The Barton Family Blog

How about you? you? you? You can come too, too, too, We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo (all parents of toddlers officially have the song stuck in their heads now!) Our Thanksgiving day started in a non-traditional way! The Portland Zoo opened with no admission fee as a thank you to the community for a $$$$ bond that just passed. Johnny has never been to the zoo with Natalee so we thought it the perfect time! We got up early and headed out knowing that we'd be competing with lots of runners who ran the "Turkey Trot" at 8 am. It was a little crazy, but a lot of fun! love-love-love this shot of them looking at the elephant Natalee being AWED by the huge elephant! cute little look Wow! Huge fish! can you see the polar bear in the back? Natalee thought that was pretty cool. This trip was the first time Natalee was interested in the animals. ...so it was a lot of fun in that respect! It was super cold tho' so a lot of animals weren't out. We'll just have to ...

Natalee has been potty training herself the past month or so. ...so sweet Auntie Amber bought her two pairs of panties! woo hoo!! Today I decided to be brave and try to be a little more consistent with potty training. Natalee was dry all morning (we did try on the potty 8 or 10 times!) Then at nap time I put a diaper on her and she promptly pee'd in it. After her nap I put her back in "chonies" (our word for panties) and she did fairly well for an hour or so. I was a proud mommy! This potty training thing is a breeze! Right? all those experienced moms? any comment? O don't worry. The story doesn't end there. Then she climbed up in our big black chair (Check out that sag! They're a little big still! :) ) and said, "water, momma, water" so of course I thought she wanted a drink. wrong. she had her first accident (or maybe it should be called an "on purpose" :) ) I'm sure it was a valid learning experience! Anyway... that's what...

Fall has... fallen. and I missed it. How is it possible that one day the trees are beautiful - stunning - breathtaking and then it rains. and in one day... sometimes just one or two hours... it's all gone. and I didn't get any pictures. poo. This is the closest thing I've got to fall pictures... and yes they're cute. But I wish the leaves were still on the trees! [sigh]

This is the girl's playground. I think it entices them because it's the perfect height. They can walk under the bars, but also hang from them. Everytime we walk by them, we have to stop for at least 5 minutes. They're obsessed. They do play really nicely when they are there.... no fighting. Just lots of giggling and silliness! (: At least Kyah knows how to pose for a picture... This is the best I can get from Natalee... mostly she either ignores me, or comes and tries to take the camera. Neither of which allows for a productive picture!

She says her name now, clear as a bell. First it was "at-ee" Then she got all three syllables: "a-uh-ee" and now it's "Nat-a-lee" perfectly enunciating each syllable. O... and Robeez is donating $5 of Robeez products to K.I.D.S (Kids in Distressed Sitautions) for every Robeez e-card you send. It's a free way for you to help kids! go to http://seasonofgiving.robeez.com/ and send an ecard!

I have spent the past 2 days in scrapbooking heaven! My mom, Patti, Kelly and I have spread our spreads and scrapped all day! It's been a blast! I am so pleased with how my pages turned out too which is a big +! Stephanie Howell , a fellow scrapper/blogger, gave me some tips on how to take pictures of my pages and to keep the edges crisp and clean! I was excited to play with the crop & edit features on Iphoto and now I"m able to share them on my blog! Woo hoo! This was 2 - 5K's Allison and I ran... one on New Years eve at midnight... and one on New Years Day at 10am. And... my all time favorite page... can't believe she came FROM US

That's what Natalee said when she fell off this swing: Woah. Mama Mia. Yes I died laughing. Patti asked me if "Mama Mia" is a usual phrase around our house... and the answer is no, and yes. We don't say it. But it's the song/ringtone that plays when my phone rings... so sometimes when I answer my phone I will sing a line from the song... but usually when my phone rings, the first thing Natalee says as she runs to get it, is... Mama Mia. Not a typical toddler sentence... but hey, what can I say? Mama Mia! (and no I've never seen the movie, or the Broadway musical.. I just like the song!)

Johnny, Naomi, Jason & I had a relatively cheap double date night! 1st - free tickets to a Winter Hawks Hockey game... just cost us gas and parking... + a buck or two for a snack... Of course... we HAD to climb all the way to the top and sit in the nose bleed section... just cause the guys thought it was fun... Makes for cute pictures tho'! then - a free hour of browsing at Powell Books (the biggest book store EVER!) + cute pictures outside in front of the book statue... (against our husbands' wishes...) ... made for a lovely evening! We have so much fun with Jason and Naomi! And of course our little Natalee was safe in the care of Nonnie & Papa... and her great grandma Wanda who was in town on a visit! Thanks Nonnie, Papa and Grandma for a worry free night! If only people would give us free tickets all the time! (:

We had 6 kids in my house today! 3 - 2 & 1/2 year olds and 3 - 1 & 1/2 year olds! (and for the span of 10 or 15 minutes... they were ALL asleep!) I'm sorry Cassie... but I just don't know how you do it every day! You deserve mother of the year award! I was exhausted by the time you guys left! (: Check out these two cuties! It's super hard to get a good picture of them both... every time I get the camera out, Natalee decides she wants to look at the picture so she starts to get down from the couch. If I can finally distract them both long enough to snap a picture.... it's rare that they are BOTH smiling. But they're cute... no matter how the pictures turn out!

2 little love bugs! Calvary Chapel here in town has a HUGE harvest party where they rent out the fairgrounds and do a ton of stuff! Fishing, Bowling, Face Painting, Animal Balloons, free food, and much,much more! We met Kyah & her parents there so we could snap some pictures of the two little cuties. They were too cute! They just walked around and held hands. They both loved the petting zoo! It was SO hard to snap a decent picture of both the girls! They were so overwhelmed.... sensory overload! This in a wolf?/dog? at the Petting Zoo - "Noah's Ark" ...And off they go! Natalee got a chance to ride the rocking horse. however... she didn't want to get off. ever. So as the line formed behind us, she kicked and screamed and threw a HUGE fit because she just wanted to ride the HORSE! forever. It was a little embarrassing. I was even trying to bribe her with candy... but all she wanted was to ride the horse! She doesn't quite get the concept of standing in line y...

Natalee woke up this morning and decided to say "banana" perfectly clear. It made me sad. She has always said " mana " or " bana " but today it was "banana"... perfectly enunciating each syllable. (she is a syllable girl! see previous post...) And now she's squatting down behind me, with her bananas on her rocking chair, leaning in real close to the bananas and saying, "Hi der banana. Hi der ." O they change so fast. Of course when I tried to capture it on video... she wouldn't perform...