Spring Break

The first week of April was spring break for me so Colby, Kimber and I took the opportunity to head to California to visit Brittany, Patrick, Royce, AubRee, Grace and Kruz.  It was so good to see all those guys.  We had a great time the whole week.  I am not sure how Kimber liked riding two whole days in the car but I liked the chance to visit with Colby there and back. 

We did much shopping while there, got new Easter dresses and baby clothes for Kimber and Meredith's new little baby that will be here  any day.  Brittany cooked us good food and  we spent a little time at the beach.  The water was not warm but it was fun to just hang around and lay in the sun.  Sadly Patrick ended up having to work lots while we were there so we didn't get to see much of him. 

The beach was nice.  I went one day by myself and had a good old laying out, sunning day.  I did give myself a bit of a scare though.  I had some crackers I thought I would share with the birds so I threw out a few crumbs and instantly I was surrounded by flocks of seagulls and pigeons.  Those birds were not nice.  They just kept getting closer and closer to me and all I could imagine was the Alfred Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, hoping I was going to get off the beach alive.

We had a fun visit with Royce and AubRee and loved seeing them and the kids.  Grace has her ears pierced now and Kruz has grown so much!!!  He kept doing this really funny laugh down in his throat and cracking us all up.  We did some bowling with them and Grace was quite a bowler.  A few times Royce had to bowl a ball down the lane to hit her ball into the pins because her ball was going pretty slow.  

It was Easter Sunday the day after we got home so Jim came up and Colby and Jim stayed at our house for Easter.  Here they are after church.  We walk through the Salt Lake temple grounds to and from church and right now the flowers are amazing.  You can see a few of them in this picture.  

I must thank Jimmey for letting me steal Colby and Kimber away for a week. I am sure it was quite a quiet week for him.  Thanks to Brittany and Patrick for blowing up their gigantically large mattress so Colby and I had somewhere to sleep and for taking good care of us while we were there.  Thanks to Royce and AubRee for arranging their schedule so we could spend some time with them.  And thanks to Russell for letting us take his car on our trip and for financing some of our trip.  Thanks to my dad who started long ago buying my sisters and I Easter dresses, a tradition I feel really good about carrying on....and thanks to the Lord for our safe travels to and from California. 

WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME! 

The Exodus Continues

Whether we like it or not, Royce and AubRee left for California today.  I am a bit teary eyed once again.  We have been so happy to have them here, so close to us.  Royce has just three months of school left and he will be a real live optometrist.  That has got to be a pretty exciting milestone to look toward.  Russell was out of town most of this week but I was able to spend some last fun times with them.  I went over Valentine's night and watched the kids while Royce and AubRee had an actual date night. Think they had a fun time
Last night we went to Juicy Berry for Grace's actual birthday: 

Always a smile on little Grace's face, she is a little ray of sunshine, (usually).

Four years old today.

This morning I went over to help them get ready to leave and they were mostly ready to go but  I did get this cute picture of the sleepy kids:

Sleepy little angels

 Russell got home from a business trip just in time to repack and head to California with them, to help them by driving their pickup.  We had one last lunch together and then it was time to tell them goodbye, good bye Royce, AubRee, Grace and Kruz, we love you and will miss you. Thanks for all the fun times together.

Getting ready to load into the car and head to California.

I think we are going to have to hog-tie Colby and Jim to Provo so they don't leave also!!!!

What a Busy Weekend

We were all over this weekend.  We started here at home, drove to  Meredith's house then to Eric's house, then back home.  Friday night we had a super fun birthday party for Grace here at our house.  She went swimming with her little cousins and friend then came up to our condo for pizza, cake and ice cream and presents.  She was really sweet and kind to her guests. We had a Hello Kitty party and her mommy made her a really cute Hello Kitty cake.  Grace will be 4 this week, glad we got to have her party at our house.

Little Grace in the Chef Hat and Apron I made her for her birthday.





Saturday morning Russell and I drove to Gooding to spend the day with Meredith and her family.  We were able to go to one of Easton's basketball games and his blue and gold banquet that night.  He is a pretty cute little cub scout.   Sunday morning we drove to visit Eric, Chandra and their girls.  They have a new house I hadn't seen so was able to see it and see all the hard work they have done on it.  It was a fun weekend.  

The Exodus Begins

Several years ago Brittany left our little town of Victor, ID to spend the summer in Alaska.  Colby was playing in a softball game near Rexburg and Brittany stopped by the game to tell her good bye.  It was a sad day for those two, much crying was going on by the girls but also by me....well tonight we relived that once again.  Brittany and Patrick are moving to California tomorrow and tonight was the last chance Brittany and Colby had to be together.  It was pretty sad for the girls once again. I wish I could find the picture from several years ago to post but had no luck finding it.  Here are the girls tonight spending time together for the last time.  It was a sad time for them and for me.  It is hard to see these friends tell each other goodbye.

Brittany, Colby and baby Kimber

 A sad night for the girls.

Patrick and Jim say goodbye, not such a sad time for them.....

Wow, how things have changed!  Brittany and Colby both have husbands now that we love and Colby has a baby also.  I am glad the girls still love each other so much, it is sweet to see.  We are lucky that Meredith also came down for the weekend to see Brittany off.  It is so good to have our family together.  Eric came down last weekend to see Brittany and Patrick for one last time.  So glad our children love each other and support each other, it does my heart good!

Good Job Honey!

It seems that Russell's employer is always downsizing....I guess it is the way of the world.  I just wanted to give him a shout out because he recently survived another round of downsizing as his position was eliminated.  He was given a new job, which brings more responsibility and a  larger area to be in charge of and a vote of confidence for his work ethic and leadership abilities.  Way to go Honey, I love you and am so thankful to have you as my friend, spouse and the dad of all our wonderful family. 

Such a Week

To start off, two of our nephew's wives had sweet little babies last week, two days apart I think.  We were happy about the save arrival of  Nora and Jet, grandchildren of my two older sisters.  What fun to welcome such sweet little babies to our family.
We Barneys were busy ourselves...we had a baby shower for our own little granddaughter, Kimber, who will be here any day now, my mom and I sang in church and we had Red Neck Monday yesterday.  I was a bit lame-o and took my camera to the baby shower but did not have anyone take any photos so that was sad.  It was as fun party though, Meredith was here with Sadie, Saria, and Easton, (although there were no boys at the shower, so Easton, Russell, Jim and Royce has a boy afternoon,) and my mom and sisters, Rae Jean and Julie were at the shower.  Lots of Jim's family, his mom, Kristen, both his grandmother's, Melba and Peggy, his aunts and cousins and sister Ashleigh, were at the party so it was a fun time.  We had some family friends there as well, and collectively Colby and Kimber received lots of nice gifts and feel a little better prepared to bring Kimber home from the hospital.
Mom and I sang in my sacrament meeting Sunday afternoon.  We sang Did You Think to Pray.  My sweet visiting teacher Anna, played the piano for us.  It was kind of fun because Colby and Jim, Brittany, and Royce, AubRee, Grace and Kruz came to my church to hear us sing.  I guess we did okay, several sisters in the ward said they were a  bit teary eyed during the song, (hopefully because of the message of the song, not the bad singing!)

When Jim and Colby moved to Utah, to go to school at BYU we started a little tradition called Red Neck Saturday where we spend some time at Smith and Edwards,( a crazy store north of Salt Lake, that has everything in the world you could ever want to buy), followed by dinner at Famous Dave's BBQ.  (Famous Dave's is one of my favorite places to eat, just saying.) Anyway, since Monday was a holiday and I wasn't working and Russell wasn't working and Patrick wasn't working and Brittany wasn't working and Jim didn't have school we decided it was going to be Red Neck Monday and had fun spending the day together.  We started out with breakfast at IHOP.   

First meal of the day...

 Followed by a quick trip to RC Willey to get Colby a rocking chair for when the baby comes, a daddy tradition, that Russell has done for most of the mommies in our family.

the chosen recliner, rocker for Colby and Kimber

all together

 Then headed to ...

an awesome store

two handsome hunks

ice fishing tent

ice fishing with friends

our sweet Kimber

 We found some fun little Wrangler jeans and a sweet little cowgirl shirt for Kimber then we headed to

the yummiest place to eat, great baked beans, coleslaw and cornmeal muffins

the gang

humm wonder what they are thinking about

started Red Neck Monday eating and ended it eating........

 where we ate the trash can lid lunch which was really yummy.

This video is really funny of Patrick trying out the recliners at RC Willey made for the old folks.  It actually lifts you upright so you are almost standing when it is done moving.

It was a fun day together, thanks kids for sharing it with us. 

 Love you all, Eric, Chandra, Ali, Myah, Royce, AubRee, Grace, Kruz, Blake, Lindsey, Caleb, Spencer, Ethan, Meredith, Wes, Saria, Easton, Sadie, Brittany, Patrick, Colby, Jim and baby Kimber.  Especially love you Russell!!!!

My Great Idea.....

I had the great idea for Christmas this year to make all my gifts and so started way back in the summer knitting, crocheting and embroidering, making Family Home Evening lessons for kids, and food storage notebooks and meals for each family, sadly, that was not soon enough and I found myself most mornings in December at 5 am out in the living room knitting away and then again while watching TV at night and sometimes in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep.  What a surprise I gave myself when it was time to wrap the gifts for my sweet sister in laws only to find that I hadn't quite finished embroidering one of the dish clothes I had planned to give away, so another late night was a head of me. Well, I ended up in Bear Lake still at it, knitting at all hours of the day and night.  I was sick though so it gave me an excuse to stay in bed and knit.  Here are some photos of the headbands I knit and crocheted for each of my daughters, daughter in laws and granddaughters, (except Meredith who never wants her photo taken ,you little stinker, and somehow I missed taking a picture of Lindsey, sorry)

Sadie-pants

Saria and Grace

Colby and Brittany

Myah, Chandra and Ali

Grace and AubRee



One thing that is cool about these headbands is that the buttons are from a stash my mom had at her house left over from their Munson's Grocery Store in Escalante, UT, sort of sweet little remembrance of Grandpa and Grandma Munson.  I am posting these pictures to remind myself not to be part of this insanity again, it was a nice idea that grew way out of proportion.....and took over my life. HA!