Clayton's birthday

Clayton turned 7!

He was really into army stuff this year so an army tank cake and a cool tank toy and army dudes were his wishes.

Plus a few monster trucks thrown in there...he was one happy little 7 year old boy.

A few favorites about Clayton:

Clayton is high energy 99% of the time. (You try keeping up!)

He also carries an almost equal amount of enthusiasm for most things too.

He is Mr. Flexible man- can out jump, twist, flip us all on the trampoline. The fight in the winter is getting him to not do his "tricks" on the couches.

He's also got some crazy noises that he makes- we just call them "Clayton noises" around here, but to any outsiders they just sound plain wierd. And loud! Don't know where they came from and why they're here but I suppose some day we'll miss them. (Please don't ask to hear them!)

Clayton can out-eat anyone at our table. He packs it away and loves good food as long as it's not cereal. He hates cold cereal!

Clayton is a planner- likes to know exactly what is going to happen and when. It's all about having a plan and sticking to it for Clayton.

He loves to laugh and make others laugh. These days our family prayer time seems to be one big laugh fest-usually initiated by Clayton. Good times!

Clayton is very compassionate. He is quick to the scene of any injury and always the one to make sure that person is ok. He doesn't like to see people in pain and is always lending extra hugs and love- which we love.

Love you Mr. Clayton.

Ben's Book!

Ben received a box in the mail yesterday, in which were 10 copies of his book! It is beautiful! He has worked so hard and for so long on this (over 6 years!) and now it's finally here. Hooray! You can see more at Amazon or at the University of Nebraska Press.

In the news

Lincoln and I made the newspaper this week! The kids are sure we're famous now. I'm pretty sure we are too. The photographer caught us on our way to pick up the kids from school. Fun!

Clayton student of the month

It's such a blessing when things come together for your kids. Especially when you've seen them struggle. Clayton is having a great year in school- due in most part to having such a great teacher. Last year was a struggle every day- so to see him happy and doing well feels really good to us all. I'm just so glad for a positive experience.

This week he was chosen as the student of the month for his class. Big time "bucket- filler" for Clayton. Yeah! We love you buddy.

The Bahamas and an Alen Invasion!

Ben and I went to FL/Bahamas for the weekend. Ben had a conference that he was presenting at and then we took the weekend and went on a cruise together. We had such a great time. We had uninterrupted conversations, we caught up with each other, we laughed and reminisced, we got to go to the temple together, we planned, and we made some great memories. We were hoping for a chance to also enjoy the sunshine but apparently the Pykles are destined for cold weather-those who watch the news will know that it was the coldest it's been in FL this past weekend since 1939. Yep, 1939! It was so cold and stormy the second day that our ship was not able to dock. There were 30 foot waves crashing on the beach which meant we could not leave the ship or even go outside. And when we docked in FL on Monday morning it was 29 degrees- only 4 degrees warmer than Potsdam. Talk about crazy luck. HOWEVER- we still had a great time, ate great food- and Ben won the "Chicken-Leg" contest-doesn't get better than that, trust me!

• the closest we came to the water
• showing off the short sleeves we totally regretted wearing when it started to rain on our motorcycle ride around the island
• the Orlando Temple

Of course the whole thing was made possible by favorite Auntie Liesl and James who were the absolute BEST babysitters in the world! The kids had a great time (when they weren't throwing up all over-this is called "going above and beyond" in babysitting) and the highlight of the weekend was "Alen Invasion". You can watch the magic below-HYSTERICAL! We have laughed till we cried and watched it again and again- thank you Liesl and James-you were truly amazing!

One word for this past weekend- PRICELESS! Thank you Liesl and James.

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009:

Our Christmas Eve tradition of acting out the nativity-joined by a few of the YSA's from China. They thought the whole thing was pretty funny but especially got a good laugh from Dad being the donkey. Quite frankly, we're all getting a good laugh. And the kids loved the matching, fleece pajamas. It was no small miracle that mom got that one done this year!

Christmas Sunday

And Christmas morning was great. Don't they look excited?! (maybe a little sleep deprived as our day began at 6:00am) It was a great day to just be together-good memories.

Lincoln turns 2/aka...(Doo)

Happy Birthday Lincoln!

We had a great day celebrating Lincoln. It's so fun to watch him start to understand this whole birthday thing. He was so excited to open each present and got very good at "Mine!","Mine!" He's defenitely 2- and defenitely a quick learner in a house full of older siblings.

Lincoln loves animals and knows them all. He is fascinated by books or pictures of animals, but his favorite animal-hands down- is a horse. He's been saying "horse" for months now. So when we asked him what he wanted his birthday cake to be he promptly answered, "HORSE!" Of course. Thus the funny green cake, the awful attempt at a fence, and every plastic horse in the house. He LOVED it! Me, not so much, but he was one happy boy.

Here he is with his own little MP3 player-complete with headphones. Such a fun gift!

Funny little jumper... (this was hop-scotch on Thanksgiving day)

and bustin' a move- Hilarious!

One of the traditions in our house is that at breakfast on the morning of someone's birthday we all take turns going around the table saying what we love most about that person. It's one of my favorite little traditions-I hope it sticks. As we went around the table for Lincoln this year the comments were unanimous- "I love Lincoln because he can always make me happy." This is absolutely so true. Lincoln was sent to our family to keep us happy- to make us smile- to keep things light- and to always remind us that there are so many things to be happy about. He's our little happy gift. And for me, he reminds me every day that there is a higher plan for each of our lives and that the higher plan is ALWAYS better.

We love our little Lincoln.