It's all about the gifts, right?

The other night as I was putting M to bed we were talking about how much fun we had that evening decorating our tree. Tree #2 that is because tree #1 which we had gotten the night before was infested with thousands of tiny little bugs. Of course we did not notice this until they were all over our floor where Brian and I had just been laying putting the tree stand on and where the girls had been crawling all over. This led to stripping off of the clothes and bleaching and vacuuming everything. Good times! Thankfully, the decorating of tree #2 was uneventful and nothing but enjoyable! I told M how fun it is that we get to do all these cool things to get ready for Jesus' birthday! Well apparently as parents we have forgotten to tell him that Christmas was Jesus' birthday or he did not remember because this was news to him which he was very excited about! Are we going to get Him a cake he asked? Great idea! And then he asked, "But Mom are we going to get Him gifts of golden?" We've been reading the Christmas story so M has heard about the three gifts the wise men bring. This simple question has stuck with me all week. What am I giving Jesus this Christmas season? Is it complacency, complaints and selfishness or humility, thankfulness and joy?

A good, lazy Sunday

Today was most enjoyable because we were home all day and for the majority of it we were in our jammies! The girls weren't feeling well so we all stayed home from church. We stayed warm and cozy inside because outside it was cold and dreary outside. Well Chico cold and that is 40 degrees. We made a fort out of blankets which brought back great memories of when I was a kid. My dad was the master of building forts out of blankets. He would often do this with my brother and I on Saturday mornings. I remember we would play silly games inside the fort. Now here I am doing with same with my son. We brought M's pirate ship and all his Batman "guys" in. It was good fun. He didn't play in there by himself like I had hoped; but still fun. All the kids took good naps which gave Bri and I time to enjoy the afternoon even more! He continued reading his new book called The Tipping Point by Malcome Gladwell. He says it's a good, easy read. And I finally decided to get dressed and then did some Christmas preparation stuff. More to come on what I am doing for some of my Christmas presents. My days are numbered to get these gifts in the mail!
Today I was reminded of when I was younger and I always had to be out and about doing something with someone. It was a must. I could not even fathom why anyone would choose to just stay home all day. And now I relish these days. When we are all together, home, just being together. It's all good!

Tis the season!

M has really been enjoying playing outside in dirt.

I have the holiday spirit and I love it! We enjoyed a nice family Thanksgiving dinner. Well as nice as it could be with 3 little ones :) Oh, and the run that I had mentioned in the previous post didn't go so well. Here's the short version= flat tire on one of the joggers, 3500 people on a very narrow path, it took us 8 minutes just to get to the starting line and we weren't even in the back!, we completed 1 mile at a slow walk and then cut it short by 2 miles and headed to the car. We gave are ourselves an "A" for effort! Anyways, the next day I took down all the Fall decorations, cleaned and then decorated for Christmas! I even got so inspired I put lights up outside! M has loved all of the decorations, although it has been slightly confusing to him because he thinks Santa is coming now! He's probably asked about Santa 20 times in the last 48 hours. We also got our family Christmas card pic taken yesterday which by the grace of God actually tured out pretty well. Hopefully soon they will be ordered. Go Costco! And today I started and almost finished Christmas shopping! All in about 3 hours. I was a woman on a mission with a plan and I accomplished it. We don't have that many gifts to buy because I'm trying to make some of our gifts, but still to have the shopping done feels oh so good! We hope to get our tree tomorrow. I'm looking forward to decorating it. I really enjoy this time of year and celebrating the most amazing gift of all...Jesus!

Speaking of celebrating, I'm turning 31 tomorrow!

Yep. He's 3 alright.

Sometimes with the way M interacts with us or others and the things he does it's hard for us to believe he's only 3. Recently, I feel like I've been dealing with a teenager, asking for the radio station to be changed to a "cool" song in the car, us asking him to turn down his music in his room because he only like it when it's blaring, arguing what clothes he wants to wear...seriously.

But today everything was brought back to reality when we were at gymnastics. He was in his class doing the obstacle course when all of the sudden he leaves the group to come over to me. I'm thinking he has to go to the bathroom. Nope. He runs over with his hand stretched out to me and says "Here mom. This is the big booger I just picked!" And hands me a very big booger, then runs right back to his class. Uhhhh...yep you are definitely 3.

Moo Cards...it's my new thing

A couple of weeks ago Brian gave me a surprise. Yes, another one. He's full of them these days and I love it! This one was just because and he is totally into as much as me. As he put it the surprise is a perfect mix of him and I. What he got me are Moo cards. When you look at the website, which you have to because I made it so easy for you and because you just have to see them for yourself, you will see that moo cards can be a variety of things: calling cards, a way to display art, family pics. For me, Brian designed them to be my mommy calling cards. They have my name, mother of M, T & K. My cell, email and my blog address as well as my Twitter name. Each has a cool design on the back. It's pretty fun and so thoughtful of Brian. I'm often meeting moms at the park, church, playgroups etc. and wanting to exchange numbers but don't have anything to write on or I have a million pieces of scrap papers with random phone numbers. I guess me having the cards does not prevent the dilemma have random scrap papers around unless others get Moo cards as well but maybe I'll start a new trend in town. So if you want my calling card, let me know. I'm happy to share :)

Birthday Weekend...and we're done!

The last 3 weekends we've had pretty big parties at our house. This weekend was the final one and I must say it was my favorite. It was the girls first birthday party! My parents were also in town for the weekend so that also made it an awesome weekend. We packed in as much as we could while they were here. Thursday we went out to dinner at one of our local favorites. Friday we went to open gym at gymnastics which was a blast! Who had more fun? Me or M? We both loved it and so did the girls, crawling around everywhere! And of course mom and dad loved watching us all. Friday night we had the annual Barn Blast with CRU. Lot's of fun fun doing line dancing and being in the "farm atmosphere". Saturday we went to the farmer's market downtown and checked out all the side walk sales downtown. Then it was party planning time for the afternoon. I did an initial party, lots of k's and t's everywhere. Party time was Saturday night and it all turned out really well. Even though the girls didn't really nap all day they did great. They went right after their cake and thoroughly enjoyed it! Brian made an amazing slide show to music of their first year. Tear jerker. I am hoping to get it uploaded to the blog soon. Along with lots of pics from our fun weekend. All coming soon! So finally I feel I can sit and relax a bit now that all of our big stuff is done. Whew!!! We made it:)

what's going on...

There's been a lot of sickness going on around here in the past 2-3 weeks and I'm definitely over it! This past weekend it was my turn.... cold and an eye infection that looks super gross. I affectionately call it my "pirate eye sty". Because that's what it is. A sty that is really infected and I think just look weird with a half shut eye, like a pirate. It made me look real nice for the party we had for 50+ people that I've never met on Saturday at our house! What are you going to do? The dessert party was for the freshman's parents who were in town. We wanted to expose them to CRU and show them we are normal people just in case they were wondering who their kids have been hanging out with. We went all out with lots of desserts, cute decorations, rented tables and linens, white lights (it was in our backyard) and heaters (a good last minute decision for the major drop in temp). Anyways, the party went great and we our so thankful for the encouraging responses we had from many parents. Also, we are thankful it is over! Now I can focus on my parents coming this week, and the girls birthday party on Saturday! Get ready for birthday morning pictures tomorrow.

Mission:One year pictures...FAILED!

Well I attempted to have the girls pictures taken today for their first birthday. The photographer is great, we've had her before. She suggested going to the park. I love this idea because the girls love being outside, so I thought even with the rough days we've been having (non-stop crying) we would be ok. It was for 10:30. Perfect. I can give them baths in the morning so they look all fresh and clean and their hair isn't crazy. They can get a decent nap in and be good to go!
Well everyone got up like normal. Everyone got baths and then the crying began...again. Day #6. I put them to bed thinking they can just sleep it off and still we will be ok. That idea didn't work out so well either. Both girls cried their entire nap time. So they were already worked when I strapped them in the carseats. But we are still going to do this! We get to the park, can't find the photograher.....10 mintues later we find her. I get the the girls out of their stroller and they immediately starting crying. We trying giving them snacks, pulling them in a cute little pink wagon, showing them leaves, the water....nothing helps. They are screaming, arching their backs, flailing around. It was not pretty. I gave it a good try for 20 minutes, worked up a great sweat trying to keep them and myself calm and clearly saw it wasn't working. I called it quits. The photographer was very gracious and we rescheduled for next week. Oh well we gave it a great try. This is life and we're rolling with it. Stayed tuned for try #2.

early family mornings

23.

We've been having some extra early mornings lately. The girls are on day number 5 of cold + teething really bad + yucky stomach virus = cry, cry, cry. The days start early and get long but thankfully have been ending early. I think because they are crying so much they tire out easily. One positive I guess :) Just looking on the bright side. I'm thankful it's now and not next week on their birthday, October 14!

Anyways I think this pic was taken somewhere around the 6 AM hour and we had already been awake for sometime. Notice how alert Daddy is :)

Lovin' the day...

Let me just describe to you what is going on in our house right now and why I am so happy and thankful! First, it's raining! You know you live in Cali when it rains and all the kids come out to play. And that's just what happened today. M & I went out to jump in the puddles and 4 others neighborhood kids were also out. M got some new rain boots from Grandma and Pa for his birthday. He's been wearing them pretty much all the time, everywhere. Nice fashion statement. Today is the first day he wore them in the rain. We had a great time playing, splashing, getting wet.

Now we're inside. All kids are sleeping. I'm in my favorite cozy Moosejaw sweats, that I've been waiting to wear and my favorite long sleeve O.U. tshirt. It's still raining and cooler outside. Candles are lit that have a yummy fall scent. I made some tea because I wanted to be warm and feel the moment even more, I'm not really a tea drinker. And I have some homemade pumpkin bread to munch on. OHHHHHHH! Don't you just love it? What a great way to start the weekend! Now I'm going to watch a movie we started last night but fell asleep and didn't finish. Hope your Friday has been a good one too.

Who is this kid?!?

Tonight at dinner was another classic comment from M that I just have to share. Brian and I were joking around talking about who was better, stonger etc. him as a Bruin (UCLA) or me as a Bobcat (Ohio University). Brian asked M what he was a Bruin or Bobcat and he responded "I'm king of all!" Seriously?

I don't think we need to work on self confidence.

lot's of little things

Fall weather is coming! Finally it's not sizzling hot out in the afternoon so we've been spending a lot of time out on our back patio. Here are some fun pics of the kids playing yesterday. The girls will be 1 in 3 weeks! They are crawling everywhere, pulling themselves up on everything and talking away in their jibber jabber talk with a few mama's and dada's in there. For awhile they were looking different compared to each other (at least to us). But in the past few days we've both caught ourselves doing double takes making sure we are looking at who we think we are looking at! M continues to be their entertainer. There are many times when they all are playing together. I love it.

Incase any of you were wondering I didn't win the give away on simplemom Oh well. I tried my hardest. And I'm still hopeful for getting the necklace for my birthday, since I shamelessly told the whole world what I want!

Still to come are pics from Fall Retreat at Mt. Lassen. We had a great time, the trip went well, and I'm still sore from playing fun, crazy field games all because the girls took a 2 1/2 hour nap while we were there! So thankful.

I'm in the process of making a major decision. On Thursday night it is the premiere for both The Office and Grey's Anatomy. What should I watch? I know trivial in the grand scheme of things. I'm thinking The Office and then I could alway watch Grey's online later. Any suggestions?

ok that's enough for now. back to folding laundry:)

Kids at Bedtime

Mase & Girls at Bedtime
Originally uploaded by brianbarela23

Just recently have we started giving all the kids a bath at the same time. The love it! And I like it too. The 5:30-7 time slot is a little crazy around here. People are getting tired, cranky, impatient and wanting the kids to be in bed (that's me and Bri). So the fact that bathing all 3 kids at once and then getting them ready for bed takes awhile is a good thing. Everyone is occupied and content. Usually part of the bedtime routine is M jumping on the bed as entertainment for the girls. Here is some footage of that.

p.s. i'm still learning about flickr, this is my first attempt at posting a video. Hope it works!

First gymnastics class

Getting ready to go...can you tell we're excited?

After class.


Thursday we had our first gymnastics class! Two words....LOOOVVVEEEDD IT! And I'm not talking about M, I'm talking about me! It was so fun to be back in the gym again. For those of you who don't know I did gymnastics from age 3-15 so the gym is a very comfortable place to me. Ok enough about me. Let's talk about M who the class was actually for. He loved it too. And I wasn't surprised he was really good at it too. The teacher was great and kept things moving which I like. She obviously knows the attention span of a 3 year old. We played with a parachute, did a fun obstacle course with some of the equipment and then jumped on the trampoline. The last 10 minutes were free time where M spent the majority of the time in a big pit of balls.

I loved spending time with just M and sharing something with him that I have so many great memories doing myself.

Let The Fall Begin

Our Fall with ministry began 2 weeks ago and it has been going great! We have had many new people get involved from the start. They are getting connected which is very exciting. There is always a new, exciting energy in the Fall. I love it! Brian has been speaking at the weekly meetings (CRU) and doing really good. This whole year as a large group we are going through Romans. Brian started it off last week. He has 2 more talks before we go to Fall Retreat on the 19th and then things will slow down a bit for him.

But....

For me and the kids tomorrow is really go time for us. We are starting many new things this week. Yes, all these things are starting this week...why everything at once?

• a play group with fellow moms of twins
• a women's bible study at church while the kids are in childcare
• our couples small group is starting up again after taking a summer break
• mommy and me gymnastics class with M! So excited. There will definitely be more posts on this in the near future.
• I'm going on campus 2x a week for discipleship with some our women leaders

ok so listing it out like that gets me a little nervous and makes me wonder if I'm a crazy person. But I'm excited about all that it brings...meeting new people, leading others, time away from home, special time with M, fellowship with others, learning about Jesus to be hopefully become a better wife and mom, growing in patience and flexibility and not being in control all the time.

Hope you all have a great week. I'll report back soon with updates.

Flickr

This week we joined the online photo group called Flickr. I really like it. It's an easy way to share photos and I like that all our photos are on the internet, just incase something would happen to our computer and we would lose everything. You can make photos open to only you or just family and friends or to anyone.

I'm still working my way through figuring it all out. I'm having trouble with putting pics on to the blog from flickr. So I'm working on it. We'll see. For tonight my computer work is done. Bri is working late. kids are in bed (by 7:40, small miracle) and now I am going to get all my Fall stuff out and decorate! I love it, it's my favorite season to decorate for. It's hard to get in the mood when it's still 100 degrees out though!

This one is for you...

You know you go through seasons in your marriage when you have ups and downs, feel distant or close, running in different directions or on the same page. It's all natural and we have experienced all these and more. Lately Brian and I have been experiencing some really good, sweet, fun times together. I've loved it so much. Our summer was fun for each of us but for half of it we experienced it separately. When we came back home it was refreshing to do life together again. The Lord has has given us opportunities to have more than the usual conversations where we are actually talking about what is going on in each others heads and hearts and not just who's doing this and where are you going? We've had time to talk about what we are learning, what we are struggling with, our future plans, time to pray for one another and time to encourage one another. We've also really enjoyed just being together. Whether it be cleaning up what seems to be the never ending mess in the kitchen, running errands with the kids, our family outings on Saturday mornings or hanging out on our patio after the kids are in bed. It has all been so enjoyable. I'm thankful for these memories, especially now as we go into a very busy time with ministry.

Brian encourages me to be myself and be confident in the person who God has made me. He encourages me to seek Jesus whole heartedly and the Word for answers. He encourages me in his faithfulness to pursue God at all times. He encourages me to do things on my own, to be different and take the less traveled road. He encourages me as a wife a mother and as a follow of Jesus.


So Bri this is one is for you...

Lessons from my backyard

This afternoon Brian and I were doing some yard work and it got me thinking. I enjoy doing yard work but I'm pretty hot and cold with it. When I do it I go out for a long time. I get hot, sweaty, dirty and I love it. I enjoy the instant gratification of seeing all the weeds cleaned out or a bush all trimmed up looking nice. But I tend to be a little lazy. I usually don't take time to get the roots of the weeds, just enough so it looks good on the surface. A temporary fix. I also have the habit of making piles all over the yard as I am working not cleaning them up when I'm done because I'm too tired.

Well I can easily relate this to my walk with the Lord. I can be hot and cold with the Lord. When I'm on I'm on. I'm seeking Him, growing and yielding my life to Him. But then life happens and I get tired, lazy, bored, busy, stubborn ...you name it and my walk turns shallow. I don't dig deep to look at the roots of what is going on, or seek Him for a change in my heart but just enough to look good for others or just enough to "get by". Piles build up in my heart that I don't want to deal with it because I'm tired and I just don't want to do it.

My desire is have a constant walk with the Jesus that is dynamic, growing deeper and deeper. Life does happen and I know my walk with Him will continue to look different with each stage of life. But my prayer is to not let it go shallow. It's refreshing that God is not keeping track of the days that I'm hot or cold, or keeping a checklist of what I'm doing or not doing for Him. Like I tend to do. I'm thankful for the grace and forgiveness that is always there.

p.s. The Olympics start tomorrow.

It's all about survival

Our days are tiring, non-stop, hectic, funny, chaotic and overwhelming. To say the least we are making some great memories and thankfully we still have our sense of humor in the midst of it all. The stress of life is hitting Brian and I in different ways. Brian has a weird thing going on with his hands and forearms where he has numbness from his elbows to his fingertips from what we think is a result of him clenching his fists while he sleeps. He found on the internet someone who had a similar problem and the doctor suggested wrapping ping pong paddles to his hands to keep the flat while he sleeps. So that is now part of our nightly routine. Me? Well on Thursday I found out I have an ulcer on my eye that you can get when your immune system is run down and you are stressed. It's extremely painful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. On Friday I was attempting to go about my daily routines with a home made patch on my eye. Mason called me a pirate, it was great. We had a moment where we just starting laughing uncontrollably as we took inventory of our lives. So it's ok if you are laughing at this point also.

Because of the state we are in currently we have adopted some new remedies in to our lives to ease stress:
1. We do yoga...it's great, we love it, and it kicks our butts!
2. We have tea time. We're into this high antioxidant tea called Yerba Mate made by Eco Teas. It's something we look forward to and we are hopeful that it is keeping us semi-healthy.

With all that said wouldn't trade these days for anything.