When we were still in Texas, our real estate agent, suggested to us that we should replace the carpet. We debated about this and in the end decided that it was the right thing to do. We also had carpet in the master bathroom, so we decided to take that out and have tile put in. Scott and his dad touched up the paint in the house as well. We decided it would be a lot less stress to have us move out and then do the improvements.

Our agent was planning on putting the house on the market the week after Thanksgiving (around the first of December). She had also send to the agents in the area, a “this house will be coming on the market soon” message. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, we were making preparations to head up to Oregon the following day. We got a call from our agent informing us that someone had some to look at our house on Sunday and had put in an offer! Wow! We were elated. The offer was contingent on them selling their home. The good news was they had an offer on their home and it was going to close on January 13. That would also be the day we would close. In light of this news, our agent put our house on the market as “active, contingent” and we went on our merry way.

It was after the first of the year, when we found out that there were multiple deals involved in this. The closing date was pushed back until January 18. Now this is where it gets complicated. We found out that we were in a line of deals. We were deal 4 and they were all contingent on the others. The closing got pushed back because there was some issue with the lender on deal 1.

We finally signed the papers on January 19 (almost a week later). The notary send the documents via FedEx back to Texas so they could close on January 20. We found out on January 20, that deal 1 was still having issues and we were postponing the closing again.

We signed another settlement statement on January 26 (a week later), and send the new documents to Texas for a closing on January 27. Finally late in the day on January 27, the documents for deal 1 came through. Deal 1 and 2 were closed on the 27th. The problem was that it was too late in the day to get the funds to go through for deal 3 and our house (deal 4). We decided to lease the house to the buyers for the weekend and it would fund on Monday, January 30.

It has been a crazy process, but we are very pleased and feel very blessed that we were able to sell our house in Texas. We went to Texas 3 1/2 years ago in a hunt to find our dream home. We felt that we found that in our house. Of course, there were a few things we didn’t like about it, but overall we were very happy to have had that house. We are super sad to be leaving it. We loved the neighbors and the neighborhood very much!

We have been looking for houses in Oregon. The houses here are more expensive than in Texas. We will have to spend a bit more money to find a house of equal size. We have decided that we found a dream house in Texas and now we’ll start searching for a dream house in Oregon. We are looking for the things we liked in our house in Texas, but it will be different.

We will keep you posted as things progress!

We stopped to see a few waterfalls and Crown Point. We decided we’d need to come back to explore some more. I think we all enjoyed getting out and doing a few short hikes. Amaia had her maiden voyage in the kid carrier. She didn’t complain at all about being in it. Holly wanted to climb the mountain and Milo was just happy to be out. We came home and Scott made tamales and refried beans for dinner. They were great. We did have our traditional family home evening lesson on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was fun. Holly loved that finally she got a DS. Milo was excited that he got some new wii games. They were both excited about the new drum set. All Amaia wanted to do was eat the wrapping paper. We also went to an extended family Christmas party that we enjoyed. Here are a few pictures to share.

Small-sized montage

Medium-sized montage

Full-sized montage

10. The winter weather. I loved that you can go outside on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day and not be too cold.

9. Drive through post office. That was nice when Amaia was a newborn or when Holly was sleeping in the car.

8. Shopping. HEB was a great store to do grocery shopping. I enjoyed that the outlet mall was 15 minutes away.

7. The pool. I enjoyed that we could go to the pool practically anytime we wanted in the summer. It was so hot that you wanted to spent a lot of time at the pool.

6. The trail. Wow, the trail along the Brushy Creek was close and fantastic.

5. Treats. I love Amy’s Ice Cream, Round Rock Donuts and most recently Lick It Bite It cupcakes. They were some of the best treats you could ever ask for.

4. Tex-Mex Food. This is when we learned to enjoy more spice in our food. We loved going to Chuy’s as well as making creamy jalapeno at home.

3. Good ole Texas BBQ. We managed to go to quite a few BBQ places in the area. Oh were they good and boy will be miss them.

2. Favorite Restaurants. A couple of my most favorite places to eat were Mighty Fine and Which Wich. I LOVED them! I will forever be looking for similar places here.

1. Our house, neighbors, friends and the neighborhood. We were in a fantastic location with some amazing people!! We will miss you! I hope to visit again soon…

On the other hand, I am excited to see all that Oregon has to offer. I’m looking forward to exploring the coast, going to the cheese factory, looking at great waterfalls and lighthouses, enjoying berry season, and anything else we can find.

I think we’ll be okay after all…

The debate for the Little family event of the year was a hard one this year. We decided that the birth of Amaia was first with a close second being our move to Hillsboro, Oregon.

Yep, that’s right, we moved about a month ago from Round Rock, Texas to Hillsboro, Oregon. It has been quite the adjustment for everyone. We spent Thanksgiving with our families in Utah. Monica and her sister came to find a house to rent. We found a house that is within walking distance to school and 5 minutes from Scott’s office.

Milo was baptized in June (2 days after Amaia was born). He also started participating in cub scouts and has enjoyed that. Milo had a great time playing with his friends in Texas and misses them. Milo played soccer in the spring and fall this year. Milo likes third grade. He is doing well adjusting to his new school. He likes that he can walk to and from school.

Holly continues to be full of energy. She LOVED going to preschool in Texas with her busy bee friends. Monica hasn’t found a suitable replacement in Oregon yet, so we’ll see what happens. She will be starting kindergarten in the fall. We’ll see how that goes. We hope we can convince her to wear shoes. Holly loves her little sister and likes to watch movies.

Amaia was born on June 2. She looks a lot like her siblings. She likes to smile! She gives the greatest smiles when she wakes up and also to strangers. The neighbors on the block in Texas loved to hold and play with her. After we left Texas, she learned how to army crawl. She moves around quite well now. She is a good little eater and is doing well.

Monica’s year has been a crazy one. Everything went well with the pregnancy. She was induced to ensure that Amaia arrived before Milo’s baptism. Amaia has been quite the adjustment. She is getting the hang of having 3 children to look after. Monica has been busy working on coordinating the move as well we getting settled in Oregon. She is looking forward to finally getting settled again.

Scott now works for Intel. He enjoyed his time at Freescale but is excited for new opportunities. He managed to sneak in a couple of trips again this year. He went to Glacier National Park for a week in September with some neighbors and had a fantastic time. Scott also attended the CONCACAF Champions League Final with his siblings. RSL didn’t win, but they had a memorable time.

Have a great holiday season!

Scott, Monica, Milo, Holly & Amaia