Happy Birthday Ethan

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

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

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

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!

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

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.