Swensons Rock!

Santa Cruz

2014-01-08T20:26:00.001-08:00

For the week of thanksgiving we met up with Grandma and Grandpa Swenson, Uncle Matt, Aunt Amy, Todd, Eve, Jonah, Grandma Burgoyne, Uncle Brad, And Aunt Amy (the girls are lucky enough to have two Aunt Amys). We had a great time playing at the beach and saw so much sealife- dolphins, seals, otters, sand crabs... We also went on a hike to see where thousands of monarch butterflies live during the winter time. With the warm weather and eucalyptus trees it provides a wonderful haven for these butterflies.

At about 3:30 pm the night before thanksgiving Grandma Swenson discovered that the Monteray Bay Aquarium would be open on thanksgiving. We spontaneously decided to quickly go back to the house and make thanksgiving dinner that night and go to monteray for a day at the aquarium on thanksgiving. It was wonderful and I might be tempted to it that way again next year.

While we were in Santa Cruz Leila was lucky enough to have her 10th birthday and spend the day with family. We spent the day at the beach and then out to dinner for pizza that night. Then ice cream cake for desert. It was great!

We love you Santa Cruz and can't wait to go back!

Discovery Kingdom

2014-01-08T20:03:00.001-08:00

Grandma and Grandpa Swenson decided to give money as a gift this year. We all decided to use the money for season passes for Discovery Kingdom. We had so much fun and can't wait to go back! Thanks grandma and grandpa!

Joy

Amelia Lost Another Tooth

2013-04-02T06:45:00.001-07:00

One of Amelia's top front teeth has been extremely wiggly for a couple of weeks now. Yesterday afternoon out it popped. Now she has her three front teeth missing at the same time. It is totally cute and I NEED to get a picture of it.

Happy Easter!

2013-04-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Lucy and Joy

Joy, Leila, Eve, Amelia, Lucy, Iris, Khalil, Rory

Iris and Joy

Sam and Joy

Amelia, Leila, Lucy

Dying Easter Eggs

We had a wonderful Easter weekend here in Sacramento. The weather held up for us too. We went to the Turpin's house for an Easter celebration and delicious dinner on Saturday evening. Then Sunday the girls found their Easter baskets. We went to church- Sam and Leila sang some beautiful songs with the choir. In the evening we dyed Easter eggs. I sure do love this bunch!

Daddy Daughter Campout

2012-09-08T16:02:00.003-07:00

Sam took the three older girls to the Daddy Daughter Campout that has become a tradition for the ward that we belong to for church. It is just Friday to Saturday morning and close by. The girls came back looking pretty ragged and made the bathwater pretty brown and so judging from that they had a fabulous time. Joy stayed home with me. When everyone left she kept asking where everyone went. We went for a walk down to the corner market and got a little treat- frosted animal cookies for Joy and a Butterfinger for me. Then we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We got home and Joy was ready for bed. I watched a movie and headed to bed as well. This morning we both slept in until 8 o'clock. It was a great weekend for all.

42 Tompkins Avenue

2012-09-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

A Blast From Erica's Past

I woke up this morning thinking of Babylon, New York. One of the many places where I grew up. I believe we lived there during 2nd-3rd grade, it may have included 1st. Our address was 42 Tompkins Avenue, which I always thought was cool because it rhymed. Funny thing is that I just googled it and although there are no views of the home from the streetview, there are several overhead views. The home looks pretty similar from what I can tell as to when we lived there. The thing that I find fascinating is that the home is on a peninsula of a peninsula. I had no idea that we were that close to the water. The years that we lived there the water was closed due to some sewage spill or something like that, so maybe that was why. To me, my street was everything to me and anything beyond our little street was not part of where we lived.

Our Street:

Our street was filled with kids. This is where I learned how to ride my bike and also where I recall teaching my little brother, Bradley, how to ride a bike. I came home from school one day and just got on my bike and started peddling and I just did it. I am sure there was a lot of time and energy put in before that moment by a parent, but I just remember that magical feeling of that afternoon where I just started riding. I told Brad about it and he said something like, "Oh, really?" and then he hopped on his red bike, which was like the tiniest bike I had ever seen and he did it too. Riding a bike on that street was kind of a necessity. All afternoon the kids up and down the street would hop on their bikes and ride in the street and play a game where you could not run over anything like a stick or a rock or anything else in the street. We played that game for hours. Then my friend that went to some advanced school would have to go inside to watch mathnet or something like that and then we would all go in different directions. Other things that I did: Play hide and seek around the whole street. Go to the Cohen's house who lived on the corner house up the street. They had an above ground pool in the summertime that we loved to play in. We would play games like whirlpool and marco polo in there. I remember debating with their little girl one afternoon about how pink and red clashed. I am pretty sure my mom must have told me that they clashed one day when I was insisting on wearing all pink and red. Anyway my friend's mom attempted to stop the debate by going and getting one of her own sweatshirts that had pink and red wide stripes. I remember thinking, or maybe saying, "then your sweater clashes". The neighbor kids and I had started a clubhouse. It was in one of our friends' dank cement basement. We all had to bring little knick knacky things to add to the prize bucket. My brothers thought the whole thing was pretty stupid almost immediately and I don't think they joined. Stickers were really cool then and so there were a lot of stickers. I had a sticker album that I spent a good amount of time flipping through. Sometimes I would head to my friend's house, the one that lived in the house that had the steep front steps and play barbies. She had the most amazingly beautiful eskimo barbie with a beautiful, soft, furry, white coat. That one was my favorite. I remember the school bus rides home from John F. Kennedy Elementary School. It took me a whole school year to finally figure out what the word eh-mer-jen-see (my pronunciation) was. I would say it over and over in my head and try to figure out what that dang word was. Maybe I got it because I finally got past that word and got to the exit word... who knows. Halloween was magical when we were coming home on the bus and we could already see some of the little preschool kids walking around with their candy bags on the streets trick or treating. This is the place where I got baptized at eight years old. I remember being out on my bike and having to go and park my bike to go inside and get ready for my baptism. One of my friends from up the street asked where I was going and I told them that I was going to get baptized. They asked my why I was getting baptized at 8 years old and then they told me that they had been baptized as a baby. They probably thought the whole thing was just as strange as I thought it was strange that you would get baptized as a baby. My dad had worked with me in the halls of our home, lit by bare light bulbs, on practicing how to bend backwards to properly be dunked under the water.

Our Home:
Let me explain the bare light bulbs thing. We renovated this entire house. Meaning ripped out walls, changed plumbing, moved the main entrance to the home from the side to the front of the house. We didn't even have stairs for a good amount of the time. To go to bed we climbed up a tall ladder to get up to the 2nd floor and to our bedroom. Notice that I only said bedroom. For a while all five of us slept in one bed- a bed that was a water bed, with no water, just a foam mattress. I think we were in the middle of renovating all the other bedrooms. I remember needing to be careful when getting on and off the toilet because there was a large hole right in front of the toilet. I have memories of all of us wearing masks and getting to knock down a wall as a family with our assorted crowbars, hammers, sledge hammers, etc... My mom had the biggest muscles ever. I remember coming home from school one day and my mom was on a ladder all the way up to the ceiling and she was holding up a giant piece of sheetrock to the ceiling and hammering it in, all by herself. I thought to myself, "oh maybe this is what my friend was saying when she told me that she couldn't play at my house because it was too dangerous". Yes, you did read all that correctly- my mom was a muscle woman.

Anyway, 42 Tompkins Avenue was a really great place for a kid to grow up and I am lucky that I got to live there for a few years. If anyone has a photo of that house, I would love a copy. :)

Looking for micro objects

2012-08-27T13:43:00.002-07:00

Last weekend we used up all of our family fun money at Discovery Kingdom, so we had to come up with something fun that did not cost a cent. Our friends the Turpins have been into geocaching recently and I had looked into it in the past, so we decided to try it out. We quickly cleaned the house and then headed out and made the mistake that most newbie geocachers do. We didn't really read up too well on what we were supposed to do. It was a two part cache. The first one leads you to the next and final cache. It took us quite a while, it was hot, there were poky stickers all in our shoes and socks, the kids were a bit tired and hungry... and we could not find that dang micro cache. Amelia and I were looking in one tree while Sam and the other girls and dog were looking in another tree, when Amelia's tooth came out and landed in a whole bunch of debris. To make a long story short, we found the caches, but never found Amelia's tooth. She wrote a note to the toothfairy and everything is good in the world. We are all excited to do more geocaching in the future, I think I will actually pay the $9.99 and get their office ap though. After the adventure we headed down the walking trails and to the lake. We all waded and Pascal had the time of his life playing fetch in the water. All this and we never even had to get in the car. It was a nice Saturday.

The new bridge that was recently built on the trail.
They are doing some amazing things on the trail.

Amelia's gap.

Pascal with his squeaky hot dog toy

Lucy playing fetch with the dog.

Lovely Leila on the river bank

Headed back home. Joy insisted on hiking on her own and carrying her own backpack. We start them young ;)
These girls are so much fun. The street looking thing is the bike path that goes along the river.

Discovery Kingdom!

2012-08-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sacramento has been experiencing a heat wave of 100+ temperatures for a couple of weeks. I woke up Saturday morning eager to escape the heat. We had some family fun money saved up and so we headed to San Francisco for the day. On the way to the golden gate bridge is a wonderful kingdom called Discovery Kingdom, a six flags amusement park. The girls squealed with delight and Sam said in gest, "Who wants to go to Discovery Kingdom instead?!" All four girls in the backseat replied, "I do!!!!". Well, let me explain that family fun money is money set aside each month that does not go toward bills, gas, food... the essentials... it just goes to pure family fun and we all have to vote on how we use it. I guess we got outvoted and we all had the time of our lives! Amelia said several times throughout the day, "What could be more fun than this??!!!?!!" It really was a lot of fun. We didn't exactly get the cool San Francisco weather, but we had plenty of chances to cool off with water rides, splash parks, frozen lemonade, and if we could have sat a little bit closer we could have gotten splashed by the the orca during her show.

Lucy and Joy in the teacups

Leila and Amelia in a submarine ride. They also went on several
wild roller coasters and rides with Sam.

Lucy and Joy loving the rides.

Leila and Amelia on the swings.

They even got to eat food from their favorite restaurant, Panda Express.

Waiting for the Orca show.

Lucy navigating our way through the park.

Amelia and Joy on the elephant ride.

Joy cooling off in the fountains with Amelia.

Joy is 2 years old!

2012-08-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's kind of a funny thing when a child turns two. You never know how they are going to react. I had been warning the girls for weeks that Joy is reaching two years old and a stage where she will be stubborn about wanting to do things on her own and the importance of her trying. I also warned them about how at times this stage is accompanied by a lot of tantrums. Well, as if on cue right off on the morning of her birthday was one tantrum after another. Amelia said, "oh no, I wish Joy weren't turning two". I asked her why and she said because of the crying. Amelia has a sweet heart and has a difficult time not rescuing those that are crying.

Joy and her potty book

Joy loves puppets

Contemplating life as a two year old.

Sitting in her little chair that her adopted Sacramento grandma brought over
holding a teddy and Hawaiian candies sent from Grandma Kay

A jungle puzzle from Lexi

We had the neighbors over for ice cream cake.
Joy blew out all the candles on her own.

At first Joy did not understand the whole present thing. She could not understand why we were giving her packages and then surrounding her with anticipation. When we told her who the present was from, she looked at us and then handed it to that person. Eventually she got it and was a very graceful birthday girl. She carefully looked at all the cards and enjoyed playing with all of the gifts. She felt like a million bucks. Every time someone came for a visit that day she answered the door with a big smile (as I whispered to them that today was her birthday) and the guests would give her a big Happy Birthday!

Joy we love you so much and so do so many more people!!!! Happy Birthhday sweetheart!

Swenson Family Reunion- Tahoe

2012-07-22T13:21:00.000-07:00

The Swenson Family Reunion was in Tahoe this year. All 19 cousins, 12 aunts and uncles, 1 grandma, 1 grandpa, and 2 dogs stayed at the Hodge Podge Lodge and loved it. I love that the kids got to know their cousins so much more. Even Joy who just barely turned two years old remembers her cousins names. We went to the beach, went for a hike, went on pony rides, relaxed and just enjoyed being with each other. There was an olympic theme, as this summer the olympics took place in England. Everyone was broken up into teams and had to compete in events. In the evening there was an awards ceremony complete with medals. We look forward to the next reunion and can't wait to see each other again.

Burgoyne Family Reunion 2012

2012-07-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

We were so lucky this summer to see so much family. Nate and Heidi came out to visit from Hawaii with their children Kezia, Ivy, Elysse, and Soul, as did Grandma Kay. Uncle Brad and his dog Sophie drove from Ukiah. We went to the Folsom Zoo, swam in our neighbor's swimming pool, went to the lake, played in the backyard, had a cousins birthday party complete with pinata and ice cream cake, and went for a hike. We also had some run ins with wasps. Our friends let them borrow their Volvo while here in Sacramento. It took a couple of wasp bites and some screaming girls before we realized that wasps had made full use of the car that had been otherwise unused for a couple of months. Uncle Nate saved the day with his mad extermination skills, but not until after filming a geico commercial. The next day at the zoo Aunt Heidi stuck her hand right into a wasp nest, after that the wasps were swarming the entire zoo. Aside from that good times were had and memories made. Thanks for the visit everyone.

Leila's First Backpacking Trip

2012-07-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

For Leila's 8th birthday back in November she received a backpacking bag and a promise to go backpacking this summer. We had a fabulous time and hope to make this a tradition when all of the kids turn eight. We chose Lassen National Park because that has been Leila's school class name for 1st, 2nd, and now 3rd grade. It is a peaceful park that is not overcrowded. We enjoyed seeing more animal tracks on parts of the trails than human's.

When Leila was asked in the evening after the first day of hiking, "Well, Leila, is it everything that you expected?", she responded that she was not expecting the food to be so tasty. And that she was not expecting to get so close to a dear. She was refering to the deer that ran into us on the way to Lassen. The deer seemed to be ok, she just got back up and ran into the woods. The damage to the car was side mirror knocked off and a few dents to the side of the car.

Getting ready for our hike. That is Leila's pack next to her. She carried her own sleeping bag,
clothing, sleeping pad, tent pegs and some water. She did awesome!

The start of the trail.

We hadn't realized that we would be hiking through cinders for the first 5 miles, which is essentually sand. Behind us is cinder cone. It erupted approximately during the 1650s.

Taking a rest.

Painted Dunes. After our little rest Leila had so much energy. She went full steam ahead and we had to work to catch up to her. This is one of Sam's favorite pictures. Nature is a great place for kids to be.

We loved finding trail markers. We are headed to Snag Lake.

And we made it! We had met up with a group of backpackers back at cinder cone that had told us of the perfect place to set up camp on a little penninsula on the other side of Snag Lake. We took their advice and were not dissapointed. It was so lovely and well worth the added extra mile to our trip.

Dinner on the first night. Macaroni and Cheese and a Thai Soup.
These freeze dried meals have gotten quite tasty.

Leila filling the wash basin to wash our dishes a little ways up from the water. Washing dishes was surprisingly one of the most relaxing things to do up there. Collecting water, using the sand and small stones as a scrubby.

The water filtering team.
The water was some of the freshest I have ever tasted.

Sam and Leila were sound asleep and snoring by 6:30 the first night. Erica followed soon after the sun
went down a couple of hours later.

Leila trying to stay warm the next morning.

Breakfast time. Oatmeal with dried fruit. Delicious!

Ready for a little day hike. On the agenda for the day: relax and enjoy nature.

Sam and Erica enjoying the morning.

This is one of my favorite pics.
A girl and her dad. What more could one want?

Erica and her darling adventurous daughter, Leila.

day hike

Erica took a snooze by a snowmelt runoff mountain stream.
Leila took a dip in the stream.

Leila drying out her "swimwear".

Various animal tracks. It was really cool to see all of the animal tracks
leading up to the water all around the lake.

Leila thoughtfully offered to take a picture of Sam and I snuggled on a log waiting for the sun to go down.

We watched the sun go down and then were waiting for the stars to come out. It wasn't too long before we realized that there were several animals waiting for us to move away from the water. As soon as we got in our tent there was much wildlife heard outside our tent. I grew to love the sounds outside our tent. As a girl mostly raised in cities I had always been a bit frightened by what was lurking outside the tent. After being educated on safety and then just relaxing I really loved all of those sounds. This was a big step for me, although I am not quite ready to venture out to Glacier National Park just yet.

The next day we packed up and took a new route out of the park. This route was longer in distance,
but located further away from the volcano and therefore had more vegetation and less sand.

hiking through a field of wildflowers.

The last few miles we were entertained by Sam's scouting backpacking days.

Sam took off his belt for the last couple of miles and "pulled" Leila behind him.
She was doing awesome, this just gave her that extra boost.

Fanatastic Lava Beds found behind Leila's kool aid smile.

You know that you have been outside of civilization for a while when you think
bear boxes are luxurious and bathrooms... beyond luxurious.

We had such an amazing trip. It was about 15 miles total. We came back feeling rejuvinated and eager to start planning our next adventure. A special thanks to Grandma Swenson for taking Lucy, Amelia, and Joy on their own adventures back at home.

4th of July 2012

2012-07-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

Our 4th was filled with filled with great times. We woke up early to go to the church building for a flag raising ceremony, Primary childrens' parade and delicious pancake breakfast. We quickly left to meet up with friends- Hannah and Jenna at the neighborhood parade. Leila and Amelia rode their scooters, Lucy and Joy rode in the wagon. Lucy was fantastic at waving her American flag. After a teeny rest we headed to the Sacramento airport to pick up Grandma Swenson. We were so lucky to have her here for the holiday and then to stay on for a few days while Leila, Sam, and Erica went backpacking. The evening brought a neighborhood swim party and BBQ at our neighbor's pool followed with fireworks in the front. We were all exhausted at bedtime, but had a fabulous time.

Fairy Tale Town with Cousins!

2012-06-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed to have Matt and Amy and their gorgeous, sweet, fun children live near us for a few years here in the Sacramento area. We miss them dearly, but are also so thankful to have had this time with them. The girls love their cousins dearly. Fairy Tale Town was a favorite place for Todd and Eve and pretty much everyone- who doesn't love Fairy Tale Town? We were glad to share this time with them.

Pascal

2012-04-27T10:22:00.001-07:00

The Friday before Easter Pascal was found in a park with a tennis ball in his mouth but no owner or collar. Our friends fostered him for a week and a half. They gave him love and attention, a nice bath, flea treatment etc.... Our friends already have several chickens, 2 cats and a rabbit, so they asked us if we wanted him. We got him on Saturday, April 14th and he has made his way into our hearts. Since we did not know his history we all tried to guess. We all thought (we, meaning neighbors, friends, a dog trainer, our family) he was between the age of 3-5 years. Labs typically live for 12 years.

Well, he went to the vet yesterday and were shocked to find out that he is almost 9 years old! He had a microchip, but he was never registered. After some investigating we did find out who his owners were during his last check up in 2005. We looked them up and tried contacting the couple. It appears that the man lives on a sailboat somewhere and the woman sings folk songs in Oklahoma. What happened from 2005 to the present is a mystery. We never actually got to speak with the previous owners. This was kind of a bummer to find out because it means our time is shortened with him. On top of that he came back positive for heart worms. The treatment is very costly and could in itself injure him and possibly cause death. So, we will put him on the preventative treatment route, which kills the babies and hopefully the adult ones will die out. We love him dearly and hope to make this time a comfortable time for him.

One thing that is neat is that his name is Pascal. My friend that fostered him went to look for a baby name book to name him but instead picked up a book by one of her favorite authors. The page that she turned to was talking about a dog named Pascal. So there it was- his name. Then we found out that Pascal is latin for Easter. This was so appropriate with his beng found the Friday before Easter. I was not totally sold on the name, but then when we were watching a movie the Saturday afternoon that we got him I happened to look up and see that the director of the movie was named Pascal. Last night as I was thinking all of the information over I thought that it was interesting that his name is Pascal, which means Easter and the resurrection. Leila brought this up this morning as well. I have always said that pets are a good way for kids to learn how to cope with death, I just was not expecting for us to have to learn about this so soon.

We sure love him and he has made his way right into all of our hearts in these last couple of weeks and hope to be able to continue to enjoy him.

The Cousin Tree

2012-04-27T09:48:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday the girls decided to get out the paints and make a cousin tree in the laundry room. All of there cousins are painted on the leaves of the tree. Here is Leila putting on some finishing touches.

Easter

2012-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

This year we enjoyed Easter with Matt and Amy and the Turpin Family. The company was great. The bbq'd salmon and asparagus delicious and an egg hunt for the kids to follow. Thanks Turpins for hosting.

Lucy

Joy

Eve, Todd, Leila, Eve, Joy, Amelia, Lucy, Khalil

Cousins- Eve and Amelia

Oops! Freshly laid eggs in there.

Egg Hunt

My lovely friend Adrienne, Iris, and yep, that's Pascal. He was
found the day before and this was our first time meeting him.

Video Worthy Moments...

2012-04-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

... that weren't caught on video.

Leila passed out leaves to everyone and told us that those were our tickets to go to the show. Aunt Amy was here with Todd and Eve and of course all of Leila's sisters- Amelia, Lucy and Joy. Leila and Amelia were putting on a trapeze show on the swing set. They had set up little seats with whatever they could find for the audience to sit on. So, all the kids were lined up in a row watching Lelia and Amelia doing flips on the swings and other routines on the swing set. I so wish I had gotten the video camera. I love moments like those. (The girls do put on shows like these quite often, so maybe I will be able to video it another time, it's just that having cousins here makes it that much more special)

Other picture worthy moments- Joy and Eve digging in the pebbles and of course getting filthy. Amy as a pack mule pulling the kids in the wagon around the yard. The excitement of Lucy when she found out that Aunt Amy was going to be the one picking her up from her friend's house. Todd being protective of his sister and telling the girls to not touch his sister and then saying, "Isn't my sister so adooooorable?".

It was a nice Spring Break day, one that I wish I got more video of. The only pictures that I did get were these:

Easter Craft time.

Joy decided her clothes were just not comfortable.
She prefered Mia's Ugg boots and Todd's hat.

The Month of March

2012-03-27T17:32:00.002-07:00

The rain hasn't prohibited these girls from playing outside.

The month of March zoomed right by!

Last Minute Work at the Odyssey of the Mind Competition

School: Leila participated in an extra curricular group this school year called Odyssey of the Mind- a problem solving club. After months of lunchtime and after school meetings the group got to present their material at the Northern California Competition. Although they did not win any of the ribbons, they did receive a rarely given teamwork award. When their presentation did not go as planned the team worked together beautifully and quietly without getting frustrated with one another. That was amazing to see. In Amelia's class they are having March Madness. A race to see how many books they can read as a class in the month of March. At the end they get to dress up as a character from one of their favorite books. Amelia has chosen to be Dorothy. The girls continue to love school. Parent teacher conferences were this past month. One of my favorite things on Leila's progress report is that she is a quiet leader. On Amelia's is "Amelia is kind and gentle and a pleasure to have in class". We are so thankful to have a school with such a nurturing environment and involved teachers. The girls love school, but we are also looking forward to Spring Break!

Leila with her Team Members

Church: Soon after her baptism Leila joined the ward choir. She and Sam attend the practices every Sunday afternoon. Every time that they sing I shed a tear or two. Music is a way that I easily feel the Holy Spirit, so I am glad that Leila can participate with the music and hope that it can strengthen her testimony as she sings with the others in the choir. This month they sang Leila's favorite hymn, "Praise to the Man". This month we also enjoyed our ward's movie night at the church building with popcorn, treats, friends, and a big screen. This month our stake held a Relief Society 170 year Birthday Party. It inspired me to more actively participate in this wonderful society that has been around for 170 years.

Grandma Kay, Lucy and Joy on our bikeride along the river

The girls playing in the rain with their cousin, Todd.

Family: We were so lucky to be able to spend time with Grandma Kay and that she was able to also take a trip to Utah for cousin Cole's Birthday. With grandma we went hiking, bikeriding on the biketrail as well as around the neighborhood, visited Ikea and Trader Joes and did lots of relaxing. It was so fun to have her here and the girls loved sharing their bedrooms with her. Speaking of birthdays, this month was also Grandpa Swenson's birthday, Uncle Matt's and cousin Todd's. Sam went to dinner and a King's game with Matt for his birthday and we also had cake with him and cupcakes for Todd's birthday. Earlier this month Todd got to stay with us all day while Amy and Eve were out of town. Joy missed Eve that day and asked me all day long where Eve was. We will be so sad to see Matt and Amy leave in just a few months. Amelia lost her first tooth- she put her tooth fairy money right into out Cruise fund jar. Lucy is learning how to read and write. Joy is speaking more. Sam has started taking the train to work instead of battling traffic.

It's turkey mating season. On our bikeride with Grandma we got quite the show.
There were more than 15 male turkeys trying to impress the female. We stopped and watched for a while.

Day to Day Moments:

Joy, Lexi, and Lucy

Pancake Snowmen

Nail Painting with friends after school

Leila and Erica Ice Skating at Lea's birthday party

Joy at the lake.

Joy

Joy quacking with the ducks and hanging out with Dad.
Special times, special times.

A Saturday Afternoon Hike

2012-02-25T15:00:00.000-08:00

This is a new hike that I took the gang on, I had gone once before with a friend. This one was stroller friendly and we had a great time.

Do you see what is in the background of this picture? You will have to look closely on top of the hill in the background. Yep, it is the LDS temple. How cool to be able to see that while on a hike???!

Another great backdrop. And I am loving all of this posing. Where did our girls pick it up? Super cute!

Throwing rocks in the water.

Joy liked meandering through the tall grass.

Amelia

Leila

Lucy

skipping stones

Ikea with cousins Todd and Eve

2012-02-22T11:00:00.000-08:00

Eve and Joy

Lucy and Todd got to play at Smaland while Amy and I got to do a little shopping.

An Afternoon at the Mall

2012-02-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

The kids rode the carousel. This is the first time that Joy has ridden on a carousel that we and she can remember. I love how she looks around when she starts to move- I think she was trying to figure out how it was moving.

We then picked up a new game. This game was recommended to us while we were in the game store and it is a hit for all ages. A lot of fun. We also picked up our new family calendar for 2012- also a big hit- a Yoga Dogs calendar- totally hilarious and a good reminder to not take yourself too seriously.

The little girls got to play in the kid area. Leila was disappointed when she realized that she was too tall to play in the kid area. I think this was the first time that she was too tall for anything... what a bummer.

Service- Cleaning the Church Building

2012-02-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

As a family we are trying to do more service. We decided to head to the church building to participate in the Saturday morning church clean up. I think since we were a bit late we ended up on bathroom duty (pun intended). Amelia, Lucy, and Joy cleaned the mirrors. Erica was on sinks. And Sam and Leila were on the toilet stalls with Leila cleaning the actual toilets. Maybe it is my twisted sense of humor, but this video makes me laugh every time I watch it (the commentary in the background between Sam and Leila is hilarious), please don't think less of me ;) Afterwards we went and had a breakfast of donuts and milk- delicious!

Joy by Amelia

2012-02-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

Amelia really wanted to take a picture of Joy and so she chased her into the office and she came back with this. I kind of like it. It is Joy's pouting face.

Lucy's Birthday Party

2012-02-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Lucy's 4th birthday is coming up and she had a birthday party to celebrate!

The kids chose their frosting color, mixed it and frosted and decorated their cupcakes. I love that we got Lucy's cousin Eve in the background mischeiviously pulling everything out of the drawers and cupboards while we had our backs turned.

Todd's card had a list of 4 things that Todd Loves about Lucy. Here is his list:
1. She has toys.
2. She has pretty hair.
3. She is nice to me.
4. She makes me laugh.

I will agree with Todd. Lucy is beautiful inside and out. She is nice to those around her and always has a laugh to share. Her name means light and she is just that- a light. She is learning how to read. She enjoys making cards for people and does it all day long. I receive about 5 letters from her per day. She also enjoys going over to her friend Claire, Kiley or Loralei's house or to have a friend over to play. She is a wonderful big sister to her little sister Joy and also great friends with her older sisters, Leila and Amelia. She has so much love inside her and it shows in the way that she treats others and has a good time. I love that girl soooooooo much! Happy Birthday Lucy, sweetheart!