First Flight

Yep, still moving to Minnesota. Crazy. It's hard for me to believe, but it's happening! We flew out last weekend to tour the city, find a place to live, and to meet some friends (who I'm sure will become great friends!). This was Olivia's first time on an airplane, and I was sooo nervous! But she slept the entire way there! Then coming home she was awake and kicking, as happy as can be, for about an hour of the flight, but thankfully we had an empty seat by us! Thank heavens.

Our trip out there was so wonderful. We spent an entire day looking at several apartments that fit the criteria of what we wanted, and the very last one we went to had it all! It's a two bedroom, two bath. It has a laundry room, garbage disposal, dishwasher, it allows small dogs, it has under-ground heated parking, it has an elevator, it has a pool, a fitness center, it was in our price range, and most importantly it has a bus-stop inches from our door for Ryan! We got more excited as we pictured our little family there. I think it'll be a great spot for us. It's 20 minutes outside of Minneapolis in a suburb called Plymouth. We've heard fantastic things about the area, so we're pretty excited about our decision.

The second day we were there we drove around, went to the apartment again to make some measurements for furniture, then we went to the Mall of America, where else would we have gone?! It is amazing. Three stories of shops and stores, with 4 department stores, and an enormous amusement park in the middle of it all, all indoors! They have an H&M and a Nordstrom Rack, so I'm set.

We still have quite awhile before we leave, so we're enjoying every minute we can with family and friends here in Utah, but we're excited to start our new lives in March in Minnesota!

3 Months

Our sweet Olivia is 3 months old! She has been cooing up a storm. She is learning to laugh, and squeal, and it gets cuter every time. She stills loves to lay on her changing table, and babble, laugh, kick and coo for hours at a time. She is sleeping like an angel! She'll sleep from about 10:30 pm - 4:00 am, eat, then sleep again until about 7:30 am. It's been so wonderful to have her adjusting to a schedule. Not only is she sleeping well, but she goes to sleep to quickly! One night instead of rocking her to sleep for 45 minutes, I just set her down in her crib wide awake, gave her her binky and that was that! She is just a little independent girl. When she gets fussy, she doesn't want to be held and soothed, she'd rather just lay down and figure it out herself. What a funny girl.

She is a great eater, about 5 minutes, maybe 10 at the most, and she's done! She's wearing size 6 month clothes. She still smiles every time we tell her she's a "pretty girl". When she does smile she kind of turns her head shyly away as if she's saying "oh stop...you're so silly". Liv has figured out how to suck on her hands and how to lift up her legs. I think she's close to rolling over because she so strong and is constantly wiggling! She holds up her head sooo well, and she's just starting really enjoy her little Bumbo! She also likes to use her legs and pretend like she's standing and jumping. She is such a strong little babe. 3 months has come and gone, and we love her more each day!

Scott and Lindsey Gibson

Yesterday one of my bestest friends from 4th grade on got married. Mrs. Lindsey Heiner Gibson. She married such a wonderful man, who is so kind, funny, handsome, and so perfect for her. It was such a wonderful day. The sealing was absolutely beautiful. And Lindsey's dress was a-mazing. It was so breath-takingly beautiful. She was such a gorgeous bride.

Lindsey has always been such a wonderful friend. We played on every soccer, basketball, and softball team together. We would talk about boys, boys and more about boys. She is such a great listener, and always had such good advice. She was a little shy around those she didn't know, but she is one of the funniest girls I know. We survived breakups together. We survived a car accident and a scooter accident together. We developed several "personalities" together (Butch, Kitty, Lars...the list goes on). Basically I love the girl to pieces and I am sooo happy she found such an amazing guy. Love ya Linds!

The happy couple...

All the girlies at the luncheon

And sweet Olivia who looked so stinkin' cute, but she was a trooper and slept in her carseat all through the sealing and then again all through the luncheon! We couldn't show her off then, so I'm showing her off now :)

(I made her onesie, you like it? I thought it looked darling.)

Oh the places you'll go...

Yes, the places we will go. Believe it or not we are packing up our things and on our way to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Were we planning on this? No. Did we see this coming? No. Was Ryan out looking for a new job? No. Are we going to miss our family, neighbors and friends? Yes. Are we excited? Well, the excitement is growing more each day. Do we know that Minnesota is the frozen tundra? Yes. Is Ryan's job too good to pass up? Most definitely.

Ryan got approached with such a wonderful opportunity at Target. No, he won't be wearing a red shirt and khakis to work each day, but a suit and tie. He is going to be a business analyst for Target at their corporate headquarters in the heart of Minneapolis. He has loved his job here in Utah, but an opportunity came knocking and we knew if we ignored it we would regret it.

We told ourselves when we graduated BYU that we would never turn down an opportunity because it was outside of Utah. We have also always wanted our own adventure out on our own outside of Utah, and we knew that if we didn't leave now we probably never would.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions: Where are we going to live? What are we going to do with our house? Do we try and sell it or rent it out? Should we sell Ryan's car? Needless to say there's lots to do, but we have 2 months to do it all. We are flying out this Thursday for the weekend to try and find a place to live. Then we are driving out the first week of March to start our new lives. We've heard so many great things about the people in Minnesota, all of the fun things to do, and the great wards. We're ready for this adventure, to be on our own, to strengthen our relationship with one another, to make new friends, and make many new memories.

Like I said, we weren't expecting this at all, but we know that our lives are not in our hands. All we can do is go forward with faith knowing that this is the best thing for our family. Minnesota here we come!

A Name and a Blessing

Today was a very special day for Olivia. She was given a name and a blessing by her dad, her two grandpa's and her Uncle David. Ryan did such an amazing job. She was just a perfect little angel and didn't make a peep. She slept through the whole thing and was as cute as can be. A few months ago my mom found the same dress I was blessed in when I was a baby, so she spruced it up and it was as good as new for Olivia to wear. It fit her perfectly and she looked so beautiful. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by our family and dearest friends. We love them all sooo much. We took plenty of pictures to remember this special day. Too many pictures? Never. I love to look back and remember it all. We love our sweet little girl. It was a perfect day.

All-Time Record

The Farnsworths are a bowling family. We love it. Growing up my dad had some perks with BYU, needless to say we went often. Since everyone had work off this week, of course we had to go. On our way there, Ryan asked me, "So, who's going to win?", I replied "I am. I'm feeling it.". And indeed I was. I bowled a 171, my all-time best performance ever. I was soooo happy. It was a "blogworthy" moment :)

Here's a cute pic of little Livy, just because.

Christmas Day(s)

We had a fabulous 3 days of Christmas with family this year. We went to the Christmas Carol at the Hale Center Theatre on the 23rd with the Jackson's. It's an annual tradition, and we love it. We then celebrated Christmas Eve that night, and had our own Christmas on the 24th. Christmas morning we had a delicious breakfast casserole (also a tradition), then we took the family picture on the stairs, then we discovered that Santa brought us a GPS (which will be very handy in a few months), and then we opened presents. Olivia was tuckered out from such a fun breakfast that she missed all of the present opening, but she got the most adorable little outfits! We relaxed and enjoyed being with family the rest of the day.

Then that night we celebrated Christmas Eve again, with the Farnsworth Family. We had a delicious pork chop dinner, played some games, and of course watched a few family videos. The next morning, we had another yummy Christmas breakfast with the famous sticky buns and oranges with powdered sugar. Then it was present time, again! Olivia got a beautiful blanket her grammy made for her, I got some awesome ear muffs, and Ryan was excited to sport his Vikings t-shirt. We got some other fun things, but we love spending time with family most of all. We did a puzzle, played some more games, and just enjoyed laughing and enjoying Christmas!

We then came home and had our own little Christmas. Liv got some Baby Einstein dvds, some books, and some more adorable clothes. Ryan got more a new knife set! I have been waiting for this day since the day we got married. The knives are so amazing, my old knives were sooo awful, thank you honey! He also thoughtfully framed "The Proclamation" and "The Living Christ" for our house. I mentioned it once, and he caught on pretty quick! Ryan got some very nice shirts and ties, some movies, and a digital frame for his desk. It was such a fantastic Christmas.

Most importantly, we loved the opportunity to remember and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I had a new found appreciation for Mary this Christmas, since I spent 2010 pregnant. I understood a small fraction of how she was feeling, the anticipation of something so great and amazing. She had tremendous faith and a great deal of strength. What an amazing holiday, and season.