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!!

Imagination

I can't believe my last blog post was at the end of August! Here we are in the middle of September and so much has happened in the Heinen household! We have officially moved into our rental and are sleeping here for the first time tonight! The girls are snuggled in tight in their new room and are loving the new house. It is closer to daycare and school and in a very nice neighborhood! We close on our house on September 23 and can't wait for that to be final. One less thing to worry about. Below are a few pictures of Morgan making up a game to play last night. It was our last night in the house and with only beds left there wasn't much to do! Leave it up to a kid to find something fun to do with a few plastic cups and golf tees!! See....they don't need a bunch of expensive presents for birthdays and Christmas!!

Hopefully we will have some time to relax over the next couple weeks. We have a few odds and ends to do at the house before the 23rd (cleaning) and need to figure out how to get the trampoline over here! Other than that the house is unpacked (for the most part) and we are settling in! We will be back in Iowa September 24 for a long weekend. Dana's little sister is getting married!! Can't wait to see our family! We are staying at Dad's in Waterloo. He wants to take Morgan fishing on his fishing boat! She is very excited! Hopefully the weather cooperates so we have an enjoyable weekend and a beautiful wedding! I have a lot more pictures to post from the last few weeks. We have been so busy here I haven't had time to think! Stay tuned!!

Burnin' Down the House

Dana and I went to Osage last weekend. We were suppose to go to Northwood, IA for the Rock Gone Wild concert, but it was cancelled. Since the girls were already looking forward to staying at Grandma & Grandpa's house and we were looking forward to seeing some old friends, we decided to go anyway, but stay in Osage instead.

It was a relaxing weekend. We got to see a lot of old friends, some we hadn't seen in 10 years or more. Unfortunately, we had a few friends that were sick or had sick kids so we will have to wait until Christmas to see them. We ate yummy food at Teluwat, went to the big town of Carpenter for Carpenter Days and got to watch this big, old house burn to the ground! What else are ya gonna do on a Saturday in a small town! You should have seen the crowd!! Oh, and don't worry....they meant to burn the house down! Trust me....it needed to be! It is going to become a parking lot and will look so much better!

It was comforting being in the town that I grew up in for the weekend! Spending a few days visiting with those that use to be so close to us really confirmed for us that we are making the right decision to move back. The girls had so much fun playing at their Grandma's and Grandpa's in LuVerne with their cousins AND on the farm! Morgan found 12 baby frogs and 1 big frog and wanted to bring a baby frog home! She was soooo excited about it and is still talking about it! Soon, they will be able to make a short drive to visit any of her grandparents or cousins for the day or weekend or even week and it won't be a big deal at all! We can't wait!

Red Chair

For as long as I can remember I have wanted a set of Adirondack chairs to set on my porch so we have something comfortable (and cute) to sit in on cool fall evenings and during thunderstorms. Now finally, after 10 years of living in Kansas, I got my chairs! Too late to enjoy them in my cute little bungalow because we got an offer on our house after being on the market less than 24 hours!

It has been a crazy 2 weeks. Two weeks ago, I woke up and decided I wanted to move back home. Two weeks ago I asked Dana what he thought about moving back home and he said "let's do it!". Never in my wildest dreams would things start falling together so quickly. Last Friday, we met with the realtor to list our house and on Saturday they showed the house at 10 am, showed it again to the same guy at 2 pm, by 5:30 we had an offer, by 7:30 we had countered a couple times and accepted. Last Friday my chairs also arrived on my porch that will no longer be my porch in less than 2 months. Last Friday we wondered how the house showing would go on Saturday, while we painted our new chairs my favorite color, red.

Saturday night Dana and I put the girls to bed and spent the evening sitting in our new red chairs on our front porch enjoying the cool end of summer breeze and wondering what is yet to come on this journey we have chosen for ourselves and our girls. We have decided that it really doesn't matter where we end up or what kind of house we are living in, as long as we are together and near our friends and family. We will take our new red chairs with us to our rental that we will be spending (at least) the next 8 months in and then we will take them with us to our new town in Iowa, wherever that may be.