*: October 13'

School Pictures

Ethan is obsessed with Minecraft (a computer game, I wonder where he gets that from?!). He's not in love with school but he likes science and reading. Jadyn loves being social at school and is a good role model for the other kids according to her teacher. Everything is "a dream come true." Going to Disneyland, getting new shoes, spaghetti dinner... She says that about everything!

Ethan: 9 years old / 4th Grade / 52" tall and 58 lbs

Jadyn: 5 years old / Kindergarten / 45" tall and 40 lbs

Happy Halloween!
We went to Lombardi Ranch Sunday, October 13th. We did the Corn Maze, the Train Ride, checked out the animals and scarecrows, oh and bought a few pumpkins.

Jadyn's Dance Class Party. Jadyn and Lillian

Erik as Clark Kent :)

Ethan/Nazgul, Jadyn/Minnie Mouse, Lillian/Ariel and Addisyn/Belle

36th Birthday
I'm not sure how I got this old but, 36 feels pretty good. Erik and I got a date night on the 16th. He took me to In n Out (he doesn't care for In n Out but, he knows I do) then we wandered around Lowe's getting stuff for the house. I had the 17th off for our walk-thru so Erik and I took the kids to school, had breakfast at Eggs n' Things (our favorite breakfast spot), did our second to last walk-thru, ran errands, got free lunch's, took a walk and had dinner with the family at Grama Honey and Bubba's house.
At work they decorated my desk and one of the girls made pumpkin cupcakes. Yummy! It was a fantastic and very tasty birthday! And I got the best birthday gift EVER!...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!

Well, it's been a roller coaster but, we made it! I've been hesitant to write anything in the blog since things changed day to day but we finally closed escrow so I wanted to document our ride! We're gonna want to remember this, one day!
Back in February we went through some model homes that we really liked but there was a long waiting list for the plan we loved. We hadn't planned to start looking until the end of the year but we though we should go ahead at see what happens. First we had to get pre-qualified with Lennar's lender (I know I'm a trader for not buying KB!) Pre-qualifying proved to be a challenge since we planned to keep our current home as another rental. We decided to move into an apartment to make the loan process easier whenever we did decide to buy (whether it was this house or another one). We moved 1900 sq. ft into 1100 sq. ft. (on the 3rd floor) and stored everything else with my parents and Kurt. The apartment was kind of fun! We sat on a "waiting list" for 6 months (Erik attending every phase release) before we finally got the chance to buy the lot and elevation we really wanted. Before the house was released the sales agent was calling and emailing to get our selections for cabinets, counters, solar etc... so we had a pretty good idea that we would be first on the list to buy the lot we wanted but never knew if we would even qualify since we didn't know the price. We were excited and nervous to see what the price would be since it had continued to go up in each phase. A few days before the release Erik got the call. He happened to be standing right in front of me at work and the look on his face turned from excited to sad... When he got off the phone and told me the price we were both shocked and disappointed. After waiting all this time it looked like they had priced us out of the home :(
Over the next few days we went back and forth on whether to try and continue with the purchase or not. In the end we realized that even though it was at the top of our budget we were ok with the payment and there was nothing we liked nearly as much so, we decided to go for it! We started checking with different lenders, signed our purchase agreement and gave our deposit on Sunday, July 14th.
I wish I could say we were relieved but, as the loan info came back it wasn't looking good. Even though we had rented out the house they wouldn't count 100% of the rental income so, it made our debt-to-income ratio look too high. We went in circles trying to find a way to make it work. It seemed as though we were going to need Erik's parents to co-sign and have to refinance the loan to take them off at a later date. Luckily with some help from our loan agent we were able to count 75% of the rental income and got the ok!
Even after getting approval we were on pins and needles waiting for the underwritten loan approval. There had been so many changes to what we needed and the amount of money we would have to come up with that nothing was ever for certain. Whenever we were asked about the house we just said "I'll believe it when they hand us the keys!" "and of course after we get the first mortgage statement :)"
While all of this was going on the house was being framed and we were out every weekend hoping we weren't taking pictures of what was going to be someone else's house!
On September 12th with some help from our loan agent we locked the interest rate that had been slowly creeping up and almost put us out of qualification.
The next week we got our approximate close of escrow date (October 24th) so, we put in our 60 day notice at the apartment in hopes that they could fill the remainder of our lease so we wouldn't have to pay the last 2 months. With-in a few days they had a renter who wanted to move in October 5th so that meant moving in with Grama Honey and Bubba for a month! This would make our move to the house number 6 in 10 years of marriage for those who are counting.
While my mom and Bubba pretended (they're pretty good actors) to enjoy us and the kids invading their house, we moved most of our stuff into a POD but everything else got split between Kurt and Grama Jean and Papa. The 4 weeks went by super fast and before we knew it we were signing docs on Sunday, October 20th and closed escrow Thursday, October 24th! We didn't waste any time. We got appliances ordered and epoxy on the garage floor on the first day! We moved a few things in and had our first dinner (Domino's) with the family.
Our official move-in was Saturday the 26th but, we got a lot done on Friday evening too. Everything is out of Kurt's, Jean and Carl's, Mom and Billy's and the POD. It's going to take a while to get settled, we still feel like it's not real and we're just house-sitting :) There's LOTS to do so I'll keep everyone updated. THANKS again to everyone who helped make this happen, our family, friends, Ignisis, Paul (our real estate agent) and our awesome loan agent Chris. If you ever need a real estate agent or home loan I'll give you their info, they are both fantastic!
Let the next phase of our adventure begin! More pictures of the improvements to follow over the next 30+ years!