Ice Skating

Russell's work had an after-Christmas Christmas party at the new ice skating ring in St. George. So of course we went and had a good time.

Despite the cold, we had a lot of fun.

Russell grew up on the ice in Logan so he was a pro at skating.

I have only been skating once or twice in my life but I was able to pick it up pretty easily. I didn't even fall down!

Even Emily wanted to skate. She loved walking on the ice thinking she was big. She would get so mad when we tried to carry her while skating. Then the workers got mad at us and said we couldn't have Emily on the ice because of liability. We couldn't even carry her so we took turns skating alone. After about an hour and a half, our toes and fingers were frozen so we decided to go home and get warm.

Ice skating is a lot of fun, we are going back soon!

I Know That My Savior Loves Me.

I have been the Primary Music Leader in our ward for almost a year now. Before I was called to this position, I thought this calling was to worst calling in the church and, I will admit, when the bishopric counselor called me to it, I really considered saying no. For the first few months, I really struggled with the responsibility of teach the primary songs to the kids because I am not a singer and I have a hard time with being in front of people. Over the year, however, I have come to love the primary children in our ward and I really enjoy this calling now. I have always loved Primary songs but now that I have to teach them, I have developed a testimony of the power of music and realized the powerful messages these little songs have in them. I still struggle with this calling but I am trying my best to convey to the children the important messages in these songs (as well as throwing in a few games here and there!).

As I was preparing to teach the new song for 2010 theme, I came across the above slide show and had to post it to our blog so I could share it with others. The song "I Know that my Savior Loves Me" has an important message that everyone needs to hear not just primary children. Our Savior loves us and He wants us to know that and follow Him. Even though we cannot touch Him physically, He is real! I know this is true! Please watch this slide show and listen to the simple, yet powerful message. You can also go to the website to see it without captions. http://larry4you.com/carolyn/

It's Christmas Time!

We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! It's Christmas time and of course we got everything we wanted!

Emily with all of her loot. She loves her new rocking horse and I had to get her the pink boots to go along with it. The first thing she ran to was her new baby and baby stroller. I don't think she really understands Christmas yet but she did like all of the new toys she got to play with. I think her favorite gift was the banana in her stocking! She pulled it out and said "NANA!" then tried to eat it before it was even peeled!

Russell got what he wanted too. A Smith & Wesson 38 Special Air Weight revolver. Yeah I know he's spoiled. Now that he has his concealed weapon permit he needed a weapon to conceal.

I got what I wanted too. The songbook of Favorite Songs for Children. It is a book of primary songs with pictures and stories to go along with each song. I'm so excited to read it.

We also got a lot of Emergency Preparedness stuff. We finally put together our 72-hour kits and got a big water jug. Now we just need to put water in it.

Emily loved opening presents. She would rip them open, look at what was inside, say "Ooh!" and then put it down and go find another gift to unwrap. She was so fun to watch.

I don't know why but she had to be sitting on my lap or Russell's to open a present.

To Dad; From Emily. A Little People Firefighter Paramedic.

To Mom; From Emily...

After opening our presents, we went over to Russell's parents' and opened more presents and got to talk to Russell's sister, Traci. Traci is on a mission in El Salvador right now so it was fun to talk to her on the phone.

We went to my parents' house for Christmas dinner and had a good time with them as well. We had a great holiday and we are glad we live close enough to both families to spend time with both of them. I am grateful for this time of year and the opportunity we get to celebrate our Savior's humble birth.

Christmas Festivities...

Christmas time is always full of fun activities and parties. Every year on the Saturday before Christmas, my family gets together for the Morwood Christmas Party. All of my dad's brothers and sisters and their families come from all over Utah and some in Nevada to enjoy Christmas together. At the party we all eat soup, talk, and get a visit from Santa! This year my immediate family was in charge of the entertainment. I am so mad at myself because I forgot to bring my camera. Luckily my mom and dad had theirs and Russell was able get a video of the cute entertainers. First, all of my nieces and nephews got up and danced and sang to "The Reindeer Rap." They all had reindeer antlers on and were so cute. Emily even joined them in the number. I was really surprised because she stayed up on the stage the whole time and danced and clapped right along with all of her cousins. I thought she would have ran back down to me. She knew she was as big as all of the cousins and she had a good time dancing. If I can, I will most the video later because it is so good. Then my nephews, Justin and Jared, and I played some Christmas songs on our bells and my niece, Cassie, played with us on her flute. They did really well considering at the practice the night before they did not really know the songs at all. Then it was time for Santa! Emily did not do as well with Santa this time. She started screaming the moment she was put on his lap. But she did like getting a present though.

Emily in her new jammies playing with her new magna-doodle from Santa. She loves playing with her magna-doodle and it is a great church toy!

Then on Christmas Eve, we went over to Russell's parents had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas dinner. Russell's sister, Jennifer, and family was down visiting from Laramie, WY. When we arrived, Jen and I started baking up a bunch of holiday goodies. We made chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cookies, and a pumpkin roll. Thanks to my Bosch mixer, making all these things was a lot faster and easier than hand mixing. We also made sugar cookie dough but we put the dough in the fridge to cool and kind of forgot about it (oops!). Needless to say everything we made was very delicious!!!!

Here we are slaving away in the kitchen!

Here are the three Farnsworth cousins: Emily, Alex, and Paul in their new Christmas jammies from Grandma. Emily likes playing with cousins but does not like to share toys with them. Any time Alex (who is two weeks older than her) would pick up a toy, Emily take it from him and say. "MINE!" She is usually pretty good at sharing but I think she was use to being the only kid around Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth so she thought all of their toys were hers.

Here she is being silly and showing off. Saying "Eww niney" (Eww stinky) and plugging her nose.

This picture doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas but I had to put it in because every kid has a picture like this... and now Emily does too!

Meeting Santa

We took Emily to see Santa for the first time on Wednesday. Santa was really good with the kids and took his time with each of them. Emily saw the candy canes he was giving out and that is all she wanted. She didn't really care to sit on Santa's lap she just wanted the treat. When it was finally her turn, I put Emily on Santa's lap and Russell got ready to take a picture. She didn't cry, which was great, but she didn't really do anything. She just kind of sat there with this confused look on her face trying to figure out who this guy was that was holding her. Santa was happy to hold her though.

"Ho, Ho, Ho!"

It is fun getting ready for Christmas. Emily and I were watching "Polar Express" on TV the other night and at the end one of the characters says "Merry Christmas!" and then, out of the blue, Emily said "Merry Christmas!" (Well in baby talk, but that is what she said) Since then, every time we say Merry Christmas, she does too.

This is Emily's first candy cane. As you can tell, she loved it! In fact, she was so mad when I took it away to move the plastic wrap down so she could eat more of it. She snatched it from me when I gave it back to her.

This is Emily's new Christmas dress that my mom and I made. I put two jingle bells on the dress for buttons. Emily did not like this dress at all because while we were making it, we kept putting it on and taking it off of her and I think a pin poked her in the process. When I put it on her for church, so kept fighting me and tried to take it off. In the struggle she heard the bells jingle and she stopped fighting. Then I jingled the bells again and the dreaded dress turned into the funnest dress ever. The bells would jingle while she was walking and they kept her busy during church too.

I am excited for Christmas this year. It will be so fun to watch Emily open all of her presents.

Mommy and Daddy's Big Helper

Emily is getting so big and this age is so fun because she tries to do everything we do. She is so observant and she remembers everything. We are teaching her a few things in sign language like treat, more, drink, eat, please, and thank you. She has picked the sign language up really well, especially treat! When we don't know what she wants, she will point to it and say "uhh uhh!" I think her favorite word right now might be "no." She says no whenever we ask her a question. If the answer is yes she will say "No." while tilting her head to the side. Then if the answer in no she says "Noooooo!!!!" while being mad.

Emily also loves helping her mom and dad. Even though sometimes we don't want her to especially when I am folding laundry and she is unfolding (helping) faster than I can fold. Here are a few pictures of her being very helpful:

Emily is helping by mopping the floor with a wash rag she saw hanging over the edge of the counter. She reached up and got the wash rag down all by herself.

And we can't forget the dishes! Every time I open the dishwasher, whether to load or unload, she has to help with the silverware. The only bad thing about that is she likes the knives the best.

Here she is helping put the laundry bins back in our rooms.

Russell's parents found this wooden toy chest at a garage sale so Russell is refinishing it for Emily's Christmas present. Emily was watching him paint the stain and varnish on the chest and she wanted to help so she grabbed a paint brush that was laying on the ground and started painting. Unfortunately, the brush had purple paint on it from when Russell painted her name on the chest so Russell had to re sand the places Emily "helped" with. He wasn't very happy at first but then he laughed about it.

Emily loves brushing her 6 little teeth. Every time she sees her toothbrush she points to it and says "tees, tees" (teeth). I think she mostly likes eating the toothpaste but we figure it is a good habit to get into. She lets me brush her teeth but she would much rather do it herself because it makes her feel big.

And this is her new trick! She can pull herself up on the stair railing! Isn't she big!!! She will run to the railing, pull herself put then jump down and laugh then do it all over again. She thinks she is so funny.

My favorite thing Emily does now is she wrestles us. We tell her to put up her dukes and she puts arms up and makes fists with her hands. Then she walks over to us with her fists up and pushed us down and laughs so hard. It is the funnest game we play.

I love this age. Emily is so fun and I cannot imagine my life without her or Russell!

Snow Day in St. George!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! Yeah it snowed in St. George on Saturday. We had a fun time playing in the snow at our house. We had to go outside right after breakfast because we knew that all of the snow would be gone in the afternoon. Unfortunately there was less than an inch of snow so we didn't have enough to make a snowman but we did throw a few snow balls at each other. Emily liked playing in the snow too!

Like I said, we had to play in it in the morning, hence Russell in his pj's.

The ground was pretty slippery for Emily so she was constantly falling down. Then, because of all of the layers of clothes, she couldn't get up by herself.

She finally got the hang of walking in the snow.

Here we are making snow angels in the little bit of snow left. As usual in St. George, the snow melted by 2:00 pm that day so we were glad we got to play in it before it melted. Below is a video of Emily singing and walking in a winter wonderland.

Mommy, Wow, Emily's a Big Girl Now!

If any of you remember the Pull-Ups jingle from back in the day, you will know what this post is about. Yep, Emily did it, she went to the bathroom in the toilet for the first time today!!! We were so happy Emily and I danced and sang afterward. I can't believe how big Emily is getting. She is only 14 months old but I think I am going to try and potty train her because she knows when she needs to go and she knows when she goes. Well she only went in the toilet once today but I think that is a good start! I wanted to take of picture of it but Russell wouldn't let me. Now that I think about it, however, it probably would have been pretty gross so I'm glad I didn't. (Yeah I'm gross sorry guys). My baby is growing up...sniff...sniff. But she is so fun.

O Christmas Tree!

It is officially Christmas time!! The day after Thanksgiving, we started putting up our Christmas decorations. Here we are setting up our tree. I would have much rather gotten a real tree but the fake tree is a little more convenient and less messy, however I do miss the fresh pine smell.

The tree before the lights and ornament's.

Russell had too much fun decorating. He even decorated Emily in tinsel. She wasn't too sure about that.

Dad helping Emily hang up her own ornament.

Emily quickly picked up on the idea of hanging ornaments. After I put the hooks on the ornaments, she would take them from me and walk over to the tree and act like she was putting the ornaments on the tree and then hand them to Russell to have him actually hang them up. It was so cute to watch.

Our beautiful Christmas tree all decorated, and our beautiful family. Our tree looks kind of funny because we had to put all of our ornaments up high so that Emily couldn't reach them and take them off. She is funny, she knows that she isn't suppose to touch the tree so she will walk by it and say "NO NO NO!" and then touch it anyway. What a smart-alic. But what can I say, she is too cute. Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving...AKA...The Day Before "Black Friday"

We had a great Thanksgiving. This year we spent it with my family. We did the typical thing... turkey, mashed potatoes, and of course. the greatest thing, Pumpkin Pie. Then the preparations began for the great tradition my sisters and I do every year... shopping on BLACK FRIDAY! We spent hours looking over the ads planning our strategies for the next morning. That night I hardly slept, mostly because I went to bed at 1 a.m. and got up at 3 a.m. but also because I kept dreaming we missed all of the sales! I know, I'm weird. So like I said, I got up at 3:30 a.m in order to make it to our first store that opened at 4 a.m. Our first stop was Sears and we were in and out of there in 20 minutes. Next stop was JCPenney for our free snow globe. Then we sped over to Wal-Mart for the bulk of our shopping. We got there at 4:30 and had to wait in line for the door busters that started at 5. Then the FIGHTING began! After grabbing all her things, my niece Jessica went to save us a place in the huge check out line. A few minutes later, my sisters and I came up with all of our carts to get in line with her. I guess this made the lady behind her pretty mad! Jess was standing back so we could get in line in front of her and the lady behind her kept pushing Jess with her cart telling her to move up. Finally Jess turned around and said "I'll move when I want to move!" Then the lady flagged down the Wal-Mart security to tattle tell on us I guess. So we said "No we're not butting we are all together." The lady said "No they're not. They just butted and they're all different transactions." So we said "Fine we'll pay for it in all one transaction." (Even though we didn't.) The security guy said "Well there is nothing I can do." and left. The lady in front of us said " Way to go...way to be strategic!" It was funny! The lady behind us was still mad so she kept ramming Jess with her cart over and over. She was such a JERK!! So Jess grabbed the lady's cart and shoved it back into the lady's stomach and said "B****, Knock it off!!" and the lady finally quit. I could not believe how rude that lady was. We have been shopping on Black Friday for a lot of years and I have seen a lot of fights but we have never been in the fight! I told Jess if the lady did it again to tell her she was assaulting you and you are going to contact the authorities now, or (because Jess was sick) just tell her you have Swine Flu and you are going to breathe on her! Jess was like "Yeah" then loudly she say, "I have Swine Flu and I'll breathe on you!!" It was way funny. (btw Jess does not have Swine Flu). Well we finally got out of Wal-Mart and headed for our next stop, Target. By the time we got there, the check out line was wrapped around the whole store! I was sad because the thing I came to get (a LeapFrog Phonetic fridge magnet thing) was all sold out! Any way after we got all of our stuff we stood in the enormous line. Then after like 15 minutes, Lacie and I decided we were just going to stash our stuff somewhere in the store and come back later. So we hid our stuff in the clothes and left to go to K-Mart. By the time we went to K-Mart and came back to Target, our sisters were just barely getting to the beginning of the line. (perfect timing we thought) But when we went to find our hidden stuff, they were GONE!! We were so bummed. So luckily we were still able to get more of our things. Then when Lacie was walking done an aisle, a lady in front of her decided she didn't want the LeapFrog Phonetic fridge magnet thing any more so Lacie snatched it up when the lady sat it down! So I was able to get the thing I wanted after all! Yeah!!! So Lacie and I butted in line with our sisters again and checked out. Another great thing that happened was that Target was giving away a $10 gift certificate for every $100 you spent so my LeapFrog thing was FREE!!!!! Oh Yeah!! Later on that day we went to Pier 1 and I finally used my Wedding gift certificates after 3.5 years. I bought a big Papasan chair for FREE!!!!! Russell and I have been want one of these chair for so long and they finally went on sale! A Papasan chair is a big round chair made of a wicker frame and a big round pillow cushion. It is SOOOOO Comfortable! Needless to say it turned out to be a great shopping day.

The Rat Pack is Back!

Every year, my boss takes me, my co-workers, and our spouses down to Las Vegas to go to a show. This is what we do for our company Christmas party. This year we went to the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas to see "The Rat Pack is Back." This was a comedy show impersonating the Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Joey Bishop. Even though these guys were before my time, they were way funny and the music they sang was really good. This was a really good show and Russell and I had a lot of fun. The funniest part of the show was when 'Marilyn Monroe' came out and sang to one of the old guys in the audience. His face was so red!!! It was hilarious! The guy's wife was laughing the hardest; it was great.

The Plaza Hotel is in the older part of Las Vegas along Fremont Street. I had never been to this part of Vegas before but I actually liked it a lot better than the Strip.

Remember this guy from "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid"?

I think this lady's leg got broken off in that movie. Fremont Street was fun. There was a Firefighter strength competition going on and it was awesome to watch. Russell was getting excited to prepare for the competition in the future. Then we walked down a little further and there was a guy creating portraits with spray paint. It was amazing!! He created this beautiful patriotic piece with the flag and soldiers in it. We had a lot of fun.

Vegas, Baby!

On Thursday, Russell and his Paramedic class took a "field trip" down to Las Vegas to go to the "Bodies" exhibit at the Luxor. Emily and I got to go down with them.

If any of you have been to it, you know how awesome the Bodies exhibit is! The exhibit is a display of probably hundreds of actual human bodies that have been dissected and plasticized. Sounds gross, I know, but it was actually pretty cool. I wish I could have taken pictures but cameras were not allowed. The display rooms went through each of the different systems in the body including the skeletal, muscular, respiratory, circulatory, digestive, reproductive and more that I can't remember right know. In each room there were different bodies and organs and tissues that aided in the process of each system. I was so amazed at how all of the organs and things worked together to make the human body function. I was also amazed at the size of the organs and muscles and especially the size of the arteries and veins in our bodies. My favorite rooms were the reproductive system and the fetal development rooms. The reproductive system room displayed a uterus and I was surprised at how small it was! I could not believe that a baby could grow in that small of an organ and that small organ could grow as big as it does to support a baby! Then, in the fetal development room, there were fetuses displayed in various parts of development from as young as 5 weeks into the pregnancy to full term. I loved seeing how small the little fetus was and how fast they develop little arms and legs. During my pregnancy I studied a lot of information about the development of a baby but to actually see it really helped me more fully understand the amazing miracle that happens inside a woman's body! This room was also Emily's favorite room. She would point to the babies and say "Bebe Bebe!" and " Oh Bebe, Oh Bebe!" Russell and I really enjoyed the Exhibit and we learned a lot.

After the Exhibit, we when to Caesar's Palace and ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Even though we spent 25% of our monthly budget for food, it was so good especially the cheesecake! After dinner, we became tourists and went exploring.

Our first stop was FAO Swartz, the biggest toy store I have seen. We actually went there to play on the giant piano that you step on to play but it was gone!! The store clerk said that they sold it. We were so bummed! (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the movie "Big" it is used in that movie.) So we had to just play with the regular toys instead.

"Oh Bebe!" Emily loved the life size newborn baby doll. The doll was way cute and actually felt and weighed as much as a newborn baby!

She also loved the big stuffed dog until Russell put her on it and let go of her then she got scared.

Being tourists, taking a picture by the Fountain of the Gods at Caesar's Palace.

THE STRIP! (What more can I say?)

Excalibur!

The Statue of Liberty? Wait, I thought we were in Las Vegas not New York! Ha Ha.

Then, FINALLY, we left Sin City and came back home to our Utah bubble. Ahhh, Home Sweet Home! We had a really fun trip but we were definitely glad to leave Las Vegas!

The Rock Climber

That's right, we have a rock climber in the family! The other day, we were watching my niece, Taylor, and we decided to go play in the front yard. Taylor was climbing on our rock and Emily saw her and ran over to the rock. Emily thinks she is as big as Taylor and has to do everything Taylor does. So when Emily got to the rock she started climbing!

I didn't even have to help her. I just stood there to supervise and catch her if she fell but she didn't fall.

Up she goes!

And she made it!! Yeah!!! Emily is getting so big. I can't believe all that she can do. She is also becoming very independent. She likes to do everything herself first and then if she can't get it she asks for help. I tried to help her climb the rock be she kept getting mad and wanted to do it herself. She is such a smart baby, too. The other night I gave her a cup to get a drink and then later I asked her where her cup was and she took me right to where she had left it, in her room. I was amazed! Also, even though she is only a year old, I think she needs to be potty trained. Right when she pees her pants she will either go get a diaper and give it to me then run into the bathroom to be changed or she will start pulling down her pants and then smile and run into the bathroom when I ask her if she needs her pants changed. When she has a stinky diaper, she will come up to us and plug her nose and say "Ewww!" and we know it is time to change her pants. She is a crazy kid!

I had to add this picture too because it was so cute. I was making a little tutu for my cousin's new baby and Emily took my measuring tape while I was cutting the fabric and was measuring herself and the rug. I asked her if she was helping mom sew and she got all happy which means yes. She is a silly goose!