ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

this print has a funny story behind it. i originally designed it knowing that it was an important verse for a lot of you, and i thought you might like a cute way to display your mission of parenthood. as i was designing it, i thought, of course, about how i have two little ones at home. and how it's my responsibility to teach them Love, show them Grace, point them to a Savior. to sharpen and mold and ultimately spur on in the direction that God has ordained for them, since before they were born. it's not my choice what they do, but it's my job to help them do it well, whatever it is.  as i was thinking about my two girls, i wondered why i'm so set on having no more kids. if i'm honest, it's because i don't think i'm a good mom [whatever that means], i know i'm failing miserably in a lot of areas, and i'm just pretty sure i shouldn't add any more children to the mix. but this verse caught hold of me as i remembered the incredible bles...

whelp, i had a baby on wednesday!  it was so strange how that was all planned out.  very surreal to just walk into an operating room and have them pull out a baby ten minutes later.  and everything went according to plan, praise God! we're all happy and healthy and getting used to a family of four [which included buying a new (to us) car because we couldn't fit two carseats in my car AND have daddy drive. he's too tall and the seat wouldn't scoot back enough. we would've had to take 2 cars every time we went somewhere] i'll write about everything in detail soon, when i have some free time [haha!]  but for now i figured i could at least give you my instagram photos from last week? make sure you scroll all the way down for a sweet little surprise :) this girl and her trains shameless bragging: she does these puzzles 100% by herself. it's amazing. the trains have taken over our house! a spontaneous trip to cold stone. one...

today i am 19 weeks + 1 day pregnant. we had our official, medical ultrasound [where you usually find out the sex, but we already knew it was a girl]. she confirmed that it was in fact a girl, which was no surprise to me. and it looked like everything else was good too. i never want to take for granted the fact that my babies are healthy and all their parts are working properly. i know it could be very different and i know i certainly don't deserve a healthy baby over anyone else. anyway, it occurred to me that maybe you'd want to see some shots of the growing belly? and it is popping out fast! i promise at the end of these 40 weeks people will be asking if i'm sure i'm not having twins [it happened last time, so i fully expect it again]. i discovered it wasn't all that simple to take photos of myself... find the right lighting, find an object to set the camera on that was high enough, make sure it focussed correctly, and then make sure i didn't look like a...

we were supposed to find out on sept. 15. but i'm impatient. so we didn't tell anyone, and went this saturday to find out what we're having. it was fun to surprise everyone, a month earlier than they were expecting. i was pretty well convinced it was a boy, since i've been sick this pregnancy [not one minute of sickness last time around] and maybe just because i already have a girl? not really sure why... so, it was a fun surprise when she announced: we couldn't have been more surprised, but equally excited. [i have ten bins of clothes that i'll get to use again]. we'll get to re-use the nursery bedding and decor that i still LOVE... but now i have to make a big girl room for the "big sister". just for fun, i'll show you what i am drooling over so far. i'll admit, i'm a little too excited that i get to do/re-do TWO rooms right now, even if one of them is hand-me-down bedding, i'll still get to personalize it for Tessa :) my...