Happy Birthday Drew!

Today, my firstborn turned SEVEN!!! We started the day's festivities by bringing him breakfast in bed. As he requested: eggs, toast, and milk. John took the birthday boy and LJ to see Wall-E, while they were gone I decorated for the party-inside and out!
Drew had about 8 friends plus some family here for his Scooby-Doo pajama party. We played "pin the collar on scooby" (home-made by John & Drew, cool, huh!) and the "scooby snack drop"...

...and busted open a mystery machine pinata. (I love the mystery machine!)

Drew had a "surfin' scooby" cake I ordered form Macey's (Our oven has been broken for over a year, and the reason I miss it most is for making birthday cakes for the kids. How sad is that!?)Drew received a lot of great presents, Carson even bought him a scooter with his very own money! Thank you everyone!!! We are so proud of our amazing, fun, bright, sweet, 7-year-old boy. YWhat a great kid!Y

Yellowstone!

We just got back from a long weekend in Yellowstone, we love it there and go every few years at the least. It was the first time Jack had been there, and he did great! It was the first BIG trip we have taken in my parents' new motor home, which was awesome. Old Faithful was faithful for us, it was so pretty in the afternoon sun.
Drew and Lily were two peas in a pod, exploring everything. Here they are scoping out Gibbon Falls.
We took a trail (Uncle Tom's) down into the canyon for a nice close-up view of Lower Falls. It is a shorter trail (a mile?), steep, with a lot of stairs. Of course the tricky part was getting back out! A good workout for the family!
on the way down the stairs...to the bottom of the canyon. I thought this was such a great trail/view. We will go there again.
View at the bottom--Drew, Carl, Lily, Kaylyn, Brandi. John came down too, he is taking the picture. My mom is doing better, but not able to walk a lot. Tia stayed behind with her in the motor home.
Here we are waiting for an eruption at the Grand Geyser, in the Upper geyser basin. (It is the tallest predictable geyser in the world!) We always go visit this one. It's our favorite. This time we only had to wait about 5 minutes.
Jack's comment when the eruption started...."wow!" (He is a kid of few words so it was pretty funny!)
We were very lucky with the eruptions, we saw like 5 of the really big ones in one day. It was like they were all waiting for us to come up to them. A very rewarding, well-timed day. We saw Fountain, Grand, Riverside, Daisy, and Old Faithful all in a row. The longest we waited was 10 mintues or so. That was good because the kids are not very entertained by staring at a hole in the ground/pool of water waiting for something to happen.

Drew's favorite part of the trip: "eating camping food." Lily's words on the subject: "I liked the marshmallows." My mom & dad's reply: "we could stay home and do that for free!"...but that's kids for ya, huh. They had such a blast, though.
Another highlight of the trip: visiting Bear world, outside of Rexburg. We saw lots of bears, plus cubs, and a moose, a white elk, and they have a cute petting zoo and mini-amusement park too.

The huckleberry drop: My kids would only ride if Kaylyn got on too. She was a good sport and rode with all the kiddos.

Jack's word of the day: (over and over) "duckies!" We tried to teach him just "duck", but he insisted on "duckies!"The motor home: my kids would live in it if they could. Family fun for everyone! Thanks, mom and dad!

More motor home fun...we all slept inside comfortably and we played a lot of games. We even got in trouble for being too rowdy at the campground. !?!?! ha,ha.
Another family vacation has come to an end...it was a VERY good one!

new family pictures

ah, the joy and pain of a family photo shoot. I actually was fairly pleased with how things turned out. What do you think??

DREW, age ALMOST 7

LILY JANE, age 4 1/2

JACK, 18 months

Just keepin' it real...

*Sigh* so, this is what happens at my house if I ignore the laundry for 10 days or so. I definitely am paying the price now! This will keep me busy for the weekend. Funny thing to put on the blog, but my friend Charie did something similar on hers and it made me laugh. It's not pretty, it's just the reality of things. Have a great weekend!

carnies, anyone?

Tonight we went over to "Strawberry Days", the annual Pleasant Grove City celebration. They have a carnival where each ticket is $1 and each ride is like 2-4 tickets. It is the biggest rip-off ever. So, of course we had to go and enjoy it! The kids all loved the rides--even Jack had a turn on the bug ride and the giant Slide. I went on one ride, (called the orbiter, I think? It was like the scrambler at Lagoon, but it lifts up in the air and goes really fast.) and....well let's just say I will not be trying that one again. Don't get me wrong, I am not just a pansy, I generally like rides, like roller coasters, Lagoon, Disneyland...but sheesh! I just wish I would have noticed the warning sign about how the "ride travels in an excess of 2G's" BEFORE I got on. Anyway here we are:

Happy Anniversary to US!!

9 years!

It was on this very day (a partly-cloudy Thursday) in 1999 when I became Brandi Barnard, the luckiest girl in the world! Seriously, John is such a great guy! He is funny, talented, sweet, romantic, he cooks, he cleans, he is a great dad, he's HOT, and he loves me! I love being married to John. Happy anniversary to us! Yay love!

the more the merrier!

Do you see anything EXTRA in these pictures?
We have another kid AND another dog for the week! Dave and Erin, (John's sister and hubby) are on a cruise, so we took in part of their family for 10 days. A 6-year-old boy, SAM...and a 6-month-old schnauzer, ROSEBUD. Take a guess at who is more trouble to look after!!!! Just kidding, we are doing just fine with the 4 kids and 2 dogs.

Look who else has joined the Barnard household!!!!!

This is my cousin, Kaylyn. She is such a doll. She is 20 now and has always been more like a sister or a niece to me. Anyway she is starting at UVU this Fall and is going to be living with us! She moved in this week and it has been great to have her around. Free babysitter!! Ha, just a joke, K! (mostly...) Oh notice the roses in the background...and here is a boquet I put together today from my garden.
And, there's another new addition at our house...air conditioning! Yep, that's right...BYE-BYE swamp cooler (and good riddance!)

I got a $2000 performance bonus from Stampin' Up! this month and this is what I bought with it...central air. I am so proud of myself! (I hope that doesn't sound bad...I am just so excited that I could contibute something big to our house, from my very own pocket!)

Isn't she a beauty?....