My husband...my rock

Before I even start this I know this may embarrass my husband because he is super humble, but I just had to share. Besides, his dad told us a long time ago that edifying your spouse in public is a good thing!! Actually its the B.E.S.T thing. Right Gary?
So, without getting into a long, drawn out blog I will tell you that some old ghosts in my past have come up and brought up concers I have about some very important things in my life. These things seem to consum me all the time and when I am unsure of this area of my life it throws me off in a way that I can't explain. I was feeling silly about it all, but couldn't ignore the fact that it was bothering me.(its spiritual stuff. so noone goes running with what you think it could be) So, I thought, I will talk to Dallas about it. However, I was nervous because I didn't want him to brush it off like it wasn't a big deal because to me it was. Plus, it is totally my "thing" to talk about deep stuff and not really his. Well, I had to talk to someone so I sat him down and explained what I was worried about. I then apologized for it being such a big deal to me but that I needed his guidance, cover, support, understanding...whatever. All of a sudden he began to talk about what I should do and how he will cover me and our family in a way I have NEVER heard Dallas talk. I have to tell you I cried later that night over what a blessing I have in him. Dallas, as many of you know, is a very quiet, slow to excite kinda guy. My complete opposite in so many ways. Often times this is what frustrates me about him. Well, God taught me a lesson. Dallas isn't flighty for a reason. I NEED someone who is a rock. Who knows who he is, what he believes and WHY! He NEVER lets other people, what they think, how they believe or how they feel effect him or change him. I can't tell you as a wife how comforting these characters of his have been to me over the past week. I have to admit to you that I have often said to God in frustration during prayer, "Dallas is not a leader for me!" Man, did He blow that one up in my face. God showed me that He is EXACTLY that and that Dallas' specific leadership skills were developed JUST for me! God knew that I was like shifting sand and that I would need a rock in a husband to keep me grounded! Sound like another relationship we all should seek after? Yep, our relationship with Christ. WOW! What I have learned from this (or I should say from Dallas) is that we are Dallas and Cindy. We don't have to know everything, we don't have to believe and agree with everyone, we aren't always the pictures that movies paint of the perfect couple, we aren't the "it" couple on a magazine....but WE ARE Dallas and Cindy. Not one without the other. Love like this...well....can't EVER be reflected on screen. Mainly because it is much more that sexual passion, batted eyes over candle lit dinner, walks on the beach under the moon and stars....its respect, honor, admiration, trust, humility, patient, kind, appreciative...its unconditional.

Thanks for listening to my bragging on Dallas. After all this blog IS about my family and not just Presley. Although, she is pretty much all we talk about! HOwever, the way he has made me feel in the last week is worth sharing. He probably doesn't think so but I do. Plus, I think it fitting to share why I LOVE MY HUSBAND and CHOOSE to continue to love him everyday seeing as our 6th Anniversary is this Sunday. Now,lets just pray for Cindy to remember these feelings when I feel the need to get on to him for not picking up his dirty socks...oh how human we are!

Ok, I finished this blog and realized how busy we are this week and that I may not get to post on our actual anniversary, April 5th. So, I wanted to put a slideshow up, surprising, I know! Anyways, when you hear the song I chose you are going to think to yourself "Why did she choose this song?" Especially if you know the story behind it. Well, I chose it because I feel "Held" by God when I think of His provisions for my family, for my husband and myself. Dallas and I have survived 4 moves, 2 deployments-both to the desert (thank you God for bringing him home), loosing friends, financial upsets, being seperated from family and friends, church hopping(heehee), a sister's heartache, new neices and nephews, pets and our first year of parenting. Through all of it we have been reminded that God's promise to His children is NOT that we will be saved from the strife of life, but instead that He will carry us, comfort us and hold us as we struggle in and even celebrate in life. Enjoy the pictures I put together of our last 6 years. There are pictures of us from when we met, to our wedding, to our time on the Gulfcoast,to out time in California, to Italy and all our travels while we were ther, to now with our new baby Presley. I even threw some pictures of the flowers he has given me over the years.

11 months old

Presley is now 11 months old. I know I say this every month, but where has the time gone? I really can't believe that a year ago we had just moved to Gainesville and were looking for a house to live and I was ready to POP! Wow! Presley has been the greatest joy for Dallas and I. She is super sweet. Always up for something new and seriously serious when she needs to be. This past month was a tough one while we battled ear infections, but ended well. Actually, we were one week free of ear infections and today she fell and hit her eye on our window seal giving her a small cut and a bruise to go with it. Poor Baby! I suppose she inherited her mommy's clumsy gene! Next month Presley will be 1 and has already given us a lifetime of memories. We have lots of things planned over the next month and a half, but I will try to keep up with the blog.

What Presley can do at 11 months
attempting running
climbs our playground next to our house
can say, momma, dadda, ball and hi
if asked to go and get something she will and bring it to you
will let you stack her cups but is DEATHLY afraid of knocking them down(seriously I will have to get it on video!)
Just cut her top two teeth
throws tantrums (augh)
likes ANYTHING that has to do with water...ANYTHING...even washing her hands
loves to put anything and everything in containers. Like balls in cups, blocks in tupperware and so on!
Loves pulling her little frog on a string
Does hand motions to twinkle, twinkle
Follows complex instructions.
Babbles along when I rock and sing her to sleep at night
Colored for the first time when we went to St. Augustine for Dallas' spring break

Shakeology!

Beachbody just released its newest product. I am so excited! Shakeology is a shake with 70 healthy ingredients. Found in One Meal! Shakeology is an effective way to lose weight, increase your energy and be the healthiest you can possibly be. In an independent 90-day study,participants who replaced at least one meal per day experienced some amazing health benefits. I know we are all busy and all of us want to be healthier but struggle with the time and sometimes even the cost it takes to be healthier! That is where Shakeology comes in! Do me and you a favor and check out this video and the website! Contact me with any questions you may have!!

The Link

Hey! Here is the link for the technique the chiropractor used on Presley! Some of you had asked me about it so I just thought I would post it here. The technique is called NAET-allergy elimination.

EWomen Conference

This past weekend I went to the Ewomen Conference in Tampa, Fl with a good friend. I haven't been to a women's conference in 3 years. I absolutely forgot the power of God's presence in that place. It is overwhelming to look around at all the women from all different walks of life praising God, YOUR God! It is incredible. The testimonies of the speakers were so inspiring. We got to hear Amanda Thomas, Stormie Omartian, Chondra Pierce, Meagan Clinton, Julie Clinton and Candace Cameron-Bure. The singers were Natalie Grant and Kathy Tracolli. The worship was led by Michael Obrien, who used to be the lead singer for New Song.

The conference title was "Free to be REAL"!! I found that so encouraging. Especially as a new mom, so often you are hungry to hear someone else say, "Man this is hard and I mess up a lot! Oh, but God is gracious. Even in my mess ups he gives my little one such a sweet love for me!" Sometimes I feel in so many areas in life we are soooo embarrassed to show the world what we struggle with and yet in that weakness is where God's glory can shine. God's calm, rest and strenght in a storm is so alluring and addictive! I learned this weekend that this is what our world needs. So, I have asked that God help me to praise him in my simple and complex storms. I pray he will help me to be honest and REAL with the people in my life so that they can see the wonderful workings of Christ and his glory in my life when those storms are calmed and I have rest! I want others to see this imperfect person being perfected by a PERFCT God!!

I hope that if any of you women out there have an Extraordinary Women's Conference or a Women of Faith conference come near you that you will load up your girlfriends and go. It is really inspiring and gives your spiritual walk a little spark. I pray I will always be able to attend these or something like it. I just don't want to be a mediocre women of God. He calls us to be extraordinary!!

Here are a few pictures of the conference.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Chiropractors are the way to go

We took Presley for her last shot yesterday. Before we went, however, we stopped by the chiropractor to see if he could adjust her neck. Sure enough he found lots and lots of blockage in her lymphatic drainage system. He worked on her for a while. We went to her pediatrician's office about 2 hrs later and she was shocked. She said they looked almost as if they hadn't had an ear infection. She got our her little tool that measures air in the middle ear to document it. She said that Presley's ears were so bad before that she guesses she wouldn't have been able to measure any air for the last two months. She was just tickled. She said that the left ear had no change with the Rocephine and that it wouldn't have gone down that dramatically over night. NOw our next step is to figure out what the cause of all this is. So, needless to say our new best friend is the chiropractor. Dallas and I have always believed in chiropractic work and have even referred other friends with little ones to chiropractors. We just hadn't found the time to get Presley in yet. Not making that mistake again!

Anyone want an ear infection?

We would gladly give away ear infections to any one wanting to try them out. Even if you aren't that brave and would like just one ear we have 2 to go around. Yep. That is right. When we went in for Presley's check up after her last 10 days on antibiotics her ears were still infected. Yuck! So, that means she has pretty much had an ear infection since December. Nice! The doctor decided, enough was enough. She was sick of Presley being sick. So, she hit us with the big guns until the discussion of tubes will be had. We are going in for the new shot series called Rocephin. We went in yesterday, today and will go in tomorrow for shots. The doctor said normally this shot series will take care of it. These shots are NASTY! They hurt soooo bad. She has big ole' knots on both legs. I sure hope they use her butt tomorrow and not her left leg again. Anyways, after the shots we will pray she won't get another one, but we still have to find the underlying problem for the chronic ear infections. She did have a cold the last time but it wasn't significant enought for the severness of the ear infection she had. So we are testing her tolerence to casein milk protein. No dairy for her or mommy....again!! That is ok. If the ear infections get better, well, bring on the Rice Milk and Veggie Cheese!! Well, just wanted to update you all. Crazy, crazy. I know. But, if you are wondering. My little girl is happier than every and learning to run....in the middle of 3 months of double ear infections. If this doesn't slow her down I don't know what will. God help us.

Recent photos of Presley

Hey! So, I have taken a lot of pics of Presley recently and never have time to blog about them all. Here are some highlights of the last few weeks. I took some pictures of her in the dedication gown that was made for the Gipson grandkids. She was so beautiful in it. I also got pics
of' her with the head band her Mumsie(Dallas' mom) got her that she will wear as a head band now and as a garder when she gets married! Cool concept, huh? Then there are some pictures of her at the park with her playgroup. There are also pictures of us at Lake Alice. It is a lake on the campus of Florida. There are some beautiful azaleas in bloom there right now and we got some great pictures of Presley while we were there. I think there are some pictures of Presley in her first bubble bath....well shower. While she was taking a shower with Dallas the bubble bath creature busted and she was COVERED in bubbles! Too cute! I think the last pictures are of her in an adorable yellow outfit. This is a 3 month outfit that when I got it I thought-she won't wear this till she is a year old. I was close. I just couldn't take enough pictures of her in this outfit. She was so pretty in it! So, enjoy all the slideshow and we will post more later!!

Layla Scout Westbrook

Welcome to the world Layla Scout Westbrook! Layla came into the world at 3:24am this morning, March 7th. She weighed 7lbs 9oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. Mom and baby are doing fine, now! The labor was not easy on Lisa. Her water broke at 4am Friday morning and after 23 hrs of labor, with 3 hrs of pushing, they ended up taking Layla via C-section. Due to Lisa's previous epidural the spinal for the c-section was placed higher than normal. She had difficulty breathing after they placed the spinal so they had to put Lisa under full anesthesia. Therefore, Keith was unable to be there during Layla's birth. However, they have seen her now and have had some time to get to know their new little girl!!! It was a wild 24 hrs for the family but everyone is doing fine! Now they are just exhausted and trying to get some rest while dealing with a newborn! All of you with babies remember that feeling!! There will be plenty of pictures to come!! You can also check out Lisa's blog by clicking on "Westbrook Walzes" on the right side of the page.

Congrats Lisa and Keith!! We can't wait to hold her and Presley can't wait to hold her Layla!! We love you all. Lisa you take care of yourself and Keith try to get some rest!