I love this picture

Trying to figure out how to do movies

Here is a clip of Tessa and Callie.

"Baxter, you ate a whole wheel of cheese. I am not even mad, I'm impressed"

Ok that is a line from Anchorman. Such a funny movie. Anyway, the other day Tessa was being awfully quiet. Never a good sign. When I went to check on her this is what I saw. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. If you look closely you can see she was very symmetrical with her face painting. So how could I get mad at her, when she did such a good job? By the way , I don't know what "Washable Markers" mean? What do they wash off of, certainly not skin.

Christmas 2008

Abby and Sydnee at the dinosaur muesum

Maxwell, Abby and Mia

Callie Christmas Present

Callie's Christmas Dress
It was such a wonderful holiday season. Everywhere I went people would comment on ow wonderful it is to have a brand new baby for the Christmas season. That was certainly true. There was definitely a different spirit around. Maybe it was because I got all my shopping pretty much done before Callie was born so I could relax a little, or maybe it was because Callie got to play baby Jesus twice. Once at church and once for the Barnes Family Christmas. Whatever it was it was really nice having such a little one for Christmas. Although I was a little sleep deprived through all of it. The girls loved having a little one at all the Christmas activities. They were just thrilled to see Callie play baby Jesus. It was also so nice to spend time with family. The Waldrons came up and Tessa was so excited to play with Mia and Eva. It was so much fun to hang out and relax with them and the rest of the family. My parents were in town as well and it was nice to see them and enjoy some family dinners with my sisters' families. I am going to miss the season. And now we get to enjoy the cold. Today was the first day back at school and on the way we were guessing how low our thermometer would drop before we got there. I won with 11, Abby thought it would be 7. I think she was more accurate though. It kept dropping on the way home. Oh well. I guess we will have to go sledding a lot. So take that you 70 degree Christmas Texans!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We got so much snow this Christmas. It was so nice having a real white Christmas this year. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The kids had a great time sledding with their cousins though. Abby is a pretty good snowboarder. She taught herself to do it. I am so impressed. She definitely didn't get that skill from me.

Oh Sydnee!

So I went to pick up Sydnee from preschool a few weeks ago and as I am picking her up her teacher is laughing with another mom. She turns to me and says "we are laughing over what Sydnee said" I looked a Sydnee and started to roll my eyes. Oh no I thought here it comes "Sydnee says that because I am a Grandma I am going to die soon, but I still walk pretty good" Oh dear! I turned to Sydnee and she says "Yep, she is going to die soon. She is a grandma" I apologize like crazy, make up some excuse how she was dropped on her head recently. I turn to leave then realize duh, we have had 3 grandparents die in the past 7 months. Of course she thinks all grandparents are going to die soon. I run back in and explain to her teacher about all our deaths recently. Then I explain to Sydnee that not all Grandparents are going to die.
Right before Christmas Sydnee is begging me to go caroling. It is the middle of the day. Snowing like crazy and the baby is crying. The last thing I want to do is bundle everyone up and go caroling. After lots of hounding she decided to do just one house and come right back all by herself. "Ok" I say thinking there is no way she is going to do this all by herself. I get busy doing other things and didn't notice she had left. She came back a little while later. I asked her "Did you go caroling" "Yep" she said. Yeah right I am thinking. She said "Kirsten (her friend) wasn't home so I went to the Rich's house". Ok I am thinking. I am sure she knocked on their door and got nervous and ran. Wrong. A few days later at church Sister Rich came up to Sterling and told him how Sydnee came to her door all alone and caroled to her. She sang jingle bells. Sister Rich was so touched by it she started to cry as she told Sterling the story. He told me this and I of course had to laugh. Thanks Syd for proving me wrong! I love ya!

Callie's Blessing!

Callie was blessed on December 7th, 2008. We weren't planning on doing it so soon, but because of my Grandpa's passing and funeral my whole family (minus Cynthia and 3 nephew's and a niece) was here. So we decided literally the day before to go ahead and do it. It was pretty cool to have all my brother and almost all my brother in-laws from both sides there to bless her. She was really good and was didn't make a peep (unlike Tessa and Sydnee's blessings) Sterling gave a wonderful blessing. My mother-in-law wrote it down for her. That was so nice. It was so nice to have so much family around for her special day!

Callie's Here!!!

Callie Grace Barnes (yes the name Callie won!, well we decided it fit her too), was born on November 27, 2008. Our little Thanksgiving baby. Notice Grace is her middle name. She was 7lbs 10 oz. and 19 inches long. Very Very cute!! I had a really nice labor and delivery. I had been having contractions for weeks. Finally on Tuesday I was dilated to a 3. My real contractions started Wednesday. By night time they were getting harder. At 2 am Thursday morning I was so tired and couldn't sleep I told Sterling it was time to go to the hospital. When we got to the hospital I was only at a 3 and 1/2. I was so disappointed. The nurse wanted to send me home. But I knew this baby was coming that today. She called my doctor and he said "go ahead and give her pitocin, if she wants" (he knew since it was my forth that I was going to go fast and I was going to have her today) So I got the medicine and had her 4 hours later. It would have been 3 hours later, but the nurse was letting my doctor sleep in. After all it was Thanksgiving. He barely made it in time to catch her. I mean barely. She was practically half way out by the time he got there. I won't go into details. But it was a really nice labor and delivery. I might just do it again! She was sooooo cute. Not smushed up at all. We fell in love immediately. She is a little grunter though. A very good eater and as chunked out a lot. Lots of room on her cheeks for kisses. She looks a lot like Sydnee and Tessa as a baby. We are so happy she has joined our family. It is like she has been here all along. The girls just adore her. Sterling thinks she is a princess and can't wait to win her over to his side. (He has won the others, but I think this one will be a Mommy's girl for a little while)

Grandpa's Passing

My Grandpa passed away on December 3. I'll admit it was a good way to go. He was out working in the yard on Monday. On Tuesday he told my Dad he wasn't feeling well. By Tuesday late afternoon my Dad finally convinced him he need to go to the hospital. Thinking nothing was seriously wrong they were surprised to find out that my Grandpa had a heart attack. By the time all the family was notified my Grandpa was intensive care. My Mom, who was helping me with the little one, made it up there with my two sisters around 8 pm. When they got there the doctors told them that this was the end. This whole time my Grandpa was lucid and fully awake. He had time to say his good byes. 3 out of his 5 children were there along with a handful of grandchildren. He told everyone that he loved them and bore his testimony. They even joked a bite. Then around 1 am he was gone. He went to spend Christmas with Grandma. The nice thing is he was only without my grandma for 7 months. Not bad. And he didn't suffer long like my Grandma. The funeral was nice. It really wasn't sad, no one was left behind this time. See you Grandpa!