Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from the Barretts! This is the first Christmas we will be celebrating this season. The second one will be when Aaron gets home. Since we expect him to be home in early January, we decided that we would stretch out Christmas a little longer this year. We can't think of a better reason not to lengthen the joy of the holidays this year. We checked with Santa and he assured us that he would be glad to make a special trip to Kentucky once daddy comes home. Santa still made his usual Christmas Eve stop in Detroit where we were visiting my family. 

 Well, only one of us is actually smiling, but at least no one is screaming!

Clara getting a special present from Santa

Colton says, "Here Santa, you can have the wrapping back!"

 Christmas Eve morning brought just enough snow that Clara

 decided she needed to make the first "mini" snowman of the season.

We had a great time visiting family and friends in Michigan and Indiana. Now we wait for daddy to come home and we can celebrate Christmas all over again! How lucky are we?

The Nutcracker

I love doing special things with the kids during Christmastime. This year Clara and I went and saw The Nutcracker. This is something I would love to become an annual tradition for my little girl and I. I'm not sure who was looking forward to it more, her or I. I think I had just as much fun, if not more, watching her face light up as she watched the dancers move across the stage. The production we went to was put on the by the local dance school. It was mostly middle and high school aged girls, with cute little parts for the younger dancers. This was her first experience at seeing live theater and ballet. She adored every moment of it and I only wish I could have captured some of the looks of amazement on her face as we sat in our seats and watched the ballet. I imagine she was wishing that one day it will be her up there in a pretty costume, pirouetting around the stage.

My big girl and I all ready for our special day



One of the nice things that drew me to this particular performance was a little event prior to the show called "Clara's Tea Party", named in honor of the young girl in the story, The Nutcracker. Well, OF COURSE we HAD to go to that! It was a nice little luncheon type thing with fancy little sandwiches, petit fours and hot chocolate. The ballerinas came out in full costume to mingle and talk to the kids and take pictures. Our Clara was completely enamoured and entirely shy as soon as the dancers came pouring out into the atrium where we were.

"Clara" and Clara, my Clara was trying to hard to say "cheese"!

With two of the ballerinas

We had such a great afternoon and made memories that will stay with us for a long time. There's something special about the first time a little girl goes to see a ballet and I'm so glad she enjoyed it. I'm so lucky to have my little Clara and I can't wait to do more things like this as she grows up.

A Recipe for Fun

Some sugar, some flour, a few eggs, some vanilla, and few more ingredients make some delicious sugar cookies. Add some cookie cutters, rolling pins, sprinkles, icing, and a handful of cousins and you have yourselves the perfect recipe for a fun morning! We have been so fortunate to live by family here at Ft. Knox. My cousin, her husband, and their two kids were posted at Ft. Knox and have stayed around after Scott retired from the Marines. The Army friends we meet as we travel from post to post are great and are considered family. But, there's nothing like having the real thing right here nearby.

Our annual Christmas cookie baking event is one we look forward to each year. The only thing different this year was the mess! With four kids with their hands in the mix, instead of just three, let's just say our Dyson got a good workout when we were all done!

Clara getting the dough all ready.

Rolling it out.

Colton didn't mind that there was no dough to roll,

he just loved being a big kid.

Colton delicately decorating some cookies.

Clara and Nick were a little more generous and

lot less delicate with their decorating!

If you look closely you may actually be able to see

some cookies under all that sugar.

Time for some icing.

Clara was very proud of her work.

Enjoying the benefits of hard work.

The cookie crew busy at work.

The holidays are supposed to be about smiles and memories. I have so very many happy memories of Christmastime growing up in our family of 13 cousins. I'm glad our children have cousins here to make memories with. Long after we have departed Ft. Knox we will be able to look back fondly at these pictures and fondly remember these times and smile.

Thankful

Thanksgiving may have been nearly a week ago, but I needed to stop and reflect on the things that I am thankful for. With deployment dragging on, though almost done, it's easy to get sucked into the "my life is hard" mode.

I have a strong and amazingly brave husband. I wake up each day and go to bed each night thinking about how incredibly proud I am of him and the important job he does everyday. And, although that job puts us at risk to loose more than we could imagine and keeps our family separated and incomplete for lengthy periods, it is a task that we believe needs to be done and someone has to do it. I am thankful that our family and our love is strong enough to endure these hardships and, in the end, make us better because of what we have gone through together.

We have two beautiful children. Children that are healthy, intelligent, sweet, funny and thriving. I am thankful that I can look forward to a future full of smiles as we watch them discover the wonders of the world around them and grow into amazing individuals.

I have an incredible extended family. Parents, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends that support and encourage me no matter the challenge. The help and love of all these people brighten my cloudy days and I am thankful for all the big and little things they do.

I am thankful that our jobs allow us to provide for our family so that we are not burdened with worry for our future. And, not just jobs that provide, but jobs we enjoy. I am so fortunate to have a job where I can have a flexible schedule that allows me to be home with my kids more than I'm at work. I am thankful that my job is one that challenges me and pushes me to always learn more. A job that allows me the opportunity to work with amazing people. One that allows me to empower others and help them find the confidence to make a difference in their children. It is a beautiful thing to watch a family be the catalyst in helping their children meet their potential and I'm proud to be a part of it.

We are nearly done with our second year long deployment. January is right around the corner and we can't wait. I am thankful that over the past 11 months I can remember more smiles and laughs than tears and sadness. It hasn't been a cake-walk, by any means. Clara has days where all she wants is for Daddy to be home and asks dozens of times how much longer until then. I look at the little boy Colton is growing into and am desperate for him to have his Daddy home to influence him in the ways only a daddy can. But, through all this, I am thankful that I have found the courage, strength and support to make it through this deployment. And, I'm thankful that we haven't just "survived" the deployment. I have grown as a mother, wife, and woman and have watched our children thrive and managed to keep Daddy a part of their life as much as we could given the circumstances.

I am thankful for Battle Buddies, Deployment Pals, Army Wives, whatever you want to call them. I call them Nikki and Rose and without them this year would not have been nearly as fun, tolerable or manageable.

I am thankful that the past 6 weeks have flown by! Seriously! It seems like it was just October and now tomorrow we turn the calender to December. Life has kept us busy and we have been able to enjoy family and friends. I have been to Charleston, SC for a  fabulous get away to attend a friend's wedding. We have had visits from my mom, dad, my friend Krista, Aunt Sue and Uncle Leyon, playdates and get togethers with friends, girls' nights out, sleepovers with cousins, a trip to Michigan, and many more simple silly times here at home with just the three of us. Here a few snapshots from the past couple months.

Nick, Hailey, Colton, & Clara in a "pile of cousins"

Clara and Aunt Sue

Goofy boy likes to move the cat's bed around the house and sit in it.

This time it slipped underneath him while he was relaxing.

Goofy yogurt face!

Coloring with Papa

Here's to a swift December, a magical Christmas and the excitement and anticipation of having our family whole again.

Halloween 2011

Yeah, I know, I know. Halloween is so LAST MONTH! But, things have been so busy and so crazy that I just never got around to posting about it. My wonderful husband reminded me the other day while he was chatting with me from the other side of the planet that I hadn't done anything on our blog in a long time. Sorry, babe.

So, without further ado...Halloween 2011.

This was Colton's first year of participating in our family tradition of playing in pumpkin guts. Well, maybe saying it's a family tradition is pushing it a bit, since most people do it too, but we do look forward to it each year. Clara loves it and we quickly discovered that Colton does, too!

The yearly "pumpkin guts" playtime

Clara insisted we carve happy Jack O'Lanterns. That was fine with me since happy faces are much easier to carve than scary, spooky, or unique designs. Aaron is the expert carver in the family so I enjoyed the simple task of smiling pumpkins. The whole process was also made easier thanks to the helping hands of my dear friend Krista, who was visiting us for the weekend from Michigan.



The finished products

As the big day of Trick-or-Treating drew near I was a bit uncertain how I was going to manage. We've never had two Trick-or-Treaters before and I was going to be doing it solo. Thankfully, the weather was superb, in the 60s, dry and sunny. We got all costumed up and Skyed with Grandma, Papa and Auntie Keri. Then we played in the yard for a bit because apparently in my effort to make it all go smoothly we were ready to go before anyone else was!

Roaaaarrrrr! Our cuddly little lion

Princess Belle cruising around before going out to collect her loot

When the time was right, we got out the wagon and hit the pavement. Our children are amazing! What I thought was going to be a daunting task turned into such a great experience. The only hiccup was when Colton repeatedly insisted on pulling the wagon all by himself. He did not want help. He did not want to sit in the wagon. He did not want to be carried. He did not want to walk all by himself. He wanted to pull the wagon from our neighbor's house all the way to the end of our cul-de-sac. That's quite a long ways for two little legs and one big wagon. So, with Clara walking ahead, she was on a mission to collect candy (duh!), I stood back and smiled as I watched Colton very slowly, yet effectively, pull that big red wagon. It was so cute and one of my fondest memories of the evening. He eventually got tired and decided he would be more comfortable if he was sitting in the wagon. Clara was eager to say "trick-or-treat" at each door, such a big difference from just last year when she shied away from everyone and made Daddy do all the work. Colton chimed in with "tank dou" and "bye", that's Colton-ese for "thank you" and we "oohed" and "aahhed" at all the costumes. More important that the candy we collected are the memories I collected of my happy, adorable and spectacular, growing babies.

Going to the Zoo!

On a perfectly sunny, warm, Fall day what better thing could you do than to go to the zoo? It was absolutely wonderful. The animals were out and playful and Clara and Colton both thoroughly enjoyed watching them all. The giraffes were playing and tangling necks, the gorillas were eating vegetables from paper bags and the orangutan was nose to nose with the kids at the window. We had a great time!

Clara's glitter tattoo

A little elephant ride

A prehistoric pair

Our smiley boy

Super Clara!

Giggly gal

Clara couldn't wait to ride the carousel

Me and My Babies

We have been enjoying time at the pumpkin patch. Last weekend we went with Michelle and Hailey. Michelle took the camera from me and had some fun snapping pics of me and my babies. I'm always the one behind the lens. I don't have many pictures of me with Clara and Colton. It was like having our own personal photographer.

Going down the slide with a "Clara sandwich"

Relaxing on the hay ride

Giggles

The loving big sister

Fun in the Fall

Pumpkin Patch

Get ready for some pictures! We went to Crawford Pumpkin Farm today with some friends. The weather was beautiful, sunny, warm and perfect! We got ourselves a family pass and we will be venturing down to Hodgenville several more times this season. Given the sunshine, the smiles and beautiful scenery I just couldn't narrow down the pics to just a few.

By far my favorite. I just love seeing our two children holding hands.

Colton loved the animals! Sure, he was calling them all dogs, but being as "dog" and "kitty" are the only two animal names he can say, I'd say he's a pretty smart fella.

Clara loved how the animal tongues tickled her hand when she fed them.

"Look, Ma! Straw!"

I'm not sure what she was looking at, but it sure must have been amazing!

King of the hay hill!

That's one big tire!

And, that's one long, bumpy slide!

Farmer Colton

Farmer Clara

Even though I'm the only one smiling, we really were having a fun time!

We had such a great time. We will be heading back to the pumpkin patch more this month, so I'm sure I'll be posting some more fun pictures!

Mommy-Daughter Day

Last week, Clara and I had a Mommy-Daughter Day in Louisville. It. Was. A. Blast.!!! We went to the mall to shop for some new shoes and a princess Halloween costume for Munchkin. We had a great lunch at California Pizza Kitchen complete with a M&M sundae. Clara got a purple manicure at a cute kids boutique/salon. We explored Cherokee Park, which was the best part. We played at a playground where I discovered that our little girl has learned how to pump a swing all by herself. I had brought her bike and Clara couldn't have been more excited to ride her bike over bridges. We explored a trail through the woods, where we discovered lots of roots, leaves, sticks, mushrooms and many smiles.

This Mommy-Daughter Day was a big hit. It will be hard to top it. But, as long as I get to spend some good quality time with my little girl, it's always a fabulous time.