Merry Christmas 2009

It is such a cliche, but man does time fly as you get older. It also flies when you get literally no sleep.

Those of you who read this blog know we were blessed with Coen Lewis Schwark this last summer and that has been pretty much the focus of our year. All the getting ready for him, and my poor family just trying to survive "pregnant me". Then the baby arrives and we have spent the rest of the year enjoying him and getting used to being a family of five + ellie. Poor neglected in most ways (belly rubs, cuddling, treats), over attended too in others (tail pulling, eye poking etc) ellie.

God has blessed us profoundly in 2009, just as in the years before.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family and a Happy New Year!

Aiden Turns Four and Nolen Gets a Fat Lip

We have been spending the last couple of weeks in great anticipation of Aiden's impending fourth birthday party, he as much as I.

We made decorations (large painted snakes) and mailed out invitations (he practiced his writing) bought cupcake mix and sat and waited for the day to arrive.

The party was great. We have a bouncy house that fits perfectly in our great room area and this was the only needed entertainment. There were presents and candy and chocolate milk. Aiden did spend a good deal of time crying on the couch after a head bump with the only little girl at our party, who incidently did not cry.... Other than that it was sucessful.

Later putting away the blow up house dad said "no one jump on this bag, I just put the motor in it" and of course no sooner had he left the room than Nolen sprinted across the room and flung himself head first onto the bag. There was loud wailing and lots and lots of blood. So much blood I became a little worried. Once it stopped we were able to see a large cut and bite marks on the inside of his ever swelling lip.

All is status quo here at the schwarks....

Bragging About My Mom

Besides being a wonderful mom she is also a very talented artist. This is just one of many in a long line of beautiful accomplishments she has done. Check out her new stamp collection here.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." -Scott Adams,

Halloween

Halloween turned out to be really fun. Aiden wanted to be a cat, I tried to make him a lion, but they really ended up looking like some crazy lady randomly put face paint on and sprayed their hair. Which is pretty accurate, I had way too much candy to be decorating little faces!

They wrestled (lots of face paint smudges on my floor now) and ran around meowing while we awaited the trickortreaters, we had a dance party in the mean time too. They kept checking out the front window and sprinted to the door whenever the door bell rang.

Lots of cute costumes, little brett favres, army men, and the cutest little red riding hood who would not leave so Aiden just kept putting more and more candy in her bag. Nolen was the door slammer and let people know when their turn was up.

Coen and Ellie

Coen and Dylan

Look at these cute four month old babies!

Fall Festival Fun

Steves mom and her husband were here this past weekend and we all had a blast. Saturday we spent a good portion of the day at the Stocker Farms pumpkin festival. The boys got to dig with trucks in the giant corn boxes, hammer nails, bang as loud as their little hearts desired on pots and pans, jump in the bouncy house, Aiden caught his first fish, they got their faces painted and of course we found some pumpkins to bring home.

The only bad part, the "hay ride". Yuck. Pulled by a smoke belching tractor for 20 minutes out to the pumpkin cannon (guys were impressed, I was not).

Sunday went shopping for signature stamps and log books for our letterboxing hobby. Then we went to Firestation 71 for their open house and the kids got to climb around the fire truck and ambulance.

Fun fun fun. Come back again soon Grandma and David!