December at the Swenks

One word..."LOVE"

Our tree.

We had a barrier around our tree for most of the month, so when it wasn't there Jacob took full advantage!  He made Christmas time a blast this year.  Every time he sees Santa Clause, in any form, he says, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

I found this note in one of Jacob's toy boxes.  So sweet!

I think these two pictures are so hilarious!  They don't do justice to how adorable these two kids are but I LOVE the look on their faces.  This is Jacob with his friend, Elissa!

Jacob has to feed himself these days.  He's so funny about this too, there's not going to be much eating unless he's in charge of the spoon!  Here he is eating his morning oatmeal and making his usual mess!  But look how happy he is!  And he even manages to get more food in him than on him.

Grrr...yes, the entire box of kix. He just looked up at me w/ a proud smile on his face like he was saying, "look mom, now I can eat as much as I want!"

SUPER BABY!!

I took super lousy Christmas day pictures this year, so this is what we're stuck with...

Our family tradition is to go snowboarding/skiing the day after Christmas, which was my Grandma Ferre's birthday.  We had everyone except Ryan and his wife this year.  It was a blast to be together doing something we all enjoy!

Clint w/ his kiddos, Ian and Paige

Me and my baby!

Clint w/ his super cute girlfriend Erin.

Megan and her son Barry Michael.

Cousins Kaitlin and Kelli.  I think it's spelt w/ an I. Hmm...

Me and my lovely mom!

Check out this beauty!  This is my bestest friend Jill's daughter Leah.  I'm totally in LOVE with her.  She was so sweet and calm and just let Jacob hang all over her!

Seriously, could he be any more in love?  He hugged, kissed, held and pretty much became obsessed w/ this doll!

Yeah, can we say a couple of beauty queens?

My mom gave me this mold pan for Christmas, so I had to bake her some football bread.

I love how both boys have their own laptop here.  Jacob really wanted the real thing, no fooling my boy!

I totally love these pictures of Jacob helping Tom put together one of his Christmas toys. 

My life revolves around these two guys and I couldn't be more happy about that!  I love being a wife and a mother.  I feel so incredibly blessed to watch this precious little boy learn and grow.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving this year was so nice.  I love that Tom gets 2 days off for this holiday and we're able to spend so much time together as a family. 

My mother-in-law works most Thanksgiving and Christmas days to give the nurses with family the day with their kids.  I think this is so sweet!  So, we had them over the evening before for an early turkey dinner.

Best buds!  Seriously this kid LOVES his dad.  When Tom walks into the room everyone else becomes invisible, including me.

Carving the turkey.  I'm so mad I didn't get a picture of Shirley!

Here we are at my mom's on Thanksgiving.  Jacob loves to be outside so he's taking every opportunity he can get to run when the door is open, he also saw Tom pull up!

My beautiful mom!

Karen, Stevie, Mom, Barry Michael, Taylor

The whole gang!

And just a few pictures of my cutie pie!  Have I mentioned that I LOVE being this little boy's mom?  Well, I do!  He's so full of fun, happiness and love.  He's learned to give closed mouth kisses and thinks it's pretty fun to make people smile by puckering up and moving in!  Even random people who might be holding him.  He's the light of my life and I am truly grateful for this amazing experience!

Thanks for being mine, sweet Jacob!

Major catch up for October and November!

 We did some re-painting on a couple old dressers that we've had forever.  They were hand-me-downs from parents and grandparents so we knew that even if we messed up completely they couldn't end up as bad as they started out! :)

 But I think they ended up looking pretty good.  Yes we have blue walls.  We switched rooms w/ J and have so far been too lazy to change it...someday we'll get to it.

 There are a lot of random pictures of Jacob in here because I just think they're adorable!

One of J's favorite things is when he gets super messy and has to have a sink bath.  He just thinks he's in heaven.

We went to Sutherland Farms w/ my mother-in-law Shirley and Tom's nephew A.J.  It was a beautiful day and J had a blast seeing all the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

A.J. didn't want to get his picture taken. :)

J and one of his favorite people in the whole world.

Me and my sweet boy!

J was having a hard time sitting instead of exploring everything around him.

Tom took a day off a few weeks ago so we could have a family day.  It was so fun to take J to the park, it was his first time to go that he could play with the fun toys.  He did NOT want to leave!

Tom put J in this outfit for church a couple weeks ago.  I think this is the cutest little church going man in the whole wide world!  You could tell he felt pretty jazzy too, he left the tie alone all day.

Another sink bath!  Woohoo!

I LOVE that messy face!

We put this on Jacob for Halloween not knowing it would be huge but Jacob LOVED it.  He seriously walked around with the goofiest smile on his face and was so proud to see it all waddle as he walked.

Many of Jacob's fun faces!

Ryan got married last Friday on 11-11-11.  He sang to walk his bride down the aisle. It was beautiful!

Megan was the best man and wore a tux. :)

His beautiful bride Ruby.

My mom and her brother Martin dancing at the reception.

A happy Stevie!

Last Saturday Tom and Jacob set out on a road trip without me!  They went w/ Tom's parents down to Phoenix so Tom could go to the NASCAR race and Jacob could spend time with his cousins.  It was so weird to be here along even though I had a crazy busy weekend, I just missed my men so terribly!  I don't think I want that to happen again!

Lauren, Kayley and Jacob. Sweet kiddos!