Breshblog

Sort of update.

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:41:00 +0000

For those of you who might be wondering:

We are alive. We are still doing the same old same old. Jesh is constantly working and I am constantly refereeing my two boys Christian and Collin. I can't ever post anything because Jesh is always working on the computer with all the pictures. We have four computer yet the one with the pictures is the one he really does have to work on. And I like to let the pictures do most of the talking. And if you are wondering no we didn't do a newsletter this year. Lame I know. I am hoping to get a post up soon.

Pumpkin Picking

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:57:00 +0000

Pumpkin Picking 2009- Every year we go to the same pumpkin patch with my parents and what ever siblings that are around. Aaron's family and Dannie's family were both with us this year. Now that the boys are both a little older they seem to enjoy it more. Christian and Collin are both the type to wander off with no worry of where I am. They both take off exploring. Luckily my family was with us to sort of corral them in a general area. We had an early frost this year and then warm weather afterward so all the pumpkins were mushy and moldy. We managed to find a couple suitable ones. Jesh did the flu pumpkin because the swine flu was really rampant at the time. And he is sort of a typography freak. (love ya)

Apple Sauce and Apple Butter

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:24:00 +0000

Jesh has been super busy with work. He works from home and sometimes I can been a distraction for him. We need him to work so I have been trying to find other outlets. Normally Jesh and I would have some shows we would be watching in the evening and I would focus on our house and kids during the day. I have been kind of stuck in an uncreative rut for a long time. But lately I have been pretty proud of myself for the new things I have tried. Recently I made and canned my own apple sauce and apple butter. I have never really canned before. It was actually really fun. I like knowing that I made the apple sauce with just apples and cinnamon. No added yuckys. And the apple butter was made with homemade applesauce, spices, and fruit juice instead of sugar. The house smelled really yummy too while I made it. We even picked our own apples. I wish I could have made more. I made yummy zucchini bread and muffins that day too. I freeze them for winter enjoyment.

Pumpking Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:10:00 +0000

After Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago we decided to make Pumpkin Cookies to go "Boo" people with. It was fun. We haven't done any doorbell ditching in a while so were kind of nervous and excited at the same time. Funny the things that get us excited these days. Jesh took Christian on one of the runs. I think he like it. I hope he doesn't get any ideas and think he can do it all the time. ;)

Bedding for Collin

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:54:00 +0000

About one week before Collin was due I decided that I wanted to make everything to decorate his nursery. I went to the store and bought all the fabric. This is was very silly of me because I don't sew. The last thing I had sewn was a pillow case in Practical homemaking in college. And lets just say it was flawed.

I managed with the help of my mother in-law, Capri, to get the bumper done. I was able to cut out the squares and get some of them into strips for the quilted part of the blanket. But then Collin was born.

Capri sewed the strips together and then the unfinished blanket has sat for the last 20 months. Now that Collin is almost too big for the blanket, I finally finished it! Well close to finished. I feel it needs something more. Ideas? Now for the bedskirt.

2009 Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:38:00 +0000

We have really enjoyed our garden this year. I planted seeds and was also donated some plants from Mandy's husband, George who is VP at a fruit stand in the summer. Thanks George. Jesh installed a drip system also. Which made gardening even easier. We had lots of tomatoes, lots of squash, and lots of carrots. I was disappointed with my corn. I got a few ears but the rest were weirdly deformed. They were diseased or something. I'll have to look into what that was for next year. We also had beans, cucumbers, and peas. It was really neat to just go to my back yard to find what I needed for dinner. There is something really satisfying in that. I was able to can some of my tomatoes and make yummy salsa with them too.

Our Spring and Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 06:19:00 +0000

Easter

Playing in Grandma-n-Grandpa's Backyard

Hiking Tubbs Hill

The Hiawatha Trail: A really long bike trail made from old train tracks. It was beautiful with really tall, really long suspension bridges and pitch-black tunnels—some as long as 1.6 miles. WAY too long for kids. Try 7 hours in the heat and nowhere for a nap.

Jensen Family Reunion. We had a Johnson reunion too but I don't have those pictures yet. Another day...

Aunt Kris. She died in a car accident after the reunion. She will be terribly missed.

Christian's 4^th Birthday

I made the mistake of giving Christian this toy before his birthday and he wanted to play with this the whole time. He was afraid to eat his cake because someone might take his new rocket toy.

Jesh and I made the cake with some help from Rachel. Turned out pretty good.

Mandy did an awesome job decorating the party. I left it up for a couple days because I liked it so much. We all want to be "cosmonauts" now.

Look out! No one was safe in the back yard.

Oregon Trip! Yay! We rented a house on the coast with my sister Becky and her family. It was seriously so fun!

Such a long car ride. We got to visit our friends Ethan and Carol on our way. It was awesome to see them again—it's been over two years. Bummer, I didn't get pictures. The following photos are out of order.

Multnomah Falls

Seals near the house we stayed at. There were at least 50.

The beach-house backyard. The kids loved it!!!

A really neat pebble beach. When the waves come in and out you can hear thousands of rocks tinkling around. Very serene.

A lovely lighthouse with only a GAZILLION pestering flies. At least 20 would swarm around me constantly. Sorry, no photos of that awful scene.

A very long flight to the top of the light house.

We played a lot in the water on the last day. If you look closely behind us you can see the heads of seals in the water. We were at times very close to them—a bit frightening. Under their fins they have sharp claws you know.

Sandy Face

We visited an aquarium.

Brandon at the Devil's Punchbowl. Jesh took this picture. He's soooo proud.

We visited quite a few tide pools and saw some interesting critters, including Spongebob and Patrick. Tip: Don't step on the mussel beds unless you want to get sprayed with icky spit.

Carson and Christian had soooo much fun together.

Seal on a rock at... Seal Rock.

Kite flying on the beach. To this day, Christian says something about wanting to go kite-flying at the beach in each of his prayers. That or to visit his "new" house (the beach house).

Jesh working while on our trip.

The view from our back porch. I saw a man swimming once from this view at 7am—pretty brave for that early. Then I realized he was nude! No wonder he was out so early.

The summer went by too fast, but we enjoyed it!

Productive

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:47:00 +0000

I cleaned both bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen including wipe of all the cabinets and refrigerator, washed all 6 loads of laundry and folded it, vacuumed the house, mopped the floors, cleaned the kids room, and my room, mowed the lawn, fixed the dresser drawer which included going to Lowes to buy parts, a drill and screw gun, and fixed Christians bed, and a toy. I think that was the most productive day I have ever had. But then I slept in until like 11 today. So does that cancel out my productive day?

What's on my plate...(oops forgot to post this)

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Fri, 08 May 2009 00:04:00 +0000

If there is anyone still out there looking at our blog we are still alive. Time has flown by. Four months is kind of a ridiculous amount of time without a post. Our plate is a little full right now. Not that it is anymore full then anyone elses, it is just really full to us. There are a lot of thing that I want to be done but there are other things that end up taking presidence. I am seriuos need for balance. I have sinks overflowing with dishes, laundry baskets full constantly, and toys all over the house. I am trying to save us some money by becoming a crazy coupon lady but that is like having full-time job. I do medical billing for my dad. I want to have a fun summer but cant seem to squeeze the fun in. We really really want to finish our basement, build a deck, and lay some laminate down. We are in serious need for some extra space and remodeling. We have almost everything we need, we just have to find the time. It is nearly impossible to get anything done with kids around. They always "need" something. We have too many other things going on, garage sales, birthdays, holidays, family reunions, and family vacations. I seriously need to loose the muffin top already, Collin is nearly 18 months old. But I can't seem to leave those darn cookies alone! I have the recipe memorized and could probably make it in my sleep. I have been trying really hard to provide my family with healthy foods and not overproccessed junk but in the coupon world you get the junk for practically free. BAH!

Ahhhh that feels better... Sorry! I hope you are having better luck than I am getting your list done.

Pay it Forward

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:12:00 +0000

PAY IT FORWARD

I have recently won a awesome homemade prize from Cathy.... I don't know what it is but I am sure it will be awesome. MY turn..

The Rules
1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments!If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!SO, REMEMBER…Pay it forward

Winter Woes

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:17:00 +0000

Christian calls these goggles his glasses and insists on wearing them.

Funny, but cute picture if Collin.

I know I have complained a lot about this winter but really? Will it ever end? Really? Right before the end of February, I had such high hopes because it was sunny and sort of warm, 50 degrees one day! Spring!? My friend Mandy and I were so excited we decided to celebrate with a Goodbye Stupid February Party.

http://partywiththepoteets.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-mandy.html

But alas March has betrayed us. We trusted March. First with a whole lot of snow and lots of overcast days. Now it's sunny but bitter cold.... It was in the negatives yesterday. :( But okay there are some good things that have come from March. We finally got to use our snow blower. We ordered it back when we got dumped on back in December. When we finally got the snow blower, it stopped snowing... at least not enough to break out the snow blower. But yay, we have been able to use it three times. Jesh and I were also able to sneak away and go skiing with my dad and brother. Very fun! Thanks Mom and Auntie Jade for watching our kids! And this sunshine... is awesome! I can sit inside and pretend that it is a sunny summer day...

Collin

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Can you believe Collin is ONE!? I feel like I just had him. He is walking, pretty much runny after Christian. He goes around the house grunting and babbling. And he is become his on little person. It has been so awesome to watch. I love this little guy!

We couldn't get everyone together on one night. So, we ended up having three parties.

Johnson family party: It's a duck if you cant tell! Not my best cake!

Collin wouldn't dig in like Christian did. But he eventually ate some of it.

Poteet Party: Collin knew a little more what to do with this cake and was more comfortable with digging in.

Barlow Family Party: Collin was really comfortable this time and dug right in.

Thank you to all that celebrated our sons birthday with us!

6 years!

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:53:00 +0000

WOW, we look like kids in this picture.
On February 14th, Jesh and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. The time has flown by. But at the same time, it seems like I have loved him always!

My Little Helper

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:34:00 +0000

Christian has been very into helping me do things lately. He helps me with the dishes. He unloads the utensils and sprays down the dishes. He makes a giant mess with sprayer but I am just glad that he is learning to help out. He also helps me set the table. And he loves to be the dumper when I am making cookies.

Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:13:00 +0000

We bought a chair the other day and the box it came in has been sitting in our living room since then. We have been letting the kids play in it. Christian likes to hide in it. Yesterday we decided to make it into a house. It was fun and the kids loved it. They played in it for literally hours.
I let Christian scribbled on it and put stickers on it. I made shutters out of the spare parts but the kids just pulled them off. Oh well.

So much talent ;)

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:02:00 +0000

I've decided that instead of keeping Christians original art work I'll take photos instead. Everyday he comes home with something new.

On January 18th Collin took his first steps. He walked something like 4 steps between Jesh and Jade, but I missed it because I was blabbing my mouth. Lucky for me he took some more steps that night. Now he walks all over the place. He still falls a lot and has a couple bumps and bruises to prove it. He smiles with pride every time walks—even claps for himself. It so cute! When his attempts at walking fail he'll resort to walking on all fours. He is pretty fast too. He's has been blowing kisses and waving bye bye lately too. Every night before I put him to bed I have him turn off the light and he waves bye bye and starts blowing kisses.

I am a little sad these days because my boy are growing up too fast. I love my kids!

Our Christmas Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:31:00 +0000

What an eventful year. We have a new addition to the Barlow team, Collin, who, like his brother, has been a wonder and delight to raise so far. Christian has been riding the bus to preschool and potty training (finally), Collin and Christian are learning to swim, a new van carries us around everywhere, Brooke has finally been attacking the scrapbooking projects with style, and Jesh has been busy with work. That sums it up. Have a wonderful New Year!

Okay, okay, maybe you want more details? (maybe you don’t)

Collin is our little one. He was born as the spitting image of Christian, but since then has grown into his own look and personality. There are still a lot of similarities between our two boys—for example, they both know how to throw first class tantrums. Collin has huge blue eyes. That’s the first thing anyone comments on when they see him (first time or not). It’s been easy parenting such a cute little guy, but he’s a bit of a pain during the night! At 10 months old, he’s still not sleeping well. We’ve tried a few techniques, including the “cry it out” method, but it’s hours of screaming before he suddenly falls asleep—too much for us to bare. On the bright side he’s doing all the cute little 10-month-old things. He claps his hands and bobs his head to the beat of music. He grunts when he’s trying to roar like a dinosaur and “vrooms” tiny toy cars around. If we don’t vacuum, Collin will. He picks up seemingly microscopic crumbs and puts it right in his mouth. It’s some kind of instinct. Oh, he’s starting to stand without resting against anything. We’ll have a walker soon!

Christian, now three, has been going to preschool at a local elementary school. He’s a part of a program that helps kids who have learning disabilities. Christian originally qualified for his lack of vocabulary about a year ago, but he’s talking like crazy now. We’re not sure if he’ll qualify again next year, but it’s certainly helpful for him. He rides the bus (a big yellow one!) to and from school on the other side of town four days a week. Let me tell you, it was hard to watch him leave all by himself the first couple times. Christian comes home with all sorts of fun, learning worksheets and creative artsy stuff (making his daddy proud). He learns songs we don’t even know and asks us to sing with him. Yes, he loves to sing… and dance. Christian’s also starting to say more grown up things. Brooke once walked into his room and he protested, “Mom, it’s private!” Christian knows just about all his standard crayon colors, including pink and purple, his favorites. He’s also got down shapes and counting objects to 15 pretty well. Unlike Collin, Christian sleeps like a baby (so the phrase goes). We’ve been potty training pretty successfully the last month as Christian suddenly decided he likes the toilet. Needing to “go potty” is his #1 excuse for staying up past his bedtime. It’s already starting, people! These are a few of Christian’s favorite things: trains, silly (children) movies, singing songs we don’t know, grandpa’s diesel truck, anything chocolate, flying through the air which usually involves couches and high-places, and smothering his baby-brother with love, literally. We’ll add that he throws a ball pretty well too.

Brooke’s biggest news of the year is giving birth to Collin. That was an adventure—if you can imagine an event more thrilling than Brooke’s cesarean with Christian. We were at a steak house on Valentines Day, celebrating our 5th anniversary as Brooke’s contractions started getting pretty strong. We planned to deliver Collin in a Spokane hospital geographically opposite of where we were eating that night and after a few bites Brooke couldn’t handle it anymore. We left our delicious steaks to have a baby! Turns out, he didn’t come that night, but two days later instead. Good times. By the way, babies are expensive. What’s the deal? Brooke has recently taken on the task of organizing and submitting her father’s, client’s, medical-insurance claims. It’s not a problem, as you’ll see that her father has been helping a lot around our house when you read Jesh’s news. We had some pretty fancy pictures taken—our first professional photographs ever. This was something Brooke insisted on and it really paid off. We love them. Brooke’s been pretty busy with our kids, blogging (www.breshblog.com), scrapbooking, and babysitting as part of a community co-op. Occasionally she even get’s out to play Bunko and other suburban-pop games with a group of local ladies. On the suburban note, we purchased a new Toyota Sienna to get us from point A to point B with more stuff (kids). It’s much roomier and convenient than we’re used to. Yes, we’ve joined the van-owning cult of soccer moms and family men. It’s not as bad as we thought.

As usual, Jesh has been pretty busy with work between TouchPoint Media, the boutique marketing-agency out of New York, and a local college as an adjunct instructor of Graphic Design. He’s been working a few long evenings with the other instructors on improving and updating the decades-old design program. During the day, Jesh is busy improving New York’s business’s customer communications. He mostly manages marketing campaigns from a technical point of view, but get’s to design and code web and email stuff, his passion, every once in a while. Jesh feels there are no words to describe how superb it is to work from the convenience of home. He’s learned a lot this year about the woes of home ownership, though. For example, when one neighbor owns a cat (or several), the whole neighborhood does too. We finally put up a good solid fence, but felines still find ways to defecate wherever they like. He’s also learned that a couple bags of cheap fertilizer is much better at feeding a healthy lawn than professional services like Tru Green. Oh yeah, and drywall really, really stinks to put up. Luckily, Brooke’s father and brother Aaron have been saviors of basement-finishing labor. We seriously don’t know what motivates them to come over for a several hours a week and work on our basement for free. It’s a service we hope to repay someday. Aside from occasionally rocking on the fake guitars of Rock-Band/Guitar-Hero, Jesh has had trouble escaping the inevitability of responsibility, which, admittedly, is gratifying in it’s own way too. Lastly, Jesh has found time to visit new friends with the local LDS missionaries, helping to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has been especially rewarding this time of year as we celebrate Christ’s birth. May we all remember the reason for the season. Have an incredible, loving, and noteworthy New Year!

December/January Update

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:35:00 +0000

http://www.kxly.com/Global/category.asp?C=156596

The weather here has been nuts. Above is a link to a local news station. They have quite a few stories about the craziness around here. First we had tons of snow which caused roofs to collapse and school to be cancelled for several days. Monday was nearly impossible to get around. Needless to say we spent most of "Christmas Break" shoveling. Jesh one day spent about 4 hours shoveling our tiny driveway—after which we ordered a snow thrower right away. Now that we finally have it (took a couple weeks to ship) the snow is melting fast and flooding everything. We should have invested in a water pump. Oh well!

Pretty much every year we go on a Santa Claus Cruise. We take the resort's dinky cruise boat across the lake to the "North Pole" (it's dark, no one can tell) and peer into Santa's workshop from about 200 feet away to the shoreline. He reads anyone's name that signs up over the loud speaker—which usually ends up being a list of nice boys and girls. Sometimes, however, little jokes, a la Seymore Butts, sneak past. On the way there and back we see thousands of lights shaped into Christmas sillyness. Christian's beginning to understand Christmas a little better than in years past, so it was a little more enjoyable than usual.

We got some awesome toys from Santa this year. Christian's way into taking pictures, so we decided to get him his very own, cheap-o camera. He loves it. As soon as we loaded it with batteries he straightway took pictures of Collin. He'll say, "Say cheese, Collin." and Collin actually says cheese back. Christian also got a little cheap-o MP3 player. He'll sit and listen to it and sometimes sings along. Very cute. Grandma Johnson got Christian a couple airplane track sets—which he loves, loves, loves. He plays with them all day long with his train tracks too.

Collin got some fun ball toys, but I think he'd rather chase Christian around, stealing his toys. Nana Barlow gave us money for the kids, so we get to go shopping again.

Lucky for us we had lots of family and friend visitors over the holidays. We played lots of games and some Guitar Hero. I got to hang out with the girls for a full-blown baking day and a little spa time. It was so much fun!

These pictures display what we do all day long. Christian and I build a very metropolitan layout of train tracks and Collin comes right behind us and destroys it like a baby Godzilla.

Winter Crazy Land

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:20:00 +0000

The view from our front door.
You wouldn't think from this picture that we shoveled three times yesterday!
Christian going to school on Tuesday! Kids are so cute bundled up.
Half our back fence.
The view from our back window.

Within 24 hours we've receive more than twenty-two inches of snow and the snow will continue to fall through 4pm tonight. School has been canceled and we are enjoying staying home. Jesh works from home so he doesn't get the day off. Bummer! The weather man says we will be getting snow again Sunday through Tuesday. And the temperature will stay below freezing until the end of the year. Some days we will dip below zero again. I'm ready for summer, anyone else?

Whaaaaat?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:57:00 +0000

Be glad you're not here right now! It's sooooo cold! Here is the weather forecast for the next ten days. Too bad they don't list the wind chill factor. It would be more like -20º.

Seriously?! Really?!

Forecast Conditions

High °F
Low °F

Precip.
Chance

Tonight
Dec 14

Mostly Cloudy

N/A
-3°

10%

10%

Mon
Dec 15

Partly Cloudy / Wind

7°
-5°

10%

10%

Windy Driving Tips

Tue
Dec 16

Cloudy

8°
7°

10%

10%

Wed
Dec 17

Few Snow Showers

20°
12°

30%

30%

Thu
Dec 18

Snow Shower

14°
0°

50%

50%

Check Vehicle Safety Ratings

Fri
Dec 19

Partly Cloudy

10°
-4°

10%

10%

Sat
Dec 20

Mostly Sunny

17°
5°

10%

10%

Sun
Dec 21

Snow Shower

25°
19°

60%

60%

How to Drive on Ice

Mon
Dec 22

Cloudy

26°
14°

10%

10%

Tue
Dec 23

Scattered Snow Showers

28°
19°

30%

30%

Last Updated Dec 14, 10:56 PM PT

Printable Forecast

Random pictures and a hair cut

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:41:00 +0000

We can't really say this is Collin's first haircut because when he was very young we buzzed his crazy balding mess of hair. This is his first haircut in 8 months—long overdue. I think I might leave it up to the professionals next time. Collin is impossible to hold still and I ended up cutting off way too much hair. He also grabbed for the scissors and buzzers every time they came close to his head.

Around the house

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:20:00 +0000

I found Christian sharing his straw with Collin. This is one of the better pictures where Christian isn't gagging him. Also, Collin learns to clap.

What is on his back?

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:08:00 +0000

Jesh discovered Christian wearing this get up. Lightening McQueen boots, 3D glasses, and (drum role please)... big boy underwear as a backpack. Huh? Wish he would find enthusiasm for underwear's real purpose.

P.S. Obviously I don't clean!

Our photographer in the making!

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:56:00 +0000

I don't know what I was doing but in the background I could hear Christian saying smile! over and over again. I thought I'd better check this out. Christian had found our camera and was taking pictures of Collin. It was just too cute to mad. Collin and I did some posing for Christian. Pretty good for a 3 year old, huh?

Great Grandma's Hats!

noreply@blogger.com (Brooke) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Great Grandma Hansen's made us some super cute acorn hats.