crazy Friday...

Well, this week has proven to be a crazy one! We spent all week cleaning the house like crazy people to get ready for a 60th surprise birthday party for my mom! It forced me to finish unpacking and finally put everything in it's place. Thursday night after the party, we took a deep breath, thinking the craziness of the week was OVER...We were WRONG! Let me set the scene...

Friday morning, my parents took the girls along with our van to town, while Kaz and I went to the closing of our new house! After the closing[SO EXCITING by the way], I called my dad to see where they wanted to meet...What he said to me was a bunch of mumble, and I could tell he was nervous and something wasn't right. He told me to get to Wal-Mart as fast as I could, that my van was in the middle of the parking lot, and he wasn't sure if he put it in P. When we pulled up to the scene, I wasn't sure exactly what happened...I couldn't figure out why my car was in the middle of the lane, and not in a parking spot. We found out that, a lady pulled in front of the van[while it was in park AND in a parking spot] and instead of hitting the brake, she hit the gas...She hit the gas so hard, it pushed the van all the way back into the driving lane, causing her to come through our previous parking spot. A good 25-30 feet that the van was pushed..THANKFULLY, no one was in the car OR AROUND the car. It could have been a even worse scene than it was. We definitely have a lot to be thankful for! There is a lot of damage, but it can be repaired or replaced! I felt so bad for the lady who was responsible, because it was an accident, and I knew she was shaken up. Here's the catch: We are leaving for a week long vacation in the morning, so we knew we needed to get a rental vehicle fast. Being a small town, the rental company only had a truck, but thankfully there was a SUV in Florence that we could get. Yesterday was a crazy day, BUT the Lord's blessing continued to rain down on us, even in a bad situation. I can't believe I wasn't upset...I really wasn't. I was THANKFUL. 

The good news, we now own a house:) We are so blessed!

Now, we are off for a week of vacation. No emails or blogging for me this next week. I'm spending as much time with family as I can! 

these 2 girls of mine...

These are a few of my favorite videos from the past few weeks...

Maggie starting to army crawl..although, that only lasted about 2 days before the full on crawling started! Annie Rice was watching Princess Poppiseed[VeggieTales] in the background.

This was a BIG moment for Annie Rice. It was her Easter party at school...BUT what's so big about it is her JUMPING! We worked on her jumping in therapy for a good 3-4 months and she can finally do it! 

 Princess Annie Rice playing soccer. She set Kaz straight and told him that in soccer "We use our hands". Ha! 

One of my favorites. Annie Rice singing(yelling) Hosana! One of her favorite songs! 

the last few weeks...

Life just hasn't slowed down...I THINK, I'm finally almost settled in and getting used to "normal daily" routines. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! I've felt like all I've been doing is unpacking, cleaning, laundry, changing diapers, making bottles, sleeping, and repeat. 

These 2 girls of mine are growing entirely TOO FAST! I can't even believe that Maggie is almost 7 months old and Annie Rice will be 3 soon! Maggie started crawling a few weeks ago and hasn't stopped! She's getting into everything! Our first project at the new house was going to be the kitchen, but because she is full on crawling, we had to change that to built ins in the living room to hide all the cords! Annie Rice is learning so much every day! We pray over the girls at night for their future, relationship with the Lord, future husbands, etc...We constantly pray that these girls will come to know the Lord at an early age. Lately, Annie Rice has asked to hear about Jesus. Melts my heart every time. I'm so thankful for these opportunities to share more and more with her, and pray that continues. They are both such a blessing! 

We are going on vacation next week to the beach for a week, and I can't wait! Annie Rice has been asking for the last 2 months if today is the day we are going to beach! She will be so excited when she ask that question and I actually say yes to it! 

Here's a few pictures from the past few weeks as my way of "catching up".

 We love being right across from the lake! 

 Visiting our 2 favorite men at the nursing home...Mr Billy and Mr AP. 

 Annie Rice loves being so close to her 2 cousins. 

 Kaz working on the built ins. 

 We love lunch dates with aunt Chris and uncle Ryan. 

 Annie Rice went skating for the first time this past weekend! The skating rink was my favorite place growing up! 

 Maggie has 2 front teeth coming in! 

 This one will eat anything and everything! She wants to eat so much baby food, our pediatrician told me to cut her formula intake in half and give her as much baby food as she will eat! She LOVES to eat! 

the Lord has been working...

 After Kaz applied for his now current job with Duke, we had to wait awhile before hearing if he would get the job. In the beginning, I really had a peace about it all, but then I got very impatient and just wanted to know what was going to happen...my reasoning was because 1) we needed to sell our house and 2) we need to find a new place to live in Hartsville. Originally, after he applied for the job, we were told it wouldn't start until the summer, so I knew we had a few months to get things in order. BUT after he got offered the job, we had 3 weeks to MOVE! We actually got the offer letter maybe 15 minutes, before a realtor was coming to our house to talk about putting it on the market. I remember having a mini freak out time that night, BUT I also really had a peace about it pretty much the whole time. That was nothing but the Lord, because we honestly didn't even know where we were moving up until a day before we left to go to Hartsville. 

From the beginning, we started looking at houses, even before Kaz was offered the job. We had a few houses that we really liked, but there was one that just stood out, and I said from the beginning that was our house. I know my friends thought I was crazy for saying that, but I really believed it. We toured the house, loved it even more, but had to wait on a few things before making an offer. 4 days before leaving Summerville, we made an offer on the house. After several counter offers, we had to walk away. Kaz and I were both disappointed, BUT I had a peace about the situation and told Kaz I still really believed this was our house, maybe we just weren't supposed to move into until a few months. So the plan was to live with my parents for a few weeks until we figured something out. After walking away from the house, we got a phone call from our realtor the next day saying the sellers would take our last counter offer and we could move in immediately! We got the keys the very next day to the house and agreed to rent until closing, which is in 3 weeks:) We said goodbye and left our house in Summerville on a Sunday morning. Leaving our house was hard, because that was our first home, and we made so many wonderful memories there. When we left on that Sunday, our house still wasn't on the market. We had to go through a lot of paperwork with the relocation company, so things took a little longer than planned. Our house officially went on the market March 7th. We didn't know how long it would take to sell it, but I continued to have a peace and knew the Lord was going to sell our house. It was a peace, He had given me through the whole process. Within 3 days, we had an all cash offer on the house! I honestly expected an offer fairly soon after putting it on the market, BUT I never expected that good of an offer or for it to sell that quickly.  Our house closed last week! It was put on the market and closed within a month! Praise the Lord. He has been working out every detail of our move. 

I don't know why I continue to doubt, when time and time again, He has been faithful to me. 

We are slowly getting adjusted. Life is so much slower here, which is a great thing! We are so blessed! 

our old house..