Boys will be boys

My poor little Parker was playing with Ashley this weekend, when he slammed the bridge of his nose into the edge of the stairs. Of course, as timing would have it, the whole ordeal happened at eight at night--right when we were getting ready to put him to bed...not worry about whether or not he had a concussion. The result was not pretty, to say the least. His poor little nose immediately started to balloon right up, and his cute little face really didn't look like the Parker we all know and love.



Fortunately, he is one tough little guy and the tears did not last too long. Now that the weekend has come and gone, he has mild swelling and two green and yellow circles around his eyes. We are all so grateful that Parker is doing better. All I can say is that, given Parker's affinity for fun and adventure, I have a hunch this is just a sign of many more of these moments to come!

We CAN Do Hard Things

This past year has caused me time and again to reflect upon each one of my children and their personal journey upon this earth. During these past few months, I have seen each of my children stretch and grow, sometimes falling, and sometimes even struggling to get up and move on. I have felt really strongly that one of the greatest gifts I can give my children is the gift of inner-strength and independence. This life can sure get rough, at times, and if my children know deep down inside what they are made of, or better yet, what they are capable of, they will be able to face their challenges and fears head on. So, as a family, we have decided to make our 2010 motto "We CAN Do Hard Things!!!" We have encouraged each one of the kids to set one goal/month to accomplish at least one thing that seems hard to them. Keep in mind, each child is unique, has their own individualized set of strengths and talents, but they also have their own individualized hesitations and reservations regarding certain things they think they REALLY can accomplish. It will be interesting to see what goals each of them set and I look forward to seeing them conquer their inhibitions!!! I see so much potential within each one my children and I hope that this year will help them to likewise see this great potential, as well.

Ashley's First Talk

This Sunday Ashley had the opportunity to give her first talk in Sacrament Meeting. Given that Ashley loves to talk and also lives a live audience, she was more than happy to share her thoughts and feelings regarding Service, as it relates to the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet.

Since Ashley had abused some computer-time privileges earlier in the week (playing on the computer and surfing the net vs. doing homework), her mean ol' mom held strong to her computer-free grounding and made her research her talk the good old-fashioned way: BOOKS. To Ashley's credit, she hunkered down and put some serious time into reading through numerous books that covered the topic of service. The end result was fabulous. Ashley wrote and delivered a wonderful talk and bore a beautiful, heart-felt testimony. We are so proud of you, Ashley! You are a sweet, wonderful daughter of God!

Christmas 2009

My mom will not post because she is too busy so I decided to catch up. This Christmas we had too much fun opening presents. Megan got a Cheval mirror for her bedroom since she now lives in the basement, but all of the screws and thing-a-majigs were missing so we couldn't put it together. So while my dad was thinking of where he might have mis-placed the parts to Megan's mirror, he remembered the BIG family gift!!! He quickly ran up the stairs, grabbed it, and put it in the kitchen, then he yelled TADDA!!! He forgot about it until Christmas morning was over. How funny!!! Seriously thought, this computer is soooo cool. It is an HP touch screen computer. It has a webcam, so Megan, Katelyn, and I play with that a lot.You gotta love family Christmas presents.

The Joys of Christmas Day!

As a child, I could never understand why anyone would want to say "bah humbug" during the holidays. Everything about the Christmas season seemed so magical to me. Even as I grew older, I still would get those wonderful feelings of excitement and anticipation as the Christmas season approached. It wasn't until I was a grown adult that the proverbial lightbulb went on in my head and I caught a glimpse as to why people sometimes get stressed out, frustrated, and even down right grumpy during the Christmas season. Don't get me wrong...I still LOVE Christmas. I love the feelings of love and service that it brings, I love the many opportunities that we have to reflect on our Savior, Jesus Christ, and celebrate His birth, I love that we often make a point of spending more time with our close friends and loved ones. I just get so darn stressed out trying to schedule in all of these wonderful things ON TOP of living my already busy life!

How grateful I am to have four sweet children to remind me that there is always joy and magic to be found. I love watching their eyes light up over the little things, like Christmas tree lights, forgotten favorite family ornaments, or the completion of our family gingerbread house. I love watching them try to creatively make gifts for one another. I love the excited giggles they share at the top of the stairs before coming down on Christmas day. I love watching them spontaneously love and hug each other. I love that my children genuinely get excited for each other, and find just as much joy watching their brother or sister receive something special on Christmas day.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had Thanksgiving this year with all the Lyon side of our Family. Rich and Natalie were nice enough to open their home to all of us, but Natalie was even nicer to make me giggle for weeks with her humdinger interpretation of "She Drives Me Crazy" by Fine Young Cannibals. While we were playing Cranium, Natalie did not remember what the song sounded like, so instead of humming the real tune, she randomly hummed her own melody and proceeded to break all the rules with hand motions of driving, pretending to be someone crazy, as well as trying to eat her own arm (you know...cannibals!). Poor Rich sat for two minutes completely perplexed and I just about wet myself with laughter. Too bad that Rich didn't guess the answer, because I think Natalie should have won that round based on the sheer fact that she outdid herself in entertaining all of us!

Here is a cute moment captured between Parker and Eliza. So Cute!

As a side note, Ashley made a cute turkey decoration at school and decided to hang it from our dinette chandalier. That poor feathered fella didn't stand a chance! Parker took one glance at that poor, unsuspecting paper creation and quickly decided to tear the paper turkey off by the neck and and proudly stick it's body on his head as a hat. If you can tell, the feathers are upside down and Parker is pleased as punch with himself! What a little TURKEY!

Christmas Pictures

Every year I dread the inevitably painful process of taking family pictures. Between trying to organize all the clothes for everyone, trying to do everyone's hair, trying to clear everyone's schedule, and trying to make sure that the youngest ones are in the right frame of mind to even consider making a smile for the camera, it feels like a near impossible task. But this year, the stars were all in alignment. I had been hoping to take a winter Christmas picture for our Christmas cards this year and, as luck would have it, we got our first BIG snow storm on Sunday, the twelfth of October! The girls all had their hair done for church, our calendars were free to spend as a family, the snow was fresh, thick and fluffy all over the yard, and the skies were clear and blue! To make life even better, I happened to mention my great idea to a good friend at church and he spontaneously offered up his services to come over and take our pictures after church was over. Man, did I ever happen to bend the right guy's ear! Darrin came over with this amazing professional camera and took pictures like a pro! We simply pulled out a chair on to a corner of our back yard, smiled for the camera, and were in and out of this picture session within 30 minutes. I couldn't have planned this day any better if I had tried! The only hiccup was that we never planned to take individual shots afterward, so Ashley went in the house and the other children were lucky enough to get a few impromptu photo shoots that turned out fabulous. Sorry Ash! (she wasn't too happy with us when she realized what had happened)!

Here are just a few of the shots:

Sweet Megan!

I love this photo of Katelyn! Not only does it perfectly capture her personality, but it clearly demonstrates how much joy she manages to find in the little things in life (like snow).

This was the first snow fall for Parker to really play in and discover. Boy oh boy, did he ever have a fun time discovering what snow was all about. If he had his way, he would have single-handedly eaten the whole backyard supply of snow! As you can see, his little cheeks and hands are red, but he doesn't care! In fact, if you look closely, you can see a handful of snowflakes glazing his hair and one of them has melted into a big raindrop right on the corner of his eyebrow! He is ALL BOY!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Parker! He just melts my heart!

These next few shots of the kids really seem to bring out each of their true personalities. I love the fresh snowflakes that are falling all around them.

This final photo was the picture we used for our Christmas greeting this year. Who would have guessed that we were just getting started with the month of October?

Here are a few cute photos of just the kids! I thought they looked even better than the family pictures!