Sophie turns 3!

Wow! Is August seriously almost over?! Where did it go? 

August is always a busy month for us but this month has really been crazy! 

However... I will write a post about our summer soon (hopefully!) 

Today is going to be about this little girl!

Yep that's right, she had a birthday and is now a big grown up 3 year old! 

I cannot believe that she is already 3. I know people say the time goes by fast but really though, it does!

Sophie really got a great birthday celebration this year. It was really more of a birthday week for her, and let me tell ya, she LOVED every minute of it.

She has been waiting for months, literally, for it and has been very excited, so we knew we wanted to make it special.

For Her actual birthday we were at the Barker Family reunion but that didn't stop us from having a little cake and ice cream for her (and presents too).  It also included an awesome fashion show, by all of the girls.

Then later that week my parents came bearing gifts for both of our kids (they weren't able to be here for either of their actual birthdays) 

Then later that same day we had a little party with Sophie's friends and a few cousins who were also able to come. It was so fun! We had a little water party and I think all the kids really enjoyed it.

 I wish I had pictures of it, but my camera was out of batteries for it, and I am still kicking myself for not getting some.

ANYWAYS.... I gave Sophie a little birthday Interview and it was pretty funny. So here it is, and by the way I am putting exactly what she said for the answer I just wish i had it on video because the way she says some of it is what makes it hilarious:

1. What is your favorite color? Pink

2. What is your favorite toy? The dolphin, you know mom, the one in the tub (i didn't even know she liked that toy)

3. What is your favorite show or movie? I love MULAN, Oh ya, and Old McStuffins (really called Doc McStuffins its a show on the Disney channel)

4. What is your favorite food? Chicken Nuggets

5. What is your favorite outfit? The black one ( its a black skirt and a zebra striped top, she DOES love it)

6. What is your favorite game? Angry Birds

7. What is something you love to do? Painting

8. What is your favorite animal? umm.. Teddy Bear

9. What is your favorite song? The Tangled Song (from the Movie Tangled)

10. Who is your best friend? Aunt Mandy

I couldn't find a picture of her with Mandy, but I know for a fact that these two are two of her most
favorite people in the entire world.

11. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Play soccer

12. What is your favorite drink? Water

13. What is your favorite Holiday? Easter (so random! I first had to explain to her what a holiday was and then name them all, and that is the one she said)

14. What do you take to bed with you? My blankie and a Teddy bear

15. What do you want to be when you grow up? A painter

16. What is your favorite thing about your little brother? he whines all the time! (haha, not only was this answer really funny but that's actually not even true)

17. What is your favorite thing about yourself? I'm a big sister (awww)

I thought this was a funny picture... She doesn't usually lay down to drink her milk but she wanted to be with Cru.

18. What do you pray for? Pray that Cru will go to sleep and I be a good sister.

19. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Wrestle!

20. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Play soccer and painting

21. What is your favorite book? Golden Grinder!

22. Where do you want to go on vacation? To see Grandma Sherri

23. What makes you happy? Cru

24. What makes you sad? Monsters

25. What is something you are good at? Playing basketball and playing with book (haha)

26. If you could fly, where would you fly? Joy school!

We love Sophie! She is so full of personality, and brings so much happiness to our family!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!

Look Who Turned 1 Years Old!

That's right! This little cutie turned 1 on August 2.

I cannot believe how fast this year had gone by, and although I love this stage, it still makes me a little sad that he is no longer considered a baby. For his birthday we had a little party for him with some of Nick's family ( my family couldn't make it) and had pizza, cake and ice cream and it was fun! 

Cru is such a fun little guy, and we just love him. 

 Here is a cute video of him eating his cake.
He was struggling a bit at first, oh and don't mind my annoying voice I tend to talk a lot when I record these videos.

In celebration of his birthday I thought I would do 20 fun facts about Cru,
here ya go: 

1. Cru is always happy, even when he isn't feeling great 

(he has had a little cold, and is getting teeth right now)

2. He still isn't walking, that doesn't mean he can't, though, he just isn't. 

3. He LOVES cars and balls

4. He is ALL boy! 

5. He loves Sophie and thinks she is hilarious

6. He is starting to talk and I love it, he can say

"mama, dada, uh-oh, and apple"  

these are the only ones we can understand at the moment

7. He likes to wave hi and bye

8. He smiles all the time, and his smile is the BEST!

9. He is very easy going

10. He only has 2 teeth right now, but that doesn't stop him from eating just about anything.

11. He is FINALLY sleeping in his crib, although he still has a hard time falling asleep.

12. He loves to GO... literally never stops moving!

13. He still loves stuffed animals and still likes to squeeze them.

14. He likes to head butt (thanks alot Grandpa Scott) ;) 

15. He loves to pretend wrestle with  Nick and Sophie, like I said, ALL boy!

16. He loves bath time

17. He is kind of small for his age, but you would never know it looking at him.

18. He is smart, seriously! He figures stuff out that took Sophie forever to figure out.

19. He is a cuddler ( I love it!)

20. He is the cutest little 1 year old boy I know! We love him and are so happy that he is part of our family!

Another Video 
He LOVES this new little car her got! He would push it around all day if I would let him.

Here are some more pictures of his party! 

This cake was supposed to be a wheel... can you tell?

l

You can't really tell from this picture, but he really did like the cake... I made him his own little one.

Sophie decided to "help" Cru with his cake by licking all the frosting off of his chair. How thoughtful of her huh! :) 

10 Months

This little guy turned 10 months old yesterday, and so I thought I would just write a little bit about him.

1. He loves to go-go-go! He seriously never stops moving. (changing his diaper is a nightmare!)

2. He loves balls. He will pretty much drop any other toy he is playing with if he happens to see a ball. He loves them!

3. He also loves stuffed animals (aww!) He does this really cute little thing any time you hand one to him, where he will like grab it and squeeze it really tight and bury his face into it. It is SO cute, and he does it literally everytime you hand him a soft stuffed animal. Never fails and I love it!

4. He can almost walk... not quite there yet but he is definitely getting closer.

5. He just got his first two teeth! Yay! 

6. He loves Sophie and she loves to make him laugh!

7. He is pretty much always happy! 

8. He is a momma's boy but he really loves Nick too.

9. He is smart... I can tell already! :) 

10. He is the cutest little guy around and we love him! 

p.s. I took these pictures a couple weeks ago to put in my laundry room, but they are just too cute not to share. ;)

~Memorial Day~

First I would like to start and say 

"Thank you to all those who are serving our country and have died to protect us all." 

I am so thankful to live in this country and have the freedom we do. I know that we truly are blessed to have that and I know it would not be possible without the men and women who serve. So thank you!

Now on a lighter note... we had a great memorial day this year.

We spent the day with Nick's family in Burley and had a great time boating, bbq-ing and just hanging out. 

Its always fun to be with family and we all had a great time!

First Day of School...!

Joy School that is!

Sophie started Joy school!
Yesterday was her first day and to say the least... she LOVED it!

 She has been pretty excited to start and I think it lived up to her expectations. 
A few other "moms" and I all got together to do it. We each switch off teaching and for the summer we are doing it one day per week,  every other week.  
I think once  fall comes we will bump up the amount we do it.
It should be pretty fun! 
All of the kids are adorable, and so far have a great time together. 

I can't believe that Sophie is actually old enough to be going to school... (joy school counts!)

Here she is... first day of school.

Practicing raising her hand! ha

And one of Cru because he is just so dang cute! :)

~The Artist~

I'm pretty excited about this new little addition to our wall.

Here is a little background on it: 

 So Sophie loves, and I mean LOVES to paint! She mainly paints with watercolors, mostly because that is easy to clean up. She also does finger paints too, but that's not quite as easy to clean up. 

ANYWAYS...

 She does them all by herself and I love seeing how each time she paints she kind of picks a color scheme for the day. I really wanted to keep all of the paintings and I thought that maybe I could find a way to display them too. So For the last few months I have been collecting all of her paintings. After I had quite a few... like 20. Then I headed to D.I. and picked up a nice BIG frame for about $10. Such a good deal! It's a really nice frame and it came with the mat as well. 

After getting the frame I gathered all the paintings and I cut them into squares/ rectangles and put them all together in a mural type thing. (as you can see in the picture) 

When I had it all mainly put together I showed the idea of what I was doing to Sophie. Her reaction to it was better than I could have imagined. Ha. 

She was SO excited and for about the next 20 min just kept saying "thanks mom, I love it!" over and over. Ill admit, that made me pretty happy that I did it. I then let her choose the color she wanted me to paint the frame. (I have a spray paint addiction and LOVE to spray paint things so I had about  7 colors for her to choose from)  She chose this fantastic blue color and I think it turned out pretty amazing!  

What do ya think?

Pretty great right?!

Sophie seriously does love it, and I love having an awesome art piece on our wall that actually has meaning and the fact that our 2 year old did it is even better! :)

~The Barker Kids~

I haven't done a post on my kids in awhile so I thought maybe it was a good time to write about just them. They are both getting so big I can't even believe it! I love being able to stay home with them and see all of the fun/ funny little things that they do. Seriously being a mom is the BEST! And I love these two little cuties!

Cru is 8 months old now and just the happiest laid back little guy there is. However he NEVER wants to just sit still. He constantly has to be moving around. I honestly can't even hardly stand to hold him for very long because he just wiggles constantly and wants to be put down. He recently has become quite the pro at crawling. He has been scooting/ semi-crawling for about a month and a half but just recently he picked up on the real thing. I think he is going to be walking here shortly though, because I can tell he really wants to and he tries to pull himself up to stand all the time. He also puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, and so I have to watch him constantly. I don't think I have ever vacuumed as much as I have in the last few months. He is so fun though, and we all just love him!

He also got his first "real" haircut this last week. 

Before:

After:

Sophie is getting so big. She is so funny and is always "helping" me out with Cru.

Although a lot of times her idea of helping out isn't quite my idea, but she tries. 

She really loves Cru!

She talks very well and is always telling me stories 

that she makes up. They are pretty funny usually! She loves to play with her friends and cousins and even prays for them at night. Its so cute! She is all girl! She loves anything and everything girly. Sophie is really into princesses right now and pretends that she is Cinderella, Nick is the Prince, and I'm Repunzel. 

Cru, however, is Donald Duck (she also loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). 

She loves to play outside in her play house and also loves to 

make casseroles with Nick and me in her play kitchen.  She also loves her doll who is named Baby Jane.

She does everything with baby Jane that we do with Cru. :)

Me and Sophie are best buds. She always wants to do whatever I do.

The other day her and I went on a little mommy daughter date to the movie "The Croods" and it was so fun!

She likes to put my shoes on and walk around the house... she's pretty good at it too considering the height of the heels.

I probably could go on forever about these two, I won't, but I could. So to sum it up,

 Lets just say

We pretty much think our kids are the greatest!