The Swenson Family : The End of 2014

2014 was a year for growing for the Swensons. 

The Swenson girls continue to grow. 

 JK Swenson Livestock continues to grow. 

Our strength and love for the Lord continues to grow.

The Swenson family continues to grow.

In July 2014 we found out we were expecting another little Swenson due March 28, 2015.

I am in between 25-26 weeks pregnant with another little girl. Her name is being kept a secret, but people are more than welcome to guess :) She is a mover. Measuring perfectly. Everything seems to be going very smoothly. Due March 28th, 2015.

MadiLyn Gayle... what to say of this vivacious, cuddly, smart, little cutie. MadiLyn has really come into her own little way of things the past few months. She has developed a cautiousness of strangers... or even people she hasn't seen in 48 hours. She is becoming much more vocal, learning new words everyday. She adores her sisters, EmiLia especially. Many times I will find her having climbed in bed with Emi at night. She loves dogs. She also LOVES meat. Give that girl a steak and she will devour it quicker than her Daddy. Madi loves WordWorld DVDs. MadiLyn also has a slight obsession with shoes. And by slight.. I am joking. She LOVES them. Rubber boots, sneakers, mary-janes.. really anything she can get on her feet. She is a light in our lives and we love her more everyday. She is a spunky one!

EmiLia Jean.. aka Emi. EmiLia has one of the most tender hearts I know. She is very sensitive and needs her daily dose of cuddles and words of affirmation. She is still my girl who will run directly into a pole.. even if she is looking right at it or trip over an imaginary line on the carpet. She puts a smile on my face every day and knows how to keep it there.  EmiLia's speech has been thriving since she started speech therapy back in April. She loves having "her own thing". She works on her words daily and is always trying to learn new words to impress us with. EmiLia played t-ball in the spring and I coached her U-6 soccer team this fall. She also enjoys going to Awanas on Wednesday nights. In March, we had a Frozen themed 4th birthday party for her. She loves singing and dancing. She also loves spending time cuddling up and reading books. EmiLia enjoyed going to Disneyland in October with Grammie, Bapa Scott, Mom, and KaiLey Jo. She dressed up as Cinderella for Halloween while there. 

KaiLey Jo Mychal. Oh my sweet girl. I am having a difficult time being ok with the rate at which this daughter of mine is growing. This past year she has changed from the "little" girl to the "big" girl. She has learned to read. Is soaring through math. She continues to be home schooled and loves it. When asked if she would maybe want to go to public school next year it was an ummm... NO mom. (Made me feel like I was doing a better job than I was giving myself credit for) She lost a whole mouth full of teeth this year. The front 8 are gone and adult teeth have grown in! KaiLey has a pretty busy schedule. This fall we allowed her to add a new activity to her plate, tumbling. She loves it. The improvement over the last 3 months has been really neat to watch. We also added piano to our school day. She loves going to Ms. Sue's for her lesson once a week and is faithful in her practicing. She also has enjoyed Awanas for her second year this year. She played softball in the Spring. It was a new sport for her but she got the hang of it and is excited to not be the youngest on the team this next year. John coached her U-8 soccer team this past fall as well. She got her American Girl Doll "Sofie" for her 7th birthday this year. Where we had biscuits and gravy for dinner at her party. KaiLey Jo has a very tender heart. She is very, very kind. She loves other people, and is a prayer warrior for anyone who is in need of prayer. She is very motherly towards her sisters. She has thrived with new responsibilities this year. She is SUPER competitive.. she comes by it completely honestly ;)  KaiLey has enjoyed learning to really read this year and is working her way through the books in our house. She enjoyed going to Hawaii this year with the family and really loved Disneyland in October, where she dressed up as Sleeping Beauty for Halloween. 

KamBria and John :) Well it has been a great year.

John and I have been very busy. Between the girls, livestock, photography, traveling, and the YG. (And I know I am forgetting things)

I photographed 7 weddings this past summer. The most in a year to date. I also am home schooling KaiLey Jo. I co-directed VBS again this year. I also traveled more this year that I think I ever have. Virginia 2X, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Disneyland made for 5 plane trips. We also took a few days and went to Sumpter, OR for the 4th of July and then again in October for deer hunting. The girls and I traveled with the Swenson side back in January to Crescent, OR for a weekend in the snow. We did the Rogue River trip this year also. We had a camping trip up the McKenzie with the Akins side as well. We all traveled to Mount Hood for a wedding. (That place is BEAUTIFUL) Between running all over the place with the girls and just life in general.. my Honda Pilot hit 150K miles this past week. Still enjoying helping John lead our church's HS youth group on Sunday nights. I have fallen in love with our bunnies. I have made it my own little "livestock project" in raising meat rabbits. I also raised a bummer jersey milk calf this past spring, Lucy.  

John has been busier than me if you can believe it. He is still working full-time for a local ranch in Langlois, he runs our own livestock, and he is the youth leader at Langlois Community Church. Up most days at 5:20am and asleep by 10 most evenings. John has done a little bit of diving this year, more in the beginning of the year. (and when we were in Kauai!) He coached KaiLey's soccer team this fall. He raised and sold 69 yearling cattle this year on top of our cows with calves. He finally got to do some hunting this year, after hunting season being right in the middle of soccer season before. He got a spike elk in the Sixes Unit and a tasty little fork while deer hunting in Sumpter, OR. He is planning a chuckar  hunting trip at the end of this month with his Dad to go get Copper some experience with some real birds. 

Taking care of this brood: 

Our cattle herd has grown to 

32 cows

2 bulls

27 calves

This is Sven. One of John's bulls.

Our goat herd.. yes we have a "goat herd"

37 Nannies

2 Billies

30 kids

We also have a meat rabbit herd (hahaha)

2 Does

1 Buck

Our dog population has also grown.

Maggie May       6.5 years old

Maximus             2.5 years old

Copper             1.5 years old

Sweet Maci           1 year old

and... Maverick   8 weeks old (Max's son)

..with Maci due with puppies from Copper on January 12th, 2015.

We also have three sweet kittens.. 

Minnie

Daisy

and Nala

We also have a few random sheep. I despise sheep.

I think that pretty much covers JK Swenson Livestock LLC. Its been a busy year.

Here are a few random photos from throughout our year!

It has been a blessed year. We look back on this year and Thank God for his abundant blessings and gifts to our family. We owe everything we have to Him. In Jesus Christ our hope is found. He is our Rock. Upon Him we build our lives to serve and honor Him.

Have a Merry Christmas.

John, KamBria, KaiLey Jo, EmiLia, MadiLyn, and Baby :)

I do not want my life to look like Pinterest.

I find myself pinning things, ideas, pictures on Pinterest for my life:

Craft ideas, recipes, homeschooling ideas, photos I want to take, 101 great dates for fathers and daughters, great ideas, and ideas for my home. I love Pinterest, and this is in no way a rant on Pinterest... but instead a rant on myself.

I find myself looking at my surroundings and wanting more. Wanting that perfect organized pantry that I just pinned. I want my kid's room to look like it just walked out of a magazine. I want my car to be crumb free.  I want the picture of the super cute laundry room that is yellow and grey chevron with the cute pictures of my kids playing in a wash tub. I want I want I want... my house/my life to look like Pinterest.

My house is clean, things get put away most evenings. My family is very fortunate and have been blessed with a warm, safe home. I am not talking about my home in particular. This is just an example. I am talking about contentment. I am sharing about my failure in having a heart that is content and thankful.

My sister in law, Hannah, shared these words on Facebook this morning :

"Happiness is a state of mind, reached by taking your thoughts captive and choosing thankfulness for what you have over longings for what you want"

This statement struck me. I am happy, I love my family and I have been blessed. Honestly blessed.

But I am guilty of not being content and wanting more. I want to impress people, I want to have nice things, I want things to be organized and easy to find. I want it all to be creative, DIY, and perfect. I want to be that cool mom. I want to have this pretty life that is neat and tidy. Many times I find myself wasting hours on Pinterest dreaming about what I will have someday, getting ideas for the future, planning ahead, dreaming of a life I could have.

I strive to be a Proverbs 31 woman. This is my goal that I set before myself everyday when I get out of bed. Most days I fail. Most days I let my own selfish desires of this world distract me. I am easily distracted. This is when I fail. And one of the greatest tools that Satan uses in my life is Pinterest. He knows me, he has watched me. He has watched me look longingly into the screen at photos of these huge homes on thousands of acres. He has watched me look at photos of family rooms with expensive furniture and 55 inch flat screens mounted on the wall. He knows my selfish desires and he will do anything to discourage me. He uses the wants of my own life to take over and distract me from the needs of my life.

I need to live a life faithful to the Lord. I need my life to reflect him, not Pinterest. I need my home to be full of laughter, hugs, prayer, love, and even a few messes. My girls are learning and growing. I need to teach them. I need to be an example to them of contentment. I need to raise them up to be Godly woman who love and fear the Lord. I need to teach them how to be responsible, fair, respectful, and kind. I need to teach them how to love.  I need to teach them to be honest and have self control. I need to be able to show them how to manage the minutes wisely that they are blessed with on this earth. I need to be an example of Christ's love to them. These are all things I need to do.

My pantry will never look like the one that I just pinned.

My laundry room is always going to be covered in John's work pants, my girl's rubber boots, and socks that do not have their match.

My kid's room is NEVER going to look like it just came out of  pottery barn magazine.

Because my house isn't Pinterest, we live in it, we laugh in it, we make messes in it. We make mistakes here, and we learn to obey and trust in the Lord here. We learn to separate the needs and wants of our lives here, by learning the difference.

My house and my desires are not what defines my life.

I do not want my life to look like Pinterest, I want it to look like Christ.

Christ defines my life.

Holy Guacamole! Where has the time gone?

Where on earth is time going??? My little girls are growing so quickly and it just isn't fair. I cannot believe that KaiLey is starting Kindergarten in the fall! I havent written on this blog for a long time, and I miss it. I miss the journaling aspect of keeping track of memories and photos. My family is a busy one, always running from place to place and usually not taking time to catch our breath! A lot has changed over the past 6 months or so and I felt like this was the right time to get back into this blogging for those  of you that care enough to read it :)

6 months ago John was all scheduled to head off to the police academy and had been hired by the Springfield Police Department. To make a very long story short... we turned it down. We decided that we wanted to pursue our dreams of ranching and try to make a go of it! So here we are! John also is the new High School Youth Leader at Langlois Community Church and is doing an outstanding job. That man works too hard. There is not a doubt about it!

Another exciting addition to our family in this time was NUMERO TRES! MadiLyn Gayle joined our troops in December of 2012. She has just started crawling and decided today that she can communicate by babbling too. She is the sweetest baby and LOVES KaiLey and Emi to pieces. She is just starting to explore the world around her and has had her first "NO" experiences over the last few days :)

EmiLia is doing fantastic. The accident was almost two years ago and we cannot be more excited to be almost done with all the junk that came along with it! EmiLia is quite the character, she has her own little sense of humor and is growing into such a sassy, smart girl! She cannot wait for school to start for KaiLey in the fall so she can do it too! She definitely is not the most gentle little girl... or the most graceful. Not a day goes by that she doesn't fall flat on her face from tripping over nothing. She is a spark in our lives and a joy to watch discover new things and chase (slowly) after her sister!

KaiLey Jo is a blessing. She is growing into the young girl and I am finding myself a little sad that she is growing so fast. She is eager to learn and help. She is fairly shy, and doesn't really like to try new things (but can be usually coaxed into trying them at least once) KaiLey is going to be 6 in November, she loves soccer, and LOVES to sing. Any chance to put on a show for mom or dad... you bet! She has this happy heart, a kindness about her and a child like faith that I find myself striving to example after daily. She loves the Lord and I can see it in her life and this makes my heart happy.

For me.. same old same ole. In June I decided it would be a great idea to move us to a new home, but first help remodel the new home, photograph a wedding, and co-direct VBS at our church. It was a little crazy. But thankfully VBS came off without a hitch again this year and I enjoyed working on that outreach with my friends and church family. We also got all moved and we are SO happy in our new place. We are so at home and really feel like we are where the Lord want us. Well there is the update on the Swensons. I am sure I forgot something, I generally do!

Took my camera on our walk in the beautiful sunshine yesterday! Had to snap a few of my babies.

Bucket List

John and my time here in Corvallis, OR is beginning to dwindle as we only have 50 days left here! John will be done with school this term and we are heading out onto the great journey of life. As epic as it will be, it is still be a little scary to be heading into the unknown with few plans set in stone at this moment. Which makes me quite nervous! But as I see the next steps of our lives start to unfold and lay before us, I start to plan and get very excited for what I want to do! Everything from buying a home to traveling somewhere I have never been to with my family (Alaska maybe :) ) I want more babies. Maybe adopt! Who knows! 

It is un nerving to not know where we will end up within the next year, but I am comforted in the fact that God has me in his hands and my family has him as the center of our universe and in our hearts. He will take us where he needs us to be. To do his will and to do his works. That is why we are here. To bring people to him, to set an example in his name for non believers. No matter where my family and I end up, I have the strength and the support of the Lord to guide me and nourish me. And with that, I am truly blessed. What a blessing to know that we will be provided for! That he has everything under control. It might be Medford or Bandon or Springfield or wherever! 

And I cannot wait!

A year in rewind

What a year it has been. There have been so many blessings and challenges that the Lord has given us. We are so incredibly thankful for all of these experiences for we feel that without them we would not be able to be the people that God wants us to be. We pray that 2012 brings love, happiness, faithfulness to our one and only, health, and a whole lot of fun!

We spent our new years at the beach, no wind at face rock=fabulous day at the beach! Check it out!

Halloween 2001