Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

This is our Christmas photo for 2007. Notice how all the kids are looking in a different direction? That's OK. We have other years to get the "perfect" Christmas card photo. Instead of sending a bunch of late Christmas Cards, this is my tacky attempt to say Merry Christmas to all the many people I love and adore.

Holiday decorations and a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

So here they are! The festive holiday decorations. We got a small tree this year because we are leaving Friday for San Diego. It just didn't make sense to get a huge one this year. We all are so excited to go down to San Diego. I will miss all my family in Florida so much, and Isaac, James, Grandma Sloan and all my relatives in Canada, David and Roberta and the girls in California, and Grandma Carol and Grandpa Tom in Montana. I will also miss my best friend Kayla in New York. I really hope everyone is having a fun time getting ready for the holidays.

Side-ways Merry Christmas

Sorry guys, this video is sideways. I am still uploading it anyway so that you can here little Zoe talking. I know the videos are a bit choppy but this is as good as it gets untill I get my video camera working.

The Toothless Wonder

Little Sloan's tooth was barely hanging on. So I helped her out a little and it came out. She wasn't to happy about it.

A most stressful and drama filled day

Well today went a lot different than I thought it would. Aris woke up at 4:45 am and wouldn't go back to bed. So I decided to just wake up and stay up. I knew if I went back to sleep I wouldn't want to wake up when it was time to.

Sloan's school called a little after 11 and needed me to come and pick her up. Her sugar was over 600. I took her right to the doctor. I guess I kind of overreacted, but both her pediatrician and endocrinologist said they would rather me overreact than underreact.

Then when it was time to pick up Abby, long story short, she was no where to be found. Nowhere at all. So I tried not to freak out and I called Kirstin to make sure she had just forgotten to tell me someone else was picking Abby. Nope. So then we all went into panic mode. Come to find out she had taken the bus home. Thankfully she was OK.

I am so very tired. I just wanted to get some art started and some pictures taken. Maybe tomorrow will be a bit more relaxing............................yeah right. (P.S. I have a smile on my face because as hard as my day has been, I wouldn't trade being a mom, for the world.)

William Tell Overture and Laughing babies

Well I still haven't received the pictures from last nights get together, but as soon as I do I will post them. While I was at Hilary's today the played the funniest u tube video for me. It's a comedian mom who sings a song about all the things you say to your child in a 24 hour period set to the William Tell Overture. I have watched it about 8 times so far and it is still funny to me. I just giggle again and again. Then speaking of giggling, if you type in "laughing baby", you will see one of the funniest most adorable baby laughing as his dad makes funny sounds like "ping, bong, and bloop". There are a few other funny laughing clips of babies that we watched and Sloan, Abby, and Zoe just giggled and giggled the whole time. Sloan and Abby kept asking, "Can we watch it again?".
We got a lovely little Christmas card from Gramma Carol. She is a real stinker and likes to spoil us all. She is such a fun and spunky lady, I just really adore her. We were able to talk for a few minutes tonight. However our conversation was cut short because Dean called and then Kirstin, Abbys' Mom, called. I normally don't pick up other calls when I am on the line with someone else but Abbys' Mom and Dean don't call usually at this time of day. I plan on calling her this weekend.
It has been a good day Dean just got home and I think I will sign off so that we can talk about the day and stuff. No snow today, well tiny little flurries, but nothing to take pictures of. Tomorrow I will take some pictures of our festive holiday decorations and the kids. Goodnight all!

A lovely visit

I just got home from my friend Hilary's home, and as always we had a lovely visit. Hilary and I both have three kids all in almost the same age groups - or + a few months. So we can relate with the woe's and joy's of raising three kids. I can always count on her for a good listening ear. No question is too silly or stupid. I am so glad we are friends. Her Daughter Charlotte, and Zoe are a year apart. Charlotte is three. So they are just starting to play a little more when we get together. It's a lot of fun.
Today is an overcast kind of day. The forecast says it is supposed to snow. I love the snow. If it starts to snow, I will take some pictures of it and post them a little later on. Well I am going to go be lazy and take a much needed nap with the girls. Aris is in so much pain now that she's cutting teeth. For the past two nights she has gotten up for 30-45 min. in the 3 am -4 am range. So I will be honest I am a wee bit tired. Well I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I will write more later.

Cookies in Good Company

Sunday evening (last night) was the night of the cookie exchange at Carla's lovely home. I felt so honored that they invited me even though I don't work at FBCC anymore. Everyone made such yummy goodies and we all pigged out on cookies and veggie dip trays. At the end everyone took home about a half a dozen of each of the different treats that people brought to the party. We talked and laughed and had a lovely time. Once the holidays are over we are going to try and do a crop night at one of the scrap booking stores. That will be a lot of fun. Look for some photos to be downloaded later on today from this special event with friends that are like family to me.

Recital

Holiday Recital

Katrina and Sloan

Fat momma and Sloan

Hey, it's the famous "Hi mom!", moment.

The final bow

Sloan and Hailey, they are in class together.

The girls were in an Orient themed dance. They were Oriental candy cane dancers. Sloan is the one one the far right in the picture and the video above. The video is pretty choppy, thats because I filmed it on my digital camera.

Part of the finale

The recital was so great, the girls did so well. Mrs. Kathrine is such an awesome teacher. She is very creative and good with the girls. I always look forward to these recitals. She does them twice a year. It's also fun to see all the little one's I used to teach at FBCC. The recitals are always at the Museum of fine art here in Reno. It is a lovely venue and the perfect size for the performance. Every year Sloan gets better at dancing. I look forward to the next few years of dancing with Mrs. Kathrine.

Dinner with friends

Megan, Brent, Brian, Sloan, Dean, and Zoe

We had lunch at BJ's, it's a brewery and a restaurant all in one. They have the yummiest most awesomist food. It was good to see Brent and Megan and Brian. They are such nice friends.

The lost week...Or The lost week in a half, or whatever

Just a quick apology for the lack of entries the past little bit. Things have been a wee bit crazy around here. First little Sloan was sick, she had strep throat. Then Zoe came down with strep. Last but definitely not least Aris has been teething and caught a mild cold. BY THE WAY SHE CUT HER FIRST TOOTH! AWESOME! So when people come over it sort of sounds like we have the plague. Every small child is coughing and hacking and of course the, need I say it? Well I will anyway, the snot. All different colors. Zoe is even getting in the holiday spirit with hers and decided to let her snot turn a nice shade of green. Way to go with the holiday spirit Zoe!
Well aside from all of the sickness we have been slowly but surely getting ready for the holidays and our trip to San Diego. Dean and I were able to go on a date tonight thanks to a very sweet lady at church. Sister Leech came over and watched the girls for us (yes I warned her that we had the plague) we were able to get almost all of our Christmas shopping done.
I am going to post some pictures from the last little while and hopefully upload a video of Sloan's wonderful little dance recital that she was in today. She practiced so hard and she did such a great job. Hope you guys are all enjoying the holiday season.
P.S. Feel free to leave comments if you want

Sick Chickens

Well last but not least all my sick little chickens are in bed. I keep waiting for someone to get mad or cry however for the moment I will just bask in the silence of a quiet home, Christmas lights, and Christmas carols playing softly in the background. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little easier for all the Swanson family. Untill then, sleep well.

My first Barbie

My silly little monkey!

Barbies...............................

And more Barbies.

Before I go take a nap I thought I would post these pictures. Sloan was so sweet, she took Aris into her room and played Barbies with her while I was cleaning the other day. Zoe was in the tub and she was being a total hot sauce, so no pictures of Zoe in this posting.

Winter time

The last week and weekend have been a bit trying for me. I am so sorry I haven't posted in a few day's. Sloan had strep last week and Zoe is super sick and the Dr. is starting her on an oral antibiotic. Thankfully the Dr. didn't make me bring her in. It saved Dean and I an expensive Dr. bill that we really couldn't afford. I am hoping that the medicine will help her and that Zoe will be back to her happy easy self. She was let's just say.......well.......a total monster all day and night yesterday. She is usually such a pleasant child so I will be happy when she is back to normal. I will say that maybe I am the monster mommy because I so sick of sick kid's, and if I felt as bad as she looks, I would be miserable also. With that said I am going to go and lay down with all my sick kids and take a nap so I don't get sick.

Spibunny

This is a spiderbunny that Sloan drew earlier today. She calls it the Spibunny.

Sunday, Sunday, can't trust that day..........

Sloan, Tony, and Zoe

How fast my little Sloan is growing

I am now 5 months old

Our little drummer girl

Sara, Tony and Hailey

Today was a lovely day. The girl's and I went to church and didn't get to stay the whole time because Aris was so grumpy. Actually all my girls were less than pleasant to be around today. These are the day's that make you wish the Calgon commercials were real.
What was pleasant however, is that we were able to have Tony and Sara and their adorable little daughter Hailey over for dinner tonight. They were kind enough to watch our pup's while we were in San Diego. It is so nice to know that there are still kind neighbor's. Thanks you guy's.

Happy Birthday Roberta!

Today is Roberta's birthday. She is such a sweetheart. I hope this was a special day for her. I was able to talk to Grandma Carol and David this week. Everyone seemed to have an awesome Thanksgiving.

Today I met with Molly Dillon. Molly heads up the local JDRF chapter here in Reno and Sparks. For the past two years I have been involved with making thank you gifts for the different events that the JDRF puts on. The thank you gifts always go to the Chair person hosting the event. It has been such an honor to have the opportunity to do this. Today Molly asked if I would be on the board that is in charge of special projects for JDRF. I would just be one of many involved, but I am so excited to have the chance to help at a whole different level of this wonderful organization. So tomorrow I am working on 14 thank you gift's that are needed by Tuesday afternoon for Wednesday's "Walk for a cure" awards ceremony. I will post some pictures before I take them in on Tuesday. They are super cheesy, but that seems to be what some people like. I am using scrapbook paper and taking the hand prints of the different kid's diagnosed with diabetes, tracing them, cutting them out and using them to make a "paper" quilt. I did this for an auction at FBCC. It was a huge hit. Sooooo I am hoping it will be for this also. Wish me luck.