UPDaTE!

SOOOO Much has been going on these last couple of months and I have been meaning to get on here and update this thing but for some reason I just keep putting it off!
BUT.... Im doing now. :) So im just going to write about it all as it comes to me, not really in any particular order here.
1. We are moving to Twin Falls, ID for Nick's new job as a pharmacist at Ridleys. Although we arent moving until sometime in June. Nick still has to take pharmacy boards and he takes those in June. So until then he gets to work here in Pocatello. :)

2. We have decided to build a house instead of buying. This is because after much research we came to the conclusion that for the amount of space we were wanting and where we wanted to live that it would actually be cheaper to build than buy. Its still a mystery to me why that is, but I like it!. We bought a lot on the Jerome country club golf course (so technically we are going to be living in Jerome, but, for those of you who know that area we are on the twin side of the freeway right by the cool Canyon, Its a pretty cool spot!) However, building a house is a little more stressful than buying one. Not to mention we now have to wait for it to be built. And as of right now they havent even started on it yet. So we are hoping and praying they will be able to start within the next week or two

3. My brother Brady got home from his mission!! Its always so fun to have my brothers get home. This was the first time in about 4 years our whole family has been all together. It was so great to see Brady again and he got to meet Sophie for the first time! I didnt know how she was going to act. I thought she would probably act shy around him because she is very shy around people she has never met, but she really took to Brady quickly. I still dont think Brady knows what a big deal that is for her to do that. She was so happy to see him and was following him around all night. She still loves him and always wants to sit by him when he comes over. :)

At the Airport when he got home. Funny story... so apparently his flight was supposed to get there at 2:15pm but it was a little early and since he flew into SLC my parents and Brandon drove down there to pick him up while the rest of us waited in Pocatello. Well, for those of you who know my parents they arent known for being on time, this was the case here. Poor Brady's flight came about 20min early and nobody was there to greet him! HAHA He flew in with a couple other missionaries and he said they all had banners and a bunch of family and they all felt bad that nobody was there to greet him so they all congratulated him. But Brady said you could tell they were all just feeling bad for him! I thought it was hilarious!

This is Brady and Sophie meeting for the first time.

4. We found out we are having a baby boy!! We are super excited about it (especially Nick)! We, of course, would have been happy with either a boy or a girl, but we were both kind of hoping for a boy.

5. Nick graduated from Pharmacy school!! I am SOO proud of him! He has worked very hard for this and he did it!! Not that I ever thought he wouldnt, but there were times I know he wondered if he would ever be done with school! FINALLY he is!! ; )

Nick, Sophie, and Nick's parents after graduation

The Pharmacy banquet the night before graduation

6. My brother Brandon got engaged!! Her name is Michelle Burton and she is so great!! We love her, and she just fits right into our family! Im very excited to have her as a Sister-in Law!They are getting married July 20th. I wasnt too excited about the date because I will be HUGE considering im due like 3 weeks after that, and so I think I will just hide from the camera as much as possible. I tried to get them to reconsider on the date but for some reason me being fat wasnt that big of a deal to them. HA Weird right?

This is Brandon and Michelle! So cute huh!

Ok So I think that is all the big things that have gone on. We are feeling so blessed these days! Sophie is getting so big and is such a sweet little girl. She is still very clingy to me and im hoping that this will pass soon because I dont know how she will be once the new baby is here. I guess we will be finding out soon enough. For the most part, though, she is very very good and easy. She is talking really well these days and we always know exactly what she is thinking because she says everything she thinks. Nick has been trying the last few days to teach her how to count to five. She sometimes does really well and then sometimes its like she has no idea. Its funny and cute  watching him do it with her. Also, Nick made her a cute little toddler bed and she has started sleeping in it. She LOVES it! It was actually a lot easier to get her to sleep in it than I thought it would be, the only drawback is that now she can get out of it. So if she happens to wake up in the middle of the night (which she does often!) she ends up coming into our room crying and wanting me to come sleep with her in her bed. Kind of cute, but also kind of annyoing! More annoying, especially at 4am!

Sophie in her cute bed!

Sophie thinks its funny to hide in the coat closet and then jump out and "scare" us! Its pretty funny!

So I think that about sums everything up. We love life and are looking forward to all the new changes that are coming!

Have we not reason to Rejoice?

So lately our lives here in the Barker family have been very crazy to say the least! In fact I probably can't think of a time in my life where I have had more things going on all at once, and been more stressed out than I have been these last few weeks. But today I was thinking about it and I read a talk this morning by Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf called "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?" (its so great... I recommend it!) and it just really got me thinking about all of the things in my life that I really do have reason to rejoice about, and a lot of those things that are causing this craziness are things that I am actually very grateful for. Let me explain...

So in the last 2 weeks we found out that Nick was able to get a job offer! WHOO! But it is in Twin Falls, which means that  in the next month and a half we have to put our house in Pocatello up for sale, pack up our house AGAIN, move out, find a house in Twin, preferrebly a house to buy, not rent, but we may have to rent until we can get into a house to that we buy (make sense?) but if we rent than that means we will have to move to the rental and then a few months later move AGAIN! But with buying a house comes all of the fun things like getting approved for a loan and all that fun stuff. Oh did I mention that  for the last six weeks we have been living in Burley with Nicks parents so we havent been able to do much at our house in Pocatello and after next week Nick will be living in Reno, NV for 3 weeks while he does a rotation there?SO as far as packing and everything like that goes I will be on my own. AND... to top this all off , Im about 5 months Pregnant!! (for those of you who dont know, im due July 30th). 
See!  I told you things are crazy... and I sound like a huge whiner  here, and I will admit there have been some break downs and a few tears (its the pregnancy i swear!) but... I AM SO GRATFUL for all of this. I really realized today how blessed we have been. This Job is a huge huge blessing and especially in a time where pharmacy jobs, especially around this area, are few and far between. Nick was able to get one close to both of our families, where he never has to work on sunday's and he still has time to spend with us. Im very gratful to be moving to Twin Falls and not some where really far away like Nebraska (he had a job there he thought about applying for). Im grateful for the fact, even though its a pain to move, that I have family close by that can help, and Im grateful for the fact that with this job we will be able to afford a house to buy in twin that will be prefect for our family. Im so grateful for our wonderful families who support us and help us and I honestly dont know what we would do without them, Im grateful for Nick and all that he does for Sophie and me and this new baby! He is THE BEST dad and husband I could ever ask for. He really puts up with me alot, especially lately with these little "break-downs" I've been having. Im grateful for Sophie and the sweet sweet little girl she is. She is my little buddy and she keeps me busy but she brings so much joy to me.  Most of all, though, Im grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for my Heavenly Father who blesses us each and every single day. So to answer the question HAve we not reason to rejoice? I know we do, and we always will as long as we do all that we can in our lives to have eternal persepective. To do those things that heavenly father asks of us. Im grateful for that knowledge.

How can you look at this picture and not smile? It makes me laugh everytime. Lets just ignore the mess behind her k. :)

Caribbean Cruise!!

Alright I know, I know Im the worst blogger EVER!! I guess its just because since my last post (in October!) We have been so busy with moving back from Reno to Pocatello, and then Christmas/ New Years, and then Nick and my cruise we went on and then we came to Burley for Nick's pharmacy rotation, and thats where we are at now. See what I mean? We have been going and going and going! And I will eventually get to all that we have been up to, but for this post I would like to just write about our Cruise because it was THE BEST EVER, and I want to tell all I can before I forget. :) WARNING: This is a very long post!

So in January Nick and I went on our first Caribbean Cruise. I have been on a Caribbean cruise before with my entire family on my Mom's side, and ever since I have really wanted to go back!! So I finally convinced Nick that we needed to go, although, it didnt take much convincing. ;) We decided that this January would be the perfect time to go since Sophie would be about 18 months old ( we didnt want to bring her with us, I know, we are the meanest parents ever right!?), and this is Nick's last semester of school and he would be on break in January so it just worked out perfect! SO... We did it!! We went, and it was AWESOME!!! We left January 21 and flew to Miami. We stayed in Miami that night in probably the classiest hotels ever! (NOT REALLY) It was pretty ghetto actually, and kinda freaky but it worked. HA. So then the next morning we headed to the ship. We went on Norweigian Cruise Lines and we really liked it.

Our awesome hotel room

waiting for the shuttle to get to the ship

Day 1: The first day we just ATE and ATE, we did a lot of that this week ;), and we just hung out on the ship the as we headed out to Sea.

Waiting in the theater on the ship for the show to start

Our huge stateroom on the ship

Day 2: We got to the Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. Which is a small island the ship line owns. It was pretty cool. We took a ferry to the island and stayed there all day. Nick and I snorkled and explored around the isalnd. It was pretty fun! The best part of this cruise, though, was the weather. Which was perfect the ENTIRE time. Like 78-84 degrees all day every day even on the ship and at night! It was so great! This island also prvided a huge free buffet that the ship brought and so that was cool to be able to go and eat during the day whenever we felt like it on the isalnd without having to go back to the ship.

Day 3: This was another day at Sea. But they have so many things on these cruise ships to do that the days at sea are pretty fun. Nick joined a bunch of foreign guys for a soccer game and basketball. I would watch and take pictures. None of them were too good, so Nick was like an all-star to them haha, and so they all loved him! It was pretty funny because after that anytime we would see any of the guys around the ship they would always say "Hi" to Nick and make sure he was coming to the next bball or soccer game that was going on. We also played dodge ball and went to some shows and things like that. Oh ya... and we ate and ate and ate. ;)

Day 4: Ocho Rios Jamaica! Ok actually Jamaica was kind of a bust for us. Our original plan was to try and walk to these cool falls that we heard about but when we got off the ship and asked someone about it they told us it was WAY to far and we couldnt walk there (which we find out later is not true because apparently people do it all the time) So we were kinda bummed about that and we really didn twant to pay $40 bucks for a taxi so we decided instead to go to a beach and go snorkling. Well on our way to find a map this crazy guy named Rocky comes up to us and bsically makes us follow him and long story short we end up taking a taxi with Rocky's friend to a beach that is like less than a mile away and we had to pay $10 for it and it was terrible snorkeling and the water was kinda murky and so we only stayed for like 30 min and walked back to the ship. SO LAME!! We did go look at some shops and got Sophie a cute little Jamaica dress. So that was kinda fun.

Day 5: This day we were at the Grand Cayman Island! It was super fun! We took this awesome tour thing where we went out to the middle of the ocean on this little boat and we went to Sting ray heaven! It was pretty cool. in the middle of the ocean there is a sandbar where a bunch of wild sting rays are at and we were able to feed them and hold them and swim with them and it was cool. I will admit I was kind freaked out by them because they are kinda nasty things that are HUGE! But I still held one. I was pretty proud of myself. After that  the ship took us to a cool reef to go snorkling and it was really neat! I love the water in the Caribbean because its SO warm and SO clear. It was awesome!

the boat we took out to the stingrays

Unfortunately I couldnt get a pic of Nick with the stinkgray so this is all ya get

Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico. This was our last stop before heading back to Miami. Nick and I decided to rent a scooter for the day and just go check out the island. We had a blast!! It was pretty funny because right after we hopped on the scooter and headed off it started pouring rain!! It was crazy! So we were driving around soaking wet and laughing our heads off. It stopped after about 15 min and the sun came out it it was nice the rest of the day. We drove all around the island and saw neighborhoods where people actually live. Honestly I couldnt believe how impovrished it was! People were literally living in shacks. It was very interesting. Then we drove to these old Myan ruins to look around and it turned out that cost money and we didnt have enough with us so we turned around and decided to find a cool place to snorkle (what a surprise huh! ;) we actually checked out a few beaches that were busts but then Nick spotted this little tiny beach just off the road with about 8 people on it. We saw a bunch of rocks and figured that it had to be good snorkling and it turned out it was! In fact it was AWESOME!! So we spent the rest of the day there and had SO much fun!

the Myan ruins we didnt actually get to see :)

a "nice" house in cozumel

an iguana

nick and our scooter

Day 7: Our last full day on the ship was a sea day. So like before we just hung out and had fun!

Day 8: Back in Miami! We just woke up and ate and then got off the ship. Our flight didnt leave until later in the day so we had a lot of time to kill. This day actually was kind of funny because we really didnt want to pay for a taxi ( we are SO cheap!) So we walked with our luggage (we actually didnt have that much) through Miami so we could find a bus or something besides and expensive taxi to take us to the airport. Our efforts paid off and I think we spent $8 on the transit which was way better than $35 and we had a fun adventure. :)
We had such a Fun time on the cruise! It was so relaxing and just great!! I would definitely recommend it to everyone!! And although we really did miss Sophie ( My mom watched her most the week and Nick's mom took her for a couple days too, we are very lucky to have such great parents who will watch our child for us!) It was totally worth it. Im so so so glad we did it and I already want to go again someday. Although I dont think we will for a few years ;)

Halloween and more...

Well to say the least this week has been...not the greatest. First I got sick, which is never fun, but its really hard when Sophie isnt feel too well either, and Nick started a new rotation which I like to call "the rotation from H". Basically he leaves the house at 7:30 am and doesnt get home until about 5pm, which isnt too bad, but then they have been making him work on these stupid article things that he works on as soon as he gets home until about the time we go to bed. So I have hardly seen him all week. And with me and Sophie both sick, and nobody around that I know (that doesnt have a job or is not in Pharmacy school) to talk to or possibly help me out with Sophie, it just hasnt been great. Needless to say, I am getting very ready to head back to Pocatello. :) Which is now less than a month away!! YAY!!
Ok but that is enough of me being negative.... Actually besides this week, everything has been really good. We had a fun Halloween, that we actually celebrated the Friday and Saturday before halloween.
Friday we went with a few other people in pharmacy school, and their families to a pumpkin patch. We went on a little hayride and looked at the farm animals they had. That night we had pizza and watched "Ernest Scared Stupid" (which is becoming a tradition for Nick and me). Then on Saturday our ward had a trunk or treat/ carnival thing and we all dressed up for it.

Sophie was a very cute little kitten, Nick went as a Mad Scientist, and I went as the Progressive Lady (there is a story behind that, but I dont feel like telling it) Anyways it was fun. Sophie was actually supposed to be a witch, I had made the costume for her, but for some reason she refused to wear the witch hat I made, so last minute I made her some Cat ears and she became a cat... with a tutu.. haha. It still looked pretty cute! :) 
So like I said that was all on the weekend before Halloween. For the actually day of Halloween, we traveled, yet again back to Idaho. Nick had to go for a pharmacy fair and so thats why we went. We spent the first day and a half in Burley with Nick's parents, then Wednesday Thursday and Friday were in Pocatello, and we headed back to Burley on Saturday and left for Reno on Sunday afternoon. It is always fun to see our families and Sophie really enjoyed all the attention she got. :) We had a good trip. 

So guess what else... SOPHIE IS WALKING!!! WOOT WOOT!! Ok So I know she is kind of a late bloomer when it comes to things like rolling over and crawling and, now, walking, but she finally got it!! YEAH!! She took her first steps on October 30 and, ya she still is a little wobbly and she still prefers to crawl since she gets around much faster that way, for now, but she is getting better. And its about time because she is officially 15 months old TODAY! So lets hope she starts picking it up quickly. :) ( by the way we do have a video of it but i cant figure out how to post videos on here that actually play, so you will all just have to come see her in person and watch how awesome she is! haha)