Often times I think to myself, I wish that everyone could see my family at home, kind of like a reality show. Everyone would get to see the super sweet and smart side of my kids, how well they get along and play together, AND how crazy my 2 year old is!!

My, Oh My! I was not looking forward to the terrible two's because they were horrible with Drew. However, I have been so lucky to not have to deal with terrible 2's with Dylan.  Instead, he just is obsessed with little wonderful adventures of his own!

Like, seriously..."the wonderful little adventures of Dylan." He has this BLUE marker that he I think he secretly hides somewhere. If you had only known what he has done with this blue marker. He has marked on the wall, colored his whole body, managed to color SOME coloring book pages, and the best night of all is when he came in and colored his boy parts with the blue marker! Nothing else on his naked body, but his boy parts! I thought about taking a picture, but decided not to. Now, I wish I had! (Obviously, it would be for my eyes only!) I HAVE TO FIND THIS MARKER!!

This week he decided to get a hold of some of Mommy's finger nail polish and paint his brother's hair. What in the world was Drew thinking letting him just paint his hair???? Well, Drew was too focused on his You Tube videos that he watches to notice that Dylan was just painting away! We smelled the finger nail polish but not soon enough. Later we realized what Dylan had really done and why the smell would not go away. The result: Drew looks like he had a major case of head lice!!! HOW AWFUL!!

We tried everything to get it out: finger nail polish remover, ice, baby oil, scrubbing, anything imagenable..NOTHING worked! I was so scared and nervous I was going to have to shave ALL of his hair off. I mean, Dylan got it in there good! All the way down to the scalp! Luckily, our friend and hair dresser met us uptown on Monday to fix it. She got most of it out and I didn't have to shave his hair completely off. PTL! If I had to shave his hair off I would have balled my eyes out!! Oh Dylan, you have such a wonderful sense of humor!! :)

On Tuesday, Drew had his Kindergarten physical appointment!! I can not believe I am saying KINDERGARTEN! This seems totally impossible!! He did so great at his appointment. He had to do an eye exam which brought tears to my eyes because he stood there covering an eye reading the letters on the door! I know, seems cheesy, but he is growing up so fast!!! He also took his shots like a champ! He sat right there with Dr. Reddy and didn't move an inch! Much better than Mommy ever does! I about pass out when they wipe me with the alcohol pad! Anywho-he did so great, I treated him some Dairy Queen and even Dr. Reddy took him by his hand and treated him to a secret stash of toys in his office. I was totally shocked by this, I have never seen Dr. Reddy do this. I am sure he does it with many kids, but it was my first time seeing it. Just another reason why I love our pediatrician!

Later on that day, we went to see our nephew play basketball for the championship. They lost by 6, but they played a great game. I, me, yes, BRISTA, even stood up and threw my hands in the air when Blake scored a 3 point basket close to the end of the game!! My husband was like, "what did you do with my wife?!?!" LOL. But hey, if it's someone I know, especially in my family, then of course I want them to win!! :)

Onto Wednesday--our good friend Kyle Smithpeters is coaching his first year at Missour State as an assistant coach to Paul Lusk. They were in town for a road game to play our alma mater, SIU. Kyle and his wife and my good friend, Carrie,  hooked us up with some Missouri State gear and we decked ourselves out and headed to the game to watch him coach!  Kind of weird wearing Missouri State in the SIU gym, but hey, gotta support our friends! :)

I do have to say the SIU Arena looks pretty great! We had a great night and it was so great to get to see him coach!

This is a pretty big week for the Barrington's! We usually sit at home and do nothing during the week. I guess I better get used to that not happening in my life with two boys who will be constantly keeping me busy when they get older playing sports!

My most favorite time of the year?!?! CHRISTMAS!! I love the holidays!! However, this year it didn't feel like Christmas. I blame the weather! It was way too warm for the holidays! 

Christmas was so great this year! I think it gets better and better each year! The holidays are so much more fun whenever you have kiddos to celebrate with! This was Drew's first year that he would sit on Santa's lap. ( Dylan-not so much!) We probably seen Santa about 4 times this year, just because he loved it so much. He told Santa each time that he wanted "little wrestlers" and "a steel cage." We also made our own list at home which included a BLACK DOG. It was a very tough decision to decide if Santa would be bringing a black dog or not. Dogs are big commitments and I am not a big fan of them, BUT we decided we would do it!

After getting some help from my Dad we found the perfect little dog for the boys! A black labrador!! The breeder agreed to wait until Christmas Eve to let us pick her up, which was so nice of her! Christmas Eve morning, Daddy left about 6am and drove to Princeton, IN to pick her up!! Thank goodness Daddy drove and got her, because if Mommy had to do it, we probably wouldn't have a dog! LOL!

Once Justin got home, we hid her at Justin's parents house for the day. We don't really do much for Christmas Eve so we hung out at the house all day and baked some cookies for Santa! (I am not a baker by any means, so of course we bought the pre-made dough that you just cut up! ) 

They had a GREAT time making cookies! However, Mommy left Daddy in charge of getting them out of the oven while I ran to check on the dog..Came home to the smell of BURNT cookies!! Sorry Santa!! :)

And someone decided to eat the reindeer's carrots too..BUSTED!

Christmas Eve night we celebrate Christmas with Justin's family. So after baking cookies, we headed out to celebrate!

Each year Santa makes an appearance and has an early gift for each kid. Drew sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with him. And Dylan..well just look at the picture and you can tell how he was feeling about the guy! 

Once we got home, the boys crashed quickly! They must of been super excited Santa was coming!!

We had to wake the boys up Christmas morning otherwise the sleepy heads would have slept until 10 am! Once they walked into the room, Drew just kind of stood there in shock maybe?!? He was super quiet about the dog. He just stared. He sat down beside her and we asked what he wanted to name her, of course he said "Sugar." Then he noticed some Power Ranger mask and was off..he didn't care about the dog anymore! Really Drew?? After all that hard work trying to hide her and all the excitement I built up for this morning and a Power Rangers mask is more interesting?!? UGH!! Oh well, Dylan took to her real well! Dylan sat beside her the whole time we opened presents! :)

Of course, there were many other gifts besides the new puppy!! Drew, still a big WWE wrestling fan, LOVED all of his new wrestling gifts!

Overall, Christmas was fantastic!! They boys LOVED all their presents!! Dylan followed Sugar around all day. He loved to show her his new gifts including this Power Rangers mask...

Here are a few more pictures of the boys with Sugar...

For Halloween last year I was so wanting the boys to be the Mario Brothers, but Drew was determined to be Buzz and Woody...so, how could I upset him and make him be something else??? BUT this year came around and to my suprise Drew wanted to be Mario and Luigi! Boy did this make me one happy Mommy!

Since Drew's first Halloween we have made it a tradition to go downtown to walk in the Pumpkin Path Parade. I am an old school girl that likes to stick with the same tradition each year! After the parade we walk back through and trick or treat at each of the different stores located downtown. Much safer than going to strangers doors. We never had this kind of thing growing up where I am from, so it is nice to have something like this for my kids to look forward to each year!

This year Drew's Pre-K Halloween Party fell on the same day as Trick or Treat, so this lucky guy got to be Mario all day!! 

I think I definitely had the cutest Mario and Luigi!!!

We joined our friends and their kids downtown to walk in the parade with us! Lots of fun!

Here is Gavin as a Cow!! This is his first year in Carterville!!

This was also Keegan (army man) and Hudson's (shark) first year at the Carterville Halloween Parade!

And here is Drew and his friend Drake! They are such great buddies!

What a great time celebrating Halloween this year!! Dylan was so excited to open his candy when we got home! ( Imagine that! )