{family night}

I am a family girl all the way. My love language is quality time, which means I love nothing more than spending time with the people that I love. This week, we went out to dinner in the city with Ryan's family (notice the lack of kids!) to spend time with Ric's cousin Lisa who was in town visiting from California. It was a great night....full of lots of laughter and TONS of protein (brazilian steakhouse style) with the Boyd fam. I think it needs to happen more often! Next up is a visit from my parents next week. The countdown has begun...they get here on Tuesday and I can't wait!!!!!!

xoxo,

ali

{grace}

"There's a girl in the corner

With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, "How did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love"

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade. "

I heard these lyrics one night and I was so touched by this song. There are so many times in my life when all I can see is my failure. Whether I am losing my patience too often with my kids or forgetting for the thousandth time to return a phone call or an email to a friend, or some personal struggle that goes much deeper than either of those, I all too often find myself feeling like I suck at life. The words in this chorus are so comforting....that reminder of God's grace and the fact that I am worth so much more than my greatest shortcoming. I have a few friends that are struggling greatly right now. My heart aches for them and my mind is constantly trying to wrap itself around where they are right now, how I can be praying for them and what they need the most to get through the trials they are facing. For one friend in particular, I can't help but see the need for grace. She has fallen far. Further than any of us could probably imagine going....but the thing is, she hasn't fallen too far. Jesus died for it ALL. The not so good, the bad and the really, horribly, downright ugly. I find myself being reminded for her sake that even though we don't deserve it, we have all been offered a great dose of grace. Thank God for that. Thank God that we can fail epically and He is still willing to take us in....if only we are willing to surrender to Him. If we were all defined by our lowest points in life and our greatest moments of failure, there wouldn't be hope for any of us...I'm so grateful to know that even though I don't deserve it and never will, it is Christ's work on the cross that defines me instead.

xoxo,

ali

October is just around the corner which means I can start whipping out the black and orange. I'm decorating like crazy around here today:) I always love setting my house up for the fall which leads into Christmas decorations which unfortunately leads into an empty feeling house in January. Oh well, I love love love that for the next 3 1/2 months my house will be festive!!!!:) Bring on the jack o lanterns....

xoxo,

ali

{poodle skirts}

I love dressing my kids. I love dressing them in regular clothes, so dressing them in Halloween costumes is just that much more fun. I'm one of those obnoxious moms that starts planning their Halloween costumes in July (or April, or maybe even on November 1st;)). When the girls were babies, I always made their Halloween costumes. The past few years they have worn store bought costumes and I have missed out on the fun that comes with gathering all of the elements of the costume and the excitement when the final look comes together and the hard work pays off. For that reason, I'm back to making costumes this year! Emma decided a few months ago that she really wanted to be a 50's girl. The idea has steamrolled down to the other two, so we are going with a 50's theme for the family. I found this adorable poodle skirt tutu on etsy and I started making it this morning. I'm pretty sure I'll be working straight through naptime today because I can't wait for the finished product!!

xoxo,

ali

{training wheels}

We spent a good part of our weekend teaching the girls to ride their bikes. Ryan and I have been feeling the urgency to get rid of Emma's training wheels for a while now, but she hasn't been the most coordinated little girl and since Claire still can't ride a tricycle, it's kind of hard to have three kids that need constant hands on them and only two sets of hands to do it. Well, after I saw a friend's three year old son riding his bike without training wheels, we sucked it up and had bike riding bootcamp this weekend. Emma and Madeline both rocked it! They can both ride on their own now for longer and longer stretches. Emma still gets frustrated getting herself started and Madeline gets lazy and doesn't want to peddle after the first few minutes which causes her to slow down and crash, but for the the most part they've got it. Woohoo!!! A few more grueling sessions (do you know HOW hard it is to let go of your baby's arm when you know that she is going to come crashing down ten seconds after you do?) and they will be pros:) The funniest part of all was how different the girls were in their reactions to the process. Emma would fall down and start crying and yelling at us something like "Hello? Do you not care about the person that is FALLING? I'm a person here. This is your fault. You made me fall!". Madeline would fall down a second later and start cracking up and wave her hands in the air and scream "I'm OK!!". Night and day, these two. I love each of them for the differences they have and for the parts of their personalities that make them unique. Emma has always been unsure of herself, so even though she was doing great at riding her bike, she saw all of her falls as failure and was looking for someone to blame to make herself feel better. Madeline wants more than anything in the world to be just like Emma and to do the things that Emma does, so even though she fell along the way, she couldn't get over how proud she was for the things that she did accomplish. Navigating the emotions of three little girls can be exhausting! So proud of my girls, though, for conquering training wheels and can't wait for lots of family bike rides this fall!

xoxo,
ali

{constitution day}

madeline's first "event" of kindergarten.....constitution day. the teacher requested that the kids wear red, white & blue to celebrate. mad was a little excited to participate and i was a little excited to dress her for the occasion:) oh, the joys of childhood!

{halloween party}

One of my favorite things about living in a small town is all of the fun, family friendly activities the town has to offer. Top that off with our ability to walk to them all and it's icing on the cake! I absolutely love Halloween....the pumpkins, the costumes, the decorations, the kick off of fall. Last year, we decided to make an annual tradition of having our friends and family over to stroll down Main Street for the Halloween parade and bonfire at Stokes Hill and then gather back at our house afterwards for dinner. I just ordered the invitations and I cannot wait to start on the decorations and the details for our second annual halloween parade party! Here's a sneak peak of my inspiration....

I'm loving the muted colors and the vintage inspired theme. I can't wait to dress my babies up and to see all the adorable little kids in their costumes. Oh, and maybe we will be on time this year and actually catch the parade!!;)

xoxo,

ali

{muddy buddies}

i am a distance runner. it's who i am; it's how i was made. i thrive on logging miles. i thrive on the high that comes after the first mile when i am into my groove and feel like i can keep going all day. i thrive on the exhaustion my body feels afterwards. last weekend i ran my first mud run. it was AWESOME!!!! 6.4 miles of dirt, sand, rocks, water and of course lots of MUD! the best part, though, was the company. rebecca, serena and i stuck together through it all....we had so much fun singing, yelling and cheering each other on. for me, this race was less about the competition than it was about the experience and the chance to bond with my girls:) can't wait to do it again next year!!! until then, i'm gonna keep on running, keep on racing and doing what i love.

xoxo,

ali

{first day of school}

{first day of second grade}
{bffs}

{first bus ride}
{old pro at this}

{always the ham}

hello there.....i know it's been a while! we have been so busy with the winding down of summer and getting ready for school to start up and i've been blog slacking big time. i'm back with a new batch of back to school pics:) we are one week into the school year and the girls are LOVING it. the novelty has not worn off yet, so they are both excitedly still picking out outfits and jumping on the school bus and eagerly doing their homework. can't wait to see how long THAT lasts!;) i am loving our new schedule and routine so far. i'm more than thankful for half day kindergarten and that i don't feel like madeline is too far out of my reach just yet. claire and mad still get to spend their mornings together as busom buddies and i still get to have my girl around for most of the day. when mad goes to school it's naptime for claire (and usually mommy!) and then we have a few quiet hours to ourselves. it's AMAZING. i've vacuumed more in the past week than i have in the past five years. i haven't felt this productive in a long time and i'm loving it! the past few days i've been working on our fall family schedule and i'm amazed at how busy we are getting as the girls get older. next up is ballet & tap for claire (ummmm....adorable!!), gymnastics for madeline and art & girl scouts for emma. so thankful for my "quiver" of girls and the fullness they bring to my life:)

xoxo,

ali