Cowboy Party!

Spanish Fork's library, despite being on the small side, never ceases to be AWESOME! :) The last six weeks, Hannah has been attending an "introduction to literacy" workshop/story time on Wednesdays. She's been having such a blast, and I'm quite impressed with what she's been able to learn there. The only thing that seems to top story time, in Hannah's estimation, is a trip to the dentist. Which, I suppose, is quite a recommendation for the dentist! :)
This weekend, the library hosted a Cowboy Party for kids aged 4-8. We went and had a ton of fun! There were (stick)pony races and, and a game of horseshoes, a campfire story, coloring projects, and a dessert of trail mix and Sasparilla. My mom and I made some chaps from felt for Aspen and Spencer and they were the hit of the party! Here's some photos:


We stopped by Dad's store on the way to the party to show him our awesome costumes!

All three of my little cowpokes.

The kids got to make their own Sheriff badges, complete with cowboy-style monikers. Hannah is "Cowboy Cutie".

Here comes Sheriff Spencer, the roughest, toughest lawmaker this side of the Mississippi.

Aspen is the "ABC Wrangler". Isn't she awesome?

Poll!!

There's a poll to the right there. It'll be up all month! Please take the time to vote on it!

New Do's

All the girls in the fam got cute new cuts recently! Here's a couple pics of me, and one of Hannah- Aspen's coming soon. And next week, a First Day of School post!!!

This is my funny face.

(About a Million) Family Portraits!

Jacob

Aspen

Spencer

Hannah

Me and Duke

Mom and Dad

Mom and the boys

Dad and the girls

Goofy Brothers

Silly Sisters

Handsome Brothers

Pretty Sisters

The Boys

The Girls

JAZZ HANDS!

The Barnes Family
Established February, 1983

Barnes Kids

My Crazy Monkeys

Duke and Heidi Jones Family

The Whole Clan

We had a wonderful oppotunity to have some pictures taken before Jake left for his dad's, and here's just SOME of what we ended up with. :) I think they turned out pretty darn great! :)

Props to Triana Ord Photography for doing these for us. It was threatening rain the entire time, and of course, when we got there, there was a couple shooting engagement photos, and then the sprinkers came on and we had to dodge them left and right. She was so great to work with all of us and make sure that everyone got the photos they wanted. Thanks Triana!!

Oh for CUTE!!

You guys have seen my button for the NieNie book, right? It's down there on the right. Keep scrolling. :) Cute, huh? Well I just found out that the gal who created it has a little online store for LDS clip art and handouts and stuff; it's called Green Jello with Carrots. Check out how cute this is (you can click on the photos to go to the site, because I'm cool like that)!


Armor of God File Folder Game


Young Women's Value Girls Poster (this comes as a T SHIRT, TOO!!!)


Jesus said "Love Everyone" Poster (you can get this one as a t-shirt, as well)

Aren't they adorable? I'm totally drooling over that Love Everyone poster! And they have Freebie Fridays!!!

Hallelujah!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Guess what Little Miss Hannah is doing next Thursday!!

Yep. She's getting those honkin' big tonsils OUT! Thank goodness! She'll do so much better when she's all healed up. This poor kid has HUMONGOUS tonsils. They almost touch, even when she's healthy, and she seriously stops breathing at night because of the blockage. I mean, you KNOW they're big when the doctor looks in her throat, when she's not even SICK, and says "Whoa. Those are some whoppers." Yeah. That's my girl.
I'm just so glad that they didn't make me jump through a bunch of hoops to do it. The doctor we had before wanted us to do a sleep study and all kinds of nonsense before he'd even refer us to an ENT. Now that we finally have insurance again, we got a new doctor- an actual pediatrician, instead of a family doc, and they sent us right over to Dr. Robbins, who immediately said "Well. Let's take them out." *BIG SIGH OF RELIEF*
I had my tonsils out when I was 13 and it was AWFUL. The older you are, the harder it is, or so I've been told. When we had Jake's out at 3, he bounced right back and was up eating popsicles and playing around the very same day. So here's hoping it's easy-ish on her.
I'm SO looking forward to her sleeping though the WHOLE night. Seriously.

Nanna and Papa's Backyard

Nanna and Papa's backyard has sure been the place to be lately. :) My dad is growing this awesome square-foot garden, and my brothers hung up their hammocks. Ah, bliss. There is nothing like swinging in a hammock in the sunshine. So peaceful. I love it. And check out my silly monkeys. Hannah simply cannot take a picture without posing. She's such a cutie.

In other news, Jake left for Las Vegas on Sunday. He'll spend a week down there with his grandparents and then fly to Alaska. The next time we see him will be Christmas. This has been really hard on all of us- Duke, the kids and me. They miss him so much. And so do I. I've never gone more than 6 weeks without seeing him his whole life- and only that long the last few summers when he's spent half of them in Vegas. My brain knows that we'll make it through, and everyone will be fine. But my heart hardly listens to my brain. To have to give him up twice now has been almost more than I can handle. There's a big empty place in our home, and in my heart, with him gone. I can only pray that it will get easier, for all of us, in time.