MMMMM!

Hannah now has 2 teeth! My mom and I discovered them this past weekend. She has her 2 bottom teeth in the front now. She is loving all her baby food now, she's a good eater like her brothers were. Here in the picture she is eating a teething biscuit. She's such a big girl!

"You better not try to go anywhere biscuit!"

My pastor husband is starting them early!!! Hannah can already beat us all at 5 card stud!...This is actually a rousing game of slapjack! Caleb did more slapping than playing but they have fun. They also like to play Indian feathers! Caleb likes to irritate his brother by saying "I won" over and over! I dont' really know if he fully understands what he's saying, but he knows he gets a reaction from Jonah and that's all that matters! Oh Brother!!

Just a thought...

I was just sitting here thinking, so I thought I'd share...

I am so thankful today.

As I'm writing, my 2 year old son is screaming in the background, because he doesn't want to take his nap. I have multiple piles of laundry (with a special smell that I can't quite figure out?). My house is not clean. My potty-training son has tee-teed in his underwear for about 5 days now, with only 2 victories. I have so many projects and things for church and school that are not finished. I can't even get in my closet because it is so packed full of junk.

I say all that to say that I am so thankful. God teaches me more everyday to be thankful and content with what He has given me at this very moment... I am a work in progress. I am not thankful because of circumstances. I am not thankful because everything goes my way. I am thankful because God has given me this day and these circumstances, and He does not make mistakes.

So, I'll keep cleaning up tee-tee. I'll keep sniffing to find out the special smell in my laundry. I'll keep trying to finish all my projects. And yes I'll keep trying to teach my son that it's time to go to sleep. I do these things, not because they are always fun or fulfilling, but because this is where God has placed me at this time and He has entrusted me with these things. I am so blessed to be able to share each day with my children and I am so grateful that I have been able to stay at home with my kids through these years. I would not replace these tiring, monotonous but joyous moments with anything else.

Here are some pictures that make me smile:

Easter Fun

Dirty-faced little boy playing in the tire swing....SERIOUS POTTY TRAINING BEGINS TODAY, PRAY FOR ME!!!

We had a wonderful Easter this year! Here's a picture of the kids at Jonah's Easter party at school! Silly kids! We did Resurrection Eggs, played a rousing game of "He's Alive" and had an Easter Egg Hunt too! What a day!

We went to my mom and Dad's for the day on Good Friday. We had an Easter Egg hunt with cousins, ate lots of yummy food, and rode on the new Go-cart. Could it get any better than that?
Caleb has the whole Easter Egg Hunt figured out! He liked to snack along the way too.
Hannah enjoyed watching the action and chewing on things that she got from her brothers.

Here's the famous Go-cart. All the boys had so much fun with it. Including the big boys (I mean adults). I rode on it for a little while - did go-carts always shake you to death? I really don't remember that as a kid, but I think perspective has changed.

This is Jonah's first baseball game. He is #10 on the Pirates this year. Here he is in outfield. He gets a little bored in the outfield, because the balls don't really come out there too much at this age. He finds ways to occupy himself by drawing pictures in the sand with his feet and dancing around. Jonah is like his Daddy, he likes a little quicker moving things. I think it will be good for him to learn patience though. He did a great job and even got the last ball of the game and threw it in to the pitcher. Way to go Jonah!

Here he is batting. They do 3 coach pitches and then do 2 off of the tee if they haven't hit it. Jonah actually got a triple and a double both times he went up to bat! I think that's pretty good for a four year old. He even got 2 runs! We were proud that he had fun! When he first went up to bat I yelled out "Go Jonah"! He turned around and said, "Thanks Mom - when's the real game start!"

Here he is running home from 3rd base. Once when he was on 2nd base waiting for a hitter, he got a little distracted and starting chasing a little piece of paper that was blowing around...Then he got back on track. It's a little hard to stay focused at this age!
Here's Hannah in her cute little Easter dress given to me by my friend Brooke when she was first born. It was so beautiful on her! She looks a little awkward in this picture, but that's what you get when she can't sit up by herself yet! What a big girl - she's now 6 months old today! She just started eating baby food (sweet potatoes) and she goes a mile a minute when you hold her. It won't be long before she's getting into everything!

HAPPY EASTER!

April Days

No - I did not have a red-headed little girl that no one knows about. Caleb loves to try on Hannah's bows, as you can see. Here you see him hugging two of his millions of stuffed animals that he has to have piled on top of him every night for bed!


Here's Hannah in her saucer. She finally enjoys sitting in it. She mostly just likes to gnaw on the heads of all the poor little animal toys surrounding her!

Such a happy girl!

Oh no - a giant bee in the cookie!!

April Fool's!! Jonah just had to play an April Fool's joke on May-May (Mary). He made a big cookie and then stuck this toy bee on it. When Mary opened it she screamed and Jonah felt like a success! Sorry May-May, you're just too fun to play jokes on!

This is Hannah's new love - Johnny Jump-up. She can bounce in this for 2 hours without a peep! She looks so cute - it's weird to see her jumping up and down - it just doesn't look right!

The first time Hannah jumped, Caleb went straight to her room to grab a doll. You can see that Caleb is making the doll bounce with Hannah. So funny how little ones think!
Here are some pictures of our church tearing down the two houses behind our church. We just finished paying off the two houses that we bought a couple of years ago. The houses were just in terrible shape, so here we are tearing them down.

It's so funny how men, become little boys with their toys!
You might be a redneck if...you set chairs up in the bathroom so you can watch demolition out the window! We had a perfect view of all the excitement, without having to go out in the cold that morning. Later, as it warmed up we got to enjoy spending time with all the ladies and wives who were watching from their lawnchairs. We also got to go eat a big lunch that everyone brought. It felt like one of those old-fashioned barn raisings. That is something I love about a smaller church - good times!
We almost finished both houses, but it got dark so this is what is left of the demo. The land is so beautiful without the two eye-sores! Now we're in the process of figuring out exactly what will be built on this land. We know we need space for our Manna House (food ministry) and we need a bigger fellowship hall, and more classroom space. The Building Fund begins. It's so exciting, God is really blessing our little church in so many ways!

Here's a funny story that was approved by my husband for me to blog:

We were in the car and we were talking about what made each of us special. Jonah said, "Mom you have freckles and that makes you special, Caleb has red hair and that makes him special, I (Jonah) have the blonde spot in my hair and that makes me special." (Pause) So I said what about Daddy?

Jonah's reply with absolutely no hesitation: "Daddy toots alot, that's what makes him special!"

*Sorry Adam, you have to take one for the team- and for the sake of documentation!!!

March Madness

I have not posted in a month, so here are some highlights of our last month.

Okay, this is the grossest candy I've ever seen. Thanks Uncle Collin and Amy! This is a little boy's dream candy!

Me and my girl just finishing her bath!!!! Hannah has got to be the sweetest little girl ever! She is such a laid-back, cuddly baby - such a joy!! We are so blessed with our little munchkin!

Here she is trying to get up on her knees. I am so scared of 3 mobile kids! Don't you love the freeze frame drool on her chin! Still no teeth, but we do have a drool factory!

Here are some cupcakes I made for a baby shower the other day. I have now figured out that I am not cut out to be a cake decorator, but I had fun doing it... they have character!


Spring Break Weekend...We went and stayed in a hotel in Dallas and had a little "staycation". My sister and her family joined us at the hotel too, and the boys all had fun swimming their hearts out. Jonah now officially goes under water now. That's a big accomplishment for us!

Whoaaa!!!

Another highlight of Spring Break Weekend was Mickey and Minnie's Magical Adventure on Ice. As I have posted before, Caleb absolutely adores Mickey Mouse so we were so excited to see his reaction. When Mickey came out on the ice, Caleb just kept waving and saying "Hi Mickey" as if he could hear him. It was very sweet!

We're all into the show!

Here's the alligator during the Peter Pan segment of the show. The show was actually very entertaining and worth the $11 tickets. Jonah thought the show was "Awesome!"

Of course we had to get souvenirs. These flounder hats with cotton candy were the only souvenir affordable! It is so ridiculous how much they sell that stuff for!

A little spring project...We painted flower pots and planted flowers in them to set on our front porch. This is not washable paint by the way! Yes, I am not real smart!

...The finished product! What masterpieces!

Here are the boys working on their scrapwood, raised bed garden! It is still yet to be finished! I'll post pictures of the actual garden when (if) we ever get to that point!

My little princess...About an hour after this picture she had one of those explosive diapers and leaked it all over Nonna who had come to visit with Pop and the family. This explosion happened right during the middle of Adam's sermon! EEWWW YUCK!!

My sweet family!

You Know You're a Mom When...

You Know You're a Mom when...

1. You only have time to grab something to drink for breakfast and the only thing you can find is a blue Kool-Aid Kool Burst drink - and you have to rub the blue off your lips before heading into the doctor's office.
2. You find a caramel dipping sauce package from McDonalds in your purse, and you're not surprised and actually a little excited.
3. You notice yourself singing along with the little kids on the cd in the car
4. Your husband has to help you zip your pants all the way in the morning, but you're really excited because you are finally getting back into pre-pregnancy clothes.
5. You ate fruit cocktail for lunch!
6. You spend WAY more time getting everyone else ready in the morning than yourself, and you're really excited when your hair can fit back into a ponytail because it makes getting ready all the faster.
7. You actually enjoy a kiss from the chili-cheese covered mouth of a certain red-headed little boy.
8. The closest you get to Alone time is actually driving your kids to their well-visit and turning on a movie in the back for them and just enjoying the peace up front.
9. You get giddy when your kids finally go down for a nap!
10. Your sidewalks at your house are covered in chalk drawings, and you actually secretly want to show everyone the picture that you drew.

All of these things actually happened to me today...I just thought I'd share and see if any of you moms out there can identify!

Okay...no kidding, as I was writing this my two year old little darling puts a Tic-Tac up his nose and it took me 20 minutes to get it out! I guess add that to the list!!

Valentine's Celebrations and Milestones

I have gotten behind in the whole blogging thing. Honestly, 3 kids are wearing me out, and I just haven't had time to sit down and write. Maybe it will all slow down soon when Hannah starts crawling and walking (do you hear the sarcasm??). Having 3 kids under the age of 4 definitely keeps you on your toes... And I wouldn't want it any other way! (Well, maybe add a few more naps here and there, and time for a manicure!!) ... By the way, this picture is at our church Valentine Banquet.

Here's our Valentine morning celebration! They went on a little scavenger hunt looking for heart clues outside and ended up here at the table for pink, heart-shaped pancakes and strawberry milk. I think their favorite part were the balloons. Hannah didn't get a balloon, because as I was putting them in the car one floated away. I don't think she noticed - next year I know she will.

Jonah and Caleb got a Hungry, Hungry Hippo game for Valentine's Day. I always wanted that game when I was little, and it was a big hit here at the Barker house. They have played it over and over. It's nice because it's a game that Caleb can play with Jonah. This is the toy that Hannah got for Valentine's Day. I don't think she's too sure about it, what do you think?

Here is a picture of Jonah's Valentine Party at school. Holidays involving lots of candy are always a little nerve-wrecking for our family because of Jonah's peanut allergy. (If you didn't know Jonah has an anaphylactic reaction to even a trace amount of peanut) Our school, Forerunner Christian Academy, has done a great job setting up guidelines to keep Jonah safe, but we have to be really careful. Jonah is so good about understanding when he can't eat certain things. I think he does better about it than I would!

This was the day after Hannah turned 4 months old, and her first bite of cereal. She didn't know what to think, but now she is a pro at eating cereal. She stares us down any time we put food in our mouths. Pretty soon she'll be helping us clean our plates!

By the way, I want to bow down in shame and admit defeat. My sister and I were having a contest to see who could lose 25 pounds first. My sister has pretty much wiped the floor with me!! She's done and I still have 15 pounds to go! ...Great job Michelle - I'm so proud of you!