I believe in God, do you?
January 8, 2012, 6:03 pm - James Farrer
I decided today that for me to vote for a presidential candidate they would have to believe in God and have some sort of an active faith. I'm not saying they have to be Mormon, but our country was founded in part on the saying "In God We Trust" and if they can't wholeheartedly agree then I don't think they should lead the country. And as my wife put so well, "they need someone higher up to answer to." Perhaps that's why it's one nation under God.
Christmas Eve and a Birthday
December 24, 2011, 8:59 am - James Farrer
I love my kids so much! I'm not really sure how early they got up this morning because they got up, fed themselves, and played relatively quietly letting us sleep in a bit. And even now that I'm up they are still playing great. Considering it's a holiday and a birthday today I'm amazed and grateful!
In Case You Haven't Heard
December 21, 2011, 10:19 pm - James Farrer
I think most people have heard through other channels but Amy JoAnn was born last week. Shauna had a doctors appointment and when asked how she was doing she responded with "Can you just break my water now?" and the response was "Sure let me call the hospital!". They weren't too busy so we went in straight from there and they induced her. After a few hours Shauna had three really good pushes and viola! Amy officially joined our family at 7:19 pm.
Weighing in at 8 lbs 6.8 oz. she officially tied Abby for being the biggest baby. She is 19.5 inches.
Waiting...
December 12, 2011, 2:16 pm - James Farrer
Last night we had a false alarm and almost went to the hospital for our fourth child to be born. We are excited and hope we are ready. We have been watching for the signs that it is time and have been seeing many of them but we are not quuite there. Last night I ran around trying to make sure everything was in order and we were getting ready to hop in the car and things started calming down.
It struck me today how similar waiting for a baby to come is to waiting for the second coming of our Savior. With both we are told it is the final hour but only God knows the exact time. Similarly we see the signs of the times all around us. Great wickedness and great righteousness, wars and rumors of wars, natural disasters of all sorts, and the gospel being preached just about everywhere in the world. He really could come any time. But in the meantime we need to live in a state of constant readiness and diligence.
Lucky for us we've been promised that if we are prepared we shall not fear. But no one ever said there wouldn't be a fair bit of anxiety over staying ready...
Who knows maybe today will be the day...for either.
Extraction Successful!
December 8, 2011, 8:50 am - James Farrer
This morning I had the unusual opportunity to perform an extraction. Alex decided to put a small Lego piece up his left nostril. I'm not exactly sure what prompted him to do it; the best guess I can come up with is that William wanted the piece back and Alex, in an act of defiance, decided to put it up his nose for safe keeping.
Shauna and I attempted to use tweezers to pull it out, but with a terrified two year old squirming it, if anything, pushed the Lego further in. Finally as a last ditch effort I used some carefully timed and applied pressure to force Alex to blow his nose in such a way that it came most of the way out without tools. From there Shauna could work it out with her fingers.
Needless to say it was a great wake-up call to all involved and I was a bit late to work.
The Car Adventure
November 12, 2011, 10:22 am - James Farrer
The kids and I had some time this morning and so we decided to make a movie. So we pulled out the tripod and got the camera set up on it. Then we went to town.
We made the movie Stop Motion style taking one frame at a time and movie the pieces bit by bit. To actually put the movie together we used Windows Live Movie Maker which made it pretty easy. We ended up making it at 10 frames per second and I think it worked out pretty good for our first try.
Enjoy!
After making one all together Abby wanted to make another. I showed her how and gave her a pointer or two, the most notable is about halfway through to move the pieces shorter distances. Not bad for a 7 year old.
Here it is on youtube.
9 years and Shelves
September 28, 2011, 9:20 pm - James Farrer
Shauna's done working now and things are supposed to be slowing down right? Actually it's not too bad. Though I'm not sure Shauna really knows how to slow down. She only made 4 quarts of salsa and bottled about the same of tomatoes. And that's in between getting the kids to school and everywhere else, making meals, and just generally making sure everyone is taken care of.
Yesterday I took the day off to spend some time with her for our Anniversary, 9 years, pretty crazy. With the baby coming soon we figured we'd spend the time getting things ready together. So we put up some shelves and started rearranging dressers and things to get ready. So far I'm liking shelves a lot better than the dresser, which will be going to Shauna, so her dresser can go to the kids. I'm not exactly sure how it's all supposed to work out but Shauna seemed pretty happy with the solution and I can't complain. My closet space is a whole lot more accessible now.
Utah Railway
September 13, 2011, 10:35 pm - James Farrer
Today I took the scenic route home from work about the time the sun was setting. While I was riding I came to a part of the road that parallels some train tracks and this time there was a train cruising along. We were going about the same speed and stayed roughly together until the tracks turned to go up the canyon and the road turned the other way and crossed over.
For the last mile or two there wasn't any traffic so I matched our speed, waved to the engineer who waved back, and watched the sun set through the wheels of the Utah Railway engines. It was quite a site to ride next to the train and it's pretty rare to see a Utah Railway engine. Pretty cool. It made the ride home on the motorcycle just that much cooler.
A Plethora of Pictures
August 8, 2011, 10:11 pm - James Farrer
I've added a whole bunch of pictures from the summer. Enjoy, and don't be afraid to pace yourself, there's a lot 
.
