Real Love Stories Never End!: August 2015

So...this one is a little late. With all of the hub-bub of buying a home and moving, it kept getting put off. Here it is:

Ian had his first birthday on July 11th! We had a BBQ and water party at Grandma Duke's house that afternoon. There was a kiddie pool and slip n' slide for the littles, and visiting for the adults. We had grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends over and it was a lot of fun! I felt horrible though because I didn't have the time or the energy to put into Ian's first birthday party that I had put into Benjamin's first. Decorations were neglected, food was cheap and quick and the cake was not what I had wanted. Stephen had to keep reminding me that it was not a statement of my preference or love for one boy over the other, that Ian would not remember or care, and that we were still trying to recover from the stress of our house. The things I worry about sometimes...

My heart broke a little when we sang happy birthday to Ian for the first time; my baby was gone!

He would only eat cheetos for dinner. We eventually gave up the fight and let him. After all, he only turns one once, right?!

Unlike his brother, Ian loved smashing and eating his cake, though you wouldn't know it by his facial expressions.

Ian wasn't as interested in opening presents. He kept trying to run away with his favorite present; an orange ball from aunt Brooke.

To make things a little easier, aunt Brooke had also gotten Benjamin a ball. Bless her.

Some fun one-year facts about Ian:

He started walking at 11 months old and has been trying to run to keep up with big brother since.

Unlike Benjamin, he hates to play alone and is constantly seeking out companionship. Also unlike his brother, he LOVES to cuddle and that makes me happy.

His favorite (and most used) word is "Yeeahhh!" He likes to use it whenever Benjamin asks him if he wants to play or go outside. Their little conversations make me smile :)

He is a very serious boy, usually wearing a concentrated or concerned expression. He is likewise a lot more mellow than Benjamin, preferring to watch and see rather than do and explore.

He is my carb baby, eating breads, crackers and cereal. He will gobble down fruits and vegetables in their pureed form, but not in their natural form. So he has texture issues.

He can sure hold his own! With a 2 year old for a big brother, Ian is often pushed around and taken advantage of. He has no problem, though, chasing Benjamin down to "get even."

Even if he is in a bad mood, the minute he hears music he is busting a move!

His favorite pass-time is blowing raspberries to himself and laughing.

He is a COMPLETE mama's boy, which I love. No matter where I go, I can always count on having a little tag-a-long blowing raspberries right behind me.

We are grateful every day that were blessed with this sweet little boy! Life would certainly be a little more gray without him. We love you, Ian Delaine!

I was not convinced that we were ready to start going through the process of buying our first home. I had only ever lived in tiny apartments for the last 7 years of my life, 4.5 of those with Stephen, and the thought of buying a home terrified me. With a little bit of encouragement, we decided to just look into it. We needed to be educated. We needed to understand the process better, so that when the time came, we could be more confident. So I agreed to do at least that, and that is what we set out to do.

After some time, I became convinced that we were actually ready; we had a decent savings, we were educated, we were itching for a change, we didn't want to "throw money away" on rent anymore and we wanted some sense of stability (each of us having not lived in any one place for longer that a year or two since we left home). So we shopped realtors (and changed a couple of times during this process, looking for the right fit for us) and lenders.

For a month and a half we scoured Utah County home websites (wanting, of course, to stay in Utah County) nearly daily. A couple nights a week we were looking at homes, dragging our sweet boys along for the ride. They were champs really, not too many meltdowns. If there was a night we didn't look at homes, Benjamin sometimes appeared confused and would ask "Houses? Houses?" Poor kid.
That month and a half was insane and stressful. We didn't need to get into a house quickly and we had hoped to take our time, but the market in Utah County is ridiculous right now. Homes would come on the market one morning and would have an accepted offer just hours later, so we really had to be on the ball if we wanted a chance at one of the "good ones."

Stephen and I eventually ended up making our first offer on a home in American Fork. It had an unfinished basement and needed quite a bit of work, but we both felt strongly about making an offer. We waited for an excruciating 24 hours to hear whether or not our offer was accepted. Stephen was anxious to hear that "yes," while I was actually hoping for a "no." I continued looking at homes while we waited. While I do not doubt we needed to make that offer, I was anxious about the location of the home and couldn't see us raising our children there. We both felt so confused and conflicted. I personally felt that this was a trial for me, to see if I truly would be willing to do all things the Lord should ask of me, even if I did not understand why. I had to work REALLY hard at having an open heart, one ready and willing to accept the Lord's will. I'll tell you, it was one of the most difficult 24 hours of my life!

Our offer ended up being counter-offered, which we did not feel good about and rejected.You can imagine my relief and gratitude! It would have been easy to ask "Then why did we feel so strongly about making this offer in the first place?" But we didn't. We knew why we needed to. It was so that we could learn and become more unified. One of the neatest things about this experience was that Stephen and I learned more about how to receive and follow revelation together. Although stressful and often difficult, this process brought us closer together as we strove to make the right decisions for our little family.

One of the homes I looked at while we were waiting to hear back about the American Fork home was a cute little twin-home in Springville. It had 5 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a family room and a livingroom and was 2190 sq ft. The home had been on the market for two months and the asking price had just been lowered 10K. I was excited about this one and showed it to Stephen; we looked at it the next day. It was perfect. It was in the location I had dreamed of; a nice little close-knit community in a small town not too far from big-city amenities and family. I was in love with it right away, and so was Stephen. After praying about it a TON, we went forward with making an offer, this time both of us hoping for a "yes."

Well, we received another counter offer we didn't feel good about. I was so discouraged. We decided to counter offer again, asking only slightly higher than our first offer, fairly certain they wouldn't take it and ready to drop it if they countered again.

Well, they took it!!!

The following month was full of the events that occur before closing on a home. It was really stressful again, but we also felt blessed for being able to get in so fast when we didn't expect to.

The worse part was preparing the home for move-in. Nothing could have prepared me for that (go on all you old-time home owners. Have a good laugh, it's okay :) ). Really, there wasn't a lot of work to be done (mostly painting and re-caulking, then cleaning), but it was all so time consuming. For a week and a half, Stephen or I (or both if we had a sitter) were at the house working until the wee hours of the morning. We also had many friends and family members who provided great help. Stephen and I have only ever moved into places that were move-in ready (one of the perks of having a landlord), so this was all new to us. Not to mention the awful headache of appliance shopping and instillation, which had many complications. Lot's of tears were shed that week...but we kept trying to remember that this was all truly a blessing.

We were all moved in on July 16th!