"i hold mer dace!"

this is what ian says 24/7. he thinks i had merry grace as a personal toy for him. but its so sweet! 

GO HEELS GO!

 

prayer, etc.

elise said the blessing on the food at lunch yesterday. as part of her prayer she blessed that none of us--especially daddy--wouldn't get stuck in traffic. sometimes i just wonder where this stuff comes from!

also all three of the kids took a nap at the same time yesterday. what are the odds?!

merry grace pooped in two or three outfirs yesterday, as well as a couple of blankets & our bed. nice! ian peed in our bed early this morning after he crawled in with us. and this comes on the heels of merry grace blowing it out all over our comforter on satuday! thats babies for you!

bathroom blues

as much as i would enjoy giving you all the details of my recent bathroom escapades, i'll spare you. (well, all except mama & cory who have to suffer through it all.) let it suffice to say that the bathroom has not been my friend over the last week & a half. that has actually been the worst part since delivery. well, this morning i was having a rendezvouz in the bathroom & gracie was in her bassinet. elise was such a great helper...she pulled a stool over beside her & talked to her & helped her with her passy & by the time i was done, merry grace was asleep! i told her how awesome she was & she was justly proud!

Our First Outing

yesterday we took our first "outing" as a family of five. it was so warm here yesterday (about 70 degrees) so cory & i decided that the kids might enjoy an afternoon at the park. so that's what we did. elise & ian had fun running, jumping, sliding & playing and merry grace just slept away in her little baby sling. this park has a lake/pond there, so after playing we went for a walk around the pond. in the spring & summer you can see lots of creatures & critters (snakes, frogs, fish, turtles, duck, birds, etc.), but all we saw yesterday was one lonely duck! but we got a kick out of seeing him! by the time we'd walked all the way around the lake, we were getting hungry so we stopped at bojangles and got some supper. it was a fun afternoon for all of us and we really enjoyed being together. i'm not sure how it will be to take the kids out all by myself (that's a feat we haven't tried yet), but yesterday went really well, so i'm--somewhat--encouraged. as we like to say, "a fun time was had by all."

Sweet Sisters... 

i just love the way she's clutched onto my shirt here. and you can see just how tiny she is, all wadded up there in my arms! what a cute bundle of love! 

i think i have the sweetest kids in the whole world! 

even ian pitches in and helps his sister find her passy. 

elise is such a great big sister. she just adores holding merry grace...and she's really good at it! 

our famous girls... 

ian at the talent show. when elise would practice at home we would have to do this big introduction thing, "now presenting elisie barnett singing 'i love to see the temple'". after her song we would have to introduce ian, "now presenting ian barnett singing 'jesus wants me for a sunbeam'". after the girls performed, ian tried to get up on stage and kept saying, "Sunbean". it was so cute! 

isn't he cute? 

tommy watching the performances. he just got a haircut this week & now he's buzzed. it's adorable... 

tommy and elise at the talent show

they had fun sitting together & coloring. it was very cute & sweet. 

toilet trouble

today ian used the bathroom. of course, being a big boy, he always likes to pee standing up. i've taught him to wipe off any drips on the toilet and he's pretty good at it. but today, i wiped the drip off for him. he wasn't too happy about that, and so he wanted to wipe some more. so as he wiped the toilet off & climbed up on the stool to wash his hands, i left the bathroom to go back and work on some things with elise. about 3-5 minutes later i heard the toilet flush & instantly i knew ian had been filling the toilet up with TP. i just knew it. and sure enough, the water was already up to the very top of the toilet bowl and there was paper swimming everywhere and a gigantic TP clog. i immediately got the plunger and began the task of getting the mess out or down or whatever. after several minutes without any progress i tried getting the toilet paper out with the poker from the fireplace. still nothing. after trying cory to no avail, i got a hold of daddy on the phone. and didn't he have some great news....my next option was to stick my arm down in there and try to unclog it by hand. okay, the water was clear and all, but this is a toilet, not a cup of spring water. so i was completely grossed out! but go at it i did and pulled TP out from the drain or whatever that thing is. it still didn't seem to make a difference and the water was frigid, so after a few minutes, i gave up. so then i thought i had been digging around in the toilet for nothing. but luckily after about 10-15 minutes, the water drained out on its own & it has been flushing perfectly ever since! so thanks, daddy, for the good (but disgusting) advice and the reminder that "if you swallow a toad first thing in the morning, the day only gets better from there!"

milo has been groomed

and boy does he smell fresh! they put a cute bow & bandana on him. when elise saw the bow she said, "oh, mama! i'm so glad milo won first place!" we think he looks very handsome. 

bruiser

this is a weird angle and not a great shot, but this is a big
bruise on my leg. i got it from sitting in the floor and having the blowdryer fall off the sink onto my leg. very cool, i know! its actually pretty big, too...3-4 inches in length...especially since i don't think i bruise very easily.

the talent show & a tommy update, among other funny things...

last night was our ward talent show. earlier in the week, cory & i had been running down our schedule and i mentioned the talent show. elise goes, "what am i doing in the talent show?" actually, it had never occured to me to ask her if she wanted to do anything...i had (mistakenly) assumed that she wouldn't want to get up in front of everyone & perform. but she was definitely interested & so she and her cousin emmy got together & decided to sing "i love to see the temple". they even planned matching outfits. we were pretty sure the girls would get up in front of everyone & just stand there looking cute, but they surprised us. they sang & did a great job! the cutest part might have been the rush they got afterward from the thrill of the performance & the sound of the applause. you would have thought they were the rolling stones or something the way they were so proud of themselves. and deservedly so...they were great!

in other news of the night, elise's crush with tommy is progressing. with a little help & encouragement from her cousin, the girls sat with and talked to tommy most of the night. elise even ended up with two pictures he colored for her while she sat & talked to him. i think she's more "in love" than ever. this morning she told us, "i told tommy what my name was because i didn't want him to forget it. he said he liked it. he told me it was a lovely name." it was too funny. cory's not too thrilled about...freaked out is more like it. it was just so funny and sweet and endearing and cute to watch. elise, while sitting beside him, kept looking back at me and grinning from ear to ear and smiling and giving me the "thumbs up" sign. and it was cute to see emmy's nudging and encouragement. i have to admit, though, the crush has taken a life of its own all of a sudden!

in a more mischevious side of elise, we went to eat at applebee's before the talent show. on the way out to the car after the meal, elise tripped and scratched her knee a little bit. (just a scrape..no blood) soon after cranking the car, ian began making a racket--hollering & screaming just for the fun of it. then ian got upset & starts saying, "see see hit me". so i asked elise, "did you hit ian?" she said, "yes, but i had to. he was screaming too loud and it hurt my owie!" somehow, she didn't understand why we didn't believe that his loud voice had hurt her knee!

the carolina girls performing! they were so awesome! 

the prized possessions hanging on elise's bulletin board in her room... 

surveys

i have to say it, i enjoy email surveys. there are some that seem to be going around quite a bit, but even still, i like to read about what people enjoy, etc. cory recently filled out his first ever survey & i thought i'd post it here because it is so, *ahem* enlightening...

1. What time is it? 4:13pm

2. Name: cory

3. Nickname: Dont like Survey's

4. What is your favorite vacation spot? Beach

5. What is the most recent movie you've seen in the theatre? I can't remember

6. Eye color: Blue

7. Place of birth: Kinston, NC

8. Favorite NEW food: I don't know

9. Ever been to Africa? No

10. Ever been toilet papering? No

11. Love someone so much it made you cry? Yes, My Family

12. Been in a car accident? No

13. Croutons or bacon bits: Bacon Bits

14. Favorite day of the week? Saturday

15. Favorite Restaurant: Fao Choa

16. Favorite flower? Rose

17. Favorite sport to WATCH: Basketball

18. Favorite drink? Dr. Pepper

19. Favorite ice cream? Twix

21. Favorite fast food restaurant? Bojangles

22. What color is your bedroom carpet? blue

23. How many times you failed your driver's test? Once in NC and once in Washington

24. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? Neal

25. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? None

27. Bedtime: 9 PM if it was up to me

28. Who will respond to this e-mail the quickest? Who Cares they are a waste of time

29. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? It must be your lucky day

30. Who are you the most curious about their responses to this quiz? ???

31. Favorite TV shows? American Idol

32. Last person you went to dinner with? Kristen

33. Ford or Chevy? BMW

34. What are you listening to right now? Pam on the phone

35. What is your favorite color? Blue

36. How many tattoos do you have? None

37. What is your Dream Car? BMW

38. Which came first the chicken or the egg? It does not matter

39. How many people are you sending this to? Kristen and Neal because they both put me as the least likely to respond. They are wrong this time but I will never respond again

40. What musician or celebrity, alive or dead, would you have dinner with? Elvis

I have just wasted Five mintues of my Life!!!

hugs

ian had been sleeping and woke up a little snuggly & grumpy. i had been sitting with him, but eventually had to go start supper. when i walked back over to check on the kids, this is what i saw over the back of the couch. at first i thought ian must be asleep, but he wasn't. he was just resting on elise, who was more than happy to be the big sister. and she was even sharing her grapes!

too sweet

elise is just such a good helper sometimes. ian needed some attention and she was right there to be his shoulder to lean on. seeing them take care of each other like that was one of those moments i wanted to bottle up and keep forever. if somehow you could truly preserve that moment...

the official valentine

 

a few cute things

most of these are elise-isms...

she keeps calling merry grace "brand-new". i think its so adorable, although i sort of envision that as an insult. like if someone does something dumb or naive, telling them they are brand-new. i don't know. but its so cute to hear her call the baby that.

she also said the reason it's taking so long is that Jesus has to make merry grace even cuter.

she wanted to make tommy a valentine yesterday. we've been making them for all her cousins/friends or whatever this week, just to be on the ball. i helped her do it, but then she wanted to write "i love you" on it. i felt that was a little much, considering she has never actually spoken to him & she kept saying, "but i need to write that because i do love him." or "i have to say i love you becuase he's so handsome." we decided to call cory, who (with no input from me) agreed that another phrase was more appropriate. finally we compromised on "be mine" and we put two pieces of chocolate candy in his envelope. oh well...teenage years are going to be brutal!

she was such a great helper the other day. one day i had swept the kitchen, but got sidetracked before i threw the pile of trash away. a little later i came back through and noticed that it was gone. i immediately wondered if it was one of the kids or the dog & where the heck was it! i asked elise and she told me that she had put it in the dustpan & thrown it away. wow! then later i asked her to take an empty laundry basket into the laundry room so it would be ready for me to put the clean clothes in. the next thing i knew she was bringing the basket back out, full of clothes! she had gotten all the clothes out of the dryer and put them in the basket. amazing! it was especially touching that i didn't even hint to her to do these things. they were totally spontaneous and appreciated.

what a great girl!

Cory is Famous

i was going to post this yesterday in my "odds and ends" post, but decided that i had quite enough there already & thought this deserved its own post. Cory has his own commercial on TV now! isn't that cool? its on a local channel here and it runs every monday, i think. maybe he can comment on the specifics. anyway, they are also the monday morning traffic sponsor where it says, "our traffic report is brought to you by..." and its cory's work! we were so excited to watch it yesterday. even elise seemed to grasp that is was really neat and when she saw it she just ran over and hugged cory's leg! cory's famous now!

another quote

this was in my relief society email this morning:

"Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end. For then the journey is over and it is too late. The time for happiness is today, not tomorrow." ~Joseph Smith Jr.

i just love a good quote!

Odds & Ends

Just some things that might be of interest...maybe at least one topic will catch your eye...

ethan gave us a surround sound system for christmas. it is really cool. besides the neat features of the surround sound itself, we can also listen to cd's and the radio on the system. and they sound so great. the other night we put in an oldies cd (which we all love) and danced around the living room with the music rocking! it was so much fun. and then yesterday morning we listened to church music and it just sounded so awesome. what a cool present!

in other electronic gadget news, we bought a dvd player/recorder at the after thanksgiving day sale. we haven't had a lot of time to mess with it, but the other day cory recorded our first movie onto a dvd. it was willie wonka and the chocolate factory. the kids (especially ian, who constantly asks to watch "boompa") love that movie. and now instead of just having it recorded on the cable dvr thingie (forgive me for being so technical), its a commercial free recording that the kids can watch anywhere. i can't wait to record more! elise is requesting "annie" next...

an iron update...my levels are almost back up to normal. the dr. is impressed with how quickly & efficiently i brought them up. i now only have to take one pill a day and continue my iron rich diet. i'm so proud! what a good patient i am!

last, but not least, with the impending arrival i got released from my primary calling. i'm sad because i really love those kids (i've been with the same class for over a year...), but at the same time i realize the necessity of it. especially in a ward our size where they have plenty of resources to draw upon. there are so many new move-ins that i cannot keep up. when they were announcing the speakers sunday & called the name of the concluding speaker, i assumed it was the high council speaker. when he got up to speak he introduced himself and said he and his wife had been in the ward about 2 or 3 months! oh well! anyway, i'm sad about my class, but the brother they are having take over will be great. i think the kids will really like him.

speaking of the kids in my class, one of the boys is named tommy. elise has her first crush, and its on him. she thinks he's nice and handsome. yesterday was his birthday and so she drew him a picture in sacrament & had me deliver it during primary. (cory said i should not encourage it, which i really don't think i am. i didn't suggest she do it and i don't bring him up to her. however, i did play messenger yesterday and help pass the note to tommy!) she's so funny about it. last night while i was loading the dishwasher she was talking to me about tommy and goes, "i REALLY want to marry tommy one day." i was like, "that sounds good." and i gave her the talk about how i thought it was good that she liked someone who was nice to others and wanted to follow jesus and all that stuff. she agreed. then she goes, "please remind me to marry tommy when i get bigger because i really, really want to marry him!" it thought it was so adorable!

and in a post this size, could i possibly sign off without a poopy story? well, today i was coming home with the kids, when all of a sudden i realized that i needed to go--in a hurry! we were almost home, but things were getting urgent. of course, i have an tendency to discuss these things sometimes & elise goes, "mama...why do you always say when you have to pee pee or poopy?" maybe i should rethink my strategy, huh?! anyway, we made it home without any incidents, but shortly thereafter, ian comes running into the room going, "tummy hurt" and "i need poopy badly" and so on, doing a dead-on reinactment in his own way of my drama from earlier. it was hilarious to see myself in him. scary and slightly embarassing, but funny, nonetheless!

red-letter neighbor day

when we moved in to our house a year or so ago, our neighbors had this big pool in their backyard. it was one of those self-standing things like you could buy at wal-mart or something. i would say it was about 4 feet deep and big enough around for four or five adults to "soak" in. unfortunately, it must have become a hassle for them to maintain, because when we moved in it was murky and black with algae completely covering the water. what really completed the look was the cute little kids yellow floatie swimming around in that nasty water. besides the just plain grossness of the pool, i know it was a breeding ground for mosquitos, not to even begin on the subject of its hazzards to small children. well, today when the kids & i looked out the window, we got a pleasant surprise! the pool has been drained! well, almost...their is still about ankle deep water sitting in the bottom, but the sides are now laying on the ground and it looks as though a removal might be in the works. so yay for a clean-up, yay to fewer mosquitos, and yay to a safer neighborhood!

iron woman

i've had to start taking iron pills and to work hard at including iron rich foods in my diet. here is my list of foods to choose from. how many do you like?

beef
blackstrap molasses
carob flour & powder
collards
duck
fruits, dried
jerusalem artichokes
kale
legumes (green & chick peas, kidney & lima beans, lentils, etc.)
liver and other organ meats
oysters, cooked
potatoes in skin
pumpkin
sardines
soybeans
spinach
seaweed
turnip greens

granted, i can find several things on here that i regularly eat and can even eat with some variety. i just thought it was an unusual list. for example, the beef, legumes, potatoes, pumpkin & spinach would be fairly easy to include in my diet...and maybe the dried fruit. i just can't think of any time i would be eating oysters, liver, organ meats, sardines or seaweed. those are pretty much out of the question for anytime, anyplace. i'm not sure how blackstrap molasses differs from regular molasses or jerusalem artichokes from just plain artichokes. carob flour sounds vaguely familiar but i couldn't tell you anything about it. and duck...i mean i just don't forsee cooking duck anytime soon (or ordering it at a restaurant). kale and soybeans don't seem like things i use often...well...ever...and then there are collards and turnip greens. those aren't really in season now, and if i'm going to be eating something green like that, i'd rather stick to spinach which i really love. anyway...i just thought the list was surprising and somewhat strange...

the diaper story

saturday when my family was down, we decided to go shopping. actually, it was just me, mama, adam, elise and ian. we hit michael's first with me getting some yarn & thank you cards while mama got some bargains and bought them out of magnetic notepads. adam and elise watched scooby doo in the car while ian slept. after a successful trip there, we went to ross and did some more shopping. (adam was having a blast at this point...) we left there to go to the grocery store. after getting a few odds and ends there we headed to the ice cream place as a special treat for those of us who had slaved over a hard day's shopping. on the way, ian needed to make an emergency potty break (and being a boy) we pulled over on the side of the road. not even 5 minutes back in the car ian begins saying, "tummy hurt, tummy hurt". upon questioning him, i realized he needed to poopy. since (fortunately) he had a pullup on and we weren't close enough to a bathroom, i told him it was okay to go in his pullup. pretty soon it became obvious that he had been obedient and so we pulled into a shopping center and began the changing process. (just as a sidenote, the ice cream place was supposed to be in this shopping center, but must have closed down, so we didn't even get any!) so i got ian out, only to find out it was a BAD poopy and had gotten on his clothes and carseat. not only that but the wind had picked up and was whipping around us like crazy. i laid him in the floor to change him, and closed the van door as best i could, but he was still being blown to death and was freezing. so i had mama stand behind me and hold her coat out to try and block even more wind. between the wind, the cold and the bad poopy it seemed to take forever. but finally we got everything taken care of and tried to get loaded back in the car. i then realized we had to do something with the poopy diaper, and daggone if i was going to put that raunchy thing back in the car. so i decided to drive through the parking lot looking for a trashcan, holding the diaper out the open window. as i got in, i quickly realized if i just rolled the bag up in the window i would be free of the smell and be able to keep warm. after the shopping and several minor hassles, the poopy had just been the last straw and it allowed us to relieve our stress by cracking up at our ridiculous selves.

and here it is...

 

Quote It

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

~Robert Brault

Nostalgia

Watching elise & ian play barbies yesterday was like deja vu. it reminded me so much of how ethan & i used to play barbies. being the big sister, i could make him play things with me that he might not otherwise choose. but as i saw with ian, just because he was "playing barbies" didn't mean he was playing it the way elise would want him to. they actually were playing so cute and so happily despite their different approaches. elise would work to fix their hair, dress them, line them up and so on. ian would get them, fly them around like airplanes--complete with sounds--and swoop them around over to elise's pile. she would take them from him and fix their hair....and so on. it was adorable! i just enjoyed watching them interact so much. the joys of siblings...

Barbie Dolls

 

Barbie time

elise works on dressing her dolls, brushing their hair and organizing them. ian pretends they are airplanes... 

are they playing the same thing?

ian takes a nose dive into the barbie container while elise continues to organize and arrange her dolls. 

routine

today i was making a pb & j sandwich when something funny happened. because of the type of bread and jam i was using, i put the jam on the first slice of bread. as i began doing that, i just got this weird feeling like i was doing it all wrong. it was then that i realized that i always put the peanut butter on the first slice of bread. i don't know why i do it, i just do. so by "jamming" first, i broke my routine. as i thought about this, i began thinking about other habits or routines i have that i do without even noticing it. here are a few i came up with:

• i always shampoo & condition my hair at the beginning of my shower. to do otherwise (like shave first or soap first really throws me off)
  
• i always hold my mouth funny when i put on mascara. i really can't put it on if i try and not hold my mouth that way.
• i always put both sock on and then both shoes (as opposed to one sock, one shoe...)
• i always start blow drying my hair on the left side

even these were difficult to come up with, because i think most of them are so unconscious that we don't even realize we do them. the pb & j thing was just an accidental discovery. i think routines and schedules and habits are reassuring and comfortable for us in both big and small things. for example, most of us have a "last position"--the last, most comfortable way for us to lay before we fall asleep (on my side in a ball). we might always sit relaxing a certain way (i sit on either one or both legs--half or full indian stlye). i'm sure there are many others. so do any of you have any routines that keep your life glued?

watching the new car arrive

 

Cory's New Ride

here's the proud owner in front of his new vehicle. it's hard to know who's more excited--cory or the kids playing inside! 

i think they're impressed

the kids sure liked sitting in the new car. i actually think they were most impressed with the flip down drink tray in the middle seat.

why i've been MIA

i hope to do a holiday post of sorts sometime, but i'll fill you in our our whereabouts the last little bit just to let you know where we've been. we had lots of christmas parties b/t cory's family, my family, & our "little" family. we spent close to a week of the holiday with the jarrell's and had a really nice time. upon getting back we had a hectic but fun day which culminated in pedicures for all the barnett women. (very nice!) the next day was spent unpacking, doing laundry, undecorating christmas stuff (apparently not completely, as i just noticed our mistletoe still hanging in the entryway...) and trying to sort through, organize & throw out things. that night the barnett crowd came over for new years eve & we visited & played games until 11 or so. everyone went their separate ways to ring in the new year, which we did by cheering as the ball fell & toasting each other with sparkling cider (which the kids hated, but pretended to like). another hectic day befell us on the new year as we had another barnett family present opening fest/party. it was fun, but everyone seemed to be feeling the strain of the holidays & too many late nights and such. so this week has kicked us back into high gear as we get used to the old routine again. i'm in the middle of a nasty cold (this fall/winter has hit us hard in the germ department). i guess its the old "you have to have the sickness to appreciate the health" thing. i sure know i will after this. my lung capacity is already compromised so the stuffiness in my nose is just too much. i've been dragging since friday but hope i'm on the mend. ian must still have some touch of it too. he threw up mucus this morning (which was lovely), but doesn't seem to really have a stomach issue, so we think it is related to the cold he has. (gross, either way...) but we're plugging away at things. in some fun news, cory finally bought a new car. well, not brand new, but definitely newer than what he has now. it's been a long time coming. i haven't seen it yet (they were going to clean it up, etc & have it ready today) but he said it's a chevy tahoe, several years old. actually he, two of his brothers & a sister all got vehicles yesterday. i guess that place was happy to see the four of them come in! i'll post pictures as soon as i get them. anyway....that's our life in a nutshell! hope all of you guys are well, too!