Settling in. It's been a long time coming.

What a summer! We were SO grateful for Kevin to find an awesome job.  We're glad that it is the sort of company he wants to stay with for the long run. He says everyone seems to switch from contractor to Air Force, but they often get to stay on the same team working in the same place.

Once he'd made sure he loved his job we started the house hunt. We found a fantastic realtor who helped us find the perfect mortgage company that worked miracles to find us a great loan. The whole situation makes me grateful that Kevin and I have great credit. It would have taken us probably 2 or 3 additional months to top off the down payment if we didn't qualify for this neat program.

I was eager to find a place closer to Kevin's work so he could be home more. I know a lot of people have LONG commutes, but for us 45 minutes each way was too much. I was also excited to be in my own space. We have awesome family that let us crash when we needed it most, but we were excited to be independent again :) (See previous post about our rough year if you missed it.)

We came up with a list of what we wanted in a home. It was like Christmas! I mostly came up with the list and Kevin signed off on everything, adding a couple of his own preferences. He is laid back enough that he just wanted somewhere comfortable and left the technicalities up to me.

Our realtor sent us several homes in the area we were looking for. When I saw picture of this home I knew pretty much right off the bat that it would be ours. Part of me was bummed that I didn't get to spend days touring homes and looking at pictures of rooms, but the other part was grateful that it was SO obvious where we needed to be.

It fit everything we were looking for. After reading "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up"  and falling in love with the konmari method, we decided that we would rather have a really nice house than a really large house. Thanks to konmari we rid ourselves of probably half of our stuff and found a gorgeous home that might have felt too small with all of the junk I've been carting around for years. LOVE!

The neighborhood is quiet and it is less than 3 miles to Kevin's building on base. We are close to everything. All my favorite Provo stores are within 10 minutes and the Layton Hills Mall is less than 15 minutes away. There are several parks within minutes drive and one is only 5 blocks away! After worrying that we'd been "forgotten" for so long and left to struggle along it feels surreal for things to fall into place like this!

For those of you who have asked, here are some photos now that we are settled in! 

So glad to have a place for my chair that is AWAY from daily kid wear and tear!

 Family Room. We only keep one ottoman of toys in here so it is actually staying pretty clean! YAY!

 There are a few things on the "to get" list. Here we want one of those nest chairs since this is our reading nook.

 This is the playroom and the only reason the rest of the house is staying decently clean. There is a bathroom just off this room so it is a perfect area for Evelyn to play! It will be evern better when we figure out a storage system and can get the toys out of their moving boxes for good.

 Look at those closets! Pre-konmari they would have been to die for. I don't need nearly as much space for my clothes now, but I do still love having the room!

I love my kitchen :)

The yard is small, but we LOVE it! 

 Thanks heavens it is fully fenced. Evelyn LOVES to go out back and play and I am so glad she can!

It is wonderful to have a place to call our own after so long. I'll be turning thirty in a couple of months and this is a great way to start the next decade. I've spent the last 10 years living the college life and I am ready to live this life now. The kiddos keep me on my toes, but it is nice to have fewer stressors than I have had with school/work/job hunt. Bring it on :)

It is a good day to be grateful!