WEDDING!!!!!

On April 18, 2009, my baby brother took a step that every big sister dreads and cherishes at the same time. Luckily, my brother picked well and therefore that day was all joy and celebration. Nikki is such a sweet, sweet girl with a good heart. Her two little boys are wonderful and I couldn't wish for better cousins for my children. I know that Josh and Nikki will have a wonderful life and I am so excited to have a new sister!
Also, like any good mommy, this post is going to be mostly about the flower girl, who I think stole the show! ;)

Abby and mommy waiting on pictures.

Aren't they so pretty?

Abby and Pappaw Lee (my mom's dad)-Doesn't he look handsome?

Abby "primping" before the wedding-yeah, that's what we'll call it-"primping"

Abby and Pops-she was upset here because she wanted to go run and play with Dominic and Isaiah and I had the audacity to make her stop and take a picture...

So pretty!

Nikki and me-isn't she just beautiful?

There they are looking all pretty again! Nikki really wants a girl and loves to help Abby priss and primp (real primp, not the "primp" I was talking about earlier...) :)

Abby kept saying, "I look like a princess!"

The wedding was wonderful, but the funny stories are all about Abby. The night of the rehearsal, we gave her 5-6 petals to practice with. She had to have them perfectly spaced out. She dropped one took two steps, dropped another, then looked back to see how evenly spaced they were. Then she took two more steps, dropped another and then looked to make sure they were evenly spaced. When she got to the front, Josh said, "You missed a spot." And she turned around and said, "Where?"

Then on the way back out, she started trying to pick them up. We told her she didn't have to pick them up and she gave us the weirdest look. :)

The day of the wedding, I told Abby she had to be extra good and couldn't cry all day because Aunt Nikki was nervous and crying would make her more nervous. Nikki wasn't really nervous, but hey, it worked.

When Abby was coming down the aisle, she had lots more petals, but she still made sure they were perfectly placed. One was apparently not good enough, so she turned around, went back and fixed it. Everyone in attendance was laughing at her (in a good way, obviously). Then she managed to fall asleep on one of the steps during the service. The wedding was right during her nap time and she hadn't had a nap. It was so precious. On the way back out, she had more petals in her basket and started dropping them. Finally someone at the back of the church managed to convince her to go on down the aisle and stop dropping petals.

Oh yeah, somewhere in there, Josh and Nikki got married. :) It was a beautiful ceremony, and our family is so blessed to have three new wonderful additions.

Easter

One thing I don't like about blogger is I can never remember how to load pics in the right order. So here are Easter pics in the wrong order...

I don't remember why I didn't load Easter pics, I just sort of forgot...

So here are Easter pics a little, no, a lot late.

All the grandkids (and a cousin). Notice Caleb and Isaiah are wearing the same outfit. And even though Isaiah is a year older, they are wearing the exact same size... :)
Abby-cute dress, goofy look.

Caleb looking all snazzy. I think the paci's add that extra "pop" we were looking for with this outfit...

Abby and her weird looks...

Dalton and Dominic hunting easter eggs. They were running so fast, I could never get a picture of the front of them. :)

Caleb is on a mission

Abby knows how to get it done!

Abby, Belle (a friend from church), and Isaiah-

they haven't quite figured out the thrill of the hunt yet...

The grandkids again-aren't they the cutest?

My parents are very lucky to have such cute grandkids... :)

Abby and Belle (not quite sure what Belle is doing.

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Funny story:

We are practicing for a new summer musical at church. It's called "Ark-eology", and it's about Noah's Ark. We were singing the first song the other night and we noticed that Abby sings, "It's not a mystery, it's ARKI-ALLERGIES". It's way too cute to correct. :)

Women of Joy

What an amazing conference! I would sincerely suggest that every woman go to one of these conferences. There was so much....joy. :) Seriously, it was amazing! I was too busy listening to take many pictures, but here are the few I got. Casting Crowns performed Saturday night. I was very surprised that it was a huge worship service and not a "concert". At one point, they even had us get down on our knees for prayer. It was amazing to see 1000's of women on their knees in Freedom Hall praying to the God of the Universe. Amazing!

Candace Cameron Burre who used to be D.J. on Full House. She had an AMAZING testimony and was very funny.

I GOT A PICTURE WITH KAREN KINGSBURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually met her, got her to autograph a book and she was so nice. It was awesome!

Mom and my SIL-to-be (she is now, but wasn't then) Nikki.

(Tune back in later this week as I continue to get caught up now that my computer is back up and running)

Casting Crowns-Such a powerful song that reminds us all that little eyes are watching our every move.

Karen Kingsbury reading the end of her book, "Let me Hold you Longer". I highly recommend that every mom read this book and really take it to heart. I also suggest you read it with a tissue!

Zoo

So, we actually went to the zoo a long time ago (like over Spring Break) but I am just now posting the pics. Christina and I decided to take a trip to the zoo. We were bound and determined to fit all the kids in one seat, and by golly-we did it! Look how tight Abby, Jacob, and Benjamin are! But they loved it.

Abby thoroughly enjoying herself on the merry-go-round.

Caleb thoroughly HATING every single second of the merry-go-round.

Waiting for the train

Yeah, it's here!

Silliness at the Barnes'

It's good to be silly!

This is his "chee" face

"Spin me, Spin me"

Dancin' in the bed (is there a better place to dance?)

Chillin' before the day starts. (No, they don't sleep together. Abby just likes Caleb's bed for relaxin')

Update

We are moved in, but things are not quite settled down. Our computer is broken. Therefore I cannot upload any cute wedding pics or anything of that sort because my work computer does not have a place for a camera card. I also cannot check facebook, since my work computer denies access...ARGH! What did people do before they could connect with their friends halfway around the world (or in Lexington, Nicholasville, etc.) with just a click of a mouse???
Anyway, as soon as we're up and running again I will upload any and all cute pics of the Barnes family that I have. :) Pray for our computer! :)

Baby becoming a boy

:( My baby boy is growing up. waaaaaaaaaaa...... He got his first haircut tonight and he looks like such a little man. No more baby. :*( Here are some pictures. I will get better ones of the "after" tomorrow. He was a little traumatized by the whole experience, so I wasn't going to take any more pictures. Before- Look at the curl at the bottom...so cute.


During- poor daddy got as much hair on him as Caleb did.

After

Cake Wrecks

Everyone needs to check out this site. It is good for a LOT of laughs. It's got some pretty good and some pretty aweful cakes that had me laughing out loud for almost an hour last night. I will leave the link over on the left so you can stay updated like I know I'm going to... :)

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

SURPRISE PART 2

Chuck thought his b-day was over. He had thought early on that we were going somewhere for the weekend with a group of friends. I told him that I had too much trouble getting it together, everyone was noncommittal, etc. He totally bought the whole thing!

On Saturday morning, I went to gym class with Sarah. Travis brought the kids over so they could play together. When we got back, Travis and Sarah left and took their kids over to someone's house. My parents showed up to take our kids, and after a little bit of hassle (our house got put under contract and had to be done that day, so we signed a billion forms) we were on our way. All the way to Cincinnati, he was guessing, and it got quite funny. First we were going to Dogwalk (an old farm that Dacian's parents own). Then we were going to the airport, then COSI. He was really running out of options. Just north of Cinci, he said, "I think I've really got it this time." I said, "Okay." He said, "Do you really want me to guess, because I think I really know." I told him that was fine, and he said, "That Wolf place with the indoor water park." So he guessed it about 15 minutes from actually being there. Oh well, I think it was pretty neat to get him that far without him guessing. So now, all the lying is done, and I won't have to do it again until his 40th birthday... ;) The awesome entrance.

This was one half of the lodge.

The gang (Dacian and Duane Keaton, Travis and Sarah Westerfield, and Chuck and me)

Chuck posing the "zexy" (Zach this was just for you)

We didn't get great pictures, but it was a REALLY AWESOME place!!!

The arcade

Sarah is really good at ski ball.

Dacian made an AMAZING dinner. We all had a great time and the food was yummy!

Oh look, Travis and his goofy face again... :)

The bedroom

The other room

The "kitchen" area.