Hotel CaliFarnsworth

While looking through old pictures on my computer I found some cute ones that I never blogged. I wanted to post them so we would be able to enjoy them in years to come. Here is one of Chloe at the Epperson's house in March. Every time we are there she plays the piano. She loves it! The next set of pictures I found were ones I took of the kids at the park. I wanted good pictures of their faces to remember them. Plus, Chloe needed some headshots for the pageant. These were taken in February at Sierra Vista Park.

Wahoo! One of Doug's very bestest friends in the whole world came to visit! Will and Doug met one night in Provo riding BMX bikes. They have been friends for soo long. Will is awesome and I'm sure he could tell you some crazy stories about Doug....and Doug tells some crazy stories about Will too. Anyway, I babysat Wei when he was a newborn a couple of times. I haven't seen him in such a long time. I had fun seeing Wei all grown up! And Mei is just too cute. Doug and Will took all the kiddos to Downtown Disney for a walk around. I wasn't able to go since I had to work. The kids had a blast hanging out with Will and his kids! What fun! I hope they come back again soon!!!

Uncle Alex LOVES penguins! For Preston's class this year (their Christmas/Winter Party) I made penguin SNOW GLOBE cupcakes! I wish we could've mailed one to Uncle Alex! Here's to you AWESOME UNCLE!!!

I am soo far behind blogging so here I am trying to catch up! We mailed letters to Santa! Yep we did! The kids had fun writing their letters and thinking of just what to say. I wrote Derek's for him but Chloe and Preston wrote their own. Chloe even drew Santa a picture! Here are the letters (I didn't copy Derek's since I wrote it):
Preston's letter says: Dear Santa,I'm seeing you today! but I want an American Girl Doll, ski gear, snow globe, world globe, and bike- a mountain bike and a cruiser bike. Love, Preston
Chloe's letter says: Dear Santa, I want perfume and an American Girl Doll. I also want a new purse. Love, Chloe

I love when kids start to write sentences by themselves and use inventive spelling. Here is Chloe's:

Hello. So I have been busy, like everyone else and despite my great plans to blog our family's adventures, life has just gotten in the way again. I did post a couple of things already but thought I'd better do a longer, more detailed, update. First off, soccer has ended. Derek was very excited to receive his first trophy ever! This was a very big deal to him, see previous soccer post. Chloe enjoyed soccer as well but not like the boys. She was more concerned with having "cute soccer hair" than helping out her team. She loved wearing the uniform and was a lot less concerned with actually playing the game. She was excited to add a trophy to her ever growing trophy collection though. Preston's team did very well and ended up in the Championship Playoffs for his division. In the playoffs he had to play 4 games and the results were tallied into the system as points. Each team got points for goals scored, winning, etc. At the end of the games the points were added and ranked for 1st through 4th place. We were unsure if his team would even place so trophies were ordered for his team. Preston's last game was against one of his very best friends....Ryan B. He was really excited to FINALLY play Ryan's team. We found out at the beginning of the game that if Preston's team won they'd be placed 2nd and if they lost they would be ranked 3rd. I was really excited for him the whole game. At half time the score was 2-1 in our favor. However, they ended up tying us shortly after and in the final 2 minutes of the game scored again to win it. Ryan's team ended up placing 1st and Preston's team placed 3rd. Preston was a super good sport about it and was so thrilled to receive 2 trophies for soccer! Preston is VERY proud of himself. Shauna is VERY happy that soccer is over. Haha. Soccer was fun but the break between sports is much needed right now.

In November, Preston and Chloe had their Reflections Awards Ceremony for their school. Both of them competed in the Photography Category and Chloe also competed in the Visual Arts Category.The picture above is Chloe and Manuel with their teacher Mrs. Brown. These were the only two from kindergarten that participated. The kinders were in the same judging category as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders so we didn't think they would even place. However, Manuel won first place in the Photography category and Chloe won 2nd place! Then Chloe won 3rd place in the Visual Arts category for her painting of the school garden.Preston competed against Chloe in the photography category. He had an interesting picture entitled "Death". The theme for the contest was "Wow!" Preston took pictures of a dead fish at the lake and wrote "Death is wow cause just one second you are playing and full of life and the next second it could be all gone." Well, that's a little deep and morbid for a 2nd grader but hey, he was excited about it. Preston won 3rd place and couldn't be happier.
About a week ago I told the kids to please go play outside. They had been bugging each other in the house and needed to go out to play! After scooting them out the door as fast as I could I went to relax for a few minutes. That's when I heard "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! MOM MOM HELP HELP MOM!!" Oh, joy, I thought. This had better be good. Well, Douglas actually beat me out the door and this is what he found:
Apparently out trampoline had grown a beehive. Anyone want some honey? So I immediately say, "ahhh, spray them!" And Doug says, "No way. Bees are so good. Blah Blah Blah." After calling the beekeeper in an attempt to safely remove the bees and finding out the cost would be $300, we will be getting the spray!

Remember at the beginning of the year I bugged all of you guys about my kids fundraiser?? Well, yesterday all the begging paid off. My kids got to play at the Xtreme Bash Party! This event took place during school and all who sold 15 items were invited to play for 2 hours! So cool!

This year we had sop much fun at our Annual Christmas Lights Walk. We met at 6:30pm at our house and had cookies, hot chocolate, and cider. We visited awhile and then headed to Alta Loma. There were a total of 9 families who ventured out with us. We should have gotten a group shot but failed to do so. The kids had a BLAST. So cute. It was pretty cold (in the upper 40s) so we had to bundle up pretty good. It helped that we took the wagon filled with sweets, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider. Derek and Chloe were so funny. They were just amazed and truly in awe of the lights. The house that was the winner (as far as I am concerned) is the house down below. They had mannequins all dressed up like the Disney princesses and princes. So cool. They had Peter Pan and Captain Hook fighting above their garage, Tinkerbell flying away from their house, Cinderella with her horse and carriage and Prince Charming (notice the Cinderella backdrop too), Sleeping Beauty and her prince were there, Belle and the Beast, and Aladdin and Jasmine. I loved it and made Doug take a picture of Tinkerbell! Ha ha. She's my favorite! Thank you everyone that came and those who were not able to come----you were missed.

Derek had his last game on Saturday! He was so excited to play. Derek scored two goals!! So fun! He stole the ball from the other team right before they could score, turned the ball around, dribbled it all the way down the field and scored! Wahoo! Chloe, Doug, and I cheered for him! At the end, he got a high five and a trophy! Great Job Derek!

Chloe got her first Sierra Vista Award! Yeah for her! The award was a character award for Trustworthiness. Good job Chloe! She was very excited to get an award at a school assembly.Here is Chloe with her award. After you've had a laugh at the boy's face next to her ("Huh, you know me?") then check out Chloe's cheek! Nice mark, eh? She apparently tried to play basketball with her brothers and slid on her face. Ouch. I had to post this picture too. Check out BOTH of my kids' faces! What the heck? I promise we don't beat our children. nice bruise Derek and scab Chloe! Nice....anyone want a spiny lobster?

Hello there friends! I thought I'd share with you what goes on at the Farnsworth household every year the day AFTER Halloween. Douglas started this little tradition the year the our good friend Aaron Waldrip was arrested for doing the same thing in Utah. Since then, Doug looks forward to this day! Our children got really into it this year....great, huh? Enjoy! And let me know what weird traditions your family has!Good old Pumpkin Smashing! This is dangerous stuff. I stayed back.....

Here are our Halloween adventures. First we carved pumpkins! So fun! Derek was excited to do it "by himself." Chloe was the bravest with scooping out the pumpkin guts. She even saved a bunch of seeds so she could dry them out and bake some, and make a picture with the rest.Preston was happy that this year he got to draw his own Jack-o-lantern face on his pumpkin. Usually the kids just tell Doug what to saw out but Preston got to design his own pumpkin. Very fun. Next up, was baking time! I made cupcakes for Chloe's class and cookies for Preston's class, and various goodies for the school's Bake Sale. Whew! It was crazy but fun. I didn't take pictures of all the cute goodies I made, bummer huh? I made the cutest Spaghetti and Meatballs cupcakes and Mashed Potatoes and Gravy cupcakes. But here are the items I made for the kids' classes.Preston's class is learning about Owls so hence the "Hooteririfc Treats."Chloe's class got cute pumpkins!Here are pictures (not mine) of the other cupcakes I made.

I also made pretzels, brownies, owl cupcakes, scarecrow cookies, and generic Halloween cookies. It was a lot of baking. So then we had our School's Family Fun Night and our Ward's Trunk or Treat.Chloe loved being able to wear makeup! Here is a full body shot of her and I (although this is a terrible picture it at least gives you the idea of what we looked liked). This is what I looked liked from the front. Melanie (my friend) went as Cinderella BEFORE the whole Fairy Godmother thing! Ha ha. We are dorks! Here is our monkey with his monkey (eating candy)! And here is a better picture of him.....Now, I have pictures of Harry Potter for you (with his Dad)! One more, this time with his "harry potter" glasses on.....On Halloween I helped in Chloe's classroom so I was able to get a picture of her class. They are so cute!Douglas worked on Halloween evening so I let Preston go with his friend to a BIG Halloween party in Chino. He spent the night with Ryan and had a blast. Chloe and Derek got a surprise visitor on Halloween and had so much fun! Samantha Drew came to see us! We spent Halloween with her and she spent the night. Man, those two missed her so much!!! She has to visit us again soon!!Hope you all had a great Halloween too!