From the mouths of babes...

The FedEx guy brought some boxes to our house. As he was leaving I said, "Thank you! Merry Christmas!" Of course the kids had to follow suit. First Chase, "Thank you! Merry Christmas!" And then Amelie, but of course she added her own twist, "Thank you! Merry Christmas! Cheerio! Happy Birthday!" hahahahaha

From the mouths of babes...

We took the kids down to the Riverwoods tonight because they give free carriage rides around the shopping center. While we were taking our carriage ride and enjoying the pretty lights, we passed by Heather's salon, which reminded the kids that she is up at Nana and Papa's house. Amelie and Chase said they both wished they were at Nana's house. Hoping to make them feel better Rick replied, "Well, I don't care where I am as long as I'm with you guys," to which Chase replied, "Yeah, I still wish I was at Nana's house."

Christmas at Temple Square

I love Christmas at Temple Square. It is just beautiful.

We're maxed out for strollers now, although I guess technically we could both be pushing doubles, but hopefully by that time we'll at least have one child that prefers to walk.

My favorite moment of the night was when the kids asked if they could go inside the temple, and Rick pushed them up to the gate, as close to the temple as they could get, and explained what the temple was and how they could someday go inside. As I watched him I remembered the day we got married there, how Rick looked, how I felt. Now I was watching this same man, now a father, tell our own children about how they could go there someday. My how time flies. The Spirit was there and it was a precious moment.

My second favorite moment of the night was driving home in the car, holding Rick's hand, with three sleeping children in the back.

Looking at the nativity on the water.


I love lights! I don't know how they get this many lights on each tree??! I read in the friend that they start decorating Aug 1st and take down by Mar 31st. That's 8 months out of the year!

Kung Fu

Chase saw Sawyer on the floor like this and exclaimed, "Look mom! He's doing kung fu! Just like Kung Fu Panda!" Hilarious. I asked him to show me what kung fu looked like and this is what he did. Hmmmm....I guess it DOES look like kung fu.

Let it snow

Chase was so excited to get this snow shovel that was "just his size" so he could shovel snow like daddy. He shoveled a nice little walking path in the middle of our backyard, not exactly the area I was hoping to get cleared but great job nonetheless.

Amelie busied herself eating snow, while watching Chase do all the work. She's a smart cookie.

Visiting Santa

Santa Claus and his reindeer just so happened to be visiting Thanksgiving Point this year, so we took the kids by to say hello. You can tell by the above picture that they weren't too excited to see Santa.....uh....I mean they were absolutely ecstatic! The reindeer were cool too, but it was FREEZING outside so staring at them didn't last long.

Random going ons at our house

My Growing Boy. He already looks so different from when he was born, and those baby blues are definitely turning brown. It will be so fun to see what a brown hair brown-eyed Swensen looks like.

Didn't quite make it to her mouth.

We got creative and made "reindeer hats" one day. The kids loved them and practically wore them around for 2 days straight, until I threw them in the garbage after excessive ripping and taping, ripping and taping.

From the mouths of babes...

Some cute things the kids said today.

Amelie asked me if she could watch Sponge Bob.
My reply: No, I don't like sponge bob. It's not a very good show. They say naughty things sometimes.
Amelie: No mom, YOU don't have to watch it. I'll just watch it by myself.
(Not really what I was getting at.)

I told the kids they could help me put up the Christmas Village before bed. We got out the box and put everything together. Just after I turned on the lights to light up the village Chase says with full meaning in his voice, "What a pretty pretty day. What a pretty Christmas day."

I've been feeling pretty annoyed with all the toys laying around the house lately. It seems that no matter how many times I ask the kids to please put their toys away after they play with them, it doesn't happen. So as they were getting in bed tonight I said, "We're going to start a new rule tomorrow. If I see your toys laying around the house anymore, I'm going to put them in a big plastic sack and put them in storage, so you can't play with them anymore. So if you want to keep your toys out, you need to PLEASE put them away after you're done playing with them. I'm tired of having toys laying all around the house." To this, Chase began to cry and through his tears stuttered, "Mom, we're doing the best that we can. I just don't know if I can do that." Awww, my heart was immediately softened as I saw into his little mind of how hard he felt he was working to do as I had asked, and felt that he was still coming up short. I gave him a hug and told him not to worry, that I would help. I'm grateful for these tender teaching moments as a parent.

My Birthday - 28!

If you asked me how my birthday was going in the morning, I would say fantastic. Rick took me to see New Moon, and we had lunch afterward at Five Guys, this yummy new burger joint here in Utah. It was delicious.

But ask me in the afternoon how things were going, and I would say miserable. Poor little Amelie tried to pick up the wrong end of a hot curling iron and scorched her hand. She was in terrible pain and crying for the longest time. I couldn't get her to take her hand out of cold water for like 6 hours. It ruined her fun outing with dad to the football game, which meant that I had to stay home and take care of her AND the new baby, on my birthday, instead of going out and having fun with my mom.

BUT, my sweet husband new just what to say and do to make me feel better, and my family threw me a wonderful party that evening that made me feel so special. We had the most delicious chocolate cake ever! And I got some fun gifts that I'm so excited to use, especially my new pancake griddle. No more making one pancake at a time! And I had a beautiful, healthy new baby boy to share the day with us, and I feel so grateful to have him join our family.

The many faces of Sawyer

Thoughtful

angry

streeeeeetch

yaaaawwwn

ooohhh cool

hmmm

tired