Life 1 year later

It's hard to believe that we've been in our house a year now. It seems like just yesterday we were moving in, but at the same time it feels like we've been here forever. It's also crazy that I haven't posted in almost a year. A lot has happened in the past year. So in the spirit of the new year I will do a month-by-month update of what happened (to the best of my memory).
January- In about mid January we found out that I was pregnant with our third child and due in mid September. We were very surprised by this as I was still on birth control, but we figured that Heavenly Father's plan for our family was different than ours and he always knows better than we do so we got on board with having another child join our family.
February - We got Morgan all registered for school and got everything filled out to hopefully get her in to the local year round school. We also told all of our family that we were going to be having another baby in mid September.
March - We found out that Morgan got in to the year round school and we were super excited about it. We also got more things unpacked and were just so thrilled about life in general.
April - We enjoyed Easter and had fun watching the girls look for eggs in our front yard. They had such a great time!

May - I think it was in May that we went up to Williamsburg and got to see my cousin and her husband and spend time with most of my siblings and their families for the weekend. It was a fun trip and great to be able to spend time with them. Morgan also had her very first dance recital and she did great. So proud of her.

June - In June we found out that Morgan was on track 4 at her new school and found out when her orientation and everything would be. We also found out that Brett's youngest brother would be serving a mission in St. Geaorge Utah for 2 years. We were so excited for him. We got to see Brett's grandparents when they came out for Bradley's endowments. It was great to see them and talk to them about our baby's blessing and things.

July - We got to meet Morgan's teacher and get her started in school which she is really enjoying. We also celebrated our 7th wedding Anniversary.

August - I went into early labor that they had to stop (at 34 weeks) and then continued in early latent labor for what seemed like an eternity. Morgan really enjoyed going to school and was doing very well in school. We also found out that we would be put into a new ward that was being created. We have really enjoyed our new ward too.

September - On September 6th at 4am Lucy Jean was born and that was a real adventure for me as my epidural never worked and had a very rough labor with her. So glad that she was here (although it was 9 days before her due date). 

October - Morgan enjoyed her first track out from school (although she cried her first day on track out because she wanted to go to school). We also got to enjoy our first Halloween in our new house and took the girls trick or treating around the neighborhood. It was lots of fun for all of us.

November - We got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Brett's family at a beach house in Topsail. We got to spend time with his grandparents who were visiting for the Holiday and for Lucy's baby blessing. It was lots of fun and very relaxing to wake up to a view of the ocean and the sound of waves.

December - We got to enjoy Morgan and Natalie's birthdays with lots of family. We also blessed Lucy and got to enjoy the time with family for that special occasion. We then spent time with family for Christmas parties and things. We also got to skype with Bradley on Christmas day which was awesome. The girls and I then got to spend time with my family in Edisto, SC for New Years. We had a great time walking on the beach, watching dolphins, playing games, and just having lots of fun.

Now this new year is going to be spent getting the house decluttered and organized and getting healthier so. We hope to really enjoy this year and I hope to be better about updating this monthly with everything going on in our family. Last year was pretty good to us and we hope that this year of 2014 will be even better than 2013. Happy New Year to everyone!!!!

Unpacking in our new home

We have now been in our new house for 1 month and we are still working on getting everything unpacked. The house is looking better and better with each day and with each box getting unpacked. Hoping that by the end of this month we will have this house looking exactly the way we want it looking. Can't wait until we get things looking perfect and where we can just kick back and really enjoy our new house.

Packing the house

Our closing date is almost here - Nov. 29th. We ended up with 2 extra weeks due to a small hiccup with the loan.  However, now we are down to less than 1 week until we move.  The girls and I went out of town last week which didn't help the packing situation, but it's going pretty good now.
The Living Room is over half done, the playroom is all done (other than the TV and Wii), the kitchen is 2/3 done, the bathrooms are partly done, and the bedrooms and bathrooms have barely been touched (luckily those rooms con't have much other than furniture). The family room is full of boxes from the other rooms. We still have the mudroom and attic to work on too. Hoping to get it all done by Wednesday night so that all we have to do on Thursday is finish last minute packing of little things here and there.
Friday hopefully brings moving all of the boxes to the new house and then Saturday is moving all of the furniture and the shed, attic, and things from the yard. We are so excited and ready to be in our new home and start this next chapter of our lives. Just wish the moving didn't happen days before the girls' birthdays, but what can you do. We just had to postpone our birthday plans for them.

Buying our first home

So we are so excited to be buying our first home. We have been renting a house for 5 years and are glad to finally be in a place where we can buy a home. We are due to close in less than 2 weeks. It has been a very long and aggravating process at times. Brett losing his job when he did set us back a little.
We first figured out how much we could afford and then we got up with a realtor who was able to help us find a few homes in our desired area and within our budget. We were able to narrow it down to the perfect little starter home for our little family. It's a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that sits on a third of an acre in a nice neighborhood in Fuquay Varina. That will put us much closer to Brett's job and with in 5 miles of everything else that we do on a weekly basis.

It has been a long road of ups and downs through the whole offer, counter offer, earnest money, due diligence period, and all the other things that go along with buying a home. Now we are down to just a few things left (mostly dealing with the loan) before we can close. Everything is looking good for us to close on time.
Unfortunately that means we have less than 2 weeks to get our house packed up and ready to move to the new place. Hoping that we can get it all done in time, but it's proving to be a slow and stressful process. Can't wait until we are settled into our first home and can start enjoying our lives as home owners.

Job trouble and blessings

So on August the 12th my husband got back from a week long training out of town. We had a great afternoon and evening. Monday morning he got up and went in to work ready to talk to his boss about all that he had learned and excited to utilize the new techniques and things he had learned. He got to the office before everyone else and went to disable the alarm and his code didn't work. He called his boss to tell him and his boss said he was just around the corner.
When his boss got there he asked Brett to come into his office to talk to him. He went on to tell Brett that while he was in his training the company had lost one of their contracts (the one that was 70% of their business) and so they would have to close. He was getting laid off immediately. It was quite an unexpected blow to our family.
Brett was immediately on the hunt for a job. He filled out probably 50 applications within 2 days and called lots of places. He even got called for an interview at one local company. It didn't pan out, but that was ok. He ended up getting 19 companies (that are part of the franchise he used to work for) to e-mail him and offer him positions all over the country. We now had the problem of too many choices - a problem we have never had before.  We were just about to e-mail a few of them to get more information on their offers, when my husband got a call from a different local company about an interview.
Yesterday he went in for the interview and they said that depending on how his drug test and back ground check came out that he would get a job there. Yesterday afternoon they called with an offer for him to start today making a little more than he did before. He was only unemployed for a week. He was so lucky and blessed by Heavenly Father. We are so thankful for our friends and family who prayed for us during that stressful time for us. It was nice that it didn't last for long.

The Daily Life

Our families daily life is just like most - Brett goes off to work every morning and I stay at home with our two little girls. We enjoy a simple life and don't need much. As long as we have a house to live in and food on our table we are pretty satisfied. We all love doing things together and enjoying time with one another.
Morgan, Natalie and I love to sing and dance together as much as possible. We also love to go to the park and play once a week (we usually will do a little fishing if daddy comes along). The girls both love their daddy and can't wait to see him when he gets home from work every day.
We look forward to every minute we get to spend together. We love overcoming things together and learning and growing as a family. We love our life and can't wait to see what happens every day.