Austin, TX Week One

Ugh! I think I am allergic to Austin! 

But first on our way here from Houston we stopped at the Blue Bell Creamery. It is our favorite ice cream. We went on the tour and really enjoyed watching how the ice cream gets made. Our very favorite part had to be the ice cream samples at the end. It was so delicious! Just to let you know Lemon Bliss is my all time favorite flavor!
We have now been in Austin for about one week. I have been so miserable. Austin hates me or I hate Austin that has yet to be decided. My allergies have been so bad I can hardly function. My eyes are so red and swollen it hurts to open them and when they are open they are so itchy and watery. My nose is either runny or stuffy and that changes daily. Not to mention trying to sneeze, after having 5 kids (moms you know what I mean, lol). I can barely focus long enough during the day to get through school time with the kids. Did I mention I am and have been on prescription strength allergy medicine for months. Today was the first day I didn't feel absolutely awful.
I think my feel good day was a blessing so that we could make it to church. Oh how I love our church. I know I say this a lot but I love how no matter where we are, we can walk into any chapel and immediately feel welcome, loved and like we belong.
We got a couple of compliments today that only fellow members of the church might get.
"You guys have such a beautiful family. You guys should be on the cover of an Ensign magazine."
This made me smile and then laugh. I responded with a thank you, you are so kind and you wouldn't have wanted to see us this morning rushing to get here on time. In my head I thought I wonder if she noticed my baby had no shoes, my 6 year old had no tie, and my 4 year old had messed up her hair in the car. I am sure she did but she took the time to say such kind words and what a way to make a family feel welcomed in a new ward.
As I was talking to some sisters before Relief Society about what brought us here for such a short time and about our travels I received another complement or what seemed like one that I  felt I really didn't deserve.
"You are like Sariah, or Mother Eve. On a journey to follow your faithful husband into the world."
I admire both of these women very much but feel I fall short in following in their foot steps.
I do feel as if I am on my own journey that I have so much to learn from all of my experiences. I hope that one day that I may even be able to help someone learn from my journey in this life.
In Sunday school we talked about the importance of family history and about not just know the names of our ancestors but of knowing their stories, about their lives, knowing them as people.This is my way of keeping a record for my future posterity in hopes that one day they will know not only my name but who I am.


Until next time. I love you C,M,B,C,E,and L

Blue Bell Ice Cream!

My allergy face.

Lehi and Sariah and their family on their journey to the promised land. Learn more here

Adam and Eve teaching their children. Read more here

Colt Stevens Jr.!!!

People have asked us why our second son is a junior and not our first. Well if you are a member of the church I remind them that Joseph Smith Jr. was not a first born son either. Then we laugh and move on.
But if you don't understand that reference then I tell you what really happened.....long story short, we didn't know before hand but we thought he was going to be a girl and when he came out a boy we had no plans for a boy name so Colt and I looked at each other and said we guess he will be a junior. The end.
Well our sweet CJ is 6 years old and growing into such a cute little boy. He is a bouncy ball of energy. He can not sit still for more than 30 seconds, really we have timed him. He is very sweet and loves his two little sisters very much. He is their protector and play mate. He is Bobby's little shadow and Malayna's "little bother". Our family wouldn't be complete with out him. We celebrated his birthday in Houston, at  Peter Piper Pizza (an old childhood favorite of mine).

To RV or Not

So as we have been traveling for the past year as a family, we have stayed in hotels. To us hotels are now called hometels. Some times the rooms have been wonderful. With enough room, comfortable beds and all the things we need. Other times they have been way to small, only one bathroom, and very uncomfortable beds. Over this past year Colt and I have talked a few times about maybe getting an RV. We have scoured the internet looking at every make and model that had what we put on our "must have list". We quickly learned that the only ones that had everything that we wanted were far to expensive (like rock star expensive)! So we started to cut down the "must" list, and it now became a we could "make it work" list. Then it was back to the inter webs. To our surprise there was now a whole new world of possible rvs. Now that we found a wide range of options it was time for the real questions.

Question like....What is our real price range? What kind of places would we park it? How much does it cost to drive? How much would insurance be? Who would drive(not me)? Could we all really fit? Would we get sick of the small space and kill each other? Do we even know how to operate a home on wheels? How would the kids like it? What do we do with it after we are done traveling? All these questions and more made us feel overwhelmed. So the rv discussion got put on hold.

We continued to travel and enjoy our adventures in each new city. As we were packing up all the suit cases for the umpteenth time, the thought of "wouldn't it be nice to just unhook and drive, with out having to pack?" came to mind. The rv discussion was back on the table. This time we looked for help with answering all our questions. We took to FB and joined a few rv groups and asked a ton of questions. Most of them were answered and few we had to figure out for ourselves. 

Now we were ready to look at them in person. A picture is worth and thousand word but seeing in person is worth so much more. After we visited our first dealer location in San Diego, our minds were once again spinning. We even secretly wished we didn't have so many kids so we could have fit in a truck and pulled a 5th wheel (shh don't tell them that). 5th wheels were now on the brain and trying to figure out if there was any possibility for us to manage it. Turns out there are such things as 6 door/8 passenger trucks, they are just way out of our budget. Then it was on to check out class A,C and even travel trailers. There were some in each class that caught our eye, but none that we were ready to sign the dotted line for. 

Along our journey we have gone to a few dealers in a few states and saw none that seemed to match our needs, budget, and over all approval. While in Houston we finally found one that we really liked and took it for a test drive. When I say test drive I mean Colt drove and I sat in the back having an anxiety attack. I was getting motion sickness, claustrophobia, and an over all uneasy feeling. The sales person was very nice and understood why we didn't want sign the dotted line just yet. We went home and did what we usually do before a big purchase we prayed and we talked it over. It just didn't feel right and we are not sure why but just decided to trust our impressions. 

So for now the rv thing is not off the table but just put on the back burner to bring up again someday in the near future or the day that one of my random web searches pops up a match.

Over the Holidays!

So the holidays have come and gone. Colt always get the last few weeks of the year off as well as the first week of the New Year. You would think that we would want to stay put and take a break from the traveling but you would be wrong. We took full advantage of his time off, and made getting to our next work station a road trip to see family and friends along the the way.

First we spent a week in Utah. We switched out wardrobes, putting away the warm clothes and pulling out the sweaters. We were getting ready to start out little road trip. We made our way to Colorado! We were all so excited to get to spend Christmas with some of our best friends Zo and Jer and there family. It was a fun time. Can you imagine 10 kids and 4 adults in a 3 bedroom house. I can tell you it was tight but it was a great time. It was a wonderful Christmas with 10 very excited kids! Our kids were so excited to spend time with their friends which they have know most of their lives. I really enjoyed having late night talks with Zo, I really missed those. While in Colorado we even got to spend sometime with our adopted Uncle Zach! We missed him, he has been apart of our family before we ever had kids.

After Colorado we headed to Texas on New Years day. We spent a few days in San Angelo with Colt's brother Jared and his family. The kid were excited to see cousins that they haven't seen in a while. I swear kids grow so fast and time flies by. I remember when Colt and I got married our niece was so little and now she is in high school. It was fun to watch the kids pair up and play with their cousins. We also went with Jared and his family to San Antonio. We stayed in a sweet hotel on the river walk and did the whole tourist thing.

Next we were on our way to Houston to spend some time with my baby sister and her boyfriend. We were excited to see Tia Steph and spend some time with her. Luck for us Stephanie seemed to have a lot of time off while we were there. We spent a lot of time exploring. We went shopping, dining out, and just hanging out with each other. I personally was very excited that Stephanie and Bruce joined us for church on Sunday!

Colt and I said when we finally decide to settle down again, that Houston would be on our list of possibilities.

Denver Temple

CO-Zach and Colt 

CO- 10 kids means lots of sandwiches

CO- Christmas PJS

CO- making tamales

CO- Pioneer mesusem

CO- Babies eating pie

CO- boys playing games

CO- date night, bowling 

CO- Date night

CO- Zach and Colt

CO- Zo braiding my hair

San Angelo- The kids

San Angelo- Colt, Jared and the kids 

San Angelo- Lindy and Kara at the art center

San Angelo- Abby and Malayna at the art center

San Angelo- Jacob and Bobby at the art center

San Angelo- Malayna, Abby and Uncle Jared at the art center

San Angelo- Jacob and Aunt Gen with our light up binkies at the skating rink

San Angelo- Uncle Jared and Eva at the park

San Angelo- Bobby and Jacob braking the rules, but with Jared's permission.

Houston- Malayna playing with a late Christmas gift from Tia Vanah.

Houston- CJ, Lindy, Eva 

Houston Temple

Tia Stephanie!