The one about Drew's 5th birthday

I love that Drew.

I just can't believe that it's been five years since I first saw that handsome face.

Now here he is. 5 years old. It's all such a blur how that even happened.

His bday has been sooo crazy. It started out awesome. A few gifts this morning,

a fun VIP day at preschool (with bff Cache walking in with balloons as a suprise) . . .

and then things got crazy.

I started teaching piano and within five minutes Cache's little bro Cole was running naked down the street. This continued throughout the afternoon because A) he wouldn't keep his clothes/diaper on and B) he wouldn't stay in the yard. Keeping him inside was torture for him too! He cried and cried . . . Oh man.

Then Cache peed on Drew's bedroom floor. So I sent them all outside to the back yard and locked the gate to keep in Cole. Then they decided to have a tomato fight with hundreds (litterally) of the ripe tomatoes from my garden and then JUMPED & SMASHED them on the trampoline. :( Of course Drew was wearing a brand new outfit. Of COURSE HE WAS! AND OFCOURSE THIS ALL HAPPENED WHILE I WAS TEACHING!!!

And that's just the start of it.

After a few tears and almost losing my mind, I had a friend help me get Cache & Cole home. I felt awful cuz I was so worn out and we hadn't even made dinner by 8. I had originally had all these fun plans for the evening. . . hadn't done ANY of them. Ugh. And you know how if the Mom's not happy, aint noboday happy? Well that makes it kinda sucky for an exhausted mom trying to pull together a specail day. :(

So I bagged the idea of keeping the house clean.

(P.S. This takes a LOT OF EFFORT for someone with OCD!)

Bagged the idea of bed time being 8:30 on a school night.

Bagged pretty much all my other parenting ideas and started over.

I breathed in and out for a minute while Halle read stories to calm my screaming baby.

We made pizzas from Drew's new miniature pizza set at 9PM.

Had cake at 10:30 PM.

Goofed around until 11:45 PM.

Carried the sleepy kids up to bed a minute ago.

And now, I sit here in the biggest mess you've ever seen. Dishes, toys, pizza sauce pineapple and cheese spills, wrapping paper, sticky- fingered-walls, Dawson's spit up and tomatoe shoe prints in the carpet, a pee stain upstairs . . . and what am I doing?

Cleaning?

NOPE. Blogging.

But I lived. And I think (hope) he had a good birthday.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Drew.

Love you more than you'll ever know,

Mom

The one about my hunters

Big Game Archery Hunt 2010

When Drew watched his dad get decked out for hunting last year, he reeeally really wanted to go with him.

"Maybe next year," we said.

We've been hearing about it since:

"How many days until we're going huntin'?"

"We are gonna shoot some elk, hoo-ah Dad?"

"Me-Drew will be outside getting ready for huntin' guys."

and of course....

"Mom, only boys go hunting."

It's also been awesome as an incentive all year long:

"Drew! Drew!

Hurry get your room clean

so you can go hunting

in September!!!"

September finally came and Drewbie got to go hunting with his dad. The morning they left, Drew was litterally shaking with excitement. I can't remember him being more excited about anything.


I didn't go with them so I'm not sure on all the details. But I do know the following happened:

1. My boys very carefully covered all traces of their human scent. Washed clothes in specail detergent, bathed with specail soap, wouldn't hug me goodbye (!) so I wouldn't get my smell on them. . . and etc.

2. Got up on the mountain and Drew had to pee.

3. Couldn't get his belt undone in time.

4. Boys now had a VERY HUMAN scent.

5. Were probably smelled by every elk in the wasatch range.

6. Hiked all day and didn't see a single elk.

7. Had a great time together anyway.

8. Already excited about next year's hunt.

Drew talks about it at least once a day.

"Mom, when you are in the mountains and there are lots of trees and grass and bushes in the way, it is called BRUSH!"

"Me-Drew saw a real ELK BED, Mom! And it really smelled like ELKS!"

and my fave:

"Mom, hiking is just another way to say

REEEEALLY LOOOONG

WALKING."

The one with a new look for Halle

Halle Girl lost another tooth.

She went to the dentist to have a filling redone. While she was there she fell asleep and knocked out her tooth with her tongue. THEN she had some kind of weird reaction to either the laughing gas or the numbing stuff and ended up looking like...

More dental incidents to add to the 2010 collection :)

Anywho, about a month ago she got a new haircut (thanks Crystal!) and lost her second tooth on the same afternoon.

Isn't she cute?

She spends WAY too much time primping in front of a mirror (especially for a seven year old) but I love to see that she feels pretty.

Mission accomplished.

The one at six months

So, there are SO many things I'd like to blog about, but extra time is pretty rare over here at the Farr house. I'll try to get up a few. First of all, I've gotta tell ya about Dr. F before he gets any bigger.

Daws at 4 1/2 months

He turned six months old on Monday (how did that happen?!?). A couple things I want to remember about him at this age are:

1. He loves to give me kisses. Opened-mouthed-slobbery ones. Oh, it's so fun. He grabs my face with both hands and pulls himself to my lips and plants these long, wet kisses on me. Mmmm. Love it- germs, and spit up, and all.

2. When he cries he often says "Mama, Mmmommmmma!" I KNOW he doesn't really get that he's saying my name, but we can pretend right?? He can get me to drop anything when I hear that sweet little voice calling me.

See why I have no spare time? Ahh! Just look at that face!!!

3. He started sitting up on August 29th.

5 1/2 months

4. Drew loves being a big brother and I think he is pretty anxious for Dawson to be old enough to really play with him.... What do you think?

5. He will lay in this "flying" position and kick-kick-kick his legs super fast while jabbering on and on.

"bla ba babba blabba ba blaaaa"

6. He LOVES his dad. Here's some pics I took of him while Kev was playing the guitar. It's so sweet how he sits there totally glued & in awe.

7. Basically edible squishy legs & toes.

8. Big blues.

9. Happy boy.

10. A few other tricks include rolling around everywhere, eating Stage 2 foods, big belly laughs, and jumping around like crazy in the jumper. Tonight he started to get up on his knees (NOOO!) and scooting backwards (NOOOOOO!). Won't be long before he's into everything and my life will be officially over. For the next couple of years anyway.

I am so glad we have "Duffel Bag Cheeks" in our family. He is incredibly sweet & lights up even my very worst days. I one lucky mom.

The one with a double take

I picked up Halle from gymnastics yesterday and saw the following photo on the studio's wall. Talk about doing a double take!! How did the photographer miss that???

Hilarious.

I'm sorry, it's just too funny not to share.

The one with a sweet 7 year old

My Halle Girl woke up 7 years old this morning!!!

Halle walking to school with friends on her bday

This year for bdays we asked the kids if they would rather have the usual bday (party with friends, lots of presents) or one really BIG present for both of them. Like a playground.

There was no contest.

We did get her a few small gifts and Halle kinda ended up having a non-planned party. A bunch of the girls in the neighborhood came over for a late-night. We'd got her a zhu-zhu pet and it entertained 9 kids for a couple hours. CRAZY!!!

BTW - If you want to get some zhu-zhu's for basically nothing, go to Justice with a 40% off coupon with their 50% off sale. I got sets, pets & accessories for $2-$12 (Regularly $8-$48!!)

The sweetest part of the day was when I brought her home from school. I had taken balloons to her class earlier that day. As we drove into the garage Halle said she wanted to give one of the Balloons to Vyki. She ran in the house, got some scissors, cut off her favorite of the balloons, gave it a kiss, "sent it up to Vyki", and watched it fly higher and higher until it was gone.

I was so touched that she would do something so sweet and thoughtful all on her own.

Happy Birthday, Halle!

I love you!