My little Talkers

Karis is now officially two years old! That is just crazy to me! With her growing up comes some fun new things, and one thing is her talking more and more! She has said some funny things in the past few days, and this is one I just have to share!

Karis has a new phrase that she is saying a lot. If she is playing with Owen and he happens to grab her hair or in any other way accidentally hurt her she makes a grimacing face and says, "Oww! Ee it me." (He hit me) We have no clue where she got this from! We are trying to teach her that Owen is not hitting her and that he doesn't mean to hurt her. We are also trying not to laugh when she says this too! It is funny, but definitely don't want to encourage a habit or tattle-telling! I've actually heard her say this when she bumps into inanimate objects as well! She's crazy!

Owen is almost 6 months old now! (How crazy is that!) He is starting to get a lot more vocal too! Pretty sure he said "da-da" this week, though it was in midst of babbling! He says "ba-ba" and "da-da" now. He is getting so big, and so cute!

My kids, man do I love them!

What a night....

I think it will be therapeutic to write out this amazingly horrible night. First let me give some back ground info....

We are on our way back from our big trip out west (which I will have to blog about another time to share all the fun that we had!) and planned before we left to stop and spend the night somewhere on our way back. Normally we push through and drive through the night, but Owen is NOT a good car rider and needs a break. So, we decided to drive to Nashville, TN which would put us over halfway home. I had this idea in my head that we would have a fun evening together, stay at a hotel with restaurants nearby so we could walk around, and just relax and have fun as a family! Well.....let me just tell you how the evening actually played out.

About an hour before getting to Nashville Owen started screaming and crying. It wasn't time to eat, he was just ready to be out of the car! We knew we were getting really close so we just kept going (mistake number one). My wonderful mom got online for us and started looking up hotels that were in the Nashville area. After calling a few we decided we would hit up a Holiday Inn Express that was outside of town a bit. Blake then said that we should have my mom check on Expedia to see if there were any deals on hotels in downtown Nashville (mistake number two). We thought it would be fun to stay right in the heart of things (mistake number three). Mom found a deal for Best Western in downtown, so we decide we will go for it instead of the Holiday Inn Express (mistake number four). With Owen still screaming we just wanted to get out of the car and into a hotel! We didn't clearly listen to my Mom while she gave us directions and couldn't find the hotel. We turned around and finally got on the right road. We found the hotel, and we were not too happy with what we found!

The hotel is not in the best looking area of town and we did not want to stay there. So, I started asking how we could cancel the reservation. The lady at the front desk said that we would have to go through Expedia (who we just booked the hotel with about 10 minutes earlier). So, I call expedia. They have to contact the manager of the hotel to see if we can cancel. We start driving away to head to the Holiday Inn Express when the expedia lady comes back on the phone to tell me that unfortunately the Best Western will not issue us a refund. So, we turn around and grin and bear the hotel. I'm trying to stay positive and think that we can still have a nice night even if we are in a not so good hotel. But, things don't get any better.

We get to the hotel, check in and find out that we are on the fourth floor. Not the easiest thing with two kids, but ok, we will deal with it. We get the kids inside with a few luggage items and wait for the elevator. After standing at the elevator for close to five minutes a hotel employee (who had been standing there the whole time) comes over to inform us that the elevator is being worked on and won't be ready for 30 minutes or so! AND WE ARE ON THE FOURTH FLOOR!!!!! I was shocked! I just couldn't believe it! We carried our little ones up to our room and Blake went and got more luggage. While he was gone, both my kids were screaming and crying, and I just wanted to join in with them!

Still trying to stay positive, we get dressed and walk a little ways to go get dinner (the one thing I really wanted to do that we actually did!) We ate at a place called Otter's. Ordered our food, and I misspoke and ordered the wrong thing only realizing it after we had paid. Dinner was pretty pleasant, then we got back to the hotel. Owen was over this whole being out and being up thing, so he started screaming and crying again. I put Karis in the bath and let her play a bit while I passed Owen over to Blake. When I got back to Karis saw that she had pooped in the tub. Yep, that was awesome. Who doesn't want to clean poop from a hotel bathroom after a frustrating evening! : ) Owen finally calmed down and went to sleep, Karis finally wound down and went to sleep, and Blake and I are now getting some much needed rest.

I've been trying to think positively and be thankful all night in midst of one frustration after another, and let me tell you it has been a challenge! Karis has a veggie tale video and the words to one of the songs has rung in my ears all evening "A thankful heart is a happy heart..." I have not had a happy heart but I am fighting for it! I am thankful for God's grace and that He is in control, even over nights where nothing goes your way! He is good even when my circumstances are not.

Ahh...that was therapeutic. What a night, what a night! I sure hope the rest of our drive home is uneventful and smooth! Here is to having a happy, thankful heart!

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?!?