La felicidad que se encuentra: Kyle, Jenny, Alexa, Tyler, Tad, Liam, Nathan, and Audrey

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving with lots of family and a weekend getaway.  Baby Dean was blessed the night before Thanksgiving, so Mom and Dad Swingle and Uncle Karl came up for that and we were all together at Peggy’s on Thanksgiving Day.  We took even advantage of a free day at the Hogle Zoo, which the kids really enjoyed.  Then we headed down to St. George for the rest of the weekend. Some November quotes and stories for your reading pleasure-- Me (on Thursday): Alexa, do you wish it was Friday so you could go to preschool today?  Alexa: No, I wish it was Saturday because then you would be home! (Talk about not wanting to go to work that day!) Tyler coughs and then says, “Uh oh, I sick.  Mommy, I sick.”  Every time he ever coughs (because he was drinking and choked on his water or some other random reason) Alexa (age 3): Mom, I need you to buy me a phone so I can call my Grandma. (Said randomly while at the dinner table with...

We celebrated my birthday with Granny at our favorite restaurant—Texas Roadhouse.  It was a rare treat to celebrate my birthday with Mom & Dad!  That hasn’t happened in years.  Mom got a delicious Coldstone ice cream cake—yumm. It was wonderful to have Kristian and Malori here for a few weeks and great to see so much of the Mitchell family at Madi's reception.  Love that friend of mine! We hosted a pumpkin painting /carving party at our house with some neighbors and friends.  It was really fun and the kids had a blast painting (mostly on themselves). We also took a fall adventure to our favorite local farm to play with goats, pigs, cows, ducks, geese, rabbits, and ponies.  A cow thought Kyle's shirt tasted delicious and kept licking it. Our family Halloween theme this year was Mario Kart.  We all got our own cars and balloons.  Alexa was Princess Peach, Tyler was Toad, I was Princess Daisy, Kyle was Mario, ...

Kyle left me alone again in September and drove the kids to Nebraska.  When I told Alexa she was going to drive to Nebraska with Uncle Todd tomorrow, she turned to Kyle and said, “Daddy, guess what?!  We’re going to drive to Indiana tomorrow!  For Christmas!!!”  I am either a horrible communicator or she’s a 3-year old...  I wasn’t able to take time off of work, so I was really, really glad that Kyle had Todd there to drive with him.  Especially since it turned into a 17-hour one-way drive (including stops), so that would have been especially difficult to do alone with the kids.  Sweet Aden was baptized and I’m so glad that so much family was able to be there.  I really wish that I could have been there with everyone.  It was really great for Kyle to be with his sisters.  He misses them a lot, and I know a highlight of the trip was being able to stay up late and talk to them about life.  Like in Indiana, the kids loved playing with ...