Cash

Before it started to snow the field behind was mowed one more time. Cash spent all morning out there watching the tractor. This picture is just Priceless!

Pumpkin Patch

Almost the whole family was able to go to the pumpkin patch this year. We had a fun night picking our pumpkins, eating pizza and watching the Utes play. Look at this bunch! We're a good lookin' crew!!!
My two little pumpkins! Cash was just amazed at how many "punkins" there were.

Here's our family photo for the year! ; ) We were going to get some taken this fall but then baby number three decided that he/she was needed so hopefully next year!!!

Uncle Mike showed the kids how it was done back on the farm. They all had hay in their mouths!
Isn't it adorable how Cash and Rian have their arms around each other? They are such great buddies.

Love this picture.

A WHOLE HAND!!!!

This has been along time coming. I had the hardest time with Ava turning 5. She has turned into everything I could ever imagined she would. Ava is my "best buddy" as she puts it! These past 5 years have been full of so my memories here are just a few.... Here is my sweet Ava Jae Barnes on the day she was born all 8lbs 15oz of her! I had the easiest pregnancy with her and a very nice easy labor. I will never forget when everyone left us alone we looked at each other and smiled. I will never forget a single second of that day. It changed our lives forever.
Ava on her 1st birthday! What a fun birthday, I made her a very cute monkey cake that she wanted nothing to do with! She licked the frosting alittle bit but then she was over it.

Lucky girl to be able to celebrate her 2nd birthday with the Jacobs side of the family. We were all in Denver for Bonnie and Wes's wedding. Ava loves her colorado cousins!

Ava turned 3 in Disneyland!! Our first family vacation and we went all out and headed to Disneyland! What a fun time I had showing Ava and Dave all around my favorite place. Ava wore a special birthday pin at the parks everyone would tell her Happy Birthday she thought she was extra special!

4 years old! This year marked the first friend party. Ava chose to have a Under the Sea party. Grandma Vicky made an awesome mermaid cake!

A Whole Hand!! About 8 months before her birthday Ava started to say "When I turn a whole hand I'm...." It has been one of the funniest things that girl has said to us! I love that she is so smart to realize that 5 and a whole hand are one in the same. As soon as she woke up on her birthday we had to open presents, she just couldn't wait any longer

Birthday spankings!

Ava surprised me this year when she asked for a dinosaur party. Ava is very girlie but she loves her dinosaurs. We had a family party at the Dinosaur Museum. Of course my camera decided to die that day so this is the only picture I have of her at her party.

We love you Ava. You have the sweetest personality, the most gentle heart, and a fierce stubborn streak! You have made our lives so much better. We are so proud of the amazing girl you are growing into. All our love Mom and Dad.

Black Island Farm

October couldn't have come fast enough for us Halloween lovers in this family! Ava was so excited that we put up our decorations the last week of September. I know we are crazy here in this house. If Ava had it her way it would be Halloween all year long. So when Aunt Blythe invited us to Black Island farm we were thrilled! We went the very first day they opened, it was perfect we were the only ones there. The kids had the run of the place. They had a huge pumpkin bouncy house, a train, corn maze, enormous slides, swings and animals. We are actually headed back this weekend with the whole family to go on the hayride and get our pumpkins. Ava and Koi in the bouncy house. I'm so glad they were the only ones in the bouncy house. its scary enough with the three of them in there I couldn't imagine bigger and more kids with them.
Cash going down the slide. Normally he thinks he has to stand up while sliding but he did pretty good here.

We tried so hard to get all three at the top of the slide holding hands but that didn't happen! This is as close as it came.

Ava in the corn box. I love this so much more then sand!

Cash, Ava, and Koi riding the train. At first Ava didn't want Cash to ride with her, but then she was so sweet and told Cash she would ride with him to keep him safe! My heart melted just a little. : )

My two rockstars!

Look at this slide its HUGE! Grandma Jack, Blythe, and Dave were brave to take the kids on this.

Dave and Cash at the bottom of the slide. Looks like fun boys.

There were two pony swings and......

This shark swing! I have never seen a tire swing like this!

It seems we have fun activities planned every weekend in October, I love it! Last week we went to this cute train station with tiny trains just for the little ones. But like normal I didn't have my camera or my phone! Good thing Grandma Jack, and Blythe are so on top of things!!On the 16th we are having Ava's 5th birthday party! I can't believe I will have a five year old. I'm having a hard time with that one!!!

BIG news around here!

Dave and I decided that we were done having kids. We have a beautiful daughter and a crazy yet handsome son. I knew I was done when everyone else around me was getting pregnant friends, sister, sister in law. I didn't get the feeling of "OOH I want another one." I was happy with the two little ones I have what else could we ask for right? WRONG!!! Despite being on birth control we still manged to have a little surprise, or should I say BIG surprise!! I took two at home tests and they both came up positive. I still wanted to be sure and go to the Dr because I was sure the tests were wrong. They took a test at the Dr's office and they told me it was negative. The nurse asked if I was OK with that and my answer was "yes" My Dr reassured me that if I was taking my pills I couldn't get preggo. So I get home tell Dave and start making lunch when all of a sudden my phone rings, guess who? The nurse called me back and said this to me " I was needed on the phone with a patient before I cleaned up your test and when I turned around I noticed that your test was positive" I was speechless. I had to go back in for blood work to get a for sure answer. We had to wait 24 hours until we would have the results. That was a killer! Very tense in our house as you could imagine. I was at the park with my wonderful friends when I got the news that I was 100 percent pregnant. I was floored! Now I had to go home and tell Dave that yep we are having another one. After the shock wore off about a week and half later we couldn't have been more excited about this baby. We figured our first was a surprise and look at how beyond amazing she has turned out. I started feeling like crap right off the bat. I have been so sick from about 11am until I went to bed at night. I also started to notice things that shouldn't start happening until later on in my pregnancy. I went in for my standard 8 weeks check up everything looked great, until the ultrasound!!! My Dr and I both got very quite as we noticed TWO babies!! My heart started racing until I heard these words " looks like one baby has died but the other one is perfect with a strong heartbeat." Then my heart stopped I just couldn't comprehend that. My Dr explained to me that that is very common but kind of rare since I was on birth control to get pregnant at all let alone with twins. I think I was in shock because it really didn't hit me until a couple of days later. I had lost a baby. I was such a wreck. I was heart broken that my baby was gone and I was so certain that something would happen with the other baby I wouldn't sleep and was so emotional about it all, until my wonderful husband put his arm around me and said "This baby is meant to be our family and we will have three beautiful children." I don't know why that made everything better but it did. I love Dave for always being there for me and saying just what i needed to hear. My all day sickness doesn't hit me as early but I have still been pretty sick, but I couldn't have asked for better family and friends who take good care of us. So that is our BIG news story. May 8Th can't come fast enough! I can't wait to meet this little one who was so determined to be with us.

Back to SCHOOL

Ava's first day of school! She had to wear warm clothes since it was raining and cold. She loves this jacket and jeans so thats what she wore. So cute!!!
Cash was trying to escape! Sorry dude nothing gets past me!!!

After her first day Ava was off to her play group. When she came home it was straight into her jammies and she passed out on the couch.

Labor Day Weekend

Last minute trip to Denver over the holiday. I couldn't have been a better get away! It was so nice to see Matt and his family, plus Bonnie and her family and Dad and Carla. I would have been great if Gavin and his parents were there. We flew out Saturday afternoon, I was a little worried about flying with Cash, he has to move! But, Ava showed him how to open and close the shade over the window and look out, he loved that until he discovered the trays on the back of each seat, luckily there was a little boy his same age in front of him. We ran into some turbulence and that put CASH out. Ava is such an awesome traveler, she has been flying since she was one month old! The kids love to ride the train at DIA. It was so funny they were riding in the stroller but they still held on to the poles while the train moved! We spent our visit playing rockband, going to church, watching movies, going to the Denver Zoo, playing at Mcdonalds, cuddling with Nala and Nicodemus,loving on Owen and relaxing with Nietos. I love my family! Dad loves using the timer on his camera! He had us all climb up this hill and get ready while he placed the camera on a trash can! Seriously so embarrassing!!
Dad with his three gorgeous granddaughters.

Heres the manly men! Jax, Cash, dad, Luke, and Nicodemus.

This is the morning we flew out. I couldn't get enough of these two dogs. I love them!! Bonnie and Wes have done such an amazing job training these two. The best behaved dogs ever!

Alyssa, Kylie and Ava playing at the park.

Dad pushing Ava and Cash on the swings. I think Dad did 100 underdogs that night.

Cash and Jax at the zoo

Ava loving Nala.

I'm in Love

Dave and I really wanted to take Ava to see THE LION KING on BROADWAY. So when we found some tickets at the right price we couldn't pass it up. I took Ava shopping to get a brand new dress, she picked this out, she has such an eye for fashion! I did have to cut it apart and sew it so it would fit her, dang her she is just a petite little thing! What a special night to spend one on one time with her. I feel really bad that she doesn't have me all to herself like she use to. It was a night we will both remember. She can't stop talking about. I love my Miss Ava Jae!!

All the loves of my life. I'm so lucky to have these peeps in my life. I love them all more then any of them can imagine.

Oh Cash! I think he loves his bouncy more now then he did when he was little. He was getting some serious air bouncing on this, it scared me so he can only use this on the carpet!

Isn't this how you mow your lawn?

We make yard work a whole family affair. Cash loves to help mow the lawn, most of the time he helps push, but I think he was running out of steam so what better way to finish then hitchin a ride on Dad's back.

Jacobs Cousins came to town!!

We were so excited for our annual visit from the Jacobs Family. We had a fun weekend planned. We spent an afternoon at the Tree House Museum.All the cousins in a TeePee.


The best part of our day at the museum was story time. All the big kids were chosen to be apart of the story. What better story then Allosaurus the Dinosaur. If you know these kids it fit perfectly!!! Jaxon was the main dinosaur, he had the best ROAR!!!

Miss Ava as a dinosaur

Off to the knights table. The kids dressed up and pretended to be royalty!

All Cash did was run around like crazy. So lucky that Grandma Vicky and Aunt Candace were there to help keep an eye on Ava while I was chasing the little bugger! He did find a drinking fountain that occupied his time, but running + water = throwing up!! Don't worry he was fine.

Cash also liked this giant chess set.


Next, we were off to Grandma Vicky's place to ride the horses!! We had fun BBQing and horseback riding. All these kids are big animal lovers. They were pros at riding.

Heres two of our cowgirls. Kylie was able to get new boots this year, very fancy!

Love this picture! It does make me sad that we live so far away from these loves.

Kylie the cowgirl. Kylie has been taking riding lessons and it showed she didn't even need the lead rope. Wow how she has grown, I remember when she was a little tiny baby how in love with her I was and still am. I was so blessed to be able to spend so much time with her and watch her grow, she has grown into the most beautiful girl with the best attitude. I have to thank her for blessing me with the love for children if it wasn't for her I don't think I could have had the confidence to take care of my kids. Kylie truly is an amazing girl. I love you Ky Ky!!

After going to the rodeo, Ava wants to be a "Whoopie Girl" They are the girls who ride around with flags with the sponsors logos. Grandma Vicky made her a flag to practice with.

Cash LOVED riding! He doesn't cry but he would when his turn was over. Who ever thought that Dave would be on a horse?! He would do anything for his kids.

All three girls riding Jake.