Jonah's Baptism

On Saturday, February 4th, Jonah was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Grandma and Grandpa Barnum, Aunt Emily, Aunt Amanda, Grandma Laurie, Aunt Sarah, Grandpa Culbertson, Kathy, Allie and Taylor all came to support Jonah.  A couple of friends from our ward came as well.  

Grandma Barnum made Jonah a special ocean quilt with all of his favorite sea creatures on it.  His favorite is the gulper eel.  He has zipper teeth and you can put your finger in his mouth. 

Jonah with Grandpa Culbertson

Jonah was baptized and confirmed by Nate. 

The Barnum's

We're so proud of Jonah's decision to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ and be baptized.  He is such a wonderful young man, always striving to do his best and to do what is right.  We're so grateful and blessed to have him in our family. 

Remembering 2011

It's that time again when we look back over the past year and try to remember the good and the bad, the growth and the challenges, and then decide how to make the next year even better. 
2011 was a good year for the Barnum family.  Some of the highlights included:

• Nate working his first full year for Verizon.  We're so grateful for a job that's keeping him indoors.  It has translated into fewer episodes of illness.  I think in 2011 we only had one bout with bronchitis and no pneumonia!  
• Jonah starting 2nd grade and Lilly starting Kindergarten.  They both love to learn and do so well in school.  They sure know how to make their Mama proud.  
• Ashley (me) taking up running and running in the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay.  Something I never in a million years thought I would do, but I really loved it.  I'm not doing so well keeping up with it so far this winter, but we're working on remedying that. 
• Jayne turned 3 and became fully potty trained.  Bye-bye diapers!
• Our Oregon vacation in August.  It was such a fun-filled, memory making adventure.  We can't wait to plan another one!
• Nate turned the big 3-0!  He says he feels like an old man.  
• We visited Zion's National Park.  It was the first time ever for me and the kids and it was breathtaking.  We didn't get to see as much as we would have liked, so we'll just have to go back.  
• We also did a family camping trip with my mom, sister, and brother at Payson Lakes.  It was beautiful and we had a great time.
• Lilly and Jonah took swimming lessons
• We visited Hogle Zoo and Tracy Aviary

I think that's about it for now.  I'm sure many more magical and eventful things happened in 2011, but my poor brain just isn't what it used to be.
So now we look forward to 2012.  It's going to be a fabulous year!  I can feel it in my bones.  I'll be graduating with my bachelor's degree in August.  It will feel so good to finally get that done!  Jonah will be turning 8 and getting baptized.  We're working on another family vacation or two.  And who knows what else?!  We'll take whatever life chooses to dish out!  Happy New Year!

Snow fun

This morning we woke up to a good 3 or 4 inches of snow!  Nate and I immediately began moaning and groaning about it, but the kids were ecstatic.  So it's no surprise that the first order of business for our Saturday was digging out the snow gear and playing around in the white stuff.  

Lilly and Jayne made snow angels.

Jonah helped with the shoveling.

And played a little snow-shovel-guitar. 

Then he made a snow angel too. 

Then we came in, took off all of our wet gloves, hats, and boots, and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate.  It was nice to be reminded that snow can be fun.  When I look at it, all I see is cold, wet, and miserable.  Everything looks better through the eyes of children! =) 

Our Excellent Elk

Yesterday, Jonah received the Excellent Elk Award at a school assembly.  Each teacher chose one student from their class to receive this award for academic excellence. He received a medal, certificate, and a card for a free kid's meal from Applebee's.  We're so proud of Jonah and his desire to always do his best and learn as much as he can.  Way to go Jo!  

Halloween Fun!

Our Halloween fun started with a Friday night visit to Gardner Village to see the witches.  

Jonah thought this mummy was the coolest.

Lilly wanted her picture taken by every witch that we found.

See what I mean?  =)

Then on Sunday evening we carved our pumpkins.  

Jonah loved cleaning out the pumpkin "guts" with his hands, but the girls wouldn't touch it. 

Jayne with her jack-o-lantern.  The kids chose the design of their pumpkins and mom and dad did all the cutting. 

Lilly's pumpkin.

Jonah's pumpkin.  He wanted a "great big smile" on his.  All the black lines are from Jonah trying to draw his own design.  He made it a bit too small.  

Then on Halloween, we got all dressed up and went trick-or-treating.  Nate had to work, so I took the kids out.  We should have taken a shorter route.  There was quite a bit of "I'm so tired" and "my feet hurt" by the time we got home.  But they loved how much candy they got and after we got home there was a lot of "that was the best Halloween ever!"  So I think our night was a success. 

Spider Man Jonah and his muscle pose.  He didn't like to wear the mask that came with the costume.

Lilly, the little devil.  She looks way too sweet to be a devil. 

Jayne the witch.  She didn't want to wear the hat, but loves the dress.  She wore it around the house almost every day for a week before Halloween. 

The whole gang ready to go get some treats!

I should mention that we were lucky enough to get all of our costumes from some kind neighbors who have kids just a bit older than ours.  The one Jayne is wearing is one that we bought for Lilly when she was 2.  Jayne had another Halloween fairy costume that we got from the neighbors, but she changed her mind at the last minute.  I sure do love it when people think of us.  
After we got home and into pajamas, Nate got home and we did hallway trick-or-treating.  This is a tradition that Nate's family has.  Each child takes a turn going down the dark hallway and knocking on the doors looking for Nate.  When they find him, he gives them some special surprises.  He also tries to spook them a bit on the way.  The kids love it.  
So that was our Halloween.  Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!  They sure are approaching fast!

My Baby is 3!

Today is Jayne's 3rd birthday!  My baby girl is growing fast.  We held a little family party last Saturday night to celebrate.  She is so spunky and strong-willed. I think that's why we're having trouble with the potty training. =) Today we're going to take her to use her Build-A-Bear gift card she received from her uncles Jake and Chad and then maybe get some dinner or ice cream or something like that.  We also made cupcakes this morning and she can't wait to frost them and blow out candles again. 
Happy Birthday Sweet Jayne! 

Jayne chose a Little Mermaid cake.  It took her a while to blow out all 3 candles.  The first attempt was taken over by Jonah.  He  blew them all out before she even had a chance.  So we re-lit the candles so she could do it on her own. 

Loving the purple frosting!

Giving kisses to her new Minnie Mouse doll. 

Ta-Da!  Jayne and Rapunzel are BFFs. 

My darling 3 year old.  

 

 

The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and Nothing But the Tooth!

Lilly lost her first tooth this week!  Well, she didn't exactly "lose" it as much as Nate finally got fed up with it and pulled that sucker out.  It had been loose for quite a while and she was always messing with it.  Finally it was barely hanging on, so Nate decided it was time for it to go.  Lilly was a little upset about it bleeding, but after a few minutes she was only concerned about the Tooth Fairy's upcoming visit that night.  She put her tooth in a plastic baggie and placed it under her pillow that night. 

 Lilly woke up to one dollar in her baggie and no more tooth.  She was delighted!  She informed me that the Tooth Fairy is going to use her tooth to help build her castle.  I can't believe my Lilly is losing teeth already!  Before I know it she'll be wearing lip gloss and talking about boys.  Yikes! 

Mister Comb

Jayne has naturally curly hair which tends to acquire many tangles.  You can imagine that getting a 2 year old to sit or stand still while I comb out her tangles could be a challenge.  Well, one day about a month ago, I was trying to get her to sit still so I could comb out her hair and she was not cooperating.  Then Mister Comb appeared.  I simply started talking to her in a ridiculously bad southern accent using the comb sort of like a puppet.  It worked like magic!  Mr. Comb asked her about her day and she just stood perfectly still while she told him everything she had done that day.  We got the tangles out and everyone was happy and I thought that was the end of it.  I thought wrong.
Jayne now requests to talk to Mr. Comb every single day, and not just while we're combing her hair either.  She'll randomly come up to me holding the comb and say, "Mom, I need to talk to Mr. Comb."  She's also started personifying other objects, like her clothes. 
I had no idea it would be such a big deal.  Nate is not a big fan of Mr. Comb.  He hates the voice I use and so Mr. Comb rarely makes an appearance when Daddy is around. I have no idea how long Mr. Comb will be with us, but I have a feeling this is going to become a long term relationship. 

Back to School!

School is now officially in full swing at the Barnum house.  Jonah started 2nd grade last Monday, Lilly started kindergarten today, and I started fall semester today as well. 

This year the kids are going to a brand new elementary school.  It is so new in fact, that it technically isn't even finished yet.  On the first day of school there was still no library, no playground equipment, no gym, no working kitchen, and even no electricity in a couple of the classrooms.  Can you say "behind schedule"?!  But the kids haven't seemed to care.  They play hopscotch and basketball and tag at recess and Jonah didn't really mind at all the his entire first week of lunches were bag lunches like what they have on field trips and such. 
Lilly did great with her first day of kindergarten today.  She had absolutely no problem going to class.  Jayne was a bit put out that she didn't get to go to school.  She didn't seem to really miss Lilly though until about 15 minutes before we picked her up.  Then she had a massive breakdown!  I think it was 1 part tired, 1 part hungry, and 2 parts "I miss my big sister!" 
I started fall semester today.  I'm taking two classes, family finance and research writing in a persuasive mode.  I logged into my classes today to find that they've changed the entire online classes system.  I'm not too happy about that.  I was a pro at the old one.  So I'm still kind of figuring everything out.  I'm excited about the classes though.  I think they'll both be really interesting and a bit challenging.  I'm glad I took my own advice and only registered for two classes instead of three.  These two are promising to be quite time consuming. 
We're celebrating everyone being back in school with pizza tonight.  That's my excuse anyway. =) 

Oregon Part 2

Tuesday was spent exploring. We started by driving to Shore Acres Gardens.  These beautiful gardens are on the top of rocky cliffs by the ocean.  They have so many beautiful flowers and plants.  The kids loved the roses!  They had to smell every single kind of rose that they had.  

The rocky shores below the gardens.

Nate and the girls checking out the view.

Jonah was so excited to look out over the ocean! 

We had a lot of fun climbing on this old tree and taking pictures.

Nate and Jayne

Jonah & Lilly in the gardens

Checking out some of the flowers

I can't remember the name of these flowers.  It was something like 'starfire'. 

I thought these swirling leaves were magnificent!

Lilly, Jonah, & Jayne beneath the monkey puzzle tree.

Jayne smelling the roses.  I love her face! 

Lilly had to smell every single type of rose too. 

Taking a circus peanut break.

More of the gardens.

After the gardens, we went to Coos Bay.  Nate wanted to take us to the Myrtlewood Factory.  It was neat to see how they turn a giant tree into such beautiful things!  

Then we headed down to Bandon, another coastal town.  We went to their "Old Town" and checked out the shops.  I remember going there with Nate the summer we were married.  It was fun to look in all the shops.  I got some divine smelling bath salts and we sampled the sweets at the candy factory. My favorite was the licorice flavored dark chocolate.  I would never have thought of putting those two together, but they were perfect!  We bought some fudge, an absolute must!  Nate picked out 6 different flavors.  We had cookies and cream, peanut butter, rocky road, white chocolate with walnuts, mint chocolate, and walnut pinoche.  My favorite was the white chocolate.  Nate and the kids loved the peanut butter.  We let the kids pick out some seashells for souvenirs.  Jonah and Lilly chose sea stars and Jayne chose a tiger conch.  

 By the time we got back to camp, we were all ready for bed.  We had some dinner, relaxed by the fire, and turned in early.  

Hanging out around the fire.

Oregon Part 1

While Nate was growing up, he spent quite a few summers in Oregon with his family.  He took me there once, right after we got married and we've always wanted to go again and take the kids.  So this year we decided to do it.  We spent 5 days camping at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park near Winchester Bay and Reedsport.  

I'm going to have to split up the trip into a few different posts simply because there is so much to tell and there are so many pictures to share.  So here goes.....

If you know me but at all, you know that camping is not my favorite.  I don't like being dirty.  I don't like sleeping in a tent.  I don't like the campfire smell that permeates your clothes and hair.  And I definitely don't like outhouses.  So when Nate said he wanted to go camping in Oregon, I told him I had a few conditions.  We had to have a campground with showers and flushing toilets and the cooking had to be kept simple.  He knew right where to go.  I have to admit that I enjoyed this camping trip more than any other that I've done before.  Being able to take a hot shower every day, not have the stink of an outhouse, getting to eat out occasionally, and Nate taking over the rest of the cooking definitely made it enjoyable.  =)  The nice, cool weather helped too.  In my experience, camping has always been hot and sweaty during the day and a little bit miserable.  In Oregon, the highs were in the upper 60's.  It was pure bliss!

I'm still not sure what possessed us to schedule the trip like we did.  We planned it back in March or April.  Somehow it ended up that we would be leaving for Oregon the same day that Nate would be getting back from Scout Camp and we would be in Oregon during finals week of my summer semester.  Not our best bit of planning, but we pulled it off.  

So I spent the week before our trip being a crazy woman.  I had lots of school assignments to do plus taking my finals early and getting ready for the trip.  Nate was gone to Scout Camp from Thursday until Saturday.  Thanks to a lot of help from family, (Nate's parents were in town and watched the kids while I did some of my finals and my mom took them Friday night and all day Saturday so I could finish up assignments and get the packing done) we managed to get everything done and were ready to leave late Saturday night.  

We decided to take our car, a Chevy Impala, rather than our Jeep Commander.  The Commander has more room and is much more comfortable for long drives, but the Impala gets 10 to 15 miles per gallon more than the Jeep and on a long drive that translates into a couple of hundred dollars worth of difference.  

Much to my amazement, Nate managed to pack everything we would need into the trunk of our Chevy Impala.   In order to save space, we didn't take up all of our food for the trip.  We just packed what we would need for the first day or two and then planned to get groceries in Oregon.

It's a 15 hour drive to where we were staying.  Nate prefers to do long drives through the night so that the kids can sleep and there's a lot less traffic.  The drive was pretty uneventful.  The kids slept pretty well most of the way.  We arrived at our campsite at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park in the mid-afternoon on Sunday. 

The campground was nice and peaceful.  There was a lake, Lake Marie, near the campground and it's just a short drive down to the lighthouse and the ocean.   The first thing we did after getting the tent set up was to take a nice long nap.  That night we roasted hot dogs and s'mores for dinner.  We walked down to check out the lake.  There's a 1 mile trail that goes around the lake and there is a small sandy beach area for playing or swimming.  The rest of the evening we just relaxed in camp.  Then we slept to the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the rocks and the foghorn of the lighthouse in the distance. 

On Monday the first order of business was to get a few groceries.  So we went to the Safeway in Reedsport.   That store is tiny!  You can barely get your cart through the aisles.  The clerk informed us that we had great timing.  We had just missed the annual Dune Fest that had been that weekend.  Apparently the town is pretty much overrun by people and their dune buggies and the store had lots of problems with overcrowding and stealing.  She said she was so glad to see them all go.  

After a healthy breakfast at McDonald's, (yes, that's how I cook when I camp) we headed back to camp.  Then we decided to go check out the pier where people were doing some crabbing.  First we had to walk on the beach.  This was the first time any of our kids had been to the ocean and they were so excited to walk in the sand in their bare feet and look for seashells.  

After getting sufficiently wet and sandy, we walked down the pier to watch the crabbing.  Two gentlemen were kind enough to explain everything to the kids and let them watch as they pulled in their crabs and sorted out the ones that had to be thrown back.  

We spent the rest of Monday at our campsite.  The kids loved playing in the dirt and Jonah even found a little "camouflage" spot in the bushes where he and Lilly liked to set up their chairs and hang out.  I took this picture right after Jonah said, "Mom! I bet you can't see me.  I blend right in!"

 That night, after everyone was in their pajamas and it had gotten dark, we decided to drive over to the lighthouse so that the kids could see it lit up.  The kids loved seeing how the lights danced on the trees and out into the ocean. 

Daddy & Jayne at the lighthouse. 

Well, that's about it for part one of our adventure.  Be sure to read part two about our adventures at the Shore Acre Gardens, Coos Bay, Bandon, and Florence.