Fun in Las Vegas

We haven't even been here two weeks and we are already in love with all of the womderfulpublic parks.  We have been at least every other day and Micah ust has a blast.  This is a great park within 5 min of where we are staying.

This is the beautiful scenery I was talking about it the last post!

Guess who larned to climb ladders?

Home Sweet Home (Hopefully!)

We have found a home and had our offer accepted.  Now we are just going through with the inspections, appraisals and other fun stuff that will hopefully work out smoothly.  This house is a foreclosure and so the process works a bit differently than a traditional sale.  We are though the initial steps but with Las Vegas being such a distressed market we are doing our due diligence to make sure we are not buying a lemon.  Unfortunately some people in this world don't have much integrity and when getting foreclosed on will sabotage or demolish the home before they leave.  I have heard so many crazy stories you would never even think are true.  The worst was people flushing cement down their pipes so everything appears okay until you start to use the water.  Geez! With that said we are praying for smooth sailing but prepared to find some things that will be in need of repair on the home.

We think the home is perfect for us.  We love so many things about it and are very lucky to be buying at a time and place where we can afford much more than we thought we would be able to at this point.  The home is about 13 years old so it has some great elements but also has things that are in need of a little updating.  My favorites though are the travertine flooring, plantation shutters on the windows, and all the extras that are included like a water softener, water filtration system, and sunscreens for the windows to block out that intense Las Vegas sun!  The other thing that really sold us on the house was location.  We love the area that it is in.  It is in a master planned community called Summerlin that has tons of parks, shopping, dining, outdoor recreation and more.  Our neighborhood is actually bordered by a park on one side.  The schools are absolutely the best as well!  There is a chance that Micah could start school here so it was a very important factor.

Here are a couple of pics.  I will update more if everything goes though and we move in!

Last days in the South

We managed to make some really great memories in our last few weeks in South Carolina!  We spent lots of time with friends having fun and being silly!  I know I have some memories that will last a lifetime from these last few weeks.

It was HOT HOT HOT so we spent lots of time at the pool on base.  We found this great contraption that Micah can wear that actually allows hm to be pretty independent in the pool.  It will keep him entirely afloat and he has learned to swim and maneuver while wearing it.  It has allowed both of us to enjoy pool time much more!



Some of our friends, the Bolands, that used to be stationed in SC with us came back through for a visit and Carter, their son had a matching swimsuit with Micah.  Too cute not to photograph!


Micah and Olivia often favored snacking over swimming.  We stayed in the pool and watched :)


We got to have many fun playdates with Luke and Olivia.  Olivia's mommy and Luke's nanny were great friends from our time at Shaw.  We were really impressed we got 3 18 mo olds to look at the camera at the same time!!!


One of Micah's favorite things to do over the summer was piggy back rides!  Needless to say both mommy and daddy made great piggies for Micah to ride!


While we were moving out of our house my dear friend Raleigh let us move into hers!  She has too adorable kiddos and they all played so well together!  Micah looked up to Landon like a big brother and Janna Lynn was just happy not to be the littlest anymore!  We had a blast staying with them!  One night we managed to Rub-a-dub-dub wash 4 babies in the tub!




Another night we took advantage of all being in one place and got a sitter so we could have one last adult night out with our friends.  We ate at the Mill Pond which was absolutely delicious!  They can now all attest to how possessive I am over my Mac & Cheese!






We left Sumter with a bang.  What special memories we have at this base.  We bought our first home, had our fist child, and made some great friends along the way.

Viva Las Vegas!

We have been on the go!  It has been one busy summer, but I am hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who don't know, we have now officially arrived in our new home, Las Vegas, Nevada.  I never officially posted about this change, but since we are here and Brad has checked in, I feel like the Air Force might actually let us stay!  We have had many changes over the past year and while we were confidently readying our family for an over seas move to Germany, the Air Force decided it had other plans for us at the last minute.  So although a bit disappointed to not have an European adventure, we regrouped, redirected and became very excited for our new assignment in Las Vegas.  I was a bit hesitant to announce the news since our assignment had changed quite a few times but now that we are here it seems to be safe to share.  We have been here just over one extremely busy week.  And so far, I have to say that we LOVE it!  It is HOT!  It often feels like you are walking head on into a hair dryer, but the scenery is breathtaking (the mountains, not the strip, ha!), the people have been friendly, and the city offers so many wonderful amenities to families such as parks, shopping, dining, and culture.  It is a definite change of pace from South Carolina.

We had geared up for a very slow process of finding a home here in Las Vegas.  With the town having the highest foreclosure rate in the nation (75%!) and full of distressed properties we really wanted to take our time and make a good decision on a home.  We moved into TLF (Temporary Living Facility) on base which consists of one room with a bed, a bathroom, and kitchen/living/dining room.  It was tight quarters.  We got super lucky though because a single guy in Brad's new squadron is deployed right now and so he is allowing us to rent his fully furnished (and very nice!) home while we are transitioning.  We got settled there yesterday and are all enjoying having more room to stretch out.  We spent our first two days in Vegas diving our Realtor crazy and making her take us to every house on my list.  We easily narrowed it down to our top three with one strong favorite.  God must have been looking out for us because our favorite was a foreclosure (much more favorable than a short sale) and had just had a huge price reduction so we decided to take advantage of the good fortune and make an offer.  After four tedious days of waiting we got the news that our offer was accepted!  We will hopefully close  at the end of next month pending inspections, appraisals and such all go well.  We love the house and the area and are thrilled at how much quicker this is all happening than expected. 

Micah has been such a trooper.  He has been an outstanding traveller and continues to be such a sweet baby boy. My dear friend Sarah drove up from Phoenix to help me with Micah while we house hunted and I do not know what I would have done without her.  She has a beautiful little girl Avery and I think Micah might just be in love!  He gives her so much love.  His favorite thing is to hug her so tight he knocks both of them over!  But don't think that makes him let go!  Oh no, he is still hanging onto her even after they tumble!  Maybe a little too much love for her taste!  He has also been known to take her paci out of her mouth to give her a kiss and walk hand in hand with her to the playground.  What a sweet sight those two are! I am so thankful for Sarah and Avery.  They are such great playmates for us!

I will hopefully be back to blogging after a summer too full of stress.  I made sure an upload a few cute pics of Micah so to not leave you high and dry without any pics of the handsome devil.  This was one morning last week while we were in the TLF. Micah has become obsessed with shoes and was adamant on wearing daddy's with his PJ's that morning.

Micah at 18 months

Here are some recent pics of our favorite little guy.