Gentry's Favorite present..."Sugar Cheerios"

My mom and sister think I am cruel...but I kid you not, my son loved this present!! I have to preface this video with the fact I have NEVER bought Gentry "sugar cheerios" (also known as any sugar cereal). He calls any sugar cereal "sugar cheerios" because all he ever gets is plain cheerios so he thinks anything that taste different must be "sugar cheerios". I am sure he has had them at grandparents house, but he knows that is not something I am willing to buy. SOOOO for Christmas I thought it would be fun to surprise him with a some. I will just let the video and pictures speak for themselves...mom and Tandi, I am obviously not cruel...he LOVED them!!

Christmas

Here are pictures from our fun filled morning! I didn't get a picture of the yummy homemade cinnamon rolls that Jeff made but they were so delicious!!

Uncle Jeff playing Polly Pockets with Liv, he's so great :)

G got a spiderman shave kit, so put on a mustache for most of the morning :)

Tan was super excited about her UGG's :)

Jeff enjoyed some new ties, a new fedora, and a frame to put his diploma in!

Such a blessed little boy!

Transformers...expect nothing less little man!

The one gift that wasn't Polly Pockets :)

They couldn't wait to open presents!!!!

Santa brought G a Spidey "ScOOOter", he's been riding it around the house the last 2 days pretending he is a cop, since it's all snowy outside!

Christmas Eve

Here are some pics of our Christmas Eve! We had a really special year, it was the first time we had Christmas just with our family. It was a little sad not to be near all our family but it turned out really special. We started our own traditions: Christmas Eve dinner is straight from New Mexico! Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas, Tandi's Amazing queso, guacamole, spanish rice, chips, and top it all off with margaritas! (After the kids go to bed of course!)

Then we read the "Twas the Night Before Christmas", and the Christmas story of Jesus. And a highlight of the evening was having the kids sing Christmas songs. Gentry mixes the songs together a bit, but Olyvia just invented her own Christmas song...we were impressed! :)

3 Little Peeps ready for Santa!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

G singing Jingle Bells

Liv singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, like you have never heard it before! :)

Christian singing Frosty the Snowman

Polar Express Party!

We recently went to hang out with some friends and have a Polar Express Party :) The boys all wore their jammies, got to drink hot chocolate, and watched the Polar Express. They were so cute! Not sure the watched the whole movie but they did get in some good sword fighting time :)

All the boys minus Brody :( We missed you!


This might have been the quietest that I have ever seen this group of boys when they are together!

Gentry and Elmo Perform Together

My mom got Gentry one of those little learning leapad things that has games and activities. It also has a microphone. Here is a video of him singing along with Elmo, he even tried to sing in the same key as Elmo :)

Family Date Night!

We decided we needed a little family fun time so decided to go eat at a local pizza shop and ice skate after. It was G's first time ice skating and we had such a good time. As you can tell from the video it might take g a couple of times to get the idea of "skate"! :)

My morning Posse

Lately Gentry has been waking me up in the morning with a little group of peeps I like to call my morning posse. He climbs into bed and then tucks himself and his friends in right next to me. I'm not sure I like this group he hangs out with yet, they have a bad habit of getting up early and G seems to be following their bad influence. This group of thugs might not be the best influence but G sure does like them. What does a mom do? I don't want to lose my boy, but I really need to sleep until 7! :)

Christmas Musical

G was checking out the little cutie next to him :)

The whole preschool gang!

Gentry sang in the Children's Christmas musical this year. Preschoolers only did 2 songs before the actual play, and I might be a little biased but it was sooo cute!! We were afraid G wouldn't sing and just stand there embarrassed but he actually sang, rang his little bells and smiled! :) Who knew our little introvert could be a performer!

Favorite Conversation of the Day...

G has been so sweet this year about Christmas. Most times when we ask him what he wants, he says "I don't really know". But occasionally he admits what he really wants. One is a dog named Pluto and a tweety bird. They go together every time for some reason. The next is...

Gentry: "I want a little sister named Exodus, and we can call her Pebbles. Exodus Pebbles"

Really????? So obviously he is an only child and wants a sibling but I couldn't keep a straight face when he informed us of his name choice. His latest memory verse comes from the book of Exodus and he has been fascinated with saying Exodus since then, I just didn't realize how fond of the name he was :)

Oh sweet boy I wish you just wanted some toys or something that was easier to come by than animals and babies! (Don't judge but we told G that Santa ran out of animals this year and there were no puppies or tweety birds left!) So sad but seriously what could we do, these have been the only things he asked for. We haven't figured out how to break the news about a sibling yet...

Favorite Conversation of the Day...

So I just posted my favorite conversation of the day, but then I overheard this conversation between Jeff and Gentry. To preface this conversation earlier I was telling the kids that when they toot (for lack of a better word), it's really not that big of a deal. It just means that there is some air in their tummy and it needs to get out, so we don't have to laugh and make a big deal every time someone toots. Obviously we were having this conversation because it has become a really funny topic in our house, and any time there is an outbreak of one, we spend 30 minutes pulling it together again. I'm trying to be understanding that boys are just entertained by that whole issue, but I also need sanity!

I was sitting in our room and could hear Jeff and Gentry talking in the other room. Then this is what G tells Jeff...

G: "Know what dad? It's not really that big of a deal when we toot because it just means that our bunnies have some stinky air inside of them that needs to come out because our bunnies don't want the stinky air anymore and it makes the air in our house stinky"

(Just so you know bunnies is what G calls his butt)

I start laughing hysterically from the other room.

Jeff: "Really? Who told you that?"

G: "My mom, she said that's what toots were"

Jeff comes back in the room and ask me...

Jeff: "Did you tell Gentry that's what toots were?"

Seriously do you think I would explain bodily functions that way to our son!!!! HAHAHA it made for a good laugh anyways!

Favorite Conversation of the Day...

Tonight before G went to bed we wrote a letter to Santa and some pretty sweet deep (for a four year old) conversation. The letter was pretty funny to write. Following the letter we started talking about how blessed we were. I'm sure I started the conversation with some lame mom "your so blessed phrase" but I'm leaving that one out to spare me some embarrassment :) It was one of those conversations where you just sit back as a parent and listen, he had lot's going on in his little mind and seriously talked for about 20 minutes, and for those of you who know my son, know that is a lot for him!! I was loving every minute. (Here is a snip-it of our one sided conversation).

Gentry: "Ya we have lot's of food, and some people don't. That's why sometimes we just take people who don't have food some food. Even we could take them all of our food, cause even if all of our food is gone, we can just go to the store and get more. And we have lot's of toys so we can give kids all of our toys too. That's okay mom if we give them all my toys, you can just go to Target and buy me more."

As our conversation continued it turned from the sweet caring boy to the little sword fighter he is :) We started talking about how Jesus died for our sins (we watched the lion the witch and the wardrobe, and were answering questions from the movie)

Gentry:"Who killed Jesus? Was it bad guys"

Mom: "Well they weren't necessarily bad guys, but they weren't being very nice"

Gentry:"What did they do to Jesus? Did the punch him in the face? Did they beat him up?"

Mom: "Ya they probably did. They put thorns around his head so he was bleeding, and made him carry a really heavy cross after they beat him up"

Gentry: "Then they put those nails in his hands?"

Mom:"Ya and in his feet"

Then Gentry proceeds with the million dollar question that all little boys want to know.

Gentry: "Mom why didn't Jesus just fight back...He's Jesus, he could beat up all those bad guys"

Oh sweet G, one lesson at a time I guess :) To be quite honest I didn't really know what to say so I did what I do best...laugh :) Any of you parents that have gone before me and know how to answer the ever ongoing questions of a 4 year old, I would love some input! :) Anyways needless to say we had an eventful evening full of questions, and I am about all out of answers!!

G's letter to Santa :) 2009

Tonight we wrote a letter to Santa. I typed as G talked away :) I was trying not to laugh because he was super serious about all the questions. His letter really captures all the things he loves in life right now...jammies, anything to do with Christmas, spiderman, a little sister that he thinks he is getting for Christmas, pirates, sword fighting, learning our letters, and a dog. Yup, that about sums up our life right now. (Except for the dog and baby sister, Jeff and I have not agreed with G on either of these yet!)

I do realize that the grammer is not entirely correct but I was just typing exactly what he was saying.

Dear Santa,

Merry Christmas Santa. What is your elf’s names? Do you have Santa jammies? How big is your sleigh? I have been good Santa. Okay Santa I want a spiderman web that hangs on the walls. I want a puppy named Garfield. I want a sister named Exodus…Pebbles Exodus. Do you really have a Rudolf? Santa, know what I used to have? Pirates and they sword fight. Do you get mail at your house? Do you have a sister? Do you have a G in your name? Santa, know what I'm making for you? Cookies…lot’s of em’. Santa do you have a computer? Be safe and do you have spiderman jammies? I love you Santa.

Love,
Gentry

Favorite Conversation of the Day...

Tonight we were driving home from Zoo Lights in Denver. The boys were talking about something with fire so I asked...

Mom: "Are you guys talking about something from a movie?"


(G's response was a little short and annoyed that I had interrupted their conversation)
G: "No mom we are only talking about dangerous stuff"

Mom: "Why are you guys talking about fire"

G: "Mom it's just dangerous stuff and you probably don't know about fire cause it's dangerous and only boys like dangerous stuff"

I was trying not to bust out laughing, but contained myself to allow the boys to talk about dangerous boy stuff like fire :) A little bit later I again tried to join in the conversation.

Mom: "G did you have tonight at Zoo Lights?"

G: "MOM!! We are only talking about dangerous stuff tonight, nothing else. Tomorrow we can talk about the other stuff"

Ha! He was so serious about the dangerous topic, so we appeased him and talked about tigers, fire, guns, and wolverine the rest of the way home. It was so funny and cute to see how he is becoming a little man! I love you sweet boy!!

Skeetles and N&M's

I meant to post this around Halloween but am just getting around to it! I have loved all the different stages of language we have gone through and I fear we might be getting to the last stages since he is getting so big :( So I just had to post how cute these little words are. He calls Skittle, Skeetles, and M&M's, N&M's :) I just love this sweet boy!!

I'm so Thankful!

Thanksgiving makes me think of all the things I am thankful for. Even though I have a million things to be thankful for, I have to admit that I have the greatest husband ever and seriously just love that boy. This past year has been another year of transition for us. Jeff lost his job a week before Thanksgiving last year and was unemployed for 5 months. It now seems like just one more chapter in our ever changing and always eventful life :)

He is now employed with a great company and loves his job. He recently got a promotion and is a manager. I just started thinking how our lives have been rooted in change and adjustments since we got married, and yet we have always been so happy. I am convinced that it is because we have been surrounded with God's grace. In his Grace God put us together knowing that we would laugh more than we fight and truly love living life together. It's odd to think we have been married for 6 and a half years now I still feel the same fondness and affection for my hottie as I did on our wedding day. I put this picture on because I remember taking this picture and thinking how funny and sweet Jeff was all at the same time. This morning he gave me a kiss on the cheek and I got that same feeling. I love that our life has been crazy, messy, real, and wonderful, and I have loved every minute, so today I just have to say I am so thankful for Jeff and the joy we have shared in 6 short years of marriage. Thanks God for blessing me with him, he has been one of the greatest gifts you have given me!

Life Lessons

I think we may have taught Gentry about the concept of Grace a little too early in life. Today when he got in trouble and sent to his room, I came in to give him his consequences (a spanking), and the first thing he said to me...

Mom I really just need some Grace, that's all I need, not a spanking!

I actually just started laughing because it was so funny. He was as serious about Grace as I was about giving him a spanking, and did not understand why I was laughing at him.

Favortie Conversation of the Day...

I over heard a conversation between Gentry, Christian, and Olyvia. I am just hoping that Gentry doesn't have psychic powers :)

Gentry:"My mom is getting me a baby brother and a baby sister. I can't wait to play trucks with my little brother, and you can play with my little sister, Livvy."

Christian: "Are you really getting a sister and a brother?"

Gentry: "Yea my mom said I could have both."

Liv: "Yes and I am going to play with your little sister"

WHAT???? If your wondering, no I never said we were having a twins, I haven't even said we would have ONE!!! It did make me feel a little bad, but not bad enough to jump on board with his idea of twins for the Swanson family!

We still love our Buffs!!!!

Even though our Buffs are having a rough season, we are still their biggest fans! We recently went to a game and had so much fun with G! Not to mention the Buffs actually won!!!

Look at those sweet eyes! He had so much fun!

My 2 favorite guys!

Gentry smiled the entire game just like this! He loves his Buffs!

Thinking how fun it will be to be a Buff someday!!

(Seriously what other school has the view we have from Folsom field? Aren't those mountains just gorgeous?)

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...it's...underwear man?????

I have mentioned before how G loves costumes and being characters. Well that hasn't changed, but his idea and costumes have!! Lately he has been making up his own superheros which is fine, but he has also been making his own costumes :) I keep thinking he is doing this for a attention and to be funny, but he's not. He is dead serious about his costumes of choice, and let me tell you he is not the least bit embarrassed to be seen in these outfits!!! We have been to the gym, park, grocery store, and chiropractor dressed like this! I know I could make him change but the truth is I don't really care about what he wears as long as on Sundays I get to dress him!

Ya, it's what you think...underwear over his Wolverine costume...and yes we went to the gym

If I was a bad guy I would be really afraid of spidey/wolverine/underwear man!

Cat in the Hat with a cowboy vest, a pirate hat, and his Kachow backpack playing at the park. There were 2 other little boys there that loved his outfit, they kept calling him "little pirate boy".

Gentry's Magic Trick

Gentry has been interested in magic tricks lately...not really sure why! This is his attempt to "magically appear (disappear) this monies (quarter)" All of his magic tricks include dropping something down his pants and then picking it up :) He has also been "appearing (disappearing)" when we get in the car...this actually just entails switching car seats :) He is always so excited to tell me that I didn't even see him "appearing (disappear)".

Pearl St. Stampede (A little Late)

I am a little late on this post but oh well!! When mom and dad came up to help celebrate mine and G's birthday we of course headed down to Pearl St to support our Buffs! Even though they are having a rough year we just LOVE our Buffs!

The troops headed to Pearl St. They sang the fight song all the way there!

Watch out for those Buff boy muscles :)

And we are done for the night!

Gentry's first Soccer season!

Gentry played soccer this year for the first time! It has been really fun! Here is a little video of G making his first goal! We laughed so hard after this because this was the first game, and even though he made a goal, he didn't really get the significance of it, he actually got really embarrassed because everyone was yelling at him and giving him high fives!! The parents get way more excited than the kids do! We have really enjoyed this season and laughed more than anything else! I am convinced that sports at this age are purely created for the parents entertainment :) The kids decided they wanted to be the DUCKS...not super fierce but it adds to the entertainment of this season! Sorry for Jeff screaming in the camera!!

Gentry's first soccer game and first goal!

GOOOO DUCKS!!

The Duck that leads the kids to the right goal...most of the time :)

Let's be honest, his favorite part of soccer is the fact he gets a G2(a nickname my dad gave him), cause he knows I would never give him one just because...way tooo much sugar!!

G has been wearing Jeff's army bandanna cause he thinks it makes him look like wolverine, it's that or make his hair spikey...bandanna it is says mom!!!!!

Little G turns 4!

Gentry turned 4 on September 8!! My parents came up the weekend before to celebrate with us. They actually came up to celebrate his birthday and mine. Mine and Gentry's birthday are only 2 weeks apart and now that Nate is in school we have can't see each other quite as much!

When I was pregnant, besides not wanting to be pregnant, and not wanting a boy, I specifically remember telling my mom how I did not want to share my birthday with anyone and especially a little boy cause I never wanted to have a GI Joe party! (Can you tell I how emotional I was, not to mention selfish right????)

My how life has changed! I am so glad I had little G, and so glad he is a boy!! I also loved sharing a Star Wars party with him. Good thing God knows want we really need and want, cause obviously I have no clue! Thanks God for blessing me with Gentry!


The desk that Babi and Poppi got G. He has already spent many hours sitting and drawing, he loves it!


The birthday peeps with matching stickers! I assure you it was not my idea :) I love that we got to celebrate our birthdays together sweet boy, even if it was a Star Wars birthday party!


His Yoda card that has a ski pass for this season! Me and G get to spend our Thursdays on the slopes together, I am so excited!! G has actually been practicing snowboarding down the steps on a plastic lid, I am just waiting to hear the screams a broken arm brings!

Aunt T did good with the Wolverine costume, she knows him all to well!!

Or maybe she knows Jeff all to well :)

Tink, Kenz, and Ben dropped by a little present and can you tell what he thought of it??? L*O*V*E*D it!!!!!


My favorite part of the party was the cake. He really wanted a family cake. I kept asking what that meant and he said "I just want my whole family on it, Babi, Pop, Nate, me, you, dad, Nate, Christian, Liv, Aunt T, Nate, Uncle Bubba, Koko, Caitlin, Rachael, and mom don't forget Nate" I guess Nate was the most essential person on the cake!!! It was really sweet that he wanted to include everyone, and he seriously loved his cake, he kept telling everyone where they were on the cake.

Sweet Babi and G coloring at the desk they got him, he really loved it! Thanks for making our birthday celebration so fun!

Oh the Fun we have when Tink comes over!!!

We have been getting to see Tink every Friday, since Kenz started back to school. And at the least I can say we are loving it!

This is the happy little look G has every time he is around little Tink, he just loves it! (He has been into hats lately and no it's not cold he just wanted to wear it) I think it was nap time for Tink, sorry we had to run errands sweet girl!!!!

Paraded around like a princess, or maybe a baby but either way, they both love it!

She might be younger, but the kids have been inducting her into dress up, they just thought she was so cute! In fact G said "mom isn't Tink just so cute!" I would have to agree!

There's that look again on G! Eating GoodTimes together, what could be better!

And it's not just Tink that the kids love, it everything she brings with her! I came upstairs to find this on the couch, apparently G thought Mr. Dinosaur was going to GoodTimes with us!