Sisters! (plus Thanksgiving, seeing Santa, etc)

I've gone too long without blogging again so here comes another mammoth post...

As Jane grows older she's becoming more of a player on Team Swendsen (rather than spending the majority of her time lying passed out on the bench). Consequently, she and Kate are starting to develop a real relationship. Like good teammates, they have a great rapport and Kate cheers Jane on as her skills improve. However, when the new recruit gets a little too big for her britches and starts hogging the ball (or toy, as the situation would have it), sibling rivalry is born. Luckily Kate is easy to reason with and she really adores Jane so these conflicts are short-lived. Whether or not Jane will turn out to be reasonable herself remains to be seen. Kate may have hit the nail on the head recently when she remarked, "Janie, you're just going to be a wild kid."

Kate is constantly asking me to take pictures of her cuddling with her sister so we have quite a few of these.

Jane's looking slightly panicked here... "Mom, I'm losing circulation and she's trying to pass it off as a loving embrace...."

Again with the "Help me!" face.

I just love Kate in this picture - "Janie, look! A toy for you!"
Jane is 7 months old now and still not sitting up by herself. Every time I try to get her to practice, she torques her body so she can fall over and then she starts rolling around again. Zero interest in holding still to sit up. But when will she learn? Has anyone else experienced this?

Below are a few pictures from The Adventures of Scott and Kate. Scott had the whole month of November off from school and the two of them really bonded. Now he's in Texas doing residency interviews and she's really feeling his absence. Yesterday: "I really miss Daddy. I'm sad because I just really want a person to play with me." What about me? Ouch.

They built the biggest fort ever (in our apartment at least):

Playing in the snow. I'm glad that at least one of Kate's parents likes to do it. See how they had to come back into the building to even be photographed by me? That right there says it all.

Kate could care less about the cold. She kept smashing her face into the snow and then laughing her head off.

Cute outfit, dopey face.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Byron and Marci's house, and my grandparents came too. Here is Janie with her great-Grandma Adams. They really hit it off. Doesn't she look way too young to be a great-grandmother?



Kate and her cousin(ish) Liesl sat at their own little table. For Kate it was a tea party, complete with Liesl's dress up clothes and hat. Liesl seems less enthused about the seating arrangement.

More fun with the dress-up stuff. Liesl has an amazing collection. Kate even got sent home with a mermaid outfit.

Both great-grandparents.

Janie really likes this hat. And making this face.

Kate's imitation of the face.

They really are sweet together. I love having two girls.

We did some of our Christmas presents early before Scott left to do his interviews. Kate got mostly dresses (from us and her Swendsen grandparents) and couldn't have been more thrilled. Mid-twirl:

Matching!

Last Thursday Kate got to see Santa twice in one day. First at her preschool Christmas program (which I have on video) and then at our apartment complex's party. What does she want for Christmas? "A candy cane," she told him. Done.

Jane gave Santa a weird look but then decided he was okay. No tears from either of them this year. It appears from this picture that I'm already stereotyping them and dressing them accordingly - Kate as the girly girl and Jane as the athletic one (in her tracksuit). Purely coincidental.
By the way, can the picture above count as our Christmas card this year? Merry Christmas, everyone!

beginnings and endings

Hey everyone, long time no blogging.

So big events have been happening in my life, one of which was getting engaged. I know girls like looking at engagement pictures, and I think mostly girls read this blog, so...

After all the pictures I'll write some more...



Our photographer brought the craziest balloon I ever did see.

right after I told Becky a racist joke

This one and the next one are goofy ones you'll probably never see otherwise



This one reminds me of that picture of the farmer with a pitchfork standing next to his wife





This is the one I wanted on the announcement but Becky wouldn't let me. Still can't figure out why.

So for Halloween we threw together costumes - I was a rapper and Becky was my groupie. Note the junk in her trunk. Also had a rolled pant leg, bottle of Martinellis, and some sweet sunglasses to go with this.

So the engagement story - I tried to wake up early one Saturday to sneak down to Vegas and back without Becky knowing, but I woke up 3 hours late. There was a diamond guy in my mission who could get me a better deal than any place was offering in Provo, by a long shot, so I met in the shadowy hallway of Marriot's Palms resort and casino with a shady-looking foreign man in a business suit, who whipped out a briefcase full of diamonds and continually casted paranoid glances around for the entire 3 hours of our discussion. That, the language barrier, and the frequent trips outside to the sunlight to look at the diamond took a long time.

So on my way back to Provo I called Becky and told her that we should go rock-climbing. She was a little frustrated at my lack of visibility and our rapidly-approaching window during which to get married, and was a little bummed when I came to pick her up. We get to the place, belay for each other, and on my first trip up I put the box with her ring right behind the pulley at the top of the 3-story rock wall. So she went up after me, I told her to look around when she got to the top, and she found the box. So because the place was busier than normal, we went outside and I proposed to her, and she said yes. We then went up to the Cheesecake Factory in Salt Lake for dinner and spent most of the rest of the night on the phone with family. She told me later that because she thought rock climbing meant she wasn't getting proposed to that night, that she had planned to tell me we should push the wedding back til summer to give us enough planning time. Close one huh?

On a more somber note, earlier this week Becky's dad called my cell while I was on the way to class, and he told me to go meet Becky at her house. I knew something was wrong, so I prepared for the worst. Sure enough, we got there and Spencer gave us the news that her 18-year-old brother McKay had passed away unexpectedly on his army base in Kentucky the night before. Two soldiers came to the Mortensen's doorstep to deliver the news the next morning, and so Becky's parents called us pretty soon afterwards.

Mac was the only member of Becky's immediate family I had never met in person, and I don't pretend to be qualified to say much about him, as I didn't know him like his family knew him. About 5 or 6 weeks before his passing, a few days after Becky and I got engaged, he called her during one of our nighttime study sessions, and I got the chance to talk with him for about 20 minutes, so here is what I do know:

For those of you who have met Becky, you know that she is the sweetest girl and has a heart of gold. Mac had the same disposition: loving, compassionate, and concerned for everyone around him. That characteristic was so much a part of who he was (and still is) that it shone through just 5 minutes into our conversation. He asked me how big I was to make sure I could protect his sister. He asked me how good of a Mormon I was, then spent about ten minutes telling me that he had always wanted a brother, and that he used to pray that God would give him a brother. He cried a little bit, I think from a combination of happiness that we were going to be friends and uncertainty about giving away his sister. He told me over and over again to take care of her

Mac, I will take care of your sister. We are still brothers, our meeting will just be a little postponed. Take care til I can come meet you face to face.

Halloween and Kate's 3rd Birthday

I may have gone a little overboard on this post - I just uploaded 30 photos - but it seems like we've had lots of events lately, or maybe we've just been taking too many pictures.

I got to go to Kate's preschool class on Halloween dress-up day and watch her interact with the other kids. This picture doesn't illustrate my point very well, but it was entertaining to observe the social habits of girls v. boys - even at age 3 the girls spent most of their time huddled together in a little group talking and giggling while the boys were each in their own separate world playing with whatever toy seemed coolest, and hardly interacting with each other at all.

With her cute friend Nadia.

Kate was quite obsessed with her fairy costume and she pretty much hasn't taken off the skirt since Halloween (except when forced).

Jane didn't know how ridiculous we'd made her look but she was her usual cheerful self in the toasty-warm costume.



On Halloween morning we went to Gardner Village to check out this year's creative witch displays. Kate also scored a pony ride there.



This one was my favorite. It was huge.



Jane at Gardner Village, not that you can tell...



Kate was pretty wary of sitting by this witch.

On Halloween night Kate assumed the ready position with her trick-or-treat bag. She meant business.

First we stopped by our ward Halloween party for some chili and to check out everyone else's costumes. There were some great ones. Can you tell who this family dressed up like?

This one is pretty obvious.

Kate and Sophie enjoying their pre-Trick or Treat candy.


Here's a look at our group. Me - Wendy, Scott - Peter Pan, Jane - Nana, Kate - Tinkerbell.



Beckoning the Lost Boys. Scott made his entire costume. The hat and skirt were basically made from green felt and staples. He says he gained a new appreciation for what girls go through after spending the whole evening in tights and a skirt. His comment? "I think tights are kind of slimming."

Flying. An elderly woman in the ward approached me to tell me that she has the exact same nightgown. Cute...

Kate has the misfortune of having her birthday on the day after a holiday. Here's a look at the post-Halloween birthday breakfast - bacon, a Blowpop, and Raisin Bran, all at her request.

I like this picture because I think it captures some of my favorite aspects of Kate's personality - she is sweet and grateful and so enthusiastic. I feel very blessed to be her mom.

Did I say she was grateful? I meant MOST of the time. Here's a sad face when she got a princess birthday card and realized she doesn't own a real princess dress like the one on the card. Oh well, can't win them all.

I felt a little guilty for not planning a party for her so I put a little more effort into her cake than usual. (Remember last year's "poop cake"?)
Here's last year's model in case you forgot. In my defense, it tasted good.

These three people are pretty dear to me. :) Happy birthday, Kate! We love you.

A kind family in our ward gave us some tickets to the Jazz v. Rockets game on Monday night. We invited Laura, Ben, Clint, and Becky and cheered shamelessly for the visiting team. It was a sweet victory for Houston! An unanticipated side effect of bringing Kate to the game is that she has a new group of idols - the Jazz dancers. She was mesmerized every time they came out onto the court and stood up to try to mimic all of their moves. At one point she turned to Scott, frustrated, and said, "I have to take my pants off so I can look like them!" Oh dear.
Clint was the only one with authentic Rockets wear but we wore our red. Becky was a big hit with Kate who had a blast playing with her. Hey Clint, why haven't you blogged about your engagement?

Ben caught a basketball launched by the Jazz mascot via slingshot. I don't think it was meant for a Rockets fan. :) He kindly gave it to Kate, who was thrilled.

Jane will be six months old on Sunday, so last night we busted out the rice cereal. As you can see, she was pretty pumped about solid food.

Notice whose hand is dishing out the goods. I'm not sure who was more excited, Jane or Kate.