Blessed Beyond Belief

Sometimes I wonder what I have done to deserve so much happiness. I keep wondering how life could possibly be any sweeter than it is...and yet the blessings keep coming. Perhaps the only way that life could be any better right this minute is if I was happily counting my blessings on a beautiful sunny beach in Hawaii alongside my loved ones.

We found out early today that Eric received a pretty significant promotion at work. I wasn't really surprised that he got the job, but I was pleasantly surprised by the substantial increase in pay. The timing couldn't be better as we have just taken on a bigger house payment, and yet it came late enough that we now know that we can live very comfortably on what we were making with a little bit of restraint in the spending department. The bottom line...we will live comfortably, be able to put away some money for a rainy day, and still be able to travel and do the things we have always enjoyed doing as a family. I also took this opportunity to remind Eric of my desire for a larger family vehicle. Sometimes I can't believe how long our little car has sufficed. He has always been a big believer in the saying "Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". I think it may take me a while to talk him into it, but history has shown that I can be awfully persuasive with my husband.

The children are healthy and happy. Allie is doing very well in school and has already begun her countdown to summer. She reminds us almost daily that this will be her big year...the year she is finally old enough to be baptized. She has been looking forward to this since she was "at least four or five years old" in her words. She says this in such a dramatic fashion that it can be difficult to keep a straight face.

Landon is as mobile as ever and he keeps us all laughing. His dramatic flair may very well rival Allie's. Lately he has taken to yelling at us while we feed him. It' s not a mad yell, but a yell nonetheless. If there is a microscopic pause between when he swallows a bite and when another spoonful is shoveled in, we hear about it. He has also started to push all of the chairs out from under the table. I put them back a ridiculous number of times each day. He discovered yesterday that he can even push a chair around the dining room if Allie is the one sitting in it. She rarely gets frustrated with him but yesterday while she was eating a bowl of cereal he kept pushing her away from the table which earned him a bit of a lecture from her. I was laughing too hard to intervene until they both ended up in tears.

As for me...life is busy but so good. I wasn't sure whether I was going to survive being the Primary President the last couple of weeks. Thanks to Cindy, Lisa, Amber, and (our alumni) Rachel I once again have happily settled into a brand new year in Primary. What would I do without these girls? I hope I'll never have to find out. Eric gave me The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas for Christmas. I have always wanted to read this, I just didn't know it was 1300 pages long! With all of the snow and cold weather there has been plenty of time to curl up with a warm blanket and this great book. It very well may take me until Springtime to finish it. I think that about covers all that is going on at the Swain home right now. I will update with a bunch of pictures sometime this weekend--it has been quite a while since I included some pictures in my posts.