Buckees!!

Dad, look at this!

Jerky

Now give me your best buckees face!

Or the "it's a whole lot colder and windier than mom dressed me for" look!

Happy travelers

Happy faces on the road to San Antonio!

Last moments in Houston

Brothers!

Children's fables

Even though I tried to change the words to make them correct, the pictures say it all. So I just turned the page and said "that's not true. Don't trust everything you read in children's books, ask grandpa!"

(For those of you who don't understand, you have been indoctrinated by children's books too!)

Cousins

333 Trip - Day 9

Tuesday

I can't believe it's our last full day in Houston already!!

We decided to run errands today since daddy is taking the car tomorrow to pack up gear. 

I wanted to shop at a specialty mom and baby boutique called Nurtured Family. It was amazing!! I called yesterday to ask if they even carried my size in nursing bras and they said yes. When I got there today she said "Did you call yesterday? We pulled some bras for you!" And immediately showed me to my dressing room! There was also a gated play room right next to my fitting room for the kids! This was so mom friendly. Good times! After trying on probably 10 bras we found the right one! I am so glad I didn't try to order online, I never would have even tried the one I bought! Or in the size I needed! The kids were so great and played happily for the 1 1/2 hours we were in there!! They were "pretending to watch a movie" (haha). They must have played all the games in their imagination and ran out of ideas!

The store also carried every type of cloth diaper I could want to look at!! This was so exciting because there are just some things you can't see online. Like how amazingly SOFT Sandy's fitted diapers are, or how dusty kissas hemp diaper is. I also looked at some trainers for night time with Drakeford. So many to choose from! 

Just as we were finishing up, a little boy and his dad came in to the store shopping for cloth diapers. The dad mentioned that the little boy was sick so not to get near the other kids...thanks for the thought. Then the little boy almost threw up in the store at which time the dad mentioned that he had been doing that all morning. And you brought him shopping for cloth diapers?????? I mean, there are emergency situations but I'm pretty sure that that could have waited until mom could watch him!! 

Oh.my.panic.

We checked out and went to the car. We took a thieves and said a prayer. Please don't let us catch that bug!!

After much hand sanitizer we made pb&j for lunch. Then we munched on some thin mints from Ryan and Amy who accidentally bought some cookies separately before telling the other. Needless to say they have been "cookie pushing" us since we got here! Can't complain! Sure we'll finish another box! But I will need to keep a closer watch on the way the kids eat them in the car next time. 

Left side wiped, right side not

Yummy cookies!

Then we headed to Athleta to try on some really neat swim tights and rash guards (not a mom friendly store!!). They did not have my size but my goal was not to purchase anything today, just to get a size reference and to see if anything worked for pregnancy/post partum. Half of the tops in there looked like maternity! Rouching on the sides is very popular and very good for big baby bellies! But it was just one of those stores that nothing in there was made for me! They had some cool swim shirts though! 

Then we headed off to Whole Foods to pick up some diapers and sun screen. Outside of the store there was a pottery wheel demonstration that was letting kids try the wheel. I knew we were all too tired for bravery to try something new so I just took the kids over to watch. After a little girl was trying it Drakeford decided he wanted to give it a go! He sat down in the chair and the lady brought around a huge bucket of water and said "ok, put your hands in and get them nice and wet" that's when he lost it. Hey! At least he tried! 

I really thought Marlow would fall asleep on our way to athleta or whole foods but she never did. Not even on the way home! Not good. Instead she was "simpled out", as grandaddy would say, and kept laughing at everything. We got home around 5 after leaving at 10:30am! I think we might have been okay but when we got home there was an ant incident and it was all over. Everyone was wailing then. Amazing what one little ant can do to two tired toddlers. And Marlow didn't even get bit! I have never seen her that beside herself. Aowyn got tossed in the pack n play (which she was so thankful to see her blanket and a flat bed!)

 Marlow needed to sleep!! I had to lay next to her to get her to calm down and rest. She kept saying through tears "no, I don't want to!" To everything. 

Drakeford was fine and just lay next to us. He can do without nap some days. Everyone napped until 6:30 when the guys got home for dinner. They brought us Lupes Mexican food. So good!!! I woke the kids up (risky) and just decided that Marlow was going to sit on my lap for dinner. I am glad there were beans and tortillas for her. Her tummy wasn't feeling great and she likes that. After that it was bath time and bed. The kids were back to normal by now and I could see bed time being tricky. Mitchell came and played on the bed with us while Uncle Ryan was finishing up in the kitchen. Then he was off to bed. 

Marlow wanted a photo shoot after bath. Here are some of her best. Who taught he to pose like this??

And Drakeford got in on it. 

Hey mom look take a picture of me as a statue!

They didn't fall asleep as quickly but I think they did good. I laid in there a little while with them just to make sure no one was getting out of bed. After an hour, mom was asleep but kids were not so I said my goodnights and gave them the usual "heads don't come off the pillow" rule. Didn't hear from them all night. 

Dad was passed out on the bed since bath time. Today he filmed welding and forgot to bring sunscreen!! The burn on the right side of his body zapped him pretty good. I think it's 2nd degree in some places. Pray for him! We are putting Gentle Baby oil on it since my lavender is almost gone. 

Tomorrow is packing day and hopefully leaving for San Antonio after lunch. I was able to do some laundry yesterday (thank you Amy!) and am ready to pack up!

Pillows

As Marlow was holding a stuffed bear, rocking it, she sweetly said "arms are like pillows."

Cousins!

Big cousin teach little cousin how to do scary wolf face!

333 Trip - Day 8

Monday

Aowyn has been coughing quite a bit! She has been struggling with an ear infection that I have been treating with essential oils and lymphatic massage this time. I think her short nap on Saturday was due to that as well. But when they start to drain she usually gets congested and coughs. I brought an extensive dr. Kit so I will listen to her lungs and just make sure it's still in the throat like usual. Praise God: Kevin put Breath Again on her chest at 3 am and I didn't hear any more coughing from her till 5:30 am!

The guys got an early start and so did I! Kevin could not find the keys so we were both searching the house with our smartphone flashlights at 5 am! Thankfully we found them. 

Because of day light savings we woke up late. You can really tell if someone is a routine person or a schedule person around this time. I am a routine person and find it a little harder to adjust. I think Amy is a schedule person so she has been much more successful at "julting" her children into the new time. We should take notes!

Today was another fun day out with the kids. Aunt Amy treated us to all the things we never get to do at the mall - ride the carousel and train!! We rode in the green car and Mitchell and Evelyn rode in front of us in blue. 

Aowyn wasn't feeling 100% so her pics are a little off :(

But she really enjoyed looking out the train window!

Then we headed to the carousel. Marlow picked a horse right away and since she didn't want to ride last time, we let her decide what row we would ride in. She was very brave! And even let the carousel conductor help her up on her horse without a fuss! Drakeford actually climbed up all by himself. Big kid! Aowyn wasn't thrilled with the whole thing but she tolerated it. It was much smaller than the one at the zoo and I stood at the very closest row, needless to say I was feeling a bit sick mid way through the turn! 

They also got a horse stamp on their hands after the ride! Drakeford has never gotten a stamp before that I can remember and he was curious when it would wash off each time we washed our hands. 

Then we headed to chick-fil-a to pick up some lunch and head to this really neat train park. It was huge and had big train shaped equiptment! (That of course I took not one picture of!!) I was pretty wiped today and not walking my best but I wanted to have a fun day for the kids. God will sustain me!

Drakeford saw the big kids climbing up this two story rope spider web tree and decided he was totally capable. And you know what? He was! He wanted to go right to the top! That is, until I stopped him and asked him to come down!! Not to be a downer but he was already too high for me to go get him and if he made it all the way to the top and got scared...I'm not sure what I could do! But he decided that almost all the way was good for now. He climbed down all by himself too. So exciting! Marlow found this "bumpy" slide. Like the ones at old chuck-e-cheese play places that you ride down and it's made up of lots of little rolling "pins". It was cute to see. 

Home, nap, dinner, bed!

Goofing off

Biltmore

I found some pictures from the biltmore and apple orchard. Good times!!

Jon's surprise Hospital visit

This is a picture from when Jon was in the hospital and Ryan flew in to surprise him. We are so thankful that Jon is much better and back to work now!

Nostalgia

Marlow and me. 

333 Trip - Day 7

Sunday

Today was a much needed family sabbath. We went to Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring where Voddie Baucham preaches at. It was about an hour away but we enjoyed the familiar Sunday drive. As soon as we got on the the road we were slammed with traffic! Bridge construction meant they closed off the main free way! Well, it's Houston, ONE of the main freeways. So thankfully these reformed churches have very lengthy services and even being 30 min late we were still in time for two hymns before the sermon began!

Pastor Baucham was preaching at a 4 year celebration of one of their church plants so a teacher in training (title?) was preaching. 

Praise God: the very theological discussion that Kevin and I had on our 16+ hour trip down here was the very thing this man preached on! It really encouraged us to seek out the answer in God's word and not be satisfied until we do. It's so easy to just say "well it would be nice to know but I don't have time to find out. I guess I'll just do without it". 

I feel God's hand nudging us on. 

After church and fellowship meal, we left around 2:30 to head to Sugarland, Kevin's old stomping grounds. It was so neat to see where he lived and how it has changed. He even drove us by an old friends house by memory. We stopped at the gate to see if anyone was home and the gate opened and there stood Miss Debbie! We chatted with her for a little while and talked about Kevin's childhood friend Garret (who doesn't live there now). But come to find out, Garret lives not far! Seeing as we needed to head back home for pizza, there was no time to go and visit so we gave Garret a call and he stopped by Ryan and Amy's after dinner and visited for a bit. How neat! Because of the time, it was a short visit and sadly there are not a whole lot more times to visit before we leave. Lord willing we can do breakfast before we head out on Wednesday. If not, it was fun to see old friends! 

333 Trip - Day 6

Saturday!

It was arranged for Mimi to take Diedrich to her house after school on Thursday but it slipped everyone's mind with all the excitement of the rodeo! So after the zoo on Friday, Mimi took him home. It was a real blessing all around since Diedrich wasn't eating much with all the stress of new people in the house. Marlow is back to her normal self and not living in the "safe car". 

Kevin is home but has some camera to do's. he blessed us by playing with us out on the swing set all morning! Then he went to work getting things all ready for Monday shoot. We almost missed a very important package while at the zoo yesterday but by the grace of God they redelivered it for no reason!!! It even said on the website that it was delivered and no one was home. Then as Kevin was figuring out how to intercept it, they knocked on the door literally as we walked in the door and said something about a wrong address. 

Praise God: Kevin was able to test the under water rig over the weekend!!

Ryan did a half day as well but was home in time for fun too :) Amy went to the store to restock the food supply after our clan did some damage. They are making us feel so at home even though it must be tough having 5 extra people in the house!! Thank you Ryan and Amy! We know we are loud and messy and eat a ton!! I was just thinking to myself a month ago how we now go through 2-3 gallons of milk and 2-3 cartons of eggs per week! I keep having to go back to the store mid week because I'm in deniel. Surely one carton is enough? Who needs three gallons of milk? 

In our defense, Aowyn is drinking formula that I make from milk so one of the gallons is hers. (Ok maybe only a half gallon but I will blame it on the little one). And we haven't even made ice cream in a while! But I digress. Needless to say we have cut back on our milk and egg consumption while here and enjoyed different treats like yogurt and berries. Yum! But momma is making up for the fat by eating leftover Chinese food at 10:30 in the morning haha. The zoo made me soo hungry today! And I am taking a much needed rest. 

Praise God: I was able to walk the whole zoo without any pelvic problems!!

But today I'm paying for it :)

Aowyn decided she didn't want a nap today and woke up after only 30 min in bed. I put some toys in her pack n play and went back to sleep but not for very long. Thankfully daddy was here to help today with bed time because I was useless!

Saturday means grill out! And boy did they treat us. Lamb! Kevin's favorite! (Pics to come soon!) It was so delicious!!

There was a little thunderstorm tonight and I made the mistake of warning the children about it before bed. You know, casually mentioning if they hear some thunder outside, not to worry because it was just outside and they were safe in their rooms. Well that added about an hour onto bedtime trying to calm their imaginations!! They were afraid something was going to open the door - huh? I said thunder! Not creepy people outside!! Oh boy. After all was said and done, 

I said "ok, I'm going to bed, no more talking or questi ---" 

Drakeford in a whisper "mom"

Mom "I said no more!"

Drakeford "I was just going to say goodnight"

Mom "oh"

Drakeford "I will say 'mom' then you say 'what' then I will say 'goodnight'"

Mom "......k"

They were fine. And there wasn't even a real thunder storm after all that!! Good night cuties :)

333 Trip - Day 5

Friday - it's zoo day!!

Despite the cold weather yesterday, today turned into an absolutely perfect day!!

Aunt Amy treated us to the Zoo, feeding giraffes, and a ride on the carousel!!!

Drakeford was so excited to ride on the panda bear. Marlow was less excited and opted for the bench seat two rows ahead. This put me is a very tricky spot holding a baby too! Drakeford said "will you stand here and protect me?" As he climbed on the panda yet at the same time Marlow is on the verge of ditching the whole thing all together! I quickly told Drakeford that I would be sitting on the bench with the girls and that I needed him to be my strong brave boy. 

There really was a 50/50 chance that he would have melted into a puddle of sobs at all the pressures of the carousel - loud speakers, spinning, up and down, outside seat - yikes! Then to top it off, no mommy!! 

He sat there with the biggest smile on his face! He was so excited and was so brave! I was proud of him! 

Then when I got a chance to think about it, I was proud of Marlow too. She could have ditched the whole thing! Instead she came on with us and just asked for a safer seat. We could look back at  Drakeford the whole time and that helped! 

Mimi snapped a couple pictures of him that I will post when I get them!

Enjoy these pics!

333 Trip - Day 4

Thursday - Our first full day here! We got up and had breakfast and then went out side to Mitchell's "park". They have a nice big swing set and t-ball outside in the back yard that the kids are really enjoying! 

Mitchell and Evelyn are doing an amazing job sharing toys with us! And Aunt Amy is making us feel right at home. She bought us all kinds of special snacks! 

There is one car in particular that Drakeford really likes. It's called a wiggle car. Because they have all tile down stairs the kids love having races! There is some kind of wheeled vehicle for everyone! 

Marlow hangs out in the cozy coup mostly to hide from the little dog Diedrich. She's only slightly terrified of him. She calls it the "safe car". 

She makes an effort though. By the end of the day she will pet him but in the morning, the terror starts all over! We talked about how God knew this little dog would be here and allowed Marlow to be here too. He can give her the courage to play and have fun and teach her how to control her emotions. Sometimes she is playing for a long time without any melt downs! Other times she asks to sit on the kitchen counter with me. Thankfully the food chairs are high off the ground, but even then she still says "I don't like him!" and shivers like I do when I see a creepy crawly on the floor. 

Mimi came to get Mitchell and take him to school today. It was rodeo day so Mitchell got dressed up like a cowboy! But when we came down stairs we realized that Drakeford was dressed up like one too!! Mimi brought Mitchell some boots but he wasn't that keen to wear them. So Drakeford went to get on his John deer boots and told Mitchell that we  like ours and wear ours all the time! This helped a lot and I think he wore them all day for school!!

Cowboy Cousins!

We played outside after he left and enjoyed our morning off reading books. Thankfully the kids are all around the same age so their schedules are very similar! Morning nap for the little girls, then lunch, then afternoon nap for everyone. 

The men come home exhausted! We are praying for Kevin and Ryan as they work these long days of filming. There were a couple set backs with gear that caused Kevin to need to work a little more when he came home. But other than that all is going well!

333 Trip - Day 3

Wednesday 

Still on our way to Houston! We did not have any potty issues until the last 40 minutes of our trip when someone had to got three times!! 

Kevin had a few stops to make at Lowes and Academy before we arrived so the kids and I went to chick-fil-a to stretch our legs and eat lunch. Aowyn wants to be a big kid so badly! She can make it up to the slide almost without help! But then doesn't want to go down the slide :)

We hit minor traffic on the way in to Houston and arrived around 2pm. Just in time for naps!

Our first encounter with their little dog Diedrich wasn't great but I hope the kids will get used to him. He is really sweet! Just a little hyper. Thankfully he doesn't really bark either! 

Kevin unloaded us and made his way to work for a meeting. He must be wiped!

After nap, the guys came home and we had a delicious turkey chili. Thanks Amy! 

333 Trip - Day 2

Tuesday

Kevin got everyone in the car and woke me up at 6:00am! A little later than we wanted to leave since we wanted to try and make the trek to Houston in a day. We decided after all the bad freeze reports we would be safe to leave a tad bit later. 

Praise The Lord: we got on the road and had perfect driving weather all the way down!! No rain or moisture to freeze! 

We stopped every hour to switch drivers, per Kevin's request, and every two hours for potty breaks and leg stretches. After a while I really liked it! Our stops took a little longer when the kids got out but it kept them happy I think. Aowyn did great, they all did!

 Grandmommy sent some new books with us with magnadoodles on them, and lots of other toy goodies. So much fun!! Sarah sent us with some snacks. So yummy - thank you!

We made it to Covington LA and were totally fried. So in to the IHOP we go only to find a very busy place. Then I notice all the servers are wearing beads...hmmm...what could that mean? You probably guessed it, it was Fat Tuesday! Mardi Gras! Thankfully we were about an hour from New Orleans so other than beads there were no other signs of this drunken day! But guess what else? We sat down at our table to find that it was also national pancake day and everyone got free pancakes! Now I'm really impressed that we got a table at all!! 

Praise God: for free pancakes!

Hotel for the night. We will start again tomorrow. 

Tip: call ahead to reserve the crib, our hotel only had ONE. Thankfully we got it! 

Also, continental breakfast is not that great if you plan on leaving BEFORE it's open bar!

It's been a good day! But we are ready to get to Houston!

333 Trip - Day 1

3 weeks
3 children
3,000 miles
Entering my 3rd trimester

Monday

Even though we didn't leave until after 8:30 pm, I am considering it day 1 because of all the work involved! Because this is a work trip for Kevin, most of his gear came with us in the van, which means a lot less space for other stuff like bags and food. So some hard work and creative packing was my job as much as his. One thing was for sure - BOB was coming with us! 

Grammy and Grandpa came over two days in a row to help me get ready for the trip. Grandpa put seat cover on the kids middle seat and Grammy helped me pack each outfit into a ziplock bag, that way I could just pull out a bag for each child that contained clothes, underwear/diaper, and socks for each day. So easy and we fit more in each suit case that way!

I also made some extra formula for Aowyn that is coming with us. 

Praise: Kevin's package that he was waiting on came early! So he was able to test out some gear and then pack it up before midnight! 

I still had to pack for 5 people for three weeks (I have never packed for everyone by myself before!) 

The kids did awesome! They hung out with Dad downstairs for hours and didn't fight at all! Kevin said that every few minutes he would remind Drakeford to do something nice for his sisters. This helped him stay focused on serving instead of teasing I think. Great job dad!

So we headed to Grandmommy and Grandaddy's house to shave off a couple hours of the long drive. We got there late and pretty much gave goodnight hugs and kisses and went to sleep. Thank you for letting us sleep and run! We went to sleep not knowing a good plan for the morning due to all the bad weather reports...Lord protect us as we travel!

333 Trip

Here I will keep you up to date on our big road trip! The official title is 

3 weeks
3 children
3,000 miles
Entering my 3rd trimester

That pretty much sums it up!

We are on the road for work (Houston), film festival (San Antonio), and home school conference (Nashville). We will be making some fun stops along the way to visit friends and family. Above all, please keep us in your prayers for health and safe travels. 

We are so excited to be on our first family road trip!! Adventures are sure to come, good or bad, we are just glad to be together. 

Vaya con Dios!