The Dentist

Emily went to the dentist for the first time today! Russell took her while I stayed home with Colby and three of the Hughes yahoos, Tyrel, Taylor, and Becca. So here is Russell to tell you all about the experience:

At first Emily did not know what to expect because she was at a doctor's office and I think she did not completely understand what a dentist really was. The dental hygienist, Khara, did an awesome to make Emily feel safe and comfortable. I figured she could sit on my lap and see what they are doing to me and when it was her time it wouldn't be so bad. At first she was a little antsy, so Khara made a cool balloon with the air tool. Emily thought that was way cool. Then it was time to lie me back and Emily was a little scared of the moving chair until Khara told her that Tangled was on. She said "Where?" "On the ceiling," Khara said. That was all it took she was hooked. They found her some ear phones and she was happy. The time came for Khara and the dentist, Dr. Stevens, to look at her teeth and I was very surprised on how well she did. She smiled big for them and opened her mouth wide and she even let Khara use the little hook to clean and scrap her front teeth. I have the best daughter ever. They were both very amazed on how well she acted. The only bad news that they had for her was that she has a little cavity in her front tooth. After the fun times at the dentist, Emily was able to get a new tooth brush and some cool toys from the treasure chest. On the way home Emily and I had a little daddy daughter time and went to Dairy Queen for an ice cream. Yes I know we just went to the dentist but what can you do when you have a cute daughter who did so well at the dentist.

Ruffled Skirt & Matching Tie

I woke up yesterday and decided Colby needed a new tie for church. He is growing so fast that all of the tie shirts I made him have gotten too small. As I was digging through my bottomless bag of fabric scraps for the perfect tie, I found a piece of fabric and was big enough to make Emily a skirt as well as a tie for Colby. So that it what I did. I made a cute little ruffled skirt for Emily and a matching tie onesie for Colby. They of course loved them. Emily even asked me if it was her birthday. (Like, I never make her anything!) I think they turned out really good.

If you want to make your own skirt and/or tie, check out my new website Made In a Jiff by Tiff. I have posted a tutorial there.

Emily's First Movie

We took Emily to her first movie at the movie theater on Friday to see Cars 2. She was so excited to go all day. I told her we were going to see a movie when Dad go home from work. All day she kept asking me when Dad was coming home. I won four tickets to the movie at a radio broadcast so we had an extra ticket. We were going to take Tyler but Emily said she just wanted to go as a family. (Sorry Tyler) When we dropped Colby off at Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth's house, Emily started crying. She must have thought we were going to take Colby to the movie too. She was really upset that we were leaving him behind. We explained to her that he was still too little to go and that this was a special Emily only night with no brothers allowed. That seemed to cheer her up a little. When we arrived at the theater, she was all smiles and happily skipped into the show. She proudly gave her ticket to the worker and then told Russell she wanted licorice and popcorn.

While we found a seat, Russell got us some treats. Because it was opening night for Cars 2, the theater was packed. The only seats we could find were on the second row. Our movie experience was literally up close and personal! We really liked the movie. Emily was really good during the whole thing. Toward the end, however, she started getting antsy. (Probably due to eating so much licorice and popcorn.) I definitely would recommend Cars 2 to anyone especially if you like Mater. Emily loved going to the movie. She has told everyone about going and has asked me over and over when she can go back.

We even got to meet Mater in the parking lot of the movie theater and he let us get a picture with him! Git-R-Done!!

Splash Pad

Today is the first official day of summer! (YAHOO!) What do you do in the 105 + degree summers in St. George? Well, we keep cool in the Splash Pads! Emily loves going to the splash pad and getting soaking wet. She asks us almost everyday if she can go swimming at the library so we try to go at least once a week. We usually go on Thursdays after our Story Time at the library.

We have a blast splashing and spraying people with water. Emily especially loves it when her cousins come with us but she also loves making new friends. Colby likes going too until he gets hot then he tells us it is time to go. We tried to get him used to the water by putting if feet in but he just gave us mean looks like. I guess he was trying to figure out what we were doing to him. He'll get used to it I am sure because he loves his bath water.

Hooray summer is here!

Dad's Day

Happy Father's Day! We had a great Father's Day at our house this year. It started by Emily running into our room telling her dad "Happy Father's Day!" As she gave him his present, she told him what it was before he opened it. Russell was definitely grateful for the new socks and this cute new T-shirt that says "World's Greatest Dad, Hands Down!" I then put each of the kids hand prints on it.

I also made one for my dad and Russell's dad. Their shirts say Papa instead of Dad though. Then I put each of the grand kids hand prints on them. (If you want to make one, I have a tutorial on my new website here.) They turned out good and the dads and papas loved them.

After a yummy breakfast of waffles, we headed to church and then visiting each of our dad's. It was a great day. Russell also got an early Father's Day gift a few weeks ago. He got a new lawn mower and weed eater so he can keep the yard up and running. They definitely sound like Redneck gifts but he was so excited for them!

These two kids sure love their dad. When I asked Emily why she loved her dad she said: "Because I want to." She also said:

- He reads me books

- He watches me while mom goes to work

- He scares me (which means he plays "Roar!" with her)

- I like sleeping in daddy's bed

- and more...

I asked Colby why he loved Dad and he said, "Ah Goob blah hah." with a huge smile. I have translated that to "I love Dad because he makes me laugh." Whenever Colby sees Russell, he gives him the biggest cheesy smile!

Happy Father's Day, Russell!!

Our Lucky Day

Today was our lucky day! Well at least it started out that way...

Emily came into our bed at 7:30 am like she always does and turned on our radio alarm clock. (She figured out one day that if she pushes the small button on top, the radio comes on. This girl never forgets anything.) Anyway she does this about every morning so we have just made it part of the routine. This morning, however, the morning show DJ's on the radio were announcing a live broadcast they were doing later at American Recreation Products. They said that all of the outdoor products would be on sale at like 60-80% off. After hearing this, we decided to check this place out to see if we could find Emily a sleeping bag and maybe some more camping gear for us. When we arrived at the store, the radio announced that the next 5 people will get some free camping gear. Russell parked and ran to the radio station's booth while I got the kids out of the truck. Next thing I know, Russell is walking back to us with a sleeping bag in his hands! So there was Emily's sleeping bag we came for and we got it for FREE! The sleeping bag was a zero degree mummy bag so it wasn't really what we wanted for her so we asked the manager if we could swap it for a regular zip sleeping bag. He said that would be fine so we did. Yeah the one we got wasn't as nice as the mummy bag but it is perfect for Emily and for what we need it for so I think it is a better deal. Emily loves it too. When we got it home, we unrolled it and Emily and I climbed inside and pretended to be taking a nap while camping.

While we were at the radio broadcast, Russell and I each entered a drawing for a Cars 2 family pack. After leaving the broadcast, we headed up to Springdale so Russell could go to his ambulance training. Emily, Colby and I cooked hot dogs and had a picnic in the park while we waited for Russell to finish. While we were playing, I got a phone call from the Radio station telling me I had won the Cars 2 drawing!!! I was so EXCITED!! I have never won anything cool like this in my whole life. I was stoked. So I ended up winning 4 movie tickets to see Cars 2 on the opening night, $20 in movie theater money to buy popcorn or whatever I want at the movie, and... the best part of all... 4 passes to LAGOON! Isn't that the coolest prize package ever! Well I think it is. So we are excited to take Emily to her first movie next Friday and she loves Cars so I think she will like Cars 2 also. The Lagoon tickets are actually a blessing in disguise and an answer to a prayer. My whole family is planning on going to Lagoon the first week in August this year and Russell and I were debating on whether to go or not because of lack of funds and other things. We were really bummed that we would not be able to go with everyone but now we have free tickets to the park so that saves us $100! Now we will be able to go.

Here we are showing off our winnings for the day. A free sleeping bag, Cars 2 movie tickets, $20, and Lagoon passes! I figure we won around $250 in prizes today!

Unfortunately, our luck ran out before the day was over. Either that or we needed to be humbled. On our way to get my prize at the radio station Russell got pulled over and got a ticket....... Boo! That is all I am going to say about that...

Anyway, we had a great day for the most part and we are excited to use our prizes for some family fun. Thank you KONY for the prizes! And also thank the Lord for answered prayers of finding a way to go to Lagoon with my family.

A Blast at Lake Powell

We had a blast at Lake Powell. Every year Tiffany's work takes a trip to Lake Powell on her boss's house boat and her other boss's wave runners. We almost missed the trip this year because I needed to attend Youth Conference, but with a little rearranging of my schedule we were able to make the trip.

This year Emily was two years old and old enough to do more things than the last time we went when she was 9 months old. She and Daddy had a really good time. I was able to take her out on the wave runner and putt around the lake for a while. Emily had a blast. She even told me "Faster Daddy faster!" I laughed and thought "Oh boy, she is only two and she already has the need for speed." During our few stops around the lake, we were able to go swimming. When I first jumped in I was stunned because the water was cold, but after the second and third time the water felt great. There was a few of us that jumped off the top of the house boat which was about twenty or so feet high. That was a lot of fun. It was even better when we finally convinced Lori's, one of Tiffany's co-workers, 14 year old daughter, Cheyenne, jumped off too. Cheyenne, Micheal (her dad and Lori's husband), and I ran and jumped off all at the same time and everyone watching said we shook the whole boat when we jumped! Emily loved the water she would say "Come on Daddy lets go sit on the ladder and splash." So we went many times and splashed in the water. There was even a few times where she let me take her out in the water. On the boat there was a slide, once Emily found out there was a slide, she was done with the ladder. As you can tell from the pictures above she love playing with the water going down the slide but was too scared to actually go down the slide into the water. (Thanks Lori for holding on to her tight.)
During our voyage out to the lake, Emily got the front seat to see the view and to work on her tan. Colby was the star of the party, everyone had a great time holding him. He was quite the trooper, and loved the attention until he needed to eat, sleep or have his pants changed. He was stylin' in his green hat. Tiff and I were happy that he did so well during the trip.

Here is the clan of party animals. Tiffany, Emily and Colby were taking a break and playing on the huge pads. Hans was taking a snooze, while the rest of the group played games and enjoyed the sun. Even Emily and Tiffany decided to start early on their tans. The houseboat is awesome and literally a floating house fully equipped with A/C, a full kitchen, big screen TV, and rooms to sleep 8 plus many more on the top floor. However, I don't know that I would buy one because the gas alone to full up the tanks was close to $2,000!! But it was a lot of fun being with everyone and relaxing.

On the boat we had two awesome friends that claimed the two kids while we were on the trip. Stacy and Lori were so nice to watch the little ones while Tiffany and I got to go out on the wave runners. It was nice to take Tiff and go out by ourselves. It has been a while. Stacy and Emily have always been great buds, Stacy loves Emily as her own grand daughter and Emily loves Stacy. Lori has always been a little jealous of the two for the last two years, so she immediately claimed Colby as her own before he was even born. Lori was way excited to have Colby to spoil and cuddle while we were there. Thank you Lori and Stacy for being great friends and watching the little ones, also Amber, Taisha and Kori for playing with Colby.

Like we said before, we had a blast at Lake Powell. As you can see from the picture above, Emily was literally walking on air as she walked off the boat with Stacy at the end of the day. She loved every minute of the trip even though we made her wear her life jacket the whole time. Just outside of the Lake Powell area, Emily fell asleep in the car. When she woke up, she was so confused and upset that we were leaving the boat. She kept telling us that we needed to go back to the boat. After the fun day, we stopped in Kanab on our way home and had a really good dinner at Houston's. Then was almost ran over by the Hildale ambulance just outside of Colorado City. We definitely had an interesting ride home.

Thank you everyone for the fun times on the lake and thank you Rick for taking us out on your houseboat and Hans for letting us use your Wave Runners. We had a great time!

Changing Diapers

We are training Emily young to change Colby's diapers because Russell and I are getting burned out!

Okay, not really and don't worry we were there helping her the whole time. We told Emily it was her turn to change his diaper and she gladly said "OK!" like it was something she had wanted to do her whole life. She felt so big as we showed her how and had her put the diaper on him by herself. Surprisingly, she did a pretty good job! Colby just kept looking at us like we were crazy but Emily loved it. I might just have her start changing him from now on!!

Cousins

This week, Russell's cousins (Ron Farnsworth's family) came to St. George for a little family reunion. Because we lived here too, they invited Russell's family to join them in their reunion. It was nice to be with family we haven't seen in a long time because they live up north in the Salt Lake area or down south in Arizona. We probably haven't seen Ryan and Mariona (the one's from Arizona) since we got married! We had a lot of fun playing around all day. Russell said it reminded him of the fun he had with his cousins when he was younger.

The first day everyone was in town, they headed to Fiesta Family Fun Center to have some family fun, what else? Everyone had a blast playing in the arcade, the batting cages, and especially the go-carts. Since Emily was too little to ride on the go-carts, Russell was the designated photographer and got a few winning shots of the race. Tyler ended up winning the race but the others were not far behind. After racing, we cashed in our tokens for some cool prizes. Emily loves this part because she gets to pick whatever she wants. This time she got a train whistle to blow and of course some candy.

That night, everyone headed to Russell's parents' house for some yummy Dutch Oven potatoes and chicken. It was nice to relax and visit with everyone.

The next day, we met everyone at the Cottonwood park, or the "spin" park as we call it, for a late lunch. Everything was fine and dandy until the water guns came out and then we were all done for:

Traci got the worse of it I think but I also think she brought it on herself! She was soaked from head to toe; she literally didn't have one dry spot on her. Luckily, I had Colby to save me from getting wet. We told everyone to stay away from him with the water and they did for the most part except for when we would get the spray from a stray shot. Even Russell's 84 year-old grandma got in on the water fight! She grabbed the gun and got the biggest grin on her face as she blasted all of her grand kids! But even she wasn't safe from the water and all of the grandsons ganged up together and drenched Grandma all at the same time! I have never heard an old lady scream like that; it was so funny. She waved her white Kleenex as she surrendered and all of the grandsons gave her a big wet hug. Emily had a blast getting people wet too. We gave her a water bottle to pour on people but I think she ended up drinking most of it instead of pouring it on people. There was a whole lot of chaos but mostly a whole lot of FUN.

That night they had dinner at Russell's parents' again but Russell and I went to my friend's, JD Robison, wedding reception. It was nice to see all of my college friends again while we were at the wedding. It is amazing how much we have all changed but yet we are all still the same too. After the reception, I took the kids home to get them ready for bed while Russell headed over to his parents' to say goodbye to his cousins before they went home the next day. We had a lot of fun with them and it was so nice to see them again. We definitely need to do this more often. Thanks for the fun times!

Baseball

Tyler has been playing baseball on the city league for the past few weeks and we have enjoyed going to his games and watching him play. I even dressed Colby up in his baseball outfit to go support his Uncle Tyler.

Tyler is a really good player. He plays catcher and outfield. He is also good at batting. He almost hit a few balls over the fence this year. I think we were bad luck for him though because whenever we went to his games he would strike out and when we didn't go to the games, he hit home runs! He will soon find out if he makes the All-Star team so we will probably be going to more games this summer.

3 months

Colby turned 3 months old yesterday!! His is growing too fast; I can't believe it. He is getting so chubby too. I love it! I weighed him on our home scales and he is already close to 17 lbs! Emily was only 19 lbs when she was a year old so Colby is catching up quickly. What can I say he is a typical boy and loves to EAT! Here are some cute pictures of my future drummer:

That's right I am training him young to be a rocker! As you can see he already has the proper grip on the sticks. My mom gave Colby these cute drummer onesies and he was quickly growing out of them so I had to snap a few posed shots in them. Colby discovered his hands a few weeks ago and they have been his favorite chew toy ever since. He would much rather suck on them than a Binky any day. His hands must have more flavoring or something I guess. I try to take them out of his mouth and he grunts at me and gives me a mean glare and sticks his hands right back in his mouth. He is also a little drooler already. I can't imagine what he will be like when he is getting teeth because he already soaks his shirts.

Emily wanted a picture with Colby too but she really just wanted to hit him with the drum sticks so I took them away from her and so she started bawling and refused to smile for the picture. Mean mom I know.

Colby's new favorite thing (besides eating his hands) is to play with toys. He will set under our play gym for about a half hour and just bat at the toys and listen to them jingle. He can entertain himself for quite a while that way. His favorite toy right now is his rattle because he can hold it himself and shake it. One time though he shook it so hard he knocked himself in the head and then just started bawling. Poor thing. The rattle was not a favorite after that. But he still loves it. He is also getting to be a little mover. While he is under his play gym, he will arch his back and kick his legs and eventually turn himself around in a 360. It is so funny to watch. We are in trouble when he really starts moving around.

It takes a real man to play with pink toys, right? I guess that is what he gets for having an older sister and getting hand-me-down toys. Poor kid. But he doesn't seem to mind right now. He might complain when he is a little older but for now he gets pink.

Colby is such a fun baby and is already developing a fun personality. He smiles and grins at us all the time and especially loves talking to Emily. Whenever she plays with him, he smiles and babbles to her and watches her constantly. The other day Emily was playing HI-HO Cherry-O and he was just watching her on my lap then she got bored and ran outside with Russell and as soon as Colby realized she was gone, he started bawling! So I got up and walked him outside to where she was and when he saw her he stopped crying. It was so funny.

Like I said before, Colby likes to eat but recently he went through a lovely nursing strike where he refused to eat for almost 3 days! The only way to get him to eat was to feed him while he was asleep. I started reading up on it and found out that this usually happens when the mother eats something that the baby doesn't agree with. So I have been on a "great" diet of very bland food like plain rice and potatoes, unseasoned chicken and oatmeal. I have cut out all of the usual offending foods like spices, chocolate, citrus, certain vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, etc, and cows milk or pretty much anything dairy. This leaves your food selection pretty slim. The diet seemed to help immensely and Colby is eating better than he has his whole life. I started adding back dairy a few days ago and thankfully he seems to be doing fine with it so the meal options have opened up a little. One good thing I guess is that I lost the last 5 lbs and am back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Oh the joys of nursing but I wouldn't do it any other way. I have also been looking into cloth diapers lately trying to decide if we should switch to save some money but I don't know yet.

Any way it is fun to see Colby grow and am excited for this next fun 3-6 month old stage.

Memorial Day

We had a lot of fun over Memorial Day weekend. We went camping at Enterprise Reservoir. While there, we experienced all four seasons all in one weekend! We went camping with both Russell's parents and my parents. Emily was really excited about going camping and for a week she kept asking me if it was time to go camping yet. I asked her what she wanted to eat while we were camping and she said hot dogs. She loves hot dogs so needless to say, we had hot dogs at least once a day while we were camping. She told everyone we saw that we were going camping and eat hot dogs.

We headed up to Enterprise on Friday after I got off work at noon. By the time we got up there, there were already a million people there but luckily my parents had gone up Thursday night and reserved us a spot near them in the campground. Russell's parents were already there when we got to the campsite so we helped them pitch their tent and unload their camping gear so we could pull in our trailer.

Here are three people I love all cozy and warm on our first night of the camp out.

The next day, Saturday, we all went for a long four-wheeler ride up Slaughter Canyon. We all had a good time and the weather was perfect for a ride. Colby loved his first four-wheeler ride and slept the whole time. Emily had to beg a ride from Papa Farnsworth because there wasn't much room on our four-wheeler. She was okay with that and had a good time too.

We stopped off at this nice picnic area in the middle of no where and had lunch and snacks. While there we discovered this natural spring:

We dared everyone to take a drink out of the spring but Traci was the only one brave enough to actually do it. She actually dumped out her good water and filled her water bottle with spring water. She told us it was fine to drink in fact in El Salvador the water is much dirtier than this water. She said the parasites in her body probably wouldn't mind a few new friends.

The Farnsworth clan headed back to camp after this while the Morwood clan went on. They rode out to Gunlock and go back later that night.

After our ride, we played a rousing game of "Spit on Your Neighbor" before heading out to the Holt cemetery to visit Russell's grandpa's grave. As you can see from the picture below, Colby was really getting into the game.

The Holt cemetery is just a private cemetery near Enterprise so all of the maintenance is done by family members of those buried there. We cleaned up Great-Grandpa Farnsworth's grave site and laid new flowers to make it look nice again.

Here are the four generations of Elwoods. I wish I could have met Grandpa Clayton Elwood Farnsworth. From all the stories I have heard, he sounds like an awesome man.

This is Russell...This is the second time that I have been to my grandpa's grave site since he died about seven years ago. It is hard to get up there being that it is such a drive to get there. Every time I go up there it is was an awesome experience . The first time I went up there I was with Tiffany and I was able to introduce my new wife to him and the second time I was able to introduce Emily to her great grandpa Farnsworth. My mom made a fun comment, "She knew who Grandpa was before she was born. I know that what my mom said was true, because there was times in our house in Bloomington that Emily would be laughing and giggling at the wall and at random places in the house. I still to this day miss him very much and cannot wait until the day I get to see him again. Fun side story: while we were there Grandma Farnsworth decided to tell us what she wanted when she dies. She first told us that she wanted to be cremated and the urn shoved under the head stone. She did not want mess up the nice landscape around the grave site. Okay the real plan, she wanted every grandson to have a shovel and dark red or purple carnations flowers. We all had a great time that day other than the wind that blew like crazy.

All night Saturday the wind blew and blew. It seemed like it was blowing 100 mph and it was such a cold wind. Our trailer was rocking and Keith and LeeAnn's tent would balloon up and then suck in with every gust. I don't think they slept a wink. By some time early in the morning, the wind finally stopped but when we got up, we noticed the thick rain clouds that had been blown in. Russell's dad decided he had had enough of tent camping in crazy weather and wanted to get out of there before the rain started so they packed up and headed home. About an hour after they left, it started pouring rain and hail. We were glad we had our trailer. We hung out in my parent's trailer with them playing games and talking while the rain turned into SNOW!

That's right it snowed on us and here is the picture to prove it! We couldn't believe it. Emily thought it was the coolest thing ever. I packed her snow hat just in case it got cold so when she saw the snow, she made me get her snow hat out so she could go outside and play. I gave her her hat but would only let her got outside long enough to take a few pictures. A few hours after this picture was take, the snow stopped, the clouds went away, and the sun came out and melted all of the snow and we were in summer again! Weird weather I know. After dinner, we all went over to Clay and Shauna's camp to see what they were doing. They were camped on the other side of the reservoir. When we got there, Clay and the boys were fishing while the girls were inside playing game. Clay and Braden both caught pretty good sized fish. Clay tried to talk Braden into throwing them back so he wouldn't have to clean them but Braden said no way. That night was still pretty cold so for the first time, we learned how to run the furnace in our trailer. It worked great and we were all warm.

The next morning, we packed up our stuff and got ready to head home.

Here Colby and Emily are enjoying the last bit of rest and relaxation before heading home back to real life. We had a great time camping despite the crazy weather. Emily loves camping and especially loves being with her grandparents. Colby on the other hand did not like camping at all. He did not like being out of his home and schedule and refused to eat the whole time. The only way to get him to eat was when he was asleep or almost asleep. It was so stressful! Other than that, it was a great trip. We enjoyed being with both families for a change instead of choosing between the two. Thanks for all of the good times!