It usually feels blue coming down from the highs of Christmas and New Years, but the year so far hasn’t been so bad. Mostly has to do with having a fun baby (rolled over twice for dad!) and funny kids. Skype/Google vid chats with friends and family has been great too. Yes, I love technology…always and forever.

The days left till Christmas is winding down, but the craziness certainly isn’t! Between chores, two high-energy boys, and a baby that wants to be held all the time, there is no time for peace and to pee (alone). But Ryan’s brother flies in tonight and his parents tomorrow, so despite all the busy, it’ll be nice to have a change of pace and feel some CA love. We live fairly close to the NASCAR Speedway, so we plan on viewing their Christmas spectacular and live nativity where you can hear Mary, Joseph, and Roman centurions say their lines with a southern drawwwwl.

And I’d like to say thank you for reading this blog and for your supportive and friendly comments. It’s been nice getting to know some of you online and making new friends, IRL even. It’s meant a great deal to me since I’m still in mourning over our move and missing my besties back in Ventura. But if I could sit down and enjoy a hot cup of cocoa with you (unless you’re a killer or kidnapper), I would. The closest thing would be to share our simple hot cocoa recipe:

Hope you enjoy the season with all of its gingerbread-baking, gift-wrapping, spending-time-with-family goodness! And I try to remind myself that I’m too blessed to be stressed.

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Congrats to Kendall, comment #84. She is the winner of the JetPens giveaway.

This will sound really dense, but wow newborns sleep a lot! I’m being reminded of so many things I’ve forgotten when it comes to having a baby. After all, it has been four years since we’ve had a newborn in the house. I’ve been trying to get some awake pics of her, but she’ll be up for maybe 5 minutes before she’s crying to eat/go back to sleep/have her diaper changed, so sleepy pics it is (and a few yawning ones, too).

She’s also going through that phase where she needs to be held all the time. A long time ago, my arms were getting really cut (Michelle Obama was my shoulders hero) so maybe I’m headed in that direction again with our snuggly Mara.

Completely unrelated, but the other day, Kai said that Mara has stinky breath — so not true!!! Lately, the boys have been on this weird crusade to declare outloud any offensive smells (mostly made up I’m sure), and lay blame on anyone but themselves. It’s been driving me kind of crazy. Hoping this phase is one of those brotherly things I won’t have to worry about with our girl.

We’re so happy to announce the newest addition to our family! Mara Noelle joined us Kirks on the 16th. We’re all in love, and the boys have been so sweet and enamored with her.

Even at a nice 8lbs 8oz, she still feels tiny to me (and conversely, the kids seem gigantic). And she’s super cute, so I’ll probably be posting/Instagram-ing tons of pictures of her from here on out!

{Instagram pics of Mara at 2 and 1 day old}

We kept hearing about the amazing fall colors in the North Carolina mountains, so a couple Saturdays ago we headed up north. The piles of leaves were such a big deal to the boys. When they attacked Ryan relentlessly, I suggested he ignore them and act as if he didn’t care (because they’d surely leave him alone – reverse-psychology!). But that plan didn’t work out so well.

I absolutely feel like crashing right now, but since my blog doubles as personal journal, I just had to quickly visually document our week. Good news is that Kai should have his cast off in two weeks which is before his birthday, before Halloween (a huge concern for him), and before the baby arrives (gigantic concern for me). Then he can go back to what got him in trouble in the first place; attempting bike tricks and worrisome speeds. But this time he’ll have elbow pads, wrist guards, knee pads, shin guards…whatever to keep him from breaking another bone. A little crazy? Yes. But is my child crazier? Yes.

And I’ll be posting an easy kids’ Halloween craft soon. Once I find some energy, blessed energy.

(Also wanted to throw in the link to the new Future Islands album. So much good music happening. Fall is the best.)

Week two of our new life in Charlotte has been infinitely better than the first. While we’re still doing without our belongings (which is roasting in a sitting moving truck in LA), my car and its blessed AC came. With that, I’ve been a little more adventurous in getting us out and even made some new friends. Pools are our new daily park days.

With my 30th birthday impending, I thought it would totally blow (And do people say ‘totally’ here? And ‘like’ all the time? Or is that a California thing?). Our life right now sort of has the old flavor of our young-married/college-student days, what with the handwashing clothes in the sink, trips to the laundromat, and sleeping on a mattress on the ground. But I had a very sweet birthday with a delicious summery dinner and a venture out to ice cream uptown. Or downtown. Still getting the hang of the lingo here. Ryan also gifted me some towels from Anthro that are so pretty and expensive, I don’t want anyone to use them. That store is of the devil.

And this is an attempt at a belly shot, but with the boys insisting on swarming about. I like this photo because I look smaller than I feel and smaller then I look in real life. You probably don’t know this, but I get really huge and have really huge babies. Like, (see, there’s that ‘like’ again) if I were to take this picture at eight or nine months pregnant, standing in the same exact spot, my belly would be extending to that brick wall, no lie.

I haven’t vent-blogged in quite some time, so I’m going to take the time to indulge myself.

We got in safe and sound last Wednesday, fully prepared to brace the heat and make do with living out of our suitcases until our belongings/car/life arrived from CA. I was pleased to see how pretty it is here and how spacious our new home seemed to us. What we were not prepared for was zero wi-fi and gas, so that meant living off of 3G, no cooked meals, and cold, cold showers. The kids wouldn’t have anything to do with cold water, so we literally hosed them off in the backyard. Annoying, but I felt we bucked up, dealt with our hand, and called it camping. Even made a cardboard city that hopefully counteracts our current anti-Earth lifestyle of styrofoam plates and disposable utensils to a small degree.

But of course, the metaphorical second shoe had yet to drop, and drop tonight it did. Our moving company is now saying that our stuff won’t arrive until the end of the month when we were anticipating everything to arrive today or tomorrow. And as for when my car will arrive, that too is a wild card.

First-world problems these are, I know. But the strain of this move is taking its toll, and that of course is layered atop of homesickness and missing our friends.

On a brighter note, Ryan loves his new job, and we had a really nice 4th. My mom drove over to visit, and took us shopping at the cleanest Wal Mart I’ve been to in my life.

And somewhere along the way I’ve hit the five-month mark! This month is size=carrot, I think? I’ve been feeling baby girl kick and punch. That has always been a fun part of pregnancy for me.

It’s weird getting sweaty during winter time. Or, “winter time.”

But we wanted to act Christmas-y, so we went ice skating last Saturday. Despite slipping, falling, spinning, buckling, Kai had a grand time. But after lap two and countless spills later…

Thanksgiving weekend was well spent with family a little ways up north. We relaxed, ate, played games, ate, fed ducks, saw the most amazing cats, and ate some more. I am sufficiently padded for the cold winter months ahead.

The fall colors were a treat, too, since there is no such thing as seasons down where we are. The boys have yet to see snow.