Barnes Family

Nostalgic day

2011-08-25T17:32:00.003-06:00

Well, I've made promises in the past to the few followers I have to blog more often and, of course, every time I have not followed through. I get so caught up in the day to day life and forget to take the time to do it until today when I finally realized how much I want to post every mundane little detail of my life, more importantly, of my girls lives. Before I know it, a year will pass and I won't remember the funny thing Mia said this morning, or the crazy thing Lilly ate(and later threw up) yesterday.

Here I am with these 2 little girls, forgetting to savor every minute I have with them and then complain that time is passing to fast. I mean, wasn't Lilly born yesterday?! How is she so big and talking so much? When did she get so grown up? How will I ever remember to tell her the crazy stories of leaving the room for 2 seconds only to come back to find her dancing on top of the kitchen table, eating rocks dirt leaves plastic anything she can get her hands on, getting a drink all by her big girl self(from the toilet after her sister forgot to close the bathroom door), dunking her shoes in the toilet, giving her baby doll a bath all by her self(again, in the toilet). How will I remember her walking around with anything that remotely looks like a phone and saying hi and carrying on a conversation or following around her big sister just to wait for her to stop so she can push her around til she screams. Or the adorable loud noises of 'mmm yumm' and sucking she makes eating anything that tastes good. How will I remember all the times she figured out if she only unplugs the modem she'll get all the attention she wants from her Daddy who she absolutely adores.

And Mia! Oh my sweet tiny baby girl... who will be 4 years old in only 4 short months. She has already reached the age of preferring to spend every second of every day with her friends instead of with me. She is starting to figure out that there are other people in the world more fun and amazing and wonderful then her own mom and dad. She has learned to repeat everything that she has heard said and asks me all the time 'why is that driver a stupid idiot mom?' or yelling at me to get in the corner when she gets mad. She has learned to no longer just trust everything we tell her and questions everything we tell her to do. How did my little tiny 5 lbs baby turn in to such a grown up little girl? Since when does she not want to have me with her every second of every day? The last 4 years has been such a speedy blur, I don't know how that girl has gotten so grown up and so smart, I still can't believe it's been so long since the first time I saw her beautiful little face.

So, the time has come that I finally give in and take the time to write these things down before I get any older and can't remember them all on my own. I already couldn't tell you half the crazy things that Mia has said and done to make Jason and I just crack up all the time and I don't want to forget anymore. Life changes and passes to fast, I don't want to forget another minute.

4 months in a nutshell

2011-07-27T15:46:00.005-06:00

Well after my last failed promise of being sure to keep up withe the blog from here on out, I will no longer make promises and just do what I can. Life is crazy, I know I'll forget it all and really should be better at keeping memories somewhere, now just to find the time. Here it goes, one crazy summary of what has happened in the last... 4?months or so since I last posted...

Lilly... where to begin. She turned 1 with a ladybug themed family party and loved tearing in to her cake, when she finds something she loves that girl can eat! Turning one also brought a new trampoline, sandbox, toys, movies and her new sassy little attitude. Quickly went from a few steps to running everywhere, climbing everything, and eating anything from sand to paper to rocks, anything. A few times of getting enough rocks in to make her throw up later, she isn't allowed to spend much time outside without constant close adult supervision. Soon this was all followed by a trip to AZ to see Nonna and spend some time with cute cousin Madi. She loved the pool, didn't care much about Madi, loved the sun and hated the drive home. That consisted of 3 puking kids, Grammy letting her jump out of the car, a gash on her head, a crying worried mom, angry phone calls from Dad, 9 hours later a stop at the doctor and 3 stitches, we finally got to take the poor baby home along with Mia who threw up way to many times to count in between. She is amazing at her temper tantrums and shows them off often, throwing herself on the ground screaming and crying and lately turns to biting, but only Mom when she can't get her way. She is now nearly 1 1/2, I have no idea how we got here from the day she was born, I miss my tiny girl, but I will say as much trouble as she is, she is the sweetest most cuddly little baby there is and she sure does love her Mom. A welcome change from little miss Mia who at that age was a Daddy's girl through and through.

Mia in 4 months, not a whole lot has changed. She loved going to see her Nonna, didn't understand why we couldn't just bring baby Madi home with us, and hated coming back home from the trip to Arizona. She asks me weekly if it is her birthday next and insists that she have a pirate party with a Jack Sparrow cake. I was sure this pirate obsession would pass by now, boy was I wrong. She is still in love with Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, chooses to watch the pirate movies or Megamind over any princess or girly movie, now has a huge obsession with toys from the Cars movie, and I have completely given up on her ever being a big girly girl, at least any time soon. She has 2 new good friends that moved in next door and I'm pretty sure she would live with them if she could. She is finally potty trained, fingers crossed it sticks this time. She is growing way to fast, She is way to smart and independent. She hates being told that someone is mad at her, and hates being in trouble. Phrase of choice lately has become 'don't talk mad at me, I don't like you to talk mad at me'. She genuinely wants people to like her and be happy with her and she does try hard to be good most of the time. I always thought before she would be my troublemaker and Lilly would be my sweet nice girl, but it is turning out to be quite the opposite. She still loves letters and is a pro at writting her name and getting very good at figuring out how to spell words by listening to the sounds. She is to smart for her own good and amazes me constantly with the things she says and does.

Jason and I are still around and the same as always. Not much to report. Trying desperately to keep up with these 2 busy bodies, my house is always a mess no matter how often I clean it and I find having 2 way overly energetic girls is the best work out routine out there. They never ever stop. Jason is hard at his business still but always makes time for his girls and we love him for it. he does understand how I can be so tired all the time and I love to threaten him with being alone with these 2 for a couple of days and seeing how he handles it. Someday... Just trying one day at a time to survive the crazy life of motherhood, who knew it could be so fun and so difficult at the same time.

Catching up

2011-02-20T20:47:00.004-07:00

I've noticed lately that the world of blogs is dieing a little bit and I don't like it. I love reading and catching up on my friends lives and seeing pictures to feel like I'm a part of whats going on when I can't be there. I love having my blog to have a little 'journal' of my life with my amazing husband and my girls. I'm really going to try to keep up now, even if no one reads this, oh well. Thats not what it's really there for(if you're reading this I'm sorry and I'm happy you are!) but really, it's for me. A way to get out my thoughts and a place to keep my memories.

Alright, enough with my rant, not for a little catch up. It's been FAR to long. So much has changed. We were able to go to Arizona for Christmas and it was su

ch a good trip. Mia loves to spend time down there and see all of Jason's family. We love them all and miss them , it was so nice to spend that time. Also, there is nothing like a 70 degree Christmas. I am sorry, but all those songs about dreaming of a white Christmas are so so far off! It's all about being able to go out and play with your toys outside all day without layers and layers of clothes. Being able to walk to your friends house to see their load and walking back with them to see yours. Upholding family traditions of mini golf outdoors on Christmas day. I LOVE it and will never be ok with a freezing cold white Christmas.

Mia also turned 3 while we were there. I can't believe how big she is and how amazing she is. She is so full of spunk and love and giggles and oh so fun. She is so so smart and I just love seeing her soak up every bit of knowledge she can, especially when it comes

to letters. That girl loves her alphabet, loves to sing it, loves to write it and lately, even loves sounding out letters and figuring out what they say. She loves to wear her princess dresses, but even more, she LOVES to put on her pirate clothes and watch her very favorite, Captain Jack Sparrow. She started gymnastics in January, she has always been great at those kind of things and she is loving it. It is so fun and so so cute to watch her.

Then there's my sweet sweet baby. Oh she is my little heartbreaker... ok, maybe just because she's my baby and she's turning 1 next month! I can't believe it and I am so so not ready for her to grow up. She finally started crawling the right way in January and gets everywhere fast. She's up the stairs now too and takes a couple of steps here and there with a little tricking from her Dad. She has got such a fun little personality and it amazes me how different her and her sweet big sister are. They just love eachother and are great little play mates. I hate hate with a passion that she is growing up and getting bigger and love more then anything watching her learn and grow up. She is my sweet Momma's girl and I love it and will milk every second for all it's worth.

Overall, life is good. I still am so so very in love with my husband and feel so lucky to have him in my life every day. Jason is enjoying working and seeing where the company he co-founded will end up. Life is an adventure to say the least. We were able to go back to AZ in the end of January. Not for the best reason, but it was still so fun spending some time again with Jason's family and some of my very best friends. Can't wait for the weather to warm up and be able to get outside again. I am loving being a stay at home mom with my sweet girls and even if I get crazy burnt out from time to time, I feel so so thankful and blessed that I'm able to be with them through every milestone and watch them grow up first hand.

Oh my head....

2010-10-05T17:55:00.006-06:00

Well, Lilly's 6 month appointment brought some exciting news... she is going to be SMART! Or at least I really hope so. After doing her measurements, the nurse left her room to enter it all in the computer for the typical 'percentage comparison' information. After just a minute out of the room, she came back to remeasure Lilly's head, sure she had measured it WAY bigger then it really was. Well, she didn't. That girl has got a lot of brains! Weighing in at only about 35% for her weight, her head reached a whopping 97%! 1/2 of her 35% is in that sucker.

Alright, so I guess I started this post and never finished it. Lilly's now 7 months old and gets to be more of a little stinker every day. She is so happy and playful and she loves her mom (which I love most of the time and hate on occasion). She plays so well and I can always get her to laugh. She is rolling all over the place and scooting backwards, pretty dang close to crawling, but can't blame her for taking some time to learn it, her head is a lot to hold up. Oh poor girl. She is a joy at times and a pain in the butt some times. She is so unhappy if someone isn't right by her, she won't sleep all night, she grunts and grunts all the time and wants to be held as long as it's me holding her. She has even recently started whinning when I hand her off to Jason and walked away. I love her to pieces but compared to Mia, she is a hard baby. Such a different personality. She does love her mom, but when it comes time to play, Mia is the one she plays with best. They adore each other and it makes me so happy I had 2 girls in a row.

Crazy summer adventures...

2010-08-20T13:00:00.002-06:00

Well, considering I haven't really posted anything since Lilly was born, there is a lot to catch up on. Might break it up in to a few posts just to avoid rambling and blabbing on all in one sitting. Things have been... interesting since Lilly's birth to say the least. We've made some huge life changing decisions, on top of adjusting to being a family of four.

I guess it all started about a year ago when my wonderful husband started working on his... I don't know like 100th idea. I knew before I married him that he was an entrepreneur at heart destined to work for himself with the life motto of 'retire at 26', but never could have imaged how true to life that motto would become. He spent all the free time he could on the new idea and enlisted the help of a good friend of his from school. Together, they were doing all they could to get this idea off the ground, going to various conferences and talking to anyone that would listen to make sure they were headed in the right direction.

They finally caught their first break when they were asked to present their business idea at a conference done locally in the area to promote new businesses called Launchup. This really got the ball rolling with various companies interested in using their product. Long story short, they applied and were accepted in to a seed funding program called BoomStartup. They were given a sum of money to spend the summer working full time on this project and seeing what they could do with it. Of course, all of the application deadlines and interviews and what not were right about the time Lilly was due. I spent the application process telling Jason I was going to pretend none of it existed until it was all really happening.

Low and behold, they were accepted and Jason put in his 2 week notice at work and the crazy started. We planned and planned all we could without really knowing what was coming. Without truly knowing what was coming, we got things as prepared as we could. I found us health insurance, we budgeted, and I tried to stay as calm and stress free as possible, a much easier task in the start without knowing the full truth of what was coming.

I learned quickly as this whole thing began how different our lives would be and just didn't know if they'd ever be back to the way they were before. Jason is such a hard worker and so dedicated, I like to joke that I became a single parent during the week. He leaves for work around 7 in the morning and gets home between 630 and 7 at night, just in time to eat dinner and get the girls ready for bed. He has met some amazing people and has an amazing mentor working with them at Boomstartup.

Here we are now, technically on the last day of the program with just a few weeks to prepare for the day they bring in investors from all over to hear presentations from all the companies that were accepted in to boomstartup. It has been such an adventure. Crazy, exciting, fun, rewarding, scary, stressful, and probably one of the biggest adventures we've faced yet. We've had our fair share of ups and downs for sure, but I know in the end it'll all be worth it. It has been such an amazing experience and Jason has made some wonderful business connections.

Who knows what this will bring in our future and if Jason will be back at a normal 9-5 job in a year, but either way, I am SO proud of him. He is pretty dang amazing and has had this dream for himself for so long. I knew he'd get it at some point, but never could have imagined that he'd actually be able to achieve it in the crazy short time frame he set for himself. Just goes to show how wonderfully amazing he really is. In the start, I was worried that stress would make our relationship hard, but in truth, we've worked through it all together and supporting each other through it has made things even better than ever. Can't wait to see what excitement comes next from all of this.

New Recipe!

2010-08-11T16:58:00.002-06:00

Alright, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of these, mainly because they are delicious and get eaten to quickly around our house. I have made these a couple of times since I found the recipe ( about a week ago) on my favorite recipe blog ever! (http://www.melskitchencafe.com/) She has amazing recipes and I must say, this one is so addicting, i am in love! They are so buttery, and chocolately, and crunchy and just absolutely to die for! They have topped the list as one of my new favorite cookies by far! They are easy to make, but a very impressive looking and tasting treat. If you are in the mood for something sweet, give these a try. I promise they will not disappoint!

Chocolate Toffee Shortbread Bars

*Makes 36-50 bars, depending on how big they are cut

The Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ounces bittersweet, semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped (if you don’t have a scale, use about 1/2 cup)

The Topping:
6 ounces bittersweet, semisweet, or milk chocolate, finely chopped (again, if you don’t have a scale, use about 1 cup)
1 1/2 cups toffee bits (or about 4-6 Heath bars, chopped)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. To make the crust, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Alternatively, place the butter in a large bowl and use a hand mixer. Beat for 3 minutes, or until the butter is smooth. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat for an additional 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix briefly.

Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat in gradually (you can cover the bowl and your mixer with a towel to avoid flour flying all over the place or just mix in very slowly). Mix until the flour is almost incorporated. Add the 3 ounces of chocolate to the mixer and mix until the rest of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix!

Line a 9 X 13-inch pan with foil, leaving long foil ends on the side. Lightly grease the foil.

Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and press down the mixture with a spatula and/or your fingertips. Bake the crust for 18-20 minutes, or until the crust is bubbling. Remove the crust from the oven and place the hot pan on a cooling rack.

Sprinkle the 6 ounces of chocolate over the hot bars and cover the pan with foil to let the chocolate melt. Let the pan sit for 5 minutes. Using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon, spread the softened chocolate over the crust. Sprinkle the toffee pieces (or cut up Heath bars) over the chocolate and press down gently with your fingers.

Let the bars cool to room temperature. If the chocolate is not set by the time the bars are cool, just pop the pan in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Using the long edges of foil as handles, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into bars.

Recipe Source: adapted from Dorie Greenspan: Baking From My Home to Yours

Chocolate Amaretto Zucchini Bread

2010-08-04T17:06:00.003-06:00

Alright, we have a TON of zucchini lately and I was running out of ways to make it til I remembered my favorite zucchini recipe today that my sister gave to me. It is full of zucchini, and so yummy and moist and delicious, it tastes more like a dessert than a slice of bread. Thanks to my sister for passing this one on to me, it is heavenly.

*If you don't want to have to go to a liquor store just to buy Amaretto(can't get it in the supermarkets, at least not around here) then you can substitute Almond Extract. I used between 1-1 1/2 tsps and it turned out great!

Chocolate Amaretto Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

1 Cup oil
2 Cups Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 squares melted semi sweet or unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup Amaretto (or 1 tsp. almond extract)
3 Cups packed peeled grated zucchini
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 bread pans. Mix first 6 ingredients all incorporated. Add zucchini and stir. Add dry ingredients and stir til all mixed. Add chocolate chips and walnuts. Divide equally between 2 pans. Bake for 1 hour or until firm.

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-05-09T21:41:00.002-06:00

It has been such a fabulous weekend and day, and I finally have a minute to sit down and write about my day and to thank some of the mothers around me. I am continuously surrounded by amazing women and have always been blessed in my life and I am so so thankful for that. Motherhood would be so much more difficult if I hadn't grown up surrounded by amazing examples I grew up with.

Jason and I were able to spend a lot of time together over the weekend and I couldn't have asked for anything greater than that. My mom and sister came up on Friday and while here, my mom asked if she could take Mia for me for a couple of days and I of course agreed! So it was just me, Jason and Lilly for the weekend. Jason and I watched a movie, got some painting done, and were able to go see the new Iron Mat 2 movie, which we both really enjoyed. It was so nice to be able to get a few things done and relax with my love. Then we finished the weekend having dinner down at my parents house to celebrate the day. It really was a great day.

Now on to celebrating some amazing mothers in my life. First, the women responsible for the amazing man in my life. My wonderful mother in law. I couldn't have asked for a better one. I've been privilaged to know her for years and to watch her with her children and she is an amazing mother. She is always there for her children at a drop of a hat and i have always know she would not only do anything for them, but for me and my girls. She razed 3 amazing children, my husband is one of the most amazing men I know and I am very aware that that is largely due to her and I could never thank her enough for that. He is an amazing husband and an amazing father and I will forever be indebted to her for that.

And of course, my mother. I remember he saying when we were growing up that she hated mothers day because why should we be allowed to take advantage of her all year then have 1 day to attempt to make up for it. Now that I'm a mother myself, I understand better than ever why she said that and want to make sure she knows that I appreciate her not only every day, but every minute of my life. I owe everything to her and am very aware of that fact, and have always been (even if I wasn't very good at saying that while I was growing up). She is an amazing women and has been an amazing Mother to more people than I can count over the years. I know without a doubt that there is no way I would be the women I am or have the things I do without her influence in my day to day life. She is so loving and so giving and I love her and so appreciate her so much for everything she's done for me over the years and now all she does for my sweet baby girls.

And to all the other mothers out there, I hope you had an amazing day because you deserve it. My husband likes to joke that he wants to trade me jobs all the time and how nice it would be to be the one to stay home with the girls, but I always tell him he'd be begging me to trade him back after a week of that. I would never trade my life as a mother for anything, but it is not an easy job by any means. It takes a lot of sacrifice, patients, love, and so so much more and as mothers, we all deserve this one day break. Enjoy it and don't do what i'm sure we all do taking the day off, don't feel guilty! I know I do it to myself, but 1 day out of the year our husbans will survive with the kiddos. Thank you to everyone who has been an example of an amazing mother to me and to everyone who has been a mother to my sweet girls. Friends, family, church teachers, parents of their friends, anyone who has played a part in their lives. I appreciate the examples that the women around them are to them. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

Lilly Elise Barnes

2010-04-05T15:54:00.004-06:00

My sweet baby girl finally made it! The last month was long and hard and very trying, but we all survived and made it through and now, it's all over and I have the most amazing and beautiful and perfect little miracle that I could have ever asked for. I feel so blessed and so overwhelmingly happy, I don't know what we did without her in our lives. She truly is a joy and I am head over heals in love with her and more happy than ever. I love her more every second and can't look at her sweet face without feeling teary at the overwhelming love and joy she has brought to my life.

Mia is doing pretty well with her. She loves her sister and I love to see them together. She is a sweet big sister, she loves to hold 'her baby Lilly' and loves to help me do everything that I will let her help with. Jason and I are so happy and so in love with our girls and I love him more every day and feel so blessed and thankful to have such an amazing husband and such an amazing father for my girls. He truly is amazing and does so much for me and these girls. I don't know what I would do without him in my life. We are a happy family of 4!

She's Here! the delivery

2010-04-04T13:53:00.007-06:00

This last month had it's challenges and so many times I was sure she was going to come, but she held out as long as she possibly could. I had the braxton hicks for months and finally they became regular at 36 weeks, I was sure I was in labor. After a trip to the hospital one day and the doctor the next, I learned I was not. The doctor scheduled me to be induced on March 19th, the day I turned 39 weeks. I was sure I wouldn't last that long and would be back in the hospital to have her by 37 weeks. Well, that came and went, and 38 weeks came and went. I was feeling pretty miserable and had talks with my sweet angel daily asking her to please be ready and come. She did not agree.

Then the day came, the 19th, and I knew it was all over, my baby girl would be in my arms by the end of the day. Jason took the day off of work, and we sat and waited. I was told the night before I was #3 on the 'on call' list and if I hadn't heard by noon. Noon came with no call, so I finally made myself call only to hear they were completely full and it could be a while. Maybe an hour later, I got a call from a number that looked similar to the one I had called. Full of hope that this would be the call to come, I answered the phone to another disappointment. I had been bumped and needed to be rescheduled. So, I picked the soonest day I could. Tuesday, March 23rd.

Monday came and I got the call saying that I was again #3 on the list. I was a little nervous about getting bumped again and prayed I'd hear from them early. It was a long sleepless night. I woke up at about 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. About 10 to 6 (6am being the earliest they said they'd call) I finally put my phone down and made the decision to force myself to sleep. 5 minutes later, the phone rang. The hospital!! They wanted to know how soon I could be there. It was finally going to happen, I was going to get my sweet baby girl and be done with this miserable pregnancy!!

We got the the hospital about about 6:45am and by 730, I was checked in, hooked up to the monitors and the petocin began. As the contractions got stronger, I waited for the doctor to come in. Luckily it didn't take long. About 830 or maybe a bit sooner, he came in. Checked me and broke my water and the wonderful blessing of an epidural became possible. He told me the sooner the better because of the other inductions that had come in that morning could cause a 'line' for getting them. I waited a couple of hours and the contractions were so bad I couldn't take it anymore. I kept telling Jason I was done, and I didn't want to do it anymore. I finally got my epidural and it all got a lot easier. I watched some shows, took a couple naps and just waited around til the nurse came in to check my status.

Slow progress for first half of the day and pretty heavy contractions, luckily, i couldn't feel a lot of them all thanks to that wonderful little miracle of an epidural. At least til about 230 that afternoon. My legs were so numb it was hard to move one of them, and yet, I could still feel the contractions pretty dang strong. I kept praying that it meant i was near the end, but only being a couple hours after the last time I was checked(at that point I was dialated to about a 3) I had little hope that I had made much progress. Finally at about 3 the nurse came in to see how I was doing. When she saw I was hurting pretty dang bad again she told me to hit the little button to get more meds through the epidural or said they could have the anesthesiologist to come in and adjust the meds to a higher level. At that point, I was up to 8 cm's! I was so so pleased and so surprised to be that far already.

The nurse came back at about 345 and said I was about 9 1/2, just a tiny bit more to go, so she started prepping the room for my sweet girl to come. It was such a long 15-20 minutes waiting for her to come back and waiting to see if it was time for this girl to come! Just after 4 I was to a 10 and she called the doctor to get over to the hospital (luckily the doctors office is across the parking lot from the doctors office. It only took about 5 minutes for the doctor to run over then everything really started. 4:34pm my sweet beautiful baby girl was finally here and in my arms. She was perfect and just as people always seem to say, I fell head over heals in love with her the second I saw her sweet face.

They took her over and got her all weighed in and cleaned up and all that. She weighed in at 6 lbs 14 ozs and 20" long! Such a big difference from my little munchkin, Mia(5 lbs 15 oz). My sweet Lilly Elise, her adorable little round face and chubby cheeks! We held her and loved her all we could and enjoyed every second we had alone, just her, me and Jason, before we had to share her with our family and friends. She is an amazing little girl and although it ended up being a longer wait then I had hoped for to get here, it was all well more than worth it. She truly is amazing and has brought so much love and joy to our sweet family!

Laboring away...

2010-02-26T05:00:00.002-07:00

Well, I have finally hit 36 weeks and what an eventful couple of days it has been leading up to that. With the end in sight I am becoming more and more of a nervous wreck every day, something that the past few days has not helped in the slightest. Quite the opposite.

It all started just a couple of days ago, Tuesday. I tried so so hard to get the house clean and begin to get things ready for this baby to come with little progress. Every time I stood and tried to clean, I'd take a couple of steps and have such horrific back pain, I had to return to sitting somewhere. I was pretty unsure of where this pain was coming from other than to think maybe the baby had begun to drop slightly.

The answer as to why came Wednesday. I noticed it first that evening, around 6, when my very irregular but strong 'braxton hicks' contractions starting becoming all to regular, hitting me about every 10 minutes exactly. Everyone had advice as to what to do. Some said I should call the doctor and get to the hospital. So, what did I do? Timed my contraction til about 10 that night, then headed to bed hoping that a good nights rest would relax me enough to stop or at least slow down the contractions.

Oh how very wrong I was. I woke up through the night a few times because of contractions and when I finally got up that morning, began timing my contractions again. They were now about 5-6 minutes apart. Oh boy. After about an hour of timing them and seeing yet again the consistancy, I started to panic on and off for a bit again debating what to do now. I arranged for my mom to come pick up Mia (after she volunteered to do so, ha) and soon before she came to get her, finally gave in and called the doctors office.

Once I was able to speak to a nurse and tell her what was going on, she advised me to head to the hospital to be monitored for a while. I called Jason right away, panicing and crying yet again and he volunteered to come home and go with me. As soon as he got home, we headed to the hospital, got checked in, hooked up to all the monitors and all checked out by the nurse. She began to tell me after 2 minutes in the room it looked like I was having what they like to call 'irritability pains', whatever that is. She checked me and said I was 40% effaced and dialated to a 1. She explained they'd leave me there for an hour, and check again to see if I had made any progress. If I had, I'd stay there, otherwise they'd just send me home.

After the hour was up, the nurse came back in the room and quickly after checking the monitors said yes I was having a lot of contractions, surprise surprise. Once checked again she said I hadn't really changed much and sent me home. She said she wasn't to sure what was going on, if I was in active labor or not that at that point, it was hard to tell. She gave me the list of what would make me return to the hospital and we were on our way.

The contractions stayed pretty consistant throughout the rest of the day and progressively got stronger and stronger. I headed to my once a month Bonco night only to feel the contractions get stronger and stronger still as we played and began to feel like they were coming more often throughout the night. I came home and again, tried to get some sleep. After laying in bed for about an hour I finally fell asleep and actually stayed asleep for a whole hour and 1/2.

I began timing my contractions again at about 2 in the morning. Contractions that had gotten pretty strong and that combined with my lack of sleep cause yet another 'break down'. I timed them for about an hour noticing them to be about 2-3 minutes apart and quite strong. Again the battle of what to do.

Now, here I am. Nearly 5:30 Friday morning, haven't been back to sleep since I woke up at 1:30 because of the constant contraction and extreme nervousness. I feel so nervous and anxious. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow and will try my best to hang in until then so as to not be sent to the hospital just to immediately go home again. I am so nervous that they will just make me go home and I don't think I can handle more nights and days of constant contractions. Yet, I'm also extremely nervous that I will have progressed enough to stay and have her tomorrow.

Am I really ready for this? 4 weeks early am I ready to have another baby girl and ready to be a mom for yet the 2nd time. I love both my girls more than anything and want more than anything to meet this sweet little princess, but I am just such a nervous wreck at the prospect of her arriving this soon and starting over with a newborn this soon. I guess all I can do now is pray lots and wait until i can know for sure what is going on and if she's coming now or later. Can't wait to find out! Maybe then i'll be able to get a little sleep.

34 week pic...

2010-02-18T08:54:00.003-07:00

I know I know, my face looks like I am a little miserable or something, but the truth is, I never quite now what to do for these pictures. Call it 'non-photogenic' if you will. I am feeling a bit miserable, but not all the time. The combination of lack of sleep, crazy strong 'braxton hicks' contractions, carrying around a huge bowling ball on my gut and feeling like throwing up 1/2 the time might not sound like 'fun' to most people... well believe me, it's not, ha. But so very worth it and with the end result in mind, it helps to feel less miserable and more anxious. Can't wait to meet this little trouble maker!

34 weeks and counting...

2010-02-11T15:06:00.002-07:00

Alright, it's been far to long since I've updated everything. I know most people who look at the blog, are on facebook as well so I probably won't post pictures on here since they're on facebook already. But a lot has happened since my last post. We were able to go down to AZ for Christmas to spend the holidays with Jason's family and got to spend 2 weeks there. It was fabulous. Nice and warm couple of weeks and we were able to spend a lot of time with our friends and family. Mia loves Christmas and still can't see an old man without calling him santa. She loves the movie Polar Express and takes her 'ticket' with her everywhere to ride the train to see santa. She was spoiled tons while we were there and loved it all.

January was a LONG never ending month. Just seemed to drag on and on with nothing to exciting to tell. Getting fatter and fatter by the day and feeling worse as the time goes on. Lilly is doing well and growing as she should and Mia is having a blast playing with all of our baby stuff and getting ready for her. I have realized what a little mini mom she will be. She loves to put her dolls in the babies car seat, loves to get the bottles to feed them, and loves to change their 'stinky bumbs'. She is going to be one very involved big sister.

We had a great start to February. Well, at least Mia and I did. Jason was busy at work and Mia and I were able to go on a trip with my parents and nieces and nephews and some of my siblings to California for 5 days. 2 days were spent driving there and back and the other 3... at Disneyland! Mia loved it and was so cute there. She wore her princess dresses 2 of the 3 days, little aurora and snow white. So cute. She was in love with the characters without any pushing from anyone. As soon as we walked in the park and saw Mickey and Goofy walking around, she was so so mad she had to wait in line and ran to hug them the second we let her go. She enjoyed all the rides and was able to meet tons of characters and got to dance in the parade with Woody from toy story. So cute! She had a blast there with her cousin's and LOVED spending time with my nephew, Beckham. He's only 5 months older than her and in the past, they have had a hard time getting along, but this trip were the best of buds. So fun to watch them play and have fun with eachother.

Now is everything baby. I'll be 34 weeks tomorrow, 3 weeks to full term and I have big plans to try everything I can to get this baby to come as soon as full term hits. I have an ultrasound next week to see how she's growing as she should and not teeny tiny like my little munchkin Mia. Hopefully all will be well with her and all signs will point to her coming early. I have been having braxton hicks since about 14 weeks and thought a couple months ago they couldn't get stronger and have been proven very wrong, ha. Luckily they usually don't happen to often, but when they do, they stop me in my tracks. Labor will be a breeze after this, ha.

Beyond that, all is well. I try to do a little bit a day to get ready for the baby to come. Mia is doing well, she is such a sweet baby girl, at least most days. Jason is wonderful and takes amazing care of us and is so sweet putting up with me through this pregnancy. I know it can't be easy some days, but he handles it well and tells me I'm allowed to complain about pregnancy all I need to. Although he does like to convince me I should never do this again, and some days, I'm sure he's right. If only it were that simple...

Merry Christmas to all!

2009-12-07T11:45:00.014-07:00

Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas! Oh what a year, it has been a very busy one full of changes, mostly good. We hope that this Christmas season find you all healthy, happy and well. As the year comes to an end, we wanted to update everyone on the last year of our lives and all the changes that have occured in our little family. It has surely been a year of change, mostly good, with lots of fun in between!

Jason has spent the year working, both at his job and on the many ideas he comes up with. He has had lots of ups and downs at his job, and still seems to mostly enjoy it there. He works with a lot of great people who he really likes and who really seem to like having him there. He's also started a couple new side projects working with friends to reach his goal of retiring by 26. That time is quickly approaching and he is working hard to make every attempt to reach his goal. We'll see. We love every second we get with him at home and Mia has quickly become very selfish with her daddy. He is her daddy and no one elses, she is a daddies girl through and through.

I have spent the year at home with my sweet baby girl and love every minute of it. We were able to move in May to a bigger place, our 1st home! We love it and love our new neighborhood. I spend my free time redecorating and trying to get our house just how I want it. The house shopping process was a little overwhelming and one that we were glad to have over with. I've also been spending a lot of time with my mom and my sister and her kids this last year. It is so wonderful to have them close. Mia loves her cousin and I love being able to spend the time with my mom and sister. Beyond that, all my time is spent on my sweet baby girl who is grwoing up WAY to fast.

Mia will be turning 2 in a couple of weeks and has been in the 'terrible 2's' for quite a while now. She is such a smart girl and amazes me more and more every day. She loves to talk and is quite good at it, she gets better and better every day at communicating and putting sentances together. She is turning in to quite the little girly girl, she loves princesses and tinkerbell, loves putting on mom's makeup and loves helping mom cook all the time. Any princess or doll, other than the disney princesses, she calls princess Mia, including herself. She loves our new house and loves having so many friends her age in our ward. Nursery has never been hard for her, she loves to go and hates to leave, which has made church so much more pleasant. She is such a sweet girl, always sure to say 'please' , 'thank you' and 'bless you' at every chance she gets.

We also found out soon after moving to our new home, that we'll be expecting baby #2 in the start of this next year. We found out in the start of November that it'll be another little girl. I'm so excited for Mia to have a little friend and another little girl to cover in pink, and Jason's excited at the prospect of already having everything we need for a baby girl. We can't wait to see her and meet her and hope and pray things continue to go well with her. Mia is so excited and loves to talk to 'baby lilly by rubbing my belly and saying hi to her. She is so sweet to her already and thought she found her when she met my cousin's newborn daughter. She is so sweet with babies and will be a sweet big sister.

Beyond that we've just enjoyed spending all the time we can with each other, family and friends. We were lucky to be able to head down to Arizona in March to spend a week with Jason's family and some time with my for my older brothers wedding. We've also had Jason's family here to visit a few times and love the time for Mia to get to know them better. In September we were even able to take a vacation for a week up to Seattle to visit my brother and his cute family there. Mia loved spending time with her cousin's and we loved being shown around the city. It's so pretty and so fun there, we really enjoyed it.

We are looking forward to 2 weeks in AZ for Christmas and can't wait to spend some time there with friends and family we aren't able to see often. Mia is so excited for Christmas and loves to tell everyone about 'beautiful Christmas trees', sitting on santa's lap and getting candy, snowmen, and loves to carry her presents from room to room. She will be so fun this year once she figures out there's stuff inside those presents.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season full of joy and love. We feel so blessed this holiday season for everything that we have, for our beautiful home and our growing family. We thank the Lord every chance we get for the many blessings in our lives. We are so thankful for the Savior and the gospel and think of them even more at this time of the year. He is our source of hope and strength and I am so so thankful everyday for all that he has brought to my life. We love you all and wish you the best in the year to come. Happy Holidays!!

1/2 way there!!

2009-11-10T08:56:00.002-07:00

Well, I've made it and so far so good. The worst is over. The sickenss is mostly gone, the baby is growing fast (me too), and we finally know we're going to have a sweet baby girl! The 20 week appointment went really well. Unlike Mia, this baby is measuring right on track! Mia was enough behind they could have changed my due date, but luckily didn't. This baby measured at 20 weeks 3 days, so just a little ahead of schedule. Everything looked good, except that she was way to much of a little wiggly worm, which now means I get another ultrasound at my next appointment. The radiologist didn't get the best look at her heart and although she sees no reason to worry, she said she didn't want to just assume things were fine. So I'll get to see my sweet baby girl and her progress again in a few more weeks!

I must admit I was really really shocked to find out this baby is a girl. I am still thrilled to be having another baby and am thrilled that it's a girl now that it's sunk in a little bit. This pregnancy has so different than it was with Mia, some symptoms have been worse, some not nearly as bad. Mainly I haven't been nearly as sick as I was with Mia and the sickness has gone away a lot sooner than it did the 1st time around, luckily. As much as I would love to have a sweet baby boy, It'll be so so fun to see Mia with a baby sister and I have high hopes that they'll always be really close and always have each other. My sister is a bit older than me with siblings between us and I grew up always wishing for a sister close to my age, so I'm so glad for Mia that she'll have that. I guess it just means we'll have to have 1 more baby in a few years or so. Definately not doing this again anytime soon.

Those of you in AZ, get ready for next month!! We'll be there for 2 weeks during Christmas and would LOVE to see you all. Can't wait to get away and have a vacation with my loves and visit friends and family and to get warm weather back for a couple weeks! YAY! Can't wait to see everyone!!

Halloween and happenings...

2009-10-22T11:20:00.007-06:00

Well, I got a little ambitions this year and decided I was going to make Mia's halloween costume, even though I had an adorable costume that fit her my sister gave me. I wanted her to have something that she'd like and actually want to wear, so we went with a cute lady bug and I am SO glad I did it! I love how it turned out and she just loves her 'buggy clothes'. My amazing photographer sister in law Melissa offered an exchange with me while she was here, I do her hair she takes some pictures for me, so she took a few of my cute little miss lady bug. She does an amazing job, especially considering how much Mia does not want to cooperate and refuses to smile with the camera around, she's a nut. But, there are some really cute ones. These are just a few of the ones I really love.

In other news... everything is going pretty good. I am now 18 weeks pregnant and have my ulltrasound all scheduled in 2 weeks to make sure all is going well and to finally find out what we're having, I can't wait! Sometimes I think I'm even more anxious to find out what this one is than I was to find out what Mia was, although with her I was certain from the beginning it was a girl. I am glad to report I am feeling TONS better and get a little better every day. Just starving lately and eating all I can get my hands on. I LOVE potato chips and pickles lots lately, but will eat about anything.

Mia is doing WONDERFUL! She is such a smart girl and besides her terrible 2 moments, she is so sweet. She LOVES to talk to my 'baby' and does so often. She lifts my shirt just til she can see my belly then just lays on her belly with her head close to my belly and will rub it and say 'hi baby' over and over and occasionally has to give the 'baby' a kiss. Then she'll put my shirt back and tell the baby bye and goodnight. I think she'll be a sweet big sister and I'm sure talking to my belly won't quit when the baby is here. She is getting so good at putting words together and making sentances or little phrases. She knows most the words to twinkle little star and itsy bitsy spider and sings often. Just yesterday I picked up her new dress and asked her if I could have it and she turned and looked at me and said 'put it back now'. Funny girl, but oh so smart. She never fails to impress us every day.

Beyond all that, everything is going pretty good. Jason is as busy as can be as usual with work and all the other project he has and I stay busy reorganizing every corner of our house. I'm excited for Halloween to see how Mia does this year and even more excited for Christmas, hoping I can get her in to all the fun this year. She's just more fun every day, I just love her to pieces.

Recipes!

2009-09-29T13:30:00.002-06:00

My mother in law just sent me the link to this blog and the few recipes I've looked through look AMAZING! Just thought I'd pass the link along. I think tomorrow night I'll be making her broccoli cheese soup and this weekend I might try the 'magic in the middle cookies'. SO yummy! Anyways, here it is. Look through and let me know if you try anything amazing!

http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com

Seattle

2009-09-29T11:02:00.003-06:00

I know it's about time I finally got all of our pictures and everything up from our trip, considering we've been home for like 2 weeks now. Anyways, we were lucky enough to find a great flight and finally made it up to visit my brother Chris and his wife Melissa and kids for an entire week in the start of september. SO glad we finally did it! Seattle is beautiful and it was so nice to see everything there and hang out with the fam for a bit.

Day 1 I was a little sick, getting over a stomach flu from the night before, which I was glad we didn't pass to my brothers family. My older brother Jeremy and his wife Mitzie drove up for the day, they're living in Portland while my brother attends pharmacy school. We spent the day hanging out at my brothers house and ran out to this amazing lake, rattlesnake lake. It was so beautiful and fun to watch all the kids play and have fun with each other. Chris bought a canoe this summer, so it was fun to ride that out to a more secluded point of the lake where the kids had a little more freedom to run and play. The next day we went to this park about 5 mins away from my brothers house that was so fun! You just felt like you were in the middle of the forest, yet the second you walked out of the park, you realize you were basically in someones neighborhood, it was SO nice!

Day 3 Chris and Melissa took us on the water taxi over in to downtown Seattle area to see the waterfront stores and head over to Pikes market. The market was so fun! I was amazed at the amazing flowers and produce they had and for such cheap prices! So yummy. The shops up by the waterfront were tons of fun too, filled with strange things like handerpants or strange flavored mints, shrunken heads and tons of little 'fortune telling' machines and old things like that. It was fun just to walk around and see who could find the strangest things. We also made a stop at the famous 'gum wall' on our walk up to pikes market and got some really yummy seafood at Ivars. Best clam chowder, so so good!

the rest of the trip will come later...

Cabin trip...

2009-08-13T15:44:00.002-06:00

So, I totally forgot to ever really post any of the pictures from a trip we took with part of my family. My Aunt owns a condo down on a ski resort in Utah called Brian head and she was nice enough to let us borrow it for a few days. We were able to go along with my parents, my brother Jordan, and my sister Emy and her family. It was TONS of fun and so so beautiful up there, and luckily, we happened to be up there in the mountains for one of the hottest weekends in the valley this year. SO nice! We spent a lot of time there in Brian head and also spent a day down in Bryce canyon which is gorgeous! So fun to see. We also got to go crawl around in some lava tunnel caves that are so short you actually have to army crawl through parts of them. SO cool! Anyways, just wanted to share all our fun pictures!

20 months old!

2009-08-13T14:44:00.003-06:00

I can't believe my baby girl is growing up so fast! She'll be 2 before I know it and one of these days, we'll all have to give up calling her 'baby Mia'. I just needed to document somewhere all of the amazing things she's doing now, some not so amazing things. She is such a little fire ball. She very much knows what she wants and works hard to be sure she gets it. At 20 months she some new things she's doing, or just some of the things we love most about her are:

-She is still SO good to say 'Tank you' anytime she is given anything or to remind you to say thank you when she give you something. She also recently starting saying 'your welcome' right after not only you say thank you but usually when she does as well.

-She is starting to put sentances together! Slowly but surely she's getting it. For now, it's usually just to get something. She very careful says things like 'more grapes please'. she says it slowly and tries so hard to be sure to pronounce each word correctly

-She climbs on EVERYTHING! when she's hungry, she doesn't tell us, she climbs on a chair and then on the table, then to her hire chair. Today I caught her climbing up on to our barstools herself. With that, she can reach ANYTHING! it's only a matter of time...

-She can be very helpful when she wants to be. She LOVES to help me put clothes in the drier and hand them to me so I can hang them up. She also loves to throw away garbage and HATES when drawers, doors or the fridge are left open.

- She is such a loving girl. She loves to give lots of hugs and is great at the occasional kiss as long as you don't mind a little slobber. She's learned to say 'love you' and it is always accompanied by her blowing you a kiss.

- She said her own prayer all by herself the other night randomly in the middle of dinner. She folded her arms and shut her eyes as tight as she can and started whispering to herself.

- Ane my most FAVORITE thing ever she just started in the past few weeks, anytime someone sneezes or coughs, she says 'bless you'. It is just the sweetest little thing ever.

She is such a sweetheart! She has been so wonderful since I found out I'm pregnant, which has been great since I haven't been feeling well. She has learned that she can on occasion get away with more, but she's still pretty good. Occasionally the terrible 2's come out, but I know it could be a LOT worse. She is a sweet baby, very thoughtful and loving and just so so sweet.

In other news.... My very best best is coming to town today! YAY! Katie and her husband are on our way to Utah as we speak and will be here til next weekend and I'm SO excited to see them and hang out and have some girl talk time! YAY! Then in Sept, it's off to Seattle to see my brother and his amazing family!

To tired to think of one...

2009-08-06T15:20:00.003-06:00

Well, for those of you looking for a big family update or witty post to make you laugh, you've come to the wrong place. Just as the title says, I'm to tired to think of anything. But, exciting... oh this just may be it. We're on our way to baby #2. Or, to put it more simply, I'm pregnant. Just hit the 7 week mark and so far things are good with the baby and worse than I remember, ha. I have told Jason a few times now is the time to ask me if I want anymore kids because most of the time, my answer will be no. I had an appointment for blood work and basics on Monday and so far so good. Already got one prescription for the pleasantries of pregnancy, aka throwing up, and am moving on to a stronger in a couple of days. It's amazing how quickly we forget the awful constant car sick feeling once that sweet little baby is in our arms. I think this time I'll have to journal more or something to document how much I hate the process. Perhaps that'll keep the 'baby hungry' feelings at bay for a bit longer.

All that said, we're so excited to have another baby around. Mia's been so interested in babies lately and growing up way to fast. I think she'll make a great big sister and will LOVE to do all she can, probably more than she should, to help the baby. Already I have nightmares of finding Mia half way down the stairs carrying poor baby #2 as far as she can make it. She means well, but we'll have to watch her close for a while. She can already show people where mommy's baby is and when asked if she wants another baby, never says anything but her cutest little 'yeah'. I'm just thrilled to see her be a big sister. She is such a sweet girl and good to give me breaks when needed. So, thats our lives for now. If anyone has good suggestions for keeping hunger at bay besides crackers, yuck, bring on the ideas! Only a few more months of this, haha.

June.. what a month!

2009-07-06T09:07:00.002-06:00

Well, I have completely fallen behind on the happenings around the Barnes house again and for once, we actually have some fun things to tell about and some cute pictures! We've had a ton of fun this last month with non-stop activities with Mia and her cute cousin's. My sister in law, Melissa, and her 2 kids have been in town for the month while my brother, Chris, sat at home and studied for the bar. It was so fun to have Melissa and the kids here! Melissa and I have always gotten along really well and Mia had SO much fun with her youngest, Beckham. He is only about 5 months older than Mia and they just loved being around eachother.

Also, for those of you who know my mom I'm sure you expected this, but we had non stop fun planned for the entire month they were here. My mom and dad bought new toys for the kids to play with out in their yard, we went to the childrends museum, movies, the princess festival, lunch all the time, the park, the pond, swimming and more. They had so much fun and we were so so sad to see them go! We also got a visit from my brother Jeremy and his wife Mitzie on their way up to Portland where Jeremy will start pharmacy school. It was so fun to see them and spend a little time with them!

Towards the end of the month I found Mia a new toy! I've been wanting to get her a playhouse, so I've been watching the classifieds to find one for a good price in good shape and finally found one! It was down in Orem and with Mia in the car, interesting to get home. When I got there to pick it up, I realized there was no way it was going to fit in the car, so I found what I could to tie it to the top, 1 bungee cord not long enough to reach over them all and jumper cables. I tied it on the best I could and drove down to the nearest gas station for more supplies. No rope, all I could find was duct tape. So, I taped it all up and on the freeway we went. Luckly we made it home with all pieces and safe.

Mia LOVES her new house. Even driving home the other day, she was upset so I kept telling her to find Mia's house. As soon as we got home, she ran to our back door and kept saying 'Mia's house'. Mia's house isn't our house, just her playhouse and she really loves running in and out and closing the door and windows on us. So cute! It's been a great month overall, although I'm not thrilled that Mia is growing up even more. She's talking SO much more and so clearly and climbs on even more, the higher the better. I came downstairs the other day to find her on our kitchen table playing with a glass and a pen, silly girl. She's a little monkey!

Mia and her cousin's

The zoo and Mia's new playhouse!

Update

2009-06-10T14:14:00.001-06:00

I know I know, finally a new post! I was so good at blogging for a while and even got good at keeping up not only 1, but 2 blogs. Now here I am finally finding the time to post an update after about a month or so. The truth is, our life has been pretty busy, but not in a very exciting way, ha.

Well, we still love our house and have it all unpacked! YAY! Truth is, i unpacked basically everything in a few days except a couple of boxes sitting in our extra bathroom we never use anyways. I did finally get around to finishing that and am proud to say we're all completely moved in! Mia loves having a yard, she spends 1/2 the day at the back door asking to go outside and the other half out there. She'd be completely happy out there all day if she just had someone with the time to sit out there with her all day, ha.

Mia's doing really well. She'll be 18 months this month and changes from my baby to my little girl more and more every day. She loves to talk and is constantly learning new words. She amazes us how fast she learns them all and how well she remembers them all. She is amazing. She loves our new ward, we have 3 nurseries with a lot of kids born within weeks of her. She really seems to enjoys it and from the first week we went to the new ward, she hasn't had a problem at all running away from us to get in to nursery. She just loves it.

I was called already to be one of the achievement day leaders in the ward. I've only been to one activity so far, but the girls are so cute and i really look forward to getting to know them. I, along with one other lady in our ward, am over the 8 year old girls. We have such a large primary, achievement days had to be split in to 3 groups. I'm happy to be in the calling and can't wait to get to know the girls better. Beyond that, I'm busy keeping the house clean, spending time with my family, and trying to find time for just Jason and I, ha. We just finally are getting to live in this house with just the 3 of us as we had Jason's sister, Jessica, living with us for a while then had an array of visitors for about a week and 1/2 straight. We were glad to have jessica and most of our visitors :). I know Mia really misses Jessica being around to play with and we miss the free babysitting. She is so great with Mia.

Jason is doing really well, he turned 25 in the end of may! I keep teasing him about how he's getting old and he's on the down slope now to 30. crazy. He's loving his job and they seem to love him as they load on more and more responsibilities all the time. I'm glad they appreciate him and all he does and know that I sure do too. That's pretty much our life at the moment. just having fun and enjoying the cool summer. We still haven't even quite made it up to 90 degrees around here and I love it! So so nice. so, if any of you dieing in the arizona heat want a break, come visit! We have a guest room now!

Our House!

2009-05-15T15:43:00.004-06:00

Well, we finally moved in and we're loving it, especially Mia. She is so cute just running from room to room and all over the back yard. We love all the space and the STORAGE! We have an awesome huge custome shed in our back yard that will hold a ton of stuff, and we are so glad to have it. I thought we had a ton of stuff to store and we haven't even filled 1/4 of it yet. Anyways, just wanted to share the pictures, although I know a lot of people have probably seen them on facebook already.

Our backyard. The playset and trampoline( which is in the ground) were included with our house.

Our kitchen, a little bit messier than I like it to be, but not to bad. The fridge we bought and the previous owners gave us the money to buy the microwave, their was broken. I'm hoping someday we can get a new stove and dishwasher to match.

Our room. I LOVE the fan, it's one of my favorite parts. That and the brown walls, but we had to add the paint color :)

Mia's room. We are going to add a pretty green chair rail around the room where the white and pink match, I just haven't gotten to that yet.

More of Mia's room

The front of our house

Our front room

More front room

Part of our living room

Mia's play room before her toys were put in it.

Easter

2009-04-21T11:23:00.004-06:00

Not much to say about it, just a few cute pictures. Mia seemed to enjoy finding candy on the ground, and luckily we had a family dinner with my parents and sister and her kids, which made it more fun. Her kids are the perfect age for the holidays, and really get in to it, so it was really fun to be there with them and always good to spend time with my family. Mia was really good at grabbing candy and throwing it in her basket and enjoyed eating it all even more. Anyways, here's our Easter!

Filling her basket, she did a good job getting the good stuff!

Finding Easter Eggs!

Mia filling up her basket with mom, Grandpa and cousin Xander

Mia just starting to figure this thing out

Getting ready to run out with her basket to see what the easter bunny brought!

Mia getting ready for church in her cute easter dress!

This is what she got for Easter this year, her new chair! She loves sitting in it and pushing it ALL over the apartment!

Shoes!

2009-04-14T13:36:00.003-06:00

So it turns out Mia is like her mom after all, she LOVES shoes lately. She walks all around our apartment and looks for shoes and gets so excited when she finds some to put on. Never he own shoes, they are always mine or Jasons (usually mine, she can't move in Jason's). So, I had to take a few pictures to share because I think it'd adorable to see this tiny little girl walking around in shoes about 2 times as big as her

Her first time in heels, she did pretty well.

She wears this pair more than any, I think because they are easy for her to walk in.

Arizona trip!

2009-03-30T10:25:00.006-06:00

Alright, I know it's been a while since I've had an update, it's been a busy couple of weeks, but we'll get to that in a minute, ha. Anyways, we were lucky enough to recently go on a trip to Arizona for my brother, Bret's, wedding. It was really nice. The wedding was great and we're so excited to now have Katie in our family. She's so cute and so sweet and we look forward to getting to know her better!

The trip was really great! Mia was able to spend a few days in Arizona alone with her Nonna Barnes and had a great time. They took about daily walks to the park, spent plenty of time playing outside, and quite a few shopping trips for toys. It was like a Christmas in March, ha.

Jason and I drove in on Friday and were able to spend a week. The weekend we got there was the rehersal dinner, wedding and after wedding brunch, so we stayed pretty busy all weekend. Monday we were able to go out to dinner with a bunch of friends. Mostly, we just spent the week at my in laws house(where my family stayed as well). It was a full house and so much fun to just spend time with everyone playing with all the toys and sitting outside enjoying the warmth. We were also able to go to a spring training game and spent some time hanging out with our good friends, mostly Katie and Bryan and our friend Danny. My brother and sister were both there all week with their kids, so it was some fun cousin play time. Anyways, here's a few pictures from our trip, sorry if it's to many pictures, ha!

Going Private

2009-03-23T16:24:00.003-06:00

Alright, I'm caving and going private on the blog. It does make sense, especially once you have a child, to want to keep your personal life personal (or course only sharing it with friends and family :) So, if you would like to continue to see the blog, please comment with your email or send me an email at julia_barnes@hotmail.com or facebook or anywhere else you know of to get ahold of me and I will gladly add you!

Arizona trip

2009-03-11T10:30:00.004-06:00

Thanks to a good friend of ours, Mindy, Mia and I got to take a quick trip down to Arizona on Monday! Mindy's Dad runs a business which owns a private plane and he had business there and Mindy invited us to come with them. It was so sweet of them to allow us to come and so fun to be able to spend a day in Arizona! The flight was great, Mia was allowed to do about whatever she wanted, so she spent the flight funning around and playing and just loved it. If there was turbulance or we were landing or things, I'd grab Mia and put her on my lap, but beyond that, she had a great time running around.

Since Jason and I are driving down to Arizona on Friday for my older brother's wedding, we decided to let Mia stay there with her Grandma Barnes, and avoid the 10 hour drive down. They're having so much fun with eachother and I am enjoying all the time I have to get ready without Mia emptying all of our suitcases, ha. It was a great trip down and a fun way to spend the day and such a nice way to get Mia there! Anything to avoid a 10 hour drive with a baby, haha.

Mia and I outside the plane when we landed in Phoenix.

Mia walking around the plane and trying hard to check out Mindy's adorable little boy.

Mia and I outside of the plane again in Phoenix.

Our House

2009-03-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd post a few more pictures of our house! This is all we have for now and we'll get some better ones once we move in and have our own things in there!

Up and running!

2009-03-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got the new site going! Here we are, now caving in and joing the blogger world! I do like it for a personal blog, everyone is familiar with how to use it and I like the privacy issue. I am thinking I'd like to set this one to private, so just get me your email address if you want to be added :) Anyways, I hope everyone saw my other blog www.nowamom.com has changed to a site where we can all share recipes, tips, great buys, stories, anything like that. Just email anything you'd like on there to miab@live.com or julia_barnes@hotmail.com and I'll get them added :)

Enough of that, on to better news... We found a house! It's here in Utah, about 20 mins. south of where we're at right now and we're SO excited! We love it. It has an amazing back yard and it's such a cute house. It'll be great for us for quite a while. We'll close may 1st and we're so excited to get moved in. I can't wait and know Mia will love the yard. Here's a picture of the exterior, we'll get some more up later, probably after we're in it! We can't wait!!