T.V

(Guest blogger Craig filling in for this one.)

Katie and I like movies.  We also have a selection of TV shows that we enjoy watching.  We also like enjoying the full cinematic experience that can be had when watching movies and TV.  I long ago convinced Katie on the need for surround sound while watching movies, but seeing as we were now the last of the Swensons without a new TV, I decided it was time to convince Katie that our audio/visual experience was no longer up to par and that we needed to invest in a new TV.  Surprisingly, Katie was not opposed to the idea.  Actually we had been talking about it for several years and had just been waiting for the right time.  Well, that right time has come and we are now the proud owners of a new plasma screen television.  We don't actually have a picture of the TV installed on my custom built entertainment center (we've been too busy watching and enjoying the visual wonder of it all), but here you can see Katie documenting the setup process.

Check out those curly locks!

Valentine's

We try to keep it low key on holidays.   This Valentine's I decided I didn't want to spend the entire time in the kitchen, so I just made Red Velvet cake for us and neighbors.  Lucas decorated cookies on Friday for playgroup.  Craig cooked dinner, steak and potatoes, with strawberry fluff (because we love fluff).  We figured that since it is a day of Love why not make the things you love!  Lucas made some Valentine's for his friends and then delivered them, I am not ashamed to admit that we just dropped off the last of them today (as in Thursday).  I sent Craig to work with some special cookies made just for him!

I won't lie, though, our morning was kinda of rough, dishes to clean and things to do, but by the afternoon, after we had both taken a nap, it ended up being a pleasant day.  We made crayon hearts with out friends that afternoon.  Pretty low key.

Our really good friend took Lucas for a couple of hours after dinner, at first I thought, "oh that's nice, I don't know what were going to do, but sure why not". I just want to say, you know who you are, Thank You!!!  It was really really nice and made our Valentine's, so Thank you!  Lucas loved the outing with our friend was so excited to go!  When Craig was buckling him in the car, Lucas looked at Craig and then our friend and said, "go!" no hesitation about leaving Craig or me behind.  We just want you to know, good friend of ours, he would not do that for anyone else.

I of course can't end this posting without mentioning the icing of on the cake, how wonderful my husband is, we are not big into public displays of affection, chocolates and flowers, but can I just say, husband you know me so well!  Lately I have been a little obsessed with Adele.  If you have not heard of her, look her up and listen to her.  I wouldn't not be surprised if you become a little obsessed too.  Yes, she is that good!  Craig bought me her CD for Valentine's which just reiterated to me how well he knows me and loves me!  I love you, too!  Happy Valentine's!

Trip home!

(It has been over 4 months since we last posted to the blog, so here comes a massive update:)

Lucas and I made our semi-annual trek to visit family for a month.  Just so you don't think I abandoned Craig for an entire month, he headed off to a conference and visited with his research mentor for a couple of weeks.

Lucas and I made the most out of our trip, we were able to go to the tree house twice, which Lucas loved, especially when his cousin Eevee was able to come with us.  We were also able to make a trip to the Aquarium in Sandy, which was fun, Lucas still talks about seeing the sharks, big fish, and penguins.  Lucas and Eevee did well together, which was a big improvement from our last visit.  They loved being around each other, and when they weren't together, Lucas was asking me where Eevee was or talking about what he did with Eevee.

Lucas loves the aquarium

Cowboy Lucas at the Treehouse in Ogden

 Craig always says that if you were to ask what was on my list of things to do when I go to visit family, it is mostly places I want to eat at.  I won't dispute that, when I go home there are some restaurants I would like to go to, but most of the time it involves going to eat with family, like meeting up with my aunts for lunch and Mexican food, catching up with my old co-workers over pizza, eating all you can eat french toast (so good!) with my really good girlfriends,  grabbing a bit to eat with my sisters and mother after my sister has just ran her little heart out at a track meet (more to come on this later), or spending an evening with my sister and sister-in-law and having fish tacos for the first time.  Lets be honest people, that is how we socialize:  over food!  So that is what Lucas and I did, a lot (probably too much), but it was delicious and I will admit that I ate two pecan mudslides and had a really good chocolate malt!

Okay enough about food, because that is not all we did, we did so much more!  Every time we go home we always get sick in one way or another, sure enough less than a week after our arrival the plague hit in the form of the stomach flu.  I was the first victim, followed by the rest of the family, the only survivor was, surprisingly, Lucas, who made it through unscathed.  Unfortunately, Lucas did not make it completely through the trip without incident, the inversion really wrecked havoc on Lucas.  He spent a couple of nights coughing his lungs out, poor little fellow.  We would take him to the store with him hacking away and people would look at us suspiciously, I was thinking, "hey people, blame it on your bad air!"  Looking on the bright side off things, we didn't make one trip to the E.R or insta care.  Success!

Riding on the train

Lucas started singing the ABC song while we were away, it is pretty cute, though he doesn't much care for the letters J and K, as they are not included in Lucas version of the Alphabet song.  Lucas really likes public transportation vehicles, especially buses and trains!  So we took a day trip and rode the frontrunner to downtown.  Eevee and Kim were able to join us, and the kids had a lot of fun.  They would stand in the aisle with their hands out and rock with the movement of the train, all the while saying "whoa, whoa".  I thought it was really cute, but it was not cute to the lady passager sitting a few rows in front of us, who kept sighing and huffing about it and acting completely annoyed!


Lucas and I also had the opportunity to see Kenzie (my youngest sister) run.  Kenzie is on the cross country team in high school, and right now she is doing in-door track.  This was a ton of fun, to cheer on your sister as she is putting forth all of her effort to succeed (I got a lump in my throat ever time I saw her do it) and let me just tell you (impending bragging)....Did she ever succeed!  She is so fun to watch and she is doing really well.  Really, really well!  It was pretty cool!!!  (Kenzie, I though of putting an embarrassing picture of you pulling a funny face here, but I restrain my self.)

For Christmas my sister gave me a ticket to see Andy Grammer while I was town.  I went with my sister and sister-in-law and it was a blast, probably one of my favorite things I did while I was there.  My favorite thing being the early morning walks with my mom, I know cheesey, but the truth.  I have always been a momma's girl and I don't see that changing anytime soon! (Thanks Kenz for making thos walks possible.)

The day before we left we were shopping in celebration of Grandma Les's birthday, grandma was asking Lucas if he was excited to being going on the airplane, and who was he going to see when we landed.  Lucas response was, "I like my daddy.  My daddy is pretty, pretty, pretty tall!", and a little later we were pulling out of the parking lot and there were some people walking pass Lucas says, "Peoples go peoples, dang peoples."  I have received several comments on the how much Lucas is talking, and boy does he talk nonstop!

Last but not least,we were able to make it down to the Swenson clans house a few times!  I am sure Lucas felt more at home here, because Craig's family looks like Craig, especially his dad.  They gave Lucas all the attention he could ever want and then some!  They are wonderful and we are luckily to have such wonderful family!  As wonderful and fun as our trip was, it was nice to come home and see Craig.  Lucas saw Craig and said, "That's my daddy" and ran to him.  He has also spent time rediscovering his toys and hanging out with his friends!

Lion Movie

For the past several months we have been waiting for the Lion King to go on sale.  Finally Craig came home the day after Christmas, (shopping on my behalf, thanks Craig!), and though he wasn't successful with any of things I sent him off to do, it still turned out to be a successful trip because he found the Lion King for a good deal!  Do I even have to mention how much Lucas loves this movie?  It has animals and good music, what more could you want?  All he talks about is the "Lion" movie, he has already watched it twice, the second time being last night!  Craig did tell me that he wanted to know what happened to the daddy lion at the end of the movie the first time he watched it, and last night when we watched it, he commented that the daddy lion had big owies, so sad.  Though we still love this movie!  One of our favorites!

New Year's Eve!

We have never done a whole lot on New Year's Eve.  The day was pretty much a regular day.  We had munchies and hung with our friends.  Downtown State College has their version of first night.  We went down there to see the ice sculptures, at first we weren't impressed, though we did stand in line so Lucas and Craig could go down the Russian slide that was made out of ice!  Lucas thought this was fun.  I thought it would scare him, because it seemed to go pretty fast, but he loved it!  We headed down a main street in State College and were able to find the more impressive ice sculptures, these were pretty neat, and huge!  Headed to our church building where a youth activity we being held, because Craig is a youth leader.  It was fun, Lucas loved running around!  We arrived home way too late and put Lucas to bed and brought in the New Year with our good friends!  We look forward to what this year has to bring!  Hope we can do better and be better than we were last year!

Christmas!

Lucas slept in, yeah!  First we needed to explain to him what was going to happen and then Craig went ahead to take pictures and turn the lights on the tree.  Lucas was really excited, we showed him the empty plate and note left by Santa.  Lucas did such a good job at taking turns unwrapping the presents!  It was a very, very pleasant and wonderful morning!  I do have to mention that Grandma Nean and Grandpa Boyd....you rock!  You are forever in my circle!  We have been wanting to get Lucas a Geo-Track train and while he was unwrapping his presents I was regretting not getting him one!  (I am beginning to think you might have secret spy cameras in our home.)  Ironically enough he was playing with those bouncing ball things the night before, (so seriously, where did you hide the cameras!).  I am also going to mention how wonderful my husband is, I love you hubby!  I have been wanting a food processor this past year.  I have a tiny one that I am constantly using, though it is falling apart.  We decided that it just wouldn't be possible to get a food processor this year, we don't usually buy presents for each other anyway, but decided to stuff each others stockings.  After the presents were opened and I was finishing up breakfast I noticed a present on the table and I thought Lucas had forgotten to open one, but Craig informed me that is was in fact for me.  I opened it and quickly figured out that it was my food processor!  All this time that Craig was telling me it wasn't possible to get one, it was sitting under his desk at work.  Best present ever!  Thanks honey!  Church was very pleasant full of music, Craig sang in the choir and even had a duet that he sang in German, it was beautiful!  Finished the day off with our close friends (they are practically family).  All in all is was a wonderful Christmas!  This was our first Christmas away from home and family and I have to admit it was a success!  Though we missed our family and friends, it was nice to be at home as a family.

Christmas Eve!

Reindeer pancakes for breakfast to get us in the mood!  Had a low-key afternoon, took a nap!  That night we headed over to a family's home that goes to our church and acted out the Nativity.  It was fun!  I am so glad we went.  Because there is only three in our family we don't have enough to really act out the Nativity, so it was fun to be included.  Lucas was not interested in dressing up and being a shepherd, though.  Craig makes a great shepherd (though I'm not sure whether he looked more like a shepherd, a hobbit, or Rambo), Lucas not so much, he was obviously more interested in playing!  Later that evening we caught up with Santa riding a fire truck in a nearby neighborhood, Lucas thought this was pretty neat!  Then we went home and set out a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer!