The Name Game

So last night, Aaron and I were discussing names. I was wondering where the name Swan comes from. We called Aaron's mom and she told us that Aaron's great great great (I think that's how many there were) grandpa's last name was Neilson, and when he enlisted in the Swedish Army there were too many Neilsons, so they added endings to the names, and his name became Neilson-Schwan. After his service in the army they could choose to drop the extra name off the end or keep it. He chose to keep it, and then eventually dropped the Neilson. Then when his family moved to the United States they changed it to Swan.

Then we asked about Aaron's name. Aaron has a twin brother whose name is Kelly Richard Swan. Kelly is a family name, and Richard is Aaron's uncle's name, so we were wondering (since we know where Kelly's name came from) where Aaron's name came from. Turns out that Aaron Michael is a name that Aaron's dad picked out for him. It may or may not have scriptural connections.

After that we were wondering about my name. My maiden name is Krystal Lynn Lemmon. Krystal is a German name that my dad heard on his mission (to Germany)that's why my name is spelled with a "K" and not a "C" because that's how the Germans do it. My middle name Lynn is after my mom whose full first name is Tamilynn.

We called my mom to ask about Lemmon. She didn't know. (Probably because our family tree is a little bit like Jacob 5 with a lot of grafting in and a lot of burning the cut off branches. My Grandma Lemmon was married 4 times. In her third marriage to Grover Thompson, my dad was born. When my dad was two his biological father left him and my grandma in Hawaii. When my dad was 12 my grandma remarried a guy named Earl Lemmon, who adopted my dad as his own.) My mom said sadly that she knew more about my dad's biological father's genealogy than she did about the Lemmon side. She said that on my dad's biological side his great great great great grandmother was Abigail Laodecia Stewart of the house of Stewart in Scotland (she wasn't exactly sure it was Scotland). Abigail married Nathan Tanner Senior, who was the father of N. Elden Tanner, who was an apostle. On the Lemmon side, my mom said that she knew we were descendants from Orson Pratt who was the brother of Parley P. Pratt. Both prominent church history figures. She wasn't sure exactly how we were related to them though.

While we are on the topic, I thought I tell why we chose to name Lincoln what we did. Lincoln's full name is Lincoln Aaron Swan. We chose Lincoln after President Lincoln, and also because it means "the gatherer" which we thought could have cool missionary context someday. His middle name Aaron, is after his dad and after Aaron in the Bible.

We've kind of decided that we want to give each of our kids a first name that has meaning or is after someone who did something good. We want their middle names to be family names. What about you? Where does your name come from? Why did you decide to name your kids what you did?

Our Vacation Slideshow

Where Have We Been These Last 10 Days?

The Swans have been on vacation! Aaron's family was having a reunion (just parents and siblings, plus kids) in Vancouver, WA. On Monday the 16th Aaron worked from home and Lincoln and I (well mostly me, while Lincoln found his own methods of "helping" like getting into the fireplace and spreading ash all over the place) cleaned, did laundry, and packed. That sounds like a short list, but it seriously took ALL day! Then Aaron drove Lincoln and I to the airport and the two of us flew to Portland, OR (15 minute drive from Vancouver, WA). Lincoln was pretty good on the four hour plane ride. It was past his bedtime, so he was a little edgy and squirmy but over all did really well sitting on my lap for so long. Aaron flew in on Tuesday night. So mostly Tuesday and Wednesday we all just chilled at either Aaron's parents house, or Aaron's sister Lisa's house, while someone or other (mostly Aaron's parents) ran back and forth to the airport to collect all the family members who were flying in at different times on different days. Seriously, we could have started a Swan Family Airport Shuttle.

Wednesday night, Aaron, Linc, and I went with Chuck and Debbie (Aaron's dad & mom) to their lake house to stay the night. Thursday the rest of the family came up, including Ryan's (Aaron's older brother) "friend" Jamie, but minus Lisa's husband Jared who had to work.

At the lake, the grandkids went swimming in the canal. The younger ones played in a blow-up kiddy pool. This is a picture of Lincoln eating a piece of grass and wearing his cool shades that got passed down to him from his cousin Zac.

This is Lincoln wearing his shades and Zac's hat. Linc doesn't usually like to wear hats, and pulls them off immediately, but of course I mentioned this to Sydni while she was putting it on him, and he left it on the whole time we were outside, just to prove me wrong!

We tried to take Lincoln out in the canoe, but he didn't like the life jacket much. Grandma Swan kindly offered to watch him so we could go for a ride. This is Kelly (Aaron's twin brother), me, and Aaron returning from our canoe ride.

We had a lot of fun on Thursday up at the lake. We distributed the Swan Family Cook Book that Aaron and I have been working so hard on. Kelly made a cover for it that looks really professional. Everyone loved them. I can't wait to start getting feedback on how they like the recipes. We also had a little mini baby shower for Stacey (Aaron's sister) who is having a baby boy in October. Then Sydni (Aaron's sister) asked everyone if we had seen Zac's (Syd's son) new shirt. She pulled off what he was wearing over it, and Zac had on a blue shirt that said "I'm gonna be a big brother". We were all so excited for Sydni! She's due on February 22nd (my birthday). There was shish-kabobs and chicken for dinner and chocolate chip zucchini cake for dessert. Then everyone packed up to go home, except Chuck and Debbie, and Ryan and Jamie, who stayed over Thursday night.

Friday morning all the guys were going to go help Rob (Stacey's husband) pack all the stuff Stacey and Rob had been storing at Rob's brother's house into a Uhaul so Rob could drive it back to Arizona, where they live now. Sydni brought Zac over so that I wouldn't have to be at Chuck and Debbie's house all by myself. This is a picture of Lincoln and Zac playing on the floor together. Zac is the closest cousin to Lincoln's age on Aaron's side of the family. They are about 10 months apart.

Originally, when the boys got done, the plan was to take the whole family to the beach. But the weather was supposed to be kind of crumby, so instead we went to a park. Which turned out to be a lot of fun. This picture is of Zac, Lincoln, and Audrey playing on the ropes on the playground. We tried to take pictures of all the grandkids together, and man oh man, was it hard to not only get them to all hold still at the same time, but to look at the camera while holding still at the same time. I didn't get any decent ones on my camera of all of them, but Kelly got some, so I'll have to get them from him later.

I like this picture a lot because it looks like Lincoln is going really fast because of his facial expression. But really he was hardly moving at all. This is a chair and it spins around, lot of the adults had fun playing on it too, including Grandpa Swan.

And here is the whole entire Swan side of the family (thanks to some excellent photo-shopping by Kelly. Can you guess which kid is photo shopped in?). I'll start on the back row and go left to right: Audrey Bailey, Aneya Goff, Grandma Swan, Grandpa Swan, Carter Goff, Spencer Goff, Stacey Bailey. Middle Row: Jake Yoshioka, Aaron Swan, Lisa Goff, Ryan Swan, Bennett Bailey. Front Row: Zac Yoshioka, Sydni Yoshioka, Lincoln Swan, Krystal Swan, Jared Goff, Kelly Swan, and Rob Bailey. All the grandkids are wearing shirts that say "My mom is a Swan" So cute!

Shortly after pictures, Lisa, Stacey, Sydni, and I left the kids with their dads, loaded up into Lisa's Pathfinder, and drove to the Oregon Coast for a girls' overnighter! It was a much needed little break from the kids and the guys. Me and Stacey at Sea Side, one of the beaches along the Oregon Coast.

Sydni and Lisa at Sea Side. We did take a pic of all four of us together, but it was on Stacey's camera because mine was having battery issues.

On Friday evening we had some good sea food at a little restaurant, and then hit the outlet shops. But to our dismay everything closed down by 8:00pm. So we headed back to our hotel room, turned on the "What Not to Wear" marathon, and chatted and painted our toes and snacked. It was so great to be just the girls. I love Aaron's sisters, and have pretty much adopted them as my own.

Saturday morning Lisa got us all up so we could get the continental breakfast. Then we got ready, checked out of our hotel, and went shopping! Shopping instantly becomes 400 times better when #1 you have no kids with you, and #2 You are with other women. We had a really good time at the outlet malls, and probably spent a little too much. But the girl bonding time was so wonderful. At lunch time we drove to Cannon Beach and ate lunch at a quirky little restaurant, and the food was to die for! We split a garden salad and pininies. Then we found a kite store. I bought a kite for Aaron as a surprise/thank you for watching Lincoln all day gift. Stacey bought a kite too, and we took it to the beach and flew it for awhile. Then we looked in the galleries, made a stop for ice cream and home made salt water taffy, and then headed home to rescue our husbands.

Sunday was Debbie's birthday! I was so glad that the majority of the family (Rob and Kelly had driven to Utah by then) was there to celebrate with her. It always makes a birthday so much better when you have your family around to celebrate with you.

This is Lincoln and Grandma Swan on her birthday. She was born at 2:22 on the 22nd in Walla Walla, Walla Walla, Washington.

Monday was our last day in Vancouver. In the morning we went down and had a nice walk on the green belt.

This is Lisa, Sydni, Debbie, Aaron, Stacey, Zac, and Lincoln, as we were walking along the green belt. The other kids, and Ryan and Mo (Debbie's dog) were all up ahead and didn't stop for the picture.

Our cute family on the green belt.

After our walk we all headed back to Lisa's so Debbie could take Stacey and kids to the airport. We got one last picture with all the girls on the Swan side. Left to Right: Stacey, Sydni, Aneya, Debbie, me, Audrey, and Lisa.

Aaron and I packed like lightning and caught our plane to Salt Lake City, Utah. My mom and step dad Kerry, and my little brother Tanner picked us up from the airport. We put Lincoln to bed and stayed up late talking to my family.

This is Lincoln and my mom at the house in Hooper, UT.

On Tuesday some of our plans got thwarted because my brother Jackson cut his thumb open at work, so my mom spent the good part of the day with him in the emergency room. No fun! That night we fixed my hair (it was a little too orange for my liking, so now it's brown!) and then had hobo dinners and roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. Yum! I have missed having a fire pit in the backyard. This is Lincoln and my little brother Tanner.

Wednesday went by way too quickly. We went and saw Granny Jan (my grandma) and then drove to Provo to visit Aaron's Uncle Richard and Aunt Debby. Kelly met us there for lunch too. Then we drove to Springville to see my step-brother Bryan's wife Emily and their baby Penelope, whom I hadn't seen yet. She is darling! She has crazy black hair, lots of it, that sticks out every which way. It's so cute!

Then off to the airport. Our flight from Salt Lake to Albuquerque was great, there was even an extra seat so we got to put Lincoln in the car seat. Then in Albuquerque we had to check the car seat because the flight was full. Once we were over Dallas there was a thunderstorm so we couldn't land. We circled for a half hour and then the pilot decided to go refuel in Austin. So we landed in Austin, waited about an hour and a half, then finally took off. This time we landed in Dallas. By the time we got our bags, found our car, got out of the parking lot, and found our way home to our apartment it was 12:30am. Needless to say, we were exhausted. Luckily Lincoln (and Aaron and I) slept in until 10:00am this morning. (Before you think we are super lazy, remember that all week we've been in the Pacific Time Zone, two hours behind us.) And that's the end of our vacation. We will resume activities like normal, as soon as we get unpacked!

Dallas Arts Festival

Today there was the Dallas Arts Festival. Admission was free, so we decided it would be fun to check it out. We invited our good friends Brian and April Updike to go with us. The weather was beautiful at first, not too hot. Instead of fighting traffic and parking downtown we opted to ride the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit). We loaded up our stroller with everything we thought we could possibly need (which mostly meant lots and lots of water) and met Updikes at the DART station. When we got downtown we had to walk a few blocks to the Arts Festival. It was cool though, they had all different genres of bands playing, one about every block or so. They also

had tons of booths set up where you could look at all kinds of art. Everything from paintings to flower pens. And even better, people were handing out free stuff left and right. It reminded me a lot of Hooper Tomato Days, only HUGE.

We also discovered that the museums were all open for free today. So to get the pregnant lady
(April) and the baby (Lincoln) out of the sun, and because you just can't pass up a free museum, we decided to do that. My two favorite parts of the Museum of Art were the room where all the art work was made out of office supplies (i.e. paper clips, rubber bands, folder clips, straws, etc.) and the soup carving activity. One of the pieces of art featured at the museum were two busts a woman had done of herself, one made out of chocolate and one made out of soap. I guess to see if

the texture was similar. Anyways, the museum had set up an activity where they passed out bars of soap and let the visitors carve their own sculptures. I have to say that our little group did pretty well. April carved a giraffe, Brian did a decorative rock looking design, Aaron did a swan,
and I started out doing a lemon and then it broke so I switched and made a ship which did have a sail originally, but then that broke, so then it turned into more of a canoe looking sculpture. Anyways, we put them together and WAH-LA, Noah's Ark finding land. There were also a lot of really great paintings, and a whole Ancient Greek section, which was awesome.

When we went back outside to have lunch it was SUPER warm out. Somehow Lincoln managed to fall asleep in the stroller though, while we hunted for a place to eat. We ended up eating Gyro sandwiches, and they were very tasty.

One of the booths had one of those strong man measurers, where you pick up a mallet and hit the plat form and then a little ball goes up and measures how strong you are. Aaron decided to try it out because if you got above 60 you got a free frisbee. Not only did he go above 60, but he dinged the bell at the top! Way to go Aaron, you are soooooo strong. :)

Then we headed to another museum, a sculpture museum this time. Some of the sculptures were really cool, and some of them I just flat out did not understand, like the one that is a long metal pole that reaches clear up into the sky and all along the pole there are people walking up it, and then on the ground more people standing there watching. I guess I don't have an artistic enough brain.

After that is was time to go, because Lincoln was hot and tired and hungry. I was really proud of him for how good he was about being cooped up in the stroller for the whole entire day. He did really well. It gives me hope that he will be good on our four hour plane ride to Portland on Monday.

What Talk Radio Can Do to You

I really need to stop listening to talk radio. I mean, we don't listen to it a ton, just while we are driving in the car. But when you start dreaming about it, that seems a little much. I like listening to it, because I feel a lot more informed politically now that we've been listening to it in the car for awhile. But seriously, last night I had the weirdest dream, and I can only blame talk radio for it.

In my dream I was back in high school, good ol' FHS in fact. And for some strange reason unknown to mankind Barack Obama decided to give a speech to the students of our tiny "in the middle of no-where" high school. It was a really big deal. Everyone was there. After the speech, which was filled with a lot of fancy words that had absolutely no meaning behind them, in which he declared that he was for change, but failed to mention what he was going to change or how he was going to change it, there was an intermission. During the intermission reporters with microphones were going around to the students and letting them ask questions. I raised my hand and a reporter came over. I said, I don't have a question I have a comment. The reporter told me that was fine and gave me the microphone. I stood up. This is what I said, "My fellow students, what you have just heard is a lot of hot air and nothing more. I know that Senator McCain isn't the greatest Republican and that his Conservatism is practically non-existent, but the fact is that Senator McCain is the better of two bad choices. Barack Obama is the evil choice and he will lead our country to destruction." Then I sat down. Everyone around me began to cheer, and when Barack Obama came back onto the stage the students booed him off the stage.

Haha! Isn't that a psycho dream! First of all, I would never raise my hand and give a speech in front of everyone, even though my dream self hit the nail right on the head. And second, I'm sure you'd have a really hard time getting a bunch of high school kids to be politically active enough to actually boo a candidate off the stage. When I woke up, I just thought to myself, man, I need to stop listening to talk radio, it's going to my head!

Another Saturday, Another Park!

Saturday we spent another wonderful afternoon at the park. I know that we go to the park almost every Saturday that it's not surprising anymore. But the parks here in Texas are beautiful and many so we're trying to take advantage of them while we are here.

It's starting to get especially fun because the better Lincoln gets at standing the more able he is to actually play on the playground equipment.

So, Saturday we were at Crowley Park. They have two playgrounds there, we usually go to the south playground because it is closer to the main road and the duck pond, but today we went to the north playground.

Lincoln really likes playing with the wheel. Even though it's taller than he is he could still turn it and thought it was really funny when it moved. The top picture, I have to admit is staged. It's a climbing wall, and Aaron put Lincoln on it at a semi flat place, and where Lincoln could hold on to the handle, then he jumped back for about 1/2 a second (long enough for me to take the picture) and then went forward and caught Lincoln as he was falling off. So, no, our child isn't a real live baby rock climber. :) But it was still fun. Mostly Lincoln enjoyed picking up the bark chips (for those of you in Utah that don't know, a lot of playgrounds have bark chips instead of sand, and some of the one here actually have small, smooth rocks instead of bark chips) and throwing them back down. He tried to eat a few too, which didn't go over too well. He also climbed up the steps as you can see in the video.

Peg-Leg Pirate and the Home-made Drum

Today Lincoln started doing this funky new crawl. Heretofore he did the "worm" crawl, and he did it so long we wondered if he'd ever learn to crawl the right way. Lately he's been experimenting with the normal on-all-fours crawl, but only does it once or twice and then goes back to the old way. Then today he threw in a twist and we get the "peg-leg pirate" crawl, which he has been doing pretty steadily all day. We'll have to see what happens.

Also today, Aaron made Lincoln a drum out of an empty formula can. Lincoln thinks it's the greatest. I guess I can't complain, I've always wanted my children to be musically inclined.

"I Get Around"

Thanks Syd for the Huggies box. It has provided hours and hours of entertainment! Here's a video for Lincoln's new method of transportation. You may want to turn the music on the page off (at the very bottom) before you watch it.

Leapin' Lizards!

This morning I was feeding Lincoln while Aaron was leaving to go to work. He turned to me after he opened the door and said "Don't be alarmed, but I think there is a lizard or something in the house." I said, "What?!" And Aaron explained how when he'd opened the door to leave he saw something small and grey run in and then run under the door into our coat closet. I'm not scared of lizards, but we weren't even sure that's what it was "small and grey" could be a lot of things. So I told Aaron he needed to get whatever it was out before he left for work. He had to take everything out of our coat closet.
It was a lizard all right. A little one too. We (and when I say we, I mean Aaron did while I watched from a distance) caught it under a glass and then slid a folder carefully underneath so we could pick it up without having it escape.
Lincoln wanted to keep it as a pet, but we said no. Aaron let it go outside in the grass. But hey, I'll take a lizard in the house any day over a cockroach!

One Word

Answer the following with only one word.
1. Where is your cell phone? ....................shrug
2. Your significant other?.......................Scouts
3. Your hair?....................................mess
4. Your mother? .................................busy
5. Your father?..................................cancer
6. Your favorite thing?..........................sleep
7. Your dream last night?........................weird
8. Your favorite drink...........................juice
9. Your dream/goal?..............................family
10. The room you're in?..........................confining
11. Your children?.....................................asleep
12. Your fear?...................................heights
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years...........house
14. Where were you last night?...................here
15. What you're not?.............................girly
16. Muffins......................................please
17. One of your wish list items?.................Pilot
18. Where you grew up?........................... Hooper
19. What you read last........................interesting
20. What are you wearing?........................blah
21. Your TV?.....................................non-existant
22. Your pets?...................................Lincoln?
23. Your computer? ..............................entertainment
24. Your life?...................................predictable
25. Your mood?...................................tired
26. Missing someone?.............................Mom
27. Your car?....................................grrrr
28. Something you're not wearing?................watch
29. Favorite Store?..............................Target
30. Your summer?.................................humid
31. Like someone?................................Aaron
32. Your favorite color?.........................yellow
33. Last time you laughed........................Monday?
34. Last time you cried?.........................headache

This is actually pretty challenging but fun, go ahead try it yourself!

More Fort Fun and Fencing

Aaron has been on a fort building kick and Lincoln loves it! They have a lot of fun playing together in the masterpieces Aaron comes up with. In the video Aaron is teaching Lincoln how to fence. I had to put a stop to that after Lincoln found one of the sticks laying on the ground and scratched his forehead with it. Boys will be boys. But I love them both!

A New Calling

Brother Haskins called me last night. He wanted to know if it would be possible for our family, particularly me, to be at church at 12:40pm so I could meet with him. That only means one thing: a calling. But I already have a calling, and I like it alot. Well, now I have two. They just called me to be the Mia Maid Advisor, which means that I teach the 14-16 years old Young Women every Sunday. I am so excited! I've always thought it would be fun to teach YW. I am also a little nervous too, because I remember when I was a Mia Maid. It was kind of a rough stage of life for me and I didn't particularly care what my leaders and advisers (or any adult, really) had to say. My hope is that I will be able to have the Spirit with me when I teach, and that I will be able to get to know these girls on their level, while still being an example of standing up for the things I believe in. I think I will learn a lot with this calling, about myself, about my girls, about the gospel. And even more I think the girls will teach me a lot. I am looking forward to it.

Another great thing about today...we passed out the ward newspaper! I don't know how the Bishop managed to squeeze in getting it printed up with his busy schedule, but he did. And it looks great. We passed them out after the sacrament meeting so that people wouldn't be flipping through them during testimony meeting. I'm not really sure what people thought about it. It seems like most people stuck it in their bags to look at when they got home. But I have gotten a few compliments. So, hopefully everyone enjoyed them. Sister Haskins and I had a lot of fun putting it together, and we are looking forward to doing it all over again for the September Issue.

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.

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.

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.”

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!