A little politics from the Barnhill kids

Two conversations tonight:

1. Matthew was doing his social studies homework.  He is learning about government.  While reading about judges he exclaimed, "Mom!  I can be a supreme court justice!  There is no age requirement!"  After reading further, he laughed, "Oh shoot, you have to be appointed by the president!"  Another dream quashed!

2. Tonight after Mary Beth's bath, I was combing out her wet hair.  While looking in the mirror, she usually sways her head around and says, "I look like Giselle!" or "I look like Ariel!"  Tonight, she said, "I look like Sarah!"  Confused, I asked, "Sarah, who?"  Then, she starts hysterically laughing, "Sarah Palin!"

I guess the millions of hours of political coverage over the past few weeks has had an effect on my 4 year old!

Trunk or Treat 2008

Just noticed that I am wearing the same outfit in the last post.  Talk about your fashion faux pas!

Every year, the kids wait in eager anticipation for Trunk or Treat at church. We had a great time last night and enjoyed gorgeous weather.   The boys were self proclaimed "Pro Bros".  Matthew is quite the cool dude, and believed I was asking too much of him last year when I wanted to play the part of The Tinman in our Wizard of Oz ensemble.  I promised him last year that he could be WHATEVER he wanted next year if he played along with The Tinman.  He originally wanted to do something with fangs, blood, and wounds on his face, but when he stepped into the store to buy Thomas a Romo outfit, he decided to be LT.  Ladanian Tomlinson is from Waco, and Matthew feels a special connection to him because of that!  I was happy to keep the blood and guts at bay at least one more year!

After Thomas put on his jersey, he said, "I need to pretend that I have a broken finger!"  I called my mother and asked her to bring home bandages from work.  I asked her to wrap up his pinkie on his throwing hand.  Mom, my darling leftie, put it on his left hand.  Oh, Roberta, so much to learn!

Mary Beth wanted to be Tinkerbell, but she saw this "rainbow fairy" costume at Children's Place and fell in love with it.  All night, she kept saying, "I look beautiful and the boys DO NOT!!"

We can't wait to dress up again tomorrow night!

Our Weekend Part 2

I am totally lifting this entire next bit off of Tesney's blog. I have been so busy getting ready for Halloween, that I have nothing to add to her summation of our trip! Tesney writes that I am her "internet friend". I just refer to her as "my friend I met while perusing the internet!" I do agree with her that our love of God, Alabama football, Bare Minerals makeup, little boys, cookbooks, and much more make us practically related! I love the last few pictures of our boys playing. As it is written in First Hezamechiah....."Where there are two or more Barnhills gathered, there will be football!"

By the way, every year or so, Bryon taps into his inner mountain man, and grows a goatee. He said his farewell to it two days after the weekend was over!


From Minivans and Mom Jeans:
"Two weeks ago, our friends from TX, the Barnhills, came to T-town for the UA/Ole Miss game. Elizabeth is a blog friend, but really we have other connections. She lived in Tuscaloosa as a child and we know some of the same folks. She also is a friend of Kristen, and Kristen & I are friends from Harding. So really, we're practically related. Greg likes to tell everyone that she's my "Internet friend," which makes me sound like I only have friends online or something. Such a jokester, that Greg. Now our entire families are friends after a great Roll Tide weekend together!



Thanks to Karen, we got a special treat on Friday afternoon...a private tour of Bryant Denny Stadium. It was really the highlight of the weekend because we got to see all the inner workings of the stadium. My favorite part was definitely the locker room. The equipment manager gave our tour guide permission to take us in for just a brief moment. We really weren't supposed to be in there because all of the equipment/lockers were set up for the game. We were told not to step on the logo, not to touch ANYTHING, and basically not to breathe while we were in there. Our tour guide informed us that Coach Saban was extremely particular (big surprise, right?) about things; especially the logo deal. Only players and coaches can stand on it when they gather right before the game for the pre-game speech. Our guide was nervous with three active boys, I think. He kept vigilant watch over the logo and anytime any of them would come within 10 feet of it, he was quick to redirect them.



Gameday was great; I wish the game would not have been such a nail-biter but a win is a win! "

What a weekend!

Hanging with my boys!
Tesney and me after the game.

I only took one action shot.  Here is John Parker Wilson's first touchdown pass.  It was so close to me, I had to take a picture!
Dad and Michael were right below us.


This past weekend is one that I will never forget! We had such a great time hanging out with our friends, seeing old friends, and watching our Crimson Tide beat Ole Miss!

Three months ago when we started planning this trip, we would have never dreamed that Bama would be #2 in the nation and the weather on the day of the game would be near perfect. Several weeks ago, my dear blog friends, Karen and Tesney, got busy planning a great weekend for us. Tesney was able to find tickets for us to buy from season ticket holders, and Karen set up a fabulous tour of Bryant/Denney Stadium on Friday. These two gals have such a special place in my heart, and I am so indebted to them for going the extra mile for the Barnhills!

We left on Thursday night and drove 5 hours to Monroe, LA. On the way, we enjoyed listening to 4 hours of tapes recalling the best games of the 25 years that Bear Bryant was coach at Alabama. We woke up on Friday and made the final leg of the journey. I was interested to see how Matthew would react to not being at school on Friday. This has been quite an issue! At Matthew's parent/teacher conference on Wednesday, his Language teacher said that she started talking about a project that the kids would start on Friday. She glanced over at Matthew, who made a pained looked then through his head on the desk, and decided to postpone the project until Monday, since Matthew was obviously so passionate about it! He was fine on Friday, and I could tell that there was no where he would rather be!

We got to Tuscaloosa around 1:30, and ate a quick bite before heading to our stadium tour at 2:00 p.m. Tesney, Greg, and Clayton picked us up, and, in a move that assures me that I am in early stages of dementia, I FORGOT MY CAMERA IN THE CAR!!! Fortunately, Tesney had hers, so I will post those pics later. We met up with Karen and the stadium, then headed in to this massive structure. We toured the recruiting room, and media room before walking out on the upper deck of the stadium. The enormity of it took my breath away. So much history in this structure! Then, we were able to quickly tour the locker room, and the boys were in awe seeing the players names along with their pads and jerseys. Thomas also got to see where Shaun Alexander's locker was. What a treat! Then, we walked from the locker room to the field just like the players do for the game. Finally, we got to walk out ever so slightly on the field and the boys got to be up close and personal to where Tyrone Prothro made "The Catch", and also, unfortunately, where he suffered one of the most severe sports injuries ever. Watch at your own risk.

After this memorable afternoon, we all parted ways for a while and our family drove through my old neighborhood and saw Woodland Forrest Elementary, where I went to kindergarten and part of first grade. That night, we went out to eat with Tesney and Karen, and their families. I was so happy to finally meet Karen's family! He boys were adorable, and her husband was so sweet! It is so funny to look at these two woman and know that I met them while on the internet! Now, in our defense, we do have many mutual friends! After dinner, Tesney and I stayed up way too late talking while the three husbands were out.

Game Day!

We woke up knowing that it was going to be a fabulous day! After packing up, we met my Dad and brother for some shopping, then got to tour the Bear Bryant museum. This was a real treat being there with Dad, who lived and breathed every minute of those 25 years that Bryant coached the Crimson Tide. Then we headed to the Quad for some tailgating before the game. This was quite a sight! People everywhere! Big Al, the mascot, gave Thomas a high five! The boys loved throwing the football around the Quad, and I got to visit with Karen, who brought her boys to the festivities. We also got to see my parents' dear friends from our time in Alabama. After tailgating fun, we had to say goodbye to Karen, and then made our way to the stadium. Over ninety thousand people joined us! At this point, we all split up. Bryon and Matthew went one way, Dad and Michael went another, and Thomas and I another. Thomas and I were in the first upper deck in incredible seats! As we circled our way to our section, we looked out and saw over 90,000 people chanting "Roll Tide Roll!" during Sweet Home Alabama. I will never forget that moment. We were also treated to a fly over by two Air Force jets.

Thomas and I enjoyed the Tide's total domination in the first half. In the fourth quarter, we made our way to find Tesney. During the time we were walking to find her, Ole Miss started rallying and it was a nail biter finish. During the entire planning of the weekend, it never occurred to me that Bama could lose the game! Fortanately, our killer defense held off Ole Miss's final push, and we were able to remain undefeated.

After the game, we said our goodbyes to Tesney, then spent some time on campus eating walking back to the car. There was lots of celebrating around campus and lots of music was being played. It was fun being in that atmosphere again. We left Dad and Michael, and started to long drive home. We pushed ourselves to get to Monroe, LA by 1:00a.m. Unfortunately, it was Grambling's homecoming and there was no room in town! We pushed on to Ruston, and finally got to sleep around 2a.m! We had a nice drive home yesterday, and listened to the utterly pathetic Cowboys embarrass themselves.

What a blast! I loved hanging out with all my boys, visiting face to face with my dear blog/facebook friends, watching my beloved Crimson Tide play live for the first time ever, and so appreciative to my mother and sister for taking care of Mary Beth!Thomas and Phillip

Making our way to the Quad.
Joe Namath and Nick Saban

Help!

One day last week, I was trying to erase blogs that are no longer in operation. I accidentally erased all of them! I was able to pull the ones on the right from memory, but if you aren't on there, please shoot me a message and let me know your web address. Sorry!

A new week

We had a great weekend! Saturday was spent at the soccer fields. The boys did such a great job, and I often say that there is no where I would rather be than watching them play sports. Saturday night was the Baylor game. We crammed the five of us into our four seats, and enjoyed watching Baylor kick the pants off of Iowa State. We have been Baylor fans through thick and thin, (mostly thin!) so it was just nice to see them look like the real deal this weekend. One of my favorite parts of the Baylor game is watching the boys conversing with the season ticket holders around us. Several guys live in Dallas and sit right behind us at the games. Matthew prefers to sit with them, and spends the whole game holding his own in conversations about stats, players, plays, etc. It is hilarious! I have given birth to two huge football fanatics!

Sunday, we headed up to Dallas after church. We were able to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law. Michael is "Super Uncle" who enjoys spending time in the backyard with the boys almost as much as the boys enjoy it! We ate at Babes for lunch, then had great brisket sandwiches that Michael made.

Monday, we bought our new computer! It was hard saying goodbye to my old computer, but I am getting used to the iMac with help from my computer savvy sister. We also picked up some furniture that we ordered a few months ago. We are in the process of redoing our entry way and bedroom. Things are coming along nicely and I will post pictures after it is done. The remodeling has caused several trips up and down I-35 to Dallas and Austin to get what we need.

Only three days left until our trip to Alabama! My sweet mother and sister will be watching EmmyLou, so I will get to hang out with some of my favorite guys: Bryon, Dad, Michael, Matthew, and Thomas. Not to mention some of my favorite blogger (now facebook) buddies!

Check out the posts below. They are hilarious!

Matthew's dream!

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Not much to say!

I have a few minutes, so I promised that I would update my blog. The problem is, there isn't much to say! I have been sick for a week with sinus junk. It is hard enough managing our lives without me being sick, so this week has been a bit of a struggle!

The kids are getting used to their new routines. Matthew is getting used to his bigger academic load and still managing to play piano and soccer.

Thomas is Thomas. Nothing phases the kid. Life is great for my sweet first grader, who is also playing piano and soccer.

Mary Beth is loving life as a preschooler! She is really loving "reading" books and has grown to love art. This summer, she was drawing people by scribbling with a crayon. A few weeks ago, she started drawing people like potato heads. Now, she is drawing people and they actually look like people!

I have been working quite a bit. With my job, you never know how many patients will need speech therapy. There is more than usual right now, so I am grateful for my extra day of preschool. I am still loving taking piano lessons and playing is my greatest stress reliever right now!

Bryon finished up his year on Tuesday, and was able to take off most of Monday. It was nice to get some time with him! My parents watched our kids on Friday night, so we were able to watch Fireproof. What a great movie with a positive message! I highly recommend it!

We have two more weeks until our trip to Alabama! In all of my years of being a Bama fan, I have never gotten to see a game at Bryant/Denny stadium. My sweet blog friends, Karen and Tesney, have helped make it a reality! I couldn't be more appreciative! Bryon and I are taking the boys while Mary Beth stays behind. We had to break it to Matthew that he was going to have to miss a day of school, and he was crestfallen. He hasn't missed a day of school since his uncle was married 2 1/2 years ago. The kid has a killer immune system!

That's it for now! I am off to the grocery store...