Thankful

It has been a fun but long few weeks around here. We have had lots of family in town but also lots of sick kids. 

First the good. Our niece had her first baby 2 weeks ago. The kids are in love and just wanted to hold her. Hayden is so tiny; she's smaller than Beck was when he was born. I was most surprised how much Beck wanted to hold her, but he didn't want to give her up. Camden was sick, so he didn't get to hold her until he was better a week later. 

 This year for Thanksgiving we hosted and had Grandma and Grandpa Arrington over to eat. I have to say I was pretty nervous to cook a whole turkey, but with a lot of help from Brad, it turned out great. We had lots of good food to eat. 

The day wasn't just filled with lots of good food, but we played games as well. We started a family Heros game (it's a fun game on the computer).

 Emery made a game up as well. She called it Turkey Touchdown. I'm not sure any of us understood how to actually play the game, but she loved that we all played her game. 

We also taught Grandma and Grandpa to play Ticket to Ride. After games we went and the "The Star". It was a pretty cute movie that all of the kids loved. 

For the not so fun part of the week, every kid got sick. It started before Thanksgiving break with Camden. Next came Beck then Jacks then Emery. Even today when the kids should be going to school, Emery and Jacks are home sick. Brad and I have yet to get it. We are just waiting for our turn. Maybe we got lucky and it wont hit us. 

Beck's Play

 As I mentioned Beck was doing a school drama presentation of "The Miracle Worker", and this past week they had 3 performances. He was 'man voice' and had 2 lines, but he delivered them perfectly. The play wasn't too bad for a Jr. High play. We just like that he has found something he likes to do and hopefully he keeps working at it. 

Also this weekend we had the kids do some extra chores around the house. Jackson was on cleaning the kitchen wall which has black marks from the chairs. They picked out the chores they wanted and at first Jackson was excited about his chore...at first. It was a lot bigger chore than he expected it to be, but he stuck with it and did a really good job. 

Past Week

Other than the other days I've written about, not too much has happened in the Barnes house this week. Beckham is gone pretty much from wake up to bed time working on Drama. He's in a play for school and the production is this weekend. I for one will be glad to have him home more, that is until the next play that he tries out for. 

Jacks is good at falling asleep where ever he is when he gets tired the other day he fell asleep on the dogs. Both dogs like being warm, so they really didn't mind. Don't they look so cute?

 While Jacks was sleeping Emery made a lost poster for him for fun. I just like how she spelled things; like serriuse aka serious. Also the reward was a kiss and hug for finding him. 

Halloween

Camden won the Disney Day best costume the other day and school, and becuase of that he got this prize. He was so excited to get it from the teacher today. He got a Jelly Belly dispenser with 2 lbs of jelly beans, a Mickey Mouse and "The Nightmare Before Christmas". 

 The kids were all excited for Halloween this year. We tired to  make most of the costumes this year too. Emery was Evie from the Disney movie "Descendants." We made Camden's Pennywise costume. Beckham was Scarecrow from the Batman movies, and we made his mask and tore up a shirt. His was an easy one to do. Jackson was a Ghostbuster and Brad made his proton pack. 

 This is the proton pack. 

We live in a great area. There are lots of housed with lights on which meant we were only out for a little bit and the kids were able to get a big haul of candy. They'll all have sugar highs for a few weeks before we get rid of it all. 

Meridian Temple

Yesterday we went to Meridian to attend the open house for the temple that was just built there. The kids were too young (or not born) for the Twin Falls one, so it was nice to be able to take them through this time to see it and hopefully remember it more. 

 Emery was really excited to see her cousins and spend a few hours with them. 

 The whole group that was able to come. 

 The Temple was beautiful and big. It was 3 levels, so a lot of floors to walk up and down. 

Not an easy task, but we all made it in the photo. It was a quick trip but a very good one. The kids loved it. 

This Past Week of Fun

On Monday Jacks started to do his homework. I wanted to read while I helped him (he will usually do it alone and just ask for help to spell a word every once in a while). He wasn't saying much and when I looked up I saw him like this... I was some hard work apparently. 

 Friday was Disney Day for the boys at school and Camden dressed up as Carl from "Up". There was a contest for the best dressed and he won! He got the idea because when we went to Disneyland he bought the Grape Soda pin. We thought it was a good idea. 

This past month I have been filling in for a coworker who was out which meant I works 40 hours for 4 weeks. Kudos to the moms who can do that all the time but no way I want to do night shift 40 hours again. It seemed like I never saw Brad or the kids. So since Friday was my last day of this schedule we decided to have a family day Saturday and just have fun with the kids. We went to lunch first then finally tired out Putters Mini golf. It as actually a lot of fun and the kids did great. Jacks would get mad when his ball didn't go in the hole and Beck got kind of competitive and wanted to win, even though there wasn't a prize for winning. After we came home and played Exploding Kittens and Clue and made nachos for dinner. It was a fun day and we're all most excited for my work schedule to get back to normal 

 This is a prime example of how 'fun' it is to take pictures with kids. Either they all aren't looking or their looking but ones eyes are closed or someone is making a lame face. After 4 tries I gave up. They are still cute kids though.

Leaves and Costumes

 It's fall and that means that the leaves are falling. We don't actually have a tree in out backyard, but we get a LOT of leaves from our neighbors tree. Camden and Jacks are either best friends for a day or non stop fighting all day, there is no in between and thankfully today they were friends. Cam made a small pile of leaves for them to jump and play in. They both had fun doing it and the best part, no fighting.

 Emery went to a Halloween party at a friends this weekend. Instead of going in the costume she bought for Halloween she had to make up a new one. I guess she didn't want her friends to see her in it more than once. This idea took a good 30 min or more for her to decide on, it's a soccer player. She is going to be such a fun teen girl. 

 The boys went to Trunk 'r Treat with Grandma and Grandpa Arrington this weekend. Jacks was so excited to finally wear his costume. He is a Ghost-buster and Brad made his proton pack. He asked for a mustache as well. 

One of the kids there was a ghost, so Jackson took care of him. He thought it was so much fun to use his pack. 

Pumpkins

Sunday we carved/painted our pumpkins. I have to admit that I really don't like carving pumpkins and I'd much rather paint them but this year the boys wanted to carve. I old them they have to do most of it on their own. Jacks didn't like the feeling of the guts on his hands. 

They turned out great. 

 Brad and Emery's, she did a Minion. 

 Jacks', Cam's, Beck's and mine. We did help Jacks cut and cut the tops off all of them but the boys did the rest on theirs. No cut off fingers so we are good. 

Update on Beck's goal to a rabbit. He actually kept his room clean all week and did all the chores he needed to. He was excited because he got the money they earned from growing pumpkins and told me how much money he could have in 6 months if he earned the same amount each week. Too bad he won't earn that much all the time, but he is still motivated.

Fun Weekend

This weekend was a fun one. Brad, Cam, Beck Teresa ,Greyson and I went to Utah for the Imagine Dragons concert. We were a little worried because it was at USANA, which is an outdoor theater, but it wasn't too bad. It was cold, but once the main band started and we were on our feet dancing along it wasn't bad. It was sold out, so there was a lot of people and cars. They put on a really good concert and played about 20 songs, so it was so worth any cold there was. 

This is Beck's favorite group, so he really got into it. He sang and danced to all of the songs. 

The next day we did another escape room which was a ton of fun. 

While we were gone Emery and Jacks spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Barnes. Emery has fun delivering pumpkins and going to DQ. Then the next day they went to Grandma and Grandpa Arrington's and went to a petting zoo at CSI. 

They planted herbs. 

And painted faces. 

They even shot arrows. Emery was proud her's made it in the hay. 

Jacks had a hard time pulling the bow all the way.

We all had a busy fun weekend even though we weren't all together. We did spend Saturday night and Sunday just hanging out as a family.