My life with the 3stephensboys is exciting, trying, fulfilling, entertaining, amazing, tiring, inspiring... what God made me for & what I love. Therefore, you may not see many pictures of Darrin or me, but you will get an eye full of my 3stephensboys in all of their glory, amazement and cuteness! Thanks for visiting! Enjoy!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

We have Shingles!!!

YEAH!!!

We have shingles on the roof!!!:) That is very exciting and I haven't driven by today to see if we have drywall, but I'm praying we do! I wish I could show you a picture of our house! I just might have to sneak over to Darrin's office and put one up for ya'll to see.

One week down and only 4 to go!!!!! Yesterday, I went to lovely WalMart and bought some ant traps! The whole ants in the peanut butter, sippy cups, etc.. was getting too much for me! And we also purchased a rubbermaid tub thingy for Kru to take a bath in from now on. Kye will have to take showers too. The tub thing is just too much for me to go into now, but just trust me, that the boys can no longer sit in the tub!

Dakota has meet the teacher at school tonight! I pray that we both will be encouraged and excited for Monday.

I will update again from the library! Take care and have a great weekend!

Monday, August 20, 2007

5 LONG WEEKS!!!!

Hello Everyone,

I hope that this post finds you well! I am sitting at the public library checking my emails and I had to update you on our latest. As of last Tuesday, we are residing in a 2 bedroom furnished apartment waiting the completion of our house! It's going to be a long 5 weeks!!!:) The good news is that the builder tells us that the drywall will be up by Wed. and that it is 3 weeks from that point on until completion, unless hurricane Dean has other plans!! The plumbing and electric are complete and the venting system is done and the insulation is finished!

The good news about our current place is that we have a roof over our heads, there is running water, and we have beds. The not so good news is that the whole place smells of smoke, the ants are taking over :), and when you do shower the water comes up past your ankles! :) But I am reminded repeatedly everyday, that it could be worse and how much more we will appreciate our house when we get in! I am also being taught specifically about "being content in all things," :) The boys are doing fairly well with the changes, Dakota and Kye are sharing a double bed, which is going surprisingly well!!! We are actually considering keeping that arrangement in the new house, well except 2 twin beds. Kru is sleeping in the play n pack and is getting more and more used to that and not coming into our bed in the middle of the night! The dog and cat and settling in as well.

I wish I could show you pictures, but you will just have to use your imagination! I hope this week to be picking flooring, counters, and paint for the house and we hope that the brick begins to be laid as well. Will update when I can! Take care!
Love to you all,
Kari

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

A Change of Plans/Summer Happenings



As many of you know, we were planning on moving back to Lincoln in June. We had things all set to go, Darrin's approval to work at home, a real estate agent who was finding a house for us to buy, an approved home loan, etc... And then God said, "Wait a minute! This is not what I want you to do!" It's amazing the difference when God gives us choices and when God says this IS the only choice! If you know what I mean!
"The Lord makes everything go as He pleases" Prov. 16:4

In a matter of a few weeks, EVERYTHING changed! God completely rearranged our plans, attitudes, mindsets, everything! And the big thing, WE WERE OK WITH IT!!!! AMAMZING!:) I won't bore you with all the details, but lets just say that God is Great and is Sovereign!!!

That picture is our house!!!! Yes, we are building and are going to have a house of our very own for the first time, ever! 13 years is a long time to wait to own, but God has perfect timing! We are so excited, we can't wait! So is about 6 weeks that will be where we'll be living! Our new address is: 4209 Whispering Creek Drive all other info stays the same. We are already getting mail there, so you can once again change our address! Have you learned to write ours in pencil yet?!

I also wanted you all to know that as of this weekend, we will be living somewhere else. Our property management is making us leave here before the house is ready. So we are looking at some temporary housing for us. Don't know where that is exactly, but God does and I know HE will reveal it to us soon, I'm hoping today!:) Our phone #s will be the same, but for those 6 weeks, I will have limited internet access, but Darrin will still have his at work. I will try to get to the library every now and then to check mine! So the next time I update this, we will be in our house! YEAH!!!!!

School begins soon and Dakota is excited about trying it again. 5th grade! Can't believe it! Kye is going to go to a 1/2 day Kindergarten this year and then go to public all day Kindergarten next year. Kru and I will hang out and hopefully have more time to take walks again! Before all of that happens, I wanted to update you on our summer happenings!



We spend a ton of time at the pool! We bought a summer pass and are getting our moneys worth! We try to go everyday, but the weather hasn't wanted to cooperate all summer! We all have nice tans and Kye and Kru's hair gets blonder and blonder! Kye is swimming better and can go off the slide at one of the pools by himself now and Kru is CRAZY!!!!! He jumps in alone, goes under water all the time! He loves the water as much as Kye ever did. I wish you could hear Kru sy swimming and other words, he is too cute! Dakota with his crazy long hair, likes to bring a friend along to play in the deep end!


Have you ever heard of Blue Bell Ice Cream??? Well, close to us here are their headquarters. And in July, Blue Bell turned 100 and they threw a party! Free ice cream and lots of it!! It was super hot, but we had fun. We had our picture taken with Daisy the cow and ate way too much ice cream. The boys were able to make their own and see farm animals and play some games!




We were all very tired by the end of the day, but had lots of fun and it was free!!!!

Then last weekend right before shark week of Discovery Channel, we went down to the aquarium in Houston. They had a bunch of extra stuff there to promote shark week and we had a good time!

We rode on the train that took us on a shark adventure! Kru wasn't so sure about the sharks that were swimming around us and over us, but Kye and Dakota thought it was cool!

We saw many different kinds of fish, white tigers, and many sea animals! We even got to feel some stingrays!

It was a hot day!!! And they have a really neat splash pad there that the boys enjoyed playing in and cooling off! There was even live music!


We are going this weekend to Austin and San Antonio with Kory and Shelley. They are flying in to Austin and we are driving over to go to Sea World with them! It has been almost 18 months since seeing them and the boys are WAY excited! I will update that in September sometime! Until then, I hope you are staying cool somewhere! I don't know when I will ever get used to this heat here! I mean seriously, my eyebrows sweat!!!! Have you ever had your eyebrows sweat? That is hot!!! Thanks to all of you have kept us in your prayers! We really have appreciated it! Take care!