Please Flush and Woth....

Myah makes me laugh. This is the sign she made and taped to her bathroom door the other day. The boys have a bathroom downstairs, but whenever they are upstairs, they use her bathroom since they aren't allowed to use mine. In case you can't read it: 'Rest Rom for Men and Wumin. Ples Flush and woth'.
And I think the one picture is of her in the shower.
The other looks like a toilet???

Run Run As Fast As I Can

Yay...I completed my 2nd half marathon on Saturday. And I really, really enjoyed it.

The weather was perfect. The runners were great fun and soooo encouraging. (I guess I'm the party pooper who didn't dress up to the theme of 'wild wild west'.) This crazy guy dressed up as Colonel ...???? (I can't remember, I always want to say colonel Mustard, but I know that's not right.) But the point is, the guy ran the entire 13.1 miles in complete costume! Can you even imagine how uncomfortable and hot that would be?


The scenery was gorgeous!

My cheerleaders were the best! (notice the man in the red long johns in the picture below. That was another of my favorite costumes.)And the uphill parts didn't even kill me! (although I was starting to wonder)

It felt great, and I'm so glad that I did it. I even improved my time by 8 minutes! I sure did miss the Mo's though. Maybe next year??? (btw...it didn't start until 10:13 in the morning. That was the best part of all! I didn't have to drag my butt out of bed until I was good and ready!)

And Then There Were Two

I have a bunch of old Halloween pictures with all of my kids dressed up and so excited to hit the streets! But I guess things have changed around here. This year, Skyler went to a party, and didn't dress up. Zac stayed home and answered the door (due to an injury earlier in the day). Tannon also went to a party, and while he did dress up, I missed the photo op with him. So it was just Myah and Desmond. And since Zac answered the door, Derrick and I actually BOTH got to take them trick or treating this year. Boy, was I glad it was such a warm and nice Halloween evening. I usually use my door answering duties as an excuse to not have to brave the freezing Idaho Halloween weather. But not this year!

Hope y'all had a happy Halloween!

Whoa....Back Up

This post is for my mom. She mentioned that I posted what we did at the beginning of summer and at the end of summer, but that I totally left out the rest. Honestly, I have no recollection of the middle. I'm sure it happened, and I'm mostly sure I was part of it....but that's about it.

So here's what I do remember (thanks for pictures and other people's blogs to borrow pictures from)

We had a fun family reunion with Derrick's family. It was over the 4th of July, and we really enjoyed ourselves, but I forgot to pull out the camera. So, I'll be borrowing pics from my mother in law. (thanks Ruth!)

This is the bunch of us. I think it's funny that all of the tall Swaner guys married short girls. I guess they needed us to balance them out (in more ways than one!).

This is Derrick and his dad. I like this picture.

If you look back through my blog far enough, you'll see multiple pictures of these 2 little girls in this very same pose. They don't get to see each other very often, but every time they do, they pose for the same picture. This is Myah and her cousin Abby. I wish Kira would have been in it with them. 3 cute girlie cousins.
Other than that, I kept the kids home and made them clean and mow and babysit all summer long! haha (although that's probably what they would tell you!)

Really, it was a quick and fun summer. And if we sum it all up.....


Tannon avoided way too many pictures. Such a handsome kid. Must take more pictures of him....
Skyler....developed a bit of a six pack? What's up with that? And how is that fair? Do you even know how many crunches I do every day??? Must be all those bon-bons I eat all day.
Myah never ever missed a photo-op. She'll jump into any picture. I rubbed my feet in the sand. And I thought of my mom. The Moser girls love to sit on the beach and rub our feet in the sand and chat for hours and hours and hours. And we always comment on how the sand is kind of giving us a nice little pedicure. So I took this picture just for you, mom.
We ate popsicles

and fished

and camped

and hiked

and backpacked

and cavedand swam

and played with cousins

and visited the emergency room (what would summer be without it???)

and tried to catch the sweet 'happy moments' on camera!
and some of us never, ever missed another photo op....
And there you have it! So long, summer 2010!!! (and I really wouldn't mind if you could manage to come a little earlier next year and maybe even stay a little longer.)

It's a Wrap

That's pretty much it. Summer is wrapping up. The kids are back in school. Soccer is in full swing. And I'm keeping busy canning, and trying to keep Des busy!

As always, we headed up to Bear Lake for a day over Labor Day weekend. It was lovely, although a little windy. But isn't Bear Lake always windy? I don't think the kids even noticed the wind, and they had a blast.Zac and Nathan picked up some other kids on the beach to play soccer with (or against).
Des played a little soccer of his own.

Des, Ryan, and Kamden....aka The Three Musketeers

Tiana and Nicky.


I love this guy.and this one
and this one too
and yep, this one too
and even this one!
And this little girlie is pretty sweet too.
And then it was time for SCHOOL!
Skyler started high school this year. Zac started Junior High School. It is Tannon's first year to NOT have an older brother looking out for him at school. He IS the older brother. And Myah started 1st grade, making it the first time she's away from me all day! Which means it's the first time I've been left home alone with Des ALL DAY! And, as we all know, Des is a pretty busy little guy. I've been trying to get him out before the weather turns bad. We've visited the zoo, gone for long drives, and we have walked down to visit the neighbor's dog several times a day. And that's all before nap time! For the first couple of days, he walked around the house looking for everyone.



and while they're away....

I guess that about covers it! I better get canning!!!