Disney World: the best day of Alathea's entire life

I went a little crazy with pictures on this post, but Alathea was sitting on my lap and wanted them to keep coming. Anyways, we went to Disney World!! I still can't believe it. We were in Orlando, Florida vacationing with my family the week before Thanksgiving and our little family of four had a few days to ourselves. We thought of taking Alathea to Disney World, but sadly had to rule it out because it was SO expensive for even just one day. BUT, God had a different plan. A week before we left my friend Jenn stopped by our house with a "surprise"- she had Disney World tickets!! We were blown away and totally excited. Alathea absolutely loves the Disney princesses and we knew taking her to Disney World would be amazing. It was... here is Alathea's favorite day of her life:

Alathea could not stop smiling ALL day. This is her on the monorail into Magic Kingdom at 7:45am. She was sooo happy. And as you can see below, just a few feet into the park she couldn't help but run up and hug a statue of Mini Mouse!

A must have Cinderella's castle picture. Alathea's still smiling!!

(Abi still does not understand what all the fuss is about :)

Alathea loved all the statues. She's easy to please.

First stop of day: meet Ariel!

The slides were Abi's favorite thing. She wasn't nearly as thrilled with Disney World as Alathea. I give her 1 year and I bet she will be.

Next stop: Mickey and Mini Mouse. Joe was as excited to meet them as Alathea!!

The she met THE PRINCESSES!! I wish I could post the video's we have of her meeting them. We've never seen her so excited about anything :)

After meeting the princesses we spent the rest of the day on rides. 

The girls loved all of them. Alathea's favorite ride was "Africa" (as she calls it), 

or the jungle cruise. She thought the animals were real!

And then she met Snow White, her favorite princes of all.

We got great seats for both parades that day. They were incredibly well done. By far Abigail's favorite part of the day were the parades. She loved all the music and dancing.

By mid-day this is Abi (above) and Alathea (below)

We ended our "magical" day with fireworks by Cinderella's castle. 

Even on the way home at 10pm, Alathea was still happy as could be, naming each of the princesses she met that day. It was a special day. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get to go again one day!

Family Life

I haven't posted any recent pictures lately, so here are a bunch!

All thanks to Jason Kovacs (JasonKovacs.com). 

Hopefully we'll get all the pictures soon, but here are a few he shared on facebook. 

The latest on my biggest blue-eyed beauty. This morning she woke up with major bed-head, worse than normal. And as I looked closely it appeared she had bangs. I immediately thought back to our beach trip when Joe gave her bangs without me knowing and asked her, "Did Daddy cut your hair?" She just smiled and totally enthusiastically said, "No, I DID!" Upon further inspection I have to give the kid credit, her hair really looked pretty good. Maybe she has a future in hair? It also solved the mystery why she had her hair clipped back religiously all afternoon the day before. If you see her soon, her hair will most likely be clipped back again, but it you want to see her master work, just ask her and she'll gladly let it down, proud for all to see!

And for my baby blue-eyed beauty. She's growing into a huge mama's girl. She'd be happy to have me hold her and rock her every minute of every day. It's precious, but somewhat perplexing, since she's such an active little girl. She really dislikes any kind of children's ministry. So much that she'll sob the from the parking lot all the way into her class (and calling out names of people she see's along the way to rescue her, really!). And when in class she won't leave the teachers lap the entire time! Last week she feel asleep while a teacher rocked her for 2 hours!  This is the same kid who two weeks ago asked if she could walk (instead of being pushed in the stroller) at Northlake Mall. She's pretty good about staying next to me and we were about to get on the elevator, so I thought it was no problem. Well...that is until the moment the elevator doors opened and she mad-dashed, all while hysterically laughing, as fast as she could away from me. I was laughing too, thinking she was just being silly and would run right back. Well, no. She got her big sis to join in and they ran straight for a super-fancy jewelry store next to the elevator. I called them back, but they continued their mad dash not only into the store, but through the swinging door and behind the counter...all while laughing! I was just a few steps off the elevator at this point, it was so unexpected and fast. Despite their disobedience, I thought it was kind of funny, but of course tried to keep a straight face. It seemed harmless until I saw the look on the guy who worked at the jewelry store, he looked totally panicked!! He called the girls, and I think they got scared and ran into the BACK of the jewelry store. He was so upset. At this point I offered to get them but he said NO ONE is allowed back there. It was hard not to laugh the next few minutes while I heard him trying to coax  them out. They were so scared they wouldn't come. By the time they finally came out they were so terrified by the mean jewelry man I believe they learned their lesson!

I love the sweetness these two have. Sooo blessed to be sisters.

As for us regarding the house, the buyers loan fell through. So we are back to square one. We at first were a bit perplexed over all that had happened the past two months, but rest that God is perfectly in control. This is his good, wise and perfect plan for us. I've been reading an amazing little book Joe gave me called "A Shepherds Look at Psalm 23". Its been just what I've needed. Daily reminders of God's personal, faithful love and care for me and his ability and desire to provide all that I need. 

Thats all for now. Again, all these amazing pics are thanks to Jason Kovacs Photography, and thanks to my wonderful husband as they were my mothers day/b-day gift from him :) 

the latest

 Just thought I'd write a quick post updating our house situation. The picture of the girls has nothing to do with it, but it makes me smile (my girls + summer always makes me smile :), so I thought I'd include it. Anyways, we heard from Lloyd, our realtor selling our house, that it looks like after all this time our buyer most likely will not qualify for his loan. Now this is a huge surprise, since he pre-qualified no problem, is putting money down and has a steady job in the military. Its a complicated and surprising story, but to make it brief, he needs to have more convincing proof that he has a good job come march when he gets out of the military (he does, he just doesn't have proof...long story). It really boils down to whether the lender trusts him enough. So, the loan went back into underwriting one more time, and we should find out this week. If you think of it, you can pray for God to move in the heart of the lender to approve this loan, if its His will! Otherwise, we are back at square one. No need to update you on the house we have under contract on the other end! That only counts if our house goes to settlement. 

I was reminded today of this scripture:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

  lean not on your own understanding,

in all your ways acknowledge him, and He

will keep your paths straight"

While this was indeed disappointing news, I have faith that the Lord is working all things for good.

He is my Father who loves me and knows what is best. I am perplexed at times, wondering what 

these past weeks have been about, but I'm realizing there is no need to try and figure it all out.

God knows and is in control and that is all that matters.