Christmas is a'commin

Our favorite Kick off to the Christmas season is the Sumner Bridge lighting! They had Roasted nuts, Hot chocolate and people singing carols! Then they have Santa and Mrs. Clause Count down to lighting the historical Sumner Bridge, followed by a fireworks show! This year it was particularly crowed, but it was fun anyway

We were super lucky to know somebody, who knows somebody, who knows "Santa" and we got to go to the North Pole this year! I had heard about this but figured it was just another picture place...oh no! This place is fantastic, it was FILLED with games, toys, crafts, movies, music and activities for the kids to do, then they come get you when its your turn to see Santa....no crying kids waiting in line! 

I was SO happy with how much time they took getting ALL three of my kids to feel comfortable and happy with Santa and all look at the camera and smile!!

Then this weekend was Extra busy! Friday night I sang the Messiah for my college class. The hall sat 300 people and we SOLD OUT!!! We were turning people away....it was kind of sad, but also kind of great!

 

The next morning we did the Reindeer 1K/5K, it was raining but we had a good time

Andrew of course ran the whole thing!

For the rest of us the best part was when we went back into the Gym after and sang, ate and saw Santa...but we couldn't stay too long because we had to Rush off to Mallory's Piano recital!

 

Mallory has only been doing lessons for a few months so she had a very simple Christmas melody, but she did Amazing and her Teacher sat next to her and accompanied her so it was really neat!

We decided we would go out to Applebee's to celebrate afterwards!

We had a really good time hanging out together...we were going to watch the Santa parade but it was raining so we decided to go to our friends Christmas party instead!

We had the most Wonderful uplifting Christmas Sunday ever! I Loved it!
We (of Course) started with Church!
Then we went to one of our favorite Christmas activities, the Festival of Nativities. There is a church near us who borrows HUNDREDS of people nativities to display every year. The Church is decorated amazing with lights and huge murals and Nativities of EVER kind are on display. Mallory's favorite was the Mermaid rendition, Spencer really liked the Charlie Brown nativity!

After that we went to visit Donner and Blitzen at our local nursery!

They had really fun scavenger hunt to for the kids to run around the nursery looking for things Santa dropped/ forgot and they got their scavenger hunt card punched!

THEN we went to my Grandmothers house and watched the First Presidency devotional with my family while eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate! I loved the talks and the music was beautiful! I love Christmas time when there are so many things we get to do together as a family! I hope my kids are making good memories!

Fall Time at the Swifts!

Spencer thought he was so cute sitting in the front seat in "Malachi's Spot!"

 For my Geology class we went on a field trip and visited the OSO landslide.

 Mallory found this cute Tiny little bear and needed to take a picture with it!

 

 

Just my two cute kids before school one day

 

 Mallory does Swim team twice a week. she loves it and is really building some stamina

 

 

got to go to the park and play!

 Our ward had a Halloween party so we dressed up and partied it up!

 Mallory has been doing Piano lessons for about a month, she likes it and really has a decent sense of rhythm

 We went to get haircuts and lucky for us our hairdressers are so fancy they have Bunnies

Getting back into the swing of things!

So School is officially underway...the kids go to school and I am doing great in my College classes...makes for busy and Fun days!

 

 Malachi had a few Vacation days to burn after school started so we got to run some important errands and get some stuff done!

 Andew and Malachi went to the Mariners game in the beginning of September!!

 Andrew started Cub scouts in our new ward and is loving it so far!

 Our Andrew boy had a birthday last month and turned 9!

 we all went to the Pumpkin patch! and walked around in our BOOTS!

 we are Lucky this cute little man gets to live with us about 3 days a week and one afternoon! we LOVE him so much and are happy to have him be a part of our life

 Andrew started indoor soccer this season to give him something to do. he Loves it and is very sweaty from all that running!

 The weather is starting to become more rainy and cold outside so we are doing more inside activities like playing with slime!

 We got a YMCA membership so we are at the Y several times a week for classes and to work out and to go Swimming!

Andrew saw a few kids that made a temple out of legos so he wanted to make one too, but we ran out of white pieces!

I know This post is very Andrew/Spencer heavy. Mallory is very busy too, I will post on her activities soon!

End of Summer...back to school!

We missed Spencer SO MUCH while we were on vacation! He was so happy to see us and We were so happy to see him!

 One final summer trip to our local zoo with some really good friends

 These kids crack me up!

 Mallory found a butterfly friend that didn't want to leave her!

 

 Andrew gets the LEGO magazine and it showed the kids how to make Ninja masks out of T-shirts! so they were ninjas for a few days

 we love going to the farmers market, and they sometimes have face painting there- S for SUPER SPENCER

 After we got back Mallory starting a diving class...she was a little nervous and needs some more practice, but MUCH better than me!

 Friday night it movie night- and no movie night is complete without popcorn!

 Getting some Bike ridding in before its Fall comes and its to rainy to ride!

 Went to back to school night, where the kids got to see their classes and meet their teachers

And their First day of SCHOOL- Mallory is in 2nd Grade and Andrew is in 3rd!

 

 

 Summer Was AMAZING, but very hectic and busy with TWO moves, summer camps, lessons, vacations, parties and trying to keep everyone happy and entertained when we were in such a limbo situation I am very happy have everything start to settle down and be back on a schedule!

Utah, Arizona and California

After we left Yellowstone we went to visit Mary-Anne, Jacob and Hannah!

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a really fun time playing with cousins and celebrating pioneer days

 we went to a really fun park, but it was a little too HOT to play very long- so we had an early dinner instead!

 Then we headed to the Grand Cayon- it was almost to amazing to absorb it all

 We went to the look out building with a spiral stair case

 It was windy, but the sun was out and it was beautiful

 Next stop was to Visit Grandma Rucker. we had a wonderful chat and went out to dinner

 we were lucky to get to know her, and let the kids meet their great grandma

 A tradition of ours is to visit different zoos

 the Phoenix zoo was really cool- if we lived close I would totally get a zoo membership and go often

 so this Elephant is NOT real...however they had REALLY amazing sculptures around the zoo that look life like

 Then we were lucky enough to visit Grandpa Swift! we had a wonderful afternoon chatting, and playing and getting to know him

 Grandpa Swift reminds me of Malachi...they are so much alike!

 Grandpa Swift is a really good baseball player- so when we were in the car we saw his glove. I love Andrew's face! it was like it was holding a pro-players glove!

 After we said good bye to Arizona we headed to LEGO LAND

 SO much fun! I'm grateful we went, our kids were the PERFECT age to love everything there

 lots of waiting, and it was very HOT, however the rides were great and lots of creative lego creations everywhere

Then we headed home, It really was a wonderful vacation, but very long and we were grateful to come back to the normal weather and calmer schedule!