Kokanee Creek

Our neighborhood had a BBQ for us and another neighbor, TJ and Chelsea Gordon, that were moving. We had it on April 26th. It was fun to visit with all the neighbors and reminisce of all the crazy renters/owners and experiences we have had over the last 9 years. We knew most of the neighbors pretty well and most of them were friendly. It was a fun neighborhood for the kids to play in. We had a cul de sac with a playground so it was like our backyard. The kids played in the street and we often did BBQ's together. There were several drama filled occasions between adults and kids, but overall we have good memories of that neighborhood. 

L-R: Wasim, Vincent, Elsa holding Carter, Aliyah, Taryn, Kate and Jocelyn

L-R: Chelsea helping Carter, Preston, Lindsey, Kate, Elsa, Taryn and Jocelyn

 Sarim helping out with the food and Wasim and Aliyah's Mom there too. 

This car was popular with my kids. Carter and Chelsea cruising around the cul de sac together. Kate and Taryn (Carter's older sister) would get them to hug and kiss each other. It was pretty funny. 

A bunch of adults standing around talking and laughing. L-R: Kyle, TJ, Ed, Sarim, Mike, ? (can't remember his name) and Tony.

Chelsea, Taryn, Elsa and Carter

Goodbye Kokanee Creek neighbors and friends!

Inspection and Girls Weekend

Here is a picture of the house over Easter weekend when Marci was at our house and we drove her by it to show her.

We were there finishing the inspection on April 25th when my Mom, Jeni and Sara stopped by to see it because we were doing a girl's weekend down at Marci's (they were on their way over and so they came up north first to see our house then we went down to Marci's later). I was glad they drove out of their way to come see the house. As my mom and sisters were walking up to the house all these neighbor kids were swarming them asking if they were moving in. My Mom said she wasn't but a girl their age was. They were so excited. My Mom took my kids back out there to meet everyone and Kate was so excited to see all these girls her age. We found out the neighbors right next to us are LDS and they have a daughter, Grace, that is Kate's age and same grade. Grace did a fist pump when she met Kate. It was adorable. Like Sara said that makes buying the house worth it. :) We did discover some water damage up in the master bedroom during this inspection. The baseboard was swollen and cracked so the inspector used a moisture reader thing and said we would need to get it checked out. Well, that turned into a nightmare. More on that later. 

First picture in front of our house (Lindsey wouldn't cooperate)

Kyle took the kids and I left with my Mom and sisters for our girls weekend. We went to Ikea and shopped for 3 1/2 hours. It was so long! But Sara bought tons of stuff and that was worth it because she usually doesn't buy anything. Then, we went to Cheesecake Factory and Marci met us there for dinner. We went to her house after that. 

The next morning we got pedicures, ate lunch at Chipotle and shopped. It was fun. They went to my cousin's, Kristin, baby shower, but I headed home to get back in time for our neighborhood BBQ. 

Easter and 4th Buyer

While my Mom had my kids for a couple days during Spring Break Chelsea created quite the mess. She kept my Mom on her toes. My Mom texted me these pictures. I loved Chelsea's face in the first picture. 

She dumped dry noodles all over the floor.

She threw a plate on the kitchen floor and it shattered. I believe this happened while the missionaries were there for dinner. Never a dull moment with Chelsea around! Recently, when the sister missionaries were over  for dinner at our house, Chelsea pulled over my favorite real plant in the kitchen and 2 huge branches broke off. I was super duper sad! 

Preston has been on a roll with losing teeth lately so he bought this playdoh set from the dollar store with his $1 he got. He made snails and had his own snail race like on the movie Turbo. So cute.

We tried out the new park near the house we have an offer on. It's called Cougar Park and has a big zip line. So fun! I got Preston dark framed glasses when we had to update his lens prescription. I was hoping they weren't too big for his face, but we like them a lot better.  

While we were at this park (on April 12th- Happy Birthday to my Dad!) we got a call from Stacey, our Realtor. She said we got a cash offer!!!!!! We couldn't believe it! The offer was a lot lower than our asking price, but higher than they originally offered to Stacey. She told them no way and then they came back with this offer which was better than the first one, but still lower than asking. We countered back mid way and waited to see what they would say. Well, fast forward 2 long days of waiting (I thought they didn't want it anymore because they didn't respond back before the deadline! I was stressed about it.) but they said they wouldn't go any higher. They wanted an inspection still and could close soon. Well, there was some back and forth stuff over the course of the week. I thought the deal was long gone a couple times because the buyer's Realtor was a new guy and didn't know what he was doing. It was annoying. I didn't know if I should pack or what! It was crazy. We had gone forward with the inspection of the HUD house we had an offer on knowing that we might lose that money for the inspection if we didn't get a buyer for our house, but it was a risk we were willing to take. We split up the inspection into 2 parts. Kyle did half of the inspection while I was at my parent's house with the kids over Spring Break. Then we did the other half of the inspection a few weeks later once we were under contract with this new buyer (our 4th buyer!). This buyer had her son come look at the house and he was all for it so he lent her the money she needed so she could do all cash (she was trying to figure out how to get a little loan through a bank so that's why it was taking so long to hear back from them, and here I thought they were backing out!). Well, we signed mutual acceptance on April 21st and closed on April 30th. Only 10 days later!!!! It was insanely fast. At times, I thought we should have put it off for a week, but Stacey our Realtor thought we should do it to get it done and over with. 10 days is so fast! The buyers were going to waive the inspection at one point, but then decided to do it on the very last day they could. So I had to leave the house and then that night we signed our papers. I was nervous something would happen where they would back out. I was holding my breath the whole 10 days. I wouldn't believe we sold our house until after closing. Seriously. We had been burned too many times through this process. On Wed April 30th we got word that they closed on our old house in the morning then in the afternoon we heard they closed on the new house. It was a done deal! We were new home owners with a huge mortgage. ha! 

The girls matching one day and being cute with one another.

The Girl's Club!

The Boy's Club (he added more boys on his picture as reinforcement, haha)

We went to Mukilteo Beach one afternoon, probably to get out of the house for some reason, and Kate was all nervous about moving and meeting new friends. Well, she climbs this big trunk and meets this girl her age that is up on top and then doesn't want to leave when we say it's time to go. I don't think she'll have a problem making new friends. ha!

We didn't go home for Easter with everything going on (well and we were thinking we were going to be moving this weekend, but that didn't happen). There was a ward breakfast and easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter. The weather cooperated and rained after we finished. The kids had fun running around on the little bit of grass there is. 

Happy Easter!

Chelsea (22 mo's), Lindsey (3 1/2), Kate (almost 9) and Preston (6 1/2)

3rd Time is Not the Charm

Sad news again. Our 3rd buyer backed out. This is getting to be like Groundhog's Day! We found out on April 4th that the buyers didn't get lending approved (because of how it was constructed, partly manufactured and partly stick built, but titled and deeded as stick built with real property, but the lender wouldn't approve the loan unless they had 20% down) so they had to back out. Our realtor tried to appeal it in and show documentation, but the lender didn't accept that so we found out on Monday it was not going to work out. We re-listed it on Monday and started doing showings again. It was the kids' spring break and we had gone over to my parent's house for General Conference the first weekend of April so the kids stayed with them on Monday and Tuesday. Before we knew it was not going to work out, I had decided to come back with Kyle and was planning on packing up more, but after hearing that the buyers had to back out for sure it was a real let down. I was devastated and in shock. I couldn't believe it was happening again and I was worried we would lose the house we wanted to buy. But our realtor said that since it was a govt owned house we could stay under contract. If it wasn't then we would have to give it up. I'm so glad it's a HUD house now! Phew! Now to find another buyer in our time frame of needing to close on the HUD house because we have to sell this one first before we can buy the new one. 

Instead of packing I cleaned and it stayed clean because no kids were here which was SO nice! But it sure was lonely and boring without them! I realized I'm glad I'm a Mom even with all the craziness kids create because what would I do (I'd have to work for sure) and where would I go. Everywhere I go it's for the kids and pretty much everything I do is for the kids. I'm thankful I am a Mom. Kyle and I took advantage of no kids and went out to dinner and a movie. It was nice. I went shopping to spend my birthday money and met up with Tawnya Valentine and her kids who were visiting from UT for spring break. I headed back over to my parent's on Wednesday morning and stayed there for the week. Originally, I was going to meet my Mom on Wednesday morning on Snoqualmie pass to get the kids, but she suggested I just come over while we have showings. It was a great idea because then I didn't have to worry about keeping the house spotless and leaving for the showings. We had lots of interest and several showings throughout the week which we were glad about. While at my parent's we went and visited Sara and saw her new house. They had just moved into a house that needed some remodel work and it was fun to see it. It's a cute home and my Mom and her did a great job painting everything. We headed back on Friday afternoon. The kids were excited to see the neighbor kids and Kyle, but at first they didn't want to leave Grandpa and Grandma's house. haha. 

Packing and Early Easter Egg Hunt

We sold our house and bought a house for real! It actually worked out this time. :) I am SO far behind on blogging so I am going to catch up! Before and after moving has been crazy to say the least. I want to document our crazy life during this huge transition for our family. At times (most times) I was barely hanging on. It's been the most stressful process EVER! Moving and buying a house are ranked as a huge stressor/change in someone's life and marriage. Well, we were selling and buying a house at the same time so I think it was doubly stressful. My kids were driving me nuts on many occasions as I tried to deal with the stress of it all. There were times I handled it better than others. I look back on this whole process and see how it all worked out and realize that Heavenly Father helped us a lot. It wasn't smooth like I would have liked it, but it all worked out in the end. (That was my mantra through this process... "it will all work out".) At times I didn't think it would, but it did. This along with other experiences in my life will help strengthen my faith as we go through future challenges. I just need to do better at handling them well through the bitter end.

As we were packing our old house we were getting closed in with boxes. My friend from Church, Sue Orchard, works at Bed, Bath and Beyond and she got us lots of boxes. That was so nice of her to get them for us because they worked out perfectly. We ended up getting more from our realtor towards the end of packing.  

The girls entertaining themselves. Chelsea was really challenging during this move. She kept getting into everything she wasn't supposed to get into. It was so frustrating! I get so focused on packing or doing something so when she messes it up I have a hard time dealing with that. 

We went home for General Conference weekend at the beginning of April and did our Easter egg hunt then with the cousins since we were going to be moving Easter weekend (didn't happen). Melanie and her kids and Dee Ann came out on Sunday afternoon. We visited and the kids played then we made waffles for dinner. My Mom kept my kids so I could go back and pack. We didn't know if the deal with the 3rd buyer was really off the table at this point because we were trying to appeal to the lender (in a way). So Kyle and I went back on our own. I ended up coming back to Mattawa on Wednesday morning once we knew the deal was off with the buyers and we had to relist our house. So I hung out at my Mom's house and we visited Sara and her new house. It was nice to be away from the stress of having to show a house with 4 little kids and nap schedules. It worked out good that it was during spring break. 

Chelsea was funny because she would pick up a couple eggs then get on the gator and ride it for a bit then get off and walk around. She wasn't too interested in filling up her basket with eggs. I forgot their baskets at home so they got to use ice cream buckets. haha. 

Everyone was helping each other find their golden egg (with money and trinkets inside!).

Most of the grandkids. Jeff and Sadie weren't there. Neither was Marci. We actually did the hunt in the morning after breakfast and before the first session of conference on Sunday because Paige was sick. Her and Hailey ended up being sick for a couple days. So we hurried and did the hunt so Jeni and Kevin could go home. We were sad they had to leave early.