He's Home!!!

Can you see him?? Brooke found him first, then Rylie - it took me forever to figure out where they were talking about. Then Rylie told me third row, third person.

I love Cade's expression in this picture. He was just amazed that his Dad was actually holding him!! My sweet Rylie got emotional but it doesn't surprise me it WAS very emotional. Not only for us but also everyone else around us seeing their loved ones. People were screaming, clapping, holding up signs. Then they played the national anthem and people starting singing in the crowd. When they released them it was crazy, people running everywhere.
Its so nice to have him home!!!

Red Rock Amphitheater

Here are the stairs up from the Red Rock Amphitheater Stage. Mike and I raced to the top and of course I smoked him :o)

I can't believe the many many times I have been to Golden we have never been here before - it was beautiful!! It's only like 10 minutes away from my Grameres house. - okay so I have to be honest - I didn't smoke Mike, he beat me - I wasn't that far behind him. I wish I could see the expression on his face when he read it. :o) That is a crazy workout - its like doing running lunges, the stairs (or seats better yet) were so far away from each other. Mike jumped them for a least half of the way. Our lungs were on fire - that is the first time I really noticed an altitude change. They need to take the biggest loser contestants there. There were a lot of people there just to work out - kind of funny being that it was a tourist attraction.

Happy 30th Birthday Brian

Uncle Brian always has the best entertainment!!

We love you Uncle Brian!! Have a great birthday - now you don't have to worry about all the things you wanted to do in your 20's and have a whole decade to set another set on goals for your 30's :o)
See you in a couple of weeks!! Happy Birthday!!

Thanksgiving in Golden

The Gang
missing just a few

The kids were SO good on the trip - they just loved being around each other!!

We had such a great time in Golden visiting family for Thanksgiving!!! We loved every minute of it!!! The girls had a wonderful time with their cousins, 1st and 2nd :o) We had a GREAT Thanksgiving day, I had fun shopping with my mom, Vic and Jessica on black Friday and then we met everyone for bowling. And how could a trip to Denver be complete without a dinner at Dinos :o) - the best spaghetti dinner ever!!! It definitely made time go by fast and made it not so hard with Braum being gone even though we wished he could of been there with us!! Braum's Iraq deployment has been pushed back one day to the 3rd. It's not fun - but one day is better than one week. Thanks Great Gramere for a wonderful Thanksgiving that we will always remember being surrounded by family.

HAPPY TURKEY DAY

Have you ever kissed a turkey??
Cade made this turkey in his Childrens Day Out School - I love it, wish I could keep it but since I have so much room :) ... I figured taking a picture of it was the next best thing. Happy Turkey day everyone, we are so excited to see the ones that will be in Denver. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out what we are all thankful for this Thanksgiving - ..... only 13 more days.

Brooke's music program

The second graders had a Veterans Day Music Program at their school. Brooke did a great job on her speaking part, I was very proud of her!! I couldn't get my camera to cooperate so they are not great quality - but you can see the cute little thing she is. On one of the songs they kept singing Thank you very slowly and repeating it, so Cade kept answering with "You're welcome" - what a ham bone. I can't wait to share all the kids with everyone over the holidays and with their dad - I feel like I am hogging them all to myself. 17 more days!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Vic

that's sick ....but I thought my mom would like it :o)

Happy Anniversary on November 10th

Sesame Street Live

At the last minute a friend called who had an extra ticket to the Sesame Street Live concert in Topeka. We are so glad we went. Cade paid attention the whole time and even got up and danced in the middle of the isle for the last part of the show. Don't worry dad, we didn't buy the $8 Elmo toy that is in his hand, his new friend got two free at the last Elmo show they went to so they gave that one to Cade. ------ Only 27 more days :)

Cade had so much fun at the Sesame Street concert. At the end he wanted to go and get up on the stage with them. He is such a good little guy - it will be sad when he is all grown up and I won't have anyone to take to stuff like this.... it was a great day for us!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA

I know I blogged this as one of my favorite pictures of Lincoln but I think you can all see it is also one of my favortie pictures of Jenna :)

We love you Jenna - wish we could of been there to celebrate with you. We are excited to see you at Thanksgiving!!! Sorry we missed singing to you, we tried to call and should of just left a message. Love - the Bartons!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We couldn't of asked for better weather here in Kansas! The kids did great, we went through the mall (great idea I might add), and neighborhoods by our house. We had to dump out candy in the van because their bags were getting so heavy. Cade was amazing, never wanted to be held and drug his bag of candy around. He was so excited when he figured out all he had to say was "trick or treat" and random strangers would give him candy. - Knowing him it wouldn't surprise me the next time we go to the mall he will say trick or treat to the people in the store. We missed you Daddy - we know that you love trick-or-treating with the kids. We are so excited that we have turned the calender we are on the official countdown - less than 1 month to go, he should be home on the 2nd of December :)

TRICK - OR - TREAT

THE COWGIRL

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE
(ALL ABOARD)

THE PIRATE

BATGIRL

13.1 miles

I would like to thank first my husband for always believing in me and supporting my dreams of the half marathon, I thought of him often during my training on how he would not of let me quit. I would like to thank Ms. Robin Burcham for giving my best friend the idea on her death bed that running a marathon would be a great idea, and Michelle for encouraging me to do it because she had already paid for her ticket to come and see me and if she could do a 26.2 I could run a measly 13.1 miles. I would like to thank my mom for calling me after every long run on my training runs to see if I made it or was killed over on the trail. But mostly I would like to thank my idiotic dog - who pulled me and the stroller to a faster speed and wouldn't let me stop or I would fall straight on my face. And God - thank you for keeping me healthy and listening to all my prayers as I wondered why each miles was longer than the last.

Running a half marathon is much better now that I have done it and don't have to think about doing it. I would make myself laugh when I ran thinking of what my exceptance speech would be if I had finished - so I promised myself if I finish it without stopping I would blog it - taking all bad words out of course. I ran the 13.1 in 2 hours and 10 min. without stopping. To do a run like this was really all the hype people put it out to be - it was an amazing experience - I would be sad if I didn't do another one. There was 9000 people in all that ran, some doing a full marathon and some doing a 5k. - it went through Kansas City with bands playing and tons of people out cheering you on. It takes 10 weeks to train if you can run 3 miles now - if you can't run 3 now you have plenty enough time to get there before next summer. Seriously, if I can do it.......... (luv ya Shell)

I was tagged

4th folder - 4th picture

Brooke's last soccer game

Brooke had her last soccer game tonight. It was so cold - we were frozen by the time we got into the car. She actually got picked up by a scout that came and talked to me after the game on how they want her on their indoor soccer team. Can you say "full ride" :)

Cade and his pup

So more than a month ago the girls got to pick out a webkinz, which is their new favorite toy. Cade saw this pug and had to have it. We are far from a pug family even though we love dogs but in all of our desperate attempts to con him into choosing a different stuffed animal he had to have this one. I was thinking great he is going to take it home and never pick it up again and the girls don't want anything to do with it, all I need is another stuffed animal. To all of our surprise that dog hasn't left Cade sight or hands since. It has made it through the wash more than its fair share, it doesn't go to bed without me kissing it goodnight. We lost it in Hobby Lobby once and I thought it was as a good as gone until I could not get him to stop screaming about it in the car so I took him back to the store and he ran right to where he had left it. It loves to get its picture taken and it is also Stone's favorite toy - you constantly hear Cade yelling at the dog to "drop it" and "mom, stone has my pup".

Just scroll down our blog and see how many times you can find the pug in the picture :)

Pumpkin carving

We carved our pumpkins today. Rylie and Ashlynn did theirs all by their selves. Brooke did something a little harder so she needed some help. By the time we were done there were pumpkins seeds all over the floor, table and somehow Cade got them on the ceiling.

This dog is a pain in my bottom!!! But I am hooked what can you say

Girls Best Friend

Boys Best Friend

Pumpkin Patch

Ashlynn had her first field trip to the Pumpkin Patch with her kindergarten class. It was a great time! Isn't she such a pretty little girl. She is doing so good at school. I have been very impressed with her teacher lately. Ashlynn has decided that it isn't much fun not to have Dad around. Her teacher told me that she got sad at school the other day about it and asked me if we could bring a picture of Braum to put in her backpack so she could look at it when she gets sad. Last Friday she brought the picture to show-n-tell and cried when she told the class about him. They have started a group with the social worker at school where all the kids with deployed dads can get together and do fun stuff together. I think this has helped her open up at school about her dad being gone. But not to worry she is doing great! I am glad that she is not afraid to tell people she misses her dad, we all do. Only 6 more weekends to go :). She is still a little fire ball that just has a really big heart! I love her!!