merry christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, how could it not be? This year seemed extra special because it was Will's first Christmas, and also because Katy really caught on to the idea of what Christmas is really about. She kept telling us how special it was for us to celebrate Jesus and to give presents to people.

Sadly I was so sick this year. I mean, I was DOWN and OUT for 5 days or so there. Actually we all got sick except for Steve...he is superman when it comes to getting sick. We laid low Christmas morning. It was perfect.

In my house growing up, Santa always left our stockings by our bedroom door. Truth be told my sisters and I would always have a sleepover on Christmas Eve, so I guess Santa left our stockings wherever we were sleeping. My stocking was my most favorite part of Christmas, my mom (I mean Santa) did such an amazing job at getting everything just perfect. Also, bonus for parents, it kept us kidos entertained long enough that we didn't have to wake them up before the crack of dawn!

Katy was stoked, Will was happy to be part of the party, and Steve...hates to get up early, but does it with a smile anyway for the kids! Ha!

Katy always makes you feel like a million bucks because every present is EXACTLY what she wanted and it's always her FAVORITE thing in the world.

She wanted, more than anything, an American Girl doll. Well those babies are a lot of money. I wasnt sure I wanted to spend that much money because I was not sure how it would be treated by a 4 year old. I was researching knock off dolls at Toys R Us and Target between 30-40 dollars, when my sister found the deal of the century....50.00 for a doll and accessory pack. Sold! I'm also happy to report that she has been a big hit. We have also enjoyed reading the books. 

Chuck dove face first into any and all bags and or tissue paper. He always loves a good excuse to do some investigating. Now Will, he was a surprise to me. He was overwhelmed by all the tissue and wrapping paper. I thought he would have LOVED that part, but he cried when I pulled it out of his back and let it fall on his head.

zoo day feast

So this was my first official turkey day visit to the zoo. We celebrated with Steve's family this year and the Grimshaws always always go to the zoo. In fact, they have invited us on many occasion but this was our first official outing. I guess it's getting more popular and was pretty busy.

The funny thing was I saw my cousins there, it's a small world I tell ya.

It was pretty cold, but Katy and Will seemed to have a good time!

As usual the carousel was a hit. Will is starting to get that this is a pretty fun thing. 

Katy can never decide which animal she wants to be

Heidi told us to come in our jammies and I took that quite literally! Great way to start your day if you ask me...

and this guy!

happy turkey day

We were in charge of rolls this year for thanksgiving. Katy was a killer helper in the kitchen this year. she made me laugh out loud when she was kneading the dow and announced, "mom...fists are good for kneading dough AND fighting bad guys!" The things that come out of her mouth make me stop in my tracks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

happy halloween

Halloween was perfect this year. Katy chose to be Merida from Brave, and sister Katie offered her services to help us get there. We headed up to the salon in the morning and got the full service. As you can see, she was a spot on match!

I wish Katy liked pictures more, but this was as good as I could get.

Aunt Katie always comes over and goes trick or treating with us (a favorite of this family)

Will was not too amused by the trick or treating, as you can see here.

Even more so when he actually feel asleep! If he's anything like me (sweet tooth central) he'll figure out what it's all about sooner or later!
We took Katie out to dinner afterwards, the perfect ending to the perfect day!

That and a good ol tubby! Katy told me earlier that day that her hair felt just like cotton candy, she is so funny sometimes!

The Pumpkin Carver

One of our favorite Halloween past times is to carve pumpkins with the Beardshalls! I think we've done it about 3 years in a row and Katy looks forward to it every year. Steve and Spencer can talk about cop stuff...and Katy, Jennie and I can get down to the business of carving some pretty cool pumpkins. Actually, let's be honest, Katy really just wants Jennie to carve with her. This year she helped her carve a Brave pumpkin (Merida). I think I have a few pics on Halloween of how it turned out (totally forgot to take one of the after this night), it was great! Jennie is an amazing artist and we feel so blessed they can come and do this with us every year!

On a side note Katy had her preschool Halloween party this day and had her face painted. Something else ironic about this is that Jennie is also an amazing face painter. One of these years when we actually do a friend birthday party we are totally hiring her to come. Katy loved the face paint and extra glitter this day!

Gobble Gobble

The stuffing has landed, the stuffing has landed...for me at least. That is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving! Something of which I volunteered to make. I also decided to go ahead and volunteer for our famous 10 layer jello. Remember last time we were at moms I did the jello and it did not turn out so well! Ha, Steve kept telling me "PATIENTS", but that is something I have a hard time with some times. Instead of letting each layer chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, I went ahead and popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Ha, worked like a charm!

I also cooked the Turkey (!), not really....

But I did make this guy. We are the lucky owners of an awesome popcorn machine that was given to us that we decided to use. Yup, filled with yummy movie popcorn! Also note worthy is Britney's super cute place setting turkey's just there at the bottom of the picture! Aren't we so crafty!

Other fun crafts we did included turkey faces...

Katie you are looking good!

And turkey apples. I LOVE Thanksgiving so much. I love spending time with my family. I also have so much to be grateful for...Steve is the most amazing person I know, and I am lucky enough to call him my husband, Katy is the bomb digity and we have so much fun teaching her and learning with her every day, I have my health, we have everything we need, and we are grateful for our new little baby! I LOVE SO MUCH, we are so blessed!

Britney made the cutest "gratitude rolls" she asked us all to email her things were are grateful for. Every time you opened one up you had to read your message. Mom opened hers first it said, "I am grateful for my two new grandkids due in 2012". We all laughed, because mom was not sure what was going on! We are all so happy for the Barkers, after all they do make super cute babies! Congrats, thanks for sharing your news in such a FUN way. We are so excited. Thank you to my mom for having us all over, and for being such a wonderful mom! We love you!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

Happy Halloween

Halloween never disappoints for sure. It's my favorite! Katy really did have a good time this year, aside from all the scary stuff! That is another story for sure. Let's just say I'm glad in a way it's all over too!

We opted to carve pumpkins on Friday night. We met Spencer and Jenny for dinner on Friday night. We had to get our pumpkins before we got there, yup we didn't get around to that until then! Katy had fun riding in the wheel barrow and picking out our pumpkins. She did a great job!

At first she thought the "goo" was gross but after a minute she realized it was fun! She had fun "scooping" with mom. Steve doesn't do goo. I'm happy to scoop all the goo to get our pumpkins carved! I made a silly face, Katy made Minnie Mouse and Steve did a Mac Apple!

Katy had a hard time deciding what she wanted to be this year. For months she wanted to be Aerial so we drove down to the Disney Store. The Aerial costume was SO stink in cute, but she was sure that she needed a costume with a tail. I searched and searched until we found this beaut. She was all for it and we were set for Halloween...until she informed me that she was not going to be Aerial! What?!?

She would change her mind every day and tell me things like...I'm going to be a monster, a farmer, an ice cream cone, a doctor, Minnie Mouse. I'm sure there were others but that is all I can remember for now. For our ward trunk or treat she opted to be Minnie Mouse (a costume we had, because that is what she was last year), so I was ok with that.

She surprised me when she decided to actually be Aerial on Halloween. She looked good and seemed to be pretty impressed with her red hair. Katie hooked us up and gave us some spray color the last time I got my hair cut. I wasn't sure if it would look good because it wasn't fire engine red, but it actually looked really good!

I know Steve is a scrooge about dressing up, and that usually doesn't discourage me from dressing up. But I was not feeling so great this year and opted to be lame and not really even get ready at all! We had Katie over for trick or treating and pizza. We had a great time!

We left a bucket of candy on our door step and all went trick or treating together. There was no game to keep Steve glued to the TV this year, so he joined us!

Our little neighborhood is perfect. It's basically one big loop. We hit up the outside, stopped and ate dinner, and went back and got the inner side of the loop. Katy got a TON of candy. We were even lucky enough to get a king sized candy bar! I helped with that one!

I saw this on pinterest but I but glow sticks and put them in jars of water. They were glowing ok and then Katie found that if you shook them up they really glowed good. But when I opened the door a few minutes later they were pretty much dead. So it was good for a bit of fun....but kind of more work that it was worth!

Let Freedom Ring

The 4th of July weekend was such a BLAST! I think (aside from Christmas....who could compare) the 4th is my favorite holiday. I just love the atmosphere the fireworks and time with family. Love, love, love! Oh and I love all the carnivals and "town days" that every town here in Utah has. We were seriously going non stop all weekend.

After we got back from Britney's Steve picked us up at my moms and we headed to the Riverton days celebration. Katy really wanted to go on the merry-go-round. She always calls it the carousel. She loved it and it only cost 4 dollars! Sheeze! Ha. Luckily I didn't have to buy a ticket to stand next to her. It was making me laugh my head off when the pink horse we were riding on was super rickety going up and down. I'm surprised it didn't just break off the track. I guess that is what you get with carnival rides that get taken down and put up who knows how many times!

I love the picture above because sometimes Steve is just as bad as Katy when it comes to taking pictures. See funny face and not paying attention to me face above! My family...gotta love it!

Katy and I tried to get a picture taken but the ride behind us what too loud she kept saying. I guess she was a bit distracted! Ha :) After we got back from the fair we slept in the tent (see June post) in the backyard. It was so much fun. Much better than our sand dunes experience!

On Saturday we drove up to American Fork Canyon. This canyon is BEAUTIFUL for sure. We may be kind of nerdy but we got a season pass so we can go up there all the time! Like I said it's beautiful....and I forgot my camera!

Saturday night we went to see Cars 2 at the drive in with Wendy and Chris in Steve's new truck. Yes we have another new car. I think I'm resined to the fact that Steve wont keep a car for longer than 3 years...even if it is your dream car Jeep Wrangler! Ha, hopefully this truck will be his new dream car for another 3 years!

Jordyn, Katy, Grayden and Carter at the movies. I had a good time at the movies with you guys. You are welcome to come any time. Ha, Steve gets us in for free because he's a cop. You can imagine we spend a lot of time there...which makes us kind of white trash but I'm embracing it!

Monday we had a blast. Most notably we headed over to Roger and Joannes. Holladay has a pretty great fireworks show across from where they live. For the festivities Steve made his famous home made root beer. He always makes it for Halloween but we decided that the 4th was another day we need to make a tradition. I opted to make homemade ice cream. MY FAVORITE! Actually the funny thing is I made it earlier that day and put it in the freezer. By the time we got there I pretty much didn't need the ice cream maker....so you don't necessarily need to have an ice cream maker to enjoy homemade ice-cream! You should give it a try it's my Grandpa Ferguson's recipe.

Dad's Lemon Ice Cream

2 quarts milk (that's 8 cups)

1 1/2 C heavy cream

1 1/2 C lemon juice (I use limes)

5 C sugar (to taste, I use a little less)

2 1/4 t. lemon extract (this one I usually use the lemon, but lime extract is good too!)

It's seriously my most favorite summer treat. It's not quite ice cream, or sherbet. Kind of like a combo perhaps! Give it a try, seriously you will LOVE it!

I found some morning glory sparklers in the dollar bin at Target. We had a good time lighting them off. Katy watched on Steve's lap. She was not too impressed. She did watch the fireworks with her special headphones aka Steve's gun earmuffs! All in all it was an excellent weekend for celebrating! We are blessed to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day = Awesome! I love it. What a wonderful holiday to share with your family to celebrate our blessings! We got to kick things off with Steve's family. We went to the graves and then out to lunch at the Chuck-a-Rama....Papa's favorite. I think he'd be proud! It seems like we've done this a few years now...I hope we keep this tradition running because it's a blast!

The gang.

On Sunday of the weekend we always have a BBQ at Grandma Ida's house. What a fun tradition. My Grandma lives up by Brighton High School and has the most incredible back yard ever!!! We always called it her secret garden. I have also always been amazed with my grandma's knowledge of horticulture and such. She is AMAZING!

Please excuse the fact that Katy doesn't match at all. I needed a quick jacket as we were walking out and this is what I ended up with! Hey, don't blame me it was cold that day. In fact it started raining just as we went into the garage to watch old slides of my mom and aunts and uncle growing up. SO FUN. I remember my great grandma Lewis had these slide viewers you could use to look at the slides...I felt like I was back at Great Grandma Lewis's house!

The Barker Kidos!

Mom, Zach, Katie, Grandma and Steveo

Hey we get a lot of good use out of all our names. Katy with Katie and Brynn with cousin Bryn. Actually if you really want to laugh cousin Bryn named her son Andrew (like my cousin and her brother Andrew) but they call him Drew instead of Andy (which is what we call my cousin). Who knows what we will recycle next around here!

Beautiful Day

I first want to say how grateful I am for my knowledge of the resurrection and why we celebrate Easter. Yes, we have many fun traditions when it comes to this holiday, especially when it comes to candy *wink*, but it's nice to be able to stop for a minute and appreciate this great blessing in our lives.

We started off our holiday weekend at the Beardshall's for an Easter egg hunt, lunch and the Easter story told by Miss Joanne and the famous flannel board stories! The kids were having a blast, but I think Paige was the most helpful!

I love how Katy carries her basket like it a purse!

Family photo time....awww!

Today, despite my feeling like complete CRAP (I've been hit hard by the cold bug, dang I haven't been sick in a while!), we had fun. After church we headed over to my moms for dinner. When I got there I realized that my mom had a heaping bowl of my FAVORITEs, Robyns Eggs (let's be honest, what's not my fav when it comes to sugar?). I don't know about anybody else but when we were little (I had all sisters) we loved to make lipstick with these beauts. I seriously couldn't help myself and just started to go to town. Lucky for me my family is fun and they all joined in!

Here's our best shot. We found that the blue ones make the best lipstick.

I think this one is pretty funny of TJ and Gage! They were both making us laugh so hard when they were playing with Katy and Brynn's parasols they got from Grandma Kerry!

Katy is at a really fun age to celebrate the holidays with. Growing up the Easter Bunny always hid our baskets for us to find. Same holds true here in our home. But the Easter Bunny was nice this year and helped Katy out with a trail of candy leading her to where it was. It was funny when she woke up. I heard her open the door and say "wow mom there's candy out here!" Then she shut her door, perhaps in disbelief? She opened it again and just kept yelling "mom, mom, mom theres candy out here"! I had to help her find her basket. It was hidden in the dryer! She was lucky and got some of Mo Willems pigeon books (a favorite), Max and Ruby beanie babies, and a princess flashlight!

I am again grateful for my family and the resurrection and our knowledge that we can be together forever! Happy Easter!