Changes...

Well as most of you know Kevin and I are getting a divorce. I won't go into details as to why right now, but unfortunately we are. This has to be one of the hardest times in my life but considering everything me and Noah are doing great! I couldn't have gotten through the last couple of months without the wonderful support of my family and friends, you guys are all so amazing and I'm so blessed to have you in my life. I love you all so much! And of course without my loving Heavenly Father this trial would be unbearable, I've always thought I've had a strong testimony and have really loved this gospel. However, my testimony and faith have been strengthen so much in the last couple of months and I've become a lot closer to my Savior and my Father in Heaven. I love them so much and am thankful for this gospel and I'll they've done for me.

As weird as this might sound I'm thankful for this trial in my life, and one day may understand why I am faced with it. My sweet Noah is what gets me through, I look at him each and every morning and he lights up my day. I know I need to be strong for him and I am, I love him so much!

I have a couple of quotes that come to mind that I have reflected a lot on this last little bit. They read:

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller

“The Lord seems to have several purposes in giving us trials: First, to test and prove us, to see if we are loyal to Him and to our beliefs. President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973) once remarked: “Don’t be afraid of the testing and trials of life.”

“Yes, I will love you forever!” "President Hinckley then quoted Isaiah: “Surely he hath borne our grief’s, and carried our sorrows. He knows our mortal trials by firsthand experience.”

I'll say look to the positive in your life, and remember there is always someone that has it worse then you. While I never thought my life would take this path, I know we will get through and that all will be well!

I'm not writing this for anyone to feel pity on Noah or myself. I do love my life and feel very blessed! I have a beautiful baby boy and wonderful family and friends and last but not least I have the gospel! So I just wanted to give you all a link to our new blog, so if you guys would like to keep updated please follow this new blog. http://cassandnoah.blogspot.com/

Focus Four Run

Every year for the past few years the company I work for (Focus Services) sends a handful of employees on a humanitarian trip to Guatemala. Last year on August 24th the group traveling were involoved in a tragic plane crash and we lost 4 of our friends and co-workers out of the group. It's hard to beilieve it's almost been a year since that tragic event. In honor of them Focus and the families of John Carter, Cody Odekirk, Jeff Reppe, and Lydia Silva have decided we want to celebrate their lives. We have put together a four mile race and one mile walk to honor these great people and raise money for scholarships in each of their names for other Focus employees.

I'm hoping that by posting this anyone who reads this will walk to participate and/or help me spread the word. The race is one August 22nd at the George Whalen North Park in Roy which is located at 4200 S. 1900 W. The four mile run starts at 7am and the one mile walk starts at 7:30am. The cost of the run is $20 and the walk is $15. Participants will receive a t-shirt and water bottle then be entered into a raffle to win a lot of awesome prizes. If you are interested in participating you can register by visiting http://www.focusfourrun.com/. At that website you can register online or print out the registration paper and mail it in.

Camping!!

We really enjoy going camping however last summer we didn't go very much because we were getting ready for Noah. So this summer we've gone a little more and have had so much fun. Here are some of the many pictures we took!! Noah was such a good baby and loved every minute of it! Thanks to Wade and Lisa for all you did as far as food, letting us use the trailer and wonderful entertainment!! =) We appreciate you guys and love spending time with you!

Easter Pics...

I know these are a little late but I thought they were so cute I thought I would post them late!

Noah and Jake in there matching outfits! (Niether one of them would smile)



Our family Easter morning, and Noah with all of his Easter stuff from Grandma Lisa! It was pretty much Christmas all over again.. =)




Easter Morning Noah was so excited, and it was so cute because Noah put everything straight to his mouth!




Grandma Lisa (Kev's mom) bought Jake and Noah these adorable outfits for Easter. They look like little babies in mens clothes!

Fun At the Ranch

It's the thing Kevin looks forward to every year, "Branding Calves". It finally came yesterday and it was so much fun. My cousin Megan and her husband Spencer live out in Park Valley on a ranch with her in-laws. They have been so kind to invite us out every year and Kevin really loves it.

So yesterday we left at about 6:00 AM, Jess came to our house and off we went. We got there at about 8:00 AM and then the fun began. The boys all went to brand and round up the cows and the girls just sat and watched and talked to catch up.

Megan and Spencer were so nice to let us hang out at there house and her in-laws fed us lunch afterwards. It was really YUMMY!! We can't wait for next year! The only bad part about it is the smell and how dirty they get and the boys don't mind, so I guess we can't either.

Thanks to all the Morris' for the invite and hospitality.We really appreciate! We had so much fun... (Seriously Kevin was in HEAVEN!!)

Conference Weekend

I have to say how much I love conference weekend, I look forward to it every six months, it finally gets here and before we know it's gone. I really enjoyed all of the talks that were given but my favorite ones were Pres. Monson and Elder Holland, it was good to hear that we need to be of good cheer through these tough times and that we are never alone, we always have the savior and our beloved Hevenly Father with us every step of the way. I love this gospel so much and I'm so glad I have it in my life, we really are so blessed with all of our family so close, I'm so thankful for all they do for us.

On Saturday we just stayed home and watched conference, Kevin was sleeping through the first session because the night before he worked all night and Noah and me just hung out. We later had my family come over to dye eggs and the boys went to the preisthood session together. On Sunday we stayed home for the first session and then went over to my in laws for the second half and hung out and his mom made us some yummy! dinner. We went on a walk because the weather was pretty nice, it was such a great weekend.



We decided to make cookies and Kevin volunteerd bake them, I went in the kitchen and he had all 24 cookies on what cookie sheet. I had to take half of them off because we didn't want one giant cookie! And I had to take a picture because it was pretty funny, but I guess it's the thought that counts! Right?



Grandma Lisa, Noah and cousin Jake!



Noah at Grandma Great's house!



Noah on our walk!

Easter Fun!

For Easter we normally go over to my Grandma and Grandpa Barkers house to do an Easter Egg Hunt. However this year my sweet grandparents decided to take some time for themselves and take a trip to Arizona so Jess and myself decided to take it on ourselves. Every year we always dye eggs with my family so this year we decided to put the dying eggs and Easter egg hunt together, Actually it was quite fun!! We made mini pizzas and dyed eggs and then we did an Easter Egg Hunt in my family room because it was too cold outside (I guess it wasn't much of an easter egg hunt but it was still fun). My mom brought 72 boiled eggs and then we all brought dye, while the boys went to the priesthood session we all stayed and dyed eggs and it was really funny because my mom and sister in law got way into it (they wanted all of the fun vibrant colors!!) Take a look below at some pics on our slide show....

Noah Is Teething Already!

On Friday I was picking Noah up from Jess's (my sisters) house and oneof the first things she said was "that's so exciting Noah is getting his first tooth!" I was like what, he's only 3 1/2 months? I didn't about know this... So I took a look and sure enough there is his first little tooth coming through! I was really excited... and surprisingly he has been a really happy camper! He has been sleeping a lot more, he has had a running nose and of course has everything he can in his mouth, but overall he has been so happy! (Which I guess is a little weird because I've only heard of horror stories of babies teething, but hey I can't complain!)

I also got this Johnny Jumper from Kevin's sister and Noah just loves it... So here a couple of pics at Grandma Lisa's! There pretty funny because he is still pretty little to be in it and so his arms are sticking straight out... And then his hands got caught up in the jumper so of course he started knawing on the jumper because he couldn't get his hands into his mouth so he gets the next closest thing!

My first day back!

Ok so it was my first day back to work today! You can all call me a baby because I did cry a couple of tears on my way there but I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be because Kevin was there with him when I left and then his grandma was babysitting while Kevin was at school. I’m so grateful that I have family that are willing to baby sit our sweet baby cause I really wouldn‘t be able to leave him at a daycare. However as I watched the clock the day seemed to never end, and don’t get me wrong I love my job and they are really nice and accommodating to work with my schedule and they’ve been really good to me but I wasn’t with my baby. So it finally ended and I was on my way home so excited to see Kevin and Noah, when I got home Noah was sound asleep and Kevin was making dinner. I was sad because I wanted to just hold Noah but I didn’t want to wake him so I resisted but I was so happy at the same time because Kevin was sweet enough to make dinner and to top that off Kevin had the most gorgeous flowers waiting for me on the table with a the sweetest card from Noah ( But since Noah can’t write I wonder who it was from??) We then were able to eat dinner and Noah woke up and was so happy and that just made it all better. I really am the luckiest girl to have such a sweet and thoughtful husband. Thanks Kev I love you tonz!!! (But really the minute I don’t have to work believe I won’t!)

More Stories...

February 5th, 2009

Paranoid Mom!

Today I put Noah down for his morning nap, normally I put him in his bassinet but today I thought I’ll just lay him right by me (he usually only sleeps 20-30 minutes). Well then I decided to go get ready while he was sleeping and I didn’t want to move him so I thought I’ll just jump in the shower real fast and come and check on him after! The second picture was his position before I jumped in the shower.

So I seriously was in and out within maybe 5 minutes. Well when I came out the first picture is what I saw.

Of course I was freaking out because his blanket was over his face and I always hear all this stuff about not putting anything with your baby to sleep because it can lead to SIDS or they can suffocate or whatever the list always seems to go on. But after I pulled the blanket off and he was fine I decided it was kind of funny so I put it back for a second to take a picture! And I learned my lesson from now on I’ll just put him in his bassinet from now on.

More Stories

Kevin’s whiskers!

So I’ve noticed for the past week or so Kevin has been getting a little scruffy and these past few days he all of sudden has a beard! At first he said the reason why he was growing a beard was because he was lazy, well then today I told him why don’t you shave then and he said well I actually kind of like it, I guess that means it‘s a keeper. Well today Kev was getting ready to leave for work and was saying goodbye to Noah and gave him a kiss. Well Noah didn’t like that at all, it was the cutest thing ever he got this little pouty lip and started to cry!　The funny thing about this is that Kevin always gives him a kiss, so my theory is that I think Noah overheard him earlier saying that he actually liked the beard and that it was going to stay for awhile and Noah didn’t really approve of it and so that’s why he did the little pouty lip and then he started to cry, it even took him a couple minutes to calm down (which is not like him). We’ll see what Kev decides to do, hopefully he’ll consider getting rid of it so Noah doesn‘t have to go through that torture every time Kevin kisses him!!! ;) Really it was just so cute and funny we had to take a picture and pass it on!

February 4th, 2009

Home at last/ Chemistry

We made it home from the hospital today! Yeah… Not that the hospital is a bad place because it defiantly is not but when you’ve been there a couple days and your back is killing you, I think your just excited to be home! Let me tell you those couches they call beds defiantly give you a major back ache, just thought I would give everyone a heads up! Anyways we are glad to be home with Noah looking and acting a lot better!
Later on tonight Kevin had some majoring studying and homework to catch up on so he got right to work! While he was studying I decided I would get back to reading my wonderful book Eclipse, but soon after I was reading Kevin asked me if I wanted to help him do some homework! Of course I was a little surprised because it’s been quite some time since I’ve been in school, I’ve helped him study before but not do his homework and well lets just say Kevin it’s defiantly way smarter then I am. But I said sure if I can figure it out… He said its pretty easy, and he went on to explain what I was supposed to do! It was for his chemistry class O chem. and I only had to do 5 problems it was to help him in his lab the next morning. Let’s just say it took me FOREVER and I only could find the answers to 2 out of the 5 and well I wasn’t even 100% sure those one’s were correct! Anyways the reason I am telling this story is because I want to give props to my husband I don‘t tell him nearly enough, he is such a smart guy and I’m so proud of him. I appreciate him and everything he does for our family and I’m so thankful it’s him going to med-school and not me because I tell you what I’m pretty dang sure we wouldn’t be accepted if they saw my application. I love you Kev… Your Awesome!! How did I get so Lucky…

Our Poor little Man!

I'm sitting here in the hospital watching Kev and Noah sleeping and I wish there was something I could do for our sweet baby. Noah started getting sick on Saturday night, it wasn't anything major no fever just a little cough, but come Sunday night we knew something was wrong. As most of you know from day one Noah has slept through the night, he doesn't cry hardly at all and is really the happiest baby, I often think wow how did we get so blessed with this perfect baby! Well Sunday night he didn't sleep at all (which now he sleeps 10-12 hours a night, so that raised a red flag) he was coughing a lot, had a little fever and was crying quite a bit!

We took to him to the doctor Monday morning and they checked him out saying basically he might have RSV but he's not way severe so lets keep watching him and bring him back in the morning and we'll go from there. So we headed home, well as we monitored him throughout the night his fever kept jumping higher and higher we then took him back to the doctor and they checked him again and sent us to the hospital. Well come to find out we got his test results back today and he has RSV =(. So they have hooked up to all these machines, they've done tests upon tests and he's been such a trooper. Can you believe when we first laid him on the bed in the hospital he was cooing and smiling.

Hopefully they'll release us tomorrow but I'm not so sure they will, I do think he's getting a little better as the days and nights go on but I'm not 100% sure. On top of that I was supposed to go back to work yesterday and obviously that didn't happen! Lindsey has been awesome and told me I can just come back next week... Which helps a lot, Thanks Lind's! It is really hard to watch your 3 month old baby endure all of this and yet just stand by and do nothing. I swear I've said a million prayers in the past 48 hours and I'm so thankful for the comfort that prayer brings into our lives. I'm so thankful for our family who have been so concerned for Noah and us and have prayed for us and been our strength. I'm also thankful for Kev and the strong support he's been as I sit down and close my eyes because I can't stand to see him in pain when they do all the nasty stuff to him and Kev is up there comforting him and explaining all this medical mumbo jumbo stuff to me, also the nurses and doctors have been fantastic! Hopefully my next post will be "Noah's Home and Doing Great"!

Above are some Pics of our Hospital stay so far...

2 Month Check Up!

So we went for Noah's 2 month check up on Monday and it was really sad! As you all know it breaks your heart when you see your little baby getting those horrible shots. Well I hate shots anyways so I can't imagine how they feel, especially because they are extremely happy and don't have a clue as to what is about to happen and then out of nowhere the nurses are holding there legs down and they get this horrible pain... But I am very grateful that we are blessed to have a doctor that we can go to and that we are able to have vaccinations for our baby to keep him healthy! Well anyways I was prepared to have a very grumpy baby but as to no surprise he wasn't grumpy at all... he was pretty happy (well most of the time and thanks to the wonderful Baby's Tylenol) He weighed 10 lbs. 12 oz. and he is 23 inches long! He is as healthy as a horse and definitely getting so chubby, so we couldn't ask for anything more!!

Papa Wade's Glasses

So we thought it would be cute to see what Noah and cousin Jake would look like with glasses on so Papa Wade's glasses were laying around and we put them on... What do you think? They are a little nerdy but way cute! They could easily pull them off!

Slumber Party...

Adrianna and Hannah (My little cousins) have been begging me to have another sleep over since Noah has been born. So I decided it was time so they came over the other night and we had a blast... We stayed up way late and played games and watched movies. Here are a few pics... They were so fun and we can't wait to do it again! (Of course we'll have to give it at least a month or two) =)

Here are some of our family that were there at Noah's blessing!