New Blog

EDIT***Ok, so to be clear, I am NOT going private! Patrick has created a new blog of his own and it will be private! The link is listed below! If you are interested in being invited to see his blog, let me know or leave a comment on his blog in the next few days! Sorry for the confusion!

I am going private with this so if you want to be invited, leave a comment or send me an email. Peace! Here's the website: http://p-swizzle.blogspot.com/

Love You, Dad!

Dad Day Art

By Jackson & Harrison Swain

(Their artistic skills are kind of similar! Hmm.... And despite the lovely look on Harrison's face, he actually had a blast with the markers and stickers! They were VERY excited to give them to Dad!)

Priceless!

They were so dirty from being outside yesterday morning, that I made them get in the shower to rinse off before they could eat lunch. I went to grab their towels and when I came back, this was what I found! (They are laying on the floor of the shower!)When they saw the camera, they got up and tried to make butt prints on the shower door! I wish I could have gotten a picture, it was freaking hilarious! But the door gave out and they were laying on the floor in a matter of seconds! They both have a bruise on their butts! lol! Reckless, I tell you! But SO much fun!

Brotherly Love & Injuries

They are the best of friends, they play so hard and sometimes so rough! I am surprised they don't get hurt more often. But this one was due to incredible speed and a lack of caution! They ran head to head into each other, so hard it rattled their teeth! Patrick and I both jumped up honestly believing that one or both of them was going to need stitches! I swear, sometimes they literally stop my heart!

But luckily, they have VERY hard heads (Or maybe that's a bad thing! At least for the person taking the hit!)! Nothing a little TLC and ice couldn't cure. Although Harrison was pretty lethargic the rest of the night, so we watched him pretty close! But you better believe they were right back at it today. What is it with males and memory?!

...Jackson took it more to the eyebrow area, his right eye! He was the less injured of the two.

Poor Harrison and his wrecking ball of a head! He always has a bruise! And it took him a few minutes to open that eye. He had us a little worried! Oh, my boys! I pray a lot for them! lol!

HaPPy FaTHeR's DaY!!

I wanted to wish a Happy Father's Day to all of the Dad's in our lives! I hope that you all have a wonderful day!

And a special shout out to the one who takes such good care of us! He is currently working, like he usually is, very hard no doubt! So he won't get his day of pampering today, but I wanted him to know how much we love him! He is such a great dad! The boys literally start bouncing off the walls as soon as he gets home, they are SO excited to see him! They fight for his attention and have to show him every new thing they have discovered in the hours he's been gone! I love to watch them play and read and wrestle together! Nothing makes me happier! They want to do everything he does, be just like him! And it only makes me more grateful that they have him to look up to! Those few months without him were so hard on them, and him, and I am very glad that we are together again as a family! I couldn't ask for anyone better and I love him so much! (Even if sometimes, it's like I have 3 kids!)

I also have to say a special thanks to the 2 fathers in my life!

My dad, who is always one of the kids! Never gets lost and knows more people than the president!! And he can fix anything! He has done so much for me, especially over the last year, than I could ever even begin to repay! We are 2 peas in a pod! I love him so much! I'm SO glad I am his little girl!
And to my father-in-law, who has always made me feel like one of the family! He always makes me laugh and has the best stories, especially of growing up! He is such a positive spirit! I truly love him and I enjoy being his only daughter...at least for now!

Kids These Days!

Remember when you got to have computer lab day in elementary school and go play "Oregon Trail" on the old-school green screen computers!! At 4 years old I had no idea what a computer was! And I'm pretty sure we didn't even have one in our house until I was almost a teenager!!Man have things changed! Jackson has discovered the computer! He has been sending "emails" (typing consisting of gibberish) to his friends and family. But in my own efforts to get him more prepared for school, we have been learning to actually use the computer. (I have been told that kids should have basic computer skills when they start school?!) He has been playing games and doing activities on playhouse Disney's website and has gotten pretty good at it! Within a few minutes he was pretty good with the mouse, using the keyboard and navigating through the website all by himself! He is getting so big, I can't believe it!

Neighbors...

We have been getting to know some of our neighbors over the last couple of weeks. However, these ones, walk on four legs (or sometimes eight)!

Patrick is holding the boys up so they can try to see the wolf (yes, wolf! Not coyote!) that lives behind us somewhere. She comes out to stare us down every once in a while.

There is a pair of these that have taken up residence in our sprinkler box. (You might be wondering what we have a sprinklers for?! To water our rocks, of course!)
We have tried to live peacefully with them, but this morning when Patrick went to put the garbage can out, he was "attacked" (his words) by a "giant" spider! He had to kill it, and then he left it on our driveway as a "warning" to all of it's friends! lol! I didn't get a picture of it, but it was pretty big and hairy! About the size of a baseball! ...And now, it's gone! Don't know what drug it off, but eeewwwww! These neighbors are going to take some getting used to!

Weekend with Dad!

There isn't much that changes for us on a day to day basis. It's been relatively quiet and even the boys have managed to stay out of trouble and injury free! (Thank heaven for small miracles!) But man do these boys LOVE to play with their dad! He works so hard and so much, it's always exciting when we get to have him around! We look forward to it ALL week!

Patrick was off Friday and Saturday, so Friday I drug him to the mall! lol! It was HUGE! (There are like 4 malls here, so we went to the main one.) It had a Red Robin inside, so we ate there and then explored! They have a Disney Store, the boys were freaking out over. And a big play place in the middle. (There were tears when we left!) It seriously went on forever, you could spend an entire day just walking around!! We didn't buy anything, but it was SO nice to get out and do something!

But before the mall we had some AWESOME wind! It cooled things off and we had perfect weather for kite flying! (I wish I had pictures, but my batteries died!) Jackson was afraid it was going to carry him away, so he wouldn't even get close to touching it! Oddly enough, it was Jackson's idea in the first place, but whatever! Harrison however, always the brave one, held it all by himself! (Which was impressive because I had to lean back a little and use both hands to hold on to it, the wind was blowing SO hard!) He was pretty intrigued! We crashed it a couple of times and called it good! I think Patrick and I had more fun than the kids did though! lol! I haven't flown a kite in forever!

And we did have our first experience with a primary assignment on Sunday though. Which was monumental in it's own way. Jackson has been STRUGGLING bad with primary. He misses his friends and the people he knows. It has been really hard! But this week he was assigned to do the Article of Faith (they do it as part of opening exercises with the talk, etc.). I bribed him with Twizzlers to be brave and promised I would help him. We practiced all week, even though I was pretty sure he was not going to do it in the end. ...Just goes to show ya how much I know! He got up there and spoke clearly and said every word and didn't whine or cry or anything, in fact I think he was a little excited! And even more amazing, he was the only one out of all the Sunbeams who actually got up and did his part! The other kids were the ones who got up there and didn't say a word. I was SO proud of him! He even waited until he stepped away from the microphone to ask me about his treat! lol! So here's to our first Sunday without tears! Yeah Jackson!! I will totally keep buying Twizzlers if it gets us through the day!