twas the night before Christmas

... also known as Christmas Eve. 

This year Christmas Eve was done a little differently than usual because there were only 4 Burnhams in Pocatello, and only 3 Farnsworths. So, we had the bright idea to combine our Christmas Eve's into one delightful evening. First, the Farnsworth's treated us to a scrumptious dinner filled with German delicacy's. They have a German Christmas Eve dinner every year because Taylor's grandma is from Germany and that's become a tradition for them. 

Then Taylor and I exchanged gifts in front of the family. He put together this basket full of Disney stuff. There were clues taped to them, and on the last item (which happened to be a fanny pack--I talk about fanny packs a lot and how great they are..) he taped a sign that said this: 

 He could NOT have done better. I've told him all about every trip I've ever taken to an amusement park. Ok, maybe exaggerated slightly, but not much. I LOVE rides and amusement parks. We are leaving on Saturday and going with his sister and brother in law, Rachel and Steven McKee. Can't think of better company or a better activity for New Years Eve :) I made Taylor a picture where I drew memories of our dating adventures and then on the mat I glued pictures of the actual events. And I got him a shirt he'd been wanting. Not as cool as Disneyland, but what is? 

Here is the opening process: 

What an awesome Christmas Eve. To top off the evening, we shared our talents with each other. We had lots of musical numbers, and lots of instruments. Taylor graced us with another trumpet performance which was almost as good as the first time, and we had lots of combinations of cello, drums, trumpet, and piano quartets, duets, and trios. And we finished off with some nice Christmas messages. I just thought everything was perfect, and then for Christmas Day we relaxed, opened presents, talked to Taylor's brother Dallin, who is serving a mission in Nevada, and went to Les Miserables. So thankful for my favorite fellow and his family, and for my wonderful family. 

And so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and his Son, our Savior, who have made it possible for us to have eternal happiness with our families forever.  

And with that said,

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

festivities

I feel like I've been living in a dream lately! Everything has just been going so perfectly, I keep thinking, this can't be my life? My life doesn't go perfectly. I just about erased those last 3 sentences because I am probably going to jinx myself, but whatever. I am one happy lady. The festivities of the month have included ugly sweater parties, the eggnog challenge, my cello concert, the Mo-Tab Christmas concert, ward Christmas parties, and many other things. Here are a few pictures of all the pre-Christmas activities, cause I am going to do another post about Christmas Eve and Christmas day :)

 I can watch this video of Taylor trumpeting it up over and over and not get tired of it. Funny every time. He is attempting to play Good King Wencesslas, if it wasn't obvious enough. It's too bad he didn't stay with it since 6th grade band... he really could have had a future in it don't you think? Emily got tickets to the Motab Christmas concert and it was so amazing. We were on the 5TH ROW! And afterwards we saw President Eyring and Mitt and Ann Romney. Ummm it was exciting. Ok I'm gonna wrap up this post cause I am so excited to do the next one! Goodbye!

obsessed

Crazy how life just speeds up sometimes isn't it?

Sorry peeps, haven't been in the blogging mood lately. 

But today I reallyy am. I've spent the last day obsessing over these youtube videos. 

K, I'm sure we've mostly all heard of the piano guys, which consists of Jon Schmidt on the piano and Steven Sharp Nelson on the cello. I've kind of just been so so on them, until recently. Now that I've taken up the cello, these guys have become AWESOME to me. I just love the cello... it's beautiful and challenging and I just want to become good at it so bad. And of course, having played the piano since I was in first grade, I love and will always love that too. So without further ado, please give these a gander. 

This first one you will love for it's Christmas spirit... ah the ending is adorable.

This one is just plain awesome..

And this last one is the one that started it all. I've been obsessed with this song for a couple years now, but I didn't realize it was a piano guys song. I listen to it every Sunday, without fail. Sometimes I don't like watching the video even, just listening to them.

The others one I like are We Three Kings, Bring Him Home from Les Mis, and the Christina Perri cover of "A Thousand Years". Beautifulness. I am so grateful for music. And I'm SO excited to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert this weekend with my favorite human Taylor, and my other favorites, Emily and Alex.

And before I end this post, I must implore you ALL to vote for my mother's picture she submitted to the Idaho State Journal Christmas photo contest. It's a picture of my nieces and the top 3 submissions win prizes. We are currently borderline between 3rd and 4th place. Have some holiday love in your hearts and vote, it takes a few minutes to sign up but once you do it's super easy to vote. And if you're already signed up, make sure you vote every day til the end of this week!! I'm inserting the link but who knows if it'll work, if it doesn't then go to my facebook page and you'll find the link.  THANK YOU!!

 http://isj.upickem.net/engine/Details.aspx?p=V&c=74290&s=27535278&i=1

November blessings.

I am very excited that the month is November. I love the October-December stretch, and November is when things really start getting good. I have long loved the Christmas holiday, but a few years ago I made the big decision: 

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. 

Yeah guys, it's true. 

Part of the reason for this is because it kicks off the Christmas season. The other part is that I feel like I personally spend too much time thinking about what I want, instead of being grateful for what I have. I love the message of Thanksgiving, I love the atmosphere, I love the food, I love that the sun is often shining and people play football in the morning and there aren't any presents to distract people.. it's all about family time. I can't WAIT for Thanksgiving! 

So here is my first November event: Running the Just Cause Half Marathon. 

This is some of us at the top before we started..

This guy won some serious brownie points. Made me signs and cheered me on and even the rest of the Farnsworth clan came out to help me run up the last hill. And seriously, I needed the help. I was exhausted. But it was totally worth it, and since then I can't help but feel so blessed! 

-I have a body that is capable of a lot more than some people's bodies.. as in I have two legs that work, a heart that functions correctly, etc.

-I have an awesome family that came out to support me

-I have the cutest boyfriend, and his family is also awesome

-The weather was perfect and continues to be (seriously it feels like September, not mid November) 

-So fun to have friends who ran it too so we could cheer each other on, make fun of each other and ourselves...friends are good.

November 6: Today I voted. Grateful I have this privilege. Ready for the election to be OVER... wow, so sick of it. I wish I could get into it and be passionate like some of you are, please don't be offended by my apathy. But I did vote, and I did research some of the important things, so don't freak out. Did I still have to check a few boxes randomly because I had no clue who the people were? ehhhh....

This weekend my family is coming to town. My oldest brother and his family will be here.. they recently moved from Logan to Washington, so we don't see them nearly as often. In fact, this is the first time. It will be so great. And Taylor's family is having an early Thanksgiving this weekend, so that's right folks. I get to have not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners. Can't wait for the weekend to be here. And good luck to whoever your presidential candidate was :)

in the spirit of halloween..

All I can say, is somebody at church has a lot of Halloween spirit. 2 Sundays ago in Provo, we were walking out of church and this is the sight that my sister Jan stumbled across first, making her yelp and jump back. 

bahahaha. I love it. 

Happy Halloween!!

October vacations.

Gosh I love October. My birthday, general conference, perfect fall days... it's so great.
And I love October because sometimes in October, we go to southern Utah.
Last time I went to southern Utah in October, here's what happened...

We went canyoneering (for those who don't know... it's hiking in slot canyons and repelling down parts of it). I just happened to trip over a rock while walking and landed on my face. It hurt! But I healed and all is well, much to the relief of my mother, who worried I would never date again :)

Here's what happened this past weekend in Southern Utah.... 

  

 

Left to right top to bottom: 

-Zion National Park... so gorgeous. Such a good view.
-Repelling down into the slot canyon!  So cool!
-HUGE Tarantula that scared the heeeeck out of me. I was the

first to spot it, and yes I screamed. 

-Just takin a little photo break in the slot! 

Might I mention, the weather in southern Utah was right around 75-80 degrees every day? It was wonderful. I wasn't exactly prepared for it though, I was expecting chillier and failed to bring a single pair of shorts, besides my running shorts. It was nice to run down there- didn't have to bundle up like I do here now! The snow is killing my desire to run.

This is the view from the cabin in New Harmony that we stayed at. The five fingers! Awesome view. New Harmony is about 20 minutes south of Cedar City. It is such a quaint, cute little town. And Cedar City isn't large, but it's home to the famous Shakespeare Festival. And this year, Cedar won the bid to host Les Miserables at their Shakespeare Festival. It was the full length, full cast, exact same version that they show on Broadway, production. And what a production it was. There was hardly a dry eye in the theatre by the end of the play. It was SO good. Every actor, every voice.. phenomenal.  

And here are a couple more pictures to top off this post:

Basically we canyoneered, toured Zion, went to Les Miserables, got attacked by Box Elder bugs, played games, ate fabulous food, and had an awesome weekend. Can't wait until we go back!

If I weighed 300 lbs..

Then "Big girl, you are beautiful" would be my theme song. 

I LOVE THIS SONG. Was introduced to it last year and I kind of forgot about it, until this morning I woke up with it stuck in my head. What the heck? Don't know where it came from, but then I realized, I must buy this song. A stroke of luck I like to think. So I've probably listened to it 7 times today and it just gets better each time. So fun. Will be a great addition to my running play list! It's kind of a really dumb song, but that's not important. It's got some sentimental value to me along with a killer tune so it's a winner to me. I've got to delete itunes before I spend all my money buying songs. Seriously, it is a weakness :) 

Guess who had a birthday 2 weeks ago? Yep, my sweet mom. I love this picture of her.

 Guess who had a birthday a week and a half ago? Yep, my sweet friend Lisa Wall!

And guess who had a birthday 4 days ago?

 What a great stretch of birthday celebrations. I probably had one of my favorite birthdays ever! Everyone came to town to celebrate and I felt so special :) Jan and Judson and the kiddos came which is always a party, and Taylor also came, even though he was sick all weekend. He made such a big deal about it being my birthday, which of course I loved. Juline was even in town and we went to our friend Holly Fillmore's baby shower, who is the cutest pregnant girl ever, fyi. My birthday was Sunday, so we just watched conference, relaxed, and of course ate delicious food. Crunchy french toast, roast, rolls, and what's a birthday without a birthday cake? 

Judson was the genius behind this beaut. The difference between most of his cakes and this cake was that this one was not only edible, but also delish. Even more delish the 2nd day in fact.

Other scenes from the weekend: 

My mother thought it would be hilarious to buy wax lips and make me wear them. She just sprung it on me while I was opening presents. You can't tell, but I am smiling huge behind those wax lips. They tasted disgusting. And in this next picture you will see that even those gigantic lips can't cover my own gigantic bottom lip. 

Impressive right? They didn't call me voluptuous in high school for nothing. And I don't resemble Brandy just because of the color of our skin.. 

Brill, OR Jandy. Take your pick. I actually don't see it THAT much, but one time Judson changed my profile picture to Brandy as my celebrity look-a-like, and I got so many comments. True comments that can be found on facebook: "Jill, I really thought you painted yourself black when I first saw this," or "Jill, this really does look just like you!" "You're black?" "You are the white Brandy. Or she could possibly be the black Jill" Hahaha. I am also often called Scarlett because people tell me I look like Scarlett Johansson. Honestly, I see more resemblance between Brandy and I, but I won't complain about being compared to Scarlett.

BUT, I digress. Basically it was a rad birthday. Next week we head to Cedar City for Les Miserables, canyoneering, and good company. Can't wait for more fun to come!