Look out Warren Buffett!

We are officially in the real estate game! We bought our first investment property. This has been our dream since college and a result of planning/sacrifice and a great partner in Josh's mom. We are pretty luck to have her and her ability to see Josh's vision. She is as excited as we are.

We didn't think we would hear so fast about the property we made an offer on, it is bank-owned and the banks are usually the slowest in accepting offers. Plus they started jerking us around on Friday with a weird kind of bidding war. But Josh stuck to his offer and they accepted! It's a pretty scary... I didn't want to get excited about it because it is such a great deal and I didn't want to be disappointed. The risk is high, but it's easier for me to handle because I have never seen Josh so excited. He loves home improvement and is looking forward to getting in there and gutting the place. It needs work. But after the renovations we've done in our own homes we feel ready to tackle it. The inspector comes in this week and I hope there is nothing major. If it goes smoothly we will close in like two weeks. We plan on renting it out. Here are some pics, it looks awful but remember it's all cosmetic!


Upstairs bedroom with laminate wood floors (needs new paint)










One of the baths, that wallpaper is awesome right?










Family room with burnt orange shag carpet!










Kitchen...paint and new appliances.

The house is quiet...

...the boys are at church and Cash is asleep in his swing. Josh and I agreed to keep Cash home from church, for now. Church is one place I have a hard time stopping people from touching my brand new baby. I have never had a newborn during cold and flu season and perhaps I am a little paranoid about germs. I remember when Cole was 6 months old and got the flu. He threw up so much that he lost 5 lbs! There is nothing worse than a sick baby, you can't tell them that they need to stay hydrated or they are going to end up in the ER with an IV in their little hand/arm.

Cole and Finn were up/showered/fed/dressed by 9:30 a full hour and a half before church. No thanks to me. My Heaven-sent-husband did all the "heavy lifting" this morning. Josh is just as tired as I am after a rough night with Cash. A night in which Josh awoke with me at each feeding and tickled my back as I nursed Cash (I didn't ask him too, that's just how thoughtful he is). A night when Cash had a huge blow-out that Josh changed on his side of the bed resulting in yellow poop all over his side of the sheets. I came downstairs this morning to find the boys looking very respectable (not always the case when daddy dresses them, he picks the weirdest outfits sometimes) listening to Chopin and eating breakfast.

I just want it on record so that if/when things get rocky I can remember my amazing husband and his true Christ-like example in my life. He loves his family so much and is the hardest-working man I have ever known. Thank you babe for what you do for me and our children.

Twilighting

Just got home from seeing the 10:00 am showing of "Twilight." The theatre was packed, why aren't kids in school? A lot of teens who actually cheered and clapped. Perhaps their excitement rubbed off on me. I really enjoyed the movie. I can say I rarely like books-turned-movies, the book is always better. I have to say that was not the case for "Twilight" I think the screenplay was even better than the book. Sorry to the "Twi-hard" fans. Stephenie Meyers is great and I love her creativity and imagination but I think her books become repetitive and stale. The movie had to cut for time so a lot of the repetition was removed. I found the writing to be witty (especially between Bella and her friends and Bella and her dad) and the casting was spot on. Of course Edward on screen will never be like Edward in your dreams but Robert Pattison was beautiful and I cannot wait to see him in "New Moon." I have always loved Kristin Stewart and was impressed by her ability to carry the movie.


Before you "Twi-hards" murder me remember that this is just my humble opinion.

***ADDED*****
This pic is LOL funny to me. This is my cousin Daniel (red hair) who read the book cause he wanted to know what the hype is about. He read it all over Provo like in waiting rooms and on busses. Women would come up to him and just gush about how they loved seeing a man read the book. Anyway, he took his mom and bro to the midnight showing. These are their shirts. I love his the most.

Size matters...

not in that way, Libbie get your mind out of the gutter. No I am talking about matters of size. A baby makes you reflect on size not just in the physical sense but in the evaluation of what's important in my life. Here are a few examples.

Physical: Finn is not my baby anymore. He is huge! He takes up 3/4 of his crib now and when I change his diaper I might as well be changing an old man's diaper when compared to the newborn swaddlers on Cash.

Metaphysical: How big is it if I bathe Finn in the sink after an explosive diaper because I am too exhausted to walk upstairs?















Physical: Cash is my BIGGEST baby, yet, he is too small to fit into newborn clothes let alone the 0-3 months hand-me-downs from his big brothers.
















Metaphysical: It is no small thing the love you can feel for someone you've only known for a week.

Physical: My belly is so big that people on the street are still asking me when I am due.

Metaphysical: I have three little boys, did you get that? THREE LITTLE BOYS! I get to raise boys that WILL become stripling warriors, serving missions and taking brides to the temple. The magnitude of that blessing/burden is ginormous! I feel so blessed to look upon my little family and realize that this is my eternity. Yes, there will be additions down the road, but for the next 18 years this is us moving forward!

A wonderful Saturday afternoon!

Of course I am referring to the 16 hour labor that ended Saturday, November 8th at 4:00 pm with the birth of Cassius Opal Saunders. He was by far the longest and most difficult labor of all the boys which can be attributed to his size 8 lbs 11 ounces and the enormity of his head 15 inches (the average newborn's head is 12). I say it was the longest and most difficult for me but in retrospect I only pushed for 6 minutes which seems like an eternity (I only pushed twice Cole and Finn) and though labor was 16 hours, contractions only lasted 6 and I had a great big epidural to help me out!




I am relieved to be unpregnant! I haven't thrown up once since he was born and I no longer feel like I am going to die during childbirth! Of course I am still a weepy mess (thank you hormones) and I forgot how little sleep a new mommy gets. However, I am so grateful to have a healthy baby and I feel so much hope and excitement moving forward with my new little family. Since this is our final baby I have been particularly sentimental and manical in my photojournalism of this event. Sorry for so many pics, I couldn't help myself.

Get this baby out of me...

MOM DON'T READ THIS, IT'S NOT VERY LADY-LIKE

I don't want to sound ungrateful. I feel blessed to be able to carry children and birth healthy babies, but for me it takes an incredible toll on my mind and body. Lately our home life has been pretty disrupted by my frequent teary outbursts and insane fear of dying during labor and delivery.

Josh went with me to my appt yesterday, I think he wanted to make sure that I didn't put on a brave face for the doctor, don't worry I didn't. I broke down into a hysterical tear-soaked rant about having a giant 12 pound baby and a brain aneurism and dying. You see I have this fear that since my first two labors were so short and easy that this one is going to be terrible. I've had it to easy and I am petrified that while pushing I will have a stroke or aneurism and die. I am not irrational, I have never had that kind of fear and now it is so real I can taste it. I don't sleep at night and like I said, I cry a lot during the day. Doc was great. His solution, AMBIEN. He said I needed to get some sleep, that not sleeping can make things seem a lot worse. Hearing this helped a little and after a full 8 hours of wakeless sleep last night I do feel better. However, after my exam (cervix check,etc) he said "trust me this baby is probably just going to fall out." I don't know if that was an insult to my vagina or him trying to make me feel better. It's not very often that your ob/gyn calls you "loose."

We did the mash, we did the monster mash!

So my favorite time of the year culminates at our annual couples party! We have a great group of friends and an evening of fine food and fun. Josh loves games (duh he's Mr. competitive!) We give out prizes for costumes,but this year we wanted people motivated to really go for it so we upped the prize to be gift cards! Next year we are going to try and up the ante even more by giving out awesome hotel stays to those who really get into costume.

We are at a loss because we thought of at least 6 other couples we would love to include. We may have to move the shindig to a hotel but we might try next year to do the games down in the basement.

My favorite part was the entertainment. I had set out in August to find performers and such only to realize that I have the most talented friends around. So my talend and gracious friends performed the crap out of some great theatre pieces and my scary story readers entertained the crowd with gut-busting horror and terror! Next year I really want to hire a fortune teller, how do you find a fortune teller?

Brace yourself for more Holiday revelry! Putting together a little glimpse of our Haunted Mansion!