Leaving Iowa

When we first moved to Iowa, I was nervous about being so far away from family and worried I wouldn't like the midwest with all it's humidity and tornado wonderfulness.  After four years living there, however, I can honestly say- we really loved it there!  Iowa is beautiful and green and even though the dead of summer gets really hot and humid and the dead of winter is pretty darn cold, most of the time it's pretty great!  I love Fall & Spring in Iowa- the weather is perfect!  Fall is my favorite because everything is still green but starting to change colors and the weather is nice and it's just awesome!  I also really liked the crazy thunder storms throughout the year and the big snow storms in the winter.  It's never fun to be out in them, but when you've got shelter they're pretty cool!  

Iowa is also where both of our kids have grown up so far.  We moved to Iowa when Colton was about 7 weeks old and now he is 4!  Katie was born there and she's 2 now!  Iowa is also where we bought our first home!  We got really lucky with our first home.  After some painstaking searching for a few months and not finding anything we both really liked, we finally found a house we both loved for a great price and we bought it the day after it popped up on the market!  It definitely wasn't perfect but it had lots of space and an amazing fence-in backyard with a playset!  I loved that backyard!  

It was also really hard to leave all of the great friends we've made in Iowa.  I'll miss the bookclubs, and girls nights, and playdates, and parties, and everything I've gotten used to the last few years.  The kids miss their friends and are always asking when Tate or Logan or Luke are coming over.  Hopefully we make lots of new friends soon for the kids to play with, because as much as I miss my friends, I feel even worse not having any friends for my kiddos!

We've now been in North Carolina for a couple weeks and it's a great place.  There are a million trees that are really pretty and cool, but it does make me feel a little closed in and claustrophobic at times since I can't see anything.  The neighborhood seems really nice, we have a pool in our community, the ward seems nice, and I really like the house.  I miss a lot of things about Iowa and our home there.  The yard at our NC home is pretty pidley compared to our yard in Iowa, but we are making the best of it!  We have a basketball hoop in NC and a nice screened in porch.  We gained an extra bedroom in our house, although the space is still smaller than Iowa since there is no basement.  We have a nice upstairs playroom that we like in NC and the kitchen is really nice!  And best of all, Jon's work is only 2 minutes away!  All in all, we know it's good to get out of our comfort zone and try new things.  We are excited for what the next couple years in Fuquay Varina will bring for our family!  

First Home: Davenport, Iowa

Second Home: Fuquay Varina, North Carolina

Iowa Yard/NC Yard
The pic only shows about half of our Iowa yard and the other pic sadly make our NC yard look bigger than it is!