THE SWIFT FAMILY BLOG

Christmas 2011

2012-01-10T17:49:00.001-08:00

Another late post: Christmas! We were here in Alaska for Christmas, and had a nice weekend. Joshua got sick Christmas Eve, so he was pretty much in bed for all of Christmas day and a couple days afterward, so it ended up being pretty low key.

As per our Christmas tradition, on Christmas Eve we acted out the Nativity story, this year with Julia as Mary, Ethan as the Angel, and Christian as Joseph. Joshua was the donkey and narrator, and I was a narrator and the wisemen and shepherds. We start out the scene in one room and work our way around the house, to a different room where we eat a Bethlehem style dinner (fish, pitas, grape juice, olives), and then to another for the stable scene. The kids really love it, and it's a special time for all of us, remembering that special night and the special gift the Savior is to us.

Then Christmas morning the kids opened up their stockings and then the kids and I went to Church while Joshua suffered with strep throat at home. It was a really nice service with a lot of lovely music, and Julia and Ethan participated in the primary song (Julia snuck Ethan up with her, even though he wasn't officially in Primary yet but knew the song by heart). Then we came home, opened presents, talked with family, played with new toys, and ate. It was a nice day, although I wish Joshua would have been well enough to enjoy it too.

We loved celebrating the birth of our Savior, and the joy and hope He brings to our life. We were also grateful for the contact we had with loved ones during the season through cards, gifts, and Skype/phone chats. We hope you had a wonderful Christmas too!

Julia turns 5!

2012-01-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

If any of you know Julia's birth date, you know this post is about two months overdue. But as Joshua has taken the three oldest kids to the library, I thought late would be better than never. Julia turned five in November, and it was a fun day. We decorated the house with pink balloons and streamers, and Julia picked to go swimming at a local fitness club for a family activity. There was even a big slide, and the kids loved it--Julia and Ethan went down the slide alone and swam a few feet on their own too! Christian also went down the slide with Joshua, and was excited to have as many turns as possible. It was a fun, snowy day, followed by cake and staying up until Mom and Dad's bedtime that evening. We love you Julia, you are so precious to us!

Elliott James Swift

2012-01-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

This is the handsome man himself! He came early Sunday morning, after a quick labor starting around 2:30am. I was a little hesitant calling our planned babysitters in the middle of the night, but we finally did around 3:30 when I was sure it was not a false alarm. We made it to the hospital a little after 4, and after signing in, getting checked out and hooked on IVs, they said I was dilated to an 8! It was so quick I was worried I wouldn't be able to get any pain medication, but there was an amazing anesthesiologist that gave me an epidural that starting working in about 5 minutes. So about 15 minutes after that, I was able to deliver the baby pain-free! He came at 5:28am. We are so grateful that he is healthy and strong and that there were no complications. There were some knots in the umbilical cord, so I am so glad he wasn't in any distress or anything. I am feeling fine, just tired and a bit sore, but I think my body is getting used to this having babies business and the recovery has been easier each time.

After the rush of the morning, Joshua relieved our babysitters and took the kids to church, and then over to visit us in the afternoon at the hospital. Then this afternoon we got to be discharged. Luckily Joshua doesn't have classes until next week, so he'll be able to be around. So far I have no idea how I'll be able to handle 4 kids during the day on my own! I'm going to have to step up my parenting/multi-tasking skills quickly.

New Baby Boy Swift

2012-01-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

Latest news from Anchorage... At 5:28 this morning we had our baby! Everyone is doing great! We got to the hospital and 4am and things were kind of a rush from there. He was 8 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long. Pictures and a name to follow.

What to do with leftover pumpkins:

2011-11-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

So, Halloween's over, the pumpkin seeds have been eaten, and there was our old jack-O-lantern ready to start rotting. Do we throw it away? Not in Alaska. Last week I went downstairs to answer the phone and happened to look out our front window, and saw this!

The moose hung out and chowed down our pumpkin, minus the candle, for about 10 minutes before he headed down the street to look for some more treats. I guess moose absolutely love pumpkins. Some of our friends' pumpkins were eaten too. The moose had eaten most of our pumpkin except for the base that day, but the next day we noticed he must have come back and finished that off too. I felt pretty good about recycling our pumpkin this way--it was enjoyed by more than just our family!

Halloween

2011-11-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a lot of fun here this year. The kids are starting to be old enough to be excited about wearing costumes and look forward to trick-or-treating. And the whole week leading up to the holiday they loved trying to scare anyone they could, either by sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim, repeating flipping the light switch, or disguising themselves as ghosts using whatever piece of material was handiest at the time (sheet, older sibling's clothes, towel, whatever). The kids also enjoyed painting their own mini-pumpkins while Joshua carved our big one to spooky perfection.

For Halloween itself, we went to the tri-ward Trunk-or-Treat held inside our church building held the weekend before. There was a haunted house, a cupcake walk, and some hot dogs and hot chocolate outside, if you were tough enough to hang out in the below freezing weather to eat them (we were, kind of, if you count sitting in the car toughing it out). Then on Halloween itself we did a little trick-or-treating at the mall and then down a street by our house. Unfortunately a snow storm hit that evening, so the escapade was shortened a bit by that.

A Bat, a Pirate, and Snow White

The bat didn't want to stand around for any more pictures after he finished his apple.

Berry Picking and Hiking

2011-09-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

To close out summer we have been doing a lot of berry picking and hiking. Around the middle of August it seemed that all of the berries were ready to be picked. In our yard we have a row of raspberries and we did get a few from there; additionally, not too far from our house there is a forested trail where they grow wildly in a few large sections. We went a few times as a family and Rebecca took the kids alone a couple of times too. I think in total we ended up with about 20 cups or so. Most have made their way into our freezer, but we have already had two raspberry pies. This year we also discovered high bush cranberries which grow wild around here. On the father and son camp-out some of the members of our church ward showed us what they looked like and I was surprised to discover that they are really all over the place around here. They taste very similar to regular cranberries only they are about half the size, their outer shell is much softer, they are juicier, and they have one seed right in the middle. One day we gathered a couple of cups of them and made some cranberry bread. We also tried, unsuccessfully, to find some blueberries again this year. Last year we had managed to find a few on "blueberry hill," but most of the plants were already picked over by everyone else. This year we tried a different spot that we had heard about, but we still didn't find any.

Here we are looking for the blueberries. There was a slight drizzle and it was probably only about 50 degrees out so we all tried to bundle up.

I didn't get Julia in this picture because she was sobbing at the time. I think all of the children really wanted the blueberries and so they were not in the mood for hiking and picture taking after we couldn't find them.

The road up to this spot is just rock and dirt. Somehow a rock the size of a golf ball got stuck in one of our tires. Luckily we had a spare and a 80,000 mile Costco warranty on the tire.

Rebecca's brother Ryan and his friend are now up here visiting from Nevada. They will be traveling all around, but they were here in Anchorage with us yesterday. It was pretty clear outside and so we decided to seize the opportunity and hike Flattop mountain. Flattop mountain is about 3,500 feet and it is only a 1.5 mile hike from the parking lot to the top; it is actually the most frequently hiked mountain in Alaska. The hike does have some difficult spots though. We have gone a few times by ourselves and with our parents when they visited in June and July; and while Julia had made it to the top on one of our previous trips, Ethan and Christian had not. At the start of the summer I set a goal that I wanted to be able to make it all the way up as family this year. So, with Uncle Ryan and his friend here to help, I was able to convince Rebecca that we should give it a try. It was pretty hard: Christian had to be carried the whole way and Ethan was carried for some of the parts (the last quarter of a mile or so you have to scramble up rock and there are some steep drop-offs), but we made it. It was freezing on the top due to some strong wind so we only stayed up there for about five minutes before heading down.

View on the way up.

All of us on the summit. Christian was in a Snugly inside my jacket. He managed to squeeze in a nap during the hike.

Julia only needed someone to hold her hand. She was a great hiker and climber.

Ethan was a great hiker too. I think we only carried him as much as we did because we were a little worried about him falling.

Maybe next year Rebecca and I will have to try it with four children age five and under?

Father & Son Camp-out

2011-09-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago our church ward had a father & son camp-out. It was a great way to end the summer before I had to start teaching for the Fall semester again. On Friday afternoon Ethan, Christian, and I headed out to the site; it was by a glacial lake back in the mountains about 45 minutes from our house. We all had a great time. That night, we played some games with the other fathers and sons, took a walk to the lake where Ethan tested out a homemade fishing pole, and roasted marshmallows by the campfire. We had our huge tent just for the three of us to sleep in and I was surprised at how well Christian did for his first time in a sleeping bag. The next morning we ate breakfast (bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes with wild cranberries, and Costco muffins), played around a little more, packed up, and headed home. We were all exhausted by the time we got back.

Our huge 10 person tent got quite a few comments from the other fathers and sons.

Here is Ethan playing with some of the other boys. I think there were three boys that were about his age and then probably five or six more that were right around 12 years old. Ethan loved playing with them all.

Christian was definitely the youngest one there. He had a good time though. There were some huge puddles right next to the campsite (you can see them in the picture of Ethan) and I frequently caught him making a dash for those. Sometimes I was quick enough, other times I was not. Luckily we brought a few sets of clothes for him.

Our Children

2011-09-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already heard, but for those of you who have not, we are expecting another baby! The due date is January 12th and according to the ultra-sound, it is a boy.

What does this sign mean?

2011-08-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

The other day, Joshua was reading the kids a book about learning to read, and there was a section with signs to learn. When Joshua asked the kids what the Stop sign read, they got it pretty quickly, as they did a few others. Then they came to this sign (below).

When Joshua pointed to it, Ethan immediately shouted "go potty!" Joshua and I were so surprised by the resemblance that we just laughed and laughed. So of course Ethan had to try the line about 50 more times that night to see if he could evoke the same reaction. He has been working hard lately to perfect his potty training skills (he has been doing great for a long time now), so the subject must have been on his mind.

End of Summer?

2011-08-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

It is only the middle of August, but it already seems like summer is coming to an end here in Alaska. The weather is starting to change. The past couple of weeks have been pretty rainy and a few degrees colder. On the warm days it still gets up in to the mid 60s, but on the cold days now it sometimes only reaches the high 50s. We have even had to pull out our jackets again. Today, someone in the ward told us that last week there were some snow flurries in the mountains that border the city. :(

A sign of the rainy season

Also, school is back in session. Tomorrow, I am back on contract. My classes don't start until the 29th, but as of tomorrow I have to officially start preparing for those classes and start doing all of my other work duties. All of the elementary, junior high, and high schools also start school tomorrow and it is exciting to see all of the youth and kids in the ward getting ready for it. It is scary to think that next year Julia will be starting school. At least scary for me and Rebecca - I think she is really excited about it.

Even with summer coming to a close we have had a lot of fun the past couple of weeks. Last weekend I had another conference in Washington, DC and this weekend Rebecca had a camp-out with the ward Relief Society. In between those times we have done some bike riding and some trips to the library and park, in addition to all of the regular routine. One thing we have been enjoying around the house is working in our garden. It has been fun because we have been able to start harvesting some of the plants. So far we have gotten a lot of rhubarb, basil, parsley, mint, some raspberries, and some carrots. We are still waiting on our potatoes, squash, zucchini, the rest of the raspberries, and the rest of the carrots.

One of our other fun activities that we do every week is Family Home Evening. When I was growing up my Dad often dressed up as scripture characters for his lessons. We have started this tradition with our children and they love it. Here we had a visit from King Benjamin and the kids built a tent to listen to what he had to say.

End of July

2011-07-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

We know, another post from the Swift family already? We got a new camera for our combined birthday present, so we are ready to be back to our regular posting routine. We are loving being able to take pictures again.

Christian is also very excited about the camera!

So the end of July is always a very busy month for us. We have our anniversary and both of our birthdays. We also managed to squeeze in a ward camp-out, a trip to the lake, and lots of trips to the library and the park throughout the last couple weeks of the month. Here are a few pictures of our adventures.

The ward camp-out was a lot of fun, but Christian had a huge accident. On Friday night he fell down one step at the little amphitheater at the end of the ward variety show. He must have hit his eye just right because he got a huge cut that gushed out blood. Joshua ran cleaned him up and put a bandage on and the bleeding stopped but he was still really fussy and had a rough night as well. The next morning when we woke up he had the worst black eye that either of us had ever seen. For the past week everyone has either asked us what happened to him or has given us dirty looks. The picture doesn't do it justice. Now, after a little over a week it is finally starting to fade. We are glad to report that it hasn't permanently scarred him because he still climbs all over everything and seems anxious to replace the old bruise with a new one.

Not knowing that there would be a lake at the campsite we did not bring our swimming suits. However, that didn't stop Julia and Ethan from running into the water with all of their clothes on. It is amazing how slow they can be when it's time for bed and how fast they are when it comes to something like this.

At the same lake (before the swimming incident) we were able to take a nice canoe ride.

Here we are at the school playground. As you can see Ethan loves to wear his superhero cape. His current favorite superhero is Batman (although he really knows nothing about him except that he wears a mask and sometimes flies), who he learned about from a Pez dispenser he received from one of his uncles. With the red cape, he gets mistaken for Superman, and it kind of upsets him. A black one is in the works though.

Doesn't she look so big?!

The kids both completed the library's summer reading program and read 1000 minutes. They got big signs that say "A Library Champion Lives Here," which they put up in their bedroom for display. We're glad they enjoy reading because that's one of our favorite things to do with them.

You can't tell from the picture because some levels are cut off, but it boasts to be the largest chocolate waterfall in the world! It didn't look very appetizing though--we think it's all the original chocolate? Not quite as enticing as Roald Dahl paints in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Grandparents' visits!

2011-07-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, we have been enjoying some fabulous visits from both sets of our parents. First my parents came in June, then Joshua's followed up in July. We had such a fun time! I wish they could have stayed all year. However, we savored the time we did have together, and explored a lot of Alaska. We generally went to the same sites with both families, which gave us a chance to check out some neat places in depth. Unfortunately, our camera has been broken (our big excuse for not updating our blog for so long), so most of the following pictures are borrowed from parents.

So here were some of our expeditions:

Camping at Denali State Park--beautiful lake, thousands of mosquitoes (I'm not exaggerating); it was our maiden camping trip with our awesome new 10 person tent, and went pretty well. Unfortunately we didn't get a good view of Denali because of cloud coverage directly over the mountain, but we did get to see some trumpeter swans and a moose on the drive back. More unfortunately, our car broke down mid-drive. Luckily a good Samaritan came to our aid and we got home the same evening.

Camping in Seward--great location for camping! Seward is south of Anchorage on Resurrection Bay and is a big fishing/tourist town. It was fun to explore the town, see huge fish, otters, and bald eagles.

Glaciers--we got to hike up to Exit Glacier, took a boat to Portage Glacier and saw others along our drives. They are pretty amazing, and I think their blue tint makes them look a little mysterious.

Around Anchorage--we hiked Flattop mountain (3500 ft), which was a great hike, and pretty challenging. There are three saddles, and the last is mostly scaling rocks to the top; on our second time up, Julia was able to make it all the way up with just a little help from Joshua coming back down. We went to the zoo and wildlife preserve, which both highlight mostly local species; the kids especially enjoying the petting zoo area. We went to various parks, including Potter's Marsh, Campbell Creek and the Coastal trail. In some of the rivers we saw groups of huge (3 ft.+) spawning salmon, which was super neat. We also went to Lake Hood and watched seaplanes take-off and land (supposedly it is the busiest lake for seaplanes in the world).

We had a great time with everyone! We look forward to their next visits and welcome any others willing to venture up here.

Finding a nano geocache

On top of Flattop

Dall sheep right off the road on the drive to Seward

The tunnel to Whitter -- it is about 2 miles straight through the mountain. They can only send cars through one way at a time and have to time it right with the trains.

An iceberg that has broken off Portage glacier

Fish cleaners in Seward. Imagine if that was your job!

A large Halibut

Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley) is in the background somewhere

At the top of the second saddle on Flattop

Petting zoo

Happy Easter

2011-05-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

I know we are a week late with this post, but better late than never. Right? Our excuse is that Rebecca has been at her brother Tyler's wedding, so the posting job has been left to me. We are usually really late with our postings anyway, but at least this time we have an excuse.

We had a great time celebrating Easter this year. Almost all of the winter snow had melted off of the ground and so we were able to even do an egg hunt outside. On Saturday we got together with some friends in our church ward and did a potluck brunch and easter egg hunt. The kids loved this! Later that evening we had an easter egg hunt at home (see video). Don't tell them, but we took the eggs they had found at the earlier hunt and re-hid them around the house. We also hid a bunch of new candy and stuff, but we thought they would have more fun finding the goodies twice and we didn't want them to get too much candy.

In a few of the eggs we had some items representing the atonement and resurrection of Christ. In one we had some small nails representing His crucifiction, in another a stone representing his burial, and in another a small cloth representing the empty tomb. On Sunday we had a special family lesson on the importance of the Atonement and Resurrection and the kids really liked that too. We also heard some great talks, musical numbers, testimonies, and lessons at church. We know that Christ lives and that he has made it possible for all of us to live again after death. If you want to know more about the Savior and His missions on earth, our church has some great resources at www.lds.org and www.mormon.org

Here is the video

Spring Time in Alaska

2011-04-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

We are so glad that Spring is finally here. The past couple of weeks the temperature has reached 40 almost every day. The snow is starting to melt and we are seeing some green patches again in the grass; it still snows every now and then, but in general more is melting than what is accumulating on the ground. On our walk today we even saw a 10 year old girl in a bikini washing her family's car, and several people out with short sleeves and/or shorts! I don't think we are that acclimatized yet to this weather, but who knows about next Spring?

The days are starting to get longer, so we've really been enjoying seeing more of the sun as well--it is 9:30 now and still somewhat light outside. We are also seeing a lot more birds and other wildlife about. Below is a moose that decided to hang out in our backyard a couple of weeks ago: he snacked on one of our bushes for a while, then laid down and took a nap in the sun.

Kind of Creepy

2011-03-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

We got this postcard in the mail the other day. We thought it was both funny and really creepy at the same time. We decided not to tell our kids about it though (Julia and Ethan both sleep downstairs), so don't mention it next time you talk to them!

Sorry about the quality of the image. Our camera broke in the move.

Here is what it says:

"Dear New House owners! It's Mele a girl who previously lived here! Please take care of this home! It took care of 9 kids and two parents who later on divorced. My dead grandma lives downstairs. Please don't be scared if you hear noise. She's nice! -Mele-"

Christian's First Birthday

2011-03-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

Christian had his first birthday last week. We had a great time celebrating as a family. It seemed like his favorite part of the day was getting to try his first sweets. Here are a couple of videos of him, Julia, and Ethan eating birthday cupcakes.

Our new home

2011-03-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

We're finally in our house! We closed on the home February 24th, then spent the following weekend moving in. Joshua did most of the moving and I cleaned the apartment while some friends watched our kids. A highlight was Saturday afternoon when I got to watch Joshua muscle the refrigerator up the stairs virtually alone; his only help was a little direction pointing from me. We love it! It's an older four bedroom, two bath split-level, updated on the inside, and less than two miles from the university (nice commute). When we first started looking for homes here, we were really discouraged because house prices are so high in Alaska; but although this is not our ultimate dream home, it far exceeds all our needs and fulfills many wants, and we feel super blessed to be in it. The kids love running around in all the space, and I think there are more cabinets in the kitchen than in all our previous homes' kitchens combined!

Joshua took a video of the home before we moved our things in, so here it is--

Tour of the upstairs

Tour of the downstairs

Good bye Inlet View ward and our tiny apartment

2011-02-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a really long time since we have posted anything (not sure if it is because we have been busy or if it is because nothing much has happened) and we thought it was about time.

Today was our last Sunday in our church ward and it was an eventful one. Rebecca was called to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on the sacredness of the Sacrament. She did a great job. Many people complimented her on it afterward. One person even came up to her and said "This is one of only a handful of talks that have ever caused me to check the church handbook of instructions for accuracy, and after checking I found out that you were right." After she talked on how reverent and respectful we need to be during the meeting, there was a musical number by the choir and then all three kids started going crazy. Some weeks they are so reverent, others it is a different story. I ended up spending the rest of the meeting out in the hall with them.

After Sacrament meeting Rebecca taught her last class as CTR 8 instructor in the Primary. I came in to teach the children a few things from the scriptures and that was pretty fun. Christian was pretty fussy so I spent most of the rest of that hour in the hall with him.

Then off to Priesthood meeting for me and Christian. About five minutes into it, I heard a faint, but familiar, scream that got louder and louder by the second. I hurried out to see what was wrong with Julia and found her teacher carrying her to the bathroom. Somehow during Primary sharing time she fell face forward off her chair and her lip was bleeding all over the place. The entire building got to listen to her scream at the top of her lungs for about ten minutes. Rebecca and I both tried to console her, but when she is hurt and she has made up her mind that she is sad there is no helping her. We thought about taking her outside, but it was just too cold. Finally, after telling her that we would have to do some candy when we got home she quieted down. A few more minutes of walking her around the building and she was all better and ready to go back to class.

The meeting ended with Julia and Ethan giving big hugs to their teachers and us saying good bye to some of the people that we have gotten to know in the ward. It has been a really nice ward and we are sad that we have to go. We are excited about our new ward though. We have been wondering what it will be like and making guesses about what our new callings might be. We will meet in the same building, just at a different time.

This week will be our last week in our tiny little apartment. Our apartment manager was nice enough to let us out of our lease early, so that is really good. All in all though I don't think we are going to miss our small 2BR, 1Bath, 3rd floor, 650 sq ft apartment all that much. It is nice that we had a safe place to live, and we can't complain about the balmy 80 degrees they have kept our apartment temperature, but we are glad to be moving on to something a little bigger and closer to work.

What would you say?

2011-01-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

In the kids' room we have a huge box full of diapers for the boys. Last night Julia started to fling out all of the diapers from the box, and when Joshua started to object, she got really upset and tried to explain how important it was for her to use the box. In desperation she said, "Dad, you're not listening and you don't understand--this is my favorite thing to do in the whole world! This was even my favorite thing to do in heaven!"

Trip to Girdwood

2011-01-02T06:40:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday we took a trip down to Girdwood, a little ski town about about 30 miles south of Anchorage. The drive goes right along the shore of the Turnagain Arm of the Gulf of Alaska, just north of the Kenai Peninsula, and it is gorgeous. On the drive we noticed that a lot of the water in the bay was frozen into ice chunks; the other side of the road rose up into the mountains with huge icicles hanging down in colors of green, blue, yellow, and a little purple and red. We weren't able to get a good picture from the car, so next time we will have to stop to take one. When we arrived, we drove around a little but it is a really small town so it didn't take very long. We did find a park that is an open meadow in the middle of the mountains and we enjoyed walking and playing around in the snow there. Fun trip.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-27T07:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Christ this year and we hope all of you did too. Some highlights of this year's festivities for our family included acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve night, our annual Christmas Eve Joseph and Mary dinner (pitas, fish, and grape juice), watching and participating in the Swift family talent show, visiting family on Skype, visiting the reindeer in downtown Anchorage, checking out Christmas lights, talking to Isaac who is on his mission in Japan (via Skype and then speaker phone), planning out and searching for gifts to give each other, attending the ward Christmas dinner, watching our favorite Christmas movies (The Nativity Story, Mr. Krueger's Christmas, Joy to the World, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, and White Christmas to name a few), picking out and decorating a tree, and enjoying the snow while living so close to the north pole.

This year we also started a couple of new traditions that really brought the Spirit into our home. First, each night from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve we sat down as a family and had a special Christmas Devotional. For these devotionals Julia would draw a yellow star out of a small box that had a story from Christ's life on it to share with the children, then Ethan would draw a green bell out of the box which had the number for a Christmas hymn to sing, and finally we ended with a family prayer. It was a fun activity that our children looked forward to each night and it helped us really focus on Christ throughout the Christmas season. Second, for one FHE we each decided on a gift we wanted to give to Jesus and wrote it down on paper hearts to hang on the tree; throughout the month as we saw the hearts we were reminded to be working on those gifts.

Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too. Here are some pictures from December including our yearly family picture. We took it with our camera on timer at UAA in one of the classrooms, so it's definitely not very professional (but at least the background is authentic!). With the poor lighting from only 4-5 hours of sunlight a day, we haven't had the chance to take too many pictures of our other activities.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-28T21:21:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for and we love this holiday because it reminds us to focus on expressing our gratitude. In the most recent General Conference, President Monson said "Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of Heaven and helps us feel God's love." Although we would have loved to be around family this Thanksgiving, we definitely felt God's love for us as we took time over this past week to reflect on all of the many blessings He has given us.

It ended up being just us five for dinner. Our menu consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, Lion House rolls, green Jello, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sparkling cider, pumpkin pie, and blueberry pie. What a feast!

The next morning we went out shopping--mostly for the sport of it all. Later that afternoon we went sledding using Julia's new birthday sled. Even though we only stayed out for about 30 minutes (it started getting pretty cold), we had a lot of fun.

Joshua and Julia

Rebecca and Ethan

Then on Saturday we got our Christmas tree. Because we weren't really sure on the regulations for cutting down trees in the National Forests here (we're not familiar with the boundaries), we were hoping to find a tree at a local tree farm. That is what we did last year and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any in Anchorage. However, Lowes saved the day with some newly cut trees. We were able to get our tree, set it up, and decorate it that night.

Other exciting news: today after church we saw a moose running in toward the parking lot. It was a big bull with huge antlers. It stopped abruptly right before the church parking lot, turned around and then ran back off the same way it came--it looked so funny! Our current Moose count is: Joshua--9, Rebecca--5, Julia--6, Ethan--5, Christian--?

Christian Crawling

2010-11-21T11:13:00.000-08:00

Christian has started crawling. It is not your typical crawl, but at least he is getting where he wants to go on his own. Although he has always been happy, he seems a little happier now that he can get around.

One year older and wiser too

2010-11-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Last week Julia turned four years old. We celebrated by opening presents first thing in the morning (at her request of course), going to an indoor kids' water park (it included two kids' pools, water slides, and a huge pirate ship), and enjoying some of Julia's favorite meals (breakfast cake and sausage for breakfast and macaroni and cheese for dinner). She then got to stay up as late as she wanted and she made it through two movies: Aristocats and Beauty and the Beast. She had a great time and we loved seeing her so delighted. She really is growing up!

She was really excited to open presents, but surprisingly patient--maybe because she had snuck out and saw us putting together her new bicycle the night before.

Playing with and wearing some of her new things.

Insisting that Ethan not blow out the candles!

6'1"?

2010-11-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

So we've been waiting for Ethan to turn two and a half so that we could try out the height prediction theory--you double his height at 30 months to find his adult height (with girls you do it at 24 months). So Ethan was 36.5"--check back with us in about 16 years to see if it's accurate! Julia's at 24 months was 34.5".

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T08:49:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween! This year we had a penguin, a bat, and a ballerina.

Had to include two pictures of him on this post. He just has such a great smile (amazingly he would turn on the grin as soon as he saw the camera lights). You can see the two bottom teeth, but he also he also has four that have all recently poked through on the top.

Julia chose to be a ballerina again this year. We were a little surprised because she could have been Cinderella, Snow White, or even a pirate -- but she chose a ballerina even though it was only 30 degrees out. Luckily they do a lot of indoor trick-or-treating in Alaska.

Ethan got to be the bat again. I guess Julia and Ethan were just duplicates from last year, but they really liked their costumes, and at least Ethan's was really warm.

So this year we went to a carnival at UAA. It was a total flop! It was really crowded and the only activities were booths with long lines that cost lots of tickets. The kids ended up using their tickets for a beanbag toss and balloon animals. After standing in line for a few more things we decided just to head to the tri-ward Halloween party.

The church party was great! There were tons of booths, candy, food, and activities. One of the wards in our building is a Samoan ward. They went all out with a haunted house on the stage, a bunch of spooky booths and cool costumes! They were also super generous with handing out candy--I think after visiting two booths our kids bags were already full! There was also a cake walk and a mad scientist's lab, among other things. We all had a fun time inside, then went outside for hot chocolate and grilled hot dogs.

The kids were really excited about their loot. It was a lot more than what it looks like in this picture. This is before mom and dad tax--all of the good stuff :)--has been taken out though.

Our Star

2010-10-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

Julia was in her first primary program! She did awesome! She had her part memorized and she didn't get stage fright at all. She just walked up to the microphone and with her head barely peaking over the podium she said her part. On top of that she sat pretty reverently in her spot up on the stand throughout the program. We are so proud of her!

She talked us into letting her wear her Christmas dress early for the program.

"I love my family because we read scriptures together and learn about Jesus and Heavenly Father." She said it much clearer for the program.

Growing up

2010-10-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Our children all seem to be growing up so fast. We just can't believe it.

Julia had a dentist appointment here this last week. She did great! She was able to stay in the room all by herself while Rebecca was in the waiting room with Ethan and Christian. It is fun to just sit with her and have full conversations. It is scary though to think that in less than 2 years she will be starting school. I don't know if Rebecca and I are ready for that.

Ethan has hit that age where he is asking why about everything, not in a defiant way at all, but because he is curious. When we read his picture scriptures at night he wants to know who each person in each picture is, if they are good or bad and why they are doing what they are doing. He seems to have an endless supply of energy an is always running back and forth in the main room of our apartment or jumping off the furniture or climbing on something. It always looks like he would get hurt from some of the things he does (e.g., jumping fully off the couch and landing straight on his bottom), but he just laughs and does it again.

Christian is up on all fours. He is not crawling yet, but the way he is rocking and reaching it looks like it will come soon. He loves to watch his older siblings with whatever activities they have going on - especially Ethan. He will just sit there and watch Ethan do his back and forth running in the living room. He is entertained and Ethan really likes the attention.

We have great kids and feel very blessed to have them in our lives.

Happy General Conference!

2010-10-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

We love General Conference! We really look forward to hearing the prophet and other leaders address us every April and October. And of course it's an excuse to laze around the house in pajamas and enjoy Joshua's amazing cinnamon rolls for breakfast--a burgeoning family tradition.

During Conference we decided to braid Julia's hair and then undo it after it dried to see what would happen. I think it left kind of a Hermione Granger effect.

A couple of nights ago when we were checking on the kids before we went to bed, we discovered Ethan asleep with Christian in his crib! They were actually lying almost cheek-to-cheek but the flash made them shuffle a little.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

2010-09-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

War wounds from substituting today at church (I have more bite marks, but they didn't break the skin). Luckily the regular nursery teacher will be back next week. I'm wondering if I should get a Rabies shot.

Winter pajamas from Grandparents (Ethan's are in the wash). Yes, winter is quickly coming upon us--we saw snowflakes this morning, and although nothing stuck here, there's a dusting on the mountain tops.

Christian's really enjoying food--he especially likes plums and broccoli

Finally, physical proof of what Joshua's been up to these last nine plus years

Adventures in Alaska

2010-09-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

So we've begun our adventures here in Alaska. We have been enjoying the amazing scenery and searching for wildlife. Included in our adventures so far are a trip to the Alaska state fair and a couple of berry picking expeditions. The moose sighting count is as follows: Joshua--5, Julia--1, Ethan--1, Christian--0 and me--0.

Ethan has been enjoying pretending to be wildlife. He's recently started this thing where he sits at the dinner table and appears to almost unconsciously rub the food in his face, hair, and everywhere his hand will reach, without blinking an eye.

The Alaska State Fair was relatively small, but had some fun attractions still. Ethan's favorite was probably getting in the snowplow (top picture). Everyone loved the little petting zoo; Joshua liked chasing after the pigs and Christian loved grabbing any fur he could find.

This pumpkin weighed over 1100 pounds!
The cabbage was over 100 pounds! We heard that Alaskan grown vegetables can grow really large because of the long summer sunlight hours, so this was proof!

Blueberry Hill on Flattop Mountain, the most popular hike in Anchorage. It really is breathtaking--we'll have to try to take more pictures that truly do it justice.

These were in Arctic Valley, about 15 miles into the mountains. The views on the drive up were amazing. We were looking for berries, and ended up with some crowberries (or blackberries) which we mixed with some wild blueberries and made into a syrup. Some Alaskan natives pointed them out to us and told us they used the crowberries to make Eskimo ice cream. I looked it up on the internet and it sounds bizarre (a mixture of fish, shortening, sugar, and these berries), but haven't dared to try making it yet.

Post from Alaska

2010-08-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

We have begun our move to Alaska! I arrived late last night (1am) and have been staying in a hotel until I can check in to our new apartment tomorrow morning. Rebecca and the children are still with our parents in Washington and they will be joining me soon. I have been informed by the moving company that all of our stuff is here and I could possibly have that moved in tomorrow. Our van however, will not arrive until maybe the 20th. Hopefully I can get everything all settled here by the time Rebecca and the kids arrive.

It is exciting starting this new phase of our life. Not only are we finally done with school and starting a real career, we are also in an adventurous part of the country. The flight was weird because we left Philadelphia in darkness at about 8pm and it was lighter out when I arrived in Anchorage a little after midnight.

Here is a picture of Anchorage. It is a city of about 300,000. Even though the mountains are really close on one side of the city and the ocean on the other side, it seems like things are really spread out here. We will be excited to tell you all about living in Alaska as we explore it over the next few months. Wish us luck!

Hill Cumorah Pageant

2010-07-25T11:18:00.001-07:00

A week and a half ago, we got to go to the Hill Cumorah Pageant as a family with the young men on youth night in our ward. Joshua also volunteered with parking the next day. It was a lot of fun! The pageant is a dramatization of scenes throughout the Book of Mormon ending with Joseph Smith finding the gold plates in the Hill Cumorah and the restoration of the Church from there. It started at dusk, which fell around 9pm and lasted until about 10:30pm. Surprisingly, the kids did very well staying up late, but were asleep pretty much as soon as they had their seatbelts buckled on the drive home.

Before the pageant began, the cast (over 700 members) mingled with people attending the event. I thought it was really neat to see close-ups of lots of the characters. Above in the first picture the kids are standing by Sariah and grandchildren, and in the second with one of the wise men attending Jesus' birth. The cast came from everywhere; some families would make it into a vacation/family tradition to be a part of the pageant every year. They would come a week early to participate in rehearsals, and then perform for the following week and a half. Most camped out in an area by the hill that they called "Zion's Camp."

You can kind of see the set in this picture--we saw youth groups from surrounding areas building it as part of their youth conferences a month ago.

The special effects were pretty elaborate--they had fires, waterfalls, lights, and other cool props for the different scenes. We were glad to be able to see it during our time here in New York.

Washington, D.C.

2010-07-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we took a trip down to Washington, D.C. for Independence Day--about a seven hour drive for us from Syracuse. We met up with my brother Ryan (coming from Florida) and stayed with my cousin Brent and his family. We've never been to the Capital, and it was a great trip! We drove down Friday night and left Monday afternoon.

On Saturday we went to the National Mall--a national park in the middle of the city that houses the Capitol building, some other government offices, many historic monuments, and a lot of museums. This shot is the Capitol building from the rear.

Library of Congress

National Museum of Natural History

Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool

White House

Lincoln Memorial

The kids loved the U.S. Botanic Garden--I did too, it was so neat to see all the different plants. In the children's area there were tools for kids to dig around and fountains to water the flowers with.

That evening, after seeing the sights, we settled on the Capitol lawn to listen to a dress rehearsal of the Independence Day concert. Among those that showed up to perform (some weren't there) were David Archuleta and Lang Lang (the pianist). It was a lot of fun to spend time with Ryan and also Brent and his family.

On Sunday night we went to a patch of grass near the Pentagon to watch the Independence Day fireworks over the Capitol. Monday we drove around to see a few monuments we'd missed on Saturday and celebrated Lucy's (Brent's daughter) birthday, and then left for home that afternoon. A great trip!

Marathon blog update

2010-06-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

So May and June have flown by! The following are some shots of our latest escapades:

Last Monday Joshua took a day off from work and we all went to Niagara Falls--Joshua and the kids have already been there, but this was my first visit. The Falls are pretty incredible.

We parked on the American side and then walked over a bridge to the Canadian side, where the view was much more spectacular.

A couple of weeks ago, Joshua took Ethan on their first Fathers and Sons outing, and I think they had a great time! They went to a church owned camp area by Seneca Lake, about an hour away.
They built a fire, toasted some marshmallows, enjoyed a fireside, and played some games. They also brought along a youth who is investigating the Church.

They stayed in cabins with other people from the stake. Joshua and Ethan shared a twin bunk on a bunkbed, so I don't think they got much sleep. It was the first outing of hopefully many more to come!

On Memorial Day we went to a parade downtown, and it was a lot of fun. We came back loaded with parade fare--tootsie rolls and suckers, bead necklaces, miniature flags, and plenty of business and political handouts.
Everyone wore red, white and blue to the parade. Thanks to all those who have sacrificed so much for our country.

This delectable dish is Joshua's replication of a recipe he found in an LDS Living email. He took refrigerator rolls with chocolate chips in the middle, rolled in sugar and cocoa drizzled in a cinnamon sauce. It was really tasty and decadent.

Although our monthly family visits to the temple have lagged surrounding Christian's birth, we got back on track in time to enjoy Palmyra and the Sacred Grove in the Spring.
Look familiar? The title picture on our blog is one we found of the Sacred Grove off the internet, but these are ones Joshua took.

Random snippets:

The other day Julia surprised me with her construction of the Zumble-Zay we read about in Marvin K. Mooney (by Dr. Seuss, one of their favorites). I was impressed with the magic she was able to do with Duplo blocks, a hair ribbon, and a toy elephant. Compare with the original below-

Ethan's newest bedfellows are this dump truck or his school bus. He waits until after we tuck him in and then gathers them into his bed to sleep with instead of his stuffed animals.

I can't stop squeezing Christian's chubby legs. I love the rolls!

Happy Birthday Ethan

2010-05-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Ethan turned 2 years old. To celebrate he had a special breakfast (magic strawberry pancake basket or German pancakes with strawberries and cream topping), did some of his favorite outings (went to the park and library), got to go out to lunch with dad (McDonald's), had a special dinner (everyone made their own mini pizzas), ate cupcakes, opened presents, talked to grandparents on the phone, and watched a movie of his picking (Thomas the Train). It seemed like he had a great time and smiled almost the entire day. He really does seem like a big boy now, especially since Christian has come along. We really are lucky to have him as part of our family. Happy Birthday Ethan!!!

Ethan's pizzas were all cheese and pineapples. Look how happy he is!

Rebecca had made an apron for Julia on her birthday and Ethan had been wanting one too. We thought the fabric was perfect for him. And instead of a pocket, Rebecca made it tool belt style so he could slide the utensils right through the loops in the middle.

Some of his other new presents.

Surprisingly the cupcakes weren't that soggy after all of that slobbery "blowing".

Trip to the Big Apple

2010-05-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

Since we are living in New York, we thought it would be a sin not to make a trip down to the city before we leave to Alaska. So we carved out some time this last weekend for a short visit. We decided to take the bus down, so we wouldn't have to worry about our car once we got there. I think it might be our last bus trip though, if fellow passengers have anything to say about it. We took a 1:15am bus Friday morning and arrived in NYC at about 6:15, and then came home on an 8:45pm bus Saturday evening, arriving early this morning, around 2:00am. The kids did great, considering that they had to try to sleep in unfamiliar, cramped quarters and were moved to and fro multiple times in the middle of the night. We did not get much sleep, but really with Christian so young, it wasn't so much different than a regular night at home. To keep the kids in tow, we equipped ourselves with a double jogging stroller for Ethan and Julia, and a baby backpack for Christian.

Joshua and Christian at the sight of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center/Twin Towers area.

New York Stock Exchange--finally saw it after talking about it all the time in Business school!

Joshua told me he actually did buy my ring from here, although you would never guess.

Julia in Battery Park, which is the landing for the ferries that go to the Statue of Liberty.

Miss New Jersey took us to the Statue of Liberty and then Ellis Island, the historical site for immigrants passing into the United States.

On the ferry. The weather was great--70s and 80s! Joshua, Christian, and I got a little sunburned, but nothing serious.

On Liberty Island

Manhattan in the background

The Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park

Skyline from Central Park

The Belvedere Castle in Central Park

St. John's Divine Church and grounds, supposedly the largest Gothic style cathedral in the world.

Time Square

I beat Joshua in bumping in to the most people with the stroller. It was hard not to!

However, we were so glad to have the kids strapped in the stroller where we could keep track of them among all the thousands of people.

Julia at the M&M store

The Rockefeller Center

I recognized this Atlas statue from the cover of a book I read recently--Atlas Shrugged.

Chinatown, one of our favorite spots--Joshua introduced us to the Bubble Drinks, which he used to have a lot on his mission to Taiwan.

It was a fun but exhausting trip! The kids were real troopers, and put up with being buckled in the stroller almost two full days long with surprising grace. Throughout the trip, a bunch of Asian tourists kept coming up to us and asking to take pictures of our kids. One even wanted to be holding Ethan in her picture, and we caught others just taking pictures of them on the sly. Many said they thought they were twins. I guess lots of kids in NYC is quite a spectacle, because we did get a lot of stares all around.

Three kids

2010-04-25T16:55:00.000-07:00

This last month we've all been adjusting to becoming a family of five. Julia and Ethan love Christian and love to help change his diaper, give him hugs, include him in playing catch, hold him on their laps, and use him as a rug to step on. I think he's going to be the toughest Swift yet.

All three on the bed

Julia is a great big sister--she always tries to soothe him when he cries with singing, cuddling, giving him a pacifier, and letting him know she loves him.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship

I think he looks a little like Julia when she was a baby. He is growing really quickly--yesterday he even rolled over!

A couple of weeks ago we found a toddler bed at a garage sale, and decided to get it for Ethan so that we could upgrade Christian from the pack 'n play to the crib. At bedtime on the first night of the toddler bed, he kept hopping out of the bed to play with toys, but when we checked on him a few minutes later, he was sleeping in the bed.

Roommates--Ethan in the new toddler bed and Julia on her twin bed without the frame

Lately the kids and I have been going to the park a lot. Although it's quite a trick to keep track of Julia and Ethan while holding Christian or lugging him around in his car seat, it's better than going crazy being cooped up at home and the kids love it.

Usually we go to a park with a playground, but when the Swifts were here we went to feed the ducks for a change.

Swift visit

2010-04-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

Last week, Joshua's parents and his brother Caleb came to visit! It was great having them here to catch up with, entertain the children, and do some sightseeing with. Joshua took them and Julia and Ethan to the Church sites at the Sacred Grove and Niagara Falls while Christian and I stayed home and caught up on some sleep. They also took a few days to see New York and also got to attend Christian's baby blessing.

Ethan and Grandpa Swift at the Grandin Print Shop in Palmyra where the Book of Mormon was first published.

Grandparents Swift with Julia and Ethan in the Sacred Grove

The visit to Niagara Falls

Joshua and Christian on the big day

The new, expanded Swift family

The whole gang

Alaska!

2010-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

Great news! We wanted to let everyone know that we will soon be moving to Alaska. I recently accepted a job in the psychology department at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). UAA is part of the state university system with UA-Fairbanks and UA-Juneau. UAA is the largest of the three Universities with about 20,000 students at that campus alone. The psychology department that I will be in offers a bachelors, a masters in clinical psychology, and a doctorate in community and clinical psychology. I have been hired for a tenure-track assistant professor position that starts this upcoming Fall 2010 semester. As part of this job I will be doing some teaching, some advising, and some research. It will be a great position for me! We are all excited for the move, for the employment, and the opportunity that we will have to see spectacular views and abundant wildlife (believe it or not, I even saw a moose on campus when I was there interviewing). We would welcome any visitors who would like to see Alaska.

Easter

2010-04-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

Easter always comes and goes so quickly--it seems like with Christmas there's plenty of opportunities for thinking about Christ's birth, but celebrating Christ's triumph over death often gets passed by in the springtime. Even though Easter was a little rushed this year, pondering Christ's resurrection and remembering that "He is Risen!" was the best part. What a joyful message to all of us. We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Last weekend Julia had her first Primary activity! She prepared a dozen eggs with symbols in them to tell the Easter story. We did it this morning from Bible scriptures and opening each egg in turn to show the associated symbol.

Yesterday morning dying Easter eggs--Ethan did actually do a couple, although he appears more interested in the car here.

When we came back from a walk in the park, the Easter bunny had hidden those very eggs (plus a few more). Julia did most of the finding at first, until they both realized there was candy spread among them, and they both got quickly motivated to find the rest.

Enjoying spoils of the hunt.

Happy Spring

2010-03-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

It's nice now that Spring is officially here. We have been enjoying the warmer weather (it's been up to 65 on some days already) and have even managed to make it out of the house this last week to go on some short walks. We loved the snow and the winter weather, but everything just seems to be a little easier when you don't have to worry about bundling up in 10 layers just to open the front door. The trees and plants aren't blooming yet, but it is nice to at least have the sun out.

We've been having an enjoyable past few weeks. Yes, it has been tiring with Christian waking up at least three times a night and Julia and Ethan still wanting to wake up at six, but we still feel we have very blessed lives. Grandma and Grandpa Little came to help out for a couple of weeks right after Christian was born, which really made life so much easier. On a couple of days they even took Julia and Ethan on day-trips, once to Palmyra and then to Niagara Falls (somehow they even managed to smuggle them across the border to Canada on that trip), allowing Rebecca and Christian to get some much needed extra rest. We all enjoyed their visit and all of the time we were able to spend with them; it has been kind of lonely way over here in New York all by ourselves. Luckily, next week we will have Grandma and Grandpa Swift with Uncle Caleb come to visit.

Thanks for all of the help Grandma and Grandpa Little!

Ethan has such a great smile!

Can you believe that Julia and Ethan's favorite food is hotdogs? These are the big sausage ones and they both probably ate three; definitely more than either Rebecca or I had.

We stuffed a block of bird seed in the lattice outside our back porch. Julia and Ethan have been eagerly waiting for some birds to come get their food.

Luckily I always have two helpers whenever I try to do any work from home.

Christian's Birthday

2010-03-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give some more details about Christian's birthday. Early in the morning, I started feeling some contractions but was able to dose in and out of sleep until about 6. By then, I realized today (last Thursday, March 4th) was probably the day because the contractions were increasing instead of going away. However, my parents weren't flying in until that evening, and I still had laundry and grocery shopping to do that day. So Joshua went off to work, and I thought/hoped I could last until the evening. But, the contractions started growing very close together and very painful, and around 9:00 I called a friend to come take the kids. When she arrived at 9:30 I was feeling terrible and knew I needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Joshua had rode his bike to work though, and I didn't want to wait for him to ride all the way home, so I decided to pick him up (the hospital is a couple blocks away from his work). Probably a dumb idea, because my contractions were about a minute apart, but luckily I made it and we got to the hospital about 10. It seemed like it took forever to get into the room and have the nurse see me, and all I could think about was the pain. Finally, the nurse saw me and said I was fully dilated and I waited a couple more minutes for the doctor to arrive, and then about 45 seconds later, Christian was born 10:32 am!

We love him so much; I am so grateful he is healthy and strong and here! It's amazing that my love for him is just as strong and encompassing as with Julia and Ethan when they were born--my heart just seems to expand in capacity for each child. I didn't think it possible to love so much.

Below are pictures of Julia, then Ethan as newborns. We're trying to decide who Christian looks like, if anyone.

Christian Arthur Swift

2010-03-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Baby Christian Arthur Swift was born on March 4, 2010 at 10:32 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Baby and mom are doing great and came home from the hospital today. I will let Rebecca update on the delivery story later on, but just wanted to get out some pictures a little sooner. Please pass the word on to others!

Bedtime at our house

2010-02-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

So the kids' favorite time of the day is when Joshua gets home from work. Especially lately, since I've had less energy with the pregnancy to run around and play games with them, they really look forward to this time. They usually rope him into playing a few rounds of hide and seek, motorboat, airplane (Joshua balances them on his feet while laying on his back and vrooms them around), and their favorite, horsie--pictured above. It's probably my favorite time of the day too, watching them romp around.

He also does the nightly routine with them (scriptures, prayers, stories, song), which is a fabulous break for me. We sometimes hear them chatting it up and/or singing with each other after he leaves the room, sometimes for quite a while. We caught them at it in this video (at the entrance of their bedroom).

Sunbeams!

2010-01-17T17:25:00.000-08:00

Julia started Sunbeams at the start of the new year, and she loves it! She likes to talk about her friends and what they do during primary. So far I've gleaned that they do still get snacks, that in Primary you have to sit in your seat instead of run around like in Nursery, and that she has said the prayer in her class a couple of times. I wish I could just sit in and watch her throughout all of Primary and class (as it is, I do sneak peaks sometimes through the windows). We are so proud of you Julia! You are such a big girl!

Snow!!!

2010-01-17T16:54:00.000-08:00

About a week before Christmas we started getting snow. Since that time up until last Monday it seems like it has been snowing every day straight. The snow has really piled up-- at least 2 feet deep at its highest point (this was about a week ago). Luckily the roads have stayed pretty well plowed and we have been able to get around fine, although Joshua has not been able to ride his bike to work on the really bad days. These last couple of days have been a little warmer and a lot of the snow has melted already, but from what we have heard from the locals the snow lasts through March, so we should be expecting some more soon.

On New Year's day we were able to all go outside and make a snowman. Ethan had a hard time staying on his feet and needed help getting up every time he fell (I think the three pairs of pants I put on him contributed to his immobility). Julia kept on telling Joshua that she thought the snowman was big enough. But, I think we all had a fun time.

The finished product! It stayed up for about two weeks and then one day we saw it laying on its side. We saw tracks leading up to it and away from it and so we have our suspicions as to what happened; our only question is who the culprits could be, because only adults live in our complex.

One of the worst days so far. There were probably 18-24 inches accumulation overnight. This was Sunday morning and unfortunately they don't plow the roads on Sunday. We had someone to pick up on the way to church and so our 15 minute route ended up taking over 45 minutes.

Mr. Snowman looked pretty funny with all of the extra snow on him.

CHRISTMAS

2010-01-17T16:14:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas and New Year's celebrations here in New York. We missed seeing family, but enjoyed our time together. On Christmas Eve, we continued the tradition of acting out Christ's birth, along with eating a picnic "Jerusalem Dinner" consisting of fish, pita bread and grape juice around the stable we made from our dining table. Julia was Mary, Ethan was Joseph, with Joshua as the donkey; much of the time was spent in "traveling" to Bethlehem--i.e. wandering around the house until the donkey's back almost broke. I got to narrate and do all the other parts partnering with select stuffed animals.

Mary, Joseph, and the donkey taking a break at the stable

On Christmas day we talked to family on Skype, participated the the Swift family talent show, had some friends over for Christmas dinner, and enjoyed some delightful free time while kids played with their new toys. We are so thankful to our Heavenly Father for sending Jesus Christ to the earth to save us. What a joy it is to celebrate His birth and the peace and hope His life and mission and atonement give to us!

December

2009-12-20T17:17:00.001-08:00

We've been able to do a lot of fun things in December to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and enjoy the festivities of the season! Julia and Ethan have really enjoyed wearing their Christmas clothes (thanks Grandma Little!) to Church and any other opportunity they can think of.

Julia loves wearing fancy dresses; she especially loves when they "twirl" with her as she practices her ballet moves.

This is Ethan's "I don't approve" look he gives us sometimes

On the way back from the temple the other weekend we stopped at this village that holds an annual Dickens Christmas festival, and it was a riot! You can see some of the people dressed up as characters from "A Christmas Carol" singing carols here. It was and has been really cold, so we couldn't stay too long, but it was fun to see the town decorated for the event and crowds of people enjoying it.

Julia talking on the phone with grandparents. We are staying here for Christmas this year and are sad not to be able to see our families; however, it has been fun starting some of our own traditions .

Some sweets of the season Joshua concocted to give out to friends and neighbors

Julia (trying to make a smiley face) and me before we headed out to see the Nutcracker ballet yesterday afternoon. It was a fun mother-daughter bonding time, and I was impressed at how long Julia was able to sit still for the performance (much longer than Sacrament meeting at Church!).

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T11:31:00.001-08:00

We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Best of all, Joshua was home for four and a half days in a row. We invited someone over for Thanksgiving dinner, but he ended up cancelling; no problem, more food for us! We also went Black Friday shopping, although we didn't end up purchasing too many things--maybe we're just attracted to the sport of the day. Then yesterday, we started a new tradition and went to a Christmas tree farm to pick out our own first fresh tree. It was freezing! We got to drive up to the tree lots in a tractor-pulled wagon, then rushed out and cut our tree (one of the first we saw), and then waited to be picked up again by the wagon. It's a big, fat Blue Spruce, which, as it turns out, are very pokey when you decorate them. But we love the Christmas atmosphere it brings to our home and it smells great.

This is it!

Well, maybe next year...We'll post a picture of ours when it's completed.

Julia's Birthday!

2009-11-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago, we got to celebrate Julia's third birthday! I can't believe she's growing up so quickly. She ordered hot dogs for her birthday dinner and cupcakes for her cake, so we really lived it up. We made her wait until evening when Joshua was home for her to open gifts, and I was impressed how patient she was. She loved all her presents, and kept saying "thank you" to the giver (even if he/she wasn't there). We are both so grateful to have had our beautiful Julia in our lives for three years--she brings us joy and laughter daily. We love you Julia!!!

Waiting to open gifts...

An excited Julia showing off her spoils: among them were dresses, ballerina gear and accessories, tickets to The Nutcracker Ballet, a family movie, a princess nightlight, and an apron I clumsily made for her.

Blowing out her candles--no, she didn't eat all those cupcakes; I think she barely got through the frosting on one.

First Day of Nursery

2009-11-08T11:01:00.001-08:00

Today was Ethan's first day in Nursery! I can't believe he's growing up so quickly. Luckily, he has just barely started to get the hang of standing (he's been able to walk, but has fallen when he doesn't have a destination), so hopefully he'll be able to hold his own in there. Because Julia's still in nursery, he already has a friend in class; today she did a great job helping to bring him to class and comfort him throughout the two hour block. He was a little hesitant today, but I think soon he'll really warm up and be grateful to be in there instead of Sunday school (I think the Sunday school attendees are already grateful for the peace and quiet and not being Cheerio targets to Ethan's surprisingly and unfortunately accurate throws). We are so proud of him!

Fall Fun

2009-11-08T10:42:00.000-08:00

After a very long stretch of being cooped up in the house from sickness, we were all able to get out one Saturday to Greenlake State park for some final fall fun before the cold weather really hits.

There's a nice three mile trail around the lake that's popular among joggers and hikers.
I love that Julia and Ethan are starting to become real playmates and enjoy each other.

One of our favorite passtimes when we do have to stick around in the apartment.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-08T10:38:00.001-08:00

The kids have been excited all October long about Halloween, wearing their costumes, and trick-or-treating. The festivities the last week in Octoboer included a Halloween party at the library, carving pumpkins while eating Spud-nuts (doughnuts), trying to get over colds, decorating cupcakes with worms and "dirt," and finally trick-or-treating at the mall (but only for 45 minutes, since everyone was still kind of sick). The following are kids in their costumes:

I was surprised at how well Ethan caught on to the fact that he was pretending to be a bat--he flapped his wings and pointed to himself saying "bat" all evening!

Julia got this costume as an early birthday present from Grandma Little, so she's had plenty of time to practice being a ballerina. In fact, every day she has insisted on wearing her ballerina costume for a while to practice dancing, singing, exercising, stretching, etc. (whatever she can imagine a princess does). She loved being a ballerina princess for Halloween!

Sacred Grove

2009-11-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

One of the things we were most looking forward to about moving to central New York was that we would be able to see some special Church history sites in Palmyra. We are in the Palmyra Temple district, so a few weeks ago we decided to make a family trip to the temple and see the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith's farm while we were there. We took turns going in the temple while the other person walked around the grounds with the kids. We all really felt a special spirit in the grove, which helped strengthen our testimony that Joseph truly saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ here, just like he said.

Julia sitting on the doorstep of Joseph Smith's log cabin home (where they lived when Joseph Smith was 14, at the time of his vision).
Ethan and Julia at the frame house which Alvin built with the help of his brothers. Joseph was here when he had the gold plates and at one point kept the plates hidden in the hearth.

Julia in the Smiths' barn.

The Sacred Grove, where Joseph Smith saw God, the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Hill Cumorah. We didn't really explore up here on this trip.

It's a boy!

2009-10-28T04:57:00.000-07:00

Rebecca went in for the ultrasound yesterday and we found out that we are expecting another boy. Julia was a little disappointed at first (she really wanted a little sister), but now she says she is very excited about having another brother. Once our home internet is back to working we will post some more details and pictures.

Phone Troubles

2009-10-28T04:38:00.000-07:00

We got our first phone bill from Verizon. It was just over $200 for what we thought was a $15.95/month plan. Yes we did have to pay for the first two months on this bill and some set up fees, but even still with the Verizon usage fee and the NY state taxes our monthly bill would be over $50/month. Again, we thought we were only going to have to pay $15.95/month!!! So this past weekend we called to cancel our phone line and planned to do our phone service through MagicJack, an internet phone company (only $39 for a whole year with local and long distance calls included). So we have a new phone number. If you call our old number there should be a voice message with our new number.

Unfortunately our friends at Verizon decided to turn our internet off when they disconnected our phone line. Given that MagicJack only works through the internet, we have been without a phone for the past couple of days. Verizon did apologize and promised to have our internet back working by November 4th.

Taughannok Falls State Park

2009-10-18T17:44:00.001-07:00

Last Monday Joshua's clinic was closed so we got him for an extra day! We decided to enjoy the splendors of the area, going to Taughannok Falls State Park, a pretty site about an hour and a half away near Ithaca.

On the drive there

At the beginning of the hike to the falls

On the flats

You can't really tell by the pictures, but the Fall leaves are really stunning

It was only a 3/4 mile hike, but it wore us out!

At the base of the falls

Two handsome men at the lookout point above the falls

It was really cold!

One of the Finger Lakes

New York so far

2009-10-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we are officially New York state residents now. It began with an extremely long overnight plane trip from Washington to Syracuse, where we were thankfully picked up by some kind church members and went straight to a glamorous Motel 6 to wait out the couple of days for our apartment to be ready.

In these pictures Julia and Ethan seem pretty happy for having spent so much time in four different airports and on three different planes (11+ hours). Real troopers. Julia did get sick once and her stuffed doggie ended up having to take a bath in an airport sink. Hopefully we will never have to go through an ordeal like that again.

We got really lucky on the apartment, as we selected it online and weren’t sure of what to expect. We are on the main level, so no stairs, and the apartment has two large bedrooms with substantial closet space. The neighborhood seems same and we are less than a mile from our Church. It only took us a day to move all of our stuff in from storage, but about a month to do all of the unpacking.

Our glamorous pink couch and the rest of our secondhand furniture made us feel right at home in our new apartment!

Here is the view from our back porch

We also met a new little critter friend outside our door the other day, and Julia decided to dress up in her bat costume to make him feel more at home.

There’s a great farmer’s market in Syracuse and we’ve gone to it almost every Saturday we’ve been here. Joshua usually has to keep me in check—I tend to go crazy with the fresh produce. You can't tell from this picture but it is really a huge market. There are about six or seven of these rows and probably over 100 vendors.

In preparation for one of the apple festivals we made apple pancakes. They turned out really good. We always thought we were spoiled growing up with good apples in Washington. The apples here in New York though are great. We've definitely been following the "apple a day" adage.

It has been raining here a lot. On top of that this last week we have all been battling colds. So, we have been spending a lot of days entertaining ourselves indoors.

Dancing and Singing

Summer 2009

2009-09-21T10:15:00.001-07:00

Because Joshua had a two month lapse between finishing school work and starting his internship in New York, we got to spend a wonderful, idle summer trading off time at the Little and the Swift grandparents’ homes in Washington until we thoroughly wore out our welcome. Some of the highlights that we enjoyed were seeing Joshua’s brother Isaac receive the Melchizedeck priesthood, my brother Tyler coming home from his mission (and meeting him at the airport!), a family reunion in Spokane at Joshua’s sister Tianna’s house, a getaway for me and Joshua in Leavenworth, and best of all, finding out we are expecting! It was so much fun to see Ethan and Julia play and interact with their relatives. We didn't take many pictures, but I've posted those we have:

Playing at the park

At the zoo in Colorado Springs

The kids especially loved feeding the giraffes!

Julia and Ethan had a good time getting to know relatives

(Julia and her second cousin Isobel on the train)

In Spokane at our Swift family reunion--

We separated into teams and did a scavenger hunt, taking pictures of our finds

Tianna planned a great carnival for the kids!

Here is Julia playing the Cake Walk

Ethan going fishing

More Pictures of the Kids

2009-04-19T14:25:00.001-07:00

Here are some more pictures of Julia and Ethan hanging out around the house.

Julia and Ethan love to do box (car) rides around the house.

Posing on Julia's bed

Ethan trying to tell Julia that she is a little too close

Another movie night. This time Joshua and the kids watched The Emporer's New Groove

Julia is always wanting to wear dresses and if we don't put them on her, she puts them on herself. Unfortunately she had a little trouble with this one. Although she didn't think it was very funny when we were taking the pictures of her instead of helping her out, she did laugh later when we showed the pictures to her.

How the dress is really supposed to look.

Ethan hanging out in his room.

Playing in an old bassinet.

Easter Celebrations

2009-04-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

We haven't posted for a while because we were hoping to keep our house pictures at the top of our blog for as long as possible. However, after taking some great Easter pictures of the kids we just couldn't resist.

Julia and Ethan both participated in Easter egg hunts at church and at home (we just reused the eggs from church for their home Easter egg hunt). Julia loved looking for all of the eggs and was very speedy in finding them all. Ethan sat and watched and was satisfied opening all of the eggs that Julia had found. Lucky for Julia, Ethan is still not eating sweets and so she only had to share her eggs with her parents (we call it the parent tax--hopefully there will be no Boston tea parties when she gets older and thinks it is unfair--Joshua already ate almost all of her peeps).

That evening we had some people over from our ward to share our Easter meal with. We all had a wonderful time.

We all missed being around family for this holiday though. I think Joshua especially wanted to participate in the adult Easter egg hunt at his parents' home.

Rebecca and Julia preparing some eggs.

Julia showing off her handy work.

Julia and Ethan taking a break before finding the rest of the treats.

House for Sale

2009-03-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Our house is now on the market. So if you know anyone that may be interested please spread the word. It is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom home on a double corner lot in Stillwater Oklahoma. Total of 898 sq. ft. The back room, bathroom, and kitchen floor have been updated and it has just been painted. An awesome deal at $73,900. You can call Beverly Carter (405.743.9618--Century 21) if you would like more details.

Blog Tag

2009-03-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

Christina and Brooke tagged us. So here is our sixth picture from our sixth folder in our documents/pictures.

This is a picture of us getting ready for our stake's adult only dance in 2006. Each year they hold this dance at an old mansion in a neighboring city. Don't we look good in red! Julia was born 2 weeks later, so this was our last night (ever) out on the town.

Projects

2009-03-01T19:31:00.001-08:00

Since we're moving by the end of the summer, we really need to put our house up for sale as soon as possible. But first we have had to tackle the projects we've intended to do ever since we moved in but never got around to. Our (meaning Joshua) most recent project is turning these unappealing iron frames into some columns that will hopefully enhance the front of our house.
Here's Joshua at work--combining his brilliant engineering skills with carpentry expertise and sheer muscle--making our columns. He actually just constructed a wood frame around the existing iron. So far we haven't received any complaints from the neighbors yet, so I think they're a success!

When in Washington my mom and I picked up some fabric to make an upholstered headboard for our bed and some coordinating pillows. So below is the finished product--another of my ideas implemented by Joshua (pillows aren't in the picture). We're still looking for some decorative pins for the border.

Moving to New York!!!

2009-03-01T19:22:00.000-08:00

GREAT NEWS! We found last week that we got matched for internships and are going to SUNY (see below) Medical School in Syracuse, New York! We are really excited but we don't really know much about the area and what to expect. Joshua starts September 1st, so some time before then we will have to figure out how to get all of us and our belongings up to NY. We hear it's beautiful and cold up there, and are looking forward to taking the opportunity to visit nearby sites, including Palmyra, NYC, and some others. We are also looking forward to hosting LOTS of you visitors who would like to join us in exploring this fascinating area! It looks like Syracuse is in Central/Upstate New York, and has a population of a few hundred thousand. One hour from Palmyra, four to NYC, five to Boston. I really want to know how close it is to Prince Edward Island, but I don't have an answer yet.

Movie Night

2009-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

Last Friday Rebecca went to the temple with a couple of people from our ward, so we took the opportunity to have a movie night. We cooked up some popcorn (which both kids loved--Julia probably ate 7/8 of the bag by herself) and we watched Mulan (Julia's pick). It was a fun night for all of us!

Washington Trip Pictures

2009-02-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to Washington in January kindly sent to us by Peggy and Mary-Anne--Thank you!

Julia with her cousin Tucker at the Swifts' home

Ethan and my cousin Juli who just entered the MTC to prepare to go to the Baltic States mission: Congratulations Sister Little--we are so proud of you!

Ethan and Julia enjoyed seeing lots of aunts and uncles. This is Aunt Jami, who's in her third trimester expecting a baby girl. We're excited for you Trenton and Jami!

My Uncle Dennis and family

Julia with Grandma Little at Bri's birthday dinner--Tokyo! It was a fun place, but the interactive fire was a little too hot for Julia.

Joshua's not the only one that has to play "horsey" for Julia

Ethan and his Great-Grandma Little share birthdays--they are exactly 80 years apart!

Some of the Little kids with Grandma Little at her place

How could you resist this?

Picture Catch-up

2009-02-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are pictures that we took over the Christmas break. Unfortunately we forgot our camera batteries when we went to Washington, so we don't have any pictures from that trip. If anyone else has pictures of our kids during that time, can you send them to us?

Ethan ready to dive into his Christmas stocking. Rebecca made all four of these by hand. Isn't she great!

Ready to open presents

Ethan and Great Grandma Swift

Joshua with his Uncle Mark and Grandpa Swift

Joshua's uncle's and aunt's new home (still under construction)

Separation Anxiety

2009-01-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

Our family has been having to cope with a long distance relationship for the past couple of weeks. Rebecca and the kids have been in Washington with the Littles (we visited the Swifts when Joshua was there too), while Joshua has been traveling around the country for internship interviews. It has been hard to be apart for so long. Prior to this experience we have never really been apart since our marriage (there was one night when Rebecca was away at young women's camp, but that was it). So it has been a big adjustment. Luckily we have been able to talk and see each other using our new webcam, which has really been a blessing. Unfortunately, we still have a little more than a week.

Here are some pictures from Joshua's end of the webcam

PS. Pictures of family from the Washington trip will be added when we get the camera problem worked out.

Christmas Celebrations

2009-01-16T08:38:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we reenacted the Christmas story as a Family. Julia played the role of Mary, Joshua played the role of the donkey, Rebecca played the role of everything else, and Ethan was the audience. After Julia rode the donkey around the house for a while, we all stopped and had a Christmas Eve dinner of fish, dates (we actually did prunes and apricots), pita bread, and juice. We were trying to imagine what Mary and Joseph may have eaten at the time. It ended up being a very reverent and spiritual way to celebrate our Christmas Eve, and a tradition that we plan to continue in the future.

On Christmas morning we opened presents early and enjoyed that time together. Julia and Ethan were definitely spoiled by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and even parents who just thought that they would enjoy every single toy in the store. Julia did most of the unwrapping while Ethan again played the role of the audience. They both had a blast! Thank you everyone for your generosity.

After that we had two older single ladies from our ward to come over and share a Christmas brunch with us. The brunch included ham, rolls, fruit, a potato dish, cranberry coffeecake, a quiche, and hot-chocolate. Joshua also wanted a frog-eye-salad, but we decided it was too much already. We ended up cooking way too much anyway and most of the meal ended up in our freezer.

Then we went over to Joshua's aunt and uncle's house in Tulsa. Joshua's grandparents were also there and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. And to Joshua's surprise they had made a frog-eye-salad. We had brought over a popcorn cake; which was one of his grandma's traditions. We all had a wonderful weekend together (they let us stay over-night next door in their cottage). Julia enjoyed playing with Penny (Kristen and Kent's new dog) and having Mark run around with her in the yard, Ethan enjoyed being held by everyone, and we enjoyed a little bit of a break.

In thinking about this past year we have truly been blessed. We have a wonderful family and extended family to share our love with and we couldn't be happier.

PS. Our camera is in Washington and our cord to plug it into the computer is in Oklahoma, so pictures of our Christmas break will follow in a subsequent post.

Julia Birthday Party

2008-12-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

This last weekend Julia got to attend a birthday party for her friend. They played dress up and ate cupcakes. I think she had a wonderful time. We also thought the pictures were so cute.

Ward Christmas Party

2008-12-15T06:52:00.001-08:00

The Ward Chirstmas Party was a blast. Julia had a fun time dressing up in her Christmas dress and ringing her bell while singing "Jingle Bells" the the other nursery kids.

Ethan pictures

2008-12-15T06:49:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of Ethan that we thought were cute

Thanksgiving

2008-12-15T06:46:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. In the morning we spent a lot of time cooking and looking through sale ads from the newspaper. Then in the afternoon we had a wonderful feast. It was nice to be able to have lots of time together as a family. We truly have so much to be thankful for.

Happy Birthday Julia!

2008-11-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

Julia had a blast on her birthday. She got to have some friends over for a get together, got to go shopping, had a pizza dinner, got to open presents, and got to eat a special cake. It is amazing that she is already two years old. We have to admit she’s really growing up now.

Halloween!

2008-11-26T13:11:00.000-08:00

Joshua left the door open one night when he came home and somehow a bat and penguin got in. We thought they were both really cute so we took them out trick-or-treating. Julia actually got to get candy three times; one at the Stillwater downtown party for kids, again at the ward trunk-or-treat (where we won the contest again for best carved pumpkin), and again when Joshua took her out to some houses. Joshua said that she got really good at saying “next house.”

Sitting

2008-11-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

Ethan has been practicing his sitting lately. Luckily we were able to catch a long stretch on video.

Look-a-like Contest

2008-11-26T13:04:00.000-08:00

We are not really sure who Ethan looks like now. Some people say he is a dead-ringer for Joshua, while others say he sees my features in him. What do you think?

2008-11-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

Homecoming

2008-11-26T12:40:00.000-08:00

Homecoming was great again this year. My brother Ryan came to visit and participate in the festivities. On Friday night we met up with Mark, Angela, Kristen, and Kent (Joshua’s Uncle’s family) and walked around to see the house displays. The next morning we all met up to see the parade. Julia really enjoyed seeing the animals and getting lots of parade candy (we were able to use a lot of it to pass out at Halloween a week later).

2008-10-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

So back to the grindstone in September. This semester has proven to be a busy one, and Joshua has had to put in a lot of hours away from home, split between commuting to Tulsa for a clinic internship on Mondays and Tuesdays, completing internship applications, research, and attending classes here in Stillwater the other days. But we have treasured our time together as a family, and the kids and I have found ways to occupy our time when he’s gone—we take a lot of walks, go to the library for story time, spend time on callings, experiment with new cooking recipes, play games, and sing songs. Julia and Ethan are so special; Julia loves Ethan and tries to care for him as well as she can by holding his hand, giving him hugs, and sharing toys with him and comforting him (and alerting me) when he cries. She also has started to learn to clean up around the house and loves to help cook and do whatever we’re doing. She enjoys talking on the phone to grandparents, playing mommy to her baby and pretending to get ready for church by gathering together an ensemble which includes her purse, dress, keys, sunglasses, and other such accessories. She is really becoming a beautiful, kindhearted girl. Ethan has learned to roll over, although he rarely lets us see him in action. He is a really happy and easygoing baby, and will smile and laugh in reaction to any facial gesture you might make at him. He brings such a special spirit of joy into our home. And he sure is handsome! We love our children; they mean everything to us and we are so grateful for the privilege of being their parents.

Family Vacations

2008-10-06T06:16:00.000-07:00

This summer we went on two fabulous trips in August—first to Boston for a Psychology conference and then to Colorado for my cousin’s wedding. Boston was a lot of fun and we got to do a lot of neat sightseeing, but it was pretty exhausting running around and using public transportation with the kids. We especially enjoyed eating a cannoli in the Italian quarter of the city and had a lot of fun making our way through the Freedom Trail and seeing historic sights. Another plus: the farmer’s market in Boston is amazing!! I wish we had access to a market like that here, instead of Wal-Mart. Major downside: our hotel was far from downtown, and the commute was pretty difficult just to traverse the bus and subway systems, let alone with two kids. Joshua also attended an awards ceremony where he received a special national research award—we are so proud of him!

Our Colorado trip was a lot of fun too, but unfortunately I forgot to load the camera with batteries. But you can imagine the fun it was for the kids to see grandparents and for me to spend some time with my immediate and extended family. We really enjoyed swimming, playing tennis, and attending the wedding luau party and catching up with everyone. Julia got sick on the last day of the trip and threw up a few times, including in the car on the way home, but by the next day at home she had recovered.

Joshua and Julia were just sitting on the bench when this strange guy came and sat next to them.

We spent a couple days walking the Freedom Trail, a path through the city that takes you to all of the historic sites.

Our week long bus passes were also good for the fairy, so we decided to take a break from walking and travel around the bay.

We had to stop by Chinatown for Joshua

This is the oldest restaurant in America. Their clam chowder was great!

Paul Revere's house

Taking a break on our way up to bunker hill

This monument was built on top of bunker hill, a site of a famous battle in the American revolution

We all climbed up the monument. I think there was over 400 stairs. Julia actually got to ride all the way up so that is why she is not trying to catch her breath like the rest of us were.

In the background you can barely see the white steeple of an old church. It was the church were the lanterns were hung "one if by land, two if by sea."

Ethan's haircut

2008-10-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

A couple a months back, we started noticing that Ethan had some major bald patches on his head, and Joshua thought a shave would do him a world of good. I was a little hesitant, but Joshua insisted, so Ethan had his first hair cut at 3 months. For a little while, he looked pretty bald, but now his hair has grown back in a little and it’s thicker (although he has some new bald spots, but don’t tell Joshua—no more shaves so soon!).

Before

After

Anniversary

2008-07-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

July 23rd was our third anniversary. Since we both have callings on Wednesday night (Rebecca with the young women and me with bishopric meetings) we decided to celebrate on Thursday. We went to Red Lobster (Stillwater’s fanciest restaurant) and we all (even Julia) really enjoyed the shrimp there. We finished off the night with some chocolate mousse and a movie.
We counted our newly purchased Sonicare toothbrushes and our Boston trip as our presents to each other. It was great being able to spend the day together and to think how our family has grown over the past three years.

Boston

2008-07-28T07:07:00.001-07:00

We decided that we are going to make a trip to Boston in August for a research conference I need to attend. With airplane and hotel prices we weren’t sure if we were going to go or not, but we found a good deal (and this may be our last trip with Julia flying for free) and so we decided to do it. Our trip will be four days and four nights and with the two kids it should be an adventure.

Happy Birthday!!

2008-07-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

On July 17th it was Rebecca’s 27th birthday. We celebrated by doing some “Krazy Dayz” shopping (all the stores in our town do sidewalk sales on) and by making up some of her favorite meals (overnight stuffed French toast for breakfast and Philly cheese steaks for dinner). We finished the night by watching one of our new Harry Potter movies.

There she is, the beautiful birthday girl (She bought that necklace and earrings at one of the Krazy Dayz sales)

Peaches

2008-07-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

OSU is known for their peach orchard that they have just off campus. Since they sell them to the public for pretty cheap, Rebecca and the kids went to pick some with some of her friends from the ward. After spending one day picking the peaches, Rebecca spent another day with a friend canning them. Definitely a lot of hard work! We are already planning out tons of peach recipes and looking forward to the fruits of her labors.

Julia and Ethan

2008-07-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

We have been having a fun time just hanging around the house with Julia and Ethan. With two kids as cute as them who wouldn’t have a wonderful time. Ethan has been growing bigger and I think he looks less and less like a little alien every day. Julia has been helping so much around the house and taking care of her little brother.

Big sister and little brother together

Doesn’t he look handsome!

Looks like they have the daily routine down

Stretching,

Sleeping,

Changing diapers,

Eating,

And Dancing!!!

First Haircut

2008-07-28T06:44:00.001-07:00

It has been over a year and a half since Julia was born and we decided that now was a good time for her first haircut. We were a little worried about cutting it since she always gets tons of compliments on her hair. So we just did a little evening up and we think it turned out great.

Julia before her haircut

Just a few snips

After – For some reason she loves wearing hats lately

Happy Independence Day!

2008-07-28T06:42:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful and restful Independence Day. To celebrate, we all wore red white and blue and displayed our flag at the front of our house. We really wanted to see the fireworks in town (they do a huge firework show over the lake every year), but with two little ones that needed to be in bed, we missed them this year. Also in celebration we grilled up hamburgers (I tried a new recipe with mushrooms in the middle of the hamburgers, yum!), corn on the cob, drank lemonade, and made a key lime pie. That seemed like a pretty all-American meal to us. Although uneventful, we really did have a wonderful day and we are truly grateful for all of the freedoms we enjoy living in this country.

The family dressed in red white and blue by our flag

Hanging Out With The Kids

2008-06-23T06:54:00.001-07:00

Julia has been growing into her role as big sister. She loves to give Ethan hugs and kisses, and is always concerned when he cries and makes sure to notify a parent until one of us picks him up and she determines he’s “better.” She’s been expanding her vocabulary to include a lot more fun words, such as “gross,” “messy,” “a-ma” (grandma), “a-pa” (grandpa), and “eth” (Ethan). Ethan has started cooing and surprised his parents with sleeping for a whopping five and a half hours straight the last few nights. We’ve been a little superstitious about the whole deal, and have made sure to use the exact same blanket to wrap him up every night since and repeat the same motions for fear he will go back to his three hour routine.

Julia’s routine is to wake up early from her naps so she can come snooze in the parents’ bed. Here both she and Ethan are sound asleep.

Hanging out with the neighborhood cat (“Mao” as Julia likes to call her) Julia always looks forward to seeing and playing with her.

Julia just loves her dresses and having her hair done “special”

All ready for the pool

It’s hard to tell here, but Ethan has been adding some meat to those bones. At his last doctor’s appointment (1 month check-up) he weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces. Everyone says that he looks like Joshua, but we think he actually looks like his Uncle Nathanael.

$$$!!!

2008-06-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday we found out Joshua received a fellowship to compensate him for the time he spends doing research throughout the summer, which makes two scholarships this summer! He’s so smart and we are really proud of him.

FAMILY VISITS

2008-06-23T06:51:00.000-07:00

Last month, we were lucky enough to enjoy visits from the Swifts and the Littles to celebrate Ethan’s arrival. Living in Stillwater, OK, we are used to the fact that visitors are usually few and far between (let’s be serious, there’s not much to see out here unless you’re into entomology). We had a quick visit from my mom soon after we got out of the hospital and then Mom and Dad Swift along with Tianna and James and Talitha, followed by a final visit by both of my parents. It was great to have a full house and we were reminded how lonely we get during the rest of the year when we don’t get to be around family. When the Swifts were here, we had almost a complete Swift family reunion with Joshua’s uncle and his family and Joshua’s grandparents. Then we put my dad to work with Joshua redoing our kitchen floor and we’re really happy with the results! Thanks to all who came to visit and we hope to see you again soon! Julia especially loved seeing her grandparents and bonding with them.

Four generations of Keiths!

Grandpa Swift and Julia hanging out on the porch

Grandma and Grandpa Little with the grandchildren. Ethan was blessed this day. He is all wrapped up in a blanket, but underneath he was wearing a full suit (tie, coat, and everything)!

Welcome Ethan!

2008-05-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, May 7th at 2:45pm, Ethan Keith Swift joined our family! He weighed in at 6 lb. 11 oz. and was 20.5 " long. Everything about him seems healthy and well, and we're thrilled to have him!

He came a little before everyone expected him, especially us! When I went to the doctor on Tuesday for my normal checkup, she said his head was not facing down (birthing position) like it was supposed to and is necessarily for a normal non C-section birth.

So we scheduled for me to come in the next morning to see if she could push him back into position, and if it didn't work, she'd have to go ahead with the C-section. When I came in on Wednesday, we discovered he'd moved back into the right position! So I was induced before he had the chance to move again, and out he came, healthy and happy that afternoon, albeit a little on the small side!

We are so excited to have him, and I'm recovering very quickly. We realize we're extremely blessed, and so grateful for this precious little son.

Below are some pictures of the fan club--Julia was watched by some friends on Wednesday, but joined us at the hospital that night to check out her new baby brother. She's going to be a great big sister! She and Joshua spent the night at home, and then most of Thursday at the hospital. We enjoyed our time together there. We checked out yesterday and spent a wild and exciting first night at home. I think everyone's still adjusting and hopefully we'll get it all figured out soon.