Just for the Record...

.....I planned on spending the next hour updating my blog, but when I went to get my camera to upload pictures it was no where to be found. Brandon has been sneaking it with him to work to use to take pictures of roofs he is bidding. I assume that is the case now, and since he is on a scout camp out right now, I can't ask him. Life has been very busy around here with me starting the child care. It's definitely been a learning experience. I just wanted to let certain people, who have been asking for a new post, know that I tried! =)

Birthday Pictures!!

What a fun time we had yesterday as we celebrated Alexis's 7th Birthday. She was so excited to turn 7 years old, and had been counting down the days until her Birthday. Early in the day Grandma Barker, Aunt Katie and Uncle Michael came over to give her a Birthday present. She waited by the window for about 45 minutes when she found out they were coming.

A while back Alexis was over at Grandma's house, and her and Katie found a pink Furby online. Alexis had to have it! Katie was so sweet and ordered it for her Birthday. Alexis was so excited when she saw it. It kept us all entertained, as she learned how to talk to it. She is excited to bring it over to Grandma and Grandpa's house the next time we go, because Michael has a Furby and now they can talk to each other =)
They stayed for a while to visit, and Grandma pushed Alexis on the a swing. I love this picture of them.
Here is Alexis at her birthday table. As soon as Brandon got home from work she got to open her presents from us.

Here she is trying out her new scooter. She has been wanting one of these for a while. She has had only had a few minor crashes so far.
That night we had Alexis's Birthday party. She invited three of her friends to go and get mini manicures and pedicures. We went to Englewood Beauty College, because they do Birthday Parties for little girls. They had so much fun! Here they are all soaking their feet. (Tori was very excited that she got to come too.)
Here are some cute pictures I took. It was so funny to sit and listen to their little conversations as they were getting their nails done.

Alexis has always had a hard time sitting still while she waits for her nails to dry. This time was no different. She had to get her big toe re-painted 3 times, because she kept touching it to see if it was dry when we weren't looking. I snapped this picture while she was waiting for her fingernails to dry. My sister Katie was the one who told me about this place, because she got her hair done their for prom. Thanks Katie for the great idea!
Afterwards we headed to Red Robin for some dinner. By this time the girls were totally giggly. We were glad there weren't too many people sitting near us! Here they all are sitting at the table getting ready to order.

Here she is opening her presents from her friends. She was so excited.

Here she is giving her friend Kityra a big hug after opening up the present from her. (a new Hannah Montanna shirt!)
It was freezing cold in the restaurant so the girls got in a big huddle to stay warm.
It was such a fun, (tiring) night. As I was driving home one of her friends said, "This is the best Birthday party I have ever been too! Today, Alexis still can't stop talking about how much fun she had. She keeps randomly coming up to me and giving me big hugs, and saying thank you. Things like that make it all worth the craziness of it all.

**Nana was having surgery yesterday so her and Papa couldn't come down. They came down last week though, and totally surprised Alexis with a Nintendo DS. She has had so much fun playing it. She is also excited that her and Michael can play their DS's at the same time now.

She's 7 ALREADY???

Today Alexis turned 7 years old. I can not believe how fast time has flown by. I really hope the next seven years don't go by as fast. We had a really fun day, and I took tons of pictures, but here it is 11:00 pm, and I am totally exhausted. In order to make the best post I can I have to wait until my brain is fully functioning. I couldn't let the day pass though, without wishing our sweet girl a Happy Birthday. We love her so much, and are so blessed to have her in our family. Tune in soon to see tons of fun pictures from her fun day.

P.S. I just noticed that it says on this post that I posted this at 9:45, but it really is 11

Something New

I have added something to the side of my blog, called "Fun activities to do with your kiddos". I recently started doing some child care out of my home, and have been using the Mother Goose time preschool curriculum. It is wonderful and I highly recommend it.http://www.mothergoosetime.com/. They have a lot of fun activities to do with the kids, so I thought I would pass some of them along. I will try to update weekly.

A Fun Day

This past Tuesday, Kristalyn and I took our kids to Belleview Park. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast. They have a little petting zoo that you can go to, and the kids just loved it. Here are some cute pictures of them at the petting zoo. Tori and Levi were watching as three of the goats were eating. All three goats kept sneezing, and it made the funniest sound. Each time it would happen, Tori and Levi would erupt into a fit of giggles. I was happy to catch one of those occasions on camera:
They have a fake cow there that the kids can actually milk. They fill the cow with water, and the kids think it is so cool to be milking a cow. Tori liked it the most.
Here is Alexis trying to feed one of the goats. All of the animals were so well mannered. Some of the other things that are there are, baby pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks.
Here is our attempt at a group picture

There was also a really fun train ride. The kids loved it. Both the train ride and the petting zoo were only one dollar each. What a deal! After both those two things we met up with some friends from church and ate a picnic lunch. Then was the part of the day that the kids were so excited for. They have this little stream there that is really shallow. All of the kids always play in it, and have so much fun. We came for the first time a couple weeks ago, and noticed that a lot of the other kids had swimming suits and buckets and shovels, so we brought all of that stuff this time. The kids had so much fun. It was so hard to get them to leave. We had to cut the day short because it started to thunder and lightning. Just as we had packed all of the kids up in the strollers it started to pour down rain and hail. We ran to the car as fast as we could, but we all still got completely drenched. It was still fun, and I know we will be planning many more trips there this summer.

Tori

Tori has been saying the funniest things lately. I decided I better start writing some of them down so I don't forget. The other day when we arrived back home from running errands, Tori hopped out of the car and I proceeded to get Levi out. She started walking up to the door, but stopped and came over to me. This is how our conversation went:

Tori- "I was walking to the door and I accidentally stepped on 2 roley pollies, poor little things."
Mom- "Tori, are you sure you didn't step on them on purpose?"
Tori- (giggling) "woops, sorry"

You have to know Tori to imagine her cute little voice saying this. It was hilarious!

Birthday Pictures

Here are some pictures from Brandon's Birthday yesterday. Here he is in front of his birthday table when he got home from work. He was supposed to work late, but ended up getting off a little early so that was nice. If you are wondering why there are candles but no cake, the reason is because the cake I made had to stay in the fridge, and I forgot to take it out for the picture! He was so excited to open his presents. I told him that maybe we should wait for Levi to wake up from his nap, but he couldn't wait =) He is such a kid at heart. I should have had that on my list from yesterday.

Here he is with his hot dog roaster for camping. Don't you love his facial expression? Haha
Here he is after he opened his new food dehydrator. He told me that he wanted one but didn't think I remembered. (I never forget things like that!) He was excited to see that I had gotten him one. Last night he made dehydrated apples, grapefruit, strawberries and bananas. They are yummy!
As promised here is a picture of Brandon and I . I look kind of ragged, after a long day at the park, and after being poured on and hailed on, but oh well. At least it's a picture of just us!
We went to Casa Bonita for dinner. I usually don't mind the food, but this time I have to admit it was pretty bad. It was fun though. We got a seat right in front of the water fall, and they kids loved it. I wish I got a picture of them watching during the little performance that they do. At one point the guy has to push the lady off the cliff into the water. Tori was absolutely mortified. We had to explain to her that it was just for fun, and that was what they were supposed to do. Look at Brandon's poor face in this picture. He is about the same color of his shirt. That's what working all day in upper 80 degree weather will do to you! We had a really fun night, and Brandon enjoyed his birthday. June is a busy month for Birthdays. There is Kristalyn, Brandon, my mom, Mason and Alexis's, all within about a week of each other.

Happy Birthday!!!

Today Brandon turns 28! I am copying my sister's post's on their husband's birthdays by posting 28 reasons why I love Brandon:

1. He loves me unconditionally
2. He has such a fun outgoing personality
3. He is an extremely hard worker
4. He has a very sweet testimony
5. He knows what I am thinking before I say something
6. He is a wonderful father
7. He loves the outdoors
8. He is a great handyman, and can fix anything
9. He was my first love and first kiss
10. He loves my family
11. He knows when I have reached my limit, and is always willing to take over when I need a break.
12. He's great at decorating!
13. He always talks so highly of me and gives me much more credit then I deserve
14. He can make friends anywhere he goes
15. He gets along great with all of my friends
16. He doesn't make me mow the lawn
17. He is a very in depth thinker
18. He doesn't complain when we have top ramen for dinner
19. He has a very tender heart, and cares a lot about others
20. He likes chick flicks
21. He loves his family, and is so close with his mom
22. He is my best friend
23. I can be silly and goofy around him
24. He is our children's hero, and has a very close relationship with each of them
25. He puts so much thought into the cards he picks out for me, and always gets the best ones
26. He has the best smile
27. He is great at picking out cute outfits for me when we go shopping
28. I get to spend forever with him

The list could go on and on. I feel so blessed to be married to Brandon. I love him so much. Happy Birthday sweetie!
P.S. The most recent picture of Brandon and I that I have is the one I posted on his last birthday! Isn't that terrible! I will work on getting more pictures of just us together. =)

Today is also my sister Kristalyn's 28th birthday. I always thought it was so neat that Brandon and her shared the same birthday. They have an ongoing battle of who is older. =) Kristalyn is such a great sister and I love her very much. She is such a sweet loving mom, and such a wonderful aunt. She is always more then willing to lend a helping hand, and is so fun to hang out with. Happy Birthday Kristalyn!! (I know that I posted this picture of her a few posts ago, but I think it is such a cute picture =),