William and Elizabeth

Micah recently became interested in his family tree. Which means I became more interested in mine.

He joined Ancestry.com and entered the information from his family bible into the family tree. He did a little research.

He bragged to me one night as he was falling asleep that he had gotten (at that point) all the way back to 1650.

Since I often compete with people over stuff that a)doesn't matter and b)they have no idea was a competition I got up, went to the computer and began researching.

2 hours later I had gotten all the way back to 1044 on one link in the family and declared myself the "winner".

I actually got so far back the first names in my family appear Latin. It's interesting because there is a MARKED difference in a couple of generations between the Latin/Pagan names and when we must have converted to Christianity because the names literally go, Nicol, Leolphi, Leolphus, Lyulph and then Philip. Philip goes on to beget Adam, etc.
And yes, all those names are male names. Somewhere around 1333 we started caring about the women in the family but before that it's only male names.

I confirmed what I've always known about myself. That I come from a pasty people. Lots of Irish/Scottish/English in there with some Danish for good luck.

While this family research is incredibly fascinating I discovered something I find incredibly unique.

In the one branch I've researched pretty thoroughly there are three different generations of brothers and sisters named William and Elizabeth. My paid actually makes the fourth. That would cool in and of itself but as Micah initially pointed out those are both popular names, historically. And he's correct, they are.

Except other popular names don't have that kind of similar pairing. Within the same family line there are Sarahs and Catherines, Roberts and Edwards but never does and Edward and say Sarah show up as a sibling pair but once. No other name combo ever appears as more than once EXCEPT for William and Elizabeth.

I think it's pretty neat actually. I carried on a family tradition without knowing it. Especially because I didn't even want to name my son William. When we did name him William it took Dora/Nana to point out that it was a family name going back to William Doyle.

Which, by the way, there are LOTS of William Doyles in our tree.

Sadly, or maybe not, there is only one Lacy.

Family Photos

So this FALL I took some family photos but apparently never posted them as I must have forgotten I had a blog or something.

In any case here are a few of my favorites but certainly not all of them.











If you do nothing else check out this last photo of my in-laws and their grandchildren. This is absolutely the best picture of all the ones we took. Having said that please check out MY younger daughter there on the left.

Yes. It truly is the best picture.

Playing in the snow

This winter in Colorado has been mild to say the least. We've had, until recently, very little snow and weather that never got below freezing. Our Christmas was pretty brown and un-holiday like.

Luckily the end of January came and FINALLY Colorado remembered that it's Colorado and not, say, Florida and we got some snow.

Of course we had to run outside and play in it.

Needed to bring a drink with him. Does not care that that it will freeze out here.

I love that picture. The children are in mid-stride running from the evil snow blower. Which they chased and then ran away from multiple times that day.

Couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Drive way snow angel's are the easiest ones to photograph.

Snot's going on?

While we are not a particularly religious household we do subscribe to the idea of Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Which is to say we broke out snow shoveling equipment and set them to it.

Taking a moment for a little snow shovel guitar.

This is how you clean off Mommy's car - pay attention!

In all we had fun playing in the long awaited snow which melted a few days later. By then we were over that whole below freezing and warming up the cars thing anyways.



It sure was fun having our snow days though. Even Micah enjoyed it.


Don't tell him I posted that.

Not a photographer

Lately when I show people pictures of my kids I get "Are you a photographer?".

The answer is no. But, I explain, it's easy to look like one when you have a camera more complicated than the space shuttle and such easy subjects to work with.






For the record, I STILL don't know how my camera works. But Micah does and that's all that matters.

I know

I know. I knooooowww. Iknowiknowiknow. Alright already. It's been awhile. Don't hate.

I had a surprise anniversary to help plan.
I worked almost 50 hours last week. While my brother and sister in law were in town. I worked on Sunday for crying out loud. I'm trying not to panic about the idea of traveling with 3 kids and a husband this weekend. To Minnesota. Hello family reunion! (My house will be totally guarded though internet. Don't think about breaking in. Besides, if you could see my husbands student loan bills you'd know there isn't anything worth breaking in for anyways.)

My mother and father in law had their 20th wedding anniversary which, in this day and age is frankly a miracle. Heck, I'm pretty shocked that anyone married in the 90's is still married today. What's that? Bitter you say? Perish the though.

Regardless I'm still in awe that two people can go through as much as these people have gone through and still want to sleep in the same bed every night.

I helped plan this surprise anniversary party with my sisters in law Mel and Sara as well as my husband who pretty much handled guest inviting for anyone not on my father in laws side of the family. I was pretty impressed.


My sister in law drew this tree free hand. I'm pretty impressed. We had all who attended the party do their thumb prints (or finger prints, I'm not picky) and label them with their names. Later Sara and Leslie had it framed and it is gorgeous. You can't tell but that's their initials in the heart on the tree and two birds kissing. Under the tree it says "Rex and Leslie 20 years of love" and the dates.



We got some great pictures of the grandkids although by this point in the day Will had decided life was not worth living unless a bottle of milk was in his mouth.



Lizzie and Paloma were just happy to have their picture taken. And to play together.



And we were able to get a giant group family picture which was amazing. Usually someone is looking funny or my husband is mock choking his sister or something weird is going on and that's all we have. But because we have a pretty wicked camera (in a good way) we took about 400 pictures of the family shot and what do you know! 4 of them turned out.

Happy Anniversary Leslie and Rex. Here's to at least another 20 more. Although I'm probably not throwing another party until you hit 50. Sorry. I'm STILL exhausted from the last one.

Lilacs

When we first moved to Colorado it was March which meant there was snow on the ground. Brian had bought the house with me only having seen it via the internet so I had no true idea as to what it looked like. Within a few days of moving here I flew with my 9 year old and 6 month old to Alaska to be with my Mother who, for those who don't know, had been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in February.

It's a good guess that I didn't pay much attention to my house. I didn't really care about it because I was worried about my new baby, and my move from Tucson to Colorado and finding a job and helping my 9 year old adjust and oh yeah, my mother dying.

I especially didn't care about my back yard. I could see it was large from my sliding glass doors in the kitchen but that was about all I cared about.

But I noticed it for the first time on Mothers Day of that year, 2005. I was in the kitchen and the radio was playing. It played a song called "No One Will Ever Love Me (that way again)" by Rebecca Lynn Howard. I had never heard the song before and it caught me off guard because it was about a Mother's love and reduced me to a sobbing mess. You see, I knew already that it was my Mother's last Mothers Day even though everyone around me either wouldn't acknowledge it or didn't believe it.

I sat at my dining room table crying my eyes out while my then husband sat across from my helpless but trying to comfort me. I looked up from the table when a familiar scent grabbed me and for the first time that spring I looked outside my kitchen door. There, in bright bloom with a strong lilac smell was this huge purple lilac tree to the side of the house.

I believe in signs and I believe that signs tell me when I'm on the right or wrong track and for me this was a STRONG sign. You see, while Iris's were my mothers favorite flower, she loved lilac trees. One of her boyfriends after she and my father divorced had once given her a lilac tree as a gift (I can't remember why now) but sadly Alaska wasn't the place for lilacs. I know she kept it in that pot for awhile but I think it eventually just succumbed. She may have planted it but it never grew, it's hard to say for me know, over 20 years later. I just remember her loving them.

Since that spring in 2005 my lilac tree has never really thrived or bloomed like it did that year. My Mother in law tells me it's because we've had so many late freezes in the years since and it just does a number on the lilacs.

This year though the winter was mild. This morning I took this picture:

Right before I came down stairs to write this post I stood at my kitchen door and looked at my backyard. It's very different from when I first moved in but one thing this year was very much like that first year.

I can smell the lilacs again.

Happy Mothers Day Mom.

Rex

I've mentioned him a time or two on my blog and what a wonderful blessing and gift he is to me and my family. I just want to remind everyone that today was my father-in-law Rex's birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REX!

I've mentioned before that Rex has shown to me how men, real men, men who are completely comfortable in their own skin, in their own roles in their family, behave to women, to children and to others.

He loves his grandchild. He views them as a blessing. Will can say what sounds like it could be "Grandpa" when he sees Rex (and "Grandma when he sees Leslie). He builds the base of a fairy garden for his wife and granddaughters despite being busy and overwhelmed with other constraints on his time.

Remind me to show you the fairy garden. Leslie, Rex and the kids did an amazing job.

He has promised me a raised garden bed before planting season.

He works long hard days but doesn't have a cross word about it.

He doesn't complain when grandchildren spend the night or come over to play. He plays with them.

He is easy to talk to. He has amazing ideas.

I can not wait to see the cabin he is building but truly I find anything he makes to be almost as good as magic since I can not make my brain see things or envision things they way he does.

I am blessed by my mother in law. But I am also blessed by my father in law. Micah's biological father will never be family to me the way Rex is and my loyalty will with him. When my children grow up I hope my girls look to him as an example of how a man should behave and how a man should value his family. I hope my son looks to him for guidance and wisdom. (Along with their parents of course)

Happy Birthday Rex. I have forgotten how many years you have had upon this earth but I hope it's many, many more.

Heartbroken

Even after all this time,

the sun never says to the Earth

"You owe me".

Look what happens

with a love like that

it lights the whole sky.

-Hafiz

Brian received orders a couple of weeks ago now. He wanted to take both girls with him. I said no. I offered to let Kylie decide. I was certain, based on the way she talked about their home that she wouldn't want to move their full time.

I was wrong.

She wants to move with them to Las Vegas.

My heart is broken into a million pieces.

She says she wants to move, to try a new school. She says she loves me but she wants to go somewhere warm. I hear her. I know her. I still cry.

I have raged. I have been mean. I lash out at her because I hurt so bad. No one said I was always a good mother or a completely mature one.

I love her. I will miss her every moment of every day that she is away from me. I am her mother. She belongs with her mother.

But she does not owe me. That quote at the top reminded me of that today. She does not owe it to me to stay with me.

Despite being her mother, despite loving her from the depths of my soul, despite spoiling her, despite holding her hand at every teenage crisis (real or imagined), she does not owe it to me to stay.

That does not mean that I am any less hurt or heartbroken. It just puts my mind in a different place. A better place.

Because I think I have a love that lights up her whole sky.

Enough to say "You do not owe me for any of it".

Lucky

One of the things that I've always been lucky with is family. Despite being an only child and despite being an orphan (okay not technically but he might as well be dead) I have been truly, TRULY blessed with a large and wonderful extended family.

My mother was the 4 th daughter and 4th child in her family of 6 siblings. I have three aunts and two uncles by blood. All of my aunts are still married to their original husbands. Between them they had 10 children. One of my uncles also has a child. 2 of my cousins are gone now but my cousins have been PROLIFIC and have now 21 children and step children between them.

My aunts remember me. They email me. They call me. They still send me birthday cards. I know, at the end of every day that they love me and are looking out for me.

When people talk about the dread of spending time with their extended family I can't relate because I love mine so much. I love my aunts and uncles. I love my grandmother. I love my cousins and their spouses and their children and some day (in the distant future) their children's children. We are a large group of wonderful and I love it.

We have a family reunion/grandma's 90's birthday coming up this summer and I can not wait to go. I can't wait to introduce my husband. Show off my youngest. And my oldest. And my middle. I can't wait to see my kids play with their cousins (third cousins?) and share stories of the years with family who if I wasn't so blessed to be related to them I would want them as friends. All of them. Every.single.one.

My family does not have a creepy uncle or weird cousin. No fights break out, no temper tantrums of anyone over the age of 5, no silent treatments. I love it.

On the other side, I have also been blessed with my in laws. I've mentioned before how much I love my mother in law and father in law. I love my husband, I love my sister in law and her family, I love my brother in law and his wife. I love how easily they brought me and my children into their hearts and now it seems like we were always there, always with them. I am such a lucky human being.

Recently when Nana was in town, ready to take Kylie to New Orleans she made an offhand comment. I'm sure to her it was just a statement, nothing to really dwell on and yet I have every day since she said it.

She said, "Your Mom would have just loved Leslie." (Leslie is my mother in law)

While I've always known this to be true it means a lot coming from the person who knew her best.

I've always known that God had to have had a plan for me but I think what I sometimes forget is that the plan was in place long before my Mom passed away, long before my marriage fell apart, long before we moved to Colorado. He blessed me with a wonderful mother who had a wonderful family. He put in my path a closeness to my family that I didn't have while we were moving across the country and a wonderful man to share my life with who ALSO came with a wonderful family.

I'm truly lucky.

So about those Christmas Gifts.....

Remember this summer when I was canning and I was trying to be all secretive due to people who would receive said canned items reading my blog.

Yeah.

That totally rocked.

I am a gift giving GENIUS. Tell your friends.

So for Christmas to close friends and family we gave what we referred to as our Canned Family. It was a basket of 6 items that represented each of us.

Mine was White Chocolate Raspberry Sauce


Micah's was Caramel Apple Butter. I don't have a picture of that lid because I bought the image online and so we don't have it anywhere I can display it. Sorry.

Ky's was Cinnamon Apple Sauce


Notice the ingredient "teen angst". So appropriate.

Lizzie's was Vanilla Strawberry Jam



Will's was Peach Butter


And Tasha and Molly had Peach Salsa


Really the only family member left out was Jason so hopefully next year I'll be creative enough to come up with something for him as well.

The baskets with the Canned Family were a big hit and it felt really good to give something local that I also knew would be used. To date I've received a couple of jars back and feel like this might be something I'd like to do next year.

Wait, it's JANUARY already?

Gosh I meant to post this a million years ago. Or at least a month ago.

After Cookiepalooza I took Paloma with me and she, Lizzie and I went to the ballet. Well actually it was a performance Lizzie's dance school put on. Lizzie wasn't able to participate.

ANYWAYS, we got all dolled up and went to a ballet of "Alice in Wonderland".

I was nervous that the girls would get bored because it's a ballet and not say, a play or musical. I was not giving these two 6 year old's enough credit. They sat the entire time completely caught up in the performance.

Thank goodness it was something they had seen before (for the most part). There was a part with a duchess and a cook and a baby that gets exchanged for a pig. It's part of the original Alice in Wonderland but not the Disney version. The girls didn't care they loved the entire thing.

The BEST part was as we were leaving though. We saw Alice and Lizzie asked me if we could get a picture with her. That's one of the awesome parts of seeing the world through a 6 year olds eyes.

To Lizzie and Paloma it didn't matter that Alice is 16 and wears braces. That she's probably an annoying teenager at home. Didn't matter to them. In that moment in space and time that was THE Alice and she was a star and Lizzie and Paloma were lucky enough to get a picture with her.


Paloma spied the Red Queen (Queen of Hearts) in the crowd and her request was that we get a picture with her. Lucky for us both Alice and the Red Queen were very happy to take pictures with their fans. I'm sure it's good for their egos that little 6 year olds think they are the best thing that ever happened to the ballet.


Paloma was a lot more excited than she let on in this picture.

Finally we got a picture with the March Hare. She was not as receptive to photos and plainly ignored me standing there with my iPhone at the ready AND Lizzie tapping her arm. Just as we were getting ready to go her father pointed to me and said something along the lines of "I think they want something".

I was over it but I still took the picture.

Her ears are black so you really have to look for them against that background.

Overall we had a great time. Both girls were well behaved the entire performance and I believe they had a good time. Lizzie is semi-excited about her own recital this summer for ballet and tap now.

Semi-excited. Some days she still isn't sure about the whole thing. But the idea of wearing a costume certainly helps.

I don't have it in me today to write a blog post so instead I thought I would post the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas songs. Someday I'm going to recite it as a blessing for a family dinner.

In the immortal words of Kermit the frog I present:

Bless Us All from A Muppet's Christmas Carol

Life is full of sweet surprises
Everyday's a gift
The sun comes up and i can feel it lift my spirit
Fills me up with laughter, fills me up with song
I look into the eyes of love and know that i belong

Bless us all, who gather here
The loving family I hold dear
No place on earth, compares with home
And every path will bring me back from where I roam
Bless us all, that as we live
We always comfort and forgive
We have so much, that we can share
With those in need we see around us everywhere

Let us always love each other
Lead us to the light
Let us hear the voice of reason, singing in the night
Let us run from anger and catch us when we fall
Teach us in our dreams and please, yes please
Bless us one and all

Bless us all with playful years
With noisy games and joyful tears
We reach for you and we stand tall
And in our prayers and dreams
We ask you bless us all

We reach for you and we stand tall
And in our prayers and dreams we ask you
Bless us all

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/the_muppets/#share

Cookiepalooza 2010

I have fond memories of my mother breaking out her cookie cutters every Christmas and rolling out sugar cookie dough for me to press those shapes into. We would bake them and then decorate them with cream cheese frosting, some of which she tinted with food coloring. We would sprinkle and frost and eat ridiculously sweet cookies for Christmas.



I've tried to do that most years with my girls although I have failed once or twice, especially with the divorce and having to split time. You'd be surprised how fast December flies when I only have the kids for half of the time.

This year for December craft day we decided to do cookies. I brought my mothers cookie cutters and a rolling pin, my sister-in-law brought decorations and my mother-in-law provided the house, the oven, the cookie dough, more cookie cutters, baking sheets, rolling pin and the frosting.

Oh also hats and aprons. At least for the little girls.



Myles, my nephew, and Kylie chose to sit this one out. Myles was working on a school project and Kylie, is, well, 15.

Something about 6 year old girls and the magic of Christmas though....it makes my patience go extra long and extra wide.




My mother-in-law happened to have an adjustable table that was the perfect size for little girls with more flour than sense as my Grandma Mary used to say and cookie cutters. As you can see from the pictures it was very serious work.

I occasionally took breaks to play with my little boy who learned how to turn around and climb down the stairs at Grandma's house.


All of my children have been my play "pillows" at one time or another. This is Will being my pillow while I pretended to snore. He was actually really placid about it considering he doesn't really know what a pillow is.

Overall Cookiepalooza 2010 was a raging success and we went home with far more cookies than I can possibly consume this holiday season (although I'm willing to give it my best shot).

The girls had a pretty awesome time that night too although that is another post for another day.

Someone asked me why the cookies. Because between you and me it isn't always my favorite activity, bending over and scooping flour and dough and sprinkles everywhere for several hours. So why?

I hope that in 20 years both Lizzie and Paloma look back and tell their husbands, their friends, their families about the holiday memories of making cookies with their cousin at Grandma's house. I hope that it will be a tradition for them, the cookies, just like it was for me. I hope that my mothers cookie cutters get passed down to my daughters and to their children and that Julie's legacy of making holiday cookies extends to her great grandchildren and beyond.

That hope, that sincere wish for future generations, makes flour and dough and sprinkles just not seem so bad.

Plus, there is no downside to cookies.