All About the Allens

Daddy Adventure

2012-01-24T22:35:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday Daniel was on Daddy duty while I had lots of Perfectly Paisley stuff to get done. It was a beautiful day and they decided to go on an 'adventure!' They headed out to Lago Vista - somewhere in the Hill Country. I don't really know what they did except that they went on a hike, explored, ate lunch, got energy out, and came back all in one piece with some cute pictures! ;)

Oh and don't forget the rocks. She wanted this one...

But they both ended up with their "pizza rocks"

Oh. My. Goodness. Can you say heartbreaker???

And then there's this little sweet thing!

They are growing and changing so fast these days. Ages 2 & 3 is running this mama ragged, but they are fun for sure. Love them to pieces!

Our Little Gymnast

2012-01-24T22:08:00.001-06:00

Paisley started her first gymnastic class at the Y a couple weeks ago. She was SO excited when I told her she was going to get to go to a class in THAT room! It's really just fun, but has a little of structure. They do stretches, games, obstacle courses, etc. And let's be honest... it's just CUTE! These pics are from her first day...

Ready & waiting.

It's really fun. And I was actually surprised at how quick she got the hang of things. She's itty, so maybe we'll just use that to her advantage if she likes this! And she got the little gymnast run down...

I haven't posted a video in a while, this was from my phone, so we'll see if this works:

Christmas!

2012-01-02T00:24:00.000-06:00

Christmas 2011

Here goes...

Christmas Eve we went to a service at my parent's church before heading to my Grandmommie's.

Mimi & Paisley

When we got home we set things up for Santa...

(I painted this plate to use each year at a local ceramic place) :)

Ryder counting the cookies very carefully!

They finally went to sleep... and SANTA CAME!

Early in the morning Ryder was READY TO GO! (Paisley not so much.)

His look here is priceless...

Waking up and digging in.

My cute little gift!

The aftermath...

Then off to Grammy & Grandpa's!

Dress up clothes!

And their CAPES, handmade with lots of Love by Grammy :)

Lunch with Grandma & Grandpa Williams

Off to the next stops...

Grandma West's house

Last stop Nana's house. Just in time to be Mary & Joseph. :)

Playing with new CARS!

On Monday we continued the fun at Aunt Karen & Uncle Mike's. The kids were on overload by then... and crazy!

Landon, Ryder, Cooper

Paisley sporting her new cowgirl vest Aunt Karen made!

Aunt Sarah demonstrating the Dragon tails Grammy made for all the kids!

And the kids...

That's probably the best way to end. That sums it up- fun & crazy. :)

We are so blessed. Lots of family and lots of fun. What are great Christmas.

The crazy month of December..

2012-01-01T23:36:00.000-06:00

This is the story of our last month of the year!

Crazy but fun...

We started things off and got our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. The kids were a BIG help ;)

But they did really like having the tree for the month. Even enough to pose for a picture! shocking!!!

I hosted a cookie decorating playdate for MOMS club one morning. 11 toddlers and a LOT of sprinkles. I am still finding sprinkles in my house! haha. But they had fun...

We went to see SANTA. Ryder was really into Santa this year... and asked a LOT of questions. (TOO many that I wasn't prepared for!) He marched right up and told him what he wanted... a Franchesco Remote Control Car (Cars 2) and Paisley followed and said, "And I want a BIG BABY DOLL !!!" :)

Waiting in line...

Such a sweet santa...

And the official picture... with NO smile from Paisley girl! Oh well, she looks pretty anyway.

Ryder's pre-k party...

Paisley hanging with Grace...

sweet little hands...

Book exchange...

A couple days later he had a little school program. His class sang a couple Christmas songs and were so cute! Although he let me know he has his eyes set on the role of Joseph for next year in the 4yr old class!

Proud Momma :)

His super amazing teacher! Can you tell he loves her!?!

heading home... they were not happy with me!

I'm skimming over many points in the month, but we did go to a bunch of parties! One night Daniel & I got dressed up and went to some friends party...

We also went on a super fun limo lights tour with our friends the Stephens. It was a shagged out "Longhorn Limo!"

(And my camera went dead) :( But we went downtown and stopped at Mozarts for a lights show!

I headed to Dallas with the kids the week before Christmas so we had a few days there to hang out and get ready. We started off by doing a gingerbread house with Mimi & Poppy. They ate so much of the candy... proof...

The final product. It was missing more candy as the days went on...

I also got to have a Christmas Brunch with the girls...

That's the month in review... busy and fun. In the midst of all that we worked a lot and I had a lot of party stuff to do. More on that to come soon!

That leads us to Christmas DAY...

life is not an emergency.

2011-11-06T23:23:00.002-06:00

Tonight as we're putting Ryder to bed I say, "We might just have a quiet day at home tomorrow." To which he replies, "We're not gonna go ANYwhere? Well, WHAT are we gonna do?!?"
Ryder is what I like to call the Cruise Director these days.
He sits in his car seat, sweet and inquisitive as can be and asks a million questions. He needs to know everything. Where are WE going? Where everyone else is, what they are doing and most importantly, WHAT'S NEXT?!?
I can't say that any of this is not my fault. I'm the exact same way.
I thrive on change, movement and excitement. Planning & doing is my thing. And he watches and falls right in place behind me.
Example... We were going to the football game Friday night that his Pre-K was involved in and when I told him he was gonna run through a banner on the field with the cheerleaders at the opening of the game well, here came a million questions. One that was puzzling to me was, "But why? I don't want to get the paint from the banner on my face!" I was thinking to my self, he's gonna get to run on a football field, why would he be worried about this?
So lately with Ryder's constant questioning- and basically worrying- it's got me questioning myself as well. Why does he feel such need to be concerned with these miniscule details of life? Why can't he just sit still and RELAX? And know that Mommy's got it under control? Well, yes it is because I too feel the need to be concerned with these details of life and incoherently air them to my children. I have to question and worry the day away.
This morning at church someone got up to exhort after worship and the last thing they said was, we worry and fret over all of these "things." "Things that are not of any eternal value." Ann Voskamp says in 1000 Gifts - which I HIGHLY recommend - "Life is not an Emergency. Only the amateurs run fast." She tweeted Shakespeare one day: "Wisely & slow. They stumble that run fast."
I am trying so hard to live in that eucharisteo and this is how I've resolved to celebrate the holidays this year. Yes, I have deadlines, many. Yes, I already have a holiday list of a million things to do, the events are growing by the day and the wondering of how we're gonna have time & money to do it all begins. But I've resolved to focus on the eternal and live in that gratefulness now.

For some reason it's not enough to sit still in my "car seat" of life and rest in God's grace. But God I'm trying to...

thankful.
xoxo

Pumpkin Day!

2011-10-26T21:42:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we made our annual trek to the pumpkin farm. We headed out to Marble Falls and had breakfast at the Bluebonnet Cafe and then over to Sweet Berry Farms...

Forget pumpkins... there's a firetruck!

On to the main attraction...

These kids can't keep their mouths shut these days so half the pictures they are "talking" in. :)

She LOVES her piggy-tales.

My favorite.

Best family pic we got!

Watching the goats in the trees... There's something symbolic of those 2 goats butting heads in front of these 2! :)

Feeding them with Daddy.

Flower time!!

Me & my girl.

Last one... the big ones!

Me & my pumpkins...

Our little Birdie turns 2

2011-09-19T23:45:00.000-05:00

We celebrated sweet little Paisley's 2nd birthday last week in Dallas with family & friends. Paisley has always loved birds. She started saying, "birdie!" really early on, loves saying "Tweet, Tweet!" & sees them everywhere! Plus she's our little bity birdie... so I went with the theme! I hadn't really seen it done with birthdays (mainly baby showers) but it was fun. I'll go into more details on my Perfectly Paisley site soon! There are lots of pics of sweet Paisley (but lots of decor pics first, b/c that's what I do these days!!)

The invite. I might start selling these pinwheel invites soon...

Finally did a wreath for my own girl :)

The party girl is ready! Found her this fun little outfit at a boutique in Fredericksburg called Beulah's and of course Birdie & Peanut made us a custom hair accessory! ;)

Birthday Banner!

All of the cute little birdhouses were made by Daniel's grandfather... and well, you see what I did with them. Don't think he'd ever seen them looking like this before!

Cupcakes! Lemon with strawberry filling. Mmm.

Little birdie cookies.

Mommy/Grandma favors- handsoaps

Kiddie favors

Let's get this party started! Ryder & Tyler take off...

I've seen this before, and Paisley LOVES to color & paint, so we let the kids paint on the fence and they had fun... and didn't make to much of a mess!

The grandparents watching...

Aunt "Sawah"

Ryder & Tyler chillin'

Grammy steals a moment with Paisley girl

Paisley & Grandmommie

My sweet friend Bridgette came in town for the weekend too! Loved having her & her mom there!!!

Mimi & Paisley

Cake time! I have to stop and preface this... We were on our way to Dallas and about 2 hrs into the trip, Paisley's asleep, Ryder's digging in his backpack that he packed himself and suddenly I hear a HARMONICA playing. I was like, "Ryder! Why did you bring that!?!" And he says, "BeCAUSE, I need to practice and play it while we sing 'Happy Birthday' to Paisley!" I laughed and said ok. Well, he did not forget. Except the moment we decided to sing he panicked when he couldn't find it. We waited, he found it and it was THE most precious moment of the day. He played the whole way through while everyone sang. And she just starred at him. LOVE how they are together. And at the end everyone clapped and laughed and without skipping a beat Ryder says, "Ha, I learned that 2 months ago!" LOL. The little HAM.

Paisley & Grandma - Paisley has 4 great-grandmothers!

Present time! She was so sweet & funny with the gifts. She opened some cards and said "MONNNEY!" And she took her time looking at every little thing.

Ohhh, sleepy moment...

Dress up time! :)

New blanket from Grammy!

Her new apron and cooking stuff...

Bridgette, Paisley & Me

Me & my girl!

Luke & Ryder

And, wait for it... the family pic! lol...

After the shindig... love her. love this.

And this...

We had a great day and again are so blessed by our sweet family and friends that love to celebrate with us. Our little birdie had fun turning 2!

Paisley Rose is TWO.

2011-09-18T17:42:00.000-05:00

Today our little Paisley Rose is 2 years old!

She is as sweet as can be. She's still an itty-bity! We'll see what they say at her well check this week, but she can't be much over 20lbs (STILL). She's still been wearing 12mth clothes most of the summer and is just now about to grow out of her size 3 shoes! :) She still eats like and CHAMP though and boy, does she think she's BIG!?! She runs and keeps up with brother all day, is a little climber and gymnast and the girl LOVES to dance. She talks non stop and cracks us up every day with the funny things she says. She LOVE LOVE LOVES to sing and it melts my heart when she wakes up singing her own songs. Her favorite songs are "Jesus" and "Sunshine." The difference in boys & girls is already so clear. If brother's not around she is just so content to sit and color and play being STILL. And of course, she is my girly girl. Recently it's been all about princesses and baby dolls. AND, she's started to tell me what outfits she likes and loves picking out her hair accessory!

This is from her birthday party last week (BIG BLOG on that to follow!!!)

Paisley Rose, you are a beautiful little free spirit and we LOVE watching you grow!

Back to school (and life!)

2011-09-18T16:44:00.000-05:00

Here's a brief synopsis of the things I skimmed over in the summer....

We were BUSY.

Daniel got a new job.

It was really hot.

I finally quit Starbucks(!)

It was even hotter.

Perfectly Paisley was CRAZY busy. {More on that later!}

It was miserably hot.

Ryder's collarbone drama continued, but is hopefully healed now.

We dodged all the wildfires (one about 5 miles from us). See "HOT."

Daniel got newer job!!

We did some fun stuff - the circus, lots of splashpads, birthday parties, parks & pools (swim lessons got canceled due to the collarbone drama - next year)!

So now it's fall (sorta... it's still HOT) and we're getting back in the swing of things. More updates and blogs coming soon... promise.

A couple weeks ago Ryder started back to SCHOOL. He really missed it this summer. Every couple days he'd ask if it was time to go back yet!

Ready to go! Showing off his new school shoes!

Giving sister a big hug!

Yay! Let's go!!!

Found his name in the hallway! Happy to be back!

In the ladybug room.

He seems to love his new teacher. The only tears on the first day were those of Paisley who wanted to stay! Her & I have been having some sweet time together while brother's gone though!

Beach Trip!

2011-09-02T01:01:00.000-05:00

Yes, I know. I still have a blog. It's been crazy. More on all the updates later, but I could not go with out blogging about our beach trip! (Since that's where I last left off!) In late July we went on a beach trip to Florida! We went with my parents and yes we drove with both kids... actually all of us in the big 'burb. :) We stayed on 30A in Sea Grove. We loved the area. It's east of Destin and Sea Grove is between Seaside & Rosemary. We stopped each way in Hattiesburg, MS at my Aunt Renita's. We left Saturday morning, we took a LOT of stops along the way, but we made it to the beach by mid day Sunday.

On the road...

This sign made me laugh so much.

View from our condo. Beach views, but a little walk to the beach. Check out that white sand!

Paisley, stylin' and ready to hit the beach!

Mimi & Poppy building sandcastles. Love this.

The first day on the beach was Monday... July 25th - our 8th Anniversary! :) Daniel spent that day in Panama city getting the brakes on the Suburban fixed because they conveniently decided to go out on our way down there!! But that afternoon after the kids woke up from naps we went back out to the beach (and let Mimi & Poppy go out on their own Anniversary date night!) and we spent the evening out there watching the sun go down and it was perfect.

These pictures turned out to be my favorite because they are so simple and capture the kids on the beach perfectly.

They really had fun on the beach in general. They played in the sand for hours. Ryder made lots of friends... especially ones with buckets and trucks! :) He really enjoyed burying Daddy...

And Poppy! :)

This makes me laugh! I think she was actually stumbling, but it totally looks like she's striking a pose!

Me, hiding from the sun.

Mimi & Paisley girl

The kids checking out Mimi's bike she rented... people ride bikes everywhere down there which I think is so cool.

Chillin with Daddy.

Love this face! ;)

Watching Mimi paint (While the storm rolls in!)

So it rained several days in the morning. but we made the best of it. Although the kids didn't really understand, so they went a little nutty...

We finally gave up one morning and headed out to do some shopping. We went to Seaside to have lunch. I just LOVED Seaside. Everything about it was adorable. It's such a family oriented town and just so fun. They have part of the square lined with these cool airstream trailers. We had lunch at this place - The Meltdown - Grilled Cheeses! I had a goat cheese, procuitto & arugula (yes, I still remember!)

We shopped around...

And had ice cream... he met his match!

Mimi & Paisley sharing some ice cream

That night Daniel and I went out on a date night! We spent the afternoon over in Rosemary beach, which is beautiful and then we had dinner at Cafe 30A which was great... Lobster :)

Then we went over to Seaside to watch the sunset and hangout.

Love him.

So the last night we got dressed and went down to the beach at sunset to take some family pics. The first one was the best! It went down hill (or down beach from there!) :)

My sweet parents, married 33 years!

One big happy...

LOVE this!

He kept trying to pick her up for some reason!

Then we got a sweet one...

We went over to have dinner in Seaside the last night. The kids were tired and loopy... well, maybe we all were! (Did I mention the kids didn't sleep past 6:30AM one day of the 7 day trip!?!) :)

Florida + my hair =

Funny Face time...

Her turn!

We headed out the next day for the trip back. Paisley & her fish purse that her Daddy got her :)

Poppy & mini poppy...

The kids & Aunt Renita. They LOVE her.

It was a good trip. Vacations with kids are work, but it was fun and we made LOTS of memories for sure!

:best friends::

2011-07-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

Tuesday afternoon (after NO naps & dr appt.) we were at Costco. The kids were together side by side in the double cart... driving me completely nuts. They were just picking at each other, going back & forth between laughing, screaming, amusing people passing by, whining and squealing hysterically. Toward the end of the {not so pleasant for me} trip Ryder leans over, arm tightly around Paisley's neck and says, "Paiseeeey, you're my best friend. Am I your best friend?" To which she leans over and gives him a sweet kiss.

As stressed as I was in the moment, I just wanted to freeze it in time.

I took these pics as we were leaving Chuys in Waco on our way home Monday night. It says it all.

wedding & birthday & 4th of July

2011-07-07T23:11:00.000-05:00

So I drove the kids back from Dallas on Wednesday, Daniel got home late that night, I worked my LAST days at Starbucks {!!!} and then Saturday morning we headed back to Dallas for the holiday weekend to be at Daniel's cousin, Brooke's wedding.

Me & my hot date :)

Rachel & Preston - cute.

Sarah - or as Paisley says, "Sawah"

Sisters. Hanging out after the shindig.

Sunday we celebrated Daniel's dad's birthday. He is turing 60 this weekend!!! We all went to lunch at Pei Wei & then had cake & ice cream at the house.

Ryder & Grandpa!

Grammy & Grandpa & the kiddos.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

That afternoon we took Ryder to see Cars 2. It was his first movie and he was pretty impressed to say the least. As we drove up to the movies at the Harbor. I said, "Look, see that big building with the red writing over by the lake? That's where we're going!" To which he replied, "Are you kidding me, Mom!?!" He was so funny. He also had his first taste of Dr. Pepper... Texas in a cup. It was not on purpose, but I realized I'd forgotten his water and we'd given him a MASSIVE amount of popcorn. He took one drink, looked up at me and said, "What is THIS called?!?" When we were leaving we asked what he thought about that and he said, "That was a REALLY, REALLY tasty drink." He got a little restless in the middle of the movie, but overall enjoyed it.

And she, well, she enjoys a lot. Here's one example!

We didn't really do anything to celebrate the 4th. I got to meet my girls for coffee that morning- we laughed & talked for a couple hours.

We drove back in the afternoon and tried to get settled in and didn't even see any fireworks since they were cancelled in our area due to the burn ban and drought. Not that the kids would have made it through all that with the week they had!

Nashville Trip!

2011-07-07T22:23:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago I went on a little trip {alone!} to Nashville! I went to hang out with friends and be with Kirsten who is expecting a baby girl VERY soon! :) The kids went to stay with the grandparents and Daniel went to a work training in Utah. And Rocky went to some friends ;) So we were kind of all over the place.

I got a lot of quality girl time and was there to go to Kirsten's baby shower. It was at a cute little place called Savannah Tea Company.

The Momma of Honor

My super fun tea cup.

Delicious food. It came in several courses: tea, scones with clotted cream, soup, sandwiches, dessert.

Presents! baby girls are SO fun.

Kirsten's mom got to be there too.

Me & Erin

Love her!

Can't wait for that sweet baby girl to arrive!

One night I got to meet up with some of my favorite girls at Cabana, one of my old favorites. Was great to just chat and catch up on life. Funny how lives have changed. Now in our 30's and 7 kids between us girls at the table!

Erin, Kirsten, Me, Amanda, Kara

When we got home that night Anders had been hanging out with his Daddy and was in a silly mood. I can't believe this is the only picture I got of the adorable little one. He & Paisley are 6wks apart, but he's more like Ryder's size!

The rest of the trip I hung out, ran baby errands with Kirsten, shopped {Kirsten brings out the great shopper in me!}, ate good food, & even fit in a little Perfectly Paisley work. It was a really nice get away. It was refreshing & fun, and there's just something{s} about Nashville that I still miss SO much!

Put on the 'brakes'

2011-06-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

Some days right now I feel like life if spiraling out of control. I just wanna make it through the week. All I can see is the 5 nights in a row ahead of me that I'm going to have to work late only to be awaken early by these needy little hungry whiny people that live with me. :) They are like hungry little birds screeching for their momma, mouths open, just about to take flight! lol. I see the mounds of work pilling up on me visible on my desk in stacks of vibrant paper and ribbon, in my work emails and in the stacks of mail I need to sort and the empty refrigerator, making it difficult to come up with a nutritious meal (that everyone might eat). A couple weeks ago I had a random small hurdle of tonsillitis and that slowed me down for a couple days. It was sad that I was in so much pain but it was nice to actually have a couple forced nights at home to recover. The visions of the soon coming days when I WILL be home to actually cook a normal dinner & put the kids to bed danced in my medicine induced head. But all was back to normal in a few days. Until last week that is... A couple Fridays ago now we went on our normal morning trip to the Y for me to spin and them to run free and get out their energy (since it's already 100 degrees)! When I went to pick them up Ryder was screaming his head off. No one could calm him down but they had no idea what had just happened. I took him and asked him what was wrong and he said, "That boy shoved into me... but he didn't mean to... it was an accident" I said, "Ok, did you shove him back?" Making sure nothing was done to anyone else, considering a recent biting experience! Trying to calm him down I took him to the restroom. When I lifted him to put him on the potty he SCREAMED. I was so confused. The next hour was filled with me trying to figure out what in the world had happened, examining his back & shoulder area to see what hurt, calling friends and trying to find a babysitter to watch Paisley- immediately. The best story I could finally get out of him was that he was standing under the rock wall under the playscape and this boy fell off of the wall on top of him. There was a worker standing nearby at the time, but she didn't see it happen.

Within a couple hours we'd gone to the doctor and were on our way to get X-rays. By this point Ryder, still in pain, but very intrigued with the turn of events in this day was flirting with every nurse at the X-ray place, was given a full tour, stickers, treats, got to play with all the equipment (that adults would never get away with!) and pretty much thought this was the best day of his life.

All that to say, as suspected his collarbone was broken. :( The doctor called later in the night to tell us it was a clean brake on an angle which means it will heal itself in the next few weeks. We borrowed a strap from Morgan & Carrie, our pastors who've had 2 kids brake collarbones. She was the first one I thought to call. For all the moms who don't know (as I didn't), the collarbone is the easiest and most common bone to break but fortunately it heals the fastest as well. Ryder has to wear a strap for 3-4 weeks and it's been harder than expected to keep my little 3 yr old ROCKET calm. Literally, by Monday morning he was running full steam into the walls. Fortunately the strap was worn by the Stephens boys so Ryder thinks that it is super cool and is like some sort of superhero backpack and hasn't resisted it at all, it might even be hard to get him to stop wearing it. Random strangers have actually asked me if it's the kinda thing you can connect a leash to! No, I wish! haha! Here he is sporting his black strap the first night we went out in it...

It's been challenging to stop him from doing things he's so used to. We've not been able to do a lot of our normal things, and it's been difficult to lift this growing boy from the bottom into everything like the car, chairs, and bath. It definitely gives me perspective for parents of kids with disabilities. I don't know how they do it! We've rediscovered the library, playdough and a lot of toys in the house! (That are all over my house now!)

To add to it all we realized this weekend the kids had contracted Hand, Foot, Mouth which is going around a LOT right now. 4 families in my moms club have gotten it. What's funny is with everything else going on I think Paisley probably had a it a few days before I even realized it! oops. We had to spend Father's Day at home and send Daniel to church alone yesterday. :(

Sometimes it feels like you just need to throw on the brakes and slow down from life. Maybe God just did that for us. We've been forced to spend some long, (tiring) days at home and get things back in focus. Perfectly Paisley is doing REALLY well. I'm super busy, lots of jobs - updates on that to come!!! Daniel's gotten a new job and my days at Starbucks are almost OVER. I've got a trip planned to Nashville this week and the kids are going to the Grands. The getaway is looking sweeter by the day at this point!

And you wondered why I hadn't blogged in a while...

Thirty!??!

2011-06-17T23:36:00.000-05:00

{Hello. My poor lonely blog & long lost readers, I have abandoned you. I am so sorry, please forgive me? I promise to not let this happen again... soon anyway. There's just been LOTS going on. So many updates to come.}

{Promise}

---

The weeks leading up to 30 I would literally feel myself panic if I stopped and thought about it for more than 30 seconds. Something about THIRTY that just seems weird, foreign... old to me. All of my thirties friends said they'd had the thought, "Can I REALLY be turing THIRTY?!!?" I just kept having this feeling of, man, everything happened in my 20's and they're over. Oh well, own it, right?!? So instead of bumming about it we celebrated all weekend. The kids went to be with the grandparents which was funny because we'd talked a while back about who's birthday was next. When I said it was mine Ryder asked what type (theme) birthday I'd chosen and how old was I going to be (he guessed 7). So then every day he would ask, "Mommy, is today your Birthday?" One day (a long trying day I might add) I replied, "Nope, you won't be here on my Birthday!" haha. ;) Anyway, it was a nice little break. The kids had a blast of course and I got some time to myself and with Daniel. I got pampered, shopped (in peace), ate (in peace) and slept (in peace).

Friday night we had dinner with some friends at NoRTH in the Domain. It was great. Daniel didn't put the battery back in the camera :( So all I have is iphone pics. boo.

Melisa, Me & Chris

Saturday morning we headed out on a little trip. The beauty of it was in the leisure. We had no set plans and we just went where we wanted at the pace we wanted and just enjoyed our time together. Daniel and I had not been away over night since before Ryder was born! I know, that's crazy, for us anyway. We've had a few weekends with the kids gone, but never gone anywhere.

So we headed out to Fredericksburg for the day and then to spend the night in San Antonio. We ate breakfast, enjoyed the beautiful drive, I read a book (which I rarely do anymore) and we stopped along the way at a few places including some of the vineyards and wildflower places.

Me & my love.

Texas nature ;)

We ate and shopped in Fredericksburg. I found a paper store that I absolutely fell in LOVE with. Daniel was so sweet to just sit and let me look (and drool) over everything in the store for an hour. Then we headed south to San Antonio. We stayed at a nice marriot on the riverwalk. When we got there to check in they told us there were only double beds left to which I got a little ticked and said, no that's not what we booked or paid for... blah, blah blah, so the guy said, well, I can give you our hospitality sweet and you can see if it's ok... it was ok. ;)

We went to dinner at a cool modern mexican place we'd been before {Acenar} and had a delicious dinner. I failed and took no pictures of the food, but I did have oyster tacos.

And we had Tres Leches.

We had a leisurely (the theme!) Sunday morning and went over to this place called Lulu's that's known for their 3 POUND cinnamon roll. It was on the show Man VS Food. We thought you could probably get a piece or smaller one, but no. You can just get the gianormous one. So we did. And it was disgustingly large. But only $7.

Don't worry, together we ate less than a third of it. Then we headed out and hit the outlet malls in San Marcos on our way back. Daniel treated me to some fun birthday presents there!!

It was a really great weekend. I felt super loved by all of my sweet family & friends in gifts and extra kind words.

I guess 30's not that bad after all.

20 Months!

2011-05-18T08:00:00.004-05:00

Paisley Rose is 20 months old today. I am happy to say she has finally hit 20 pounds! Woo hoo. And with that I will say, this little girl has NO idea she is just 20 pounds! :) She is a fearless little dare devil. She is FULL of energy and she dances, climbs, jumps and goes off the fastest & highest slides. She cracks us up with the funny things she does and says. Her vocabulary is exploding these days! While she is non-stop action and tough as can be, she is just the sweetest with her hugs & kisses and love of all things girly.

This is the perfect picture to describe her right now...

Our Frilly Little Dare Devil.

Mother's Day

2011-05-17T08:47:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went to Dallas for Mother's Day. Surprisingly, we hadn't been home since Christmas! It was a busy weekend of course with lots of friends and family to see. Friday night I got to go out with my girls! The four of us hadn't been together in SO long. We went to dinner at Blue Mesa and to Pete's piano which was super fun.

Saturday I went to the Mother's Day luncheon at my mom's church (where I was chasing Paisley and have no pics!) That night we had dinner with Daniel parents and Grandma & Grandpa Williams.

Sarah & Paisley swingin'

Grandma & Grandpa

Paisley & Grammy

Grandpa & the aunties.

my love.

Me & Rydie being silly.

Sunday we went to church with my parents and then to lunch. Ryder telling Poppy how it is...

And Paisley telling Mimi...

Happy Mother's Day to me ;)

My Daddy & my Grandma :)

My little munchkins. :)

Sunday afternoon we went to Daniel's parents to get together with his Dad's side of the family.

Some of the kids playing...

We had a great day celebrating mother's. We are really blessed to have all the amazing mothers & grandmothers in our lives that we do.

Child like faith... with a bandaid.

2011-05-04T16:24:00.000-05:00

The other night I laid in the bed with Ryder while putting him down, which is actually usually daddy's job, but I was home that night and Ryder had asked for me. So I laid there and we sang several song- abc'c, speckled frogs, a random number song he made up (sure to be a hit), and then Jesus Loves Me. He got quiet (which is rare) and at the end he said, "Mommy, is Jesus in my heart?" I was kinda surprised and said, "Well, yes! If you want him to be, you just ask!" He was still listening so I said, "You just say, 'Jesus will you come be in my heart? And stay forever with me?'" And as quick and simple as can be he said, "Yep, and He will! That's what you do!" And then he gave me the sweetest 3yr old analogy I've heard... He said, "And THEN He puts a bandaid over it!" And he smiled really big.

I also smiled really big as I left his room that night and I prayed, "God please help me believe and trust with a 'Yep!' response. And please give us all one of those bandaids on our hearts for the wounds of life."

Easter Weekend!

2011-04-25T13:56:00.000-05:00

We had a really great Easter weekend. Ryder learned all about Easter this week at school and had an egg hunt and party on Thursday. He brought this home and told me, "Mommy, this is a 'cwoss' and it means God loves us!" I was a proud momma. So we hung it in the window for the weekend.

Saturday we had an Easter rehearsal at church and then Daniel I had a lunch date :) Sushi & cupcakes. Saturday afternoon we colored eggs. That was an adventure. Paisley just wanted to spill the dye and Ryder was more intrigued with the fact that they would crash and break if he hit them!

little ham.

Looking at the surviving eggs!

Easter morning we had to rise & shine early! Notice, it's still dark out...

checking out her basket

Ready to go!

Not sure whether to go with the hat or the headband!?!

Love my girl.

We had a great service. We did some special music & videos and I sang Kari Jobe's, "O the Blood." Great song. The kids had an egg hunt during service so I snuck out after worship and got a few pics of Ryder.

Ryder giving Ellie some love after church! :)

Workin' it in her hat!

Me & my little Easter bunnies! Going on 5 hours at church at this point - they were getting loopy!

And tada! The Easter family picture. All matching, all still put together and all looking in the direction of the camera!!!

We grabbed some lunch after church at Z Tejas.

Daddy & his girl! She was saying "Cheese!"

Ryder asked to have his picture taken on this rock.

We went home and all took a good nap then we headed out to meet Phillip & Kristin at her parent's new lake house. The guys took Ryder out on the boat!

While us girls chilled and met them for dinner out on the pier.

It was a beautiful day. We serve a risen Savior and He is so good to us. We missed being with family, but we love our spiritual family and all that God is doing there! We started a new series at church yesterday called Beautiful Things.

You make beautiful thing, beautiful things out of the dust

You make beautiful thing, beautiful things out of us.

The sad nest news...

2011-04-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

Daniel said I must give an update on the bird nest. This should not be included in our "Easter Weekend" blog coming up next as it is much more sad than the rest of our weekend. If you're reading this and have not read my previous blog -read that first! :)

So Saturday morning we were getting ready to go to rehearsal at church and chaos broke out. We were sitting at the table all eating breakfast when I notice the angry bird - not the app. I tell Ryder (again, note to self: think before speaking) "Look, that birdie is SO mad! Why's he so mad?" The bird was sitting a few branches over from the nest with HUGE ruffled feathers fluffing up everywhere, clearly upset! We look again and Daniel says, "Uhhhh, there's a SNAKE!" It was wrapped around some branches next to the nest. We kinda freaked out, but didn't want Ryder to realize it. I told Daniel he HAD to kill it or I would never return to the backyard again. About the time we are getting dressed, the babysitter is coming, Ryder's friend Ellie is coming over... it was just chaotic and Daniel (horribly afraid of snakes) goes out to kill it. I was trying to keep Ryder distracted so he would not witness the killing while I watch (squealing & laughing) as Daniel pulls the thing out of the tree and beats it with a pole! Ryder comes over just about the time Daniel is laying it on the patio (dead). Ryder says, "OHHH a snake! (He pauses) Why's it not moving??" The babysitter says, "It's playing. Playing dead." I said, "It's asleep!" ;) So here it is...

I am so sad to report that we're pretty sure it ate the bird eggs :( The birds have not returned. Daniel said, "Ohhh there's a blog in there somewhere!" But I won't even try to analyze the spiritual aspects of this! Do what you will with that! Yesterday morning during Morgan's sermon he said something to the effect of "When there is no gratitude that's when the serpent comes in!" Daniel and I looked at each other and laughed.

He will protect your nest

2011-04-13T15:29:00.003-05:00

So we've been watching this bird nest being built right outside our kitchen window. It's been a neat little science lesson for Ryder. Each morning while we eat breakfast we look at it and talk about how it's changed. Are there more sticks? Are the birds there today? Where are the birds, what are they doing? Are there eggs? What will happen to the eggs? Etc...

So this morning while we were sitting there I see a squirrel in that tree. I say, "Oh look Ryder, a squirrel is right by the window!" Just as the words are coming out of my mouth that stinkin' squirrel has jumped into our precious bird nest! I LEPT out the back door and toward that thing as fast as I could screaming for it to leave. At this point Ryder & Paisley (seriously confused!) BURST into tears!! The squirrel jumped away of course. Meanwhile the birds were in the tree next to it squawking and fluttering around. I came back in, trying to see if the nest had survived. I didn't think there were eggs there yet, but maybe there were because Momma bird has now been sitting there all day. The Daddy bird has been sitting further down in the tree watching. It was just so interesting to see their reaction. The Momma bird flew back over immediately to protect her nest. She was visible shaken. You could see her tiny little chest beating and she was on edge the rest of the morning. Her home & her children had been invaded!

I thought of how I react some days to things life throws at my nest... visibly shaken. The devil will use any little thing to come against me and my nest. But I will not stand for it. I am daily building and protecting my nest. I will declare that this house is His. We will not be shaken, we will not be moved. We know WHOSE we are. And we know HE cares for us so deeply.

^{Matthew 6:25} “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Hot {CAKE POP} Mess!

2011-04-13T14:53:00.000-05:00

This weekend while Daniel was at a men's retreat with church the kids & I had a fun friday night at home where we made homemade pizza, cake pops & watched Toy Story. I must start this blog by saying this is in NO way an INSTRUCTIONAL blog! So if for some wild reason your google search for cake pops landed you here: abort mission & restart! ;) The whole thought of making cakepops came because we've started selling them at starbucks. Friday morning Ryder and I went to his 3yr well-check where he'd gotten 2 shots, so I promised him a little treat. We went to starbucks and he picked the pink cakepop and then on the way out he asked if we could make those at home. With no hesistation I said, "Sure, let's do that tonight!" Note to self: next time hesitate. :) It started out so tidy, but I finally just gave up and let them dig in and make a huge hot mess!

step one: make cake (I just used a box mix I had)

Baked it, then crumbled it in a bowl and let it cool. (We then made pizza & ate that!)

Then we mixed icing in with the crumbled cake till it was nice & gooey

Next we started rolling balls. This is the point at which they just started loosing focus on the goal and began eating huge chunks!

Caught!

We ended up with a tray of really sad, oddly shaped cake balls. (Then stuck them in the freezer for a few mins. to harden- That really angered the munchkins!)

We then began the dipping. I just melted white chocolate chips I had. I think the melting candy chips work much better. I gave them bowls and sprinkles and let them go at it. I do not have many pictures of that because as you can imagine I had my hands a little full and covered in gunk.

And VIOLA. This is what we ended up with. Really ugly (shhhh don't tell them I said that, they thought they were beautiful!) CAKE POPS!

BUT, they were pretty yummy. And they had a blast. Try at your own risk.

Flower Power

2011-04-12T00:52:00.000-05:00

So this was actually a couple weeks ago now, but the pictures were so precious I had to share. We did what I do every spring... I get this deep craving to go get flowers. I even talked about this in a worship day last year - and Daniel will not let me forget it. I always want to go get all these plants because I actually like planting them (mostly) and I love how they make me feel at first... but I don't cultivate them. Well, that and it gets 110 degrees here and I finally say Oh forget it, it's all gonna die anyway. ;) But that's a whole other much deeper blog.

So the kids got in on the flowers this year. They had fun picking them out. They thought that was just the greatest - especially Ryder at Home Depot...

Then planting them and watering them has been a whole new level of fun! :) While Ryder was really helpful digging the plants up from the roots (!) Paisley was very content transferring the dirt from pot to pot. She was so sweet. I just love these pictures because they show several faces of her sweet little personality that is developing these days.

His favorite thing is really just the water hose!

Ryder turns 3!!! (Part 2 - the PARTY!)

2011-04-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

So our sweet little Ryder turned 3 this weekend. How could that be??? We had a Cowboy Party (all the decor and stuff in the previous blog!!!). He has been SO excited for the party for weeks! Every day he would ask if today was the party! He watched me make all the stuff and just kept coming up with funny things he wanted at his party - like tents, the $3000 playscape at Costco, a swimming pool, specific people, a horse, etc. And then he would be so sweet and say, "Mommy, do you think I can have a cupcake at my party?" :)

So it was finally party day! Mimi & Poppy came in Friday night to help get ready and Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Rachel & Aunt Sarah came in Saturday morning. AND Nana and Grandma even made the trip to celebrate. It was so fun to have the party at home and let all of our friends and family meet! And my awesome friend, Melisa Urban who has taken so many great pics of the kids came and took pics for me, which was so great!

Ryder was out front with me when Ellie (Ewwie) his girlfriend arrived! It was straight out of a movie. They ran across the yard to each other...

And met with a big embrace!!! Could they be any cuter???!!!!

Hats off. Boots soon followed. Time to play!

Bounce time!

Ryder & Karter bouncing!

Sebastian

Sweet Haddon checking it all out

And Addi.

Grammy watching the kids!

Sweet lil sissy!

My precious Grandma.

Gabriella. She is just darling!

Brooklyn striking a pose!

Aunt Sarah get her cowboy stache on!

Pausing to take a deep breath!

Kristin & Ashley

The dads.

And... the WANTED SIGN. I had this idea and my amazing husband went beyond any expectations and built this out of old wood and torched these letters in! He is amazing.
WANTED.

The Mr. & The Mrs.

Paisley & Ryder

Sebastian & Gabriella

Ellie & Brooklyn

Rachel & Sarah

Gracie & Christy

Finley & Brynlee

Karter & Provi

The Daddy & The Daughter

Pinata time!!!

These girls have brothers! Can you tell?!?

Paisley wanted a turn!

The pinata just would not break. All the kids took a couple turns at it, so finally I stepped in...

Cupcake time!

Phillip & Baby Elle

PRESENTS!

I still find this to be the most stressful time for moms at littles' b-day parties! Ahhh. Mass Chaos...

The great-grandmothers watching.

Beautiful Jennifer and Baby Serena

One last present. A water & sand table from Mimi & Poppy!

time to say good bye. getting favors...

While everyone was leaving Paisley decided to go for some seconds. She went outside climbed up in this chair and started eating people's leftover desserts!!! This is how they found her. Happy as can be!

It was a great party and we were again, SO blessed by all of our sweet family & friends who love our kiddos so much to come hang out and celebrate with us. Ryder had a blast. Thanks to everyone!!!

After everyone left we were wiped out. We put on Toy Story and they laid down. I went to get a shower and came back to find this at 7pm...

HAPPY TRAILS! :)

Buckaroo Birthday! (Part one... the get-up!)

2011-04-05T15:28:00.000-05:00

So this is all about Ryder's turing 3!!! I had TONS of pictures so I split it into 2 blogs. First round - the decorations & such! If you like anything you see that I made please check out my website: PerfectlyPaisleyShop.com !!! The only things not made by Perfectly Paisley are the invites & printed stickers on the favors.

The invites. These adorable things came from an ETSY shop.

THE BUCKAROO.

Ryder Marcus! He was born on April 3rd, 2008! :)

The cowboy theme in general was chosen by him and I was glad to oblige. Thank goodness for fun themes! He's been really into cowboys since he was introduced to Woody from Toy Story. (And buying boots a month ago just put it over the edge!)

I'll let him show you around the party! Let's go...

Door sign

Pinwheels out front in the yard

Welcome banner in the entry

Stopping point for the little ones...

The Birthday Banner.

Mantle. This is my new favorite party idea - having a 'changeable' mantle that you can easily swap out for seasons changing & parties.

Banner with old denim. There was another one of these lining the bar counter as well.

Backyard. Pinwheels & hay bales lining this table to sit on.

There was also an EXTRA special outside prop made by my amazing party planning assistant ;) and husband to be seen in the next blog!

The spread...

Cupcakes! I did the cupcakes and toppers. There were 2 stands full and a tray! Dark chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.

Ryder's special topper! I think it's funny that he actually calls it his "cupcake topper."

wax mustaches. made for some fun photo ops. ;)

The craft. I got the crafts & favors from oriental trading company.

Favors! Inside - cowboy shaped candies and silly bands.

Tags made with stickers from and ETSY shop.

50 boot cookies! (Favors for kids & grown ups!) ;)

So there you have it. I'm working on new themes and can put together just about anything you like, so check out my site or contact me at PerfectlyPaisleyShop@gmail.com.

Now on to the Cowboy Party!!!

Spring Break

2011-03-22T01:31:00.000-05:00

Gone are the days of bumming around for a week or being taken on a vacation skiing or to the beach. But we did get a couple nice unexpected changes of pace. First, the kids went to be with the grands for about 6 days! It was great. They spent a few days with each set of grandparents and got to see lots of family and do lots of fun stuff. I got to work, organize life, work on birthday stuff (!) and have some date time with my hubby! We got them back on Wednesday and then Friday we headed to San Antonio for the weekend with Phillip & Kristin for our first IWL conference... with kids! ;) We knew it might be a little stressful, but it was an adventure. Phillip & Daniel worked the conference while Kristin and I tried to control the kids!! We stayed on the riverwalk and after getting all of our stuff and children in the hotel we had an interesting trek to dinner Friday night. Let me just say the riverwalk is not made for strollers! We were stuck & could not get out!!! Once we got there we had an awesome dinner at Acenar on the riverwalk.

Along the way we stopped for a few pics...

Love this girl:

Love this sweet baby too!

Me & the kids, in the big stroller.

Paisley chill-axin. Pretty much what she did all weekend.

And Ryder with a mischievous smile... pretty much what he did all weekend. ;)

Saturday we hung out, did a little shopping and managed the kids while the guys did the conference stuff. The kids all on the bed with Kristin. Ryder & Paisley love baby Elle.

The church had a playground- thank God. :) So the kids got some energy out in the afternoon there and I got some cute pics of them.

conversations.

2011-03-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

This is the conversation I had this morning with Ryder. I'd gone out to put Paisley in the car (and left him INside so he could not run away as he WOULD try to). I came inside and he was crying. By this point I was already exhausted because just getting them out the door together these days is such a feat.

Me: Buddy, WHAT'S wrong?
Ryder: I'm scared. (whimpering)
Me: Why?
Ryder: You took Pay out and left me
Me: Ryder, have I ever left you here?
Ryder: No. (whiny voice)
Me: Do you think I would ever leave you here alone?
Ryder: No. (questioning)
Me: Have I given you any reason to think I would ever leave you here alone?
Ryder: Nooooo. (defeated, knowing he's wrong)
Me: Well, then I wouldn't so stop freaking out...

ME: hmmm, that sounds just like conversations I have regularly with God.
Thank you, Jesus for using the voice of my child to speak to me this morning.

This song was playing in my heart:
I know that you are for me,
I know that you are for me,
I know that you would never
Forsake me in my weakness
I know that you have come now,
Even if to write upon my heart.
To remind me...
Of who you are.

Fun Family Weekend

2011-03-01T00:04:00.000-06:00

Over the weekend I had some unexpected time off work so we actually had some time together as a family! Friday night we made pizza at home & watched Toy Story 3.

Pizza with sundried tomato sauce, chicken sausage and fresh basil... mmmm.

Thumbs up. We don't get that much for food these days!

Telling sister night -night! :)

Saturday it was supposed to be sunny & 75 and we had a fun day planned and it was put a little off course due to rain! We got breakfast and were headed down to Zilker park when it started drizzling so we took a quick detour to Cavendars (the cowboy store as Ryder says). We'd been talking about going to get Ryder a hat since he's going to have a Cowboy Birthday party this year, so we went to look and he had a blast. And got boots too. :)

Trying his stuff on. This is from my phone, but it was too cute!

The "Snake" boots. He fell in love with these and would not take them off. And lucky for us they were a steal of a deal!

One Happy Cowboy.

We headed on down to Zilker hoping to ride the train, but it was not running due to the weather. So we played...

Then we went for a little jog on the trail around the lake.

Even in the dreary weather it was still beautiful & calming. Austin really is such a cool city.

We had lunch at Cafe Express & went home for naps! Saturday night we were treated to a volunteer appreciation dinner at church with dinner from Flemmings- nice! It was great little family weekend.

Oscar Fashion!

2011-02-28T13:44:00.000-06:00

Although the oscar fashion is my favorite of the year, I was a little underwhelmed this year. Nothing made me completely cringe, but nothing really put me in awe either. And the show itself was pretty much a snoozer. So to the fashion...

I really didn't feel like there was anything horrible this year, but here are my least favorites:

Amy Adams. I really adore her and usually like her sweet style, but no matter how many times I look at this I don't like it. I really think it was the styling though. It looked dated and although the jewelry was worth 1.5 million it made it worse. And with that much dress on a little girl I really wanted her big hair out of the way. So I will not say WORST, I will just say, could have been SO much better.

Next Nicole Kidman could wear anything and be stunning and again, I WANTED to like this, but it was just odd. It kinda looked like it had been draped out of really dramatic hotel ball room curtains. And when you saw her walk in it it got even weirder.

This Givenchy worn by Cate Blanchett was interesting I'll give it that and the detailing was gorgeous, but something about the ill-fitting shape in front was just awkward.

Now the better...

This Dior dress worn by Sharon Stone is already getting some bad reviews, but I thought it was HOT! Love it. Yes, it's serious and has feathers, but it's the Oscars and it's Dior, come on.

I am usually not a fan of Hillary Swank, however this Gucci dress was stun-ning! By this point I was beginning to wonder if my TV was black & white (and sparkly) because that's all I was seeing. But still, this is a gorgeous gown.

We'll call these next ladies the good & the bad. The good about Gwyneth is she looked ROCKIN on the red carpet in Calvin Klein (left). The bad news.... she still can't sing. Thank you for not auto-tuning her. The truth is she's still a fabulous actress, not a singer. Why couldn't hubby Chris & the band tell her so?

Anne Hathaway was co-host with {the most boring} James Franco. They were not very entertaining overall, but they did have a lot to live up to. I mean really- Billy Crystal, Ellen, Whoopi? They weren't close. However, the good news is once she got to changing clothes it got a little more enjoyable. My faves - the blue Armani and the burgundy Versace.

The best!

This precious 14 yr old star of True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld. She helped design this Marchesa gown and said it was exactly what she dreamed of. Perfection.

And finally. I am always a fan of her hair and her style. Mandy Moore. She was performing a song I'd never heard, but either way, she looked amazing. First on the red carpet in this Monique Lhuillier dress then performed in this AH-MAZING blue dress, same designer. LOVE it. That's something worth watching the Oscars for.

The letter W is for Weekend.

2011-02-21T00:15:00.000-06:00

Friday I took the kids to Sesame Street Live! We went with some MOMS clubs friends as we did last year. It's kinda funny to look at those pictures and see how much has changed in the year. Ryder is not AS Elmo crazy as he was last year, but still loves Sesame Street and was super excited about it all.

Taking it all in...

Paisley & I hanging out. Fortunately she still fits in the Baby Bjorn, so I just strapped her on and went!

Intermission with my little Elmo crazies!

Show's over and they had a blast.

As we were heading out past all the souvineers Ryder spotted something he WANTED. I looked at the case assuming it would be a silly $20 stuffed elmo or spinning light up thing. And Ryder says, "I WANT THE BINOCULARS!" I laughed and said, "What?!? Why do you need binoculars?" And he says in an almost sarcastic tone, "So I can SEE things better!" Lucky for me they were the cheapest thing in the case and I found it too funny to ignore, so I bought them. He was SO HAPPY...

Leading Sissy out. How cute is this?

After the show we went to eat lunch at Central Market. It was so busy that after looking for parking for 20 minutes I told Ryder we were going to have to try somewhere else at which point he started crying and then suddenly screamed, "No! Wait! I will FIND us a place with my binoculars!" ;) And we found one. After lunch I drove to Waco to meet Poppy to drop them off for a fun-filled weekend for all! They spent a night at each grandparents and Daniel and I got some much needed rest and time together. We got 2 date nights in and slept until 11am on Saturday. Daniel said he couldn't remember the last time he woke up feeling so groggy & wonderful! Big thanks to them for giving us a break. The kids had a blast!

What a Lovely Day

2011-02-16T00:53:00.000-06:00

We had a really sweet Valentines.

Last Thursday Ryder had his Valentines party at school. I went for the party at the end of the day. He was pretty excited and Paisley got in on the action too...

Trying some of mommy's cookies...

Love my crazy little Valentines!

Ryder also painted Valentines to send to the grandparents and he made a special valentine for his girlfriend, Ellie, "Ewwie" as he says. It was the cutest thing ever. We were in Hobby Lobby picking out his school valentines and I asked if I was his Valentine? He said, "No." So I said, "I'm not your girlfriend?" He said, "No... Ewwwie" :) So I asked if he wanted to give her a Valentine and he assured me that he did, but NOT the toy story ones he was giving others. "No, No," he said, "She needs a PINK one." So we got her a pink one and he even painted in it with glitter. Then I said, "What do you want me to write in it?" And with the biggest grin he said shyly, "I LOOOOOVE you." HAHAHA. I laughed and said, ok. So he gave Ellie her Valentine Friday night at community group at her house. She opened it and said, "OH I love glitter." And hugged him. :) SOOOOO cute.

Valentines morning I had a little surprise for each of them out on the table...

She was still half asleep.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned Ryder's complete obsession with George (Curious). He talks about him all the time and relates everything to a story about George either from his books or the show. So he got a stuffed George. He said, "OHHHH. I can take him in the bed with me, I can take him EVERYWHERE!"

Valentines from Aunt Sarah

Happy Paisley sitting in the middle of the valentine pile from Grammy & Grandpa.

Later in the day there was more! We got a box from Mimi & Poppy and they were so excited again!

I got a couple surprises too. Daniel came home with roses, chocolate covered strawberries AND these...

AND we went on a date! We went to the Roaring Fork which was delicious. We sat on the patio with the sun setting on a long overdue beautiful Texas day. Yes, I took pics of food... just for you all.

My love (and hot date!)

Yummy appetizer - Lamb with fondue

I got a super delicious special- pan seared grouper with a mushroom risotto with black truffle goat cheese! YUMMMMM. And Daniel got the pork tenderloin with cheese grits.

Happy girl on Valentines.

We had a great date night! I still LOVE Valentines day. Why not take a day to celebrate the LOVELY people in your life? Happy Valentines to all.

Grammy time!

2011-02-15T23:43:00.000-06:00

You all know my affinity for award shows and of course next to Oscar fashion the Grammys are my favorite. There's this perfect mix of crazy, spectacular and completely hopeless fashion. So let's start off with the crazy... I feel like not even mentioning it because that's why she does everything she does- so people will mention it. Say what you will, but all press is good press and EVERYone was talking about Lady Gaga in the egg. She's crazy. That's all there is. But I will give her this... she (or someone behind her) keeps thinking up more crazy.

Next on my crazy list is Cee Lo. There really are no words. All I will say is as a mother of a 2 yr old who is currently completely obsessed with Toy Story all I could think is this...

Now to the fashion disasters. This chica from Paramore said she wore a friend's design. I love my friends dearly, but there is not one of them that could persuade me to wear their design of this sort...

And then there was this... oh man. I don't know what's worse, just the hair or the COMPLETELY leopard clad body

This girl from NCIS was a presenter and apparently she took her job at the Grammys very literally.... not ok.

I said it on facebook and I'll say it again. Ricky Martin: Party Foul. Metallic Jeggings, Oh No he Didn't.

Now for my faves. How she got put in the "Diva Tribute" in the opening number I have NO idea, but this dress that Florence wore was a brave and so fitting for her. It was Givenchy and Grammy gorgeous!

My other favorite BOLD choice of the night was New Artist winner, Esperanza Spalding. She is an actually talented musician and wore an actually gorgeous gown! No clue who it's by and I'm sure many would argue my opinion {yes it's an out there color choice} but it was beautifully crafted and perfect for her win.

Another of my bests of the night was the always classic {and equally talented} Norah Jones. I couldn't find a better picture and don't know who made this LBD, but it was adorable. Love it.

And lastly, my favorite...

I care nothing about her, but this dress was amazing. Julianne Hough wore this fabulous Catherine Malandrino (always leave it to the Parisians) and as soon as I saw her on the red carpet I knew it was my favorite by far. {Yes, I love a good printed dress!}

So there you have it folks. Can't wait for the Oscar fashion!

"What A Great Day!"

2011-02-04T21:45:00.000-06:00

So we woke up this morning to snow... not much, but snow- in Austin! About an inch maybe, but that's all it took to excite a 1 & 2 year old. The title of this post is due to the line that Ryder kept repeating while we were outside playing in the {miniscule amount of} snow, "Ohhh. What a Great Day!"

Paisley was not so sure at first. Or maybe that's just because she couldn't move!

Happy boy!

Little Snow Princess...

Nice outfit, Babe! hahaha!!!

Yelling, "SNOW!!!"

What a great day...

WEBSITE!!!

2011-01-27T16:18:00.000-06:00

Happy to announce that my Perfectly Paisley website is up & running! Yay! It's nothing fancy, I did it myself {thanks to blogger} but I kinda like it. ;) For now all purchases will still go through my ETSY page, but my website gives TONS of examples & ideas to choose from. I can make a custom ETSY purchase for anyone that wants to buy something.

So tell a friend, tell your family, tell a neighbor, tell someone you don't know...

www.perfectlypaisleyshop.com

Thanks for all of your encouragement in my creating.

xoxo!

Circus!

2011-01-20T22:44:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago there were some buy one, get one free circus passes at the Y, so I picked one up and casually said, "Oh, we could go to the circus..." Never say something you don't mean to an inquisitive, little 2 year old sponge. They don't forget anything. From then on Ryder was telling people he was going to the circus. So Sunday night we went to the circus. The kids really loved it and even Paisley watched and squealed and clapped.

Tigers!

Snack time!

Loved the popcorn... hugging it!

The funniest thing was him looking at all the stuff they were selling. Daniel went and got the popcorn and cotton candy and then Ryder said he wanted a drink. To which I said, "No we brought your sippy cup, you're good," to which he replied, "No, no. I need one of those tasty drinks. (pointing) Up there in the corner!" We died laughing.

It was bed time, but she made it with some snuggling with Daddy...

They loved the elephants, the clowns and the dogs that did tricks. And Ryder loved the motorcyclist!

He had a blast. So glad we go to go.

Making Easy Uncomfortable

2011-01-12T16:05:00.004-06:00

Happy {LATE} New Year Everyone. I apologize for the lack of blogs. Read on and you'll see why. If you read my blog the week before Christmas you'll be happy to know that over the last couple weeks I have had to continuously LET GO and let GOD. The sickness has continued in our house... As we drove back the day after Christmas Daniel started getting sick. By that night he and Paisley were both throwing up. 48 hours later Ryder & I started throwing up! We rang in the new year recovering, again. Then that Sunday night as we were putting up Christmas stuff Ryder jumped/danced into the corner of the wall and gashed his head open!! We ended up on the advice of family not taking him the the ER and the next morning it was already starting to close so we bandaged it up with steri strips - Moms of boys, go buy some now! It is still on the mend. Then last week when I thought things were beginning to calm I took Paisley in for her {late} 15mth well check. As the doctor looked in her ears I felt that sinking feeling in my gut, again. Both ears STILL infected. She was on the strongest oral antibiotic they could give her that week before Christmas and it did not clear the infection. The Dr thinks that whatever infection they got in their ears was just super strong and resistant to antibiotics. SO... that led us to having to go in 3 days in a row last week to get her antibiotic shots. She's so little that they couldn't do it all at once like with Ryder. She is also on the bulk-up diet since she's yet to break the 15 pound mark! We go back this Friday for an ear check and regular shots, so we are hoping and praying for good news. We think Ryder's have finally cleared but will not be totally sure for 4-6 wks. ALL that to say, I'm being tried through all of this. My kids have always been healthy and maybe because of it I don't know how to deal. But I'm learning.

So my spin teacher is a horse trainer. And he likes to yell (at us). Today he was harping on us and griping about how he has to tell us things everyday, do we ever get it? blah blah blah. I was trying to tune him out and enjoy the ride so to speak when all of the sudden he said, "I only have to teach a horse something 7 times and then they get it. You guys are much harder to train than horses!" He went on to explain about the horses, "You make easy uncomfortable." You make the easier, slower choice for the horse the uncomfortable choice. {Lightbulbs!!!} It's easier for me to not go workout, but ultimately I am uncomfortable for it in the long run. It's easier for me to not have time with God, I have what I think is more "me" time - whatever that is - but am more uncomfortable the rest of the day. On Sunday Morgan said something that hit me, it was that in whatever we are going through instead of asking God to deliver us from it we should pray, "God grow me IN this." Because chances are you'll be there again and wouldn't you have rather grown from the previous situation. We could hope. As we were finishing up our workout with some stretches my teacher said he teaches horses stretches. Once they learn them they realize how good it makes them feel so they just do them naturally themselves without being told to or made to... hmmm.
So that is my prayer for the new year. God, make me uncomfortable in the easy. Stretch me. I need to be challenged. Physically, spiritually & creatively. God help me to have those uncomfortable conversations each morning with You that grow me & ultimately give me joy. Help me to get uncomfortable at the gym (to un-grow me!). And to challenge myself creatively to step above my comfort levels and thrive.
Happy 2011.

SEVEN Christmases. But who's counting?

2010-12-27T16:49:00.000-06:00

Yes, that's right, 7 Christmases. 6 on Christmas day. So here goes with lots of pics and play-by-plays. :)

Christmas Eve we went to my Grandmommie's house to do Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. Ryder - having no idea what's coming...

Poppy & the kids.

All the boys... Ryder, Andy, Luke, Ben, Josh

Paisley was really getting into her presents!

Me & my little Christmas princess.

Paisley, Me & Grandmommie.

Paisley & Aunt Robin

We got home on Christmas Eve and put out Santa's cookies (Ryder is yelling "Santa!" here)

Then Santa's elves had work to do... work we were unaware of... He's an angry elf.

We went to bed around 1am, but it was all worth it when we saw the look on their faces! Poppy brought the kids down stairs to our annual song, "Early on One Christmas Morn," and when Ryder saw everything he couldn't even scream he was so excited. He was just holding his fists in the air! So cute!! Then he saw Santa's cookies were gone... And just had this look of shock!

Seeing his, "bicycle with pedals," just like he asked for.

Checking out Paisley's kitchen!

Looking at her stocking stuff!

What is it??

A guitar!

Checking it out with daddy..

Paisley opening presents with Mimi...

Kisses for her new doll!

And DRUMS. He's even got the tongue going here...

Train set!

Family pic! And YES - I have no make up on, can't believe I'm revealing this one!

Trying out the bike real quick... come on, we've got 5 other houses!

On to Grammy & Grandpa's

So excited about the new car playscape

Grammy & Paisley girl

Sarah & Mini - Sarah

Aunt Rachel & their TENT!

Next stop Grandma & Grandpa Williams.

The cousins playing piano. Cooper, Ryder, Landon.

Paisley & her Daddy.

From there we drove to Greenville to see my Grandmommie's extended family. The kids took a quick breather in the car...

Didn't get any pics there for some reason... was wearing down! From there we drove back and went to Grandma West's house.

Aunt Renita the Great playing with Ryder

Paisley laughing with Poppy & Mimi.

Then finally at about 7pm we headed to house number 6 - Nana's. Ryder opening his cement truck!

Paisley & her new Princess Mobile!

There we got to meet baby Avery for the first time. Avery was born in November to Blake & Stephanie. Paisley checking her out...

We finally headed home to Mimi & Poppy's about 10pm. Not that you're counting, but that's 14hrs and 6 houses on Christmas day!

THIS is how we all felt...

But very Blessed. Thanks everyone for making it a very Merry Christmas.

I {heart} news babies!

2010-12-27T14:29:00.000-06:00

So happy to say that my friend Kristin had her baby on Thursday, December 23rd! Just in time for me to drop by on our way out of town for Christmas and meet sweet, precious baby Elle Madison Edwards! I am so proud of Momma Kristin and we are extremely happy & excited for her & Phillip as they enter into the fun world of parenthood! Me and the sweet itty bitty...

We headed home Thursday night and on Christmas Eve I FINALLY got to go meet baby Hudson! Michelle gave birth to Hudson Stuart Curry on December 2nd! He was early due to all he was making his Mamma endure at the end of pregnancy! But, he is so sweet! I got to just sit and hold him forever. There's just something about a little newborn in your arms! So happy for Michelle, Chris & big brother Hayden!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2010-12-24T10:00:00.001-06:00

Letting Go, Letting Go, Letting Go...

2010-12-23T09:30:00.026-06:00

As I sit here with my coffee this morning, bags packed (mostly), Christmas lights glowing in the background and the kids watching Charlie Brown (again!) all is OK in our tiny little corner of the world.
The past few weeks have be so overwhelmingly stressful. I've wanted to cry but for some reason couldn't - which is wierd because I'm admittedly a very weepy kind of girl. I just felt like I had to hold it all together. We just can't get the sickness out of our house (more on that in a moment), I've had to work way more than normal (and at multiple times wanted to chunk an eggnog latte in someone's face!), and feel like because of all of it we've barely enjoyed the most wonderful time of the year. We've not been able to do a lot of the normal holiday things I love to do and have been so stressed doing the ones we have. Tuesday afternoon it all came to a head. I was in the doctors office to round out 5 appointments in less than 3 weeks when it hit me..
Why this only happens to us on the holidays I do not know. Ryder's been battleing ear infections with no help from the antibiotic for 2 weeks. And by the time we got there BOTH kids had ear infections in BOTH ears plus Ryder had a virus with over 103 fever. The doctor ask me if I was willing to give him a big huge antibiotic shot. Was I willing?!?!? YES! please, could we just all get one. (Including the dog, he's probably next!) This was a big daddy shot in both legs and they brought in 2 nurses for reinforcement. As my baby boy was laying there held down on the table 4 days before Christmas - there came the tears. I've never cried when my kids got shots, but this was painful and he was looking at me, screaming with this helpless look... kinda how I feel like I've been looking at God lately.
At that point I let go. I can't control it all. I've done what I could. I'm letting go of the rest.
I'm letting go...
of the fact that I haven't cooked dinner for nights and the kids might not have had the proper servings of vegetables.
of the fact that I haven't been to the Y all week and have had more than my share of salted carmel hot chocolate from work.
of the fact that the girl that shops all year is not done Christmas shopping.
of the fact that I've not been able to go to all the Christmas parties I wanted to this year.
of the fact that I'm not going to do any holiday baking, unlike some, I truly enjoy it.
of the fact that I've still not gotten to go to meet my sweet, sweet dear friend's new baby, Hudson.
of the fact that I might not be here when my sweet, sweet friend has baby Elle (although as I write this she is now IN labor!)
of the fact that I can't be there to hug my dear friend who's just found out her mother has cancer.
of the fact that we will not be able to please everyone this holiday with the crazy Christmas day schedule we have to try to keep.
of the fact that my house is a complete disaster and will be that way when we get back on Monday.
of the fact that this list could go on for 3 blogs.

All that to say, Christmas is here. It came really fast this year and although there are only a few days left, I'm letting go.
Letting go now and with simple, childlike faith, letting that little baby in a manger take control.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord... Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men.
Let Go. And have a very Merry Christmas.

First Christmas Program!

2010-12-22T09:34:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago we had our Christmas program at church. It was Ryder's on stage debut! (Well, that might be a bit of a stretch.) He looked so cute when he came out with his class...

Singing the first song. Which he maybe sang 2-3 words of :)

Oh, time for a rest.

I was trying to be sneaky and not let him see me... failed. He saw me. This is about the point in song number 2 when he started yelling at me, "I need to go POTTY!" So that's what we did during song 3.

And then he finished up the rest of the program with this...

At the end they came back up and did a little Charlie Brown nativity thing, but I was on stage during that part to sing at the end and didn't get any pictures. But here's Ryder showing off his cow shirt with Daddy afterwards...

While I'm on the church subject thought I'd show some pics of the banners I made for church. This was for the kids area, Promiseland...

And in the lobby we used a lot of sheet music, old papers and birds and I did 2 for that area.

This one was big and said Joy to the World, but only got a good pic of JOY.

It was fun. Starting beginning of the year I'll have lots of new party stuff for Perfectly Paisley!