A Year in Review

Well we survived another year and even though the Mayan calender ended on December 21, the earth still continued to turn and we are still here living life!  This year has been a fun and eventful year for us. 

In March, Colby celebrated his first birthday!  I can't believe how grown up he is getting.  When I look at pictures of him at the first of the year compared to now, he looks so different.  He was a baby and now he is a little boy.  This year he had major milestones like learning to crawl and walk.  He also started going to Nursery and he loves going to class and playing with play doh.  We also recently started to potty train him this year.

In April, our new little niece and cousin, Annalynn Nicole Stewart, was born.  She is a cute little baby.  Emily loves having a girl cousin on the Farnsworth side and always asks me how Annalynn is doing.

June was a big month for as too.  Emily participated in her first dance recital and was so cute as a little popcorn tap dancer.  Russell also graduated from the St. George City Fire Academy and is now an official Fire Fighter.  He works as a volunteer for the Fire Department but hopes to get hired full-time when an opening comes available. He has been on a couple structure fires this year and for some reason loves it!  Also in June, my life changed quite a bit.  First, I got called to be the Primary President in our ward.  I have stressed over this calling all year but it has really been a great blessing and I love these kids in our ward.  Second, a couple days after accepting my new calling, I found out I was pregnant with our third child.  This also came as a surprise but we are really excited to welcome our new baby boy into our family at the end of January 2013. 

July was filled with camping, family reunions, and sickness.  At the first of the July, I found out I had mono on top of morning sickness!  Yeah that was a great combination.  I also celebrated my 27th birthday and Russell celebrated his 29th birthday.  We are getting so old.  The family reunions were really fun and it was nice to get away from the St. George heat.

We took our big Oregon trip in August.  Everything in Oregon was so beautiful!  It was fun visiting some of Russell's mission sites, and staying with the Hartshorn's.  While in Oregon and Northern California we visited Burney Falls, Happy Camp, Crater Lake, the Rouge River, Newport and the ocean, Silver Falls, and the Redwoods.  This trip was so fun and the kids loved every minute of it.  If the drive through Nevada wasn't so long, we would go back in a heartbeat!

Emily celebrated her 4th birthday in September.  She was so excited for this birthday because we did a "Tangled" theme and she got to invite all of her friends.  She had been looking forward to it since her 3rd birthday.  Emily is getting so smart.  She can name all of her letters, their sounds, and even write all of them.  She has been going to pre-school and loves every minute of it.  She also loves coloring and has become quite a good little artist.  She can color inside the lines and does a great job.  She even entered a coloring contest over Christmas so we are waiting to hear the results.

Also in September, Russell completely re-landscaped our front yard including a paved walkway, grass, and a new tree.  It looks so, so much better.  Russell and I also separated the kid's rooms and painted and redecorated Emily's room.  She absolutely loves it and has to show everyone that comes over.

As you can see we have had a great year.  A couple little hiccups did happen though. First Emily experienced her first broken bone on Christmas after wrecking on her new bike.  She was very sad but her arm is feeling a lot better now.  Second, on September 30 my Grandma also fell in her home.  Luckily she had her Life Alert and they were able to call Russell and me to go check on her.  I am glad I heard my phone because I usually have it turned off on Sundays or on vibrate and I never hear it.  We rushed over to her house and found her on the kitchen floor.  Russell couldn't get her up because her leg hurt so bad so we had to call an ambulance.  After x-rays and a visit to the ER, we found out she had broken her hip.  At 94 years old the doctors were not sure how well she would heal but after her surgery, she started healing like a champ. She spent about a month in at Red Cliffs rehabilitation care center where Terral works and was treated like a queen because she was Terral's grandma.  Then when she was able to come home, my aunts and uncles took shifts staying with her for 24 hours a day just to get her confidence and physical abilities back up to were they were before.  Now 3 months after breaking her hip, she is back to her old self.  She can walk without her walker, get around her house, and is once again living independently in her own home.  The doctors were very impressed that she made a full recovery from this type of injury at her age.  She definitely is very blessed with good health. 

All in all, 2012 was a good year and now we are looking forward to 2013!

Homemade Gifts 2012

We like to make homemade gifts for our family for Christmas and this year was no exception.  Here are some of the gifts we made:

First I made these plaques for my mom and Russell's mom.  It says "Grandkids make life grand" and the clothes pins hold pictures of their grandkids:

Next I made these cute pajamas for Emily and Colby to open and wear on Christmas Eve.  They both love them.

These are a couple of gifts Russell made for the kids.  First this awesome car race track.  It is kind of like a pine wood derby track for Matchbox cars.  I found the pattern on the Internet and Russell went to work putting it together.  He actually made three of these tracks.  One for Paul and Alex, one for Tyrel and Jack, and of course one for Colby.  Colby loves watching the cars go down the track.  I guess Paul and Alex loved their track too because Traci said they played with it all morning long and Jen finally had to tell them to put it away and come eat breakfast. 

Russell also made this way cute baby bed for Emily.  It fits her dolls perfectly.  He even painted and decorated it with the flowers just like Emily's big bed.

Emily has been going to pre-school for the last few months and she keeps telling me she needs a backpack to go to school.  I made her this fun backpack to carry all of her school supplies in.  There is also an inside pocket that holds pencils and other supplies.  The straps are a little long but it works. Emily likes it and can't wait to take it to school.

I also made Emily a butterfly quilt for her bed with matching pillow sham and valance and a matching baby quilt for her baby's bed.  I love how it turned out.

For a simple little gift I made Colby some little fabric roads out of old Levi's.  He can take these roads anywhere and have his own little travel car mat for his cars.  He likes playing with them.

Also we made these name plaques in Relief Society one night for Enrichment and I thought they would be great for gifts too.  I made one for the Hughes' and the Stewart's because we had their names for Christmas this year.

Finally, I made this Christmas dress for Emily to wear to church.  It turned out all right for my first dress.  She likes the dress so that is all that matters.

We had fun making these gifts and crafts this year.  Now that Christmas is over, it is on to more projects for the new baby.  Unfortunately I haven't even started any projects for him yet.  I better get busy. 

Emily's Quilt

I have finally finished my first big quilt!  I made this quilt for Emily and her new bed in her new room.  I love how it turned out.

This quilt was actually pretty easy to make and once I finally got all the fabric cut out to the right sizes (which takes the most time!) the quilt top only took me about a week to put together.  After getting it together, it was time to find someone to quilt it for me.  I didn't want to spend a lot of money getting it quilted but I wanted someone that would do a good job too.  Finally I remembered one of my friends from the 4th ward in St. George, Ashlee Christiansen, had a quilting machine.  Her husband is a full-time fire fighter so at the St. George Fire Christmas party I asked her if she still did quilts and if she wanted to do mine.  She said yes and I took the quilt to her the next day.  All I really told her was that I wanted it to look nice and she went to work.  About a week later, she told me it was done.  I loved how it turned out and Ashlee did a great job quilting it.  She outlined the butterflies, and did some way cute flowers around the outside border.  She also used variegated colored quilting thread to tie all of the colors together.  All I had left to do is bind it. 

I also made a pillow sham and valance to match the quilt. These things made the final touches to Emily's new room.  Here are the final pictures of the room:

I love all of the colors and I love how they all tie the room together.  I couldn't forget the baby bed.  I used one of the left over 12 x 12 squares to make a little matching quilt for the baby bed too.  I can't say enough that I love how this room and this quilt turned out.  It is fun to decorate and Emily loves her new room and invites everyone that comes over to see it.  I am glad she likes it because there was definitely a lot of work put into everything in it.

Colby's New Bed

Colby is getting so big!  We are starting to get ready for the new baby which means we are starting to get Colby ready to be a big brother.  We have now moved Colby into a new big bed:

He seems to like the toddler bed instead of the crib.  We are all getting used to it.  The bad thing about a toddler bed is that he can escape.  The crib was a great barrier and made Colby stay in bed but now he can get out of bed whenever he wants.  He does pretty good though and usually only gets out of bed once and then we have to tell him to get back in bed and he will usually stay there the until he falls asleep.  At night though it is different.  He will go to sleep but then if he wakes up in the night, he gets out of bed and comes into our room and wants to sleep in mommy's bed.  We have tried to put him back in his bed but he just cries.  Hopefully he gets over that before the new baby comes.  When he wakes up, we ask him how his big bed was and he always says "Good!"

We are also trying to potty train Colby too before the new baby comes.  I really think if Russell and I were more dedicated, he would be potty trained but with the holidays and other things, we have not been as consistent as we should be.  We will keep trying.  That is one of our New Year Resolutions!  

Snowing!

We had our first snow day in St. George this year today.  Okay actually our second but the first one happened at night and just left a few skiffs on the grass in the morning.  This time it was snowing during the day so we actually got to see it. 

Emily and Colby ran outside to dance in the snow as it fell.  Emily tried to catch a snowflake in her mouth.  Colby thought we were all crazy and went back in the house when he realized he was getting wet and cold.  Unfortunately none of the snowflakes stuck to the ground, they just made everything wet.  Emily was excited for the snow and said it was Christmas again!  I am glad we live in a place that doesn't snow a lot.  I can handle these fun little flurries but I don't know if I could handle constant snow and cold.

Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year, well for the most part.  We did have one little catastrophe but more on that later.  We started our Christmas festivities with a Christmas Eve dinner at my parent's house.  We all met and had soup and enjoyed each other's company.  Then my mom gave a great lesson on Jesus Christ and reminded all of us that He is the reason for this Christmas season.  I know sometimes we forget about that. 

After the dinner, we headed home to do some of our own traditions.  First, we each get to open one present.

And it is our new Christmas pajamas.  Emily loves nightgowns and calls them her dancing dresses so instead of pajama pants, I made her this warm nightgown.  She loves it.  I also made Colby these doggie pants he likes them too except they are a little too long so they cover his feet.  Colby is very OCD about his feet and he flips out if he can't see them or if his pants are too long and go under his feet.  So we have to roll them up a bit.  I just bought mine and Russell's pants. 

Dressed in our new pj's we were ready to write our letter to Santa and set out some egg nog and cookies.  This is Emily's favorite part.  She told Santa she wanted a Barbie and a dress for her Barbie.  Emily decided Colby wanted to ask Santa for a car which he said was okay.  Then it was off to bed so Santa could come.

The next morning it was really hard to wake up.

Why is it that when you want your kids to sleep in they wake up at 7:30 am but when you want them to get up early so you can either go to church or school or Christmas morning, they want to sleep forever!  It never fails to happen this way.  We finally decided to wake our kids up so we could get on with our Christmas festivities and they were not very happy about it as you can see.  But look at all the fun stuff we got for Christmas:

Colby was really shocked that the cookies and egg nog were gone.  He pointed right at the plate and cup and said "Gone!"  Each of them couldn't wait to see all of the fun toys they received.

Emily got a new bike, an Ariel doll and doll bed, of course some Barbies and new books and outfits.  She loved everything.

Colby got some guns (his favorite things), a stick horse, a lot of toy cars, a fun car race track, new books and outfits.  We also got a new red wagon for the family.  We plan on using this as part of our 72 hour kit.  We can either haul our 72 hour kits, food, or even kids in it if for some reason we have to pack up and get out in case of an emergency.  Colby also loved everything.

After enjoying our Santa gifts, it was time for our traditional Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, and egg nog. Yum.

When we had finished eating breakfast, we all got dressed and ready for the day.  Then it was time to open the presents under the tree.

As you can see we all got a lot of fun things and had a good time opening our presents.  Emily got a new quilt for her bed, more Barbies, and a new backpack for school.  Colby got a Thomas the Train, some tools, and clothes.  I got some lotion, a new watch,a foot massager, and a new camera. And Russell got a new watch, wallet, book and flashlight for his turnouts.  Of course we cannot forget Clifford:

Clifford got this huge 2 foot long bone for Christmas.  He thought it was the coolest thing ever!

With all of the presents opened, it was time to play before heading over to our family.  And that is when tragedy struck!  We decided to go over to Grandma's house to wish her a Merry Christmas.  Emily wanted to show Grandma her new bike so she got on and rode it over there.  She was doing so good on her bike for only riding it for the first time.  She rode from our house to Grandma's and then up and down Grandma's driveway showing off her skills.  Then it happened, she got going too fast down the driveway, turned the corner and fell off the curb with a crash!  She was riding so good that we didn't think she needed us by her so when she crashed we were too far away to catch her before she fell.  She landed on her arm and was not very happy after that.  She wouldn't even get back on her bike and complained that her arm hurt really bad.  Russell felt it and we decided she just hurt it in the fall and she would be fine.  We went home and had her lay down until we went to cousin's houses because she was so upset.  After a while we headed over to the Hughes'  to give them their presents and then over to my parents' house.

My mom gave each of the granddaughters a homemade set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls that she made.  They are so awesome.  Colby got a book and a new Toy Story shirt that he absolutely loves!  As soon as he opened the present, he said "Woody!" and told me to put it on him.  He even started taking off the shirt he had on by himself so I could put this new Woody shirt on him.  As we hung out over there for the day, we noticed that Emily was still babying her arm, complaining it hurt, and looking quite sad all day.  Finally at about 6:00 pm we decided we better take her to the ER to get an x-ray in case her arm really was broken.  When we got to the ER, we notice it was slammed with patients and we realized we might be there forever.  Luckily though when we checked in the registration lady told Russell we didn't need to wait and to just go talk to the doctor and get in.  Russell said he didn't want to butt in front of all these people but the lady told him that was one of the perks of working there so just do it.  Russell went and talked to the doctor and he just wrote a prescription for an outpatient x-ray instead of an ER visit (which saved us both time and money!)  Then we walked back to the x-ray room and got an x-ray of Emily's arm.  This was the result:

Yep. A small buckle fracture in her left wrist.  She had indeed broken her arm on Christmas while riding her new bike from Santa!  The poor little thing.  What a way to spend Christmas but with a broken arm.  Luckily though, this was only a small break and the doctor said she would heal up fine within 2 to 3 weeks.  He had the tech put on a soft cast and wrap it up and told us that with this type and size of break she didn't need a hard cast and that this soft cast would be fine.  So this happy girl on her new bike went from this:

To this sad little girl with a broken arm on Christmas.  She wouldn't even look at the camera for me to take a picture of her and her arm.

What a sad little thing.  She did say that her arm felt better in the wrap and sling though.  The other sad thing about it is Emily will not even look at or talk about her new bike anymore.  She was so excited to get it and ride it but not anymore.  Hopefully she will be excited about it again once her arm heals.  Colby was very sympathetic too and kept saying "Sorry Sissy."  So now she has only one arm and I am glad it was her left arm instead of her right because she can still color and write which is what she loves to do.  The hard part is keeping her arm in the sling as she plays.  We have to keep adjusting it and putting her arm back in it.  She is funny though and has used this broken arm thing to her advantage.  If she doesn't want to do something like clean up her toys she tells us she can't do it because she only has one arm.  I asked her to do something and her response to me was "Mom, I can't.  You know I only have one arm!"  I just laughed at her and told her to get going.  Unfortunately, I am a bad mom.  I have never broken a bone so I don't really know what it is like.  It is sad to see a little 4 year old in a sling though so I do have to sympathize with that. 

Emily is also quite self conscious about her arm.  After coming home from the ER, we when back over to Grandma's house and when we got there, my cousins, Shawna and Cami, were there with their kids that are Emily's age.  When Emily saw the other kids she got really embarrassed and hid by me.  She didn't want the other kids to see her with a broken arm.  I told her it was okay and that other people have had broken arms before and her cousins would not care if her arm was in a sling they would play with her anyway.  She felt a little braver but still embarrassed until the other kids started plying with her and didn't even notice her arm.  Then she felt better and was back to her old happy self playing with the kids.

The next day, Emily said her arm still hurt but it was a little better.  Because Russell's parents both worked on Christmas, we headed over to their house the day after Christmas to celebrate with them.  The kids had a blast opening more presents:

Even with one hand Emily was able to rip all of the wrapping paper off her presents.  Colby also ripped all of the paper off of his presents into little pieces all over the floor.  He loved the Fire Truck and fire hat from Aunt Traci and Emily loved all of the art supplies she got too.  We had a fun night playing games, opening presents, and eating dinner and treats with the Farnsworth's.

Christmas wears us all out!  Here is Colby with his two favorite presents of Christmas.  His two pistols and his Woody shirt.  He has not put those guns down for a minute since he got them.  He walks around shooting everything.  As you can see, he even had to have them while sleeping.  And the Toy Story Woody shirt he refused to take off even for bed.  He finally did consent to take it off the next day for a bath but then when it was time to get in pajamas the next night, he got this shirt out of the dirt clothes hamper and insisted I put it back on him for bed.  What a funny kid.

Like I said before, we had a great Christmas minus the broken arm incident.  Merry Christmas everyone!!

Christmas Parties

We have had a weekend full of Christmas parties!  The first party we went to was our annual Terry Morwood Christmas Party.  We had this party at Terral's house this year and it was a lot of fun.  First we had dinner and dessert.  Then we made a few crafts.  The adults made "Sparkle Balls." They are like disco balls made out of clear plastic Solo cups and Christmas Lights.  They were really easy to make and they look really cool when they are lit up. 

Finally it was time for the highlight, The White Elephant gift exchange!  This is always fun because we love seeing what everyone else gets.  It is also a bummer sometimes because there always seems to be an argument on whether or not something has been traded too many times.  For some reason it always seems to be the same person that starts the argument too.  Huh I hope we can solve this situation soon because I like this part of the party.  Any way back to the gifts.  We came home will some pretty good gifts.  Russell got the "Christmas for a Dollar" movie along with $4.  I love this movie it is really good.  Colby got a little monster truck car that he drove around the rest of the night.  I got some bubbles, candy, and little purple Cars car that Emily claimed as soon as she saw it.  Emily got what she thought was the best gift of all, Reindeer Antlers for our car!  She even made us put them on the windows before we could go home!  So we are driving around a reindeer car.  Aren't we so festive?! I should have taken a picture of it. We have turned into those people we make fun of all because of our children. 

And who got my totally awesome Christmas PJ's of half naked men?  Well the funny thing is that Cassie brought one of her friends to the party and she is the one that ended up with them!!  Originally Jared had the box with the PJ's in it (which would have been just fine), then when it was her turn, Cassie's friend traded him without knowing what was in the box.  I tried so hard to keep a straight face as she traded and then opened the box.  When she revealed the pj's her whole face went red and we all just started busting up laughing!!!  She later wrote on Facebook that this was the strangest yet funniest gift she had every received.  At the end, Russell offered to trade her back so that she would have a better present but she said she was going to give them to her dad for Christmas and she thought they were so funny.  I didn't really think I made the pj's as big as I did but as you can see from the above picture, both Cassie and her friend fit inside them together.  This was still the funniest gift of the night.  I am still laughing about it!

The next day, we had the big Morwood family Christmas party with all of my dad's family. There are so many people that we have to hold this party at the Santa Clara Elementary where my Aunt Janet works.   

After eating our traditional soup pot luck dinner, we played a few Minute to Win It games.  These are always really funny to watch and also fun to participate in. 

While the games were going on, Emily gathered all of her "new" cousins around and played Duck Duck Goose and Ring Around the Rosies.  She loves finding out she has more cousins and friends to play with and she seems to make friends so easily.

While they were waiting for the Nativity play to begin, Emily, Colby and all of the little cousins were practicing there part in the play.  They were the sheep.  They were crawling around on the stage saying "Baa Baa!" and acting just like sheep.  It was so funny to watch.

But when the play actually happened, Emily decided she wanted to be an angel instead:

This Nativity play gets better every year!  These kids are so dang cute and they don't really know what is going on only that they want to be out on stage dressed up.  Braxton was even tying Brielle's shoes during the play this year.  But I guess that is what a Shepard does, he takes care of his sheep even if that means tying her shoes!  

Finally it was time for SANTA!!  This was always the highlight of the party for me when I was a kid and I know it is definitely what all of these younger cousins and my kids look forward to as well.  Look at that big bag of toys Santa has brought to give out!

Colby and Emily were so different in there reactions to Santa this year.  Colby is so funny, he was more interested in the cookie he was eating than even caring about Santa or the present he was getting.  He just sat on Santa's lap and chewed his cookie until Russell finally picked him back up to take him off the stage.  Emily on the other hand was so excited to see Santa!  The last few years she has cried when she saw Santa but not this year.  She thought she was so big she didn't even want us to take her up to him, she wanted to do it by herself.  She walked right up there and sat on Santa's lap and got her present.  She was so excited but you could tell she was secretly a little nervous too.  What a big girl she is getting to be.

And here these two crazy kids are showing off what Santa brought them.  They got a Mr and Mrs Potato Head along with some new pajamas too.  They have had fun playing with these toys.  Colby calls his Woody because he knows Mr. Potato Head is on Toy Story and that is one of his favorite movies.

We have had fun at our Christmas parties this weekend.  Now it is time for Christmas!