Saturday, May 31, 2008

Firewheel Mall

We had a few errands to run today, so we decided that we'd drive out to Firewheel Mall, have a picnic lunch there (Firewheel Mall is an outdoor mall. It actually reminds me a lot of Gateway Mall in Salt Lake, except bigger) and then we'd find a fabric store so we could buy some straps and clips to fix Lincoln's stroller (Lincoln's big stroller is only a 3 point harness and he likes to nose-dive out of it, so we want to turn it into a 5 point harness), then we were headed to the Post Office to mail my mom a book of mine that she wants to borrow.

It was a beautiful day, but really really hot outside. I think I was sweating about two minutes into our lunch. We brought left over Chinese food. It was good, but not ideal for a hot day. They have a really pretty grassy area though and a fountain and a little man-made stream that flows along the side. At first Lincoln was scared of the fountain and wouldn't take his eyes off of it. After awhile though he got used to it and even wanted to play in the water. He probably would have crawled right off the edge to swim with the goldfish if we'd have let him.

After exploring the fountain we took him down the stream. It's a really pretty stream made out of red rocks with little waterfalls built every few yards. A nice place for taking pictures. We had a hard time getting Lincoln to cooperate though. There was just way too much else for him to look at, so the camera was not his main focus.

After that we were so hot we decided it was time to go run our errands. Well, we couldn't find a fabric store, so that was out. Then we went to the Post Office to mail the package to my mom and it was already closed. Oops. I guess we should have done our errands first and played later because we didn't get a single thing done. We did have a good time being together as a family though, so I guess that's what counts the most.

Later we were playing with Lincoln and we found out that if you stick Lincoln in the banana chair he is stuck. I guess his weight is pretty proportional or something, because he can't move backwards or forwards. And as my mother used to say "It was all fun and games until someone got hurt." That someone was Lincoln, when he decided he'd had enough of the banana chair and rolled over only to discover that there was a six inch drop. He was fine, I think it just startled him a bit.


Friday, May 30, 2008

The Animal Adventures of April & Krystal

My friend April and I go walking just about every weekday morning. I love it. It's so nice to get out of the house (and get Lincoln out of the house), and get some exercise, plus we always have fun conversations. Anyways, a few weeks ago while we were walking we walked past a house that had a squirrel trapped in a cage! The poor little guy was scared to death. Squirrels are all over the place in Texas, so we thought for sure that whoever owned the house hadn't meant to capture a squirrel in their cage. And if they had meant to, we thought it was pretty mean. So we decided to free him. April figured out how the cage worked, opened the door and the squirrel darted away.

When we walk we always start at my apartment, and go north on the road, walk through a couple of neighborhoods to the east and then cross over to the west and finish our walk by going around Crowley Park, and then east on Lookout Dr. and then back north to my apartment. So today as we were walking around the park we got to the part of the sidewalk that's in between the playground and the pond, and in the middle of our path was a turtle! It was a decent size, maybe about as long as a football and almost as big around as a dinner plate? It was so hot outside that we were sure the turtle had strayed too far from the lake and that it was going to dry out. April and Krystal to the rescue again! We decided to chase the turtle back to the lake. The turtle didn't need too much coaxing, as soon as we started after it, it pretty much hightailed in to the lake. I was surprised how fast it was. I seriously think it could have given the hare a run for it's money. So much for slow and steady.

Then when we got out to the road and were on the home-stretch, sitting in the grass by the side of the road was a snake! Yikes! My first instinct was to get Lincoln away and fast. April looked at the snake closer though and decided it was dead.

So there you have it, the complete animal adventures of April and I. My nephews Jordan and Carter would have loved being along with us and seeing all those reptiles. Me, I'd prefer that they stay in their homes. Especially the snake.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

All Done!

Well, I've finally finished it! The ward newspaper is finished. I sent it off this afternoon to the Bishop to be printed. I haven't heard back from him yet though, so I'm sort of wondering if he got it. Hmm... I would really really like to hand it out on Sunday so that nothing is "old news" as they say. But I'm trying hard not to get my hopes up too high in case there is a technical difficulty or something else that postpones it for a week. I really wish I would hear from the Bishop, but I know he's a busy guy and the ward newspaper isn't exactly top priority. But the nice thing is that it is done. Now I can start working on getting The Swan Family Cookbook all finished up and ready to hand out at the family reunion. It's almost done, I just need to add a few more pictures, and then print everything up, laminate it, and stick it in the binders. And then there is always my "secret project" to work on before the family reunion as well. Can you tell I'm trying to stay busy so the time until June 16th goes quickly? Because I am.

Anyways, I promised that I would post my article on the Ward Iron Chef Competition, so I am going to do that now. Those of you in the ward may not want to read any further so you don't spoil it for yourself for when the newspaper actually comes out. So everyone out there who does read this, it's time to draw on your editor skills, and let me know what you think! Enjoy.

Judges Vote Tie in Ward Iron Chef Competition
BY KRYSTAL SWAN
Squash and artichokes may seem an odd combination, but the Ward Iron Chef Competition, held on Saturday, May 24, was deemed a success by those who attended. To start off the evening, ward members were asked to bring a pot-luck dish containing some variety of squash. Lots of creativity went into these dishes which included pizza, shish kabobs, casseroles, all kinds of salads, and even “squashed” blackberries. “It went well,” ward member Kristy Lockabay said, “Squash tastes better than most people probably expected.”
The main event for the evening was a competition between two teams (women vs. men), based on the “Iron Chef” TV show on Food Network. Cooking for the women’s team were Fryin’ Faye (aka Heather Craddock), Cutin’ Carol (aka Cristy Hayes), and Saute Sally (aka Suzie Clines). The men’s team consisted of Mert Davis, Roy Hawkins, and Brant Mauthe. On the previous Sunday, both teams received instructions and were given a description of the secret ingredient, but not told what the secret ingredient would be. This gave the teams six days to plan their menus and get themselves geared up and ready to go.
On the Saturday of the competition, the teams were called on stage by Activities Committee Chairman, Scott Knight, and told that the secret ingredient was artichokes. Teams were given 50 minutes (5 minutes prep time, 45 minutes cook time) to prepare a soup, an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert for a panel of four judges. The rules of the competition required that all four dishes contain artichokes in some form. Judges would award a winner based on presentation, taste, and best use of the secret ingredient.
While the teams were in the kitchen several mini competitions were held on stage for the audience members to participate in. The first activity was Fluffy Bunny. In this game each contestant had to stuff marshmallows in their mouth and say “I’m a fluffy bunny.” If the audience couldn’t understand them, they were booed off the stage. Next, baby food eating ensued. In this contest each contestant had to try different kinds of unlabeled baby food and guess which kind it was. The third event was Cupcake Eating. This competition was for teams of two. One person had to wear a blind fold and the other had to wear a plastic garbage sack with their head poking through. The person wearing the blind fold fed the other a cupcake with a mountain of frosting on top. Whichever team’s cupcake was gone first and who still had their paper wrapper was the winner. Lemon Eating was the last event. It was basically a competition to see who could eat the most lemon slices, which definitely made for some sour faces.
After fifty minutes, the men’s and women’s teams brought their creations before judges Dora Balbuena, Dana Ellington, Carl Smith, and Stacy Jordan. The women’s team made Artichoke Brochette, Hearts of Gold Soup, Angels in Jerusalem, and Lemon Artichoke Cobbler. The men’s team made Stuffed Artichoke Hearts with sundried tomato, Deep Fried Artichoke Hearts, Bacon Wrapped Artichoke Hearts with Lemon Garlic Aioli Sauce and Dijon Habanera Sauce, and Hot Artichoke Vanilla Ice Cream served in artichokes. Of the men’s spicy ice cream, Knight said, “I think Brother Davis is the only person in the ward who can make hot ice cream!”
After a short debate, the judges announced the winners. The men won for using the secret ingredient the best in their food and for using the secret ingredient the best in their presentation. The women won for the best looking food and the best tasting food overall. Everyone—audience, competitors, and judges alike—seemed to have a good time. Judge Ellington said, “I’ll be a judge of a food competition like this anytime!” Ward member, Aaron Swan who participated in two of the mini competitions said, “I thought it was really cool that they had the video screen of the events going on in the kitchen. It was fun to watch the teams in action.” The Activities Committee put in a lot of effort to put on this competition and keep everyone entertained and having a good time, and they seem pleased with the results. “We shopped all day, starting at 9:00am and finally getting everything stocked and in the kitchen at the church by 1:30pm,” said Nette Knight, unofficial Activities Committee member, “The turn out was fantastic. Great participation. This is the best participation we’ve ever had at a ward activity. And you can tell them that marinated artichoke hearts are hard to find!” When asked how he thought the activity had turned out over all, Scott Knight said, “We could have had more in the audience, but the staff was absolutely incredible. All the staff members participated with their whole heart.”

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

A Lot of Catching Up...

I couldn't believe it when I saw that my last post was Friday which is not very long ago. I feel like a ton has happened since my last update. I debated about breaking this entry up into separate entries, but I've decided that I'm just going to go for it all in one flail swoop. (Is that the right expression?) So here it is, our whole weekend.

Friday
Friday is our designated date night. At some point in the future that will mean that Aaron and I get to go somewhere without Lincoln, but for right now (since we can't afford to go do something every Friday night, let a lone a baby-sitter) we take Lincoln with us. Since the weather was warm and pretty sticky, we opted to swim in our apartment's pool. We let Lincoln play in the shallow pool for awhile, and then we took him in the big pool. He loved it! I think he's going to be one of those kids who is fearless of water (I can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing). Even when he accidentally got water sloshed across his face, he'd still be smiling. After swimming we went to Braum's. I don't know if Braum's is just a Texas thing or what; I've never seen one anywhere but here...but everywhere would definitely benefit from Braum's. The ice cream is SO good. And you can get a double scoop cone for $1.99 what a steal! Then we rented National Treasure 2, put Lincoln to bed, popped some popcorn and watched our movie. It's been a long time since we rented a movie that we actually liked. Maybe we are just bad movie pickers or something. But we both really like NT2. I thought was just as funny as the first one. I did like the story of the first one better, but I thought the story line in the second one was still entertaining, and that they did a good job of making it not an exact repeat of the first. Of course it's far fetched, but you pretty much know that going into it. But all in all, I would recommend this movie, in fact I wouldn't even mind owning this movie. After the movie was over (it was like 11:00pm) Aaron and I realized that we had forgotten to eat dinner. We'd gone swimming right when he got home from work, and then went to get ice cream before it was time to put Linc to bed, and then we just sort of forgot! So we had ice cream and popcorn for our dinner, don't tell our moms! (Ok, so actually, Aaron, even though he wasn't hungry, couldn't live with the fact that we hadn't had dinner, so he warmed up something and ate it, so I guess he had dinner, but I didn't.)

Saturday
Saturday was all about our ward party. It was such a cool idea for a ward party too, our activities committee did a really great job. They did a Ward Iron Chef Competition. Ya know, like the Iron Chef show on Food Network. I'm not going to describe the ward party in too much detail here, because I had to write an article on it for the ward newspaper, and I think I will post that a little later. Every ward member was assigned to bring a dish, and every dish had to have some sort of squash in it. They were having a pot-luck with all the squash dishes. Our last name starts with "S" so we had to do a main course. We decided to do shish kabobs. On our shish kabobs were pork ribs cut up into little pieces and marinated in olive oil, soy sauce, and steak seasoning; onions; pineapples; green peppers; squash (or course); and tomatoes. It took us about 2 hours to make them, and oh boy did they smell delicious. I guess everyone else thought so too, because by the time I got to where they were in the line, they were all gone. :( Luckily Aaron had managed to snag one, so we split his. I was a little upset because a lot of the kids were taking 2 or 3 each, which meant a lot of the adults didn't get one. But I guess that's how it goes, eh? But I was surprised at how creative everyone was with their squash. One of the activities they did was a cupcake eating contest. They made Aaron and I come up on stage. Aaron had to put a trash bag over himself and stick his head through the hole, and I had to be blindfolded. Aaron was standing in front of me with his back to me, and I had to reach my arms around him (oh darn!) and feed him a cupcake that was piled high with frosting. Aaron gulped in down in like one bite, I'm not sure how...but I continued to smear what I found out later to be blue frosting all over his face. We'll just call in revenge for that time he shoved cake in my face at our wedding :) Unfortunately, my revenge wasn't as sweet as it might have been because Aaron turned around and kissed me (in front of everyone!) and got blue frosting all over me too. But we won the competition, so I guess that's all that matters. Haha! I had a good time at the party, but I felt like I didn't get to socialize as much as I would have liked because I was trying to take good notes, and get pictures, and quotes, and all that for my article in the ward newspaper. So, if you tried to talk to me and I seemed a little distracted, I probably was, and I'm sorry!

Sunday
Ahhh, the day of rest. And it really was, and it was so nice. For Sacrament meeting, it's seminary graduation time, and so they had a few of the seminary kids and the seminary teacher speak. I'm not sure of his name...I think it's Johnathan Honey...something or other, he was one of the seminary kids that spoke, and he was also the youth speaker last week. But I just wanted to say that both weeks I was super impressed with his talks. I thought he made a lot of mature points, and that he just spoke really well, he didn't just read his talk straight off the page or anything like that. I was just really impressed that a high school kid, could do such a good job, and invite the spirit so well. Lincoln was a little squirmy, but pretty good in church, which is always a plus! Then after church we went over to Aaron's cousin's house for dinner. We just found out that Aaron has two cousins that live in Carrolton, about 20 minutes from us. Aaron hasn't seen them since he was 12 or so. We were a little bit anxious to meet them, we weren't sure what it would be like or if they'd be complete strangers, but everything turned out wonderful. We felt like we were right at home with family. Plus, one of his cousins, Jeff and his wife have a 2 year old. I loved watching Lincoln and Nathan interact with each other. Lincoln isn't around other kids all that much, and usually not right down on the floor playing with them either, so this was fun to watch. And Nathan was so cute, he wanted to share all his toys with Lincoln, and he called all three of us (Linc, Aaron, and me) Lincoln. Nathan also had a firetruck with flashing lights, and little cars that Lincoln thought were just the greatest, so any grandmas that are wondering what would make a good birthday present...there you go. Anyways, we had a really good time with the Cooks and hope we get together with them again soon. There's just something about having family close by that I love.

Monday
Good ol' Memorial Day, you gotta love the three day weekend. We decided that Aaron should work from home (as opposed to taking the day off) because that way he could build up hours so he wouldn't have to work as much when we go to Vancouver. I told him he'll be a lot more fun to be around at the family reunion if he has hours stored up to use than if he's building up hours he has to make up when we get home. He agreed with me of course! Hehe. So Aaron did his job, and I worked on the ward newspaper, and Lincoln crawled back and forth between us and begged for attention. At one point, Aaron built Lincoln a tunnel out of our banana chair and blanket (who would have ever though how versatile those bananas chairs would turn out to be, we use them for everything!) and Aaron would crawl through the tunnel and Lincoln would crawl after him. It was really hilarious. I couldn't help but take a video of it.
At 5:00pm we decided that we needed to do something fun. We had to drive out to the church anyway so that I could get a picture of it to put in the ward newspaper, and on the way home we decided to stop and get root beer and some ice cream so that we could make root beer floats for dessert. Then, while I put Lincoln to bed, Aaron made us dinner. He made shish kabobs out of the things we had left over from making them for the ward party. So I got to try them after all! And they were delicious. Then we played a game called Wit's End. Aaron beat me twice, but it was still a lot of fun. Then for FHE we talked about what our family could do to prepare for the Stake President's fast next week. We came up with some really good ideas, and will go into more details about that later. Then we went to bed. Wheew, what a weekend!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Secret Project

The Swan Sisters, that's what I call us. Even though I'm not a real birth sister, and none of them have the last name of Swan anymore. This picture was taken last summer in Phoenix, when the Goff's came to visit. From left to right: Me (Krystal Swan, and pregnant, aren't I the cute one, ick!), Stacey Bailey, Lisa Goff, and Sydni Yoshioka. Pretty much the three greatest sisters I could ever ask for. I remember being really nervous when I was first meeting them. But there was definitely no need for me to be because they are the greatest. We all get along so well. Plus, they were all mothers before me, so I got to watch their parenting skills. They are all great examples of loving, caring, wonderful mothers, and my little family benefits often from their advice.

Anyways, on to the point of this little post. We are having a sisters retreat in June (which kind of got turned into a family reunion along the way, but that makes it even better because now the husbands will be around to baby-sit while we have our sisters overnighter!) and I am way pumped for it! It's hard to be so far away from family, so I can't wait for all of us to get together again! Our plan (I think) is to get a hotel on the Oregon Coast and the whole family will come on Friday, then the men and children will leave, and the sisters will spend the night and all day Saturday on the Coast! Man oh man, it is going to be so much fun. In my excitement, I have planned and am now working on a secret project. I would explain what it is except Lisa, Stacey, and Sydni read this blog sometimes, and I really don't want to give it away. But it's going to be great, I hope. I just can not wait one more minute until June!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Firemen: True Heroes

So, today I did a very stupid, potentially life-threatening thing. I took Lincoln to Target, and when we came out to the car, I put him in his seat, put my bag in, then shut the door and went around to the driver's side, only to discover that the door was locked. Ah-oh. I went back around to check the passenger's side door. Locked! I must have, out of habit, reached over and locked the passenger door after I'd put Lincoln in. My keys were sitting on the seat. I wasn't sure what to do, I didn't want to walk away from the car and just leave my baby in there. But I also knew that I needed to get him out pretty quick before it got too hot inside the car. I called Aaron. He was going to see if he could borrow a car from a guy at work, and hurry over with his key. Luckily as we were discussing this plan, I noticed that there was a fire truck sitting in the parking lot a few cars down and a row over from where I was parked. And, even better, there was a fireman in it. I walked over and asked if he could open my car door. This kind of thing must happen a lot (which doesn't make me feel any better about it, by the way) because he had a form and everything that I had to sign, giving him permission to break into my car. All in all, Lincoln only ended up being locked in the car for about 5 minutes total, but that was still way too long for me. He was sweating a little, but otherwise healthy and happy. I guess I need to invest in one of those hide-a-keys to stick on my car somewhere. I mean what if the fireman hadn't been there? Or if it had been a lot hotter today than it was? Or if I still lived in Phoenix? Yikes! Let's not go there, and just be thankful for firemen and all the many various things they do to keep us all safe.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

It's Official

My step-sister Stephanie is getting married! Her finace, whose name is Kirk, proposed today. He took her in a helicopter ride and on the ground was a big sign that said "Stephanie will you..." which (according to my mom) is a joke between them, Kirk always says things like "Stephanie will you...make me a sandwich" or "Stephanie will you...go with me to a movie tomorrow." And then when they landed he took her somewhere special and popped the real question! They are getting married July 16th in the Salt Lake Temple. Congrats you guys! Kirk welcome to the family, I can't wait to meet you.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Beautiful Saturday

Today was such a great day. Aaron and I took Lincoln to Heights Park, one of the many beautiful parks close to our apartment. Heights Park has two playgrounds, both the old fashioned kind, with the tall metal slides, and big swings, and animals made out of metal that kids can climb on. One of the playgrounds even had a tall metal rocket ship, with about four different levels inside that kids could climb up in. It was a pretty cool park, even if Lincoln isn't old enough to play on most of the toys. As we were swinging with Lincoln in the swings, I noticed that there was a family (probably including extended family) there. All the adults were sitting in lawn chairs in the shade, with coolers and food on the picnic tables, just talking and having a good time, while all the kids played on the playground and ran back and forth all over. To me, this just seemed like the perfect picture of summer. If I could choose only one thing to do all summer long, I think that would be it. Just to spend it with family, good food, and cold drinks, under the shade of a tree on a beautiful day watching all the kids run around having fun.

In Texas, at the parks and along the sides of the road, they do something which I think is really cool. They plant wild flowers in certain parts of the grass and then leave them to grow without mowing them down. (We still haven't figured out how you go about planting wildflowers, but that's a topic for another day.) It's beautiful. And Lincoln seemed to think they were tasty as well, because he kept popping them in his mouth like candy. At one point I noticed he was chewing on something, and stuck my finger in his mouth to remove whatever it was, and pulled out three complete flowers! What a kid.

In the afternoon we had an opportunity to go support two investigators by attending their baptisms! It's been a long time since I've been to a baptism. I really enjoyed the spirit that was there. Welcome to our ward Roy Hawkins and Tekoa Rudolph! Lincoln got a little bit vocal during the talks afterwords, so I had to take him out in the hall, but I was really glad that we were able to see the baptisms. Being there made me think about my brother (who is serving his mission in Guatemala right now) and how what he does every single day is try to get people ready to be baptized, or in other words change their lives by bringing them closer to our Savior. What a great thing to be doing!


After the baptisms, we went bowling with our friends Brian and April, and Roy. It was a lot of fun. Aaron and I have been wanting to go bowling for a while. The bowling alley we went to was cool too. It was galactic bowling, so Lincoln was glowing, it was great. And they also were playing music videos from the 80's so Aretha Franklin, the Supremes, and White Snake, and all those. Man it was hilarious! Aaron and I were talking about how it's funny to think all the effects they use in the videos, that seem almost cheesy now, were like the top of the line technology back then. I was also noticing that pretty much everyone in the videos was fully clothed, which you definitely don't see now days. (Not that you can even watch music videos now days because they are so awful.) But we had a fun time bowling. Aaron bowled a 106! And Lincoln and I bowled I think it was a 32. Hmm...guess Linc and I need some work! Oh well, we still had a great time. And it was so nice to be out of the house for most of the day!

Friday, May 16, 2008

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It's been a while since we posted about the progress of our "planter box garden" so here is an update. It's still alive. And now, not only does it have plants in it, but some of the plants are beginning to bare fruit! All three of our bean plants have little beans growing on them, so we might actually grow enough to have with dinner one night. Also one of our tomato plants has one little tomato growing on it. We are pretty excited about this.

Unfortunately, we can't report as good of progress for all the other plants. The cucumbers, there are three of them, have grown but don't have any fruit on them. I haven't even seen any flowers on them, so who knows what will happen there. As for our carrots and onions, well, we only started out with eight of each, and are now down to five carrots, and four onions. We can't really tell if they are growing or not since they grow underground, so only time will tell.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Battle Continues...

Walking Along

To encourage Lincoln's newest accomplishment, we set up a bridge of kitchen chairs that goes between the big chair and the couch. He's getting pretty good, so we thought we'd show him off.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Oh Boy, It's a Boy!

My wonderful sister-in-law Stacey, is having a baby in October! That will make 9 grandchildren on the Swan side. This picture (which I stole off your blog Stace :) ) was taken at 17 weeks. I know, she hardly looks pregnant at all. As of today, she is 19 weeks and 1 day pregnant. They found out yesterday that they are having a little boy. We are really excited for them. And excited for us too, because now Lincoln will have another play-mate. Hooray for cousins and for babies! The only thing I'm sorry about is that she has to go through an Arizona summer pregnant. Been there done that. But it's definitely worth it. :) And I guess (since Lisa did, and I did, and Stacey will) that makes it Sydni's turn to have an AZ baby. Good luck with that one Syd.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Trying Something New

Well, as you probably noticed, I changed our blog template. I was just in the mood today to try something new. For anyone that's interested, I found the template at cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com it has lots of free templates you can choose from, and even better...the directions for how to put them on your blog. So, let me know what you think.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mothers, Grandmothers, Great Grandmothers, & Great Great Grandmothers

Lincoln is so lucky to have so many wonderful women in his life (and so are Aaron and I). We are so grateful for our family and the wonderful legacy they have left us, so we just wanted to take a minute and express our love and appreciation for our moms, grandmas, great grandmas, and great great grandmas!

This is Aaron's mom, Lincoln's Grandma Swan. (I'm sorry we don't have a more recent picture, this one is from Thanksgiving.) She is such a wonderful lady. I don't think I could have hand picked a better mother-in-law. From the first time I went and stayed in Vancouver, I have always felt right at home in her house. She always knows what to do whenever we need help (like when we needed to know how to politely word an invitation saying that the guests were paying for themselves but dessert would be provided), and always has a few great tricks up her sleeve (like freezing the unneeded half of the onion, or using chicken broth in rice). She is a very loving mother, and loves doting on her 8 (soon to be 9) grandchildren. We always thoroughly enjoy her visits, and wish we lived closer so there could be more of them. I know that it is because of all of her love and hard work that I have the wonderful husband that I do (ok, we'll give Chuck a little credit too, but not until Father's Day). Besides, anyone who can put up with Aaron and Kelly at the same time for so long, is definitely a keeper. Her unconditional love for every member of her family is such a blessing. We love you Debbie! Happy Mother's Day.

This is Lincoln's Grandma Sparks, my mom. What a wonderful example she has been to me all of my life. For so many years she has been the solid rock foundation of our crazy family, a task I can't even begin to comprehend. At the same time, her compassion and service for those inside the family and out is incredible. Her house and dinner table are always open to anyone, no matter the number. She is a loving mother, and turning out to be a pretty cool grandma too! Every now and again Aaron will tell me that something I've said or done reminds him of my mom. The funny thing is I'm starting to take that as a compliment. She has a way of making me feel better just by listening to me, and making me laugh with her stale humor. And even if she does send me all those forwards, I know she's just thinking about me, and that means a lot. She'll always answer her phone (or at least return my call) even if we've already talked two or three time that day. We love you Mom! Happy Mother's Day.

This is Lincoln's Great Granny Jan, my grandma who we lovingly call Gran. She is always willing to let us stay the night at her house. We love to cook her breakfast, and stay up chatting with her until all hours of the morning. She keeps track of the whole family (not an easy task) and lets us know what's going on. I have the privilege of being her "favorite grand-daughter" probably because we share the same birthday month, and are both the oldest daughters in the family, so we relate to each other really well. We miss you Gran and hope to see you when we visit in June. We love you! Happy Mother's Day.

This is Lincoln's Great Great Grandma Roberts, my great grandma. She lives up in Logan and we don't get to see her as much as we'd like to. On our last visit, my mom, Gran, Lincoln, and I, took Great Grandma Roberts and we did a 5 generation picture of all of us. We thought that was so special. Great Grandma Roberts also crocheted the outfit we blessed Lincoln in. We are so lucky that we have such a wonderful great grandma. We love you Great Grandma Roberts! Happy Mother's Day


Postcards

On our honeymoon Aaron and I started the tradition of making a postcard for every year that we're married. The postcards, as a rule, are of our feet with the view of what ever we did for that year.
On our honeymoon at Lake Conroe in Houston, TX



Our 1 year anniversary at our apartment complex's pool in Phoenix, AZ



Our 2 year anniversary at the Texas Rangers baseball game in Arlington, TX

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Today was the big day, the day we went to the Ranger's game. We dropped Lincoln off at the baby sitter's and headed out to Arlington. We got a little lost trying to find the parking lot we thought we were headed to, but that turned out to be a good thing, because we found a closer parking spot that only cost $6 (as opposed to $12). The stadium is really beautiful. A lot of stadiums I've been to are basically just a giant cement circle, this stadium was made out of brick and had some really pretty architecture.

We had planned on buying tickets when we got there (because if you buy them on the Internet the charge you a $3.50 per ticket "convenience fee" like it's convenient to pay $7 extra dollars for no reason) and just getting the $15 tickets to the nose-bleed section. We found the ticket counter and got in line. Then a man tapped us on the shoulder and asked if it was just the two of us, and did we need tickets? Yes. He told us he was a season ticket holder, and had invited his sister-in-law and some other people to the game, but they had bailed on him last minute and if we wanted the tickets they were ours. Sweet! You'll never guess where his tickets were either...10th row from the field behind the opposing team's dugout. It was like a dream come true. Aaron asked the guy if he wanted anything for the tickets (they were $45 tickets it turns out) and the guy said, na, just buy my a bag of peanuts and a beer. During the game we got to talking to the guy a little, we were telling him how we'd just moved to Texas and all that. Then the beer man game down the isle so Aaron went to go get our friend a beer (the first beer Aaron's ever bought in his life, by the way) and while he was gone the guy leaned over to me and asked, so are you guys Mormon? Yes, we are. Oh, I'm not putting you in a bad spot am I? And I said, oh no, actually this spot is pretty darn good! Ok, I didn't actually say that, but I thought it. I then explained that as long as Aaron didn't drink the beer we were ok. We had a great time, the game was actually a really good game (even though the Rangers are usually terrible). The Rangers beat the A's 6-4.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Tindy's Challenge

So I have this crazy friend named Tindy. She is the reason for these pictures. Let me explain. She has this game that she learned how to play while she was nannying in Connecticut called the picture game. How the game works is pretty simple really, all you have to do is take a camera and keep moving your face around while you snap pictures (so, your face is constantly in motion, and then you just click, click, click). Then you get to look at the pictures and see just how "pretty" they turned out! Tindy and her husband Ben recently played this game and then challenged us to play it as well. We took her up on it. It's pretty funny. We wanted Lincoln to play too. Call it family bonding. But he didn't understand the move your face part I guess because he looks pretty normal. Aaron and I, not so lucky. But we definitely had a good laugh at the whole thing. And now for the fun part. We get to challenge all of you to play this game as well and post your pictures. Specifically we are challenging Marzipan & Macho Man, Kate & Wes, and April & Brian, so don't disappoint us guys! hehe. And anyone else who wants to play, please feel free to let us know so we can check out your awesome pics!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Funny Faces

I thought I should write about how we celebrated our anniversary yesterday. I let Aaron open his present before he left for work. I gave him a camping chair. The kind that folds up really easily and you can put it in a bag. I'm still not sure whether he liked it or not, but I thought it was a good present because it's so versatile. I mean you can use it camping obviously, but he could also use it to sit on the back porch and watch the thunderstorms (and they have AWESOME thunderstorms here in Texas, by the way). Or, he could bring it to the park, or wherever. I thought it was a brilliant present idea. Especially because I already have one and now we can sit together. (Ahh, how romantic!) I had also planned on making a killer candle light dinner, and have it be ready to eat when Aaron got off work. Cornmeal-Ranch pork chops, with Au Gratin potatoes, a green salad, and some garlic-cheese biscuits. And sparkling apple cider, of course. Unfortunately, Lincoln didn't like my plan and decided to be a hindrance to it. I think he wasn't feeling all that well from his shots the day before. He was really clingy and not ideal for a cooking companion. So instead when Aaron got home we decided to go out to dinner. But first, Aaron brought me home daisies, my favorite flower ever! He even got the right kind of daisies, the small ones. I hate Gerber Daisies. Anyways, we decided to go out to eat at Olive Garden because that's where we'd gone to eat the first day of our honeymoon. We didn't get a baby-sitter 1-because they are really hard to find last minute and 2- we already have a baby sitter for Saturday because Aaron is taking me to a baseball game for our anniversary, Woo-hoo! So we packed Lincoln along with us to Olive Garden. He was really good. It was funny though, we were trying to take pictures at the restaurant and every time we'd get Lincoln to smile, and we'd take the picture, but at the last minute he always pulled a face. If I didn't know better (and maybe I don't) I'd say he was doing it on purpose. What a ham. It made me laugh really hard, so I included some of the pictures. On our way home from dinner, Sydni (Aaron's younger sister) AND Kelly (Aaron's twin brother) called to wish us a happy anniversary. How nice. :) So it was a good day. We will do the majority of our celebrating on Saturday though, at the baseball game. Without Lincoln. I'm pretty excited!

Oh! I almost forgot. This has nothing to do with our anniversary either, but it is big exciting news! My mom (whose birthday is May 5th) got a new Bosch mixer for her birthday. She's had her other one for about 20 years, but it's still in great condition, and guess who gets to inherit this wonderful treasure now that she has a new one? That's right...ME! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Goodbye mixing and kneading my bread by hand, hello Bosch Mixer! I'm going to be a bread making machine, I'll tell you what. Thank you Kerry for providing my mom with this wonderful new present that benefits everyone. :)

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Two Years and Counting

Two years ago today I married the one man on this earth who is perfect for me. At the time, I'm not even sure I knew exactly how perfect for me he was. As I look back over our two years of marriage (which I know isn't all that long of a time as far as life goes) it's hard for me to imagine a life without Aaron. He knows how to make me laugh, and how to comfort me when I'm sad. He's just as weird and goofy as I am. He's interested in the things I do every day (even if it is basically the same routine over and over again). He's a wonderful father, and helps me with Lincoln way more than I ever imagined any man would be willing to. He is kind and thoughtful of everyone, and encourages me to be the same. He thanks me almost every day for doing the dishes, or making the bed, or both.

I remember when we were engaged and I had to have my wisdom teeth taken out. I was a mess when I got home. My face was a giant swell, and I was out of my mind on pain killers. Aaron would come over after his classes, and sit with me on the couch. Even if I fell asleep he would just stay by my side and do his homework. He'd make sure I took my medication when I was supposed to, and he'd bring me soup, or water, or whatever I wanted to eat. He even skipped class once to stay home with me and watch "The Great Escape". (Those of you that know Aaron will know what a huge sacrifice skipping class is.) This might sound funny to say, because at that point we were already engaged, but that's when I knew I was in love with Aaron. I mean, I loved Aaron before that, obviously, we were engaged...but, after he took such good care of me, I knew I had nothing to worry about for our future and I guess that's when I gave him my whole heart. I was right too, these past two years, in one way or another, Aaron has always been there taking care of me.

We've had a few bumps in the road too. Our first fight is coming to mind. We hadn't been married very long, because we were trying to put away wedding presents. We'd been arguing over how to decorate the apartment (dumb, I know, but most fights usually are) and then it seemed like we couldn't agree on anything. One thing lead to another and Aaron went in the bedroom to take a nap (probably to get away from me). I was mopping the kitchen floor on my hands an knees, and silently fuming that I was cleaning while Aaron was sleeping (again, dumb, I know). Anyways, when Aaron came out, he thought he'd try to ease the tension. Usually we really enjoy being silly and starting water fights, or pillow fights, or whatever. But this particular day I was so upset that I didn't realize Aaron was trying to lighten things up. He dumped a glass of water on my head while I was still down mopping. I started to cry, stood up and proceeded to throw the bucket of dirty mop water at him. Then I ran out the door and down the street. Aaron chased after me. We probably walked a mile before I would even talk to him, but he stuck with me the whole way. We worked things out, and now we can laugh at this story. But I love Aaron for always sticking with me, even when I'm being ridiculous.

When I look back on everything that we've gone through together, two years seems a lot longer. It's kind of funny...the other day I was telling Aaron how important our two year anniversary was because, "it's the longest we've ever been married!" Aaron looked at me kind of strangely for a second, and said something like well, if you want to put it that way, every day we're married is the longest we've ever been married. So that's kind of our joke now. But I'm so happy that I get to live one day at a time with Aaron by my side. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing. So I just want to say:

Aaron, thank you for two wonderful years and the promise of so many more to come. You are my very best friend. I'll love you forever.