An AMAZING Christmas!!

We've had an amazing week! We bought and moved into our 1st home! We had been looking for a house since May and NOTHING was working out. 95% of the homes were all short sales, which makes the whole process of buying the house very slow and difficult. We found a few homes we were interested in but things kept falling through and we kept running into some pretty shady people. For example, we found a home that was a short sale in Springville that we loved. We put an offer in and the realtor selling the house told us we were in first place and we should hear from the bank this week. He told us that every week for two months. We couldn't understand what was going on until our realtor was talking to his secretary and she let it slip that the house was actually under contract with someone else. We were so frustrated!! We had (stupidly) completely stopped looking at homes, assuming this would go through. So we wasted 2 months on something that was never going to happen. We figured his plan was to string us along just in case the financing didn't go through with the current offer. So, we started the process of looking all over again and I was more aggressive then ever. I was so grateful for my patient, amazing realtor that would put up with me sending her a list of 15 homes every week that I wanted more info on. After another month or so of this we became very discouraged and completely drained emotionally. We had found two homes we were really interested in and put a few offers in, but it didn't look like anything was going to happen. We decided that if something didn't happen with one of these homes then we just weren't meant to be in a home right now and we would try looking again in a year or so. One of the homes was a short sale and the other (the one we got) was not. The short sale process for the first home had just begun and we knew it could be several months before it went anywhere, so we put it out of our minds. The other home was not a short sale and had been just recently flipped, so almost everything inside and out was brand new. We were the second offer on the home and figured nothing would happen. Then one amazing morning, I got a call from my realtor saying the people in first position had backed out and we were now in first position!!! 4 weeks (and a new roof) later we moved into our home!! Everything fell into place so quickly and we absolutely love our home!

Pics of the inside to come, once we get unpacked and things get put together. I also want to say a special Thank you to those that came out and helped us with our roof and moving in. We're so grateful for our amazing friends and family!!

Some other amazing things that happened this weekend: On Friday, Tyler and I got to see our friends and their two girls sealed together as a family for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful experience and we're so grateful they let us share that unforgettable moment with them. Also, that day, my little sister's missionary came home from Boston! She got to meet up with him that evening after he got released. She was so happy!!! 2 years went by quickly for the rest of us, but for her it dragged on and I think she still feels like she walking around in a dream.

On Sunday Tyler and I got to pick out our German Shepherd puppy!! As soon as we found out we were getting our house we started looking for a litter of puppies that would be ready soon after we moved in. We found an amazing litter with amazing owners that have let us come over a few times a week for the past couple weeks to play with the puppies and get to know them. They turned 6 weeks old on Sunday and the owners let us officially pick which one is ours. We picked the smartest and cutest of the bunch and named him Dexter. We get to bring him home on Friday and we couldn't be more excited!!! Isn't he so cute?!

  Needless to say this is the most AMAZING Christmas!! We feel so blessed!