Halloween Party!

Since Eli's b-day is the day before Halloween and that was a Sunday, I decided to have a preschooler party with our ward's playgroup on Halloween. It was awesome! We painted oranges (and pretended they were pumpkins), made bracelets, frosted and sprinkled halloween sugar cookies, and listened to some sweet tunes like, "My witches brew" and "The Monster Mash." We ate orange and black food and the mom's had a pumpkin lunch. Per their request, I have posted 2 of the recipes from that party. Enjoy!

Pumpkin-chocolate bran muffins
3 c. wheat bran (divided) (looks like sawdust, I ordered mine from amazon, couldn’t find it at Walmart, HEB, or Target)
1 c. boiling water
2 c. buttermilk (I added lemon juice to regular milk)
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. canned pumpkin
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
2 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Measure 1 c. bran and 1 c. boiling water into large bowl and let stand for 5 min. Add buttermilk, eggs, sugar, & pumpkin. Whisk until smooth.
2. In medium bowl, combine flour, remaining 2 c. bran, cocoa, soda, and salt. Whisk until combined
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients gradually while mixing gently with large spoon or spatula. Add chocolate chips and any other stir ins.
4. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.


Pumpkin Curry Chicken Soup
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 c. onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 cups water
6 chicken bouillon cubes (*I used better than bouillon base and homemade stock, because bouillon cubes taste like Ramen noodles)
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp. curry
1 pinch nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
3 chicken breasts-cooked and shredded or chopped
2 cups milk *I used milk and evaporated milk
2 1/2 cups cooked wild rice blend

Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil. Add all ingredients except milk and rice.
Reduce heat. Simmer 30 minutes. Add milk. Heat through but don’t boil. Add
rice. Stir and serve.

The pumpkin patch of my life's musings

Fall is my favorite season, but there isn't much of it here in TX. So, we sought it out! We did a very festive pumpkin patch. It was even overcast that day so it looked fallish. Never-mind the fact that it was warm and we wore shorts.

Eli could hardly contain himself when he saw the train. Both boys LOVE trains and Seth got tricked into riding it with them. hahaha

Eli looks angry in every picture, but really he just gets weirded out by the flash. These boys ran through this "pumpkin patch" millions of times. Logan said he "loved the Great Pumpkin's Patch."

"Picking" a pumpkin. Ignore his bracelet. His Aunt made it for him. You'd never guess from that smile that he ran away from Seth and hid in the

Indian tee-pee at the pumpkin patch. We almost panicked, but we have a delayed-response panic system in place for this one. We dragged him out of the teepee and this was moments later.

I'm so sneaky you can hardly see me!

Eli is my fall baby, and he turned 2 on the 30th of October. Oh how I love him! He is so very smart and so very patient. He is quiet and easy going and sweeter than most souls on the planet. He is so easy to parent! He listens and he obeys and is so very very mild. If he had been my first, I would be judging other parents. He is quite the blessing of calm.

Speaking of awesome, we can't leave out Mr. More. I feel that is a positive way to describe my Logan and a lot of everyday life with him is hard to paint in a positive light. Everything about him is, "more." More emotion, more sound, more burrowing under the chairs in primary, more hatred for authority. But, with the "more difficult" comes the "more rewarding": more smiles, more happiness, more joy, more in tune with every person's emotion in the room, more intelligence (he is reading and adding-it is so fun as his mom, to see something happen so easily for him) and lastly, more love than my heart can hold.

A long while back I began reading parenting books. Most "didn't apply to Logan." They were the written version of the 'deer in the headlights' look that I receive from other mother's on some occasions. I came across another (smaller) section of parenting books for the "challenging child." One of those books I mentioned on this blog because the preface was written about Logan. It was, "The Explosive Child." It was so depressing I couldn't finish it. So I stopped reading parenting books. I also stopped time outs.

He climbed this all by himself, I didn't think he could do it. It is a lot bigger than it looks!

Then my visiting teachers came by one day. She said, after a couple of visits and careful observation, "my daughter is a lot like Logan..." She recommended 2 parenting books, and guess what? I love them. The first read, "Negotiation Generation" was excellent and has helped me become a more proactive parent. BUT the second, was/is changing my perspective of my son.

Parenting the Ephraim's Child: Characteristics, Capabilities, and Challenges of Children Who Are Intensely More.

So encouraging and so very positive. I love thinking of Logan as "more."

Thanks, from a 4 year old.

I had to post this, it was so funny! We were saying night-time prayers with Logan. He has never said a prayer without much prodding and he usually just says "no thankyou ma'am." Awesome. Well tonight was different. Seth said the prayer and before he said 'amen,' Logan yelled (in a very sweet voice) "thanks for dying, Jesus!" I laughed. Out loud. For a long time.

Also, a week ago I was driving and some lovely soul behind me kept honking at me while we were waiting at a red light. Nice. When it was my turn to "yield" for a left turn at an intersection, said person began pumping his horn again. I said "shut up!" Logan, from the back seat, spoke in a very low voice and said "we don't say shut up mommy, it is not respeKtful (emphasis on the K, I know there is not actually a k in respectful, but there is when Logan says it) He continued with "mommy needs to use good manners and be polite, we can say shush, not shut up."

Huh, he listens. His typical disposition is one of, well, discontent, and he generally isn't in the mood to listen or act like he heard a word his parents have spoken. Apparently he does hear things, and good things! Apparently it helps to put him in a super-happy good mood (he was in this case), by surprising him with a new Thomas the Train toy. He listens. Yessssssss!

Sariah Jane

Seth's younger brother, Joe, graduated from bootcamp here in San Antonio back in July.  My in-laws and my 8 (now 9) year old niece came to see him and visit with us!  My Mother in Law and Sariah Jane were able to stay here for 3 weeks.  Sariah was quite the trooper.  She had fun, but she got homesick as well.  I thoroughly enjoyed having her here.  It was like having a friend with me all the time.  A wonderful friend who thought I was smart, and cool, and pretty, and skinny (she told me these things).  I learned that I CANNOT "do hair."  I also learned about the clothing store "Justice," and about "Bieber Fever."

She helped me with my kids.........AMAZING!!!!!!!!!  Older siblings (especially older sisters) are how big families continue to grow and function.  I need an older child.  It was truly great.  Sariah and I went shopping and swimming and we went to Sea World as much as was humanly possible.  I personally had a blast diving for coins with our goggles on in our pool.  I loved loved loved doing the water slides and acting like a "big kid" on all the fun rides at Sea World.  She is at such a perfect age right now.  It was like going back in time and hanging out with my little sister again.  In the next couple of years I won't seem as cool and Sariah won't want to play like she did this summer.  I may or may not have teared up as we were diving for treasures for the last time this summer.  I shall never forget her little pokey-out goggle ears and the thrill in her face when she learned to tread water.  I've known her since she was not quite 2.....she is so beautiful and is growing up so fast! Oh I miss her!!!!!!!! Love you Sariah Jane!

This was feeding time in the sting-ray tank at Sea World. The diver, pictured, was not the food, but was feeding the sting rays by hand, with the stinger barbs still intact!

Here we are enjoying my favorite Sea World show, "Azul."  It has tons of acrobats that dive from the ceiling into the pool with beluga whales swimming around.  Awesome!

Eli is contemplating the universe.

A picture by Shamu.  The actual shamu show was too loud and too long for Logan, hence no pictures . Also, it's about 1.8 butt-hot million degrees in this picture.  Death/heat stroke type temp.  We were focused on getting inside the water park.  That really is where you spend most of your time at Sea World San Antonio.  

 This is Seth and Sariah, I obviously rock at getting action shots.....Our favorite water slide was "the bowl" as in "swirls around like a toilet bowl and flushes you out the bottom."

 Here we are, on a Wednesday morning, totally OWNING the place!  This is the kiddie pool and it is amazing!  There are fun, foamy-type things to climb on in nice shallow water.  They are the kind of climby things that are in the mall play areas, only in water.  I can let my kids (well, Logan has outgrown this pool now) play for hours without having to chase them or put life jackets on.

Thanks for a great summer Sariah!

Camping Smiley Face Birthday and other news.

Hello! Blogging began to feel like a chore, and I got burned out. Again. So I stopped blogging. Again. Now I am back. Again. Summer in Texas is like winter in the northern lands. You stay inside all day, and everyday the weather is the same. It affected my brain a bit, and I had nothing new to say or nothing new that we did. We have had some change and excitement in our life in the last month, so I feel like I have stories worth sharing! Don't worry Kerry, I am the friend who updates her blog. Again :)

Logan chose his own theme for his 4th birthday. He told me, weeks in advance, that he wanted an "outside, camping, smiley-face birthday." Since it was like, 110 here, "outside" was absolutely impossible, but we did manage the rest! We had an "inside, camping, smiley-face birthday." I decorated the house while Logan was asleep. Balloons and an old tent totally impressed him, and he said it was the "best birthday ever!"

I taped his beloved paper smileys all over the walls. I made them when he was like, 18 months old during the cold Maryland winter. Logan learned his colors from these happy little faces, and he has been in love with them ever since.
I possess great talent for cake decorating. It even LOOKS like a smiley face! hahaha. Logan absolutely loved his cake. It has the special "my mom was too cheap to buy me a real cake" look to it. Plus, we Farnsworth's hate store-bought icing.
Meet, "old tent." My parent's gave us this tent; it was the first one they bought, and the one that I used to go camping in as a little tot. I even saw my first stars from this tent! It is now, old, (it was probably manufactured long before my birth-year, right?) and the zippers don't work and the poles have no strength left in their elastics. It was NOT easy to get it put up! Until Logan's birthday, Seth and I were in strong disagreement as to whether or not "old tent" needed replacing. After "old tent" was put together (and after a bit of cursing from my husband), "old tent" was retired. But boy, did Logan love that tent!! We put his presents inside, and he truly believed the tent was one of the gifts to him as well. He even slept in the tent that night, by himself, downstairs! That is saying something since nearly every night he ends up sleeping on our bedroom floor!!! Anyway, back to the party....

Here he is unwrapping presents from inside the tent! It was obviously incredibly exciting. He also selected his clothes for the day, the beloved "Flag shirt." We spent the day at Sea World. We have season passes, so we were there a lot this summer. Result? I only took this picture! Lame-o. Logan's favorite part of the water park at Sea World is "the wave pool." He loves to be tossed by the waves, like hard-core tossed. I thought, "I'll throw him into the waves since he's so crazy, he'll love it!" (Life jacket, yes!) Uhhh....I threw him in, he loved it, he swallowed a lot of water, and then barfed in the wave pool. Happy Birthday ! I felt awesome. We did enjoy ourselves though. Seth took the day off and it wasn't even crowded. Logan recovered quickly and even did the little kid water slide. Which, would have been nice to have a picture of......

Logan really wanted a campfire but alas, not this August, not in Texas! The whole state would've burned up. Also, who wants a campfire when it's still 100 degrees at midnight? I made him a faux campfire out of Christmas lights-he loved it. I also put up a bunch of pictures of him as a baby and such. We had "the other Farnsworth's" over for dinner that evening. Steve and Seth are related! Weird? Yes. Not them, it's weird that we found some (distant) relations here. All in all, a great birthday!

3 days later the kids and I flew to Utah and spent August there, fleeing the heat!

Easter 2011

Easter this year consisted of candy, eggs, egg-dyed counter tops, and two matching brothers. Logan actually had a grasp on the real meaning of Easter, he will walk up to Seth and me and touch our faces and say "Jesus loves you." Eli was way too young to understand the "meanings' of the day. He was, however; entirely aware that the eggs contained candy. Tee hee!

The weather was in the '90's by Easter this year, so we had to get a pic in the sweater vests before they truly became "sweat-er" vests.

Goings On

Well, "the incident" which I posted about previously was reported on at church. No one was "allowed to talk about" what happened whenever I asked people. The bishop addressed the issue in sacrament meeting and said "secure valuables out of site, it's unfortunate this happened, and everyone is fine. If you need to talk about the incident further, you can speak with me."

I have no idea what the incident details are, nor will I.

Can't wait for the new building/ward.

Eli has croup, but the Farnsworth fam is in town ! Hooray! Seth's brother Joe aka "Knuckle Joe"-per Logan, graduated from bootcamp and we were able to feed him and spend time with him.

Tomorrow is the 4th (formerly my favorite holiday). It is too stinkin hot to go outside and ALL fireworks shows have been CANCELLED due to the drought here in lovely ole Texas! No favorite holiday this year, or last for that matter. Someday my holidays and seasons will return, right? Ahhhhh, I long for fall.......it has been too long. I am bummed.

Logan is into his Little People these days, and Grandma Farnsworth brought us some sweet old time little people toys, from the 60's and 70's! I love those old toys, they're indestructible as well as nostalgic.

We spend many hours at the pool to maintain our health and sanity, but the kids love it.

Who needs fireworks though, look at my handsome company. We are planning on seeing "Cars 2" in lieu of the traditional 4th celebrations. It should be a blast.

"Logan's people" Lately his favorite thing to say is "Great Idea MOM!" I love him.
I have never known such sweetness. I love that kid.