And 3 become 4

Welcome baby Evangeline

Evangeline Marie Barton was born on 12/11/10 at a whopping 9lbs 12oz. She is super sweet and cuddly. Elijah is adjusting well and is being a wonderful BIG brother. He enjoys helping with her and wants to know where she is at all times. We will have to watch him carefully though because he has already tried to pick her up on his own several times.

Front door makeover

I may have mentioned about wanting to paint my interior doors black. So after talking about it for months and well, our little Eva is still super snug, I figured why not get started. LOL

So tonight I started with our front door. I just love the way it turned out. Now I have 7 more doors to go.....

BEFORE

AFTER

something fresh and something new

So I have decided to change the look of my blog. There are several reasons running through my head:

*I figured something fresh and new is rejuvinating...so maybe it will motivate me more to blog.

*New look = new seasons in life.

*I have had this blog since I lived overseas...and obviously I am no longer, so it's time for this season to be represented.

What ever the reason hopefully it will keep me motivated so that you all can keep up with our new season of life...the repairs on our home, baby #2, a day in the life of a Barton, Elijah, my thrifty craft projects and so on.

Stay tuned for a new look....

The things kids say...

As I am sitting here getting ready to put Elijah down for a nap, myself included, we are having small talk. I told him he had to take a nap in 1 minute, he then looks at me and says, holding up his pointer finger, "mommy, in 2 -1 minutes I will go to bed." I love it! Bryan tried explaining to him yesterday that he can say, 2 minutes. But I think he prefers his way of saying it.

I really need to just keep a list of all the sweet-cute things he says. He really makes my day.

Okay, back to getting him ready for his nap...in 2-1 minutes.

Christmas wreath

We won't be decorating a ton this year as we are days away from our little Eva arriving. But I am hoping to get a few things up for Christmas. I think Christmas decorations are great and so much fun! I just love the smell of the tree in the house and the warm fires we have been running at night.

Here is the Christmas wreath I just finished for our front door... total cost $2.00 (I already had the wreath and pine cones and bought the ribbon and ornaments at the Dollar Tree). I still don't know what I am doing but I am having fun being thrifty.

Easy gift idea

Here is an easy yet fun gift idea. You can use these as recipe holders of even to hold a favorite picture of yours.

I just took old tiles and hot glued a clothes pin to the back...so simple yet fun. The one with the buttons was a white tile I got from home depot...you could really paint these or glue what ever you want to them to make them unique and fun!

Fall has come and gone, 4 weeks till Christmas

I can not believe fall has come and gone and now we are 4 weeks away from Christmas. I have not even started Christmas shopping yet. I am still working on projects around the house and yet to have all my pictures ready for before and afters but promise to get there. With that, we are still waiting patiently for little Evangeline to get here. We are hoping any time now in the next week but of course not wanting to rush God's timing. After our last appointment she was nice and snug and it didn't look like she was coming anytime soon...at least not until her due date or maybe even later.

This fall has been great. The weather has been so nice, especially when you are pregnant, and Elijah has loved playing outside. Here are a few pictures of Elijah over the past two months.

We took him to the airshow in October over at Dobbins. He really liked it. I thought it would be too loud for him but he was having so much fun. I did take him home before the Blue Angels because he needed a nap so I guess he missed the loudest parts. He is just like his daddy when it comes to planes.

And then I got some fun pictures of him playing in leaves. He thought it was so fun to make the piles then run and jump. I remember those days...oh to be young and carefree again with no worries in the world.

Goodbye "nunnie"

So today is the day...I took Elijah to the store to by a toy with his "nunnie" aka... PACIFIER!

I had no clue how this was going to go but it was time. He is 2 1/2 years old, my niece is loosing hers this weekend to the passy fairy and well his had a huge hole in it and it was on its last leg anyways. So I have been prepping him for two days about this BIG purchase and how he is a big boy. We get to the store and he picked out a package of 3 cars...pixar Disney CARS, of course. Then he also found an orange motorcycle. I thought to myself, $8.00... I can stand that for the loss of a pacifier. He was so excited about his purchase that we got to the car and he said so proudly, "I bought these with my nunnie." I thought, okay this is easier than I thought (besides the fact of getting to the register and the $8.00 purchase was $13.00, ugh! Too late, he was already buying them).

We made it all the way to the subdivision without him asking for it AND he was past his nap. UNTIL 1 mile from the house... "mommy, can we go to the store for my nunnie?" Great!

I was able to change the subject enough to get him inside to play. Then came nap time, he fussed for less than 5 minutes, asked for his nunnie...then fell asleep.

We will see how bedtime goes tonight.... the story continues!

Happy Fall

Today has been a chilly day but so nice at the same time. I really enjoy the fall weather. Time for fires, coffee, soups, cuddling and blankets...

Please bear with me if I am in rambling mood and I just got up from a much enjoyed/needed nap. I wish I could sleep the whole 2 hours my son sleeps. I seem to wake up after an hour. Sad! I decided I needed to update some... I should have some more finalized pictures of the kids rooms soon. Eva's is getting "organized" while Elijah's looks like a used car lot with all his toy cars. Speaking of cars, Elijah LOVES the 'Cars' movie. And by LOVE I mean we watch it every day and he mocks it...can anyone say, "Cars 2 PLEASE PLEASE come out soon!" He is definitely all boy. (except for when I paint his toe nails, LOL...but he is 2, who cares, right? HA!)

Bryan and I are almost finished organizing and cleaning out our closet... I should have taken a before picture, you would be shocked. Now on to discovering and coming up with more projects. :)

This past month our sweet friends Ben and Kandice got married October 23rd at my parents house in Jasper. It was a beautiful fall wedding! Ben has lived with us for the past year and a half. Now we are being blessed with both of them moving in with us and they will be returning from their honeymoon this week. We are so excited to have them with us.

As for Halloween. Elijah was a race car, or at least his costume was. We could not get him to wear it. The one time he tried it on was my chance for a picture. Maybe I can try to get it on him again. Oh well. He stayed home with his Nana and Papa so Bryan and I could go out on a date. THANK YOU Nana and Papa!

Enough rambling for now, on to hang out with Elijah, who just got up from his nap.

Elijah and Evangeline's room

As promised here is some pictures of both Elijah and Evangeline's room. It was a fun project and Alaina did such a great job. Now I have a crafty itch and keep finding things around the house to do. LOL

Inspired

Well, I have a new friend that seems to have made me into a mad woman. She is super crafty and I like crafty. So I have decided to try and be crafty myself and save money on projects around the house. I have several projects going on and will post them as I do them but for starters, here is the wreath I made for the front door.

It has been a lot of fun. Although tricky trying to get things done with out Elijah "helping". :)

Here is Alaina's blog if you want to see what she is doing...she will motivate you for sure.

http://www.recycledinteriors.blogspot.com/

Alaina has been so kind to create the look of both Eva and Elijah's rooms. I will post the pictures as soon as we finish.

She has done a great job!

Maybe this will inspire me to keep my blog updated along with the milestones with the kids...or not. HA! We will see.

More to come.

Slovakia 2010

Below are a few pictures from our mission trip this summer... just so you all can have a visual. :)

The past 6 moths with the Barton's...

Unfortunately this is a 6 month recap of our lives...apparently time got past me yet again. How do people do this daily. LOL After Eli goes to bed, I am ready for bed.

Lots of events have happened in our lives over the past 6 months. I will do my best to cover them all in this post.

APRIL

Right around this time we had the joy of finding out we are expecting number 2. Elijah is now a BIG brother to a little sister. Her name will be Evangeline Marie, "Eva". Her expected due date is December 2nd. Bryan seems to think she will be a Thanksgiving baby...we will see soon enough. We have 3 months to go.

Also during April our sister in law, Karah, graduated college and she and Michael have moved back here to Atlanta from Alabama. We are glad to have them back...we are now praying for Karah to find a job in graphic design. She is super talented by the way...you can also check out her craftiness on her Etsy website; http://www.etsy.com

MAY

This month we traveled to North Carolina to see my cousin Bonnie graduate from college. She has a business management degree and has opened her own dance studio. It is called Ms. Bonnie's School of Dance. We are so proud of her. Pictures of her studio to come...

JUNE

On the 26th of June we had the privilege and honor to be a part AJ and Lindsey's wedding. If you remember in previous posts, AJ lived with us for several months up until his wedding. They are a very dear couple to us. Bryan was in the wedding along with Elijah, the ring bearer. He did such a sweet job...the wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. We love you guys and are so excited for the new Mr. and Mrs. AJ Brantley. You can follow their blog atwww.beingbrantley. blogspot.com

JULY

Happy 2nd birthday do our little man. Time sure does fly! We had a small birthday for him at the house with family since we were leaving the next day for our mission trip. We also took him to the Atlanta Aquarium for his birthday. He LOVED it. He loves looking at "rah-rah's" aka Sharks, and other fish. Needless to say his jaw was dropped the entire time.

Along with turning 2 comes the talking...his new phrase is "oh gosh" and it is said with such a dramatic tone. It really is funny. He has been talking tons and it has been a lot of fun. Elijah is also my little cleaner...I am hoping this will last till he is in college. I have found him cleaning my toilets at least once a week. And when I walk in on him and ask what he is doing, he says; "cleaning mommy".

We are also constantly on guard since he now knows how to open doors...he felt the need to go into the garage the other day then on the same day, lock himself in our bathroom. And the screwdriver was in the closet in the bathroom; that's where everyone keeps their screwdrivers, right?! LOL He was locked in there for 20 minutes. He did not care, he was just playing away....

He is definitely ALL BOY....I was washing dishes and came into the living room to find him sitting in his chair that he had put on top of the couch. I guess he wanted a better view of the tv. WOW, he is the daredevil around here. NO FEAR!!

After Elijah's birthday Bryan and I left for a mission trip to Slovakia. It was a great trip and a bitter sweet. For those of you who did not know, I lived there for a couple years and it was great to go back and see old friends and family. The trip was 2 weeks long. I was not sure how I would do without Elijah or how he would do. He went between my parents and Bryan's for the two weeks and LOVED every minute of it. Spoiled, played, laughed and traveled. He was a trooper. Through my prayers the Lord sustained me as well and I was not the worried mom I thought I would be. We stayed busy and that was great for me. As far as being pregnant on the trip, I did great and did not have any problems. The idea of camp was that we would teach conversational English to the students and at night they got to hear the Gospel, some for the first time. Thank you to all of you who supported us both financially and prayerfully. I know our students came back changed...God did great works and it was a blessing to be a part of it.

AUGUST

And here we are up to date...this month is going by quickly as well. School has started back so Caralyn is joining us again after a short break this summer. Elijah loves it and asks for her each morning. It has been great for them to play and grow up together.

We went to my brother's house at the beginning of the month to celebrate he and Caralyn's birthday. Caralyn turned two this month as well, so now there are 2 two year olds...so fun and busy at the same time. We are preparing for baby Eva to come. We are transitioning Elijah to a "big boy" role. So with that comes, the toddler bed, which he can't stop jumping on. He is so excited about it and we are also moving him to the bigger of the two rooms. He has not quite figured out what is going on and keeps telling me that "it's AJ's room, mommy"...so we will see what happens when it comes time to move him. But we are in the process of painting the two kids rooms which has been fun. Elijah is excited about the big boy room because he will have tractors and trucks. Which he is really into right now. Pictures to come once we finish the rooms. Thankfully we never painted the bedrooms when we moved in so we are starting from scratch.

Riding a boat for the first time....and we just returned this weekend from Lake Hartwell. We went up for the weekend with my dad and step-mom along with my brother, sister and their kids and my grandmother. It was a fun weekend for everyone to play and get together. Elijah rode on a boat for the first time and really enjoyed it. He did get in the lake for about 5 minutes but that was all he could handle. Oh well, maybe next time.

Well now that you have been updated on the last 6 months, hopefully I can be more diligent...how do ya'll do this??? I need tips on keeping up with my blog.

sweet moments

I just laid Elijah down for his later afternoon nap/quiet time. I can hear him kicking around and talking, not so sure he was ready for his quiet time but I needed it for a little bit. :) I have had some sweet moments today with Elijah and just taking in all that he has learned and trying to learn. We went for a walk this afternoon to get some fresh air and enjoy the beautiful day and when going back up our driveway he looked at me and said "more", "more what honey?", "walking, more walk"...I could not resist his sweet plead so we headed back down the driveway for yet another walk. While walking we stopped and looked at dogs, trees, water and "porcupines-cones", not really sure what they are really called...the little round prickly balls that fall from trees. He liked them and wanted a couple on his stroller while we walked. Then we came home and he sat by me on the couch while we read books and watched ELMO, the new favorite. On top of all that I spoke with my sweet friend, Marta, today. She is from Poland but living in Minnesota with her husband. It was wonderful to hear her voice and catch up.

Today has been full of "sweet moment"...which has brought me to my blog. Something I have not done in several months and needed to catch up on. So while I sit in the quiet of my house and let my fingers type away I will try and reminisce the past few months for you.

Christmas was busy with lots of traveling to see family. We drove from Alpharetta to Columbus Ga, to Jasper, to North Carolina....we had some wonderful moments with family and enjoyed all the conversations and time together with everyone.

(the ball-pit he got for Christmas...starting to put all the balls in)

(Eli hanging with his Papa Barton...eating more JUNK)

As the New Year was rolling in we celebrated the home-coming of Bryan's grandpa, George Mendenhall. He went to be with his Savior. It was an honor to know him. We had some precious time with him while he was in the hospital. Bryan shared a bit of his heart at the funeral...a letter he wrote to George shortly before he passed was read during the funeral. It was a beautiful representation of love and family.

Shortly after the New Year we lost yet another loved one in our family, Harley. My rottweiler I had for 11 1/2 years. He was a sweet dog loved by many. He will be missed.

After a long and emotional couple of weeks we rolled into February ready to get back into routine. The first weekend in February was our THRIVE student weekend at church. It is the same thing as DNOW, we just like to be different at North Star. This year we had close to 300 students attend. It was wonderful. During the weekend the students raised over $3000.00 to go towards Trafficking awareness. We, the girls ministry of North Star, are partnering with another organization to mentor and love the rescued. It was an incredible weekend and to watch the things God did in the lives of these students was awesome!

The same weekend as Thrive we gained a 3rd roommate...yes, we are nuts. AJ, is a guy who has been in our lives for several years now and is very dear to us. He is getting married this June and wanted a place to stay until their apartment is ready. So hear we are...or here I am, with 4 guys and a baby...there is never a dull moment around this house but we are blessed to have them here. They are a joy and keep us laughing.

Then last week we got 3-4 inches of snow and Elijah loved it. He was not sure what to think at first but then went out and stomped around and laughed. At one point in the afternoon I looked over at him and he was at the front door with his hat and gloves on ready to go...it was too cute!

We enjoyed the snowed in weekend with AJ and his fiance, Lindsay. Such a sweet couple.

And now here we are almost done with the month of February. I think I got some of the big highlights over the past few months....now time to cook some dinner and get ready for my hubby to come home.

Cau for now