I went into Cameron's room the other night and could not find him.  As I looked around I discovered him here, in the closet under the clothes.

This totally handsome guy had to do a report on a biography or an autobiography.  He chose to do it on his Great Grandfather Kenneth Lee Farr.  He dressed up in Grandpa's Navy Uniform and did such a good job on his report.  He was confident and knew what to say, I was pretty proud.  Here is a copy of the report he wrote on Grandpa (he did not quite finish the book so sort of wrapped it up quickly near the end):

  Life in the Farr West

By Kenneth L. Farr

I am Kenneth Lee Farr Jr. I was born July 30^th 1930 in Ogden, Utah. My dad’s name is Kenneth Lee Farr and my mom’s is Leola Manzel Farr. There are 4 kids in my family; me, Owen, David, and Leola Jr. Leola is the oldest then me, Owen, and David is the youngest. Owen died at 21 months, it was one of the hardest times for our family and especially mom and dad.       

One time my friend Harold and I were walking home from a party down a back ally. I tripped and my hand felt a leg. I got up and started running. Harold yelled after me, “what just happened?” I told him to just start running. We got to the first house and asked if we could use the phone. I called the cops and told them that I had found a dead body. When they found it, it turned out to be Harold’s dad drunk. He went to a hotel with bars for a couple of days.

          I joined the navy when I was 17 and married Marlene at age 20. Our first child, Michael, died 3 hours after birth. We had 5 more kids, Carol, Becky, Kenneth Lee III (Kenny), Michele, and Kathy.

          We moved to Washington a few years later. I became a fire man. And Marlene and the kids ran an A&W drive in that we bought.  We later moved back home to Utah and built a house in Mountain Green where we still live today.              

As of Late....

It has been a busy 2014 so far:  

• The boys have started playing basketball and indoor soccer all in the same week (it always happens like that I swear).  3 games each Saturday. 
• We have been to the dentist for Shane's 3 fillings and Dakota to get 2 more teeth pulled. Dakota totally gagged and threw up everywhere, it was sad. 
• We found out that Dakota needed glasses and at the same time got Braxton some new ones.  He had been wearing the same prescription for 2 years, and his eyes had gotten a bit worse.  
• Cameron lost his first tooth.  He tied a string to the tooth and the other end to a Remote Control car and zoomed it away and out came the tooth.  3 visits from the tooth fairy in 1 week, one for each boy!! 

 How does a mom keep up? (Or her checkbook?)

Twins or What?

Some funny conversations with the kids:

Cam:  Mom  i wish i had googleplex dollars
Me: There is more to life than money
Cam: But mom, then I could buy all the toys and also the things I need and I would still have one hundred dollars.

We went to get new shoes for me for work.  Braxton and Dakota saw where we were and said "sweet we needed new shoes."  I told them they think money grows on trees to which they replied, "No it doesn't, it grows in Dad's bank account"  

Crazy boys!
I also wanted to remember how sweet my Dakota is.  I sometimes feel like in the preexistence when the Lord told me I would be blessed with 3 boys that I agreed only because He agreed to send me my sweet, kind, gentle Dakota to bring the crazy down.  He is so thoughtful and just cares so much about everyone.  At church one of his Primary teachers has a disease that makes it so she has a hard time with her movements.  It was her birthday and they presidency had given her a treat.  It was on her lap, and a few minutes later Dakota came over and put it in her bag for her.  These are daily occurrences for this gentle little guy.  He needs no coaxing, he just thinks of it all on his own.  The boys got their PlayStation3 taken away because of fighting and not listening.  On Saturday night after another rough day, I found him in his bed crying.  I asked what was wrong and he said "We are never going to get the PlayStation back".  He tries so hard and I do love him so!

In the mind of a 5th grader....

I went to Braxton's class to help today and was asked to have them read their journals to me.  It was so interesting.  The start for the day was What can I do to make my home a better place?  It was interesting to see that each child took a different spin on the topic.  Some kids went with more kindness, more helping, less fighting, clean up after yourself, etc.  While other kids went on the opposite spectrum and built swimming pools inside their home or a volleyball court, or just a mansion.  It is interesting to see the difference between life at home (family, Jesus, Kindness) and the House really are.

I was especially interested to see that Braxton's was to build an ocean in our backyard.  Of course, Shane talks of such things all the time, or moving where there is an ocean in our backyard.  I love how much the boys soak in the things we say and start to love them the way we do.  One other funny thing from his entry last week is he talked about how I made it the worst Christmas Vacation ever because I pulled out his tooth that wasn't even loose.  I laughed, it was so loose it was barely hanging on, but I was mean and pinned him down and pulled it out.  Kids and their perspectives.

Christmas 2013

 Shane took some up close photos to our Christmas Decor.  I think they turned out pretty nice.

 This is our attempt at a family photo in everyone's new church clothes.  Some were good, some not so good, just as is to be expected.  

 My favorite, minus Cam's awesome eyes.  Just take that boy up above where Brax, Dakota and I are being silly, and put him right there, and the perfect cute photo.  I suppose that is just how life is, not perfect or cute all the time, but always an adventure.

 Christmas Morning, where do I begin.  I suppose it all started at 10:30 when Shane and I had just finished the last minute touches, when we were headed down the hall and out comes Braxton and heads straight into Dakota and Cam''s room.  He thought it was morning!  We snagged him just in time to stop a Christmas Eve nightmare.  We sent him back to bed and off to be we went.  Well Braxton got up again at 1:30, 1:45, 2:15....  He was so so so excited that when he came in our room at 3:00 I just could not resist any more.  No puking this year, so we were happy about that, but wow I did not get a wink of sleep that night (and neither did he).  So at 3 am, we dragged the other boys and Shane out of bed and opened gifts.  The bike and the shirts were from Shane, he rebuilt Troy's old BMX bike for the boys and it turned out awesome.  He and I made the shirts from transfer paper and they say RAD Racing (a bike movie from the 80's).  They were really excited.

 Dakota and his microscope.  This is the only thing he wanted, and so far has explored many things.

 Braxton got a model airplane that he still needs glue to put together.  

 Cam got a race car track (above), and is showing me one of his cars.  Braxton set it up for him and played with it all morning long.  

 At 5 am it was back to bed for everyone.  I went in my room and everyone else stayed in the living room.  We all crashed out for about 3 hours, then got up and played some more.

 Overall we had a great year.  We had parties with each of our families that were enjoyable and good to see everyone.  We also spent countless hours just the 5 of us, which I always love.  It was exhausting as Christmas usually is but a great reminder of our Savior's Birth and the good in all people.

This is a little note from Dakota's teacher that I had to remember, it is so sweet. It says Dakota is a gift to our classroom because...he is such a nice, kind hearted young man.  He never says anything unkind.  He is patient and he just keeps plugging away--he is a very positive kiddo!

That is the best kind of Christmas present for a mom.  It made my heart smile and my eyes tear up.