The Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum

My kids really like museums, especially Jonah. One of his favorite outings when we lived up north was visiting The Museum of Natural History.  Since we moved, we drive by the sign for the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum here in St. George at least three times a week.  Jonah has been asking to go for months!  So while the kids were on spring break from school, I decided we'd check it out. 
The kids were given binoculars to use while inside and they really liked spotting all the animals. 

Apparently, Jayne is oblivious to the danger that lies immediately to her right.

They have a playroom for the kids, complete with fort, camouflage dress-up, and books about various animals.

Jonah preferred to chill on the comfy couch while the girls played.

Abram was less than impressed.

Lilly & Jayne made a fuzzy new friend

Too cool to smile already.

I told the kids they could each spend $10 in the gift shop.  They all chose these stuffed snakes to take home. 

As you can see, we enjoyed our afternoon at the museum. 

Abram's first hair cut

Yes, you read the title correctly.  Our little guy has already had his first haircut by the time he's five months old!  We all really loved his wild and crazy baby locks.  His hair was always the first thing commented on by everyone he met.  But, alas, as often happens, he began to get little bald spots on the back and sides of his head where the hair was rubbed off when he's playing on the floor or lying in his bed at night.  So our little Abie got his first 'Barnum Buzz'.  All of the Barnum men eventually get the 'Barnum Buzz' haircut.  Jonah has had several and in fact, he also had his first one when he was about Abram's age.  So without further ado....

Not the best picture of his hair, but.....

Here he is!  His fuzzy hair is growing in quite light.  Depending on what light you're in, it ranges from looking very very very light blonde to sort of a strawberry or copper blonde. 

4 Months Old

I've been a terrible blogger lately and I really don't have any good reason.  Meanwhile, our sweet little Abram has been growing like a weed.  He's 4 months old now.  He smiles and laughs and he's working on rolling over.  Abram loves chewing on his fists and grabbing at his toys.  He hates being on his tummy and he spits like a pro.   Seriously, this kid spits up more than any other baby I've ever seen. 
 I don't really have any "stats" for you right now.  His 4 month check-up is next week. But I do have pictures!  That's all that you really care about anyway, right? 

Love that smile!

Enjoying his favorite chew toy

"Seriously, Mom.  When can I get off this thing?"

Hangin' out on Daddy's shoulder

"Yeah, I spit.  So what?"

So, so, so close to rolling over!

Hanging out on the floor

Jonah turned 9

I'm a little bit behind in my blogging, as usual.  Last week, on January 21st to be exact, Jonah had his 9th birthday!  He requested lasagna for dinner and for the family to go to the movie theaters to celebrate.  Since Nate was working all day on the 21st, we did the lasagna, cake, and presents that day and then went to a movie on Nate's day off, which was two days later.  We saw Wreck-It Ralph.  Well, everyone but me saw the movie.  I spent it walking the hall with Abram.  From what I hear though, it was fabulous!

So, what can I tell you about Jonah?  He's started reading the Harry Potter books, which is a huge deal because he normally only likes non-fiction.  He started on The Chamber of Secrets, which is the 2nd book in the series.  He bought it himself with $10 he got for Christmas.  He skipped reading the first one because he'd seen the movie.  Now that he's read the second book and seen how the books can be so much different from the movies, he's anxious to get The Sorcerer's Stone and read it too.  Grandma Laurie got him the 3rd and 4th books for his birthday. 

Jonah's latest artistic venture has been working with clay.  He was given a toy pottery wheel for Christmas and we gave him some more air-dry clay for his birthday.  He checked out some books from the library to get project ideas and has been creating ever since. 

Jonah wants to start taking karate lessons.  He's never been a fan of team sports, so this might be a good fit for him.  We're going to start with the karate club at the local recreation center because it's about half the cost of lessons anywhere else.  Stay tuned for updates on that. 

Poor Jonah has been such a good sport about sleeping in the same room as his sisters since Abram was born.  Once Abram is sleeping through the night, we'll put them back in the same room.  For now, he's on the top bunk and I'm sure he's not getting as much sleep as he's used to with all the giggling and climbing around that the girls do. 

Oh how we love our Jonah!  He's such a great helper around the house and with his siblings.  We're truly blessed to have him as our eldest. 

He was a bit distracted =)

Birthday picnic at the park.  This was the first time ever that we've been able to go to the park or do anything outside on Jonah's birthday.  We spent over an hour just playing in the southern Utah sunshine!

All the birthday swag.

Happy Birthday Jonah!

Goodbye 2012

Here we are again.  It's the end of another year.  This is the time when we look back on the previous 365-ish days and see what has changed, for better or worse.  For our family, 2012 was a big year! It was filled with firsts, accomplishments, changes and adventure. 

In January, Jonah turned 8 years old and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Also in January, I caved and we got a dog.  He's a miniature schnauzer named Henry.

In February we took the kids on their very first trip to Disneyland!  They still talk about it at least once a week and we can't wait to go back. 

In August, I finished up the last semester of my Bachelor of Science degree in Family Life Studies.

 Also in August, we moved from Magna to St. George.  It was a hectic, whirlwind of a move, but we made it and we really like it here. 

And in October we added sweet Abram to the family!

It really was quite the year.  Looking forward to 2013, we really don't have any grand plans like we did for 2012.  Nate's parents gave us a National Parks year pass for Christmas so we'll be exploring as many as we can.  Other than that, the plan is to just go with the flow and enjoy this beautiful, crazy thing we call life. 

Happy New Year!

Abram's Blessing

We had Abram's baby blessing this last Saturday, December 29th.  Rather than bless him in sacrament meeting, we decided to do it at the clubhouse here at our townhouse complex.  It was really nice to have our family and some friends there and to be able to visit immediately afterwards.  Nate and I were really surprised and touched by how many came to show their love and support for our family.  Those attending included: My mom, my sister Sarah, my dad and step-sister Allie, Nate's parents and sisters, his brother Andrew, Grandpa Barnum, Uncle Dean and Aunt Kat, Nate's cousins Micheal, Elizabeth, and Rebecca and their families, Uncle Dan and Aunt Julie, Bishop Jones and his wife Jean, and our friends the Hightowers. 

Abram looked so handsome in his little white outfit and he was in a great mood!  Nate gave a sweet and simple blessing and then we all had some food and did some chatting. 

Four generations of Barnum men.  From left to right: David (Nate's father), Nate holding Abram, Andrew (Nate's older brother), and Odean (Nate's grandfather)

This one's a bit blurry, ugh.  This is our little family with our parents, siblings, and Grandpa Barnum.

Our handsome boy! 

Proud parents!  Can you tell that Nate was a little tired of having his picture taken?  This is his "take the picture so I can stop smiling" smile. 

Making the cut!

Jayne was born with beautiful, naturally curly hair.  As it's gotten longer, the curls are just at the bottom and it has gotten more and more difficult to comb out.  Since our little wild woman doesn't like to have her hair braided and barely lets us put it in a ponytail, the tangles can be quite a challenge.  I've put off cutting her hair because I really didn't want to see the curls go.  She gets so many compliments on how beautiful her long, curly hair is. 

However...fighting with her every day to try to brush it out was getting exhausting for both of us.  So, the other night after her bath we were sitting down to start tackling the tangles. Jayne started crying and I looked at the mess of hair before me and finally decided that enough was enough.  I asked Jayne if we should just cut all the tangles off.  To my surprise, she said yes! 

We put her hair in a low ponytail and I chopped it off.  I did my best to make it even.

The next day, we went to Great Clips and had them clean it up and add some layers.  Jayne loves it!  No more ratty tangles!