Bring on the Summer!

Today is the last day my amazing husband has to work for this school year! Yeah!  The greatest perk about being married to somebody who works for a school district......summers off! I can hardly believe that we have the next two months together!  Our family is truly blessed.

I am so proud of Caleb.  He has done such a great job this year as Director of Security for the school district, as well as head coach for the JV/Freshman football team and head Strength and Conditioning coach the remainder of the year at the high school.  It is fun to see how the guys all look up to and respect "Coach Barnes."  And it is great to know that, as he is there protecting the schools, that he is also making such an impact on the kids.

And by the way, yes that is a jackalope in the picture.  He had to bring it to work this year for his desk or he was risking it being "lost" at home.  I didn't want it on my fireplace mantle like he did. Hahaha!

Awe, bring on the summer! Family time! :)

Barnes' Family Renunion 2013

This last weekend we had such a great time at the beach with all of Caleb's family.  Everybody was there and it was so special to introduce them to Ellie!

Sheila had been then only one who had met Ellie before this weekend.  She and Cam, and Kate and Garrett all flew in on Thursday.  They stopped by our house on their way to Lincoln City.  And then, Bob, who had driven up, stopped by on his way and stayed the night on Thursday at our place.  Caleb, Ellie and I joined up with them after Caleb finished off his work week. Then we stayed for a long weekend.

It was an amazing weekend full of hanging out with each other and just relaxing....couldn't ask for anything better!

The place that Caleb's parents rented was such a great place!  It was spacious, close to the beach, and the backyard had a river that ran through it.  It was so peaceful and relaxing.  We all pretty much just hung out for the whole weekend!

The first day was a bit chilly, but we still all got down to the beach where Uncle Cam decided to take on the waves.  He did a great job, especially for the first time being out there surfing!  Aunt Kate did a photo shoot of our family.  But it was so cold and bright (even though the sun wasn't out) that Ellie just kept her eyes closed the whole time! haha!

The next day was Father's Day, which was so special for us being that it was Caleb's first as a Dad!  Before we left for the weekend, Ellie and I gave him some molds of her hands and feet for him to remember how little she was.  And then on actual Father's Day we gave him a Star Wars #1 Dad t-shirt...he always told her over and over when she was in my tummy "I am your father."  hahaha! And then we also gave him a picture of her for his office, as well as a print we had made up thanks to my friend Kristi.  I had seen something on line and didn't want to pay the money for it, so we did it ourselves.  The words we came up with were..."My daddy is a SUPERHERO because...he LOVES Jesus, Mommy and me...he is BRAVE like a lion...he is FUNNY and makes me laugh & smile...he holds me up with his STRONG arms...and he WORKS HARD for us.  Love, Ellie"

We all hung out in the morning, then went to church together and then out to Mo's for lunch.  Gotta love their clam chowder!

 And then Monday was such a gorgeous day out there.  We did another family photo shoot of the entire family and walked the beach.  It was perfect!

It is sad we all live so far from each other.  I guess that just means we have an excuse to do family vacation get-a-ways more often!

Someone Is 3 Months Today!

I can hardly believe that Elliot Jane is 3 months old today!  In so many ways it feels like yesterday that we brought her home...and, in other ways, it feels like she has been a part of our life forever.

We have loved, so much, seeing more and more of her personality come out this month.  She is such a good baby.  She rarely has break downs, and seems pretty laid back.  But I have to say that she is becoming more of a "talker" recently.  She is the only baby I know of that will stop feeding just to talk for 10 minutes or so.   There are literally times where she would rather chat than eat!  And she also loves it when I sing to her, and sometimes she even tried to sing along.  Hopefully she got Auntie Kate's voice!  She smiles at me when I am singing...but it could very likely be that she is laughing at me.  haha!

We love how Ellie loves to smile.  She has the biggest, toothless grin.  Almost every morning, the first person who usually gets to her smile is her daddy.  He just looks at her each morning when I am feeding or changing her and she gets this big ole' grin.  It doesn't go away until he leaves the room.  It is pretty sweet.  She loves her Daddy.  And, boy, does he love her!

Ellie also laughs and smiles when Mama tickles her face with her hair.  She loves it so much!  We kinda make a game of it, and I stand above her with my hair falling onto her face and brush it back and forth.  She kinda tries to catch it in her mouth sometimes too.  It's pretty funny to watch.

We are excited to have Caleb home this summer.  Since he works for the school district, that means that he will have about 2 months off of work here soon.  (Other than football boot camps, camps, practice, etc.)  But football is fun for him, and Ellie and I plan on going and walking the track many mornings. And I may even do the boot camp some days with the team!

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the last month...

Ellie's Auntie Nhu Doll

This week we had a very special package arrive in the mail....it had Ellie's first dolly in it.  And what makes this an extra special dolly is that it is one that we are calling "Auntie Nhu."  I thought it would be a great way to introduce Ellie to Nhu, even though Nhu is on the other side of the world.  It may be a type of doll that she won't be able to play with for a while, but we can still take it out and teach her who Auntie Nhu is.

The next doll we wanted to get her is one from the Philippines that we will name "Melissa," after the girl we have sponsored through Remember Nhu for the last few years.  Melissa is a part of our family in our eyes too.  We hope one day to meet her in person.  But in the meantime, we want Ellie to know who she is and learn to pray for her too.  My Aunt Kathy told me that she is going to try to find the doll that my Dad brought back from the Philippines for her when he was in the navy.  That would be amazing! If she can't find it, we will order a different one.

The other reason why I thought this idea was so great is that we want Ellie to love and help people all around the world.  I have prayed many times that she will be a woman who helps those who can't help themselves.  Whether that is going around the world and helping those who are mistreated, hungry, or alone.  Or whether that is helping her own neighbors down the street who need groceries or just need a friend...I just hope she loves people radically.

At church on Sunday we sang a song that got me thinking....

We must go live to feed the hungry

Stand beside the broken, we must go

Stepping forward, keep us from just singing

Move us into action, we must go

To act justly everyday

Loving mercy in every way

Walking humbly before You, God

You have shown us, what you require

Freely we've received

Now freely we give

As we sang, I was praying Ellie would grow to be a woman who does just that.

Also, Caleb and I really hope to adopt one day.  (That is a story in itself.)  We have committed that to Him because we don't know exactly how that will look time-wise or financially...but we have entrusted that dream to Him and hope one day to have another little kiddo in our home with us.  Who knows, maybe from US, or maybe from across the world.  So we hope to instill that love in Ellie from early on.

All to say, it was fun having the package arrive.  Hopefully it is one of the first, of many lessons, we can teach our little girl.

My First Official Mother's Day

Today was my first official Mother's Day as a Mom!  And we had such a great time...Caleb took Ellie and I to Silver Falls.  Since he and I met, I have mentioned from time to time wanting to go there but we just never had.  It has been over a decade since I had been there.  So he decided he wanted to make a day of it, grab us some Chipotle for a picnic lunch, and take us girls out there.  He said he had thought of getting me a pampering day or something, but he thought about it and concluded I would probably rather do this, since my primary love language is quality time.  He was right.  I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day.  Relaxing with my two favorite people outdoors.

Caleb is somewhere behind the waterfall in the picture above.  I stayed back with Elliot, since it was hard maneuvering the stroller to get there (although we LOVE our all terrain jogging stroller!!) and there was a pretty good mist she probably wouldn't have appreciated.  It was the perfect day too.  This week has been in the mid 80's, but today was closer to 70...and as a true Oregonian, I actually appreciate being outside when it is overcast.

Yesterday we went out to Dad and Diane's for a Mother's Day celebration with the family.  It was great just hanging out and having a BBQ.   I don't think Grandpa can get enough of little Ellie.  I have to just add....Caleb calls him "G Daddy Flan Flan" and it is funny cause at first it started as a joke...But Dad seems to laugh a little less every time...but its so funny! Caleb also plans to jokingly call his own dad "G Mac Daddy." Haha!

Also, this week my cousin Maleah came into town with her boyfriend Matt.  It was fun to see her again after so many years, and we picked up right where we left off.  Too bad they don't live here nearby or we would love to see them more often!

I was never worried bringing Ellie anywhere before this week.  She had yet to have any type of public melt down or crying what-so-ever.  That is until this week.  Once when I treated myself to a Mother's Day gift of getting my eye brows waxed...and thankfully I was surrounded by friends who understood at that point.  And then when we went to dinner with Maleah and Matt, she cried as well and I rushed her outside til she calmed down. Thankfully it was a really noisy restaurant already!  haha!  But I have to add a series of pictures that Maleah took that just crack me up of Elliot's face changes as she is about to cry!  Oh I love my little girl...even when she isn't so happy.

All to say, we have had a great time these last few days.  And we will definitely sleep well tonight.  (Well, if Ellie does too actually! hahaha!)  Especially since Caleb had to work security at the high school prom in Salem last night and didn't get home til after midnight.  We feel so old...tired so easily these days.  But it is a good tired cause our lives are so full.  

It has been such a great day celebrating the fact that I am a mother...and I am so thankful I get to be Ellie's mom.