August 2015

Georgia turned 8 years old on August 2!  She invited some friends to Extreme Air Sports!  Everyone loved jumping and swinging around!

Opening presents!

Georgia wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory for her birthday dinner.

Our local corn wagon has a steal of a deal on shucked corn.  I bought 10 dozen ears of corn.  The big girls helped me put all the cut corn into baggies to put in the freezer for winter.

We also canned a few quarts of tomatoes and cut up some peaches.

We have four weeks of swimming lessons.  I love the home where the pool is located.  It is surrounded by trees and beautiful gardens.  It is so peaceful and serene!

The kids took a few bike trips up to the local snow shack ALONE!  They were super safe bikers and enjoyed their snow cones on a hot day.

These girls love to go back to school shopping!

We had several neighborhood friends join us for history camp this year.  All of our big kids went and loved learning about the civil war.

While the big kids were at history camp, Georgia helped me can spaghetti sauce!

The final history camp battle.  

We went to the Young Living Farms right before school started.  The kids loved all the knight and shining armor!

On the way home from the farm, we stopped by the big red barn for some yummy home made ice cream.

I decided to do an experiment for two weeks at our house!  I decided not to go to the grocery store for two weeks.  So we had to eat what we had in our food storage or what we grew out of the garden.  It was a major success.  It took a some extra planning on my part, but no one starved!

We have really gotten into playing games lately.  Especially Uno!

We had some trees trimmed in our back yard.  This tree climber was amazing.

Georgia and her friends at back to school night!

Ice cream for breakfast on the first day of school!  It is certainly a day for celebration!

Annie, Abby, and Carter - 6th grade......Georgia - 2nd grade

Tim turned 38 on August 20!

Major growing in the garden in the span of 8 weeks!

Vegetable choppers for canning salsa!  Having helpers makes canning so much faster!

Annie and Carter catching grasshoppers in the garden.

We went to JCW's for ice cream for family home evening.

Abby decided to run for 6th grade student council.  We are so excited that she is trying something new.  She had to do 8 hours of service.  She painted signs for our ward country fair parade.

 Tim and I went to Sundance to the Bluebird Cafe concert for my birthday.  I love the music and the mountains!

Our ward country fair parade.  All the 8 year old girls got to ride in a convertible and wear princess crowns.

All the kids and Tim ran the 5k race.  I rode Abby's bike to cheer everyone on!

 Abby helping me can spaghetti sauce for student council service hours!

Georgia swiping raspberries out of the garden!

July 2015

In July, we had three beauties turn 11 years old!  Tim usually takes the day off work and we celebrate all weekend long!

Abby, Annie, and Carter

I can't believe they use to be this little!

Opening presents in the morning!

For the past few years, we give our kids the options to have a birthday party or get $100.  The girls always choose the party and Carter always chooses the cash!

The girls went to Cravings Bakery (the same place Annie and Georgia went to cupcake camp).  They got to decorate aprons, baking hats and cupcakes.

 Every year after the big kids birthday, we head up to Logan, UT for the 4th of July.  We stopped by Napoleon Dynamite's house.  The kids are loving that movie and were thrilled to see this old house. 

Our neighbor, Jen White wrote a young adult novel "Survival Strategies of the Almost Brave".  We went to our local Barnes and Nobel for her book signing.  Both big girls read the book and loved it!

I've been dealing with hip pain for the past year and decided it was time to get it fixed.  I had a hip arthroscopy.  In a nutshell, they shaved off a bump on the top of my femur bone and cleaned out the hip socket.

 I was on crutches for four weeks.

We participated in running camp again this summer.  This is our 4th year of running camp.  I love to watch our kids run!  I helped coach the clamp up until had I had hip surgery.

Grocery shopping after hip surgery provided all sorts of fun opportunities.  We really loved the handicap parking pass!

The girls really got into doing puzzles this summer.  They even completed a few 1000 piece puzzles!

The Salt Lake City Apple store hosted a kids "Apple Camp" for free!  They learned how to make iMovies.  Our Abby was in heaven!

Running camp had a final race at the end of July.  The Barlow family swept the podium again!

Carter received his cub scout Arrow of Light!  Go Carter!  He is officially an 11- year old scout now!

June 2015

Carter attended the American Fork High School basket ball camp at the beginning of June.  He had a few classmates go as well and bettered his basketball skills.

Annie loves to watch the TV show Cupcake Wars.  The winner of an episode has a local bakery and offered a Cupcake Camp for kids.  Annie was beyond excited to attend!  Georgia went too.  For four days, the girls came home with delicious treats.  They both had a wonderful time!

Tim and I wanted to take our kids on an overnight backpacking trip.  We headed up American Fork Canyon to scope out a spot.  We found the perfect campsite about .25 miles up the trail from the parking lot.  There were varying levels of excitement from the kids!

Our garden has been producing so many beautiful flowers this year.  We delivered these bouquets to some friends who were sick.

I decided to up my "mom-game" this summer and have the kids participate in more household chores this summer.  First on the list was sorting laundry.

Learning how to turn on the washing machine and put in the soap.

 

Sweeping the floors (they are oozing with excitement!)

Cutting up fruit!

Cleaning toilets!

Our garden is really starting to grow!

Carter and I are playing Jenga!  He beats me every time!

The actual backpacking trip up American Fork Canyon - Tibble Fork Resevoir.  The kids had to carry their own back packs with sleeping backs, tents, mess kits and food.  Abby and Georgia shared a tent.    Annie and Carter shared a tent.  It was so fun to hear them chitter/chatter while they were going to sleep.

We played night games.

 I was the fire queen! We had tin-foil dinners...yum!

Everyone was full of smiles and giggles at the end of the camping trip.  Success!

Girls sneaking selfies at the beginning of swim lessons.

We went to get frozen yogurt with aunts/cousins visiting from out of town.  We also went to Extreme Air Sports.  They burned off lots of energy!

Uncle Chris and cousin Sydney came into town for Kaylee's baptism.  We took Sydney to Manila Pond to play in the water.  It was 100 degrees that day and it felt wonderful to cool off.

We took Uncle Chris, Sydney, Jason and Jenny, and Karlsvens to our new favorite camp spot for the afternoon.  We roasted s'mores, played in the stream, and enjoyed the mountains.

Extended Barlow family playing games after Kaylee's baptism.

Lots of flower bouquets from our garden.

I went to Camp Jeremiah Johnson with all the activity day girls.  The girls absolutely LOVE going and everyone was SO well behaved.