Nineteen Crazy Years

I suppose the word crazy as a description for the last nineteen years isn't the most romantic, but to describe it as "blissful" would be missing the point I think. The roller coaster of marriage is designed to bring two people closer together through moments of blinding happiness and passion as well as moments of grief, despair, frustration and even anger. That we have arrived at this point still deeply in love and eager for the next 19 years is a testament to me of what marriage should be.

I am so grateful today that I didn't choose Mike, Howard, Greg, Dave or Larry! No offense to these guys who each had merits of their own to recommend them. But when Ren and I realized that being absolutely best friends was the perfect jumping off point for love and marriage, it was the wisest decision I had ever made up to that point and might ever make. I love that Ren laughs at my jokes, has taken the time to learn when to hug and when to back off, is constantly trying better to understand me, pushes me to be better and accepts me for who I am. I can truly say he completes me. :D

So... Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart. I adore this man and am beyond grateful for the years we have spent growing up and growing together. I can't even imagine what the next 19 years will hold...having children in college and on missions, becoming grandparents and finally having an empty nest! It will be crazy, but it will be an eagerly anticipated adventure with the man I love sharing the ride.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

This one is for the grandparents in England who have been languishing without word from me or posts on my blog. My negligence is inexcusable, but understandable as you consider the monumental task of orchestrating Christmas for a family of nine! As my apology to you, Elder and Sister Byers, here is our Christmas in pictures. We're so sad we missed your phone call today but we had just settled in for a long winter's nap and didn't even hear the phone. I hope you had a merry old English Christmas.

As for the rest of my bloggy friends -- I hope to see your Christmas pictures soon. Our most exciting present will have his own post on the blog, as soon as we get him. Henry, our poochon puppy will be coming home on the 29th! The kids are thrilled (all except Gid who is convinced that all dogs want to eat him.) Life is never quiet around here, is it? And now for Christmas, Byers/Bolton style...

On Christmas Eve we always have our big dinner and then act out the nativity. It's pretty convenient that we have enough kids to cast the entire play -- it's just our audience that's a little sparse (me, since Ren is the narrator). Here's our Peanuts Christmas Pageant picture. I love how the littles have their mouths WIDE open! :D

Eli really wanted to be Joseph, so he was our leading man.

By default, Hannah gets to be Mary, whether she wants to or not. She didn't seem to mind that she was 2 1/2 feet taller than Joseph since he is mighty in spirit!

Zach, the shepherd boy listens intently to Curtis the angel-in-a-toga (as he calls the sheet I used for his costume).

Jonah and Cody are wise guys, so it seems appropriate for them to portray the wise men. The littlest wise man got cranky, so an angel stepped in at the last minute for the photo op.

Mary soon cheered up wise man #3 with a hug.

After the play we sang lots of Christmas carols. This is my favorite part as my children are now working on singing in harmony and it just melts my motherly heart to hear my whole family gathered around singing! Then, Jonah gathered the littles to hear "The Night Before Christmas."

After setting out cookies and lettuce and cheese for Santa, the reindeer and Santa Mouse (he's from a childhood book of mine that we still read at Christmas time), the children settled in to giggle and toss and turn as Ren and I and a little elf named Hannah Claus finished the Christmas preparations. The kids were given strict instructions NOT to wake us before 7:00 a.m. They kept their bargain officially, but were un-officially up and making plenty of noise by 5:30 a.m.

Finally, donning their new Christmas pj's, they sat on the stairs, eating toast and tangerines, and waiting for the okay to run down and see what Santa brought.

Gid and Eli had been asking every Santa they encountered for only one thing: transformers. Here they are basking in the glow of transformer delight after finding them in their Christmas stockings. (Aren't they too adorable in their matching pj's?)

And when all the ripping and shrieking and excitement was over, we had our big Christmas breakfast and the parents fell into bed to nap until it was time for our traditional Christmas afternoon movie.

Finally, at the end of the day, exhausted and happy, we posed in front of the tree for our family picture, grateful for all that we've been blessed with and for the love we share. Merry Christmas everyone!

My Heart Grew Two Sizes This Year

I have been determined this year to feel the spirit of Christmas! It seems I have spent the past few years racing to Christmas day only to feel totally empty and utterly exhausted by Christmas Eve. Christmas morning as I watched the family rip off the beautiful paper and bows of presents I had spent too much time and too much money buying I have felt a weight on my soul. Consumed with having to make sure all things were equal and that everyone would get just what they wanted, I lost sight of why I was giving them presents and lost the joy of giving as well.

This year I wanted it to be different. I got my first idea while perusing our church magazine, The Ensign. The Monday after Thanksgiving, I wrapped up a box in bright red, Christmas paper, slit a hole in the top and pasted the words "Thankful Box" across the front in big, festive green letters. I explained to the family at our first family home evening of December that we would spend the month looking for the blessings we'd been given and appreciating the people and things that brought us joy in our lives. We will open the box on Christmas and take turns reading what each of us wrote. The kids have enthusiastically been stuffing the box and I can't wait to open it and share the love that we have all felt this month.

We've also taken the time to read the Christmas story and other Christmas books that are bringing us joy and happiness as we let the spirit of this season seep into our souls. I've been taking the time to read inspiring Christmas messages and as I was reading one from our church's prophet this morning, these words from Pres. David O. McKay touched my heart:

“True happiness comes only by making others happy—the practical application of the Savior’s doctrine of losing one’s life to gain it. In short, the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit, that makes our hearts glow in brotherly love and friendship and prompts us to kind deeds of service."

We have been the beneficiaries of such service. God must have known that I needed to feel something this Christmas, because he prompted some friends to do the 12 Days of Christmas for us. It's funny, because we were sitting around one night and realized that it was 12 days before Christmas. I mentioned to my hubby that it would be fun to do the 12 days of Christmas for someone and only moments later we heard the doorbell ring. The kids ran to the door and excitedly cam back in with a present that had a note on it. "On the first day of Christmas our true friends gave to us..." it was an advent calendar snowman. I cant' describe how my heart just melted at this. Like the Grinch, I think my heart has grown two or three sizes and continues to feel such sweet joy each night as the kids eagerly await the ringing of the doorbell. They stampede to the door to see what our "true friends" brought us bringing back hot chocolate in decorative tins, Christmas mugs, a box of oranges, a Christmas book, a Christmas DVD and other fun things. Thank you true friends, whoever you are!

Yesterday, at church I felt that spirit even more as I sang in the choir the beautiful hymns of Christmas. Then in my calling with the children of our congregation, I helped them act out the nativity story. I dressed them up and told them the story of Christmas in words they could understand. I tried to help them feel what Mary felt and what Joseph felt and what the Shepherd's felt at that wondrous time. We sang songs as we added each new actor in our little play -- Mary, Joseph, the angels, the shepherds and the baby Jesus. At the end I turned on the twinkly lights on the ficus tree I brought from home, gave each little actor a flickering (fake) candle, turned out the rest of the lights and we sang Silent Night. What a sweet picture for us all to take home. What a sweet peace I felt as I thought about the simplicity and the gravity of the birth of our Savior.

As I've given of myself to my family and in sharing my talents at church, I have felt closer to my Savior. I hope all my friends are feeling this same peace and joy. My heart is full this year and I hope that when I watch the kids tear through the presents that are symbolic of the bounty God has given us this year, that the warmth will continue to emanate and I will know that all these gifts are only reminders of the true gift of Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Lovin' Chickens!

Last weekend we went to a Homeschooling Event -- a Fall Market. It was an exercise in learning about how a free market economy works. Our budding entrepreneurs set up whatever business they wanted to see how much money they could make (or lose). Jonah had carnival games you could play for prizes: throw the ball at the stacked cups, a card guessing game and a golf putt. His prizes were Reese's Peanut Butter cups. Unfortunately, with all the other booths and treats, his wasn't able to compete very well and he lost money. Luckily his mom needs candy for her class, so she purchased the candy he had left over and it was a wash for him. Live and learn.

Curtis set up a camping tent, filled it with toys from our basement and charged $.25 a kid for a 15 minute play session. He made about $2.00. There were crafts, games, treats, decorate your own cupcake, shooting bb guns and all sorts of stuff. The kids had a blast! They especially LOVED the cotton candy and chasing chickens. They are now begging me for chickens. I would LOVE chickens, I just can't figure out whose room they're going to share.

Here's Curty sampling the cotton candy.

Here's Curty with his chicken.

Eli with his chicken.

Jonah with his chicken. (Love the leg feathers on this gal.)

The littles in the car on the way home -- exhausted and filthy!

The Obligatory Halloween Post

Halloween has come and gone and with it, the usual amount of scrambling for just the right costume, changing of minds at the last minute, carving of pumpkins, and eating more candy than any human should consume in a one week period. This year had the normal showing of recycled Lord of the Rings capes and Jedi cloaks, but we also added a homemade black widow and two super heroes that don't normally go together.

Superman and Robin are the dynamic duo at our house. Don't you dare tell the three year-old that Robin isn't really all that super! Gid was originally supposed to be a pirate, but when he saw Eli's cape he wanted to be a super hero too. His super power is having SUPER tantrums...so I put a black cape on him and told him he was Super Pirate! That didn't fly (no pun intended.) So for his birthday we gave him a Robin costume. We tried to get him Batman, but if you wait until October 30th, Batman is no longer available at Party City, so Robin it was. Gid actually loves being Robin and he believes he can fly, so we're all going with that.

As you can see, Eli perfected his Superman pose over the course of the night -- he could even do it on his bike. Tragically, he discovered that superman boots and bike pedals do not mix well. He got his "boot" stuck on the pedal and performed a spectacular crash on the front porch! I guess somebody forgot to tell him that super heroes don't cry...

Zach was a stick figure (the paint is glow-in-the-dark), Cody was Codo Baggins and Jonah was an undisclosed Jedi. (These costumes might look familiar as they showed up in the post on Gid's birthday -- at least we're getting a lot of use out of the costumes!) The boys were nice enough to humor me while I took pictures before it got dark.

Curtis asked me last year to make him a spider costume. I thought about it...and then procrastinated as usual. So this year he started asking me in September and after much reminding, stuffing of large gym socks and researching the shape of the red spot on a black widow's abdomen, we actually put it together! It was the first of several Halloween miracles!

We also came perilously close to having no pumpkins. In the wake of Gideon's birthday the day before, I totally forgot about purchasing or carving jack-o-lanterns. Eli had been asking me for at least a month if we could buy pumpkins every time we went to the store. But in Arizona, if you buy them or carve them too early, they ROT! So I kept putting him off and putting him off, then I realized at 2:00 p.m. on Halloween that WE HAD NO PUMPKINS! None of the big boys seemed to care because they were busy having their holiday nintendo time (video games have been banned except on Holidays at our house), but I just knew that Eli would ask me about it. So, Ren and I hit a pumpkin stand on the way home from shopping and bought the last two pumpkins they had. As we were paying for them, 5 other cars drove up looking for pumpkins -- but WE had them! Yes! Another Halloween miracle! Hannah helped me gut them and then I ended up carving them both. That is NOT the vision I have of Halloween pumpkin carving, but at least we had pumpkins to put candles in.

Cody commissioned a "barfing" pumpkin, so I did my best to portray it in the most artistic way possible.

The big kids enjoyed helping pass out candy. Cody decided he wanted to hide in the dark and then scare the kids. Here he is under his hood.

And here he is in the light. I don't think he succeeded in scaring anyone. (I love how Codo Baggins wears an Aeropostale t-shirt and Hurley shorts. Also notice the bare feet, it is ALWAYS bare foot weather in Arizona -- well almost always.)

And finally, here are some other random pictures from the rest of the night. Glow sticks are always a big hit!

Here's Eli entering the candy stupor.

Another Halloween tale...the morning after Halloween the boys ran out to see the pumpkins and the CANDLES WERE STILL BURNING! The next morning, I went out to get the paper and happened to look and one of the candles WAS STILL BURNING! We never blew them out and one of them burned for two days. How does that happen? I ran inside to tell the family about the miracle of the Halloween candle! I'm not sure what it means, but I know this story will be told for generations to come. :D

And finally, we had a Halloween mystery...why are there no pictures of Hannah? She was running around in a Superman cape along with Eli, the original superman and I KNOW I took pictures of her, but they have disappeared. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha...I know, lame. But it's the best I can do at providing a Halloween ghost story. I guess I'll just stick to miracles (or is that really sacreligious?)

I know there are lots of parents out there who don't like Halloween at all and I don't love the ghoulish, bloody, skeletal aspects of it, but we try to emphasize the autumn season and the occasional cute bat or spider. For some reason, I have always looked forward to Halloween. It probably stems from my love of dressing up and free sugary treats. How can you go wrong with that?

Climb in the Station Wagon Kids, We're Going to the Canyon!

Ever since watching the episode of The Brady Bunch where they drive to the Grand Canyon in their 70's station wagon and Bobby and Cindy get lost and spend the night with the Indian tribe and get Indian names, I have wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. That was when I was eight years old. Well, thirty-two years later, we finally took the family to see it. With such a momentous occasion, it seems I must document the trip for posterity and the grandparents serving a mission in England. They have requested some pictures and an update on our Grand Canyon trip, and although I wasn't thrilled with the pics of the actual canyon, I aim to please, so here are a few(not!) pics and a brief synopsis of the trip...

We drove up to Williams, AZ (an hour and a half from the canyon) and stayed overnight there at the hotel that is part of the Grand Canyon Railways package -- so we could ride the train into the canyon. The hotel was pretty quaint and had an old west feel to it. The kids had fun exploring the gift shops (a major theme) and the railroad tracks. The next morning we were up early and had our bags packed and down in the lobby by 8 a.m. (that's pretty darn early for all of us to be up and ready!) We got to watch a "Wild West Show" and then we got on the train to the canyon.

They attempted to be entertaining on the train -- we had some old guy from Tennessee who told lame jokes and pointed out ant hills on the side of the tracks. Nevertheless, the little guys LOVED the ride. They looked out the big windows, used the bathroom many more times than needed, talked to the other people and had a great time. The big kids soon discovered it was pretty much a glorified car ride and fell asleep.

We got to the canyon around noon-ish and boarded a bus to do a little tour of the south rim (two spots with overlooks). Somehow Eli made friends with this old cowboy named Morris from Missouri. He was on the bus with us and Eli started holding his hand and calling him his "best buddy". They were both pretty pleased with the arrangement.

The tour of the rim was beautiful but stressful. Those railings are far from adequate to keep 2 and 4 year-olds from diving into the canyon. We had to keep a hand on them at all times, which isn't the easiest to do. It turns out Jonah and Gid were pretty nervous about the heights, while Zach and I have no healthy fears of things like that.

After the bus tour, they dropped us back at the main touristy place on the south rim. They've built a rock wall and a long walking path that connects most of the gift shops, restaurants and hotels. We discovered that all of it is owned by the same company -- so all the food was overpriced, tasted the same and was nasty! It was hard to get away from that tourist feel. I definitely want to go back sometime when we can hike in and spend time in a more natural setting. Here's a picture of one of the cool buildings, that turned out to be a gift shop! (like all the other cool buildings)

At 4 p.m. we checked into a hotel there at the canyon and discovered the amazing setting outside our back door (see this post for those pictures.) After spending time taking pictures of Hannah and the boys, Ren and I walked back to the rim to try to catch the sunset and take some shots there. A few of them kind of turned out, but we had missed most of it.

We also got up the next morning and tried to catch the sunrise, but it never quite materialized either. By the time the sun clears all those peaks, it's no longer sunrise. Still, here's a few taken then.

The next day we had all day until 3 p.m. to spend at the canyon. We weren't sure what we would do, since we pretty much saw most of what we could see the day before. There was a trail where you could hike down in, so we took the kids down it for 10 minutes or so then hiked back up.

Jonah was anxious about it, so we left him at the top and headed down without him. Zach and I were very tempted to climb out on a very inviting outcropping of rock, but were deterred by this sign (and Ren's glare when I suggested we ignore it):

After the hike, we explored the art gallery at this old photography studio built in the 1920's by two brothers whose names I should remember, but I don't.

We did our best to be artsy fartsy and discuss, line, texture, perspective, style and the different media used by the artists. The kids actually kind of got into it and picked out their favorite paintings. Oh yeah, there was also a gift shop there (surprise, surprise). Jonah was pretty thrilled that he had the most money to spend and he bought lots of cheap junk that he will treasure for at least a week or so! He did manage to procure six different smashed pennies for his smashed penny collection -- they are now proudly displayed in a wallet designed for that purpose. (I should have a picture of him showing it here, but I don't). So here's a picture of Ren and Gid looking out the telescope-y thing instead.

After wandering the rim again, eating more nasty food, exploring more gift shops and taking more pictures, we boarded the train at 3 p.m. and headed back to Williams. On the way home, some "outlaws" rode up on horses and boarded the train. They "robbed" us (a shameless ploy to get tips) but wouldn't accept the coins the kids had. Pretty lame -- they only wanted dollars!

We got to Williams at 5:30 p.m. and then had to eat dinner and drive home. Kind of a long day for Ren (the only driver who won't fall asleep at the wheel at night.)

All in all, I'm glad we made the trip. The canyon is indescribably huge and impressive and makes me want to ride a mule down in and get to know it better.