Closing the "Chronicles"

We began this blog to keep record of our journey through parenthood, and share family events with loved ones.

It has been a blessing to us in so many ways - we've been able to rally for support, share fun moments, and make wonderful friends with readers who happened upon us. However, it's time now for us to move on to something a bit different.

Lately, I (Anjanette) have felt increasingly restricted by what I feel should post here. I know that family and friends value our blog for the family updates, and I also know that many friends value our knowledge and experience as parents, and look to us for advice as they begin their own journeys.

I have learned much about how much influence blogging can have through my food blog, and I desire to share more with you than a strictly personal blog will let me. After our move, I set out to re-evaluate my goals for food-blogging and gradually realized that I've lost some motivation to write because of the topics I've limited myself to. I want to write about family and food, but I also want to write about education, faith, parenting, handcrafts, politics, philanthropy, and more.

So, after over 3 years of blogging here - we're moving shop. All of the content posted here has been imported to a new blog and combined with the content from my food and craft blogs. I will continue posting all kinds of wonderful family moments at our new online home -

Raising the Barrs

The difference will be that there will be a lot of content that isn't family related as well. To make it easy on you family and friends who only want to read family updates and see photos of our cuties, we've posted a button on the right side of the new page labeled "Family." If you click on that button, it will take you to a list of posts that are strictly about us. Feel free to read through everything though, I hope to post things that everyone will find interesting!

Also, because it's sometimes not wise to post overly personal details on the internet and because I know many of you still love reading those overly-personal things (that I am obviously completely willing to share! lol!), I'll be sending out monthly or bi-monthly family updates via email to those who want them. If you are a family member or friend who we regularly correspond with via email, you'll be on our list already and will receive your first update around Christmas. If you'd like to receive them but don't know if we have your email, please leave us a comment here!

I hope you will follow us over to our new blog. Thank you so much for the years of support you've given us on this one!

Still Need a Christmas Card Photo?

If you could use a nice family photo for Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, etc. and you live in the Kansas City area, you won't want to miss this deal! Leslie is an excellent photographer and a beautiful friend. She took our Christmas photo this year - did you see the sneak peek? She is also the friend who took our place (with her hubby and sweet little Greyson) at Hillcrest. Please consider supporting her and taking advantage of this wonderful offer:

Fall Family Portrait Mini-Sessions

$59 includes

20 minute session, post-processing, and a high-res CD

Private, full 1-2 hour sessions are available upon request.

Leslie encourages coordinated outfits and family pets for this year’s Fall Mini-Sessions in the Park
Portraits are GREAT holiday gifts and PERFECT for your Christmas card! Post-processing will be
completed within a week of your session.

Contact her today to schedule your family’s portrait session!

Leslie Stivers, LD Photography,
816.830.0284
Leslie@ldpics.com
http://www.ldpics.com

Great Groupon Deal

Most of you have probably heard of Groupon or other deal-of-the-day sites, or at least seen all of the promotional advertisements around the web. We've been using Groupon since April and have gotten some spectacular deals! So far we've redeemed groupons for half of at a salon, a big discount on a membership to thelocal botanical garden, cheap oil changes, 1/2 off at Gap (new jeans - yay!!), donuts for my husband's employees, and a great price on a box of organic produce from Fresh Connect.

Every day Groupon offers a new deal at 50-90% off the regular price. They can offer these deals because large numbers of purchases are made by the "group" of groupon members. The companies offering the deals get massive exposure and a great return on other products/services purchased.

I can't recommend Groupon enough and I'm excited to let you know about today's deal. Usually Groupons are very local. I love that and try to support small, local business whenever possible. Still, it's awesome when there is a groupon for a larger company, like the one I redeemed for Gap, because you know it will be a great deal and that you'll be able to find something you want/need.


Today's Groupon is $25 for $50 worth of merchandise from American Apparel.

If you aren't yet a member of Groupon, please consider using my affiliate link to sign up. I will receive a $10 credit for each new member. If you are already a member but are learning about today's deal through this blog, I'd love for you to purchase it by clicking through either of the Groupon graphics above. I will earn a commission that way, too. Thanks so much!

Our 2010 Christmas cards

Christmas Letter Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Here are the cards that we chose for free from Shutterfly! We're very pleased with them and can't wait to send them out.
We chose the flat card for the friends and family that we know like to tape cards to their refrigerator or mantle. Our photos and message are all right on the front!

The top photo was taken by Leslie of ldpics.com - stay tuned for a special promotional post about her services for those of you in the KC are!

Don't forget to scroll down a bit to my previous post about Shutterfly cards to learn how to get some free for yourself!

Big Boy

We just weighed and measured our little man and no surprise -he's HUGE!

At 33 months he's:

39 inches tall (95th percentile) and 41 lbs (WAY stinkin' off the charts)!

I know I'd love a teeny tiny little one just as much, but I have to admit that it's fun/hilarious to keep up with just how BIG our kids are!!!

Our New Family Member

We're continuing the trend of adding at least one family member a year!

2006 - married
2007 - pregnant with Aidan
2008 - Aidan is born
2009 - Bob moves in & pregnant w/Cora
2010  - Cora is born and....

meet Johann Sebastian Bark, or as we like to call him...

Sebastian

We are so grateful for a loving and well trained companion. Our friends Nathan and Katie had to find a new home for Sebastian to comply with their housing regulations. They were very sad and I'm sure Sebastian misses them dearly.  We've had him for about a month now and he's definitely part of the family.
  

So our new family member is our lovely new puppy. 

Did you think I was going to announce a pregnancy or something? lol! ME?!

What was I thinking?

The dishes need washed (yuck!)...

The laundry needs folded...

Beds need to be made...

rooms need to be finished and organized...

What was I thinking when I signed up for this wife/mom/homemaker gig?!?!

Oh, right...

 

:D