Wow! What a week! I realize I'm not posting as much as I usually do! Life has been so crazy! Other than my hobbies of blogging and online shopping, I am on my computer ALL day at work. I am a graphic designer so I literally stare into the screen for hours on end! Work has been so insane lately that when I leave for the day I'm pretty sick of my lap top and just want to leave it there! So, as a result my blog has suffered and for that I apologize!
My cousin does these for her little boy every few months so I am stealing the idea from her...
Malakai Austin...
1.)You are starting to reach for people you know and who are familiar to you
2.) You sit up very well now and can hold your own balance.
3.)Your precious red hair is starting to curl
4.)You LOVE eating your fruits… you kinda like your veggies… and are not a fan of any type of meat.
5.)Your favorite toy is a “Little People” horse from the classic Fisher Price Red Barn toy. The horse doesn’t make any noise, he is very little, brown and very plain, but you love him for some reason.
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6.)You LOVE jumping up and down in “jumpers” and you could do it for an hour straight if I let you…you have one at home, one at Grandma’s and one at the church. Basically the three places we spend our time. =)
7.)You have started to smile and laugh at your cousin Silas whenever you see him. However, when he gets excited and yells really loud it makes you swell up with tears and cry the most pathetic little cry I’ve ever heard. You are like your mom in the fact that you do not like to be startled whatsoever.
8.)You are just a very good and well behaved baby. People who go out to eat with us are not only amazed at how happy and friendly you are, but how good you are when in public. I realize this will probably change, but for now we are soaking it in.
9.)You are a great traveler. Although you don’t like the initial process of getting strapped into your car seat, once you are in it and in the car, we rarely hear a peep from you.
10.)You know how to “give kisses” now and it’s the cutest… and most slobbery thing ever!
11.)You kick your feet really fast when you get excited, and you also are always slamming your hand down on surfaces over and over and over and over again. You definitely got your dad’s gift of drumming and your Poppa’s gift of preaching.
12.)You are very vocal. You talk all the time. I have no clue what you are saying, but whatever it is, you are very passionate about it.
13.)You REALLY want to be mobile. You are trying so hard to crawl. You know you want to get from point A to point B but you just haven’t figured out the technicalities of the process yet! You do have an old walker at your grandma’s house that you LOVE and use to walk all over the place. A lot of people think you will just skip crawling and go to walking… we will see! You are so strong it wouldn’t surprise us!
14.)You are allowed to lay in bed with us as long as it’s after 6AM. Since you’ve known how to smile, your entire face lights up with a smile the nano second you wake up. Now, if you are laying in bed with us in the mornings, in addition to smiling, you play with our faces until we wake up. It’s the sweetest thing to wake up with you laughing while your chubby little hand grabs my nose. It’s like you KNOW you’re waking mommy up.
15.) I am not exaggerating when I say that you laugh or smile most of the day. Which in return makes us laugh and smile most of the day.
Here's a video of you laughing at your grandma Darlene....
Me and my precious husband leave tomorrow for a 4 day trip to Atlanta.
We will be attending a conference by Youth Specialties. Our church leadership allows us to be gone, as well as pays for us to attend a youth ministry conference once a year. They have put me and Seth up in a very nice hotel, paid for our meals, travel expenses, and any resources we feel would benefit our ministry that we find there. It's such a blessing to get to do what we do, and where we do it. They take such good care of us. We are blessed to be a part of something so incredible. Back to the conference... It's so nice to be able to go and be ministered to people who understand the things that you deal with and the amount of energy that is required of you all day everyday to minister to students. Especially when you have over 100 students. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE our students, but it can just be very exhausting at times. A large portion of this generation of students are motherless and fatherless. On any given day we feel any emotion from heart break to overwhelming joy and pride... just like if they were our own. We love each and every one of them and they all have such a special place in our hearts. They don't have parents that are involved, and if they are it's hard to find parents who really encourage them to make the right choices in life. As a result, there are entirely too many teenagers walking around this world who are dealing with hurts and heartaches that are outside of their ability to cope with. We have several counseling sessions a week with students and It absolutely blows my mind what these kids have to deal with on a weekly basis. And it's not the kids you would generally suspect... it's the popular kids: The varsity ball players, cheerleaders, homecoming and prom kings and queens. We know that God has placed us in their lives for such a time as this. We wouldn't trade what we do for a million dollars. These kids are a part of our family. It's an absolutely INSANE lifestyle that I don't think everyone is cut out for, but this is what we love to do. If you want to make a difference and be a part of something bigger than yourself, go find a hurting teenager to mentor and just be there for. It will change your life, but more importantly it will change theirs. So anyways, it's obviously something I'm passionate about. I could write for days about the passion it stirs up in me. Me and Seth definitely plan to write a book one day about our experiences in this season of our life. And really, I hope it's not a season, I hope it's a constant throughout the years.
So I look to be refreshed and inspired this weekend. I'm sure just getting full nights of sleep while our little one is away from us will help. (He's staying here with grandma.) Also, you know every chance we get we will squeeze in some good meals and definitely a little shopping. I really hope we can make it to the coke factory too.
How in the WORLD am I going to make it without this face for 4 days??!!?? When we get back it's time to throw myself into Christmas prep mode! I still need to decorate my house, shop, learn music, design, make Christmas gifts for my family, bake, make travel plans to Texas! Oh, and then there's Thanksgiving in there too!
So I hope everyone's remainder of the week is inspiring and that the weekend is refreshing.
I'm sure I'll be updating my twitter often while we are in Atl, so if you aren't following me yet, my twitter id is KarisRochelle.
Kai was "spaghetti and meatballs" for Halloween! We started actually giving him a hair-do this past weekend which was a big hit. His thick red hair is starting to curl. He may look like daddy, but he got MY hair! =)
My husband's youth group always has a float in the Centralia Halloween Parade. It's INSANE how big of a deal something like this can be, but thousands of people line the streets. We won 1st place in the church division for the second year now. I think more than anything the judges like seeing 30 high school students walk with the float and hand out candy to the kids. We have over 100 students that attend our youth group and in a town like this that is a huge number. We feel blessed that God has allowed us to get to pour into their lives.
Anyways, this is me and one of my BFF's Missy (who blogs here).
Me and my husband Seth.
Me and my Kai at the end of a very busy, but oh-so wonderful weekend!
I accidentally placed the wrong memory card in my camera, so my number of pictures I could take was very limited. I left my big one in my computer here at the office, but at least I had an emergency spare one in my wallet. My mom and sister took a lot of pictures, and I'm sure I will be getting my hands on those soon, and I also have several on my iphone that I need to get off of there. BUT here's some highlights....
Kai and Poppa (my dad)
Kai and Dusty (one of my BFF' s)
Dusty ("Crusty") and me after we got our tattoos... My red face is because of a microdermabrasion that my mom did on me a few hours before this pic was taken. She owns a day spa, and pampers me when she can! =)
Tonya, Dusty and me... always a lot of laughing when I'm with these two! (although SOMEONE was missing!)
Dad talked me into leading a song with his team on Sunday morning at His church. He tried to get me to sing the whole set, but I have been trying to rest my voice in between my sets here in Illinois. He is the one leading with the guitar, my step mom is the one to the right, and I am to the right of her. Signing with my dad is an automatic comfort zone for me. It's where it all began for me, and it's where I will always go back to for inspiration with my music.
This angel is one of my oldest and dearest friends, Miss Sarah Ashley. She moved to Austin AFTER I moved to Illinois. She is in the top 5 list of my most favorite people in the world. She inspires me on so many levels and makes my heart smile deeply. We had such a beautiful conversation and genuinely felt each other's hearts. If my time with her was the only reason I traveled that many miles with a 6 months old in tow, it would have been totally worth it.
This is my precious English Bulldog Taylor... or "Baby Taylor" who was named after Taylor guitars, who my dad endorses for. I LOVE her. She's my favorite animal in the world. Ever. (Oh and she loves me too.)
This is Dad and Deb... Dad started off singing to Kai...
and then it turned into his first official guitar lesson. =)
I've been tagged for a while: I did this quick! If you read it, consider yourself tagged!
1. Show us the inside of something cute
A Cookie Dough Pop! One of my fall goals is to master the art of cake pops...cookie dough pops... and anything similar!
2. What’s the last homecooking you had? I made Tortilla Soup last night and it was uh-mazing! I'm excited about the left overs for lunch!
3. What do you miss? (no dead people please)
My Family... ESPECIALLY around holidays.
My mom and sisters:
My Dad, Deb and my bonus siblings!
(we like the word bonus, better than "step")
4. What makes you laugh often?
Most definitely my husband wins hands down...
And my dad is right behind him....
As well as a couple of my best friends, Brittney and Tonya... good times.
5. What’s your favorite word? I have several, a few of them are: UNIQUE, INSPIRE, PLETHORA, FREE . . .
6. What are you trying to quit? Drinking so much Diet Dr. Pepper (which includes so many trips to Sonic)
7. What’s your favorite commercial right now?
The mini cows are just too cute! It just gets me every time!
Lauren Conrad: always pretty...always "put together" even if she's comfy.
and yes, the Olsen twins. They're adults now, and I just happen to love their style.
9. Link to a great blog you’ve discovered lately…
10. What’s the last craft you made? I did a pretty little collage Monday night with mod podge... don't have a picture of it yet.
11. A photo of the last happy mail you got :] I haven't joined that circle yet. BUT I did get birthday presents in the mail just yesterday... and it made me VERY happy.
12. Something you’ve got lately?
It was my birthday so I got a lot of things! Before that it was probably my new iphone!
13. What are you looking forward to? Possibly yet ANOTHER trip to the city this weekend! Spending all day with Kai tomorrow! Finally getting my own "workspace" in the house! Pumpkin picking! More fall activities! and then CHRISTMAS! (which also means a trip to Texas to see my family!) SOOOOO much to look forward to!
14. Post a recent snapshot of yourself.
15. Recent Favorite Movie? "Recent" is hard for me because I don't run out and watch movies as soon as they come out! My all time favorites include, That Thing You Do!, Garden State, Pride and Prejudice, Ever After.... and a few others I won't admit to publicly! However, one that I haven't watched in forever that has been on my mind for a while....
16. Something you’re working on right now? Church Media Projects... always and my sister's late birthday presents! =)
17. If a movie were made about you, who would play you?
Apparently I look like Kate, but I'm not sure as far as personality goes... I'll let you know when I finally get myself figured out.
18. What gives you goosebumps? Most commonly, things of God, moments that are bigger than me and music that really moves me.
19. Share a new obsession.
20. What’s the meaning of your life? To live a life that brings honor and Glory to Jesus Christ, to be a loving and supportive wife and an awesome mother. To learn to love. To inspire.
