video time!

Fun with Nana & Papa from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.


Dancing girl from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.



what does a frog say? from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.

Nana

My mother was just with us for the week and she was seriously super-woman in everything she did for us while she was here!  She cooked, cleaned, organized, pampered, but most of all she was "Nana".  She and Olivia spent two and a half days together while I went to a conference, and I am so thankful for having her here to do that.  Shuffling Olivia between friends and neighbors for those days would have been possible, but it would have been a lot harder on both of us. 

Over the past month, Olivia and Nana have become great buddies.  Mom is great to let Olivia tag along and help with anything she is doing, which is great fun for a 20 month old!  Here are pictures of some of the sweet moments the two of them shared.

doing dishes with Nana was a favorite for Olivia

sweeping the floor!

Nana was in charge of  bath each night
while we were in Indiana.

snuggle time with Nana, Olivia, & Drew

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dance time!

Nana is so much fun!

"helping" Nana with the yard work!

We love you and miss you already, Nana! 

quickie.

Hello!  So uploading pictures at my sister's didn't work out as planned, so I apologize to Grandma and Grandpa for not having any pictures of their little one to share.  However, I have a few minutes today at a computer WITH an SD port, so I will share a few pictures to get you by!

First, here is a video of one of the many dance parties the kids had at Kelly's house. 

Dancing cousins from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.




Teeth brushing fun!  And yes, Drew does have in a hair bow.
Don't ask!



Papa's birthday celebration!  Watch out he may get
your cake!

the Mickey bus gets lots of use!



Nana and Papa's girls!



mmm.....cupcake goodness!

Olivia loved playing in the snow!

Nana had to buy her a new winter coat so she had one warm enough!

I think she looks like she is on a ski vacation! ha.

Okay, hope y'all have a happy Valentine's day and are able to share the day with ones you love!  We are going out to dinner with my original Valentine, my dad =) 

where, oh where, have I been?

We are in the start of week number 3 on our month long trip to visit my family and friends in Indiana.  I did not bring my computer along and am starting to feel a bit out of touch.  My Blackberry helps me stay connected some, but its not so great for updating the blog! 

Know that we are having a great time and Olivia is loving playing with her cousins, aunts, uncles, and Nana/Papa. My middle sister is here with her three kids and her trip has been extended by over a week due to the blizzard, ice, and snow, so we have loved spending all of our time together. The kids are a challenge at times (3y, 23 mo, 23 mo, and 19 mo), but it is fun chaos!  Personally, I have enjoyed having some help with Olivia and feeling like I'm a part of my family's daily lives again.  For example, tonight we get to watch my eleven year-old niece play a basketball game.  It has been years since I've been around for that.  And tomorrow my nine year-old nephew has a soccer game!  Hooray! 

Olivia has been experiencing lots of new things on this trip: sledding, making snowballs, wrestle time!, Papa's daily ice cream treats, what things like syrup and ketchup are! (thanks to her cousins), drinking the leftover milk from her cereal bowl, Papa's baby pigs, and other neat things!  I know she will miss all of the activity for sure when we get back to Charleston.

I may try and get a few pictures up via my sister's computer in the next day or two!  Prepare yourself for the cuteness overload of cousin love!  Hope y'all are well out there in blog world!

here fishy, fishy.

We have had a nice weekend.  The weather has warmed back into the 50's so we've been able to play outside again, much to Olivia's pleasure!  We spent yesterday morning at the Aquarium and Olivia loved it!  She would go up to the tanks saying "wow" over and over while signing fish back at me!  It was pretty cute.

See the big shark swimming towards the camera?  Grant was telling Olivia to watch out because it was coming to get her! ha.

the view outside the aquarium isn't too bad!

look at the frog, mommy!

Giving Baby Gillian a hug. 
Olivia LOVES this baby! She follows
her everywhere and calls her 'gigi'.

putting her to work pushing the stroller!

I'm currently watching the snow fall at the Bears game in Chicago and feeling even more thankful for our warm temperatures here in the southeast!  It looks cold up there!   Go Bears!

focused on my masterpiece.

FYI: This post was started last Thursday and just now completed; therefore the references to "today" are for then....

MOPS started again today for the new year and it was a wonderful meeting! I left feeling refreshed and inspired, which is a great combination. Our speaker was Shawn Wood who is a local pastor here in Charleston. He wrote 200 Pomegranates and and Audience of One, which you've probably never heard of. However, the message he delivers will probably hit home for a lot of you. I know it did with me.

First of all, he started out with statements like "You can be everything God created you to be" and "God created you to mother the children He gives you. He has given you everything you need to parent your children, so narrow the focus of your life and do it well!"

Okay, well now I was listening! No more gazing about the room wondering where that other mom got her boots or checking for new emails on my Blackberry; I knew this was a message my heart needed to hear.

For a little background his message revolves around 1Kings chapter 7 where King Soloman is having his palace built and Huram, a skilled craftsman in bronze, was assigned to do a lot of the work. Huram carved 200 pomegranates into the top of the palace, which was 34 feet high in the air. This was his greatest and most detailed work of the palace, yet being that high in the sky no one would be able to see it. Why would Huram do that?  Well, our lesson today was that he did his greatest work for God - his audience of one.

This is much like mothering. The world does not see the behind the scenes work it takes to raise a child - the extra hugs, the late nights, the kisses on bruised knees, the continual planning, the daily tasks of laundry and cooking, the middle of the night feedings, the time spent in prayer for your children, the silly songs you make up just for a smile, reading the same story for the 300th time, and the countless hours just being present in your child's life. Those are the things the outside world doesn't see, but God always does. He sees it all. He knows when you make the hard choice to sit and play pretend with your 2 year old rather than tackle the dirty floors and piles of laundry or go for a night out with your girlfriends. 

However it is not just that simple.  Mothers are always putting their children first, but a lot of us are just "doing mommy" over and over each day, but never really doing it all that well.  Shawn's message today was about focusing on the priorities that God lays out for us.  First, you are to be a good wife.  Second, you are to be a good mother.  And everything else then comes third.  Everything.  Including your job, your chores, being a good daughter, sister, friend, etc.  God wants us to focus on things in that order.  Wife. Mother. The rest of life.  He talked about how a mother's "art" is motherhood and their masterpieces are the children.  Olivia needs my complete focus and time because the impact she leaves on the world is everlasting. 

He said "in order to be a good mom you are going to have to give up something".  That sure resonated with me!  Things quickly started popping up in my mind of what I have "given up" since becoming a mommy.  First and foremost was my job.  True, I could have continued to work and still been a great mother, but I chose to give it up.  I chose to completely focus on being a mother (because I had that amazing choice, and I never take for granted the fact that not everyone does).  However, being able to make that choice also creates a little more pressure in my mind.  I quit my job to focus on mothering Olivia, yet I know that I am not always giving her my best.  The talk today awoke me to that fact!  I need to turn to God each and every day to ask for His help in being the mother he created me to be.  Olivia deserves that. 

Last, I really took home the point that mothering is all for God.  He is my 'audience of one' because no one sees the details in my daily life of mothering except God.  Parenting is really all about worshipping God and I need to remember that.  It is not about what other moms in my social network think or see about what I am doing - it is all for God.  He created me to be Olivia's mother and has given me the tools to do that.  Now it is up to me to trust Him (even during the hard times!) and focus on being the best mother I can be.  I want to raise her to have a happy, kind, and Jesus-loving soul and I know that God is with me on that goal.  He will help me do it if I just narrow my focus and realize where my true work each day needs to be done. 

Being a single parent over the last few weeks has definitely brought even more perspective to this topic.  I know God is with me, but is hard.  I don't have a break.  I don't have someone to "take a shift" or someone to help with the dishes or the trash.  I am Olivia's sole provider.  I need to be completely focused on her because I am all she has.  If I am more concerned with checking Facebook or planning out my grocery list than keeping an eye on her, she will suffer.  If I snap at her rather than show her patience and understanding, God will see that choice. 

God knows the choices I make and I pray that I am able to narrow my focus on motherhood and make sure that I am doing it well.  My audience of one is always watching and I know it will please Him most if I do my best work for the sake of the child(ren) he has blessed me with.

ring around the rosie.

Enjoy some cuteness from today!  Please excuse my singing voice.  It is terrible on a good day, and add in a cold and what you have is something I'm sorry you have to hear!

Ring around the rosie from Stephanie Allen on Vimeo.