Garrett James Barlow

Photo courtesy of Siri Sudweeks Photography

Happy Birthday to my sweet Garrett Love! I can't believe it's already been five years ago today, that Jeff and I had our first child. Garrett was born on Thanksgving Day at 12:18 AM. He weighed 7 lbs 15.9 oz, was 21.5 inches long, and (shockingly) had tons of dark black hair. I can't remember ever seeing anything so beautiful. Nor can I ever remember feeling anything so wonderful, complete, and exciting, all at the same time!

Jeff and I had decided that we would name our first son "Garrett James" long before our little guy even came along. When I found out Jeff's middle name was Garrett (Jeffrey Garrett), I was sold! I had always loved that name so it was a no-brainer for both of us. "Garrett" is also Jeff's Grandpa Barlow's middle name (Edmund Garrett Barlow). The name "James" comes from both Jeff's dad's name (Edmund James Barlow), as well as my Grandpa Copeland's name (James N. Copeland). What a legacy our son has! But I have no doubt that my little Garrett will live up strongly to those great men he was named after.

Until I was actually pregnant, I would have bet my life that I would have a boy first (for some reason, whenever I'm pregnant, I just know that I'm having a girl!). So when at 13 and 1/2 weeks I found out that, indeed, I was having a boy, I wasn't shocked (not really, anyway) at all. What a dream come true! I was so excited! And, of course, so was Jeff!

Needless to say, for the past 5 years I've had the honor of having Garrett in my life. He is quickly becoming, one of my best friends. I truly enjoy hanging out with him. His smile is infectious and his laugh, one-of-a-kind. One of my favorite times of the day is when he climbs into bed with me in the morning. Jeff will have already left for work so I allow Garrett to fill in the empty space gladly. Of course like everything else he does, we have to go through the exact same greeting each morning, "Hi." "Hi, did you sleep good?" His day isn't complete unless that moment takes place. I've come to realize that mine isn't either.

We also have this thing about quoting movies. Mind you, this kid's memory is amazing and therefore he can remember lines much more easily than I can! Our favorite quotables come from Max and Ruby, Shrek (of course), and Cars. It's amazing how many lines he can remember, especially after seeing the movie or episode only once or twice. His ability to say them at the exact same time and in the exact same manner as the movie is incredible! Most of the time I just end up laughing at him because he is so dead-on.

I know I've said this before, but I'm so eager to see how my little guy grows up. I mean REALLY grows up. It's amazing how much he's changed and grown just in the last year. I can't imagine what he'll become in 10, 15, 20 years! Of course I have my list of goals and dreams that I would love for him to accomplish (be baptized, obtain priesthood, serve mission, graduate from college, be married in the temple, become a father) but it's HIS goals and dreams that make him so unique and wonderous. Currently, on this very day, these feats include: becoming a "cooker" (aka: chef), a builder, and a football player. Mind you, all will occur when he "gets bigger." Regardless of what he actually does become, I have no doubt that he will be successful in his own rite, happy, and a wonderful example to his siblings.

With this milestone of a birthday upon us, I couldn't help but go through all his pictures and reflect back (happily) through the years. These are the ones that stood out in my mind, and perhaps always will. Enjoy!

Give Thanks...

What a wonderful time of year it is! Granted, it would be great to have a little bit of snow to ring in this holiday season, but I'll save that wish for Christmas Eve. I do live in Texas after all! What can I expect? Then again, Monday it was 80 and today it barely hit 45. So who knows what another week could bring!?

Anyway, I thought I'd take a minute and write down some of my thoughts and feelings. This time of year, ironically, always helps me to slow down and to really reflect on my life. And even though it doesn't have to be Thanksgiving Day for me to realize how truly blessed I am, I couldn't go throughout this day without formally acknowledging my complete gratefulness for a few things.

First of all, I am so grateful to be a wife. It wasn't too long ago that I feared that I would never be able to enjoy a wonderful marriage. I had a phobia, actually, that I would never find that special someone. But I did! And I'm so grateful. Jeff is a wonderful husband and an amazing dad. He is so selfless. And such a hard worker. I appreciate his dedication to Heavenly Father and even more so, the role of Patriarch he fills so humbly and worthily in our family.

Eight years ago today, Jeff asked me to marry him. I've never regretted my decision to say "YES!" We've come a long way since then, and definitely had our trials along the way, but I wouldn't wish to enjoy (and endure) this life with any other.

Secondly, I am so grateful to be a mother. I've been so blessed to have two beautiful, and yet more importantly, healthy and intelligent little boys. Someone once told me that they couldn't see me being a "girl mom." At first I thought that was a knock on me, but then I soon realized that it must mean that I do a pretty darn good job at being a "boy mom!" If that is truly the case, then I'll take that compliment any day!

Garrett and Isaac bring so much joy and entertainment to my life. I honestly can't imagine my life without them. Every day they teach me something new about myself and about life. They keep me humble, but at the same time give me confidence and self worth like nothing else in my life ever has.

My mom once told me that some of her greatest joys have come from living vicariously through her children. Our triumphs are her triumphs. Our goals are her goals. Our happiness is her happiness. That advice makes me look forward to my children's future and all the exciting opportunities and possibilities they have before them.

Thirdly, I'm grateful for my health and strength. For many, this has seemed to become such a fragile thing these days. I can't go but a week or two without hearing of a dear loved one, or a close acquaintance, that has been diagnosed with some sort of health issue. From infertility to cancer, it seems that our generation is being plagued with so many medical trials. And I've learned that no matter how old we may be, or how well we may take care of our bodies, our health is fragile, our health is a blessing. I'm so grateful for mine.

And lastly, I'm so grateful for the wonderful people I have in my life. From my family to my friends, I am (thankfully) surrounded by so many good, good people.

I love this time of year and the formal opportunity that it gives me to voice my thanks and count my blessings. Happy Thanksgiving!

A Parent's Thanksgiving List

From Families Who Laugh . . . by Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard

I'm grateful my children demand I talk to them when I don't feel like talking, feed them when I'm not hungry, and change their diapers even when I'm all dressed up and ready to go somewhere special. I don't think I'd discover the world outside my own needs without them.

I'm grateful my children haven't learned how to hold back their tears when they're sad, laughter when they're happy, or screams when they're frightened. They constantly remind me that emotions are for sharing.

I'm grateful my children have broken nearly everything in my home and used a crayon or ink marker on the rest. They've taught me that things aren't important, but people are.

I'm grateful my children start out small and helpless so they don't become aware of my incompetence until they're teenagers. By then, we've both grown so accustomed to each other, we somehow manage to make it through the rest of life together.

I'm grateful my children get their pants dirty, pick their noses, burp without saying "excuse me," and quarrel in public so I'll never be able to get too arrogant, proper, or judgmental of other people's children.

I'm grateful my children sometimes call me names like "weird" because sometimes I am "weird," and it helps keep a person humble to be told they're "weird" when they're acting weird.

I'm grateful my children occasionally miss the bus at the precise moment I've stepped out of the shower, contemplating the well-planned, organized day ahead of me. Experiences like jumping into the car after throwing on whatever's handy and racing to school have a tendency to loosen rigid plans into something better known as spontaneity.

I'm grateful my children always need new shoes, piano books, prescriptions, haircuts, fieldtrip money, tuition, food, toothpaste, and underwear. That way, I don't have to waste my time thinking about a new sofa. It's difficult to get wealthy and think about luxuries when you have to buy toilet paper and milk by the truckload each week.

I'm grateful my children know how to play. My five-year-old asked me to come downstairs so he could "teach me how to play" with his plastic animals. While Jacob demonstrated the subtle techniques for sinking a rhinoceros into couch cushions while pretending it was quicksand, I realized my young son was right. I really do need someone to "teach me how to play."

I'm grateful my children question my every command and giggle when I get angry. It's difficult to feel too powerful or self-righteous with kids around to remind you of how funny you look when you're pointing your finger.

I'm grateful my children insist I hug, kiss, rock, or put my arms around them often. Otherwise, I think I'd forget how the sense of touch is so healing.

I'm grateful each of my children is unique when the same strange, inexperienced mother raised them. Somehow they don't seem to let me ruin them much.

And lastly, I'm grateful for the gift of children in my life. God willing, I'd like to fill the rest of my days with those interesting people who call me Mom.

I've Been Tagged!

So, I've been tagged. I guess it was a matter of time before this little game fell into my lap. And ever since it has (thanks, Jules), I've been thinking...what are 6 things about me that nobody really knows? I'm not that interesting, and truth be told, everything about me I wear on my sleeve. ("Wait a second, donkeys don't have sleeves!") Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Anyway, here are the rules:

The rules: Player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves. At the end of the post, player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and posts a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read their blog for the rules.

And here are my facts:

1. I have very particular sleeping habits. No matter when I go to sleep, whether it be to take a nap or for the night, the following stage must be set:
a. It has to be dark
b. It has to be cold
c. I have to have at least one fan going (not necessarily blowing on me, but it's more for the white noise. Then again, if it's hot, this one serves as a dual purpose. And please keep in mind that I even have invested in travel fans. These things are as important to pack as my clothes. Maybe even more so.)
d. I have to have my own blanket and I CAN NOT sleep under sheets.
e. I can't sleep touching anyone. Thus the separate blankets helps solve that problem. Luckily, Jeff is the same way. Cuddling is not allowed once I'm ready to go to sleep. And NO kids in the bed!

2. I love to watch documentary or biography shows such as Dateline, 60 Minutes, True Hollywood Story and (my favorite) 48 Hours Mystery. I'm not sure what it is, although I particularly like the crime investigation ones. Kinda morbid, I know. I'm not sure what it is, although I love the whole voice-over thing. My favorite is Keith Morrison on Dateline. However, I just finished watching a really good journalist documentary on CNN by Anderson Cooper called Planet in Peril. Awesome.

3. I'm a Comedy Snob (or so I've been told). I LOVE to see movies and watch TV, but very rarely will a comedy pass my high expectations. Not a lot of things/situations that other people find funny, do I see in the same way. I hate slap stick comedy especially. Now, there are a few "classics" that have passed my test: Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Dumb & Dumber, What's Up Doc?, and My Cousin Vinny. These movies, I'll watch any time, any day. I can't get enough of them. And that's saying A LOT. As for TV comedies, my favorites right now are The Office and Samantha Who? Hilarious.

4. I love Reality TV. I think it's because I'm a people watcher. Some of my favorites are Survivor, Big Brother, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, and American Idol. If I could go on any reality TV show it would be The Amazing Race. I'd give anything to go. But I need a partner. Unfortunately, I don't think Jeff and I would make a good team. We don't do well in stressful situations. But I have to say that I would make a fabulous partner. I'm great with maps and directions. I can sense North from just about anywhere (well, as long as my mountains are to the east!). I wouldn't be good, though, if it came down to an eating contest or bungie jumping, sky diving, or hang gliding. I can't handle the free-falling effect, nor could I make my gag reflex work in my favor when it comes to eating things that I let the exterminator kill! So, who wants me to be their partner now?!

5. I cry easily. And even more so than that, once I start crying, I CAN'T STOP! It could be 4 hours from when I've stopped crying, and if you say to me, "are you ok?" I'll say "yes!" and then start crying again. Anything will make me cry, but the for-sure catalysts are:
a. Music: MoTab at Conference, certain church hymns, or any really great song that brings back a good memory or has a great beat.
b. Certain TV shows: The Baby Story (just as they are giving birth...makes me think of having my own kids, which, you better believe I was hysterical throughout!), The Amazing Race (each time someone is voted off ), and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (this one does it everytime!).
c. Someone else is crying: I'm not sure why, but if you are crying, shoot, I may as well be, too! Misery loves company, right?

6. I love music. When I was younger, during my spare time, I would record a song onto a tape, and then proceed to write down all the lyrics on paper. It would take hours to "translate" all those words. And if I couldn't understand what the singer was saying, I just made up what I thought sounded best. I never did anything with those lyrics, except maybe compile them in a notebook. But just having those words down on paper was something special to me.

So, what type of music do I like? Well, I'm a girl of the 80's, so anything in that decade works for me (from Erasure to Def Leppard), but I had older siblings who taught me to love "the classics," as well (Journey, Queen, Pink Floyd, SuperTramp, and Fleetwood Mac). Then there's the music my dad taught me to love (Neil Diamond (my ultimate fav) and the Beach Boys). I also love "dance music". Anything with a good beat. There are some types of music that I'll put in the "maybe" category, which means I have to take them song by song. Country, Rap, and R&B fit into that category. If I had to name my top 5 favorite songs of all time, well, I'd have to think about that for a little while. But one of my all time favorites is, without a doubt, "Every Breath you Take" by The Police. A little on the stalker side, but a classic nonetheless.

So now that you know a little bit more about me, I'd like to know a little bit more about you! So I'm going to tag: Nattie, Rhonda, Nicole (all my lovely college roomies!), Rachel Crofts (one of the few I KNOW reads my blog!), Mandy (miss and love you!), and Gladys (a shout-out to the good ol' Florida days!). Tag, you're it!

October...

It's been a little while since my first post (shocker), so I thought I'd recap the last couple weeks in one post. Better late, than never, eh?

Halloween, Trick-Or-Treating, and the Pumpkin Patch...

This year was so much fun, being able to take both the boys to all the Halloween festitivies. Garrett was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Leonardo, to be exact. And Isaac was a skeleton. Once again, both of their personalities rang true. Isaac, of course, wanted to see how much candy he could stuff in his mouth at one time. Garrett, of course, wanted to see as many spider webs, ghosts, skeletons, and decorated haunted houses as he could. That means, for the past month, we've been doing decorated house "drive-bys." In fact, it got so bad that the "drive-bys" became a sort of reward or incentive to Garrett that we were doing daily. "Eat your veggies and we'll go see the spider webs!"

Here's the thing...you know when you visit Hollywood and can pay good money to take a tour around town, just to "drive by" all the famous people's houses? Yeah, it's kinda been like that around here lately. I think by the time Halloween actually arrived, we had about 8 houses on our route. And, keep in mind, these houses are NOT close together. Posh Spice and Tom Cruise may live close to each other in Beverly Hills, but the "spider web" house and the "eyes in the trees" house do not. I think my gas bill went up at least $50 this month. I don't know who's more happy that this hallowed season is over; me, or the confused owners of the houses on our tour. Next year, I may have to print brochures, charge a fee, and start my own "best-Halloween-decorated-houses-in-all-of-North-Texas" touring company.

October and Halloween also bring about our annual adult costume party. This year was our 5th year in a row that we've had the party. It's always a fun event. And being that it's not every day that you see grown men in tights or makeup, at least we have one day a year where they can (somewhat) get away with it.

I was thinking back to all the fun costumes Jeff and I have come up with. I think my favorite was when we rented Wizard of Oz costumes. I was the Cowardly Lion, and Jeff was the Scarcrow. This year, we decided to throw back to the good ol' years and went as Ghostbusters.

Another annual event that we had to do was the Pumpkin Patch. And on a scale of 1-10, our PP is about a 7. This PP is not just a normal "find your pumpkin and let's get the heck outta here" PP. It has a petting farm, hay-ride, free hot dogs, and um...oh yeah, pumpkins. Every year I've taken the boys with our ward's playgroup, but this year I decided to wait for Jeff to go with us so we could go as a family.

We started our family fun day with a stop at MY favorite, gourmet restaurant, IHOP. Honestly, who wouldn't pass up a 3-cheese omlet and the best pancakes ever?! Delicious. Jeff says he'll never understand why waiting for 45 minutes on a Saturday morning just to have breakfast is all that appealing to me. But it is! I love it!

After breakfast we drove out to Celina to the PP. The boys loved the petting farm and the hay ride. My favorite part was loading up Jeff with as many pumpkins as he could carry for only $10. I just kept saying "one more!" The funny thing is, we only carved two of them. I guess it was the principal of the whole thing, right?

So...with the end of October brings the start of the true holiday season. I wasn't surprised when on Thursday morning, November 1st, the Christmas commericials were in full swing. Thus, I'm already debating to put my tree up next week. Shoot, the darn thing takes me two days to put up! A few more weeks of enjoying it wouldn't kill anyone, right? I mean, Nordstroms has probably already beat me to it!

Anyway, that's about it. The month of October was much more eventful and busy than I can sum up in a few paragraphs. But in the end, all is well and we are happy. The house is still for sell. It was a quiet month for showings so we are hoping that next month will pick up some. Many of you have asked what our plan is when we sell it. At this point, we still aren't sure. All we know is that Jeff's commute of an hour and 10 minutes is really start to get to him (and me!). But the thought of moving away from our "home" is too much to think about. So we're just taking one step at a time. Sell the house and then we'll see. Who knows, maybe this time next year we could be back in Utah!

So...with that said, IHOP anyone?