The Barnlings – Page 19 – JimmyandHeather.com

The Pine Wood Derby

January 22, 2013/0 Comments/in Scouts, The Barnlings/by Heather

Wow – what a project…. an all-day family project. But – Abe did a great job. He was very specific about how he wanted it to look. Jimmy helped him cut it. Abe sanded, painted, mod-podged, and glued. It weighed exactly 5 oz… though once we got to the weigh-in their scale registered lower. Abe won 2nd in his wolf den. He was thrilled.
All the kids got York Peppermint Patty medals. Tru was thrilled! Hannah won 3rd in the family tournament. Max was really funny about his Captain America Car. He knew what wording he wanted on his car. Plus, his photos were priceless. Each child received an official award title for their car:

JW 6th Ward PineWood Derby Awards:
tru: best sticker job
max: most patriotic
hannah: the car you can hang your coat on
abe: best driver

what’s up?

January 22, 2013/0 Comments/in The Barnlings/by Heather

It’s been quite a winter. Cold… really cold.
Cold enough that Jimmy talks about moving somewhere warmer. We dream of green. And wish GRAY away.
We spend time at home. Home is good – but hard with littles who need to get energy out.
We do laundry. We wear sweats. Liza goes through the mail.
We eat chocolate orange sticks (thanks Jimmy for buying them on Christmas Clearance).

Every day we are amazed by Liza’s hair. It’s in her eyes… or it’s perfectly curled in ringlets… it’s wild… or mashed. We love her hair so we take lots of pictures to remember her glorious toddler hair.
Max combed his hair for church… he loves to do that.
Liza brought mom lots of socks so we put them on her hands. She’s a dollie.
Tru & Liza weren’t feeling well so we stayed home from church with them.
Tru and Liza love the Flannel board from Grandma Price.
Abe loves helping Liza.
Abe did a great job on his snake report.
Liza takes care of baby Bessie. Liza is growing up!

the funny – the hard – the life

January 20, 2013/1 Comment/in Heather, The Barnlings/by Heather

hey – what’s up blog? I never see you anymore. weird. too many things to catch up on… cubscouts… kiddos… laundry… my calling as building scheduler (p.s. please be nice to your building scheduler, she’s just doin’ her job)… healing from mole removal and allergic skin stuff… trying not to hide in my bed from my children… ya know – the norm around here.

quickie catch up…

1st sacrament meeting in our new ward. Great day it was hard! 1:30 start time isn’t the best for Tru & Liza. But my friend Wendy reminded me that 1:00 start time with sacrament meeting last would be worse. Oh yes.. that would be worse. Anyhoo… had to take Tru and Liza out a few times. I’m holding Tru’s hand as we leave… he drops to the floor all dramatic like. I nicely encourage him to get up. He yells (yes, yells)… “You supposed to NOT do that!” Great day! Took him out and traded him for Liza who only just wanted to take the lid on and off my little citrus roll-on. Sigh… Not our best sacrament meeting of all time. Oh – But this was the best. Max was so good. He just drew the entire time. These were my favorites. I love the ‘Hearts’.

Max always says stuff like, “Mom, I just like you.” Today he has a little cold and he said, “I can’t go to church. I might ‘bless you’ on other people and they’ll get my cold.” He’s a keeper.

Let’s see… I had a birthday. More on that later. It was good. My parents were fabulous and listened to me bawl about how hard it is to raise Truman for like an hour. Then my mom cleaned my house and watched all the tots and my dad took me shopping and out to lunch. They are dear ones. Max is telling me that now that I’m 37, I’m very old. Thank you son. It makes me laugh, actually. Anyhoo… more birthday stuff when I get the photos off my phone.

ok – i really do have include one photo from today. miss hannah and eliza. we did hannah’s hair in quickie rag curlers and so we took a picture of our curly girls. Liza was being so funny trying to smile for the photo.

Well… times up. My new goal today… go to bed at 10 and wake at 6 and walk on the treadmill. It might kill me. But I’ve decided I need to do hard things. sigh…

New year … new ward

January 13, 2013/1 Comment/in Heather, The Barnlings/by Heather

With the new year came another new ward today.

Let’s review:
May 2008 – moved into our home and into the 3rd ward
Jan 2009 – switched to the 4th ward
Sept 2011 – put in the new 6th ward
Jan 2013 – put in the new 8th ward

I suppose this is what ya get when you move into a neighborhood that has tons of empty lots. Those lots fill up and in Utah, I guess that means the wards grow quickly. I believe we’re here to simmer for a while because most of the lots have homes now.

The best part about switching wards so often is that we know so many people in the stake. What a blessing to come in contact with so many neat people. Our kids are really sad to be leaving some friends in the 6th ward, but they know several kids in the 8th ward (who actually used to be in the 4th ward). So – change is hard – but it will be just fine.

Our bishop will be great. We will only have sacrament meeting for the next 3 weeks … but church starts at 1:30. Not my favorite time, but what can ya do?

In other news church related. Jimmy and I gave talks in sacrament meeting today. I talked on the ‘only true and living church of Jesus Christ.’ Jimmy spoke on following priesthood leaders. He had some great stories to go along with each section. Julie & Brock sat with our tots and they were, of course, much easier on them than they usually are for us.

One more month till Liza goes to nursery. That girlie zips here and there and everywhere. She snuck into nursery today and stayed for a while and had a dandy time. I hope she feels that happy about it when she turns 18 months.

Truman got kicked out of Sunbeams – his first week. Really son?! He wouldn’t stop spitting on the floor. That kid! He’s in a spitting phase. He knows how much it bothers everyone so he spits on their things at home. It’s gross. Sigh… I hope we survive until he turns 18… I mean 4.

Max told me all about his lesson in church (in the middle of scripture reading… not the best timing but I was so glad he remembered something he learned!). He said, “We learned about Jesus today. And we learned about that guy who doesn’t have a body.” “Satan… or the Devil?” “Yeah, that Devil guy. Some people wanted to follow him.” “Do you know who you followed?” “Who?” “Jesus.” With bright eyes, “I did!”

“a jolly happy snow”

January 12, 2013/2 Comments/in The Barnlings/by Heather

See this picture? Max was so very proud of himself because he combed his hair all by himself. Do you see how short his hair is? About 2 cm long. He is awesome!a few days ago in the wee morning hours i had a funny conversation with Max. I was laying in bed finding the energy to deal with the day and the tots.

Max: “are you sleeping?”

Me: “No.”

Max: “What are you doing?”

Me: “Finding my JOY.”

Max: “What is joy?”

Me: “It’s like happiness.”

Max: “Oh. What does happiness look like?” (as in – where will you find your joy?)

Me: “Oh Max. Happiness is how you feel inside.”

Max: “Oh.”

Max: “I see a hungry whale with a crown on the wall.”

Mom: “Oh? Sometimes when I was little I used to see designs on the ceiling too.”

Later that day –

Me: “What are you doing Max? Are you finding your joy?”

Max: singing jubilantly, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”

and later I hear him singing,

“Frosty the snowman was a jolly, happy snow.”

I love my Max.

For Christmas he kept asking what I wanted. I told him I wanted him to draw me a picture of our family to hang on the wall. With Hannah’s guidance, He drew this:

It’s so precious to me. See Eliza’s hair! And everyone’s glasses! I love it! Max also gave me a pizza cutter for Christmas. Every time I use it he asks if I like it. And I respond, “I love it!”

I’m glad for Max!

a whole new YOU

January 7, 2013/1 Comment/in The Barnlings/by Heather

from mop-head dollie to tidy big-eyed beauty.

We live in the arctic

January 7, 2013/0 Comments/in The Barnlings/by Heather

My kids just waited in 6 degree weather for 15 minutes for the bus to show up. It never came. Poor things came home so frozen. It has been a very long time since we’ve seen 30 degrees. I’m grateful for the increased snowfall we’ve had this year – perhaps that will help us have fewer summer wildfires, but I’m not loving the frigid temps. Oh, Florida… how we miss your weather.

Tough… you must be

January 5, 2013/0 Comments/in The Barnlings/by Heather

Hannah and Abe had their first b-ball games of the Jr. Jazz season. Abe did a swell job and shot a few baskets and tried to rebound a few. He was the tallest boy out there. We came home for lunch and Hannah expressed her nervousness for her game later this afternoon. Abe brought in his origami Yoda and said, “Tough, you must be.” It was a cute encouragement.

This is one of the Yoda creations Abe made over the holidays. He and Hannah have loved these books.

Help Them Aim HIGH

December 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Jimmy, The Barnlings/by Heather

President Eyring’s message from October 2012 General Conference during the priesthood session focused on us, as parents, and leaders helping the youth see and act on their potential for service in the kingdom of God.

Jimmy felt impressed that he needed to do a similar thing as President Eyring and make an item for each child to help remind them of the potential they have.

He decided to hang a church picture in their room with a scripture that was specifically for each child. We painted and mod-podged (just so ya know – the church pictures do NOT mod-podge well onto canvas… they get too saturated and start buckling). We decided in the end that though they weren’t perfect, they would be just fine and hopefully the message would still get across to the tots.

for Abraham …. Abinadi… COURAGE & boldness in doing what is right and proclaiming truth

for Maxwell … Ammon … be an example of valiant service and missionary efforts to those around you.

for Truman … LIVE PEACEABLY – be firm and unmovable in your faith and diligence.

for Hannah … through your Faith, you will be guided by the Spirit in your journey.

“What are we supposed to be doing out here?”

December 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Family Activities, Holidays, The Barnlings/by Heather

with tears in his eyes in the 24 degree weather, Abe asked, “What are we supposed to be doing out here?” I just don’t think looking at Christmas lights in the cold means quite as much to kids – even at Temple Square. When asked to share one good thing about our evening this was the response:

Max: “It was so beautiful.”
Abe: “I’m grateful that mom bought us food and helped to kept us warm.”
Hannah: “I loved it all.”
Mom: “I loved when we had that one happy moment with nobody crying or sad.”

We had a nice time visiting with Amy’s family. Trevor and Abe made White Chocolate Party Mix. We had sloppy joes. Amy got lots of loves from Liza, a few seconds with Truman on her lap playing Angry Birds Stars Wars (sigh…), and lots of quick conversations and smiles from Max. My kids love to see Aunt Amy.

We crashed their activity in SLC to see CityCreek & Temple Square lights. They were nice to help with the tots. I’ll tell ya what though – keeping track of 3 kids is much easier than 5 kids. We used our $5 McDonalds gift-certificates from Grandma Smith for dinner. The kids loved that! We stopped by Farrs and had a sample of some tasty yogurt & some hot chocolate & apple cider. We made it home without frost-bite and snuggled in for a long night’s sleep.

Adventures in Wintertime!!!