And another one bites the dust! Foster and Summer (our down stairs neighbors and good family friends) just offered on a home and their offer was accepted. A few months ago some good friends of our who lived in the duplex next to us built a house and moved away. I'm happy for them but even more frustrated with our own house hunt. We have been saving for 4.5 years and still can't seem to find a house. These friends of ours that are buying homes are fairly newlywed and don't have children yet but are getting homes. I feel like we have sacrificed so much but aren't getting anywhere. We only have one car to help cut costs but still we aren't able to get a nice house in the area we need for the price we can afford. I've been relying heavily on the Lord. I'm sure he is exhausted and sick of hearing me begging for him to help us find the right home soon. With two kids, this two bedroom apartment is just too small. I feel like the walls are closing in on me sometimes. It is interesting how we have grown out of this place. When we moved in here we felt like it was really big and now that Addi is bigger and Xander is here and we have acquired more furniture, the place is so cramped. I'm grateful to be living here. It is a really nice place and I have excellent neighbors and have made a lot of good friends, but it is time to move on. I think it is about time that I record this experience before I forget it or appreciate it less. I feel that we were truly guided by the Lord to the place we are living now. I remember we were looking around thanksgiving time 2006 for a 2 bedroom duplex or fourplex to rent because we couldn't afford a house because the market had sky rocketed out of control. We found one pretty quick after we started looking and I thought maybe the Lord was making this process easy for us cause he new the baby was coming and we needed something bigger. So we went to the place we found on line and looked at it. I felt pretty good when I went through it. It was a good size and really close to Dan's work. There were a few things about it that I didn't like but I figured I could put up with it cause it wasn't a permanent thing. Well. We decided we would get it but hadn't talked to the rental agency yet. It was over a weekend and I started to feel really uncomfortable about it. I had a feeling that we needed to go back and walk through it first. Well. I had the worst most uncomfortable feeling when we were in there. I told Dan so we sat down and prayed right there in the duplex (no one was living there) and I still felt horrible about it so we decided not to get it. When I went to the dentist, not long after, I talked to the dental hygienist and she mentioned that she cleaned fourplexes for a guy in her ward and that I should call and see if he had any available apartments. Well. I called and he said that he would put me on a waiting list. I figured nothing would come of it and we would find something else soon. Well. Months and months went by and we still hadn't found anything. I was so discouraged cause I wanted to find something before the baby came. Well. The Lord had other plans. Addi was born and about 4 weeks later (right when I was giving up all hope of finding anything) I get a call from this guy that I had talked to about being on a waiting list. He said that if I was still interested there was an opening and I could come see. We went over that night and the second I walked in I felt great about the place and we signed papers that night. The amazing thing is that we thought the price for rent was 625 a month but it turned out to only be 525 and this place was in super great shape. It was clean and well maintained not to mention bigger than anything we looked at in the 625 range. We were so surprised that the Lord had blessed us so much and that we had a faith building experience at the same time. I'm so glad I paid attention to that feeling and that we didn't get that other place. We have made so many friends for life because of listening to that prompting and waiting for what the Lord had planned. The coolest part was that he provided us something better than we expected for ourselves. I hope that this waiting for a home to purchase yields the same outcome. I know the irritation and complete frustration with the events happening now is just a stage in the process so I'm trying to rely on my last experience to help me get through this one. The Lord sure has taught me a lot by making me wait for things. I'll share my other waiting experience tomorrow cause I'm about ready to fall asleep right this minute. I sure am grateful that I have my beautiful children and a wonderful husband and such excellent loving and supportive friends and family. Thanks to all of you who see me through these tough patches in life. I know I shouldn't be complaining because I have so much more than other people do. So. I'll stop complaining and start counting my blessings. I'll stop focusing on what other people are attaining and focus on how much I'm learning and how much my faith is growing by going through these experiences. The Lord knows best and has the best timing. We just don't get to see that till the end. The test is how well we handle things during the waiting time. I'm scared I'm failing that test so I'll try to work harder.

The zoo trip we took May 16th 2009.

Addi and I had a little Tea party on afternoon. We made cookies and sandwhiches. It was lots of fun!

Ready for golf!

Addi and Xander on Easter 2009.

Xander having his first bath (not a happy man!)

The Family our first day home from the hospital with Xander.

So. It has been an extra long time since I've updated this but I'm going to try to keep it updated and use this as a form of journal keeping. Now, an update on life with the Terry family. We had our second child on March 31st 2009. It was a little boy. He was born at 12:04 p.m. He weighed 8 Ibs and was 20 inches long. He had lots of hair and was healthy and strong. His name is Alexander Joseph Terry but we call him Xander. The labor and delivery only took 8 hours. I was quite pleased since Addi took 14.5 hours and and 1.5 hours of pushing. It was only about 10 minutes of pushing with Xander and a lot less painful. The best part was that he was born 3 days before his due date. He was due on the 3rd of April. It was interesting because the day before when I was checked by the doctor they said I wasn't dialated at all. Then by 4:30 the next morning I started having contractions. I was so glad he came early on his own. We are so happy that he is here. He is about 7 and a half weeks now and is smiling like crazy. He smiled (his first awake smile) on mothers day, May 10, 2009. What a great gift. Addi ended up being diagnosed with tonsilitis a day before he was born so she came to the hospital once but couldn't get close to him. I was really sad that I wasn't able to take care of her but Grandma Weidner did a good job of making her feel better. She has had a bit of a rough time adjusting to the baby but i'm sure that is normal. She is much better now. I found her sitting in front of the carseat he was in reading to him the other day. I just had to take a picture it was so stinkin cute! She is a really good big sister and is helping mommy lots and lots. Sometimes a little too much but I know she just wants to help. She is 2 now and we are working on potty training. Tomorrow we are going to try a strategy that Auntie Shannon told me about. We are going to put her in the big girl underwear and just let her figure things out. The hope is that she will decide she hates being wet and will come and get me instead of going in her pants. I bought some of the plastic pants to put on over it so she doesn't make a huge mess. She has been horrible at taking her diaper off if she doesn't have pants on. She is no longer allowed to wear dresses (other than to church) until she learns to go potty. Well. We still don't have a house yet. We found one that would be perfect and put an offer in about 4 weeks ago. The bank went out and did a BPO and then the listing price was increased 6 thousand dollars. We are still waiting to hear from the realestate agent selling the house as to what is going on. They were asking 220,000 a few months ago and then when we decided to go look through it they were asking 190,000 so we offered 175,000 since it is a short sale. Then I looked last week at the MLS and they relisted the property for 196,000. The thing that gets me is that they said that we were the only offer. That lasted for 2 weeks and then the next update was that we were the highest and best offer. Then they increase the price? Why?? Well . We will just have to wait and see what happens but we have been praying that if this is where we are supposed to be that things will work out and the bank will get back to us so we can give them a counter offer. Hopefully the good feelings we have had when praying at home and in the temple about this house will mean that it will work out. It is just perfect for our family and it is in a great area. We have been working and saving for so long that I just want to be done and have a home of our own where we don't have to worry about where we are going to have our kids sleep. We love our neighbors and this place we are in now and are grateful that the Lord has blessed us with it but it is time for us to move on. We are out growing this apartment. I hope we have the patience to get through all this waiting and that the realestate agent responds sometime next week. Well. I will keep this blog updated and post some more pictures.