Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Kittens

Daisy's first litter of kittens has been quite an adventure.  The kids have loved loved loved watching them grow.  They play with them nearly every day and though they've made a complete disaster of our garage I think even Daddy has enjoyed them and we are all a little sad to see them go, though it is time.  I listed the kittens on craigslist having no idea how quickly they would go.  I really thought that we would be lucky to find homes for all of them and had asked Robert about bringing one or two over to the dairy if we couldn't find homes.  However, much to my surprise people started texting right away and with in 2-3 days they all had homes.  This was all great and happy news until Robert informed me that people feed kittens to snakes.  WHAT?!?!  I mostly thought he was giving me a hard time but then I found some things online to suggest that this was possible.  So now I was no longer happy but a very upset cat owner thinking I had possibly sent my children's kittens to their untimely deaths.  All that to say after much worrying and Robert not being willing to let me off the hook by telling me he was kidding I behaved like a crazy cat lady and sent texts to the people who had taken our kittens asking for pictures of them.  I said that my "kids were missing them :)"  Luckily they all seem to be in happy homes and I can once again sleep at night.  THANK YOU SO MUCH UNCLE ROBERT!! 





Peanut - aka Peaney
Peanut found a home with Uncle Andy and Auntie Kendy and was renamed "Gus."

Even though Peanut was headed to Andy and Kendra's, Wyatt still wasn't sure he wanted to let him go :(

Fuzzy was their favorite!








The Kittens safely in their new homes. 




Friday, April 13, 2018

Swier Family Reunion

This past June we enjoyed a Swier family reunion on the coast.  My mom and Aunts did a ton of work planning and preparing, as well as finding 3 houses in a row to rent along the Oregon coast.   We're a big family which is only getting bigger so the fact that everyone was able to be together for a few days really was a big deal.  In attendance was my Grandpa, my moms 3 siblings with their spouses, and 11 of my 13 cousins along with their spouses traveled from all over to spend a few days together.  Growing up we were all really close, but time and life have moved some of us far away  and many of us into very different stages of life.  Two of my cousins serve in the military, one lives in Kansas, many of us are married, and some of us have a few or many kids of our own.  It feels like a long time ago that we were playing together on our diary in Arizona or in one of my Aunts backyards.  In fact I hadn't even meet all of my cousins spouses.  All this to say, this reunion was a really nice and overdue chance to reconnect with one another.

Hanging out at the "Kid House" 


My Hazelnut.


Uncle Caleb and Carter

Truly, everyone needs Uncles as fun as ours!

Robert and his Boys!
Carter and Ollie

My Boys

The downstairs of "Kid House" had a pac-man machine.  My boys may have spent A LOT of time on it while I enjoyed catching up with the grown-ups.

Payton and Evie

We had only to cross the street to be on the beach which was a dream come true for our littlest beach lovers.





One of the family activities was making T-Shirts



Grandpa and Cooper

Maybe not a great picture but I sure love laughing with my sisters.

One of our last outings was paddle boating.  Hazel was not impressed but probably mostly because she was exhausted.  Daddy headed home the night before we did and lets just say our night alone didn't go so well.  Hazel woke up at 2:00 a.m. crying and I was unable to reason with her.  Evie was asleep in my bed, my cousin and her little one were in the room next to us, my brothers were asleep on the couch, and I was desperate to keep her quite.  I talked her into going to find Grammy upstairs but when Grammy's door was locked she lost it and I was about to loose it so I did the only thing I could think of at that moment, I took her outside and stuck her in time out in the car and gave myself a time out as well.  After lots of screaming and flailing around she finally decided she was ready to go back to bed, but I'm not sure we ever fully recovered.  We were definitely ready to head home at the end of the day.


 


Uncle Pat was a great sport taking the boys out since I obviously couldn't take everyone.  Wyatt and Cooper just love him and had such a blast.

There really are a lot of us!
The Swier Family!
Top Row: Carlisle Family
Left Side: Moss Family
Center: Grandpa
Right Side:  Horwood Family and Swier Family

The Moss Family

We shared dinner together each night and on the last night we took a minute to honor Grandpa and Grandma for all that they've done to make our family what it is today.  My Aunts and Uncle read some favorite memories which had us all laughing and then we had a chance to tell Grandpa what he means to us and how much we appreciate him. 
For me I'm thankful for the the strong Christian legacy that my family has going back to my Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, and even before that.  I'm so very thankful for the investment Grandpa continues to make in my life and in the lives of my children.  Moments like these make me miss my Dad so badly.  I wish more than anything he was still here to be a part of this big crazy family.  However, I know that he is still a part of us and as I miss him at gatherings like this I am also increasingly grateful for what I have and especially for the influence of Godly men like my Grandfather in my own life and the lives of each of my children.  Great-Grandpa comes to all of the kids' events when he is town and always takes a minute to say hi to each of them and scoop them onto his lap and call them silly names. We are truly very lucky to call him Grandpa.