Adoption Day

Well this has been such a wonderful visit!!!  5 weeks of pure bliss with my cute little family!!!  Mark has adopted the girls and now I am happy to say that we are all official BARBER'S!!!!  Words cannot express just how much I love this Man!!!  He has healed our hearts in a way that I didnt think  was possible. I am so glad that we only have a year and a half to go then we will get to be together all of the time....well most of the time that is....when he is not deployed.  I am so glad that we found eachother...and yes after 3 years together next month I still get butterflies everytime I see him and my heart skips a beat when I hear his voice.

Christmas

Well finally my sister got to meet Mark...the only one in my family that hadnt met him yet.  The kids LOVED uncle Mark..love the picture of him with all the kids!!!

Ok well since Mark wasnt going to be here for Christmas the girls had decided to wait and celebrate when we got home from our trip. This for a child I know is a huge deal especially when you are as young as they are.  It was so great to finally have Christmas as a family....just the start of a lot of firsts to come!!!

Honeymoon

Ok so since Mark wasnt going to make it home for Christmas or for New Years I decided to go to him...kinda like a belated Honeymoon.  I flew into London Thursday before New Years and I got to spend 9 awesome days alone in England with my husband.  We got to see Stonehenge, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the eye of London, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square and the train station where Harry Potter was filmed.   And we got to go see Les Mes...what an amazing play!!!  It was so nice to finally have just some alone time and feel like we are a married couple.

looking back on the year

Well this has by far been the best year I have had in a long time!!!  First of all let me start by saying when I was a little girl-probably 12 I dreamed of getting married someday just like most little girls do...well now I can honestly say I finally got my dream wedding with the man I thought I would never find.  Mark has become my best friend.  I guess after being told for years and years very mean and hurful things I had started to believe them but not anymore.  Mark makes me realize that anything is possible and that I am worth something.  He made me believe in love again.  This is a very hard time for alot of people I love so dearly and I won't get into what they are going through but I found myself feeling guilty for being so happy where there is so much pain around me.
This is what I have realized:  life doesnt always turn out the way you have planned or the way you want it or seem to want it to.  With every struggle there is a silver lining...sometimes you just have to really look for it.  With the end of one chapter a new chapter begins and even though at the time we may say "why me" there is always someone worse off than we are.  Life is a test and we must endure to the end.  I wish I could take away my loved ones pains but then I realized something....Jesus did just that.  He bore all our sorrows so we wouldnt have to...when you cant stand anymore maybe it's time to kneel.
2011 has been a great year and 2012 I am excited to say that we will be starting the year all as Barbers...and for this I am so happy.  Here is a look back at the top 10 of 2011 for us:

#10:  I went back to school

#9:  I made the dean's list

#8:  Shelby made student council
#7:  The Quad's got baptized

#6:  Shelby reading above grade level and Shaylee typing at a 6th grade level
#5:  Family reunion in Oregon

#4:  I took golf lessons
#3:  trip to disneyland

#2:  I get to go to Europe for our honeymoon

#1:  I got married to my best friend!!!!

all I can say is 2012 is going to be even better!!!

Wishing you and your family a Happy Holidays!!!!

Fall

Well I am a bit behind in my posting so I will do my best to update what has been going on.  Fall has been pretty low key just alot of studying, work and school.  I went to parent teacher conferences and got excellent reports on both girls which makes me such a proud momma. 
We went with a friends family to the pumpkin patch with the kids and it was so much fun!!!  We got to see the farm animals, play on the slides, ride the kiddy train- yes even the adults and then finished it off with the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where we all got to pick our pumpkins.

Halloween

Ok Halloween this year I have really realized how having a Dad again means so much to the girls.  This was their idea and as they went from house to house they had so much fun telling everyone who they were.  Then when it was picture time they did: dad sweeping mom off her feet and mom and dad kisssing...ewww...according to them so funny!!!
We have also started our Christmas shopping and they have had so much fun buying presents for their Dad.  I asked them what they want for Christmas and they both had the same answer...we got what we really wanted...we got a Dad...WOW...that just warms my heart...I LOVE my sweet little family.

Vertigo

Ok so first of all lets start with how this all started....my parents, my cousin Connie, Uncle Bill and I went to California to see the quads get baptized it was a great weekend.  Well the day we are to head home I wake up and turn over in bed to look at my cute nephew and the whole room starts to spin...so much so that I fall out of the bed.  I stand up really fast and just about fall over so I lay down in the middle of the room.  The room is spinning so fast and my heart start pounding and I can't breathe and the next thing I know I am going into all out anxiety attack mode.  My Dad and brother come and give me a blessing while I am hanging my head in the toilet by finally I stop shaking and can breathe again.
Well we have to go home so with my head in a garbage bag we head out...me throwing up the whole way and as long as my head is down the room doesnt spin too much.  We get to Fillmore but have to stop for my mom who was having problems with an infection.  I get out of the car to breathe and it starts even worse so I get checked into the hospital where they treat me for VERTIGO...first of all I have heard of this but it is a million times worse then I could have ever imagined!!!  I end up having to have 2 shots and stay overnight and have to be given 4 bags of fluids due to dehydration.  The next day we finish the trek home and I have to wait until Tuesday to be seen by the doctor on base and was given meds to help with this vertigo crap.  Well here it is a month later and during the day I am better but every night it starts again so I am just taking a pill before bed and seem to be doing ok.