The Farnsworth Clan

Snowy Days

2012-01-03T12:43:00.002-07:00

Don't you just love when you make an entire blog post and you are almost ready to post it, then you accidentally erase it? *sigh* here goes attempt #2

Yesterday morning we woke up to a light snowfall. It snowed all day. When Simeon noticed the snow he quickly took off his jammies, put on his shoes and said he was ready to go outside and make a snowman (in his underwear). I told him it was too cold so he went and put on his coat. Apparently that's all you need to go outside, a coat and shoes. Clothes are definitely over-rated.

It really was too cold to go out yesterday. It was fairly windy all day as well. I had to take the garbage out and I thought I was going to die (wimp). Today is much nicer though. It's still cold but at least the sun is out and there is no breeze.

Unfortunately the snow is very very powdery so there isn't much we can actually do with it. But apparently stomping around in the snow and making footprints is adequate fun for little people.

Throwing the powdery snow in the air is also lots of fun:

I bought the kids snow boots for Christmas so I am glad to see them getting used. Also our neighbor came over yesterday with a pair of snow pants that her girls have outgrown. They're a little big on Alivia which means they should fit her for a few winters. Yay!

You may have noticed, I desperately need to clean my camera lens. That big blurry splotch is actually a pink little fingerprint. It's an ongoing problem.

The picture might be blurry (due to pink little fingerprints) but those are still some cute cute braids! I can't express to you my pure, unadulterated joy at being able to braid Alivia's hair. Surprisingly it actually stayed for most of the day - even through her nap. I just found that they held better if I tied them off at the base of her head instead of braiding them all the way to the tips.

I love these pictures because they show how big my little ones are getting! Simeon is finally done being afraid of the vacuum! And he loves to help!

Christmas

2012-01-03T12:16:00.002-07:00

The Christmas blog that I meant to do last week:

We had a very nice laid back Christmas. When anyone asks us how our Christmas was, Seth likes to tell everyone that it was great because he got to spend three days in his pajamas. We're just glad that he got to spend the time with us (and not working).

Simeon is at that age where he gets excited about Christmas and presents, but still doesn't really have any idea what day Christmas actually is. All he knows is that he has to wait. So Christmas morning we still have to remind him that there is a reason to be excited. Once he realizes the time for waiting is finally over, he doesn't waste any time revving up that enthusiasm.

Simeon picked out the transformer toys he got for Christmas. Good thing he's still young enough to forget about them until Christmas. He carried them around with him all day and they had to be close to him no matter what he was doing. It's so cute to see him so excited.

Likewise we've had to change Ariel's outfit many many many times.

A singamajig: cute

Isn't this just the cutest little girl hat ever? Isn't this just the cutest little girl? Or am I biased?

Just about the coolest toy ever! The wheels come on and off.
Simeon desperately needed his very own power tools.

Optimus Prime: Oh ya!

The Christmas Wreckage:

it's more fun when you are not an adult who has to clean it up . . . still a very vital part of Christmas morning.

Alivia knows what Christmas is really about though:

Chocolate!

Thanks to all our family for the sweet gifts this year! We love and miss you all and hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

Christmas Music

2011-12-24T07:58:00.002-07:00

The last few days, members of Seth's family have been sharing their favorite Christmas songs via email. I figured I'd share mine via blog for all my sweet readers to enjoy. Merry Christmas everyone!

The thing you have to understand about me is that I'm a Christmas Junkie. I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. I love the shopping and the wrapping and the decorating. I love it all. More than anything, though, I really love Christmas music. I'm that person who plays Christmas music in July and drives everyone else crazy.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my Dad sang Silent Night to me as a bedtime song when I was little. It turns out Silent Night is and always will be my favorite Christmas Song. I feel like it captures the Chrismas Story and the Christmas Spirit so sweetly. It makes me want to cry and feel sleepy at the same time. I just love this song.

Unfortunately this video doesn't have the last verse (which is probably my favorite verse) but I thought it was a beautiful way to portray the Christmas Story.

And honestly, who sings Christmas songs better than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

O Holy Night is a close second when it comes to Christmas songs. This is the song that I catch myself singing the most around Christmas. It's such a beautiful song! It's just not really Christmas without O Holy Night.

I'm pretty partial to traditions, religious Christmas Songs. I don't get excited by a very pop culture Christmas and I'm really not that into secular Christmas songs in general (Jingle Bells etc.) When I turn on the Christmas music it's the MOTAB Christmas on Pandora rather than the general Christmas music. Nothing else gets me in the Christmas mood like Christmas Choir music.

One exception to that rule is Trans Siberian Orchestra Christmas Music.

Does anyone not like this song? I love it. I also happen to love the song Carol of the Bells. It's such a cool song, whether it's being sung, or hammered out on electric guitar.

One finale note, it's also not Christmas until I watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Whatever your tastes, I hope you all have a very merry and festive Christmas! Love you all!

Merry Early Christmas

2011-12-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a wonderful early Christmas present last week: a visit from Seth's parents!

We honestly couldn't have asked for more for Christmas. Our kids loved being with their grandparents so much and we sure loved the company. It felt like being home again. Of course, being the doting, sweet grandparents that they are, they brought additional presents with them :D

I decided that their visit warranted an official early Christmas. Simeon also bought Christmas presents (for the first time) at school, and I thought he would enjoy being able to see Grandma and Grandpa open the presents he bought for them.

So on Sunday, we opened up the kid friendly Nativity set Grandma had brought for them and read the short version of the Christmas story while Simeon set all the people and animals out on the living room table. We sang Christmas songs and then opened presents.

A candle for Grandma from Simeon

A cup for Grandpa from Simeon

A transformer car for one happy little boy from one happy Grandma

A cute fishy towel for the cute little girl

A thermos type cup for Daddy from Simeon

Not pictured: a picture album for Mommy from Simeon and amazingly sweet presents from Seth's parents.

We loved having this time with them and I know it was so good for our kids to receive the extra dotage.

While they were here we also decided to brave the cold and the streets of downtown Dayton to visit the Christmas Train display.

Love you Grandma House! Love you Grandpa! Our little ones have done nothing but talk about you since you left!

Thanksgiving!

2011-11-27T11:08:00.000-07:00

Our Thanksgiving was a little bit less than traditional this year. We spent it at the zoo! We learned a few years ago that holidays are a great time to visit the zoo. We thought Halloween was a great day to go, but Thanksgiving is even better (so long as the weather is decent). We shared the zoo with about two other families so we really felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We were a little bummed to find out we'd be spending the holiday alone, but we made up for it by having a fantastic time!

Oooh Alivia thought those camels were pretty neat.

The lions were roaring almost the entire time we were there. Very exciting!

That one manatee was so huge!

We sat and watched this bear swim for like 20 minutes. He just swam back and forth and back and forth having the time of his life.

There were 3 or 4 baby monkeys in this exhibit and it was so fun to watch them. They were very active and so so cute! This one saw Alivia by the glass and walked right up to check her out.

We had so much fun at the Zoo that we've decided to make it our new family Tradition! I can't think of a better day than spending the morning at the zoo and then sitting down to a fabulous meal with my family.

We did get back from the zoo much later than I'd originally planned. Fortunately I only had to cook an 8 lb turkey. Still, came out of the oven around 5:30 and we were able to sit down to eat around 6. Fortunately I'd prepared some snack foods the day before.

Simeon took a bite out of a muffin and stuck a lot of olives on his fingers. Calories through osmosis right? Alivia thought this spread was alright, but she really got excited when I remembered the cheese plate.

Yes she comandeered it, and no I didn't actually let her eat all that cheese.

The rest of our yummy meal.

This was actually the first Thanksgiving dinner I've cooked myself. Until now we've always managed to mooch off of someone else's cooking. I was very happy with how everything worked out. I really wasn't as much work and effort as I'd anticipated. Still I learned a lot for future reference. Namely:

Don't buy the cheap stove-top stuffing and try to bake it in the oven.
Spray the pan!
Sesame Green Beans - YUM! (a new family favorite)
There's really nothing wrong with cooking our entire meal the day before (yes including the turkey) if we plan on going to the zoo. It sure beats eating at 6:00 :D I love the idea of keeping the holidays relaxing and fun. And there's nothing wrong with breaking the mold of tradition to do it :D

We hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I know we did and if anything came through to me on this fun filled day it's that I'm so grateful for my little family. We may be far away from family. Sometimes it's a little lonely and we definitely get homesick for New Mexico, but we have each other and that is the most important thing. If I have to live in Ohio for 4 years I sure am glad it's with them :D

Halloween

2011-11-04T12:42:00.001-06:00

I'm not gonna lie. I sort of gave up on Halloween this year. The thing is I'm one of those people who loves holidays. And Halloween has always been one of my favorites. One of the great things about having kids is that I can finally dress up for Halloween and go Trick or Treating again without everyone looking at me like I'm a crazy person or a candy mooch. I've made sure that for the last 4 years Seth and I have both dressed up as something, even if it is just simple.

But this year. I didn't. After dealing with Seth's back injury, the Reunion, and Alivia's birthday, I just didn't have it in me to tackle my still disastrous craft room in order to make Halloween costumes. I suppose I could have run out and bought emergency costumes, but I had already bought the materials to make them and I'd already invested some good time into Alivia's. I quickly threw together what I had and wasn't too unhappy with the results.

Yup, essentially I just took the fabric I'd bought and made capes. I'd already cut out and painted what were supposed to be wings for Alivia so I just sewed them onto a hood. Several people asked me what they were supposed to be and I told them I really wasn't sure. Everyone said, "Oh well, they look cute anyway."

I'm not really one to go all out. I am a firm believer that you can do simple things and still have tons of fun. But this year I taught myself the lesson a little more fully. Our Halloween actually turned out to be a very fun and memorable day.

The Sweetest Birthday Girl

2011-11-03T14:38:00.001-06:00

She's twice as pink, twice as dramatic, twice as mischievous, and twice as cute.

She's Alivia and she's 2!

My sweet little girl has become a very interesting little person in the last few years.

She loves Dogs so much that she will bolt across the street alone if the neighbors are out with their dog (dangerous)!

She loves her babies and is very upset if she feels they are being harmed. This includes the little Hiccup figuring that she commandeered from Simeon. Her favorite movie is How to Train Your Dragon. She likes to watch it and tell the scary dragon "Don't touch a Baby!"

Alivia has mastered the art of persistence. When she wants something (like candy), she will climb in your lap, put her nose about an inch from yours, open her eyes real wide, and say "Mommy candy, mommy candy," in a sweet little voice over and over. If you try to turn your head and look past her, she artfully continues to move her head so she is right in front of you. She doesn't take ignoring for an answer. She will persist indefinitely until she has succeeded in bending you to her will. Once you get her what she wants she will jump up and down saying "candy candy candy". It's super cute.

On the other hand, if she doesn't get her way, the end of the world will surely commence. I swear that you have never seen a child with such a strong passion for candy. All kids like candy right? All kids want to eat candy for every meal right? I swear Alivia somehow manages to take that desire to new levels. Or maybe it's just that persistence of hers. Either way, Halloween has made things very interesting around our house.

Cake seems to be a pretty good alternative to candy though.

Especially when Daddy insists that she needs the entire frosting flower, and therefore a very large piece of cake.

Then of course if Sister gets one then Simeon has to have one too.

And then of course our children were all hopped up on sugar and wouldn't to to sleep that night ;) Ah well, that's what Birthdays are for right?

Alivia has never really been into playing with toys. She loves her babies, and she'll occasionally play with Simeon's blocks or cars, but she quickly gets bored. She really just wants to be receiving attention from people. It's been an interesting adjustment in parenthood since Simeon is almost the exact opposite. Simeon is very social and loves to play with friends and be around people, but he is extremely imaginitive and content with individual play. From a very young age Simeon would sit and explore the toy box for extended periods of time.

I recently realized though that what Alivia loves most is doing the things I do (typical little girl). She loves to "help" me get dressed and do my hair every day. If she finds a pair of shoes she is either putting them on her feet or mine. She never does anything without her shoes on (even if she is in PJs or a diaper, she's also got shoes). She loves to brush her hair and teeth. And she loves to cook! I've seen her at other people's houses playing with the toy kitchens and she just loves them. I knew I had to get one for her. I looked and looked and finally found one that I love (both price and quality) at Target.

The Circo play kitchen! Made of heavy particle board instead of plastic, it felt like this was more durable and easier to assemble than those plastic things that you have to snap out of grids and put together. I've read lots of reviews about the plastic ones and nearly every one said, "I like this kitchen but it was a nightmare to put together." The plastic ones are also pretty lightweight and often tip forward if they aren't bolted to the wall. This one was easy to put together, is very sturdy, and has a nice heavy base so it doesn't tip over. It was also a very decent price compared to other kitchens like it. And it's so cute!

I think Alivia approves.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Jewelry Party

2011-11-01T07:17:00.000-06:00

One last reunion post and then and can move on to some other fun things!

One night at the reunion all the girls got together for a Jewelry party. Seth's grandmother (who they call Bubby) owned a lot of jewelry. Seth's mom wanted all the girls in her family to have a piece of Bubby's jewelry so she brought some of it with her so we could all choose something.

Bubby passed away a month after we got married and because of her illness she was unable to attend our wedding. Seth and I attended her funeral and while listening to the stories about her I remember feeling sad that I was unable to know her. Over the last 6 years I wish more and more that I could have known her. Like all of us, she had her faults, but she was an amazing, faithful woman with so many strengths. It may seem like a strange thing to be excited about owning a necklace that belonged to someone I never knew, but it still makes me happy that have a little piece of her personality with me. Someday I can tell my daughters that it belonged to their great-grandmother, a strong, righteous, courageous woman who served the Lord all her life and raised a strong, beautiful family. It was also a lot of fun to spend time with all the wives, sisters, and daughters in the family. Sometimes it's nice sometimes to just be girls independent of our boys :D I can't think of a better "souvenir" to bring home from a family reunion.

While I was at it I figured I'd better get a picture of the necklace Milly sent me for my birthday.

Thanks amazing Milly!

Kirtland, OH

2011-11-01T06:56:00.000-06:00

On our trip to and from NY, we drove right through Kirtland, OH. We decided to make a quick stop on our way home. It is essentially the mid point between home and Palmyra for us, so it was a great time to stop. We didn't have time to see much so we only walked around the outside of the temple for a bit and got some pictures. It is only 4 hours away from us so we plan to go back and spend a full day there.

Palmyra, NY: Hill Cumorah, Sacred Grove, and Temple

2011-10-28T10:50:00.000-06:00

In between naps, toddler drama, and riding the hotel elevator, we got out to see the local sites.

Hill Cumorah
We started out at the Hill Cumorah visitors center. Like many significant church visitors centers, this one has a statue of the Christus with it's touching and comforting audio presentation. This visitor center is unique, though, in that the background mural is a beautiful mural of the Sacred Grove.

The sister Missionary giving the tour told us that the background used to be plain, but Salt Lake recently hired and artist to come in and paint this mural. They wanted the statue to be seen from the Sacred Grove, they said. I love how the beautiful colors really make this statue stand out.

After the visitors center we made the climb up to the top of the hill. I didn't expect it to be a rigourous climb so I didn't bring the stroller. The missionaries kept telling us we could drive up but I told them the kids like to walk. The path was more steep then I expected. Still little Alivia was determined to climb all the way up by herself.

At the top:

Simeon wanted to read all those ABCs

The "authentic" trail:

Going down we found the rugged trail. It was actually nice to see Cumorah from a less civilized point of view. I'm glad they included both types of trail. Alivia insisted on going down without holding my hand, even though there were lots of tree roots and slippery leaves to worry a Mommy's heart. I guess she's got some Colorado blood in her after all ;)

The Sacred Grove
The weather really warmed up for us and we were able to visit The Sacred Grove on late Saturday morning. We couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. It may not have been spring, and there may not have been birds singing, but "Oh how lovely was the morning." Our children were a little less then reverent on our nice little walk, but looking at some of the pictures I took, I can definitely imagine what it would be like to have a spiritual experience there :D

^ I couldn't help myself. I just had to get this picture

We came close to documenting nearly every bench in the grove. Simeon ran to every one, sat down, and yelled "Picture!" Here are just a few of my favorites:

Ruining Spiritual Experiences since 2007

These pictures are a very insignificant representation of the number of bench pictures I took. And yes, each one is a different bench :P

Don't get me wrong though. We enjoyed our noise little walk / run through the grove. It was a very special for our little family to have.

It was about all our kids could handle though so we only made a very quick breeze through the Smith Family Farm.

A perfect little bridge for playing Pooh Sticks

A view of the temple spire from the edge of The Sacred Grove

Simeon was really distressed that the animals were missing.

I found this cute boy in one of the houses.

Palmyra Temple

We did a drive by of the Palmyra Temple before heading back to our hotel. I absolutely love the unique stained glass windows on this temple.

The Palmyra Temple is also unique because it is one of the few temples not built in a city. This is a picture of the grounds behind the temple. So much room! And no local buildings to taint the view. I found this quiet spot to be a nice peaceful addition to the already beautiful temple grounds. I found it very easy to contemplate and appreciate the events that took place in Palmyra, NY while looking at this view, and my kids even behaved a little more reverently too.

Palmyra, NY: A Very Farnsworth Birthday

2011-10-26T10:26:00.003-06:00

The real destination for our trip was Palmyra, NY. The cold weather at Niagara sure had some of us skeptical, but it really turned out to be a beautiful and fun filled weekend.

We started things off with a birthday party for all those with October birthdays in the Farnsworth family (including Alivia).

This is one really sleepy, really unhappy birthday girl :( Mommy attacked her and made her wear a pretty hat. She sure perked up once the cupcakes were brought out.

This is what birthdays are all about.

I bet you've never seen a little girl so happy to play ring around the rosy. She wasn't just smiling real big, she was laughing her head off. Apparently the game is more fun the more people you have.

London Bridges: all the kids wanted to get caught

Choo Choo!

Going on a Lion hunt. When I look at this picture I can't help but think about how much that little girl has grandpa wrapped around her finger :D I absolutely loved watching the kids with their grandparents this weekend. They sure do miss them.

Up Next: Hill Cumorah, The Sacred Grove, and Palmyra Temple

Niagara Falls

2011-10-26T08:54:00.001-06:00

We spent the weekend with Seth's family in Niagara Falls and Palmyra, NY. It was really really cold so we weren't able to see as much as we would have liked. We wimped out and only ended up viewing the falls from the observation tower and didn't make it over to the island to see the iconic Horseshoe Falls. It was still an amazing sight. We are so glad we were able to have this experience but we are also super excited to go back in the summer some day.

Simeon loved seeing the big waterfall.

I braved the first tier of stairs in order to get a nice picture looking up at the falls.

What I ended up with is an awful picture of myself all soaking wet.

Up Next: the rest of our weekend in beautiful Palmyra, NY!

A New Hobby

2011-10-13T20:24:00.001-06:00

Alivia has developed a new hobby

For being a very pink, sensitive little girl, she sure does love to climb. And honestly, what can beat Daddy climbing?

I seriously can't get enough of this video. I just watch it over and over. I love the little look on her face and her hard working little foot :D

Edit: Ooh really low quality, will re-upload to youtube when I am less tired.

A walk in the park

2011-10-09T13:01:00.000-06:00

I wish I could say that life has been a walk in the park. Seth has has s pretty busy month, working quite s few Saturday's and often not getting home until after 9 at night. We've also has a lot of rain and icky cold weather (and the joyous first colds of fall that come with it). That definitely doesn't mean that life is bad however. Simeon is happy to be in school and Alivia and I have taken advantage of the cold weather by catching up on some reading and some good Mommy/Daughter snuggling under a blanket time ;)

Finally, though, the weather warmed back up and Daddy got off work early, so we took advantage of it by taking a trip to one of the many walking parks I our area.

m
My camera has been giving me some trouble lately, and it seems to always act up when I actually take it somewhere. Sadly I haven't Been taking a lot of pictures lately. I have a few miscellaneous pictures I'll try to get up soon.

Just a Little Something to Make Your Brain Tickle

2011-08-15T22:24:00.002-06:00

http://i.imgur.com/7ZW4y.gif

Celtic Festival

2011-08-05T15:58:00.000-06:00

Yay another festival!

And the first time we've really been in Downtown Dayton

Not so bad, though we were having a hard time believing that a large beautiful park on the river was hiding somewhere around here.

But we found it. Yay! Riverscape Park. Home of the Five Rivers Fountain of Lights.

It's our goal to go canoeing under the fountain before we leave. Standing by the fountain was amazing because the breeze was blowing the water spray at us and it was a very very hot day. It made canoeing seem particularly appealing at the time.

Double Rainbow all the way! And at the Celtic Festival too! What does it mean?

Yes that is a giant turkey leg. Best story of the day: While Seth was buying his prized turkey leg, the lady told him "I love your accent." Then as he was walking away he heard her say, "That guy was Irish!"

Funnel Cake. Mmmmmm so tasty.

Simeon's idea of a good time :D

A fun day for the Farnsworths. Good food, good view, someone thought Seth was Irish, the Irish band playing the song from Fiddler on the Roof . . . .

Cajun Festival and Backyard Fun

2011-07-24T11:44:00.000-06:00

I recently discovered that our area has some kind of free festival going on almost every weekend. We sadly already missed the culture festival and fajita festival. This weekend, though we made it to the Cajun Festival.

Petting the Bronze Dog

Sausage Jambalaya, Fried Alligator, and potato chip nachos

These nachos were great! The potatoes were cut just the right amount of thin and fried just right. And it's beautiful too - cut into spirals. I just had to get a picture.

Cuteness!

It was super hot at the festival. Simeon kept trying to jump in the park's fountain, so we promised him we would swim. I think he wanted to go to the splash park or something because he was pretty dissapointed when we filled up the pool at home. But daddy is a genius and found a way to make it more exciting for Simeon.

And even though she's super sensitive, Alivia even got into it.

Next week is the 3 day Celtic Festival. I am soooo excited.

Bill Yeck Park

2011-07-24T11:29:00.000-06:00

The weather has been unbearably hot lately. We've made a lot of trips to stores and spent a lot of time at home, but the great outdoors has been less than appealing lately - at least to me. Friday, the air seemed slightly less smothering and I could tell the kids needed some good run around time. I found this park nearby and loved that it had so many walking trails. I decided on the shortest trial, the one marked with a red line on the map. I figured the kids could handle half a mile and that they would enjoy the nature time. I printed off the maps, loaded up the water bottles and we were ready to go.

But apparently I've failed Simeon as a mother. We got out of the car and started our way down this beautiful path to the trail.

Simeon started saying "scared, scared" and wanted to go back to the car. I thought he was probably just sleepy or else a little suspicious of the tunnel like effect of the trees. I thought he's get better the more we walked. Alivia was having a great time and would run ahead of us. This upset Simeon beyond reason because she wasn't close enough for us to protect her.

We didn't make it all the way around the loop, only to this bridge. Then Simeon was so upset that I gave in and we turned around. I realized later that it's the sound of the Cicadas that bothers him. He's not really afraid of nature. I haven't really failed him. He just doesn't like all the noise. It turns out that a huge brood of Cicadas came out in late May, so they are particularly noisy this year. Simeon has also been wary of our backyard for the same reason. I'd love to go back to this park when Simeon is better rested and maybe when the Cicada's aren't so active. This walk should have been Simeon's ideal outing. The park is beautiful, and even though Simeon didn't enjoy it, it was still nice to get out. Alivia and I had fun.

Friends, Airplanes, and Cincinnati

2011-07-22T10:43:00.001-06:00

One of the great things about moving to Ohio is that it actually puts us closer to a lot of friends that we haven't seen in a long time. A lot of our college friends have made their way out east, as well as some if our family.

Our super awesome friends, Austin and Michelle drove up to visit us for 4th of July weekend and we had so much fun. Austin and Michelle came to visit us in NM not long after we moved there and we think they are some of the greatest people on earth :D I've been dieing to meet their cute little guy, Parker, who is only a few weeks younger than Alivia.

We took them to the Air Force Museum, since we figured that is the one thing that Dayton has that no other city has. It's a pretty spectacular sight. As I was making this post I realized that I never posted our first visit to the museum (with Seth's parents), and that I didn't take as many pictures the second time because I took a lot of pictures the first time. So I'm just going to combine the two here.

The first thing you have to understand is that there is no possible way you can comprehend the magnitude of the Air Force Museum without actually visiting it. When I say it's huge, you'll think "Ya it's probably pretty big. I've been to big museums before." When I say there are so many airplanes, you'll think "Ya I bet there are a lot of airplanes. I've seen museums and stuff with a lot of airplanes." I can't stress to you enough how much of an understatement it is to say that the museum is huge, or that it has a lot of airplanes. Every type of plane that the USAF has ever flown is in the museum. The only replicas are the early planes of the Wright brothers. All the other planes are actual planes, many of them being actual famous planes - like the plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. I highly suggest the museum's online virtual tour. Their pictures are also infinitely superior to mine.

Our first visit with Grandma and Grandpa

P-38

P-52

Our second visit with Austin and Michelle

That's around the time we got in trouble for having snacks and children in the museum. The museum is huge but really a big trip for little ones to handle. The no snacking / touching stuff rule makes it hard to be in the museum for more than an hour.

Still we had lots of fun and enjoy having such a neat place so close to us.

Before Austin and Michelle went home, we also made a trip down to Cincinnati to visit the Cincinnati Museum Center.

It's basically 4 museums in one building. You can pay $12 to see all the museums or $8 for one. We really didn't have all day to spend at the museum, and we didn't think our children could handle it anyway, so we decided just to do the children's museum.

These are 3 kids who don't even know how much fun they are about to have.

Balls!

Fishies!

Water!

Toys!

And Lots and Lots of Stuff to Climb On!

We had lots of fun and are so glad we were able to spend this fun time with our friends.

Can't wait til we see you guys again!

Awesome Park!

2011-06-30T14:11:00.000-06:00

Seriously, they have the best parks here! We just discovered a new one today and I might actually like it more than the splash park. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but we are definitely going back, maybe this weekend. But here is the city link to the park for you to peek at in the meantime.

I love the little "creek" that runs by the park (in New Mexico we might be tempted to call it a river). It's very shallow, only about a foot an a half or 2 feet at it's deepest, and slow moving. But it's filled with little minnows and tadpoles. Our ward's playgroup met here today and all the other little kids had buckets and little nets and were catching fish. Simeon got to borrow a bucket and thought he was pretty special scooping up water and checking to see if he'd caught any fish. Alivia even enjoyed the water and waded in (clinging to mommy's hand) up to her bum.

Mostly I love this park because it reminds me of my own childhood. It's tucked away back on a windy little road in a somewhat foresty little neighborhood. It reminds me of climbing through the trees at my parents house, following the creek that ran down the mountain. It reminds my of catching tadpoles with my brother in a little stream at Minkhaven. It reminds me of Crawdading at Buckeye. I love finding a place way out here in Ohio that feels a little bit like home.

We are definitely going back and next time, I am definitely getting pictures :D

Good Feelings

2011-06-28T15:48:00.005-06:00

This is just a little too exciting to me (Seth) to not share.

So Happy to have Toys!

2011-06-20T18:02:00.000-06:00

Do you think this is a little boy who is happy to have toys?

As the movers were unloading the truck, Simeon was grabbing the big toys and taking them immediately back to his sandbox. Now every time we open a box with toys in it he jumps up and yells TOYS and runs and dumps them all out right away.

So yes, in addition to having boxes and piles of paper everywhere, we now also have toys everywhere.

There were definitely perks to not having any toys. *sigh* Can't win either way I guess.

Pictures!

2011-06-20T17:55:00.000-06:00

I can feel Milly's dark aura of anticipation all the way from Ohio, so I figured I'd better start getting pictures of our house up :D

We finally got our stuff on Friday, so there are boxes everywhere: full boxes, empty boxes, piles and piles of packing paper. Our garage is half full of packing paper.

But I am done with the kitchen! Actually there is a mysterious box of dishes and towels hiding somewhere. The movers didn't unload it into the kitchen and I'm not sure where it is. So until I find it, I'm done with the kitchen.

And that is when my camera died and I don't know where the charger is. I had it when we first got here. I charged my camera that night. But I haven't seen it since. It could be anywhere o.O

I did actually take a few pictures before our stuff came. Our "office" was actually done before we ever got stuff. We brought our computers with us and bought the couch and desk at IKEA. Had to make sure we had our priorities right on getting our house set up.

This room is actually what should have been the formal dining room, but honestly with two little kids, when are we ever going to use a carpeted dining room? We'd much rather have an office than a room we never use. Our computers have been in separate rooms for a long time so we are so excited to finally be able to sit by each other. Right now we have those boxes under the desk to protect our cords from little hands. I'm thinking of velcro-ing a little curtain or something to the back of the desk.

I also took pictures right after our new couches were delivered. This is our front room / formal living room.

They are bonded leather which means they are recycled leather mixed with other stuff. They are cheaper than regular leather couches but still sturdy and easy to clean :D I like them because the bonded leather has a softer feel to it than regular leather. It's not so sticky and cold. These couches are so comfy and we also go them 19% of!

This corner is where our piano now is. I also bought some white end tables at IKEA. This room doesn't have any light in it so we are going to have to put lamps everywhere.

I also have plans to replace the tan curtains in this room and the office. Brown walls, floors, couches, and curtains is just too much for me. At least this house isn't in NM.

I also grabbed a few pictures of our entryway.

closet across from front door.

We are lovin' this house. There may be boxes everywhere, but it is also nice to see our stuff in the house and have a sense of what our house is going to be like when we get it all put away.

I'm working on the Master Bedroom now. It turns out that a queen size box spring won't fit up our stairs (the ceiling is two low) so we had to order a split queen box spring. It's supposed to come in tomorrow and then we can start sleeping in our room! I'm hoping to have our room pretty much done by then - we'll see how that goes. If I can find my camera charger I'll post more pictures soon!

Renewed Faith in Cutco

2011-06-19T08:27:00.006-06:00

(Seth writing)

When I sold Cutco in college, I really loved the knives and I have ever since. However, a small part of me feared that the warranty would not hold up to my expectations and that somehow for some reason it would be a lot harder to get them sharpened for free or that we would have to fight with a bureaucracy to get a broken one fixed.

Well, when we moved to Ohio from NM, we decided to send in all our knives and our shears for sharpening and have them ship them back to us at our new address.

We sent in 9 items to be sharpened. Not only did they sharpen them with absolutely no hassle, but they REPLACED 6 of them all together with brand spanking new knives (only those of you who have purchased Cutco really know how much 6 new knives cost). Only our shears probably needed to be replaced, but they decided to give us 6 new knives and to sharpen 3 of them. We needed no receipts, no date of purchase, no proof of ownership. We just sent them in with a little slip of paper you print from their website. We never registered the knives or anything.

Our knives are now so sharp that we can again cut our steaks by looking at the knife and then quickly looking at the steak.

I should also reiterate that our knives were not dull when we sent them in. They were still sharper than any other knife you can buy but they were no longer "Cutco sharp".

I am again a 100% fan of Cutco and will eventually purchase the complete set and block. The "forever" warranty is so much more than a lifetime warranty because we will pass them on to our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren etc, and they will get the free sharpening or (more likely apparently) full free replacements until the end of the world. :)

Roughin' It in Ohio

2011-06-16T11:57:00.001-06:00

So when we were getting ready to leave New Mexico, Seth was really worried about our stuff arriving here before us. If that happens, then they put it into storage and it can take 1 - 3 weeks to get your stuff back out of storage. His worries seem so funny to us now.

Seth called the moving company on day three of our trip only to find out that our stuff was still in New Mexico - they hadn't found a driver yet. So we thought: That's okay, at least we know we'll get there first. We can wait a few days for our stuff. It's better than a few weeks.

The day after our arrival, Seth called again. Our stuff was still in New Mexico. They still hadn't found a driver.

Still, we planned on spending at least one night in our house with no stuff, so we planned ahead and brought our air mattress.

Simeon actually slept on the floor in our front room while we slept on the air mattress in the family room. We had a porta-crib for Alivia so she's actually been sleeping in her room upstairs. We were all a little sleep deprived from trying to adjust to the time change, so in the morning, after we pulled her into our bed, she fell back asleep with daddy. (I love this cute picture)

Unfortunately, sleeping on an air mattress for an extended period of time is not a great way to sleep. After a few nights of having our mattress slowly deflate under us we decided that our backs couldn't take much more of it. Our stuff was still in New Mexico and we still had no idea when it would arrive. The company claimed that they still hadn't found a driver. We had been talking about putting a futon in our "office" anyway, so we decided to make a trip to IKEA.

We found this super amazing sleeper sofa there. We fell instantly in love with it and were so excited to have something we could take home that day. We'd been to other furniture stores already and found that anything we bought would have to be delivered 1 - 3 weeks later. Having this couch has improved the quality of our lives immensely.

The purchase has benefited us in lots of ways. Not only did we get a more comfortable bed, but Simeon did too!

It sure beats sleeping on the floor

No we didn't make him sleep there. He's just a strange child.

Simeon also got a club house made from the IKEA boxes:

It definitely hasn't all been rough. We've been having fun shopping and exploring our neighborhood. We are actually falling pretty quickly in love with the area we live it. It's nice to be so close to great shopping and a large, well supplied library. We're loving all the green and we've loving the cool weather we have been having.

We love waking up to find bunnies in our back yard.

We love the large free splash park very close to our house:

It's too bad Alivia doesn't actually like getting splashed. Fortunately there are lots of other fun things to do at this park.

By Contract, the moving company was supposed to have our stuff here by the 10th. Because they didn't, they are now paying penalties to the Air Force, and they also have to reimburse us for all our meals. I can't deny that we have been enjoying eating out on someone else's money.

We also enjoyed having Seth's Mom and Dad swing back our way for a return visit after driving from our house to Pennsylvania. I know they are gonna be two very sad Grandparents without these two little ones around.

We're so glad for the time we've had to live close to them. I know our kids have an extra special relationship with their grandparents they they will hopefully never forget. Simeon already wants to know "Where Grandma House go?" And Alivia is always looking for Grandpa to wrap around her pink little finger :D

If you were at all curious, here is what our timeline has been like:
May 20: Graduation
May 26: The movers came and packed our stuff
May 27: The movers emptied our house
May 30: We left New Mexico
June 2: We arrived in Ohio
June 6: We bought and assembled our IKEA couch
June 8: Our stuff left New Mexico
June 9: We got internet (woot!)
June 10: Our new washer and dryer was delivered
June 11: We start eating our FAT because the moving company is now paying for it
June 13: Our stuff arrived in Ohio
June 16: Couches we ordered from JCPenny arrived
June 17: our stuff is supposed to be delivered by the moving company
June 22: The day the moving company would have delivered our stuff if the Air Force hadn't called and yelled at them.

So hopefully all goes well and we will have real stuff tomorrow. As nice has our new couch has been, it sure will be nice to sleep in our bed again. The kids will especially like having their beds back and they will LOVE having toys again! We've had a lot of rainy days recently and there has been nothing for the kids to do indoors! I'm sure we will all appreciate our stuff more once it arrives.

The Road to Ohio: Day 4

2011-06-15T14:02:00.000-06:00

Cahokia, IL - Dayton, OH

Finally, the last day of our journey!

We were really getting eager to reach our destination, so we decided to do a very quick drive-by of the Cahokia Mounds. I would love to go back someday for a longer visit.

When I said drive-by, I meant it. We drove into the parking lot and drove out. I suggested making a quick dash into the visitors center, but Seth wasn't up for it. It's probably a good thing too since we spent the next hour driving all over town looking for a phantom ice store (and failing). We brought a cooler full of frozen meat with us and our dry ice had run out. Dry ice is apparently becoming a scarce commodity in the US and I'm pretty sure Seth now considers it to be the bane of his existence.

After that, we really only stopped to go to the bathroom and eat lunch at McDonald's. We really just wanted to arrive at our new home. We did find a Dairy Queen outside Indianapolis and figured a Blizzard would help us get through the last leg of our journey. It really did help!

Finally we arrived!

The Road to Ohio: Day 3

2011-06-15T13:44:00.001-06:00

Day 3: Broken Arrow, OK - Cahokia, IL

Broken Arrow and the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory
There is a very good reason why I insisted on us going slightly out of the way to stay in Broken Arrow, rather than Tulsa: The Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. We didn't have time to take the tour, but we couldn't pass up on the 50 cent ice cream cups that actually taste like sugar cookie dough and cotton candy. We had lots of fun eating our ice cream in the little creamery and wearing our ice cream shop hats.

(I took these pictures with my phone)

Joplin, MO

Our plan was to visit either Grand Falls, or the Precious Moments Chapel near Joplin, but with the recent tornado disaster, we didn't know how open the roads would be once we got off the freeway. We decided to skip Joplin and head straight on towards Springfield. Turns out most of the damage was pretty far from the freeway and from what we could tell, in the opposite direction of the falls. We were able to see very little damage near the freeway, just a few uprooted trees and overturned road signs.

Springfield, MO

Close Memorial Park

A couple by the last name of Close donated 54 acres to the city of Springfield to be turned into a very large park. The park is like a large (free) botanical garden. It includes a Japanese garden, butterfly house and garden, a farm area, and several playgrounds (and many other gardens as well). We were hoping to be able to take the kids to the butterfly house, but once again, we were there at the wrong time. There are scheduled tour times only for the butterfly house and we weren't there close to any one of them. We did peek in through the screened walls though and see a few butterflies.

We also found a big butterfly for climbing on:

. . . and under:

Unfortunately Missouri is also hot and humid this time of year, so we retreated inside the Botanical Information Center for a bit and enjoyed their air conditioning and beautiful stained glass window.

After a fun stop and a good lunch, we headed on towards St. Louis, where we were supposed to spend the night. After finding shockingly high hotel rates on I-44, we decided to go ahead and make our transition to I-70 (which we would be on for the rest of our trip). We expected to find more hotels after we made the switch, but didn't find any until we reached Cahokia, IL. It appeared to be the only hotel in town so we weren't expecting much, but it was cheap and we were tired. That hotel ended up being the best hotel we stayed in and we really enjoyed ourselves.

The Road to Ohio: Day 2

2011-06-12T18:43:00.002-06:00

Day 2: Amarillo, TX - Broken Arrow, OK

McLean, TX

We made our first stop at the Barbed Wire Museum in McLean, TX. We thought it might be interesting but not terribly large or exciting. We were amazed at how fascinating it actually was. We were also amazed to find out just how many different possibilities there are in barbed wire fencing.There were plaques upon plaques of barbed wire styles on display, as well as different types of tools, posts, and decorative fencing objects.

Each line on these barbed wire "wheels" is a different style of barbed wire. There were maybe 10 or 15 of these circles and that is still only a small fraction of the number of barbed wire displays.

My favorite thing in the museum were the statues that people have made out of barbed wire.

I thought they were so cute! I wanted one. I was hoping they would have something in the gift shop, but all they had was a little scorpion made out of copper wire. I bought it for Simeon.

An old fencing wagon and two cute kids to admire it.

The museum also had a Route 66 section with old signs and original tables and diner uniforms.

On our way out of town we also stopped at an original Philips 66 station that has been restored. This is the first of all the service stations on Route 66 to be restored. Very cute.

Elk City, OK
While planning out our stops I found a really neat park in Elk City that I wanted us to stop at. It has a huge Carousel and a train ride that goes around the park - two things Simeon loves. We arrived to find out that both rides only open at 6pm. We were so disappointed! There was a restored route 66 area of town across the street, but we figured that the kids would prefer time to play in the park. They had a lot of fun and it was still a good stop.

These were the greediest geese I've ever seen. They swarmed us the second we got out of the car. I was pretty sure they were going to start eating Alivia if we didn't get out of there.

There is no pinnacle too high and no danger to overwhelming for this little boy.

When I say the kids had fun I do mean all the kids ;)

Grandpa and Seth we having a great time exploring the boundaries of physics. Grandpa was sneaky enough to somehow manage to look very dignified in all my pictures :(

We unfortunately got lost in the vicinity of Broken Arrow, our final destination for the day. The roads were poorly marked (an attempt, we're sure, to squeeze more toll money out of us on the turnpikes) and the hotels were well hidden. After over an hour of frustrated driving we finally found a place to rest for the night (and swim of course).

The Road to Ohio: Day 1

2011-06-12T17:59:00.004-06:00

Day 1: Albuquerque - Amarillo, TX

With our car packed as full as it could get, we said goodbye to Los Lunas and set out for 4 days of driving through 6 states, with lots of laptop movie watching, hotel pool swimming, and sightseeing.
We figured since the kids were fresh on the first day, they wouldn't mind being in the car as much and we couldactually push a little harder and not stop as often. It's only a little over 5 hours to Amarillo. The kids really did well on this day. They ate chips, watched movies, and sang songs with Mommy. We rewarded their good behavior with lots of time in the swimming pool at the hotel. I have to confess that every night I thought to myself, "I need to remember to bring my camera down to the pool and get pictures." I never did. They had an undocumented great time.

It was pretty obvious when we crossed the Texas boarder. Honestly, everything did suddenly get real flat.

Saying Goodbye

2011-06-12T17:50:00.001-06:00

We spent the week after Graduation packing, cleaning, and crying (that was just me I guess).

They just finished updating the park that was down the street from our house. We figured since we weren't going to get to take advantage of it, we should probably take the kids there once before we left.

Simeon seems to approve. I guess they did an alright job on the park.

We also replaced the front lawn of our house with decorative gravel. We've never had much luck with the grass in the front, and we wanted to make sure the house was nicer when we left than when we arrived (a present for our amazing landlords).

The first time I walked into our house after the movers had emptied it I just about cried. I think Simeon did too. He wanted to know where his home had gone.

It was a great little house for us and we feel truly blessed to have been able to live there. We'll always have fond memories of it. It's really the home where we started our family. Simeon was 3 weeks old when we moved to Los Lunas and about 2 months old when we moved into this house. :*(

We invited friends and ward members to a little picnic get together at our favorite Los Lunas park. It was so fun to have a chance to say goodbye to our friends. We really are going to miss the amazing people we know in Los Lunas.

We're going to especially miss Adam & Milly and their family. We'll be hard pressed to find such great friends who have so much in common with us (right down to our strange sense of humor). Our kids have been great friends and we hope they can be friends again someday when they are older.

I'll miss this little sweetie. Sera was always my little buddy and she and Alivia are only 2 months apart. Milly and I have great plans for these girls to be best friends (and best rivals) someday. Hope it works out.

Goodbye Los Lunas! We're already looking forward to our first visit home, whenever that may be.
:*(

Graduation

2011-06-09T19:03:00.001-06:00

I really tried to get this posted before the big move, but blogger decided to have a lapse of mental illness right around that time and I had was having trouble uploading pictures. After a week of packing, cleaning, and staying with Seth's parents; 4 days of travel; and over a week of living in our new home with no internet, and no stuff, I have returned to the blogging world and the interwebs has claim on my soul once more.

So without further ado (hopefully) I'll try to catch you up on all the good, the bad, and the interesting.

The graduates were allowed to chose anyone with a doctorate level degree (MD, Ph.D, or JD) to hood them at the graduation ceremony. Many graduates chose doctors who they had worked with or who had mentored them. Seth was able to be hooded by his dad, who has a PhD. I think it was a special experience for both of them. Because of the poor lighting, all we weren't able to get very great pictures, so I stuck to video. We should be able to order professional pictures of the hooding.

We were able to get some decent pictures afterwards though.

Once he'd officially graduated, Seth was allowed to be re-sworn in as a captain (promoted). This he could have done by anyone who'd ever been an officer in the Air Force. Since Seth's grandpa was visiting, and has first sworn Seth into the Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant, we thought it would nice to have Grandpa swear him in again.

Alivia wanted to join in the fun. I unfortunately didn't catch the picture quite fast enough. she had her little arm up just like daddy. In the picture it's kind of fallen behind her had and she half closed her eyes :D Still cute

Signing the paperwork

"Macum a School aday"

2011-05-19T12:08:00.002-06:00

Tuesday was the last day of Preschool and tuesday night they held a preschool graduation / recognition ceremony. All the kids who are going on to Kindergarten got to wear the most adorable little caps and gowns. All the children received a certificate for finishing the school year. They preschool kids put on a little show and sang several songs.

The first song is a song that they sing every day at school. The words are
Rise and shine and welcome to school today
Rise and shine and welcome to school today
Rise and shine and welcome to school today
We're so glad you're here.

The singer on the CD asks them to repeat these lines louder, softer, and in a whisper. Simeon sings this all the time at home, but he sings it "macum a school aday," hence the title of the blog post.

After singing the first song Simeon sat down on his step and didn't participate much for a few songs. Then he heard the music for this next song start. He perked his head up and shouted "Farmer!" Then when this song was over he went back to his own little world. So cute.

That's some good nose picking action in the video :)

School has been so wonderful for Simeon. We are so grateful for the wonderful loving and patient teachers he has had and for the wonderful program here. Simeon is especially grateful for many many rides on the school bus.

Graduation Anouncement

2011-05-17T13:13:00.000-06:00

For Local friends: We are having a small get together Saturday May 28th at San Antonio Park (north on Los Lentes Rd). If you'd like to come please bring sandwiches for your family to the park at Noon. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

If you didn't get an announcement, please don't be offended. A reason why you didn't receive one might be:
--It hasn't come in the mail yet
--I wasn't able to track down your address
--I got burned out on licking envelopes (I think the taste of glue is permanently embedded in my tongue)
--I ran out and am too burned out on announcement sending to get more prints.

I'm seriously trying to get them out to everyone in some way or another. This is one of those ways. We love you all and appreciate all your love and support.

We found a house - shout hurray

2011-05-09T19:47:00.000-06:00

We have been looking for a house to rent in Ohio for a little over two months. After being turned down for four different houses, we've finally found one! It doesn't have every little thing we were looking for, but it has so many things that we absolutely love. I love pretty much everything about the main floor. The kitchen is amazing, the family room is huge, the back yard is beautiful. The upstairs / bedroom is a little small and dissapointing; but honestly, how much room do we really need to sleep. We are so excited about this house and can't wait to start making it our home.

Main floor: These videos were taken when the owners bought the house. They have made a lot of improvements since then, including upgrading all the kitchen appliances to stainless steel.

The swing set is included :D

Did I mention that this house has a craft room with built in shelves?

Upstairs / bedrooms
All the rooms have been repainted except the master bedroom, which we will repaint as soon as we get there.

I do a lot of google maping on all the houses we look at. This house is further from base than we were originally planning on living, but closer to some of the other hospitals Seth will be working at. The location is great within the town. It's close to a really nice park with a swimming pool and indoor recreational center. It is also close to the elementary school with the same type of preschool program that Simeon is in now.

We feel really blessed that we finally found a home and that it is one that will make us so happy.

Zoo Day

2011-04-21T14:24:00.000-06:00

Simeon's Preschool took a field trip to the zoo!

Yes, my son is the one who doesn't quite have it figured out. They said, "Simeon, come stand over here!" So he thought, "OK!" and stood in front of everyone else :D Cute kid! I kept trying to figure out if he actually ended up with one of the biggest shirts or if he is really just that much smaller than everyone else.

Simeon really wanted to see monkeys this trip. He kept saying More Monkeys! More Monkeys!

Cute Cute Kid!

The Lion Statue is always a big hit.

We had to stop at every single rock formation so Simeon could climb on it.

Nice view of the polar bear.

Just Chillin' - Alivia was GREAT at the zoo in spite of the fact that she missed her nap.

This was my first chance to use my new (to me) double stroller. Loved it!

Again with the climbing.

So glad we were able to have this fun day at the Zoo!

Funny Face

2011-04-21T13:50:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed that Alivia's hair has desperately needed a trim. It was driving me crazy that the one side stuck out no matter what I did. It didn't matter if I wet it, combed it, clipped it; that hair always stuck out. So I decided to give in and give her hair a little trim. I barely cut off the tiniest amount of hair, but I think it looks better. Overall, her hair looks just a little bit neater and the one side doesn't stick out nearly so much.

Of coarse, while sitting in front of the mirror, Alivia thought it was the perfect time to practice her facial expressions.

Then of coarse Simeon wanted to show off his funny faces too.

So funny.

Alivia's hair looked even better after washing it and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. A few more tiny little trims like this one (several months in the future) and it will be perfect :D

Fun at Grandma's house

2011-04-21T13:05:00.000-06:00

Our kids know that Grandma's house is all about having fun. They first thing they do when we walk through the door is go look for an adventure.

Apparently, Simeon things that indoor adventures should always happen with his shoes off. The first thing he does when any time he comes home from school or goes to grandma's house is take off his shoes.

Alivia is sometimes pretty quick to nab them up. She's developed a sudden fascination in shoes, and Simeon's shoes have been the specific object of her fascination.

I bet if I try really hard I can get this shoe on my little foot . . .

So proud of herself.

One of these shoes is not like the other one!

The truth is that those shoes look so cute on her that I might have to save them for her :D

Meanwhile, Simeon was having an adventure of his own . . .

I asked Simeon what he was doing and he said "Stick house."

Simeon recently learned about the Three Little Pigs at school.

Then he huffed and he puffed and he blew the house down! I guess stick houses are a little more durable than the story lets on.

Answering Some Questions

2011-04-08T09:20:00.001-06:00

After reading the comments on my last post, I realized that we need to be better about sharing our information. I guess we never really posted about our imminent future. Seth will be doing his residency at Wright Patterson Air Force Base / Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. He graduates May 20 but is supposed to finish up his May rotation which will end May 29. He has to report in Ohio by June 6. Yikes! that doesn't give us very much time! Fortunately the Air Force will be moving us so we won't have to stress about it too much.

So Michelle, once we are out there and settled down, we will definitely have to arrange some kind of get together. We will only be 5 1/2 hours apart! I can't wait to meet your little guy!

Unfortunately that puts us farther away from our Texas friends. Both locations has so many benefits, but each had it's downsides too. We are sad to be moving away from so much of our family and so many of our friends; but we are also excited for the new experiences we will have and the new traditions we will be able to start in our own family. We are also excited to be moving closer to other family members and friends.

Now if only we could find a place to live . . . .

Some posts don't need words . . .

2011-04-07T21:41:00.000-06:00

. . . just really pink cheeks.

Family Pics

2011-04-06T10:35:00.000-06:00

I needed a good picture of our family for a secret project I am working on. It turns out that between all our bouts of sickness last year, and the general business that is always associated with the holidays, we never got around to taking family pictures at Christmas time. Somehow I did manage to sneak the kids in for their pictures between ER visits though, so my winter wasn't a total fail.

It turns out, this picture was just a little outdated:

As great of a picture as that is, we were really in need of something a little more recent.

So I called up a friend in the ward whose husband is into photography. It was super nice of them to agree to help us out and let us invade their house.

They did a great job of trying to get our children to look at the camera. Unfortunately Simeon is going through a less smiley phase than usual and we are lucky if Alivia isn't screaming her head of during pictures. Still, I think we got some that are pretty nice.

Thanks so much Rus and Keri! We think they are great!

January in New Mexico

2011-03-08T11:16:00.001-07:00

Do you want to know what I love most about New Mexico?

Going to the park in January!

We have taken Alivia to the park before, but this was the first time she had been to the park since she started walking. She thought it was pretty neat. In fact she was on the move so much that I had a hard time getting pictures of her pink little face :D

Simeon of course always loves the park.

"I have conquered this playground and I claim it in the name of Little Boyness!"

Moslty Alivia is excited to be able to be almost at big as Simeon.

I'm going to be sad when we live somewhere cold and snowy and yucky. My little ones love to be outside!

Explora

2011-03-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

My SD card on my camera is full. That means it's time to backup, organize, and clean up my pictures. And that means it's time to catch up on some much needed blogging.

Unfortunately, as I was cleaning off my camera, I realized just how little I've been blogging lately. "Wow! Are these pictures really from November?" I thought sadly to myself. Our family has been hit hard by sickness this winter. I seems like every time we are healthy enough to actually do something, we are to busy catching up on all the stuff we missed to actually get any current issues taken care of. Thus we remain in an ever constant state of being behind . . . .

Anyway, our playgroup met up at the Explora museum way back in November. Simeon is a pro at Explora now but it was Alivia's first time. She may be a sensitive little thing, but that doesn't stop her from enjoying stuff that is pretty neat :D

She always wants to do whatever Simeon is doing

Somehow, In all our explora trips, we've never gotten around to flying the airplane. As you can see, Simeon things that is pretty neat.

Hello pretty baby!

Simeon was hording all the balls and bringing them to Alivia. He's takes good care of his little sister :D

That's pretty neat!

I know just what to do with this!

(I try really hard not to think about other kids' mouths when we are at explora)

The end result of Explora is always the same.

Mission Accomplished!

The Hazards of being One

2011-02-03T10:40:00.002-07:00

Alivia is starting to discover the hazards of being a climbing, toddling, 1-year-old. She is absolutely certain that if she tries hard enough she can be as big as Simeon. She is not easily detered from climbing on everything he climbs on and running everywhere he goes.

Unfortunately she's not as big as Simeon, and trying to be like him usually ends in tears.

Yup, there were lots of tears with this one. And lots of screaming. Good thing she's got that celery stick to make it all better :D The strawberry cream cheese on the other side probably helps too.

Graduation Excitement

2011-01-27T12:24:00.003-07:00

So I (Seth) just started working on my graduation packet and it just hit me like a rock how excited I am to be done with medical school and no longer have to worry about grades, passing exams and all that ever again (well, kind of...it will be different in residency). No more needing co-signatures on orders (this is a HUGE pain and would take a long time to fully describe how annoying it is) and no more needing every decision I make to be verified by a "higher-up".

Anyway, I just got really excited and wanted to share it with the world over the interwebz.

--Seth

EDIT: Oh, convocation is May 20 for those who wanted to know, and my Dad will participate with me in a "hooding ceremony" which he is allowed to do because he has a doctorate level degree--which will be very nice.

"Skooo Bus"

2011-01-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know what happened to his adorable little boy?

All I can find is this other little boy waiting for his school bus:

It can't be the same boy right? There's no way my cute little boy could have grown up so fast! There is no way that my cute little boy could be going to school already, right?

Well considering that he charged right up the bus stairs like a professional and then got into his seat and said "Bye bye mommy," maybe it is the same little boy.

(weird face - but he was much more excited than this picture lets on)

Simeon has always been an adventuresome little guy (with very little fear). Simeon started preschool today. He has qualified for the early intervention program that screens kids for speech, physical, behavioral, etc. delays. He will attend preschool 4 days a week (once a week he will work with the speech therapist). He gets picked up and brought home by a school bus, and they feed him breakfast. It's a major life change for us, and I think I am still in coping mode. Simeon, however, has charged right ahead and never looked back. I figured either he would really like the bus, or be terrified of it. And I figured his fist day of school would either be really great, or really traumatic. Considering that all I've heard since he got home is "Mommy, Skooo Bus!" I'd say hes a pretty excited little guy. Mommy, on the other hand just wants to cry. I love seeing him be such a big boy, but it's also hard to think that he's such a big boy! Before I know it he'll be off in some foreign country for 2 years eating chicken heads. But for now, he's the most adorable preschooler I have ever seen :D And I get to spend some great quality time with my baby girl :D

:*(

D*:

Feeling very emotional . . .

The Best Five Years

2010-12-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

Seth and I celebrated our 5th anniversary in November. I use the term celebrated very loosely here. We have all been sick almost constantly since Halloween and Alivia made her ER debut the night before our anniversary. We celebrated by spending the day catching up on some much needed sleep.

However, I actually spent the week prior to our anniversary working on this video as a surprise for Seth. I showed it to him, but I thought it needed a bit more fine tuning. After quite a few tweaks, here is the finished product for all to see.

I hope this video shows just how amazing the last 5 years have been. And the best thing of all is that I've been able to spend them with Seth and that we have a ton more years (and forever) to spend together.

Love you Much Seth!

Birthday Cheeks - the Promised Pictures

2010-11-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

It's taken me a few weeks but as promised, here are the pictures of Alivia's birthday.

Every little princess needs to get all dressed up for her birthday party. Sparkly new clothes and cute cute pigtails. She thinks they feel pretty neat.

And look at all that loot! This little princess definitely made out well on her birthday.

From Simeon: A rolling bee, he picked it out from his toys to give to her. He's a good brother.
She loved this toy :D

From Mommy and Daddy: Clothes and a stuffed giraffe that plays music.

From Papa and Grandma (Hamilton): More clothes, a stuffed hippo, and a baby doll.

She loves having all her babies.

From Grandma Patty: More clothes, and a fun spinning bath toy.

A piano and book from Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth

But the most bestest part of all?

Who could turn down pink cake?

Halloween Extravaganza

2010-10-31T14:26:00.001-06:00

Our playgroup decided to have a little Halloween party at the church. Everyone brought a carnival game and the kids wore costumes. I don't know if Simeon ever slowed down. He just ran around and fun for the entire party.

Seth and Simeon went as Goku (or Goku and Goten, or Big Goku and Little Goku - whichever you prefer). Alivia and I were supposed to be fairies, but I never got around to making fairy wings so everyone thought we were ballerinas. Doesn't really matter, either way we were cute :D

There weren't very many kids at the party so we had them all do one game at a time together. We started off with the cake walk. Simeon thought that was really fun. He didn't even care if he won or not, he would just say "again" every time the music stopped.

Next was the Bean Bag Toss. Simeon was surprisingly good at this game.

It didn't take him long to figure out how this game out ;)

After the Bean Bag Toss the kids were supposed to dig through a pool of wood chips and find the candy buried inside. It was so cute that Anna put her pool inside her little haunted house.

Unfortunately Simeon didn't really get the point of this game. He just thought it was really fun to dig in the wood chips and pile them in his lap. You can see that there was candy in this pile but he didn't even notice. He just kept digging. It was too cute and too funny.

Seth and I were in charge of Pumpkin Carving. We didn't get any pictures though. The kids drew the faces on the pumpkins themselves but we couldn't figure out how to cut them out (mostly scribbles) so we pretty much just gutted the pumpkins and let their moms take them home to deal with it.

While we carved the kids had a lot of fun pulling each other around in this wagon / chasing whoever was being pulled in the wagon.

We finished off the party with a pinata. It's always fun to hit stuff with a big stick and not get in trouble for it!

We had lots of fun and so did our kids :D They were so cute!

My cute boys sharing a pixie stick :D

Afterwards we ended the night by trunk or treating. Simeon was really really tired from having such a big day. But he got some pretty good loot. Alivia approves:

Unfortunately our kids have been sick all week. We thought they were pretty much over it and just had the lingering runny nose and coughing that can sometimes go on for weeks. It was also a beautifully warm night (the best Halloween night I've ever seen). We were a little bit worried that Simeon might get croup since he'd really exerted himself all day. He woke up in the night crying a lot and wouldn't be comforted. We weren't sure what was wrong but Seth noticed he was breathing fast and his stomach muscles were clenching when he breathed - signs of respiratory distress. Seth listened to his lungs and said the left one sounded really rattly. Seth that until proven otherwise, doctors assume these to be signs of a foreign object aspirated into the lung. Seth gave Simeon a blessing and his breathing eased up almost immediately and we were all able to get some sleep for a few hours. But Simeon woke up again and was having the same trouble (though not quite as severe) so Seth decided to take him to the ER. The Dr.s there told him that was the exact right thing to do. They put him on the nebulizer but it took three different types of medications to clear up his lung. They also did an x-ray of his chest to make sure there wasn't anything in his lung. I was worried that maybe he'd inhaled some glitter while hitting the pinata. They didn't see anything on the x-ray and albuterol wouldn't have helped if there had been something in there. They sent Seth home with some extra medication for him and Simeon has been doing much better. He came home ready to start tearing into his Halloween Candy.

We're so glad that our little boy is all right :D I guess that was our Halloween Scare!

She's Got Birthday Cheeks!

2010-10-29T08:50:00.001-06:00

Today is her birthday shout Hurray!

It's hard to believe that my little baby is one year old today! She sure has come a long way

But she's still got those cheeks!

And she's still our little princess.

Official Birthday Pictures coming soon!

Big Big Tooths

2010-10-10T21:48:00.000-06:00

Somewhere in the linguistic development of Simeonglish, Dinosaurs came to be known as "Big Tooths" (aka sharp tooths in the common speech) and "Dines" (a more generic term for dinosaurs in general though often used to denote four legged stomposauruses).

Well we saw many a Big Tooth and many a Dine on our recent trip to the Natural History Museum. October is free museum month for residents of Valencia county so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. We also have been in great need of fun distractions as we anxiously await Daddy's return from the far off land of San Antonio.

Simeon couldn't have had more fun. They say that your knowledge of Dinosaurs peaks around age 6 (especially if you are a boy) and Simeon is eager to begin his training. He's had fun at the Museum before but this visit was a whole new level of fun. For the first time he interacted with the exhibits they way they were meant to be interacted with. He understood that there were cool things to look at and not just nonsensical buttons to smash.

Looking at the Big Tooth

Ahh It's gonna get her! Save her Simeon!

Reading all the panels.

Oooo Dinosaur Eggs

Simeon wanted this turtle to come bite his shoes.

We had so much fun!

Latest Happenings

2010-10-10T20:42:00.000-06:00

Daddy comes home in five days! Woot Woot! In the meantime, here's some cute stuff to get him through the next week.

Simeon and "Grandma House" (Seth's mom) have been having "Cho Milk" parties together. Simeon is oh so careful with the little cups. Grandma even let him put real water in them and he didn't spill. I can't even begin to describe who extremely cute this is to watch.

My parents came down for conference weekend. You never saw a baby girl with so much stranger anxiety. She will go to me and to Seth's mom and that is it. Simeon was pretty good about going to women, he was just afraid of men. Alivia will have none of that.

Actually she warmed up to my mom after only a few hours. And we were able to sneak her into my dad's lap for a few minutes too.

But the real highlight of the weekend was our trip to home depot. Shopping is much more fun when you get to do it in a big car. And especially if you get to sit next to your cool big brother :D

I have two little water children. They love playing in the water, especially together. And if I'm giving one a bath I can't keep the other one out. Besides, bathing them together saves so much more time. I usually put them in with just a little bit of Alivia depth water. Then after I wash her and take her out I fill it a little more (and a little warmer) for Simeon. They were playing so cute that I had to run and get my camera.

Yes, Simeon is a strange child.

The other day the neighbor's cat hopped over into Grandma and Grandpa's yard. Simeon didn't waste any time getting a hold of it either. I was packing up the car to go home and found him holding it saying "kitty meow!" The cat was being surprisingly patient considering how terrified animals usually are of a very enthusiastic Simeon. But it was actually purring! But after a while it had it's fill and was trying to get away. Simeon of course would not be daunted and kept chasing it and through the weeds. The cat had been hiding in a particularly tall and thick patch of weeds and Simeon wasn't afraid to go in after it. Unfortunately by the time we got home he was in some serious need of some benadryl:

Poor little guy. No more crawling around in weeds that are taller than you!

Somebody's Tongue is not like the Other One

2010-09-29T17:49:00.000-06:00

Simeon is kind enough to demonstrate for us what a tongue should look like:

Nice and pink.

So why is this little tongue blue!?

Somebody got into Simeon's fruit snacks. And she doesn't seem the least bit sorry :P

Older Stuff

2010-09-22T20:56:00.001-06:00

While preparing that post for Daddy I found a whole bunch of stuff I've been meaning to post for a while. It's just too cute not to share!

Alivia has some serious Big Brother Envy. She really wants to be as big as him, but no matter how fast she crawls (which is so fast her little bum shakes) she's still not as fast as him.

Simeon play this game all the time. They love it. Simeon throws a ball and they both chase after it laughing and squealing. It's amazing how long they can play games like this together. I love how much they love each other :D

I dedicate this next video to my brother-in-law Daniel and my pirate partner in crime No Beard (aka Joey). Simeon's trying to be Two Eyes Jr. I guess :P

For Labor Day we decided to have a family picnic in our back yard. This was before we realized that our back yard was infested with spiders. Now looking at the pictures I was thinking to myself "Ahhh Alivia was sitting right next to that spider infested bush! Someone save her!"

Having a picnic was a good idea in theory - trying to keep Alivia out of everyone's food wasn't part of our original plan :D

She says "Now that's what I'm talking about!" Squash courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa's garden :D

We filled up Simeon's pool for him and the water table for Alivia - but sitting in the water table is much more fun. Alivia thinks so too.

What can I say about this one? Why else would her finger be just the right size if not for sticking in her nose? There's that spider infested bush. grrrrr.

I'm gonna get that camera and put it in my mouth :D

A Post for Daddy

2010-09-22T20:39:00.001-06:00

Sad! My last post has pictures of Daddy coming home from COT. Now he's gone again. I've really been a slacker lately. Well now that Seth is gone I should be picking up the blogging again for his sake.

Seth told me when he left that every day when he calls he wants me to tell him the cutest thing that each of our children did. Actually he asks me this question a lot when he comes home from work. He loves his little ones :D

Unfortunately the cutest moments are always very spontaneous and sometimes happen so quickly that I can't catch them on camera. Or of course, as soon as I get the camera out they stop whatever they were doing because they are instantly mesmorized by the camera. That's what happened with Alivia today. She was playing patty cake so cute with me and she was even throwing her hands in the are and waving them around. It was so cute. It was even more cute than her first attempts at patty cake (and that's hard to beat!).
After I pulled out the camera this is all I could get out of her:

She just wasn't in the mood to patty cake anymore I guess.

The cutest thing Simeon did? Well I also didn't capture that one either. Simeon and I were playing after I put Alivia down for a nap. He was being a dinosaur and I was hiding under a blanket. He came and climbed on my back then turned around and looked over his shoulder and said "Hey, where's your butt? Where'd it go?" The things little kids come up with right? Ha ha, he's my funny little guy.

But I did capture one pretty cute thing.

It's okay, It's dry erase :) I keep a list of things I do every day in a binder. I have the list in plastic page protectors so I can make notes, check stuff off, and then erase it all the next day. Then I don't have to keep making new lists :) Simeon found it on the table today. After running out of room on the page (though there are lots more pages) he found a new medium for expressing his art :D

I took these pictures the day before Seth left but I know he'll like them: His two favorite girls in the world :)

Love you Daddy!

Deprived

2010-08-20T20:55:00.002-06:00

So I know that there are many die hard Simeon and Alivia fans out there that have been feeling pretty deprived as of late. So for all you cuteness junkies going into withdrawl - this post is for you:

This little boy loves having his daddy home :D

I love my boys!

Simeon has recently decided that he loves climbing in the tree

Simeon thought it was pretty special to roast marshmallows on the grill while the coals were heating up. Seth is such a good daddy for thinking of it :D

Alivia is my baby doll. I love her happy smiling flirty adorable face :D

Sometimes she's silly.

Sometimes she's adventurous.

Sometimes she gets to be a flower with flowers in her hair. (Making hair clips is my new obsession since she won't wear bows anymore)

Sometimes she has Einstein face (I love the way her arms are totally limp - baby Einstein is what makes dinner possible in our house)

But she's always a princess.

And she absolutely adores her big brother (who can blame her).

She really wants to be as big has him!

Alivian Antics

2010-07-25T22:32:00.000-06:00

So probably not everyone wants to watch a bunch of videos of Alivia wollering around on the couch and the floor. That's okay. I understand. Not everyone wants to just sit around and revel in her cuteness all day. But we are crazy parents - it's what we do.

But mostly I know of a lonely daddy who is just going to eat this up. The rest of you will just have to bear with us. Sher really is cute though :)

This second video is Alivia playing patty cake. She loves it! If you start singing the song she'll start clapping her hands. I'm not even doing any hand motions in this video. I'm just holding the camera and singing. I love how gentle her little hands are too. It is so cute!

Creepy Crawlies

2010-07-25T21:42:00.000-06:00

We get lots of creepy crawly things in our house. One of the hazards of living in the desert I suppose. It's tough when Seth isn't around. I need someone to kill all those nasty little things scurrying across my floor. That's what husbands are for, right ;)

Well there is one creepy crawly that I don't mind having around though. I want to squash this one with hugs and kisses ;)

She's getting around better and better all the time. In fact I really need to vacuum . . .

Goings On

2010-07-17T17:04:00.000-06:00

I haven't been blogging much lately, like I'm supposed to. Poor Daddy! But we've had some interesting goings on and I've got some big catching up to do.

The most exciting thing that has happened is me wrecking my car. It may not be fun but it definitely isn't dull:

The guy at the shop hasn't inspected it closely yet (we're waiting on the insurance) but he said his first impression is that it's totaled :( Fortunately we have full coverage on it. Unfortunately I really really loved this car :(

And Fortunately we were all safe. That is what really counts, right. No physical damage to me or the kids. In fact they didn't even notice or cry :D We were definitely very blessed.

But on a happier note . . .

Alivia got to have her first taste of watermelon. Mmmmm . . .

Simeon has been having way to much fun building marble towers at Grandma and Grandpa's house . . .

We're all in agreement that he's pretty darn cute.

Simeon has recently had some great wildlife adventures too. There has been a giant butterfly hanging around. It can't fly, for whatever reason but it sure can crawl all over our hands :) We decided this butterfly was put on the earth just for Simeon to play with :)

That's pretty special. Do you know what else is pretty special? Baby toads . . .

Sometimes life is hard, but mostly life is pretty darn good . . .

Big Trucks, Big Dog, Big Trip

2010-07-11T20:40:00.000-06:00

I went to my parents' house for 4th of July weekend. We had a lot of fun. Simeon got to see big trucks, and play with a big dog. It doesn't get much better than that for a little boy.

I was also able to see my best friend from high school who I haven't seen in about six years. Michelle came home to spend some time with her family since her husband is deployed to Iraq. I was finally able to meet her two sweet little girls, Charlee and Shiloh.

Here's a peek at my trip a-la-slideshow :) I've been playing around with iPhoto features a bit. You can throw any album into a slideshow but can't move pictures around or anything. Sometimes the groupings work out really nice and sometimes they are a bit funky. Still it's a fun way to see all my pictures :D

I made the slideshow and then realized that I had some pictures on my flash drive that my dad took with his camera. I really didn't want to have to export the slideshow again so I thought I'd just post those pictures separate:

Meet Spud, he's a celebrity :D

A local church used to borrow him for their live nativity scene - until he ate the manger . . .

Those pictures were taken on my parents land. They are getting ready to move at the end of the summer. The field behind me looks so nice because my dad just got his very first cutting of hay :D

Simeon's got his backpack, his binocs, and papa's lunchbox. He's ready to go camping! :)

Cute pictures and fun times. It felt good to visit home. Something about being in the mountains is good for the soul. I was amazed though at how brown and hot NM seemed when I got back :)

Sadness :(

2010-06-30T21:35:00.000-06:00

Seth just called and it turns out my little plan isn't going to work out so well. They have each been assigned a laptop but they have very limited internet access. Seth said pretty much every site is blocked for them. But today facebook was unblocked. Maybe they will get a more privileges as time goes on, but nor now, no blogger. So I'm going to upload all these pictures to facebook for him.

I'm pretty sad for Seth. Every time I think of him I want to cry for him because I know he has it pretty rough. He said that when he thinks about being home with me and the kids it seems like a lifetime ago (or sometimes it feels like a dream). It's only been 2 days!

Things are supposed to calm down after the first week. At least the yelling is supposed to taper off. I pray for Seth so much that through it all he will feel comfort and endurance, and that somehow, across all this distance he will be able to remember he has a family here loving him and thinking about him.

June 30

2010-06-30T20:11:00.001-06:00

I'm leaving to go to my parents tomorrow so I probably won't be able to blog anything over the weekend.

We had a pretty busy day today. We went to playgroup and had big fun at the park. Then we came home and I finished my last paper. You know what that means don't you?

I officially never have to do homework again! I'm just one test away from being done!

Still, the stress of having to get it done today ('cause it's my deadline day) was stressing me out. I probably would have finished it last night, or most of it, if I hadn't had to go to a relief society board meeting. But now it's all done and I am a free woman :)

Because I was busy and tired I didn't take any pictures today. I was only able to get this one picture so that daddy could reminisce about the good ol' days of being home :)

Love you Daddy!

PS: my egg hatched and I got a cobra :(

June 29

2010-06-30T20:05:00.001-06:00

I could try to come up with a witty title, but that's going to be pretty hard to keep up for a whole month.

So here's a little peak at yesterday:

Sometimes it's really hard to wake up when you are a little boy.

But sometimes it is pretty neat to wake up and realize that you are a flower!

Little boys don't stay cranky and tired for too long though. They've got big boy works to do:

Ohhhh that's a pretty big stick (using oh stuck voice)

My favorite part of the day:
Simeon found a pair of binoculars. I still don't know where. But when I saw him with them we went and asked grandpa. Simeon would march around with his binoculars, look through them , and say "[something] [something] [something] tank!"

You know where that comes from right? The big truck movie where he is looking for the tank. So basically Simeon is marching around with his binoculars saying "I've gotta find that tank!" I love it!

Because Daddy is Away :(

2010-06-29T21:27:00.003-06:00

I have sent my soldier off to war :( Actually I've only sent my husband off to Commissioned Officer Training Camp.

Seth will be gone for an entire month. He called me last night and it doesn't sound like he is having a good time. Not only does he have to be on the other side of the country with no family, but he has to wake up at 4am everyday and get yelled at.

But he should be able to access the internet every night, and hopefully he will be able to take a look at our blog. So I'm going to try to make a blog post for him everyday so he can feel some connection to home. I don't know how anyone could go a whole day without seeing these cute faces.

Yesterday, while I was working on the computer. I realized that Simeon was being really quiet and that is usually not a good thing.

I came out and found him coloring. He was trying to trace his hand and it was really cute :)

Unfortunately I came out later and he had colored all over the wall. Oops. Well he did help me wash it off. He only ever tries to do good things but sometimes he ends up doing bad things :)

Later in the day we came to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They just got a new dishwasher, which means that Simeon just got a new clubhouse :)

Wait a minute! What about Alivia? We can't have daddy going a day without seeing her pretty face. Well I don't have any pictures of Alivia from yesterday. But I took some cute pictures on Sunday and didn't end up showing them to Daddy. She is most undeniably a little flower :)

We love daddy!

Whew - Back From Nauvoo

2010-06-22T14:06:00.003-06:00

We just got back from a Farnsworth Family Reunion in Nauvoo, IL. We had a lot of fun but now we are in need of some serious recuperation.

Pppppplaaaane

We left on Thursday and Simeon was able to ride on an airplane for the first time! You never saw anyone so excited to be at an airport.

We were a little worried. We really didn't know how Simeon would react. We figured either he'd really really like flying in an airplane, or he would think it was really really scary and would cry the whole way. When the plan first started moving down the runway, all we heard from Simeon was "hehehehehehehehehehehehehheeeee." But he actually didn't like when we would take off or land. He didn't like how the airplane would jerk and bounce at the lower altitudes.

Still, for a 3 year old little boy on his first plane ride, he did really well. He even got to watch a movie with headphones (which is pretty neat for little boys).

Alivia didn't mind either. As long as she's being held and adored she's usually pretty happy :)

So that was one obstacle down . . .

St. Louis and Heber's House

We spent the night at Heber's house before heading up to Nauvoo. We were impressed with how green and pretty St. Louis is. We weren't so impressed with the oppressive humidity. As soon as we stepped out of the airport I was sure we were going to die during this trip. I told Seth that I felt like I was drowning while on dry land and he said "well I don't know if I would call this dry land . . ." Still, so much water in the air!

We had a lot of fun at Heber and Debbie's house. We were able to drive by the temple on our way there:

Alivia took a pretty good nap:

But obstacle #2 was still ahead of us.

Our kids had never slept in the same room before. It's actually what I had worried about the most before the reunion. Alivia pretty much sleeps through the night at home; but if we have a day that's really busy or stressful (like Sunday) then she'll usually wake up once that night. The problem with nursing is that breaking from your ordinary routine can really mess with your supply :( So I knew Alivia wouldn't be sleeping through the night during the reunion. And with Simeon being in the same room I was sure that she would wake him up, he would keep her from going back to sleep and it would be a vicious cycle. Well I wasn't too far off. But to make matters worse, Simeon is apparently a very noisy sleeper. And he's also apparently a clock. I swear he would cry out in his sleep like every hour on the hour. And of course it would wake her up. And then of course she would cry and would make him cry more. So pretty much it was just about the worst night of my life. And probably for everyone else in the house too.

And pretty much we were dreading the rest of the reunion.

It turned out to not be so bad because the room we stayed in at Heber's house was tiny and the hotel room was big. We but Alivia in the area by the bathroom and Simeon got the bed that was further away from her. Add in Alivia's sleeping music and things actually went really well. Alivia would usually wake up once per night, eat, and go back to sleep without waking Simeon. The only one who didn't get any sleep was Seth but that was his own fault ;)

Nauvoo
This was my first trip to Nauvoo. Seth's family had been there before (but before the temple was built). So he was more excited to just be able to see his family and socialize and stuff. Turns out I'm not actually all that much of a social person. But I was super excited to be able to see the Church History sites around Nauvoo. I decided on the things that I really wanted to see and we made those our priority. I wish we could have seen more but it's hard to be out and about all day when you have little kids. Especially when it's so oppressively hot. It drains the energy right out of you. I think it even had a big effect on Simeon's energy, and that's saying something.

The Temple
The temple kind of sneaks up on you as you enter Nauvoo. One minute, all you can see is trees and the Mississippi. Then you round a corner and bam there's a temple!

The temple really does dominate Nauvoo. While visiting the historic sites you can always look up the hill and see the temple. It's easy to imagine how the Saints in Nauvoo must have felt to be able to look up from their work and see the temple. One of the sister missionaries pointed out how they must have felt as they walked away from Nauvoo and could see the temple that they were leaving behind.

Seth and I were talking about Nauvoo and how neat it is that they have restored so much and tried to make it all look like it did. He pointed out that the most amazing thing of all is that the temple was restored to it's fullest. Yes, they tried to build the temple as close to the original as they could. But more importantly, they built it as a temple. If they had just replicated it and opened it up for tours like the other shops and buildlings in Nauvoo, it would not be as neat, or as special or as awe inspiring. But they restored its function as well. It isn't just the Nauvoo temple. It is the house of the Lord. And that is what truly makes it amazing.

We didn't take the opportunity to do a session in the temple. But we really wanted to spend some time on the grounds with our children. We were able to capture some really great pictures there.

Ahh, good ol' family togetherness :)

I really do love my little family, even when they are sleep deprived, cranky, and uncooperative. And I'm grateful for the temple and the power of the priesthood which make family togetherness possible :)

I love to see the temple :)

Carthage

Carthage was the other place that I really wanted to see. The Prophet Joseph Smith gave his life for what he believed in and what he knew was right. He dedicated his live to the gospel of Jesus Christ and in that jail at Carthage he gave his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's something special to be able to sit in that room and listen to the reenactment and think about what more we can do as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Unfortunately it's a little bit hard to think these thoughts when your 3 year old is standing in the fireplace . . .

. . . and flirting with the Sister Missionaries . . .

Still I'm super glad we were able to visit this special place.

Fun Times

The Temple and Carthage were the highlight of our trip, but we saw and did a lot of other fun things while were were in Nauvoo.

A wagon ride tour of historic Nauvoo

Pioneer Pastimes: geared mostly to children (as you can see in this picture -->); games and activities that Pioneer children would have played.

The Visitors Center

A tribute to women and womanhood: the statues represent various stages in a woman's life and the good influence that a righteous woman can have.

The Browning gunsmith shop

The Smith Family Graveyard: these three granite headstones mark the graves of Hyrum, Joseph, and Emma Smith.

Alivia's first time in a swimming pool! Simeon loves water and would wake up every morning and tell me "fwees, water" (friends and water). Alivia thought swimming wasn't too bad until a large group came in and started splashing and making a lot of noise.

We had a lot of fun and we are glad that we were able to see family and have this neat experience. We are so glad that Seth's parents made this happen :)

She's My Princess, She's My Flower

2010-06-11T11:24:00.003-06:00

A few days ago I was suddenly struck with the realization that 1 year ago, Alivia was still doing somersaults in my tummy. Then I realized that it was about one year ago that I found out Alivia was a girl! This realization was somewhat emotional for me. I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude that Alivia is part of our family. She is such a special little sweety and we love her.

So in case I haven't impressed upon you how much I love this little girl, I thought I would devote a post to her absolute adorableness! We love our little boy so much too (I think we've already proved that) but there is something very special about little girls. We are so glad for her special and sweet personality.

Have I stressed that enough yet? If not here are some pictures :) She sure has changed a lot in the last year (lol).

Look at those feets, ups in the air!

That's my happy girl :)

Simeon loves to run, shake stuff, bounce, jump, throw things, etc (all the stuffs that little boys love to do). Alivia loves to smile, laugh, be held, touch faces, hold her bear, and put stuff in her mouth. It is so fun to see their differences. Boys are so much fun, girls are so sweet (and lots of fun too). We love that we have both. I don't know how we could survive without either one of them :)

Alivia is almost 8 months old! Wow! She has just discovered bread crust! She was real fussy the other day so I tore off a piece of my bread crust and she couldn't have been happier gumming it. She loves it. It is a lot of fun when they can start getting into finger foods. I'm excited for her :)

Do you know what she loves most in this world though?

Simeon!

I'm pretty sure that Simeon is her favorite person in the world! Mommy is a very very close second :P But she just loves her big brother. I love it :)

But what I really love is Simeon's face in this picture! :) I have no idea, I was trying to get him to smile :) I also love how dark he is and how white she is :) It's like a visual representation of their personalities :) She's so soft and fair :) He's on the go all the time and he spends as much time outside as possible :)

Had I mentioned that I really really really love my children? :)

Bucheli Family

2010-06-10T11:22:00.000-06:00

Last week we were able to have a fun visit. Javier was one of Seth's companions in Ecuador. Seth's parents (with Seth's encouragement) sponsored Javier and helped him come to the US from Ecuador. He lived with Seth for the summer and then moved to a different apartment in the fall. That's where he met Charity. Now Javier and Charity have two adorable little boys and they are moving to Austen! We are so excited because we will most likely be moving to San Antonio in about a year. It will be fun to know someone that is fairly close to us and to be able to spend more time with our friends!

Simeon and Max had big fun playing together and we hope that they will grow up to be great friends! We had such a fun visit. We're so glad you guys drove through your way and spent time with us. Can't wait to see you guys in Texas!

Sunflowers

2010-06-04T09:17:00.000-06:00

I found two little sunflowers at grandma's house one day

Lybi and her family came to visit over Memorial Day weekend. Yay! We had so much fun with them! Simon had really big fun running circles through grandma's house with the boys. Alivia had fun getting adored and meeting one of her future best friends :) Alivia and Danielle are 4 months apart and we hope that along with Kendra they'll be the 3 little Farnsworth family bandits someday :) So far things seem to be off to a good start.

On Saturday we were all sitting around talking. Alivia was wearing a cute headband and bow (as usual) and Lybi commented that she wished she had a Sunflower for Danielle's dress on Sunday. I said, "I have the stuff to make a sunflower!" Alivia's used to be a great big sunflower and I decided that she looks better in small to medium sized flowers. So I took some of the layers out and kept them. I decided that Alivia and Danielle could be Sunflowers together! And they were so cute! As grandma said, they sure did make quite a stir at church :) But I think they actually made an even bigger stir in the Farnsworth house. I couldn't believe how cute they looked together! I'm so glad that Lybi got these great pictures!

We're so excited to watch these sweet little girls grow up!

We are alive!

2010-06-03T17:37:00.000-06:00

I know, it's been another famine of cuteness. I'm sorry! Turns out that I'm having camera issues AGAIN! My camera says my SD card needs to be reformatted but then it won't reformat it. So I think I just need to give in and buy a new card. :*( I got that one on sale after Thanksgiving. I definitely can't wait that long though. Just need to check and see if Staples is having any sales or if Walmart is the best price. In the meantime I will have to refer you to the blog post of a very excited grandma :) I find that I'm always going to her blog to see the super cute picture at the top :) Such cute little girls. I'll be getting a copy of the pictures off of her computer tomorrow so I will be able to share more.

So until next time . . .

It's so fun to be a little boy!

2010-05-14T21:44:00.000-06:00

In case you couldn't tell, it is especially fun to be a 3 year old little boy!

The recipe for a happy birthday for Simeon is simple: Grandpas and "ma ma ma ma truuuucks!" (Big big big big trucks). Balloons are also a nice addition to the recipe.

I don't even know how many times Simeon blew out his candle, but it was big special fun :)

We love our big the boy! It's pretty special to be 3!

Chocolate and root bear also make for a pretty special day ;)

Biopark Vol 2

2010-05-04T15:00:00.001-06:00

When we went to the Aquarium with Laura I remember thinking that Seth had never been to the Aquarium. And our Aquarium really is too amazing to miss.

So I decided that we should make it a point to take Daddy to the Aquarium during his break. And Simeon is technically only free for another week, so we figured now was the best time. I also wanted to spend more time in the Botanical Garden. We invited Grandma and Grandpa and had a super fun day!

Aquarium

Notice the giant lobster in the corner :) Simeon calls it a "Spawee" (Spider)

Botanical Gardens

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to stomp through those flowers Simeon . . . oops.

I'm pretty excited to be outside!

choo choo trains were definitely the highlight of the day

A very tired boy staring at the little train

hehehe

It's a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ceremonial Garden

Orchid Show

Yes that is a great big giant scorpion - EWWW!

Japanese Garden

A very cute picture

If only she would have smiled like that when I took her in for her professional pictures :) Such a pretty little face!

You'd think that after looking at all those pictures you would have seen all there is to see. I don't know that we even saw half of the botanical gardens! That place is amazing!

6 Months!

2010-04-29T20:04:00.003-06:00

Can you believe it!? I know I can't. Alivia is 6 months old today! Seriously, half a year has gone by since she was born and was just a little tiny baby!

Now she's a big girl doing lots of big girl stuff! She lives to smile and laugh. She really does look around waiting for someone to smile at her so she can smile back. And she gets so excited that her arms and her legs start going whenever she smiles :) She also loves her voice. She figures, Why would I have a voice if it's not for letting everyone know I'm here? She loves to squeal and growl and say "dadadadada." It's so cute! She is our little princess :) It's fun to watch her discover the world :)

That toy is seriously the best 50 cents we've ever spent. Both our kids have loved it! Go yard sales :)

We love our Nubbins!

Silly Head

2010-04-27T10:58:00.000-06:00

Alivia discovered a fun new game to play with Mommy. She's got a silly head. If I tip my head to the side, a lot of the time she'll tip her head to the side. And sometimes she'll tip her head first hoping that I'll do it too. She thinks it is so funny. And I think it is so cute!

I love that look on her face! Such a little cutie!

Easter

2010-04-06T21:23:00.002-06:00

Last post and then I'll be caught up. Woot! Yay for power blogging :)

My parents came to visit for easter. Holidays are fun (I'm a Holiday person) but they are even more fun when you have kids! Last year we let Simeon participate in coloring Easter Eggs. He was so careful, and with Grandma's help he stayed pretty clean.

This year started out very much like last year, except that I gave him finger paint, so he didn't even have to be too careful. Such a nice, mellow boy, right?

Then he realized that we were dropping our eggs in cups, and he was missing out . . .

And then we get the end result. Don't worry, most of the color on him is finger paint. The only real problem is that dead looking hand that he soaked in food coloring . . .

Unbelievably, Seth managed to get most of it off in the bath. His hand came out only slightly pink ^_^ The layer of finger paint underneath must have served as protection :)

Last year was also Simeon's first Easter Egg hunt. Last year he thought it was pretty special to find those eggs. But this year he apparently remembered that mommy hides chocolate in those eggs. He was pretty intent on finding that chocolate :)

Alivia might not be able to participate much but we can't leave her out. She's just too cute!

Yes, my children have ridiculously long, beautiful eyelashes. I love it! I think it's part of the secret to their cuteness :)

I love the scrunchy nosed smiles! It's what I live for :)

So Sweet :) She's got those pink the cheeks :)

Laura's Visit and a Snowy Day

2010-04-06T21:03:00.000-06:00

Laura and her girls came to visit for spring break. Their heater broke and it's still butt freezing in CO so they decided to come visit us here. Unfortunately they brought some cold with them. It snowed the day after they arrived. And I'm not talking the usual New Mexico frost on the grass; but a whole 3 inches of snow!

Personally, I despise the snow; but Simeon doesn't get to see it very often so I get excited about it for his sake. We had to hurry and get him out in it because by the time we finished breakfast it was already starting to melt :)

This is my favorite. He's throwing a snowball at me :)

"Gotta clear the snow off my car"

He decided that his gloves would make nice socks :)

Aside from the snow, we had a really great time with Laura's family. We all went to the Aquarium while they were here. Unfortunately I got there and then found out that my SD card wasn't in my camera. I had thrown it in my video camera one day when my camera's batteries were dead. My camera can't hold very much on it's internal memory so I didn't take very many pictures. It's okay, because I took a lot of great pictures of the Aquarium when we took Simeon for his Birthday.

Nubbins watching the fish. "That's pretty neat!"

Laura's girls wanted to ride the train home but I really wanted to hit up the Botanical Garden while we were there. I was pretty excited to find out that the Aquarium ticket will also get you into the garden. I always thought you had to buy a separate ticket or a combo pass. Simeon is still free so I paid $7 and got to see both ^_^ You can't beat that!

The Botanical Gardens is divided into separate gardens - The Spanish Garden, the Japanese Garden, the tea garden, the bridal garden, etc. One of the first gardens is the children's garden. It is designed to make you feel like Honey I shrunk the Kids. Everything is scaled super big. Simeon was obsessed with this giant bee. It even buzzed when you walked under it.

He was actually getting super tired or else he would look much more enthusiastic in this picture. But then we found a really cool slide and it perked him right up :)

I seriously had to drag him away from this thing :) But he was getting so tired that he was stumbling up the steps each time :) Still we had lots of fun so I'm really glad that we stayed. Seth and I want to go back when he is on break and spend more time there. Plus he hasn't actually been to the Aquarium yet and it's so awesome :)

Now I really should post some pictures of Laura's family since this post is supposed to be about their visit :) Simeon also had a GREAT time playing with his cousins. Her girls like to play kitty-cat and Simeon has picked it up since they left. So cute!

Audrey told me that she is the mommy, Simeon is the daddy, and Hayley is the kitty-cat and they are going to have a picnic. Love the big shoes they are wearing :)

Such fun little friends!

Nubbins and Sharp Tooth

2010-04-06T20:30:00.000-06:00

Yes, I have strange kids.

Nubbins is a silly silly

And Simeon is a Sharp Tooth

Yes, The Land Before Time is currently Simeon's favorite movie. And you'll notice in this cute video that Nubbins is definitely a leaf eater. My favorite part of the video: When Simeon bites the window blinds. :)

They may be sillies but they sure do love each other. Simeon is such a good big brother. He's always playing with Alivia and making her laugh. And Simeon is the light of her little world. She just lights up and gets so excited whenever she sees Simeon :) Every girl needs an awesome big brother :)

Big Boy Bed

2010-03-27T21:01:00.000-06:00

We officially made the switch today. Alivia is in the crib and Simeon is in his big boy bed. I knew that Alivia had absolutely outgrown her bassinet when I went into her room to get her one morning and she was turned completely sideways, with her feet up on one side of the bassinet and her head cricked against the other. She just wiggles too much. I also often saw her sleeping with her face buried in the walls of the bassinet, so I really wanted to get her out. She really does make that crib look huge.

She's kind of making a krusty face because I'm taking pictures of her instead of getting her out of bed :P

In general we've been trying to really turn her room into her room instead of just the room where we throw stuff when we have people coming over and we don't want to clean :P So I've been doing some massive de-junking and reorganizing. We not only moved her bed in today, but also my nursing chair.

That looks like a nubbins room to me :P

Simeon also got to upgrade to his big boy bed today. We tried this once before and it was a fail. He just wasn't quite ready (and honestly neither were we) - so we gave up and decided to wait until he was a little older. It's still a challenge, but he does seem more ready for it. He fell asleep tonight at 8:30. That's an hour and a half past his bedtime, but it's actually a lot better than I was expecting. I was prepared to be up until 9 or 10 with him so I was pleasantly surprised. Perserverance, I can do this :)

He was pretty excited when we set up the bed. First he jumped in it and screeched for a while. Then for a long time he pretended to go night night. He even turned off the light and shut the door first :) Now if only he'd stop turning on the light and opening the door when it actually is night night time :)

New Blogger Layouts

2010-03-17T21:46:00.002-06:00

I discovered something neat today that I thought I would share with my fellow bloggers. Blogger has a feature called Blogger in Draft which allows you to work with some of their features that are in development. One of these features is the new Layout Designer. Go to draft.blogger.com. The dashborad is set up the same way as it usually is but you now have access to the new features. If you click on the layout tab (as if you were going to select a new layout) you will see a new tab called template designer. There are more options for choosing and customizing your templates and it is super easy to use. Very fun. Very nice templates.
Here's a screen shot. Sorry I was feeling lazy.

The designer offers a whole library of high quality images that you can use as backgrounds and it also has a css editor so you can add your own backgrounds and make other changes (a linked blogger article gives instructions on some basic things you can do with css if you don't already know how). The designer also makes it easy to chose a color palette or customize the colors for each individual element.

Very fun :)

Good Helpin' Boy

2010-03-09T10:37:00.002-07:00

Simeon is my good helpin' boy. I was feeding Alivia while I had our dinner cooking on the stove. I went to check on dinner and when I turned back to the table I found Simeon being a good helper.

He even tells her "good job" after every bite :) So Cute!

So Sorry!

2010-03-05T12:00:00.002-07:00

So yesterday was the first time I uploaded my videos straight from iMovie to youtube. I saw a little box that said "Make this video personal" and thought "Heh? I wonder what that means?" but since it was checked by default, I just left it that way. Guess by personal they meant private. The thought occured to me that I should check that but I forgot. So sorry, all! Thanks grant for pointing it out so I could fix it. Should be all better now :)