Little Monkey turns 1

Its hard to believe that one year ago today little Weston Stephen Barker was born into the world.
Now he's already trying to kiss the girls! This is Casaiah (not sure if that is spelled right) She is a little girl that is a couple months older than Weston that we go to church with.
It was a very monkey birthday last night.  We had a bunch of friends over and tons of kids.  It was really fun, the first big party since we moved into this house.  Its such a blessing to have a bigger place.  I was really thankful last night to be able to have so many friends over.  I made Monkey cupcakes and banana cookies, Matt grilled up some steak and hot dogs and people brought food to share.  
And of course a monkey birthday banner!
Weston's favorite thing right now are balloons.  He gets so excited.  He tried crawling under his highchair this morning with this big bunch.  I was bummed to realize we didnt take a lot of pictures last night at the party.  Poor third child....we have a couple little videos but blogger wont let me upload them right now... maybe another time.  

Its a beautiful sunny morning.  Martin Luther King day so no school, which is good since I've been sick.  The boys are having a light saber battle and Weston is crawling around with one sock on and one off.   I have a lot of plans for today but will they actually get done? 

Weston is almost 1! I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  He has been standing up all by himself for a couple seconds at a time.  He'll be taking his first steps on his own soon I think.  He has also been throwing little temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way! He throws himself down on the floor and screams.  My goodness... but he is really cute so I guess that makes up for it.

Christmas vacation

We had a great time visiting our family for 2 weeks.  At my parents house you can sign up to have Santa come by your house on Christmas Eve and give your kids a present.  You buy the present and wrap it and drop it off for them to deliver.  Its so fun.  I used to do it when I was little and now my boys got to do it too!
Caleb was absolutely spellbound by Santa.  He watched him leave until he couldn't see him anymore.  But then five minutes later he decided that wasn't the real Santa because he didn't say Ho Ho Ho right. 
After Christmas we drove up to Toronto.  We had to stop off at Niagara Falls first though.  It was FREEZING but beautiful.  We stayed maybe 3 minutes then jumped back in the car and took off.
There was a little snow at Great Grandmas house so the boys got to have some snowball fights. I loved the cold! It was so nice and refreshing.  Waking up to a fresh snow covering the ground is a truly beautiful sight.


Here is Matt's Grandma or GG as my kids call her. I love her! She is so sweet and loves the kids so much.  We got to see a lot of people while in Toronto- all of Matts Aunts and Uncles and cousins.  It was a great time.
Right before we left, some last minute pics with the Grandmas.  
We came back to Akron for 2 more days, just enough time to have a little early birthday party for Weston, visit with some old friends and have dinner with my brothers and sister in laws before heading back to California.   

A busy Thursday

Yesterday was so fun.  We started out Christmas caroling with our homeschool group at an assisted living residence.  It was really fun.  Later that afternoon, we went down to Shell beach with our homeschool group.  There was a negative tide so there were tons of tidepools that we were able to get to since the tide was so far out.  The older kids in our group are really good at finding all sorts of sea animals.  We got to see brittle stars, sea cucumbers, little eels, a little dark red octopus that inked, a cuddle fish, tons of hermit crabs and star fish.  It was really cool.  Caleb kept picking up the eels and the octopus.  That boy is fearless.  My camera batteries were dead though so I don't have any pictures :(  

Just for fun

While Diane was here at Thanksgiving she took a family pic of us.  Its crazy that we are a family of five.  I guess I dont think about it much, until I see us all together like this. 

This is from the Christmas parade in the village from last Sunday evening.  I didn't get any good pictures really, but Matt took this one.  Weston loved the parade he clapped a lot and was excited.  The village was all decorated and cute.  When Caleb saw Santa come by he was so excited because it was "the real" Santa.  We've always told the boys that Santa was just a story but they somehow still decide to believe in him.

Comfort

Homemade rolls, gingerbread cookies, a warm fire, spiced cider, cute kids...its been a nice long weekend and its not quite over yet!  Its been so nice to have Matt home all weekend.  I don't think he's ever had a job where he had paid vacation days.  When we were making gingerbread cookies yesterday I started to think about comfort, gingerbread is a kind of comfort food so maybe thats why.  Anyway, today I feel comforted in my heart.  It's hard to explain.  Sometimes life is hard, we have to go through so many things, so many choices to make. Questions that remain unanswered, friends come and go.  Yet God remains true to us, He remains our comfort in times of trouble.  He is the only one who sees our true heart, knows our intentions and has a plan for us in spite of ourselves and how we get in the way.  In the bible its says that He is the God of all comfort.   Thats cool, the God of all comfort and he is able to comfort our hearts.  So be comforted today my friends, let your hearts be comforted by the Lord.   

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice visit with cousin Diane this week.  Since she had to work on Thanksgiving :( we had our Thanksgiving dinner early on Monday.   That day we made pinecone turkeys and placemats with the boys.  It was really fun, my boys had a great time with Diane and so did we of course. Its always nice to have family around! We have so much to be thankful for today. Hope you all have a great day back east today, we love you!