Welcome Home Sister Morwood!

Welcome Home Sister Morwood! Cassie has spent the last 18 months serving the Lord in the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission.  She was a great missionary and served faithfully.  We are all so excited to have her home though especially her family.  We were able to travel down to St. George to see her at the airport and welcome her home.

As you can see, we were all so happy to see her.  Cassie was a little shell shocked though and broke into tears of joy to be home as well as sad tears for leaving the wonderful people in her mission.  When I asked her how she was doing and if she was happy to be home, she told me that it was really a bittersweet moment.

Everyone else was very happy she was home, but we all understood how she could feel that way.  Charlotte got to meet Cassie for the first time and seemed to like her too.

While we were down in St. George, we enjoyed the warm weather.  It was great to finally get outside and enjoy the sunshine.

While there, we got to meet our newest nephew and cousin.  Justin and Summer brought up their new baby, Mason, for everyone to meet.  He is so cute and small.  I wanted to take him home with me but for some reason Summer wouldn't part with him.

While at Cassie's homecoming talk in church, we got to hold Mason even more.

Charlotte and Logan loved holding him.  Charlotte loved the baby and was constantly giving him hugs and pointing at him saying "Baby!"  It was so cute.

Cassie gave a great homecoming talk and we loved hearing all of her mission stories.  She had some great experiences as well as some trying ones.  You could tell that she loved her mission.

Some other "fun" things that happened this week was this:

KABOOM!

I was upstairs and all of a sudden, I heard this loud crashing noise and rumble.  I thought it was an earthquake but when I went downstairs, this is what I found...  Our can dispenser totally broke and all of our canned food came crashing to the ground.  I couldn't believe it and simply walked back up stairs and told Russell he had a new project to work on this week.  It was a mess but I was so glad it was only the canned food and not the glass jars especially since we had just bottled all of that meat a couple weeks ago.

And here is Russell's completed project.  This time he used 4 inch screws to hold the dispenser together rather than nails like the original owner had in there.  This should hold much better than before.

While driving to St. George this week, our van hit 100,000 miles...

I hate to think we have put over 52,000 miles on this van since we bought it and that it is getting older but its not bad for a 10 year old car.  Now we need to take it in for the routine repairs and it should hopefully last us another 100,000.    Good job van!

Catching Fish and Leprechauns

This was a crazy fun week for us. It is the case lot sales in the stores right now so we kind of went crazy buying food this week.  We went to the store and bought a lot of meat.  As if we didn't already have a lot to do, we decided to pressure can all of the meat we bought rather than freeze it.  

We bottled 40 pounds of chicken, cooked a spiral ham and made and bottled 14 quarts of really good bean soup.  Then just for fun, we made some strawberry-banana peach jam as well. This process took the whole week and lots of kitchen time. As you can tell from the picture we made a killing with the cooking.   This was my first time ever pressure canning and I was a little nervous I would ruin all of that meat but it turned out great.

This Saturday, we travelled down to West Jordan to go to Jayce Gardner's bridal shower. While Emily and I were at the shower, the boys and Charlotte hung out at Jen's place with her boys and Grandpa Farnsworth. 

  The shower was really nice and Jen had done an amazing job decorating and putting everything together with the camping theme.  As part of the decorations, Russell made this awesome "Don't Feed the Bears" sign.  After the shower, we came home with some new couches.  Russell's parents were getting new furniture and we decided to take the sectional they were getting rid of.  We put it upstairs in the front room.  It really took up a lot of the space in our big room but it is nice because now we have more places to sit when family or company comes to our house.

Russell and Garret had a great idea to take the kids fishing at the Wellsville pond this week. They  having been meaning to hang out for a while and decided this was a great activity to do together. The kids had a great time fishing and hanging out with their friends. 

Of course like any fun fishing trip with kids, I had fun getting their poles ready and casting them in and reeling them in a few times before my pole got in the water. I think it is fun to do this, because I have memories of my Dad doing this for us when I was a kid. Sometimes I wondered if he ever got his pole in the water some days. Now I understand why and I laugh. Love my kiddos.

Logan was asking me every few minutes when he was going to catch a fish and I told him, "Be patient and you will get one." Of course just as he was losing all hope his line went straight and I yelled to Logan, "Come on Logan you got a fish." He ran so fast and grabbed his pole and reeled it in as fast as he could. He was a happy boy to catch a fish. 

Here we are with his big fish and also his big smile. I asked him if we could let it go and he did not want to let it go. He wanted to go home and eat it. Then a few minutes after Logan caught one, my line went straight and I yelled to Colby to come reel this fish in. Colby had a fun time reeling in the fish and catching it. He was okay with letting it go though, he did not want to eat it. Garrett caught two good sized trout also. We had a great day as Dads with our kids.

When we got home and it was and it was time to figure out how to catch a Leprechaun. St. Patrick's Day was the next day and the kids were bound and determined to catch one. So here we are deep in thought trying to figure out a plan. They all brought some kind of object to the table to make the trap. We had a box, a juice bottle, a Lego house, yarn, rubber bands and tooth picks. They all had great ideas and we finally came up with a plan.  

We cut a door in the box that was spring action closing by a rubber band. Inside was Colby's Lego house to help the Leprechaun feel at home. We also cut a trap door in the juice bottle. Once all this was in the box, we sealed it with a lot of tape so he could not get out. We all thought this trap was going to catch him for sure. We thought of every way to make sure he could not get out. Inside the box we left him some treats to catch him with. Bedtime came and we all hurried to bed because he would not come until we were sleeping.

When morning came and we ran into the kitchen to see if we caught a Leprechaun. We were really sad to see what had happened. There were green footprints all over the trap but the tricky little bugger was too smart for us. 

He got in the box and played around inside and went inside the juice bottle where he was supposed to be caught, but we forgot one thing. The top of the lid was not glued on. He twisted off the lid and jumped out of the bottle. That tricky little bugger. He left his little green foot prints everywhere. He also ate all of the Lucky Charms and the gold Rolos. The kids were bummed, but they were excited to read his note and see that he came. It was a great trap except for the lid. Next year the lid will be glued!

Happy 7th Birthday, Colby

What am I going to do with this crazy kid that just turned 7!!!

Colby turned 7 this week so we spent the week celebrating his birthday.  Colby is such a funny smart kid.  He knows what he wants and finds any way to get there.  He is very friendly but most of the time prefers to just play by himself.  He loves Legos or anything he can build.  He also likes finding new ways to do things.  Being outside is his favorite thing to do.

This year he just wanted a family party rather than a big friend party.  I was totally okay with that and we had a good time spending the day together.

He loved all of this presents especially his new Rollerblades, Lego's, and watch.  We spend the afternoon putting his new truck and trailer Lego set together.  

Here is the final product!  He said the truck is like ours but the trailer is like Grandpa's.  His Lego guys have been camping ever since.

For his cake, Colby decided he wanted a camouflage cake decorated with Army men.  Here is what I came up with.

I don't know if it is a little racist, the Americans fighting the Germans, but that's what we did.  Colby's favorite was the dead army man laying there with blood (red sprinkles) coming out.  He loved it.  I tried to make the inside of the cake look camouflaged but it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped.  Oh well it tasted great and Colby thought it was cool.

These three crazy boys were playing together when I finished the cake and they all thought it was the best cake ever!  This is Colby's friend, Quinn.  He is always at our house.

We all enjoyed the cake and ice cream that night after dinner.  It was a fun day.

On Monday, Colby got to celebrate his birthday at school.

He was able to bring three things to show and tell about.  He brought his new Lego's because he loves Lego's and he loves camping.  He also brought his new pull back car and a picture he had drawn because he loved doing art projects.  He got an awesome super hero cape from his teacher that he got to wear all day long during school and at home.

That night we went out to eat at the kids' favorite place, Pizza Pie Cafe.  Then it was on to dessert at their other favorite place, YogurtLand.

The kids love this place and always have a good time there.  This time Colby got this giant gummy worm that was really 6 worms smashed together.  He thought he was pretty lucky.

What a crazy kid.  I cannot get him to take a serious or good picture.  He is always looking away or making funny faces.  This time he wanted to be a strong super hero with his cape and then he was looking at his watch like, "Are we done yet..."

There's a good one...  We love this boy and are so glad he is ours and in our family.  Happy Birthday Colby!!

Lasik and Pink Gymnastics

A miracle has occurred this week!  After wearing glasses or contacts for pretty much his whole life, Russell can now see without wearing either!  Here's Russell:

Here I am ready for the day I have been told I could never have. I have had glasses since I was 6 years old and have worn many pairs. I have also had contacts since I was 15 years old.  When I started my job with Fire Department, I did not want to hurry and put my contacts in during the middle of the night just in case there was a fire so instead of taking them out I slept with them in for two days for about three years. Needless to say the doctor told me that was stupid to do.The vessels in my right eye were not doing well and the eye doctor said if it got any worse I could not wear contacts anymore and I would be stuck with glasses for the rest of my life. This comment hit home and I started to think about taking the plunge and getting Lasik corrective surgery on my eyes.  I was told by my new eye doctor I would be a great candidate.

So here I am on the day of the procedure. Tiffany, Logan, Charlotte and I got up early and drove to Ogden where the surgical center was at. I signed paper work they told me what to expect. Before I left they said take a blanket and here is a Valium to take to help you relax. I thought at first when they said take a blanket, "Heck ya I am taking a blanket, this is a spendy surgery and the least they can give me is a blanket." The next thought was, "I have never taken Valium before so heck ya let me have it to see what it does to me." Once I walked out to the waiting room, I put on some cool blue booties and a cool blue hair cap. Before I went in we watched, through the window, a couple of procedures that were going on. I thought holy cow they are scrapping off the lens of that person's eye. When it was finally my turn to go in and they put in some numbing drops in my eyes.  Now I was in the chair being asked to look straight forward. They put in this little cookie cutter thing in my eye and then said hold still. I felt a pop and then they took it out. The doctor then pealed back the lens of one eye and the room went dark. He then said hold that eye really still as the laser does its work. I heard a lot of popping noises and then it stopped. He put the lens back down and I was able to see again. They did the same thing to the other eye. The whole procedure took around 10 minutes or so and I was walking out of the room. As I walked out of the room my vision was a little cloudy, but I was able to see. They gave me some cool glasses to wear for the next 5 days.

 I was disappointed the Valium did not work during the procedure, but it did work on the way home. I was not able to drive home of course so Tiffany drove home. I was really tired that I forgot to swallow my saliva and when I took a breath in I aspirated some saliva and woke up really fast gagging. Tiffany looked at me and said are you going to die. I laughed and said wow maybe the Valium is working. The whole day was full of a lot of sleep because it felt like I had tons of dirt in my eyes and tons of irritation. I also had to put eye drops in every hour because they cut the cornea nerve. The whole day was fun to see without glasses. Sleeping the first day was weird because I had to sleep with the funny looking glasses. The next day was even better. The irritation was a lot less and I was able to see even better.   My eye doctor said the surgery went really well and my eyes look great.  I can finally see!!

We had a lot of fun the rest of the week too.  March 1 was the Literacy Night at the school.  Since this was the same day as Russell's surgery, I took the kids while he rested his eyes and played with Charlotte.

As part of the program, Colby and the rest of the first graders did a little program of poems and songs.  Colby did a great job and was a little crazy around his friends.  He was making faces at us the whole time.  What a funny boy.  At the literacy night, each of the kids got a new book to take home and Colby and Emily got a prize book for completing their summer reading chart.  So we came home with 5 new books to add to our library.

On March 2nd, we had the opportunity to watch the USU Gymnastics meet against BYU.  It was USU's Pink Meet supporting cancer awareness.  Because of this, I was able to walk out with the gymnasts and other breast cancer survivors and be recognized in the opening ceremonies.

These things are always really humbling to me.  I love meeting other cancer survivors and talking to them.  It really gives me the hope of continuing to survive and get through this just like they have.  The thing I struggle with and the reason I feel inadequate in these situations is that I don't feel like I am some kind of hero, I feel like I just did what I had to do to survive and that's it.

The gymnastics meet was pretty fun to watch.  I was amazed at the talent of these gymnasts!  They all did really well.

The gymnasts competed in the Vault, Bars, Beam, and a Floor Routine.  I think our favorite was the floor routines but they were all great.  Emily loved every minute and now wants to be a gymnast even more than before.  Colby and Logan thought it was pretty cool too.  Charlotte was not so much.  

At the end of the meet, USU ended up coming up short by 0.1 of a point so BYU won.  I could not believe it was so close.  After the meet, there was a big dance party on the floor with all of the kids in the crowd.  Emily ran right down there so she could be a part of it.  She said it was so fun.  

We had a great week this week.