Trip to Utah

It's always fun to go back home for a visit. This trip was particularly exciting since it was to go to my little sister's wedding. Anne is the baby of the family and now all seven of us kids have been married in the Salt Lake Temple, plus our parents. Pretty amazing. Not to mention the fact that we're all still married (knock on wood). ;)

Here are a few highlights from our cold Utah trip.

First of all, the big Wedding.
Here is the happy couple, Annie and Parker. :)



I should've kept my hair blond so that I'd look like my sisters. :) It will be nice to see the professional pictures, but still, aren't we cute?



Cali loved her pink flowergirl dress!

At our family's last wedding (which was ours seven years ago) there were only 4 grandkids... things have really changed! And Annie has been Super-Aunt to all of the kids, so this wedding was a big deal to them.



Grandpa's "Christmas Eve" FHE.

Playing games with Grandma.



The world's smallest snowman.
As soon as the kids saw it snowing they immediately wanted to build a snowman.



While I was sleeping in one morning (no doubt recovering from one of many late nights partying), Dan took the kids to visit my Grandma Barlow.

As usual, the kids had a lot of fun with their cousins... this is Doman with Makenna, Demi, and Kassidy.

Grandpa's Briggs' fun new toys for the kids.

Lincoln is three!

Maybe it's because Lincoln's the third child, or maybe it's because he is still short and chubby, but I just cannot accept the fact he won't be a little two-year-old anymore! These three years have gone by way too fast! Since we didn't have a blog a couple years ago, here is a little Lincoln re-cap from his first year. :)

Lincoln was 6 days late and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Poor little guy had to have a blood transfusion right after he was born.

He was a little sweetheart. He was always a great eater, but cried a lot for a few months... most babes do though, right?

Lincoln only sucked his thumb for a little while, I think because it took so much effort... he was so chubby that in order to keep his thumb in his mouth, he had to hold it in with his other hand. He gave up after a few days and the crying came back...

He's always loved the bath! I remember finding him in there like this with all his clothes on... he was having a great time!

Always a cheese-ball.

What's funny is that it doesn't seem like Lincoln has changed much this year. He is still chubby. He still sleeps like an angel in his crib. He still talks with lots of intonation. He still is very polite saying "please" and "thank-you" for everything. He still takes a 3 hour nap. He still bites the boys if they make him mad (uhg!). He still loves his "ba-ba" and blankies. He still has an enormous amount of energy. And he still CRACKS US UP! He is the comic relief in the family and we would not survive without him making us laugh all the time.

For his birthday we woke him up for presents (okay, really we all waited for him to wake up since he's the only one who sleeps in around here.)

Then he was so thrilled to have a little party at the park with his friends. The day before his birthday he kept telling me he was so excited for his elephant birthday. That was news to me, but Dan went and bought him an elephant balloon and thanks to the internet, I made him an elephant cake. I guess he is easy to please, because he totally loved his party!

So here's to 3 awesome years! We love you little chugger!

The Ultimate Girls' Night

The opening night of TWILIGHT had come! A huge group of us all went together to see it and it was so much fun! I loved it! I didn't care that it was a bit on the cheesy side (after all, so was the book.) The best part was all of us silly girls going together... we even had an after-party talking until 3 am!

I just couldn't resist dying my hair, putting on lots of makeup and being 13 for one night and going as Alice. :) This is me with Britney... we really do look scary!

This is only half of our group that was waiting in line to get seats.

Most of all, it was great to feel like a teenager again!
These girls are so much fun!

A long time comin'!

When my friend Jeni and I decided to go to girls camp again this past summer, we got to thinking... our sweet husbands are taking a whole week off and we're seriously going camping???

The wheels started turning in Jeni's head... she was super close to talking me into a Mexican Cruise but telling our hubbies we were at camp (hilarious!). Dan would have been so proud, but I of course wimped out (in my defense, I really get motion-sick and Jeni would have regretted it for sure!)

Finally, we settled for a weekend at the nearby Claremont Resort.  Along with Kelly and Britney, it was perfect! We ate, we relaxed in hot tubs, we talked, we slept... what could be a better weekend away? Then Jeni and I topped it off with a pedicure and I came home a new woman. :) Thanks girls! I would seriously not be surviving these years without amazing girl friends! Not to mention a smart hubby who knows that giving me a break makes me all the more tolerable to live with! :)

HALLOWEEN!

Finally, some Halloween pics.  The boys all wanted to be Star Wars characters for Halloween so the whole family joined in again. I would've been a party pooper all together, but my sweet friend Mindy had costumes for us to borrow, so I had no excuse!

It all got kicked off at the famous ward party. Always a big, crazy party, but also always a blast! In case you can't tell what we're attempting, here it is: Dan- Han Solo, Karen- Princess Leia, Doman- Obi Wan Kenobi, Lincoln-Yoda, and Cali- an Ewok :) Max's Jango Fett got removed quickly because it "didn't feel good" which was so sad because he was super excited about it. :(

And thanks to my picture-taking-friend Brit, I have a picture of us all together. :)

Then on Halloween, the boys both had parades at school. Max wore Obi-Wan Kenobi since it felt better, and Doman was happy to switch to Jango Fett.

It just so happened that Doman's little friend, Luis was dressed up as Boba Fett. So here they are... Jango and Boba Fett. :)

And finally, trick-or-treating. At this point even Obi Wan Kenobi didn't feel good to Max, poor kid. He settled on carrying around an R2-D2 mask to go trick-or-treating. But all the kids of course had a grand time!

October-- a big month!

It looks like a once-a-month update might be all I can manage right now. But October was a big, fun month, so I don't want to skip it!

The month started with Doman's first experience with anesthesia... probably the first of many, but it went really well. We have to go down to the children's hospital at Stanford to see a specialist, but hopefully it will be worth it! This was to do an EMG... something about finding out if his nerves or muscles are what need to be biopsied. The results showed that his nerves are fine and his muscles definitely have a problem. So he will be having a muscle biopsy soon.

A trooper as usual!

This is exactly why Dan went with him instead of his Mama... I'd be so freaked out waiting for him to wake up!

Then a few weeks ago I took a trip back home to go wedding dress shopping with my little sister, Annie. She is getting married in December to such a sweet guy and I was so happy to get to meet him and be a part of some wedding planning. This was so much fun! We had a great time, plus it was quite relaxing to be on a little trip with just Cali. I wished we could have stayed!

This is what we'd look like if Anner got this dress with the crazy train. I didn't put a picture up of the cute dress she ended up with in case Parker still hasn't seen it. ;) But it was the very last dress she tried on at the end of the day and lets just say they're MFEO. :)

Cali saying goodbye to her grandma...

In preparation for my fun trip home, my friend Melissa and I did something we've been wanting to do for quite a while... feel free to laugh out loud.

While I was in Utah, Dan braved taking the three boys to the ward campout... I wasn't actually sorry I missed this! I'm so glad they had fun!

Smores... yummy!

Max with his best buddy Matthew. I feel like I should actually do an entire tribute to Matthew since he moved just this past week and we're going to miss him terribly!

Lincoln in his very own tent with his own crib... no wonder he slept the best!

And last week Doman had a field trip to an awesome pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay. I got to go a couple years ago with Max, so this year Dan went. Max and Lincoln didn't want to miss the fun, so they tagged along. The place had a train, jumpers, a pumpkin patch, corn maze, pony rides, a petting zoo... the kids obviously loved it!

On the way home Dan wanted to drive up Highway 1 for the nice view of the coast. They stopped at the beach and even though it was cold, Max and Lincoln couldn't resist playing in the water. :) They both got soaked and Lincoln actually fell right in, clothes and all!

And here's miss Cali picking out her pumpkin for Halloween. :) The Village sells them every year for a dollar each, which is a steal around here.

Whew! I guess that's all I can manage for one day. Coming soon(hopefully)... Halloween!!!