For Shawnee

we come to you when our bones are creaky
or when our joints and our knees get squeaky
you fix us up and give great advice
and you are always so sweet and nice
but we want you to know that to us you are more
than a doctor to fix us and help when we're sore
you're our sister, our auntie, and best, you're our friend
who is funny and sweet, and true to the end
on this birthday we hope that you've been super happy
and that you got something to wear that is snappy
we hope baby Barrett was wiggling like crazy
and that Brady just let you sit down and be lazy
we hope all your wishes and dreams will come true
and we hope you know, Shawnee, just how much we love you!

Happy Birthday Shawnee!!

Happy 24th Natalie!

Today is Natalie's 24th Birthday and because of that I want to write a little something to wish her happy birthday.



You're an awesome photographer!!!You are so glamourous!!! I have always tried to be as "stylish" as you but I feel like I never can quite get it right... (Notice that most of these pictures are from our cruise and you are wearing that blue sweater in pretty much all of the pictures...oh well!)

I love that you and Casey are such good friends with Nick and I. (I don't think we could have had as much fun on that cruise with anyone else.)

You are my best friend and always have been. I remember when we were younger we would try and match so that we could look like twins. Even though we really look a lot different there will always be a select few that "can't tell us apart." (As if we were really twins or something? Weird.)

You will always give your opinion on things....

You are seriously one of the best moms I have ever seen. I mean that too, with all sincerity. I am so in love with Benson and I know that he is such a good kid because of you and how you teach him.
You are such a good wife and are always trying to do nice things for Casey. The two of you really were made for eachother and there's nothing better than being with your best friend FOREVER!
You're an awsome sister...And an even better friend!

I hope you have a very Happy Birthday today! I love ya, sis!

Love, Tam

Happy Birthday to Shanna!

Shanna,
I just wanted to wish you a very Happy Birthday today.
I want you to know how much I love having you as part of our family...(unofficially).
You fit in so good and you feel like my real sister!
I miss spending time with you since you're in Logan all the time (and since Danny's gone), but I know we'll spend more time together someday soon.

Thanks for also being my friend, and one of my best friends at that!
Sure love ya Shan!
Happy Birthday!
Tam

P.S. I tried to load some pictures on here but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Sorry. I have tried multiple times but keeps not working. I will try again later.

Daddy Daughter Date

So for Dad's birthday tNatali had a great idea to take Dad on a Daddy Daughter Date.
Since Dad has lost a lot of weight, we started off the night by giving him some new clothes that fit (also Nat's idea) and then we went to dinner at Applebees. Our waitress was a girl named Heidi.
After dinner we went shopping and met a very nice lady named Pam. She was the most helpful person I have seen for a very long time. After a fun time shopping, we went to Farr's Ice Cream and got ice cream cones. I splurged and got Brownies on the Moon, Dad got Banana Nut, and Nat and Emily both got some cherry chocolate chip ice cream that had a fancy name. (Sorry I can't remember what it was called.) Then after ice cream, we didn't want to go home yet so we drove around Hooper and talked for a while.
It was such a fun night. I forgot how much fun it is to get together like this. We had really good conversations, nobody said anything negative, and we just really enjoyed each other's company. Natalie said we should do this every year. I'm all for it, but we'll see what happens.
Anyway, Happy Birthday Dad! You really are the greatest dad. I wouldn't trade for anything. I love you so much! I had lots of fun on our DDD!
Love,
your sweetie pie,
TamiP.S. Did you know it's no longer Dan Dan the Maytag Man? I didn't know this until I got the camera out to take a picture and I said something about Dan the Maytag man and I was quickly corrected. Oh well. This picture reminds me of when we went on our trip to San Fransisco and Dad stood by the Six Flags guy.

Happy Birthdaween!!!

As was previosly mentioned we celebrated Dad's birthday this past Sunday. We also carved pumpkins. Everyones pumpkins turned out very well. Here is what everyone carved:

Tami - Jim Halpert and "Jones"

Nick - Dwight Schrute

Casey - Mario

Natalie - A cute face

Benson - "The Classic" (two triangle eyes and a mouth)

Becca - Elmo

McKenzie - Tux (the Linux Penguin)

Andy - The Earth

Here are some pictures I took. I will put them all on my MobileMe Gallery soon (they may be there so you should check). Enjoy!

Everyone cleaning their pumpkins

Casey Carving Mario (his arm was moving at the same frequency as my shutter)

Natalie teaching Benson knife safety

Benson helping and having a good time

Benson cleaning his first pumpkin

Benson again (admit it... he was the cutest one there)

McKenzie is apparently going to be a Chinawoman for Halloween

Benson with his first pumpkin and his first mom

Tami carving Jim Halpert (so if Tami has a crush on Jim and she carved him into a pumpkin, does that mean Nick has a crush on Dwight Schrute)

Everyone hard at work (Becca was sitting on the couch trying to figure out what to carve)

Andy is ambitious. He is carving the entire world on his pumpkin!!

Everyone and their finished pumpkins

Just the pumpkins

Cory and his budy "Stretch"

The birthday cake part 1 (Dad blew out the candles before we finished singing so I didn't get an action shot.)

The birthday cake part 2 (After Grandma and Granpa Barker got there Dad blew out the "55" candles again)

HAPPY BIRTHDAYWEEN DAD!!

Happy Halloween & Birthday

Well, I will make this official...

For those of you that don't know, Dad's birthday is on Monday the 27th.
So, we are going to celebrate Dad's birthday on Sunday (the 26th) at Mom and Dad's house. Mom said she will make soup, but everybody try to bring something to help with the dinner if you can. We are also going to continue our annual tradition of carve pumpkins. But... if you would like to carve pumpkins, you will need to bring your own this year. I know, sounds like a pain, but can you imagine getting them for everyone...
Any questions?? Call mom for details. We will start around 5 or so maybe??? Ask mom for sure.
Love y'all.This was last year... sorry Dano. We'll miss you this year.

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Happy Birthday Andy! Sorry this is such a late post. I just wanted to let you know that I am so happy you are in my life. You are constantly making me laugh (even when I don't want to)! You are a great person & I hope you know that you can do anything you put your mind to. I have really enjoyed these past four years with you! I hope you had an awesome birthday. I sure had fun laser tagging (and I hope the rest of you who were able to come had fun too)! Love you! Happy (late) Birthday!

Happy Birthday Cory!

Cory, I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday! I remember playing when we were little and I was always so fond of you. You were always one of my best friends, and I still consider you one of my best friends. You are a great brother and I love you very much.
I hope today was a good day for you and that you had a good birthday!
I love you Cor!
Tami
These two pictures were from Cory's birthday party. They are the best ones I have. Mom and Dad gave Cory some climbing stuff. The picture above is Cory playing with a rope he got. The bottom picture is the after of the birthday cake. The camera didn't take it fast enough so Cory had to fake it for the picture...
Happy Birthday Cory!

Happy Late Birthday, Nat

I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday, Natalie. I know it's more than a week late, but I didn't get a chance to post a happy birthday to you. Thank you for being my best friend as we've grown up together. Altough you're younger than me, I have always looked up to you and I still want to be just like you. I hope your birthday was great this year and I hope you are happy! I love you, Happy (Late) Birthday!

Here's a few reasons why I love you:

No matter how hard either of us try, we always have something the same...

You are an excellent photographer!

You're not only my friend, you're also Nick's! (Yay!)

You're a lovely wife!

You're so cute with Benson!

You're just so darn cute!

You're so fun!

You have great fashion!

You're a fun part of our family.

You have one of the cutest babies in the whole wide world!
Happy Birthday!