The Barton Family Blog

We waited for the bus ... We caught the bus ... We went to the library... and we came back home! (:

These pictures (and the previous post) are not edited on a editing program. This is a feature of my Canon - it allows you to select a color and then make the rest of the picture black and white. You choose the color, then shoot the photo. In the pictures where you don't see any color, I obviously chose a color that didn't end up being in the pix. It's hard to get good pictures on the bus because the child is either sitting beside me or in front of me - close proximity... but I switched seats a couple times and got a few shots.

DaVinci Days festival occurs in our town every July. There is always art on display on the streets bordering the festival. The girls had a blast checking out all the weird (in my opinion) stuff lining the streets. We actually went to the festival as well - but I will save that for another post! (:

Friday July 23, 2010 Yesterday, (a long time ago) at Taco Bell... I said to you (in a mean voice) I want to wash my hands!!! And then I got a spanking for talking rude to you. That was sad. God doesn't want me to talk rude to you mom. That makes God sad. And God doesn't want me to lie too. That makes God sad when we lie. . [Yes. Lying is called sin.] Ya and God doesn't like it when we sin. It makes God sad. And if we want to go to heaven, we can't lie [Yes it does. but if we ask Jesus into your hearts, He will forgive us of our sins] Jesus is coming into my heart right now! [Do you want to pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart? ] Yes. [So I led her in a simple prayer. Hugged her and felt my heart soar so high. My sweet sweet baby!] What are we going to take to heaven? [Nothing... we don't take anything to heaven. Just we go someday.] Are you going to tell Daddy that I want to get into the boat? [what boat?] The boat to heaven!

These past few weeks I've been craving a few hours to scrapbook. Tuesday this week, my friend Allison came over and we spent several hours... w/ 3 kids home... w/o my sweet husband to distract aforementioned kids... scrapbooking. And we actually got something accomplished! Ooooooooo it feels so good to scrap again. I think besides 1 day w/ my mom, I haven't scrapped since last October ): sad. I know. Those pages from October are the only few I have of S & H. I have so so so much to catch up on. I think I have 5 scrapbooks for Natalee - must. get. caught. up. I need at least one book for each of them soon. Here's a 3-page spread of sorts Tonight I stayed up waaaay past my bedtime to finish a page I started sometime last year. (Don't worry Hannah! Most nights when my post appears at 2am, it's because I pre-scheduled it to post that way. It's how I keep my posts staggered so I often have daily posts, even tho' I'm not on the computer that much!) L...

This girl is 3 and a 1/2 years old This girl has the most be-au-ti-ful eyes! She gets compliments all the time! I love it when pictures of her just make them pop! This girls says the following, every time someone asks her name: " Shyanne - avyen Ray Johnson! I'm so big!!!" all in one breath and no one can ever understand (besides this momma!) so they all just smile and say, what a pretty name! (side note: We've got to start teaching her her new middle name/last name - as soon as we decide for sure what we want her middle name to be! There's been a little vacillating as of late!) This girl is a little fishy! She absolutely loves to swim and will let go (w/ a life vest) and doggy paddle all around. We've got to get them in swim lessons so we can reinforce the good that has come from all the time in the pool this summer! This girl loves to do art projects (or scrapbooking as they call it) and she is getting so good at cutting on a straight line. This girl al...

This girl is 3 years + 4 months This girl is beautiful inside & out! This girl loves to play Mommy & Baby w/ Shyanne. She is the mommy and Shyanne is the baby. I think she enjoys bossing her around! This girl has a funny fear of people coming after her/ chasing her. If anyone, Shyanne, Daddy, Hollie, Kyah, anyone... acts like they are chasing her - she seems genuinely afraid. Panicky almost. She runs to me clawing at me to pick her up and keep her safe... it's comical - although a touch odd too! This girl almost always wants her hair down - simply because she doesn't want it brushed - but if it can't be down, it has to be in a braid ("Abbi Rice wears her hair like this huh Mom?") This girl ends up in our bed or on the floor next to our bed, every night. We started a routine for Shyanne to come into our room if she's scared, rather than scream - and Natalee decided it was a good plan for her as well. So every night... between 2 & 4, I either cli...

This girl is 2 years + 2 months. This girl is our little ham! These days she makes us laugh and laugh and laugh. Her budding verbal skills are just so cute! Some of her favorite sayings.... ***"2 minutes!" about anything where time needs to pass... "Hold on Hollie" - she replies... [gibberish, gibberish] and then "2 minutes!"*** ***"Shy-anne!!!" She always called her Shy-Shy - until one day a few weeks ago she started calling her Shy-anne!!! and it always has 3 exclamation points after it. She uses it to demand obedience, or rebuke Shyanne. ***"Nat-a-wee" or something pretty close. I never realized Natalee would be such a tough name for kids to say - but it is! *** "Tawn-ee" (aka Connie) She does imaginative play and it always seems to involve Connie (an adopted Grandma from church). Hollie adores Connie. She plays that they're going to Connie's house... whenever we go to church for band practice she rattles off an e...

I got both the girls new glasses. They were needing some badly! They both broke them w/in a half an hour. That's the thanks I get... Shyanne: practicing her studious look. I think she has it perfected!

We have lived in our apt. complex since last August and have never used the pool! It was about time! It's a little nerve wracking w/ 3 kids - so Natalee's life vest & Hollies swim vest/suit/thingy really help to make a mom a bit more at ease! This day Kyah came along for the ride. (Hey, once you conquer 3 kids in the pool... it doesn't much matter how many more come!) 4 swimsuits? check! 4 towels? check! 4 little bodies LATHERED in sunscreen? check! 4 pairs of shoes that can get a little wet? check! 2 parents who are tired before we even leave home? check! There was another picture of Hollie... but it won't upload! Shy closed her eyes for her pic (the sun was right behind me!) Kyah turned her head. So that's all for now! Hopefully we can make use of this pool a few more times before summer ends!

There is just such a sweet friendship developing between these girls! Playing princesses every minute of the day!

It's a little fuzzy... but isn't she a doll!!? It makes my heart ache to see her sweet baby picture and know that I never knew her then. Look at that hair! I wish I had a picture of Shyanne this young. Sweet baby!

It's been almost a month since we went to Chico. I never took my pictures off of my camera, and then it died. Now that we have a new camera (hurray!!!) I inserted my old memory card and Voila! pictures! Ok so for those of you who don't know what an outreach is or what it entails... here's an explanation. About 15 of us from Corvallis and Salem piled into a van at 6am.. and headed down south. John and Sofia Foley are pioneering a church in Chico, CA, basically starting from nothing, and with a LOT of prayer, building a church. Since the Foleys are from our home church (McMinnville), they often call other sister churches and request impact/outreach teams to come for a day (or two!) Pastor Foley aka John called and asked if our band could come play a few concerts this particular weekend. Since our church is small, and we wanted to send a good impact team, the Salem church sent enough people to fill the van. Side note: I LOVED having the Salem people with us. It was a fresh...

Cassie always says these two will be best friends someday. When they're together at church or even in play, they always seem to fight. It comes with being 2 for sure! Grace knows how to make Hollie mad.... just come sit on my lap! But for some reason they called a truce (for the most part) the week that Grace stayed with us. They were SO good! I think maybe they are growing up a little - getting closer and closer to becoming friends and further and further from arch-enemies! Such cuties!

This is probably one of the strangest blog posts I've ever written. I hope that every person who reads my blog takes the times to read the words written below. I pray that each and every one of you will receive it with the understanding that I am writing this because I love you, and it is in no way meant to be judgmental.. What inspired this post, was a paper I read recently about the world after the Rapture occurs. The Rapture, simply explained, is when Jesus Christ takes Christians from this world to heaven. When the Rapture occurs, a series of events will unfold that are explained in Revelations (the last book of the bible). This time after the Rapture is called The Tribulation, followed by another period of time called The Great Tribulation. This time will include such devastation that the earth has never known. Over the course of the tribulation, 75% of the earth's population will be wiped out. The agony that those surviving will endure, will make them wish they were ...

Daddy always had pleasant conversations with the kids while I run into a store or complete an errand. Here's today's conversation: Daddy: Who wants to eat lunch!??! Kids: Me!!!!!!!!! Me!!!!! Me!!!! Me!!! Daddy: Who wants to eat a car!??! Kids: ME!! I do!! Me! Me!! Daddy: Who wants to eat dog poop?!? Kids: Me! Me!!! Me!!! Me!!! Daddy: Yuck! That's gross!!! Shyanne: (in a disapproving tone) Daddy! That's appropriate!

. Our 3rd & 4th of July were BUSY! Every year we do an 4th of July picnic at Discovery Park in Mac with my family & Johnny's family. It's a blast! This year since the 4th fell on a Sunday, we did our picnic on the 3rd. I made cute little Tutus for the girls and had them all dolled up in their Red, White & Blue. Our camera is broken so I didn't get to take any cute shots - but Maga's cousin bought a new camera so I'm hoping to upload her pictures eventually! Naomi did send me a couple pictures... this one's from the 3rd... just goes to show how tuckered out the girls were. We played a concert that night in McMinnville and they passed out during prayer before the concert. LOVE THIS PIX! It's rare moment w/ these two - they're always on the go! On the 4th we headed downtown into the MADNESS for our yearly tradition of watching fireworks w/ people from church. The girls had been up till after 11pm the night before - so by the top this pictu...

Can't believe how they change. I know I keep saying that, but it's true!!