Our Family Christmas Letter, 2010 Edition

We interrupt the Disneyland blogging (we'll resume recaps after the holidays, I promise!!), to bring you our family letter, that gives a general outline of our lives for the year 2010. Enjoy reading, and happy holidays to you all!

Merry Christmas!

Our family has been pretty darn busy this year. We took 2 major vacations in 2010—to Colorado/Utah in the summer, and to Disneyland at Thanksgiving; we had a blast! Also, we just found out that we will at last become homeowners; we close on a lovely home in Sahuarita at the end of January 2011! We're excited to see what lies ahead for our family. Here are some “individual” highlights from this year:

Nathan—Keeping up the good work at the Planning Department of the San Xavier Indian Reservation. In January, he finally dedicated the newly refurbished San Xavier Mission Plaza—a project he's personally overseen for several years now! His next assignment—the construction of a pedestrian bridge over the Santa Cruz River, to improve safety for the residents. Nate also serves on the Planning Commission of the Town of Sahuarita. In church, he serves as Elders' Quorum Secretary. In his spare time, he reads lots of books, plays lots of video games, serves as Dungeon Master in his newly formed RPG group, and teases/cuddles with his 3 daughters.

Adrianne—One busy mama. On January 15th, she had Baby #3—Aurora Leigh Barrett. Adrianne also participates in a weekly exercise/baby-sitting swap, a monthly book club, and various church activities (on Sundays, she plays the piano in Primary). At home, she cooks (she was especially proud of her home-canned salsa this year!); updates the new family blog; and earns a little spending money on the Internet. She also teaches piano lessons; this fall, she taught four students! Adrianne is very proud of how far they've all come, and hopes to continue teaching in the future.

Lorelai—The eager student! After a fun winter in preschool, Lorelai started kindergarten at Great Expectations Academy in the late summer—just before her 5^th birthday! In the last 6 months, Lorelai has learned to read & write better than anyone expected, and her imagination has taken off! It has been a joy to read the books she's written, and listen to her crazy stories that make us all laugh. She is quite the jokester! Lorelai also joined a Kinderchoir this fall, and she loves it as well.

Celeste—Our little diva! Celeste just turned 3 on December 13^th, and we celebrated with a “Wizard Of Oz”-themed party, after her favorite movie! Celeste has an excellent memory, and can sing songs very well after only having heard them a few times. She loves playing dress-up, “Mama,” and “princess.” She can charm her way out of many a jam, but her “terrible twos” sometimes get her right back in again! However, she is very sweet and brings so much joy to her family.

Aurora—The newest Barrett! She is a big, healthy baby, who is less giddy and more “serious” than her sisters. She loves to people-watch; to take rides in the car; to cuddle with Mama & Daddy; and to follow her big sisters around—she idolizes them! She has beautiful blue eyes, blond hair, and a big smile that lights up the room!

We hope this, the end of 2010, finds you all happy, healthy and prosperous. May the Lord bless you & keep you in the upcoming year!!

Our Disneyland Thanksgiving, Part 1

Some people travel to Disneyland several times a year; we are not those people. Before marrying Nate, I'd only been to Disneyland once--when I was 1 year old (just guess how much of it I remember). Nate & I went together in 2003; despite having some reservations, I LOVED our time there, as my inner kid awakened. We vowed to return again someday with our own children.

Flash-forward to 2010. The time is right for another trip. We've got 3 kids now (and the oldest will remember the trip); we recently bought a new minivan, to make the drive more comfortable; we only have to pay for one child (Celeste's 3rd birthday was 3 weeks away--ha!); and, Nathan and I had each performed some community service earlier in the year that gave us a FREE one-day voucher to the park for any day in 2010. Yay!

In other words...we'd be able to do this Disneyland vacation on the cheap...at least, "cheap" by Disneyland standards, which is still pretty pricey. Nevertheless, we felt ready! We planned to visit the park at Thanksgiving, to have a change-of-pace holiday, and to enjoy the decorations & holiday-themed events the resort was known for.

 On Tuesday, November 23, off we went!! We spent most of the day driving (luckily, it's only about an 8-hour drive). And, seeing as how we have 3 young kids, MANY potty breaks were taken. One of those potty breaks, by odd coincidence, occured right next to the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum. I'm not a big "war" person, but hey--think of it as our late observance of Veterans' Day! Besides, look at this baby...

...the one BEHIND me, that is, not the one in my arm. This tank and at least a dozen others were parked around the museum; we didn't pay to enter, but we got a nice little look through the fence, satisfied our American lust for large weaponry, and stretched our legs all at the same time!

There were also several Memorial Walls outside the museum as well; a "West Coast Vietnam Wall," as well as the one pictured above, which commemorated the men & women who have given their lives fighting in Iraq & Afghanistan.

After this brief detour, we headed out again. On to Anaheim--and Southern CA traffic, yuck. At last we made it to our hotel room...

...where we unpacked our coats; it was time to go on a walk & stretch those legs! Lorelai and Celeste also danced along to some music on TV, to get their wiggles out.

We stayed at the Anaheim Del Sol Inn, which is just a short walk away (1/4 of a mile or so) from the park entrance. It was GREAT to be so close to the park; it made coming and going pretty easy (which would prove important the next day, as it turned out)...

We took out our stroller and walked everyone to Downtown Disney--basically an open-air mall featuring many upscale shops (often with a Disneyland theme; the World of Disney store in particular was a huge behemoth that took up a whole building). It was chilly and rainy; however, while our hats were damp, our spirits were high. Lights were on all the trees, Christmas music was playing, and the air smelled strongly of caramel popcorn...mmm.

One of the stores we visited was a huge LEGO store, which had a lot of giant sculptures throughout--including this cool Woody statue made entirely from Legos!

We also watched through the window of a candy store for a while, and saw cute little custom cupcakes being made; they were shaped like Mickey Mouse snowmen! (sorry I didn't get a picture).

Now that our legs were stretched, it was time for dinner!

We ate at the IHOP right across Harbor Blvd. from the Disneyland Resort entrance. This IHOP proudly proclaims that "KIDS EAT FREE" every night. Of course, they can afford that because every entree is at least $15! Yikes! Oh, well...we were too beat to look for anything else. At least Aurora was still in good spirits. We ate, then headed back to the hotel to get ready for bed. We were so excited to see Disneyland the next day, it was hard to get to sleep!

This is Halloween, This Is Halloween

That was Lorelai and her Kinderchoir class performing "BOO!" at the Sahuarita Stake Talent Show (she's the princess in blue on the left--you know, the one wiggling in excitement. Afterwards, she was disappointed she only got to sing "one" song. There'll be other chances, kid).

But that was just the beginning of our 2010 Halloween season. And, like every Halloween, it's not complete unless you've got a few pumpkins laying around. So, off we went!

This year, we traveled to Buckelew Farms (about 40 minutes west of Tucson) to select our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. There was a lot to do there, including a craft fair, food & drink, a hay bale mountain, and a new corn maze (you can see the maze in the background of the picture above. I've never seen a corn maze where the corn was STILL GROWING. Only in AZ, I guess). After looking around a bit, we hitched a ride in the hay wagon and drove out to the pumpkin patch:

Once we got to the pumpkin patch, it didn't take long for the girls to pick out their pumpkins. They were blessedly small (and thus, easier to carry back to the car!)

What a lovely pose! For some reason, Lorelai likes to do the "potrait studio" beauty pose for every photo I take (head tilted, hands clasped together like so). She is quite the ham.

So nice of Buckelew Farms to drive us back to the entrance with our pumpkins!

A few days later, for Family Home Evening, it was carving time...Daddy did the honors.

First, tracing a face on each pumpkin...and then attacking them with the knife!

The finished products; don't they look cute on our porch!

Other Halloween-related activities included a special trick-or-treat storytime at the local library. Celeste attended in costume!

The kids all weaved between bookshelves, while library employees waited at key junctures, handing out Halloween stickers & jewelry. Cute!!

That same night, our ward had their annual Trunk or Treat, complete with a kids' fair.

Fishing for prizes...

...and a cakewalk were a few of the activities. Then, it was outside to the dark, chilly parking lot, for trunk-or-treating and hot chocolate!

A couple of days later, it was party time at Lorelai's school!

This featured a costume parade that included the whole school! It was fun to see all the neat costumes...

...including those of the younger siblings, like Celeste and this adorable luchadora who befriended her briefly.

That night was another school-related activity--it was Great Expectations Academy's first ever Halloween Carnival, with treats, games, & prizes! All the kids went in costume & had a wonderful time.


Here's one last look at our girls' costumes this year:

Lorelai was Cinderella--a convenient choice, since we had this dress in our dress-up clothing drawer already;

Celeste also wanted in on the Disney Princess action; she went as Snow White, complete with a ridiculously huge hair bow I made myself;

and as for Aurora, she got her turn in our go-to baby Halloween costume; this lovely yellow duck get-up that quacks when you squeeze it! It was a little worn, and truth to tell Aurora didn't love the hood too much, but it mostly worked out. Random observation: doesn't Aurora have gorgeous blue eyes?

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, we decided to do our trick-or-treating on Saturday night. Luckily, we had many ward members work together on this, so the kids had places to go. We weren't originally going to hand out candy on Sunday night, but we had SO MUCH left over from all these activities that we gave in and decided to give it away. We ended up having lots of trick-or-treaters this year, so in the end, just about all the candy was given away! Our waistlines were relieved.

That about does it for the Barretts' 2010 Halloween. Is it my imagination, or does this holiday get more hectic every year? I love Halloween, but I am also relieved it's over & happy to move on to the more emotionally meaningful holidays this year (except that we'll be in Disneyland for one of them, so I'm not sure it counts as "emotionally meaningful" this year :) ). See you all next time!

Fall Fashion at Chez Barrett

It's been a season of birthday parties, potty training, and solid foods here at Chez Barrett, and we've got the pictures to prove it! READ ON to see some of the highlights of fashion from this fall:

Take the above picture, for example. Here's Aurora sporting a lovely puffy-sleeved flowered top, accented with a bright yellow bib w/purple trim--ooh, a bold choice indeed! However, eating solid foods while cutting 4 teeth in one month requires bold moves to stay relevant and fabulous.

Speaking of fabulous, how about this ensemble Celeste is rocking right here?? Oversized jingoistic USA sunglasses, flowered muumuu dress, jingling bead bracelet, topped off with a pink leopard-printed baton used as a walking stick? What does this outfit say, Celeste? Answer: "I'm GRANDMA." Exactly which Grandma she was emulating remained unclear...we'll leave it up to you the reader to guess.

A lot of exciting looks were on parade at Lorelai's birthday dinner. Lorelai wore this energetic striped playdress, and sported the Pollyanna look with her two braided pigtails. It helped keep the hair out of her face as she played with her new Barbie dolls!

Aurora's flowered onesie was not to be outdone, though...plus, the youngest Barrett decided to reveal her newest trick: she can stand up! These days, Aurora can pull herself up on just about anything, and she can even take steps while holding Mommy's hands. Here, in this picture, we see the tip of that mobility iceberg.

As for Lorelai, those cute pigtails would soon be a thing of the past...

...because she took her very first trip to the salon to get a big-girl haircut!!

Just look...she's so sophisticated! So mature! Words...words fail me. Lorelai liked it, too!

But she's not just pretty as a princess...Lorelai also has the heart of a WARRIOR. At a friend's birthday party, Lorelai found time to don her pink princess crown, kick off her shoes, and mercilessly SLAY the terrifying dragon-pinata that crashed the event. There was much rejoicing thereafter. (thanks, Kristen & Deidre for the picture!)

Celeste's favorite look this season was "flowered hats & sticky fingers while outdoors." She demonstrates the versatility of this look by messily devouring a hot dog at Apple Annie's...

...and by demonstrating it again, this time with a lollipop, at Buckelew Farms (more on that later)! How can one girl be so sticky sweet everywhere she goes??

But the Barrett girls also have adventurous spirits to match their fabulous duds. Like this lovely play-tent, for example! Lorelai and Celeste had been clamoring to spend the night outside in their tent for months, so we finally gave in...on the coldest night of the fall to that point! They still had a good time, even though they picked up some not-so-fashionable souvenirs of their adventure: lots of tiny bug bites (luckily, they cleared up soon).

And finally, some more birthday-party haute couture--this time, from a kindergarten birthday bash Lorelai, Aurora, and I attended at Pump It Up, in north Tucson:

Frilly dresses & hair bows won't do for a jumping castle party: Lorelai wisely decided on this low-maintenance combination of jeans & green T-shirt. Let's see this ensemble in action!

HINT: if you replay this video over & over about 25 times, you'll get a general idea of what Lorelai's time in Pump It Up was spent doing.

Aurora also got involved in the proceedings, by debuting her Halloween onesie. Take a look!

With a hot pink flair, a coquettish black cat emblem, and warm yet versatile striped sleeves, Aurora is deckedout in a daring, exciting holiday surprise. And just look at the mobility it allows her!

As you can see, the boys couldn't stay away from Aurora. Just imagine how many heads these three Barrett fashionistas will turn in the next several years!

Just wait until you see our winter lineup! Stay tuned...