It's a Puped!!!

Allie has a favorite room in our house.  She lovingly named it the Art room.   She spends hours and hours in this small L shaped closet that goes under the stairs.  It has food storage boxes, and all our crafty items a girl could need to create.  And create she does!!!  She likes to decorate the door to the Art room based on the upcoming Holiday, no matter how big or small.  In January, she had a picture she drew and cut out of Martin Luther King Jr.  with a bubble coming out of his mouth that said "I am Martin Luther King Jr."

For Valentines day in February, she made a heart wreath, and put random hearts all over the door.  Then she placed a this picture with two signs that said "This is a puped" and "Please do not tuch".  I assumed it said "this is a puppet", since she sometimes spells things exactly how they sound.  She often makes her own puppets and puts on puppet shows too.  One day, we were Skyping with Grammie Barnette & Uncle Taylor and Allie was showing her this door.  She was describing all the things on it.  Dan and I asked her what this puppet was.  She put her hands on her hip and said "It's a puped, Mom.  Don't you know what a puped is?  (her tone said - Duh, mom, you aren't very smart)... 

I said, "No, I don't know what a puped is".  She said, "you know that guy that wears a diaper, like in Tangled?"  Oh a CUPID!!!!   Needless to say there was hysterical laugh from everyone around....  It was classic.



Owen's playful side

Owen loves to laugh and make us laugh.  He plays and plays and is silly all day long.  He makes silly faces, plays games, and plays hard to get when I pull out the camera.  He kept turning his face away from me and then he'd quickly turn and look to see if I still was trying to take a picture.  Then, he'd quickly turn back away and say "cheese" with the back of his head facing me... 

I was able to get some cute face shots - but mainly I caught the back of his head.

Christmas Tree

I normally LOVE to pull out all the Christmas Decorations and fill every room with some Christmas reminder, but this year we wouldn't be home for Christmas - so I figured I would only do bare minimum this year.  We put up our tree the week before Thanksgiving, since I would only have three weeks to enjoy it before we headed to AZ...  It is a lot of work - so I wanted to enjoy every minute I could.  I forgot to take any pictures until I was taking it down - and realized I needed a few quick shots.  So, it is missing some ornaments and flowers, but you get the idea...  I had to decorate the entire tree this year, since you could see around the whole thing.  Normally, I don't do the backside with anything but lights, since you never saw it. 

Puzzle flashback

Owen LOVES to do puzzles.  He is quite good at them too.  I also LOVED to do puzzles as a child.  I actually still love a good puzzle...  Whenever my kids ask me to help them put together one of the 100 or 150 piece puzzles  - I end up finishing it when they get bored and leave the table.  I can't just stop, I have to see it through.

When I was a toddler, my Dad would like to trick me.  He'd turn the pieces over to try to stump me.  It never worked.  I always figured out where they went.  One morning, as Owen was doing this shapes puzzle - he completed it once, then dumped it out to do it again.  The second time he didn't turn the pieces over to match the colored shapes to the colored spaces - he knew exactly where they went, without flipping them over.  And all this -  made me think of my dad :)  I'm grateful I have a great Dad - who spent time with me as a child doing puzzles, reading books, and grossing us out while trying to teach his girls to fish...

Game Night

It's always so much fun to hang out with my siblings and play a friendly game of Chinese Checkers.  Okay, maybe there was some fierce competition - but it was still a blast (and it was the LONGEST game of Chinese Checkers I've EVER played!!!)    We laughed, and laughed, and maybe even peed a little...  Dan made us his famous popcorn with a stick of butter.  It was fun to have almost everyone there (Christy we missed you!).  My youngest brother is leaving on a mission in the spring.  So, it was one of the last times we all were together just shooting the bull and relentlessly teasing one another!

Skateland

I haven't been to Skateland in YEARS!!!  But, as soon as I walked in, the overwhelming odor and yet familiar smell instantly took me back to elementary school skate nights.  Dan was a bit taken back by the aroma - he didn't have the pleasure of sweating the night away with 100 other children doing the Hokey Pokey or backwards skating to a disco ball.

This was a first time to a skating rink for my kiddos.  They were a bit nervous and not too steady on the skates, but luckily Skateland has these skate mates that were awesome!   Nothing more than PVC pipes on wheels, but they gave Allie and Drew the independence they longed for - and saved Dad from another embarrassing fall :)  Allie and Drew were very hesitant at first, but soon they were going out onto the rink all by themselves.  Drew would grip onto the skate mate as hard as he could and skate as fast as his little legs would go.  He actually got some decent speed going.  Allie was a little more cautious.  She wasn't in it for speed - she just didn't like to fall!

They let us take Owen in the stroller on the rink, so we skated and skated our hearts out!   Our dear friends, the Engels also went with us.  Their kids are pro's and didn't need the skate mates.  Drew did his best to keep up with Landon.  The highlight for the kids was winning the Find a Corner game - and the DJ would roll the die.  If you were in that corner, you won a glow stick necklace....  They were treasured for days.

Christmas Morning 2011

Santa found us!!!  As excited as our kids get for Christmas, they also love to sleep so Dan told the kids we would meet downstairs at 8am.  So they woke up around 7:30, and patiently waited in the loft area at the top of the stairs, longingly looking at all the gifts below, wondering which ones were theirs.  Grandpa Barnette was already downstairs, starting a warm, cozy fire and gave them a hard time, and told them all of the gifts under the tree had HIS name on them.  He claimed he couldn't find one single gift for either of them!  They, of course, found this hard to believe.  Allie had her eye on a large box, and desperately hoped it was for her!  I was surprised at their will power and obedience, for waiting patiently until everyone was up and ready.  They finally couldn't stand it any longer, and woke us up around 8:15.  I was really proud of them for waiting so long... Dan was happy he got to sleep in :-)

They were so thrilled with all their gifts - and every Christmas, we always feel like they got too much...  Owen, didn't care about presents or opening his gifts.  He wanted to eat breakfast!!  He humored us while we opened gifts, but wandering aimlessly around, while sucking on his pacifier.

It was so fun to be in AZ for Christmas morning.  I'm so glad my family let us crash their Christmas morning and let us join in with them.  The last time we joined them on Christmas morning to open gifts was before Allie was born.  My youngest brother is preparing to leave on a mission soon, so it might be the last Christmas, everyone was in town. 

Allie received a Castle popup tent and a medievel dress and cape from Santa, a sewing machine, makeup kit, and Xbox game from Mom and Dad, a watch from Drew and a Barbie from Owen.

Drew got a few boxes of Hot Wheels car tracks and a knight costume from Santa, a Buzz Lightyear spaceship, and remote control car, and Xbox game from Mom and Dad, super cool walkie-talkies from Allie, and binoculars from Owen.

Owen also got some car tracks and a 4-lane racking track from Santa, some building blocks and a Tractor ride on toy, and Xbox game from Mom and Dad, pretend food from Allie and a motorcycle from Drew. 

Each kid also received a Bell from Santa's sleigh this year (Polar Express reference).  Owen enjoyed making us laugh when he crawled into an empty Toy Story box.  He is such a ham, and was doing all he could to make us laugh!

After opening presents, we quickly got ready for church, and headed to an hour long church meeting.  It was a great way to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.  It's not the gifts, but to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful he was born, in humble circumstances.  I'm so grateful for his life and his example to me.  I love him with all my heart and hope to share his love with others.

After Church it was off to Scarbrough's to enjoy the rest of Christmas day with Dan's family!

Grandpa and Bre watching with excitement :)

Uncle Taylor and Allie

After opening presents, this is where we found Owen.  Pantless, in my suitcase, with his beloved Ipod....

Christmas Nativity with Barnettes

Well, after five months in Washington, we flew to Arizona over Christmas to spend the holiday with family and friends in sunny AZ.  It was a hectic week trying to finish Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, trying to kick recently acquired colds and Dan was busy trying to finish his last big week before Microsoft becomes a ghost town.  Luckily, he was able to work out of the Tempe Town Lake Microsoft office for a few days while we were in town.  It enabled him to stay with us the entire two weeks. The sky wasn't our "typical AZ blue sky" for the first few days we were there but then we had plenty of sun to soak in before heading back to the clouds.  It was so wonderful to see old friends and familiar faces again.  It felt familiar, but surprisingly, not quite like home anymore.  Probably because we weren't staying in our old home, and living out of suitcases...  Regardless, it was nice to be back in AZ.  We'd been looking forward to it for weeks.

We landed in AZ around 1 am in the morning and were warmly greeted by my younger brother, Taylor.  Owen was the cutest, he yelled "Taylor!" and threw his little arms around Taylor's neck.  And if you've met Owen you know he can be a tough one to win over, so that was saying something!

Every year the grandkids act out the Christmas story from the New Testament before our gift exchange.  We draw names to see what character each one gets to play.  Of course, all the girls want to be Mary.  Drew requested to be baby Jesus this year... Oh Drew.  The kids did a great job, and it's such a fun tradition.  Owen, doesn't like a lot of people in his grill, so he wanted nothing to do with any of the costumes or any of this production - he just wanted to watch.  It was a Tony Award-worthy performance yet again and the kids were reminded of the special signifigance of this special day.

Dance Club at IVE

Allie has been participating in Dance Club at Issaquah Elementary School.  Her teacher, Ms. Rupert, was one of the dance teachers.  She loved particpating in this 8 week club, and playing the extra hour after school with her friends from class.  It was 1st grade thru 5th.  They learned a dance to "Let it Snow".  They performed for parents and siblings the during last week.  Allie was behind an older girl, we were bummed we didn't have a great view of her during the performance.  She had a blast doing the dance - and gave it her all!  She was a little peanut out there with all the older, bigger kids.  She did a great job - I'm so glad she loves to try new things and it's fun to see her interact with her friends.  She's made friends with kids in all grades as usual.  Some of them like to pick her up like a doll.