October 16, 2010

We have had quite a bit of illness in our home over the last month. Someone is always complaining of being sick. Brancyn has heard this and almost daily tells me that he is sick. I don't want to assume he's not (you never know when he really might be sick) so I ask him why he is sick. His answer over the last few days has been. Butterflies, with a frowny face. Lol! He is sick because he has butterflies in his tummy:)

October 14, 2010

I'm Caugt Up!

I haven't been able to say that for over 3 months. It is no longer hanging over my head. Everything has been recorded for my photo book at the end of the year. Let's all cheer for Deidra!!! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, horray! Hip, hip, hooray!!!!!

October 3, 2010

Conference weeked hear meant sick tummies, yuck!! But, despite that, we thoroughly enjoyed the conference broadcast. By Sunday afternoon, the kids were getting a little restless, so Kade pulled out this large piece of paper and told them to go at it. The created a Boo-tiful Halloween mural to hang in our stairwell. They even remembered to include President "Monster".

September 29, 2010

Brylee is in a little neighborhood preschool this year. Today it was our turn to do it at our house. We were learning about the letters D and E. We learned the sign language for these letters, read books about ducks, played with playdough, played and elephant game, and exercised. To top it off we had doughnuts for snack. I think it went well and I'm glad I'm already done with my turn for the fall semester!

Britain, Sydney, and Hunter

Katelyn, Brylee

Brancyn, Briell

Aspen, Chloe,

Tillman

Tillman, Brielle, Katelyn

September 23 and 25, 2010

These are just a couple of random pics that I wanted to make sure would end up in my photo book at the end of the year.

I was babysitting Brielle the other day and she and Brancyn were sitting by each other. I asked Brancyn to lean his head by Brielle for a picture so he put his hand on her forehead. I laughed and said "no, lean your head by her head". He put his hand on her forehead again. I could see this wasn't going to work, so I asked Brielle to lean her head over by Brancyn. Finally we got it. And it was just such a cute picture for our effort.

Brancyn and Brielle

Kade was playing on the computer one day and Brancyn was repeatedly trying to take the mouse from him and push the keys for him. So I finally got an old keyboard out and set him up with his own chair. He was content for quite awhile. These two are just so much alike. Brancyn is more than willing to watch ball or play computer with Kade anytime.

September 21, 2010




You have to be quick around here or Brancyn takes care of the candles for you. He blew Kade's out for him and almost got mine!

I've decided birthdays are just kind of blah when you get older. Especially when you are the mom. I'd almost rather skip my birthday because I always end up feeling sad. I think it is just because you don't want to do your own birthday celebration, but you also don't want to have to spell out everything for your birthday. And it seems I always have to do one or the other since I became a grown-up. So birthdays are just a let down. Maybe I'm just silly, but I think I'll skip my birthdays from now on. I turned 29 this year anyways and who wants to have birthdays after that?

This makes me sound very ungrateful to my family. They were very kind on my birthday and this isn't to complain at them. It's just how I've felt about my birthday for about the last 5 years, blah!

September 16-19, 2010

Kade and I went to California for our Anniversary this year. We found a good deal on a flight and hotel and had enough Disney Reward points to pay for Disneyland tickets. It was just a quick in on Thursday, leave on Sunday kind of a thing, but it was fun.


Our first day in we decided to head to the beach. I was really hoping we'd get to swim at the beach, but it was barely 70 degrees and breezey. So, we just waded and looked at a free little aquarium. The ocean is so relaxing. I honestly could have stayed there for hours. But, we still had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and a hotel to find, so we didn't linger.

Kade


Deidra


The next two days were spent at Disneyland. We had a lot of fun, but it was physically exhausting. I have to say it was nice to not have to be counting heads and always looking four directions to make sure all kids were with me. We wore ourselves out and enjoyed the Halloween themed things that were up.

We hit splash mountain on our second day just before sun set. As fate would have it, two larger people were seated ont he front of the ride with us behind. Anybody that has ridden splash mountain before knows this is a recipe for a very wet ride. Sure enough. My bottom have was COMPLETELY wet and my top half was plenty wet. It made for a chilly night, but we did enjoy sour dough soup bowls for dinner and that helped. We also got to sit on the warm pavement as we waited for the World of Colors show. It was AWESOME. We had a great time and are already planning our next trip to California with the kids.

September 4, 2010

We planned to go to Yellowstone for Labor Day weekend this year since we missed out on Memorial Weekend. We made it, but only for a day trip. It turned out to be a great trip though. We took our bikes along so that we could go on some bike paths.

We biked to the Natural Bridge . . .it was Beautiful!! In all my trips to Yellowstone, I haven't ever been to see this. It was a nice bike ride and everyone seemed to hold up pretty well for it.

Grampy with the kids.

Kade and Deidra

When we stopped for lunch, we found we had some little fly visitors. What we didn't know until we got home is that they had been biting us and the left the itchiest little spots. I had itchy spots for a least two weeks. And the biggest one didn't stop itching until just last week and the red spot is still there! I guess we learned our lesson and will stay away from those little bugs next time. Ugh!

Kade, Deidra, Grampy, Grammy, Emily, Bryon,

Kayson, Brancyn, Liberty, Brylee, and Halle.

Lonestar Geyser

Grammy and Grampy on their way down from Lonestar Geyser. This bike ride was longer, but easier than the natural bridge trail. It was my favorite ride of the day, but probably the least exciting at the end.

The biker gang.

Deidra, Brancyn, Kade, Grampy, Grammy, Emily, Bryon,

Halle, Liberty, Kayson, and Brylee.


This was another one I don't think I had seen that we biked to. I believe it is called Morning Glory.

Thanks Grammy and Grampy and Emily and Bryon for going with us. It was a great trip!

August 27, 2010

Liberty challenged the kids to do nice deeds each day this week and promised them that if they did she would have a tea party for them on the weekend. The kids followed through and so did Liberty. She used her own money to buy treats and drinks (Kayson pitched in with a bag of marshmallows) and treated the kids to a tea party and movie night. She was so excited to do this for them. What a sweetheart.


Liberty with the goods minus the cream soda (tea).

Everyone ready to enjoy themselves.

August 25, 2010

First Day of School!!!
Liberty is a third grader this year and looking more grown-up by the minute. She is excied to be back in school especially since she gets to see her friends all day. Kayson is in first grade this year. He gets to do all day school and eat lunch at school.

Kayson came home after the first day of school and decided all day was too long and exhausting, but happily he warmed up to it within the week and now mostly enjoys school.

August 14-21, 2010

This year we had a fun Farley Family Reunion in Washington. Everyone was able to be there except for Tyrell since he is all the way over in Africa. We converged on my parents home and made a tent city out of their yard. We decided to make their house our home base, but go to other areas during the day for entertainment and to beat the heat. We went to the Lake to swim one day, up to the mountains to play games and play in a stream another day. We went back to the river another day, but to play lawn games and just sit in the nice breeze. And we went to the park one day for water games and horseshoes. We also enjoyed a lot of great food, visiting, and a skit night while we were all together. It was a fun, but busy week.


Kade enjoying the shade and breeze at the lake.


Brancyn testing out the water.


Brylee found a floating toy and was having the time of her life.

Liberty, Tressie, Kayson

Liberty and Kayson were brave and went deep into the water and even rowed themselves around in a little raft.

Left Side: Gillian, Kylie, and Dana

Right Side: Achsah, Grandpa, and Michelene

Enjoying card games up in the mountains.

Napua, Leilani, and Codi.

We got to see Codi for the first time in almost three years this week. We were also so excited to meet her beautiful daughters.

Liberty, Vaughny, Grandma, Gavin, Gillian, and Brylee enjoying some card games of their own.

Hunter, Rileigh, and Makenna exploring near the stream.

Brancyn getting a much needed nap in Kade's arms.

Roasting Hot Dogs for Dinner.

Brancyn, Kade, and Kordell

Brylee and Brancyn both had to try their hand at croquet.

Cheston, Tressie, Kade, and Grandma got in on the action too.

Finally our long week was over and it was time for the LONG ride home. This part isn't our favorite, but it is well worth it to enjoy such good times with family.

August 1, 2010

We clebrated Kade's Birthday today because it was one of the free days we had admist the Dance Festival Craziness.

Doesn't the 'birthday girl' look so happy? I obiously didn't have much present wrapping time and grabbed what we had. Liberty had just had her party so this is what we had! We love you Kade and hope this is a great year for you.

July 30-August 8, 2010

This is going to be a long post-I'll warn you know! It is time for the annual International Dance and Music Festival. We signed up to be a host family again and this year we got some boys from China. They were part of a high school band and they were amazing. They sounded college level or professional. We asked our boys how long they had been playing their instruments and most of them had played since 2nd-4th grade. Our boys were Shiyi (Sh Yeee) and ZiYue (Zi You). I felt like I got their names caught in my throat becuase you say them kind of abruptly. The boys were quite shy, but so polite. It was fun to show them the sites, support them in their performances, and let them enjoy our culture while they taught us of theirs. The last night that they were with us, they requested homemade hamburgers. So, we did that along with homemade french fries. It was an absolute hit. They could not say enough good about the meal. Another of their favorites was hash browns cooked in bacon grease. MMMMmmm MMMMmmm. I think I will do the rest of this post in pictures with descriptions underneath because there was so much.

Opening Ceremonies July 31, 2010

The teams came out holding ballons to represent their country and then let them all go in the air together. It was quite a site as the colors mixed and floated away.

The Chinese teams first performance.

August 2, 2010. When the boys had free-time, they were always up for a little b-ball

August 2, 2010. Grammy, Elena, and kids joined us for the street festival and parade. Liberty was pulled out by some of the dancers and she had a ball immitating their moves.

August 2, 2010. The Chinese team did a street performance as well as marched in the parade.

August 3, 2010

Three other families in our neighborhood also housed Chinese dancers so we got together often to share meals, rides, and entertainment. Today we took the boys to Warm Springs to feed the fish and then on up to Mesa Falls

August 3, 2010. Mesa Falls.

ShiYi, Kayson, Brylee, Liberty, Brancyn, ZiYue

August 4, 2010. Today we did A LOT of shopping. The boys said that name brand stuff is less expensive here, so they each had a long list of things they needed to find. After shopping , we headed to Ucon for the team B-B-Q.

August 4, 2010. This group was so fun. It just felt like you were at a family reunion. There was a group playing Basketball, a group playing soccer, a group playing footbal, and a group visiting and eating. Each group was a mix of dancers and host families and it was just such a fun night. By this point in the week, you start to realize that you really love these kids and the experiences they bring into your lives.

Augst 5, 2010. I hade given the boys sandwiches almost every day for lunch so far. They always were away at that time and it was the easiest thing to pack. Today I pulled out the Ramen Noodles since they were going to be home during the lunch hour. They were excited to see something they recognized. They asked for chopsticks to eat the noodles with and luckily I had some on hand that our Japanese dancers had given us last year. I just had to get a picture of them eating their Ramen with chopsticks. They, of course, were very proficient.

August 6, 2010.
The boys had heard of laser tag before, but had never played it. (I didn't realize so few country's had this game-but I guess that is the case according to the owners of the laser tag place.) The LOVED it. We went to the Craze Fun Zone and let them play a few games of laser tag as well as black light miniature golf. And then finished off with pizza for dinner.

August 7, 2010.

The boys told us that they are not allowed to have guns in China, but they showed interest in shooting a gun. Kade called my brother-in-law, Shaun, and he agreed to take them target shooting. I wasn't there for this event, but Kade said they enjoyed themselves. They even got to take home their target paper as a souvenir.

August 7, 2010

The boys perormances were on the 6th and 7th and they did amazing. We shared our tickets with Kade's parents and his aunt. We also took the kids to one night each (except Brancyn). Then it was time for one last group photo and the boys were off very, very, very early Sunday morning to start their journey home.

We love doing this. It is such a great experience for our whole family. I'm glad we had another opportunity to be a part of this program.