...SoMetHiNG's ChaNGed!

It's been over 2 years since my last post...oops! Something(s) have changed!

Since September of 2010, we've added Trevor Graydon Barlow to our family - wait, I swear I posted about that...oh well! Must be magically gone now. We've also moved to Enoch as of the end of November into a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom house all by ourselves with almost no neighbors. It's an awesome place! We will add another BOY to our family in July - around July 9th - who most likely will be named Landon Jacob Barlow. 

And my most favoritestest parts.....David graduates in May (FINALLY!!!!!!!! I've been living the poor student life for 8 years now in one way or another, ha ha!) AND we'll be moving back to the Salt Lake or Utah Valley area closer to family!! For SURE! As soon as David gets a job! I can't even begin to tell you how excited and ready for the changes we are! We miss family so much - and look forward to never missing homework. 

Speaking of David getting a job, if you hear of any Information Technology (Computer/Network/Programming) jobs anywhere, please let us know and put in a good word! And if you want to check out his resume and some of his accomplishments, check out his web site: david.dafam.org

I can't believe how fast time is going still. David Jr will be 4 this year, Trevor will be 2 in 3 months, we'll have a new baby in 3 1/2 months, and David SR will be done with his degree and on to the real world and not have daily homework anymore. It's so hard to believe! 

Just some personality updates on the kids real quick...

David Jr. (self dubbed "Dabey" or "Davey")

Silly, easy to tickle and make laugh, getting dramatic, thinks he gets to decide what's true or not, loves phones and computers, almost always happy unless sleep deprived or in lots of pain or being teased or bullied by Trevor, quick to love others, loves to eat fresh fruits and veggies (even kale, spinach, beets & beet greens). Easiest kid in the world to babysit without Trevor around, ha ha. Loves his Daddy more than anything. 


Trevor Graydon (Davey dubbed him "Trebbur" - sounds a lot like Trouble, doesn't it?)

Spunky, loves to test limits, OBSESSED with balloons (sees them everywhere - in a hair, ribbon, pictures, bags, suckers, vases...), goes from calm to super hyper or angry in the blink of an eye, loves to put things in his hair, teases his older brother as much as possible, so dang cute that he seems to know it and tries to get away with as much as he can. He's going to be a fun teenager! He used to say everything with a "deedle eedle eedle" but has suddenly decided to start talking and saying every word he hears. He also is a HUGE Mommy's boy. 


I have so much to be grateful for and looking forward to! I feel so unbelievably lucky. 
We've still had every need taken care of right when we needed it, and haven't had to go without much.
We've come so far with how we communicate (or in my case, how I didn't communicate) and are comfortable with talking about just about any of our discomforts or wishes or anything on our minds. That's a huge accomplishment for me, it's always been one of the hardest things for me to do, especially when I could potentially dream up any scenario that could possibly result in confrontation or disagreement. David has been so amazingly patient with me and spent all of the time necessary to get me to trust him and open up to him. He's the perfect man, I'm tellin' ya! I could write a novel on why but - I'll spare you for now. I just love him to death and would be horribly worse off without him. He completes me.

I think that's about all that I want to write for this post. I've got a few more coming that I'm formulating in my mind, and I don't want this one to be forever and a half long. That's our changes and updates in a pinch! 

...The End!

CaTCheRiN' uP!

Now that summer is over, it's time to play catch! Or catch up. Oi. It has been one crazy but fun and eventful summer!!

David Sr. took two summer classes that had fun kickin' his trash and taking up most of his time, but leaving us a little time to survive and put off homework to hang out with other people somehow. :) We got two weeks of a real summer, though, so that's good! (But no swimming - waaa!)

2-3 weeks ago Jr. decided to start doing everything at once (finally). He got 2 bottom teeth, started army crawling everywhere, clapping, sitting up without throwing himself back, weaning himself from nursing (not by my choice), sleeping through the night (at least most of it, but it's better than waking every 3 hrs like he used to), etc! It was awesome!! I can't believe he's almost 9 months old...

Oh! And we finally got to go camping for the first time since before we met each other!!! Yay!! Jr slept pretty good, surprisingly, even through coyote howls and barks. (I guess only me and Sr didn't out of all the other people from the ward that were there.) Twas fun! I loved it!!

Now school has started again for Sr & we're lacking on together time sometimes, but we're still doing great! The whole putting off homework works okay for us until it's due, ha ha.

I think the reason we have the time and resources we need still is because of our efforts to put God first, though. We make time to take 2 Institute classes (Sr is in 3), do our callings, help people when we can, read & listen to talks a lot, and we're blessed with everything else we need. I'm surprised every time we make it financially, etc, when I'm so sure we're not going to! It's amazing.

In other news with our families...David's sister, Katie, sister-in-laws, Penny and Heather are all having baby girls!! YAY!!! And my sister, Shalae's son, Axel, is about to turn one already (9/21)! And my little sister, Natalie, joined the Marines and is in boot camp in South Carolina. Crazy awesome stuff!! LOVE it!


Boy, that wasn't hard to catch up, was it? I thought for sure I'd write a novel. This is GREAT! Thanks for the motivation, Kirsten!!

ConGraDuaTioNs, Daddy DaviD!

Well, it's official! Husband now has his Associates of Science degree! Yay! It was odd being the only family there, ha ha, but uh, we didn't tell anyone about it. Oops. Mostly because life's been so busy that David didn't even remember to order his cap & gown till a couple days before he graduated! Besides, he'll be here another 2 years anyway & will be in school probably at least another 4 years, if not more...let's not get too excited now! Jk.

I made him a special Oreo necklace to help him make it through work right after, and made him a delicious chicken alfredo pizza for lunch with breadsticks and "garlic loaf" (buttery garlicish biscuits baked in a pan together). I surprised myself with how it all turned out! It was awesome! Perfectly golden & cheesy & yummy. If you want the recipe, let me know & I'll email it to you.

ProJeCT ExteRniMaTioN

Project Externimation is fully under way! My wonderful fellow Relief Societians came yesterday to help me finish detail cleaning, put poison, steel wool, & caulk in all the 26 and counting holes/enemy points of entry. Oh! And did I mention we caught our first intruder?

David opened the closet door under the stairs and said, "Wifey! Look!" So I did, saw a dark blob, felt nervous, slowly walked closer and...well, I guess I had my first genuine girly moment. I scrunched up my face, gritted my teeth, exclaimed, "Ewwww!" and...brought my hands up near my face and...I fanned it! Valley girl style! Without even thinking! Then I did small jumps up and down and went, "Ew ew ew! Bleh!"

It didn't look or smell gross...it was just a dead diseased mouse. It actually looked pretty cute! I feel sorry that it was lead to believe that it could live here. As for the rest of them...they've been warned to leave or commit suicide by means we have provided.

Here are a few pictures of some holes:

WhAt iS LoVE?

Love's been on my mind lately for some reason. I keep getting thoughts of, "When you really truly love someone, what does it entail? Do I show it, or do I think I'm showing it?" etc.

The past few weeks, almost everything I've listened to or read seems to have some message about love that enlightens my mind. For example, this morning I was reading the scriptures and flipped open randomly to 1 John 4. 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Made me think. I'm always afraid to hurt David's feelings or afraid to offend someone or the other. And the same goes for David and just about everyone else, too, I'm sure. Here are my thoughts on the verse:

Fear scares us and keeps us from doing good.

We can't ever make someone offended at us. THEY choose to take offense.

Love includes chastening and correction. They help us to be the best we can be.

>>Consider this, we're all making cakes. You forget to put the eggs in it. I notice, but don't tell you because I don't want to hurt your feelings or make you feel dumb. Your cake turns out horrible and flat and you wonder why. I then tell you that I noticed you forgot the eggs as you were making it, but didn't want to tell you for fear of hurting or offending you. How much would you trust me after that? Because I didn't tell you, you feel more dumb and hurt than if I would have, not to mention that you now don't have any cake to enjoy.

Compare this to life. Anything in life. When someone is making a mistake or missing something vital and we know a better way, or have experienced it before, or whatever the case may be, and we don't try to help them, we are limiting them and not really showing them that we love them. In the end, when they find out that you knew better and didn't try to help them they will feel hurt, confused at the least, and lose trust in you.

How much better could we all be if we were honest and helped each other, even if we knew it would cause a little pain along the way?

The people we trust and care about the most are usually the people that were honest with us, there for us, and cared enough to help us. Are they not?

Obviously, I'm still not "perfect in love" - probably won't be for a long time - but I'll definitely try harder to be.

MoVe iT

So we're movin next weekend! Nice place, eh? $495 a month for 2 bed, 1 bath basement apartment and an extra storage room with our own washer and dryer! Aren't we just so lucky? Oh yes!

We'd been stressing about finding a newer nicer place with cleaner air vents and carpet as opposed to a house built in 1940 with disgusting air vents that are constantly clogging up our noses (including the baby's) and wood floors that give you splinters.

While sitting with the new landlord to sign the contract for this place, we mentioned that we were surprised that the place wasn't snatched up by someone else first. She then said that she believes the place was meant for us. She told us the following:

The last guy got kicked out of the place in November because he was living in filth (trash all over the floors and never cleaned). December they cleaned the place, and all of January and February they had the For Rent sign up, but everyone who called about it wanted to rent the entire house, not the basement. They finally decided to get a more obvious sign saying BASEMENT FOR RENT and put it up the following Monday. Within a few hours we drove by it and called, and the rest is history!

Talking to David afterwards about it, it turns out we were both fasting and praying for a place at the same time. Prayer works. Fasting and prayer REALLY work. We were also able to find a washer and dryer quickly and for cheap ($25 each) by the same means.

Now all we need is a vacuum, broom, and queen size bed frame...

EveRyOnE's HaD a TuRn

Well, as of last night, everyone in our little family has had a turn in the hospital in the past three weeks. Dec 3 - me having the baby. Dec 6 - David Jr. getting a billirubin test for jaundice, and Dec. 20 - David Sr. checking into the emergency room.

He'd been having sharp pains in his lower right abdomen near his appendix all day Saturday and they still weren't gone Sunday so he called our home teacher for a blessing. He told us not to hesitate going to the hospital because if it is the appendix it could be life threatening. Hence, we took him to the emergency room since it's the only place in the hospital open on Sunday.

They drew blood, which David doesn't do well with - he almost passed out and broke into a cold sweat - so they put him on an IV of fluids for an hour. They gave him a cat scan as well.

Turns out he has an inflamed small intestine due to virus so all they could do was send him home with Lortab and a list of instructions. At least it wasn't appendicitis! It'll be interesting to see the bill when it comes. I'm not sure much of it'll be covered...

BUT for some reason David's financial aid was increased $800 for this coming semester... The

Lord is definitely watching over us ~