Grayson Lee Bassett

While we were down in St. George for Thanksgiving, we got to meet out newest nephew, Grayson.  He is so cute and looks just like his dad.

Grayson Lee Bassett was born on November 23, 2015 at 9:55 pm and weighed 7.9 pounds.  Justin and Summer are so excited for this new little one but I think Terral and Chad are more excited to be grandparents.

Of course I wanted to hold him as much as I could too.  He may or may not have made me a little baby hungry.

Here are some fun pictures of Grayson and his family courtesy of Justin's Facebook page:

Congratulations Justin and Summer  He sure is a cute baby.

Thanksgiving Fun

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  Russell and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and all of the Farnsworth clan came up to celebrate with us on Friday, November 20.  We also invited Aunt Charlene, Bryson, and Grandma and Grandpa Maxwell.  It sure was a house full of people but it was a house full of fun and really good food too.  Because we were hosting, we made the dinner.  I have never roasted a turkey before or made the Thanksgiving dinner because we have always gone to my moms for Thanksgiving.  There was a lot of study and preparation that went into this meal and the final result was amazing.  

Here we are with our first turkey  This turkey was so good and so juicy.  It fell right off the bone and we didn't even need a knife.  First we brine the turkey for a day before cooking it low and slow.  It was perfect.  We also made stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and mashed potatoes and gravy.  LeeAnn brought green bean casserole, Jen brought the rolls and Jello, and Traci brought the green salad,  We had a great feast.

After stuffing ourselves with turkey, we needed some exercise to work off the calories.  The next morning (Saturday, November 21) we participated in the Smithfield Turkey Trot 5K.   

Traci, Sean, Jen, and I ran the 5K while Russell ran with the kids in the 1 mile kids race.  The race was really fun and one we just ran for the fun of it not worrying about fast times or places.  The kids had a great time running with all of their might.  

In the end however, we did end up getting some cool prizes.  Paul won first place in the kids race and won a turkey!  Alex was fourth place and Emily was sixth.  They won ice cream at Casper's.  Sean won first place in his age division winning a free entrance into another race which he gave to me.  I won second place in my age group winning free entrance into the Smithfield Rec Center. 

Here we are showing off our ribbons from the race.  All of the kids received green ribbons for finishing their race.  

After the race, we took everyone to the Pepperidge Farm factory and the Casper's Fat Boy Factory where we bought way too many Fat Boys and Gold Fish.  We finally got home, changed, and rushed Emily over to her class party.  For winning the Box Tops competition at school, her class won a party at Air Bound Gymnastics.  Emily had a great time with all of her friends and now wants to do gymnastics. 

When Emily got home, we all headed up the canyon to go shooting.

This was really fun and something I haven't done in a long time.  We shot clay pigeons with shotguns and targets with .22s.  The kids had a great time learning how to shoot the .22s.  

This weekend was really fun having everyone together.  It was kind of stressful though having so many people in our house.  We were glad to back to a normal routine.  

On Wednesday we traveled down to St. George to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family.  It was fun to be with everyone again.  I was also able to go shopping on Black Friday with my sisters; a tradition we do every year. 

We had a great Thanksgiving.

Disney on Ice

Jen and I had a really fun girls night and took Emily and Annalynn to the Disney Princesses on Ice at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake.  

Only one word could describe this show and the experience: AMAZING!

The girls loved dressing up like their favorite princesses to see the show.  Snow White Annalynn and Elsa Emily had a great time at the show and were so excited to see the princesses as well as Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

The show was all about daring to dream and having your dreams come true.  Mickey and Minnie introduced the stories of Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel (in Tangled) as we watched the amazing ice skating and dancing.

The talent was awesome and the acting and costumes were perfect.  I think my favorite was the Maximus horse and the Cinderella carriage and horse costumes.  Emily said her favorite was EVERYTHING!  I will have to agree with her though, everything was great!

At the end, all of the characters and prince/princess couples came out for one last royal ball and dance.  Along with Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, we also saw the other princes and princesses.  We saw Tiana and Naveen from "Princess and the Frog", Aladdin and Jasmine, Ariel and Prince Eric from "Little Mermaid," and Belle and Beast from "Beauty and the Beast."

The grande finale was all of the characters waving to us from their castle.  It was the perfect end to a great show.  

After the show we treated the girls to some ice cream.  This was such a fun day.  I am so glad we got the opportunity to go to the Disney on Ice show.  It was well worth it.  If we go again, I think I should take the boys because I think they would have liked it too.  But it is always fun to just have a girls night too.

First Snow!

Well it is officially winter and we had our first snowfall of the season.  The kids were so excited they could hardly wait to play in it.  

The boys ran outside when it first started snowing and tried to catch as many snowflakes in their mouths as they could.  I will admit, there is something amazing about watching snow fall.

A couple days later, the boys were able to go out and throw a few snowballs at each other and stomp around in the snow on the grass.  Well it looks like we are really in for the winter.  Time to get use to the cold and snow!

Happy Veterans Day!

Canyon Elementary put on an amazing Patriotic Night in honor of Veteran's Day.  This night honored all veteran's as well as public safety men and women like police officers, fire fighters, and EMT's.  It was an awesome program.  It was also Emily's first choir concert.  She loves being in the choir and singing.  The choir sang two songs, "American Tears" and "God Bless the USA."

During the program, veterans and public safety people were recognized.  Emily wanted to recognize her dad during the program so together we wrote a little blip about Russell.  Emily was excited to have her dad recognized as an amazing Fire Fighter and Paramedic.  While the choir sang "God Bless the USA" the PTA showed a nice slideshow of all of the men recognized that night.  This was a great program.

Thank you to all the Veteran's and men and women who keep us safe each day!

Snow Canyon Half Marathon 2015

I ran another fun race this weekend.  I ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon for the second time.  This was my first half marathon last year and running it this year was a much better experience.  I was a little leery about running this race again because I was not happy with my experience last time.  Then my good friend, Trista, called me and said she was going to be in town visiting from Albuquerque that weekend and wanted to run the race.  She convinced me to run it with her and her husband, Andrew.  I am so glad I did because it was a really great race and it was so exciting to see Trista again and run with her.  Here we are showing off our finisher medals.

This race was much better than last year mostly because the weather was amazing for the whole race.  It was a perfect 45-50 degrees, the sun was shining and not a rain cloud or head wind in sight (unlike last year).  OK and I was much better trained.  

Trista said she wanted to run a time of 1:40.  I just looked at her like she was crazy and told her I would see her at the finish line eventually...  Then I thought, "Why not try for it?"  My previous best time in a half marathon was 1:51 so I would have to knock off 10 minutes!    

Well I ran my hardest and fastest and I did it!  I finished with a time of 1:43 (7:55 min/mile) my new personal record for half marathons!  I was so excited about my time.  The great thing about it is I really felt good during the whole race.  Even though I was running a lot faster I did not feel any more fatigued than usual.  I was happy to beat my previous PR by 8 minutes and my previous time on this course by 19 minutes!  Trista came in about a minute ahead of me with a time of 1:42 and her husband killed us all with a time of 1:36.  We all got PR's and loved the race.  

Unfortunately, the weather here in Hyrum is getting a little too cold for running so this might be my last race for a while.  Probably until next spring.  Oh well what a good race to end on.  In good news though, I accomplished my 2015 fitness New Year's Resolution.

After training for and running one full marathon, 4 half marathons, a 15K, some 10K's and 5K's, I met and exceeded my goal of running 1,000 miles in 2015!  I was so excited to reach that 1,000 mile mark.  It has been a long and hard goal but one I have looked forward to achieving. 

Lessons

Sometimes we make mistakes and have to learn lessons.  This happened to Colby this week.  

While we were at Wal-Mart picking up a few things, Colby ate a piece of candy near the checkout stand.  We were busy putting our things up on the counter when we turned around and Colby had something in his mouth and was eating it.  We asked him what he was eating and then we noticed the open wrapper and the pieces of chocolate.  We could not believe it.  Russell and I quickly decided it was time to teach a lesson on stealing and honesty.  Colby felt really bad as he told the cashier what he had done and we paid for the candy.  Come to find out, someone else had already opened the candy so Colby thought it was okay to eat.  This made me even more nervous because of germs and stuff.  

Anyway when we got home, it was time for Colby to make up for his mistake and pay for the candy.  Since he doesn't have any money, we had to work it off by raking leaves.

Russell and Colby raked all of the leaves in the yard and he was a pretty humble boy after that.  I hope he learned a lesson and won't steal anymore.  Russell and I really need to figure out this parenting thing.  It is really hard sometimes.  I never know what to do and just kind of make it up as I go.  Hopefully our kids will grow up to be good people.  Any advice?