More One Year Photos!

always so happy!

i'm coming to get you!

look at this face, i mean seriously??

Connor's Happy Birthday photo! I actually wraped a gift up to use as a prop here. yes, it purposefully matches his outfit. done. and. done.

more present fun
One of my favorites!

you can see his teeth in this photo which i love--he has 8 teeth now!

chomp, chomp!
um, this next one is possibly my favorite photo of all time. how freakin cute is he??
i have it in sepia and it's just amazing.

This is Jeffrey's favorite. he has his tongue out and his foot is levitating!

he kept throwing the wagon and knocking his toys out so it's

pretty amazing that we got an acceptable one
Connor's party was baseball theme and we're

kinda a baseball family so we went with it...

more baseball...

we had this shirt made for his party. overboard table for one? yes.

more baseball still...

your table is this way ladies...

happy baby boy!

i love this pic!

Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess

My baby turned one this past week. it's both exciting and a bit sad. I can't believe how fast he's grown and how different he is from the little lump we took home a year ago!

He was just so tiny. only 6 lbs, 2 ounces when he was born and lots of dark, dark hair. his feet were huge and he had fuzzy hair all over his body! We had to stay at the hospital for 4 days for me to recover from my surgery and for connor to get over his jaundice. by the time we left, he was down to 5 lbs, 13 ounces. such a tiny guy. we thought he may be a little premature, although the doctors put me at 39 weeks when he was born. For the first several days at home we just sit and stared at him. he was so tiny and so helpless. we worried about everything! oh how things change!!

This is Connor in one of his one year pics! he's walking! actually walking and such a big, smart boy. mom's brag so here i go. he's truly a loving, sweet, playful little boy. all who meet him fall in love with him and i can't blame them. he's quite the charmer! i kinda think he's a genius too. i'm allowed...he's my kid! he loves feeding himself and nearly always refuses when we try and spoon feed him anything. he's almost always happy and welcoming to family, friends and new people alike! he loves playing outside, watching Cars and loves all his toys. He's just content wandering around the house!!

So, we had his birthday party this weekend and it was lots of fun. I think everyone there had a good time as well, i hope anyway. i put a stupid amount of work into this party, stressing over every last detail from the text on the custom screenprinted shirt i had made for him to the color of red piping on the baseball cookie favors i gave out at the party. rediculous. i'm aware. first of all, it's his first birthday and he deserves a great party! please don't tell me that he won't even remember it. If i have to explain why this isn't something you say, please refer here!! maybe he will, or maybe he won't...but you can guarantee that when he looks back at the photos and watches the videos, he'll know how much we all tried to make it special for him, and that's what counts!

Here are the cakes. The little baseball cake is Connor's own

personal cake so he could smash, lick, etc. without ruining it for everyone else!!

Here's Connor enjoying the cake.

Connor and daddy playing a little baseball

I love, love this picture! It's like all the kids are sharing some kind of personal joke. Connor's cracking up so clearly he finds it hilarious!

Here's Connor thanking mommy for his party! i love my little man!!

I thought you said green was whorish

so, to thank the world that The Office is finally back, i thought i'd start posting the Office Quote of the Day to my blog. See it? over there to the right. Of course, since i'm a Monday-Friday blogger, The Saturday/Sunday quote will make it's appearance on either the Friday before or the Monday after-who knows.

Anyway, they are from my Office Quotes page a day calendar.

survey schmurvey

I like surveys. I love getting them and i love filling them out about myself, my friends, my family, etc. i think it's this unspeakable thing we all have about liking to talk about ourselves. when someone sends you one of these, you can fill it out and not feel totally self absorbed about completing it. Yeah, scapegoat!

How long have you and your husband been together? Well, we’ve been together for just about 9 years and just celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary last month :)

How long did you date? Well, we dated for about 3 years before we got engaged, then we got married a couple years later and the rest is history I guess!

Who eats more? Jeffrey, hands down. I can’t put away large amounts of food.

Who said, "I love you" first? Ok, so Jeffrey says that he said it when I was sleeping one day in the very beginning of our relationship. I don’t know about that, but we’ll stick with it.

Who pays the bills? Jeffrey likes math and numbers and really likes to actually write the checks, so he does that. Anything we do online, I tend to handle. Obviously, we both contribute to all bills—and have for nearly 7 years!!

Who cooks dinner? We both do. Wish we cooked more-so tough with working and a kid!

Who is more stubborn? I guess it would be me.

Who kissed who first? I think it was mutual, but he probably made the move. We were just talking about this at a party a couple months ago and Jeffrey totally got our first kiss story wrong. The real story was that his parents were out of town and he had a party (wow, young right?) and I was there. I had to go out to my car for something and he followed me and kissed me in the middle of the street. Aaawwww. Smooth move mr. barnes!

Who is more sensitive? Probably me, but he is too.

Who wears the pants? I’m going to say me, only because I’m super opinionated and jeff is indecisive—someone’s gotta make the decisions.

What was I doing 10 years ago? I was a junior at Dobson High-um, go mustangs I guess. I liked high school. Had a bunch of great girl friends who I am still close with and I’m a huge nerd and loved school! I’m sure I was dating someone at this time, but junior year is fuzzy on the details.

What snacks do I enjoy? I like crackers, cheese, fruit, veggies, granola.

What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire? Wow, well pay off our debt first. Jeff’s student loans, cc bills, etc. I know we’d buy a new house for sure. We’re bursting at the seams of the one we have now…it’s amazing how much stuff such a little person acquires! Also, I’d quit my job, but I think I’d finally start the event planning business that has just been a side thing for years. I’d do it from home so that I could be with connor. While I appreciate stay at home mom’s-I couldn’t do it. I want to show my son that I can do both.

Three bad habits?
-I’m judgmental-I hate it.
-I have extremely high expectations for myself and others. This typically ends with me feeling let down. I’m working on it.
-I bite my nails.

Five things people don't know about me? I don’t know if there is much. I’m pretty open.

1. I sometimes wish I’d pursued singing after high school. Loved it in high school, but was way focused on the academics in college and didn’t do too much of the arts. I think I’m ok, maybe even pretty good so I should have stuck with it.

2. I think about not having any other kids. Connor is pretty freakin amazing, and I was a nightmare of a kid, and a teen, and in college, so Karma has got to catch on sooner or later. Also, I cringe at weird looking kids so I’m guaranteed to have a strange one next time. Don’t know if it’s worth the risk. I’m 100% serious even though I sound insane here.

3. I think that one of katy’s business ideas should be renting baby crap. In saying baby crap, I should be much more specific here. I’m referring to all the stuff you buy for your child as an infant and then stop using within months. Baby swing, glider, pack and plays, walkers, activity centers, big stroller, infant carseat (up to 20lb one), etc. because once your baby is over these items you have a decision to make—a. do I sell the stuff and get it out of my house? Well if I do that I’ll have to buy all new stuff next time around. Or b. do I keep it and magically have the places to store it in my too small house. Yeah, katy get on it. Maybe it can be consignment or some kind of timeshare thing where a few families share the items, because I can tell you that just the above list of things cost us about $650. Hmmmm.

4. I cannot stand my neighbor john. He sneaks into our backyard and turns off our sprinklers because the water wets his wall-guess what dummy your wall gets crazy soaked when it rains so why don’t you calm down. We didn’t catch on that this was happening until all our backyard grass was dead. A-hole. I’m watching you. Ps-he’s 94. seriously, he’s 94 years old. Maybe I’ll just wait it out.

5. I think ettiquite and manners are a lost art. How difficult is it to open a door, stand when you are introduced to someone, or place your napkin on your lap? How about sending an nice, appropriate invitation to something rather than a text message? I just bumped into you-I’m sorry. Please. Thank you. You are welcome. How about rsvping to something you are invited to…am I talking crazy or is anyone with me on these things?

After you, Mr. Papagiorgio

oh vegas. my inlaws are fascinated with vegas. that's not totally true. they are fascinated with anywhere they can gamble--vegas, reno, laughlin, reservation casinos. when each of their kids turned 21 the family would all go to vegas. they made jeffrey wait until i was also 21 so they could cover us both in one trip. anyway, this has always been a family vacation spot for them. i find this odd, but they really enjoy it.

i dont see vegas as a family destination. i think it's a huge waste and even a bit selfish to take your kids to vegas and call it a family vacation. there is nothing for kids there-nothing. and don't tell me that kids love circus circus. they do not. it's dirty. it's old. no one loves circus circus. not even this guy.


the point here is that my inlaws have a vegas timeshare-of course :). and aparently our entire family is going to vegas at the end of may. groan. so don't get me wrong, i like vegas. anywhere i can go and have free drinks brought to me simply for sitting next to a slot machine sounds like good times. my issue is that i have a one year old kid. i also have nephews that are 2, 6 and 12 who will be going along. how much fun are they going to have? atleast the 12 and 6 year old will have some rides i guess, but really how long can that last? 3, maybe 4 hours tops? what the hell are they going to do for the other 3.75 days that we're there?? i've been checking online and with friends who lived there and have seriously come up with zero ideas of things to do with connor. right now, we're figuring lots of time in the hotel pool and maybe finding a mall that has a kiddie playground. wow. awesome. so glad i'm taking time off work for this awesomeness.

anyone have any other ideas??

It's the End of an Era

One of my best friend’s Dawn is getting married in a couple weeks, so the past month has been full of wedding to-dos. Shower planning, shower shopping, shower decorating, shower attending…this past weekend was the bachelorette party. Yikes. Is it sad that I’m 27 and often feel too old for things already. Yes, it’s sad. No reason to answer that…it’s called a hypothetical, thanks.

Anyway, we all went up to Prescott this past weekend to celebrate Dawn’s impending exit from singlehood. There’s a street called Whiskey Row that is lined with bars, restaurants, bars, shops, bars and a few bars. So, we drove up Saturday morning and went almost immediately to one of the bars. Then we went up to the rooms and got ready for the night ahead of us. The plan was to play Pub Golf-have you played this? It’s awesome. The point is to dress up in tacky golf clothes…plaid, argyle, knee socks, dumbass hats…you get it. So, you go out in these outfits and chaos ensues. A real round of Pub Golf includes 18 bars, but that’s just ridiculous so we will shoot for 9 bars. Each bar you go to has a different assigned drink. Each drink has an assigned par (# of sips). So, let’s say our first stop, Matt’s Pub, has Guiness as the drink and the par is 3. If I drink my Guiness in 5 drinks, I’m 2 over par and probably losing already. The other horrible part is that the drink list tends to go a little something like this…Stop 1: Guiness, Stop 2: Lemondrop Shot, Stop 3: Glass of Wine…it’s like I can hear my liver screaming in fear already!! So, this is a great game in theory. Unfortunately the stupid girl who shall remain nameless (Megan) forgot all the stuff and ruined everything. Too dramatic? Well, she did. So, we just went around all the bars in our golf clothes. Lame? Yes. She also wore a skirt too short for her and her ass hang out the whole night…Exhibit A:

You are welcome.

Anyway, since we’re just fun anyway, we had a blast just drinking and enjoying these little hole in the wall bars. Aren’t those the best bars anyway? They were all just so damn excited to have out-of-towners there-especially in the form of 15+ girls! Here are more pics of the night. The doll’s name is Rico-creepiest blow up doll ever. Absolutely.

And we don't know this lady, but she wanted her pic taken with Rico. Sure thing. Please note his socks.

A few more photos of the Pub Golfers...


And, the evening was clearly topped off by some random Prescott guy throwing his dirty underwear at Dawn. They landed on her head. I wish i had a photo, but i was busy peeing my pants laughing. Not so funny to Dawn.

All in all it was a blast. The ride home, not quite as fun as the ride there. Oh, good times.

A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones who need the advice

You're enjoying your day
Everything's going your way
Then along comes Debbie Downer.

Always there to tell you 'bout a new disease

A car accident or killer bees

You'll beg her to spare you, "Debbie, Please!"

But you can't stop Debbie Downer!

I promised myself that when we had kids i wouldn't become 'that mom' who gives out unsolicitied advice.

you surely know the person i'm talking about. this literally starts being thrown at you the minute you announce you are pregnant and doesn't stop until...wait, it still hasn't stopped. i loathe this. here's just a few of these lovely trinkets that spoil sports graced upon me over the last two years...

"dont spend a lot of money on clothes, they'll grow out of them so quick" or "you spent how much for those shoes? i mean they are cute, but he won't even remember them"-so what? this is my child, and if i want to buy him silly outfits that will serve no other purpose than some sick cute photos, leave me be. why do people seem to thrive off of being such downers and making people less excited about something they deserve to be excited over?!? what's wrong with these people?

"what do you mean you are not sleeping, you are supposed to sleep when they sleep". oh really captain obvious, that's a fabulous idea. i don't want to sound crazy violent here, but i was near ready to punch the next person in the face that said this to me when connor was born. grrr. just to give you a little taste of a newborns schedule, let's say that he eats at 2am. well, 40 minutes later he's done. then i try to burp him for another 15 so he doesn't throw up all over me. diaper, cleaning him after the feeding, calming him down because he is pissed that he's no longer eating...then, i try and get him to go to sleep for about 30 minutes. that leads to about a solid 20 minutes of actual sleep time. well, guess what? it's now 4am and by my records it's meal time again. tell me again captain where you expected me to sleep in there. thanks and shut up. not to mention if i wanted to somehow squeeze in a shower, laundry, a phone call, or even some quality bonding time with my son. forget sleep.

"it's ok that you don't sleep, you'll sleep when he's 18--oh no you won't cause then you'll worry about him even more"--got to say this is retarded. who are the Debbie Downers of the world who walk around making us feel lousy on purpose?? who does that??

I'm sure there are more, but this is all i can come up with right now. so, here's my own bit of unsolicited advice. if you have ever said one of the above things to someone-stop it. stop immediately. no one asked for your advice.

now, on the other side of this, i love talking about babies, pregnancy, whatever. my friend jennifer is about to have her baby any day and she directly asks for advice on a daily basis and i'm more than happy to spew all kinds of goodness to her. but...#1 she asked for it...and #2 i'll be honest with her if she wants it, but i'm not going to make her sad and kill her thunder. geez people!!

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Yeah, I am officially a crapy blogger. I am sorry. Sometimes, well, life happens.

For those of you who I talk to on a regular basis-wait let me stop there and address my obvious allusion that there are more than two people reading this blog-ok, as I was saying…for those of you I talk to on a regular basis you know that connor’s been sick. Crazy sick. It started January 18th when he had his first overnight babysitting experience (J) and he came home the next morning with a serious cold. Turned out to be RSV, which to be brief, is this severe respiratory virus that is pretty dangerous to babies. Their airway gets totally clogged with mucus and they can go into respiratory distress-again, scary. So, it’s super duper contagious and he was out of school for a week. His teachers told us that they had a near HazMat team come in and disinfect his classroom so none of the other babies would get it. Gross. We had to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours-round the clock for about 10 days. It’s ridiculous contagious so I was home with him the entire time. So, we think it’s passed. He’s feeling better and goes back to school for one day. Then the next morning, he’s puking constantly. Nearly a dozen times in an hour-which is dangerous enough to dehydrate a little baby. So, Jeffrey takes him to the ER and I leave the office (after finally coming back) and practically fly to the hospital to meet them. Connor gets diagnosed with some gross (and of course contagious) stomach virus. And hooray for me, just sitting in the waiting room I got Rotavirus, which is honestly the worst illness I’ve ever had. I was literally quarantined to our room for 5 days, while Jeffrey took care of Connor in another room. It’s horrible to be so sick that you can’t even take care of your baby who is also sick. Ugh, so it was a crazy long three weeks in the end. I think we’re still struggling to get back to normal. Oh, and Connor lost two pounds, which is so much when you’re still a tiny little guy!! Here’s a pic of him and his breathing mask from the RSV.

Other than that, nothing really new going on. I will try, try, try to be better I promise…especially after the incredible over-exageration from Katy that I haven’t posted in 7 months. J

Office Pet Peeves

Ok, so I am well aware that my standards are set ridiculously high. I’ve been told this for nearly 10 years-thanks I get it. I just don’t understand incompetence and don’t accept it as the norm. Call me crazy I suppose. Anyway, I work in an office. I enjoy working in an office-it’s easy, keeps me off the streets, whatever. Another great thing about working in an office is that it gives me all sorts of crazy material to laugh at. Unfortunately, it also gives me loads of stuff to find annoying. Also, note that I've been working in an office for nearly a decade, and these things are not really about my current job...just about office stuff in general! Here’s my current list:


1. Reply All. Holy crap. Is it necessary to include everyone on your conversation? Job related? Fine, let’s all stay in the loop. You feeling the need to put your own little quip in on the stupid forward some jackass sent around? Not necessary. I seriously received the following email earlier today.

M: I have to take a client out for lunch in Seattle tomorrow. Any ideas?
R: I am in Seattle now. When is your flight.
M: I don't get in until tonight. Want to grab dinner after my flight?

R: sounds good. What are you hungry for? What about seafood. I could go for houston’s too.

I’ll stop there because that’s about the time I started automatically deleting these retarded emails the minute they came in. I don’t give a crap that you're craving seabass. Looking for a great steak? Shut up.

2. ONCE, I asked if anyone wanted anything when I walked next door to everyone’s favorite coffee magnate. I swear, if you walk into the office with lunch, coffee, anything and you didn’t offer to gather food for everyone else the response is always a sarcastic, wow, thanks for asking if I wanted any coffee/burgers/tacos/insert favorite food name here.

3. I know that this one will completely make me sound like an 85 year old biddy, but use correct spelling and grammar people. I mean are we that lazy that hitting F7 must be skipped?!? I swear, if you are just completely unable to understand the difference between to/too/two and their/there/they’re I don’t want to receive emails from you. This is your official notice. Thanks for your understanding.

4. Speaker phone. We all have a lot of conference calls. Usually 5-10 per day probably. I cannot stand when someone nearby has their phone on speaker-seriously, do they think that everyone wants to be in on their call? I assure you that’s not the case at all. And I absolutely hate when I’m on a call and another person conferenced in stays on their speaker. You can not hear them at all, but you can surely hear all the background crap going on!! Stop being lazy-pick up your phone.

5. Elevators. There is so much akwardness related to elevators I don’t really know which to start with. How about that guy who rushes onto the elevator when he hasn’t even paused the acceptable amount of time to allow people off!! Or the people who get into the elevator and continue with their inappropriate conversation. Really? Your date last evening had the nerve to ask you to split the bill? Riveting. People who smell up the entire elevator. I don’t care if it’s smoke, body odor, tacky perfume, today’s lunch or what-I don’t want to smell like you. If I did, I would have rubbed up against you rather than inadvertently stepped onto the world’s worst smelling elevator. Button Blockers also. Seriously? Do you need to stand directly in front of the buttons so that I have to awkwardly ask you to select the 6th floor? Plenty of space in here buddy.

Well, now that I’ve come across as a total complainer I think that’s all! I like hearing about people’s pet peeves. Half the time, I share them. The other half, I think I am part of the problem!!

St. Nick's

So, I realize that our family is pretty much the only family of all the families i know who knows that this holiday exists. I was accused today of even making it up. Not true. I'm about to get educational on you so grab your number two pencil, your trapper keeper and take notes!

St. Nicholas was kindof the precurser to Santa Claus. It's a European tradition that came here along with all the immigrants. Mostly a Dutch holiday it's celebrated on December 5th, the day before the Feast of St. Nicholas or St. Nicholas Day, which is December 6th. Anyway, the tradition goes that St. Nicholas would travel to the homes of children on the night of December 5th and bring small gifts. Sound familiar? Well it should, the Dutch name for St. Nicholas is Sinterklaas (much like Santa Claus, right?). Sinterklaas eventually morphed into Santa Claus. Like so many other countries, in the US Santa Claus delivers presents on Christmas Eve. In Holland, among other countries in Europe, the gifts are delivered on the eve of the big feast. We are selfish in our family and celebrate both. St. Nicholas is on a much smaller scale and is kind of a "taste" of the big ol' Christmas extravaganza.

Ok, about the celebration now. The actual tradition has children placing their shoe out for St. Nick to deliver their goods into. This morphed as well, into stockings. If the child was good, they would expect fruit and nuts. If not, coal was their prize. WIth time, this grew to different types of gifts. Typically it's still a smaller, much less expensive gift. Maybe a cd or a small toy. Gifts are opened the morning of December 6th.

Anyway, we celebrated Connor's first St. Nick's this week. I hassled Jeffrey until he gave in and we opened our gifts on the night of the 5th. We'll do it right when it counts and Connor is old enough to know what is going on. So, I got Superbad the movie. Hilarity. Jeffrey got some Christmas cds he'd wanted and an Office quotes page a day calendar--this was truly a hint from me that it existed and I wanted one on christmas:) . when he didn't catch the subtlety of my hint-i told him where and how much. connor got the book The Night Before Christmas, which was originally based on St. Nick and eventually retold to include Santa stuff. He also got cute Christmas clothes.

I love holiday traditions:)

Go Elf Yourself

So, I've had this emailed to me from about a dozen different people so i broke down and made our own. by the way, i wanted to add the kitties, but there is only room for four and i just couldn't choose between mira and zoey. after considering letting them fight it out in a winner take all kinda pay per view extravaganze, i decided to just post the humans:)

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

The Barnes Family Elves

Cake? Yes please.

well, i love television. i found a new show today. well, new to me. though i've told this to several people only to be told that it's been there favorite show for ever. nice. thanks.

anyway, it's Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. This show is hilarious. It's about this comany in Baltimore I think and they make custom cakes for weddings, birthday parties, whatever. so, today they made cakes to look like the following...

scrabble board...

bacon...
sushi...

They also had a slot machine cake, a bubble gum machine and lots of other stuff. check them out here. so, that's just a few of them. i think geof (jeff) is my favorite person on the show. he's sarcastic and super dry and i like that.

Does anyone else watch this?

Minimum Wage at work

so, i've often been told (over and over really), that my expectations on those in customer service is far too high. i am sorry, but is it truly too much to ask for the kid who rings me up at target to acknowledge me standing there in line purchasing my random goods?? aparently so. sad, sad.

here is a prime example of what i'm talking about...

my conversation with joann's fabric kid...

fabric guru: Joann's fabric, this is Karl.
me: yes, i'm calling to see if you carry scrapbook paper.
fabric guru: yeah, we've got that
me: great, do you have Christmas styles?
fabric guru: um, sure
me: ok, well i'm going to have to run over there on my lunch so you're sure?
fabric guru: i should really check first
me: great, thank you.
fabric guru: we have stickers for Hanukah
me: super. i'm actually looking for Christmas paper though.
fabric guro: the stickers are on sale though.
me: great, i'll check out the jewish stickers. but I really need Christmas paper.
fabric guro: yeah, we've got that too. I'm sure it's by the stickers
me: ok, because again i'll be using my lunch to go over there...
fabric guro: ok, i'll check

dialtone...super duper.

The End. Well, almost. turns out I just run over on lunch, buy my christmas paper and some other junk. then when i leave, he forgets to put the paper in my bag. i get all the way back to work and realize that this stellar employee gave me everything but the ever-important paper. seriously!?! so i call back and he truly says to me, yeah, i was wondering why you left them here. grr. thank you joann's fabric guy. you topped it off for me.

Paging Mr. A Knife

Oh wow. Last night was full of Hilarity with a capital H. I cannot decide if my favorite part was when Dwight broke out all of his hidden weaponry around the office, thank you Mr. A Knife or maybe it was when Jim nearly cried when Phyllis called him Michael. I have to say though, that it has to be when Michael yells "blacks do crack" to Stanley about his wrinkles. I peed a little I think:)

by the way, I just saw Melora Hardin who plays Jan on Chelsea Handler who is also hilarious. I'm sure it's on You Tube somewhere. She looked like a completely different person. She talks about her recents growth spurt on the show:) funny, funny.

Mommy brag time...

Yes, I have really been slacking on the blogging. I plead the exhausted mommy card on this one. I would say that I promise to be better, but I'd hate to promise that and space out on it again.

So, let's see...sticking with the mommy stuff Connor is amazing us with how much he's growing and developing! He now has two teeth which he uses on everything from the coffee table to the food tray on his stroller. When we took him out on Halloween he was gnawing on the stroller tray so long that he actually fell asleep on it...teeth locked in place! I tried taking a photo but was laughing too hard to get a shot!

Speaking of Halloween, we joined my sister in law, Megan, her husband Ryan and their kids Kaden (6) and Jacob (2). Yes, Connor went trick or treating. We didn't collect candy of course, but it was fun to just show him off in his adorable Tigger costume. It's got tummy padding and everyone kept calling him chubby, it was pretty funny. He was really good the whole time and just looked around at all the kids walking around in their costumes. Can't wait until next year when it will actually mean something to him!

Well, Connor has been making huge strides as far as development and that kinda stuff goes. He's full on crawling now, well for the past few weeks. He's fast enough to give the cats concern now so that's pretty darn fast. They used to just walk past him and smirk that he'd never be able to get to them before they'd be outta there...now, they keep an eye on him at all times. Not only is he fast, but he's sneaky:) "Get the kitty" is becoming a funny daily event. He's also standing and pulling himself up on anything he can now. We had to drop his crib mattress to the lowest point a few weeks ago because we walked in to find him standing up in his crib just watching us. It was amazing and scary all at the same time. As freaking cliche as it may sound, he's just grown up so quick.

One of my best friends Ashley had her daughter yesterday morning and I just can't believe that only 6 months ago Connor was that tiny. Claire was 8lbs 3 oz and that's more than 2lbs more than Connor weighed. He just looked at her like, yeah, i'm bigger than you.

We had his 6 month photos taken in October, so here are some of the results. We are in love with them. Shout out to Portrait Innovations for doing a stellar job. Helps that my kid smiles constantly and is a complete ham for the camera!

Connor with all his animal friends. That's Righty the Elephant, Chomps the Alligator, Morris the Cat and Pepper the Puppy...

Yes, we had a professional photographer take a photo of our kid drooling...

Crawling baby...

Another cute one...

I believe I mentioned that he loves having his photo taken...

Ok, just a couple more...


You can always check out his site as well: www.babysites.com/sites/barnesboy

Stupid Applejuice

So, as a parent you need to grow accostomed to messes and with messes come ruined items. The potentially ruined item provoking this entry is my cell phone. Only, the disappointing this here is that the cellphone, applejuice episode i'm referring to has zero to do with being a parent and everything to do with being a dummy.

Yesterday morning, i'm driving into work at 6 or something painfully early and i get a call on my phone. It's jeff needing to know where something or other is. when i'm done with the call, i go to put my phone back down on my console thingy in between my two front seats and i hear a slight splash. damn. this can't be good, right? correct. i look down and see my once clean phone, which is full of photos, texts i've kept, etc. seriously? damn.

so, of course i freak and while in traffic, attempt to forward my important photos and texts to jeffrey so i will have them once my phone implodes, which it inevitably will. Unfortunately, what i'm discovering is that with each passing moment another key is rendered useless in the applejuice flood of 2007. damn again. after about 10 minutes the only button that functions is the off key, so i use it.

i call verizon on my way in and the idiot laughs at me...who can truly blame him. in hindsight i suppose i could have simply told him that my phone got wet and it wasn't absolutely necessary to relate dipping my phone in juice, but who cares. i don't know this guy. he tells me to take my phone apart to let it dry for two days minimum. right. i'm going to be without my phone for over 48 hours?!? hardly. so, i give it four hours instead and put my phone back together. at this point, the bottom row of keys work...hooray, i was hoping to salvage that asterisk key-whew!! so, i turn it off again and try aboout six hours later. to my avail, all keys are working. slow and sticky but working.

so, in conclusion, my phone is restored, all photos and texts are safe and accounted for and all is right in my world again:)