New Adventures have Arrived!

We thought 2009 ended in a whirlwind, but this year we haven't gotten a minute to catch up! I'm taking this Friday morning while Reina is napping to quickly jot down some major changes in the Guinn family!
1. We rang in 2010 with a road trip from Las Vegas to Vancouver with Grandma and Grandpa Guinn in their Honda Odyssey. We had a Guinn family reunion after Christmas and flew down, but saved a little by riding back home to Vancouver. This was two LONG days of driving. The first few hours were horrible as Reina was screaming in her car seat on and off. Come to find out she had a triple explosion which required a complete onesie change and rinse in the sink in a restaurant and then peeing on the seat in the car during the diaper change as the restaurant did not have a changing table. I told Paul I will NEVER do a long road trip again...but after that she was perfect the whole time! So maybe I take back the NEVER.
2. Reina had her 1st birthday party with mostly family and close friends. I made a princess cake completely from scratch and even put different flavors and fillings for each layer. This was my first attempt at a "pretty cake" so I am pleased how it turned out. She even got to eat the whole top layer (thank you daddy and Uncle Steve)! I had the hardest time watching her shove that frosting into her mouth (luckily she stopped and preferred to throw it over the highchair). Her favorite gift was definately the elephant chair that Grandma Guinn made...just her size!
3. Reina officially walks 100%. She started taking her first steps December 16, and has become more confident each day...then one day while at Mummi and Papa Will's house she spent the whole day walking from room to room, just like the rest of the kids. This was about 10 days after her birthday that she decided walking was so much quicker. I walked in after work and she usually walks about 7-8 steps then stumbles down and crawls quickly to me, but that day she looked at me, turned around and kept walking the other way. Kind of sad for me, but so rewarding as well.
4. We have no more savings:(.............................BUT that means that we bought a chiropractic office! The practice we were moving towards in Austin, TX fell through when the seller decided not to sell after we got approved for a small business loan. We got that news right after Thanksgiving, so we were disappointed, mad, sad, etc....back to square one. Paul kept checking for practices for sale and looked into a few in the area. Then on January 5th there were a couple postings for practices in Tacoma and thought we might as well take a look since I still had a break from work. We went and looked two days later and felt really good about it, as well as the sellers. Things moved RAPIDLY as we scrambled to get lawyers, accountants, business accounts, legal documents and all other sorts of grown-up things together. We had to learn quickly what documents were required for what and how I should have become a lawyer or accountant with the kind of money they make :) Phew! But alas, we signed our lives away and Paul officially started February 1. I will still be in Vancouver with Reina for quite some time as the business needs a lot of growth and we still need income to survive. Paul is up there during the week and comes home on the weekends. It's only been about a week so this is all new to us, but we are trying to put things into perspective and remember that some families live like this all the time.
5. We are very thankful! We have family who have been so supportive towards us and have helped us throughout this process. It has been a long road and it is still a bumpy and curvy road, but we are beginning to see glimpses of the sun and beauty at the end of the road. I have to remind myself not to forget how beautiful the path is on this journey; stop and look around at the perfect leaves, the smell of the moss, the trickling of the stream, the yucky bugs that are content in the dirt. There is joy in these things that take us to our goals. I have a lot to be thankful for and I let my Heavenly Father know daily, bi-daily, sometimes hourly how grateful I am for my life.
My greatest joy is Reina, so of course I can't post without some pictures of her sweet, sweet face. She is such a good girl in every way!

Cousin Christina and Reina in Henderson, Nevada for Guinn family reunion Dec. '09.
Reina and cousin Madeleine meeting for the first time! (Born 18 days apart). This is Paul's twin brother's daughter.

Reina was getting a cold for her birthday party, but she was a champ and enjoyed all of the toys and people. Her favorite words at age one are: Baby followed with an Ohhhh, Doggy, and Dada.

Eating her first sweets and feeding them to Uncle Steve. By the way, this high chair is the exact same one that Paul had for his first birthday cake AND in the exact same spot in the kitchen. (tear)