Barnette Family Christmas

This year we spent Christmas at home just the five of us.  It was wonderful!  It took us all day to open all of our presents.  We had presents from Santa, cinnamon rolls, stockings, hunts, and gifts from Grandparents!  (It also took Brandon and I a long while and much gnashing of teeth to put together Sterling's hunt gift)

Merry Christmas!!!

Bass Pro Shop

We were told that the Santa at Bass Pro Shop was the best.  So, thinking it might be less crowded on a Wednesday night, we headed down there after work with the Wachs.  When we got there, they said they closed the line to make sure the people who had been waiting for the last THREE hours would get a chance to meet Santa before he left at 8:30.  So we hung around for about an hour, eventually they reopened the line and we only had to wait about 20 minutes.  We were really lucky it worked out great!

Plus, there were fun little games, lots of things to see, and a seriously serious fish tank!

They even give you a free picture with Santa, but Gigi was terrified and refused to sit anywhere near him..

A Friendly Christmas

When we met the Wachs and the Humphers there was just Chandler and Davy, and they were babies.  This past weekend there were 9 kids + Julie's one on the way!  Sometimes I look around and wonder how this is my life!  We had such a great "Friendly Christmas" this year, even if it's a little more crowded every year.

We ate ham, potatoes, carrots, jello, pie and ice cream pie!

....made sticker nativities

....exchanged gifts

... and Genevieve harassed baby Joy

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgiving 2015

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  We are especially thankful for family.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we hope you did too!

The boys had a pie baking contest.  Nathan purred a baked pumpkin, Brandon made apple dumplings, Dad searched a long time for actual key lime juice, and Adam's cheesecake won.

On Saturday we made turkey pizzas.  Which are not pizzas with turkey on them, but pizzas shaped like turkeys.  Except Adam made a dinosaur.

Today I put up the Christmas decorations!!  Happy Holidays, friends!

Chicago and Milwaukee

For my birthday Brandon and I took a trip without our kids to Chicago and Milwaukee!  A huge thank you to my mom who came out and stayed with our kids; taking them to field trips, basketball practices, and trip to the park.

Our tickets were crazy cheap, but they were also red-eyes.  We arrived to a rainy, windy cold Chicago Thursday morning at 5 am.  After picking up our rental car we drove to a Walmart and slept in the parking lot.  Luckily by the time we woke up the rain had stopped and it was a little less cold.  After buying some gloves we started our adventure....

The cloud bean thing at Millennium park, you know you always see pictures of it, but it is way cooler in person than I thought it would be.

We spent the majority of Thursday at the Art institute of Chicago.  Which was incredible, but I didn't take any pictures.  We also walked down miracle mile and ate deep dish pizza.

Friday we slept till 11:20.  ELEVEN.  It was glorious.  And then we spent the day in Milwaukee with my cousin and her sweet little family.  We went the grocery store and sampled all the cheese, had delicious frozen custard, and root beer, explored downtown a bit, visited with "The Bronze Fonz", had dinner on the water front, went to the Pabts mansion, and even happened onto someone's engagement moment.  Milwaukee is a beautiful city, but the company was the best part.  Rachel's little home, neighborhood, and family is pretty darn perfect.  I even got the chance to snap a couple Christmas card pictures for them.

Saturday, after breakfast, The VanWickles joined us for a little more time in Chicago before our flight home.  We walked down Navy pier, went up to the top of Hancock tower, and had Chicago dogs! Owen is a sweet heart.

(stolen from Rachel's facebook) 

It was such a wonderful trip and thank you to my mom and the VanWickles for making it so easy to get away.  :)  It was perfect.  (I swear we look colder than it actually was)

Portland Halloween

This year the boys had  a five day weekend over the Saturday Halloween.  So we packed our bags and headed up to Portland.  It was very wet and Brandon promised that in the future we would only visit in July.  The fall colors were beautiful though.

We visited the Hartley Park ward in Portland and the rock by the Bateman's apartment, which felt a little bit like going home. <3 p="">

We rented a house in Portland which was a great way to travel!

Saturday, Halloween, was very rainy; more rain than usually Portland sees in such a short period of time.  The boys dawned serious rain apparel and headed out trick or treating.  Genevieve and I hung out in the car. 

We also visited the zoo

And the Tillamook Cheese Factory

We rode the Max to the Saturday's market and voodoo doughnuts..

Despite the rain, it was kind of a perfect trip.  Also a friendly reminder that (I may be a little broken) I prefer the desert sunshine.