Homecoming parade

This year Kaitlyn started dance for the first time! She loves it! The company has a float in every homecoming parade and we participated this year and it was so much fun! We were blessed to be in the same trailer as our good friends Michelle and Addison Bristle. Addison takes from them too and we got to sit by them and wave at everyone and blow bubbles. It was so fun! Kaitlyn kept waving and going hello everyone, hello! It was so fun!

Time at Grammy's

For Labor Day we went up to Collinsville and got to spend time with family we have never met. Brenda's uncle and her cousin have been making a 3 week, 14 state trek to visit family. They were delightful and it was a pleasure meeting them.

We also got to see family we love, but never get to visit, and that is always fun! AFter family left, we spent the night and enjoyed

the wonderful weather and company. Here are some pictures of us outside and with family.

A week of firsts

Lots of firsts going on in the Stephens' home this past week!

Andrew started first grade!
Kaitlyn had her first dance class of the fall!
Andrew had his first football game!

My precious ones are growing up way, way, way too fast. I look at Matthew and think, wasn't Andrew just this age?! Now he is in first grade! He is taking the bus to and from school. There are a lot of kids at his stop, and the traffic at school is insane. He loves it, and I am glad he gets some independance! Isn't funny, this thing called motherhood?! Here am I complaining that he is growing up too fast, and yet throwing him into the arms of indepandance! It is full of mixed emotions! I love to see him grow, and evolve into a child of God, learning who he is, and becoming who God created him to be. But at the same time, I want him to be little, crawl up into my arms and go to sleep. ...but I digress!

Kaitlyn is doing ballet/tap at Jenks Dance Academy and Andrew is doing flag football with Bixby United Methodist church. Our coach is the father of two of Andrew's closest friends! We are loving it so far, and Andrew scored two touchdowns! Kaitlyn loves to dance, the do ballet at the bar, do floor work and then put on their tap shoes and go to town! Soon she will be doing dance with one of her closest friends Ella. She is very excited! Andrew is also doing piano this year with our pianest from church, Debra. So we have a busy year ahead of us, but also a time of fun and learning.

Here are some pics of our first days!







Well here is our week of firsts! Hope all is going well with you!

Fun in Silver Dollar City

We had a wonderful, wonderful time last week in Branson. We arrived Sunday night and got the kids into bed ready for a fun-filled day the next day! Brenda and Larry's trailer is so nice, we sleep on the bottom, Andrew sleeps on top, Matthew in the pack and play and Kaitlyn in the fold down sofa. Brenda and Larry have their own room.

Well we woke up ready to ride rides, eat and SWEAT! It was hot, but we rested and sat a lot. Andrew rode the swings, the little roller coaster, the pirate swing, the tea cups. Kaitlyn rode the frogs, the elephants, the lady bugs (all by her self), the butterflies. She rode the pirate ship, but was SCARED and said she did not want to ride it again, in fact she did not even want to come near it, she stood completely still and wouldn't move until I promised that she wouldn't have to ride the ship! We ate lunch there, watched a dog show, and checked out the new kid area that had a slide and carosal. We then headed back to the trailer and ate dinner and took baths and played. Each night the adults headed outside on the picnic table and talked.







We thought it was going to rain, so we reserved Tuesday for shopping. It ended up not raining, but it was a nice break after hitting it so hard the day before. We shopped and shopped and shopped some more. We then went back to the trailer and took naps...well the adults did :) and then we went to a surprise..we went to play Putt-Putt. It was so much fun, even Kaitlyn "played". She would hit the ball and then pick it up, put it by the hole and hit it in! Smart girl! Larry ended up winning and David lost...Andrew beat him!

Wednesday was water day. So we played in the water park area, rode the water rides, and watched the family circus. We also took a tintype picture where the boys were cowboys and the girls were prairie girls. It was so fun, and the picture turned out great!

The next day we had to leave and I really didn't want to. Back to reality, to laundry, errands, and leave fun Branson behind. Hopefully we will go back in November to see all of the lights! It was a wonderful trip with fun times and a lot of memories!

Book I am giving a try!

Housecleaning, not my strength. I mean I love to be organized, almost obsessively so, but for awhile I got so caught up in my house having to be perfect and that if it wasn't I was bad wife and mother. So I am working on having an attitude that I want to clean to serve my family, not to have a clean house out of obligation or proving to my family that I am good wife and mom. Now getting the motivation to want to clean. Let's face it, cleaning is not fun. I would much rather play on the computer, watch a DVR'd show, take a nap, etc. But, this is my season in life right now, this is what the Lord has for me and I need to have better attitude about it. I mean do I want to live in filth, no, but I would much rather someone else do it! (Sorry just being honest! :) ) So I was so excited to see Sarah Mae's new e-book out. I found her a couple of weeks ago and she is a very talented writer and has a heart for the Lord. I have read and followed many cleaning books, but this book not only deals with the house, but with the heart as well. And she is a mother of preschoolers and so she knows where we are in life! Most books out there just tell you how to do it, and not your attitude towards it or how to in spite of having 2 under 2! What is the book you ask, so glad you did! Here it is! Click on the picture and will take you to a link to the website.



I am very excited about it and will post about it in the future! Happy Cleaning with a servant's heart!

What a mighty God we serve!

What a mighty God we serve,
What a mighty God we serve,
Angels bow before Him,
Heaven and Earth adore Him,
What a mighty God we serve!!

I love this old song that my kids in my class used to sing! It is how I feel right now. I cannot even begin to tell you the transformation that is going on in my heart! It is a little scary, to leave to old scary messed up way of thinking, but the feeling of freedom really out ways that is so many ways!

Since the end of February I have been seeing a wonderful counselor from our church and he is really helping me see that my thoughts are based on my emotions, based on feelings and fears that are deep-rooted from my past, but not real and not helping me be my best person. The first thing we discussed and I have been set free from, is gaining the approval from others. Not only that though, but basing how I feel on how I THOUGHT someone felt about me. IE: If I did not hear back from you after leaving you a message then I automatically went to the bad awful place that you did not like me, thought I was stupid, I said something that hurt you and you were never going to talk to me again. Not only was I judging myself through their eyes, but I had to have their approval to feel good about myself and because my fear of rejection was so high I had to control the situation so that they would like me. Wow! Just writing that I realize how incredulous that is. But it is how I thought, and I allowed myself to go there because of all the times I was hurt growing up. Well Jeff has helped me evaluate my feelings and look at them to see if they are grounded in truth and are logical or are they based on emotion and completely wrong. For a couple of weeks I did this and realized how MUCH I went there. I went there all the time, many times a day. And when I did, I would obsess over it and not be the productive mom and wife God has called me to be. I also realized I was judging myself not just with my friends, but In every area of my life. I had to be this all together perfect person or no one was going to like me. That my works were who I was, not my actions or love. That I better have a clean house or people are going to think I am not a good wife, my kids better look nice or I am not a good mom. Do you know how exhausting this was, I did not want to do any ting because the expectations that I had for myself were unrealistic.

Slowly without me even knowing it, the feelings went away!!! For the first time as long as I can remember, I went to bed with a smile on face, I was excited to face the next day. I viewed my children as blessings, not something else I had to attain to. Right now I can say I don't fight these feelings anymore, but I don't know what the future will look like, but I do know what the truth is, I have the tools to fight it and I have the Lord as my Savior. And that is all I need.

Thank you for allowing me to share these thoughts, I know that I am not alone in this, and I pray for anyone held captive by these thoughts, because it is exactly what Satan wants from us so we can keep from being our best self, the self God designed us to be.

Big 1-year old!!!!

Oh my! When Andrew turned one it seemed right, I soaked in every moment, playdates, walking, smiles, eating, teething, everything was new and exciting! So when it was his turn to turn one, it seemed right, normal. He seemed the right size, everything. But when my youngest, Matthew turned one last week it was not the right time. He is too little, it couldn't have been a year! Where did the time go? I don't even feel like I blogged about him much! I feel like it just slipped through my fingers...if this is how it is going to be forever...I am going to have to do something!

Matthew is our joy. He is God's way of telling me that He is control, and he knows best. Matthew was not part of my "plan", but he was the answer I didn't even know I was looking for. He LOVES life! He is on the go all the time and when he sees you, you get a big smilea and a "hi". He loves everyone, but his favorite person is his da-da! David walks in and the rest of the world is put on hold. He can't do anything until David picks him up. I love it! He has been pulling up since he was about 10 months old and is cruising on everything. He can stand a second, and then falls down. He is definately my earliest moblie baby. He had been army crawling, but last week on his birthday he just started crawling on all fours. He is an easy, easy baby. He loves to play and do anything his big brother and sister do, I really don't know what I would do without him.

Last Thursday the 17th was his actual birthday and he played at church. We then went out to dinner as a family. Then last Sunday he was dedicated at church and we had a family party at home. I have gone with the theme for the first birthday depending on what their bedding is. Andrew's was teddy bears, Kaitlyn's was butterflies and flowers, and so Matthews was first birthday with sports on it. It was cute and of course Reasor's did the cake and they did a awesome job. We had Papa, Grammy, Ponca and Uncle Michael. Unfortunately Holly had to work and couldn't come..we missed her.

I cannot find the cord to download pictures from the day, but here are some pics from over the year. What a year...what a boy! We love you Matthew Aaron, more and more every day!

Why do we listen?

I am going to be real, and put myself out there and share what is going through my mind right now so that hopefully if you are going through anything this will be an encouragement to you and so I can go back to this and read it and remind myself of what I have committed to.

Why do we listen to the lies that Satan tells us? When he tells us that we are no good, that we have no meaning, why do we listen? And then we take it ONE step further and then we actually begin to BELIEVE it and buy into it! Why do we do this? We have a God who sent His one and only Son to die for us, because we are that special and that awesome and we are that worth it. BUT, and this is a big but for me, I cannot claim it for myself. I know it, I teach my children it, I discuss it with my friends and my faith is at the core of it, but I have trouble claiming it for myself. Even writing those words down felt uncomfortable, and why? Why cannot claim it? Well, right now I don't have those answers, but I am tired of not thinking highly enough of myself that I don't find the answers. I am tired of not being the person God created because I don't claim His love for me and begin to believe Satan. I get in the muck and the mire of life and allow the rivers to overflow me and buy into the crap that Satan puts in my ears. So guess what, no more I am here claiming that Satan, you have no footing, you have no ground to walk, you will no longer find the person who will believe you, I am putting on my armor and fighting this fight with my Savior! I am being proactive, surrounding myself with love and scripture and guess who is no longer welcome: SATAN! I know that that is not going to stop him, but if God is for me, who is against me?!

Thank you for letting me share, and reading this and I will ask for prayers as I search God's face and begin to make proactive steps in my life for HIS approval, for HIS smile and for claiming HIS love to experience HIS full person, grace and love. Thank you!

Snowklahoma...Blizzard 2011...and more!

Well we have had snow like I have never seen in the 35 years that I have lived in OK! On February 1st it snowed and snowed and snowed! 14 inches here, with drifts taller than Kaitlyn! In Owasso there was 21 inches...SERIOUSLY! Where do we live South Dakota!? :) Then it snowed AGAIN, another 6 inches! So we had NINE snowdays, but that did not include weekends...or the fact that there was no church....so we had a lot of family time! It also got to be 20 below!!! It was crazy weather!

Not only did the snow come down, but the flu came down on our house. It started with Andrew after Martin Luther King, and then we had a smaller snow fall, and so he was in the house with the flu, the following Saturday Katilyn came down with it, and then Matthew and then the huge snow fell! So we were doing well until last Tuesday when I came down with it and strep. Thankfully my dad was able to come over, because the kids were still stuck in the house! So it has been a crazy time in our house!

Here are some pics of the snow storm...Andrew played in it almost every day with the neighbors, and loved it. The best day was the Saturday when it was pretty outside and the second six inches came down and it was powerdery. Forts were built, snowmen were built...it was fun! I wished I could have taken more pictures, but while the older ones were out, the younger one was inside and I could not leave him...but they had a great time!

Pictures from Matthew's First Birthday will be coming up, because he will be turning one this Thursday and this mommy is not handling it very well! :)







We were able one day to make playdough and I like the homemade kind more than the storebought! It was a really easy reciepe! In fact there is an entire website focused on homemade playdough! http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/

Bloom inCourage

I love Angie Smith...she has inspired me, made me laugh and helped me during my grief as I know she helped thousands of others. Well I also love to read, so I have decided to join her book club called Bloom that inCourage has decided to sponser. The book seems outstanding, and I tried buying it at Mardel, but couldn't get it, so I am going to Barnes and Noble to get it. Join with me if you want, watch this video, click in the link I have on blog, and let's dig in!

Playing Catch Up!

Well I offically win the best mom award! I sent my son to school with the flu! I know it has been done before and I will do it again, but I couldn't believe I did it. He had said right after Christmas break that he did not feel good, but was better by 10, so I thought this was the same thing...but no! By the time he got home he was running a 100.5 fever and by the time he went to bed he was running 102. I took him to the Dr the next morning and they tested him for the flu and it was positive! Luckily we had snow days so he did not miss a lot of school, but it was still hard to see him like that! I think that since he had the vacination he got over it easier, because I have known people to not get it and was harder for them to get over. Thank the Lord for vaccinations! It has really been going around here, so I am hoping my two little ones don't get it...so far so good!

Before the flu overtook us we got a special treat! We got to visit daddy in his office! He has worked at BOK for two years, but haven't been able to see it. Andrew was out of school and all of the kids had fun sitting at his desk and meeting his co-workers. I loved it because I can visualise where he is sitting and I love meeting the people he works with. I am so proud of my precious husband. He works very hard to provide for his family, he gets up early so he can get home and spend time with his family at night. He is amazing! Here are some pics of the kids in the BOK tower!

Hope you enjoy, thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Living simply with a purpose

Wow! Christmas has come and gone...we are in a new year and I am just now posting! We had the most amazing Christmas (2/3 sick, but still wonderful)! As we start a new year, David turned 35, we FINALLY got Matthew a crib and he is now sharing his room with Andrew. It is going so well and David and I finally got our room back! :0 I will posting pictures of everything soon!

Now what I meant by my title...My momma passed away Nov 2008. I had a three year old and a six month old...and I was surviving. All I was focusing on was how I was going to get out of bed each morning, feed and clothe my kids and give them a regular life. Then as I was getting back on track...along came my pregnancy with my precious Matthew. Now as wonderfully perfect as he is, I was then trying to survive and fight all the tiredness of the pregnancy, all the sickness of the pregnancy. Then I had him and was so happy, and as I was getting out and feeling "normal" I had my gallbladder surgery. Then summer hit, daddy kept getting sick and then before I knew it Andrew started Kindgerten. Then I began BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), and my eyes began to open up. I realized I was still in survival mode. My fellowship with God was on non-existant, I was not engaging with my kids or my husband, I was snapping at everyone, I was not aware what was going on around me. But by attending BSF and reading God's word, He began to whisper to me, follow me Allison, learn about me, talk with me and I will give you the strength and the knowledge on what to do to make your life go forward in a wonderful direction! So that is what I did.

I have really dove head in to FlyLady. My Control Journal is better than it ever has been, and I have USED it! I didn't just start in Jan because it was a good year, but began in Dec with homemade ornaments, and cookies for the neighbors for the first year, really began family traditions..I have been so proud of myself, yet giving God all the credit!

I have made several Dr. Appts. Made my OBGYN appt (YUCK!), my endroconolgist appt and a new appt with a Dr for a physical.

I also have started making notes and began really using coupons and learning how to save money at every turn.

I am patient with my kids, following through with them and listening to my husband.

But most important....I am listening to my God! He is revealing so much about who He is as a parent, who I need to be as a parent and how much He desires a relationship with me.

I also want to blog more. I have LOVED following uplifitng, encouraging blogs and I want to be those encouraging, uplifting blogs.

So this is just the first of a long line of blogs of my family and how God is going to continue to work in my life!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!!!!!