Happy four years to us

A little blurry due to the fact that it was taken in a darkened booth with my cell phone

We had our four year wedding anniversary yesterday. We celebrated Wednesday night by dressing up and going out to a fancy fondue restaurant. Yesterday was pretty low key, but Alan did surprise me with a canvas wrap of one of our favorite beach wedding pictures taken by Becky. We ate chocolate molten lava cakes and drank a little sparkling cider and put the kids back to bed for the 5th time. Happy anniversary to us.

Eleven Months

Is my little stinker really eleven months old? Alice popped out another tooth on Christmas bringing her total number of teeth up to six seven (I just felt and she has another one that pushed through today). She has three on top and three four on bottom and she loves to use them. She loves to eat and easily out eats her older sister. Whenever she smells food cooking, especially meat, she crawls as fast as she can to the kitchen to get underfoot and whine until someone picks her up and gives her something. She seems to have gotten over her separation anxiety and is back to her adventurous self. She is still shy around strangers, but she is back to crawling around/over/under everything by herself. She is starting to be a real distructo kid and she is fast at it. If I blink she is at the DVDs and half of them are on the floor. Elsie has taken to climbing way back on the couch with her toys so that Alice can't reach her and mess up what she's doing. She loves to talk nonstop and very loudly. She has a lot of sounds and syllables, but only two discernible words: Mama and A-be (Elsie). Still working on Dada much to Alan's dismay.

Christmas morning

Lot of pictures in this post. Must satisfy the demands of the Grandparents... :-)

 Elsie left out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve. She was so amazed when she woke up and they were all gone! Santa even left her a note.

 Punch balloons! Growing up I always had a punch balloon in my stocking. The girls had a lot of fun with them.

 Alice got a little blue hippo from Great Grandma D. Aside from her taggie, it is her new go-to snuggle toy and goes with her everywhere.

 Elsie got a Mickey Mouse from Alan's parents. She was very happy when she opened it, and so was Alice. Whenever Elsie turned her back on it to open another present, Alice snuck in to give Mickey a squeeze.

 The ball popper has been a big hit. We have to keep reminding Elsie that it is Alice's toy, and Alice is being nice and sharing, so stop pushing Alice out of the way whenever she tries to play with it.

 The girls with their loot piles after church. I forgot to get a picture of us all in our church clothes and the girls in their Christmas dresses...

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve

We're spending the day cleaning the apartment, picking up last minute food items from the store, preparing food for tomorrow's dinner, and making cookies to leave out for Alan Santa. Happy Christmas Eve!

We watched White Christmas last night. This is how Elsie watched most of the movie.

2011 Christmas letter

 Dear Family and Friends,

            2011 has been a big year for our little Swenson Family. Our family got a little bigger at the end of January. Alice was born on January 28th. She is ten months old now and just starting to learn how to get into trouble. She has an adventurous soul, and anything and everything is seen as a challenge that must be conquered. If it can be climbed, pushed, crawled over or under, Alice has tried it.

Elsie turned two years old in April. She talks a lot and loves to be the center of attention. She loves to sing and play with all of her friends. She knows all of her letters and can recognize most of the sounds they make. She is a smart kid with a very good memory, and she doesn’t forget things easily. She has recently been potty trained, which makes life easier and harder at the same time.

Alan graduated from Brigham Young University in April with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology. While he was still in school he was offered a job for a medical software company called Epic. A week after graduation we packed up and moved to Wisconsin where he started work in Epic’s Technical Services department. Epic is an amazing place to work and they have been very good to our family.

Sarah is mainly in charge of making sure everyone is fed, clothed, and entertained. She ran her second 5K race in August and improved her time from her first race. She keeps a regular blog with all of our comings and goings. Her days are filled with reading, trying new recipes, making memories, and trying to keep the kids from destroying the house and killing each other.

Alan is in the Young Men’s program in our local ward where he works with the twelve and thirteen year old Deacons. Sarah teaches the twelve and thirteen year old Sunday School class on Sunday, so they get a double dose of Swenson every week. The youth are great and we love working with them, even if they can get pretty crazy sometimes.

We are enjoying small town life. Our town has a great library that we go to at least once a week for story time and play time. Alan’s work is very family friendly and we meet him for lunch and to play in our favorite spots frequently. We have a great church family out here and have made many friends. Life is good for the Swenson Family.

                                    With Love,

                                                Sarah, Alan, Elsie, and Alice

Trying so hard