Emma is 11!

I can not believe that Emma is 11. She is such an awesome girl. It is so wonderful to have such a sweet daughter. Poor Emma was really sick the week before her birthday. We were planning a big party but as it grew closer she wasn't really up to it.

Her best friend that moved to the Elko area a year ago came to visit. We had a low key day of shopping, eating and gifts.


The girls at the mall.


Nothing like a cold drink on a cold day.

Taped to the bottom of this box was a message saying that she and a friend would be going to the David Archuleta concert.

The concert was a few days later. We arrived a couple of hours early so Emma finished her homework while we waited in line.


When we found our seats we also found this sign.

We had pretty good seats but I wanted to get closer. I finally convinced Emma to walk down to the floor with me and we got really close. David put on a great show and we have a blast.

March Madness

I feel like Brent when I say this but it was a busy month. (Brent says "It's going to be a busy week" every week.) It started out with a bridal shower for a girl that I use to teach in young women's. This is the second shower I have had for one of my girls and I am really starting to feel old.

We had a wonderful brunch.


As you know I LOVE fresh flowers so I had so take a few pictures.

Sweet Jenny Clark brought this for me.

Swimming

About 2 1/2 years ago I decided that the kids had to choose one sport and one instrument. I was running around in all different directions and our quality of life was suffering. We decided swimming was something good that they could all try and so I signed them up. I have been very happy that they have all stuck with it. Lily has made a lot of improvements, but for her it is more about having fun with the little girl in her class and that is fine with me. I am just starting to get a back lash from Carson. He told me last week he wants a new sport. I told him that was fine, but until he picked one we would just stick with swimming. (side note: I was volunteering in his class on Friday last week and they were writing autobiographies and he wrote. "I love swimming even though I complain and tell my mom I want to quit.") Carson has improved a ton. He has a natural ability to do the butterfly and has amazed the teachers with it since he first started. His favorite strokes are butterfly and breast. Emma has loved swimming the most. She has been on the swim team for about a year and a half. She went to her first meet in Feb. of 2008. This meet is over a weekend with the events split between the two days. Unfortunately her favorite events, the 50s are on Sundays and only 100s on Saturday. We attended the same meet this year and she had to do the 100 yard races again. She got 12th place in the 100 breast which is awesome for 2 reasons. 1. This is a competitive meet were a lot of California teams come over and 2. she is more of a sprinter and really gets tired on those 100s. We have also done some low key Reno meets where she can do 50's and has done really well. Her time for the 50 breast stroke was junior Olympic time and 50 free is A time (just under Jr. Olympic) for the 9-10 age group. She had a birthday this past week so she will be starting in the 11-12 age group which will bump up the time standard a little. She is excited about the challenge.

Here are some video clips of the last meet.

Pinewood Derby

February was a busy month and here are some of the highlights. First, there was the pinewood derby. This was Carson's first year to participate and he was so excited. The scout leaders gave the car kit to him about a month before the event so he would have plenty of time to work on it. That night when he was dropped off at 8:40pm he wanted to get started right away. Brent was out of town and the girls were in bed already. I tried to gently explain that we had a month until the race and we needed to get some tools and make a plan. He was quite anger with this. Carson wanted to start immediately.

After a trip to home depot and some time on the Internet he began.



The painting was probably the hardest part. Brent and Carson were having a hard time making it just right.


He got the Best of Show award.

A day on the slopes

We went skiing the day after Christmas. Needless to say it was very busy. We got up there mid-morning and got the kids into the ski school for a couple of hours. Brent and Dale took off on the extreme slopes and Mom, Carrie, Ash and I had fun on the less extreme runs.

The kids all suited up for lessons.

After Lily's lesson she wanted to take a break so Grandma and I hung out with her at the lodge.

After a lunch break the group tried to throw me a shaka. Unfortunately Dale was wearing mittens.

The New Year

On New Years eve we had no plan. Everyone was lounging around and it didn't look like things were going to change. I decided it would be fun to TP someones house. I did not get a good response. Brent thought I was childish and said he hadn't TP'd since high school. I didn't pay much attention to the complaints and rally everyone into the car. With little TP we set out to find a victim. We decided on the Roelofs, I know really creative. We even sat down the street and door bell ditched. I have never seen Dale run so fast. I am sure Christa suspected us but we never talked about it. I guess the cat is out of the bag.

Here I am teaching the girls my TP skills. Please note Carson is not in any of the TP photos. He was upset with the reckless behavior and refused to get out of the car.

DQ we love you. We thought it would be a great way to ring it the new year.

Brent and Carrie fascinated by the menu selection.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and for the first time in a while it was white. We had my mom, Dale, Carrie and Ashley for the holidays. We forced the men to do things that they were not too happy about like Christmas eve caroling, watching a dance that Carrie and I put together with the kids, and going roller skating. When it was all said and done I think they enjoyed it but they probably will not admit it.

Lily and auntie Carrie

Carson, Ashley, and Emma

Grandma Ruthie made matching scarfs for everyone and we wore them caroling.

The traditional Christmas eve gift from Grandpa and Grandma Farr.

I thought we had a great Christmas morning until I looked in the background of this picture. I guess only some of us were having fun. It looks like Ashley is pretty mad about what is going on. Sorry guys.

Sweet Emma J. in her new coat.

Notice there is no Carson in this picture. He got some Lego's so he was busy, but Brent enjoyed the remote controlled truck.

This is where you could find Carrie and Ash for at least an hour on Christmas morning. The playmoblie assembly really took them for a ride. Good work girls.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with the family. As you can see Carson was thrilled.

Once again Carson not at all interested in the photo thing.

We had to find things to do out of the house and Carson insisted we go roller skating. One of his friends recently had a party at the rink and he fell in love with it. If you were to watch him you probably wouldn't think he was enjoying himself. He was dead serious, red faced, and sweaty, going around and around with very few breaks.

As you know, I like good competition so I decided along with Carrie and Ash to participate in the limbo. Ashley went first then Carrie and I. Will you please notice the size of the young girl next to me. I had no chance. We hung in there for quite a while, this happened to be the end for poor Ash and I.

Lily got some gum in her stocking and mastered the art of bubble blowing.

Home away from home

We love to visit Auntie Carrie and Uncle Dale in Kona. We have been very lucky over the past 3 years. The kids school is on a year round schedule so we have August, December, and April off. We like to spend the first half of December and some time in April in Kona. This year we left Thanksgiving weekend and stayed until the middle of December.

Carrie and Dale sold this house and Emma will be starting middle school next year (traditional schedule) so our December visits are over for now.

Kua Bay is a favorite because it has soft white sand and beautiful water.

We love to see the temple.

In a cave at the Hilton after swimming with dolphins.

I call this the pier beach, there are no waves so we can kayak, snorkel and paddle board. I don't know what it is really called but I know for sure Carrie is anger about all my nick names for the beaches.

This year we spent spent a lot of time at Hapuna, another favorite. The waves were perfect for the kids. Emma and Carson were in the water from the minute we got there until the minute we had to leave. Emma did a lot of body surfing and boogie boarding. She started to get pretty brave and took some big waves, this was the result.

Emma is tough and recovered quickly.

Carson was none stop surfing on the boogie board.

Lily did a lot of playing on the beach and body surfing. She did spend some time in the water with uncle Dale and he took her on some nice waves.



It was getting close to Christmas even though when you are at the beach and it is 80 degrees it doesn't seem like it. I tried to keep some Christmas traditions, so we decorated a gingerbread house.

These pictures are actually from our April trip but it is one of my favorite Hawaii memories. We took a drive around the island and one stop we made was at the volcano. We told the kids we were going to walk through a lava tube. When we got there it was getting dark and as we got closer to the tube you could see a red-orange glow from the lights. Carson started to cry. The poor guy thought we were going to take him into the lava. It took a lot on convincing to get him close enough to realize we were going to be no where near lava. Once he realized he went in with us but was very anxious to leave. Carson has Brent's self preservation gene.