Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters to their blogs. Just click on their pictures to the right.

Trees

A couple months ago I decided that our north fenceline in our backyard needed some help, specifically shade trees. I dug out a hug section of sod and we planned to plant some Quaken Aspen trees along that line. We got some advice from Dave's step-dad / relator (thanks Clark) and decided to stay away from the quakies and instead, went with Emerald Queen Norwegian Maple trees. I picked 4 of these up from the nursery last week and tonight we finally got them planted. They look great and we are so looking forward to the shade that these trees will provide.

Potty Training

Oh the joys of motherhood. One of the most dreaded things is potty training. In my opinion, it's time to potty train when the MOM is ready. Well, I was finally ready and started potty training Kyle on Thursday. Dave took Brandon & Eric up to the cabin over the weekend while Kyle and I stayed home for a weekend of potty training. I wasn't sure what to expect but my guess was that potty training Kyle would be somewhere between the experiences I had when potty training Brandon and Eric who were polar opposites.

Brandon - I started potty training him at 27 months. The first day was an absolute nightmare! He went through 20 pairs of undies the first day alone. Each day got a bit better but it took awhile and he still had accidents on and off for quite awhile after that.

Eric - I potty trained Eric at 23 months. It took one day and he was DONE! No accidents, potty trained for both day and night.

I didn't think that Kyle would be as easy to potty train as Eric but hoped that at least it would be easier then it was with Brandon. And thankfully, he has done really well. He has had very few accidents over the past 5 days. He isn't really good at telling me when he needs to go potty but he is very good at holding it so as long as I ask him if he needs to go potty fairly regularly, then he stays dry. He is especially great at staying dry when we are not at home. He wore undies to church yesterday and the gym today with no problems. I can run to the store with him in undies and really don't have to worry about him having an accident. So all in all, his potty training has gone really well and he is doing great. Good work Kyle!

Owen's Blessing

Family Event #3: Owen's Blessing

The final family event of the weekend took place at Janeen's house. Jenny & Jayson blessed their baby boy Owen. It was a beautiful blessing and a nice get together. Congratulations guys!

Jadon's Baptism

Family Event #2: Jadon's baptism.

Brandon is very much looking forward to his baptism in less then two months so he was really happy to get to go to his cousin Jadon's baptism this morning and know that he would be next!

Erickson Family Reunion

This weekend is a very Barnhisel family weekend. We have family events every day. The first was the Erickson family reunion at the Pacificorp Stairs Plant up the canyon tonight. We love going up there and enjoying such a beautiful place.

The boys had so much fun playing with their cousins. Here are 5 of the 6 Barnhisel boys that were running around tonight.

As it got late in the evening, Kyle started to wind down and just sat on my lap, clutching his beloved football! :)

It was a really wonderful evening!

Labor Day Weekend at the Cabin

Labor Day weekend is one of our very most favorite weekends at the cabin. The weekend is longer and there are so many fun things to do. Kyle of course spent a good part of the weekend begging for rides on the 4-wheelers. You have to hear him say it, he's so stinkin' cute!!

And we finally got Kyle his own dumptruck so now all the boys have their own dumptrucks at the cabin to ride down the hill on. Kyle loves them so much, he just pushes them around, back and forth and back and forth.

Grandpa Clark brought along his good camera and took some long-over due family pictures of us. We have a few on our camera but I can't wait to see the professional ones. Hopefully we will get one with everyone smiling and looking straight at the camera. Miracles do happen. :)

I will update the post with better pictures once I get them.

Then of course, the best thing about Labor Day weekend is the Mountain Man Rendezvous in Fort Bridger.

The boys got their faces painted.


I have to admit ... Eric's was the COOLEST!!

We also got Kyle a "coon skin" hat to match his brothers hats from last year!

And a new addition to their mountain man get up this year was gun holsters. THEY LOVE THEM!!

It was a GREAT weekend!!