.:My Hobby:.

Hair.
I love to color it, cut it, highlight it, crimp it, curl it, straighten it and tease it. It's like painting your nails but better!
It has been a desire and dream to get better at it so that I don't have to go to salons and spend $200 and I want to be able to bless other ladies who would like to have salon quality hair but don't have the money as well.

(before)
I've been coloring my hair since I was 14 years old (well, my mom was the one who did it but I started to pick it up around 15 or 16). It has since grown into a hobby that I have been trying to perfect and see how salon-like I can get it. Color is pretty easy now for me but it's trying to highlight with the foils that have been tough.
Today, however, I think I finally have a hang of it more so than I ever have. Thanks to YouTube and my hairstylist who let's me in on some of her tricks, and MUCH prayer, I've been able to do foil highlights that don't leak out and leave a tiger-stripe design on your head.

(after...ahhhhhhh)
It's very exciting to be able to do something like this for $8 rather than an arm and a leg. Although, it is so much more relaxing and enjoyable to have that salon experience while an expert works her magic =)

It's a silly post - I know. The praise and glory all goes to God as I couldn't do any of this without Him. Every time I sit down to do something like this to my hair or to someone else's, I always lift up a prayer asking God to bless my work and make it look pretty - as silly as a prayer it may seem, He always answers it!!! If it doesn't turn out pretty, it'll end up being a catastrophe I can learn from so that I can be better next time.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God"
1 Corinthians 10:31

a new day...

Do you know that song "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me and I'm feelin' good"? Well, it's what's on my mind right now (in particular, the version by Muse - my favorite). I'm feeling so encouraged and inspired in my walk with God these past few days.


To back up a little, I've been going through the trials of prosperity. Being in the "good times" of life most of the times, distracts me from my Savior. It's very easy for me to cling to Jesus and feel close to God when I go through the "hard times" because He's all I have in those moments. But, when the days are easy and God's provisions are abundant, instead of rejoicing in Him and living in gratefulness I find myself distracted by many things and wanting more (especially as my family grows - my "To Do" list grows as well).

I've been feeling so dry, dull and not desiring God and being in His word as a result. My love for others has been lacking while the love of self has consumed me. God was poking me about it and then decided to really drive his big godly index finger right into my heart through my senior pastor's message on a hardened heart. God is so merciful and I LOVE that He doesn't leave you to die in the wasteland of "self". Instead, He showed me Christ! He showed me that I CAN get out of this self-absorbed pattern I've been living in.

It's always at that moment when you've just been shown an area that needs change that you feel stuck and I have the thought "okayyy, now what? where do I go from here?". And I love how the answer is so simple. Simply come. Come to the Lord, repent and ask for help and the grace you need to change. I also love how as you draw near to the Lord, He then draws near to you and that's a promise! Every time I've come back to Him after a period of growing cold and ignoring Him, He always is faithful to meet with me and draw me back. I've found the more I read and sow into His word, the hungrier I become for His truths. I'm not satisfied to just sit for a single paragraph! I want to read it all and dive deeper!

One of the tools that God has used to draw me back to Himself and help me realize the importance of meeting with Him in His word is this book:

"Shopping for Time". This is a book written by Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters on how to biblically prioritize our days in whatever season we are in. They talk a great deal about the importance of meeting with God and how our relationship with Him should ALWAYS be our number one priority.

Here is a quote that really encouraged me:

"As believers, we are justified - declared righteous, forgiven, and accepted by God - through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone. We do not earn or forfeit our justification before God based on our performance. Our faithfulness to sit and listen, our diligence to seek the Lord through prayer and Scripture, our efforts to make the best use of the time - none of these is sufficient to earn God's acceptance."

"So, if you are discouraged or condemned by your failure to sit and listen, if you are "troubled by many things", revel in this truth: we have a Savior who died for our sins and it is his 'blood and righteousness' alone that make us acceptable to God."

When asked what her favorite verse in the Bible was, my husbands grandmother (Grandma Baird, whom we all look up to greatly due to her love and faith in Christ) replied "Matthew 6:33 - Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

That's exactly what I want to do each and every day until I get to see my Savior face to face - seek HIS kingdom first!

I hope this encourages you. I just wanted to share this so that you would be encouraged and find direction for the renewal of your faith.

Wow!! The Differences...

I have really been enjoying seeing these two start to interact with each other. Kai adores Adon and Adon watches Kai like a hawk - taking in every movement and sound that his big brother makes.

I've been getting a lot of comments about how Kai and Adon look alike and I can't help but think otherwise. I finally decided to compare pictures of the boys at around the same age.

Here's a pic of Kai when he was about 6 months - starting his baby food eating adventure:

....and here's Adon, very different! I'm sure there's some resemblance but, for the most part, he's a completely different baby =)

Here's Kai-guy right before crawling....

...and, here's Adon =)

.

I love my boys!! They are so much fun!

.:FOOOOOD!!!!:.

Yup! It's that time already!
My little Adon is LOVING food!! I could easily wean him this week if I wanted to but, I know it's better for his little body to go slowly and keep him breastfed.

Thanks to WIC (Women Infants & Children), I get about 100 jars of baby food & 4 boxes of infant oatmeal a month for FREE!! The best part is, I get to choose what kind I want so I go for the organic expensive stuff=)
I'm not really into cooking period so the thought of steaming and blending my own baby food was not very appealing to me. I love being able to just woop it out of the pantry, feed it and save the rest for later.
He's having lots of fun with it and I think he's going to be a better eater than Kai was. He already has been and that makes me excited for this new part of his life!

Will share more soon!

Since I last posted...

My biggest turned 2 years old in October!!!

My littlest turned 4 months old!!!

I died my hair...red...then brown/black...

Kai-guy has been walking in his Daddy's footsteps and dress up like him...

Ryan & I got to get away for a marriage retreat where not only did we relax and have a wonderful time re-connecting but, I got to try my first Lobster!!!

We're celebrating our first Christmas as a family of 4!!!

Oh ya, and we moved into our new home where we have been blessed with many opportunities to have people over and practice hospitality (something we desperately need to grow in!)

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Friends, Family & Cookies, OH MY!!!

Here's what we've been up to: (I don't know how to get this "underline" function to dissapear)

Playing, playing, playing with family and friends while Daddy is away on business trips...

Finding ways to cool off and have fun in this nasty humid heat...

learning to share.... hee hee

taking frequent naps to re-charge the batteries for more fun =)

and eating lots of cookies!!!

A friend of mine posted this delicious recipe for all organic cookies that not only make a tasty treat but also helps to boost your milk production. However, if you're a man, a child or someone who ISN'T nursing - they're just really good for you and will NOT make you produce milk ;)
I hardly EVER bake - let alone from scratch - don't even mention doing anything organic so the fact that I even made these is a HUGE step for me. I had to go out & buy a lot of the organic ingredients (ie: brewer's yeast, flaxseed meal, organic oats, etc) so it cost me a pretty penny.
So, now I'm going to sit back, enjoy my treat and see if it helps me to produce more milk.

PS: I'm actually doing fine on the breast milk. Ryan and I are going to a marriage retreat in about a month and I would like to leave BOTH kids behind which means that I need to have a nice stock of breast milk for Adon and I'm thinking this might save me a lot of unnecessary pumping.

Love you & God Bless you!!

.:Brothers!:.

Brothers!!!

I am so excited that I get to embark on this adventure of being in a house full of boys! Though...I do pray that one day I'll get at least one girl ;) Kai is LOVING his new baby brother. This morning, I had Adon on the bed while I got dressed and Kai came in, saw him lying there and wanted to snuggle up close to him. He even made sure that Adon was well covered by the blanket. It was too cute to resist! I had to take a picture...


There are moments where Adon will be watching Kai and a big smile while appear on his face. This kid is so smiley! It took everything I had to get Kai to smile at this age but not with Adon - the minute he sees me he breaks out into a big, open-mouthed smile =) One of these days, I'll be ready with camera in hand to capture the moment.

These 2 are suckers for their binkies. I'm in the process of weaning Kai off of it but I'm not really serious yet. If he's playing happily I'll simply ask for it and put it in his crib and tell him that "happy boys don't need binkies". Anyway, I'm thinking I'll get real serious about it when I potty train him (which will probably be sometime after christmas). It might just be me but in my opinion, if you're old enough to do your dooty on your own on a big boy potty, you're too big to be sucking on a pacifier.

Life is going farely well, I have to say. I'm finding more times for devotions which is unexpected. I was thinking that I'd have time to read only 2 verses here and there but I've been blessed with a good half hour at least during the boys' nap time. (Yes! They take naps at the same time, praise God!) Adon is still a really easy going baby - eats, sleeps, poops and only cries when he needs to do one of those 3 things or just wants to be held. He's definitely looking like his own little person and I'm seeing some serious red in his hair and green-brown in his eyes =)

Last Friday I mailed out 23 resumes for apartment management positions here in Pasadena and as a result, we have an interview set up for next Friday for a beautiful complex in the downtown Pasadena area. I'm super excited and filled with peace that God's will is better and what ever place we end up in - it will be perfect for our family =)

Ryan's job is going EXTREMELY well. He had his first business trip to AZ last week (yes, I stayed home with the kids and survived thanks be to God, Lynn & Terri) and is out to dinner right now with his CEO & VP!!! God answer's prayer, I'll tell ya what! We're both very thankful to God for this job and for how He is pouring out favor on Ryan with his coworkers and employers.

That's us in a nutshell for now. I'll be keeping you all posted and will try to stay current with pictures =)

Love you!