Last chance for family fun.

Well, a few weeks ago Jeff accepted a new job offer at Nate and Andy's Quality Auto as their F&I(finance and insurance) guy. It was a really hard decision to make on whether or not he should keep teaching school and selling blinds, or take this job offer. After a lot of prayers and discussions about it he decided it would be a good opportunity to take the job. The only kind of bad thing about it is that it will require a lot of his time. Especially the first year or so he is going to be working a lot. Anyway, he starts training for this job on Tuesday July 8th. when he decided to take this job we decided we better get out and do a few things that we had wanted to do this summer before he starts. So we went to Hogle Zoo, and the kids absolutely loved it!!


The kids loved seeing all the animals. They loved the elephants, giraffes, the white crocodile,and many more different types of crazy looking creatures. Tanner was especially excited to see the snakes, and he loved the display case with all sorts of bugs from all over the world. (Man, I sure am glad I've never had to kill any of those bugs in my house.) After seeing most everything at the zoo we went to a shady grassy area and had lunch. The kids were in heaven running around and playing. Here are a few pictures we got, and you can see it especially in Lexi's face that she was having a fun time. And of course Tanner would be making faces for the camera.

Isn't this picture adorable. I have the hardest time getting a picture of Lexi smiling for the camera. She was having a blast climbing around on this rhinoceros.

Poor little Nixon was stuck in the stroller all day. He was so good though he didn't seem to mind one bit. He feel asleep towards the end of seeing the animals and then slept while we ate our lunch and the kids played around.

Here is every one enjoying their ice cream. this is what we bribed Tanner with when he started to not want to ride in the stroller.

We all had a really fun day at the zoo. However, all my monkeys were getting tired and it was time to go home.

Our new pet

One day we found a salamander down in the window well. The kids thought it was the coolest. Tanner picked it right up and was carrying it around. I thought Lexi wouldn't like it, but she ran right over to it. I thought she was going to pick it up, but at the last second she decided not to. Tanner named the salamander root beer. I wonder if that had anything to do with the root beer he had to drink a few hours earlier?

The kids played with "root beer" for a while until it was time to go inside for the night. I was very impressed with Lexi she was not scared of it at all, but she was just fine not to hold it either.

The kids had to show all the neighbor kids. In this picture is Dylan & Jake White our neighbors across the street. They were both into the salamander picking it up and playing with. The kids ran over to the Merrill's and knocked on the door so they could show Isac & Emily. when it was time to go in the kids put the salamander in Monica Merrill's bird bath. Our kids were sad the next morning when the salamander was no where to be found.

Dining at its finest

Okay so I have to put on these pictures of a McDonald's in Asheville, North Carolina. Not only was this the fanciest McDonald's I've ever seen, but I saw a guy cutting his hamburger with a knife and eating it with a fork. I guess I'm more of a red neck than I think.

Loved the hot fudge sundae

Get away to North Carolina

I just got back from North Carolina. I went with my mom and Nixon. We went to visit my sister Alecia, who lives in Winston-Salem. It was so nice to get away for a little while and have a break from my other two kids. The kids stayed home with dad and their Grandma Low, it sounds like they had a lot of fun staying at home. I was kind of nervous the day before we left because I didn't feel very good, but the next day I felt better and traveling to N. Carolina went really good. I was also nervous about having a baby on the airplane, but Nixon did really good. The first few days Alecia wasn't at her home, she and Ryan were in Washington State for a job interview. So we watched her kids for her for a few days. Alecia arrived home late Friday night and Saturday we just got the food and things ready for Gabe's baptism which was on Sunday. On Monday we went shopping and went out to lunch. Later Alecia made us chicken cordon bleu's for Dinner. That night my I had a stomach ache and I thought it was because I ate to much. However, during the night my stomach hurt bad and I ended up in the bathroom throwing up a few times. So Tuesday I ended up in bed for most of the day. My mom took Nixon and they went and did the things they had planned for that morning. By the night time I was feeling quite a bit better.


Here I am in front of Alecia's home in North Carolina.
Okay, just kiddin. Here I am in front of the Biltmore Mansion. This is the largest"privately owned" home in America. This was a really fun day we took a tour of this Mansion. It was HUGE. Their was also a very large garden area which was designed by the same landscape architect that designed central park. There was also a barn and a winery that we also toured.
There is some more pictures I want to put on, but it is not letting me upload any more pictures. I will try to get them on on my next post. I have some pictures of the fanciest McDonalds I've ever seen.

Silly Faces

Tanner is our silly face maker. As soon as the camera comes out so does Tanner's silly faces. I took the kids to a studio to get their pictures taken in their easter clothes, and Tanner thought it was pretty funny to make faces for that camera too. I have to admit it was kind of funny for a few pictures, but come on buddy I was hoping for some good pictures.

This is Tanner making a silly face at Lexi's birthday party. Both sets of grandparents, Jeff and I got Lexi this little kitchen for her birthday present. I think Tanner was more excited about it than Lexi was.

We were taking the kids picture in front of the christmas tree on the Sunday before Christmas because Lexi got the cutest dress and jacket for her birthday (not the best picture to see the dress though). Sure enough, Tanner started to make those famous faces for the camera.

Isn't this a cute picture. By now you can see that this a classic Tanner picture. This is at the Barlow christmas party and he just opened up his awesome present, and pulled an awesome face for the camera.

Tanner and Lexi at Grandma & Grandpa Barlow's house getting ready to go outside and play on the ice pond, and the big snow hill grandpa made with the tractor.

Tanner and Jeff playing with the blocks. Tanner loves playing with his blocks, and this lasy Sunday afternoon they made this tall tower. One of the only things Tanner likes better than playing with blocks is having someone play blocks with him.

Our sweet little Nixon

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Nixon is growing up so fast. Especially lately he is doing alot of new things. Nixon just turned 7 months last week and his first tooth just barely cut through, and I can see the second tooth is close. Hopefully now he'll start sleeping better. He's not a bad sleeper, it's just that I wish I could sleep through the night. You would think that I would be use to it by now, after having 3 kids one after a another.

You see what I'm saying, Nixon is getting to be such a big boy. For about a month Nixon has been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. I think he will probably crawl soon. He can go backwards, but when he tries to go forward he doesn't move his hands and so he face plants into the carpet. Nixon already can get to where he wants to go by rolling around so when he does start crawling it won't be that big of a change.


Oh how time flies. My little baby isn't going to be a baby for very much longer. Soon he will be walking and won't want to cuddle. Guess it will be time for another one, but that isn't happening any time soon. We love our little Nixon so much he has been a wonderful new addition to our little family. He is a blessing to our life along with Tanner and Lexi, and they all bring us much joy and happiness.

Day at Willow Park

We went to willow park earlier in the month of April. It was starting to feel like spring outside (for a few days anyway) and we needed to get out of the house. At the park the weather was still a little chilly, but that didn't seem to bother the kids one bit. We went with Grandma, Steph and her girls. The kids had a lot of fun seeing the animals. They especially liked feeding the ducks. After seeing the animals we went to the playground. It was a big nice playground and the only thing the kids did was go up and down the big red slide. We went to McDonalds and let the kids play some more in the play land. I think they were pretty worn out (which was the plan) because we went home and they all took a good nap. It was a very fun day!!!