Our Life

Aaron - First day of school

I was adding the boys' class blogs to my blog links and figured that since I hadn't posted since January that it was way past due for an update! Probably very few people read our blog anymore (and that's OK!) but since I'll be logging on frequently to read the kids' blogs I thought I'd give myself something new to look at every day! :)

Noah - First day of school

We have been busy with life as usual, and I'm happy to say that life-as-usual to us is a good thing. We've gone through our average yearly schedule, spring soccer, last day of school, baseball, summer, swim lessons, first day of school, and now fall soccer, and we are having fun doing it all. We took a family trip to Disneyland in the Spring and had so much fun I wish we could afford to go back every month! 



Ethan - First day of school

The boys are doing well now that school has started and I feel so lucky that they have such great teachers this year. Ethan started 3rd grade (holy cow!), Noah's in 2nd grade, and Aaron is in preschool. Aaron is continuing the preschool program through the school district to help him catch up with his speech, and we also enrolled him in a regular preschool two days a week to help teach and possibly prepare him for Kindergarten next year. And, of course, Chad and I are always busy taking care of these sweet boys!

That's all for now, and I hope to log in more often and make a post next time that is not quite as generic. Until then... :)

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

As part of Chad's birthday celebration, we spent Martin Luther King Jr. day on the tubing hill at Soldier Hollow just south of Midway. It was warm that day, which made for some slushy tubing conditions, but it was a great temperature for playing outside!

Getting all dressed, and ready to go!

Picking out our tubes.

Chad and Aaron on the rope tow. (I'm hooked, definitely the best way to go tubing!)

Ethan on the rope tow.

Noah on the rope tow.

Noah tubing down the hill!

Ethan fell off in the middle of the hill!

...and then climbed back on!

...and kept going!

We all had a great time, and the boys didn't want to leave when our two hours were up!

Chad's Birthday, Part 1

Have I mentioned before how much I love celebrating my husband's birthday? I do! He is such a sweet man, and does so much for our family, I love having a day each year when we can celebrate just him. This year Chad's birthday was kind of a week long celebration, and we had a lot of fun as a family.

My sister-in-law Brenda's birthday is about a week before Chad's, so the weekend before his birthday my parents took us all out to dinner at Tepanyaki. We've never been there before, and it was so cool! I wish I had taken pictures. The boys loved watching the man cook the food in front of us, and the food was absolutely delicious. Then we came back to our house for cheesecake (Chad's favorite!) and ice cream.

On his actual birthday, the boys and I woke up and fixed Chad a big breakfast of cinnamon waffles, Tabasco-flavored sausages, and orange juice. We don't usually have big breakfasts around here, and since Chad loves breakfast we tried to make it a big deal. We were going to go tubing that day, but unfortunately Chad spent a big part of the day fixing our car (poor guy!) so we ended up doing that on Monday instead. He opened up his presents later that afternoon, but his big present he's still deciding on. He's getting a hiking/camping backpack that can also hold all of his camera gear, but he's still trying to decide which one he wants so I'm afraid it will have to be a belated gift!

Little B and the Potty Seat

I guess this gives new meaning to the term "Porta-potty", doesn't it?!?! We've had such a hard time getting Aaron to be willing to potty-train, so when he wanted to tote his little potty all over I certainly was not going to deny him! No worries, he did not actually use the potty while sitting in our kitchen nook.

I can't tell you how happy I am that we have finally (almost) potty-trained our last child. We're still working on the #2 (TMI? Sorry.) because it grosses him out, but I think we're almost there. Hooray!

From experience, I think I can say that potty-training is the hardest part of being a parent so far. Two out of three children have been difficult. ;) Aaron is very independent and the trick was finally just to let him do it on his own. We put him in underwear and let him decide when he needed to use the bathroom. That was the trick! I am so proud of him, and he is so proud of himself! What a cutie.

Our life in a nutshell

I know it's kind of become the norm--it's been awhile since I've posted. I won't try to recap everything that's happened over the past four months and bore you all to pieces, but we have been up to some fun things lately that I think are worth mentioning!

Last week our summer finally officially started (hooray!) after Aaron finished his last speech therapy and group sessions on Wednesday (the Early Intervention programs ends at 3 years-old). Ethan and Noah have been out of school for a few weeks, and although they were sad to be out of school (Ethan: "I don't want school to end! I want to have more math problems!" and Noah: "I don't want school to end! I want to have more gym!) they are having a blast getting to play with friends everyday.

It's a little crazy for Chad and me to comprehend, but our little Aaron turned three this last week! We had so much fun on his birthday. Chad took the day off of work and we all rode the Front Runner train down to Salt Lake and spent a few fun-filled hours at the Discovery Gateway (our first time!). Aaron absolutely loved the train, so much so that, for better or worse, he threw a temper tantrum when it was time to get off in Salt Lake. Now every time we see a Front Runner train he says "A train, a train! Again, again!" And he loved playing at all of the different centers at the Discovery Gateway, and spent a very long time at the water center. He was in heaven! (Take a look at Aaron's b-day shirt! How CUTE is that?!? I just had to buy it!)

It's unbelievable to me how quickly the last three years have gone by. Even though it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that Aaron was born, in the same sense it seems like our life has completely changed since then and everything is SO different from what it was. I am so grateful for Aaron, and for his special personality that adds such a unique dynamic to our family. He is such a sweet little boy (most of the time!) and has this uncanny way of melting my heart with his small but surprisingly tight little hug. I am so grateful for that little man!

On another note, we've added a new sport to our life roster this year, a switch from our usual soccer, and Ethan has been having so much fun playing baseball this spring! It's been so fun to watch him play, and he makes us so proud--he does great! Noah has asked to play next year too so I think that both baseball and soccer will be a big part of our lives now! Next spring is going to be a little crazy I'm afraid, since the schedules will overlap a little bit!

Anyway, I promised this wouldn't be a long post and here I am rambling so I will leave it at that! Just a little glimpse into our good, but very busy, life lately!

A New Recipe

Did you know you can make your own microwave popcorn? I didn't, until yesterday when I found the coolest recipe on allrecipes.com. It's so simple and easy, I can't believe I haven't heard of it before, so I thought I'd share.


Ingredients:
1/4 C popcorn kernels
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)

• In a cup or small bowl, mix together the unpopped popcorn and oil. Pour the coated corn into a brown paper lunch sack, and sprinkle in the salt. Fold down the top of the bag and seal with a small piece of tape.
  


• Place the bag upright in the microwave, and cook at full power for 2 1/2 minutes, or until you hear pauses of about 2 seconds between pops. Carefully open the bag to avoid steam, and pour into a serving bowl.

I tried it yesterday and it was so good. I eat popcorn fairly often for an afternoon snack and I'm getting tired of the preservative/cardboard taste of the microwave popcorn you buy at the store. (I know, I should buy an air popper right?!)

The other cool thing is that you can vary the recipe for different flavors or to change the fat and calorie content. To keep the calories low, make it without the olive oil (they say it really still works!) and spray on I Can't Believe It's Not Butter after it's popped. To make kettle corn, mix in one tablespoon of sugar with the oil and kernals before cooking.

Give it a try! It's fun to make, it tastes great, and it's healthy. Enjoy!

Random Things

It's been a LONG time since I've posted, and really it's because our life has been, well, just life lately. We've had ups and we've had downs--nothing overly exciting but thankfully nothing overly horrible either. We had a very fun Christmas and really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with both our own little family, our extended family, and our wonderful friends.



We brought 2010 in with a bang--spending the majority of January bearing the difficulty of one cold after another and a week-long (plus some) stomach flu that worked it's way through our whole family. But I'm happy to report that we are all finally on our way to good health and looking forward to what we hope will be a very happy, and love-ly February!

Amidst all the illness, we celebrated Chad's 33rd birthday this month! I am so grateful for the opportunity to celebrate him and the wonderful man that he is. Between me and the boys I'm afraid he doesn't get much attention and he certainly deserves it more than anyone! As I mentioned we were all recovering from the stomach flu, but on his birthday he took the day off of work and we all went out to breakfast at Mimi's in Layton and went shopping for some fun new birthday presents (that he got to pick out himself, what a rotten deal for him!).



The night of his birthday he said that all that sounded good for his "cake" was cinnamon roll from Great Harvest, so we stuck some candles in it and sang him the best song ever! (I will mention though that the following Saturday he DID finally get his favorite homemade New York-style cheesecake.) I thank my lucky stars every day that I get to be his wife--I don't think he realized what he was getting into when he asked! :) He is absolutely the very best man I know, and I love him with all of my heart.

So there you have it, an update about our not-too-exciting lives! I'm just grateful I had a few minutes to write something so that I wouldn't have to keep looking at the picture of Santa from my last post since it's almost February already, lol! Love to all of you from the Barker family!

Grandma and Santa Claus

This story came to me through email and I thought it would be a perfect blog post. This is definitely our stance on Santa around here, and will continue to be when the "question" is asked. I hope you enjoy this sweet story as much as I did!

* * *

Grandma and Santa Claus
I BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her. On the way, my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"

My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so.. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she snorted ..."Ridiculous! Don't believe it! That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go.."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun.

"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for. I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat.

I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat! I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. "Is this a Chris tmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down.

"Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it. Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.

Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95. May you always have LOVE to share, HEALTH to spare and FRIENDS that care...And may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

All Ethan Wants for Christmas...

is his two front teeth!

I remember when I was little, probably Ethan's age around 7 or 8, I thought it would be the coolest thing to have my two front teeth missing for Christmas just so I could sing that song. I was pretty close that year when I had one missing front tooth and only part of the other one grown in. But Ethan is 100% official since he has two of his front teeth completely missing. The first one fell out a few weeks ago just before Thanksgiving and he finally pulled out the other one a few days ago. So if you happen to see Ethan around this holiday season make sure to ask him to wish you a "Merry Krithmas!"

A Not-so-fun Vacation

In September Chad and I decided it would be fun to take the family on a little fall vacation. We planned to go to Moab, somewhere we've never been before (go figure!)--it sounded so nice to just get away for a few days. Well, not to long after our vacation discussion, Noah had an appointment with the ENT who determined that Noah needed his tonsils out...soon. THEN, Aaron had his initial speech therapy evaluation and they noticed that he was saying almost exclusively only vowel sounds. They said they didn't think his ear tubes (placed less than a year ago at the time) were working right. Hence another trip to the ENT who said Aaron needed new tubes and his adenoids out. Of course, all of our medical flex spending money for the year was gone by then and that meant we had two surgeries that needed to be done ASAP and paid for out of pocket. So we changed our plans. We decided to go on a vacation to the McKay Dee Surgical Center in nearby Ogden, Utah. I'm not certain since I've never been to Moab before, but I can almost bet that Moab would've been a whole lot more fun than the surgical center!











What wasn't meant to be. At least not this year.

Thankfully the surgeries went well. Noah was in on Monday and thankfully there haven't been any major complications. It's still taking him awhile to recover--he still seems a little out of it a lot of the time and is super moody. Aaron went in on Thursday and although his surgery was a lot less intensive he had some kind of reaction to one of the medicines they gave him after the surgery and it made for an interesting ride home. But he's doing excellent now, and other than his bad breath you'd never know he even had surgery!

Noah's tonsils. It seemed like a good idea to add a picture, but
since I last looked at them some of the blood has leaked out of the
tonsils into the fluid and it's kind of gross.














Aaron's tiny tubes from last year. They were still stuck in his ears,
just not in the right places unfortunately!

To add to the fun of our surgical center week, we continued with the medical theme of our "vacation" and Ethan had a dentist appointment on Thursday (it doesn't get any more fun than that!) and Aaron and Noah were able to get the H1N1 vaccination on Saturday. I will say that amidst all this fun, I am so grateful that my boy's were able to get these procedures they so desparately needed and that everyone is safe. I'm hoping that although my kids heads are lighter (void of adenoids, tonsils, and copius amounts of ear fluid) and our pocket books are lighter, that they will be in general more healthy and more happy in the years to come. :)

A fun way to waste time...

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Noah and the Garbage Can

If you have kids, say age 10 and under, ask them what this is. Go ahead, ask. I'll wait.

We were at Maverik today picking out a Redbox movie. The Redbox machine stands next to an object that looks very similar to the item in the picture above. Thus sets the stage for the following conversation with Noah:

Noah: Ew! Ethan's playing with a garbage can!
Me: (alarmed at first, and then relieved) That's not a garbage can, Noah. Stop it Ethan.
Noah: Yes, it is too a garbage can!
Me: Are you serious Noah, you really think that's a garbage can?
Noah: Yesss...
Me: (smiling) What if I told you it wasn't a garbage can? What else do you think it might be?
Noah: A bathroom?
Me: Seriously? You think it's a bathroom?
Noah: I guess...
Me: Would you be surprised if I told you it was a telephone?
Noah: It doesn't look like a telephone.
Me: I promise, it really is a telephone.
Noah: Oh.

I guess I've never stopped to think how much phones have changed over the years! As I stopped to think about it I guess pay phones really don't look much like these, do they?I think his next guess about it being a bathroom might have been based on the shape of a urinal but I'm not sure. I sure got a good laugh out of this little conversation though! It reminds me of the time I was teaching a Young Women's lesson and the girls had no idea what a typewriter was! I must be getting old! :)

Kindergarten

Noah had his first day of Kindergarten today and true to form, he molded right into this new phase of his life without any hesitation. I took him to school this afternoon and as we waited out in front of the school for his teacher to open the door and let all the students in he kept asking me, "When can we go in?" and "When are we going to start?" The second the doors opened he rushed right in, found his desk, and sat down. He is so excited to start school and so far, really seems to love his teacher and his new class. I don't know if his teacher realizes this or not, but she is one lucky lady to have this little boy in her classroom every day. I'm pretty sure I'm biased, but he is such a sweet little boy and is always so willing to help. I will certainly miss him during those few hours that he's gone from home.

And, if you'd like to know how I feel about all of this, please read the post below. ;) Yep, still feeling that way.

Feeling Torn

When school got out in June I remember feeling overwhelmed at the though of having three kids at home--all day, every day. The thought of running errands with all three kids was scary, and the task of lining up activities to stave off boredom each and every day seemed daunting. But I had big plans. I printed out a calendar for June, July and August and planned to schedule our summer with fun and to squeeze out every drop and enjoy every moment of our summer.

I threw out those calendars the other day--nothing had ever been written on them. The summer flew by! Here it is the end of August and as the weather is starting to turn cool I'm ready to cry foul. I want my summer back--where did it go!?! Ethan started 1st grade today and Noah will begin Kindergarten next week. I feel so torn about all of this! Am I excited about having quiet afternoons while the boys are at school and Aaron naps? Do I look forward to the end of "those days" when my boys would argue and fight all day? Yes, of course! And I love knowing that my boys are having new opportunities to make new friends, adjusting to different environments, and learning and experiencing all kinds of cool stuff. I love seeing my kids grow.

But I'm also sad to think of how quiet it will be while they're gone. They are my little friends--they keep me company throughout the day and frequently help me clean up and keep Aaron entertained (some days that's a pretty tough job!) There are so many things we didn't get to do this summer. We never went on our adventure to check out the aquatic center near our house, we didn't have our picnic in the park, we never went to Lagoon (our boys have never even been there, how sad is that!) and we only visited the library once. Most of all, as much as I love to see my children grow it makes me so sad to watch them growing up. I wish they could just stay little--sweet, loving, naive, and cute--forever.

So, once again, I'm feeling torn. I know we'll adjust to this new schedule and the boys will love the time they spend in school. And I know I'll love having some time to myself and a window of time to run errands with just one boy. But best of all, in less than 10 months it'll be summer again and we'll have three whole months of time to laugh and play!

Summer Time

A few months ago Chad was organizing all of our digital photos and he said, "We have way more pictures from the winter seasons than we do from the summer. Does that mean we actually DO more in the winter?" I laughed. "No," I said, "It's because winter is so miserable that when you do something that's fun you feel like you need to document with a million pictures!"

And so it goes with bloging. I can't believe I haven't posted since May. Where has the summer gone?! It makes me sad to think that in just a few weeks the boys will be starting back to school and fall will be on its way. We've had such a wonderful but busy summer and it's just flown by so fast. We've spent countless hours putting in our yard (the last batch of sod was laid just last weekend!), went camping up at Lava Hot Springs, swimming at Bear Lake, and just celebrated our 10th anniversary with a "Chad and Andrea only" cruise down to Mexico. It's been an amazing summer.

So, no, we haven't been sucked into a big black hole the past few months. We've just been out enjoying life and loving every minute of it! ;)

This spring season was a particular rough one for playing soccer. The boys had a blast and did great, no doubt, but we had horrible weather and it either rained or snowed during most of their games this spring! Boys will be boys so of course they still played most of the games, but I didn't have a chance to take pictures until their final games last Saturday. Noah can't wait to play again in the fall and Ethan has decided to try baseball (is it t-ball at this age?) next year instead. Here are a few pics from the last day.

Little Man Loves His Yogurt

You should see him eat pancakes! :)

Some Real Parenting Advice

I just read a really great article on one of my favorite blogs, Light Refreshments Served. We all go to great lengths to ensure our children are physically safe, but what about keeping them morally and spiritually safe? If you have a minute, read this post by Emily Watts (a co-worker of mine, and one of my favorite authors) -- it's a good one.

http://lightrefreshmentsserved.com/2009/05/12/fail-safe-parenting/

Parenting Tip #418

If you decide to let your toddler color easter eggs, it's best to check and make sure you grabbed the cooked batch of eggs out of the fridge instead of the raw ones.

And we had a wonderful Easter weekend. Hope you all did too!

Noah, Aaron, Ethan, and Sunny

Noah, Ethan, Ryker (nephew)

Grandparent's Day

Yesterday was Grandparent's Day at Noah's preschool! Noah was so excited to have his grandparents come with him to school. We made cherry chip cupcakes the night before that he wanted to take as his treat and his teacher put the recipe in a special book she made to give to all the grandparents. He got to ride to school in Grandma Brann's car and met Grandma and Grandpa Premo there (unfortunately Grandma and Grandpa Barker couldn't make it.) They all had a special lunch together, eating all of the "favorite lunch treats" that the kids brought (Noah brought his cupcakes), they read books together, played the computer, and Noah got to make a bookmark for each one of his grandparents. What a fun day!