Thanksgiving Present

My Cute little Turkey's!

Our Thanksgiving was very nice, simple, and surprisingly pleasant. John slept during the morning, but helped me with a lot of the preperations the day before, then got up in time to put the turkey breast and legs in.(I know I should have just bought a whole turkey, when you put the breast and legs together, you've almost got the whole thing, but I was too CHICKEN to try a whole Turkey by myself. You see all those horrible stories about failed turkey cooking.) The above crafts are a tradition in John's family. My kids really enjoyed doing them.

For a fun suprise we also had the first snow fall of the Year!(oh, and Josie rolled ffrom her tummy to her back for the first time!)

This is a "John Farr Must Have" on any holiday. He really loves seven layer salad! This is just proof to my mom that we did it all by ourselves!

Yep, really fancy table huh!?! It's the yummy food that counts! And man it was a great feast for the 5(Josie doesn't count)of us! And the Turkey came out GREAT! It was tender and delicious!

Josie had her feast before, but looked on from her swing as we ate! Isn't she a cutie?

John carving his first turkey breast!

Cute Micah saying...

Micah: Mom, Why are you looking at me?

Me: I'm just thinking about how I don't want you to grow up.

Micah: I'm gonna grow BIG in a long time...cuz I'm eating candy...and candy doesn't help you grow!

Thanksgiving's over!?! I can't believe it!

but, with and adorable elf like this, bring on CHRISTMAS!

Thanksgivings Past

When John and I moved away for Med school, we didn't have to experience the holidays without family until our second year. In 2005 we had Thanksgiving dinner with our GREAT friends...

The Hoyts (Who then had no little ones, and plenty of family in Tilamook, but Sonja had to work that night! So glad we got to have them!)

And our GREAT friends the Bowcuts! (Who also had family around, but we some how got lucky enough to have them! Look how Wittle Grace is!)

(And just for memory purposes, this was what our little family looked like.) I am so Grateful that Scott cooked the Turkey and Rose made that cute pie! GREAT memories!

The next year we had dinner with FAMILY, just not blood family. Bryce and Bren will be FOREVER Friends, and Wilma & Dick are amazing Surrogate grandparents to my kids! I don't remember who cooked the TURKEY that year (not us!), but I remember...

Who was more than willing to help with the stuffing! Miss you!

And although I miss all of those wonderful people very much, right now what I miss most is this! COUSINS!

Last year I got to be with more of my family then I had been with in FIVE years(that is the last time we were all together)! Only one brother was missing! There were plenty of cousins to go around! We had a great time even though it could be a little crazy!

My SIL, Haydee facilitated the making of these hats. The kids absolutely loved them, apparently so did John!

We are so grateful for friends and family all year round, but especially at this time of year. We are trying to EMBRACE this year of doing things by ourselves, because come next year it will become a thing of the past(at least for three years!), but when the actual day comes, it is a little hard to not be HOME for the holidays!

Here's wishing ALL of our LOVED ones, wherever you are, and whoever your with, a

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Out of the mouth of my crazy kids!

Noah is being crazy as usual!

Me: Noah, Where did you come from?

Noah: Heaven!

Micah is finishing up seeing an ASTRONUT at her school. He is packing up his stuff to go.

Micah: There he goes, back to MARS!

Deeken: Josie and I are shopping at Wal-mart. We pass the bra section.

Deeken: Mommy, big boobs!

All happend in one day! They aren't always this funny, but I think I should catalog what they say more often!

Micah's New Doo!

This is my BEAUTIFUL MOO's New DOO!

Forever, she has been wanting to grow her hair out like Rapunzel. Sadly, she inherited her mother's hair and will never be able to have that luxury. I bought her the wig at Halloween to help her make the transisiton, but she hasn't really worn it. So, we just to the big plunge.

I think it turned out really cute, but then again, I always think she looks BEAUTIFUL.

My Family of Elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

OUcH! Part Deux!

Please don't sign us up as child abusers! John took the kids to a park. Deeken went down the slide. John was helping one of the other kids. Deeken fell at the bottom. Loud crying! FAT LIP! But still Smiling!

Just some thoughts I have been having...

• I miss John. He has been working long hard days that have now turned into nights. 6 sometimes 7 days a week 12 or more hour days. I miss him a ton, sometimes it feels like too much to sacrifice. Then I think of the women(and men) who give up their spouses to go fight for our country. Months and Months they can be gone. I don't know how they do it. I hope I never have to experience it, but am so THANK-FULL that some people do. Here is a shout out to Ty Burningham and Matt Willey. You are amazing...THANK YOU for leaving your families and fighting for our country. Thank you to Krystal and Sheri who give them up.
• I don't like dentists who continue to do Donald Duck voices even though it is obviously not making my kid smile, rather freak out. I don't like dentists who tell me what I already knew before I walked into their office...if the tooth dies, it dies their is nothing we can do. Seriously wish you would have told me that over the phone. So glad we have GREAT insurance to cover mental dentists. (I do love all of you WONDERFUL dentists and dental students (and their wives) who read our blog.)
• I love how Deeken has learned to raise and lower one eyebrow. I like how he starts to dance when he eats something he likes or hears music. I love that he has learned how to sing "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam." Man, I gotta learn how to put a video on here.
• I love it that Josie knows my voice. I love it when she smiles at me. I love it when she is hungry and knows that I am going to feed her and gets excited to see me coming.
• I am starting to look at Micah the way my mother looked at me when I was little. I would catch my mom just staring at me sometimes, and wonder what she was looking at. I can't help at just stare and my beautiful Micah and the beautiful young lady she is. I wonder if we will be as good as friends as my mom and I are when she is my age.
• I love that Noah is excited about four square. He wants to play it all the time. He brags that he plays with 5th graders. I love that he doesn't seem discouraged that he is not the best player. But enjoys it when he makes it to server.
• We have lived in Spokane over 5 months now. A little less than 7 months to go. Am I scared or excited to move again? It changes daily!
• John is an AMAZING man and deserves much better than me. I am so grateful he got in a few hours of sleep last night and let me have the day off. I went shopping by myself! I went through every aisle I wanted to in Target and at a leisurely pace. You can not imagine how wonderful it was...or how many times I looked around to see where my kids had run off to. Thank you honey. You deserve a day off too. Maybe in March we can get Brett and some of the boys to take you go-carting again. I love you honey!

HISTORY/TRAUMA/DRAMA

When I first moved to Oregon, Micah was just a few months old and needed her well baby checks often. I couldn't get into any of the doctors of people I knew, so I started trying out some on my own. Noah came with us to meet the first peditrician I tried. I was new to the whole two kid thing, and wasn't as observant with Noah as I should have been. It didn't help that it took the doctor FOREVER to come in. Noah climbed up on the Doctor's stool while I was nursing Micah. I told him to get down, but he didn't. He continued to stand up on it and of course it rolled out from under him. He didn't bleed, but with Noah it is never about the trauma, always the drama. He started wailing...and then of course the doctor came in. I didn't notice till later that all of his front four teeth were nice and chipped.(Still has them today poor kid, cuz he hasn't lost a tooth yet.) Fast forward four years, I was at home this time, Feeding Josie, and Deeken climbs up onto the edge of the couch and falls onto the tile that surrounds our door. My first thought is that sounded really bad. Next thought Broken arm?(that is exactly how Noah broke his arm) Next thought BREATHE(Deeken hadn't screamed yet, and I was holding my breath nervous to look)! The screaming started, and I walked over slowly to see the damage. I turned him over and there was the blood. His mouth was bleeding profusely. Where is John was my next thought. (John was at work. His 6th 12 hour (at least) shift in a row.) I tried to stay calm, I am not good with blood. I started shouting to Noah to get me a towel, and he does and we get the bleeding stopped. Deeken is not so much about the drama and more about the trauma...his crying didn't last long, but his mother's worry did. I couldn't get John on the phone, so I started calling resident friends. Our wonderful friends the English's were home and we headed over there. He looked up stuff on-line before we got there, and was prepared for Deeken's trauma and his mother's drama. To make this story shorter, I will now try to stick to trauma and not the drama. Deeken's Front left tooth is moved forward a bit, and a little closer to his right front one. There is some brusing on his gums underneath his nose. He has a lot of lacerations on his bottom lip. AND some nice chips out of his front tooth. We tried to get ahold of our dentist, even trying the emergency line, but recieved no response. So I then went to the next best thing(Probably better) our friend who recently finished Dental school, Jared Ward. He calmed my fears and told me that Deeken would probably be okay not seeing a Dentist till Monday. He did tell me no hard things in his mouth until we had seen a Dentist, thus No Binki or Sippy Cup. OUCH! I will keep you updated on what happens.

Thank you to the English's and Ward's who helped us through my child's trauma and my drama. We appreciate you and miss you(Ward's)!

Some random pics!

We'll, at least Deeken didn't end up looking like this!

Micah does this often, but it was the first time I had seen Deeken pic up the Book of Mormon and act like he was reading it. Super Cute! Loven' on HIS baby!

I am so thankful for my beautiful family. Fat lips and all!

Post Election

Let me preface with, John and I are not political people. We, especially him, has taken more intrest in this presidential election, but still we don't know much about politics. Now the shame...we didn't vote. When we moved to the state I swore that I registered us. But the ballots never came, and I never followed up, and thus we did not vote. Yes, I do feel GUILT about this. But it is over now, and the results are in.

Noah: Mom who won President.

Me: Obama

Noah: Which one is he?

Me: The fuzzy head.

Noah: OH NO! I wanted the cute guy.

Later...

Noah: Hey that guy has a Obama sticker on his car. Micah, who did you want to win President?

Micah: President Monson!

If only Micah, if only. Someday...Someday this country will know true Unity and Leadership, when we are lead by the King of King and Lord of Lords. (Yes, I have gotten the Christmas music out.)

Election - Noah's Prediction

We were riding home in the car, and Noah says

"Hey Dad, did you know that our state is voting for a new president?"

John replies, "Yes."

Noah: "I think the white guy is going to win."

We laugh!

John: "Oh yeah, why's that?"

Noah: "Because he is so cute."

We laugh again.

Noah: "The other guy has fuzzy hair."

We laugh even harder.

Later in the car, Noah asks me to turn on Michael Jackson's "It Doesn't matter if you're Black or White." Do you think there was any connection?

Halloween Marks 3 Months

I can't believe my little hot dog is 3 months old, but is adorable as ever.

• She weighs about 11 lbs
• She is 23 inches long
• She can smile
• Her eyelashes are getting long
• Her hair IS growing
• She doesn't sleep through the night, but can go eight hours...not consistently
• She still throws up WAY to much
• She did EXCELLENT on her first car trip to and from Utah
• She already has her daddy wrapped around her finger
• She is loved very much!