Oh Christmas Tree...

Smile!
Swayzee where are you?
Hey Mike over here
Hey T are you having fun yet?
My sweetheart
We have a family tradition of getting our Christmas tree the Monday after Thanksgiving. We go out to dinner and then hit the same Christmas tree lot that we have been to since I was 9.
After dinner we headed out to the tree lot. Swayz and Mike were in heaven, there were rows and rows of Christmas tress and all they wanted to do was run through them. After chasing them around for awhile we finally found the perfect tree. It was right in time because Swayz informed us that she needed to go potty. We hurried and paid and rushed home, just making it in time. The tree looks beautiful, now the trick it keeping Mike out of it. He thinks the lights are the coolest thing ever and he loves to run up, hit it and laugh. CRAZY I tell ya!! (em I am still amazed you do this with twins :) )

Snow, Sleds and Bodily Harm

Here we are ready for the cold!!

Mom, Swayz and Mike

Man this is harder than it looks

I am soooo strong!

Picture perfect!
The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to my parents cabin for a nice relaxing weekend. I don't know if relaxing is the right word. For those of you who know Mikey he doesn't exactly allow people to relax. He is going 110 miles an hour and doesn't slow down unless asleep or sick. Anyways on with the story... Shane and I decided it would be fun to take the kids sledding. We all bundled up in our snow stuff (I don't know if you can tell but mikes outfit is just a little big :)) and off we went. My parents cabin is perfect for sledding, the driveway makes the perfect hill and leads right down to the garage. Sways and I attempted the first run, We got situated and off we went. I didn't realize that we would get going so fast, nor did I realize that the rock wall was really the only thing that could stop us. With my feet out and a few screams we hit. I was able to protect Swayz but I must say I wasn't walking as well after that. We soon learned that we needed to start down lower and Shane ended up catching us after that. We had a great time and even Mikey loved it. The best part was climbing the hill, well it wasn't the funnest part but it exhausted mike and swayz and they went to be really early that night.

Painting rocks is so much FUN

What a cute kid

bribing Mike with candy

We ended up painting a ghost, candy corn, pumpkins and a frankenstein

Smile

We decided to paint rocks for Halloween. We walked all around the neighborhood looking for just the right rocks. After an hour or so we had all the rocks we needed, painting here we come. I wasn't sure what to do with Mike, he is a little crazy and sitting still isn't much of an option. I decided to bribe him with candy and stick him in his high chair. After 5 min. Swayz was bored and ready to move onto the next project. Unfortunantly fo her, I was just getting started and we weren't going to stop. After about an hour we had painted all our rocks! We made pumpkins, a ghost, candy corns and frankenstein. We had so much fun.

Happy Birthday Old Man!!

I want to wish my sweet husband a very happy birthday today!! I don't tell him enough how much I love him and how amazing he is. Thank you Hun, for putting up with me, and all my wonderful weaknesses. You handle me with love, respect and patience and I am so grateful for that. You truly make me want to be better. You are also an amazing father. Your kids love you so much and I love watching their reaction when you walk through the door after a long day. I hope you have a great day today!

Asleep..... on the pot!

After getting home from Grandmas a little late Swayz needed to go the bathroom. She walked into the bathroom but didn't come out. I didn't really think anything of it, shes 4 and has been doing this for a while. Well after about 5 min. I thought there might be a little problem. I opened the door and found swayz asleep on the pot! it was so funny!! Shane and I laughed so hard.

Ready, Set, GOOOOOOO

READY...

SET...

GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Swayzee mastered jumping off of the window seal in our bedroom a while ago. It was quite an accomplishment!! She has now learned how to do twists and flips off of it too. The whole time Swayz was learning how to do all of these amazing things Mikey was watching. He wanted to jump off the window too and would try and get up over and over again. Shane and I were grateful that he never figured it out. It is a little high for him and although he is very tough we didn't want him to get hurt. Well little did we know that swayz taught mike how to get up and jump off and then to do it all over again. I walked into the bedroom and there they were, up on the window seal, holding hands, counting to three. It was a success and now it is the funnest thing that they do!

We love GALOON!!

We went to Lagoon last Thursday with our family and had so much fun. Swayz was so excited to ride the rides and eat cotton candy. She was so funny though, every time we told her where we were going she would say Galoon instead of Lagoon. Our conversations went something like, "hey mom what time are we going to Galoon?" or "Mom Galoon is going to be soooo fun, I can't wait!" When we finally got there she rode all of the little kid rides and then wanted to go on the big kid rides. She was so sad when we told her she had to be a little older and a lot taller to ride those rides. Mike wanted to go on every ride with his big sister too. We let him go on the little boat ride, i was so stressed that he would figure out how to get out and jump in the water that once was enough for him. Shane and I went on the flying ride there. It's one of the rides that you have you have to pay a little extra for. They strap you into a harness, lift you way high in the air and then you drop and it feels like you are flying. I loved it!! Shane screamed the whole way down but I think he liked it when we were all done. (just kidding hun, you were really brave) Over all it was a great day, the kids were so tried when they got home they went straight to be and who can complain about that.

The Big Grandma and the Little Grandma

About 8 months ago Swayz started calling her Grandparents unique names. Instead of calling them Grandma and Grandpa Arnell or Patterson, she calls them the Big and Little grandma's and grandpa's. The Arnell's are the Big Grandma and Grandpa and the Patterson's are the Little Grandma and Grandpa. She would ask if we are going to the big or little grandmas house or if she was going to see her big or little grandma today. We thought it was cute so we let her keep calling them that. We thought she would grow out of it. Well 8 months later and she is still calling them that. One day the big grandma asked Swayz why she called her the big grandma. Swayz told her that it was because her house was bigger than the little grandmas house. So it only made sense for Swayz to refer to her as the big grandma. I don't know how much longer she will do this but I love it and it still sounds so cute to hear her talk about her big and little grandparents.

BOY oh BOY

Michael is amazing in so many ways. He laughs and drives his sister nuts but one of his best attributes is his ability to fall down, not cry and get right back up and go for it again. I am constantly amazed at how tough he is. He has new bruises, bumps and scratches every day. Shane will come home from work and ask, "where did this one come from?" "Oh, he jumped off the stairs at the park." "And this one?" "He ran into the wall." One time The big grandma (Grandma Arnell) was taking Mike for a ride in the stroller. He wasn't strapped in and decided that he was done riding in the stroller and wanted to get out and walk. Before Grandma could stop him, he had jumped out and landed face first on the sidewalk. he scraped his nose and upper lip pretty bad! There were a few tears but after a kiss and hug he was off again to find another adventure. I am so excited to watch him grow and see what kind of Man he turns into. For now I am grateful for all of his guardian angles and his ability to heal quickly!!

10 days and counting

Jerom had his farewell on Sunday. It was amazing and he did an excellent job. I am so impressed with him and all that he has become. He leaves me in awe most of the time. He will be a blessing to the people of Guatemala and they will be a blessing to him. Sunday was a very emotional day and I was left with a little time to reflect on my life. I am almost 30 and so grateful for the path that I have traveled. I have been humbled, found true love and experienced both wonderful ups and terrible downs. I am grateful for the wonderful gift of the Gospel and that I am privileged to have it in my life. I have learned for myself the truth that comes from Christ and his never ending love and patience he has for me. I am grateful for the atonement and the chance that I have to become better each and every day. I am so thankful for those of you who have been such an impact on my life. I have surrounded myself with amazing people and I am grateful to you for loving me and my family. Jer, I love you so much and will miss you terribly but I know you are making the right choice and will forever be blessed because of it. I appreciate the example you are to my kids and myself. You are amazing, good luck!!

The Arnell Family Camping Trip

What a weekend, we left on Thursday July 10th for a fun filled camp out with the Arnell family. We all met up at Pineview Res. in Huntsville Utah. It is a very beautiful place. We unloaded our tents, chairs and coolers and set up camp. Connie and Blake were there along with all of the Arnell kids except Crystal (we missed you tons). We hung out by the fire, played on the beach and even boated a bit. Swayz was able to ride in the tubes with her cousins. At first I wasn't so sure about it, but Shane calmed me down and off they went. She had a blast, it was her favorite thing she did. In order for Shane and I to relax we had to think of something to do with Michael. He is so fun but he is also fast and into everything. Shane came up with the idea to create a leash for him. So that is exactly what we did. We bought one of those little backpacks with a leash on it and then tied that to a long rope, we then tied the rope to a tree. It was ingenious, Michael was safe and we were able to relax a little. After three days of camping we were ready to come home! We had tons of fun and can't wait until next year.

Holy Cow I have a 4 Year Old!!!

June 26th is a very special day for our little family. Shane and I were married on that day and one year later Swayz was born (on that day). It's kind of nice, I know that Shane will never forget our anniversary, but celebrating everything gets a little tricky. This is the first year Swayz showed interest in having a friend birthday party. It started in February. "Hey mom how many friends are coming to my party." "Mom when do we send out my invitations." And so on... She decided on a Princess theme mixed with a water party. She talked about it almost every day and then finally it was here. We had the party at my parents house and she had a blast. We had a slip and slid, pinata and the coolest princess cake ever. She loved it and I was grateful when it was over. We also celebrated her birthday with just the family. My mom, grandma, brother, Mikey, Swayz and I headed out on her actual birthday to Build A Bear. She picked out a teddy bear and named her KALA. (I am not sure where she got the name from) then we went to lunch. We had a great time celebrating and Swayz felt like a Princess.

To Fish or not to Fish...

I had an amazing idea one day, it was to take the family fishing. We found out when Utah's free fish day was and off we went. We left around 10:00 a.m., our first stop was walmart where we bought Swayz her first fishing poll. She was so excited, she got to pick her poll out all by herself. It was the right size and it even had Dora the Explorer on it. Then we had to get bait and a few other things we were missing. We made it up AF canyon around 12:00. I had high expectations (this was my first mistake) I was sure that Michael would love sitting in his stroller watching us fish and that Swayz would think this was the coolest thing ever and want to stay for a couple of hours. We set up our little fishing area with chairs and a cooler and wouldn't you know, Michael wanted out of his stroller. I took him out and within seconds he was headed for the water. Mistake number two, thinking a stroller would contain a 1 year old. It took about 30 min. to get Mikey under control and now we were helping Swayz get her new poll ready to fish. Shane handed me a poll and told me to cast it out into the water. No problem, I have done this before. I pushed the line down, pulled down a little lever and swung the poll. I waited to see the hook hit the water, it must be really far out there because it hadn't hit yet. As a couple of seconds passed I realized there was a problem. Mistake number three, I don't know how to cast a fishing poll!! Shane came over and we both looked up. In the branches of the beautiful tree above us was my wonderful fishing line. It was stuck and Shane wasn't too happy. About 30 min. later we were again ready to cast out and catch a fish. Shane helped Swayz cast her fishing poll out and handed it to her. Then he did mine. By the time mine was cast into the water Swayz had reeled hers in again. Mistake number four, Swayz wasn't interested in fishing, just casting her poll and reeling it in again. About 5 min later Swayz was done fishing and ready to leave. Just to give you a little recap we spent all of 1 hour fishing- well trying to fish. 55 min. were spent getting everything ready and 5 min. spent with our polls actually in the water. Although things didn't turn out they way I was hoping we loved it and had a great time. No, we wont be back for a few years but at least we can say we tried!!