A Pride of Lyons

Squeezers

2012-02-06T14:43:00.002-06:00

Blaine was in an exceptional mood when I picked him up today. He talked my ear off all the way from his school to Hannah's school and then when he finally had his sister in the back seat, I wasn't as interesting to talk to.

HG is always so tired when I pick her up that she rarely makes it home without falling asleep in the car. Today she was exceptionally cranky (go figure) and Brother went right into Operation: Make Hanny Feel Better mode. He got a book out of the seat back pocket and read it to her. It was a book about farm animals so he basically just described the animals to HG as he flipped through the book. It went something like this:

Blaine: "And this is a pig... they like to roll around in the mud."
HG: "Yep."
Blaine: "This is a cow. You see its colors and here are the eyes and mouth and squeezers where we get the milk and then this is the tail."
HG: "Yep."
Mama: "Wait, what did you say about the cow?"
Blaine: "Oh Mama, these are her squeezers where you get the milk from. These pink things right here. See? Mama? You see?"

Ah yes. Her "squeezers."

Funny boy!

A Super Day

2012-02-05T15:42:00.002-06:00

Today is Superbowl Sunday. I've made a few things already: Pioneer Woman's Mexican Layer Dip and some mozzarella, basil and tomato pinwheels. Now I'm sitting down to (finally) take a break. This weekend has been exhausting.

Yesterday was Keith's memorial service, which I'll write about later. It was beautiful--a special time of remembrance for Keith-but now the waves of grief are coming more frequently. I know this will be a process. (Sigh.) A big thanks to Mimi and Pops for coming to help this weekend and to our bestest friends, the Pembertons, for loving on our kids Friday night so we could spend some time with Keith and Andrea's family and friends the night before his memorial service.

Both David and I hope to write about Keith and the service in the next few days. For now, I've only got some pictures to share. (But they're pretty good.)

Blaine wearing all, and I do mean all, of the clothes
and shoes he could find.

Blaine's first day of (a new) school.

Just chillin'.

Silly!

One Week

2012-01-29T16:38:00.001-06:00

A lot can happen in a week.

Last Sunday on the 22nd, Keith went to his eternal Home after a three month battle with pancreatic cancer. We all knew that the day was coming but somehow the gaping hole from Keith's absence has been shocking and the grief is coming in waves at unexpected times.

I have been wondering how I was going to get on the blog and write about this which is why I've waited a week. I guess I still don't know because the words aren't coming.

When we told Blaine that Keith had died he gasped at first and then said, "Awwww. I'm gonna miss Keith." Then about an hour later, after processing, he said with a big smile, "Mama, there isn't any pain in heaven, so Keith is all better! And he gets to be with Jesus now!" He's right. The emails, Facebook comments, calls and people I've talked to have all captured Keith so beautifully in their remarks. You can go here to read a few.

One comment on Facebook that I thought was particularly accurate was this:

"Keith had a marvelous way of speaking intensely with and listening to one person even in a room filled with a hundred people. ... all of whom were talking to someone. One always knew that at that moment in time Keith was "with" him/her. Very special person." - M.M.

And in the five years that I worked for Keith I never stopped marveling at how much he cared for other people. Strangers would call and write every single week asking for Keith's help - and they didn't even know what they needed, they just somehow knew that he would listen to them and love them while they hurt. A man who couldn't stop drinking in the U.K. and was about to lose everything wrote to Keith out of desperation in the middle of the night after finding the website and reading about Keith. Keith immediately responded and offered to talk to the man and over the last year has responded to his emails and calls with compassion and understanding. Countless others have asked for Keith's help and I don't think I ever knew of a situation where the person was turned away. Keith's message was loud and clear: You're problems and mistakes and sin do not make you a bad person. There is a God that loves you and wants to be in relationship with you. Simply put, life is about relationships and love.

John Fischer wrote a great post about Keith. I've included it here.

New skins for new wine
Posted on January 24, 2012 by jwfisch
The family has lost a true brother.

Today I learned of the passing, Sunday, of Keith Miller, author of the 1965 classic, The Taste of New Wine. He was 84, and a young 84 at that. He was in the midst of creating another project – a rather ambitious one – when he contracted pancreatic cancer. He was, of all things, a truth-teller.

He was one of the first to represent a frankness and honesty about struggling to find a meaningful faith in the face of the more prolific spiritual piety that characterized most Christian leaders in the ’50s and ’60s. Keith didn’t hold back. He wasn’t very careful either and was criticized for what some judged as sacrilege.

Keith was one of the honest ones. He didn’t fake anything, so what you saw of the Lord through him was truly the Lord. We will miss him dearly, for though we know he is happy, we are not. There is a great shortage of Christians like him in this world. His passing will leave a hole.

I know all the clichés… he’s with the Lord; he’s happier now; he’s having a great time up there… Well, fine for him, but I’m not. I’m missing his humanity. I’m missing his human perspective. I’m missing the fact that I can call him up and talk to him. Even though I didn’t do that much, I could, and that’s a long ways from knowing that I can’t. He was a fighter, a struggler, and a happy man in the midst of it.

There are so few leaders like him – so few who are willing to tell the whole truth about themselves. Here’s the point for all of us: that’s when you catch the fragrance of Christ on a person – when they are being honest before others and before God. You can’t get it any other way. If someone is hiding, you get the spray-on Christian fragrance, not Christ.

Somehow we got through the week though it was quite busy with normal day-to-day business.

In the midst of the grief we continued, this past week, to walk with Blaine through his own journey. When he was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder last year and started Occupational Therapy we were hopeful that it was the key to a new beginning for him but it wasn't exactly that. Yes, it's helped but it certainly wasn't the key we were looking for. Blaine's O.T. gave us the name of a Behavioral Pediatrician whom she thought could help us. I made an appointment and looked forward to our appointment which was going to be three months out! After several difficult days I called the office crying asking if there had been a cancellation and I heard this: "We have a 10:45 am tomorrow - will that work?" The woman on the line is probably used to dealing with mothers at the end of their rope, so my sobbing didn't phase her. I took the appointment and we saw Dr. Fasci the next day.

To go into the details of the visit would require me to write for about another thirty minutes (and both kids are up from their naps now, so you understand). We were there for two hours (she clearly doesn't see that many patients in a day) and after about and hour and a half of her asking questions, going over Blaine's family history and interacting with him she had no reservations in diagnosing him with ADHD. She told us that we've done everything short of medication to try to remedy the behavioral challenges and that it was time to take this step. We agreed and Blaine's been on Tenex for the last 6 days. After some time on this medicine (based on whether there are improvements or not) she said she'll be able to tell if there is something else going on. Something else, like another mood disorder (which ADHD falls under.) So basically his nervous system is wired different than a neuro-typical kids' and there could be a few different things going on that are causing him to act the way he does. While we breathed a sigh of relief that there is something going on I'm also pretty sad about it. Then I read this on the wall of Blaine's occupational therapy waiting room:

"Welcome to Holland"

By: Emily Pearl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this: When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy." But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss. But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

This really resonated with me and I've thought about this piece of writing all weekend. I've spent a good deal of time over the last few years grieving over things Blaine has not been able to do (sports, group activities, birthday parties, relationships) and not looking at the things that make him so special and wonderfully made, perfect in God's sight. So, here we are in Holland. It's unique and beautiful and it's where Blaine is. Exactly where I want to be.

Peaceful

2012-01-20T21:06:00.000-06:00

I'm at Keith and Andrea's house right now sitting next to Keith. I didn't get to work today because Hannah is home on Fridays and she is not a very good assistant :)  Therefore I wasn't able to see Keith so Andrea said I could come sit a while. It's been an honor and blessing to be able to spend this time here recently. It's very peaceful being in this room with him as he drifts in and out of our world.

Andrea reports that Keith has been pretty quiet much of the day with short whispers here and there (to her and to "others"). He has longer periods of sleep and he stares a lot now.  He has not said much since I've been here but he did put his hand out for me to hold when Andrea told him I was here.  And he said, "Jessica, oh Jessica, are you leaving for good?" I told him I wasn't, that I was staying for good.  Then about five minutes later he waved his hand in the air and said cheerfully, "Mornin' God!"  It was so precious.

I had a pretty good day with the kids. It was jam packed with errands, appointments and housework. Blaine and I had a nice conversation this afternoon:

M: Blaine, you know what's been hurting on Mama?
B: No, what?
M: My tooth!
B: Oh, Mama - you know why your tooth hurts Mama? When you get older you get rid of your baby teeth and then you get new teeth and then, and then and then.... Mama, you're getting old.
M: Wait, what? Why does my tooth hurt?
B: It means you're old.

I thought it was the wrinkles on my face but it's actually my toothache that makes me old.

Then my son, the negotiator, told me he wasn't going to take a nap because he wasn't tired.  I proposed that he "rest" on the couch and he accepted. I told him he had to be quiet and lay down for thirty minutes and then he could get up. After two minutes he said he wanted some quiet music. Then two minutes later he needed to blow his nose. Then two minutes later he wanted to know if thirty minutes had passed. And then...

No, he's not tired at all.

This one just cracks me up...

David has a fishing tournament this Sunday and I have plans to do a little shopping and relaxation tomorrow. Both David and I are completely exhausted and feel stretched to the limit but we're hanging on to God and praying for continued strength and guidance. And right now we're just keeping vigil until Keith departs from our world into the next. Not a lot of space right now to think too much into the future but Keith would want it that way. Living one day at a time - not in the past and not in the future.

Thankful for today.

Yes, etc.

2012-01-14T13:53:00.003-06:00

The answer to your question ("Are you Lyons alive over there?") is Yes!

I have been disciplining myself in many areas the last few weeks and unfortunately blogging is not an area that I am worried about, so it's not getting done.

Fact is that this guy:

This girl:

These kids:

And this man:

Blaine and Keith in 2008

Blaine and Hannah Grace in 2010

Are pretty much all we're living and breathing these days.

When we got back from Michigan we found out that there was some fraud activity on our credit card which caused some problems for us and really sent us me into panic mode because the credit card company told us that a lot of organized crime groups are now stealing peoples credit cards, ordering credit reports and then stealing their identities. Awesome. (In our case there were multiple credit reports ordered.) David spent a good amount of time calling the credit bureaus and putting a stop on all new credit inquiries so now anyone that tries to open a new account has to get approval through us first since we get a call that someone is trying to open a card in our name.

Blaine has had an ear infection for nearly 3 weeks now which has taken us to the doctor twice and through two antibiotics. He continues to complain of an earache but this morning I may have discovered the root of some of the problem:

B: Mama, my ear still hurts.
M: Really? Well, we need to go see Dr. Howard if it's not better.
B: Ok.
(Pause)
B: Mama, it doesn't hurt if I don't put my finger in it like this.
(Inserts finger into ear.)
M: Don't stick your finger in your ear. Does it still hurt?
B: MAMA, IT FEELS BETTER!

Part of my new discipline is waking up before 6:00 am so we can both get ready and start lunches and breakfast before the kids get up. We need a solid two hours in the morning and since we both need to be out of the house by about 7:45 this is just what needs to be done. We started something new with Blaine this week (part of the reason we need to get up earlier) - a new excercise routine that is part of his sensory diet - that really takes a lot of time and energy on our part so we have to get everything done in order to do this before school. Not to mention get two kids ready, one of which HATES to put clothes on, brush teeth, hair, etc. By the time we get to work it feels like we've done a full days work already! It was actually a really good week for Mister. The new excercises have been a real hit, he's adjusted well to school this week and he's done pretty well during the morning work period all week.

Hannah has had a runny nose for almost two months now and it's really getting to her. I think both of her tubes have fallen out so now I'm starting to wonder if she has an ear infection. She's been very needy lately and kind of fussy.

She recently started using two and three word phrases. She can't articulate the words so well, but we generally understand what she's saying. Like: "I love you," "Up please," and I realize this is just one word but she's telling us to "Stop!" now which is really funny. We'll be tickling her and she'll be laughing up a storm and then when she's done she'll get all serious and say, "Stop!" You don't mess with with a girl that says "stop" the way she does.

We gave up on the whole no-pacifier thing. She gets it at night and that's it and frankly I'm ok with it. When she understands more clearly we'll just tell her to throw it away or the Easter Bunny won't come. That should work. :)

She continues to use the potty and tells us about 50% of the time when she needs to go. She loves to use the potty and claps for herself with a big smile when she goes. She knows the difference between poo and pee now and can tell us which she has to do. I guess I should put her in underwear sometime soon and really take advantage of her eagerness to use the potty. Good job, Hanny. Mama will catch up one of these days.

And then there is our dear Keith. The pictures above are from when the kids were babies. Keith and Andrea have been with David and I through the most beautiful parts of our life. Our engagement, our marriage, a journey toward healing, the birth of a baby boy, spiritual development, the birth of a baby girl, more spiritual development and the list goes on. I'm working less and less from the Millers now due to our kids' childcare schedule but I feel my work is most important now because I am handling a lot of imporant day-to-day things now that cannot go un-done. A friend sent this to me today because she knows what we're all going through and I thought I would share it. (Thanks Friend :)

Boyd Bailey writes:

"...I have to remember, that this world is not our home. God has us here on a temporary assignment. We are on earth to glorify our Heavenly Father, by doing His will. His will is clear. His passion is to make disciples. However, while we are in the process of making disciples, there is an enemy to contend with. And one of the enemy’s weapons is illness. The devil’s strategy is to sideline you from God’s mission by using crippling and even terminal illness as a deterrent and a distraction. But God has a different plan. Because of, not in spite of, your illness is God drawing you and others closer to Christ. You are privileged to glory in the sufferings of Christ. “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).Your great faith in God in the middle of adversity is compelling. Your Savior’s serenity challenges others to look again at this Jesus who is your rock and refuge in the middle of physical imperfection. The elevation of your faith lifts the faith of all those around you. God is drawing you and all those around you to Himself. Dying can be a more powerful witness than living. Therefore, cling to Christ, love Him and praise Him. He is the great physician who will give you the ultimate healing in His time. In the meantime, before you go home, invite many people to join you. They will listen, because you have something they both need and want: peace with God and the peace of God. Illness is painful, but it is not wasted pain, it has an eternal purpose..."

Illness is painful... and I know it must be most painful for Keith but it is also extremely painful for those that love and care for him, on so many levels.

Keith has been on oxygen (on and off) for several days now. He is very weak - not able to move from the bed to a wheelchair without assistance now. I don't get to see him very much because of my hours so I think back to the days when he would sit with me, every morning, for an hour or more to talk. When I do get to see him now I just make sure he knows that I love him and that we are all praying for him. I am thankful that in those old days I always gave my full attention to those moments because it is through those times that God was deepening my faith and teaching me about my own sin and weakness. Keith would always say "Now let's just sit down a minute and talk... not that you have a choice since I pay you to listen to me!" We'd laugh and that minute would turn into 60+ minutes. Never a dull moment when you're with Keith, that's for sure. Precious time that was.

Many thanks to those of you that are praying for Keith and Andrea and his family - and us - his adopted family. We don't know when God will call Keith home but I am grateful for his presence in my life. The Holy Spirit worked through him (and still is) in a big way to change my life. Keith has always been transparent, admitting his faults, weakness and sin before anything else. The one thing Keith does best, though, is love others. It doesn't matter if you've known him for 50 years or 5 minutes he always listens, pays attention and offers his kindness and care as if you're the last two people in the world.

We love you Keith Miller.

Happy New Year and Home

2012-01-05T21:30:00.002-06:00

I know I'm late but "Happy New Year!" from our home to yours. We just got back from our trip to Michigan after a pretty uneventful (but always challenging) day of travel. We spent New Years Eve at my parents house where we dined on some yummy fondue. My favorite was the venison and salmon. Blaine enjoyed cooking his own food and Hannah at whatever we put on her tray but her favorite was the shrimp. Oh, and perhaps you're wondering why our children never have clothes on? Undergarments were their vacation-wear for sure and pajamas were mine and David's.

This is my cousin Mitchell who Hanny attached herself to.

A lollipop bigger than Blaine's head.

Why Blaine sat on the counter to watch his movies, we don't
know. Another thing about being on vacation - you can watch
movies wherever you like... in your undies!

Oh good - he's actually got shorts on.

Mister bowled a couple times. He's really good.

Snow!

This is Hanny's great-grandmother. My mom's mom.

"Seriously? You think I believe that?"

Here HG is trying on clothes that I wore when I was her age.
My mom saved half a dozen dresses of mine and the outfit
I came home from the hospital in. That is what HG is holding.

mini-me

Back to reality tomorrow. David actually has to work but the kids don't have school so I am not going back until Monday. We had a great time on our vacation. Thanks to my parents and brother for hosting us, letting us take over the couches and remote, doing our laundry, and spoiling us with great meals. David and I enjoyed two date nights while we were up there so that was special.

As far as resolutions go I just want to live for God one day at a time. I accomplished nearly 80% of my 2011 resolutions/goals and this year rather than make a list I'm just going to keep it simple. We have so much on our plates right now that I kind of just want to make it through these hard times and find out what God has in store for us. At this point, when I look at the daunting list in front of me I can't possibly make any resolutions. Of course there are a lot of things I want to do this year but I'm going to focus on the important things. For instance:

- Blaine and Hannah will need a new day-care situation beginning March 1st. We have two months to find a nanny/school/something for both kids or I'll be staying at home on a permanent basis. And ultimately, helping Blaine find a place to belong and a program that will help him is a top priority.

- Keith, my beloved boss and our mentor, will face the end of his life in the next month to two months. Having to figure out our day-care situation while I am attempting to take care of important matters at my job is not exactly ideal.

- Possible (drastic) job changes this year.

- Blaine turns 4 and Hannah turns 2 (wow).

- Taking care of my health and staying healthy.

Oh, I could probably go on but these are the big ones. Like every year I think this will be a 'big' one.

Happy New Year Y'all :)

Jessica and the Crew

Party Time

2011-12-30T22:36:00.000-06:00

Tonight we had a Christmas party with my mom's side of the family. The kids had a great time with their cousins and David and I were very happy to share them :) After the party we went to the hotel where some of the family was staying and let the kids swim. Blaine had a lot of fun playing with the boys in the pool and the family was impressed with Blaine's swimming skills. Hannah got to swim too (with cousin Leslie ;)

Jenna, Aunt Ann and my mama

Blaine and Mitchell

Highlights

2011-12-28T22:14:00.001-06:00

Another big day here in the metropolis of Sanford. Let's just go over the big things.

David's Highlights:
Went to Jay's Sporting Goods to spend a gift certificate
Sledding with Blaine
Having a donut cook-off with Jessica (and winning!)

Jessica's Highlights:
Staying in my pajamas (again) all day
Sledding with Blaine
Playing Words with Friends on the couch for most of the day

Blaine's Highlights:
Bowling for the first time with GG
Sledding with Daddy, Mama, and Papa
Playing hide-n-seek with Daddy in the snow

Hannah's Highlights:
Staying in pajamas all day (like mother like daughter)
Taking a long nap and going to bed early
Watching Elmo on TV while wearing Elmo pajamas

GG and Blaine coloring a puzzle

This is the most embarrassing thing I've ever posted. Do you
see my outfit? This snowsuit is like 15+ years old. And the boots...
are David's. (This is what happens when you don't own cool cold-weather gear.)

So thirsty after sledding and playing with Daddy.

Snowball Fight!

2011-12-27T15:27:00.000-06:00

You gotta have a snowball fight when it snows...

A Very Merry Christmas: Part II

2011-12-27T10:35:00.000-06:00

We've been in Michigan for several days now. Our flights were relatively easy except for Blaine's ears hurting on the first flight into Nashville. The day before we left we took Blaine to the doctor because he was complaining of an ear ache. Sure enough he had an ear infection (and actually the doctor said there was a blister on his ear drum, which is a specific type of infection.) This is the 3rd year in a row that he has had an ear infection around Christmas time. Poor guy.

We arrived at my parent's house around 9:00 pm Christmas Eve. The kids crashed out later than normal and then the adults stayed up pretty late doing the stockings and wrapping the rest of the presents. It was an exciting night for all of us.

Saturday morning we slept in until 7:00 am (that's late for us...) and Matt, who separates gifts on Christmas morning, let Blaine help him. Blaine was pretty patient through the sorting and then tore into his gifts in a matter of minutes. It was a great morning.

Blaine wearing Papa's shirt

Silly

Christmas morning

We call him Cesar

Opening gifts

Hanny in her first snowsuit.

Everyone needs a Jeep up north

Jesus' birthday cake.

Popping popcorn with Papa's new popper :)

Snow!!! Finally.

It finally started snowing this morning and Blaine said it was because he "prayed twice." He put his new winter jacket on over his pajamas and headed out after breakfast. He would play out there all day if we let him. He and D are out in the woods right now exploring.

Yesterday my dad and I took the kids to the local community center where they have a kid's gymnastics area and a leisure "fun" pool. The kids wore us out between the two activities but we did have a lot of fun together. David and I went on a date last night too which was really nice. We both managed to get out of our pajamas (which we've been in for two straight days :) We saw The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and thought it was good.

We are doing as little as possible for the rest of our trip. I am going to try to stay in my pajamas again today, update the blog, do a little work and maybe watch some more movies. The snow is falling so it's really beautiful outside but nice and cozy inside. GG and Papa are keeping the kids busy doing all kinds of things, including riding around on a dolly.

A Very Merry Christmas: Part 1

2011-12-20T14:25:00.002-06:00

We celebrated Christmas all weekend long with David's side of the family and then this weekend we'll celebrate with my side, in Michigan. We had such a wonderful time together. We laughed and ate and laughed some more and ate some more and opened a mountain of presents.

Blaine's favorite gift...

A whoopee cushion! (Of course.)

Actually, he loved all of his gifts.

And Hannah? Her favorite gift was her...

Shopping cart or maybe Elmo or maybe the multiple babies she got... She was all smiles all weekend too.

David and I even got to go to his work party on Friday night. I think it was the first time we've been out in months. A big shout out to our sitters :)

We were filled with gratitude and thanks for the love and presence we had at our house this weekend. I think the you'll see the joy in our faces in these pictures.

One and a Half Years Old (+)

2011-12-11T21:01:00.001-06:00

Hannah turned 18 months old last week - on the 7th - but we just went for her well check on Friday. Dr. Howard said she looked great so we spent most of our visit laughing at Hannah doing what she does best: making people laugh! Such a ham!

Here are her digits:

Weight: 21 lbs 11 oz. (14th percentile)
Height: 30.1 inches (14th percentile)
Head Circ: 47.5 cm (77th percentile)

Dr. Howard broke it to us: Hannah is not going to be tall! Haha.

I just went back through the blog to look at where Blaine was when he was 18 months old - here are his digits:

Weight: 26 lbs 6 oz (60th percentile)
Height: 33.5 inches (80th percentile)
Head circumference: 48.8 cm (75th percentile)

Here is a link to Blaine's 18 month post, which I think is interesting (well, if your his parent :)

Besides being more and more hilarious each day Hanny has started to expose her feisty side. Mostly she has an attitude with her brother (who is usually harassing her so it's warranted.) And we're happy that she just doesn't just take his pestering. I mean they can totally be sweet to one another but there is plenty of screaming around here and it's mostly coming from the mouth of HG.

Meat, meat, potatoes, and meat are still her foods of choice. Dr. H. recommended that we make her some fruit smoothies to get some fruits and veggies into her diet (since all of her fruits and veggies end up in Tug's belly) so we'll start that this week.

She still has just eight teeth - but that's plenty to eat meat.

Elmo, books, and babies still top her list of things she loves. She's getting a few baby prizes for Christmas so I'm sure she'll be pleased. And of course shoes. How could I forget to mention her ~~love~~ obsession for shoes. She got that from me for sure.

Speaking of D - he won a fishing tournament this weekend: 1st place! He caught a bunch of HogBass (as Blaine calls them) and raked in some first place cash. Congratulations Daddy!

Oh, and Hanny loves her Daddy. I think she likes the way his name sounds too because she says "Dadda, Daddy, Daddy, Dadda" all day looooong. And when he comes home her heart melts and she runs to him with a big smile on her face. It's so sweet.

She is doing a great job using the big girl toilet. She claps for herself and says "Yay" when she goes. We are not going to do any hard core toilet training until we get back from our Michigan trip, but with the way she's going she'll be trained by then. (Yay!)

This past weekend went by fast and was jam-packed as usual. I baked more goodies and we went to a Christmas festival in our neighborhood where Blaine sat on Santa's lap and afterwards told me, "Mama, he was NOT scary at all" even though his voice was shaking and he had on his best I'm terrified but trying not to show it smile. We were so proud of him though because he faced his fear and walked right up to "that man with the scary beard" and sat on his lap. Originally he told us that he didn't like Santa Claus because he had those scary "claws" (santa Claus) but when we explained that the words were different, he decided that his clothes and beard were scary.

Too funny.

Mister kissing my hand. Awww.

Another thing we did this weekend was attend Siri's 4th birthday party. When I was looking for a picture of Blaine when he was 18 months old I found this:

Siri and Blaine on their first date.

Happy memories...

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like...

2011-12-04T20:03:00.001-06:00

Christmas!

One of my goals this weekend was to start baking my Christmas goodies, one of my favorite aspects of this wonderful season, and even though I didn't get as much done as I wanted, I did get three batches of burnt sugar almonds done. Two batches didn't turn out right but one turned out perfect. David even got his bake on this weekend (which has happened maybe one other time in the last 8 years.) He made donuts from biscuit dough. He was pretty pleased with his creation (as was I) and they were so yummy.

We consumed a lot of sugar this weekend "testing" all of our Christmas treats. I was in a sugar coma most of the day but thankfully made it to the gym to work off some of those almonds (and a donut... or two.)

It rained nearly all weekend, which was great since we're still in the middle of a drought. But the rain did bring freezing cold temperatures (we may have our first freeze of the year tonight.) Hannah is a tad bit obsessed with hats. When she feels a draft or we step outside and it's chilly she pats her head and says "hat." She even likes to wear hats around the house which is pretty cute.

Blaine started a new schedule at school today. He'll still be dropped off at 8:00am but will now be picked up at 11:30am. While we think this reduced schedule is going to benefit him, this adjustment (I used to pick him up at 3:00) is going to be really difficult for me. As most everyone knows Keith is very sick with pancreatic cancer and I have continued my position with the Millers helping to run their business and manage some of their personal matters. I have loved my job for the last (nearly) five years and having to reduce my schedule so much, especially during this difficult time, was hard for me. I want to be there as much as I can but we don't have a lot of options for Blaine at this time so I can only go in for those few hours while he's at school. Hannah continues to thrive at her pre-school but it's only two days a week and a friend that keeps her the other two days of the week has decided that she's going to go back to work, so we'll be done with her in January. Ugh! Childcare... one of the most difficult and stressful parts of parenting! I could just stay home but I feel called to continue my service to the Millers. Thanks for your prayers :)

We are looking forward to an early Christmas with our kids and David's side of the family next weekend and then we head to Michigan on Christmas Eve. Since they don't know the difference between the 17th or the 25th we figured that we would just celebrate early since we'll be gone Christmas morning, plus the kids will have some time to play with some of their presents before we leave for our trip. We're hoping for some snow in Michigan because Blaine is really looking forward to sledding and ice fishing when we're up there.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas preparations. I can't wait to get in the kitchen and bake the rest of my favorite goodies. I love giving out plates of cookies to our friends and family - that is, if there are any left after David and I "test" them!

Potty Training 101

2011-11-30T21:57:00.001-06:00

Just a quick note to tell everyone that Hanny is using the big girl potty now. I know, I can't believe it either. She actually tells us that she has to go "poo-poo" (even if she has to go pee-pee), goes to the toilet and when we put her on it... she goes! Mama's doin the happy dance. She gets so happy and proud of herself on the toilet - it's so cute. As cute as someone can be on a toilet! :)

She is also smiling for the camera (when we ask) which totally cracks us up.

These Minnie Mouse ears are a gift from the Pembertons which they brought back from their vacation.
(Thanks, friends :)

Watch the smile in this video. Oh and she was crying because she was hungry and she was mad that dinner wasn't ready yet.

Thankful

2011-11-27T12:14:00.001-06:00

We flew by the seat of our pants last week which I guess is no different than any other week except last week included this little holiday called Thanksgiving! Our original plan was to stay home and not battle the other holiday travelers. I was going to make Thanksgiving dinner and we were going to have a quiet four day weekend at home. Of course none of this ended up happening but everything worked out in the end and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Keith ended up staying in Houston longer than expected and we decided that we would go see him in Houston if he hadn't been discharged by Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving.) Wednesday afternoon came and he hadn't yet been released (not to mention I had not purchased one item for our Thanksgiving dinner...) so we packed up for an overnight trip and headed to Houston. The stress over it about put me over the edge but we had a lot of angels come together and take care of some of the planning.

And Thanksgiving dinner? Well, we were grateful for an invitation to David's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Perry's house (who live north of Houston) for dinner. We couldn't have asked for a better day. My in-laws and brother-in-law were also at Thanksgiving dinner and they took care of the kids while we drove downtown to see Keith at MD Anderson Cancer Center. We were also able to visit with Ray, David's grandmother's husband, who just had double bypass surgery. Both were doing quite well especially given that they had to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving.

After visiting we headed back to Conroe where we had quite the meal. Many thanks (again and again) to our wonderful family who took care of us on Thanksgiving and allowed us to go be with Keith during this difficult time. The meal was fantastic and I am sure I ate my weeks worth of calories in one sitting! And Uncle Matt kept his favorite nephew busy most of the day with playing and dinosaur videos on his phone. (Thank you everyone!)

We arrived home safely on Thanksgiving evening around 11:00 pm and the kids went straight to bed. Friday brought a day of fishing for the boys and one of my favorite activities... decorating for Christmas :) As I put the tree up I remembered how much I love the smell and imperfections of a fresh-cut Christmas tree. But one thing separates a real tree from a fake one and these six little letters make me do the happy dance: Pre-lit. That's right, our pre-lit artificial tree makes me so happy. I threw that baby together in five minutes flat, plugged it in and voila - a Christmas tree! It's the simple things in life.

Hannah admiring the tree

She loves picking out the ornaments with "babies" on them.

Excited!

I'm pretty proud of myself because I am nearly done with our Christmas shopping. The kids presents are hiding in our spare bedroom and I have attempted putting everyone else's gifts under the tree. Of course this means that the kids are fascinated with the gifts and Blaine has asked at least five times since yesterday what is in each box. So, if Blaine tells you what we got you - it's not true! :) Hannah is mostly obsessed with the "balls" (ornaments) and has only taken two off. But none are shattered... yet.

Speaking of obsessed, check this out:

Yes, that is our daughter with TWO ba-bas in her mouth. Breaking this habit is going to be hard!

In other news, we are extremely proud of Blaine today. The YMCA we belong to has a water slide and a water obstacle course (on the weekends) but kids have to pass a swim test to be able to use these features. Blaine has wanted to do these things since we joined one year ago. To pass the test kids have to be able to swim from one end of the pool to the other by themselves. Last night when David took Blaine to the pool he passed! YAY! He was thrilled and we spent most of today at the pool to celebrate. Nice job, buddy.

This is part of the pool. Blaine swam from one end to the other by himself!

See the yellow slide back there... That is B's new best friend.

Given all that happened yesterday, it was probably one of my favorite days ever. Why?

1. Michigan Football.  Not only Michigan football... but the Michigan, OSU game... and the boys whooped 'em! Hail!

2. Christmas decorating.

3. Wrapping Christmas presents.

4. Baking.

5. It rained, Y'all.  It rained for almost 4 hours straight. This had to be the highlight of my day.

And the kids thought I was totally crazy screaming at the TV while the game was on. Hannah was yelling "Gooo Booo" ("Go Blue" for you Texans) and Blaine was (of course) fascinated with the players tackling each other and asked me, "Mama, did you play that game when you went to that school?"  To which I replied, "No, baby, Mama was too busy going to class."  LOL!

Other than all of that, it really was a low-key weekend.

Happy Days

2011-11-21T20:48:00.001-06:00

We had a great time this past weekend. Our drive up to DFW was pretty good and our first stop, which was not planned (according to my husband) was Bass Pro Shop. We actually missed our exit to Great Wolf Lodge and ended up at Bass Pro and since we all needed a break we decided to go in. It was not busy at all and Santa had already set up shop, so the kids got an opportunity to sit on his lap. Hannah had no problem at all and because his little sister sat on Santa's lap, Blaine decided to be brave and also sit with him. He was terrified, but he did a great job and the best part (he tells us): He got a candy cane and he got to eat it before dinner! It truly was a magical night for our Mister.

We tore up the water park all weekend, which was a blast, and on Sunday Mimi and Pops treated us to a very special museum tour. Mimi did some detective work and found an exhibit called "Dinosaurs Live!". We didn't tell Blaine what we were going to do but just went to the exhibit and started walking down the trail and then he saw it: Sharp Tooth!

His face was so priceless. He spent the better part of our walk (where we saw nine dinosaurs total - all of which moved and made noises) convincing himself that they were not alive. He didn't want to touch the first few that we came up to and kept warning us all to "watch out" and "be careful." What an awesome way to end our weekend. Mister will never forget this trip, for sure! Thanks Mimi and Pops.

Here are the rest of our pictures. If we hadn't got home at midnight last night and had a full day today I would write more and give you the play by play, but all of that did happen and this mama needs to get some rest.

One thing is for sure, we all had a blast this weekend. We couldn't have asked for more.

Excited

2011-11-15T21:42:00.001-06:00

We have a lot to be excited about here at the Lyon home. We are going on a mini vacation this weekend to see Mimi and Pops in the Dallas-area. Part of the fun we'll have is staying at Great Wolf Lodge. We've been talking to Blaine about the water park for a while now and all he knows is that it is going to be "huge." He keeps asking us if the park is "bigger than that huge truck" or "bigger than our house" so we think he's going have the time of his life (because it is in fact bigger than both of those things). He is also excited about having his own room (with bunk beds) to sleep in with Hanny. He told us (repeatedly) tonight that we have to sleep in our own room and he and Hanny get to have their own room. I don't think he realizes that Sister will be in a pack-n-play and not in one of the bunk beds but whatever makes the little man happy works for us.

Other than that, Blaine has been learning a valuable lesson: How to do the dishes! D and I keep encouraging him to get a job - we figure this is a start :)

And Monday at school HG and her teacher made a Thanksgiving place mat. Isn't this the cutest place mat you've ever seen?

HG after 6 pumpkin muffins. She left some on her nose and in her hair for later.

Hannah let me take some photos without food on her face. So beautiful.

And these are just silly...

"Really Mom? I don't have time for this right now..."

Guess

2011-11-11T21:04:00.001-06:00

Guess what Mister is doing in these pictures:

Showing us his awesome dinosaur tattoos (one on each forearm).

And here...

Trying to get his popsicle back from Daddy.

Hannah Grace: 17 Months Old

2011-11-06T08:22:00.000-06:00

Dear HG,

I am sorry that I have not posted monthly updates on your growth but the truth is that you (and your brother) keep us pretty busy 'round these parts and there just isn't the time to sit in front of the computer anymore. But here we are on your 17th month here with us, grateful and blessed to be your parents. Here is what's going on in your world.

Everyone has been praying for your gastrointestinal system since July and it looks like all that praying worked! You're getting more and more regular with each day (which I'm sure you'll be pleased to read when you're 15!) Speaking of going to the bathroom, you're sitting on the big girl potty right now with Daddy. You told us "I poopy" so we ran you in there to see if you would go on the potty. No such luck, but we're going to start trying this more often since you're showing an interest in the potty.

You still weigh around 21 pounds but since you've been feeling better you've been a voracious eater so I'm hoping your weight starts to go up a bit. Your food of choice is still meat with an occasional bread item or cracker to mix it up. At home you sit in a booster seat that has buckles and that's a good thing because you love to eat on the run... literally! At school Ms. Ginger has a hard time getting you to sit down and eat. In fact, on Monday she had to take your food away because you wouldn't sit still at the table. We're not quite sure where you store all of those calories because you're not gaining a ton of weight and let me tell you - you can eat! It doesn't matter what meal we're eating or how much you've eaten when we get you down (and you do tell us "done") it's not five minutes later and you're crying and telling us "Un-gree" (hungry). Too funny.

Your vocabulary exploded several weeks ago. You attempt to say nearly everything that we ask you to say so communicating with you is pretty easy. You can tell us with sign language or your words what you need and want most of the time.

You love Elmo and telling the dog to "go". You say "excuse me" when you, or someone else passes gas and you love babies.

Your sense of humor continues to be one of your best features (besides how perfectly adorable, sweet, and loving you are.) Your teachers said that you "have the best faces" and that you are always cracking them up with your different looks. Laughter encourages you so it doesn't help when you throw food on the ground, make a silly face and then big brother Mister laughs at you!

When we are out shopping you like to point at the mannequins and underwear models and say "Daddy." (Yes, D works for Calvin Klein on the side and I am runway model on the weekends.) You are very polite, saying "hello" and "goodbye" to anyone within earshot.

We just started taking you to the pool again (too much diarrhea the last few months) and you are a little fish like your brother.

We're so glad that you are feeling better and we have our happy and healthy baby girl back.

Love you, Angel Bug :)

Mama

Even with food all over her face, she's as cute as can be.

And it's Done!

2011-11-04T22:22:00.001-06:00

All vomiting has ceased over here and I think it's actually been a solid week (awesome!) Hannah still has diarrhea but apparently the "post infectious diarrhea" she has can last 8 months. She now tells me when she poops though which is pretty funny. She points to her diaper, crinkles her nose and says, "pooo." Smart, right? Haha!

We had a pretty busy week. Keith finally got out of the hopsital on Tuesday afternoon just in time to attend a dinner where he was being honored with a special award. The Dispute Resolution Center here in Austin awarded Keith the International Peacemaker Award for his years of service working overseas with groups of people to resolve conflict (within and among individuals.) David and I were so grateful to be there and he certainly deserved the recognition. Thanks to Aunt Marcia for watching our munchkins :)

4:00 am Wednesday morning rolled around pretty quickly when David had to leave for Las Vegas and a three day work trip. After having been away from school all of last week and having D out of town for so long, Blaine's adjustment to school this past week was a recipe for Mister Disaster. He struggled at school so badly that I was called in to pick him up early on two different days. We're in the process of working with his OT to make a home plan for his occupational therapy that we can do every day before or after school to help him adjust and make better choices (and recognize his needs) throughout the day. He is certainly making huge improvements but during weeks like this when all that hard work (O.T, GF diet, our consistency at home) seems to be wasted the situation gets pretty frustrating.

Mister was a big help today when he came home early - he folded laundry, emptied the dishwasher, and cleaned up his messes. It was great!

He has really been praying for Keith a lot, which has been super sweet and adorable. He even talks to him on the phone and tells Keith that he is "praying to Jesus for him" and my favorite line, "I love you Keith Miller." These conversations make Keith and anyone in earshot bawl their eyes out!

One funny thing Mister has thought up recently is him telling us what his belly thinks. For example:

"Mama, my belly is telling me that it does not want to eat your dinner, it wants macaroni and cheese instead."

or

"Mama, my belly is saying that it wants a different dessert." (After his current dessert is 75% gone!)

and

"Mama, my belly is still sooooooo hungry. It needs something else." And then this is repeated about four times until it's time for bed.

Sister continues to be a hoot. I don't know if I have mentioned this before today, but she can blow her nose. We just got Blaine to blow his nose after he turned three and she started blowing hers at 16 months old. That has to be some kind of record, right? :) She is saying so many words now and is totally addicted to her ba-ba (paci) so breaking her of that (soon) is not going to be pretty. Perhaps I need to go on a work trip and D can take care of that little ba-ba problem :)

Here we are trying to take some pictures but someone was not cooperating...

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T20:54:00.000-06:00

David has summed up our last month in one carving:

Even the pumpkin caught what we've had over here...

The cutest ladybug in Texas (ok, the world!)

A really scary monster hugging his ladybug sister and we captured it on camera!

We took the kids to the hospital to see Keith tonight. We took him balloons which Blaine told me would "make Keith happy." When I asked him what kind of balloon we should get Keith he thought for a moment and then said, "Dear Jesus, Please take care of Keith." We tried hard to find a balloon with these exact words but H.E.B was all out.

We think Blaine enjoyed handing the candy out more than receiving it.

Hannah's favorite part... hugging her pumpkin.

Looking Up

2011-10-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have tried for many nights now to sit down and write an update but the fact is that when it comes to the end of the day I hit a major wall and I literally pass out from exhaustion.

So here it is, in (my favorite) list form:

1. Our friend and mentor, J. Keith Miller, is back in the hospital. He came home from the hospital on Tuesday after a day of appointments and procedures. It was on this day that he and his wife, Andrea, learned that the tumor pushing on his bile duct is malignant, it is inoperable and there is no cure. After he came home from the hospital he felt pretty good. He spent the evening with his wife and three daughters but then woke up the next morning with a fever and discomfort. He went to the E.R. where they learned that the bile had backed up again in his system and there was a bacterial infection. He is still in the hospital and will be for a few more days while they eradicate the infection and monitor his overall health. When he gets home they will then go looking for some treatment options at M.D. Anderson hospital in Houston. He wrote a blog post today (you can read it here) and there have been almost 40 comments from people just in the last several hours. I love reading them.

2. The great news about Hannah is that her doctor seems to believe (long story short) that her diarrhea is "post infectious diarrhea" which basically means that she was hit with a terrible virus in July (when this all started) followed by four subsequent viruses that wiped out the mucosa in her digestive tract. The infection that they saw in her sigmoid colon is in the "healing" stage and it could take up to 6-8 months for her to be back to normal. We were so thankful to get this news. The doctor even gave me his personal cell phone number and told me to call if there were any changes in how she was feeling or acting. Her vomiting has stopped completely. Nearly two weeks after she started vomiting once a day she has stopped. If she doesn't vomit tonight this will be the 5th night in a row that she's slept through the night vomit-free! Thank you for your prayers

3. Which leads me to something really interesting... It appears that Hannah's vomiting was a virus because Blaine has the exact same thing now. He wakes up every morning (since last Saturday) and vomits around 5:00 am. He is pretty lethargic and has complained of a belly ache for 8 days now. Hannah couldn't complain but she laid down a lot (wherever and whenever she could) and she was doing the once-a-day vomiting plus her regular diarrhea. Poor Mister. And really, if I'm honest, poor Mama and Daddy! Wow. Too. Much. Sickness!

Those are the big deals around the Lyon home. Oh, and my birthday ended up being really wonderful yesterday. I got to talk to Keith on the phone in the morning and that really made my day and then I had a lot of phone calls, texts and Facebook messages which made me smile and know how blessed I am to be loved by so many.

Love y'all! Thank you for all of your good thoughts and prayers over the last several weeks.

Now, a smile for you...

Happy Birthday Mama!

2011-10-26T23:16:00.000-05:00

It's hard to see but Blaine put our shoes in order like
and then we found them at the front door. Cute.

If you're reading this you should bewarned that you're witnessing a temporary hijacking of the blog. I apologize inadvance; proceed at your own risk.

Amidst all of the recent challengesin our lives Blaine, Hannah and I all agreed that we still wanted to give adigital shout out to Mommy (a.k.a. Babe Scuster, Blaine's name for Jessica) on her big day.

Happy Birthday to the most dedicatedand loving Mom we know, the most valuable employee on the planet, a daughterand daughter in-law who is a true blessing, a devoted friend, author of theblog and my wife (still not sure how I pulled that one off): Jessica.

When I die it's my hope that God andI can sit and review recordings of some of my prayers. I'm sure it's true thatGod has a sense of humor so I can't see him forgoing this kind of opportunityfor a good laugh. It wasn't until recently that I shared with Jessica a bit of divinerevelation which I received when praying about asking her to marry me.

David's best shot at a prayer ofgratitude: "God, thank you for putting Jessica in my life, she's an amazingwoman and meeting her has forever changed me. I'm so grateful that you chooseher for me and me for her, she's the perfect person to help me achieve thegreat things that you have in store for me."

(Insert vinyl record scratchsound here.)

The problem with this prayer mightbe completely apparent to most. It wasn't to me. Yes, I'm serious, this was anactual prayer.

While the obvious depravity andabsolute lack of even a degree of humility in the prayer may be quite clear toyou it really sounded like genuine gratitude to me at the time.

His voice was not audible but I remember the response was quite clear.

God: Have you considered thepossibility that I'm putting YOU in HER life because YOU are the perfect personto help HER achieve all of the great things that I have in store for HER?

David: Uhhhhmm…

I found once again that God knowsHis stuff. The concept that initially rocked my world has manifested itself astrue in so many ways since that prayer. Once we became parents it wasabundantly clear what God meant in a very particular sense and I have no doubtthat there will be plenty of opportunity to look back and see even moreexamples of the application of this truth in our lives.

Jess, the way you love our children is nothing short of amiracle to me. What could be more beautifully natural than the love of amother? The self-limiting love of a faithful Mother and wife. For all that youdo but especially for all that you are, we love you and wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!

Just Waiting

2011-10-24T22:49:00.001-05:00

I called the doctor's office today and HG's biopsy results were sitting in his inbox waiting to be reviewed. His nurse assured me that he would call as soon as he got to them. My phone was glued to my hand today but there were no incoming calls from Dr. Siddiqui. I had too much on my plate to remember to call back before 5:00 and so now we wait (again.)

And tomorrow morning at 8:45 am Keith and Andrea will head to the doctor where they will find out the results of Keith's surgery and biopsy from last Friday. I am very hopeful - praying for a miracle that the tumor is benign and he has a long time to live. Until we hear from the doctor there is no new news to report but I did see him this morning and he looked really good. He even had a smile on his face, which was nice to see.

David is back to 100% but as soon as he got well Blaine's system was attacked by this nasty bug going around. He puked in the middle of the night on Saturday and then again on Sunday night, but nothing more than that. We sent him to school today because he hasn't had a fever and he has only complained of a "hurt belly." But then we got the call. The call that we always dread because it means that not only is our Mister sick but one of us is out of work for a few days so we can take care of him. If he gets sick at school (the policy states) he has to go home and he can't come back the next day. The dirty details: he threw up... at the lunch table! Yuck.

Good news is he hasn't been sick at all this afternoon and has all the energy he normally does. He was pretty tired at bedtime though and crashed without a peep.

Hannah woke up at 6:00 am after a solid night's sleep. This sounds good, and sleeping through the night was great, but she actually woke up because she started vomiting. Not a very pleasant way to wake up.

My sweet friend Kari brightened my day last night with a visit and some birthday goodies. She even brought some gifts for the kids which we used today (thank you, Kari) because I was home with them and their viruses :)

"Friends are like flowers. You get to pick them."
SO CUTE! Thanks, Kari :)

Blaine and his "super huge building."

"Mama, take a picture of me with this worm on my face."

My little Ms. Piggy.

Mister hiking the green belt in Austin.

Thanks for the rock, Hanny.

Thursday and Friday

2011-10-21T23:19:00.002-05:00

The last two days have been emotional, mentally exhausting, and physically challenging.

First, I finally heard from Dr. Siddiqui today and he had nothing to report. HG's biopsy results are not back yet but while I had him on the phone today I pressed him for some more information. On Monday when he met with us after her procedure I asked him if he'd ever seen that kind of infection before. He responded 'yes' and then said nothing else. I brought that up today and just told him that I needed to know if what he'd seen before (that was like this) was life threatening.

His response: "No Ma'am."

No Ma'am. What beautiful words for a mama to hear. He told me it was probably a viral infection that has attached to the mucous membranes in the sigmoid colon. He also said they could be infected immunity cells but that most likely this will be a viral problem and he is confident that the biopsy results will give us answers. We're definitely looking forward to Monday and getting those results.

As far as how she is feeling she seems to be doing well. Her vomiting has subsided and she is sleeping through the night now. I think the GERD medicine is doing its job, so we're grateful for that.

Then, at 1:30 am this morning, I woke up to someone getting very sick... and that someone was my poor husband! He has not been able to keep down any food or water all day today. If he still can't keep anything down tomorrow morning we'll definitely be going to the clinic.

And this next piece of news has really shaken our family up.

A few days ago my boss and our mentor and friend, Keith, started feeling pretty bad. He was having some stomach pain which led him to a variety of doctors and through a variety of tests. I knew all of this was happening but didn't expect what would come next. When I got home from work yesterday my phone rang and it was Keith. I asked what they found out and, very gently and calmly, he explained to me that there was an internal blockage that was causing the stomach discomfort. He went on to tell me that the blockage is the result of the bile duct being squeezed shut because of a tumor that is pressing on it. The tumor happens to be next to his liver and due to its location, it is inoperable.

Keith then went on to tell me a few different things about some business he was going to take care of and asked how I might be able to help during this time. I couldn't and didn't believe that we were actually having that conversation so I didn't respond at first because I didn't really know what was happening or what he was telling me. I slowly began to hyperventilate and said between breaths, "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me. Are you saying that this... this... is going to... kill you?"

I then heard his tears falling and heard the words, "Yes, that is what I am telling you."

Shock. Disbelief. Sadness. And then more shock. I asked more questions but kept getting the same answer.

This morning I met Keith and Andrea at the hospital where Keith was being prepped for surgery. They went in to drain the backed up bile, insert a stent so that the bile duct can do its job, (despite the pressure from the tumor), and they also took a biopsy of the tumor and the liver. The biopsy results should be back on Monday. Until then Keith will probably remain in the hospital.

When it rains, it pours. But I am grateful that I do not feel despair or overwhelming feelings of hopelessness. In fact, I've been experiencing just the opposite. God's peace and love are the only things that will carry me (and Keith and our family) through this time and despite the total mental and physical exhaustion I am experiencing I have a lot of hope.

Scratch That

2011-10-19T21:55:00.002-05:00

While I was writing the last post I heard Hannah cough in her room while napping but then heard nothing after that. Normally I would go in and check but since she didn't vomit last night and her medicine seemed to be doing the trick, I decided to not go in her room.  The time must have been 3:20 or so. At 3:30 I closed my computer and went in to wake her up because it was time to pick Blaine up from school. When I walked in her room something just wasn't right. First, I noticed that she was on her back and she never sleeps on her back so I panicked and then as I got closer I saw that she had thrown up. There was so much of it. It was on her face, covering her neck, on her shirt, all around her head and in her hair.

She looked lifeless and I was scared to death.

I screamed her name. She didn't respond.  Then I shook her leg. Nothing.

I hit her chest with my hand a few times and her eyes darted open at last. She gasped and coughed and I pushed her over on her right side. She cried a little bit and then just lay there. I called David, told him what happened and asked him to call Hawthorne to let them know that I was running late.

As soon as I hung up she started sobbing and began saying 'Mama' over and over again. I picked her up and moved her to the tub where I picked chunks of undigested breakfast and lunch foods off her body and out of her hair and took her clothes off.  During her bath she was lethargic and sad. When I got her out we sat on her bedroom floor and like clockwork, as it has been for the last two weeks, she started vomiting again. This went on and on until she had puked up everything. After another bath it was time to go get Blaine.

I put her in the car and wrapped a towel around her waist.  When we were a little over halfway to B's school I hear her gag and then cough and then it started again. More vomiting. I quickly tried to think of the closest fire station because I was worried that she was choking but then heard her crying so just gunned it to our destination. Before we arrived she threw up once more and then when I went to get her out she was a total mess. What I should have done was put a huge bib on her because the towel did little to nothing to protect her or her car seat from the wrath of her vomit. Yuck.

I stripped her in the parking lot, changed her, cleaned up as much as I could and went in to get Blaine. I had a few things to drop off and notes to collect and B saw me from his classroom. I heard him tell his teacher that his "Mama" was there and he went through his pick-up-routine like a champ while I tended to my business. He came out of his door into the lobby and I greeted him but not on my knees with open arms like normal.

Blaine: Mama, why do you have your mad face on?
M: Oh, I'm not mad Baby.
B: Then why do you have your mad face on?
M: This is not my mad face. This is my sad face...
B: Why, Mama? What's wrong?
M: Baby, Hannah's still sick and she threw up in the car on the way here. It's a big mess.
B: Pooor Hanny!  I think you should call the doctor.

My sweet, kind-hearted, concerned little Mister. I love him.  He talked to HG all the way home trying to hide his snack from her because I wouldn't let her eat or drink anything. He was a big help when we got home and she started puking again.  He brought me paper towels and "chemicals" (floor cleaner) to clean up and reminded me that I should call the doctor.

After her first middle-of-the-day vomiting session ended she was hungry and thirsty and mad that I wouldn't give her anything.  To appease her I held her... while I made dinner. Thank goodness for Curious George who entertained my Mister during HG's ordeal.

HG then ate a huge dinner and seems fine now.  D called Dr. Siddiqui, who happened to be on call tonight, and he said that there is nothing he could do. He said that if she started puking uncontrollably or couldn't hold down any food or water that we could take her in to the E.R. He also said that he would check on her biopsy results in the morning and then call us if they were in.  I'm praying they are!

To say that I've had to rely on God more than normal over the last several weeks is an understatement. I've also been in a Beth Moore bible study for the last six weeks, which I know is no coincidence. What a blessing it has been to walk through the life of King David while our family is dealing with so much uncertainty.  The last (and most important lesson) that Beth taught last night was the goodness of God. She gave us a number of different scriptures that answered the question: Does God do us good? And today as I was praying about HG I remembered one scripture that she pointed us to.

"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good." Romans 8:28 The Message

God works all things together in our lives for good. - Beth Moore

I am grateful for the goodness of God and his unfailing love. And since the only gift I have for God is one of faith, that's what I'm living on now.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

And Then There Was... SLEEP!

2011-10-19T14:41:00.001-05:00

I had to call the doctor numerous times yesterday but it was worth it. HG's doctor said it wouldn't be a problem to put her on acid reflux medicine since this would likely solve one of our two problems. D picked up the golden ticket (Prevacid) last night and after just one dose our angel was able to sleep through the night. She coughed a lot, but nothing came up with it (thank you, modern medicine.) Unfortunately I was still up a lot worrying because I didn't hear her vomiting, (weird, I know) but after one night we all felt rested this morning.

No word yet on her biopsy results. I think I'll call tomorrow and harass them... I mean, check in.

Blaine Lyon, M.D., has his own thoughts about his sister's illness. Apparently this is how it went down:

B: Mama, I know why Sister is having diarrhea.
M: You do? Why?
B: She was outside in the back yard with Daddy and I last week and I wasn't watching her and neither was Daddy and she ate some of that bad grass.
M: (Thinking to myself - It's bad when your three year old describes your dead and poorly maintained back yard as "bad grass.")
M: Wow. Really? Why weren't you watching her?
B: We were both really busy.

So there you have it. Mystery solved. Dr. Lyon also believes that GG's sick stomach was from bad coffee that D bought her from McDonald's.

Hoping tonight is filled with more uninterrupted sleep.

Results

2011-10-17T14:15:00.002-05:00

Last night brought more of the same - vomiting and diahrrea. We let HG eat right up until bedtime because we knew she couldn't have solid food after 2:00 am but all that extra food just meant there was more of it to come up in the middle of the night. She woke up around 6:00 am desperately needing a bath and because she was so exhausted went back to sleep for an hour and a half afterwards. We woke her up at 7:30 so she could get some fluids in her before we had to cease all food and drink at 8:00am. She needed another bath and had no interest in food or drink at that point. After packing our bags we ran some errands and then arrived at the surgery center at 10:00 am on the dot.

Intake took almost an hour and by the time the anesthesiologist arrived to talk to us, David was waiting with us. Hannah played with D's i-phone in her fancy hospital gown and socks while a barrage of doctors and nurses came in to ask us the same questions over and over again. Dr. Siddiqui, the pediatric GI, came in last to talk to us and made sure we didn't have any other questions. Miss Hannah went happily into Ms. Katie's arms (her nurse) and laid her sweet little head on her shoulder, snuggling right up to her. She had her ba-ba (paci) and her blanket and was off.

Nearly 50 minutes later Dr. Siddiqui arrived with pictures of her stomach, esophagus and sigmoid colon. He showed us what he found: An infection was present in the rectosigmoid junction and the rectosigmoid colon. There were red nodes all over in the picture, which Dr. Siddiqui said are the sign of an infection. So he took a biposy in those areas (as well as in other places) and said that we should know something in a week or so. I asked if he has seen this before and he said 'yes' but didn't give any more information. Her endoscopy was less "interesting" (his words) because besides redness (probably from vomiting so much) he didn't see anything irregular. He thinks that her vomiting is from reflux but doesn't want to put her on any meds right now until these biopsy results come back.

They brought Hannah back to us with an IV drip and pokes in her foot and both hands from additional bloodwork they did. She cried on and off but was doing relatively well and even sucked down some orange Gatorade they gave us. She drank more than an ounce without vomiting, so they unhooked her IV and discharged us.

Looking on the bright side, it is a relief that something was found but... an infection? That scares me. It is one piece to the puzzle and now we can move forward with something, so I am grateful for that. We will be anxiously awaiting those results - hopefully something by the end of the week.

Thank you for all your prayers.

Good and Not So Good

2011-10-15T22:33:00.002-05:00

The good news is that D is home. He was able to get an early flight this morning and was actually waiting for us when we got home today from our adventure. The kids were so excited. Blaine couldn't stop smiling and Hannah was attached to David's neck. It is really good to have him home.

The kids, GG and I had a fun day at Sweetberry Farm. Besides strawberries, which are harvested in the spring, they also grow pumpkins and their fall harvest festival is a big deal. We started out on one side of the farm and worked our way through nearly all of the activities, which took us a few hours.

Me and Mister in the field of flowers.

This is where Sister spent most of her day. Poor thing.

Snack time in the truck.

Blaine really enjoyed himself but I think the face painting and strawberry popsicle were among his favorites. He really wanted to ride the horses but the line was an hour and a half long and this Mama had to say no to that (wait.)

I would give me great joy to tell you that Hannah also enjoyed herself today but the fact is that the last two days have been pretty hard on her. She was up again last night, earlier than normal (11:30 pm), vomiting and with diarrhea. She is getting so exhausted from being up for hours every night that she doesn't even wake up anymore when she poops or vomits in the middle of the night. And then when we get her up to change her and her sheets she sobs and then finds the first place she can to lay down and lays her head down. We then proceed to hold her and comfort her while we helplessly watch her endure another 45 minutes of vomiting.

I remember when she was born and they told us she may have a terrible infection and that a spinal tap, among other tests, would be required. David and I laid in my hospital bed crying that night while Hannah was in NICU, praying that God would heal our sweet baby girl. It turned out that her "infection" was only a staph contaminant but before finding that out she was pumped full of antibiotics. Then after coming home we discovered that she had GERD and was put on medicine for five months. Shortly after this she started having ear infections which ultimately led to her ear surgery in March when she had tubes put in. (Which, by the way, we just found out on Thursday that one of them is no longer in place and is actually in the ear canal. They are supposed to last 18+ months and hers lasted just 9 months.) It is very difficult to not worry about what is going on with her especially since every day that goes by seems like we're losing precious time. Just in the last few days I can tell that HG is really not well. Something is seriously wrong with her but we have no answers. This is so hard on a Mama but I am trying hard to focus on her and keeping her as happy as possible despite how she feels.

Tomorrow we start her prep for her procedure on Monday. She'll take MiraLax twice tomorrow and then can't have anything by mouth after 8:00 am on Monday. Our arrival time at the surgery center is 10:00 am Monday. I am hopeful and trusting in God on this one.

P.S. Thanks to my Mama for taking such good care of all of us while D was out of town. I would have totally lost it this week if it weren't for her. The stress and exhaustion from all this sick-business is really doing a number on me. Thanks GG.

Our Neverending Story

2011-10-14T02:48:00.003-05:00

My boss, Keith, told me today that I was receiving the necessary training to become one of those mothers that people look at and think, "She's so calm, put-together, and wise. How does she do it?!" I appreciated his encouragement but feel like I am actually in training to be a spokeswoman for Clorox Disinfectant Wipes or Lysol.

It is 2:30 am right now and I've been up for over an hour. Again. For the 10th (yes, tenth) night in a row. Hannah Grace is in the middle of some type of physical storm, more like a tsunami, that we have yet to have any answers about. She is still vomiting every night sometime after midnight but before 3:00 am and she continues to have diarrhea, which started around the beginning of July. Her ultrasound went well and all of her stool samples are back in, so hopefully this next week will be chock-full of answers. We're praying for that at least.

Tonight, my mom (who is thankfully here while D is away) and I cleaned up a formidable mess in her crib twice. And last night was the scariest night yet. I woke up at 2:00 am shocked that HG hadn't woken up yet to get sick and when I went in to check on her I found that she had in fact vomited but she never woke up. Thankfully she was on her belly but now I know I need to be more conscientious of checking on her more often through the night.

D seems to be having a successful week in Chicago but we are sure looking forward to him coming home this weekend. The kids and I really miss him and I know he is looking forward to joining our nightly parties in HG's room.

We're having dinner with Keith and Andrea tomorrow night and if everyone is semi-healthy on Saturday we're going to head out to a local pumpkin festival. I promised my mom that I would take her somewhere other than the grocery store and the hospital while she was here! :)

Highs and Lows

2011-10-11T22:59:00.002-05:00

It was a big day here at our house. Not because anything monumental happened but because we had a lot happen.

Blaine went to and completed his swim lesson tonight (which was a battle last week.) Perhaps there was some bribery involved tonight but we won't speak of that. The bottom line is he did a great job.

GG is here (yay!) and I actually got her out of the house today though it was only to the hospital (more on that later.) When I reminded Blaine that Daddy was going to be gone tonight he told me "Don't worry Mama - GG is going to be our Daddy while Daddy is on his trip. When he gets back, he'll be Daddy again." So cute.

Blaine had a fantastic day - he was helpful and loving and was on task all day with little to no complaining. In the middle of playing this evening he got up, ran to the bathroom and yelled back to me, "Mama, it's time to run my bath." He then proceeded to take a bath and a shower on his own. GG and I were so proud of him today.

David left for his trip to Chicago in the middle of our flurry of activity today. We all miss him already but hope he has a successful and fun trip this week.

The big news is from Sister. She continues to be sick and her diarrhea has worsened over the last week. I didn't think it could get worse, but it has. Poor darling has been up vomiting at night for seven days now (from around 12 am to 1am) and today spiked another fever (her 5th in three months). Besides the viral thing (at least that is what we hope it is) the diarrhea has been a problem since early July. We went back to see her pediatric GI doctor today and he has ordered more tests. He is going to have the Hematologist review her blood work and investigate the slides in more depth. Some of her white and red blood cell counts are still "odd" and he wants to make sure that she doesn't have an autoimmune disease. The second thing that he ordered was an Upper Endoscopy with Sigmoidoscopy which will be done Monday and then we are to proceed with her Ultrasound of the abdomen (with special attention to the liver) tomorrow. Oh, and he ordered that more stool samples be collected. Since I am a pro at this now it's not really that big of a deal. And if she continues to vomit at night he will order an MRI to make sure everything in her brain is ok. Looking at her and knowing her developmental history he says he doesn't think we'll need to go down that road but he remarked that I seemed like a "calm mother who was not anxious" so he thought I should know the next steps. He clearly does not know me well!

Today was a rough day for our little girl but she seems to be in pretty good spirits despite what she's going through. I am not excited about this procedure on Monday morning because she will be taken away and will be under anesthesia once again. I hated when she had her tubes put in earlier this year and had to be under anesthesia. And this procedure, though routine, is more complicated and has a longer recovery time than the ear surgery.

We will appreciate everyone's prayers for HG and our family and I'll be sure to update here when we know more. More urgently though, prayers for a night full of sleep instead of vomiting would be great!

The Tattoo to Prove it

2011-10-09T20:35:00.000-05:00

Blaine is sporting a new tattoo.

Awesome, dude.

Blaine's love of dinosaurs is no secret to anyone (family or stranger). He loves all things pre-historic as long as it is large and scary in some way (so of course "Sharp Tooth" is his favorite). Last week my friend Kari sent me an email about a new dinosaur exhibit at a museum (which we'd never heard of) in downtown Austin. We asked him if he's like to go and proceeded to ask us every day this past week if it was "time". Sunday came along pretty slowly for Blaine but alas he made it and the museum experience was fantastic. Thanks Kari for suggesting it!

See my Mister in the white shirt. Awwww.

His favorite fossil - a T-Rex head!

Everyone was exhausted on the way home after a long and busy day so naps began in the car. David and I were up half the night with Hannah because she was throwing up and doing her regular diarrhea business every couple hours (and throughout today). She is clearly allergic to something or has something else going on and we hope to get some answers in the next few weeks. We are going to be more diligent about keeping a food journal for her and eliminating certain foods (though we've already taken dairy and soy out of her diet.) She also has an ultrasound of her abdomen this week and then a follow up with her GI doctor. Poor darling.

Our other exciting news from the weekend is that some foreign substance fell from the sky last night. That's right - it actually rained here this weekend for longer than a nano-second. I don't know how much we actually got but it rained through the night and into the early morning. It was gorgeous and wonderful and even though the backyard is a mud pit now, we are so grateful for the rain. You may not believe this, but Hannah has never been in the rain. It may have rained in Austin since she was born (16 months ago) but it's never rained here or in her presence, so she was a little freaked out but ended up shrieking with joy when some drops got on her.

I don't know how we'll top the dinosaur exhibit from this weekend but I'm sure this upcoming week will be full of fun too.

Oh - and a huge shout out to Blaine for giving Hannah her bath tonight. Thanks, Mister.

Twice Baked Sickness

2011-10-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

When I have nothing better to go with the post title can get totally weird, like today.

This week has been weird though so it all makes perfect sense to me.

Monday is a busy day for us because we start every week with Blaine's occupational therapy appointment at 8:00 am, which means everyone is out the door and ready for work or school by 7:45 am. I guess I should back up a bit... for almost two months our Mister has been going to O.T. to work on some areas he needs some help with. When B was almost 18 months old we started seeing some behaviors and patterns that were odd and frankly, a bit out of the ordinary. While many well-meaning people told us that it was a "boy thing" and he would "outgrow it" something told us that there was something else going on. Fast forward to August of this year (and through many different doctor appointments) and we had Blaine tested by an occupational therapist. They concluded that he has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and after the intial shock and denial wore off we started researching and everything started making more sense. Long story short our Mister has some challenges right now and given time, the right therapy (and therapist), and work on our part everything will work out in the end and we'll have a happy, healthy and well-adjusted young man on our hands. I had all these lofty plans to start another blog that would chronicle our new journey with Blaine and SPD but I realized that 1. that would be way too much work for me and 2. this is a part of our lives and we don't have to document that part of our lives as if it's a secret. In fact, Blaine helped me come to this final conclusion the other day when we were driving to one of his appointments.

B: Mama, look at that airplane!
M: Wow, I see it. That's pretty cool. Hey, do you remember where we are going?
B: To see Dr. Yorke. (The Psychologist we've been working with.)
M: That's right.
B: Mama, it's ok. Everyone has problems. We just work on them with the doctors.
M: (tears in my eyes) That's right buddy. Everyone does have problems.

So, it was at this point (and after trying to start that other blog five times) that I decided we should just lay it all out there. And with David's go-ahead, here we are. Coincidentally (if there is such a thing) October is Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness month.

Instead of copying and pasting a bunch of information here I'm just going to pass along a link that will give anyone who wants more information on SPD exactly that. Click here for an overview of SPD.

SPD - “Sensory Processing Disorder is a neurological disorder that is like a virtual traffic jam in the brain. The information from all eight senses is misinterpreted which causes a child (person) to often act inappropriately.” - SPD Blogger Network

All that from telling you what we did on Monday morning... wait until I get to Wednesday!

Just kidding.

Attention turned to Hannah on Tuesday when she started vomiting all over the place. She did this through Tuesday night and then it was over. No fever and no other symptoms (expcept for her chronic diarrhea) and then after school on Wednesday Blaine started complaining of a sore throat. David went to work and the kids and I made it into Dr. Howard's office for back to back visits. Hannah is fine - she just had a virus but our Mister has strep throat which didn't slow him down a bit today when he was home with me. He was still running, jumping and climbing all over everything. Oh, he will be going back to school tomorrow. Doctor's orders!

Because I was home-bound with the kids today we ran some errands and then I spent half the afternoon making Pioneer Woman's twice baked potatoes. It was my first time so things got pretty messy but I succeeded in making some pretty good potatoes, if I (and David) do say so myself! We also had these fantastic hamburgers that I was pretty proud of. Actually, come to think of it, despite everything else we've got going on here I've managed to put some good meals on the table this week. Last night we even had lamb chops. They were semi-burned, but we really liked them with that "smokey" flavor.

The good news is that tomorrow is Friday and we have some fun plans for the weekend and then GG comes to visit on Monday. David has to travel to Chicago for five days so my mom offered to come help with the kids so I don't go crazy and no-one gets hurt.

Pre-Sickness

Reading some books in the big girl chair

Testing her cowgirl boots.

Loving on mama.

More love...

So beautiful.

Sick kids.

Watching TV together and there is no screaming. Amazing!

One Year Later

2011-10-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

One year ago today my friend Molly and her husband, Jason, lost their son, Aidan.

I have thought about their family more in the last year than I've thought and prayed about a lot of things. On a near daily basis I have prayed for comfort and healing in their lives and mourned for a boy that I never met but see so clearly through the eyes of my own son. Aidan's life and his parents strength and love have touched my heart deeply... and changed me.

Today I am going to light a candle for Aidan and watch the photo montage that his parents put together last year.

To watch the photo montage click here.

To read the other posts about Aidan, click here and here.

P.S. Molly and Jason welcomed a daughter into their lives this year. Aidan's little sister, Harper, is beautiful and perfect and from the pictures seems to have gotten the happy gene, just like our Hanny!

Those Things

2011-10-01T21:24:00.002-05:00

Hannah and I are just here, all alone, missing our boys.

We didn't have any fun today. We didn't even get out of our jammies. We just sat around the house all day and watched the clock, waiting for tomorrow to come.

Well... maybe that's exaggerating a bit. We have missed them but we're being super productive and we're having a good and relaxing time.

Blaine and David are having a great time. Here are some pictures they've sent me.

I've been getting a bunch of organizing done that has been put off since, well, forever ago. You know those things that you always think, "I should do that." or "I'll do that when I have a whole weekend..." Those things. I went through both kids' memory boxes, which were disasters, and then got some new boxes for all of the artwork we have coming home. When Blaine is old enough to read this I hope he won't be mad that I threw away a bunch of his stuff. I kept the first, second, third, fourth and five items of the same kind of art that came home and then anything more than that got tossed. How many triangles painted blue can a mom keep for heavens sake?

After all of the organization (which made my day) I finished decorating Blaine's room. I think he'll be excited to have some dinosaurs on his walls and to finally have his Kung Fu Panda 2 poster up. Hannah's room got a little revamp. I was tempted to move her changing table out since we use it so little now but she is still in diapers so I think it can stay a bit longer. The biggest change is she now has two dressers (and a closet full) of clothes. I moved Blaine's old dresser into her room since he has new furniture.

You should have seen this closet before I organized it. Scary. And now it's not.

If you've actually read this far and were as fascinated with my fall cleaning and organizing as I am, then you're awesome.

Thank you for appreciating me!

I Hope the Lizards Don't Get In

2011-09-30T21:03:00.002-05:00

The boys packed up and shipped out today. Well, more like drove off. Camping has been on David and Blaine's minds for some time now and with this cold front that came through last night, it seemed like a perfect time to go.

Blaine packed his "camping bag" with all the essentials:

1. Fruit Snacks
2. Curious George DVD's
3. Stuffed Bear
4. Books

And David packed the non-essentials:

5. Food
6. Boat
7. Bedding
8. Everything else you need for camping

Here are my happy boys before they left today.

I have very fond memories of camping when I was younger. Except when I went camping we could have a campfire (no droughts in Michigan) and it was not a zillion degrees. But I don't think Mister cares.

HG and I plan to get wild and crazy this weekend. And I'm just hoping that no lizards get in the house because my knight in shining armor is not here to vacuum them up. Hannah and I will be making our way to the Hilton if we see anything but ourselves in this house while the boys are away.

Apparently, she's not too excited about our girls weekend.

Two Dates

2011-09-24T21:42:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure who took who but Blaine and I went on a date last night. We left HG and D to fend for themselves and headed to the movies to see The Lion King in 3D. This happens to be one of Blaine's top three movie choices so he was very excited to see it on the big screen. We both really enjoyed it and I even (shocker) cried when Mufasa died - just like the other 100 times I've seen it.

I knew the date was over when (before we even left the building) Blaine was asking (telling) me to take him to Toys R Us to buy him a spider man toy. Nice. I had a great time too, son.

But Blaine forgot all of that toy business when we got home because he has some new pets to take care of. Besides Nemo (fish) Blaine has a snail and four caterpillars to take care of. The caterpillars are called Wooly Bear caterpillars and they will turn into isabella moths sometime soon. Blaine's Papa overnighted them to him on Thursday all the way from Michigan. We bought them a home and take daily walks to the park to refresh their food supply. I asked Blaine if he wanted to name them and he told me, "Mama, they already have a name - caterpillars!" Silly me.

We started our Saturday like most others, at the YMCA. Aftrewards Hannah and I went to the Cedar Park Farmer's Market where we loaded up on some grass-fed beef, gluten free-noodles, and homemade blackberry jam. When we got home I made Blaine some homemade GF pretzals, like the big soft ones you get at the mall (Mmm mmm). Both kids like them, so I'm excited about that. The best part of the afternoon - both kids went down for their naps with no fuss and slept a solid two hours. D and I were able to get some work done and then when the kids got up we headed to Zilker park for a train ride and time at the playground.

(Blaine took this picture. Pretty good!)

Our faces crack me up in this pic.

Something pretty interesting over there...

HG trying to punk Daddy out.

We had a great family "date day", as Blaine liked to call it and now everyone is tuckered out from the busyness.

And that's how it should be!

Good night =)

Food Hangovers and A New Wardrobe

2011-09-19T14:58:00.001-05:00

I don't think I could possibly handle another day of celebrating (with food at least). It started Friday night after Ruth's and then continued through Saturday night. Sunday morning I felt like I had a hangover, except I hadn't consumed one drop of alcohol all weekend. Only food. And lots of it. Sometimes it's nice to just get off the health band wagon and live a little but I must say I went a little too far.

The King had a great ~~day~~ weekend and even this morning Blaine was telling David "Happy Birthday, Daddy!"

One of the best gifts (certainly the one that got the most laughs) was this t-shirt from David's Nana and her husband, Ray. They found this while they were on vacation in Colorado and it was practically made for David.

Too funny. (And true!)

Hannah's Mimi brought a few (hundred) 'prizes' for her. Some friends of my MIL's have granddaughters that have grown out of their 12 and 18-month clothes so they were kind enough to pass on a slew of gently used (and some new) clothing and shoes to our lil' Missy. Hannah had a blast going through her new wardrobe and she was especially proud of her new, frilly, pink skirt.

Just one stack of the clothes we went through.

"Should I wear the jellies or the tennis shoes?"

Adorable Sunday's Best!

Blaine had some quiet time last night making a fort for his beloved dinosaur collection. If you're scared of sharks (or dragons), you might not want to look through these pictures. :)

And David and I? Well, we spent most of the last few nights tossing and turning from our various ailments. It seems that we both have neck/head/back issues and my potentially bruised rib(s) continue to give me trouble during the day and night. It's been brutal. I look forward to a night where one of us isn't writhing in pain. We think we're too young for all this body-pain business!

A Tiny Hanny and Date Night

2011-09-16T22:30:00.002-05:00

We finally had Hannah's 15-month check-up on Wednesday. The news was shocking.

Hannah. Is. Tiny.

Tiny as in she is only taller than 12% of kids her age and she is only 15% heavier than kids her age. But her head (or her melon, as we call it) is in the 60th percentile.

Ok, so I really wasn't shocked because I know she is little but I didn't know she was that little. Blaine was always above the 60th percentile in weight and height so it is crazy to have a little toddler. But boy is she ever cute!

She loves putting her blanket in her head. Silly.

Aside from the million doctor appointments we had this week we've on our second night of celebrating David's birthday. Last night, for his actual birthday we had a party with the Pembertons. Siri never misses a party with cupcakes and singing.

Making daddy's cupcakes.

Mister is so proud of his decorations.

Tonight was our second night of celebration at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Mmmmm.

And here is my older and very distinguished husband. Happy Birthday (again)!

Oh, and I think I broke a rib (or two) or perhaps I just badly bruised them. I was playing with Blaine at the bounce house on Wednesday afternoon and it got pretty rough (like it does with our Mister). I don't know what happened but that night I couldn't sleep or breathe and just below my sternum I have some intense pain. Lifting, carrying, walking, laughing, and deep breaths make it hurt pretty badly, even tonight. I don't know what I did, but whatever I did - es no bueno!

A Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday

2011-09-15T09:29:00.001-05:00

Today is David's 33rd birthday.

We have a slew of activities planned this weekend for his double-3 birthday but before we do a bunch of celebratin' I wanted to tell the world, well at least the 4 of you that read this blog, that this is a very important day in my life for the following reasons:

10. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: there would be no-one here to vacuum the lizards up that get in our house and scare the dickens out of me.

9. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: I would not laugh near as much as I do now.

8. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: I never would have went to Maui (hello, paradise) with the love of my life.

7. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: there would be an over-population of bass in and around Austin. (And no-one wants that.)

6. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: I ~~might~~ definitely would have had more nervous breakdowns over the last seven years. (Thank God for calm and centered partners!)

5. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: my life would not be as fun and exciting as it is now.

4. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: I wouldn't have someone as good looking and strong to love me and support me.

3. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: I would not have our dog, Tug. (Though some days I swear owning that animal is more trouble than not!)

2. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: there would be no Blaine Miller Lyon nor would there be a Hannah Grace Lyon.

And the number one reason I'm grateful David was born...

1. I'm grateful David was born because if he wasn't: the dishes would NEVER get done!

Haha. Just kidding.

The real #1 reason I'm grateful for this man's life is he's a man after God's own heart and I have the great privilege of walking with him. Each year that God gives to David (and us) I discover more about his leadership, guidance, love and strength all built on a rock solid foundation of God's mercy and faithfulness.

Happy Birthday, Babe. We love you and are so grateful for you... (and your lizard-eliminating abilities.)

Love, Jessica

"What is that really good smell in here?"

2011-09-12T22:23:00.001-05:00

That would be GF banana bread my sweet son.

After dinner tonight Blaine helped me make some GF bread from our new cookbook, which we always make into mini-muffins. They were a hit with everyone. In fact, there were 24 mini-muffins on this rack just three minutes before this picture was taken. (No joke.) Some small munchkins and one large munchkin literally ate 21 of these in less than five minutes.

I live with pigs. (And for the record I ate two of these muffins.)

"Let's see if I can get one more in my mouth."

The best laughing picture ever!

HG is getting ready to point the finger at Daddy.

Another great laughing moment.

And it wouldn't be a complete night if Blaine didn't build something with
the couch cushions. Here is a ramp which he rolled down probably 50 times.

Who knew one could have so much fun on a Monday night?

Bikes and Honor

2011-09-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

Even though Mister rode a bike for the first time at GG and Papa's in Michigan we're still going to mark this day as Blaine's first day on his bike. We spent a good 30 minutes at Toys R Us Saturday morning picking out a bike (while deflecting requests for every other toy Blaine could find and then stood there with a crying three year old because we wouldn't buy him a Spider Man doll) only to find out that our 25% off coupon was only good at the other Toys R Us. Awesome. David and Blaine headed over to the other Toys R Us and found Blaine's bike.

The yellow tires called his name.

I spent the day (Saturday) at three different grocery stores getting meals for the week and a variety of ingredients to make some flour mixes for some gluten free baking I plan to do. Mimi and Pops, my in-laws, sent me this great book, Gluten Free Baking, which has some amazing recipes in it but since it requires that I make these flour mixes (with ingredients like Albumen?!?) it's taken me a while to get around to it. I was able to get all the ingredients for two of the flour mixes and tomorrow Blaine and I are going to try our hand at some GF banana bread.

We also have plans to make some peanut blossom cookies and lemon bars tomorrow for the National Day of Service. We're going to make these together and then go as a family to a few local fire stations and deliver some baked goods, made with lots of love, to honor and thank the first responders in our neighborhood. Firefighters in our area have also been working overtime due to the wildfires burning in and around Austin. Over 1400 homes have burned (and over 40,000 acres) in Bastrop alone in the last week.

Update: Well, it's Sunday night and all of the baking (minus the GF banana bread) is done and delivered. The good news is that I got the flour mixes done, I just didn't get around to making anything with them. Blaine and David were very helpful as I baked today... testing all the treats I made. Blaine was scared at first to take the cookies to the fire station (he thought the fireman were going to be in their gear with masks on) but once we arrived at the first station he realized that the fireman were just regular guys - like Daddy! (Except, Blaine informed us, Daddy is much bigger than the firemen.)

We all had a great weekend and are looking forward to another jam-packed week. We have four doctors appointments this week and we are celebrating a very special birthday on Thursday. Today as we were thinking about where we were and how old we were on 9/11 David said to me, "I was 21 on 9/11... that can't be right." To which I responded, "No, hunni you were 22 - almost 23. That's not right." A huge reminder that he in fact will be turning 33 this year. I am still a young, vibrant, energetic 31 year old... well, until next month. Ha!

And today we remembered the victims and families of 9/11. And despite the tears we shed we found ourselves grateful that we still live in a country that has so many freedoms. We are indebted to those that have in the past, are currently and will in the future protect us as a nation.

God Bless America!

15-Month Old Hanny

2011-09-08T22:09:00.002-05:00

Hanny was 15 months old yesterday. She's growing up so fast and we're so busy soaking up her joy that I barely have time to write about it.

She is supposed to have a 15 month well check this week but we have to wait a while since she had some late immunizations last month and we have to wait 28 days to have another appointment. But since we've recently been to the doctor (for some GI issues she's having) I can tell you that she's just under 20 pounds. She's a peanut still which must be from her Atkins diet. Oh yes - the girl loves meat. Turkey sausage is her favorite but she'll do beef, pork, chicken or steak. We haven't broken it to her that carbohydrates (her second favorite food in the form of bread, waffles, and pancakes) are not on the Atkins plan.

Ms. Sassy now has 7 teeth - the last few to come in have been pretty painful for her. She's using sign language more and more and has quite a few words in her vocabulary (mama, daddy, dog, ball, honk, daresheihhh (there she is!)) and if you count screaming as talking, she basically talks all the time. We get screamed at because we're not moving fast enough, we didn't give her the right kind of meat, she doesn't want to be held, she wants to be held, her brother is too close, too far away... screaming is equal to asking-nicely in her book.

She loves to give hugs, pat us on the back and run away from us with her arms behind her (as if she's flying). She likes to add laughter to everything she does too.

Here is our Angel Bug at 15 months. Love you "sweet baby girl hunni" (as your brother calls you).

A Long Time Ago

2011-09-07T15:07:00.001-05:00

A long time ago we had something called a 3-day weekend, which was wonderful, but now that it is almost a new weekend it kind of seems silly to post about last weekend.

But whatever. I'm gonna live on the edge.

We had a great time - one of the highlights was our first ever game night with the Pemberton clan. We actually managed to eat dinner, clean up, then bath and put to bed four children all before 9:00 pm. It was beautiful. Of course Hannah and William had us cracking up right before they went to bed. They wanted their 4th meal of the evening. Here they are rummaging through Kari's snack bag at 8:30 pm. I wonder where they learned their stall techniques?

We spent a lot of time at the park this weekend and actually this week, too. A "cold" front came in last Sunday so it is now in the upper 90's during the day as opposed to the 100's. And it's actually been chilly at night, which has been glorious.

Mister getting twirled on the swing.

Apparently Sharp-Tooth lives... we saw him at Wells Branch park.

And Sharp-Tooth also likes to be twirled on the swing.

Hannah found out that she likes to sit at the picnic table and eat her snack.

But we really prefer her to sit in her chair where she can't walk around and smash her food into our leather couch.

And regardless of where she sits, she has to be cleaned up by Mr. Clean.

And on a much more serious note, the wildfires here in Central Texas have been devastating. Over 750 homes has been destroyed and over 34,000 acres are burned, just in Bastrop which is south east of Austin. There were also other fires northwest of Austin that took peoples homes. And the fire in Bastrop is only 30% contained at this point. David's cousin, his wife and their two young children lost their home in these fires. We hope that you'll join us in praying for them during this difficult time.

I found this picture online through one of our local news stations.

Necklace Designer

2011-09-02T15:13:00.000-05:00

After getting out our art supplies this past weekend I realized what a sad state they were in. So Blaine and I made a run to Hobby Lobby last night to stock up. We filled our cart with new markers, paper, paint, fuzzy tiger-striped balls (a Blaine pick), glue, and a necklace making kit. The necklace making kit was a huge hit - so big it didn't even make it in the cart - Mister hugged it tight to his chest all through the store. After a quick stop at Target we headed home. Our dirty boy bathed and brushed his teeth and then sat down for some serious necklace making fun.

He was so proud of this first necklace. Oh, and if you are related to Blaine or he loves you a lot I'm sure you'll be receiving one of these puppies very soon.

One of the items we picked up at Target last night were some new hair accessories for Hannah. She wore a pink one at breakfast this morning. Daddy said she looked like Madonna (or Cindy Crawford) with that blueberry mole on her face.

One last thing I don't want to forget to write about. Blaine has been on a "love" kick for almost a month now. We think that he really just realized what it means to love someone and show affection. Here are our favorite sayings from the mouth of our Mister and it's not just that he says these things, it is the way that he says them - with such passion and intensity. So cute. The other funny thing about these statements is that he says them out of the blue. Leaving the gym, sitting on the toilet, making dinner, watching TV - if the love mood strikes him, he acts!

"Mama/Daddy/Hanny - I love you so very much." Then he closes his eyes and hugs us.
"Hanny, sweet hunni, I love you so much baby."
"Oh, sweet hunni baby, I love you."

The fact that he calls his baby sister "hunni" cracks us up. I guess we call both kids "hunni" so he does it too. But then again, he calls me "Babe Scuster" and we have no idea where that came from.

He also loves to play the game of "I love you (this big)" Yesterday he told me that he loved me all the way to Jesus and back. That's pretty far, so he won.

Have a happy long weekend.

A Legend

2011-08-31T15:34:00.002-05:00

J.Keith Miller - friend, mentor and my boss had a big time last weekend at the Oklahoma University's Legends Alumni game. Keith played basketball at OU for Bruce Drake from 1948 to 1950. He broke his neck in a car accident which ended his basketball career, but his love for the game has never died.

Keith loves all things basketball - including his OU Sooners and the San Antonio Spurs.

Here are a few articles and pictures about Keith's reunion weekend.

Article #1: Click here. There is a short section on Keith at the end.
Article #2: Click here. A recap of the reunion and one mention of Keith.
Photos at this blog are pretty good. My favorite is the one where he is running out on the court smiling.

You were already a legend in my eyes, Keith, and in the eyes of so many others... but now it's official (well, at OU at least :)

First Day

2011-08-29T20:27:00.001-05:00

Today was Hannah’s first day of “school” (Mother’s Day Out). It’s like she knew that she was going to be starting a new adventure today because she got plenty of good rest last night and woke up ready to conquer the world. She ate eggs and a waffle and couldn’t stop smiling all morning. GG sent her a pretty new dress for her first day. Here she is, just shy of 15 months, ready for whatever comes her way.

When we took her to meet her teacher, Ms. Ginger, last week she walked in like she owned the place. Since she has never had an ounce of stranger or separation anxiety she went right to Ms. Ginger and walked around the classroom exploring her new domain. There are only three other children in her class—two girls and a boy. She is the youngest and the smallest one year old. But I’m certain she has the biggest personality and the most sass of all of them.

And I’m happy to report that she did great today! Even after going to the doctor first thing this morning to have some blood work done, she was a happy camper at drop off. Well, she did cry when I dropped her off but it wasn't because she was sad about me leaving, it was because she saw snacks in my bag and wanted them and I told her she had to wait for her friends to eat. She sassed me about not giving them to her and then cried, pointing at her bag. Ms. Ginger said she was fine when I left and was much happier after snack time.

When I picked her up she was so tired. She normally goes down for her nap around 12:00, so this is really pushing it. She fell asleep in the car after about two minutes. And tonight after an early bath she dragged me into her room and pointed to her crib - ready for bed. Not a peep from her.

We had a good weekend. The kids had lots of play dates with their BFs. William came over Friday night for a “date night” with Hannah. They enjoyed feeding each other snacks and pouring water on one another in the bath. And then Blaine and Siri had a busy Sunday afternoon together doing lots of different activities, including the dishes.

Uncle Matt and his girlfriend Vana visited us on Sunday while they were in Austin. Hannah sobbed at the door when Uncle Matt (her new favorite man) left.

September, which is just around the corner (crazy!) brings a birthday (David), hopefully some cooler weather (yeah, right) and maybe even some rain? A girl can dream, right?

I love everyone

2011-08-24T19:42:00.000-05:00

Blaine: I love Mama, Daddy and Hannah. And I love GG and Papa and Mimi.
Mama: Who else do you love?
Blaine: I love all of my Grandmas.
Mama: Who are you Grandmas?
Blaine: Nana is a Grandma, Mimi is a Grandma, but Pops is not a Grandma - he's a Dentist.

Too funny.

Mimi and Pops (and more)

2011-08-23T12:18:00.000-05:00

It was an exciting weekend over here at our house with the arrival of Mimi and Pops on Saturday morning. Blaine could hardly contain himself, especially after this conversation:

B: Mama, is Mimi gonna be here in our house with her body or is she gonna be here in our house on the computer?

Clearly, Blaine is used to talking to his grandparents on Skype! He was so excited that Mimi and Pops were going to be sleeping at our house.

Lots of lovin and giggles and fun was had. And of course the conversation is always awesome with a 3 year old around.

(Like something like this. I'm sure Mimi could tell it better.)

B: Mimi - how did you get that earring in there?
Mimi: (takes out earring and shows Blaine the hole.) See that hole, I put it right through there.
B: (thinking) Did God put that hole there?
Mimi: No, I did that one. (!)

Luckily he hasn't asked us if he can pierce his ears yet but prior to this conversation he has felt his ears when he looks at mine (with 5 holes total!) and wonders why he doesn't have holes in his ears. he is already a big fan of rub-on tattoos!

Pops: HG's new found love. It's true, she prefers the men in her life over the women.

Mister at the movie theater where we watched "Kung Fu Panda 2." This was
Blaine's first time at the movies. He did really well but doesn't have the whole
"quiet voices during a movie" thing down yet.

Games before the movie.

After the movie on Friday night we wrapped up our date night (me and my two fine men) at Blaine's favorite restaurant: Cracker Barrel. (They really know how to show a lady a good time!) What he really likes is the toy section but he also digs the breakfast items. He managed to consume three eggs, a glass of milk, and fried apples in between all the playing he did in the store.

It was a great weekend. End of story :)

Safety Glasses Required

2011-08-15T21:28:00.000-05:00

Hannah Grace: Licensed Home Builder, Hazardous Waste Material Handler, Welder, Cutest Girl in Safety Glasses.

Our new table and chair set! It opens up to seat 6 too :)

Blaine's new mattress.

Our new book shelves.
We literally had books still in boxes from our move FOUR years ago!

Just Ordinary

2011-08-14T22:23:00.001-05:00

I sit here stumped about what to write about. We have a busy week ahead so I've been busy preparing for that this afternoon. Plus I was up half the night last night worried sick about David who is now sleeping soundly next to me but 24 hours ago (Saturday 7:00pm through Sunday 8:00am) he was in a kayak on a lake in the dark having a really good time fishing in an evening tournament (which he placed 4th in.) I called him at 4:30 am when I got up to use the restroom and then after not hearing from him for over 4 hours I was practically picking out his casket. And we wonder why Blaine always thinks the worst of things! He surely didn't get that from me. Perhaps I over-react? Hmmmm :) He was getting some shut-eye in his boat and then was busy catching more hog-bass (as Blaine calls them) when I called. Glad he's home safe and sound.

I spent the better part of the weekend moving furniture around and finally have the front room/play room the way we want it. We also got a new dining set (goodbye folding chairs!) and Blaine's new full-size mattress came in. Unfortunately his new bed frame and dresser are not due to arrive for another month so his bed is on the ground but he could really care less. He said he loves rolling around on it and figured out that he can also sleep sideways, which is a bonus in his mind.

Tomorrow brings an O.T. (Occupational Therapy) evaluation which we hope will help us put some more of the pieces of the puzzle together regarding some of Blaine's behaviors. He will likely have standing appointments with the O.T. after this evaluation for a while. We also have a G.I. (gasteroenterology) appointment on Tuesday to figure out what's going on with his poor irritable belly. Then of course gymnastics (which he informed us he doesn't "like anymore") and our last swim class of the season at Emler. His swimming skills have improved so much this past summer - he is now able to swim over 15 feet by himself and he can swim underwater for 10 seconds without coming up for air. His "big arms" (what they teach him at swim class) are just now getting more consistent and in sync with his kicking feet. For a long time he was kicking and not doing big arms or he was doing his big arms and not kicking. He can back float like a pro though. (Better than his Mama anyway!)

Hannah has some weird bite on the back of her leg which we are monitoring. I was bitten by a brown recluse spider years ago which then got infected by staph and it was a whole terrible experience that I have tried to forget but also want everyone in my family to avoid, so this bite makes me nervous. We have a doctors appointment in the morning just in case it doesn't get better. One funny thing that happened with Hannah and her brother today was good enough to write about (and remember.) Blaine got in HG's face and yelled and then sort of hit her face with his face (imagine a headbutt). She cried at first and then her eyes got really big, she screamed back in his face (some baby obscenities, I'm sure), and then pushed his face away in a sort of slapping motion. Normally this kind of behavior would be totally unacceptable to us but it's the first time she's "fought back" and the whole scene really shocked us. Blaine was a bit stunned but after a short whimper-fest he ran away and then we laughed because we knew that the epic battle between Brother and Sister has officially begun. We know she will no longer back down or sit down and cry when he annoys her. She's a fighter and won't let him push her around anymore. You Go Girl! Now, you remember this when you start dating. I am hoping that Blaine is protecting her by that point too.

Apparently I had a lot more to say than I imagined.

Have a great week :)

Bling Revealed

2011-08-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

My rings are finally done. They added a band of sterling silver around the inside of the rings hoping to keep my skin from coming in contact with the 18K gold which I am allergic to.

The good news is that I've worn it for approximately 6 hours now and my finger is not red and it is not burning! Yay!

I just love how it turned out. Thanks again to my hubby for making this happen - I am finally married again :)

Fashionista

2011-08-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

Just chillin'.

Calling daddy.

Hannah wore this cute blue and green outfit this morning and seemed to be happy with the choice until around 10:00 am.

Then she went into her room, opened her drawers (which contain only size 2T) and brought me a skirt. She threw the skirt at my feet and grunted her usual, "Look at this and take care of it please" grunt. I told her that she was already dressed and besides - that was too big for her. (She's still wearing some 12 month clothes.)

She proceeded to pick the skirt up and throw it at me, hoping I'd change my mind but when I didn't she decided to take matters into her own hands. She carefully sat down and attempted several times to pull the skirt on. Then came the crying and I finally helped her.

"I LOVE IT!"

She ran all over the house happy as a clam, even though her bum wasn't big enough to hold up a 2T skirt! A few months (or a few extra diapers) will do the trick I'm sure.

Hannah is 13 and 14 Months old. (Imagine that!)

2011-08-07T23:00:00.000-05:00

By the title of this post it should be apparent that I totally missed HG's 13th month post and since we're already here at 14 months, I thought I'd just go ahead and combine them. (Sorry, HG - I'm too busy kissing your sweet face and chasing you around.)

Dear Hannah,

You are officially a toddler. I hate to even write that since I have been trying to keep you a "baby" for as long as I can but just calling you "Baby" isn't doing the trick anymore. My stall tactics don't seem to work against nature. You've outgrown the baby phase and we've been blessed to watch you blossom into an active, funny, and sweet little girl.

You have a wonderful sense of humor. I can already tell that you're going to be funny like your daddy. You have a quick wit (for a 14 month old!), like to laugh, and more than anything you like to make other people laugh. Tonight when your brother was asking us to smell his (nasty) feet, you pulled your own feet up to your face and sniffed and then smiled. You like to scream and you especially like to do it in the grocery store so lots of people turn to look at you. You like to cover your eyes when we say, "Where is Hannah?" Then you take your hands away, open your arms wide and say, "There she is." Though it actually sounds more like, "Air eeee iiiis." This makes us laugh so you clap for yourself and do it all over again.

I'm not sure what you weigh right now but I think you've gained a bit of weight - eating a diet of pasta, bread, and waffles will do that to a girl! Your favorite food is probably these little turkey sausages called Lil' Smokies - Daddy and I laugh when you beg for them in the morning and then eat them with your fork. You rarely eat fruit, though you will eat some grapes if you're starving. Veggies are in the same category as fruit as far as you're concerned. Meat, potatoes and bread - that's where it's at for you. And, I forgot to mention that you would much rather feed Tug your food than eat it yourself.

You have started to use sign language a lot more in the last few months. You can sign the words bath, milk, more and eat. You wave at anyone that will look your way and you love to play peek-a-boo. You say mama, mommy, and dada but you only say mama when you want something. "Dada" is reserved for the man himself, whom you talk about all day long. If I get on the phone with anyone, you scream (protest, demand, point, insist) that I give you the phone so you can talk to "Dada." You carry the remote control around, like it is your phone, and talk to dada on the phone. Your gibberish makes total sense to you and "talk" all day long. Some words we can recognize (besides mama and dada) are shoe, ball, and dog.

You are extremely loving and affectionate. You like to snuggle and lay on us, especially in the mornings right after you wake up. Your kisses are wet and numerous. When we ask you to give us kisses you come in with a wide open mouth and then usually repeat this 2-4 more times.

Like I remember with Blaine, once you started walking there was no turning back. You are everywhere and on everything now (fast!). Unfortunately you like to crawl up on the brick fireplace which is much too high for you and your brother, dad and I spend way too much time telling you "no" and then getting you down from there. I think you like the excitment and drama you create from being up that high and giving us all heart attacks. Your ability to use a fork and spoon fascinates us and you refuse to eat unless you have the necessary utensils. And you're so proud of yourself when you get something on the fork or spoon. Too funny.

You have certainly brought a lot of joy into our lives - we are blessed by you, Boo-boo, and love you very much.

Hugs and Kisses,

Mama

This video is from Saturday when Hannah was recovering from her 12 hour vomitting episode. She looks really sick, doesn't she?

All Night Long

2011-08-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago this post title might be a reference to how late I stayed out last night with my girlfriends. However, I was not out with my girlfriends last night but we were up all night long... with a vomiting child.

All was well in Lyon-Land Friday evening. We ate dinner, played, and the kids took baths. HG went to bed around 7:45 while Blaine happily dug up the backyard looking for bugs to put in a cup. (He only found feathers, which he told me we should keep "forever".) David left for an evening fishing trip and I got Blaine to bed.

I went to bed way too late (around 11:00) and minutes after drifting off I hear HG choking in her room. I jumped up and ran in only to find her covered in vomit and crying. I cleaned her up, changed her sheets and put her back down, which she was eager to do. And to make this long story short, lets just say that I repeated this process four more times until David got home at 3:00 when he took over, going in to clean her up and change the towel that we put underneath her. I was worried about dehydration (and that nasty vomit after-taste) so I kept giving her water, but in hindsight it seems that was the problem, because she kept throwing up the water.

When she woke up today she was her happy self even though she kept puking. She would puke and then smile. She's got a good attitude about it, I guess.

Standing on the stool with Big Brother, who was helping me make pancakes.

Happy!

Me, Sick? Nah!

"Mmmm, I love pancakes!"

Since Hannah was acting fine and had no fever I decided to take her to the Farmer's Market with me. We bought our vegetables for the week, some gluten free baked goods and tamales for a snack. The boys went fishing and Blaine caught "twenty million". Here are two of the twenty-million he caught.

HG just finished a three and a half hour nap - catching up from last night - so I'd better get in there before she starts getting really mad.

Happy Saturday!

The Prince and the Princess

2011-08-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

Before I left work today Keith came down to my office with a bag of goodies for the kids. He bought both Blaine and Hannah a coloring book, crayons and a crown for Hannah Grace. Of course, I'm still the Queen and Hannah is the Princess (even though Hannah thinks she is the Queen!)

The kids had a great time playing with their coloring books and even Blaine had fun with the crown.

Speaking of the Princess, her new nanny has been a God-send. We're so grateful for Ms. Lisa and the time she's spending with Hannah three days a week. I feel so much better leaving her here with Lisa to play, read, go to the park and swim than I did taking her to work with me - especially now that she is so active and wants to explore the world. It was time time for a change and we can tell Hannah is really happy. Here are some pictures from Ms. Lisa and Hannah's time together.

It's True

2011-08-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

Blaine can do something I can't.

Sew.

A couple of days ago Blaine came home with his first needlework masterpiece (the rainbow colored fabric) and I was in awe for a number of reasons which would look great in a list (my favorite).

1. They trusted my child enough to give him a needle and thread.
2. He actually sewed the button onto the fabric. (And it's not falling off.)
3. I don't know how to sew on a button, my 3-year old does.
4. Blaine used a needle and thread and no-one was hurt.

Awe. See?

I also love his art of story telling and imagination. Today, when I picked him up from school, he was walking around with only one shoe on. He and his teacher looked high and low and couldn't find it anywhere, even though there was only really one place it should/could be. Finally, after much searching he looked at me and said in all seriousness, "Mama, I'm pretty sure my shoe came alive and walked itself home." To that I answered, "Well, I was home buddy and your shoe didn't show up." After a brief pause he said, "No, I think it just came alive and ran away. Gone."

I'm happy to report that his shoe was found in another child's cubby. It did not come alive and I don't have to worry about some random shoe knocking on my front door.

Blaine also told me tonight that when we give Hannah to him, she won't cry anymore.

Yeah, that'll be the day!

A Lovely Weekend

2011-08-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

Our weekend started out with a bang since it was our five year anniversary and all. We dropped the kids off with some responsible (and awesome) adults and made our first stop: Cedar Park Jewelry. You see, I have not been able to wear my engagement ring or wedding band in about 4 years.  When I was pregnant with Blaine my hormones got all out of whack and I developed this really crazy allergy to one of the metals in my 18K white gold ring. My finger would swell, itch and turn red when I would wear the ring for more than 20 minutes.  Finally, I stopped wearing it and basically have went ring-less since that time. Since then my ears have also been affected and I can now only wear platinum, silver, or palladium in my ears or on my hands.

We said that when we saved up enough money we'd go and have my rings re-set in something hypo-allergenic.  Friday night was that time. It turns out that they can just add a protective barrier of sterling silver around the inside of my ring (so it doesn't bother me) instead of resetting all the diamonds in something new. I liked this option the best because I didn't have to part with the actual ring that David bought, gave me and we were married with. The other piece of good news was that since we spent significantly less on making it safe for me to wear, we were able to upgrade my center stone! Yay! I'll hopefully have it back by the end of the week.

After leaving the jewelry store I was without any jewelry, which is really not a big deal since I rarely to ever wear anything but earrings. But then David pulled a box out of his sock - a new pair of diamond stud earrings! He said a girl should never be without some diamonds. Ha! What a surprise (and a beautiful gift) they were. I will wear them with gratitude and thanks for my hard working hubby. After receiving all my bling we dined at Z-Tejas where we celebrated with way too much food.

Pictures of my bling will be posted at a later date. I'm sure you can hardly stand it.

The rest of the weekend was full of fun. We spent Saturday morning at the Y getting our workout on. Blaine was eager to play with his friend Siri in the kids gym and David and I were eager to burn off some of the calories we consumed the night before at dinner.

Our busy day continued with cleaning, shopping (IKEA for a new rug and bookshelves) and dinner at Central Market with one of our favorite families: The Pembertons. The kids managed to get pretty dirty, they fed turtles, played, danced and then finally had meltdowns (Lyon children) because they were exhausted.

Sunday was a whirlwind day with church and then the epic battle of David vs. The Garage. David won (I knew he would) and left the garage in a much more manageable and organized manner. I re-potted my poor ficus tree which has been hurting for about 5 years now. How it has held on this long, I don't know. I hope that moving it to a bigger pot will make it happier. Blaine (who loves gardening and planting) helped me transplant a few plants, including the ficus, into bigger pots. He was so gentle and loving towards them.  He talked them through the whole process, saying things like (in that high-pitched lovey voice that he does):

"Don't worry plant - you're gonna be ok."
"We're giving you a better home. Awwww, you're gonna love it."
"Don't be scared, this is new, better dirt!"
"Do you like the cow poop dirt? It is really good for you" (No, I am not putting manure in my houseplant potting soil, it is just that Blaine thinks that ALL dirt for planting has cow manure in it.)

Between my planting and Blaine's pep-talk, I think the ficus will thrive.

Boo (a new name for Hannah) is doing well. She had a blast in the pool this past weekend where we have been spending a huge amount of time since this neverending drought hit. It's a good thing we all love to swim.

Mister really wants some gluten free ice cream sandwiches but I can't find
them anywhere, so I bought these GF lemon frozen yogurt sandwiches...

After three bites...

The jury decided they are "YUCK!" (Back to the grocery store..._

Our new rug. It looks weird in this picture, but it's really nice in reality.

Happy 5th Anniversary!

2011-07-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

(From Jessica:) Today is our 5th wedding anniversary. Or 35th, if you're counting in dog years and some times it seems like we've been married for 35 years so maybe that's more accurate. :)

Our wedding day. July 29th, 2006. Lincoln, Michigan.

Married!

Dancing to our wedding song, "Bless the Broken Road"

And after five years of marriage we have some pretty remarkable munchkins.

And a love that's getting deeper each year.

One thing I know for sure is that I would not want to walk through this life with anyone else and there is no one else on this planet that could live with me! (Ha) I am so grateful for these last five years. They have been full of joy and tears, highs and lows but through it all, no matter the season, we've learned more about ourselves and each other and we're closer to God. I love you, David.

Happy 5th anniversary to my dear husband. I look forward to celebrating with you tonight and throughout the next 5 (35!) years. :)

(From David:)

Though we made it legal five years ago today the last eight years have been among the most fulfilling of my life. I am married to the woman of my dreams who happens to be my best friend and an incredible mother. We've been blessed with two amazing children whose presence has enriched our lives beyond anything that we could have imagined. They both have wonderfully distinct personalities, mental and physical agility that keeps us on our toes and they both exhibit a priceless sense of humor that continues to teach us what real joy is all about. We are supported by a family like none other, one deeply rooted in faith and fed by love. Today I am filled with gratitude for the love in my life.

Jessica read an article to me recently about our family being like diamonds and because we enjoyed it so much, I'll share the link here.

Can You Give Him to Me Now?

2011-07-26T22:37:00.000-05:00

Blaine and Tug's relationship has been tumultuous, at best.

People say, "poor Tug" but really Tug did his fair share of annoying things to Kole, so he is just "getting his" now.

Blaine's physical aggression towards Tug started a long time ago but in the last year has gotten progressively worse. Blaine loves him but is really too rough with him most of the time so we found ourselves putting Tug in his room just so Blaine would leave him alone.

Something changed in the last three months though. Blaine has become more gentle and loving towards Tug. He likes to lay with him and pet him and give him baths. We thought this would be a great opportunity to give Blaine more responsibility and ownership over something so we told Blaine that if he continued to be kind and loving towards Tug we would let him have Tug. This was a very exciting proposal for Blaine and he has been asking, "Can you give him to me now?" nearly every day. Finally this weekend David told Blaine that if we did give Tug to him he'd have to pick up his poop in the back yard.

Blaine has since changed his mind and no longer asks, "Can you give him to me now." I guess dogs are cool until you have to pick up their poo.

The story gets better. (Well, I think it does.)

Yesterday we came home from school instead of going to the Y because Hannah wasn't feeling well. I had groceries to get out of the car so I asked Blaine if he would watch his sister for a few minutes while I brought in the groceries. Surprisingly, he said he would and proceeded to carry Hannah over to the carpet where he dumped out every toy imaginable so they could play. I brought in the first load of bags and commented to Blaine how well he was taking care of Hannah and how proud I was of him for being so kind and gentle and loving towards his sister. He smiled big and went back to playing with her. After my last trip to the car I came into the kitchen and told Blaine that I appreciated his help and he could go do his thing now.

And with that I hear, "Mama, I'm ready for you to give Hannah to me now!"

Haha! Dogs... kids... what's the difference?

A New Project

2011-07-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

We've done a little bit of everything this weekend - including starting a new house project! We decided to update Blaine's room (which he is very excited about) a while back but are just now finding some time to make it happen. Here is the bedroom set we picked out - the only differences are we're not getting the trundle, the bed will be larger (a full), and we're not getting the mirror.

We took everything out of his room and started painting on Saturday. It was so weird being in there painting again. I was reminiscing (and surprisingly not crying at the same time) about painting it before when I was five months pregnant with our Mister. We had just moved into this house and whe had no idea that he was a Mister, hence the unisex green color we painted his room originally, and we certainly didn't anticipate being in love with another human as much as we are with him (and HG, of course.) So much has changed over the last four years - David and I are really grateful.

Back to the goods: we're about 3/4 of the way done with painting. We used a silver-grey color on the top 2/3 of the walls and a dark blue on the bottom 1/3. It's really sharp - I just love it! And it is all boy. Plus I think it will look really great with his new furniture when it arrives next month. Every time he goes in to check out the progress he grins ear to ear and says "I love my new room! I love my new room!" And that's with blue painter's tape up everywhere. I can't wait to see how he likes it when it is finished.

Besides that project we spent much of the weekend being together and catching up from the week since D was gone for three days. On Saturday we went to the YMCA for our weekly family workout, which was probably the highlight of Blaine's day because he got to play with his BFF, Siri, for about an hour in the Kids Gym.

Hannah has been using utensils more and more these days and I was able to catch some of it on video. Blaine also makes an appearance - you are about to get schooled on his new dinosaurs.

Come Home Daddy - If You Can

2011-07-21T21:55:00.000-05:00

It's 9:45 pm here in Austin which makes is 10:45 pm in New York. Those times are significant because I just got a text from D saying he was still on the runway in NY waiting to come home to Austin. His flight was supposed to depart at 8:28pm. Our poor (and tired) daddy!

So that means that if he is lucky enough to depart in the next 15 minutes he might actually get home before 3:00 am! Awesome.

I've got this single-parent thing down now... well, for the most part. I didn't say I liked it nor that it was easy, just that I get how to do it now and I am definitely grateful that this was only a 3 day trip instead of a 6 day trip like the last one. That was not so fun. I thought I was going to mentally lose it after day five. I haven't felt that way this time.

The kids and I have been busy with Blaine's after school lessons (swimming and gymnastics) and going to the Y to workout. After school today though we came straight home for a trip to the park and to the pond to feed the ducks. I think most of them fly away when they see us though since Blaine likes to chase them (usually with large sticks he tears out of the tree) and yells, "Why are you running, ducks?" Hmmmm.

Here are the kids in the double jogging stroller before we actually started going. Unbeknownst to me all three tires were flat as pancakes so we had to switch to the single jogging stroller, which Hannah rode in, and Blaine ran like the wind ahead of us. This was probably a better plan anyway since Mister always needs all the exercise he can get. Those two miles of running did him in tonight.

Good night!

One of those conversations...

2011-07-18T19:49:00.004-05:00

that made me laugh and smile.

There we are, in the truck, on the way from school to the YMCA and out of the blue we have this conversation. Immediately before this conversation we were talking about how good blueberries are. Oh, the mind of a 3-year old...

Blaine: Mama, God is Lord.
Mama: That's right. He is.
B: Lord takes care of the sheep.
M: Right. Another name for Jesus is Lord and Jesus was called the Good Shepherd because he takes care of us, like a shepherd takes care of their sheep. So, we're like sheep. (I realized after this very detailed answer that I should have stopped at "Right.")
B: God takes care of the sheep because he loves them.
M: That's right.
(after a long pause...)
B: Why does God live in our tummies?
(With a smile... but refraining from laughter)
M: Well, that's so He can be with us all the time. Right in our hearts.
B: Does he live in every one's tummy?
M: Yes. God loves everyone - no matter what. But you have to seek him and ask him to live in your heart.
(another long pause)
B: How does he dooo that, Mama?!?
M: Unbelievable, right? Well, God is a big, powerful, amazing, loving God and he wanted to be with us all the time, so he lives inside of us and helps us through life.
B: But Mama, how does he do it?
(Serious questions. Big, theological, hard to answer questions!)
M: Well, he sent the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. And if you ask God to help you and guide you and be with you, you just have to ask God and he'll hear you.
B: Does he hear everyone?
M: Yes.
B: Are you going to work out today?

And as quickly as it started - it was over. And apparently my son knows I need a workout!

This dialouge between my sweet Blaine and I came just one day after David and I talked about the importance of reading the Bible in front of and with our kids. After much discussion we both agree that the Bible and its principles are important pieces in the puzzle - but we don't want to forget that one thing is going to speak so much louder than our words and our commands. We realize that how we live our lives and how we love each other (and those around us) will model, more than anything, what being a Christ follower is all about. I know that this conversation is just the first of many. And if Blaine and Hannah are anything like David and I (and countless others) they will question and listen, turn away from and run to, disregard and seek, blame and praise God as they find out who He is and who they are in Him.

I am thankful for this conversation with Blaine, for the way God is planting seeds in his tummy and allowing us, his parents, to nurture his faith and love him along the way.

Home Sweet Home

2011-07-16T19:35:00.000-05:00

We're back in Austin and it's good to be home.  David and I ended our vacation right yesterday with a date-day - out on the boat without the kids for 6 hours! David got to fish, I got some sun, and the kids got GG and Papa all to themselves. It was lovely.

We finished our evening at home with a great meal and the movie "Rango", which was really good.  David and I stayed up until midnight packing our bags and then my dad got up with us at 5:15 am to get us to the airport. There were (literally) about only 20 other people in the airport (it's a very small airport near my hometown) so we were not afraid of getting caught in security. What I didn't know is that we might encounter another small problem at security. I brought applesauce and some other packaged fruits (liquid-type treats) with me for the kids and was told that I had the choice between opening every single container (which must then be either eaten or thrown out) to be tested or I had to have a full body pat down. Um, hello? I don't think so.  Daddy (aka: Our Hero!) took one for the team and allowed our applesauce to get on the plane with us. The whole process took over 10 minutes which made us late and the last people to board the plane. And trust me - the last thing people (who are already seated and waiting) want to see are the people who are making their plane late and even worst - those people have two small children!!!

The flights home were relatively pleasant, minus Hannah screaming and throwing a tantrum because she wanted to get off my lap.  We even arrived in Austin 30 minutes early. That was a great bonus.

Both kids took naps when we got home so we were able to get unpacked and thanks to GG we came home with no dirty laundry.  I did help with dinner on three different nights, which is a record since I normally don't lift a finger when we visit my family.   (So, I did do something productive and helpful!:)

Blaine was excited to catch some fish on his last day and go tubing behind the boat for the first time. He wanted to go by himself and kept screaming from the tube, "Papa, go faster!" Papa said that if I wasn't in the boat he would have went much faster. Good thing I was there to regulate.

Here is a video of Blaine behind the boat (and yes - the video could have been only 30 seconds and shown just how much fun he was having but I'm his mom and I'm a sucker for small, cute tubers.)

Thank you, Dad, Mom, and Uncle Matt, for making our Michigan 2011 vacation so special. We love you!

The End

2011-07-14T14:16:00.000-05:00

The end of our vacation is drawing near. I had to look back at the pictures to remember everything we've done over the last 5 days. My camera battery went dead in the middle of our trip up north and I didn't have a back up so there are some days missing, but for the most part I captured most of what we did.

Hannah and I met one of my dearest college friends, Erin, and her husband, Matt, last Saturday for lunch. They are expecting their first baby in December but I think they were a little scared after being around Ms. Screamer (HG) herself! Poor Erin must have retrieved ten plus items from the ground because HG thought it would be fun to throw things and watch Erin pick them up for her. Even though it was a short visit it was a lot of fun.

After lunch we picked up GG and headed up north to Lost Lake Woods Club, a hunting, fishing, golf, (etc...) club where my parents are members. The boys (my Dad, David, my brother, and Blaine) headed up earlier for special "guy time" which involved time in the woods, at the beach, riding 4-wheelers, and catching bugs. This is also where we were married almost five years ago (July 29th is our anniversary.)

While we were up north Blaine ran free in the wide open spaces, searched for Sharp Tooth (Tyrannosaurus Rex) in the forest, and played at the beach. He had a big time. Hannah was happy doing whatever we were doing as long as she could be in her Daddy or Papa's arms. GG and I are just chopped liver to her now :) Blaine and David caught hundreds of baby catfish and David did a lot of fishing on his own from a kayak and my dad's motor boat (as Blaine calls it.)  We found a dinsosaur park to go to which was pretty neat.  All of the dinosaurs were made from concrete, using no power tools, and were life size.  Blaine was disappointed that his favorite dinosaur (Sharp Tooth) was only shown once but enjoyed it nonetheless.

My mom, the kids and I came home on Tuesday and the rest of the crew stayed an extra day. We're all home now enjoying our last few days together.  We have had a wonderful, relaxing and fun vacation.  It's going to be difficult getting back into the groove of reality next week. Plus, David will be in NYC for most of next week so I'll be dealing with the transition by myself. Maybe it won't be as difficult as I think... though Blaine did tell us today that he loves not going to school and he never wants to go back. That's not good.

Oh, and one more thing you'll see in the pictures that is pretty neat - we took Blaine and Hannah to my elementary school playground and they played where I once did - over 20 years ago.  This trip brought back so many memories, including where I used to have to stand when I got in trouble on the playground (against that building - the right side of the door):

Here are pictures from the last week.

Party Time

2011-07-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

When we come back to Michigan there are so many people we want to see and so many people that want to see us (i.e. the kids) that it's just so much easier to have everyone get together in one place at one time. So it's a good thing my parents are great hosts and can throw a fun party.

Last night we had a little get-together. We cooked up a storm during the day, ate too much food at the party - ending the day with fireworks and two very tired kids.

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Hannah loves (and even that is an understatement) her Papa. She screams when he has to put her down and follows him everywhere. And we thought she was obsessed with her daddy... He is the only person whom she will sit still with. It's pretty crazy.

The kids had a blast with a new cousin, Hannah, last night at the party. She could keep up (and stand up) to Blaine and loved playing with little HG. You'll see her in the Jeep.

Blaine's First Bike

2011-07-08T12:02:00.000-05:00

After just a few tries on his new bike (with training wheels) Blaine figured it out. Here he is cruising around at GG and Papa's house.

Michigan's Adventure

2011-07-06T15:28:00.000-05:00

We left yesterday for Michigan's Adventure - a water park on the west side of the state and are back in my hometown now. The drive is just over two hours which is a perfect amount of time for the kids to nap. We met my cousin Leslie at the park and even though we arrived a bit late (3:30 pm) it ended up being just the right amount of time at the park (they close at 7:00pm.)

Everyone had a great time. I didn't take my camera in so I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing but they had a big time in the wave pools, on the water slides and playing in the kids areas. David, my brother, cousin and Dad are the only ones that went on any rides and hearing them (or maybe just one of them) scream like a girl was enough enjoyment for me. After the park we went to a quick dinner and managed to get the kids to bed by 10pm.

We spent this morning swimming at our hotel pool. Blaine also played some arcade games with Uncle Matt (which happened to be in our hotel) and won four bouncy balls which he then had fun throwing in the pool and jumping in after. Hannah has been busy hanging out in Papa's arms. She pretty much thinks that D and I are chopped liver. In fact, both kids have been glued to him. Papa is apparently much more fun that us.

Besides our mini-trip the kids are keeping themselves busy in GG and Papa's yard, in the hot tub, and playing with all the toys Papa and GG have accumulated. Seriously, I think they have more to play with here than at home. Oh, and Blaine loved the dinosaur show that Papa recorded for Blaine - in 3D! We thought he'd be scared but he watched it three times.