The Swensens

Jacobs Birthday!!!

2008-11-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

Well I can't believe it but he is 6 years old and 6 years ago on Thanksgiving day I
was eating Thanksgiving dinner at LDS hospital. Can you think of anything better???
Jacob is a sweet boy who loves making people laugh and being around his family and cousins. He loves scooters and playing star wars and especially loves playing with his sister Sally. He is also a loving big brother to his baby brother Andrew.

Jacob the day he was born

Jacob in our house in Tucson, around 10 months old

Jacobs first Halloween, not much has changed he still has that same look when he is mad

On Jacobs birthday we went up to our cabin with some cousins and played and watched movies.
Luckily only 3 of the 7 kids threw up during the night from some sort of bug. They always like to keep it lively for their parents

Jacob wanted to go bowling for his birthday party, so here is the crew that went. They had a blast and it was a big competition between the boys and the girls.Just threw this one in because I think Andrew was actually the most excited about the Jacobs new present. He walks around all day with a light saber and hits people. He is a star wars fan in the making.

2008-11-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

Well the other day Sally and I were using the ladies room, She said " Mom when do I get to wear a Bra?" I laughed and said I don't know when you are a little bigger like 11 or 12 and then she said "Oh you mean when I am a mommy and have babies!!".
I told he you can't grow up that fast!!!
( this is her new favorite way of wearing pajamas)

2008-11-14T11:01:00.000-08:00

A little late but we had a great Halloween with our little mermaids and Darth Vader
and our baby Giraffe. The kids loved it and were even willing to sell us there candy at
the end of the night!!!

Even though Grandpa scared the kids to death!!

2008-10-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

FALL TIME AND TRIP TO THE NEWPORT FOR MY BROTHER DEANS WEDDING

A Year and a half ago my oldest brother Deans wife passed away from cancer and
last week we were able to celebrate with him as he remarried at the Newport Temple.
We had a great time as most of our family gathered in California.

Sally, Andrew and Jacob at the wedding reception in Dana Point

James (yes the one in the hot pink wet suit) managed to step on a huge fish hook and ended up at the hospital to get it dug out and about a dozen stitches.

First snow storm, kids loved it!!!

Labor Day

2008-09-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Well we had a great Labor Day to celebrate the last few days before school started. Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Jacob and Sally going horse riding for their first times

Jacob riding a sheep at the Kamas Rodeo

Jacobs first day of Kindergarten, I am entering the Public Schools FUN!
After two weeks he loves it and looks forward to it. Sally is going to Holladay
Preschool two days a week with her cousing Joshua and loves it.

Andrew and I have spent the last 2 weeks canning and bottling everything
you can imagine. Thanks to my dad and his Huge Garden which he
doubled in size this year we are all very busy keeping up with it.

We are back!!! Highlights from our Summer

2008-08-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Lagoon with Cousins

SUN VALLEY with Jarmans

Mill Creek Canyon with cousins (it got a little messy)

Swimming at Murray Park

4th of July Mill Creek Parade, GO UTES!!!

Well we did not fall off the face of the earth but we have been very busy lately.
We got home from Italy in May and then spend a month at my parents and then moved in to our new house. Since moving into our new house we have been out of town four weeks and
have not had time to settle down yet but I am sure we will find time
to get settled once school starts in a few weeks.

We are currently spending a week in Park City and enjoying one of the last weeks
before James starts working at the BYU ( I know how is that possible???).
But we are excited to have him settled down in a school. We did have
to compromise because we decided to stay in Holliday and that he would
commute.

Jacob will be entering Kindergarten this year and Sally will be
starting at Holladay Preschool and Andrew is now one and
just started to walk and is all over the place.

More of Sicily

2008-03-25T01:26:00.001-07:00

More of Sicily

Where is Sparky?

This is Sparky being loved by all the girls in our group at a lunch at our
Directors moms house in Todi Italy. He is usually the highlight of every
field trip and I only get him when he is hungry.

To top it off one more photo from Sicily.

Spring Break in Sicily

2008-03-17T14:06:00.001-07:00

WHERE IS SPARKY???

1

answers-
1.Ferry ride from the boot to Sicily
2.Sparky modeling his new Oneity Clothes
3.Sparky hanging out on the beach in Cefalu

Well James program has a ten day Easter Break so we decided
to take a road trip down to Sicily. We drove down from Orvieto
and took a ferry to Messina, Sicily. We then drove down the coast
to Cefalu a beautiful city on the northern coast that dates back to the
fifth century B.C. when the Greeks settled it.

We have spent most the time just enjoying ourselves here in Cefalu and playing on the
beach and eating oranges and pastries. We also took a day trip to Palermo where we
went to church and visited Monreale. Our trip is about to come to an end, but
before it does we are heading to Agrigento (James is dragging us to more ruins) and then Catania and then heading back up Orvieto.

Here is a view of Cefalu and the beach.
more pictures to come...

2008-03-11T08:53:00.001-07:00

Florence and Rome with Lee and Colette

Well with a little good luck from the boar we might make it back to Florence

Jacob and Sally at the Baptistry in Florence, Jacob loves smiling

Saturday day trip to Lake Bolsena, a small lake in Umbria which
is beautiful and known to be one of the cleanest lakes in all of
Europe.

Jacob at his favorite statue in Rome

WHERE IS SPARKY???

Well this is an easy one, the Duomo in Florence

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRETEL

2008-03-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

The kids just wanted to wish Gretel a Happy Birthday
and let her know how much they love her!!!

HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY
SEE YOU SOON!!!

Finishing up February

2008-02-29T06:47:00.001-08:00

WHERE IS SPARKY???

Photo #1 playing in Jacob and Sally's Tunnel- yes he has grown a lot
Photo #2 Sparky seems to have a knack for finding what is on his mind!!!

Last weekend we had Heather (my sister n law) and her 3 daughter done to visit for the day,
and James and Sally took them to Rome for a tour and had a great time. One
of the kids favorite things is their one on one time with their dad. He usually tries
to take one of them on the field trips or whenever he goes somewhere.

This is a great place call Villa d'Este which is a place a cardinal built with
thousands of water fountains that all flow from the natural pressure of water
and no mechanisms. We had a beautiful day and enjoyed all the fountains and the
rest of the field trip with the students from James program.

There are 22 students here and most of them are in both James Baroque and Grand Tour
classes and we are getting to know them which has been fun. James teaches and works
at the office until about 4:00pm and then he runs home and I go up to the school
to take an Italian Class with some of the students. I really enjoy learning Italian and getting
out a little every day. The beauty of it is James is learning how to cook dinner
since he has the kids at home at that time of the day. When I am done they usually
meet me up at the school and we go for a walk and get a treat of some sort, cookies, gellato, chocolate or whatever sounds good that night and then we go home and get the kids to bed and
James works on his Dissertation for a few hours while I pick up and do laundry.

This was a field trip that James took Jacob on in Sienna, which is one of our favorite cities here.
It is about one hour North/East of us and it has a beautiful large center Piazza that
we always enjoy just hanging out in and letting the kids do whatever.
Obviously Jacob is loving the Height in this picture as they are looking down from the clock tower to get an overview of the city.

Weekend in Bologna

2008-02-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

Weekend with my
Sister n law and her three daughters in Bologna

WHERE IS SPARKY?

1. Sparky at St. Maggiore Duomo in Bologna
2. Sparky at a museum infront of famous painting?? I will ask James
3.Sparky infront of Neptune fountain In Bologna (He seems alittle excited
about what he is seeing behind him!!!)

POP QUIZ - where is the first place you find in a new city while traveling
abroad with little kids?

DING DING DING - if you guesed McDonalds you are correct
(more for the bathroom than the food especially with a 3 and 5 year old)

FOR PAPA SWENSEN we thought you would appreciate Jacob licking
his ketchup out to the last drop.

SOME MORE PHOTOS FROM OUR TRIP

DONT ASK I DONT KNOW!!!

LETS GO RUNNING!!

2008-02-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Well we have been here another week and our enjoyng our time.
In the center of Orvieto there is a Bell Tower that splits the town into four quarters
and this is the view from the top of the Bell Tower.

I thought I would take you running with me for a day so you can see why I will
probably never run again in the U.S I just dont think I can match
what I get to see here when I go running.

First I exit the main city walls through an old Mid-evil Gate and then continue my way around the mountain that Orvieto is situated on. The Path I run on is about in the middle of the mountain so I get the views of the cliffs above and the hillside below.

Now you might be wondering why I have a picture of an escalator here,
you have three options g to get to the top of Orvieto,

Escalator
Tram
or a long road up hill.

I chose the Escalator this day (it is about 8 escalator segments that cuts throug the middle of the mountain and ends up in the cneter of town) But on a good day I would probably run up one of the paths back to the top.

As I run around the corner from the escalator you begin to get the
view of the Famous Duomo in Orvieto

The home stretch down our road and down the stairs to our balcony!!!
I will take you running on the other side of the mountain next time!!!

Just a few fun photos from our week, Sally in our apartment getting ready to go out. Me and Jacob at the market were we buy most of our food. Jacob waiting for a train in Terni where
we went to church this past Sunday (we left at 9am and got home at 7pm) I dont
think I will ever complain about where my church is again.

QUOTES FROM THE WEEK

Jacob " mom BUGA"
mom " JACOB what does BUGS mean"
Jacob " it must be Italian mom"

NUMBER OF TIMES I AM STOPPED TO BE ASKED IF THEY "ALL OUR MY KIDS"
at least 4-5 times a day
(I ONLY HAVE THREE)

WE WILL CATCH YOU UP ON WHERE IS SPARKY NEXT TIME!!!

WEEK II in Italy

2008-02-08T05:27:00.001-08:00

"WHERE IS SPARKY PART II"

Picture 1- Sparky enjoying his view of the DUOMO in ORVETIO
Picture 2-Sparky loving carnival and confetti from his new home -the stroller
Picture 3-Sparky just hanging out on our porch overlooking the hills across from ORVIETTO.

Carnival was this last week and we spent some quality time in the streets throwing confetti with the Italian kids. We aslo went to Florence last Sunday on the train and we walked down to where we went to church last time and it had been moved so we were out of luck but we made the best of a rainy day and spent some time exploring and took the 2 hour train ride back home. James took Jacob with him on their field trip on Wednesday down to TARQUINIA, which is on the coast bellow Rome. With Jacob gone and only 2 kids it enable me to make a trip to the grocery store which entails a 10 min walk to the tram and then a tram ride down the hill and a 10 minute walk down to town to the grocery store which is the biggest one within about 100km radius and is the size of about a McDonalds. Then I pile everything in my stroller and to it all again. I love it though, Sally thinks it is fun because she gets to go on the Tram so it is all worth it.

MOVING TO ORVIETO ITALY

2008-02-01T05:23:00.000-08:00

Well after a very busy January we finally made it to Italy where we will be living for the next four months. We are in a small town Orvieto which is a hill top town in Italy, it is the same place we lived in two years ago and are excited to have another adveture.

Traveling with three little kids can be an adventure on its own. When we got to Rome James
put Sally in a back pack on his back I had Andrew in a Bjourn and Jacob walked. We then
had 7 large bags and 3 car seats and a double stroller to get through customs up a elevator and accross 4 moving walk ways until we got to the car rental center. We had rented a wagon
and soon realized there was no way that we were going to fit everything so we got 5 bags in and then opened the rest of them and dumped them in every crack we could find and put the last one in the front seat next to James. Needless to say we couldnt see a thing but it fit!
I would love to show you a picture of us struggling through the airport or the car but as you
can imagine a camera and picture was the last thing on our minds.
After a good night sleep (we would like to believe that) we took advantage of having a rental car and went down to Florence to hit the IKEA a large grocery store. We then made it into Florence for a evening stroll and our first Gelato. As you can see Sparky loves Italy.

The next day was our last with a car so we went to quickly go and visit our favorite city Chivita. This is a little town they call the dying city because over 75% of it has literally just fallen away down the hillside and this is all that is left. It is only accessible by the little path that winds up infront for walking only.

As part of our travel journal James wants to play where is SPARKY, stay tuned!!!!

Now that we are settled in Orvietto it is back to our simple live of walks, parks, exploring, pasta, and gelato. It is so fun to strip away all the distractions and focus on just your family and enjoying the simple things.

GINGER BREAD HOUSES

2007-12-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-11T18:39:00.000-08:00

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

2007-10-24T18:31:00.000-07:00

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.

.

Andrews Blessing

2007-10-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

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