Gone but never forgotten!

Memorial Day was a quick trip down memory lane as we visited the gravesites of those we loved so dearly. We made our way to visit my great grandparents Sherrod and Thomas in Ogden then to see my Aunt Kim, Grandma Farr and Great Grandpa Steed in Farmington. Also while in Ogden, at the same cemetery, we visited Kayla’s Grandparents Anderson and Kayla’s other grandma Mary (she was married to Kayla’s grandpa Anderson). Unfortunately, none of them met Wyatt in this world but we let him have the chance to see their graves. The cemetery looked so cool with all of the flowers that were there. It always makes me want to cry (yes I am being serious). I probably wear my heart on my sleeve but I don’t care because I will probably just blame it on allergies or something. I guess since this is the only time that we make it to see these graves, I thought I’d write a blog entry about it and post a picture of Wyatt with it. We love those in our family both watching down on us from heaven and those here on the earth.

Hopefully there is not a fourth!

DISCLAIMER: Somebody told me that I ruined these movies for them because I gave away the ending...so beware you could find out the ending. But don't worry they'll probably make a fourth and it will all make no matter!
For the last three weeks Kayla and I have gone opening night to the three main blockbusters; Spider Man 3, Shrek the Third, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. All of these movies have made over $100 million each.
There is a theory of movie sequels and it goes something like this:

1. One really big hit makes lots of money for Hollywood and fans love it

2. Hollywood will try to capitalize and to make more $$$ off a sequel

3. Sequel is released and not even close to being as good as the original but fans see it because they loved the first; Hollywood makes their millions.

4. The story line was left wide open so there has to be a third and every fan will see it because they have to know how it ends; Hollywood makes more millions

5. The third ties up the story but is as bad or worse than the second; Hollywood knows how to play the game and they make more millions; The story ends but could possibly be interpreted or left open for another movie if Hollywood wants

Without doubt this has been the conspiracy of all three of these movies and I have not been impressed to say the least. I loved all of the originals so I saw the second ones -- and now obviously the third ones too. I guess I had too high of expectations. Of them I like Pirates the most, Shrek second and Spider Man 3 the least. I was so excited to see all of these movies because the previews make them look so wonderful. (WRONG!!) One thing is for sure; if another sequel in any of these series comes out I will not go opening night to see it. But I will still want to know … Do Peter Parker and Mary Jane get married? What about Shrek? He wasn’t next in line because there was a Queen; but if she dies then he will fight Prince Charming for the throne? And poor Elizabeth is torn between two loves, her husband Will Turner who is stuck on a boat for eternity so does she go after Jack Sparrow? So far this summer of movies gets two thumbs down!

Finally sleeping better!!

A couple of posts back I wrote about Wyatt not sleeping at night. Thing have changed. He sleeps through the night now and has been pretty good about it for the last week or so. Wyatt went to the doctor for his 9 month well baby check and Dr. Eberhard asked about how he was sleeping. So Kayla proceeded to tell him that he wakes up every night and the only way to get him to sleep is to feed him. Well, Dr. Eberhard told her that, nutritionally speaking, he didn’t need to eat in the middle of the night. He also told her that we shouldn’t run right in there when he starts to cry but rather to wait for at least 20 minutes of him crying before we went in there. So the first couple of nights it was really hard because he cried for about an hour and both Kayla and I went in there with him but didn’t feed him, just held him. It has been totally worth it because now he is sleeping so well and sometimes he wants to sleep even later than before. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the sleepless nights are over but they have definitely been better the last couple weeks and WE LOVE IT and HIM!
Dr. Eberhard also said that Wyatt is in the 95th percentile for his head size, 15th for his weight (18 lbs) and 15th for his height. So I guess he just has a huge noggin. But he’ll grow into it. The doctor also told us to feed him more table food so we have been trying to give him more solid foods. He seems to love just about everything we put in his mouth. If he doesn’t he’ll gag and then it will all come back up. And occasionally he will forget to chew it and it will get stuck in his throat and he gags then too but he is getting it down. He does pretty well for not having any teeth.

Josh and Kayla Chapter 3

The last 3 years has past by so fast. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. Our lives are completely different but in a good way. We have made it a tradition to watch our wedding video every May 21st. It is about an hour long with all the pictures, temple footage and advice. It was definitely fun to listen and see that day over. Sometimes we forget how much we change or what we sounded like on that day. One thing is for sure that both Kayla and I agreed on is that we have gained a lot of weight. We were skinny once and have the pictures to prove it! Maybe this will be the motivation that we need to lose it. Another thing that I noticed for me is that I have all the same close as I did in 2004 so I guess I need to go and buy some new clothes. That’s a good excuse, right? I probably won’t but it would be nice. Other than watching that video our day was pretty uneventful. Kayla did buy some éclairs for dessert which were good. (Probably part of the reason we are heavier) But we are enjoying our years together. And now that we have a kid and a dog we stay quite busy. As we continue our lives together we will grow and change but one thing will remain constant is the love we share each day.

Delirium at the E Center

Happy 3 year anniversary. The 21st is actually our anniversary but we celebrated today because Kayla wanted to see Cirque Du Soleil. It was really entertaining. I didn't really know what to expect but it was good. I paid $63.50 each for these tickets. When we found our actual seats, I paid lower bowl prices for upper bowl seats. So I called to complain and their response was there are only single seats so I thought OK I will sit by Kayla in the upper bowl. When we found our actual seats they were off to the corner so we decided to move to the middle. When we got there two other couples were doing the same thing as we were. One girl paid $130.00 each and the other paid $85.00 each. So all in all I think we got good seats and apparently at a good price. So as for the show I wish it would have been in English and that it wasn't so loud. Does that make me sound like I am 50? All the circus freaks were really good at their acrobatics and singing but I didn't understand what was going on. The only words that I understood were "my dream is weird" hence delirium i guess. Overall it was a great way to spend an anniversary date as far as entertainment goes.
Now for the food part of the date; YUCK!!! will sum it up nicely. First off Kayla had found a list on Google of restaurants close to the E Center. So we crossed off all of the chain restaurants and decided that we'd try something new called the Copper Kettle. So we drive to this address and low and behold it was a popcorn place in the Valley Fair mall. So we drove to down town hoping to go to the Melting Pot or PF Changs. But everything was like an hour to hour and a half wait. So we drove really slow around the Gateway searching for something but didn't have any luck. So we drove back to West Valley to go to the Red Robin out there. On the way back down 3300 South Kayla found a restaurant called Koolums Chinese American and the parking lot was full. So we pulled in. We got seated in this GHETTO room and got some menus. We decided on the Chinese meal for two and also ordered some sweet and sour chicken on a stick (thinking they were like skewers of meat) CLEARLY not the case. So out come these seven deep fried balls of something with a chicken bone sticking out of them. It was awful! Mostly cartilage, skin and bone and 2 inches of deep fried goodness. Neither of us ate even a whole one. At that point Kayla was ready to leave. She said lets just pay for this and go. But i guess i am too nice because i had already ordered so we stayed for the other half of the meal. It was slightly better but when you are slightly better than the worst most awful thing then it is still bad. Needless to say it was icky and very disappointing. We are going to have to have another try at it the coming weekend. Happy Anniversary, 3 YEARS!

Wyatt is learning to feed himself!

Wyatt tries everyday to feed himself. He is still getting used to the fact that you don't need to use all four finger and the thumb to pick something up. He can pick everything up just fine, it is just that he cant get his whole hand in his mouth then let go of whatever he is eating. Sometimes he is successful and snarfs down what ever he put in but most of the time it ends up falling back on to his tray. We have bought him other things to learn how to feed himself but they are so messy. He has these biscuits called "biter biscuits" He really enjoys them but they get so soggy that they get all over him and everything he touches. But they are good to learn off because he can put it down then pick it back up again. The whole idea about putting stuff inside his mouth is not hard; he puts anything he can in there. It is just figuring out that you don't need to use all four fingers to do so.

pickled pigs feet and jellybeans...

Josh won't leave me alone about posting something in this silly blog - so here i am posting my thoughts on life. Everything at the Farr house is just splended. Wyatt keeps us busy as ever and we love it! I recently purchased a jogging stroller and it is wicked cool... now i just need to use it more often and get myself out of these fat clothes. I am still working for Reeve & Associates, Inc. It really does help keep me sane .. changing up my daily schedule - I love being a Mom and I also like working ~ so it is a happy medium. Well until next time peace & love to all. -kk

Up and running!

I finally have my pond going. It had a huge crack in the plastic liner and it kept draining itself. But I've sealed it and filled it back up. So far so good. We'll see in a few days if it is still holding water. My dad helped me build this pond last year. When we bought our house we had dead grass, dead trees and ugly landscaping. Now it is almost the way we want it. The only things I need to finish are the fence and pour a cement pad for Roxy's kennel so we can leave her outside during the day. But that will take all summer guaranteed. I love to do these kinds of projects around my house but sometimes after they are started I don't have the drive to finish them. I have tons of plans for both outside and inside the house. One day I will have enough money and time to finish everything I want to do. I think probably when I get everything done, and the way we like it, it will be time to sell the house and move. Oh the joys of home ownership.
The fence project is going to take a lot of time and money to complete. Last fall the businesses behind our house put in a nice 8' cement sound barrier wall but little did we know that this wall was going to end 15' from our property line. So we 90% of a nice fence and 10% crap. Kayla and I tried and tried to get them to finish the extra 15' but they wouldn't. We went to the city, we called the builder, and even offered to pay for it. The company was not very accommodating. We would have had to pay about $3000 for this extra chunk of fence. I could do so much more with that kind of money so we opted not to do it. We are going to fix it with a vinyl but again it is all about time and money -- and in this case the know how. One day!

Marathon day for our mothers

Yesterday was hectic. We were moving all day long. I started at 6:45 am and finally fell asleep at about 10:30 pm just to get up this morning at 4:45. So my new calling is the Elders quorum president and I was supposed to be at a meeting at 7:30. But nobody told me it was cancelled so I just went back home to my family. (oh those precious hours of sleep that I could have had!) Anyway, we went to sacrament meeting and Sunday school at our ward then we went to sacrament with my mom then ate lunch/dinner at the Anderson's. Oh yeah and I made homemade ice cream sandwiches and they were GOOD!! And everybody said they were good so thanks for being honest! Wyatt was so tired he was falling asleep while sitting on Grandpa Jeff's lap at the table. Those few seconds of head bobbing and about 20 minutes in the car for traveling is all the nap he had. Yes that makes a 9 month old CRANKY!

I love giving gifts but I hate giving useless junk for the sake of giving a gift. I am of the philosophy that they are established enough that if they need it or want it then they buy it for themselves. So for me to buy them just any old thing is pointless so we tried to make it more personable and something that they could cherish. PICTURES of Wyatt and Hadly (my brothers daughter) for my side and a scrapbook for Kayla’s.

Kayla got a bunch of new clothes for work.
Kellie (My mom) got the picture attached (one copy for the house and one for her desk)
Sharleen (Mother-in-law) got a new scrapbook of pictures. We took plastic tote full of photos from the 1990’s put them on scrapbook paper. Only about a million more to go!!
Grandma Sherrod got a copy of the picture attached
Great-grandma Steed got a copy of the picture attached
Grandma Taylor got …did we get her anything? Not that I can remember. I’ll have to go fix her TV for sure now. ( I would do it regardless)

The influence of these women is so wonderful and I loved every second visiting with them yesterday. We would not be her today if it were not for them. They are so great and we love them to death.

9 Months Old

Today Wyatt is 9 months old. It is so incredible how the time flies by so quickly. The weeks feel like days and the months feel like weeks and it still feels like just yesterday he was born. Then you stop for a second more and wonder where the time has gone. Wyatt has definitely changed our lives. We now plan our daily activities around the last time he ate, when he is going to take a nap or when he is going to need to be changed. Life revolves around him and his all important schedule of EATING – SLEEPING – DIAPER CHANGING.
He is so close to crawling. He will get up on his hands and knees and start rocking back and forth…but then he has no idea what to do next so he just falls on to his stomach and rolls to his back. He is actually getting to be quite mobile. He always wants to play with everything that thing just out of reach so in a valiant effort to grab it he generally falls down then gives out a heartbroken cry. Soon enough he will be way too mobile and we won’t be able to stop him.
Up until now he hasn’t moved to far from where we put him down but about 2 weeks ago he did. Kayla had ran upstairs to grab a ruler and Wyatt rolled down the other set. Kayla was sure that she had hurt him so badly and she probably cried harder than he did. What a crisis! I was at school and couldn’t leave so Kayla went to her mom's house and spent the rest of the evening there. It was quite a scare but he’s just fine. I bet this is just first of many falls and crashes to come.

Wednesdays are somewhat restless nights

Some nights are much shorter than others, or so they seem. Wednesday’s are hectic with my schedule. I generally get up at 4:45 am to go to the gym, and then it’s off to work for about 9 hours. Afterwards I pick up Wyatt, go home to hurry and eat before I go to school for 4 more hours. Then of course I have to come home and see who got voted off of American Idol. So I turn on the DVR for about an hour before hitting the pillow at about 10:30. That is late for me because I usually go to bed at 9 pm because I get up so early. Oh yeah the day/night isn’t over yet because for the past couple month’s Wyatt has been waking up at least once per night if not twice. We were so used to him not waking up at all. He used to sleep from about 9:30 pm until about 7:00 am. He has definitely kicked that habit and is waking up about every 3 or 4 hours. The only way to get him to fall back asleep is to give him a bottle. He will fall asleep in my arms if you don’t feed him but the second you put him back in his crib WAAAAAAWAAAAAWAA! Last night he woke up at about 2 am and I fed him. Then again about 4:30 but this time Kayla woke up to feed him to find that he and his sheets were soaked. Some how his diaper didn’t want to catch anything. Kayla ended up changing the crib sheets, the diaper and Wyatt’s pajamas. After all that he didn’t even finish his bottle.
We don’t know what the matter is. But we just take turns feeding and getting up with him and loving every second of it. At first we thought it was that he was teething but still no sign of them. Then we thought it was another ear infection but the pediatrician said it wasn’t but that his eczema was really bad. So then he went to the Allergy Doctor who said he is allergic to eggs, peanuts and soy. This doctor also said he has an ear infection. So we give him amoxicillin then the amoxicillin causes Thrush in his mouth and we have to start something for that. And above all that the Allergist says he needs to be bathed with mineral oil. CAUTION SLIPPERY WHEN WET! He can’t sit in his tub without slipping all around. It is actually quite funny. Anyway he still gets up but we just give him a bottle and sit with him in the chair until we both fall asleep. Some mornings I feel the lack of sleep more than others and today is one of those. Oh the joys of restless nights.

Wes crashed into the house

So I am new and excited about this whole blog thing so I decided to test out the Mobile Blog feature (MOBLOG). It worked out pretty cool. All you do is take a picture with your phone and send it to go@blogger.com. This is the picture I took of my parents house after my brother Weston crashed into it on Saturday morning with is brand new Dodge truck. The truck was fine but the house looked pretty sad. I guess you learn lessons in life like: don't try and start your truck with your hand on the clutch while you are standing outside. Good thing for insurance.

Roxy had a birthday

Roxy’s birthday was May 5th. She turned 2 years old, so if my calculations are correct I believe that equals to be about 14 in dog years. Who knows?? She is so lazy compared to what she was when we got her in August of 2005. Overall she is a great animal. We do treat her special and when I say special I mean she is so spoiled compared to the dogs that I had when I was growing up. All the dogs I ever had always lived out back in the kennel and were only let out to feed and go hunting. It was the most highly despised chore to clean and feed them until we got horses and I had to help take care of them. I absolutely hated it! But now, even though I claim not to have a dog (because she is my wife’s dog and I don’t like animals), I feed her every morning and enjoy playing with her when she is not so hyper.
One day in Costco I saw a pet bed so I decided that I would buy it for her. Up until that point I had actually made her one out of some plywood and a pillow but she just chewed it to pieces. I think that was the main reason for me buying it (some think it was because I like her so much). But believe me I will not buy her a dog stroller or a purse for my wife to put her in because after all she is still a dog.
For her birthday we had Kayla’s family over to eat some make-shift pies. Make-shift in a sense that they were put together about 25 minutes before everybody was going to arrive. The cherry pie looked great but tasted mediocre. I think it was because the cherries were “no sugar added”. It wasn’t very good to me. The chocolate pudding pie was a little better because it was a little bit sweeter but it was “soupy” and loaded with chunks of cream cheese. It tasted fine but it fell apart after it was cut. Everybody said they both tasted fine but Kayla and I both agreed that they were being nice. Honesty is fine with us!

Roxy didn’t get any gifts because she already has way to many. However, Kayla did find a half eaten bone behind the couch and gave it to her to finish but I think it might have made it back behind the couch before the night was over. She did get a homemade hat with her name on it but she didn’t like it so much so Wyatt pretty much took it over.

Blogging? OK I'll give it a try!

I guess the title says it all. I haven't ever been real successful at keeping a journal so I figured that a blog would take care of that. (That is if I keep up with it). I have read other blogs and they are great so here I go with mine. Most of you reading probably already know who I am, or who my family is, so the introduction will be short.

J = Josh

K = Kayla (Wife, and so much more)

W = Wyatt (My son, and supposedly thought to look exactly like me)

R = Roxy (she's the dog but treated like one of the family, if not better, so she can have a letter too!)

So that's the family in a nutshell. I'll try to keep up-to-date on all the latest and greatest about what is happening in our lives as the days pass by.