2 Farr Out + 2

July 4th Plus Some

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:42:00 +0000

Our 4th of July was much the same as it has been in the past, as we have stuck to tradition for as long as we’ve been married. Devin and I threaten each year that we aren’t going to participate in the Kaysville parade due the abundance of people and the lack of actual parade floats (a fancy car with a sign on it does NOT count as a worthy parade entry), but we cling on to it for tradition sake and to be with our family. And then there’s the community water fight after the parade, which is awesome fun and makes it almost worth the crowd fighting but the water fight section of the parade is getting shorter and the parade of cars with advertisements is getting longer…but, back to the parade:
Here’s some pre-parade candy-eating
And Nate waving to the people as they go by
And a good ol’ fashion community water fight

Even my boys get in to it
This year they had a pirate boat

Then back home for some fireworks

And then I would normally have some pictures of a few other festivities that we participated in, like the blow up slides or the firework show at the high school but as luck would have it I started getting sick around dinner time and by the time the fireworks started, I was in full blown out sick mode, huddled in a blanket on the grass hoping that I could keep the contents in my stomach in my stomach so as to avoid an embarrassing display in front of all those people. But, I do know that my boys actually watched the firework show this year because they wore some noise cancelling headphones, and they loved it!

Other happenings in July:
Devin ran a 10k and did an awesome job beating his goal time!

We played in the fountains at City Creek in Salt Lake:

And I think we spent the entire month in the pool:

I Ran

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 04:00:00 +0000

I ran a half marathon June 8th. I was forced to do it. My older brother is an awesome runner and after one of the 5k races that I did with him about a year ago (okay, HE ran the half marathon while I just did the 5k), I half jokingly said how great I felt and that I should run a half marathon one day. Well, he held me to it and was very encouraging in my quest. So he made me do it. I guess deep down I’m that little kid sister that wants to do cool things just to impress her older brother. Every Saturday when my runs would last about two hours, I wanted to quit. I got so tired of going to the gym at night as soon as the boys went down to sleep and spending my free time there instead of sitting in front of the tv. I hated seeing how slow I was and discouraged when I didn’t see results happen as fast as I wanted. But every time I talked to my brother about it and asked him questions about fueling for long runs or how to get my speed up, or told him about my discouraging runs, he kept me going. Thanks big bro!

The race was down in Provo. Because Provo is about an hour from our house, I decided to get a hotel so I didn’t have to wake up any earlier than I was already going to have to. Devin had a doctor dinner up in Midway on Friday evening and spouses were invited so we went to that on Friday and then spent the night in Provo. I did not sleep. at. all. Okay, maybe 20 min here and there, but I was so nervous because of the starting time for my race….not my actual race! Lame. When my alarm went off at 3:45 (yes. 3:45 am) I was a complete wreck of nerves. I had to drive to the mall and catch a shuttle bus that took all the runners up Provo Canyon to the starting line. By the time I got up to the starting line, it was 4:40am. What the?! Who planned this? The race didn’t start until 6:00! So there we all sat, in the cold and dark, huddled next to fire pits that were set up in the middle of the highway. They only had one large light post set up by the starting line and the fires were started with lighter fluid which made them extremely smokey. But there I sat for an 1 hour and 20 min waiting for the race to begin. It was a gorgeous place to run through and for the first 9 miles I felt awesome and was running faster than I ever had before. Every once in a while I heard rustling in the leaves and thought it was a wild animal in the forest out to get me, but then it’d turn out to be a runner that had to “go” in the bushes because they had ZERO bathrooms along the 13.1 mile route! That was pretty bad. Luckily, I was fine the whole time and was having a great run. But then BAM! It hit me and I struggled for the last 4 miles. BUT, I did end up finishing faster than I had ever run before and beat my goal time by 4 minutes so I was extremely happy with that! The only thing that kept me going was knowing that Dev was waiting for me somewhere near the finish line so I was running in anticipation of that. About 1/4 of a mile to the finish line, there he was!
Maybe it’s just the picture but I thought I was running. Or maybe I was so delusional at this point that I thought I was running but I was really just speed walking….

And here’s me and my medal…that was hanging in the kitchen for all to see until a few weeks ago. And now it’s dangling on our bedroom window, just to remind Devin how I’m so cool…. :)

And just to remember how cute my boys are:

Moab and More Dirt

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 04:47:00 +0000

I’m on top of things, which is why I am just now blogging about some vacations we took back in May. Sorry, but catching up on past episodes of Property Brothers and House Hunters takes precedence over journaling the important events and people in my life. Ha! But here goes our two desert vacations we took in May:

Moab:
I was looking forward to this trip more than anything this summer. We were meeting up in Moab with our most favorite families in the world that we hadn’t seen since Devin had graduated from school a year ago. The Johansen’s drove up from New Mexico and the Bolicks came all the way from Oregon. These people kept us sane while Dev was going to school and while we were so far from home and are truly some of the best friends we could have gained on our adventures in Oregon. It was an awesome time but waaaaaayyy too short.
We spent the day hiking in Arches:

These boys are only two months apart. Fun friends! After the trip was over, Nate and Cam kept asking to go back to Austin’s house (which was actually the condo that we stayed at. They thought it was Austin’s house)

Eating lunch

Hiking to Sand Dune Arch

Nate and Cam lovin the big sand box.

Some crazy guy (**cough**Randy)up on top of the arch:

There are so many great things about the picture below that Cameron took, but what I’d like to focus on are those two stinking cute babies…I’ll let you decide which babies I’m talking about. HA!
The group of us:

Handsome Boys:

My amazing friends that I miss oh so very much!

The guys had a “Mustache Moab” competition where they grew out their mustaches for two weeks before our meeting in Moab. And yes, Devin does have a mustache. I promise.

It was sad to see them go, and we never did get to go lizard looping, so I’m thinking we need this trip to happen again.

The weekend after we got back from Moab we went to Goblin Valley with my family. I’d just like to point out that this was our third trip in three weekends (San Diego, then Moab, and now Goblin Valley). We will never do this to ourselves or our children again. Although, I do have to say that Nate and Cam have become remarkably awesome travelers. We were lucky enough to get to stay in my parents trailer with them.
On our drive in, this is the amazing (not quite captured in this picture) moon that was shining over the desert:

We got there pretty late at night, so of course the first thing ~~Devin~~ the kids had to do was climb the cliffs near our camp site:

Nate was so ticked at me in this next picture. He wanted to climb all by himself and I was not about to let my first born discover for himself the dangers of climbing on a cliff.
My children are somewhere down in that hole:

While this area was a playground of discovery for the kids, I was terrified, worried, and on high alert every time we went out hiking.
My mom brought up the swimming pool for the kids so they could get cooled off from the heat:

Me and the Mr

Marshmallow faces:

Nate with a shiner he picked up after planting his face on a rock…and he’s in the middle of saying “cheeeeeese”:

I’m an awesome marshmallow roaster:

The next day we went hiking to the Valley of the Goblins:

This may be one of the most flattering pictures I have of myself in the wilderness:

Cameron doing some canyon swinging:

Exploring a cave:

I guess I can see why he would be wearing sunglasses in a cave….er…

my brother and niece

Resting for a much needed snack and hydration break:

And I found a random picture on my camera from around this same time. We had gone to Walmart to pick up some “big boy” underwear for the boys and they wanted to hold the packages on the way home. When we got home, I turned around to find that Cam had opened his package and figured how to correctly use his newly purchased item:

This is why I carry a camera with me.

Sea World

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:13:00 +0000

After Devin graduated from Optometry school, we told ourselves that we would take one exciting and grand vacation before we settled into real life. And while Sea World isn’t really all that exciting, it was a vacation and it was grand. And it had been forever since we had gone on any sort of vacation so it was a welcome change of pace. We were worried about the long drive and sleeping in a hotel room with our boys since both Dev and I are light sleepers and in the past sleeping away from home has proved to be a terrible experience. But the boys did fantastic during this whole trip. The first night we stopped in St George and we had them sleep in their tents since this would be the first time sleeping out of their cribs and without any barrier to keep them from rolling out of their beds:

They both ended up not only rolling out of their beds, but crawling (in their sleep!) out of their tents. So the rest of the vacation they just slept on the floor surrounded by pillows…which didn’t keep them from crawling out in their sleep, but at least we didn’t have to hear them rustling around their tents. One night on the trip Cameron woke up crying “I want to get in bed! I want to get in bed!” He had crawled out of his bed and when he woke up he realized that he had no idea where his bed was! He was sad but once we took him back to his bed he was right back asleep.
We stopped in Baker (btw, Baker’s only claim to fame, the biggest thermometer, is broken. Total let down.) at this old park to let them get some wiggles out:

Once we got to San Diego we stayed at the Welks Resort which had everything we needed to keep us and the boys entertained and happy: 4 or 5 club houses all with kid activities all day long, kids playground and playroom, crafts, ice cream, pools and poolside fireplaces, splash pads, foosball, airhockey, pool, video games. .. We could have been happy and kept busy just staying at the resort all day.

Sea World was the main reason we went to San Diego. I don’t know if we were going for me or for the boys because I LOVE me some Sea World.

Waiting for the Clyde and Seymour show:

Dolphin show. Cameron was afraid of this show and was hesitant to watch other shows after this one. Once I covered up his ears, he was fine though:

We took a break from the heat and went into the arcade area where we played ski ball.

Then we found this game that was like a slot machine, except that you always won! My boys frequently landed on the 20s and 40s, which equaled the amount of tickets it spit out. Score!

My boys loved the pet show! Birds, pigs, kangaroos, dogs, cats. Can’t beat that!

Touching the stingrays and starfish:

A combination of churro and dolphins. Awesome time!

And of course, Shamu!

And any time Nate and Cam play together nicely for an extended amount of time is worth catching on camera. Here they were playing restaurant where they would order food from each other.

One of Nate and Cams favorite part of SeaWorld was Sesame Street Bay of Play.

I have a bazillion pictures of the Shamu show.

And the result of two fun filled days at SeaWorld :)

The last day we spent in San Diego at Seaport Village.

Waiting for their lunch and playing with their souvenirs:

Sleepy boys:

We went across the bridge to Coronado to play on the best beach around:

And Nate constantly got sand in his eyes and mouth. He’d forget that he had sticky sand on his hands.

If Grandpa’s around, Nate is right there with him. He loves his Grandpa.

Cam was afraid of the water, but Nate loved to run away from the waves.

On our way home, we stopped in Vegas at the Belagio Hotel. I love the garden area that they have there!

And the boys were happy to finally get to our hotel in St George and swim in the hotel kiddy pool. These boys love playing in the pool.

Once There was a Snow Storm

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:49:00 +0000

Utah has been known for its ‘greatest snow on earth’ but recently it hasn’t really delivered on that…until this year. This has been one of the snowiest winters in a long time that I can remember. I am no snow person and avoid being in it as much as possible. This year I have attempted to embrace the child within and have tried, for my children, to find joy in playing in the cold, wet, sloshy, white stuff .
Yeah, not happening.
Nevertheless, played in the snow I have. And on many occasions. All for the love of two little boys. Inspiring, I know.

We went sledding for the first time with them and Grandpa Farr, Uncle Matt and Brandon

My sister and her husband are building a house in a developing neighborhood so we were invited over to ride on some sleds that they would pull behind their 4 wheeler in the field. A chance to go sledding without having to worry about the long hard cardio workout that comes from having to climb back up the hill 30 times?
Yes, please.

Cute Niece

And this is my amazing brother. He’s got style. He actually flew in from Chicago for Christmas so he had to pull together worthy snow gear from my parents stash of snow clothing that has been collected since the 1980’s.

I have unicorns on my hat

And then there was the time when I was shoveling the driveway and they wanted to ~~play in the snow and throw snowballs at me and shovel snow on the places where I had already shoveled~~ help me shovel.

Cam found my dads gardening hat in the garage and wanted to wear it. Wishful thinking that spring will come early?

Yeah, I made him shovel the entire driveway while I sat back and took pictures of it all.

The one good thing about playing in the snow is that once you’re done, you get to come inside to get warm and change into comfy pants from last year’s Valentines Day and eat chocolate…and drool it all over yourself if you feel so inclined.

A Very Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:42:00 +0000

The month of December was a complete blur filled with overindulgence on candies, cookies, cakes, hot chocolate, and anything involving sugar and frosting. I don't think I had a single complex carb or vegetable the entire month. And I've gone the entire month without exercising...there goes my waistline. Along with all of the holiday goodies and fantastic eating, we've seen Christmas lights, played in the snow and went to see A Christmas Carol, which was fantastic. We've had so much fun being with family. Devin had the entire week of Christmas off and I'm not looking forward to Wednesday when he'll have to go back to work. I love having my family around me and having no where to go and making it up a day at a time.

The boys were able to meet Santa for the first time (well they met him last year but didn't really care for the guy) and Nate even managed to actually request a present this year. Lights. Yup, all he wanted for Christmas was a strand of Christmas lights. Done and done. I am not a mom who is willing to take her children to the mall just to sit on Santa's lap so it was a good thing I happen to know the real Santa. He stopped off at our house a few days before Christmas and when he came in the boys were practically naked, one of them had a stinky diaper, and one of them started shooting him repeatedly with a toy gun. Welcome, Santa. Does that put them on the naughty list, or just the I'll-be-keeping-my-eye-on-you list?

And it has been years since I've had my picture with

Santa so I requested a picture of my own. I love this guy!

And we tried to get out Christmas cards this year, but we were all sick for the first three weeks of the month so we improvised. And you would think that if we gave the boys some candycanes to eat as we took pictures, that it would make them happy. But even with candy, taking pictures is the most miserable thing you could ask them to do. Needless to say, this year we did not send out Christmas cards.

Here is our tree...er my parent's tree. Since we are living with them, myhas had to scale back on her house decorations and tree decorations. You'll notice that the top half of the tree has glass ornaments and ribbon. very pretty. But the bottom half of tree is left undecorated because there are two sets of little hands that cannot resist touching and pulling...and breaking everything that is within reach.

The Sunday before Christmas. They love to play in the garden area in front of my parents house, so this is the only place I can quickly catch a picture of them while they are smiling.

My little men

Christmas Day is a whirlwind of presents and food. When we woke the boys up in the morning we asked asked them if they knew who came in the night. Nathan said "Santa! Presents! Oh boy!" Every time we go to wake them up in the morning or from their nap, they always say "Open presents! Santa Came!" or something along those lines. They seem to be a little disappointed when they run out to where the Christmas tree was and realize that Santa did not come. They are going to learn real quick that Santa only comes once a year.
We spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning with the Farrs and the rest of Christmas at our house/my parents house.

I received a fat stack from Dev. Best. Gift. Ever.

I won't even tell you how much was in there. It'd make ya jealous.

And see that peg board behind me? Dev made that for me as an earring/necklace/jewelry holder.

October Happenings

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:56:00 +0000

Seriously long post with a lot of pictures, but it was easier to do it as one long messy list of happenings than to do each one in their own individual post. So there.

What a fun month we had! Apples and caramels, pumpkin patches, witch hunts,pumpkins made out of pudding, pumpkin carving, pumpkin seeds, and trick or treating. All in one month.

While babysitting my sisters kids, we went on a scavenger hunt to find all of the witches set up around Gardner Village. We had lunch and each of the kids got to pick out some candy.
Some of my favs

Cam has to dance whenever he hears a good beat

Nate’s new fun trick is walking backwards, and here he is trying it down some steps

Cam eating his sucker that he picked out from the candy shop. But what’s more interesting is the way he is sitting in his car seat. Silly boy.

Nate picked out a sucker that glows.

Pumpkin Patch

Carving Pumpkins

Making/Eating Pudding Pumpkins

Halloween Harvest 5 Miler @ Black Island Farms

I ran a 5 mile race. I beat my estimated finish time by 3 whole minutes. So I’m pretty happy with that. While I had run 5 miles a couple of times, this was hard because it wasn't on a treadmill and the course was out in the middle of fields, so there wasn’t much to look at. And I could see the finish line (a pumpkin on top of a tower) for most of the race and it NEVER seemed to get closer! And it was freezing. But I did awesome (for me anyways) and I got a glass mug and shirt for participating. And that’s why I enter races :) It was at a farm that had some fun activities for the boys and because I had entered the race, Devin and the boys got in for free (a $28 value!).

My brother and his friend ran the half marathon. My brother is on the left and is trying to help me train for a half marathon in the spring. Yikes!

The boys LOVED these slides that were at the farm!

They both wanted to go down this slide by themselves. I’m sure that when I came out at the bottom with a screaming little boy (Nate), everyone thought I was torturing him by making him go down such a large scary slide. But it was because I wouldn’t let him do it by himself.

Halloween

Enjoying some pre-trick or treating suckers

And it was FANTASTIC weather for the end of Ocotber.
75 degrees, my friends! So we have been playing outside a ton.
They love their bikes.

Stopping for a sucker break (that he kept in his bike seat)

Trick or Treating
Nate was totally into the trick or treating thing. He grabbed my hand and we walked to each house to ring the doorbell. After each house he would say “next house” or, while pointing at a house, “this one” and pull me along to get the next bit of candy. We had to keep both of the boys from going in to every house that we went to. We also taught the boys to say “Yeeha!” when asked what a cowboy says, so of course we had to share that with everyone.

I Took a Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:23:00 +0000

My youngest brother moved to Chicago for a job in June. He’s a genius (and I’m not being biased at all, seriously) in the advertising industry and got this job right after graduating from BYU. He moved away! How dare he. He packed up his stuff but left one very important item at my parents house. His motorcycle. So at the end of August he had a hankerin’ to ride his beloved motorcycle through Yellowstone National Park so he flew home to visit ~~his motorcycle~~ us. My parents set up the trip for the three of them. My dad and my brother were to ride through Yellowstone on their motorcycles while my mom followed behind them in the truck. Now, because I am such a fantastic daughter (and the only child my parents really love-- heehee) I decided that I needed to accompany them on this journey. And we all know how much I LOVE Yellowstone. It is my happy place. So I left the boys at home (I didn’t even cry when I dropped them off at my sister’s house) and off I went.

Old Faithful

The studdly riders

As they rode past this buffalo, the buffalo started running along side them.

Now while I think Yellowstone would be a fantastic place to ride a motorcycle, I’m not really into riding motorcycles. It was a bit cold and rainy while we were there so I passed up the opportunity to ride on the back. This is as close as I got to riding:

Here’s me and my mama:

I really did almost fall of this ledge to my death in the tumultuous waters below….uh huh.

You can almost always count on there being elk at Mammoth

Us

I love being at the brink of waterfalls. I am always in such awe at the sheer awesomeness of all that water falling over the edge.

Old Faithful lodge for dinner:

It was a fantastic trip and getaway for a few days. By the end of the trip I was eating at a more normal pace instead of the rush job I do when I’m around the kiddos. And for almost three full days I didn’t have to worry much about anyone but myself. I think every mother needs this at least once a year. Maybe twice….or three, four, maybe five times a year. But three days was long enough before I was ready to get back to these handsome men:

The night we got back from our trip, Devin and I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game with my brother. It was pretty rainy and there was a lot of lighting so the game was delayed for a bit, but it was all good fun. I was trying to get pictures of the lightning but this is what I got instead. The skies were pretty sweet lookin.

Candy Bar/Soda Tasting

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:15:00 +0000

A few months ago, I was talking to my nephew about candy and what candy was our favorite. There were a few candy bars I told him about that he had never had before. So I decided we needed to have a candy bar tasting, which turned into a blindfolded candy bar/soda tasting game.

All blindfolded and ready to go.

And I love that Kev is explaining the cheeewiness of the candy bar. He was quite the connoisseur of candy bars and I think guessed them all.
Shockingly my boys didn’t want much to do with candy bars! When there are candy bars on the table, why does Cam has a pacifier in his mouth!
I think we ended up tasting 14 different candy bars. Yes, that was excessive. Yes, it was hard towards the end to even finish the taste test size of candy bar. Yes, that is a ton of calories. No, this did not cure me of my candy bar cravings.
We also did a guessing game of sodas. Let me tell you, there are a ton of nasty sodas out there. Apparently, shockingly, and unbelievable, one of my least favorite of all of them that we tried (with blind folds on so we didn’t know what we were drinking) was Diet Pepsi! In defense of one of my favorite drinks, the soda was warm and there was no ice in it. Makes a huge difference. But, the most nasty tasting drink I have ever had was Mango Pepsi.

Our Zoo Trips

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:37:00 +0000

Am I getting lazy by just jumbling our zoo happenings into one big blog post? I’d like to think of it as being efficient…and the boys are due to wake up from their nap in exactly 13 minutes so here I go:

The Zoo. I love zoos. We go to the zoo mostly for me but I claim that it’s for the boys. They do like it, but I looove it. Mostly because I can get me some churro goodness, and I feel it justifies a diet coke before lunch time. My mom wanted to take all of the grandkids to the zoo before school started because there is nothing funner than corralling 10 grandkids around the zoo, right?

This lion drinking fountain has been here forever. I used to get drinks from his mouth when I was a wee baby:

These monkeys (and I’m talking about the animals, not the children) were fun because they were running all over the place and coming up to the window. You can’t tell but Cam was just giggling!

There was a drum circle by the elephants, so we joined up. Nate and Cam love music and dancing so they loved it:

Nate and Cam are dancing while my nieces and nephew are playing the bongos. I’d like you to check out my sis-in-laws purse…the one with all of the buttons. It’s incredible how many buttons are on there:

A try at a group shot. Whose kids are the only ones not cooperating? Oh, those are mine….

These bears were asleep right by the window and no one was over there so we had them all to ourselves. They were moving and twitching in their sleep and then one of them woke up and just sat and stretched for us to see:

While this was going on:

these kiddos were only interested in this:

Lter on in the month of September we had the opportunity to go to the zoo for FREE because the reproductive center that we had gone to here in Utah was having a zoo day for all of their patients. Score! I don’t know if it was coincidence, or if it was because it was reproductive center day at the zoo, but I’d never seen so many twins/triplets in one place at a time. Devin wasn’t able to go, so I just went with my in-laws, who are fabulous! The boys favorite part of the zoo: these lion statues.

Cam with his Grandpa Farr:

And here’s just a snippet of Cam dancing. This boy loves him some dancing. This went on for quite a while, but sadly I only got the last seconds of it. Just imagine more of the bouncing/swinging of the arms/twirling on toes/tiptoe dancing and you’ve got Cam’s dance style down:

Cam Jungle Dance

My 2 Year Olds!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:50:00 +0000

Hearing the words “they grow up so fast” always sounded so cliché to me…before I became a mom. I am amazed at how fast they truly do grow up.
Nate and Cam turned 2 years old on July 23, 2012.
It was almost three years ago that we started on the road of doing IVF to get our cute little bundles of joy that we had waited years and years for. As we went through the process of IVF it was amazing to see the process of how life is created. There were a lot of injections, medications, ultrasounds, prodding, and probing but it was incredible to follow the process and understand what is needed in order to bring life into the world. It was a long wait for these two little boys to finally get here, but oh so worth it. And because we did it the nontraditional way, they had their first ever picture taken when they were only 5 day old embryos. I’m thinking Nate is on the left and Cameron is on the right :)

And then two years ago, on July 23rd, they were born:

Never in a million years did I imagine that I would be a mother of twins. It has been one of the most rewarding, fun, and entertaining things I have ever done and yet so hard! I was lucky to get two boys that are so incredibly different from one another.
Nathan Reese:
Nathan, I am amazed at your patience that you have when I watch you and your brother play together. You are the peacemaker. You realize that with most things, it just isn’t worth the fight. I love your calm spirit that you have. You push the limits with such a sweetness, that it’s almost hard to get after you for doing something wrong. You still love to be carried around, and I’m trying to remember to take advantage of that while I can.
Over this last year you have grown and learned a lot!
By the end of September 2011, you had learned to walk all by yourself!
In November 2011, you were able to say good-bye to that cute, but cumbersome, helmet that you had been wearing for about 8 months.

Towards the end of October 2011, you committed your first crime! From your stroller, you swiped a candy bar off of the bottom shelf at the grocery store while I was unloading the groceries at the checkout. You proceeded to much on the candy bar until you were caught in the act once we got out to the car.
You continued to learn more and more words.
By March 2012, you were saying two syllable words like “apple.” And by your 2nd birthday, you were easily saying two words together (“bye car”) and starting to say three words together (“love you, Grandpa”). You’re pretty good at counting to ten (skipping 5, 6, and 7) and can recognize most of the letters in the alphabet.
The best word that describes you is jovial. You love to jump in your crib when I come to get you in the morning and are the chattiest when you just wake up. You always leave me wanting more hugs and kisses from you. You get a twinkle in your eye when you’re having a good time being chased by daddy, or running around the room screaming with your brother. You love playing with cars and your favorite car is a Lightning McQueen (not because you know who he is, but because it’s just the right size and shape to fit in your hand). You love to compare things as either “little” (said in a high soft squeaky voice) or “big” (said in a deep voice). You love to sing “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam” and your favorite book to read is “Goodnight Gorilla.”

Cameron Vin:
Cameron, you are my cuddle boy. You stop what your playing just to come over to me and surprise me with hugs and kisses. You are opinionated with what you want in life. You always make sure that if you have something, Nathan also has one. You are starting to want to do things all by yourself.
You have learned and grown a lot this past year:
In September 2011, you began walking all by yourself!
In November 2011, you discovered that your favorite thing to do is climb. Once you discovered your ability to climb to high places, you’ve never looked back.

In January 2012, you and Nate played in the snow for the first time.
You and Nate have been such great little movers as we have moved from Oregon, to Washington, to Utah, to Arizona, and then back to Utah all within a years time.
By the time you turned two, you were saying “thank you” and counting to ten. You know almost every letter of the alphabet and you can repeat any word or short phrase we say to you.
Cam, the best word that describes you is persistent. You love to watch tv and play with balls. Your favorite toy is the golf club at Grandma Farr’s house. You love to play “nigh-night” and hide and seek. You ask to jump on the tramp constantly until we finally go out and jump. You and Nate both like to play in the car. You love to carry small things (like marbles, cars, small toys) in your left hand and I think you hold it there for so long that you sometimes forget it is even there. Your favorite song is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and your favorite book is “Goodnight Gorilla.”

We celebrated Nate and Cam’s 2nd birthday the day before at my parent’s house with all of my family. My mom made Elmo cupcakes:

Nate and Cam received some bikes from their Grandma and Grandpa Brady.

On their birthday, I took them to the McDonalds play place, where they had the entire place to themselves!

We had dinner and cake and opened presents that night at Grandma and Grandpa Farr’s house. They got some art boards from Grandma and Grandpa.

You boys are so fun to play with every day and keep me entertained and busy every second. While it is exciting to see you learn and try new things every day, I wish you’d slow down a bit. You’re growing too fast!

July 4, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:12:00 +0000

Warning: Long post. Feel free to just skim over the pictures.

The 4th of July is one of my most favorite times of the year, and one of those holidays that we’ve perfected over the years and so we just don’t mess with the traditions we have surrounding the day.
Parades. Candy. Water fights. Eating. Fireworks. Family. Food.
Love it.
The 4th of July festivities kick off every year with a few of us going to rope off our spot for the parade. Yes, our spot. Every year it’s in the same place. Has been for as long as we’ve been going, I think. Kaysville city doesn’t allow you to put anything down to save your place until the 3rd of July. So we go at about 10:00 at night on July 2nd, rope off our area (about the size of an acre. j/k), and then “picnic at night” until it officially becomes July 3rd at midnight. One of the great things about K-town is it has such a great feeling of community, so when we are out there at 10:00 at night we aren’t the only ones. I think half of the expected parade goers are out there saving their spots as well and it’s a great time to chat and have fun…as long as no one is there to take our spot : )

One of the great things about the 4th is that we get to spend it with all of our families at the same time. My parents and family sit with Devin and his family. My sister is there with her husband and his family. My brother is there with his wife and her family. It’s one big happy extended, in-laws included, family.

Another great thing about the parade is that they have a water section. This is when the entire parade route is turned into a community water fight. Best ever. And because we’ve been sitting in the same spot for so many years, a water fight tradition has started up with a guy that lives in a house across the street from our parade spot. Each year, the water fight is “us” against “them”.
Here’s my brother-in-law and the guy (I don’t even know his name) having a peace meeting before it get’s ugly, the neutral ground being marked by his foot: The buckets of water to be used in the community water fight:

My bro-in-law rallying the troops for attack:

The boys wanted to be in the middle of all the action

And then they bring in the tanker trucks:

Once that phase of the day is over, it’s on to lunch and dinner. These two events kind of mesh in together as one big event because it’s really all about eating. Lunch was at my sisters house where we went swimming, and then dinner was at my in-laws, where the boys took a spin on their uncle’s motorcycle.

And then of course the fireworks. We all go up to the high school to hang out for a few hours before the fireworks start. There’s a fair and free rides on some blow up slides. We all know how I can’t resist a good blow up slide.
It was a few hours of waiting around for the fireworks to start so we entertained ourselves with summersaults and glow sticks.

Once the fireworks started, Cameron was pretty nervous and scared and just wanted to go back to the car. So that’s where I spent most of my time during the fireworks. BUT, I have a moon roof in my car so I was able to watch them through the roof of my car. Bonus. I thought for sure that fireworks would be the one thing that would slow down Nathan and stop him from running around like a crazy person, but he paused for only a few seconds to make sure that the big boom sounds were safe and then off he went again. This picture sums up what was doing before and during the fireworks:

Bear Lake 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:25:00 +0000

This post should be called “The trip gone wrong” or “Things to avoid with two year old twins” or maybe even “Camping is for fools, which we are” or something along those lines.

Devin and I were invited by my sister and her husband to go camping with them and their kids to Bear Lake the last weekend in June. Devin and I talked about it and after me telling him over and over again that we needed to try camping with our boys to give them the experience and they’d be fine in the tent, Devin agreed to go along even though he warned me that things could go terribly wrong. I ignored him of course.

Now I don’t want this to come out sounding as if this was the worst trip ever because everything didn’t go terribly wrong. In fact, I have very fond and happy memories of this trip. I just think that our family outings have pretty much gone as planned up until this point that I think it was kind of a shock to the system. But I’ll get to the “terribly wrong” part in a bit.

We met up with my sister and her family at Bear Lake for dinner. The only place (in my mind) to eat dinner when you go to Bear Lake is at a place called La Beaus.   Yummy drive-in food and fantastic shakes. We filled up on good food and headed back to set up camp and play a bit of baseball and push strollers around (Nate loved that little stroller).

We kept the boys up extra late so that they would, hopefully, go down without a fight. Our boys sleep fantastic when they are at home in their dark, quiet, warm bedroom. But not so much anywhere else. And Devin and I are such light and particular sleepers, that we can’t sleep in the same room with them. Ever. So we went into our tent to get ready for bed. And that is where it went terribly wrong. Our boys thought being in the tent was the funnest thing they’ve ever experienced. They ran around, screamed, giggled, jumped, and laughed. We let them do this for a while to get themselves tired out. But they kept going! We tried to get them to lay down in their beds and once we got one boy in his bed, the other one was running around again. So we’d get that one put down, and the other one would be running around again. They just egged each other on. We felt so bad that our boys were being so loud and were trying to keep them quiet so that the other campers could get some sleep. But after a few hours and no settling down, tempers were running high so we decided the most sane thing for us to do (and would save us from harming our children) would be to pack up the boys and drive home. It was 11:00 at night by this point and it was a two hour drive home. Devin and I had both taken a Tylenol PM to help us sleep so it was a looong drive home trying to keep each other awake. But we got home and put the boys down to bed. We slept fantastic that night and the boys even slept in a few extra hours the next day. Once they woke up, we drove back up to Bear Lake and had a fun time on the beach!

Cute Ashley:

Lexi, Kevin, Alyssa

Devin and the boys sifting the sand to find gold!

Alyssa was digging a stream that went down to the lake:

Nate and Cam loved playing in the lake. It was incredibly cold water, but they didn’t mind at all. They walked out into the lake as far as they could until the water was up to their chin.

Cameron relaxing while eating an Oreo cookie AND a graham cracker. One in each hand. Now that’s the way to enjoy life :)

My sis and her husband. Thanks guys for inviting us along for a fun time at the beach…and for putting up with our shenanigans!

And here’s me having a great and relaxing time at the beach, knowing that instead of camping that night, ~~our boys would be~~ we’d be sleeping in our own beds that night!

So, yes, it is a little dramatic to say that everything went terribly wrong because it was a fun time and aside from the lack of sleeping, the boys did great. At the time though, I vowed to myself that we’d never go camping again until our boys were at least 21 years old...and had moved out of the house. There is a bonus to this whole experience though. In the future if we are on vacation and I need to dish out a “if you don’t stop misbehaving, we’ll just go home” threat to my boys, they’ll know I’m serious about my threat!

Yellowstone 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:52:00 +0000

At the end of June, we went on a family trip with the Farr’s to one of my favorite spots, Yellowstone! Growing up, my family would come here every year and I have yet to get sick of driving through this gorgeous national park. We stayed outside of West Yellowstone in Island Park, ID in a beautiful cabin. A cabin with a hot tub. Here’s the attempt at a family pic in the hot tub with the camera on self timer. My boys were smiling while I was arranging the camera, but I think I freaked them out as I was trying to run to the hot tub and get in without falling in head first before the timer went off:

My boys love anything water and they were not disappointed with the hot tub. They were tall enough that they could walk around the edges on the seats inside of the hot tub, but it was slippery enough that occasionally they would take a plunge into the water going completely under. They thought it was hilarious. We were circling the hot tub for about and hour! And for those of you that are stunned,offended, and appalled that we would subject our little children to the hellish temperatures of a hot tub, have no worries and sleep easy tonight. The water pump on the hot tub was left off overnight and so the water temp was a measly 89 degrees.

We of course had a fire pit, which meant we had smores. And fires. And fire sticks. I was on high alert.

The boys did a bit of exploring, although I am shocked that for the most part they stayed relatively nearby and mostly just wanted to be held for most of the trip. I’m hoping this is just a stage they’re going through cuz they are getting too old and HEAVY to be carried around everywhere.

The cabin also came equipped with a foosball table and an airhockey table. I’m convinced we NEED a foosball table. Fun times were had with this game. And Cameron is convinced we NEED an air hockey table. Every morning, he and Nate would wake up and immediately go upstairs. After a few minutes you would hear *click* as Cameron turned on the air hockey table. Soon after they would start playing against each other. Cameron would actually hit the puck and try to make it in the goal across from him. Nate just liked to grab the puck and stick it in his own goal.

Nate and Cam playing air hockey

And then there was Yellowstone National Park.
Dev and I have a tradition every time we go to Yellowstone. We picked this up because it sort of became a tradition with my family. There is a small hot spring off to the side of the road next to a river. It is hot enough that you don’t want to leave your hand in there for more than a few seconds. There are also small pebbles at the bottom of this hot spring. Our tradition is to reach in the hot spring and pull out a designated pebble.
Dev:

And as this was Cam and Nate’s first trip to Yellowstone, here’s Cam and Nate doing it for the first (but not last) time. This tradition will last as long as me and Dev are around :)

And once again for those of you that are concerned about the hellish temperatures of this hot spring and the fact that we are subjecting our children to such treatment, while it is hot it isn’t THAT hot. Goodness.

We saw a lot of wildlife

Buffalo everywhere!
Blocking the road:

More buffalo blocking the road. These guys pay not attention to all of the traffic:

And we saw a bear right next to the road!

And elk:

At the artist paint pots. Paint pots are hilarious to watch and listen to.

Hiking to Upper Falls:

Picture of upper falls. If you look closely on the right hand side of the falls, you can see some people standing on the top of the cliff right before the water goes over the edge. That is where me and Cam are standing in the picture above.

source

Cam was very concerned about the steam in the lower geyser basin:

Nate just had a good time:

And of course we had to go to see Old Faithful.
One day I want to stay at the Old Faithful lodge. It’s gorgeous and cozy inside:

Before the eruption:

And there she blows!

Nate and Cam didn’t seem to really pay attention.

And here’s Cam after the eruption wondering when something exciting is going to happen:

Walking around the Old Faithful loop:

Castle Geyser, one of my favorites:

Up closer to Castle Geyser

I was worried that a trip through Yellowstone would not go over well with one year olds. However, thanks to technology they loved being in the car. They watched movies the entire time we were driving and would occasionally ask to go back to the car during some of our hikes. While I’d rather my children sit quietly looking out the window at the beauties of nature instead of being sucked in to a Tom and Jerry movie, that just doesn’t happen at this age. And Dev and I were able to enjoy our drive through Yellowstone while looking out the windows at the beauties of nature.

Cherry Hill and Car Show

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 03:45:00 +0000

I grew up having a season pass every year to Cherry Hill. I spent more time there during the summer than I did at my own house, I think. It’s a waterpark that’s within walking distance of where I grew up and where we are currently living. The family that owns it is in our ward and are awesome enough to provide a day pass once a year for everyone within the ward boundaries. The ward provides a dinner that day which involves a lot of yummy potluck foods that I can’t resists: fruit salads, potato salads, pasta salads. Salads, salads, salads. I love it.
We took our boys this year and they LOVED it. There’s a little kiddy area called Pirate’s Cove. The water is brought in straight off a glacier, but my boys didn’t care…for the first 5 minutes and then they realized they didn’t want hypothermia so then they wanted out.

Even though it’s blurry, I included the next picture because I thought the drool that’s coming out of his mouth is funny. I think his lips were numb at this point:

We took them to the swimming pool, which was much warmer. They were so excited that they were hard to hold. Cameron didn’t want to be held, but obviously that wouldn’t work since he can’t swim. He went under a lot of times trying to escape my grasp, but he loved every second. Nate has this little laugh that he does when he is having the time of his life and it came out in full force in the swimming pool. Think of the laugh of Prince John in the Disney movie Robin Hood and that’s kind of it…only less evil: Ah-ha, ah-ha. We also went into the heated lazy river, which was my favorite. I lost count how many times we went around.

Devin and I even ditched the kids with my mom so we could take a few turns on a waterslide. We love doing this slide together because the more weight ya got, the faster you go. By the time we got to the bottom, we were giggling like little school girls. Yes, even Devin :)

Car Show
Dev has this thing about cars. Specifically muscle cars. I don’t get it, but I try to be supportive. He shares this passion with his dad. His thing during the summer time is car shows.
Here we are waiting for the parade of cars with his brother, Brandon, his dad and his mom:

Cameron liked to clap for all of the cars that drove by:

Nate just wanted to run out there and get hit by a car:

THE Graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 21:41:00 +0000

After eight long years of schooling, Devin has GRADUATED!!
When we first started out on this long road, Devin frequently told me what a lofty goal this was for him. It was a lot of hard work. But I knew he could do it, and HE DID! I am so proud of my husband for achieving this lofty goal of his.
After moving back to Utah, a week later we drove up with Nate and Cam to Oregon for the graduation. My parents came as well as well as Devin’s parents, his brother and wife, and his youngest brother.
The first graduation ceremony was the hooding ceremony in which they were given their hood. A friend of Devin’s, Dave, was the valedictorian of his class and gave an incredible speech that moved me to tears as I felt so proud of Devin and all that he has accomplished. It was also mentioned by the Dean of Optometry that over the last four years, Devin paid $42.00 per hour in order to achieve his lofty goal. Nice.



The last four years haven’t been all doom and gloom though. He had a little fun along the way. Devin would frequently study with Eric and they would send each other “motivational” YouTube videos. One of those videos was quoted more frequently than the rest so Tana and I had some fun with it and gave them some t-shirts in honor of these encouraging videos:

                           ”We’re not idiots. We’re Doctors.”

And before I continue…A HUGE thank you goes out to my parents for helping with our kids while I went to the hooding ceremony. They stayed with Nate and Cam so I could enjoy this time with Devin. They were an incredible help the entire time we were up in Oregon and would frequently look after the boys so that we could enjoy visiting with all of our friends that we may not see for awhile. I know they sacrificed a lot of their vacation to help us out and I very much appreciate it!
Another HUGE thank you goes out to Randy and Katie for watching the boys during the commencement ceremony. It was during Nate and Cam’s naptime so I’m sure it wasn’t the most pleasant babysitting experience but it was awesome to be able to watch the graduation without worrying about my boys running up onto the stage. THANK YOU!

Dr. Devin Farr

And it felt a little like I graduated too.

Aside from this whole schooling thing, we made some great friends along the way!
L to R: Devin, Eric, Colton, Aaron, Shawn, Brandon,
Dave, Dave, Seth, Scott.

L to R: Tana, Me, Jenny, Claudia, Kristina, Jen,
Tara, Brianne, Sierra, Erin
Um…Kristina, I stole these last few pics off your blog. I can’t find mine anywhere!

While the last four years have been some of the best years of our married life thus far, I can’t emphasize how thrilled I am that it is over. It’ll be nice to have a husband all to myself in the evenings instead of sharing him with studying and homework. It’s hard to realize that I may not see some of the very best gal pals as often as I’d like, but I’m hoping that there’ll be a yearly reunion/vacation…right?! ;)
And now his residency begins. It’ll be one more year of living a transient lifestyle, but then there’ll be some good ol’ settling down. 6 months from now Devin will be signing a contract with a clinic in Ogden and a little bit o’ permanency can set in as he begins his career.

CONGRATS DEV! I’m so PROUD of all you’ve accomplished!

My Grand Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:46:00 +0000

A few weekends ago, we took a trip to Sedona, Flagstaff, and the Grand Canyon. These places are only a few hours away and I’m wondering why we didn’t go visit more. Sedona is beautiful red rock and then take a drive just 45 min north and you’re in a fantastic forest. This is one of those places that I’ll always want to come back to.
We met up with the Johansen’s in Sedona at the McD’s which, to my knowledge, is the only McDonald’s with a turquoise arch instead of gold. Thanks, Eric, for that bit of trivia that has made us all that much better.
We went on a short hike through Red Rock State Park. It was sunny and hot but we found some shade where we let the boys play.

Dev and I then headed to Flagstaff to stay and went to the Grand Canyon the next day. It was a canyon. And it was grand. Worth a short drive to see it, but definitely one of those things to do only if you are in the general vicinity anyways. Btw, any size drink at the McDonalds at the Grand Canyon is not $1.00. We spent $6 for 2 large drinks. I think I was too much in shock to back out of our order when we realized the price. Just an fyi.

The boys were a huge hit with all of the foreign tourists. I’ve decided I need to set up a viewing booth whenever we go to touristy places because foreign tourists are ALWAYS taking pictures and gawking at our boys. I could charge for it and it might end up paying for their college. But the boys love the attention and even ham it up a bit to bring it on. The stairs at one of the viewing areas was a hot spot for attention so Nate and Cam spent quite a bit of time there smiling and waving and saying hi.

The following weekend was my 31st birthday. I invited myself to the Johansen’s for a bbq to celebrate and they were good enough to host a bbq in my honor. They’re good people. And here’s me in all my blowing-out-candles glory:

And the girl that helped get me through the last 4 years:

Dev and I then went to a splash pad with the boys:

And then to dinner!

It was a great day that was full of fun!

Easters

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:12:00 +0000

Is it lame that for the last few holidays (if you can call them that. St Patrick’s Day, really??!) I haven’t done hardly anything to celebrate and make it fun for the kiddos? I see a bunch of fun ideas that other people are doing for their children, but then I think how little my kids could care at this age and then I just don’t shell out the time for it. No wearing green. No hearts taped all over their room (in all fairness, we were moving ON Valentines day). No Chinese noodles. No mardi gras beads (although, I frequently observe many Fat Tuesday’s of my own). And no historical readings given by some of our great American Presidents. For shame.
BUT, I will call Easter my redemption. It is a sad one at that, but still….
My parents came at the beginning of April and my mom wanted to provide a little practice run for the boys at picking up Easter eggs.
We train young and hard in my family.
So after buying a dozen plus plastic eggs and a truck load of candy (for each boy) Nate and Cam participated in their first ever egg hunt. And I win because I didn’t take pictures.
My friend came over one day with her little boy and to do something Easter-ish we painted ~~Easter eggs~~ paper plates with some pudding mixed with food coloring. I did take pictures:

And then the day came when the hard training for Easter egg hunting was needed. I bought a bunch of new candy (even though there was pul-enty of candy left from the training session) because I ~~secretly lied to myself about how I wouldn’t eat any of the candy and it would all be for the boys~~ new the boys would appreciate the effort I put into it all. And I score points because I took pictures this time. A lot. For family. Yeah. For family.

Nate scoutin’ out the lay of the land and the course he needed to take:

Cam getting right to it:

And I rarely get pictures of the two of them together because it’s next to impossible to get a shot where both of them look decent enough to share.

And Nate had so much candy, he’s layin his own Easter eggs:

April marks the last full month that we will be in Arizona. The countdown is on for the move out date on the 12th of May. We’ve given our 30 days notice. HOORAH!! And while I have fallen in love with Arizona, I have a feeling I’m getting out of this relationship just in time to avoid the scorching temperatures that Arizona is known for. We’ve had some pretty warm days already but cool off in our own personal swimming ~~bins~~ pools

So with another move in our future, it’s time to start thinking about moving. The boys have helped me out with that by working on the pantry:

”Hmmm…should we take the chicken broth, or leave it behind?”

”Okay, let’s see here. First we need to dump this packet in some cold water…”

Yes, I realize that I should now call this the Cam and Nate blog because that is ALL I blog about as of late…meaning ever since they were born. But until occurrences like the above pantry cleaning doesn’t happen as soon as I turn my back, allowing me to do something aside from taking oodles of pictures of what my kids are doing, this is what ya get…unless you want me to blog about how I blogged Nice.

Jump Street

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:32:00 +0000

One big room full of trampolines. Throw in a few blow up slides (one day I WILL own my own blow up slide!!!)

Some good friends, too.

Perfect fun!

Check out the air Austin (in the red shirt) has. He was a pro jumper!

Nate and Cam would mostly run back and forth and only get a little bounce in but they had a BLAST!

Love You

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 02:44:00 +0000

Every day before Devin leaves for work he exclaims to the boys “bye, bye. Love you.” Nathan has picked up on this and will now say “bye bye. dudg (love) you” every time he is saying goodbye to someone…or repeats it over and over as he jabbers while he plays. It’s incredibly cute.

Tonight right after giving the boys a bath we put them in a nice clean diaper. Soon after, it became apparent (from the smell) that Nathan would need a clean diaper. I laid him down to change it and I said “Oh boy, there’s goes your clean bum.”
He then replied “bye bye. dudg you.”

Glad to know that he loves his clean bum.

Visitors!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:45:00 +0000

In our original plan, I was going to stay in Utah with my parents for Devin’s final rotation that he had in Arizona. But as the Utah winter grew longer (and the boys grew tiresome of being in the house all day), I decided to make another move and head to Arizona. My decision to move to Arizona was based on a few reasons. One reason was the beautiful, warm and sunny weather that Arizona has this time of year.
It has not disappointed! While driving down the streets lined with Palm Trees I frequently imagine myself in some sort of tropical paradise in which I am driving to a local beach (in my convertible mini cooper) to do some lounging about next to the ocean while drinking an ice cold pina colada in the shade of the said palm trees. And then a car honks at me and I’m ripped out of my daydream. I take a sip of Diet Coke.
Back to my original thoughts….
Another reason that convinced me to come to Arizona was so that I could be a short distance away from TANA!!! Yay!!!   She has been such a great friend, supporter, and example to me for the past few years as we’ve gone through the funness of our husbands being in Optometry school. Her little boy is only 2 months older than Nate and Cam. A few weeks ago, Tana and Austin came to visit us for an entire day! I LoVED it. The boys had a great time together! I love this picture of the three of them relaxing out on the patio eating their apples. It looks like Cam is telling Austin some sort of interesting tale of his adventures.
And here they are, all sitting around this end table eating snacks:

It was a fun day of playing at the park, playing with trucks, making fruit loop necklaces, talking, napping, laughing, and having a great time!

My parents also came to visit us a few weeks ago. We were able to to go to the zoo with them.

Nate has learned to love drinking out of cup and straw, but mostly because he likes to blow bubbles.

And here’s Cam who looks so sad to be eating snacks, but that’s only because he’s zoned out watching some cartoons. I have to be careful with this kid and TV. He gets sucked in.

The other day I went running and left Devin to take care of the boys. I came back to find out what “the boys” had been up to. Pretty impressive :) And I love that Nate doesn’t have any pants on.

HALLELUJAH!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 20:43:00 +0000

Congrats to my husband, Devin!
We just found out

THE BEST

news! Once he graduates from Optometry school in May, he has been awarded a residency at the Salt Lake VA. In Utah. In Salt Lake. By family. In Utah. Oh yeah, it’s in Utah.

This is an optional and additional training that he will receive to improve upon his knowledge. He originally wasn’t going to try for a residency, but as we talked it over and weighed the pros and cons, we decided it would be a great experience for him. So with an almost last minute decision, he applied for 3 different residencies. Only one was in Utah. And it was pretty competitive. But we wanted it. I wanted it. For obvious reasons. Have I mentioned it’s in Utah…by family? He wanted it because it’ll give him specialty contact lens training, which he hasn’t had a lot of experience in, and it’ll be quite valuable. It is a year long residency. He had a lot of people hoping for this and pulling for him. Yay DEV! Yay me!
Not only is it great that he got this residency but because he did get this residency he has been offered an awesome job in Utah that he will start after he is done with the residency. It will be in an MD/OD group practice and he’ll be working with great people.
I can’t stress enough how extremely blessed, excited, and relieved we feel that everything is coming together so perfectly.

The Move

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:23:00 +0000

Once again, we’ve moved. Again. Yes, again. And it won’t be the last time. Yuck. But as I have been reminded, every move is an adventure and just makes life that much more interesting. Right? I hope so.
Glendale, Arizona was the destination place for this move.
Our move went along without any problems, except for the 12 hours that it took. But the boys did fantastic! I drove with my mother-in-law, Shar, with the kiddos and Devin and his brother drove the moving truck. I am INCREDIBLY thankful that these two would be willing to help us out. We couldn’t have done it without them and it was great to have them visit us in our new place. I feel very blessed to have married in to such a great family! It was a long drive so we stopped over in Henderson, NV. I love going to hotels with Nate and Cam because they get so excited when they are let loose in a new place, especially after a long car ride.

Our next driving day was a little shorter, but we were definitely ready to be done in the car. We stopped for lunch in the middle of nowhere (which pretty much sums up the trip between Vegas and Glendale) to eat. And there was a big cactus. Woohoo.

And Nate and Cam ended up getting in to all sorts of mischief in this little town and spent a few ~~hours~~ ~~minutes~~ seconds in the town jail.

The boys were so ready to be done and we weren’t quite there yet, so I pulled out some suckers (which they NEVER get so it was a special treat) and that kept them occupied and happy for the remainder of our drive.

Our move in went really fast with the help Shar and Brandon and our friends, Eric and Tana, who are about an hour away from us!!! He’s doing an optometry rotation here as well so I’m planning on spending as much time with Tana that I can :) Our apartment complex is….~~trash~~…~~ghetto~~…~~nice~~…~~livable~~…doable…for three months. We are surrounded by a great area, but our luck is that we always end up in the more interesting part of town. This won’t always be the case but until Devin starts pulling his weight around here, this is what we get (heeehee. I kid. I kid. Dev, love ya! You’re working hard in your rotations and you’re doing a fantastic job at making a wonderful fabulous future for our family).

While Dev’s mom and brother were here, we took a trip to the zoo. I LOVED this zoo! There were a bunch of different play areas for kids, a petting zoo, a lake in the middle with islands of monkeys and birds, and a carrousel that we took the boys on. Nate and Cam loved running along all the pathways and would frequently squeal and scream with delight. They loved looking at the birds and monkeys and eating ice cream next to the lake.
The fun petting zoo:

A play area for the kids that had huge-a-sized Little People from the farm collection:

Eating yummy treats next to the lake with an island of monkeys behind us:

First taste of cotton candy. They both loved it!

Nate was giddy and ecstatic the entire time we were here. He loved to run on the pathway and look at the animals. I think he found a freedom there that he has never experienced before. Silly boy

When we first arrived at the zoo, we passed a carrousel that got Nathan excited in a way I have never seen him get! So we decided to ride it at the end of the day. Nate and Cam were both pretty nervous the entire time, but no screaming or crying occurred so…bonus.

I have enjoyed Arizona so far, especially the warm weather that allows us to go outside and play, and the fresh oranges. I have found a fantastic park that we go to multiple times a week. It’s about a 10 minute drive but it gets us out of the ghetto. And aside from the base thumping music that can be heard every night making it impossible to sleep, we are settling in to our little (tiny) living space slowly. Poor Cam is having a hard time adjusting and has trouble sleeping every night and is extremely moody and clingy. I’m thinking he misses his Grandma’s and Grandpa’s. I do miss family in Utah and I’m looking forward to, hopefully, moving (AGAIN!!!) back there…in about 2 months.

18 months

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:35:00 +0000

I have two kids that are now 18 months old.
A year and a half.
Almost two.
Crazy.

--Nathan--
This little boys is a teaser. He loves to put toys in his mouth and then show us how funny it is. He loves to get chased down our hallway…preferably in just his diaper. He loves to play with buttons but gets in trouble when he ends up putting them in his mouth, which is every time. He likes to pull objects out of their box/container and then put them in another box/container. He loves raisins. He likes to have socks put on his hands to make little puppets or Little People figures put on his fingers. With these on his hands/fingers he says over and over in his cute little voice “hi! hi! hi!” He is very good at making noises: pigs, airplanes, cars, chickens, kitty cats, dogs, ducks. This boy loves his Grandpa Brady. Nathan likes to tickle Cameron and play chase with him. Nathan loves to take bubble baths and gets very exciting when he hears the water going in the tub. Nathan likes to turn on and off the lights and push the Xbox button on and off. He likes to sit in small enclosed corners/boxes/chairs and play with cars. When I go to get him in the morning he jumps up and down in his crib saying “HI!” over and over. Nathan will go running to his daddy when he gets home from work. He loves cars and trucks and every time he sees one outside he’ll say “car.” He likes to spin the wheels on his toy cars. He is a good snacker, but not a very good eater. He’ll put things in his mouth to get a taste of it but then spits it out when the flavor is gone...or else he’ll put his unwanted food on Cameron’s tray. He likes books with trucks or cars in them. He knows what the word “No” means and before doing something he knows he’s not supposed to do he’ll say “no, no, no” and then proceed to do that which he shouldn’t be doing. Nathan is a happy kid that says hi to everyone. He is a good mimicker of sounds. He studies how your making the sound and then tries it out for himself.

A few words he can say: cheese, clock, whoa, mama, no, cracker, hi, bye bye, nigh night, yes, nose, ear, car, truck, light, hot, cold, yeah, ball, baby, and of course an assortment of animal sounds—meow, woof, quack, snort (for piggies).

--Cameron--
This boy is a mama’s boy! He loves to be held and coddled by mom. He likes to read books and point out the letters or pictures and be told what they are. He likes books on animals. He likes to play on/with blankets. Cameron hates to have his diaper changed. He likes to point at your nose/eyes/mouth/ear and say what they are. Cameron likes to watch TV. He likes to bounce up and down and shake his hands (aka dance) when he hears a good musical beat. He will stand up for most of his bath (maybe he doesn’t want to get his bum wet??). He is very friendly with strangers and will want to be held by them. Cameron will stick his fingers in Nathan’s mouth then Nathan will bite his fingers and both of them think this is hilarious. Cameron still loves to spin things. He will randomly start to “roll it and roll it and mark it with a B” and then throw it in the oven for whoever is around. Cameron is a super climber and will climb on anything and everything. He likes to sit in my lap and watch me draw shapes for him. He get’s frustrated with his toys when they don’t do what he thinks they should do. He squeals with delight when he gets to play with the water as it comes out of the faucet. He loves rolls. He loves stuffed animals and will hug them and carry them around with him. He even sleeps with a black bear he got from Grandparent’s Farr that they picked up when they went to Yellowstone. He loves playing with his Uncle Brandon. He likes to be bounced on the couch. He likes to play the “nigh night” game (and so does Nathan) in which they will lay down on the ground and start to snore until it’s time to “Wake up!”

A few words that he can say: clock, hot, drink, bear, ball, no, yes, light, cheese, mama, duck, car, meow, mouth, eye, he makes a helicopter and airplane noise when he sees one, truck, nigh night.

Both Cam and Nate are now in nursery.
The Church is true once again!
(okay, it has always been true, but for the past year I have shown up to church only to wrestle and chase after two little boys who refuse to sit still for longer than 1.2 seconds…it has tried my patience and testimony to the max. Is the church true? Yes, but only after the wee ones turn 18 months! heeehee)
Anyways…
Nursery. Love it. They love it. Mostly. Nathan was crying the second Sunday we went to get him. But he’s gonna deal.
And mamma got her first two coloring projects out of it. They have potential.

And now for the SOCCER vs Boys PICS!!! YAY!
They are getting so big.
Cam

Nate

Christmas Time

noreply@blogger.com (Jen) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:54:00 +0000

Oh Holy Night, I’m so far behind on my blogging! And I’ve seriously been working on this blog post for WEEKS, but with work, and sickness, and WORK (“Nothing but work work work all the time”—movie quote anyone?), I haven’t had time to get it all typed up. So here goes a LOOOOONG (picture overload) one…unless I get bored in the middle of it, then I might just speed things up and only give small, unimportant details instead of the meaningful and interesting memories I had hoped to remember of Christmas 2011.

I started my holiday season out by going to the Festival of Trees. This festival involves hundred of trees that are decorated and donated for auction to benefit Primary Children’s Medical Center. The trees are put on display and all of the money received from auction and entrance fees go to this well deserving medical facility. I’ve gone before but this year was emotionally hard for me as I realized what each of the trees symbolize. Quite a few of the trees are decorated and donated by friends and family members in memory of their loved ones that have passed on. A lot of the trees are in memory of children.
The trees are decorated BEAUTIFULLY.
As I walked down each of the aisles looking at the trees decorated in teddy bears, Barbie dolls, or Superman, I fought back tears (at times unsuccessful) as I imagined all of the heartbreaking trials that people have gone through represented by these trees. But at the same time, what amazing FAITH, PEACE, and HEALING is also represented in the glitz and glam sparkling on the trees. The Christmas season is, after all, a time to remember the Savior who made it possible for all to live again. He is the one that provides the healing and peace needed to get through unimaginable trials.

There were a lot of trees that I loved:

Our next bit of holiday festivity-ness came with a trip to a Christmas village with Dev’s parents. A bunch of mini houses were decorated with Christmas scenes in the window. I was a first timer to this. And I might even like it more than the lights on Temple Square (*gasp!*) Most of the houses had little ledges for the boys to stand on and do some window peaking to see all of the little details inside.

We made Gingerbread houses with my fam:
My sister’s kids and husband--

My oldest brother getting into the building process--

I included this pic for one reason: Check out the muscles in his arm. He must work out --

Here’s my youngest bro. He may look funny, but he’s quite brilliant.

And here’s Dev using his masterful painting skills on the roof of our house--

What were Nate and Cam doing while we were busy decorating?
Enjoying some frosting!

We saw the lights Temple Square and this was the only non-blurry picture I took. Nice--

We played with, and under, the tree. When I was a wee little girl my favorite thing to do at Christmas time was to lay down under the tree and look up at all the lights. I’m glad to know that I’ve passed this tradition on to my boys. I would frequently see them crawl under the tree and lie down on their backs and look up at the lights. They loved to point to all the different lights while I told them what color it was.

And then the big day finally arrived!
The boys didn’t completely know what was going on, but they did pretty good and ripping open the presents if we helped them.
We opened presents first as a family.

We then headed over to Devin’s parent’s house after church
We opened all of the presents and made a huge pile of the wrapping paper. The boys had a blast playing in it--

All of the Farr’s--

Then we were off to my parent’s house…but I don’t have pictures except for this one. Hmmm….We had a good time though--

And here’s a random picture I found, but it was cute so I had to include it because there aren’t nearly enough pictures yet in this post--

With so much mention of Santa at this time of year, our boys picked up on what Santa says. Anytime they heard the word “Santa” or anything that sounded like Santa, or saw Santa…or saw a man with a beard like Santa we heard “Ho Ho Ho” coming from one or both of them.

Ho Ho Ho

They also discovered bells at Grandma and Grandpa Farr’s house. Every time they would shake these bells, someone would sing “Jingle Bells.” It got to the point that if they (specifically Cameron) started shaking the bells, you had better start singing “Jingle Bells” or else he’d come up in your face and shake the bells until you felt the Christmas spirit and started singing along. Even now, when he finds a toy that sounds like bells, he wants “Jingle Bells” to be sung.

Well that about sums up the Christmas season. More to come on additional activities that we’ve been up to. And plenty more pictures to share :)