A New Year, A New House!

Hello, family, friends, future offspring that may read this.

Since last I wrote in October, a lot has happened....

Halloween happened. Chris was a monkey. An adorable monkey who would say "oo oo ah ah" if you asked him what a monkey says. He loved trick or treating. We only did four or five houses, but he got the hang of it quick!

Highlight of November: definitely my parents coming to visit! They came for Thanksgiving, which was great. We all enjoyed having them here, but I think the best part for all involved was Chris seeing his Utah grandparents. They loved seeing him and he enjoyed it too. Thanksgiving, by the by, was delicious. We had dessert first, this year, as the dinner was taking too long and we were starving. It's a great idea, and I recommend it to all!

Going with the grandparents to see Christmas lights!

December. Of course, the highlight was Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas. Christopher was spoiled with lots of toys, and we were grateful to have more books and educational toys for him to play with. Jed and I got a lot of fun things. My themes: clothes and kitchen (always kitchen, I hope it never changes). Jed's themes: work clothes and tools/home owner stuff. We felt so blessed, and thoroughly enjoyed it. About a week later, I got the opportunity to play in the Granite Bay Chimes Choir. It was so fun! I love performing in a group, and I love music, and I love Christmas music; so all in all, I really enjoyed doing it. They needed someone to fill in last minute, so after Christmas I practiced every night and only messed up a few times. We played at the Oakland Temple Visitor's Center, which was beautiful. Jed went with me and so it was a fun little outing together. We also got to see our friends Jordan and Kelsey, and hang out with them on Jordan's birthday which was super fun! And we got to go to a party with ward friends and a party at Haley/Donovan's house for New Years eve. Lots of fun people to visit with!

The Yule log cake. A tradition for the Morgan family on Christmas.

And that brings us to January. January started with a bang! Since October, we have been looking at houses. We even offered on a house in the beginning of December, but despite offering on it the day it went on the market, we were out bid by a lot! Back to January. Our awesome realtor texted on the 1st and said, did you see this house on the website (the website where all real estate in the area is posted)? And indeed we did, but the house was over our budget! He seemed to think the seller might go lower (and an email to their realtor confirmed that they would), and so we went to see it. We ended up really liking it, and so we decided to put in an offer! After changing the closing date, they accepted our offer! We were so excited and it seemed so crazy! But, we knew this was what the Lord wanted and this was what we wanted, so we went forward with it. Those of you who have bought a house know this, but we were shocked at how much was packed into January until we finally closed on the house! So many inspections, so much paperwork, so many emails..... However, we were incredibly blessed. Call it a sign that this was the right decision, call it blessings from paying tithing (which is what I do), but not one thing went wrong from offer until closing. We even closed a week early! We felt truly blessed.

Jed signing our acceptance... We just got a house!

Oh and the house! It's in Orangevale. We love Orangevale because it is smack in the middle of everything, yet has a more country feel. Whenever we go to the store, we have at least two options that are equidistant from us, generally to the west to Fair Oaks or Citrus Heights, or to the east to Folsom. We are also quite close to many stores in Roseville. We are about 15 minutes away from Jed's parents and about 15 minutes from Jed's work. It's amazing! It is the perfect spot for us. Our house is 1004 square feet, 3 bedroom, 1 bath. The bedrooms are a tad small, but we fit just perfectly. We love our big family room and kitchen. I love the kitchen. We have lots of cupboards, a pantry, and we got shelves (as my birthday present... as we get older, our presents get more boring, don't they? More boring, but just as exciting to us!) to give us more storage. Also a favorite part is our backyard! It's a great size. We have a patio, and we have lots of grass, but still lots of room for a garden. Also, the house was flipped when we bought it. We were surprised that flipped does not equal perfect condition (missing toe kick in kitchen, no vent in kitchen, quirky kitchen faucet, leaky bathroom sink, TON of caulking to be replaced), however, we did have nice new paint, beautiful new carpet, new sod and landscaping out front, and a generally beautiful and updated house. Nothing major is wrong with the house, so we feel very blessed.

The day we closed... Jed's holding the key to our house.

The back of the house, courtesy of Jed

So, we moved in on January 25th. We had help from the Brownings, Jed's home teaching companion, and Jed's friend Justin. Of course, we had help from Jed's parents. We honestly could not have done this without them. The move went really smoothly, so smoothly that we even had time to go down to West Sac to pick up a couch from Ikea that afternoon. It helps when most of your stuff is already in boxes. :)

The big trailer we borrowed to move.

That pretty much brings you up to speed. We've done a lot of random fixes to make the home work for us, and it's been fun. We're enjoying being homeowners so far. We like our neighborhood and we think we are going to love our new ward. We've celebrated a birthday (mine) and Valentine's Day in our house, and making the memories only adds to the loving feeling we have for this house. So, life feels pretty darn amazing right now. We are very blessed and thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings.

Our V-day dinner. Fresh artichokes! It was so fun to make/eat! And my first time ever having one.

V-day dessert. Also my first time making. They were delicious! 

And now, the current pictures of our house! Yesterday we spent the day decorating, mainly the kitchen and family room. (Let's be honest, the family room took most of the time. Not much decoration needed in the kitchen...) So, here are some panoramas of the house. Hopefully soon we will do a video for posterity of a house tour. I LOVE house tours.... so we will share ours. Not pictured are the bathroom, various closets, and the garage filled with boxes. Oh, or the backyard! So, those will definitely have to be in the house video. Anyway, here be the pictures!

The kitchen. Still waiting on the table and chairs, but those are soon to come!

The family room. Notice the shelves on the left? Yeah, I hung those. Pretty proud :) Learning to be a homeowner.

The bedroom. We took off the closet doors (all four of them) so we could put our dressers half in/half out.

Christopher's bedroom. Need some curtains!

The office/man cave. Jed has called these walls for all his posters and things, since I get to decorate pretty much every other room :)

And that is all, my friends! Come visit, please! We only feel a little lonely out here, missing our friends and family who don't live near. We'll show you all the cool places around!