See this girl here?

SHE IS 8!  Eight means no longer seven, eight means two years away from double digits.  Eight means 3rd grade is sneaking up on us.  I cannot believe our 2nd born is eight years old. 

Channing is a bright and beautiful girl.  She is always eager to help around the house, almost always going above and beyond what is expected of her.  She enjoys helping me cook and bake.  She could play school for hours on end, alone.  She cherishes anything that is given to her, always very proud and thankful no matter what it is.  She just recently got a new (new to her) bedroom suit and was so proud that she brought all the neighborhood kids in the house to see it.  She has also consistantly been making her bed without being asked since receiving it as well.  Channing loves to learn new things and she often watches my odd and quirky movies that I am interested in.  She is always asking how she can help me and she can even be a little bossy at times; a quality that may just come in handy as an adult. (Wink)  

With each passing day all I can hear is Taylor Swift's song "Never Grow Up" ringing in my ears.  It reminds me that my kids are growing up and I am getting older as well.  All the things happening in my life right now won't ever happen again.  Channing is 8.  Seven is now yesterday.  The words of the song remind me to stop and listen to all the sounds around me, to focus my eyes on the little moments because we can't get them back.  As our children grow they become more and more vulnerable to the outside world.  With each year, they become a little wiser, a little more exposed, a little less innocent.  As childhood slips away our roles change, as parents and as kids.  I look back and think of how I couldn't wait until they stopped wearing diapers, I couldn't wait until they were walking and talking and now if only time could stand still. 

Let these moments last God, stop the clock for a bit.  Let me take a deep breath and inhale all the sweetness of my children's laughter, let my ears rest on silly words that come from their mouths, let me taste the tears that I wipe from their eyes so that I can remember sharing in their pain.  I want to vividly remember each and every color surrounding us when we have "Family Fun Day."  (A new family tradition we started this past year.)  With each passing day, I truly embrace motherhood even more...thinking of new ways to create memories.  Sharing my passions with my kids, showing them my softer side, wanting my kids to have more good memories of their life with me than not, wanting to leave them a legacy of love, kindness, patience and understanding and joy.      

I could never be thankful or greatful enough for being blessed with three amazing kids.  I have doubted myself so much as a mother but as the years pass by it seems I'm finally getting the hang of it.  Either that or God just has a fabulous sense of humor because there have been more days than not where I have questioned myself as a mom.  Thinking I'm not cut out for this, motherhood is to hard, too heartbreaking, too exhausting.  Then comes along one of these kids,  babies who once grew inside my body. Who caused my belly to swell and stretch.  Babies who completely depended on me, who grew to love me and gave me wet, messy kisses to show their love.  Babies who, too quickly grew to be five years old...two who watched me cry as I left them on the first day of school and one will soon follow.  Babies who depended on us to not let go of the bike when they were learing to ride without training wheels.  Baby girls who, all dressed up and were thrilled beyond words to escorted by their dad to the annual daddy-daughter dance.  Babies who come to me in tears hoping I will fix whatever is wrong. In those rare times I actually can fix the problem, peace sets in and pride washes over me in waves.  It is then I think "Ok God, you have me right where I am supposed to be."

 Make sure to pause my playlist at the bottom before watching this. 

Enjoy!

Snow, "oprah" and other fun things

Well, we've been cooped inside the house for more hours than I would even like to count.  The good news: LOTS of quality family time, cooking, eating, hot baths and more eating.  Wait, is eating really good news when it's basically all you are doing?  I mean, we had big plans this week!  Celebrating a certain green-eyed girl's 8th birthday by having lunch with her at school and a certain 13 year old was supposed to have her first dance competition this very day!  We've been saved from boredom with Netflix...one of my clients gave us a gift certificate for three months of free Netflix and it is truly amazing!  No renting movies and we just figured out how to set it up through our Wii so we can instantly watch movies on the t.v. instead of waiting for them to come in the mail.

The kids only had one day of school this week due to the crazy arctic weather we've been having.  In all my 34 1/2 years, I've never seen anything like it.  So cold but so beautiful!  The kids and I went to lunch on Thursday for Channing's birthday, she chose Chili's and we WAY overstuffed ourselves.  Friday we went to Denny's to stuff ourselves then we headed over to the middle school with our laundry baskets to find a hill for sledding.



Lanie enjoys the snow just as much as the kids do!



James made a little slick slope so the baskets would slide easy and the kids had so much fun.  It was freezing cold but what great memories!  Especially when I slipped and fell when I was walking.  I landed flat on my back, even hit my head, which was something I had never experienced before.  I literally had to sit there for a few minutes because I felt dizzy and needed time to see if and what else I might have hurt.  Needless to say I'm a tad sore today, it seems as though the fall affected me more on my left side of my body...

On a happier note, I made snow ice cream!!!  People were exchanging the recipes on facebook so I checked my pantry and had all the ingredients I needed to whip some up.  It was a total hit, my kids were thrilled and LOVED the way it tasted.

Today I am cooking (again) a new recipe.  It's a spin on a chicken pot pie, but the topping is crescent  rolls instead of a pie crust.  It came out really well and oh-so delicious!  I LOVE TO COOK and I LOVE NEW RECIPES!!  Especially quick and easy ones.  I literally cook at least one new recipe a week, it's so much fun having new things eat and enjoy.  I think I might make bbq chicken quesadillas for dinner with the leftover chicken!       

Quote of the day:  (I may start posting these on a daily basis because Camden is turning into quite the comedian!)  For part of our lunch today we were having fried okra.  Camden was in the bath while James and I were eating and I hear him call my name.  I get up to see what he needed and he tells me "Mom, I would like to have 'oprah' for lunch."  THAT BOY CRACKS ME UP!!!!!!!!

So many things...not enough time

It's been a whirlwind of excitement around here...Camden's birthday, Christmas break, Christmas, family time, working at the salon.  It's been a BUSY great couple of weeks!

Our Christmas program at MDO was held on December 16th.  Our sweet Camden was chosen to play the  special part of Joseph.  This was especially meaningful to us because just three short years ago, our Channing was chosen to play Mary.  I cried my eyes out, well as much as I could without wailing, seeing my only son up on the stage in his little costume and then coming back out on stage to sing one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Here With Us".  You could tell he was a bit embarassed because his little eyes kept blinking, like he was trying to distract himself due to all the parents and relatives in the audience.  It was just precious, he performed the whole time!

We had a small family party for Camden's birthday, some snacks, family over and gifts.  I didn't do a 'special' cake this year.  Normally I try to do a really fancy cake but Camden is a simple boy who loves strawberry ANYTHING.  His simple request this year was a strawberry cake so that's what I did.  It was a small and stress-free party...just how I like them.

Chayce auditioned to perform for the Black Eyed Peas...they are the half-time entertainment for the Super Bowl this year and since it's being held in Dallas, they are looking for local hip hop dancers.  Chayce's dance teacher offered to film the girls and send in the audition tapes.  We are waiting to hear back but regardless of the outcome, Chayce and I talked about what an amazing opportunity she was blessed with at just being able to audition.  We are trying not to get our hopes up but we remain optimistic until we hear otherwise.

Christmas was nice.  Its always fun to see the kids' faces when they open our gifts, but mostly when the see what Santa brings.  This year we decided to do only three gifts under the tree for each of them, to remind them that Christmas is really about the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  When He was born, He only received three gifts, each one brought by the three wise men.  I can only hope that this will help my kids focus on the true meaning of Christmas and that it will be something that they will consider doing with their own children.

Things are picking up for me at the salon, Praise God!  I am about to hit my one year mark as a professional and I can honestly say that this has been one of the most exciting years of my entire life!  I love my job and I wake up every day joyful and excited to go to the salon.  It makes my day when I make someone feel good about themselves.  My best week yet, financially, was the week of Christmas.  I have some amazing clients and was extremely thankful that they chose to bless me during the holidays. 

I was extremely blessed by one client in particular this past Monday.  Her name is Melisa and she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.  She is from Waco and was here in town visiting her sister for Christmas.  She had to go through both radiation and chemo, two things I had to watch my mother go through as well.  Her hair was probably about 2 inches long all over and she had colored it herself with a box color to cover her gray.  She was so sweet and soft-spoken and I wanted to do the best I possibly could for her because this was her first trip to the salon with her 'new' hair.  We talked about our families and about the David Crowder Band (David Crowder is from Waco as well).  We talked about her cancer and my mom's cancer.  We talked about what color she wanted to be and what we could do with her short hair to give it some sort of style.  I gave her an all-over color, she also wanted highlights as well as a cut.  I spent a good two and half hours with her and when I got done, she was so giddy and beyond excited.  Her niece was at the salon with her as well and as I finished with Melisa, her niece started taking pictures of her so they could send them to family members.  She mentioned sending one to her husband so he could see her new hair.  Melisa was so happy, I almost cried.  She apologized and said that I probably thought she was being silly.  At no point did I think she was being silly.  All that was happening brought back the memories of sadness when my mom lost her hair, when I was innocently pulling it back in a ponytail for her and it began to fall out in my hands.  When I had to be the one to break the news to her that her beautiful, long hair was coming out, it was part of the reality of the cancer that had stolen our hope of having a long life with our mother.  Melisa's happiness brought back how thrilled and thankful we were when my mother's hair began growing back in big, thick ringlets that sat on top of her head.  A sign of joy and new growth of healthy cells, a sign of hope that maybe the cancer was gone and she would have her hair back and be healthy and cancer-free again.  Melisa, you made my day.  You blessed me in a way that I can not describe.  Seeing you and all your joy and how beautiful you felt...and how I got to be a small part of that, all I can say is thank you.  Thank you for trusting me with your new hair and for having faith that I could give you what you were looking for.  Thank you for your smile...it said more than one hundred words could ever have expressed coming from you.  

I am so looking forward to see what 2011 has in store for us! 

Light and heavy...

Have you ever had a time in your life when one minute your heart is light and the very next minute your heart is so heavy that it slumps you over and makes your shoulders ache?

I am having a moment like that right now...

As I am typing this, my love just turned on the dishwasher that he loaded earlier while I was at the salon.  Sigh...now that's music to any woman's ears.  PURE SWEETNESS!

Its seems as though life is a little tough right now, it's only a season though.  I have come to realize that even though things aren't going well, or it seems one disaster follows the next, I can still look to God and thank Him for my circumstances because I know when this season is over, it will be smooth sailing again.  Every storm has a beginning and an end.  Many times it ends in a rainbow.  In living, I learn.

God's timing is perfect and there is a lesson in all that is going on.  A lesson that I may not be meant to understand but it's always there.

We are still battling the lice issue.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  It is SO frustrating and SO exhausting.  Washing everyone's bedding and drying everyone's pillows.  I am so paranoid that someone else is going to get it.  One day, Chan's head is all clear, the next, they are sneaking back on her.  Bless her heart, I know her head is tired of being picked at.  We did a second treatment, only to find a bug in her hair AGAIN when she came home from school.  I asked her teacher if she would have the whole class checked, 1. for my peace of mind and 2. to make sure no other kids in her class have it.  So this has been going on for TWO WEEKS!  I have done everything I know to do, even home remedies to take a break from the chemical stuff!

Our fan on our refrigerator broke, causing the compressor to over-heat and basically shut down the fridge completely.  Melted ice turned to water and leaked out our door all over the kitchen floor, food ruined...this is what I came home to on a Friday after work.  Thankfully my sweet father-in-law was able to fix it!

Our sink had a leak underneath the cabinet and water was pouring out onto the floor.  Again, my wonderful father-in-law saved the day!

My sweet baby boy is having anger issues right now and I'm not quite sure how to approach it.
When he gets mad, he will express it with his voice, "I am mad at you!"  This, I am ok with...I tell him that it's ok for him to be mad, because truly it is and I am thankful that he can verbally express it.  Then it seems at times that he takes it a bit further...hitting the couch, stomping his feet, kicking his bed while he's lying down.  I got angry with him the first few times but then realized that it was not the right way to handle the situation.

Yesterday I sat down with him and explained what acceptable behavior is and what is not acceptable.  He seemed to understand and for this I was thankful because it's always a breath of fresh air when you feel like you reach your child.

Guess what, today was a new day but the old fit-throwing Camden was back.  I am praying this is just a phase and I hope that it passes quickly.  This makes my heart heavy.  One minute he is the sweetest and most gentle little boy and then in an instant he is transformed into this angry, unreasonable creature.  It is a cycle that has to be broken because he has to learn that this is not the way we handle our anger.

In this, the lesson I am getting is that I also have to take a step back and look at the situation with love and patience.  With me, patience has never come to me easily and so I have to set an example while trying to work through this with Camden.  What I do, he will do.  What I allow, he will think is acceptable.

I am praying.  Wisdom and patience for myself, to turn this negative into a positive.  For Camden to be open and receptive...in all his 4 3/4 years.  I know, sounds funny right?

I am believing that things will get better because I have faith in these hard times.

      http://www.needtobreathe.net/music/these-hard-times/

 
            

I can see you all around me

Dear Lord,

When I see amazing things like this, I always think of you.
  

The setting sun at dusk in my neighborhood



You light up the sky to show me that You are with me ~ The Afters



Thank you,

Allyssa

Giving thanks and bugs...



My brother Brandon's beautiful bird stuffed with onions, carrots and rosemary

Well, last week started off super stressful for me.  I was trying to get over a terrible sinus infection and get the energy up to get some things done around the house.  I offered to have Thanksgiving at my house this year which meant a whole lot of cleaning and some cooking as well.  Luckily and thankfully, James took a week of vacation because although I was off from mother's day out, people still want their hair done so I was at the salon Monday, Tuesday and most of Wednesday.  I had only planned on working half a day on Wednesday but one of my clients called on Tuesday wanting to get in Wednesday afternoon.

I am ever-so-thankful for my husband and children.  They all went above and beyond for me, cleaning the house, getting things set up, doing dishes and laundry.  It was truly a blessing to come home from the salon and walk in the door to a clean house and I mean "to my standards clean."  The little ones were beaming with pride when I came home and made such a big deal of how great everything looked.  James even rewarded them by letting them pick something out from the dollar store.  Bless their hearts, they truly earned it.

My brother Brandon volunteered to do a turkey, but since I am a worrier I decided to pick up a turkey breast just to make sure we have enough turkey to go around.  Everyone brought two or three dishes and a dessert.  Everything was perfect, as always.  Amazing food...I don't know if I have mentioned it but we have some pretty amazing cooks in our family.  We truly love to eat and also enjoy the art of preparing the food.  There is so much love involved when cooking, you can just taste it.

My first turkey, breast that is...

Family...I have an amazing, loving and silly family.  It's always a good time when we all get together, lots of love and laughter, talks of old times and past memories, oh and picture taking too!  My aunts have ALWAYS been big picture takers so you know there is always a camera around when our family gets together.




The girls on Thanksgiving


Thanksgiving was wonderful!

The week wouldn't be complete without some kind of craziness though, it just always seems to work out that way.  I got home Saturday night from work and Channing was itching her head like crazy.  The first thing I thought of was lice.  EEK!  I checked her head but didn't find anything so I gave her some allergy medicine and put her in the bath.  Her hair was so tangled that after I put conditioner in her hair I decided to comb through it and with that loose hair came out in the brush along with BUGS!!!!!!!!

My suspicions were right.  I was totally freaked out and so was Channing.  Chayce has never had lice and this was Channing's first experience.  She was scared and crying and I immediately sent James to the store to get treatment...enough for all of us.  All of the chaos surrounding the lice fiasco began around 7:00 pm.  I literally started combing through Channing's hair getting out what I could until James got back from the store.  When he got back I started shampooing us all one by one while James went through the house stripping all the bedding and spraying down all the couches and pillows in the living room.  I had to comb through Channing's hair looking for leftovers.  Camden and Chayce had no sign of it which was wonderful news.  Chayce ended up helping me with one last inspection of Channing's hair and we finally finished up with her and she was able to get in bed at midnight.  James, Chayce and I still were washing and drying our sheets and blankets.  This went on until 2:00 IN THE MORNING.  Bless James' heart, he fell asleep on our bed before we ever even got it made, I had to wake him up so we could get our bed made.

I checked Channing's hair every hour on the hour on Sunday and I am proud to say that every last bug and it's future offspring are GONE!  THANK YOU JESUS!!

Needless to say, it was an eventful week and a half.  Major sinus infection, dr. appt for antibiotics, shopping for our Thanksgiving feast, my family cleaning the house for me, I made my first turkey (breast), had a fabulous time hanging out with my family and our household being totally disinfected due to poor little Chan getting lice.

                                                                  I love my crazy life!

The birth of my love...

My sweet husband had another birthday last weekend.  We didn't do much, poor guy...he always gets the short end of the stick with his birthday being so close to Christmas. 

I cooked him chicken spaghetti and Camden and I made him an oreo trifle rather than a birthday cake.

Camden helping daddy blow the candles out
Camden insisted we have candles for daddy

James, you are a wonderful, caring and loving husband.  It has been an eventful 10 1/2 years with you...you took Chayce and I in and loved us both in a way that we had never been loved before.  You gave me two more beautiful kids to complete our family.  You have always worked so hard for our family, providing for us, going to work sick and rarely ever taking a day off so that you can work overtime to do all you can for our family.  You love me unconditionally, you see the real me and love me anyway.  You make me feel beautiful, you are so respectful of me and I admire that most about you.  Thank you for being so affectionate with our kids and for always being at Chayce's activities.  I see that you have grown spiritually, mainly in small ways but the effort you put forth has given me hope and made me so proud of you.  Thank you for laughing at me when I am goofy, you make me feel like you are my biggest fan.  Thank you for never giving up on me even though I probably have given you reason to.  Thank you for stepping up your game when mine is lacking...together we make an amazing team.  You seem to pick up right where I leave off and I am so thankful that you know when I need you most.

James, I love you so much and I love that you love me in the way that you do...I am forever greatful that God brought you into my life.  Thank you could never be enough.

Happy birthday my love!!!