We got the house!!!!

It's so exciting. The owner gave a counter-offer and we accepted it. We are under contract now and set to close May 26th. Here are more pictures of the house. It's still being worked on, so we'll post the after pictures when they're all done.

Front of the house from different angles

Back yard

Kitchen taken from the stairs

Close up of the kitchen

Dining area and family room just off the kitchen

We made an offer

So, today we made an offer on a house. I'm so excited about it. I would love it if this house was mine. Right now the house is going through renovation. There is new carpet, new tile, it's been painted, the bathrooms have been updated and the kitchen was gutted and is mid-renovation right now. The work so far looks great. I was nervous about it earlier today because I thought some homeowner was trying a bunch of DIY projects, but the owner stopped by the house while we were there. He is a general contratorish type person. I'm happy because he's hiring out all the work so it's professional. It's great work, too. I really want this house. The MLS is #872801 if you're intersted in looking at it. The picture below is the only picture available. Darren and I went back this evening to take a few more pictures of the outside, but the owner's truck was still there and we decided it would have been stalkerish to stop. We gave the owner until Tuesday to accept or counter-offer so we'll see. Wish us luck!!!

He's going to be a class clown...

This past weekend we spent our time partying. My sister Ginger has been in town for the past week and it has been a blast. We had 2 game-nights this past weekend. Saturday night we were up until 2 playing games. It was so much fun. Friday we played Firehouse Rummy, one of our favorite games. Well, due to my wanting to play, Darren being at work until 1am, and Judson having cousins over to play with him, I failed at being a good mom and let Judson stay up until nearly midnight. He handled being tired quite well. At one point we heard a big noise coming from the room Judson was in. A little bit later he jumped out in the hall and made a silly noise. This made all of us playing games laugh. So, Judson continued to go back in the room and jump out, making us all laugh again and again and again. He was so happy to be the clown. I'm so proud of my attention loving son. He was also being extra silly due to the late night.

I'm happy that one late night did not ruin my schedule or my son who is used to a schedule. It's nice to know that every now and then we can party like it's 1999. Oh, "sigh" to life before Judson. I'm realizing that life before Judson was lonely and boring. I'm so thankful for my silly, clown-y son.

My little parrot, Judson

Judson is a funny boy. He has been repeating more and more of what we say. It's so great to watch him learn. Yesterday for the first time he said "please" all by himself when he wanted a drink. He said it repeatedly. He probably thinks that please has something to do with drinks, though because he still doesn't say it voluntarily for anything else. Baby steps, right?

Judson will also randomly fold his arms (or in his case grab his hands together) and mumble some words and then say "amen" really loud. He mostly does this in the middle of Sacrament Meeting or while eating. It's a good thing because I'm bad at remembering to bless the food when I'm just feeding Judson and not eating myself. He's good to remind me. The amen in the middle of church makes me laugh. It shouldn't, but it does.

Then the other night I was trying to get Judson to come downstairs. He wanted to go outside, as usual. I said "umm, let's go downstairs." In response Judson said, "Ummmmm, outside." I think it's funny that he copied the umm. I knew it was just a matter of time because I say umm all the time.

Well, I just wanted to get these couple of things in writing. I have been reading back through my blog and I don't have as much detail on Judson as I would like. I like these little moments to be recorded. There's so much he does that I know I'm going to regret not remembering. Sorry, no pics.

A Tribute

This past week we lost something very dear to all of us. It was probably most special to Judson, but Darren and I were very attached also. It makes me very sad to say goodbye to Judson's Elmo hat, but we lost it at Target on Friday. We are sad to see Elmo go. It's been great having him around. Judson would never wear a hat before Elmo came along. After wearing Elmo for the first time, Judson would ask for the hat every time we went out. Elmo will be missed. Good thing the cold weather is now gone. But just to pay a special tribute, here are some pics of Judson in his favorite Elmo Hat... (it's the best $3 I've ever spent)

St. George

Our little excursion to St. George was so much fun. It was a very quick trip, but I think it was just what we needed. The drive down on Saturday was making me so mad. It was cloudy and snowy the whole time. I was really hoping that St George was sunny and warm, but I wasn't keeping my hopes too high. Well as soon as we headed down the mountain out of Cedar City the sky turned blue, the sun was out and it was beautiful. It was 60ish degrees on Saturday. On Sunday it got up into the 70's I'm sure. We had fun going to a park to play, shopping at the outlet mall, and exploring around the Red Cliffs area. It was so much fun and so good to be out in the sun. Judson loved hiking around the Red Cliffs. We saw a few lizards and a lot of rocks. Judson kept kicking them and picking them up. It was a good getaway.

Mini Vaca

So, we're going on an impromptu mini vacation this weekend. We were thinking about it and on Monday I low-balled a bid on Priceline for a hotel and got it. We leave for St George tomorrow morning. I wanted to go somewhere not too far away and hopefully warmer than it is here. I'm sick of this cold, ugly weather. It will be a fun quick trip. We're going to go to Zion National Park on the way down and then we'll play at the hotel and maybe swim. It will be nice to get away. It's General Conference so it's the perfect time to drive, listen to conference and not worry about Primary Classes or Judson not wanting to stay in Nursery. Sunday's are a bit stressful for me right now. I just want to relax. We're excited!! I hope everyone has a fun weekend!!!