Best of Christmas 2010

After reading Anya's post, I wanted to do one too. Here goes! (In no particular order)

1. For some reason this was the happiest Christmas season for me since I can remember! I felt so much joy in every bit of the preparations. I felt gratitude for the Savior's birth and for all that means to me.

2. Being with ALL the family including Grandma Barry.

3. Celebrating Ashlyn's and Rich's birthdays.

3. Getting our family picture on 16x20 canvas.

4. Treslee's gift of pictures of John and my parents and grandparents.

5. The musical bells that play when sensing motion-from my parents.

6. The gift cards for movies and ice cream!

7. Greg's gift of treating us to a play with money for dinner!

8. Seeing the grandkid's faces when they saw the bounce house set up in the backyard!

9. All the goodies! Fudge, sweedish nuts, See's candies, Banbury explosion, cookies... I made caramel for the first time and it turned out! (Grandma Barry oohing and aahing over it was the best part!)

10. Grandpa Santa!

11. Bingo and the 6-pack soda belt that Ryan got!

12. Hugs from the grandkids-the pure love they show. (seeing that they like their gifts!)

13. John's journal for the last year. (He gives me his journal every year and it is always something to look forward to.)

14. The bows Scottee made me!

15. The luxuriously soft bath mat from Adam and Anya.

16. Giving 'my favorite things' this year to our kids including, bidets, ott lights, kitchen gadgets, and to Devin and Allison a Vita Mix.

17. Seeing Christmas lights on houses.

18. Reading Christmas books (The Christmas Journey, The Christmas Bus, Christmas on Mill Street, Christmas Rose and They Call me Mrs. Miracle)

19. Watching the sappy Hallmark channel Christmas movies.

20. Singing and listening to Christmas carols.

21. The unique gifts from LaBelle...room purifiers, the beautiful nativity painting, utinsels that hang on the sides of pots...

22. Brooklynn making Adam and Anya a video of each of the family saying what we love about them.

23. Christmas cards with pictures.

24. Wonderful friends and a ward family that feels like family!

25. Health

26. Dancing to Micheal Jackson with the kids and grandkids.

27. Black Friday shopping with Brooklynn.

28. Getting to see Brian and Scottee's kid's early Christmas.

29. The Very Barry Christmas DVD that Anya made again this year. (4th year and counting!)


The Worst Things of Christmas 2010

1. Stomach flu

2. Gaining weight--BUT--having the flu helped me there!

3. The garbage piled high with nowhere to go! Garbage day isn't for another couple of days!


Oh what happy times. I just hope I remember them!!!

A Very Barry Merry Christmas

I think this was our best yet! Why, you ask? I don't know! The joy of the season just seemed to lift and overflow!

Carter had his first experience sitting on Santa's knee. He didn't seem to mind at all!
Santa had an overloaded sack! Everyone was sooo extra good this year!
Mollie Marie's first Christmas!

Rich's 30th birthday celebration with Treslee's homemade, scrumptious cheesecake!

All the 'boys' got shorts that were supposed to be good for sports, but they ended up being good for a laugh and maybe sleeping in!

The annual precious Nativity story with Nina on the couch with the flu.

:(

BINGO!

Camilla's first Christmas!

Santa comes to Brian and Scottee's house early so we got to share in the joy! Charlee gave Oaklee this cute frog and Oaklee was thanking her for it!

Johnny wanted to give us all his Christmas gift which was dancing. He has the moves! All of a sudden everyone was dancing to Micheal Jackson tunes and having a blast!

Congratulations Ryan

Ryan is a graduate (December 16th 2010) of ASU's school of mechanical engineering!

We are so proud of you!

Ashlyn is three years old!

After going to many birthday parties and waiting and waiting for her own birthday, Ashlyn's day finally came! Her mommy threw her a big party complete with games and prizes, pinata', lunch, and a specially made princess castle cake!

Ashlyn got to become a big sister this year when her brother Carter was born in April.

Christmas shopping was a blast in the K-mart holiday isle! Ashlyn danced and sang with Pooh for so long. Mindy and I couldn't even entice her away with an offer to go to the toy department!

At Old Navy while Mindy shopped, I watched Ashlyn as she became best friends with the manequin and the dog-maneqiun!

She always manages to find something to dress up in when she comes over. She's a lot of fun!

If you get the chance, try to listen in when she is singing. (which she does a lot!) It's a joy!

Happy Birthday Rich!

Rich at 2 years old. He and Mindy were best buds as kids. If I needed to find Mindy, I'd just look for Rich! (And vice versa)

Our fourth son and favorite child (!) (Hee Hee to all the rest of you who always say that Rich is our favorite!) has made great strides in his 30 years. Just in the last two years he has been blessed to find his eternal companion, welcome their first baby, complete his Master's degree in Computer Science and adopt the two precious girls that came with Treslee's first marriage, oh and he baptised and confirmed Nina just last month!

This is he and Nina, his oldest daughter and below is he and Elle. (5 years old)

This is their vacaction to Utah this past summer.

Halloween-I can always count on Rich to be fun with me!

Here's the adoption that took place in October!

Baby Camilla LaRue, born June 2, 2010 Here she is in her Tinker Bell costume for Halloween. Can you just see the thrill on Rich's face!

We are proud of you and your progress Rich and so grateful for all the happiness that you are blessed with.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

November Niceties!

We put butcher paper up on the walls so that we could write some of the things we are thankful for. We have a masterpiece now! Brooklynn wrote that she was thankful for dogs and John put a sticky note over it! If you look close, you can see who drew what.

Our sweet John Wesley Barry had his 8th birthday and is going to be baptized December 4th! Grandpa, Great Grandma Barry and I took him to Target to see what he would choose for his birthday gifts. At first he asked if he could save some of his money, but within a couple of minutes he had unequivically decided on two Lego sets and a Nano bug! Trying to prolong the fun of shopping, I asked him if he wanted to see any other aisles in the store, but he didn't! I asked him if he liked to get clothes and he said, "No, but I do like soft socks." !!! He is a keeper!

Here he is with cousin Jaxson and his sister Ella.

Well, our Thanksgiving was a day FULL of gratitude and great food! We had 28 loved ones join us and for the first time ever we had to eat inside! It was cold out!!! Even though,we had four brave and crazy and maybe more likely poor and desperate guys (Adam, Devin, Greg and Mitchell) jump in the pool to get their $20.00 dollar bill!
John threw a bowl of ice into the pool just before the guys jumped in. The ice JUST SAT THERE!
Adam is the only one I actually caught in the act. The others were too quick for me!
Grandma Barry (or grandma Belle), Kara Brady with Olivia, her youngest, Scottee and baby Mollie!
Devin with Mollie and Grandma Barry! Such a wonderful day!

Noteable and News-worthy November events

Sweet little Mollie was given her name and a father's blessing on November 7th at our home. We celebrated Sam's 2nd birthday at the same time since his birthday was three days later. There is still much more to look forward to this month (Johnny's birthday and Thanksgiving) so stay tuned for further blogging! The second picture is of Scottee, Allison and I having a birthday celebration pedicure...I know...Scottee's and Allison's birthdays were a while back, but this is the soonest we could get together! I also had a fun day shopping with Treslee on November 8. (Her birthday was June 5th!)

This is from Halloween, but I couldn't resist putting it in because it makes me happy to remember how Sam bounced along in this Tigger costume, so thrilled to be with Bastian and Ande to trick or treat. Cute Bastian and Ande poking their heads through the banner!

While Devin, Allison and I were packing up their house for their move to Flagstaff (November 8th), Sam enjoyed being able to get in the empty cabinets to play with his cars!

Mollie's blessing with Devin and Allison's bishop reflected in the mirror.

Sweet Mollie

Sweeter Mollie!

The kids were loving the back yard and the beautiful weather. Charlee, John and Nina created a "Day Care Center" for the younger ones.

With so much of Sam's "Thomas the Train" cake left-over, Devin thought that it would be fun to smash a hunk in Brooklynn's face! She gave her permission and he did a pretty good jub of it!

I took Nina shopping and to dinner (Panda) for her birthday (November 8th). She chose to go to Target and after putting many things in the basket, she ended up choosing knee-high boots and a backpack. I thought that she was pretty amazing to choose those things over games, jewelry and a giant stuffed dog!

John and I took the opportunity to make a fast trip to Las Vegas for a couple of days. (Nov.10-12) Here I am showing off a $100,000 Lamborginni. You can have it!

John and I in front of the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas just before we saw the fabulous production of "Jersey Boys" at the Palazzo Hotel.

Our oldest grandchild, Nina was baptized November 13! We ALL got together for family pictures beforehand. It made me so happy to have ALL of us in one frame!!!

There was a perfect rock that Oaklee called the "chair rock" that we used to get pictures on.
Brian and Scottee, Charlee, Oaklee and Jaxson.

Rich and Treslee, Nina, Elle and Millie.

Nina, Ella, Oaklee, John, Jaxson, Charlee, and Elle.

Greg, Bastian and Ande

Ryan and Mindy, Ashlyn and Carter

Devin and Allison, Mollie and wiggle-worm Sam

Adam and Anya, John and Ella

I looked around and there was Sam. He had climbed up ont he chair rock and was just sitting there! (The only time he sat still all day!) See how cool that rock is!

I do SOOO love this family!

How great is my joy!

The original 9 Barrys

Rich and sweet Nina