The Hunt is Over!

I am so EXCITED! After a couple months of not having any luck on buying a home as first time home buyers, we found our perfect option - build! We are using a company called, Salisbury Homes and they produce beautiful homes. In our price range it was the same price for us to build as it was to buy so we couldn't turn down the offer. This home will truly be ours and we can't wait for it to be done in Mid-March. We absolutely love the neighborhood, Red Field Estates, and when we were choosing the lot we realized we knew the people in the next door lot, so we already know one of our neighbors!

We were going to wait a couple more weeks, but I realized that the house would be done during finals and that wouldn't be good at all. :) So, we jumped the gun and started this quick process.

Here is a sneak peak of everything:

Some of our inside options.

Stucco, rock, and roof.

One of the reps INSISTED that she take our
picture signing the paperwork.
I'm glad she was so persistent about it
because it will be a fun memory for us.

I've been a stress case this last couple of weeks with house hunting. I usually am such a deep sleeper, but the past nights I have had the hardest time falling asleep and I have woken up around at 4 am not being able to fall back asleep. My teeth have also hurt when I wake up because I grind my teeth when I'm stressed. Anyways, hopefully tonight I can sleep well!

These next couple months should go by fast with 18 credits, practicum assignments, plus work along with Brad's long hours at work and just the usual daily life :). So happy.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. Full of lots of fun with friends and family here in St. George. As soon as I was done with final exams we were able to go the the Forgotten Carols, which was great as always. Mike and Ashley were in town for over a month and it was really fun hanging out with them, playing games and going to Mike's parents cabin at PineValley. The four wheelers were struggling, but we made the most of it and had tons of fun playing games and eating food inside the nice, warm cabin. It was good to hang out with Skylar and Alisa too - we live in the same town and never see each other! 

 

The week before Christmas, we had a Garrett white-elephant party. It was a hoot. Garrett was loving the headband in the gift I had in the pile. Lucas, in the video, was going nuts that he actually got the lightening mcqueen car that he brought. I missed the first part - he was wigging out and shaking so hard, full of excitement.

We made gingerbread houses too.

Brad went Hog Hunting on Christmas eve day while I worked with other family at Frostop. They didn't shoot anything, but they said they saw a lot of tracks. (I'm glad they weren't able to shoot anything (: !)

Brad and I opened our gifts to each other on Christmas eve. We got each other shoes, brad got me a purse, and I gave brad a remote control car. I made brad a pop-up card that opened up into a house. We are getting super excited to be a first time home buyer (soon!). Christmas morning we all went to church with the in-laws and then had Christmas at their home. Both of our families spoiled us and we really appreciate everyone.

Bullet is the biggest cuddle bug and I swear he always has to be under a blanket, well I didn't have a blanket out and so he started pawing at my big sweatshirt that I was wearing. That little guy crawled up my hoodie and was seriously chilling in there and would have for a long time if I would have let him - so funny.

Christmas was great this year, I really enjoyed the LDS new bible videos of Christ's birth. What a great representation. The story is amazing and I'm so grateful for His gift to the world. I also gained a new appreciation for the many people who took part in Christ's birth and life that had enough faith to do what they did. 

Well, Brad's job as the general manager at Hillsports is going great. We had a fun Christmas party with the company, ate yummy food and went to Sherlock Homes. He is doing very well and starting to feel comfortable with his position.

School starts tomorrow for me.... darn. The break has been super nice. It was weird to not have homework or some project in the back of my head over the past 3 weeks. Let the maddness begin tomorrow :).

Thanksgiving

Well I failed at taking pictures... I had such a good time just chillin and relaxin with family that I wasnt focused on taking pictures. I did snap that video above of trinity telling me crazy princess stories. The second video is the girls Human Bowling. Izzy wasn't eating her dinner, so Nick wouldn't throw her... she decided to break dance instead :).  Nick and Tristan's kids are growing up so fast. Thanksgiving was great... It was just my family and grandpa and grandma Thornton. It was a great dinner.... Mashed potatoes were almost forgotten but we made them in a hurry. Both brad and I have decided that when we do our own thanksgiving dinner we are having a fancy buffet of tacos.... Who likes turkey that much anyways!? We helped my parents move a lot of boxes out of storage into their new house. My mom did a great job designing basically everything including the cabinents to drawing up their floor plan and my dad did great work buiding the house (they say it's their last - we'll see if they stick to their word!) We had a great visit!

GBTV awesome interview

I'm on a blogging kick lately I guess :D

If you aren't familiar with Stephanie Nielson, I recommend you read her story: http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/.

Anways, she just posted a link to a video where Glenn Beck interviewed her. Beware... it's a tear jerker.

OSU

Living in Stillwater will always be a time in our lives that we will cherish and remember forever. We would still be living there if it weren't for family. This year was the 10 year anniversary for the 10 who died in a plane crash when the men's basketball team was flying home from Colorado. Unfortunately, Thursday night another plane crash occurred and killed the women's basketball head coach, Kurt Budke and assistant coach, Miranda Serna.

The OSU community has a sense of pride that is amazing. When our family would come to visit, one of the first things they would say was that everyone wears orange and the city is orange. I'm sure the streets are full of even more orange in respect to the tragic deaths that took place on Thursday. I never personally met Coach Budke, but whenever I did pass him in Gallagher-Iba Arena he would say hello even though he didn't know who I was. Brad has great memories of him and his assistant. Brad said that Coach Budke would always call him by name and check up on him and see how everything was going. Brad was able to help Coach Serna with possible recruits from CSI. He talks very highly of them and they will truly be missed. As mentioned in the video, they were more than basketball coaches, they were mentors and great people. I just pray that the great people of OSU can make it through this hard time once again, especially the family members of the coaches. I'm also thinking of the psychiatrist, Dr. Gentry, that I worked for at OSU's Wellness Center. I'm sure he is going to be even more booked than usual and I would not want to be in his shoes. As a member of the LDS church, I have my personal beliefs on death and so I am very grateful to have a sense of calmness and surety that we all have the opportunity to be with our families forever.

$60 = Something Greater

I just had an amazing experience tonight. Andra, my mother in-law, had given me $60 at work for managing over the weekend while they were out of town.... Super nice of her and going to my cash stash. Anyways.... I put it in my back pocket and when I got home late tonight I went to take it out to put in my stash and it wasn't there. You know that gut-deep feeling you get when you loose something.... That's what I instantly felt. I was so excited to add more money to my future house decor and/or Christmas stash. We have been super frugal lately trying to save any penny for a house so I just wanted to break down and cry. I texted my sister in-law to check around for me in the morning. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it and retracked my steps in the house twice. As I went upstairs knowing that I wouldn't sleep I had a heart wrentching feeling to go back to Frostop. I thouht it was just me being impatient and wanting to find it now... But then I said a prayer and the feeling was still there, strong as ever. I woke up sleeping Brad and asked him what I should do and he was tired so didn't say much but he gave me the security code if I was going back. I decided to go back just in case the money was in the parking lot and because I wanted to test this feeling that I had and this $60 was well worth it to me. I got in the car and forgot my wallet so I prayed that the cops wouldn't drive by as I was there since frostop would be closed and I was in my p.j.'s with no I.d. so it would totally look suspicious . I get there and look around on the blacktop and nothing.... I go inside hoping I get the security system right so I don't set it off. I look around and nothing.... Then as I'm super sad, and go back to the car and the money was right in front of me on the blacktop plain in sight. I broke down and cried in the car ride home. I thanked Heavenly Father the whole way home. Lately, because of President Monson's examples of following the Holy Spirit, I have been challenging myself to follow the Spirit no matter what. Well tonight I was given an awesome opourtuniy and I was so grateful to have enough courage and faith to follow the prompting. I'm sure that $60 would have been long gone in the morning by the wind or picked up by some drunk from the one and only bar next door. The monetary value of this $60 will be very temporary, but the lesson learned from these Andrew Jacksons will be forever lasting. It was an amazing experience and I promised myself I would write it down. So here I am writing this in bed. Bullet has his paws pressing against my back and brad is sleep talking :D. Life doesn't get much better than this. Never thought I would be grateful for losing $60....

Pumpkins

Pumpkins created by me, Kody, G-man, and Brad.

We had a great time carving pumpkins yesterday with the family. I found an awesome pattern on bhg.com for a Jack Russel. I think it turned out good! Brad's was awesome too. Kody and Garrett had fun playing with knives.

School is going great. CRAZY BUSY (I should be reading my text books right now). It's not that the program is academically killing, it's not med school, but it is a lot of new concepts and tons and tons of assignments... introduction into being a teacher I guess. We write a lot of lesson plans. I haven't met a teacher yet that actually uses lessons plans, but hey, I'm sure it's great practice on organizing a lesson. I do like the one professor that requires us to write down our "teacher talk", I think that is really effective. Anyways, I am enjoying all that I am learning and the way they are instructing us to teach is super effective. I do, we do, you do together, and you do it alone - gradual release of instruction, just like riding a bike. There are way too many classrooms full of  "teacher teaches and then student do it alone" going on out there! Oh yeah, I'm in a first grade class all day on Wednesday and there have been sooo many times when I literally have to turn around so the students don't see me laughing hysterically. It is quite the funny class.

Brad is really enjoying his new job as general manager of Hillsports. He is the go-to guy and he comes home exhausted. The business has been built really well, now he is just keeping up with the work load and bringing in his contacts for business as well. He comes home with funny stories and he is happy, it couldn't be better. It has been really nice to actually have most weekends off from both of us working, we are actually home more often. It usually consists of me doing homework and brad watching tv though :).

We are officially first time house hunters. Hopefully in the next couple of months we will find an awesome house. Luckily my Dad's best friends wife (and his cousin), Linda Hansen, is a real estate agent and so we are in good hands. With interest rates at 3.75% we don't want to miss out. We love where we are at now, but neighbors and no yard gets old. 

Can't wait for Thanksgiving in my parents new house!