The Barnards

Being a mom is such a learning experience. I was given a great foundation and learned so much from my mom. She has been a great example in so many ways.

I am so thankful that God has blessed me with these two amazing kids.

But we all know that getting a picture with two kids looking at the camera is quite the challenge.

Silly girl, this is what she does to Bryan to melt his heart all the time.

In order to get him to smile we have to take a crazy one. Who isn’t up for some fun!

Love them!

Last weekend Finley was sick so we had decided to take turns going to church. Bryan and Deacon went Saturday night and I went on Sunday. When I came home I was greeted with these signs all over the house.

I had to collect them all to solve the riddle to find out what my present was.  I had a great helper.

In the end, it was a day at the spa! Every mom’s dream, or at least my dream day. Bryan stayed at home on Wednesday while I went to the spa with Christina for a massage, manicure and pedicure and then a late lunch.

I am so thankful that he was not only willing to do that but that he truly appreciates what I do.

We spent most of the day at home just hanging out, but we ended the day with getting out of the house to go for a walk.  Love these two.

Bryan went above and beyond what I deserve this Mother’s Day but I am grateful for everything he did to make it special.

Wow, I can’t believe you are 7 months!

You are wearing mostly 6-9 and 9 month clothes. You wear a size 3 diaper and 1 or 2 shoes.

You are still a great sleeper and we are so thankful.  You sleep 11-12 hours at night.  You take a good morning and afternoon nap.  Sometimes you like to sneak an extra afternoon nap in.  You take the best naps in your own bed.

You nurse mostly every 3 hours, except for in the morning you will go  4-4.5 hours.

You are eating 3 meals a day.  This week I started giving you yogurt in the morning and you love it.   Then you eat 4 cubes of a mixture of fruits and vegetables for both lunch and dinner.  You aren’t too picky and if you don’t seem to like a certain food I mix it in with one of your favorites and you don’t seem to notice.

You love to say, “mmm” while you eat.

In the last week you have started eating Puffs.  Your doctor said at your 6 month check up that we could try them.  We do break them up into smaller pieces but you don’t seem to have any problem picking them up and eating them.

I started introducing you to the sippy cup very early just for sips of water after your food.  You are now a pro at drinking out of a sippy.  You still don’t drink much water and enjoy playing with your cup.   More than anything you like throwing it on the floor.

You still only have 2 teeth and you know how to use them.  I have been the victim of your biting habit more than I like and it seems as though you only like to bite me.

This month you have been working on crawling.  For a few weeks you would get up on your hands and knees and rock back and forth.

Then a few nights ago you took off, slowly, but you did it.  Of course the first thing that motivated you to move was Deacon’s Legos.  You love going into his room and playing with his toys.

If we set something out and you want it you will get to it any way you can.

It is only a matter of time.

This week you make a big step at becoming a Daddy’s girl.  He went out of town and when he came home, you could not get enough of him.  You  already know how to work him.  You tilt your head to one side and reach out your arm and I think it melts his heart every time.

This week you tried to stand up in the bath tub.  You are constantly trying to pull up on things but that was the first time you had actually stood up.  I’m not ready for that yet!

You love your walker and the freedom that it gives you to go where you want.  You have recently discovered that you can open drawers, and reach things when you are in your walker.  When I tell you no, you give me a sweet, innocent look like I am crazy for telling you no.

You love your toys.  You are so great at entertaining yourself.  I can sit you in your room with some toys out and you will play for about 30 minutes.  Recently I have started putting a basket of toys in front of you and you like to get the toys out and put them back in.

You are so full of personality!

We love you so much sweet girl.

It is amazing how fast 7 months have went by.

Finley and Deacon at 7 Months

Deacon was so excited for his first ball game.  He loves his uniform, according to him, he looks like Cayden, Max (aka McGwire) and Justin (Bates).  And he is convinced they all play baseball on TV.

Finley was all dressed in her Cardinals get up to cheer on her big brother.

Warming up before the game.

Ready for the game to begin!

Fielding

Love this!

I am quite certain he jumps more than anyone else.

Cheering on the boys.

They all swarm the ball every time it is hit.

The goal every time is to get the ball and throw it to 1st base.

Daddy helping him get his helmet on for his 1st at bat.

On 1st base, ready to run.

I love how they all line up waiting for the ball to be hit.

And then the race is on.

I am having issues getting these videos to post, but it you click on this link and the next page that it brings up you should be able to watch them.

Deacon’s 1st at bat.

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Running the bases.  He feels the need to slide every time he gets to home plate, even when his dad tells him not to.

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My mom “gently” reminds me when I haven’t posted anything in a while.  So Mom, here is your picture fix…your welcome!

Finely is a crazy person in her walker, she will run you over…especially if you have food. On this particular day she felt the need to pull this chair around.

Deacon is a Lego fanatic.  I am amazed at some of the things he comes up with.  There have been several instances where I think Bryan has helped him build something to find out that he did it all on his own while Bryan is at work.  He definitely has his Dad’s engineering brain.

We have had several birthday parties lately and here is Deacon with his best buddy Reed celebrating Reed turning 3!

He has a rough life doesn’t he.  Here he is “resting” after school while watching a movie he picked out.  He is a little addicted to Red Box.

We still have a lot to do around the house and Bryan is in charge of hanging things on the wall.  For some reason he doesn’t seem to like when I take this task on myself.  Deacon of course loves to help.

Proudly showing off Finley’s mirror.

During the week we have 2 days that Deacon doesn’t have school and those days are usually filled up too.  Recently we had a day where we stayed home all day and I loved it!  Deacon loves to play games so we played several games and Left, Right, Center is on of his favorites.  And yes, he dressed himself.

I’m not sure when it happened but it seems like overnight Finley became so big.

She has been up on her hands and knees like this for a couple of weeks rocking back and forth, but now she is actually starting to move…and I am so not ready for this!

I hope to post pictures and video from Deacon’s baseball game soon.  3 year old baseball is so fun and entertaining.

Saturday night before Deacon went to bed he set out a carrot for the Easter Bunny.

The back deck seemed fitting for this since we have two huge rabbits behind our house.

Easter morning the kids, or at least 1, was excited to see what the Easter Bunny had left them.

Once Finley found her chocolate bunny she was entertained for a good 30 minutes trying to get into it.  This may mean that she has my love for chocolate, which would also explain why a 6 month old got a chocolate bunny…so I could eat it!

In no time Deacon was headed outside to hunt eggs.

Finley found an egg too.  She was quite entertained just shaking it and hearing the change.  Her brother wasn’t too fond of her having one of HIS eggs because she is too little.

After all the eggs were found it was time for Deacon to open them all up.  At our house the Easter Bunny puts change in almost all of the eggs to minimize the amount of candy.  And as much as Deacon loves candy he actually likes getting change better to put in his piggy bank.

Here he is checking out his findings.

This year was the first year that we have not went back to Illinois or had my family here for Easter.  We had some friends who do not have family here in Arkansas either so we decided to host Easter lunch at our house with 3 other families.

I of course didn’t get many pictures, but after lunch we had an egg hunt with a ton of eggs for 6 kids.

We are so blessed to have such great friends and it was so great to celebrate Easter with these families.

We had a great (and busy) Easter weekend!