New adventures

Dear boys,

We bought a new house today in Holland, MI. The decision to leave this city that we LOVE (in large part because friends and family we love live here!) was not easy..... and yet it was. I know we're making the right decision. Your dad and I have spent many hours talking about where to raise you and we believe that this house in Holland, near the beach, down the street from a great school, and along endless miles of biking paths, fits our hopes and dreams for you all pretty closely.

However, somehow we couldn't resist buying another fixer upper! What is it with fixer uppers that we just can't resist?? Seriously. Anyway, this house needs work. But this time around we'll hire out most of the work (I hope!) instead of doing it all ourselves.

We know that raising you all in Chicago would also be wonderful and surely have it's advantages. But having you all so close in age (like, three of you 10 minutes apart!) has caused us to run out of space and think about our needs differently. Our dream of simplicity, space and a home that functions well with four small children just could not happen here, at least within our budget.

We're excited boys! One of the things I'm most excited about is watching you all chase each other and play for hours in the big ole' backyard, something we don't have here in chicago.

But leaving our friends, this amazing city, this house... it won't be easy. When we bought this house, I was pregnant with you, Colin. We brought each one of you home through this front door and got to know each of you inside these walls. I've loved sitting by the front window with each of you, watching the the red leaves on our japanese maple tree swaying in the wind and the people passing by. Wonderful days.... and wonderful wonderful memories to take with us. That's the only silver lining with goodbyes.

We can't take this house, we'll probably never live here again, but we can take the memories with us. They're all coming, boxed up to share with you later.