Wallie

September 29 we welcomed this bundle of joy into our family... 

He was my 25th birthday present and I love him!

New Home!!

I cannot believe that I have not said anything yet, but Regan and I are the proud owners of a brand new townhome! We started looking back in February and decided to build... so May 30 we closed and then moved in over the next weekend!

The story of our buying adventure:

I originally was able to talk Regan into looking because by the time he is done with school (at least 5 more years) so we can buy our forever home we have already paid almost $20,000 in rent and will have paid at LEAST $50,000 more dollars in rent before we got to this point... soooo I explained how I think we should put our money towards something we own and hopefully gain some equity.

He was willing to look, we went into this thinking we would buy a single family home but were very discouraged at what we saw in our price point, houses that were not livable and said that they were sold "as is" this scared me more than you know thinking about a big money pit. We want to put the money towards a mortgage NOT fixing all the problems with the house. I am fine with cosmetic stuff, in fact I welcomed it, with all the HGTV that I watch... but these were things that needed immediate fixing. So we decided to increase our budget and look again, and this time include townhomes.

Well we found a home that we really liked in West Valley, in fact I thought that this could be it! The weird thing was the house (single family) had and HOA fee... weird. Later that day we were down in the Herriman/Riverton area and we saw a few townhomes, and then these brand new construction townhomes that were HUGE inside. This was such a relief to think we could have something brand new that would definitely NOT be a money pit.

We were left with two really great options and so we weighed the pro's and con's of each, and basically here is what we had.

The house and townhome:

were the EXACT same price

Both had an HOA that was the Same price

The house was 1800 square feet

The townhome was 2300 square feet

The house was 20 years old

The townhome was brand new with a 2 year warranty

The house better commute to work but not the area I want to raise kids

The townhome... LONG commute but I LOVE THE AREA

We may move away for Regan to go to Physical Therapy School... which will be the easiest to rent if he doesn't go to the U, something brand new or one that may need a lot of maintenance in the next few years like a new roof???

Well we both felt really good about moving to Herriman and going forward buying the townhome. Next was the decision to build or to buy one that was just recently built... we were in no hurry so we decided to pick out our finishes and build and we couldn't be more happy that we did! Here are a few pictures of the house before we moved in....




This is the view out our back windows, it is beautiful and we can see the whole valley!




This was during construction, the veiw out the front windows are equally as beautiful!





This is our kitchen before we got all moved in!



Ornament Wreath

Well I am very excited to show my latest craft! It is an ornament wreath! 

Supplies you will need:

• Foam Wreath- 12-14 inch
• Ornaments- in a variety of sizes (I used approx 36 small and 50 medium and large) you may need more or less of each depending on size of wreath and how full you want the wreath to look
• Hot Glue Gun
• Ribbon

1. Started with my foam wreath and wrapped it with ribbon, to give it a more polished off look in case you can see through the ornaments to the wreath.

2. Next I spaced out some of my large and medium sized ornaments in 

the center to figure out how many I would need. I then hot glued the ornaments to the wreath, at first I started taking off the "hanger" pieces on each ornament and then realized there was no point if it was the actual ball I was gluing to the wreath. (I think the point of taking them off is so that the ornament ball will not fall off if only attached by the hook) 

3. I then started placing the ornaments around the outside border of the wreath spacing them evenly. After I just started filling in the rest of the wreath with ornaments spacing out the larger ones and filling in the gaps with my smaller ornaments.

*Know that not all of the ornaments are going to be glued directly to the wreath, some of the ornaments are just glued to the other ornaments around it. 

*I would recommend spacing things out if you only have a certain amount of ornaments so that you don't have all small ornaments in one area and large in another. 

*Let your creativity do the work, go with what you think looks good!

The finished project! 

With some of my left over ornaments I just put them in this vase to add a little more color to my room, and another decoration instantaneously :) 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The other day I was talking to Regan about how I wanted to FOR SURE decorate our porch this year with Christmas lights, so I asked him to assess our situation so we could hang lights... and he went above and beyond! I came home from work on Wednesday to a completely decorated front porch! I added a picture and just know that he gets ALL the credit for this one :) 

So after Thanksgiving we had a few hours and we started decorating the rest of our house, can I just say that it is so fun to decorate our own little home exactly the way we want to!

So I also wanted to post a few pictures to show off our decorations!  I LOVE our staircase it makes me so happy and our house looks so fun illuminated with the Christmas decor! 

We decorated our Christmas tree and added our new ornament for 2011,  we have a tradition of getting a new ornament each year with something to tell about the past year, so I decided to put up last years as well so that I can show off our large collection :) 

For our first Christmas I think it is a little self explanatory, we got married that was a HUGE deal!

This years ornament is of a stone sea turtle, in May Regan and I went to the Caribbean. We spent 10 days there, we started in Puerto Rico and then sailed to different islands for one week. One of the highlights was while snorkeling and getting to see the many fish and even sea turtles! 

I am so happy with how we have decorated so far, and thanks to Pinterest I'm looking forward to making some different crafts to decorate our home and get ready for Christmas! I love the holiday season and I am excited to share it with friends and family!

Thankful for families :)

I love reflecting on the things that I am grateful for! This thanksgiving as my family got together for the holidays we have a tradition to go around the table and tell what we are thankful for. It pretty much is a testimony meeting... with an added emphasis in "thankamonies" Can I just say that I am so thankful for my family! What an amazing group of strong, encouraging people who each can be an example in my life, I am not just talking about the family I grew up with, but the family I am now a member of as well since being sealed to Regan. It is so amazing that I can be with my family forever, many times when it comes to weekends Regan and I will want to get together with someone from our family. As I sat at my thanksgiving table I thought about how much each person means to me. I love making friendships stronger with our family and to be honest I consider my family some of my best friends. I think one thing I loved on thanksgiving is actually expressing to everyone how I felt and that I was thankful for them. You know how it is said that when you express your testimony you make it stronger? I definitely believe that, and by expressing to others your thankfulness it makes my gratitude for those things that much stronger!

PS. I made rolls for thanksgiving with the help of my other mama Debbie and they were AMAZING! The recipe is on this website:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/10/worlds-best-dinner-rolls/

Here is my finished product just waiting to be eaten :)

... Back to School

Well it looks like I am heading back to school! I got my acceptance letter this week. I currently am working as a Registered Nurse and received an associates degree in nursing from Weber State a year and a half ago.... but I want to finish it with a bachelors ;)

So as many have asked... Will you get a pay increase? Sadly the answer is No, an RN is a RN those who finish with an associates and those who finish with a bachelors all take the same boards to receive their license so as it works out there is no pay increase because they are just paying for the degree. BUT with the fact that there is no longer a shortage in nursing a bachelors is preferred when applying for jobs, and this way I could always go into management... (doubt I'll do that) I have considered going on to get my Masters, but I'm not sure yet and at least I will be a step closer if I decide I want to.

So Regan is working towards physical therapy, he won't be able to apply to PT schools for about a year and a half, but with that being said... who knows where we could end up! So another reason for getting my bachelors.

It will be 3 Semesters, I start Jan. 2... I am doing an accelerated program so this first semester I have 5 classes! Regan and I will both be doing full time work with full time school... I'm a little scared we won't see each other... AHHHH!

One Year Down... Eternity to go!

It is crazy to say, but Regan and I have now officially been married for an entire year! I know everyone always says that time passes so quickly but in this case it is just crazy! I am so lucky to have an amazing husband, he is so loving, has an amazing testimony, is good looking, fun as can be, and laid back all tied up into one amazing package! All I can say is I am one lucky girl!

Happy Anniversary

June 24, 2010