The last week of Fall

Next week, I will be completely in the Christmas spirit, but I want to savor the last week of Fall.  This can be hard to do at times, since there have been Christmas lights up in our neighborhood since Nov. 1st, and Christmas music has been on the radio for several weeks.  But still...I won't give into the Christmas decorating temptation until Friday.  This could be that I am having the family at my house for Thanksgiving, and I want everything Thanksgiving-y.

I love Thanksgiving.

I love the month that it is in. I love the meal.  I love the family time.  I love the Peanuts Thanksgiving special.  I love the kids' two day school week.  I love the football.  I love Thanksgiving.

There is so much to be thankful for this year, as well as every year.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!   I will be busy getting the house ready and cooking all week.  What fun!

Matthew at 9

Matthew had a great birthday!  We brought donuts for the class and Bryon picked him up from school a tad early to watch the Baylor Bears whoop Sentinary.

Now that Matthew is 9, he is officially half way through his time home with us.  This blows my mind! He continues to be such a joy to us, and this milestone is a reminder of how precious and fleeting these days really are.  

So, Matthew at 9....

I really feel like I write the same things about him every year.  He has a strong personality and always has!  Matthew is the poster child of "first born"!  With both of his parents and 3/4 of his grandparents being oldest children, he really comes by it honestly!  When I think of Matthew, the terms, "alpha male", "opinionated", "perfectionistic", "driven", "leader", "strong willed" come to mind.  Here are a few more:

1. Witty.  Matthew has a great sense of humor and he has a dry/sarcastic wit that I am very proud of! Thank you, Robinson genes! ;)

2. Energetic.  Matthew's motor never turns off.  He has a force field of energy always surrounding him that is almost palpable.  During his birthday party, he asked me to give him a tiny piece of cake, because he didn't want to stop playing for any longer than he had to!  Thank you, Barnhill genes!

3. He loves to perform.  Matthew got one of the two male lead roles in the 3rd grade Christmas program.  He loves singing and acting.

4. Artistic.  Matthew draws beautifully and has very nice handwriting.  He likes writing in different fonts.

5. Voracious reader.  Nothing, other than sports, gets Matthew more keyed up than books.  Countless times, we will put the kids to bed, and Matthew will come into the living room 2 hours later exclaiming how great a book was that he was reading.  I have come into his classroom before and seen him with a text book up, and Gulliver's Travels hidden inside the cover of his textbook!  He usually has several books going at once.

6. Sports fanatic.  This one is always on the list!  He can hold his own in any adult male's sports conversations.  He remembers scores and opponents from years past that amazes me.  He called in to talk to Art Briles, Baylor's head coach, on the radio a few weeks ago, and talked to him about how well so and so was playing.  Coach Briles told Matthew he knew a lot about football for being just in third grade!  Matthew told him his whole family knew a lot about football!  His big story everyday after school involves the daily drama of the recess football game.  I love this about Matthew and love watching him play sports more than just about any other motherly activity!

7. Lover of words.  Even as a young child, Matthew was fascinated by words.  He would laugh if he thought words were funny ("student" and "budget" were always sure to evoke a laugh as a 3 year old).  He really uses large words when speaking, and it annoys him when people don't use proper grammar.  He has learned, after a few embarrassing incidents, to keep his distain to himself and just look at me when bad grammar happens!

8. Passionate!!  Matthew is hot or cold.  He either LOOOOOOVES something, or HAAAAAAAATES something!  The words "Laid" and "back" are never used in succession around Matthew!

9. Never one to bow to peer pressure.  I hope and pray that this one continues!  I have to share a story that made me so proud of Matthew the other day.  I saw one of Matthew's friends talking to him and I asked what they talked about.  Matthew said that the friend started talking badly about another peer and an authority figure.  I know that these digs had come directly from listening to his parents talk (I heard the same stuff from the parents).  Matthew looked at the friend and said, "I don't believe any of that", and walked away.  I wish I had had the same backbone to say the same thing to the parents!  

I ate lunch with Matthew at school on his birthday, and interviewed him:

1. Favorite food?  Spaghetti

2. Favorite dessert? Luby's coconut cream pie

3. Favorite color?  Green and Gold (Sic 'em bears!)

4. Favorite show on TV?  Anything on ESPN, and College Gameday

5. Favorite book?  Three way tie between The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Tom Sawyer, and Gullivers Travels

6. Favorite subject in school? Social Studies

7. What do you want to be when you grow up? A punter in the NFL

8. Favorite bible story?  The Stoning of Stephen

9. Where do you want to live when you grow up?  NYC, San Diego, or Tampa Bay  (Who says watching professional football doesn't help with geography? ;)

Marathon Complete!

I feel like I started a marathon 10 days ago and finally finished it last night!

One of my friends and I have been in charge of our fall book fair at school the last three years.  I love spending time with my sweet friend, Amy, and enjoy being up at school all week.  Getting to browse books and see the boys throughout the day makes for a fun and busy week!  It was a tad stressful trying to get our entire family of 5 ready to go for the day at 7:45, and I have a newfound respect for families that do this every day!  On Friday, we tore down the book fair.  It was a great week which brought in a lot of money for our PTA!

Friday night was Matthew's birthday party.  He has been blessed with such great friends at school, and I always enjoy being with this group of kids.  We had his party up at our church's gym.  When I ask Matthew about his day at school, there is always mention of what occurred at recess.  His group of guy friends plays football each day.  We decided for Matthew's party to throw all of his friends in the gym and give them balls to play with.  Party planning at its finest!  The kids enjoyed playing football, ping pong, and a friendly game of dodge ball.  It was definitely the loudest birthday party that I can recall, and we enjoyed it tremendously!  I can't believe my baby boy will be 9 tomorrow, but I will write more about that later.

Me showing empathy! ;)

Saturday, I went into party planning mode for the book club that I hosted last night.  Bryon and the kids went to the Baylor/ A&M game while I cooked.  I HATED missing that game, because I felt like Baylor had a fighting chance, and they won 41-21!  I was so happy that the boys got to see this.  Maybe finally I can live down the incident that occurred 4 years ago...  Our friends hosted a Halloween party for adults that conflicted with the Battle of the Brazos, Baylor/A&M game.  I persuaded Bryon, who NEVER misses a home game, to come to the party.  Baylor upset a much better A&M teams that year!  This comes up in conversation still to this day!

We also had our family party for Matthew on Saturday.  My sister was gracious enough to have us at her house, so my house could stay "party ready" for Sunday.  Mom and Dad got Matthew more mini football helmets, which are his latest obsession.  He spent the afternoon matching up football helmets to who was playing that day.  Lauren and Josh got him a High School Musical DVD game that he can't wait to play.  He also got lots of books, which he adores.  Matthew got some great gifts, but he was most excited about the electric guitar that my brother gave to him.  We got him an amplifier to go with it, and his is ready for be a real "Guitar Hero"!  Michael also gave Thomas his favorite Bama hat that he wore all throughout college, so he wouldn't feel left out!  

Don't you wish James enjoyed cake?

Book club was last night, and we discussed a great book: The Thirteenth Tale.  I read the book last year, and really enjoyed it.  I hosted book club with a good friend of mine, and we spent the afternoon cooking.  (Bryon took the kids to the Lady Bears basketball game.  They got to sit on the third row and see Baylor upset the number 2 ranked Stanford!  Two exciting Baylor games in a row!)  We enjoyed a great meal: roasted vegetable lasagna, poblano corn pudding, roasted sweet potatoes/brussel sprouts/fennel/parsnips, and butter rum pound cake with bananas foster sauce.

I had been promising Mary Beth all last week that on Monday, we wouldn't get out of our pjs all day!  She is enjoying a few minutes watching Super Why, so I can get all of this written, and then having a fun girls day with NOTHING TO DO!!

Weekend review

I do believe that this is the last time I will be on blogs this week, so I will go ahead and post a few things that have been going on.

First of all, our bedroom makeover is more or less complete!  We have a few final touches planned, but our furniture and drapes were delivered on Friday.  I am most excited about my reading chair.  No more falling asleep reading in bed!  I bought a new print to put above my chair, but liked it so much that I put it in my living room.  Our canvasback duck print, which has been hanging in most of our homes growing up, fits great in our room.  The colors that looked great in our 80s house matches perfectly in our current house.  I guess what goes around, comes around!

This is a strange picture....

We live in front of a field.  Large cow pasture plus my numerous flower bed (which are perfect for hiding places) = an occasional field mouse sighting.  Now, I have never been bothered by ants, bees, wasps, or spiders, but mice completely freak me out!  They have never entered our house, and we have lots of traps set out by our house.  However, I do have to admit that they are a bit cute, and when they are in my garden, I can't help but think of Beatrix Potter.  That's what gets me through!  Anyway, I looked out my window to our abandoned birds nest and found this little guy!  Our own little Mousilocks.

This weekend was filled with 4 of Matthew's soccer games.  I can't believe how obnoxious some of the parents were!  Some of the teams had bull horns, noise makers, and even drums.  Who knew that little boy soccer teams had marching bands?  Ugh....I can't imagine how much worse it will get with each passing year.  Matthew did great, and I was sad to say goodbye to the season today.

Please send me well wishes of peace this week!  With book fair, open house, a birthday party, and huge dinner party next Sunday, I am needing all the peace I can muster!

Fun weekend!

We had an action packed Halloween weekend!  Everyone came over to our house to eat and trick or treat.  It was beautiful weather, and I enjoyed hanging with the girls on our front porch.

Saturday was the Baylor Homecoming Parade.  When we walked up, three Olympic gold medalists in track (including Jeremy Wariner) , who are Baylor grads, were slowly driving by.  Matthew yelled out in his deep voice, "Darrell Williamson!  Tell Doron I said, hi!"  The whole car got a kick out of that!  Matthew is friends with his son.  

During the parade, Matthew wandered off, turned around, and couldn't find us.  He did happen to spot the Olympians, and asked them for help finding his family.  He had Darrell Williamson call Bryon's cell phone, and we eventually all got back together.  I love Matthew's confidence!

Sunday, we finally finished the apple head project that has been looming this past month.  In September, we found an apple, carved out a face, and dehydrated the apple.  Each student had to pick someone they admire to make an apple person out of.  When I heard this, I wondered which athlete Matthew would choose! ;)  Sure enough, he chose Baylor's new freshman quarterback, Robert Griffin III.  Part of the assignment was to write a paper on him in the first person, and to offer advise to the children in the class.  I was thinking Matthew would write something about following your dreams.  Here is what he wrote instead: "If there is ever a hole to one side, don't run it that way.  Pump fake it that way and run the other."  (Complete with an x's and o's drawing!)  He just continues to crack me up!

Mary Beth loves the soundtrack to the Jersey Boys.  When I recently asked her what songs she sings in chapel, she looked at me with a rather sarcastic expression and said, "Well, we sure don't sing Sherry Baby!"  The other day, I told her that I would miss her while she was at school.  She said that she wouldn't miss me.  I asked why.  She said, "Big girls don't miss!"  It should be noted that "Big Girls Don't Cry" is one of her favorites!

I am bracing myself for a few crazy weeks!   Book fair at school, finishing up our bedroom redo, Matthew's birthday party, hosting book club at my house, and Thanksgiving dinner at my house!  Things should slow down around January 2nd!

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! "