What a week!

Dan and I love our families and we love Christmas time, but we liked it so much better when we were just a little bit closer to our families and didn't have to be away from home for a week straight. Since we've moved, we had to pack up our stuff and our kids and head out for five days so we could see everyone for Christmas. I just picked a few of my favorite pictures from the festivities, so enjoy!

Little Reggie in his elf in training gear! Isn't he just the most adorable elf you've ever seen?
Mima with her five grandkids. Jordan, holding Reggie, Perry III, Mya, and Dorian. They had so much fun playing and being silly. They are going to be an ornery bunch when they get older, I can just tell!
"Super Mya!" Or as Mya says it, "Soup Mana!" She still can't say her own name, but we're working on it. It's amazing what a tea towel can become when you use your imagination!
So far Reggie doesn't love his baths near as much as Mya did when she was a baby. He doesn't cry or anything, but he just doesn't smile and coo like Mya did. But Grandma must have the magic touch because she was getting some big smiles out of Reggie during his sink bath. So cute!
Last, but not least, my favorite picture. I love this pic of Dan with his babies. We were celebrating Dan's birthday and Mya loved singing to him. We had a great time celebrating his day of birth as well as the birth of Jesus. It was a wonderful Christmas season and now we're ready to celebrate a new year!

Our Reggie Boy

Reggie is two days shy of two months old. He is growing fast and getting big. He is such a sweet baby. Here is a little post about our baby. Reggie loves cuddles. He sleeps great on his own, no problem, but just loves to be held and cuddled. He totally relaxes, the bink drops out, and his head gets heavy. Speaking of sleep, Reggie sleeps about 7 hrs straight right now, getting up to eat only once in the early morning. He's doing so well!
Reggie loves all the attention he gets from his big sister. She makes him smile all the time. He just started cooing and making noises and Mya loves it. She says, "Oh Reggie, silly Reggie."
Again with the cuddles. Need I say more?
This is a face that Reggie makes occasionally. It's just when he's thinking about crying, but then changes his mind. This particular night, Dan was making noises at him that he must have not liked. He never cried, he would just make this face. It was soooo funny! I was super happy the camera was nearby so I could capture the moment.
Daddy and Reggie, just hanging out. Reggie is usually wide awake right after Mya goes to bed. We usually get our best smiles and coos at night. Do you think he realizes he finally gets some alone time with mom and dad? Reggie, you are a sweet baby, with such a mild temperament. We have loved the last two months getting to know you and can't wait to see more of your personality come out in the coming months. We love you so much!

Keep reading because there's another new post below!

First real snow and photo shoot

I've always said if it's going to be ridiculously cold outside, there might as well be something pretty to look at too. So we had our first real snow this week and it was definitely pretty. And a very excited little girl got to play in the snow for a little while and she had so much fun... and she made the pretty snow even prettier!
Throwing a snowball. She was so proud of herself!
Mya and Mommy. As usual, she wouldn't smile on command, but that's ok.
Mya is always in Mommy's heart.
First picture of her walking out into the snow. I love this one.

Below is a little mini photo shoot I took of the kids one afternoon. I was clearly bored, and they proved to be quite entertaining. Surprisingly Mya cooperated quite well.
Mya loves kissing her brother. I'm not sure I can say that Reggie loves getting kissed as much.
This is my favorite picture of Mya, because her smile is so pretty, but Reggie does not look like he's having fun. By the way, Mya got a ring pop for the first time ever and she loved it! It only took her three days to finish!
Ok, this picture needs a little explanation. I was trying to get Mya to smile pretty, so I said, "Smile like this." That is the face she gave me. I refuse to believe that that is what I look like when I'm smiling pretty.
Last, but not least, I love this one of Reggie. His little face just cracks me up. He's so serious and so cute. Love it!

I Love My Life

How could I not love my life when it includes seeing this silly face every day? There's just nothing cuter than a "wink" from a two year old, especially when she has crazy hair and food all over her face!
Mya and I made cookies the other day because we were bored while Dan was away at a basketball game. (They won the championship, by the way) Anyway, here is Mya eating her delicious cookie that she decorated herself.
Mya and her finished product. This was my first cookie decorating experience with Mya by myself, and I can't say I really enjoyed it that much. She is soooo messy and so silly and doesn't listen at all. I know what you're thinking... what two year old isn't like this when decorating sweet sugary cookies, but still. It was a pain in the rear. But she thoroughly enjoyed it and I guess that's what matters.
Saturday, my parents came to visit, and we had a great time. Unfortunately, I only took this one picture of Reggie getting loved on by his papa. He loved all the extra attention. My parents brought a headboard for Mya that my dad built. It is absolutely gorgeous. I'll have to take a picture and post it. You'd never believe it was handmade!
These next photos are just really random ones that I love. Above is my little monkey, playing with her Daddy. I just loved her face in this picture.
The next three, that's right, three pictures are of Reggie smiling. Lots of people have told me that you don't take near as many pictures of the second child as you do the first, but I have to disagree. These are just three of about twenty pictures of my boy smiling. I can't get enough of it and every smile seems cuter than the last! See for yourself!
My happy Reggie!
He loves the camera... and his mama!
Another cute pic of Mya wrestling with Dan. I wrestle too sometimes, but it's never as fun as wrestling with Daddy!
Last picture is of Mya going to Dan's first JV basketball game. She was so excited to see Daddy "play bassetball." She's even wearing her My Dad Rocks shirt. She was the most supportive fan, yelling "Go Team!" and cheering for Daddy. She even cried when we had to leave. She loves her basketball!

I love my wonderful husband who works hard for his family and I love my sweet kiddos who make me smile every day, even the days that are more difficult than others.

The holidays are here

The holidays are definitely here and we are pretty excited at our house. In reverse order, here is what we've been doing the last couple of weeks.Above is a picture of Mya's section of the tree. She has a limited area of what she can reach obviously, so all of her ornaments found themselves in this little section of the tree. She had so much fun though. So far she likes the "God" ornament best, but we are repeatedly telling her it's not God, it's Santa. :)

This is her decorating the tree and Reggie's just hanging out.

There's nothing cuter than a little kid putting the star on the top of the tree. So cute!

The rest of the pics are from Thanksgiving which we spent with Dan's family. We had such a great time. Above is a picture of Reggie getting his first bowl bath. He was almost too big. My big boy!

While we were in Topeka my friend Krystal and her daughter came to visit. It feels like forever since we've seen each other and I miss them so much. Mya loves her friend Kaitlyn. We were both so excited to see them!

Reggie has recently started smiling and I love it. Here is a pic of a little smile he was giving. Isn't he just adorable? I'll get a better picture of him smiling soon.

Mya absolutely loves her cousins. Her and Camdyn had very similar pj's on so I just had to get a picture of it. You can tell they are related with their blond hair and blue eyes!

These last two pictures are of Mya and Reggie helping make cookies before we left for our Thanksgiving travels. Reggie was bored and just wondered when he was gonna get to eat the cookies!

And Mya had so much fun helping and checking on the cookies.
We are getting excited for Christmas and for all the family we will get to spend time with!

We can't stop her

No matter how hard Dan and I try, we can't stop Mya from growing up. She officially turned two this weekend! She had an amazing weekend full of family, presents, cake, and just being adored! Here are some photos of our special girl and her "hatday" as she calls it. The first pic is of Reggie. I love his little outfit that his grandma got him. He was such a good boy all weekend and didn't even mind sharing attention with his big sis.

This is the first picture of Mya getting up on her birthday. There were yellow balloons, at her request, in the living room when she first got up. I love that her hair looks like alfalfa!

After we slicked her hair down and put on her party outfit, she carried her balloons around looking like a clown. It was adorable!

Here she is blowing out her number 2 candle on her Elmo cake! She blew it out like a pro! I didn't get a great picture of her while we were singing to her, but believe me, she thoroughly enjoyed it. She just loves the spotlight!

And after everyone went home, here's how she sat for quite a while, playing with her new Elmo Live doll. It was telling her a story and she just sat there so nicely listening to him. I'll admit, even Dan and I were entertained by Elmo. It's amazing how advanced toys are these days! She was spoiled by all the great gifts she got!
Happy birthday my little baby girl. Daddy and I love you and are blessed by you everyday! You bring a love to our lives that we never even knew existed!

Quick update

I would have posted sooner, but my camera has had some problems and I had to buy a new charger. Anyway, here are just a couple of pictures of the last few weeks and I'll have more to come soon. Below is a picture of little Reggie. This is how he looks most of the day right now. He's such a good boy; he eats well, sleeps well, and is usually just a pretty calm baby.
The next two pics are of Mya on Halloween. She was a butterfly and had a great time. She loved seeing all the kids come to the door all dressed up.
We only went to a couple of houses because Mya really didn't like it as much as we thought she would plus it was cold. Oh well, there's always next year!
Overall, things are going well at our house. The sleep deprivation is just now getting to me and I find myself desperately waiting for Mya's nap time so I can take a quick snooze on the couch too. Dan just started basketball practice today, so he'll be gone until 6:00 every night. So Mya and I will be finding lots of fun things to do in the late afternoon/early evening for the next few months to keep us busy and avoid boredom. Anyway, that's what we've been up to. I'll update again as soon as I can find the energy/motivation. :)

Loving the blue!

Welcome to the world, Reggie Russell Barnes!

Baby boy arrived Thursday, October 21, at 7:45 am after an exciting drive to Topeka at 1:30 in the morning! He weighs in at 7 lbs 8.5 oz and 20.75 inches long.

As you can see, he is absolutely perfect! He is such a sweet boy already! He's been pretty easy on his mommy and daddy his first week, which has been nice.

Big Sister loves her brother! Mya has been really good with Reggie. She loves to love on him a little bit each day calling him her "brudder" and giving him kisses.

Here's Reggie about to leave the hospital and go for his first car ride. I forget how small newborns are!

One last picture of little miss Mya. Here she is decorating her pumpkin that she picked all by herself at the pumpkin patch. She decorated him with glitter paint, silly eyes, a pink cotton nose, and sharpies. I forgot to get a pic of the end product, but it looks adorable!

Overall things are going well here, with a big thanks to my mom who stayed for a few days and practically cleaned my whole house! Thanks Mom! I'm not sure when I'll get the time or energy to update again, but I'll try to post some new pics of our family of four soon!