ROARRR!!

It is finally park weather and WE ARE EAT'N it up! Savy and CJ had a great time at the park with friend Josh and Rachel. It was PERFECT weather and Savy only growled at, oh maybe, two other kids on the playground. Wahoo! On the down side, though, she did learn a new word from a little girl there, who obviously had older siblings.

Other than that one discovery it WAS GREAT! Thanks Laytons!

Happy Easter!!!

Our attempt at Easter Pictures.

Good thing they are STINK'N cute becuase they certainly don't have a photographer for a mother. It would have helped to have them not looking DIRECTLY into the sun. But, like I said, with or without the photographer they are CUTE!!

Savy is so much fun! This age is the best! This is the first year she has understood any of the fun fictional characters that come around holidays. She very excitedly placed her butterfly easterbasket on the couch on saturday night and was eager to get to it sunday morning. Thank goodness the Easter Bunny only left a few suckers by way of treats! What a smart bunny! The lack of candy was rememdied later that day by a KILLER easter egg hunt at the Leonard's. Savy had her basket piled so high with eggs that she could barely carry it!

When we were watching conference last week she was sitting by us coloring and wasn't paying much attention until President Monson started talking. She stopped coloring and got very excited and said, "Hey! He's in Nursery!" Yes, there is a picture of President Monson on the wall in Nursery. And, WAHOO . . . she noticed!!

Finally! After almost nine months, and MANY false alarms, CJ has 2 cute teeth!! It took about two days to convince his dad that there were in fact teeth in there since it has been at least five months of "crying wolf". And, how could I ever forget how fast these kids get! He is ALL OVER!!! He has found the vents under the sinks in our bathrooms and BOLTS for them anytime the door is left open. He is so happy and just full of joy! Nothing makes him happier, though, than a vanilla wafer and a bottle!

WEEK OF BIRTHDAY!!!!

It has been birthday week around the Barlow home. I absolutely LOVE birthdays so this week was a DREAM! There was some sort of cake on my counter for the ENTIRE week! HEAVENLY!!

To start:

Last sunday we celebrated my birthday and Savannah's birthday with my family. We had yummy Chicken Pot Pies (DELICIOUS MOM!), and a castle cake that everyone helped with. We had quite the crew of Leonard contractors working on this project!

You would never believe that this beauty started out as three 8 inch round cakes, two 4 inch round cakes, six cake filled cake cones, five sugar cones, two containers vanilla frosting, a package of vanilla wafer cookies, and TWO containers of blue sprinkles! Oh, and let us not forget the 6 princess figurines perched on their BRAND SPANK'N new POSH castle!! It was tasty!

Savy and I were spoiled ROTTEN! (THANKS EVERYONE!!!!)

Savy got lots of books, a purple tinker bell dress, crayons, and . . .

A new BIKE!

Mommy and Daddy gave her "a bike like Mia's" (Savy's friend) just like she asked.

I was spoiled with a free babysitting night, a nail kit (BOTH of which I DESPERATELY need!), bubbles to blow outside (I LOVE bubbles!) money for clothes and a calendar for my kitchen (that Jake made!).

Jake designed and made this for me! I have a dry erase calendar printed on a transparency that goes on the metal part that I can write on. I can put a cute piece of scrapbook paper behind the transparency to make it seasonal. I LOVE IT! Thanks EVERYONE!

Moving right along:

For my birthday Brandon and I took advantage of the Christmas present my parents gave us and went skiing for the day. Dumb me forgot my camera. Dumb! Why beat myself up over this . . . because it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! It was PERFECT!!! It was everything skiing should be! Warm sunshine, groomed runs with a small amount of fresh powder on them, only 10 other people on the hill, no kids. Thanks mom and dad! And, BRANDON! After skiing Brandon and I picked up some dinner and ate at home with no kids. He had a cute table set up with flowers,(which are STILL ALIVE!) and presents. It was honestly one of the best 29 birthdays I have ever had! THANKS BRANDON!!!

Almost done:

On Savannah's birthday we took her to the "Make a teddy bear store". She was very excited! She picked out a cute pink monkey. It's hands have Velcro them so she can latch it's arms around her neck. It is a constant monkey hug! She loves it!

The Process: Picking out the monkey.

Choosing a voice box. She picked out the monkey sound. (That's my girl - it all has to go together!)

We didn't get any pictures of the stuffing of the monkey because Savy was a bit scared of the very outgoing 25 year old man thrashing her monkey around and putting needles into it's back. But . . . moving on . . . Daddy and Savy gave the monkey a very nice bath and a good brushing.

And finally Savy picked out a very STYLE'N outfit of a denim skirt and sparkly pink princess shirt. The monkey and Savy do share a common love . . . princesses.
After all this we now have a new member of the Savy stuffed animal family - FIA. Yes, Fia is the name Savy chose. It was a great time and Savy sure LOVES her FIA!

The day ended with a Happy Meal from McDonalds, some various treats, and a few presents from mom and dad. Happy Birthday PRINCESS!!! You are BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Last, but certainly not least:

We celebrated Savy's birthday with Brandon's family on sunday. Again, she was SPOILED!! She received a baby doll, books, a hopper ball, colorwonder coloring books and a princess dress. She had a GREAT birthday! THANKS EVERYONE!!

And, a cupcake for the princess!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAVY!!!!!

Snow Cone

We were SO BLESSED to get an

insane amount

of snow with these

recent storms.

Savannah LOVES it!

She especially loves to eat homemade SNOW CONES!

REALLY?!

This is exactly why Brandon doesn't waste money on flowers for me. I convinced him that I would LOVE some for our anniversary. He bought a BEAUTIFUL arrangement. I LOVED them! They were so big and hadn't opened yet so they would make me happy for a long time. The second day they didn't look quite so brilliant. I woke up the next day (this is about 48 hours after they were delivered to my home) and ran down to take a look at my beautiful flowers and they looked like THIS . . .

SERIOUSLY!! We called the place. They came out and brought me some more. They told us on the phone it was probably because our house was too warm. Ummm . . . 68 at night and 70 during the day certainly doesn't feel that warm to me!! When the flourist came they looked at them and were SHOCKED!!! They said it was bad handling at the supplier. They left another BEAUTIFUL arrangement. Three days later they looked like this . . .

Needless to say, Brandon is off the hook FOREVER!!! No more flowers for me, the FLOWER MURDERER!! I don't want to see them suffer so I'll just stick to CHOCOLATE!!!

I've been tagged! And, of all the things . . .

These are the rules:
1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same

The explanation: (oh . . . thank goodness for the explanation!)

I was 8 MONTHS pregnant with Savannah. As you can see, I was reading up on what to expect from the SUPER MOTHER of all how to books. We had just bought our new camera and, again, as you can see . . . Brandon was driving me nuts with it! This is one of those pictures you don't ever want to get out. LOOK AT THOSE JOWLS! Oh, Melissa, you were SO inspired! YUCK!!!

*even worse . . . three years later, and not pregnant, I still wear that sweater!!!

I tag Holly, Wendy L., Jennie, and Mandy. Come on sistas - LETS SEE IT!

Bad Nutcracker!

Brandon has a collection of Nutcrackers. He has had them for a while. One of the members of this collection is taller than Savannah.

She loves to play with them. And, apparently, the snowman and the large nutcracker where fighting the other day. Savannah had to "separate" them by placing them in different rooms. Then, she had to go back and discipline the large nutcracker. I walk into the room and see her holding the nutcrackers cheeks in her hands (like she says Emma's mom does) and telling him that "WE DO NOT DO THAT! Now you need to be good and apologize to Snowman."