Lately

 Shea and I had a picnic on our front lawn the other day when it nice out and I brought out the crochet blanket I made a while back.  Which was a dumb idea.  It got grass in it everywhere. And it will probably fall apart if I wash it.  

 Dirty is the new black.

 Started weaving lately and built a loom out of an old screen.  It is SO MUCH FUN.  I cant get over how much I love it.

 Good at it? Not so much. But its so fun.

 We went to the Heard over spring break and the kids loved their lives.

And Jeff took the kids to cabellas the other day.  Shea didn't want to leave me because we are connected at the hip at alllllll times.  She never can be away from me even if she wants to be.  She throws a fit if she cant see me and I'm in the kitchen.  This time we pushed through the fit and she got in the car kicking and screaming, but when she came home she was a new person.  It gave her so much confidence to be somewhere without me and she had so much fun.  I have to start doing this more often so she can get used to it.  It gave me so much sanity just having 30 minutes away from her.

Avery took this pic of herself with Jeff's phone in portrait mode.  And quickly said how beautiful she is.  Love that self confidence Aves.  I hope it lasts forever.

 We went to Abilene to see the new science building and toured the stadium in our fancy gear.

 Sawyer's art was displayed at the art show the other day.  So proud of her and her artisticness.

I was asking Avery a few questions like "What makes you happy?" "What makes you sad?" "What makes you tired?", etc. For the happy question she said "babies".  Love that sweet side of her and her love for babies like her mama.

                              Eggs and playing outside and in.  SO thankful for this crazy girl and her crazy hair.

I took Ben fishing.

Jeff was working and I decided it would be a good idea to take Ben to Town Lake where they had stocked the pond and were having a fishing tournament.

Jeff left us this awesome note and some money to buy equipment and we were so excited.

We had just gotten Lulu so I thought it would be a good idea to bring both of the dogs, too.

Sawyer had a playdate to go to and Avery was gone, so we went to academy, grabbed some worms and fishing gear and headed to the pond.

 With Ben and I being almost the same person, we put the same amount of thought into the preparations and into making sure we had everything we needed at all times (i.e. Not much). First, we dropped the bag of hooks on the way from the car to the lake, and couldn't find it. So, a sweet lady loaned us one. Then, we got his lined tangled and a whole family came to our rescue and untangled it and gave us a new hook (since we left the tackle box at home). And after trying all over the lake, he couldn't catch anything and said he never wanted to fish again 😔. If you know Ben, that would pretty much be hell on earth. #bestdayever not.  We were both over it, but I just so badly wanted to not give up. The pond had been stocked and everyone around us had buckets of fish. We just needed one. We decided to change locations one more time, and we sat next to a sweet family that did not judge us for our dirty faces, troll jommies and lack of fishing equipment. They had a little boy the same age as Ben who was so kind and talked to him and shared his bait. As they were talking, the little boy got a bite and immediately gave his rod to Ben and told him to reel it in. And Ben was ecstatic. The whole family told him to keep it and that they had caught enough fish already. It just makes me cry writing it out again. I couldn't get over it and thanked them over and over. Ben was beside himself and has been on cloud nine ever since. Longest story ever, but I am just so humbled today, and so, so thankful for such kind people. And I'm never going anywhere without either Jeff or Sawyer again. Those two would never have gotten into that kind of a mess.

"The Switch" Directed by Avery Barstad on her 11th Birthday

Jus like last year, Avery wanted to write and direct her friends in a movie this year for her birthday. 

 We all helped with the sign,

 but she did everything else.  She wrote, planned, set up, directed and edited the whole movie.

 
(some scenes more intensely than others...)

And I forced everyone into a group photo after the wild night was over the movie was complete.
It ended up being 11 minutes and 11 seconds on her 11th bday :)

And Adalyn and Kennedy got to come with us to church.

Then, like last year, we set up stadium seating for the Super Bowl

while some of us napped.

Some of our small group and church people came over to watch.

And someone mentioned something about ice cream.  I dont know exactly how it went down, but thanks to  jeffs obsession with Favor, 3 blue bell galloons were brought to our house and we all ate our feelings after the Patriots won.

My mom sent a balloon bouquet for her actual birthday and we decorated a little bit before school.

We ended the night at Shogun and all had to roll ourselves out of there.  It was so good.

Avery, I can never put into words how much I love you or how very proud I am to be your mom.  You changed my life.   You keep changing it.  You teach me how to love others by how you love your siblings and friends and you impress me so much with your quiet confidence and amazing creativity.  I am so proud of your heart for God and how you pray to Him about other people who are hurting or have less than we do.  I know He will use you in might mighty ways and I can not wait to see what all you do for Him.

Happy 11th birthday!

Louisa Ingrid Barstad

But we call her Lulu.

We did it.  We got another dog.

Jeff had been looking at the SPCA website and found one that looked just like maddie.  He showed me her picture and we decided we should take the plunge.

So, we drove to Wichita Falls on Sunday afternoon and told the kids that we had a surprise for them.  We didnt tell them what it was or give any clues, so they had no idea.

We pretended to need to go to the restroom at petsmart where her foster parents were going to meet us to give her to us.

Even when we went inside and came out and Jeff was holding her, they still didnt catch on.

 But once we told them, they were beyond excited and avery almost started crying.

It was magical.

SO we drove home and thought of names the whole way.  Pepper, Sunny, Ingrid, Peppa, Poppy, and so many more.  Lulu was kind of thrown out there at the beginning and we just couldnt shake it.

It doesnt mean anything, but we think its cute.  So it stuck.

 And Gracie has been so sweet to her since she came home.

 She literally feels like a cloud, she is so soft.  And she is just the sweetest.  Loves the kids and loves us.  IT is amazing.

 We took her downtown the other night and everyone was all over her.  It was the cutest thing.

And if you look at her spot the right way it looks like a heart.

She is amazing.

*Quick Disclaimer- She does however still pee in her kennel and in the house.  She peed ON me in the car on the way home from the store the other day.  So we definitely have a ways to go but she is already catching on fastish.  Its not all rainbows and hearts, but it is getting better.  I didn't want to leave this without documenting that there have been some 'oh crap what have we gotten ourselves into' moments.  And I may have had a few panic attacks.  But for the most part its been pretty good and she really is so worth the pee. 

Welcome to our family Lulu Bear.

Room Shuffle and a big girl bed for Shea

 Well, we did it.

We moved shea into a big girl bed and moved Aves into her own room.

It was definitely sad moving shea to a big bed and seeing her transition even more to a big kid. 

But it was even harder seeing avery go from a kid to a preteen right before my eyes.

She loved getting to decorate her room and she has rearranged a few times and loved having sleep overs and showing her friends.

She just is a grown up and it blows my mind that she is about to turn 11 this month!

Sass ended up with the loft area that avery was in and now shea has Sass's old bed and ben stayed the same.

Sweet Ben. So thankful that he didnt care that he didnt get anything new. He is so kind and unselfish. I dont want to forget that.

Shea had been getting up a lot during the night and was crawling out of her crib (hence the reason to move), and since she is in a big bed she sleeps mostly through the night! She does have trouble going to bed and goes back and forth to ben and averys bed before she finally falls asleep.  And sometimes Avery still sleeps in our room on the couch because she is scared.  I guess maybe she still has some littleness in her.

Overall, it was a success.  I just wish we could get naps back...