WELCOME!!

I officially want to welcome all who got our Christmas card and is checking out our "ultimate Christmas letter"!

To my faithful readers who didn't get a card (which I would like you all to know that MOST of you didn't get a card), I need to bring you "up to date"... Every year I write a Christmas letter to send to my friends and family to let them know what is going on in our family and how the kids are doing. This year I decided not to write one and instead gave them this website. Therefore the reason for the "official" welcome.

I was thinking of giving a quick run on updates here...but then you might not check out the rest of the blog! I did mention that the one major thing that went on in our lives before I started this blog was we purchased our own home. Here's the story on our home...

We had a set of things we were looking for in a house. (Our realtor, after the fact, told us that he really didn't think we were going to find everything we were looking for.) Jeff and I started praying before we even began looking at homes that God would lead us to the right one and that he would close the doors to any that weren't right for us. Along the way there were a couple of houses that we looked at seriously and they didn't pan out, but neither of them had all we were looking for but we were willing to compromise. God saw something better and closed the doors and we ended up getting it "all"!

• Cul-de-sac
• 3 car garage
• a decent size yard
• at least 4 bedrooms
• a good floor plan, so we could have a "school room"
• nice neighborhood
• 2000+ square feet

Our home, was a foreclosure, so we got a great deal on it. We were ready to make an offer and Jeremy, our realtor, called to make sure that it was still on the market and they had just lowered the price by another $10,000. A wonderful blessing! Because it was a foreclosure it wasn't in the best of shape but it was in a lot better shape then a lot of the foreclosed homes we looked at. The main problem was the carpet. It was NASTY! It was stained and it made the whole house stink. So we ended up replacing all the flooring, except the kitchen's wooden floors, and we repainted the whole house. Jeff and I laid laminate flooring on the main floor, and we had carpet laid in the upstairs and the basement.

Our home, with the old carpet ready to be picked up and the trim out being painted.

The living room, facing out front.

The stairway.

The dining "room".

The "school" room.

The basement, that we are going to finish.

You can see our finished steps that go from main floor to school room HERE.

I'm sure you have now heard plenty on our new home.


We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!