Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Happiest Place on Earth!!


Getting Ready to Go! The kids are standing under their letters they recieved from their favorite characters and the advent calander we made to count down the days till Disney! Anticipation is awesome!

Passing through Vegas. Here we are at the M and M factory.

Goofy's Kitchen! So much fun! We started our week off with a character breakfast before our kids even got to enter the park. It was a perfect way to begin the magic! Belle and Aurora were everyone's favorite. They spent a lot of time talking to my kids. What a riot! The food was great too! Now onto the parks! Whohoo!

 The Jedi Training Academy. Not only did one, but both of our boys got picked to be trained in the ways of the force. However, a disturbance in the force is felt by their Jedi Master and out comes Darth Vader and Darth Maul. So awesome! Each of our boys got to test their skills with the lightsaber against Lord Vader! We had been dreaming of this event in particular since Luke was a baby. We had seen this and couldn't wait to one day bring our kids back to see it. So perfect!

Characters!! We had great luck to get so many characters and wait in almost no lines at all. Lily was apprehensive of characters in full costumes. But she loved the Princesses. Minnie scared her half to death. She still talks about that. Too funny!

The Princess Breakfast at Ariel's Grotto! So awesome! The original idea was just for the girls to go, (Mom, Grandma and Lily), but after Goofy's Kitchen everyone wanted to join in the fun here too! I love Ty's face with Belle. He really liked her. She gave him a big fat kiss on his forehead and he didn't wipe it off all day! The Princesses were so adorable with all of my kids. Lily was beyond exstatic! She was so intensely excited. Priceless!

Here is a random selection of some of my other favorite photos. It is so hard to try and capture it all in one blog post. But truly is was a perfect week! We loved getting to share it with Grandma and Granpa. Such special memories that will last forever. Thanks Mom and Dad for going with us and making it that much more special. Jake and I kept saying on the way home, there was nothing I would change. It really was perfect. The best week of our life, topped only by our honeymoon, also spent in Disneyland! Truly the Happies Place on Earth!

(To see the pictures up close just click on them and it will bring them up so they are easier to see.)
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Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

 
 

Ringing in the New Year with our best friends!
 
 
 
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Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Morning

 Checking out stockings.

 Lily calls chap stick "some". She got Princess "some's" from Santa.
 Ben got BYU stuff.
 From Santa: A 3 DS!!!



 From Santa: Princess Dress Ups!
The big present...we leave for Disneyland in 13 days!

I love Christmas morning. There is nothing better than seeing the light of a child's eyes. I thought that we would feel a little disappointed with nothing to open under the tree (since everyone got a vacation for Christmas). But it was really nice actually. It made shopping easier, wrapping easier, planning easier. We had a great morning. It was short and sweet (and it started at 5 a.m. ---Luke was too excited to sleep.) One of my favorite Christmases ever.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Having Fun For the Holidays


Our Ugly Sweater Party with friends and neighbors.
The Rappleye's, the definate winners!

The Hegsteds

I love my husband! He cracks me up! Totally channeling Randy Quaid from Christmas Vacation.

Tom and Lindsey.

Going with Luke's class to see the Nutcracker.
 

Going Sledding!! My kids prefer winter to summer any day. Weird huh? They love to play in the snow

Burt family Nativity.
Cast: Sydney-Mary
Alex-Joseph
Ty and Mom-Shepherds
Lily and Brooklyn- Angels
Ben and Luke-Wise men
Baby Ben-cow.
So adorable. I love that we do this every year.
 
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Cooking up some Christmas fun!

I love Christmas Eve. We always have a ton of fun plus we always have a great spiritual moment or two. A great combination for lasting memories. So before our evening devotional, we prepare for the evenings festivities. We listen to music, make cookies for Santa, watch the grinch and just be together. Here are the cute kiddos, posing, instead of getting to work :)
My sweet Tyger! He and Lily are always such big helpers in the kitchen. They love to cook with Mom. I think Ty likes it because he gets to taste test. :)
Crazy Luke! Always the preformer. I love it!
Mistletoe Princess.
One of my favorite Swensen traditions is the 12 days of Christmas. I was bad at getting pics of all our events, but here is one night where we made a gingerbread house together. Can we say sticky? Jake was about to puke I think. We all know how he feels about being sticky. But the kids loved it!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from the Swensens!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

More Pictures


Trying to decide which set I like best for the large prints to hang up.
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Updated Photos of the Kids

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Monday, October 24, 2011

Halloween

He looks just like Woody in this picture. I love it!
To infinity and beyond!
Saying "Yee-haw!"
Ben wasn't super happy that we were making him dress up and go to the ward party. He had been napping.

Ken and Barbie. A little cheesy, but we had fun.
These are pictures from our ward Trunk-or-Treat on Sat.