Christmas At Home - 2011!!!!

Shawn and I started last year making sure we were home Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with our little family. I know the kids won't remember (other than pictures) right now, but it was something we wanted to get started as a tradition of ours. We have such wonderful extended families on both sides, so it is harder than you'd think to make it a point to be at our own home!

Christmas morning Shawn and I woke up at 6 am in order to get everything ready for the big day ahead. It really wasn't that bad...we were both pretty excited to share Christmas with our sweet little family.

When I walked downstairs and saw that Shawn had turned the Christmas tree lights on I wanted to try to capture the feeling on camera....I know I didn't do it justice, but it was just so beautiful and peaceful and perfect.

I noticed a small pile of packages under the tree that were different from all the others and I realized that Shawn had taken it upon himself to pick out one gift for each person in our family. He told me he wanted to start the tradition of a special gift from Daddy every year....well obviously I totally lost it and cried at his sweetness. Seriously?!?! My kids have a wonderful father. And I, a wonderful hubby!

This picture makes me happy because you can see our little Advent ornament tree we decorated in the kids' playroom right off the living room. It was such an amazing experience to participate in Truth in the Tinsel and I can't wait to do it again next year!

The night before Christmas I set up our pancake making area...so as soon as we were up and going, Shawn started making our traditional pancake breakfast.

Oooohhhhh....looks like Santa left the Barry family some K-Cups....thank goodness 'cause we were out!

Of course it wasn't long before little Mister was up. As a side note, I hope he starts learning to like his sleep a little more....at least in this house. ;)

Then it was time for us to wake up Lolo....she wasn't too excited at first because she is a lady that knows how to love her sleep (thank goodness!!!!) but as soon as she realized it was Christmas she was ready to go.

And this picture right here?!?! It totally melts my heart.

In her true shy-girl form, Lauren was super hesitant about the presents under the tree...

So we decided to wake up a little more and head to the kitchen for our yummy breakfast.

We always make our pancakes into a big cake with candles to celebrate Jesus' birthday on Christmas morning. We sang Happy Birthday, Jesus and talked about how we were celebrating Jesus coming to earth as a little baby.

Digging in! My loves....

After breakfast Lauren was finally ready to get to those presents. I think this is possibly my all time favorite picture of my two loves together.

Easton was dying to get into the presents....or the tree...or the plug-in....or whatever else he was not supposed to get into.

Lauren got an awesome new beanbag (that has a removable and washable cover...yippee!!!) and she LOVED it!

Also, a big hit....the $2 microphone from Target.

She got a new Bible and was "reading" it to us. I love that she loves to pretend to read and I LOVE that she gets so excited about new Bible books.

Daddy's gift to all of us were new Mizzou duds!!! Both kids got jerseys and I got a new long sleeved tee.

I got a Jawbone....seriously best gift ever!!! I LOVE having music playing in the house at all times and this is a wireless blue-tooth speaker. So, I just turn Pandora on my phone and it plays it. My phone can be all the way across the house and it will still play. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE IT!

Shawn got binoculars for all that hunting he's been doing.

And I got a Lisa Leonard necklace!!!! I've been secretly (and not so secretly) wanting one for a while now and I absolutely adore it. It has a sweet little mason jar filled with hearts, a pearl bead, a rectangular charm with Easton's name on it, and a circle charm with Lauren's name. It is so precious to me.

Wow, right!?!? It was quite the mess....but such a fun and memorable morning. :)

After playing with our new toys for a while and packing up our stuff to head to Nammy and Big Papa's, we all got ready for church. It was such a blessing for us to be in church on Christmas morning. It was such a rich service and my heart was just filled anew with gratitude for what Christ did for us by coming to earth as a baby, living life as a sinless man, and dying an ugly and horrific death to save me....to save us.

Christmas Eve 2011!!!

We had so much fun on Christmas Eve at our house. Shawn and I started a new tradition of letting the kids open a couple of gifts from us. We are pretty sure we will be doing this every year. The first gift was a pair of Christmas pajamas. I have to be honest here....I totally dropped the ball on buying the kids new Christmas themed pjs. I just re-wrapped some that they already had. Lauren got the Christmas-y plaid jammie dress from my mom last year and Easton's pj's were a hand-me-down borrowed pair from our friend Ryan. Lauren was totally confused by it and called me out by saying, "wait....these are already my jammies." :) I just had to laugh.

The next gifts the kids got to open (well really just Miss Lolo as Easton could have cared less) were a book and a new Christmas DVD. I don't know if we will do both each year or just one but this year it totally worked out (mainly because I had the DVD in the closet and forgot that I'd bought it until just days before Christmas....same with the book...yikes!)

We got them this book: (which is totally awesome by the way)

And this movie: (I HIGHLY recommend!!! We will be buying more in this series!!!!)

Easton was more fascinated by the fireplace and the stockings than the presents at first. Good thing Lauren was all business. ;)

After baths and getting into their new old Christmas jammies it was Easton's bedtime. We checked online to see where Santa was and then Shawn and I surprised Lauren by letting her stay up late with us to watch the movie. Surprisingly, the movie kept us all entertained. :)

We made Christmas cookies (chocolate chip) earlier in the day for Santa so we made sure to set that out for him. Lauren told us that Santa liked chocolate milk so we put that out as well. I don't have pictures (bummer) but we also spread out the reindeer food Elfie brought us back from the North Pole. Lauren LOVED that part and we made sure to check the sky for Santa!!!

Then it was off to bed for the Barry household. We had a big morning the next day...

Happy Birthday, Jared!!!

Last night we went to Incredible Pizza to celebrate Jared's 18th birthday!!! It was so much fun and we all got to act like kids again. Lauren and Easton were fascinated with the whole place and they both did great!!!!

I know this isn't an attractive picture of me, but its the only one I have to prove that I actually beat my brother, Zach at one game of skee-ball. I was just a tad bit excited!!!

Aunt Victoria was so sweet to help Lauren play a bunch of games. This was one of Lauren's favorites. The trash cans opened and she threw balls into them. She was actually a really great shot. And Aunt Victoria was super patient and sweet with her.

Oh my goodness....I LOVE this picture of my mom and dad and Easton! Everybody says that Easton looks like my dad and I think this picture shows that!!! Nammy and Easton were big buds all night. Usually he is a pretty big mama's boy, but he let Nammy hold him most of the evening! Probably because she walked him around and let him see all the lights and she sat him in front of the go-karts and he really loved to watch them!

Jared and his super sweet girlfriend, Taylour...oh and scary Shawn in the background!

Lauren calls him GiGi. She came up with it on her own when she was first learning to talk. This is a much better picture of the two of those cuties!

We were SO excited that Lauren wanted to ride the go-karts! She wanted to ride with Uncle Zach! Aren't they the cutest things? She is so blessed to have such awesome uncles!!!

Go-kart cheering section!!!

After Lauren rode the go-karts, GiGi, Big Papa, and Taylour rode the fast ones. I loved watching Lauren's face as they went around and around and around.

Lauren wanted to play a car racing game so Aunt Victoria did the feet pedals and Lauren steered. We were all cracking up because she was SO into it and serious. :) She actually did pretty well.....there were a few unfortunate trips into side rails and buildings and other cars on the road, but she stuck with it and seemed to enjoy it!

Aunt Victoria won Lauren a free go-kart ride so she wanted Big Papa to drive her. She was so happy because she wanted to ride in the tiger car!

Big Papa, Nammy, and Lauren had a lot of fun playing skee-ball. Lauren actually got the hang of it toward the end. Mostly her ball just kept coming back to her which was perfectly fine with her! It just meant more time for her to play!

We had a blast celebrating GiGi's 18th birthday and I was reminded again last night how thankful I am for my family. I love that we can all go do something silly and child-like and have the best time! Lauren and Easton are truly the luckiest kids in the world.

Happy Birthday Jared. I love you so much. You are a remarkable young man. You've gone through a lot the past few years and even in the midst of some scary stuff, you stayed strong. You crack me up all of the time. I love how much you adore my kids and I know that you would do anything for them. I love that you have your own style and personality and don't change a thing for anyone. I'm so glad I get to be your (weird and wacky) sister.

Lauren

Lauren, my precious firstborn. You are a beautiful light in my life. What would I have been without you making me a mama?

I know it isn't your birthday or any "special" milestone, but there are just too many wonderful things about you lately that I am terrified time will remove from my memory. So, I thought I would try to capture a bit of the essence of who you are at 3 1/2 years old.

You are just like me in the morning. If I go in to wake you up before you are ready you will be grumpy! Sometimes I just ask if you would like a little more time to wake up and you always say, "Yes!" I'll shut the door and let you wake up at your own pace. When I do that you are a much happier little girl.

You know how to sign "I Love You" and it is our special little code when we are out or around a lot of people. I always want you to know how very deeply you are loved. I hope that you do. We also love the book The Kissing Hand and read it often. I love how you ask me to kiss your hand and then you hold it close to your heart and squeeze it really tightly as if trying to get it as close to your heart as you can. 

You have a sensitive soul. You love deeply and hurt easily. You are extremely shy and cling to me when we are out and around people you don't know (and sometimes even people you do know!) Some people get offended by this, but I don't think you are being mean on purpose. I really think you are trying to figure out all the emotions that come with your shyness.

You've entered into a difficult disciplining stage for us. We aren't used to it (you or us) and so we are making our way through the murky waters as best we can. I've read books and tried a zillion different things and yet we still haven't found what works best for our little family. In all honesty, you are the most precious child...you just have moments (like all kids do) that challenge and grow us.

You are super creative. You love to color and do any kind of craft I bring out for us. You are always asking if we are going to do, "sumping 'pecial" or if we are going to "wern about sumping" I absolutely adore your excitement about spending special time together. Sometimes you will have me sit down and you will tell me stories from your Bible. You tell me that the Bible is, "God's trufe worf" (God's true word) and that God is in our hearts. You learned something new at BSF where you grab your Bible down from the shelf and open it up and read something (all pretend) and it is just too cute. I love that God's word is already seeping into your sweet heart. I pray with all of my heart that you will know how deeply you are loved, how precious you are in His sight, and that He has a plan for your life my darling daughter.

You make me laugh every single day. Most days you still take a nap. This might sound crazy and silly, but I always miss you when you are sleeping. Ha! I enjoy and often times need that time to get things done, but I still miss you under my feet as I'm going about my daily chores. You help me fold laundry, sweep the floors, clean the dishes from the table, put away the silverware, and are usually always really sweet to help me do whatever I need.

You are growing so fast my little baby girl. How you have gone from a completely dependent newborn to this very independent pre-schooler just baffles me. You go potty by yourself and wash your hands by yourself. You know how to brush your teeth and wash in the bathtub. You like to pick out your clothes (and would wear pajamas every day all day if I let you) and don't like tags or anything that scratches.

You are the absolute best big sister in the entire world. You love your baby brother with a love that I am just in awe of. Yes, he is getting to that age where he is getting into your stuff and yes, you are getting to that age where you are ready and willing to tell him what to do and what not to do, but generally you guys are the sweetest things together. You LOVE to be the first one to go in his room after a nap. You will open the door and say, "Hey handsome!" You do anything to make him laugh (it usually doesn't take much...he is smitten with you) and would rather chase him around the house or "pway wiff Bubby" than just about anything else. He is so lucky to have you as his sister. I pray that you guys will have a special bond throughout the years. 

Lauren, I love you. I. Love. You. I thank God that I am your mama. That he chose ME of all the mamas out there. So often I feel inadequate or unqualified for this job, for this important work, but I trust that He has a great plan for you and me Sissy. Even though you need to slow down on the growing up, I am excited to see what's in store for you beautiful girl. You are a priceless gift. 

I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times. 

Love,

Mama