Congraduations Catherine

My best friend/sister graduated from the Univerity of Utah today. I am so proud of her. She has managed to work full time and balance classes and get awesome grades the whole way through. She is absolutely amazing. If you want to want to watch the commencement exercises they are on the net at

http://www.kued.org/includes/vod/commencementPlayer.php?name=Commencement2008.m4v

Just copy the URL and put it in the address line of your web browser! It has been a really emotional day for me because I can't believe that I am in Boston and missing Faf's graduation. I have watched the commencement on the net, had cans and cans of coke and have been generally weepy. I was so excited when Catherine sent me the video from her phone. The quality isn't that great but it really made me feel included!

faf graduates
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

The Ides of St. Patrick's Birthday

Well my birthday has always been the same day as the Ides of March. If you don't know what that means, then click here. But this has been the first time that my birthday has been on the same day as St. Patrick's Day. Evidently the Catholic church moved the observance of St. Patrick's Day this year. To learn more about it, click here. So the unluckiest day of the year (the Ides of March) coincides with the luckiest day of the year (My birthday). But for the first time in the history of my life, instead of the luck balancing out to being neither good nor bad... St. Patrick's Day tipped the scale. And today was one of the luckiest days ever.

Here is the evidence of my good luck. First, Heather took me to get an awesome manicure and pedicure. (My toes are easter egg pink, and my hands no longer look like I spend my days as a scullery maid). Evidence number two: Patrick and I ate monkey bread for breakfast... which we ate around one pm. (Thank you Catherine for the bread mold.),



Evidence number three: I got a raincoat from my parents for my birthday. (It sprinkled today!!!)



Evidence number four: Alex actually enjoyed being strapped in the shopping cart. (Normally he gets really bored sitting there while I make important culinary decisions.)




Evidence number five: Huge lobster!!!! Mine was 2.5 pounds and Patrick's was 2 pounds... that is a lot of shellfish!!!! YUMMY

Bluebird Day

When the snow is fresh and the sun is shining we call it a Bluebird Day. It was the sort of day that memories are made of.

First we skied a bit in the moguls. Patrick had the baby with him. I love this film, especially at the end when we show Alex's face and he has been sleeping. He looks annoyed at the camera and Patrick looks positively thrilled.

baby in the moguls
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

This is some of the only video I have ever seen of me skiing since I was a little girl. I thought it was so fun to have some video. Here I am at the bottom of Stone Crusher at Alta. This is the same run that we had Alex on in the previous video... just kidding. I think we will wait to take Alex on this run until he is on his own pair of skis.

moguls without the baby
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

Half way through the day Patrick and Mike switched skis. These are some of Mike's first tele turns.

first turns
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

I had to get Patrick on video after the switch. I have only seen Patrick on Alpine skis one other time. It was for one run and it was three years ago. Other than that it has been 12 years or so since he spent any time on alpine skis. Other than the fact that he felt like he needed to drop a knee... he did well! And he was wicked awesome in the bumps underneath the Wildcat lift.

Patrick on Downhill?
Uploaded by patriciabarnes

Sterling's Spousification

The Happy Couple!!!



This is everybody Left to right back to front: Steve Jr., Raegan's hair, Mom, Dad, Annie, Chris, Sarah, Sterling, Patrick, Mystery Friend, Carsen, Calise, Justin, Alex, and Me.



This next picture is proof positive that my husband is the hottest man alive... (I bet this post will embarrass him because I said that.)



Hey you two! We are so happy for you. Here is a cute picture of you two with mom and dad!

Alex's First NOEL

When we got to mom and dad's house there were hugs all around. Grandpa whispered in Alex's ear telling him about all the excitement of Christmas morning. I think you can see how much Grandpa loves Alex.



So we took Alex over to the tree. I was shocked to see how full it was. All the giftsd under the tree are fun things that we gave eachother... from q tips and kitchen sponges to ski parkas... there was everything imaginable under there. What you cant see is our stockings and santa piles on the couch.



Alex Caught on quickly there was so much to see. He loved Christmas morning. He loved tearing open paper. He also loved all the things that we inside the paper.Here he is with his krinkle bee. it attaches to his high chair at home. it has cellophane in it... cellophane is always a hit with Alex.



Alex's favorite gift was definately the jungle. It sings and lights up and animals move and it plays lullabyes. He was excited about it when he opened it and he played with it all day. When we put him to bed he was reaching for it. When we checked on him an hour later he was asleep but his arms were still stretched out reaching for the jungle.


Catherine and Mike gave us such a thoughtful gift. They gave alex three books Hippos go Berserk, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Green Eggs and ham. Then Catherine recorded her voice and mikes reading the stories. The sound quality is amazing. Alex will get to know the voices of his aunt and uncle. How wonderful is that! Alex liked eating the ribbon

Diner Francais!

Every year my family has the tradition of getting together and enjoying awesome cuisine the sunday before christmas. This is a chance for us to spend days in the kitchen creating epicurean delights for our siblings to enjoy. Catherine spent hours and hours working on her Hazlenut mousse cake (cooked entirely from scratch)



, mom and dad made filet mignon with crab oscar and bernaise sauce (one of those dishes with really tricky timing),
we picked the cheese course (Dad picked out the cheeses and we set them out in a delicate fashion. (note- Melissa made the pretty tags for the cheeses.)



This year was different becuase we had Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kara and counsins over to enjoy the meal with us. Patrick mom and I decorated for the meal. It turned out to be an awesome meal.



Afterwards, we all gathered around the projector screen and played ROCK BAND. Its my dad's game. It is so cool because unlike other video games everyone can play together. We played for hours. Patrick got an awesome shot of dad and Jeff. (here dad is playing lead guitar and Jeff is on the drums.

Don't worry Harvey we ate some other turkey!

On the nineteenth, I got to Utah at four in the morning Boston time and slept in... so did Alex. Patrick came the night before Thanksgiving. We celebrated Patrick's upcoming birthday with Catherine, Mike, my parents, awesome gifts and a birthday pie. The next day we had so much fun feasting on the food that Steve, Catherine, mom and I had spent several days making.




Catherine made many wonderful pies. Steven's turkey was a fabulous brine cured turkey with a mustard and pomegranate molasses glaze. I made the place cards and a cranberry tart. Mom made cranberry jalapeno relish, sweet potatoes and thai chili seasoned beans which complimented the turkey. The food was fabulous. There were hardly any leftovers as we all stuffed ourselves to the point of ridiculousness.



The best part of the trip was hanging with family. On Thanksgiving night Alex was tired and he started to cry. Carsen has this idea that everytime Alex cries that we should sing to him. The cool thing about Carsen's idea is that it works really well. Carsen got Melissa, Dad and I to join in on the singing.

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Uploaded by patriciabarnes

The Friday after Thanksgiving was spent with the Barnes. We went to Redrock Brewing Company for lunch as a family and celebrated Patrick's birthday. It was especially fun to see Laura. It feels like it has been ages since we have seen her. She looked great by the way. (and she had an awesome new ski parka.) By the way Laura we have already seen Ratatouille three times and Alex loves it.


Saturday morning as we were leaving Patrick's cousins came by and we saw Bill and Ali.


We then watched Utah lose the Byu/Utah game. But on a happier note Alex and Kathy and Riverett Knutsen came up from provo to see us!!!!!!!!! Kathy looks great. I can't believe she is having a baby this spring. We are so excited for them. They call the baby Riverett. (I am not sure if that it how you spell it.) They find out if they are having a boy or a girl just before we come back into town at Christmas time. What an awesome Christmas they will have full of anticipation and excitement.

Uno Chicago Pot Hill Orchard

I tried to wait patiently in the car when Patrick, Alex and I went to get Catherine and Mike from the Airport... it was very hard. We were all so excited!
First thing we did was take them to get dinner. We were all starving. Then we saw the yummy dessert menu and someone suggested dessert. We ate really well that night I particularly recall the giant peanut butter cup with icecream on top. We all shared except I sneakily ate most of that one myself.
Catherine and Mike brought Alex a pumpkin from Grandma Judy's garden. It was so well packed that it was amazing. It was wrapped in bubble wrap and shrink wrap. It was a very secure pumpkin.
We tried to show Alex but he was worn out and had fallen asleep.
The next day was Saturday and we took Catherine and Mike to the Honey Pot Hill Orchard. We went apple picking with Patricks section (class) and boy was it hot., The weather was unseasonably warm... in the mid nineties. We goofed around quite a lot. When I first saw this video I thought that Catherine had taken the footage. Then the video pans to Catherine and I realized it was my voice and not hers I was listening to. WEIRD! I guess we do sound alike!

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Uploaded by patriciabarnes

At one point we escaped the heat in the car. After we had cooled down a bit we went back outside for cider and donuts. This reminded us so much of growing up in Michigan and going to the Franklin Cider mill. They had everything but the water wheel at Honey Pot hill. We had a great time!

Saying Goodbye

Well it has been a while since we last posted to our blog. It has taken us a while to get settled and unpacked. Now that we are finally getting pulled together I can start posting to our blog again. We have taken a lot of pictures since August.

On August 11 Patrick rode the 111 mile Utah Lake Century something ride (ULCER) bike race. Patrick was on team road killers along with Catherine, Mike, Dad, Blake Rigby and Alex Knudsen.


He rode the whole race with Catherine. Mom Alex and I gave everybody moral support.

Patrick and I had a few friends over at grandma and grandpa Barnes house to say goodbye before we left for Boston. We said goodbye to friends in the ward, Patrick's missions companion, and friends from Patrick's fraternity.
Here Laura Vernon snuggled with Alex for a little while and shared all her mommy secrets with me.

Cyd Vernon chatted about recovering from pregnancy and was very encouraging. I got great advice from our last third Sunday family gathering before the move.

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Video sent by patriciabarnes

Here Grandma Kohler let me record her singing to ALex. This is a song that she sang to Linda and Linda sang to Patrick. Linda and Grandma taught it to me so that I can sing it to Alex.




Here we had family night at Grandma Pats house. Adi cam up from the Y and the whole family was there. Grandma made family style tacos and we had ice cream for desert. During the meal Carsen killed a bee with a salad fork.


Check out these two babes. We took this gorgeous picture of Adi and Raegan while we were there.

The night before we left we had dinner with Steve Melissa and the kids, Catherine and Mike and Mom and dad. Melissa made the coolest cake with a lobster on it as a symbol of Boston.The cake was incredible it was made with rolled fondant and rice crispy treats. I thought it was awesome. She even made little sea creatures to go with it. There were snails and clams made out of fondant on the cake.

During the party Patrick gave Carsen a book about bugs as a goodbye. It was a very tearful night as I kissed Melissa, Steve Carsen and Raegan goodbye. (I miss them soooo much!)
On Wednesday the 21 of August we pulled out of the driveway and said out goodbyes to our parents. It was really cool that mom made us a yummy breakfast before we hit the road and Catherine and mike came up to join us to eat it. It was really cool that they were there at 5:30 in the morning. We love you guys so much and we miss you alot!

Still two... not yet three

What a fun week! This week was a busy one! Tuesday night Jeremy Hadden came down from Sun Valley Idaho and we went to dinner with him and Peter and Samantha. It had been a while since we saw Jeremy. We ate at hoppers grill.

Later this week Melissa threw a Potty Party for Carsen! We are all excited that he is finally starting to show interest in potty training. We don't even care that he is only interested in using the potty in the backyard. So, Melissa made Carsen a blue lightning Mcqueen cake with wing bammers. We had Mac and cheese and popcorn and cake. Grandpa came during his lunch break from work. I learned that Potty Parties are fun.

Thursday night we went on another bike ride. Mom and Dad took Patrick and I to big Cottonwood Canyon and we rode around the Brighton Loop. We found some wonderful cabins up there for sale. Maybe one day when Patrick and I win the lottery we will get one.

On Friday we went to the Transformers movie with Catherine, Mike, Steve, Melissa and Mom and Dad. I liked the movie so much that I thought about it all night and into the next day. I enjoyed the character of Sam Whitwicky and the detail of the autobots. I especially liked the yellow Camaro (Is this how you spell camero, or is this how you spell camaro?). I have never been into Cameroes but I might be willing to change my mind after the movie.
On Saturday morning Patrick went on a fifty mile bike ride. he rode with my dad and Dave Arrington up to Farmington and back to the house. Afterwards we went to lunch at Ruth's Diner its up immigration canyon, with Linda. While eating we discovered that she and Laura had never been to IKEA! So we picked up Laura and went to Ikea that afternoon. We visited the furniture that we will be getting once we move to Boston. Man were we exhausted Saturday.

Yesterday after watching the tour we went up big cottonwood canyon in our car. We went for a walk and enjoyed the view. We sat on our crash pad and looked out across the mountains to Heber valley and midway. The air was wonderful up there. We accidentally disturbed some wild mint. The air was filled with an overwhelming aroma of fresh mint and wild flowers. It is nice to enjoy a few more quiet evening before the baby comes... nope he is still not here, and our due date is tomorrow. So, we are using this time to enjoy some wonderful moments of life just the two of us.