Weekly snapshots of the Barrows family

Now that I've got a new system in place for getting photos onto this blog I am committed to doing more random photo posts with no concern to date order or captions. I take so many photos and so many never get shared. I love these posts just so in the future I will be able to look back and see my kids at every stage of their life. Just like with each of my kids, there are always more of the youngest and far less of the oldest one who tends to do his own thing more and more these days so I'm starting off this post with a photo of him and his daddy at the ball park the other night! 

She is in LOVE with her new dollhouse! Swap and shop win on this one!

FINALLY he is toothless!

Selfie Sunday

I take a fair amount of selfies with my kids but rarely of just me. I find though that I don’t tend to share very many of them and I’m not sure why that is. Soooo....here’s a bunch from the last few month or so...in no particular order because I can't be bothered to put them in order!

All dressed up for my dinner out so snapped a few with my littlest cuties

And my biggest one too. The biggest little was down in the kid cave ignoring us.

New favorite family selfies, taken at the beach a few weeks ago!

WHY people, why? They are all so much like their father sometimes it kills me! 

Here comes a whole bunch of me and KJ. Because she seems to be attached at my hip lately there are obviously more of her than the other two kids!

Heading out for ice cream after dinner one night last week

Poor sicky baby girl

I love her hair and how it's growing in to a perfect little bob! 

Aaaww...me and Hads playing some Operation on a quiet afternoon last week

Jordie boy and me at the park!

Random selfie with this big guy who is rarely around these days!

Little group selfie action

Back in early March when the Solomon's came to visit!

Proud of Jimmy for snapping this selfie while they were mini golfing!

Me and my girl Jenn with our ice cream during our random chance encounter at Putters one night!

Now a bunch that I never shared from the Canucks game we went to back in February. Such a fun night for me and my love.

And that's just from the last MONTH and that's not even all of the selfies we've taken. I take pictures almost every single day of the year and I don't see that changing until all of my kids hate me and won't let me take their photos anymore. But until then I'm going to keep at it. One day when they are all grown up I will make slideshows of them that show them aging right in front of my eyes. Then I'll probably cry :) 

He did it...he finished his first year of school!

And not only did he finish, but he was given an awesome award at the end of year Awards Ceremony for overall excellence in his class which was an award given to a top student in the class who showed great work ethic and overall effort.

This award is nominated by the instructors of the course and was presented to Jim by one of the Associate Deans of Trades from the Nanaimo campus. James and my mom and dad came to VIU for the ceremony and I was busy taking pictures for the ceremony so I didn't feel like I really got to experience the moment like everyone else did, but I was happy to be able to at least get a good picture of it!

Luckily this picture wasn't as fuzzy as some of the shots from that day. The lighting in our gym is terrible and lots of photos didn't turn out great but man was I grateful that this one did!

Shaking his instructor Gary's hand before being presented with his award.

My boys and I really couldn't be more proud of Jimmy for all that he's done over the past year. He got laid off from his job in Alberta and while laid off made a huge life decision to go back to school at the age of 35 to try to start a new career. He has always loved working outside and building things was always something that has interested him so carpentry was a natural choice. We are lucky that here at our relatively small VIU campus that carpentry is one of the 5 first year trades that we do offer. We knew it would be a huge risk and big change for our family with him being in school full-time but we also knew it was time for Jim to really figure out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

From the first day he started school until the day the guys went out to their building site in November, Jim studied almost every single night....after learning all day, picking James up after school and either doing swimming or skating lessons, then picking up Jordie and making supper while I worked until 6pm. Then we ate as a family and got the boys off to bed, and then at 8pm he'd usually sit down for 2-3 hours to read his textbook or study for one of the many tests he had to take. He truly did incredible and I really couldn't be more proud of him. I know it wasn't easy for him to be the old guy in a class of much younger guys who a lot of the time just didn't care to be there. It was frustrating for Jim, but he did it, and I think not a single guy in that class would say they have anything but respect for him for what he did. On site he worked harder than all of the other 8 people put together and often got more done in an hour than 5 guys did put together. But no matter what, he knew he was there to learn so he put his head down and learn he did.

He may not have finished at the very top of the class (don't ask him about that though...he's maybe slightly bitter) but he did finish in 2nd and ended up with the most important award of all. I think it's way better to be recognized for overall achievement than just for having the top academic marks. It means something to work hard and to be recognized for that.

We love you Jimmy and we are so so very proud of you for all that you accomplished this past year! Now, onto a year of working with a great local contractor, and then hopefully some time in 2017 he will head back to school for his 2nd year of schooling!

Daddy and James's trip to see the Canucks!

Jim and I decided that this was going to be the year that James got to see his first live Canucks game! We bought the tickets and ferry fares with our Save-On More points and waited months to tell him about the trip.

Here's the video from the Sunday dinner the week before the trip when he got his early birthday present from us.

And here are the few pictures from the trip that Jim did take. He took our camera but then forgot it in the van before they went to the game. Oh well....it's the memories that matter far more than the photos! I'm so glad they had so much fun together on their boys trip to the city.

They are on the way!

His first trip on the Sea Bus

And the Sky Train

His beloved foam finger

These two are so adorable

Wearing his awesome new hat and Daddy's wearing his new jersey too!

Wish I could have gone but so happy that James and his Daddy got to share this fun trip together.

A very excited little boy telling his Mommy all about his day at 11:30pm on FaceTime

In typical James fashion the kid makes friends wherever he goes. Jim said that someone at the game was chatting with him about where he was from, etc and he was telling them about how it was his birthday trip because he was turning 6 and "it's just me and my dad causing trouble in the big city!" hehehehehehe I love this kid!