Valentines 2011

We had a very eventful Valentine's this year! For starters it was Hayden's first Valentines and of course I had to buy her a cute outfit. It said "love bug" on the front of the onesie and the pants were red with white hearts. I even found her a bib that said "Mommy's valentine." She looked so cute, I even made a bow to match.

Hayden's First Valentines!

5 Weeks old

Mommy's cute little Valentine!

I decided to treat myself to my favorite breakfast French Toast. I even was being very creative and made them into heart shape. It look and tasted really good. I then decided to make some Valentines for my family so I made heart shaped brownies and heart shaped mini cheese cakes. They were also very yummy! I also make heart shaped valentines with my cricut from the kids. They turned out very cute!

My favorite Breakfast

Yummy valentine brownies!

My other favorite dessert, besides chocolate!

The kids and I hand delivered every one's valentines. We first went Alex's and Amie's house and then headed to my dad and sister Katelyn's house and gave them each a cheese cake. Triston gave Shara a valentines too! We then went to my Grandma Swenson's house. She loved the cute valentines. After my Grandma's we went over and saw Chris, Grandpa Richard and Brian and then went over and gave a valentine to Grandma Carol and Scott. We had a very busy night. We were all exhausted by the time we drove home. It was nice to show our family members how much we love them.

Triston loves to get his picture taken!

This year was Triston's first time handing out valentines to his preschool class. He decided to have transformer valentines. He had so much fun showing me what type of candy/presents he received at his preschool. He was so cute!

Family Pics 2010

I have been trying to get family pictures for a while, but with me working all the time and the weather it was a battle. We were able to get some awesome pictures thanks to my friend Jennie. The only problem was that it was to cold for Triston and he had a hard time cooperating.

The family 2010

This is my favorite picture of Triston!

We had to get a picture of the belly!

I Love my Triston!

I don't know what Triston was looking at but it is a good picture of Chris.

ThanksGiving 2010

This ThanksGiving we were invited to go up to my Uncles Mikes. We ended up having turkey dinner at his church house. There was so many little kids there, between all of the cousins there was 7 kids under 4 years of age. It was very loud. The food was really yummy and we had fun catching up with the family. The kids had fun running around while the older kids played a game and played basketball. It was a very fun day. Triston had fun playing, but by the end he got a little grumpy.

Discharged

My Dad was finally discharged from the hospital Sunday afternoon. I hope that he is doing OK. My wonderful husband Chris went to pick him up, because I worked the night before. He was a trooper, he said that he waited there for 4 hours because they didn't have him ready to go. The waited for all my Dad's discharge instructions and for all the medications that the pharmacy had to fill for him. Thanks Chris for all the help.

Dad Update

My Dad was diagnoses with:

1. Ventricular Tachycardia (fast heart rhythm)
2. Dilated Cardiomyopathy (heart becomes weaken and enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently)
3. Atrial Flutter (abnormal heart rhythm)
4. Left Atrial Thrombus (blood clot)
5. Congestive Heart Failure (the heart can't pump enough blood to the body's other organs)

He had a Angiogram (an X-ray that uses special dye and a camera to take pictures of the blood flow in an artery or vein) on Thursday. They said that his arteries of his heart were clear. They decided to place a ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator). The ICD cans sense when your heart rhythm becomes dangerously fast. The ICD will either send electrical impulses to override the fast rhythm and bring it back to normal, or it will interrupt the fast rhythm by briefly shocking the heart. After this shock, the heart rhythm usually returns to normal. Sounds really serious. His ICD was place Friday evening. He did very well in the placement of the device. He should be going home on Saturday or Sunday.

Dad after the ICD placement.

Dad Update

My dad has been diagnosed with atrial Flutter (abnormal wave form and contraction in the right atrium). Since this abnormal heart beat the right atrium in not properly squeezing all the blood out of the right atrium to the right ventricle. In order to change this irregular rhythm they need to do one of two this; shock his heart (cardiovert) inorder to the heart to get back in to a regular rythm or use medication to help him convert back to his regular rhythm. My dad had a Transesophageal Echocardiogram which a transducer is place down the throat to take a better look at the heart. With the echo they notice a large blood clot (probably due to the pooling of the blood) in his right atrium. They were going to shock his heart to try to put him back into normal sinus rhythm, but after they found this clot they decided not to. They reason that they don't want to shock the heart at this time is becauses they don't want to dislodge the clot and cause it to go to the lungs. So the doctors told him that he needs to stay in the hospital to be put on blood thinner and to make sure the clot doesn't dislodge for the next 5 days. He is pretty much on strick bedrest. He can only get up to take a shower or to use the restroom. Poor dad it would drive me crazy if I had to stay in bed all the time. He said that he is doing better, but he is just really tired all the time. I hope that he gets better soon. I will keep everyone posted.

My Sick Dad

Boy is nothing boring in my life right now. Well my Dad hasn't been feeling good within the last couple of days. So he had a doctors appointment last night and they noticed that his pulse rate was 145 beats per minute (average heart rate 60-80 beats per minute). His doctor told him to go to the ER at St Marks Hospital to get looked at. To see why his heart rate was so high. Also he has noticed that he has been taking on some water in his legs, so it is a good thing that he went to get checked out. He was in ER for a while, they gave him a drug to decrease his heart rate, but it didn't work well. They also gave him Lasix (water pill) to take some of the water off his legs. I hope that they figure out what is wrong with him. I am stuck here in the hospital, so I guess I will see him in the morning and find out more. I love you Dad!

Grandpa Swenson's Funeral

What a very long day and sad day. We started out going to my Grandpa Swenson's viewing at about 11 am then the funeral at about 12 pm. Except that some of my cousins were extremely late and the whole funeral was put on hold for about 20 minutes. I was so upset that they couldn't get to the funeral on time. I thought that it was very disrespectful to not just Grandpa, but to all those that came to his funeral.

My Dad gave the family prayer and my Brother Sam read his obituary and a poem. When the Bishop was announcing the program it was to my surprise that I was on the program. I was so post to direct a musical number for the grandchildren and great grandchildren to sing the song "Families Can Be Together Forever," except no one even told me that I was on the program and there was no practicing of this song with anyone in the family. Luckily I ended up getting out of it, my Aunt Pam announce that there was a change the program and we wanted the congregation to sing the song. I was so relieved, after I almost peed my pants! The funeral went really well, everyones talks were really good.

At the dedication of the grave site my grandpa had a Military honor ceremony,
which consisted of;

Folding of the flag

Presenting of the Flag to my Grandma

the military gun solute

the playing of the trumpet solo "Taps."

We also had the placing of roses on the casket in rememberence. It was a very touching and memerable funeral. I am glad that I have such a close family to help support each other in this time of need. I love them all so much. I also want to let my Grandma know how much I love her.

Passing of my Grandpa Swenson

My Grandpa Swenson (My Dads Dad) passed away on Monday, May 18th from a long battle of heart failure. He was a wonderful grandpa. I miss him so much. He was a very spiritual man. I loved sharing my most spiritual moment with him and my grandma as they went with us to take our endowments out and they were there to witness our sealing of our family. I was very close to my grandparents and I have many memories with both of them. I remember the many parades that my grandpa marched in with the post office band and how I use to twirl baton with them. My grandpa was so dedicated to them that he went to all the concerts and parades even when his health declined and he couldn't march any more. I can't remember a time when we didn't go up to East Canyon. We always had so much fun when we were up there. The funnest times were playing rummy with Grandma and Grandpa for hours. I love my Grandpa! I will miss him.

Here is his obituary

Robert Andrew Swenson
Robert Andrew Swenson 1928 ~ 2009 Robert Andrew Swenson passed away May 18, 2009. He was born February 28, 1928 in Magna, Utah to Ruth Alice Thomsen and Emil F. Swenson. He attended South High School in Salt Lake City, the University of Utah and BYU Salt Lake Center. He joined the Air Force in 1946, and was assigned to the 5th Air Force Headquarters Band at Nagoya, Japan, serving as drum major. He married Fumie Suzuki on September 4, 1948. In 1949 he was called by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve as a missionary in Japan, establishing the branch in Fukuoka and serving as president of the Nagoya Branch. He completed his mission in April 1952 and took his family home to Utah where Bob and Fumie were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Bob and Fumie helped organize the Japanese-language Dai-ichi Ward. He served as Stake Sunday School President, Stake Clerk, High Priest Group Leader, and High Council member. He served as an ordinance worker in the Jordan River Temple for 14 years. Bob worked 20 years as a Letter Carrier, and 12 years as a security officer at LDS Hospital. He served 58 years with the Salt Lake City Letter Carrier Band, as drum major in the Days of 47 Parade and numerous other parades in Utah and at conventions of the National Association of Letter Carriers across the USA. He was a colonel in the Civil Air Patrol, serving 25 years, and a colonel in the Utah State Guard with 26 years service. He served on the board of the national Japanese American Citizens League Credit Union. Robert is survived by his wife of 60 years, Fumie; his sons Raymond (Constance), David (Pam), Michael (Kathy), Cory (Terri), and daughter Pamela; 16 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren; his sister Joan McDonald; his aunt Mary Nacaratto; and many cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Kenneth, sister-in-law Rosemary, brother-in-law Ray McDonald, niece Kimberly McDonald, daughter-in-law Kathy, grand daughters Karen and Julia, and great-grandson Reilly Burton. Funeral services will be held Tuesday May 26, 2009, at 12 noon at the Kearns 14th Ward, 4232 West 5015 South. Friends may call Monday evening at Jenkins-Soffe Mortuary in Murray, 4760 So. State Street from 6-8 p.m., or one hour prior to services, at the church. Interment at Valley View Memorial. Online condolences at www.jenkins-soffe.com

Finally Family Pictures

So I finally went to look at our pictures. Some of them worked and some of

them didn't work well. Here are the ones that I bought. I also bought the

one picture on my title heading. I ended up spending a over $300. But

it doesn't matter, because these pictures are priceless.

Our Family

Chris, Triston, and Penny

My dad and the kids!

Katelyn, Alex, Dad, Sam and Penny.



Our Family
Dad, Sam, Mindy, Brooks, Taeler, Daxon, Cash, Penny,
Chris, Triston, Alex, Amie, Gavin, Katelyn and Shara.

Family Pics

So I have been trying to get my extended family together to get a family picture. It has been tough working with everyone schedule, but we finally were successful. We picked out our color scheme and showed up to get some snapshots of our happy little family. It took a lot of work to get 3 kids under 2 to smile at the same time and to have 2- 6&7 year old boys not beat each other up, but all in all our family picture turn out OK. I think that it would have worked out better if Triston took a nap earlier in the day. He did OK for 10 seconds. He was not having it! He wanted to get up and play because everyone else was running around. We were able to get a few good pictures, but not as much as I would have liked. I am sorry but I am unable to post the pictures, but the photographer doesn't put them online and he charges an arm and a leg to get any of them. Next time I am going to find someone cheaper who does a quality job.

I also really need to have Triston's 2 year old pictures done, but I don't know who to go with. I have been going to Kiddie Kandids, but I didn't want to spend to much money, but they actually sound really reasonable compared to this other photographer. Anyways as soon as I get these pictures I will post them.