Happy Birthday Grammy!

We have a very special Grammy and her name is Jill. And today is her birthday!

Dear Grammy,

We are wishing that we were there in person to give you birthday wishes, but know that we are thinking about you and love you so much.You are a wonderful Grammy and make us feel so special. We can't wait for you to hug us again and squash us.  

Love,

Your Robin and Rue

Dear Mom,

      Happy 39th birthday!  My goal is to do 39 as well as you. I want to get a motorcycle like you when I turn 39, even though I won't look nearly as hot on mine as you do on yours! It is 4:15 AM and I just woke up to Ryan's alarm clock.  He is downstairs getting ready for the day.  I just want to thank you for raising such an amazing son.  I am so grateful that you learned, and have lived, and have taught your children the "Bonds principles."*  Living with Ryan for the past 9 years has taught me first hand how wonderful our relationships can be if we live by these principles. You taught him these principles and you showed him how to live them by living them yourself and it has blessed our lives. I feel so completely loved by you, and I want to thank you for that.  It is so fun to have you as my mother-in-law, and I love that you are young enough to be my sister!   

      I wish you a very happy birthday today, and thanks again for all the love and support you have given us over the past 9 years.  We could never have done this much schooling, two moves across the country, and 2 babies without you and Dad.  You have made it all possible!

Much love,

Bronwynn

* I am referring to the book, "Bonds that make us Free"  by C. Terry Warner

PS-

Christopher Robin has been busy making you a special birthday surprise.

It is this house.  You can hide inside so no one knows you are home,

but you really are home!

"I love you Grammy."

"And that's it!"

Early start

Knowing that Ryan was going to be at the hospital all day on Thanksgiving Day and not in the kitchen helping me cook, I decided to get an early start making our turkey dinner. Our menu was as follows:  turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, yams, stuffing, jello, cranberry sauce, MeeAnn's rolls, holiday punch, and banana cream pie.  We had pumpkin pie also, but I bought it. I learned that Christopher Robin is a great helper in the kitchen! He was so excited to cook with me!

His first assignment was to scrub the yams. 

He worked for quite awhile scrubbing away until they were perfectly clean!

Then I perched him up on our dining room table to keep him away from Gracie while he brushed each one with butter.

Then he meticulously rolled them in foil.

Didn't he do a great job?

Then he made Jello for the first time- with bananas of course.  It was so much fun. 

He opened the fridge door at least 500 times waiting for it to set.

And it finally did!!

 

 (to be continued)

Engineering apple turkeys

Knowing how much Jace loves to build things, I have been excited to show him how to make apple turkeys for this Thanksgiving.  So I added all the necessary items to my shopping list last week.

The ingredients are: apples, toothpicks, gumdrops, raisins, candy corn and marshmallows.



(Ryan thinks it is so funny how focused we both get when we work on projects together.)

Well, when my little engineer saw all the ingredients, his mind did NOT see apple turkeys.

(I guess I can see some similarities.)

It saw a bridge that needed to be built for his cars to drive on.

Which he was able to

engineer just perfectly!

Flyin' through the air

I don't know about you, but we are excited for Thanksgiving here in the Swigert household.  I am mostly excited because Ryan gets a much needed 3 day weekend this week!!!!  He does work all day long on Thursday, so we won't have our turkey dinner until late that evening when he gets home, but he gets Friday, Sat and Sunday off!!

So what have my two munchkins been doing around here to pass the time?  Just practicing flying through the air.  A necessary skill, so that is good. 

First, they put down some pillows, then count to 3, then JUMP!

Then

  climb back up, and do it all again. Over and over.

 Eventually little Rue grew tired and needed a rest,

but soon enough Christopher Robin was able to coax her up and into action again.

Aren't they cute?  She adores him. And look at how big she is getting!

After Gracie lost interest and left to go play with her dolly, Christopher Robin "upped the ante."

He decided it was more fun to jump off the other couch across the room.

"Look at me Mommy, take a picture of this."

"I did!"

"And this jump too Mommy!"

"And this one!"

"I did, Jace, I got it!!"

This was so, so MUCH fun for awhile.  Until the inevitable happened.  A rough landing!

But he was ok,

and I soon heard, "Whew, I'm tired. Is Thanksgiving here yet Mommy?"

Almost Christopher Robin, almost.

Thank goodness!

Little Lucy

This is Ammon's little sister Lucy.  Gracie LOVES her!  Everytime we say "Ammon is coming over," she says, "Ammon, baby, binky!"

On Friday, Gracie got to hold Lucy for the first time.  It was actually the first time she has ever held a baby, and it was so sweet.  They just stared at each other like they have been friends forever.

Thank you Lucy for being so brave! 

And thank you Julie for having such an adorable baby!

Tired

Ryan goes to work really early and mostly gets home pretty late, he is tired, but not too tired

to enjoy a little comedy with his kids.  Gracie loves to snuggle up on her Dad's lap, and Jace thinks the unfolded laundry is just cozy, and they sit and watch "Mr. Bean" episodes on Netflix.

Yes, Mr. Bean? Sometimes when life is grueling, it is best if you just sit down and laugh a little. Don't ya think?

It's that time of year!

Grace and Ryan posing for me!

I have been waiting a whole year for November to come around again!  November means toy shopping for me and Christopher Robin.  It is one of our favorite pastimes together. Jace will come up to me and say, "Mommy I am bored, lets do something."  I will say, "do you want to go to the toy store?"  He has never turned me down.  This weekend Ryan finally had a break so we headed North to "Toysrus" in Cedar Rapids.  I had so much fun.

I think Robin and Rue did too!  Grace fell in love with this little meowing Kitty

She hugged it all evening long.

And Jace combed the truck and LEGO isles with Dad.

The "big rigs" were definitely a favorite.

He touched and held

each one!

The construction vehicles -

he LOVES those too!!

So I think Santa has some good ideas about what these good little children will be wishing for under their Christmas tree this year!!