Snapshot - revisited from 2009

Where I am: In my home office - still decorated in WWII colors surrounded by planes and stuff. Wishing that would change soon.

What I am wearing: My new favorite navy and white striped sweater and jeans I got for Christmas with a "pop of red" in my red shoes. I'm also wearing my new favorite necklace. It's not Jewel Kade (*gasp*) but I love it. It's the kind you can wear every day because it's subtle. I call it my tree of life necklace.

Where I am going after this: To pick up Emmy from her friend Hannah DePasquale's house.

Stuff I want right now:
-my dad back.
-my sister back in Utah.
-for Think Tank to be stable and strong once again. We are getting there but it's been a tough year.
-new running shoes. I didn't get picked in the Moab Half Marathon lottery, so I'm training without a race in mind really. But I don't want to lose momentum and it's time for a new pair of shoes. Think that will be my birthday wish.
-a bigger house to entertain with, or an addition onto our existing house. Probably the latter but who knows when.
-my kids to lead truly happy, joy-filled lives.

Currently reading: Just finished "Love Walked In" - highly recommend it. It was surprisingly sweet and poetic. Not at all your typical love story. I just bought "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" for book club coming up quickly. I don't know how I will finish it in time! And next month's book is "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See. I don't know anything about either of these books but I am grateful for someone else picking them out to push me beyond my usual historical fiction boundaries where I like to linger.

Currently watching: This week, I have watched Eclipse, Becoming Jane, Inception, She's the Man and Toy Story 3. No TV for me lately. Where have So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol gone???

What I did yesterday:
-worked out at the gym. Ran 3 miles, did 3 sets of lunges across the gym and worked shoulders and arms with a medicine ball. Needless to say, I am super sore today. Running doesn't make me sore anymore, but muscle workouts always do. I'm excited my friend Mindy has joined my gym. Now there are 3 of us to make sure we get there.
-went to dinner at Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill with the family. We actually call it Chumpy Chow for no particular reason other than the fact that Zach likes to come up with silly nicknames for just about everything and everyone. It's downtown across the street from the SL Library. I think it's been there a long time but my kids like the grill where they get to build their own bowls.
-went to Border's where the kids spent their gift cards from Zach's very generous Aunt Linda in Alexandria, VA. Thanks Aunt Linda! Just when I thought Simon had seen every airplane book ever published, we found an awesome pop-up plane book. He already knew what most of the airplanes are but he has read it about 4 times today.

-watched Emmy's movie that she bought at Border's (She's the Man) and had an all out dart gun war with the kids. Zach came home to a mad house of mom chasing the kids up and down the stairs. It's amazing no one got hurt or ended up in tears. Fun night.

What I am doing tonight: Going swimming with the family. So excited. Zach - not so much but he's trying to be fun. He's not a pool guy.

What I am doing tomorrow: Working out. Then who knows what the day holds? I would like to take the kids to see Gulliver's Travels but I haven't heard any good/bad reviews from friends yet so I don't know what to expect.

The background on my phone is:

The background on my laptop is:
For the record, you might think from these last two answers that I don't have a mother, but that is so not true. I have a very beautiful mother, but she doesn't let me photograph her near enough and I usually get in trouble when I post pictures of her. But believe me - she's beautiful and awesome.

Who I miss: My dad. And the Blake Family. And my far away brothers. And my step-mom Shirl.

How I feel right now: I've got a stomach ache. I've had it for over a week now and am starting to think it's here to stay.

What I am thinking about: Dinner. Luckily it's all figured out and smelling good. I went to the store at 7:00 a.m. to get it all ready to go in the crock-pot before anyone even woke up.

Dance Central at the Sharples

The latest rage at Zach's parents house is playing Dance Central on the Kinect (Xbox). Basically, it's Guitar Hero without an instrument. You are watching a CG dancer on screen and you have to mirror the moves they are doing. Coming up the right hand side of the screen are the moves you will be doing next. The sensor bar on top of the TV is also a camera so you are being graded on how well you mimick the dance moves. I am always the hesitant one when it comes to things like this, but my sisters-in-law are very effective at getting me out of my shell :) I must say it was super fun, and I would secretly like to have one of these in my basement so I can learn the moves on my own before I have to do them in front of the whole family.

Dance Party in Simon's Room

I let the kids stay up late if they (Emmy mostly) consented to letting me video them cuttin' a rug. They were more than willing as you can see...

Who is this Hollywood Couple?

Thanks so much to my brother Quinn for finding and scanning these photos from my parents' trip to Europe before they settled down and had kids. They spend 4 months traveling the continent in a VW bus they bought from the factory in Germany and had custom outfitted with curtains and beds in the back.

The Very Brave Boy

Simon got his cast off after 3 weeks. I'm surprised that's all the time needed to heal and grow new bone, but apparently in 3-year-olds, it is. Zach and my mom both came to support Simon (and me). Getting the cast off is no big deal, but the doctor was also removing the pins (think long nails with bent heads) and I didn't know how that was going to go down so I was glad to have the extra support if needed. As soon as we walked into the casting room, there was already a kid about Simon's age just WAILING as he got his leg cast removed. That definitely didn't help Simon to feel at ease. I had been telling him that nothing was going to hurt (I didn't know if that was true) so we just told him that boy was wasn't hurting, he was just scared (I didn't know if that was true either). Once the circular saw came out, he just sat still and let the nurse do her thing. I'm amazed at this boy. He didn't cry once, even when the whole cast came off and he saw metal sticking out of his elbow. He just kind of nervously asked, "Mom, what's that?" The doctor didn't waste any time grabbing a pair of needle nose pliers and pulling, pulling, pulling the pin out. There were two of them, and the first one came out without problem. The second one she had to work a little harder and there was a little blood involved. That's when Simon declared, "I want to go home NOW". But still - no tears! That kid is awesome. For those of you who know Zach and his difficulty with anything medical, this was really hard for him to even be in the room with, but he stayed and I am just as proud of him. I think it was important for him to appreciate what his little guy had to go through.

Farley Family Christmas Party

I hosted our Farley Family Christmas party this year. I've never hosted before because I didn't think my house was big enough. Let the record state IT IS NOT BIG ENOUGH, but I think it still was a success and I'm glad I proved to myself once again that I can do hard things. That has been my motto this year. Luckily I didn't have to do all the work. People brought food and I just had to supply the main dish (Christopher's Gay Penne Pasta for those of you who know it!). Zach went out and bought some "heathen pizza" (Zach's term because I objected due to the fact that it was Sunday) at the last minute because we were worried that we didn't have enough food. We definitely had enough food, but all the kids chose the heathen pizza instead. The group consisted of my mom, Misty and her family, Quinn and some of his family, and my cousin Linsey and her family. I think there were 27 people stuffed into my front room at one point during the kids gift exchange.

The spread...

Mike and Misty having fun with bows

Quinn practicing his Ho Ho Ho for future years when he becomes the family Santa. He's also sporting my dad's leather vest that he has been told he can ONLY wear to family parties such as this and not in public. I disagree. I love it.

My mom and Haley working on the visual illusions book mom brought hoping that it would help some of the grandkids pass the time. She was right - I think they all spent time on it!

Quinn and his precious Sofia.

Grandma and Paige Noelle.

Most of the boys spent the whole party downstairs having a video game version of our Christmas party. Connor and Ethan comparing electronics.

We had a little bit of a talent show upstairs for those that were comfortable sharing. This cute little girl has no problem sharing her many talents. Tonight it was the splits. We also got to hear some piano from Connor (always willing to play for a crowd) and Landon (after a LOT of coaxing but it was worth it!).

Sisters...

Grandma, Emmy and Haley

Quinn, his girlfriend Heather and two of her kids, Landon and Maddie.

Mike is quite the story teller. He is so good at keeping the conversation going and getting the more shy ones to talk. He's a good one to have at a party.


Our cute friend Brynn Whitney happened to stop by during the party. She and Emmy disappeared into Emmy's bedroom for a while only to come out looking like this. They both LOVE to do makeovers and Brynn is actually really good at it.




Brynn has been married to Craig for 6 months now, and we are hoping they have kids and move back to Murray so Emmy can become her favorite babysitter which is how we came to know Brynn in the first place.

Christmas Performing Season 2010

'nuf with the buttons. woot woot.

That was the email message I got from my mom yesterday. While I was stumped as to its meaning, my regular blog readers might know exactly what she is talking about, because that is the post you keep seeing every time you check to see if I've blogged again. That was my mom's little nudge to get me to blog. It is Christmas Eve morning, and Simon was up late last night, so HOPEFULLY will sleep a little longer this morning so I can get a few posts in.

December has been a flurry of activity, mostly Emmy performing but also a few parties here and there.

Emmy is part of the performing group "USA" at Clayton Productions. This is Emmy's third year with Clayton. They find as many performing opportunities during the month of December as possible which is good and bad. I was raised in the belief that it is good to put kids in front of people to share their talent. My mom had us sing or play the piano for pretty much anyone who walked through our front door. Unfortunately, December is already a busy month so I missed out on quite a few fun social nights, like the ward Christmas party, ward Relief Society Christmas dinner, awesome client Christmas dinner at the Grand America Hotel with Zach, Bonko, Book Club, craft night with the girls and a few GNO's. But we survived, and Emmy is all the better for it. I love love love watching her perform. I never get tired of it. She performed at two rest homes, the Dickens Festival, the Festival of Trees, an elementary school, Wheeler Farm, Valley Fair Mall, and finally the big concert at Juan Diego High School.






(SIDE NOTE: Simon just woke up, came to the top of the stairs and yelled down "Mom?" I didn't answer. In fact, I turned off the light and hid behind the door just in case he came down to look for me. Now he thinks I'm gone at the gym and that will buy me at least another half hour. See what I have to do to blog?)

Button Button, Who's got the Button?

Emmy saw a really cute sweater she liked at The Hive art gallery at Trolley Square last week. It was just a regular cardigan that had a ton of buttons sewn randomly on the bottom edge. She got the idea to do something similar with just a regular tank top that she already had. I didn't have enough buttons to do the job, so she raided my mom's button collection that she has had since I was a kid. I made her sew on some of the buttons, but it would have taken forever so I helped finish the job so she could wear it the next morning. Now we've got the button bug and I'm thinking of ways I can score lots of buttons without buying them new. If any of you have lots of buttons laying around doing nothing, send them our way!

Love that girl of mine...

Simon's new cast

Simon got his hard cast on last week and wanted his Daddy to draw an airplane on it, a F-8 Crusader to be exact. I had a hard enough time just writing a legible "mommy" on the rough texture so I thought it would be hard for Zach to make a drawing that specific. I should never underestimate my very talented husband. Simon proudly shows it to all his friends and anyone who comments on his cast.

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Connor's best friend for many years was a cute girl named Aubrie who lives in our neighborhood. They were inseparable for the first few years of elementary, then grew steadily apart as Aubrie moved elementary schools. They went to the same junior high but that is a weird time for everyone and they hardly spoke to eachother. Aubrie now goes to a completely different high school. She thought it would be fun to ask Connor to the Christmas Dance at her school. It came as a pleasant surprise to both Connor and his parents, partly because I knew it would be a fun blog post to write about!

She asked him with a poem along with a stocking full of gold and silver Hershey's chocolates.

Connor answered her with this on her front door step along with a bag of freshly made baby Jesus cookies.


The pre-dance activity was ice skating at the Bountiful Rec Center. Since Connor can't drive yet, Aubrie's mom Linda and I drove him up there and then she and I went to a nice long girls lunch at one of my favorite restaurants Plates and Palates while the kids did their thing. That's what I call a win-win situation. Dinner was at Buca di Beppo and the dance was held at the Utah fairgrounds. I didn't get many details out of him but I think he had a nice time catching up with his long time friend as well as making some new Bountiful High friends.

I can do ANYTHING!

I did it! I ran 6.2 miles on Saturday as part of my training towards the Moab half marathon. It took me 66 minutes which is just under an 11 minute mile, not that speed is important to me. It's totally not, but I ran comfortably at a 5.5 mph rate the entire time without stopping to walk once. It's the most I have ever run in my life, and I wanted to roll down my window on the way home from the gym and shout at people on the street "I am a runner!". I'm proving to myself that I can do hard things which I previously thought were impossible. I wonder what else I could accomplish if I set my mind to it?

No looking back

That's was I keep telling myself. I just registered myself to run the Moab Half Marathon in March of next year. That's a short 4 months away for me to increase my ability to run from 4 miles to 13 miles. My crazy friend Tiffany talked me into it. But we are determined and a girls trip to Moab is enough incentive to actually get me to do it. Wish me luck!

You only need one hand to...

...admire the Dicken's village on the piano. We haven't set up our village for many years and this is the first he's seen them. He's quite fascinated.


...pose for a picture for mom in the middle of playing one-handedly in his room.

...play in the bath. A big plastic sack doesn't slow him down in the least.

Matthew's birthday party

Simon's best buddy Matthew Kirkham had his 4th birthday party the day after Simon had surgery on his elbow. You try to tell Simon he can't leave the house because he has a broken arm. No really, I'd like to see it! He wouldn't hear of not going to Matthew's space-themed party which had been the talk of the preschool kids for weeks. He was still a little off with the anesthesia in his system, but I went with him anyway. He didn't participate much in the physical activities (musical planets - think musical chairs with hand drawn pictures of planets all over the room), but he was able to make a cardboard rocket and loved giving Matthew his present, a dart gun just like the one Matthew loves to play with when he comes to our house.

Nick and Lulu's Wedding

Zach's youngest sister Melissa (better known to us as Lulu) tied the knot November 15th and added a new member to the family, Nick Larkin. Fun fact: They are both completing their apprenticeships to be morticians. Bizarre, you say? Not in Zach's family, nor in his. Heard of Larkin Mortuary?

The wedding and reception were held at Le Jardin, a gorgeous indoor greenhouse in Sandy owned by his family. It made for a beautiful backdrop to the many, many pictures taken that day. Here are just a few...

What a proud mom and dad. Melissa's years as a ballerina definitely showed in the way she carried herself down the aisle as a new bride.

Connor is SO excited to have a new uncle. Nick is so great to him. We are excited to have him in the family.

Emmy and Ayana - beautiful cousins!

She is so photogenic. Love the lips.

Dress look familiar? Jennica is awesome for letting me borrow it... again!