You've Been Hit By...A Smooth Criminal

Classic...


Mase Dancing to Smooth Criminal from Brian Barela on Vimeo.

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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well as some of you know we were out of town last week visiting Brian's family and at a conference for our job, Campus Crusade. Six days in a hotel definitely did us in and we are all very happen to be home. Good to see family and friends but good to be home. It's funny how even little people get drained and out of sorts when away from home for a long period of time. And then just like us love being back in familiar surroundings. My most favorite part of the trip was the quality time I was able to spend with one of my closest friends, Kyra. We used to work together here at Chico State. She is an amazing mom of triplets who are almost 1 1/2. Like ours, her life is chaotic so it's always nice to share in the craziness of life together. Our time together (lots of time in the hotel hallway while 6 kids were sleeping/crying) made me miss her a lot and realize even more how special she is to me. Thanks Kyra!

Brian is home with us all week (lucky him!). No bible studies, library time or anything so it has been nice for us all to be home. As you know from the video posted yesterday we've had some fun outside, more pics to come. And side note, I'm officially addicted to our leaf blower! I could do it for hours, just blowing everything away. It's a great feeling. Mmmm, what do you think this says about me??? We've been preparing for our first family Thanksgiving meal. We had the traditional meal in Long Beach with Bri's parents so we decided to put a little twist on the menu.

• Rib roast- Brian is in charge of this and I'm not sure of the details but I do know it's is going to be stuffed with goat cheese and chorizo. With that said, how could it be bad?
• Sweet potatoe casserole
• Stuffing with sausage
• Asparagus- one of the few veggies my husband will eat
• lots and lots of crescent rolls
• Pumpkin cheesecake

Yummmmm I can't wait.
But first before we get down to business with the T-Day Feast we have some other important things to do. We are running in the local Run for Food race. It's a 3 mile fun run, with over 2000 people signed up! Yep all 5 of us. And then when we get home I'm continuing the tradition that I did growing up, which my mom didas as little girl too. We will watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, eat cinnamon rolls and little oranges and sip egg nog!

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your day, there's so much to be thankful for!

M Playing in the Leaves

We're definitely in the middle of Fall--the last 2 years Brian has been behind in raking the leaves from our tree. This year, he was able to not only get ahead, but give Mason some time to enjoy the process.


Mason Playing in the Leaves from Brian Barela on Vimeo.

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:)

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 :)

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.

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!

What's going on?

What's going on with us? Well there is a lot these days, especially this time of year with school starting. Let me fill you in.

Brian officially started back to work this Monday planning with our staff team for this school year. Each day the team has met at one of our houses to rethink our vision for the campus and then plan accordingly so we can reach as many students as possible! It's very exciting. The team also plans our leadership retreat which will be Aug. 18-20, our discipleship times with our leaders (which I am so excited I will be co-leading 2 of those groups this year!) socials, fall retreat, our first day, first week, and first weekly meeting. Lots to do but the week has gone very smoothly and been very productive. Mr. Campus Director (Brian) is very pleased. Classes start Aug. 25. Life gets pretty crazy and non stop for the next 6 weeks or so for us. Ready, get set, hold on tight!!!!

On the home front we are settling back in to our normal routine when Daddy is gone all day. Playgroup, library time, bike rides, parks etc. Although we have been in the triple digits here this past week so we're indoors a lot. Along with playing Squidoo (see above post) we play baking, makes special art projects and practice our gymnastics for the Olympics. By the way I'm loving the Olympics but kinda bummed it's on so late. In a couple of weeks my women's bible study will be starting up at church. I'm really looking forward to that again. I forget what we are doing but we'll fill you in later.

M's birthday on the 24th. The big #3! Grandpa and Grandma Young are coming to celebrate with us for the weekend. He's really excited but has told me countless times he doesn't want any of his friends to come over for his birthday. Which is fine by me because we weren't going to do anything big anyways. But I think the real reason for this is he doesn't want to share any of his new toys! Way to think ahead, buddy! The girls were 10 months old yesterday. Too bad they are sick and had to go to the doctor on their 10 month birthday. Yet, another cold, bad cough, wheezing, snotty noses. Out comes our nebulizer AGAIN for breathing treatments. They are little troopers though and still keep smiling and laughing. They are almost 15 and almost 17 pounds. Still very small for their age but that doesn't stop them from moving around at all! T found the plant the other day and had her first mouthful of dirt and then decorated our carpet with the rest. K continues to move backwards everywhere. Yesterday she got herself stuck under our bed. I found her with only her little head peeking out! They laugh, wave, clap, say da da and baby, do lots of jibber jabbering, cry when their yogurt snack is all gone, steal toys from each other and LOVE their brother. He's is the funniest person they have ever seen.!

That's about it for now

**Pictures to come of our almost 3 year old and 10 months old girls.

Sqiudoo

This weekend a new game was born in the Barela household. It's called Squidoo (the name means nothing). M created this game after watching the skateboarders do jumps at the X Games on tv. Brian and I quickly got involved and we all had a blast. Let me tell you how to play so you too can enjoy this game with your family.

All you need is small tub/container/bin to jump over. And then the object of the game is to see what kind of crazy, daring, different jumps you can do. M pretty much did the same one every time but we cheered as if each one was different and better than the last. The competitors that we are, Brian and I tried to one up each other with each jump we did . We each came up with our "signature moves" that were our best. We played for quite a while and laughed a lot! We also were asking ourselves why we spend money on toys. Don't you wish we had pictures of this great event? You're in luck, it was captured on film so we could share it with you and to further explain what exactly we are talking about!

M getting some air.

The intensity of this game shows on my face.

Bri showing off his signature move.

This is what the girls were doing while we were playing Squidoo. Sometimes K would clap and squeal for us, but T pretty much just looked at us like we were crazy. I'm not sure why?

***Warning you will be sore the next day if you play this game right.

"The People"

Bri and I have coined a new phrase for our children. It is meant in the most loving way although it did come out of a moment of frustration. One day I was frustrated that the kids weren't sleeping and everyone was off their schedules (I'm a schedule person). Bri came home from work and I think the conversation went some thing like this:

B: How was your day? What did you guys do?
A: Well I didn't get much done because the people aren't sleeping!
B: What people?
A: Those people! As I pointed back to the bedrooms where there was crying and M yelling "MOMMY!".

And then we laughed. Oh, this is our life right now.

So you may often hear around our house.
Where are the people?
What are the people doing?
When do the people eat?
When are the people going to bed?
When are the people getting up?

We mean this in the nicest way. We love these people, we really do.

p.s. 3 days till we leave for OH. errands are done, packing has not begun.

Let the countdown begin

Ok one week from today we will be heading east to the Buckeye state for 5 weeks! Yep we are making the move across country for the summer. And I'm so excited....and I just can't hide it! :) ha ha ha! No, I really am so excited. It's been over a year since I have been back "home". Our summer assignment for Campus Crusade is taking some classes. Brian will be doing that in Orlando and after much thought we decided it would be best for me and the kids to just stay with my parents. So Brian will be with us the first week then he will fly to Orlando, actually Winter Park at Rollins College to be exact, and he'll be there taking 4 classes in 4 weeks. Yea, kinda intense. Another reason me and the kids are not going, he won't have much free time to do anything but study. Half way through our time in Ohio M & and I are flying down to visit Bri and we are going to go to Disney! Love it :) So that's what we are doing and now here's some things I'm looking forward to...

• Introducing the girls to everyone, specifically my brother and SIL! Only my parents have met them so there are many family members and friends to meet.
• Reintroducing family and friends to M. He's such a different person from when we were there last. He's his own little person and I can't wait for everyone to get to know him!
  
• Seeing my best friend and her husband and their kids.
  
• The mini high school and college reunions that have been planned.
• Running and talking with my dad.
• Cooking, walking and talking, planning, etc. with my mom.
• Chillin' with my bro and his fam, seeing their new house.
• Seeing grandparents, giving them hugs :)
  
• Having all my Ohio family and friends get to know our family.

I'm looking forward to the fun memories that will be made through all these special times.

Well 6 days to go. So much to do between now and then. And the in-laws and nephew are coming this week too. Ok let the fun begin. Pray for me.

Let summer begin!

Our summer "vacation" has officially begun. This week is finals week for the students so our time with the students is over until the fall and now we get to enjoy a little break. There is still some work to be done from home but for the most part we get to enjoy some family time for the next couple weeks. We are looking forward to playing outside, going to the parks, having picnics, getting some long runs and bike rides in, swimming and just relaxing being all together. In mid June we will be heading to the buckeye state for a much anticipated visit with my family. We are are all very excited for that, especially for everyone to meet the girls!

Soon to come is a top 10 list of of what we enjoyed most about ministry this year. We can't believe we just completed our third year here!

7 months

Our girls are 7 months old today! I can't believe it, really. They are amazing little girls that make us smile and laugh all the time. On Sunday, Mother's Day, they were dedicated at church. It was special that it was on Mother's Day. This picture is from their dedication. (K is on the left and T on the right) They wore these pink linen dresses my mom got them and gold cross necklaces they got for Christmas from my grandparents. They looked beautiful!

At seven months now they have hit yet another fun stage. They are really interacting with one another and with M. He is their little entertainer. They love it and so does he! And it's also very helpful to us. They are still about a pound and a half apart, T still the bigger one. But K is catching up! T can pretty much sit up on her own and K is almost there. About 6 weeks ago they started sleeping in their own beds and since then they have slept through the night. Amazing! Love it. They are full of smiles and giggles. K is always sticking her tongue out and kicking her legs. T lets us know when she is upset or tired by spitting. They have started eating cereal and have had squash a couple times. They may still be small for their age but they love to eat!

We feel like we are in a pretty good routine these days and really enjoying our kids.

Time Flies!!!

Wow! I can't believe how fast time goes. It seems like just yesterday that I was writing about Mason potty training and now it's 3 , weeks almost! So much has happened. Easter, a visit from my mom and of course the eventful week of potty training.

For those of you who are interested about how the potty training went read on. If not skip to the next paragraph. Our week was intense but fruitful. There were lots of laughs, M&Ms and spiderman gummies and cars, some accidents, tears and screams from Mason, exhaustion from Brian and I, and some victories! I can say that the pee thing is pretty much mastered the poop thing is a work in progress. But overall we are happy with the results. As Brian and I say we invested our week of spring break.

Our Easter was fun, spent with some friends. We realized that the life stage we are in right now does not allow us (Brian and I) to really spend time with one another when we are out of the house. Brian is usually keeping track of Mason while I am with the girls. The separation can be a bummer sometimes and a little exhausting but we know it is just a season. Easter night we went to visit our friends and co-workers new little boy at the hospital. Tobin Kelly has finally arrived and is doing wonderfully!

My mom came to visit this past Thurs-Tues. Although it was a quick visit time went slow and it was quality. I just enjoy doing the everyday things with my mom. We did a couple projects together, exercised, cooked and went on a family shopping outing to Roseville! It's great to have extra hands and love for the kids. Visits from Mom are always special :)

The Haps

This is what has been going on with us.

The kids and I have been on some new adventures. A couple weeks ago we were introduced to this new place that recently opened up in our town. In the afternoons it is a children's theater company but in the mornings now it is open to moms and small children as a giant play house. There are 4 different themed rooms: adventure, house, dress up, and the last room has a play house, blocks, tumbling mats etc. Mason loves it because it's all new toys for him and I love it because it really tires him out. His imagination has recently starting coming out more and more so this new place is great fun for him It's totally easy for me to take the girls and watch him run from room to room and of course get in the action too. Mason makes me some great meals in the kitchen!

Our other new find is the kids skate at the local roller skating rink. They play all kinds of games, give a little skate lesson, play kids music and I can take the stroller out on the floor and push the girls around. Mason kept his skates on about 1/2 the time and then just ran around the other half. The best part was when they turned off the lights and got the disco ball going. The kids were told to "smash the dots". He loved it! And again he was totally tired afterward :)
Here are pics from our skating adventure. Mason on the rink and then the other is what the girls did at the rink :)

Brian recently returned from the Destino conference he was in charge of. Everything went really well. He got great feedback for the way he led the conference and for the talk that he gave. And we are both happy it is over now!

I have my half marathon coming up this Saturday. I'm excited and ready as I'll ever be at this point. The goal is just to finish. I'll let you know how it goes.

30 years old and 4 months old!

On February 8 Brian turned 30. We had a great weekend celebrating his special day. On his birthday morning we had our staff team over for a birthday brunch. At Brian's request we had dinner plans at our favorite local resturant, 5th street steak house. He thought one of the college girls was babysitting for us but to his surprise his parents were our babysitters! We had a great dinner, just the two of us, and then came back home to have cake and ice cream with the family. It was a great weekend celebrating Brian and it was even better pulling off a surprise for him!

On Valentine's Day Kaia and Theia turned 4 months old! Can you believe it! Here is a little update on them.

• Kaia is weighing 9.11 now, still very small for her age but the doctor is very impressed with both of their growth rates. She loves to be held and snuggled and has this look that just melts you! She is our drama queen, enjoys playing with her hands, smiles quite a bit and likes her bouncer.

• Theia is weighing 10.12. Still a little bit bigger than her older sis and slightly more advanced developmentally. She is our little talker, she squeals with delight and will always smile for Daddy :) Theia doesn't cry as much as Kaia but when she does, watch out she gets mad fast! She does really well on her belly, almost rolling over and loves her swing.
  

So that's the update on us. Check out the pics on the next post.

Hanging with the triplets

Here is a picture from a couple months ago of the twins and triplets.

We hosted the 3rd annual Chili cook off at our house with the college students. It's become a favorite and more and more people come every year. I think the total count last night was somewhere near 60! As exciting as this is we didn't want to have the girls around that many people so me and Kaia Theia went to hang out with my Kyra who has 6 month old triplets. Her and her husband, Dave are on our staff team and she wasn't going to the chili cook off either. So last night it was Kyra and I and 5 babies. She has 2 girls, Elia and Paisley and a boy, Cooper. Poor Coop was greatly out numbered. When I got to her house the triplets were sleeping so were Kaia and Theia. Perfect, we thought, let's eat pizza and watch a movie. Who were we kidding! We maybe got 10 minutes of conversation before there was a chorus of crying babies. First, it was the girls because it was time to eat. But then the triplets soon joined in one by one. I think 4 out of 5 were crying at once! It was pretty funny...and loud. We had each others babies, switching on and off. Eventually, mine were fed and hers were calmed down. Dave and Kyra's roommates came home and helped out but they also have a one year old girl. Make that 4 adults and 6 babies in one house. I had a great time.