Happy New Year from us to you!

I had big plans for sharing these photos in a Christmas card post...but then life happened....we all got sick and have done very very little over the past two weeks except be together and watch a ton of movies while snuggled on our couch. So, tonight instead I'm sharing a new years blog post instead.

Huge thanks again to the amazing Jenn Parkin for once again capturing the yearly memories of the Barrows. I think they turned out pretty good considering the littlest one lasted all of 5 shots before she jumped out of the box and declared to Jenn "I ALL DONE" She cooperated the best she could I guess for the day she was having. This is exactly why I didn't want to do outdoor fancy outfit photos this year...who wants to battle that with a grumpy toddler?! At least this was easy and was over and done in less than a half hour :)

This collage had a few extras that I didn't share above!

These are my favorites of all of us in the collage I plan to print!

My favourites of the kids in the other collage I'm going to print!

And because we were there and I wanted a few none Christmas pajama photos taken of the kids alone we attempted a few group shots....as I said Kennedy was LONG done by this point.

Thankfully we were able to capture this beauty shot though of our gorgeous little lady! 

I love this big bright brown eyes in this photo!

THIS is why I wanted new photos of the kids alone. This is the BEST photo I've seen of James in at probably 2 years! I LOVE IT!

And just for fun a family photo...which I don't love nearly as much as I do the family PJ photo! 

And of course it's not Christmas until we've had our photos taken with Santa! This year the Santa set up at the mall was the best its ever been and I loved that we were able to get them emailed to us this year which made it so much easier to share them here! 

This is Jim and I's 16th photo together with Santa. One day I'll get them all organized and post them all together to see how much we've grown and aged together!

This is real life

Woken up by a barfing child at 1am. Cleaned up her bed while she sat on her chair snuggled with her bowl. Then got her settled into my bed with me where she proceeded to get sick off and on for the next few hours. Poor little thing was so tired and couldn't keep anything down.

Just finally doze off again around 4am and Jordie walks in just 15 minutes later after having a sad dream (something about not getting to be in a DUCK parade) and wants to sleep with me too. The bed was crowded and I am left today feeling even more exhausted than I was when I went to bed last night at 9:30.

Thankfully the barfing stopped and she woke up full of piss and vinegar today so I'm guessing it was just that she ate too much supper last night and she's like me and James...she's cursed with a weak stomach. :( 

I am burnt out and need a break...and I know that's not coming now until after next week is over and I'm on holidays for 2 and a half weeks. Until then we've got a hockey trip tomorrow, then a city trip for me and KJ for two days, then Christmas concert, 3 days of work, PAC meeting...and the list just goes on and on forever! 

This is a snippet of what my life looks like some days. I wouldn't trade it for anything but I would love to escape for just 24 hours to sleep and be alone. That would be the best vacation ever :) 

“Mommy, I help”

The words most mothers dread hearing from their toddler. She wanted some fruit loops on Sunday morning and I turned around to this mess! She did look super cute though and she kept saying “oh I sorry mommy”. It was such a cute little moment!

She did clean it up with me....into two bowls which I then fed to Jordie....without ever telling him they were floor fruit loops. Hahahahaha that’s just the way life works sometimes.

I feel like that was just a suggestion??

Hahahahahahaha I know I'm not the only person that ordered cookie dough from the school with no intentions of cooking the whole tub! Right? Please tell me I'm not the only one?

I had to try out the product tonight to see what I thought about it and whether I felt that the serving sizes were pretty accurate. From what I can tell they were not bad at all. I made pretty much the whole tub of Monster cookies (save about 4 cookies worth that is still in the fridge for some snacking over the next few days!) and I can safely say that it would have made exactly 5 dozen good sized cookies :) And I think for $18 that's a hell of a good deal. In the span of just over an hour I have a big bag of cookies for the freezer for upcoming lunches for the kids! It's a win all around if you ask me!

And just because who doesn't love some reality sometimes....here's my MISERABLE very overtired toddler wanting one of those cookies that were still baking in the oven...and just moments before bed. This is real life my friends :)

One of my favourite days of the year!

I have such wonderful memories of growing up and putting up our Christmas tree every year. My mom still invites us and the kids over each year to help do hers too.

On Sunday we did something we almost never do...we skipped hockey for a day! We spent the day organizing and tidying the house and getting the tree up, then we were off to see our Jordie Boy in the Santa Parade, then home for a yummy steak dinner and decorating of the tree. It was a pretty chill day for the Barrows without the usual Sunday 4 hours spent at the rink and then family dinner. It was exactly the day that I needed to get in to the spirit of the season.

We usually do Christmas jammies for the kids for Christmas Eve but this year switched it up and gave them to them on December 1 with their advent calendars so they can actually wear the jammies for the month and can wear them to school on the last day as well if they chose to!

Here's some of my fave photos from the day!

The finished product after the kids had gone to bed

The excitement of opening up the bins and seeing all of our special ornaments from over the years! 

This was supposed to be a Christmas present but her brother found it in our room and promptly gave it to her and she relentlessly pleaded with us to put it on the tree no matter how many times we tried to rehide it. She has quite the memory for things she really wants! 

She is fascinated with the tree this year and I can already tell it's going to be a really special Christmas for us! 

We always giggle whenever we look at this dollar store angel that still graces the top of our tree. Some of my favorite ornaments are the ones that Jim and I bought the first year that we put up a tree together. They were all super cheap from the newly opened Dollarama but I love them! 

 New Pug Pajamas 

I am so looking forward to some down time over the holidays to enjoy some quality family time that I feel like we haven't gotten a lot of lately. I'm off from December 14-January 1 and Jim is off from December 19 till around then as well so we plan on doing some skating, walking/hiking a trail or two, Polar Bear swimming for the two biggest J's, and hopefully some quality Disney+ snuggling on the couch too. Oh and maybe a basement clean out to get the biggest kid finally into his own room....but we'll see how motivated we end up feeling!