Our little artist

Jaedyn has really started drawing a lot - she is also getting pretty good at writing her name! She's is such a cutie and absolutely LOVES preschool!

 J a e d y n

Our family as it would look if we were all butterflies.

This kid is AWESOME!

Carson got a shirt for his birthday - and he is madly in love with it!  Not only does he wants to wear it all the time, but he has taken to writing the saying from the shirt on to EVERYTHING!

Case in point:

on the back of school work.....

 When drawing pictures of skater dudes....

 When drawing pictures during Sacrament meeting.....

Drawing pictures to hang in his room......

Throw in a little math, a little geography and of course a picture of the Awesome kids' shirt......  

This kid REALLY is awesome ... and I LOVE being his mom!!

Luckiest Mom

Being a Mom is a tough job, but the benefits are AWESOME! I love the payments in hugs and kisses, to see my kids happy, to watch them grow and learn, and to see all of their accomplishments. These three kids have brought me such joy and happiness and I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that would entrust them in to my care. I feel like the luckiest mom on earth!

Families are Forever

On August 4, 2012 we were sealed together as a forever family!

What an amazing day, and amazing experience and such a blessing from our Heavenly Father!

It has been a long road for us to make it to the temple, but so worth the wait! There were so many of our friends, family, ward members and loved ones that were able to join us in the temple and/or at the luncheon we had afterwards. There was such an amazing spirit in the sealing room, and of course lots and lots of tears were shed.

Kelsi was able to be sealed to us after having many prayers answered that her biological father would give his permission, which he did. I was also able to be sealed to my parents, which was such a great experience.  Paul's cousin Clint was able to come to the sealing, after having suffered a stroke just a few weeks before, which was also a miracle in itself.

Kneeling across the alter from Paul, I was able to look him in the eyes, think about how much I love him, how far we have come together and how grateful I am to him for the man that he is. For how much he loves me and is willing to put up with me FOREVER! How grateful I am to Heavenly Father for blessing me with a wonderful husband, and entrusting those beautiful children into our care.

When the kids walked in, wearing their white clothes, it brought a tear to my eye, and took my breath away. They all looked like angels and I know that Carson especially had been looking forward to this day for a long time!

The Sealer also told us that there were loved ones there with us, that were on the other side of the veil, and I am certain that I felt my Grandma and Grandpa Swanson's presence in the room with us. I know Paul also felt the presence of some of his Grandparents and family members on the other side.

I was so happy to be able to finally take my family to the temple and to commit to my Heavenly Father and to my husband and kids to live my life so that I can return to live in Heaven with them all one day.

Yeah....It's been awhile!

The other day Paul asked me "Don't you blog anymore?" And after looking at the date of my last blog entry, I was feeling a bit guilty. I started blogging to journal our family and the things we have been up to, but I have never been one to be good at journaling :(

Well....I guess I will try to recap the past 4 months without getting too detailed or too

wrapped up in any one thing. Also...I haven't been great at taking pictures lately, so it might be hard to jog my memory (I can't seem to remember much of anything lately). I guess that's why we are supposed to journal more often, so we can remember what happened, remember how we felt about it and keep a memory for ourselves and for our posterity!

BiRThDaY's!

May, June, July and August are so crazy for our family with birthdays:

 Jaedyn, Morgan, Tanner, Kelsi, Grandpa "papa", Ryan, Ariya, Paul and Carson all had birthays from May to July. As you can seeJaedyn was turning "4".

Carson's birthday finally ARRIVED! He has been waiting all year for this! It's hard when his birthday is one of the last ones of the cousins for the year, but we finally made it!

sChOoL!

Kelsi graduated from 9th Grade and from Hawthorn Academy.

Here's Kelsi with her cute friends. I know she was super sad that she will be losing some of her friends to other schools, but it looking forward to going to High school!

Carson and Jaedyn also finished school at the beginning of June and were super excited for summer!

CaMpINg!!

Kelsi and her good friend Kiera went to EFY up in Logan. I was so excited for her to go, and I think they had a great time and were even spiritaully uplifted!

Kelsi also got to go to Diabetes camp with Kiera to help in the kitchen, and just got back from Girls camp - this girl has been the camping fool this year!

One of Kelsi's friends invited Kelsi and I to join her and her mom and a couple other girls up to Bear Lake for a "girls weekend". The girls had f un on the jet skis, and I had fun getting sunburned!

We went up to my dad's property over Memorial day and spent our first official weekend up at my dad's cabin. It is going to be such a beautiful retreat for our family to go to! The kids were able to make smores, get dirty, enjoy the cousins and had a blast just being up in the mountains!

We were able to go up to Heber only a few times this summer, but the kids loved riding their jeeps around, playing in the water and just enjoying the Taco Farm!

HoLIdAYs!!

This summer all the holiday's fell in the middle of the week - which made it hard to really go big on our celebrations. We did buy some fireworks, and were "treated" to about 10 nights of loud music and fireworks courtesy of the West Jordan Rodeo Grounds.

ADiOs, sAYoNaRa, GOoD-bYe SUmMEr!

This summer has just FLOWN by! We sure were busy, but it seems like there is never enough time to do all the things we want! We did have a very special event at the beginning of August - which I will blog about seperately. All-in-all it was a good summer, I wish I would have done things a little differently, but at least I will get another chance next year, right?

Carson is starting school on Tuesday and then the girls will start on the 27th and then summer will be officially over :( I need to be better about taking pictures, blogging and journaling our lives and of course spending more quality time as a family!

So long Summer of 2012 - it was fun while it lasted!

Mom, Is there really an Easter Bunny?

Carson is such an inquistive kid - and I am not sure how much longer we can hold up the charade. He was determined to ask enough questions to try and figure out how this whole easter bunny thing worked - and I am glad to say that we were able to keep the magic (well, at least for this year). We had a wonderful Easter spending time with family and enjoying bunnies, eggs and chocolate!

 Dont count your candy before it hatches.

Carson was the master egg finder - he was soo "eggs"cited for Easter! 

 Even Kelsi got a visit from the Easter bunny.

 Adorable kids!!!

Lined up by age for the hunt!

 I only found this many!

 The big Barbie bucket.



Anniversary in Washington D.C.

Paul and I celebrated our 6th wedding annivesary on March 3rd and decided that we need to spend some time alone together. We thought about where we might want to go, and since we have explored several cities on the West Coast of the U.S. I thought that heading East might be fun. We decided on Washington D.C. and were thrilled to know that the Cherry Blossom Festival would be going on around the end of March, so that's when we decided to go!
We had such a wonderful trip. We were able to see a lot of the sights on the Mall (a massive stretch of city streets lined with historical and functional government buildings) - we saw Arlington Cemetary, the Washington Monument, The Holocaust Museum, The Smithsonian Castle and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, The Vietnam Memorial, Mount Vernon, drove past the pentagon and the Potomac River. It is so nice to travel with my sweetheart - he is a fun traveling partner and it is a nice reminder why you are together. I also am so grateful to my Mom for watching my kids for the weekend, and Kelsi who helped out! We are so blessed to live in this beautiful country, where no matter where you go, there is always something fun to do and something beautiful to look at!

 Arlington National Cemetary

 The Changing of the Guard - what a quiet, respectful moment.

Tomb of the unknown soldier

Kennedy Memorial at Arlington Cemetary 

A school that teaches kids rowing. (Paul had to make a pit stop here, but I'm glad he did because it was a beautiful view!) 

The cherry blossoms in full bloom!

 The Washington Monument

We got a cherry lemonade and a blossom cookie in honor of the Cherry Blossom Festival. 

Mount Vernon - George Washington's Home. 

 Another beautiful tree in all it's glory!

Meet the Obama's? Close! 

 Paul and the President - well at least the President's house!

The Vietnam Memorial - such a cool place. I was humbled by all those names - those that were willing to sacrifice their life for freedom. What an honor to be there and pay my respects. 

They are renovating the reflecting pool, so this view wasn't the greatest. I was kindof sad, but maybe one of these days I will get to go back and see it all finished! 

 The Lincoln Memorial

While we were in the Lincoln Memorial we heard some "pops" outside. They were shooting off daytime fireworks and they were AWESOME! I'm not sure if they were because of the Cherry Blossom Festival, or for some other reason - but it was cool to be in the right place at the right time to see them!

What a wonderful trip! It was such a beautiful area to go visit, I had so much fun with Paul, and am so grateful to be able to visit some of the places and memorials that help remind me that I am truly blessed to live in America and am truly blessed to have 6 wonderful years of marriage and such an amazing family!