Katie's First Performance

Tonight was the elementary chorus' first performance at the Open House. Katie has been telling us that their teacher, Mr. Yorks, keeps telling them that they are the best group he has heard and worked with in years. And they did sound great! I'm so glad that is participating and enjoying it. She tells me that they have several trips planned also, and she is really looking forward to that too. Great job sweet pea! Can't wait til the next performance.

Ladybug Bella

Sarah is loving her teacher, Mrs. McKeivier, this year. She calls the kids in her class ladybugs. They even have a little class mascot, who happens to be a ladybug named Bella, that they each get to bring home one night. They are supposed to record what they do with Bella, take pictures, put it in Bella's binder, and bring it back to class the next day. Well, today it was finally Sarah's turn. She has been telling me how she doesn't like being the last in her class to do everything. Sorry sweet pea. That's the breaks of having a last name that starts with Y. I understand though. It was hard for me too because I went from a last name that starts with a B to a Y. Anyway, Sarah brought Bella home with her today when I picked her up early from school to take her to the doctor. Mrs. McKeivier had called me and told me that Sarah was breaking out with hives on her arms. So I picked her up and took her to the doctor. The doctor thinks it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic she was on. So she put her on a new one. With all that was going on today, we kinda forgot about poor Bella. So we ended up taking pictures and recording what we did with Bella just before Sarah went to bed.



Sarah introduced Bella to our fish...........



.........and to Marco (who apparently needs new water).........



............and of course her cute brother and sister.



Thanks for coming to visit us Bella. Hopefully your next visit will be more exciting.

Hangin' at Holly Beach

This afternoon we drove down to Holly Beach with the Zacharys. We were both going to bring our four wheelers, but we couldn't get ours to start, and neither could the Zacharys. So we just hung out and let the kids play.















It was really nice, except for the being way outnumbered by the love bugs part. Seriously, they were everywhere!



Aaron bought an "Old Smokey" so we could grill some hot dogs.



We were hoping the heat and the smoke would keep the love bugs away. No such luck.



John David kept busy checking out Paw Paw's truck.



He even checked the tires. It was pretty cute.



He had a great time.



I love these guys.



It was a relaxing afternoon.



Thanks for hanging out with us Zacharys. We'll have to do it again soon.....when the four wheelers are running! :)

The Last Day of Summer

Today was the last official day of summer.



We celebrated with a last day of summer jello dessert.



The girls and John David loved it. The missionaries.....not so much. We had to explain what it was to them.



Goodbye sweet summer. We can't wait to see you again next year. But we are pretty excited for fall!

Just Another Day in Paradise

1. I seem to have lost my "muchness", as the Mad Hatter from the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie would say. I think I am having a harder time than anyone else with the girls being back in school. John David follows me around everywhere, making it hard for me to do things I need to do. It's really frustrating for me not to be able to be productive, because there are so many things I want and need to get done. But I'm sure we'll get into a groove sometime. And hopefully soon.

2. Thursday night Aaron came home with this fabulous present for me.



We have talked about getting a bike trailer for a while, and he decided it was time to do it instead of just talking about it. And I'm so glad he did. He took it out for a spin first.



Aaron told me not to take a picture of him on my "Maw Maw bike." Ha! Ha! I got one anyway! I was worried at first that John David wasn't going to like it because he cried when we strapped him in, and as long as it wasn't moving he didn't seem very happy about it. But he enjoyed the ride, once Aaron took off. And Aaron like it too. Then I tried it out.



I thought it was going to be a little hard to pull, but it wasn't at all. John David and I went for our first ride together on Friday morning after I dropped the girls off at school. It was so nice. We rode around our neighborhood for about 45 minutes. I didn't realize that John David had fallen asleep until we got back home. Saturday morning we went on our first family ride. It was so fun to be able to ride together as a family. The girls loved it, and so did Aaron and I. Looking forward to lots more riding in the (hopefully soon to be here) fall weather.

3. I made the first year of our blog into a book. I have been wanting to do it for a while, and when I found an awesome promo code on Leelou Blogs a few months back, I finally got motivated to do it. It was so much work editing it, but it was so worth it. We all love it and have enjoyed looking back on what we did in 2008. I am now working on 2009.



4. Yesterday we started cleaning out the girls' room. They are having such a hard time keeping it clean these days, and we finally decided it was because they just have too much stuff. So we got rid of some of the things they have outgrown, like the princess table and chair, the kitchen (and all of the stuff that went with it), and the shopping cart. I got kinda sad thinking about them outgrowing the little girl stuff and how much they are changing, but I'm trying to think about the positive things about them not being little anymore. Still haven't come up with anything yet, but I'm trying. Anyway, just getting rid of that stuff has made such a big difference already. We still have more cleaning out to do though, so it should get even better. Woo hoo! It feels good to clean out and organize.

5. I was released last Sunday from my calling in Primary. I'm very sad because I love being in primary. But my sweet little man does not like nursery, and it was hard for me to keep him with me in Primary, and hard for Aaron to keep John David with him too. So I have been called to be the compassionate service person, which frees me up on Sundays to be able to help John David realize that nursery is a happy place. We are making progress though, because he used to scream as soon as we walked in the door. Now he will get down and play, and even not notice that I'm gone for a few minutes when I try to sneak out. But ultimately, he realizes I'm not there and starts crying. I just hope it doesn't take him six months to get used to nursery like it did Sarah.

Naptime

Today after school, Sarah wasn't listening to me, so I put her in the corner. She whined and complained, and I ignored her and started helping Katie with her homework. A few minutes later, I realized that Sarah wasn't whining anymore and went to tell her she could get out of the corner, but I couldn't find her. After looking all over the house, we found her in the closet by the front door.................



..................sleeping.



I think someone is missing kindergarten nap time.



It's hard work being a cute first grader!

Free Entertainment

Tonight we were sitting at the table finishing up our dinner. John David cleaned himself up with his napkin and then started playing with it. He crumpled it into a ball, and then he put it in his mouth. I took the napkin out of his mouth and Katie asked him some questions that had us all laughing so hard our bellies hurt. It was probably one of those things you had to be there to really appreciate because the expression and feeling behind his answers was so funny.

Katie: John, do you like to eat napkins?
John: No!
Katie: John, do you like watermelon?
John: No! (As he crams a big chunk in his mouth)
Katie: John, do you like your family?
John: No!
Katie: John, do you like your sisters?
John: No!
Katie: Do you like your mommy?
John: No!
Katie: Do you like your daddy?
John: No!
Katie: John, do you like your bishop?
John: No!
Katie: John, do you like Paw Paw?
John: Paw Paw! No!
Katie: John, do you like Maw Maw?
John: No!
Me: John, do you like your tractor?
John: (Looking around for his tractor.) Out! Out! (He wanted out of his seat to go find his tractor.)

Can you guess what his favorite word is right now? Probably because he hears it at least nine hundred ninety-nine and a half times a day!



What ever would we do without this funny little guy in our family?! We just love him to pieces!

Flashback Friday--Bishop Barnett

My Daddy was bishop of the ward I grew up in for almost seven years. He was put in as bishop six months before I was born. He was a great bishop, and I'm not saying that because he was my dad. I really don't have very many memories of him being bishop. But I have heard for years (and I still do hear people talk about him when I go visit my home ward) about what a wonderful bishop he was.



See all of the trophies on the file cabinet. That was back in the day when church basketball was a BIG deal, and my dad rarely missed the games, especially the youth games. We even had cheerleaders for our ward. I was one of them. I'll have to dig up that picture to post sometime.



This picture was taken at a party that the ward threw for my Daddy after he was released. That is my Grandaddy Barnett sitting next to my Dad. They gave my mom this arrangement of fabric flowers. She kept it for years. I remember thinking that they were so neat, and I loved them.



And someone made this awesome cake for the party.



All of these men served with my Daddy as a counselor or executive secretary at one time or another. I love Bishop Barnett! He is definitely one of my two most favorite bishops ever!

Our Fun Labor(free) Day

The only plans we had when we woke up this morning was to meet some friends for breakfast at Cracker Barrel. So after our yummy breakfast, we came home and tried to think of something fun to do. We decided to call Amy to see what our Texas peeps were up to. She and her girls were headed to Petco in Beaumont, so we decided to meet them there since our girls love to go see the different animals they have. After spending too much time looking at the critters there, we all decided to go eat lunch with one of our kids most favorite critters ever--Chuck E Cheese. The kids had a blast playing while Aaron and Amy and I visited and caught up. Then we all went back to Amy's to hang out for a while.



John David just made himself right at home. He went and grabbed himself a blanket and pillow and went and laid down right beside Jaimee. It was so cute.



It didn't take the girls long to decide that they had rather go swimming though, so Amy and I went outside to talk and watch them while they were swimming.



Jaimee and Katie had a fun time on Jarrett's kayak .



And Sarah made friends with another turtle.



We all had a great time, and were so grateful we got to spend some time with our Texas peeps, because it just doesn't happen often enough. We love you guys!

Streaker

This afternoon Sarah came and told me that John David was in the kitchen taking his diaper off. I found him just as he was putting his diaper in the trash.



Then he took off down the hall way. Look at those cute little buns!



He went to the girls' room, found some toys, and sat down and started playing.



When I asked him where his diaper was, he looked down and acted surprised that it wasn't there.



Funny kid. Now we have make sure he always has pants on, or he's running around in his birthday suit again!

It's on! It's on! It's on!

Katie and Sarah have been looking forward to Camp Rock 2 for months now. So when we found out it was coming on tonight, we let them invite a few friends over for a Camp Rock Party. We had pizza for dinner, and then let all of the girls play for a little while before the movie started.



But when it was time for it to start, they were all ready to see all of those cute Jonas Brothers.



Katie sang and danced along with the movie.



She was very entertaining to watch.



We had a fun night with all of these little cuties!