More Pictures from Christmas Day

Destinee...growing into a beautiful young lady!
Me and Dest

Tiff, Bobby and I

Tiffany, Me and Kristen

"THE GIRLS"

(Tiffany,Destinee,Me,Cyrenity & Kristen)

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Lots of Love and Kisses from the Barrera's!

We pray you were each BLESSED with a very MERRY CHRISTmas!

Great Language Skills????

So we are always encouraging Gabriel to use words and make sentences...but this morning...HE CRACKED ME UP!

Here is how the conversation went;

Me: "Gabriel get back in your bed"

Gabriel: " BLAH BLAH...I DON'T HEAR YOU!"

Me: "What?"

Gabriel: "BLAH...BLAH...I DON'T HEAR YOU!"

Me: "Great Sentence Gabriel...now HEAR this...GOOO.... BAAAACK ....TOOO... BED!"

(Mental note; Ask Ms. Carol..who uses this phrase? Where does he come up with this)

John Jr. & Spencer's Christmas Band Concert

Toano Middle School's 6th Grade Band (Spencer is in this group)

Sorry the pictures are so bad...we sat far away and I need a new camera!
Toano Middle School's 7th Grade band ( Junior is apart of this)

Here are our little Rock Stars!

They did a great job last night at their Christmas Concert!

Gabriel really enjoyed it...he would wave his hand in the air..just like the band director
who was giving direction to the band members! Then they were walking up and Gabe yells...

"Spence YOU ROCK!"

I just love these kids!

Nathaniel

Just a really cute picture!

(It's funny though..this was last night at the boy's Christmas Concert. Nathaniel looked over at me after we were there only 10 minutes and says "How long with this thing be?" I said "not too long" and then he replied " Less then an hour?" and I said "I think so why?" and Nathaniel says " Cause I am watching an item on ebay and it ends in 1 hour!" Hahahahahha)

Christmas Towne Date Night

John surprised me and took me on a date night to Busch Gardens Friday night for my birthday. He knew how much I would love all the Christmas lights and scenery. It was very pretty (sorry the pictures don't show just how pretty it was) It was super cold that night 25 degrees but it just made it that much more Christmasy...as we walked along in the Wintery Wonderland sipping our hot cocoa!

Thanks Honey!

Christmas Towne - Busch Gardens

Hey! What's Alfie doing in VIRGINIA??

OH...how I was so surprised to run into Alfie at Christmas Towne in Virginia!!!

(Don't worry Mom, I checked to make sure the things in his bags were all acceptable things to give to his love on Christmas Morning!)

Hahahahhahahahhahahahhaahhahaha!!!!

Surprise Family Birthday Dinner

Sunday night I came home from church meeting to a house all rockin' with lots of fun! SURPRISE!!! The kids were so excited with all the decorations and the gifts they each picked out for me. It was lots of fun and we had taco salad and ice cream pie...YUMMY!!! Thanks guys love you lots!

Pictures I love

Family Fun Night for Autism Awareness

Last night we had lots of fun raising money and awareness for Autism! (Nathaniel doesn't appear to be having too much fun...but trust me he loves these fun nights!) Tiffany got this really cool character drawer and his girlfriend (who does amazing face painting!) to come to the restaurant and do the faces and pictures of those who came in to eat dinner! It was pouring rain so not lots of business this event...but my family and the restaurant staff...HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!!

A special THANK YOU to Friendly's Restaurant for several very successful fundraising family fun nights!

Thank you to Troy and Angel for sharing your amazing talents with us and Helping Raise Awareness for Autism! We look forward to doing this again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We pray that you were each Blessed with a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you had lots to be Thankful for! We sure did have alot to say THANK YOU JESUS about!

Destinee and Cyrenity

Logan and Cyrenity
Kristen and Zion...

How come NO FAMILY picture of the Bilderbacks???

Look below!!

Hahahahahahha.... Bobby and Zayden!

I suppose what's left to do after a good meal!!

SOO CUTE!!!

These are the super cute cupcakes that Destinee and Tiffany and I made for the kids at church the night before Thanksgiving! We had so much fun and laughed so hard...the three of us are no MARTHA STEWART...but I think we did an awesome job! You can't see the fruit roll ups that we cut and attached to the back of the cupcake to make feathers!

(Oh Tiff...just wait to you see what I found to make for Christmas snack! lol)

True Spirit of Christmas!

(Here is Gabe, Sunday morning too excited to take his present to church)

Here are some pictures of the kids putting together their shoebox gifts to send out to children who will have nothing for Christmas otherwise. It is always soo much fun! We have so much fun going to the store and watching the kids pick out things for another child. We have them make a shoebox for a child who is their gender and age. The only requirement that we have is that they need to include toothbrush,toothpaste,body soap and a wash clothe. The rest is whatever they fill would bless the kids and what would fit in the box! Then we have them fill the box and I wrap them all up and we rubber band them for delivery! This year we had them write a personal letter to the child who would be receiving the shoebox gift wishing them a Merry Christmas and sharing with them that they are loved. MAN!!!!! I cried my eyes out as I read over their letters! They were the sweetest things ever, and each one wrote in their letter that Jesus loved them soo much and was sending these boxes to them. (They included their names and addresses and now we wait and pray to get a letter back in the mail and the beginning of an awesome friendship that God predetermined)

ISN'T THIS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT!

God sent His Son...His most precious gift! To come into this world to give the gift of HOPE, SALVATION, UNFAILING LOVE, ETERNITY to the LOST,BROKEN,EMPTY,DYING!

What a GIFT!!! How this holiday has gotten so far away from that!

This is Destinee putting together her box...she has loved this bear for weeks...every time we go into the dollar tree she wants one for herself! So her she is trying to make it fit along with the journal, pens, brush, hair accessories, candy,lip glosses, and a bunch of other girly things teenagers love! OH DON"T FORGET THE THINGS THEY NEED..like toothpaste, toothbrush, soap!!! hahahaha..she managed to get it all shoved in their..it took us 4 rubber bands to get the lid to close and stay on but she got that bear in :)

(Sorry Dest. for the picture but it was a sweet story I couldn't pass up sharing! God has given you an amazing heart! Oh...good time to say that we were making these boxes at midnight the night before they were due! You know me...MS. LAST MINUTE!!!)
Here are Junior and Spencer's boxes....stuffed and wrapped with love!!! They wrote the sweetest letters... and shared the love of Jesus! God is doing an amazing work in both of them! I know that when the boys who receive these boxes open them up, they will be more blessed by the love in those letters then the candy, toys, puzzles,etc. that they filled it with!
Great Job Guys....Continue to SHARE THE LOVE OF JESUS...EVERYWHERE you go and in EVERYTHING you do!
I helped Gabriel with his box...I filled it with everything toy story and cars...Gabriel's 2 favorite things right now...I found toy story socks and toys and puzzles and a cars harmonica, and lollipops! I wrote a note for him that simply said that my dad and mom are writing this for me and if I could write it myself I would say " I Love you and Merry Christmas...I hope you enjoy these things as much as I do. Jesus loves you!"

Nathaniel was the cutest to watch in the store! He wanted to find the most perfect things!! Trouble was that his box was tooo small for all that he wanted to buy. We were only in the store barely 2 minutes and he came around the corner with arms full! It was sweet because he wanted to make sure not only did they have lots of fun things to play with but they had important things that would help them look clean and be able to do good at school. He also wrote a letter that for an 8 year old would make a grown man cry! I think we seriously under estimate what are kids know and are capable of and especially when it comes to their faith! Nathaniel is the kids who does not BELIEVE in gift bags! (seriously...he is so sad when he gets a gift in a bag...half the thought and heart to him is in the way you prepared it for him..lol) So man he was so excited when I whipped out the wrapping paper and bows....I had to stop him at the 2nd bow!! hahaha
I just love these kids to death! Thank YOU JESUS for sharing them with me!

As I sit and reflect on this memory...it brings me to tears! These are the moments God allows us to have to train up our children in the ways of the Lord. These are the things that matter more then how cute they are (all though they are pretty stinken cute!) or how smart they are, what their grade point average is, what they are great at, etc. How they love others, and put others first and remember that God loves way more then we can yet He should be the example we strive to be! Those are the things that are going to allow our kids to grow up and effect this Nation and do something worth wild with their lives!

Fall is Here :)

It is so amazing to see the trees being transformed into these amazing bright oranges and pinks and reds! They make for beautiful drives :) Saturday we took the kids and headed out to Waller Mill Park for a walk and so enjoyed our time together. Seems like it has been awhile since we have had free time or everyone healthy enough to enjoy it! Thank you Jesus for some quality family time!

Gabriel's fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch

Today I was able to join Gabriel's class and head out to the pumpkin patch. It was such a beautiful day for this! The kids all were excited to get pumpkins. I think Gabriel must have learned from last weekends experience that maybe smaller isn't always bad! Check out the pumpkin he picked this time... :)

Here is Gabriel looking for the perfect pumpkin. Behind him is Ms. Carol in brown jacket (we love her) and a little boy from his class and Grace in the red jacket (she is in his class too) and then Ms. Jen his speech therapist in the pink and blue.

Picking Pumpkins in Surry

Thanks Desiree for inviting us to the pumpkin patch...we had so much fun! I never saw so many different kinds of pumpkins! The kids really enjoyed it! We have sooo many pumpkins in our porch though!!! hahahaha...Gabe was too funny...he wanted this one pumpkin that was a bit heavy for him. So he would say "this is heavy" and one of us would say "do you want me to carry it for you?" and he would say "No..I'm fine!" Hahahahaha...too funny!