Spring Party

Sawyer had his Spring Party yesterday and it was sweet and adorable as usual. They started out the program re-enacting the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" book. Sawyer was a piece of pie. He was feeling a little bashful having all the parents looking at him, but he did do the motions and on occasion I would see him sing (:




I love his sweet face here (:





Here they are singing and signing a song about the colors of the rainbow.



Sawyer and Kelsey signing I Love You in one of the songs.



After the "show" we had muffins, cupcakes, and fruit with the kids. Sawyer had enough of pictures, I guess.




I tried for awhile to get a picture of Sawyer and I, but of course he wasn't cooperating... We are looking at the gift Sawyer gave me, it was a book of pictures throughout the year of him and his class and also recipes. Very sweet!




My friend Julie snuck this picture in when he wasn't looking. It's the best we could do (:



I finally got him to pose for a picture in front of their grass they are growing and their butterfly cocoons. It is so adorable hearing how excited all the kids are to see the butterflies break out of their cocoon!



It was a great little party and I do have to say once again that I LOVE Children's Corner Preschool!

Goodbye Chelsea..

Another sad day at the Swanson house in the loss of a pet. I discovered Jonnie's hamster died early this afternoon and had a heavy heart thinking of having to tell him when he got home from school. The look on his face when I told him it totally broke my heart-I hate to see him so sad. We really have no idea why she died. She wasn't sick and was so active to the point of being little crazy. I am now thinking she maybe had a heart attack or a panic attack or something. She would never really let anyone touch her, but we all did enjoy watching her roll around the house in her ball, climb upside down on her cage, or feed her different fruits and veggies. She was a good first pet for Jonnie and tonight when I tucked him in he said through tears, "It's just too quiet in here without her." She was a noisy little girl and it took a long time for the boys to get used to her when we first got her, and now it will take some to time to get used to the quiet now that she is gone...

Swimmers

This year I decided to do private lessons for the boys since Jonnie has been in level 2 for quite a few years and just can't seem to pass it due to the front crawl. He was worried he would be the oldest one in the class and that embarrassed him. This was Sawyer's first year at lessons and instead of enrolling him in level 1 where all they pretty much do is stand on the tot dock and play games, I signed him up for private lessons, as well. It was the best thing and I loved that they got all the attention. Plus, it was only half hour lessons instead of the hour lessons we had to do before when there was so many students. I was so proud of them both!

Here is the last night and I was AMAZED at how awesome they both did after only 8 lessons!

Here is Jonnie starting on his front crawl.



He did it, he did it!! He finally mastered the front crawl and passed level 2 on the last night of lessons!



Sawyer floating on his back and front. At one point she even let go and he stayed floating!



Here he is jumping off the side of the pool and going under.



Sawyer has never been as scared of water as the other two, but I was amazed at what he would do. He wore a life jacket for part of it and they would swim in the deepest water and Sawyer thought nothing of it.

Way to go boys!!

Night at the Hotel

The kids were on spring break this past week so we decided to surprise the kids to a night of swimming at a hotel. We realized the night we picked landed on April Fool's day, so we made it our April Fool's trick on them this year. It was also the boys' last day of swimming lessons, so it was a celebration of sorts, too. They were all pretty surprised that we pulled into the hotel instead of heading home. Jon and I couldn't stop grinning the whole way there (:

We had a blast just hanging out, swimming, and eating pizza and snacks. We were the only ones swimming that night and the next morning so that made it extra fun and we could just be goofy without anyone watching.






Alaina tried over and over to do a handstand so I could take a picture of it...it's hard to have a pesky dad and brothers sometimes.



She finally did it before being harassed again.



So proud of this little boy. It was so fun seeing him jump in the pool and swim around and go underwater!



Yup, I was there, too and my legs at least enjoyed the hot tub...



Alaina and Jonnie racing doing the front crawl. Alaina is still just a bit faster.



All swimmed out and ready to rest and eat snacks. Notice the matching t-shirts given to them by Grandpa Earl (:



We had a great time and it was so nice to just hang out together for the night! We went out for omelets the next morning which was equally fun.

Sleeping Beauties

Last night Alaina and I were downstairs watching a movie and realized how quiet the house was. We went up to check and see what the boys were up to and found this:




Such tired boys...so sweet (:

Belly

I am really popping out these days, so here are the first pictures of my belly. I'm feeling great, minus the hip pain, and my little girl is wild and kicking up a storm ALL day. So, I hope this means she sleeps at night and will already be on a great sleep schedule when she is born. It could happen.




18 weeks to go!

Think Pink!

Well, I am half-way through this pregnancy, which honestly seems like I should be due next month or something as I feel I've been pregnant for a very long time already. It must have to do with this never ending winter and as soon as spring comes (any day now right?) things will move along faster. I hope.

And now onto the whole point of this blog post...Jon and I went to the doctor for my ultrasound and check-up yesterday. We were both so excited to see this little one and were so amazed by how improved the U/S have become even since Sawyer was born. She (the u/s tech)even zoomed in on the face and we could not only see the eye sockets, but the lenses moving around, as well. It was a little creepy, but cool at the same time.

Baby looked awesome and adorable and I was very relieved to see that all the measurements looked good and we counted all the fingers and toes. We told her right away we weren't 100% sure we wanted to know the sex, so I gave her some paper and an envelope to put the answer in so I had that option later. Well, once she sealed the envelope and handed it to Jon, it was like the elephant in the room and all I could think about. He made the mistake of giving it to me to put in my purse and when I was sitting in the exam room waiting for the doctor, I took it out and held it up to the light, hoping to maybe see through the envelope. Well, I couldn't but I did however see a G imprinted on the envelope and on closer examination I could see an i and an r. I wasn't totally convinced, yet and thought maybe I was seeing things. I showed Jon right away after my exam and he said, "Only you would notice that!" So we decided to open it up and see and sure enough it said GIRL!! What happened was as she was writing girl on the paper she was pushing so hard that it imprinted on the envelope underneath the paper. So funny that that happened and I said it was just meant to be that I find out. As soon I knew it was a girl, I couldn't stop crying and realized then how much I wanted a little girl. I was relieved for Alaina to have a sister and also that Sawyer can stay my baby boy. It all worked out so perfectly and balanced for all of us! Jon is beyond excited and sweetly said, "now I feel like I have to worry about you more and take more care with you knowing there is a little girl in there." I thought it was sweet, even though I am no more fragile with a girl than a little boy (:

So it looks like pink, dresses, hair bows, etc. are in our future and I can't wait! now on to picking out a name. Nothing has jumped out at me yet and honestly we already had a couple boy names on the list. It seems a lot harder to pick girl names for me for some reason.

And here she is. I think she looks adorable already (:



And here she is looking at us and waving.



So if you hear any cute girl names, pass them along!