4th of July 2013

Our 4th of July was very uneventful, and I wouldn't wanted it any other way this year. Emma and I were sick a lot last week, and the 4th was probably our worst day. We spent most of the day in PJ's in front of the TV together. But by 4 o' clock, I was feeling super guilty about being so unpatriotic!

Our good friends, the Colletts, are back in town for a bit. So we invited them over for pizza, root beer floats, pool time, and a mellow fireworks/sparklers display. We also attempted a "kids movie night" and a separate "grown ups movie night" in two different rooms. But the girls wouldn't stand for it, so we called it quits by 9:00pm, and we all crashed for the night about 2 seconds after our friends walked out the door.  So I'm thinking it was for the best that movie night didn't work out :)

(we all had a good laugh over Georgia's bloated diaper!)

The men setting up the fireworks...

The girls loved having a little fire in their hands...

 

Happy 4th from the Swanks!

Elder Epps III

We've enjoyed having a couple of emails from members in Coop's area this week!! Both have mentioned that Coop is spreading the "good word" about my blog-- what a guy ;)

One of the emails even had pictures in it! He looks so happy...

We miss Uncle Cooper, but we're so proud of him!!!

So... it's February.

I know. It's a disgrace, really, how long it's been since I've blogged over here.

I do plan on blogging an update of our holidays, because I'd like to get our blog book printed off one of these days, and we're pretty much missing all of November and December! So, everyone keep your fingers crossed that I can get my act together enough to catch up on a few posts!!

But for now, I just had to show off this ridiculously cute shot I managed to get of Emma today. I can't even believe my good luck that she actually turned and smiled for the camera...

I'll be back soon(ish)! I promise. We have lots of fun and exciting things to tell you about!!!

Christmas in CA!

What a crazy Christmas we had!! Mostly because we flew into CA on Christmas Eve!! I'm not sure I ever want to do that again. But nevertheless, we had a blast with Chris's family, and Emma handled the time adjustment pretty well (better than I did!).

We did LOTS of eating, enjoyed our time with family, and even met up with some blog friends...

At the beginning of our first flight... we did not look this good after Emma got plane sick and puked on three rows of passengers (including us, of course). Oh, and we didn't have a change of clothes for any of us. Chris wrapped her up in his sweat shirt (which was only partially covered in puke).

Chris bought me the next level of diaper bag for Christmas... part diaper bag, part cute purse :)

He also bought me a super cute necklace! Emma keeps licking the measuring spoons and saying "Mmmmmm! Yummy pancakes!"

Captivated by Monsters Inc., snuggled up to Unkie.

Look who found the Christmas tree money this year! (although everyone is demanding a re-match... nobody else was in the room when he found it)

April taught me how to make tamales!

We took Emma ice skating for the first time. Not really an activity that works so well for two-year-olds... oh well. We got a cute pic from it :)

Me, Dorothy, and her daughter Jordan

Me, Hayley, and Dorothy

Sushi with Jake!

The Polar Bear Run with Aaron and Tonja. We all placed!!

Another awesome gift from Chris :)

Emma's Preschool Christmas Concert

Ok. Yes. I know.

I'm a seriously horrible mom who only brought her phone to take pictures of her baby's very first school recital.

Uggghhhhh..... lesson learned I guess :(

She was SUPER cute though. The teachers had been worried about her all week, because, apparently, she hadn't been very cooperative during rehearsals. They even asked me to sit up front so I could come grab her should she become too disruptive.

But, as always, she totally exceeded our expectations and was one of the ONLY (ahem!) two years olds to preform most of the actions correctly and sing the songs! She was AWESOME!

We did have a good chuckle over the looks she gave us... you can see below the funny look she shot at us as she walked by our pew in the chapel. Like.. "omg, please don't embarrass me!" And she kept giving us that look even from the stand! LOL. We loved it :)

The "mom" cut.

I went back to my short hair, and I'm kind of loving it...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

At the Ward Christmas Party with her bestie, Georgia.

A million cookies for all of our friends!