And it begins...

School has been out for about a week now and we have been enjoying the summer sun. Here's what we've been up to so far...
Playing on our swingset with neighbor kids Eating chocolate pudding...
Making Noah smile at us as much as possible...
Swimming in our kiddie pool...
Playing with friends as MUCH as possible (Lexi, Bella, Kaylee)...
And jumping on our new trampoline...
We've also played board games, watched movies from the library, read books from the library, and gone to at least 3 different parks in the last week. A short video...

Memorial Day 2010 from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

New (to us) Piano

When we moved from Nevada to Colorado we had to sell our baby grand player piano. It was too big and too heavy to move. I was sad. Even though I don't play the piano, I missed it. Doug plays well and the kids love the piano too. I wish I would have stuck to piano lessons when I was younger. For the past few months we have had an electric keyboard in the house, but it's just not the same. The other day I found an ad in the paper that said free piano...good condition. I thought...what's wrong with it? Why are they giving it away? Nobody gives away a free piano for no reason. Doug and I decided to check it out anyways. What could it hurt? So...here's our new upright grand piano:

After a ton of cleaning (inside and out), it doesn't look too bad...for a free piano. The keys are stained and worn, but there is a special paint that we can buy to try to do some repair on them. The sound is in really good condition. We are on the lookout for a piano bench.

The other problem we ran in to was where to place it in our house. You are supposed to put piano's on an inside wall, but we only have one in the entire downstairs and we are forced to have our couch there because of the layout. So it doesn't look the best where it is, but will have to do.

So until we have the money to buy a brand new, awesome looking piano...we are going to enjoy this free piano. We are all happy. One step at a time....

Noah's progression

Noah is 5 weeks & 5 days now. He is getting so big. He weighs 9 pounds now. He is also smiling. It's really hard to get a picture of him smiling, but the above picture is the tail end of a smile I caught. Some nights I get more sleep than others. The picture below is one of those rare moments where Doug is home and I get to catch a few zzzzzzz's with Noah. Kaylee was proud to have taken the picture.Mason is so proud to be a big brother and he takes every chance he can get to hold Noah.

Doug turns 38

Doug's birthday was yesterday. A neighbor friend of the girls asked how old Doug was turning and they told her 38. Her reply was..."WOW, THAT'S OLD". Yep...he's getting up there. :) He had a very busy day. It was the last day of school (yippee) and he had to set up for the H.S. Graduation. Some of his students decorated his car with saran wrap and paint (how thoughtful). My parents also arrived in town for the weekend, so they were able to join in on the celebration. We did the usual party stuff....decorations, presents, cake and ice cream. We all had an enjoyable day. Here is one of the presents Doug received from Kaylee and Lexi. It is a picture of a puppy. He also received a wii game and controller. I made a caramel cake for the first time. It turned out okay. Unfortunately, Doug didn't blow out all of his candles in one blow and his wish won't come true. Maybe next year.
Overall, I think he had a good birthday this year. Happy Birthday!

Theme week

(This is my fourth post for the day, so don't forget to check them all out)
We were very lucky to recently have my parents come for 3 weeks and Doug's parents to come for a week. They helped out so much! THANK YOU! I already blogged about some fun things we did while my parents were here and I thought I would blog about some fun things we did with Doug's parents too. Doug's mom decided to have a theme of the day and have fun activities for the kids to do. Here's what they did:
Day one: JUNGLE DAY
Grandma gave all of the kids Jungle hats. They made an art folder to hold all of their projects for the entire week. They drew jungle animals to keep in their folder. They went on a nature walk and looked for all of the animals they could. They had Tiger chow and jungle leaves for dinner (Spaghetti and salad) and nests with eggs (jelly beans) for dessert. They hung up a bird feeder so they could observe birds for the week.They also made a volcano out of salt dough to erupt on a different day.
Day two: BOOK OF MORMON DAY After church Grandma had everyone choose their favorite book of mormon character. Each person told something about their character and we colored a collage coloring page of memorable book of mormon stories. Grandma gave everyone a book of mormon, B.O.M reading chart, and a framed picture of Jesus. She challenged everyone to read the book of mormon. The kids have been doing great with this challenge. Woo hoo!
Day three: MAD SCIENTIST DAY Jordan learned about bridges and drew 4 different kinds. He also built the bridges out of blocks and cardboard. He drove matchbox cars over them to see which one was strongest. Jordan also talked with grandma about engineers and drew a floor plan of our house. These are all things that helped Jordan pass some things off in his Webelos Cub Scout book. Hooray. All of the kids made catapults out of blocks, plastic spoons, and duct tape. They wadded up pieces of paper and shot them in the backyard. They pretended like they were at war. They also erupted the volcano that they made on Saturday. They used baking soda, food coloring and vinegar.

Volcano erupting from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

Day Four: WILD WEST DAY The kids made Indian head bands with paper, markers, and feathers. They also made sack puppets to sing songs with and put on plays. Later in the week Jordan performed a "musical" with his puppets.

We ate Navajo Tacos for dinner....mmmm...scones...mmmm.
Day Five: THE OLYMPICS

For one of Jordan's Webelos pins he had to do physical activities and show improvement over a month. About a month before Grandma came, we made a chart of several different physical activities and performed each activity. On Olympic day we did them again to see the improvement. The kids did sit ups, push ups, pull ups, standing long jumps, a 50 yard dash, and a quarter mile run. All of the kids improved. Grandma had an awards ceremony where they all received gold awards.
Day six: YAD SDRAWKCAB (backwards day) Each kid got a hat with their name spelled backwards. They started the day with dinner and ended the day with breakfast. They played a game where they would each write a line of a story and fold the paper so only one word showed, then passed it to the next person. The stories turned out pretty silly.
Day Seven: GAME DAY
Each person put a game in the bowl and we chose games to play all night long. We played Sorry, Trouble, Cat in the hat game, and charades. Everyone had a good time.
Day Eight: MEMORY DAY
Grandma put together a memory book of the entire week. She typed up memories and developed pictures to put in the book. Something we will always treasure.
What a great week with Grandma and Grandpa Farr.

The death of a loved one...sort of

Our beloved hamster "Oreo" recently died. He was getting pretty old...(over 3 years). I think he contracted pink eye or something. I feel guilty for not being sad (in fact, I felt happy). I felt bad for Oreo. Nobody ever played with him. I'm the one who cleaned his cage and fed him most of the time. He spent his time trying to escape...and frankly, I don't blame him. I would be bored to tears if I were him. Nobody was really attached to him and a few of the kids immediately asked what pet we could get next. (I'm thinking we will stay pet free for as long as possible...I'm just not a pet person). Mason and Doug at the funeral:

Oreo's Funeral from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.

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Noah's first bath

Noah had his very first bath.
He did cry a little bit, but not as much as I expected.

Lexi's First Grade Program

Lexi recently put on a program at school. The program was not just singing, but dancing/PE as well. I was unable to attend due to recovering from delivering Noah, but Grandma and Grandpa Farr were able to take my place. Doug did record some of the dances and songs so I was able to watch her program via camera recording. It looks like she had a really great time.

Lexi's 1st grade program from Kristi Farr on Vimeo.