New Pictures.... and Boogers

I'm finally "caught up" with our birthday and holiday posts and was wondering what I would post this week. I feel like our lives are generally uneventful and boring. Then a couple days ago, Abby came into my room all decked out in play jewelry, a princess dress, and a funky hat. I started taking pictures and this is what we ended up with:
Pretty girls! This week has been spent trying to get little girls to rest and recover from sickness. Leah was sick last week and now Abby's got it, too. It's like a cold with a mild, off-and-on fever. Oh. And boogers. Lots and lots of boogers.

It's interesting to me how my kids' personalities are manifest in the way they deal with sickness.

Leah gets very calm and resigned. She listens to her body and rests when she feels like she needs it. She lets you comfort and care for her and trusts me when I tell her she needs juice or a bath or medicine.

Abby, on the other hand, gets mad when she's sick. Last night she was up at 3:30 in the morning just screaming. I tried to hold and comfort her and she fought me. I tried calmly asking what was wrong and she just kept on screaming. I asked if I could put a cool washcloth on her forehead and she said yes... and then took it off and threw it. So I left her alone and she tossed and turned and cried and moaned until she was able to put herself to sleep.

That sounds about right.

Luckily, Leah is almost completely over this bug and Abby seems to be doing better today. I'm hopeful that this upcoming week will be sickness-free!

Bowling Night

The first week of February the girls and I spent an entire week at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One of the nights we were there Grandpa just mentioned something about going bowling. Leah came running over to me and said, "Can I go bowling with Grandpa? Please?!?" I said, "It's okay with me..." and she took off running to find her shoes and her coat. I looked at Grandpa and said, "Well, now you have to take her..." So Grandpa, Uncle Phill, Leah, Abby and I went bowling (Grandma was teaching Institute that night). We had a no-pun-intended ball! After bowling we finished up with hot fudge sundaes from McDonald's. It was a fun spur-of-the-moment night out!

Leah's jump of excitement after knocking down... five pins?

Leah Loo and Uncle Phill

Grandpa Scot, Abber Dabbers, and moi

Uncle Phill, getting ready to bowl like a monkey

Grandpa, getting ready to outdo Phill's monkey bowling

Abby, being Abby

Leah's Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday, Leah! I can't believe my little girl is 5 years old (the beginning of December, 2010)! For months Leah had been talking about and planning her birthday. I never really plan on anything until about a week or so before it happens because her ideas change. Originally she said she wanted a chicken cake but eventually she settled on owls.

We made these crazy little owl cupcake toppers out of chocolate truffles. They were delicious but VERY labor intensive!

Pre-party, helping Mom clean out the cake batter bowl.

Birdhouses: BEFORE

Birdhouses: AFTER

Truffle Owls

Leah making a wish

CUPCAKES!

So maybe I'm not a very good party-planner... or maybe I'm an AWESOME party planner. Either way, we finished about 20 minutes early so we popped popcorn and let the kids watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". It gave me some time to clean up a little and get things together before the kids' parents showed up. I think it went well and Leah was happy with it and that's all that matters!

Family Pictures, September 2010

Grandma Edie wanted to get the whole Swan Family together for a family photo so here it is! And some pictures of our cute girls and little family as well...

Halloween

Halloween! One of my FAVORITE holidays. Abby decided she wanted to be Boba Fett. Yeah, my sweet little 3 year old daughter wanted to be the mean bounty hunter from Star Wars. During the weeks preceding Halloween Abby would tell people "I'm going to be Boba Fett. Boba Fett is a bounty hunter. He throws BOMBS!" I took her in to the pediatrician for her 3 year checkup and he got a kick out of her. He said "I was Boba Fett once!" He also said it was the first time he's had a little girl in his office who decided to be Boba Fett. Go figure.

Leah had her heart set on being a spider. I tried to talk her into being Princess Leia because I already had parts of a costume for that AND because I thought it would be fun to have both the kids dressed as Star Wars characters. But she still wanted to be a spider. And she was the cutest spider ever. Her costume was a pain to make but it was worth it, seeing her wave ALL of her legs around!

Leah designed her jack-o-lantern face and Mom helped her carve it. She actually touched the pumpkin guts this year. She giggled and thought it felt weird.

Dad "helping" Abby gut her pumpkin. Abby screamed when Dad touched the innards. She did not want anything to do with it.

Abs with her finished jack-o-lantern

They're all lit up...

Little Boba Fett - Abby wouldn't wear her helmet, not even for pictures. She had been wearing it all over the house BEFORE Halloween but I couldn't get her to put it on. So while we were out trick-or-treating everyone thought Abby was dressed as an army man and they thought she was a boy (because she was wearing a beanie to keep warm).

Leah's amazing spider costume. She wore it proudly!

Halloween is scary! Dad was at work so we were on our own for trick-or-treating. It was raining and looked to get worse so I took the girls over to the Stake Center to crash their trunk-or-treat. After 10 minutes of that and quite a bit of candy, it started raining even harder and Boba Fett had had enough. We came home to trick-or-treat the apartments and when we knocked on the door of Abby's friend, Weston, I asked his mom if Abby could hang out there while I took Leah out for more trick-or-treating. Abby was DONE.

So Leah and I went back out and she was crazy! She walked so far and knocked so many doors. She got so much candy we had to ask for a grocery bag to put some of it in. Her bucket was heavy and we trick-or-treated until way past dark. She said she wanted to trick-or-treat ALL NIGHT but I talked her into going home around the time that I had to start piggy-backing her, all of her spider legs, and her big bucket of candy.

It was an awesome Halloween night. The only thing that would have made it better is if Dad would have been able to enjoy it with us!

After spending our week in Oceanside we hopped on over to Tropic, Utah to visit Lenny's family. While we were there, we visited Bryce Canyon National Park. The girls LOVED spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Pollock. We hadn't seen them in a while and it was nice to catch up a little bit. It was a long two week vacation with time spent in Oceanside, St. George, Tropic and Mapleton. I think we were able to see ALL of our family on both sides! For weeks after we returned home Leah would say, out of the blue, "That was such a good vacation..." And it was.

Us at Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Grandma Sharon

Lenny and Abby peering over the rim

Leah doing an impression of Uncle Phill's 8th grade school picture

Grandma and Abby

We stopped in to visit Grandpa Gordon at work. The girls thought it was cool just chillin' with him.

Abby with her new dinosaur "Stomp". Grandma Sharon let the girls choose a toy at the Ruby's Inn Gift Shop and, of course, Abby chose a dinosaur.

Leah and her wonderful Daddy. We went on a drive to see the sights. Abby was smart and fell asleep quickly. Leah was patient and didn't complain. Lenny was like a kid in a candy shop and took pictures at EVERY pull-out and scenic overlook. I was a whiner. It WAS pretty. I just didn't need hours to appreciate it from every possible angle. :) I love my husband.

My beautiful Miss Leah

Oceanside, California

In October we took a trip with the Swan Family to Oceanside, California. The weather report promised "sun with 0% chance of precipitation" but it was foggy and cloudy and rainy the entire time we were there. We had a blast anyway. It was fun to spend time with the family and take an actual vacation. We desperately needed it!

Abby on the beach

Leah boogie boarding

Uncle Phill, all decked out for Canadian Thanksgiving

Uncle Brian doing a "beer brat binge". Inspired by the Tim-Tam Slam, the BBB is done by biting the ends of a bratwurst off and attempting to use it as a straw to drink Apple Beer. It didn't work very well and resulted in Brian and Phill ending up with a healthy dose of pure brat grease.

Abby with her Farmers' Market find

Leah discovering birds of paradise

Abby at Sea World. She stood by the Soak Zone sign but refused to sit in that section.

Dad and Leah, IN the Soak Zone!!

The Swan Kids (and kids) living it up

Casual Family Photo

GIANT pizza. We celebrated our last night in Oceanside with gigantic pizza.
And Brian's gigantic head.