It's ours.

Our house closed yesterday.

Now this was a short sale house and the sellers were really bitter about losing their house.

And I can understand that.

They had moved out a few weeks ago.

Turned everything off(electricity, water, etc) which they aren't supposed to do.

But whatever we just turned everything back on in our name.

Then apparently a week ago they decided to move back in without telling us and we were paying for all our utilities.

Nice.

So imagine my surprise(since Jed was at work) when our relator called us and explained that the sellers don't want to give us our keys and would like a few extra days.

There is more to that story but not worth typing.

Long story short we got the keys.

And they also broke every single outside light, ran over the mail box, fired the gardner(which we were paying for) and cranked up the heater(electric in our name) before they departed.

Nice.

So needless to say we were thrilled when it was officially ALL OVER!

And so was our Relator who was waiting with her camera to capture everything.

Here we are ready to go into OUR house.

Already getting to work. Carrying up the baby gates and dinner. This house is going to give me some good exercise.
The babies were not so happy about this entrapment. They wanted to explore and quickly mastered going up the stairs....coming down not so much.

Here we are infront of our very own home.


The kids were thrilled and we finalized room arrangements and ate dinner at our new table as a family for the first time.

We are simply thrilled and so excited to be done with this whole house buying nonsense and very excited to take up permanete residence in our new home.

It's time to get to work...probably wont be blogging for a little bit :)

It's about stinking time

Release the doves!
Ode to joy!
Can I get an AMEN!

Hallelujah !!

We are finally done.

Seriously.

Took.

Forever.

We decided back in MAY that we wanted to buy a house. The interest rates were low, houses were great prices and we thought it would be a great time to buy. The house we loved was the 2nd house we looked at. It was a short sale(for your information short sales are called short sales not because they don't take as long. They are short sales because the bank is shorting the loan on the house. So the original seller has stopped making the home payments and the bank is selling the house for less then the sellers paid for it. Thus the bank is highly involved which means it takes forever)...so we put an offer in and still looked around. This house was the house we loved the most not to mention it was the biggest house at the cheapest price(thanks to the short sale) we found. So we decided to stick it out found a great month to month rental and waited.

Now everything that could go wrong did.

We were told that we would probably be closing in August.

Then the sellers applied for a program allowing them to extend their time in the house.

So in August they told us that we would be starting escrow Friday.

At least that is what we heard every single Monday.

We even had the initial papers ready.

Every Friday came...and went.

Until October 16th we finally started escrow!

The seller requested a 45 day escrow.

That put us closing the monday after Thanksgiving.

That Monday came and the bank acted as if we were crazy to think they could finish with a holiday so close.

So they extended.

We sent paperwork at least three or four times.

Were on the phone with them six or seven times a day.

Then they extended again.

For no real explainable reason.

Then the day we were supposed to be finished with our docs a government issued auditor "randomly" shows up and choses 7 files to audit and happens to pick ours.

Another extensions and a huge headache.

Then the "system was down" apparently

I took all the children and went down to Bank of America and sat there until I was given answers.

It was turning into a huge headache.

If we hadn't prayed and felt good about this decision to buy this house we would have taken it as a huge sign to RUN AWAY!

Then it comes down to the very last day possible to sign our loan docs because the house will soon be a REPO.

We were told at 12:30pm, that loans docs were coming out and we were arranging a time to meet the notary and get everything signed and done.

Basically we sat there and waited...and waited...and waited....

Emails were flying around and around and around from every party involved.

At about 7:00pm we were starting to panic.

We called around until we found someone who was actually working on the file.

She apparently had 4 people working on this file.

She said their system was down.

I beg, pleaded and begged some more and five minutes later escrow had papers.

After all was said and done we wound up having to meet the notary with our Loan Officer at a 24 hours Denny's in Goleta and finished signing our docs at 11:59pm...the very last possible time we could sign them.

Our Loan Officer quickly took this picture of us because he said even though it's been stressful and it's almost midnight and we are at a Denny's, we would want to remember this moment...

And this picture is a perfect depiction of the entire home buying process.

Our Loan Officer then took the files drove back to his office and scanned them and then drove down to Mission Viejo to personally hand them to escrow that night or should I say early morning.

We are told there are some people who will be losing their job after this whole fiasco.

I can't imagine how Bank of America can even stay in business.

But nevertheless the house is ours.

Just in time to party it up for the twins first birthday next weekend.

FINALLY DONE!

And so it begins

Ryder just took his first step.

The babies are twenty minutes apart so we shall see if Emma takes a step in about 15 minutes :)

Christmas 2011

Christmas eve eve my mom and the whole Stotko clan came to spend the evening with us.

They brought presents and we had a yummy dinner and it was great seeing everyone.

Mitchell graduated from Marine boot camp and it was great to see him.

Mimi and two of her babies
Grandpa Mark, Meisha and Dahlia with Ryder


Emma girl
Christmas jammies. Kids were ready for bed by 3pm they were ready for Christmas day.

Better picture :)

They were crazy excited for Pop the Pig. They had been asking for it for months now and Santa didn't disappoint.


Natalies crazy bed hair concentrating with daddy on their new game.

Out of all the kids I swear Emma was the most excited. She got those two balls and couldn't stop laughing and screaming and banging them together. She wouldn't let those things go until nap time and then the second she woke up she went right for them and hasn't put them down since.
Using the udraw, maybe I had the most fun playing with it :)

Grandpa Hogan and Uncle Tyler came by and brought a whole new slew of presents and the kids were besides themselves.

The babies were a lot more into everything then I thought they would be. They were so cute. Especially when they saw the puffs in their stockings.


I have been listening to this thing go for about 6 hours straight.




Emma and her favorite toys!

Santa woke us up at 6:15 am and scared the CA-RAP of out of us. We got the kids so they could sneak a peek. Natalie was scared to look because she didn't want to scare Santa away before he could leave presents. Then the kids came out after Santa left and got a good look at their loot.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our crazy house to yours!

Cards designed by the ever so talented Allyson Linscott

And yes Emma looks terrified but this was the best picture of everyone looking at the camera. So she took one for the team this year :)

iPhone pics

The best quick meal ever. Taste like I have been cooking all day. I can't get over how tender and tasty this pot roast is and takes only 6 minutes.
I discovered The Oaks Mall. It was love at first sight. Such a nice mall. Noah and I go there often and we always get a pretzel. A few weeks ago when we were there eating our pretzel Natalie became best friends with the woman sitting next to us. They talked for like 15 minutes. Turns out this woman was the manager at Godiva chocolate and now every time we go we stop by to say hi and she loads us up with lots of samples.
Natalie at her soccer dinner. She had a great time playing and had a great team..not sure they ever actually won a game but they don't keep score at this level. But she had a great time and got pretty darn good we can't wait for next season.
Natalie with her old teacher(who I adored) Mrs. Lehman on her last day at her old school.
The kids made a gingerbread house with their favorite person in the whole world Luke who lives across the street.
I had made cranberry salsa for Thanksgiving and I accidentally stuck the wooden spoon too far down when making it and it cut up the spoon(we have a freakin powerful blender). I took this picture and sent it to my mom asking her if she thought the salsa would still be okay(even though I already knew the answer) and she informed me "NO!" so I had to drag everyone back out to the store Thanksgiving eve night. Fun times.
Natalie switched schools the Monday after Thanksgiving. She really loves her new school(I personally like the other one better) and she got an award her first day for doing well. She liked being the new kid in class.
We did the final walk through a few weeks ago before they did the work on the house and here is Noah loving the stairs.
The kids trying out the bathtub. Emma hates baths even when there is no water in them.
I had to take Ryder to get an ultrasound of his hip(turned out negative all is well) and it was just the two of us that morning. I don't usually have one on one time with the twins. He was NOT having that ultrasound. He screamed, thrashed around and peed on everyone. Finally I was up on the table nursing him while another assistant held his leg, the ultrasound tech using her machine with another tech pushing the buttons. It took about an hour and I was covered in ultrasound jelly. We came home and Ry took a three hour nap, poor guy.
We had the Christmas party for Jeds office. It was really fun they had a photo booth and raffles and yummy food. I was trying my best to act like the bosses wife but then Jed decided to stick the mustaches(from the photo booth) on his eyebrows and sported them for the rest of the night so I didn't feel any pressure to act mature :)
I finally finished my wreath and I think it turned out great.
This is seriously Ryders hair in the morning. It's untamable.
I had won the gift card mall prize from the Albertson's game. I had sent in the information and was just waiting for them to contact me. They finally contact me and I go in with all the kids totally tired(the day after the babies had the flu) and make-up less. I had no idea that the store director was waiting for me with a cake and camera. They made a little presentation and took my picture. Went in yesterday and my picture is blown up and right at the front entrance. Kinda glad we are moving now :)
The babies are sort of done doing shopping trips in the carseats. Which works out nice for me because I have more room for groceries. They love to sit and go for a ride. Although their new favorite thing to do is bite each other and gauge each others eye balls so sitting together like this gives them easy access.
We had not bought a tree yet because it was so up in the air as to when we were moving into our new house. I had mentioned this to my visiting teacher and later that day she showed up with this 7ft fake tree that she had found a few weeks ago. It fit perfectly in our family room and the kids were in love. So sweet!

Christmas Art

Right now the kids are really into drawing Christmas trees and stockings.

Noah is only 3 so sometimes it's hard for him to put on paper what is in his head.

And he is also a guy so he gets a little lazy :)

So basically what he does is get a "nice clean piece of paper"

(that's how he asks for paper)

Then he walks up to me and asks me to draw him a tree(usually when I am feeding the babies, changing a diaper, cooking dinner etc)

Then he goes to Natalie and asks her to draw a socking

Then back to me to do a star

Then he adds the circles signs his name and takes credit for the whole thing

Oh and once he is done with it he does it again...and again...and again...and again.

Like 40 pictures a day.

Randoms

Noah has seriously been on a roll these last two days with his random quotes.
While sitting on Jed's lap watching a football game Noah randomly blurts out "I love beautiful women."
Then about 20 minutes later he says "I looooove money!" and then sniffs a 5 dollar bill.
Last night Natalie got in trouble and was sent to bed early. It's not often Natalie gets in trouble like that. So as Natalie was saying good night and walking back to her bedroom sulking the whole way, Noah blurts out "I know everything about trouble!"
haha made us laugh.
Because yes my little 3 year old does know everything about trouble.
Speaking of little.
Noah just had yet another growth spirt! I swear he is almost as tall as Natalie.
I just bought him his "super fast" shoes and new church shoes.
Size 11.
He is now outgrown both. I can't believe it.
He is 3 1/2 and wearing a 5t and 12 shoe.

My mom wants me to chop off Ryders hair!
I know it's crazy and has a life of it's own but I can't bring myself to chop it off.

Ryder has been cracking us up as well.
He is so darn cute when he waves "hi" or bye"
But he just recently started handing you things.
But if you take what he is handing you he will have a serious melt down.
He offers but doesn't want you to accept :)
Emma doesn't care and if he hands her something and says "ha!" (almost sounds like he is saying here) she takes it.
Then he screams.
Then she goes crawling away as fast as she can.


So last night we were chatting online with my Momma when Emma barfed everywhere.
Now, I have to say(knock on wood) my kids aren't big barfers.
As a matter of fact Natalie has thrown up once before.
That's it.
So poor Emma proceeded to get sick all night long.
Ryder threw up once but went back to sleep(and slept until 9:45am)
I felt horrible for my little baby.
She was super fussy and couldn't get comfortable.
So I turned on Army Wives on Netflixs and we watched the entire first season together.
She never fell asleep just sat there and watched.
Then would throw-up and continue to watch.
I turned it off and she screamed.
Then I changed it to a cartoon and she screamed.
She is just an Army Wives fan.

How we do Christmas

We have had possibly the loooooongest escrow known to man.
(our bank sucks balls)
We were supposed to move last weekend.
Then this weekend.
Now, dare I say next weekend.
Well since we are about to move and living amongst boxes we can't really do Christmas like we like to.
No decorations and no tree.
Ba-hum-bug
Not a day goes by that the kids don't ask me why we can't have a tree or lights on our house or Christmas decorations.
My stock answer is "when we move this weekend we will decorate and get a tree"
(except the weekend keeps getting pushed back)

So this is how we have been celebrating the season.

We have been enjoying lots of these
Some of this

poured on top of this

Throw in some of these

Made a few of these

So basically instead of decorating we are getting plump.

I did buy the kids little trees for them to decorate .
We have been doing Elf on a Shelf.
(today he landed in the curtains)

We saw Santa and after dancing around/singing/making weird noises the kids all looked at the camera.

Maybe if I actually finish this wreath I have been working on for three months then our house will actually close?