Jared and Heather Barnes

Halloween 2010

2010-10-30T23:43:00.004-06:00

We had our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Saturday October 30, 2010, and the kids had a total blast. Jared went as an Army man, complete with camouflage face paint. The fatigues that he wore were his grandpa Christiansen's, which was pretty cool.

I went as a witch with orange and black striped tights, orange and black fake eyelashes that went on forever [those were Jamie's favorite part, always the girlie girl :0)], and spray painted black hair. It took almost 2 full cans of that hair color spray because my hair is so thick and even then we didn't get it all covered.
Spencer went as "Skullzore". He had his hair done really wild and painted jet black. We also painted his face gray and black. At 10-years-old, he is really into the scary part of Halloween or maybe its just a boy thing.

Jamie was going to go as a princess but changed her mind that afternoon and decided to go as a fairy. It was a really good thing that I had all of the stuff needed to complete a fairy costume at home already [thanks for the tulle tutu mom, you are a life saver].

Jacob went as Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. We painted the tip of his little nose black and drew some whiskers on his cheeks. The cool thing about his costume [besides all the ladies telling him how cute he was and him getting shy and laying his head on my shoulder] is that Spencer wore it when he was 2-years-old, Jamie wore it when she was 7-months-old, and now Jacob wore it at 10-months-old. The costume is a size 18 months and when Spencer wore it, it fit him perfectly. When Jamie wore it, it was way too big for her and I had to pad her with extra thick sweats underneath [it was really cold that year]. When Jacob wore it, sadly enough, it barely fit him, he is really tall. I am going to be really sad to have to retire this costume now.

Being that is was a "Trunk"-or-Treat, we decorated the back of the van. We put black plastic table cloths draped from the ceiling to the floor to block off the front part of the van. I had some Halloween lights that my awesome mother-in-law, Arlene, gave me that we were able to use. They are kind of like a strand of Christmas lights except that each tiny bulb is covered with a plastic pumpkin on one strand and a plastic ghost on the other strand. We hung one strand on either side of the open trunk. I had some Jack-O-Lanterns made out of wax that you can put a tea light candle inside to make them glow. We put them in the back also with candles inside them. I wanted to put some tombstones in the van too and make it look like a cemetery [thanks for the awesome suggestion aunt Robynn] but I ended up not having enough time to make them. To finish it up, we had some spooky Halloween music playing on the stereo. It turned out pretty good but, if they do it again next year, I want to really put some extra time and effort into it to have the best trunk there. :0)

At the end of the night, Spencer said to me that the coolest part of the whole night [besides the obvious...CANDY] was the fact that Jared and I dressed up too. He said that we should do that every year. The fact that it made him so happy, having me and his dad dressed up too, made it completely worth it to me. Overall, it was a really good family night for us and I am already looking forward to next year.

Greatest Christmas Present Ever!

2009-12-31T17:11:00.005-07:00

This year for Christmas we got the greatest gift ever, a little boy named Jacob Christopher Barnes. He was born on December 21st at 8:23 am. He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long. We expected him to have the same skin and hair color as his brother and sister, very white and very blonde. However, we were pleasantly surprised when our youngest son was born with dark hair and dark skin just like his dad has. He and his mother are doing very well and we are all very happy that he is finally here.

Yay for Moms!

2009-10-26T13:44:00.003-06:00

I have to give a huge shout out to my mother. She, unselfishly, offered to take care of me and my kids for 2 weeks because I am still on bed-rest and Spencer is off track from school. She is so awesome! She has put up with me being grouchy (mostly from excessive boredom, and pain from my still dislocated pelvis), my 3 year old who is the busiest child I know, and my 9 year old who keeps teasing her. She has made sure that my kids are not only well taken care of but that they are happy and have things to do. She has also helped me to have activities to keep me busy and has endured many hours of talking to me to keep my mind off my current situation. She is so good to us and I just wanted everyone to know how amazing she really is.

I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!

Just a Little Something

2009-10-13T14:47:00.003-06:00

So, as many of you know, we had a pretty busy summer. Fall is looking even busier, but things are pretty good for us.

~Spencer is currently in Cub Scouts and Karate. He loves them both and is doing very well in both. He also has a 4-wheeler that he rides every chance he gets. Jared and I set the rule that he has to have all his homework done before he can go for a ride, thus virtually eliminated the daily war when homework time rolls around and making us very happy. ;) He is doing really well in school and is testing at the top of his class. He is even in some accelerated classes that his school offers. We are so proud of him!!!

~Jamie is getting so big now. She is growing out of all her clothes and has started opening up a lot more. She talks all the time whether there is someone there to listen or not. She is the busiest kid I have ever known. She isn't necessarily a trouble-maker; she just has an unlimited amount of curiosity, which keeps me pretty busy as well. She loves playing with Chester. She has figured out that she can boss him around all she wants and he can’t get mad at her, and will still play with her. ;) She is such a happy kid all the time and makes all of us very happy too.

As for Jared and I, we are just doing our best to keep up with our kids. Well, at least Jared is. He has to be both the dad and mom right now because I am on bed-rest per doctor's orders. I have been having contractions for several weeks now and the doctor thinks that is a bad thing (who knew. lol). Needless to say he wants me in bed, hopefully, to cook Jacob a little longer ;). I have been in bed for 3 weeks now and am going a little crazy. With any luck, the contractions will stop or at least not come so often and I will be released from bed-rest soon. I know that once I reach 30 weeks, he will likely change my treatment to medication and rest but not complete bed rest. Needless to say, I am counting down the days.

Jared is so good to help with the kids, house, and taking care of me. He has brought me movies, video games, and ideas of things to do to help me pass the time. I know that he is overwhelmed but he never complains and I really appreciate all that he does for our family and especially me. Thank you honey, you are AMAZING!!!

2009-07-10T22:51:00.009-06:00

Well, I am on a roll with these new posts!!
Here are some more pictures of our trip.

The Little Grand Canyon,

Jamie and Celeste,

our camp site,

Heather and Jamie (we found out, it's not just car rides that put kids to sleep!)

We had to tie Jamie to Heather so she wouldn't fall off!

Our 10 days of fun in the sun!

2009-07-10T22:01:00.010-06:00

We filled the van with tents, sleeping bags, two ice chests of food, guns and hooked on the 4-wheelers and from May 29-June 7 took a road trip. Here is the path we took. ABQ through Gallup, Flagstaff, back and forth across Utah and Arizona around Page, Colorado City, Hurricane, Leeds, Richfield, 20 mile dirt road, back down the 20 mile dirt road, Green River, Moab, Monticello, Shiprock NM, back to Gallup and then home! It was a lot of fun!

We spent five days in Leeds with my dad. We went water skiing and swimming, 4-wheeling, took my dad to WalMart and the store didn't collapse, visited with family (Ronald and Susan and Fam and Merrill and his fam) ran into some friends (Nathan, Brent, Jenny, and Ron and Pauline Fowlks).

While at my Dad's, our "Yo quiero Taco Bell" dog, Kujo, decided he didn't like Jamie, so we decided we didn't like him. We called the humane society in Hurricane and they gave us the name of a family looking for a small dog, the ironic part is Kujo wasn't very fond of men, and the guy who answered the door was a 300lb Tongan/Somoan, but I am sure he is fine! lol.

On Thurday, we loaded up again and went to the dirt road, mentioned above, which took us to almost the middle of nowhere Utah! Haven't heard of it? I can send you a map! Here we met up with Jason/Heidi and fam, Ron and Sue, Bryan/Heidi and fam, and Mike/Johanna and fam. It was a good time! Other than going deaf from the most obnoxious, big, ugly, uncoordinated bugs I have ever seen! We did more 4-wheeling, sight seeing, and visiting with family around the fire. This should be a monthly ritual!

Breaking News: You don't need good eye sight to become a college Professor!

2009-07-10T21:28:00.008-06:00

So one night after a long day at work, I walk out to my still new bike and notice a sticky note flapping in the wind on the gas tank. It wasn't until after I read the note, that said "Please come to the Security office", that I realized half of my clutch lever, signal light, mirror and paint were scattered on the ground! Apparently, the onsite Strayer University professor was in a hurry when he walked passed my bike, jumped in his F-150, backed out turning immediately and knocked my bike off the kick stand! At least he had the decency to notify the security desk, even though there are cameras all over the place! To make a long story short, after $1600 in damages, I got it fixed, with about a remaining $400 credit at the bike shop!

My Deprived Toys!

2009-07-10T20:52:00.013-06:00

Well Heather's 4-wheeler and motorcycle seems to have managed to make it to this site, but mine got kicked to the curb! It's fend for yourself, I guess! lol. So here is my bike (Suzuki SV650s) and 4-wheeler (Honda TRX450R)! The picture of the bike is a little dated as we go it the end of April '08. I have added a pipe and a seat cowl (cover). We got the 4-wheeler at the end of April, '09. Oh yeah, our trailer too! Ken and I built this in his garage on April 2nd. Thanks for the help Ken!

Technology

2009-07-04T12:03:00.002-06:00

I am a full-time student, as most of you already know, and am studying from home. All my classes are online and all my homework is done on my laptop. I depend on my laptop for everything right now. Yesterday, I wanted to add some different music to the mp3 player on my phone so I could listen to it while doing homework. I had gone online to download a program, which we already had on our home computer, so I could transfer the music from both our computers on my phone. Apparently this program now comes with a lovely parting gift, a VIRUS!!! My computer crashed shortly after that. I freaked out. The biggest problem that I saw was my transcription class. In order to complete each week's work, you have to download the assignments through a program that the school gives you. You are only allowed to have it on one computer to make it run properly and it was on my laptop. I lost all of that work (or so I thought). I texted Jared at work and told him what happened. About 2 hours later, he came home to help me. After spending hours troubleshooting my computer (which would only open in "safe mode") and a very lengthy call to tech support, we found out that we were going to have to wipe the hard drive and reboot the computer. To those of us (me) that do not understand computer lingo (me), that basically means that anything you had stored on your computer is lost and the computer goes back to the way it was when you bought it. Luckily, for me, my husband is AWESOME and he was able to pull all of my documents, pictures, and music off the computer and put it on an external hard drive before he wiped the memory out.

At about midnight last night, my computer was up and running and around 2:30 am all of my settings, documents, pictures, and music had been put back on it. Thank you so much Jared for all you do for me and for bailing me out of this ugly mess!! ;-) You are AMAZING!!!

Changing Dates

2009-06-30T11:32:00.002-06:00

So, I went to the doctor yesterday and he changed my due date to December 31st. I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and he got the results of that back yesterday. According to the measurements of the baby, I am 13 weeks along. I guess it could be worse, though. They could have told me that I was only 9 weeks or something. lol Who knows, maybe we will have the New Year's Baby. :)

Early Christmas Present

2009-06-24T11:13:00.002-06:00

I realize that we are only in June and Christmas isn't for another 6 months (or 26 weeks depending on how you are counting), but I felt that everyone should know what we are getting for Christmas this year. It is not a gift that is typically given at Christmas and it takes 9 months of preparation before you actually get the gift. If you haven't guessed already, lol, we are expecting baby # 3 on December 20th. Most of you already know this but I decided to make the announcement official today. I am 14 weeks and everything is looking good. We already had our first ultrasound and everything is growing the way that it should (and yes, dad, there is only 1 baby).

We are all very excited about this especially the kids. Spencer's first thought was that it was twins (thankfully he wasn't correct) and that he wanted a brother. I told him that I hoped it wasn't twins because they are a lot of work. He told me that he would help take care of one and I could take care of the other. I asked him if he was going to get up in the middle of the night, feed the baby, change its diaper, and put it back to sleep. That’s when he told me, "Mom, I know you can do it by yourself, you'll be good at it." I also asked him what he would do if were a girl. He said that he would love her too and but that he really wanted a brother. ;)

We waited, until I was showing enough that other people started noticing, to tell Jamie. I figured that she would not understand the whole "keeping a secret" thing. We told her that mommy had a baby in her tummy and that we would go to the hospital and get the baby for Christmas. She was very excited about that and now asks me about the baby every day. She watched a movie with a baby the other day and asked if we could go to the hospital that day and get our baby. It was very cute. She too wants a baby brother. Hopefully, both Spencer and Jamie are not disappointed if we have a girl.

Newest Additions

2009-03-02T23:09:00.011-07:00

Everyone has been asking me if I ever got my old bike fixed and if I have started riding again. No, my old bike was not fixed. The insurance company decided to total it out because the frame was bent. I did, however, get a brand new bike!! So, making it's debut appearance on our blog, the new 2009, Special Edition, Kawasaki Ninja 250. This time around I decided that "neon green" might be a better color to go with so people will notice me.

We also decided that we needed to have a more family friendly vehicle to play around on so, we added a 4-wheeler to our list of currently owned vehicles.

10th Anniversary: Cruise to Mexico

2009-02-22T21:20:00.004-07:00

I am finally posting pictures of our cruise!!! Yes, I know, we went on our cruise almost 5 months ago but better late than never, right?

Day 1:
Traveling to LA/Boarding the ship

On October 4, 2008 grandma Lesia flew to Albuquerque to watch Spencer and Jamie. I spent the rest of the night packing mine and Jared’s luggage and getting the kid’s things ready for grandma. We had to get up at 4:30 am and had to be to the airport by 6 am. So, I just pulled an all-nighter. On October 5, 2008, Jared and I flew to Los Angeles, California to board a HUGE cruise ship. We were on a Royal Caribbean ship to the Mexican Riviera. It was so awesome!!!

After getting aboard the ship we went straight to the buffet while they took our luggage to our room and got our room ready for us. When we finally got to our room after lunch, I laid down on our bed and didn’t move for 3 hours. I was so tired. Once I was awake, we wandered around and explored until we left port. We found an ice-cream machine on deck 9 by the swimming pool and it soon became my best friend. ;-p Leaving port was an extravagant event. Everyone onboard the ship goes to the outer decks and waves goodbye to anyone on land that is willing to watch. We even had a restaurant get on their PA system and wish us a happy journey. It was really fun. Later that night, we went to dinner in the dining room and found out that one of the couples at our table (Stan & Alberta) were the ballroom dance instructors for the ship. They were awesome!! After dinner, we went back to our room and found that our bed had been turned down, mints had been placed on our pillows and there were towels folded into the shape of an elephant. He was wearing my sunglasses. It was very cute!

Day 2:
Playing around at Sea

The second day we spent on the ship making our way to Cabo San Lucas. Our second day went like this: I slept in while Jared went and explored, Jared brought me breakfast from the buffet, I got up and got ready, we explored our beautiful ship some more, took pictures of us on the ship, found a snack bar, got ice-cream cones, found the Casino on the ship, ate lunch, took dance lessons, went and got ice-cream cones again, wandered again, had dinner, saw the after-dinner-show in the theater, went dancing with Stan & Alberta, got tired and went to bed. As you may have noticed, there was a lot of eating going on. I think I gained about 10lbs, literally, on our cruise!! Our dinner that night was a formal dinner. I wore the red dress that I wore for Karri’s wedding. When we went dancing, Stan asked the band to play “Lady In Red” and asked me to dance. It was a lot of fun. After a short while, Stan asked me if I knew how to line-dance. I was pretty excited about that because I love to dance but was out of my comfort zone with ballroom stuff, so, I line-danced in my formal dress. It was pretty fun. A few hours of dancing and a lot of talking led Jared and I back to our room so we could crash. It was an awesome day!!!
Day 3:
Cabo San Lucas!!!
The first day that we were on the ship, the captain announced that there was a tropical storm heading for Cabo and that we may not be able to go there. We were very sad when we heard this; however, the storm slowed down and wouldn’t hit Cabo for a few more days (which I will talk about later, scary). Cabo was interesting. The port is so shallow that the ships have to dock away from the shore and then take passengers to shore on smaller boats. We had to get “tender” tickets and wait until our number was called to be able to go to shore. We went and ate breakfast at the buffet while we waited (I told you there was a lot of eating). Once on the dock at the shore, the first thing that we noticed was that there were men in military fatigues holding machine guns waiting to greet us. That was a little unnerving. We walked around the dock for a little while. There were a ton of people selling everything and anything. One guy even grabbed my arm, put a locking bracelet on my arm, and tried to haggle the price with Jared for us to buy it. They do not take “no” for an answer either. We finally got rid of that guy and then saw another guy with this HUGE iguana walking around offering to let you take pictures with it, for a price of course. It was crazy. After that we went horseback riding on the beach. That was so much fun!!! I have wanted to do that for as long as I could remember and Jared surprised me with it. I loved it!!! The “Mexican Cowboys” were really funny. The leader of the group was always singing Spanish songs to us. He wandered up to the front of our little caravan and stood up in his saddle and sang. That was really funny. After the horseback ride, we walked on the pier some more and bought a t-shirt. We then went back to the ship. We ate dinner in the dining room and were going to take in the nightly show, but were so tired that we just crashed.
Day 4:
Mazatlan!!!
This was a very relaxing day. We were able to dock at the pier there and it made getting off the boat a lot easier and we didn’t have to be on the ship’s time. We were immediately met by people trying to get us to listen to a vacation time-share. Normally we would say no to a time share, however, this deal actually sounded good. We gave them one hour of our time and in exchange we were able to use their private beach and got free food and drinks at their restaurants all day long. We thought that was a pretty good deal. The food was great and the beach was very nice. While on the beach, Jared and I played in the water and used a boogie board. I also got my hair braided by a little Mexican lady on the beach. That was pretty cool. After we had swallowed our fair share of salt water, we walked around to all the little shops. We bought Spencer and Jamie some little toys and some shirts. I also got a t-shirt. When heading back to the ship we had to find a taxi, although, I’m not sure that “taxi” is the right word for them. In the USA we would call these “glorified golf carts”. We got back onto the ship and ate dinner. The show for this night was a magic show called “Knight Magic”. It was so cool!! I love magic and this guy was very good. This day was fun and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered.
Day 5:
Puerto Vallarta!!!
This city was very cool and reminded me a lot of Albuquerque. We even found a little square in the middle of the town that looked like a place called “Old Town” in Albuquerque. This day was spent shopping and walking around. I found a little silver sombrero charm to put on the charm bracelet that my kids bought me for mother’s day a few years ago. It is so cute and tiny. We also saw some sand sculptures. They were amazing! I have never seen anything like them before and doubt that I will again. These people have some real talent. After a few hours of shopping, we finally ate lunch and changed into our swimming suits. We then walked down to the beach. It was getting a little cold and the beach was very rocky, so I decided against swimming. Plus, having been in a motorcycle accident only one month earlier, my knees were still healing from all the road rash and they were screaming at me to let them rest. Jared was so kind and agreed to take me back to the ship. On our way back, we saw some guys offering to take people parasailing. Jared had been talking about doing this from the first day, so we took the guys up on their offer. Jared had so much fun. Looking back on it now, it was a bit crazy. He was being pulled around behind a boat on a flimsy rope, while flying over the city on a parachute that he really had no control over. He says that he would definitely do it again, though. Once back on the ship, I was too exhausted and to get cleaned up to go to dinner in the dining room. Jared and I then decided that we would go up to the upper decks and eat a hamburger and fries while watching the ship leave the port. That was a good decision. It was storming by then and so we watched the lightning over the city from a good safe distance on the sea. There was a huge bolt of lightning directly over the city and in a split second, all the city lights went out. It was just like in a movie. It was crazy!! Jared watched and filmed the storm some more while I took a short nap. We then went to the indoor pool and decided to go for a swim. Because of the storm outside, the ship was rocking enough that it turned an ordinary pool into a wave pool. That was awesome. Jared and I had so much fun! We laughed and played around like we were little kids. When we got tired, we sat in the hot tub and then went to bed. This too was a very fun day.
Day 6:
Sailing back to Los Angeles
This day was pretty much like day 2. It was a very relaxing day filled with dancing lessons, sleeping/napping, and lots of food. We hung out with Darin and Amber later that night. They were an awesome couple that was also at our dinner table. They are LDS and from Logan, Utah. We had a lot in common with them and really enjoyed their company. We watched the nightly show with them, then stayed in the theatre and talked until the “Love and Marriage” game show started, which was about an hour. That was a very funny show. They pulled couples out of the audience and had them answer questions about their spouses. It was hilarious!! After the game show, we watched a comedian. He was pretty fun too. I am very glad that we got to know Darin and Amber. We are going to keep in touch with them. This day was nice, relaxing, and slow paced; which is exactly what I needed.
Day 7:
More Sailing
Copy day 2 and day 6 and you pretty much have day 7. The only real difference is that later in the night we found out that the tropical storm set to hit Cabo San Lucas had turned into a hurricane and had in fact hit Cabo. Apparently we were out to sea, passing the point where Cabo would be when the storm hit. That is what caused the wave pool. It was crazy to know how close we came to being in a hurricane. Things like that help you to appreciate the life you have. We did have a demonstration on animal towel folding. It was pretty cool to learn how to fold a towel into an animal. I would really like to do that for my kids. I think that they would really like that. Dancing lessons this day were a lot of fun due to the fact of the rocking ship. You know when you were a kid and you spun around in a circle so many times that you made yourself dizzy and could hardly walk. Well, try taking dance lessons when the ground is moving out from under you and you feel like that little kids again. It was pretty fun and Stan and Alberta made it enjoyable. They laughed and joked with us when we all shifted our big circle to keep our balance. It was hilarious to watch. I even received a gold medal for being a good dancer in their class.
Day 8:

Tour of Los Angeles
This day we arrived in LA at 7 am. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave LA until 8:20 pm. So, we decided to take a tour of the city of Los Angeles and the beaches there to pass the time. This day was pretty cool. Jessi, I posted this picture just for you. Do you see the “Bones” picture on the wall? We saw the studio where they shoot it. Also, for those 1990’s movie buffs…the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Which movie??? Pretty woman of course!!! We also saw the Santa Monica Pier. This was where they shot the movie “Cellular”. We had a lot of fun and didn’t have to waste our entire day in the airport. We did end up spending a lot more time than we wanted to in the airport. We got there at 4 and had to wait for 2 ½ hours to be able to go through security. Then our plane was 1 ½ hours late landing which made it that late taking off. It was a very long night while waiting for that plane. I was so glad to be home after that. I loved my vacation but I really missed my kids and my own bed.

The Journey To Now

2009-01-17T23:49:00.002-07:00

I decided to take a page out of my sister’s book and actually introduce our little family. Jared started this blog for us and has asked that I contribute to it. Go figure. ;-)

My name is Heather Barnes and I grew up in a small town in “Nowhere”, Wyoming. I was the oldest of 4 kids. I have 2 sisters and 1 brother. We fought constantly when we were growing up but now they are some of my best friends. My hobbies included camping, fishing, riding my bike, and most importantly riding horses. I loved to barrel race and I was involved with Rodeo Royalty in the county we lived in. But overall, I was the typical tomboy. I had more guy friends than I did girl friends.

I dated a few boys while in high school, but the end of my junior year and all of my senior year was spent with the same guy. After high school graduation, I sent the boyfriend on a mission and, I moved to Salt Lake City. I needed a serious change of pace. I got a job at Wally World (Wal-Mart) and decided that I didn’t want to be tied to one guy so I “dear John-ed” the missionary and began to date again. I was not looking for anything serious; I just wanted to have some fun and be my own woman. . .

Then Jared Christopher Barnes made his grand entrance into my life.

Jared grew up in Salt Lake and lived there until high school when his parents moved their family to St. George. Jared’s dad had retired and wanted to build his “dream house”. So Jared, his brother, and his dad set to work. His dad drew up the plans and the three of them built one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. Jared learned a lot while doing this and became a “jack of all trades”.

Jared is a typical guy. He loves cars, motorcycles, camping, fishing, and pretty much anything outdoors. He also has a unique hobby of building remote control cars (RC Cars for future reference). Jared played the drums in the high school band and enjoyed hanging out with his friends. He had one serious girlfriend through most of high school and then dated another girl for a while after high school. He served an LDS mission to Rosario, Argentina and loved every minute of it. Both girls wrote to him while he was on his mission. The first one ended up sending him a “dear John” letter, then shortly after that, a wedding announcement. When he got home from his mission, he moved with his mom back to Salt Lake. He too got a job at Wally World. :0)

This is where is gets funny. Jared wasn’t looking for a relationship and neither was I. All the girls we worked with were chasing him, except me. And for any typical guy, the one girl that doesn’t chase you is the one you notice. A lady that worked with us, and befriended me, had known Jared his whole life. She decided to make it her mission to set us up on a blind date. But Jared and I, being as stubborn as we are, didn’t want anything to do with a “fix up”. As fate would have it, both of us ended up at a mutual friend’s party one Friday night. The fact that I was trying to avoid Jared, made the conquest all the more intriguing to him. By the end of the night, I had agreed to a date and my best friend was no longer speaking to me. Apparently, she thought that he was her knight in shining armor and, I was the wicked witch that stole Jared from her (she didn’t speak to me until she met her husband, about 18 months later. lol)

Our first date would set the standard for the rest of our relationship. CRAZY! The first date was 13 ½ hours long. We went miniature golfing, played video games, went to breakfast at 2 AM, danced to the song “I Swear” in the Wal-Mart parking lot while it was raining, and spent several hours discussing our testimonies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When I talked to my mom the next day, I told her that I had met the guy I was supposed to marry and, she thought I was crazy.

Six months later, on my parent’s 20th wedding anniversary, Jared proposed to me. He even did it the old fashioned way, he asked my father for my hand about a week earlier. On February 19, 1999 we were sealed for all Eternity in the Mt. Timpanogus Temple, in American Fork Utah. It was the best day of my life!

Once married, we moved into the basement of his mom’s house until we could save up enough money for an apartment of our own. About 6 months later we moved into our apartment and 4 months after that we found out we were pregnant with our son.

Spencer Willis Barnes was born on August 21, 2000. He was born a month early but still weighed 6lbs 8oz! He was such a good baby but he was also very sick. The first little while with him was really scary. He was in the hospital a lot, but overall we had so much fun being new parents. When Spencer was 2 weeks old, we made the move back to “Nowhere” Wyoming to work for my family’s business. We lived there for one year before going crazy and moved back to civilization. We spent the next few years working and saving up for a house. We also moved around a lot, 6 times to be exact.

In February 2004, we bought our first house. It was an 1800 square foot piece of Heaven on Earth. I loved it!! It was then that I had the most fun job I have ever had. I drove horse drawn carriages around Temple Square in Salt Lake. It was great! I got to work with my favorite animals in the world and I got to share my testimony of the gospel. I met some of my best friends at that job. I was having so much fun and just loving life. It was also then that we found out we were pregnant with our daughter.

Jamie Nicole Barnes was born on March 28, 2006. Due to my health, we didn’t think that we would be able to have any more children after Spencer. Jamie was a real blessing to us. She has such a special spirit and has brought us so much joy! Things were going so well for us, just perfect. . . . . . . . . . too perfect.

In August of 2006, Jared came home from work one day and told me that his job (Verizon Wireless) was opening a new call center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He also told me that they might be transferring us down there to help get it started. At the time I believe my words were, “absolutely not”. Needless to say, in December of 2008, I ended up eating those words. We packed up our house and kids and moved to New Mexico. What I feared would be my worst nightmare, ended up being one of the greatest blessings of my life.

Jared and I got to build a brand new home. We got to pick everything out and have it done exactly how we wanted it. We got as close to our dream house as we could without having drawn up the plans ourselves. While living here, we have met some of the most amazing people we have ever known, and had some of the strongest testimony building experiences ever. I have seen the hand of the Lord touch our lives many times over.

I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Popcorn!

2008-09-24T22:31:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Ken I now have a popcorn machine in our theater room! It is awesome!

Spencers Baptism-(Working a little backwards now)

2008-09-24T22:13:00.001-06:00

Spencer turned 8 on Aug 21st and he was baptized on Aug 23rd. It was a very spiritual and fun day as he was baptized and confirmed on the same day. He was also able to spend some time (the weekend) with family. We had a good turn out for this special event. Heather's entire immediate family, less one, was there! Kids and all! A big sacrifice for them, but very much appreciated. My Mom, Dad and LoAnne and Kim where able to make it from my side. Also our neighbor's Don and Jean, Elva, and the Missionaries (E. Stewart and E. Rammell). A day hopefully Spencer never forgets. I will never forget it! It was one of the most spiritual things I have ever done! I am very grateful for the Gospel and pray that Spencer continues to learn and grow. To Spencer, Well done thou good and faithful servant!

Updated Road Rash

2008-09-11T22:25:00.003-06:00

These pictures were taken 5 days after the accident. They look a lot worse than they did before. Heather was supossed to let them scab over after 48 hours. She has to keep vitamin E oil on them so they don't dry up and then crack and bleed more. The bruising is starting to come through really well also. You can see the purple and yellow on her left knee. OUCH!!!

Updated Pics of the Bike

2008-09-11T19:29:00.000-06:00

The top picture is the side of the bike that Heather laid it down on and got the brunt end of the damages. If you look close to the clutch you can see how ground down it is. The blinker light was actually snapped right off and only the wires were left. The bottom picture is where she was hit. The damages were enough that it looks like the insurance company is going to total the bike and she will have to get a new one.

Yo Quiero Taco Bell!

2008-09-08T15:40:00.001-06:00

Elva, our life saver!

2008-09-07T22:32:00.001-06:00

This is Elva, our best friend! Actually she is considered family to us. She came to the rescue while Heather was in the hospital after the accident. I couldn't go back with the kids, so she stayed with our kids until 11:30 pm. She is awesome! This picture is at Tocano's. Jamie loves Elva!

Road Rash!

2008-09-07T22:21:00.000-06:00

Ouch!!

Wrecked

2008-09-07T22:08:00.001-06:00

Here's Heather's bike after about 80ft of road rash! It may not look too bad, but as long as the damage is only cosmetic, it wil be about $1500 to repair! Other than the foot peg and shifter lever being ripped off, it seemed driveable.

Damage!

2008-09-07T22:03:00.000-06:00

Well we have had a busy weekend. Yesterday Heather decided to take on a Ford Ranger, on her bike. She lost, physically. The Ford Ranger? He lost Financially!