One of the cutests things I have ever heard

Mr. A and I got approved for our mortgage this week! Woooo whoo to us!


We are so excited.

The other night when Mr. A got home he said one of the cutest things I have ever heard. Her walked in the door an got on his knees and called our dog over. He then proceeded to tell him that he was so excited because we get to buy him his very own "poop land"! He then asked Harry is he was excited and played with him! It was so cute.

How could we not want the best for this little guy? He makes the cutest "sad" faces when we leave. This guy needs his own yard!

What's a girl to do?

Over the last two months I have made over 30 dozen cookies. I made them to hand out to friends and family over the holidays. I even made cute bags to put them in see:

I still love these bags! I made 50 of them for like 4 bucks!

I made ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies and coconut macaroons. Yummy

Well after the trip out to my sister's house in Houston, picture below is the back of my car with just the kiddos gifts in it, just had to share:

We have eaten way more than I should have. Now, my head is conflicted on what I should eat. The picture below shows what I mean:

Eat the cookies or the apple and granola bar? Hmmmm. What's a girl to do?

We are buying a house WOOT WOOT… now, how do we pay for the thing?

As referenced in my earlier post, Mr. A and I are buying a house this year! What I did not tell you is we are buying a house VERY soon.  Since we are going through the process of buying our first home I thought I would blog about it and see if anyone has any advice. It is overwhelming to say the least. A little help from y’all would be great.

We have begun the process of getting pre-approved for a mortgage. We meeting with the broker next Wednesday and we are spending a lot of time this weekend preparing all of the documents needed to apply for all the different loan types. We found this broker through my office. I work for a real estate related regulatory agency, and was referred to this broker through the best contact I know. I am sure we are working with a great person. I do know this; don’t just go with anyone off the streets. There are a lot of shady people out there. 

Here is the breakdown of everything we need to bring:

1.        2008, 2009 and 2010 tax returns with W-2s. If you decide to do any first time homebuyer programs, three years of tax returns are required.

2.       Most recent one month of paycheck stubs.

3.       Two months of bank statements from each bank account.

4.       Most recent retirement and/or investment account statements.

We are considering several loan options:

1)      The first and most likely will be FHA. If you don’t know much about FHA you are with me. I have been doing lots of research on this and the basics are that we can put less down, there are stiffer qualifications, and restrictions but the money is backed by the Government. 

2)      The other option will be to do a traditional 30 year fixed mortgage and put more down on the house. We could do anywhere from 5% to 20% down. We can do this, but we will be wiped out of our house fund. I anticipate there being a lot of other little costs involved in the home buying process and I am not totally sure I want to throw everything we have at the down payment.

Some additional factors that I think might come into play and get us a great rate are that we have almost perfect credit, and no debt. Right now a lot of people can’t qualify for a mortgage because of their debt to income ratio and ours is well within the approved rage for all mortgage types. We also have a long credit history so I think we should be able to get the best rates, probably better than most.

So there you have it. We are real life adults and we are moving forward with this process. I hope after analyzing all of this and thinking about every angle we have not left anything out and we end up getting approved for like $50K.

Does anyone out there have any advice or thoughts on the pre-approval process?

Christmas shoes...

I got shoes over Christmas break for myself. Don't judge. They are Clarks, Mary Janes and heven on my feet. What do you think?

2012 is going to be a great year!

How do I know this you ask? Because I am still in my "life is full of possiblities" high from New Years Eve, but I can tell you that I really do belive this year will be my best yet.

Reason why this year is going to be awesome #1: Mr. A and I will be buying a house this year!

We are meeting with a mortgage broker next week to get pre-approved. We have asked our good friend Molly to be our Realtor. We went and looked at some houses from the street and picked out some neighborhoods we love on New Years day with the family. I just can't wait to get started on the hunt. I am so over apartment living.

We are going to be looking in the 78757 area of Austin, as well as south west and north west Austin. Milwood has been surprising to us and we have already found a house we love in the neighborhood. Oh boy! 

Reason #2: Many babies to be born... Not ours (yet)!

We have been blessed with a Niece and two Nephews and being and Aunt and Uncle is so much fun. This year is the first year our FRIENDS are having little ones and it is going to be awesome. Kelly, is due in March and Sarah (our great friend from Philadelphia) is due at the end of this month!!!! So much fun. We have several other friends pregnant as well. It is just going to a baby-full year! Can't wait for this new transition in all of our lives. Should be interesting.

Reason #3: Travel

Mr. A and I are planning trips to Philadelphia, and Alaska this year. We can't wait to visit friends and family and get out of Austin for a bit. This of course is all contingent on the home buying process.

Reason #4: We are debt free!

This year Mr. A and I are totally debt free. We only have my student loans to repay and I don't count those because they ultimately make me money as well. It is a great feeling to not worry about credit cards, car payments and everything else.

Reason #5: See reason #1!!!!!

WE ARE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!!!!! OMG! I can't wait.

Happy New Year to you all! Here is to a great year and a lot of fun!

In short... I am sure you don't care where I have been.

The long of it is I was sick, and it is the holidays. Shit got crazy up in here. Oh and I have made well over 20 dozen cookies, five bunt cakes, bread, and many other baked goods this holiday season. I hosted a Christmas brunch with great friends on Sunday and I am hosting family at my house for the next week.

Our house looks like Santa's village, and you can see our balcony from space. It is awesome. I will try to take a picture for you all.

On another note, I have the most amazing husband in the ENTIRE world. He is a pain in the ass because he makes me look bad a lot but it is worth it. My husband has made an advent calendar for me. Every morning we open it together.

Just to give you a preview of how awesome he is, today my gift was a donation to Saint Jude's and a note that said, "Because I wanted to help other children grow up to meet their other halves like you and I did." No, I did not tell him to write that, and yes, you can gag. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Back to me being busy.

Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. A

Mr. A's 30th birthday was November 20th. I am just getting to writing a recap, I think it is because I am finally sober.

I started planning Mr. A's birthday right after he told me, "I don't want to do anything". I was not going to stand for that BS, and promptly planned a surprise 30th birthday our on Dirty Sixth street with all of our friends. The theme was "30 is the new 20" and all the bars and drinks he drank that night had to be from his college days. It turned out to be a PERFECT night.

Our friend Janet took some pictures, again due to my drunkenness, I did not take any. At. All.

We started the night off with dinner at Bacon. A restaurant in Austin dedicated only to the food group of, BACON. Yes it is a food group.

Kelly Janet and I

The before shot.

Just after the surprise at the Library. I think he was happy

Gratuitous dancing with hot chicks in a bar, CHECK!

 Our Friends Ben and Janet, made an awesome list of all of the things that Mr. A had to do before he turned 30. Many of them were horrible shots, or making him do silly things. Turns out, he had a great time doing all of it and totally took it like a man. He checked off EVERYTHING on his list! Thanks to them for doing that list. It really made the night.

The pictures get blurry and worse as the drinking continued, let me leave you with this shot. It was Mr. A's favorite part of the night.

Heaven.

We ended the night at Wataburger at 3am. You could not ask for a better finish to a great night with amazing friends. Happy Birthday Mr. A you are the best husband and friend I could ask for!