Something

I've been receiving requests for something new on my blog. So let me think of something...nope, I can't-so evidently I'm going to just list a few things we've done lately:

--This morning I re-caulked my shower all by myself-it looks so much better. I'm proud of myself.
--My mom was down last week to visit Matt and Sharon's new baby. It was nice to get to play with her.
--My mom left me a book to read...I started it on Wednesday morning and had it finished by about noon on Thursday. It was like 500 pages, this is especially impressive for me, cause I'm just not a reader. The book was called "Love, Rosie" by Cecilia Ahern. She also wrote "PS, I Love You" (which I read in 3 days time). I really liked these two books and couldn't put them down (my poor kids-hope they didn't feel too neglected). There is a some bad language in the books, but I guess I tuned it out or figured that Irish people must just swear a lot.
--We took my mom and Katie and Megan (Matt's older girls) to the children's museum-the kids loved it. We got stuck in crazy traffic on the way home-even though it was 9 pm because a U-haul had apparently fallen off an elevated lane on the freeway and blocked traffic going the other direction. Creepy.


See, I'm just trying to think of random things to tell whomever might be checking up on us. sorry if it's boring. Here's a little video of my boys at the piano-I just thought it was cute.

--Oh, and I made a lovely cake for last Sunday's dinner over at the Gwilliam's. Pretty??

Newsworthy

I keep waiting for something newsworthy, or some cute new pictures to post...however, nothing is really happening at the Swanson's. Hmm, last week my newest niece Ellie was born. She just happened to come on the same day that I was planning to have a baby shower for her mom, Sharon. Well, since I really had no clue who was invited (someone else passed out invites), we decided to still have the shower without the guest of honor. We had a great turnout-16 guests I think. I made a really good homemade carrot cake (though I obviously need to take a cake decorating class or something). I was sad that Sharon missed it, though it was fun to take her all the presents at the hospital . Ellie is beautiful.

Fun at the park

The kids love going outside to play. When grandma was here we took them to this great park a few miles away. I love the playground there...it is too bad you have to seriously drive through the ghetto to get there...needless to say, I wont take the kids there alone. We had lots of fun.

Hailey loved making cookies with grandma Swanson and wearing her cool apron. Thanks for coming and having so much fun with us grandma!

Children's museum

When Ben's mom was here we took the kids to see the Houston children's museum. They had such a great time. Hailey spent lots of time playing in the mini grocery store. She loved getting to pick out all her own stuff. I spent most of my time in the "Tot Spot" with Hunter. They had so many fun things in there for little ones to explore. It was also cool because I met a lady in there from China and got to chat with her in chinese for over an hour.



This was getting frustrated when all the food turned out to be plastic. He really enjoyed looking at the chicks in the little hatchery though.

Picture time...

Have I used that as a title for one of my previous blogs??
I learned something valuable this weekend while attempting to have grandma help us take a few family pictures: it is just cruel and unusual punishment to take an explorative 14 month old and his equally curious three year old sister outside and ask them to sit still and smile for pictures. Silly me. Perhaps I will just give up and pay someone to take pictures in a studio where the children will have nowhere to run...(insert devious laughter here). Actually, it was a beautiful February day and it was fun to watch Hailey and Hunter enjoy themselves so much. We're glad Ben's mom can be here for a little bit to see it.

It's about time...

Well, I'd say it's about time for a new post here. Geez. I was waiting for something really cool to write about...don't get your hopes up, I didn't really think of one. Hmmm, well, last week we got a piano. It was actually really funny because I found it on the craigslist for the Houston area and as it turns out, the lady lives like 3 blocks away in my neighborhood. The piano is old and can use some work, of course, but the price was good and Ben has been really wanting one for years now (he plays very well). I don't. It's funny though, I've got a beginner's book for adults and I'm a practice-aholic. Ben says whereas you have to force a kid to practice the piano when they are taking lessons, I'm pretty much the opposite (I've spent probably 1-2 hrs at it each day so far). I can play "When the Saints go Marching In" now. Pretty cool. Here's a picture. Please take note of the bench. The day after we got the piano I got all domestic and reupholstered it (you don't even want to know how nasty the floral fabric that it came with was). I was so proud of my little project...
Well, now the kids and I are off to Utah for two weeks. I have a friend from my mission getting married and since we had already decided to spend the money we thought we might as well make a trip out of it. Until next time...

Jammies

Is my blog getting more boring, or what? Not much is going on, I guess. Add to that the junkiness of our camera, and you get fairly sporadic blogs. We had a nice Christmas and New Years. The kids really enjoyed having daddy home for a few days.
Hunter is a full on walker now...it is so cute. This picture is from Christmas morning. Santa wanted him to know which stocking/gift was for him, so he put a banana in front of it. Hunter was so excited he walked up and started eating through the peel. Funny kid.

Here they are in their new footed jammies that they got for Christmas. It's funny to see such a big girl in these kind of jammies, but it is also so cute. We have to check the weather report to make sure they can wear these and not get all sweaty at night. As an example of what I mean...it is 80 degrees out today (no cozy warm pj's tonight)!