Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween! It is one of my favorite holidays and in my opinion, rates right up there with Christmas! I usually put a lot of time and effort into decorating for Halloween and planning costumes for the girls, but this year was different. It's been hard for me to get into the Halloween mood not being in my own home. We didn't decorate this year and didn't even carve our pumpkins we bought a few weeks ago at the pumpkin patch! Morgan even had a couple rough days and I threatened to take Halloween away from her! Yes....you heard me! CrAzY!!! I know! Lucky for all of us we compromised and she was able to earn it back!! We have also been fighting colds around here and Ava missed a couple days of daycare. Luckily she was well enough to enjoy the fun today!

We started our day at Boo in the Zoo, then had some supper, did Trick or Treating at the Mall, enjoyed a Trunk or Treat and visited a couple sorority houses. Then we parked our car at home and hit our neighborhood. As usual we ended up with WAY to much candy and a terrible SUGAR HIGH!! Talk about cRaZy kids!! Overall it was a fun night and both girls did well. Ava caught on quickly and we had to chase her down because she was running off without us!!

And in case you needed a reminder there is only something like 54 days till Christmas! I am sure we won't be decorating much then either, but we will be spending 1 1/2 weeks in Iowa over the Holidays! Can't wait!!

I Love Weddings!

Dana's little sister got married last month! We were so excited to have another excuse to make a trip back to Iowa. Dana and I don't get to dress up often, so took the opportunity to get some family pictures. His mom also asked me to take pictures of his siblings' families so she could send off to another family member. I have to say that I had fun playing photographer for the day, just wish it wouldn't have been raining so I could take them outside!!

The Friday night before the wedding was the rehearsal and dinner. Most all of the family was at the church and it was nice for the cousins to see each other again. Dana decided to play photographer and tried to get a picture with me and the girls, but Ava wasn't cooperating.....so here I am with Morgan. As you can see she wasn't cooperating either!!

And here is the happy family! Aren't they adorable??

I don't think we have had a picture taken together like this since we were married 12 years ago!

And our family.......Morgan looks a little squished and the lighting was horrible! Maybe someday I will have real photography equipment to use!! :-)

For the Love of Harleys!

In September, we travelled back to Iowa for my Sister In Law's wedding. We stayed in Waterloo at Dad's house. When he found out we were coming back he bought a helmet for Morgan to wear so she could go riding with him on his new Harley! She had a blast! So much that I think Dad has her convinced she wants a Harley for her 16th birthday instead of a car!

Louisburg Cider Mill

Dana and I took the girls to the Louisburg Cider Mill today. We all had a blast! It was busier than we would have liked because it was a celebration weekend, but still fun! It might be nice to go back when it's not so busy. They had vendors set up and the Country Store was PACKED! We had a hard time even walking through the store to stand in line and order our apple cider donuts. The pumpkin patch and corn maze seemed less crowded but is was more of an open space than the store! The girls had a fun time walking though the pumpkins and picking 2 perfectly round ones to bring home. We are hoping in our new neighborhood they won't get stolen! They also played in the Straw Castle, corn bin, fed goats, chased ducks and walked through the 10 acre corn maze! We ate yummy apple cider donuts, drank apple cider slush and root beer made at the Cider Mill. It was a perfect day!


After we were finished at the Cider Mill we went to a local winery and sampled a few to bring home! The wine was really good. I might have to go back and buy some more! I also bought a candle that was the same flavor as the wine.....YUMMY!!

Goodbye House!

It is October 1st! Almost 2 months ago Dana and I made the decision to move back to Iowa! We have accomplished a lot over the last 2 months. We have sold our house (closed on Sept 23), send in my application for my Iowa teaching license, updated our resumes, moved into our new rental and started job hunting. We have also made 2 trips back to Iowa. One was in August to visit friends and the other was last weekend for Dana's sister's wedding. It is always nice to see our friends and family!

About a week ago we said goodbye to our house that we have lived in for 10 years. This is the house that we started our family in. It was a little sad, but it was never the house that we planned on living in forever. It was just WAY TOO SMALL! I guess when I thought about selling my 1920 Bungalow I thought it would be when we were ready to move into our dream house on a piece of land outside of Emporia, but instead we moved into a rental. I am not sad to be leaving Emporia, but we definitely have a lot of memories in that small house and Emporia. We put a lot of hard work into making that house a home and a home we felt comfortable in. It was a home that showed my personality and other than being too small for a family of 4, I loved it! It will be missed, but we are ready to move on. Our home was sold to a young bachelor ready to move out on his own. Hopefully he will have lots of experiences to come in our old home.

Dining room

Living Room

Kitchen

Girls' Room

We like our rental. It is much more modern than our old house and the layout makes more sense! The master bedroom is huge compared to what Dana and I are use to and our king size bed fits much better and we have walking space to spare! We also have a walk in closet and 1/2 bath in our bedroom! We have NEVER had so much storage space or 2 bathrooms!! Very exciting! :-) It's always a challenge getting use to living in a new space. The kitchen has more storage, but the stove and dishwasher are outdated and difficult to use. I guess we will just have to deal with it for 9 more months!

Girls' room in rental

Living room with fireplace

Entry

Kitchen

Of course there are no decorations on the walls and we have put A LOT of things into storage, but that will make it easier on us when we move!! Next steps for us, continue to organize and weed through junk we don't need and look for jobs!!