The Present......

I got a late Christmas present tonight. The story goes.....

I had to go to a meeting. When I got home Mckenzie cam upstairs and said "Mom, daddy has a present for you" I said, "yeah it's probably a poopy diaper" She says " you like surprises?" I just laughed and went downstairs expecting him to tell me Carson had a "surprise" for me.

I got downstairs and there was a present wrapped. I said "oh you really did get me something, I thought it was a diaper" He told me to open it. So I started opening it. It was a Children's Place box. Then when I looked inside, there was a Lei and Hawaiian stuff and a resort booklet! WE ARE GOING TO HAWAII!!!! I am so excited! This is a picture of the present (I know, I'm a dork!)

Justin has a presidents club at work where you have to bill so much in a year to be in it. We have known since April that he was on track, but it can change at any time. He has been one deal away from getting it since November. He only had until Dec 31st. He got to work today and by 9am got a deal that was double what he needed! Only 5 people in the office got presidents club. They are paying everything for Justin and everything for me except airfare and souvenirs.
Alyssa took this great picture of us! (good job Alyssa) ALOHA!!
Thank You Justin for keeping it from me all day and then surprising me! I Love You!

Chistmas Day!!

I can't believe Christmas has come and is gone like that. We wait all year and it's over in a matter of hours. We had a great Christmas. If anyone knows my kids, you know they sleep in. Justin and I thought for sure this was the year they were going to get us up at 5am. NO, we still had to wake them up. I woke up about 8 and was amazed they hadn't come in. So we got up and went and woke them up. They were so excited. Alyssa and Matthew have been asking for a Nintendo DS. They said that was all they wanted.
Here is the picture of them opening the DS'. They were going crazy.
They said that was all they ever wanted. They each got the system which came with a game, and 3 other games. they got a few other things, but we told them that if they got DS', that would probably be it. They were fine with that, and so was I (no more trinket crap to mess up the toy room with).
Alyssa really wanted a littlest pet shop VIP, so that is what she got from Mom and Dad.
Matthew thinks this movie is hilarious, I saw it on black Friday for cheap, so I grabbed it. He loved it!
Mckenzie couldn't be left out with the game systems, I found this Leapster 2 for an awesome deal at Costco. She likes that she can be one of the big kids.

Mckenzie is a BIG High School Musical fan! I took her to see HSM3 in the theater and she was dancing and watched the whole movie (which is rare because she loses attention). She loves to sing and dance to the music. She used to love Sharpay (that's who she was for Halloween), but now she says she doesn't like her, she says she love Gabriella now! (Whatever, who are you, a 16 year old?)
Of course she needed a new CD player to put her music on to dance to. When she opened it she got all excited and yelled, "Yeah music!"
And here is special bus himself! (Just kidding!!! I love my baby!) This picture just makes me laugh! Carson would get so excited when we would put a present in front of him.
I know, he can't even crawl yet and we got him a 4-wheeler. We just have so many baby toys, we thought it would be better to get him something he could grow into. It is funny to watch his face when we put him on it and push the button.
After everything was opened and paper was in the trash, our families came with more presents! Every year my parents and Justin's parents come over on Christmas day and get to see what the kids got. The kids look forward to showing them every year. Thank You to our family for all the presents! You are all the BEST! Merry Christmas!!!!

Dancing and Splitting.....

Mckenzie and Alyssa had a Christmas Dance performance at the high school last Thursday night. They both did really well. Mckenzie did tumbling and dance, and Alyssa did hip hop. They were so fun to watch. Alyssa did really good at hip hop, I didn't know I was raising a hoodlum. After we went to Artic Circle for some yummy ice cream!
Here is most of Mckenzie's dance class waiting to go on stage.
Here is most of her tumbling class. It was so funny to watch them try to do cart wheels.
Mckenzie waiting to tumble
Alyssa was too cool to let me take anymore pictures than just this one. I had a hard time taking this one.

On to the splitting.... Our ward that we have been in for 6 years split on Sunday. We didn't know it was coming. Justin and I have known that if our ward ever split we would be gone cause we are all the way on the end of the line. We have the best ward ever, I have been worried about ever moving because I didn't want to leave our ward. Our home was just a starter home and we did want to find another home that we could get more features that we wanted. We tried to even move closer west into our ward to avoid ever being split out and it fell through. (that house is now split out with us) The most heartbreaking thing about all this is to watch my kids. Alyssa and Matthew took it really hard. We all know Alyssa cries, but Matthew is not a big cryer, He broke down. We even told them in a very positive way. It is going to be very hard and different. We have to move to a new building and are not even in the same ward name. I will miss everyone so much. I hope that I will still see everyone and that it won't seem to change too much.

Here Comes Santa Clause

Today the kids go to ride on the "Polar Express" to see the North Pole and visit with Santa. We went to the Christmas breakfast at the church. They set it up like the movie Polar Express. We were given a ticket prior to the event. When we got there, the conductor took the ticket and "punched in the word ticket" on it. The kids thought that was pretty cool. They had a special "train" cart for people the conductor was picking from the crowd. Alyssa got to go up (since she needed to hear the bell ring). We all ate breakfast while we were "riding" to the North Pole. When we were done eating, they read the story of the Polar Express and Santa came out. The kids all sat on his lap (even Alyssa) and received the first gift of Christmas, a silver bell. And it wouldn't be Christmas without snow, and we had the first "big" snow storm of the year today. It really is begining to look a lot like Christmas! Carson was really good. He didn't cry. I think all our kids have done really well sitting on Santa's lap.
Mckenzie likes to act so shy, but don't let her fool you. She may be on the naughty list!

Matthew whispered what he wanted, but I think Santa heard him.

Alyssa realized today that if she didn't believe, she wouldn't receive.

Black Friday...I know it's been a week sorry!

Every year I tell myself while standing out in the freezing cold, "I am never doing this again......." and yet I find myself out standing in a line somewhere (for a toy my kids will probably only play with until Christmas break is over) at 3am. Why do I do this? I'm crazy. Now I am not one of the crazy's that camps out for 2 days to get a computer! (BEST BUY!) But I do run in to the store hands up screaming and bashing people to get to my precious item that I searched for in the ADs the night before for 4 hours. (Ok, those that no me know that I would never bash into people I just added that for fun)

This year we decided to only hit one store and AD match, that's right, we went to Wal-mart! I live behind what I thought was the only 24 hour one in the area. Nope, there is another one that "not many people no about so it is LESS crowded" up the street. So since I was so smart and thought to only have to drive to one place and AD match why not go into the 24 hour one and not stand in the freezing cold, we went to the "less crowded Wal-mart". It was so ridicules that I will never go again (until next year). We get inside, and people are already in line sitting on the floor or camping chairs with their carts filled and ready to check out at 5am. THEN there were people all around waiting for things to be able to put in their carts by roped off areas. Yeah they let some people put things in their carts and get in line, and stopped it at some point. You couldn't even move. I looked at my family (Sister-in-law, Brother-in-law, and nephew) and said I am not this desperate, lets go to the other one. So we left and drove by our 24 one (3:45am) it was a zoo. NOPE not stopping there either. So we drove to a Wal-mart that opens at 5am. So there we are standing out in the freezing cold once again. But I do have to say that is the best Wal-mart to go to for the Black Friday sales. There was a line to get in of course, but everything was easy to get to, the only big crowded area was electronics and that's expected anywhere (gotta have those TV's). We checked out at 6:30am and were able to find and AD match everything we went out for. (except the computer I wanted from Best Buy-but I will pay the extra $200 not to camp for 2 days) After the fun at Wal-mart we went to Sam's club and ate complimentary breakfast, which is actually pretty good and filling. Since we were there I felt like I needed to buy something for eating their food. After finishing up we went home and felt great because we only needed a couple more things and we're done. I am trying to post a video of the shopping on here, because I forgot my camera so that I could have pictures to blog. I hope it works.

Santa no more...

It happened! I am officially old. Once one of your kids asks about Santa, you're doomed. Monday night Alyssa found out (or at least admitted it) about Santa. To set the story up........

A couple weeks ago we were at Justin's parents house for dinner. We were all talking in the living room, My sister in law's were talking about when they stopped believing in Santa, DUNDUNDUNNNNNN( melodramatic sound)!!! Alyssa is sitting very quietly on the floor playing with Carson. No one knew she was in there. I was like, you guys shhhhh Alyssa is sitting right there! She really didn't look like she was paying attention, but I KNEW she heard. So nothing was said of it. And it sat.

So Monday night we were driving home and Justin is teasing the kids about something and says something about Santa. Alyssa lowers her voice and says, "he's not real". It caught Justin off guard so he turned and was like "What did you say" I think it may have intimidated her even though that was not the intention. She seemed a little more reluctant to answer and said it again quieter. Me and Justin looked at each other and I said I knew she heard! Justin says "where did you hear that?" She says, "everyone was talking about it at Grandma's." So we told her we would talk about it later. She seemed fine. So I talked with her about it and she was good. She did say to me, "so you lied." I said, "No, remember the time you asked about how Santa gets in and I told you he uses imagination?" And she goes, "OHHHHH" like she was putting it all together. So BOOOO to growing old!!!!!! and BOOOOOO to Grandma's house where she had to learn the HARD truth!!

It's sad but I need to be safe.....

I guess I am going to get stocked if I don't go private. I am getting freaked out by all these stories. I am going to go private next week. Send me your e-mail address and I will invite you. Michelle, if you get this, I didn't get a chance to send you my e-mail before you went private. jbarker401@yahoo.com. I love reading every one's blogs and keeping up on your life's. It's sad that there are people out there that make it so it is even harder to stay in touch with our busy life's. I look forward to getting you all an invite and letting you continue to read my blog. This has been so fun and I plan on continuing posts for years to come. I hope to hear from all of you. If you don't have a blog and still read mine, you can still send me your e-mail address to my e-mail and we will getter done!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!! We had a great Halloween! Alyssa was Hannah Montana, Matthew was Indiana Jones, Mckenzie was Sharpay from the golf scene on High School Musical, and Carson was a Lion. Now off to the day of events!
First stop, the elementary school Halloween parade. Here comes Matthew (He had a teacher ask him if he was a hobo!) He was my DI costume kids this year, we couldn't find an Indiana Jones costume at the store. But he turned out pretty good. I found a leather jacket for him, a Men's size Large! We just rolled the sleeves and he was good to go.

And here is Hannah Montana! We found the perfect boots at DI for her costume, they went perfect with her costume. Her wig was a pain. I had to brush it out the night before and it took me until 1am and then by the time she was in the parade it was tangled again!

Here are the babies! Carson the Lion, Abigail the Banana, and Gaven the Lion. Oh don't forget Hannah Montana again!

Next we were off to Mckenzie's Preschool parade. She was so excited to come out as Sharpay, she skipped out. Then when she was supposed to do her little "intro", she got all shy.

They sang us some cute songs.



Then they got to parade around the yard. Her crown fell off somewhere!

Cupcakes are so good! They are even better when you wear them on your face!

After school got out, we went to Justin's work to go Trick or treating. They had a lot of fun there. All the people dressed up at his work, except Justin and 3 other people (lame!) I dressed up as a rocker and went around his work. Then we came home and got ready to go around the neighborhood.

Matthew as Indi!


Mckenzie had to hold up something, since Matthew held up his whip.


Alyssa was so animated. She was sick of getting pictures taken, so she decided to throw herself in front of the camera.

The kids went out with Justin and Troy and his girls, and I stayed home and passed out candy to the 25 kids that came to my door. I asked Justin if anyone was even out and he said there were a ton of people, I guess my house is too scary for people to come up to my door!

Carson wasn't feeling too well, so he stayed home with me. He was asleep when the kids left so I couldn't get pictures with him with the kids.


Roar!


I had to get a picture with me and my baby boy! So everyone had a safe a happy day, the kids got so much candy. And best of all We gained an hour of sleep!!!

What the.........

Ever have one of those days when you just want to say "What the......" and you can't say anymore???? Yeah, that was this day. Some people think that I am mean when I say I don't want my dog. Well maybe these pictures will show you why. While we were in California, my do stayed with my mom. Well my step dad decided to put her in the bathroom one day while he left because it was snowing and cold and he felt bad for her. Well I bet he really felt bad for her when he saw the bathroom.

So here, she tries to get out. She gnawed away the baseboard. (she cannot be confined, this dog is Houdini). Then she thought, "that's not working.....

....maybe I should try getting out through the SHEETROCK!!!" So she went to the other side of the door and proceeded to rip through the Sheetrock. I still have no words.

Here is a full image of the door after she ripped off the molding and dug through the Sheetrock.

I tried to get her to look at the camera so she could pose in front of her masterpiece. (She wouldn't look me in the eye! I wouldn't either)

Nope still not looking. It's like when a kid plugs their ears and says "I'm not listening!"

She now looks at her job to admire it. It's times like these that I LOVE MY DOG!!!

California!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

I should explain this picture. Matthew was not very happy that he had to go on the Nemo ride. So I snapped this picture of him in line to show him what he looked like. Then he ended up likeing the ride! So we teased about this picture, Saying he was in the Happiest place on Earth! We made it!!! The drive down to California went awesome. We left on Saturday morning at 2am. We arrived in Newport at about 2pm. The beach house was great. Saturday we just kind of relaxed, went to the store for food and went over to the beach for a little bit (it was pretty cold that first night). Sunday was our Beach Day! We packed up the wagon (the house had everything we needed from chairs to beach toys!), and walked across the street to the beach. It was really fun. I was a little (Justin would probably say a lot) freaked out when the kids went into the ocean. They were scaring me!! Matthew had a wave crash over his head 2 times! I can't handle that. I had to have Justin stay by the water with them. It was nice to just have a relaxing day before Disneyland.

Monday was the big day for everyone. Disneyland! It was really nice there, the crowds were pretty good considering in was Columbus Day and for some reason California gets that day off, school and government (Maybe Columbus came to California first!!!j/k). The girls went and got thier hair done at Libby Lu's. It was way cute! The kids wanted to go on all the big rides, even Mckenzie went on them. The only rides she didn't go on was Indiana Jones and Screamin' because she was too short. Justin got a kick out of her on Big Thunder Railroad, they reached the top and her hands went right up in the air, he started laughing because he wasn't even putting his arms up. She is our little Dare Devil! Tuesday and Wendnesday we finished up Disneyland and California Adventure.

Thursday our friends all wen to Sea World and we had another Beach Day as a family. It was nice to relax again after Disneyland. The kids found so many shells, and tried out the boogie board (only in the ankel deep water because of thier sico mom). That night we just decided to drive and find somewhere to eat, we ended up eating at In & Out Burger.

Friday we had to leave the Beach house. So our friends and us drove out to Hollywood and tried the Hotdog stand Pink's. It was pretty good for a hotdog stand. We got some pictures of the Hollywood sign from far back. Then we decided to get out of L.A. before traffice started. So we left at 2:30pm, BIG MISTAKE! I guess traffic begins at noon there! It took us 5 yeah 5 hours to get from L.A. to Primm NV. It was not very fun. So when we finally got to Primm we stayed the night. The next morning we got up and went to Buffalo Bills to ride the roller coaster and the other rides. Then we drove the rest of the way home. Carson did so well on the drive down but the ride home was horrible. I don't think he will ride in his car seat for a while. There were so may pictures that I just made a slide show. Hope you all enjoy! I don't know how to add the slide show to my post, so it is above this post. If anyone knows how to put it with the post, please let me know. Thanks!