What's been happening the past 8 months...

So, first of all... I realize that if I am ever going to be a real "blogger", I must blog.  But to be quite honest, we have been having so much fun in our new hometown- that I am hardly around to sit down and do it!  So here is my hasty attempt to catch you all up on just what has been happening in our lives since the last post.  Funny thing is- some of the most exciting things have happened since then!

Let see...

In September, we took a huge step and decided to make an offer on our first house.  We found an incredible home in one of Bend's best neighborhoods, Northwest Crossing (http://northwestcrossing.com/).  However, because it was a short sale- we new it would be a waiting game, so we made the offer and sat back to wait...

Shortly after we made the offer, my family came to town.  It was the first trip for Katy, Nathan, and the twins, so we were excited to show them around AND the house we had just made an offer on!

A few weeks after their visit, Dave's family came to see us.  We had such a fun time playing with Tyler and Ryan, and showing the McKae's around town some more.  The WHOLE McKae fam will be back up to visit in July, but this time we will be staying at a vacation home in Sunriver (about 20 min south of Bend).  We are looking forward to showing all of them all of the reasons why we have fallen in love with our new hometown.

The beginning of November, we made a trip down to California to celebrate some of our favorite friends- Ingrid and Brad's engagement! They are getting married October 1st, and we couldn't be more excited for them!

November was an exciting month for us.  It started out with the INCREDIBLE news that we got the house!! Our original offer was accepted, which typically does not happen with short sales, and we were informed we were closing in 30 days!

We were excited to be jetting off to Hawaii for Thanksgiving for my family shortly after the good news- what better place to celebrate such a huge milestone? :)  We spent the week at our family resort lounging, eating, and enjoying time together.  The girls got a spa treatment in while the boys played a couple rounds of golf.  We are headed back for Christmas this year and cannot wait!

We rushed home from Maui with the anticipation of our closing date quickly approaching.  It all happened so fast, but the week before Christmas Break, we signed all the final papers, received the keys, and MOVED IN!

I will post more pictures soon of the house all put together... It has been a long process to get things just how we like it, but it now feels like OUR home.  We love our new house, and are enjoying making memories here!

As excited as we were to be able to go home to California for Christmas, we were anxious to get back to our house and start decorating! But it was still wonderful to go home and see friends and family.  We spent Christmas this year with the McKae's.... and it was SO fun to see our nephew Tyler running out see all of his gifts from Santa! We stayed home for almost 2 weeks, then came back to Bend to spend New Years with friends.  It was a whirlwind few weeks, to say the least!

Come February, Dave and I got to experience our very first SNOW DAY ever! We woke up the morning after Valentines day to about a foot of snow on the ground, and the news reporting that all area schools were closed for the day.  Such a fun, unexpected day!

March brought us another visit from my family, and a little bit nicer weather!

In April, we celebrated my 27th birthday with the welcoming of the newest member of our family... Murphy McKae!  Dave surprised me on my birthday with our golden retriever puppy, and we have been having the best time with him.

Later that month, we had to say goodbye to my Grandpa, as he passed away after a very hard fight with cancer.  We will all miss him terribly, but he left us with some wonderful memories, strong sense of family, and some original catch-phrases that we will never forget. We love you, Grandpa!

Now, here we are in May.... and I hope to be better about keeping this updated.  Dave's baseball team just won their conference title and start playoffs this week.  I was just named the varsity volleyball coach at the same high school (Mountain View), and have started to get things organized to get going with all of that. 

We are still so incredibly happy we picked a place like Bend to start our lives in, and look forward too all that summer has to offer!