Baking Day

Today is my first official baking day since moving in.  There is an aroma of banana bread spreading throughout the entire house, and surrounding homes, currently.  The next tasty treat on my to-bake list is pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  I could probably bake some chocolate chip cookies today too.  That might be way too many sweets in our house for just the three of us though.

My Christmas list has measuring cups as a top priority.  I would love to get a really nice set of stainless steal ones.  The current ones in our kitchen are okay, but the handle on one of them is falling off.  I think it was from the heat of the dishwasher.  Brand new measuring cups will make my baking days even more fun.  A cute apron from Flirty Apron's will too.

We are having a chill day in our household today.  Heath & Carleigh are out in the backyard working on the landscaping.  Carleigh is playing in the rocks while Heath does the hard labor.  I'd go out there and help, but I am busy watching the oven and getting ready to bake more tasty treats.  It will be so nice once the backyard is 100% done.

Work life is the same as always.  I'm back in training again and once I am proficient in my new skill, I can work a bunch of overtime.  I miss all of that extra money on my paychecks.  That overtime will be nice for Christmas too.  Carleigh has already started telling us what she wanted from Santa.  It's nothing crazy and over budget, thank goodness!

All Moved In

We are all moved into our new home.  We have been here almost two weeks now.  It's so nice to finally have a place of our own.  It doesn't feel like we live in Las Vegas anymore.  We are so far out from everything.  It's amazing.  The "nosiest" thing you hear out here is an airplane when they are on the flight path that skirts past our community.  We used to live two miles from the airport, so we used to hear a lot more airplane noise before.  Airplanes don't bother me at all.  So I guess we really don't have any noisy things out this way.  Unless you want to complain about the noisy crickets.

Our backyard was kept as a rock/dirt pile like a typical house out here.  Heath & I wanted to work on the backyard ourselves, but once we started digging back there, we realized how much of a mess it was.  Every time we would dig in one section, there were huge rocks.  I don't mind the smaller/average sized rocks, but some of these are big enough to throw at a window and bust it up.  We have decided to go the landscaper route.  We don't want to keep our backyard a pile of dirt and rocks.  We want some grass back there, especially with having a kid.  Carleigh needs a place to play.

There isn't much to really update, so I'll throw in some pictures of the interior of our home.  Our blinds have been ordered and will be installed once they are done.  Our windows are naked until later this week... I hope!

This is the entry way into our home.

Carleigh's bathroom.

Carleigh's bathroom counter area.

Walking down the hallway, into Carleigh's bedroom.

Kitchen.

Dining room.

Dishwasher and a corner of our kitchen island.

Fridge and pantry.

Sink & mirror of our downstairs bathroom.

Another shot of the downstairs bathroom.

Laundry room.  Huge thanks to my in-law's for the washer & dryer.  These appliances play a tune when your laundry is done.  It's so cool.

Living room.

The view you see once you come in the front door.  We have a very open floor plan downstairs.  We love it!

Going up the stairs towards the loft.  I plan on having a "second living room" up here in the near future.

Master bathroom counter.  We have a medicine cabinet on both sides.

Shower/tub area.

View of the master bedroom from the huge walk-in closet.

View of the master bedroom from the bathroom.

Carleigh going up the stairs.

Stove/microwave.

Third bedroom.  This will be a guest room until we decide to add baby #2.

Closing Day

We closed on our house yesterday.  It took about 30 minute to sign all of the paperwork.  It went so fast for us because I knew what each and every single piece of paperwork was since I am in the mortgage industry.  The only downside is that we didn't receive our keys after closing.  The lender was still trying to get the final amount to wire.  It took another 30 minutes after close to get that amount.  We rushed to Wells Fargo to wire the amount.  It was wired before the cut off, but the amount wasn't received until it was too late to fund our loan.  The loan will be funded and recorded on Monday.  We were told we will receive our keys by 4 or 5pm on Monday.  I hope it will be a little earlier than that though.

We planned on moving today, but we rescheduled our movers for Tuesday morning.  It really sucks because we were hoping to be in our house today.  The only positive out of moving on Tuesday is that Carleigh will be in daycare.  It will make the move a little smoother without having to chase after a three year old while the guys are loading/unloading the truck.  With a move date during the week, I won't have time to actually enjoy our new house until the weekend rolls around again.  I'll be working 10 hour days to make up for my missed day on Tuesday.

It is great to be at the very end of this stressful roller coaster ride finally.  After the crap we went through from almost the start of this purchase, I don't think we will buy another house again.  And if we do buy another house, it will be paid with in cash.  The chances of that happening are very slim though.

I'll make sure to update my blog as soon as we are settled into the house.  There will be plenty of interior pictures too.

Packing

Our weekend has been spent packing and cleaning everything out of our apartment.  Our close date will more than likely be on Friday, September 7.  It could be as early as Thursday, but we aren't going to have a moving company here until Saturday morning.  We had things packed up a few weeks ago, but now we are trying to finish up.  Heath & I both have tomorrow (Monday) off as well, so anything we don't finish today will be done tomorrow.

This morning, I took four bags of clothes and a box of toys to the donation center.  I cannot believe how much clothing piles up in our household.  A majority of it belongs to Carleigh.  We really need to get grandparent's under control on clothing.  I don't think Miss Carleigh needs twenty (20) different outfits for every season.

After all of this packing, I never want to move again.  We have accumulated so much stuff after Carleigh was born.  It makes it seem like this round of packing is taking much longer than it should.  Or maybe it feels like it is taking forever since the last time we moved was back in December 2009.

Once we get moved in, there won't be much time for relaxing.  Heath is taking a week and a half off to work on the landscaping in the backyard.  He will also be the fortunate one who gets to wait for Sears to come by and hookup the washer & dryer.  Lowe's will be out to measure our windows that same week (or day).  And, of course, we can't forget about the utility hookups.  I'll be working and unpacking once my work day is over.

I'll be so happy once everything is complete.  It will be nice to relax in our new home.  We busted our asses off for this house and we deserve to sit on our asses and enjoy it after everything is done.

Abandoned My Blog

There has been so much going on here, that I didn't have much time to update my blog.  We had a lot of stress with the house for a couple of weeks.  That wore me out.  I didn't feel like doing much of anything since I was working my insane amount of overtime too.  I'll save the house stuff for another blog.  I could write a book about it.  I will completely relax once the keys are in our hands, which should be around September 5th since our our close date was pushed back a bit.

My birthday was on Thursday.  Heath & I took Thursday & Friday off so we could celebrate.  On Thursday, Heath rented a Porsche Panamera for me.  It was a neat little car, but it had so much technology in it.  I didn't know what half the buttons in that car were for.  It was fun driving it up and down Las Vegas Blvd.

We stopped in Gold & Silver Pawn (where Pawn Stars is filmed) in the morning before heading down to Fremont Street.  They weren't filming the show, so we decided to check the place out.  They had a few things I'd love to purchase, but I'd need to win the lottery first.  Once we left the pawn shop, we went to Fremont Street.  It had been a really long time since we were last down there, so I wanted to hangout down there for awhile.  We did some gambling, but didn't win anything big.  Boo!

For lunch, we drove to the Stratosphere to have lunch at Top of the World.  It's the restaurant in the actual tower that overlooks the valley.  It also rotates.  We got a view of the entire valley within an hour.  I ordered the salmon BLT for lunch.  It was the best BLT ever!  We had a mini red velvet cake for dessert.  For two meals, dessert and a few drinks, the bill wasn't that expensive.  Definitely going to go back there for dinner some night and enjoy some wine too.

After lunch, we headed over the to outdoor premium outlets not far from the Stratosphere.  I found a Dooney & Bourke outlet store.  I had to go in there and raid the store.  I love their purses, but rarely ever buy them because of the price.  I found a new purse in there that was half off.  Since it was less than $100 for it (after the discount was taken) I bought it.

On Friday, Heath & I went to Mount Charleston to get away from the Las Vegas heat.  It was a cool 70 degrees with rain in the forecast.  We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the lodge and had fried cheesecake for dessert.  Yes, you read that right.  Fried cheesecake.  Once we were done with lunch, we hiked on one of the trails.  It was so relaxing and the views were beautiful.  It started to rain on our way back down, so we had to end our hiking a little early.  We can hike another trail whenever we have time to go up again.  We don't go hiking anymore since Carleigh is too little.  Some of the trails up there are a little strenuous and I don't think it's a good idea to take a three year old in tow.

The rest of our weekend will be spent relaxing before going back to work.  It was nice to finally take time off for a little vacation.  The only other time I have off from work is when I am sick and curled up watching TV. So it was really great to get away from work to do something fun.  I hope there is overtime available on my return so I can collect a lot more money again.

I'll end my long post with some pictures from Top of the World & Mount Charleston.

Rainy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!

Our weather is absolutely lovely today.  We have rain moving through the valley and it has cooled us down from the 105 degree days we were having.  The temperature is sitting at 77 degrees with a light breeze.  The smell of fresh air and rain is relaxing.  I am excited to have our A/C off in July.  We can thank our monsoon season.  I hope the rest of our rainy/storm days are like this.  I'm not sure if we can get that lucky though.  We would love to pay a little less to the energy company before we move into our house.

My parent's were in town last weekend for Carleigh's third birthday celebration.  They got into Las Vegas after 6pm on Friday, so we didn't do too much with them that night.  We brought Carleigh to the hotel to play with them.  Saturday was a big running around day.  We took my parent's out to our house to show them the progress and our soon-to-be neighborhood.  We drove them out to the community that had our house as a model home.  My parent's really enjoyed it and can't wait to visit us when our house is complete.

We had a little birthday celebration at our apartment for Carleigh on Saturday afternoon as well.  She picked out an Angry Birds cake from Sam's Club.  It was a delicious cake and we will definitely order more from them.  Carleigh received a lot of new clothing.  My parent's bought her 21 new outfits.  A few of those included pajamas, but you get the picture.  She is very spoiled.

Later in the evening on Saturday, we went out to Lake Las Vegas to watch the fireworks.  They had their show on the 30th.  The firework show was amazing.  I took some pictures of the show and they came out good for a simple little point and shoot camera.  All I did was upload them to the computer and haven't gotten around to editing them yet.

Carleigh was excited to see fireworks, but once the show began, she freaked out.  She was crying and chewing on her finger.  Heath took her up towards the casino area to help her relax.  Once the show was over, she felt better and told us the fireworks were too loud.  Poor thing.  I hope she will enjoy fireworks for the next Independence Day celebration.

On Monday, my parent's wanted to go to the M&M Store before heading out.  We spent at least an hour there.  Carleigh was in love.  She loves the M&M characters.  I found an M&M bathroom set on clearance and bought the set for her bathroom at the new house.

I have overtime available at work again.  Tuesday was really hard on me because it was my Monday.  I went into work at 5am and was ready to fall asleep by noon.  Of course today is a holiday, so no work.  Then it's back to work tomorrow and Friday at 5am!  I hate these screwy weeks.  It's no fun when a holiday falls mid-week.  My body will be back to its regular schedule by Monday.  That's when I'll really kill it with the overtime hours.  Our bank account will love us.

A recent picture (from Saturday) to end the blog.  The house should have the exterior painted by this Saturday.  Oh and I should add, Saturday is our five year wedding anniversary!  Time flies...!  We don't have any big plans yet.  Heath & I agreed on having a nice dinner at home with some wine.  Keeping it simple.

Guess Who's Turning Three

Carleigh is turning three years old on Wednesday.  It's hard to believe she's going to be three already.  She wanted a Super Mario Brothers cake, but she ended up with an Angry Birds cake instead.  We couldn't remember which store had the Mario cake, and we couldn't find that design in any of the store books when we went back.  This afternoon, we took Carleigh over to Sam's Club and told her to pick out something she likes from them.  The second she saw their Angry Bird cake, she wanted it and refused to look at any others.  We plan to go bowling for Carleigh's birthday party on Saturday.  My parent's are coming into town to celebrate the big three.  My mom told me she bought Carleigh 21 new outfits.  I think that's a bit extreme, but if she wants to buy that much clothing, that's her decision.  As of right now, I bought Carleigh an Angry Bird shirt and a stuffed Mario.  We gave her the Mario yesterday as an early present since she saw us buy it.  I'm going to go over to Walmart tomorrow or Tuesday and buy a couple of Leap Frog books for Carleigh's Leap Frog Tag.

It's been over a month since my last update, so I will post a picture of our house progress.  The exterior is almost complete.  The windows were installed last week.

Our estimated date of close is August 17, one day after my birthday.  I really hope that stays as our closing date so I can feel like I am getting a house for my birthday.  We saw our future neighbor's looking at their home on Saturday too.  They have a little girl who looks to be maybe a year old than Carleigh.  Our house will be completed before theirs.  If I remember correctly, their house is about three weeks behind ours.

I'm going to try to keep this blog up-to-date.  I need to stop being lazy.