Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas Card!!!

Yes I did send my kid to school like this...

So finally I get to show off my expertise of doing bad hair. It's a gift only few of us possess. Here are a couple of my latest creations. Hold the applause, please.

Wedding and Fall Family Picture

We went down to Sterling's brother David's wedding. It was a beautiful ceiling and a beautiful day. The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. Sterling and I had a great time stay up late and talking with everyone. It was really nice to connect for a while. Then we got to spend some time with my family on Sunday. It was a nice trip to Utah. I do miss the fall in Utah. But we are loving Idaho though. Here are some pictures of our time down there. BTW I didn't take any pictures of the bride and groom. I didn't want to step on the photographers toes. So these are just of my kids and cousins.

So much...

It's been way to long since I have posted I know. But this one is going to be short. I will just post some pictures. I will have to retro post later. So much going on...so much on my mind. It's hard to know where to start. I guess I am just going to have to procrastinate. Oh well. I hope these pictures help.

Syd's first day of school!! She's lovin it!


My sweeties!


Our house. Ab took this pic. She's pretty good,huh?


Baptism day. I'm getting old.


Our new neighbors. (well like a mile a way, but i love this barn!)


This is what happens when you have a Barnes baby and a box of tomatoes too close to her. Too cute!


Abby's impromtu birthday bash. (we have a lot of girls in the neighborhood, thank goodness)


Jackie was afraid we were going to leave her behind on our move, so she pack herself. We threw Callie in so she wouldn't get lonely on the drive.


She wouldn't get out of the box! Poor dog!


Selling tomatoes door to door. (ok giving them away)


More, tons more later. I promise.

5 Months!!

My little princess is 5 months old. I can't believe how fast they grow. It seems like the more kids you have the faster they grow. It's not fair! She is so sweet and loves to coo all the time. She makes a silly noise lately that is a cross between a growl and a squeal. She is just such a happy baby. I am truly spoiled. I have to say she has the cutest thighs too. You just need to squeeze them. Here are some photos I took the other day of her. She is just soooo cute. I can't help myself.

Movie Night

Last weekend Ster thought it would be fun to get a coconut for the girls. It reminded me a lot like "Castaway" watching him trying to get to the inside. He first drilled holes in it so the girls could drink the milk. Not so tasty. But they thought it would be great. They were slightly surprised. Then he used a hammer to crack it open. It was fun for the girls to see what a real coconut is like. Later on we watched "Beverly Hills Chiuahua" Can you guess from the picture of everyone in their pj's who might have liked this movie best?

Callie sitting up

Callie's favorite position is sitting up. If we lay her down she trys to do ab crunches to sit up. I don't think she is going to be rolling over anytime soon, but she will probably be sitting up all on her own with a couple of weeks. If only she liked tummy time. Oh well.

Tessa Smile!

I thought this was cute. I said "Tessa, smile." and this is what I got.

blue eyes please!

Sterling has the most amazing blue eyes. That is pretty much why I married him :) But none of my girls so far have his eyes. I have hazel. They are pretty green and my Mom has blue and my sister has blueish-green, so I do have some blue eyed genes. All of Sterling's six brothers and sister and Mom and Dad have these rich blue eyes. So why do Abby, Sydnee and Tessa have more my eyes? But Callie is giving us hope. Her eyes are still very blue. I am praying they will stay blue. Here is the contrast between Tessa (my most brown eyed girl) and Callie.

My Loves

Just a layout I did of my favorite people for Valentines.

My Valentine

Thanks Ster for being mine!

Sickness...and weird dog

RSV has hit our house. Everyone has gotten sick, but worst of all was poor Callie. I think we are over the worst of it and I am excited for life to get back to normal. So far I have taken Callie to the hospital 4 times. She is fine but I don't trust myself to breathing problems after my niece Madison's collapse lung last summer. I had no idea anything was wrong with her. Well I couldn't help but take this picture of poor Tess. She just looked too sweet.
My dog is weird. I got this new humidifier the other day and Jacquie was freaking out. I think she thought there was fish in it. I watch her for about 10 minutes, circling and sniffing it and finally growling at it. It was pretty funny. I was so tempted to put a gold fish in it, but that is gross.

Traditions...and ugly outfits

A few random photos:
The girls snowmobiling. Syd's mad because she wants to go alone

Callie and Abby

Callie 2 months old

One of my new goals for this year is to try and create a few family traditions. I feel like sometimes my life can be like the movie "Groundhog's Day." The same thing over and over again. Not bad necessarily, but can be a little hum-drum. I love looking forward to things like: BYU Football, Christmas time, Spring time when the kids can ride their bikes again, 4th of July with my extended family; Labor-Day weekend with Sterling's family; the Olympics, going to Disneyland, etc. These things are pretty big events, but I have been thinking about trying to add smaller things to look forward to, more often and repetitively. Our girls just love family night. They can't wait till Monday and usually we try to do something fun each week. I know they would love to start some new traditions similar to things we do at family night. I was hoping to add something once a week or once a month, to look forward too. Here are somethings I have heard of people doing:

Family movie night: With theme and all. The mom even tries to make dinner or snacks coordinating with the movie.
Friday pizza night
Saturday pancake breakfast
Neighborhood parties once a month
Color theme day once a week
Grandparents FHE once a month

Anyway, sometimes I feel like my brain has not recovered from having four kids, so I feel like it is hard to be creative and come up with new ideas. I don't mean to steal something from you but if you have any ideas you would like to share, or found something that has worked for you let me know. I think traditions are fun and are a great way to bring a family together. I want to start doing this more while my kids are young and get into this fun habit. I don't want to do something that takes a lot of work , work being the key word, because I know I won't keep it up. Thanks in advance for sharing!!

So completely off this subject, I had to laugh yesterday as I watched and listened to my two year old whine and complain and hound me about her outfit that was drying. She paced back and forth in front of the dryer asking me over and over when it was going to be done. She, of course was so distressed by not being able to wear her favorite outfit while it was being cleaned that they only thing she could do was change her clothes about 10-12 times while waiting. I was starting to lose my patience with her when this memory popped into my head. My Mom has reminded me of this several several times. She thinks it is so funny and loves to talk about it all the time. When I was about 5 her sister sent a box of girl clothes (her sister only had one girl and 8 boys!) to my mom. Inside this box was the ugliest shirt she had seen. Before she could get ride of it I found it and it immediately became my favorite. I can still remember this shirt. It was mostly white with red piping and a beautiful rainbow on the front (very 70's) I had to wear it all the time. I don't blame myself I looked dang good in it! It set off my hair. Well I would do the same thing. Wait by the dryer and drive my mom crazy while it dried.
While my two year old waited for her clothes to dry I tryed my best to convince her to put on this other outfit. The outfit I tempted her with is blue with flowers and birds on it. It is very comfortable and easy to get on and off. I love the way Tess looks in it. It is so cute and chic. But alas I have only seen her in it once. She has refused to wear since. Even though she looks so cute in it. Instead it this ugly outfit I mistakenly bought for her that she whines for. Again, I was reminded of an incident from my childhood. I was about 5 again and my Mom was trying to get me to wear this incredibly ugly red dress. It was frilly and lacy and way to red. I looked stupid in it! How could my mom want me to wear such a thing. There was no way that was going to happen. Of course I won. And of course my two year won. I guess what goes around comes around. (I was right about the red dress though, Tess on the other had just does't have good taste :)

I love this picture

Trying to figure out how to do movies

Here is a clip of Tessa and Callie.

"Baxter, you ate a whole wheel of cheese. I am not even mad, I'm impressed"

Ok that is a line from Anchorman. Such a funny movie. Anyway, the other day Tessa was being awfully quiet. Never a good sign. When I went to check on her this is what I saw. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. If you look closely you can see she was very symmetrical with her face painting. So how could I get mad at her, when she did such a good job? By the way , I don't know what "Washable Markers" mean? What do they wash off of, certainly not skin.

Christmas 2008

Abby and Sydnee at the dinosaur muesum

Maxwell, Abby and Mia

Callie Christmas Present

Callie's Christmas Dress
It was such a wonderful holiday season. Everywhere I went people would comment on ow wonderful it is to have a brand new baby for the Christmas season. That was certainly true. There was definitely a different spirit around. Maybe it was because I got all my shopping pretty much done before Callie was born so I could relax a little, or maybe it was because Callie got to play baby Jesus twice. Once at church and once for the Barnes Family Christmas. Whatever it was it was really nice having such a little one for Christmas. Although I was a little sleep deprived through all of it. The girls loved having a little one at all the Christmas activities. They were just thrilled to see Callie play baby Jesus. It was also so nice to spend time with family. The Waldrons came up and Tessa was so excited to play with Mia and Eva. It was so much fun to hang out and relax with them and the rest of the family. My parents were in town as well and it was nice to see them and enjoy some family dinners with my sisters' families. I am going to miss the season. And now we get to enjoy the cold. Today was the first day back at school and on the way we were guessing how low our thermometer would drop before we got there. I won with 11, Abby thought it would be 7. I think she was more accurate though. It kept dropping on the way home. Oh well. I guess we will have to go sledding a lot. So take that you 70 degree Christmas Texans!!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

We got so much snow this Christmas. It was so nice having a real white Christmas this year. I wish I would have taken more pictures. The kids had a great time sledding with their cousins though. Abby is a pretty good snowboarder. She taught herself to do it. I am so impressed. She definitely didn't get that skill from me.