Oliver's been baptized!

Oliver's baptism was a big success (thanks to lots of family support!). Thank you to all our family and friends who came out to support Oliver. He had a great day. All my family except Aaron and Joni traveled from Utah to California for the event. Aaron and Joni had a good excuse, since baby Luke joined their family a week ago but we'll have to get the entire family together one day. It was fun to see everyone. I wish we could have spent more time with everyone individually. I was also trying to get the Booster Club started and basically I cut both a little short. I haven't had time to record life these past two weeks because it seems I've barely had time to live it! Thank you especially to Angie and Lynn, who rehabed my backyard in one afternoon and saved me endless amounts of embarrassment. Sarah also helped a lot in cleaning the house. Sorry this has taken so long to post. We had a blackout over the weekend and my computer's power supply bit the dust so a couple days and $185 later, I am finally back in business - and grateful to have a computer!

1st Day of Kindergarten

It was Lael's first day of Kindergarten. She is pictured here with Lulu the dog, our newest member of the Swanson clan (as if we needed more chaos, but she's already part of the fam and she's as good as dogs get). So, the battling to get her to school each day has begun. She picks different issues each day. This girl is just plain difficult. When we got to school, she didn't want to wear her nametag so I took her over to her teacher and said, "Lael doesn't want to wear this but you can make her." It was kind of like throwing down the gauntlet and saying, "Here. This one is your challenge now." She tried on many outfits that morning and finally decided this was the one. It was blazing hot but she insisted on wearing the jacket.


Oliver started third grade and has Mr. Flores, who he seems to really like.



I set up this display outside the kindergarten room for the Booster Club. It was a crazy day and I was up until 2:30 am getting it all done. Of course it didn't help that I decided to make cream puffs for the teachers and was making those at midnight. My friend Monica arranged for me to get Jamba Juice for the teachers and they were a big hit! Thanks Monica!



Lael has the same look of tharn Oliver did when she started school but she seemed to have fun.



This is Henry and me after a very long morning (and a weekend of camping and a very long summer spent entertaining the kids). This is probably the last post I will do for a week or so. My family is coming into town for Oliver's baptism. Plus I have the Booster Club to get going and all that. But I am really, really hoping with the time the kids are in school I can get stuff done. It's been about survival for so long that the house has really suffered and especially the office is a disaster. My sisters Sarah and Angie are coming out early next week and they want to help me finish the ceilings that we never got to (we ripped the popcorn off three years ago when we moved in and haven't done more since). Sarah got back from her mission to New Zealand last night so I'm capitalizing her while she's still in humanitarian mode. I can't tell you what makes me take on way more than is humanly possible, but I do blame it on the genes from my Dad's side of the family. I seem to thrive on the challenge. But I am getting burned out and need to cut back in some areas, like in my church service. Anyway, here's hoping the school year brings a more sane existence to me and the Swanson family (even with the dog)!