The Latest at the Barney Home

Rhett: Rhett has just finished finals for his second year at law school. Woohoo! We are so proud of him and how hard he works for us. He is a dedicated student, all the while being a dedicated father. We love him for that. Now that finals are over, he will start working full time in Couer D'Alene where he will be able to do trademark work (his preferred field). He has been getting quite the compliments from his employer--she says he's doing impressive work and she's happy to be working with him.
He has also just finished three sessions of acupuncture for his narcolepsy. There are no claims that acupuncture helps narcoleptics, but we thought we'd give it a try. It's kind of hard to tell whether it's had any affects or not--with the end of the school year and his load being lifted, he feels better anyway. We might try it again someday, we'll see.

Brittney: Brittney now has almost six piano students (a sibling starting soon, and another prospect getting finalized for June). She's loving giving lessons again and is currently working on a piano recital for the end of June. She is also still keeping busy making books, doing a little writing, attempting to cook healthy meals, trying to keep the kids (Rhett included) out of the ER, and starting Tot School for Summer (more on that later).

Summer: Summer just recently had her adenoids out, her tongue clipped, and tubes put in her ears. Here is a night-before picture. In her new monkey jammies, monkey blanket, and stuffed monkeys, she was ready to go! Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful gifts for her to help her through it!


Here's the after pictures. This was after the surgery at 8:30 in the morning, and then a nap when she got home. She ate quite a few fruit juice popsicles and watched quite a few nursery rhymes on YouTube to help her feel better.
She's feeling a lot better now, but absolutely hates it when we have to put her ear drops in. She's tough, though, and we are proud of her bouncing back so quickly.

Her vocabulary is continually growing, and she surprises us every day with new words. It always happens like this: she'll say something, Rhett and I will look at each other, "Did you teach her that?!?" "No, did you?!?" "No. Summer, where did you learn that?!?" For example, she says "pony" for ponytail, "dirt" and "dirty," "outside," "airplane," "swing" (for our hammock), and "popsicle." She is growing up so much!

One day when we went to get Summer from nursery, the leaders told us that the kids had been lining up at one end of the room, saying, "Ready . . . go!" and then running to the other side. Summer included. She did it one night when we had some friends over. This was a funny clip because she almost knocked herself out running into the corner of the counter, but just barely knicked it.


She ran back and forth, back and forth so many times that she had to stop a few times to catch her breath. It was so funny.

And since you got to see her photography skills, we thought we'd also share her filming skills. (Warning: It becomes quite uneventful after the close up of her nostril at a minute and fifteen seconds!)


Claire: Claire is on fire with her tummy time! No longer is it a painful experience because she dislikes it; it's painful because she's getting rug burns on her knees! That's right. She is cruising around all over the place, leaving little surprise spit ups for us to find with our bare feet. Her favorite thing to do is head to the edge of the rug and suck on the fringe. Yuck! It kills me every time I see a handful of the fringe in her mouth. I'll move her far away from it, but the next thing I know, she's scooched her way back there and is chowing down again. Here are some clips of the beginning of her scooching. (She often gets distracted with the camera and forgets what she's doing, so these aren't the best clips, but you get the idea.)



Sometimes, she just rests her head in her blankets. I love it because I'll call her name, and she'll do a slow-mo spaz response. I think it's so funny.

Claire had a few follow up doctor appointments where they checked her to make sure she was doing okay from her fall. They said she looks great. We are so blessed for such a quick recovery!