Family Newsletter

 As you all know, we moved from Davenport, IA to Ankeny, IA at the beginning of the year.  We have heard great things about the Des Moines area (Ankeny is about 15 min North of Des Moines), and we are excited for it’s potential, but it’s been a bit of a rough transition for us.  I was not exactly excited about leaving Davenport.  The Quad Cities have felt like my home away from home more than anywhere else we’ve lived since being married.  As we were looking for a new home in the Ankeny area, we weren’t finding much that we liked and that didn’t help.  Through a series of events, that we felt were guiding us where to go, we were given the idea and inspiration to try building our house this time.  We even felt that we were guided to the specific neighborhood and lot we ended up purchasing.  It has been a bit of a headache, especially in the beginning phases, but it has also been very exciting.   This biggest challenge this presented, though, was that we weren’t going to be able to move into a home right away when we moved, we would have to move into an apartment for 3 months while our house was being built.  More than anything, I think it’s just the feeling of “not being settled” that makes the apartment phase hard.  We want to be able to settle into our new home here but we still feel like we are transitioning so it is difficult to put down any roots.

It was also a weird time to move with the changes in the church schedule.  With two hour church and RS/Preisthood only every other week, Jon and I have both felt like it’s been hard getting to know anyone in our ward.  I don’t know how everyone else’s wards are handling the changes but we feel like our ward is all business.  No songs, welcoming guests, good news minutes, etc. at the beginning of class- just straight to lesson!  I think the Come Follow Me program is great , but I miss the songs in RS, and having time to get to know other people in the ward.

The weather has definitely been a challenge as well.  This winter has been long and hard and very snowy for us!  We have had a lot of school and church cancellations and delays.  It’s been kind of crazy!   We spent pretty much the entire month of January, it seems, being stuck in our apartment with sick kids.  We went through a bout with a really bad cough that Katie, Zach, and Madison all got (Madison twice) that turned into RSV with both Zach and Madison.  Then ear infections, Roseola, random fevers, etc.  Being in an apartment on the second floor also adds a whole new fun element to this frigid snowy winter with carrying the carseat up and down the icy stairs, car doors freezing shut frequently, and having to scrape off the car before I go anywhere each day. 

That being said, our apartment is fairly nice, and if we are going to have historic snowfall, it’s nice that there is a hill directly behind our apartment so that the kids have been able to enjoy lots of sledding fun this winter!  Things could definitely be worse, and we are grateful they’re not.  We have a lot to be grateful for and a lot to look forward to and we continue to remind ourselves of that!

Katie and Colton both seem to like their new school and teachers.  Katie has made a lot of new friends at school and seems to be doing very well. Colton has struggled a bit on that account.  He hasn’t been able to make any real friends yet at school or church so we are working (and praying) on helping him with that!  Katie is excited for her birthday party coming up!  She really wanted a party but I didn’t want to spend hundreds on some venue, it’s too cold to be outside, and we don’t really have room in our apartment.  She wanted a Little Mermaid party so I told her she could invite 4 friends (which has turned into 7 and will probably be 10 by time her birthday gets here) and we would have a Little Mermaid movie party.  We are just going to watch the movie, wear pjs, and eat chic fil a and cake.  Pretty simple, but she is excited so that’s all that matters I guess!

Jon is the gospel doctrine teacher in our ward.  He really likes that calling and it’s even nicer that he only teaches twice a month.  We do have some interesting characters in our ward that make some interesting comments he needs to redirect but I guess that just makes it more fun J  I am an activity days leader, working with the 7 year old girls.  So far I like it!  It’s pretty low-key and low-stress but still gets me out of the house a couple times a month! 

Zach is my little buddy.  He gets to tag along with me as I do housework, run errands, etc.  His favorite things to do are help me with the dishes, do puzzles or read stories together, and play on the ipad while I exercise.   He has a bit of a 3 year old “destroy” mode I’m not a huge fan of right now where he likes to just go from room to room and find things to ruin somehow.  It’s a bit obnoxious.  However, he also has a really sweet side and loves to sit in my lap and read stories, give big hugs, and is the best and giving puppy dog eyed “sorry”’s. 

Madi is such a sweet addition to our family.  She is crawling all over the place now and pulling herself up to everything.  We have to put all our other kids on constant “choking hazard watch” to make sure she doesn’t get small things in her mouth.  In our apartment, we have her sleeping in a crib in our closet.   The unfortunate side-effect of apartment life on her sleep habits is that she no longer has them.  She is up several times at night and I can’t let her self-soothe because she wakes us and probably the neighbors up.  I am excited to be in a house again and HOPEFULLY she will learn to sleep through the night!

Pretty much the entire month of January :(

Feeling a little better :)

Jon and Colton making a Pinewood Derby car

Valentines Sunday

What he does when I say "smile"

Out for ice-cream after parent teacher conferences

New House!

Dry wall is done!

Moving- Davenport to Ankeny

We've known we were going to move for a long time.  Jon was asked to apply for this job and found out he'd gotten it clear back in July 2018.  The transition was unique, though, because his job at Headquarters needed him through year end close in November so his new job with John Deere Financial in Ankeny agreed to let him stay in the QC through year end, as long as he could do an audit for them in Brazil in October and a couple other days here and there.

Anyway, the move was a long time coming but that didn't really make it any easier.  It's always hard to feel "unsettled" and in transition.  As the timing worked out, it was also necessary to move over Christmas break, which also added to the hardness of it all.  Mostly, though, our last two moves have lasted less than 2 year each and I'm just getting tired of moving.  I am the type of person who needs to have close friendships and connections, and it is so hard to create those time and time and time again and then move.  It seems like it takes almost a year to finally feel like I'm in a good place with those relationships, and then a few months later I have to go through the heartbreak of moving and leaving.  As my kids get older and make their own connections, it's increasingly difficult to watch them go through similar emotions when they have to leave their friends and familiarity.  It hurts my heart.   However, despite all this, this move and job change seemed to be a good one for our family and we had heard great things about Ankeny so we have tried to stay positive.

Partly because it was a little bit of a bribe to help me feel more excited about the move, and partly because this transition was longer than usual, we decided to try and build a house this time.  Once it is done I'll be able to share more on this, but overall it has been exciting to watch our dreams take shape with this house-despite the stress involved with building.  Since we decided to build, though, that has added to our transition time with this move.  We needed to be in Ankeny for Jon's job at the beginning of 2019 but our home won't be done until, at least, end of March 2019, so that required us to find temporary housing for a few months.  We found a 3 bedroom apartment about a mile from where our house is being built called Avondale Trace.

We decided not to put our house in Davenport on the market until we had moved to Ankeny.  I've moved and dealt with showing on our house a few times and it is miserable.  With three kids and with the holiday season, I just didn't want to deal with it.  We decided to leave most of our stuff at our house, to keep it staged, and just move a few things we'd need for the first few months with us to the apartment.  Before we left for Christmas vacation in Rochester, we got the house show ready and packed a few things to take with us.  We filled Jon's car with stuff and then drove through Ankeny on the way to Rochester (adds about 1 1/2 hrs) and left his car in the parking lot of our apartment and drove the rest of the way to Rochester together in our van.

After the vacation, we drove back to Davenport on Friday night and finished packing Friday night and Saturday morning.  The Klemetsons watched the older three Saturday morning to help us out!  We got a moving truck around noon on Saturday and a few people came to help us move around 1pm.  Once we got all packed up and the house mostly finished, we checked into the Staybridge Suites in Davenport for the night.  It's a nice hotel, one of our favorites!  We stayed there when we moved to Davenport as well! We got some dinner and swam in the pool and then Jon went back to the house to work on some last cleaning for a couple of hours.  Sunday morning, it was my turn and I went back to the house by myself and put the finishing touches on the cleaning.  We checked out of the hotel, drove back to the house to pick up our last load of boxes, and then headed to Ankeny!

We had to stop a few times at some rest stops for the kids (and sanity) but made it in pretty good time.  We didn't really feel like stopping for lunch along the way so we decided to wait til we got there for lunch....which ended up being at like 5pm.   We were pretty hungry!  We stayed at the Hilton Homewood Suites in Ankeny and, once again, enjoyed some pool time!  Katie and Colton are finally getting the hang of swimming on their own, so it was fun to help them with that!

Monday morning, Dec. 31, Jon left early in the morning to go check in to our new apartment and to meet a few people from our new ward to help unload the truck.  Then we had to get internet installed, return the truck, get some groceries, unpack and set up enough to move around and settle in a little bit.  It was a super tiring day!  We were still able to pull of some New Year's celebrations though, so that was fun.

The big annoyance we had was that night, after all of our stuff was in and we'd unpacked quite a bit, to find that the carpets were FULL of dog hair.  Super gross.  It kept getting all over our clothes and blankets and everything else that was on the floor.  Including our baby who was scooting around!  We have since filled our vacuum with dog hair 5 times and finally seem to be getting to the end of it.  If we hadn't already moved all our stuff in and weren't so tired, we probably would have demanded they come wash the carpets.  We thought they did that between tenants anyway, but apparently not.  We also had our downstairs neighbor come up the first day and tell us we were too loud, so yeah.  Oh well, it's only three months!  The apartment, in and of itself, is not too bad.  Sure it's smaller space and we don't have all of our stuff, so that takes some adjusting but overall it's ok.  The hardest part is not having a garage (especially in the winter), being on the second floor, and having neighbors we share walls (and air) with.  Grocery shopping is a huge pain because it takes multiple trips up and down the stairs in the freezing weather to get all of the kids and food inside.  Still, I won't complain too much because I know it is temporary and it could be much worse.  I'll just say this, we will be SUPER excited when our new house is done and we can finally move in!

The ward brought us a few meals to help as we settled in.  That was very helpful and nice to get to know people.  The kids seem to like their new school for the most part and are making a few new friends.  Hopefully, that continues to go well!  Despite the hardships, we do feel like we were led in many of our decisions that brought us to this job and even our specific lot, neighborhood, and builder here in Ankeny.  We are grateful for that guidance in our lives and will just have to keep having faith that we have good things in store for us!

Katie's last day of school at Eisenhower Elementary in Davenport- Kindergarten, Mrs. Hansen

Katie and Malia

Katie's Class, I helped with the Christmas Party this day and did the santa beard masks with them.

Colton's last day at Eisenhower Elementary- 1st Grade- Ms. Carstens

Davenport Home on Duggleby Ave, our 4th Davenport address and 2nd Davenport home

She did so good on this trip, thank heavens!

First time at a pool, rocking the swimsuit 💗

She loved the hot tub!

Hotel fun

Most recent picture of our house!  It's coming along!

Christmas Pictures

Our annual Christmas pictures for 2018.  I'm grateful for these cute kiddos of mine! 
(Madison- 6 1/2 months, Zachary-3 years old, Katie 5 years old, Colton 7 years old.)