YW Stuff---D.O.T.S.

Evening in Excellence

We decided on DOTS for our Evening in Excellence theme.   
(DOTS=Daughters Obeying the Savior)

My friend and Mia Maid leader, Melody Larsen, 

came up with so many great ideas to help develop this theme.

She said she woke up in the middle of the night and they all came to her.

We held a Polka Dot Picnic at the church and 

asked them to wear polka dots if they had them.

This was our program 

(front and back cover)

I snapped photos (head shots) of each girl right after church. 

 It took me about 3 Sundays to get everyone.  

I love having a picture of them all grouped together.  

I keep a copy on my phone and love to look at each of those beautiful faces.  

However, the real reason I took the photos is so that I could make a dot-to-dot picture of each of them.

I found a website that made it easy.  If you're interested click here.

I found that if I downloaded the photos into Facebook and copied them from there it worked

(It only took me hours to figure that one out)

Dot-to-Dot

"When we connect all the dots through obedience we can clearly see the whole picture"

I have 30 yw so this took about 2-3 hours to do. 

 I did a few each night over a week.

 

We displayed the dot-to-dots on a refrigerator box opened up and covered in wrapping paper.

We went crazy with our polka- dot theme and picnic. 

 It was so fun.

Thanks to Summer for grabbing my camera and taking some photos 
while I was preoccupied with other things.

Melody made these centerpieces to hold the balloons.

Really everyone needs a Melody to work with.  

The picnic dinner was placed in these polka-dot bags.  It included a turkey/ham sandwich,

chips, pasta salad, and a chocolate chip cookie.  We had water bottles to drink.

 dressings and condiments were served on the side.

It made for an easy and quick clean-up at the end.  

As they were leaving we gave them a box of DOTS candy.

It was packaged with a polka-dot flower clip for their hair.

I am sorry I did not snap a photo of it.  

Melody did a great job putting them together.

November

 Our little nutmeg turned 13 this month (pretend it is still November)  

Time is accelerating and I don't like it one bit.

How fitting that she was born around Thanksgiving because I am

so thankful for this child.

Thanksgiving was spent with the Farnsworth side this year.

There are always 100+ people there.
Many hands make light work

I always look forward to hearing the gratitude speech from my father-in-law.
He never misses an opportunity to share what he is grateful for.
I love this tradition.

This is our nephew Freddie Ashby and his beautiful family with Mama and Papa.  

Freddie is currently climbing the charts on Itunes with a

Christmas album "Brighter Days Ahead."

  

My two "Celiacs."

They are pros at eating gluten-free...going on 4 years now.

After feasting, we played.

Sharanette was over the main group activity. 

 She organized a huge corn hole tournament. 

So much fun for such a large group.

We, Farnsworths, like our competitive tournaments...

... and the little ones get a little frustrated when they can't participate.

I am grateful for family.  

October

A brief summary of October happenings....really no rhyme or reason to this post.  

I love that I have an extra driver these days...
and I don't think Cole minds helping out.

I also love that these two drive to school together...

and that Ike gets himself to and from the bus stop thanks to a nice bush to hide his scooter in.

So with Cole and Summer driving to school,

 Ike and his wheels, 

I just have one carpool to junior high.

Heaven.

We love having our "littles" over to play.

For October Break we went to Carlsbad and met up with several fun families.

The more the merrier!

At night we lit big lanterns off over the beach.

They are biodegradable and so easy to launch.  

Check it out here

We also had to stop and say hi to Shamu on our way back home.

Fall Sports include:

Flag football

Club volleyball

Meg made the Molten blue team in club.  She loves her teammates and coach.

We are all looking forward to this club season.

Summer has finished high school volleyball and has decided to pursue tennis.

She is loving it and working hard.

  

She plans on trying out for the Mountain View Tennis team.

Tom and I just want our kids to find something they enjoy and will work hard at.

The cooler weather makes winter grass and a little volleyball on the front lawn possible.

It is so nice to see real green grass again.

Thanks to our yard expert for keeping things looking nice out there.

In October, we had a couple of feline friends come visit us everyday.  

I broke a long standing rule of never feeding neighborhood cats.

I can't believe I am going to admit this but these were special cats.

They were more like dogs than cats.
I liked having them around and then one day they just disappeared.
Word on the street is that they were
"cat-napped"---really.

Ike is perfecting his swagger.

He also finished up the Harry Potter series this month. 

We just finished putting in a pizza oven and are getting a lot of use out of it.

It gives us an excuse to invite family and friends over for dinner.

We have already made 180+ pizzas in it.  

I am still in YW and loving it.  

We attempted to play softball in the month of October-- but it was a little rough...so we decided a great game of kick ball is more our speed.  I love these girls.

Finished off October with a great Halloween.

Cole, Summer and Meg all helped run booths at our neighborhood carnival.

Ike went as Batman and had the scruffy voice down perfectly.

He has no problem getting into character.

My niece Molly with the littles and a baby girl due in March..... we can't wait!