Family Pictures

Last month we finally got our family pictures taken. It had been so long since we have had FAMILY pictures. Tanner was around 9 months old in our last family pictures. I finally got motivated enough to actually get them done (I don't know how many times I talked about how we need to have our pictures taken) when Jeff took that new job at Nate and Andy's Quality Auto. However, he only worked there for a couple of weeks, and decided to stay teaching. He told me he was nervous and confused still after he started the job. So one morning he went on a drive while we were at Wolf Creek. He told me that as soon as he decided to stay at the school his mind instantly cleared up (Luckily he hadn't told the school he wasn't coming back yet). So that was probably the right decision to stay at the school. Anyway, we finally got some pictures. Janna Barlow (Todd's Janna) was so nice to take our pictures, and she did an awesome job. We got some really cute pictures.

I can't believe we got several really cute family pictures with the kids being as young as they are. The key is to just keep on clicking on the camera, and hopefully there will be one where everyone is looking and their eyes aren't closed.

Tanner was kind of hard to get a good picture of because he was trying to to smile to much and his smiles looked kind of fake.

We did get a few cute pictures of him though when he was laughing, and just being himself.

We only got a couple pictures of Lexi and they were both cute, and so we moved on to the other kids. This is usually opposite of how it has been in the past. Lexi usually is the hardest to get a cute picture of because she will not look at the camera, and if she does she will not smile. So we were happy with the two good pictures.


I put Nixon down to stand up behind this fence, and as you can see he did not like it one bit. I think the picture is still really cute though. As we were leaving we realized that we did not get a good picture of Nixon so we hurried down Smithfield canyon to Janna's friend who lives there in the canyon and got some cute pictures of Nixon before it got dark.

While we were there we got some cute pictures of the kids playing around.

Isn't this picture adorable. Even though Tanner is on a pink motorcycle. Hey what can I say it is a Harley Davidson though.

Wolf Creek

A few weeks ago we went up to Wolf Creek for a few days. Wolf Creek is over in Eden not to far from Powder Mountain. My sister Alecia was here from N. Carolina, so whenever she comes out we always try to get together as a family a few times while she is out visiting. We go up there as a family and stay in some condos, we have been there a few other times and we always have a lot of fun. There is a fun swimming area for the kids, and it is right next to a golf course. At night time we went out on the golf course, and the kids played with glow in the dark necklaces which they always love doing. My dad also brought some glow in the dark golf balls, and Jeff brought his golf clubs so a few people would hit the ball and the kids would go chasing after it.

This year I think was especially fun. My brother Chad and his family just bought a new boat this summer, and they brought it over!!! There is a really nice lake called Pineview, and it is really close. This trip we spent both days at the lake. The kids had a lot of fun playing there. Chad had a couple of tubes which the kids had a blast on, and even the adults. I went on the tube with Tanner and Lexi one time. It was really funny because Lexi wanted to go and got on the tube, but Tanner didn't want to go and it took a lot of talking to get him on the tube. So after that first ride Lexi didn't want to ride it again, but Tanner loved it and he couldn't get enough of it. When Tanner wasn't in the boat he had a lot of fun playing in the sand with the other kids. He also loved swimming in the water. With his life jacket on we went on a little swim and I was so impressed with him. Tanner took swim lessons this year and they were worth it. Before this year he liked playing in the water, but was kind of afraid of it too. It has been fun to watch him start to get out there and start swimming and be more daring in the water.
Lexi had a lot of fun playing in the sand. This lake had a pretty nice beach so that was nice for the kids to have good sand to play in, and it also had good shade for the adults who were watching. Lexi also loved riding in the boat, but not so much the tube though. Lexi is a silly girl, she likes to play with the kids, but you can often find Lexi by herself singing songs and twirling around. She sometimes looks like she is in her own little world. I remember seeing her do that several times. I might add she enjoyed the yummy snacks that grandma brought.

Nixon also enjoyed the yummy snacks. I feel like a broken record here but, Nixon was so good in his stroller. I feel bad that whenever we go and do fun things Nixon is stuck in his stroller a lot of the time.

However, Nixon did start to get a little restless in his stroller so I decided to put him down in the sand. I thought I would constantly be getting sand out of his mouth. But to my surprise he didn't eat the sand. He loved playing and crawling around in it. It must of felt so good that he would turn his head to the side and lay down. One time he put his face flat down in the sand, he didn't like though.

We spent both days at the lake and didn't hardly even swim at the pool at the condo. The last day we had to be out of our rooms by noon so we went to the pool for a hour or so in the morning. At the pool there is a slide and Tanner absolutely loved it!! Breck would catch him when he came out of the slide then he would do it again.

Happy 4th of July

Here it is again , another 4th of July. This year was about the same as the rest of the previous July 4th's. We wake up and go to the Lewiston parade, and I might add that this is the best parade that we go to. The kids (not necessarily my kids) get so much candy. We can give a big thanks to Jeff for that. You can see in this picture what he is holding. Yep, that's a megaphone. He has offically earned the job of announcing the parade as they drive past. He is really good at it, and it is kind of like a little advertisement for them. They sure like that so they throw us a lot of candy and I mean a lot of candy. The parade would not be the same without Jeff. The whole Barlow clan is happy to see that Jeff has made it to the parade, especially the kids. Over the years people have learned to not sit across the street from the Barlow's, especially if you have kids that want to get candy.

This year Tanner was in the parade with our neighbor's who own Specialized Pest Control. He loved throwing the candy. I thought he would be sad when he wouldn't get any candy, but I was wrong he had a lot more fun throwing it.

Lexi was so funny to watch this year. She didn't really get into the parade, just the candy. She sat in her chair and would not get up to go get any candy. So I got a few pieces for her and she would eat them right away. Austin Pugmire, one of the teenagers was standing by Jeff. Anyway, he was picking up the pieces of candy that just came around him. Austin was setting his bag behind Jeff on the chair. When Lexi was done with her candy she saw Austin's bag of candy and reached over and grabbed it and started to eat Austin's candy. That was pretty funny.

After the parade we go walk through the park and see all the booths. That normally doesn't take to long. Then we go to my parents house and have lunch. Usually after that is the infamous Barlow water fight. In the past every single person there at the house would get wet whether you wanted to or not. With very few exceptions like my grandparents or if someone was large with child. we have to give credit to Jeff for this water fight too. Since Jeff was the one who started to grab those who were just watching or had their video camera's rolling (at least they would take away the camcorders and cameras before they drenched them). However, the last few years Jeff hasn't been participating. He must be getting to be an old fart (now people are actually starting to come out and watch and not hide in the bathrooms. I can only speak for myself and a few others on that one). Grandpa Barlow runs the pipes into the yard and floods the grass. As you can see from these pictures it puts quite a bit of water out. Tanner and Lexi have a blast playing in the water and having water fights with Grandpa and their cousins. Nixon hopefully will enjoy these festivities next year. But isn't this one of the cutest little boys you'll ever see. I love this picture. Nixon enjoyed the parade from his stroller, and at grandma's house he was very entertained by all of us there having a great time. I have really enjoyed the 4th of July growing up and now I love to see my kids enjoy it too. What an awesome tradition.

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!!!