Reed and Norah

I saw this picture and it made me remember I need to write down a few things from when Norah was first born before I forget...

Reed was so excited to be a big brother.  He was even more excited to be a  big brother to a sister.  When he came to the hospital to meet her he didn't know what to do.  He just wanted to snuggle me.  Wouldn't smile, was holding Norah against his will and wouldn't even look at her.  We took this picture and didn't push it any more.  Thankfully, I think it was more of a hospital thing because when we brought her home a few hours later it was nothing but kisses and hugs and excitement from Reed.  Still is!  Phew.  He loves being Norah's borther.  Melts my heart to see them together.

While I was pregnant we would talk about possible names for Norah, and Reed was pretty much settled on naming her Mary (my middle name, and now Norah's middle name).  When we introduced him to his new sister "Norah".  He gave me this look and said "Mom, that's so embarrassing!"  "Embarrassing?" I asked him.  "Yeah.  That's not a real name.  You need to name her something like 'Ruby' or 'Penny' or 'Rosie'.  (All names of little girls we know).  He would not call her Norah for the whole first week after we brought her home.  She was Mary.  Now he will refer to her as Norah, mostly to other people.  At home we usually call her Sissy and when other people ask him what his sister's name is he says "Norah Mary Barton".

Pinspiration

Another post that for some reason never got published (wrote it last winter!).  I think I was trying to wait to take pictures of a few more projects (Norah's mobile is really fun) and editing it to be perfect but forget it.  Here it is...

This last year I discovered Pinterest and IT. IS. DANGEROUS!  As many of you may have noticed I don't facebook, twitter or spend really any time on the computer (hello, neglected blog!) so it's not too dangerous as far as wasting time ( I do it after Reed is asleep and I'm waiting for Brent to get home - he works 'til 11 P.M. these days!).  It is the perfect stress relief to scroll through the pictures of pretty things, good ideas, yummy food, etc.

I kept pinning away and saving all these fun things and decided I should do something with this collection of pictures to "make it worth my time". Yeah, right, but it makes me feel like all the pinning isn't such a huge waste of time. ;)

First up was a Potterybarn knock-off Valentine envelope...

It was fun and easy.  I stuffed it full of goodies for Valentine's last year. .

Next up, a campaign dresser:

 Our neighbors were moving and she was getting rid of this old dresser with a broken drawer but it had campaign hardware that I had seen and loved on Pinterest so I took and hoped we could fix the drawer but at least I could salvage the hardware. Well, the drawer was fixable and I polished up the brass (using a tutorial I found on Pinterest) and painted it blue (as seen on Pinterest).  Score!

Before, sort of - all disassembled, but you get the picture...

Midway through polishing the hardware - from tarnished to shiny!

After, it's not as bright in real life as it is in this picture.  It looks just like the picture I pinned up above.

Jet packs out of soda bottles? I can do that!

I made Reed some awesome (if I do say so myself!) jetpacks out of felt and water bottles.  He loves them and they were made from things we already had - free!  I love his little hands poised for speed in this picture.  :)

"New" crayons out of old, broken crayons.

 Reed and Brent chopped up lots of old crayons and we put them into molds and gave them as part of his little friend gift at Christmas time.  Easy, and free!  But really messy and lots of work.  We made like 60 crayons in all different shapes so I saved some for party favors and Valentine's (like the picture above) so I don't plan on ever having to do this project again.

 

Peg dolls

Reed is really into super heroes but I refuse to by all the marketed toys.  Brent actually did this one and painted his 4 favorites.  We gave them to him for his birthday and he plays with them almost daily.

 

 

Plain hoodie, turned into a fun dino/dragon sweatshirt.

Reed got a plain black hoodie handed down from his cousin that was perfect for this project.  A little time and felt and voila!

 Ruffled petal wreath tutorial seen on Pinterest:

My version:

Um, the picture won't load but it looks like this, only with burgandy felt

 

I've also hung some gallery walls up (finally hanging things on the walls after 5 years in our house!), found fun artwork and cooked yummy food off of Pinterest.  I love it.

finished!

Some posts that never got finished/published...

 

We discovered some issues with our bathrooms after we moved in.  We've since had the house replumbed and completely redid the main floor bathroom this last fall (the ceiling fell down in the hallway outside the bathroom so why not redo the whole area while we were at it!?)  Anyway, I didn't take real before pictures, but here were some pictures I found where you could see what the bathroom used to look like.

 

 

Pink plastic tile, notice that sink sticking out that you had to squeeze past to actually use the bathroom.  Not ideal.  Long story short, when we were relumbing we discovered 18 inches! of unused space behind the sink so we made a little sink nook when we remodeled (we could have moved the whole wall back, but that would have required ducting to be rerouted and we would have had to  move the main sewer column $$$.  We opted to just move the sink back.)

 

 

All the holes from replumbing were in this bathroom, we opted to rip out the walls instead of patch them (they were lathe and plaster) and it snowballed into a total redo. *Notice the mismatched lights.* 

 

 

This sink stuck out way too far into the room.

 

 

Totally gutted.  Reed helping.

 

 

Ta-da! New everything!

 

Ah, much better. SO. MUCH. BETTER.

 

 

This light used to be in our kitchen, but we moved it into here so it would match the light over the sink.  I didn't realize how much it had bothered me until the lights matched.  We did this project this last winter (I wanted it done before we had Norah) and I have to give a huge thanks to my Dad who spent a lot of time over their Christmas visit laying the tiny hexagon marble tile floor.  It is my favorite part of the redo.  Is it weird for a bathroom to be your favorite room in your house?  I love how it turned out.  The End.

Instagram

So, I've decided I'm not really a blogger.  Have you noticed?  Did you know I had a baby?  A girl.  Her name is Norah. She's 5 months old now.  We are all completely in love with her.  However, not one of the 100,000 pictures of Norah has made it onto the blog.  Nor have any of the 100,000 pictures of Reed, who, by the way, has grown SO MUCH.  Like 3 inches since his birthday!  It used to stress me out that I hadn't posted in     amount of time, but then I got over it and realized I just don't like to blog very much.  I don't do facebook either.  Not that either one is particularly hard, i just haven't been posting.  But I do want to let people keep up with us - especially when most of you live so far away and never get to see us!   I am going to give instagram a go.  Its easy.  Pictures are fun.  I enjoy it. I'm not going to shut the blog down or anything.  I'll still post now and then, but if every 6 months isn't enough for you, follow us over on Instagram!  We're brentandcarolinebarton.

 

Here's some pictures to catch you all up (in no particular order - I'm do this quick and easy...)

 

 

Brent made Reed these super hero peg dolls for his birthday last year and they are Reed's favorite toy.  When we were getting things ready for the new baby, Brent made some new ones for Reed to have while we were at the hospital.  They have been a huge hit.  Isn't Brent talented?

 

 

Brent and Reed made a snow cave.  It was awesome.  Next time we'll build it in the backyard so it will last longer.  As it was, it lasted for almost a week!

 

 

Reed inside his giant pumpkin. 

 

 

They had a Dr. Seuss party at preschool.  So cute.

 

 

They had a Chinese New Year party at school and Reed got his own chopsticks.  He was having so much fun eating with them he insisted on using them to eat his Cheerios.  I thought he'd get tired of it after a few bites.  He ate the whole bowl with his chopsticks!

 

 

 

While we were waiting for Norah to be born we tried to keep things fun and busy for Reed.  We made tents (and played games, took naps, ate meals and had movie nights in there) and made a geoboard out of pegboard and screws - among many, many other projects.  I was super tired, but wanted to treasure these last little moments when it was just me and Reed. 

 

That brings us up to date between the last post and when Norah was born.  More pictures to follow...(new baby=picture overload!!!)

Highlights from 2012

I'm going to try to be beter about blogging this year. Maybe 'll just post a picture or two or maybe I just write a little something. Short and sweet. Better than the zero posts I did this last year, right?

About last year - we had lots of fun and lots has been happening so here's the highlights: First and foremost, we found out in July that we're expecting! Baby girl Barton is coming March 2013! So excited. Reed was adament from the beginning that he was having a sister and didn't even want to talk aout the possibility of it being a boy. Girl it is - phew!

 

In May we went to Yellowstone and th surrounding parks and area. It was lots of fun but freezing cold. The roads were clear though and the animals hadn't retreated from the massive summer crowds yet so we saw a ton of wildlife. Plus, the cold made all the geysers that much more steamy and visible. We had a great time. We went to visitor's center and learned about all the volcanic activity going on unde the prk and Reed continually referred to it as the "Hot Lava Park"

 

Grand Prismatic Hot Spring
 

 

West Thumb
 

 

Lots of bison. We also saw bears, elk, deer, fox, mountian goats, pronghorn and marmots.
 

 

One of the 4 arches made entirely out of antlers on the town square in Jackson Hole.

One of my favorite parts of that trip was the gondola ride we took to the top of Rendezvous Mountain in Jackson Hole, WY. We got stuck at the peak in a big thunder/lightening storm. It was pretty exciting to be holed up in the snack shack a the top while the storm passed. We had amazing, sweeping views of all the drama as it moved through the Tetons and enjoyed some hot chocolate and a Nutella crepe while we were at it! :)
 

 

At the top of Rendezvous Mountain
 

 

Stuck in the snack Shack
 

 

They had a cute dress up area for kids at the Jackson Hole Histoical Museum and they gave Reed a sheriff badge that he wore around our entire trip.
 

 

Reed started preschool in September and is having lots of fun.

We were going to Disneyland this coming spring, but when we found out we would have a 6 week old baby at the previously scheduled time we moved it up and went for Reed's 4th birthday in October. He had a blast and was past the magic 42" that most rides require so he was able to go on practically everything. Pluto was his character of choice and the Peter Pan ride was his favorite.

 

Special birthday dinner at the Blue Bayou

 

We expanded our garden this year to stretch the entire width of our backyard. We planted a little of everything but our favorite, by far, was growing a GIANT pumpkin. We also got a little fire bowl that we had fun with this summer and had fun having campfires and dutch oven dinners.

 

Reed and his giant pumpkin

 

Half of our freshly planted garden

Merry Christmas To you

October 2011

October has been so much fun. Not only is it great to be home but the weather has been awesome and I love the fall. We got home from our trip early in the month and started potty training the day we got back. Reed has done amazingly well. Ihave been dreading the whole process but he was so ready that it's been a non issue. After a week of having no accidents he earned a couple of knights that we'd gotten in Germany. For his birthday he received a package in the mail from our dear friends in Germany with a fun knight set with a horse and canon and accessories and he has played with these knights for HOURS. It's fun to hear him playing with them when I'm in another room. They usually have fights and then decide to be friends and have a campfire with marshmallows while their weapons dry. Fun boy.

Speaking of his birthday, Reed turned 3 and wanted to celebrate with pizza at the park...

...and fireworks.

We also had Brent's family over for dinner and cake and the weather was still nice enought to do it outside (when Reed was born it had been snowing!). I asked Reed what sort of party he'd like thinking I'd get something like "trains" or "kinghts" but he wanted a "spooky" party, so we pulled out some candles and pumpkins and cut out some paper bats and "voila" SPOOKY! I didn't take and pictures that show the decor though - whoops. Here's a picture after we'd moved it all inside (please excuse the mess I was still party stuff away).

The one and only picture I took during the party - Reed with his ice cream sandwhich cake (a new favorite)

Reed got a costume box and a marble tower/track set, but anything associated with knights has been the favorite.

They had cars that looked like the "Cars" movie characters come through Salt Lake. You could just look at the cars but they also had free games and prizes and a bouncy house and it was practically across the street from Brent's office so we met up after work and Reed had a great time. We love free fun!
This month Reed's new thing is to pile of his stuff onto his bed or the sofa and go on a trip. The sofa is usually a bed and he's a pirate. His bed is usually a horse and he's a knight. He makes up the silliest names for the places he's going and loves to try to jam as many possessions and poeple along for the journey as he can. In this picture he got loaded up and snuggled right in and fell asleep. Does anyone else have as many pictures of their children asleep as they do when they're awake?


To get ready for the family birthday party we cleaned up the back porch. We had tons of scrap wood back there from different projects and Brent made these cute benches. Saved the wood and we had plenty of seating for the party!

Then there's always the yard work. We've gotten so much done this year, mostly because we have Nate who has been a huge help but also because the weather has stayed nice for so long that we just keep the projects going! There's still a long way to go, but it's finally starting to take shape and go in the right direction. It still feels like it's a mess, but when I look back at pictures I took in the spring I feel like we've done a ton. Another post about that when we've wrapped up for the season...

Here's some random favorites from the rest of the month.
Reed loves his "B" cape. It is part of pretty much every costume he assembles and he chose it as one of his special things to pack on our Europe trip. :o)
A car parade. YOu really have to watch the stairs at our house - you never know what you'll find!