79 days!

Well it’s been a while since I updated this thing so I guess here goes!! :)

The past 5 weeks have been SO incredibly busy for Dev and I!! Not only are we only 79 days from the wedding, we have been renovating our new home, and trying to enjoy the hit or miss summer weather!! J This summer has been NUTS here in Utah! We have got more rain than anything, so it definitely doesn’t seem like there are only 79 days left before September 10 rolls around! It still feels like spring, not just a week from JULY!!!

The progress on our house is AMAZING!! It doesn't even look like the same house we initially bought!! We have painted the entire downstairs a really nice, khaki color with bright white floorboards and doors. We have also refinished the cabinets in the kitchen! PHEW!!! Let me just tell ya, that was exhausting!!! LOL! We started the FIRST weekend we had the keys, and JUST finished staining last weekend!!! We aren't even 100% done yet, as we need to add the poly euro thane topcoat! We have painted the master bedroom, and I HOPE to move in to the main bathroom next weekend, then our master!!! J I can’t wait to have the house 100% completely finished!! But as my mom keeps telling me, “a home owners work is NEVER done”.. I think she is absolutely right with that one! LOL!! I will take some pictures this weekend, and get them posted next week!! I kinda slacked, and forgot to take lots of pics before we painted, and moved in furniture.. But I think you will all get the point of how PLAIN the house was when we first moved in! It’s been so nice having a blank pallet, and being able to put OUR stamp on our house!! It’s been lots of fun, and has definitely brought Dev and I closer together! J

Well, as you can see from the headline, we only have 79 more days till the “I DO’S” will be exchanged!! And I CANNOT wait!!! J I have never been more ready, or more excited for anything in my entire life! We have had wedding planning put on hold for the past few weeks as we have been completely consumed with house renovations.. But we began working on the wedding again this past week!! Dev and I had our engagements taken on May 28 by my fabulous soon to be brother- in – law, Steve Arnoldus, and we got to proof them and narrow the 516 pictures down to 163!! LOL! We started May 28 at Wheeler Farm, moved on to downtown Magna, then ended the day at the Great Salt Lake.. WOW.. We were all over the valley, but got some AMAZING shots!!! Steve did a great job!! I’ll give a sneak peek, and post some of my favorites at the bottom! We’ve also bought the ring bearer vests/ties, and the flower girl dresses! Dev has 13 (yes 13.. lol) nieces and nephews! So we are using as many of the kiddos as we can in the wedding!!! In other words, we are having 3 ring bearers (awesome Tanner, Brennan, and Logan), and 4 flower girls (adorable Kayla, Briley, Kensley, and Hannah). The boys are gonna be in black pants, with a white long sleeved button up shirt, and Dev and I bought super cute fuschia vests, with ties for all the boys! The little girls are gonna wear awesome fuchsia dresses, with a black band around the waist and a big fuchsia flower! I can’t wait to see the kids all dressed up! J Its gonna be awesome!!! We are also using Shalyee, and Tyler (the oldest kids) for our greeters/gift police.. LOL! They are gonna direct the guests, and help out! We figured this would be an awesome way to get them involved, and let them feel “grown up”. Ty is gonna wear a fuchsia tie with black pants and a white button up (to match the younger boys, but with a more grown up twist ;) ), and we are taking Shaylee shopping to pick out her outfit! J My sisters have got their bridesmaid dresses ordered! And they are very similar to each other’s, but different at the same time to showcase their individuality and personalities. They are both about knee length, black, and strapless! J My moms is a long, black, silky dress, with one shoulder strap and beading on the shoulder, and opposite hip! SUPER PRETTY!! Everyone is gonna look so great! I can’t wait to see it all come together!! We have an appointment next Wednesday with an invitation lady to work that out (the hard part is gonna be picking the pictures to put on the invite since there’s SO many amazing shots).

2 weeks ago we celebrated my youngest sisters 19^th birthday! And this weekend we are celebrating my middle sisters 22^nd birthday! YAHOO!! Such fun times!! J Both my sisters are the absolute best! My AWESOME family is also throwing me my first bridal shower this weekend!! I can’t wait to get together, and see everyone!! It should be really fun!!

I’ll be sure to post more pictures next week of the house, birthday celebrations, and my bridal shower! For now I’ll leave you with a sneak peek at the engagement pictures!! Enjoy your weekend!!! J

 At Wheeler Farm! :)

 Downtown Magna! Dev calls this one a "CK one Jeans ad".. LOL!

 Great Salt Lake! That robot was AWESOME!

 LOVE HIM SO MUCH!! :)

It's official!

Well.... Its official!!

Devin and I closed on our house yesterday afternoon!!! We are now officially homeowners!! We are SO very excited!! The previous homeowners are closing this morning at 9, and then moving the rest of their stuff out! Tommorrow we will head over to OUR new house, and start doing work!! We are going to refinish the cabinets in the kitchen and each bathroom, paint, clean the carpet and get things set up!! YAY!!! Before and After pictures will be put up with each new room we finish!! :)

170 hours! :)

Approximately 170 hours from now Devin and I will be officially closing on our first house!!! We are SO excited!! We can’t wait to get the keys, and start to work on the house to put our print on it and make it ours! J

Coincidentally enough, that same day marks officially 4 months till the wedding! J It’s going to be 4 busy, chaotic, fun filled months!!

Stay posted for “before” and “after” pictures of the house!!

Thoughts

 This first picture reminded me of my Great Grandpa and Grandma Orr.. :)

My AWESOME Aunt Paula sent out an email today with some super cute pictures/quotes, I decided to share my three favorites!! :) There was also a really great poem in the email.. Kinda makes ya think about the value of the people in your life, and how your time is spent!

To realize
the value of a sister/brother
ask someone
who doesn't have one.
To realize
the value of ten years:
ask a newly
divorced couple.
To realize
the value of four years:
ask a graduate.

To realize
the value of one year:
ask a student who
has failed a final exam.

To realize
the value of nine months:
ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
the value of one month:
ask a mother
who has given birth to a premature  baby..

To realize
the value of one minute:
ask a person
who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
the value of one-second:
ask a person
who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.
treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:
LOSE ONE.

BIG NEWS!!!

Last Wednesday my AMAZING Great-Aunt Georgia took Devin and I to a house that was put on the market on March 30^th. We walked in to the house, and INSTANTALY fell in love!! This was exactly what we were looking for!! There was just one problem, this house was initially listed as more than what we wanted to spend.. Georgia thought we could bring the price down to meet our limit.. We thought this was GREAT!! We took my parents, and sister Jenny, as well as Devin’s dad Crae over again Thursday night to look over the house, make sure everything was in great shape, and tell us what they think!! They all thought the house was just as great as we initially thought!! At that point the fam members left, and Devin, Georgia and I sat down and came up with what we thought was a reasonable offer!! About $5000 less than their asking price, AND closing costs.. We thought it might be a long shot, but were prepared to make another offer if they chose to counter cuz we LOVED this house and had to have it!! J

Devin and I got home that night, and my Dad let us know as they were leaving he had a nice chat with the neighbor who let him know that the owners of the house are going through a divorce, and really need to get out ASAP, so they are tempted to even just walk away from the house!! With that being said I hurried up and called Georgia to let her know this new info! We adjusted our offer (even LOWER than before) signed all the paperwork to make our FIRST OFFICIAL offer, and Georgia submitted it to the sellers realtor Friday afternoon!!!

Well, after waiting a LOOOOOOOOOONG Friday night.. We got a call from Georgia Saturday at about 10:45 in the morning (luckily Devin was at my house already cuz we were going to Costco.. lol) and the first thing she said once I picked up was….. “Congratulations, you are the proud owners of your first home”!!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! I instantly started to cry (of course.. lol), and the rest of the day Dev and I were on cloud 9!! We couldn’t believe they accepted our initial offer, with no counter, and that we now have our first home!! Our PERFECT home!!! We close on May 11, and we will get the keys 48 hours after that!! We CAN NOT wait to get in the house and start putting our own personal touches in!! We are lucky enough to have already bought furniture that our awesome family members have let us store at their houses, and odds and ends for bathrooms, kitchen, etc.

Here is a picture of the outside of our new awesome house!!!

The house is soooo cute inside, and adorable outside with an amazing front and back yard!! The back yard even comes with a hot tub! WAHOOOO!! LOL.. The house is a tri-level, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs! Our master bedroom has an AWESOME walk in closet, and master bathroom with a jetted tub!! J The house has vaulted ceilings, and tons of room (over 2200 sq footage).. The basement isn’t finished yet, so this will be a project for us to work on over the next few years! The house is pretty much a blank canvas for us to do whatever we want with. The walls are all WHITE! We are going to paint, and add some other “upgrades” over the next couple months before the wedding so we can come home to our amazing home!!! J

We can’t wait to get the keys so we can take everyone over to check out our FIRST HOME! J Especially my other sister Danielle who JUST got home from Virginia after being gone for FOREVER!! LOL.. We couldn’t have been any luckier with the way this whole experience played out for us!! And we are extremely grateful for Georgia, and our families help along the way!!

This past week! :)

This past week has been a HUGE week for Devin and I! And a very exciting week at that!! Last Wednesday we received our preapproval notice for our mortgage loan!! This was SUPER exciting!!! That night we got in contact with our fabulous realtor (my great-aunt) Georgia (anyone ever looking to buy/sell I would  HIGHLY recommend Georgia!). We told her what we are looking for in a house, and the areas we would like to be in. She went straight to work, found a bunch of awesome houses, and took us out looking all day Saturday, which also happened to be Dev and my anniversary! J This was SO MUCH FUN!!!! I always knew looking at houses would be a blast, but it was even better than I imagined!! We narrowed this weekend down to one house we like, but since this was our first weekend out looking, we didn’t wanna jump the gun! We are gonna go out a couple more times with Georgia to look at some more houses, and HOPEFULLY we will have OUR first home by June or July!! Sooooo exciting to see how mine and Dev’s life together is progressing, and all the wonderful things that have already happened, and that are still ahead!!

Later Saturday night, Dev and I went out to the George Strait/Reba Mcintire concert to celebrate our anniversary.. J This was such a GREAT night!! The concert was absolutely amazing, and the company was even better.. Its always fun to get to have a date night with just me n my man!! Haha.. Here are a few pics from the concert!!

  Me n my LOVE! :)

 Reba singing her encore Fancy! Came out in a taxi!

 The KING, George Strait :)

Almost a YEAR! :)

As Devin and I are approaching our official, 1 year anniversary on April 2, we keep looking back at how much has changed over the past year! Most of the change has happened for the better, and we couldn’t be happier with where we are right now, and the people in our lives. We are REALLY looking forward to our future together, and many, many more years to come!!

Currently Devin and I are planning for our September wedding! We have SO much already planned, and taken care of thanks to our awesome families, and friends (my mom in particular).. J We are getting so close to the big day! We can’t wait to finally be married, and start our own family!! Just over 5 months till I can officially call myself Mrs. Devin Baker!! YAY!! J

Devin and I went last Friday and started the pre-approval process, so we can start looking for our dream house! We can’t wait to actually go out and start looking at houses. Internet browsing is fun, but I DEFINITELY can’t wait for the real thing! The realization that we could have our OWN house in the next couple of months is extremely exciting!!! We have been planning and preparing for this for a while now.. We already have all new furniture bought, and paid for! It’s all just being stored till we have our house to move in to!! We are having so much fun finding new things to decorate the house with, I am left with barely any room in my bedroom, OR closet from storing so much!! Haha.. It’s about time we find our perfect starter home so we can put all our new stuff to use!!