Merry Christmas!

We've had a very blessed year. We've been given another year to watch Allie grow and we've welcomed another beautiful daughter in to our family. We are SO thankful for the countless blessings God has given us. The greatest of which is our salvation through a Savior whose birth we celebrate this season.

Thank you God for sending your Son. Since becoming a mom, I've had a little different view of The Father's role in giving His Son. I love my family. I love them more than I can say. But, I wouldn't give my child's life for theirs. I just couldn't. I'm so thankful that even though I am so unlovable, God chose to love me enough that He gave His Son for me. I'm humbled and so blessed to be given such a gift. Don't forget why we celebrate the season of Christmas.

Merry Christmas from Tim, Laura, Alyssa, and Sydney!

Sisters

Revival, Harvest Party, and Super Night

This past week we had a great week of revival meetings with Rich Tozour. On Friday night after the service, we had a mini harvest party and then went with the teens to their all night activity--Super Night. After pumpkin and costume contests, games, and ice cream, we joined the teens at Chuck E Cheese. Allie enjoyed all the games and "rides" at Chuck E Cheese. Next was mini golf and then roller skating. I think it was around midnight by the time we went skating. Allie went strong until she finally collapsed in the car on the way home around 1:30am. The teens went back to church for Fear Factor but we all went home and straight to bed. We had a date with the carpet guy bright and early at 7:30, so we needed our beauty sleep.

Pumpkin Farm Fun

We took the kids to the pumpkin farm on Tuesday. Allie had a blast and she was a perfect angel the whole time. She loved everything! Her favorite activity was the big blue slide. She would have ridden that 100 more times if I'd let her. We had lunch and treats there, fed the goats, jumped on the hay bales, rode the three slides, panned for marbles, picked a sunflower, rode the train, rode the hay ride, and of course picked a pumpkin.

Grandma and Madolyn

Allie and the pumpkin of choice

Me and My Girl

Allie loved the marbles!

Sarah and my adorable niece and nephews

Isn't Maddie adorable with her little pigtails? :)

I love the way she's feeding this goat. Check out the hand on the goat's jaw. lol!

3 Weeks

Sydney had a check up today at 3 weeks. She now weighs 9lbs 5oz. I can't believe she's gained that much in just 3 weeks!

Here's Sydney's birth announcement:

Sydney @ 2 weeks

I can't believe our littlest princess is already 2 weeks old. She is growing and changing. At times, it seems like she's always been here and yet I can't believe she's 1/2 way to a month old. In my biased opinion, I think she's beautiful. She continues to be a pretty easy-going baby so far. She's sleeping from about 10:30 to 8:30 only waking up twice to eat.

Big sister is adjusting better this 2nd week than the first week. She loves her little sister but tends to be a bit rough and overwhelming at times. Since she's usually trying to lavish her with affection, we don't want to discourage it. We are just trying to remind her to be gentle. Easier said than done.

Blog Stalking....

I have been stalking a couple of photographers blogs and websites for about a year. One of the ones I am really inspired by is Amy-Rose King Photography. I love her colorful fun photos. Looking at her photos makes me eager to learn as much as I can about photography and Photoshop. Right now, she's running a contest on her website for some of her Photoshop actions. I know my photos could really benefit from them. I love these pictures of Allie but I know they'd look so much better after using her Taste the Rainbow actions. :)