Mardi Gras!

My Lil Models

This weeks model award goes to Rylee Jean!!! She was so sassy and smiley! Ha. Precious:) 

Sadie picked me some flowers 

They LOVE to push each other on the swing

 Laughter is one of my favorite things! I especially love to hear Savannah's laugh!!

 Chalking with the girls was so fun!

 Sadie was gettin after it with her circles:)

I do love those babies:) I didn't have any of Andrew this past week he was sleeping most of the time:) I hope to get to take some more pictures of the kids soon! I didn't get to see them today because school is taking over my life! ha. Not really... but its just a crazy week: mid-terms, church, bible studies, papers due... ah. Life. buttt.... 

EMILLE will be home is 3 dayyyysssss!!! Woo WOO!!!! I canNOT waiiittt!!!! We are going to shop, run, talk about life, and best of all COOKKK!!!! Since i've decided to be a vegetarian she hasn't been home! So i will get to cook her a delicious meal and she will teach me to cook like a chief! ha. We have a whole week together and we have decided we will cook a new meal each night! I'm so so excited!!! I really am just so excited to get to talk about life.  We talk a lot, but there are just so much more to talk about.  When you don't do life together you miss out on so much even if you do talk a lot.  She is so wise and ahhh. Its gunna be great!  

Steph will also be in this weekend! Ahhhh WOOO!!! It will be the first time we are all back together since Christmas!! Shooooot. thats a a looonnggg time! It will be so good though. We are going to cook a delicious meal and hang out with the fam. Ah. My heart is soo excited!

This week has been real weird. and sooo goood. So many things have happen.
Sometimes when i get on here to bloggg... its sooo hard. and i want to be short and say that i just did it. annnnddd today. that's whats happening. I'm thinking about all the other billions of things on my mind. And i NEED to do them. So for now this is it. I'm excited about this weekend! ha

Tuesday lunch dates are my new favorite:)

 Sweet Sweet Andrew

Savannah! Precious! That's exactly how i felt about seeing you!! 

 Jen and Nathan's girls are sooo big! 

Ok ok. Soooo... On tuesdays i have a lunch break between my classes and i have been riding out to Jen and Nathan's home and visiting with them and playing with the girls. This day i got to take some pictures of all the babies. I love love love to take pictures if you didn't know yet. I'm not very good... but i always need practice... so if ya need some pictures taken or just for fun i would LOVE to take them! Ha. anyways... these babies are photogenic and don't mind me in their face with a the camera. I can't wait till this tuesday! I'm making a delicious veg dish and to take more pictures!

This week has been so hard and good. My sweet friend Alanna has moved back and i am beyond thankful for that.  We have only known each other since August and our friendship is so dear to me already! I love spending time with her.  She is so real and sometimes blunt. and i like it! ha. We have laughed and cried and its been great! I'm so excited about what the Lord has in store for her to teach me. 

I'm taking a C.S. Lewis class and it is interesting. Lewis is kinda hard to read, so most days i'm sooo lost as to what we are talking about.  Right now we are reading Screwtape Letters, its been so challenging.  In class wednesday we talked about spiritual pride. aaahhh. That was such an eye opener.  So good how the Father knows the conversations you are going to have and the things you will read and even the things you learn in class have to do with what he is revealing to you.  I'm a firm believer in the fact that the Lord is so obvious in where he wants you or what he is teaching you.  I go to a bible study on sunday nights for girls on campus and Melissa teaches it and she is always speaking truth and the word.  Sunday night we talked about how we are worthless apart from Christ.  It was so good. but in the moment listening to her i was sooo prideful in the fact i was thinking..."i've already experienced this, I taught my girls this last week at bible study. Be there, done that." Who am iiii???!!! What?! Why would i even be so prideful into thinking that i don't need to experience that worthlessness and be mindful that i NEED Christ. I need him. For i am evil apart from him. I was so humbled by my eyes being opened to that pride.  I mean... heck. I'm prideful more than i want to be. My sister, Emillie gave me this book about pride... Its on my list. Maybe i'll get to it soon. I'll let ya know how that goes. 

Friday was such a precious day! I had class and then i got to talk with some girls that i see often but never get to REALLY talk to.  Then my best friend and i got to hang out most of the day! She is sooo dear to my heart. It was one of those days that was much needed and sooo fun! ha. We laughed and sang and danced and had lunch, thanks to her mom! and we ran some errands for my mom and then we went to the movies that night with some of our sweet friends to see Justin Biebers movie. Precious:) ha. But. I loooveee our friendship. It is completely from the Lord and even in the times we are sometimes selfish in our friendship, we know it is for the Lord and to furthermore his kingdom.  She has gotten to be apart of my ministry and me in hers.  She is passionate about her softball girls and the Lord has placed them all around my life.  She got to work dnow a few weeks ago at my church and got to spend some time with my girls she has been praying for since august. She didn't even know them and has been praying for them.  Now that she does it is so much sweeter when i get to share my heart with her when i'm burden for them or when we get to rejoice over life change and fruit in the girls lives.  I am so beyond thankful for her.  To say all that when we went to go eat our waitress, tammy, was soo precious.  It just made her day that we left her a lil note and just got to verbally encourage her.  Even something as simply as not paying attention to the random people that the Lord places in your life, such as a waitress that you maybe spend an hour with... In those moments thats when we should be humbled, always be humbled, but to care more about the person and their day than if they get your order right.  I love to love on waiters/waitresses. Sometimes they let you, and others aren't so open to talk about things. ha. i still ask my billion of questions... speaking of waitresses...

Mom and I went to Ruston today to see steph for lunch and a lil shopping.  It is always sweet seeing her, its just sooo weird still. She's married. She lives in Ruston, for real. And she is precious doing it all.  I love being in her presence. She has such a sweet spirit and kind words flow from her mouth.  Ah. I love her!  I love going back and reading my old post from last March/April and reading our adventures of working together last year. I miss those times... A LOT. I go back and read those often. 

These are some of my precious jr and sr girls. Since i LOVE valentines day i made them all dress up in their pinks and reds and we had a valentine-ish party! Ha. Mrs. Lori is so precious and decorated and cooked and let us stay late! ah. (Sorry about that!) It was such a sweet night.  We talked about being a virtuous woman, Proverbs 31. So gooood. Those girls teach me so much.  And being able to teach them challenges me in so many ways.  Love them! Until sometime this week... be praying over school... it's soo busy!

"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." 1 John 3:16

These were some of the cards i made

 I also really really really lovvveee to bake. So what a better excuse to bake than Valentine's day:)

So these days i'm on this kick of "i don't like to eat prepackaged things"... unless they are holiday sugar cookies:) ha. but really. Along with that trying to be a vegetarian, i fill you in more on that later. but. yes. i decided to bake some homemade chocolate chip cookies!!! SO DELICIOUS. Martha Stewart recipe is jammin'. but... i like to add my few lil touches to it. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/chocolate-chip-cookie-recipes#slide_1

1) the recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter... well. i don't really like butter too much. well. at all really. so i only put 3/4 of the 2nd stick of butter. even then it still has too much. ha

2) it calls for 2 cups of brown sugar... there again i put 1 1/3 cups. For regular sugar i only but 1/4 a cup. 

3) it says to use 2 cups of milk chocolate but i only put 1 cup of milk chocolate, and 1/2 cup of dark chocolate. still sooo delicious. 

4) If you've never used pampered chief's stone wear... you won't go back. I LOVE IT!!! try it!

5) i always under cook my cookies. but with the stone i let them sit about 3 mins to cool a bit and to finish cooking. Then i take them off with a metal spatula and place them on wax paper. not a cooling rack. I find that they stay more moist on the wax paper vs. the cooling rack. 

I've always always LOVED valentine's day. It's not because i have a boyfriend, because i don't. But i really really really just love it.  When i tell people i usually say it's because of all the pink and red. the flowers, the candy. the delicious goodies:) i do love all that. but. it really is because i just love LOVE.  Like really. My mom always makes fun of me because i always say, "i just LOVE her/him/them/that." ha. and its true, i do. But i'm soo truthful in that.  Ever since i can remember i have always prayed that i would love like our Father.  I mean... its been on of those regular things ive prayed for but, i truly want to LOVE like Christ.  I want the words that i speak to be like his, covered only in love, with that truth, encouragement, and life. The way i approach people, the way i spend my time. I really really want to love like Jesus.  I mean... i know i fail at this horribly. More often than i succeed at it. But it is the cry of my heart. I want Christ's love to be the fountain that pours out of me.  That i would do it for His names sake. Not for Allyson. but for him. For love comes from him.  

I often think about the people who are in any kind of relationship, how they say they love that person, or their children. But how can we know true love unless we know Christ. and praise Jesus that i can experience true love!

 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

 1 John 4:7-8

I'm sooo thankful for that! And for that i am thankful for a holiday that celebrates love. For love comes from Christ. 

"We love because he first loved us." 1John 4:19.  

Everything always go back to Christ. EVERYTHING. and today, this manmade holiday, goes back to Christ, for he created love:)  

I love you friends, because Christ loves me! ps- read 1 John! Sooo much love! 

"How great is the Love the Father has lavished on us that we may be called children of God. And that is what we are!"1John 3:1

September? Really? WOW.

So i don't know what has gotten into me! Yesterday i was making Valentine cards and all of a sudden i wanted to start posting things on my blog again! Woo!
So many things are sooo different since the last few times i have blogged.  Where i was then and where i am now with life is so crazy to think it could already be so different!
I am still working at Calvary and it's wonderful.  It's definitely where the Lord has me.  I am still studying elementary education and looovvveeeee LC! It really is as wonderful as people say it is:) And still living at home and enjoying my sweet family!

Just a few pictures to kinda catch you up. I will have more to come the next few days!!!

 Rhys, 3

Zell, 6

 Ella, 2

 The kids have gotten soooo big. This picture was back in October

These are a few of my 7th grade girls in my youth group:) We had a tie-dye party in fall 

 We had a lil girl trip to New York over Thanksgiving! It was wonderful! Love that place! Hope to live there one day!

 Ran my 1st half marathon (13.1 miles) December 4th! It was awesome. Hope to do another one soon!

 Had our annual once a year hunting trip with Dad... twins:) 

 Some of my senior girls at a Christmas party! LOVE THEM!

More of New York! 

 Family Christmas Card 2010

Can't wait to fill yall in on more! Its valentines week and i made homemade cards! WOO!!! Love!

"The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your word." Psalm 119:57

Its been waaaayyyyyy TOO looooonnnnggggg

My friends!!!!! Wow. Its been since May that I have blogged. Its so crazy that 4 months have passed. Just a bit of update on life. The first week in August I decided to transfer to Louisiana College. That very same week I got offered a job at Calvary Baptist in Alexandria to be over the Girls ministry for high school and junior high students! It definitely was the best decision to make. I can't image being back at LaTech. Even though I miss my friends terribly, the Lord has be so faithful and fulfilling. There are great people here as well as Ruston. 

Along with adjusting to work and school, my sister, Stephanie, got married Saturday, September 18th. It was such a sweet sweet time. So the past 6 months we have been planning for this one special, beautiful day. It has been such a precious 2 months. Em came home at the beginning of August. Right after i decided to transfer to her Almamater. So for the past month the whole family has been together. I treasured the past two months and now I have a new brother! Its soooo weird...."Stephanie Dugard!!!" crazy! My sister is MARRIED!!!! I'm so excited for them!!

So much to catch yall up on. But this will have to do for now.