On the Doorpost

Birthday Camping

2011-10-15T20:40:00.001-05:00

After the birthday party, we actually stayed the night and went camping! The Bebers camped with us for our annual “Bebarkation”. Here we are on a hike, where we found a troll bridge.

They had to solve the riddle before Troll Adam would let them cross!

Me…Tree Wrestling….apparently a favorite pasttime of Adam’s? You learn something new every day.

Big Foot came out of the woods…the kids doing their best to capture him!

Jonah, Caleb and Camron monkeyin’ around. We had this really great tree right beside our campsite that reminded me of a tree out of Lord of the Rings or something. It had vine-like branches and I was just waiting for it to talk to me or reach down and grab someone. The kids loved it and even at the birthday party it was the center of entertainment. Of course the boys spent most of their time conquering the different branches of the tree. Simple fun.

I didn’t get any pictures of the tents or anything. Not sure how I missed that one. We had such a great time, so relaxing. The kids just enjoyed simple fun: Shadow shows in the tent at night, playing with flashlights, eating giant marshmallows, sleeping in sleeping bags, climbing trees, hide and seek, makin’ up random games, all while getting really dirty and not having to take a bath…A kid dream. And no electronics involved – imagine that! I think we all let life get way too complicated sometimes, and need to just stop and appreciate the simple pleasures that God has given us. Good friends (and family), good food & good surroundings!

Hannah’s 3rd Birthday

2011-10-15T20:19:00.002-05:00

Well, I definitely have a 3 year old little girl now! We had a wonderful birthday yesterday. We started off by taking a picture with her Tangled Cake…it had slowly become the leaning tower of Rapunzel and I was afraid it might not make it until the party that night, so I thought it best to document the temporary success.
We started off the day by heading to the Star Nails….I had a gift card that I’ve needed to use for a couple of months, so Hannah and I both got our nails done. She got to pick out her colors which were a surprising pink and purple. She specifically showed them that she wanted “Pink, then purple, pink, then purple”. The nail lady gladly obliged her opinionated customer and alternated the colors. Hannah is a girl who knows what she wants!

Next, we picked up Gigi and headed to Kid to Kid, a really great consignment store in McKinney. Hannah was so proud to walk through the “Kids Only” door. She got to pick out some very cute outfits. She was a trooper when we tried them on too. I think she’s already a shopper at 3!

That afternoon we headed to Bonham State Park for her birthday party. She invited a few of her 3 year old girl friends, and of course their families. Here are Lilly and Olivia. Checkin’ out the seashells on the lake beach!

Just Hangin’ around with Olivia!

Hot Dogs were on the men for the party….lots of kiddos havin’ a great time! Cheetos, lemonade and hot dogs….what kid could ask for more?

Princesses Lilly, Via, and Hannah with their “Tangled” hair!

Make a wish….I wonder what a 3 year old wishes for?

Happy Birthday to my precious girl….you will always have my heart!

2011-10-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken while Adam & the kids were hiking…I was on a Women’s Retreat! (Not sure why Jonah's eyebrows look white??)

What a beautiful day we have been blessed with today! Crisp, cool fall air with just enough sunshine to bring a smile to your face….as opposed to the scorching, face frying heat we endured this summer! I think there were some days this summer that I truly thought that the heat would never end, that somehow we were going to be in a permanent state of summer until the end of time. But once again, the Lord has reminded me that “this too shall pass”…and how much sweeter is a day like this, knowing where we’ve come from.

I have been an absent blogger. I am not going to apologize or explain why. I am moving on with all my guilt and lack of documenting my family’s adventures and daily encounters. Although, a brand new computer (thank you to Tootsie and Reebert!) has definitely helped spur on a new excitement with technology. My old computer took about 4 hours to download a picture….no kidding. It was drudgery trying to blog on it, so now I’m in blog heaven!

I want to just use this as a starting point and hopefully begin blogging more regularly. We have had a few “new beginnings” recently (hence the blog title), that I will hopefully get to expound on soon, but to name a few: Started homeschooling this year (loving it!!!), Helped organize and start up the new FCA Homeschool Co-op (absolutely love it!!!), Jonah started piano lessons, Caleb started to read, Hannah started saying she’s the “princess of the world” (which is a whole other blog post ). She is also starting her new beginning as a 3 year old on her birthday tomorrow! I am so thankful for new beginnings and days that remind me why I love being alive and able to serve our King.

Oh, and by the way….we had another new beginning in our family. Collin & Amy (Adam’s brother and wife) had their first baby 2 days ago. I would put a picture of the new little one, but I don’t have one yet….and I don’t even have a name yet, because they are still in deliberation. So….that is yet to come. We are so thankful for this new little blessing and I am so jealous that my husband got to meet her in Los Angeles yesterday. I’m sure my time will come :)

So, I’m off to make a “Tangled” cake for Hannah’s party tomorrow. I was supposed to start it a couple of hours ago, but procrastination took over and blogging sounded more fun at the time!

It's Potty-training time

2011-02-03T11:27:00.002-06:00

Well, since we're stuck in the house for 4 days with this Arctic Blast...it's a great time to potty-train. It wasn't really my idea - Hannah just decided and started doing it herself a couple of days ago. She's so proud to wear her little panties and we've only had a few accidents in the last couple of days and we had our first #2 victory today! I'm sure you all want to know all of these details! These are her cute little Hannah panties (that are actually a diaper cover) but they have transitioned to panties. She's so proud and I am so happy to have a little relief in the diaper area!

Welcoming Baby Maddie

2011-02-03T10:34:00.002-06:00

It's a little late...but better late than never. My niece, Madison, was born in November. This is my brother (Mike) and sister-in-law's (Crystal) baby. She is just a precious bundle of joy! The picture above is Maddie with Myka (her older sister).
All of the kids loved getting to meet and hold Maddie for the first time. Jonah is more experienced with this sort of thing and he kept wanting to come back for more.

Caleb loved getting to hold Maddie too. He had shorter bursts of interest, but you can see the pure bliss on his face getting to hold her.

Now Hannah was in love! I think she thought baby Maddie was her little baby doll. Baby "mannie" was all she talked about for a couple of weeks. Every baby doll was named Maddie. She even laid in my lap and acted like Maddie.

Fun Times!

2011-02-02T13:50:00.003-06:00

Slowly, but surely, I'm playing catch-up on some of the fun pictures of the last 5 months. We're actually snowed in right now - with a wind chill of 5 below zero so I have some time to download. Caleb put on Hannah's dress-up clothes and Tangle hair and he was pretending to be a fairy. That kid just keeps me rolling :)
We had 2 sets of costumes to wear this fall. This is the set we wore to Lightfest. Tinkerbell, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones. Jonah has his serious Darth Vader look.

This was another set of costumes we wore to a Harvest Party at my friend Brooke's house. Dallas Cowboy, Lion and Darth Vader again!

Nerd Day at school...I know, I know...I didn't have to go to far to dress up like a nerd. We had a blast that day. I even had a fanny pack and my National Honor Society sweater on (actual sweater I received in high school). Don't you love Jonah's bow-tie?? Hannah wore her hair all day long at school-pretty impressive! I think Caleb just thought he was going to go swimming at school. Fun Day.

For our Harvest Party at school, Jonah dressed up like the much-needed FCA Maintenance Man, complete with plunger and big belly.

One Day at a Time

2011-01-29T21:53:00.005-06:00

Okay, I'm back again...I think. The boys were scrolling through my blog today, having the best time looking at pictures. I was inspired to start blogging again. I love to blog, it just takes time. My main excuse lately has been the fact that I'm so far behind on my blogging. I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of girl. Either I want to be fully caught up or not at all...I think that's also called OCD! :) Well, I'm letting go and starting back, and going with the flow. If I get caught up on all of the other pictures one day, then great. But in the meantime, I dont' want to miss out on everything else. So, here goes...

The kids all got feety pajamas for Christmas. Jonah had even been begging me for some feety pajamas! Here they are all comfy cozy in their pj's!

Just a cute pic of Hannah and Daddy :)

Hannah has become a LOT more mischievous since the last time I blogged. This is not washable marker by the way. She had streaks on her face for a few days. The funny thing was that she was sitting right beside me, andI had just looked over at her about 30 seconds before that and she was just happily coloring on the paper! In that amount of time she had colored her face, all of her clothes and the floor in front of her. When I looked over at her, she said "Mommy look pretty makeup!"

We had a really great snow a couple of weeks ago! On our snow day the kids (dad included in that statement) made a snow fort. The snow was really too powdery to make much of anything, so Adam built a structure underneath to support the snow and they packed it on. You could go inside and everything! I think Adam spent a while after they went to bed to finish it...what a kid at heart.

Crawling into the snow fort.

Hannah loving the snow!

Caleb taking a ride on his "snow mobile"

As soon as the kids walked out the door they immediately all layed on the ground to make a snow angel!

We were shopping with my mom on her birthday, and Hannah put on these sunglasses. Immediately when she got the sunglasses on she started breakin' down in a dance. I love this kid.

Havin' fun! The boys were at basketball practice, we're havin' a little shoppin' fun for my mom's birthday.

Jonah and Caleb are playing Upward basketball for the first time this year. Adam is the coach of both teams. It has been a great experience for both of them. It's amazing to watch how quickly kids improve from game to game. Jonah is so enthusiastic and has such a positive attitude out there on the court. He's been making baskets in the games, and he plays defense with all of his heart.

Caleb is loving basketball too. He is interesting to watch...to say the least. From growling when he's on defense, to swinging around the basketball goal just for the fun of it and crying when he doesn't make a basket - he keeps me on pins and needles of what's going to happen next. I think I hold my breath the whole game, and finally release when that buzzer goes off. I really have to get a video, because I know one day I will love watching it. I was at a restaurant the other day and a grandmother of one of his teammates came up to our table and said, "I just have to tell you that I love watching your little redhead play basketball, he keeps us entertained!" The scorekeeper was even telling someone that he can't concentrate because he can't stop watching the little redhead. So, just so you know...whether I wanted it or not I have a famous redhead!

Moments to Remember

2010-09-18T10:24:00.002-05:00

Caleb is at a fun age right now...here are some fun conversations we had yesterday:

Caleb walked into the bathroom last night and randomly started this conversation:
Caleb: (with a very cute and slightly manipulative grin)Mom, you're so pretty and nice
Mom: Awwww...thanks Caleb. You made my heart melt.
Caleb: (with a disturbed look) Why is your heart melting?
Mom: Oh...that just means that you made my heart very happy...You are very handsome and nice too.
Caleb: Oh Mom...you made my heart freeze!

In the bathtub...
Caleb: Mom, I have bones in my body! Wanna feel 'em?
Mom: I know Caleb, we all have bones in our body.
Caleb: How do I get 'em out?
Mom: You don't want to get 'em out, then you'd just be a pile of skin on the floor (kind of gross I know)
Caleb: Cool, then people could pick me up and wear me as a costume!

Happy 4th Caleb!!!

2010-08-17T00:13:00.008-05:00

Caleb's 4th Birthday Cake---gotta be Toy Story!!!
Gus got so excited he almost blew out the candles for Caleb!

Blow sweet Caleb!!!

Caleb, Ethan and Camron--buddies from school came to celebrate Caleb's birthday

Caleb was so excited about his Toy Story Legos from Jonah. Jonah picked these out just for him. He kept the secret from him for 2 weeks, and almost gave them to him the night before, because he couldn't stand it!

Caleb finally got his "soft Woody". Every night before bed he would say " I wanna tell you sumpin...I want a soft Woody with a pull string and a hat that you can take off and brush Woody's hair and when you pull his pull string he says "I gotta snake in my boot"! He's said this every night for about 2 months, so we were glad to finally fulfill this request!

Eating "Pizza Planet" Pizza with his buddies and big brother

Hannah enjoying her pizza

All the boys hangin' out with Zurg. It's hard to see him in the middle. He came to try and stop the birthday party!!

Enjoying watching "Don't Wake Zurg"
They played a game called "Don't Wake Zurg" where the kids tried to steal the Alien back from Zurg, without waking him. Caleb barely made it away from Zurg...Phew!

Watch out Camron...Don't Wake Zurg!

Here's a better view of Zurg...a bucket painted black made a good sound effect for Zurg. Anytime Adam can spray paint something---He's on it!

Having a blast---my big four year old.

Everyone had a great time at the party!!

Caleb--happy birthday sweet boy. I'm so proud of the little man you've become. You amaze me with your very precise articulation of words, you are so careful to get it right the first time. I love your passion, even though sometimes that fiery red-head passion can get the best of you. You have a smile that can just melt anyone's heart. And when you wake up in the morning you always have such a sweet voice "Mornin' Mom". It's my favorite sound first thing in the morning. I love how you just randomly tell me that you love me with such a tender authenticity.
I love when you are into something, you are into it with your whole heart. You have a natural magnetism, even spiders and bugs are drawn to you. I can honestly say, there's none like you. I love you Caleb.

Six Candles!

2010-06-19T20:30:00.002-05:00

Jonah's 6th birthday cake! It is supposed to look like a popcorn bowl for our movie theme!
Hannah enjoying some cake!...she was a little squirmy in the theater. She kept walking the aisles between Aunt Shell and Mama Gina to keep from falling asleep. Finally, we gave her some Skittles to keep her in one place! ...Caleb on the other hand was completely absorbed in the movie. If you know how much Caleb loves anything Toy Story, this has been something he's looked forward to for a long time. At one point in the movie, I looked down and he was staring at the movie, but doing an extreme potty dance. I asked if he had to go to the bathroom, but he didn't want to leave the movie. I finally convinced him to go, but we did an extreme lightning bathroom trip!

Jonah being his silly self blowing out the candles! As you can see, the cake was a little leaning after being transported in the box. I'm so glad it made it!

Jonah and some buddies and cousins enjoyed watching Toy Story 3 at the theater on opening day! We got to have a party in the theater following the movie. We had so much fun!

Jonah got very excited about opening presents - he was holding up some money that he got in this card. He's trying to save up money to buy more Wii games!

I cannot believe I have a six year old! It really does make me feel old. I used to see people with six year olds and think how that was so far away, and here it is! Jonah has grown up so much this year into a little young man. He is reading great, loves to play basketball and video games and doing TKD. He's so great with his sister and I love watching Caleb and him giggle and laugh together when they're playing. We are so blessed with such a tender-hearted little boy, who can always make me laugh! I love you Jonah, my six year old!

The other day I asked him to sing a song with me at church that he knows. He said he didn't want to, because there were so many people. After trying to convince him, he decided he didn't want to so I left it alone. The next morning after Sunday School he walked out of his class and said, "I want to sing with you Mom". So, without a practice he went out and sang "God Bless the USA" with me for Memorial Day. He was telling us afterward how scared he was. Adam asked him why he did it, and he said "I was scared, but I told myself I'm gonna do it anyway." I was so proud of him for overcoming that fear...Sometimes you just gotta "do it anyway"!

Those FROG Days of Summer!

2010-06-05T21:16:00.006-05:00

Jonah found a frog in the yard as they were playing in the water outside. Caleb immediately befriended the frog (against the frog's will)!

Poor frog...Caleb put it through so much...He tried to be as gentle as a 3 year old can. He was completely fascinated by this frog!

Then the frog (again against his will) enjoyed some time on the waterslide.

Hannah even loved holding it! That's my girl!! I love that she loves her nails polished, loves makeup and girly stuff, carries around a pink purse...but there might just be a frog in that purse!

I'm sorry to the animal activists out there...we did the best we could to protect the frog. We let him go in the end to go back out into the world...traumatized nonetheless!

Hannah inspecting a ladybug! Wonder what she's thinkin'?

Hannah was not real into playing in the waterhose, it was a little much for her. She was just as content playing in her bucket of water. Much more controlled!

The boys on the other hand - the less controlled the better!

Mrs. Potato Hannah

Jonah getting his Senior Yellow Belt at TKD

And yes, I finally got a yellow belt. No more all white uniform!

Can you say Summer any better than this?

Elementary Field Trip to Fort Inglish. The kids are washing clothes like they did back in the pioneer days.

All dressed up for Robert and Aliesha's wedding

First Pig Tails! A little messy, but all I could get her to sit still for!

Springtime is Here

2010-04-28T20:38:00.014-05:00

Can you say SPRING any better than this?

The Grandparents Brunch at FCA. The kids did a program for the grandparents. This is Jonah and Megan performing "Lean on Me". Megan was keeping Jonah in line, it was really cute!
Hannah and Caleb performed "Jesus is My Super Hero" with their class. Here they are in their Super Hero masks.

Caleb got so into this song! He's the only one facing the crowd! He's a definite performer.

Okay, there's lots of picks of Hannah in this blog. It's just so hard not to put all of them of her, because she's just so cute right now. This is her dressed up for the Grandparents Brunch. Don't you love her purse and giant bow!

The other day we went fishing as a family at the State Park. Caleb was really into playing with the worms more than anything. Here's a shot of him kissing the worm and telling it he loves it. Then that was followed by ripping the worm in half. Boys? Go figure?

After ripping the worm in half, he proceeded to do what every brother dreams of....terrorizing his sister. Hannah would run around screaming, but she loved it at the same time!

Jonah was a little too cool for all that "kid stuff". He was busy perfecting his cast. He's growing up so fast...such a good kid.

Intense Easter egg huntin'....now where are those eggs??

Hannah with Papa checkin' out the Disney World book and just lovin'. Priceless.

I think Hannah saw something she liked in this picture. My parents, us, and my brother and sister and their families are all going to Disney World this summer together to celebrate my parents retirement from teaching. My mom should be totally recovered from her knee surgery by then. We're super excited! Caleb woke up every day for a while asking "Is today the day we go to Disney World?". He's so ready to meet Buzz Lightyear.

Just a cute pic.

All the little cousins (Myka was inside). Hannah, Logan, Jonah, Landry, and Caleb

And we got news that my brother and his wife are having a new baby. Can't wait to meet
Baby Lindsey in November!!!

Tootsie's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. We got to go down and go out to eat with her for her birthday. We had a great time with her at Olive Garden and we finished off the night with this cake! The kids specifically requested a "pink" cake for Tootsie, so here it is! Tootsie took a hard fall a couple of weeks before her birthday, so she was not up for pictures that day or else we would've snapped a photo of her too. We love you Tootsie!

Hannah eats everything by herself now - she demands no help!

Playing Outside

Caleb: Hmmmm, a little water - what harm could this do?

A little water turned into a lake of water...

And a giant mudpit - these are not mudclothes by the way. And Hannah had brand new shoes on...Dad was the "innocent" photographer.

Easter Egg Huntin' at church. Caleb is in a "pirate" phase of smiling. If you ask him to smile for the camera, this is what happens. All of his school pictures looked like this. They took like 20 trying to get him to smile regular, but this is what happened each time. I love it, it's a great memory to look back on. What a character. He's my character.

Hannah egg huntin' for the first real time. She picked up on it immediately.

Easter Morning

APRIL FOOL'S Jonah and Caleb were so proud to trick Daddy on April Fool's. If you look closely, he has a black circle around his eye. We put black makeup on the end of a paper towel tube and then Jonah sneakily tricked Dad into looking through the tube. Gotcha! Jonah was so proud. He's his Daddy's son...he loves to have fun!

Daddy's girl

We took a trip to Tyler and got to see Buckshot (Adam's grandfather). Buckshot has Alzheimer's and is living in a private facility. It's really beautiful and he seems to be happy there. It was hard to see him like that, so different than what we used to know. Buckshot was such a big part of Adam's life growing up, he really looked up to him and learned a lot from him. I'm so glad to have such a great picture of the whole family with him.

Here's a picture of family bible time one night. We have a Family Bible Time once a week where we learn and interact with a bible story together as a family. We have so much fun. The kids really look forward to it. This night we studied the story when Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume the wet wood. Thus the fire....I had another picture, but as a I typed I accidentally deleted it, and I'm way too tired to put it back on there right now!

Adam and I had a night away at a hotel in Rockwall. It was such a restful, romantic weekend - much needed.

Hannah likes to let the Guinea pigs nibble her toes.

Hannah's first hair cut!

Crazy Cousin Day! My sister and her husband went on an overnight retreat, so we all went to stay the night at their house. We had Crazy Cousin Day!!!! As you can see, we did science experiments and even made our own t-shirts.

Here's Hannah and my mad scientist hair! I think I look more like Punky Brewster.

Maaaadddd Scientists!

When we went to Tyler we also met up with Adam's Dad and the family. We rode go-karts. Can you see Caleb's little red head poking up in the car?

Luke and Jonah took the lead!

Pop took a boat ride with Hannah

Luke, Adam and Lee - Adam's brothers have passed him in height!

Nona and Laura Beth were there too, but I didn't get a good picture of them!

Here's my beautiful sister's debut in fame! She tried out and made it on Johnny High's Country Music Review in Arlington. I got to go to the show she was in. This picture was taken after she performed. There were so many talented people singing there - but Michelle was definitely the best! And I'm not just saying that because she is my sister.

Valentine's Fun

2010-02-12T10:17:00.004-06:00

My Precious Family - snugglin' on the couch!

Dad and the Boys playin' Alvin & the Chipmunks. Can you see Caleb's shiner? A couple of days before they were having a "disco" . Dad had helped them tie a flashlight to the ceiling fan. They twisted the rope and then would let it spin around and made a disco ball. It was actually a really cool effect - to go along with all of their funky dancin'! Well, Caleb decided to do it by himself and stood up in the chair and got whacked with the flashlight really hard!..A few days later he rolled his whole face up in the car window and his nose and head got stuck in the window. He was yelling Help!!, and by the time Adam got there his nose was bleeding and he was still stuck. Adam had to rescue him - how do boys come up with these things?

My awesome class! Here they are dressed up as bats for their bat play they wrote themselves. We have been learning about bats in Science, so they wrote an informational play and performed it for the other elementary classes. They did such an awesome job! I am blessed with the best class ever!

Phase One of the Snow Fort. The boys and Adam worked hard packing snow into storage tubs to make the first phase of the snow fort.

Here's the final product. Dad stayed up late to finish it. He said it was his lifelong dream to build an igloo (and it probably was). Very authentic! Jonah has plans to make a snow chair and couch. His mind is always spinning, just like his Daddy's!

Caleb takin' a peek inside. It was actually big enough inside for them to sit in. Jonah got all the way inside. Boy was he excited! We couldn't get Hannah to go in..... A little boy's dream fort!

Snow Day!!! I don't know how much snow we got - but I'm thinkin' it was at least 8 inches. What a beautiful way to celebrate Valentine's. Caleb summed it up best -When he woke up on Thursday and it was snowing, he immediately yelled out "I'm so 'cited, Thank you God!!!" Ditto Caleb.

Our new additions! This was an early Valentine's present. These are our 2 new guinea pigs, Jesse and Rosey. Caleb named Jesse after a certain movie he's obsessed with (Buzz Lightyear), and Jonah named Rosey, because she has pink eyes. They are very gentle and actually pretty cuddly. We are all so proud of our new pets. -- I was asked if Hannah was scared of them...Definitely not, in fact they should definitely be scared of her. Curiosity and a one year old, a lethal combination. I'm just waiting to see Hannah strolling one of the guinea pigs around in her stroller!

Favorite Quote of the Week

2010-01-27T22:11:00.002-06:00

Here's my favorite quote of the week told to me by Caleb's preschool teacher when they were talking about their noses:

Miss Aliesha: What do we smell with our noses? Caleb what do you smell with your nose?

Caleb:....(pause)...(sniff, sniff)....I just smell my boogers!

Hope that gave you a little smile...it's the simple things in life!

Barker Life

2010-01-15T21:57:00.005-06:00

Caleb and their new bunk bed! He feels so big in his new bunk bed. He even has his prized Buzz Lightyear poster above him to fall asleep looking at. He got a Buzz Lightyear and Woody that he has practically carried around for the last month. He found a lot of our toys that resemble the Toy Story toys and so he keeps them all together in a basket to play with every day. It's so precious. Jonah was never obsessed with anything for too long, but Caleb sticks with something when he gets into it!

I have to tell a funny story from the other day. It may be a little gross, but it's really cute to me. We were standing around after school when our school principal asked Caleb if he was feeling better. (He had just finished a bout with a stomach virus)

Here's Caleb's reply: "Yes, I frew (threw) up out my bottom alot."
We all just laughed and agreed that was a very good description!

Just one of the Boys!

Jonah and Caleb had their friend Sebastian over the other day. I walked in and Hannah had grabbed a hat from the hat rack, put it on backwards and was busy playing cars with the boys. Priceless.

She's saying a lot of little words now: Pappoo(which means pacifier), Daddy (which is still what she calls both of us), Mommy(but she chooses not to say it much), They i is (there it is), Hi, Bye, Baby, Puppy, Quack-Quack (which is a duck), Moo, Cookie, and many more that I can't recall right now. She also says long strands of chipmunkish sounding words that have the cutest little voice inflections. She'll just go on and on when I pick her up from preschool in her little chipmunk language - I think she's telling me what all happened that day. Oh -She still smacks her lips together when she's hungry or thirsty too.

Here's another picture from Christmas! This is at Tootsie's house when we opened presents. Uncle Collin and Amy (soon to be Aunt Amy) flew in from California to visit for Christmas. We got to spend a lot of great family time together. I think my best memory was when Caleb and Jonah had to go to bed on the last night before Uncle Collin and Amy were flying out the next morning. The boys had been wrestling, playing and having such great quality time with their Uncle and it was time for them to go to sleep. Uncle Collin told them that he had to go home the next day so he wouldn't be there the next morning. They said their goodnights....After Uncle Collin left the room Caleb said in his sweet little three-year old voice, "I'm sad, I'm gonna lost Uncle Collin".

This is my Uncle Dennis with Hannah and his crazy hat!

We had Christmas with the Britt side of the family a few days after Christmas. We all enjoyed an exciting Karaoke night. It was so much fun! Here's my mom and dad singing "their song" "I Got You Babe". I didn't know they had it in them!!! I guess after being married for 39 years, they have definitely "got" each other.

The cousins getting their groove on to the Beach Boys. My personal favorite was Adam's interpretation of "Ice, Ice Baby!"

Jonah had Tae Kwon Do Testing a couple of weeks ago.

I'm so impressed with how much he can remember! This is a picture of him showing his form to test for yellow belt.

Here he is a week later when they had the belt ceremony. Most of the kids just calmly walked up there. Not Jonah. He was ready waiting on his toes and took off running and excitedly jumping to get his yellow belt. The guy next to me said, "You have a little Jim Carey on your hands." ...You have no idea.

Here he is taking off his previous belt. Mrs. Andrea his instructor helping him.

A little more excited! This is the yellow belt dance!

Five people got awards for different things, and Jonah was one of them. His award was for

100% Effort! That really describes him in TKD, he puts his whole heart into it. It's such a great sport, it teaches such respect and discipline.

Carrots and Christmas!

2009-12-26T22:29:00.007-06:00

This our carrot that the boys dug up from our overgrown garden. We had given up on our carrots, because all of them that we pulled up had been tiny little puny things. Well, this one was quite the contrary. The boys could not even pull it up, it had to be dug out. They were SO excited about this carrot! We cut it up and juiced it the next day and made carrot apple juice.

Decorating the tree. Hannah was not really "helpful" persay, but she enjoyed the experience. Daddy on the other hand was not enjoying this experience, because he had the flu. He tried his best to play along, but he was miserable in bed that day.

Caleb and Jonah were actually helpful this year in the decorating experience. We hung the ornaments out of Hannah's reach this year, because her curiosity seems to get the best of her. Our favorite song to listen to while decorating is the Disney's version of Twelve Days of Christmas. Caleb & Jonah get the biggest kick out of hearing all the Disney characters and identifying them as they sing!

Just a fun picture! Adam and I were talking the other day about how much Caleb has changed in the last 6 months. He is now talking a blue-streak, and he is so careful about the enunciation of his words. There is not mistaking what he is trying to say. He has really grown up into a little boy!

Hannah in the bath - just a precious picture, nothing more!

Bundling up for Winter!!!

We started this tradition last year (thanks to an idea given to me by my friend Erin). The kids get to pick out an ornament every year. It's their choice (even if it is ugly!). Hannah got a princess (with a little help by us), Jonah chose a little puppy (which I think is a hint to us), and Caleb of course chose a baseball ornament. Last year he chose a baseball and bat ornament. I think he's developing a theme.

Dressed up for church!

Christmas craft time. We painted pine cones and made ornaments this year. Most of the time I wonder if it's worth it, because it is such a long process of preparing and cleaning up - but I guess it is a necessary part of childhood. They have so much fun with it - I shouldn't complain I guess!

Christmas Caroling with the church. We boarded the trailer and drove around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols along with the accordion played by our Music director, Mark. Jonah was so funny, because he was singing his little heart out. He would start off songs and everyone would follow along - he may be a music leader one day himself! I love the memories that are created with the simple things in life.---I still remember when I was dating Adam and we went caroling with his family around Wortham. The songs would start off way too high and by the middle of it we were all sounding like little mice and wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. Great memories!

This is Jonah on a car-trip the other day. He fell asleep and was using the shirt as a sling to hold his head up. He rode for 2 hours like this!

Marshmallow shooters!!!! This was the cousin gift this year at my mom's house. I think the men actually played with them more than the kids. They were shooting them in the air trying to catch them in their mouths.

Merry Christmas!!!!

I know I have a lot of pictures of Hannah right now, but she's just so darn cute at this age!! Rockin' in her rockin' chair, reading a book, and wearing her new hat!! She loves hats right now! She will also "break dance " on cue, which may have to be a video blog later!

Jonah and Caleb opeing stockings and presents Christmas morning.

Eager to open a gift on Christmas Eve. They all got to open G.G. and Grackle's gifts on Christmas Eve this year. Tootsie even came to share Christmas with us this year.

Caleb enjoying a jump on their new trampoline that they got! Tootsie enjoying watching in the background! BRRRR - it was super cold out there!

Acting out the Christmas story - this has become a Barker tradition. This was Jonah's scared shepherd face, when the angel told him the news!

:""Joseph" was a very hands-on Dad apparently, because Caleb kept taking the baby Jesus and holding him and kissing him.

Enjoying our White Christmas. How awesome to get to wake up to snow on Christmas morning.

We tried to build a snowman, but the snow was way too powdery and wouldn't even think about sticking together. So instead we had to just settle for snowball fights and snow-angels. What a wonderful Christmas we had this year. I'm so thankful for my beautiful family, my wonderful home, a church-family that shows so much love, and all the friends and family that we have been blessed with. God is so good to us. It has been a wonderful year, a challenging and growing one, but I couldn't ask for more.

Playing Catch-Up

2009-11-17T14:09:00.009-06:00

I'm going to try and play catch-up, which seems to be what my blogging experience is lately. These pictures are going to work backwards, so get in rewind mode!

Do you really need to see any other pictures??!!!....... This picture was taken at the Ft. Worth Zoo this past weekend while we were riding the train. You can see the admiration in Hannah's face. I think I'm going to keep this picture and pull it out when they are 17 and 13 and they are arguing about something!

Here we are standing by the eagle at the zoo. We had a much-needed getaway this past weekend.

At the zoo they have parakeets that you can feed and even let perch on your finger. The boys loved this exhibit. Hannah just kept crinkling her little nose out of excitement every time a bird would fly by.

Enjoying all the animals. We had perfect weather - about 75 degrees and the zoo was not crowded at all.

We stopped by to see my sister in Ft. Worth and had fun playing with the cousins. Adam and I even went out on a little date - another much-needed excursion!

Hannah enjoying the slide! She has NO FEAR! This is not a good combination for a baby that follows her climbing, energetic brothers everywhere. She is going to be a tough one - which I love about her!

Jonah had to dress up like a Nursery Rhyme Character at school. He chose Humpty Dumpty. Here he is wearing his character well. I actually got to see him ham it up and perform his Nursery Rhyme in his class - he is SO much like his daddy in that way. He just lit up when the class laughed at his dramatic interpretation.

This is "crazy face"! Hannah began making this crazy stressed out looking face a couple of weeks ago and now she'll do it on cue when you say "do crazy face".

I threw this picture in just for my Dad! He picked this dress out and bought it for Hannah, so I wanted to show him how precious she looked for church wearing it!

Caleb dressed as Woody from Toy Story at the petting Zoo at our annual Lightfest. We had an awesome year - we had about 1200 people, awesome drama, and a man got saved! You could totally sense the Lord's presence there the whole night, which is so awesome for Halloween night.

Jonah dressed as a Karate kid and climbing the blow-up Rock wall. Jonah has just shot-up taller these past few months. The other day he ran out of the bathroom from taking his bath and excitedly informed me , "Mom did you know I'm a lot taller when I'm naked!"...you learn something new at our house every day.

My mom and dad came up to see LightFest - It was nice to have the help, because it's a little hard to keep up with 3 mobile kids with 1200 people around and Adam is always busy keeping everything going smoothly at LightFest.

The cutest little bumble bee!

Dad and the boys went up to Halloween on the Square to pass out Lightfest tickets. Of course the boys had to dress up, along with Adam dressed up as Captain Lightfest! I don't think my husband will ever grow up...which I love about him!

This Gus and Max our friends. We went to their house and played some games and had a little Fall Party. Here they are decorating cookies, which actually entailed Caleb dumping as many sprinkles as possible on the cookies!

This is a picture of a puppet show that my third grade class did about a month ago. They each made their own unique puppet and we turned a story into a play, decorated the scenery, made invitations and performed the play for parents and other classes. I have such an amazing class, they make it so fun and rewarding to teach!(you don't hear that much?) It's such an awesome feeling to be so exhausted, and have crazy schedules, and not get enough sleep most of the time...but still know your are right where the Lord wants you. I feel so blessed to do something that I absolutely love and contribute to other children, and still get to be a major part of my own children's education and upbringing...so blessed.

Jonah and Caleb dressed in their Tae Kwon Do uniforms.

Jonah belt tested and received this new belt. This is his Tae Kwon Do instructor, Andrea Williams. She is also our principal at our school...don't mess with this principal!

This is a picture of my thirtieth birthday scavenger hunt. And yes, I'm wearng a diaper! My husband organized a scavenger hunt with some of my wonderful friends - who took me around and tortured me! It was all out of love...and to get to laught at me!

This was one of the stops - Chik-Fil-A french fry eating contest. The worst part was that I'd just finished a big mexican meal, so eating french fries was not that enjoyable. This is my friend Andi who came up for the party. I'm dressed like an old lady (since I did turn 30)! Andi "won" the contest, but I'm actually contesting the results because I was looking at the video and I ate about twice as many fries as she did! Andi - I want a rematch!

This was another stop...the Halloween costume shop. My husband specifically asked that they make me try on this costume. I think it was called Funky, Groovy something. I had to put it on and do a dance in front of everyone.

I also had to pick out a cake at Sam's and read the ingredients in a loud, annoying voice. I had a crowd gathered around watching me...now don't you feel bad for me?

Here is the actual surprise party at a a restaurant. I thought we were just going out to eat with a couple friend, but we ended up at the restaurant with 45 people! I was so taken aback by all the people who came to wish me a happy birthday. What a fun time!

Some more of the friends....

And more... After the party and the scavenger hunt we ended up at a Tanglewood Resort where my friend Tammy did manicures and pedicures and we watched movies and stayed up way too late! I felt like I was in college again. Then the next day, I remembered why I don't stay up until 3:00 a.m....and I felt 30 again! The next day we went shopping and ate at Olive Garden. It was just an awesome weekend. When I got home, my husband had even painted our bedroom and gotten a new bedspread for our bed. He went way overboard this year...but I don't mind! You only turn 30 once right?

Field trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Picking out our pumpkins!

Happy Birthday Princess!

2009-10-14T15:08:00.002-05:00

Today is Hannah's first birthday! One year ago today I gave birth to my first girl. I remember when I was about to find out the sex of the baby. I had prepared myself that it was another boy - and I was even excited about the idea of 3 boys! I really didn't think it could be that different with a girl, I thought I would be fine without having any girls. Well, after Hannah Joy was born, I found out that I was so wrong. Having a girl is totally different, and I'm so thankful that I could experience the love and fun of a little girl. She is such a sweet, laid back baby, and always full of smiles. She is such a fast learner - and she's even walking all around the house now, barely stopping to take a break. In fact, in the last 3 days she has gone from taking a few steps at a time to walking across whole rooms and back! I love to hear her say Mama - and more often she calls me Da-Da (but I think it's just my nickname). My prayer for Hannah is that she will be a woman that loves and fears the Lord with all her heart, and that she will always radiate with God's love. I love you birthday girl!

Opening presents! She was especially excited about this little guy! Here she is telling Lilly all about the toy!

Decorations for the party! We had just a small family party with some close church friends too.

Princess Hannah, you're cake awaits you!

MMMM!!! First taste of cake! It was definitely a winner! She kept coming back for more and finished off her whole piece. I'll have to post the pictures from today in her preschool class as soon as her teacher gets them to me!

Three year old Mischief!

2009-10-13T13:29:00.002-05:00

This morning I was sending some leftover cupcakes to the Manna House (our church food ministry) workers at our church. Mistakenly I left them for about 3 minutes on a table by the door so they wouldn't be forgotten....Well, they were not forgotten, especially by Caleb. In the 3 minute time span some mysterious things happened to the cupcakes. When I came back in I looked at Caleb with his innocent, but caught look on his face. I asked him, what did you do? His reply: " I wicked 'em!!!" Well, I guess that was a pretty obvious answer. I know I shouldn't have taken a picture of him to encourage the behavior, but it was just too cute!!!

Lesson for today: Don't leave cupcakes in reach of a sweets-loving three-year old boy!

Random Pictures

2009-10-08T23:57:00.002-05:00

I thought I would try and get caught up on pictures before Hannah's birthday. I haven't taken that many pictures, considering the busyness. The picture above is kind of strange, but to me it's interesting. We have been getting a ton of rain here. This is a picture of the ants trying to escape the water. What looks like dirt on the wall, is a solid mass of ants moving up the wall. They looked like they were going into the attic - yuck!!
Here is a picture of our first day of school. Everyone is going to school this year, including mom. As I've mentioned before, Jonah has been attending Forerunner Christian Academy, a university-model school. This year, I am teaching third grade. It's a wonderful schedule - I teach Mondays and Wednesdays until 1:30 and then Fridays until 11:30. Caleb and Hannah are in the preschool there at the school, except for on Fridays, when they stay home with Dad (it's his day-off).
It has definitely been an adjustment getting used to making weekly lesson plans for my third grade class, homeschooling Jonah on Tuesdays and Thursdays (while finding activities for Hannah and Caleb), trying to find time to grade papers and make sure my at-home lesson plans make sense to the parents, and still trying to keep my house clean and church duties fulfilled...I absolutely love teaching, I love homeschooling on Tue/Thur , I love my 5 students in my class, I know this is where the Lord wants me - I have no doubt about that. But I am EXHAUSTED! I really would like to go to bed at 7:30 every night! I'm starting to get in a rhythm on some things, the trick is to never get behind on anything! Which is virtually impossible, but I just keep telling myself to take it one thing at a time. It's okay if sometimes the dishes are still dirty when I go to bed, and my children's clothes are not perfectly ironed, and we eat pizza a couple of nights a week, and the laundry gets piled up...I could probably go on and on. Prioritize and live life as it comes! ---- I'll have to give more details about my wonderful class later!

SEEEWWWEEY!!! This is our friend Mark (who is the music minister at our church). Well, that's not him - that's the pig - but you get the idea! This is his new little piglets, they are only two days old in the picture. We took a little field trip to his farm to meet the new little babies. The momma pig was not too happy that he was picking up one of her little ones - I don't blame her.

All the kids loved the piglets. Hannah was especially fascinated. Look at her face in this picture. That's Elizabeth, Mark's daughter, standing next to us. Hannah just kept laughing and squealing, she was so excited! We were surprised that she noticed them so much - she couldn't keep her eyes of of them. She loved watching the goats too! I think we have our animal-lover!

Okay, I just have to say that I had an almost 30 year old moment the other day. I was picking up some food that Adam had ordered (in person). The teenage girl asked me "What did your son want on his hamburger?"....Did you catch that - she thought I was his mom!!! She said it a couple of more times too! Not the best of experiences for someone who will only be 29 for about a week more!....watch out, I might be wearing leather and sporting a new Harley on the next picture on the blog!!!!!

I'm back...for now!

2009-09-09T19:04:00.006-05:00

Okay, I probably don't have any readers left, but I'm posting this for anyone who is still out there! (Erin...you finally can see something besides Caleb blowing out his candles!) This has been a whirlwind 2 months - more on that later! Just know, if I could I would be blogging more...there just hasn't been time or energy to place into blogging! Here are some pictures from Labor Day - hopefully I will get caught up on more recent pics soon.

We had a campout in the backyard on Labor Day! Caleb and Daddy roasting marshmallows!

This is Caleb, Jonah and his good buddy Ireland. Here they are showing off their homemade bow and arrows made by Dad! They had so much fun showing off their Robin-Hood moves!

Jonah and Ireland and their orange soda! Could you get any more "boy" than this?

Roasting weenies in our backyard...there is a small grill under that fire by the way!

Hannah watching from the window - it seems so sad, but she got to go enjoy too...just not when there was a fire!

Setting up the tent!

This is just a cute pic of Caleb that I wanted to include - doesn't he look all grown up! He says the funniest things right now, this is such a cute age!

My Princess Hannah - she's so much bigger now and it's only been about a month!

Could you get any more girlie?

This is her first taste of a lemon! She actually went back for more after this!

Happy 3rd Birthday Caleb

2009-08-19T20:44:00.005-05:00

August 17th marked the 3rd birthday of my little guy, Caleb! I can't believe it was 3 years ago that this little man came into our lives. From the day he was born he was such a relaxed baby. He never really liked to be rocked or cuddled, he liked to do things on his own from the very beginning. He can be a little ball of fire, which goes along with his red hair - but just as quickly as he gets mad he's telling you he's sorry and that he "wuvs you". I remember at his second birthday I was a little worried because he wasn't talking much, well we don't have that problem anymore that's for sure. Caleb always has something funny to say! He loves to irritate his brother, but he also wants to be JUST like him and likes to copy him every chance he gets. He is still in love with baseball and anything related to sports. He likes to surprise you with his knowledge - I worked with him for weeks trying to get him to learn his colors and he was just not getting it (at least that's what I thought) - then out of the blue he can point out all the colors with no problem, count to 15, say his abc's, and who knows what else he has in his pocket! Caleb has a smile and a sweetness that just radiates and infects all around him! Happy birthday my sweet little man!

Here's his baseball cupcakes at his small little party. We just invited a couple of friends to simplify the party, and we all had the best time!

MMMM! Pizza!!

Cameron, Olivia, and Caleb playing on the video games at Jump N Land in Sherman.

Caleb and Gus hoopin' it up!

Hello!! Jonah having a great time on the bouncy obstacle course!

Even Hannah enjoyed the party. She climbed and crawled and tried to stay up with the big boys! She is definitely not afraid to join in on the fun!

Olivia - isn't she sweet?

Caleb & Gus having a conversation - wonder what that was about?

This was a gift he got from Mama Gina and Papa John. It's a SuperHero headquarters. He has not stopped playing with it since. I think he enjoyed looking at the box as much as the toy!

These are the baseball cupcakes for the party! My first try looked like a 2 year old did it - so this was the better version. Of course we had to have baseball cupcakes!

God: the Ultimate Provider

2009-08-07T21:48:00.002-05:00

Today has been a good day. You won't understand how good unless you know a little bit of background.
Two years ago when Jonah was 3 years old, Adam and I began praying about what kind of schooling we wanted to do for our kids. We discussed homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling, all the usual models. We both come from public schools (I taught in public schools) and feel that both of us received a good education from public schools, but we felt that God was calling us to do something different educationally with our kids, but what? We agreed that the "ideal" situation for us would be a school that had a challenging educational program, a chance for frequent socialization, but still have more time to spend as a family and instilling the values that we desire for our kids to grow up with. This sounded ideal, but we had never heard of such a thing.
As I began researching school models, I came across a model called a University Model School. I spent hours looking up different schools. It was a relatively new idea that developed about 15 years ago in Arlington, TX. The model involves the best of all the educational worlds. Kids go to school and receive instruction from a trained teacher 3 days a week in a Christian environment and the other 2 days they are homeschooled and receive one-on-one instruction based on lessons that the teacher sends home. As they get older they move to more of a college type schedule and mindset. As I read about all of the successful schools, this model intrigued me but most of the schools were in large cities so I just put the thought aside and just prayed about what the Lord wanted us to do.
When Jonah was 3 we went to visit a local preschool, but just didn't feel like that was the direction we needed to go. One day we were getting our oil changed at a local Bonham Quick Lube and there was a sign advertising Forerunner Christian Academy. It was a new school in Bonham and I grabbed the flyer and told Adam we should check it out. We laughed about how it was probably a bunch of crazy people and how could a good Christian school ever pop up in Bonham. Oh ye of little faith. I went to the website and it looked pretty good so we decided to attend a parent meeting.
Skeptical, we walked into the parent meeting, which at that time the school was being held in an older church in Bonham. The people were so nice, we left feeling good about putting Jonah in preschool there.
Jonah started preschool there almost 2 years ago. We just fell in love with the ladies who started the school and their heart and passion for what they could see this school growing into. It was such a leap of faith for them - all 3 founders had very small children and growing families but they listened to what the Lord told them to do. Since then they, and many others, have spent countless hours, unpaid might I add, to make our school what it is today. Adam joined the board back in January and we have been so blessed to be apart of watching God bless our school in countless ways.
One thing that makes our school such a challenge is the heart that we have that no child should not be able to come to our school because of lack of money. Most of the students in our school (their parents) are on a Work-Study program working off hours to pay for tuition. Many teachers volunteer their time. We still have to pay many positions out of necessity, without much money coming in each month. Many months have been a step of faith, praying and seeking out the funds that we were in need of - and lo and behold a check would come in randomly or someone would help us out in some way. God has kept us going and God ALWAYS provides.
So now we come to about 6 weeks ago. Our school has been meeting in a local church and we were informed (8 weeks until school started) that we could no longer meet there. They were very clear that it was nothing that we had done, they just had some internal problems in the church that were making it impossible for us to be there. We were stunned and wondering, what was next? We were too big to fit in most of the churches in Bonham and really did not have much of an option from there. After leaving that deacons meeting, the board decided not to go and try to fix the problem, they decided to be silent about the situation and pray for 7 days before talking about it. And they did.
At the end of the 7 days of prayer, one of the founders of the school, randomly remembered a building that someone had told her about two years before. She called up the board and asked them if they wanted to go and check this building out. They walked in this vacant building and it was amazing! It was like it was made to be a school - classrooms already set up, an abundance of space to grow, gym space, cafeteria space, it seemed too good to be true. Then we were told that the building was owned by a very prominent Christian man in town. Maybe he would give us the building or let us use it for free. This had to be it, so they set up a meeting.
The next day they met with this man - and he informed them that he would be glad to help them with the building,---- if he only owned it. He had sold it several years back to GE and he pretty much said good luck with that one. This was crushing news, the board was sure that this was where God was leading, what now?
They went to GE immediately and thought it wouldn't hurt to ask them about it. Amazingly the man they talked to seemed pretty open to the idea and said to put in a proposal and he would have to push it through to the CEO's. This was GE!! We just kept praying that God would provide for our needs, whatever the outcome.
Three weeks went by and we had still not heard anything. We had placed a proposal for GE to allow us to lease the building rent-free or for them to donate the building to us. -- In the meantime, we find out that the man we had been in contact with from GE had actually looked into our school at one point and come to a Parent Meeting. He was really impressed but his family had chosen to homeschool. God placed him in the right place - and he was pulling for our school. This has been such a test of faith, more than you know. We pushed school forward two weeks as we waited for the news. Our whole school and extended families had been praying that God would open the door.
Today we get a call from GE saying that the CEO's had approved for us to use the building rent-free!!!!!!!!! We are still waiting on the paperwork to get all finished, but God had favor on us and in His lovingkindness provided this school for us. We have been praying at home for this for weeks now, when we got the news today Jonah's immediate response was "Isn't God a great God!" And He is. He would be a great God even if He had not provided this for us, but out of His grace and mercy He showered blessings on us! I wish you could understand what a relief this is for our family and to know that we have an awesome space for Forerunner Christian Academy to call its own. This will also open up doors for our school to grow in numbers, being in our own facility and able to fulfill some of the educational dreams that we have all envisioned. I could go on for days about the vision that we all have for Forerunner, but that's another day.
I just wanted to praise God and share with you my testimony of His provision. I have to admit that there have been days that I didn't know what God was doing this time, but I just kept hearing Him whisper in my ear, "Trust Me". And now we must trust God - with furnishing a building, paying for utilities each month, paying teachers, and much more. We are in the process of some major work on establishing a donor base and getting the funding that our school needs. It is a daunting process, one that none of us has ever even attempted, but we KNOW that God is with us and has set this school here for a purpose! We have a huge list of things that we need in order to furnish the school and we have 3 weeks in which to do it and no money! We know that God provided this building, so we are going to trust Him and work very hard to glorify Him in our efforts. Please, please, please pray for us in these next few weeks and year to walk in obedience and honor Him in our school.
Okay, I'll stop rambling - I feel better now! If you want to check out our school go to www.forerunnerchristianacademy.org !

Wild and Crazy Week

2009-07-23T20:02:00.005-05:00

While Daddy was gone on Mission Trip this week to Del Rio, we had a wild and crazy week (emphasize wild and crazy!) First we went to visit my mom and dad for a few days and then we were off for the Grandparent Trip! I felt about like these glasses look by the end of it all!!! We had such a fun time - but I'm very thankful for a hands-on Dad and very thankful for him to be home!

All the grandkids at the Dallas World Aquarium. That place is awesome! It's kind of like a zoo/aquarium/jungle all combined. The kids loved it! We saw three toed sloths, jaguars, penguins, GIANT alligators, sharks, you name it we saw it. Caleb absolutely loved the otters. He ran back and forth in front of the glass tank just giggling and acting just like the otters. I think the otters thought he was one of them!

This is Hannah riding the carousel at Incredible Pizza. We used a lot of money on this one, because she was just so happy when she was riding it! Every time she went around she wouldmake a little high-pitched squeal and do her version of clapping (which is more like her hands grasping together and moving up and down). You can see Myka on the side (my niece). She is about to be 13 years old and she is such a great help with all of the kids! I told her I was going to call her my Myka Nanny!

My camera was set on the wrong setting so this picture turned out blurry. Here is Mama Gina and the grandkids. You can't see it very good, but they are sitting in a tunnel that is made of glass and there are swordfish and sharks swimming all around and above them. It was so relaxing to sit in that tunnel ( as relaxing as it can be when you're watching 3 kids). I think I need to get one of those installed in my house!

Right before Adam left for the Mission Trip he took the boys out to the Bonham State Park to go fishing. They went on a little adventure and found a "mysterious" fort that they were in awe about . It was pretty neat, just sitting in the middle of the water. Of course Jonah had all kinds of ideas and stories about how it could have gotten there.
They rowed around the lake - I dont' think they caught any fish, but they sure did come back with great stories.

Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream........

A beautiful picture of my girl!! I call her my Nana right now, which evolved from Hannah Banana to Hannah Nanna, and eventually just to Nanna! She is into EVERYTHING.

No, you're not looking at a flashback picture. The other night some girl friends and I had a '80's night out. Here we are all decked out in our greatest '80's fashions. If you can call any fashion in the '80's great? Don't you love my biker shorts and mini skirt on top. I even found some Keds in my size at Goodwill! My favorite part was the gobs of hairspray I put in my side ponytail and in my tall swoopy bangs! Good times! It's weird to have been a part of a decade that is now considered part of the oldies. Life sure does pass by quickly.

2009-07-15T08:41:00.003-05:00

My sweet kids - just a fun picture!
This was at McDonald's yesterday. This was immediately following an interesting experience. I was getting in my car at Target. It was probably 105 degrees the kids were hungry for lunch and I had already been to 2 stores that morning (getting 3 kids in and out). I had just changed Hannah's diaper and I needed to put the basket away, but the cart thing was too far away and I didn't want to leave the kids in the car. So, I opted to leave the basket in safe place next to my car, where it wouldn't hit anyone else's car. As I was about to back out a lady who was parked next to me came up and got the basket that I had parked there. I didn't really think much of it and I continued to back out. The lady came up behind my car and stood there with her hands up, saying aren't you going to say thank you and a few other choice words too. I gave her a little wave like to say thank you, but she was still not happy. She came up beside my window, still yelling ugly words and was still wanting a big thank you I guess. I just looked out my window and mouthed thank you. I didn't really want to at that point, but I did. She was still ranting as I drove away. People never cease to amaze me...This was followed by Caleb tee-teeing all over the floor at McDonalds!

Jonah was helping Daddy hang some shelves in our house. He wanted to be JUST like daddy. He changed clothes to look like dad, he fixed his hair like dad, and he had tools just like dad. There was only one thing left in Jonah's mind. He was gone for a while and when he came back this is what he had - he wanted his armpits to look like Daddy's too!! priceless.

This was a picture at Tootsie's last Friday. Tootsie wasn't able to make it Jonah's birthday party, so she had a special one for him. We swam in the pool, ate yummy cake, opened presents and had a great day. Here's Hannah with a crown on - fitting isn't it?

She didn't know what to think about all of this?

Tootsie gave special birthday massages to the boys. She has an actualy massage table. It was so funny how much they actually loved it!

Here's how Caleb came out the other night when he was getting ready for bed. He is totally pott-trained, but he wears diapers at night. I guess he decided that this was a great place for "Cold Bear"!

I took this picture because it was the first time an actual bow, without a headband would stay in Hannah's hair. She is growing up so fast - she is even almost fully weaned. It's a sad day for Mom, but Hannah is so ready. She also said her first word the other day "Momma!" She said it only because I was holding another baby and she was jealous, but I'll take what I can get. She has also said "quack, quack" in the bathtub when she sees the little duck in the bath. Hannah still slithers around everywhere, still hasn't caught on to the crawling thing, but actually does just fine dragging herself. She has been pulling up to standing already and loves for you to hold her fingers while she tries to walk. She HATES diaper changes now, it's too much sitting still! The boys are still so in love with her and she feels the same about her big brothers.

I think this is representative of how Hannah has Jonah wrapped around her finger. She kept grunting and tackling Jonah, and of course he just giggled!

Veggies and Vacation

2009-06-26T20:05:00.008-05:00

Here's our first zucchini from the Barker family garden. Jonah was so proud - he just kept running around and saying "We're gonna eat it!, We're gonna eat it!". We fried this zucchini up that night and Jonah and Caleb gobbled it up. It's amazing how much better vegetables taste when they are fresh like that... One look at their faces and you can see how hot it was outside!

We went on a little mini vacation on Sunday - Tuesday to Glen Rose Texas. We went with some of our very good friends here in Bonham. Up above is a picture of the boys doing the fossil dig at Dinosaur World.
He doesn't look too concerned about being swallowed by a T-Rex!

Help!!!!

From left to Right top: Jonah, Adam, Michael, Caleb, Cameron, Mandy, Elizabeth, Hannah, Olivia

We call it our Bebarkation! (Bebers and Barkers)

Fossil Rim Wildlife Park in Glen Rose. This is our second time to visit and it is so awesome! I would recommend going at a cooler time of year, but it was still so much fun! The giraffe eats right out of your hand!

Funny story with this one - The ostriches were very aggressive. They would take your bag of food if you had it in plain sight. Adam was feeding one ostrich through the driver side window, while Jonah, Caleb and I were watching intently...I looked over and there was an ostrich staring at me about 2 inches from my face. Needless to say, I screamed and grabbed onto Adam (while Caleb is just sitting there staring at our very close animal friend). I kept screaming because the ostrich just kept coming inside the window. Adam was having the best time watching me scream and be terrified that he was going to bite me or something. Looking back it was a little dramatic, but it's how I felt at the time!...So I kept telling Adam to roll up my window, because he has controls to my window on his side. He just kept laughing, and I kept screaming "Roll up the window!"...Finally, I decided he was having too much fun and he was not listening to my request so I resorted to violence! My instant reaction since my head was buried in his chest was to grab his nipple and twist it so he would know I was serious! I know, I'm awful. He still thought that was funny too...eventually he did close the window. I think he would do it all over again, just to watch me act like a crazy person...and just so you know no one was seriously injured in the process of our vacation!!

Isn't this little baby zebra cute!?

Caleb & Jonah brushing the goats at the Petting zoo at Fossil Rim. Hannah and I watching!

Adam and I posing with the dinosaurs at Dinosaur World. It was probably 103 degrees out there - we did a double time tour of Dinosaur World!

Okay, this is how close the animals get to you at Fossil Rim. This Zebra kept trying to eat our windshield wiper controls! Slobber, slobber everywhere!

Ejoying the animals at Fossil Rim: Mom, Caleb, & Jonah

Relaxing in the pool with the Bebers! Hannah loved her first experience in a pool. I think she could have stayed out there all day! Jonah is getting really good swimming. By the end of the trip he was jumping and swimming under water. He was so proud. Caleb is also a pretty good little swimmer. He is fearless - age 2 and fearless is not a good combination at the pool!

All our sweet kids - Jonah, Caleb, Cameron, Hannah, and Olivia

Enjoying our giant hotel rooms. These were the best hotel rooms, because we each had a separate bedroom and giant living area, so we could put the kids to bed and then the adults could hang out and play games. Fun times!

By the way - Caleb is getting very close to being fully potty-trained! Hooray! I've been begging him for 3 months to do this and he was not having it. A few days ago he just went in the bathroom by himself and went! Ever since he's been doing great, not perfect, but great. We even filled up his potty chart with stickers and went to Chuck E Cheese yesterday! Diaper bill dropping as we speak!!

Summer Days

2009-06-20T13:57:00.006-05:00

She's gettin' close to crawling. I feel like I've been saying that forever. She can scoot all over the floor, and pick up every microscopic piece of anything that she can find. I guess my cleaning habits are going to have to pick up a little bit!

This is the result of a mobile little sister...watch out ice cream sandwich!

She even pulled up a few days ago - well, to her knees. She's getting so big. She just bounces up and down when you hold her. She's no longer a still baby - look out world here she comes!

Here's a picture of our first day playing in the sprinkler. You can see Caleb in the background with a bucket on his head. He is always doing funny little things like that. Both of my boys are hams - but each in their own little way. Caleb seems to do it and not care if anyone is looking, and Jonah enjoys the crowd.

Jonah's first baseball team getting their trophies at the baseball ceremony. We had a great season, won every game. Jonah really had fun and learned a lot about patience and diligence. When he came home and showed off the trophy, Caleb wanted one so bad. Daddy went up and found a 1987 trophy from when he was in baseball and gave it to Caleb. He carried it around for the next 2 days, and I think he even slept with it.

Here's a picture of the sanctuary at VBS during one of the music classes. I don't know if you can see it, but on the left there is a 15 foot real sailboat! This year, we were crazy and we wrote our own VBS. Treasure Island: Seeking the Ultimate Treasure. Adam wrote the dramas and helped me get an outline for what we would study and then I wrote the rest. It was a lot of work, a lot of late nights, but a lot of fun! It was great because I could customize it to how our church does things. Adam and I always have fun working together on things like this - I don't know if it would be considered quality time, but I'm so glad I have a husband that loves what I love (and vice versa). This is the preschool/kindergarten class. We had over 95 kids enrolled this year. Praise God! We had one little boy accept Christ as His saviour. And everyone, including workers had a blast! You can see Adam and Mark (our music minister) dressed as pirates. They did the drama every night during the opening ceremony and did an awesome job!

Jonah's 5th birthday party - blowing out the candles. I can't believe my baby is 5!! That sounds so old. He's no longer a preschool age kid. Wow time flies!

Playing a water balloon game. The game sounded good in theory, but after one round I realized there were too many age groups for any sort of organized game so we just all got some and threw them! All that work filling up 100 balloons gone in 30 seconds.
Caleb and Asher hanging out having a conversation. Who knows, maybe they were discussing how to prune this tree?!

Jonah and his buddies hanging out. We had a slippin' slide party.

Mama Gina and Hannah hangin' out trying to stay cool. We were very blessed because we were under a big shade tree and there was a good breeze.
MMMMMM! This was only the beginning of his messiness that night.
Too many kids, not enough blow up thingies.

Woo hoo! At first I thought the kids were not even going to like the slippin' slide, but after a few older boys got there and showed them the ropes they had a blast. We had almost 30 kids there! Pheww!
Here' s the monkey cupcakes - we had a Beach Monkey theme.

And the beach cake. I was very sad, because halfway through I realized I had used the wrong kind of icing. I got whipped icing, so it was too runny to decorate with. It was too late to fix it though, so I just went with it. I really love cake decorating. I obviously do not want to do it for a living. But it's a good creative outlet every once in a while!

Thoughts

2009-05-29T21:46:00.002-05:00

It's funny how at the weirdest times you can have a profound thought or just have a burning desire to share something the Lord has laid on your heart. I was washing dishes and felt a need to share... Adam and I were talking the other day about spending time with the Lord. We were discussing how hard it is as parents of young children to find that time alone or quiet to spend with the Lord. I realized something that day - for me, some of my best times with the Lord have not been in a quiet closet completely silent with all the right conditions. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They are usually in the midst of it all - washing dishes, doing laundry, driving in the car - or a combination of all three (okay, maybe not but you get the picture). As a follower of Christ I have spent way too much time making excuses for why I can't be obedient to Christ. "I'm too tired" "I don't have time" "I have to take care of kids" "I have to work" "I just don't feel like it"... and the list could go on. I've also spent a lot of time feeling guilty because I couldn't create those "quiet time" conditions that day. If we wait for those perfect moments, this imperfect life may just pass by and we'll wonder how we missed it. I think sometimes we don't hear what God is trying to tell us, because we are too busy thinking about how we don't have time to spend alone time with God. Compare it to your relationship with your spouse - if we just wait for those perfect date moments -when there are no kids, candlelight, and spaghetti noodles connected between our lips (a little reference to my favorite movie "Lady and the Tramp) - to connect with our spouse then they may be few and far between. Yes, we should definitely create time for those moments, don't get me wrong - but that is not the only way you can grow deeper in a relationship. Some of Adam and my best talks and deepening moments have been when everything seems to be falling in on us - kids have driven us crazy for hours, the floors are covered in toys and leftover dinner, our nerves are on edge, and we're definitely not gazing into one another's eyes. It's not a breathtaking moment, it's real life - and through real communication and sometimes heart-wrenching conversation a new part of ourselves is revealed in some way.
I guess what I'm trying to say (especially to myself) is to look for God in those "inopportune" times. Pour your heart to Him in those real-life moments, because He cares about ALL the little details. Look for Him all around You, He's there. Listen all around You, He's there. Don't wait for the perfect moment when you have your highlighter, bible, journal, and bible study material all neatly lined up - you're relationship is real all the time - not just in your prayer closet.

More May Fun

2009-05-27T21:15:00.005-05:00

Here's some more fun May stuff. This is Jonah's pre-K teacher this year. What a sweetheart she was - the class gave a plant to her as a thank you gift for being such a great teacher.

We had a field day at school. Here's Caleb joining in the fun with the other 2 year olds at the school.

Jonah's class at Field Day - The Green Team! All the kids had so much fun.

We had every event from potato sack races and obstacle courses to...the cake eating contest. Here's Jonah and friends diggin' in! The little girl on the right, Victoria, actually won. She was one of those quiet ones that sneaks up on you in the contest. Good job Victoria! Caleb actually participated in the 2 year old class and won! He even wanted more when he got finished! (No pictures, didn't get to see it!)

On Sunday, we had Caleb and Hannah's baby dedication. Caleb is not really a baby anymore, but we finally had an official dedication for him. We are so blessed to have these two wonderful kids. My prayer is that we will do our best to teach them to honor the Lord and love Him with all their heart, soul and strength! Caleb was not real happy about going on stage. I don't have a picture, but at one point he was flopped out in the floor crying. He wanted to go down and sit with his cousin "Wogan" (Logan) who was there to see the dedication. What can you do??!

My Dad came and said a special prayer over the family. Boy, I realize every day more and more how much I need the prayers of those around me. What an awesome responsibility to be a parent. Thank goodness for the grace of God!

Daddy comes over and says a prayer with the family. Caleb is still not real happy about the whole situation.

I finally get Caleb to stay on the stage with me. Here's the 8 babies who were dedicated at our church on Sunday. Afterward, some of us went out to eat. My side of the family had to get back home, but the rest of us enjoyed an Italian lunch. We were so blessed to see family that we had not seen in a while. Adam's Buckshot (grandfather from his mom's side), Mimi (grandmother from Adam's Dad's side), and Adam's mom Tootsie.
Mimi got to stay with us for a couple of days. The boys are enjoying a traditional Mimi story of Peter Rabbit. Mimi is a very gifted storyteller, and all the grandkids are very familiar with her many stories that she loves to tell.

Here is Mimi and Jonah in the kitchen cookin' up some treats. Mimi always has to make spinach dip which is Adam's favorite and she also made some Hello Dolly Cake. Jonah was excited to help out by crushing the cracker crumbs. I have a special love and respect for Mimi, because she too was a preacher's wife. She has so much wisdom and love to show to all around. On Memorial Day we visited the Dallas Arboretum. What a beautiful place. We got to see lots of storybook playhouses and of course tons of gorgeous flowers.
Here's Jonah playing in the water at the Arboretum. They have these little splash fountains that you can either splash in...or get drenched. Guess which one Jonah did? We didn't have any other clothes, so at first I told him to just get a little wet. Have you ever known of a kid to understand a "little wet". I don't know why I even bothered! Caleb was not into the whole wet thing that day, so he steered clear. Hannah just enjoyed watching her brother get soaked.

Whew! -An Exhausting Month!

2009-05-16T19:48:00.005-05:00

Can you tell we've been a little busy this month? Hannah has to catch her zzzz's when she can.

Jonah's End of Year Class Party - Blowing Bubbles! Caleb joined in the fun!

Miss Angela, Jonah's teacher is such a wonderfully creative and fun teacher. She runs such an organized classroom and Jonah came home every day talking about what he learned. We love you Miss Angela!

Pre-K Graduation - last night we had an awards ceremony at our school, Forerunner Christian Academy. The Pre-K graduated complete with graduation music and hats. The hats were really cute made out of posterboard. Miss Angela and I had a fun time making them - I just kind of did what she said because when it comes to any sort of Geometry - my mind just goes completely blank! Somehow I missed that part of my brain. Thanks to my mom and dad for coming up to enjoy the ceremony and helping watch my little rugrats while I took pictures!

Here's Jonah graduating from Pre-K, diploma and all. He was so proud. He received an award for Academic Excellence for always doing his work neatly and he also got the most improved P.E. award. He adores his P.E. teacher, Mrs. Turpin and she's done a great job getting him excited about all kinds of athletic activities. He's even going to run a race at the end of this month.

Here's the Peter Rabbit skit the kids did for the ceremony. Jonah played the Gardener. He just loves to do anything that involves dramatic play or creativity. It's so fun to watch his little brain work. The other day in the car he just pops up and asks me, "Why did God make sickness?" Talk about a hard question to answer. Then he proceeds to tell me that "our world feels like we're in a book, and the trees and people are like the story - then when it's nighttime, it's like you closed the book"... Whew - too philosophical for my little brain!! I think I've been reading board books and changing diapers a little too long! :)

Boys will be Boys!

2009-05-02T16:03:00.002-05:00

This scene will make any mother's heart melt. Somedays you wonder if your kids will ever stop fighting and arguing with each other... and the next minute you catch a spontaneous bear hug with your camera. Priceless.

We have a frog friend in our yard now. I'm sure he's not the only one. Jonah and Caleb ran all over the yard chasing this little guy. We were outside playing in the warm rain today. Jonah was so excited that we were getting to stay outside in the rain. We had to come back in a few times when it started coming down harder. There's something relaxing and a little rebellious about playing in the rain!

As always, Caleb was very into getting up close and personal with the frog. He's always ready to manhandle any creature that comes along. The frog has not "croaked" here, he's just turned over on his back. Caleb kept touching that little croaky part of their throat that moves up and down - and then he would just giggle. Poor frog - we let him go free after a little bit of love. Jonah really didn't want to hold the frog, he preferred just petting it.

Caleb is all boy!! We were eating popsicles outside, and of course Caleb is covered from head to toe in sticky. I looked over and he didn't have his popsicle, so naturally I thought he had thrown it down or finished it. After a few minutes he had it again. See if you can figure out what he had done with it...look closely at the picture...yes he had put it in his pocket for later! I guess that makes sense!

MMMMM!

2009-04-28T12:15:00.002-05:00

Hannah now has 2 teeth! My mom and I discovered them this past weekend. She has her 2 bottom teeth in the front now. She is loving all her baby food now, she's a good eater like her brothers were. Here in the picture she is eating a teething biscuit. She's such a big girl!

"You better not try to go anywhere biscuit!"

My pastor husband is starting them early!!! Hannah can already beat us all at 5 card stud!...This is actually a rousing game of slapjack! Caleb did more slapping than playing but they have fun. They also like to play Indian feathers! Caleb likes to irritate his brother by saying "I won" over and over! I dont' really know if he fully understands what he's saying, but he knows he gets a reaction from Jonah and that's all that matters! Oh Brother!!

Just a thought...

2009-04-20T12:49:00.003-05:00

I was just sitting here thinking, so I thought I'd share...

I am so thankful today.

As I'm writing, my 2 year old son is screaming in the background, because he doesn't want to take his nap. I have multiple piles of laundry (with a special smell that I can't quite figure out?). My house is not clean. My potty-training son has tee-teed in his underwear for about 5 days now, with only 2 victories. I have so many projects and things for church and school that are not finished. I can't even get in my closet because it is so packed full of junk.

I say all that to say that I am so thankful. God teaches me more everyday to be thankful and content with what He has given me at this very moment... I am a work in progress. I am not thankful because of circumstances. I am not thankful because everything goes my way. I am thankful because God has given me this day and these circumstances, and He does not make mistakes.

So, I'll keep cleaning up tee-tee. I'll keep sniffing to find out the special smell in my laundry. I'll keep trying to finish all my projects. And yes I'll keep trying to teach my son that it's time to go to sleep. I do these things, not because they are always fun or fulfilling, but because this is where God has placed me at this time and He has entrusted me with these things. I am so blessed to be able to share each day with my children and I am so grateful that I have been able to stay at home with my kids through these years. I would not replace these tiring, monotonous but joyous moments with anything else.

Here are some pictures that make me smile:

Easter Fun

2009-04-14T09:08:00.005-05:00

Dirty-faced little boy playing in the tire swing....SERIOUS POTTY TRAINING BEGINS TODAY, PRAY FOR ME!!!

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Here's a picture of the kids at Jonah's Easter party at school! Silly kids! We did Resurrection Eggs, played a rousing game of "He's Alive" and had an Easter Egg Hunt too! What a day!

We went to my mom and Dad's for the day on Good Friday. We had an Easter Egg hunt with cousins, ate lots of yummy food, and rode on the new Go-cart. Could it get any better than that?
Caleb has the whole Easter Egg Hunt figured out! He liked to snack along the way too.
Hannah enjoyed watching the action and chewing on things that she got from her brothers.

Here's the famous Go-cart. All the boys had so much fun with it. Including the big boys (I mean adults). I rode on it for a little while - did go-carts always shake you to death? I really don't remember that as a kid, but I think perspective has changed.

This is Jonah's first baseball game. He is #10 on the Pirates this year. Here he is in outfield. He gets a little bored in the outfield, because the balls don't really come out there too much at this age. He finds ways to occupy himself by drawing pictures in the sand with his feet and dancing around. Jonah is like his Daddy, he likes a little quicker moving things. I think it will be good for him to learn patience though. He did a great job and even got the last ball of the game and threw it in to the pitcher. Way to go Jonah!

Here he is batting. They do 3 coach pitches and then do 2 off of the tee if they haven't hit it. Jonah actually got a triple and a double both times he went up to bat! I think that's pretty good for a four year old. He even got 2 runs! We were proud that he had fun! When he first went up to bat I yelled out "Go Jonah"! He turned around and said, "Thanks Mom - when's the real game start!"

Here he is running home from 3rd base. Once when he was on 2nd base waiting for a hitter, he got a little distracted and starting chasing a little piece of paper that was blowing around...Then he got back on track. It's a little hard to stay focused at this age!
Here's Hannah in her cute little Easter dress given to me by my friend Brooke when she was first born. It was so beautiful on her! She looks a little awkward in this picture, but that's what you get when she can't sit up by herself yet! What a big girl - she's now 6 months old today! She just started eating baby food (sweet potatoes) and she goes a mile a minute when you hold her. It won't be long before she's getting into everything!

HAPPY EASTER!

April Days

2009-04-05T11:10:00.005-05:00

No - I did not have a red-headed little girl that no one knows about. Caleb loves to try on Hannah's bows, as you can see. Here you see him hugging two of his millions of stuffed animals that he has to have piled on top of him every night for bed!

Here's Hannah in her saucer. She finally enjoys sitting in it. She mostly just likes to gnaw on the heads of all the poor little animal toys surrounding her!

Such a happy girl!

Oh no - a giant bee in the cookie!!

April Fool's!! Jonah just had to play an April Fool's joke on May-May (Mary). He made a big cookie and then stuck this toy bee on it. When Mary opened it she screamed and Jonah felt like a success! Sorry May-May, you're just too fun to play jokes on!

This is Hannah's new love - Johnny Jump-up. She can bounce in this for 2 hours without a peep! She looks so cute - it's weird to see her jumping up and down - it just doesn't look right!

The first time Hannah jumped, Caleb went straight to her room to grab a doll. You can see that Caleb is making the doll bounce with Hannah. So funny how little ones think!
Here are some pictures of our church tearing down the two houses behind our church. We just finished paying off the two houses that we bought a couple of years ago. The houses were just in terrible shape, so here we are tearing them down.

It's so funny how men, become little boys with their toys!
You might be a redneck if...you set chairs up in the bathroom so you can watch demolition out the window! We had a perfect view of all the excitement, without having to go out in the cold that morning. Later, as it warmed up we got to enjoy spending time with all the ladies and wives who were watching from their lawnchairs. We also got to go eat a big lunch that everyone brought. It felt like one of those old-fashioned barn raisings. That is something I love about a smaller church - good times!
We almost finished both houses, but it got dark so this is what is left of the demo. The land is so beautiful without the two eye-sores! Now we're in the process of figuring out exactly what will be built on this land. We know we need space for our Manna House (food ministry) and we need a bigger fellowship hall, and more classroom space. The Building Fund begins. It's so exciting, God is really blessing our little church in so many ways!

Here's a funny story that was approved by my husband for me to blog:

We were in the car and we were talking about what made each of us special. Jonah said, "Mom you have freckles and that makes you special, Caleb has red hair and that makes him special, I (Jonah) have the blonde spot in my hair and that makes me special." (Pause) So I said what about Daddy?

Jonah's reply with absolutely no hesitation: "Daddy toots alot, that's what makes him special!"

*Sorry Adam, you have to take one for the team- and for the sake of documentation!!!

March Madness

2009-03-24T20:22:00.005-05:00

I have not posted in a month, so here are some highlights of our last month.

Okay, this is the grossest candy I've ever seen. Thanks Uncle Collin and Amy! This is a little boy's dream candy!

Me and my girl just finishing her bath!!!! Hannah has got to be the sweetest little girl ever! She is such a laid-back, cuddly baby - such a joy!! We are so blessed with our little munchkin!

Here she is trying to get up on her knees. I am so scared of 3 mobile kids! Don't you love the freeze frame drool on her chin! Still no teeth, but we do have a drool factory!

Here are some cupcakes I made for a baby shower the other day. I have now figured out that I am not cut out to be a cake decorator, but I had fun doing it... they have character!

Spring Break Weekend...We went and stayed in a hotel in Dallas and had a little "staycation". My sister and her family joined us at the hotel too, and the boys all had fun swimming their hearts out. Jonah now officially goes under water now. That's a big accomplishment for us!

Whoaaa!!!

Another highlight of Spring Break Weekend was Mickey and Minnie's Magical Adventure on Ice. As I have posted before, Caleb absolutely adores Mickey Mouse so we were so excited to see his reaction. When Mickey came out on the ice, Caleb just kept waving and saying "Hi Mickey" as if he could hear him. It was very sweet!

We're all into the show!

Here's the alligator during the Peter Pan segment of the show. The show was actually very entertaining and worth the $11 tickets. Jonah thought the show was "Awesome!"

Of course we had to get souvenirs. These flounder hats with cotton candy were the only souvenir affordable! It is so ridiculous how much they sell that stuff for!

A little spring project...We painted flower pots and planted flowers in them to set on our front porch. This is not washable paint by the way! Yes, I am not real smart!

...The finished product! What masterpieces!

Here are the boys working on their scrapwood, raised bed garden! It is still yet to be finished! I'll post pictures of the actual garden when (if) we ever get to that point!

My little princess...About an hour after this picture she had one of those explosive diapers and leaked it all over Nonna who had come to visit with Pop and the family. This explosion happened right during the middle of Adam's sermon! EEWWW YUCK!!

My sweet family!

You Know You're a Mom When...

2009-02-26T12:48:00.003-06:00

You Know You're a Mom when...

You only have time to grab something to drink for breakfast and the only thing you can find is a blue Kool-Aid Kool Burst drink - and you have to rub the blue off your lips before heading into the doctor's office.
You find a caramel dipping sauce package from McDonalds in your purse, and you're not surprised and actually a little excited.
You notice yourself singing along with the little kids on the cd in the car
Your husband has to help you zip your pants all the way in the morning, but you're really excited because you are finally getting back into pre-pregnancy clothes.
You ate fruit cocktail for lunch!
You spend WAY more time getting everyone else ready in the morning than yourself, and you're really excited when your hair can fit back into a ponytail because it makes getting ready all the faster.
You actually enjoy a kiss from the chili-cheese covered mouth of a certain red-headed little boy.
The closest you get to Alone time is actually driving your kids to their well-visit and turning on a movie in the back for them and just enjoying the peace up front.
You get giddy when your kids finally go down for a nap!
Your sidewalks at your house are covered in chalk drawings, and you actually secretly want to show everyone the picture that you drew.

All of these things actually happened to me today...I just thought I'd share and see if any of you moms out there can identify!

Okay...no kidding, as I was writing this my two year old little darling puts a Tic-Tac up his nose and it took me 20 minutes to get it out! I guess add that to the list!!

Valentine's Celebrations and Milestones

2009-02-25T09:19:00.003-06:00

I have gotten behind in the whole blogging thing. Honestly, 3 kids are wearing me out, and I just haven't had time to sit down and write. Maybe it will all slow down soon when Hannah starts crawling and walking (do you hear the sarcasm??). Having 3 kids under the age of 4 definitely keeps you on your toes... And I wouldn't want it any other way! (Well, maybe add a few more naps here and there, and time for a manicure!!) ... By the way, this picture is at our church Valentine Banquet.

Here's our Valentine morning celebration! They went on a little scavenger hunt looking for heart clues outside and ended up here at the table for pink, heart-shaped pancakes and strawberry milk. I think their favorite part were the balloons. Hannah didn't get a balloon, because as I was putting them in the car one floated away. I don't think she noticed - next year I know she will.

Jonah and Caleb got a Hungry, Hungry Hippo game for Valentine's Day. I always wanted that game when I was little, and it was a big hit here at the Barker house. They have played it over and over. It's nice because it's a game that Caleb can play with Jonah. This is the toy that Hannah got for Valentine's Day. I don't think she's too sure about it, what do you think?

Here is a picture of Jonah's Valentine Party at school. Holidays involving lots of candy are always a little nerve-wrecking for our family because of Jonah's peanut allergy. (If you didn't know Jonah has an anaphylactic reaction to even a trace amount of peanut) Our school, Forerunner Christian Academy, has done a great job setting up guidelines to keep Jonah safe, but we have to be really careful. Jonah is so good about understanding when he can't eat certain things. I think he does better about it than I would!

This was the day after Hannah turned 4 months old, and her first bite of cereal. She didn't know what to think, but now she is a pro at eating cereal. She stares us down any time we put food in our mouths. Pretty soon she'll be helping us clean our plates!

By the way, I want to bow down in shame and admit defeat. My sister and I were having a contest to see who could lose 25 pounds first. My sister has pretty much wiped the floor with me!! She's done and I still have 15 pounds to go! ...Great job Michelle - I'm so proud of you!

Weekend in Iowa Park

2009-02-10T12:10:00.002-06:00

We had such a great weekend at our friend's house this weekend. Well, Kelli and I had fun with the kids at the house and Adam and Dan (who is the youth minister at the church) were busy, busy, busy all weekend with Disciple Now. Adam was the speaker for the youth Disciple Now weekend at their church in Iowa Park. They stayed out late and Adam preached 4 times that weekend. So needless to say, he's still recovering. Then when we got back he had to immediately attend a family night for a funeral that he was doing the next day that we had no clue about until we got back!

Yes...Kelli and I were watching 7 kids all weekend! They had so much fun together, and I'm sure Kelli is still putting her house back together after we invaded. From left to right: Judson (18 mo.), Olivia (3), Caleb(2), FaithLynn(6), Elise (almost 5), Hannah (4mo.), and Jonah (4)

We went to the park, and here's the very tired Judson and Hannah chillin' in the stroller!
This was so cute! I walked outside and the kids had found packing peanuts and were crushing them up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were making "snow" for the squirrels! Isn't that fun - so creative!

They had a new puppy named Tiger! Poor Tiger was terrorized all weekend by Caleb. Caleb just loved him so much, he didn't want him out of his sight. Olivia also has a small obsession with the puppy too! I think Tiger knew to run from either of them when they got too close!

Milestones and Firsts!

2009-02-05T10:59:00.003-06:00

In the last couple of weeks we've had a few milestones and firsts in our family! Hannah sat in her Bumbo for the first time. She is so ready to run around and join her brothers. I'm so nervous that she'll be one of those that walks at 9 months. She also has learned to roll over - immediately when you place her on her back now, she flips right over to her belly. That girl is growing up too fast!

Caleb also had a milestone. He went poo-poo in the potty for the first time. I finally got him to wear his Diego pull-ups, after first having to put some Baseball underwear on him. If any of you know my son, he loves baseball! He carries a little bat and ball around with him most of the day wanting you to throw it to him so he can try and hit it. He puts in his backpack like his favorite movie "Everyone's Hero". (Cute movie by the way!)

Okay, back on subject - so after the bat and ball underwear he was no longer opposed to the Pull-Ups without Elmo on them. He was so proud of himself. We're still working on tee-tee, but I know he'll get there. I know all of you who read this who don't have kids are probably wondering why I'm writing about my childs tee-tee and poo-poo- believe me I never thought I'd say tee-tee and poo-poo this many times in my writing - but believe me you'll understand one day! You'll soon notice you're calling yourself "Mom" and your husband "Dad" and wiping bottoms and boogers will become a normal part of your day! Sounds so foreign and weird until you actually get there - and then it just feels right!

I'm just ready to decreast the number of diapers I have to change and buy-it will be such a blessing. That's what I get for having my kids so close together - 2 in diapers!

The pictures below are of our first trip to the bowling alley. We didn't know if they would like it or not - but it was a big hit! Jonah was especially excited about it. Caleb just wanted to run down the lane, but learned pretty soon that it was alittle slippery. Hannah just enjoyed the noise and lights. I actually had the worst score - I needed bumpers like the kids. I guess my professional bowling dreams are shattered! It's so fun when you're kids start getting a little older so they can enjoy a bigger variety of activities.

Prayer Update

2009-01-22T12:35:00.003-06:00

I think it is so neat that I can share when God answers prayers on this blog. In a previous posting I had a few prayer requests - I think it was in December. Well, another one has been answered. Jonah got a little boy in his class today! Yeah!! Now, he doesn't have to be outnumbered 5 to 1! We've been praying at night for a little boy to be in his class, so I can't wait to thank God tonight for answering our prayers. It's great, because kids have so much faith - at night Jonah has been praying for 10,000 boys to be in his class! You never know?? I guess God answered the prayer of the teacher to NOT have 10,000 boys in the class!

Little Cinderella

2009-01-21T13:26:00.003-06:00

I just had to show everyone these pictures! Proud Momma! Hannah got this little outfit for Christmas from my cousin Brandon and his wife Michelle. Jonah has now nicknamed Hannah "Cinderella" because he says "She's just so cute and pretty, I have to touch her!"

Help!

2009-01-17T10:41:00.003-06:00

If anyone knows where I can get some Elmo underwear or Pull-ups please let me know! I am trying to potty train Caleb and he is determined that he's not going to wear the Pull-ups or underwear, because they don't have Elmo like his diapers!

Living up to her name...

2009-01-15T09:35:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad we named this girl Hannah "Joy", because she really does live up to her name. She is mostly just a happy baby, so full of joy all the time. She's so huggable and loveable, it's hard to put her down. She is now 3 months old and she is always smiling and cooing, such a fun age. She did keep us up a lot last night, because she was frustrated with her runny nose, but you can't help but get over it when you see this smile!! If I had known that the name thing actually worked I would have named the other two "still" and "quiet". Not really, I'm very thankful for all the different personalities that God has given us in our family. They make our family unique and full of life ( and often exhausted!)

Here's "our" train track that we made. I say "our" because as we made the track the conversation had a tendency to go like this:

Caleb: " Train tracks, crash!! Choo-Choo"

Mom: "Caleb, you're messing up MY tracks, uuuh I mean YOUR tracks!"

Sometimes the kid inside just takes over! I finally gave in to Caleb's ideas and went and played with my own toys, which was the washing machine!

This picture is just proof that women are born hating pantyhose. My niece, Myka, bought this outfit for Hannah and I put it on her Sunday morning. When we got to the pantyhose part, she was not having it! By the end, she was letting me have it, and she kept screaming all the way to church! I don't blame her, that's how I feel when I have to put pantyhose on too!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T10:51:00.003-06:00

Here's a few quick pics from Christmas. This is my sweet kids after the Christmas Eve Service. We got to open one present on Christmas Eve, and Caleb wasn't too sure about the one present thing, he really thought that meant it was time to open all of them. We had such a sweet Christmas this year!

Jonah got a Leapster game for Christmas. He was really excited about it, but I dont' think he's played with it but once! Go figure? He loved all the superhero costumes, as you can see he's dressed as a Transformer.

This was Caleb's absolute favorite present. Caleb is obsessed with keys and keyholes and we found the perfect gift for him. It's a little veterinarian shop that has a different keyhole and matching key for 6 little doors. He plays with this toy all the time! We love those time-consuming toys don't we moms?? Hannah loved all her diapers and wipes too - she's definitely getting good use out of them. The boys also gave her a glow worm, which stays in her bed with her. I guess I didn't get a picture of that though.

We went down to my parents house on Christmas day and had a lot of fun there too. Papa had made a tire swing for the grandkids, which was the hit of Christmas. We had fun seeing Papa John and Mama Gina's new parsonage that the church built for them! I'll have to post pictures later!

Adam's brothers and sisters came for a visit, along with Nona and Pop.

Laura Beth, Lee and Luke. The kids love to play with their Aunts and Uncles (that's sounds kind of strange?) Of course they brought toys and presents, so we had a little Christmas again.

This is Pop with his first granddaughter!
I'll have to fill you in on the rest of the holidays in a later blog. I took pictures on a throw away camera and I haven't had it developed yet. The picture above is of our Pukefest 2009 quarantine area. Well, the only ones who attended were Adam and Caleb, thank the Lord! They both got sick Saturday night, so they were quarantined to the back, while the rest of us tried to stay away as much as possible. Adam didn't even get to preach on Sunday. The picture shows the gate, and curtain I put up to try to keep the germs away from us! I don't know if that even works, but I was willing to try anything. There was lots of prayer, Clorox wipes, Lysol, and washing of hands, but I think the rest of us avoided it!
**Prayer Update - In a previous blog I was saying how I was just praying we would avoid the hospital this year during the holidays and Praise the Lord no one had to visit the hospital. We did have some illnesses, but we made it through! The Lord answers prayer.

Got the Christmas Spirit????

2008-12-17T21:04:00.004-06:00

Okay, if this video does not put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will?! We had just woken up yesterday morning, and Jonah and Caleb were in the bathroom brushing their teeth. I heard the singing from the bathroom, so I had to grab my video camera. At first the video is black, because my lens cover was on, but turn your volume up so you can hear it before you press play. Jonah is singing the Christmas song "Happy Birthday Jesus" and Caleb is trying his very best to sing along too. They have no idea that I'm videoing, so that makes it all the better. You have to pay attention to how intensely Caleb is singing, even though he doesn't know the words!! Merry Christmas!!

More Christmas Fun!

2008-12-17T18:40:00.003-06:00

This is a picture of our school Christmas play. It was so precious and as you can see Jonah is dressed as the cow. I had a lot of cute pictures, but for some reason my camera decided to erase them! Jonah sang 2 songs in the program, but on one he told me ahead of time that he just could not sing Joy to the World. I asked him why, and he said it made his heart feel funny. I tried to convince him that it probably just made him happy, but he was not having it. Those of you who know Jonah, know that when something gets in his head there is nothing changing it! So I told him to at least just lip sing it if it made him feel too funny. When it came time for the program, boy did he listen to me! He was lip singing it so obvious, it was hilarious! Everyone was cracking up! That's my little ham! Then on the last song, Happy Birthday Jesus, he sang with all his heart. You could hear his sweet little voice over everyone. Sweet Moments.
If you remember, in a previous blog, I showed a picture of Jonah's fort decorated with lights. Well, the decorations have expanded. We have now made stockings, as you can see in the background, a small Christmas tree, and presents for under the tree. Christmas is going to have to get here before we start major construction! Adam and the boys hung this up very quickly in the 13 degree wind chill a couple of days ago.

I wanted to include this picture, because it is so representative of Caleb. Caleb is fascinated with flyers! He will sit for an hour looking at magazines or flyers, studying them intensely. It is so funny how kids are different, because you could've never gotten Jonah to sit that still and do something on his own like that. I just love seeing the differences in each of them.

Hannah and her snowman friend. Just a cute picture.

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here...

2008-12-12T20:11:00.002-06:00

Just a few quick pictures: Here's my Hannah taking a bath. She loves her bath, I think she'll be a swimmer one day, because as soon as she gets in she starts kicking and gets so excited! She is growing up so fast, I wish I could stop time sometimes. She is such a sweet girl.
Okay, not the best picture of Mom, but I had to throw this one in of "the girls". Everyday I get more and more thankful that I had a girl. There is just something special about having a daughter, that is just different than a son. I call her my "Hannah Banana". I don't know why? We like to change nicknames every few months in our family, so we'll see if that one lasts. I'm just so blessed to be able to experience daughters and sons, there's nothing any greater (or tiring) than being a mom!

This is our school float at the Christmas Parade. Our theme was "Happy Birthday Jesus". The dads at the school worked tirelessly building this thing, and I'm really sad we didn't get a prize in the parade! It's #1 in our heart! The candles on the top were flickering (from a blower) and they were singing the song, "Happy Birthday Jesus" with the music. It was really sweet. All the parents walked behind the float pushing all our strollers. It looked like a baby parade! We had so much fun - and it got us all in the Christmas spirit. Now we have Jonah's School Christmas program tomorrow. Papa and Gigi are coming tomorrow, and we have several people from the church coming to watch too. It's so great to have so many people who love our children! It definitely takes a village to raise a child!!

Last few weeks

2008-12-04T09:07:00.003-06:00

It's amazing how time gets away from you! I have a lot of things that I haven't blogged in the last couple of weeks. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The week before Thanksgiving we went to Family Day at our school and enjoyed Turkey and all the trimmings with all the families of the school. The kids did a little Thanksgiving program, and sang a very sweet song about thanking God for everything. Here's a picture of Jonah's class singing and dressed up for the occasion.

At the beginning of Thanksgiving week Uncle Collin (Adam's brother) and Tootsie came to visit us for a couple of days. We had a great time just hanging out and being together. On Monday morning Adam and Collin surprised the boys with a "Treasure Hunt". They had gone down to a nearby park and buried a treasure the night before. The boys heard a knock at the door that morning and there was a treasure map waiting for us. They even got to use a metal detector to help us locate the treasure. Jonah was the most excited guy in the world! He could hardly contain himself! Here they are digging up the treasure with Uncle Collin.

Here's the boys carrying the treasure back to the house. Look at Caleb, such a determined little guy carrying a pretty heavy metal box full of treasure! Hannah was there for the fun, but she was bundled up in the stroller.

On Tuesday, we went to Tootsie's apartment and had an early Christmas, since Collin was in town. G.G. and Grackle joined us too and we all had such a great time eating and opening presents.

On Wednesday, all of the family from my side came and had Thanksgiving dinner. We had so much fun and of course I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures! The boys ran around with their cousins and we just enjoyed catching up with my cousins, uncle, grandparents, brother, sister and all of their families. The highlight was our dessert table with about 8 desserts on it! That's always our favorite part of the meal in our family!

Speaking of food - this is how we started off our Christmas decorating! Everyone had their own little tray of nachos. I had to take a picture of them because they were so good! After that, we decorated the tree. We only broke two ornaments, so we did good considering a 4 year old and 2 year old helped. Then we decorated the house. It was so much fun this year, because Jonah and Caleb really get excited and understand more what's happening.

We painted Christmas ornaments! Such big boys!
Jonah used money from his own piggy bank and wanted to buy lights for his fort outside. He and Caleb and Daddy decorated the fort. We also worked together and made the wreath that you see in the picure above. Jonah and Caleb both decorated and colored the ornaments on the wreath and Daddy helped them hang it on the fort. Jonah was so proud of his Christmas decorations.
This is our Advent Calendar. Every day we open a little door and find a little note hidden inside. The note will tell us what our special activity is that day. Most of the time it is something that we do for someone else. It just helps get our focus on giving and doing for others this Christmas season! The boys love it! We've already: called a family member and told them we loved them, made and took a card to an elderly person, and baked cookies for the people in the office at the school. We're having so much fun with this, and I hope that they will cherish this tradition when they get older. We're hoping to have a very peaceful Christmas this year. I'm even done with my Christmas shopping! Hooray! And bonus...I got the perfect picture for my Christmas cards, pretty much by accident. I was so relieved, because I hate the whole process of trying to get everyone dressed, smiling, and happy for a posed picture. I'm sure we'll have moments of distraction, but I just want to remember the reason for the season this year!
...Sleep in Heavenly Peace!

An Interesting Thought?

2008-11-20T10:21:00.002-06:00

The other Sunday after church Jonah was sitting in the car with Tootsie and me. He was just sitting there thinking, and all of a sudden he says, "Since God can do anything, why does God need us to give Him money?" What a simple, but profound thought? I think too many times, we give our money or time or talents, in an attitude that we are giving it because God needs it or wants it. I think we miss out when we think of it that way. Don't get me wrong, God's desire is for us to give Him our all and to obey when He says to give something of ourselves. But - it should be more about our love and desire to please the Lord and give back to Him, than about what God "needs" us to do! I've been amazed by the way God has provided for so many things in our life lately. Isn't it just so wonderful how He surprisingly provides in so many ways, that sometimes we don't even recognize?! Sometimes I am afraid to ask God for things in my life, because I'm afraid He won't answer it the way I want and I'll be disappointed! I like to play it safe. I hate that about myself. It's funny because Adam and I are so opposite on this issue. I'm so afraid to be disappointed or hurt by people or even by God, that I just take a step back and take the safe route sometimes! I know that's not right, but it's the way I survive I guess? Really when you get to the root of it all, pretty much I'm saying by my actions that I don't believe that God knows what's best for me or trust Him! Shame on me! But I'm writing this blog to say that I want to boldly pray for a few things in our lives right now and believe that whatever the outcome that God is still on his throne and I trust Him!

That God would raise up some solid men as leaders in our church to assist in the physical and spiritual needs of our growing church! And that our church would grow and deepen spiritually.
That God would bless our school, Forerunner Christian Academy, to grow the number of students and deeply committed teachers and parents. Mostly that God would provide more steady financial support, so that the school could fulfill the dreams that the Lord has placed in their hearts. Thank you Lord for answering our prayer and providing such a wonderful school!
That God would provide a boy for Jonah's class at school, to be a good friend and playmate for Jonah. (right now it's all girls)
That God would help us stay healthy in the next few months and not have any serious medical issues (we've had hospital visits for the last two years)

Amen.

The Simple Pleasures

2008-11-20T09:53:00.004-06:00

This morning Adam and I woke up to Caleb standing beside our bed, munching a cookie, and saying "MMMMM!". What a fun way to wake up! He had woken up and immediately gone in the kitchen and snatched a snickerdoodle off the table. And then he wanted to share his enjoyment with us! What a nutritious breakfast?!!

Some ladies from my church had a baby shower for Hannah on Sunday. It was such a blessing!This is her adorable cake that Amanda (Jonah's teacher at school) made. Isn't she talented? She's the one on the far right (below). Hannah got so many cute, girly outfits. I can't wait to dress her up in all of them. I hope I can get to all of them before she grows out of them!

These are the sweet hostesses from my shower: Joanne, Irene, Mary, Tammy & Amanda

I just realized I look extremely tall in this photo. I'm only 5'6" - I've never realized how much shorter all of these ladies are than me!
My sister came up for the shower and her boys, especially Landry, have been dying to meet and hold baby Hannah. This is Logan above and Landry below. They look like professional cousin holders to me!

Landry looks just like his Daddy in this picture!

I had to throw in this picture of Hannah. When we woke up this morning we found Hannah with her hat falling over her eyes. We call her "Getto Hannah"!

Sweet Dreams!

2008-11-12T11:53:00.002-06:00

I just happened to catch Hannah having a happy dream, I guess?! You can't help but smile at this!

My three beautiful kiddos!

Hannah is growing like a weed! She was 7 lbs 5 oz at birth and now just 4 weeks later she is

9 lbs 14 oz! Over 2 1/2 lb weight gain! I guess she's not starving to death! We're still adjusting, but life will hopefully have a better rhythm soon! Hannah's look she's giving looks just like my sister, Michelle to me in this picture!

Fun Fall Days

2008-10-26T17:12:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures that I haven't had time to post (hmmm I wonder why?). This is that Thursday after Hannah was born. Adam took the boys on their school field trip to a pumpkin patch in McKinney. It was just what they needed - a day outside with hayrides, a petting zoo, and good old fashioned letting some energy out. There's nothing like a good day of tiring your kids out, am I right moms?? Mom and 2 day old Hannah slept the whole day - a much needed rest!

I think Caleb could've gotten lost in that pumpkin patch - he blends right in!!

G.G. and Grackle came for a very quick visit to meet their first great grandaughter!

Jonah and Hannah enjoying their new baby sister. Jonah is such a big helper with Hannah - I really couldn't make it without him! He gets me diapers, helps burp her, and runs all sorts of errands for me all day. He is very protective of his little sister, and has such a sweet way with her. Watch out boys one day - somebody will be watching you.

Caleb has taken a special interest in his sister lately. It took him a few days to finally notice her, but now he's just as in love as his older brother. He actually ignored me for a few days - I guess that was his way of making a statement, but now he's back to his old self. You can see the love in his eyes in this picture, and I'm sure he'll be just as protective in his own way! He loves to hold her now, and he hops up in the chair and holds his hands out and says "Baby, Hold Me" when he needs a little Hannah fix. He doesn't like to hear her cry, he actually starts crying when she does (which is always helpful and brings the decibel level up a few notches). He also loves to find the pacifier and at first gently try to put it in her mouth, but if that doesn't work he quickly resorts to "not as gentle" measures! We definitely have to watch him on that one. But overall, I couldn't ask for sweeter brothers with Hannah.

This past week we have enjoyed so many yummy meals from our church members. We have such a loving church, and they really take care of us like family, what a blessing! Here's a picture of the boys enjoying Magic Shell on an ice cream cone. Some of our dear church members brought this along with their meal just for the boys. And when I say boys - I'm also including Adam! Adam had actually mentioned Magic Shell in a sermon, so they knew he'd be just as excited as the preschoolers! And if you know Adam, he was probably more excited - it doesn't take much to get him going!I know it's a little early to post costume pictures, but Jonah and Caleb enjoyed a fun Pumpkin Party yesterday at my good friend Brooke's house. They decorated pumpkins, played games, and ate hot dogs and cupcakes. These are their very homemade costumes - I was pretty proud that they only cost about $10 for both costumes, because I used a lot of stuff I already had. If you can't tell, they are dressed as Alvin and Mickey Mouse. I was so surprised that Caleb kept his costume on even in the 80 degree heat. He actually didn't want to take it off! Jonah was very proud of his choice, the Alvin costume - even though he's never even seen the movie!
And of course I can't blog without putting a picture of our new little sweetie! Hannah got to go to church this morning, so this is her all dolled up! She's already looking older to me, each one grows up faster and faster! The other day I took her to her 1 week appointment and the nurse came out and announced "Hannah". I looked around the room for someone else, but I was the only one there with my kid! The nurse was laughing and said, "Oh yeah that's what I named my daughter" as I jumped up and realized that was me. I have a daughter! I guess I'd never heard anyone say her name like that and it was so foreign to me. I've finally gotten over calling her a "he", I guess it's just habit! She's such a good little baby, and sleeps and eats like a champ! We are all totally in love with the new little girl in our lives!

Rock-a-Bye-Baby...

2008-10-18T18:50:00.001-05:00

...Now, if she would only do this at nighttime instead of daytime!

Welcome to the World Hannah Joy!

2008-10-16T15:38:00.002-05:00

Tuesday October 14, 10:50 a.m.

7 lbs 5 oz, 20 1/2 in.

I'll post more pictures and stories later...

My Big Belly!

2008-10-04T23:30:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'm posting this so I will have documentation of my giant belly. Today Caleb just kept coming up and patting my belly and saying Ba-Ball, which is his version of Basketball. I did not teach him that, he just calls it as he sees it. Right now I'm awake, because little Hannah has decided to continuously kick my ribs and every way I lay is so uncomfortable! Jonah says I look like I have a "huge bowl on my tummy". I think every part of me is swollen right now, and we're all ready for little Hannah to get here! I'm just so blessed that I've had no complications so far, so I guess I can be a little more patient until she gets here. We'll keep you all posted of anything new!

Fun & Not so Fun!

2008-10-02T16:13:00.005-05:00

Here's what's been happening this last few weeks in our life. I've still got a baby in my tummy! When the Bragdon clan came last weekend, the 3 year old Olivia asked me if I was having puppies! I told her it wasn't puppies (but from the size of my belly it could be), then she wanted me to open it so she could see for herself! Cutie!

The doctor thinks it will be in the next week - I'm 70% effaced and 1/2 cm dilated! I'll believe it when I see it though - I was 4cm dilated for a few weeks with Caleb. We've got everyone's bags packed just in case though. I had a dream last night that my water broke and I couldn't wake up Adam. He just kept sitting up and then going back to sleep! Hope that's not prophecy. I can think of a few creative ways to make sure he wakes up though (WAHAHAHA!that's my evil laugh), so no worries! Here's what's been happening the last couple of weeks...

Jonah's school took a field trip to the Planetarium, Park and Children's Museum. Everyone had such a blast!

This was at the Children's Museum - this is Jonah's best Detective look!

Caleb was pooped out from the day at the field trip. Every time I tried to take the drink from him he would start sipping in his sleep again!

This is the not-so-great picture I took of the Bragdon kids when they came to our house last weekend. Kelli and I had such a great time, while the Dads went on Adam's special 30th birthday camping trip up in Turner Falls, Oklahoma!

Caleb is fascinated with all the new little pink clothes and toys in the house. People have already been bringing all sorts of stuff by and Caleb is the first to rummage through it. This is a little pink hat that he did not want to take off!

Caleb and Daddy enjoying a swing at the park.

Here's the not so fun happening at my house yesterday. You let a 2 year old out of your sight for 2 minutes and this is what happens...

Keep going...

There's more...

And more...

...And all done

Yes, this is dry erase marker, he found a marker hidden somewhere in our house. I was not a happy mommy - and I can just hear all the moms out there giggling!! It's funny when it's not you! Just so you know, dry erase marker does not dry erase out of carpet or even off of vinyl flooring. It takes hours of scrubbing with very strong carpet cleaners and then it's still not all the way out. Needless to say, carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow!

Pink Lint?

2008-09-17T19:48:00.006-05:00

Okay, the title for this blog may be a little silly, but I've discovered something that I have never experienced. Today I've been washing blankets and clothes that people have given me for Hannah and for the first time in my life all of the lint that came from my dryer trap was pastel pink! That's a new one! I'm sure that's is just really exciting for ya'll but it was actually a very strange thing for me. I guess I'll have to get used to that one!

I went for my last ultrasound yesterday. The doctor was trying to get a good 4-D picture of her face, but little Hannah once again would not cooperate. I think it's the hour and a half wait that I have every time in the waiting room that lulls her to sleep! I don't blame her. I did get to see a little bit of cheek and a closed eye, but her hand was right there in her face again. I told the doctor it was fine, because I'll see the real face in 4 weeks! I can't believe that she is just right around the corner, I think I'm finally realizing I'm going to have a daughter. Jonah asks everyday when Hannah is coming. We go through the same process - 4 weeks, "what's 4 weeks mean?" it means about 30 days - "what's 30 days mean?" ..... and I'm sure you can imagine the rest of the conversation. I know he's just so excited! Caleb is just excited about all the new contraptions in our house. We went ahead and put up her pack and play in our room and the bouncer and swing just so he'll get used to it and maybe won't try to join her in her bouncer or bed when she gets here. I think the novelty has worn off now - at least while she's not trying to share it!

Here are a bunch of pictures that I wanted to catch you up on. I had lost my camera cord until recently, so I haven't been able to download my pictures for a while.

It's amazing how much fun kids can have with a box! I think this became a rocketship, at least for this picture! See the two space explorers! It also became many other fun things before it finally had to retire!

On Labor Day we were blessed with a "free" night at a bed and breakfast cabin. It was such a cute place located in Pottsboro, Texas. My sister and her family came to join us. Here's the cousins (Logan, Caleb, Landry, and Jonah).

Jonah and Caleb feeding the goats! Caleb is actually a lot more brave at this than his older brother!

I just had to include this picture, just because I love to see Caleb drink from a juice box! Aren't his cheeks so cute??!

Four boys admiring the fire that it only took 2 hours for the Daddy's to make!! They said the wood was wet, but I don't think so!!! It was a great fire once it was going - and we enjoyed hot dogs, s'mores, and we even roasted an apple and a banana which wasn't half bad!

Here's our breakfast roasting on the fire! You take biscuits and smoosh them over the dowel rod and roast them over the coals. When they are done you can just pull them off and there's a hole that you can put sausage, butter, honey, jelly, whatever you like! They are very yummy! Ours had some technical difficulties, but next time we'll know what we did wrong. We've made them several times before and they are definitely a fun camping treat!

Daddy, Jonah, and Caleb riding on the paddleboat! I was not brave enough to get in for fear that my side would have tipped over! I don't think my buoyancy would be too great at this point in my pregnancy either! Looks like fun though.

Jonah helping touch-up paint Hannah's room with Daddy.

Here we are crumbling bread crumbs and filling the bird feeder. They both got into this project. Caleb especially likes to be able to destroy anything, even if it is a piece of bread. The squirrels actually ended up stealing all the crumbs, but at least someone got use out of them!

These next two pictures are our attempt at frugality! We bought a haircut kit and Adam attempted his first haircut on the boys. Adam is a lot more detail oriented than me, so I thought he would be better for the job. Plus - he's seen boy haircuts his whole life, I would have just been lost. We learned some things to do and not to do in the process, but overall we were pleased with the results!

Caleb seems happy with his results! I think he's just happy because he gets to eat a sucker the whole time so he'll sit still. It was a very hairy, sticky sucker by the end, but it did the trick!

Jonah reading a book to his little brother.

Caleb enjoying a nice, neat spaghetti dinner! He loves to wear this Mickey hat everywhere we go. There have even been times when he has slept in it!

My husband, "the romantic"! I came home from taking Jonah to school and here was a vase of roses sitting on our kitchen table! AAAWWW! I called him to tell him thank you and he laughed when he told me they were free! He and the boys were at the store and came out and a wrapped bunch of flowers had been thrown on the ground! He picked out the ones that had been run over by a car and was left with this beatiful bouquet! Some people may think that's offensive - but I love it! He was still thinking of me - and he saved a whole bunch of money in the process! I love flowers, but I've always told him to get me something that's a little more useful if you're gonna spend that kind of money so he did good!! He knew I'd appreciate the story, more than the flowers!

Update

2008-08-28T09:55:00.004-05:00

Just a quick update: I went to get another ultrasound on Tuesday. Our doctor tries to do a 4-D picture of their face at about this time in the pregnancy. Well, our little Hannah would not cooperate! I love it she's already got a mind of her own. I don't know why I would expect anything less from one of our kids! She kept her hand on her face for the whole time. We got to see a brief look at her face, but he couldn't get her to stay in that position. She does have chubby cheeks already (that one is definitely from me!) and the doctor said she's a little over 5 lbs roughly. He said this is a good milestone to reach - and she's very healthy as far as he can tell! 7 weeks to go! He's going to do another ultrasound next time to see if he can get the picture. I'm starting to nest - in fact I've been cleaning out every closet, nook and cranny that I can find. I'm still in the everything looks chaotic right now, but I can feel the end nearing. Then next week, it's time to wash clothes, bedding, and work on Hannah's room! I can't believe we'll have a little girl in about a month and a half!
Here's some pictures of Jonah at his school on Tuesday. The firemen came and did a presentation for them. Jonah learned so much - he came home and showed me how to Stop, Drop and Roll, informed me that I didn't need to be scared because the firemen's masks look a little like somebody on Star Wars, and told me to holler out if I'm ever in a fire so the firemen can find me. I'm so glad he learned so much - I hope he never has to use it! He loves school so much, we are so blessed to have such a wonderful school, who has helped make the school as Peanut-Free as possible (due to Jonah's severe Peanut allergy). What a blessing! Thank you Lord for always being our Provider!

Here's the 3 year olds through Kindergarten:

Food for Thought

2008-08-24T14:43:00.002-05:00

Jonah said something funny today in the car that I thought you'd enjoy!

Jonah: Mom, Why do ants bite you?
Mom: Ummm, I don't know I guess they're scared of you and afraid that you'll hurt them.
(thoughtful silence)
Jonah: Well, why don't we get some reeeaaally tiny paper and write a reeeaallly tiny note that says "Please don't bite me, I just want to look at you!" and then we can drop it off to them!

So, I guess we have a very tiny project to do this Sunday afternoon!

Caleb's 2nd Birthday Party

2008-08-23T20:55:00.004-05:00

Here are some fun pictures of the birthday party! We all had such a great time. Curious George was the theme of the day and we had 4 stations set up in the fellowship hall (Play-Do, Trains, Legos, Coloring) and the kids seemed to love it all. They were all so cute - I think their favorite thing were the loose balloons all over the place which was probably the easiest preparation! Isn't that how kids are - the simpler the better!

Here's Papa John before the party enjoying a rousing game of Monkey Volleyball with Jonah!

Here's Tootsie helping Caleb decorate himself with stickers!

My sister, Michelle, Mama Gina and Tootsie! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Here's all the kids eating their pizza - well, one big kid at the kiddie table? I think they were all acting like monkeys, including Tootsie!! What fun! Of course, Caleb is the kid that you can rarely catch looking at the camera!

Caleb blowing out his birthday candle! We had banana pudding instead of cake, since the theme was Curious George. He just grinned ear to ear when everyone sang to him.

Here's Caleb giving some love to one of the great gifts he got at the party! MMMpppwww! (that's a kissing noise!)

Back to School & Fun

2008-08-20T14:22:00.007-05:00

Well, it's that time of year again and Jonah is back to school! He is still attending Forerunner Christian Academy, which is a 2 day a week school. We absolutely love the people who have started the school and have enjoyed getting involved in this school startup! Jonah has been so ecstatic to start school again. He has 5 kids in his class this year, but he's the only boy so far. We're expecting more kids to join the class, so we're praying for another little boy that he can do "boy stuff" with! Here's a little video of us in the car right before going to school!

Now that he's 2 - he's officially a little ham! I walked in and he has my oven mitts on his feet wearing them like boots! He posed for me so I could get this picture!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

2008-08-18T08:40:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was Caleb's 2nd birthday! I can't believe that he is 2 years old - time has flown by so fast! I can't believe that 2 years ago I had this tiny little red-headed person in my arms - having no idea what the next 2 years would hold.

Caleb is such a joy of a little person! He is such a relaxed, fun-loving little guy who is just magnetic to be around. He's quieter than Jonah was, but you can tell the wheels are always turning in his little head. I love the fact that he is totally content playing by himself and being independent! He does have a little bit of that red-headed fire in him, but he's quick to get over it too. He's always wanting to do everything his big brother does - and sometimes that gets him into trouble. Jonah loves to teach Caleb how to say different words, and Caleb just absorbs and admires everything he does. My favorite moments are when Caleb climbs up in my lap after bathtime to watch a little bit of "Dorge!" which is Caleb-Language for Curious George. And if I forget he loves to pull me and remind me of our special time. Caleb's snuggles may be rare, because he's always busy with something - but I think that just makes them extra melt your heart! I love you sweet Caleb - I can't imagine our lives without you!

Here's some pictures of the boys eating cupcakes! Caleb's party is Saturday - but of course you have to have cupcakes on your birthday!

Ancient Words Impart

2008-08-16T23:39:00.003-05:00

If you're wondering what my title is - I was sitting here singing to myself the line of a praise song that just stuck with me..."Ancient words ever true, changing me and changing you. We have come with open hearts, Oh let the ancient words impart!" I have felt completely overwhelmed in just about every area of life lately, I can't even begin to describe it. Adam and I were sitting here talking about how both of us can't seem to get out from under our rut of focusing on the negative instead of dwelling on being grateful to God in everything. Sometimes it is just so hard to let things go, and lay them at the Lord's feet. I get so consumed by the everyday physical nature of things that need to be solved, fixed, changed and finished that I begin to empty out all of the strength that's within me - forgetting the whole time that there is an unending spring of strength that I can draw from if I stop focusing on myself and my needs and focus on the Lord. This is a scripture that I am wholeheartedly meditating on tonight:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.

Philippians 4:8

Tag, You're it!

2008-08-06T15:57:00.004-05:00

My friend Kelli "tagged" me with this post. I'm supposed to answer these questions on my blog! I'm so excited - I feel like a kid actually playing tag!! (Which would be very interesting to watch me play tag at this point in my life - big belly and all!)

Two names you go by:
1. Momma 2. Mrs. Mandy (Church kids)

Two things you are wearing right now:
1. Flip-flops (the only thing I wear in this heat) 2. A GIANT maternity shirt!

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. Eat at a restaurant ALONE with my husband 2. Watch my boys laugh!

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. A very cold banana split! 2. To have all of my to-do list finished before the baby

Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1. Molly (Childhood Dog) 2. Earl ( Our first dog when we got married)

Two things you did yesterday:
1. Met my friend Mary at McDonalds with the kids 2. Made silly hats with Jonah

Two things you ate today:
1. Cinnamon Rolls for Breakfast 2. Some kind of concoction my husband made the other day put on a tortilla (it was actually pretty yummy)

Two people you last talked to:
1. Adam 2. My parents who just came by and picked up the kids!! HOORAY some time for rest!

Two things you plan on doing tomorrow:
1. Get caught up on chores and my to-do list 2. Go to a banquet for a new Christian Pregnancy Center opening here in Bonham

Two longest trips taken in the last five years:
1. San Diego, CA for a weeklong family vacation 2. New Orleans for my brother's wedding (it felt like the longest drive ever!)

Two favorite holidays:
1. Christmas 2. Thanksgiving (I love all the decorations for fall!)

Two favorite beverages:
1. Cranberry Juice/Ginger Ale mixture 2. Caramel Steamed Milk from Starbucks

In the spirit of the game - I'm going to tag my sister Michelle! Tag, you're it!

Crazy, But Not So Crazy Week!

2008-07-26T21:21:00.003-05:00

We've had a very eventful last week or so in our family. Monday and Tuesday I went down to be with my sister who was having surgery. I got to stay in a great hotel with no kids which is a vacation in itself - even though the reason I was there was not such a positive one. After that I rushed home to get clothes all washed and packed because the next day Adam was leaving to go to camp. He only had to do half a week, another sponsor stayed the first part of the week, which was very nice. I headed down to my parents house to stay with them for a few days. We had a great time just hanging out, nothing fancy! Caleb spent most of the time obsessing over their Disney World travel book, he had to look at every page with very intense detail. I think we've looked at that book 50 times in the last few days. He loves "Kiki", which is Caleb language for Mickey. We had a great time, because I'm not real into the whole "exerting lots of energy" thing these days - hmmm I wonder if why??
You know you're getting bigger when your son walks in after you've stepped out of the shower and tells you that your belly is so big that you look like Fat Pete on Mickey Mouse! Some of you may not know who that is, but you can probably imagine! It's funny though, some girls would want to go off and cry about something like that, but it just makes me laugh. It's quite the comical thing looking at yourself in the last trimester of pregnancy, pretty amazing what your body can do. I know that this is just part of how my body helps create a new life - and if you really think about it it's not that big of a price to pay in the long run! I was even walking out of Academy sport store the other day and the greeter said "Have a good day ya'll!" I looked around for anyone else, but it was just me - so I've officially stepped up to a ya'll at this point of my pregnancy.

Here's a picture of Jonah with his "Rainbow Pie" that he made for our church Pie Cook-Off. As he says he "won" the contest - which he actually tied for 3rd with an 87 year old lady. I think that's a pretty good accomplishment. He came up with the recipe for the most part and helped me make it. He knew he wanted a rainbow pie with all the colors of the rainbow, so that's what we did! Great job Jonah!

Today Adam took the boys on a "safari" at a park down the road. I'm not sure they saw any animals but they came back hot and tired which is a great thing for kids that age! It's been so hot lately we haven't made it out of the A/C very much!

Caleb's on a mission, isn't he?

This is a picture of Jonah reading his first book. He was so proud to be able to read it all by himself. The book title was "Mat", and it was a exciting adventure of Mat and Sam! The book plot was not exactly something that will be made into a movie, but we were so proud of this big accomplishment!

Getting Closer!

2008-07-19T22:50:00.004-05:00

I can't believe that I'm in my 3rd trimester already! Here is a picture of my belly at 26 weeks! I'm not real sure how it could get any bigger - but I've still got 3 months of growing to do. October sounds so far away, but then again it's right around the corner! I don't know if I'm ready for a 3 kid family, but I guess I need to get that way, right?

Hannah is kicking all the time now, sometimes so much I'm not able to sleep. I had forgotten all the lovely things that come along with being this pregnant...Sleeping at a 45 degree angle because everything else gives you heartburn...Kicks in the ribs!...Forgetting things...Backaches, Backaches, Backaches!...Feeling like a really obese duck waddling around...and so much more. Don't get me wrong - I definitely appreciate the miracle that is happening and feel blessed each day to be able to carry this little girl inside! But the reality is it's not always the most magical experience! I am so excited about meeting this little girl, I can already tell she's full of spunk!

Here's a fun picture of Caleb! He is such a character! He figured out how to do this with his shirt, so he walked around for a very long time so proud of himself. I couldn't resist a picture! His latest cute thing is he lifts his foot to his nose, sniffs, and says "EEEWW YUCK!" I don't really know where he came up with that one!

Here's a picture of the boys asleep. Caleb is usually on the bottom trundle bed, but he often ends up in Jonah's bed. As you can see, Jonah is halfway on and off and Caleb is sprawled out on top of him. Sometimes being this close to one another at night is a challenge when they first go to sleep, but hopefully we're learning. Caleb has even learned if he bites Jonah then we'll come in there to check on the screaming! Then he's just sitting there smiling and asking for "juice" when we walk in! Patience, patience, patience for everyone!

Dinner in the "castle" one Sunday night. We all love to eat dinner and watch "the funny show" which is America's funniest Videos. The kids just belly laugh through the whole show!

VBS, Fourth of July, Summer Days!

2008-07-07T20:50:00.006-05:00

Pheww! We finally finished VBS! When you're VBS director and your husband is the pastor of a small church, there's a lot of responsibility involved with VBS, but it is always so worth it! We had a space-themed VBS this year and we had a lot of fun with it. I don't have a picture right now of the entire stage, but I have to say it was pretty awesome! We had the whole church blacked out with black plastic (which 3 different Wal-Marts were out of stock after I hit them) and we had black lights, a rocket, a space station, the whole works! Jonah is still wishing he could go back to "BBS" as he calls it! The above picture is of the Sunday morning presentation. There were about 20 kids in his preschool group, but this is all that showed up for the Sunday School presentation! We're all still singing the "BBS" songs!
Here's our "satellite" launch on Sunday after church! Each balloon had a salvation message attached, in hopes that someone who didn't know Jesus would find it! Overall, the kids really absorbed so much at VBS and almost every kid learned our memory verse! We even had one kid get saved because of it all! Praise the Lord!
On Fourth of July Weekend we went to Addison, Texas with some friends of ours to the Kaboomtown festival. This is their little family: Michael, Elizabeth, Cameron and little Olivia. We had one catastrophe happen after another, but the funny thing was we still had such a great time! We even sat in traffic for 2 1/2 hours as they blocked off every road to our hotel to "help" with traffic after the festival. It was after midnight before we all got back to the hotel - we were some weary travelers that night! We had a much-needed relaxing playtime at the Galleria playground on Friday morning! It's so nice just to let the kids run their little hearts out without having to run after them!!

Friday afternoon the kids and I had some desperately needed naps while Daddy picked up Tootsie and visited with her a little. She's been pretty sick lately, so it was nice to be able to be all together again! Afterward we enjoyed a little family swim while Tootsie took pictures. Notice the giant shirt I'm wearing - sorry I could not find a good picture taken that showed my pregnant belly - so sorry I'll have to work on that one! After all, that's the beauty of having your own blog - it's under my control ha-ha!!
Here's a picture of the flag cake, Jonah and I made for Fourth of July! I had originally made it to eat while we watched fireworks the night before, but our plans just did not work out that night!! I had imagined a picturesque setting of our friends and us sitting on a blanket at the hotel, wearing these festive headbands I'd bought for the kids, while munching a yummy flag cake and celebrating to patriotic music and beautiful fireworks!! Instead we were all sweaty, stuck in traffic, while people yelled at us to get out of the way and kids yelled in the background that they were hungry and tired, and the pregnant mom tells Dad to stop laughing because none of it is funny anymore!! Isn't it great how you just never know what is going to happen in life! I love it though, because now I have a great blog story!

Today I had one of those great days where I got in the "pioneer woman" mode. We had been given a whole lot of squash and other vegetables by many generous people that I had to do something with before they went bad. I spent the whole day chopping, cooking, making casseroles, making zucchini bread, marinating fresh catfish caught by a friend, and shucking corn! There's nothing that makes you feel more like a real woman than putting away all of this fresh food! There's also nothing that poops you out more!! We ended the night by eating fresh grilled catfish, squash/redpotatoes/ and onions, and grilled corn! It felt so good to know that all of that food was fresh from someone's garden. I wish we could eat like that everyday! The boys played in the water while we grilled, well Jonah actually played in the mud digging holes and covering himself in sticky mud! Caleb ran around chasing the "bees" which were actually wasps with his bat! I'm trying to break him of this one - that could be dangerous!

Happy 8th Anniversary!

2008-06-24T12:42:00.004-05:00

Today marks 8 years that Adam and I have been married!! He said I've put up with him for 8 years, but actually I've put up with him for 12 years!! It's amazing how much our life has changed in 8 years adding 2 more kids and one more on the way! Oh how I wish I could go back and tell myself to sleep all that I can and travel everywhere you want to go!! It's funny how you think you have responsibilities then, but you have no idea what lies ahead!

But you know what - even though we're probably a lot more tired and there's definitely not as much time to spend quality time together I can honestly say we are so much more in love than ever before!! I've grown to love Adam more and more every day - and appreciate how much the Lord has given me through him. I'm so thankful, first and foremost, for a man who loves the Lord with all his heart. For a man who loves me so unconditionally even when I don't deserve to be loved. For a man who still looks at me like I'm the most beautiful woman in the world even though cellulite and a giant belly has set in!! For a man who would do anything for his kids, and craves to be with him every chance he gets. Lastly for a man who lives his life to serve others at any cost!! How could I ask for more? I love you Adam Earl!!

Hi Again!

2008-06-23T15:04:00.003-05:00

I don't know why I've gotten out of the rhythm of this whole blogging thing, but I'm just having a hard time getting back into it! Sorry, but this blog will have no pictures, because my camera seems to be erasing pictures on its own or something! I've lost a lot of our pictures from the last few weeks somehow, even all of Jonah's birthday pictures are gone - I have no idea how. Thank goodness I blogged some of them or else I'd be very sad!
We've had a pretty eventful last couple of weeks. Here's a short rundown of our happenings:
- Jonah turned 4 years old! I still can't believe I have a 4 year old! It sounds so old!!
- I had another ultrasound and this time it was very clear that it is a girl, so bring on the PINK! I've already gotten a lot of pink and girly stuff from (Thank you to Tootsie and G.G.) and I'm loving it. Tootsie even got us our crib set already and I can't wait to put it all together! I'm decorating her room in Ladybugs! I'm a little intimidated by all this girl stuff, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon!
- We had a short visit with Tootsie and G.G., visited with Pop & Nona(Adam's Dad and his family) in Houston (Jonah even got to have a birthday swim party with chocolate cake and everything) and drove all the way to New Orleans for my brother's wedding! We came all the way back Saturday night, an 11 hour drive!!
-The boys had so much fun at the reception after the wedding. They had a dance - and boy did the kids dance their little hearts out. It's so fun to watch kids because they're not worried about what anyone thinks! I love their honesty and joy in their dancing! We had a little mishap though and Caleb accidentally got behind a lady who was line dancing and she tripped over him and broke her wrist! I felt so horrible about it all, but she was really nice about it and told us not to worry that it could've happened to anyone! I still feel awful about it, but I guess it's just one of those things that happens in life!
-The last week or so we've been gearing up for VBS which starts this Thursday. We decorated our church, including a 15 foot rocket made with metal barrels! We're doing a 3 day VBS this year on Thur-Sat. and it's space themed Exploring the Awesome Wonder of God! I'm excited about it, but when your VBS director there's so much more to do than anyone ever knows!! It always all comes together, but it's always a little stressful this last week approaching VBS!

I'm still feeling good with the pregnancy, so Lord willing I'll stay that way! I am getting a pretty big belly now, and I'll post pictures as soon as my camera stops going on the fritz! I keep wondering how I'm going to make it until October, I feel like I'm already getting huge! I guess this little girl just wants to spread out!

Jonah's Birthday

2008-06-08T17:28:00.004-05:00

Jonah had his 4th birthday party yesterday and we all had such a blast! It was actually a little windy, so the heat was bearable - we were all happy about that! It was complete with bouncy house, cookie cake, candy and a lot of tired kids at the end (Hooray for Naptime!) Here are some pictures from our SuperHero Celebration!

My parents got this bouncy house on clearance a couple of years ago and we have all gotten their money's worth out of it!

Since it was a TRUE Superhero party, of course we had to have capes. Thank you to my mom for making all the capes for party favors!!! Look at all the muscles bulging at Superhero training!

After Superhero training we were ready to get the key from the Yellow Bandit (aka Adam). We played a rousing game of Don't wake the Bandit to retrieve the key to get our rope back for the pinata!

As you can see, the pinata was a hit!

Now it's time for food! Here is Jonah's cookie cake that he requested. It was my first time to make one, but it was really fun. If you can't tell, it has a Superman emblem complete with a big J!

Caleb's like his momma and enjoys his sweets a little too much! This is a serious thing, can't you tell?

Another highlight of our day was going to get our fish for the new aquarium. You can't really see them in the background, but we have a new orange fish named Sarah, and a black fish named Shadow. They both love them! Caleb keeps trying to give his ball to the fish to play with. I'm thinking I'll come in one day and he'll be swimming with the fish~ I hope they don't go belly up because I accidentally dumped way too much fish food in there this morning. They were very happy fish, but I hope there's not consequences!

Last couple of Weeks

2008-05-25T17:18:00.003-05:00

I've kind of forgotten about blogging for a couple of weeks! Here's a run down of some of the happenings...

Two of the cutest pilots around!

Two brothers love each other!

Jonah's award ceremony at school. They sang Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC song and got their certificates. Jonah got the Helping Hand Award, because his teacher says he always wants to help.

Isn't he cute sitting on the little couch?

Caleb slept in his big boy bed for the first time Saturday night! He did such a great job. Caleb would be sitting up in the bed playing and dancing and Adam would look in and he would immediately lay down and pull the covers over his head! He's becoming such a big boy now!

Doctor Today

2008-05-12T17:32:00.002-05:00

Today we went to the doctor for our sonogram to find out the sex of the baby. We had gotten a special babysitter (thank you to my sister for coming up), Adam had switched his day off, and we had told everyone that today was the day! We get to the doctor and the nurse leads me back to a regular room, not a sonogram room. I told her - I thought we were supposed to have a sonogram today. She quickly said, "no just a routine visit"! I quickly went into 6 year old whine mode, "No I got a special babysitter and the doctor told me it would be today". Obviously not wanting to sympathize she just told me I'd have to talk to him. We sat there for 45 minutes waiting for him, while my husband was cool as a cucumber and I was so upset! "How could he tell me that and then not do it today - I can't wait another month"! Adam just kept telling me, "He'll do it"! My husband is always the optimist and I'm always the one preparing myself to be disappointed! After my 45 minutes of high blood pressure I'm sure, when he walked in he quickly took us to the ultrasound room. The baby was really shy at first and had the legs pulled up so we couldn't see. After some jostling and turning, it was revealed.....

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!!

The nurse was laughing at us, because Adam and I just sat there with our mouths open for the rest of the time! I really had thought it was a girl the whole time, but I didn't want to get my hopes up so I had played those mindgames with myself convincing myself it was a boy. Even though another boy would have been wonderful, I guess this is what the Lord had planned for us! Adam is already ready to clean shotguns and sharpen his knife on the porch for her first date! Jonah was so excited because he had been wanting a girl all along! After we told him he just kept kissing my belly and saying, "Hi baby sister"! Caleb still doesn't realize what's going on, but I know he'll be a great big brother too! ... Well, I'm going to go and start searching for girly crib sets!

Weekend Review

2008-05-07T12:53:00.005-05:00

Well, for those of you who were wondering - we did survive this weekend! I guess I should say Adam survived. We were so proud of him - he finished 495 out of 1000 people with a time of 1 hour 32 minutes and some seconds. Pretty impressive for a first race! Here are some pictures from the weekend:

And they're off - this is Adam's heat wearing the very manly pink swim caps. Notice the lifeguards all around - thank goodness!

This is Jonah cheering on Daddy at the beginning of the race. The race started at 7:00 A.M. Adam had to be there at 5:00 A.M. We were all tired by the end of the day!

You can see the SuperDad shirts I made for the boys. They were so proud to wear their shirts. Caleb even did a little cheer for Daddy it sounded like "Go Da Go" and punched his little arms up in the air as he said it - It was precious and I wish I'd had a video camera!

Here's Adam coming in from the 500 Meter Swim. He was so exhausted! He did not realize how different it would be swimming in the lake as opposed to the pool. Tons of waves and all the swimmers kicking you and splashing water in your face. He said it was really hard to breathe at times with everything. Next time he'll know what to expect!

Here he is getting on his bike for the second leg - the 15 mile bike ride. You can spot him by the neon yellow shorts. He was the only one with neon yellow shorts!

We all had a fun time playing on the playground while we waited for Adam to come in on the bike. Somehow we missed him - even though I stood over there watching the whole time, so we waited...and waited...and waited. The big guy eating the twinkie that I mentioned in my last blog rode in - so I said there must be something wrong. I went up to the finish line and Adam had already finished the run and was waiting on us!

Here's Adam at the finish line - he doesn't look like he just swam 500 meters, rode 15 miles and ran 3.1 miles does he?

We went back to where Adam's Dad was standing and he was still looking for Adam to come in on the bike. Adam snuck up behind him, put his arm around his Dad, and said, "Do you see him yet?" Larry was so surprised!

Adam 's Dad, Luke (his brother), and the rest of the fam.

This was another exciting part of the weekend. We went fishing in the lake behind Pop's house. Jonah caught this fish all by himself! He was so proud. The fish was actually taller than Caleb. We threw it back, because it wasn't a real edible fish, but Jonah went back for more after that. He wasn't real excited about touching the fish, but he became a real fisherman that day!

Party and Race

2008-05-01T21:04:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note to tell you about our day and our upcoming weekend. Today Jonah had his almost End-of-school party. They had so much fun eating pizza and cupcakes, every kids dream meal! They don't end school for a couple of weeks, but he's already asking when he gets to go back after summer. It might be a long summer for us! It really has been a blessing for Jonah to go and spend time with other kids and adults and he's learned so many social lessons that I couldn't have taught him at home. We just thank the Lord for such wonderful Christian people who help with the school, their reward is definitely not $$$, but they just have such great hearts for the school!

And I don't have a picture of this - but I have a funny story of my little one. The other day I was changing his diaper when the phone rang. I was halfway through the process, so I thought it couldn't hurt to leave his diaper off for just a minute. (This is where all the experienced mothers who aren't in the baby stage anymore laugh a sympathetic, but evil laugh!) As I was talking to my sister on the phone, about a minute had gone by and I hadn't seen Caleb so I went back to the toyroom where he was. There I find my ALL BOY son standing on top of the train table peeing off of it. When I walked in he was just grinning. I think he actually went back there for that purpose. Had he been waiting for that diaperless moment for months, or what? I guess we'll never know. I do not have a picture of that one though.

Everyone pray for Adam this weekend - he's running his first Sprint Triathlon. If you have ever run in a race, you know that the worst part of it is the anticipation - and he's been anticipating for awhile. I have been so proud of him for losing lots of treasured sleep, getting up early while all of us are still in dreamland and working toward his goal. I know it's been such a stress reliever for him, well up until this point where I think he gets nauseous every time we talk about it. I have full confidence that he's going to do an awesome job, and we are proud of him no matter what happens for having the guts to get out there and try something new! A lot of people spend a lifetime talking about stuff - it's the doing that actually grows you! We love you Daddy and you always make us proud just because you're the best Dad and husband in the whole world! Just don't let the big guy eating a twinkie beat you!! (Inside Joke)

Bye-Bye Pacifier, Hello Bat!

2008-04-22T13:13:00.002-05:00

I love this picture! About 4 days ago, Caleb begrudgingly said goodbye to his pacifier. We did the same thing we did with Jonah, but for some reason Caleb did not take it quite as well. We cut the hole in the pacifier, and that's supposed to make them gradually dislike the pacifier. Well, Caleb did not follow the rules and as soon as he put that pacifier in his mouth, out it went flying across the room with a huge protest involved too! The first night was a pretty tough one, but then we got the bat. You can see it in the picture, it's just his size. As soon as we got it for him it's hardly left his hands. Now, we just put his bat in his bed at night and off to sleep he goes. And he's already prepared if a burglar breaks in too! You can also see his pants in the picture, that's also a new thing. He takes off his pants when he gets into bed, who knows why?

Last Few Days

2008-04-16T09:44:00.004-05:00

Just an update on the last few days in our life! Nothing too exciting, but I just felt like posting.

Last Thursday, Jonah and I went with his preschool class to the Gainesville Zoo. And you know what - I forgot my camera so you can just imagine how cute he was looking at all the animals! We even got to ride a train and play at a gigantic playground. It was a great day altogether.

Jonah also had a fun day the other day with Daddy. Adam needed to mail something and Jonah wanted to ride his bike, so off they went riding their bikes to the post office. I figured I would see Adam halfway down the street carrying both the bike and Jonah, but about an hour later I see Jonah sprinting down the road. They had ridden 2 miles, and taken a few rests of course! But Jonah still had the energy to sprint home! Oh what I would give for that energy!

Caleb is also just blossoming (I guess a boy can blossom!). In the last month he has really stepped up the talking - we can understand about a 1/3 of it now, and the rest is Calebeze language. He definitely knows what he's saying and he has a lot to say too. He loves to give kisses and fives and he still loves to play ball. I think he's a little obsessed with balls myself, but it's really cute! At Wal-Mart I try to avoid the ball aisle altogether, because it becomes a very loud and passionate chorus of "BALL, BALL, BALL"! He's not very into eating fruit, I have to sneak it if I do give it to him, but he loves meat and cheese!! He'll even eat most vegetables as long as he's in the mood. He LOVES music and he'll break down dancing anywhere there's a tune. In fact in Applebee's last night he entertained the whole middle of the restaurant with a little jig! He's such a determined little man and I love to watch his little personality develop.

I went to my OB doctor yesterday, and everything is still looking great with the baby. I got to hear the heartbeat again - still 158. The baby kept kicking the little doppler scope because we could hear a little thud every so often. That's my kind of baby - feisty already! We get to hopefully find out the sex of the baby May 12th!

To sum it all up, we had a very small-town day yesterday. When we got home from picking up Jonah from preschool we noticed that the road workers were laying the asphalt on our road. For those of you who've ever visited us, you know that our road has been long past due for re-paving. So we sat out in our lawn chairs, the boys and me, and we ate popsicles. Caleb ate all his popsicle and then without missing a beat, immediately came and grabbed mine from my hand and ate it! We were covered in sticky from head to toe, all sitting there watching these big machines. It was definitely only something you'd enjoy if you live in a small town!!

1/3 of the Way!!

2008-04-11T09:35:00.004-05:00

Today marks the beginning of my second trimester. I am starting to feel a little more energy, praise the Lord! It's bad enough when you're not pregnant and you don't have enough energy to keep up with your kids - but multiply that times 10 for a few months and you look back and wonder how you made it through! I think we all have a little more fortitude in us than we give ourselves credit for!
I don't really remember everything that has happened in the last few weeks, but here's some pictures from our Renewal last weekend. It was kind of like a revival, but mainly for our own church members. The Lord blessed it so much, and so many people renewed their relationship with Christ in some way. We had some college friends, Matt & Andi, come up and lead the worship, and they brought their 2 beautiful kids too that we had never met. They had never met our kids either, so it was so interesting to see little miniature versions of everyone. Here's some pictures of the kids playing, since none of us adults really like the spotlight of the camera anymore.

Asher and Caleb: what could they be talking about?

Nevaeh and Jonah found a great clubhouse! Isn't she so cute - she gets her looks from her momma.

You can't get 4 preschoolers together without a little rock throwing into puddles!

Sweet Asher! Doesn't he look renewed? I think we were all pooped after an eventful weekend!

I love this picture - I hope this is not symbolic of Jonah dating later! Jonah and Nevaeh became the best of friends that weekend. Jonah still asks when Nevaeh can come back!

My New Favorite Quote

2008-03-26T16:28:00.002-05:00

This is my new favorite quote:

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ
that a man should have to seek Him first to find her.'

Update on the Barker clan:

Jonah is over his stomach virus, but somehow got an abcess and staph infection on his bottom during the whole process! We've had a hard day at the doctor to say the least, but hopefully we're on the downhill now. Pray that the infection is all gone, so we don't have to go get it lanced tomorrow! I think we get ever weird sickness that there is!

First Ultrasound and Miscellaneous

2008-03-25T12:11:00.005-05:00

Well, here's our first ultrasound! At only 9 weeks you can see toes and he/she is covering their face with the arm. They were moving around and the heartbeat was 158 beats a minute. The doctor said everything looked great! Isn't that amazing? I think it really makes things feel a lot more real! It's funny how awesome it is - even though I've done this 2 times already! You can try and look to see what the sex is, but sorry - it's not possible yet. At about 18 weeks I'll have another ultrasound and hopefully be able to see then.

It makes me so sad to think that so many abortions take place at this stage and later. As you can see, contrary to Pro-Choice thought, the baby is very developed at this stage - it's so amazing to think that 7 weeks before this there was nothing there! I wish everyone could go and see an ultrasound, then they would know how real of a miracle it is! There is no doubt that God has a plan from the very beginning for these babies!... Now I'll get off my soap box!

On Palm Sunday, we had our church Easter Egg Hunt! This picture of Jonah is with his great friend Macie! Aren't they precious? They just giggle and laugh when they're together and they walk around holding hands everywhere. I just think that's so sweet!

On the other hand, Caleb was not that into the whole Egg Hunt. He just wanted to walk around kicking the eggs and saying "ball".

This is Adam and Jonah's robot costume. As you can see I was looking for my collander and vacuum hose for a few days. They had so much fun making their "super robot".

This is one of my favorites! Mr. Po-Caleb-Head! These are Mr. Potato Head glasses that Caleb loves to put on!

Right now, we're battling a stomach virus here at the Barker house. Jonah has been down since Sunday evening and I've just gotten over some kind of sickness! I don't know if it's pregnancy related or not. Hopefully we'll be back and running in a couple of days if no one else catches it!

School Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-13T13:41:00.004-05:00

Here are some pictures of Jonah's class Easter Egg Hunt. They had lots of fun! Oh boy - lots of sugar to eat today, just what we needed!

Can you tell who the class ham is??

FUTURE DENTIST?

2008-03-12T11:54:00.003-05:00

I walked in on Caleb intensely brushing the dinosaur's teeth! We needed a Dentist in the family!

Snow Day & First Day of School

2008-03-06T13:44:00.003-06:00

We've had an eventful week! Jonah went to his first day of Preschool on Tuesday and had so much fun. He was pooped out by the end of the day! He was so proud, because as he puts it, "Three kids got time out, but I didn't"! I didn't even cry when I dropped him off or anything - I know he's in good hands and he loves to be around the other kids too.

On the same day he started school, we also woke up to about 4 inches of snow. It was so beautiful and peaceful to wake up to. I woke up that morning and turned on the tv to see if the area schools were being cancelled, and I couldn't stop watching the little scrolling thing across the bottom of the screen. It's like I get addicted to it. I finally just had to make myself stop watching it! Kinda weird, I know! I get all giddy on a snow day, like a kid who doesn't have to go to school or something - even though it probably has more of a negative impact on my day being at home and not getting to go outside! I guess it's just a habit you get into from being a kid! Here's some pictures of our snow day. We didn't get to make a snowman, because it was too powdery!

I also went to my first doctor's appointment yesterday. I switched OB doctors and I'm really pleased with my new one. He even does 3-D ultrasounds, so I'm excited about that. My nausea is still here, but I think I'm getting more used to it. I told Adam the other day that I am a walking Pepto-Bismol commercial minus one of those symptoms in the song. I hope you are all singing that Pepto-Bismol song now, maybe it will be stuck in your head all day!! Hee-hee! I just finished my snack of Ginger Snaps and Ginger Ale. Supposedly ginger helps nausea, but I haven't noticed a significant difference.

Here's a cute story: The other day I was sitting there drinking my drink when Jonah looked very concerned and yelled out "No, Mom don't drink that!" I asked him why and he said "It's gonna dump on the baby's head!" After that, we had a little discussion about where the baby is and isn't!...He also had a funny observation just a minute ago. Since it started snowing today, we were looking outside and watching the snowfall. I said, "Isn't the snow pretty?" Being the poet that he is he says..."I think it's not snow - I think a lot of birds are standing on the clouds and poo-pooing!!"...So ya'll watch out for any snowstorms today!!