Family Memories

Christmas Dance recital

2010-12-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

This year my girls were in a total of 7 yes 7 dances! It was crazy. I learned that I couldn't take a picture of them in each of their costumes because they would have to change since they danced in 5 songs. So I got what I could and learned what I need to do for the summer recital.
Mckenzie was in 3 dances. Ballet, I got a picture (her dances were farther apart, it was Alyssa I didn't get) Pre-company & Tumbling (which isn't really dancing :) but cute) Here is Mckenzie in her Ballet costume.

She looks like she is tired. This is her Pre-company costume. I was so proud. She did so good. I was nervous that she hadn't been paying attention, but it looked like she did.
Alyssa in her "Shake" costume. She was in 4 dances. Cheer, Hip Hop, Jazz & Pre-Company. She did awesome too. She is getting so good.
Mckenzie in her tumbling costume with her friend Madi.
Alyssa and her cousin Alex
Kenzie, Alyssa & Claire after the recital was over. I am so proud of the girls!!

Disneyland!!

2010-12-07T21:29:00.001-08:00

I have been spoiled the last few times we have been to Disneyland with sun shine. This time it was raining/misting the first part of the trip. What was sad was that I wasn't able to get out my camera like I wanted. I know there are a lot of shots on this post but there were a lot more I missed :( One more complaint, 2 years ago we went the 2nd week of Oct right before UEA. It was really nice, not many people, nice weather. It started to get a little crowded right before the UEA weekend but other than that perfect. So we thought let's go the 1st week of Oct this year and it should be awesome. Wow, wrong. The secret is out! It was so crowded (this is why I don't go in the summer) ok it wasn't as crowded as summer, but it was pretty bad for the "off" season. Note to self: NEVER GO TO DISNEYLAND IN OCT. Ok I'm done :)
The kids really wanted autograph books this year. I thought that would be perfect since it should be great crowds we wouldn't have to stand in too long of lines. They hardly got any because it was so crowded. I told them just to bring their books with us next time. We had so many kids with us, we decided to be nice and just take group shots. The thing that makes me laugh is how you can barley see the characters cute costumes!
Can you tell what costume Pluto is wearing?
Classic Tea Cups!
Grandma Barker and Kaden on Bug's Land ride
Grandpa Barker and Carson
Cierra and Me. I decided next time I am going to let Justin have the camera a few times because I am not in very many pictures. I want my kids to remember that I came ;)
A is for mAtthew
A is for Alyssa
O is for Mckenzie?
Minnie Mouse ready for flight
Cierra, I love her cheesy smile :)
Poor little ones had to wait while everyone went on the rafting ride.

There they are!
Mckenzie went to get on this ride and when we watched her come around she was sitting on this bench between some people we didn't know. We were laughing so hard. When she got off we asked her why she didn't get on one of the horses and she said she couldn't get up (she went on it with older siblings and cousins that could of helped her) we felt bad for laughing (kind of) Last year Carson went on the Mickey Mouse Ferris Wheel and loved it. We had talked it up so he was excited to go. We got in one that slides as it goes around (that's what we did last year) Here he is all excited.
When we moved a little he needed to scoot closer to Uncle Troy
Then we really started sliding
He did not like it this year :)
Tower of Terror picture
So with wanting characters autographs of course comes Pixie Hallow where you get to meet Tinker Bell and her friends. We waited in line for over an hour. This has got to be the coolest place right?
More waiting
Playing by the water while in line
Ready with the autograph book
Almost there...
When they let us in the kids were way excited. The first fairy we came to was Rosetta. She was awesome, talked with each kid, this must have been why the line was so long, they are personal.
Carson with Rosetta, I think he had a crush :)

After Rosetta I'm thinking this is great, then we turn the corner and they had Tinker Bell with Valdila and it is done! They weren't even 2 places to stop. I would have thought Tinker Bell would have been alone. Last time I checked Tink had more than 2 friends Disneyland. Oh well the kids had fun. :)
I went to take this picture by the castle and forgot to put Carson and Mckenzie in, oops!
Waiting for fast passes by Big Thunder Railroad

Winnie the Pooh, Can you tell Matthew just got off Splash Mountain?
Alyssa, Alex & Abby went off for a few mins to get some other autographs.

A random shot by the river of everyone waiting for something
Justin, Carson & Mckenzie by the river
Considering the weather and crowds we really did have a fun time. We are hoping to go to Disneyworld in 2 years so I better get used to the crowds right? You know they are going to be there for sure anytime. :)

Sea World

2010-12-02T15:25:00.001-08:00

So it has been awhile and I haven't finished documenting our trip. I was so excited to go to Sea World! I have never been there in my life. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to escape the rain back in LA. It was nice that there was hardly anyone there compared to Disneyland.
Here are the kids after dropping from Atlantis!
Here is Justin, Mckenzie, Troy and me falling down the hill. Mckenzie kills me with her arms up. She is in the yellow shirt.
The kids by the sharks Jaw. Clarie made the alarm go off because she put her arm in too far :)
Carson by the starfish
All the kids loved being able to pick up the starfish and hold them.

Matthew and Clarie petting the sting rays!
Justin helping Cierra. I thought it was so cool how the string rays just flocked to the kids to be pet.
The stinky flamingos, I mean it they were bad I wanted to run.
See Matthew holding his nose. It was pretty bad.
The BEST sea lion show ever! They did a Halloween show and it was so cute. In the top picture he is dancing to "Thriller" In the bottom one he looks like he is saying "Luke I am your father"

Kenzie with Elmo and Zoe, Carson and Cierra would just wave :)
Yes there are characters in Sea World too!
Carson and Cierra playing in the playland
I loved watching all the shows. I didn't get very good pictures at the Dolphin show.
The Shamu Show!!

Those are our kids down there wanting to sit in the splash zone. Mike went down to take pictures of them and he was the one that got splashed!
Carson loved the shows too

What a fun day at Sea World!

Poor Carson

2010-10-31T21:45:00.001-07:00

About a week and a half ago 10/20/10, Carson got his pinky smashed in the door. It was so sad! Half the nail came out and we had to go to insta care because it looked so bad I didn't dare to touch it. It was not broke, but they did x-ray for that. They ended up putting the nail back into place and wrapping it for 7 days so that the new nail would grow the same way. He finally lost the nail today. It was so sad. But he was a little trooper through the whole thing. He had to go medicine because it was starting to get an infection. Everything is good now :)

Toon Town Time!

2010-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Since we went to Disneyland for 3 days, I thought I better split up the posts a little. On the last day we went over to Toon Town. My kids love to come here and take pictures by all the cute cartoon looking things. Abby, Clair and Alex are at the toon post office.
Kenzie and Cierra in jail :)
The fish gas pumps.
That is a lot of people to fit in to a one seat car!
Glad I wasn't sleeping on this bed! Ow!
Justin was so excited to take Carson over to toon town and he fell asleep on the walk over. So this is how he looked the whole time. I like how he is folding his arms, because he went to sleep mad.
Kenzie and Cierra in Minnie's Kitchen.
What's for lunch Minnie?
Clarie was a good driver for the trolly.
Then Abby got behind the wheel and she was CRAZY!
This is where we were going to put Mckenzie if she didn't stop talking! j/k :)
What Weaklings! :)
Perfect, right where we should have kept them while we went on rides :)

Universal Studios

2010-10-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

So the storm I talked about the wind blowing in started this day. It was weird because it misted all day, not rain, just mist. You could not see the Hollywood hills around us. It was misting so much that I was hardly able to get out my camera because it would get wet with mist. I swear I took a picture out in front of the big globe in front of Universal Studios! Oh well. We got a few pictures this day.
Justin and Troy were our stroller/wheelchair pushers. They had to put the strollers in the pictures. Look at Carson's face in the stroller. It cracks me up. He was waving and all excited, but when we got up close he freaked out.
Dora the Explorer!
I think this was in a different spot when I came years ago!
Why didn't he continue to eat? :) j/k
Nothing like a wholesome Simpson town! It was starting to mist so bad at this point that we had to buy ponchos. It would just bead up on surfaces and get you really wet.
Ahhhh the highlight of our day! The tour. I am not kidding when I say that from starting waiting in line until the end of the ride was 2 1/2 hours long!!! Yeah I guess that the misting was causing the tour buses to have some troubles coming up the hills, so since we were kind of covered, we took pictures of the line! The sad part was that Justin's dad couldn't go on this one with his back since it has an earth quake part so he was waiting at the end for us the whole time in his wheelchair!
We ate all of our snacks that we brought with us in the line.
I would not recommend standing in this line for more than 30mins. It is cool but not 2 hours cool!
More waiting :)
But we got these cool 3-D glasses for part of the tour. It was the coolest part. You went into this building and it is a 360 degree 3-D show of King Kong! And the whole tram moves while the monkey and dinosaur are fighting. We really were in Gorillas in the Mist, with all the misting :)
Carson being entertained while waiting more.
Finally on the tour bus!
Ready to roll!
Cool special effects that they showed us.
This was creepy. This guy was walking around all weird and then brought out a body and then ran toward us. This was where they filmed Sico I guess.
And last but not least, the scene from War of the Worlds. Now you have the tour and don't need to stand in line :)

The Beach!

2010-10-12T08:22:00.001-07:00

Sunday was our Beach day! We had a blast! It was windy because it was blowing in a storm, but still fun. Everyone had fun trying out the boogie boards.
More boogie boarding!
Matthew and Alex enjoying the rays.
Doesn't that look relaxing?
We dug a big hole for the kids to play in. Carson and Kaden loved it.
We tried to make stairs, but that didn't work out too good :)
Alyssa, Abby and Claire all found a bunch of sand crabs. You can't see them in the pictures since they are the same color.
They made them little houses with the buckets.
Carson's footprint :)
These pictures are from Saturday. When we got into town, the beach house wasn't ready yet, so we went over to the beach. I told the kids just to look at the water. That was a big mistake. Mckenzie pretty much swam :)
Carson and Cierra
Carson after running from some waves.
Everyone running from the waves. I love this picture! The kids all looking out over the ocean. And no this is not staged. :)

Goofy's Kitchen

2010-10-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning we had reservations for Goofy's Kitchen at 7:20am. Why 7:20am you ask? because that is the only time they had for a party of 16! Once we were there I saw that they really could have made it for more like 8am. Oh well, the kids were just really tired. They had a lot of fun. I decided that when you have a group that large it is really hard to get good pictures.

Baloo came around and said HI. Carson, Kaden & Cierra were all excited to see him until he came to close, and then they would cry. It was funny because they would cry and then we the character would step back they would be normal and say hi again.

Kaden and Carson enjoying some off the It was really cool, they had all sorts of varities to choose from. I wish I would have taken some pics, but I didn't so go look online and you can see pics there :)

mmmmmm Ice cream for breakfast! This really is the happiest place on Earth!

There's Carson again saying you are getting too close to me!

Goofy stopped by too.

This is Carson with Goofy at a good distance. He was really excited then Goofy gets to close and he screams, once he walked away back to this smiling face.

I think they may be stuffed!

Now for the poses with the Characters

Goofy, Alyssa & Matthew

Baloo, Matthew & Mckenzie

Baloo, Alex, Abby & Alyssa. They seemed like they were hitting the awkward stage where they are not too sure they want pictures with the characters, then they went a bought autograph books for the characters for Disneyland. Hmmm

Justin and Mike got in on the fun!

Awwww Mulan & Mckenzie

As you can see, Carson was not afraid of Mulan, he sat right down on the floor for a picture with her, she had to get on the floor by him :)

Goodbye hug!

The Ham Mckenzie and Goofy

Carson, Me & Goofy. We were too close but Carson did ok because I was with him.

Alyssa, Goofy, Mckenzie, Kaden & Grandma. Kaden was a little too close for comfort too.

Chip with Alyssa, Alex, Claire, Mckenzie, Abby & Matthew

We kept see Pluto the whole time but he would never come to our table, then we realized that he stands in an area just for pictures. So after breakfast we stopped by to see him :) I would totally pay again to go here, it was well worth it (now I sound like a food critic)

California Bound

2010-10-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

Our Family VacationThis year our family is going to Disneyland again. But this time I have a computer and thought I would post during the trip to keep up :) This year we finally got city passes. I am so excited. I haven't been to Universal Studios since I was little and I have never been to sea world! So of course I had to blog the driving experience down. What a time we had. Justin's parents and his brother and his 2 girls and our nephew and niece all rented a 15 passenger van. Call us crazy! My plan was to leave at 2pm on Friday after the kids got out of school, we finally got out of the driveway at 2:45 not too bad. We stopped at the gas station where the fun beings. Troy and I went in and got drinks and snacks while Justin gassed up and everyone else waited. We finally get everyone their treats and everything loaded, we close the door and hear "I have to go to the bathroom!" from Kenzie. Since we haven't pulled out yet, I run her in. We finally leave the gas station at 3:15. So we drive and hit traffic for the weekend, we get through it and then comes the Utah county traffic. WHAT A JOKE! We were in traffic from Lehi to Spanish Fork for 2 hours! Finally after Spanish Fork it all moves we get going. Let's just say it was a "fun" ride. I forgot to mention that when we left the gas station, Mckenzie says "are we there yet?" HA HA just think about that and that is how the ride was!

Here are pictures of all of us on the drive

Justin drove first

His dad got the front the whole time since he had surgery :)

Carson being so good :)

We stopped off in Baker and of course we had to take a picture with the Big Boy!

I will post more tomorrow. We are going to Hollywood!!!

Boulder Mountain Camping

2010-09-14T21:39:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend we were invited to go to the Boulders with my Dad's family. We had a lot of fun! It was a short trip but the kids love camping. Me and my sister Becky took the 4 hour drive with us and 4 kids. Matthew and Justin were at the BYU game and were going to join us later. Here are the kids while we were driving. Don't they look excited, well Saphira does in the back :)
Alyssa went for a ride on the 4-wheeler with my Uncle Scott and was able to get some pictures with scenery it it :)
It was so pretty, I forgot to take my camera out for a lot of it. I regret that.
Alyssa by the Boulders :)
Kim took Matthew for a ride. He loved it. She took him up to the boulders and he was able to stack the rocks, they stay stacked, it is weird.
Alyssa again by some scenery

At the campground
Mckenzie. She got burned on the last night. There was a pit that had coals in it for the dutch oven and me being the good mom I am, had her in flip flops and she walked right in it. Luckily we had some EMT's there :) But when we got home we could see that the part that was really bad was never treated because no one could see it in the dark. It is healing now but probably would look at little better if we would have seen it sooner.
Carson eating some yummy chocolate cookies
Mckenzie getting her helmet on to go on the 4-wheeler. She loved it. All of the kids did!
Justin and Alyssa
Mckenzie
Carson wanted to drive it :)
Carson by the mini lake. It was swampy and just for fishing.
My Cousin Jesse's twins
Matthew was sooooo excited to shoot the guns!
Zach helped him get everything going :)
I don't think you can see very well but there are like 20 little frogs in this picture that all the kids caught. Then when we were ready to go back to camp they released them.
Oh My! You can tell we were camping! Look at that messy face. No point in cleaning it off :)
What a Ham!
Carson and Mckenzie loved these Twins! They were so cute.
Campfire time!
Carson wanted to roast a marshmallow. :) We had a lot of fun for the short time we were there and are excited to go more!

Grandparent's Day

2010-09-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Alyssa and Matthew had Grandparents day this year. Grandpa Barker hasn't been to any so we invited him this year! He had surgery on his back in July so it was kind of hard for him to get around and actually play with the kids on the playground :)
Alyssa with Grandpa Barker
Matthew and Grandpa Barker. Matthew got to be pulled out of class so they could all eat together. Normally the 3rd graders were later.
Alyssa had to show Grandpa a rock she found on the ground...She's a little crazy :)
Waiting for lunch to start
Matthew was trying to give him bunny ears but was chickening out :)
Then Grandpa caught him but Matthew tried to deny it
Eating lunch. It was a good BBQ.
Almost done eating
Getting ready to dump the trays
They insisted I get in this picture even though I told them I wasn't a grandparent :)

Dance Recital

2010-09-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Since I am catching up on my pictures for Blogging, I might as well add in the Dance recital from June. :) Alyssa didn't want me to post this picture, but guess what? they are my pictures HA HA! Alyssa and my nieces Alex and Abby all took a hip hop class together. Alyssa is actually really good at it.
All three of them being cool for the picture :) Alex on the left, Abby in the middle and Alyssa on the right.
Alyssa, she still won't smile with her teeth because of her braces. She gets them off next week! ALLELUIA!
Alyssa and her friend Brittney. See that goofy smile :)
Abby...her dad never brought his camera, what a bad dad! :)
Alex, she is too cool for this picture.
Mckenzie took a tap/ballet class. She did her dance to "The Locomotion" It was was cute. Here she is with her friend Madi.
Here they are again, but Madi's cousin wanted to be in the picture too :)
Mckenzie showing some attitude!
Too cute dancers!
Matthew and Mckenzie. He is sporting his Mohawk from the summer.
Alyssa, Claire and Mckenzie
Mckenzie and her other friend Madison
Mckenzie holding Carson. It was a long night but a lot of fun!

Matthew's Baseball

2010-08-31T08:10:00.001-07:00

I started looking back to the last few posts and realized it looks like I have a Mckenzie blog! Not that I don't love her, but I thought my other kids might want some of them on here :) I have been so busy this summer that I have hardly had any time to blog. So these pictures are back from June when Matthew was playing on the peewee league. Justin coached this year and they had a lot of fun. Matthew played on the Diamond Backs and he really improved this year. I was really proud of him for learning so much.
He was trying to go get the ground ball but the pitcher looks like he is beating him to it.
Up to bat. For the first part of the season and little into the end, he didn't want to swing. Justin took him in our backyard to practice thinking he couldn't hit and he hit almost every ball Justin would pitch to him! We figured he was just getting stage fright. He did swing a little more when we told him he could do it.
He is so excited to play again next year. I will never understand why they end the season so early! It finally starts to warm up and stops raining for the games and then they are done!
My Little D-Back!

Kindergarten

2010-08-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today my baby girl went to Kindergarten. There were no tears! Maybe I am a bad Mom for not crying. Kenzie was so excited. All morning she kept asking me, "is it time?"
Carson had to get in the picture with her. I got the one before with just her by pulling him out, he was about to fall over crying and then I let him back in and he was all smiles!
Ready to go!
Out in front of the school, she couldn't wait to get inside.
It all changed when we got in the school. She went from being all smiles and excited to shy and nervous.
Sitting at her table. How Cute!
She would not smile for the pictures anymore.
Coloring the fish. I heard one of the boys asking, why are we coloring fish, it made me laugh for some reason.
She kind of smiled with the picture with her teacher.
After school, everything was all better. She said they got to tour the school!
Matthew was excited for her to go to. Look he really does love her!

Star wisdom By Mckenzie

2010-06-15T08:19:00.001-07:00

Mckenzie makes me laugh so hard sometimes. Last night we went outside and the moon looked so cool. She said "Mom look at the moon!" it was like a sliver and Venus was really bright above it. I said "Yeah, and look at the bright star by the moon, that is called Venus" She said, "What's a Venus" "It's a planet" "Oh.....Look mom! There's the Little Whopper!" I was laughing so hard I didn't want to correct her because she said it so innocently. "That's the Little DIPPER" "OOHHHHHH" Just wanted to share :)

Mckenzie's Birthday

2010-06-12T15:05:00.001-07:00

So I am really late posting these but better late than never. This first picture was at a dinner with some family because at her party, I was alone with no other adults there and so I did not get the greatest pictures.
Here is a picture of the kids at the party. I decided that I was just going to let them play because it had been so cold and it was finally warm and we just got our Trampoline. I think they had fun being able to just do what they wanted.

I was trying to get everyone in there for a picture, but it was not working out for me.

Carson loves cake! Actually he loves anything sweet :)

Oh and we got our swing set too. It was a fun time getting those toys after getting a fence. My mom got the swing set for us for all the kids birthday's for the year, we just happened to set it up for Mckenzie's.

All the kids jumping on the tramp. I can't believe that Mckenzie is 5 and going to go to Kindergarten this year. It is crazy!

Coloring Eggs and a Hunt

2010-05-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

Oh the adventure of coloring Easter eggs! So I was alone with 6 kids and dye and I didn't have time to clean up the house (sorry for the mess in the background! How embarrassing!) it was quite stressful letting the kids do this themselves while I sat back hoping no one would dye anything but the eggs. I had my 4 kids and my 2 nieces. But we did end up having fun and in the end there were no dying accidents :)

The funny thing about dying eggs is how 6 kids will all dye one egg the same color and then after they are dry, they will fight over whose blue egg is whose! THEY ARE ALL BLUE!

Carson wanted to do it by himself, but I was able to convince him to let Alyssa help him. I don't know what I was thinking putting him in a white shirt! I guess maybe because you can bleach it.

Matthew's pink egg, or maybe it's Mckenzie's, no Alyssa's, wait they all did pink eggs :)

I got the kit that has glitter with it. They are really pretty but very messy. And when you have a really bright egg it dulls it because you have to put it in glue stuff which kind of washes off the color so you don't get a bright sparkle egg :(

Mckenzie was very careful.

All done! Look how pretty!

All the kids after finding their Easter baskets.

Carson couldn't wait, he just dug right into the candy!

Happy to get pink.

I can't wait until she gets her braces off so she can show her pretty smile again.

Matthew my man!

Mckenzie & her cousin Colton

Carson scored on all the yummy finds!

I think she was a little nervous that she wouldn't find anything :)

Matthew on the hunt, bound and determined!

Not sure what to do next :)

My kids still out looking :)

Now she is happy!

How cute!

Candy mess all over his face!

Most of the Grand kids on Justin's side (missing 6) except Jen in the front is not a grand kid, she is a mom :)

Easter (clothes)

2010-05-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

I LOVE getting the cute Easter clothes to wear to church on Easter Sunday. This year Easter fell on General Conference so we wore our Easter clothes a week early to church :) Alyssa looks oh so happy!
Mckenzie

Alyssa (still happy as a clown)

Matthew

Carson

Matthew and Carson ( Love this picture!)

Mckenzie and Alyssa (how cute!)

Thanks for looking at our fashion show:)

Alyssa's Birthday (3 months later)

2010-05-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't updated for so long, I guess I need to start with where my pictures ended :) Alyssa turned 11 this year....11!!! Wow, I guess I can officially say, I'm old! I cannot believe she is almost in 6th grade. She is growing up so fast. So her thing this year, since before Christmas has been that she wants a cell phone. I was totally against it! She asked for one for Christmas and was so bummed when I told her not to count on it. So continuing on....Here she is with her friends getting ready to east ice cream cake. Instead of having cake and ice cream, she decided she wanted ice cream cake. Kill two birds with one stone right? She gets so embarrassed and covers her mouth like that whenever she does.

The girls thought it would be fun to shove the cake in their faces. But they didn't realize it would stain their face :)

Alyssa has been asking for a lava lamp too. Her friend Avery got her one! She was so happy. Ok for the next picture, remember the story at the beginning.........

I got her a cell phone! I am such a rock star mom!! I can't believe I did it still. And by the way, this picture is staged. She knew the day before that she was getting one :) (notice the stain on her nose from the frosting) She has been really good with the phone. It has been nice to be able to call her instead of walking down to her room :) j/k But really it has been nice to be able to get a hold of her after school and know where she is. She has been such a good helper for me. She helps me out all the time. I love this girl so much!!

Life's rough......

2010-02-06T18:31:00.000-08:00

When you're a baby :)

I haven't posted anything for awhile because my computer wouldn't upload anything (and to be honest I haven't taken very many pics since Christmas, Cal me a Rock Star!) I will have new pictures soon with Alyssa's 11th birthday coming up!

Our Christmas

2010-01-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

Here is our Holiday rundown! My Mom invited us up to her house for Christmas Eve. We had a lot of fun. We had a nice dinner and played the white elephant gift game. Then we had a special visitor drop by on his way out to deliver toys. Santa jumped off the roof and came in the back door with a bag of presents for all the kids!! (P.J.'s) :)
The kids thought it was pretty cool. Matthew sat first.

Kenzie was acting all shy. But she can't fool him, he knows everything!

So I spoke too soon when I said in the earlier post that Carson was our first kid not to cry on Santa's lap. I think it had a lot to do with him being tired. :)

We had to beg Alyssa to go and sit on his lap. You know she is too cool for that now!

All the kids posing in their new P.J.'s from Santa. Even my 19 year old sister likes to be one of the kids still and get her own jammies!

Carson didn't really care Christmas morning. I think we woke him up too early

The kids once again got spoiled! We always tell them they are not going to get as much the next year and they always get them same or more. Alyssa loves penguins. oops Santa left the price tag on!

Mckenzie has wanted a DS since the older 2 last year. So this was her year.

I thought it was funny when Matthew asked for a Rubik's cube, but he got one.

Alyssa has wined about this game for 6 months. When we first got guitar hero, we got Aerosmith, but the guitar was jacked up so we took it back and they only had Legends of Rock. Ever since Alyssa always says "why did you have to get rid of that one???" So Santa found the software at the day after Thanksgiving sales for $4.99!!! That's right!!

We hope everyone had a great holiday season!! Now it is back to the normal everyday life. But that means closer to Summer!! Yeah no more snow!!! :)

Busy Times...

2009-12-21T21:38:00.000-08:00

We have been so busy the past 2 months that I haven't had time to post much. So I am adding so random pictures from the past few weeks. The first is we got the kids a kitten for Christmas. I wanted to get one that was ready right at Christmas, but this sweet little kitty caught my eye and was ready in the middle of November. I put her in a box and had the kids open the box. They were so surprised since Justin has always said NO WAY to a cat. But he loves us so much he let us :)
The kids named her Pepsi....It just proves our drinking habits :) She is a Tortie color and is so sweet. I haven't got a picture of her face yet but it is cool looking.
Alyssa told me that every birthday candle and every star she as ever seen she has wished for a kitten and now it came true. I found her laying on my bed watching TV with Pepsi cuddled on her and she said that it was her dream to lay in bed and watch TV with a cat. She makes me laugh.
Matthew and Mckenzie holding Pepsi
Alyssa and Claire holding Pepsi
Carson is the funniest with her. He just goes and grabs her anywhere to carry her. It is pretty funny. But Pepsi is pretty nice about it, good thing :)
Justin looks thrilled...doesn't he??
Mckenzie had Indian day at Preschool. They got a cool gift and face painting. They also all brought something to share for their Thanksgiving feast!
I'm so proud!
Me and the Young Women and leaders decorated a tree for the Festival of Trees this year. Our tree sold for $250 all going to Primary Children's Medical Center. We had so much fun we want to do a large tree next year. The theme on our tree was "Picture this...The Cure" and we focused the tree on female cancers.
This was my picture of the week of Carson. He has been getting every one's boots lately and putting them on his arms and walking around. I got the camera out to take his picture and he immediately looked at me and said "CHEESE"
Who is Carson looking at so mesmerized???
Santa Clause!!
He is our first kid that has sat on Santa's lap the first time and not cried!! He loved him. He was telling Santa to give him High Fives and Knuckles.
Mckenize was really good too. She told him everything she wanted. The sad thing is we are going backwards. Alyssa and Matthew both would not sit on his lap. Alyssa....Of course...She's totally too old for Santa (sarcasm) and Matthew was in line and told me he had to go get something and wouldn't get back in line. I think he was embarrassed because his friend that was there wasn't going up to sit on his lap. Oh well. I think I am caught up now. Now I can post Christmas in a few days!!

Beautiful Girls...

2009-12-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

Alyssa and Mckenzie had their Christmas dance recital last night and they were so cute. I can't help myself, but these 2 have got to be the most beautiful girls!! I'm not proud or anything :)
Mckenzie danced to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. She tried to do a pose but I think she has ADD and can't keep attention long enough for the flash to hold the cute pose we did. :)
Here are the 3 hoodlums. Alex, Alyssa and Abby. They Danced to some hip hop Christmas remix. They all did such a good job!!

Makenzie Rye

2009-12-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

I was told this morning about a friend of mines little baby girl. She was diagnosed with SMARD = spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress the week before Thanksgiving. Her diaphragm was paralyzed and she could not breath on her own anymore. Well their precious little baby passed away Sunday after they had to make the hardest decision of their lives and take her off the ventilator. With SMARD they don't expect children to live past 1. They had to choose to either let her live and watch her deteriorate or let her pass peacefully. I have read through her blog and just cried. I know that they are going to need all the prayers to get through this that they can. Her blog is kendraandryanwebster.blogspot.com. I can even imagine the pain of losing a child. My prayers are with them!

2009-12-08T20:27:00.001-08:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

When Mckenzie gets the camera!

2009-11-17T11:15:00.000-08:00

If you need a laugh for the day, here it is. Alyssa needed me to upload her memory card to the computer. We didn't look through the pictures until we loaded them. I don't know why it struck me so funny, but it sure made me laugh! Mckenzie got a hold of Alyssa's camera and went around the house taking random pictures. So let me walk you through them. The top she of course needs to start out by introducing the photographer.
Here we have Carson playing in his room.
The big blue ball in Carson's room.
Part of Carson. Maybe she was trying to pose him?
The oh so close up
Don't forget the tongue.
I'm so glad my house was clean
Our vent that keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
A dirty sock
Don't leave Walmart out
Yes I'm rich a $50...oh wait it's monopoly money
Weird feet shot
K this one is actually good. I am raising one dang good photographer. I hope you smiled!

Last couple days of the Vacation

2009-11-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

The last day before we went home, we went to the beach for one last beach day. I dug a deep hole for the kids to play in. By the time we were getting ready to go the tide was up to the hole. I was standing in it with my back to the ocean helping one of the babies come down the stairs I had built and a huge wave came and hit us and filled the hold part way and knocked us over. It was kind of funny.
Here is the inside view. It was a pretty deep hole for digging by hand. The kids had fun playing in it.
Alyssa was having a lot of fun playing in all the waves. There were a few that knocked her under.

I thought this picture was funny of Matthew playing on the beach.

Cute Mckenzie!
The hole before we were done digging it out.
After the beach Justin and I drove out to Danya Point with the kids. This is looking out in the boat harbor. I think Justin is saying a prayer :)
The kids didn't think it was that cool for drive time it took :)
On the way home, we broke up the drive again and stayed in St. George for the night. We decided to go swimming for a little while before we drove the rest of the way home.
Matthew and Mckenzie were jumping in and out over and over :)
Carson loved jumping in too.
Justin was a party pooper and didn't swim with us...oh well "every party has a poop and that's why we invited you, party pooper!" He just took the pictures. :) That was our Vacation! We had a good time and loved being there with friends. Thanks again for the invite!!

Dsineyland & California Adventure Day 3,4 &5 of Vacation

2009-11-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

So here are the pictures from our Vacation to Disneyland that I said I would post. We did 3 days. The first day was Disneyland, the second was California Adventure and then we just hopped from park to park on the last day.
Me, Matthew and Alyssa on Screamin'
Mckenzie enjoying her $5 Cotton Candy that she bought with her own money :)

Matthew and Mckenzie got called up fr Jedi training. Mckenzie got scared and ran off when all the storm troopers ran out but Matthew got to fight Darth Maul.

Here is Matthew fighting Darth Maul

Riding on Flik's Flyer's
Getting ready to take off on Screamin'
Wishing by the Well
Carson crawling through the Watermelon in Goofy's garden
This is where all of my kids belong...in the dog pound :)
Alyssa wanted to get a picture in the "A"
Matthew loves Brother Bear
I promise he loved the ride
Mckenzie ready to use the phone
This is on the Farris Wheel in California Adventure. The cages slid and rock as it is going around. I hated it. Mckenzie was laughing until we slid all the way forward and then she cried.
Carson was not too happy to sit by Chip and Dale!
Out on Donald's boat
We went though Micky's house and he was really there. I was surprised because usually he is not there without a big line. But no line :)
And of course the picture in front of the Micky :)

Halloween...

2009-11-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

BOO!!!

Time flies when you're having fun! I haven't even been able to finish posting our Vacation pictures and Halloween has already come and gone! I guess I better post these pictures first before I finish with the rest :)
First on the list of Halloween festivities was Mckenzie's Preschool parade, she actually was dressed up almost everyday of the week! Tuesday she had her dance party, Wednesday was preschool, Thursday was a break, Friday a trunk or treat, and Sat Halloween! Phew!
It was too cold on the day of her Preschool parade, they usually do it outside where there is a lot of room. So this year they had to be inside, but it worked out. They are always so cute. The teacher has each child come out individually to introduce their "character". Mckenzie said, "I can fly, I can fly, I can fly!"

Here she is walking around to the "monster mash" for the parade

Mckenzie and her pal Derek

Mckenzie and her Teacher the Wicked Witch! :)

Next on the list was the light speed parade at the school. I am not kidding, these kids run by so fast that you hardly have a min to take a picture let alone see when they are coming. Half the time you don't know it is them until the are in front of you or past you!

I saw Matthew coming because he was the first one out.

This is my nephew Colton, his mom asked me to get some pictures of him....ummm yeah that's all I could get. Notice that he is turning around for me :)

Alyssa wouldn't even look at me...What's new, she always pretends like she can't see me when I have the camera at the school.

Next we have Halloween night.

Alyssa was an Ice Fairy, can you see the snow and ice on her face? I was proud of the make up job and when she got home it was all off. I asked her when it came off and she said she picked it off about 2 houses down when they first left!

Matthew was my commando! Carson was supposed to wear the head band but he was so ornery, he would let me do hardly anything, so Matthew decided he would wear it instead of the foam helmet :)

Mckenzie was Tinkerbell as we saw before. She got a lot of use out of her costume this year, which I love!

Carson was the other commando. He was the biggest pain! (he really didn't feel very well, poor thing) I wanted to paint his whole face like Matthew, but I was lucky to get anything on his cheeks.

Here are all 4 trick-o-treaters!

Carson wouldn't get in this picture. I was bummed because I think it is a cute one! That was our Halloween, The kids got a ton of Candy! I didn't weigh it but I bet there was 20 pounds :)

2009-10-12T14:28:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Family I Live With :)

2009-10-11T14:00:00.001-07:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The Kids thought this was funny! (I did too) I am still going to finish our vacation photos :)

Vacation Day 3! Beach Day!

2009-10-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

So Monday was Labor Day and we decided we wanted to just relax and spend the day at the beach. I love the beach. The waves are soothing. Our kids love the beach too. They even said they like it better than Disneyland. I was a lot more laid back about the water than I was last year. Last year I was a nervous wreck with my kids around the water and waves. But this year they were out in the water and the waves were falling on top of them. I guess it was easier to be at ease when there was a ton of other kids in the water and they were not getting pulled off to sea. Carson liked it a lot more this year too.
Mckenzie was crazy, she would go out and the wave would fall over her and then she would go back out again.
Alyssa and Savanna playing in the waves.
Alyssa
Mckenzie and Madi getting buried by the sand.
Alyssa trying to find so good shells. When we walked over the first day a little girl had found a star fish and was showing the kids. I think Alyssa was hoping to find something that cool.
Seth, Bransen & Matthew playing in the waves.
Carson right before he fell asleep. He was chasing me. I'm mean I know, but I had to get this picture. It was a fun day. After we were done we went back to the beach house and had a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. More Vacation coming up.

Vacation Day 2! Medieval Times

2009-09-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

So after we split up or drive by staying in Vegas, we got up and drove to Newport. It was nice to split up the drive, sometimes it's good to drive straight through and get it over with, but this was nice. When we got to Newport, we unloaded and walked over to the beach for a min. We couldn't stay too long because we had reservations at Medieval Times. I told the kids not to get sandy because we had to leave but that still didn't happen. We still had to hose off their feet and wipe off their clothes. Once we were all sand free it was off to MEDIEVALLLLLLLL TIMEEEESSSSS (that's how the announcer says it there) :)
It was a long time to wait in the foyer. The kids were starving and we were told to be there an hour before dinner. It sounded like if we weren't then we would be sorry. I think we would have been fine, but oh well. Then they finally seated us. We got the Yellow knight. He was the only knight with a beard, the only MAN.
Alyssa watching the show.
Matthew and Mckenzie
Carson had fun too.
Here is where they were getting ready to joust.
Our cool knight after winning the red and yellow knight.
Backwards pictures, here is our knight fighting the red and yellow knight. Our Knight didn't end up winning the whole thing. The red knight won. It was a fun night. I think next time we will try the Pirate dinner across the street. I heard they have appetizers in the foyer before the show :)
Oh and I forgot our picture in front of the M&M car in Vegas, how could I forget that??? Stay tuned for more vacation :)

Our Vacation (Day 1)

2009-09-24T12:25:00.001-07:00

We had the opportunity to go again with our friends to Newport beach during Labor Day week. We had so much fun and are glad to have them as our friends. We drove to Vegas on Sat morning at 5am. We go into Vegas about 11am and stopped at the race way. We watched people that were doing ride alongs and driving the cars themselves. It was pretty cool to see. I can't imagine how it would be to be at a live race. So they had this car to take pictures in and Justin had to be first :)
Alyssa had to hold Carson because he was so small that you couldn't see his face.
Matthew would not get in the car. I don't know why.
See you can barley see Mckenzie sticking out of the car.
Next we went to the strip. Ah the strip, never again with my kids! It was so crazy and I was stressed the whole time about where they were. You could barley move in the stores, not to mention I had a stroller. Yeah not a stroller friendly area. I guess I should have known that but oh well at least we did it :) So of course Mckenzie wanted to see the coke bear and then was scared of him after she BEGGED to get a picture with him.
Then on to the M & M store. It was so packed. I have never been there before so I didn't know. My kids were looking for something to buy with there own money and it was funny because they would look and say this is too expensive! This is a rip off! It's funny when it's their money.
Of course in the most crowded store Carson would not stay in his stroller. So now we are trying to keep track of a 1 year old and drag a stroller around that doesn't fit through anything.
Here we are standing above...oh whatever it is a background
Last but not least...Boys by the Blue, Girls by the Green :) Stay tuned for more Vacation!

Wake Boarding

2009-09-22T15:39:00.001-07:00

Some friends our ours took us Wake Boarding the last weekend in August. We had a blast. We went to Utah Lake in a part that was called "mud lake" and it was muddy. It was only about 5 feet deep or less and when you stood, you stood in "spa like" mud. My feet loved it! Alyssa and Matthew both tried the wake board. Matthew got up but was going in a squatting position because he wouldn't stand up straight. Alyssa got up for a sec and then fell. She waited awhile and tried again a little later. I posted a video at the bottom of how AWESOME she did!!
Here's me after falling
We got to get in a swim around for a little bit.

See how nice and pretty the water was :)
Here I am being AWESOME :)
Carson didn't like the life jacket so much
Mckenzie laying down on the floor of the boat. This picture should be flipped.
Matthew
More swimming in the mucky water
Here is Matthew trying to Wake board. This is after he fell.
Alyssa waiting to be picked up after falling
Justin hanging out in the water
Carson crashed and slept underneath the driver seat for about 2 hours! The kids loved hanging out on the lake. Here is a video of Alyssa after she got the hang of wake boarding.

Our Fun Crazy Summer.....

2009-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

We have had a very busy summer. Here is a few of the things that have been going on!

River Rafting

We went rafting at the end of July in Vernal down the Green river. We have done this trip before and missed everyone that couldn't come. We had a lot of fun. This time we had to wear our cute little helmets to keep our melons safe. (last time we didn't have to) It was still fun. We were going to drive down really early Sat morning, but Our friend Dave's sister was nice enough to let us all stay in their beautiful home. We got there around 9:30pm and she got a bunch of food out for us and we just sat around for about an hour and talked. I wasn't able to get more picture because I couldn't take my digital on the river unless I wanted it in the bottom.

Matthew's Birthday

Lagoon

We went to Lagoon in the beginning of June for Mike's work Lagoon day. It was a lot of fun. Mckenzie was bummed that she couldn't ride the big rides. She can ride all the big ones at Disneyland but is just about 2 inches to short for the rides here. So I was the lucky one to walk around kiddie land with her while everyone else went on all the big rides. It was nice to spend time with her.

EEEEWWWW he was trying to lick the pole!

Selling Our House

In all the rush of summer we decided to put our house up for sale. We found a home that is in a circle and closer to friends for our kids. We felt like it was a good time to do it. We haven't sold it yet but our hoping. My friend Tamara came and staged. She did an AWESOME job. Thanks Tam! If anyone knows someone that is looking let me know :) Here are some pics of what Tamara did.

Camping

In July we went to our old ward's camp out. It was lots of fun. Carson did really good. He was pretty unsteady on his feet around the fire and that scared me. But other than that he loved it. We hiked up to Donut Falls. I have never been there so that we cool. The day that we headed up to the campground it was POURING. We were on the freeway and it looked like someone was standing over us with a huge bucket dumping it on us. I couldn't help but laugh. I don't know why it was striking me so funny. The freeway was almost at a complete stand still while we drove though the LAKE that had formed. There was a guy on a motorcycle that was taking the whole situation very well. He was finally able to get to an exit and just waved at everyone. It was pretty funny. So when we got up to the campground it wasn't raining YET, so we hurried and unpacked the tent and while we were setting it up, it started raining. It got wet inside but luckily none of our stuff was in there yet. It rained pretty much the rest of the evening but cleared up for the next day so we were able to have some fun. The kids had a lot of fun. Our friend Hollie was in charge of all the activities and did an awesome job (Cassidy helped her a lot too :) ). They loved the games.

4th of July

For the 4th we went to Justin's Parents house. It was fun. The kids played on the Slip'n'slide and played basketball. Later we had the sidewalk of fire with all the fireworks!

This is Rachel. Barbara and John's little girl. She was so cute I had to put this picture on!

Carson loved playing with the basketball. He would not let go of it. We had to give him a flat one so that the others could play.

So now school will be starting in a week and everything will go to homework crazy!!! Thanks if you have read this far. Sorry this was such a long update :)

Here is a little clip of Alyssa's Piano Recital :)

She is more advanced than this and was kind of embarrassed because the song was so EASY, but she has to pass off the first stuff.

2009-07-15T12:01:00.001-07:00

Happy 7th Matthew!

2009-07-15T11:42:00.001-07:00

Today is Matthew's 7th Birthday! I love this kid! He is the sweetest little boy. I have loved having him around. He loves playing a game called dragon fable on the computer and for his birthday asked if we could get him the Dragon Amulet that gives you access to more wepons ect. Justin was laughing at how is has a son that is a level 9 Dragon Warrior! :) Some of his other favorite things are: Sports, Bakugaun, Wii, Spaghetti, DS, Swimming, Blue and many more. I love you buddy!! Enjoy the slide show I posted above!

Returned with Honor

2009-07-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

Our Nephew Tyler came home from his mission in Washington today. We all made signs on Sunday to get ready. It was fun waiting for him to get off the plane. The kids had a great time holding the signs and cheering. Jayden, Alyssa and Alex holding the RM sign.
Kiley and Mckenzie

Travis, Ashley, Matthew and Abby. The funny thing about the sign Travis is holding is Tyler was really shy and when he would see a cute girl, he would say "Hey will you go ask her out for me?" So we had Travis hold this sign and point the arrow at Ashley (who is his girlfriend) Maybe you had to be there, but we thought it was pretty funny.

Here's Tyler coming down the escalator. He is the last missionary you see. Notice Troy behind him? He used his airport badge to go to the gate and see Tyler get off the plane.

Barbara was so excited to see him.

He told Travis that it looked like he had a shrunken head! (Travis has lost a lot of weight since Tyler left...Good job Travis!)

Tyler meeting his new sister Rachel. (only in Utah!) Notice the girls shoving the sign in Tyler's face to read!

Brothers

The whole family. Welcome home Tyler!!

Fabulous!

2009-07-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Mckenzie did her end of Year recital on June 17th. They danced to Fabulous from High school Musical 2. This is her dress rehearsal because I am a bad mom and forgot the camera the night of the recital...
She kept picking up lint off the floor. It's hard to remember that she is just barley 4 along with Zoe on the right, the rest of the girls are 5 going into Kindergarten. Mckenzie and Zoe are just tall girls :) I trieed to post a little video that I took with my camera, but I guess it is bigger than 100MB and I don't know how to size it down. I'm bummed because it was cute!

Baseball!!

2009-07-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

Matthew wanted to play baseball this year. At first he wanted no help from Justin. He wasn't hitting the ball without having to use the T. He finally decided to let Justin work with him. They played in the backyard for over an hour and Matthew was hitting the ball like a pro. After that he only needed the T one time. He had a lot of fun and got a HUGE trophy when it was done. He was really excited about that part. He has all of Justin's old trophy's in his room and he was happy to replace one with his own. He played on the Rockies. His favorite baseball team is the Yankees, so it was funny when they actually played the Yankees to see his reaction when we would tell him beat the Yankees!
He was the only one on the team that would not slide into home base. Every time he would be running home we would all tell him to slide and he would just go touch it and run back to the dugout.

Hitting the ball

He was tired of me going into the dugout and taking pictures.

He got to play on the same team with his cousin Colton. They had a lot of fun. We can't wait for next season.

Grandma Barker

2009-06-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a sad yet happy night. Grandma Barker was put in the hospital on Saturday and tonight they took off her oxygen so she could pass peacefully. It's sad because it's a death. But it's happy because she is now free from the conditions she was living. She was well taken care of in the hospital and we are grateful for all their hard work in keeping her comfortable in her last hours. We will miss you Grandma!! Till we meet again.

Together again in PEACE!

Carson's 1st Birthday

2009-05-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Carson turned 1 on the 29th of April. He has been so much fun! Poor kid being number 4, these are the only pictures I took of his birthday. He didn't quite know what to think of the candle.

This kid will eat mostly everything. Put something in from of him and either he has shoved it down in 2 seconds or....wait did he just throw it to the dog??!! He is always feeding Dakota his food. She is his best friend.

I don't think he is going to be throwing this piece to the dog. He's figured out that cake is the best thing!

Might as well pick up the whole piece, it's faster!

Here is a little video of him walking.

Easter

2009-05-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

The kids had a fun Easter. They woke up and found their Easter baskets and eggs and got dressed. They had to do all this is 20 mins because we had to be to church at 9am.

Alyssa by all her "stuff"

Carson, Matthew & Mckenzie all happy!

Alyssa loves to take pictures but for some reason doesn't like me to take her picture anymore.

Mckenzie will let me take tons.

Matthew all ready!

Carson got into the Mr. Potato Head

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house after for dinner, an Easter egg hunt and Mckenzie's Birthday celebration.

Here' s Carson with his found treasures!

Carson and Cierra

Kiley and Mckenzie posing for the camera

Colton and Matthew

Alyssa sporting her new Hannah Montana hat. We ended up with tons of candy that was gone within 2 days. :)

Happy 4th Mckenzie!

2009-04-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Mckenzie Turned 4 on the 9th! It seems like I just had her. She is growing up way fast. She wanted to have a High school Musical Birthday party. She loves that movie!
She invited a bunch of her friends and they had lots of fun. They played freeze dance and just plain dance. The music was blasting almost the whole time. It was fun.

Happy Birthday to you!

Blowing out the candles.

Opening presents.

Heavy Heavy Hang over thy poor head!! She wished everyone a different animal.

The party crew!! We Love you Mckenzie!

HAWAII....Finally!

2009-04-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

I am finally posting pictures of Hawaii!! I had my wave of three...Mckenzie cut her hair, My computer hard drive fried, and my Lawn mover broke yesterday....So that is why it has taken so long to post this. I am sorry this is going to be very long because I don't want to have something else happen and not get everything posted. At the bottom of this I put a slide show of Big Island Images. So the first picture is Justin getting me lei after we landed.

Here we are all tired from the flight with my lei! I was so excited to get leied!! :)

This bridge is made out of lava rocks

We went to the shopping center down the street from the resort the first day and walked back and there were so many pretty picture spots

I know, I'm a dork!

The resort had hammock's right next to the ocean that you could just relax in

I didn't realize that the big island is one big volcano, I knew there was a volcano on it. So it is lava rock all over, and white coral washes up on the shore and people take the coral and write words on the sides of the highway. Someone had already wrote Ash, so I made Justin take my picture by it.

Justin had fun with all the statues around the resort :)

Here is what most of the beaches looked like on the island

This is the Lagoon on the resort that you can snorkel in

This is just so we can remember where we stayed...since it seems like a dream now!

This is behind the waterfall in the Lagoon

Me and my friend Shayla. She works with Justin and earned the trip too. We were watching the Dolphins do tricks behind us

We went and saw the Kona temple, it was very pretty...on the slide show you will see these UGLY spiders that were all over the temple in the front. It was gross!

Us on the temple grounds

This is by the Kona Inn, a restaurant we ate at.

We went down on the rocks and the tide was out, so all these sea creatures were trapped until the tide came back in. Justin picked up a sea cucumber.

This is at the Kona Inn, that is the best pinacolada I have ever had!

This is us at the Tacky Tourist dinner. We didn't even make the finals. I was mad so I didn't take any other pictures of this dinner. :)

Justin sitting in the Lagoon after snorkeling

There's the Lagoon

What a nice day!

I think these gold fish thought we were going to feed them. We would go to the side of the pool and they would all swim over and there mouths were as big as quarters opening and closing. They let you pet them

This is an inactive lava tube. It doesn't look that big right now but in the next picture you can tell how big it is

Justin and Shayla's husband Aki walked through the tube and ended up about 200 yards out on the land

Our bus driver told us just to change letters on words so that you didn't have to make a whole new one, so I found one that said J+D and changed the D to an A.

I don't know why this picture turned sideways

Me and Justin at his awards dinner

Justin and his co-workers Tom and Shane

Justin and his boss Monique

Me and Monique

Monique, JoD, Me and Justin

Justin with his president's club award

Me and Corina (Tom's wife)

Me, Justin, Aki and Shayla

Me and Shay

Justin and Tom getting ready to boogie board

This picture is to prove that I went this far in the ocean...that wave came and I was out of there!

Laying out on the one of the white sand beaches on the island (Hapuna)

It was such a nice day for a burn

Donkey Balls....that's all I am going to say....come on, it's chocolate cover macadamia nuts! :)

This is a tree in Kona. A guy told us that they have a forest of them in Honalulu and it is dark in there

I didn't zoom this piture it very much, but the milk was $8.39 on the resort....but you could go to Walmart and get a deal at $4.50 a gallon!

We ate at this resturant called KCP where you had to dress up. Justin and I shared a meal and got these spring rolls, which were $14 and they were the size you get at Panda Express....Our main dish was a 10 oz rib eye 3 spears of asparagus and a spoonful of garlic mashed potatoes and we drank water and our bill was $75. It was crazy!! But the good thing was, Justin's work gave us $100 toward food on the resort and we had $50 left, so we only had to pay $25.

Here we re all dressed up for dinner...see the tiki torches behind us, they had a guy that was only in a short skirt thing and a garland on his head run the whole resort at sunset with a torch lighting all the tiki torches lining the walk ways and blowing a horn while he did it. It was funny.

This bridge crosses over one of the pools at the resort. Justin thought it would be funny to shake it.

This is on the way driving to the other side of the island which is the wet or greener side. This is how it looks at first

Then it gets thicker

And thicker

Until there is green all over. It was way cool, like an invisiable line

On the east or wet side of the island

The view out on the east side

It was desolate on the west side and over here it was rain forests! We were told that the Big Island is one of the olny places in the world that has all 13 climates

This is Akaka Falls. This waterfall was huge. The picture does not do it justice. We were across the valley from it.

This is called the boiling pots. I don't know why it is called that

Still at the boiling pots

There were signs all over that warned not to swim in this and as we were starting to hike out, these people (locals I think) came with towels and started cliff diving. So we stopped to watch

This is Rainbow Falls

This is the Volocano. The smoke is making it hard to see the mountain

This is the steam coming from the lava dropping out into the ocean. You an usually hick down there and see it, but the wind was blowing the steam over the land that day and it creates acid rain. So this is as far as they would let us go

I walked into this store and about died! They had a small wallet for $825. Who speands that on a wallet!!??

There were these "wild" cats all over the resort. We came back one night and there were like 20 in the parking lot trying to get these people to give them food. You can't even see them all in the picture, it was crazy.

We went to this lookout and there was this goat tied up like a dog to this house, it was like thier pet.

It was very friendly, then Shayla's husband tried to ride it and it didn't like us anymore. :)

The Wapio Valley lookout

Justin tried balancing on this homemade swing and kept falling

This is the trail down to the black sand beach and these trees were like a cave you had to walk through

The black sand is from the lava getting smashed by the waves creating sand

Me and Shayla trying to show how black the sand was

Justin going back through the tree cave

We were leaving to go back home and I snapped our last picture of the hotel

Here's our plane

We were excited to go home

We had a lot of fun, but we were ready to come home and see our kids!

Beauty School Drop Out

2009-03-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

Where did March go?? Oh maybe it got cut off with my Mckenzie's HAIR!! I have been home from Hawaii for 1 week trying to find time to blog about it and Mckenzie gives me something else to blog about first. She decided while I was getting my hair done that she would be her own barber.
She had a ponytail in and by the looks of if started taking out sides and cutting, leaving the oh so loved Mullet (Business up front, party in the back) or maybe she was going for the tail look, you know when boys (not mine) grown their hair out long and then cut everything but a tail.

She walked out to where we were doing my hair and grabbed the back of her hair, which came out in her hands, and said "mom, my hair is falling out!" At first I didn't know what she was talking about. Then I saw it! I didn't know how to react. My friend's sister was there doing my hair, Do I beat the child to a bloody pulp in front of witnesses?? I think I was more shocked, I didn't feel like I could yell either. I asked her were the scissors were, she just kept saying, "I didn't cut my hair" LITTLE LIAR!! I wanted to yell. "yes you did, now show me where the scissors are" She finally showed me and they were on the piano. But no hair around. I started walking around the house trying to find "the hair" on the way finding pieces in a trail. I went in her room and saw a little more by the bottom off her bed. Then I lifted up the bed skirt and there it was...........................

This is the pile I found spread out under her bed.

So luckily since I was getting my hair cut there was already someone there to fix it.

Here is the back after the first snips.

This just shows how short some of the pieces are that are sticking out of the already short hair.

Melissa did a really good job fixing it. It really is cute. I have been on the fence about cutting her hair like this and she just pushed me over.

All done!

Now I can post our Hawaii trip!

LESSON#235154...nothing you post is dumb!

2009-03-01T18:54:00.000-08:00

When I posted my last post, I thought maybe it was dumb because how would any of the blogging world find my dog?? But about 2 hours after I posted it, my friend Kim (who lives up the street) saw my blog and had found my dog. They didn't know it was our dog because they had never seen her. There is a horse pasture at the end of my street that her parents own and she lives in the house right next to them. I guess Dakota went to the field and was trying to get their goats. They had 4 goats killed last year by dogs (not mine) and so they caught her and put her their old dog run (YEAH she stayed in it all night and never got out!!!!! Why can't she stay in ours?). They checked up the road but didn't think to come down toward the houses. Then Kim go on to her blog and saw my post. She commented but I didn't check my blog before we left. She called my friend and asked her about my dog and my friend told her it was mine. Now we have her back! I will never think anything I post again is worthless! Thanks KIM & FAMILY!

I never thought I'd post this....

2009-03-01T10:22:00.000-08:00

***LOST DOG***
Dakota is missing. Those of you that know me know that my dog an I have a love/hate relationship. I HATE this dog...but yet since she's been missing, I've been obsessed with finding her. I am worried sick! We noticed she was missing about 4pm yesterday, but Alyssa said she ran out the door when a lady came to pick something up at 1pm. So she has almost been gone 24 hours. I drove the neighborhoods last night calling and whistling for her. I finally drove down the busy road to check the sides of the street.
This dog has been the biggest pain and also the best thing for our family.
She tears things up if you leave her in the house (separation anxiety). She won't go in a dog house/run if you put a juicy steak in there. She would rather sit in pouring rain/blizzards then go into shelter. She ripped apart my mom's bathroom (see earlier post). She broke out of a dog carrier, the door was pushed diagonal against the wall (wish I would have taken a picture) and we had to take it apart to get the door back on and it wasn't even bent!
We built a dog run for her and she gets out of that thing within 5 seconds of putting her in. She has dug holes in my yard. She has ruined my grass. We have had her on a lead since she won't stay in the dog run and she pulls and pulls until her collar slips off then just sits on the porch to wait for us to come home. We finally had to tighten her collar next to choking level to keep it on her. Before we tightened it she would go into the open dog run and jump over the top, basically hanging herself so that she could slip out of the collar. That was before she figured out she could just pull.

But then there are the times when she just comes to you and wants to make you feel better when you are sad. She is so good with my kids and they love her. She loves the baby, always trying to lick him, even though I stop her, Carson loves it. It was so weird to lock up the house last night and not have her there. It feels different. I never thought I would ever feel this way about her. I would always joke about how maybe she would run away and then we wouldn't have to deal with her issues anymore. But I know something else happened because really this dog would not run away. And I say this because one time when she got out of her dog run, she tried to chew her way into the house by chewing the rubber at the bottom of the garage door! What dog tires to get in the house? I thought they want to get out.

If anyone sees her, please let me know. We miss her!

Party Time!!

2009-02-24T12:20:00.000-08:00

HANNAH MONTANA!

Alyssa is like most little girls, she LOVES Hannah Montana. She wanted a Hannah Montana birthday party. We decorated the family room with all her stuff. (I bought some stuff too.) I asked her what she wanted to do at the party and she said, "pin the wig on Hannah". We were going to do that until the day of and I was running out of time. So we played Pin the zit on Hannah. We also made boondoggles? however you say that. That was probably not the best idea. It took me forever to start every one's. I don't know what I was thinking when I thought that they could all start them with just me showing them! They still had fun.

My talented friend Kiley, made this cake for Alyssa. THANKS KILEY!! She did an awesome job and all the girls thought it was so cool! I didn't want to cut it up because it looked go good.

Singing Happy Birthday!!

It's sad, Alyssa doesn't like me to take her picture anymore! She gets embarrassed.

Opening presents!

Here's how I decorated the room.

And another view! The party was lots of fun. Thanks to everyone that came!

Braces...

2009-02-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

Alyssa got braces put on yesterday. She is not very excited about it. I went to check her out of school and she said that her stomach started feeling funny when they called her. I told her it was just her nerves. When we got there, they took us back, (it's cool, I have never been to an orthodontist before, they let you sit and watch everything!) They got Alyssa ready to put the brackets on. She told me before we went that she was not going to choose a color, that she wanted everything to be clear. I told her that the brackets would be silver so not all of it would be clear. She didn't like that response very much. So they handed her the color pallet and asked what color she wanted....She chose Teal, she said, "I chose that color because it is the closest color to ice blue, my favorite color"
She would not let me take any pictures of her. I begged and she said, "ok, but don't put them on your little blog!" So I didn't take any so that I could respect her and not put it on here, it would be tempting if I had pics. So after she gets them on, we were making her next appt, and she is complaining about pressure on her front tooth. We asked the Dr. and he said it was normal. So while we were driving home, she goes, "Something just popped!!!!, I felt it!" she moved her lips up and down, so I just thought it felt weird to her and so she was being drama. So I told her she would get used to the feeling. So we keep driving and she says, "now I'm going to be more shy, and never talk and I'm not going to play with my friends" I said, " you are being silly and if you keep saying that I will not get you an ice cream". I'm mean. She changed her attitude and we got her a brownie earthquake from Dairy Queen (probably not the best thing with braces!! There wasn't any caramel) She is starting to do better now. I am hoping that she will let me take pictures soon. When she does I will post them. She looks cute.

Happy Bithrday Alyssa!

2009-02-15T13:48:00.001-08:00

Alyssa is officially the BIG 10! I put together this
slideshow to show how she has grown through the years.
She has had so pretty fun moments. The top 10 reasons
WE LOVE THIS GIRL:
1. She has so much drama, it makes you laugh!
2. She is always trying to make us smile
3. She is such a good sister
4. She is a very good artist
5. She has a strong testimony
6. She is a good dancer
7. She always has a fun story to tell
8. With how fun she is, she still manages to get BORED!
9. She has pretty hair
and 10. She is OUR daughter!
We love you!! Happy Birthday!

A Decade Goes By Fast....

2009-02-14T08:22:00.000-08:00

Alyssa turns 10 on Sunday, 10! A whole decade ago she was born. I can't believe it has gone by so fast!!! I have 10 years worth of pictures that I had to go through for this post and I still couldn't put everything I wanted on. We are so blessed to have Alyssa in our lives. She is a good student and a wonderful big sister that helps out with the baby all the time, I don't know what I would do sometimes without her there to help me hold him when I am trying to get dinner ready or clean up.

I am trying to add a slide show in here so I hope it works. If not I will just post it by itself.

http://s339.photobucket.com/albums/n452/jbarker401/?action=view&current=bb62abd2.pbw

Alyssa is a pretty funny kid! She loves to make us laugh. She likes to dance, and has started piano lessons. She likes to draw and read. When I was going through all the pictures, I was remembering some of the things she used to do, like the one where she got into the Halloween make-up when she was supposed to be in bed. I was mad but I snapped a picture first so that I would laugh at it later and I did laugh when I saw it. I am glad that I thought to pull out my camera. I'm still not that good at pulling it out. We love you Alyssa!! Happy Birthday!

BoUnCiNg OfF tHe WaLLs!!!

2009-02-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday my friend Kiley asked me if I wanted to go to a place called bouncing off the walls. I had never heard of it before. I think it must be a place people like to keep a secret because it was so cool. On Wednesdays your child can get in for $5 between 10am-1pm and bounce their little heart out! AND the parents can get on the bounce houses with their kids and DON'T have to pay! So for $5 I was able to take Mckenzie and Carson for some good old bouncing fun.
They have this HUGE slide that is so slippery. It was Mckenzie's favorite part.

This slide was so steep. The funny thing is that you come to the bottom and hit right into a inflated wall.

Mckenzie was trying to get on and couldn't. I told her to run and jump, it was pretty funny to watch, but she eventually made it on.

Here comes Kiley down the steep slide. You can see that you hit right into the wall!

I think Mckenzie went down this slide 100+ times. She loved it so much.

Sliding again. I have no idea who those people are!

Kiley's little boy Ryan would do a victory dance after he went down this slide. It was Hilarious!

I took Carson down the slide and when I say it is slippery, I'm serious. I couldn't control us, that's why we are sideways.

Mckenize wanted to go down with me but was yelling for me to let go of her hand after we pushed off.

There's Ryan playing basketball!

Mckenzie and Carson. He really didn't know what to think.

What's up?!

Once he realized he could crawl on it, he had more fun.

Carson and me ready to go after a long time of bouncing!

Crawling

2009-01-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

My Baby Boy started crawling last Saturday! I would have posted sooner, but I have been so busy. I am so blessed to have Carson in my life. He is so cute! Even when he cries and I want to scream. He loves me and depends on me.

Here he is crawling to me. It is amazing how from Saturday to today he has improved. He was only taking 3-4 crawls, now he is crawling all around the house, and he is a little hoover! He finds every little thing on the ground. There can be toys all around him and he still sees the tiny piece of lint.
.
Here he comes crawling from the bottom of the stairs. I'm sure any day he will start trying to go up them. But for now he does not dare to touch them. I am excited for him to reach milestones, it's a bittersweet feeling with him being my last baby. I want him to stay little forever, but I also am wanting him to get old enough that our family can go do fun vacations that everyone can remember together. I don't want to with his baby times away because I know that they will be gone before I know it. And like the song says "You're gonna miss this, you're gonna want this back, you're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast..." I love that song so I just had to put that line in there. I love you Carson!!!!

The Present......

2008-12-30T23:11:00.001-08:00

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!!

2008-12-26T19:20:00.001-08:00

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.....

2008-12-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-26T11:12:00.001-08:00

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.....

2008-11-14T08:51:00.000-08:00

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!