Conference Weekend at the Barlows

I love conference weekend at my mom's house. My family all gathers in the family room and watches it together - which was incomplete this time since my sister Katie and her family live in Denver. Even thought she has lived out of state for a couple years now, this conference session it seemed a little more empty at my mom's house than usual. All of my other sisters were there doing the same things you probably would have seen them doing 10-15 years ago but it wasn't the same without Katie. I missed her singing and dancing for Jenny while egging Torie on, Miles singing "Thomas the Train", Ava asking for Juice and Steve making us all laugh.

WE MISS YOU KATIE!!

To update Katie on what went on as well as try to explain my families quarks to all else viewing this, I took pictures of everyone in their usual conference state. First off though, my mom loves her traditions - some I loved and some I hated growing up but now they all make me laugh. My mom has been called (more than once) a conference Nazi - mainly due to some of her rules. These are some things you can be sure to count on if visiting my mom's house during conference.

1- The Big Candy Bowl - to entice us young children to pay attention during conference, my mom would buy lots of candy and put it into a bowl but we could only have it if we were in the room and not sleeping.





2- No Sleeping - I remember my mom throwing mini-sized candy bars (from the candy bowl) at my head whenever I would fall asleep in conference. I think Julia and Jenny have permanent dents in their heads from my mom trying to wake them up. But now since our family has evolved my dad and brothers-in-law are exempt from this rule for some reason.





3- You have to Watch Conference - This was the big rule. We weren't allowed to listen to it on the radio while doing something else or go with friends to watch it (my mom was too smart to believe that one) we had to be in front of the TV watching conference. If you had to go to the bathroom.... too bad. I'm really just kidding but you get the idea.

Brock is tickling my back - he looks so happy to be doing it!
Julia and Braden are glued together - I think she is giving him a pedicure in this picture... Isn't her hair cute though? She just got extensionsHere is Jenny and my mom. This is pretty normal to see one of my sisters laying on my mom's lap - my mom is really good at tickling backs.
Here's my pops, asleep as usual. Without fail he'll let out a big snore, stop quickly and peep open his eyes to see if anyone heard him then go back to sleep.Here is Jenny and the new member of our family - Eddison. Actually I'm not sure if he has a name but Miles calls him Bruno and Brock calls him Eddison. When we ask Miles what its name is he says "not Eddison". Either way we love that cat. Here is Torie being seductive...

Reagan is the crafty one of the family.... Well Jenny, Julia and Katie are crafty too - but Reagan is definitely the best. Here she is making bracelets. She is always doing crafty projects - making picture frames, staining furniture, scrap booking - you name it, she does it. And behind Rea is Hazen sleeping like a baby.
Torie and I have this game we like to play to see who can pull the uglier face. I definitely won in this picture but she can hold her own most of the time.

All in all, conference was great and my family was fun as usual. It was a great way to spend part of the weekend.