who are you anyway?

despite his cries for attention, bryson is undeniably sweet with his baby brother. he wants to hold him all the time and always tells me how cute he is...

i think bryson is better off on bodie's good side at the rate this boy is growing!

Bodie's First Bath

both bryan and i are middle children, so we are really trying to not leave his baby book blank and to chronicle these moments. i think bryan captured bodie quite beautifully - he loved his first bath...maybe even remembered his birth...i think we have a water baby on our hands...

Bryson's Red Period

i think a "red period" is exactly what bryson is experiencing right now. we had a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner last night prepared by Candis and Eric, Julia and Donny were over. Bryson asked to excuse himself and i nursed Bodie and things were too quiet...way too quiet...i started to get a sinking feeling and julia offered to check on him and then we heard a very horrified "Bryan" coming from the back.

Bryson had found an ink pad left over from christmas card making and julia found him sucking on it...after he had managed to get it on the nightstand, bed, bedroom wall...basically all over. i kept telling myself this will be funny someday...but then Bryan showed me he took a picture of Bryson and it made it funny instantly...oh Bryson...we love you and your crazy personality so much...i hope this time of adjustment goes swiftly by!!

Who says it doesn't snow in long beach?

my brother and his family dropped by on their way home from mammoth...and they surprised a very happy bryson with some snow! another great distraction in his new changed world!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone! This has been the most amazing Christmas...and this is why...

Bodie Owen Barnes - born December 24th at 6:55 a.m. - 9 lbs 8 oz - 22 inches long. He is a little bruiser and our Christmas miracle!

still waiting...

i just looked at my phone, which i don't seem to care to answer these days very much, and i think i have about 5 voicemails i havent even listened to yet...so please do not be offended if you have left a message and it is unanswered. i just wanted to let you all know that i am still here...still with child and starting to get very VERY ready to have this baby. i began waddling today, so i know i am close, but as to how close i have no idea. i am trying to maintain a semblance of patience and take into account the 9 lessons and carols from our church service today and adapt a spirit of waiting...what a great reminder to me especially! i am very blessed to have both my mom and bryan's parents here to care for me, bryson and my house - i have been spoiled with amazing home-cooked meals by Candis - lentil soup, chicken soup, a swedish feast, prime rib, roast, and sandwiches and crepes and oh my i miss my mom! and today Kathy made her Sunday spaghetti...and to top it off - i havent had to clean a single dish...it feels so good to be cared for - nothing like mothers! but i am doing okay...trying to walk as much as i can and be as active as i can, but mostly i am trying to keep my mind off of things because i am really trying hard to keep my mind focused. thank you to all of you who are checking in with me and care about us and are keeping us in your prayers - i covet them all i truly do. if you want to be notified as to when i am in labor - shoot me an email or post a comment and i will make sure bryan sends a text when everything starts so that you can start praying! and i will of course have bryan post a picture up as soon as he can after our little one arrives. thank you and love you all and hope your advent season is filled with longing and hope as well!

parenting, long beach style

This article was in today's Long Beach Press Telegram...i thought it too good to keep to myself...

Cruel and unusual punishment or just good, old-fashioned discipline?
Dennis Baltimore Jr. was caught vandalizing school property at Long Beach's Wilson Classical High School.
He was sentenced by his dad to walk the streets of Long Beach and Signal Hill on Tuesday for five hours in two locations wearing a sign saying, "I am a juvenile delinquent who should be punished. I have wasted your tax money with dumb acts of vandalism in the public schools."
When Dennis Baltimore Sr.'s phone rang Monday, he didn't know the call from his son's school would cost $875, the price of the vandalism.
"In a time of this uncertain economy, I'm sure the public is not going to like it," he said. "So one way I am going to discipline him is to have him walking around with a sign stating his crime."
Baltimore Sr., who works in the engineering department of DirecTV, moved to California a few years ago from Washington, D.C., where he worked for CNN and Fox News. He has a three-
day assignment to do video for Fox News for the presidential inauguration in January.
The father got the sign idea from a news story of an unemployed man in New York who recently advertised his resume on a board and walked the streets in search of a job.
"I didn't come up with this idea myself. I want to thank the guy in New York," he said. "When I saw that, I went to the store, bought the supplies and made the sign."

Twilight The Movie

my sweet sister took me out on a date yesterday to go see the Twilight movie. i was so excited to see it...such a dork i know! the really sad realization though is that I AM OLD! i seriously developed a crush on the guy who played Bella's dad...soooo much hotter than the vampire dude. how sad is that? but seriously - he was hot. it seems like a lot of these teen guys look like vampires - the whole cast of Gossip Girl look like vampires to me...its that rich, white thing i guess. and her dad had a mustache in the movie, but i am convinced it was to make him look older...and more like a cop...but i couldnt find any pictures of him with his stache so this is the actor who played him...

anyway...the movie...right- so it was a pretty good representation of the book. i feel like the over-pronouncement of apples was a little silly (the whole fruit of immortality thing) they over-played it if you ask me...also a lot of the cut shots seemed so late 1990s - it didnt really move me. i really loved the little actress who played Bella - she was exactly how i pictured Bella in my head, which is always lovely when that works out...and also the actor who played Jacob was exactly perfect for my imaginary casting. I keep winding back and forth between this being the best thing for pre-teen and teen girls and the absolutely worst thing. i mean - i just finished the last book and it was a little over 750 pages. my 15 year old niece read it...all of it...all of them. i dont recall reading any book that long in high school...or being so excited about a book at that age. plus i am tending to think that Bella is like every hormonal teeange girl's BEST friend. she makes every decision based on emotion pretty much but her consequence ends up being immortality - go figure. anwyay - i am still trying to make up my mind about the series, but they have been absolute brain candy and fun to imagine!

the last belly shot

at least i hope its the last...i know this baby isn't ready yet, but i sure am - or rather my back is ready...i am being forced to post this...and i only do it for my girlfriends cross the country who can't be here to witness "the belly" this is for you...only about 10 more days until my "due date" - please keep us in your prayers! my mom comes tomorrow and i am so looking forward to her visit - it doesnt feel like the holidays without her for some reason. anyway - hope you all enjoy this seldom seen shot...which is seldom seen for a reason, but i couldn't resist sending it out for the viewing pleasure of my girls in portland, texas, chicago, new york, etc...love you!

BBQ

i love this cat. anyone who has met this cat and especially spent the night at our house has been fortunate enough to know the BBQ...he is "special" - we can't ever be mad at this cat despite his annoying 6:00 a.m. wake up meows and the fact that he eats EVERYTHING. this is why. i wish we would've waited to do christmas cards, because this would have been it. Bryson finished his breakfast early this morning and ran in to tell us "I gotta show you something" which is usually something that he did that he knew he shouldn't...i.e. pine sol on the wall or crayon on the wall, or a broken ornament, or scissors lying somewhere...or...or...or...anyway i follow him into what we call the "godfather room" and there is BBQ seriously trying to get comfortable in our "godfather tree" - like he really wants to nap there in between the bubble lights. that is why we love him.

Happy St. Lucia Day

Today is Dec. 13th...also known as St. Lucia Day - click here for more information because i know you are curious about it...it is making me miss my mother like crazy - but i only have to delay the celebration a couple days since she is attempting to come on the 15th. Hopefully i can convince her to make her Swedish T-Ring and some other goodies! The holiday brings back nightmares of the lighted candles dripping hot wax on my head and then my mom finally found an electric wreath (i believe in solvang - mecca of scandanavian goods for californians) - can you see the fear on my face in the first picture? you dont even want to know the amount of tantrums and i presume bribing since now i am a parent myself and know all too well the tricks parents use to inflict torture on their offspring. We always celebrated in our families that the eldest daughter was St. Lucia - a charge that i quickly outgrew and wished upon my younger sister, however she never had to endure the "real" wreath, which always made me a little bitter. After we were both grown they passed the torch to our niece Katlyn and now that she has outgrown it (14 is waaay to cooool for being st. lucia) Hope, her younger sister, is now our little St. Lucia. I hope that one day i have my own little St. Lucia to torture, but until then I will force poor Bryson and the "new one" and my dear Husband to endure Swedish Festivals and family traditions...and although he jokes about it, i know Bryan is starting to fall in love with the holiday too...or maybe its just my mom's T-Ring. Either way - this is a special day for many Swedes who covet what little light they have and their St. Lucia helps to bring some very needed lifting of winter spirits.

Bettie Page dies at 85

I just read in the paper that Bettie Page died today at 85 - the news story is here for all the details. I have always been a pin-up girl fan since my high school days, but Bettie scared me with her whips and leather until i saw the documentary of her in 1998 - Bettie Page: Pin-Up Queen - it was so interesting if you have never seen it. In fact, it was the last time she allowed an interview. She wouldnt show her face, so the interview is kinda from the back of her chair...she didn't want people to photograph her in her old age - she wanted people to remember her when she was young and smokin hot...anyway - it intrigued me because both that documentary and the movie in 2005 that Gretchen Mol played her in - The Notorious Bettie Page - that she really didnt have an agenda with the bondage and racy stuff she did. She didnt think she was doing anything wrong - she truly thought she was making people happy. She also had no problem with nudity - she even told Hugh Hefner in 2005 that she never felt shame with posing nude - that it was how the good Lord made us...i found it fascinating that here is someone that feminists have upheld as "paving the way" for women to express themselves and she viewed it as no more than a paying job...much better pay than a secretary's wage. Anyway after that I thought she was just great because the idea of someone so innocent and carefree with a whip just made me smile a little...I will miss Bettie Page in this world for that reason!

obsession #3 - BAKING!!!

i have been crazy baking. not even with the pretense of holiday gifts...sadly. i do intend on baking some holiday cookies for my jr. league girls tonight, but it just recently entered my head. i think this baby inside me is just really needing that good ol' home-baked sugary goodness. okay...probably not - its probably me - but i brought bryson into my madness. bryan came home to this picture and snapped a shot...bryson wasn't too happy about the "guhl" apron, but sorry we have no "boy" aprons yet!

obsession #2 - christmas tomtes

its december...i have been looking forward to this month for more than one very obvious reason...i love this time of year. as soon as thanksgiving was over we picked up our tree on the way home from my dad's...by we i mean i forced bryan to pick up our tree. he is such a good sport. i busted out the christmas cd's and we trimmed the tree and for all my cheesiness i think both my boys liked it. i know its going to be like this every christmas...the boys placating my holiday cheesiness, but secretly enjoying its traditional cheesy wonderfulness. at any rate - i am showing no signs of stopping. we put up lights a couple of days ago, and again by we i mean i made bryan put up the lights. and every night bryson demands that we go see them - which i am thankful for because they are quite wonderful. its about the only thing making me get out of the house at this point. i am in full hermit mode and attempting to make my hermitage as comfortable as possible...by filling it with pine and cedar and lights and reminding myself that soon...very soon...

this last weekend we were able to go to the orange county SWEA swedish festival. i remember going as a child and watching the st. lucia pageant (and at one point begging my mom to get the electric candle wreath instead of the evil wax-dripping real one! anyway - it was delightful to be around such delightful people...swedes are truly amazing people - don't you know? i was also surrounded by delightful swedish handmade goods...my little secret obsession with tomtes had to assuaded somehow - i was able to get an advent wreath and tomte knick-knack in one so i was pretty happy...let me tell you.