Haircut

Here's the new hairdo! I was inspired by my friend, Allie, who just got the cutest cut ever and so I went for it. I've learned that for me to get a real haircut, I need inspiration. Thanks Allie! I'm already loving it! I hope I can figure out how to do my do tomorrow!

We went to Disneyland today with my friend, Rachelle, and my new friend (I just met her today), Jen. Everyone had a lot of fun, but Keira was pretty much sleepy the whole time. She is already quite the social butterfly and has a hard time not being a part of the action (I don't know where she gets it from). If you look closely in this pic, you can see a tear on her cheek from crying because of how tired she was.

I had a hard time not taking pictures of Keira today. I just thought she looked so cute! The shirt she has on reminds me of my friend, Janelle.

By the way, new stats from her 6 month visit are...
weight: 15 lbs 7 oz. (50th percentile)
height: 26.75 inches (90th percentile)

Here's a cute Andrew story... Andrew is still afraid of the vacuum, but he also has some weird fascination with it. The other day while I was vacuuming, Andrew was sitting up on the couch, completely still and quiet out of fear as I cleaned around him. I left him alone with the vacuum in the family room while I went down the hall. I didn't know how he would respond when I didn't take the vacuum with me. As I listened to him from the hall, I heard him say to the vacuum, "I love you, vacuum. When Andrew is a daddy, I use you too."... WHAT?!

Signs

I've been seeing some signs around town lately that just crack me up...

FREE GAS WITH BAIL BOND
(Like they need more help fleeing the country.)

FREE VACUUM WITH CAR WASH
(I highly doubt that.)

99 Cent Video and Water
(Name of a store)

VALET PARKING
...wait for it... at the YMCA!

Life in the Barber Home

Last week was my first day back at The Pursuit Bible study for women at EV Free in Fullerton. I was a part of the study last year too and I'm looking forward to another great year. Both of the kids go to "play group" while I'm at the study for the whole morning. In Andrew's class they actually do crafts and a Bible story, etc. It's really cool and he enjoys it. It's a lot like school so I decided to take "first day of school" pics... of both kids. This may not be the best pic of Andrew, but have any of you tried to ask an excited 2.5 year old to stand still for a picture?

This is Keira's "first day of school" picture. (It's a lot like the one on the last post, but I think she really looks like she's posing for a school picture here.)

Gabe and I made bagels for the first time the other night with other Gabe's recipe. They were supposed to be chocolate chip, but we mixed in the chips too early to the warm dough. We got chocolate bagels instead. They were tasty! There is no reason for this picture except that I like it!

We all went to Disneyland a week ago and went down an alley that was pretty empty. One of the Disney workers was there and gave us "Disnyland Dream Passes." They have little tear-off tabs for 12 different rides at the 2 parks that can take you straight to the fast pass line. Pretty cool, huh? (We actually gave ours to a nice-looking older couple who were very excited to get them. There were only 3 kids rides on them, none of which Andrew was really into.)

Now THIS is what Andrew is into.

This was Andrew's first time on the teacups. He liked it and didn't barf!

A week ago, we moved Keira into Andrew's room. They've done fairly well together, especially at night. I think they're pretty much used to it now, actually. This video is from their first naptime together. It was after church and they both seemed wide awake, but after church that usually means that they're past tired and exhausted so I laid them both down. They sat like this talking to each other for about 5 minutes before I walked in there. On the monitor, I kept hearing Andrew say, "Keira, what are you doing, Keira? Keira, you're funny, Keira!" Keira was just squealing and laughing (until she saw me here.) I love having them in the same room. It's so cool!

We had Josh over the other day. This is probably the most organized chaos I've ever seen. You can't tell, but we're singing, "The fox" song.
Little boys and forts!

For the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fans out there, maybe you've seen the one where Goofy builds a bird house. Well, this is Andrew in his life-size bird house...

... and this is him knocking it over.

My Little Mei-Mei

Here's our little Keira at 6 months!
We call her, "Mei-Mei", which means "younger sister" in Chinese. I know she'll always be younger than Andrew, but it just seems like she's growing up so much faster than he did. She's a happy baby who definitely has her favorites, but enjoys almost everyone. She rolls and scoots all around the room (and sometimes down the hall). She's a daddy's girl for sure and if she had a second pick, it'd be Andrew. She won't take a bottle under any circumstances. She's a good sleeper and loves bathtime. She's tickelish and loves to be zerberted. She enjoys being thrown in the air (and caught again). Her favorite songs are "Baby Beluga" and "Keira had a little lamb." Her favorite book is any that I'll let her chew on and her favorite toy right now is a little blue dog rattle that used to be Andrew's. She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with Andrew and smiles any time Mickey or Goofy come on. She loves diamonds and anything that looks expensive. (Help!) She's a fun little girl and we love having her here with us.
We finally started her on rice cereal about 1.5 weeks ago and she gave us a look like, "It's about time!" She likes to eat, but doesn't pig out like her big bro. I think she's just excited to be at the table with the rest of us with a spoon in her mouth.

Andrew and Keira get along so well. It's hard for me to believe. They both love being together and seem to miss each other when they're apart.

I snapped this quick shot of us yesterday and was shocked to see how different we look. I guess I always expected our daughter to look like me. I don't really see any resembelence at all! Crazy!

Keira is so cute when she eats. She literally says, "Num Num Num." The second video is her saying, "mama", although not talking about me, of course.

Retreat!

Last weekend was a retreat for our church. We went up to a retreat center near Big Bear for 3 days and had a blast. Above is a group of us who went for a hike Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun, but quite a workout! It was beautiful and the company was wonderful.

One of the windows in our cabin was missing a screen so Andrew designated this site as his eating area. It was very cute.

Andrew was a great camper. He spent most of the time with dirt on his face and a smile from ear to ear.

Keira was great up there also. She slept better than I anticipated and was a lot of fun. (Sorry for the sideways pic.)

I'm not totally sure what the story is behind this elephant, but Andrew thought it was cool.

Here are Andrew and his buddy Noah with Wesley, one of the "big brothers" (7th grade). It was so cool that Andrew could just walk outside and play with his friends!

Daddy-baby relaxing time.

Here are a few shots of the scenery...

As for the actual retreat...

Andrew got to go to the pre-school sessions. He played and sang songs and did arts and crafts. He loved his "Sunday school in the mountains" and still talks about it.

Keira got to bond with many different people at our church and seemed to have a great time.

Gabe and I had a BLAST!!! One of the foundations of our relationship was ministry, and more specifically, ministry together. It's been about 5-6 years since we've been able to really minister together. This experience was so refreshing for us and a HUGE blessing to our marriage. Even the planning for the teaching sessions for the past month or 2 have been awesome time for us together. I'm excited for the next opportunity we'll have, even if it's not for quite a while. This experience gave me some encouragement that it will happen again. This is just a uniquely difficult time right now with the ages our kiddos are. In the meantime, I am VERY thankful for the experience and the joy that it brought to our home. Thank you, God!

The Cutest Ring Wraith

Out of all the Nazgul I've ever met, this one is my favorite!