Vacation

We had a great trip to California. We went for the blessing of Luke Baillio. Austin did a great job giving the blessing. I was particularly touched when he spoke about the significance of the name Luke. In the Bible, Luke 2 is a detailed account of the miracle of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. And Austin said the birth of Luke was equally a miracle for he and Sarah. It was a great blessing.

It was also wonderful to relax in the sun and catch up with my family. It has been 1 1/2 years since I've even seen Adam's family, Austin's family, and Aaron.

Then we went to Disneyland, which was a fun, although different, experience. We realized we can't really do Amusement Parks for ourselves anymore. It's all about the kids.
It just gets too complicated to manage otherwise. So we thoroughly enjoyed the Dumbo ride, Peter Pan, Casey Jr. train, and even Small World. The only downside was Brooklyn's sheer terror at most of the big attractions. She cringed in fear at both parades. During the Pixar parade she leaped up, bounded into the stroller, and tried, in vain, to pull the sunshade all the way down to encapsulate her in a bubble of safety. I had to hold her after that. She didn't like the Finding Nemo ride, or the Monster's Inc ride. Basically, if it was overly loud, and had big animatronic things, it was scary. Oh well. Better luck next time.










Then we came back to this.......................

The Shoveler

I feel like all I know how to do lately is shovel snow. I'm getting so good at it, I actually kinda like it. I caught myself shoveling snow I didn't really need to shovel. What's happening to me?!

TuesdayMomMusings

So I'm going for the messy, wavy hair look lately. And someone said it looked liked a "birds nest". Should I be insulted? What if they had said "rats nest"?

I take a shower at the gym, and today I forgot to pack a few items. Lets just say yoga pants and a sweaty t-shirt are not as absorbent, as say, a towel is.
I did manage to bring two extra pair of socks though. Now that I think about it- I should have used them.

When you start feeling heat emanating from the trash- it's probably time to take it out.

How come my 9 month old son's sign of affection for me is screeching and clawing at my face?

Is it bad when you are talking to someone, and you are not listening to what they are saying cause you are imagining plucking their eyebrows?

At Chuck E Cheese last night Brooklyn was having a fabulous time climbing around the play area.You know the play area's that don't allow anyone over 45 inches in? When it is time to go, she comes down the slide leaving a streak of poo behind her. We quickly wipe it up with a napkin before anyone can see and we fly from the restaurant. On they way home I keep having images of what else was left inside the play area. But we couldn't do anything more, right? There is a height limitation people! Come on!

I figured out why doctors are rich- "weight checks." If your child doesn't weigh enough to fit the "average" weight bracket, Guess what!!! the doctor tells you to come back in a month for a "weight check". And they charge a for a office visit! As if I can't weigh my own child!
But now I'm catching on- I'm going to open my own office,weigh children, mark a chart, tell them to eat more, and charge 60 bucks. I'll be rich!
I got a catchy title for the office too- "Weight Checks Here".

You know you are having a bad day when both your children are screaming and you want to pull your hair out. You know you are having a good day when both your children are screaming and crying and you just laugh at them.
Today was a good day.

Brooklyn is ready to be potty trained if she poo's in the bathroom, and comes and tells you, Right???!! Nope, I wouldn't count it if it's in the bathtub. Especially cause you can't flush a bathtub.

Is it mean to make your child clean up their own poo? What if you paid them?


Conversations with Brooklyn

Me: Brooklyn, I need you to pick up these orange peels you dropped.

Brooklyn: I can't Mom- I'm too short.


Me: Brooklyn!You just dropped this entire carton of eggs- and broke them all!

Brooklyn: I'm sorry Mom- don't worry, Dad will fix them.

MondayMomMusings

I kinda like that none of my TV shows have had new episodes lately. I read more.
But will I watch them when they come back on? Of course I will dummy!

My sister with 3 kids, 3 and under, told me she was dealing with two temper tantrums at the checkout at Walmart, and the lady behind her kept rolling her eyes. OOOOooooooooooooo, that gets me so angry. If I was there wish I could have said something to her- or just kicked her in the face.

January is the worst month ever. Seriously. Name me one good thing about January.

I forgot to take my birth control for two weeks. hmmmm.

Is it bad that I feel like I have to dress up and do my hair to take the kids to the doctor? And I have to have a REALLY good story for each bruise and cut they have.

Anyone scared of Doctors? Does anyone have doctor friends? Are they normal?

Is it wierd that my husband went to see AVATAR with a another man? That they were sitting in the dark next to each other sharing candy and wearing 3D glasses?

I LOVE my green coat that Brad got me for Christmas. It makes me think I'm wearing grass.


Does anyone want to live in Disneyland with me?

2009 Barrand Family Picture

I'm dreaming of it

It's been snowing since 10 or 11 pm last night. Constant snow. We have a foot or more piled up on our deck and steps and driveway. It's supposed to keep snowing until 6pm tonight. Here's to a White Christmas! :)

Thanksgiving

This year's festivities took place in Denver with the Barrand family. We had lots of fun doing sports activities, playing boardgames, going Black-Friday shopping, and eating.

We also took some great photos with Celeste as our photographer. For those that don't know, every year the Barrand family does a crazy family photo. We all get dressed up to theme and take a photo for the Christmas cards. This year was Circus themed. We got some good pics, and Celeste has a lot of post-processing work to do.

Here is a sneak peek:

Isn't Celeste so hot? And my kids are super cute!

We went to Gettysburg last weekend, and had a try at being confederates.

I love this doughy boy. Brooklyn never had rolls of fat like this kid.

All Hallows Eve

What do you do in the Fall?

Hunter asks "What do you do in Fall?

Celeste says, "Well you can visit with family!"

"Ooo that is exciting." Hunter gasps

"Or just try to imagine that it's warm, and go swimming." says Celeste.

It's all about the computer

I'm figuring out things with a imaging software. I tried fixing this first photo that was over exposed.

Just added some color to these ones.

Smoke Free

We spent last weekend house sitting for a friend so we could run an OZONE GENERATOR to try and eliminate the smoke smell from our house. Even though the EPA discourages the use of these generators and discredits their ability to successfully remove odors, I have to say that it totally worked! We just made sure to air out the house before coming back in. But it's so nice to have a fresher smelling place. The kitchen has a lot of wooden cabinets which we think have absorbed a fair amount of smoke. So there's still a very slight smell in the main level of the house, but the rest of it smells SO MUCH BETTER! It's amazing the difference. We can actually smell our fresh clothes after a wash.

Anyways, so that's been our focus this past week. For the next two weeks I'll be out of town again on business so Celeste will brave it alone. Luckily I get to come home on the weekend. Otherwise things are pretty mellow here. We're sad we aren't going anyplace exotic for the holidays but we're super stoked that Mom is coming here for Halloween, and that Mom and Dad are coming for Christmas. And of course, we're excited to see Austin & Sarah and their new addition in February.

An Apple a Day

Some day I'd like to be a fancy photographer, so I saved up my birthday money and got a expensive SLR camera. It just came this weekend. So for my first attempt- we headed to an apple orchard.