Knock Knock

We've been trying to teach Josh some games and jokes. We played hot/cold. That was a bit more complicated than we had anticipated. I'm glad we've begun this. It'll be a huge help for him to have hot/cold skills in primary. :) We also tried to teach him some knock knock jokes. He loved it. He even came up with some of his own. We decided that one of them was worth remembering. Just a little background. We were teaching him orange, banana, and apple, so I think he was on a roll with the food thing. So, here goes...

Josh: Knock Knock

Who's there?

Josh: Meat

Meat who?

Josh: Meet the grandkids

Can't believe he came up with it all by himself. So creative. I know this may not be funny as you read it, but it was hilarious at the time, and we wanted to make sure it made it into the memory book.

New Dresses

A good friend of ours, Michelle Ross, made a pair of dresses for the girls. They are so cute. She gave these to us at the end of January, and I took these pictures right away. I had no idea how long Jessica could wear hers. I think she's officially outgrown it now. She is so talented at sewing. Thanks a ton, Michelle!

I was trying to get a picture of the two girls together with their matching dresses. Josh did not want to be left out. He loves the camera. He's happy on either side of the lens, as long as he's involved in the shot. These yellow dresses are adorable. I think Emily will still be able to wear hers for a few more weeks at least, but she may be getting too tall for it. We'll see.

I thought I'd include a few more pictures. I just think my kids are so cute. I hope you enjoy them!

Jessica is getting so good at holding things. She can even get her pacifier in her mouth on her own at times.

Josh can be such a good big brother

Emily thoroughly enjoys any time I let her hold Jessie. If you'll notice, Jessie seems a little less than amused, but she handles it well.

Emily's Birthday - January 27

Emily is 2! (and a couple months.) She got a few presents and we had cake. It was a nice family party. Just the five of us. I made Emily a Tinkerbell cake, and the kids couldn't have been happier.

The Tinkerbell cake.
I didn't have the skin color icing coloring, so her skin ended up a bit pink. I think she just spent too much time in the sun. Oops!

Emily with her pretty cake


Josh never wants to be left out of the pictures

I wanted to post this gift because Grandma and Grandpa got it for her, and they never even saw it. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa. They use it constantly.

My New Do

I tend to get bored of my hair on a semi-regular basis. I was planning to wait until it really warmed up to do anything about it, but my hair was getting really annoying. So I went and saw Susan at The Stylin' Gator (352) 367-8511... I highly recommend her to anyone who needs a hairdresser in the area.



Pre-Haircut - My goodness was it long. I have so much hair that it just gets heavy when it gets long. It looks so flat to me. I think this hair belongs in the '60's. So long, farewell!

Although the shirt is apparently not flattering, I think the haircut is. It's amazing the difference a good haircut can make in the way you look.

What I cut off. The pen is there as a length reference. I'll be sending this off to Locks of Love to be made into a wig. This is highly satisfying, and I recommend it to anyone who is thinking about getting rid of a bunch of length. I weighed it to see how much is gone. It's around 3 oz, so it didn't make the scale budge. I thought I was getting a free half pound toward my weight goals. Oh well. I tried.

The Fix

Due to the hair cut I talked about a few weeks ago, I decided to go ahead and give Emily a full blown haircut. It is obvious to me that I have never cut a girl's hair before, and I have no idea what I'm doing. However, considering this is my first attempt EVER, I figured I did a pretty good job. She is adorable in a short do.



Emily loves to smile for the camera. She enjoyed getting her hair cut, but I had to stick her in front of the TV to get even a relatively even cut.

Here is the back. Really short. But it helped to make it not look so scraggly. I may even consider keeping it short. We shall see.

More Fun with the Barkers (my family)

This is the last post from our trip to Oklahoma, I promise. I just wanted to make sure all of these stories ended up in the blog book for the year. My parents have a Playstation something or another. They also have Guitar Hero for it. This happens to be Peter's favorite game. So, we finally got around to playing it while we were there.

Josh thought it was quite fun. He would sit there and try to play with the game, and bounce up and down and kind of dance along with the music. He was totally into it. I tried to catch him on video, but he always managed to stop when I'd turn on the recorder, even though he wasn't paying attention.

Emily needed a little more help with the game. The guitar was nearly as big as she is, so holding it was a bit awkward.

We love to go bowling in my family. It was something I remember doing every time we went and visited my Barker grandparents. Go to the BYU bowling alley with Grandpa. Ah, the memories. So, now we go to the one in Ponca when we visit home. The kids enjoyed bowling for a little while. Josh's favorite part was that he got to sit at the car arcade game with the steering wheel while we waited. He didn't actually play, but he sure had a blast.

Emily getting ready to knock down a few pins. Grandpa was such a big helper.

We really wore out Grandma.... and Jessie, too. How sweet!

On our way home, the kids got to know their car seats quite well. Can't you see the excitement in this cute little face? Can't you hear him saying, "Mommy can we drive for another few hours? I just don't think 20 hours is long enough." ;)

Take a look at Emily's hair. It sure liked that seat of hers. She thought it was hilarious, even though she couldn't see it herself. 3 down, just 17 more (hours) to go... or something like that.

Swimming in December

Amid all that snow in Oklahoma, we also made it to the pool. Yep, it warmed up super hot one day, and we went swimming. :) Just kidding. The ConocoPhillips complex where my dad has worked for the past few years... since I was 2... has a nice swimming pool. We got to go and play in it one day with Grandpa and cousins. It was so cold, but I think we all had a bit of fun. Grandma stayed home and took care of Jessie so I could enjoy myself, too. Thanks Grandma!



Daddy and Emily

Grandpa helping Josh swim on the kickboard.

Josh swimming "by himself" on the kickboard. Good job Josh! ;)

Everyone just playing in the water with their kickboards. We may have to find some of these this year.