Still basking in the joy of Thanksgiving

With 28 of us present, our Thanksgiving was almost perfect! (We missed Adam and Anya and the kids who were with Anya's family). Four members of the Brady family (Kara and Mike and their two sweet ones, Mitchell and Lyndsi and their baby, and Erica and Jordan) joined us too. After dinner Devin offered John to give anyone who jumped into the pool $20.00. Next thing we know there is Greg, Rich, Devin, Mitchell, Jordan and Brooklynn all ready to get the freeze of their lives!

Sam is ONE years old today!

Happy Birthday Sam! So glad you are a part of our family.

What happens in Vegas, we can share!

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John and I had a fun couple of days in Vegas. We enjoyed doing a session at the beautiful Las Vegas temple, eating at the most amazing buffet at the M resort where we stayed, going to the Michael Jackson movie This is It, (We loved it!) and going to The Beatles circus-ole. (Have no idea how to write or pronounce the real words.) This picture of me was right outside the Beatles auditorium. The show was great, especially since there was a speaker in every back rest of every seat! The top picture is of our view from our room. It overlooked the strip which was about ten miles North. While eating in the buffet there was a commotion. We found out that it was because Joe Jackson a(Michael’s dad) and his entourage was there eating also.

The Hoover Dam bridge is incredible. If it ever gets completed it will give me the willies going over it!

We drove through Sedona and Flagstaff to see the Fall leaves, but they were gone already. :( Maybe that was because it was SNOWING at the time!

Adam Wesley Barry

Adam is our third son. His birthday was last month and I am just getting to blog about how wonderful he is.








We sure must have done something good to get to have Adam as a member of our family.

Johnny's soccer game

I had to throw in this cute picture of John and Bastian at the Barry Halloween gig!

Johnny has been playing soccer this fall and today we got to see him in action! We got there just in time to see him block a goal and kick the ball half way down the field. Then a team mate took the ball in for their teams first goal of the season! WOW! Talk about exciting! John is a shinning star!

Exciting news!

At the Halloween party last night Rich and Treslee brought a carved pumpkin. I thought, "How cute! What is it?" Then they told me to look at the pumpkin and I knew something was up. That is when I dicovered that the carving was a baby bottle!!! You know what that means---another baby Barry on it's way! June 2nd is the date that we are excited for!

Halloween Fun

The Barry family had a Halloween party so the grandkids could see their cousin's costumes. We had a parade, a cup cake walk, guess the corns game, target the ghost game, pin the nose on the pumpkin, Halloween Bingo, Chilli, and loads of laughter! Anya, the gorgeous cave woman, me and Sam the elephant.

Tinker Bell Ashyln

Nina and Brooklynn

The fabulous parade-Adam the caveman, Elle cheer leader, grandpa as grandpa, Charlee Snow White, Oaklee the fairy, Ella the ballarina, John the ghost, Nina the cheer leader, Bastian Spiderman. Not shown is Andi the flower, Sam the Elephant, Ashlyn Tinker Bell.

Brian and Scottee
John and Brenda

Ryan and Mindy

Devin and Allison

Rich and Treslee

Adam and Anya

Baby Andi (Greg and Alli's)

The 54 year old-stark raving mad, pregnant lady!!! (Sariah)

The Joy of OCD Class

Our Stake had a preparedness fair today and I was asked to teach an organizing, cleaning and de-junking class-(thus the title.) It was a helpful and fun event. As requested, here are the pictures I had on display.

Over the door organizer. They can be used for the pantry, family room for movies, toys...your imagination is the limit! Bag closures used to hang aprons so they are handy!

Pantry shows rectangle containers, hanging baskets and boxes that can be taken out that contain small items that tend to get lost.

Space saving and convenient-over the door hooks.

Wire baskets and door organizers.

Laundry baskets-one for whites, one for light colors and one for dark colors. No more sorting! Notice-no lids! Clothes tend to make it into the baskets if there isn't a lid to raise!

Toy organization

More toys. Bins make clean-up fast and easy! Keep things simple-lids complicate tasks for children, unless there are many small parts that can escape like Legos.

DVD Organizers-each container holds 100 DVD's Get a binder with clear plastic covers to file DVD jackets and movies in alphabetical order or in order purchased.

Junk drawer contained with dividers. Dividers can evn be shallow box lids.


Rolling textiles, clothing, underwear in sets, saves room and lets you see what you have at first glance!

Wire shelving sold at any super market can double the room in your cupboards. Simply raise the shelves and insert wire ones. No more jumbled, packed cupboards. Easy access and time saving!

Adhesive hooks can help you keep often used utinsels, measuring cups, oversized utinsels at quick and easy reach.

Adhesive spice rack and three-tier adjustable rack keep spices handy.
Rectangular containers are much more space efficient that circular ones. Also medicines, vitamins etc are easily located and returned to proper places when they are stored in open containers.

Baking cabinet under stove. Again the wire shelving doubles space.

Food storage containers

Ways to contain utinsels and gadgets-this is an adjustable drawer divider. It expands to fill your space.

Ikea drawer dividers expand as long as you need them to and you can put as many as you need per drawer.

Rubbermaid single organizers put together to utilize space.

When you de-junk, ask yourself, "Do I need this?" "Do I use it?" Do I want it?" "Is it enhancing my life or just taking up space?"

Happy OCD everyone!

Just call me Sariah!

Are you ready for this! I had to have a bunch of tests last week before I have a D&C tomorrow. My pregancy test came back ....POSITIVE!

I'm 54, had my tubes tied 14 years ago, been through menopause for 4 years, husband had his prostate removed in April...yeah just call me Sariah!

I'll have another test tomorrow before surgery just to make sure!

Snipets of September

September is flying by in a blur! Unfortunately, the only things I remember are the events that I took pictures of. Oh, and Mindy and Ryan are going to give us another grandchild in April! WhaHoo! Oh, and Brooklynn moved her room upstairs!

Here is Sam sporting a bow!

Oaklee turned FIVE years old! Her wish to have a 'fish' party came true when many of her friends and family members came for swimming, pizza, prizes and pinata'!

This is Brooklynn's birthday dinner at Pita Jungle.

Allison and Brooklynn's birthdays are just days apart so we celebrated them both with cakes from Cold Stone! DIVINE!

For her birthday, I took Oaklee shopping to Toys R Us. She was throwing toys in the cart right and left, but in the end she chose these pj's, slippers, a movie and a big "My Kitty" stuffed animal. Then she chose to go to Chick Fillet for her birthday dinner with Grandpa, Brooklynn and me.

Brooklynn, her friend Analise, John and I went to a Suns game where we got to sit in the All-You-Can-Eat section. B had FOUR hot dogs!



Darling Sam and sweet baby Andi, our two youngest Barry babies.

Brooklynn's 14th birthday "surprise" party. She knew all about it! It was still fun though.

September has been super and I'm thankful! Oh, and I got to go to CA to help my best friend, Connie tend her grandchildren for three days. We went to the Newport Beach Temple, had a movie marathon and laughed much!

What is Brooklynn all about?

#1. Being a leader-in charge!

#2. FAMILY (Barry family reuion May 2009, Heber, AZ)

#3. Making her Dora movies. (July 2009 at ASU West)

#4. Watching, quoting, being Sponge Bob

#5. Friends (Ashley, Lauren, Christie, Hayley and B at girl's camp eating ring pops!)

#6. Devin and Allison...they often have her over to their house for movie making and just to hang out. They took her to San Diego this summer, Brian and Scottee took her to Disneyland in the Spring! She is one lucky duck!

#7. A sweet girl when she chooses to be! (This is Brooklynn at 4 months old.) These are just a small portion of what Brooklynn is all about. There is so much to this wonderful girl!

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY BROOKLYNN. YOU ARE THE BEAT IN MY HEART!

LOVE, MOM

Blessings, Happiness, Gratitude

This is Cassander, our 13th grandchild, born July 30, to Greg and Alli. Isn't she beautiful!

John and I took Brooklynn on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera and had the happiest time!
Our first port was Cabo St. Lucas where we went in a glass-bottom boat and saw colorful fish and amazing beaches. We snorkled at Pelican beach. I'm sorry you all missed the embarring scenes here...me trying to climb back into the small tour boat and all of us hiding behind a towel while we changed into our swimming suits on the beach! (We didn't know if we were going to get to snorkel so we had just brought our suits along.) Our ship (in the background) was incredible!

Our second port was Matzalan. This is the meat market! It stunk to high heaven! All the meat is in the open air, in 85% humidity and high 80 temperatures. I would definitely have to be vegetarian if I lived there!

We ate in the dining room each evening with another two women that we were assigned to eat with. We enjoyed getting to know them. Brooklynn was so brave. She tried snails (and liked them!) duck, brussel sprouts...

Our third and final port was Puerta Viarta (Sp?). Brooklynn had her heart set on doing an extreme adventure so we all got in the back of an open, old army truck and went to the mountains where we rappeled, climbed ladders and crossed steep, skinny bridges, and zipped 9 times from tree top to tree top. I felt sorry for our guides who had to babysit me so I didn't kill myself! But John and I were thrilled that we got through the entire course. (Remember the humidity! It played a huge part in me almost passing out! Fun times!)

There was an ice skating rink aboard so Brooklynn skated twice and climbed the rock wall twice, which was huge! We worked out at the gym, went swimming in the salt water pools, watched fabulous entertainment and feel very blessed for the experience of it all!

It' good to be back!!! Since my last post we've had some fun adventures. This is the 4th of July parade in Provo, UT where we had four family reunions in a week, went to Lagoon, celebrated my sister's birthday, and just had a blast with famil and friends!

LAGOON My sister Nancy, Brooklynn, me and John

Girl's camp! Our ward had 18 girls. I went up for one day and loved every minute (except when B burped in testimony meeting.)

Camp GoGo at Peter Piper Pizza

Adorable Sam!

Camp GoGo

Our first camp GoGo was a lot of fun! I think that each camp will get better and better, provided I keep learning and rest up first! Sleep was the only thing lacking with our group of six. I hope they all got LONG naps yesterday! When driving home from Peter Piper Pizza, Oaklee, Ella and Elle said that their best friends were their "moms and dads and sisters and brother" (in Ella's and Oaklee's case) It was so sweet to hear them say 'I love my family. They are my best friends." I learned that since I don't live at Elle's house then I'm not her family! (I know she loves me anyway!)

Oaklee and I were talking and this is how it went:
Oaklee, "How many babies did you have?"
Me, "Seven".
O, "Wow, that's a lot! How many did you get to keep?"
Me, "All of them."
O, "What were their names?"
Me, "Greg, Brian, Adam... At that time Oaklee excitedly said, "Hey my dad's name is Brian!"
Me, "He was one of my babies!" It was so much fun to see the "I get it" look on her face!

I LOVE each one of my grandchildren and am so thankful to my children for giving me so much joy through them.

Here is a run-down of most of our activities: Made "I love you" key chains and bracelets and drew pictures and framed them for their parents. Played SpongeBob Bingo complete with prizes, had a talent show with Charlee in charge (No surprise there! :)) Oaklee danced, John played the accordion, Ella and Nina played the Fisher Price piano, and Charlee played the big piano. (Elle was too busy playing Barbies!) We went to Peter Piper Pizza and they all got tickets from the games. (Not nearly enough tickets in their eyes!) Had popcorn and movies, dress-up and toy time, swimming, poppers, bubbles, balloons...Whew!

Nap time for me! (I'll post pictures when I get a card reader!)

No pictures-no blogs

I can't find my USB connection cable so I can't get pictures off of my camera. :(