New job

Brett took a position as a Production Supervisor in northwest Iowa. We are pretty excited for this new change and can't wait to get there and get all settled. Our movers are still scheduled to be here tomorrow so we are going to be really busy the next few days. Then we are off to Vernal to visit family there. This will probably be my last post for a little while. If I get a chance while we are visiting in Vernal I may post something then.
To all of our friends in Buckeye we will truly miss you so keep in touch!
I know we wont miss the heat in the summer but we will really miss the cool weather in the winter.. It's going to be really really really cold in Iowa.. Brrr!! Good thing we held onto our winter coats.
Goodbye Arizona, Hello Iowa!!

Lightning!

Natures fireworks!! The other night we had a big thunderstorm. Brett had gone to bed and I was up watching TV. I started to notice the flashes of light coming from outside so I went to look out the window. The lightning would flash every few seconds. I thought, "COOL!! I'm going to get my camera and take a picture!" So I set up my tripod and put the release switch on the camera so I could take a long exposure. Just as I was about to open the sliding glass door and put the camera outside a bolt of lightning struck really close. So close the the thunder cracked at the same time. I don't think I've ever run so fast. I ran through the kitchen and down the hall and Brett met me half way. The lightning and thunder had startled him awake. I was completely freaked out. When I finally built up enough courage I went to close the curtains on the door and put my camera away. I moved pretty quickly because I didn't want the lightning to zap me through the door. Doesn't that happen sometimes? It seems like I've heard that you can be struck by lightning in your house.. Yikes!!! Nature is amazing but oh so scary!! I was so rattled that when I went to bed I couldn't stop shaking. I'm such a big scared-e-cat.
Two years ago when Brett was driving into Buckeye for the first time a bolt of lightning hit a telephone pole right in front of him. He said there were sparks flying everywhere. Yikes!!

Did I mention that I hate spiders?

I don't know why it always seems to happen all around the same time but I have had another spider encounter. It was a day or two after the black widow in the garage. Do you remember the movie Arachnophobia? Remember the part where the Dad is sitting on the toilet and the spider is crawling up to bite him? Well, that wasn't exactly what happened to me but it could have. I was going into the bathroom and looked down at the trash can and saw a huge spider. I think it was a wolf spider I didn't want to look too close. Brett was at work when I found this spider so I had to take care of it myself. I was pretty brave since it was contained in the trash can. I'll tell you what they really don't like that poison.
I'm just glad that I wasn't sitting on the toilet when I discovered the spider.. Can you imagine? That would be terrible.
I hope this is my last blog about a spider. They are probably my least favorite thing.

Moving update!

Well the movers will be here Monday morning to start packing up our stuff. They scheduled us for two days of packing and then the third day to load the truck. From my experience with the other moves they have always been able to pack us in one day and then load the truck the next day. So we will either be leaving Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week.. Eeek!! I'm so excited! I'm so excited to get a chance to visit family and friends in Vernal! So many things have changed since we've been back so it's going to be so much fun to catch up. We will be there just after Katie is set to have her baby boy! We are so excited to meet that little guy! I am also so excited for everyone to meet Kimber! She is such a doll and is at such a fun stage right now.
So that is the plan right now and I'll keep you posted if there are any changes.. That is if I have access to a computer.

Cute things little girls say

I should totally be in bed asleep right now but I just remembered something that happened earlier that I didn't want to forget.

Tonight we had our good friends and neighbors the Wallin's (Holly, Kelly, Brinna and Laci) over to play BIG (a way fun card game) and eat pizza and snacks. Brinna and Madi were sitting at the counter eating their pizza and this was the conversation between Holly, Brinna and Madi.
Holly, "Madi your necklace is so sparkly!"
Madi, "I know!"
Brinna then turns to Madi and says, "I'm going to kiss you when were done."

I don't know if it's so funny because I was there and it was so cute but oh my goodness!! What a bunch of silly girls! Where do they come up with this stuff? They really are just too cute!

It's so funny that this just popped into my head at 1:30AM but I'm so glad it did because I almost forgot. I can't say it enough that we really are going to miss our dear friends and I know that there will be many tears when we go to drive away.. Oh man I'm tearing up right now.... Eeeek!! Ok it passed.. Whew!

My newest obsession

My friend Holly showed me how to make the cutest bracelets! I wanted to make a bracelet for Madilynn's medical alert tag so Holly said she would help me. On our trip to get bracelet making supplies Holly and I found cute watch faces and we both decided to make a watch bracelet. Then when Holly was ordering beads from another place I picked some out that I thought would go with just about everything. I guess great minds think alike because Holly, Kym and I all picked the same beads for our watches. We were up until 3:00AM working on our watches but we finished them and I think they turned out so cute! I just love to wear mine it's so girly! Now I just want to make jewelry all of the time.

These photo's aren't the greatest but I think you get the idea. I think my favorite part and Madi's too is the heart locket on the back. So fun!

I should have taken a photo of Holly's bracelet. She put cute charms throughout hers. Thanks Holly for showing me how to do this! I can't wait to make more and my Mom already wants me to help her with one. Oh yeah I made earrings too! Love it!

A case of the Heebee Geebee's!

Last night it was raining around the time that Madilynn was going to bed. She wanted to look out the window at the rain but it didn't really show up since it was dark. I told her to stay at the window and I would turn the light on outside. To get to the light outside I had to go out into the garage and walk to the other side to flip the switch. No big deal. So Madi got to see the rain and I put her to bed. A few hours later as I was getting ready to go to bed I remembered that the light was on outside. I went out in the garage in my pj's and right away I felt like something had touched my leg but didn't think much of it. On the way back to go in the house for some reason I looked down towards the floor and I saw a spider in a web right next to the door.. Ewww!!! It creeped me out. I thought about how I had felt something touch my leg so I had to check to make sure I didn't have a spider in my pants. It's a good thing we don't have windows in our garage because you would have seen my underoos.. So since the spider was so close to the door and the car was right close to that I decided to walk around the back of the car and then go in the door. Once I was near the front of the car I couldn't see the spider any more.. Ahhh!! Where did it go?!! I walked back to the other side of the car to look again but I still didn't see it. I felt trapped it was so scary.. (I'm such a wimp) After a little look around I walked back around the car and slowly but quickly at the same time got in the door. After I was safe in the house I opened the door again to look around again. Brett had a pair of running shoes by the door and there in the top I saw it a very ugly black widow.. Ewww!!! Even now I get heebee geebee's just thinking about it. I went and grabbed the can of raid but I was too chicken to do the dirty work myself so I went and woke Brett up. Did I mention that this was at 12:30AM? Brett is my hero! He got out of bed and killed that yucky spider. Neither of us like spiders at all so after our encounter we both kept feeling like something was crawling on us. I didn't sleep very well because of that and then both of the girls woke up crying. Fun night! Did I mention that I hate spiders?

We're going private

We have decided to make our blog private. If you would like to continue to see our blog please leave a comment with the e-mail address you use for your blog. That way we can add you to our list. Thanks everyone!
Why are we going private? Partly because of what happened on the Babes in Hairland blog. Also because we don't want unknown creepy people sneaking in and looking at our family.

Our blue eyed girl

Fun friends!

Last night a few of the girls came over to make bows and work on beads. When Bailey walked in I saw that she and Madilynn had on the same PJ's. Of course I had to take a picture. They watched movies and played so cute together.

The hardest part about moving away is taking Madi away from all of her cute friends. She'll miss them all so much.

With Love from Madi to all of her little friends! We'll miss you! Twin PJ girls! Twin hair girls!I need a more recent photo of Madi and Payton! This was taken before Madi turned two.

Iowa here we come!

Brett has been actively looking for a new job for the past few months. This past week he accepted a position as a Production Supervisor in Iowa. If everything goes as planned we should be in Iowa by the 8th of September.
We have mixed feelings about leaving Arizona but are very excited for this new stage in our lives. We will miss our dear friends that we have made here so you all better keep in touch!
I know this probably seems kind of sudden since I haven't mentioned it before. I have kept it under the radar on purpose.
As soon as we have more specifics I'll get you all up to speed.

My Dad the boxer

I'm not completely finished restoring this photo of my Dad but I was so excited I had to go ahead and post it. This photo was in the program from a boxing match my Dad was in. I seem to remember that he won this match. It's so fun for me to see photo's of my parents when they were younger. This photo looks so much like my brother's.
My Mom and I have been working together over the phone and e-mail to get these old photo's scanned and preserved on the computer. This photo of my Dad is on really fragile paper that has browned. My Mom had to carefully peel it out of an old photo album so that we could get it repaired. The photo is in pieces so I've had to cut and paste and smooth some things out. I am totally amazed at what can be done with photo editing software. I still have to tweak this some but so far it's a great improvement. Notice in the before photo that my Dad's right hand is missing. I used is left hand to recreate the right. I think it looks pretty darn good. I'm just so glad to be able to restore this photo and save it for years to come. Thanks Mom for scanning these photo's. My Mom wasn't sure about how to do the scanning but with a little help she has done such a great job. I'm so impressed with her ability on the computer. Love ya Mom and Dad!!

Missing my B

Brett is traveling today and I am always so nervous until he is back home with me. I don't like it when he goes without me but I know I can't always be right there with him. I feel like if I'm with him he'll be safe. How silly! I'm not superwoman..
Well, I better go clean something so the time goes by quicker..

Missing my hubby

I don't like to be away from Brett at all. I think it's important to have some time to yourself but I just like to hang with Brett all of the time. He's my buddy. Whenever he has to go somewhere without me I always miss him terribly and I worry. I should probably be a pro at this by now especially after the time away while he was in the army. I just don't like it and I am always a nervous wreck until I have him back in my sights. For whatever reason I think that if I would be able to go with him he would be kept from any harm which is silly because I'm not Super Woman.

Waiting for Daddy to come home

I wasn't able to get a photo of Madi this morning so hopefully I do a good job of explaining this. Brett's current work schedule gets him home around 8:00AM. Madi's bedroom is right near the garage so she can hear when Brett opens the garage door. This morning I noticed that the hall light turned on sometime around 6:00AM. I put a child gate up at night to keep Madi from getting into mischief but she is still able to get to the bathroom and to our bedroom. So I wasn't too worried about what she was doing. After a while and I hadn't seen her I got up and walked down the hall. As I turned the corner I found Madi laying on the floor near the door where Brett would be entering the house. She is just short enough to lay in the middle of the hall and almost have her head touch one side and her feet the other side. She was totally sleeping it was so funny. Laying beside her were her new favorite pair of shoes, a purse, a doll with a blanket and of course her most precious silky. I just decided to leave her there and hoped that she would stay there until Brett walked in. I knew he would just love to see her waiting there for him. It didn't work she woke up and came into the room with me. Oh well it was a good story to tell Brett anyway. I just wish that I had my camera in the bedroom so that I could have snapped a photo. She is such a Daddy's girl it's so cute!

While Madi was taking a nap today it dawned on me that I could recreate the moment using Kimber as my model.. It works and I think you can totally see what I'm talking about.

The quack quack towel

I have always loved this photo of Madi. I even put it in a baby photo contest.I tried to recreate it with Kimber. I think I got close. It's so fun to see photo's of them around the same age and in similar poses. They could almost be twins. Even their ultrasound photo's were almost identical.

The Barnes Family

I absolutely love this photo. It just makes me smile every time I look at it. This was taken at Disneyland sometime around 1985 (Brett thinks). Momma Mitzi is in the back next to Bud (The Dude), Brett is on the left side of Bud, then Russell and Katie is in the front looking so cute. The only person missing is precious Kimberly who is in heaven. We named our little Kimber after Kimberly.
The family is growing all the time. You know about our two little girls. Russell and Megan have a son named Lukas. Katie and Jared are expecting a baby boy in September.
Brett and I are the only ones that don't live in Vernal. We really miss living close to our families but treasure the visits that we have with them.
I am so glad to be a part of this family. They have always loved and welcomed me into their family. I can't wait for them to all meet Kimber she is such a fun baby I know that they are all frothing at the mouth to hold her.
We love you guys! Hope to see you really soon!

Mom and Dad

My parent's both have birthday's this month. Here are a few photo's of them young until now. Happy Birthday Mom and Dad! I'm so very blessed to have you for my parent's. I love you guys!My Dad is the blond on the far left in the front.

Time for school! My Dad is the second from the left.

At the age of sixteen my Dad told a little fib like so many did so that he could defend our country. He was on the USS Heermann during World War II.

I always thought this photo was so Hollywood.

The littlest milk maid. My Mom isn't she cute.
This is the sister line up. My Mom is the fourth person in this photo. Two of her younger sisters are not in this photo.

This is my Mom around sixteen years old. I love this photo of her. When I was little I remember one of my uncles saying that I looked just like my Mom. What a great compliment.

This photo was taken sometime around 1989

My Mom and Dad just being silly. We talked them into taking the photo booth photo's. I'm so glad that I hung onto them.

Mount Olympus Games!

I know these are so silly but I just couldn't help myself. Enjoy!

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Mount Olympus Games!

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Mount Olympus Games!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Our baby photo's

Here we all are as babies. I thought it would be fun to show all of us around the same age and see who you think looks like who. Does that make sense? Anyway, here they are.

Brett

Heather

Madilynn
Kimber

Another Madi quote

Yesterday as I was loading the girls in the car after church Madi said something funny but very correct. I said, "Oh it's warm!" and then Madi replied, "It's not warm Mom! It's HOT!!" What can I say she was right.

"I watched Elmo.. It's finished.." Huh???

Every night right before I go to bed I go in and check on the girls. Madi is almost always in some funny position so I straighten her out and cover her with her blanket. Tonight as I lifted her and laid her on the pillow she said, "I watched Elmo.. It's finished.." At least I think that's what she said. I said, "What?" and she repeated it very clearly, well as clearly as she talks in her little two year old voice. I still didn't hear what she was saying so I whispered, "What is Elmo doing?" Then she whispered back, "Elmo..." Then she rolled over and put her thumb in her mouth and went back to sleeping. I don't know if she was a little bit awake or not but she definitely had Elmo on the brain.
I knew that if I didn't write this down right away I would forget. When Madilynn is older it will be fun to read over all of these funny things she did and said.

Sisters! Best Friends!

Time to wiggle!

I love the rain!

It's so funny earlier today I read my friend Tara's blog. She mentioned that it poured down rain where she lives in Las Vegas. I put a comment, "What's rain?" We don't get much rain in Buckeye. Well, tonight it rained! I went outside around 11:pm to take the trash out and when I came back inside I had a shiver.. A shiver!! My weather center says that it's 77 degrees outside... NICE!!
It's amazing how much you start to miss the change of seasons when you live where that does not happen. Ok wait, it gets cool around October and stays cool until February or March and then it starts getting HOT!! So I guess that's kind of a season change but not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the snow and the leaves changing colors and crisp cool air. We laid sod in January. Isn't that insane? It was beautiful green sod. Brett even hung the Christmas lights in shorts. You couldn't do that in Vernal you would freeze your bum off.. I know that if we lived where it snowed I would want to be where there wasn't any snow but right now I miss that so much. It's been two and a half years since I've seen the snow and my girls never have. Hopefully this year if we go home for the holidays there will be snow this time instead of it snowing just as we are boarding the airplane to go home. I'm sure if that happens then by the time we go home I'm sure I'll be sick of the snow.
This photo was taken just after Brett finished laying the sod. Doesn't it look pretty?

The things she says (continuation!)

I almost forgot about this. I think it was the same day that Madi told me not to take the baby ever. We were all in the kitchen and Madi was sitting at the island eating and she said to her Dad, "Mom isn't a jerk anymore!" I just laughed and said, "Oh Thanks! But we aren't supposed to say that." And then she said to her Dad, "Dad you aren't a jerk anymore either!" She was just being so sweet and cute. I know she has heard me call different people jerks and sometimes it was Brett (ooops!) so she started telling us that we were jerks. It was just nice to know that we weren't being jerks anymore. Just another reminder that she is going to do and say the things that I do so I better be on my best behaviour all of the time. Being a parent is so fun and isn't it fun how it makes you be a better person.

The things she says..

Madi is very protective of her baby sister. She loves to hang out with Kimber and play. Kimber has one of the floor gyms that has the arches above with the toys hanging down. Madi will drape blankets over the top of the gym and lay underneath with Kimber. Last night as I was going to pick Kimber up so that I could feed her Madi looked at me very and said, "DON'T YOU TAKE HER EVER WOMAN!" I just looked over at Brett and said, "Thanks! That's from you." Brett calls me woman sometimes and now Madi has picked it up. It was so funny, Brett and I just started laughing. After Madi saw that we were laughing about it she said it a couple more times.. She is so entertaining, I can't wait until she is older and can really communicate with me. I'm sure then she will really have me in stitches. What a sweetie!

She does hair!

I absolutely love this blog Hair Today. She has the cutest ideas for little girl hair styles. I've tried a few of them out and I think they turned out really cute. She was so kind and put a link to my Madibu Bow Blog on her blog.

Here are a few of the styles that I've tried on Madi.