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!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Our Christmas Card!

Happy Thanksgiving and not Merry Christmas! I decided to send a card out early so that everyone would have our new address for Christmas cards! (I hope most of you received our card in the mail!) So here is our Christmas update at Thanksgiving time!

Oh, What a Difference a Year can Make!!!!

On any given day, I am amazed at how different our life is and what God has done in our life! We have been in College Station now almost 18 months. That first year was a tough one and at times, we wondered if we would make it.

By February of '07, we didn't think we could, so we began making arrangements to move back home to Lincoln and have Darrin work from home again. That was the plan all the way until May and then.....all I can say is that God stepped in and changed EVERYTHING!!!

He impressed Darrin and I that we were not to move and that we were supposed to stay here in Texas. Not only that, but HE opened up doors and we were able to purchase a brand new home in June. We didn't move in until September, but we are FINALLY homeowners!


God is so good and has continued to bless us in our obedience and we are so thankful for all that we have! God has also blessed us with a great church family. I am so happy to have friends! God is faithful and I learned so much last year as He wanted to grow me in ways I didn't even realize I needed to be.

We still miss Lincoln and probably always will, but we KNOW, confidently, that we are where God wants us to be! So we have a new address and hope this one will stay for awhile in your address books, which would be rare for us!:)
4209 Whispering Creek Dr
College Station, TX 77845

Here are some highlights from the past year! Most of these can be found on past posts, but here goes!

DAKOTA

*turned 11 in October!
* in 5th grade at Cypress Grove Intermediate School.
*getting straight As!
* went to DC again, (alone) to visit Uncle and Shelley. while there, went to a professional hockey and basketball game
*played soccer, and getting ready for basketball soon
*made a couple of trips to the dentist this past year and had 4 teeth pulled.
*informs me often he is a "tween!"
*still taking guitar


KYE


*turned 5 in April
*going to 1/2 day Kindergarten and having a blast!
*still obsessed with animals
*loves sharing a room with Dakota
*is quite the author and has written many books!
*enjoyed seeing Uncle and Shelley in August at Sea World! Yeah! His favorite place, ever!
*made a couple of trips to the dentist as well and had some fillings and caps put on!
*continues to humor us and wow us with some of his craziness and Kye-ness!!
*check out his artwork and stories under October posts!




KRU


*turned 2 in June!
*he is "feeling" his 2ness to the fullest!
*loves Play-doh and coloring
*keeps me on my toes
*loves when people visit
*is getting very silly shy
*LOVES church
*enjoys going along on Kye's field trips
*growing taller everyday
*likes to watch Telletubbies and Doodlebops!








As for Darrin


*loving being a homeowner! He has put up the flat screen tv, screen door, bathroom towel thingys and has killed a snake!
*Still at A&M and promoted to Senior Multi Media Specialist!
*involved in a cool project
www.gotrybe.com
*traveled to Chicago for convention
*maintains alienant.com










and then there's me, Kari

*teaching a writing, science and geography classes
*tutoring
*learning a ton from my Beth Moore Bible Studies
*helping out at church with youth & children
*trying to find time to scrapbook!
*started my own little business - BeautyControl!
Anyone want to have a spa?

There you have it! I hope to hear from many of you in the next several weeks! We are headed to Iowa on Tuesday! Yeah! It will be wonderful to see family that we haven't seen for 2 years. Not sure what our plans are for Christmas, but I will update the blog several times before then.

I pray that you can slow down this holiday season and before we even begin to contemplate Christmas, we can stop and take time to be thankful for so much! Stop and remember all that is dear to us and the One that gives us those! And then as we head into December that we can truly focus on the Real Reason for this wonderful season!

Take care and we love you all!
Kari and the boys! ;)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Catch up Before Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to post some pictures before Thanksgiving rolls around! I can't believe that it's already the middle of November! Seriously, where is the time going!?!

We are so excited! This time next week, we will be on our way to Iowa! I can hardly wait! Not seeing my family for 2 years is 2 years too long!!! So we will be gone for a few days and I'm so hoping that it snows while we are there!!!

Last Thursday I had a scary episode that ended up with me in the ER. I am fine! But last Thursday, I thought I was either having a stroke or an aneurysm. But it was only a migraine!! I have NEVER had a migraine like that before! I had numbing of my right arm and the right side of my face. My speech was impaired and my head hurt BAD!!!!! Darrin rushed home and ran me up to the ER and after checking my heart and having a CATSCAN, they diagnosed it as a migraine. I have some intense medicine to take if the numbing happens again so I can sleep through it next time!

I'm very thankful that it wasn't anything more serious than that, but it sure did scare Darrin and me!!! God kept a special eye on Kru while I lay passed out in the garage until Darrin got home! I pray that I don't have those too often!!!

We are done with sports for a while! Yeah!!! Dakota wrapped up his soccer season making it to the championship game, but we lost. They received 2nd place medals and fought hard! We only lost 2 games the whole season and then won 1 and lost 1 in the playoffs. They did great!






At the end of the year party, coach Sarah had a game kids versus parents! It was a blast! I don't think the adults stopped smiling and laughing the entire time. I have to brag that the parents won!!! It was a fun fun time! Darrin even scored one! I played in flip-flops, but still kicked the ball well!! :)



We had fun!!!

Sarah wondered if Dakota would live up to his yellow cleats, when she first met him, and thankfully she said he did!!!

Kye went on another field trip. Last week we went to the Washington on the Brazos. Kye's classroom had the Native American tour as they are studying them right now. It was a nice tour and we learned a lot about the Indians who lived here in Texas.



Kye's Indian name is "Running Bobcat." His favorite thing he enjoyed at the museum was scraping the deer fur off of the skin using a rock tool, just like the Indians did. Afterwards, we went to the playground there and had tons of fun sliding on the old fashioned kind of twirly slide.




Kru is keeping busy as always! Talking more and more and attempting to get his way on EVERYTHING!!!! Oh the 2's! You have to love the 2's!!!

Will update again soon, so check back! Have a great week!

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Halloween Highlights!

As always, we carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween. Darrin even participated this year! Dakota was sick, but ventured out for a few minutes to carve his pumpkin. Kru was wanting to help a lot more than last year, but still with not much success. However, he did manage to ruin one of the eyes that Dad had cut! :)


On Halloween night, our Hope Group helped out at the Trunk or Treat at Northview's church. Really all I did was make some cupcakes and the kids went around to the booths and got candy! They had a nice time and it was fun socializing with friends.

This year the boys went as:
Elmo a.k.a. Kru Burger King's King a.k.a. Dakota and The Human Torch a.k.a. Kye

Later, we went to Christ's Way's carnival. We went there last year and the boys remembered and wanted to attend again. So on our way home, we stopped by!

Dakota takes his shot at the pumpkin!

Kru makes a cross this year!!!

Kye loved the slide!

Kru was so cute, he didn't wear Elmo's face up on his head much at all. So I had to capture the moment. Isn't he so adorable!!! Dakota and Kye didn't wear their face or hair much either as they were making them too hot!

We had a fun time!

Oh and by the way, if you didn't get to see Kory's costume in the post below, here it is again! It's just that cool to be posted twice!!!

Friday, November 02, 2007

A Soap Box!

Warning:
This is me getting on my soap box! You may want to stop reading or you may be curious!!
There is a really cool picture at the end. So if you don't want to read my stance on playing Christmas music already, skip down to the picture!

I love Christmas music, I really do..... BUT

I feel so sorry for Thanksgiving!

I was in Toys R Us, the day after Halloween, and do you know what I heard?????


YES!!!

Christmas songs!
I couldn't believe it!!!

I mean come on... we haven't yet even put away the costumes and the jack-o-lanterns.

At first I thought, well it just must be a toy store and trying to subliminally tempt people to begin their Christmas shopping.... BUT, later that day I was at another store, don't remember where exactly, I heard more!

Thanksgiving, in my opinion, gets jipped. We jump directly from Halloween to Christmas without even blinking. I love Fall and Thanksgiving! I love being able to stop and purposefully think about all that I'm thankful for and count my blessings. Yes, I do this often, not as often as I should, but there is just somethings special about Thanksgiving, to me!

I remember when my father would make us all go around the table to say what we are thankful for. I acted like I hated it, but I love those memories now, and on any given year, I find myself being tempted to make my boys do the same now! Isn't that bizarre!?!

You know, I think the Canadians have the right way of doing Thanksgiving... it's in early October. So before you even think of Halloween, you have Thanksgiving! Then Halloween and then you can zoom ahead to Christmas because you have already had your Thanksgiving.

Sorry..... just had to share!

I'm so excited, because this year we are driving up to be with my extended family for Thanksgiving in Iowa! It's been a year or two since I have been there and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!! It just isn't T-day if I'm not with my family in Iowa! It is so special to me and truly the 1 constant in my life since I can remember. I'm counting the days!!! 18 :)

Kory & Shelley, my brother and sister-in-law, are even going to be there this year as well!!!! YEAH!

Eat tons of yummy food, play endless hours of cards, watch a parade, catch up with family, and just be with the ones who have known you forever! I love you Granma and Granpa!!! I'll see you soon!!!!

PS
Speaking of my brother.... Completely Off Topic.
I had to share with you what my brother was for Halloween!

He Rocks!!!
Yes, that is actually him!