Happy Halloween 2014

Happy Halloween from the Farnsworth's!

We had so much fun in our costumes this year.  I was able to make all of our costumes except for Russell's big Spiderman suit.  I love how they all turned out.

This year Emily's latest craze is the Disney movie Frozen.  So it was no surprise when she wanted to be Elsa from the movie for Halloween.  I thought it would be fun for all of us to be characters from the movie by Colby would not go for it.  He wanted to be his latest favorite, Spiderman.  There was no changing his mind.  So instead we split up.  Russell and Colby were both Spiderman and the rest of us were Frozen characters.  Emily was Elsa, I was Anna, and Logan was the cutest of all as Olaf the snowman.  Colby's costume was easy to make except for drawing all of the spiderwebs.  It was worth it though because Colby was so excited to try it on and wear it.  Emily's costume was another story.  I was so glad my mom helped me put it all together and then surge the edges to help it last longer.  Her dress had so much glitter on it that everywhere she went she left a trail of glitter.  Emily loved it as well.  I wasn't sure how Logan's costume would turn out because I kind of made it up as I went along but I think it turned out so good!  My costume was fairly simple as well until I got to the part of appliqueing all of the flowers on the bodice and skirt.  That took some time...

I love how all of the costumes turned out and the kids absolutely loved them too.  They might not be the scariest costumes but they sure are the cutest!

We started our Halloween festivities at our ward Trunk-or-Treat on October 30.  This was so much fun and everyone loved our costumes.  It was also nice to not have to be in charge of the Trunk-or-Treat this year.  I was able to just enjoy the night and hand our candy to all the kids.

After dinner, the Youth led all of the kids in a costume parade around the tables and pavilion area.  It was so fun to see all of their costumes.

After the parade, it was time to hit the trunks.  The kids got so much candy.  They loved every minute of it.  Logan even went off by himself to all the trunks to get the candy.  His favorite trunks were his adopted grandparents in the ward; the Gough's and the Thompson's.  Logan is definitely a charmer and has these two couples wrapped around his finger.  Colby and Russell loved showing off their Spiderman moves all night and Emily danced around with her cousin, Brielle, singing Frozen songs.  

We decorated our trunk with a bunch of spider webs so Colby thought it would be cool to be in the trunk as Spiderman surrounded by his webs.  Emily and Brielle were twin Elsa's.  Shawna and I shared the pattern and the fabric so their costumes were very similar.  These two girls thought it was the best thing ever to be matching!  Our bishop even recorded them singing the song "Let It Go." from the movie.  It was so cute.

During the week, Emily had piano practice and her teacher said they could wear their costumes to class.  When we got there, one of the other boys was dressed up as this huge Olaf!  We just had to take a picture of the two kids together.

On Halloween, we spent the morning at Emily's school.  First we watched all of the kids in the school in their Halloween costume parade.  Some of the costumes were very creative.  We saw multiple Elsa's but I think Emily's costume was the best Elsa. (I may be a little bias...).  After the parade, we headed to Emily's kindergarten class to get ready for the class Halloween party.  As the room parents, Russell and I put together a really fun party.  We played Halloween Bingo, Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin, made a pumpkin and ghost craft, and at the end had a Halloween cake walk. I think the kids had a lot of fun.  It is nice to be involved in the school and get to know the kids Emily talks about all the time.    

After school, we hit up our first house for Trick-or-Treating, Aunt Traci's.  They loved trick or treating to Aunt Traci because she gave them special treats.

I needed to pick up my race packet for my half marathon at the Staheli Farm so we spend some of our Halloween at the Staheli Farm checking out the animals.

It was fun walking around the farmland seeing the little kid mazes, petting the animals, and just playing.  We were going to go trick or treat in the Corn Maze but we decided we didn't want our costumes to get all dirty and ruined (okay I decided).  After the Corn Maze we went trick or treating to all of our family.  We ended in Santa Clara at my Aunt Janet's house.  There we enjoyed homemade donuts and taco soup.  I was glad we stopped because we had not had any dinner yet and we were living off of candy all day.  We also met up with my Grandma Morwood and the Smith's.  It was really fun.

And as our tradition, we had yummy dinner in a pumpkin this week.  We also had some other Halloween themed dinners this week but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.  

Happy Halloween!

Fun & Busy Week

This week has been really busy but really fun too. Lets start with Monday...  Monday night we went to my Aunt Janet's house for Family Home Evening.  It was really fun and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins, Braxton, Brielle, and Ryder.  Janet had planned some awesome games for us to play including pancake dodge ball, sucking M&M's with a straw Minute to Win It, Balloon ping pong and more.

It was a really fun night.  I am glad we were able to go.

Also on Monday, Colby's soccer coach had me take their team's soccer pictures.  Here are Colby's:

I like how they turned out.  Unfortunately we were missing two of our team mates so we took another team picture at the game on Saturday.

This is the whole team.  This picture is not as good but what can you do?  Colby is enjoying soccer as long as he doesn't have to fight for the ball.  He likes just kicking the ball by himself.

Thursday was the Literacy Fair at Sunset Elementary.  During the fair Emily's class and the other kindergarten classes sang a song called "Grizzly Bear" while the music teacher read the funny story about not waking up the sleeping grizzly bear.   

Emily's (and all of the other kids too) favorite part of the song was when they sang "If you wake him, if you shake him, He'll be very MAD!!!"  and they yell "mad" and growl.  The song and story was really cute.

Friday I had to pick up my race packet at the "What Women Want Expo" so we went to the Expo.  As a runner, we got in free so we wandered around that place for a while.

Emily and I decided to get our pictures taken together at the photo booth.  Colby was asleep so we left Logan in the wagon with Colby and just had a girls picture.  The Expo was fun but I sure did not need anything they were trying to sell me...

Saturday was our busiest day.  I ran the Save a Sister 10k and did amazing while Russell took the kids to Emily's soccer game.  After the race, we met up to watch the Dixie College Homecoming parade.  We got so much candy that I am just going to add it to our Trick or Treat candy for Halloween.  Then we headed to Colby's soccer game.  Once the soccer games were over we wanted to check out the Spooky Town Fair in town.  We wandered around there for quite a while before decided we had enough fun (and sun) for one day.  The fair was not as good as it has been in the past.  This year you had to pay for all of the activities where in the past they have been free.  We mostly just checked out the vendor booths and got even more candy to add to our Halloween stash.  

When we finally made it home after this long, busy day, we decided to carve our pumpkin for Halloween.

It was so funny to watch these kids carve the pumpkin.  Emily really got into it and had fun pulling the guts out.  Colby got one handful and that was all he wanted to do.  Logan kept saying, " Ewww! Yucky!" over and over.  It was so cute.  They did have fun carving though. Here is our spooky pumpkin.

We had a fun week this week.  Now we are looking forward to Halloween coming up next week.

Save a Sister 10K

I ran an awesome race today.  I participated in the Save A Sister 10k and got my personal best time of 51:23 minutes (8:16 minute/mile) and I placed 19th overall and 2nd in my age group.  I was so excited about my results.  Here I am showing off my 2nd place metal:

I felt really good during this race.  I was able to get out ahead of the pack at the beginning of the race which I think really helped me.  Here we are at the starting line:

I have decided running is definitely a mental sport.  I knew it was but it totally was this race.  The first mile I ran in 7:36 minutes.  After seeing this time, I was really happy and thought "Wow I am doing great.  I can keep up this pace."  This really helped me keep a positive attitude during the race.  Later at around mile 4 and 5 the course took a turn up hill.  Normally hills are really discouraging but I kept telling myself that I have trained on hills.  I have ran up Valley View and the Red Hill road and other hills and been fine so I kept telling myself I could overcome this hill too.  And I did it!  The last 1/2 mile of the course I was able to really pick up the pace and finish strong with a good kick at the end.  I was very happy with my results and this race.  

After the race everyone was dancing to the music in a field of pink bubbles.  They had bubble machines going so we could run through bubbles and also play in them and get really soapy.  Some people really got into it but not me.  I was happy to stay after for the award ceremony to get my metal.  I am definitely grateful for this body I have been blessed with that enables me to be active and healthy.  My next race is next Saturday and it is what I have been working up to:  the Snow Canyon Half Marathon!

Graduating from Primary

This last month and a half has been one of many mixed emotions and stresses.  At the beginning of September I found out I was going to be released from my calling as Primary President.  To tell you the truth, I was not surprised with this.  In a way I knew it was coming because I had been in for almost 3 years.  What totally surprised me was the new calling I received.  I am now the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society!  I knew I was in for it when the bishop and both of his counselors showed up at our front door one Sunday.  When they said they wanted to call me to the Relief Society I was totally shocked.  I said "Wait a minute. That is not a Primary calling. I have always served in the Primary.  I have never even gone to Relief Society ever so I don't even know what they do!"  They all laughed and said I would be fine.  I was still a little concern until they told me who the new Relief Society president was.  Then I knew I could do this new calling and help the new president.  The new president is Catherine Gough.  She is my awesome Sunbeam teacher and the most amazing lady ever.   She has done so much for me so I told them I would do anything for her even if it meant being in Relief Society!  Another crazy thing is that a few days before I was called, I had the distinct impression that Sister Gough would be the new Relief Society president and that I needed to start looking for a new Sunbeam teacher.  Then later I had the thought that I would be serving with her in some way in this new calling.  I didn't know what I would be doing but I did not think it would be her counselor!  So you can see why I had to accept when they told me who the new president was.  Anyway, the bishop told me they were going to sustain us in church the next Sunday but they were not going to release me as Primary president until after the Primary program still six weeks away.  So I would be pulling double duty... how do you like that?  When they put us in on Sunday, the bishop said, " Well now that we have dropped a bomb in the Primary, I guess we will be reorganizing that next!"  The Relief Society took me, my secretary (as the new RS secretary), and my Sunbeam teacher!  The bishop did tell me though that even though I have double duty, my first priority is to the Primary.  So for six weeks I have been the Primary President and the Relief Society 1st Counselor, all the while planning the Primary Program and the ward Trunk or Treat.  Luckily we had the Ogden Temple dedication and General Conference in there so it really has only been three Sundays.  The nice thing about this double duty has been going on visits.  We would go as the Primary and Relief Society and I realized that the Primary and Relief Society should go on visits together more often.  It just makes sense to visit the children and their moms at the same time!

I did not realize how emotional I would get over being released from a calling.  These last few weeks in Primary have been so hard.  The first week I could not even hold it together especially after hearing those amazing little kids sing the opening song "A Child's Prayer."  I was bawling because I knew I would miss their little spirits and the feeling of Primary.  I love it.  Everyone has told me I will like Relief Society too but I am really nervous to go in there for some reason.  They have told me that the Spirit in Relief Society is different than in Primary because the spirit felt in Primary is meant for the kids while the spirit in Relief Society is meant for you.  That has given me some comfort...

This Sunday was our Primary Sacrament Meeting Program.  Our theme this year was Families Are Forever.  These kids did such an amazing job during the program.  I could feel the Spirit so strong.  I really had to keep back the tears because first the Spirit was so strong and second they released me and my presidency and sustained the new Primary presidency.  I had many ward members tell me how much they loved the program and how well the kids did.  I couldn't help but smile and agree.  We still had not found a new Sunbeam teacher so I asked Sister Gough if she would help her little class in the Program.  She happily said yes.  After the Program we shed a few tears together because it was our last day in Primary.

Here are my cute Primary kids!  And yes I say "my" because they have been mine for two and a half years and I can't help but love them as my own.  Yes I have had some ups and downs with some of them and their parents but to tell you the truth, I even love those kids and want to see them succeed. 

The Stake Primary President said this was the perfect week to be released because we are going out on a high point.  This definitely was a good week this week.  It nice to leave with a good feeling.  My dad said it was my grand finale.  Yes it was Dad! 

Here is a picture of my great presidency: Michaela Massaro (2nd Counselor), Hanna Lay (1st Counselor), me, and Kelsey Walker (Secretary).  I also served with three other wonderful ladies before they moved: Anna White (1st Counselor), Trisha Barker (2nd Counselor), and Tiah Skelton (Secretary).

And this is the new Primary presidency that I know will be amazing.  Wendy Paxman (2nd Counselor), Mikell Terry (President), Jessica Healy (Secretary), and Jazmin Morales (1st Counselor).

As I was meeting with Mikell over the last week and telling her all about her new calling as Primary President, I was really amazed at all that goes into this calling.  I just kept telling her all that I did and all the President was responsible for and she just seemed really amazed and overwhelmed but I kept telling her she would be great and things just seem to work out.  I knew I was busy but there always seemed to be time for church and family and work.  When I was set apart as the Primary President, I was promised in that blessing that I would have time for family as well as time for Primary and all the other things I was doing if I was faithful in my calling.  I can tell you now that promise was true.  I was busy and at times overwhelmed but everything always worked out for the best.  I know priesthood blessings are real and can provide great comfort.

After church I passed all of my stuff on to the new president and it was so weird walking out of church empty handed!  I will truly miss being in Primary.  I have served in the Primary for the past 8 years and I have loved it.  Now I guess the Lord has something else in store for me in the Relief Society so I am graduating from Primary and moving on to Relief Society.  I don't really know what to expect but I am willing to learn and try.  I am also a little scared because I have to teach Relief Society next month!  Sister Bonnie Thompson (the past RS president) told me to just imagine the ladies are all Primary kids in big bodies and that should help.  I hope so...

We had a wonderful Primary Program today. I could feel the Spirit so strong! Thank you to all that participated and helped make it possible. Thank you parents for your wonderful primary kids. I have loved serving in primary and will miss it. I also want to thank my awesome presidencies, Hanna Lay, Michaela Massaro, Kelsey Walker, Anna White, Trisha Barker, and Tiah Skelton and all of the great primary teachers and anyone who serves in primary/scouts/activity days or nursery for the amazing job they have done and all of the help they have given me. I couldn't have done it without you! Congratulations to the new presidency; I know you will be great!! 

Sunset Elementary Color Run

For a huge fundraiser the Sunset Elementary PTA put on a Color Run for the students and their families.  Of course we joined in on the fun.

We had so much fun running (or walking) around the track at the school and getting plastered with colored powder.  After 4 laps we completed the one mile course and came away very speckled.  Russell and Emily ran the whole way and totally got into it.  They had the most color on them.  I walked with the boys.  The boys didn't really like the powder but there was no avoiding it.  We got covered too.  Colby really just wanted to throw the powder at people so we stopped at a few placed and let him throw.  He loved it.  Russell and I did have quite a scare with Logan though.  Logan had gotten Pink powder thrown in his face and it made his eyes water a lot.  When Russell and I looked at his eyes, there was red all around them and it looked like they were bleeding!  We didn't know what to do but then we realized that his eyes were not bleeding they were just watering and turning the pink powder red.  I was so relieved.  

This was a fun family activity and one we will do again if the PTA does it next year.  (Next time we will remember glasses for everyone though!)

After the run, we had fun playing the carnival games.  Emily and Colby threw pies at the principal, went fishing for prizes, and won pops playing ring toss. 

At the end of the Color Run and carnival, each grade performed a song for us.  Emily's kindergarten class sang a song about colors.  It was so cute.  

After Emily performed, we rushed up to the Olsen's house for their annual neighborhood donut party.  They are the funnest family ever.  Each year they make homemade donuts for the entire neighborhood.  It is definitely a party when everyone gets together and the donuts are really good too!

I threw this picture in here too for fun.  We like going to Home Depot and building things on Saturdays.  This month Emily built a Wizard of Oz bird house and Colby and Logan built an ambulance car.  We always have fun building things together.

Updates...

This past month has been very eventful for Emily.  First she lost three teeth all within 3 weeks: 

She lost two teeth on the bottom and one of her top front teeth. She looks like a little jack o' lantern.  Hopefully her teeth straighten out as she grows because right now they are coming in pretty crooked.   Even though she hated getting her teeth pulled, getting money from the tooth fairy made it all worth it.  She has lost a total of five teeth now.

In her kindergarten class, Emily is the best reader!  At the Kindergarten Recognition Assembly Emily was awarded the Language Arts Award for her class. 

She was so happy and excited to receive the award.  Each month the Kindergarten teachers select one student to receive an award for Language Arts, Math, and Kindness to Others.  The next week Emily also received the "Reader of the Month" award for September.  I am so proud of Emily for doing so well in school.

This is our first family art project for school.  We had to decorate this pumpkin as a family and then Emily brought it back to school to be displayed in her classroom.  It was fun to make.  We each drew our favorite things about Fall and Halloween on the pumpkin.  Even Logan and Colby drew things.

Here is a funny picture of Logan.  Logan is a climber.  He climbs on anything and everything.  If he wants something he finds a way to get it no matter what.  He climbs on the chairs, he climbs on the table, he climbs outside on things, he climbs on everything.  Now when he climbs he sometimes falls too.  His poor head has had more than one goose egg and bruise.  There have been days that he looked like a unicorn.  But he continues to climb.  Well he is very good at climbing up into his high chair but getting down is sometimes difficult especially when his shirt gets caught.  Whenever I hear Logan yelling "I STUCK! I STUCK!"  I know he has been climbing down from his highchair again.  I laugh every time I have to get him down.  

September was a rainy month for St. George this year due to the effects of Hurricane Norbert.  The rain came down hard several times and flooded many houses.  The rains and flash floods even washed away 50 miles or so of I-15 right around Moapa, NV.  The freeway was closed and traffic diverted for several days or weeks until it could be fixed.  After one night of rain, we woke up to this awesome full rainbow.  It was beautiful!

Ready to Run

This is marathon weekend in St. George.  Thousands of people come to St. George to run the famous St. George Marathon.  The papers said that there were 7,800 runners running the marathon this year.  It was the 38th annual marathon and the largest amount of runners.  Friday night before the marathon, there was a "Move It" Kids Run.  Emily and Colby had so much fun running in the race.

Here they are at the starting line getting ready to run.  In the kids' race there was a one mile race and a 200 meter race.  We decided to put them in the 200 meter race which was the perfect distance for their little legs.

Here are all of the kids ready to go.   There were quite a few little runners for this race.

On Your Mark... Get Set... GO!!!

And they were off.  Emily and Colby held hands during the whole race so they could stay together and not get lost.  They did so well!

The race coordinators said this was a parent free race so parents were not allowed on the course.  It was so funny because all of the parents were running along the sidelines watching their kids.  The announcer said "Here come the kids toward the finish line and on grass on the sidelines is the parents race to see their kids finish!"

They even got to cross the actual finish line of the St. George Marathon.  When they were done they both got finisher medallions which they have proudly worn ever since.

And who can forget the after race food!  The reason you do races is to get the T-shirt and the after race food!  They had Clif bars, go-gurts, water, doughnuts, and more!  Of course the kids just wanted the doughnuts but I grabbed a few Clif bars and go-gurts for us too.

After the race we also got to have fun on the bounce houses and the other activities that were there.  Emily and Colby had a blast and loved participating in their first real race.  They said they wanted to do another race soon.  We have signed up for a Color Run next week.  That should be fun.

The next morning I woke up bright and early to help our ward at the starting line of the Marathon.  

I had so much fun with the youth in our ward.  Since two of the Young Women leaders were running in the Marathon and the other leader had just had a baby, our Young Women president needed another leader to go with them.  I jumped on the opportunity because I am planning on running the marathon next year and wanted prepare myself for how crazy the starting line is.  As you can see there were sooooo many people.  I was amazed.  We got up to Central at 4:00 am to set up and get ready for the runners.  For the next 3 hours we served water, Gatorade, oranges, bananas, Vaseline, band aids, Mylar blankets, and anything else the runners needed before the race.  The youth in our ward are awesome and they made the whole experience so fun.  After all of the runners had gone and we had cleaned up, the Young Men even made us breakfast!  Thanks guys!

Here are my running buddies getting ready to run the Marathon.  All three of them did awesome running the marathon in a little over 4 hours.  Nice Job, Ladies.  

The Marathon has always been a goal of mine and I am getting there.  I have a half marathon coming up in a month and I plan on continuing to run and sign up for the full marathon next year.  Wish me luck.