I.Love.her

(click on picture to enlarge)

So we are finally back from our trip. This week has been a crazy one and I am just trying to get caught up on life. Abe and I had the time of our lives in Europe. I promise to post pictures in the next couple of days when I have an hour or so to spare.

I missed Adeline SO much. I cried every time I got to talk on the phone to her. Not because I was sad, but she was just so darn cute and it would make me emotional. In fact, I feel like in this past week I have cried at just about everything that she has done. Not sure if it is the pregnancy hormones, or figuring out that she is growing up so fast... but I love her!

My mom was a saint when we were gone and made sure that Adeline had the time of her life. I'm sure she is probably bored now that I am home. She is now COMPLETELY POTTY TRAINED! (thanks mom :) Adeline knew how to go in the potty and everything before we left, but was never consistent... and either was I. My mom was not afraid to take her out in public in her underwear. This entire week we have been home, she has not had one accident and we have been out and about all week. She even insists to take her naps in underwear. So far, so good.

She talks SO WELL. She is like a little person and it is so much fun to be around her. She talks in full sentences and it's crazy how fast she is growing up.

She started gymnastics. She loves it and wants to go everyday. She is the youngest one in her class, but seems to have more interest and attention span than most of the kids. I ask Adeline, "What do you want to do today?" She always answers with " ummm... gymnastics". "Adeline, when is gymnastics?", ..."umm... today". "No, what day is gymnastics?"... then she replies "Monday!" So Mondays will be her favorite day for now on.

Trying to get to Europe....

Just thought I would update on our Europe trip so far... mostly b/c I need to document this crazy experience. So we are supposed to be flying to Germany and were planning on meeting my sister Amanda & husband Mason there. From there we are going to travel to several different countries. They bought actual plane tickets and flew out yesterday. We on the other hand were planning on flying Space A travel, which pretty much is hopping on a military cargo plane free of charge. The plane we wanted to get on usually leaves Monday, so that is when we were going to leave. Pretty last minute we found out it was leaving Friday instead b/c of the Labor Day weekend. Luckily my mom had already flown out to watch Adeline, so we heading onto the base terminal at 1pm on Friday (yesterday). We were supposed to leave at about 2pm.... well, the plane kept breaking over and over and they kept pushing the flight time. Finally after 11 hours of sitting there they cancelled the flight. Great. There was one other guy trying to get to Germany with us, so I guess we made a new friend. We had him sleep over at our house last night, and then we all drove 9 hours together to get to Dover, Delaware to try to catch flights out of here. It is now 11:15pm ( Saturday) and we still are not sure if we are going to make it on a flight. The terminal is PACKED with people. I am just hoping we can get 2 out of the 30 seats available.... even though there are WAY more people here than that.

So wish us luck. Hopfully we won't have to sleep in a chair or something tonight w/ no flights. Luckily I am not a miserable 6 month pregnant person or this would be REALLY rough.

Utah, wedding, 2nd birthday, Montana...

Sorry for the absence in blogging. I was out of town for 3 weeks and I have been too busy to blog since I've been home. Unfortunately it feels like more of a chore at this point. Hopefully if I am better at keeping up it won't seem so bad.

I started out my Utah trip in Mt. Pleasant so that I could help my mother-in-law with wedding stuff. Adeline loved being able to spend time with her grandma and grandpa Barker and her Barker cousins. My sister-in-law Roni got married and it was such a fun wedding. All the little kids were hilarious and danced all night long. I couldn't believe how much Adeline loved dancing. Abe was able to fly out for Roni's wedding and the weekend. It was so much fun to have him there, but not very fun to say goodbye after only 4 seemingly short days so he could get back to work... wait, school... :)
-here is Adeline in her cute little wedding outfit

-and here is the beautiful bride and groom

-one of adeline's hightlights of the whole trip: kitties. Grandma & Grandpa Barker had a ton of kitties and Nana & Grandpa Smart also have 2 farm kitties. Adeline was in heaven and wanted to carry them around ALL THE TIME

Adeline turned 2 while we were in Utah. We had a little get together, swimming party for her. She had a blast! Thanks for those of you that attended. It was fun seeing all her cousins and little friends.

-here is the cake my mom and I threw together literally last minute

I was able to see my roommates from college and their little babies (and baby to come). I had only met Beck once and had never met Nash. They are so darling and I hope that I get to see them more in the future and Adeline can become good friends with them (and your baby too heather).



The next part of my Utah trip was at the Weber Cabin. It was fun being up there with my family and just hanging out. Sierra, Johanna & Emerson we also there, so it was fun that the little girls could play together so much. They had so much fun. All they wanted to do was ride horses and go swing on the swings. Adeline did catch a little 24 hour flu or food poisining, but luckily it didn't last long and no one else got it!








And the last week was spent in Hebgen Lake, Montana where we had a Smart family reunion. It was so fun having my immediate family there (minus Chase & Abe) and seeing all my aunts, uncles and cousins again. It is crazy to see how much everyone has changed since I live so far away now. Our time there was spent boating, eating, horseback riding for some, and relaxing.

One of the days we were there, Obama flew out of W. Yellowstone. Sierra and I went to see him off and were the last car that got let in. All we really saw was the Air Force One, lots of Helicopters and lots of security, but it was still a fun experience.








-The smart clan, minus a handful of us :(


No promises that my blog will be updated any time in the near future :) I most likely will not have time to blog until we get home from our trip to Europe!

It's a.....

GIRL! Hooray for girls! When we had the ultrasound today, there was NO question if it was a boy or girl. We are very excited to be having another little girl for Adeline to play with!

Crazy, Crazy

You've probably heard that from me before, right? I feel like that's how it has been for all my posts. I get behind because things are so crazy and I don't even know what to update about.

First of all, last weekend we went camping by Ceaser Creek lake with our friends. It is always so much work to go camping, but so fun. That night we all went boating and then came back to cook our hobo dinners. My only complaint: too many skunks and raccoons! The raccoons were literally surrounding us and stealing garbage by our feet. They were not scared at all! Luckily our dog Chloe was already put away because they were bigger than her and aren't the nicest animals alive. I think the little girls were a little scared as well. Here are a couple pictures from our camping trip.







Other than that, I feel like I have been running around with my head cut off. Pretty busy with photography it seems and trying to get ready for my 3 week long Utah trip next week. Adeline has just been her wild little self and is so much fun right now. Even though this age is a little challenging, it is so fun!


The other day I did a little photo shoot of Adeline for her 2 yr old pictures. I think they turned out really cute. If you want to see more you can go to my photography blog: nicolebarkerphotography.blogspot.com

slings & big girl bed

Last week my friend Shelby came over during our kids nap times and we had a little "craft day" if you will. She is pretty much a pro at making slings and I have been wanting her to teach me how to make them for awhile. And with a baby on the way... perfect timing. I really liked how it turned out. I even tried it with Adeline in it :)



Not sure if I mentioned this about my california trip, but Adeline decided that she was not going to stay in her crib while we were there. Needless to say, she ended up crawling out every night and falling asleep by the crack of the door ( that is after I held the door shut for a couple hours so she couldn't get out... until Mason was smart enough to tie her door shut). Anyway, since we have been home, she has not tried climbing out of her crib, but has climbed into it a couple of times. SO, we have decided to start making the transition into a big girl bed. We took the side off of her crib and she has done very well so far. This is about the 5th or 6th day doing this. She has still even taken her 2-3 hour naps everyday which makes me really happy. We did have to turn her door handle around so we can lock her in her room every night. I feel bad, but what are we supposed to do?


Hopefully our next milestone will be potty training. She know how to do it and could be 100% if she wants, but she is just too independent right now. It makes it hard because I put up a fight with her every time I go to put on a diaper. She says "No diaper!! I want big girl panties". Then she will escape from me and come back wearing big girl panties. That is FINE, if she would just go in the potty. So we are working on that right now. Hopefully the incentive to be able to wear her panties if she keeps her diaper dry will work. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know! I feel like she is too young to be so independent right now. She has to pick out her bows, clothes, cups, plates, forks... your name it!

4th Of July

We were invited to Indiana by our friends the Huber's for the weekend. So we packed up our camping gear and headed to Indiana! Unfortunately I totally forgot my camera at home, so no pictures :( On the 4th of July, it rained from about 9am to 9pm... total bummer. Luckily we were camping down by a river that was behind Brooke's Aunts house. So we ditched the tents for the day and hung out at their house with the rest of her family. The original plan was that we were going to float down the river, but it was rained out. We still wanted to go though, so us, the Hubers, and two of her cousins decided to go anyway. It was raining SO hard and was pretty cold. We are a little bit crazy. It was fun though... I was just worried the little girls were going to get sick. We played some games, had a BBQ & they had the best Firework show in their backyard. It's nice that Fireworks are Legal in Indiana!! Brooke posted some pictures on her blog if you want to see some of our weekend.

Abe trying to clean the tent & put it away when we got home.... she kind of makes it hard



We got home on Sunday from our vacation, but decided on Monday that we should do something fun again. The Huber's were going boating at the lake, so we decided to tag along as well. I was watching my friend's little boy Sol who is the same age as Adeline. All I can say is it would be hard to have twins! I put a lifejacket on him most of the time because he is pretty fearless and would run straight into the water.

All the kiddos (minus the two babies)

Sol & Adeline


All in all, it was a good weekend!

Just on a side note... here is adeline in one of her choice outfits. Her favorite thing is to go up in her room and pick out her own clothes. She has to put them on all by herself too (hence the backwards and inside out swimsuit). If I try to help her put it on correctly, she says, "no, me do it". She is very independent right now. Also, a couple weeks ago she started calling Abe "Abe", instead of "daddy". She doesn't do it all the time, but quite frequently. It is hilarious..."ABE, NO!!"