Slow, Slow January.

As you can tell from the title of this post, I have kind of felt like January has slowly creeped by. It's winter. It's gloomy and cold. It gets dark early, and we don't have as much going on as when the weather is nice. We've spent most of our hours inside. In many ways, it's a good thing. We've had more time to enjoy the present. More time to snuggle, play games, read, and really get to be together. I'm starting to get ready for winter to be over, but it has been nice to enjoy a slower pace for a little while. Along with our slower pace comes fewer pictures. Here's all I have for the past month!

The kids finished their first ice skating session this fall.

Both of them moved up, and they just started their second session last week.

The will be having lessons until April, and then I think we will take some time off.

We did have one snowfall. I think we had about 3 inches of some nice sticky, snowman-building snow. It melted the next day! :)

It's upside down, but here is some of Kylie's artwork. 

It is so fun to witness her learn so many new things so quickly. 

Their brains truly are little sponges.

It's January, and it's always gray here, but we have had a few days in the 50s and 60s.

We were even able to enjoy the park a couple of times.

Brooksie had another haircut.

He sits so still and is such a good boy during his haircuts.

We had new built-ins and benches put in around our fireplace. 

We haven't done much decorating yet, but I am loving them and all of the new storage!

On another warm-ish day, we were able to get the bikes and scooters out.

Another school project. This is what Kylie wrote about cardinals. I love how she writes words out like they sound.

We went to story time/craft time at the library.

Kylie had a random day off school, while Brooks still had preschool.

She and I had a mommy-daughter date. 

We drank hot chocolate, shopped, ate lunch, and wore stick on earrings! :)

And for my birthday, this girl spent several days making me gifts.

She couldn't wait for me to open my gifts.

They were all adorable, little Kylie creations.

She also threw me a birthday party complete with games, a puppet show, and a musical number! 

It was a good month! We're excited to see what February brings!

Christmas 2016!

Merry Christmas from the Barlow Family!

We had a wonderful Christmas season. We continued some of our little family's traditions. We were also able to travel back to Minnesota and Wisconsin for a week to visit both the King and Barlow families. Christmas always goes too fast, but here is a look back at some of the fun and festive things we did.

For the past three years, we have gone to the Alum Creek light festival during Thanksgiving weekend. They have hundreds of lights displayed throughout the campground. The kids love it, and it's a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

We also decorated our Christmas tree together.

This year, Sweet Pea, our elf, brought the kids matching PJs to wear.

Kylie wrote multiple letters to Sweet Pea and Santa.

We also continued our tradition of going to the Columbus Zoo Lights.

We try to choose a warm-ish day since we have to walk around outdoors.

This year, it was around 50 degrees!

We traveled back to Minnesota for a long weekend at the beginning of December.

While there, we were able to help Grandma Susan decorate her tree as well.

There was also a Winter Festival in Stewartville while we were there.

The kids met Santa, and watched a Christmas lights parade.

With our cousins at the parade.

L to R: Kylie, Lydia, Brooks, Emmit

Back in Columbus, the kids were able to attend Christmas in the Park, which is an event put on by the local civic association. There are only 700 or so spots over a weeks time that kids can be signed up for, but it is totally worth the competition for a spot. The kids got to make crafts, drink hot cocoa, take a horse and carriage ride, and meet the real Santa! :) The best part is that Santa knows everything about the kids from their friends names, to their family's Christmas traditions, to what gifts they would like from Santa.

Brooks concentrating on a craft.

Meeting Santa.

Horse and carriage ride.

The whole fam with Santa.

We also took a train ride one weekend to the "Polar North."

This was kind of a bust. I was under the impression that there would be nice scenery and a normal Santa. Unfortunately, most of the scenery was old junk yards and the backside of some warehouses and Santa was the worst Santa I had ever seen! Even the youngest kids on the train knew he was an imposter!

Kylie with "Bad Santa."

We overheard several parents explaining to their kids that he was one of the real Santa's helpers.

Brooks had his Christmas program at school.

It was very cute, and Kylie was able to watch!

We made gingerbread houses.

Kylie had a holiday party at school that I was able to attend.

There were some cute games and crafts.

The local grocery store had reindeer on display one evening.

Then we flew to Minnesota to spend the first half of our week with the King family. We arrived to several inches of snow on the ground, and it snowed several more inches one of the first days. The kids were more than excited to help Grandpa JJ shovel.

I'm disappointed that I didn't take more pictures in Minnesota. But as a recap, the kids went to a movie with Grandma Susan, we saw a few old friends, and had two wonderful Christmas celebrations, one with my immediate family and one with Grandma King and my aunts, uncles and cousins. It was very fun and memorable.

On Christmas morning, we loaded up the car and traveled up to Hudson for the remainder of our week.

We have made a tradition of having some sort of competition between the brothers and their wives. This year we made "gingerbread" houses out of rice krispie treats. The top one is Tony and Ingrid's masterpiece, entitled "trailer home." The bottom left one is Greg and Kaaren's creation called "the yurt." And the one on the bottom right belongs to Jon and me. It's a farm! And finally, Jon and I won!

The kids (and Jon) loved playing in the snow. The sledded several times, and built snowmen and snow houses.

L to R: Espen, Brooks, Kylie, and Bergen.

We went to the Science Museum.

And then walked to Cosetta's, which is a favorite pizza restaurant in St. Paul near the Science Museum.

L to R: Elias, Grandma Kriss, Kylie, Grandpa Doug, and Espen.

Enjoying our pizza!

The kids played so well together.

It is so fun to watch their little friendships grow each time we visit.

Brooks and Espen were best buds this time.

Finally, we were able to enjoy an adult-only dinner out at the Lake Elmo Inn, which has become an annual tradition in the last few years since we've had a herd of little kids!

It was a very Merry Christmas indeed!