This was one of the best Christmases we have had because we were all together again after Michael's mission. The boys were so excited to see the oranges in the toes of their stockings left by Santa. We opened our gifts on the morning of Christmas Eve so we could spend all of Christmas day with our extended family that we love so much!
It was fun having Michael home with us again to celebrate Christmas. Michael's favorite gift: a lever action 22.
Being environmentally conscious, Michael and Jaron found new uses for the bows on the presents. Jaron's favorite gift: an ipod touch.
Devin was excited to get an airsoft gun from Santa. His favorite gift, however, was a notebook computer.
After opening our gifts, we headed to Neola to spend Christmas with our family there.
The second annual Christmas talent show. Nikki and Stephen shared their story telling talents.
Kenny's talent was beating everyone at twister, only he didn't.
Grandma Jean read a poem about trees.
Karl shared a story about the true meaning of the symbols of Christmas.
The Barneys and G-ma did a rap from Flight of the Conchords. "They call me the hip-hop-appotomus, my lyrics are bottomless...."
David read the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures, then we each wrote down a gift that we would like to give to Jesus this next year. We will keep them until next Christmas, and read them to see if we were able to accomplish them.
Then it was time for a new family tradition: Deaf and Blind Karaoke! You put on a blindfold and soundproof earphones and rock out while everybody else watches and laughs their heads off. It was so much fun! Michael sang "You're Beautiful".
Me doing my awesome rendition of "Dancing Queen." Why David chose that song for me I still can't imagine...seriously!
Jaron gave a lovely rendition of a song by Jessica Simpson. All in all we had a wonderful holiday, and we hope that you and your families did as well. And we look forward to what the new year will bring!

A Season Of Joy

Christmas is such a special time of year.....

We're all tongue-tied and speechless,

But full of holiday cheer!


All of us in the Barney Fam just want to say.....

We hope your Christmas is special in every way!

In Every Thing, Give Thanks

We spent Thanksgiving day at my sister's home in Neola. This is Devin and Jaron looking thoughtful.

I'm not sure what they were doing here, just being wierd I guess.

Grandma made her wonderful mashed potatoes and gravy.

I made two apple pies. Yep, that's right, I made pie.

We all wrote on a slip of paper the things that we were thankful for, and then Jessica read them and we tried to guess who wrote what. It was a lot of fun!

Mom's famous English Trifle. Soooooo good!!

Jaron, Devin and Danny got to sit at the kid's table cuz they're the youngest.

I decided to play around with my camera a bit, so I had the boys pose for me.

I love my mama!

The boys thought grandma needed a totem pole in her front yard.

We went to see where Nikki and Scuba are going to live after they get married, and it is a really cute little cabin in the woods. While we were there we found this strange tree house thing, and Jaron and Devin couldn't resist climbing up in it.

My mom and my three boys -- some of my most favorite people on the planet! We had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend full of laughter and yummy food and the joy of being together as a family. Now that two of my children are away at school, I appreciate so much the times we get to spend together. They are my greatest joy and I am so grateful that I got to be their mom! And I am so thankful for my mom, who is also my best friend. She is a great example to me of tireless service and unconditional love. She taught me what it really means to be a mother. I don't have any pictures in here of my hubby, but I am thankful for him too! I would be utterly lost and living a sad existence without him. I have been blessed!!

A Night of Excellence

Our ward's YW Night of Excellence was last week, and we had some big plans for the night. Then I got called to be in the Stake Young Women's presidency, and had to leave my girls! I was so sad to leave them, but I know I will still get to see them now and then. The great part was, I got to go to the Night of Excellence anyway, only as a stake leader, so I was so excited. The theme was "Come to the Temple", and the girls were able to donate their left over funds from camp to help some families in Madagascar take their families to the temple. I was so proud of all of them!

This is a display of the girl's favorite temples. They wrote letters to the families they are helping, sharing their testimonies of the temple, and they told about a goal they had worked on that will help them get to the temple.

My cute girls: Jordan, Jaylen, and Brittni .

More cute girls: McKenzie, Madison and Ashlie.

Still more cute girls: Courtney, Jamie and Alyssa.

One more cute girl: Katie, and a cute boy who somehow showed up, my Dev. Whenever cute girls are around, he is there too! Go figure!

My wonderful counselors: Heidi and Lisa. I will miss working with them so much! It was a special evening, and I am so thankful to have gotten the chance to know all of these amazing young women and women! You guys are the best!

That's My Boy Playing the Cello!!

Devin had his first Jr. High Orchestra concert last Wednesday night. I was amazed at how good these kids were! I already knew Devin was an awesome cellist, but I had no idea how many kids his age were in the orchestra! I can't think of anyone I knew at that age who played an orchestra instrument. I am so proud of his accomplishments, and I never have to tell him to practice, he loves playing the cello so much! Watch out Yo Yo Ma, here comes Devin Rey Barney!

My Path to Wellness

In case anyone is interested, I have started a new blog about my journey to wellness. It is just about some of the things I have been doing to live a healthier lifestyle, and hopefully it will be helpful to someone else. Feel free to share any experiences you have had as well, we are all on the journey together. I believe we are sent here to help each other learn and grow, and I still have much to learn. However, I feel like I have learned a lot, and I want to share what I have learned in the hopes it may help someone else. Click on the link on my bloglist, or go to http://www.pathtowellness-linda.blogspot.com/.

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

One of our favorite parts of the Fall season is carving pumpkins as a family. This year we decided to have a musical theme. I did a music note, Devin did a bass cleff and David did a scary singer. We had a great time making our musical jack-o-lanterns!

I Love to Blurb!

I found out about a website called blurb.com where you can make hard copies of your blog. My friend Codi actually talked about it on her blog, which is where I first heard of it. Well, I finally got around to making my first one, and I LOVE it! (Thanks Codi!)

It was actually pretty easy to do, once I figured out how to navigate the site. There is a video tutorial which helped me a lot.

You can be as fancy or generic as you want to be. I just used the autofill and then went back and rearranged the pages how I wanted them later. It was really pretty simple! This is my new favorite way to scrapbook -- so much less time consuming and not as messy! It took me a few hours to make the book online, and about a week for them to ship it to me. How cool is that?!