What a Smarty Pants

Landon is getting smarter by the day. He loves to learn!

Giving Thanks

For my two little turkeys. Happy Thanksgiving!

Three

When Allie was Landon's age we took her to SLC to see the lights at Temple Square with the Toone family. That night for dinner she requested that we take her somewhere that she could have salad and an ice water with 3 ice cubes. From that moment on she would always request/demand 3 ice cubes in her water. That went on for years and now Landon seems to have developed a similar fascination with the number 3. Every time we tuck him into bed he closely scrutinizes his surroundings to make sure that we have not forgotten his "3 blankies" and his "3 doggies". Every. Single. Time. It's a good thing I can count to 3. It has been a critical skill for raising toddlers in my home.

Did You Know

That November is National Adoption Month?

The Gift of Adoption

Why Adoption?

What do you want?

Here is a little conversation I had the other day with an extremely cranky Landon....

Mom: Would you like a drink of milk?
Landon: No!
Mom: Should we go and read a book?
Landon: No.
Mom: Do you want to watch TV?
Landon: No!
Mom: How about a cracker?
Landon: Nooooooo
Mom: Well, what do you want?
Landon: Hmmm.....a haircut.

And, so, he got a haircut. He needed one anyways.

Texas!

We had such a wonderful time visiting friends and family in Texas. We flew out to attend the wedding of a close family friend and also enjoyed visiting with my cousin Jann and her family. Texas is one hot (and humid) place in August. Despite that, we had such a great time!

We flew out of SLC at 6:30 am. That meant a very early morning for all of us.

The kids did pretty well on the plane. Landon spent a lot of time watching movies and Allie pretty much read during the whole flight.


When we got to Dallas, Jann's husband Jared picked us up. We hadn't made it too far before we had a tire blow out on the freeway. Eric and Jared were troopers changing a tire in the middle of the hot Texas heat.

The kids and I remained in the air conditioned van.

Friday night was a Texas BBQ for Jon & Lori. Lori arranged for birthday cake to be the dessert in honor of Allie & Alex who share a birthday on August 9th.


Landon loved the cake and he still says "cupcake" every time we mention Lori's name. She was kind enough to give him a large second helping which really won him over!

Saturday was the wedding. Landon would not cooperate very well for pictures. This is the "best" one we got. (Lori, you'll have to share one of yours...I'm hoping someone got a better one!)

Exploring the Dallas Temple grounds...






Landon LOVED Katie Bell (my cousin's 10-year-old). He still asks for her!

We did a lot of driving while in Texas. All of the heat and the action had a sedating effect on the kiddos. They usually passed out while driving between events and Jann & Jared's home. It made for an extremely quiet car ride. Unfortunately Eric and I were so focused on not getting lost that we didn't fully enjoy it :)

On Sunday we slept in (yay! for 1 pm church). It was Allie's 9th Birthday so Jared made her favorite breakfast, french toast and she opened her present.


After church the party continued with a yummy dinner, cake, and time to play!




On Monday before we flew back to SLC we (well, Eric and the kids) took a dip in the pool.

It was a special experience for us to be able at Jon & Lori's wedding. We are excited for them and wish them nothing but the best! Thanks again to Jann, Jared, and the kids for having us in their home. They were great hosts and a lot of fun to spend the weekend with!

10 YEARS

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary. It is amazing to think of all of the things we have seen, done, and experienced together. I love you Eric!

Summer Field Trips

This summer has been busy, busy, busy...just the way we like it. It's hard to believe that school, soccer, and cooler weather are just a few short weeks away! Allie is excited to go back to school because this year her cousin Amber is finally in her class. We are lucky to have cousins who live in our ward and attend the same school. Actually being in the same class is cause for serious celebration around here.

Just like every other summer we have been busy having weekly "field trips". We enjoy the time we spend each week with cousins and occasionally friends too! These are things we have seen and done this summer:

*Fed the ducks and studied the turtles at the BYU Duck Pond
*Thanksgiving Point Children's Garden
*Bridal Veil Falls
*24th of July Float Preview Party
*Lehi Pioneer Museum
*BYU Museum of Art

Today we went to the Tracy Aviary. It was a lot of fun. We took cousin Isaac along with us for today's field trip. Isaac and Allie loved learning all about all of the different birds. They especially enjoyed the gift shop. Landon was pretty content to sit in the stroller and study the map. Another highlight of the day was the bird show. Landon and I had to excuse ourselves early when he wasn't selected to go up and help the bird trainer. He kept yelling "my bird" over and over and over until it became apparent that the only way to change his mind was a change of scenery. In the end it worked out okay because we had fun chasing peacocks around the lawn while we waited for Allie and Isaac to finish up the bird show.

Christmas in July

Today I bought an artificial Christmas tree on Ebay. Since there is not much demand for Christmas trees in July, I got a pretty good deal. Why? Because it seems to be the one thing Allie really wants for her birthday next month. She wants to make sure that she has plenty of time to plan the decorations before Christmas. I think that 4 1/2 months should be adequate. Although it is a strange request, I am certain that she will be all smiles when she opens her gift. In the end that's all that really matters to me.

My New Toy

So...Eric has developed quite an addiction to photography and buying big, bulky camera equipment. He has this ridiculously large backpack in which to carry his numerous ridiculously large (and expensive) lenses and miscellaneous equipment. While I greatly appreciate the amazing pictures he is able to take, I can't stand the thought of lugging the backpack everywhere I go just so that I can document my life. I have been {not so subtly} dropping hints for some time now that what I really wanted and needed was a pocket sized camera that takes decent pictures. When my request continued to fall on deaf ears, I took matters into my own hands and picked up just what I wanted. Let the blogging/picture sharing begin....

Settling into Summer...

June was a busy month at this Swain household! So far this summer we've:

-Taken a week long family vacation,
-Spent a day at Camp Jeremiah Johnson,
-Celebrated 2 birthdays,
-Bought a new car,
-Enjoyed a week at Camp Mia Shalom with the YW, and
-Participated in a 4h baking competition.

While we love to be busy and active during the summer months, we are looking forward to a few weeks without scheduled activities. That's what summer is all about, right?!?

Yellowstone Vacation

We just returned from a week long trip to Yellowstone National Park. We were there to attend a family reunion for Eric's mother's side of the family. We decided to drive up several days early so that we could get the most out of our stay. It was a great trip with lots of fun memories made.

Idaho Falls

Swimming with cousins in the pool at the condo





Landon was fascinated by all of the rocks.
He spent the week collecting them everywhere we went.
When we hiked to one waterfall he rounded the corner and taking in the impressive view yelled "WOW....a rock".


There was a lot of family time









We saw a lot of animals!










Some of us got a little silly
.