Russ Barrus Family

Update...finally

2010-04-08T13:50:00.001-07:00

So it's been a while since we've posted so I figure I should try and update.

Dad went on a business trip to Savannah, Georgia. Mom went as well as Dad's boss Don Schow and his wife, Becky. They flew out of Salt Lake and got to the Denver airport only to be delayed about 19 hours because of snow.
The lighthouse at Tybee Island, Georgia.

Atlantic Ocean

JCB is having a backhoe drive across America for Haiti. This is Don and dad with the guy who is driving the backhoe.

Picking up sand to take to the Pacific Ocean.

Fort Pulaski

Atlantic Ocean

Aligators

Mom and Becky

View from the lighthouse at Hilton Head in South Carolina. This is looking onto the golf course. They were putting up stands for the PGA golf tournament in a few weeks.

Moss hanging from the trees.

Kingsley Plantation by Jacksonville, Florida.

Slave homes on the plantation.

Zac's birthday was February 8th. Chelsea and Amanda made a yummy dinner as we celebrated! We were happy Grandpa and Grandma were able to come.

Birthday Boy, Chelsea, and Gavin (notice Zacs birthday boy button :)

Zac was excited to open presents!

Reading Grandpa and Grandmas card

Grandpa and Grandma Barrus put pictures of us when we were little on the cover of our birthday cards so Chelsea was showing Gavin

Zac got a power drill from G&G

Tiffany's birthday was March 3rd. She had a fun day of shopping with the girls and having everyone together for Chinese food. (yummy)

Opening presents

Yummy confetti cake!

Making a wish!

Gavin is the cutest so we have to show pictures of him! We love him and his cute smile!

Christmas&New Years

2010-01-04T19:43:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas! We're sad to see it gone (well I(Tiffany) am :) We enjoyed spending time with family and we were happy to have Zac, Chelsea and Gavin and Grandpa and Grandma Barrus with us.

Nic was posing at our decorated table! We were pretty proud of it :)

Having a great time preparing the delicious food!

Grandpa and Grandma Warners glasses were much appreciated!

Thanks for carving the delicious turkey Grandpa!

Zac was hiding out with Gavin until the dinner was done :)

We had a full fireplace for Santa!

We had a lot of yummy treats!

Some of the people at the table

Theres some of the rest!

Our attempt at a funny face picture!

So we planned a fun program for Christmas Eve night. Our first game is a dice game and when you roll a double to have to put on snow gloves, a scarf, and a hat. Then you have to start unwrapping a present that I wrapped a lot! The first one to get to the candy bar won. It got very wild and exciting! Since that was the case the pictures didnt turn out very well, so these are the pictures that kinda turned out.

Christmas Charades was another game

Chelsea taught us another game that wouldnt make much sense for me to explain on the blog, but we had a lot of fun with it!

Grandma stepped out of the games to play with Gavin, which I think she enjoyed more!

Grandma and Grandpa Barrus have bells that you play that have become a fun Christmas activity we love!

Grandma was our wonderful director!

Dad decided that since our family is growing we will start to do the nativity scene! Grandma, Amanda, and Nic were in charge to put it together. Dad decided that he wanted to find a box that we could put all of the nativity clothes in and special Christmas things. Grandma gave us a box that Grandpa Broadhead made (her father). That was really special and we are very grateful! Thanks Grandma for making it a wonderful program! Zac was Joesph, Chelsea was Mary, Gavin was baby Jesus, Nic and Tiffany were shepherds, Dad was a mule, and Grandpa was the narrarator. We had a lot of fun!

This is Grandma explaining the box

The shepherd carrying his sheep :)

Christmas pajamas!

Gavin went to sleep so Santa could come :)

Christmas morning! Santa came! :)

Santa knows we love our Stewarts soda!
First Christmas for the three of them!

For New Years Eve we went to Utah at Sandra and Grants home to enjoy Wii games and yummy treats! Heres some of our pictures at our attempts at being the NEXT.....American Idol! Sorry, I dont have any videos! :(

Happy Birthday Holly! It was Holly's birthday January 1st and we were grateful we were able to be there to celebrate! Also to enjoy her wonderful birthday cake! Yay for Psych! :)

WE HOPE EVERYONE HAS A HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

Graduation and Baby Blessing!

2009-12-20T20:52:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy weekend for Zac and Chelsea. They blessed Gavin on Sunday, December 20, 2009 and had their graduation on Saturday. We are so happy and excited for them and all they have accomplished!

Proud Father :) Gavin looks so cute in his baby blessing outfit!

Uncle Nic taking care of Gavin

Here's the pictures of their graduation! Zac got his bachelor's in Accounting and Chelsea got her bachelor's in Nursing! YAY!

Gavin's shirt is really cute! It's hard to read from the picture, but it says "My parents studied together at BYU Idaho"

Elder Richard G. Scott spoke at the graduation and gave some wonderful advice and teachings. It was a great program!

Here's mom and Zac trying to pose Gavin with his shirt and a hat they got from someone. It didnt work to well. :) But he looks adorable either way.

November!

2009-11-28T20:44:00.000-08:00

There's a lot that's been going on this month and I kept putting off posting it on the blog, but I'll do it now! Mom's birthday was November 9th and we had a dinner for her. Here's pictures of everyone celebrating.

This was Mom's birthday and the night before Chelsea was going into the hospital to have the baby. We took some last pictures of her while she was still pregnant.

I think Zac was trying to hold up Gavin for the picture :)

Zac is pregnant too! haha

Zac and Chelsea had their baby, Gavin Zachary Barrus! He was 8 lbs. 7 ounces 21 1/2 inches long. He was born November 10th at 9:18 p.m. He is so cute and we are so excited! Here's a couple of pictures that I think a lot of people have already seen but it's what we have right now!

This is us waiting for the baby to come! We tried to keep ourselves busy!

So we started early putting up our lights because we always would try and get our lights up to late in the winter time and we put them up in a blizzard or something. So early October we decided we would start. Neighbors and friends thought we were crazy, but we knew we would be seeing them getting theirs up when it's freezing and we would be sitting in our house nice and warm! haha

October

2009-10-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

I figure its been long enough time now that I should catch up

on what's been going on in the Barrus

house.

Dad's birthday was October 2nd and we did just what he wanted for his birthday... ate tacos and took a family trip to Home Depot. We got him a gift certificate to Home Depot and he got some birthday bushes and Zac and Chelsea got him a Snuggie. It was a lot of fun!

Dad enjoys his snuggie! Look arms free for changing the channel! Amazing!

During Conference weekend we threw a baby shower for Chelsea since she's due soon! The men went to Priesthood meeting and we had the shower. It was a lot of fun and she got some really cute baby things! Thanks everyone who were able to come and that gave a gift!

We played a game that each person had a cup with ice and once your ice broke and your "baby" or gummy bear came out you yelled "My water broke" :)

Friday night we decided to have a little pre-Halloween FHE party. We got some pumpkins, doughnuts and hot chocolate, and a scary movie. It was a lot of fun and it helped us get into the Halloween season!

This was my dad's :) I didn't get a very good picture of it in the light but this is it with the candle inside. He did a great job!

This is Amanda's and everyone else did a little bit!

So Dad decided he wanted to drill the pumpkin! He definitely got into it :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Chelsea's Baby Shower Invite

2009-09-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! We are getting ready for the new arrival of little Baby Boy Barrus or as we like to call him Triple B. So we would like to get together and have a shower for Chelsea. We decided upon Conference weekend while the men are in Priesthood meeting to have the shower. Please let us know if you can make it so that we can plan sleeping arrangements and food preparations. We don't have everyone's e-mail address so please let those in your family know. We would love to have you all join us in this celebration as mom and dad become the new Grandma and Grandpa Barrus!!!

FHE Tennis Night!

2009-08-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

For FHE on Monday we decided to go to Nic's high school and play tennis. We are pretty much pros so... haha It was a lot of fun and we all totally beat Dad! :)

Keep your eye on the ball! haha
A little tennis modeling fo ya!

Haha
Nic's not sure where the ball went!

Dad was showing us some of his dance moves!

High Adventure!!

2009-07-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

Dad is in the presidency in the Priesthood and they took the teachers on a high adventure this past weekend. They went to Basin Creek Lake and McNutt in Idaho. They went horseback riding to a lake and then went fishing (no luck) :( They had a good time!

Crazy Lightening Storms!

2009-07-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

We've been getting a lot of lightening and thunder storms this summer! Since we live up on the hill you can see the lightening really well. Dad took the camera out to take pictures of what we've been seeing!

Baseball!!!

2009-07-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

So Nic played in a baseball league this summer. He had tons of games and got to travel to Jackson Hole, Burley, and among other places. It's all over now, but he had a lot of fun!

Nic's team won that one!! :)

Catching Up!!

2009-05-09T15:07:00.001-07:00

Memorial Day was also Nic's birthday! Grandpa and Grandma came over in the morning and Dad went and bought some trees for our front lawn! Our first landscaping project besides all the dirt that Dad has put in the back. :) Nic was having a good time on the 4 wheeler and gave Tiffany and even Grandma a ride! After we put the trees in went went to the movie Night at the Museum 2. It was so funny and a fun movie to watch! We all enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone! Nic got his yummy Reeses cake and we also watched Mall Cop. Also very funny!

We love looking outside at night from our view at our house!

Amanda's birthday was April 30th and we had a fun time celebrating that! She's 22 now and lovin it! :) Tiffany and their friend Sarah attempted throwing her a surprise party and it worked somewhat! Then they came home during the weekend and we went to dinner at Olive Garden and had a fun time! We love Amanda!!

I also wanted to add, but everyone already knows, Chelsea and Zac are PREGNANT! We are very excited and ready to be aunts, a uncle, and grandparents!!!!

New House

2009-04-08T18:40:00.001-07:00

Well we finally began decorating! We moved the living room around a little bit, and even the piano! haha We got the kitchen looking good/clean! We were so excited because today, Mom, Amanda, Tiffany, and Barbra went to the funnest little antique boutique and got a lot of fun decorations for our alcove in the family room. Theres a picture of it. We've had a lot of fun doing the decorating part!

Moving Out!

2009-04-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well we finally moved out of our Aberdeen home! It took a lot of work and a lot of time! We are so grateful for everyone who helped us! It made the move a lot easier! Thanks!

SOLD!

2009-03-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

We finally got the sold sign up! We were on our way to Pocatello last week when we realized it was up. It makes it feel a little bit more real now. We are very excited, but we have a lot of work to do to move out!
Our sold sign is up on our new house now too! yaya!

DAVID ARCHULETA CONCERT!

2009-03-29T09:31:00.000-07:00

So Tiffany and Amanda had an awesome opportunity to go to a David Archuleta concert in Pocatello on Monday. They had awesome seats! David was so good and cute as he bounced around the stage. It was a fun time! Amanda and Tiffany and their friends were stopped as they entered the concert hall to be interviewed for the news. It was really funny and they said some pretty funny things that will not be repeated. haha:)Sorry about the videos, they are far away, because Tiffany's camera can't zoom in. And if the video stops hopefully the music keeps going. The camera has issues. Oh, and sorry about the screaming girls!

I love this video! Sorry you can't here what he's saying, but its his new song and he went crazy bouncing around the stage!

Our Future Home in Idaho Falls!

2009-03-12T22:02:00.001-07:00

Hopefully by April 6th we'll be moving in! We are all very excited to all live together in the same town. Dad's going to have to stop his McDonald's diet plan now. It hasn't been working for some reason, anyway. We love the house and it has a beautiful view of IF!

Happy Birthday Tiff!

2009-03-04T07:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Tiffany's 19th Birthday! It was a very fun day! After Amanda, Tiffany, and Nic came home from school, they danced to top hits from each year Tiffany was born. Yay for the 90s! Then Amanda and Tiffany showed their karoke skills. Once Zac and Chelsea came from Rexburg we left for Pocatello to eat at Applebees. After we couldn't eat anymore we rented some movies and enjoyed watching dad watch High School Musical 3. Very fun!

Zac's 24!

2009-02-08T18:31:00.000-08:00

It's Zac birthday today. Zac and Chelsea came down from Rexburg so we could celebrate with them. Yesterday we went to The Pink Panther 2 and Texas Roadhouse. We had a fun time! Mom made dinner for Zac and Chelsea made him a yummy chocolate cake. Bo kept his eye on the cake the whole time! :)

Mexican Riviera Cruise 2009

2009-01-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

First stop was Puerto Vallarta with the canopy adventure (Team Zip-liners). Next stop was Mazatlan, Mexico. Home of Nicholas, our waiter. Fun time at the gold zone, cathedral, and beach. Our final stop at Cabo San Lucas. We had fun on the beach, and riding in the glass bottom boat.We ate too much! Oh ya did I say we ate too much!! We'd like to thank Grant for planning such a fun trip!

Look out American Idol! Here we come!

2009-01-04T15:55:00.001-08:00

We were able to show our wonderful singing talents in the Wii game American Idol. With Randy, Paula, and Simon's criticism we became stars! It was so fun!

New Year's Day/Holly's Birthday!

2009-01-04T15:25:00.001-08:00

We were able to celebrate both the new year and Holly's birthday on the 1st. Heather and Holly made a beauuutifful cake that was delicious!

For Holly's birthday, that evening, we went to The Mandarin House. It was soo good and soo filling! We got a ton of food!

New Years Eve!

2009-01-04T15:16:00.000-08:00

For New Year's Eve we went to Utah and celebrated at Sandra and Grant's house. We played a wild game of Bingo and the Wii. There was tons of delicious treats and we had a great time!

Tiffany and Amanda get crazy fall 2008!

2008-12-31T09:45:00.000-08:00

So as some of you know Amanda and I decided to live together for this past fall semester at BYU-Idaho. We had some crazy times and it was loads of fun!

Thanksgiving Fun!

2008-12-30T20:36:00.001-08:00

We went to Salt Lake for Thanksgiving. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at our third favorite (kidding) aunt's house, Nancy. It was a really nice time with lots of yummy food. We went to Sandra and Grant's house to play games.

We went bowling to burn of some calories from Thanksgiving dinner. It was a really fun time!

Grandpa and Grandma's house

2008-12-29T15:04:00.001-08:00

We decided to go check Grandpa and Grandma Barrus' house to see how much snow they got, and as you can see there was a lot!

LOTS OF SNOW!

2008-12-29T14:52:00.001-08:00

We got tons of snow over Christmas! Christmas Eve night was snowy and windy and we woke Christmas morning to lots of snow. As we were opening presents, at about 6:00 our power went out and we had to keep opening presents with flashlights and candles. Since there wasn't anything else we could really do, we decided to go back to bed. Dad went and got the generator going to get some heat going in the house, and about 10:30 was when it came back on. It was definately an interesting, but fun Christmas!

Every year we love going 4-wheeler sledding. We needed the snow to melt a little before we could go to the backyard, so today was a warmer day that we could. It's a lot of fun!

Christmas Fun!

2008-12-29T14:29:00.000-08:00

Yummy Christmas Eve Dinner!

All of us, besides Zac, Chelsea, and Dad(taking the picture) ready to dig in!

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

2008-12-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Funny Christmas Cartoons

2008-12-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

SNOW!

2008-12-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Yay! Here's some of the snow that we recieved over the weekend!

Boston Red Sox vs. Kansas City Royals

2008-12-13T20:21:00.001-08:00

On the way to Nauvoo, to see Grandpa and Grandma Barrus, we stopped in Kansas City to see the Boston Red Sox play the Kansas City Royals. It was a fun time and we enjoyed rooting for our favorite baseball team (especially Nic:). Dad was even able to catch a ball thrown to the crowd by Coco Crisp. He had to fight off some little kids for it, but was successful! Boston did a great job and won the game!

Our Trip to Nauvoo

2008-12-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

We were so grateful for the opportunity to go to Nauvoo to see Grandpa and Grandma Barrus. We were also so grateful that Lee and Bart's families could come too. We decided to drive there to be able to stop at different places on the way. We were able to stop at Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman. They were wonderful, spiritual sites. We were also able to go to Liberty Jail. We were able to see the different plays that were shown and even some with Grandpa and Grandma in them. They were so awesome and fun to watch! We were excited for the opportunity to go to the Nauvoo temple to do baptisms and the adults were able to go to a session. Carthage Jail was a spiritual experience that we were able to enjoy together. Overall, it was a fun reunion and we enjoyed every minute of it! Nauvoo is such a wonderful place that is filled with the spirit of the pioneers.

Zac & Chelsea

2008-11-29T08:23:00.001-08:00

Chelsea graduated December 11 from nursing school. We were all able to attend graduation and support Chelsea in this achievement.

Zac and Chelsea met at BYU-Idaho in April 2008. They were in the same singles ward and met at a sweet and swap. They got engaged on Chelsea's birthday, June 11, 2008. In a BYUI building, Zac, with the help of his wonderful sisters, decorated a room for the occasion. Tiffany, Amanda, and Amanda's roommate hid behind a fountain and were able to take some pictures of the proposal. Sadly, the video camera that they set ran out of tape by the time Zac proposed. So if anyone wants to watch Zac and Chelsea having a conversation and kissing, we have that on tape! :) They got married August 22, 2008 in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a wonderful day and we are so grateful to have Chelsea in the family!