Our new house

Picture of the front of the house. The flower beds need some major TLC, but they looked that way when we moved in, so I don't know. The house I lived in until I was in High School was a red brick house.


This is a picture of the house right across the street. Their yard is immaculate and very beautiful, but they have a full time landscaper. Rumor has it they own a potato plant down the road, that's why I always smell potatoes.


The backyard


Poor Bronco has to be tied up in the back. He wasn't very happy about the arrangement at first, he whined all the time!


One of the kids' favorite things is this dirt pile.


The living room. It's huge!!


The kitchen, dining room and office.


The kitchen has lots of cupboard space, only problem is they are all spread out and I don't know where anything is.


The family room downstairs. Once again, it's a huge room!!


This room is like a second living room upstairs, actually I don't know what to call it, so I just call it the wierd room, for obvious reasons. One wall has a huge mirror on it, the wood paneling across the ceiling, and the spiral staircase and especially that light!!



This room is downstairs. I don't know what to call it, so I call it the other weird room. Rumor has is that there used to be a bowling lane downstairs and judging by this room, I wouldn't be surprised. I think we'll turn it into a roller skating rink Ha Ha.


This room is probably my favorite room, I've always wanted a food storage room this size. When we build our house, I hope to have a room like this, only designed my way!!


Jess told me that I never post pictures of myself. I told him that's because I'm always the one taking the pictures. So, I used the huge mirror in the weird room to take a picture of myself. So, here it is, yours truly!!

Move to Blackfoot, ID

Wow, what a crazy 2 months it has been!!! Jess got a call for a job interview in Pocatello the first of March. Since he still didn't have a steady job, we decided to go interview, but didn't hold out too much hope of getting the job. Actually, looking back, I realize now that as soon as he told me he was interviewing, I knew that we would be moving. I think my Heavenly Father was preparing me, because I didn't want to move!!! I loved living in Middleton!!! I just passed it off as my silly imagination. I told myself and everyone else that it probably wouldn't happen. They were interviewing 10 and only hiring one, chances weren't good. Well, March 25th, Jess got a call and they were offering him the job. We were both so shocked!!! They wanted to know whether he accepted the job by the next day, so we had to make a quick decision. As much as I didn't want to do it, I knew instantly that it was what we needed to do. The job offer was really good too. A secure job (well, as secure as a job can be in these crazy times), a significant pay raise, and since it's a state job, we get state benefits (coming from no benefits, how could we say no). Anyways, Jess called and accepted the job and they wanted him to start in 3 weeks. We suddenly had a lot to do!!! We put our home in Middleton up on the market (that was one sad day, I loved my house, neighborhood, school district, 7th ward and all the people there, and especially my friends!!!) I pretty much loved everything about living in Middleton and my life there, and I didn't want to change any of it. So, with many tears, and a lot of praying, we started looking for something to rent in Pocatello. We couldn't find anything that would suit the needs of our family. Time passed and Jess had to start working over there and we still hadn't found anything. He ended up staying in Shelley (about 45 minutes away) with his sister and coming home on the weekends. I was getting discouraged!! As much as I didn't want to move, I didn't want to feel like a single mom either. If I hadn't known without a shadow of a doubt that this decision was right, I might have changed my mind, but since I knew it was right, I knew everything would work out! It did, we broadened our search to looking in Blackfoot (about 20 minutes away) as well as Pocatello for something to rent, and found an older house that suited our needs in Blackfoot. May 7-9 was set as the moving date. We took the kids out of school in Middleton and started them here with only 3 weeks left, but they have done amazingly well with the adjustment. I am slowly adjusting and getting settled here. Jess seems to really like his job, so that is a definite plus. I am trying to get some pics of the house to post, so maybe later today I will post those.

April Fools

I know, I'm like 2 weeks behind, but here's the April Fools joke our friends played on us. We had just told everyone that Jess got a job in Pocatello and that we were moving. Our good friend built our house after the fire, and he set our garage code. We've never changed it, so after Jess left for basketball at 6 while the rest of us were sleeping, they got in our garage and did this.



Here's a close up of the sign and what it said. "Moving Sale" "Rock Bottom Prices" "Everything New Since the Fire" "We don't want to haul it all to "Poky Tato" "Lighten Our Load" "Make an offer"



I thought it was quite funny!!!

Easter 2010

We were at Jess's sister's house for Easter and General Conference weekend. Here's the kids checking out what the Easter Bunny brought them.



Camille loved all the candy!!



Easter Egg Hunt

Cordell



Jennifer



Landon



Camille

Random pics

Camille chugging. Ignore the messy floor in the background, we had 26 people at our house that day!!



Landon loves his baby sister!!



Camille had a rough couple of days. She was running full steam and couldn't stop and ran into the arm of a couch. It gave her a shiner on her right eye!! Then 2 days later, she was playing with her dad and fell and scraped her left eye on the piano. She looked pretty beat up...I guess it's the age, though she seems more accident prone than any of the others!!!



Jennifer had Camille laughing so hard, it was so cute!!

Barrus Family Reunion

WOW!!!!

We had a great family reunion with all of Jess's family. His sister came to visit from Alaska, so we all got together for the weekend. It was Jess's mom's birthday and between celebrating that, Easter, and getting family pictures for the first time in 7 years, it was a full day!!! We started out by the guys going to shoot whistle pigs and the girls and kids going swimming at the Y. I forgot to get pics. The guys came and got the kids and took them to get lunch while the ladies went to the spa!! We got haircuts and pedicures, then went to lunch at Texas Roadhouse. We had a great time. Then we all met back at our house for an Easter Egg hunt at the park down the road.

All the grandkids before the Easter Egg hunt. There are 16 of them!!



The 7 younger kids lined up!!



The 9 older kids lined up. I love how Kaden(13), the oldest grandchild, is flexing (it's something Jess would have done at that age!!!).



Cordell found the golden egg (it had $25 in it)




The guys got some horseshoes in!!

Ben and Kaden



Jess and Jared



In 2004 Jess and his three sisters all had a baby in order. The oldest had a girl in January, then we had Jennifer in March, Jess's next sister had a girl in April, and the youngest sister had a boy in November

Here are the 2004 grandkids, as grandma calls them



Jennifer and her two favorite cousins, one a month older, one a month younger



After the Easter Egg hunt, we came back to our house and put grandma on a scavenger hunt for presents with a grandkid at each station. Once again, I didn't get any pics of this!

Then we started making dinner and getting ready for family pictures. The last time we had family pics, there were 6 grandkids, now there are 16, so it was a little crazier this time!!

Jesse's oldset sister and her family



Us



Tia and her family



Karen (the youngest) and her family



Grandpa and Grandma




Grandpa and Grandma with the grandkids. It was quite funny. Grandpa is holding the two youngest who are both screaming and is quite grumpy, and grandma is laughing her head off about it!!



The 16 grandkids



Everyone



My sister-in-law Tia made these cute skirts for all the girls. Aren't they darling?!?!



After pics we ate a nice Easter dinner, sang happy birthday to grandma, and watched a slide show put together by Jess's sister. It was a great day, and fun to be together with the whole Dan Barrus family, if not a little crazy!!