Oh my heart

Anika has a very bad habit of running from me when it is time to get changed. She has never liked getting dressed or changed, but is now just running from me and it drives me nuts. So today when changing her diaper she started kicking me with her legs and I gave her a little swat on the behind. She started crying and say "owwwww". Then gave me a sincere look, right into my eyes and said "mamma mad?" then began stroking my arm "nice touch", then looked in my eyes again and said "be friends?". Oh my heart just melted, completely melted. I just wanted to eat her up!

Hugs and silly faces

These girls are silly!

We went to a friends baby shower a couple weeks ago, and I think Caylin and her little buddy had one too many cupcakes. After the party they could not stop making the funniest faces! Anika just sat and watched these crazy kids.

We had a special playdate with our friend before she moved. I'm glad they are not moving too far, but we will miss them being so close!

Making yummy 'lemon juice'

These little faces make me so happy...there's another face that makes me very happy too, but she is a busy bee these days...and hard to catch for a photo. I can only imagine how busy she's going to be once high school begins!

2010!

I think I'm finally in the mood for updating my blog! After Christmas and our Big Bear trip, I was wiped! And in a funk, just not excited about the new year. No motivation to think of new year's resolutions, just blah. I'm really looking forward to my girls getaway coming up next weekend. I'm in much need to spend a weekend not only with girlfriend but reconnecting to God. I think part of my funk was being on break from our small groups and bible study. Plus I wasn't making time for my much needed quiet time. So I am really praying that next weekend will get me back into motion!

Our New Year's Eve was quiet. I did find a super yummy treat for Anika and I...ice cream! Anika had her first bite of ice cream! and she LOVED it! After the girls went to bed, Will and I stayed cozy by the fire and watched a movie. Aiana spend the night down the street with her girlfriend. New Year's day was beautiful. Aiana was pooped from being up all night, so Will and I took the little girls down to Balboa Park and walked around. The girls loved dancing around the fountain and chasing birds. I delighted in their uninhibitedness.

So in thinking of my resolutions for the year, I want to focus on increasing my capacity for Joy! I keep getting that true joy comes from fully putting my trust in the Lord, and joy will come no matter what the circumstance. I also want to become a more loving person. So I'm opening myself up to invite God to teach me what real love is.

National Lampoon's Barley's Big Bear Vacation

You never know what's gonna happen when the Barley's hit the road! This year Will found a great deal through a co-worker for a cabin in Big Bear. We booked it! We haven't been to the snow in years, not since Caylin had been born. Before that we went to Mammoth every year in January. Since we've had Caylin and Anika, traveling hasn't been the easiest thing for us, but we continue to try because we do love to travel. Caylin is old enough to be entertained by a movie in the car now and sleeps fine. Anika is pretty laid back, and Aiana has always been a great traveler.

So we packed up (way too much stuff, but gotta be prepared!). Thank goodness my mom drove too. Aiana brought a friend, so there were 7 of us and one car would have been very uncomfortable. All the girls rode with my mom, except Anika. She did great in the car. The drive was smooth and uneventful, but beautiful. We all got a little anxious to get out once we started to see snow. Big Bear was packed! Traffic was slow. We were all ready to get out and stretch our legs! Finally we arrived at our cabin....and there was a car parked in the driveway! WTH! Will got out and walked in to find two guys sleeping on the couch. As it turns out, we were double booked!! All hotels and lodges nearby had no vacancy, however, there was hope. My mom has a friend who lives in Big Bear and happens to live in a huge, gorgeous log cabin. We just caught her right before she walked into a movie and humbly asked if we could all spend the night. She said yes, she'd be happy to have us. We each had our own room, the teens had the whole bottom floor complete with ping pong table, darts, and Foosball. They were happy. We had a nice dinner, and breakfast in the morning. There were lots of sledding hills on her property. As we were packing up, I found that the girls broke the towel rack when hanging a towel. Oh so humbling. Then outside the girls sled right into their fence making a huge dent. I knew it was time to go before anymore damage was done!

There was a sweet sledding spot just up the hill. This area used to be a small ski slope years ago, so there were awesome clear hills for sledding now. We stayed here until we knew our cabin would be vacant.

Round two heading to the cabin. We arrived again to find an empty and cleaned cabin. Ahhh, we could unpack and get comfy. My mom and I unpacked while the girls played outside in the snow. It was decent and there was enough room, however it was hard to go from the updated spacious cabin to the 80's decor more then half the size cabin. We were kind of glad to be only staying now one night here.

My mom and I made dinner. Just as I finished the salad I noticed water was pouring out from the ceiling, splattering all over the place and into our salad. Then I heard Aiana "MOM the toilet is broken!!!!" Yeah, the toilet was overflowing upstairs and was now flowing down into the kitchen sink!!! I grabbed a bowl and had her hold it to catch the water, grabbed a towel and ran upstairs to soak up the water. Finally it stopped. Salad was ruined. But we were all able to laugh about it.

We relaxed the rest of the evening, played games, read, watched movies. At about midnight, Anika woke up....and stayed awake....and would not go back to sleep! Her nose was stuffy and she couldn't get comfy. She was begging to get up. Then begging for a banana. About 5 hours later she finally fell back to sleep.

The next day was the day we were going to head home. The day before had been gorgeous blue skies, today, it was gray and snowing. I was happy that we all got to see it snow before we left, but this snow wasn't letting up. We contemplated back and forth whether to leave or stay. But we couldn't see staying one more night. We took our chances. Will took the girls out sledding while my mom and I packed up. It ended up taking us about 3 hours to get down the mountain because we had to stop and put chains on. It was snowing, foggy, and COLD!!! But there really wasn't any need for chains. In fact my mom didn't even put hers on because, as it turned out, they didn't fit her tires.

The rest of the drive home was peaceful. I unpacked and took a nice hot bath. It was so nice to be home and warm. I sat down with my hot tea, ready to check my email when Aiana tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that she just puked all over the carpet! Ahhh, yes, the life of a mother!

This trip was full of craziness, but it was awesome. I was in awe of the peace that God gave all of us. I feel like we were given little opportunities to practice patience and faith, and in the end we all had a good time.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was peaceful this year. We all came down with a nasty cold about a week and a half before Christmas. I was hit pretty hard. It's never nice to be sick, however, it forced us all to be home together (the girls and I since school was out). It became a week of cleaning and organizing, we all enjoyed each other's company, and we all relaxed. It was a blessing in disguise. We were all well by Christmas eve and were able to attend church. Which was extra special because we had a few friends join us.

Caylin is very proud to be able to do her own hair, and creative to add a bow to her shirt also. I figured she looked a little like Cindy Lou Who and was dressed festive to go out Christmas Eve day like this. :)

After church we went to my dad's and had a relaxing evening. We were home early and all the girls crashed right away.

Caylin woke first at 6:30am and gathered the rest of the household. Oh how I love puffy morning faces (ha, not my own however), and Anika's crazy morning do's. Stockings are always fun, we take turns watching each other opening. Anika found some silly putty in her stocking and immediately grew attached, she held it like a little baby and didn't put it down. She refused any other gift for about 30 minutes. She finally put her "baby" to bed and moved on to more gifts.

The little girls were given new guitars from mimi and decided to wake the neighborhood playing them out front singing "Lessed Be the Name of the Lord" while daddy went out to pick up the crab and Aiana plugged in her new Dance Dance Revolution game.

As tradition goes, when dad got home with the crab he set them out on the lawn while the girls poked at them. We had 9 crabs covering our front lawn! Caylin came out ready to help dad with boots and oven mit on.

The rest of the day was spent with family, relaxing, laughing, and eating. What a great gift to be able to enjoy this all.