3 Days of Party FUN!!

This last week has been a very eventful one!
Thursday - Don took the boys to the zoo. Since Jaron will no longer be free now that he is 3, we wanted to get one last visit in.
Friday - Mom (me) took Jaron bowling. That evening we went to the Draper Temple Open House with Don's family. All I have to say about that is what was I thinking?! Two kids after bedtime, need I say more. My favorite thing really though was after I had explained the whole baptism for the dead thing to Jaron he responded, " I don't want to get baptised today," and "It's kinda like a swimming pool."

Saturday marked day 1 of the 3 days of party fun! Jaron's friend birthday party was at 3pm. We invited only a few since I knew it would be a lot of work. We played basketball, kicked around a pinata soccer ball, and played some board games. Jaron was so excited to have his "sports" birthday party. His request was a baseball (super easy this year!) cake.
Sunday was day 2. At around 3 Don's family came over to celebrate with us. Jaron loves the extra friends and even ate his favorite meal with all the guests there. His favorite is Fettuccine (we used small shells today, a not so stringy pasta is easier to eat) Alfredo. Then cake and Ice Cream. He got some fun gifts from the family his new "team", as he calls it, from Aunt Cathy is his new favorite shirt. His new teddy bear & book, he loves the fuzzy pictures in the book. His golf set, and other "team" outfit were also hits.
His actual birthday February 23rd, Monday, was his 3rd day of fun. We played with all the new toys, colored with his new art set, did his new puzzles, and played Wii. That night Grandma and Grandpa Barlow came to buy him his other favorite dinner, McDonald's. He was really excited to see them and play bowling. He liked his "team" that they gave him as well. That night we watched "Everyone's Hero" because of his new New York Yankees jersey.

This post is getting really long but I just wanted to tell a few more things about my little 3 year old.
~His favorite color is all the colors, but he usually says yellow or red first when listing all the colors he can think of.
~He loves to sing still; "Latter-Day Prophets" or "I Love to See the Temple" are often his first choice.
~He thinks he is so grown up and tries to talk like the big people. So he often adds things that will make him sound more grown up to his sentences. Examples: "Well actually, I don't think so." "Oh I did, last week." These are usually followed with a shrug of the shoulders or a little scrunch of the face w/ a slurp (this last one hard to explain without seeing it). What this one boils down to is that he copies EVERYthing I say and do. To putting his cat in timeout or rocking him to sleep.
~Cat has often become Max these days.
He is expressing his emotions with words. "I can't Mom, I am too frustrated!" Also something I do.
~He reads his scriptures, or at least gets them out and looks at the pictures.
~He loves everyone, but only likes Stacie. We are working on this and he expands that some days, but always reverts back to only liking Stacie.
~His movies of choice the past few weeks have been "night at the Museum," "Beauty and the Beast," (aka princess and the lion) and "Polar Express."

We sure love this little kid! He is so bright and gifted in many ways. I hope that I can help him see the good in himself.

Valentines

Jaron is really into doing things for other people these day. He was really excited to give Valentine's to every person he knows. To some of the adults we just did photos, here are a few of those.

My Valentine's Day was great. This is the one day a year that I request flowers and one of the very few that I insist we do something romantic. Don is such a good sport and he even admitted that he doesn't mind my corny love notes and cards that I give every year. To my dismay I didn't do them this year because I thought he really didn't care that I did them. So this year I had the wonderful husband that did everything right but I didn't do much in return. He is such a good guy!

Chick Flicks

January 4, 2009

Since Don works night I have been able to watch a lot of chick flicks after the boys go down. While watching them I find my heart so close to the surface and filled with joy. I had to stop today to ask myself the questions, why? Why am I, and many other women, drawn to love stories? The first obvious answer is we want one of our own. We want a knight in shinning armor, someone to rescue us from the bad guy, or even just ourselves. We want someone to wrap their arms around us and make us fill safe, loved, needed, and taken care of.
After pondering this question, my thoughts turned to the fact that I also am drawn to them because they help me remember. They help me remember my fairytale, my knight in shinny armor. Don was just that for me.
I dated so many guys that all turned out to have something wrong with them or would say something to me that hurt so deep I can still feel the hurt if I replay the words in my mind. With so many of them I found myself trying to be something I was not. Telling myself this must be the best there is out there. Then came Don. For the first time someone didn’t care where I was going he wanted to come. I remember I need to go finish a project at the computer lab on campus, Don not really having anything to do at the computer lab, wanted to come with me. I went to St. George to do laundry and go to the temple once a week. Don wanted to come. He didn’t care where I had to go; if he wasn’t busy he wanted to come. For the first time someone was willing to be a part of my life. I guess that is not entirely true, but this is, I wanted him to be with me. I found myself hoping he would want to come along. I didn’t grow board of him, also something entirely new to me. I want Don to be around. He made me feel like a better me. I was fun, lighthearted, and free to be me.
Don was my love story. He took me dancing in the parking lot, with music playing in the car. He bought me earrings, CD’s (that he really wasn’t too found of). He told me he loved me in front of the Manti temple. We had so much love for each other, so we got married!
But like every love story life happens and tries to make us forget those moments when our hearts wanted to burst. This is why I love chick flicks. Because for those few hours I remember, I remember the times we danced, our song playing; the first words of “I love you.”
With each year our love story continues to grow; the kisses on the forehead when I am down, the call to see how I am doing, our crazy dates, the fun get-aways; and the one to top it all, having children together. We have the downs, but the ups are so great that they cover the bad days.
So here is to my knight that loves me for me, and makes me feel like I am a queen.

I Want to Play Outside!

Just the past week Jaron has been saying he wants to go out an play. With the inversion and his asthma not a good idea, but I gave in. I was so sick of being inside all day. Jaron has gotten really good at riding his bike and had lots of fun doing that. Bryson was happy to wander around and play with whatever he could find. Everyones asthma did okay.

Katelyn Lee Malon

We had another addition to the Kent Barlow family on Dec. 29th. She is a cute and health little girl.

Museum of Natural History

So Jaron really loves the movie "Night at the Museum." He only gets to watch one movie a day, if that, and since "Night at the Museum" is a mom and dad movie (not animated) he thinks it doesn't count. He tried several times to get it past me, good thing I am smarter than my 2 year old; at least in this area I am.
I thought it would be fun to visit our own "museum." He was a little apprehensive at first with the dinosaurs because I think he thought the would come to life, even though we explained the movie was pretend. After a little bit he relaxed and enjoyed it. Things that leave an impression on him he talks about for weeks to come. We just heard the story again yesterday and we went on Feb. 5th so I think he liked it.
Bryson is testing his boundaries right now so . . . that was fun. But he liked digging.
This was my first trip to the museum too. Don was there to help and was very supportive of staying in the mineral room for a long time. I was just in heaven being a geology lover. Some of the minerals I hadn't even seen before so that was awesome. They had things from all over the world, soo cool, but then again not many people think it is.

Blog Book

So I have heard that you can get your blog printed into a book, but can't find who does this. Anybody know?

Christmas

Christmas finally came. I get so excited it is ridiculous. I woke up at 5:30am and had to wait for the rest of my family to get up at 8am. Yeah, really sad I know. The kids are the ones that should be waiting for mom and dad to wake up. I get excited for the one day a year I get spoiled. Don really over does it every year and it is something to look forward to. His gifts are always from the heart and it is great. I also really like to give what I have purchased for everyone. All those days thinking about what to get a certain person that they will just love are finally over and I get to watch to see if they do like it. This year was wonderful. Santa brought just the right thing for they boys, Don didn't dissapoint, and most of the gifts given were recieved as I had imagined. My parents jointed us for opeing of gifts and breakfast. Then we headed out to Don's parents to open gifts there. The day was long and the final gifts were opened when Aunt Cathy arrived at 6ish. We ventured home in the storm and made it back about 2am.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went out to Don's parents. We had a really nice dinner. I made deviled eggs for the first time, so I had to take a picture of that. My mom always makes these but since she was not coming I thought I would take up the task. We left early so the boys could get to bed before Santa came. What a great day!