Into Everything Allie

 There's a book called Oh, David! that I read to Allie often, changing the main character from David to Allie. It goes like this:

"Allie's mommy always says, 'Oh, Allie!' (Picture of baby with entire roll of toilet paper unfurled on bathroom floor).

'Open up, Allie.' (Picture of baby refusing to eat-though Allie eats everything she can get her hands on most of the time.) 'P.U!' (Picture of a satisfied looking baby with a full diaper). ' Hold still, Allie!' (Picture of Mama trying to diaper a super wiggling child.) 'Go night, night, Allie.' (Picture of baby standing in crib.) 'Oh Allie, I love you.' (Picture of baby on Mama's lap reading a book)."

This book goes along with some of the things I love about our second born:

• She loves to explore her world, and isn't afraid to rock the boat, make a mess, etc...when she's caught she always has a coy little smile on her face like, "whaaaaaat? You're mad at me? Have you noticed how absolutely cute I am?'

• Her love for food rivals my own. We have neighbors who laugh because every time Allie comes over to their house, she always beelines it to their pantry, which is stocked with all sorts of yummy food. Though she eats like ravenous wolf, she stays petite, which may be a great thing if her metabolism stays like that when she's older. 

• She's as strong-willed as her Daddy, and she knows what she wants. Whether it's her 'bippy' (pacifier), 'ba ba' (milk) or just a good hug, she is really good at persistently reminding us that her desires are not being presently met. I think that if we hone this attribute in, it will work for her in the future as she advances the Kingdom of God!

•  Her laugh is amazing, and I try to do whatever I have to hear it everyday! She often laughs as she tries to get away from me on the changing table!

• She's a great sleeper and I have never really had a problem with putting her down to sleep for naps or nighttime. She loves routine, but is also flexible when our schedules dictate 

• She's a little lover. A hug from Allie Berry will make anyone's day, and she gives them out liberally. I love how fiercely affectionate this little girl is!

What a precious child of God and gift to our family!

Princess Ella

 Next up in my love story is our firstborn, Ella. She is definitely a princess at heart and has grown up so quickly!

• I love Ella's heart for the Lord already. She loves to pray and read her Bible, and has a knack for remembering the stories in it. She often tells me that she sees angels flying by our car or in her room at night, and I totally believe her. 

• She is an awesome snuggle bug. Every morning she loves to climb in our bed and get some snuggles before we start our day. Her favorite way to snuggle when Mom and Dad are busy is in her skivvies with a warm blanket and her new kitten, as seen here.

• • She is a builder and an organizer. It is not rare for us to come into her room and see that she has organized all of her shoes, books, toys, etc...
  
  
  • She is a great big sister and friend to many. She loves to remind people that "Berrys share" (a motto we have tried to drill into her brain instill in her. Her naivete in playgroups is precious and allows her to be nice to everyone.
• She loves to dress up. Everyday. Without fail. She will have on some sort of princess dress and accessory on for some period of time. Guaranteed. Her preference these days is the Rapunzel dress her grandparents gave her for Christmas.

What an awesome firstborn I have! I can't wait to see what the Lord does in and through her life!

Wuv, Twu Wuv

Seeing as it is a few days away from Valentine's Day, I thought I'd give a little thought to some of the things I love about the people I love the most. And since he's my #1 love (besides Jesus, of course), and we are going to the marriage conference tonight (which makes me want to start transitioning my brain from Super Mommy to Adoring Wifey), I thought I'd start with Brandon. Here are some things that I love about him:

• I love how passionate he is for the Lord. He is absolutely smitten with Him, and he seems like a little boy when he shares things that He is telling him. 
• I love that he is an amazing father to our little girls. He encourages them and speaks life into them. He knows how to mold their precious little hearts and he prays for them regularly. 
• I love his hugs and his loving touch. He always knows just how long to hold me on any given day. He is equally liberal in giving away hugs to his the girls, and also to many in the Church who need a loving touch. 
• I love how he is always learning. On any given day, he is reading at least 2 books along with his personal Bible study, and he devours other pastors' sermons so he can glean more wisdom. I continually pray that God will give him even more wisdom and understanding than Solomon. 
• I love how he leads with vision. He takes the time to get a vision and is great at articulating it with again, the aforementioned, passion. 
• I love how well he takes care of his body. He is not an obsessed meat head by any stretch of the imagination, but he loves to work out and eat healthy, and I appreciate that for so many reasons.

Those are just six of many reasons why I am absolutely, madly, utterly, head-over-heels in love with my HOLY HOTTIE Husband, Brandon Berry!

So now it's your turn. What do you love about your husband/wife/fiance/boyfriend/girlfriend?

Won't Lie

I won't lie.


It's been a killer hard month. Busy. Too busy. Full of really high highs and really low lows. I wish I could be better at keeping up with this blog during busy times, but this is one thing that gets pushed by the wayside.

Here's a run down of what's been going on:

Brandon and I were asked to be the campus pastors of Redemption Charlotte. We got to choose the city, and Charlotte has been on our hearts for a long time now. We are excited about the opportunity, but of course still trying to wrap our brains around what will go into starting a new video campus in another state.

A week later Mom's battle finally came to an end. She won. Not in the sense of "I beat Pulmonary Hypertension", or "I got a lung transplant finally", but "I passed this test, I finished the race, I gained the prize...and the Prize is Jesus." She went to be with Him on September 21. We were incredibly saddened, but also relieved that she is suffering no more. We are grieving as best we can. It's terribly hard, and lonely at times. But we remember that she is with the Lord and that gives us hope to see her again. Hopefully a long time from now, right?

Our friends, Brad and Cory-Marie got married the day after Mom's memorial service. It was a beautiful wedding and we celebrated as much as we could considering the circumstances.

A week later, we went on a cruise that we had been planning for months to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. It was a good time to rest and reflect...and eat. We did a lot of all that. We reconnected as a couple and it was a wonderful time to have a little respite. We spent a couple of days in Charleston after the cruise with some friends and enjoyed celebrating another wedding...Amy and Yves Gege. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for a wedding.

Four days after we got home, our nephew, Channing, was born in Fayettville, NC. We drove there to be with John and Pepper and welcome little Chancakes to the world. We haven't been able to see him since, but look forward to getting some good baby snuggles at Thanksgiving.

On the way home from Fayetteville, we stopped in Charlotte and stayed with a buddy who gave us a generous tour of the city, mainly Uptown areas. We got charged up and excited about that.

After we got home we decided to try to move forward with our move and put our house up on the market. And before we could do that, we had to do some big time renovations. New hand scraped floors in the foyer, great room, dining room and hallways/closets. New ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. Touch up paint, little projects here and there that have needed to get done...it is now "go" time. We've been staging our house, packing our belongings up, and furiously cleaning to keep it sparkling clean. We are praying for a quick sale so we don't have to keep this up for long, because it is just plain exhausting.

We have been taking a lot of trips to Charlotte and are excited about what will happen there. We've been reading a lot of books about multisite churches and speaking to people who live them out. We're digesting a ton of material in a very short period of time. Thankfully, I have been a part of a church that did multisite pretty darn well, so I have a little experience in it. A little.

My aunt Leslie beat cancer last week. In the same way that Mom beat PH. They are now enjoying Jesus together, I'm sure. We went to Greensboro to be with our family to celebrate her life last weekend.

So that's it. Not much. Wait...I'm lying. I told you I wouldn't do that.

I recently have become slightly obsessed with a design blog I stumbled upon called Young House Love. And since stumbling upon it, I have been inspired to declutter, clean, organize, repaint, refinish, design, etc. My house is slowly but surely getting whipped into shape.

I recently took a took on a little project which turned my husband’s skepticism around and made him a true believer that the DIYer part of us is still alive despite our busy lives as parents and professionals.

I was looking for some file storage for our office, and came across this vintage file cabinet at a garage sale for $5.

As you can see, it needed A LOT of work...

First, I took off all of the hardware and sanded the entire things down multiple times. (When I took the drawers out, I found an original Time Magazine Special Edition from 1969, “To The Moon and Back”. On Amazon, it sells for $5-$25 + shipping, so maybe that will get me my money back!

Back to the project...So, after getting everything as rust-free as possible, I spray painted the cabinet and the hardware a semi-glossy black with Rustoleum spray paint. After it was thoroughly dried, I chose four pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper and cut them to fit on the front of the drawers. (sorry, I was way more excited about the project than documenting the project and forgot to shoot some of the steps.)

I then taped off the drawers where the paper would go and sprayed adhesive in the center. Then I put the paper on.

After it was dry, I reattached the hardware, and viola! A new, improved, super chic file cabinet.

Soon I will get some good pictures that do it justice in its new home, my bonus room/scrapbook room/office. It looks awesome!

Where the heck we've been...July

In July I surprised Brandon with a trip to Summerville to see one of his all-time heroes in the faith, David Hogan.
(that's him in the middle with the salt & pepper buzz cut and goatee. He's a bad mammajamma.)

Jo-D Hogan and others pray for Brandon

Brandon's parents and Nikkie came with us as well. Nikkie got to ride on John's motorcycle!

Had the girls all dressed up for July 4th...Festive and darn cute if you ask me.

Brandon, his brother and their dad went on a camping/kayaking trip down the Chatooga River.

(Pepper stayed with me and the girls while they were gone...thank the Lord for her cause I wouldn't have made it alone!)

After the boys got back safely, we were all able to celebrate John Channing Berry's upcoming arrival at John & Pepper's baby shower in Hendersonville!

We took a mini vacation to Mt. Pleasant and Isle of Palms and stayed with my mentor, Leesa, and her family, the Northrups where we were thoroughly spoiled in every way. Dave and Leesa cooked, entertained, and even babysat. Their oldest son and his family had just been transferred back to the Charleston area, and had moved in temporarily until they get a house, so their 18 month old, Trig, served as a ready playmate for both Ella and Allie. I forgot our camera, but here's them playing in the backyard.

Finally, my dear friend from college came down with her two beautiful children to hang out. She lives in Kansas, but was visiting family in Highlands, NC which is about 2 hours away. We actually got all the kids down for a nap at the same time (a miracle?) and had some sweet catching up time.

Where the heck we've been...May and June

I know it's been a while since I've blogged. My friend, Carrie, calls it being a "slogger" or slack blogger. Whatever name you want to put to it, yes...I've been bad at keeping my little blog updated.

"So, where the heck have you been all summer, Berrys?"
Well, here's May and June...

Pickin' stuff from our garden....

Using our Zoo Pass...they have a great playground which serves as a wonderful rest stop.Swimming in a redneck swimmin' pool...

(Yes, we swim in real swimming pools, too.)

Visiting Grammy and Pappy in Columbia (picture by Rhonda Danner Photography).

Getting in some good sister time...

We've Been Working On This...

Allie's First Birthday

We had an amazing time at Allie's 1st birthday party. I decided to keep things "low key" and just make the decorations and cupcakes. Turns out, that's not so low key when you have two little kids running around and providing bi-minutely interruptions, and you can't quit the ideas from popping in your head. Yes, low key can turn into almost overwhelming when you have time to check out what all the other creative mamas are doing by Googling "homemade 1st birthday party". At some point, I decided to quit adding and stick to my low key plan. I was having a blast thinking of all the great things I could do with my plethora of scrapbooking supplies and my newfound sewing skills. The final projects that made the cut were a homemade birthday tutu, a customized onesie, birthday hats, cupcakes with toppers, a banner, and some other around the house decor. I was pleased with how it turned out.

One of the best thoughts for the low-keyness of the party was to ask my friend, Rhonda, to take pictures for us. She is a photographer and fellow stay-at-home mom who lives across the street from us. Our 1 year olds are just about at the age now where they can have a play date that consists of more than diaper changes and major meltdowns. So, in lieu of gifts, I asked her to take a few shots for us while they joined in the festivities. This allowed me to enjoy the party without worrying about capturing every moment on film (or digital card).

Click here to see some of her great shots. Also, if you would like to order any of her shots, you can go to rhondadanner.com . Click on Client Proofing, type "allie" in the password box, and take a look at the whole kit and kaboodle. Ordering information is on the website. (The posted pic above is not one of her shots...hers are even better!)

We had a nice turnout for the party, including most of Brandon's family, and a couple of Ella & Allie's friends with their parents. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and we enjoyed grilled hot dogs for those to whom it didn't pose a choking hazard, and other 1 year old appropriate goodies.

The apex of the party had to be Allie getting to break her 1 year sugar fast and tearing into her cupcake. She LOVED it and barely left a crumb to clean up. She also had a chance to experience her first non-diluted juice box and she surely enjoyed it. The kids were a little sugared up by the end of the day, but a nice long outside play time and Easter egg hunt negated it and they happily went to bed on time that night and slept all the way through.

We are so very thankful to have Allie in our lives. She is such a source of joy and laughter in our home, and we are beyond amazed at her sweet spirit. Thank you to all who celebrated with us!

Frugal February - Failure?

If at first you don't succeed, DON'T GIVE UP!

That's what I'm taking away from Frugal February now that I'm reconciling all of our bills and statements to figure out the total spending for the experimental month.

We had some....hiccups, I guess you could call them. Some things, like our semi-annual car insurance bill that is due in February just couldn't be helped, so I didn't even count that. I did, however, check around to find out if we were getting the best rates possible, and we are (so that's good).

I felt like we really did sacrifice on many occasions...I can't tell you how familiar we are with PB& J. I'd be embarrassed to tell you how many we ate this month! There were so many days of Brandon taking left overs to work instead of hitting up Chic-fil-A. I clipped coupons and matched them with sales. I tried to stay to my list. We ate our pantry almost empty, but then had to restock it. But even then I was focused on buying things for recipes, not just to buy them. Only once did we go out to eat (and that time, with a coupon!) just because we didn't want to cook or clean.

Here's the thing...life happens. We spent more on gas because this month included two trips to Columbia and one to Hendersonville to take care of my parents and pick the girls up from their grandparents' house...We had a few opportunities open up for us to minister to others and that included buying them lunch or coffee. I know it didn't have to, but in these instances it just did. My camera was broken and instead of missing out on the lives of our small children any longer, we decided to fork out the money to get it fixed (after researching all the options, of course). I hosted a baby shower for one of my dearest friends...These things all add up, I guess.

I'm not going to beat myself up about it. Really, I'm not. I'm not even going to declare this month, "Money Saving March" or "Mo Money in My Pocket March" or anything else like that.
But I am going to try to make more small adjustments in our spending so that we can save and give more in the future.

So long, Frugal February. Although you were only 28 days, you felt soooooooo long.