2010

New Year's Eve... the time when every blogger everywhere is doing a "year in review." My year in pictures, my favorite posts, that time when I learned something...

Phooie.

2010, good riddance. You stunk. And you were expensive. And mean. Yea, yea, some good stuff happened in there... but mostly I was just trying to figure out a treatment plan that kept me sane and not so depressed. I think I got it...

so bring it on 2011, let's see what you got.

Christmas Favorites

Lots of pictures... I'll keep the captions short :)


Grace got a few matching outfits for her and her doll.

Grandpa and the grandkids. Sounds like a band.

Great-Grandma Meacham gave each grandchild $10, and it was all in 2 dollar bills. Very cool.
Austin's gift will come later... he's saving for an Adam, which makes the iPad look like a spiral notebook.

Ben's 2010 Teddy Bear

Ok now, look excited! Cool gadget for my camera.

So glad Mom and Dad could visit... with the salmon pajama pants :)

I love their faces when they open their gifts.

Guess who got her iPod! Guess who screamed!

These pictures are obviously out of order... this is pre-carnage, before the shortlings woke up.

Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Lawlors

A gift card? Really?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my readers, all... 12 of you?

O Holy Night

One of my favorite Christmas songs was originally a French poem composed by Placide Cappeau in the mid 1800's. It was translated into English and set to music by Adolphe Adam in 1847. It was the second piece of music to be played on the very first radio broadcast ever on December 24, 1906. I am so thankful for that Holy Night when our Savior was born.

Merry Christmas.

Ballet Recital

December 18 was the girls ballet recital. Ember asked me if I was actually coming this time. I know I work a lot, and I come late or leave early to a lot of things, but I've never missed a recital or concert or show. I'll be blogging on my private blog about hurt feelings later.

The girls did great (and I DID have to leave early... stupid work). Ember is becoming quite a talented ballerina, and Grace is as cute as can be learning her basic steps and poses. I'm so proud of both my girls.

All things December

December is a busy month. We have concerts, recitals, shows, parties, not to mention the shopping, wrapping, decorating, and baking. Then there's the regular responsibilities of work, both inside and outside the home. It's wearing me out.

December 15 was the kids school concert, and they did awesome. It was Grace's first one and she behaved herself. She stood on the stage, and sang! No ballet twirls, no falling down, no Grace-isms. I was very proud. I like hearing kids sing Christmas music, it's my favorite kind.




Because we were so busy this year, we didn't take a trip to the mall to see Santa. We wrote letters instead, which Grace has never done. (Maybe not the other two either... hmm). Her letter was great, but it started with "I've been a good girl this year." We'll see if he buys it.


We also had a ballet recital this past weekend, but I'll blog about that once I can get my computer to cooperate and upload the pictures from my camera. I love/hate technology.

Gymnastics and Head Wounds

Saturday was Ben's gymnastics show, where he got to show off all the things he's been learning this semester. He's in level 1, and he told me the other day that he wants to do ALL the levels. The boy certainly has talent. During warm-up exercises he was sitting in the splits folding his arms, watching all the other kids struggle to stretch their legs. He had a bored look on his face, it was pretty amusing :)

Ben did really great during his show, we're very proud of him. I'm glad he's found something that he can be really excited about.

Later that afternoon, Ben had a "Goonies" moment that's totally symbiotic with the month's theme of "head injuries." He stepped on a shovel.... and the handle came up and conked him on the forehead. It was like a cartoon. Now we're up to four: front teeth knocked out, cut on the back of his head, more serious cut on the top of his head, and now a knot / bruise on his forehead. If' any of his smarts fall out of his head, I'm going to be pissed. He can afford to lose some brain cells, he's kind of a genius, but I'd prefer it if he didn't. Please please please, no more head wounds!

Bobcat

Ben is in Cub Scouts now and he is loving it. This week he earned his Bobcat. Our Ward has a tradition that the scout has to "bob for ducks", like bobbing for apples, and get all the ducks with the letters to spell Bobcat. Ben actually got them all in the right spelling order, which no one has ever done before.

I'm a little surprised he was able to do it with no front teeth. Way to go Ben!

Bloody December

This past Tuesday was Ember's winter orchestra concert, and she did great! (so I'm told... I wasn't there). She's in intermediate orchestra now and her skills are so much better than last year. She loves playing too, which makes me happy.


Now as to WHY I wasn't there... the boy.

In November he had his gymnastics accident which knocked out his two front teeth. It was very bloody, I was kinda freaking out in the gym.

In December:
1. He was injured at a cub scouts service project picking up garbage in the neighborhood. He stood up under something (he doesn't know what it was, and the scout leader didn't see anything either) but when he stood up, he was cut in three places on his head and bleeding everywhere. One of the cuts was pretty serious, and there was a huge knot the size of a small lime on the back of his head.

2. He was jumping on the trampoline at gymnastics and ripped his big toenail in half. Again, more bleeding.

3. Finally (I HOPE!) this Tuesday after school, a friend lost his temper and threw a toy at Ben's head. He got another gash that bled profusely, but this one was more serious than the first one and I was sure it would require stitches. So while Ember was playing beautifully at her orchestra concert, Ben and I were at the Urgent Care.

Ben had better be finished getting injured for the month, we can't afford any more urgent care co-pays when we're trying to buy Christmas presents.

Funny story... and by funny, I mean I'm calling the medical board and I'm still pissed off kind of funny... the doctor that night said no stitches, I'll just glue it back together. Well his hand was shaky and he didn't inspire confidence (so maybe I didn't want his hands doing stitches anyway?). Most of the glue pooled up in a mass of blood and hair, making a gigantic blob. SOME of the glue went into the wound, but because it was such a small amount, and because the blood/glue/blob was pulling on it, the wound re-opened. I didn't notice it until after school the next day when Ben said his head was hurting. Sure enough, it was wet with blood again. I asked for stitches and was talked out of it by a know-it-all doctor. I should have insisted, I have that right, and he ignored me. We went back to that same urgent care the next night to have it repaired, but they said it was too late... since it was re-opened it had scabbed over, and because there was glue under the scab, there was nothing they could do. Except wait for his hair to grow out so we can cut that marble off his head and hope it doesn't pull the skin apart again. Now he'll have an even bigger scar than he would have had in the first place! This is the same urgent care where I had to INSIST that Grace get chest x-rays even though they didn't think they were necessary, and they found fluid in the lungs and diagnosed pneumonia.

Attention doctors: Mom is ALWAYS right.

Attention Moms: Never let doctors push you around.

Too big too fast

This past week in Cub Scouts, Ben learned to tie a tie. The days of the Deseret Book zipper tie's are over. Ben raided Dad's closet to find a red one, because it's a Christmas color, and proceeded to tie it himself. It only took 3 or 4 tries to get it right, but he did a great job! You can't really see how long the tie is on him because of his suit coat, but it's adorable.

Annual Lawlor Christmas Party

Saturday was the Lawlor family Christmas party with all of Austin's extended family (151 great-grandkids... that's a lot of people). Part of the traditional gathering is acting out the nativity. My kids were angels (ha! The irony!) and they were cute. I wasn't there, but here's some pictures to prove it.

Don't they look angelic?

Decorating fiends

Family Home Evening tonight was spent decorating the Christmas tree. The kids were frustrated with me because I tried to color-coordinate the tree this year. I had all the silver and red ornaments put up before they got home from school, so all they had to do was put the family / sentimental ornaments in the spaces in-between. They don't like it as much as I do, but I think the tree turned out fabulous. They wanted a lot more colors and a lot more ornaments made out of construction paper. Those are some of my favorite, and we put them up every year, but this year the tree was mine. In the end they were just as excited about the finished product as I was. The rest of the room looks just as festive, I'm so excited for Christmas!

p.s., I counted six nativity scenes in the living room, not counting the ornaments on the tree. The season isn't about the color-coordinated tree, it's about the Savior. I'll make sure that my kids remember that, every day.

The toothless wonder

Last Monday Ben had an accident at his gymnastics class. Doing floor exercises, his knee came up and hit his chin, knocking his teeth together so hard that his two front teeth were almost knocked out. His gums were ripped, he was bleeding everywhere, and he freaked me out.

A few days later... his teeth fell out. They weren't even loose before, but he lost them just in time for Christmas! Now he can sing a Christmas song that few get the chance to sing :)



To him, the cool part is that the Tooth Fairy brought TWO dollars this time.