Good Advice

Gotta be careful when you throw away the Christmas wrappings that you don't toss out important instructions, gift cards, small toys, or babies.

10 things about our Christmas this year

1- My favorite family christmas activity this year was visiting the Midwest City Holiday Lights Spectacular. It was a drive through display set up in a city park decorated with millions of lights. Due to traffic, you had to drive through it at a crawl, but amazingly after 45 minutes my kids were still not bored of it. I loved the flashing lights that were set to music on their special radio channel, the Santa riding on the Loch Ness monster, and the forest of lighted deer, but my very favorite and most amazing part was that my kids all got along!!! They were happy! Singing together! Being nice! Wow! Definitely one of those times you wish you could bottle up to keep forever!

2- For Christmas this year we got a blizzard. In the spirit of giving, we decided to share our snow with the rest of the city. The snow started coming down on the morning of Christmas Eve and continued all day. The wind was whipping around like crazy out there and even managed to find a crack in our skylight and start snowing into our living room. Luckily most of our errands were done, because if we had saved things to do at the last moment, it would have been too late. We just hunkered down and enjoyed the snow. I read that in the last 106 years, there have only been 6 white Christmases in Oklahoma City. Inconvenient, yes. But what perfect timing.

3- As usual, we stuffed ourselves with home made lovin' fresh from the oven. Gingerbread houses, the Lyon family traditional cake that looks like I log that I always feel like an idiot saying the name for some reason, and cookies, cookies, cookies (we volunteered to make the treats for both Nina and Grant's school parties). As usual, I made a bunch of treats to give to neighbors and friends, Chocolate chip pumpkin bread, and most of them were eaten by us or just did not get delivered.

4- We had a great Christmas morning together. The kids actually managed to stay asleep until at least 7:30 am this year- a record I think. There was lots of oooing and ahhhing and even dances of joy. Everyone was happy with what they got and excited about what they gave. Minimal fighting and impatience. What more can you ask for?

5- On Christmas Eve I was reaching out of bed to get Meg for a 5 am feeding and OUCH! My back! I felt like a senior citizen hobbling around all day- when I could move enough to hobble. Dave was so kind and took care of everything, and two days later I feel almost back to normal again, but much older somehow.

6- Due to the snow our Christmas plans were thrown all up in the air. We had been looking forward to driving to Kansas to visit Grammy and Gramps and all the rest of the Lyons the day after Christmas. The terrible road conditions cancelled that (or hopefully just postponed it?). I read that there are only 14 snow plows in all of Oklahoma City!

7- Speaking of things being thrown up, the kids have all gotten sick. We got some unique symptoms this year. Along with vomiting, coughs and sniffles, we also have red, blood shot goopy crusty eyes, and mysterious mouth sores and ear aches. Rachel even threw up all over Nina's new Leapster game thing that she got for Christmas-ugg. I am hoping that we have seen the worst of it and are all on our way back to health soon.

8- We visited the Christkindel Markt in Tulsa again this year at the beginning of the month. Honestly, we had fun last year, but, in my opinion, not enough fun to do it again. In the name of Tradition, Dave insisted we go this year.

9- Ladies Dancing (can't think of anything else- it's getting late)

10-Rachel asked today when we could have Christmas again. I guess it was a hit.

SNOW!

This Christmas eve I had so much snow! It was waist deep! I.... I... I .....Oh forget it !

what I want for christmas by Nina

a bike and a helmut, a computer, princess things, a pretty dress, pretty shoes, two balloons (one a boy and one a girl), a special cup with a christmas tree on it, a wallet, some doll house sized christmas decorations, that's all.

The incredible liking of Harry Potter

You might of not Known but I have become obsessed with harry potter books. I have already read books 1-5.Post for questions.

A Visit From St. Nick

Guess who stopped by our house to visit? Apparently he hadn't received our letters in the mail this year and decided he had better drop by and ask us what we wanted for Christmas before it got too late in the month. What personal service! IT WAS quite a surprise! Santa in OUR HOME! It was Meg's first introduction to the big man and we got to TEACH hER about the way things work. Even Rachel who describes herself as "shy of Santa" felt perfectly at ease with him in our home and felt no hesitation to hop onto his knee and whisper in his ear. Lucky for the kids, he was in a bit of a hurry and did not have time to check if their rooms were clean, but said he would be sending the elves to follow up on that while they were sleeping. THe Only thing we were left asking was why He used the frOnt door instead of coming down the chimney?

Nina gets a library card!

Nina got her very own library card this week! Our family tradition is that each child has to wait until they are old enough to read before they can get their own card. Lately Nina's reading has been improving by leaps and bounds. Some of the first books she checked out with her own card were Elephant Has a Bird on His Head, Green Eggs and Ham, and Go Dogs Go. I think she is even surprising herself at what she can read on her own when we find books that are at her level. As she is reading she will just stop and yell " I love reading!" or " I can read, I can read!" Today at the library I saw Nina with at least 25 Dr. Suess books in her basket, she did have to put most of them back, but her enthusiasm is great! Go, Nina, Go!

Laundry Time

What do you do when you have got a busy morning, 10 loads of laundry waiting, and a baby that needs some attention?

Monday is my laundry day. After especially dirty weeks the washer and dryer will be humming from 7 am to 6 pm. I am VERY grateful for my washer and dryer. If I had to wash our clothes by hand my children would just be wearing dirty pillow cases most of the time. However, washing and drying is just part of the job. The clothes never seem to sort themselves and jump into the drawers on their own. (You are right- I forgot to mention fold and iron- I stopped caring about folding and ironing right after Grant was born) When Grant becomes that inventor that he wants to be when he grows up I'll commission him to invent a sort-and-folderator. In the mean time, hopefully my own kids will be able to help me with the job soon.

As you can see, I'm starting training Meg while she is still young. I think I waited too long with the older kids, I must have missed their impressionable laundry development months. I'm hoping with a few more months of intensive training I can leave all the laundry to her.

Rachel's Photoshoot

Her nursery leader needed some help on a photography class project...

My ''half'' thumb

A very sad thing happened . I cut my thumb with a can of referred beans. AND IT SLICED HALF MY THUMB OFF! I screamed 'I HATE BLOOD!! They held on to my thumb tight , it was still stinging. when they took it off I screamed again ! for it was terrible ! about at 8:00 they said I should go to the hospital ops, I turned that white so just put that,

oh never mind it's hospital so anyway I said ''what!'' mom said'' at the very least you'll get stitches'' ''I'm

still not coming '' ''You'll get ice cream'' ''I'm coming!,I'm coming! '' s o we went and the doc said You'll get stitches. for the second time I said W H A T ! so I got 6 shots and 4 stitches. I will never forget this moment off pain.

Okie-Dokey Daddy Day

Okie-Dokey Artichokey!

Today was kindergarten Okie-Dokey Daddy Day.

Nina has been counting down the days to this for weeks. She got all dolled up in her best

cowgirl duds and got to bring her favorite cowpoke (that would be Dave) to school with her. They looked mighty spiffy. I must add that I am proud of Ninas western fringed vest that I made for her. I just cut the sleeves off of a too-small and rarely-worn jeans jacket, added some fringe and viola, or I should say, yee haw, a cow girl vest to get excited about! They also were the only cowkid/cowdad pair to have matching large handmade aluminum foil belt buckles. That Dave wore his with a smile is a tribute to how much he loves his daughter!

At the event Dave was serenaded by wonderful cowboy songs, they hokey pokied together, had a barrel race, ate some cowboy grub (biscuits and gravy) played cowboy games and generally had a rootin-tootin good time. For the barrel race the Dads were the horses and the kids were the riders. The kids had picked names for their horses (Dads) and made name tags. Dave was lucky, he got a cool name, Flash! He said he felt very sorry for the less fortunate Dads who had to wear name tags with Cupcake or Cookie written on them. When the Dads were all worn out a real horse even came to take their place.

Rachel asked what kind of games cowboys might play and I said that they might have lassoing or shooting competitions. However, Rachel thought I said tooting competitions, and for the next ten minutes there was a whole lot of giggling going on as we imagined those rude cowboys with their tooting competitions. I guess that is why Dads were invited today and the Moms had to stay at home.

A Calendar Photo

This year in the Fife family calendar we had May and November and I got to do May. What I came up with has nothing to do with May but oh well. Nor could I think of a decent caption- I wanted something like 'It Came From Dimension X!'

Dad and Grant's Walk-a-thon Outing

Every month I try to take the kids out and do something special with each one, one on one. Last month, Grant and I's outing was to explore the area around Lake Hefner, a huge, local man-made lake to the northwest of Oklahoma City. There's all kinds of boating on the lake, a scale lighthouse, etc. And a walking, running, biking path around the whole lake. We just went on part of it- Missy dropped us off and we started down the trail intending to meet up with her and the kids at a playground a little ways a way.

We walked forever and saw some neat things. We fed the ducks, went on a kind of fishing dock floating in the middle of an inlet, and had lots of fun being together. I think we walked about three kilometers. As we neared the end, Grant broke into a run so I of course had to too.



I had lots of fun and can't wait for this month's outing- we're going to learn about electricity. I'll let Grant tell how it goes.

Guess what Grant brought for Show and Tell. . .

We figured if his classmates could bring their puppies and other various pets when it was their turn for show and tell, Grant could surely bring his little sister.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins are all heavy with candy- check. Fingers, hair and clothes all sticky- check. Stomaches are feeling a bit sick-check check check. (Grant actually vomited after gorging on candy at our ward party last night) Looks like Halloween is taken care of for this year!


Grant made a great ninja- a natural poser. Nina was a lovely bride. (Don't ask me who it is that she wants to marry, I promised I would not tell.) Rachel saw Nina's costume and wanted to be a bride too, but I thought two brides were just too many. So we convinced Rachel to be a butterfly. Eventually her costume evolved from a butterfly to a fairy to a butterfly fairy princess, complete with magic wand. A costume is always better if you have a long stick to hit people with! Meg was just cute being herself.

Any one have any advice on how to get rid of the kids halloween candy fast?

H1N1

Swine flu makes me angry. OK, that's not accurate. I am frustrated by such different messages we're getting. We just had a baby a couple months ago and in her 1 week appointment the doctor told us all to get the seasonal flu shot but actively discouraged us from getting the H1N1 vaccine. She said the symptoms can be so mild, that she couldn't say if we'd already had it, and if so, taking the vaccine could be worse for us. Fine, we thought. We went in for a checkup for us parents and the doctor railed against the media for their misplaced emphasis on swine flu, saying that they just wanted something for the news headlines. Great! No worries then.

A couple weeks ago, everyone but the baby and I (we think) took turns having a fever. Mild symptoms. We didn't get it checked or anything, so we're not sure but it's likely that it was H1N1. But of course we don't know.

And yet, the media continues the furor. Doctors are trotted out saying yes, go get it. (This is between stories of how there are no doses available). They're not our doctors! Why should I believe them over the doctor I pay to take care of my family? Or should I only listen to medical advice on the news?

The school claims they will be offering free vaccinations soon if parents want them. (To which I say- how did you get any doses if there are riots outside these places when they run out in 10 minutes? I think our principal has been out of town raiding clinics for doses.) I don't know. Of course I don't want our kids to suffer. What are you doing about H1N1?

Frontier City Photos!

The kids had free tickets from their summer reading program and we got two more at half price online and headed for Oklahoma City's biggest amusement park. It was a cool day but very nice and we were there for about 5 hours(!). Nina, Grant, and Mom braved the Steel Lasso. Dad is a chicken and had enough of risking his children's lives after the Prairie Schooner (you can see me in the brown sweater on that ride- I'm clutching Nina and Rachel and watching Grant leave the seat every time we reached the top of the swing). For about half the time, it was literally walk up to the ride and get on- yes!!

We Made the Cake this Time

A couple days ago we celebrated Missy's birthday with a cake made by the rest of the family for her. At her request we made a recipe from a magazine called German Chocolate Torte. It's three layers of thin brownies with delicious topping layered with whipped cream between and on the sides. Yummy! And so many helpers! We had to make a second batch of whipped cream to accommodate the tastes!

We love mommy, yessiree!

Nina's Adventure (by nina)

frontier city is the best. have you been there? there are tons of fun rides. there are tons of fast ri des. my favorite is the Steel Lasso (you can see it in the photo on this page).

Dad will post our photos later.

Notice anything different?

at the patch

We took our little pumpkins to the patch last weekend. Unfortunately they did not except trade-ins. When did pumpkins get so expensive? It would seem logical that buying pumpkins directly from the patch would be less expensive than getting them at the store, I mean, you cut out the middle man, right? Wrong. I guess we pay extra for that straight from the farm freshness. We even went out of our way to find a no frills pumpkin patch- no petting zoo, no hay rides, no corn mazes. Lets just add pumpkins to the list of all the other vegetables I buy for my kids that they don't eat.

The things I like by Nina

i love nims island. being a sister is fun. i love my family. i have a bunkbed. i love my parents. i love jelly. i can somersault. i can play with meggie. i will be good. does anybody know me?? do i know you? do you know how old i am?

Thanks Kohler

When we bought our house in Oklahoma it came with a nice kitchen faucet. I'm not that into faucets myself but it was nice- brushed metal. It has two spray patterns and the end can be pulled out and has a hose that stays connected. Recently a little rubber covering over the spray pattern button came off and so I started looking online for tips on fixing it. One thing I found out is that this faucet costs about $800. Wow. So I really don't want to be broken. Because I will never be able to replace it.

A few days ago I called Kohler's number to see how to fix it, since I couldn't get it back in. They asked a few questions then told me they were Fedexing a new faucet head out to me. I asked how much that would cost and they happily said it has a lifetime warranty and that everything was done at no cost. Wow- I guess they factor in parts into the initial price. :)

So it came today and I was worried about putting it on since it has the hose and everything. And I am no plumber. But included was an extremely easy list of instructions that amount to: hold the hose to keep it from slipping away and unscrew the old head. Screw on the new one. All done.

Wow.

Me and Mag by Grant

A few days after she was born I held Maggie for the fourth time. This time once even while standing. She was heavy for a 7 pound baby. I was nervous. She was cute. At the time I write this she is almost 3 weeks old. I like being a big big big brother. Because I know I am well, the oldest. I like how amazing it is that she already has brown hair and is already smiling. Here are some of the pictures.
Maggie and me standing
Me and Maggie hugging.

My Favorite Pictures of Meg

Avatar Legos

For those of you who didn't know and missed it, Avatar: the Last Airbender is one of the best animated shows ever. We did not watch it on TV or anything. I think when I saw references to it I just ignored it and didn't give it another thought. Back when I bought anything on iTunes (coming up on a year), Avatar was one of the first 'kid' shows available. We got a few and they were fun. Then the video rental store down the street has free kids movies you can borrow and some were Avatar. I had no reason to say no and saw bits and snatches that made me realize that while it was a cartoon, it had a very developed storyline. There were silly things and lots of fun, but there was a real plot here with complex characters. Luckily, even Missy liked it! She will deny that of course. So we had fun watching it together as a family, all of us laughing and saying the intro voiceover with Katara. It was great. By the beginning of the third season on DVD we were all on the edge of our seats. We'd watch one and the kids would say 'just one more?' and we would cave. We got to the last DVD and couldn't find it to rent anywhere so we bought it. You should see it. Watch it in order.







Anyway, the other day Grant came up with some truly great Avatar figures he created out of Legos. They're awesome!

A few random pictures

Before Megan was born I had a few people ask if I wanted a baby shower. Unfortunately I've got that whole party phobia thing going and had to refuse. Also, as baby girl #3, we pretty much have everything we need. However, the day before I went into the hospital we had a stream of visitors all day long bearing gifts. By the end of the day the kids we really getting into seeing what would appear on our doorstep next. Was it an organized non-shower baby shower? Or just a whole lotta really nice people who had the same idea at the same time? I may never know. But I did feel really loved and impressed by the generosity and kindness of the great people of our ward.
Everybody love Grandma!
Just another nose picking photo.

Home From the Hospital

After a measly 26 hours of life, Megan was discharged from the hospital and we came down. Yes, it was a short stay, but everything was fine and they gave us the option (which was also cheaper!)

She's Here

Thanks so much for your prayers- Megan Cherie Lyon was born at 3:25 this afternoon in Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. She's beautiful, weighs 7.5 lbs. and everyone is doing well.

At Last- A New Family Film

Well I finally got the editing/post-production work done on our latest family film. For Rachel's 3rd birthday party we had a princess and the pea theme (you probably saw the cake photos) and we shot footage for a family movie. After a long time deciding on the score and doing some tricky edits, it's finished at last:

Thank You Brad Wright!

Yes- Stargate is my favorite TV show (although I will not be sticking around for Stargate Universe for reasons I may detail some other time). And I was excited to be able to finally see the first episode of the show. Not the movie 'Stargate' but the first episode of 'Stargate SG-1'. Originally the show was made for Showtime which apparently wanted a more adult show, and a consequence is that the first episode of Stargate SG-1 is rated 'R'. That's right- the movie released in theaters was PG-13 and the pilot movie/episode for the TV show was 'R'. And the consequence of that is that I've never seen it since I have standards about that kind of thing.

Why did I finally see it? The makers of Stargate wanted to go back and glitz it up and offer it as a standalone movie on DVD. They re-recorded some voice parts, enhanced the effects, did a lot of re-editing, and yes- they dropped the key things that had made it rated 'R'! Impossible you say? No! They wanted and fought to make a show that was family friendly (although I still wouldn't let kids watch it myself) and now with the opportunity to do it 'right' part of that meant editing out the bad parts.

Thank you Brad Wright and the whole Stargate team!

Grant's 7th Birthday

As of July 23, Grant is now 7 years old. He says he can definitely see that his muscles are bigger and he feels much smarter.

For his birthday this year Grant wanted a Lego party. For some reason my children don't believe you can have a

birthday without having a theme to it. Back in

the old days all birthday parties had the same theme: birthday. Somehow we managed to age just fine. But, as long as they do not choose something repulsive like Hannah Montana or Sponge Bob, I suppose a birthday theme is alright by me, and even kinda fun. We all had a lot of legoey fun with this one. Dave bought a big tub of assorted Legos on ebay and dumped them all out on the kitchen table and most of the party was spent just building. We also had a lovely Lego cake. As gifts Grant of course got Legos: he bought himself a Lego Indiana Jones set with birthday money from Grandma (he has been saving his chore money for this set for over 6 months, which would be impressive if his grand savings total was more than about $5. With the birthday money, his money and a toysrus

coupon, he came home from the store one happy boy) a guest gave him a Star Wars Lego set, he got a

Lego Star Wars Shirt, some awesome Lego Star Wars mini-

figures, and 3 special mini-figs customized to

look like Grant Nina and Rachel.

To be honest, Grant really scores on his birthday. What's his secret? Dave. All those toys that Dave has always wanted but feels silly buying for himself he ends up getting f

or Grant. Luckily their tastes are still at the same age level. As I have told Grant before, being the only boy has a lot of advantages.

In honor of Grants birthday (of course), a new Lego store was opened at a local mall. They had the Grand Opening the day after Grant's birthday. Grant and Dave were there and got to help build a life sized Lego Aretoo Detoo with a master Lego builder. Unfortunately, hundreds of other people were also there, and the lines of people ready to throw down huge sums of money for those little colored bricks were quite long. A bad day to return extra Lego party favors, as Dave found out.

It is now 4 days later and the cake is almost all eaten, but I know I will be picking up Legos for many many years to come. Happy Birthday Grant, We love you!!

Out in Utah This Week

I'll be going out to Utah for a couple of days for some fun-filled all-day business meetings. :) Experience has taught me not to expect time to go around visiting but I'll be at the Fowlers' house on Monday night and my sister Jessica's on Tuesday.

4 of july!

yesterday was the 4th of  course. and it was assume!I got to shake boba  fett's hand and the fireworks was so cool! what happened to you on july 4th? tell me on your comment.

A Taste of What's to Come

We're still not finished with festivities, but I wanted to show you the awesome cake Missy made (she was up very late last night- I get scolded for working at night but she always does her cakes at night- hmmm).

It's just a family party with a 'Princess and the Pea' theme. We've shot a home movie of the story with costumes, too, which we'll try to edit together tomorrow.

Summer Vacation

All last week we visited my (Dave's) parents in Lansing, Kansas and had a great time. My brothers Daniel and Joseph were there as well as my sister Mary. We swam, took the kids bowling for the first time, Missy and I saw Star Trek, had breakfast at Pullman Place and a lot of fun things around the house like piano lessons with Grammy. The big deal of course, was our adventure last Friday at Union Station in Kansas City.



For some reason, no cameras of any kind are permitted(!) but if you want to get an idea of what was there visit http://narnia.unionstation.org and it shows you a video. It was neat to see some of the props and costumes up close.

But in addition to our tickets we got in free to Science City. Nothing short of Disneyland could be funner for kids. Seriously, seemingly endless fun with five adults trying to keep up with three children racing from area to area.

Grant's Talk

A couple of week's ago in Primary, Grant was assigned to give a talk on baptism and how it blesses our family. In preparing it, we watched pieces of 'On Our Way Home' that has the boy in a family that's getting baptized who thinks about his little sister who has died. And we read the scripture about Nicodemus' conversation with the Savior about being born again. I explained the symbolism too, of dying, being buried in the ground, and being resurrected. Grant seemed to really latch onto that.

We wrote out his talk and then Missy cleaned it up with a little pictorial reminder of each line even though Grant's a great reader. In sacrament meeting he asked me to show him the scripture we had read. I did and perhaps having an idea what would happen, I bookmarked it.

Grant started into his talk, but when he got to the place we wrote down that Jesus said we must be born again he stopped and said "I'm going to read you a scripture" and read the appropriate verses like a pro and made a statement about when we get baptized our sins die. Then right back into the 'planned' talk. Bro. Dobson in the bishopric leaned over to me and asked if that was planned and I grinned and shook my head.

Everyone was very impressed. I am grateful to be able to see moments like that of obvious growth in our children.

No news is good news

Hey look- here is an old picture of me!

I just got my haircut today- it now looks a lot like it did when I got it cut last time when this photo was taken.  I just happen to be lucky enough to visit teach an awesome hairstylist- Leah Francis.  Up until now I have always put off and dreaded getting my haircut.  Now although I still put it off due to general laziness, I no longer dread it.  She does a great job.

  Thanks Leah!