2014 was a big year for us.
We started off the year looking into homes to buy in Teton Valley. Perk was loving his job in Jackson Hole and winter had just started to really settle in. I had Abby in gymnastics and Anna was taking judo. I felt like life was "settling in".
With all the snow in the valley, we spent a lot of time on the slopes at Grand Targhee. I took Abby skiing, just the two of us a few times and loved hanging out on the bunny hill, just me and her. Anna received ski lessons and by the end of the 6 weeks she taught me to ski the trees and showed me just how athletic she can really be. What an amazing skier she turned out to be the very first ski season she had!
Autumn was doing great in school and had a great circle of friends. I rarely worried about her, but knew this small town was making her feel a bit claustrophobic. She was taking college credit classes her senior year in high school and was excited to graduate. Something she wasn't sure was going to happen prior to her deciding to come live with us.
In February (Valentines weekend!!) we put an offer in on a short sale home. We called in the Grandma home because of all the wallpaper in EVERY ROOM! It was a neat home with a ton of equity potential. Just needed to be updated a bit but had a great floor plan and sat on an amazing large lot with great views of the "big hole" mountains. We sat for months getting very little updates.
We knew going into a short sale it could take MONTHS, we knew this. And come late April/early May we decided that if something better was to come along, we would change directions. Well a home for sale by owner finally opened up in the neighborhood I had been watching that was in our price range. I fell in love with the neighborhood since the weekend we moved to Victor and had kept an eye on the real estate market in the area. Just hoping something would list. It was an ideal neighborhood to raise a family. LOTS of kids, friendly, pretty. We walked the home, got in the car and then got back out of the home and put an offer in to the owners. After a bit of negotiating, they accepted and we had turned papers into the title company.
In March we found out we were expecting our third (and last) baby. It was planned, but I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. We had left it open to "if it happens, it happens and is meant to be". I remember laying in bed one night, a few months into trying and saying "God, if it's going to happen it needs to happen now. I'm going to be 40 next year and can't wait any longer". About a week later I was laying down and for some reason put my hands on my stomach and just had a feeling that it was going to happen if it hadn't already. About 2 weeks later we found out.
THEN came the news that Chris's work had a promotion available. With a week he accepted it and our lives would now take us BACK to Utah. We had to tell the sellers that we could no longer buy their home. I was sad. The house was beautiful and I felt bad that both families had their hopes up on buying/selling the home.
Autumn decided to stay the summer in Teton Valley with her girlfriend where they could both work the summer at the Jackson Hole Airport. I cried the day I dropped her off. She was MINE for the past year and I felt like I was giving her up, she is truly part of our family (she came back to UT in September and lives with her mom again).
By June we were packing the house we called home for the last year and getting ready to head back to Salt Lake. During the packing, Chris and I had discussed buying a home in an area that would remind us somewhat of Teton Valley. Heber, anything on the east bench of Utah county, Mountain Green, and of course east Davis county. We spent a weekend prior to the move driving around those areas, looking at homes, and one by one cancelling them out. We kept the Davis County option on the table, knowing we would love the area if nothing else came up.
But something else did come up.
Mountain Green.
Where the heck is that? I get asked that all the time. Weber Canyon. Where? Morgan County. Where? Did people not take Utah studies in junior high? I end up saying "think the very north tip of Layton, then drive east for 10 minutes".
The area is just lovely. Small town, tucked behind the mountains, close to the ski resorts and lakes. It's close enough to Ogden that I don't feel so isolated (I felt so confined in Teton Valley because of the hour drive it would take to get to any large city), yet it's up the canyon just far enough that you feel you are really out of the city.
We found a builder, a lot and a floor plan we loved and decided to build. That changed things. I had packed the house up thinking we would be staying at my mom's for 30, maybe 60 days while we found a home and closed on it. Now we were looking at months. Thankfully my mother is kind enough to let us stay that long. Cat and dog included and new baby to follow in the fall.
The good news is that the home would be built in 4 months. The bad news is that building permits in Morgan County take 3-4 JUST FOR APPROVAL!! That meant EIGHT months at my mom's. Oh wait. That didn't include the THREE additional months it took for us to go to the design center THREE times, submit additional corrections and of course the typical back and forth we had with our sales person.
During all this Anna started 3rd grade and Abby started preschool. I was home with my mom, still working just a few hours each day for my previous employer. We had settled in the best we could
Chris was adjusting to his new position and my mom retired from the workforce. I think the timing of everything was part of God's plan. We helped transition my mom from working full time to being home full time, and in November we welcomed our little Olivia Lee. My mom has been amazing helping us out with getting the kids off to school. I'm not sure how I would have done all of it with a newborn had it not been for her. Chris works some crazy hours sometimes and having my mom around to help has been a true blessing.
2014 wrapped up with the holidays which I think my mom enjoyed from an 8 and 5yr olds perspective. We also got a call in late December that the county had FINALLY approved our building permit and that early January would be the start of our home! Our permit was submitted early October, so 2 months wait was much better than the 4 we thought it would be! That call made the chaos of living in a home with 4 dogs (my mom has 3) and 3 cats (my mom has 2) not seem so overwhelming and never ending. THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE CROWDED TUNNEL!! :)
When you go for months not hearing much on updates from the home, you start to lose site of what you're really doing there. There are times I wish we could have just gone back to our old Layton home (which we still have as a rental property). It would have been easier for sure, but with a new baby the house is just too small for us. We fell in love with the small town feel and mountains in Teton Valley and Mountain Green offers that. Chris gets his mountains and close proximity to the ski resorts, and I get my city amenities within 10 minutes.
Our 2014 was busy and full of ups and downs. I'm so excited to see what 2015 brings. Abby will start kindergarten, Anna is looking forward to being baptized, and the house we've been dreaming about for months will finally be a reality!
Happy 2015!
