New Year's in Big Bear

We got back from our annual Big Bear trip a couple days ago, and it was so much fun, as usual. It was a smaller group this time, mostly family. We have all been so busy lately that it was nice to spend some good quality time together. The day we drove up they received around 6-8 inches of snow, we took the back way through Victorville and had an incredibly smooth drive. Then for the rest of our stay the sun came out and we enjoyed beautiful weather. The young (not pregnant) people snowboarded, and we all had a blast sledding with Clara. She loooved sledding, she is pretty fearless, and she could not get enough of it. New Years Eve was definitely on the mellow side, after celebrating Taylor's birthday with a yummy BBQ dinner on the lake, we stayed tucked away in the cabin and played games, then watched Indiana Jones until it was time to watch the ball drop. Clara did pretty well being up at the cabin, she stayed off the stairs and didn't mess with electrical outlets, and kitchen cabinets and such, which I was really surprised and thankful for. However, it took her one whole, very looong night to get accustomed to the new sleeping arrangement. We haven't gone anywhere overnight for a while, and she was definitely not used to it anymore. She fell asleep fine in her pack n' play, but then woke up inconsolable a couple hours later. She would not stop crying, and would fight me if I tried to lay her back down in it. So, I brought her into bed with us...however, she doesn't know how to sleep with us! This was never a habit I let her get into, and once she started crawling, she wanted nothing to do with laying in bed with us. She refused to be laid down in our bed. So she would sit in the middle of us, perfectly quiet with her paci and blanket, until she would pretty much just fall over asleep. Then she would maybe sleep an hour or so, wake up, sit up suddenly, cry a little, then sit in between us again, until she would tumble over asleep. Nobody in the cabin slept very well that night, especially us! Thankfully she was accustomed to the pack n' play after that, and took great naps and slept well the rest of the time.

I feel like 2010 has been a very crazy year. It was my first full year of motherhood, which has been awesome. However, in this past year, my dad passed away after a very long and painful battle with cancer. Jordan broke his leg, which was difficult for both of us, and after being home for almost five months, he worked on average 70-90 hours a week for almost five months more to catch up. Getting pregnant again, and scraping my way through 3 months of torturing nausea. Craziness! We have so much to be thankful for, and are immensely blessed in so many ways, and I am excited to see what 2011 has in store for us. Hopefully a healthy baby boy and many many wonderful memories to make. I am so very thankful to know that no matter what our lives are in God's hands and He will see us through no matter what, there is such security in that! Happy New Year!