When Auntie Jill Babysits...

Maddy plays in all of the clean laundry!

It makes her soooooo happy!

But we will put it all away before Mommy and Daddy come home! ;) Ooooooops!

Drum roll please.....

And here's the house!

So my niece Reilly's favorite part of my house is of course the pool! She is such a little fish. I'm sure she'd be in the water now in the freezing cold if I let her! Once I get the chemicals right she'll be able to swim around in the jacuzzi for the winter.

So I love the house...I just don't love painting! Joel's been helping me paint since I got the keys. We are not even halfway done with painting and tired of it already. We were a quick burn-out. So I haven't moved in yet, but will sometime in January. I'm working on finishing the painting and cleaning the carpets first. It'll be so nice once I do!

My house has finally closed escrow! It's been a little stressful at the end, but they fixed everything on my loan and I'm now a homeowner! So let the painting begin...

My weekend will be filled with paint, paint and more paint! :)

My House...

No my house is not closed yet....and I am not sure when it will close. I was anticipating a call on wed from my loan officer to say, "congratulations, the house is closed!" But nope, that's not the call I got. The call I got went more like..."well I can't believe this happened but the underwriter screwed up and they have to re-do your loan completely." So with that said I will let you all know when it closes, but I'm not sure how soon or late that'll be.

I now understand why buying a house is so stressful. There are so many things that happen that are completely out of your control and you just have to roll with the punches. It's so expensive too! The only advice I can give to anyone buying a foreclosure, "as-is" property: Don't pay to have all of the pointless inspections done that they tell you to. It'll only be more money that you feel like you are throwing into the wind. I'm just hoping that the day I actually own the property I will feel that it's all been worth it. I'm crossing my fingers.

Maddy's 1st Birthday!

My niece Maddy turned 1 yesterday! I just can't believe how fast the year flew by. It feels like I was just at the hospital when she was born. She's had a very eventful 1st year and it's been so amazing watching her learn how to do new things and explore her world. And look at her smile....

She loves the rocking horse I got her for her birthday! Buying kids toys is so much fun. And being an Aunt is so much fun! I can't leave out my other niece Reilly, so here's a cute pic of my sister, Maddy & Reilly...

So Cute!

Cruise from San Diego to Mexico!

Joel & I are back from our San Diego-Mexico cruise! Of course it was tons of fun & tons of food. We got a taste of sunshine again and got to spend some relaxing time together!

Gotta love cruises!!!

San Diego Wild Animal Park

So Joel and I went to the Wild Animal Park in San Diego last Sunday. It was so much fun and so much better than a normal zoo. We got to see the animals rooming around in a much more natural habitat. Here are some of the pictures I took...

It was a very up close and personal experience with the animals!