Draper Temple Open House and More

We were in Utah for 9 days at the end of February and the beginning of March. We had so much fun while we were there and spent a good mixture of time doing fun things, relaxing a little bit and being really busy. We were there because Mary's brother, Kristopher, got married in the Mt. Timpanogas temple on March 5th. While we were in Utah, we stayed with our good friends, the Bergeson's, with whom we had visited for a week in '07 as well. They were so accomodating as we treated their place a little like a hotel for a few days while we were busy with family stuff and the wedding. We so enjoyed spending the evenings with them and playing games and chatting later into the night. It was awesome that we were able to spend some good time with Adam, who is in his orthopedic residency at U of U. He actually had both weekends off and Monday and Tuesday, which is definitely a rarity for him and we/I was grateful that we got to enjoy some time with him around as well as Kari and the kids. THANK YOU SO MUCH BERGESON'S!

Anyway, on the Monday of that week we traveled down to Draper for the Draper Temple open house, which was so nice. It was great to be in this house of the Lord, particularly with our family, and to be able to see the unique aspects of each building while also feeling God's presence in His Holy House. The kids loved the little bus-ride that we took from a local meetinghouse to the temple... Nathan especially enjoyed he and I playing a version of "corners" with each other on the ride back. I so love being in the temple with my family! Sarah was a trooper for the pictures as it was pretty cold and windy.




We also went to Red Robin for lunch after the Temple open house. This is a place that the kids really enjoy. Nathan was pretty scared of "Red" when he first saw him and didn't want to cooperate with a picture as he was a little leary of this character. I don't think he understood that it was a person in a costume. He warmed up eventually.

Later that evening, we had dinner with my H.S. friend Angie, and her husband, David, and their son, Parker. We enjoyed dinner, Family Night, and catching up before heading home after a long day. It was nice to reconnect with Angie and to get to know David better. We appreciated their hospitality.

Not My First Choice, But Close

[Of all the family-related posts I should be doing... I'm choosing to do this one... go figure!]

I haven't always loved peanut butter, for reasons that will soon be obvious. My two earliest memories of peanut butter are 1st: the gross, oily yellow Adams peanut butter tubs that you had to stir every time you opened it and, let's face it, it didn't taste very good; and 2nd: a neighbor lady and family friend (I know my sis and parents would remember their names) who would have a stored container of peanut butter mixed with jelly to make the PBJ-sandwich-making combo easier. This grossed me out and I never really enjoyed the food option until JIF Extra Crunchy came into the house. This is when my love for PB blossomed into a snack-staple. My mom soon introduced me to PB toast with Jelly sprinkled on top. It is still a favorite pre-bed-time snack. I remember in my voracious appetite years in my teens when as soon as I would get home from school/practice I would make two PBJ sandwiches on delicious wonderbread and devour them on my way out the door. I still think there are few simpler things that taste better.

Mary buys JIF too... except it's the creamy kind. Seriously, why would you get peanut butter without the actual crunchy goodness of the peanuts?! It's a transition that I'm struggling with. We have a large tub in the pantry of the JIF Extra Crunchy and I'm looking forward to breaking that out soon. But, right now, we just have the Creamy available and, let's be realistic, the night-time piece of toast just isn't nearly as good as it was/will be.

Oh, and no, I never liked PBJ sandwiches for lunch at school. It always seemed like the soakage of the jelly into the bread was inevitable.

Happy Valentines Day '09

You know you're a parent on Valentines Day when your first kiss of the day is your son catching you off-guard by licking your face while he pretends to be a dog, which was the case this morning. You also know your a parent on Valentines Day when your day begins like this:

[Jane's cry is heard over the monitor and the time of 6:10 AM is noted]

Mary dutifully gets up to nurse Jane and, as she's leaving, states: "Sarah's light is on in her room and Nathan is at his door and I think he has a poopy diaper"

Jeff: "grooooaaan.... alright" [thinking: maybe I can get them to come cuddle with me for a while... after changing Nathan's diaper, Sarah comes out of her room and, after much work and the offer of a balloon for them, they agree to "cuddle" (read: bounce on and crawl repeatedly over dad while he continues in his delusional belief that this is actually like sleeping in)]

Jeff: "Happy Valentines Day you two, you are so special, we love you so much!"

Sarah [very excited]: "Today is Valentines Day?!" [confused because she celebrated it yesterday at school]

Nathan: "Happy Birthday to you Daddy!"

Jeff: "Thank you Nathan, it's actually 'Happy Valentines Day'"

Nathan: "Oh... Happy Birthday to you, Sarah!"

Sarah and Nathan [many times]: "Dad, it's time for breakfast"

Jeff: "let's wait 'til Mommy is done nursing and then she'll come in and cuddle with us and we have a special surprise to tell you about" [I knew that would hook Sarah, who could hook Nathan and delay the exit from my bed]

[Eventually, Mommy joins us and rescues Dad from getting trampled]

Sarah [as soon as Mommy enters the vicinity]: "What's the surprise?"

Jeff: "Oma and Opa are coming here today and visiting us for a couple of days"

Sarah and Nathan: "Yay!"

Anyway, they eventually drag us out of bed and I made some yummy pink pancakes for them and used a cookie cut-out to make some heart shapes. Sarah was pretty skeptical about the color, but I reassured her they would taste the same. Sarah likes her pancakes pure and undiluted (one time I made her chocolate chip pancakes and she wouldn't eat them... Geesh!)

Mary and I enjoyed going to a Valentines Dinner last night at church for couples and then talking with each other about some of Mary's past suitors (always an enjoyable conversation, with lot's of laughs... you should ask her about them sometime). Today we get to meet Oma and Opa in Boise and then they will take the kids home and Mary and I will get to go out together and run some errands without kids.
Here is the card that Sarah made for us. This is our family (sans Jane) "Jumping on the trampoline" of course. Pretty cute! Oh, and Sarah is currently stating that she doesn't like the "h" at the end of her name so she had to add that afterward.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day today. We love our family.

I'm Three

If there are any questions about that, consult my olives, or my shirt, but not the picture at the bottom.


Nathan loves olives and he loves to stick them on his fingers and eat them off one at a time. That's the only way he likes olives, actually.
He also likes to play in this baby saucer play thingy, but typically he is head-first.

Superbowl "Snack"

So, I'm not really big into the Superbowl or NFL football, though anyone that knows me knows that I'm a big sports nut. Anyway, on one of the sports blogs that I frequent I found this picture and directions to making this ultimate Superbowl Snack. This is high-caloric culinary creativity at it's finest, according to my unprofessional opinion. What do you think about this? Look very closely: guacomole, 58 twinkies, slim-jims (goal posts), salsa, nacho cheese, sour cream, bacon, chips, chex mix, cheetos, sausages, etc. This is sweeeeeet! If I ever host a big football party (doubtful), I hope I can remember and recreate this!

Ingredients:

The Field:
1 Pound of Guacamole
15 Oz. Queso Dip For The Steelers End Zone
15 Oz. Salsa For The Cardinals End Zone
2 Oz. Sour Cream for the Field Lines

The Players:
15 Vienna Sausages
Helmets - 3 Oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese

The Goal Posts:
1 Slim Jim for Each Goal Post
1 Oz. Monterey Jack Cheddar To Anchor (each)

The Stands:
58 Twinkies
1 Pound of Bacon
1 Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos
1 Bag of Cheetos
1 Bag of Corn Tortilla Chips
1 Bag of Chex Mix

TOTAL CALORIES: 24,375
TOTAL GRAMS OF FAT: 1,285
TOTAL COST: $86.47

The PROCESS

STEP 1 - Ingredients

Buy the ingredients listed above

STEP 2 - The Field:
Take one pound of guacamole and smear it on the center of a baking tray, leaving a section on either end for the end zones

STEP 3 - The End Zones
It's important here to fill one end zone with one filling, and one end zone with another, so that neither team receives home field deliciousness. We chose salsa for the Cardinals, and Queso dip for the Steelers

STEP 4 - Yard Lines
Take sour cream and put it into a turkey baster, then squeeze gently to make the yard lines across the field

STEP 5 - The Players and goal posts
Vienna sausages make delicious players, and tiny cheese wedge helmets help keep them from getting concussions. Two different types of cheese helps to distinguish the teams. The goal posts are made from Slim Jim's, that we cut up, then stuck together with tooth picks. Monterey Jack cheese was used as an anchor to keep them standing, with a tooth pick linking the two together. At no point was it necessary to "snap in to" any of these slim jims. Cutting worked better

FIELD REVIEW
Now that the field is finished, you can begin constructing the stadium around it, which you will also eat. It's important to lay down some paper towels, so that no food comes in contact with your disgusting table top. (Because if you're a person who makes this, you definitely have a disgusting table top)

STEP 6 - The Stadium
The twinkie is nature's brick. You can make your stadium as large as you want, depending on how many twinkies you have at your disposal. We had 58. And probably could have used 90. Use tooth picks to secure the twinkies to one another. This outer stadium wall will provide a delicious dessert when the contents of the stadium have been eaten.

STEP 7 - The Bacon Wall
The bacon wall is the most important part of the stadium, because it keeps the throngs of screaming fans, in this case chips, from falling on the field, in this case the guacamole and salsa. Insert tooth picks into the first row of twinkies, and then weave the bacon in and out of them, so that it forms a pliable wall.

STEP 8: The Fans/Chips
Without the fans, there would be no game. It's no different in your snack stadium, so select four different kinds of snacks to fill the stands. Be sure to use pieces of bacon to separate your crowd into sections.

STEP 9 - The Frenzy
Enjoy!

A New Job?

I probably scared a lot of people with the title of that post, maybe even my wife! I'm not changing my job, but if I could I think this would be my first choice:

http://www.islandreefjob.com/

They are currently accepting applications.

Nathan's Birthday '09

Nathan celebrated his birthday this week. Mary's brother Kris, and his fiance', Chelsea, came up from Utah to visit us before they get married in about 6 weeks, so we celebrated Nathan's birthday today along with some other friends of ours that Nathan adores. Last year this time we were in McCall with my parents and some other relatives enjoying lot's of snow. Today when we woke up there was about 3 inches of snow and it rapidly became 6-8 inches in the next few hours. I ended up going to my regular church meetings from 6:45 until about 10:30 and church was canceled due to the weather. Anyway, just before I left this morning, Nathan woke up so I got to give him a big hug and wish him a happy birthday. I like it when I get to be one of the first ones to have that nice little moment where I get to wish him a happy birthday, and it's so cute because he said "Happy Birthday - you too, Dad!"

One of the family traditions that we grew up with was getting to have our very own "sugar cereal" and so I picked up some cereal for Nathan (Albertson's version of Lucky Charms because it had a dinosaur on it's box-front). Reportedly, Nathan pretty much just ate the marshmallows and shared his goods with Sarah as well.

Here is the amazing Ice Cream Cake that Mary made. This is also a tradition thoroughly enjoyed by all and this was definitely Mary's best job at decorating one by far (maybe only the second one she's really tried to decorate). I honestly think that Nathan was a little confused about what this was because it didn't look at all like a cake and his own Thomas the Tank Engine was on his "cake". After he blew out the candles (with assistance from Dad because the only way that Nathan has learned to blow out of his mouth intentionally is by blowing in a way that flips up the front of his hair, which isn't very effective when you're trying to blow candles out), he had fun moving Thomas back and forth on the little train track. But once I cut up the cake, and put it in a bowl in front of him, he quickly realized it was legit and dug in.

What a cute little guy! Since he's started talking more we've been trying to teach him more words. About 1-2 months ago I wanted him to be able to answer the standard questions (name, age, etc.). Rather than confuse the kid, I just started teaching him to say he was three instead of two since his birthday wasn't too far away. So he's got that down.
Nathan got a lot of wonderful presents. In addition to the other pics below, he received his own Book of Mormon, PJ's, and a movie from Oma and Opa. He got a Pirate Ship flip book from my sister's family, a train and a train book from Kris and Chelsea and a whole bunch more Thomas the Tank Engine characters from Mary, Sarah, Jane and I. He was thrilled about all of the stuff and enjoyed meticulously tearing the wrapping paper off of the boxes.

Nathan got a great little Pre-Kindergarten learning kit/Hooked on Phonics set from Nanu and Bumpa and the kids are excited to dig into it and read some of the books and watch the DVD's. Nathan's excited because Sarah is so excited about it.

My grandma is amazing. She has a whole bunch of great grandkids and she still sends them cards that arrive either on the day of the person's birthday or the day before if it's on a holiday or Sunday. This was no exception! And she even sent $5.

It was a great day! We love our little Nathan so much and are so glad that he is in our family. We realize how much of a blessing it is to have these precious little souls with us and to enjoy these special moments and events with them. Happy Birthday Nathan!

Christmas '08

So, this is obviously long overdue, but if timeliness was a requirement I would've had to stop blogging long ago. Anyway, the kids didn't get up earlier than normal, which was nice... in fact I think they didn't get up until after 7 am (we'll enjoy this while it lasts). The tradition in my family growing up was to take a picture of the kids just before they got to run down the hall and open the presents. We have continued this tradition so here is our little trio together for Christmas for the first time. It was a beautiful morning, having snowed much of the night and it continued to snow for much of the day.

Nathan's Christmas was all about Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. He got this little interactive book (pic below) from his Nanu and Bumpa (Mary's parents) as well as Thomas PJ's, another book and a bunch of the trains that you'll see below. He also got a Disney Characters "I Spy" book that he really enjoys as well. He got a Dinoco (CARS) helicopter from Uncle Kris and some art supply stuff from his Aunt Jenny's family. The kid was in heaven! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts everyone.

Could this reaction be any more excited! Sarah got some first readers books from her Oma and Opa (my parents) and has really enjoyed them (if only she'd read them instead of trying to memorize the story and then just quoting it almost word for word after a couple of reads!). She got some My Little Ponies from her Uncle Kris, some play food stuff from Nanu and Bumpa, and some art supply stuff from Aunt Jenny's family. She also received a hat and glove set from her cousin Ruby. Thanks again for everything.

My Mom made this adorable skirt for Sarah and a matching one for Jane that they both should be able to wear in a few months. Adorable... Sarah is really excited and both of her matching outfits with Jane have come from her Oma and Opa and they look so cute together.

As mentioned above, Nathan got a bunch of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. The pic above is of the stuff that he got from his Oma and Opa. Mary and I were so particularly excited for Nathan's Christmas because he's at the age where we know (sometimes) what he wants (and this year it was SO obvious) but he's not to the point where he's really asking for it. So we knew it would be (and it was) a totally, unexpected surprise of pure delight! It's so fun to be a parent at Christmas and seeing your kids get so excited over their presents. Anyway, so Nathan got this James and Rickety combo pictured above. As soon as he gets it he says "James" and takes them and runs into the toy room where his brio train tracks are (we've had a bunch of this for a while but we haven't really had any Thomas pieces to go with it) and starts playing. After a bit we go in and tell him that there are more presents to open. So he comes back in and opens the large set that we had gotten him with a bunch more Thomas characters and some more track. As soon as he opens this up he says "Huh! James!" and runs into the toy room to retrieve James where he had left it and bring them all together. The kid could not have been happier and it was so fun because, for the most part, he woke up that morning not expecting much of anything. So cute! Here he is below after his Dad totally loved using some of the new pieces to build a really cool train-track.
When we were younger (I don't even remember actually doing it) we all designed our own plates and then they were somehow laminated or something so we had them for a number of years. I know we did these at Christmas at some point because we always thought my Dad's plate was the coolest and it had some kind of a Santa on it, or something. Anyway, my parents got us this plate set for Sarah and Nathan and Jane to do some plates. Sarah was the only one that really did one on her own and it was pretty adorable as you can see above (it's a "kitty cat"). Nathan's was his hand traced, a little bird, and some clouds in the middle and then around the outside of the plate was some train track and then a bunch of the Thomas character's names as Nathan announced them. Jane's was cute too as it just had some stats about her being born and what she was currently doing (crawling, eating, nursing every three hours, getting bit by Nathan, talking, and some other stuff I can't remember). Anyway, we were really excited about these and the kids were excited to use them. However, unfortunately, it apparently wasn't a very good product as the dishwasher destroyed the finish on the plates the first time we ran them. We were really disappointed as we had carefully followed the directions :^( It was a really cute idea though!

The rest of our day was just spent with Mary and I playing some games and just enjoying relaxing. Last year we had these grand plans to cook this great dinner and then never got out of our jammies. So this year we changed course a bit and just did a whole bunch of appetizers. We made some really good stuffed mushrooms, had little smokies, cheese logs, wassail, and some other stuff. We just let the kids play all day and really enjoyed the day, though we terribly missed not being in W. WA with my family. However, we were grateful that we didn't plan on going because the weather certainly would've kept us at home. Anyway, we hope everyone had a wonderfully Merry Christmas! God Bless!

Christmas Eve '08

So on Christmas Eve in mid-afternoon, we were out delivering the last of our goodies to friends. We dropped by one family that we haven't spent a lot of time with but have been wanting to get to know more and who have watched our kids on occasion for Mary during the day. Anyway, when we stopped by they spontaneously invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner. Being lonely and missing company (family) and knowing that they were kind of in the same boat (used to big gatherings) we were excited to spend the evening with them. Instead of a simple yummy broccoli cheese soup for dinner, we had that plus ham, potatoes, homemade rolls and all the other good stuff. Their family does a pinata on Christmas Eve and so we had fun doing that with them and just being around them. Nathan loved just playing by himself with all their Thomas the Train stuff (a preview of sorts for him!) in the other room. Sarah loved being around their girls who are mostly a few years older. We enjoyed hanging out with DeRay and Emily. DeRay was preparing to go kayaking on Jan 1st (CRAZY!). Anyway, it was great fun and filled our need to spend some of Christmas with others. They were great surrogate family and it was so kind of them to have us over on short notice!

Here's Nathan swinging for the homemade pinata. He really enjoyed this (and so did Daddy!)

Here's Sarah giving it a good thump. She almost got hit one time diving in for candy a little too soon.

After spending time with our friends we went home and let the kids open their traditional new set of PJ's on Christmas Eve. They were both excited!

Jane did get some new PJ's as well but they don't quite fit her but they do match a pair that Sarah wore, so that'll be fun when they can wear them together. Jane was just as happpy with the tinsel and the bows! What a doll!
We got a little Nativity set from some friends in our Church earlier in the day and the kids had fun playing with that in their new jammies before bedtime. It was a nice Christmas Eve for our family.

Mary's Birthday '08

Mary had another birthday this year (who didn't?) just before Christmas. She enjoyed the Ice-cream cake that I made her and some friends watched the kids while we went out to dinner in town. It was a quieter and more simple birthday for her, which was nice, I think. I know it didn't compare to last years' birthday for her of a day of solitude in the library. Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Christmas Family Get-Together '08

On Dec. 20th we headed to Rick and Laurie's house in Fruitland. It was a crazy weekend as Mary and I went to my work party in Boise on Friday, Mary went to the ward Christmas breakfast while I went to work all day on Saturday and then when I got home we threw the kids in the car and headed to Fruitland and didn't get home until late Saturday night. It was our chance to spend some time with some family over Christmas as we were wishing we could be in WA, where all of my siblings and their families were gathered for Christmas (we so wish we could've been there!). The weather was snowy and blustery but we made the trip safely. There were plenty of desserts and just fun conversation/interaction. There were about 40 of us there and Laurie did a gift exchange for the kids that Sarah and Nathan participated in and, as you can see from the pic below, they really enjoyed themselves and the little gifts that they got. Then they did a gift exchange for the older kids and adults after everyone played SANTA Bingo.

Here we are before we left. Actually a decent picture of our little family!

Here's the whole group for the adult gift exchange. Fun times!

My cousin Joey enjoying hanging out with all the Farmer girls. We enjoy being around my cousins!

These pics are of Sarah and Nathan participating in the kids gift exchange. They had a blast and it was good because the presents weren't opened until the end so no one knew what they were giving up as they passed them back and forth.

Prepping for Christmas

The kids love getting the tree set up and decorated and it's fun to put on your own Christmas music, cook some Wassil and some of the famous Farmer Gingersnap cookies Mmmmmmmm. Sarah and Nathan really enjoyed the festivities and this year it was Nathan's turn to put the star on top of the tree. Christmas is such a magical time of the year, we all love it and, as parents, we love to see the excitement that our kids experience and that we remember also experiencing (and still do!).

Kristopher is Engaged!

Mary should be doing this post, but I'll do it. Mary's youngest brother got engaged two weeks ago. We're really excited for him and look forward to getting to know Chelsea more. On their way back down to UT from WA after Thanksgiving they stopped in and stayed with us for a day. We enjoyed playing with them and the kids love their time with their Uncle Kris, who is our most frequent family visitor. Over the years, Kris has brought a number of girls around for family holidays, so it resonated with me when I heard that Jenny's husband asked her if he "needed to remember this ones name?" Sounds like Chelsea is the one that we are supposed to remember and really invest time in getting to know her. They are getting married on March 5th and we look forward to it! Congrats to Kris!

Getting engaged is such an exciting time, but it's also very stressful. I remember thinking that a lot of things would be easier once we were engaged/married... it seemed to make sense to me. But, as Kristopher is sadly learning very quickly, things often get complicated, stressful and a little overwhelming, though it is still exciting to consider the prospect of getting married to someone you love.

[Beware giving me a digital image you don't want to see on my blog!]

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was so great! This is our second Thanksgiving/Christmas as a family away from our family and it was SO nice to have family visit us. We had my parents come from Seattle as well as my brother Braden, his wife, Amanda, and their son, Mason, from Utah. This is the first time we've been able to host a holiday like this since we've been married and we were so excited to have family visit and stay for a while. Oma and Opa arrived late Monday evening and stayed until Sat afternoon. Braden and Amanda came Wed evening and left late Sat morning. The food was wonderful, the conversation was great, the company was so fun... it was great. Here are some pics with some explanations if needed.



Here is a cute little decoration that Sarah made at a friends birthday party the other day.
Nathan loved cuddling with his Opa.

Nathan only gets his pacifier now if he is going to sleep or going to have his own quiet time with his blanket and bear either by himself or cuddling with someone. Opa was the perfect willing target! For the first couple of days after Oma and Opa left, whenever Nathan would wake up from a nap or bed he would ask "where's Opa?" or "cuddle with Opa". Opa you're welcome back anytime.

Sarah enjoyed helping Oma make the Multi-Berry pie and it's topping. I enjoyed eating it with ice-cream! [I'm not a big pie fan at all, but with ice-cream, I can enjoy berry or apple pie anytime... especially warm... mmmmmm!]

Oma and Opa giving the kids some animal rides (the actual type of animal changes from moment-to-moment and I'm not really sure what they are at this moment)

It was cute to see Mason and Jane together. They are four months apart, but Mason is actually heavier then Jane. It was funny to see Mason laying there as a 3-month old and Jane full-on crawling around the house. Yes, Jane is full-on crawling. It was fun because she was just starting to crawl decently when Oma and Opa first got here and by the time they left she was going from one side of the house (Sarah's room) to the other (toy room). It's cute to have her just show up in a room behind us now.

Last year I was disappointed when I found out that the ward here doesn't do a "Turkey Bowl". But this year I was excited when our new Young Men's President issued a challenge between the Young Men and the adults. I was really glad that Dad and Braden came and played with me. The weather was amazing and we had a great time. I'm ashamed to admit that I was still noticeably sore on Sunday.

These are Sarah's Thanksgiving pictures that she colored (except for the one on the top-right which Mary did at Sarah's insistence). One of our friends asked if we were going to put Thanksgiving pics in the frames and we thought that was a great idea, so Sarah was excited to color them! They're really cute and she does such a good job!

Here is the spread: [L->R] Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, rolls, fruit-filled cool-whip salad, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, pickle-olive tray and green bean casserole. Good stuff and it all tasted wonderful!

Here is our Thanksgiving table, with Sarah and Nathan just out of reach. They enjoyed having their own table, but didn't eat much of anything.

In spite of being a great daddy himself, Braden also made time to be a great Uncle for Nathan and Sarah as well. The kids enjoyed having them read books for them and play with them in other ways as well.

On Friday afternoon we headed over to my Aunt and Uncles house in Fruitland and had a grand old time with many of my cousins and other family members.

Mom made some of her amazing salsa. I wish that you could have an understanding of how big that bowl of salsa is. I'll just say that even though there were over 50 people there, it didn't all get eaten by the time we left. We still got to take some back with us and left some there with them. Mom was literally making this salsa for like three hours (while also doing other Oma things here and there). Amanda made some delicious guacamole and we made some yummy bean dip.

Here are Sarah and her cousin (2nd cousin? or something) Eli playing in the castle at the Farmer's house.

There was a big group of people that played flag football at the Farmer's on Friday evening as well. I was too sore to play but I enjoyed watching from the balcony pictured. We had a great time and it was great to see so many relatives.

We look forward to the Christmas gathering we are planning!