'09 Birthdays

In classic procrastinating style... I keep forgetting to post these birthday pics from all of our birthdays this year! I'm just glad I got these up before the year is officially over :)

Lyndon turned 4 this past week and we had his pirate party a couple weeks early. It was fun. They walked the plank and played pin the pirate on the treasure and then they collected their loot from the pirate cave!

Maddie liked the pirate cave!

Wade shows us a pirate says, "ARRRRR."

And I thought Christine would like this next one, tee hee!

Our Princess turned 1 in AUGUST!

Gordon turned 28 in JULY!

Our First Christmas

I say it was our first Christmas because it was the first time we were home and opened presents just our little family. And what a great year for it to be our first time! I couldn't believe I had two little ones that I was watching open their presents. I kept thinking, "How did this happen?" I have been so blessed and Christmas was wonderful. It's an exciting thing to watch your family grow from 2 to 3 and now 4. I am so glad Lyndon and Maddie love each other the way they do and I am so proud of all my husband has accomplished this year.

I was not the photographer for this morning, so here's the videos Gordon took.

Just kidding... I can't get them to post. I'll have Gordon see what I'm doing wrong and we'll try and get them up!

Four Years!

Remember the super cute photos of Maddie when she turned one a few months ago? Well, silly me, I thought I could wrangle some out of Lyndon for his b-day! Not so much. I got a total of ten frames...

This one's pretty cute, but not quite the portrait I wanted.

Oh, yes, gotta have the tongue out...

...nice...

... for three pictures!

Again, cute but not really the portrait I wanted.

I guess this will have to do because this is next pic pretty much means...

we're done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET BOY, LYNDON!

(he may not look like it in these photos, but he really is... my sweet boy)

Perhaps we will try again some other time, and maybe he'll even let me do his hair. (I figured let's not push it since he already agreed to the shoot, and I guess it didn't matter in the end.)

No Greater Story

Tonight I had the privilege of singing at our RS dinner. I don't know how to put into words but music is such a huge part of who I am and my life and it doesn't seem like Christmas to me if I don't get to sing, so it was really nice of them to ask. My accompanist and I picked this song last night and this is a recording of our rehearsal earlier today!

Sorry it's kind of hard to hear the words, so here they are:

No greater story ever told than of that night so long ago.

Alleluia, Alleluia. The night the Child was born.

Transcendent peace and heavenly light embraced the world that holy night.

Alleluia, Alleluia. The night the Child was born.

Triumphant choirs of angels praised the Son of God.

No greater story than of that night the King was born.

A world now bruised with doubt and fear, some say the story is not clear.

Look to heaven, Alleluia. Oh praise Him! Alleluia. The gift of Christmas hope lives on.