"Christmas" at Mom's

We got to celebrate an early Christmas up in Paso Robles at my mom and ELM's house. They got Keira her first hair bow at I just love it! I love this pic of my mom with her too.

This pic and the next demonstrate Keira's first and second loves. First, dad.

Second, Grandpa(s). She has a special place in her heart for both Papa ELM and Poppa.

Cute Gram-Gram shot.

We had some fun with mustaches that Andrew got for Christmas.

Note that Andrew is not the only one in this pic wearing a mustache.

Cute Papa ELM shot.

I have to admit that I LOVE having a girl and this Christmas brought out some of the more ridiculous reasons why. She got a cabbage patch kid and I was thrilled. I used to have a whole family of them when I was young. They were so special to me. Even if this one wasn't for me, I was just excited to have one join our family. :) Keira also got the tutu above. Talk about cute! I still love sparkles and poofy dresses and pink. The problem with that is that I'm (yes, it's true) almost 30. I'm not quite as welcome to walk around wearing something like this tutu. I now have to settle for living vicariously through my daughter every time she wears it. :)

I put this pic in because of my face in the background. I have learned how awesome it is to watch my kids enjoy something given to them. I think of how God must feel when He gives us a gift and can watch us be excited about it. I think He feels like how I look here.

We also had a great opportunity to visit the Peaks, who we love so dearly. Visits with them are so meaningful to us.

Our official Christmas card photo... So... Merry Christmas!

Early December

The past two months for us have been INSANE so I'd like to catch up a little. I have been way too busy to blog, but we've been so busy doing things that are absolutely blog-worthy. So please, sit back, eat a candy cane, and pretend that it's the Christmas season again...

Gabe compared this to a picture he has of his bro and him. I hope this will be a memorable pic for our little kiddos too.

Barbers in Sleeping Beauty's front yard.

Heards on King Arthur's playground.

Keira's first carousel ride. For some reason, this is one of those big "firsts" in my book. It just makes them seem so big and independent... compared to an infant, anyway.

Brayden and Andrew holding hands in line for Peter Pan... So cute!

Isn't my nephew cute?
Keira with Santa.

Andrew "with" Santa.

Keira's new way to sit that makes Gabe cringe. It's so cute, though.

I have several nativity sets that I love putting out at Christmas. This year, I saved them all and each time Andrew wanted to hear the Christmas story, I would get out another set. We would go through the story while setting up the figurines. This one was at Andrew's level and so he changed the set up several times. I was only able to get a couple funny set up's on the camera, but there were many times that I would walk past and wonder what was going on in Bethlehem. The above shot shows off Andrew's need for everything to be neat and in order. My bro-in-law, Brad, would be proud.

This was an interesting one... Many questions come to mind when looking at it. One of which is: Where is Mary?...

Oh. There she is... on the couch.

Both of my kids love the laundry basket.

My Hero

Undeniable cuteness strikes again in the Barber home.

I'm Brilliant!

Here are some random tid-bits for you:

The other night, Gabe asked me what modified food starch was. I wanted to give him a good definition, but not make it too scientific and over his head. My response was as follows. "It's a starch that can be from a number of different foods that has been modified in some way." Yup. I'm brilliant.

Andrew loves dressing up so much that he pretends like Keira is dressing up most of the time too. Each day, he'll look at her and decide what she is and call her that for the rest of the day. Some of her "costumes" are: grape, candy cane, mango (This one has no outfit. I accidentally called her "mango" one time and Andrew hasn't let me live it down), penguin, and the one I think is the cutest: dolly.

Gabe is getting ordained this Sunday which has led me to think a lot about our church. I am so blessed to be right where we are right now. I love the people at our church. They are so special to us.

Keira took her first step the day after Christmas. Details will come soon. :)

This is my break for tonight. Gabe and I have been working until 12 am every night this week. It's actually been fun work, though.

Peace out. (It's still cool to say that, right?)