Barry's Christmas Letter 2012

Dear family and friends, 

       Apparently I did so well writing the letter last year, my parents have asked me to write it again. The only difference is now I have been born and now I am not so sure what I have gotten myself into. This family is NUTS! Don’t believe me, let me tell you a little about their year….


       Jack: The dude is 7 but he still runs about 6 miles a day. Usually in circles inside the house throwing and catching a football by himself. He has actually injured himself multiple times doing this. I wonder if he knows we live on 2 acres and he can do this outside? But when he is not running, he is loving school and loving to read. He has 3 Harry Potter books down and 4 left to go. About 400 more pages and he has officially read more pages in his short life than my own Daddy has! Jack loves sports and collecting sports cards. He goes with Daddy almost weekly to a local shop and always comes back with Hawkeye, Bears, or Royals cards. Amazing he loves sports with as bad as those teams are. Now he is starting basketball for the first time, so I suppose it is time to pick a favorite team there too! Best part about Jack? He is so loving and so generous. Thanks bro! 



      Abby: Where to begin. This chick is crazy. But crazy cute as her parents say! She sings non-stop and all of it is her own music. No Taylor Swift yet, but then again, she has not broken up with enough boys to write that type of music. She loves school and also loves to read. As a Kindergartener, she reads more than I ever imagined she would. She works in her room every night past bedtime drawing and reading, so I think she might be a self-taught learner. She is definitely independent. She played Bam Bam Softball this summer. In fact, Mommy sat through her game while in labor with me. Made my Daddy and his parents nervous, but Mommy breathed and cheered through the whole game. Abby loves me and loves to hold me and I love that!



      Quinn: He is 2 now and I have been told 2 means cranky. And what I have learned about Quinn is that he is high emotion. He kisses me 74 times a day (75 kisses equals a time out) so he is obviously very loving. But then at other times he gets so mad at his siblings and can’t really control his anger. He seems to be the only one brave enough to talk back to my parents. Kind of funny because Mommy gets a really low voice and Daddy starts huffing and puffing. I think Quinn does this to be funny because he is easily the funniest of the kids. Mommy and Daddy say the 3rd child is always the funniest and most emotional. I wonder if they are the 3rd born in their families? Quinn loves daycare now that Mommy is back to work and Quinn also loves animals. Dragons are his favorite, not dinosaurs, but dragons! He also loves our outdoor cat Blizzard. Not all of her, just her head. Blizzard doesn’t seem to mind though. That cat cries more than me! 



     Almost forgot, me! Sullivan Timothy Barry is my given name, but those in the know call me Sully. I even got a large Sully doll from my cousin. Quinn loves it most, but I think it may be my favorite gift ever. I was born on June 21st, the first day of summer. And what a hot/dry summer it was. Sorry if I brought this weather to all of you. My parents loved me from the first moment. Daddy seems to have waivered some on that love since I have cried more than my siblings, but my smile melts him and he loves me even more. I bet I am his favorite! Mommy took 12 weeks off of work. She works as a Physician Assistant at Mercy Clinics in Pleasant Hill. Her patients missed her and she had a full schedule the first day back and has been busy since. With 4 kids, she and Daddy are always busy washing dishes and doing laundry. After just 5 months of me, they are now shopping for a new dishwasher and washer/dryer. Ooops! Sorry guys! Mommy loves her job and she is amazing at helping people. She says she is done having kids. I don’t know if that means I am really, really perfect or a really big handful. Daddy seems to say both. Daddy stays busy, as always, being a Middle School counselor at Carlisle. He is in his 12th year, 5th as a counselor. Boy does he love his job. He got out of coaching this year to spend more time with our growing family. Good time to get out as the girls team he helped coach went 12-0 last year! He misses working with kids during the sports season, but loves working with them in the classes he teaches and in his counseling office. He says he dreads the day we all become middle schoolers though. He mentions something about hormones and then his face looks like it will explode, so I just fall back to sleep. They are pretty good parents though. Lots of laughing and lots of commotion. These 2 are going to be fun to test!




       I would love to tell you about vacations we have been on, crazy outings we have done, and the many activities we have planned, but bottom line is that this family has 4 kids age 7 and under and I am still really a newborn. Activities for us are Kids night at Applebees where Dad hides from the clown and Quinn attacks his legs, trips to the ballpark where Reagan works and Daddy does a kid count every 5 minutes, and long drives to Costco where we all act like we are shopping when in reality we are just there to feed our family. And somehow Mommy still spends $100 on diapers and milk. So we may look like the most exciting people when you see all of our arms and legs going everywhere, but we are pretty simple people. We know we have been blessed and we know the real reason we have been blessed. And that is what Christmas is all about. Celebrating the amazing blessings we are given and celebrating the reason we got them….Jesus Christ and his amazing birth. Four children born in four different months, but we still know the biggest birthday of the year is on December 25th. Hopefully we can all remember that. Huh, I just came up with my first profound quote of my short life: how about this season we “Think of the Nativity and not the negativity!” Merry Christmas to all of you and have a blessed 2013! Merry Christmas and God Bless this Holiday season! 




Sully (Ben, Reagan, Jackson, Abby, Quinn). Plus Bo, Jangles, Blizzard, Avus, and the fish and the 53 deer that visit daily) 
10980 Cleveland Trail, Norwalk, IA 50211
515-480-3939
515-306-1415