Mr and Mrs Michael Grayson Barton

Over Memorial weekend we went to Navarre Beach for Michael and Karah's wedding...CONGRATULATIONS you two!!! We are so happy for you! We love you guys!!

The wedding was beautiful. It was on the beach in the early evening, there was a cool breeze and a gorgeous background. We had a wonderful time.

Bryan also had the honor of doing the ceremony. He did such a wonderful job. It was so beautiful watching Bryan marry Michael and Karah. What a precious moment for all of them.

It was also Eli's first time to the beach, he was not too sure what to think of the sand...but he had fun!

Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!

This was my first Mother's Day as a M-O-M. It was so wonderful. My best friend Rebecca asked if she could come and "babysit" Eli the other night, so I let her...Bryan and I went out. Well her baby-sitting was really a surprise gift making party for me. Eli made me my first mommy's day present. I just LOVED it...and cried.

Also for Mother's day, Bryan and I closed on our first house!! Yes, we are moving. We are very excited. We kept praying for something that would still provide a place to still do ministry in our home and that could hold all our students. God provided!!!

The house is wonderful! There is plenty of room for us to grow into it and still have room for our ministry. We will be sending out an email with our new address.

Up, Up and Away

Eli turned 10 months old on May 7th. Boy is he everywhere. He is now climbing the stairs as fast as he can. He keeps me busy as he moves from couch to couch and then up the stairs.

It is hard to believe how fast he is growing. His personality is really developing and he is always so happy.

Tooth fairy get ready...

Tooth number 2 has entered right next to the first one on the bottom in the middle. :) He has been really good during all this. It is exciting to see his little teeth coming through.

No longer toothless!

Eli has his first TOOTH! It is the bottom, front tooth. Just after I posted the blog from earlier this week about all our updates the next night felt a little tooth. I was wondering if he would ever get teeth and here they come. I hate to see our grocery bill now... he ate everything without teeth, now that he is getting them, he may eat even more.

I would post a picture but can't keep his mouth open long enough for you to see... just trust me, it's there. HA!

3 months till the day....

... that we had Elijah! Boy, does time fly. My sister in law is so much better than me at updating these kinds of things. I can't seem to find the time to sit down and type. There is so much that has happened in the life of the Barton's since Eli was 4 months old (the last time I updated, ha). I will try to recap the past several months from Christmas to lots of friends having BEAUTIFUL babies and my sister in law, Carolyn, getting married on New Years Eve...what a fun wedding it was; Nana Barton graduated college, Daddy (Bryan) got ordained and Elijah is doing so many new things. (I still have not learned how to update videos on here so by the time I get it figured out they will be a bit old but cute none the less.

Eli is now 9 months old and the thoughts that he is about to be 1 VERY SOON blows my mind. He has been such a sweet boy. He is just starting to figure out sleeping longer in the night. Keep in mind I did not say he is sleeping THROUGH THE NIGHT, but he will get up a lot less now then before. He is such a busy body and constantly observing and staying active.
During this year so many of our friends have had babies and some even on their second and third children. It is so great to know that some of our very dear friends have kids around the same age as Eli. It will be great to watch them all play together as they grow up.

Some of Eli's accomplishments over the past several months have been eating and eating more, babbling so much (not sure where that comes from...), sitting up on his own, rolling over, waving (but not sure if it is a combination of 'hi', 'bye', 'come here mom' and 'more of those gold fish please'), and he is crawling!!! That is our newest accomplishment as of a week ago....oh and did I mention he eats a lot...this poor child. If you did not know me you would think that I starved him. He has NO teeth yet but eating up a storm. He gummed up 5 chicken nuggets the other day. He eats everything we eat along with his milk and baby food. It is amazing to watch him put away his food.

Here are some recent pictures over the past several months in no particular order...enjoy!

The Newlyweds... Carolyn and Matt Tripp

Bryan and Mike Linch _Bryan's Ordination

Nana & Papa Barton - Nana's graduation

18 weeks

Elijah is 4 months old this month. Time sure flies. He had his check up Monday and it went well. He is now 15 lbs 13 oz and 26 in long.  What a big boy. He is so meek and mild, obviously taking after his daddy.

He is doing good.  Fighting a small cold right now but other than that he is in good spirits. 

Montana continued

As the days went on we continued to get rain.  That made it a bit difficult to hike and get out of the car much. We think this is God’s way of saying…RELAX and if I have to send you to Montana to do it, well then Montana it is.  It truly has been a week of doing nothing and much needed!  For my birthday Bryan cooked Salmon and Tuna on Thursday night. It was delicious. We also got our fill of CSI, CSI MIAMI, and CSI NY…I don’t think we have watched that much tv since we tried to finish the 24 and Lost Seasons.  (We watched so much CSI that I dreamt about it and Bryan slept with an ax next to the bed and we had a “secret” code for when he came through the front door after getting wood…3 kicks to the door, shh… it’s our secret. J )

Today is Friday and we just finished hiking Cedar Trail before heading to the airport, man it was gorgeous.  We wanted to take one last drive through Glacier Park.

Till next time….

Holiday Rush

With the holidays right around the corner Bryan and I decided to take a furlough (vacation) to regroup not only with each other and with Eli but also with God. We have been running ourselves silly far a while now…I am sure most of it was me; getting ready for Eli, then Eli came, then work and it has just been non-stop.   So we left for Montana on November 7^th and will return November 14^th.  We figured this would be a nice break before the holiday rush starts

Eli took his first airplane ride and did so well. He slept a lot of the flight but did not cry much at all. When he did it was mostly hunger…which he happens to be quite a lot lately. Bryan would walk him over to the window to look at the planes in the airport and Elijah would get excited.  We like to think he was getting excited over the airplanes; like father – like son.

As this is being written, we are here sitting in our cabin, reading and watching out the window and waiting for a bear or some sort of wild life to approach are back porch. Montana is truly a piece of God’s splendor.  The mountains are amazing!!! Our cabin is located just 30 min from Glacier Park.  We are a little bummed because we forgot our passports and could have gone to Canada as we are not far from there at all (although, Eli still needs to get one). Oh well, maybe next time. When we arrived Friday night we ran to the store and got a couple of things so we could make dinner, while Bryan was at the store I waited with Eli in the Cabin and received a phone call that went something along these lines…

            “Honey, we are definitely in the NORTH”- BB

            “Why is that?”- LB

            “Because they don’t have corn bread here and have NO IDEA what grits are”- BB

            “HAHAHA! Oh my goodness, I did not even think of that…no worries just get what you can”- LB

The next day we ventured to the grocery store to stock up for the week, prepared for the northerner’s type of store, ha! We got what we needed and headed home. Sunday, we drove over to Glacier Park to get our park pass for the week and check things out.  So far the temp’s have been in the high 45 and lowest has been in the 30’s. So it is not so bad. We have had lots of rain and no snow as of yet.  Hopefully we will get some before we head home. We went in through the west entrance of the park today and drove pretty far. Most of the forest had been burned at some point in the early 2000’s. It was really sad.

On the way home we needed to stop at the store because I needed 2 tablespoons of sugar for a pie I was going to make…who sells 2 tablespoons of sugar, really? So I decided to buy a SWEET TEA from McDonalds and then bring some sugar packets home with me…oh yeah, they don’t have sweet tea, we are in the NORTH. Come on, we need to teach these Northerners a little about sweet tea. I still bought tea…but it was unsweet.  (Check out the picture below, only a McDonald’s with ski slopes around them would have this sign, too funny!)

Monday-we were going to head back to the park for some hiking and or driving but none of us got any sleep. Eli has come down with a nasty cold…stuffy as all get out and all he has done is cry. We were up ALL NIGHT long.  If he is not sleeping, he is crying. And he is only sleeping about 30 min at a time. This is really out of his element to cry this much. So we opted to stay in today, relax, read and veg out so maybe Eli could get a little better. As the day has gone on, we feel that we made the best decision.  It has been a long day of tears and sniffles.   More to come, when we can get internet…until then, we will be RELAXING and enjoying our majesty’s creation all around us. 

Visits from my Slovak family

Some of the Slovak team came in town the first week of November. It was such a joy to be able to spend some time with the folks who are so dear to me.  It reminds me how much I truly miss them and the Slovak culture.  Maruska, is one of my dear friends and she got to stay with us for the week. It was so wonderful!  She brought so many gifts from the students in Kukova, I could not believe it. The picture below is of a Elijah wearing a sweater that Mrs. Sabolova made for him.  What a treasured gift!! Thank you all for you wonderful gifts. It means so much to us.

 

Happy Birthdays!!!

We want to wish our sweet sister, Leah, a happy birthday. Her birthday was November 7^th.  We love you!

Lee Ann, Bryan and Cousin ElI

Also, we got to celebrate Larissa’s 20^th birthday. Larissa is a student that lives with us. We love her dearly. J We made dinner for her and then made FONDU for dessert. It was great!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARISSA!

College Ministry

The college ministry is going really well. It seems to keep us busy. We are now running close to 50 students a week. It is a packed house with lots of energy.  We continue to seek God’s direction in leading the ministry.

  

Eli's baby dedication

At the beginning of October Eli was dedicated at North Star.  What made this event even more special was that he was dedicated with his cousin Caralyn, who is 5 weeks younger than him. What a special day!  It is our prayer that Eli grows up to be a man that chases after the Lord, a man that is in love with Jesus and truly lives out his name…ELIJAH!  The dedication was more for us as parents as we are vowing to raise him in a Christian environment so that he comes to know and love our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thank you to all of you who were there and that could be a part of this day with us.

           

Elijah’s first Halloween

As usual it has been a while since we updated you on our life.  Eli is doing great. As of November 7^th, he is 4 months old. Time sure does fly by. For Halloween we decided to stay in for the evening for Eli’s first Halloween he was dressed as a pumpkin and it was too cute (pictures below).  The pictures were taken from a pumpkin patch. We thought it would be a cute idea to dress him up and stick him in with the other pumpkins. 

He sure is getting big.  He is reaching for things now and really an alert baby.  He has been so much fun.

  

Mr. Mom

Well tonight I had a youth event to go to and Bryan got to stay home with Eli and just be DAD (with out Mom to come to the rescue).   I pumped a bottle for him and he had a little bit of reserve in the freezer... side note, Elijah is hitting a growth spurt and wants to eat EVERY hour to two hours, ugh, keeps me busy! :) 

I must say I was not sure how the night would go considering Bryan has had his share of learning and with Elijah's eating patterns lately I just knew I was going to have to go home...I know we both are learning parenting right now but I at least had babysitting experiences when I was younger. (Honey, don't worry I will spare your stories... :) )

When I got home he had all the chores done, Eli was BATHED and fed and put in bed, he also gathered all the trash...wow, what a husband and dad. I must say I have the best man on the planet.  Thank you honey for being so wonderful and helping me.  (Now he has a little taste of how my whole day goes).

Big steps for Eli

Elijah has been making so many accomplishments these days...about a month ago we put him in his own room.  He is doing a great job and loving his big bed. (I still bring him in our room for some cuddle time)

He is also beginning to smile a TON!!! I love it.  There is nothing more sweet and innocent then Elijah as he is figuring out his smile.  He smiles at many things...funny noises, his daddy's voice when he comes home from work, the little doggie that hangs from his car seat and many other things. He is such a happy baby. 

Also over the past several weeks Elijah has been noticing bright colors and patterns. It is so funny...he gets his eye brows raised and just wobbles his head and stares.  With that he is really enjoying his play mat.  He loves looking at all the animals, colors and even at himself in the mirror.