Melting Snowman

On Monday we had at least 10 inches of snow fall. Yesterday and today, rain, rain, rain. Most of the snow has now melted away. So it seemed like an appropriate time for Melting Snowman Cookies.
These are not as cute as some I saw online, but they were still fun!

Christmas PJ's

My mom sent Christmas PJ's. Thomas the train PJ's. When my boys saw them they were SO excited, we just couldn't wait till Christmas.

Albuquerque

So the boys and I went to Albuquerque for the weekend to see by brother Rob and his family. We left Friday at one and got there around 11pm. Not a bad drive either thanks to my brother Dave and his wife Emily. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it if I had to drive by myself.

Dave, Emily and Rob went to the BYU game. I think BYU won. Lisa and I and the kids went to a little aquarium and these cool gardens. I had a blast hanging out with my family for the weekend.


We left the next day after lunch. On the way home Smith kept asking where we were going. I would say "We're going home" and he'd say "No, go Logan's house" I guess he had a good time too.Thanks to Dave and Emily for letting us tag along! Couldn't have done it on my own.

Thanksgiving Apple Pie

I'm just doing a little catch up here for my own record keeping. Look at this yummy apple pie I made for Thanksgiving. Can you see the little turkey on it?

This year Nate had to work on the big Turkey Day. That was really okay with me. I was prepared for a quiet evening at home with my rowdy boys. But my next door neighbor was worried about us being alone, so we went to their place for dinner. I am really glad we did. Dinner was delicious, company was great, and I didn't have to cook the turkey. I've got great neighbors.

You can't fool me Trey

I know you're not asleep... Don't ask me how I know, I just do.

Something Fishy is going on

The other day Nate and Smith went fishing. They came home with 2 fish. We cooked them for dinner and they were very tasty. While I was trying, and failing, to get a good picture of Smith and the fish heads, Nate was cleaning the fish. The whole time I can hear Trey behind me saying "take my picture mom, take my picture"
I finally turn around and snap a photo. It wasn't until the flash went off that I realized what I had taken a picture of!
Who is watching the 4 year old? And who gave him that GIANT hunting knife to play with?! Yikes!

O Christmas Tree

This was my Tree last year. And let me just say, I really LIKED it. It was a fun project with the kids to make and decorate, I didn't have to worry of about little kids breaking ornaments, and it was a marvelous space saver, not to mention environmentally friendly. I still think it was a great idea.
However, I have gotten a lot of slack about it from certain of my friends (you know who you are). There was even some talk of organizing a sort of Sub-for-Santa so that I could have a real tree this year. Well, I just want to put everyones mind at ease. We have a tree, and this year it is in 3D.
I love it! It looks great! We only broke 3 ornaments while decorating. It smells wonderful. The house feels all cozy and Christmasy. The boys love to turn the lights on every morning.

It was especially fun to get out all the ornaments we didn't get to use last year and reminisce about what we did the year we got them.
I even made a little paper tree ornament so we can remember last years tree.

Santa - third times the charm

Our first Santa attempt was just by chance. We went to see the lights at the Riverwoods mall Friday. We were delighted to find they also had free carriage rides and a Santa. Trey wouldn't go near him, Smith gave him a high-five. They were both happy to pick out a treat from his bag though.

Second attempt was a little better, this time at the Expo Center. Smith sat on his lap, but was very nervous.
Trey only wanted to look, and hide behind Nate when he got close to Santa.

Third time was at the fire station. The department had a little party for the firefighters families and Santa showed up. We waited in line for 20 minutes. The whole time Smith was squatting at the front of the line watching all the other kids have their turn saying "It's Santa, It's Santa". He was so excited!
Trey was actually excited this time. He ran right up and jumped on his lap and giggled and talked to him. I asked him later what he told Santa. "I'm was good and Mario Cart"
And the reward for being good and sitting on Santa's lap:
A huge stocking FULL of candy. We are spoiled at Provo Fire. When we got in the car to go Trey asked if Mario Cart was at home now. I told him not yet and he said "Oh, Santa's at another kids house now?" Something like that.
\

Making a house a home.

Next week will mark 6 years in our house and I can finally call it home. Nate has always be very much against putting ANY holes in the walls. Which means the three pictures I have had hanging on the wall till now have all been hung on existing nails. Not to mention the struggle it was just to get curtains rods up which require screws, not nails!

I'm happy to say I have finally worn him down. We hung three new frames this week (only two new nails). I can tell it hurt him a little to drive the nail, but I finally feel like this house is our home. Complete with silly family photo collages on the wall.


This is not the end. I printed over 100 pictures from the last year for these frames and had to whittle it down to just 34 favorites for these frames. I don't know if Nate realizes what he is in for.

Christmas Train

I wanted to get the boys into the Christmas Spirit today. So we picked up one of those gingerbread house/train kits at the store and brought it home. I expected the boys to eat most of the candy before I could get it together and to be constantly putting their fingers in it, but y were surprisingly reserved. Trey was absolutely delighted everytime a wall went up or new set of decoration went on. He also kept Smith back, barking "don't touch it, don't touch it" or "soft, it's wiggly" when Smith would go for it. They were even willingly posed for a picture when it was done. That never happens!


When I said "Okay, it's done" Trey got excited and said "We eat it now? It's just food!" Uh, no, it's not that kind of food. I held them off for tonight so we can show it to Daddy when he comes home, but I don't think it will last long after that.

It's definitely not meant to be eaten, the candies are pretty bad and the frosting has no sugar in it, tastes like glue. For all I know it could really be glue. But Smith will eat anything :)

Pictures.

Picture Day with the cousins. Aren't they adorable. I want to thank my sis-in-law Lisa for helping me get together. I couldn't have done it without her. I think it came out great, especially considering how uncooperative Trey was for the whole thing. We snapped these just before baby Bridgers blessing.


The camera loves you boys.
Smith loved it! He is kind of a camera hog.
This is one of the very few pictures of Trey actually smiling. What a cutie.
This was more typical. Trey didn't want his picture taken, or anyone else's for that matter :) This is actually one of my favorite pics because of the personality it shows.

I over did it again.

I do this all the time. I learn how to do something new and then I get all excited and go way over board. This year I learned to can. It started with peach syrup about a month ago and kind of took off from there. In total I have done over 180 bottles this year. My first year. I would love to continue, But I have run out of bottles.
Here's what I have made so far. Apple Sauce (23) Pears (18) Peaches (63) Peach syrup(11) Apple pie filling (20) Apple/Raspberry jam (6) Tomatoes (7) Jalapeno Pepper jelly (7) Jalapeno Apple jam (6) Raspberry Jam (11) Prunes (30). Yum.

Next year I want to try some more weird jams and jellies. Did you know you can make jelly from dandelions or rose petals? Crazy!

Portland Trip

After seeing Seattle, we headed down to Portland. I am terrible at taking pictures so you will just have to take my word on some of this.

I saw my long lost best friend Kimber. I have known Kimber since the beginning of time. She says since age 3, but I can't remember that far back so it might as well be the beginning of time. I miss her. I try to get her to move back to Utah everytime I see her. It never works. We went shopping and out of hot chocolate the night we left to come home.

We also saw Nate long lost college buddy Mark, and family. Love these guys too. We don't see enough of them, but when ever we do it's great. Nate and Mark run off to get in trouble and I get to relax and chat or take a walk with Heather. Always a treat.

Best of all we got to see my brother Mike. He and Cat moved up there a year or so ago. I would try to talk him into coming home, but they seem to really like it there.
We went to the zoo.
We fed the birds at the zoo. Kind of fun, and kind of scary. These birds are pretty aggressive and would steal the cup of nectar if you didn't hold on tight.
We went to Voodoo Donuts. We got a Memphis Mafia (banana chocolate and peanut butter fritter) Double Bubble (bubble gum flavored) Bacon Maple Bar (with real bacon on top) and the Voodoo Doll. The doll had a pretzel stick though it's heart and was filled with red jelly, so it looked like it was bleeding when you ate it. Delicious. If you are ever in Portland, you should go to Voodoo Donuts.

Mike and Cat also took us to a great local hamburger spot. And by local I mean then get all of there ingredients locally. It was delicious.

Seattle Trip

In February we took a roadtrip to the Northwest. We started in Seattle with Nate's family. I am more then a little embarrassed to say it, but this was the first time I have been back since our wedding. Nate has been back a few times, but something always came up and I couldn't go. Plus, the family reunions were usually somewhere other then Seattle. We had a great time.

Here are some of the highlights:

We took the ferry from Seattle to Port Angeles to see Nate's sister. Then went to some really cool tide pools and ran around on the beach.




Going snowboarding at Steven's Pass. I know you can't tell from the picture, but we left the kids with the in-laws and spent the day snowboarding. It was my only time out this season. We had so much fun together. Nate even taught me how to rail slide and do some jumps. So it was probably my best day snowboarding, ever.
We also went to a neat little reptile museum. There were a ton of cool snakes, including a lot of very venomous ones. They only let us hold the non-dangerous boas and pythons. Trey was a little to lovey with them and we had to put them away before he squeezed them to death.

Volcanoes

I have a lot of catching up to do. I haven't really blogged much this year. I am hoping to start up again and catch up on the year. So here is the first post of many.

The boys and i made volcanoes the other day. vinegar, baking soda and food coloring. They LOVED it. I can be a fun mom sometimes.
We did this because we went to Yellowstone the week before (I'll post about that later). They thought the geysers were volcanoes, and they are related so I didn't correct them. Plus volcano was easier for them to pronounce then geyser.

A Child's Prayer

The boys like to say the prayer at mealtimes lately. It usually goes like this:

Trey
Dear Heavenly Father, mumble mumble day mumble, my birthday, eight nine ten, amen.

Smith
Heaven Father, Father, Father, Heavenly Father, Father, men.

kids and their questions

Today we passed a fire engine with it lights and sirens going. Trey asked if it was daddy. I said yes, even though it wasn't, but Nate was at work, so I figured it was close enough. Trey said something about daddy has to go fast to help people at the fire. I said yes and he was good.

Smith then started to ask questions "daddy fire man?" - yes "Daddy engine?" - yes "daddy bike?" - no "Daddy fire man?" - yes, fireman "Daddy fire man?" - yes sweetie "It's daddy engine" - yup daddies engine "Daddy fire man?" ....and so it went for the next 10 minutes.

Then Trey, clearly sick of hearing it says "Daddy's a fireman at work. okay? It's enough. Leave mom alone." Smith's questions kept coming but I love that Trey had my back.

Nate's New Baby

Nate's new baby arrived Monday morning at 11:10am. Weighting aprox. 4043 lbs and is 17 ft 3 in long. It is a '54 Buick Roadmaster. Congratulations to the proud papa.
More pics to come. (p.s. it's the one on top)

Bud Video

This is what I have for Bud's video.

Hey Family,
Let me know soon if I really messed anything up, otherwise, this is likely how it will appear on Wednesday.

Grandpa Bud

(picture July 4th 2008)

Grandpa Bud

When I was small I looked forward to visits to Grandpa's house. He was jovial and round, generous to a fault and had an endless supply of cookies and ice cream. In my young mind this is exactly how a Grandpa should be. His favorite pastime seemed to be showing off his grandchildren. We couldn't go anywhere without running into someone Grandpa knew and his standard line was “Do you know who this is? They call these Grandkids.” It wasn't hard to see that he was proud of us, and it made me proud to belong to him.

As I have thought about him today a few memories and impression keep coming back to me and I want put down a few of the things I remember and a few of the things he has taught me.

I have no memories of my Grandma Edna before she had Alzheimer's. By the time I was 12 years old any lucid sentences from her were rare. I remember sitting with her when one of these short periods of clarity came to her. She gestured to Bud across the room and said “See that nice old man, I don't know who he is, but he takes good care of me.” Her health and memory continued to declining for another 10 years before she passed. Grandpa Bud was with her through it all. He kept her moving, took her to the cabin, to the theater and out on errands. His constant attention kept her going. I recall him pointing to her often and saying “Look how pretty she is” He got little affection in return, but I never knew him to give up on her. Never have I witnessed a more perfect example of unconditional and enduring love.

Grandpa Bud was a generous man. I remember him handing out dollars (peel-a-bucks) to me and the other kids so we could walk to the Brighton store and buy candy. He often treated us to lunch at the Cowboy Grub, McDonald's or the ZCMI Center. The Cabin was always available to anyone who wanted to use it, even if Grandpa didn't know them personally. He was kind and affectionate to everyone we met.

Christmas was a special treat at Grandpa's house. I was fascinated by all the automated toys that covered the pool table during this time of year. I remember running around upstairs, full of anticipation, waiting for the moment the double doors would open to the basement and we could all run in. We would race to our stockings to see what fun treats and toys Bud had for us that year. Bud would eventually have 20 grandchildren. Luckily he had the biggest fireplace I have ever seen, so almost all of the stockings could hang there.

It's no wonder the a man as generous as him would be drawn to service organizations. He had a great love for the Brighton Girls Camp and for Boy Scouts. Over the years I saw him donate a great deal of time, money, and effort to these organizations. I remember one night I went with him to the weekly devotional at the Girls camp when they called on him to share his thoughts. I can't now recall the specifics of what he said, but I remember being very moved by this testimony that night.

I now can't think of my Grandpa's life without being reminded of his love for the gospel. His faith seemed to influence everything he did. I remember him often finding opportunities to share a part of his testimony with us or to point out a gospel parallel in some seemingly ordinary thing.

Last, but not least, was his sense of humor. Every time I saw Bud he was ready with a joke or three. Though in later years it was often the same three jokes over and over, the message was clear. He was a man that loved to laugh. His humor and good spirits drew others to him. He will be deeply missed.

Love you Bud.

(Robert Franklin Barnes is survived by his 4 children, 20 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren)

Happy Birthday Nate!

Happy Birthday Nate! Here's a ton of pictures of you. I left out the really embarrassing ones :)