Scarlett's Blessing Day

Today was our sweet baby girl's blessing day, and what a special day it was!

She looked beautiful in the blessing dress that cousin Lyla let us borrow.

Here are some pictures we took

Tori helped me get Scarlett all dressed.  As she was helping me, I explained that this was one of three  very special white dresses that Scarlett would wear in her life, the 2nd one being her baptism dress, and the 3rd being her wedding dress. She thought that was pretty neat =)

Daddy gave her a beautiful blessing.  Standing in the circle with him were, Grandpa Barker, Papa Bronson, Great Grandpa Barker, and two of our friends, Kevin and Justin.  We missed our other family members who were not able to be there, but know they were thinking of us =)

She sneezed right after we took this picture =)

The tree out in front of our house has become the traditional picture taking tree

I can't believe it, but this is the first family picture we have taken since Scarlett was born!

After the blessing we went to Nana and Papa's for a little family barbecue

It was a wonderful day that we will always remember. 

Tori's Immigration Fair

Tori just finished a fun unit in school learning all about when her ancestors immigrated to America.  The culmination of this unit was an immigration fair.  Each student had studied a country that they had ancestors from.  Tori's country was England.  She wrote a big report, decorated a doll, and made a flag.  On the day of the fair, they had to bring in some food from their country to share.  Parents were invited, and it was a fun little event.  

They started out by singing us several really cute songs.  I was so impressed!

Then they had to go to "Ellis Island"  to be interviewed to come to America and get their passports stamped.  Weeks before the fair, her teacher had sent home a list of questions that they would be asked, and so Tori studied really hard, and memorized them all.  

Here she is having her interview and then getting her passport stamped.

Then they got to go around and try all of the different foods that people had brought.  Here she is standing by her scones that she brought.  She is holding her passport.

They were each given a big doll cut out of a poster board that they had to dress in traditional clothing from their country.  My mom has a book that my aunt made her that has a ton of pictures of my great grandma.  One of the pictures is a picture of her right before she got on the boat to travel to America.  We designed the dress for Tori's doll to be the same style as the one my great grandma wore in the picture. 

It was a great event for the kids, and I had a great time seeing a bit of what they have been learning about this past month.  

April

April came and went in a flash!  We are loving the spring weather and counting down the days until Summer. Here are some pictures from the month:

Alexis loves to bake.  She is always asking me if she can bake something.  The other day when she couldn't find an after school snack that sounded good, she begged to make cupcakes.  So I let her go to town. I didn't go into the kitchen to supervise, because I knew I would probably end up trying to take over to avoid a mess.  I did go in towards the end, and couldn't resist taking some pictures.

Alexis went on Pinterest and found a recipe for cream cheese frosting. She followed the recipe and made it all by herself.  It turned out really yummy!

Tori and Levi have been spending so much time outside playing!  They jump on the trampoline, ride bikes, pick flowers, swing on the swing, play with the hose, and whatever else they can think of.  I am so glad that they love playing outside so much.  I can hardly get them to come in at the end of the day.  They are currently making a hideout under our big lilac bush.

                                      
                                                       
                   

The other day Alexis called me downstairs.  I went down to see that she had put Scarlett in the baby doll stroller.  It was so funny!  She fit perfectly!

 Levi and Tori had to join in on the fun too

 Misty got very jealous and as soon as I took Scarlett out she jumped right in.

Our favorite part of the month was the visit from AJ, Cindy, Lyla and Phoebe!  It has been so hard not meeting Phoebe yet, and so we were so excited to finaly meet her, and for them to meet Scarlett!

 My kids adore Lyla.  They had so much fun playing together.  Lyla is so adorable.  She has the cutest voice, and the bubbliest personality.  I know she is not smiling in this picture, but it is probably one of the only times she wasn't laughing and smiling all weekend.

 We had to get lots of pictures of these two cuties!  They are about the same size, and destined to be great friends!

 This picture makes me laugh =)

 Lyla is so cute with Phobe and she wasted no time doting on Scarlett as well =)

 We set these two down next to each other, and they immediately linked arms.  It was so cute, and we went crazy taking as many pictures as we could!

 Enjoying some tummy time together....

The other girlies had to join in on the fun too!

We had such a fun few days and they went by way too fast!

Ever since I let Tori try her build a bear shirt on Scarlet, Levi has been begging to try his build a bear jacket on her.  I finally gave in =)

 It barely fit, so I think we are done with the build a bear clothes! 

May is now in full swing.  It's always one of the busiest months of the year with all of the end of the school year activities.  Some things we have to look forward to are, 3 field trips, 3 field days, kindergarten graduation, a trip to Utah for Jack's baby blessing, and Scarlett's blessing next week!

Two Months

Scarlett is two months old.

 These past two months have gone by so fast and have been so wonderful.

How did we live this long without this precious baby girl.

She brings us so much joy, and we love her so much!

In honor of turning two months old, we decided to try out the bumbo chair!

She didn't like it much.

We'll try again in a few weeks =)

 Today at her two month check up she weighed in at 10 lbs. 10 oz. 

She is a growin girl!

The past few weeks we have noticed that Scarlett strongly prefers her left side.  She is constantly turning her head to the left, and will not turn it to the right without some coaxing. Our pediatrician recommended that she has some physical therapy.  She said sometimes the neck muscles are too tight, and physical therapy will help to loosen them.  So we will be starting that in the next few weeks.

Here is Brandon helping her to turn her head the other way.  Her face makes me so sad! =(  I am so glad that we can start working with her now and get the problem fixed before it gets worse. 

At two months old Scarlett is eating about every 2-3 hours during the day.  I don't really keep track.  I just feed her when she acts hungry =)

She is wearing 0-3 month clothing, and some 3-6 month clothing.

She takes one really long nap a day.  Usually in the morning, and usually for around 2 hours.  She will take a few other cat naps throughout the day as well.

At night she will usually have a 5 hour stretch, and then a 3 hour stretch.  The past 2 nights she had a 7 hour stretch, which was wonderful!

She is still very wiggly and is constantly moving her arms and legs.

She loves her binky at times, and at other times wants nothing to do with it.

She loves being in the moby wrap,and will almost always fall asleep as soon as I put her in it.

She is smiling so much now.

  When we are talking to her and stick out our tongue she will always start sticking her tongue too.

She loves to be around people, and is perfectly content as long as there are people around.  When she realizes she is alone in a room, she starts fussing until we come back, or pick her up.

The kids have adjusted amazingly well to having Scarlett around.  They are so sweet with her, and there has never been any jealousy.  I am loving seeing them build a special relationship with her.  

We sure do love our baby girl =)

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend full of fun with family.  On Saturday we had our traditional Easter party at Brandon's parents house.  We had a great time laughing, eating good food, coloring eggs and having our annual Easter egg hunt.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Jana told me that her mom wanted some pictures of Scarlett with bunny ears on, so we had to oblige!  She wasn't too thrilled about it at first, but once Nana started talking to her she was full of smiles =)

Here are the kids lined up ready to start the hunt.  Alexis is hiding under the pink bucket =)

And they are off!

Nana hid a golden egg for each of the kids with a 5 dollar bill in it =)

I will be the first to admit that I don't love dying Easter eggs.  I know, I know, I am just no fun at all! BUT the kids love it so we had to do it.  We set them up outside and let them go to town.  It was the first year that we didn't have to help them at all.  They had a blast =)  I am sure it is my only year off for a while though because next year Scarlett will be wanting to join in on the"fun" I am sure! =)

Easter morning the kids woke up to a trail of eggs leading from their room to downstairs.  Daddy was just as excited to dig in on the goods =)

Scarlett was so excited about her Easter basket =)

Here's our cute Levi.  I managed to make him stop for a picture in between running around to find more candy.   He had his basket filled up before the girls had even found their baskets!

Alexis's favorite goody was some perfume from Justice she had been dying to have.

Scarlett was so excited to get a new fun toy to hang on her car seat!

Tori was in heaven when she saw the "dizzy dancer" she had been dreaming of =)

Our church isn't until 1:30 so we didn't have to rush to get ready.  Daddy made us all some delicious cinnamon waffles, which we gobbled up.

I had to hold the kids off getting all dressed up in their Easter clothes so they wouldn't get dirty before church, but I couldn't for long because they were so excited to wear their new outfits that they had picked out.  Not having new church clothes for a while makes new ones so exciting!!

I love this picture.  Tori wanted Scarlett to hold her purse, and it looks like Scarlett is so excited about it! haha =)

I got lots of comments about this cute dress that Harmony and Alisa gave Scarlett.

Tori helped me set up a little area for a photo shoot.

I guess mommy needs to be in a picture every now and then.

I can't believe we have 4 kids!  LOVE them =)

I wanted Levi to pick out a nice springy shirt, but he had his heart set on the black shirt, so I finally gave in =)

Alexis has been such a wonderful helper with Scarlett lately.  She will always hold her whenever I need her too, and I am finally not worried about her dropping her!

Levi wouldn't let us leave the bunny ears out!  They are too big, but still so cute =)

I love this picture!  Definitely  my favorite =)

We couldn't let daddy get away with  no pictures in his new  pink Easter shirt from his mom =)


Church was wonderful.  It was great to hear some wonderful talks in Sacrament meeting that helped us to focus on why we have this holiday.  We are so grateful for our Savior and his atonement for us.  We don't know where we would be without the gospel of Jesus Christ in our life.


After church we went over to grandma and grandpa's for Easter dinner. My mom had worked hard to make us a yummy feast and it was delicious.  I forgot my camera at home even though I put it right next to the door so I wouldn't forget it    =(  I wish I had pictures of the cute Easter table she set up for the kids with their fun goody bags and the HUGE Easter bunnies from Emmy.  I always love being at my parents house.  It's always so fun to visit and hang out.  I only wish the rest of my family could have been there.  I miss them so much, especially around the holidays =(

And the was our Easter re-cap!  Happy Easter everyone!