Birthday Bonanza!!!

OK so I am a horrible Aunt and Sister!!! My sweet nephew turned 19 on June 25 and My sister turned 29.....Yep that's what I said 29 on the 28 and I am just now getting to posting how much they mean to me! In my defense I was in Kansas for work when it was Kevin's birthday and Lori's birthday fell on a Sunday and our home computer is a piece of junk! Anywho on to the Birthday celebrations! I will start with my amazing nephew Kevin because I missed his first!


AN ODE TO KEVIN......
Kevin is such an amazing young man, I love him dearly! I will never forget the day I found out Lori was expecting him. I was 10 and I over heard Lori on the phone telling someone the news, I was so shocked, excited and confused all at once! I think the shocked was because I didn't quiet fully grasp the whole thing at the age of 10 excited because I LOVED BABIES! I was so happy to get to be around one. The confused came because I didn't understand the "drama" behind the news! LOL! I get it now! I will also never forget the day you were born! I was having a sleep over in the tent out back with Becky Lewis, we woke up to the news that you had arrived! I was so excited!!! I rushed Becky out of the house and jumped on my bike, I am not even sure if I got dressed! I am not sure if I went alone or if Michelle came with me but I jumped on my bike and rode to the hospital! I couldn't possibly wait any longer to meet you! I was so taken back by you! You were so handsome even back then! From that day on we were great pals! I would watch you all the time! I loved hanging out with you! You had the best smile and the cutest little voice! As I have watched you grow all these 19 years I am always so amazed at your kind heart and willingness to help! When he came and visited this spring he told me a story about one of his friends from when he live in Groveland, she had a baby and got married I guess the baby was born premature, the little family was struggling financially so my sweet Kevin who has his grandma's big heart gave them $50.00. What an example he is to me. Kevin is getting ready to leave on a mission soon. I am again so proud of him. He will touch so many more lives with his willingness to serve and love of people! I am jealous of the people he will be teaching as they will get to feed off his light and what a bright light it is! I love you dearly Pe Pe Ole!


TO MY LORI.....
Happy Birthday my sista! I am so thankful everyday for you! Growing up and still today I knew and still know I can count on you for anything! You taught me so much in this life about being a friend, sister, daughter and mother. You are one of my best friends. I remember the day I found out not all sisters had fabulous relationships like ours. I was appalled! I really had no idea others were not like us! I know in my heart we were meant to be sisters, all three of us! To pick each other up when we are down and out....even in the times we don't want to be picked up! :) I know I NEVER would have made it through these last years with out you both! I will forever cherish our memories of fun concerts to see the opening band...then leaving! Or driving in SCARY SLC traffic together, or going to Park City. I will also cherish the fact that we can do NOTHING at all but hang out on the floor in Jo's room and have the time of our lives! You mean the world to me and I look up to you in more ways then you will ever know! I strive to be like you. You learned so many great things from Mom that I have yet to learn, I will learn them from you I am sure! What an amazing daughter, sister, wife, mother, and friend you are! I love you and wish I could have been with you on your special 29th birthday! hehehehehe!

GOOD TIMES!

I know I promised a post about our trip but.....I lied! HAHAHA Sorry I just don't have that much time today so instead I will treat you to the pictures of Jo and I having our pedicures today! We had a great time and now are feet are so smooth we keep slipping in our flip flops! I can't wait to go back when Lori comes in November! YEAH!!!! It's only 5 1/2 months away!



And to end the post I will leave you with a tid bit from Bridger:
He and Matt went to the movies last night while the girls went shopping when he came out I asked him how it was, he grinned from ear to ear and said
"It was FAB-LEE-LOUS MOM!"
Hahaha I love that kid!

Done right.....

Happy Birthday to you (cha cha cha), Happy Birthday to you (cha cha cha)Happy Birthday dear Lacey Happy Birthday to you(cha cha cha)!
My sweet little Lacey has finally reached "double digits" as she keeps calling it. She is so excited to be 10! Lacey is such a great kid, she is so silly and makes us laugh. I feel like I am getting it wrong with her on most days. I try every day to tell myself to be a great mom to her, and yet somehow by the end of the day we are butting heads and not being so happy with each other. I am trying to do better with this because she is such a sweet spirit. My mom and Lacey had such a sweet loving relationship, I want that for Lacey and I too!

Here are some things my little girl and I like to do together...

*Watch what I like about you

*Go shopping

*Go to the Movies

*ride around in the car and listen to the music really loud and sing at the top of our lungs with the windows rolled down

Here are some things Lacey likes right now....

*boys

*playing soccer

*boys

*playing basketball

*boys

*hanging out with her friends

*and oh yeah did I mention BOYS!

She truly is my child isn't she! I am so thankful to have her in my life! I wish I had a scanner at work I could put in some of her baby pictures, but alas I don't! You could just look at the pictures of Cylie though, they are identical!

Her Birthday wasn't so fabulous this year! I felt bad that the trip took so long to get there (my fault) I will fill you in later! We did stop and have some dinner at Cracker Barrel and they brought out an ice cream Sunday and we sang to her. (The picture is on my camera at home, I will bring it tomorrow!) We got to Lori's at 11:15 so she opened her gifts, and then we crashed! We did cake the next day and sang again, I sadly don't have any pictures!

We had a great time in MN and I will try and start blogging about that tomorrow!

BIRTHDAY GIRL!

Well I don't have much time so I will have to do an appropriate post when I get back from Lori's but I couldn't leave today and not take a minute to tell the world that my FABULOUS little girl will be turning TEN tomorrow! She is such an amazing girl and I love her....yes even when she's being hormonal! So to my Lacey Lou I LOVE YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We will have to celebrate at Aunt Lori's!

The count down!

OK So I may be totally dead by the time we actually leave for MN on Saturday! Matt finally had some work so off he went to Twin Falls last night. I am glad he has work don't get me wrong but man it's a tough week to be going it alone! Last night I didn't get home until after 8:00 p.m.! Kids hadn't been fed nothing had been prepared for the next day and nothing got done to get ready to leave. Tonight won't be any better! Lacey has her school program at 7:00 p.m.. Don't misunderstand I am very thankful it's a night so I don't have to miss work to go, but it sure puts a kink in getting anything ready to go! Then on Wednesday Bridger has his first soccer practice at 7:00 p.m.! YEAH! I am so excited to get him started in something! But again not so great when your trying to get things ready to leave on a trip! Then on Thursday Lacey has soccer practice at 6:30 pm! After collecting kids I am not even home until around 6:15! It will be Friday before I know it and nothing will be done! So I may end up packing dirty clothes to take to MN and washing when we get there! UGH! BUT on the bright side ONLY 3 days until I leave to see my sister! I would do this crazy week ten times in a row just to go visit her and her family! YYYIIIPPPEEEE! Hey did I tell you how excited I am to go!?!?!?

She's gone already!

WOW again with life passing me by! I am hoping it will at least slow down a little. Here is a little of what we have been up too...

The weekend after Cooper was born Brookie came and spent some time playing with the kids. Bridger and Brook had a grand time. Their little imaginations ran wild! They played barbies on the tramp, they colored, they made a "car" and they had a bath. They are getting to that age where I am not sure it's really appropriate to have a bath together so I told them on two conditions they could 1) they had to wear swimsuits, which meant Brook had to wear one of Bridger's, she wasn't in love with the idea, but she gave in. 2) they had to let me wash their hair, she again wasn't in love with my idea, but REALLY wanted to take a bath so they both agreed! The car they made was so cute! They found a box and each colored on a side, Brook colored a picture of Cooper and her mom and dad and Bridger drew a picture of Cylie and me! It was funny to watch them decide who was driving. At one point they each went in opposite directions and crashed into the back of each other! TOO FUNNY! Here are some fun photos of the "car" and tub time.

Mothers day came and went. What can I say about mothers day? I used to Love it! I loved hanging out with my mom and sisters. We would search for the perfect gift and make her dinner. I loved it. Well as you can imagine I am not such a fan these days. Matt REALLY doesn't get the whole gift giving department. He never has, and most likely never will. So I just told him not to get me anything because I was going to buy myself work out shoes. Long story short he had to run to Wal-Mart first thing in the morning on Mothers day to get decon (for my little friend that surprised me in the MIDDLE of the night! EEEWWW!) and he came home with a LAME card and LAME flowers which I guess I should have been thankful for, but it was like rubbing salt in my already open wounds! I only had one crying melt down which I thought was an acceptable sad moment. I got some flowers together to take out to the cemetery and Michelle came and got me and off we went quietly. I needed some time alone with my sister to miss my mom! We got out there and noticed mom too had a visitor of the same species of my visitor, we had a good chuckle! We tried to clean off her head stone as best we could, we weren't really prepared to do so. After the cemetery we decided Mom would really want us to go get a soda and some yummy chocolate oh yeah and some ice cream! Mom would want us to get ice cream! LOL! We giggled and joked in our probably not so appropriate way we do when we try and deal with our pain! Us Barton's are really good at making a joke in inappropriate situations! Just ask the funeral director! The rest of the day was fine. We had a BBQ at my house with Les and Michelle's family and Dad surprised us by coming home early from Utah, he made it just in time for lunch. The kids made me some cute home made cards and the day was done with no casualties, which in my book is a successful day!

The 13th of May FINALLY arrived and so did Lori. I was so excited to have her home with us. It is always fun when we get to see her. We had a great time. Dad and us three went to dinner and a chick flick! Good ol dad! We made Michelle sit by him so if it got a little risky she would be the one mortified to be sitting by OUR DAD! We did a little bit of shopping and told dad what he could and couldn't wear together, you know he has to be "cool" now! I don't know what we were thinking his tight self wasn't about to BUY anything! While Lori was here we did some shopping and had Cooper's infant photos done by Leah and ate so much I think I gained 10 lbs! We hung out and watched Dancing with the Stars! It was so nice to see her. I wish I would of had more time off though! I did miss a lot while sitting here at work. But in a few weeks we get to go to Minnesota! I am soooooo excited to finally see where she lives and all her new friends! I am so happy to see my bestest GJO I miss her desperately while she is not with me! She was my right hand girl before they moved. I am so thankful my dad is such an amazing man and giving us this gift so my family gets to go. With the way our finical life is going there is just no way we could afford it. He truly does have a heart of gold! Lori left yesterday, I know she is happy to be back to her own family and routine,we sure do miss her when she goes, but we sure are glad when she takes the time and money to come see us!

So now here it is May 21. Matt's business in Jackson is going to close it's doors next week. It breaks my heart into pieces thinking of this. I remember when we first moved to Driggs, he and Alan put so many man hours into getting that business going. It was such a strong vibrant business until this last year. To watch my husband's dreams be demolished by the bad management of our Country's leaders makes me sick. I wish I could do more for Matt poor guy just can't catch a break these days! Memorial day weekend is here Matt and I have no plans. I just want to sit and hang out with my kids and think of all the things I have to be grateful for. Not sit and dwell on all of the many things we have lost. So to you all I wish you a happy Memorial day, may you remember all the great things you have!

Busy bees!

I am not sure why but I feel like I can hardly catch my breath these days! Everything is going so fast! It has been almost 2 weeks since Lacey and I went on our date night! We had a blast. We decided very last minute to go, I had been cleaning the house and she was at a friends playing. She called me about an hour before we would need to head out of town if we were going to go and said "Mom are we going to go see Karli?" I told her it was up to her, she was all over it. So I ran out to get her from her friends and we frantically got ready! After showers were had and hair was done we were on our way to Driggs, I must say it has been 8 months since I had been there. I was looking forward to it, I do miss some things about living there. I made some fabulous friends and had hoped to see some of them at the Jr Miss program. It was kind of strange I saw some that I thought would welcome me with open arms....and yet they acted as if they never new me! My feelings were kinda bent out of shape(yes they really did see me, I myself tried to calm myself with this scenario too!) but then I decided I was fine and went on with my fun time with Lacey.We had a great dinner at O'Rourkes, if you are in the neighborhood of Driggs you really should go,it is pretty great! The onion rings are to die for! We also splurged and had CHEESECAKE Yummo!It is always nice to get to do something with just Lacey and I! After dinner we went to Jr Miss and I must say Karli did an amazing job! She got an award and scholarship for the interview part and over all got 1st attendant! Karli is such an amazing young woman! I miss her dearly! She used to babysit for Lacey and Bridger when Matt and I would venture out in big Driggs! Hahaha yes I am funny I know! Bridger still talks about her, it is one of the things he misses about "our old house" when he makes his list for me. If only I could transplant Karli and her family to Blackfoot, how cool would that be! Anyway all and all it was a FABULOUS date night with Lacey!