christmas 2011

The Barnum family had a wonderful Christmas this year. On Christmas Eve Eve, we took the kids to see Arthur Christmas which was really cute. The boys enjoyed it and Avery did not sit for the movie at all which was to be expected. On Christmas Eve we were home all morning while I made food and then in the evening we went to my brother Aaron's house for dinner. After we got home we read Luke 2 and talked about Savior's birth. The kids opened their Christmas pajamas, tracked Santa on the computer and excitedly got in their beds. I had told the kids we could not get up an earlier than 5am, expecting them to wake around 6 but, 4:55 in the morning we could hear them buzzing around their room. So we all went downstairs and opened our gifts and ate breakfast. We went to church and then left from their to travel up to Grandma Connie's for the rest of the day. We were exhausted by the end of the day and ready to relax.

Josh got to see Santa at his preschool party and bring home a little stocking of gifts. 

Christmas Eve in their pajamas and with stuffed bears our neighbor gave them. 

I always like to get a picture once everything is set up for the morning.  I love going to bed Christmas Eve knowing in a few hours our kids get to enjoy the magic of Christmas. 

Avery needed a few treats to keep her going early in the morning. We probably should have let her keep sleeping but I didn't want her to miss out. 

The boys played lots of games on Christmas, Josh with his new leappad and Ethan on his DS.  They also got to steal Mom's new ipad a few times to try. 

Santa Pics

I keep meaning to post this picture since we did it back in November, but haven't had a chance to blog for a while. I took the kids to see Santa just before Thanksgiving so we could beat the Christmas rush and get our requests in early with Santa. The boys are really in to Santa this year, it's so fun that they still believe he is real. Avery did ok, she started getting sad when she looked up and saw who was holding her. It was impossible to get my kids all to smile and look good for the picture, but here is the best we got.
So here are our Santa requests:
Ethan wants a dart board and ant farm, geez what an easy boy this year
Josh wants a "toucherscreener" which translates into a Leap Pad gaming system, Santa told him that electronics are harder to make so he would "try"
Avery, what she really wants is to be allowed to eat all the toilet paper she wants but she will be getting the toy that pops the little balls around with music.

Joshua Update

Joshua hasn't had much blog coverage for a while, so I thought I would post a little about him. He is doing well. He enjoys his preschool and just played the preacher in their Thanksgiving Play. In his free time he loves to play video games and is hoping Santa brings him a leap pad for Christmas. He is a good big brother to Avery and maybe less of a good little brother to Ethan. He has been causing Mom and Dad a little bit of grief lately. He got lost this past weekend at temple lights and we couldn't find him for about 10 minutes and then the other day he decided to stick pony beads high up in his nose, luckily we were able to get them out at home without going to the doctor. We love our sweet boy though and wish he wasn't growing up so fast.

Avery 9 Months

My names: Mommy's girl, Abes, Maggie Moo, Avery
My skills: I crawl, I pull up on things to stand, I use my fingers to pick up food, I say "dada"
My vices: I put absolutely everything in my mouth, mom often searches my cheeks to find fur balls, plastic bits, paper, magnetic balls; I absolutely throw a fit when you try and change my diaper mom and dad usually have to double team me; I absolutely love ice cream but turn into a crazy monster the second you stop feeding it to me

Our sweet girl is already getting so old. This is one of my favorite ages because they are learning so many new tricks each day. Avery is fun to have around. She hasn't gone for her check up yet but I think she weighs just over 20lbs, which is bigger than her brothers were at 1 year old. She's growing out of her 9month old clothes, and needs to move in to 12month :(

An Incredible Halloween!

We got to dress up twice in our Halloween costumes, which makes it more worth going through the effort of making them. Friday night we went to our ward halloween party and had lots of fun. Monday night for halloween we decided to drive out and go trick or treating with my brother Aaron. All in all we ended up with tired kids and tons of candy!

At the end of the night this is what a kid with face paint looks like. My sweet Joshua had fun being "Dash" running around. At one point during trick or treating he got tired and had to be carried but we revived him with some water and he started dashing around again : )

Avery 8 months

Our sweet Avery girl is already 8 months old! I love all of the new things she is learning but sometimes I just want her to stop so I can enjoy my baby for a little while longer. She weighs in at about 18lbs now. As you can see in the picture she gets up on her hands and knees but doesn't quite have forward action yet.

She sleeps a little better these days. She still gets up in the middle of the night twice, but she'll take 2-3 naps during the day now. I play a lullaby CD for her and she'll usually sleep for about 1 hour.

Her next challenge is eating food. She's still not big on solids and just really doesn't like to eat off a spoon. She still nurses great but now doesn't like to drink a bottle for Mom. She only has one bottom tooth, but this month I need to start making her eat some real food!

Josh's Farm Trip

It was Josh's fall field trip to the Tolmachoff farm this past week. We had been before when Ethan was at this preschool. I was hoping it would be cool outside and feel "fallish" but not yet it was a pretty warm day.

Here he is with his class, you can see how petite he is compared to other kids his age.

Picking some vegetables for us to take home.

Riding the train, I almost wanted to put Avery in with him to but decided it would probably not be a good idea : )

The big brother doing a good job keeping Avery upright.

Josh was excited that he found a somewhat bigger pumpkin in the little pumpkin patch.

The three of us having a good time.

Hiking in Sedona

A few weeks ago, Michael and I went on a hiking date. We went up and stayed the night at Grandma Connie's and she watched the kids in the morning while we drove the rest of the way to Sedona and went hiking. We went on hike to "Devil's Bridge." It was about 4 miles roundtrip and pretty steep in places. Once you get there it is a rock that naturally goes really skinny in the middle making a bridge up in the Sedona red rocks.

That's us out in the middle, we had another couple take our picture once we got out on the bridge.

Halloween Birthday Party

Yea! Our Halloween party we had been working on for weeks finally came. Here are some pics to share if you didn't get to be there.

The boys went around taking pictures for me that's why they are all from a weird angle.

These were my touch and feel boxes, it was hard to get the kids to stick there hands in the boxes they wanted to see what was in them first.

We had some freaky pictures hanging on the walls to set the mood.

In our bathroom we had some Halloween lighting and some mice infestation.

Josh eating with some friends. The bottles of orange crush and IBC root beer were a hit.

Our menu consisted of sliced arm pieces, "spine"-wiches, pureed maggots, moldy chips, booger dip with veggies and pumpkin guts with apples and pretzels to dip.

Ethan was able to have some good dancing at his party. These pictures are bright because of the flash but the room was actually dark with strobe lights and fog from dry ice. Ethan was a happy boy in his zombie costume.

Every kid loves to have a pinata full of candy at their party. Here is Ethan getting first swing at the bat.

And then the madness after the pinata breaks, we had about 15 kids at the party so luckily there was enough candy to go around.

The party was fun chaos but only lasted about 1.5 hours. After all the guests were gone we had a nice spread of food and trash everywhere : )

Ethan is a lucky boy and got a lot of nice birthday presents from friends. His presents included: legos, dagadars, nerf toys, gift cards and more from family too.

My video of his birthday cake doesn't want to load but Ethan chose to have oreo ice cream cake and it was pretty delicious.

All in all Ethan had a blast and that's what matters. One more birthday down and another year to go.

Ethan is 7!!!

My Ethan is already 7! Seven sounds so old to me, where has the time gone. I'd like to say Ethan is a totally sweet boy, but he does have a pretty grumpy streak that shows up most days. He is a good boy though and incredibly smart. He reads just about any words you put in front of him. He was one of three kids in his class to be excelling in both reading and math. His new love right now is building with legos. He is a project man and is never bored. He wakes and usually tells me a plan of what activities he's doing for the day. He loves playing video games, his favorite sport is basketball and he love, loves to dance. He's still a pretty small guy coming in about 5th percentile for weight and 15th for height. I'm excited for another year with my Ethan and all of the new things he is going to learn and discover.

Here is him opening up his birthday presents in the morning before school and then we had his party that evening.

Peppersauce Caves

Last month, Joshua and Michael went on a day trip with one of Michael's old mission companions and his boy. I was nervous about them going because it sounded kind of dangerous and unregulated but of course they came home fine. Josh wore a helmet to protect his head and brought a pound or two of mud back home with him.

There were lots of places for Josh to crawl around in.

And slide down too.

So cute with his flashlight and helmet.

Michael in the background with his headlight on.

And one cute little bum who couldn't make it to a bathroom.

Avery 7 Months

Our little Miss is 7months old already. She is growing up much too fast. She rolls like crazy now and can get to just about any destination by rolling and turning. She sleeps a little better and has even had a few nights where she has slept 7 hours straight. She still doesn't really like solid food, this week was the first time she has ever finished a jar of baby food and it was sweet potatoes. She so silly though because she won't open her mouth to eat, you have to put the spoon to her lips and then she will suck it off.

This is her with her Daddy at our ward activity at the lake. She loves to be held and still will snuggle and take naps next to Daddy.

My New Blog

Yes I know I shouldn't be starting a new blog when I don't even update this one very often, but I'm hoping this new cooking blog will inspire and help me go through all of my recipes that I have stacking up. Anyways check it out: www.myrecipeaddiction.blogspot.com

Swimming at the Resort

In August we went and had a staycation at the Pointe Hilton. Joshua didn't have a birthday party this year so we used this as his birthday celebration. We also have so much fun swimming and relaxing there.

Grandma Connie came and brought a few cousins to swim also on the Saturday. Joshua had a good time and only wishes that next time he will finally be tall enough for the slide.

Joshua opening some gifts Grandma brought.




Our sweet Avery looking cute in her swim suit.

Ethan chilling out on the lazy river.