Thankful

With it being Thanksgiving and all, here are a few of the many things I am thankful for...

I am thankful for my wonderful, amazing husband that I love so much. I wouldn't be where I am today without him. He works so hard for us, providing for us, and allowing me to stay at home with our children, and I am so grateful for that.

I am thankful for our 2 beautiful children, who are the light of my life. They both have already taught me so much, even being as little as they are.

I am thankful for all of our extended family and friends, who have always been there for us, and shown so much love to us. We love you all!

I am thankful for our good health.

I am thankful for the roof over heads, that we have a beautiful house to live in that we can call home. :)

I have so much to be thankful for.

Hope you all have a wonderful, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy {Belated} Halloween!

I am not very good with keeping up on this blog, but it's better than nothing, right? With Thanksgiving just next week, I figure I should post about Halloween! Although it was a wet, cold Halloween, we still had tons of fun! Jackson was a scary dinosaur for the THIRD time for Halloween, and Sophie was a sweet little Ladybug! We celebrated Halloween on Saturday this year, as the actual holiday landed on Sunday. We started out our festivities on Friday. We went trick-or-treating at Grandma Lily's care center with the family. Afterwards we went to dinner, for Uncle Jeff's Birthday. Saturday we were unsure about going trick-or-treating, but we braved the cold and rain and went out! Andy stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Sophie, while Megan and I took Jackson and Brayden out. Jackson was excited to get all that candy, and so was Andy and I as he gladly shared his candy with us!

We {heart} Fall!

Fall is our favorite time of the year, and with that comes Halloween! The weather (well, not the last couple of days!), the leaves changing colors, the decorating, the excitement of halloween, we love everything about it! We have been having so much fun.... going to the halloween carnival Jackson's school put on (we have pictures, but that'll have to wait until another post), going on fall drives, decorating halloween cookies, making caramel apples, watching scary movies, carving pumpkins, and especially spending time with family! We are very excited for halloween, especially Jackson! All he talks about is how excited he is to go trick or treating!!!!

Three Months

Dear Sophie,

I can't believe you are three months old, sweet girl. Seems like it was yesterday I was holding you in my arms for the first time. As I am writing this you are napping in your swing. I keep on looking over at you, thinking how grateful I am for you, and what a beautiful girl you are. You are the cutest, sweetest baby. You are beginning to develop your own cute little personality. You smile and coo so much, and those grins of yours are so incredibly adorable! You smile a lot especially in the mornings. No matter how tired I am, or how little of sleep I have gotten, those smiles of yours instantly make my day! Jackson can make you smile a ton, as well as me, and daddy with his silly faces. You smile a lot while nursing. You look up, and give me the sweetest smile. I love that I am providing the best nourishment for you. Some days it can be hard, but we get through it. I love the special time we have together while nursing. I will cherish it always. You are very active while awake, you love to kick your legs all over the place. Recently we have been putting you in your bumbo chair to sit up. You really like it, as you can look around and see things. When you become upset almost always grabbing and holding onto our finger will calm you down. You also like to hold my finger while nursing. You are sleeping really well. You always have, right from the beginning. You will go on about 6 hour stretches during the night, which is absolutely wonderful! You have lost a lot of the hair you had when you were born. You still have a lot though, except for one bald spot on the back. I love putting headbands and bows in your hair, painting your toe nails, dresses, and so much more that will come along with having you as my daughter. Your eyes are still blue, we dont know yet if they will stay that color. Daddy loves your little star trek spock ear! :) You weigh about 12 pounds, and are very tall just like your big brother. Some of the names we have for you are Sophie Bee, Soph, Pretty princess Sophie, and I'm sure more that I can't think of right now. I love you so very much Sophie. I am so grateful to have you in my life. I want you to know I will always be there for you, and to protect you. You are my precious baby girl. I love you more than words can say.

Here are her 2 month and 1 month pictures also to see how much she's grown :)

Sophie's Blessing

So Beautiful!


We tried to get Jackson to be in a Family picture, but he was too busy playing with all of his cousins, and didnt want to come take a picture.


Jackson and Sophie


Big Smile!

We had Sophie's blessing this last weekend. It was wonderful. Andrew gave her a beautiful blessing. Thanks to everyone who was able to be there for us and our baby girl! Afterwards we had a yummy lunch at our house with all of our family. I didnt get many pictures on my camera, but thankfully Grandpa Michael got these beautiful pictures of our baby girl on her big day!

6 weeks

I can't believe it has been 6 weeks, actually almost 7 weeks since our sweet baby girl came into our lives. Time is going by way too fast. She is such a blessing in our lives. She is such a good baby for us. She doesn't cry much, except of course when she needs to eat or needs a diaper change. She sleeps so well at night. I have had to set the alarm multiple times in the middle of the night to feed her. I remember one particular night last week, I had last fed her at around 10:30 or 11, and set my alarm for 2:15, or so at least I thought I did. It didnt go off, and she didnt wake up until 5:00. It was nice to get more sleep but definately didnt expect her to sleep so long. She is a champ at eating, she usually finishes nursing within about 10-15 minutes. When she is awake, she is so alert, and looking at all of her surroundings. She smiles and coos a lot, especially at her big brother, Jackson. They have already developed such a cute relationship. Her eyes light up when she sees him. He is very protective of her, and always watching over her, he is such a great big brother. Everywhere we go people always comment on how beautiful she is. Yes, she is our pretty little princess. We love her so very much, and wouldnt trade this last 6 weeks for anything.

Paul McCartney

We went to the Paul McCartney concert on the 13th. It was absolutely wonderful. We had to buy the tickets back in May, it was actually part of Andrew's Fathers Day gift. I was unsure whether to go, as the baby would be only around a month old, and it would be our first time away from her. Grandma Linda offered to watch both Sophie and Jackson for us, so I decided to go, as it was a once in a lifetime thing. I am so happy we went. It was wonderful for us to have some time together without the kids. We knew the kids were in good hands, and Grandma said they did just fine. The concert was amazing, they even had a big firework show!

Welcome to our blog!

Where to start? We are the Barlow Family of four, enjoying the early years of our family! Andrew and I are coming up on 6 wonderful years of marriage. Andrew works full-time at Wells Fargo in the Real Estate resource center department, and I am lucky enough to be able to be a stay at home mommy to our 2 precious darlings, Jackson who turned 5 in March, and the newest member of our family, Sophie who was born on June 5th. Earlier this year we bought our first home out in Tooele. It has definately be an adjustment, but we love it.

About us-

We enjoy spending time together whenever we can. We like to spend this time outdoors, but any time together is well spent. We enjoy going to movies, and the park. Or, just staying home being surounded by the noise of children.

Andrew - "the n3rd" Andrew is 25, and loves all things electronical. Computers, gadgets, etc are his crack. Recenlty he has taken to building small scale models, a hobby of his youth. He is an avid Star Trek fan with the only exception being the Original series from the 60's. He enjoys Science Fiction, and most things JJ Abrams.

Nicole - "the Mommy" I am 24, I like to scrapbook and make cards. I am the typical homemaker, I love everything about it, even the constant toy cleaning. I love spending time with my children. I thank Andrew whenever I can that I have the priveledge to stay home.

Jackson - "the little man" Jackson is 5, loves all things creepy, crawly, and dinosaury. He likes to catch bugs ouside and bring them in, to the shegrin of his parents. He likes building things out of Legos and k'nex toys. He is starting to draw more and more, always a dinosaur, monster, or a combination of the two, and most of the time pooping. He likes to paint, and is getting pretty good at it. If there is a way to make a mess out of something, Jackson is there. It gets harder every day to hide things from him, he's very smart and resourceful.

Sophie - "the newbie" Sophie is still new, we don't really know her personality yet. She is just beginning to smile, and loves to look at her suroundings. She is just her adorable self. She is a wonderful baby, sleeping mostly through the night.

That's all for now ... you already know too much about us.

Sophie's Birth Announcement-


First Family photo-


Fireworks at Sugarhouse Park-


Our cute kids-