Aaron's Blessing Outfit (finally)

Well, we finally took some photos of him in his blessing outfit. He's getting so huge we've been worried he wouldn't fit anymore. Anyway, share and enjoy. Also, if you didn't know, you can always click on the photos we post and a larger (sometimes full-size) version will load on your screen. That FYI is for any of you who want to print it, or need a new screen saver ;-). These are saved for a full-size 5x7" @ 300 ppi.

Anyone want to buy a Townhome?

If anyone knows of anyone looking for a cute little town home please give them this link http://www.utahrealestate.com/828640 . The ward is fantastic and the neighborhood is nice. The government is offering incentives to first time home buyers and this is a great first home. We have loved it.

It's Going on the Market

Well, we decided to just get our current townhome on the market. We had wanted to move out first and not be showing it while living here. (Keeping it spotless with two kids and two business in the house is tough).

But a shortsell in the complex might devalue our place once it closes (and we just noticed it at the end of last week). Plus some governement incentives end at the end of September. And we don't want it still trying to be sold come November/ December (I haven't gotten a professional opinon on it, but I don't think those holiday seasons are seller's markets).

So with all of those reasons, we figured we'd put it up and see what happens.

We'd also planned some upgrading on the kitchen floor and other improvements, but like I said, we figured why not see what happens. Maybe we can get it sold without the improvements.

Our great friend Rob came over right after a seminar and helped us get the paperwork filled out, but because he was running over after the meeting, he didn't have his photo gear. I didn't mind, I figured I could find a way to get some decent shots.

Are you kidding? I was thrilled to do it myself. As Jen put it to Rob, "No problem, in fact Stephen is a bad back-seat driver when it comes to photography, so it is probably better this way." Amen to that. Now Rob is no novice, either. He was once part of the Bair Photography "team" and he shot some weddings when I was already booked. Then he left it behind when he got into real estate. So I am sure he is capable, but it is something I was happy to do.

Plus, I got to use my 12-24 mm lens. I never have need to use this landscape/ architecture super-wide zoom. Probably because I am always too busy shooting people (I shoot people for a living, btw [I just like saying that {a lot}]).

Anyway, I couldn't get Rob out of the house soon enough. I was loosing my evening light for the front door shot! Here are the photos for your enjoyment.

Front door


Covered Parking and Storage Units


Living Room


Half Bath (1st Floor)


Kitchen


Dining Area (Laundry Closet on the Left)


2nd Bedroom


2nd Flr Bath (door removed, eh)


Another View of 2nd Bath


Master Bedroom

The master bedroom shot is the most disappointing to me. We didn't want to have to get the office stuff in there, so it looks smaller than it is. In fact with all the office stuff in there now -- the room in person also looks smaller than it is.

But oh well, it is going up tomorrow, and perhaps it will sell faster this way.

Joseph Loves Dogs

We had dinner at our 3rd cousin's home, Megan & Bill Buhler, last night. You might wonder why we are close to Stephen's 3rd cousin? Well Stephen actually didn't even know Megan Bair until he met her roomate Jennifer Michaelis (now Bair). And then Stephen and Megan figured out how they were related (Bair is not an extremely common name).

When were were leaving to go there I asked Jen how we were planning on entertaining Joseph. Her reply was that they have a dog. I said, Oh, OK. Joseph loves dogs. The video will say it all:

Joseph then wanted his photo taken:


Someday, when we have a real backyard, as well as when Joseph is old enough to take responsibility, we will probably get him a dog. Until then, he'll just love up any he can get his hands on.

Update on the move.

Just to give everyone an update on the move. Our current house appraised for $125,000 so the HELOC will go through. We close on that tomorrow. We will close on the new house on the 4th of September (they will close on the 5th because they are out of town on the 4th). The change of title will post on Monday September 8th. They have asked for 48 hours after posting to vacate the town home. So we will take possession on the 10th. Finally we have an end date to this drama. We tried to get everything ready to possibly close this week, but our bank and appraiser went slower than expected so we could not. I will be very happy when this is over just to get rid of the stress, but I will miss being close to so many good friends. I will just look at it as a way to get into better shape by walking up very often.

The Olympics!

Jen, Joseph and I have loved the olympics. Joseph loves sports, so he is fascinated by the olympics anyway, but it has been fun to watch it as a family.

It reminds us of the last time we watched it together. Four years ago Jen and I went from dating to almost unofficially engaged during the olympics (I looked it up, it was Aug 13-29th, 2004 - we "unofficially" were engaged on Sept 1st.). We spent quite a few evenings curled up on her couch together watching the games, and it brings back some great memories.

One fun thing has developed as a part of the games, we've seen Joseph start singing for fun. He's sung a little (but mostly listened) in primary, and whenever we sing he tells us to "Shhh!" So it has been fun to see him start "singing" the olympic anthem. Of course there are no words to the anthem, he just goes "dum, dum, da-dum dum dum dum," etc. He only gets about half of them in, but he does a pretty good job. It has been hilarious to see him stop whatever he is doing so he can sing along. Here is another low-quality video for you to enjoy:

Oh, and how about our boy Michael Phelps? Wow, that has been a fun ride! I don't think we'll ever forget the 4 x 100 m Freestyle Relay, or the 100 m Butterfly. Those were amazing come-from-behind wins. We had just watched him help win his 8th gold a few minutes before capturing that video (of Joseph singing).

We watched it a few minutes late because we'd recorded it. We love our DVR! It has been great for the olympics and everything else, but especially the olympics. Who has time to watch 5 straight hours of TV? (That has been the average time for the prime time coverage every night). We get our fix in about 2 hours by fast-forwarding all the commercials as well as the commentary they often have to fill in the gaps. Plus if they decide to cover 75% of a 2.5 hour Marathon (what were they thinking with that much coverage today? Was nothing else happening in between?), we can fast forward when we feel like it.

Miniature Golf

We went to a late lunch/ early dinner with grandma and grandpa, and it was right by Hollywood Connection, so we went miniature golfing. Here are some videos and photos. Joseph liked having a green ball and a green stick (a stick that was way too big, he took grandma's and gave her the yellow, very short, one).

You'll see kids running around in the videos. Parents would just leave them there. We think that after they completed a round, they would run back and jump on any hole they felt like at the time (even if you were there already). But other than that it was nice, and we had a blast.

Oh, and I used my cell phone again, so the quality isn't the best (the dynamic range on the photos stinks to high heaven), but it is good enough for some quick fun stuff.

TownHome Tour

We had our home inspected today, and like we keep asserting, it is basically a new home. The inspection summary was: "No defects or issues to report." The inspector said that is very, very rare, even for a truly new home.

Because we were allowed into the home again, we wanted to make a quick video tour for those of you who wanted to see a better representation. The video moves a bit fast, so get your motion-sickness pills ready!

We didn't want to take up too much of the inspector's time (we came in at the end and he was getting ready to leave), plus I didn't want it to be too long and take too much time for you to download, etc. Here it is!



Hope you enjoyed it.

All ready for Church.

They boys looked so cute for Church today I just had to share a picture. Joseph in his "Car" tie and Aaron in a onsie that has a tie sewn on (Thanks Amanda). Joseph loves going to Church. A big part of that is the wonderful friends that he has in our ward. It will be hard for him not to see them every Sunday. We will still see them often but not at Church. I know he will miss them a lot, but will make some new friends in our new ward.



I also hope that the new ward has some kids Aaron's age as well so he can make some friends too. So he can terrorize Relief Society with them.

Moving Up! (What Excites Us About the New Townhouse)

Thank you one and all who have congratulated us on the upcoming move to a newer and larger space. We really appreciate all of you and, yes we will probably take you up on your offers -- for those of you who offered to help move, etc.

Nothing has really changed on the time line. Once the appraisal has been done on the current place for the HELOC we think things will move faster.

We thought we would comment on what excites us about the new place -- things that are new or better. Here are the main ones that we think of:

10) Master Bathroom! You might wonder why this is only number 10? I guess the answer would be that we don't have teenagers. In fact we have yet to convince Joseph to even share a bathroom with us. So we haven't been craving our "own" bath yet, because the upstairs bathroom was ours. Still, it is nice to have our own space. It is a little larger than the full bath we used. It is 3/4, but we don't mind going to the middle floor to bathe.

9) New home! Okay, so it is 3 years old, but if you come by you will see how well it has been preserved. Also, two important things that a new home has going, this definitely has going: Never had pets living in it (you never no how well trained the previous pets were), and it has never been smoked in.

8) Dining Room (area)! This is nice to not have the table crammed in the kitchen. It is not its own separate room, but we are actually looking forward to the open space. One (soon to be) new neighbor commented that the only thing he didn't like about the complex was the "dorm room" feel of having the living room, dining room, and kitchen in one continuous space. We are currently feeling compartmentalized, so we won't mind the open area. The one draw-back: we have to clean three rooms for guests instead of just one. The dining room and kitchen also meet at a bar counter. So that will be a nice eating area too.

7) Walk-in Closet & Storage Room: The master floor has both of these rooms in it, both are about 5 x 10'. We will be so happy to have better access to our clothes as well as have a storage space that doesn't vary in temperature by 80 degrees over the year.

6) Kitchen with out Dining Room and/or Laundry Room! Yes, our kitchen, dining, and laundry are in one space that is about 13' square. It isn't too bad if you stay on top of your laundry, keep your kitchen clean and never use your dining table to store stuff temporarily. But with the room having so many uses, it isn't long before a couple semi-neglected spaces becomes one disaster area. The Kitchen is just a kitchen!



5) Joseph's Closet! In Joseph's future room there is a closet that is on the wall that goes between his room and the stairs to the 3rd floor. The stairs only go up about 5 or so steps along that wall before turning 90 degrees. The closet is an under the stairs closet, but it is has only about 3.5' tall door because, again, their are only about 5 stairs along that wall. So it is a door and closet just his size. It will be a toy closet, and we'll either dismantle the handle so it doesn't shut in on him, or take the door off completely. When we went to the open house we discussed it being a toy closet for him, and when we came back with Rob 2 days later, he instantly showed it to Rob and told him, "Look! Joseph's!" So it will definitely be Joseph's closet.

4) Swimming Pool! We'll be paying the same HOA fees (yes, they'll still do my yard work!!!), but we will now have a pool. So on hot days, our friends are welcome to come cool off.



3) Air Conditioning! It will be great to have climate control . . . controlled! I will not miss having the house so muggy and humid. I will especially not miss having my photo papers so saturated with water from the air. What more can I say.





2) Bedroom! Yes, a bedroom that no longer doubles (or triples) as the offices of Stephen and Jen Bair of Bair Photography and Fun Photo Invitations. Yes, my commute will be 5 times longer, but when it was walking 5 feet from my bed, it won't get that bad. There was a surreal feeling to rolling out of bed and into work at the same time, but I won't miss it that much.

1) The Bath! We both like to soak, but that is less than satisfactory in our current standard tub. Our current tub only has a 9" soaking depth at the most. We haven't measured the new one, but it looks like at least 18"!!! We'll actually be able to soak, not just sit in water.


Well, that is about it.

We'll Be Moving!

This will come as quite a shock to most of you, even those who have seen us recently. This is because it is a shock to us as well! Therefore we haven't been talking about it because we only saw that the house (condo, townhome, etc.) was on the market when we were looking on www.utahrealestate.com last Friday (8/1/08).

We look online and day-dream a lot and think of having a place where our home office (for both of us and two businesses) won't be in our bedroom. We wouldn't have even considered it unless we saw that there was an open house the next day (Saturday) and that it started just before Stephen had to leave for a wedding at the Mt. Timp Temple.

If it wasn't for the open house, we wouldn't have seen it because we were not actively seeking a home, and we wouldn't have made our buddy (one of Stephen's best friends) Rob Johnston (who is a real estate agent) take time out of his schedule to come up to Rose Park and show it to us. We would have just looked it over online, talked about the pro's and con's from what is listed, and dreamed some more.

But once we had been there and looked it over, the idea of getting it for real was an infectious seed that sprouted and began to grow in our minds until it took over (which took about 30 minutes).

Rob came home from a family reunion on Sunday, and Monday morning we were at the condo looking it over again and looking at comparables in the community (Like I said, he is a great friend and put us before getting caught up from vacation).

That afternoon we got pre-approved for a loan, got a HELOC for the down payment, and made an offer before the night was up. The counter-offer came in on Tuesday night with some minor changes and we approved it. So we are now under contract, and this is the story:

- Barring any major issue, the closing date dealine (can happen before that) is Sept 5th.
- Our HELOC is contingent upon the appraisal (because for once the county is undervaluing the property [our current condo] a great deal from what the market has it as, so it needs to be proven that we have that much equity.
- We have rented a storage space close by for 3 months and we are putting everything in it that is visable (clutter), that we don't need for two months, and that weighs less than 40 lbs. That way the appraisal (on Monday) will go better.
- We need to have the seller's disclosures, the home inspected, and some other tidying up to do.
- We've applied for two loans, the option we'll probably take is a nice private company. They are being much more responsive than the credit union, and they are as competitive. Plus they are in Rob's office and he trusts them.
- Once we have the new place, we'll move to it and then put our current condo on the market.
- We want to do some small sweat-equity rennovations to this place, and we need to be out for them (we are so crowded in here).

So I imagine you want to see the place?

First off, it is NEW. Built in 2005, from what we gather it has been lovingly cared for by a senior couple for the past 3 years. It is so move-in ready! Here is the front room:

The kitchen is in excellent shape. Again, it feels new. We lose a couple upper cabinets, but gain over all (especially in counter space, but we do gain over-all in cabinets as well.

Nice photo of a table. It is meant to show you that there is a dining space between the front room and the kitchen:


Bedroom that is currently used as an office, and will be one in the future as well:


Master Bedroom. The master is one floor. It includes a 3/4 bath, walk-in closet, and a storgage room the size of a walk-in.


Some additional specs from the listing:

Interior Features Include:

• Closet-Walk-In, Dishwasher, Disposal, Master Bath, Range Oven Free Std.
• Window Cov: Blinds, Draperies, Full
• Air Cond: Central Air Electric
• Heating: Forced Air, Gas Central
• Basement: (0% Finished) Slab

Exterior Features Include:

• Exterior: Patio
• Lot: Fenced Full, Sidewalks, Sprinkler, Auto-Full, Terrain,Flat
• Landscape: Full Landscaping
• Roof: Asphalt Shingle
• Exterior: Stucco
• Garage/Parking: None

Other Features Include:

• Inclusions: Dryer, Microwave, Range, Washer, Window Covers
• Amenities: Clubhouse, Swimming Pool
• Water: Culinary
• Sewer: Connected

Rooms Include:

• 3 Total Bedrooms:
  • Flr 2: 2
  • Flr 3: 1
• 3.00 Total Bathrooms:
  • Flr 1: 1 Half
  • Flr 2: 1 Full
  • Flr 3: 1 ThreeQrts
• Other Rooms:
  • Flr 1 Family Room / Den, Flr 1 Kitchen Dining

Square feet on each floor:

• Flr 1: 495 sq. ft.
• Flr 2: 495 sq. ft.
• Flr 3: 435 sq. ft.
• Total: 1425 sq. ft.

We are very excited and in shock. We'll keep the blog posted as more news comes down the pike.

Oh, I almost forgot, the number one rule in real estate: Location³

We'll be only a mile down Redwood. Of course that means a different stake all-together, but it is a nice healthy walk to visit our friends up here.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, I am sure I left a lot out.

Baptism Shoot

We went to Temple Square as a family last Wednesday to take baptism photos of our cousin, Victoria.

As you can see, Joseph was running around in the background, foreground, and sidegrounds (I can make that up) the whole time.

He especially liked following his cousin Jacob around all the time. He was Jacob's shadow for most of the shoot. When we tried to get Joseph to drink his juice he wouldn't do it, but then I had Jacob give the sippy to him. Then it was the coolest idea!

Jen told Jacob that having a little shadow is what it is like to have a little brother. Jacob responded "like how I follow Michael around all the time." Yes, Jacob, now you know how Michael feels -- if only for an hour.

Joseph's Turn!!!

Joseph wanted his turn at being the center of attention. He has this new way of smiling where he curls his bottom lip under his upper teeth.

This is one of the photos where the lip wasn't noticably under the teeth. It was also one of the few photos where his head wasn't flopping from one side to another. He likes to have his head almost touching his shoulder when he is thinking hard.

So Mommy says "Joseph, keep your head up!" He replies "Shhhh!"

Another time when Joseph likes to "Shhhhh!" us: When Daddy is sinnging!

He actually likes us to sing when he is at the piano "playing," but if we decide to sing or whistle on our own, he lets us know that it is not the right time for it.

We couldn't let Aaron get away without any photos, so we tried to get the boys together. This was one of the more successful attempts.

We love how much Joseph loves his brother. Every day he is trying to give Aaron luvs and kisses.

He is always asking if he can hold him as well, and he does a pretty good job, but we are always there to catch Aaron if needed.

Aaron also got his photo alone. Here he is sitting up all by himself!!

Okay, so maybe Jen's arm was holdin him up and she magically disappeared thanks to that Photoshop thingy. Go ahead, I dare you to click on the photo and look at the large version and find any "stitch marks." Then again, it was a really quick job, so maybe you will.

(In fact, I think I see one clipped flower right above his head on our left side (his right). I'll have to fix that before I print it.

We are so blessed to have our boys, they bring such light and life to our family!

Well, that is all for now. TTFN!