I realized this morning that it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve written anything, a busy couple of weeks none the less. I almost wrote a post the other day after watching a cute little movie with the moral of your child being your best luxury in life and not taking advantage of  them and how much I love my family and blah blah blah. Not to say that I don’t or thats not important, but for those of you that know me, you know without a post on the subject that my family is the most important thing to me and I love my daughter, she is amazing. So, I thought I’d skip the mushy stuff and go right on to the details.

         Mia is now about 8 1/2 months old and, if it’s possible, is learning new things more rapidly than ever. She finally figured out how to get herself up on her hands and knees, yet she won’t really try to move that way, she just rocks back and forth until she gets bored with it and plops back down. Don’t get me wrong, she does crawl and fast. She does her little army crawl and will crawl on her knees, but her face has to be on the ground. She also rolls faster than anyone i know. Just recently she began putting her head and hands to the ground and pushing her legs straight and ‘walking’ with her head ont he ground. She is so anxious to start herself. She loves us to walk her all around the house and will for as long as we can stand it. We can, on occasion, trick her in to taking a few steps herself. She learned to say Daddy a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t really said it much since she figured it out and says Mom pretty often now, which I of course love. She has had major teething symptoms for a little over a week now, but still no teeth so we’ll see. Perhaps she is just a little under the weather lately. Who knows.

            Her not feeling so great has kept me really busy and really tired a majority of the time. She doesn’t want me away from her side for long, or I guess just wants anyone to stay with her, it just usually happens to be me. I finally made the plunge and signed up for the state tests required to get my cosmetology license. I have been trying in any time that I have, which hasn’t been much, to study for the first of those tests, the theory exam. For those of you that think thats easy, tell me all you can about the sprilla, baccili bacteria down to the shape of the virus. I’m sure there’s a lot of other random questions I could ask that few would know the answer to because, in my opinion, it’s not really anything the general population needs to know, myself included. I did take the theory exam this morning and I’m proud to report I passed with flying colors, only using just under 1/4 of the time allowed for the test. Now I have a month to prepare for my practical exam, which I have heard in a lot of ways is easier for most people than the theory because it truly is a test of what we do.

           Jason is doing good, still liking his job, but who really wants to hear about that, ha. We’re a happy little family, he’s a great dad and loves that Mia’s favorite thing to say is Dadda all  day long. She had a game for a while that I’d tell her to say Mom and she’d lean in my face and begin to whisper “Da Da” until she would finally start to yell it at me. He likes to think it means she likes him the best. We’ll see. My parents moved here a couple of weeks ago and we’re enjoying being able to spend time with them and look forward to all the time we’ll have with them  (not to mention the free babysitting ). It’ll be great to have them so involved in Mia’s life. Well, thats about it in the life of the Barnes. Very exciting. I will try my best to write more often, but do need to focus a lot of time on studying in the next month. No promises If you want to see something really cute or are down and just need something to make you smile,this is bound to work… www.nowamom.com/movies/mialaugh.zip You don’t have to download anything, just hit open and it will. Enjoy!

       Well, my days of getting anything done are officially over. It’s hard for me to even get 10 minutes to make myself some lunch. I shouldn’t complain to much, at least Mia is still sleeping well and I get my much needed breaks while she takes her oh so wonderful naps. She is growing and changing so fast, she’s hard to keep up with these days. We’ve given her a new nickname of ‘Monkey’ and from the pictures that will follow this post, I’m sure you’ll see why. She’s started making a couple new faces that we just love. They’re so funny. One really funny little smile face that makes her look like a completely different baby, and what I like to call her monkey face which also includes her making a ‘oo..oo..oo..oo” sound over and over again.

          On top of all that, she is now set on walking EVERYWHERE. Nothing makes her happy like walking. This past weekend she’s had a little bit of a cold so she’s been quite a bit more cranky than usual. She just screams and cries at about every little thing we do. Even letting her stand at an object with toys and play, she screams. She has decided in the past few days that while standing, she absolutely must be holding on to our fingers with not just one, but both of her little hands so that she can run everywhere. She can’t just walk nice and slowly, she’s my little speed racer. The second we stop moving and set her down or pull one of our hands back, if even just to grab something quick or anything, she screams. I love that she is so curious and has taken such an interest in walking, but I have never been so anxious for a baby to learn to walk on their own. I bought her a walk and ride toy in hopes that she’d learn to walk with that, but no, it’s not holding our finger so while standing, she won’t touch it. Sometimes she is to smart for her own good.

             While she is an excellent sleeper, she goes to sleep without a problem and has slept through the night for months now, she has also decided that if she does happen to wake up for a second in the night, she can’t wait for us to come get her her pacifier, she has to roll around and play. Not a bad thing always, she usually doesn’t cry til she gets stuck on her belly or can’t find something she wants, but by the time she does make enough noise for us to realize she’s awake, she’s wide awake and ready to play. I am trying hard to teach myself not to give in to her cute smiley little face and to just leave her there until she goes back to sleep, which usually results in getting her up for 20 minutes or so to play and her screaming her little head off when i lay her back down. I am quickly learning my lesson to just leave her in bed and hope she gets back to sleep.

             She also has decided lately that she doesn’t need to take long naps, if I can get her to take 2 naps in a day at all. I guess from what my Mom told me about myself at her age, I should say what goes around comes around as I was a baby who quit naps all together at only a year old. With her it is especially difficult right now as that is usually the only time I have to get anything done, including eating and getting dressed, ha. When she does take a nap, there are so many times that she’ll sleep for 1/2 hour at the most and decide she’s done with that and be ready to be awake and up walking around. I swear she’d be happy walking circles in our living room all day if we could stand to help her do it all day. If only we had enough room for here to have a walker.

         Well, thats my life these days. Although she does sleep through the night, her little attitude during the day is so tiring, I feel sleep deprived and exhausted a majority of the time. At times, of course, I do get frustrated and it wears on me a bit, but I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. Mia is very much a momma’s girl right now and I really do love it. She’s so happy when I’m with her and so sad when she’s with anyone else (at least when she can see me). There are even so many times that she prefers me to Jason and as tiring as it can be, I love that she knows that she can come to me when she just needs to be loved and comforted. She, for the most part, is such a sweet and happy baby and I just adore spending my time with her.

    One of Mia’s monkey faces, this is the ones that she’ll sit and go ooo ooo ooo. 

Mia’s crazy funny smiley face. She usually gets her eyes pretty close to closed while she does it, but she was watching a movie of herself.

  Just my little smiley Mia

 My smiley girl again right before bed.

          Well, considering the amount of things that have changed in our life, I thought it was time that I posted not only an update on Mia, but an update on everything. All good changes, but changes none the less. Mia’s doing awesome and changing so much these days. I can see her turning in to a little toddler and I’m so not looking forward  to when she’s not just my little baby anymore. She is almost 8 months old and learning new things all the time. Right before she turned 6 months, she decided it was time to start sitting up and won’t do anything else. She sits really well now and doesn’t hardly fall over. She is still refusing to crawl, at least the traditional way. She scoots on her back and rolls all over the place, it cracks me up. She can get anywhere fast doing this, so we have to have a constant eye on her. I even find her rolling all over her crib, which can be good and bad. Good because when she wakes up in the morning, she just plays if we don’t get to her right away. Bad because when she wakes up in the night, she just starts rolling all over and playing til she’s super awake and doesn’t really make much noise to let us know she’s awake(luckily, she doesn’t wake up most nights). She’s still sleeping and eating super well. Everything she can get her hands on goes in her mouth. I’m learning fast that I can’t leave her alone for more than 2 seconds and I have to vacume WAY more often to avoid any little things she can choke on being left on the floor. She is still such a good baby, just always super happy and giggly and we just love having her around.

            Jason quit working for his previous company, medicity, a few weeks ago and is now working right down the street for a company called UCN. It’s so much closer to home, we love that he is home so much sooner and we get to see a lot more of him. He seems to be really enjoying the new job and as long as he’s happy, I’m happy with whatever he’s doing. He’s awesome at what he does and seems glad to be doing something new and different. The new job also seems to have a lot of great future opportunities to offer him and we’re really excited to see what will come from that.

            Honestly, not much has changed with me. I’m still home with Mia all day every day and still love that job more than anything I’ve done in the past. We’ve had a lot of visitors lately, my little brother Jordan, my best friend Katie and her husband Bryan, and my parents have all been up here visiting. It’s been so nice to see them all and be able to spend time with them. The trip up here also brought on a lot of change for my parents. My Dad had a job interview with a company in Utah valley and was offered a position, which he of course accepted. They plan to be all moved up here for my little brother to start school, which begins on Aug. 20th. So, anyone in the market for a house in Arizona, my parent’s is all renovated and will soon be on the market. We’re all really excited to have them here close by. I want so badly for Mia to have a closer relationship to her Grandparents and cousin’s than I was able to have. I would love for her to be able to spend a lot of time with them all and to develop the bond and friendship with them that I was to far away to reach with my extended family. I’m so happy that this change is coming while she is still so young.

          Overall, we’re really happy with our life and the way things are going. Jason is quickly moving up the ladder in his career which is bringing great opportunities for our family. It has always been his goal to retire by 26, and while I don’t think he’ll make that, maybe he won’t be to far off, ha. He is not only amazing at what he deos there, but a great husband and father and I feel so lucky to have him as both. We feel blessed to have Mia in our lives and to have been blessed with such a good baby. She really is amazing. We are so excited to see what is in store for her and for our family.

          Jason and I finally got our night out to go and see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It the new story of Batman versus Joker staring Heath Ledger, and my favorite, Christain Bale as Batman. Christian Bale has proven to be a great Batman in this movie as well as the last Batman movie, Batman begins. Heath Ledger did an amazing job as the joker, truly showing the dark and disturbed side of a character meant to be so evil and undoubtedly corupt. This was the last movie that Heath Ledger completed before his untimely death, and what a role to end it on. It truly showed the amazing talent that he had as an actor to make this character truly come to life, he was completely believable, and lets be honest, TOTALLY creepy!

           I had heard a lot of mixed reviews prior to going to see the movie. Quite a few people said it was great and that they really enjoyed it, some said that they found it disturbing but still enjoyed it, few said it was just dark and disturbing and should have been rated R. After seeing it, I would have to say that I just enjoyed it. I think it all depends on how you look at the movie. You can, of course, tell that the Joker is meant to be a character that is in some way disturbed. Someone who doesn’t live by the rules, but that believes every human is corupt in one way or another. Of course, he is proven wrong at some point, but still never gives up on the task of proving it. He spends his time testing people and proving to the mob that they are more corupt than anyone for all the wrong reasons. While all of this bad is happening, I felt that it was balanced by enough good. People  trying to stop the evil do-ers. People who would put their lives on the line to help people they loved or in some cases, people they had never even met. The majority of the people in the city prove they are good people. Of course, you have your every day hero’s and your hero’s in the public eye who put their lives on the line to help bring the evil people to justice.

             It was a lengthy movie, but honestly never felt that way. They did a great job at holding your interest through out the movie  to keep it from feeling just long and dragged out. It was a movie of action, as promised by most super hero movies these days, but I felt, not as cheesy as Batman movies of the past have been. In some ways, it was a bit more realistic as we all know there are people out there who want nothing more than to hurt people and reak havok on everyone around them. They have no real motive for doing what they do, other than to hurt people, just as one of the main character in this movie. I definately give this movie two big thumbs up and would definately recommend it to those of you that enjoy a little bit of action. I would also say, if you do want to see it, this is a movie that is worth paying to see it on the big screen.

          As most of you know, the 24th of July is a big holiday around Utah and to members of the LDS church. It’s the day that we celebrate pioneer day, to show our gratitude to those men and women who years ago, faught for our religion crossing the United States to find a place they could practice this religion in peace. This is a holiday my mom has always loved. She grew up with the big celebrations of a small Utah town and loves to take every opportunity to join in those celebrations all she can. As for me, growing up in a state where this wasn’t a celebrated holiday, to me it’s always just been like any other day, with thoughts of the pioneers on my mind. No big celebrations or tributes to those men and women.

             This pioneer day, my family came in to town. My Mom and Dad, and my little brother Jordan. It was so fun to have them here and to be able to spend time with them. Mia and I woke up early and got ready and went down to meet them for the parade. I met my mom at my Grandma’s house and drove over where we’d meet the rest of the family, including my sister and her kids. We stopped on the street the parade would soon be coming down to let my Grandma out and to hand off Mia to my Dad so that we could go park the car. I left the car running and hit the unlock button because the back doors automatically lock while the car is on. I jumped out, shut my door and that second, realized I had hit the wrong button and locked the door with the car running and my sweet baby girl inside. Needless to say, with my family there watching and we can’t forget about the hundreds of parade fans lining the street, I was so embarressed. We thought to call triple A for help getting it up, but in past experience, they’ve been known to take a while to get there and with a parade starting in about 5 minutes and my baby locked in a running car, time was not something we had.

             So, my motherly quick thinking kicked in to gear(or common sense, ha) and I saw a man that looked like a police officer down the street. Tan shirt and huge walki talki thing on his hip. I ran down the street to ask for his help and when finally getting within about a couple feet of the man, looked at him and realized it wasn’t a cop, just a man probably helping with the parade. I stood there long enough for him to notice I was staring and him, akward, then turned and ran back. On my way back, my Dad and I spotted a police car driving up the road and instantly began yelling and trying to flag him down, of course only for him to not notice and drive on by. Luckily my mom up a  little ways, stood in the road in front of him and gave him no option but to help us.

            He pulled over and grabbed the tools he needed to get the door open. That included a wooden wedge covered in what looked like painters tape that he shoved in to the door frame to get it open just enough to stick what looked like a much thicker version of a straightened hanger in to the car. All the while, Mia’s just looking out at the officer, my dad and I trying to get the door open, not concerned one bit with why she was still in there, just as happy as can be. Not to mention the officer was getting calls over his radio because he was due to be helping with the parade. The officer tried on the drivers side door for a little while with no luck getting it unlocked, and moved to the passenger side where he could see in a bit better. After a few attempts, he finally got the door unlocked. And of course, to make it all even better, just as he pushed up on our lock button and got it to work, the hanger like took slipped off the lock, only to shoot up and hit the windshield just enough to cause it to crack out in circles, you know so it looked like a little spider web circle of cracks all stemming from the spot his tool hit the window.

            The officer looked so embaressed. He hurried and grabbed his tool and basically ran back to the car quickly responding to our thanks and drove away. We finally had my little girl out of the car and I could finally move the car out of the way of the parade which we could see beginning just a little ways up the road. Now I had my next challenge on hand, explaining to Jason not only that I had locked mia in a running car, but that in the process of getting her out, the windshield was broken which of course would mean around $150 to replace. Jason was a little upset at the officer, but luckily, not at me. I felt so stupid with everyone there watching as I frantically tried to do anything to get my baby out of the car and running in the street to track down police for help. What a day it was.

             The rest of the day went well, with lunch and the craft fair and just spending time with my family. It all worked out fine over all and I’m just glad we were able to get Mia out of the car quick and that nothing happened to her nor did she get upset in the process. I think she was more upset when she got out when what to her seemed like strangers took her out of the car, she hasn’t seen my parents in a little while. I was just happy to be able to spend some time with them and to let Mia get to know them a bit better.

          Seems we’ve been pretty busy lately, and I know in the next little bit, it will just become even more so. Last week was Jason’s last week of work for Medicity, and he started his new job with UCN today. We’re really excited for the change and for the time that he’ll save on the commute. While Medicity was clear downtown, a 1/2 hour train ride away, UCN is about 5 mins down the street from our apartment. It’s a quick little drive about straight up from where we live. It’ll be so nice to be able to have him home earlier and even some days for lunch and I know that he’ll really enjoy it. Last week, we also had my little brother, Jordan, fly in to town and spend a night with us. Jason took a day off of work to go with us and my sister and her kids to the gateway Discovery childrens museum. It’s such a cute little museum, I wish I would have gotten more pictures of Mia in her little 18 month and younger area, but of course, I didn’t have the camera with me for most of it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                   Here’s Jason with my niece and nephew playing with the wind tunnels. They have a bunch of ‘materials’ (paper cups, pipe cleaners, paper…) to build your own little parachute flyer and see how high they’ll go. We all had a good time playing with those and seeing who could get theirs to go the highest.                                                                                                            

           We also finally took Mia to the park. It was a little warm to let her play on any of the slides and there was no swings, so we just took her for a walk in the stroller and let her sit in the shade and play in the grass for a while. Until a few weeks ago, she refused to sit up and now she’s so good at it and wants to do it all the time, so it was fun to let her sit in the grass and play. She’s really good at grabbing big handfuls and pulling it all out, so we have to be careful and watch her so she doesn’t eat it all. She eats anything she can get in her hands. We’ve had a lot of fun lately doing thing with her and just playing with her. She’s learning new things all the time. She loves to yell Mama and Dada and baba tons and just loves hearing her own voice. She’s just so happy and playful and such a joy to be aroud. We have my family and some friends coming in town this week, so I’m sure we’ll have plenty more pictures soon to come!

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I don’t think I have ever seen another baby eat like mine. There is not a single food item we’ve given this girl that she didn’t down in about 2 seconds. The second it hits her hand she shoves the whole thing in her mouth and it’s gone. It really amazes me. It’s like a little game. We dump a few snacks on the tray of her chair, she scoops them all together, shoves them in whole and they’re gone quicker then I can get her more. She then will sit in her chair, either pounding on the tray and screaming or reaching for a near by box of snacks and screaming until I get her more. Then a minute later, we start all over again.

Well, we of couse have TONS of eating pictures to back up what a little pig my daughter really is. It’s amazing she’s still as skinny as she is. Jason likes to joke that she’ll be the next obese baby on a day time talk show. I’m pretty sure we’re not to that point, but of course you can see for yourself how much this girl loves food! There’s are just a few of the things that she’s tried… We have her here eating a chocolate cookie she had to have when she saw me eating them, the first time I let her have her own ice cream cone, a small piece of angel food cake, and a little sandwich with a bit of jam. She LOVED them all. Don’t worry, we do feed her stuff that’s actually good for her most of the time. Little veggie puff snacks and what not, but we have to spoil her and give her treats from time to time. It’s just to cute to watch her devour whatever it is she has. My dad insists she is just like her mom in her eating habits, I don’t know about that, but she sure does LOVE food.

      Recently, I was at a BBQ with a friend in the ward and a few other people. While there, we all began discussing our differnt soda habits. She went on to say that she likes Diet soda’s, but tries to buy the caffeine free kinds, especially with the news of a new study done. Recent studies show that caffeine may boost risk of miscarriage. Something that I have never before heard. Of couse, you can read in some places not to consume more than somewhere around 8 cups of coffee worth a day, which of couse, for a majority of people is no problem. I was quite sick while I was pregnant and Dr. Pepper or Diet coke are two things that I rather enjoyed that would also help to calm my stomach. I was even told by my sister and a few other people, that their OBGYN’s had told them to drink these soda’s while pregnant if it was all they could keep down, as long as they were drinking something.

                 Now, with this new study, I think that I will do things differently the next time I’m pregnant. Perhaps I’ll actually listen to my husband when he tells me that if it’s not good for me, it’s got to be a lot worse for a baby. Of course, even this study shows that 2 cups or more of coffee a day is to much caffeine, and as I don’t even drink coffee, I’m sure an occasional soda won’t really do any harm, but why take the chance it will? Especially when most every soda is available in a caffeine free version that tastes virtually the same. It will still have the same effects on your stomach, as it is more the carbonation and not the caffeine that has that effect.

             The study went on to say that they have hopes that various organizations will begin to change the guidlines they currently state for caffeine intake while pregnant. I know that everyone is so very careful about what medications they take while pregnant, so sure to not consume anything that will be harmful to your unborn child; yet there are so many people with a dependancy on caffeinated drinks that they disregard the warnings thinking simply that they’ve seen someone drink way more then them while pregnant and their child was fine. If we had that outlook on all things, we’d be able to rationalize doing just about anything OBGYN’s advice against, things that can be harmful to our unborn children. Anything from working out to much, to drinking, to smoking, to taking medications.

           After hearing this study, I know that I will do things differently the next time I have a child. Although Mia is healthy and perfect, why take a chance that the next one might not. Nothing is worth taking that extra risk of hurting my baby, especially when there are so many alternatives to having a caffeinated drink.

             Jason and I just spent our first night without Mia here. It was our anniversary this past week and we had asked my sister to watch her for a few hours while we went out. She called back the week of and said why don’t I just bring her down on Friday and leave her til Saturday night. Jason and I talked about it, and decided it sounded nice to have a little alone time. I thought it’d be good for me to try leaving her too since I knew there was some vacations we wanted to go on in the future that wouldn’t include her. It was a nice trial run, especially leaving her with the one person aside from Jason and I that Mia has seen a lot of and is completely comfortable with.

         It was such a nice weekend. Friday we didn’t do much of anything. Just sat around and home and played some wii and relaxed a bit with just the two of us. It was nice to be able to sit there with him and have a conversation without one of us having to get up every 5-10 minutes to take care of Mia. We also had a few things that just came up to figure out about our future such as where to live and things like this this past week so it was nice to have this time just Jason and I to make those decisions.

          Saturday was a lot of fun. We slept in a bit, which was so nice in it’s self. It was nice just to be able to wake up when we wanted to wake up, rather then when Mia wants us to, ha. I then just took advantage of not having her even more and got myself really done up, which I feel like I haven’t done in quite a while. We got all ready and went up to this Farmer’s Market in Downtown Salt Lake City. It was a nice warm day and I wore the tallest pair of heals I have (it’s a little to hard to wear them places when I have to carry Mia too). We spent an hour or so there and bought a few fun things, then headed to lunch with some friends.

              After lunch, it was our date night out. Just the 2 of us. I don’t remember the last time we were able to do that. I know it was before Mia was born, but how long before she was born, I’m not to sure, ha. We went to an early movie and saw ‘Get Smart’ which was really fun and cute. Then it was off to dinner. We decided on a place called Asuko because it’s entertainment and dinner in one. It’s one of those sushi and Teppan Yaki style places where they bring all the food out and cook it right there in front of you. It was a lot of fun. Our chef was really good and he lit lots of stuff on fire, ha. The food tasted so good and it was so nice to be able to eat a whole meal as I wanted to. Usually as soon as our food comes out Mia wants to be held or fed and I end up eating slowly with one hand, if I get to eat at all. It was a really nice day and much needed. I of course missed my little girl and was glad to bring her back home, but I have been missing the alone time with Jason as well. It was nice to know that Mia was well taken care of so we could just relax and enjoy the time we had with eachother. I just loved having Jason all to myself and to be able to just do what we wanted to without worry of a nap schedule and things like that and I’m so greatful to my sister and her family for watching Mia for us. It really was the perfect day and a great anniversary.

So if you havent guessed yet this isnt Julia writing this post. I thought, what better way to tell your wife that you love her than to secretly hijack her blog and leave her a note about how much you love her. Let’s see how long it takes her to find this.

You’re the best babe! We’ve had an incredible 2 years. There have been some tough times and some awesome times. I love you so much and dont know what I would do without you. We have an amazing daughter and I can’t wait to watch our family grow together. Thanks for everything you do for me and our family. I want to grow old with you and be the most immature grown-ups ever! LOVE YOU!