The Santa Train in Boulder City, Nevada

One of the things that has been hard about Troy being in the military is that (many times) during major holidays, it is not possible to be with family. Since we found a church and joined a small group, we have basically spent the holidays with our small group.

Here is Easter.

Here is the 4th of July.

The Christmas season was no different. One of the other ladies sent us a list of things to do for the holidays around Vegas and we decided to check a few things off the list this year and tackle more of the list next year. A lot of the things on the list are free and some of the others aren't, but a lot of the money goes towards a charity or organization in the area that assists with veterans or individuals with disabilities or something.

Here is the list for anyone in Vegas who may be looking for things to do that are kid friendly during the next holiday season:

Our small group got together on a saturday and headed down to Boulder City (about 30-40 minutes from our house which is on the WAY northwest side of town) to ride the Santa Train.

Our boarding time was 11am and the ride was a total of about 45ish minutes. It went out and back (it wasn't a loop, just reversed back the way it came). Santa comes and walks through all the cars with his elves during the ride. The train cars were pretty cool, all old style and looked like something out of a movie.

Here is Avery (looking like a hot mess) holding her ticket:

This is the inside of the train. There were 5 cars. 4 of them looked just like this and one was an "outdoor" car. With the new babies (only about 6 weeks old at the time) we decided on an inside car for sure. Sorry about the picture size...I couldn't figure out how to resize them for some reason.

And here's Avery and the babies on the train, waiting to get going:

And a group shot of Troy, Avery, and me. I'm sad I couldn't resize this because it's hilarious.

And here's the kids from our small group. There are 2 twins boys (can't tell you how nice it's been to have friends with twins since ours have been born), another girl, and Avery. Avery is the youngest, but all the kids seems to get along pretty well despite their age differences.

Santa is on his way back with the elves leading the way and talking to everyone.

And I was SO impressed with Santa. He would sit or crouch down with EVERY single kid and have a 2 minute conversation with them. He was really really sweet and Avery was SO interested in him. She had already talked to Santa that week at the mall, but she didn't seem to care/notice that they may have been a little different. She also remembered to ask him for her pink bicycle. Again.

Overall, totally worth the 5$ per person to ride. There was a museum at the train station and some kids crafts and hot chocolate and popcorn but we had to duck out after the ride to get lunch and get Avery home for a nap before a meltdown happened. I am hoping to tackle more of this list (especially the free stuff) next year.

Visiting Santa with all the Kiddos

I think we have found the REAL Santa. And he lives in Las Vegas. More specifically, at the Fashion Show Mall. He was here last year:

And he was here again this year with all our kids. He seriously is awesome. BEST looking Santa I have EVER seen.

We brought all of the kids to the mall in their comfy clothes and then when we got to the parking garage there, we changed Avery into her Christmas dress. We put the twins in their stroller and walked in front of Macy's, where Santa was set up with his elves. Troy was prepping Avery the whole time to "ask for a bicycle, ask for a bicycle, okay?"

We were TOTALLY that family who took forever because we changed Caris and Kinley's clothes when we got there. Lucky for us, there was only one family behind us and they were super patient. It's a funny thing. You have two infants and people are suddenly patient and inquisitive everywhere you go. And by "a funny thing," I mean a weird thing.

**side note: We went to Costco last week and Troy was pushing the twins and I was pushing the cart with the food and Avery. Troy got cornered for almost 10 minutes by an older woman (maybe late 60s) and her husband. The lady was CRYING when she saw them! "They are so beautiful! Are they real?!?!?" She was praying over them, crying, and asking all kinds of questions and Troy was seriously uncomfortable. BAHAHAHA! I just hid 2 aisles over and laughed. Poor guy. My friends with multiples were not joking when they told me that going out with them turns into a show and everyone stopping you and telling you about their sister's cousin who is a twin. It's a circus every time we go out. It's hilarious.

Anyway. Santa.

We made sure all of the kiddos were presentable and waited for Avery to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. She told him she wanted The Little Mermaid. Not a doll. Like the actual mermaid Ariel as a friend for a visit. Bicycle completely forgotten in favor of Disney Princesses. Then we handed the twins over to Santa for our picture. How cute are they?

After we retrieved twins from Santa, Avery hopped down from the bench and ran over to us. Troy said, "so did you ask Santa for your bicycle?" And Avery goes, "OH NO!!!" And she runs back over to Santa (while he's saying hi to the next family) and yells, "I NEED A PINK BICYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We started laughing so hard. Everyone was super nice about it...probably because she's so cute.

So, all of our Las Vegas amigos, if you want to see a great Santa, head over to the Macy's at the Fashion Show mall on the strip.

Family Pictures and Our Christmas Card

Maybe you noticed some changes on the blog a few weeks ago? We asked a friend to come over and take some pictures for our "mail out" Christmas card this year. And we figured while she was over here, we'd get some "everyday" pictures too, so that any photos we sent out to family weren't holiday specific.

Anyone remember the last cover photo I had up on the blog?

Well, we had some changes! And if you look up, we have a new pretty photo with Kinley and Caris! We went with a kind of summer-y color motif and the cream and teal look great on all of us! WIN!

Here are a couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Caris looks mad:

Optimus looks like the happiest doggie in the world:

My favorite one of everyone...except Optimus :(

Best whole family photo. Optimus really is NOT fat or big...the camera angle is like a side view mirror: Objects may appear larger than real life:

Caris and Kinley dressed up as baby Santas:

In front of the Christmas tree:

Adorable Avery:

We also ordered all of our Christmas cards from Shutterfly again this year!

Here is our picture from last year that my cousin took for us over Thanksgiving:

It was super fun and silly. Well this year, I didn't have much time to troll pinterest for something cute and silly (read: creative) so we went for a theme of everyone being showered and wearing clean clothes. Having twins in the house is cutting down on my sleep. But that is a blog for another day. Coming soon.

Here is our card from this year:

So, Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I'm pretty sure that most of the people who read this blog are family trying to keep up with us, so you probably got mailed a card. To the other 5 people, MERRY VIRTUAL CHRISTMAS! I love you all and appreciate you reading so much!

This has been such a huge year for our family and all of the love and support poured out from our family and friends has been a blessing for us. I am have a bunch of blogs queued up, so hopefully, the next few days will be filled with updates and pictures...so include an update on what it's like to have twins. And have no sleep. And breastfeed twins. And how Avery is adjusting. It's been interesting and we definitely owe you all an update on that.

Christmas Morning at the Barnes House!

When we woke up Christmas morning (Avery slept until 8:30!!) we came downstairs to find that Santa came for a visit. Santa doesn't wrap Christmas gifts at our house, so he had left everything down in the living room on the sofa!

He enjoyed the cookies and milk:

The tree was trimmed and surrounded with presents :)

Here is the activity cube that the elves snagged and a bunch of stuffed farm animals. Santa (Troy) felt it was necessary to set up the mommas and babies in a "natural" state. Aka eating/nursing. Which I thought was HILARIOUS:

And here is Avery playing with her presents from Santa. I promise she was super excited. This was the only picture where she wasn't moving with super human speed, blurring up the camera.

And here is Avery playing with her kitchen for the first time!!! She LOVES IT! We let her play for about 30 minutes until we ripped her away to open gifts from under the tree.

I helped her put on the hat and apron and she was ADORABLE! She was intensely concentrating. I couldn't take it. SO cute. Look at her cooking mommy a breakfast souffle:

Here is a video of her playing:



We finally dragged her to the front room to open presents from family that arrived in the mail. Here's what we all made out with:

Some of Troy's include (you can see most of it in the picture):

1. A box of 3 Dremel tools
2. A HUGE bottle of ranch (OMG Dick and Emily...DYING laughing)
3. The new Ken Follett book
4. 2 Dave Ramsey books
5. Remote control helicopter
6. Season 1 of Duck Dynasty
7. Clothes (northface fleece, a running top, and 2 casual button downs)
8. Random fun (Chick-fil-a gift card, tervis cup, catch phrase)

Natalie's summary of gifts include

1. Random clothing articles (pajamas, a homemade scarf, a couple shirts)
2. 2 puzzles
3. 2 DVDs (Pitch Perfect and Dexter Season 6)
4. Giant 31 Barnes embroidered bag for organizing things
5. Gift cards (Amazon, VISA)
6. Various doo-dads (pocket calendar, cards, decorative wine corks)
7. TRENDY TOPS!!!

AVERY CLEANED UP! I could not believe how generous our family and friends were.

1. A homemade sock elephant and hanging letter "A" to match her nursery
2. Red Riding Hood puppets and book
3. TONS of books...I LOVE YOU GUYS FOR THIS
4. New floating bath toys that make fountains

5. Doug and Melissa toys...TONS - 4 puzzles and stacking blocks...LOVE WOODEN TOYS
6. A bouncing Benny. Avery is in love with this toy right now:



7. A dancing and singing Santa. We actually had to hide this in the next room so that we could continue opening gifts. She played with it for about 10 minutes before we took it away:



8. She got A TON of clothes. 2T and 3T clothes. Major win for Mommy. And her bank account. Troy's grandma pretty much cleaned up here. Ask and you shall recieve :)

9. Aunt Taylor got Avery a dress up box. She came to visit about a week ago and got the box and started filling it with TONS of dress up things. A feather boa, princess outfit, 2 purses, 2 hats, some shades, fairy wings, etc. Avery LOVES it. She is super into hats and necklaces right now.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and we are so grateful to everyone who spent time and money buying/mailing things. We love you all.

DIY Play Kitchen Part 3: Drilling, Cutting, Painting

You can read about the planning here.

You can read about the decor here.

Since then, my Dad has come for another visit and the hole for the sink was cut. The hinge for the oven was switched from the side to the bottom. The hole for the plexiglass piece for the oven was also cut and sanded. The wooden trim was added to the top to cover the weird mounting brackets.

Progress here:

All of the holes have been caulked. All of the holes that are needed (for dials and handles) are drilled. And ready for paint.

I picked a can of white semi-gloss paint and primer in one that cost $7. Laziness people. I'm not painting twice. I picked semi gloss even though I did a coat of clear on the top. The semi gloss is nice and shiny and very easy to clean. It's the kind of paint used for trim in houses (you know where fingerprints are). I picked a tester can for the color for the "countertops" and then to paint the trim at the top for $2.95. I already had brushes and the clear finish from other projects.

It's a little yellow-y because the garage light is kind of orange.

Here is an up close of the oven door (that got the most work) with the caulked holes painted over, the pre-drilled holes for hardware and oven dials, and the window cut for plexiglass.

And here she is from a different angle. We are planning to put together all of the details seeing as Christmas is tomorrow.

Best Goodwill Find to Date...

I found this guy at Goodwill while my sister was visiting. FOR 5 DOLLARS!!!

Isn't it a beautiful beautiful toy?!?!? I love that it's wooden. It was a hot mess when I snagged it off that concrete floor...But here she is all clean.

I took some serious Clorox wipes to it. Like half of a container. For real. So Avery is going to have a blasty blast with it. I figure Santa's workshop makes wooden toys (mostly) so this fits right in with the wooden toy theme we have going this year for Avery's gifts.

Wooden play kitchen?? CHECK!

Wooden activity cube?? CHECK!

It makes my OT heart so happy with all of the cognitive, gross, and fine motor things for her fat little hands. The top has the bead wiring and little tracks that you move animals through.

One side has 4 little doors that open and show an animal and the word. One side has these knobs that slide up and down through these long tracks. One side has all of the letters on little blocks and then they spin and have a picture of a word/animal that starts with the corresponding letter. The last side has blocks that spin on axels shaped like triangles that match up (top and bottom) to make an animal.

I cannot tell you how excited I was about this find. Truth be told, I AM A TERRIBLE SANTA! I already let Avery play with it. And then Troy saw us playing and we stashed it in the guest room when she wasn't looking...too bad she knows how to open the door and still plays with it when Troy isn't home...MUAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously though...I'm the worst Santa ever. Hopefully she won't remember this next year and be all "SANTA ISN'T REAL" when she's 2 years old. Bad mommy points right there.

I retails on Amazon for $89.99. HELLO!

It retails at Target for $62.39. I think we can all agree that I got a great deal. WAHOOOOO

PS. After Christmas, we'll do a full gift round up of things that we got for her for curious minds.

Do You Think Joseph Would be on Maury? And Mary Would be Grumpy?

I have a friend who is due with her 2nd child any day now. Send her labor thoughts ASAP. She is feeling particularly ready to be done being pregnant. She sent me this text and I was DYING laughing.

Funny as that is, it really got me thinking about Christmas. Mary must have been so scared. And cold. She was so brave. And poor Joseph. Can you imagine if a story like this had happened now? It is a story worthy of being on Maury where they do all of the the paternity tests. If this happened now and a young girl said that she was pregnant with the Son of God, she would get put away in a looney bin. And I don't think that Joseph would have believed her. Lets be real here. He would have left her so fast for being a cheater. He would be on 20/20 trying to make a buck on Mary's crazy story.

I feel like Mary and Jesus are always the focus of the Christmas Story. And to be honest, they should be. However. In light of my friend's text message, it got me thinking about Joseph. And what a good man he was. And this just WOULD NOT happen now. Everything happens for a reason and it's a good thing that Jesus was born over 2000 years ago, because if this happened in 2012, things would have turned out pretty different...

Luckily though, this happened thousands of years ago and Joseph was obedient to God and his will. What a HUGE leap of faith for him. I can't even imagine how that would feel to be Joseph in this incredible situation. But he was obedient to the Lord's plan for his life and stuck by Mary. And they had a baby in a barn. Well, a manger, but a barn. And now we have the miracle of the birth of Jesus and get to celebrate his birthday every year on Christmas Day.

Perspective. Merry Christmas Friends.

Sending happy labor and baby thoughts your way my friend...

Christmas Cards a la Pinterest

So this year I decided our family needed to send out Christmas cards. I have always been anti Christmas cards. Why? I have no idea. I think the internet has made it easier to reason NOT sending them. I'm like, "why? If people want to see pictures of us, they can facebook me." Welllllll, the problem with that is, some of Troy's and my immediate family don't even have computers, internet, or smart phones.

And now we have a child and we moved. And truth be told, I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting Christmas cards. LOVE. So what is my problem? Well, I finally admitted it to myself. I'm lazy. All that addressing cards and UGH stamps are expensive. But if I didn't send them out early, we might not get any from people who normally send them to us who don't know our new address. And I want cards too! It makes my heart smile. Or sing carols. And I want our grandparents to hear from us.

I wanted to do something cute and inexpensive (not pay a photographer). I started in the easiest place...Pinterest. Here are a few of the ideas that I found.

Option 1:

I just adore everything about this picture. Avery and Optimus would be ADORABLE. But we have extended family who got some of these cards who have never met Avery in person and if Troy and I weren't in the picture, they might open the card and be like, "huh? Who are these people?" And also I would have to buy all of the cute costume things for Avery and Optimus to wear. Troy is also SUPER anti dressing up dogs in any kind of clothing. So that option (as much as I love it) was out.

Option 2:

I think this is precious. But I was like, there is NO way that Avery and Optimus will sit still long enough for this to happen. Troy and I will both have super forced smiles and it will just be bad...

Option 3/THE WINNER: I used this picture as our inspiration or (PIN-spiration) for our Christmas card this year.

Here is our card that we sent out. Sorry for the poor picture quality, I snapped a pic of the card with my phone....I should have downloaded the "sample photo" from Shutterfly when I ordered it....oops. It says "We wish we could be with your for the holidays, but we're a little tied up." Witty, I know. Troy thought of that. So while we had some pinspiration, Troy thought of the content. He's punny.

We took the photo over Thanksgiving while my cousin Laura and her hubby Dan were here with their ADORABLE son. Dan danced around with Jameson trying to get Avery to smile and look at the camera while Laura took pictures and tried to keep Optimus from chasing Dan around. It was crazy. She took about 15 pictures and we decided this one was the best.

I'm SO glad we sent them out this year. When I called to confirm a few addresses with my Grandma, she was like, "what is this for?" I said, "I know it's hard to believe, but we are actually going to send out cards for the holidays." My grandma goes, "well it's about damn time! You've been married for more than 5 years now." Thanks grandma...

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that you all have been good this year and Santa is very kind to you. Sing happy birthday to Jesus and remember of the reason for the season.

My Friend Wrapped ALL of our Christmas Presents. And I Baked. And Burned Cookies. And Suck at Decorating Them.

I had a much deserved girls night this week. And it was a productive one :) Filled with Christmas-y fun! And wine. And movies. And cookies.

My friend Katie loves wrapping Christmas gifts. I hate wrapping Christmas gifts because why spend so much time doing something that gets ripped open and thrown away in seconds? I love baking Christmas cookies. Katie hates baking Christmas cookies because it's messy and makes tons of dishes.

Katie wrapped all our gifts. I baked all of the cookies. Win-Win.

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies and drank wine. Katie wrapped 40+ gifts and drank wine.

This is Katie relaxing and wrapping gifts...it literally took her almost 2 movies to finish them all. We watched "The Holiday" and "Elf."

I made a big mess. I have NEVER used cookie cutters before. Ever. And I SUPER suck at decorating them. I actually burned a batch...ooooops. Too much chatting and laughing.

Evidence here. Luckily, Katie opted to take hers home and frost them later. Or she would have ended up with a hot mess.

Needless to say, we had a good time and both got something tangible out of our evening. Win-Win. Am I right?

So, to my family and Troy's family: You can thank Katie for all of your gifts being wrapped. You're welcome.

They got mailed yesterday. Be on the look out! We were "that family" in the post office. I swear. Military families should get discounts at the post office for Christmas mailing. We mailed 7 boxes and 5 flat packages. UGH! And we packaged most of them IN the post office. With a toddler. Let us all pause to imagine the chaos. You. Are. Welcome.

Anyone else hate wrapping presents? Or hate cleaning up baking messes?

Troy's Family Tradition

Troy has this thing where the youngest person in the household ALWAYS puts the star on top of the tree...

Exhibit A: Avery is only 6 months old

Okay, so in that picture she's not exactly putting the star on the tree. And I also didn't realize how bald she was at this time last year. BUT this is a similar set up to last year. Last year, Troy held her like this (see above) and I stood on a chair and held her hands onto a star and she "put" the star on the tree. He was super insistent about this.

This year was no different. Avery was VERY intrigued by the tree and excited about all the lights. Pre-lit tree y'all. It saved our marriage after the first year of Christmas together. We CAN NOT agree about how to put lights on the tree. Pre-lit is the way to go. No more arguing :) Win-win. With WHITE lights. It's the way we roll. Correction: If I would allow GIANT colored bulbs, Troy would be thrilled. But I just can't. I'm a white light tree girl.

She attempted for about 2 minutes to put the star on the tree. It was adorable.

Troy gave her a little help (and held her up at the same time) while I took pictures. She was concentrating hard. Look at that double chin. I just love it :)

After a little furniture moving, here's what we got. We waited until after Avery's bedtime to actually put ornaments on the tree. She's not quite old enough yet. I'm pretty sure that next year she'll be able to help.

Troy pretty much made fun of me the whole time. I would unwrap an ornament and be like, "OH THIS IS MY FAVORITE." And then unwrap the next one and be like "Oh no. THIS ONE is my favorite." I just love Instagram. And I love Christmas decorations. And Jesus. He's the reason for season.

If you want to follow us on Instagram, search BarnesDailyCircus (I know it's shocking, right??)