We’re moving back to Texas!
AH. SO many mixed emotions as I share this announcement with you guys today! I actually feel like I’m sharing two announcements…not only are we moving back to Texas but Michael and I are building a house in Dallas (it won’t be ready until December of 2020 ish). We are most likely moving back to Dallas end of January!
The whole story
You guys know me. I couldn’t share an announcement like this with y’all without telling you the entire story haha. If you’re new around here…Michael and I are both from Dallas – born and raised. We got married in March 2014, lived in Dallas for 2ish years, and then moved to Boulder, CO the beginning of 2017! We moved to Colorado for Michael to get his MBA, but also because we were looking to have an adventure of our own for a little while. We both love Texas and love our families but thought it might be good for us to move away for a little while, focus on growing closer as our own little family, and live somewhere other than Texas for a bit. (You can see this blog post for more details on why we originally moved!).
So we moved to Boulder, CO in Feb 2017. We originally thought we would be here for two years while Michael got his MBA and then move home. But we fell in love with Boulder from the moment we got here. We loved the mountains, the weather, the ability to go skiing or hiking whenever we wanted, Boulder’s cute downtown and restaurants, the active lifestyle, etc. We also loved the church we found almost instantly upon moving here and our community there. We decided pretty early on “I think I could stay here, for a really long time.” People told me “having kids changes everything! You’ll want to move home when you have kids.” But as a young married couple without kids, all we knew was we loved Boulder and wanted to stay for a while! So we bought a house here and absolutely love our home.
Fast forward a year-ish and we had our baby girl Shiloh. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I’m extremely close to my family. I’m one of 6 kids, and my siblings (and my mom!) are like my best friends. My parents came up here for a week when we had Shiloh which was so special, and then Michael’s parents came for a week as well. But then they went home and it was just me and Michael and a newborn. TBH the newborn days weren’t that hard. I designated a few weeks off of work, totally embraced living in my robe and snuggling with my baby…we were still so happy here. Our plan at this point was to look into moving back to Texas once Shiloh was around 5 years old and going to school. We knew eventually we’d probably want to move back to Texas so we could raise our kids around our families.
Then in April of this past year…Michael and I took a trip to Dallas. He had a golf tournament so I stayed at my parents house with Shiloh. Seeing my parents and siblings love on Shiloh, help take care of her, babysit for free lol…was really special. It was also weird seeing them around her because I was thinking “wow you guys don’t even know her!” because they had only really seen her once or twice. It was on this trip to Dallas that I realized how much I missed family and wanted to raise our baby around our families. We want Shiloh to know her grandparents and aunts and uncles. We want them to have an influence on her life like they’ve had an influence on ours. Our “5 year plan” changed when I realized “I want my family around Shiloh now. I want them to see her grow up now and not once she’s 5 or 6 years old.” Also, my sister Jill was due with her first baby in July and I wanted to BE there for that. I didn’t want to be states away from her and from my new niece.
Then, we came back to Colorado after that trip and I had so many mixed emotions. I missed family and wanted to be home / around them…but I also didn’t want to leave Boulder. If you just list out living in Boulder vs living in Dallas (family aside)…Boulder wins everytime in my book. We love our house here so much, and also love everything about living in Boulder. So Michael and I just started praying that God would give us wisdom as far as what we should do, because our hearts (or my heart) felt really torn.
After lots of prayer we both came to the realization that family wins. Boulder is so beautiful and truly the most amazing place to live in the country IMO. But even then, that doesn’t beat having family close by and seeing them regularly and raising our kids around our families. So the Lord really led both of us to the same place – we decided to move back to Texas!
Building a house
After we both felt at peace with moving back to Texas, we started looking at houses available for sale in Dallas. The more we looked, the more we realized we had so many specific needs / wants for a house that we weren’t finding. Michael and I also knew that the next house we buy, we want to be our “forever home” – the house we raise our kids in and really put roots down in. So we decided to build a house instead of buy, so we could truly build our dream forever home! We started this building process in May or June I believe (we bought our lot, where these photos were taken, in May!)…and still have gotten almost no where lol. From what I’ve heard…that’s the way building a house goes. We’ve been told it’ll be ready by December of 2020 but we’ll see! I can’t wait to share ALL about building a house with you guys! It’s been really exciting and slightly stressful and now that I’ve shared the announcement with you guys…I’ll start taking you along with me in this building process!
A Well Dressed Home!
We’ve been working with A Well Dressed Home during this building process to help us make ALL of our selections and I’ve been SO excited to share all about them with you guys! My parents built a house about 6 years ago and my mom pretty much lost her mind during the process lol (love you mama). SO many decisions, such a huge time sucker. A Well Dressed Home has made this process as seamless and simple and FUN as possible for us! Based on my house / design inspo, they have selected everything from paint colors to backsplash to tile and every other detail you could ever imagine! And we LOVE what they have selected so far! I’ll be sharing a lot more details on that soon via my stories and more blog posts! But if you are building a house or considering it…definitely check out their services. It’s been a total game changer for us.
What’s next?
Our Boulder house is currently under contract so if all goes according to plan, we will probably be moving back to Dallas end of January! Since our new home will take about another year to build, we will just be renting a house while we build.
I am so excited to finally share this announcement with y’all. If I’m being honest…I have a whole lot of mixed emotions about moving back to Dallas. I am 10,000% so excited to live by family again (and that’s our #1 reason for moving home). But Boulder has been so good to us. Michael and I have really become our own family since moving here. We love our house and our church and I can’t even put into words how much I will miss the mountains. But, I really believe that the Lord led both Michael and I to this decision to move back so I am trusting that He has amazing things in store for us in Dallas and that His hand is in this!
Now that you guys are in on our secret, I can’t wait to share more details with y’all on the building process, moving, and all the things!
Cheers to 2020 and new beginnings!
xo Lauren
