Sweet Big Brother!

The night before I left for Minneapolis Nico chose to read Bella a bedtime story...it was so precious that I thought I'd share with you all! These great sibling bonding moments are sometimes rare so I have to capture them & share when I can (sorry about the picture quality)!

Aren't they sweet:

Big Girl Bed!!

The time has finally come that we (I say "we" because we ALL go through the process) must transition from crib to "big girl bed" for Bella. The last two mornings I have heard a pitter patter of feet on the floor upstairs...Bella had decided it was time to start letting herself out of the crib rather then calling mom for help, which is not safe.

As most of you know, this transition is something that I have been dreading for quite some time and for many reasons.

• One: she is my last child, the last one to use the crib which is very sad for me, and she's not a baby anymore.
  
• Two: she is #4 and I know the Barnes children's track record for sleeping once they make the move to the big bed...not good! Naps still happen for a short time but end up becoming more & more of a fight until finally I surrender because it's just not worth the fight...which means I accomplish nothing nor do I have any quiet time during the day!
• Three: this one ties into #2 but involves the evening. For some reason all of my children think that once we tuck them into bed this is like some green light to hop back out of bed for every excuse in the book, i.e. I need water, I have to go to the bathroom, I'm hungry, all of a sudden I like my siblings that I've been fighting with all day & we need to chit chat, etc...
  

So, this morning Bella & I hunted down her bed (it's a toddler bed that all of them have used), cleaned it all up, put her new bedding on that she got from mommy & daddy for her birthday, and tested it out. Then she decided at nap time that she was ready to give it a test run and she did a great job...I was VERY PROUD of her!!!

Bed time, however, was a different story! We did the bedtime routine which consisted of a lecture of "we don't get out of bed", books, tucked in, water, lecture of "we don't get out of bed" again and then all was good...I'm thinking awesome this is going to be easy! WRONG...low and behold she thinks she sees a spider in bed and this ruins the whole thing! Bailey went to check it out (I don't think there was anything) and we told her Bailey got it and it was all gone...she wasn't buying it and kept getting out of bed. Then she started saying she wanted to sleep in her crib...we gave in and daddy put the mattress back in the crib. She then starts crying for me, I go up there & ask her whats wrong and she says she wants to sleep in her big girl bed (aggh)! I tell her not tonight because daddy already moved it all around and she says in her sweet little voice, " but can I sleep in my "big girl bed" for nap tomorrow"! To which I tell her "of course"! Thank goodness I didn't take the crib down yet!

Here is Bella & her "big girl bed" after we cleaned it & first put the bedding on:

Bella on her bed, in place, with all of her friends:

Bella at nap time...isn't she precious:

Wish me luck on this transition! Once this one is done we have to hit potty training hard...she wants NOTHING to do with it anymore! Then once potty training is done we work on getting rid of her "pluggie"...she is a hard core addict!! And then my baby will be a BIG GIRL...sniff, sniff!

Mommy Time

As you can see I haven't blogged in awhile and the reason being that I was out of town. My wonderful husband and awesome parents were kind enough to spoil me with a weekend getaway (Thursday, 4/24, early morning to Monday, 4/28, early evening). They flew me up to Minneapolis were I was able to spend some quality time with both of my parents, celebrate my cousin/godchild's 21stbirthday with relatives, do some shopping and enjoy some much needed R&R!!

It's fun to be spoiled every once in awhile!!

Thanks so much Don, Mom & Dad...I love you all!!!!

Black & Gold Game

This past Saturday was the annual MU Black & Gold game (AKA the Spring Game) which was also on ESPNU for the 1st time. The kids had fun time...they enjoy seeing dad on the field, players & playing with friends. We sat with the Caton's, the Spicci's, the Hairston's & trainer Brooke. Apparently, Nico even made the news from the game...he was saying hi to Martin Rucker (just graduated) and the news wanted to get some footage of Ruck signing autographs for kids (we were sitting by the boy from the "Boys Club).

Anywho, here are some photos from the day:
The weather turned out to be colder then the forecast said so Bailey borrowed a big puffy coat from dad (mom told her dress warmer):

1st Ball Games of the Season

Last night Olivia had her first T-Ball game of the season (this is her second year playing), and Nico had his very first player pitch baseball game...in the league that the kids play in they play 2 years of t-ball, 2 years of coach pitch and then they start kid pitch which is what Nico is in. Both kids had a lot of fun last night.

Olivia was able to play outfield, 1st base and 3rd base. She said she liked third base best because she is number 3 and it's third base (3 & 3). She had a good hit every time and made it on base. She said she had a fun time! I love watching them at this age they are so cute!

I missed the first half of Nico's game but dad was there (just about every one of their games overlap, so one of us will be at one and the other at the other game). Don had texted me an update of Nico's game before I was able to get there, and he said that Nico was walked on his first at bat and then stole 2nd & 3rd, and then scored. When I got there the team was at bat but he didn't get his up and they then took the field. Nico played 2nd base and had a real nice play...made mom proud (the emotional me got teary eyed...that better stop or I'll be a mess for a long time)! A ground ball was hit to him, he scooped it up, and threw it to the first baseman for the out....way to go boys! Nico's last at bat he struck out but no biggie at happens to the best of them. His team won 11-1....GO REBELS!

If you double click on the images it will make them larger!

Bella's School

Last Thursday Bella had Parents As Teachers with Ms. Diana, and her lesson was all about puppets. We read a book all about different kinds of puppets, read the book Froggy & acted it out with puppets, and then Bella was able to make her very own puppet. Here are some photos of Bella making her puppet and then the final masterpiece:

Isabella's 3rd Birthday

I can't believe that my baby is already 3...she turned 3 while we were in Florida! What a great way to celebrate your birthday...at the beach. Not only was it Bella's birthday, but it was Katie O'Connor's (14) & Ryan Bernskoetter's (12). It was fun for all the families to be able to celebrate our kids birthdays together. We spent the day having a girl's day out (the boys all went their own way) shopping and lunch. Then at night we BBQ'd, had cake & ice cream and opened presents. When the festivities were done the kids all went over to the O'Connor's cabin to play & watch movies while the adults stayed in our cabin and played Phase 10 & drink some adult beverages. We had a great day and I think the birthday girl had a wonderful time! I really enjoy this age because it doesn't matter what you do to celebrate birthdays & holidays...they appreciate anything. When she got her present in the mail from Grandma Jean she was so excited and thought that was her birthday gift and that was it. I told that on her birthday she would get a few more gifts and she looked at me with the sweetest face, gave me a hug and said "I do? Oh thank you ma ma!"...so sweet!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Bella helping to decorate the cake, she loved that....

The birthday kids...

Bella opening her presents!
She was having just as much fun throwing the tissue paper on Ryan..

Our Cabin in Florida

On spring break we stayed at a place called Grayton Beach State Park...it is in the panhandle between Destin & Panama City. We each stayed in our own cabin the had two bedrooms, bathroom, living room, kitchen & screened in porch. The master bedroom had a queen size bed & dresser, and the other bedroom had two twin beds & a dresser.

This 1st photo you can see the cabins behind us....that is were the Bernskoetters (they left side) & O'Connors (the right side) stayed:

This is the living room/dining room area:

Couch by day...Nico's bed by night:








The Kitchen:












Our Bedroom:








This is still our bedroom - ignore the junk :)...(when I took the photos Bella was napping so I didn't get a photo of the girls room):

The girls stayed in the bedroom...Bailey & Olivia each had a bed & Bella slept in the Pack n' Play. Nico slept on the futon in the living room...next year I think the two older ones will have the room and the two younger on the futon (who knows that will probably change).

More on Spring Break

Here are some photos from Spring Break.

This one is one of the five dolphins we saw:

These are pictures of the kids making a sand castle:

This one is of all of the kids except Ryan (he was up at the cabin). They all worked on the sand castle:

Easter Sunday

More on spring break....

We all drove all day Saturday until we got to Mobile, AL. Our friend, Ms. Kathy, was so kind to let us spend the night at her house once we got to Mobile, and we hopefully didn't inconvenience her as she was in Columbia visiting her family, the Catons! It was so nice to be able to have the comforts of a home for our travels rather then stay in a hotel (the O'Connors & Bernskoetters opted for a hotel stay that night). We woke up on Easter morning, got packed up, and went to iHop for breakfast.

These are photos from iHop (dad doesn't look all that thrilled):

After breakfast it was time to hit the road for our 2 hour drive to Grayton Beach. We wanted to take the scenic route over and the rest wanted to take the interstate to get there faster (they didn't really get much more accomplished then we did by getting there early but that's ok it was their own choice). Our scenic route took us through Pensacola which was fun because we went there for spring break a few years ago and stayed with our great friends, the Serbus', when they lived there...we had an AWESOME time on that trip. So we decided to go check out the beach that we had so much fun at last time and relive that trip a little.

The kids on the beach in Pensacola on Easter Sunday (what a way to celebrate Jesus then marveling at five of God's beautiful creations):