Polynesian Culture

Brady is such an amazing kid! He did this project almost completely by himself. He is such a great worker, a great kid and a great example to his younger siblings.

Okay for now

I have really missed having a book club so I finally just started one myself.  I was hesitant because I've already started other new things and still feel pretty new, but a few people encouraged me so I went for it and I'm excited for the year of books we have planned.  The first book we did was called "Okay for Now" and it was really good and I was proud of myself for coming up with this food display even if it was hardly touched.  These are foods that are in the book and the boy pulls groceries in a wagon so I thought I was pretty clever when I remembered that we had this little wagon and decided to use it!  

Awards

I just realized that I haven't posted anything in a while....let me get a few of the easy ones first (or I should say with very little words)!  It seems like I have so many pictures of my kids getting these awards but I don't want to think that I'm not happy for them so here they are again...the one above is Brady and his friends with their highest honors (straight A's) and they don't mind being called nerds...they take it as a compliment!  Below is Eden's very first award, the lower grades don't have the trimester honors awards so she just had her turn to get one of the monthly awards, I think it was for Toucan of the month in her class.

It does take a long time to sit through three assemblies so this is what Tucker did while we waited.

And here are the boys getting their awards, Jordan was doing poses for the pictures, he is such a ham.  When I went up to take Jordan's picture for his Toucan of the Month also, Tucker walked up and gave him a hug and the whole audience "ahhhed!"  It was pretty cute!

Saturday, February 4

Date night plan B: Disneyland

Monday, February 6

Why do I feel like most days I can hardly think of anything at all to say to people and then every once in a while on a rare day like today and I feel like I talk way too much?!!!

Monday, February 6

I almost cried at the middle school orientation meeting tonight...I'm not ready for him to be this old and it is still 6 months away!

Tuesday, February 14

Great Valentine's date last night, Sam Farley made me a sweet breakfast this morning and the kids have a fun Valentine's lunch packed....it's looking like a good Valentine's Day so far!

Friday, February 17

Made it through 2 hours of school assemblies with a 4 year old in tow but it was fun to see my kids get all their awards, the three older boys with highest honors (straight A's) and also E and J with Toucan of the month for their classes.

Saturday, February 18

Jumped on the Downton Abbey bandwagon and stayed up way to late last night watching the first 3 episodes, I am hooked.

Sunday, February 19

You know you have a great friend when they come into town and you haven't seen them in at least six years, but you still pick up right where you left off and the kids too....even the ones that never met each other before! — with Stephanie Ann Belnap andRhett Belnap.

Thursday, February 23

Such a nice day that that we decided to meet Sam for a picnic lunch at the Dos Lagos playground!

Thursday, February 23

I'm so happy to have a book club again and to have people who will put up with me! I'm excited for this year of books!

Friday, February 24

Their second choice at Disneyland today...(Eden and Tucker on the teacups)

Cake time

 It was blue and gold time again and this year we had a "President's Day" theme.  Kolby and Sam didn't have a lot of time to work on their cake but they chose to make a constitution cake.

 And here are a few of our other favorites for the night:

Random Valentine's Day Photos

I didn't get a picture until they were almost done but they found the table covered in candy hearts and a box of chocolates for each of them when they came down in the morning.  They were also excited to find a box of lucky charms.

Eden just got a quick heart in her hair this year because we were running out of time.

For lunch I cut salami into heart shapes and put it in their lunches with crackers and cheese along with a red powerade, some strawberries, a red jello fruit cup and a red packaged mini granola bar.

We did go all out for dinner with tablecloth, cloth napkins, and candles and we had pot roast, asparagus, strawberries and blueberries, heart shaped biscuits, tomato and cucumber salad, and mashed potatoes and gravy.  The kids were pretty excited about it.

And another breakfast picture out of order!

Choose

We decided that this year I would plan our Valentine's Date and Sam would plan our Anniversary.  I decided to do it the night before Valentine's day to avoid the crowds and sadly I didn't take any pictures.  I made a little "Choose Your Own Adventure" date based off those books I used to like when I was a kid.  We ended up going to a thrift store and then TGI Fridays (I had a gift card from one of my online survey sites!) where I had a list of 100 questions that we randomly answered by using a random number generator.  Then we headed over to see Mission Impossible and were able to use the gift card from Sam's parents.  So we had another great date night that was free except for the tip dinner and also had a lot of fun!

My Girl

Eden could hardly wait for the Father/Daughter dance at school.  Everyday for two weeks she had to confirm that Sam was still coming.  One day she mentioned that he might not want to wear his glasses to the dance because they might fall off while he is dancing.  She was also worried about his diet and if that might somehow effect his ability to come to the dance. There were several more random comments like those throughout the week, so she was very happy when he night finally arrived.  We had to go through all her dresses and several times changing her mind before she decided on this blue dress.

She loved posing in it and having her hair curled. But then she took a break to go out and ride her scooter for a big!

She loved getting a corsage!

And when Sam asked her what she wanted to do for dinner she said she didn't care except that she wanted to have ice cream.

At the dance she was excited to see her friends and had fun dancing with her dad but her favorite part was all the goodies and candy.

Jumping Beans

Tucker and Eden had friends over from church one Saturday.  These two were having so much fun jumping from the ottoman to the bean bag that I had to try and get some pictures.  They were too fast to get much but they were very cute together. First they were pushing each other off.

Then they decided they had to close their eyes while the other one pushed.

Then they were holding hands and jumping together and much more for a good 15 minutes!

Plan B

We have been trying to get to know different people in the ward and have had a few people over for dinner but with Sam getting busy with Long Beach, it was hard to find time so we didn't get very far down our list. A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really down about not having a lot to do and having some close friends to hang out with so I decided that rather than wallowing in it, I would try and invite some people from church over to play games and get to know them and when they weren't available I tried others that we've been wanting to get to know, but it just turned out to be an all around bad night for everyone and I know it wasn't anyone's fault but I was a little bummed.  Sam was quickly trying to think of something we could do but our finances are really tight but suddenly at about 4:45 I remembered that we have some Disney dollars plus we have Disneyland passes.  So at 5:00 we hopped in the car to have our date night at Disneyland and we had a ton of fun.  We kept saying things like "the tram is so much easier without a stroller" and "wow, we actually get to sit together on a ride" so needless to say it was fun to go without kids for once and to have a nice dinner there and for me to beat Sam's score on the Buzz Lightyear ride over and over again!  We will definitely be doing that date night again and all it cost was the gas to get over there!

One night...

A random evening, after we had FHE.  We had talked about the ward goal to have every family read the Book of Mormon all the way through this year.  Brady and Jordan especially were very excited to take on the challenge and went straight up to their rooms to start reading (Brady is reading on his ipod) and it was a great example to me.  Kolby went to work on his Valentine's and I found Eden reading to Tucker in his bed. Just a little moment in time I want to remember!

Long Beach

As I said before, Sam has been splitting his time between the office here and the Long Beach office.  Last week he ended up in a nice Marriott with and indoor pool so we all hopped in the car to join in him one evening and luckily traffic wasn't too bad going that way! Eden was pretty much glued to Sam the whole evening, before and after she changed into her swimsuit!

We got all ready to swim but by then the kids had gotten into a movie that was on TV so we just relaxed and watched the rest of the movie together and then headed down to the pool.  It was especially fun because it happened to be a really cold and rainy day outside. The whole side and ceiling was glass so Eden and Tucker liked looking up and seeing their reflections in the windows on the ceiling and see the planes fly over from the nearby airport.

Future Jordan

I found this essay Jordan wrote at the beginning of the school year and we got a big kick out of it.  I retyped it just as he had it. I just love how his mind works and this picture captures him too!

The Future of Jordan Farley

By: Jordan Farley

      My future is going to be filled with money, fame, and fantasy.  The three jobs I have in mind are a CEO, actor, and author.

       One job I want to have is to be a CEO of an awesome video gaming company; I will be head of cartoon drawing.  I love drawing cartoons, and the best part about it is I can’t mess up.  Any mess up that I draw I can build off of.  Another reason I loving drawing cartoons is that it can express ones emotions.  I can draw cartoons very angry or very happy.  I can even draw my interests.  One more reason is I am smart and creative and that gives me the qualities of a CEO.  For example, I was the second person to pass my multiplication quiz. I love numbers because they have a numeral order and place.  I’m smart because both of my parents are smart.  My mom was a straight A student, and my dad received a masters degree in organizational development.  Another reason I should be a cartoonist is I am full of a lot of creativity.  I daydream about money and being a CEO.

        Another career I want to be is an actor, because I’m great at acting. I’m a great voice impersonator; I can do impersonations of Yogi Bear or any emotion such as sad, happy, or angry. I am great at accents I can do British and Irish.  I love acting as other people because I’m great in performances.  I have been in two plays here’s an interesting thing: they were both the same play (pirates of grammar island) I just did them on different years.  I also love working with a crew, and that will help me in life because I will have to work with other people.  I act as other people all the time; for example, I switch to Harry Potter’s British accent constantly.  I love watching plays because in plays everybody is not who they really are.

     Finally, I want to be an author, and one reason I want to be one is because I have a wild imagination.  I’ve had a story in my head for about a year now, and it is about a wizard named Jacob Nomma (the reason I chose Nomma is because it is my best friend’s name backwards). Another quality that an author needs is to love books, and I love books.  One reason I love books is because I read the Harry Potter series and loved it.  Books can be any shape and size and that’s fun.  The last reason I love books is because they are interesting.  A book I read called Atherton was very mysterious because there were a lot of secrets.  Boooks can be funny, sad, or weird.

    In conclusion, will have a life filled with riches, fans, or fiction.  I hope to be a cartoonist/CEO, actor, or author.