The Farr Family: August 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

First Week of School

We all survived the first week of school. Jordan and Kaylee started on Monday and Lexi started on Thursday. (They always start the Kindergarteners a few days after the rest of the school grades.)

Jordan-4th Grade

Kaylee 2nd Grade

Lexi-First Day of Kindergarten

My camera battery died after my first shot of Lexi and so this is not the best picture of her. I will have to take a better one of her next week.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Mom Song

I came across this youtube video and found it hilarious. EVERY mom can relate to this video. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPP0LK4S0KY

Doesn't it say it all?!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The day has finally come for my dad to retire. A day that we all look forward to for one reason or another. Since my mom retired last month, they both have the time to do what they want to do. He retired last friday and it only took 3 days before they were up in the mountains camping....a favorite for both of them. I have to say that I am extremely jealous. A few memories of my dad are:

He has always had a good work ethic. He works hard and follows the rules without complaint...going the extra mile.
He would do backflips to help someone in need.
He gives good logical advice. He often uses his own life experiences as examples in sharing his advice.
He has a heart of gold.
He is a spiritual giant.
He loves basketball, and more basketball, and more basketball, and then maybe some more basketball.
He loves camping, fishing, and riding his ATV.
He gives wonderful priesthood blessings.
He hates pets (but won't deny that he liked Pudge(a past dog we owned))
There's nothing like a good movie with a Hot Dog, Chips, and a glass of Milk.
Games Games Games...with competition as good as me (tee hee hee). "Drawing the line" is a good luck charm that only worked in the good ol' days....luck like Yahtzee.
"Hi, My name is Joe" I don't think I ever really understood this.
He loves to read mystery Suspense novels and the newspaper.
Poems at the pulpit are priceless.

I love you dad and I hope that your retirement years are as enjoyable as you hope them to be.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Summer Fun

We have tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible during these last two weeks of summer. Here are some fun photos with the Stones.

Yesterday, the kids and I went to China Ranch Date Farm with some friends. It was HOT. We would walk from one shady spot to the next stopping to drink water and rest. Take a look at some pics I took while we were there:

Overall, we've had a great summer. It's gone by too quickly. Starting on Monday it's back to our busy schedules of School, Tap Dance, Ballet, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, Piano lessons, and HOMEWORK!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A Sanity Getaway

Last weekend I was able to go to St. George, UT for a "Sanity Getaway". My sister called me on Thursday and asked me what I was doing for the weekend. This is a weird question to ask because she lives in another state. The next day I was headed to St. George for a scrapbooking weekend. Stacie (my sister) was planning on going to Las Vegas with a friend when her plans fell through. Her husband had already taken Friday off of work and she had set everything up to be gone for the weekend...so she was extremely disappointed when her friend was unexpectedly unable to go. I had to make some arrangements, but I was able to pull it off. We missed having my mom come (she was visiting Marilee in Colorado). And last time we scrapbooked Heather came and we missed her too. We normally try to have these sanity weekends about twice a year. I was able to scrapbook 23 pages beating out my sister by 1 page. (This is always a big deal). She might argue that she came down with a cold while we were there and had to take cold medicine, thus giving her a handicap...but I don't take this into consideration. The reason I don't take this into consideration is because the last two times we have gone scrapbooking I was sick or in pain and those "handicaps" were not taken into consideration at that time. I have a wonderful husband, who despite his full weekend of a band performance and a final paper for his current Masters Degree class, took charge upon him my responsibilities as well as his. All I have to say is, "A happy mom is a happy home"..and after my sanity getaway...I am a happy mom. I took my camera, but I was so busy scrapbooking that I didn't take any pictures. Maybe next time.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Next Stage of Independence

I am normally very excited when my kids reach the next stage of independence. I love to see them smile, then laugh, crawl, then walk, etc. The more independent they become, the less dependent they are on me. They start sleeping through the night and feeding themselves...its' great. HOWEVER, I realized this week that I wasn't ready for Masons next stage of independence. He recently learned how to open doors (including the pantry), reach items near the edge of the table, climb onto the couch, and open top drawers in the kitchen. Last week he chased Doug down with the pizza cutter...scary!

The above pitcher of generic brand sugar free strawberry flavored crystal light was and is very delicious. I buy it on a regular basis as a treat for the kids. This week I learned that if a child leaves their cup of this yummy drink near the edge of the table, Mason gets a drink too. Not only does he get to drink in in the kitchen, but also in the family room on the carpet. Maybe after one more carpet scrubbing, it will come all of the way out.

This plant is one of my absolute favorites. The reason? This plant has gone without water for weeks on end, has been tipped over SEVERAL times, and has been through every kind of abuse you can think of........AND IT IS STILL ALIVE! This is my kind of plant. This plant sits on a ledge that separates our kitchen from our family room. As I stated above, Mason can now climb onto the couch, thus reaching anything on this "shelf". Yesterday he managed to pull this plant onto the couch with him. It was a day I was very thankful for my powerful vacuum.

This is an ink pad...black. I didn't even know that we owned it. I bought a similar ink pad for my scrapbooking supplies about a month ago. Apparently it was in the top drawer of a dresser (that we currently use for desk supplies). Are you curious why I am showing you a picture of this ink pad?

Yep, you guessed it. Don't let that smile fool you....he's evil. :) Just a note...black ink does not come off of the skin very easily! Maybe after a few baths he'll be back to normal again.

So, this week I will be safe proofing our house, because I, apparently, was not ready for Mason's next stage of independence.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Jordan's Braces

It all started about 2:30 AM. I noticed the bathroom light on and got up to inspect. Upon further inspection I found both Kaylee and Lexi in their bed reading books. They were so excited to go to the babysitters house that they both woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. I made them go back to bed informing them that we didn't leave for the babysitters for over 5 more hours. Luckily they obeyed. (I guess we don't get out much). We woke up about 6:15 AM to assure that all of us were ready to go by 7:45 AM. After dropping the youngest 3 children off and getting them settled at the babysitters house it was 8:15 AM. Jordan and I were on our way to his orthodontist appointment. His appointment was scheduled for 9:30 AM and it takes about 1 hour to get there. We were on schedule to arrive 15 minutes early to his appointment. This is very important because Jordan receives incentive tokens from the orthodontist to redeem at a later date...he gets 1 token if he arrives at his appointment on time. We drove about half way to Las Vegas when dread struck! Apparently they are doing construction on the Highway at the top of the mountain for today and tomorrow only. We ended up in a "parking lot" for exactly 1 hour...from 8:43-9:43. With gas expenses so high...I turned off the engine to conserve gas and read a book. Jordan watched "The Bee Movie" (One luxury in our van that I am thankful for). There were people getting out of their vehicles to stretch. I still had cell phone connection and called the orthodontist to let them know I was going to be late.

Can I just vent for a minute....I just don't understand why they couldn't let all the cars through every 15 minutes or so. I know that they are just trying to improve our roads, but why couldn't they do one side today leaving through traffic, and one side tomorrow. All they were doing is paving the little bumps on the side of the hwy that makes you wake up if you start to drift off of the road. In their brilliance, they decide to block both sides of the road, and apparently, let cars through every hour. I just love smart people. Okay...I think I'm done ranting.

So after arriving at the orthodontist at 10:15 (45 minutes late), Jordan finally had his braces put on. He is very excited. Here are some pictures of Jordan in his braces:

He is very happy with his braces and now home playing Guitar Hero III. What else could a kid want?

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I want to play outside too!

Last night the three older kids decided to go on a bike ride with Dad. They got their shoes on and headed outside to the front yard. Soon, I found a sandal being hurdled at me. I looked down and saw Mason with a pleading look on his face. He had found his sandal, and since he can't talk yet, thought he would get my attention by throwing it at me. I put it on and asked him to go find his other shoe. He brought me his white tennis shoe instead of the other sandal, but he knew exactly what he wanted....to go outside! He's growing up too fast (16 months on Saturday). The above picture has no relevance to this story, I just thought it was a humorous picture of Mason.