outlying cities that have a little more space. There were a few potentials, but nothing that was really going to work...

Our current plan is to buy a new home, but as part of a neighborhood development so we can avoid a construction loan. We have our eye on this cutie that is in a small town called Forest Grove, 15 minutes west of where we live now. (The picture isn't the actual house, but same floor plan). 

It is a little bit of a drive and kind of "out there" but it is in a really cute neighborhood and it would be pretty nice to have a brand new home with some property! Plus, it is a smaller town with really good schools so the community is GREAT.

They aren't even going to start building this house for 3-6 months and then it will take about 4 months to build... so who knows what will happen. SO many things need to fall into place but I am hoping we find something that will work for us sooner rather than later. 

Luckily we have an AMAZING realtor who is always there for us and answers my never-ending emails, even at midnight! :) She helped us find our apartment when we first moved here, and that's when I knew she was different. She wasn't making a "sale" from us, she was just willing to help and tell me about the good areas of Beaverton because I had no clue. She then helped us find our first house and now is helping us through this seemingly impossible house hunt. She is always upfront and honest...we value and trust her opinion SO much. I am soooo grateful we found her almost three years ago. (If you live in the Portland area, check her out! Jennifer Venable with John L Scott). 

These next couple of months are going to be interesting I'm sure :) Wish us luck!!!

The Tale of a 55" Flat Screen

Let me just say... Landon and I sure have our priorities straight. We don't have any furniture for our front room, we don't have a dining room table, but last weekend we got a huge flat screen, surround sound, and a blu ray player. Just a little backwards, but it's okay. We love it!

But that's not what this post is about. The funny part of this story is how Landon drives a tiny 2 door car and we managed to fit the gargantuan t.v. inside of it.

When you're looking at all the tv's in the store, they really don't seem that big compared to the 70" monsters sitting right next to them, but as we wheeled ours out of the store and into the parking lot, I told Landon there is NO WAY we are getting that thing to fit in our car!

After about 15 minutes... he proved me wrong. We had to lay both the seats completely back, which left no room for me to have a place to sit...so I had to lay down on my seat with the tv over me. Mom--don't worry, I was still wearing my seat belt!

We were basically laughing all night at the fact that we really got that thing in and out of our car. I love silly memories like this and we are definitely enjoying our "home theater"! So much fun.

Life Lately

So nothing exciting going on here, but I thought I'd give a quick update:

-Landon's Christmas present from his dad and me was a helicopter. He actually used last year's Christmas money AND this year's. This isn't one of those helicopters you can buy in one of those booths at the mall. He actually had to put this one together. It's pretty cool and he is totally in HEAVEN.

He's so cute flying it around in our big empty front room... It's too rainy to take it outside :) I love that he's such a little boy. Oh, I can't get enough of him!

-I have made three new recipes (thank you pinterest!) and thought I'd share. They were all quick & easy, but delicious.

Crunchy Cheesy Chicken (using Ritz crackers & cheddar cheese)

This was good, but the chicken itself was pretty blah. Next time, I think I'll marinate it a little more. Recipe found here.

Honey Crock Pot Chicken

This was good too--especially over some rice! I doubled the sauce recipe and I didn't use onion or red pepper flakes. We're kind of picky over here. I also added a little bit of brown sugar to sweeten it up some more. Recipe found here.

White Chicken Enchiladas

We had this for dinner tonight and it was very cheesy...and I love cheese. Definitely making this again.. We didn't add green chillies... again, we're pretty picky :) Recipe found here.

I love trying new recipes and making food for my husband. I guess you could say I'm old fashioned, but I just love taking care of him and making him happy. They say a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right?

-It snowed! Only about 3 inches, but it was magical. I totally thought I would be snowed in and not able to go to work because in Portland 3 inches of snow is a BIG deal. They don't salt the roads or plow them. But just in time for work, the rain came and melted all the snow. I was SO mad. I really didn't want to go into work!

-Remember my big hair debate between blonde/brown & long/short (found here)? Well, I've decided to stick with my natural color, which turns out isn't as bad as I always thought it was. Ever since I was ten I have been highlighting my hair blonde, then a few years ago I started dying it dark brown. Well Landon has been begging me for awhile now to just have my hair natural. He tells me every day how beautiful I am, even though I feel pretty "blah." But I'm really trying to be happy with how I was made instead of trying so hard to hide it :) I've also decided to grow my hair out. Debate is over--long & natural light brown it is.

-We love being home owners! Best feeling ever--just knowing this is OURS and we can do what we want with it. Just the other night we JUMPED up and down on our floors just because we could and I'm always blasting music when I'm cleaning or cooking. We love not having to worry about neighbors downstairs! We have a lot of ideas and projects to make this house our "home" and I'll definitely keep you updated on the progress. We have almost finished unpacking... but still have a few random knick-knacks lying around.

-Over a month ago I saw a commercial for Burger King's french fries and have been craving them ever since. Well last night I got home and was just feeling kind of sad. So Landon whisked me away on a fancy date to BK. And oh man, those fries are definitely as good as the commercial makes them seem! After dinner we went to coldstone and on a walk through the misty rain. I love our nightly walks, even in this Portland weather :)

Anyway, sorry for the long/random post :)

Life is good!

Surprise Landon!

I had to come home early from Texas to go to work and Landon decided to stay longer because plane tickets were SO much cheaper. Plus, at the time we bought our tickets we had NO idea we would be buying a house over Christmas. When the time came to say goodbye both of us regretted that he wasn't coming home with me... we were both a complete mess at the airport. It's not fun being apart. At all.

Anyway, I got the keys to the house while Landon was in Texas. I figured I might as well stay busy so I wouldn't have time to think about how lonely and miserable I was without him.

With A LOT of help from his uncle, aunt, and 3 little cousins I was able to move into our house and set it all up... he had NO idea!

Every day when we would skype I would tell him how "tired" and "lazy" I was feeling that day and how I didn't want to pack at all...

He thought he was coming home to a LOT of work to get us moved out of the apartment...I'm so sneaky!

Tuesday night I picked him up from the airport (at 11:30 PM!) and asked if he wanted to go by the house and look at it.

Little did he know that we would be sleeping there that night :)

Moving is my least favorite thing in the whole world... but it was totally worth all the stress/manual labor/work when Landon walked in and saw this:

So priceless. I wish I could have gotten his reaction on camera :) I sure do love that boy.

We have been living in the house for 4 days now and it still doesn't feel like ours. We feel like we're staying at our parents' house and they're just not here... or we're just "playing house." It's all so unreal.

It's so fun thinking of all the memories that will happen here. I have already picked out the baby's room (no, no.. I am not pregnant!) and want to keep it completely empty... just so it's ready :)

Our list of "to-do's" seems to be growing more and more every day but we are trying to make priorities and get those things done first. Then, we'll take it one thing at a time. It's too easy to get overwhelmed, but I've heard this is how it is when you're a home owner. The list never goes away apparently.

We are just so grateful to be home owners and love it here!

Goodbye 2011...Hello New Home!

I got the keys to our house this morning... and it is even more perfect than I remembered :)

Here's the official tour of our empty home. Maybe I'll do another one after we get settled.

It still doesn't feel real. That house is ours? Really? We're so excited!!!

Nightmares

Before I even say anything, I just have to say that I know what I'm about to say is completely ridiculous (say that ten times fast!)

I have nightmares and have trouble falling asleep at night thinking about how empty our house is going to be. (I told you, ridiculous I know!)

But really, every piece of furniture we have has been given to us. It's all mis-matched, outdated, broken, etc. We don't even have a dining room table, night stands, end tables, etc. We only have one little couch.

Honestly, we'd probably still be sleeping on our air matress right now if a family friend hadn't given us their old one for $20 bucks (true story...we slept on an air mattress the first year of our marriage!!!!)

you can't even tell it's just a blow up with a little foam pad on top, all in a bed frame :)

I just want our house to be cute and feel like home, but honestly it's going to be empty. I have some homey-ish decorations (curtains, frames, signs) but that was only enough to fill our teeny basement apartment, not a huge house.

this is pretty much the extent of the "decorations" in our apartment

I shouldn't even be complaining, because I really am SOOO grateful to have a house, I'm just stressing about what we're actually going to be putting in it. I'm SO jealous of girls that are just naturally crafty and have an eye for decorating... because I really don't have it.

Exhibit A: I don't own an iron or an ironing board.

Exhibit B: I don't own a needle/thread/sewing machine

Exhibit C: My dad had to sew a button that fell off my pea coat for me. This was a few months ago.

Exhibit D: I had a hole in my skirt, so I taped it. True story.

Exhibit E: I just learned what Modge Podge is like a month ago

Oh heavens! I guess the root of my nightmares is mainly the fact that I'm not a homemaker, and I REALLY want to be that girl. So bad.

Anyway, I decided I might do a video tour of our house when it's empty... so that way it will look intentionally empty. Because if I wait until our stuff is in there... it will still look empty, but not on purpose!

And don't even get me started about the 3 empty bedrooms upstairs. I told Landon we're going to feel awfully lonely in that house...but I know a really great way to fill it up ;)

The House Story

Skip this post if you don't want to hear all the boring details about buying our first home... but I just HAVE to blog about this because it's a huge milestone and I just want to remember everything. This blog is for me :)

6 months ago we were in Utah, living with my parents & living off student loans... basically living off NOTHING. I never ever thought we'd be buying a home 6 months later. It's so crazy how quickly life happens and how fast everything changes.

I always thought that you needed 40k to buy a house, no other loans, and a honkin' salary. It seemed SO far away and out of our reach but Landon and I started looking at houses for the fun of it this summer just so we could get familiar with what was out there. It was fun looking through the pictures and communicating with our realtor, Jennifer. Jennifer didn't care that we weren't going to be buying anytime soon.

Well 2 months ago, we decided to go out and start looking at the homes. Unfortunately, Jennifer took 2 months off to be with her little boy (which I totally respect, family=first) so her co-worker took over for a bit. I'm not going to say much about him, but let's just say he tried to push us into making offers on multiple homes when we just weren't ready. Then he dropped us and we had to wait almost a month for Jennifer to come back. Ugh.

So we waited and waited and finally Jennifer got back 2 weeks ago. We were SO happy to have a realtor back that actually cared about us and wasn't pressuring us at all. We looked at over 20 homes and liked a few of them. Originally we were thinking we'd buy a home this spring or even next spring, but we decided to take the "time frame" off ourselves and just wait until we found the perfect house.

Well on Friday (in the rain & the dark) we found the one. I had always heard that when you walk into "the one" you'll just know... and it's totally true! We walked into the house and it just felt like home. No other way to describe it.

We looked at more homes the next day, but just kept thinking about our cute little blue house. While we were driving Landon said, "I think if we want that blue house, we're going to have to make an offer this weekend." My heart stopped. I couldn't believe it was really happening, but I knew he was right. I immediately called our mortgage guy & double checked that we were good to go. I couldn't stop squealing.

Saturday night, we prayed about it and we just had an overwhelming sense of peace.

Sunday morning we woke up and saw that our blue house was having an open house... GREAT! I didn't want other people walking through OUR house and falling in love, because I knew they would. Our realtor emailed me and told me that someone was submitting an offer and that if we really wanted it, we'd have to put an offer in today. We rushed to the blue house, walked through it a second time and still loved it. We went and knocked on a few neighbors doors to ask about the neighborhood. We still loved it. At this point, we knew we were going to have to miss church (GASP!) and make a huge purchase on the Sabbath (GASP, GASP!) but... we just knew we had to do something or else our house would be taken.

We drove right to our realtor's office and spent the next 2 hours going through the paperwork and deciding on our offer. Jennifer is so amazing and even thought to call the listing agent and ask what the sellers wanted... Did they want to give up the fridge? When did they want to move out? Were they expecting to pay closing costs? Do they want to keep their washer and dryer? We totally wrote our offer catering to the seller's every need. The other offer they received was turned down, so we knew this was our chance.

Our offer was submitted around 4 pm and we told them it expired at 9 pm. The next five hours were seriously agonizing. I just felt sick and had a million knots in my stomach. Our realtor would email/call letting me know she hadn't heard anything. 7pm rolled around, 8 pm rolled around and my heart just hurt. I knew there was no way they were going to accept it and we weren't going to accept a counter. We were totally bummed.

8:45 pm our realtor calls us to tell us that the seller had THREE offers that night and that the listing agent sent her a vague email saying our offer was the only offer that got a "response" and that he would be emailing it over shortly. We had no idea what on earth that was supposed to mean and assumed they were going to give us a counter. Immediately we were frustrated...what more could they want?! UGH!

8:55 pm our realtor call us to tell us that they ACCEPTED OUR OFFER on one condition... they want the option to try to find a home by November 30th. Our close date will stay the same (January 6th) but if they haven't found a house, they will rent it back and live in the house until January 30th while paying for our mortgage. No big deal. We couldn't believe it! Out of four offers they chose ours and we are going to be home owners! Their realtor told our realtor that our offer wasn't necessarily the highest but it was the cleanest, most fair, and most flexible. BOOYAH! So grateful we have such an amazing realtor that helped us write the perfect offer!!!

That night we watched Aladdin to try and calm me down. I was SO worked up and Aladdin is my go-to movie when I'm either upset/excited/scared and need to fall asleep (I watched it the night before we got married hehe). Anyway, I just couldn't fall asleep. It all feels so unreal and I was just way too excited to calm down. I just kept thinking about how I want to decorate and imagining our lives in that home.

So there are still a few milestones we have to get through until the home is officially ours... home inspection & appraisal... but if everything goes according to plan we will be moving after Christmas.

Okay so here's the part where I'd normally post pictures of the house BUT... the people who live there now are umm, a little old and their decorations aren't the most "modern"... When I saw the pictures of the house I was originally unimpressed :) But it really is a gem. So, you'll just have to wait until January and maybe I'll even do another "video tour" of the place.

However I will tell you some of the key features :)

• 2,140 sq feet. 4 bedrooms (upstairs) 2 full baths upstairs, half bath downstairs
• It's in a culdesac and in a really good neighborhood about 5 min from where we live now
• Entry way has formal living room/dining room
• The kitchen is big with lots of counter space
• The kitchen opens up to another dining area and a living room with a fireplace and vaulted ceilings
• Upstairs has the 4 bedrooms that are all really good sized and the laundry room is upstairs which is PERFECT because I fold laundry in our bedroom.
• The master bedroom has a walk-in closet (HORRAY!) and the bathroom has two sinks (HORRAY!) with a skylight
• Hard wood floors & brand new carpet
• Good sized backyard with the cutest little toolshed that matches the house
• The owners are very particular and the home truly is in PERFECT condition. The only "improvement" we will need to make is to take down some lovely wallpaper in the kitchen & maybe replace some door knobs.

It was by far the best home we looked at and I'm just so glad it's going to be ours. We drove past it tonight and just can't WAIT to make it our home.

Right now, we barely fill up our 1000 sq foot apartment because we just don't own very much stuff, so the house is going to feel very lonely/empty for awhile...

I still can't get over the fact that Landon and I are building a home together. A home is where a family goes. I can't wait to fill up those rooms... and I'm not just talking about with furniture ;)

Okay okay... you deserve a few pictures for sticking around until the end :)

No Big Deal

But we just put an offer on this cutie:

FREAKING OUT! Wish us luck :)

I'm Still Alive, I Promise.

Well it has been almost TWO WEEKS since my last post. I have totally been lacking in the blogging department lately because all of my free time has been devoted to this:

more info here

more info here

more info here

more info here

more info here

No one ever told me how exhausting house hunting is. Don't get me wrong, it really is fun. But it's emotionally and physically draining.

Our favorite house was sold last week. I didn't realize how attached I was to that house until I saw the words "pending" and immediately broke out into tears. Pathetic, I know. Landon felt so bad and tried to cheer me up by promising that our perfect home was still out there and would be even BETTER.

Luckily, we have found some adorable homes that have filled the gaping hole in my heart and I don't even think about that house anymore :)

We found a really cute city called Sherwood that is literally right from a movie. There are just families and kids everywhere (which is actually RARE in Oregon) and we have fallen in love with the idea of living there. It's a perfect place to raise a family.

Anyway, stay tuned for a post about Halloween--I can't believe I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. Yikes!

P.S. One of my besties is PREGNANT! Best.NEWS.EVER!!!! I can't stop smiling! Jenna and Jace really are going to be the best parents--they are both amazing. And don't even get me started on how cute Jenna will be as a pregnant lady! So excited for them!!

Congratulations Jenna & Jace!!!!

Family of Three

Landon and I really really want a puppy... the problem is, at our apartment there are absolutely no dogs allowed. So for now, we just look at pictures of yorkies online and daydream. Hopefully we get into a house sooner rather than later!

Well today at work, my friend Kimberly (who is a genius with computers) gave me a little preview of what our family of three will look like when we can finally get our little boy.

Don't we look adorable as a family of three?

P.S. Tomorrow we are flying to Utah! And no, not on delta or southwest... Landon is actually flying us out there. Yay for my own personal pilot! I can't wait to see my family, especially my new baby niece! So dang excited.