Holiday Performances

We've hard our share of performances this past week. We had the elementary school Christmas sing. Each class sang a few Christmas songs. Tim was able to make it to the school and see the kids sings - they were so excited to have Dad there!


The girls also had their dance recital. They take dance once a week and have been working a long time preparing for this big day. They were darling and had such a fun time being up on stage. Big thanks to the grandparents who came and supported!

Christmas Time Fun

It's been loads of fun here these past few weeks - how can you NOT have Christmas spirit with 3 - five year olds!

First order of fun:

Building gingerbread houses. This is always the most anticipated Christmas event, but the most work (by mom). After the houses are constructed (by me), I breath a sigh of relief and enjoy the decorating. (But always dread the clean up!)Second order of fun:

We've been working hard on a few sticker reward charts. Annie's first prize was to choose a movie from Blockbuster all by herself and with her favorite guy! She was thrilled - can you tell?

Abby wanted to make cookies with Mom all by herself! She has always been my kitchen helper! We had a wonderful time making sugar cookies and decorating them - she did share them with her siblings when we were done!


Carter got his reward too - a SUPER DUPER late night (just no pictures)!

For the "motherload" prize Abby went to "Princess and the Frog" with Dad (all day, she asked, "Best buddy, can we get popcorn at the movie too" - how can you say no to that)!! Annie and Carter wanted to go to Mcdonalds for breakfast - they couldn't believe that Mcdonalds served breakfast "WHY haven't we been there for breakfast before"!!

It's been wonderful to see the big kids get motivated for their goals and work hard and sometimes have to take a few steps back. We are starting to understand the meaning of agency and right and wrong!

First Big Snow

We love the snow here at the Barlow home (including Mom and Dad), so when the first snow comes, we lug on our snow clothes and get out the sleds. We have the perfect hill in our back yard - very small, but enough speed for a 5 year old!


Peachy could hardly move in all her snow clothes!

Lately-As In Before Turkey Day

We went to the zoo the day before Thanksgiving. Surprisingly, the kids were SO well behaved and all parties involved had a great time (and we burned off a lot of energy)!


At the playground:With the stinky monkeys:
Group hug:

Thankfuls

I love this time of year to reflect on all the blessings my family receives. Last Monday night, we made a "Barlow Family Thankful Tree". It was fun to hear all the kids say their favorite blessings.

One of my favorite events from this year's Thanksgiving activities, was going to watch Tim run the "Turkey Trot". Usually, it's me the family is cheering on during a race, but not this year. The kids made big posters and practiced their words of encouragement.

We waited for Tim at mile 1 - the kids cheered for all the runners and held up their posters. The "trotters" cheered for them and their posters! When dad came around the corner, you thought it was the president of the USA coming. They were so excited to see him.

We met Tim at the finish line and we cheered our hearts out for our favorite guy. The kids braved the cold air and did a great job of rooting for their Dad!

After the race, we headed off to the Turkey Bowl, ate monkey bread, then for a feast at Cousin Callie's. What a wonderful, blessed day!

Carter, Annie, and Abby holding their signs:

Tim heading toward the finish:
The best family ever:
Georgia ready for a feast:
My big girls:

A Lunch Line Feast

The kindergartners held their Thanksgiving Feast in the cafeteria this year. Annie, Abby, and Carter were "over the moon" excited about going through the lunch line and eating a cafeteria feast (they have afternoon kindergarten and usually eat lunch at home). After lunch, they put in a 2 minute pilgrim/Indian program.

It was so fun as a parent to spy on them in the cafeteria - sitting by their friends, eating their big kid lunch!

Eating lunch:

Indian Abby:
Georgia, Pilgrim Annie, Indian Abby, Indian Carter:
Program:

A "Leafy" Time

We have LOTS and LOTS of trees in our backyard. A few weekends ago, we somehow tricked all the neighborhood kids into raking them up into a pile. Payment for all the hard work was big jumps into the crunchy pile. I love all our neighborhood friends!

The jumping crew:

Annie's big run:
Successful land in the pile:
Carter's big run:
Carter relaxing in the leaves:

Good Turns

In our house full of 5 year olds, we have been filled with a lot of "me me me me". I've been trying to work on helping the kids focus on the needs of others and just not themselves.

SO, we are doing an experiment - every night over dinner, everyone has to tell a "good turn" that somebody else did. It started out as, "I helped someone pick up toys". This is not what I had in mind! It has taken us awhile to see the good that others do, but they are starting to catch on. I love pointing out during the day when someone does a good turn.

One of my favorite good turns is that Carter LOVES to peel all the carrots from our garden (and there are A LOT of those babies). He is a fantastic peeler. He sits on a stool by me in the kitchen - he peels and I cut. It has given us a good amount of time to talk about our friends, family and the gospel.

(He is still in his pajama's, has bed head and a silly look on his face, but non-the-less a wonderful little peeler).

Halloween

I've been contemplating this Halloween post for some time (not just slacking in the posting area of life). It was a bitter/sweet week. Between the dance/church/school/birthday/friend/work parties (6 parties in a span of three days) my kids had had enough. Oh, they were plenty excited to attend and participate in the parties, but the aftermath was overwhelming by all members of the family.

The sugar highs and crashes, the over exhaustion, the meltdowns - my kids just can't handle that much excitement for that many days. I would never want them to miss out on a fun party, but I still feel like we are recovering a week later. Maybe I'm just a party pooper, but I have a hard time seeing my kids throwing temper-tantrums over things that usually don't rattle them; random outbursts and reverting back to sucking thumbs.

I was able to be a room mom at the school party - I was in charge of treats. All the 50 kindergarteners were disappointed in the pretzel snack, but I'm not going to contribute in the sugar meltdowns! The school parade was marvelous - there are some very creative moms out there!

I'm not sure what my game plan for next year will be, but it definitely won't be the same as this year!

Our favorite chicken, Peachy:

Heading out for tricks or treats:
So happy to be a big kid:
Happy Halloween 2009 (Thumbalina, Star Wars Clone Trooper, Tinkerbell and Chicken):

Star of the Week

My Peanut is the "Star of the Week" at school. She really is a star too! This week, she learned how to ride a bike without training wheels and tie shoe laces. She just sang her 1st article of faith during the primary program perfectly - she made her momma proud! Annie is the BEST cleaner-upper in the house - hands down! She loves to do her school work and help her little sister. We love you Peanut!

Made by Mom

SO I am way behind on blogging and I am trying to catch up.

Tim recently started a new job. He had a few weeks at home before he began at the new company. So out came the paint brushes and rollers. I sold my dining room table and turned our dining room into a new office (french doors and faux finish on the walls). I painted our hallway, stairs and our master bedroom and bath. I love that new paint look!

My old sewing machine died - I've become the proud owner of a Bernina sewing machine and serger! The quality between my old machine and new is like a driving a Chevy and then a BMW. Amazing!

Here are a set of skirts I made for my dear friends little girls:

Halloween pajamas (horrible picture - everyone was too giggley):
My scrappy quilt made from all my scrap pieces of fabric - I even hand quilted this one!

A get-well quilt for a dear friend who just had heart surgery - this quilt is tied:

Baby blankets for a service auction:

When it is quiet for too long....

After dropping the big kids off at school, I decided to check my email while Georgia was playing in the family room. It was too quiet and I decided to check on my Peachy.

She was playing in my purse and chewing several pieces of orange gum. Mmmmmm....now it can sit and rot in your tummy!

Will it turn into a coach?

This year Annie was responsible for the pumpkins in our garden. She choose a Cinderella Pumpkin variety and from the moment she picked out the seeds, she asked me if this pumpkin was going to turn into a coach (like the Disney movie). I told her we had to plant it and wait for it to grow.

This weekend, we finally picked our pumpkins. The kids were each assigned to help wash and carry the pumpkins to the front porch. They took their jobs very seriously!

In the garden ready to pick on a cold Saturday morning:

Helping Dad wash off the pumpkins:

Our final pumpkin show:

I told Annie we will have to wait until Halloween to see if it turns into a coach or rots!

School Days

Our transition to kindergarten went much smoother than I had anticipated. The kids are excited to go and come home happy - I find that as success!

I am volunteering once a week in their classroom (and am also a room mom - I help plan parties). I didn't realize how much I would love seeing them with their new found friends. I am learning more about their friends and actually seeing what they are doing in class. Already, I can tell this will be VERY important in years to come (to be pals with their friends).

I am developing a relationship with their teacher and even found out that one of my children had to be moved to a different table because of being "alittle too friendly". I would have never known that if I wasn't in the classroom.

I have our first parent/teacher conference tonight. I love seeing my kids excel and be excited about life!

Fall Feast

I haven't posted much about our garden this summer...well probably because I have spent a lot of time there (and not on the computer). We tried new fruits and vegetables this year and have been reaping a great harvest. We have had a cooler summer, but I am still trying to decide if it effected our crops.

Our freezer and shelves are full of strawberry jam (compliment of berries grown in our own yard), green beans, peas, broccoli (a new one for us!), green peppers, salsa, spaghetti sauce, carrots, pears (I bought these), raspberries (the kids seemed to polish those off before I could bring them in the house), and onions. We also had pumpkins (which we will harvest tomorrow) and lots of yellow squash and zucchini.

I am canning our last batch of spaghetti sauce tomorrow. I've been feeling like the little ant in the Ant and Grasshopper parable. Hopefully, we have enough stored in our basement to last a winter!

We had many nights of corn on the cob, green beans and watermelon - a family favorite!

Peachy swiping the raspberries - she is a sneaky one!
We also decided to grow a sunflower. The kids love to go stand by it to see how tall it had grown. Sure enough, it did produce sunflower seeds. Picking all those sunflower seeds out of the flower was a chore!