Favorite Friday Quote

The Love of Christ Will Never Fail Us
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"We, the Lord's daughters, need to know that He loves us. We need to know that He sees the good in us. Feeling His love encourages us to press forward, reassures us that we are His, and confirms to us that He cherishes us even when we stumble and experience temporary setbacks. Our Heavenly Father loved us before we came to this earth. I know that He loves us, as does His Son, Jesus Christ. That love will never change--it is constant. You can rely on it. We can trust it. Just as the motto of Relief Society reminds us that 'charity never faileth,' we must believe that the love of Christ will never fail us. All that we do should reflect the love of our Savior and the love of our Heavenly Father. This great love should be the source of our motivation to serve others. It must be both our point of origin and our destination!"

Bonnie D. Parkin, "Eternally Encircled in His Love," Ensign, Nov. 2006

It was a good weekend...

So, I feel bad for not posting the fun things we did over Thanksgiving weekend. Especially since there were a lot of fun things! Ok, so first, on Friday morning, the Middle School and High School bands brought in Santa! (They have a parade every year to bring Santa to Port Chester). It was really cold, but they all had a great time!

Next...
On Friday Night, I had a MUCH NEEDED Girls Night Out - we saw Enchanted - super cute! Super Fun Night!!!

Then...
Saturday, while the boys watched the BYU/Utah Football game (yeah BYU-Go Blue) A couple friends and I took our kids to see Enchanted - and yes, I had no shame going 2 days in a row!! Megan loved it - and going with one of her favorite friends was a plus!!

And...
On Sunday, I started playing Christmas music - I had bought my "new favorite" Christmas CD, Josh Groban's new NOEL earlier in the week but was in denial that Christmas was so close ----- non-the-less, I was COMPLETELY thrilled with my new purchase and it is a must have for all Christmas music lovers!

M.I.A.

I know I have been slightly M.I.A from the blogging world

sorry 'bout that my friends.

But these pics should fill you in on my life lately - without need for explanation or excuses. Hopefully things will get back to normal - well normal for the Barney's! Also, I have been doing a lot of reading - my peace - I have finished the entire Twilight series - twice. I loved it by the way! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Have a great weekend - oh, by the way - GO BLUE BYU!!!

Our Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving - Barney Style

Our day was eventful to say the least.

We spent a fun afternoon eating and enjoying hanging out with friends. Then, a cry of pain sent Allen & I running. The older boys were having fun swinging the younger kids by their arms and legs and throwing them onto the couch, harmless enough, right?! Well not this one time...Cameron slipped out of their grasp (he isn't the lightest kid in town) and he slipped, trying to catch his fall - with his hand, breaking his wrist. It isn't a bad break, luckily, it could have been much worse. But, bad enough to now enjoy a neon green cast for 4 weeks. The funniest part was when the Doc was explaining how to care for it - because - knock on wood - I have never broken a bone, nor had any of the kids to this point, therefore, I had never needed to know. Anyway, when he said not to get it wet, to put a plastic sack over it when bathing, Cameron said "I just won't take a bath anymore, first my ears, now my arm, I just won't take a bath because it is too crazy." Which is true, can't get water in his ears, and now his arm can't get wet. It was pretty funny. Anyway - the food was good, the company way good, the events were up for negotiation...Happy Thanksgiving - crazy Barney style. Hope you all had a wonderful day! Happy Thanksgiving - we are grateful for good family and friends!

My Tuesday Brain Teaser

Here is the brain teaser for this week...

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. Using the clues below can you determine who owns the fish?

The Brit lives in a red house.

The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

The Dane drinks tea.

The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.

The green house owner drinks coffee.

The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.

The Norwegian lives in the first house.

The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.

The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill.

The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.

The German smokes Prince.

The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

GOOD LUCK - (this one took me a while!!)

My Cute Niece Hannah

Ok, so my super cute niece Hannah (love you, HannahBanana!) absolutely loves Megan and called the other day telling me how much she loves watching videos of "her Megan". (Hannah is 3) - SO CUTE!! So, Hannah, here you go sweetie - you can sing along with Megan! We love and miss you!! (hit pause on the music at the bottom to be able to listen to Megan without the extra tunes!)

My Favorite Friday Quote

"The Lord's sweet assurance . . . can guide you and me in our time, in our day, in our lives. Of course, we will face fear, experience ridicule, and meet opposition. Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but also as a determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well."

Thomas S. Monson, "The Call for Courage," Ensign, May 2004

Puzzle for the week

Ok, this weekly idea is inspired by my friend Denise. I love puzzles or brain teasers...helps me feel like I am warding off the inevidable dementia - for real!!

Here is my puzzle for the week...

Below are thirteen 5 lettered words, each of which has had two of its letters removed. In total, these 26 letters are A-Z. The remaining letters in each word are in the correct order. (basically, use all 26 letters of the alphabet - and the letters that are given, are in the correct order for the completed word) There are no words which are spelled differently based upon location (favour/favor, etc). Can you determine the original words?

_AI_E
S_UA_
_E_EL
_O_ED
_NA_E
FOG__
C__MP
B__JO
_R_IT
_RE_T
_AV_N
MU__C
MOU__

Who can be the first (for bragging rights) to figure out all 13 words!?

My Favorite Friday Quote

Stand Steady and True
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"Discipleship does not guarantee freedom from the storms of life. Even as we are wending our way carefully and faithfully along the strait and narrow path, we encounter obstacle and challenge. There are days, perhaps even months and years, when life is just hard. We experience our fair share of adversity, heartache, loneliness, pain, and grief--sometimes it seems more than our fair share. "What to do when adversity strikes? There is only one thing to do. Stand steady and see it through. Stay steadfast, constant, and true. The real tragedy in the whirlwinds of life comes only when we allow them to blow us off our true course."

David S. Baxter, Ensign, Nov. 2006

Welcome November!

Happy November (can you believe it is already November?!)
I love this time of year! I love to reflect on everything I am grateful for.
Here are my top 5 things today...
1. My Savior - Jesus Christ - without him I would not be here today.
2. My family - I have an awesome husband and 4 fantastic kids (and extended family!!)
3. My Friends - I love all of you!! You are the best!!
4. Beautiful Colors - helps me feel refreshed and new
5. Good Books - grateful to have them - to fill our minds with knowledge

I love Halloween

I love Halloween for a few reasons - but my favorite right now is... Trick or Treating with our friends - The Mulligans. They have 2 kids - Jake - who is Austin's age - and Hannah - who is Megan's age - and they are great friends. We have taken the kids trick or treating together every year we have lived here - and love it. We love hanging out with them and love this fun tradition.

The one thing I hate is when I forget to take pics at home - we were so ansy to get out of the house that I forgot to take a picture. So, along the way - I took a couple. Dang it - they all turned out like this - BLURRY!!! I hate that!!!!!! But, at least you can kinda see how cute they all are!!! But hey, it was dark and getting 6 excited kids (ok, just Cam and Spenc) to hold still - ya crazy. Well those are my reasons - ok excuses for the blurry picture - because it is NEVER my fault, right??!!