Countdown to Christmas!

 We are officially counting down to all things Christmas! Christmas programs, Christmas parties, Christmas Presents with just our family of 5, Christmas lights, Christmas Movies on Friday nights and our Christmas trip to KC! After being sick most of the past week, everyone is back to feeling healthy and I'm hoping we don't see anymore illness for a LONG time! 

Here's what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks! 

I've been busy playing Santa and wrapping all the gifts and sorting through all the things we need to take to KC. We've got a BIG surprise for the kids this year and I've made their gift a bit different. They will be given a clue that starts a "hunt" through the rest of the house for additional clues that give them one big final clue they will have to put together. All the clues put together will tell them what the gift is. John and I were just talking about how proud we are that we've kept this secret for 6+ months and the fact that we are just days away from being able to talk about it in the house has me giddy!! (Also note the cute chicken Chrsitmas wrapping paper I found at Tractor Supply.....we've become those people! haha!)

Mellany had her first dance competition of the season at the beginning of December. Pictures and video aren't allowed with the exception of one person per team, so there's no video/pics of Mellany but I did snag a picture of these cute brothers who literally only looked up when their sisters were performing. :) 

The night of the dance competition started our 2023 Barrett Fam "Downfall".....Johnny spiked a fever that night and then woke up with serious congestion on Sunday morning. Sunday morning Mellany woke up not feeling well with a low fever but no congestion. I just knew in my "mama gut" that Johnny had the flu so he and I ventured to urgent care where it was confirmed (after he was given a major bloody nose by the nurse--insert mama bear angriness here because he and I had BOTH warned her to be gentle...) that he did have the flu but also had covid....(I'm a little skeptical of the fact he had both, but it is what it is...) We grabbed some antibiotics and headed home! Mellany and Johnny spent the day resting and neither of them went to school on Monday. Mellany was feeling much better Tuesday so she went back but because of Johnny's covid diagnosis, he was home until Thursday. Once everyone went back to school on Thursday, I got a call from the school that Charlie had vomited after riding the school bus to their christmas performance auditorium and that I needed to go get him. We all assumed he had gotten overheated and motion sick so because he was feeling better Thursday night, we let him perform in the Christmas program he so badly wanted to perform in. Shortly after his performance, he drank some water and then started gagging so he and John left (I had just arrived for Johnnys performance with Mellany and Charlotte who had a dance performance that night as well...) Therefore, Charlie was home on Friday as well! I was convinced he had strep throat, but the culture for that came back negative, so he just spend the day resting. Thankfully by Saturday, everyone was feeling back to normal! 

Lots of snuggles for the week! 

Poor Winston was so thrown off by the change in schedules! 

Thankfully Mellany made it back to school by Tuesday because that night was her first ever band performance. I stayed back with Johnny but John and Charlie said it was incredible! 

I'm so sad that this is the only picture of my boys that I got before their concert...but it is also very "on brand" for them :) 

The Christmas program put on by our elementary school really is the most amazing Christmas program. Our music teacher does a phenomenal job! Charlie's program was up first and then Johnny's was after that...

Charlie...

Johnny...

I grabbed a picture of my girl this past week wearing my shirts and looking like such a grown up young lady....Not that long ago were the days where she would only wear dresses that would twirl....and now she's in denim and cardigans....time flies so fast! 

One of my most favorite gifts to gather and wrap are teacher gifts. Charlie wanted to do a "12 Days of Christmas Basket" for Mrs. Baker this year, so we did just that. I picked some things, he picked some things and it was so much fun to wrap and place in a cute basket. Johnny wanted to do something more simple for his teacher....so Johnny picked a few Chiefs things (all by himself!) that he felt like Mr. R needed and then wrapped them in chicken Christmas paper and was all set! 

Our children's pastor at church is quite the performer so after he told us he would be acting as Buddy the Elf in a Christmas Variety Show, we put it on the calendar and made it happen! Luke was the most perfect Buddy (other than Will Ferrel himself) and we had a great time. 

Lots more to come and hopefully at least one more blog post before I take some quality time with my people....Only FOURTEEN more days till Christmas!!!!! 

It's the Holiday Season!!!

I'm way behind and am going to play some major catch-up today! I can't even believe that its almost December!! Between my surgery and Halloween and volunteering at school and church and dance and cub scouts and Thanksgiving and now Christmas and end of the school semester...this has been the one thing that had to take a back seat. Hopefully I can get at least a post or two more in before the end of the year....hopefully! While summer is our most favorite time of year, the holiday season is a very close second so I'm sure I will have tons of fun pictures coming up; we've got lots of fun things happening in December!

Mellany's bestie Charlotte had her birthday party at the end of October and these 4 girls have the absolute sweetest friendship! Apparently there was a lot of giggling and not much sleeping but so much fun had! 

I spent my 38th birthday in bed. I had gum grafting surgery on my front lower six teeth on the 26th and I was "down" for about a week. I'm unfortunately still recovering but I feel much better than I did when I took this selfie to send to my mom. Some flowers from Jackie were definitely a bonus!

Since I was still recovering, John took the kids trick-or-treating through the neighborhood on Halloween. I am so bummed I missed this night, but the frigid cold temps and blowing wind and snow sounded extremely unappealing! The kids had a blast!!

As I was starting to feel a bit better and more human, I started helping out with bedtime routines....this is one of my favorite times of day and I just want to remember it forever! Two snuggly boys taking turns reading out loud and a dog cuddled up with us .....I love it so much!

Mellany's first dance! To say she was excited to go to her first Middle School Dance would be an understatement. The "Tomahowl" is a yearly halloween dance where the kids dress up in costume and there are games, dancing and food. Mellany and Charlotte were both cowgirls who spent the entire two hours on teh dance floor. They ate pizza when they first got there, took a picture in the photo booth with some friends and then never left the dance floor again! The DJ even had them come to the front of the dance floor and lead cotton-eyed-joe for the entire group. I couldn't be a more proud mama!! 

The boys had haircuts right after halloween but the decor was still hanging up in the barber shop and the boys were having the best time with it. 

As I was continuing to recover, Winston was loving all the snuggles. It's pretty rare that I'm actually sitting still during the day. 

After school...working on homework outside while it was still warm!

Mellany and I headed to the mall one friday after school and couldn't believe our eyes when we saw Chiefs' Travis Kelce shirts!! Never have we ever seen Chiefs gear in Dick's before! Thanks to Taylor Swift, our favorite team merch has come to town!! 

Speaking of Taylor Swift.....After going to the mall, we met up with Charlotte, Kelley and Aunt Jenny to eat at Olive Garden and watch the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Movie! It was soooo good and we had so much fun!

Just a boy with his dog! 

This time every year, I start purging, cleaning and organizing kids rooms. It's a huge feat, but it feels so good once I'm finished. The kids helped out even more this year and that made it much easier on my part. Then I send these pictures to the grandparents as they buy Christmas gifts to show them that my kids need nothing! haha!

Charlie's class participated in a project where they made sack lunch meals to donate to a center in town. Charlie had so many great things to say about the project and I'm so thankful to his amazing teacher for giving the kids the opportunity to serve their community in this way. 

The boys participated in their Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta competition a few weeks ago. They crafted and designed their boats and then competed against the other kids in their den and pack. My boys have some "Jones" in them and are pretty competitive and were pretty upset that they didn't get past the first few rounds of the competition; but they were definitely happy that their best buddy Simon won overall!

Just a typical morning packing a lunch with this third-born child....hahaha!

SHHHHHH!!!!! It's a secret, but while waiting for the car to get the oil changed, I was planning our trip to Disney World in February! I am having so much fun putting it all together, but keeping it from the kids has been extremely difficult! Thankfully I've only got a few more weeks before we fill them in!

Apparently Family Day @ Church = paper airplanes during the sermon...

A little trip down memory lane...horrible picture, but the jackets still fit!! 

Thanksgiving dinner prep.....I had some amazing helpers! Like, they were actually extremely helpful in prepping the food this year that I couldn't imagine having done it by myself. John's back wasn't feeling great, so he was "down", but these three stepped right up and it's something I will never forget! Hopefully it will be one of their favorite memories too!

On our way to one of our favorite places (still recovering from surgery weeks later with a crooked smile...haha!)

We spent the day at the Okos' and had an amazing meal, played outside and played games. It was truly the best time! The pictures below just blow my mind at how grown up our kids are....

It wouldn't be a great day at Simon's without Johnny finding some great rocks!

The boys have been getting out army men, tanks, etc and having "epic battles" in the living room. These got left out after the last round got picked up and I just noticed them the other day....lol....tell me you have boys living in your house without telling me you have boys living in your house :) 

Leaving out treats for the delivery drivers has become a yearly tradition that our Johnny has really grown to love. He reminds me every year that it's time to put them out and then asks every day after school if anyone delivered a package/took a treat. If we did have someone make a delivery, he asks to see the doorbell camera video....it makes my mama heart so happy!

That's all for now! Lots of holiday fun coming up!!!