Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween today! We had fun going trick-or-treating, going to the town halloween party with Haunted house (Jonnie lasted about 20 seconds before he wanted to leave it:), visiting relatives, and going to the hospital to visit Grandma Jeanne. We had fun with Grandma Karen, my sis-in-law Melanie and her son Hunter (the cow) trick-or-treating and visiting Jon's Great Uncle Axle and Great Aunt Florence-Jonnie and Alaina love going to their house because Florence gives the BEST hugs and I agree (: Daddy went with us for a little while until he had to go to work. So it was a fun day-hope yours was great, too!

Dancing.....

O.k. for those that watch Dancing with the stars-I was totally shocked tonight!!! I can't believe Sabrina is gone!! I thought she would be the winner of it all......

Farm Life

Here are a few pictures of a day in the field. The kids and I went out to visit Jon and ride in the combine. I thought we would have to take turns but no, we all squeezed in there! At least for one more year-it was definitely a tight squeeze. I didn't get any pictures of us in there, but I took some while in there of the field (: I have always had a love/hate relationship with the farm, but when I am riding in the combine, I can see why Jon loves it. It is very peaceful and beautiful with all the golden fields of corn.


The kids also love the farm. They love being able to explore and find treasures and my boys just love the tractors. If allowed Jonnie would spend all day in the combine with dad. Sawyer gets excited when we are just driving and he sees a tractor in a field . He always says, "dada dada?" In which I always reply, "Yes, that's dada." Just to keep him happy (: There are definitely positives in the farm and as I get older, I see them more and more.......

Geisha Girl

Alaina had a Halloween party tonight, so I thought I would show you all her costume. We had a lot of fun getting her ready..... I had the giggles so bad I could hardly talk-the reason, her eyebrows!!! We were both laughing so hard, it was hilarious. I couldn't stop thinking of Groucho Marx (not that she knew who that was:)) Then trying to put on her red lipstick it got smeared all over and we got the giggles again! It is amazing she even made it to the party on time. She had a lot of fun, but couldn't figure out why Malena's (the party girl) parents kept putting their hands together and bowing to her-that got me giggling all over again (:


My favorite picture of her, but I now realize I need to put more white make-up on her forehead!

This is not quite the Geisha pose, but hey she is a 9-year-old after all (:

Beautiful Cellist

Alaina had her first orchestra concert tonight and she was so beautiful! I was surprised at how well they all sounded together. I was expecting squeaks and bad sounds, but they sounded great! I was so happy she was in the front row so I could see her shine!




Here she is using her bow.......





And here she is plucking...... They both sound so neat-I love the cello (:


I am so proud of you, Alaina!

New Carseat!

Sawyer's new car seat finally came and I am so excited! I can't wait to see him sitting in it tomorrow actually looking at me! He loved it, too but for other reasons, it was a cool chair sitting in the kitchen.

The box it came in was lots of fun, too and eventually was turned into a truck by Jonnie (:

Parents....

I just wanted to vent a little about a parent I met today. We had a boy, a seventeen year old boy to be exact, start today at work. He was run over by a car when he was three, so he had a traumatic brain injury. We had tested him last week and he tested at around age 5. His mom thinks his school is failing him and they just let him roam the halls, etc. She just wants the best for him and to see him reach his full potential. Well, I met the dad today who couldn't be more different. He repeatedly called his son a retard (right in front of him) and said how dumb he was and we were probably wasting our time. He then went on to say that they just throw him in a room with other dumb retards all day only to get dumber.... My colleague and I were patiently listening to him while his wife tried to correct him and just looked completely embarrassed. He also was saying how dumb his other son was but he came out of it-keep in mind the other son didn't have a brain injury. It is infuriating how ignorant some people can be and you have to act professional the whole time. He then told us to put a bottle of Dawn liquid soap on the table when teaching him. When we asked why, he told us that at home if he doesn't cooperate he puts a drop of soap on his tongue, so that we could try that if we needed-did he honestly think we would even consider doing that! My heart went out to both the mom and the boy. It isn't surprising that some kids do not live up to their full potential...

Leaf Pile!

We finally had 2 days with no rain-just enough time to dry out the leaves and make a leaf pile! It must be instinct for kids to play in leaves because Sawyer immediately "fell" into them and loved it! I was beginning to think they wouldn't get a chance to jump in leaves this Fall, but I am so glad they did!

Flu shot time!

Today the whole family got our flu shots and we are all feeling a little sore (: Jon went this morning after work and got his and I went this afternoon with the three kids to get ours. When Jon got home this morning he said it was the worst pain ever and that his arm was so sore and he was feeling sorry for me having to bring the kids myself. I wasn't too worried. When we got there I decided to go first so they could all see how easy and pain free it was (: And I couldn't believe how it wasn't painful!! I hardly felt a thing (as I was told later, and teased all day by my family, that those with muscle feel more pain) and told the kids she was a great nurse and shot giver! Sawyer was next and just was totally heart broken!! I have never seen him so sad-Like how could you do this to me AGAIN.....I was feeling horrible about that and his little lip kept pouting and he would burst into tears again...poor boy! Alaina went next and as always she was so easy and brave and never said a peep (: And then we get to Jonnie who by this time was walking out the door and said "I am not going to do this!" I quickly grabbed him and he put his sweatshirt over his head and, typical Jonnie style, would not cooperate. So, I just grabbed him and held his arms in a pretzel stlye and draped my leg over his legs (as he was screaming "one more second") and luckily the nurse was ready and quickly gave him the shot and it was all over in a few seconds and he lived (: I now know that I can't just wait with him as it will drag on forever and he will just get more worked up! So everyone in the family has extremely sore arms that they can barely lift except for me, I feel just fine-tomorrow I start lifting weights (:

Here are a few pics of my boys in the tub together-they don't get to do this very often, so they were having a blast! Aren't they just adorable! (:

Here's my blanky boy ready for bed-couldn't you just squeeze him (:

Happy Friday Everyone!!

The Fort

Alaina and Jonnie love to build forts, so today after school they were excitedly talking about the fort they would build when they got home. They have off school the next three days so they knew they would have plenty of time to make it really great......
Well, this is what they came up with (: They used everything they could find as a weight and my favorite part is the masking tape holding up the blankets on the wall (Jon and I weren't real thrilled with that at first). They decided to sleep in it tonight and found some flashlights and a ton of books to read, blankets, stuffed animals, and who knows what else they squeezed in there!
I squeezed my head in there and took a picture-they are such good friends (: We'll see how long they last tonight.....


UPDATE: They were both sleeping in there own beds by 10:00.....The fort fell on them-can't wait to see what they come up with next......sweet dreams!

Little Bruiser

We just found out that Sawyer needs glasses and these are the ones we picked out for him-hee hee! Notice the lovely bruise he has under his eye, he has had it over a week now and it will not go away!! He must have really hit it hard on the coffee table......

"I know you don't want me to keep getting into this stuff mom, but I just can't resist!"
Sawyer LOVES all the pumpkins and gords we have around the house and gets so excited everyday when he sees one. I don't mind if he carries around the pumpkins and gords, but what was I thinking trying to put out potporri :)- I love his sweet, "innocent" face here!

Weekend

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We do not have any major plans and I am thrilled! I love that I do not have to work tomorrow (I work every other Saturday morning) and can hopefully sleep in-PLEASE Sawyer!!! Like usual he will probably be up at 6:00 am, but what can you do! The only plans I have is to go to the Farmer's Market in the morning, get some pumpkins, decorate my house for Halloween, clean up my flower beds, and spend time outside. Jon and Jonnie will be in the field all weekend, which Jonnie is thrilled about-he loves riding in the combine with his dad, grandpa, and Uncle Tim (: Enjoy the weekend and enjoy some time outside because soon it will be freezing....(:

Gotta love em!

Have I said recently how much I love my kids and how fun I think they are! I sometimes have to to be reminded of this as I get busy trying to get them to do homework, practice cello, get pajamas on, brush teeth, etc., etc. that I sometimes lose focus and realize I need to lighten up and not get so worked up if they are not in bed at exactly 8:00! Tonight was one of those nights....As I was telling them to get there pajamas on (for I think the 4th time) I was starting to lose my patience. I told them that I was going in basement to fold a load of laundry and when I returned they had better had jammies on teeth brushed or ELSE (I know real threatening)! I guess they were feeling real threated, too because this is what I found when I came upstairs.....
They were calling themselves the "jump rope gang" and dancing around and having a grand ole time! Sawyer was, too but he doesn't like when Jonnie touches him sometimes (this was one of those moments)! Instead of getting angry, I grabbed the camera and joined in on the fun! It won't be long and they will be all grown up (or think they are) and won't want to dress up and act silly. Oh, and can you tell the Swanson's love to play in their underwear (:How can you be angry when they are having so much fun! My goal is to cherish every moment with them, they are growing up way too fast....:(

Jonnie's Party

I just thought I would show you all a few pictures of Jonnie's birthday party! They had a lot of fun at the YMCA and I was sooo glad I had it there! If I could bottle all there 7 year-old energy I could heat up my house!! The Y was great in that they could run freely and swim and release some of that energy! We ended up having 9 boys come, so it was a great turn-out! As you can tell by the cake, Jonnie's new obsession is the Vikings-too bad they aren't doing so well this year!I think Jonnie would have been just as happy to just have him and his best bud Mitchell there (:
I love the last two pictures-silly then serious! Chrissy, I love Mitchell's silly pose- I couldn't stop laughing!