Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their November letters to their blogs. You just need to click on the links to the right -->

Thoughts - "Home" for the Holidays

We were able to go to my "Home" town in Colorado for Thanks- giving this year which was wonderful! We are now "Home" for the remainder of the holidays and happy to be home. As we were driving home from Colorado I had some time to just think. How was this possible you ask? Well, Dave had his headphones on listening to music on his Zune which he likes to do while he makes that long drive to block out the road noise. Brandon and Eric were each playing their Leapsters and Kyle, who was having a tough time sleeping those last couple hours was still content so long as he was holding mommy's hand :) Anyway, I got to thinking about a lot of things which seemed to make more sense at the time but seem sort of jumbled now as I sit down to write them. I will start out by saying that those of you who know me know that I have always been really good about keeping a journal. I have kept a journal since I was seven years old and every day since I was eleven. But the last couple years I haven't been quite as good about it because to be honest, most of my days are pretty much the same and I don't always have a page worth of things to write about. Because of that I have started to write weekly instead of daily. Well, I haven't been really great about that either and find myself playing catch up a lot of the time so I am thinking that the best way to continue my good journal habits is to put this blog to good use by adding my thoughts and experiences that I feel like sharing. They may or may not be interesting to anyone else but I will put them here for posterity anyway. So back to my thoughts as we were driving back to Colorado, as jumbled as they were. I guess the main gist of them was that I was thinking about what I was thankful for, aside from the obvious things. At that moment, I was grateful for portable DVD players, Leapsters, and a mini-van with adjustable seating arrangements. I don't know how our parents did these long road trips without all these luxuries that we now have at our finger tips. I was grateful for a husband who is willing to make the 8 hour drive with 3 young kids (boys no less) so that we can see my family, even though he isn't the sort that loves to drive. I was grateful that he had his Zune to make the drive a little easier for him. I was grateful that for some reason, I have been blessed with the three easiest babies in the world who sleep well, eat well and are just for the most part really happy. I am grateful that I got to spend 4 days with my family. I am grateful for a wonderful father who loves to have the choas of a house full of his kids and grandkids and prefers that over quiet. I am grateful for an incredible mother who was too perfect for this world who I know that I will see again. I am grateful for a six year old son who reminds me of that often by saying things like "I am sorry that your mom died but don't be sad, you will see her again after you die." I am grateful for sisters who are fantastic examples to me of great mothers who help me see what I can do to improve just by watching them. And I am grateful for this wonderful holiday season. I couldn't help but think about the story I saw on the news earlier that day about the man who was trampled to death by a huge crowd of people trying to get into Walmart to shop that morning in New York and it made my heart sick. His poor family, to have their loved one die for such a ridiculous reason. It makes me sad to see what Christmas has become and I just hope that we can all take a step back and realize what really matters this time of year. Those were the things that I was thinking about during those last couple hours, on the way back from Colorado. I am grateful for that time that I had to just think.

Home for Thanksgiving!

We were so happy to all be together for Thanksgiving this year at dad's house in Colorado. The only person from the family missing from this picture is Kyle who was already down for the night when we took this picture. And I know ... Eric is in his PJs. He changed once during the afternoon and I bribed him with chocolate chips to get dressed again but when he changed again later in the night I gave up.

Dad and his kids.

Kathleen was the head chef! She did a fantastic job!


As always, I made the pies. Dad wanted at least 10 pies and so I spent all Wednesday baking pies!

Grandpa O'Berry, Uncle Dan, Aunt Judy and David all came over for the feast!

The three little girls were like peas in a pod ... little princesses!

Eric & Audrey almost finished off the vege tray between the two of them.

The cousins had a great time running around crazy!
13 grandkids for Grandpa Pat.

Barnhisel Thanksgiving

Thanks to Chris for putting on an early Thanksgiving party since many of us will be elsewhere for Thanksgiving this year. It was so nice to all be together this year.

The meal was fantastic and the boys had so much fun with their cousins!

The Holy War

BYU (The Lord's Team) vs. Utah

At the beginning of the game the commentator mentioned that the rivalry runs so deep with this game that it divides families. Our family is proof of that.

Dave's family all Bleed Red while my side of the family is True Blue through and through.

For some reason everyone always ends up at our house to watch the big games. Wonder why? :)

But in the end, Utah trounced on BYU 48 to 24. Better luck next year BYU.

Twilight

Two dates in Two days! Wow! Dave & I got to go to a private showing of Twilight this morning put on by Allstate. Dave grumbled a bit about it, thinking that he was going to be the only guy in the theatre and that he was being drug to a chic flick. Turns out he thought it was pretty awesome and now even wants to read the books!

Dave's 33rd Birthday (Observed)

I surprised Dave with a night out tonight (without kids ... Thanks Riley) to celebrate his birthday. His actual birthday is next Wednesday but with us being in Colorado and all the craziness going on there I thought it best to celebrate it beforehand. We went to the new Cheese Cake Factory here and he got his favorite meal and dessert (which he is now running off by playing Monster with the boys and chasing them around the house ... what a great dad!) It was really nice to be able to go out, and without the baby even. There are definitely pluses to having a baby that goes to bed at 5:30. Happy Birthday Dave! I hope this next year is even better then the last.

Can't Wait!

I can't wait for Thanksgiving! Dad has 2 big turkeys already and is talking about picking up a 3rd so there's plenty. Not to mention ham as well. And he wants me to make at least 10 pies! I love making pies (almost as much as I love eating pies) so I am super excited! I was telling Dave that this month has been the longest month of my life ... I just can't wait to get to Denver and have the Thanksgiving to end all Thanksgivings! Can't wait to see all my family! Yeah!!!!!!

Kyle's 7 months old today

... and jumping for joy!

He loves to jump and will spend forever in his jumperoo just jumping away. He is such a happy baby and so much fun!

Dinner at Grandma's

Just got back from a delicious dinner

at Grandma Norberg's house.

Thank you Grandma and Aunt Phyllis.

It was wonderful!

Kyle & Collin

... we had them crying in sync towards the end of the night!

Monthly Letters

I have added a link off to the right for each of the boys most recent letters. From now on I will be sending our blog link out to alert you all when the boys new letters have been posted. It's fun for them to have their own pages and Brandon already has some ideas for dinosaur polls that he wants to add to his! :)

Snow!

Look what we woke up to this morning! We got quite a big snow storm today!

Brandon was very excited to play in the snow and had a hard time waiting until after school. He decided to catch snow on his tongue and make footprints.

Eric was so excited when he saw snow outside this morning he ran through the whole house broadcasting it to everyone. He was especially excited because he thought that the snow meant that Santa was on his way!

Yum!

I have started making a family blog a couple times but never really got going on it. I am finally making some progress on it although it's sort of bare bones at this point. So all the pictures and events I have posted are from October of this year even though they show up under November in the archive. I look forward to working more on this and will keep it up to date.