What's Behind Door Number 1?

A NEW VAN!! I love love love it! Hooray! I have been cramming my three kids into the back seat of my Dodge Stratus for the last 18 months. So liberating. Tons of space, no more "he's bugging me" etc. Keyless entry--wonderful for when my hands are full, which they usually are. I can participate in carpool, hallelujah!! So excited...can you tell? :)

March Madness

I don't know if others feel the way I do. When I get asked "what's new?" The response is usually,"nothin' much." Not the case for March for the Swensen household. At the beginning of the month we welcomed Jake's brother Ben to live with us permanently. He is 16, soon to be 17. He is now a sophomore at Clearfield High School. So in essence we have kinda become parents of a teenager overnight. But, Ben is wonderful. So sweet, helpful...such a great kid and he has fit in with our family with perfect ease. The kids love him and so do we. We are so proud of him and the young man he is. So the last month has meant a lot of paperwork, registering at school, tons of phone calls to get affairs in order, buying a new car---finally a van to fit our family of now 6!!! Finishing the basement, and on and on. This partially explains the blogging hiatus. Ben we love you!! So glad you are part of our family! Ben at Christmas with my boys.

Random February Pictures

Luke and all his "guys".
Jedi Mickey, Murray the eel, Mr. Kunkel, Darth Vadar, Spacestar the tiger, R.J. the raccoon, and not pictured, Koopa Troopa. He puts them on his bed every day. He is pretty meticulous about it...hmmm, wonder where he gets that from? :)

Having a pretend sleepover in the living room. Lily was loving it as you can tell.

Playing dress up with friends and cousins. Luke wanted to be a mummy. I found him in the bathroom trying to wrap the toilet paper, so I helped. He is so elaborate in his playing. We have a little actor/performer in the making here.

What can you say about this? Simply adorable. My favorite valentine!!!

What you talkin' bout?

Lily turned 16 months on January 2nd. I spent the next few days writing down all the words she can say. Since then she has added new ones almost every day or two. But the original list at the beginning of the month was:
up
down
uh-oh
Dad
Luke
Ty
Mom
pretty
no
belly button
shoes
socks
bye
night-night
amen
cheese
snack
more
yes
baby
book
hello
banana
dog
woof
meow
soft

Random pics from December and January

Trying to show off the "piggies". So excited that I can actually do something with her hair. It makes it look like less of a mullet. She didn't really want me to take her picture here, can you tell?

Riding her car and wearing her "pretty".

Oops, she saw the camera. Now there is no hope of any more pictures that aren't of half her face or her hand reaching out to grab the camera. Kids always look so cute when they are playing without noticing you are watching. But they get distracted so easily, it is hard to capture the essence on camera.

Lily and Ty chillin' in the playroom. So cute. They are getting to be good buddies. Lily loves her big brothers.

Look out Primary here I come!!

First day of primary.

Ty has been so excited to go to Primary and be "big like Lukey!" I can't believe he is that big. Every milestone we have had with Luke always felt like he was so big, so ready. In a lot of ways I have a hard time seeing Ty for the big boy he is. I think I am trying to hang onto my baby boy. But he IS getting so big and growing more wonderful each day. I am so proud of him and love him so much!!

Christmas Day

The kids woke us up early this year for the first time! Well, I should say Luke woke us all up early this year. 6:00 a.m. he was ready to go downstairs. Poor Ty was sick, so we tried to let him sleep. But Luke, and truthfully Dad, couldn't wait too long. So we were pretty much done opening presents before the sun was even up. Having said all that, Christmas is the best as a parent. Nothing beats seeing your kids faces on Christmas morning!!

Playing his new video game.

Ty "helping" Lily unwrap.

Her new chair and "pretties" from Santa. She loved them!!!

Trios Batcave for Ty from Santa.

Koopa-Troopa from Santa for Luke. AT-AT from Mom and Dad. If none of that made sense to you...sorry, we speak our own language at our house, NERD!

Lily's baby.

Shy guy!! Hooray. The only thing Ty asked for. Notice the Harry Potter Legos on the floor--Luke's present from Santa.

This is what happened when we put on one of our new movies to watch. What a nice relaxing day. Such great memories to have for forever....notice she is still wearing her pretties. :)

Christmas Eve

Our sweet family. The holidays would be nothing without these people in my life. We are abundantly blessed to have each other and be so happy. It is easy to take for granted at times all that we have. But the holidays always seem to make things a little clearer. I love them all more than words can express. They are my world and I wouldn't want it any other way!!
They are the best gift I have ever gotten.

Grandma and Grandpa Ball (my mother's parents) joined us for Christmas eve. They are so good to be part of all that we all do. They have 8 living grandchildren. All married so that makes 16. Then they have 19 great-grandchildren. They are amazing to be so involved in all of our lives.

Grandma and Grandpa Burt also joined us for Christmas Eve this year. It was wonderful to have them and be able to show them some of our traditions. I have very fond memories of Christmas's at home with my parents and often those included ones when my grandparents joined us. My parents have 4 kids to share the holidays with so we were lucky to have them with us this year. My kids love them so much and were so glad to be with them that night.

I love these pictures of my kids in their new pjs. So adorable. I love the progression of the photos. My kids are great buddies and it give us so much joy to see that.

Uncle Ben came to visit for the week of Christmas. My kids loved having him here.

Lily reading her book her brothers bought for her.

Watching the Grinch. Waiting for everyone to arrive.

12 Days of Christmas Activities

Making candy trains.

Lily just liked eating it :)

Playing in the snow.
Sledding.

Building our giant snowman! Dad is awesome at snowmen we found out!

Lily hated it!

We rode the train downtown with our friends the Speredons to go see the lights at Temple Square. One of our yearly traditions.

I love this picture.

Luke, Ty and Rock.

The Quiet Book

For the past 6 months I have been working with my friend Sarah on creating a quiet book. It took us a long time. This is something I have wanted for all of my babies, but finally got around to making one for Lily. This is what she got for Christmas. The boys love it too though. Hopefully it will last.
Find the bugs hidden in the grass.

Matching patterns.

Match the animal to its pattern.

Match the animal to its home.

Build a sandwich, set the table, undo the buckle.

The stoplight.

Using snaps, learning shapes.

Button the flowers.

Flip photo books.

" What time is it?"

Lace the football.

Drive the car down the tracks.

Write a letter and mail it.

Dress the weather/season bear. Learn to use a zipper.

Tic-Tac-Toe

The cover. We actually split the pages between two covers to help out with fighting...hopefully. After all it is supposed to be a "quiet" book. We will see, first run is this Sunday.