early present and our Sunday night (long picture post)

Grandma and Grandpa Swinford sent the kids an early present... thanks, guys!!We did our usual eating junk food and playing games thing and goofing off on Sunday night. And clearly we were just as excited by the new toys as the kids were.

Temple Square picture post

Just watch this.

the lights

We went out driving to see Christmas light displays and drank hot chocolate. Fun times. And yes, that's chocolate all over Rylie's face.

grilling in the snow

Jared grilled some chicken so we could have chicken quesadillas with our beans and rice and pink salad (odd combo, yes... but tasty!). Nathan liked playing in the snow for a few minutes. We had a good dinner and enjoyed just hanging out as a family with Adrien, Shannon and Ian. Eric had a cold. We hope he feels better soon!

I seriously need to get the video of Rylie walking on here. I'll try to figure it out this week.

a victory

No crying when we went to see Santa this year. That was a first. =)

same story, different people

It feels new.

a week ago or so...

Nathan came with me to meet Shannon for a few minutes. We went to this park... and it was freezing.

It sort of looks like Shannon's about to start beating him or something... but she was actually just knighting him. I can't remember his newly knighted name... it's obviously Sir Nathan... but it was like Sir Nathan the Brave or Sir Nathan the Swiftly Spinning or something like that.

getting the Christmas tree

Ha, I don't actually have any pictures of the tree yet. But here's a couple pics of the kids and Jared from while we were waiting.

pictures

Sorry I've been such a slacker.

Here's a picture of Nathan scarfing down some pie to entice you to look at our pictures from Thanksgiving day.

Which was forever ago, I know. =P

motley post

No pictures this time.

Jared's got a new job as of about a week ago. It looks like it's going to be a really great fit, and it will be wonderful to have insurance again. =) We've been really very blessed to not get injured or very sick during the last 8 or 9 months, though.

I ran my first 5K last Saturday. I'm doing NaNoWriMo (not well, but much better than the last 3 years, so I'm considering it a success).

Nathan says funny things, like when he told my mom to pick him up and she asked why, he said, "It's your responsibility."

Rylie does cute things, like waving like a beauty queen in a parade and saying "hey", "dada", "mama", and a pretty mangled something that we think is supposed to be "I love you".

I'm pretty burned out at the moment, so here are couple of cool songs I think people should be aware of.

at midnight, the crazies come out.

Adrien, Lindsay and I went to see a midnight showing of New Moon. Here they are waiting in line:and here we are in the theater.Also - before:and after:

looking out the window

How can he think that is comfortable?

what I saw on my run...

the trip

Update: here are the pictures from Halloween and the trip.

We went to California to visit my mom and dad. It was fun! Thanks for everything, guys!

We went to the temple,to Disneyland,
to the beach,and to get tacos.We did a few more things but I didn't take pictures of everything. I'll post the link to the rest of our pictures later.

Halloween.

A few pictures from a night of candy. Nathan was a cowboy, Rylie was just in a cute outfit that a friend of mine bought for Nathan in Japan, I was a street performer, and Jared was... a tool. =)