Happy New Year!

 

 

Ringing in the New Year with our best friends!

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

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!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from the Swensens!

More Pictures

Trying to decide which set I like best for the large prints to hang up.

Updated Photos of the Kids

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.

Home of the Eagles

Luke was lucky enough last week to have his name pulled in the lottery drawing for an excellent Charter School near us. It is called Oquirrh Mountain Charter School. We have had great experiences and teachers at Antelope Elementary and it was hard to say goodbye. But we felt strongly that Heavenly Father was leading us in this direction for Luke. Luke is a child who is extremely bright. This charter school offers more individually based curriculum to continue to challenge him. OMCS also focuses with larger intensity on math, science and history.

Luke seems to be adjusting well and the transition was not as difficult as we anticipated. Way to go Luke! We are so proud of you!


First Day at the New School. (Notice Luke still has his splint for a few more days and Ty can hardly open his eye....ugh).
So handsome in his school uniform.