His Faithfulness, Our Joy

A while back, I shared how we have been longing to move out into the country.  I wrote that post almost exactly a year ago!

Well, we have some exciting news!  The Lord has opened the door to make our vision and his will come to fruition!

We have a contract on a house in the country and if all goes well, it will be ours in July! 

This home needs a lot of work, but we got a fantastic deal on it!  Plus, it's on 4 acres with fruit trees, 2 barns and a chicken coop!  And the house has 4 bedrooms and a basement!

It's been truly amazing to see how the Lord has brought all this about!  It confirmed to us that it's His will for our family and He's worked it all together!

So I've been doing my research and now I'm ready to jump in to the country life!

I'm so excited to update more as I learn more of what the Lord has in store for us in the country!

The Wheelers Roll On...

We've lived in our current house for almost 5 years.  We LOVE this house and have enjoyed putting all the little touches into it that make it "home" to us.  When we bought it, it was in need of some serious TLC and we've given it that and more!  It's a totally different house now and we see "us" everywhere we look.

Well, now it's time to say goodbye.

As much as we love this house, we have a strong desire to get out to some land.  To have a place where our kids can run, explore and raise animals.

But until that time comes, we knew we needed to get our house sold, so that when the Lord does bring the right property along, we can jump on it without the contingency of selling our house.

So, yes, in 8 days I'm due to have a baby.

And in 30 days we close on our house and hand the keys over to a new couple who just moved into town.

Moving day will be a bitter-sweet day.  We will be one step closer to our dream of living in the country, but we will also be saying goodbye to a house that we will have brought 3 brand-new Wheelers into.

We have so many memories here...

But our kids are so young, we know there are even MORE memories ahead of us and we PRAY that's out on land somewhere, someday!

I'll try to keep you all updated on the journey we're about to embark on, but I also wanted to let everyone know that after April 25th, we won't have internet access in our humble abode anymore. (A choice we're making to pursue simplicity and money savings!)

No worries though-I'll post pics of our new blessing before then!

Thanks for all the prayers and encouragements as we take this step of faith to follow the Lord as He directs our steps in raising our family!!!

A Redneck Picnic...

Today was such a beautiful day outside that we decided to have a picnic in our front yard for dinner!

On the menu?  Well not your typical  picnic meal, but it was still yummy on a cold Fall evening!

Pot Roast and Homemade Bread!!!

I have to admit, I felt like a bit of a redneck (and I'm pretty sure the passer-bys thought the same thing) but we didn't let it stop us!

As soon as I mentioned the idea to the boys they were SO excited and Brahm said "This is my favoritest dinner ever.  And my favoritest day ever!"

Here are some pictures my sweet hubby snapped without me even asking!  :)
(Usually I'm not in any of our pictures!)

This post is linked to...


Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

And be sure to enter my giveaway HERE for a $35 online giftcard!!!

Our Labor Day Camping Trip

Our family LOVES to camp!  Yes, even when momma is struggling through morning sickness...I was honestly hoping the fresh air would help...I think it did!

Last time we went camping (see link) I was 7 months pregnant with Liberty...(and now look at her!)

I think I've camped while pregnant with each of our kiddos...
I even remember camping when I was 7 months pregnant with this big guy...

So here we are again in our favorite camping spot...

Brats and hotdogs for dinner...

Lots of playing in the dirt and sand...

And finally time to sleep...

The nice thing about camping is that everyone works and plays so hard that bedtime is welcomed by all!

GOOD MORNING CAMPERS!!!

Wanna guess who our morning person is?

Our sweet Daddy cooked us eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast...

We enjoyed every bite of the yummy breakfast!

Packing up is always a little sad...

This time Liberty wanted to help put the tent away...

We had such a fun time and can't wait to add one more baby to our 3 room tent next year...
and chances are, I'll be pregnant again, so as to not break tradition, of course!!! :)

This post is linked to Wednesdays Walk at Jenilee's blog.

(Liberty was NOT ready to wake up!)

"Pride Of Super" and Heading Home! (Vacation Part 7)

Coming and going, Liberty did SO good in the car...

Ryan said you can tell she's my daughter, because she always has her legs in some "Gumby" postion!

Most of the time, she relaxed just like this...

And slept like that too!

So, we drove from Kentucky to St Louis where we planned on finding a hotel. (Sound familiar?)

Obviously, we didn't learn our lesson from the first day of our trip and just figured we'd find a hotel on the road.

After all, what were the chances that American Idol would be in the same town as us the very next weekend?

But the hotels in St Louis were full.  ALL FULL.

Only this time, it wasn't American Idol, instead it was some mid-states baseball tournament along with about a dozen different conferences.

"No big deal" we thought.  "Let's just drive onto the outskirt cities and we'll find a place in one of those towns."

Then it began POURING rain.  We were having to drive about 20mph because the rain was coming down so heavy and there was VERY little visability.

All the hotels on the out-skirt towns were filling up fast because weary travelers were trying to escape the rain and wait it out while they slept.

We ended up driving around looking for a hotel for about 3 hours!  We were all EXHAUSTED, especially our hubbys-the drivers!

This is around 1am, driving from hotel to hotel.

Which eventually turned into this:

We finally found a hotel with vacancy at 3:30am (notice the car clock in the next picture)

Normally, someone couldn't have paid me to stay in a hotel like this, but we were all half-asleep as it was and just thankful for shelter!

I was so releaved to see Ryan walk out of hotel with a thumbs up! 

3:35am

It was the type of hotel where...

~~you couldn't really understand the front desk workers (also the owners) but they seemed okay with the fact we had one family with 7 people to a room and another family with 6 people to a room.

~~the comforters in the room didn't match

~~you wanted to wear your shoes at ALL times

~~and you want to cover as much of your skin as possible while sleeping so as little of your skin as possible touched the bed.

BUT it was a bed.  And we were honestly thankful!  Especially since Ryan and Chad were having trouble staying awake there towards the end!

We woke up the next morning and noticed the hotel sign out front:

"Super-Super Clean.  Pride of Super"

Dear RodeWay Inn, I'll admit that I'm not really sure what "Pride of Super" means, yet even so, I think I have to disagree with that claim.

Breakfast at Hardee's before hitting the road...

Our sweet little crew...

We had not a single "hiccup" the whole way until we were about 20 miles away from home.

Ryan pulled up close to a horse trailer and started talking like "Mr. Ed" to the horse inside.

He was entertaining the boys (and me!) with his voices when BAM!  Something flew up from the trailer and hit the windsheild.

I was laughing too hard at Ryan's "Mr Ed" impression to even care...but Ryan was frustrated that just 20 miles from home we had our first tradgedy!

So no, that's not a bird or an airplane you see in the picture, it's a crack...

Thankfully, this was probably the worst thing that happened the whole trip. 

Over this week and a half, we made some wonderful memories and had such great family time!  I'll remember this vacation forever...I hope the boys will at least remember bits and pieces!  I'm so thankful for pictures to remind them of our adventures!!!

Thanks for joining me for these looks back on our awesome vacation!!!

I'm sure we have more adventures ahead of us...just around the corner!!!

So be sure to stay tuned!  There is rarely a dull moment where the Wheelers are concerned!!!

 

The Creation Museum (Vacation Part 6) and a Giveaway!!!

(Be sure to see end of this post for giveaway info!!!)

Anyone who attended the "Defending the Faith" conference, also recieved a free 2-day pass to the Creation Museum in Kentucky!

We were all so excited!  After leaving Tennessee, we headed 5 hours north to get there.

My sister and I's families

(They bought this whole vacation for us!  What a blessing!!!)

As soon as we walked in, a man was in the lobby with a real-live snake to pet and hold...

My boys were so enthralled!...Well until it got a little TOO close!

Then they got to touch a real dinosaur fossil found in Montana!

We were there 30 minutes and Trusten said it was the best place he's ever visited! :)

Learning how they dig up fossils...very carefully!

The kiddos

First he really wanted this picture...but then when I stepped back to take it, he changed his mind!

Learning about the creation of the universe (and Man's wisdom compared to God's wisdom)

Daddy teaching them about the 7 C's of History

(Creation, Corruption (the fall), Catastrophe (the flood), Confusion (tower of Babel), 

Christ, Cross, Consummation)

"Meeting" and hearing from men in the Bible

I love this picture!  Praise the Lord for Truth...and my Blessings!

Now to the Garden of Eden!

(Samuel was little unsure of what that bear wanted...)

Adam is naming the animals behind us!

Inside the ark!!

Smaller replica

The people perishing

(Trusten was amazed at how tiny the people were...I was too!)

Noah's family, after the ark landed on ground, they worshiped and made an alter to the Lord

Then it was on to the DINOSAURS!!!

We had such a great time!  It was so neat to see these stories we've repeated to the boys so many times, displayed in such a real way!  

How encouraging to be able to take your family to a place where everything you've been teaching them and trying to pass onto them is reiterated and reinforced through sight, sound, touch and feel!

As adults, there were several times we were ALL moved to tears at the power of the Word, the strength and perseverance of our past fathers and the wonder of God's creation and his infinite wisdom in it all!

We look forward to returning again when the boys are older and can get some of the deeper concepts taught throughout the Creation Museum!  (I wonder how many kiddos we'll have then?!?!)  :)

This post will be linked to Wednesdays Walk Down Memory Lane at my friend, Jenilee's blog!  Not too long ago her family visited this museum too!

Today Jenilee is hosting a giveaway on her blog for a super-cool candle warmer!  You can see the warmers here (main site) or here (blog site) and join in the giveaway here!

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First vacation blog post: The Beginning of Our Vacation...Part 1

Second vacation blog post: Life at the Cabin: 14 people Living Together For a Week (Part 2)

Third vacation blog post: The Conference (Part 3)

Fourth vacation blog post:Out and About in the City ~Happy Birthday Hudson! (Part 4)

Fifth vacation blog post: A Smokey Mountain Hike (Part 5)
Next: The Saddest Day--Heading Home (and another hotel adventure!)