Swanson Reunion 2011

We were able to travel to Island Park for the 2nd Annual Swanson Family Reunion. We arrived to our cabin on Saturday, unpacked, and was ready for our vacation. Tristan and Cortlynn were so excited to hang out with their cousins and also aunt Nicole. We ate so much good food and snacks I think I left 20 pounds heavier.
This year we decided to decorate T-Shirts. The children decorated their own and the "adults" drew names and decorated that person's shirt. I was quite impressed by the talent and craftiness some of them had. The men may have been griping about the craft portion of the trip but the shirts turned out too cute.
The kids went fishing with their dads and grandpa, some went metal detecting, we had a water fight, cooked smores over the fire, had sno-cones, played cards, and other fun games. The adults had a Wii bowling tournament and I've decided NOT to lose the first game because than you have to come back from behind to try to win. I was so sore the next day. The Wii was a hit as well. The boys loved the hunting game and the girls couldn't get enough of the dancing game. My parents even "Walked like an Egyptian" with huge smiles on their faces. Nicole, dad, Daniel, Josh, and I also decided to play a game of Risk while Devin was out with Tristan(metal detecting). At the beginning Nicole and I decided to team up against the guys and it was the best thing we could have done. We didn't attack each other once the entire game and we slowly took each man out. Needless to say none of them were too happy with us. We didn't even play to see who won: we felt like winners for beating the boys. Teeheeheee
On Wednesday we left and decided to take the kids to Mesa Falls. Cortlynn and Tristan thought they were pretty but were ready to get home. We stopped in Idaho Falls and took them to "Bodies, The Exhibition". Tristan wasn't sure about it and wondered where all of these "monsters" came from: but still enjoyed it. Cortlynn really got into it and enjoyed it as well. All in all we had a great time away and spending it with family made it even better. Can't wait until next year!



Mesa Falls

BFF's Devin and Josh---metal detecting outside the cabin

Parents "dancing"

Nicole winning the favorite aunt title with taking all the kids to the hot tub (by herself) crazy women

The siblings modeling our T-Shirts

ALL the grandkids.

Look at the "sexy" grandparents

I drew Daniel's name and really put my heart into it. :-) Not sure if he appreciated the look I went for. (classy, sexy, diva)

Josh sure looks thrilled in this photo

Josh doing some serious thinking while working on the T-Shirt craft

(Do you like the craft shirts the kids are wearing? They are old Wamu and Chase work shirts. Something good came out of 13 years.)

Clayton and Kyra loved playing on the floor with each other.

Deja Vu: Attack of the Spinkler System Round 2, or 3, or 4??

Well it has been over a month since my last post: Reasons- 1. We've been too busy for me to blog. 2. I've been pretty pissy about things and didn't want to vent to everyone on the blog. 3. When I have any spare time I've been trying to actually read a book instead of play on the computer.

This morning was the last straw; I'm going to vent....I woke up early to get ready for the kids (that I babysit)to show up and I was sitting on the chair wondering why Devin was taking a shower again. After an hour I'm upset because I could only dream of taking an hour long shower so I go outside to look at something and realized that I could hear a loud stream of water. The light bulb went on and I ran downstairs to discover that our window well was half way full of water, we had about an inch of water in the bathroom, the carpet was soppy, and the water was still gushing into the window. I run upstairs to find Devin and inform him of our good news and for him to turn off the water. Thank goodness we have a wet-vac; Devin sucked water out for close to two + hours. I jumped on the phone to call a restoration company, insurance company, sprinkler man----EEEEKKK!

We are pretty certain the sprinkler system is the culprit AGAIN!!! Our basement flooded two years ago but unfortunately this time is worse. They had to cut away part of the wall and remove the insulation. It also went into a storage closet where we keep the Christmas decorations. Fun, Fun, Fun.... I hate, Hate, HATE our sprinkler system and I've told Devin NO MORE! We will be using the good ol'fashion watering: green hose and sprinkler heads. The amount of money we've spent and will be spending could have been used for a nice vacation or at least have the sprinkler system completely redone.

The fans have been set up and we will know a little more tomorrow. I'm just thankful this happened today and not this weekend when we will be out of town. I can only imagine the lake we would have come home to based on the amount of water coming into the window. We would have lost soooooo much.

The plastic barriers and our "new" Storage area

Our Bathroom

Here you can see the parts of the walls they removed and all of the fans

Kyra and Tristan

Kyra is getting so big. Some days it is hard to remember she's only 6 months old because she acts like she is older. She had her 6 month appointment last week and is 15lbs12 ounces: still not double her birth weight but she is so active she has probably lost some. She LOVES to get in bags and purses. The other night she crawled over to the diaper bag and pulled the diapers out to play with them. She is obsessed with diapers--not on her bottom but in her mouth.

Kyra has also learned how to pull herself up on things. The first time was on her car seat. She is so determined and stubborn. When she puts her mind to something, she will succeed. The following photos are of her getting up into her car seat.

Tristan had his first two T-Ball games last week and they are so funny! The helmets are usually too big and when he runs in one he reminds me of Dark Helmet from "Spaceballs". too cute. He hit very well but is still confused as to where the bases are. It doesn't help when most of the teams decided to be green this year and you can't see the bases thru 20 little kids in green. I am still in shock as to how psycho some parents can be with little4 year olds. Yelling at them and telling them how bad they are playing. There were some HUGE jerks at the first game and the biggest one I knew from the bank. He was a jerk there so I shouldn't be surprised at him treating his son like garbage. There was also a grandparent who thought it was a good idea to take photos from the pitcher mound during the game! WHAT??? They asked her to leave and she said, "But this is the best angle." and stomped off. Too bad they didn't let her stay and get hit in the head with a ball. Some people are so stupid! Tristan had fun and doesn't quite understand that when you're playing 3rd base, you can't leave and find mom to get a drink or tell her how you want to play the DS when you get home. Yes--he did this. ;- )

This is Tristan with his hand up saying, "Where is the base???"

This little boy kept hitting the top of Tristan's helmet.

Date....What???

When Devin and I were dating we would go on a date 2,3, sometimes 4 times a week. Before we got married we made a pact that we would have a date night every week. Than Cortlynn was born and the weekly date became more like a monthly date. Fast forward a few years and I need to look in a dictionary to see what the definition of "date" is. Our Anniversary was no different. :-) In October I placed a bid on a 1 night stay at a themed hotel at Cortlynns Halloween Carnival; expecting someone to outbid me. Nope-I won it. I thought I would have a year to use it but it actually expired June 30. So=Anniversary here we come.
Kyra doesn't like a bottle anymore and I didn't want to leave her so I knew she would be coming with us. Everyone is so busy that I wasn't sure what to do with the other two kids. Hmmmmm....So Devin worked and told me he would get off earlier than 5:00: nope-he got home closer to 7:00. We decided that we would sneak out for a few minutes and get some ice cream-just the two of us. Ice cream was good. We came home, picked up the kiddos and went to the hotel. (the kids LOVE to stay in hotels-so why not) You're really not supposed to have kids at the hotel so we "snuck" them in. We actually had a back door so it was easy. Everyone was hungry so we decided to get pizza. Too bad the first place closed at 10 and the other place closed the door at 10 and you had to go thru the drive-thru. We finally got back to the room with pizza at 11:00.
The next morning we woke up, snuck the kids out, and headed to Idaho Falls for Kyra's 6 month check-up/shots. Yep that summed it up. Ah well, spending time with the family can't be beat and the kids enjoyed a night away from home.

Happy 11 Years

On June 24th 2000 I married my best friend Devin McIntire. I cannot believe we have been married for 11 years and have been blessed with three beautiful children. Unlike last year we will not be walking 23+ miles on the streets of Paris trying to locate the Paris, France Hard Rock Cafe (darn it) but we will be celebrating it by taking Kyra in for her 6 month shots. Yippee...Oh well----

Happy 11th Anniversary Devin and I love you!

Everything Homemade

This week has been good. It seems like it just flew by. It was rainy most of the week so the kids had to stay in the house and entertain themselves. They were so happy when the weather changed and they could enjoy going outside on Friday. I took Cortlynn, Tristan, and Kyra to the movie Gnomeo and Juliet on Thursday for a kid discounted pass day and I am happy to say my
three children were the best behaved....even out of the adults. The movie was cute and they really like to be able to hang out with mom. Have I mentioned how happy I am I made the decision to quit my job??? Best decision!
This week Devin's father celebrated his birthday and I offered to make the cake. I had a different idea for the cake but with a 5 month old who doesn't nap, watching 2 other children, and making all of it from scratch---I ran out of time. I was happy with it and Devin's family seemed to enjoy it. There wasn't much left. The bottom layer was a yellow cake with Cinnamon cream cheese filling and butter cream. The second layer was chocolate with the same filling...all with fondant covering it. (EVERYTHING was homemade) I ordered a set of round pans that will work better than what I have so I'm excited to get those.
Kyra has decided that she wants to crawl. I think since she has older siblings-she is progressing quicker to keep up. Anyway-her favorite thing to do is crawl onto our table in the living room and than crawling thru to the other side. She is constantly doing this. She also enjoys to crawl over to the diaper bag and dig in it for diapers. While at the store the other day I was checking out with her in my left arm. I turned away for a moment and she decided to dig in the purse of the women behind us. How embarrassing.... ;-) She has also moved to her highchair. She looks so tiny in her seat but she thinks she is such a big girl. What a cutie.

Catching up....

The problem with not blogging every day/week is that when you finally sit down to write there is a TON of stuff to write about and I don't know if people want to read a 10 page blog on the McIntire happenings. I'm not going to write 10 pages but I'm afraid it may be close.

We have been one busy family. Cortlynn had her end of year dance recital two weeks ago and I think both of us are glad we have a break. That Saturday was so long! Her first rehearsal was at 11:15am with a short break before she performed at 2:00. It ended at 3:00 and we had a little over an hour until rehearsal #2 took place before the evening performance at 7:00. By 9:00 all the kids and their mom were exhausted. She did such a good job and she looked so pretty.
School ended last week and she had a talent show on one of the days. Cortlynn and her friend Abby had been practicing their dance after school for a week preparing for the show: most of it was their jazz dance but they also made up parts of it. Right before it starts 2 other girls walk in with their jazz costumes on and my heart sinks. Yep- they are doing the same dance. with the same music. Cortlynn and Abby took it in stride and kept their heads high. I was a proud mom because I thought they were better. ;-) It's funny but when I was in school there were a few that really thought they would go to Nashville to be singers so it was difficult for the rest of us to "show" any talents. Kinda felt like you were 2nd class; anywhoo- Cortlynn has a girl in her class that takes clogging (her mom was part of the Fab Five on America's got Talent) Sweet girl and her mom is great BUT going up against a very loud CLOGGER is difficult. Last year and this year there was a "problem" with the music so they had to postpone the performance, go out in the hall, shut the door, and practice. When they came back in one of the kids was showing his things he built with legos (not singing or dancing but a talent to him and to me) and one of the other clogging moms whispered, "I sure wish they would filter some of this and only pick the good ones." I seriously wanted to smack her! Who has the right to determine what a talent is. It takes a lot of guts to get in front of people. It was long-but I enjoyed seeing all of the little 4th graders get excited to share their talents with their classmates, teachers, and the few parents that were able to make it.
This weekend the fire department had an open house so I took the kids. Tristan LOVED the firetrucks and had to sit in every single one of them. Cortlynn enjoyed the smoke house where she learned how to leave a burning building.
Last week we had a little family get together with my family. My uncle Larry (moms brother) who I haven't seen in 9 years and my cousin Abby (who I haven't seen in 25+ years) were able to come up here from Texas and spend some time with my grandparents. This was a perfect time for us to get together and celebrate my grandma's 85 birthday and my grandparents 65th anniversary. It turned out to be a lovely day and we enjoyed some great food.

When I quit my job I thought that I could watch a few children-just to bring in a little money. I posted an add in the paper (which I don't think anyone reads the paper anymore-that was money down the drain) and I also posted on Craig's List. This add was another mistake- I had 2 people call and were pissed when I told them I don't accept assistance from the state (a program that will pay a portion of childcare for individuals-I didn't even know this existed). I also had a sick psycho from England contact me requesting my picture and information so I could take care of his son while he was here on a secret mission. And than I received a phone call and a NASTY letter from the police department telling me that if I receive money to watch any child other than my own for ANY amount of time-I'm required to get a city license and if I don't I could possible receive a misdemeanor citation. (Sorry Cortlynn, I guess babysitting isn't an option for you) After this I pulled the adds. Last week a friend of mine asked if I was still willing to watch children and I was excited. Her children are 9 and 7 and my kids were so excited to have kids over to play. On Friday they didn't want to leave and my kids were bummed that they left. This made me feel good.



I decided to take a First day of school picture and a Last day of school picture and see how much the kids have changed in just a short period of time. Granted Cortlynn had a lot of her hair cut off-but she looks so much older-so does Tristan

Tristan took the camera and wanted to get a picture of me and Devin. He was so excited that the picture was "GREAT"


Kyra can sit up by herself now and will probably be crawling with the next couple of weeks--She is 5 1/2 months old but she is growing so fast.

These are a few photos of the kids at the fire station open house.

The other night we took a ride and stopped outside McKees to look at the animals. The sheep and goats were so funny I bet we sat and watched them for a good 15 minutes.They would chase each other and than jump up in the air. I was amazed how high they could get. This is a picture of one of them jumping.

A couple of family photos . The first one is my grandparents with their kids. The second one is of all 7 grand kids. The first time all seven of us have been in the same room. It was awesome

Kyra LOVES men and she hung out with Don (Tony's dad) for a good hour. This is a great picture of the two of them.

Josh and Clayton hanging out. He may be younger than Kyra but he looks so much bigger. He's such a cutie. The other kids wouldn't sit still so I wasn't able to get any pictures of them.

I made a birthday cake for grandma. This was my 3rd cake I've decorated with fondant and the little owl is made out of fondant too. I was pretty happy with it. The main cake was also homemade---NOT out of a box. I need to pick up actual cake pans so I can make more---I don't have a lot of sizes so for the top tier I used a loaf pan.

Kyra LOVES music and will play the piano with Cortlynn. I took a couple of pictures the other day and it really looks like she is playing the piano.

These are photos of Cortlynn in her Jazz costume the day of her recitals. So pretty.

All 3 kids sitting on the couch reading a book. Too cute.

Kyra being adorable.