House Hunting!!

So we have been looking at houses around here for a while, and we decided it was a good time for us to buy with the $8000 tax credit, low interest rates and low housing prices here (like combining coupons, hahha). Anyway, it has been crazy and busy and stressful, but we have been having so much fun with it. We found a realtor who was recommended to us by my sister-in-law's friend who works around here. We decided to buy in Athens area, because they have way more of a choice of houses and the resell value will probably be higher when the time comes.  So anyway, today we decided which house we liked the best and the winner was:

It is a brand new house with 2315 square feet. It has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and an unfinished bonus room. It is in a large subdivision with lots of more expensive homes so that is good.

Here is my favorite part!! The shower in the master bathroom, I wish I would have taken a better picture, but it is beautiful!! It is real tile, very pretty...

Here is the bathtub with the cool frosty window and behind the tub is the side of the shower. I like the ledge by the tub too.

When I took these pictures I wasn't planning on posting them, so I kind of took pics of stuff I wanted to remember. The funky light fixture is in the extra sitting area in the master bedroom and the fan light fixture with the trey ceiling is in the master bedroom main area.

This is the kitchen. It will come with black appliances, except we have to buy a fridge, boo... we also have to buy blinds with this house. But I really like the kitchen too. These are granite counter tops and it has a tile backsplash thing.

Here is another view of the kitchen. It is an eat in kitchen with area to put a table, but I don't think I got a picture of that.

Here is the dining room, very pretty wainscoating...

Here is where our tv will be mounted. It is a marble fireplace as well.

This is the extra bathroom with a tile floor.

This is the unfinished bonus room and to the right is a picture of what it could look like if we finished it (It was in a different house that had it finished). We are putting an offer on this house as soon as we sign the paperwork, at least by Monday. We are so excited to see what happens:)

2nd choice

Above is our second choice of house if our first offer isn't accepted, or we can't reach an agreement on the price of the first. We really love this house, but it is 1706 sq ft compared to the 2315 of the first, so that is why we decided on the other one. This house is in a cul-de-sac which we really like too. It has a beautiful deck and a yard, but the house is just a little smaller than what we were hoping for. Here are some more pics:

This is the side yard, so beautiful!!

This is the deck and the backyard.

This is the kitchen and it opens into the living room.

This is the kitchen. It has a really pretty real tile floor. The fridge is included.

This is the view of the kitchen from the living room.

This is the closet in the master bedroom. It is hard to see because of all the clothes, but it is pretty big.

Here is the jetted tub and it has a standup shower too.

This is also the master bathroom.

Here is the master bedroom.

This is the other bathroom

Here is one bedroom... interesting mural...

Here is a bedroom which I think is decorated so cute... but the bedrooms are a little small...

The front door.

The stairway to the extra room, right when you walk in the front door (which is good, it makes it seem bigger)... notice the tile entryway as well...

Both sides of the extra room... would make a great playroom...

This is a dent in the wall... I guess it is easily fixed though. There are also these dents in one spot in the master bedroom (below the dent in the other picture), are these easy to fix as well??

So there you have it, our two top choices of houses. What do you think? Which would you pick?

Florida Spring Break

Last week we went to Florida for Jeff's spring break to visit my brother, Aaron, sis in law, Andrea, niece Audrey and nephew Austin (and doggie Scully). Life has been crazy busy since we got back, but I wanted to post these, so its not as organized as I would like. Okay so apparently I put these in reverse chronological order, so start at the bottom... We left for Florida on Saturday after chasing down the mailman, finding him, only to find that Jeff's new running shoes had still not arrived yet. On the way to Florida, we stopped at Auburn University to look at their baseball and football stadiums. Here is Jeff and Cheyenne in front of the football stadium. The next picture is just after we arrived at my brother's house. These are his two adorable kids, Audrey and Austin. They just LOVED Cheyenne!! When we left, they were crying because they were going to miss Cheyenne, they used to cry because they were going to miss me!! I have just become Cheyenne's mom and not Stacey anymore, hahah, just kidding. The next picture is of Jeff and Cheyenne at the Strawberry fields. Jeff used to work at the strawberry fields, so he wasn't too excited about picking them. He pushed Cheyenne around while we picked out the ripe ones. Then we ate delicious strawberry frozen yogurt and strawberry shortcake. Most of the vacation was relaxing around the house which was really nice. The next picture is of Jeff and Austin and Cheyenne, they were all sitting in that one chair together so I had to get a pic. We were so excited to get to the beach, we went on Wednesday when it was soooo windy and cold! I had a little beach skirt on, but ended up trading it for my sweats! Audrey and I did get in the water though, because it was warmer in the water than outside. We took some pictures of Cheyenne's first time at the beach. At the end she was cold so I brought her inside my sweatshirt with me and she loved it. The next day, we went to the outlets by Destin Commons. We found Cheyenne some cute sunglasses and a St. Patrick's Day dress for next year for only $2. Jeff got second place in his NCAA tournament bracket so he won $50. He bought some UNC tarheel shorts to honor the team who won him money. He also got a visor to wear during summer football practices. Austin was kept entertained during the shopping trip by pushing Cheyenne around the store in the stroller, he did a pretty good job and only bumped into a few clothing racks:) We also fed Cheyenne rice cereal for the first time on this trip, which I will probably add a video of later. She didn't really like it. We only did it once though, and then I did it again yesterday when she was already cranky, so we will try it again today and see how she does. Friday, my brother and his wife had their 20 week ultrasound and found a healthy baby GIRL!!! My niece Audrey was so excited, so we spent lots of time discussing name possibilities. That night we went to an Asian buffet to celebrate the news. Luckily, our last day in Florida, Saturday was BEAUTIFUL!!! We all went to the beach again and this time it was warm and just amazing. Jeff and I ran nine miles barefoot along the beach which was sooo beautiful and awesome. Our feet, legs and Jeff's back got FRIED, and my feet felt like they were broken for a few days, but we are feeling better now, and it was all worth it. Cheyenne enjoyed this beach trip more than the last, as she stayed warm the whole time and got to take a nap in her Aunt Andrea's arms:) We drove home on Easter Sunday, which probably wasn't a very good way to honor the day. We had such a great vacation and can't wait to go back again someday soon. I go to Washington next week for my friend Diane's wedding so I am trying to get lots of stuff done here before I leave. Hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to see all you Washingtonians next week!!!

Cheyenne laughing

I was making noises at Cheyenne today and she thought it was hilarious. I have never really been able to make her laugh before so this was so fun and exciting. I grabbed my camera and recorded it, at the end she starts to make the noises herself. She is getting to be more and more fun everyday!!! I love it! I could just play with her all day:) Oh wait, I do just play with her all day. Haha, we leave for Florida tomorrow to visit my brother and his family. I can't wait and Jeff is super excited for a week off school AND coaching. It's going to be marvelous.

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful for smoothies!! I am drinking one right now and we ran out of milk, but we had chocolate milk, so I added that!!! AMAZING! 

Strawberry yogurt+frozen strawberries, blackberries, bannanas+ vanilla flavoring+chocolate milk+ TONS of ice= Crazy Delicious:)

2. I am thankful for Bath and Body Works scented oil!! It smells up the whole house so quickly and it smells sooooo good!! I want to collect every scent. Right now I have about 8 or 9 different ones and I love them all! Everytime I go into the store they usually have a scent on sale for 1 or 2 bucks so I buy it! The little containers last forever too. I light them almost everyday and I have never ran out of any of my scents.

3. I am thankful for straws. I love drinking out of straws. Sometimes I will even bite both sides of my licorice and use it as a straw, sometimes I think I am still 10 years old:)

4. I am thankful for beautiful weather and the beach! Hopefully we will get to experience both of these things next week in Florida!!

5. I am thankful for vacuums and and cleaning products. They make everything pretty.

6. I am thankful for blizzards. If you sign up for the DQ birthday club, you get a buy one get one free coupon. Jeff and I got to experience delicious blizzards last night- Jeff got oreo and I got strawberry cheesequake..mmmmmmm....

7. I am thankful for a working washer and dryer. Can you imagine if we still had to wash everything by hand and hang it out on the line to dry? Booo... that would be way too much work for the likes of me!! I like to do laundry, it is really easy and gives me an excuse to watch tv while I fold:)

8. I am thankful for the current bad economy so that Jeff and I can afford to buy a house:) I am LOVING the low prices of beautiful houses around here, Jeff and I may be partaking of this soon... we'll see.

9. I am thankful for tracks. I like how you can count the laps and know EXACTLY how far you went. Since I can't afford a GPS watch, it is helping me practice the pace I want to run for our half marathon. And I LOVE speed workouts, they are so much more fun than going on long runs.

10. I am thankful for YOU!! Thank you for reading my blog and making me feel loved:) Even though I do my blog for myself, it is fun to share with my friends and family. Love you all!!

Wishful Wednesday

* I wish I had an air pump to pump up flat tires on bikes, jogging strollers, and the flat basketball and volleyball I tried to play with the other day. This could be another possible garage sale find, along with the muffin tin I am looking for:)

* I wish everyone could experience the happiness I feel everyday when I am with my husband and baby girl!

*I wish I was better at couponing!! You may want to skip reading this one as it is me venting and may not make a lot of sense. It is my new obsession and I read these people's blogs everyday getting new tips to saving money, but I am not very good at it. It is so confusing. I go to the store with all my coupons planned out and I always make some mistake when checking out. Last time I went to Walgreens, I was supposed to get 2 m&ms for $3 but I forgot to clip that coupon out of the Walgreens add (in my defense I only had about 100 other coupons I was trying to keep track of) so I ended up getting them for $5, then I had a sweet deal to get 2 boxes of Quaker granola bars for $3, but I didn't realize you didn't get the RR coupon if you already bought the deal with the LIFE cereal, so I ended up paying $5, which isn't even a good deal and I just should not have bought either of them. Also, I thought I could get two shave gels for free because one was edge and one was skintimate, but it turns out they are made by the same people, so I ended up paying $3 for one of them. The people at Walgreens are probably so annoyed with me because after I realized that, I returned the shave gel (like one minute after I bought it, but I had to take it to the return section) THEN I also accidentally printed out two of my favorite coupons back to back trying to conserve paper, and therefore only got to use one coupon and lost the other one. It is so frustrating, but in all I have saved a lot of money and I think I will get better with practice (at least I hope so)... I am sure I will do another post about all the close to free stuff I have gotten so far, so it is worth the headache... kinda.

*I wish for Bare Minerals foundation!! I got a free sample of it online and I LOVE it! It looks so natural, you cannot even tell you are wearing make-up, but it still covers up blemishes and evens out the skin tone! I guess what I wish for is for me to find it for cheap!! If anyone hears of any great deals on it let me know!!

*My last wish may seem a little weird or morbid, but I am sure I am not the only one whose mind this thought has crossed... I wish all husbands and wives could die on the same day in very old age!! I just feel so happy with my new little family that I feel it is too good to be true! I always get so scared that something will happen to Jeff or Cheyenne or me and we will lose each other. I know I believe Families are Forever and that thought is comforting, but I want to LIVE now with my family!! I don't want to die and have my family live without me, I don't want to live without Jeff and I want to raise my little Cheyenne here each day! I know I just shouldn't think about stuff like that, but it is so scary and it is always coming into my mind!  Am I the only one who ever thinks about this? Anyway, I will reword my last wish... I wish to live a long happy life with my husband and children:) I love them!

What are your Wednesday Wishes?????