The start of advent!!!

I love Christmas time!! I enjoy other holidays but Christmas is by far my favorite. Because of this I have tried to make it a tradition for our family to celebrate advent so that we can enjoy every day during this season and stay focused on the real meaning of Christmas. This Christmas I am even more excited than normal for a couple reasons. The first one is that Timmy is old enough to start understanding parts of what it means to be excited about Jesus! Obviously he is not going to understand all of it or really be interested in all the Bible readings but I love knowing that we are getting a chance to show him a love for the Bible and a love for the real meaning of Christmas. Allanna is still to young to understand but she is going to love the crafts, cookies, and watching the candles! The other reason I am looking forward to this time of reflection and anticipation is because I feel as though I have been extremely distracted for the last year. Its been a tough year with everyone's health which should have made me draw closer to God but instead I feel like I have been too busy to really draw near to Him. So I am really excited to have this time of renewed focus. I know that I shouldn't have waited so long  to work on this, But God uses anything He wants to too help us get refocused :o)

I am mainly using two different websites for a list of verses and other activities for advent. Here are the links in case you want to follow along too :o)

http://www.teachingmom.com/features/advent.html
http://www.homeschooled-kids.com/advent.html

So tonight we will be lighting the first candle and will start reading verses about the prophesies of Jesus' birth and his 2nd coming. The kiddos just finished their first craft which they loved. We made little candle holders with empty baby food jars, glue, and tissue paper. They are still drying so I don't have a picture with the candle in it yet but here are a few pics of the kiddos working on them.

Fun with the kiddos

Okay so after the last post I thought it would be nice to show that we really did have a great day still! My kids favorite thing to do, even better than the park, is painting or pretty much doing crafts of any kind! They definitely got my grandma's and my sister's artistic side! So anyways here are some pics of them enjoying some painting time today. We started out painting  a pumpkin and a birdhouse... and then of course ended in all out "finger paint" aka body paint and repainting the kitchen :o) So enjoy these pictures of my future famous artists!

Timmy's masterpiece from yesterday, we used their hands to make a tree.

Allanna's masterpiece, an apple tree

He just discovered he could make a handprint!

My Amazing special boy

So tonight's blog is a little vent on the difficult times that come with being a mommy. Being a parent is such a huge responsibility and such a huge blessing! My baby boy, who is now almost 4, is the sweetest most loving little man ever, but he is also quite a handful. As many of you know we have been aware for awhile that he may be on the autistic spectrum mostly because he is behind in speech... but we have held of on further testing because his doctor thinks he is just a quirky kiddo and that we dont need to be concerned about labeling him at this point. We totally agree with this most days and have seen so much growth in Timmy that most of the time we feel like at this point we are doing whats best for him and just helping him grow up at his own pace in his own way. But in all honesty it is so hard seeing that your baby is not "normal" like other kiddos. One of my favorite shows is Parenthood, and in this show the family has a son who has aspergers, which is a highly functioning autism. Anyways a few weeks ago the mom on the show goes to see how he is doing at his new school and she sees him sitting by himself during lunch and it breaks her heart to see that he is not making friends. And of course I cry during this show every week because I am just starting to totally understand her feelings. For the most part Timmy is growing up so much! He is talking a ton and he is able to understand and answer questions, and he is even able to have almost conversations with people. But then there are nights like tonight where he just has a rough night. And on nights like these I see that he doesn't know how to relate to kids his own age. And kids his age get frustrated with the way he wants to play and then of course that upsets him because he doesn't understand what they are upset at. And its just exhausting as a parent to explain to him over and over things that he just doesn't get yet. So its just one of those emotional nights for me where I just want to see him be able to play with other kids and enjoy himself instead of having to constantly take him out of situations and remind him of the correct way to behave. Its just exhausting for both of us, but luckily he only remembers all of it for a minute where as I get to keep thinking about it all... Wondering if we are doing enough to help him ect. Anyway so that is my vent. I am probably just emotional because I get a little tired when Curty works this much but I just felt like maybe writing a blog would help me. So friends just pray as normal that we have wisdom to raise our little man the way God wants us too!

My Amazing Mother!

Happy Birthday to the best mom ever! 
I just wanted to write a quick blog about my mommy, since tomorrow is her special day! She is the most amazing mom and Beena(grandma)! She is so caring and loving to not only her family but pretty much everyone she comes in contact with! Even through this rough year she is still always ready to give a smile and a hug to everyone. She is a huge helper, her love language, at least how she gives I think is acts of service because she wants to help everyone with everything :o) I know she wishes she could be with me to help with the kiddos everyday... okay maybe not everyday(she still likes her alone time with dad a lot too lol). She finds joy in everything, I think she giggles more than anyone. She loves God and her family more than you can imagine!  Anyways enough bragging about my mom. I cant wait to celebrate her birthday this weekend! Its party time at the Truelove house, watch out!!! Love you mom! 

And these wonderful pictures are done by Elaine Dieball :O)

The end of summer has come...

Well our summer is officially over and we are getting used to our school year schedule. We got to end our summer with another amazing camping trip. This time we went to Hume Lake! It is so neat how despite the craziness of camping with kiddos, it can still be so relaxing. Its so nice to get away to a beautiful place with cooler weather and get to hang out with great friends while the kiddos entertain each other. The trip started out a bit rough when we discovered that Timmy gets carsick... our new van definitely got broken in! The poor guy freaked out because he  is a bit ocd so being covered in puke is a nightmare for him. But after that disaster was done he had a great weekend! He loves being able to run around and play with his "best friends." Allanna loves camping too, she likes to get way messier than Timmy so playing in the dirt is heaven for her. We had our first camping in the rain experience and it wasn't too bad. The nice part about camping with a big group is that we have plenty of stuff... like a tarp to tie over the tables :o)

So now that the camping is done we are settling into a schedule. I had thought this year was going to be quiet but God had other plans. A couple of my friends are letting me watch their adorable children a couple days a week so I can make a little extra money. We love it because it keeps us busy and I get to be creative to keep the kiddos busy. But while I am busy I am determined to finally get this house organized and decorated so I will hopefully be posting some pics soon! Here are a couple camping pics for the time being though!

I love Summertime!

I just love how much fun summer is! During the school year we do lots of fun stuff but we it seems like everything is so scheduled and we are always so busy(and the kids are not even in school yet!). So I just love that every week during the summer is so different, you never know what fun things are going to come up. Yesterday me and the kids went to a waterpark with one of my best friends and her kiddos(and she brought a babysitter to help us keep track of the kids, which was very helpful). I was super excited but I had no idea how the kids would do and honestly was not sure if I should be attempting this adventure without Curtis. But it ended up being so much fun and the kids did really well so it actually wasn't stressful at all! Both of my kiddos have absolutely no fear of water which is good and bad. I love that they enjoy it so much and are content to just stay in the water all day, Allanna would actually start crying everytime I tried to take out of the water, not so cute and yet pretty funny. I dont like that they both want to run everywhere and attempt things that are not meant for their age. Both kids were wanting to climb everything and go down all the slides, even the ones that are way to big. So I definitely got a workout chasing both of them and trying to carry Allanna when she would let me. They loved the floating river, Timmy was wearing his floaties so he loved getting to swim next to me. He was so excited to see the older kids really swim too, every time one would swim by he would yell out "nice swimming." They also loved the wave pool, which had some pretty good size waves actually. I wasn't so sure I loved that part! We stayed at the park for about 4 hours so by the time we were loading into the cars the kiddos were ready for a great nap. Once they woke up we spent an hour with daddy before he left for work and then we headed out for a church barbecue. It was really nice to spend some time with a couple families from our life group. But the kiddos did not last long, they were still a bit tired from the fun day so we left early and came home to all go to bed. So it was just an overall wonderful summer day, even if Curtis couldn't enjoy it with us. I just love that both the kids are at such a fun age and that they are really interacting with us and each other so much! Timmy talks so much now and I love it, I cant wait till Allanna starts talking more its gonna be so precious so hear them talking to each other.
Another highlight of our week was that we got to see Stacy and Andrew for a few minutes as they were on their way home from Sacramento. The kids were so excited to see them. Honestly I think Timmy was more excited to play with their iphones, he is a little obsessed, but he really does love his aunt and uncle too. Allanna was almost friendly, I think she smiled at Stacy a few times :o) But it was really great to see them, we miss them and wish we could see them more! The hard part was when they left Timmy freaked out because he didn't understand that we got to see them but not see Beena and papa(my mom and dad). So that was a bit tough for him to understand. He thinks my parents house is the coolest place ever so he constantly asks to go see them. Hopefully we will get to take another trip soon!

Timmy day

So I decided that for the month of July Wednesday might as well be called Timmy day. He has swimming and soccer on the same day, and even though thats only two things it is quite exhausting for all of us but he has a blast. This week was Timmy's 4th week of swimming and he is doing soooo good, he is officially a "goldfish" now. He knows how to jump in the water and then reach for the wall and pull himself out, my buff little boy. He has gotten 100 times better at floating on his back, he used to hate that. Now he is just working on his kicking and blowing bubbles still so he doesn't swallow water. He has so much fun with his teacher though, she is so great with him. She really knows how to keep his attention and make him listen to her. This week she asked him for a hug and of course my cuddle bug gives her the longest hug ever, it was precious!

This was his first week of soccer, and it was pretty much chaos but he loved it. Its a church soccer camp that is being led by the FPU soccer girls, who are very sweet but maybe haven't ever tried to control about 50 3 and 4 year olds before lol. So Timmy pretty much got his ball and kicked it all around the field until I chased after him with Allana in my ergo carrier and brought him back( I probably looked like the crazy mom, running around in that heat but my boy runs to fast for the teachers to keep track of him). But he was just so happy kicking his ball that it was all worth it!

So it was a great day! We have been potty training Timmy for the last week and yesterday he had no accidents! He even went potty at target and at a friends house. I am so glad he has finally gotten it! 

Summertime!

So it has been more than a month since my last blog! Time goes way too fast when you are having fun! Since my last blog we have been busy with summertime happenings such as swimming lessons, water park trips, a camping trip, going to the lake with friend, having bbq's, and trying to stay in the air conditioned house once in awhile. I will probably try to catch up on the details of all those sometime this week because they each definitely need their own blog. But I wanted to just get myself back into the blogging mode and hopefully keep it up. I am really going to try to be more consistent with me blogs for a couple reasons, which of course I will share with you :o)

I have realized over the last couple months that I am super dependent on the fact that I get to talk to my mom all the time! I am one of those moms who still calls her mommy at least every day. She is usually the first one that I want to call when my kids do something adorable(which lets face it, thats all the time) or when my kids do something so awful or gross(okay thats all the time too lol). She is the one that I call for all kinds of advice, like knowing when I should take the kids to the doctor or not, or if ground turkey should turn white when you are cooking it. But lately I haven't gotten to talk to her very much so I definitely learning to appreciate even more every chance I do get to talk to her or see her! But I am getting to talk to my dad more, even to talk about things other than cooking advice :o) But anyways because I cannot talk to my mom very often I want her to be able to read about every cute thing my kids do and about everything that is going on in our lives. So even though some of you may get bored of reading about my children I will keep doing it because I know both of their grandmas will be very appreciative!

The other reason I want to write more is accountability to myself. I am really trying to lose weight and get in shape, and therefore hopefully get healthy so I am going to try to write about my progress on here. I will try to share ideas and tips that are helping me and struggles that I having so that maybe you can help me with your great ideas. So anyway thats a quick little blurb and I will write in more detail soon. Here is a sneak peek picture of our summer!

 So this song is my new favorite, it is really encouraging lately. Life just hasn't had very many easy days lately but God still reaches down and reassures us that He is there and that He knows everything that is going on in our lives. This is the song by casting crowns, I hope it is encouraging to you all as well.


I was sure by now
God You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say “Amen”, and it’s still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

Chorus:
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can’t find You

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The maker of Heaven and Earth

The Crazy Moving Week!

Moving is sooo much work! I forget just how exhausting it is to pack and move and unpack! But we got the move done and we are finally in a house, which is so nice. We have a lot to do still to unpack and make the house feel like our own but it will all get down eventually. So far the kids love the house, there is so much room for them to run, or crawl. We haven't explored outside to much yet because Curtis hasn't had a day off to de-spider the garage and backyard. But we did give in and get cable so I have been being a bad mom today by letting Timmy watch tv pretty much all day. It gave me a chance to get some stuff done though and I'm sure he learned something from all those shows... hopefully :o) This is a picture of him helping me pack... while Allanna was probably walking behind me unpacking everything a little too early.

 In the midst of all the stress of moving Curtis and I got to go on an amazing date to go see the play Wicked. I had bought the tickets for his birthday way before I knew we would be moving this weekend so it added stress but it was so worth it! I saw the show 5 years ago and loved it, therefore forcing Curtis to listen and memorize the whole soundtrack so it was very exciting for him to finally see the story behind the songs.  Here is a picture of us after the show... we were a little to busy rushing around and getting lost in tower district to take a picture before the show.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped us move and watch the kids this weekend. Whenever we move it reminds me that God sends such awesome friends into our lives wherever we live.

A long rainy weekend!

So this weekend seemed to last forever! Curtis was working everyday, it was raining every day, and Allanna was sick. As most of you know Allanna is not exactly the happiest easiest baby even on a good day so throw in an ear infection and a cough and you have a very rough weekend. We took her to the doctor yesterday though so she is back on antibiotics and her inhaler so hopefully she will back to her almost happy self soon :o) They did tell us that she will probably need ear tubes so that will be our next adventure.
We tried to stay busy this weekend with some arts and crafts so that I didn't feel like the worst mom in the world for letting my kids watch tv all day(just most of it). So here are some pics of us staying busy... 

 After the very long weekend I was very thankful that my friend Laura was in town and wanting to do a girls night out! So I actually put make up on and did my hair and went out for a much needed sanity break. I honestly dont know how I could survive without such amazing friends. And my hubby is amazing for being willing to watch the kids so I could enjoy some downtime! So here is a pic of me counting down the minutes till my escape

So that was my weekend... Im very glad it ended well!
On a more serious note, my mom has an appointment with the surgeon and possibly her other doctors tomorrow to discuss plans for starting treatment or not. Please pray for wisdom for everyone involved. Thanks! We get to go see her this coming weekend, woo hoo!

Our decision

Well the last time I made a post I let you all know that we were trying to move to Lancaster and that we really wanted wisdom to know what to do. All of your prayers helped so much, so we were able to make a decision and have total peace about it. Curtis did not get offered the job, which is pretty crazy, but we thought we would be really disappointed about it and we actually are not. We both feel fine about staying in Fresno even if it means being far from my family still.
SO we are officially staying in Fresno! And we have decided to look for a rental house here because we are feeling a little squished in our apartment. We found a house we like over by Herndon and Polk, so we will be turning in an application for that on Monday. Even through this crazy time we are really exciting to have something to look forward too and cant wait to have more space and a good size backyard! Summer barbecues here we come!
A little update on my mom... She is scheduled to start chemo and radiation on Tuesday so pray that her body handles it really well. Her doctor said that most patients dont get that sick from this type of chemo so that was very exciting for her to hear! She is having a tough time with her speech which makes her frustrated so pray that goes away so she can talk easily to bless all those around her. She is doing so great though, its amazing how much energy she has, God is really providing for her. We got to spend time with her last weekend and I kept having to force her to sit down and relax with me, so we did some Thomas Kinkade puzzles, one of our favorite things to do. And the kiddos loved getting to see their "Beena." Timmy asks to go to her house everyday lol.

Update on life written 2/23/11

So as many of you know our life has been a little bit on the crazy side for the last month. I am going to let you all know a bit more of what has been going on so that you can continue to pray for our family. My mom had to have brain surgery a few weeks ago because they found five different tumors in her brain that were putting too much pressure on her brain. After surgery the doctor said it looked like cancer but we would have to wait on the pathology report before we knew more. We got the pathology report about a week later but didn't get to discuss it with the oncologist until yesterday. So we all knew that is was stage 4 cancer that is only in her brain. When we met with the doctor yesterday we really had no idea what his plans were going to be, i think we were all worried he might say there was nothing to do, but thankfully he sounded hopeful and really want to be aggressive with it. He wants to start radiation and chemo right away and then they will continue the chemo one week out of a month for 6 months to try to keep the tumors from returning as quickly. Only 1 out of 4 patients with this type of cancer live past 2 years so for him to give us a 6 month plan was very exciting! But the frustrating catch is the insurance. Kaiser referred her to a great doctor in Lancaster but they are now saying they still want her to drive down to Hollywood for the treatments. So please pray that my parents would have wisdom to decide how much they should fight kaiser to get local treatment or figure out a way to do it down below. She is still having a tough time healing from the surgery so the idea of traveling everyday while possibly being sick from the treatments does not sound like a  good idea. So please pray for a very quick clear answer for them! We know God has a perfect plan in all of this that none of know, we are just eager to see Him continue to do amazing works through this whole situation. We know that He is bigger than cancer and He can heal her or use her however He wants.
You can also pray for wisdom for me and Curty. Our desire of course is to be with my mom through this whole process, its so hard being 4 hours away. But we obviously cant just up and leave. Curtis interviewed this week for a job in Boron which would be a commute but its close enough that we could live near my mom. The interview went good but it sounds like they may be looking for someone with a little different experience, but hopefully we will hear back from them with good news in a couple weeks. We are exploring other options but there are not to many job opportunities near my parents in Curtys field of work. So please pray that God would make His plan clear too us, if He wants us to move we are hoping He will clearly reveal a job and a place to live. And if His answer is for us to stay in Fresno pray that He will give us peace about that decision and that I would have lots of energy to keep doing this drive.
Thank you all so much for your prayers and willingness to help, you have been a huge encouragement to me and my family!

Remembering a year ago

My baby girl turned one today!!! I cant believe how fast this year went, my baby is turning into a toddler already! It has been a crazy year learning how to be parents of two and learning how to put up with girl drama already lol. But even though there have definitely been tough times caused by our princess, the main thing that I have been reflecting on this week is the miracle and provision that God blessed us with last year. And since I think its always awesome to see Gods modern day miracles in our lives and in the lives of those around us I thought I would share our story for those of you who haven't heard it all or who just need a reminder of how amazing God is! It is a bit long, sorry!
Its hard to decide where to start... The pregnancy was pretty tough from the beginning but it got really bad at 32 weeks. I started bleeding and ended up in the hospital for a whole week. It was caused by a low lying placenta but most of the nurses and doctors thought it would start up again so they were all prepared for her to come way early, so I got those lovely steroid shots which I swear developed her lungs too much, because my goodness she can scream :o). Anyways so I finally got out of the hospital and got to be on strict bedrest at home for the next few weeks. I am so grateful for all of my amazing friends who came over to help take care of Timmy, since I couldn't do it all. At 36 weeks my doctor decided that the placenta had moved up enough that I could get off of bedrest and he actually said I might not have to have a c-section! So I had the best day and a half ever and got tons of stuff done and played with Timmy like crazy and then.... the big day came!
Curty was about to leave for his night shift and I started  hemorrhaging, right before he left thank goodness. So my doctor had told me I could bleed out in 30 minutes so if this happened i needed to call 911. So Curtis calls 911 and guess what? They were busy! So after a couple tries we called the fresno police dept and they were busy too. So at that point we were kinda panicking not knowing if we should somehow get in the car and try to make it or not. We tried one more time and made it through! Of course this whole both Curtis and I were pretty much counting down the minutes in our heads thinking i might die in 20 minutes, a little intense! Thankfully Timmy had no idea how scary it all was, he thought we were just playing or something.

After only a couple minutes we heard the sirens, I never knew they could be such a wonderful noise! It still felt like an eternity waiting for them to make it to the apartment. Curtis and Timmy went outside to tell them where I was and I just laid there getting a chance to ponder life. I really thought there was a good chance I wasn't going to make it and the awesome thing is I really was not scared at all. As I lay there waiting I was trying to sort through what I should think about before I died and all I knew was that I had peace knowing that I would get to be with God soon. The only thing I could do was pray for Timmy and Curty, that they would have a great life living for God. And then pretty much right before I thought i was going to black out the ambulance drivers(and Erin Obwald) walked in and I realized I might make it!
The ambulance drivers were so great and did an amazing job at keeping me awake and calm. The guy in the back calmly told me that they were going to speed up because my blood pressure was really low and he knew I had lost a lot of blood(all i was thinking was ya i want you to drive fast, thats why we called you). Once we got to the hospital it was like a scene from greys anatomy, there were about 4 doctors/nurses waiting outside for me and then about a dozen inside running around getting everything ready for me. God was so amazing as always and he made the bleeding finally slow down and he let Allanna stay strong so they were able to wait for Curtis to get there before they did the c-section. So she was born sometime after 7(i dont have the best memory of that night so i dont know the exact time), she was 6lbs 1 oz and the steroids had developed her lungs perfectly so she was completely healthy!
When I finally got to hold her, after a long recovery time, it felt like a dream. I couldn't I had actually had her that quickly! But she was completely perfect! Looking back I am just so thankful how God took care of every detail of that night. I know that He has amazing plans for Allanna's life and I cant wait to see them unfold!   I hope that you can be encouraged by a story of God's little miracles and maybe even take time to ponder what you would think about if you thought you only had 30 minutes to live.

Its a new year!

Well its crazy to think that another year has gone by! Last year at this time I was going crazy on bedrest praying that our little girl would stay in for a couple more weeks, and now I am chasing a little dramatic girl around while I plan her 1st birthday party! Life just goes so quick, but I honestly wouldn't want it to slow down. As adorable as my kiddos are I dont think I will miss this phase of life too much :o)
Our Christmas was a little different this year but so much fun. Curtis had to work on Christmas day so we ended up doing our christmas celebration on Tuesday with my family. We all went a bit crazy on gifts but it made it so great! My sister got me a sewing machine so now I get to start being creative! I cant wait! My mom got just dance 2 as a Christmas present so we all got to play that the whole week. Lets just say it was a great bonding game that created lots of memories(and maybe a few blackmail videos ;0) )
My sister and her hubby came to Fresno to keep me busy on new years ever weekend(since Curty was working yet again). We had alot of fun being lazy and doing absolutely nothing but eat and watch tv or read all weekend, it was great! But through all of this holiday fun our poor family has been battling a very annoying cold. Allanna got it the worst as normal and now has bronchitis and an ear infection. So we are learning how to get her to take an inhaler now, not easy. Hopefully she will be all healthy by her birthday party in a couple weeks!
I'm trying to think of some of the adorable things the kids have done in the last few weeks...
Allanna definitely knows the word no now and tends to shake her head when she is grabbing something she knows is a no no. Timmy is talking like crazy and of course he says the cutest things. He has to point out everything he sees and you have to repeat his word so he knows you understand. The hard part is if you have no idea what he is talking about he will continue repeating it until you get it.... sometimes it takes awhile lol. He loved learning about baby Jesus during Christmas so while we were looking at lights whenever he saw a nativity scene he would say "I see Jesus" over and over again. He also thought the angel on grandma and grandpa Roseboroughs tree was Jesus and was very excited about that!

Well I hope all of you had a very blessed Christmas and new year!