Family ties

The main reason that November was so important was that it was the last time the entire family would be together for a while. While we were there-Josiah got promoted to 1LT and I got to pin him for his ceremony. I felt so honored and proud to be apart of that day. It was pretty emotional and I wasn't quite prepared for the flood of emotions that I would encounter over the course of the week. My youngest brother Josiah was getting ready to deploy to Iraq for the next 12 months. He is tank platoon leader. We were able to get some family photos taken and these are just a few of my favorite. There were many a tears shed by me but I couldn't be more proud. Isaiah is in Korea for another 4 months but after that he is supposed to be stationed back home in Ft. Bliss until his next move which is to be determined. It was so nice to be with all of my family-I really do love them all!

A father and his sons

Sgt. Isaiah Barrett

1LT Josiah Barrett

Don't they look great-I am so proud

Sibling love!

Family ties

November was a big month for the Barrett Family. With both of my brothers in the army-Josiah returned from Ft. Benning, Georgia and Isaiah in town from South Korea we were able to spend some time with each other while I visited El Paso. I was able to spend some quality time with the both which was very special. Here we were at the beginning of the night for some serious cocktails and sibling bonding. Below the end of the night in what I think is a terrific picture!

Happy Halloween!

We actually didn't get any good pictures from Halloween but luckily we got good use out of our costumes and snapped a great picture a few day earlier. Zach dressed up as Spartacus again and since he is getting older he trick or treated with his friends instead of us-wow-that was fast!

We Love Fall

How could you not love it!

Picking Pumpkins

Although the kids and I had gone to the pumpkin patch we didn't pick any pumpkins because that is a special day we have with dad. Not only did we pick up some pumpkins but I also got to get some fall decor up at the house.

Pumpkin Patch Day

After our initial snow we had a couple weeks of amazing weather-so what better to do on a fall day than hit the pumpkin patch with the kids. We had fun going through the corn maze and seeing the animals and jumping off hay bales but this picture was one of my favorites of the whole day because of the laughter between them.

The 1st snow

A few days after the homecoming parade-we got our first snow! We probably ended up with about 3 inches but apparently it caught some people off gaurd-someone forgot to turn off the sprinklers at the shopping center not to far from us.

Homecoming Parade

Here there is only 1 high school so everyone takes part in celebrating homecoming! Every year they have a parade and boy was it chilly that night. But Blake, Lauren and Avery still must have looked pretty cute cheering for the candy that was being thrown since they made the front of the local paper that week! Celebrities already!

Happy Birthday Caylee

Our neighbors daughter turned 1 and we got to help her celebrate. Caylee had a great party and the older girls-Sophie, Avery and Lauren were more than happy to join in on the fun too.

Learning to Swim

This fall all of the kids took some time to learn to
swim and brush up on their skills. With the rec center right across the street it was perfect for them. Avery had 6 private lessons and I was so impressed-with 6 more lessons she should be swimming like a fish!

Blake also took a set of lessons-even though he wasn't quite old enough-he did great. He is not afraid of the water at all so getting him swimming will be huge! I don't need him jumping in and thinking he knows how to swim. On the last day of his lessons they let the kids play on the slide in the play area-which all the kids loved of course.

Fall days

Since my last post was 3 months ago you would have thought that we disappeared but we haven't I just haven't been able to find the time. So obviously you are going to get the brief summary in pictures of what has been going on the last 3 months! I will pick up where I left off which was September 25th.

September 26th! Happy Birthday to Zach-he is a decade old. We took him and 3 of his friends to play miniture golf and then over to the new ice cream shop that opened by our house. Those boys ordered an ice cream called the double black diamond which has about 10 scoops of ice cream with a ton of different toppings. I must give it to them-as gross as it looks they ate it all!

Zach with friends Josh, Trevor and Noah!

Breckenridge weekend!

We were invited to spend the weekend up in Breckenridge with some friends to help celebrate their birthdays. We have only been up there 1 time since moving here almost 4 years ago so it was nice to go and just relax and enjoy the time. We had planned for some fishing and an afternoon on a pontoon boat but the weather had a mind of it's own.

We did fish on the way home and went to dinner and played games in the house a midst college football and kids watching their movies. It was a great weekend. enjoy the pics!

Play time

Both Avery and Blake do a great job of using their imagination when they play together. On this particular day they were taking turn painting each others faces with leaves in the front yard!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!
I can hardly believe that fall is on it's way! This is the start of a busy season for us with CU football! This weekend we celebrated Andrew's birthday-it was on the 2nd. Since it fell on a Wednesday we had a little get together for him on Saturday. Well you can imagine my suprise as I am preparing food for the day when I turned around to find my parents standing in the doorway asking if they were late from the party. I was soooo surprised! And is was a great one too! They drove up from El Paso for the weekend and got to spend a couple days with us before going home. Wow! Here they are on our way to breakfast! The kids were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpappy around! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Golf time out with Daddy

Blake loves to play golf in the back yard so Andrew finally took them out to the golf course to practice swinging the clubs.

Whiz kids!

I didn't realize this until they were playing later in the day-but both of my boys are " whiz kids"

Avery's New World

A while back a friend of mine told me that her son was getting glasses-the thought had never even crossed my mind-so I began watching Avery and trying to observe whether or not she may need glasses. While my mom was in town we had her eyes examined and sure enough-she needed glasses. She is pretty far-sighted but hopefully now with her glasses she can prevent them from getting worse. She was excited at first but sometimes she will look at herself in the mirror and say princesses do not wear glasses. One thing I know for sure is that now she can really see! Yeah!

First days of school

Zach started school last Wednesday-can you believe he is in the 5th grade already?

Avery is starting her second year of preschool-this year she is in class 3 days a week!

Blake-my little guy-he goes to mother's day out-1 day a week.

Here they all are on the respective first days back! Don't they look great!

Grandma's trip to Colorado

We had such a nice time with Grandma when she came to stay with us. We did a little sight seeing-we went to Vail-but mostly just tried to relax. The kids miss her already! As Blake says, "Grandma-you are the best Grandma"....he also says Zach is the best Zach, Avery the best Avery, Daddy is the best daddy-so everyone is the best of themselves!

Click here to see all the photos!

Megan & Eric's wedding

August Already???

Seems the summer has flown by and we sure did keep busy. Here are some photos of our August trip to El Paso to see grandma again-