Christmas came a little early yesterday...

Well, I gotta say...PAPAW DELIVERED! Megan has been begging for a Loft Bed for at least the last four months. One weekend, about 3 months ago, we spent the entire time looking all over town for the "perfect" loft bed. She wants a white one (as does mom, because it looks more "girly" and will match any decor best). She wants a huge desk that goes all the way across the bottom portion, lengthwise. While looking all over town, we came to one conclusion...We really didn't have $1000 to spend on a bed for her. We don't want to use credit. We didn't really wish to spend that much money on a bed...we haven't spent that much money on ANY piece of furniture in our entire house! Well, we put our desires for this bed on hold, indefinitely. That is, until Jonathan was visiting with his dad about a month ago and happened to learn that his dad was building bunk beds for the colleges around his town.

Jon's response, "OH REALLY!"

Hahaha. Yes, we told him what we needed/wanted out of a Loft bed, and Papaw said "I can have it ready the weekend before Christmas".

WOW! DEAR DAUGHTER'S DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE!

We didn't mention this piece of information to Megan, and yesterday morning, we got the phone call from Papaw that the bed was ready, and packed up in the truck and they were headed to town! Once they got close to our house, Megan and I went out for a bit, and let her daddy and Papaw get it ready (all unbeknown to her, of course). Once they were done, Dad called to tell us to come home, and SURPRISE! Megan walks in to a new LOFT BED in her room! It's so awesome! We still have to paint it, but she LOVES it already.

Here are a few pics for you:

IT'S CHRISTMAS! YAY!

Well, a true sign that Christmas is near is when our kids get out of school...we are there! Tuesday night was the school Christmas program, and Ryan's first year to participate. He was such a HAM and he didn't even see me in the audience! He looked like he was having the best time up there, and he certainly kept me laughing! Every year, the kids pretty much do the same songs, but this year the teachers threw in a few new ones. One of the best was the first grade class singing the 12 days of Christmas. When it got to the "5 Golden Rings" part, all the girls had on golden rings, and held their arms out front while all the boys turned and "presented" them. It was really cute. They did the standard "Frosty the Snowman" song, but it was cute as always...it must be those cute black top hats they wear. Ryan's K3 class sang "Away in a Manger" and "Jingle Bells" and then the entire school came together for the finale of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". So now...the kids are out of school until the first of the year. It's only been a few days and already we've gotten so much done! I'll blog about all that later, but for now, here are a few pics for you to enjoy....

The Road To Bethlehem...

This past Sunday, my church, CrossPoint, performed a Christmas musical. It was called The Road To Bethlehem, and featured our choir, as well as the newly formed Drama Ministry. I have had more fun in the last few months since joining this ministry, and I had the time of my life this past Sunday! I was only an extra, but those of us who were cast as extras took our roles very seriously. (BWHAHAHAHAH! We really did...but we goofed off a bunch too!) My husband took a few pictures of us during the second showing, and here is a quick slide show. Hope you enjoy!

When Santa's away, the Elves will play

I sent this to some of you in an email, but in case you didn't get it...here it is again. Brought to you by the creative minds at JIB JAB, here is a movie starring THE BARRETT FAMILY. (plus an extra mom. The movie had room for 5 faces, and I didn't like the random face it chose to place in with us...a creepy looking guy was dancing with Megan...so I added myself twice).
Anyway, enjoy...

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

OUR TRIP WAS....

WONDERFUL!

We had a great trip last weekend! I can't wait to go back there again, and especially at Christmas. Everything was tailored towards families, and it was so wonderful! The kids loved the trains, we got to go to an Elf Workshop where they could make ornaments, color pictures, etc. We went to the Tennessee Aquarium, took in a 3D Imax movie, rode on The Polar Express train all the way to the North Pole where we picked up Santa and he visited with us on board. Mrs. Claus was on board with a few of her elves, and we all sang Christmas songs, drank chocolate milk and ate cookies! The Chattanooga Choo Choo brought Santa in (very authentic looking!), and we had virtually NO WAIT TIME to get in Santa's lap and start listing all the things on our wish lists. Our Holiday Package came with a free picture with Santa, and an commemorative holiday ornament, as well as everything listed above. As you can see, WE HAD THE BEST TIME! I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to take a little holiday trip! Go to www.choochoo.com for more information on all of the holiday packages they offer. In the mean time, here is a little slide show to watch of the Barrett Family Trip...

HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US!

WOW! 10 years flew by fast! December 6, 1997 seems like ages ago, yet also like it was only yesterday. Our lives have changed drastically since then. There have been good and bad times, healthy and sick times, and LOTS of poor times...still waiting on the "For Richer" part...haha.

Over all, I am so blessed and happy with my life. I had a wonderful Christmas wedding...I have a WONDERFUL husband and together we've been given 2 WONDERFUL children. It's more than I could have ever dreamed for myself!

HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY JONATHAN! I LOVE YOU!

We got JUSTICE'D!

Yesterday, right after school, Megan went to a birthday party at Justice for Girls. Her friend had invited all the girls in her class to join in on a "Glamour Girl" type of party. They got their hair, and makeup done...picked out 6 little goodies to put in their goodie bag, wore feather boa's and had the time of their lives!!!! Megan came away from this party looking FAB-U-LOUS! Of course, she wants to have her birthday party there in February, but we'll just have to wait and see. But here is a slide show of pics from the day!

PS...little brother was bored out of his mind during this party! But he behaved so well, and for the most part, played in the dressing rooms. He's such a trooper!

A little late, but...

Here are just a few pics of Thanksgiving. I know we're over a week past, but I didn't have much time to download pics and post until now...so here goes.

Megan's class made their Indian (i.e. "Native American" to be politically correct) T-Shirts at school. She named hers "Pocahontas"...probably because that is the only Native American (or Indian...) name she knows. Whatever the case, my little Indian princess was cute in her shirt.

Ryan's class didn't do T-shirts, but fortunately he was still able to fit into the T-shirt his class made last year, and therefore got to be like big sis! His shirt didn't have a name, but we just called him CHIEF RYAN. He didn't mind...he thought it was cool.

Ah, yes. My little Native children gathering the corn to prepare for our meal! Haha! Megan loves to eat corn, Ryan...not so much. But he didn't mind holding it for a picture!

And, after those few moments, our day got CRAZY! With so much family to see on the Holiday, we were cooking, eating, driving, eating, visiting, eating, sleeping and eating ALL DAY LONG. Thankfully, we were able to fit everything into the day...we just didn't take any more pictures.

Jonathan bought a new camera this weekend....so I am pretty sure that we'll be posting LOTS of pics here soon! It's the camera he wanted, which means he'll actually TAKE the pictures and I can be in them....since he wouldn't really touch the old one, I was the one that took all the pics and then our family snapshots made my children look motherless!

Anyway...there they are, hope you enjoyed.