The Lance Family

The Lance Family http://www.thelances.net/ Home | Archives | Photos | Genealogy | Mail | Resume | Links en Copyright 2010 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:28:57 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 02/08/2010 DECEMBER

We had a whirlwind December. It seemed like one day it was the first of the month and the next Christmas was already over and we were headed into the new year. We put up our tree the first Saturday of the month and it was a little sad this year. The top strand of lights didn't work and I was just not in the mood to unstring it, find a strand that did work and then restring it again. So we just left it. The kids did all the decorating this year too. I usually let them decorate the bottom and then redistribute the ornaments once they are done, but this year we just left all the ornaments on the bottom. It seemed fitting that since there were no lights on the top that there were no ornaments either. It was also funny that Seth's highest reach just happened to coincide with the spot where the lights no longer worked. Each of the boys got to have a turn putting the star on the top. They were very proud of their work! This is the last year we will be using this tree. We got it when we were newlyweds, it was one of the trees that flanked my Opa's coffin when he died right before Christmas in 2000. It's been a great tree, but the time had come to let it go. My parents gave us one of their pre-lit trees that they no longer had room for. Hopefully next year I'll be in a better mood at Christmas and the new tree will be done up right!

SINTERKLAAS

We celebrated Sinterklaas at Marrisse's house this year. We just had desserts and candy. The kids were all hepped up on sugar by the time the presents showed up. It was extremely noisy and chaotic! The kids enjoyed all their presents and couldn't wait for the next day for Sinterklaas to come again to put more presents in their shoes. I did a little Sinterklaas presentation for Jacob's preschool class. We made paper wooden shoes, talked about who Sinterklaas is and then at the end they had some treats in the shoes we made. I think they liked it, but it's hard to gauge what a bunch of 3 year olds like.

CHRISTMAS

We had a quiet Christmas Eve this year. Marrisse's family was out of town and Amy was celebrating with Christians family, so it was us and Chris and Andrew. We watched "A Christmas Story" and let the kids open their Christmas eve presents. We have been trying to follow James' family tradition of giving jammies on Christmas Eve, but this year the kids had so many pairs of jammies alread I decided to get them slippers instead. Jacob got light-up Buzz Lightyear slippers, Lia got some pink strippey ones, and apparently no stores wanted to carry slippers for Seth's size this year, so he ended up with a pair of slip-on shoes. (It was probably a good thing that there were no slippers for him. We've gotten a lot more use out of the shoes than we ever would have gotten from slippers.)

We nearly had a catastrophe this year with the boys and "Santa". We don't make Santa a big secret around here, we let the boys believe what they want to believe. They ask us, "Is Santa Santa real?" and we say "What do you think?". We try and help them see that Santa came about because of someone who was trying to be Christlike. Anyway, "Santa" usually leaves the boy's stockings at the end of their beds on Christmas Eve so that on Christmas morning they have something to play with before they come barging into our bedroom at the break of dawn. This year I took the stockings in at about 10:30 thinking that the kids were pretty well asleep by that time and they were. I left the stockings there and tip-toed out. At about 11:30, just after I had finished laying out the Christmas tree stuff and was heading to bed myself, they both woke up, saw the stockings and thought it was morning! We are extremely lucky that they were both still quite tired and we were able to talk them into going back to sleep without opening their stocking presents. It could have been very bad!

Christmas Day was nice and relaxing, the boys didn't wake up too early and we took our time opening our family presents. The boys got two more Imaginext sets and Lia loved playing with the wrapping paper, but was not very interested in any of the toys she got. Then we headed over to my mom's and had breakfast and more present opening. Then we had the traditional Henderson family lay-about. We gave my dad an air-compressed rocket launcher so he and the boys went out and shot a few rockets together. It was bitterly cold so they didn't stay out long. We had a nice dinner of sandwiches with smoked roast beef (that James froze his butt off preparing) and some left over turkey and ham. It was a good day.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

We had fun ringing in the New Year with John and Courtenay. Lia made it until 9:00 and the boys stayed up all the way until midnight. Jacob kept himself busy making a huge track with our Geotrax set. Seth burned his brains and the night away playing on the Wii. The adults played card games and talked. I took a pretty cute video that I might post on Youtube for you all to see, but it probably won't happen today. The boys were pretty proud of themselves for getting to stay up so late. Unfortunately, we paid for it over the next few days with bouts of extreme crankiness.

JACOB TURNS FOUR

Jacob turned four mid-way into January. He had a friend party with his preschool friends and a family party on his actual birthday. He decided on a submarine theme, because the toy he really wanted for his birthday was an Imaginext submarine. For his friend party we had some fun "underwater" games and I attempted to make submarine cake pops (they were a visual disaster, but tasted good). We had both sides of the family over for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate on his actual birthday. We made two kids of sauce, regular meat sauce and a delicious sausage-pumpkin sauce. For the cake, I made a really cute submarine. Jacob thought it was awesome. I also made him an appliqued shirt that sort of matched the cake. Our house was filled to the brim with people. Jacob loved all the attention. His favorite presents were the submarine (of course) and a super hero cape that Courtenay made that had a "J" on it for Jacob.

MAKING QUILTS

I made two quilts and a baby blanket for charity so that we could get a free day a Disneyland, for their "Give a day, Get a day" promotion this year. Seth helped me pick out the fabric and sew the baby quilt. The quilts turned out pretty cute. We just got our certificates for the free day, so you know what that means... Disneyland here we come! We have a trip scheduled for the end of this month. I'm putting together a special treasure hunt for the kids to do while we are there. I'm so excited. I'll let you know how that goes in our next letter.

LIA'S UPDATE

Lia is growing so fast. She is so cute and chubby right now. She has been teething up a storm, sprouting at least 7 new teeth since I wrote last. She still isn't walking yet, but she's getting closer. She took a tiny, falling step just the other day and can stand up on her own for a few seconds. She still isn't talking much either, well I should say that she "talks" all the time, we just can't understand her yet. Her favorite things to say are "Hi", "Uh-oh", "Mama", "Dad", and "No". The boys have been working pretty hard to get her to say their names, but they both have pretty hard names for a baby to say. She also learned how to fold her arms for prayers and does it better than the boys sometimes. James was teasing me the other day, when he unloaded all the pictures from the camera, that we have other kids besides Lia. I'll admit that I take a lot of pictures of her, but I can't help it, she's just so darn cute!! I've made a pact with myself that for every 10 pictures I take of Lia I'll take at least one or two of the boys. :)

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob became a Sunbeam in church this year. He had nearly a whole extra year in Nursery because of his January birthday. He likes being in Primary, especially because I'm in there with him. He is so good at learning the songs, even though he doesn't actually sing in church. I'll hear him later singing his heart out, on key and he usually remembers most of the words too. Jacob has a great imagination. He loves to be the super hero and has an outfit to go with whatever hero he is being that day. He also loves to talk, but only when he has you all to himself. Then he just jabbers away non-stop. He gets really frustrated with me when he thinks I'm not paying enough attention to what he is saying. "Mom! Listen! I'm talking to you!!!" Jacob also surprised me one morning by writing his first name on his white board downstairs. We had never even talked about writing letters so he just wrote it from what he remembered his name looking like. Of course he wrote right to left and backward, but it was still pretty awesome. He is so fun!

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth is the big man around here. He loves to help me take care of Lia, and also loves to think up games and adventures to play with Jacob. He is doing really well in school. He's very good at math (even though he hates it), he's right on track with where he needs to be with reading, and he loves all of the history and science and Art lessons we do. He has been playing once a week with his friend Dalin from church. Their family is made up of two boys and a girl just like ours and they are all nearly the same ages too. It's been good for Seth to have someone besides Jakes to play with. That's one thing I worry about with homeschooling, whether or not he'll have some friends, but so far he seems to have no trouble fitting into whatever social situation he finds himself in. He's such a nice boy.

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2010/02/02082010.html http://www.thelances.net/2010/02/02082010.html Newsletter Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:28:57 -0700 12/03/2009 LIA TURNS ONE!!

This photo was taken by my sister in law, Jenni. Check her out at Apple Green Photography

My baby girl turned one mid-November. She spent the day motoring around while I made her birthday cake. In the afternoon the mail came and she got a card from Grandma Jean. I ripped the envelope open slightly and then let her do the rest. When she finally got the card out and opened it she said, "Oh, wow!" It was so cute. She doesn't really talk much yet, so I was pretty surprised by it.

I made her a deliciously gooey chocolate cake, decorated with a cute squirrel. I got the idea from a really cute shirt my mom had given Lia. It wasn't as fancy as some of the cakes I've done, but it tasted great and wasn't too complicated to put together.

We had a dinner that night with some of the Lance clan. John, Courtenay, and Joseph all came. It was a nice little party.

The next Monday we had a party with my side of the family. Another dinner and more cake were served. Amy made the cake that night and it was pretty cute too. Lia enjoyed all of the wrapping paper and a few of the gifts.

Lia is such a joy! She is almost always happy. She has been teething lately and so has been a little bit cranky, but it's usually nothing a little snuggling and/or tickling can't take care of. She loves to pull things out of drawers, boxes, cupboards, etc. All my kids have gone through this stage, but Lia is different in that she almost always puts away whatever she has taken out before moving on to her next adventure. I hope that means she's going to be a tidy child. I could use a little tidiness around here.

This photo was taken by Jenni too

She is starting to make more noises that sound like words, her favorite right now is to toss something off her highchair tray and then say "Uh-oh". I was also feeding her some M&M's today and when I didn't give her one as fast as she thought I should, she frantically began doing the hand sign for "more". I have been trying to teach her that sign for a while now, but it didn't seem like she was catching on. I guess I underestimated her or maybe she just needed the right incentive (a.k.a. chocolate). She is so adorable. I know moms always say that about their kids, but she really is!!

LEGOLAND

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we packed up the kids and the car and headed down to Southern California to take the boys to Legoland. It was a great theme park for them. Seth is just the right age to really enjoy it. He was tall enough to go on all the rides and none of them were scary for him at all.

Jacob could ride most of the rides and really enjoyed himself too. He was very sad that he was too short to ride on the Dragon roller coaster, but then later on we found the Dinosaur Coaster and he was happy as a clam to be able to ride that one.

Legoland has some really strange height requirements and Lia was not able to ride a single ride, even though most of the rides are more tame than any of the rides she's been on at Disneyland. The boys had both been doing chores and other things to save up money and were able to buy a Space Police Lego set. Buying the Lego was apparently Jacob's favorite part of the whole day. Legoland is a nice park, it is small, uncrowded and caters to really young kids. We rode almost every single ride in the park in less than 7 hours on a Saturday. I was really worried that we wouldn't have time to do everything, but I think we only missed four rides. Seth can't wait to go back again. I think Legoland is something we might do every other year or something until the boys lose interest, although we may go again in the next year because James and I got free return tickets. All I can say about it is that it's definitely not Disneyland. There is no "Magic" there!

THANKSGIVING

After Legoland, we headed North to spend Thanksgiving with James' Grandma and Grandpa Lance. It was a wonderfully relaxing week! No cleaning, no cooking, free babysitting, good conversations, great food, and beautiful weather. Pure Heaven!

On Monday we took the kids to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. We've been there several times, but this time they had a new seahorse exhibit that was really fascinating. The boys really loved the gigantic tank with the Hammerhead sharks in it.

Tuesday and Wednesday were just spent kicking around. Lia developed a fever on Tuesday night and was not her usual cheerful self for three days. I suspect it was just a teething fever, because she had not other symptoms and a little Ibuprofen was all it took to make her happy again. Seth and Jacob got to play with Josh and Julia who are James' cousins, but Josh and Seth are only 4 years apart in age. Josh has a lot of Legos and was therefore dubbed the Lego King. Seth and Jacob would have to loved to just play at Josh's house the whole time. They did get to have a sleep over and they even made up their own secret club together.

On Thursday there was a flurry of activity as four sets of cooks tried to all work at once in Grandma's kitchen. Eventually, everyone was able to cook everything they had planned and we were only slightly late for the beginning of the Thanksgiving festivities. We ate outside, which was extremely strange for me. It was a gorgeous day! Dinner was served in stages with a little bit of entertainment between each stage. Appetizers were first, followed by a reading from a Pilgrim's letter and the "Thankful Game" in which each person gets three kernels of corn and has to tell something they are thankful for for each kernel. Seth and Jacob were so cute and both, un-prompted, said they were thankful for their brother. I had my turn right after them and kept getting choked up because they were so wonderfully sincere and innocent. Then came soup, salads, a nice break to chat and then the big meal. Of course most of us were so stuffed, that I'm not sure we did the dinner justice. Thank goodness for leftovers! After dinner we had more conversations, games, and sang some Thanksgiving songs. Dessert was great and we had multiple yummy selections to choose from. It was the busiest day of our whole trip, but also the nicest.

On Friday we had another down day where we just hung out mostly. I went to one store for some Black Friday deals, but I didn't even leave the house until nearly noon, walked in, found what I wanted and then only waited for about 10 minutes to check out. Next year I might have to do my shopping like that too, it was much nicer than getting up at 4 in the morning and fighting the crowds. I did miss not being with my mom, aunts and sisters though. Lia and her Great Grandma Jean enjoyed some bonding time at the piano too. The picture below is just one of those moments that you want to freeze in time and even the photo doesn't quite capture all the meaning of the moment.

We had originally planned to leave on Saturday so that we would have plenty of time to get home if we hit any weather, but when we looked at the weather reports it was supposed to snow over Donner Pass on Saturday and be totally clear on Sunday. Needless to say, we decided to leave on Sunday instead. So Saturday we went to the beach in Monterrey because the kids had been too tired and cranky to go on Monday. The ocean was really rough due to a small storm that had come through on Wednesday. There were a bunch of surfers out taking advantage of the great waves. The tide pools were also really fun. We saw a sea cucumber that was almost completely covered in shells, some hermit crabs, and some sea stars. The boys had a great time running on the beach and carving maps into the sand. Just before we were about to leave Jacob got some sand in his eye. He kept trying to rub it out, but his hands were covered in sand too. I took him a little way into the water to rinse his hands off, of course a big wave happened to hit while we were out there. As I was trying hold Jacob out of the water and walk backwards quickly to get away from it, I lost my balance and fell down. Man, that water was cold. Luckily, Jacob didn't get any wetter than he already was, but I was pretty much drenched from the waist down. Soggy jeans and a cool breeze don't mix very well! I am really thankful that our car has heated seats and I wasn't too cold on the way back to Grandma's.

Our drive home was nearly uneventful, although we did have our first throw-up-in-the-car-on-a-trip incident. Luckily, it wasn't stinky throw-up or it might have been an even longer drive. Another first for this trip was Seth and Jacob fighting in the car. I have memories of monumental car fights from when I was a kid and I guess I just took it for granted that my kids just didn't fight in the car, because they never have before. Then we made the fatal mistake of moving Jakes to the back seat next to Seth so they could both hear the book we had playing on the portable DVD player. It was all "Mom, he's looking at me!", "Mom, he's looking out my window!", "Mom, he's touching me!", "Mom, he won't let go of the middle seat belt!" from there on out. We moved Jakes seat back up to the front, the first chance we got. I guess my kids are angels in the car only because they usually can't get too close to each other! :)

ONE FUNNY SETH STORY

The day after spending Thanksgiving with James' cousins, one of whom is named Jordan, Seth had a revelation. He came to us and said, "You know that guy in the green shirt last night? His name was Jordan." We said, "Yes, his name is Jordan." Seth replies, "That's just like where Grandma Debbie and the Punkles live. In Jordan." We said, "Yep, his name is just like the name of the country." To that Seth says, "So why don't you just call me "America", and Jacob "South America"." We were laughing so hard. I'm sure the hilarity doesn't quite translate in the telling, but it was sooo funny. What a Goofball!

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/12/12032009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/12/12032009.html Newsletter Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:23:17 -0700 11/03/2009
(Heavy on pictures, light on words, isn't that what blogging should be about anyway??)

Father and Sons Camp Out

James took the boys up to the Stake property for the annual Father and Sons Camp Out. They had a great time roasting marshmallows and learning about bear safety. I think the boys were a little freaked out that a bear might actually come in their camp, but James gave them glow sticks and then they forgot all about bears...

Lia is Crawling

Lia began crawling on August 20th and hasn't stopped since. She loves being able to move around on her own. She also just recently began pulling herself up on things, but she is pretty scared of falling down, so I think walking is still a way off for her.

School at Home

We started our home school on the 24th of August. We have had so much fun. I have been chronicling some of our adventures on my personal blog, so if you want to read about what we've been learning go here: Miekka's Blog. Seth has made wonderful progress in reading and loves the History and Science classes the most.

Labor Day in Yellowstone

We spent Labor Day weekend camping in Yellowstone with John, Courtenay and Joseph.

Jacob tried to impale himself on a low branch sticking out of a tree.

Seth did the Junior Ranger and Young Scientist programs and got a lot of school hours for doing them.

(If you want more details of the school aspect of the trip go here: Yellowstone School .)

Lia spent most of the time in the front carrier and was so glad when we finally left her crawl around one of the visitor centers at the end of the trip.

We hiked, saw tons of wildlife, had some great camping food, and enjoyed good company.

The Elephant Parade

Every year the Barnum and Bailey Circus comes to Salt Lake. The day before the Circus begins they have an Elephant Parade that is free to the public. We actually heard about it in time to go see it this year. The gave out clown noses and circus signs. The parade itself was only about 10 minutes long. (Which is actually a great length for a parade in my opinion.) The kids had a great time watching the elephants lumber past and playing around with their clown noses.

Seth's Loose Tooth

Seth lost his second tooth right as he was going to bed one night. It was really convenient because he didn't have to wait a whole day for the Tooth Fairy to come. He just popped the tooth under his pillow and went to sleep. The Tooth Fairy left him a dollar this time. Seth loves to stick his tongue through the hole in his teeth and is developing a tiny lisp. His big boy teeth are coming in quickly, and a little bit crooked. I hope some more of his teeth fall out soon so those big guys have room to come in!

Visiting Jenni in Nebraska

I packed up the car and braved a nine hour drive with 3 kids by myself, so that we could visit Jenni in Nebraska. We were supposed to leave on Friday, but the weather reports said a big storm was supposed to hit that day, so we postponed til Monday. The weather ended up being great on the drive there and back. The kids were wonderful on the drive too, I have awesome travelers!! We helped Jenni and Justin get moved into their new house and had fun playing with Amelia and Phillip. My major contribution for the week was helping Jen install new track lighting in her kitchen. It looked really nice when we were done. Jenni also did a photo shoot of the kids while we were there and we ended up with some really cute shots. I hardly got my camera out the whole time we were there, so if you want to see some of the pictures Jenni took go here: Apple Green Photography

Jacob's Joy School

Jacob has been part of a neighborhood Joy School this year. He likes it for the most part. Some days he tells me that he doesn't want to go, but he's been pretty clingy lately about everything so it's not too surprising. Once he gets settled in he has a great time and loves to play with his friends. The days I am in charge of Joy School are a little challenging, because then I have 2 hours of Joy School on top of the 5 hours of Seth's school. Luckily, I only have to teach every 4 weeks so it's not too bad. The picture below shows Jacob holding a loaf of bread that he made one day in Joy School. He was pretty proud of himself!

Lia's Piggy Tails and Talking

Lia has quite the head of hair for an 11 month old. Jenni put a pony tail in Lia's hair while we were visiting and it was pretty cute. I, however, have never been a fan of the single shaft of hair sticking out of the top of a baby's head. I tried piggy tails on her next. They are so cute and they make her look more like a little girl than a baby. Lia puts up quite a fuss when I do her hair, so it doesn't happen very often. She let Courtenay do it for Halloween though, maybe it's only when mom does it that she has to scream about it.

Lia has also been making more and more sounds that actually sound like words. She says "Hi" when we go in to get her in the morning and when James comes home from work, it makes his day I think! She is getting better at saying "Mama" and "Mom", but usually only when she's cranky or hungry. She also has mastered the roar of a lion and the screeching of a monkey. I'm working on dog and cat sounds with her and for some reason I like to teach my kids to say that they are "one" so they can say it on their first birthday. Seth was really awesome at it, Jakes would barely do it, and I think Lia is somewhere in between the two. We only have 10 days to find out though! Gosh, that is sneaking up on me.
One more funny thing that Lia has been doing lately is that whenever I try and take a picture of her and she sees the orange red-eye reduction light come on, she will scrunch her eyes closed because she knows the flash is coming next. About half of the pictures I've taken lately have her face all scrunched up. It's pretty hilarious to watch

Swim Lessons

Jacob and Seth both had swim lessons this last month. Jacob did really well, except for the times when he didn't want to stay with his teacher. He loved jumping in the water and had the best stance for the game "Chop, Chop, Timber!" That's where the kids have to pretend that they are trees and the teacher "cuts" them down and then they have to jump into the water. Jacob would stand straight and tall with his hands way above his head in perfect diving formation. Of course when the time came to actually jump into the water, all that form went out the window and he just jumped in...

Seth was in a Level 2 class this year, but I think it was a little much for him. Over half of the kids in his class could already swim a little, but Seth had only done one Preschool level before this and hadn't learned any swimming yet. He made some great progress though and even got to go in the big lap pool and swim a little. I will have him retake this level again so he can get more confident.

Halloween

This year Seth dressed up as Snake Eyes from GI Joe, Jacob was Buzz Lightyear and Lia was a super cute bumblebee. Halloween seemed to go on forever. We had three different days of celebrations.

On Thursday, we went with the Abbotts to their school parade and then headed over to a Joy School party. The party was really fun, we sang songs, bobbed for apples, decorated cookies, pinned the face on the pumpkin and ate jack-o-lantern pizza.
On Friday, we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat and Chili cook-off. The kids got a sack-full of candy each and we had great food. John and Courtenay joined us for the evening, they were dressed up as Cinderella and Captain Hook. Courtenay was the star of the evening and had her own entourage of kids following her around all night. My family also had their annual pumpkin carving party that night so we made a token appearance after the ward party.

On Saturday, we spent the day in Santaquin with Courtenay's family. The men all went shooting in the morning, while the kids played and the women fixed spooky hors d'oeuvres for the party. We were also going to go on a hay ride, but found out they weren't doing them that day. We had a Halloween carnival, with games, treats and prizes and then the kids went trick-or-treating and filled their sacks again. Needless to say, we have a lot of candy!! I am pretty tired of Halloween and am glad it's over for this year.

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/11/11012009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/11/11012009.html Newsletter Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:43:07 -0700 08/16/2009
SETH'S' SIXTH BIRTHDAY & UPDATE

We had three separate parties for Seth's birthday this year. One with the Lance side of the family, one with the Henderson's and one on his actual birthday with just our family. Seth was pretty stoked to have three present openings and three cakes (although twice it was just cupcakes). He's been pining for an Imaginext pirate ship toy ever since Christmas and finally got it for his birthday. It worked out really well, because we were all set to do a Batman party for him, but when we went to buy a pinata for it he fell in love with the pirate ship pinata instead. So right then we changed the theme for his party. We had a treasure hunt, the pinata, yummy cake and ice cream. The pirate ship pinata turned out to be nearly indestructible, every kid had a turn with a blindfold on and then we took the blindfolds off and let them all have a turn again. Finally, we just let them whack it on the ground until it broke open. Seth is willing to try a few new things now that he is six. He will eat his hamburger with the bun on it and he let James cook him some eggs for breakfast and actually ate them. He is a great big brother and loves to play dress up with Jacob and to help me take care of Lia.

Seth also lost his first tooth this summer. The tooth fairy brought him a Darth Vader figure. Losing a tooth was a pretty big deal for Seth, just another sign that he is growing up! He is excited to start school next week. We are going to be teaching him at home this year in conjuction with a public virtual charter school. They give us all the materials and lessons to teach him, he has to take all the same tests that regular students take, and we even have take attendance and report to an accredited teacher. Seth seems to be really looking forward to the experience and I am praying that I can be a good teacher for him and not neglect Jakes and Lia in the process. We started setting up his school room yesterday and the materials should arrive on Monday.

AIR SHOW

James took the boys on a daddy date to the Hill Airforce base Air Show. They had a really long day watching planes do fancy tricks, seeing the Thunderbirds perform, getting to tour real airplanes and helicopters, and riding the UTA commuter train.

Getting to the show wasn't too bad using the UTA system, but getting home was another story! I had just dropped my mom off in Provo Canyon to meet my dad after a race, when I reached the bottom of the canyon I called James to see where they were and found out they had been standing in line to get on a bus for about 30 minutes already. The line was not moving at all so I asked if it would be faster if I just picked them up. James didn't know which way would be faster, especially since I was over an hour away from the Air Force Base at the time. I called back when I got to our freeway exit (about 30 minutes later) and the line still had not moved. So I picked up the van from the train station and headed out to pick them up, by the time I got to Layton (another 45 minutes later) they had finally made it onto the bus that would take them to the train station. If I hadn't come to get them it probably would have taken them over three hours to get home. As it was they spent nearly two hours just getting from the airforce base to the train station less than 3 miles away. The boys were way past being done by the time I got there!! I think they had a pretty good time despite the commute troubles.

CROOK FAMILY SWIM PARTY

We had a fun time at the mini Crook reunion put on by James' Uncle Fred and Aunt Elizabeth. They have an awesome swimming pool in their backyard. Seth and Jakes had a blast swimming with Jared and Jeremy. Lia had her first taste of swimming and was not too pleased with it, but she looked adorable in her little swimsuit. We had some great food and some great conversation!

JACOB

Jacob has grown at least an inch this summer. He wants to get bigger and bigger so that he can go on Splash Mountain next time we go to Disneyland. He still has at least an inch and a half to go though. Jacob still loves to dress up. His latest thing is to put on his brown Jedi robe, his Indiana Jones hat, his brown cowboy boots (they are two sizes too small, but the black ones that fit him apparently don't go with the outfit), and get Seth's Indiana Jones whip, then he runs around the house singing the Indiana Jones theme music and whipping anything that gets in his way. Jacob has had a few bouts of being afraid of the dark and of monsters. I think he is mostly over it now, but every once in a while he will tell me that he doesn't want to go to sleep because he's afraid. I'm wondering if he's been exposed to too much media that is okay for Seth, but is a little old for Jacob. Seth didn't even really know what Star Wars was when he was three, but Jakes is well versed in all things Jedi. He seems to be growing up that much faster because he wants to do whatever Seth is doing.

LIA

Lia just turned nine months old. She is a wonderful baby. She smiles and giggles all the time. Every morning I get a huge grin from her when I get her out of bed and then she looks around for James so she can crack another one for him. Pretty much anytime you get her attention, she will smile at you, even if she is tired or cranky. She is finally on the move, but not quite crawling yet. She does this weird lurching army crawl to get things that are out of her reach. It's not going to be long until she is crawling full tilt. She still doesn't like baby food much, especially the prepared dinner type of food that most babies are eating at this age. She likes foods that she can feed herself, but will still eat bottled fruits and veggies as long as they have oatmeal mixed in to change the texture. She may have inherited my dislike of all things with a soft and slimy texture. Lia has learned how to wave and play patty cakes. She is also starting to talk a tiny bit. The words we hear most often are "hi", "dad", "yeah", "tisses" (kisses), and "mum mum" which is the universal word for milk, mommy, and food all wrapped up into one. Lia has taken to not napping very well unless she is in her crib. This is a new thing for me to deal with because both of the boys would pretty much nap anywhere when they were this age. Luckily, she doesn't get out-of-control cranky when she is tired, otherwise I might be tied to the house twice a day for 3 hours. She is a beautiful baby and such a joy to have in our family.

JAMES AND I

There's not much new going on with us, but here are a few things that have happened with us:

James was just called to be the second counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency. I think he's going to a great job, but it's going to be a draw on his time and resources. James has also enjoyed using the charcoal grill I got him for our anniversary and we've enjoyed several delicious slabs o' meat because of it. He has also ventured into the finicky world of cheese making. We finally produced a decent fresh mozzarella after wasting 4+ hours and ruining two gallons of milk. I think he's going to attempt a farm cheddar or a neufchatel next.

I have been enjoying my new craft room. I made Jedi costumes for the boys, a dress for Lia (not quite done yet), labeled all my bins with Courtenay's Cricut machine, and made a dress and matching tote bag for my niece. Lately, I have been trying to get the basement somewhat organized for Seth's school to start in a week. I finally painted the walls we put up when we redid the storage room. I took a desk out of James office for Seth to use. I also tried to get some decent lighting down there, but the wiring is messed up and we couldn't get my solution to work. I guess I need to go and buy some torchiere lamps and just plug them into the wall instead. I've still got a few decorating projects on my list to have ready for the first day of school, so I need to get cracking on those.

P.S. Anyone interested in seeing the results of James' parents house remodel can check out the Photos tab at the top of the page. The pictures are under 2009 then July (2nd half).
]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/08/08162009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/08/08162009.html Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:46:20 -0700 06/14/2009 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

James and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary yesterday. We had a lovely evening out on Friday night while Grandma Debbie and crew watched the kids for us. We ate at P.F. Changs. It was my first time there and it was really yummy. I loved their mongolian beef and the lettuce wraps. After dinner we shopped for ruby earrings for my anniversary present from James. I really want rubies that are red and not pink, so we didn't find any that were the right color and the right price. I guess we'll keep looking. I got James a charcoal grill for his anniversary/father's day present and he can't wait to cook up some huge slabs of meat with it.

DISNEYLAND IN MAY

James' boss finally approved some time off for him and we headed to that Happy Place again. This time we splurged and flew instead of driving. It allowed us to have two extra days in the park which worked out well because Disney was having a five day pass for the price of three sale. My mom flew in on Friday afternoon to spend a few days with us as well. My mom is the best person to take to Disneyland because she loves being in the park, but doesn't ride half the rides and is willing to take care of the kids while James and I go on some rides. I decided that when she retires and if we get year passes again, I'm going to buy her a pass too and bring her along whenever we go. Here are some highlights of this trip:

We took Jacob on the small roller coaster that is back in Toon Town and he thought it was totally awesome. We ended up going on it twice in a row.

We spent 100 dollars on a character lunch, where Woody and Jessie came right up to our table and interacted with the boys. (It was fun to try once, but I don't think it's something we'll ever do again.)

Seth went on Space Mountain for the first time. When the ride was over he told me that he almost threw up, but that it was awesome. I think it was a little intense for him.

We got to see the "new" It's a Small World. They have changed some things on the ride and added Disney characters in the lands they come from (i.e. Mulan in the China section and Peter Pan in London). Lia thought Small World and Finding Nemo were the most interesting rides.

I got the highest score ever on Buzz Lightyear! I think my gun might have been "broken", but it was awesome to look down at my score screen and see 875,700. To put it in perspective, I usually don't get above 100,000.

Seth and Jacob got to participate in the Junior Cooking class they were putting on for the Food and Wine Festival over in the California Adventure park. They made Mango popsicles with Goofy. Each child got to put in an ingredient. Jacob was supposed to sprinkle in some "Disney Magic" with this sprinkle wand, but instead of sprinkling the sparkles in, he dunked the whole wand in the juice and gave it a good stir! That batch of popsicles was extremely magical by the time Jacob was done!

Lia was an absolute angel the entire trip. I kept wondering when she was going to just absolutely fall apart, but she never did.

CAMPING AT GRANDMA'S

Right before Memorial Day James and I bought a new tent. We wanted to try it out Memorial Day weekend, but we were a little late in reserving a campground spot. We ended up setting the tent up in my parents back yard. It was an ideal place for our maiden voyage camping trip, because we were highly unprepared and being able to run into the house to get something we had forgotten was really nice. The boys thought sleeping in the tent and burning marshmallows in the fire were the best parts.

THE LAUNDRY ROOM IS DONE

We finally finished the laundry room. I got the decorations up on the walls and have made several projects on my craft table. The picture below doesn't show all the cute decorating I've done, but it gives you a good idea of what the room looks like. We bought a new freezer yesterday, that will be delivered in about a week. The room is bright and happy and so functional. It's almost a pleasure to do laundry in it, but it is still laundry after all. :( Our next step is to clear out the remainder of the basement and get it ready for when we have money to fix the rest of it up.

THE THREE LITTLE LANCES

Seth completed his first year of school. He received a special award for being a good student and citizen. He had so much fun in Kindergarten. I know that he misses seeing all his friends every day. I am going to have a hard time keeping him occupied this summer. His new favorite thing to say is "I'm bored!". I think I'm going to have to ban the phrase.

Jacob has finally decided to be potty trained. He has been dry for almost a week now. He was being so lazy with pull-ups and diapers that I finally just put a pair of underwear on him and we haven't looked back since. Maybe he just needed that extra vote of confidence on my part... He has gotten two new Star Wars toys for keeping his underwear dry and I think the toys were probably a big motivating factor too.

Lia is seven months old now. She is almost sitting up by herself. I started her on solid foods. Her favorites are oatmeal and apples, peas, and fruit puffs. She doesn't really like baby food very much and would rather eat big people food. Yesterday, her bottom two teeth pushed through and she was super cranky! I can tell that her mouth is still hurting her today, but she's been slightly more pleasant.

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/06/06142009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/06/06142009.html Newsletter Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:07:09 -0700 New Post Miekka's Blog ]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/05/new_post.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/05/new_post.html Tue, 19 May 2009 16:19:25 -0700 04/03/2009 SPRING IS HERE AT LAST???
We had about a week and a half of lovely spring weather in March, but then winter decided we hadn't had enough and the last two weeks have been cold and snowy. Some of my daffodils bloomed, but they have been frozen over at least three times now. We actually had one daffodil that was completely encased in ice one morning. It was like a crystal flower. I wish I had gotten the camera and taken a picture, but I'm not sure my photography skills would have been up to capturing the coolness of it. I am looking forward to true spring weather; temperatures in the 70s and sunshine!!

LIA
Our little baby is growing up so fast. She had her 4 month appointment last week and now weighs 13 lbs 3 oz and is 24 inches long. She's getting very close to fitting into her 3-6 month clothes, but they all seem to be on the large side still. About 2 weeks ago, I finally moved her into the crib in the boy's bedroom. She had a rough couple of nights at first and still wakes up at least once a night, but she is getting into a routine and the last few nights I haven't even had to feed her when she wakes up, I just have to go in and pop in her binky. It's been really nice for me, I don't wake up nearly as often as I did when she was sleeping in her little bed on the floor of my bedroom.

Lia can roll herself from her tummy to her back and she is getting really good at grabbing objects (especially pulling her binky out of her mouth and then being sad about it). She has laughed out loud a bunch of times too. Actually, tonight when we were putting the boys to bed they were acting like maniacs as usual and Lia thought they were absolutely hilarious. You expect your three year old to interrupt prayers with outbursts of giggles and silliness, but not your 4 month old. She was just laughing and laughing. She thought Seth was especially funny for some reason.

Lia has also lost most of her hair in the last month and a half. The headrest in her bed looked like a cat had been sleeping on it. It was covered in wispy black hair. I even had to cut her bangs because they were looking so thin and scraggily. With her bangs cut, she looks just like Seth did when he was her age. My mom and her sisters have decided that Lia has their mother's eyes. My Oma died before I was born so I have never seen her and pictures can't really show what her eyes look like, but my mom cried when she realized Lia's eyes were the same. Really, she gets teared up every time she's holding Lia and thinks about it. Lia also has my chin which comes from my paternal grandmother. So she's one great grandma on the top half of her face and the other great grandma on the bottom. Luckily, the two features put together make one super cute baby!!

I also need to put this picture in for Grandpa Lane:

She loves her toothbrush, floss is next!

SETH AND JACOB
I'm not sure I could have asked for two better boys! They love to play together and rarely fight with each other. Of course they have their days and I have mine, but over all we have a pretty harmonious household.

Seth can count to 100, can do basic math problems, and reads fairly well (when he actually sounds the words out instead of guessing them). He was student of the month for his kindergarten class and got to have his picture up on the wall of the school. He has started to tell us that he's bored sometimes, which in his world means that he wants to play a video game. I know it makes James' blood boil when Seth says that. It irks me too, but not as much as it does James. We try really hard to limit Seth's game time, but I'm sure he still plays them too much. That reminds me of something funny. Yesterday, my mom called to see if I would go shopping with her. Seth has decided that he HATES shopping. So I told him if he didn't whine the whole time, he could play on my Nintendo DS while we shopped. It was the best shopping trip I've had in a long time! Jacob fell asleep in my mom's cart, Lia was asleep in her car seat and Seth was sitting in my cart playing the DS and was quiet the whole time. It was amazing! I'm still not going to take him shopping if i don't have to, but now I know what to do if I do have to take him.

It seems to me that Jacob has grown up a lot in the last two months. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something about him that is just more mature. I notice it most in the expressions that he uses. Sometimes I'll commend him for doing something and he'll just shrug his shoulders and say, "It was nothing mom." I can watch him thinking about things and just see this light come into his eyes when he figures something out or when something finally makes sense to him. We tried to start potty training and he did really well for a little while, but then lost interest and is back in diapers again. Of course, it is mostly my fault since I was only half-heartedly trying to train him. Not having a working washing machine in the house also puts a damper on potty training... We'll try again when the laundry room is put back together.

LAUNDRY ROOM
We started our Laundry Room project not long after I wrote our last newsletter and we are almost done. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves... It's been rewarding to see it all coming together, but I'll never talk James out of hiring a professional to do drywall again. (He's been really kind in not saying "I told you so!" to me about it. :))

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/04/04032009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/04/04032009.html Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:52:38 -0700 02/15/09 Valentines Day
Happy Valentines Day everyone! We celebrated by cleaning our house. It seems like the house exploded this week. There were toys everywhere and piles of clothes and it was just outrageous. James and I cleaned for about three hours while the boys ran around like maniacs. We made heart shaped pizza for lunch and then went to Walmart so they could spend the dollars they got from Grandma Jean for Valentines. At Walmart we went crazy in the cereal aisle and decided to have a "romantic" cereal dinner of Frosted Flakes and Crunch Berries. It was fun. James and I have never really had the stereotypical romantic Valentines day. We used to go to Togo's every year, but they closed down here in Utah a few years ago. Last year we were in Disneyland, and this year we just had a nice day with our family, which is really the best way to celebrate a day dedicated to love anyway!

Jacob's Birthday
We had Jacob's birthday party at the end of January. He asked for a Robin cake (as in Batman and Robin), so I created a cake based on the Lego Robin figure from the video game the boys have. Jacob had a fun time opening presents and playing with his cousins. He also got a package of Thomas stickers in the mail from Grandma Debbie which he proceeded to cover himself with. (We have a rule in our house that stickers have to go on their clothing or on a piece of paper, Jacob chose the first option. :) ) He had so much fun and ran around saying, "Look at all my Thomas stickers!!"

I can't believe he's three years old already. He is such a good boy. He loves to pretend that he is shy when people talk to him. He has the best little boy voice and loves to sing. Lately he's been making up music for whatever he happens to be doing. His life definitely has it's own soundtrack! And thanks to our "They Might Be Giants ABCs" DVD he can sing the alphabet backward. How many three year olds can do that? He loves playing with Seth and Seth loves playing with him. Actually, a few days ago Jacob went to play with a little girl in the Ward and right after he left Seth comes to me and says, "Who am I going to play with now?" Seth was nearly in tears when he realized that Jacob wasn't going to be around for a few hours.

Seth's Two Cents
I thought it would be fun for Seth to write his own update this time, so here it is straight from him (with a little clarification from Mom):
I Like Batman and I like fighting shows. (That means Transformers and Batman and any show where characters have fights (he's not allowed to watch them on Sundays, so I think it was fresh in his mind tonight.) And I like Superfriends. I've been going to school. I learn about the alphabet and about words. I'm still learning how to read. I like to play with my friends. My friends are Lizzy and Brooklyn and Haley and David. (notice they are mostly girls... he's kind of a girl magnet.) I like to do fun stuff. I like to play on the Wii, the DS and the computer. I like spending time with my family. I like Lia and Jacob. I like to be nice to Lia and I like to play with Jacob. We play Batman and we like to play Transformers. I like to eat, my favorite food is grapes. My favorite toys are Legos and Tranformers and Batman and I like Imaginext. And that's all!

Lia is Three Month's Old
Our little Lia is getting bigger and bigger by the day. I have the feeling that if I just sat there and watched her for a while I'd actually be able to see her grow. At her 2 month doctor appointment she was 22 inches long and was 11 lbs 9 oz. She is right in the fiftieth percentile on the growth charts. She had three immunization shots given to her and one oral dose that is the vaccine for Rotovirus. Something did not sit very well with her and she was super cranky for nearly 5 days after the immunizations. I think it was the Rotovirus one, because her stomach was just roiling and bubbling the whole time she was upset. She is definitely more high maintenence than my boys were, but that just means she needs to be held and rocked a little more than they did. She really is a good baby. She slept through the night again last night and is sleeping at least 6-8 hour stretches at night time, they just don't always jive with the 6-8 hours I get. I took her to my mom's house this last week and apparently she giggled for my mom. I missed it though. There are times that you can tell she would be giggling if she could, like when we play patty cake or when I pump her legs really fast. She'll put on a big grin and scrunch up her whole body just out of pure joy. I love little babies!!

New Sewing Machine
I posted about my new sewing machine in my personal blog. So if you want to read a little more about it click on the link. I've had fun playing with it this week. I've appliqued a cute shirt for Lia, hemmed Jana's temple dress, repaired and hemmed two pairs of pants for James, and played around with the embroidery features a little. The machine has so many whistles and bells that it will probably take me forever to make use of all of them. It sews really smoothly and I love that I can sew without the foot pedal, because then the boys aren't messing with it on the ground. James and I are planning on using some of our tax return to fix up the laundry/craft room and I can't wait to have a place to put my sewing stuff without having it taking up the entire kitchen table and without having to put everything away every night. I'm sure there will be pictures as the laundry room project moves forward. ]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/02/021509.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/02/021509.html Newsletter Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:02:34 -0700 1/18/2009
LIA'S UPDATE

Lia has been growing and growing. She has her two month doctor's appointment on the 26th so I'll have her weight and height then. I figure she has gained at least 2 pounds if not more since her last appointment. She has grown out of all her newborn clothes and even some of her 0-3 months stuff. She is getting fat rolls on her legs and arms and has some nice chubby cheeks. The best thing about her right now is all the smiling she does. She smiles with her whole body and you just want to look at her forever when she does it.

Her eye infection finally cleared up. It turns out it was a combination of clogged tear ducts and the fact that the way I was administering the eye medicine was not letting the medicine sit in her left eye long enough to work. Her right eye unclogged first and then, when I changed my tactics in applying the medicine, her left eye cleared up pretty rapidly and finally unclogged about a week later. It was so nice to see her beautiful eyes clear and healthy.

Lia was blessed on the 28th of December. James gave her a wonderful blessing that she will be happy, healthy and strong in the gospel. We had everyone over after the meeting for sandwiches and left over Christmas goodies. We chatted and snacked for a couple of hours. There are some much better pictures of Lia on her blessing day that you can see if you go to Jenni's photography blog. Apple Green Photography

Also of note, Lia slept through the night last week for the first time. It was a glorious night for me. Unfortunately, it didn't last. Although she still sleeps for about six hours at a time, she returned to waking up at 4:30-5:00 a.m. the next day. I have seen the light though and hope to be having some uninterrupted nights fairly soon.

CHRISTMAS

There seemed to be a lot of build-up to Christmas this year. Maybe it was because I started shopping in October and didn't finish until Christmas Eve. Maybe it was because Seth was super excited about it this year and talked about it nearly every day for a whole month. At any rate, it seemed that I was preparing for it for a really long time. This year we tried to help Seth understand that Christmas is more about Jesus and less about getting gifts, but I'm not sure how much it actually sunk in. He was really into the gift aspect this year, both in giving and getting presents.

Christmas eve and Christmas day were both nice family days. We spent Christmas eve with my siblings. We went to a movie, had a wonderful Ham dinner (cooked to perfection by James), and the kids performed the nativity. On Christmas day, Joseph and Jana came over to open presents with us. It took us 2 hours to get everything unwrapped (that included a hiatus to fill, roll and cook some cinnamon rolls). The boys received the Fisher Price Batcave and have not stopped playing with it since they opened it. It has been the best toy!! They use their imaginations and come up with all sorts of scenarios for Batman to save the day. After the present opening, Jana and Joe took off and we headed to my parents house for more presents and a breakfast lunch. The afternoon was spent taking naps, watching movies, playing with toys and other general mayhem. We ended the day with a nice dinner and then fell into our beds as soon as we got home.

DISNEYLAND (You think I'm joking right? I'm not, we actually went one more time.)

What with gas prices being so low, James having a few days off in a row and our annual passes being good for the first two days of January, we decided to end the year the way we began it, at Disneyland. We took it really easy this trip, taking a day and a half to drive out and another day and a half to drive home and only spending two days in the park. It was crowded, but we didn't stand in very many long lines. We just hit our favorite rides and had a lot of fun. I made a super cute ear hat for Lia to wear while we were there and we had tons of people ask where we got it and tell us how cute it was. I might have to look into marketing them.

SEE YA LATER JENNI AND JUSTIN

Jenni and Justin left on Friday for their move to Nebraska. Justin took a job with Cabela's and they are headquartered in Sidney, Nebraska. It's a pretty small town in the middle of nowhere. I think they had a lot of reservations in taking the job, but in the end they both felt good about going. I think am going to miss Jenni more than I can even imagine right now. She's only been gone for two days so I don't think it's hit me yet, but I can't call her up to have lunch, or go to the DI, or babysit, or just to hang out. I don't know why all my friends seem to think it's a good idea to move out of state. Anyway, I haven't heard from her yet, but I hope they made the trip safely and will be settled in quickly.

JACOB'S BIRTHDAY

Yesterday was Jacob's third birthday. We did a small celebration on Thursday before Jenni and Justin left. Jenni gave him some super awesome Batman pajamas with a blue cape that were a total hit. We had cake and ice cream to top off the evening. Yesterday we let Jacob choose where we had lunch and then went on a shopping trek to Toys R Us to spend the 10.00 that Grandma Jean sent him. Jacob found a Fisher Price Jungle toy set that is compatible with Batman figures we have. I have seen it on clearance at a bunch of stores, but we couldn't find it cheap yesterday. We are going to go out one more time tomorrow to see if we can find one that is less than retail. We will also be celebrating with my family next Sunday, so there will be a few more pictures coming soon.

Jacob was so excited to turn three. He has been telling people that he's three for about 2 months, so it's good that he's actually that age now. He loves to sing and loves to make believe. He loves to play with Seth and is happy to be the counterpart in whatever scheme Seth cooks up. We hope he will start potty training in earnest soon. He is such a sweetheart and we love him so much.

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2009/01/1182009.html http://www.thelances.net/2009/01/1182009.html Newsletter Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:36:42 -0700 Christmas Letter

The Lance Family
Countdown to Christmas
2008

10: Jacob has used the big-boy potty TEN times now and he is getting ready to be potty trained. Woo Hoo!

9: Jacob also played dress up with at least NINE different outfits this year. He has been a cowboy, a pirate, Bob the Builder, a knight in shining armor, a fireman, a policeman, a transformer, Buzz Lightyear, and an Army guy.

8: Miekka re-upholstered EIGHT chairs for our dining and living rooms. (The green one is the one I did, the purple material was stained and nasty.)

7: Seth played in SEVEN T-ball games and had a great time learning about teamwork and good sportsmanship.

6: SIX new sets of Shelves now fill our expanded storage room.

5: We took FIVE trips to Disneyland this year. It was great to be there with almost all of our extended family and to have a couple of trips with just our immediate family too. Hooray for annual passes!

4: Seth has learned FOUR new poems by heart in his Kindergarten class. He loves going to school!

3: James had THREE different jobs this year. The ups and downs were stressful, but everything seems to have worked out okay so far.

2: Our TWO wonderful Boys are growing up so fast. They are getting to be good friends and they love their new sister.

1: We welcomed ONE new Baby into our family. Lia Marie Lance was born on November 13th at 4:59 p.m.. She weighed 7 pounds and was 19 1/2 inches long. She's super cute, has a full head of beautiful black hair and is a wonderful baby.

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/12/christmas_letter.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/12/christmas_letter.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 14:14:01 -0700 12/3/2008

LIA'S UPDATE
Lia will be three weeks old tomorrow. She's been suffering from a mysterious eye infection that antibiotics don't seem to be able to cure. I'm starting to suspect that it's not an infection, but maybe that her tear ducts are blocked or something. I had James give her a blessing on Monday and in it the Lord promised her eyes would get better in due course, so maybe we just need to wait it out. At her two week appointment she weighed 7 lbs. 11 oz. and had grown a half inch. She is starting to fill out a little, her cheeks are getting chubby and she has some small rolls on her legs. The good thing about all this growing is that her newborn size clothes are starting to fit her instead of drowning her. She had her first real bath which she absolutely hated, she screamed the entire time until I wrapped her back up in her towel. She does not like to be exposed at all, she screams every time we change her diaper too. She has also given us a few smiles that don't seem to be gas related. She is so adorable.

72-HOUR KITS
James decided that it was time to get our 72-hour kits in order. He did a lot of research and we spent Monday night shopping for stuff and then put the kits together a few days later. There are still a few things we want to put into them, but it we had to use them now we'd definitely be able to survive for 3 days. If you are interested in what all went into them, James has a page on his blog that has pictures and info on it. James' Blog

THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving was nice this year. There were about 12 people at my parents house for dinner. Marrisse and her family celebrated with Aaron's sister so my boys and Lia were the only kids there this year. Dinner was a little quieter than normal because of that. We had a great spread of Turkey, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans and a Jello salad. Everything was delicious. My mom had only assigned one dessert to be made and apparently everyone else thought it wouldn't be enough. We ended up with 4 desserts instead. They were all good.

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING
The shopping tradition continued this year. Some of the stores opened at 4 in the morning, but we decided that there was nothing we needed that badly. We ended up at Kohl's at 6:30. Even though the store had been open for 2 and a half hours, the lines to check out were still super long. We go to Kohl's for the 50% off toys and we all found what we wanted there. We also skipped the 45 minute wait to check out by buying something at the jewelry counter. We were out of there in 5 minutes. We spent the rest of the morning hopping from store to store and meeting up for breakfast around 9:30. It was crazy but fun.

GEARING UP FOR CHRISTMAS
The Christmas holidays are fast approaching. I've nearly finished all my shopping and I plan to have the house decorated by the end of this week. Seth is pretty much counting down the days until Christmas break. He's got his Christmas list all written out and is thinking about all the fun things we should do to celebrate.
]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/12/1232008.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/12/1232008.html Newsletter Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:53:02 -0700 One week old

Lia is still a calm, easy baby. She eats every 3-4 hours and sleeps the rest of the time. She was awake for nearly an hour this morning and I think that's the longest she's been awake since she was born. We had to have her jaundice levels tested twice, the process looks painful... They poke a hole in her foot and then basically milk it to get enough blood out. The first time she screamed her head off, the next time she slept through the entire process. I guess she was tired!! The doctor also is having us put her on a billi-light-bed as much as possible. The lights supposedly help get rid of the jaundice. She doesn't like being on the bed at all so she probably hasn't been on it as much as the doctor would like. I'm taking her to her one-week checkup this afternoon and hopefully we'll be able to get rid of the billi-bed all together.

Jenni has been helping me in my quest to become more girly. She made about 25 bows for Lia's hair, appliqued three adorable shirts, made two hooter-hiders for me, and found some super cute outfits at the DI and Kid to Kid. Thanks Jen!!

Seth has a lot of time off of school in the next week, due to parent teacher conferences and Thanksgiving. I'm going to have to get creative to keep him occupied with all that free time. Luckily, he and Jacob are pretty good at playing with each other and by themselves. I had anticipated being a lot more stressed out during the Thanksgiving break, but since Lia decided to make her appearance earlier than expected, I have had the chance to get a little more settled before the holidays start.

James has been working from home since Lia was born and it has been so nice to have him close by. I need to go down there sometime soon and take a picture of him working with Lia asleep on his chest. It's too cute! I am so thankful to have such a great husband to take care of me and my family.
]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/one_week_old.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/one_week_old.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:22:13 -0700 More about Lia

]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/more_about_lia.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/more_about_lia.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:43:35 -0700 Lia is Here!! We are so excited to announce that Lia Marie Lance is here!
She was born on Thursday, November 13th at 4:59 in the evening.
She is 7 pounds even and 19 1/2 inches long.

She was born about 9 days early, which was just fine with me!!

The whole thing went quite quickly. I had a regular OB appointment at 9:00 in the morning. After finding that my blood pressure was slightly up, the doctor ordered a Non-stress test (which is where they measure the fluid around the baby and check her heart rate and movements). The hospital had an opening right then for the test so I headed straight over there from the doctors office. They did the test and found that the amniotic fluid was 3 points lower than it should have been, so they called my doctor and my doctor decided to induce labor. I walked into labor and delivery at about 12:00, they got me right into a room and all hooked up with monitors and an IV. They started the pitocin at 1:00 and Lia was born 4 hours later. It was a fairly easy labor and delivery. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and her heart rate was low, so the doctor rushed me through pushing and used a vacuum to help get her out quickly. I think I only pushed for about 10 minutes. She was pretty blue when she came out, but pinked up very quickly after they got the cord off her neck.

Lia is beautiful, although she looks kind of cranky in this picture... She has the Lance family hair-line and nose, but her chin is exactly like mine, which is exactly like my paternal grandmother's. Every once in a while she'll make a certain face and she looks just like my grandma. Lia's hair is thick and dark and there is a whole lot of it. I can't tell yet if it's curly, but it is so soft and fun to play with. She is a really calm baby so far (knock on wood). She eats quickly and regularly and has been sleeping at least 4 hours straight at night. She loves to be held and cuddled and only cries if someone is bugging her or changing her diaper.

Seth and Jacob are excited to have their baby sister here. Seth loves to hold her and rock her. Jacob held her once and I think he didn't quite know what to think of her. But they have both been really gentle and nice to her. We are all so happy she is here and part of our family now.
]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/lia_is_here.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/11/lia_is_here.html Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:49:24 -0700 10/26/2008
TRAVELS
This month we were kind of all over the place. James headed out by himself to attend his brother Joseph's graduation from Air Force training camp. He flew to San Antonio on Thursday night, had a whirlwind 2 days with Joe and then flew back Saturday afternoon. I think Joe was pretty happy that someone from the family showed up. After their graduation ceremony was done they had to wait on the field until someone from the audience came and got them. I think Joe was pretty much set on that fact that he'd have to stand there until everyone else was gone. James said it looked like Joe was a little choked up when he suddenly appeared to take him off the field. They had some fun and spent a lot of time at their Aunt Darcy's house, just hanging out.

The next week the boys and I headed out with my parents for another trip to Disneyland. I've really let the Annual Pass thing get out of hand haven't I? We drove halfway on Wednesday night and then straight to the park on Thursday morning. I can pretty much sum up this trip in 2 words... HOT and CROWDED. I don't know where all the people came from, unless they were all from Utah! It was worse then when we went right in the middle of the peak summer season and nearly as hot too. James flew in on Friday night and spent the rest of the weekend with us. I think the highlights of the trip were riding in the canoes and meeting Woody. None of us had ever ridden the canoes before and the lines were soooo long for every other ride that it was nice to hop right on something. Seth was sitting right behind me and kept splashing me because he never lifted his oar all the way out of the water. He and I were both soaked from the waist down. Jacob had a great time trying to get his oar coordinated and I had a great time trying to keep him from falling out of the boat. The boys also got to watch a short little show starring Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. Afterward, they stood in line to meet Woody. Jacob stood there looking up at this enormous man in a Woody costume. He had this look on his face like, why is he so big? He's so small in the movies. It was a fun trip and nice to be with my parents and have my kids spend time with grandma and grandpa in a place that they all love.

James also had a little company retreat with his co-workers. They went (I think) to Snow Basin and did a ropes course and had some company bonding time. I think James appreciated the time to get to know the other people he works with and he came back pretty fired up to get a major project done by the end of the year. Having a huge project is good because he gets to work from home almost all the time now (he's more productive at home apparently) and it will really come in handy to have him home when the baby is born.

So out of the 5 weekends since I last wrote we've only all been home for two of them.

SETH'S UPDATE
Seth is really enjoying school now. He had a bit of a rough start because he didn't want to do his class work in class, but now he motors through it and even has time to draw some interesting pictures on the back of his work papers. He knows the pledge of allegiance by heart, can name all the months and days of the week, and he is memorizing some sight words. He is also getting really good at sounding out words and spelling out words. Yesterday he wrote the word Robin without asking me any of the sounds. (He was writing Batman and Robin and needed help with Batman but not Robin.) He also got a new pair of shoes this week after complaining that his old ones were hurting his feet. I think the shoes we got are a little too big, but they had Batman on them and they were PERFECT!!! If you couldn't tell, he's a little bit obsessed with Batman right now. I can't really figure out where the obsession came from. McDonalds had Batman Lego toys in their Happy Meals for a few weeks and ever since then he's liked all things Batman. I guess I underestimated the power of the Happy Meal toy!

JACOB'S UPDATE
Jacob is definitely a two year old! He absolutely loves dressing up, hates having his picture taken and looking in the mirror, likes playing anything that Seth is playing, and doesn't like sharing things he thinks should not have to be shared. The sharing thing is interesting because there are some things he has no problem at all sharing, but some things are just Jacob's and no one else's, even if they really are someone else's. He has recently started dressing up as Indiana Jones... This is another mystery to me, because I'm pretty sure his only exposure to Indiana Jones is a Mr. Potato Head doll that James has down in his office (if you push down the hat on the doll it plays the Indiana Jones theme song). So when Jacob dresses up like Indiana Jones he puts on his cowboy boots, his cowboy hat and his belt, and then he goes around singing the theme song. He asked me to put his belt on today and I asked him if he was going to be a cowboy, "No" he says and then without another word starts singing the theme song to Indiana Jones. It was a really funny way for him to tell me exactly who was pretending to be.

4 WEEKS AND COUNTING
I'm in the home stretch for this pregnancy! Yay!!! I don't remember being this eager to be done with the whole pregnancy thing with the boys... I find myself literally counting the days. Not good when you have an unspecified number of days to count. Needless to say, I would not be sad at all if the baby came a little early this time around. We still haven't settled on a name, there are lots of names that we know we will not name her, but the perfect, right one hasn't been decided. At this rate we may not know until she comes... Maybe that's the way it needs to be, maybe we need to see her and get to know her a little first. We'll let you all know when it all happens. Hopefully sooner than later!
]]> http://www.thelances.net/2008/10/10262008.html http://www.thelances.net/2008/10/10262008.html Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:43:29 -0700