Living in Iowa

We made it to Iowa a few days ago and have been adjusting and unpacking. Baby boy decided to stay inside while we traveled, so that was good. We have plenty of pictures from the past few months: birthdays, traveling, odds and ends. Hopefully, I will get to them soon.

Here is what we see outside our front window every day. Through the trees is the Mississippi River. It is pretty cool. After living in Las Vegas for the majority of my life, I feel like this is a time warp! Or that I am on vacation! Or camping. But it is a welcome change! We have met our neighbors, "Grandma Barb" and Daryll. They are really nice and love our kids. Our landlord has a 5 year old grand daughter who is more than excited to have kids around the area.

Here is our little house. We are calling it "adventure house". It has attic rooms for the kids and a cool windowed porch that we turned into the play room. The yard is huge and open and far enough away from the road that I'm not worried about the kids getting hit by a car. Honestly, there have been very few cars to pass by!

Pretty sunset

A creek we saw that runs into the river

Throwing rocks into the river. We went for a walk in the town about five minutes from us. It is full of antique shops, neat cafes and cool little stores. Blake was pretty excited that The American Pickers have their headquarters here. I think it's hilarious. But we're hoping that will be some motivation to get his brother Spencer out to come visit!=)

I am just amazed that we get to live here in this beautiful place after desert living for so many years. There is nothing like waking up to birds singing in the trees and fresh air. Letting the kids run outside and not have to yell at them to get away from the road. We are grateful for the chance we have to live here and try something new!

The garage has this broken down tractor and the kids totally love it!
We didn't have a dryer yet so we hung our clothes on the clothesline for the first time in my life!! This is baby William's blanket that my mom made.