All I wanted for Christmas...

was to spend time with family... and that is what we did! We had an amazing time this Christmas! Mya did pretty well for her first Christmas, especially with all the traveling and such that we did. She loved seeing all the extended family for the first time. We took so many pictures, but here are the ones that made the cut! Mya and Uncle Steve at Grandma's house. We don't get to see them very often because they live in Chicago. It's always nice to get to spend time with them and their beautiful kids.

My Grandma "Longhair" and my sister. So cute!

My Uncle Jeff and my adorable cousin Matthew. We just love seeing Jeff and Stephanie and their boys.

This is Dan playing wii boxing with my cousin. He was not very good. I guess I probably shouldn't say that he was getting beat by a ten year old... oops, I just did!

It was great to get to see friends this Christmas too. This is Lindsey, Laurel, Cassie, and me. We don't get to see each other often and now that three of the four of us have kids, it will be even harder!

More friends! I'm so blessed to have such great friends from high school that I can still keep in touch with. Here I am with Anna, Morgan, and Anna. I love these girls so much!

Mya slept through most of Christmas morning and Mima was letting her do it! Don't they look so cute!

Here are the cousins on my side. Mya, Jordan, and Dorian. My sister bought Dorian and Mya matching outfits that looked so cute. It was Dorian and Mya's first Christmas!

I love this picture of Papa with his baby grandkids. Dorian was just staring up at him so intently. He's a good Papa!

Terry was insisting that there be pictures taken of him with his grandkids because he thinks there aren't enough taken, but I have to say that I don't have any of Debi with Mya, but I have three of him! So here's one of Mya with her Papa!

We had fun spending time with Matt, Sarah, and our niece and nephew. Here's an adorable picture of them, minus Silas. I'm sure Grandma or Papa was holding him!

Last, but not least, here's our adorable Santa! She was so calm and pretty in every picture I took of her in this Santa suit. My sister got her this and Dorian had a matching one. So cute! We had an amazing Christmas with family, friends, and most importantly, celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Dan and I are so blessed and we most definitely felt it this Christmas season.

Ready for Christmas!

This weekend was a lot of fun because Dan's parents and his brother came to visit. We didn't do anything exciting, but it was nice to just hang out and spend some time together. Plus, it was nice to have some help with Mya. She is a good baby, but she can be kind of fussy, so it's nice to have extra people to hand her off to when she is extra fussy.
Friday night was Dan's first basketball game and I was very curious to see how Mya would do. She did great and even slept through Dan's game and the JV game. She didn't even flinch when the buzzer would go off. Then she slept for five and half hours straight that night, which was so nice for us! Then Sunday, we put up our Christmas tree, which is always fun. I already started wrapping presents! Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend. I have to apologize to Uncle Matt because we didn't get any with him while he was here. But we'll get lots at Christmas to make up for it.

The tree isn't decorated in this picture, but it still looks cute!

Grandma and Papa with Mya.

Mya loved having her grandparents here and so did we! We were sad yo see them go. But we'll see both of our families again soon for Christmas, which we are so excited for!

Mya's best friend

Mya and I had a fun day today because my best friend Lindsey and her baby, Cami, came to visit. I was so excited to see Lindsey and for Mya to meet her best friend. They did so well and let Lindsey and I have a nice afternoon together. Also, Mya had her two week check up at the doctor's office this morning and we were very pleased to find out she is growing very well. She is now 8 lbs. 10 oz. which is almost a full pound up from when she was born. And she is now 20 3/4 inches long. The doctor was very pleased with how she is doing. Yeah! Mya slept through most of Lindsey and Cami's visit, but that's ok with me.

Isn't she just so cute?

Here's Cami and Mya in their carseats and sleeping of course.
And here is Cami smiling in her sleep. So cute!

Tomorrow, Dan's parents and brother are coming to visit. I am so excited about that. We are all going to Dan's first basketball of the season, which is always exciting. I'll let you know how his C team boys do. Hopefully, they will start the season off with a win!

I love Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, mostly because I love spending time with family and having great food, plus there's no stress of gift-giving like there is at Christmas time. Anyway, this year, due to having a baby a week ago, we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving. I was a little sad at first, but my parents came to spend it with us at our house and it was absolutely wonderful! They made way too much food for us, but it was delicious and we have tons of leftovers! Here are some great pictures of our Thanksgiving.

Family photo!

I love this picture of my mom and Mya. If you know my mom at all, you know she doesn't like posed picture, so this is a rare shot. It's great!
Papa giving Mya kisses! He's so funny!

Dan and Mya taking a quick nap. So cute!

Mya's begun her modeling career. My mom bought her the most adorable outfits and this is one of them. It's so cute, even though it's still a little big. She's going to wear one of the other ones to her first Sunday at church.

Just a couple more pics

Mya is sleeping right now and although I should probably be sleeping as well, I decided to post a couple more pictures. But first here's a quick update: Mya is doing her best to be nice to her mommy and daddy. She sleeps about three hours at a time during the night and doesn't usually scream unless she's really hungry. She started smiling yesterday, mostly due to gas, but Dan and I love it anyway. Overall, she's doing very well. Tomorrow is Mya's first Thanksgiving and we're excited to share it with her Mima and Papa Russell. I'm sure we'll have some cute pics from that. We hope you all have a great day of thanks and enjoy time with your own families! Grandma and her two girls! Cute, huh?

Mya loves football season already! Touchdown!

This has been an everyday occurence since she got home. She sleeps while we're trying to burp her and it makes it very hard to wake her up because she's so cute!

Welcome to the world!

Our little one has finally arrived! Mya Jae Barnes was welcomed to the world on November 20th at 5:22 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and measured 19 inches long. She is just gorgeous and perfect in every way, but of course, Dan and I are a little biased! So here are some pictures of our beautiful daughter. Enjoy and I'll update more later!

Here is Mya's room all finished and ready for her!One of many delivery room pictures! Daddy and his little girl.

Mya's first car ride. She slept the whole way... like a baby!Mommy and Mya relaxing at home.

There WILL be a baby!

No one can be pregnant forever, that's what I keep telling myself. And sure enough, there is an end in sight! My most recent update is that things are progressing and it looks like baby is getting ready to come out and join the world. However, if she decides she doesn't want to come as soon as we think, my doctor's going to help her come out by next Thursday. So no matter what, we will have a baby by next Thursday! Yeah! I'll update again soon... with pictures of our new baby!

Update

Dan and I are anxiously waiting for Baby Barnes to make her debut. We have 11 days until her due date, if that even means anything to her. The baby's room is done, the car seat is in, all the clothes are washed, etc. etc. Now we just need a baby. Dan is ready for her to come too. He keeps telling her that she can come out anytime she wants, but she's not listening. Anyway, we really don't have much else going on right now. Here are a couple of pictures of the baby's room and a picture of me at 38 weeks.

The circles are peel and stick and they are the most amazing invention ever. I was just in there this last weekend and I didn't like the way one of the walls looked, so I peeled off the circles and rearranged them. Cool, huh?

This is the wall where her name is going to be spelled out. We should be getting those any day now and I'm excited to put them up!
This picture was taken after my doctor told me that the baby had dropped. I couldn't really tell before, but from this picture, it does kind of look like it. And when you have strangers telling you that they think the baby has dropped, I guess it's official. :) We can't wait for the baby to come and to be able to celebrate with all our family and friends!

Best Friends and Babies

Things have been very mellow around here, which is very good. We are enjoying our last three weeks as husband and wife, before we become mom and dad! It's hard to believe there are only three weeks left. However, I've been known to say that if this baby takes after her father, she'll be fashionably late! Anyway, the first two pics are to capture me, Dan, and the baby at 37 weeks!



The next couple of pictures are of Camryn JoAnn, my best friend's newborn baby girl! She was born on October 16 and has been enjoying spending time with her loving parents ever since. She is a little tiny thing at 6 lbs. 4 oz. and 19.25 inches long! Her and Baby Barnes are going to be best friends just like their mommies! And that's about it for us in P-burg! Hopefully there will be a new birthday coming up just around the corner for Baby Barnes #1! Don't worry, that's not going to be her official name... or will it? :)

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

I have so many pictures because so much has been happening lately. Here is an idea of what our life has been like lately. The picture down below and to the left is of me and my Little Sister

through Big Brothers Big Sisters. We decided to do "glamour shots" today since it was my last day to see her before the baby comes. We had a blast! The other picture is of Dan and our baby Coda(who will soon be replaced by a real baby). She just loves sleeping on Dan... especially while he is sleeping! The picture down below is of me and my good friend Anne. I absolutely love this girl! She came to Topeka this past weekend to visit me and I was so happy. She gave the baby the cutest little sea horse and gave me a little mermaid/sea horse bag to use for whatever goodies I so choose. It's the perfect addition to the diaper bag. And the stuffed sea horse looks so cute in the baby's crib. I'll post pictures of that later. And then there's me and Nikki! We're so silly as you can tell by our picture together. I just love this picture of us! It was great to see friends this weekend and just hang out. It was exactly what I needed.

These pictures are of my sweet niece and nephew. We love getting to see them, but wish it could happen more often. Silas is getting so big and he's only two months old! Camdyn, on the other hand, is so tiny at two years old, but adorably cute! She was very close with Dan this past weekend, which is just so cute to watch. She wanted Uncle Dan to help her with things and to hold her. So cute! This past weekend was my baby shower that my sister in law threw for me. It was so much fun and we got so many cute things for the baby. And of course, there was delicious food. She and my mother in law made fruit pizza, which was my one request. Yum! I loved it!

These last pictures are of spirit week at the high school this past week. Dan dressed up only one day, but I'd say he did a pretty good job. Him and another coach were twins that day and were trying to look as goofy as possible. I'd say they succeeded, wouldn't you? Then the picture above is of Dan dancing with the Pacers, which is the high school dance team. Other coaches danced too, but Dan did the best, by far! The last picture won't make Dan very happy if he knows that I posted it, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it! He was wearing the same wig he wore earlier in the week. The picture is of him tossing his hair behind his shoulder in the middle of the dance. He looks a little feminine if you ask me. And that's putting it nicely!

We've had a fun last week and this week has been pretty low key, which has been nice. We're still getting the baby's room ready, but once it's mostly done, I will definitely post pictures. I can't believe how fast 35, almost 36 weeks has gone!

Wow, what a weekend

So this last weekend was my first baby shower and it was amazing! My sister threw it for me and she did such a wonderful job. The picture above is me with not one, but two cakes! They were both autumn themed cakes, which was the theme of the shower. One had pumpkins and baby footprints and the other had leaves and baby toys. So cute and delicious too!


My grandma made me the most beautiful blanket and I just know that the baby will love it.
A bunch of friends that I hadn't seen in such a long time were able to make it to the shower. The above picture is me with Katie, my former boss at Job Corps, and Melissa, my former co-worker at Job Corps.
After all the shower festivities, my mom, Jordan, my uncle Jeff, and I all played dominoes. Jordan and Jeff caught on quick, but as always, Mom tried to cheat!
My uncle is probably going to kill me for this, but I just had to post this picture. Jeff is my mom's brother and he was able to come to Abilene for the weekend and spend some time with the fam. Although my aunt Stephanie and their two boys couldn't make it, it was still great to catch up with him and see him for a little while.


Finally, here are some pictures of the baby's room. We painted a pale yellow that turned out perfect. And we put up the curtains that Dan picked out. They are pink and white striped and so cute, especially against the yellow walls! Once we get the rest of the room put together, I'll post more pics!