Merry Christmas

Since our christmas cards are starting to arrive at thier destinations I will go ahead and post our news letter. I hope each and every one of you have a very merry christmas and a wonderful new year filled with happy memories.

Dear family and friends,

It is hard to believe that another two years has flown by. Where has the time gone? So much has happened that we hope we remember to share it all.

Two years ago Randy found a job that had room for advancement and better pay. He quit Table Talk after about three years and started working for ShopNatural Food Coop. He was the shipping and receiving coordinator and warehouse assistant manager. This position only lasted a brief 6 months when the company went bankrupt and they had to close their doors after 30 plus years of serving Tucson. But, it all worked out. He was planning on quitting at the beginning of the coming year to attend school and was able to keep working until December. In January, he started school full time for the first time since 2000, yikes. While he was attending Pima Community College in the Interpreter Training Program for Sign Language, he learned of a new program that was going to be starting in the fall of 2008. Northern Arizona University was expanding their distance learning site here in Tucson to include a dual major certification program. The program certifies teachers in elementary education from kindergarten through eighth grades and special education from kindergarten through twelfth grade. He applied and passed the interview process to begin. Being the first cohort, everything didn’t always go smoothly, but it all worked out in the end. The good news is that NAU’s main campus is revamping their dual certification program to make it run more like the one here in Tucson from the suggestions of Randy’s class. Randy will be doing his student teaching beginning in January and will graduate on May 7th 2009. Randy is looking forward to starting his teaching career.

Sarah graduated December 2007 and continued to work at the Veterans’ Hospital here in Tucson, but now as a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She is working on gaining more and more experience and on becoming a valuable member of the ICU team. She has been working full time while Randy has been going to school and she loves it. She recently switched from working a day schedule to working nights. Surprise, surprise, she thoroughly enjoys living like a bat! Sarah looks forward to changing to part-time when Randy graduates.

The most important and wonderful occurrence in the past two years was the birth of our beautiful daughter, Jolee Sarah Swann, this May. Using self hypnosis and a water birth, Sarah was able to give birth to a healthy 9lb 5oz little girl naturally without the use of any medications (one of Sarah’s super goals)! Sarah describes this as the most wonderful and life-altering event to ever bless our family. Jolee is named after three of her grandmothers; JoAnn (Sarah’s mom), LeAnn (Randy’s mom), and Sarah (Sarah’s grandmother, who she is also named after). Jolee is growing so quickly that Mom and Dad are continually amazed. She babbles constantly and loves to have conversations with her parents (although we are unsure what she is saying). She scoots where ever she desires, rolls (especially during diaper changes), sits on her own, rocks on her hands and knees, and has even tried to pull herself up to standing using the couch. One of her favorite activities is bouncing in her jumper (she has amazingly strong legs for a 6 month old). She has a heart winning smile and giggles and laughs constantly. She recently learned how to imitate coughing causing her GramE (Grandma Ellsworth) to laugh hysterically; she will close her eyes, stick out her tongue, give a tiny cough, and then quickly look to make sure she has made you laugh, so cute. She truly is the light of our family and we love her dearly.

Randy and Sarah continue to be very active at church. Randy is now serving in the young men’s working with the 12-13 year olds. Sarah is now planning and coordinating meetings for Relief Society (the women’s group) and coordinating service for families during crisis, celebration, sickness, etc. Thus, we both stay very busy. Both Sarah and Randy continue to sing in the choir and their knees are shaking as they prepare for a duet for Christmas. These two years have been exceedingly blessed and brimming with happiness. We love each of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to 2010!

Randy, Sarah, and Jolee Swann

Off to the Park

We had a great time on Veteran's Day at the park with the Romneys and the Andersons. Jolee slept on during the walk there, but she woke up and had fun playing and tasting a carrot and watching the other kids play. Thanks for inviting us!

We laughed and laughed

A few weeks ago we travelled to Ajo to visit Jeremy and Trish Olsen. Their oldest daughter, Brekke, loved holding Jolee.

The problem didn't arise until it was time for her to give Jolee back so Jolee could eat. This is what happened when she couldn't hold Jolee anymore.

Brekke is just too cute and too funny! She didn't like being caught having a melt down, so she hid.

Here Come the Updates

Oh my oh my, it has been way WAY too long since my last real update. I will need to be better or I will end up never keeping you all up to date. OK so that last post talked about the butt paste. We added one more ingredient to the mix that made it work so much better, lanolin (go figure). I had spent some time researching butt creams and came across a natural discussion board that suggested lanolin. So the diaper changes went as follows... open dirty diaper, using the little squirter that Jolee came home with we rinse her down with warm water, remove and discard dirty diaper, pat dry with damp wash cloth, using the blow dryer on the lowest setting we would then dry her bum, place new diaper under her, apply cream, then close diaper. To say the least, it was very time consuming and Jolee had diarrhea quite often (more on that later) so we were always changing her diaper. But all the effort was worth it, her bum is completely healed and we are having no more problems, hurray! About the diarrhea, it turns out that Jolee is very sensitive to what I eat. If I have anything with diary in it, citrus, bananas, or chocolate, she will get an upset stomach and diarrhea. So long to my most favorite foods. It is a really good thing that Jolee is so wonderful. She makes it easy to sacrifice for her.

We have been going on walks.

Jolee is starting to like her sling more and more.

Taking naps (look we both put our arms up to sleep)

I have been getting some reading done.

Our garden is doing well. We ate tons of snow peas, bunches of bush beans, and now we have tons of tomatoes.

Next. After Randy finished his first summer session of summer school, we traveled up to Goodyear and spent the night with Randy's brother (Jeremy) and his family. Jolee's cousins got to spend some time holding her. Tyler wanted to spend the whole night holding her. She really liked getting to met her cousins. The next morning, Jeremy dropped us of at the airport and we flew up to Utah to visit our parents and for my sister's wedding. Jolee had her first plane ride. It was pretty uneventful and she slept through most of it.

When we landed, Randy's mom (LeAnn) picked us up and we went to another one of Randy's brother's (Ryan) home and visited with him and his family. They just recently had a new baby too. Timmy is 11 days older than Jolee and he is a cutie. He has a grandpa hair-doo, hair on the sides but none on top, sooooo cute. Jolee is quite a bit bigger than Timmy, well she is quite a bit bigger than most other babies her age.

Our time with our families was wonderful. Jolee quickly worked her magic and won the hearts of everyone.

Jolee went swimming for the first time.

Jolee had her first ever bottle. Randy really enjoyed getting to feed our princess.

Randy and I enjoyed our 5th Anniversary. Randy gave me a gorgeous amethyst and diamond (his and my birthstones) antique ring. We took it easy most of the day. When we went to the grocery store, I was so happy that I was dancing around and I got caught by a store employee who pretended not to see and quickly walked away. We laughed and laughed. It amazes me that Randy and I have been married for 5 years already. It feels like we just got married, but at the same time it feels like we have always been together. Randy makes me so happy and I am so blessed to have him for my husband.

We were privileged to get to go to the temple with Collin and Emily when they got their endowments out. It was a wonderful feeling to be there with my sister. I love her so much and I am so happy to be in her life. The only hard part about going with Emily, was that I had to leave Jolee for the first time. Even though we left her with her Grandma Swann (GrammS), it was so hard to leave. I cried as we drove away.

My family and their neighbors all did fireworks together in front of the house the day before the 4th. Jolee definitely did not like them. All the bangs scared her and made her cry. It was so sad. So we went in and watched a movie while everyone finished up with the fireworks. The 4th of July was fun. Jolee wore her special 4th of July shirt from her Auntie Meg. My family's puppy also wore a special 4th of July shirt that Emily stuffed her into.

We drove up to Preston, ID to spend some time with Randy's family. Jolee had her first ever campfire/wienie roast, she slept through it.

My sister and her husband looked absolutely stunning at their wedding. Welcome to the family Collin!

During the wedding, Jolee got her second experience at being babysat. My Uncle Chris was so wonderful and watched her for us.

During our time in Utah, we went to the Scottish Festival in Payson. It took all day for Randy's smile to unstick. He was thrilled to go. We took my baby brother (who is no longer a baby, but almost taller than me) Max with us. Our favorite part was the bagpipe playing. Max's favorite was the swords. (Look for movies to come)

After the festival, we went to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. It is just amazing to see all of my cousins with their children. It is so weird to grow up.

When we flew home, we stayed in East Mesa for a few days to spend some time with Meg (my best friend for the last 23-24 years).

After coming home, we spent a few days resting, then we drove to Sierra Vista to visit C and C. Their new baby (E) is so beautiful. E is about half the size of Jolee. Jolee has really tanked up. At a recent check up, she weighed in at 12lbs 13 oz (97th percentile). She is definitely growing well.

I had my postpartum check up and I am good to go. Randy and I restarted Weight Watchers. I felt like saying "Hi, My name is Sarah and I am a food-aholic." I am glad to get back to the program to start losing my pregnancy weight.

Jolee loves her bath. (Look for an upcoming video on this)

Alright that is enough blogging for me. Goodnight.