"Best Mom Ever"

I just have to document this day in history. I was told four times, yes four separate times, today that I am the best mom ever!! This was from Sam. The moments are not super spectacular. First I served Sam hot fruit drink in his bedroom after breakfast. This was because he was staying home from school sick (should have gone to school, he was definitely not that sick--side note, he may think twice about that next time, he had to do 3 pages of math). Second, ramen for lunch. Well, what else do you serve a kid who is fairly picky and home from school that everyone else wants to eat. (Ben however has declared himself a non ramen fan by dumping his all over the table.) Third, chicken nuggets for dinner. Yes, there does seem to be a pattern here. And the final one actually has nothing to do with food. If everyone was ready for bed and we had had family home evening they could watch a Charlie Brown show on TV (this was on at 7pm, I was aiming for early bedtime). Best mom ever he exclaimed while throwing his arms around me. Ahh, melt a moms heart, for a least a moment.

There you have it, to get rave reviews from Sam, other than making him do "more math than we do at school", serve him easy, fairly non-nutritious meals and let him watch TV.

Although now we have set through "I want a dog for Christmas" with Charlie Brown and my kids all want a dog. I do too, but not if I have to train a dog in the middle of winter. Thank you sisters for helping teach me that. :)

Halloween fun

Sorry we are slow on this, I had a grand vision of pictures from all the kids parties to post but then realized that we will not be getting some of those pictures for awhile so here is what we have. Here is the whole family just before the kids went trick-or-treating. It was a great night for trick-or-treating, I even sat outside giving out candy. (It was the warm before the storm, it rained all night and has been cold since then.)Up first we have The Dread Pirate Roberts. I happen to think he looks pretty handsome myself, and that sword is the coolest sword I have ever made (also the only one I have made to date--but cool none the less).
Don't be fold by the cuteness, Benjamin the Lion is really quite ferocious. You really should hear his roar (he does it in response to any of the other kids roaring).
Up next, the gorgeous Rapunzel, aka Tangled, complete with braided hair put up and adorned with flowers and also a skillet (which she almost did use on my sister's dog--oops). This dress will not make it into the Halloween box. She wears it often. The girls love to play "Tangled" and use a sheet as the hair. This is because the sheet can haul stuff up on the top bunk or they can drag each other through the house with it.
Next up, the mighty Hannah-saurus dinosaur. Her roar is mighty (which makes the lion roar as well) and she loves to chase small princesses through the house threatening to eat them. We added a flower to the costume this year, a little girlie touch.
And finally we have Sam the Ninja (or Pirate--he decided he could be both since people often mistook him for a pirate, although with that stick it ought to be pretty clear). I think he wants a sword like Dad but time didn't let that happen.
There you have it folks, the Halloween costumes of our family. The kids had a great time going to four parties and then out trick-or-treating. We have quite the haul of candy.

Family Reunion

I know this is a little late (okay, almost two months ago this happened) but it's the issue of which computer the pictures are on. Yes, we have a lot of computers! But anyway, here are some collages from the Barnes family reunion!

This first one shows Grandma and Grandpa Barnes, the hit that the "fishing" was (with most of the kids wanting to help attach stuff once they had had their chance to fish, and the rockets. Sam spent most of this time there. Justin has now found himself an air compressor so I think we are doing rockets with the cub scouts sometime!!

And then we have slacklining and aerial silks sponsored by the Glenn and Natalie Wilson family. (I had some text on this photos but it apparently doesn't transfer over this way, oh well, someday I will figure this out--this also explains why my text is suddenly blue, I don't have an idea.)

We had a great time! Thanks everyone!

Goblin Valley

We took advantage of a long weekend to go hiking and camping in Goblin Valley in September. It was great. The kids had a great time exploring. They went hiking up the white area of the rocks, did the junior ranger program, hiked a bit of a slot canyon, enjoyed a night program with a ranger, had a campfire (with s'mores of course), found out that scorpions glow under a black light, climbed goblins, found "geodes" (hey, Sam's convinced they are geodes), explored, explored, climbed, and climbed some more. Enjoy a collage of pictures from there (I have two other collages created but they are on a different computer of course).

My eyes are pink!

This is Michelle the other day (probably her third outfit, I really don't keep track anymore, I do remember telling her to change out of pajamas and back into clothes before we could leave). Yes, pink would probably be her favorite color. This is followed closely by purple because that is Hannah's favorite color.

So here is my funny story from her when we were on the way to the bus stop to get Sam:

Michelle: Can we paint my eyes pink?
Mom: your eyes?
Michelle: yeah, I want my eyes pink.
We went on to have a discussion about how you can't paint your eyes because that is bad for them and would make you blind (no we did not even consider talking about colored contacts) and then you wouldn't be able to see and that would be sad. "Why?" she asks. My answers turn to you wouldn't be able to see Ben to play with him, you wouldn't be able to play on the computer, "I wouldn't be able to play Purble Place?" No because you wouldn't know where to click since you wouldn't be able to see the screen. So she agrees that painting your eyes is a bad thing. So we get to the school and she finds her sunglasses in the car and goes out onto the grass and turns and looks at me and says:

"Mommy, look, my eyes are pink!"

Under Construction!! Parts are now finished

Here's a look at the destruction/construction we just finished living with at our house. We decided we wanted to put in laminate flooring in the hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen. This should only take a couple of days which turned into two long weeks. The picture of my bedroom isn't as bad as it became. We went on two different weekend trips during this and there was more stuff that was brought in. I had a path around the bed, into the bathroom, and out of the room and that is about it. It's still not all moved back out but it's closer. The other picture shows what my living room looked like for a week (washer/dryer/fridge all located there) and the little path to the front door.






And here are finished pictures. It's not as clean as I wanted it for pictures, but if I waited for that you might not every see pictures. (I do have four small children who know how to fend for themselves when it comes to getting food, and spilling it, and smashing it. And I also took the pictures to not show most of it. hehehe)


Loving it now that it is done. There is still some small stuff to do (finish up caulking, sweep continuously, etc). Oh and there is tile by the door to the garage and the in the laundry room but no picture of that. There you have it!

Pictures of Ben

Here's to Ben

Here are some fun looks at Mister Ben, as he is affectionately called (unless he is playing the baby, then it is just Baby). He is now one. He loves to run around with his siblings. He laughs easily and often. He's getting more personality (aka demanding), shrieking to voice his opinions and becoming quite the little tease already. We are quite happy to have Ben in our family, he is well loved by all. Happy belated Birthday Baby Ben!

Pictures to follow!

Hike the Wave!

The Wave

When you next get the chance, take a look at the pictures above. AJ and I hiked the Wave last week and had a blast!.

Various hilarities

This post is just some of the crazy things that happen around here. Sorry no pictures, they are on various other computers/cameras and not with me right now.

One theme for our house lately: Disaster is imminent. Case in point, I have a toddler who loves that he can walk. Loves it! And of course he is a monkey as well. I haven't seen him climb the bookshelves yet (Michelle tries but not Ben, yet) but he was quite proficient at emptying them. Everyday for several weeks he would clear them off. Sam decided to stack all of the books higher and they stayed like that for a bit, until I finally just put them back. He doesn't seem as interested in clearing them off anymore. We have moved on. The bathrooms. Oh the joy of things to do in the bathrooms. There are always toilets to flush or splash in. Toilet paper rolls that make great pull toys, and if Michelle has been around recently there is usually water on the floor (and counter and the sink will be filled so the duck can float) to splash and slip on. And our recent adventure, half a container of baby oil on the bathroom floor. I thought that was supposed to be a childproof lid on there! When Ben saw me coming, he quickly tried to get up and escape with the empty container only to promptly slip. I dumped him in the tub and turned around just as Michelle slipped on the oil slick and got the bottom part of her current favorite dress oil covered, into the tub she went. I quickly put a towel down before Hannah could have any issues. There are no pictures to document this event. But everyone I've told about it keeps laughing about it. Ben smelled good that day and Michelle's hair looked, well, oily.

And it is not just Ben who creates disasters. Michelle loves water. Washing the dishes (and counter and floor in the process), filling up the sink for ducks to float, getting drinks. Anything, but somehow it always involves water on the floor and her clothes all wet again. She is also quite talented at spilling her milk. She does wipe it up with a dishcloth, we have mastered that which is nice but sometimes Mom spends some time trying to figure out why the laundry room smells so bad only to discover a wet dishcloth in the hamper.

And my favorite quote from Michelle lately: I'm stepping on your ghost. It took me a little while to figure this out. She calls shadows ghosts. I first heard when we were walking home from dropping Hannah off, she kept telling me "I'm stepping on Ben's ghost hand." Once I figured it out I told her it was his shadow. She still calls them ghosts, but sometimes it is a ghost shadow.

Hopefully soon I will have back to school pictures and maybe some other fun stories.

Fire and Ice - AnnaJune's work of wonder.

Jared comes to town! And other stuff.

Below is the shore of the Great Salt Lake

Michelle had a low-key birthday last week. Daddy was really busy at work and missed much of the fun. However, she did enjoy blowing out candles on her birthday cookies.

Here's a picture of our Michelle girl on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. She's been here before, but on this night she had to be bribed to come along. After playing videogames on Daddy's phone to get there, she was able to stay awake and enjoy the wind coming off the water. Best of all, she fell asleep on the way home and was placed safely into her bed upon arrival.

Jared has come to town! He's actually been here a week already, and has apparently been having a good time of things. Here he is on the shore of the Great Salt Lake with Sam.

Happy Birthday!!

So for Justin's birthday we went up the canyon and went hiking. No small event of course but a good time was had by all (particularly after it was over if you ask Sam). The kids did good, they all carried their own backpacks for the most part. They walked the whole way up and back (Michelle was carried on the way back). It was a 3 mile hike. There was still snow so we had ourselves a snowball fight. Justin's comment was "I've never had a snowball fight on my birthday before." Now he has. :)

My friend came over and babysat for us (thanks Tracey) on Friday night so Justin and I went on a date. We went on a picnic and a walk along the Jordan River. I have to show off his gift he got. This fabulous blanket! Doesn't it look great? This would be me bragging since I am the one who made it. I was most excited that I was able to get the top completely done without Justin knowing I was doing it. The back will be the U of U fabric and there will be flannel in the middle. It is meant as a nice blanket for wrapping up while he sits down in his office, either studying or playing computer games. Now just to finish it and more importantly finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

Happy Birthday to the greatest Dad and Husband around (of course we are biased). :)

Field Trip

Kennecott Copper Mine
by Sam
We went to a mine. We saw rocks. We saw movies. We saw how the mine worked. The mine looked like an upside down pyramid. The truck tires were huge. It took years for the mine to develop. Trucks went down into the mine. There was a HUGE tire. I was not even half of it. I liked the mine.

Kennecott Copper Mine
by Hannah
We went to the mine. We saw rocks. We saw the big tire.

By Mom: This week was free at the mine so we headed out on a field trip. We were shuttled to the visitors center on buses. The kids loved the bus ride up because the little TVs were showing Tom and Jerry. I think Tom and Jerry were the highlights of the trip for a little bit. We walked around and looked down into the mine and then looked at some of the exhibits. They also had a movie but the line for that was too long and I think we got most of what they would have shown in the movie looking at the exhibits. The last time I went to the mine, about 8 yrs ago, it was kind of cool to see but they have a much nicer visitor center now. Lots of fun displays, pictures, and yes, short movies that tell how the mine works, how they process the copper, and even light up displays (push the button ones that kids love). And then, being the mean mom that I am, I made Sam and Hannah write reports about their trip. Then for fun I let them type them up on the computer, so above are their reports: 7 sentences was the requirement for Sam and I don't have a requirement for Hannah but she wrote 5 lines. :) ah, good times!

Summer fun!

Don't turn your back on these kids for a bit or you miss big milestones, such as Hannah learning to ride a bike without training wheels. I was in the backyard working and came out front to check on all the kids and there is Hannah riding the little bike, going full speed. I didn't even help her. Nobody did, she climbed on and started going! I had just taken the training wheels off of it yesterday so we could start working on it but apparently she didn't need any help. No we just need to work on looking where we are going so we don't run into cars (which also almost happened, not a parked car either!).

And then a cute picture of Ben being my helper. Keep up the good work kiddo, we need all the help we can get with the that morning glory. It's either that or I give up and call it my ground cover and let it go. :)

We got the memo

As I was visiting with my family last week it was mentioned how several people had short hair now (several had very recently acquired this new look, some of us a little longer). So the joke was, for those who hadn't cut their hair short, "Didn't you get the memo?" I was thinking about that the other day after I took Hannah in for a cut,

Above is the before picture. We chopped it as she will tell you. I told her we were going to cut her hair and she said, "No, we are chopping my hair." We cut off about 10 inches! The plus side of this is combing her hair is so much easier! We have started growing out her bangs as well and this cut lets us clip them back so much easier.

The scrape on the face is from playing outside.

And this last picture, I title it: Pinned you!

Although Michelle is the one who pulls Ben on top of her, pretty soon he will be doing it all on his own. He weighs just about the same as Michelle. Pretty soon she won't want to wrestle with him but right now she thinks it's great fun, although he definitely doesn't always agree.

This is our life

Hannah is very excited (or more excited this time than the last time) that her tooth came out. When the first tooth came it it was a bit traumatizing for her. She cried but not because it hurt, more because it was so shocking to her. This time she was more experienced but it was still a bit rough. It was almost coming out during primary and she did cry then because she couldn't get it to come out. Her teacher brought her to me and I calmed her down and took her to dad (since I still had to play the piano for a little bit longer). So, we have a five year old who has lost two teeth already! I think hers are coming in fairly straight too, unlike Sam.

Sam's recent activities include starting up soccer again and now being almost done with the season. The team is getting better and looks like they are starting to get the hang of things a little better. The picture shows Sam and his friend Ammon. Sam loves soccer and is always challenging his Dad to soccer competitions on the driveway. I know, why the driveway, we have plenty of grass? I think he likes the smaller area and he likes to have Dad at the bottom of the driveway so getting the ball past Dad gets the help of gravity.

And I just took this one of my girls playing puppy. Michelle is obviously playing the puppy having just fetched the frisbee and bringing it back to Hannah. And the cape, well she is super puppy.

By George I think he's got it

At least that is what I thought the other day. He was letting me feed him and was opening his mouth for the spoon. This is fantastic, it meant that it took less time to feed him. Before that it would be sit and wait and wait and push the spoon in his mouth. It wasn't that he didn't like it (although he has his preferences) he just didn't want to open his mouth to make feeding time easy.

Some of the strategy is to use two spoons so he can play with one while I put food in his mouth with the other. We kept alternating the other day because he would grab it from me and try to feed himself. The above picture is after he was done eating and just playing with everything. He sure does make a mess while eating (and that was with me helping him).

Michelle always wants to help me with anything related to Ben. Yesterday he just wouldn't eat when I tried feeding him. Clamped his mouth shut, spit out the food, whatever. So I went to make dinner and Michelle promptly climbed up and proceeded to feed him. I don't know if he took more food from her or not. She was sure happy to be helping out.

Ben also has two teeth now. I think he has taken the longest of my kids to get teeth and then decides to get two in one week. His other recent accomplishment is learning to move. He can almost crawl. He can get where he wants now. I think he might of been rolling before I thought he was but was never sure whether it was him or his sisters helping him. Once I saw him do it there was no question of it. He could roll either direction and from front to back and back to front whenever he wanted. Time to start cleaning the floor better!

Easter pictures

I realize that I am very behind in posting but I just want to quickly post some of these Easter pics. The girls got new dresses and the boys got ties (one week later but oh well) and I got a skirt. For now you just have to enjoy the pictures of the kids.

As a side note my yard looks the best it ever does in spring, I love it!

February Recap

So here are the random photos of February:

And the special events of the month, Hannah's birthday and our anniversary: