Mess Makers

Yesterday we had an early Birthday celebration for my Mom & Uncle Phil. The kids were really excited to share their birthday cupcakes....

Once Kambree saw all of the attention Landon was getting, she decided to join in on the fun. What a mess! More pictures of messy kids here.

Summer Field Trip Week 2--BYU Duck Pond

Disclaimer: I know that I tend to post a lot and that when I do post, I often include a lot of pictures. I thought that I might mention why. This blog is intended to serve multiple purposes, one of the most important being a place where we can keep a record of events and activities. So with that in mind, here it goes...

Last week for our first Summer field trip, we were supposed to go and feed the ducks at the BYU Duck Pond. It rained really hard that day and we were in our winter gear to keep warm inside the house so we decided an outdoor activity was not a good idea. We opted instead to visit some local pet stores and try the Duck Pond this week. Thankfully the weather seems to finally be turning around! We had a fun time at the Duck Pond with the Hakes and the Monte & Shannon Swain family.

LANDON HAD AN OBSESSION WITH THIS YOUNG LITTLE DUCK. HE CHASED IT ALL OVER.

ALLIE FOUND A TURTLE.

AND THEN WE FOUND A BUNCH OF TURTLES.

LANDON LOVED TAKING ISAAC & JOSEPH'S HATS. THEY WERE KIND ENOUGH TO SHARE!



AUNT SHAN WATCHED LANDON SO I COULD WATCH ALLIE & LARKIN'S DANCE MOVES.


ISAAC LOVES TO HOLD LANDON. LANDON LOVES BEING HELD LESS AND LESS ALL THE TIME.

I am not a video editor

The good stuff is in the first few seconds. Now that I got that out of the way, here is the (long version) video of Kambree taking a whack at Hunter. Oh, I mean Hunter's Easter egg.

And even more video of Kambree taking on challengers.

Lisa, I hope that after watching these that you see what "Tough Egg" is all about!

Swain Family Christmas Party

This morning we had our annual Swain Family Christmas Party. We have a traditional meal each year that is a lot of fun (and a lot of work) to prepare. We have aebelskivers, a delicious egg casserole, fruit, meat, and hot cocoa. Yum! This year I helped cook the aebelskivers with Scott and Karma. It was a lot of fun. We even learned that Scott could toss an aebelskiver across a large room and land it on someone's plate with pretty reasonable accuracy. I think Landon was held by nearly every Swain cousin today. That's really something considering that he has 30 of them. He is a good sport to let everyone take a turn with him. We hardly knew Allie was there. She disappeared to the basement and only surfaced for a few short minutes to scarf down a little breakfast.

Later on we had an after the party party at our home. Allie, Larkin, Caleb, and Amber had a good time preparing themselves a meal and playing some more. It is so much fun to see these cousins loving every minute together. I hope that they always treasure these relationships they share. It has been so great watching them grow up together.

Celebrating Pioneer Day

Last night for Family Home Evening we decided to go and see all of the floats for this years Pioneer Day Parade. It is an innovative way to see a parade. They park all of the floats inside the South Towne Exposition Center and you get to walk around see all of them up close. It's like a parade with great air conditioning. Both of the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Allie's favorite float was a "princess" one with a horse and carriage. Landon didn't seem to have a favorite. He liked anything bright and shiny...which pretty much included everything we saw.

While the floats were a lot of fun, Landon had an even greater time being entertained by Allie and her cousin, Camille.

If you're wondering what they were doing that was so funny, here's a shot of the girls.



We are still wondering why he found them so funny. After about an hour we had seen it all and headed to Grandpa & Grandma's for a visit. It was a fun family night!