March Already?

As I'm hip deep in pirates for the stake Cub Scout activity coming up, it suddenly dawned on me that its already March! And in less than three months we'll have a major move on our hands!  Kimberley will be done with 9th grade, Kayla with 6th, Karina with 3rd and Matthew with 1st.  I'm enjoying Michael's last few months at home before Kindergarten, and lamenting "When did time suddenly start moving so fast?"

Answer:  When you're busy, you NEVER have enough time.

Churchwise (and don't my boys look handsome in their suits?) Brent is still teaching early morning seminary every morning, and on the high council, and playing piano for priesthood meetings.  Delwyn is still playing the organ, and the Activity Days leader, and the Stake Primary President.  (The reason she's hip deep in pirates! There are only two weeks until our stake Cub Scout activity, Harrr Mateys! (Said with a Mississippi/South African accent.) Want to walk on this nice little plank, anyone?)

Everyday-life wise, Brent is still working full time at Keesler, and juggling kids schedules during the evenings and on weekends.  We have the three youngest in soccer, and have one to two make up games a week EACH because of all the rained out games.  Luckily the two in swimming are having a little break because short season ended. But still, only Monday nights are "free" because that's our family rule.

My life still consists of trying to come up with the perfect meal that everyone eats, juggling dusting and laundry, and spending an hour or so in the car each day driving kids around. And explaining that "I'm sorry, I never learned that in school.  Do you think your older sister can help you with your homework?"  Huh.

Kimberley is thinking of taking up guitar.  (Her drums were great to get her rythms right for piano.)  She is nice enough to play the organ for church sometimes.

Kayla's oboe playing is taking off, as well as the piano. She's growing about three feet every time she takes a nap. And she has amazing taste in Superbowl picks.

Karina is still the cutest curly haired blonde you'll ever meet. Unless, of course, she's disguised as Elvis.  She sang and danced a "blue" Christmas number at a rest home in Biloxi.

Matthew won the spelling bee for first grade.  Smart little kid. Takes after my side of the family.

Michael is a killer wii player.  He keeps explaining that he can drive now, and doesn't understand why I don't hand over my car keys.

Here's some pictures out and about, taking in the sights.

 If you look closely past Kimberley's shoulder, you can see our local friendly alligator munching on something. We couldn't figure out what, exactly.  I counted kids and they're all accounted for.

This month we get to visit Scott and Marcy for spring break, and we're looking forward to the visit.

March already?  Amazing.

December, the busiest, busiest month....

December was a busy, but still pretty wonderful, month for us. 

Karina had a "friends" birthday.

Karina had a ladybug birthday party, which was a lot of fun.

She and her friends decorated their own little bug cupcakes.

She even had facepainting--thank you Kimberley, for the amazing artistic touches.

Michael didn't want a ladybug, so Kimberley gave him Thomas, instead. And Matthew asked for a space rocket.

We ended up putting up our outside Christmas lights three days before Christmas, as it rained every day beginning December 1st.  Luckily, it wasn't too wet to put out the magic reindeer food the night before...

And we waited for Christmas to arrive.  The stockings were set by the fire with care...and Santa came.  He even ate the cookies and drank the milk and gave the carrots to his reindeer.  You can see the empty Santa plate.

Michael said, "There must be one HUNDRED presents under the tree! It was the biggest number that he could think of.

Kayla and Karina made poinsettia napkin rings for the place settings for Christmas dinner.

This year we went to various venues around town, taking our Christmas pictures with a tripod and a timer.  Here we are at the Vetarans Memorial in D'iberville.

This is on the Biloxi beach, down the road from the Air Force base.

Michael had a birthday right after Christmas.  He was so excited. He had a "Mario" party, and asked for a mushroom cake.

He set the table all by himself.

Kimberley and Mom made a pin the moustache on Mario game.

All in all, December was fairly busy, but what a wonderful, wonderful month!

Happy Thanksgiving

from our house, to yours

Here's the result of a lot of family baking.  Note the individual pies.

With the color of our walls, we didn't have to do too much decorating for fall. 

The kids show off their decorating skills--Kayla and Karina made menus, and Karina decorated with some fall leaves.

The rest of the table.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving together.  We ate pies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for days afterwards.  Each member of the family talked about what he or she was thankful for. 

Michael summed it up nicely: "I'm fangful for everyfing."

Pumpkin Time

Our annual pumpkin carving night. Its a tradition each year, and then we light up the pumpkins for Halloween, for all the trick or treaters.

Here's Michael, alias Super Why, checking out the pumpkins.

And here we have Got Milk 1% (Kimberley),Got Strawberry Milk (Kayla), Fall Witch (Karina), Transformer (Matthew) and Super Why (Michael.)

Our cool Transformer Matthew.

Brent, lighting up the pumpkins for the trick or treaters.

And narrowly missing getting kicked by the witch on our door.

And finally we have the trick or treaters before they went off trick or treating.

The witch on the door stayed, and so did Kimberley because she handed out candy this year.

The scariest part of Halloween this year were our pumpkins. A friend stopped by and complimented us on our pumpkins. He said he'd never seen a moustache on a pumpkin before.
So we looked, and our pumpkins all had hairy black things growing on their top lips.

The joys of living by the very humid ocean.

I cleaned up the pumpkins while the kids were off trick or treating with Brent, so no young children were disturbed or harmed during Halloween at the Farnsworths.

Our Day Trip to the USS Alabama

We drove to Mobile, Alabama, to visit the USS Alabama. The ship is huge! We were able to climb all over, and tour all the levels, and see first hand what living on a ship entailed.

The ladders were scarey. I'd hate to have to climb them in the middle of a storm.

My kids will never again complain about sharing a room. Where can I get some of these bunkbeds?

Nothing like a little time in the brig for the whole family. Finally, some peace and quiet.

The phrase "bringing out the big guns" now has a whole new meaning.

Some family time on the Biloxi beach.

Just a few pictures . . .

Kimberley has her braces off!




Karina shows her spirit of entrepreneurship.

These are some of the prices: Back scratch 2c Back Rub 2c

Michael showing off his car bed, and the vehicle he created out of leggo.

So, notice the little black things Michael is pointing out. These are dead lovebugs. They become a plague around early September. For some reason, they think my front entrance is a great burial site, and they flock to my front entryway before expiring. I think its the welcome mat. Who says my home isn't a heaven on earth?



Karate kid Matthew getting in on the action.

Here we have Matthew's feet, again showing off our Love bug cemetery.

Kayla after her awards ceremony.

A great picture of the artwork a local artist created out of the trees that were destroyed by hurricane Katrina. Instead of carting off the dead wood for firewood, this was symbolic of how they took the tragedy, and created art.

Those Little Touches That just say home.

Thankfully, in the past seventeen years of marriage I've finally learned to cook. Of course, I've begged, borrowed--okay, shamelessly stolen, some fantastic recipes which I'm quite content to claim as my own. I do, after all, change one or two ingredients. Well, I'm normally missing the ingredients when the time comes to use the recipe, so the end results are all my own.

So I'm pleased that my children are developing some artistic culinary skills, too. This is Michael's contribution to food art:

I wasn't allowed to remove this masterpiece from the counter for three days.

Food adds a lot, but what is a house without that decorator's touch? This piece of modern art has not been allowed to be moved from the corner of my front room for about two weeks now.

And finally, what kind of a parent am I if I don't lead by example? Every home needs a great filing system and mine has remained undisturbed for about--well, lets just say slightly longer than Michael's little projects.