The Barricklows: October 2016

In less than a month we will have our first semester's work done!! WOW! This school year is flying by!

This girl has become a permanent fixture on our kitchen counter when I'm cooking... which is great except we really have only enough counter space for a cookie sheet...so it takes some finagling! She loves to "help" cook.

And to make this face. HAHAHAHA!

Couple great stories about Jordan...when she's tired she climbs into her crib and just waits for you to find her to put her to bed. And then when she wakes up she immediately starts loudly counting to 20 ending with "Ready or not, here I come!!"

Her new favorite thing to say is "I busy!" but she says it all the time, crying, excited, mad....she has no idea what it means. What's wrong Jordan? hysterically crying "I busy!" She runs after me frantic for me to pick her up "I busy Mommy!!"

We went to our 7th Army 10-Miler. The morning started out (at 6:15am) rainy and very chilly, but once the sun was up it turned out to be pretty nice! It was WINDY. This race is so much fun. Of course you feel like you're about to burst with patriotism, especially watching all the Wounded Warriors and Amputees running the race. I just want to hug all of them and tell them how proud I am of them! And of course our Runner is super speedy, so it's fun watching him compete. It was really nice living here in the DC area now, we were done at the race and in our house within 30 minutes!

And then this guy turned 4. In traditional decorate-your-own-cake Barricklow style Noah did not disappoint! Well, Josh planted this idea of having a giant cookie instead of a cake about 6 weeks ago and mentioned it at least every 3 days...so wouldn't you know it..."can I have a giant cookie instead of a cake?" hahaha. It was delicious! And very sprinkly.

Cheers to the birthday boy!

Bahahahahaha

Balloon party!

I got the chance to take Jack and Renae to a choir/orchestra concert at church one evening. A combined choir (our church and one from Texas) 280 members! It was fabulous. 90 minutes of pure joy for me, and the kids enjoyed it, too! We were sitting next to an elderly couple (late 70s probably 80s) and Jack had a problem seeing during one song where the audience was standing. The gentleman picked him up and put him on the pew in between him and his wife so he could see. It was so sweet but the only thing I could think was...please don't get hurt--that kid weighs a lot!!

And this was technically not in October...the day before -- Josh and I got a chance to go to a friends Retirement ceremony. Some friends from our KC past! Jose and his family really helped me through Josh's 15 month deployment. It was impressive hearing about Jose's incredible military career, but even more incredible listening to account after account of his compassion, kindness, and character. I just kept thinking (knowing that Jose loves Jesus) that this is what it looks like to do your work as unto the Lord. Jose impacted all the people he worked around and for. It was so encouraging! Especially seeing the impact of decades of faithfulness! I left the ceremony with a very full heart- it was wonderful!