Still Here....

It's 12:12 pm, and the van is still not ready. If it's not ready by 5 pm we are going to take my mom's car that they have so graciously offered us. It's smaller than the van, so we will be much tighter. But, we need to get to Iowa! Please say a prayer that our van will be fixed by 5 o'clock tonight.

Once again, in our heart we planned our way, but our Lord is directing the steps. Hopefully we will be on the road soon. I will update later today.

Our Trip Has Been Delayed....

Grrr....our trip to Iowa has been delayed by about 12 hours or so. The plan was to leave here tonight around 8 or 9 pm, but now we are leaving tomorrow morning sometime. We came down to my Mom's on Sunday evening to have our van worked on before we head out for our trip. The AC has not been working and we were not about to drive halfway across the country with no AC!!!! So, we dropped the van off Monday morning at 9 am, they worked on it, got a call Tuesday morning saying that they discovered it was the condenser and they had to go get the part in Charlotte. At one o'clock they told us that the part was in and they would call us when it was ready. We didn't hear anything until almost five o'clock when they let us know that they found another problem and the van wouldn't be fixed until Wednesday morning. I am so thankful for the guys working on the van and the extent that they are going to to get this thing fixed! But, I'm still a little bummed that our plan is not working out the way we, well, planned.

We had ourselves psyched up for the night drive (Blake stayed up until 5am last night and slept half the day to prepare for the drive) and had our plan in our mind as to how things were hopefully going to go. Now, we are waiting. We hope the van will be done early tomorrow, but they didn't give us an exact time. I'm shooting for before noon. That would be great! We will see though. I am ready to get this big drive over, and really wish that half the trip could have been driven through the night while the kids were sleeping. Well, I keep thinking this verse and taking comfort in it...

"In his heart a man plans his course,

but the Lord determines his steps."

Proverbs 16:9

This delay doesn't surprise the Lord. I've been trying to think on the positives too. Today was my dad's birthday and we were able to spend more time with him this evening. We are able to spend one more night with my mom and step-dad (who had knee surgery today!). We were able to get our hair cut by my fabulous sister! The kids, as well as Blake and I, will get a good night's rest. We are still going to take our time and stop when we need to with the kids. We will probably stop and spend the night somewhere tomorrow night too.

So, we are going to be ok. God just wanted us to leave Wednesday during the day instead of Tuesday night. I'm a little more anxious about driving in the middle of the day with our little ones! Prayers are again most appreciated! I'll let everyone know how it goes in a day or so!

Our Big Trip Out West

Tomorrow the family and I are off on a big adventure. We are driving to Iowa. Did you get that? DRIVING to IOWA! If you are unfamiliar with where Iowa is, just think the very center of the U.S., then straight up almost to Canada (Minnesota is between Iowa and Canada). Without stopping the drive should take 20 hours. Did you get that? 20 HOURS IN THE CAR! And we have two under 2! So, if it's not clear from this post already, I'm a little nervous/not looking foward to this LOOOOONG drive. I would greatly appreciate all the prayers we can get for this!

Though I'm not excited about the drive, there are several things I am excited about with this big trip. First, I'm so excited to have some extended time being together as a family. Blake works a lot during the week and we are often busy with things, so it will be nice to just have some good time together as a family over these next two weeks (we won't be back until the end of the month). I am excited to make memories with our little family of 4! I am hoping to make the most of the drive out, so we are planning on stopping for longer periods of time to just get out and play and run around some! Should be fun!

I am also excited to see all the family out west! Blake's family is mainly in OK (we will be traveling there after our time in Iowa) and we get to see them about once a year. Most of them have not met our little Owen yet, so I'm thankful to get out there so soon after he was born. We will be having a family reunion in Iowa with Blake's dad's side of the family, and there are some fun things planned for our time there. Once down in OK we will see Blake's mom's side of the family. I'm just so ready to see everyone, and wish this 20 hour drive wasn't in our way (if only flying were much much cheaper!).

We will be making a stop in Branson, Missouri too! I have heard so much about this place and I am just SO excited to have some time there! We will be visiting with Blake's step-mom there!

Lots of family time and lots of fun on the way! I know it's going to be a great trip overall, but the drive, ughh! Again, prayers are much appreciated!

A Great Moment

I think I had my favorite moment (thus far) with my two kids tonight. As I was getting ready to put the kids to bed tonight, I found myself with Owen sitting on my lap in the glider and Karis sitting on the footstool facing us. She started making a little sound that Owen found quite funny, and so he started giggling. She stopped, so I prodded her a bit to keep on since Owen really liked it. So, she started doing some other crazy things (just shaking her head back and forth and making noises) which proceeded to make Owen laugh even more! And then Karis started cracking up, which made Owen laugh more, which made Karis laugh more! All the while I'm laughing and just trying to soak up this sweet sweet memory with my two kiddos! Owen ADORES his big sister! He lights up when she comes around, and she does alot seeing how she LOVES her little "bubba!"

One day they may not like each other very much at times and may fight and get angry with one another, but I will remember back to the sweet times when they just liked to laugh at eachother. I'll remember how sweet they were with eachother, and I will try my best to remind them of that too! But, I sure hope there are more moments like these as the days go along!

Our Four Month Old Needed a Hair Cut!!

I am still intending on sharing pictures from our getaway weekend at the lake with my family, but I have something else to share tonight!

Our little sweet Owen has had some interesting hair for a while now. Most of his hair has fallen out, except for right down the middle (natural mohawk). Also, at the end of his little mohawk has been this little bunch of hair, affectionately called the "tuft" of hair. It somewhat resembled a rooster's tail! For a while we have been saying, "the tuft has got to go!" So last night, we gave our little four month old his first hair cut! We captured the whole event on camera, so enjoy the footage!

(The first video is of the cutting of the tuft, the second is finishing the hair cutting process, with a little bit of proof of life thrown in at the end!)

So, what do you think?? He looks good without the tuft, huh?!?