Just what I needed to read. Thanks for the encouragement!

Baby Haven is absolutely beautiful. : )

Wow! I'm so excited for your family. She is just precious!!! I have a question if you have time to make any suggestions. We are having our third, a girl. She'll share a room with her two year old sister. We live in a small home and have no play room. I want to make their room sweet and girly, but I hardly have any room for toys. What do you do with toys? I more specifically mean the bigger ones. I loved the girls rooms and how you redid it! I know you are busy, but if you have time I'd love some advice. Thank you!

Beautiful post Alyssa. I have been thinking a lot about you and your sweet family this month. Remembering our wonderful afternoon together last year around this time
- we still LOVE the pics of Meg and London. You are such a sweet inspiration to me. Never change!

I enjoyed this picture post.

But I Really like how you ended the post. Having my heart look like God's heart is all that really matters. Thank you for reminding me today!

You and Robert have such genetic diversity! (very good thing) It's amazing! She really looks like her own little self but very familiar. Blue eyes for her, don't you think?

Another beauty that's for sure!! :)

thanks for the message girl :) hope you found encouragement after the last post. thanks for letting us know that you're NOT superwomen cause sometimes i wonder ;)

Good words.....too many days that end without getting everything done aren't there ;)? Really though those nasty feelings of failure so often just need us to step back and speak the truth over ourselves. So many things I can't get right in my own strength, but if my heart can stay in the right place my whole world goes alot better. Blessings to you and all your dear little people...........

Beautiful...

I was not expecting to see the one with her eyes open and I was so pleasantly surprised to see her big blues :)

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you for your transparency and LOVE. You are an inspiration to look to Jesus every step of this journey.
I sat up late last night reading your posts from the beginning of your blog, I fell asleep with my heart filled with Him, and I woke this morning with a longing to live each moment today with love and joy. Then, to read this post this morning...all I can say is, Thank you for being used in our lives to His glory!
With 4 small children, one a new baby, I often feel overwhelmed. By life, by demands, by hormones (blah), by a sense of my own failure to be all I long to be for the ones I love. I appreciate your "realness" but, thru it all, the testimony that He is bigger than all those things and can--and will--transform us when we come to Him.
Again. Thank you.

Did I love? That's a GREAT question to ask ourselves as mothers!! I tend to be very task-focused, and if there's one thing that mothering has taught me it's that nothing is more important than people, especially these little ones that have been given to us for SUCH a short time. Our baby is now 3 months old, and it's such a bitter-sweet thing! I want them to stay babies forever, but I don't really. Thanks for the great reminder to love.

Thank you, too, for the opportunity to comment ;)

i was just asked my idea of success, and it was the same thing you are writing here... LOVE.

hey, there are a few pics of haven there, in the basket in the long grass, sheepskin, etc. [about 10 or 11 down?] that could supplement the photoshoot you did w/ the girls a while back. so ethereal and natural/neutral.

~*

Thank you.

What a beautiful baby. I love it when they smile in their sleep. Makes me miss having a little one around the house. My job was always putting them to sleep since my wife nursed and was with them all the time. Problem was laying a baby on my chest is like taking a sleeping pill for me. My wife used to come in and laugh when the baby would be playing on the bed and I'd be sound asleep.
That's one of my favorite verses, along with Joshua 1:9 Have not I commanded you? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Do the next thing. I think Elisabeth Elliott used to say that, and there's a lot of wisdom in it.
My wife took a job and works while the kids are at school 4 days a week (just to get out amongst big people and recover a little sanity after I was gone for long trips for so many years. I told her it'd be cheaper than therapy. ), and I'm gone 3 or 4 days a week. Seems like it's a constant fight to keep our place organized, too. Most of the time we manage "somewhat clean", but organized just happens sometimes and we've resigned ourselves to that even though we, too keep trying.
My only son hasn't shown much interest in football, but he's really begun to love cycling and (until he went over the handlebar and broke his arm a month ago) was really getting fast. I guess with my love for the sport it was almost inevitable that he'd like it, especially when we moved and the only reliable way he could see his old friends often was to ride his bike. I'm running on. I always enjoy your posts and pics, and every now and again I'll see some Texas show up in a pic and get a little homesick. I only lived there for a few years, but it kept a piece of my heart when we left.

Love the pictures, but love what you wrote even more about living life and just "doing the next thing" and not waiting until everything is perfect to enjoy life!  What wonderful advice.  You are blessed...and a blessing.  Keep writing (and taking beautiful pics of your treasures on earth!)  Lisa

Beautiful photos Alyssa! How do you get them all rotated properly and inserted into the blog?

Awwwwwww!!!!!! Haven is beyond P.R.E.C.I.O.U.S! Just dreamy! Love all the pics of her and the family. I totally agree with what you wrote. That is my heart's desire as well. Really like the message of the Chris Tomlin song too. One song that does the job of summarizing how I pray my life is lived out is "Legacy" by Nicole Nordeman.

"Do the next thing"- sounds like something one of my favorite authors, Elisabeth Elliot often said. Wish I practiced that more consistently than I do.

Thank you! Such an encouraging post-as always! I am a mom of 5 little ones and some days I feel like I am going to pull my hair out! :)Thank you for reminding me of what is most important. p.s. Beautiful pics of Haven, she is a doll!

Alyssa, i can't get over how big your 'baby' is...wow. not only is Itty growing into a beautiful little lady, but my goodness Lakelyn is definately growing into her role as 'bigger' sister now...aw.  your newest addition is beautiful. love her name. love her kids. love all the moments of your life and the reality of life that you share with us

dear Alyssa, I can't get over how beautiful little sweet Haven is. And how BIG lakelyn is getting...such is life though, as the kids get bigger and they become more of who God has created them to be. What a grand adventure for you and RObert! thank you for sharing of your journey with us. i am so thankful for the candidness you give us in your writing.