Prom 2013

Brienna decided she wanted to go to prom--alone or with a date.  Her friend, Lindsay, said she should ask a young man from Terreton (he's in our stake) so this is how she asked him.  About 10 years ago, his family lived here in Dubois, and they were/are really good friends with the Farrs.

 I can't believe Brienna's a junior!    She asked me to do her hair, so her is the bow we made out of her hair.  It was a bit harder than I had anticipated.

 Curls in progress.

 Okay--now to get the dress on!

Finished hair & dress is on!

 What a beautiful young lady!

 For their "day" date, they went bowling & to Pizza Pie Cafe in Rexburg (Lindsay & Jake Mickelsen, & Julie Torres & Tyree Laird).  She said they all had a lot of fun.

 Pinning the boutonniere on Dakota Summers.

 Dakota is a senior at West Jefferson HS.  He stayed at Farr's while Brienna was doing her hair & getting ready (his mom was helping Lindsay get ready).

 At the prom.  I had to get a picture with Brienna's flower--so beautiful!

 The theme was "Passage to India"--I love how all the girls' dresses fit right in with the colors!

Zane's First Track Meet

We decided to go to this track meet because it is the closest one to us (40 miles away) and I'm not sure if we'll make it to any others.

Rusty was able to have an aide at school cover for his at the end of school (during his prep. time & the last 10 minutes of school).  So we took Ben & Emmalee met Brienna at the H.S. after school.

All the HS kids went on a field trip to ISU (Pocatello)for a technology expo & so they were going to meet the track bus (empty of kiddos) at Sage Junction & then go their separate ways.  But around 1:30, the school called and said Sheree (bus driver) had slipped and fell on the ice outside the school (on the lawn) & was being taken by ambulance to town w/a broken leg/foot.  So they needed us to take some of the the kids' shoes/equipment to the meet (it was on the bus).  Since the school had taken 2 buses to ISU, they just had 1 of the buses go to the meet, and the other one come back to the school.  We also took Jim Farley because he was going to ride the bus.  Needless to say, a few kids were a little concerned because their shoes were a few minutes late.

It was typical track meet weather--cold and windy.

 At least it wasn't snowing (only on the way home).  Zane & other team members watching the long jump.

 This is the first time that Zane has ever jumped (high jump).  We have too much snow in Dubois, so the mat hasn't been set up yet.  

 I think they can finally get to the equipment shed & will put it in the old gym on Monday.  None of our boys were able to clear the starting height of 5 foot--but for their first "practice", all the boys did a good job.

 Zane getting ready for the 100 yard dash--he's on the left.

 Also running from Clark Co. is Jake Mickelsen & Kyle Lantis--Kyle is the one freezing to death.  Some of the boys didn't wear leggins so they were super cold!

 This race was straight into the wind--Zane ran it in 14.96 seconds.  

 They have also never used starting blocks, so they hope to get those out this week, too, so they can see if it will help them.  This is the beginning of the 400--the hardest race (in my opinion).  Zane was in lane 8 (far outside lane) so he starts way ahead of everyone.  I also think that is the worse lane too.

 This is the end of the 400--Zane said he felt like he was so far behind these boys, but he really wasn't that far behind.  

Finishing the 400 strong--

His time:  1:10.  Great job, Zane!

 Zane's long jump landing.

 Getting ready for the 100.  The boys had a hard time trying to stay warm.  Zane took hand warmers that he kept in his jacket pockets between events.

 Zane's track uniform.   

Zane's long jump results:  13' 11"
All the results from the track meet can be seen here.

News on Sheree:  broken foot/ankle (not sure which) and also a bone in her leg.  She will have surgery in the morning.  Sheree is also our Primary chorister, so I will be covering for her until she is able to "get on her feet".  

1st Day of Spring

 yep--it's the first day of spring and we woke up to snow...

 and it's still snowing 6 hours later.

 it is a wet snow, so I hope it melts quickly (if it warms up later--the forecast for the weekend is only for the high 20's).  I guess that's the good thing about spring snow--is that it usually melts quickly.  

Benjamin was really excited to see it snowing.  "I LOVE snow, Mom!" Made me smile because I was a bit down this morning when I saw the snow.

Yesterday I found a prism when I was cleaning out some "junk/catch-all" drawers.  As I child, (and even now) my mom had prisms hanging in our front windows and I loved "catching" the rainbows on the floor, couch, walls, etc.  I loved having the rainbows on my hand, feet, face....  And so yesterday I hung my prism up in my window--and Benjamin was super excited to "catch" the rainbows on his hands and feet.  I think I need to buy/find a couple more so I can have tons of rainbows in my house.

Sadly, there is no sunshine today, so no rainbows to be caught today.  Ben wants to go outside and make a "real" snowman.  Here is the snowman he made yesterday:

I'm glad someone is happy that it is snowing!

Update on pictures of Ethan

I have a little more information on these pictures:

"They acutally didn't feed us--we were driving on our way to someone's house and saw their garage was open and  they were moving some stuff around (they recently were able to move back in after a house fire).  So we stopped and helped them move some stuff for a while.  Then they let us ride around a little on their exceedingly nice bikes.  They were super light-weight, with some cool electronic shifting mechanism and a very smooth ride.  So she wanted to take our picture for our moms, so that's what she did.  Super nice family."

"We are Chuck and Diane Walker--retired kindergarten teachers and parents to 7.  Your son and Elder McCracken are awesome missionaries.  We are moving to Hawaii in a couple of months and they came and helped us with a big yard sale on Saturday.  We had a great day with them talking to everyone who came up to buy things, about the church.   We had to sell a lot of our food storage because we can't ship it and so it made a great opener into discussions about the gospel with people.  Your son is working hard; he's being well taken care of by the ward, and you should be very proud of him.  In fact, we are having them over for dinner tomorrow night {which is actually Monday--tonight}.  Sis. Walker"

I am grateful that the members in CA are taking care of Ethan--and sending pictures!!  :D

ST. Patrick's Day 2013

 YAY!  a picture of some lucky leprechauns in California!!!  Ethan and his companion, Elder McCracken.

 For St. Patrick's day, I made green chocolate chip cookies--and some even in the shape of 4-leaf clovers (sort-of).  The kids didn't want mint cookies, so I just added green food coloring.

Emmalee (and Ben) enjoying the green cookies.  Rusty made green pancakes for breakfast, but since I had early meetings, I didn't get pictures (or even get to eat one!)

So yesterday I slow-cooked ribs (both baby back & spare ribs) for a nice meal.  I also decided to make homemade rolls along with baked potatoes, baked beans, and asparagus.  On top of that, I decided that my floor was in desperate need of a good vacuuming!  (I am almost embarrassed to say it had been 2 weeks since I last vacuumed).  And with the snow melting, a lot of mud/dirt has been tracked in.  So by the time all the "big" pieces of garbage/dirt and moving furniture, it took 2 hours to get everything vacuumed.  Ben & Emmalee love making a lot of crafts & draw a ton of pictures.  Ben cuts everything out that he draws, so there was a ton of little pieces of paper on the floor.  

Rusty and the 2 older kids went to pick up the 4-H pigs.  We are not ready for them yet, so they are staying at a neighbor's house until our pen is ready in a week or 2.  Since I was busy baking/cooking all day, I didn't make it over to see the pigs, and so I have no pictures of them.  Only Brienna and Zane are doing pigs this year, and since they are older, Rusty is letting them do a lot more of the "work" (like getting the pen ready, buying the food, etc.)

Oh--and I also made the green chocolate chip cookies.  After the green batch of cookies, I tried a batch for me using a little bit of coconut sugar and sugar-free chocolate (I thought they were quite delicious).  But I came to the conclusion that with all the work, it's not worth it to make the big meal very often.  I would much rather spend the $ to go out to eat with Rusty (the kids ate some of the food, but the younger ones didn't care for meat--crazy kids!).  I spent about $15 on the meat (which will feed our family for at least 2 meals, maybe 3) and the rest of the food doesn't add up to much, but the time sure does add up.  But don't get me wrong, Rusty, myself, and his dad thoroughly enjoyed the food. 

The other thing is I'm still getting used to my oven.  The first batch of cookies took a lot longer to cook and so did all of the rolls.  So the next time I make bread, I am going to bake it in a little hotter oven to see if they brown quicker.  The rolls were okay, but just not the best.  They didn't brown very good.  And I just ate a roll for a snack and started thinking of how I made it.  Since they didn't taste quite right, I finally figured out that I didn't put all the sugar in them.  So I need to make another batch soon to see if I can get it right!

March 15, 2013

 While walking to school with Ben, he decided he needed to "follow the river" 

Anyone still love to crack the thin white ice in the mornings?  I walked to the post office & credit union one morning and found lots of unbroken spots--and I couldn't resist!

Our Easter and St. Patrick's Day decorations--I have more pictures, but not loaded onto the computer yet.

 Last weekend, Pamela bought a new car (after her Jeep "died" on her)

It's a 2013 Subaru Outback.  

Trying on Prom Dresses

 Prom is March 23rd--and do you know how hard it is to find prom dresses in IF or Rexburg???

 We found a store, "The Glass Slipper", in Rexburg that rents dresses.

 So Brienna had fun trying on a lot of dresses.

 She really liked this one (and so did I), but it was a bit long (even with heels)

 Brienna also liked this dress.

 This one is just a little shorter, so it will work better then the other dress.

 So this is the dress she will be wearing to Jr. Prom on the 23rd.

what a beautiful, gorgeous young lady!  So exciting :D

Made my day!

Look what a sweet lady (Victoria Gillis in Bakersfield, CA) just sent me:

 Our missionary!  I'm assuming they fed the missionaries tonight & sent these to me.

Ethan and his companion, Elder McCracken from Burley, ID.