The Swensruds in 2011

Another year has ended, and once again I was not very good at keeping up to date with our family website.  :)  I will try to do a better job this year!  Here is a little recap of how our year went and how our family is doing.

Emma

2011 was an exciting year for Emma!  She graduated from preschool in May and started kindergarten in September.  My, how time has passed quickly!

Preschool Graduation

1st Day of Kindergarten

Emma drew this picture on
her chalk board for Mommy
on Sept. 1, 2011

Emma is very quick to learn new things.  She is learning how to read and do basic math.  She is towards the top of her class in academics!  Her first report card was amazing!  She knows several sight words and can read level 1 books with some help (the amount of help she is needing is getting less and less).  Emma still loves to draw and now she is adding words to her pictures to create stories.

Puyallup Fair 2011

I love reading her inventive spelling!  She also loves to play with her dolls, stuffed animals, Barbies, and any other toy that she can do creative play with.  It has been a lot of fun watching her grow and learn this past year!  Another exciting thing that happened to Emma last year is that she lost 6 teeth and she has already got 2 new ones back!  And, yes she lost her top front teeth early, just like her mama did.  :)  I love her toothless grin!

Caleb

Our little water baby!

Caleb has grown and changed in so many ways over the last year.  For one, he's grown much bigger!  He's almost as big as his sister even though there is a 2 year age difference between them.  In the last 6 months he's gained about 5 pounds and grown about an inch and a half!  Caleb has also learned a lot this past year.  His speech and language development increased rapidly during the beginning and middle part of 2011.  He is quite a funny character!  :)  I love his personality and he cracks me up with some of the things that he comes up with.  He is definitely all boy...loves to play with cars, trucks, planes, trains (any mode of transportation for that matter), action figures, balls...any boy toy.  But, he's also very sweet and loves to cuddle!  Over the past year, Caleb has taken a greater interest in books, games, and coloring.  He is working on learning his letter, colors, numbers, and shapes.  He has a wonderful big sister who loves to help teach him!  Our Bubba is no longer a baby!  I'm excited to watch him as he continues to grow and learn!

Puyallup Fair 2011

Caleb was the Scarecrow
for Halloween.

Matt and Stacy



In August we celebrated our 9th anniversary!  God has blessed us greatly over these past nine years, even when life has thrown us a curve ball! :-) Matt started school in May.  He is going to Faith Seminary to get his Master's Degree in Theology.  He is really enjoying his classes and is excited about all the new information that he is learning.  We are excited to see what God has in store for him (and us) as Matt embarks upon this new chapter in his life!  Stacy is still teaching 4th grade in Auburn.  This is my 9th year of teaching.  It's hard to believe that my first class of students will be graduating from high school this year!  How time flies!!

A Year's worth of Pictures and Adventures

We had a lot of fun as a family in 2011.  Here's our year in pictures!

Stacy's birthday weekend in Seattle.  This was taken on the balcony of our hotel room at the Lake Union Marriott.  We had a great view!  What a fun and relaxing weekend!

Emma turned 5 at the end of January!  She chose to have an Ariel/Princess birthday party.  All of her friends dressed up like princesses and she was Ariel (her favorite princess).  :)

Emma's Preschool Winter Social

The kids getting ready to swim at a hotel during a weekend getaway.

On February 21st, Emma lost her first tooth.

Fun in the snow!

Caleb turned 3 in March!  We had a fun family birthday party for him.

One week after he turned 3, Caleb fractured his finger and nearly cut it off in a folding chair.  He was quite the trooper through it all though and now there is hardly a scar.  He's one tough little boy!

Emma and Caleb acting silly.  :)

Easter pic

Emma and Mommy at the Daffodil Parade in Sumner.  Emma loved collecting all the daffodils that were thrown during the parade!

Mother's Day

Mother's Tea at Emma's Preschool

Emma's Preschool Graduation

Family trip to Seattle during the summer.  After playing at the Seattle Children's Museum, we let the kids play in the fountain at the Seattle Center.  Emma and Caleb had a blast!

Camping in our backyard.

Matt's Uncle Phill took us on boat ride while we were at the Blakeway family reunion (Matt's mom's side of the family).  We had a lot of fun and the kids loved the boat ride!  We took this picture right after our boat ride.

Playing on the beach in Seaside, OR during our camping trip in Astoria.

Emma's first day of kindergarten!  Our baby girl is growing up so fast!

Our little firefighters ~ Puyallup Fair

Caleb and Emma loved the rides at the Puyallup Fair!  We even had beautiful weather for our fair trip.  :)

Emma was Goldilocks and Caleb was the Scarecrow for Halloween.

Christmas Pictures 2011

Zoo Lights

Emma, Caleb, and Mommy went ice skating during Christmas break.  This was the kids first time ice skating. Emma caught on pretty quickly.  Caleb struggled a bit more, but he was starting to catch on by the end.

Christmas day 2011.  We had a truly blessed Christmas celebrating our Lord and Savior's Birthday!  Since Christmas was on a Sunday, we started off the morning by going to church.  Then we opened our presents, had some family time with just the 4 of us, and rounded off the day by having our large family get together at house.  It was a fun day!