GETTING READY TO RIDE HORSES AT GRANDPA'S

Weekend at Jo's.

We let little Rick come to girls weekend at Jo's house. A couple more years and he'll have to go fishing with the guys instead... I love how the picture of Jo and the girls running down the road turned out. They were so excited to beat us home on our walk. Nothing like a little competition!!

THE THREE AMIGAS!!

COOKING WITH MOM

Peyton loves to cook. She thinks giving people cookies is the best ever and I have to agree with her

My first posting in over a year.

So as you can see by either looking my blog or the title of this blog, this is my first posting in forever. I don't even know where to start.... so this is going to be 2009 in a nutshell. Let's start with Jan... 2009.. Dave and Nysa were in our wonderful friends Vince and Holly's wedding. It was perfect timing to get out of Idaho and back to AZ for nice 70 degree weather. I brought a super cute dress with me, however in such little time I was able to forget that even in January heels and a cute summer dress are essential. I hung up my velvet dress, tights, and cute boots and went shopping.

So in Febuary we were probably wishing we were still in Idaho. We spent a good portion of March in Oregon. Dave worked on a project with his dad and the girls and I made our way to Portland. We spent a couple of days visiting family and enjoying the nice rainy weather. In April I survived my first 1/2 marathon. I don't like things to be easy so I decided to sign up for what they claim is the hardest 1/2 marathon in the northwest. I am suppose to sign up for it again tomorrow however I haven't really started training yet. I will spare you the pictures of me after the race. My uncle Rick and cousin Adam did it with me so that makes it a little more fun.

In May Nysa officially finished Kindergarten. She was super excited to finish and move on to first grade. I was also excited but for other very selfish reasons. After the first week of having her home all day with me, we both decided all day long school would be a good thing. We had a very busy summer.

Dave turned 30. We went to Mexico with our friends to celebrate in June. July was also busy. We went to the Wood family reunion. The girls love spending time with all of their cousins, and they has a ton:).

Hank and Emily came to visit in August and Emily actually loved Idaho. We had a couple of other friends visit and enjoys fun camping trips and time with Grandpa and Yaya Swank. Nysa spend a week or two in Challis riding horses with Yaya and Aunt Becky and fishing with Grandpa. The life of a 6 year old. The summer went by way to fast. Before we knew it school was starting again.

We finally got adjusted to school starting again and the weather was beginning to change again. I think it could have possibly been the shortest summer ever this year. If you can't tell I am a huge fan of the sun and summer months here. I also love vacation and company.

October was a busy month. Dave and Nysa went on their first real Daddy/daughter road trip. They flew into California to pick up a new truck for Dave and after visiting with our friends Chris and Allissa and Michelle, Cam and baby Ella, they drove to Arizona for a friends birthday party. They had a great weekend and drove home to Idaho later in the week. They were lucky because the first weekend in October we were blessed with about 8 inches of snow to shovel. Gotta love the Idaho weather. Vince and Holly came to visit this month too. Soo fun.

This month I also went away for a much needed weekend with the ladies. We went to San Diego and enjoyed warm weather, beaches, and shopping.

In November, we went spent Thanksgiving with the Woods in Pendleton. It was so fun. We had a birthday party for Nysa who turned 7 and everyone helped make it extra special. Here are a couple of pictures of that adventure.

We made is through the Nov-Dec Swank family birthdays without going completely broke and insane.

We spent Christmas at my parents and Santa was over generous as usual. Here are few December photos. We chopped our own Christmas tree this year. It was 9 degree out there, but we had a great day spending time together. So this is our year in a nutshell. I hope to be better and publish more posts. Lots of love. Etta

Thanksgiving Dinner Vs. Picture with my wife

By the look on his face, I think he may have taken the picture but really would have rather been eating. We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated with my parents, my sister and her family, and a close family friend Karen. It's so nice being close to family, it's never a dull moment. I made the best chocolate pumkin cheesecake this year, at least all the women thought so. My sister is a real trooper to host the party only two weeks after baby Rick was born.

Nysa's Update

Nysa just had a birthday and she's six going on thirty. We decided the other day that she might be the most responsible person in our family. Everyone that knows Dave, knows he was out of the running years ago but Nysa may have finally passed me up. She is all about the rules. We can count on her to come home from school and tell us exactly what she needs to be doing and what we need to be doing too. She had her Christmas Concert last night and as we were getting ready to go (she has had her outfit picked out for the past month), Dave asked her if she was going to find us in the crowd and wave. She got this look on her face that said "are you kidding me?" She said, " No way Dad, Mrs. so and so.. would never let us do that. She is watching us all the time. That is not allowed!" We had so much fun teasing her, saying that we were going to yell and shout for her and wave. She was so mad at us. She takes everything so serious, but is an awesome kid. She did eventually give us a half wave and then looked right back at her teacher while the rest of the kids in the program waved, yelled etc. at their parents. She is a great big sister too, always so helpful with Peyton but I can tell if maybe I have had a long day and used the parent tone more often than not. I will here her in the other room telling her sister something that I had said earlier in exactly the same tone and have to go in and gently remind her that she is her sister and not her mother. She also tries to use that tone with me and the way she is growing she may be taller than me by about the fourth grade, so I better watch out.
She is enjoying gymnastics and got a guitar for her birthday. She wants to take lessons so we will probably start next spring. She loves anything girly and would bedazzle anything in site if we let her. She is really into making jewelry but is also asking Santa for a new four wheeler, so maybe there is hope after all.