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Posted by Barnes Family at 10:02 PM 3 comments
On our way home it started to snow a little bit. It was a really wet snow with really small flakes so it was hard for Madi to see it. Well, this morning when we looked out the window there was definitely snow on the ground and more still falling. Madi has never been in the snow before so she was very excited to get out in it. I got her all dressed up except for the snow bibs and she went out and braved the cold. She really loved it and didn't mind that her face was getting cold. She loved it so much that she really didn't want to come inside but finally decided that maybe she was getting a little bit cold.
Posted by Barnes Family at 1:21 PM 6 comments
It really bugs me when I call to find out some information on one of our accounts and they won't tell me anything because my name isn't first on the account.. So annoying!! It's especially annoying when Brett has already talked to them to give me authorization and the next time I call they need authorization again!!! SO ANNOYING!!!! I mean, I deal with all of our bills and it's very hard to make changes to stuff when they won't let me do it... Ahhhh!!! I know that it's a good idea for them to do it that way because there are disgruntled people out there but I'm not one of them and I don't like being treated that way.
Ok! I'm done griping about this now.. Thanks for listening!
Posted by Barnes Family at 1:30 PM 3 comments








Posted by Barnes Family at 1:00 AM 6 comments
My friend Jen Moon tagged me with this quirky tag. I'm supposed to list six of my quirks so here it goes.
1. When I hang my clothes up they all have to face in the same direction. When Brett would help me put away the laundry I could always tell what he had hung up. I have him all trained up now and he does it automatically.
2. Whenever I take a bath I always take a shower right after. I don't know if everyone does this or not. I once mentioned it to someone and they thought I was so weird because why would I want to wash off the bubble bath. Umm.... I think it's icky not to wash off.
3. I am a door locker. When I get in the car I immediately lock the doors. When I walk in the house I lock the door behind me. The car door locking started after I took drivers ed in high school. I remember we watched a video that said you should always lock your doors in case you roll. That way if your doors are locked they won't fly open when you are rolling over. Silly I know but I actually was in a roll over and our doors didn't fly open.
4. When the telemarketers call Brett just tells me to ignore it but I can't. I always answer the phone and tell them to take us off of their list. I just can't stand that they will just keep on calling. It usually only takes a second anyway.
5. I don't do this any more really but I used to take a clean glass out of the cupboard and rinse it out before I drank out of it. I'm pretty sure I started doing this when my younger brothers and sister were washing the dishes. I guess I didn't think they were rinsing them well enough. After that it was just a habit.
6. I always buy my milk, eggs and meat at the grocery store and not at walmart. I'll buy everything else at walmart just not those things. Maybe that's not so weird but Brett thinks I'm silly to make the separate stops.
So now you know some of the silly things that make me me... Me me... That's funny!
Now I tag: Angelia Fairey, Krystin Wahl, Robbin Conner, Lucy Watson and Stephanie Tucker. Well and anyone else that wants to play.
Posted by Barnes Family at 12:09 AM 2 comments
I got my visiting teaching assignment in the mail today. Our ward boundaries are crazy big it's not like anything I'm used to. I'm amazed at how far apart some of my people live from each other. My companion lives in the town Struble, Iowa it's about 15 minutes away from me. I think getting all of our visits done in one day is going to be a huge undertaking. This should be interesting.
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I'm not totally sure where our ward boundaries are but this map will give you a pretty good idea. I don't know how well you can see it but our ward goes into South Dakota and Nebraska. Yeah it's that big. You are probably thinking that we have a ton of people in our ward. We don't it's really pretty small. Such a change from our over flowing ward in Buckeye.
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This is my parents ward in Utah. It's just a few blocks.
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This is the ward in Buckeye. I thought that it was pretty huge.
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Posted by Barnes Family at 1:37 PM 2 comments
I have been trying to decide if I wanted to do it yet and today it just seemed to be the right time. So since we were going to Walmart to do some grocery shopping I figured we would stop and see if they could fit her in. 
Posted by Barnes Family at 9:07 PM 1 comments
Saturday was dedicated to Halloween. Here in Le Mars they had a parade for the kids to march down Main Street in their costumes. Madi dressed up as a witch and Kimber was a lady bug. I really wasn't sure how many people were going to show up so when we got there and saw the line up I was very surprised. I think just about all of the kids from around Le Mars were there. We were right at the tail end following the large crowd of kids and parents and dogs who were all following behind the fire truck. It was so much fun and I'm pretty sure that Madi had a blast. She loves dressing up so this was a great time for her to show off.



Later that day we decided that we would drive to Sioux City to go to the Trunk or Treat at church. While we were waiting for the festivities to begin Madi found some kids to run around with and Brett and I were talking with some of the other adults, then I heard Madi crying. She was completely terrified and running towards me. At first I didn't know if she had fallen down or what had happened. As she was running to me she kept turning around to look behind her and then I saw what had worried her. There was a boy that was wearing one of the scream costumes. You know the mask of it has the fake blood that runs down the face. Madi was so freaked out about it. The boy was really cute and took the mask off and talked to Madi. We kept telling her that he was a nice boy and that he was just pretending. She didn't care she just knew that she didn't like that mask. After that she stuck really close to us and was watching very closely to see if that "Scary Boy" came around. She was even talking about it when I was putting her to bed. I just told her that he was pretending to be a scary ghost like she was pretending to be a witch. Hopefully she doesn't think about it any more. She didn't wake up talking about the "scary boy" so I guess she has forgotten about it. 






Posted by Barnes Family at 10:57 PM 5 comments
Remember a few weeks ago when I didn't know it was General Conference and we went to church thinking it was normal church? Well.... Last night I set the alarm clock to wake us up so we would have plenty of time to get ready and get to church on time. This morning I was laying in bed thinking I was still pretty tired and I noticed the sun was out but didn't think much of it. Madi was also in the bed with us and she was talking about something. Then Brett says, "Heather... It's 8:00AM..." Oooops!!! I did it again... I set the clock for 6:00PM!!! Shoot!! I guess I was delirious after our day of fun. I better not have any more of these brain lapses or somebody might have me committed.
Posted by Barnes Family at 10:51 PM 0 comments

The first two photo's are the smile I'm talking about without the tears.Posted by Barnes Family at 12:19 AM 1 comments


Posted by Barnes Family at 11:44 PM 5 comments
I'm sure you've seen the silly commercials for JG Wentworth. A few months back they had one with all of these people that were yelling out, "IT'S MY MONEY AND I NEED IT NOW!!" Well, our cute little Madi turned to the tv put her hands on her hips and yelled, "IT'S MY MONEY! I WANT IT NOW!!" It was so cute I only wish I had a video camera on the ready to catch it. Brett and I both just burst into laughter.
Posted by Barnes Family at 7:56 PM 1 comments
Posted by Barnes Family at 7:06 PM 0 comments
So I was looking online to find some free pumpkin carving stencils and I found something even better. Go to this website and you can make your own stencil and print it out. I think it's pretty cool and I can't wait to carve our pumpkins. http://www.bhg.com/holidays/halloween/pumpkin-carving/pumpkin-stencil-maker/?psrc=RG810BTR48
Posted by Barnes Family at 10:47 PM 0 comments







Posted by Barnes Family at 11:15 AM 6 comments
I love old houses but they creep me out at the same time. I have probably just seen one too many scary movies but if I hear a sound my ears perk up. This house that we live in was probably built in the 50's but I'm not sure I just know it's fairly old. I always hear little creaks and sounds so I always sleep with a fan on and a night light. That's right a night light I'm not too scared to admit that I'm a big scaredy cat.
Our computer is in the basement of our house and thankfully I'm not real creeped out about it down here or at least I try not to be. Sitting here in the basement I hear a few different noises most of which I can name what they are but if I do hear something that seems weird I run upstairs to investigate. Tonight as I was working on a blog post I thought I could hear someone walking around upstairs. Brett was at work and the girls were both snugly in their beds. I walked upstairs to look around but nothing seemed to be amiss. I went in and checked on Madi and she was in her bed, not in a deep sleep yet but in her bed. I just told myself that it was old house noises and then the furnace had just turned off so that was probably some of the noise too. So I went back to my post then I heard noises again. It sounded like someone was walking in the living room and maybe the master bedroom. It was really starting to freak me out. I went up and looked around again but didn't see anything. A little bit later the furnace had kicked on and then off again and then I heard it.... Madi was running around upstairs. That little munchkin was getting into anything and everything. Mystery solved!! I guess getting spooked like this helps to keep my heart healthy... I am such a wimp. Ahhh!! Just as I wrote that I heard a noise from upstairs and then this loud rumble.... Darn that furnace!!!! Hopefully I'll get used to all of these noises soon and then I'll be able to tell when Madi is running amuck.
Posted by Barnes Family at 12:31 AM 2 comments