Practice Makes Perfect

Thus begins a new era of blogging in The Barclay Broadcast! My new camera, my Canon EOS Rebel T3, arrived last Friday, just in time for a big weekend. Of course that left only a little bit of time for practice, but I still got a few good ones.

My parents, brother, niece, and her mom, stepdad, and grandmother all came down to Austin and we went out to see "Wicked" together. My mom and I had never seen it and it was fun. I can't even remember the last musical I have seen, so it brought back a lot of memories and a little nostalgia in that sense. We had a nice weekend with all of them.

Now on to the pictures with my new Rebel! My old Canon Powershot died a few months ago and I really lost interest in photographing things with Jeremy's camera, so I'm hopeful to get back on the wagon.

Mimi always brings money for Noah to put in his piggy bank.

I almost caught some really cute pics of Noah snuggled up with Scott but the kid is faster than me.

My mom will love this.
Today, I got out with Noah at the park and got some good ones. Still a lot to learn though!

Gotta get my skills ready for Anguilla in March!

Come One, Come All!

The Shrine Circus came to Cedar Park and since we live in close proximity to the Cedar Park Center and scored some discount tickets through the hospital, we headed off to take Noah to see The Greatest Show on Earth for the first time. :)

This is the day before, on our way to go to the Elephant Brunch. Noah is sporting his super cute owl hat from Aunt Linda. Please ignore the boo-boos on his face throughout these pictures. He had a clumsy week. :)
They paraded out the elephants and presented them with a table full of apples and bananas. Next two pictures are courtesy of Samantha, whom we bumped into at the Brunch.

Watching the "effants" with Mommy.

They look like we were at a funeral. Solemn boys.

The ringmaster!

We attended the 11:00 show, which ran into lunch time. Packed a little lunch and problem solved!

Tigers...oh my!

Sorry, some of these are blurred. So thankful my camera is being delivered tomorrow! I don't like Jeremy's and the settings never seem to be right. Here come the elephants, probably Noah's favorite part!

A handsome boy, excited for church on Sunday.

A little circus fun for your entertainment. This was the second try after they missed the first ;)

Ringing in 2012!

For New Year's this year, we cowboyed up and headed to an early, family-friendly holiday party, hosted by a co-worker of Jeremy's. Jeremy was especially excited to use his gift cards at Allen's Boots, a famous Austin store. Also, happens to be the place where we bought some boots for Noah last summer, so the boys got all dressed up together. (You may notice Jeremy's vampire-like eyes, leftover from his Lasik procedure on the 28th.)

And here is Noah's first picture taking experience. Daddy helped him capture a fabulous shot of Mommy. What you cannot see here is that I am wearing my boots too. :)

When I thought of all the things I need to resolve to do in 2012, I came up with an insurmountable list. (You know, be a better mom, be a better wife, book my blog, become excessively physically fit, blah, blah, etc.) I decided that most simply, and definitely most needed, is focusing more on my time with God, and everything else should improve along with that. Well, I don't know about the book part....So, my not-a-resolution this year is spending time in His Word as daily as possible, which will be quite an improvement. My hope and prayer is to need it, in the same way that I need food and water. Like oxygen. And to love and crave it.

What's your 2012 "not-a-resolution?" :)

Tidings of Comfort & Joy!

This is what happens when you get so far behind...this Christmas post pretty much covers the month of December. :)

First, a cute pic of Noah and his buddies riding their bikes.

The first weekend in December, my parents came down for the weekend and had lots of fun with Noah. Especially playing in the tunnel!

We went to the Cedar Park tree lighting, where the oldest tree in town, a huge, 400-year-old, beautiful live oak gets all blinged out.

Next up was the Christmas party at my house the following weekend. Here are a couple shots of what Kelly and I baked up. Sugar cookies and Brownie-dipped Oreos.

This year, there were many gifts to be wrapped, as usual. Even Jeremy wrapped some gifts. Just mine though. And only because I said that I would like that. ;)

One of my gifts was the Twilight series in hardback. He thought this would be cute.

I added a second tree to the house this year. One for Noah's room! Here it is, though not pictured in his room. His favorites this year were a train, two airplanes, and a Thomas the Train ornament.

My tree in the living room, as mostly decorated by my mom.

Christmas morning! Oh no wait...this was December 23. We opened our gifts early, since we were bound for Paris and Fort Smith this year. Trains were definitely the big hit this year, and I feel like we probably acquired about 25 new ones.

He got to play with his new train track for a little while, then we headed to Mimi & Papa's house.

Showing off his guitar skills.

Stopping to return a few calls.

His new John Deere hat from my cousin Kent and his family.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to Mamaw and Papaw's house, to be joined by Aunt Mandi, Dominick, and Sophia, whom we hadn't seen since they moved to Illinois last summer. Noah had such fun with everyone, despite coming down with another fever and cold on Christmas Eve. I am sad that we did not take any pictures there other than a couple Jeremy snapped with his phone, over at his grandparents' house. I guess it was just a hectic few days with a sick child, not enough sleep, and a lot going on. We did manage to have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas night, which I hope to put a lot more planning into next year!

Noah loved playing piano at GG and Dubby's house.

We broke up the 7 hour drive by stopping to spend the night at my parents' house on the way there, then on the way back as well. The second trip, we were able to celebrate with Scott & Madison too.

Noah playing with his new Little People nativity set we got this year. I tried to give him one new piece per day to add to it, as a little advent activity, hopefully he'll be able to understand it better next year.

Hope all of your Christmas holidays were filled with tidings of comfort and joy from the Savior!