Christmas 2012

We hope your Christmas was all you hoped for and full of joy and happiness!!

xoxo

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

-whispering sweet nothings

Our Life via da' phone!

so it was weird putting this post together and finding that i didn't have as many photos as i usually do. haha!

it was a pretty good week though! 

xoxo

grandpa skip

my biological father came to visit us last night. he spent the night and left mid morning to finish his journey back to San Diego. this was his and kenny's first time getting to meet each other so it was a pretty special visit. it took kenny a few minutes to warm up but he did and i'm sure another day these two would have been the best of friends. kenny is a big fan of all his grandpas! his grandpa skip brought him a remote control jeep and boy does he love it! he's been carrying and pushing it all around since he first found it this morning! spoiled. i miss my dad so so much again. i am so proud of him. life hasn't been easy for any of us but it is so amazing to see him do the things he loves and be successful at them! i am really hoping for more visits in the near near future! i am so very very grateful for this visit even though it was so short. i love you dad!

Well hello!!!

oh man...it's been too long! we've been keeping busy. when we're not busy we're completely exhausted!  mick's oldest sister & family are in town visiting & his older brother & family just moved to utah so we've been having a lot of fun with hanging out with them! 

on monday mick's work had a company party at seven peaks water park. we had the whole park to our selves! it was so amazing! we had j dogs and went down many slides! so much fun! 

it's been decided that mick and i moved to the best neighborhood ever! they are party animals over here! on the third they closed off the whole block and had a block party. kenny literally ran into the town mayor. there was grilling, lots of food, fun contests, dancing, bouncy houses, and lots of people! on the forth they had a neighborhood firework display. then they closed the street off again and we watched the stadium of fire's fire work show. we had the most perfect view! i can't even get over how cool that was!  

it has been a fun week. i hear that there is a laser tag tournament at grandpa swenson's tomorrow night! HOLLA'!!!! this summer keeps getting better and better. with my brother's wedding and my sister's coming up next month, all these great boating days and getting to hang out with mick's family at lake tahoe in a couple weeks...i think i can definitely say that this is the best summer yet!

p.s. i just wanted to give a shout out to my newest readers! thank you so much for being here! i cannot express how much it means to have you all apart of this little blog of mine! i want to give a special shout out to my newest friend {Carissa}. she is a pretty dang amazing woman and i am so grateful for our new friendship and her kind words to me! i needed her. i was feeling a bit discouraged and she helped bring me out of my funk with her kindness!

okay, have a GREAT weekend!

WAIT! i also want to wish my sweet and beautiful sister nichole a happy TWENTY FIRST birthday! i can't believe how old we all are getting!

picture taken june 2010

Its Been Rough

to say the least...

i won't go into the details of how rough and strange this week has been. it has been full of stress, disappointing news, tears, sickness, scares, more tears, sweat and a whole lot of emotions i didn't expect to feel.

i am so happy to be back in utah. i really am. we haven't done much other than look for an apartment. i had no idea it would be this hard finding a place where we could have chaz. i hope he knows just how much we love him. haha

i have been realizing this year how friendships change. a lot. and in ways i never expected. its been hard but i guess its good to find out who my true friends really are. {My family}.

Kenny had his 6 month check up today. it went well. he is 27 inches, 21 pounds, and super healthy! yay!

I need to get some photos uploaded on here. that will have to wait for another day.

P.S. weening myself from facebook has been extremely unsuccessful. lol.

First Anniversary!

Well, Mick and I just celebrated our one year anniversary. So much has happened since we started dating back in July of 2009.

I remember not wanting much to do with him at first...well. I didn't want what he wanted and that was an exclusive relationship. I would try to push him away and he wouldn't have it. I would tell him over and over that we were just friends and yet he was still persistent. I once even told him we couldn't be friends anymore because he wanted more than just friends...but I could tell that really hurt him and I for some reason I couldn't hurt him like that.

I remember the day I fell in love with him. He invited me to spend the day with his family. It was Salem Days in Salem, Utah. We went to a parade, had lunch together, and went to a show in the park. I remember seeing how he was with his nieces and nephew and I LOVED it. I remember the exact moment I decided that "Yeah...I REALLLY like this guy". Just before the fireworks started he went to get me a snow cone. His mom was doing the twist and mash potato and it was pretty awesome! I sat there laughing. I was...happy! I remember actually missing Mick even though he was only a few feet away for only a few minutes. The fire work show was AMAZING! Best I have ever seen.

It took a lot of convincing and persistence from Mick but that was what I needed. The next day I didn't really tell him but I changed my facebook relationship status to "in a relationship". It really isn't official until facebook says it is. Hahaha.

So...we dated and had lots of fun. It was hard too. When Mick and I first started "hanging out" I was pretty inactive in the church. I never went. I didn't really have any standards. But Mick was so wonderful and He made me go to church...all three hours! It was hard! I can't believe I let myself get to the point where I thought church was tourture. Yikes!

Mick and I decided we wanted to get married. The day he asked me was one of the happiest days! It was a very simple proposal but so perfect for our situation. He asked me in front of the Portland temple where we wanted to be married. Through hard work, time and a lot of tears we made there.

June 4th, 2010 we were sealed for time and all eternity! What a wonderful and special experience! Satan was working over-time to keep us from going there I think. Up until the moment I set foot into the sealing room I was completely overwhelmed with self doubt of my worthiness to be there. Sad huh. I KNOW now without a doubt that Mick and I were exactly where we were suppose to be. It was suppose to storm that day. I was extremely upset and bummed about the weather forecast. But the moment we stepped out of the temple the clouds literally parted, the sun came out and the weather was so perfect! That was my tender mercy from the Lord. That was my personal confirmation from God that we did right.

About 3 weeks later I found out I was pregnant. I remember seeing the test result and just sobbing. I didn't want a baby yet. Mick was amazing and reminded me that this was a blessing. It was an extremely hard 9 months. I threw up all day and night my first trimester and half of my second. People were gossiping about how I most likely got pregnant before we were married. That was by far the worst. I gained a lot of weight and not all of it was baby. It was hard. It was also amazing. I am so happy and grateful that the Lord has blessed me with ability to carry and bear children!

Nine months later Kenneth Robert Swenson joined our family! Mick was so right when he said that our baby will be a blessing. He IS the best blessing (along with Mick) the Lord has given me!

What a crazy few years its been. The best and worst of times (95% of the time were the best)!

So here's to the best year of my life...so far!!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MICK AND ME!!!!!!!

black and white

i have been wanting more photos of kenny and mick, kenny and me, mick and me, mick, kenny and me! i'm kind of a photo snob though and i wont hire a photographer to do a family photo shoot unless they have the style AND prices i like. its hard to find both in one body. i do have expensive taste (which i consider a curse). so i did a last minute self portrait photo shoot. i put my camera on the timer and propped it up on my dresser and went to town. i think i got a few decent photos. i got some GREAT ones of mick and kenny. i cant put into words the amount of love i have for my boys...all three of them!

Mick

Well, 99% of my blog has been all about my sweet little bundle of joy lately. I decided to dedicate this post to the one who made that little bundle of joy possible! MICK!!!

He's a pretty cool guy. He has been working hard these past few weeks selling satellite to the people of South Dakota. He has been quite successful. We are being very blessed! He has already made in about 2 weeks time what he made ALL last summer! I am so happy and grateful for that but it also make last summer feel even more like a waste of time and disappointing (just the selling/working part of summer, btw). I am very grateful for his efforts in providing for our little family.

Mick has two more semesters of school left! We are both very excited for his graduation! Him because he'll finally be finished with school and me because...he'll finally be finished with school. Hahaha. We're both excited for his future career (he is still figuring out what it will be).

He is enjoying his baby boy a lot. He is so helpful and supportive when it comes to taking care of Kenny. During meal times we put Kenny in his bumbo and set him in the middle of the table as our "centerpiece". LOL. Kenny will stare at Mick and just smile and get really excited! Its so cute. I love seeing my boys together. Kenny looks a lot like his daddy.

Mick is so wonderful. He's such a great husband and daddy. I couldn't ask for a better eternal companion! I definitely got lucky when I met Mick and he decided to love me from day one and would not take no for an answer! Maybe I'll tell that story in future post. ;)

I'm going to make Mick do a photoshoot with me soon. Be excited! hahaha.

xoxo

oVeRaLLs aNd BaLLs

i sure do {love} this boy