Babies Aren't The Suck

So by now everyone knows we're expecting a little surprise in April right?  After Lola was born last March we were giving our tiny baby girl things away to our cute neighbors and I'll admit, I wasn't sad at all. For me, not being sad about having our last baby already here is a big step for me. I LOVE babies. Holy, you don't even know. I could cuddle and snozz with a tiny wee one every day til I die but this time, I wasn't really sad at all. I think I figured that I knew more than the man upstairs did and we just figured we were through. Little did we know.

In June, I thought my new pills were making me sick. In July I figured they were stopping my periods because they were too strong.

Think again, Allison.

Baby Number 7 will be arriving in April, and we couldn't be MORE excited. We waited til we were 22 weeks or so to tell people for a few reasons, but by now everyone knows.

Lola is a big girl. There have been a few people who have been worried that Lola won't get her "due baby attention time"...nonsense. This little girl is the first baby girl in this home in 16 years.  Not that we don't love our boys but trust me, attention going to Lola will NEVER be a problem.  Also, there have been issues raised about finances. Our beliefs are different than some of our loved ones, and we understand their concern, but we have faith. We know that when we're living a happy life and doing what we are supposed to be doing as parents and as a family, magical things happen. Miracles, really.  We make it work, and it always does.

Now that the word's out, I can't wait to fill you in on the details of my daily cravings.  Right?  Just kidding.  I'll let you know if I start wanting to chew on chalk but for now, I just love Milky Way candy bars. Please send me a billion for Christmas.

Thank you in advance for your generous chocolate gifts.

A

P.S.  Today is my parents' 38th wedding anniversary!  Love you guys!  Can't wait to see you in a day or so!  Drive safe!

Thoughts On The Day

It's 12:30 am, the wind is blowing in through my open window, a storm is coming in from the west. Our kids are all home. Every night I walk around the house making sure everyone is in their places. Jonah, Casey and Harper slumber in their room, a movie on the dvd player every night. Twilight and Jingle All The Way are faves. Who cares what they watch, they're the ones who go to sleep fastest.

My girls, they're both in the yellow room. Tv on falling asleep happily to QVC. Who are these people?  I hear Tiffany and Mackenzie, 18 and 16 respectively, happily chatting about something they want, or something that is just plain absurd. I remember the days when they were little, maybe 3 and 5, talking in their bunk beds about how they were going to make up dances and play store and house the next day. Nothing has changed except their ages. They're the same today as they were back then. 

Only Lola gets to fall asleep in my bedroom. I can't resist her. None of us can. She doesn't even crawl yet, and she's just turned 8 months old. The reason?  Every one of us carries her around all day long. She hasn't touched the floor in a very long time. She's a princess and she deserves it. She makes us all smile with her perfectly round face and dark brown long curly hair. I could just gobble her up like a honey baked ham. 

Scary things happen. They do. Every single family has drama. Every teenager goes through a bit of a struggle. Every heart gets broken, every cry eventually turns into a laugh. We're a family. We're puzzle pieces that fit together in love. That's all I could ever want.

Protecting Our Children

Having more than one computer in our home has been the norm for more than 5 years now. With most of our children in school and being teenagers, we use them for homework, for keeping in touch with family and friends who live far away, and we understood that there would be threats. Over the years, we've allowed access to Facebook and YouTube, the normal fun sites we ALL use. We're careful to keep tabs on the history, the downloads and the chat features except for gmail chat and Facebook chat have been blocked. We have a fairly strong net nanny, is what I'm saying.

Let me tell you something.  THIS IS NOT ENOUGH. We have been attacked by someone over the internet. Thankfully, the child this person has attacked is our 18 year old. This only makes it slightly easier, but no less heart wrenching.  We now have 1 computer, and it is in our bedroom.

Thankfully...THANKFULLY...our daughter is the one who came to us. But not before this person had sent a plane ticket and a shuttle last weekend to our home to pick her up. No. I'm not kidding. This has also been going on since the summer. It is disgusting and we can't stop our adult children from doing whatever they want to do, but we're letting her blame us for this "save". She's using us as the reason she can't be with him. Good. If that makes it easier for her to stay away, then awesome. He doesn't know that we also know he told her 2 days ago that he's already mailed her a cell phone so they can sneak around until they can get her to him. This man is over the age of 30. He's almost my husband's age. He is scary.

All and all, she came to us. She told us. She daily has conversations with us, and we are so so proud of her.

People. FACEBOOK. FACEBOOK right in front of our FACES. She's 18, so she can have a profile, but just know that these sick people will pretend to not even know that what they're doing is wrong. Please, watch everything that happens to your kids. Parents who have kids at college?  The same goes for you!  Watch who they talk to. Watch them for signs that they're not feeling happy about themselves, or watch for symptoms of guilt. Tiffany finally came to us because she didn't know how to get out of something that she got herself into this summer. We support her, and continue to stand strong WITH  her.

In the mean time, please, use these resources we've found helpful over the last month:

http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/166

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide/parent-guide

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=6aa77fae6f3eb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Please, please know that these individuals don't always seem terrible, they may not ever mention sex and they may not even want to believe that THEY ARE SICK. They become addicted to your children, and they prey on their emotional insecurities. Tiffany needed someone to "call her" and "check on her" and "visit with her" while she was a teenager, and while she adores Mike, and she says that the reason she came to us is because she knows that Mike and I love her, she's been missing a certain parent for a long time. This sick person filled that spot the that the other parent has neglected to fill for years on end now.

Thank heaven she came to us. We will continue to support her and to get her daily help. She is free to do what she pleases, but we will be here for all of her decisions no matter what they are.

Protect your kids. Talk to your kids. Make sure your kids feel safe talking to you.  Mostly, just love your kids. Love them no matter what.

Thankful

• mike's job
• my amazing clients
• my health
• my testimony
• my children
• milky ways
• diet dr pepper
• good ice
• friends who know when to call
• forgiveness
• Harper's excitement when he's invited over
• Castle Crashers
• little boys and little girls

We're Blessed With Amazing Friends, And You Know Who You Are...

Let me say that the last 3 weeks have been one huge thing after another. Thank you to all my friends who were inspired to call us. We don't call others to blab our troubles, and those of you who are in tune...thank you thank you thank you for being so amazing. Let me tell you, the support we've had has come from people who we didn't even know cared that much. That text at 2 am on Saturday morning?  You know who you are, and let me tell you...you are a sweet love, and we will be friends for eternity, k? K.

Anyway, she's here still, we're still working on it. 3 days in a row without a wink of sleep for Mike and I, and daily trips to LDSFS have taken a toll but we're hanging in there.

Love you so much from the bottom of our hearts,

Mike and Alli Easley

The Hills Are Alive!!!

Tonight we're going to see a free concert at the top of the Provo Town Square parking structure. It's part of the Rooftop Concert Series being sponsored by all kinds of cool companies and people, including the fantastic singer/blogger/tambourine player/couch with wheels driver cjane! Anyway, it's at 8 pm, and Mike and I are taking the "well children"  with us. By "well children", I mean the ones who are not strepped out. That's a fun story for another time.

Anyway, I've always loved hymns. I come from an EXTREMELY musical family, my mother being a concert pianist/music teacher/singer/master of all things music who also has a degree in Music. She's amazing. My dad plays the drums and sings, my brother and my sisters and I all play multiple instruments and sing, so if you want to imagine the Von Trapp family growing up in Vegas singing in church all the time and for groups of people, go ahead. You wouldn't be that far off.

So when I found out about the Lower Lights performing tonight, I knew we had to go.  It's on the top of a parking structure, no seats, just twinkly lights, a crude stage "area" and people sitting on blankets and lawn chairs enjoying music.  This is perfect for us. We need something to do that has everything to do with music and nothing to do with having to be fancy. Not with a 6 month old baby and kids of many other ages.  Now, I don't like any one type of music only, and the Lower Lights are just some really musical folks who live around here that take the hymns I've grown up on and make them into amazing folksy kinds of songs. They're fantastic. You need to buy their album on iTunes immediately. Except if you're my sisters or my brother or my mom, don't get one for Dad for his birthday, I already got it.  Woot.

I could make music my life if I had the real gumption to do it, but I feel like I express my love of it through images, and that's what I'll be doing tonight. Taking pictures and listening and imagining all the things that come to mind when I hear the hymns I grew up on.

Here's an example of what we'll see tonight.

Secret Prayer from The Lower Lights on Vimeo.

Jealous?

If you wanna buy it go HERE, and even if you don't wanna buy it just yet, you can go to that link and listen to the rest of the album, and then you'll probably want to buy it then. I promise.

♥