GINGER BREAD HOUSES

Well it wasn't beautiful but we had a lot of fun making our ginger bread house. I opted out of making the house from scratch I decided it was worth the $8 to get the pre made one from costco. Jacob ended up putting more candy in his mouth than on the house and all Sally could say is "IT'S BEAUTIFUL". We are enjoying the holidays and being in Salt Lake with family. We have been away for 4 years and it is so nice to be back with the snow and with all the family.

Sally's first dance performance

SALLY READY TO DANCE!!!

For those of you who know me, probably would love to see me taking my daughter to a dance performance decked out in pink and hiking boots. Even though I was never what you would consider a dancer, I have enjoyed watching my daughter take to it and love bowing and waiting for the applause.
I thought I would add this photo to show everyone how photogenic my kids are!!!

Halloween

This year Jacob and Sally decided to be Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. I think they enjoyed the month leading up to Halloween and pretend playing in their costumes as much as they enjoyed the actual night of Halloween.

Jacob, Sally, Hannah, Joseph, Josh on their way to go trick or treating. It didn't take them long to get the swing of things. The only problem was we couldn't keep Jacob from eating the candy he got at each door as he walked to the next house. Needless to say I think he had a rough day at school the next day. Everyone had fun and the kids enjoyed the nice warm October evening with their cousins.

Halloween at the Zoo with cousins, Kristina, Eva, Emma, Isabel, Hannah, Caleb.

Jacob and Sally showing off their Jack-O-Lanterns and their costumes.

Cousins outing, Wheeler Farm

Once a month I get together with 4 of my sister-n-laws, we all have 2 1/2 year olds. It is always so much fun to get them together and enjoy each others company. Sally usually holds her own considering she is the only girl of the five cousins. This month we met at wheeler farm and enjoyed feeding the ducks and going on a wagon ride.














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Andrews Blessing

We blessed Andrew on September 30th, and enjoyed having our parents over for dinner in the evening. Andrew is continuing to be a great baby and we love having him in our family.

Sally and Jacob love riding their bikes and wiggly car Grandma's driveway the only problem is getting them to stop before they hit the cars at the bottom. Jacob especially loves to crash into whatever is at the bottom. So far no trips to the emergency room, we will cross our fingers.

IT IS TIME FOR SCHOOL

Jacob started pre-school this week, he is at Upland Terrace two days a week and at Mrs. Palmers the two days. He is excited to be in school and to go with his cousin Hannah to Mrs. Palmers.

Sally is adjusting to not having him around,
but looks forward to her dance class once a week. She also loves her new baby brother and helps
keep him happy and entertained for me.

James has started teaching full time at the BYU and goes

down every Tuesday and Thursday. Then on Monday and Wednesday he works on his Dissertation and teaches at the UofU. He is busy and looking forward to finishing up with his writing sometime this year.

I am keeping busy with the kids and running them around to there activities and also helping out at my brothers store ONEiTY. I can't believe how fast time is going by and can't believe how much the third child keeps me on my toes.

Then off course there is Andrew who is as sweet as every

and just so pleasant to have around. He is starting to

smile more and more and is such a happy baby.

BBQ

To close the summer fun we had a little BBQ our parents with a few friends. The kids had a great time and we only disturbed one yellow jacket hive!!!

We are going to miss the relaxed summer evenings as school starts in full swing in a week.

Jacob and Sally having a great time having their friends around to party.

William and Jacob enjoying their dinner

Jacob, William and Cardon having a great time in the sand box.

Mary taking care of our new addition, baby Andrew

Canyons

With a new baby you just have to get out and so we

headed up the canyon with James and Kristin and the Morgan family.

We are so lucky to live so close to Mill Creek Canyon,

we just love going up as often as we can.

Dinner up the canyon is one of our favorite summer time activities!
The two baby Andrews!
Roasting marshmellows!

BABY ANDREW

JULY 23 around 8:30 am we were blessed with a new addition to our family. We didn't find out what we were having so when a little boy came out we quickly decided that "Ruby" the name I had chosen wasn't going to work. So we called him by his womb name "Sparky" for three days until we decided to name him Andrew Paul Swensen. He weighed 7lbs and was 19 inches. I had him as a scheduled C-section as my last two tries had both ended up in a C-section we figured this time I would leave out the 20 + hours of labor and go in and just have a C section. Everything went well and we are just so excited to have this new spirit in our home. I don't know if he will ever be called Andrew, Sparky has really stuck!!!

Swimming Lessons

Well I am trying to get started with the whole blog thing, so I have gone back and done a few entries from the summer and hope to keep updated with our what is going on in our lives.

After moving to Salt Lake from Tucson we jumped into the summer fun with

swimming lessons with some friends.

The kids after swimming..

The moms and babies watching the swimmers