Happy Birthday!

This has been a weekend of celebration because today is David and Mary Kate’s birthday. I think that it is so sweet that they share a birthday. God gave us a wonderful blessing, and the perfect birthday gift for David, when Mary Kate was born on January 23, 2009. It has been a terrific two years so far and has flown by!


The celebration commenced on Friday afternoon at Mary Kate’s “school.” I sent cupcakes for her class to have for their snacks (I know that their moms just loved me when they got home). I was really excited about it because it was the first (of many I’m sure) times that I was able to do this. She wore her “birthday girl” shirt that her Gege(David’s mom) gave her. I’m not sure what they did at “school” for her birthday other than eat cupcakes, but she came home understanding more about the fact that the party was for her and lit up when we practiced singing “Happy Birthday.”


Saturday, we had an Elmo’s World party for her at Nana and Randaddy’s house (those are my parents). We decorated their garage with Elmo table cloths and cake, streamers, and read and white balloons. It looked great! We also rented an Elmo’s World jumpy and a pink and purple slide. She LOVED it! The weather was perfect, for January, and was sunny with no clouds and in the 40s (which became more like the 30s by the end). We all braved the cold to play with the kids. I had hot chocolate and coffee for the adults and most of us warmed up with that in between jumping and sliding. It was a blast and I’m so thankful that everyone came, played, and celebrated with us!

One thing that I did for this party that was special was to put together a slideshow of pictures and videos since her first birthday party, which is now officially an annual tradition. It was so sweet to watch that and see how much she has grown up and changed. One of my favorite things from this slideshow is the video of her practicing walking back and forth from me to David in the driveway. She was just learning how to walk and did it own really well that week (Feb. break for the teachers). Another was the video of her meeting Mills in the hospital. I cut it short on the slideshow, but she was inspecting his nose, toes, eyes, and fingers and said, “hey!” to him at the end of it. These videos and pictures are priceless and it is so neat to be able to relive that year during the process of compiling the slideshow. In fact, the night I finished it I showed David to make sure he was ok with it, and we both got very emotional. We just cannot believe that it has already been two years since God blessed us with her. It has gone by almost too fast and has been full of love, laugher, and fun all around. Little did we know on this night two years ago that we would have our sweet princess and our handsome little man. How awesome it is!

Today, January 23rd, is David and Mary Kate’s actual birthday and we celebrated some more. David’s sister Katee and her family came to the party and stayed with us last night. In fact, they were kind enough to keep the kids last night, after the party, so that I could take David out to eat for his birthday with just the two of us (it was awesome!). Mary Kate LOVES her Kay Kay (Katee), Lug (Brandon), Ana, and Evan and was so excited to see them this morning when she got up. We began a tradition last year of putting balloons in her room the night before her birthday. It’s a fun way to start the celebration! Evan and Lug helped David and I cover her floor with balloons (balls as she calls them) last night and she was very excited when she saw them this morning. We spent the first half of the day in our pjs and enjoyed time with family, who we don’t get to see all of the time. David made pancakes and Lug made beacon. It was really fun way to celebrate and was great, as always, to spend time with the Barkers!

In other news, it looks like Mills is trying to cut his first tooth. I was sure that it was going to erupt today, but not yet. I know it will happen any day now and nursing will become interesting. We will keep you posted on the tooth.

My First Post!

So, after much consideration, I have decided to start a blog as a way to remember stories that one day want to share with my children. I hope to post fairly regularly so that I won't forget the fun/sweet/crazy things they do.

The weather has been crazy to begin this new year! We heard there was a possibility of snow and were torn about what to do. When Mary Kate was six weeks old it snowed and iced pretty good and we lost power. Our heat was off over night and we were very cold. In fact, we all slept upstairs in the guest room, which is now Mills' room, in an attempt to stay warm (Mary Kate slept on my chest). So since we didn't want to take a chance of having no heat or fire, we decided to go stay with my parents. It snowed a little over 3 1/2 inches on Sunday night in Covington. It was very pretty and powdery at first; however, it quickly turned into ice on Monday morning and the entire yard looked like one huge frozen tundra. We took the kids out for a short few minutes, but Mary Kate was not that interested and it was too cold to keep Mills out for too long.

This was Mom and Dad's deck. It was frozen solid on Monday Morning.

Mills' first real snow.

I ended up being out of school for an entire week! Although we were all a bit stir crazy, it was nice to spend the extra time with my family. David was off of work on Monday and Tuesday and didn't go in until mid-day Wednesday because of the roads. Spending this extra time with my family makes me realize both how blessed I am and how much I need to thank God for these blessings!!!

Before the crazy weather began, Mills began eating rice cereal on Saturday. I decided to make his, which I did not do with Mary Kate, to try something different. I was not sure what I was getting myself into when I made it the first time, but overall I think that making his food is a good way for me to try to keep him well, especially since he seems to be sick a lot! He was not sure about it at first and his face was priceless when he took his first bite! It took until about Tuesday for him to decide that he liked it. Today he ate butternut squash and LOVED it. He was crying as he waited on me to feed him and as soon as I put the spoon in his mouth he was excited. It is so sweet to see him get so excited. Mary Kate also thought it was pretty neat that he was so excited and smiled and waved at him as she watched him eat from her high chair.

His first taste of rice cereal. The face says it all!

We are gearing up for Mary Kate's 2nd birthday party and Elmo is the theme. She loves him and has been all about him for a while; however, now she is staring to get into Mickey Mouse. I hope that Elmo will still work for her party! I cannot believe that she is about to be 2!!! Tonight David and I sat in front of the computer and watched the pictures from the last 2 years scroll through on our screen saver. It was so sweet seeing her so little and made me want to cry a little thinking about how much she was changed. She is so fun, sweet, smart, creative...(I could go on for days). I do not know what I would do without her and I pray that God allows us to spend many more decades together. I'm getting a bit sentimental and nostalgic, if you can't tell. I should stop here before I get to sappy and emotional. I will let you know how the party turns out.