Gardner Family Intervention 2010

This September the Gardner family met in Ashton Idaho for a family reunion aka "Intervention" to celebrate Jacque's 60th birthday. John and Jacque rented a huge home on a large piece of land in little Ashton Idaho. They did this so we could all easily travel there (with the exception of Jared and Shawna in California). Jacque also wanted to bring the whole family together, including kids rather than run off to an excluded island like we did for John's birthday. Some might argue that John just went cheep on Jacques birthday. We'll leave the speculations out of the post, however, as we are happy for their generosity regardless of location!

We were the first ones to the house and John had to find an unlocked door around back to let us in. The house is strait out of the 60s with no real upgrades or improvements. Honestly, it was a bit disappointing that so little money has been put into keeping the house updated. Old carpet, furniture and 15 year old "big screen" TV aside, the house was perfect for large group gatherings. The 3 car garage had been converted into a little indoor rec. room where the Gardner girls kept themselves entertained all week with tricycle basket ball and floor hockey. It's funny that the room was made for children but the kids were discouraged from playing in there. Oh well. (sigh)

We kept ourselves busy with fun activities such as tennis, horse shoes, rides in the canoe in the pond, playing on the swing set, ping pong and fort building in the basement bunk house. Eliza loved playing with all her cousins and the swing set most of all. Julia loved playing in the little indoor playhouse with slide.
On the first evening we all went out to eat at a little known hamburger joint that is locally famous for having the largest hamburgers in the world. I'm not sure if they really are the biggest, but I have a hard time believing that there are many people that can eat a whole burger. John and Jared shared one and they barely finished it!


The rest of the evenings we at at the lodge. Each night 2 people fixed a different dinner dish and 2 people fixed a dessert. We then voted on which dish and dessert we liked best. At the end of the week each family had cooked one meal and one dessert. It was a great way to try lots of fun dishes within the different themed nights! Paige accidentally grabbed the stale peanuts at home and thus ruined her pad thai meal. :( She would have won otherwise! She did, however win on her dessert - Mexican Chocolate Flan. It was delicious. Not only did it win for best dessert of the night, but best dessert of the week! She is a fantastic cook which we are lucky to have her in our home as a full-time cook.


Heath Johnson has two very big trucks that are jacked up with lift kits. John and Heath went out in the yellow Excursion aka the Bus and hit some off road trails near the lodge. Later they went out in the rock crawling Explorer and had a real fun time doing serious off roading!



The last night there we signed the guest book. All the previous guests had done a fancy page with all the activities they had done while in at the lodge. We got a good laugh at all the groups that had come before us. It is obvious that the owners were LDS as were most of the guests. Many funny activities were "writing letters to the missionaries," "firesides" etc. Although we may be LDS, our activities do not center around the church while on vacation - sorry. John suggested we create a page with ridiculous activities like rebuilt old car, hunted and skinned a bear, completed our genealogy back to Cain etc. OK, so these things were a little far fetched and a tad blasphemous, but they would have been funny. The activities that were eventually put down were honest, but the pages were created in a mocking manner with Gardner Intervention rather than Gardner Reunion. That was John's idea too!


All in all notwithstanding all the craziness that happened that week we had a good time and we're glad that Paige's family is willing to get together for reunions. We just wish John's family was that dedicated. With monthly get-togethers, it just diminishes the desire to get together for a family reunion. We really feel it is a lack of commitment and selfishness that prevents a Lyon reunion. Everyone is too concerned with their own family vacations and doesn't want to sacrifice so that we can all share a vacation/ reunion experience. We have tried on several occasions to rally the troops and put together a fun proposal but each time it is shot down by one or two families. So we're done trying. Here's to hoping! :)

Eliza's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Eliza's 3rd birthday 2 weeks ago. It is so hard to imagine that sweet little girl has been with us for 3 years now. She has been such a joy. That's not to say she hasn't brought her fair share of challenges either. She was a challenge out the gate and continues to be so, but we love her immensely and her sweetness and fun personality make it all worth it.
We had the great idea of taking Eliza to the Zoo for her birthday and inviting cousins and friends to come along if they wanted to join us. That idea was made with good intentions but ultimately proved to not be a good idea!
We felt bad that the price of admission was so high - $9 for adults and $7 for children. Most there had several kids. We were joined by Paige's sisters Stephany and Cassey and her 3 children, John's sister Linda and her two kids, Paige's friend Jenny and her two kids and our next door neighbor and good friend Shaela Wilson and her 3 kids. We took Maddy with us since Natalie couldn't make it. Due to the cost of admission we asked that nobody bring presents, but they all did anyway. We provided pizza and cupcakes for everyone but forgot to bring chips and watermelon that we had at home. Ugh!
The group wasn't very big, but it was still a challenge to keep everyone together and move from exhibit to exhibit with the whole group. Time drug on in the scorching hot sun and kids got grouchy and soon we wanted to go home but could not since the kids still wanted to play and see the animals.
Eliza loved her party, even though it would have been easier to do a party at the house. It was really cute to see her with all her cousins and friends running around the zoo looking at the animals.
We are so grateful for this little girl who brings us so much joy. She teaches us many things, patience being one of them, but more importantly she teaches us how to be parents. We strive to be good ones. She let's us know when we fall short with something tender that breaks our hearts like, "you have to be nice to me" said with tears in her eyes and chocked up speech.
The time has flown by. How nice it would be to slow down time so we could enjoy our little ones even longer. They grow up so fast, then they are off doing their own thing and you never see them again. Until then we will love and enjoy our little ones we have been so blessed to receive, especially our Eliza the beautiful.

St. George with the Esplin family

We recently went to St. George with the Esplins. We went down on Friday morning to give John a head start for work. He did some work on Friday and then Saturday, which is nice because he can expense the travel down there and defray a little of the cost of the trip.
On Sunday afternoon the Esplins joined us. We were really excited to spend a few days with them. We really enjoy their company and rarely get to spend extended amounts of time with them. As a precaution not to make it a week-long movie fest, we packed lots of games and no movies besides the movie library already in the house. We both got our fair share of movie watching at the Island Park cabin with 3M and we swore we wouldn't let that happen again!
On Monday morning we went to Sand Hollow reservoir. The entrance to the park is really close to the house which makes it really nice to get in and out. It was so close, in fact, that we couldn't find it at first! Well, John put the address in the GPS and the GPS took us about .5 miles too far to the old entrance which is now fenced off. We kept driving and no entrance. So John pulled over and chatted with Ted who saw the entrance but couldn't reach John because he forgot his cell phone at the house.
Once we found the entrance it was no time before we had found a place to setup our beach front. We took our new "relaxation station" (big party island) which we purchased early this year. We love our new toy. It seats 4 or more and the center is mesh which allows the water to come it, but you can walk on it which is nice for us to cool off our feet and the kids love to play in the middle in the water without sinking to the bottom of the lake!
Just as John was getting the anchor set on the island Paige asked him what the itching disease was. John was pretty confused and asked for some clarification. Paige saw a sign on the way into the park that mentioned that the itching disease was rampant in the reservoir. Oh great, not only do we have to deal with the muscles in the water, but we are exposed to the itching disease too!
Kristin ran out of sun screen and so she took off to Wal-mart down the road. After an hour of her gone we were all slightly concerned about her well being. She then turned up with several gallon jugs of water, anti-bacterial wash and a loofah. She spoke with a pharmacist who told her that 1 in 5 get the itching disease which is a viral infection similar to chicken pox. So there are 10 of us there, so 2 of u s are going to be itchy, OK, so things are just getting better and better as the day goes by. Once you are out of the water you have about 20 minutes to get rinsed off otherwise you could get the itching disease within 12-48 hours. John had been out of the water for 30 minutes at that point and he needed to go back out to get the floating island. With that wonderful news everyone but Eliza and Parker were done with the water. They were just too young to understand the threat and there was no fighting them, we just needed to keep them in the water and not drying.
The next scene was a great one. Kristin was stripping down her family and washing them on the beach. The people next to us were quite intrigued with us washing on the beach. Everyone but John got washed up. Once we got back to the house John was quick to get inside and do a deep scrub down. We also took no chances and threw all the towels and clothes that had been to the beach in the washing machine We didn't want any bugs getting on other cloths and then run the risk of getting re-exposed later on.
The next 48 hours were a hoot. Not really. That evening everyone was really self conscious of every little itch fearing it was the itching disease coming to claim their body for the next few days! Huge sighs of relief came 48 hours later when nobody was breaking out in hive-like sores! We were pretty lucky to beat the odds. Paige's sister Cassey went down earlier in the summer with all of Michael's family. She said they played at the reservoir for a couple of days and nobody got the itching disease so maybe it's not as bad as the pharmacist and the signs made it out to be. That could explain why the lady at the gate didn't mention any words of caution to us as we went in.
Tuesday evening the girls went shopping at the outlet stores in St. George. Ted and John were on for baby sitting duty for the little ones. In an attempt to keep the kids happy and entertained without their mothers, John created a game of "Don't Eat Pete" on some scratch paper. He made the board too big which put too many M&M's on the board to eat. Just as we were getting close to playing Parker had an accident which required an emergency bath. John had the board full of candy and had to leave the room to take care of Julia. When he returned a minute later the board was empty and Eliza's mouth was full! She ate the whole lot of M&M's! Parker was first to go. The object of the game is quite simple, eat candy. The other players decide which square is Pete and when the player picks up that candy they all shout, "Don't eat Pete!" before he/she eats the candy. When Parker went he got a jolt when we yelled. He quickly retreated behind the nearest chair for safety. After Katy's turn Eliza went again. We decided that since she had already eaten a whole board's worth of candy she didn't need many so we chose the 3rd square s Pete. Yet, she foiled the plan as she decided to start at the bottom and make her way to the top! That night was an interesting one with Eliza hopped up on sugar.
We had a great time with the Esplins and we had some pretty good laughs at the itching scare we had at the reservoir. Hopefully we will be able to do it again, but we're not sure a trip to Sand Hollow will be on the next agenda!

1st Birthday

Julia just celebrated her 1st birthday! What a joy she is to our family. We could stop growing our family and we would still feel we were the richest people alive. Our children are so wonderful. From the 1st day Jules has been the sweetest child we could ever imagine. Her sweet disposition was recognized early on and has not changed one bit. She exudes everything wonderful and virtuous that exists on earth.
It is nice to have this balance with our children. Eliza has such a strong personality and is extremely fun on extremely challenging, and very little in between. Jules is so even tempered and 98% of the time has a smile on her face. We hope she stays this sweet forever!
We decided that although the 1st birthday is traditionally celebrated with friends and family, we wanted to have a small birthday party with our parents, Julia's grandparents. She is so young and would not appreciate a big 1st birthday. We will have a bigger party with all the family for her 2nd birthday; that is if anyone is interested in coming!
Michael and Mary Margaret and John and Jacquie joined us for some wonderful shrimp tacos barbequed on the grill. Paige made an awesome mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. Jules devoured that like nobody's business! That was her first real chance to eat desert, especially chocolate cake!
Jules got a cute clock that plays music from the the Lyons and some cute clothes and a mug with her name on it from the Gardner's. We gave Jules some really neat foam blocks that have wood grain designs. We figured they would be thrown at each other and other objects and foam blocks don't do as much damage! Everything was a hit. It was a fun party and we were glad we have family so close to celebrate these occasions.

Seattle Trip

We took the girls on a trip to Seattle to visit Jesse and Bonnie DeGroff and company. Because the trip was 13 hours of drive, we split the travel into 2 days. The first day we stayed in a Fairfield Inn hotel in Nampa, ID just outside of Boise. Once we got settled into the room Eliza was bouncing off the walls. She was having a such a fun time playing on the bed watching TV and eating treats. Eliza exclaimed, "This is the best trip ever!" We were very blessed to have the kids sleep well through the night, especially Baby Jules who slept through the night!

The next morning John woke up early and couldn't fall asleep. Excited to get up to Seattle, he promptly got ready for the day and waited for 7am to come around to get Paige and the others up and on the road by 8:30am.
The next 8 hours were some of the longest. Ted Esplin had told us the trip was only 11 hours. With 5 down that left only 6 to Seattle. But that was wrong. The trip really another 8 hours with gas and bathroom breaks on top! We passed through a 40 mile wind zone which really turned into about 120! We were driving for about 2 hours in heavy head winds which really strained the driving. We stopped for a bathroom break and lunch but had to abort the mission when we could barely get up the small hill to the rest rooms without falling over!
The next morning we took the kids to a park for a kid's concert with Rodney the Raccoon. Eliza was so excited to see the mascot dancing around on stage. She begged John to take her to meet Rodney. "I need him!" After the show they went up to meet him. Eliza was so nervous she had to be prodded to say hello. We then took the kids to a park to play on the playground. The weather was so nice all week - mid 70's. A lot of people hang out outside because of the mild temperatures. The Seattle area is very nice.

















On Wednesday we went into Seattle for the day. We visited the famous Space Needle and let Eliza and Chloe run around at the huge water fountain dome. After that we went down to the pier and had Fish n' Chips - John's favorite, and visited Pike's Place fish market. Eliza wasn't too excited about the fish but she loved the homemade gilatto ice cream we found. We got two bowls with 4 scoops each so we could try many of the flavors. That is one of the recipes Paige is going to try at home for Jule's birthday next week.























On Wednesday evening Jesse took John to race the go-carts. It was pretty fun but crazy. Jesse invited all the young high school student employees of his to come with us. These kids were absolutely crazy. The action was more akin to bumper cars than Indy-style racing. One of the kids there was sent into a barricade, which was pretty standard procedure for those kids, and he broke his hand! John escaped with just a tight back and neck. Fun, but not to be repeated!

Because Jesse's employee was out with a broken hand, Jesse had to fill in for him the next morning. John ended up staying home with a cranky baby and Paige took Eliza to a fun park with Bonnie and her kids. They had a blast riding on a train through the farm as well as playing on the several climbing structures.



Eliza sure had a fun time with the DeGroff kids. She played so well with them. She got into little arguments with Colden from time to time, but in her defense he was responsible for about 51% of the skirmishes. What do you expect from little kids!





Thursday afternoon we went to the local beach. As far as beaches are concerned it wasn't great, but the kids had fun planing in the sand and in the water. There must have been a local community college near bye because the whole beach was covered by young college kids.





























Baby Jules was attracted to table/ box Jesse made and placed in front of the couch in front of the TV like a bee to a flower. Whenever we were in the house she immediately went to the box and sat on it. She did fall off of it 3 times over the course of the week, but luckily it was only a foot high. Unfortunately the floor was hard! She was so cute just playing up there, gabbing in her new found baby talk. She talks as if she is saying things. In fact, she inherited her father's sleep talking. Several nights we woke up to her babbling in her sleep. She is the cutest little child. We love her dearly and her beautiful smile and sweet disposition.

Thursday evening sent the adults back into Seattle to go to dinner at their favorite Indian restaurant. Although it was no match for the Bombay House in Provo, it was good and the Nan bread was very good. Bonnie's parents, who live with Jesse and Bonnie (Basement now while the addition to the house with a "mother-in-law suite is being built) were kind enough to watch the kids so we could go out. We had a great time with them and without the kids. The vacation really has been about entertaining the children, which is fine, but it is nice for the adults to have their own time too.

We were scheduled to go home Friday so we could be home for church on Sunday. But Jesse insisted that we stay an extra day and Paige really wanted to stay too. So John made arrangements for a substitute teacher for his Sunday School class.

On Friday, our last full day there, Jesse went with us for breakfast (at 2pm!) at the local restaurant Maltby's. It was a favorite of John's sister Kristin as well as John's dad who fell in love with the cafe on one of his trips up to visit the Esplins while they were living there a few years ago. After brunch we took a short trip to the neighboring city of Bothel and visited the Esplin's old home and took a couple of pictures in front.

That afternoon John treated Jesse and Mike (Bonnie's dad) to the new premier movie, Inception. It was a fun movie and nice to get out with the guys as well as treat Mike as a thank you for watching the kids the night before.

We left for home on Saturday morning and made the long trip to Boise where we stayed the night at the Residence Inn hotel. We were all so tired after a fun, eventful week and a 8 hour car ride doesn't exactly refresh the body and mind! To compound things Julia had a blowout 1 hour outside of Boise in Ontario OR. We had to stop at a Chevron to get her cleaned up. Paige didn't realize the extent of the mess and she laid her on the front car seat which quickly became a big poopy mess! After a makeshift cleanup with baby wipes and a clean towel to cover the seat we pushed on to Boise. John then ran to the grocery store and purchased some upholstery cleaner to get the car seats clean.
Feeling a little left out, Eliza contracted the runs and had a big accident in the bathroom which required Paige and John cleaning the bathroom and bathing Eliza! What an adventure. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful with the exception of Eliza falling off the couch in the middle of the night and Jules babbling in her sleep.

Sunday morning we made our way home. This leg of the trip was the shortest of the 4 and it was a good thing. Julia was very upset with being in the car seat for 2 days strait. We don't blame her. She cried most of the way home. We did all we could to keep her content but had to resort to ignoring her and letting her cry herself to sleep. It is very nice when the kids sleep on these trips.

It was sure nice to return home. As much fun as we had with the DeGroffs in Seattle, we love our home and it is sure nice to be back in it.

Da Goon

This year John and Paige decided to get Lagoon season passes for the family. Eliza LOVES Lagoon. Although, she can't pronounce it properly. She pronounces it da-goon. After our first trip Eliza bawled her eyes all the way to the car. On our way out John said, "Say goodbye to Lagoon." "By goon," she cried.

Eliza's favorite ride is the Lady Bug. It is a ride that adults can go on with their kids which goes up in the air, then slightly drops down and bounces while spinning in a circle. She is so funny while she rides. She is absolutely emotionless while on the rides. But once the ride is over she is very excited and can't wait to go on another ride. In fact, she is so excited she exhibits very little patience between rides. We are trying very hard to teach her that she needs to wait her turn. We try to put her on rides that have very short lines.

On our first day at Lagoon Eliza's attention was immediately drawn to the Tidal Wave - an adult ride that is a pirate boat that goes back and forth with the ends going vertical. She insisted that she go on it. Because she met the minimum height requirement John took her on it. To minimize the swing they sat in the middle but that didn't seem to help much. Eliza was so scared. She held on tight with both hands and shook from fear. She cried the whole time despite John holding on tight to her to keep her safely secure on the bench. A lady on the other side of the boat was laughing the whole time. She was greatly amused with Eliza's demonstration of her fear. After the ride she said the ride was too big for her. She was excited to go find another ride.

Before leaving the park we usually let Eliza run through the fountain at the park's entrance. The fountain has fountains that randomly shoot up. Eliza runs after them and kicks them. She is really cute running through the water.

Julia has been a good sport the whole time. She just goes along for the ride and for the most part is in high spirits and cute as ever!





The only downfall to Lagoon is trying to get Eliza to leave when it is time to go hom e. She just has so much fun and would love to stay all day long. So far we have been able to go most weeks, sometimes a couple of times a week.

Potty Training

Eliza started potty training last week. We have been asking her if she wanted to start trying. She has declined all invitations and requests. She was thrown into the training last week, however, after she took off her poopy diaper and rolled around on the floor with her dirty bum. Paige stuffed her in the kitchen and locked her in there with the potty training toilet and many drinks candy.

Paige kept Eliza very hydrated and every 30 minutes threw her on the toilet for 5 minutes. In between potty time she wore little girl underwear and sat on a plastic covered chair and watched movies on the kitchen pc. We all celebrated big successes and were patient over little accidents. The hardest challenge was being cooped in the kitchen for 3 strait days! The tension was noticeably high and tempers flared from time to time from both camps!

After the 3 days Eliza had the pee-pee down but refused to do anything else. She would go several days without a bowel movement and we were forced to put a diaper on her and let her go in that. A few days later of holding it she releaved herself in the bath tub! This was a greater challenge than John and Paige (primarily Paige as the primary trainer) thought possible.

Fast forward to last night. We are all up in Island Park at the Hahne's cabin. Eliza was crying every 5 minutes that her bum hurt and needed to be changed. We couldn't quite get her to understand that changing her wouldn't help - she needed to go to the bathroom! After many failed attempts we were determined to make it happen. The next hour or so would not be pretty. Everyone seemed to have a suggestion on what would be best. MDL wanted to watch a movie but the commotion was too great. At one point Dad complained that he couldn't hear the movie over the baby's crying at the closed bathroom door. He wanted my mom to put Julia in the bathroom with us. I heard her tell him a firm "No!" John then opened the bathroom door and yelled, "You'll just have to pause the movie!" The movie had to wait, we were getting this poo out! Poor Eliza cried on the toilet as we would not let her off until she finished the deed. The howling got louder and longer. Beads of sweet were rolling off our heads in the hot, unventilated bathroom. John and Paige were bribing Eliza with all kinds of treats - candy bar, twinky, movie in bed etc. Finally, the moment came and Eliza had her first bowel movement on the toilet! Everyone was cheering, including Eliza. She was so happy, but probably happiest that the pain was gone! High fives and hugs were exchanged. Apologies among adults were offered due to minor verbal exchanges in frustration.

The moment of truth quickly arrived. Eliza had done her deed and now she was going to claim all those prizes that were promised. She sat at the kitchen table at 10pm eating a candy bar and twinky! After brushing her teeth she went to bed in the back bedroom with a portable movie player watching Cinderella! What a night. It wasn't fun but it is over and it is a huge step in the right direction.

This morning Eliza was really excited and told John that she now "pee-pee and po0-poo in the toilet!"

"I'm trying to be mad at you!"

Tonight at dinner Eliza got in trouble for getting all her spoons out and getting them dirty. Paige quickly scolded her which made Eliza clam up and show her displeasure on her face. She then ran from the kitchen to the living room. On her way out of the kitchen John, sitting at the end of the table and close to the walkway to the front room, tried to stop Eliza and give her a hug. She quickly pushed him away as she ran by which subsequently sent her spinning to the floor.

"You falled me down!" she cried. "I pushed you down?" John replied. "Honey, I didn't push you down. I tried to give you a hug. You pushed yourself down." John explained. The next few moments became tremendously comical as Eliza defended her position that she had been pushed down. John emphatically tried to calm her down by telling her that he loved her and he was trying to give her a hug and he was trying to be nice to her.

"NO! I'm trying to be mad at you!" yelled Eliza. "Well," said John, "You're succeeding."

John soon left to help David move. Eliza told Paige that "Daddy doesn't like Eliza." Before John returned home he stopped by Costco and purchased a boat-load of candy, cookies, and drinks for an upcoming training event. Eliza was so excited to see all the treats. She was extra nice to her daddy and politely asked for some cookies. John told her she could have some. She was yelling "hooray." She then told Paige that "King loves Eliza!" (Eliza calls her dad King, her mom is Queen and she and Julia are Princesses) Oh how children's moods change over simple things like cookies. It's definitely a good thing! :)

Nathan and Ashley's Wedding

Nathan and Ashley were wed on Friday, April 30th. Three months ago when they scheduled the wedding I'm sure they were planning on perfect spring weather. What they received was much different. We have had rain and snow all week. Fortunately the reception center accommodated an indoor reception. The weather was actually pretty nice on Friday. It did rain off an on all day, but it allowed us to take pictures outside the temple, albeit in the cold. We also had a nice window of nice weather at the reception center to take pictures outside.

On Thursday evening we had a wedding dinner at Madox in Perry. We left Eliza with the Esplin girls and took Julia with us. About half way through the evening Ted received a phone call from his girls. Eliza had been crying the whole time. They passed the phone to Eliza and I tried my best to console the sobbing little one. She was crying so hard I could hardly understand her. She asked me to tell her the story of Rapunzel. She was quiet while I was telling the story, then erupted into wailing once I finished. I told Megan to tell her stories and give her a treat and we would be back soon.

The next day Stephany came over and watched the kids while we were at the wedding ceremony. We were gone from 10:30 - 2:30. The two kids both had stints of uncontrollable cry and in Eliza's case a temper tantrum. It's sad that we can't leave the kids with anyone without feeling guilty that they are freaking out while we are gone. I guess we'll just enjoy them for a few years before we can ditch them and go off alone.


Eliza sure had fun at the reception. She loved running on the grass, smelling the flowers and running across the bridge that spanned the little creek. We got some cute pictures of the kids as well as a nice family picture. I purchased a new DSLR camera, the Nikon D90, earlier this week. I've been saving up for a long time for this. I got the camera which comes with an upgraded kit lens 18-105mm as well as a telephoto lens 70-300mm. The pictures are gorgeous! The rest of my family all have Canon DSLR's which are great, but all the research I did led me to buy the better camera. I took about 300 pictures over the last couple of days. I will get many more years of enjoyment from this camera and lenses.


In all we had a great weekend. We are so happy for Nathan and Ashley. She is a wonderful girl and we are so happy to have her join the Lyon family. She too is extremely happy. We just need to get David married.

Pink Binki is Broken

Eliza has two staples in her life: Pink Binki and Momma Bear. Both are old and quite frankly a little gross. The bear is one thing, but a binki that is consistently between the mouth and the floor is another. The rubber on the binki is old and starting to get hard. Fearing that it could tear and become a choking hazard John thought it best to get rid of the binki.

John and Paige went to Target to purchase new binkis for the girls. Although Eliza is almost 3 she could not give up the binki just yet. Plus, there are many times that it is best to let her have a binki than listen to her cry.

Just before bed John took a pair of scissors and made a clean snip of the tip of the binki - about midway through the nipple. He then placed the binki and the tip on the counter. When it was time for bed Eliza was looking for the binki. She ran and grabbed it off the counter. There was a short pause when she saw the aftermath. At first she thought the tip was an apricot. Then the sad words slipped from her little lips, "Oh no, pink binki is broken!"

At first she wanted to fix it, and was quit confident she could by placing the tip back on the binki. But she soon found that the end of pink binki had come. She graciously threw the binki in the garbage. To our excitement she accepted the new binki that she had turned her nose up to earlier that day when we purchased the replacement binki.



Pink Binki rest in peace.

Pink Binki and Momma Bear Bandit!

Look at how cute Eliza is with her ever present Pink Binki and Momma Bear. Wait, that's not Eliza, that's baby Jules! At first sight one might mistake this cute baby for Eliza whom from the very beginning could not be separated from her binki and bear. But this is definitely Julia and as one can see from the shabby condition of Momma Bear, time has passed from her soft, fuzzy early days with baby Eliza.
Paige took a picture and showed it to John who did a huge double take, laughing pretty good at a regular sight seen when Eliza was a baby. Then, John showed Eliza the picture on the camera. "Oh no!" cried Eliza. "(S)he has Momma Bear and pink binki!" (Eliza can't quite grasp the concept of he/she yet which is amazing considering she is one of the most intelligent children on the planet.) She then burst out laughing as she realized how funny it was that her little sister had her two prize possessions. It will be a sad day when those two things are gone. Momma Bear has been stitched up a few times, but her seams are ever present and we just hope Eliza will be old enough to move on to something else when the bear finally gives up her cotton ghost.

Easter

Yesterday was Easter. We have been looking forward to this for over a month now. We went overboard on candy and toys. We were just so excited to celebrate this holiday with Eliza. This is the first holiday that she has understood and she was so excited for the Easter Bunny to bring candy and toys! Boy will Christmas be something next year!

We locked the gate at the top of the stairs so she would not come down. I asked her to look in the front room and see if the Easter Bunny came. "Nope." she replied. I told her to look again. "He did come!" she yelled. She had a grand time going through her basket looking at all the toys and candy. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the family room. Then the good times began. She was eating so much candy. We took the candy away from her but managed to find it and continue her eating on slot.

Later we went to the Gardner's for dinner. Eliza took all the candy from her cousins and ate it too! I kept getting after her and telling her no more, but she kept eating. She was wound up all night and it was hard getting her out of their house without a nice little temper tantrum.

When we got home and got her to bed the rest of the candy was put away for good. Until Halloween I guess.

Julia Crawling

Julia started crawling a couple of weeks ago. It is really the typical army crawl with very little knees involved. But every once in a while she gets a knee in there. It is funny that she will lift herself up on all fours, rock a little, then drop to her stomach and army crawl across the floor. It is really cute to see her book across the room. Eliza never did the army crawl, she did full-on crawling at 9 months. So I guess that Julia will be there too in a month or less.
Tonight she was playing with a little toy piano. She stopped, then booked across the room, picked up her binki and then went back across the room and continued to play the piano!

Eliza's funny talk

Eliza is a hilarious child. We are amazed at the things she says - many of which are downright funny. Last week we were watching tv and Eliza left her room at 11:30pm and went to the top of the stairs. She then said, "Hello!" We then heard her walking down stairs and as she came around the corner she asked, "Is Eliza upstairs?" We broke out laughing at that somewhat rhetorical question. "No," John said, "I guess not." Paige then told Eliza to go back to bed to which she responded, "Shhh. It's OK."
Whenever we ask Eliza what she is doing she always responds, "I don't know!" in a high pitched voice.
Eliza loves to play toys. When she wants us to come play with her she says, "Come play me." If we have been neglecting her she says, "It's time to play." If we ever take something like a toy from her she gets really upset and cries, "I need it."
One of her favorite past times is watching movies. The other day John went to give her a kiss and she pushed him away exclaiming, "I can't. I'm busy. I'm watching a movie."
A favorite movies is Land Before Time, a silly dinosaur movie. She calls them "dinosaur-saurs" which Paige encourages because it is cute.
Today Eliza was playing in the garage. John told her to get in the house. Eliza started to run and hide behind the car while yelling, "No! Never!"
At night John puts Eliza to bed. She loves to read books. When one book is finished she always asks for, "One more book." Three is usually the magic number unless she gets to bed early. After which she asks for "Daddy Cuddles." During cuddle time she opens up and randomly talks about her life and the princesses such as Princess Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White and "Seven Dorfs." One night she talked about her cousin Parker. "Parker is a bad boy. He screams in his house." I could not stop laughing. Where did that come from?
She really is a cute girl that is so fun to talk with. She is always pointing out that "Eliza has brown eyes and Daddy has brown eyes and Julia has blue eyes and Mommy has blue eyes."

Julia Faun Lyon

Julia Faun Lyon was born on July 27th, 2009 in South Ogden, Utah at Ogden Regional Hospital. She was born 5lbs 6 oz 18 in long. Julia was named after her great Grandmother, Mildred Faun Lyon.
Julia was a very pretty baby with the sweetest disposition. She has been the easiest baby to take care of. Days seem shorter than they did with Eliza. Nights go by quickly with little disruptions. If all babies were this good the world would have a lot more kids! Julia amazingly could hold her head up after just 7 days. Both Julia and her sister Eliza were very strong babies (Eliza being the stronger of the two).
Baby Jules has the sweetest smile. She is always smiling at us. She has the hardest time focusing on eating. She is always pulling away to look at her daddy. A huge grin comes on her face and she dives back in for more food. We love our beautiful, sweatheart Jules.

Eliza Paige Lyon

Eliza Paige Lyon was born in South Ogden, Utah at Regional Hospital on August 15th, 2007. She was 6lbs 8oz, 18 in. long. From day 1 we knew Eliza would be a beautiful girl. Everyone commented on what a beautiful girl she was including many who claimed she was the most beautiful baby they had ever seen. To this day I believe she was.
Eliza, named after her mother, has a strong personality. she was a challenging baby who cried quite a bit as she was colicky. On our flight to Hawaii when Eliza was 5 months old she screamed the whole time. Despite her intense personality she also provided lots of fun and excitement. She was either really happy or really upset.
Eliza is also a very intelligent child. She is hands down smarter than any other child near her age. In fact she is smarter than most kids a year older than her. She learned to speak very early as Paige spent much time with her learning her alphabet, numbers and words through reading many books.
Eliza "the Beautiful" as I call her is a wonderful girl who brings so much joy to our lives. We are so grateful for her membership in our family.