.a new place to lib.

It has seriously been three of the craziest months of our lives for obvious reasons. 8 months ago when we decided to put our house on the market, we had know expectations.  We didn't absolutely have to move, but we wanted to see what would happen.  The condo sat with no interest or showings for about 6 months, and to tell you the truth I wasn't really in any rush to move the closer I got to Eisley coming.  I had even requested that we take the house off the market the month she was due so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning and the such.  But Roy talked me into keeping it on just in case the right buyers came along.  We had one showing...count 'em...one...when I was about 8 months along and it was a no go.  Then all the happenings of Eisley being born a month early and a 10 day NICU stay took over all our thoughts and energy.  We were so relieved to finally bring her home and return to some normalcy.  Three days after she got home from the hospital we received a text from our realtor about another showing.  I didn't clean much, and felt like if they really liked it, they would see the condo for what it was.  Needless to say the offer came through the next day, and it was an offer we couldn't refuse.  We started the dreaded house hunting, which was extremely frustrating in the booming market.  We would give our realtor a list of houses we wanted to go look at and the next day 3 of the 4 would already be under contract. I started to get down hearted about the whole thing and not feeling like we would find something we really liked from what we could afford.  About a week after we started looking, Roy wanted to drive out and see a short sale.  We loaded up the kids (as we had done almost every night that week) and drove out to Riverton.  We loved the neighborhood as soon as we drove in.  It was an older established one, but well kept, wide streets, big yards, close to the schools and church.  As we drove in I noticed a different house for sale and made a mental note to check on it when I got home.  The short sale house needed a lot of work, but we loved the neighborhood so we thought we would look more into.  The next day I checked out the listing of the house we had seen when we drove into the neighborhood, and it was within our price range.  I quickly contacted our realtor so that we could go look at it.  I don't want to say that I fell in love with the house when we walked through it, but I felt home...if that makes any sense.  I could envision our kids growing up here, and how I wanted the house set up, and the yard...it was awesome...complete with swing set and sandbox.  It was an estate sale with two offers already.  We knew we would have to push our budget limits to make a competitive offer, but we did, and ours won.  Of course I started to stress thinking about tightening our budget to make it all work.  But another miracle happened, the appraisal came in lower then our offer and the sellers excepted the lower price.  So not only did we find a good house in a great neighborhood, but it came within our price range too.  We have felt directed though this whole process and are so grateful for my parents and their wisdom and help in making it all come about, but we know it all came down to the Lord blessing us.  We have been here just over a month and we love it.  There are the endless projects that come with home ownership, but its our own, and that makes all the money and energy worth it.  We have been shown so much love from the ward and the neighbors, and feel even more like we are right were we need to be.

As we were looking for a house we would tell Finn we are looking for a new place to live.  After we were under contract we came to show him the new house, and he said, "this is my new place to lib".

We are still getting things organized and put where we want them so pictures of the inside will have to wait.  And of course we have taken a perfectly good backyard and started demolishing it...mostly because it was loaded with pine trees, but it is starting to take shape the way we want it.  I will post more about that later too.

We love our new place to LIB!