Sandbox

So remember us telling you about getting the letter from the city telling us to clean up the junk in our yard. (Refer to this post back in June 2013) Well we finally did something about our "junk" and cleaned up our yard.  The junk, or our tractor tire, has finally been recycled into an awesome sandbox for the kids.

They absolutely love it!  They have played in it everyday since we put it in.  They love burying their legs, digging tunnels, building sand castles, and driving their cars in the dirt.  Emily told me she is going to play in the sandbox everyday after school except for Sunday.  Colby and Logan would live in the sandbox if I would let them.  It is so much fun to watch them play.  We cover the tire with a board when we are not using it so that it doesn't become a litter box for all of the cats in our neighborhood.  So far the sand has stayed nice and moist and soft.  Russell painted the tire white and then filled it with really nice landscaping sand.  I think I am going to add the kids hand prints in colored paint around the tire too for some color.  We love the sandbox.

Garden Bounty

Our garden did so well this year!  We planted tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, strawberries, carrots, onions, radishes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, and sunflowers.  We had a good harvest about every couple of days!

We found out that Logan LOVES tomatoes.  He would pick them and eat them every time he went outside.  We really had to watch him so that he wouldn't eat the green tomatoes.  Funny story:  There was one really big tomato growing and I was watching it for so long waiting and waiting for it to turn red and get ripe.  I love tomato sandwiches and this one would make the perfect BLT.  Well it finally turned red and was ready to be picked.  So I picked it and put the big tomato with the rest of the pile and went on picking.  Next thing I know, Logan has the huge tomato and he is just chowing down on it!  He was eating my perfect tomato!  He had the biggest smile on his tomato juice covered face so all I could do was laugh at him as he ate saying "YUM! MMM!"  What a funny little boy!  I told him that was my tomato and all he said was "Das Good!"

Anyway, here are some more pictures of our home grown produce:

The broccoli was a new plant for us this year but it did really well.  It was so good too.  Home grown vegetables are so much better than store bought.  We also planted a yellow pear tomato plant that just took over everything.  I don't think we will plant another one of those because it was just too much.  This was the first year our cucumbers did well.  We plant them every year but never get anything but this year we got a lot.  We also planted Brussels sprouts for the first time this year.  They grew great but by the time they were ready to pick, the aphids had gotten to them and they were full of bugs so we didn't get to eat any of them.  We will have to spray them if we plant them again.  

Emily wanted to plant giant sunflowers and here she is by her babies.  We roasted our own sunflower seeds and got two Ziploc bags full from these two sunflowers.

The spaghetti squash did really well too.  We made a lot of fun new recipes out of these.  I took a picture of this spaghetti squash growing inside the fence.

After harvesting, we went to town canning everything.  Below is Tomato/Jalapeno jam, Salsa, and another Tomato jam/preserve that taste like applesauce.  (So good.)

The green jars are Jalapeno jelly and the bottom picture is garlic dill pickles and pickled pear tomatoes.  The dill pickles are so good and they taste like they are from the store!  The pickled tomatoes on the other hand were not good at all!  I tried one and almost puked and Russell gagged one or two down.  He did not object when I told him I was going to dump them down the sink.  Oh well, you live and learn and I learned that you really have to watch your vinegar to water to tomato ratios when pickling tomatoes.  Like I said before though, we had an over abundance of yellow pear tomatoes so I wasn't too sad about wasting some on this new recipe.  

Later I received 50 lbs of tomatoes for free from a guy in Washington that was giving them away before they went bad.  From this 50 pounds of tomatoes. I made more salsa, tomato soup, and a lot of spaghetti sauce.  We are all set and our pantry is stalked with all of the stuff from our garden.  We have been blessed this year!

2014 Family Pictures

At the 80th birthday for Grandma and Grandpa Maxwell we took some new family pictures.  These are some of my favorites:

I really like how these pictures turned out. It was fun taking them even though there was a lot of grumbling from some people.  Thanks JeanMarie for putting it all together.  

80th Birthday Bash

Yesterday we celebrated the 80th birthday of these two great people:

We love Grandma and Grandpa Maxwell and enjoyed celebrating with them and being with them.  Even though their birthdays are not until January and February, they decided this was a good time to celebrate.  After getting everyone through family pictures, it was time to party!

Jesse even entertained us with a little Ukulele playing. 

The birthday bash was held at our church building and was an open house style.  A lot of friends and family members came to wish these two a happy birthday.  

Everyone had a great time and said it was so nice to see everyone again.  Unfortunately Colby got sick so Colby, Logan and I headed home early.  Russell said the party was really fun though.  

It looks like Russell had a little too much fun by the way he was drinking!!  Thank you JeanMarie for planning and putting on this fun evening.  (Also thank you for these great pictures that I stole off your Facebook page!)

Happy Birthday Nana and Grandpapa!

Fun with Cousins

This weekend has been a busy one for the Farnsworth family.  We have had a blast spending time with family, celebrating birthdays, watching football and just having fun.  Paul, Alex, and Annalynn spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth's so we were able to play with them during the week.  

Wednesday we spent the afternoon at the splash pad in St. George.  These kids were like fish and had so much fun in the water.  They also had fun sneaking M&M's from Grandpa!  Emily and Colby love playing with Paul and Alex.  Colby loved following Alex around doing everything he did.  They became great friends this week.  Logan and Annalynn also became friends (that is when ever they were not fighting over toys).  Logan hasn't quite learned to share yet.  Annalynn did like doing everything Emily did though and it was cute to see these two girl cousins playing.

Friday was a fun day too.  Saturday was Tyler's 18th birthday so on Friday, LeeAnn arranged for all of the grandkids to go to Snow Canyon High School and sing to Tyler.  First though they decorated Tyler's truck.

They had a good time decorating.  On the front window Paul and Alex used Oreo's to write Tyler's name.  Well the funny thing about that was when Tyler went to go home, instead of removing the cookies off the window, he turned on his windshield wipers.  You guessed it, all of the cream from the cookies smeared all over the window and because it was a hot day, the oil in the cream would not come off!  He was so mad but all we could do was laugh at him.  It was so funny.  Needless to say he could not see out his window.  

Anyway, after decorating his car, we took the kids over to the Seminary building to find Tyler in his class.  We interrupted his Seminary class and all the kids sang "You've Had a Birthday!"  We love embarrassing Tyler.  All of the kids in his class sang along too.  Then we handed out Twinkies and all of the students told Tyler to have a birthday all the time!  

After class we took a picture of Tyler and his nieces and nephews.  These kids love Uncle Tyler.

That night we all went to Tyler's first football game of the season.  Snow Canyon played Copper Hills.  This was a very interesting game with many interesting calls and fouls by the refs.  There was even a fist fight on the field.  The good news: Snow Canyon won in overtime!  The bad news: Tyler broke his foot on a tackle.  

Yeah he was pretty bummed.  It was the first football game of his senior year and it was his birthday the next day.  We all felt so bad for him.  We told him it was okay but he was taking it pretty hard.  We know there is a reason for everything but it was hard to see the bright side right then.  Poor kid.  At least he knows he has family support.

To cheer Tyler up, the next morning on his birthday, all of us came over and woke him up by singing "Happy Birthday!"  Then we kidnapped him and we all when out to eat for breakfast.  It probably wasn't the most fun birthday but we tried.  Happy 18th Birthday, Tyler!

This is just a cute picture Emily took of the boys.  She wants to use the camera all the time so we are thinking of getting her one for her birthday.  

First Day of Kindergarten

Can you believe it? We have a kindergarten-er!

Look how big she is getting!  Emily's first day of school was August 18.  She had been looking forward to this day for so long; probably two years!  Ever since preschool let out in May, Emily has been asking me if it was time to start Kindergarten yet.  She was so excited to go school clothes shopping and picked out all of her new outfits.  She also loved school supply shopping and was so excited to show her teacher her new pencil bag.  On August 5, her new Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Doty, came to our house to meet Emily.  This was also an exciting moment.  Finally the day she had been waiting for came and it was time for Kindergarten!

We walked to school as a family to see Emily off.  Emily walked into the classroom like she owned the place.  She found her seat and cubby for her backpack and was ready for the day.  I told her goodbye and she said "Goodbye, Mom!"  and set to work doing the schoolwork on her desk.  She was ready for school.  I am glad she was so independent and ready but at the same time it was kind of sad because she didn't need me anymore...  I didn't think I would feel sad but I kind of did because that is my baby girl...  I am glad she is so excited about school though.

Here she is at her table on the first day.  She sits on the Yellow table with a boy named Brodie and a girl named Peyton.  

This is a picture her teacher took at Emily's assessment.  Emily passed the assessment with flying colors.  She even read a book the teacher had for her.  I really hope her teacher will keep her engaged and challenged in Kindergarten this year and not just assumes she already knows everything.  I want Emily to continue to love school and make friends and look forward to going to school each day.  My fear as a parent is that she will get forgotten in her class and I really don't want that to happen.  For this reason, I have signed up to be the Room Mom.  I will plan the class parties and help out whenever I can.  I am kind of excited about this new adventure.

Here is one more picture of my cute kindergarten-er!

Baptisms

My cousin, Shawna, and her family celebrated a fun time this Saturday.  Her son, Braxton, got baptized.  Since I am family, and their Primary President, I was able to attend this special day.  This baptism was special because rather than getting baptized in a baptismal font, Braxton was baptized in the Beaver River!

Beaver is Braxton's favorite place and they spend a lot of time here in the summer at their family's property.  They also believe Braxton's great grandpa was also baptized in this river.  For these reasons Braxton thought it would be really cool and spiritual to be baptized in this river.  So they pulled a few strings, made a few phone calls, and made it happen.  The water was a little colder than Tony and Braxton imagined though and it sure took his breath away when he went under.  This was a really cool and spiritual baptism and I was glad I was able to be there for it.  

After the baptism we had lunch and all of the kids had a blast playing on the rocks near the river.  Logan even decided he wanted to go for a dip.  Before I could run down the bank to get him, he sat right in the water.  I think it was a little colder than he liked too because he started crying too!  After that I decided it was time to head back home.  

That night another boy in our ward, Jayson Park, got baptized.  This baptism was considered a convert baptism because the Jayson is 9 years old.  It was so nice to attend this baptism as well and see the excitement in Jayson's eyes as the missionaries talked to him about baptism and the Holy Ghost and as his grandfather baptized him.   Today in church Jayson was confirmed a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost as his constant companion.  

Probably the best part of my calling is being able to interview and attend the baptisms of these children.  I love seeing the light and excitement in their eyes.