After Christmas Joy

We had a marvelous Christmas morning opening gifts, eating massive amounts of calories, taking naps, and enjoying new toys! We had a week full of cousins too. We went bowling for the first time, went the the movie "Princess and the Frog", went to In N Out (we have brain washed the kids that this is the only place to buy a burger), went to Chuck E Cheese, went sledding, and ate lots of Grandma Barlow's scones. The kids stayed up late every night and embellished every activity!

One of my favorite treats of the week was running with my sister in law, Mandy. Many moons ago, we raced against each other during high school at a national cross country meet. Little did we know that I would marry her brother! She's fast and is always willing to talk "running". PLUS, we both got Garmin watches for Christmas. Nothing like a new toy to make a run great!

On New Year's Eve, I ran the "Beat the New Year" 5k. The race started at 11:30pm and if you finished by 12:00am you got a plaque. I was excited that my race number was 2010. I thought there would be good running karma for the upcoming year - then I realized that everyone had that number.

There were prizes for the best costumes and for the coldeeeeest runner. I wasn't sure what the "coldeeeest runner" meant until I saw the big hairy dude in the red speedo and the girls in the string bikinis....brrrr! It was a really fun race!

I always feel a bit overwhelmed when the holidays finish and my house looks like a tornado. But everything is put away and all the new toys have found a home. I am catching up on church work, emails, facebook and blogging (slowly but surely on the last one). All the junk food is gone and I picked up lots of fruits and veggies yesterday at the market. On to a new year with new goals!

Bowling excitement:


Beat the New Year 5k:

Christmas x 3

Christmas is so magical when you are 5 years old. The excitement seeped out of our house.

Christmas Eve: We spent at our home with Grandma Jenny, Grandpa and Grandma Barlow, and Uncle Jason and Aunt Jenny. Tim gave a wonderful lesson on the birth of the Savior (though we have had many lessons on the true meaning of Christmas, we thought we would go out with a bang). The second he was done, Abby yelled, "Is it time for presents yet"? Glad to know we were listening!

Christmas Morning: Surprisingly, the kids woke up late on Christmas morning (hooray!). They were pleased to see that Santa ate his old, stale cookie and his Coke.

Everyone received the gifts they asked for:

Abby - a sticker maker
Annie - a sewing kit
Carter - a Temple of Doom legos
Georgia - a Melissa and Doug Cookie set

It was a wonderful day to spend lazily at home! We went to the airport to pick up Uncle Mike and Aunt Mandy - we sure do miss them and were glad they came to Utah for the holidays!

Discovering our Santa loot:
Can't go into the living room until Mom takes a picture:
Santa ate our treats:

A Big Shout Out to Bobbi

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends. We have a dear friend, Bobbi, who never misses. Never misses a holiday, birthdays, anything. Never has missed in the 31 years I've been alive. She is always sending cards or packages in the mail. We are spoiled! We love her and the kids wanted to sing her a special holiday song.

Thanks for being an amazing person Bobbi!

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: