Swensen Sentral

Here is the final product of our blog..."Swensen Sentral"! Thanks for all your suggestions and help. We took them all into consideration, made an excel spreadsheet (yes we're nerds like that) and finally picked one. Hope you like it! (and if you don't, just don't say anything.) In case you were wondering, Super Swensens and Swensen Space came in 2nd and 3rd.

We've had so much snow this winter. On the way into the house after grocery shopping I turned around to find my son licking up snow from my newly tracked footprints. I don't know what possessed him to think he could eat the stuff since he's never seen me or anyone else do it. I guess it's just innate in all kids to try tasting it. Unfortunately the snow under my footprint was not quite as clean as the untraversed kind, which I tried to explain to him. Germs? Germs? What the heck are those? was the look on his face. Amelie is kind of attached to me and often whines for me to hold her (ok, more than often, almost always). One morning I was getting ready and I sat her on my bed so she could be up higher (aka. closer to me). It didn't really work. She just kept whining for me to hold her. As we mothers sometimes do, I started ignoring the whining. I stored it in the back of my brain with the other stuff labeled "things-to-be-ignored-that-the-children-do...

I am experimenting with our blog name. "Rick & Amber" wasn't very creative. So far I haven't come up with much: Swensen Sentral, The Swensen Scene, Swensen Hub, Super Swensens (Rick's idea), and ....well not much else. Do you have any ideas? What do you like? Thanks for the input ;)

We ate Sunday dinner at a family's house in our ward. Afterwards, we had cupcakes with chocolate frosting for dessert. Chase decided the frosting was better than the cupcake and surprisingly finished with an almost perfect stache and goatee. Chase loves playing with his friend Christian. They asked me if they could color so I said "sure". I got the book and the markers out for them and off they went. I found them like this, lying side-by-side on the floor coloring away. Aren't friends great!

A wise man (Steve Martin) once said in a monumental film (Cheaper by the Dozen), "4 1/2 years later and we still got the heat!" I love you!

Amelie on her birthday. I couldn't get her to hold still to take a decent birthday photo. And even on the go she still had to hold onto the cortisone and a comb. She's always got something in both hands, just like her brother. In hopes of getting a picture without the cortisone, I took it and the comb away. All I got was a sad face. She sure knows how to pout. Daddy's hands replaced her toys and she felt much better. Just always gotta have something in those hands. We went to Chuck E Cheese for her birthday. It was mostly for Chase. He used more than half of her tokens but she didn't care. She had fun exploring and making it onto a few rides. After the rides, we sat down for cake and presents. She wasn't too interested in the cake. Of course she wanted to put her fingers in it before we put the bib on and when it was whole and right in front of her and on fire! But after we took her sweater off, put her bib on, and cut her a piece, she didn't want anything to...

One year ago today, Amelie Rose Swensen joined our family. She has added so much joy to our lives with her cute smiles, wet kisses, and cuddle hugs. She's an energetic, spunky little girl, with lots of love to give and a creative mind. Behind her strategic pouts and constant need of attentions is pure sugar and spice and everything nice. We love her so much!