A Picture-less Update

I totally got motivated to blog today and got all of my pictures downloaded to my computer and then as I am putting them on here to make a post, blogger lets me know that I have exceeded my 1 GB of storage space. Boo! Anyway I will not be upgrading at this moment so what you get is a picture less update.  We have been doing good.  The fall has been a fun time for our family.  We played in the leaves a lot.  My kids had a blast with the raking and the jumping.  We played outside at our house and at Mimi and Papa's house as much as possible.  For Halloween Lincoln dressed up as Darth Vader and Mercedes was a little bumble bee.  They still have fun putting on the costumes.  My mom gave us a bunch of her old kid costumes and the kids now have a dress up box.  It has been fun.  For Thanksgiving, both of my sisters from Utah were able to drive here with their families.  So we had the whole Barrett clan together for a week.  That was fun and crazy.  We stayed up late, talked a lot, played lots of games (the boys played a lot of MW3), and ate way too much food.  We also did our Christmas gift exchange while they were here and we got some fun stuff from the Barrett kids.  Lincoln and Mercedes each got a Leapster (now they need games though) and Todd and I got a date night.  It is nice to get out without the kids.  This past Saturday we decorated our tree for Christmas and now we are all ready for Christmas.  Todd and I have been blessed beyond measure this Holiday season and I can't help but think of the Savior and how much He truly does love us.  In some ways these last few months have been incredibly trying for our family, but I daresay Todd and I have learned a lot.  We know that because of these trials we are being blessed to learn things we may not have learned in any other way.  We have a big, wonderful, amazing extended family that brings joy to our lives.  We wish we could see all of you more often.  We also have amazing children who help us see the bright spots each day.  We also have friends who we miss dearly, but have given us so many happy memories.  God bless each of you this Christmas and may you find time to help bless those around you.  

A Parade

My town does a celebration every September called "Popcorn Day".  They have a kiddie parade and this year I decided to do it with my kids.  The theme was "Hats off to Hamburg".  So with my mom I came up with the idea of  "You don't have to go to Disneyland to have fun...Hats off to Hamburg".  The kids wore their Mickey and Minnie Mouse sweatshirts we got from Disneyland and we filled the wagon with Disney stuffed animals.  It was fun.  And the kids won first prize in the costume section winning $5 a piece.  Nice for their piggy banks.

 Lincoln loves riding his bike and was good most of the time at staying close to me.  Good thing there weren't many kids in this little parade.

 I got to pull Mercedes in the wagon.

 Waving was not her strong point.  We had been waiting for 30 minutes at this point because of judging and check-in, so she was ready to get out.  Luckily Mimi and Papa got her to wave.

Fun With Cousins

 Megan and Alyvia came out in August for a quick trip for my Grandpa's funeral.  When they were here Mercedes and Alyvia played together a lot.  They are 6 months apart in age and are really starting to play well together.  

 They had a lot of fun in Mimi and Papa's yard playing with all of the toys.

I really wish I would have gotten pictures of Lincoln and Porter from when Porter was out here at the end of July.  When we lived in Utah Lincoln and Porter didn't play together very much.  Lincoln loved McKenna and would always play with her.  Well when she comes here she likes to play with the girls and so Lincoln gets a chance to play with Porter.  And he has gotten the chance to become great friends with Porter.  It is so fun to see them together.  They are crazy and silly together.

Reading

We love books at our house.  And we have a lot of books to read.  It helps that because of my teaching experience I already had a pretty nice library before I even got married, let alone had kids.  But I also love to find new books - if only I had the money to just buy and buy and buy.  Well maybe that wouldn't be a good thing.  So if you ever need a good idea for a present for me, I really like children's books.  Though you probably should give me a gift receipt in case I already have it;)

 Mercedes will come into the office sometimes and grab about 20 books off of the shelf.  Then she will look through them.  Things have to be done in this order for her.  She will not look at one book and then get another book, that is just not for her.

 Lincoln will look at books at night after Mercedes is in bed.

 They both love having a story at night.  I try to read a few books with them during the day too.

New Year

A new year of Preschool has arrived.  The local school does a preschool for 3 days a week (full days). In Iowa, Kindergarten is full day so I guess they start early here.  I was a little bit nervous for a full day for him, but the last two times have been kind of nice to enjoy some alone time with Mercedes.  He loves it and I think he learns a lot at school.

 His new teacher Ms. Croll.

He is getting so big and independent I don't even know what to do anymore.  I love this kid so much and hope that I am teaching him the right way.

Family Reunion

Todd and I were pretty blessed this summer in that we had family reunions on both sides of our family.  So we got to see almost all of our family in the span of 2 months.  The second reunion we had was a Sloat family reunion.  So it was for Todd's grandmother's posterity.  We decided to have the reunion in Nauvoo, IL since it was kind of a mid point for everyone and it would provide a chance for people to see LDS church history sites.  We stayed at a place called Camp Nauvoo.  There were cabins with electricity and air conditioning, but terrible beds.  There was also a nice lodge that we spent most of our time at anyway.  On Thursday we did a little touring and saw some of the pioneer things.

 Watching how rope was made.

 These three were always in cahoots and defending the kingdom from the bad girl Payton.  Poor girl she is the oldest girl and the next oldest girl is 3.  So she gets to play with the boys a lot.

 Just hanging around while everyone is trying to catch up on each other's lives.

 Stuart did a devotional for us the first night and talked a little about his mission.  He also talked about how Gram's decision to join the church affected so many people.  I'm not sure of the number of people there are (it was figured out and told to me but I don't remember) but it is quite a bit.

 Two of my favorite people in the whole world.  She really loves her daddy.

 We played this game called "Kup" (I think) sounds like coop.  Anyway it sounded like fun (I didn't actually play so I am unaware of all the rules).

 Cute Dallin.  We had three babies at the reunion.

 Playing with the playdough while the adults played outside.  Anne and Reed brought some fun things to do while the adults did other things.  The kids played them and ran around the camp as well.

 I love Naomi's picture in this.

 Anne with little Dallin.

 She loves to "cuhder".  So she was in heaven with the sidewalk chalk.  She had it all over her most of the time.

 Sweet Eli ended up with Hand and Foot disease during the trip, which we didn't know until after the trip.  Poor guy - they thought it might be Chicken Pox at one point.  I think he only spread it to 3 other kids, neither of mine got it, so that wasn't too bad.  He was happy anyway though.

 As I might have mentioned before to "sing" is her absolute favorite thing to do.  A must when we go to Papa's house.

 

 I was on the Activity Committee for the reunion and so put together a jeopardy game of family trivia.  It was a fun activity and we got to learn some facts about people we didn't know.

 A group shot of everyone that made it.  We missed a few of the Dow's

 We had a talent show one night and Todd got to be the MC.

 The Murry family singers.

 Hyrum telling a joke.  (Kason also told some cute jokes.)

Todd's Uncle Bart singing with his grandkids.

 Grammy sang some songs that Gram Call taught her when she was little.

 Mandy played the piano.

Justin, Rheanna and their children sang a song for us.

All in all it was a great time.  We had a lot of fun seeing family and hope that someday we will get to have another reunion.