Exciting news!

I mentioned a few months ago that something exciting was coming for our family, but it has taken awhile to work out all the details so I could finally share it!

(Now the first thing I always think of when anyone says they have exciting news is they are having a baby ... sorry to disappoint you if that too was your first thought when you saw my subject line!  We are not pregnant, adopting, or anything like that at this time! We are super busy and perfectly happy for now with our two miracle boys! =)

We are moving!  Not to a far off place, but actually, back to our old house!  For those of you who have known us for awhile (pre-blog) will remember our red house.

We lived in this house from 2005-2007, and loved it.  It is in an AMAZING kid-friendly neighborhood, and many of our friends joked that we lived in Mayberry!  It kind of felt like that!

The house sits right across the street from a big baseball park/grass area, with a playground on the opposite side.  There is a pool just about a 5 minute walk away, and a great new elementary school within walking distance!

It's a corner lot and is in a very handy location.  Plus, it has great porches and the neighborhood just has so many family-friendly amenities and activities!

Why are we moving back there, you ask?  There are so many reasons!  We moved into McKinney 4 1/2 years ago, because of the commute.  I was teaching in McKinney at the time, and Justin was working about 25 minutes south of McKinney, so we just didn't want to make the long commute anymore.  We were able to get our awesome house in McKinney, and rent out our red house, and it all worked out perfectly to move. We have absolutely loved our McKinney house and our fabulous neighbors, but now, 4 1/2 years later, Justin is now managing bank branches back on this side of the metroplex, and I'm not commuting anywhere! Plus, our (amazing and fabulous) renters decided that, after 4 1/2 years of taking great care of the house, it was time for them to move on.  So in late spring, we knew we were going to need to make some prayerful decisions about the next step for the house and for our family.  Honestly, as much as I loved the neighborhood, I never really thought we would move back there.  But, in the spring, my parents moved from McKinney out to the same neighborhood, and we started thinking that maybe we could move back there as well!

Like I said, this neighborhood is the most amazing neighborhood for kids ... there are seriously kids and families everywhere!  There are at least 10 parks, including many playgrounds, big and small, grassy fields, baseball parks, 2 pool complexes (with baby pools, kiddie pools, and even water slides!), and so much more!  It is the ultimate place, in my opinion, for families with children to live.

But back when we lived here, I can honestly say that all those amenities made it kind of tough for me.  As much as we loved living there, we were in the midst of our fertility struggles, had had 2 miscarriages by then, and seeing kids EVERYWHERE was, at times, very hard for me.  I wanted nothing more than to have a family and be able to be part of all the fun, but I felt we were somewhat isolated because of the fact we had no children.  The last Halloween we lived in the red house, we were handing out candy on the porch, and a lady came up and, no joke, said to me, "Do you all have kids?" I said, "No, just our dog!" (My standard answer)  To which she replied, "Oh, I would have thought with a big house like this one you would have a houseful of kids!" Dagger to my heart.  Needless to say, she walked away, and we went inside and turned off the lights.  I know she didn't mean to cause the pain she did, but some people don't really think about what they say.  And if you've never gone through the infertility struggle, you wouldn't even know those innocent words hurt so much!

Anyway .... all that to say that we are now SO excited to be moving back to this fabulous neighborhood!!! The house is laid out just perfectly for our family, with an extra bedroom compared to our McKinney house, and a very open kitchen/family room where I can see the boys much better when they are playing and I'm cooking. (Very important to me now that they are so very mobile!) I'm so looking forward to getting to know more families with kids close to the same age as ours.  I can't wait to get involved in all the activities here, and enjoy all the parks with the boys as they get bigger! Plus, there is so much more retail nearby than when we lived there.  We are farther out from things than we are in McKinney, but just a 12 minute drive away there are TONS of places that didn't exist 4 years ago! The best thing of all is that my parent's house is literally 3 minutes away.  I'm so excited to be near them, and I honestly think they are more excited than all of us to have the boys so close!  We are looking forward to all the fun we will all have out here together, and have already planned riding our bikes over to Gigi and Grandpa's house with the boys in their trailer!

Right now we are planning for a mid-September move-in, and we are hoping to rent out our house in McKinney by that same time frame.  We have been doing a lot of fix-up projects there the last few weeks. We've actually been staying at my parent's house out here this week while rooms in our house are being repainted!  So if any of my local friends are looking to rent a house, or know a family that is, send them our way!  We are praying that it will all work out just perfectly!

The next picture you see of this house will be with it all filled up with kids! =)

Steiners in 2005

We are so excited!