Christmas Sunday

Swan Family Christmas Party

Last night we drove up to Heber City to see Stacey and Rob's new house, and because they were hosting the Swan Family Christmas party. Everyone in the Chuck and Debbie Swan family was there. All six kids, plus six spouses and 24 grandkids! The only ones who aren't in the picture are Stacey because she was taking the picture, and Jeremiah, and he's potentially standing behind someone and too short to be seen. 

It was a fun party. It was potluck soups with salads and rolls, and brownies and sugar cookies for dessert. Then we played a family trivia game that Jordan and Carter put together. They put questions up on the TV screen and then everyone logged into the game using an app, and answered the questions on their phones. You got points for getting the answers right, but also for being fast. The questions they came up with were funny questions about the family like: What is Aaron's official job title? and Which sibling has moved the most times? After that there was a white elephant gift exchange that was CrAzY! Haha! Just imagine 24 grandkids and a large pile of presents. But I think everyone came out with something they were ok taking home, so that's good. 

Ollie with Silas and Ilo on top of him.

Ruby, Malia, Ilo, and Silas

Choir Concert, Temple Square

Today was quite the Saturday. I had to have Adelia in Springville at 9:50am for a choir concert dress rehearsal. Ivan had to be in Spanish Fork for a 10am basketball game. Then Adelia had to be at the Springville Art Museum by 11:30 to warm up for her choir concert at noon. Grandma and Grandpa Swan, and Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry were planning to come down for the choir concert. And since Mom and Kerry were driving a long way, they wanted to go out for pizza with us afterwards. And one of our bucketlist items of the season was to go see the lights at Temple Square, since we haven't been since Adelia was a baby, and we wanted to go with Mom and Kerry, and we thought since they were driving up today anyways, that today would be a great day to go. Whew, I'm tired just typing it.

Somehow this morning, Adelia managed to rip the buckle off of her brand new black choir shoes. Luckily Aaron was able to fix it with a glue gun and a needle and thread. Then when I got her to warm ups, I looked down and she had a giant hole in her brand new tights. I took her to the dressing room and had her change them around backwards so that the whole was on the back of her knee instead of the front of her knee. That girl!

Adelia said she had a surprise for us, and it was that during the opening number she was singing a solo! She did awesome! I was so proud of her. I took a picture first and then started recording, so the video is missing the first of the song.

Papa Kerry, Adelia, Gramma Tam

 After the concert, we went to Pier 49 Pizza with Mom and Kerry. We got a Hawaiian which is the kids' favorite pizza, and a vegetarian, which in mine and my mom's favorite at Pier 49. Neither of us are even vegetarian, but that pizza is just so good there. I don't usually like the vegetarian at other places, but at Pier 49 it's heavenly.

Then we loaded up cars and headed to Temple Square. By the time we got down there and got parked, it was about 3:30pm and still light outside, which was great. We figured we'd walk around and see the Visitor's Center and the Tabernacle, and the Conference Center, and the Christ statue while it was still pretty empty. Then right when it got dark, we went to see the lights and the reflection pond, and the nativity, that way we weren't trying to fight crowds of people the entire time. I was amazed the difference in how crowed it was while it was light, versus when it got dark. Holy smokes! Probably my favorite thing this trip was listening to the organ play in the tabernacle. It's so much cooler in real life.

We left Temple Square about 6:30, so we were home at a reasonable time to still get kids in bed on time. It was a hectic day, but a wonderful hectic, filled with the people I love most. But it wiped me right out. I want to crawl in my bed and sleep until next week (which, my ever logical son, Lincoln, reminds me is tomorrow morning anyways.)

Ward Nativity, Icicles, Glasses, Bball

Ruby the Shephard, Adelia as Anna the Prophetess, Ollie an angel, Ivan and Lincoln as wisemen.

Whirlwind December just keeps going and going. We had our ward party. The Primary was in charge of the majority of the program and they did the nativity story. They asked Lincoln and Ivan to be wisemen, and Adelia to the Anna the Prophetess. The younger primary kids were told that they could choose to be either and angel or a shephard. Ruby chose to be a shephard, and was the only girl shephard. Ollie chose to be an angel, and was the only boy angel. While we were in the primary room getting kids dressed, an older boy came up to Ollie, who was standing next to me, and kind of pushed him on the shoulder and said, "Hey Angel, you're supposed to be over there...with all the girls! Because angels are girls!" And he laughed. Now, I'm not usually one to go all psycho on other people's kids, but I can't stand bullies, and my sweet Ollie had done zero to provoke this kid. So, I said to the kid, "Girl angels? Hmmm? You mean like the angel Gabriel?" And the kid was like, "Well, uh, no. Not him." And I said, "So then you must be talking about the angel Moroni. He was a girl?" Kid, "No." Me, turning to Ollie, "Actually all the angels they reference in the scriptures are boys. So Ollie, if any other kids give you crap about being an angel because angels are girls, you look them right in the eye balls and tell them you are the angel Moroni, and that they have no idea what they are talking about." The big kid sort of skulked away. I was probably too hard on him, but for the love. The nativity proceeded smoothly after that, and the kids all did a fantastic job. Haha! But about 2/3rds of the way through Ruby got bored of sitting on the stage, and started to pull the decorative lights off the floor of the stage and saying very loudly that she was bored, so they had her get down and come running to find me. It was kind of funny.

It's been snowing off and on, and really cold. The kids have been knocking down some really big icicles from off the back deck roof.

I finally got new glasses! Yay! I'm really happy with them. The reason it took so long is because I'm also trying out contacts for the very first time, and I keep having to try out different kinds to see which ones allow me to see, and be comfortable enough to wear. I have an astigmatism, and apparently it tilts at a 30 degree angel, or something like that, which my doc tells me is not a normal tilt. I guess most people's tilt is either straight vertical or straight horizontal? I don't really understand it all, but for that reason it's taken almost a month's worth of trial contacts to find some that will work for me. So I got them ordered, and got my new glasses ordered. And I can see again. That's good news.

And it's basketball season for Ivan. He's doing junior Jazz in Spanish Fork. I wish there was a better program closer to us, but Salem Rec sort of looked like a joke. And I couldn't find a 4th grade Bantam team in Salem Hills High School boundaries, so off to Spanish Fork Recreation we go. At least it's a shorter drive than going all the way to Springville.

Ruby Turns Four!

We got to celebrate Ruby's day in a big way this year, because her birthday was on a Saturday. Some of the cousins on the Swan side went with Ruby and Adelia and I to see the Grinch movie in the theater. Then we came back to our house, and met up with the rest of the Swan family, and had a big potluck dinner, and a Costco chocolate cake. (Ruby was more excited about the cake than she was about any of her presents.) I love that she asked for Legos, and a Hotwheels track for her gifts.

Not a great picture, but all the girl Swan cousins. Oldest to youngest: Audrey, Aneya, Adelia, Eliza, Claire, Ruby, Malia

There were so many kids running around (24) that we actually lit the candles and sang happy birthday, before we even realized Ruby wasn't in the room. Oops. So we had to go find her and do it all a second time. Haha! 

Look at these little mischiefs: Cal, Ilo, Silas

Adelia's Baptism

Adelia Mae Swan was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on August 4th, 2018. She was so excited. Aaron performed both the ordinances. Papa Kerry and Grandpa Swan were the witnesses. Papa Kerry, Grandpa Swan, Uncle Kyle, Uncle Rob, Uncle Kelly, and Uncle Jake stood in the circle while she was confirmed. Gramma Tam gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, Aunt Kelsey was the chorister, and Aunt Esther said the closing prayer. Adelia was baptized the same day as her friend Blakely Erickson, whose family did the other talk and the other prayer and provided the pianist.

Gramma Tam did Del's hair after the baptism and before the confirmation.

So many people love Adelia, and we are grateful for the army of family and friends who came to support her on her big day. 

4th of July 2018

Back Row: Krystal, Ivan, Debbie, Aaron, Chuck, Carter, Spencer, Jordan, Jared
Front Row: Ollie, Ruby, Cal, Lincoln, Misty (the dog), Lisa, Aneya

Adelia and Cal

Ruby and Krystal

Ivan and Ruby

Cal and Aaron

Ruby

Cal

Ivan and Debbie

Spencer, Carter, Jared, Aneya, Lisa, Misty (dog), Debbie, Adelia, Chuck, and Ruby

Ollie

Aaron and Nike (dog)

Cal, Aaron, Ivan

Lincoln

Aneya and Adelia

Our beach set-up

Lincoln

Adelia and Ivan

Adelia

Instead of a parade, which are not my favorite things, we headed to the mountains, which are my favorite things. We packed up the kayaks and a picnic and the dog, and drove up to Payson Lakes, which is about 25 minutes from our house. It was a beautiful day. Not too cold in the water, and not too warm out of it. Aaron's sister Lisa and her family met us up there, as well as Aaron's parents. So we had good company and the kids had cousins to play with. There were other people there, but it didn't feel claustrophobic or over-crowded. And it was so fun to hop in a kayak and row away for 15 minutes at a time. I took Ruby and Ollie on lots of trips around the lake, since they aren't old enough to kayak out by themselves yet. Between what we brought and what Lisa brought there were plenty of water craft, and my big kids spent the majority of their time out on the water.

I decided today was going to be the perfect day to introduce Nike to swimming. She's basically afraid of everything, including water, and didn't want to go anywhere near it last time we were here. Today I came prepared though. I took a handful of dog treats and waded out about knee deep. Nike was on the leash, so she had to come in after me. I called to her and gave her a treat when she took a step towards me. Another step, another treat, and so on, until she was in up to her neck. I was proud of her, and let her go back to shore. An hour or so later we did it again. Then again. Then I decided it was time to try her out on the kayak. I got on with her the first time, and we made it out into the middle of the lake before she jumped off. She swam! But I was worried because it was long way to shore and I didn't know if she'd be able to swim that far. I didn't have to worry though, because she swam over to a boy on a paddle board near by and jumped on. I paddled over and retrieved her and pulled her back onto my kayak. She sat peacefully the whole way back to shore without trying to get off. A little while later Aaron took her out on the kayak with him, and they made it all the way to the other side of the lake and back and she didn't try to jump off at all. Maybe there's hope for her yet that she'll turn into an adventure dog. Haha! Goddess of Victory! She's taken to hiking, and we're slowly getting her to like water. She got along with Misty (Lisa's dog) really well too. So it was a good day in the pet world.

At about 3:00pm, Ruby and Cal had had enough sun, and needing naps, so we packed up everything and headed home. We bathed everyone, had a yummy grilled chicken dinner, took a short rest. And decided we'd venture down to Nephi to see the firework show. (Fireworks are strictly prohibited in our town because we're up on the mountain, and the ease with which someone could start a forest fire makes everyone nervous.) Can you believe that in my almost 11 years of having kids, we have never once taken them to a professional firework show? We never have. We've always opted to light our own fireworks on the street with family and/or friends. My kids had no idea what to expect. Neither did we, so we got their quite a bit early, got an awesome spot to spread out our blanket so that the fireworks would launch right above our heads. The kids ran around in the grass and played with other kids until it got dark. Then the show started and it was a huge success. All the kids were just like "Whoa! Whoa! WHOA!" Cal, who hadn't really had a nap, and who was up WAYYYYYY past his bedtime, was being a psychotic lunatic and trying every other second to dash away from us into the crowds of people, and thinking it was hilarious. I was about ready to strangle something by the time is was over and time to go. I love fireworks. But holy buckets.....toddlers.

We were exhausted. But it was a good day. A really good day. Well spent.

Nephi Fireworks 2018

This is how close we were, the fireworks are right at the bottom of the hill. Lincoln brought his camera and tripod to film the whole show. 

Ruby in the wagon.