I know this is a little late, but I wanted to write a little about Mother's Day. This year Jess's birthday fell on Mother's day. We had his parents out to dinner and his dad made dinner for everyone. He did steaks on the grill, baked beans, onion rings, rolls, and cherry cheesecake. He said sorry this isn't a chic dinner, and I said I'm just glad anytime I get a break from making dinner. The kids made all kinds of cards and stuff at school and church to give to me. Cordell was making stuff at school, so he wrote on his calendar on the Friday before Mother's day to help him remember to bring them home. He wrote, git gifs for mothers day. Friday after school he kept being a pill and getting in trouble. That night he came to me and said, "mommy, I have to tell you something. I'm sorry for being naughty today. I'm going to be good now so that you can have a good Mother's Day." Well, I did have a good Mother's Day, and I'm so grateful to be married to a good man and father and to be a mother to four precious children.

April 2009

I love spring time!! Warm weather, Easter, General Conference, blooming flowers, bike rides. Our community had a month long event called Middleton Unplugged in March. The purpose was to unplug from electronic devices and plug back into the family. They had a different activity to do each night as a family. We also made a goal as a family not to turn on the tv or play the computer for the whole month of March. It was so awesome. We went on bike rides, made cookies, played board games, did yard work, looked at picture books, did spring cleaning, had barbeques with the neighbors, and stuff like every night as a family. About once a week, they also had a community sponsored event for the family. The kids loved it, and they rarely complained about not being able to watch tv. They would get the calendar out every day to see what we were going to do that night. It was probably the best month of our lives. Then came April and General Conference. We made sticky buns for breakfast Saturday morning, thanks to a tradition started by our friends the Woodruffs'. Landon calls them stinky bums. So, the kids tell everyone that we had stinky bums for breakfast, and that they are really good. That story President Monson told in his talk about the lady who had a seven year old boy, a five year old, a three year old, and a baby girl made me cry. That is my family right now. I can't imagine my precious kids starving and freezing and then one by one having to bury them. So many of the talks seemed to be about the importance of the temple and attending regularly. I know I need to do better. It's hard with little kids, especially a nursing baby, but the blessings are worth it. It was great to have Jess home all day Saturday and Sunday, and as you can see by the pictures, we spent most of the time between and after sessions playing outside. Easter was good. We took the kids to the Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, and did all the normal Easter stuff. Once again, it was nice to have Jess around on Sunday more than usual. We had a nice dinner and had Jess' dad out because his mom was in Alaska with his sister who just had a baby. Tomorrow Cordell has a program at school called the Kindergarten Rodeo that he's been practicing for. And Friday Jess takes his test. We'll be soooo glad to have that over with.

OK, I'm starting to figure this whole thing out, but I still have a lot to learn. I don't know how I got that one picture of Cordell's birthday to be that size, but I wish I could get them all to be that size. Does anyone have any suggestions? If anyone knows, I would appreciate it. Thanks!!

March 2009

I decided it was past time to do a new post, since the last one was 7 months ago. Camille Jean was born September 30th at 9:30 AM. She has been a joy and is a dream baby. She hardly ever cries, except for when she gets hungry. Which seems to be often, but I think that's just because hours seem to go by as fast as minutes. She is now starting to sit up and always has a smile for anyone who will give her attention. Landon is as full of energy as ever. He started Sunbeams this year and loves going to primary with his older brother and sister. He played in a little indoor soccer league this January and did pretty good considering he was one of the smallest out there. His favorite movie is Kung Fu Panda and he will quote the whole movie to you. Jennifer has loved going to preschool this year. She loves her baby sister and is always holding her and playing with her. She is excited for her birthday in two days and is having a princess party. So, we'll have to post pics of that. She is going to play t-ball this year with Cordell and Jesse is going to be their coach. Cordell loves School and his teacher says he's a model student. He's made lots of new friends and never wants to miss a day of school. He's excited for t-ball this spring and enjoyed cheering his dad's church ball team to the championship. Jesse has been with his new company for a year and a half and is enjoying the work there for the most part. He's studying to take his PE exam so he can be a Professional Engineer instead of an Engineer in Training. Quite a difference in title, and hopefully a difference in pay. He's actually stayed pretty busy at work even with the slow down in the economy, so we're thankful for that. Our wards got split in September two weeks before Camille was born, and we got put in a new ward they created. Jess got called to be in the bishopric, so that's been a challenge, but as always the Lord is blessing us. Somehow I make it through Sacrament Meeting every week with three kids and a baby by myself with just a few mishaps. Jess had fun this winter playing basketball and coaching Landon's soccer. He's excited for softball and to coach t-ball this Spring. He also has projects to work on in the yard, but nothing's new about that. I am still trying to recover and adjust to having four kids. It's a miracle when I find time to get the grocery shopping done. I've been in to help in Cordell's class a few times, and that has been interesting. I got called to be the 8-9 year old Activity Day leader, and that has been fun, and the girls all enjoy holding Camille.

I haven't spent the time yet to figure out how to customize everything. Those of you who have sent me your blogs all have cute backgrounds and stuff. Maybe someday I will, but for now I'm lucky to get this much done. Wow!!! What a crazy summer, but it's been fun. We've had either t-ball or softball every night Monday-Thursday and something almost every weekend since the first of May, but it's starting to slow down now. Cordell was sad for t-ball to be over, he loved it!! Jess's church softball team took second in the stake, and his city league team is in the tournament right now. They have 2 more games to win to be in the championship game, so we'll see. The kids also had swimming lessons for 3 hours every morning for the past 2 weeks. Cordell turned into quite the little fish swimming all over the pool and Jennifer and Landon got more confidence with the water. We've been going to the park almost every day for lunch and story time at the library once a week. Cordell is getting ready for kindergarten and Jennifer is getting excited but nervous to go to preschool. Landon is ready for his baby sister to come out of mommy's belly (So is mommy. This heat is killing me). The other day he was yelling at my tummy, "Baby sister come out. I want to see you." He is always patting and kissing my belly and talking to his baby sister. I'm afraid that when she is born he will be always wanting to hold her and kiss her and smother her. Hopefully she survives it.

January 2008

Wow!!! Another year has come and gone. 2007 was an eventful year for the Barrus Fam. It was one of the hardest that we've had in the 7 or 8 years we've been married, but also one of the best. In March Jess decided to change jobs and started working for an Engineering Company right here in Middleton. He loved the commute (3 minutes, 5 minutes in traffic if he went right before school started). It definately beat the commute of his previous job (30 minutes, or closer to 45 minutes if he got in traffic). We loved having him close by and able to come home for lunch sometimes. Unfortunately he didn't like the company and in October he quit. So, for three weeks he was unemployed. In November he started working temp for an engineering firm about 20-25 minutes from our house. They must have liked him enough to give him a job full-time. He started full-time with them about a week before Christmas. As all of you know, we had a house fire in September that left us homeless. Fortunately our bishop had a rental house that he let us move into that night. And our friends here made sure we had everything that we needed and a lot of extra wants too. Then our friends and family who live far away also sent stuff to help us out. We want to thank all of you for caring and thinking about us, and for all you did to help us out. Your love and support made a difficult time bearable and managable and buoyed us up to endure it. We have now been in our new house about a month and are slowly accumulating stuff to fill it. It's kinda funny that before the fire we had so much stuff and no where to put it. Now, with a bigger house and more and bigger closets and cupboards and not as much stuff, we have lots of empty space. I'm sure it won't take long to fill them up again though. We also got a puppy for the kids in February who they were scared to death of at first, but love it to death now. The night of the fire we left Rees at a friend's house and Cordell was crying and saying that he was going to miss Rees so much. Then, at the rental house, Rees went missing one day and after a day of her being missing, we thought we'd never see her again. Then, the next day, our friends who live about 3 miles from the rental house across the highway (for those of you who know Rachelle, it was her) saw a dog who looked like Rees hanging around their house and finally called us to see if it could be Rees, and we said actually she is missing. It was her, so we got her back. The kids and Jess were very sad that we might lose her, I was just sad that we put so much money into her and it would be wasted if we lost her. Anyways, we also adopted a stray dog that showed up on our porch at the rental house one night. His name is Chester. As if getting a new house and everything in it new, wasn't enough, Jess just got a new truck. His new company has a truck lease where they pay you so much a month to use your truck for jobs. His little Ranger didn't qualify, so his friend helped us find a Dodge Ram 1500 for a good deal. It's nice because it's a 4-door so our whole family can ride in it. It's also nice to have something that can pull our trailers. We had two trailers and nothing to pull them with. Jess said that he just felt tougher driving a tough truck. Well, whatever works. Anyways, 2007 was a year for lots of new things for our family.

Besides changing jobs twice this year and getting a new truck, Jess has enjoyed being young men's president, playing in two softball leagues, playing basketball, and he even joined the YMCA and played some raquetball and did some swimming. I think turning 30 made him feel old, but he can still hold his own in sports. He even hit quite a few home-runs this year, so he was proud of that. One of the highlights for Jess was the opportunity to take the youth on a trek at Martin's Cove. He was involved with the Second Rescue and loved to go back. He's even had other wards here call him for help with their trek. He didn't ever end up going hunting. For those of you who don't know, he was heading hunting the night of the fire, and that kinda changed his plans. That's what he gets for saying that only a death in the family would stop him from going hunting that week. I guess he should have added his house burning down to that list, huh? Anyways, I'm sure he'll get out this year and go.

I've stayed busy staying home with 3 kids being mom, cook, chauffeur and everything else that a mom does. I've enjoyed going to aerobics, except when I'm so sore I can hardly move. I also joined the YMCA to swim and started doing some running and biking. I ran a 5K in May and was training for a triathlon in August. It ended up that our friend planned a raft trip for the same day as the triathlon, so I decided to go rafting instead, which was a blast!! Anyways, I'm starting to train again and hope to do a triathlon this spring or summer. I finally got released from my calling in the cub scouts and got called to be the Primary Secretary. Which has been a fun but challenging calling. I love working with the kids. I've done more shopping the last few months than I think I've done my whole life. I'm so sick of shopping I could puke. It has been fun to get new stuff, but to get so much in so little a time has been overwhelming. The month before Christmas was the craziest of my life. I was trying to get everything ready to move back into the house, get ready for Christmas, and do everything for primary to be ready for the new year. Hopefully my kids didn't feel too neglected.

Cordell is 5 1/2, is in Preschool this year and loves it. He could have gone to Kindergarten this year, but we decided to wait a year and let him be the oldest instead of the youngest. Everyday when I drop him off, I say, "Cordell be a good boy today," and he says, "Mom, I'm always a good boy". His teacher has never told me otherwise so I guess he is. He is learning sign language in preschool and tells me he knows three languages, English, Spanish, and sign language. His Spanish is limited to what he has learned from watching Dora and Diego though. He learned how to ride his bike without training wheels and learned how to swim this summer. His goal this year is to tie his own shoes. We'll see about that one. He played soccer this year, and we decided that soccer is not his thing. He didn't like chasing after a ball that 10 other kids were trying to kick at the same time. So, he wants to try t-ball this year. He is a great older brother and lives up to the oldest child stereotype. He is a great help to me and a joy to have for a son.

Jennifer, almost 4, is our princess. The first of this year when asked her name, she would tell everyone very seriously that her name was princess. We would say isn't it Jennifer, and she would say no, it's Princess. We asked her when she was going to be Jennifer again and she said when she turned three, so on her birthday, she changed her name back to Jennifer. She is always trying to keep up with her older brother. I was trying and trying to get Cordell to memorize a part for a program, and she memorized it before he did. But the competition was good for him because he couldn't be outdone by his little sister and soon after memorized it. She is always trying to know things before Cordell. And she'll say, "I'm smart, I'm smarter than a 5th grader". (If you don't know, there's a game show on TV called Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?) She asks me so many questions every day that I wonder where she gets them all from. She has to know everything. Jennifer is now a sunbeam and is very excited to be in primary. Se is shy with people she doesn't know, but she is a sweetheart.

Landon, 2, is full of personality. He is a handful but he keeps us laughing. When asked what he wanted for Christmas, he would reply, "I want Candy." Only he would say caaannndeee like cookie monster would say coookkkie. He loved Halloween because all he had to do was hold out his bucket and say "Echo Tree" (trick or treat) and people gave him candy. He is a little copycat of his brother and sister and has to do everything that they do. He's a tough little dude, but he also has a very tender heart. He's always trying to help out. Any time I'm cooking he has a chair pulled over and is helping me. He is starting to potty train, and some days does really good. It will be a change to not have one in diapers.