February 2015

February 1st: This was SuperBowl Sunday so we went over to our Cousin Tim's house where they had some other family and friends coming over to watch the SuperBowl. It's nice getting out of church by 11:30 so we have the rest of the day left to be together and hang out. The Patriots and Seahawks were playing. I was going for the Patriots and they won. It was an exciting game to watch and the food was good. It feels a little hectic for me when there are that many people in one place and people are eating and the boys are being crazy. The boys enjoyed playing with the gift we got Everett
which was one of those marble run you put together and roll the marbles down.

February 2nd: I decided to sign up to be a Jamberry Nail Consultant. The Jamberry nail wraps are my favorite. I love all of the fun designs.

February 3rd: I did a ton of babysitting. I babysat 3 different kids from 3 different times but it was a good fun day. I watched Kelsey, Quinn and Marshal that day.

February 4th: I babysat Kelsey again this day and I took my boys and my friend Crystal with her two boys to the Museum of Natural Curiosity for a couple hours. We came home by a certain time since Crystal had an appt. for someone to come look at her preschool and so I could get Kelsey home at a decent hour. Well the people cancelled their appt to look at Crystal's school but both of our husband's were working late so we got together to nagout for a while again and made dinner together and let the boys play and watch a movie. We got invited to play volleyball at 9 so we went and did that and that was a lot of fun too.

February 5th: I went to workout like I always do but this time when I stepped out of the car I noticed I forgot to put my tennis shoes on but instead was wearing my slippers. I did most of my workout in just socks and was able to wear my slippers for some of it. My coach Shyanne is
Amazing! The boys were cute that day and laid on the couch together and said they were sleeping. It was adorable. Since
it was Thursday we went over to our friend's house to play. The boys play downstairs with the other kids and I play Settlers of Catan with the other moms that come. It Awesome and I love it! This was the day that my friend Sarah from Oklahoma told me that they are planning a visit to come see us after the baby gets here in July and we are more settled.

February 6th: I went to my internship which is still going great. I have been writing the workouts for the Dive team lately. The other intern and I got to do Lactate Threshold testing on each other and that is super interesting to me. It wasn't a test that I ever learned how to do in school. It requires taking

blood samples at intervals while exercising on the treadmill to check the lactate levels in the blood. The longer it takes you to reach 4.0 in your lactate levels, the better shape you are in.
Everett helped me make pizza for dinner while Vin was taking a nap. I also made a cauliflower crust pizza but the smell got to me and I couldn't even touch it after I made it but the other pizza I made was the best job I have ever done.
We went to the Stake Valentine's Dance for church which was fun. There was only a few people we knew there and we only danced a little but it's always fun to have some time out together without the kids.

February 7th: I put on my Valentine's Day Jamberry wraps called Love Spell and I love them I also worked on getting some parties set up and the Hostess packets ready.

February 8th: I went to church by myself since Anthon wasn't feeling Awesome and the boys were around some others that were sick and we wanted to make sure that they wouldn't give anything to anyone. It was weird being at church without the rest of my family.

February 9th: This was like Christmas! Everett got his card from Grandma & Grandpa Riding which he got a blow up sword that he loved in their card. We ordered a Dr.Pepper clock from China for the kitchen and that came in as well.

February 10th: The boys woke up a little before 4:30 and that was totally unenjoyable for all parties involved. I don't think they ever went back to sleep. Anthon and I shared one car while the cars got looked at in the shop so we had to take Anthon to work most of the week. Luckily the day they got up super early I was getting up to workout at 5 anyways.

February 11th: Vin got up super early again but at least went back to sleep for a little while. He was super tired though because he fell asleep on his cars couch fairly early. He looked super cute! I went a played volleyball again and that was fun as usual.

February 12th: This was a big day for us! We went to the doctor and found out if we were having a boy or girl. Anthon was able to take off work for the rest of the day and go to the appointment and we
took the boys too. The day before I reached my halfway point in the pregnancy. Everything for the baby looks great and we had the ultrasound technician put what the gender of the baby was in an envelope and then she texted Crystal and our friend Emily in AZ what it was because they both were making a gender reveal cake. We were really torn about whether it was a boy or girl. We had people guess and if they guessed wrong then they had to do a certain amount of burpees. Crystal made us a cake to take to dinner with us at Olive Garden with my parents and Emily made a cake to take to Anthon's parents to surprise them. Both cakes were Awesome and it was a lot of fun. Also we are having another BOY! We are really excited!

My newest Niece was also born this night so it was a really exciting night for our family.


February 13th: Anthon took a cake to work to tell his coworkers we were having a boy and I took a small cake to tell my coworkers too. The boys and I were going to go to Colorado to see Mike for the long weekend but he told us that a snow storm was going to blow in on Sunday so we thought it was best for none of us to travel because it can be dangerous. I was really disapppointed since we were really looking forward to seeing him. It wokredout for the best I guess though since the boys haven't been feeling 100%.
Everett had his Valentine's Party at school and I could tell when I
picked him up that he really enjoyed that. We had lunch with a bunch of friends and then had a good nap. The boys went to sleep early and Anthon wasn't feeling well when he came home from work.
I went to my friend Ashton's wedding reception. She also happens to be my neighbor and she was my visiting teaching companion too. She looked stunning in her dress and I was s happy for her and Zack.

February 14th: Everyone in the house wasn't feeling particulary well except me so I kind of felt like I had Cabin Fever. I wanted to remain feeling well so I got out of the house a couple times during the day. First we had a Stake Basketball game for church so I went and played in that. It was fun. I'm pretty good at everything except actually making baskets. After that Melissa and I went to Walmart and picked up some simple gifts for Anthon and the boys for Valentine's Day. I went home and took the boys upstairs to watch Land Before Time so Anthon could rest a little more. The boys both took a nap
in the playroom on the Futon together. I got a cute video of Everett being upset about having a baby brother instead of a baby sister. It didn't help that he was still tired from napping and not feeling Awesome but he is a cute boy.
Melissa's husband Jason came over to help give each boy a blessing and he helped us hang our height measuring stick that we got for Christmas. I'm glad to finally have it hung up.

February 15th: I went to church by myself for the second week but it was nice to be there. I really enjoy our ward.

February 16th: The boys and I went to look at some bedroom sets. We really want to get a new bed and something that looks nice but it is all so expensive it seems.

Februaury 19th: I took Anthon to his first college basketball game at BYU. Thanks to my friend Alex for the tickets. It ended up being a really good game so that was exciting. It was Awesome that BYU won though too. It was senior night.

Februaury 20th: Everett had a field trip to the dentist for school. Based off the pictures it looks like he did fairly well so we are going to try and get him in for an appointment soon to get his teeth checked out. The last time we took him in to try it didn't workout so well.
Cristofer turned 7 this day. I can't believe how time has flied over the years.

February 21st: We went to Classic Skating in Orem to celebrate Cristofer's birthday with him. They have bounce houses, a jungle playing area and skating. It was nice that Dad, Seth, Nikki and Natalie were able to come too. The boys had a lot of fun. Anthon had a scouting event to go to but he left early so he could come hang out too. I brought Kailee with me to help with the boys and it seemed like she had fun too. Lots of Cristofer's extended family were there too and it was nice to see several of them again. We had a Costco cake which was delicious and we got him an outfit and a BYU autographed soccer ball from the Men's soccer team. It was a great day!
It snowed a good amount that day which was unusual since we have hardly gotten any snow all winter. I went to my friend Jenni's baby shower for a few mins and then we went up to my parent's house to have dinner. We weren't sure how the roads would be going home but we were able to make it just fine. It's always nice sleeping in your own bed.

Februaury 23rd: I watched Quinn who seemed to be having a rough day but she was super sweet and sat next to me while we watched Mickey Mouse. I also got to work on my wreath for St. Patrick's Day and I ran my first FB Jamberry party.
Februaury 24th: I ran my second FB Jamberrry party and got my wreath completely finished. It was the most time consuming project I have done but I love it.
February 25th: I ran my Launch party at the house for Jamberry and it was a ton of fun! I had a ton of friends come and we had a great time. I'm glad they are enjoying the wraps as much as I am and I'm grateful for their support in my new business.
Februaury 27th: We babysat Kelsey and had several other visitors come. Seth, Nikki and Natalie came over for a few hours to visit and had lunch with us. Kendra came over a little later too and hung out so it was nice to catch up with her. Kelsey and the boys did some finger painting and it was cute to watch them.
Februaury 28th: Today I completed my first workout for the Crossfit Open. I felt like I did fairly well and I PR'd on Clean & Jerk. I got 115#. After that I came home and Vin and I took at nap on the couch together and Everett decided to join in. After that we went to get Anthon and the boys haircuts which Great Clips happened to be having a special of $3 cheaper on their normal price of haircuts. We went to Costco after that to renew our membership get a few snacks for Anthon to take to work. Everett threw up while we were there so that was a surprise. He showed no signs of not feeling well during the day. We decided we better get home. We came home gave them a bath, ate some dinner and just finished watch Big Hero 6. It was a good month.

January 2015

The 2015 year started out fun for us as a family but we were sad/happy to have our rooommate Kendra move out too.

January 1st: My dad brought some sleds down from his house and we have an Awesome hill at the opening of our neighborhood where we took the boys to do some real sledding. It was a blast! Everyone had so much fun. It was all of us and my dad. After that we went and got lunch at Subway and took Kendra with us. After we came home I started helping her get her car loaded with her stuff and we also loaded mine up to get her moved to Orem. Her friends came over with a truck so we could get her bed moved. She moved into a cute house with a few other girls and we were excited for her new adventure but we have missed having her at the house too.

January 2nd: This was another fun day for us. I took the boys to the Aquarium in Draper that we have been wanting to see since we moved here basically. We met Kendra and her friend Trevor there since it was kind of a pre-celebration for Kendra's birthday. We really enjoyed seeing all of the fish, reptiles and of course the penguins. Everett was a little intimidated with the sharks but he got a little more comfortable after a few mins. The boys really liked the Octopus too. The sea otters were very playful.

 Oklahoma State had their bowl game this night so we decided to get a babysitter and spend the evening watching the game at Applebee's. My friend's Jessica and Nick met us there to hang out too. We enjoyed some delicious food and I loved my 3 mucho virgin daiquiris. They are my favorite.

January 3rd: We decided to take the boys to the Lehi Fun Center for a night of fun and then to see a movie at the Towne Cinemas. We played a few games with them, at some pizza then took them to see Penguins of Madagascar. We had to bribe them with some candy a little here and there to get them refocused on the movie but it was a fun night. We look forward to doing more things like that. We bought a pass of all passes this year. This was also the first time I felt the baby move.

January 6th: I went shopping to get an outfit to wear to my internship for BYU starting on the 12th. I was able to find a blue pair of Nike sweatpants for $9.99 and then $11.99 on a blue nike shirt.

January 7th: I babysat Quinn who is 18 months old. Her and the boys enjoyed playing with all kind of things but especially the tents.

January 9th: I babysat Kelsey who I've been babysitting fairly frequently for a while now. She is just a few months younger than Everett and they get along super well. She is fun to babysit.

                                          January 10th: I competed in my second Crossfit competition. I strained my ab/groin a few days previously so I had to use a band for my pull-ups to keep from being in pain. The competition workout was: 40 DU, 30 Pull-ups, 20 box jumps, 10 GTO (85#), 20 box jumps, 30 pull-ups and 40 DU. Everything went well except the jump ropes. I just couldn't find my rhythm to do more than 2 at a time. My friends Maren and Melissa came to watch and made me a sweet poster. It was Awesome to have them there. I didn't finish last. Not too bad for being pregnant. After the competition I went home and got ready to go to Anthon's Uncle Richard's wedding which was in Springville. It was a nice small ceremony and it was nice to see family from AZ that came up to come and also meet some of Uncle Richard's kids that I hadn't met yet too. I can't remember if we did anything else that evening.

January 11th: This was Everett's first week in Nursery in our ward. The week before our Stake only had sacrament due to all of the illness going around. Church starts at 8:30am now so that has been an adjustment since it was at 1pm before but we are enjoying have more of our day left on Sundays to hang out now.

January 12th: I started my internship at BYU in the Strength & Conditioning department. I go in twice a week from about 6:15am-10:30am. The teams I'm helping with are Swim, Dive, Women's Volleyball and some Track & Field. The friendliest group from the beginning was Dive. I'm impressed with most of the athlete's and how hard they work. Some of them have impecable form on the Olympic lifts and that is Awesome to see. My supervisor is Alex and I love her. She is fun to work with and I look forward to the things that she will teach me.
I started meal planning this month and made some foods I had never made before like Broccoli Cheese Soup. It was delicious.

January 15th: I got the boys a ramp thing to race their toy cars down for $5 off of Facebook. They really enjoyed it for a couple days but haven't played with it much since then since they took it apart and I haven't put it back together yet.
I also played in my last futsal game for the season. I had actually gone originally just to watch but they talked me into playing since I had brought my stuff just in case anyways. I ended up scoring the best goal I had scored all season and it was a pretty good game for me. We played a second game for fun against the same team.


January 16th: Everett had pajama day at school this day so all the kids looked pretty cute.

January 17th: I went and worked out with my best friend Jessica at the Crossfit gym and hit a new PR on my back squat at 165#. We pretty much had a lazy day after that.

January 19th: This was a holiday so Everett didn't have school so I didn't go to my internship either. I went and worked out and then worked on potty training with Vin a little. I also gave Everett treats when he remembered to both flush the toliet and wash his hands. We were 50/50 for Vin. He had one accident and one success in the toilet. He seemed super tired at around 4:30 and actually ended up coming down with a fever but was doing tons better by bedtime. Often when the boys are sick we have them sleep on the couch so we can moniter them better and hear right away if they wake. If they are throwing up then they sleep in our room on the floor so they are close to the bathroom and we can help them.

January 20th: This was the day when the boys spilled almost an entire big bag of M&M's on the floor in the kitchen and I found it amusing instead of getting mad and I let them eat most of them off of the floor because it seemed easier than sweeping them up right away. That was when I started feeling like maybe I was getting a cold too. I remember asking Everett to get me a tissue and he literally brought me one square of toilet paper. Silly boy!

January 22nd: I hosted my first online/in home Jamberry party. It was a blast and I had 9 Awesome ladies come over. Everyone got to put a sample on to try and I had several people  order wraps. We had snacks and got to know each other better and the last person left at almost 11pm. I ended up meeting the $251 sales mark with my party when I got a few extra days to make some sales. The order came in super fast
and I'm excited to put my Valentine's Day wraps on. I made peanut butter protein balls and my favorite punch for the party. The punch wasn't quite as slushy as I wanted it to be but it was still delicious!

January 23rd: I had my internship and was functioning pretty well for only getting about 5 hours of sleep. I hit a new PR on my power clean at 121#. It took me 3 tries but the last rep wasn't too ugly.

January 24th: This day was pretty busy for me. I felt like I wasn't home all day. It started out by going to lift for a little while with Jessica at the gym. She was a beast and got a new PR on her power clean.
After that I came home and got ready to go watch the BYU Swim/Dive meet. I met Alex at her house and then she drove us to the meet. It was espcially fun to watch the diving. I had never been to any kind of swim meet before.
On my way home from the swim meet I stopped at a store I had never been to called The Wood Connection so I could pick up a gift for my friend Ashton who had a bridal shower in the afternoon. I picked out some cute letters for her to decorate and hang in her house. I was suppose to bring a gift for the first craft night. The bridal shower was really cute and I was happy that Ashton liked what I picked out.
We ended the evening by going to a concert while my dad, brother and the boys went to the Utah Jazz game. Anthon and I went to see just the opening bands but still had to leave a little early to catch the very end of the Jazz game. The boys were really good though just like I expected them to be and the loved watching the game. The Jazz won the game which made it even better.

January 27th: Everett played hard this day. After I got done babysitting one of the little girls I sometimes babysit he laid on the floor to watch the rest of a movie and used the teddy bear as his pillow. Next thing I knew he was passed out and had a nice nap. It was super cute! That was the same day that Vin must have napped at the same time because I was able to get the border of my Dr.Pepper mirror painted black and I was also able to get my Valentine's Day wreath almost finished. We had a

delicious homemade meal that evening of green chile burritos with refried beans and spanish rice.

January 28th: This was a hard day for me. I went and got Everett tested to see if he was where he should be for his age and what he was learning. It turns out that he is well below average in Cognitive, Language Assessment and Social/Emotional. Thankfully one of the reasons you can get your children tested is so that we can start getting the help Everett needs through the school district to get him caught up to where he should be. We are excited to figure out what ways he best learns and how we can effectively communicate with him. I have struggled often with the fact that he doesn't listen or follow directions sometimes no matter how hard I try but I felt comfort in the fact that sometimes he really isn't understanding me. I know I need to be more patient and do all that I can to help him.

January 30th: Everett got to bring in treats for his birthday at school. We ordered a dozen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cupcakes and he was more than thrilled about it. It's pretty much all he talked about that day and one of the kids from class told their mom that they had the "best snack ever" that day. It was a winning moment for me as a mom!

January 31st: Everett turned 4! What an exciting and Awesome day we had. We planned a birthday party for him and Jack & Jill's bowling lane. Almost everyone we invited was able to make it and we had a blast. The birthday party package included pizza, drinks and one game of bowling. All of Everett's friends that we invited we paid for their bowling and what was Awesome was having my adult friends there too. Also my parents came too so it was nice to have them there. Needless to say it was a perfect birthday party. Everett's friends there were: Connor, Caden, Hailey, Marshal, Orion, Cyrus, Kelsey, and Ava

Vacation June 2014

So about a week ago I decided that I wanted to take the boys and go on a little vacation. I decided we would go see Ana and Cristian in vernal and then from there go to Wyoming. we just left Tuesday night after two busy days and stayed at my parents in Heber. My parents just moved into a new house so the boys and I stayed downstairs in one of their rooms. The boys watched Frozen in one of the other rooms and enjoyed doing that while eating popcorn together. My parents and I and John watched 24 then chatted for a while. The boys didn't finish their movie but Vin came and crawled in my lap to fall asleep. The room had a queen bed but I laid some big pillows on the floor for Vin to sleep on. Everett went to bed when I did we got up Wednesday morning and drove 2 hours to Vernal. It was a short and painless trip.

We stayed two nights in Vernal and really enjoyed that. The first day we went to the splash pad and the boys loved that. We picked up some dollar water gun squirters and Cristofer brought a bucket too. It was great watching them play together while Ana, Cristian and I chatted. Ana and I got to discuss some love and logic parenting skills that work for her and that I have been trying to do with the boys. I realized that I was missing some of the pieces and I feel like I have been able to make some progress. Everett can throw quite the tantrum now. Our second day we took the kids to the park but it was pretty warm so we didn't stay too long. We played outside some here and there and the boys loved the playroom.

They had just recently bought their house and I loved it. They were renting a house before and didn't have any extra rooms in their last place. I forgot to ask about bed situations so we didn't bring an air mattress and ended up sleeping on the floor. The first night Everett slept in Cristofer's room on his cars couch/bed thing. At first he was a little scared because
it was different but then he fell right to sleep with me laying next to him. Cristofer wasn't used to it and ended up sleeping in his parents room. The second night he slept on the Cars things but slept in my room and Vin and I slept on the floor again over some blankets. We slept pretty good and the dogs slept with us for part of the night.

After two nights there we headed up to Casper, WY where all of my mom's side of the family lives and Mike was meeting us up there too. This was on a friday. Mike was Awesome and got us a room at the hotel he was staying at so that was nice. I noticed that Everett was coughing a little the day that we left Vernal. I think we went over to Grandma's first to pick her up but I can't quite remember now. I know we all went over to Uncle Chris' and met everyone there. We went and checked in at our hotel once we got together with Mike. The boy's were pretty happy to see him. It took several trips up to the room to get all of our stuff from the car.

Vin enjoyed riding on top of Mike's suitcase into the elevator. After we got settled then we all rode back over to Uncle Chris' and decided to go eat at a little Mexican restaraunt. The kids got some chicken strips I think (no surprise there!) and I got a quesadilla. I remember that for some reason my mouth had broken out with about 20 cankor sores during my vacation. I think it was the almonds. I thought a quesadilla was easier to eat then most things and I got a virgin Strawberry daiquri too because my Uncle Chris wanted to treat me to one. The boys were pretty good but got a little tired of being there because hey they are young crazy boys.

I believe we went back to Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicki's house for a while longer just to hang out and both boys fell asleep on the couch. Everett was coughing a little but nothing too serious. We eventually made it back to the hotel and I got the boys in bed. Everett wasn't sounding great and I already had a feeling it was going to be a long night. A couple hours later Everett woke up in a full blown croup coughing attack. I could get it to slow or get him to calm down so I hurried with him into the bathroom and closed the door. We got the shower going and spent about 10 mins. in there until his coughing slowed down and he was able to calm down a little. As if things weren't stressful enough, the fire alarm went off instantly when we came out of the bathroom because of the steam. I didn't know what to do so I ended up just waiting for it to stop. I also didn't know if it was just my room or the whole hotel so I was worried. We did end up waking up everyone around us.

I called Anthon in tears to let him know what was going on and to see what he thought I should do. We decided that if he woke up again from coughing then I would have to take him to the hospital. I had called down to the front desk to let them no the situation so they could apologize to the other guests if there was complaints. Well I predicted that Everett would wake up again and he did. The attack wasn't as bad as the first one but I didn't want to take any risks so I was able to call and wake Mike up and let him know what was going on. He came over to sleep with Vin and I took Everett to the hospital. We got in super quickly and they were able to get things calmed down. They gave him some medications and we got chest x-rays taken just to make sure nothing had entered his chest. We were monitered for over an hour and he was finally able to get some rest. I think we got back to the hotel room around 4 and we were able to get some sleep.

Obviously this post is a little outdated now since we took this vacation in June 2014. It was a really nice vacation and it was a little weird being back in Wyoming with all of my family but without my mom. I was able to go visit her grave and see her headstone for the first time in person. It turned out just how I hoped it would.

Papa Mike bought the boys some new shoes which they loved and we also went to get ice cream. We took a different route home which was faster and I hauled a small trailer behind me with some of my mom's things in it. I got a trunk, dresser and vanity from her and inside of some of those things were pictures and trinkets and memorable items that were hers.

It was a good trip but we were happy to get home too after not getting as much rest as we needed with Everett being sick. Will post pictures later.

The newest member of our family...

Here is my beloved SUV which I'm super excited about. We have had it sine May but I'm still playing catch up on my posts.

The boys and I spent a good amount of time before my wrist surgery looking for a second vehicle. They actually really enjoyed it and would get excited when I told them we were going to look at cars. The first lot we went to was kind of too snobby I guess you could say. I told the guy what my spending limit was and he only showed me cars that were no less than double what I said I could spend. Crazy huh? I also didn't feel comfortable letting the boys get in to look. Needless to say I didn't buy from there and we never returned.

I also did a great deal of looking on KSL and googled some other car lots to look at. I knew I wanted at SUV and not a mini van. Believe it or not the first car I normally drove after getting my license was a green mini van and that's okay but I have always wanted an SUV. I was most interested in a Tahoe, Yukon or Suburban. Those are what I first started looking at but then later started looking at Escalades and Expeditions as well.

After narrowing down what I wanted and felt that I needed, this is what I was looking for:
-3rd row seating (An absolute must)
-DVD player
-under 100,000 miles
-clean title
-good condition inside and out
-Automatic
-No smoker for previous owner
-Listed for under $15,000
-Year 2000 or newer

I test drove an Escalade but the price was a little higher than I wanted for as old as it was and I also test drove a couple suburban's but realized that for the most part they weren't in my price range unless they had too many miles.

I found a Ford Expedition on KSL that I was ready to look at and most likely purchase so I called about looking at it and had an appointment set up but the person called the other people that had just looked at it to let them know someone else was coming and they decided to buy it. I was pretty bummed.

I was running out of time before surgery and I'm not sure what I was out doing but I saw a dealership located off the highway and decided to go by it. That was the best decision I could have made. I loved the guy I was working with and I felt like he really wanted to sell me a vehicle in my price range for a great deal. I found a few things that would work for me but really liked a 2004 Ford Expedition. They also had a Suburban but I knew the price really wasn't going to be what I wanted to pay. I was also a little concerned about how long the vehicle would be.

I basically love everything about the expedition. The seats are leather. There is a DVD player, built in GPS system and heated seats. One thing I love about the 3rd row of seats is that they split so you can have just one seat up or two seats up at a time. It was only $100 more than my price range I had and it was under $100k miles

I will add pictures later

Buying a House

I thought it would be fun to share our experience as we found a house to buy and maybe give some tips for those looking to buy a house or sell their own.

So first off we know we wanted to live close to Anthon's work so his commute wouldn't be very far so we decided we didn't want to live in Orem or Provo because that was too far. We also knew that we didn't want to live any farther north than Lehi.

Anthon and I drove up to Utah the last weekend in January and we must have looked at a dozen houses while I was there for the weekend. We liked a few things but one specific. The only problem is that we needed to sell our house in AZ before we could buy a house in Utah. Our house wasn't quite ready to be listed yet so we wanted to lease until we could buy. The people we talked to about that had some pretty intense requests to make that possible on the house we wanted to buy so we turned their offer down. The house was in Lehi at about 500 W and Pioneer Crossing. We ended up finding a house for rent in the same neighborhood and were able to convince the landlord to rent to us if we paid a little extra rent and a pet deposit.

We loved the house we rented and it helped us decide what we really wanted in a house. We moved in over Valentine's Day weekend. As we looked at most houses we realized that most people were not interested in leasing before people buy.

We had the most amazing realtor named Jason Wolf. Our experience with buying a house couldn't have been made any easier for us. He helped us understand everything and fought for what we wanted. I truly felt like he knew us and what we wanted in a house.

We eventually found a house we liked in Lehi. We got under contract and I had my dad come look at it because I had some concern about the crawl space. We ended up finding too much moisture for my comfort in the crawl space and a little bit of standing water. The most awkward part about when I took my dad to look at the crawl space is that the home owner was there looking over our shoulder the whole time. We ended up breaking our contract and we continued looking. This is when we decided that Lehi was maybe not the place for us to live.

Then we started focusing more on Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. We originally thought this would be too far from Anthon's work but once we got to know the area it ended up being about the same distance as our rental house. We looked at a few house out in Eagle Mountain City Center but we realized there was really no stores or anything out there so we thought it was too far for us.

We decided that we were interested in having a basement (finished or unfinished) and that the house needed to be at least 2400 sq ft. Whatever house we built we wanted to make sure we could be in it long term. We wanted at least 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. We prefered to have a decent sized fenced yard but not having it fenced wasn't a deal breaker. We also wanted to have a living room and family room and one thing kind of important to me as silly as it seems is I didn't want a white kitchen sink. I feel like white kitchen sinks never look clean no matter what I do.

We looked at so many houses over the time we were looking that its unbelievable. We learned that once we felt uncomfortable about something in a house then we might as well just move on. We also learned to rate our houses in an order so often our realtor would ask us, do you like this house better than your number one or something similar to us. The realtor would also print out the house sheet for us and after we looked or during we would take notes of the things we really liked and the things we didn't like. Then we put it in order of what we like most to what we liked least.

Let me share a few experiences of some houses we looked at. One house we looked at was a rental house. After knocking on the door it was answered and we were immediately greeted by the smell of weed. Apparently the landlord or tenant didn't remember we were coming and were a little busy. The house was pretty darkly painted with not too many lights on. I swear the smell was strong enough to get a contact high.

We also looked at a couple house that were incredible messy. Once again these were houses that were being rented. One couple was in the process of packing and moving so that's more understandable. We didn't really like the floor plan. The other really messy one was just terrible. I guess they didn't know we were coming but the house was in poor condition. It was pretty crazy.

I remember looking at a house owned by an oriental couple and it was really interesting to look at the décor that was in the house compared to what we are used to seeing.

We looked at a really creepy house once. They were smokers which of course I didn't like and then I don't think they spent much time cleaning up for us. The creepy thing was when we entered the basement though. There was a random bed in an area and it looked like some not great things were going on. It made me really uncomfortable and we pretty much left immediately after that. We stopped looking in that area after that.

We looked at several house located in the same neighborhood as our rental house that we really liked but none of them were quite big enough for us. Some of them had some great features though.

We also looked at a few properties/houses that were fixer uppers located on an acre of land. The first one we looked at needed about $40k of work and was in terrible shape as in not livable but the land was awesome and had animal rights. It was close to the highway though. The other one we looked at was close to that one but much bigger and it was amazing. We liked it a lot but we weren't sure it would pass the inspection and the owners didn't seem interested in fixing those things that were problems. We also learned that several of the neighbors were polygamists which wasn't the best for the kids to grow up around.

We worked with a great company to get a mortgage. The are called Guaranteed Rate. I can't even explain how easy they made the process and how well they communicated with us. Compared to the first time we bought a house, it was all a piece of cake.

I can't really think about what else to write and this is already a long post. I just know working with the right people makes things so much easier and less stressful. I've heard stories from several people about working with a bad realtor and etc. so we were really happy to find such great people to help us.

Back to Life...

So as most people know I'm really into Fitness, Health and Sports. So of course breaking my wrist about 9 months ago was a big deal to me. I had surgery to repair my TFCC disc in my wrist around Mother's Day and was cleared a few weeks ago to start doing things as pain allowed. Before that I had a limitation of no more than 5lbs for 6 weeks. It was terrible.

So yesterday my friend Kendra and I started our first day of getting back to a Healthier lifestyle. I had no Dr. Pepper yesterday and stayed within my calorie limit. I completed my first workout since I think April. Our workout was 1 bicep curl, 1 tricep extension and 1 burpee but then climbing in number for each set  (2,3,4,5 and etc. or each). It was a 25 min workout and I got to round 14. I only finished 11 burpees of my 14th round. I started with burpees instead of bicep curls since Kendra and I were doing it at the same time and sharing some weights. The hardest part of the exercise for me was the tricep extensions. I still can't put full weight on my wrist so the burpees were difficult and my hand is sore from going down on it funny.

Later last night I went for a 45 min walk which felt great and I went 2.75 miles. The plan is to workout with weights on MWF and do cardio everyday except Sunday. I plan to walk on MWF and run on TTRS.

I have been playing soccer twice a week for the last few weeks so that is good but not enough for me. I love to workout. I'm having a hard time getting a clean slate of health so I'm hoping to be feeling 100% soon. I had a bladder/kidney infection in June and went to the doctor yesterday and I have another bladder infection. It's super frustrating.

I'm hoping by practicing a healthier lifestyle then I will feel better overall too. Here is my before picture yesterday.