Fun visit with the Wests in Oxford

We were walking through the airport in Atlanta when Chris said, "I think that's the Wests." Sure enough, we were all on the same plane to London. After a day or so to recover from jet lag, they met us in Oxford. We had a wonderful afternoon! First we ate a traditional Sunday roast in the famous pub, The Turf Tavern. Luke enjoyed drinking Coke with Trey.

It's well known that Connie's side of the family is easy-going and lots of fun. So true. She and Susie are cousins which meant Luke was thrilled to learn he had more cousins.
It's not easy walking all over Oxford. Thank God for Trey's strong back!
Elisabeth charmed both Luke and Caleb with her beautiful smile and her sweet teacherly voice.
As if Trey's piggy backs, Elisabeth's Batman and Spiderman stories, AND the Coke wasn't enough for the afternoon with the Wests to be a major highlight in Luke's life, Luke enjoyed a hot chocolate with LOTS of marshmallows. Trey and Elisabeth gave good lessons on how to properly eat the marshmallows. The rest of us enjoyed tea and scones......another British tradition.
Maurice and Susie in front of the Regents Park College entrance. It was closed and we couldn't get in, but good to make the family connection----Maurice, then Susie, and now Chris have all been students there.
We said our good-byes and they headed back to London. Luke is still talking about his "fun, big cousins."
To the Wests: Thanks so much for treating us to a wonderful afternoon! We had a great time with you!

Christmas Day

Pops taking it all in----the volume, the chaos, the volume....
Heather and Caleb
Chris, Caleb, Luke, Rachel, Liz, and Kathryn all watching Luke as Spiderman. (Luke got a DVD of a Spiderman cartoon with HIS OWN FACE as Spiderman's face!)

Post-Christmas Eve Dinner

As usual, we had a delicious meal at Sweetie's. Here Luke is enjoying the left-overs with Batman and Superman. The three of them had a very nice conversation while they ate.
Luke and Caleb had a great time playing on Reese's new slide.

Santa came to see us Christmas Eve...

Although Santa brought Luke underwear last year (which we've been teased about for a whole year!), Luke was still very excited to see him this year. He came in with presents for Luke, Caleb, and Reese.
Luke got a Batman figure. Here they are eating their cookies together.
Caleb wouldn't get near him so I got a little Santa hug.

"I saw Mama hugging Santa Claus" (isn't that how it goes?) :)
Santa brought Caleb a baseball bat and some wiffle balls. (Maybe next year some underwear!)

Bonding brothers.....

Here they are "reading" the awesome Batman book Aunt Sandy and Cousins Ashley, Megan, and Cammie sent. Thanks for this great treasure!
I walked in to find them watching Bambi and sitting like this, still in their pj's....priceless!
What is it about brothers that they have to be touching each other ALL THE TIME?! Still, it's cute!

A Day in Nashville

December 21 I got all for myself to drive up to Nashville to see Diana and Camy. It was a wonderful day----from singing sappy country music songs at the top of my lungs the whole drive up and back, to chatting with Di and Camy about life this past year, to seeing sweet little Noah (2 years old on 1/1), it was perfect. I love how good friends can just pick up where you've left off. Hopefully we can start making this a more than once-a-year tradition.
Camy and Noah...

Snack time at Sweetie's

Luke, Reese, and Caleb...

Cool microphones

Luke: "Come on, Caleb! Belt it out with your best and loudest voice!!!!"
Caleb: "Man, he is SO LOUD! I think I'll just chew on this instead."

Thanks, Twists, for these fun new toys. We (and several other family members) have had lots of fun making all kinds of strange noises into them.

Chelsea Christmas parade

Scott had a Farmer's Insurance float in the Chelsea Christmas parade. Luke had a blast riding on the float and throwing (and collecting in his own pockets) candy to those waving.
Uncle Scott, Rachel, Kathryn, Luke, Caleb, and Chris on the fire engine float.
The majority of the parade, Chris and Caleb rode in the back of the truck (pulling the float).
Then, towards the end, we traded and I got to corral Caleb in the truck. Behind me is the fire engine float after it's been detached.

Day 3 in Birmingham.....

The day by day entries will end soon, I promise.... :)

Our third day back, Aunt JoAnna invited us to tag along to a baby group she attends. Luke was the oldest kid there and thus we got prime time with Santa. When Santa showed up, Luke walked right up to him and said very matter-of-factly, "Hi, Santa. I'm Luke." Luke then followed him around until he got to sit on his lap (he was first to sit with Santa, of course).
Caleb wasn't too happy to meet Santa, while Luke could've stayed there all day. In the end, after being a bit speechless (a first for Luke) and needing some prompting from Santa and me (a first and probably last), Luke asked for a Batman figure. Then he hopped down, grabbed a cookie off the table and gave it to Santa who had said he likes cookies and low-fat milk.
The boys with Frosty.
It was so warm, we played outside a lot this trip. Here we have Luke trying to hold Caleb and Reese in place to get a picture.

Day 2 in Birmingham....

I won't continue with a day by day entry for the 3 weeks we were in "the Ham," but here is day 2 nonetheless.

We revisited an old Barnett tradition of driving out to a Christmas tree farm to chop down a tree. Here are Caleb, Reese, and Luke in front of a random tree we ended up not choosing. I'm not sure how Caleb got his legs into the position they're in, but once they stopped wiggling we weren't going to move any of them. We did laugh a great deal at his little pose.
In the end, the sweet little guy had a very high fever....you can see it starting in this picture.

This was great fun and will hopefully be a tradition for years to come. (the tree hunt, not the fever, of course!) :)
Once we chose the perfect tree, Chris cut it down (very easily, I might add) and then carried it (not so easily) back to the car.
That night, we celebrated Ray's 35th birthday at Nana and Pop's house with 4 other cousins. Amanda, Heather, Rachel, and Kathryn are great fun---they're so grown up and easy to talk with, and they are very sweet to their little cousins.
Just to reiterate the exhaustion theme that runs through this visit home..... After the birthday dinner, Caleb very happily nestled up to Aunt Liz and her little pregnant belly (baby Maralyn is due the end of March) and slept soundly. Chelsea was very jealous of this attention not being given to her.

First Day in Birmingham

Our first day back, we played with Cousin Reese. (She is exactly 2 weeks older than Caleb.) Luke and Reese played very nicely together. She is easy-going and very observant.
And Caleb and Reese played nicely side by side (most of the time-----when Caleb wasn't hitting her on the head with a toy).

I love this picture because it accurately shows what these first days back were like. Caleb was EXHAUSTED and just not himself (see him pouting into the couch), and Luke was loving being the oldest around and "in control." This trip was the hardest one yet because of sleep deprivation. Caleb, we have discovered, does not do so well with change. He had a hard time sleeping in a new place and woke everyone in the house up almost every 2 or 3 hours. He did finally get better the week before we headed back to England. (Of course!)

We're back.......

So, we just arrived back in Oxford today. It's 7:50 PM and our place is silent. We're zonked! It was a crazy 3-week Christmas adventure with lots to reflect about and about 150 pictures to share. It was so crazy, we even ended up on the same airplane with some North Carolina cousins we're meeting up with this coming Sunday. I'll be posting lots in the next few days, but will sleep for now.

By the way, we returned to find our bedroom has (FINALLY!!) been insulated and that the 250 year old mattress was taken away and replaced by a 50 year old one. We are very grateful for these improvements to our place.

More soon.....

Tents in the morning

Fun in the morning....still in pajamas.
The new and improved Luke-built tent.....so much fun!

Thanksgiving Round 2

While in America, we would only have Thanksgiving once. But here, in England, we do it twice!! Christy and Matt's party was Friday night.....but Chris' college, Regent's Park, hosted a party Saturday night. It was in 3 single guys' apartment, i.e., not exactly child friendly, but plenty to entertain ourselves with. Luke and Caleb went through EVERY cabinet behind me (and there are many more not shown in the picture). I think everyone in the room was a bit fearful of what might be behind one of those doors. However, nothing incriminating was ever found! After inspecting each cabinet, we looked through a catalog, then we ate, then we ended up outside throwing the baseball.
Abbey and Caleb.
Lots of yummy food......we truly did the American tradition of eating lots this holiday. And all the traditional stuff too----turkey, sweet potatoes, dressing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc.

Thanksgiving Round 1

Christy and Matt (featured above), from Utah, are new to "our" building and hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in the community room Friday night. It was fun to celebrate Thanksgiving with people from the US (Virginia and Utah), Canada, Australia, Brazil, and China.
Here, Matt is teaching Chris about cheap English cider.
From left to right: Sacha (Australia), Vicente (Brasil), Luke, Lindsey (Utah), and Sebastian (Ontario)
Fireman Sacha in his every day attire---he only answers to Fireman Sacha