Christmas Day

Christmas morning we enjoyed at our house. Michael’s parents came over to watch it all and they made it over just shortly after Kayleigh woke up. She was very excited! I was in my room when I heard her get up, go into the family room, see that Santa had come, and then bolt back to my room to tell me “Mom! There’s presents!”

Santa brought her a doll house and a Belle dress-up which are two of her most favorite things. Michael got an iPod dock which he has been enjoying. I got some new jeans and boots that I had really been wanting. I get so excited for Christmas morning as I am shopping for Michael and the kids. Every year it pays off as such a fun morning to be together and be happy. I love the spirit of Christmas, its true meaning, all the lights and decorations, music, and happiness.

On Christmas afternoon, we headed to Michael’s parents for more presents and dinner. Dinner was one of Michael’s favorites, potatoes, ham, cherry Jell-O, rolls and green bean casserole. It’s pretty good! Kayleigh had fun playing with her cousins from St. George and playing with all her new toys. Her cousins gave her Belle and the Beast in the Polly Pocket Princess set. She was thrilled! She's been wanting the Beast forever. From Suzy and Grandpa she got a little bank with money, a coloring book with princess crayons, a princess memory game and some new boots. Landon got some new soft blocks and a new outfit. Michael and I both got some clothes that we've been needing/wanting. Thanks, Suzy and Grandpa.

Christmas night Nana and Grandpa came over to see what we got. It was a fun little visit before we headed off to bed. I was sad that the holiday was over, but excited for the New Year.

Christmas Eve

Singing and playing music (Kayleigh with her recorder)

The whole nativity

Mary with her very big baby Jesus

Mary (Kayleigh) Joseph (Michael) Landon (Jesus) Erika (a shepherd) and part of Phoebe who was a star

Getting ready to open presents

Kayleigh's new pizza!

Christmas Eve we went to Nana and Grandpa’s house. This year Omi (my Dad's mom)came to spend the night there so she got to be with us. We had a yummy dinner of German breads, cheeses, meats, herring salad, Czech potato salad, ham and turkey .

After dinner we sang songs together and acted out the nativity while Grandpa read the story from Luke. Often during Christmas Grandpa will pull out his recorder to play along to the piano. So, Marie thought it would be fun if the girls all had recorders to play. Thanks to Wal-Mart’s dollar section, we found some and gave them each one. Well, let’s just say it was really loud while they played, and it’s a toy we want to hide now!

I really liked doing the nativity because it helps the kids to remember why we are celebrating Christmas. Also, acting it out is what I did all growing up when we went to my dad’s parent’s house for our Christmas party. I hope this is a tradition we will keep doing. Kayleigh HAD to be Mary, so I gave up that to be a shepherd. Michael was Joseph and Landon was our little baby Jesus. He spent most of the time trying to get out of the manger, but looked pretty cute doing so.
Following the nativity we opened presents. Of course this is what Kayleigh had been waiting for. She was so excited! She ripped open her presents and was very excited with what she got. Her wooden pizza was probably the highlight for her. Grandpa also made her a nice wooden board to do her puzzles on, it's great! She got a ew coloring book and sticker book. Landon got some pretty cute puzzles and blocks, a new outfit and a new book. Michael got a Home Depot gift card, I got a card to Michael's and then we also got a lot of food storage items. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Tabernacle Choir Christmas Party

Michael and me

Marie and me

Okay, my meat was pretty red and I traded with my sweet husband.

Yes, we were once again in charge of the nametags for this big event, all 1300 of them. This year it went exceptionally smooth as Michael merged the huge file on the computer and then they were printed and we began stuffing them. The only thing I wish I could change is the fact that we are putting them together the SAME week as the concert. Needless to say, we never went to bed before 1:00a.m. that week.

The party day was fun. Michael took the day off and volunteered to stay home with the kids in the morning. So, my mom, the usual babysitter, got to come down to the Grand America with me and help set up for the night. She had a great time doing this, isn't it fun for moms to get out?!

After the set-up was mostly done, we enjoyed a delicious lunch there and then headed home. I quickly dropped her off and ran to find something I could wear that night. Why is that when you are looking for something specific, you can't find it?? I wanted/needed a new black skirt and I've been looking for awhile. FINALLY found one about 2 hours before the party started at Kohl's. Why didn't I just go there first? Anyway, found a cute outfit, rushed home to get ready and off we went back to the Grand.

Dinner was really good! Chicken and beef, potatoes, veggies, salad, rolls and dessert. My favorite part was dessert. I was so full after! I slept super great that night as I knew our job was done and I could relax now.

Lyman family party

This year we were lacking in family parties to attend! Okay, I'm not really complaining because we were still plenty busy, but I missed seeing all my cousins, etc. My dad's side of the family decided not to have a family party this year which is the 1st time we've not had one. My mom's side of the family is getting so big we kind of just do one every other year for Christmas. So, we only had Michael's mom's side of the family party to go to.

Every year it's fun to get together on a Sunday evening, listen to his grandpa say a few words, play some games and eat yummy ice cream cake made by his grandma. This year they did a few games that you'd find on Minute to Win It, that t.v. show. The best was watching Kayleigh jump around trying to get little bouncy balls out of the box that was tied to her waist! It was fun.

Concerts

Beautiful set!

Myself and my sis Me and hubby

On December 14th-19th, we practically lived downtown. Why you might ask? We had rehearsals and performances with the Bells on Temple Square as we performed with the choir, orchestra, David Archuleta and Michael York for the annual Christmas concert. Five babysitters later and not very much sleep, we survived! It was so much fun! The concerts were fantastic!! I think the dancing was exceptional this year, along with the costumes.

David Archuleta did an amazing job! We loved the arrangements he did of Joy to the World and Silent Night! We loved how he was so humble and grateful for the opportunity he was given to sing with the choir. Michael York was the narrator and he did a great job of telling a story about the Tabernacle Choir and reading from Luke about the birth of Christ.

We also got to perform on two Sunday morning broadcasts with the choir in December. It’s always hard to get up really early to get to these, but they are well worth it. It is fun to be with the choir and get to see all the people who came to visit Temple Square for the first time. One of my favorite parts of being on a broadcast is being able to sing “God be with you till we meet again” with the choir.

Michael and I have had a very fun time being in the Bells on Temple Square together. My parents made it possible for us to do it for a year, and we are grateful to them for watching our kids every Wednesday night and other times when rehearsals were called. Michael will miss it, but we feel like right now he should take a break and be with the kids on Wednesday nights while I continue. One day he’d really like to be a member of the choir, so who knows, maybe in a few years he will be.

I went to rehearsal last night by myself and I was a little lonely. Marie, my sis, who's also in the bells is on maternity leave so I'm really alone! I'm sure I'll get used to it though.

Busy busy

Kirsten (sis of the bride) with her baby Dylan.

Jeni (sis of the bride) with her cutie Jackson

Kay enjoying the cake

Steph and Jordan

Holidays holidays holidays! We've been having lots of fun and staying very busy at our house. Our Christmas was really nice and fun. We've enjoyed time with our families and will continue to this week to welcome in the new year. Our kids are loving their new toys and playing a lot with them. Michael has had a lot of time off from work and it has been so nice to have him home, we all enjoy it.

Today my cousin got married. Michael and I got to attend the sealing and it was very nice! I love going to weddings, they are fun! Tonight we have 2 receptions to go to so no slowing down here.
Steph's reception was nice and really fun for Kayleigh. She had a great time dancing around with her cousins to all the music and playing with the rose petals that were all over.

I hope all of you are enjoying this time like we are. I'll post more with pictures in the coming weeks but for now just wanted to check back into the blogging world for a minute.

Landon's 1st Party

We had a fun little party for Landon. My parents, Michael's parents, my brother, and my sister and her family all came. Landon got lots of fun new toys! We now can say we have some boy toys. Landon was really cute to watch as he pulled the wrapping from each present and then examined it, and of course he ate some, too.

His big sister and 2 cousins REALLY wanted to unwrap his toys and be the first to see them, but we tried hard to have Landon do it. I remember being a little kid at friend/cousin parties, it was hard watching them open all the presents and my birthday seemed years away!

I made a really cute basketball cake for his big day. As always I stressed about it and how the frosting would turn out and all that, but in the end, it was great. I found some really cute $1 balls at Target that went along great with it.

As we all sang Happy Birthday to him, towards the end of the song he started to smile and it was so cute! By then I think he finally figured out we were singing to him. We gave him his own piece to devour, but he mostly just picked the icing off and then was done.

I saved one present for him to open on his actual birthday. I know he doesn't know, so it was more for me, but hey, I wanted to do something on his actual birthday. As I already said in the last post, can't believe he's one now. Such a big boy!

Happy Birthday Landon!

Warning! Long post!

Can't believe our little guy is one! His birthday was yesterday and obviously I didn't post anything. We celebrated on Saturday with a family party which I'll post about soon. Today I took Landon to the doctor for his one year check-up. He's growing and doing very well! First off, his ear infection from last week is all better, thanks to Amoxicillin. He weighed 24 lbs. 14 oz. (79th%tile) and was 31 inches long (85th%tile). What can I say, the kid likes to eat!

I went into early labor (7 weeks early) and so we went to the hospital thinking they'd give me something to stop it. After they ran some tests and ruled out some possible infections that I might have, the finally checked me to find I was dilated to a 5 already. So, there was no turning back. Of course my doctor was out of town, just my luck. Since I'd had a c-section with Kayleigh, I would be having another one since an on-call doc would be delivering me. Thankfully Dr. Meek was great and got Landon out safely. I was lucky enough to be able to actually watch him be born because the nice anesthesiologist held up a mirror for me. (I didn't get that with Kayleigh.)

Landon was quickly whisked away, and I didn't get to see him for about 12 hours. Poor Michael was right in the middle of performing downtown with the Tabernacle Choir and their Christmas concert with Natalie Cole. So he had to leave me to go to a recording session. I'll admit, it was a hard day, lots had happened in so little time. I did have a pretty fun surprise that day though, Kayleigh got to visit me in the hospital. If you'll remember, last year was the big H1N1 scare and so most hospitals were only allowing visitors over the age of 18. But, Davis Hospital had just changed their rule days before to allow siblings of new babies in. Michael didn't tell me this and just showed up with Kayleigh, it was really cool! She couldn't see Landon though, that was hard to explain to a 2 yr. old that the baby had been born, but she couldn't see him. Luckily, she coped with it pretty well and in the following weeks to come, there were days that she was the strongest. I remember a specific day when I was heading out to go to the hospital and Michael just broke down. Sweet little Kayleigh went up to him and put her arm around him and told him it would be okay.

A year ago today Landon got to eat for the first time. (Preemies don't eat the first day they are born. Just being born is enough stress for their little bodies for one day.) He started out with only 3 mls of milk. (A teaspoon is 5 mls). Every three hours he got to eat more, and slowly he got up to over 40 mls by the time we brought the little guy home. He was in the hospital for 15 LONG days. He was the biggest baby in the NICU. He was born at 5 lbs. 8 oz. and got as low as 4 lbs. 14 oz. (I think, can't remember the oz. for sure.) While he was there, he had to learn to eat what he wanted when he wanted, without the nurses forcing him to eat through his feeding tube. He also had to learn how to breath on his own. Landon liked to forget to breath while he ate and while he slept. Once he figured that out, he was good to go!

We brought him home on he 27th of December. It was a wonderful day! I don't think I'll forget how excited Kayleigh was when she finally got to meet her brother. One of the first things she wanted to do with him was put him in her pink doll high chair. She's been a great big sis ever since!

He came home from the hospital with a heart/lung monitor and oxygen. It took us two weeks to get him completely off all that. We were so thankful to have him home! We can't wait to have our whole family of four together this Christmas.

As we look back, we know that we are so blessed. I once was telling the story of Landon's birth, etc. to a guy I know and I said how we'd "been lucky." I'll never forget his response, he said, "No, you've been blessed." It's true! We really felt the prayers of our family and friends in the week following his early birth. I healed very quickly from the c-section and that was a little miracle to me. I remember how I felt when I'd had my c-section with Kayleigh and Landon's was SO much easier. I was up and around quicker and my incision stopped hurting sooner. I had to be up and going though, we were making multiple drives to the hospital each day. I know Kayleigh was blessed with an understanding of the whole situation. Landon grew and developed very quickly in the hospital. The doctors told us a few days before we brought him home that he shouldn't be doing any of the things he was doing. Michael was able to take off three weeks of work during all of this. We had fabulous insurance that payed a lot for Landon to receive the care he needed, leaving us only to pay a small portion.

I guess I just wanted to write some of that down for myself, so I don't forget our experience. We love Landon and are grateful he's in our family. Happy Birthday, little guy, we love you!