Family Photo Shoot

My dear friend Tiffany Aicklen is an amazingly gifted photographer. This past summer my family was so blessed to have her come and do an in-home photo shoot. I wanted to brag on her talent and share some (ok...a bunch) of my favorites from our session...

Super Sawyer

It is so hard to believe my little dude is three. Seems it was only yesterday...

The party theme was debated for weeks. Sawyer's top three theme choices: Justin Beiber, High School, Super Hero. We opted for Super Hero and went on a Pinterest hunt for great ideas that could be easily copied. The inspiration resulted in some pretty cute decor, if I do say so myself.

Super Silly Sawyer

Cupcakes

I made each kid a cape and the craft was making super hero masks. Cuteness.

Grandma K helping Sawyer with his Super mask. Notice his cute Superman shirt has been replaced by a new Tebow jersey 

(a cool present from Uncle Adam and Aunt Amy). Notice, also, that you will never see the cute Superman shirt for the remainder of the party.

When doing anything of importance, the helmet is required.

Happy 3rd birthday Sawyer. You are the Superest kid I know. 

And we're back...

After a seven month dry spell, I am happy to return to the blogging world.

A brief update on what the Kanallakans have been up to: 

Baby Jane was born June 11th and has added a heaping dose of sweetness to our little family.

Sawyer started part-time preschool and we both agree those six hours each week are priceless.

• Sawyer potty trained. Worst week ever. SO worth it. 
• Sawyer turned the big 0-3 (picts of the party coming soon...).
• Tim and I conferenced it up this past Fall with the "Home for Good" Adoption conference followed shortly after with the "Cleansing Streams" deliverance conference. Both were life changing and I guarantee there will be postings on each event.
• I discovered Pinterest. I am well aware that this discovery is being equated to the birth of a child. 

I'm sure there is lots more but thats all I can think of now as Cars 2 plays on the tube and Janie is fighting her much-needed morning nap. 

The big question now is what to post on first...I vote for Sawyer's 3rd Birthday party. 

Etsy Favorites

The "world of girl" is such fun. As we prep for the next big project of putting together baby Jane's nursery, I can't help but scour the world wide web looking for all things pink and floral and vintage and poofy.

Etsy is a favorite shopping spot (if nothing else, it provides amazing inspiration and motivation). Here are some of my recent finds:

Anything made with Amy Butler fabric is a winner...

From JMBthreedesigns's Etsy shop

Just plain cute...

From Bonniebluebelle's Etsy shop

I can't get over the rufflidge. I'll take one in every color!!!

From Dressbabybeautiful's Etsy shop

Along with perusing the clothes and accessories, I have begun the ominous diaper bag search. With Sawyer, Tim and I decided to go with a gender neutral messenger bag so that both he and I could get away with carrying it (and he could maintain his man dignity). I loved our bag and it has held up quite well but now that there is a girl on the way, I am craving a more feminine piece. This beauty has caught my eye:

From Kolobags

The search continues...We are definitely getting excited about our little lady!!

The DIY Show Off: More Than Rubies featured post!!!

I am so excited! Our closet/office re-model was the daily DIY feature at The DIY Show Off. A HUGE thanks to Roeshel for the blog spot!

As I was trying to explain the thrill to my husband, all I could think of was equating it to that feeling of pride a child gets when their teacher chooses their piece of art to hang on the wall.

Call me dramatic but its one of my first times being "featured" and I can't help but be a bit giddy...

Be sure to check out Roeshel's blog and the plethora of inspiring DIY ideas she boasts!

It's a girl!!

In case you hadn't heard, we're having a girl!!! We are thrilled and I can't stop dreaming in pink and tulle. Girl clothes and accessories are just more fun than boy stuff. As I've begun to seek out inspiration for the baby's nursery, I have come across some fantastic ideas:

Lemon Tree Creations (a favorite blog) is hosting a giveaway this week and I am in love with the pack of vintage nursery rhyme cards from Pretty Little Studio's Etsy store:

Can't you just picture them framed and hanging in a little girl's room? So cute. 

I'm also obsessed with Micheal Miller's Meadowsweet fabric collection:

This reminds me of old Disney movie artwork...not sure what it is. 

Decorating a little girl nursery is pretty much all I think about these days. The options are endless!! Can't wait to see how it all turns out! 

The Journey At Hand

There was a time, not so very long ago, when I would look at my life and the various events which would occur, and regularly say to myself, "I should blog about that." New furniture, a great recipe, some thrift-store finds, or a parenting dilemma were all viable candidates for a new post. I am not quite sure what happened. Suddenly this "blogging momma" went from once a week to... well, it has been four months since my last update.

All that to say, though I don't think I'm jumping back on the weekly wagon, I do hope to get back into blogging if simply for the sake of documenting life a bit. It is fun to look back on previous entries and remember valuable lessons learned and great deals found.

Ok so onto the actual blog post...

We have been in Visalia for almost seven months. Amazing to think about how much life has changed since January of 2010. In the last year we took a trip to the devastated country of Haiti, Tim took a new job with Valley Orthopedic, we moved to Visalia, got rid of the pacifier, bought our first home (which I consider as big of an accomplishment as getting rid of the pacifier), Tim went back to school, found out we were pregnant with #2, and survived two whole years of parenting (happy birthday Sawyer).

In the midst of the change and adjustment to life back in the Valley, we were praying regularly that God would lead us to a good church. Praise the Lord, by August of last year, we had found a home. We have plugged in at Radiant Church in Visalia and have been blessed beyond all get out during our time thus far. Radiant is a non-denominational, charismatic church of about 200 people and it is an alive and growing body.

Let me pause for a moment and address what I know some of you may be a bit hung up on. That word "charismatic" can bring a whole host of feelings depending on your experience and knowledge. When we were first invited to the church and were told it was "a bit on the charismatic side," we were hesitant, partly due to strange experiences, but mostly out of ignorance to what in the world that might mean. I am so thankful we did not allow our lack of comfort to keep us from visiting and finding the jewel of a church we are now apart of.

Because many of the variables involved in any given Sunday service are not what we were used to, it did take some time to adjust and learn about the many expressions of worship we had never experienced at our previous churches. Though I was somewhat comfortable with gifts of the Spirit such as tongues or teaching, I had never been in a service where someone received a Word from the Lord and stood and spoke it for the benefit of the entire congregation. In Guatemala I attended a church which had reserved half of its sanctuary as a dance floor (where, every week, the first people to utilize the space were the elders of the church). Though there is no designated dance space at Radiant, it is not uncommon for people to worship in dance.

Tim and I have spent many hours discussing these new and different means of expression worship and how they fit into our current understanding of scripture and the direction God has given His church. We met with the Senior Pastor and his wife (who, yesterday, brought me over a batch of the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls- winner) multiple times to ask questions and share our hearts on the matter. We were like sponges. Travis, our Senior Pastor, called us a few weeks ago and said he had a book he thought we would enjoy. He brought us "Empowered Evangelicals" by Rich Nathan and Ken Wilson and encouraged us to read it as we were processing through these new experiences.

I started to read the book before Christmas and ended up giving my dad a copy as a gift. Though I am not done, the book has really helped me to understand the roots of both the charismatic and evangelical movements and why they can, at times, be so polarized in the twenty-first century. The authors do a good job of exploring the relationship between worshiping in both Spirit and Truth and the error that comes when one is emphasized over the other. Here is an excerpt I read last night:

An honest reading of the Scriptures and church history demands that we maintain an open attitude toward the work of the Spirit to renew the church. God is God and he does whatever he pleases in the way that pleases him. The mere fact that we feel uncomfortable, or that there is a mixture of wheat and tares, doesn't mean God is not at work. 

But along with a posture of openness we must also exercise discernment. "Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil." (1 Thes. 5:19-22)...Some people seem to think that genuine openness to the Spirit and discernment are incompatible,. But the work of the Spirit demands discernment, since the Spirit interacts with human beings who are anything but perfect. It is essential that we understand what is from God and what is not...The fact that conservative evangelicals can learn something from charismatics and that charismatics can learn something from conservative evangelicals doesn't mean we have do adopt everything the other side offers. So with openness we must also hold on to discernment. (pg. 55)

This new journey has been fascinating so far and I know God has much more to reveal to us as we continue down this path. I am excited to know and experience Him in new ways and am so thankful that we are surrounded by brothers and sisters who desire to worship God in both Spirit and Truth.

The "D" word.

I decided to take a break from the house project blogs and write about bit about my current parenting dilemma.

The dreaded "D" word...

DISCIPLINE

Let me give you a glimpse into what attempting to discipline looks like at my house:

Sawyer's newest and most favorite way to push my buttons is to let out a short and shrill scream, usually indicating he is upset with me because I said "no" to something.  Now, my initial decision, as far as how to discipline him for this behavior, was to put him into our version of "time out" which basically means I put him in his crib, away from me, for 2 minutes. Then I go in, and we talk about why mommy put him in his crib, and he says he is sorry, I tell him I love him, you know the drill.

Up until about a week ago, the period of separation was a successful form of discipline. Sawyer did not enjoy being removed from the party that is our home and would react appropriately.  Now, when he does something that he knows warrants a time-out, he smiles while in the midst of the said behavior and then, after saying, "na night," promptly walks himself to his room and stands by his crib waiting for me to put him inside.

Or better yet, if I get to him before he can start heading to his room on his own, as soon as I pick him up he says, "ready, set, go" and pumps his arms like we're tag teaming in a marathon.  

Clearly this form of discipline is no longer affective. Yea.

Here's another one...

When I'm talking to him in my "listen kid" voice, Sawyer often attempts to avoid eye contact. When I give him the commonly used phrase of, "Look at my eyes," he puts the tip of his nose to the tip of mine and completely stares me down like he's my optometrist.

And how do you not crack up when your kids pull stuff like that?

All this to say, Tim and I are currently reading Dr. Dobsen's,  Strong Willed Child and trying to memorize his advice. We are certainly not anti-spanking but, up till this point, have reserved it for dangerous behaviors or things that he simply cannot do again for his own safety or the safety of others. You know, like if he (hypothetically of course) were to climb up on the kitchen table, grab my car keys, head to the ONE outlet missing a cover and proceed to try to stick the key into the electrical outlet.  He got a spanking for that. I mean, if he had done that, hypothetically of course, I would have spanked him.

I find myself praying for wisdom all day long. Each day is so different and each week seems to bring a new behavior I have to nip. At least I always have entertaining stories for parties. I'll end with the one I got to tell at MOPS yesterday (great first impression, I'm sure):

So Sawyer was standing with me as I was locking up the front door, and began heading to the car in the driveway. I opened up the drivers side door and put my purse on the seat. I saw Sawyer walk around the front of the car towards his door so I walked around the back to meet him half way. As I took 2.7 seconds to get to the other side of the car, I was surprised to find that Sawyer was not there. I took another 1.3 seconds to get to the front of the car only to find that Sawyer was not there either. Now I'm running laps around the car yelling for my child.

-Let me interrupt to paint a more accurate picture. Our street is in a state of construction as new homes are being built all the time. There are cement trucks, tractors, and pick-ups constantly driving in front of our house. Not the front yard where you want to lose your kid.-

Back to me running laps around my car...great mental picture, eh? I'm starting to panic and am in awe of Sawyer's ability to escape so quickly when a construction worker stops his truck in front of our house and yells, "He's sitting in the drivers seat." Yup. He had climbed up into the drivers seat and was looking at me like, "Get in the car mom, we're going to be late." Oh child of mine.

Like I said, they make for great party stories once my adrenaline has gone back to a healthy level.

Moving In-Sawyer's Room and Living Room

So in Part One I showed photos of our developing bedroom and dining room. Here are some pictures of what we've done, so far, in Sawyer's room and the living room...

Sawyer's room is now an adorable robin's egg blue with fun surfer posters Tim ordered from one of his favorite tee-shirt designers. We are still planning on hanging Tim's red surfboard over the crib.

Our living room is slowly coming together as well. We'll fill up the shelves as we unpack more boxes but for now I'm kinda enjoying all the empty space.

I found this cute tray at Z-Gallery for $4.00. I love it!!

My dad grew up with this chair in his parents home. For the last 10 years it has been in my parents basement. We cleaned up the wood and found an outdoor cushion that fit the frame perfectly (and matched our pillows quite well). Its a great retro addition to the room!

More photos coming soon!!