goodbye 2008

once again it's been a crazy year...
one with so many things to be thankful for ...
our first trip to hawaii,
selling our first home (IN 3 DAYS!)
building a new one to replace it,
stacey running his first half marathon,
sending ben to kindergarten,
taking a Christmas disney trip ...
AND SO MANY THINGS IN BETWEEN!!

it was fun.
but it can only get better from here, right :)

cookie decorating according to alex

this break in blogging ....

has been compliments of ...

the makers of
advil cold & sinus
nyquil
and
kleenex.

i think that the CEOS of these companies go around spreading cold germs ...
knowing they will make a ton off our family alone!

whatever their plan ...
it worked.

we caught a nasty cold bug
THAT
JUST
WON'T
LEAVE!

and my guess is ...
it will clear up just in time for school to start back up again
so that my kids can bring home something new :)

SO ...
until i can actually open my eyes and look at the computer screen

know that although we were sick,
we had a GREAT Christmas
we saw lots of people we love (who probably caught what we had ... SORRY!)
had a lot of fun
and took a lot of pictures ...
which i will post later :)

we hope that your Christmas was a nice one ... and that you enjoy the last few days of 2008!

ho ho ho

because we are leaving town tomorrow, the boys get their stockings and presents tomorrow morning here at home.
SO ...
before going to bed tonight ...
ben wrote santa a note, drew a few pictures, and set up a 'waiting station' for santa.

here's hoping that santa can read phonics!



AND in case you are having trouble ...
"we baked. cooked you some cookies."

barnett christmas card outtakes

do you ever get a christmas card and wonder how many pictures were taken before 'the right moment' was captured.
i know i do!
and sometimes i wish people would send those 'fun' pictures instead!

so ... although i did send the 'best of the bunch' in my card ...
i figured i'd give you a behind the scenes look at what our 'christmas card shoot' looked like ;)
(keep in mind this is just 6 of the MANY we took)

sharing the moment

sometimes pictures do a MUCH better job of retelling a story than i EVER could do ...

that is why i LOVE this sequence of pictures i took at disney.

i remember it started with ben laughing and trying to give alex a kiss

i remember hearing a "BEN ... THAT IS SO GROSS!"

now ... HERE is the rest of the story

can you tell which brother may have been running a LITTLE low on sleep ;)

busy bussers

yesterday i called and got the boys set up so that they can ride the bus

they were SO excited for this morning to come
by 7:30 they were completely ready to go
and had i let them ... i am pretty sure they would have gone and waited for the next hour outside!

*****
now ... if i can just keep them excited so that every morning runs this smooth!

one reason (of many) that i LOVE drew ...

because when alex decides he wants to go play outside ...



drew is VERY easily convinced to join him :)




thanks, drew!

until next time ...

we already miss you, 70 degree weather!

when the tooth fairy isn't allowed

while at disney drew lost a tooth.

now .. you may not know this ...
but the tooth fairy is not allowed at disney.
apparently it is 'tinks territory'.

and just in case you're wondering what tinkerbell does when someone loses a tooth ...
drew was surprised with some disney dollars ...
AND
because tink is too little to leave a note she left him a pin (which we heard can't be bought and can only be given by tink herself) to let him know that she was there!



and thanks again to the special mousekeeper that we had who helped tink out ;)