Christopher Robin turns eight!

Aunt Makenzi lives in Las Vegas, and celebrated with us!!

It happened. Christopher Robin did in fact turn eight years old on Monday, October 20th.  Ryan and I were really excited about his birthday.  Jace was born our first semester of dental school, and now all these years later he finally had his first birthday with us out of school! It was so nice not having to celebrate around Ryan's rigorous school schedule.  We discussed all our options for his birthday and decided we would make this a big celebration.  I think it was more for us than him.  He would have been thrilled with whatever we decided to do. We decided on Las Vegas.

Bullhead City is about a 90 minute drive from Las Vegas.  After church on Sunday, October 19th, we threw suitcases in the car and headed up the road. That evening we met up with family  (Cameron and Makenzi--Ryan's sister) and went to the Bellagio and watched the water show.  It was beautiful!!

Kjersti LOVED the glasses Aunt Makenzi gave Jace!

The next morning, on Jace's birthday, we had two surprises for the kids.  The first was tickets to The Adventure Dome at Circus Circus and the other was tickets to see the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor!!

Here we are at the Adventure Dome. The kids are admiring their darling new cousin-AND cousin once removed -Piper!

Isn't she darling?! Her Daddy Cameron happens to be my nephew, and her Mom-Kenzi happens to be Ryan's sister.  How did that happen you ask?--a blind date that Ryan and I set them up on 10 years ago!  It was love at first sight BTW~!

The adventure dome was everything we hoped it would be, and on a Monday in October, we had the place almost to ourselves. Gracie is a thrill seeker and loved the rides.

Jace is a little more cautious, and wasn't as crazy about some of them.  He did not like this train! It was very jerky.

Here you can see the gleam in Gracie's eyes and the apprehension in Jaces!!  Oh, they are so different and so wonderful!

I didn't think he would do it, but Jace braved the big roller coaster with Ryan.  Here he is getting off. He was proud of himself for going, but he was also a bit traumatized.  Actually, Ryan was traumatized as well.  Ryan said when they got off--that was INTENSE!  They only went once.

Here's my little Kjersti Jill riding the Merry-go-round!

The present opening part of the festivities took place in our room at the "castle hotel"  -also know as the Excalibur. Gracie has seen this casino from the highway on the way to St George on numerous occasions. At night it is all lit up, shining white with red and blue spires.  What little girl could resist such a place?  Staying there was a dream come true for her! 

Ryan and I decorated our room the night before while our kids were in dreamland.

What did Jace want for his birthday this year?

This big gun that shoots lots of exploding ammo.  --What EVERY mother of an 8 year old needs!

I got Gracie this pack of glitter glue--just so she could have something. She was ecstatic and the glue is all gone now.

This is Jace's FAVORITE picture of Kjersti.

Photography wasn't allowed at the Titanic exhibit. So I can't show you that--unfortunately.  But Jace has been obsessed with the Titanic for about 2 years now.  He loved the exhibit, but was even more thrilled when this model of the Titanic  appeared on our doorstep from his favorite Grandparents.

I can't believe that our "Buddy Boy"--as Ryan affectionately calls him, is 8 years old.  He is an amazing kid.  He has a witty sense of humor and a very sensitive and tender heart.  He is a very caring big brother to his younger sisters. We couldn't have been blessed with a more perfect son for our family.


Happy Birthday Jace.  We are so glad you are ours!

Summer has come and gone.................

Carousel in St George, UT

Is anybody else in shock that it is October already?? I really can't believe how quickly summer sailed by.  The desert is deceptive that way.  It still feels like August in our neck of the woods. We are still wearing shorts and flip flops and swimming!!

On July 1st Ryan took ownership of a practice he bought from a retiring Oral Surgeon--Dr Abdelnour.  Since then--Ryan has been up to his eyeballs learning how to run a business/practice. Some things about being in private practice are different/harder then we expected.  To be honest-we aren't even sure what we expected.  We just always have felt like we wanted to run our own practice instead of join a group.  And as we looked around the country at different opportunities--this one always felt like the one. And now that we are here--it feels so right, and we are happy, and a little stressed!

For now, we live in a mid-sized community called Bullhead City, Arizona.  It is right on the Colorado river. It is gorgeous and HOT and I love it. When I say hot--I mean on average 5-6 degrees warmer then Phoenix.  We are in the heart of the Mohave Desert.  I call this place "my desert oasis." Ryan works in Kingman, Arizona too.  It is 35 miles East of Bullhead.  We will probably buy a house there and live there permanently. But that is still all up in the air.  For now, we are moving from one furnished vacation rental to the next while we wait for January to arrive so we can get  a home mortgage.

I wanted to post pictures of our summer.  It has been really fun and therapeutic for our family.  Jace got to spend time with Poppy at The Tool Center using these neat machines

to mill toys out of brass. 

Gracie got several Grammy massages.

Kjersti spent hours and hours riding in her car seat for 100's and 100's of miles and she seriously NEVER complained.  I now call her my angel baby!

We saw Aunt Francesca and her girls Suzannah and Penelope 

and got to hold their pet chickens.

We also went with them to the Salt Lake City Aquarium and got eaten by...............

Megaladon and

pet the sea rays. 

The fourth of July found us in St George, UT at the parade down Flood Street.

It was a little hot and boring.  The kids liked it because they got a lot of candy. 

Kjersti had a special day on Saturday, July 5th.

Ryan gave her a name and a blessing for our church.  He performed this ordinance at my parents home in St George. 

She really is an angel!

Here is our best attempt at a quick family photo. 

This is what my parent's living room looks like--in case you have never seen it. My mom loves to decorate and each room is very elegant.  In case you are wondering--it looked like this when I was growing up.

Family members--waiting for Kjersti's event to start.

Kjersti with her Grandparents Truman and Deloris Blake

Kjersti with her Grandparents Will and Jill Swigert

This is my oldest sister Danielle (next to my Mom) with her 3 daughters and 2 of her granddaughters. 

August made me yet another year older.  Look at all those candles on my cake!

My birthday had been a sad, hard day because we had a death in the family and my brother-in-law's funeral was earlier that day. But it was the first time in many years that I was surrounded by my siblings for my actual birthday.  

Have you ever heard of Oatman, Arizona?  We hadn't either until a few weeks ago.

We decided to take the trip one Sunday after church in August.  Here you see the Oatman road from Bullhead City, AZ to Oatman. 

We stopped to try and catch Gracie a pet lizard.  We didn't have any luck.

Oatman is an old, run down mining town, that is a little tourist trap now. It is fascinating because these wild burros live here.

They're actually quite nice if you feed them! 

These burros belonged to the miners,  when the mining stopped, they set the burros free and moved on.  So now the burros roam the streets.  There were lots of them..

Gracie was thrilled to pet the burros!  We made the trip for her.  She was DYING to go see them. 

I love this picture of Jace checking out this baby burro. 

The look on  Kjersti's face?  Classic.  A burro licking her toes--she did not know what to think!!  

Ok, this post is long enough for now.  I will stop.  It's late and the Dr is still up.  I'm going to go spend some time with him!    Have a good night!

We made it !!

Here is the Dr on Friday, June 20th around 9:30 PM.  His certificate in his hands!  

Residency was officially.....done, Done, and DONE!!

His smile says it all......

It was such a treat to have his parents able to attend.  During the graduation ceremony he performed  Bach 's Cello Suite No. 1.  We were also 30 minutes late for the event and when we finally walked in everyone in attendance gave us a standing ovation.  That was embarrassing.  The kids attended the dinner portion of graduation with us then we shipped them off to the Erickson's for a last play date with Ammon and Lucy. 

Residency was hard but that is what makes the end all the more sweet. 

Here are Dr.s Ryan Swigert, Erin Shefield, and Ryan Toponce.  All 3 became Oral Surgeons that night.  They went the 4 year distance together. 

Now backing up 3 days before graduation.   Behold crazy Swigert land.

This truck was delivered and Ryan and the Elder's quorum and his faithful Dad loaded this truck for 3 days.

Robin and Rue found it to be great fun to have a big trailer in our driveway. 

The kids were quite emotional leaving Iowa. They have missed this backyard all summer.

Here is Dad saving the day for us AGAIN!!  This window was rotted and we had to replace it for our new owners.  We laid out over $750.00 for this baby and when it was all said and done--it wouldn't open or close because the casing was rotted as well. The guy who installed it said there was no way to fix it... but Dad figured out a way!!

What is this picture you ask?   Ryan is holding a straight pin with Kingman, Arizona written on it.  He is at his "pinning".  He is  pinning on the map where he will be practicing OMS post graduation. 

Arizona here we come!

Here he is with his co-residents and staff Dr.s

This is our program director Steve Fletcher (red tie).  He was in the bishopric in our Iowa City ward.  How lucky were we to get a program director that shared our religion!

Here's proof I went to the pinning. 

The kid's last fire in our homemade fire pit. 

 Ryan getting pampered after a long day of loading the truck. 

On Saturday, June 21st, we drove down Mormon Trek Blvd for the last time and took the exit for I 80.  

As we headed West, I felt emotional.  We left behind some life long friends...... but stared ahead facing our new life in Arizona with school finally accomplished.