ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

waiting. one of the hardest disciplines, isn't it? for me, anyway. i'm not the most patient person in the world... just ask my 2 year old. waiting comes in all forms. sometimes they're serious and life-changing things that we wait and hope and pray for, and sometimes they're just daily little things that pop up in our path. we pray and pray for God to work in our circumstances. to change them, make them go away, make them better.  but what if God had a different lesson for us to learn in the waiting? some of you are waiting for a baby. either because you're dealing with the heartache of infertility or you're navigating the difficult waters of adoption.  some of you are waiting for a wayward child to return. either to your home or to your heart. a broken relationship needs mending and you're waiting. some are waiting for your husband to rise up and fill his role as spiritual leader in your house. you're waiting for his repentance or h...

friday night we had an impromptu date night. that's me, on my way. we just decided to meet up last minute and grab sushi. so, when the bill came, it was about $35 less than we had calculated in our heads.  was it happy hour? did they make a mistake?  nope, they just advertise a certain price, but everything is actually half off.... um, ok? so that's our new fave place! we. have. too. many. trains.  period. this lil thing is starting to smile and show off her sweet personality.  here she was flirting with the little turtle above her head, in the play-mat/gym thing... whatever those are called? PS: SHE IS ALREADY ONE MONTH OLD!?! top left: getting an early start on piano top right: when daddy's in charge, lil miss plays with a football ;) bottom left: don't you love little girls and painted nails? so sweet. bottom right: she was super excited to wear mommy's sunglasses. so much so tha...

i read the february 28 entry from Jesus Calling today. sure i'm a few days behind, but i needed to read it today, not on the 28th. i love how God uses even my falling behind to help lift me up again: do you see what that says up there? gosh, if i'm ever guilty of attributing my own thoughts onto Him.  in the psychology world, they call it projecting, right? "Many believers perceive Me as an unpleasable Judge, angrily searching out their faults and failures.   after all, i do this to myself, so why shouldn't He?  Nothing could be further from the truth! I died for your sins so that I might clothe you in My garments of salvation.  yes, yes, i have that verse hanging in my house. a design in my shop . i know it well.  This is how I see you: radiant in My robe of righteousness.  yes, He sees us with Christ's righteousness covering all our sins. He literally sees us as already perfected and sinless, as we WILL be in eternity. amazing. ...

so i made a little vlog. it's mostly about Baby Wise , you know, the book? i think i mention at least twice in the video, i'm not trying to start a debate about parenting or infant management, demand-feeding vs. scheduling... i don't intend to argue over which is better. all it is, is me explaining really quick, the basic idea that the book presents about a flexible routine style of infant sleep training and feeding that they call "parent-directed feeding"... it's pretty simple and straight-forward and since i'm right in the thick of it, i figured i'd let you in on the secret. again, a lot of you probably did things differently and others of you probably did BabyWise like me. some of you gals are expecting your first baby soon, and this method might work for you, it might not. anyway, if you have any questions, please ask! i'm not an expert but i've read and implemented it, and have some experience. so here we go: ...

i am in love with this photo. i love that Reese is not only showing interest in her baby sis, but that she's starting to get protective of her. anytime she cries, she rushes to get a pacifier to stick in her mouth ;) and she always wants to make sure "is Tessa coming with us?" when we go somewhere. new flowers reminded me of this post i wrote last february  about spring and the promise that it brings how do you make your broccoli? well, once you try this, you'll never go back: spread 'em out on a baking sheet & set oven to 400 drizzle olive oil and salt & pepper and then bake for 10 min they are to die for , crazy simple to make, and have so much flavor.  i could eat them every single day and it's pretty much my go-to side dish for every meal ** i use fresh broccoli, not frozen. i just buy the bag of already-cut broccoli from trader joes ** these were my girls at 6pm. of course once i tried to transfer Re...

it's friday again! here's our week in review: for her reward, for her good behavior in target, she simply wanted to  "go look at the trains, but we won't buy anything" :) works for me! my husband's football team had a little baby shower for him :) and he brought the cupcakes home.  i ate one and threw out the rest.  i can't afford it now that i'm trying to lose about 30 pounds! but it was yummy while it lasted. trying out the no-heat curls that shauna and leslie rock all the time. shauna did a tutorial here , if you're interested. the headband i used was bugging me so i took it out early but you can see it still turned out pretty cute! how cute are these little cans? i actually gave up soda a while ago, but fell off the wagon. so i figure if i buy the little cans, at least i don't drink as much? not a good solution for actually quitting, but it works for now. last night we had dinner at this ...

just wanted to pop in and let you know that the shop is back open! i won't have any hoops listed for a few more months, at least but for now you can snag some prints or hair accessories [everything is ready-to-ship!] here's a glimpse of what you'll find: use code FEB10 for 10% off click here to shop and just in case you were wondering how i'm doing after baby #2, i'm surviving! i should clarify, because  surviving makes it sound like i'm barely getting by...  which is not true. it's actually been surprisingly easier than i thought. little tessa is sleeping for 3 hour stretches at night, which is wonderful. and the whole  adjusting-to-two-kids thing hasn't been too bad, so far.  just managing them, getting them ready, etc, is the hard part. but so far i don't have any odd behavior issues or jealousy to deal with, which is so nice. reese has always been easy and compliant, and she's pretty much stic...