A buzzzzy Halloween to you all!

Happy Halloween everyone!! I was so afraid Steven wasn't going to let us put his costume on for the day, but after a few trials of trying it on (literal screaming), he was okay when I put it on to go visit Great-Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth for the actual holiday. He was a cute bumblebee, and I didn't take the time to find a matching shirt and pants, since we didn't go trick-or-treating. The costume is a size 2T, so it will get to wear it next year too, but it was still too cute to resist!!

Steven was having a blast playing with Grandpa Rowley, who came up for the State Volleyball Tournament He wouldn't actually smile at the camera for a picture, but this is him playing with his second cousin, Natasha. Had to get a picture of the back, with the cute little tail

I can fly!

About ready to have this crazy hood OFF!

This was just cute. He was having so much with this little doll that my Grandma Farnsworth has in a mini-rocking chair. He kept touching her nose and eye, and having so much fun!

We hope everyone had a safe, fun, and wonderful holiday!

Time Flies - Haircut #7

So, I sometimes can't believe how much hair Steven has. When he was a newborn, I imagined giving him his first hair cut on his first birthday...boy was i wrong. Despite him losing practically all his hair by two months, he's made up for it! This week after playing with his hair in the bath tub and realizing just how LONG it was, I decided it was time for another haircut, as you read, haircut #7 for this kid (I'll stop counting them sometime. I'm sentimental).

Anyway, here is a before picture... Check out this length! Awesome super long mohak!

Crazy hair!

And afterwards. It's actually slightly shorter than I planned, but with a super wiggly one-year-old, you can only do so much. At least he's not bald, right?

Mom's day off!

Life has been kind of busy lately, so I was kind of excited for Saturday to come. Since Darrell didn't get a chance to play with Steven at all last week while we were gone to Richfield, I decided this would be a chance for daddy/steven time. In the morning, I was able to go to a great Enrichment activity with our ward, and we had an excellent speaker that is a finance teacher at BYU talk to us, and she did a great job!

After Enrichment, I ran home, made lunch while Darrell got into the BYU Game, gave Steven some loves, then headed up for a trip to SLC to watch my good friend, Brittani (Willardson) Barton play her last home game as a Westminster Griffin. She has played volleyball for Westminster for four years now, and I have never been close enough to come watch her play. I was really excited to go!! Britt did an excellent job, and I forgot how much fun it was to watch a really good volleyball match. Brittani is the lone senior on the team this year, and she had a great last home match with seven kills, six digs, and 11 service points. It was also cool, cause they were having a breast cancer awareness day, so all their shirts for the game were pink. It was great!! Good Job Britt and good luck with the rest of your season!

October FHE Tradition

When Darrell and I were at Snow, and not quite officially dating, he invited me to come over and carve pumpkins with him. My favorite part of that was it took him like 20 minutes to get the guts to ask me to carve pumpkins with him. Anyway, since then, we have always carved pumpkins for an FHE in October. We were sad to realize Monday night that this was the first time since we've been married that we didn't carve pumpkins with our great friends, the Anderson's, in Logan. They are the best, and we miss them. Anyway, we decided to go ahead and do it just the two of us this year after Steven went to bed. It was still really fun!

Darrell got really motivated with his pumpkin, and did this ultimate BYU pumpkin with a cougar on top. You couldn't see how awesome it was without the light in it...but my camera wouldn't take a good picture. However, you can still kind of see what an awesome job he did! I went fancy last year (I did Strongbad) and decided this year to go for a simple silly face. :)

Deer Huntin' Weekend!

So, after such a rough football game on Thursday night (which I admit, I left the room mid-third quarter to read a book), it was lovely to escape to Richfield for the weekend for a wonderful weekend with family! Deer hunt is basically one of the times of the year I look forward to every year, even though I never go hunting myself. Steven had a great time this year with his cousins, aunt, uncles, and grandma and grandpa. (Thanks to Jenny for most of these pictures!!)

Saturday was the beginning of the hunt, and Sheri was great to play with Steven for a while so I could get ready for the day. When I got ready, I went outside to find Steven having a BLAST with Aunt Jenny and Aunt Sheri out on the tramp. While they were on the trampoline, the men were cleaning the two deer that they had shot that morning. Steven literally was so enthralled by what was going on. He kept just watching them and saying, "OOHH!" As is depicted in the picture below :)

My brothers Brian and Greg didn't hunt in Southern this year, so they were the lone bucks out by themselves in central. (If you can call hunting with 5 fun boys and two old boys lonely :))

Here is Brian with his deer

My brother, Trent, with his lovely two-point

Daniel and his deer

We took this picture especially for Darrell, since he couldn't make it down to Richfield with us (since we left while he was at work!)

Steven really did love the deer.

Darrell had a great weekend also. He hung out with his brother, Brad, all weekend, and on Saturday, they went with all their siblings to a ReAL Salt Lake soccer game. I borrowed this picture from Janae's blog, so you could all see how much fun he had!

I'm a winner!

So, the other day I was thinking that I never win anything. However, my luck changed tonight. WAHOO! We went to the Bronco Mendenhall Show at Ken Garff in American Fork. Not only did we get free dinner, but I won a BYU flag. Darrell was probably more excited than me, but I was still excited. And, now I can take "BYU Flag" off the list of stuff I can get Darrell for Christmas.

A few things I need to catch up on..

A couple weeks ago, we went up AF Canyon and had a picnic for FHE. The leaves weren't quite amazing yet, but I still was impressed with the pictures my camera was able to produce. Maybe it knows I want to replace it :) Darrell brought his trumpet home after we went to his parents for Conference weekend. Steven thinks it's pretty awesome, and loves to help push the buttons. Darrell got a banana chair for his birthday. At first, when we put Steven in it, he wasn't so sure how he liked it. However, now it's one of his favorite things. He'll climb up in it, kick back, and just relax as I rock the chair for him. However, in this picture, he wants the camera. He always wants the camera.

Mission Reunion and General Conference

Last night we got to go to my Australia Melbourne Mission Reunion in Park City.  It sure was great to see so many missionaries that I served with.  None of my companions were able to make it, but maybe I'll see them in 2 years at the next one.  We did have a great time visiting with others.  President Overton had a cake made referencing a great quote most of the missionaries had memorized from Australia:  "Good, Better, Best. . .Never let it rest until good is better. . . and better is best."  I love that quote.  

General Conference started out great.  I just wanted to touch on a few highlights that were impactful to me from the Saturday morning session.  Hearing about five new temples is certainly Awesome!  I also noticed that President Monson referred to a time when President Kimball had members of the Church pray that the gospel could be opened to areas where it previously not available.  He noted that miracles happened and the gospel was opened to many areas of the world.  President Monson likewise invited us to pray for more areas of the world to be opened to the gospel.  He said, "I urge you to pray for the opening of those areas that we might share with them the joy of the gospel." He said that as we Pray in faith, those miracles will happen again and the gospel will be opened in more areas.  I know that this will happen if we as a church do pray in faith for the gospel to move forward to more areas of the world!

Elder L Tom Perry said that we need to live within our means.  He said that well managed families don't pay interest.  They earn it.  I love that advice!  It blesses lives when we live within our means and let interest work for us instead of against us.  

I loved how Elder Oaks talked about the power of preparing for the Sacrament.  I can sure do better at this one.

Steven woke up during Elder Ucktdorf's talk, but I still heard enough of the talk to feel the power of hope in our lives.  Hope is an abiding trust in the Lord.  It is combined with Faith as we expect that prayer will be answered by the Lord.  

I look forward to hearing more profound words that are consistant with what has been shared before at general conference and what will continue to be shared in the future.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is True!

A little bit o' life

I'm just in the mood to blog tonight...so luckily I have a bunch of pictures for the occasion. On Saturday, we went out to lunch for birthdays, i guess you could say, since Darrell, Steven, and I all had our birthdays this month. We went to Tucano's with my sister, Sheri, and Grandma and Grandpa Cropper. (darrell's parents). So, this first picture is Steven playing in the water with Aunt Sheri after we gorged ourselves full! Our cute lil' family Steven dancing with dad Aunt Sheri gave Steven an awesome BYU Shirt for his birthday. Now he and dad can match! Go cougars! (now ranked #8, wahoo!) Steven does the cheer. I will try to get it on a video for all to see. It's definitely SOO cute! Sheri sharing some raspberry lemonade at Tucano's. Steven was a HUGE fan! Playing some more in the water

This video is from a month ago, but I just watched it again, and wanted to share it with you all!! Have a great day, and remember, you're never fully dressed without a smile!

I like my birthday!

I love birthdays. If anybody knows me really well, they know I think everybody's birthday is their own personal holiday and it should be treated as such. Steven was a kind soul and slept in until 10:00 a.m. today. He's so great. He's been happy for my birthday week. The earliest he has awaken this week was 8:00 a.m.

All week Darrell has been nervous, because he ordered my birthday present, and it wasn't supposed to be here until Sept. 29 but he really wanted me to have it for my birthday. (he's so cute.) Anyway, a package for Darrell came today, and it of course was my present. I literally had no idea what it was, and the box was really light. So, I just put the box on the table and left it till he got home. When he got home, he got all sneaky and took off for the bedroom. I sent Steven after him to see if I could find out anything, and all I could hear was Steven jabbering away to his dad. Anyway, present time came, and I opened it....and walaa! It was Photoshop Elements! I've been wanting this for a while, but I had told myself we could wait till we got a new camera or Christmas came along. I was and still am super excited!!! Cute husband of mine surprised me! I've only been playing with it for a few minutes, but I think I'm going to LOVE this! Just playing with some wedding photos... My mom and dad gave me some lovely sweaters and some jewelery. Thanks parents! I love you! And here are some pictures of last night of us being silly outside on the grass! :) A great big thank you to everyone who left me a birthday message via text, facebook, phone, and thoughts! I love you all, and thanks for your well wishes on my holiday! :)

Happy First Birthday Steven!!!

I cannot believe my baby is a year old today!! It's absolutely crazy how fast time has flown and how much has happened in the past year. A year ago, I couldn't believe I actually went through labor and delivered my first son. I was all sorts of nervous, excited, and tired! :) Now as I look back, it has been such a glorious road. Steven is such a good little guy, and is so much fun. Each day his personality pops out a little bit more and more, and he is just a mellow, yet funny kid. Seeing his face light up when I walk into a room, or hearing him follow me into different rooms when he can't see me is so much fun. When I went to get him up this morning, I sang happy birthday to him, and he just looked at me all confused...but he still has had a good day! Oh, and he officially cut his first tooth today. (Meaning it actually came through the gum). What a good birthday present! I'm sure that's why he was such a happy guy most of the day. I'm glad I decided to make his year pediatrician appointment for tomorrow, so he didn't have to get shots on his birthday!

Birthday Party!!

On Saturday, the 6th, we had a birthday party for Steven!! We first set out to the zoo with the grand-parents for fun in the sun! Steven loved the ducks. We were glad we went there first before everything else.The white alligator...looked fake...although it did move its arm

In front of two elephants, we weren't sure where the third one was... (read on KSL Today that the third elephant at the zoo died today. sniffle)

Steven loved the zoo!

After the bird show with the bald eagle. (My facial expression looks retarded, but it's still a cool picture)

Getting ready to ride the Zoofari Express!

After the zoo, we had a picnic/barbecue with our families. It was super windy...that's what this picture is depicting :)And my cute decorations

This is the cake I made for Steven. He loves duckies. The white is supposed to be bubbles like in a bubble bath...

This is the cake I made for everyone else. :) Thank you to my mom for saving the frosting. I felt pretty proud of myself for my cake skills.

At first, Steven wasn't sure what to think of cake

He just kind of touched the frosting...

Once I cut him his own little piece, he decided to give it a try

making sure he got all the stuff off his hands. yum!

Here's a little clip for ya...he was super tired by this point in the day, but it was still very cute!