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I thought I would take this time to catch family and friends up on our little squirmy bundle of joy. Haddy is about 6 1/2 months old right now and I just love this stage!!  She is so much fun  for me to hang out with all day. Her permanent hair is starting to grow, it's quite a big lighter than it was when she was born, we think it will be a light brown. And her eyes are the exact same color! They are a really dark gray with a hint of blue. It's weird because I had read they would change from that color by the time they are 6 months, but I love the color of her eyes! I think they are beautiful and I will be very happy if they stay this way! But I know she'll be beautiful no matter what color eyes she has.
She can't sit up totally on her own quite yet. She has the strength, just not the balance. And just recently she has started putting weight on her legs! She won't always do this, but we can get her to stand up sometimes (while still holding her up obviously....). And she is a professional turner-arounder! She has mastered the art of turning from her back to her tummy, but not the other way around. I've had to save her a few times in the middle of the night, she squirms herself into weird positions sometimes. One of which is the following picture:

Poor thing....she didn't enjoy this one.
But we have just really loved being her parents. She is an angel baby, and I am so so thankful for her! It is my privilege to spend my days with my baby girl.
Little Haddy has begun to teethe I suspect....she drools up gallons of saliva a day, really I didn't know a baby could produce so much saliva! And she chews on EVERYTHING!!! Including her poor doll....

Everything she can get her hands on goes straight into her mouth. And she's great at using her hands now, I make obstacle courses for her...I lay her down on a blanket and surround her in toys just out of reach, she decides which one she wants and always figures out a way to get to it! And then put it in her mouth of course. It's funny because since we feed her she knows that all she has to do is open her mouth and we put food into it, so she applies this same principle to other things she thinks belong in her mouth. She'll see something I'm holding, then stare back and forth from me to the object with mouth open wide as if to say "please place here." Ha ha oh she makes me laugh!
Although she is 6 1/2 months old she is still wearing her 3 month sized clothes. She hasn't grown out much but she has gotten taller, so even though the 3 month sizes fit, the pants are too short, but this is ok since it is a hot summer!!
Oh we love our little girl! We never could've imagined the joy she brings into our lives. I took this last picture of Justin reading to Haddy a couple Sundays ago before Church, I just thought it was so cute.

Justin is such a wonderful dad and husband, I am so so grateful for him! I couldn't even think up a better husband. Even though I'm far away from my family I feel so thankful that he is the one I'm here with. What a great guy.

Independence Day

You would think being in Philadelphia we would've wanted to spend our 4th of July going to Independence Hall...but we figured it would just be way too crowded. But it would have been really cool being in the place the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4th 1776!!! We found out they had this free concert the night before and fireworks. We were bummed we didn't know about it sooner, but maybe next year right?
What we did spend our 4th doing was really fun though! We got up early and drove out to Gettysburg. It's about 3 hours from where we live. It was pretty different than what I expected! I was expecting just a big open field, but Gettysburg is huge and has tons of forest area! And a few different fields where different battles took place. They have these CDs you can buy in the visitor's center that are like a self-guiding tour. You just listen to it in your car and go at your own pace. We really liked this option! Especially with Haddy. If she was ever asleep we didn't worry about having to get her out and waking her up at a certain part in the tour, we could just stay in the car and listen to the CD, or the parts that were really cool we could get out at those and stay for as long as we wanted! And when we wanted lunch we just paused and headed to town. Gettysburg is a really cute old town, we ate lunch at the cutest place! Not only was it cute from the outside but the decorations inside were really cool too, they had stained glass windows all over and it was really cool.
On our way home we stopped at the Amish country. There is this town called Intercourse (um, yes...it is actually called that) where they had this really great area called Kitchen Kettle. It had a bunch of really cool little shops, I think most of them were Amish. Sad news though...the whole thing closed right after we got there...those Amish must go to bed early. I was bummed that we didn't get to go inside any of the shops, but I have something to look forward to in the future!
When we got home we crashed from a long but fun day! Justin had his first day of school the next day so I was making him go to bed early.....that was until I forced him to watch So You Think You Can Dance with me...but oh well it was worth it! I love that show.
Well here are some pictures now.

This is Haddy, Abe and I. You can't really see it but Haddy and I both have our special patriotic-wear on!

Here is Justin and Abe.

Here's a canon with one of the rock walls the armies used for cover.

Here is the Pennsylvania Monument. The park has a monument for each state represented in the war, Pennsylvania's is the biggest because Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania and a third of the Union members were Pennsylvanians. This monument is way cool, you can walk up to the top of it in a cool spiral staircase that's in one of the columns.

This is on the top of the Monument.

The place across the street with the blue shutters is where we ate for lunch! Cute huh?

Another monument. This one was built for a couple of springs that ran right through here where the soldiers got their water. The springs aren't there anymore.

Well that's it! I just want to say we should all give me a big round of applause for FINALLY figuring out how to add pictures one at a time! I'm so proud of myself.

Our new home in a place that is really far away from our other home we just moved from.

Well, here we are. Philadelphia!! We haven't been here very long but we've already had some pretty interesting adventures. Hmm, where to begin? Maybe from the beginning...
As we were arriving at the Philadelphia International Airport, as soon as passengers were allowed to turn on their phones, we knew right then we needed to become Phillies fans in order to fit in. There was a Phillies game going on during our flight and I think maybe Justin and I were the only ones on the plane not checking the game status as soon as possible. They won, by the way, and some guy who plays for them did something cool with some other guy that played for one of the teams...anyway, people were talking about it all around us.
As we came out of the airport in the middle of the night, I was a little afraid...but eventually we were able to make it to our hotel where my wonderful dad was waiting for us (he flew out to help us get settled in). We all slept at the hotel then rented a car the next morning and headed to our new apartment!! We didn't have to drive very far...we are only about 5 minutes away from the airport...but we made it here! I was so happy to find our apartment was not a dump, because seeing some of the places we could have so easily ended up in was very eye-opening. We live in a decent little area. There are a ton of apartments around, and I'm about a block away from the grocery store which is really nice. Anyway, our stuff didn't arrive til the next day so we bought some air mattresses and slept on the floor of our empty apartment that night and spent that whole day looking for a car to buy. Turns out buying a car in Philadelphia is a lot different than buying one in Utah...First of all there is NO KSL!!!!! Oh how I miss KSL. Such an easy-to-use website!!! We had to find everything on autotrader or craigslist (which I've come to despise). Another thing is it took us all freaking day long (the entire day) to see a grand total of 3 cars. It takes forever to get from one place to another here. Needless to say our car search was not going very well....it took us about a week to find a car to buy, and the one we found was a last-minute kind of a thing because the guy was taking it to auction the next day, so we got lucky.
Anyways, onto other things...our stuff got here, we got it all loaded into our apartment, then had to go buy a lot of furniture which was really fun for me!! (Justin hated every second of it, for multiple reasons).
Well, sadly on Sunday it was time for my dad to say goodbye and go back to Utah. We went to Church that day and it was the most interesting experience we've had yet....our ward is, what we like to call, like a Little Liberia. I don't know how, or why, but about half our ward is straight out of Africa! And my goodness, Sunday school was the most entertaining thing I've been to in a long time! I'm not going to go into it too much, but just know that we had fun.

Justin finally took his GRE on Monday of this week, and he doesn't start school until Tuesday of next week, so we are taking advantage of this little break. On Wednesday we went to Atlantic City!!! I almost felt at home there, because I felt like I was in a mini-Vegas. It was a lot of fun! They have a ton of shopping, and the boardwalk is really cool, it's got stuff all up and down it. And the beach was fun too! Except Haddy really really hated the beach....I think she was crying practically the entire time. But we still had fun!! We went Wednesday because it was supposed to be cloudy that day (me + sun = not fun), turns out the weather forecast was wrong...it was clear skies, so I was under the umbrella most of the time, but we still enjoyed ourselves! (btw I'm not sure how those pictures ended up where they did...)
We are very excited for more adventures! We are going to the art museum and zoo this weekend, and if everything goes according to plan for the 4th we are going to the Amish country and Gettysburg!! I am very excited! If anyone ever visits us we will be good tour guides!
Peace out.

Baby Blessing!!! Finally...

So on Mother's day we blessed our sweet little baby, Hayden Joyce Barton. She looked so cute!!! Unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as now I'm wishing I had....but what do ya do? Anyways, it was great. We just had our immediate families come...it's not that we didn't want anyone else to come, but it was last minute, on Mother's day, and in Logan...3 things that made inviting other people seem pointless. But it was so special! What a great Mother's day gift for me to have my baby blessed :) although next year I'm hoping for a more relaxing Mother's day....but Justin did such a fantastic job! In her blessing one thing he blessed her with was being close with her immediate and extended family members. That is sooo important to me! I was never that close with any extended family members growing up, we are closer now, but I always felt like I missed out because of that. And I only really remember one of my grandparents, and she died when I was 15. Justin is the opposite, he has been super close with all his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents since he was born, and he still has two living, wonderful grandparents. When I married into his family I could see how close they were and I wanted that for our children. That's one of the reasons moving to Philadelphia is really hard for me...I have been so worried about our baby missing out on valuable family time the first five years of her life, and our families missing out on those years as well. When Justin said that in her blessing it made me feel so much better! I know everything will be fine as  long as we're doing what we're supposed to do.
Well that's it on the blessing, I can't really think of anything else to report, except my birthday I guess....getting old means having a pretty anti-climatic birthday. Justin made it fun for me though! He made a little bib for Haddy that said "Happy Birthday Mommy!" and brought her into work to visit me! It was such a great surprise, I miss her so much when I'm at work! And then when I got home he had a birthday pie ready for me and a card and little gift :) He had 5 all-the-way stamped Cafe Rio cards wrapped up, which means 5 free meals! I was so excited! He is such a sweetheart, I love him so much. He made my birthday special for me :)
Oh also one last thing.....I have officially changed the spelling of Hayden's nick name from Hadi to Haddy.....it just makes more sense, and people kept pronouncing it wrong when it was spelled H-a-d-i which really bugged me. So that's it! The end.

Moving! And baby blessing info towards the end...

Well, I guess it's official now. We've reserved our Pods, we've booked our flights, and put our down payment on the apartment. June 15th is when we fly out, that is in just a little over a month! There is so much to be done before we go, it's a bit overwhelming....if anyone has access to a lot of boxes, and they would like to donate them to the Barton Moving fund, please let us know! Also, we could use flat bed trailer if anyone knows of one we could borrow on June 10th....the place we are renting our pods from is called U-Pack and they ship through ABF. Their terminal is down in Ogden so we have to get all of our stuff down there that day. We have access to two trucks, but a flat bed trailer would probably make it so we could get everything down there in one trip! If you know of one available for borrowing please let Justin or I know....we would greatly appreciate it!
We are going to be throwing ourselves a going away party as well, since we'll probably be gone 4-5 years... We are thinking it will be June 11th at my parent's house in Sandy but we don't have any details yet (if you are a member of Justin's family then that party is going to be the week before, either at the cabin or at Mike and LeeAnn's depending on weather). I'll post more when I know more.
I am actually getting really excited to go, now that the details have mostly been worked out. The stress of it has mostly worn off, especially now that we are all flying together (there were many scenarios of getting to Philadelphia, most of them involved either Hadi and I flying alone and Justin driving, or all of us driving...which sounded even less appealing since it'd be 3-4 days). I hate hate hate hate HATE flying. I am not looking forward to it. But having Justin there lessens my anxiety considerably, and my dad will probably be flying out with us as well, so that's even better. It's just nice to have other people around to entertain Hadi if she gets fussy, and that thing people say about how your baby can sense when you are stressed? TRUE! And I am only stressed out when I am out somewhere with Hadi alone. I am so glad Justin will be there. The less stressed I am, the less stressed everyone is....
One last item of business, we have finally decided on a date to bless Hadi! (Yes, we are procrastinators...) This Sunday at 5:00 at our wardhouse in Logan. All are invited, just let us know if you are coming so we can plan on you. We have been trying to schedule a date since the end of March but this has been the first one where all our family members are available....yes we realize it's Mother's Day, we tried not doing it then but if we didn't we wouldn't be able to get Hadi blessed until the end of May, and I'm a little worried that she may not fit into her dress so we want it done ASAP! Anyways, that is all.

Lately

I think all of my blog posts will just be named "lately" because I can never write about just one thing.
So we just got back from Zion yesterday...actually I never went into the park, the sun and I are not friends, but we stayed at this super nice cabin that Jenna's husband's family owns at Zion Ponderosa! We had so much fun! I loved hanging out with my sister, and I loved that everyone could hang out and spend time with Hadi. I am so worried about moving to Philly....my biggest fear is that my baby is going to grow up not knowing her family members! Justin hears about it all too often...anyways, back to Zion...We went to this place called Best Friends. It is the largest animal sanctuary in the nation. We went on a tour and got to visit Kittyville, the Dog place ( I don't remember what they called it...), and the pigs. I'm not a huge cat fan, but there were some pretty cute ones there. And I wished we could have seen more of the dogs. They had a whole building for puppies!!!!! And they didn't let us go in!! Oh man I love puppies. Who doesn't love puppies? And the pigs..., we also saw the pigs...they were hideous, and mean. People actually have pig pets? Wow. I think I'll stick with dogs.
Before we left on our trip I scheduled a Dermatologist appointment because I'd heard about this thing called a Kenalog injection that helps if you have sun sensitivity. It helps calm down your skin's immune reaction to the sun. So I go in, all excited about this shot I'd heard so many awesome things about, and I talk to the Dermatologist, and he wouldn't let me get the injection :( I was totally heartbroken. It had to do with the medication that I'm on. I was so upset about it, I'd totally gotten my hopes up. Having this sun allergy has really been hell...I can deal with the Lupus, with the drugs that compromise my immune system, with the thousands of dollars I spend on doctors appointments, treatments, etc, but this sun thing has proved to be really the most difficult part of it all. The sun is everywhere...I'm not sure if you knew that...but I really never paid much attention to it, but now I realize how unavoidable it is. I can barely go in the car without getting blisters or a rash! The Derm also told me it's not JUST the sun, it's also heat that can bring on the reaction, or a combination or the two. It is the hardest physical trial I've ever had to deal with. I'm hoping to talk with my Rheumatologist at my appointment next week and see what he says about the injection and the medication I'm on...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll have a different opinion than that of the Dermatologist's, but we will just have to wait and see. Until then it's ugly huge hats, long sleeves, and an annoyingly large amount of sun block....and missing out on a lot of really fun activities that include being in the sun! But anyways, I shouldn't be complaining so much...I have so many blessings and if I had to choose between being allergic to the sun and some of the things I've seen friends go through, I'd take the sun allergy any day! So even though it's not easy, it's not the end of the world...


On a happier note, we have finally found ourselves an apartment in Philly! You can check out their website and see what you think, it's http://www.kormanmewsvillas.com/pages/floorplans.asp and the main reason we picked it is because they have a 30-day guarantee thing where if we don't like it within 30 days, they will refund us and let us out of our contract. That is VERY appealing when you have no idea the kind of place you are moving into, and you can't afford to go check it out first.... It also comes with a washer and dryer in each unit, which was the first reason it stuck out to me. But we are for sure moving June 15th, we will be throwing ourselves a little going away party, we just don't know when yet....but check out facebook first of June and I'll have info up.
Also Hadi! Oh I never thought I could be so madly in love with someone who doesn't even talk....oh I love her so much! She is starting to smile and laugh a little bit! It is just the cutest thing ever! We had so much fun taking her to Southern Utah this last weekend! I just love hanging out with her, she is amazing. She has beautiful huge eyes that still haven't changed color yet (I wish they would just stay the gray color they are....they're so pretty!) and she still has dark hair. She is so sweet, and such a great baby. I love having her in my life!

So that is pretty much it for 'lately.' I will try and keep everyone updated. Um, also, I'm sorry our blog is so dang ugly....I CANNOT figure out how to get the background working! I keep putting in the html in the designated place, and it comes up being white....so hopefully that will be fixed soon. Until then, sorry.

The past 7 weeks or so...

Don't get mad, I do not have internet in my apartment! So the only time I can post things is when I'm at my parent's house, which I am right now, so I am posting a blog.
Anyways..so I decided to write about what's been going on in our lives..obviously...this is our blog.... Most of you know, we had a beautiful  baby girl on January 28th! She weighed 6 l bs 1 oz and was 21 inches. Oh we are so in love with her! She is so freakin cute. And it's a good thing too, because if she wasn't so wonderful then I would be thinking the process that brought her here was not worth it....because it's a sucky process!!! But she is so so so worth it! The first week after she was born I was so exhausted. I always thought I knew the definition of exhaustion...no, not until that week. I seriously thought the world was going to end. I told Justin (and I meant it with all my heart) that we were never having any more kids! Thankfully he was very understanding and didn't try to disagree with me. Now (to Justin's relief) I am thinking it's okay if we have one more kid in, like, five years. And then maybe (MAYBE) one more five years after that...but we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. But I just love my baby so much! I have the best job in the world, I hang out with her all day long! But as cute as she is, watching her sleep can get old...and there's only so much cleaning you can do in an itty bitty apartment. I've watched almost every movie we own, including all the special features (I'm pretty sure I'm a professional at this point and could easily make a major motion picture), and I've also gotten incredibly good at MarioKart.
So that is the baby stuff. Now onto the Grad School stuff.
So the decision has been made! We have decided where Justin will be attending Grad school to get his MSW! And the winner is...(drumroll please)...the University of Pennsylvania!!!!! Yes. Justin got in (he actuallly got in and got very generous scholarship offers to every place he applied to). The program at Penn is very exclusive (they only accept 25 students) so I am so proud  of him for getting in! He has worked so so hard and we feel like his hard work is paying off. We are also really really hoping he will be accepted to their Ph.D program!! They only accept 3-5 students so it will be tough...but that would be so great. Justin really really wants to become a Professor and going to an Ivy League school is really going to help him get ahead of the competition. Plus he loves their program, it focuses more on macro-level stuff which is what he is really interested in. He already has an incredible resume for an undergrad and I just know he would make an incredible teacher! I am so so so very proud of him. He's worked harder than anyone I know, but he still finds time to spend with his family. Hadi and I are his number one priorities and we are so thankful for that! 
So we will be moving to Philadelphia in June, and let me tell you how nervous I am!!! Very. Very very. I don't know a living soul out there. I am nervous about finding a place to live, I'm nervous about being so far away from family, I'm nervous about not knowing anyone, I'm nervous about driving there, I'm nervous about being so close to DC and New York City (because ever since I studied terrorism I have developed a phobia of it...and I feel like DC and New York City are two prime terrorist attack locations...yes I know it's completely irrational, that's what makes it a phobia, I'm even afraid of terrorist attacks in Logan!); I'm just all-around nervous. But I am also really excited! There's a broadway show in NY with Daniel Radcliffe that I really want to see! And it is a possibility now that we will be so close! (I will even risk a terrorist attack to go see it) And visiting DC will be totally awesome too! I just have to keep telling myself statistically I'm pretty safe from terrorists...But I'm also excited to just have this adventure with Justin and Hadi...and Oli (oh yes, we are bringing the dog). And if anyone is ever in the area please come visit!
So there it is. This is the longest blog I've ever written...and I'm getting really sick of writing. And I still have no idea how to post pictures in between paragraphs and stuff so, again, they are all jumbled together.