More Holes In Her Head

Arianna has wanted to pierce her ears for years, she's just been too scared of the pain. We've never pushed her (okay, maybe Miranda has a little), but told her that she could do it whenever she was ready. When school started, we bought Miranda a couple of sets of earrings. They came with a few pink earrings on them. Since the only color Miranda will wear is blue, and the only color Ari will wear is pink, Miranda offered the extra earrings to Arianna. Well this put Ari over the edge - she decided she'd do it. After a few phone calls around town to find a place with two guns that could get it done all at once, we decided to get them done Friday, August 22nd. She was really nervous on the way, and would have turned around and gone home if Miranda and I hadn't forced her to follow through with it. I had the camera with me to take pictures, but between her nerves and mine I forgot. Well she did it! She looked pale as a ghost, and when I asked her after if she was glad she did it she said, "NO". A few days later I asked her the same question. She said she was glad she did it. When I asked her if she'd do it again knowing how it felt and how quickly it was over she said, "NO WAY".

Here she is remembering the pain!

Mini Me

Yesterday, Jacob and Rory both came out wearing about the same outfits. I had to snap a picture of the two of them. If Rory was only going to get one son, Jacob was truly hand picked for him. They are a spitting image of each other. Not only in looks, but their personalities too. Both love to tease, love sports, love golf, are amazing with numbers, and both are picky eaters. Their biggest similarity is that they are adored by the five girls that live with them. We love our Menn!!!!

Dough Makers

With the older 3 kids in school, Kali down for naps, and the weather finally cool enough to turn on the oven, Sabrina and I decided to make cookies. Isn't it funny how a 4 year old can turn any task into so much more. As we were finishing up putting in the wet ingredients she says, "It looks like poop!" Well, that's not exactly how I like to picture my chocolate chip cookies. Then a few minutes after that she announces that we are "Dough Makers". My name was dough maker and her name was dough maker. That's how we addressed each other for about an hour after that. She turned it all into make-believe and all of a sudden we were bakers. Every waking second Sabrina lives for imaginative play. My name can be anything from the latest barbie (Mariposa is our most recent) to someone else in the family (I'm often Sabrina and she's mom). A person can't sit still for a second without Sabrina approaching you with a polly pocket, barbie, or simply an offer to "play house". I just love her love for life. Even this picture captures her constant dialog of the story.

Our Little Star

Sabrina started preschool yesterday, Monday August 25th. She goes to Little Star Preschool. We love her teacher Janae (she had her last year and Jacob had her the year before). I don't know if Sabrina was more excited to go to school or to finally be able to wear her new school clothes. She could hardly wait. When she came home she told me all about her day and immediately wanted to know when she was going back. We're proud of you, Sabrina!

We're a year old!

Blogeology I am doing it!
My blogeology...

I had to blog-lift this from a friend (thanks Felicia). We've kept our blog for a week and a year now. I just have to say this is the most consistent journaling/scrapbooking/family history I've done in my whole life. Yay for technology! Thanks to everyone for your comments. And thanks to all of you who inspire me and keep me going with this. Love you all!

First day of school!

Today's first day of school came with much anticipation. The kids have had the countdown going for about 25 days. Miranda couldn't wait to start. She was so excited for her teacher, Mr. Allen. Arianna was really nervous. She got the teacher that she'd heard the least nice things about. Jacob was just scared. Going all day long, to a teacher he hadn't met(she's new this year), and eating food in the lunch room that he didn't want. (Just as a side note...I was teasing Jake last spring that I didn't think I could make it with him being in school all day. I would miss him too much. Assuming that he'd argue with me on it, I jokingly told him I would just have to come get him around lunch time. So, this fall when I started talking to him about his schedule, he said, "Mom, remember you said you were going to come get me at lunch?" It broke my heart that my sarcasm had led him astray for so long.)

Well, after last night's back-to-school night they were all excited. They left for the bus with big grins on their faces. And thankfully, returned just as happy. Miranda loved her teacher even more than she'd thought. Arianna said her teacher didn't scream once :). And Jacob just loved recess and survived lunch but had lots of fun.

The house was awfully quiet and empty. I just tried to keep busy so as not to notice the quiet or dwell on the fact that they're all growing up. Even Kali asked for the kids during the day. Sabrina was glad they were gone so she could play in their rooms without getting in trouble.

Good bye Summer Fun!

This has been such a full summer. We found that the few days that we actually didn't have anything planned were few and far between. Some of the things the kids enjoyed were Fun and Fitness camp where Miranda, Ari, and Jacob got to try things like hockey, bowling, miniature golf, soccer, basketball, frisbees, and swimming. Miranda's art teacher did an art camp through the summer that kept Miranda doing her favorite hobby. And Sabrina's preschool sponsors summer camps. Arianna, Jacob and Sabrina all got to participate in clue camp and pet shop camp.

One of our highlights of each week was park day. We would meet with the Lamb family and various other families (depending on who could come) at a new park each week. It gave the kids a chance to play and the mom's the opportunity to chat with an adult. Our last park day was the day before school started, the kids really enjoyed Willow Park.

Needless to say, it's been a fun summer, but we are ready for routine, and early bedtimes (well, mom is anyway).

Farr Family Fun!!!

In a last ditch effort to fill the summer with fun we decided to head to Ogden for the Children's Treehouse Museum. We were lucky enough to steal our cousin Bostyn to go with us (see the below mentioned new baby in the family). There we met our Aunt Angie and Kaitlyn, Cambria, and Milton and also Aunt Brianna with her boys, Isaac and Jaron. It was great to be able to spend the day with our cousins. Thanks to Grandma Farr and Aunt Julie for letting us crash for lunch at the preschool. While we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves I realized how outnumbered I was when I told the front desk at the museum that there would be 6 kids and 1 adult! It was interesting trying to keep track of everyone there. It got even funnier after I packed the kids in the car and went to the drive-thru at McDonald's. When I went to pay, the cashier asked how my day was. I gave the usual "fine, how about yours" answer. He said, "Well, mine must be better than yours, you just ordered 6 happy meals!" That made me laugh the rest of the day. Anyway, thanks cousins, for a fun filled day!!!

Willow Flats

August 15th and 16th we got to explore Willow Flats in Idaho. We loved camping with Lamb family (minus Kilee - we missed you!). The kids have been camping with the Lamb kids so much now that everything we plan or go to they ask or assume that their friends will be there. All the camping pictures are starting to look the same, but here are some that we loved (sorry about the quality of the pictures, something funky is going on with our camera).

Welcome, Jaxton Winslow Farr!!!

We welcomed a new nephew to our family on August 12th (Jacob's birthday). Jaxton Winslow Farr is the newest addition to my brother, Jordan's Family. His mom Erin and sister Bostyn are lucky to spend everyday with this sweet boy. We love you already, Jaxton!

Fun Photos

We had fun miniature golfing on Jacob's birthday. I thought I'd just share some of the pictures from our afternoon.

Seven is Heaven

Jacob celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, August 12. He was really excited to turn 7, even though we kept trying to convince him he should go backwards to age 5. He got to choose an activity for the family and a friend to invite. Just like last year, he chose golf (he doesn't just look like his dad, he thinks like him too). So we took his cute friend, Karissa, with us to go miniature golfing.
Jake may be outnumbered in our family, but you'd never know it. His fun loving personality is contagious. Jacob has a great smile, and knows how to make people laugh. If you spend anytime with Jake you quickly notice how witty he is. He often amazes us with his knowledge of numbers. He can do math problems in his head faster than his mom. He's just started a new love for basketball, and enjoys sharing golf with his dad. Jake is still going through his process of trying not to be a picky eater, but we still have yet to get him to like pizza. Maybe next year. Jake, we love your sparkly eyes when you're teasing us, and your tender heart as you so carefully watch over your sisters. We love you!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!!!

Sabrina turned 4 on Monday, August 11th. She celebrated with a friend party this year. Sabrina decided on a princess theme (I know, a big shocker!). All of the little princesses decorated magic cookie wands, made life size princesses, made candy necklaces, and painted glitter toes. They mostly just wanted to play in Sabrina's room and with her toys. Four year olds are great! Thanks to Kaitlyn, Maya, and Charly for joining us!

At age 4 Sabrina is such a joy to have in our family. She just continues to grow. She's always been our more timid one to try new things, but she certainly isn't shy. She loves talking to people and makes friends wherever she goes. Sabrina loves everything about being a girl. She loves pink, barbies, & polly pockets. She is constantly trying to find someone to play house with her. She still carries around her monkey and is comforted by petting his tail (which is now as smooth as satin). Sabrina is such a little mother and so loving. She loves to take care of people. She dislikes dogs (unless you're holding her), scratchy clothes, and her little sister picking on her. We love you so much, Sabrina. Thank you for being our princess.

Trying something new

I came across this website that looked like fun. I've enjoyed digital scrapbooking in the past, but since I started blogging I don't take the time to scrapbook. This website called scrapblog let me do both. This is just a trial run, so don't judge the layout too harshly.

This is not dejavu!

Our yard has gone to pot, our flower beds are overgrown with weeds, and the garden is non-existent, but we've made memories that will out-live the overgrowth in our yard. It's probably not a surprise that we were camping again this weekend. Thanks to our friends, the Rowley Family, we were able to explore Black Smith Fork canyon right here in the hills by us. We've known Kristi and Jim since we were in our ward in Logan. We were thrilled when they moved into our ward here in Hyrum. They and their 3 beautiful girls were great as they showed us the best places to camp up left hand fork, and worked on our dutch oven cooking skills. The kids entertained themselves by playing in the slow moving river catching fish with a net and creating sand (dirt) castles in the sandy dirt. It made for some great muddy fun. We also took a 3.2 mile hike. Our destination was a water fall, but we turned around when we found out we were only half way there. The kids were happy hiking as long as we kept singing primary songs, but when they stopped the going got a little tougher. We talked a lot about the pioneers and their sacrifices. They all agreed that they were glad they didn't have to walk and walk and walk as their ancestors did.