New Nephew and family fun

This past weekend, we got to spend some time with Grammy, Grandpa and Aunt Emy. They had plans to come and visit for Mitzie's baby shower, but in a crazy change of plans, they ended up being here to meet sweet baby Dylan. He was born about a week ago at 26 weeks, weighing in at 1 lb 8 ozs. Such a cute tiny little fighter! On Friday we did a girls trip over and worked on his 'beads of courage'. He earns beads for procedures he has done, milestones he meets, milestones his parents meet and his time in the hospital. A really cool keepsake to see all this little man is going through early in his life.

While we were at the hospital, the boys stayed home with all the kids. They swam, played games, watched movies, built forts and this.....

 Fun and trouble when Grandpa's in charge. These cute cousins had SO much fun with each other. The girls love spending time with their Uncles and Aunts and love having Grammy and Grandpa around, they never wanted to go home. That night, we got a babysitter and all the adults when out for a yummy Thai dinner. So tasty and so fun to relax and joke and just spend time with each other. 

Saturday we did a big family dinner at our house. It was Emy's birthday and I love to cook, so it was nice to have everyone here. Lots of playing games, lots of laughs, lots of yummy food and of course some yummy dessert. SO much fun. I love being with my family now that we are all adults. Watching our kids run around and play, laugh about memories from when we were growing up. It was a really great weekend, excited for the next time we can all be together and even more excited to watch sweet baby Dylan grow. Can't believe how much we all love that tiny boy already, he is such a little miracle and so amazing!

Neighborhood fun!

Have I mentioned how much I love where we live?! Not only do we love our house, but we love our friends! We are in a ward full of so many wonderful people. So genuinely kind and fun and welcoming. We have made so many wonderful friends here, and been invited to so many fun parties/play dates/girls nights.

For Easter, one of our friends put together a neighborhood easter egg hunt/potluck. The kids got tons of candy, the food was so yummy and even better was sitting around, watching these kids play and talking and laughing with friends. We all had such a good time, the kids left begging to please let them do this again next year.

A couple weeks later, some of the girls in our ward invited me along for a girls weekend. We went out to Scottsdale to stay in a fun resort called The Saguaro. We walked around cute old town Scottsdale and got so hungry waiting for our table for dinner, we decided to start with ice cream. We laughed and had fun with a selfie stick. We ate dinner at a fancy restaurant with yummy fancy food. We stayed up way to late at the hotel dancing, laughing and learning more about each other. The next morning started with Chicken and waffles and ended with a perfect day of relaxing at the pool. It was so nice out and loved sitting around with these amazing ladies and talking and not worrying about kids and husbands and cleaning and cooking. Just relaxing and enjoying! SO perfect!

Lilly's "first" haircut

I always knew this would happen one day. I would find one of my girls with their hair all cut off, with scissors in hand, and hair all over the floor. I mean, they see me cut peoples hair, including my own, all the time. But year after year went by, and it never happened. I thought we got lucky, that we dodged a bullet. Maybe they just liked their hair to much to do that or maybe they knew they could have me cut it however they wanted whenever they wanted.

Then Saturday, I went to comb Lilly's hair to head to a friends birthday party and there it was. Right in the front of course. She kept telling me she just thought it'd look cute. She said that the night before when she was supposed to be eating, she took the scissors, snuck in the bathroom, cut her own hair, and flushed it down the toilet. We got lucky, it's in an awkward place, sure, but it's not much hair and in a place I could hide it ok. I got one picture of her with her self inflicted haircut, and it is a terrible picture, so for her sake, we'll just go with the after shot.

Jason and I both talked to her about why she did that knowing I would have cut it for her if she asked. She said she doesn't have a good brain, that she just isn't getting smarter to be able to do the right thing. "I just have a bad brain". A little heartbreaking, but we couldn't help but laugh a little. After explaining to her that she is smart and has a great brain and that she did know better, she just made a bad choice, she was good to go. Explained her punishment to her and she was spent the rest of the day giggling about how she was in trouble but look how cute she looked. She was beyond thrilled with her new do. 

This crazy girl always keeps us on her toes. She is SO determined. She knows what she wants and she tries so hard to get it. Makes me so crazy and so proud. It all turned out well in the end, but keeping my fingers crossed she's learned this lesson and there will be no more haircuts in hiding in our future!

One year later

A year ago(nearly to the day) we packed a moving truck, said goodbye to our friends, family, and our first home and moved back home, back to Arizona. And what a crazy year it's been! Time has flown by and our little family has been through a lot of changes, mostly good. We spend 7 months living with Jason's wonderful parents who were so generous to put up with us there for so long, while we searched for, purchased and built a home that'd be perfect for us. 

Thinking back on the last year makes me realize how terrible I have been at documenting our lives along the way, and how important it is to me to hold on to every memory for my kids and for me, seeing as it seems my memory is a little worse all the time and the little moments I want to hold on to forever are slipping away. So, I'm going to play a little bit of catch up here of some big moments, then back to working hard at keeping this up

The girls started at their new school in the fall, Lilly in Kindergarten and Mia in 2nd grade. We LOVE their new school and the girls are both doing great there. Making lots of friends and both learning and growing every day. So proud of them and the amazing little girls that they are. 

In October, my wonderful parents took us along with most of our siblings on a cruise to the bahamas! We left Noah behind with Nonna and took the girls to Florida to set sail. We all had such a fun time. Eating everything in site and playing all we could. The girls got to stay up really late every night playing at their kids club, doing facepaint, and learning magic tricks, catching super villians, and hanging out with sponge bob. We made 3 stops, St Thomas, Tortola and Nassau. They were all amazing and beautiful! Mia fell in love with snorkeling at an amazing nearly private beach we found in Tortola and spent all day in the water. We got to collect big huge conk shells on a beautiful white sandy beach in Nassau and spent the day shopping and feeding fish in St Thomas. Our ship was topped with 4 huge water slides, a sponge bob splash bad, a big ropes course with a plank you could walk out 16 stories high over the ocean for the most amazing view! We spent 7 days relaxing and enjoying and the girls are begging every day to go back 

As soon as we got home, we got to move in to our new home! We settled in quickly and love it here. We have made so many new friends here and we are all loving it. As much as we miss my family and our friends in Utah, our family is very happy and loving it here. Can't wait to see what the future brings for our new warm weather life!

Noah James Barnes

He's here! So very excited to finally meet our sweet baby boy and to have him here with us, safe and sound! He weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz and 18" long, pink and wrinkly and sweet and SO perfect! 

The process to get him here was far from perfect, it was the worst delivery of the 3. Just like my previous 2, we opted to induce his birth. And of course the day chosen was actually our 7th wedding anniversary. June 24th. We started the day waiting to find out for sure when we'd be able to go in. Around 10am we were finally told there was room and we could go. As soon as we got there they got the pitocin all ordered and let my doctor know I was there. It took a little time to get all settled and about 1/2 hour later, it all began. the pitocin was going and the contractions were coming, although not really any worse yet then what the braxton hicks had been. My doctor came by about 11 and broke my water and the waiting began. The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. Not much progress, nothing changing too much. A few hours in to labor the pitocin was making things pretty strong so I opted to go ahead and get the epidural then so I could just relax and be ready for him to make his arrival.

I was sure he'd be born fairly quickly since everyone always says it gets faster and easier each time and had my mom waiting at home to rush the girls up to meet him before they had to go to bed. Thats when things got interesting. At 6pm that night when the shift changes happen, my new nurse came in to check on me and make sure baby boy was ok. His heart rate had been dropping on and off so I had been on oxygen already for a couple of hours trying to keep him more stable. As soon as this nurse came in and assessed what was going on, she seemed worried. I hadn't really been progressing much at all and this baby boy was so not happy, his heart rate dropping more and more with each contraction. Thats when the crazy started. 

The nurse was wonderful, she was so amazing and so on top of things and considering how the next few hours went, I was so beyond greatful we had her there with us. She had me moving in to all sorts of positions and finally figured out that if I laid as far as I could on my right side, nearly laying on my stomach, with one knee up a foot or so higher then the bed on a side table, his heart rate would stabilize. It was so uncomfortable and made the contractions so very painful, my hip and back were killing me, but if it meant keeping my baby safe, of course I was going to do it. I was stuck laying that way for a bit over an hour. The nurse had my doctor come in and check on me and they stretched my cervix a bit basically making my body progress from about a 5 to 8 or 9 in about 20 mins. It was fast and painful but I was so relieved thinking for sure this meant the end was so near. The nurse explained his head was slightly turned the wrong direction and that was not allowing him to drop down where he needed to be, they thought for sure he had the cord wrapped around his belly and making him stuck. 

And I sat there at a 9 for a couple of hours. The nurse pretty much sat in the room with us because of this little boy stressing out and his heart rate going crazy. 3 times in those last few hours, there were nurses running in the room in their scrub caps all ready to rush me off for an emergency c section. They were trying everything they could to get this baby here without that happening, including running more fluids in with the baby so he wouldn't become distressed anymore then he already was. Finally they had my doctor come in and decided I'd just have to push and force my body to get that 10cm. I was so exhausted and stressed at the thought of a c section and crying, it was the most stressful and hard situation I've ever been in. It took everything in me to push, while the doctors and nurses did everything they could to get the baby to come. 

Finally after a little bit of pushing I got really nauseous and ended up getting sick, which I guess actually forced my stomach muscles to push hard enough to get this baby here. He came out with the cord wrapped tightly around his neck a couple of times the doctor had to force off and he was finally here! He was healthy and crying and as soon as he got all cleaned up they brought him over to me hoping that skin to skin contact would help his stats to stay stable as the birth was a little distressing for him. As I held him, I noticed the color on his body was going a little grey and soon after the nurse noticed as well. 

They spoke with the nicu nurse to see if he'd need to go up to the nicu nursery, and thankfully she opted to just have him sent in to the well baby nursery to be monitored until he had stabilized. It was a couple of hours before we saw him again or heard anything about how he was doing and it was a terrible end to such a long day. We were moved in to the recovery room at about 2 am, so emotionally drained and exhausted and so worried about what was going on with our sweet baby boy. Finally about 1/2 an hour later they brought him in and he was perfect.

We spent the next couple of days in the hospital, only letting him leave my sight when he was needed for tests or procedures. He was a little momma boys from the start, the nurses would bring him to me saying he was fussy and hungry and nothing they did would calm him and the second I picked him up, he'd calm right down and go to sleep. Such a sweet, loving, cuddly little boy. I am so head over heels in love with him and felt an amazingly strong bond with him as soon as he was given to us. An overwhelming sense of wanting to protect him from everything. 

Last pregnant picture!

 Mia finally meeting her baby brother. She has been SO excited to be able to hold him, she was in love the second she saw him!

 Lilly was a little nervous, and wouldn't hold him at the hospital, this was about as close as she'd get.

 Finally going home!

 Lilly finally asked to hug her sweet baby boy a couple days after we got him home

 2 girls so in love with this sweet baby boy!

Preschool Graduation!

This last year Mia has been going to Discovery Day preschool here in Lehi with Mrs Lacey and Mrs Shauna. She has LOVED it there, her teachers have been amazing and she has made some cute friends. There have been lots of fun projects, class parties and even tons of fun field trips. We will be sad to not see her cute teachers anymore, but so excited to see what kindergarten will bring for Mia.

 Her best little friend from preschool is the girl to her right, Isabelle.

 Mia saying her lines in the graduation ceremony

 Mia receiving her diploma in her 'cap and gown' haha.

Lilly turns 3!

   Oh what can be said about this crazy little girl! 3 years ago we welcomed this sweet baby girl in to our family and were so thrilled to have her. Immediately after she was born, she wanted to do nothing but sleep and was SO sweet and loving. A couple days later, all that changed and we quickly learned that we would forever have our hands full with this one. She was born with a ton of attitude. So insistent on getting what she wanted and so very particular about how her life would go. In these last 3 years, that hasn't changed one bit. She is still the sweetest most loving little girl with more attitude then her tiny little body can hold. She can scream the most high pitched, blood curdling scream because she didn't get just what she wanted and a minute later, she is covering your face in the sweetest little kisses.

  Following her very tom boy sister, Lilly has been the fun little girly girl that every new mom of a baby girl expects. She loves princesses and all things pink and sparkly. It still amazes me how different these sisters can be. So for her, I got to plan my first pink, girly, princess birthday party! This girl knows what she wants and likes and started insisting on a cinderella birthday cake months before her birthday came and that never changed. We just had some family and a few close friends over to help us celebrate, just what this little princess wanted!


Princess Zoey all dolled up in her princess party favors, including tiara, sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets and even a littel princess wand.

 Food included princess shaped peanut butter sandwiches for the kiddos, mixed fruit and yummy fruit dip, little sugar cookie fruit tarts, meatball sliders, balsamic chicken sliders, and some yummy strawberry lemonade.

 Complete with some princess and pink decorations all hand picked by the birthday girl herself.

 And of course her princess birthday cake, with cinderella! She chose chocolate, of course, my little junk food loving baby.

 Present time! Lots of baby doll stuff so when her baby brother is born, she'll have her own baby to play with and take care of.

Happy Birthday my sweet little Princess Lilly Bug!! Oh what a love bug you have been these last 3 years and what a life you've brought in to our lives. She has so much fun energy and so loving and sweet, always looking out for her mom and dad and her big sister, love this girl so very much and can't imagine our family without her!!