Barker Family Vacation

Sorry this is almost 3 months later, but my family (Mom and Dad, Kati, Heidi, and McKay) came out here for a vacation. When we drove home from UT they came with us and were here for about a week. On the drive home we stopped at the Winter Quarters Temple in Council Bluffs, Nebraska. It was beautiful and an incredible spirit there. It is built where the Saints camped and lived for awhile. There's a cemetery on the other side of the temple for those who died there. Lots of the gravestones were just rocks with names carved into them. It was so sad to walk around and see that most of the people that died there were little kids and babies. It broke my heart. It increased my love and appreciation for those early Saints who sacrificed so much to help the church about 150 years ago.
We also spent two days in Nauvoo. We went to the temple, watched both the Nauvoo and the Britain Pageants, and saw most of the Nauvoo historical sites including Carthage Jail about 15 minutes away. Nauvoo has such a special spirit there. We love going there and especially the temple.
We also took my family to see the Backwater Gamblers (a water skiing show) and the John Deere Museum. It was so fun to have them out here. The weather was surprisingly cool and not humid. They had to buy warmer clothes since they only packed things for the hot, humid Iowa.

The beautiful temple doors!

Very few of the gravestones were visible like that. Most were just little rocks you could only see if you were right next to them.

Stained glass of the Tree of Life

Monument honoring those parents who buried babies and children here.

Me and Heidi at the Backwater Gamblers

Carthage Jail

Scott and Grandpa

Scott and I and my parents dancing at the festival before the pageant started.

1 Year Gone!

I can't believe a year has passed already since Scott was born. He is now a year old!!! This past year has been the greatest! We absolutely love being parents and wouldn't trade it for anything. Scott is such a sweet little boy who just loves life and making people happy. It's absolutely incredible to be parents, hard, but worth every second.
We had two birthday parties. The first was with a whole group of 1 year olds in our ward. Between Aug 8 and Sept 18 there are 6 babies. So we had one big party for all of them. We had a little "race" for them, just for fun. We lined pool noodles up at the start and then maybe 10 feet away put more noodles for the finish line. Well, Scott had no desire to race and just wanted to play with the noodles. It was a lot of fun though. We sang happy birthday and had cupcakes for all there,. Scott picked up the frosting off the top of his cupcake and threw it on the ground. Then only took 2 bites of the cupcake before he was done. I love the ward we are in. Not only do we have lots of friends in the ward, but the families in the ward are solid and come to church not just for the social aspect but because they love the Lord and will do all that is needed of them.
On his actual birthday we FaceTimed with Collin's parents and my family. He opened his presents as well as you'd expect a 1 year old to do. He just kept being distracted by the iPad and phone and seeing his grandparents. We then sang and watched him stick his finger in his cake and then want Collin to wipe the frosting off. He was not wanting his cake at all. Oh well, that meant more Funfetti with Rainbow chip frosting for us. We sure love our big boy.
Here's a few things he's up to these days:
- Walking all over like he owns the place. He started walking Mid-August.
- He loves to eat, especially Club Crackers. Those are his favorite. He also loves, PB&J, raspberries, ice cream, yogurt, and meats.
- Still loves his swaddling blankets. He carries them all over the house, usually two at a time.
- We have a little tiny chair up against a wall by a window. He climbs up that chair and looks out the window ALL the time. He especially loves watching for Collin to come home from school.
- He tries climbing up EVERYTHING! He climbed up one of the metal chairs folded up at church. AH! It can be stressful, but is fun at the same time.
- He still talks all the time, but the only words he can say is Mom, Dad, and Nononono.
- His latest thing he loves is looking at you and sticking out his tongue until you do it back to him. Not to be rude, just to show you his tongue and see your tongue.
- Anytime he hears music, he starts dancing. His dancing is just bouncing up and down wherever he's at, but he loves music.
- Loves pulling things out of our kitchen drawers and cupboards. Thankfully our kitchen has like none so it's not too bad. Even with child locks on the drawers, he pulls them out as far as he can then just reaches in to get what little he is able to.
- He loves our Friday nights when he have dinner and play with the Brownings. He loves their little boys.
- Scott and I also go for walks several times a week with Kristen Browning and her boys. He loves those, especially getting to play at the park when we're done.
- He's good at calling out to us when he needs help with something, whether that's opening a container with his toys, if he can't get his blanket out of his bed, wanting to read a book, or needing a drink.

That's about how the cupcake ended up looking - no frosting and a few bites out of it.

Our party at home. That's all he did to the cake. Collin did help him shove his fingers in it, but he did not like that at all.

Scott with his presents from Mom and Dad and his grandparents. He's definitely loved!!

Summer Vacation

A month ago we were in UT for a few weeks. We had so much fun visiting and catching up with our family and friends.
We drove there much to lots of people's dismay. We left about 3:30 in the afternoon and drove through the night hoping that Scott would sleep for most of it, which he did. It took him a little while to finally fall asleep, but then he slept great - 12 of the 18 hrs. That made the drive so much easier.
We got to do and be there for lots of great, fun, and awesome things. First, our niece, Maggie, was born. That was super exciting for the Cragun family. We are so grateful we were able to be there to meet her. Her siblings, Lucy and Buchanan, were staying at Grammy and Grampy's house with us. They were so sweet with Scott. It was fun to watch them play with each other.
We were also there for our nephew, Thomas's, baby blessing. My brother gave a great blessing. He's a cute little boy and are so excited for Scott to have yet another cousin his age. He will have 3 on the Barker side and 1 with the Cragun's that are all within a year of Scott. He will have so much fun when he's older.
We had lots of fun going to parades, fireworks, swimming, shopping (Scott was spoiled by his grandparents), and playing with cousins. We were grateful to have Boone and Mandy and their family in UT while we were there too. We love them and their kids were so fun for Scott.
Collin and I were able to go on a few dates without Scott. Collin's parents watched him for us and it was SO nice. We had forgotten what it was like to go on a date without him. We definitely need to do it more. We went to Cafe Rio several times while we were there and absolutely loved it. I miss it tons! We also got to go to the new Ogden Temple. It is beautiful.

He loved the splash pad

Hanging out with his cousin Kaden. It was so fun watching them. Scott loves him!!!

On our way to a parade

Scott got to meet his Great Grandfather, Poppy.

Loved to gently jump on the tramp with his cousins

The whole Cragun family finally together again

Scott got to meet his Great Grandma Barker too.

Our annual ice cream date with "piano hallway" friends

Catch Up

In April, Scott and I went and toured an old fire station with some friends in our ward. It was so cool. It's super old and is about to have some major renovations done so I'm glad we got to see it before those get started. The firemen there said it was used back when they used horses - so super old! Scott loved looking all around and seeing everything. They had a fireboat there too since we live right along the Mississippi River. There was a fire truck coming in while we there. It was pretty loud and it scared Scott, but other than that he loved it.
The weather has also been super nice here. We've been able to go on lots of walks and take Scott to the park and swing and go down some slides. The beautiful spring blossoms are gone which is a little sad, but that means summer is almost here - my favorite!
The Saturday before Mother's Day we went and watched an Air Show. We were going to pay to go watch, but when the Blue Angels were doing their practices a few days before performing Scott got super scared when they flew right over our house. We decided to just go someplace close to the airport to watch. I'm so glad we didn't pay $16 each to go watch cause it was pretty lame. It was a huge bummer. The Blue Angels didn't do any cool tricks or anything like that. They mostly just flew over in the 2 formations - a diamond shape and a Flying V. That's alright. It was nice to be outside. And Collin loves airplanes so I loved watching his excitement, naming all the planes, and explaining what was going on.
Scott is now 8 months old and into everything. Here's what he's doing these days:
- crawling EVERYWHERE and getting into EVERYTHING!
- climbing up EVERYTHING and bonking his head. He currently has 3 bruises on his forehead because of this
- He "talks" all the time now. He does say "Mamamama", and "Dadadada" in addition to his many vocal sounds.
- Blows bubbles
- Still waking up once or twice at night and doesn't like going back to sleep after eating. We've been pretty exhausted at our house lately.
- Loves to eat anything we're eating. Forget the baby food, he's not a baby apparently so that's not what he wants. He likes whatever we give him. Hopefully it stays that way as he gets bigger.
- Super squirmy. It feels like he's moving all the time.
- Loves to be outside. If we're inside it's almost like he looks longingly out the window and is just waiting for when we go outside.
- Finally okay with being in his carseat awake. He used to only be okay in there if he'd fall asleep. Now he likes to look out the window and watch everything go past. Hopefully that will make our trip to Utah next month easier.
- Loves to grab and eat our hair. I don't love that. Collin would let him eat his, but didn't like him pulling on it so we cut it short.
- Can go up all 16 of our stairs by himself. Don't worry, we're right behind him.
- Got himself a new $90 toy. He loves our electric pressure and just stares at it anytime it's on the counter. Well, one night I was holding him while cleaning off the table. I put something in the garbage which is right by the counter. Scott grabbed the pressure cooker on the counter while I was throwing something away and as I moved away it fell to the ground and broke. He has a new toy and loves it!
- He also loves the vacuum and dishwasher. He tries to climb in the dishwasher anytime it's open and tries to follow the vacuum and get the cord anytime we're vacuuming.
- He's super happy, smiley, loves to play, and hates when we're on the computer or iPad.
We sure love him lots and are sad our baby is not really a baby anymore. But we love watching him grow and learn new things.

One of his favorite places to be is at the piano pedals

He loves to beat up Dad and pull his hair.

Neither of them look too thrilled....

Look at the beautiful trees behind us. Those are the blossoms I'm sad are gone.

He did not like those ear plugs.

Forget putting that in the right way. This is more fun.

Picture Overload

I had over 100 pictures on my phone of Scott. I just got them all on the computer. So here's a bunch from birth til now.

Day 1

One of my very favorite shirts and pictures of him.

Deer in the headlights.

He has always loved his hand. Now he more just puts a finger in it instead of his whole fist.

Another one of my favorite shirts! From our ASU loving family!

First snow storm he went outside for.

If he needs to get somewhere and wants something to come with him, he puts it in his mouth then crawls away. This time it was a Milky Way wrapper. Already wants the chocolate, just like his parents.

His first time sitting like a big boy in the shopping cart. I think he liked it....

He loves his jumperoo.

This was our "Happy Birthday Grandpa" picture. I cannot get over that grin.

Collin says he looks just like his dad in this picture.

This is the kind of trouble we are in. He tries climbing up the gate!!!

This is how I find him after every nap now.

He seriously loves to put his swaddling blankets in his mouth. he is no longer swaddled for sleep, but I still put the blanket in with him since he loves them so much!

Cute moose jacket from Grandpa.

More trouble - climbing up the stairs.

Start 'em young! He loves when I play and loves to "play" himself too.

That's exactly how I sit at the table. One knee up.