Highlights from the rest of 2009

Sparkle is six! She had lots of fun ordering everyone around on her birthday. Getting to be a BIG girl now! We love you Sparkle. December 2, 2009

Get a load of this cake. It was a tradition in the Liddle home to make a Barbie cake at least once in our young girls' lives, usually when we turned five. Sparkle loved this one, though it wouldn't be a masterpiece to anyone else. We're still eating it, two days later. Sugar high anyone? December 2, 2009

Blue Eyes takes the prize for the CUTEST lion in the entire world. He only let us put it on for like ten minutes, and then he was done. October 31, 2009

Freckles didn't like the cool Dracula costume I got for him this year, so he chose to put on last year's costume. A motocross racer is way cooler...October 2009

Sparkle LOVES her brother. These moments are not uncommon for her and Blue Eyes. Spring 2009

Girls day out, the weekend of Mother's Day. We had a lot of fun looking at girly stores at Gardener Village. Ran into lots of other women doing the same thing. Hmm, do ya think we need girl time more than once a year? We should do it more often! May 2009

Sparkle's first day of kindergarten. Sniff... So far she is loving it. Keep up the good work, baby!

August 2009

A trip to the Hill Aerospace Museum. Dash's favorite place in Utah! We're sitting under a big bomber. It was a hot day, but lots of fun. September 2009

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa Smith, on their trip to Utah. Uncle Chris and Aunt Wendy brought their kids to play up the canyon and eat yummy pizza. September 2009

This year, the oldest grandchild in the Liddle family was married. Robert, you grew up too fast! You picked a lovely bride. We wish you the very best in your future life, and hope you will keep us in the loop. August 2009

At the wedding breakfast. The first date we'd had since our tenth anniversary in the Spring. Thanks for inviting us along. We enjoyed the grown-up time! August 2009

A rare moment of unfettered brotherly love between Big B and Blue Eyes. We hope to see many more of these in the future. Summer 2009

He turned out to be a sweet ladybug. The red wings on the back are super cute, too. We love you, buddy. October 2009

Remember our San Diego trip back on Spring break LAST school year? Well I sort of dropped the ball there.

Big B happened to LOVE the beach! He must be related to his Mommy. (NOT his daddy, in this sense. If he'd had his choice, we'd have skipped the beach, and avoided all kinds of sand issues. To this day, I can still find some of the sand from this beach in the deepest recesses of my purse.)

The weather is always lovely in San Diego.

I can understand why many people never want to leave.

Oceanside beach, on the night we arrived, just after the sun had set.

The beautiful San Diego Temple, visible right off the side of the freeway.

Spring Break in California Part One

We decided that we needed to take a real vacation. We are like many people who don't do much for vacations except go and visit family. So this year much to my delight, Michael agreed to take us away from home and visit somewhere new. We decided on Legoland in Carlsbad, CA. Dash is nuts over legos, and we'd heard that it was a super fun place for kids. So here are some of the pictures we took. And YES! We bought a new digital camera for use here and in the future (a less expensive model, just in case our toddler decides to dunk it in the toilet again).

Sparkle and I on the helicopter ride.

Dash on the airplane ride. He wanted the black one!

Daddy and kids waiting to get on the coast cruise ride.

Big B and I on the fairy tale brook ride. This was taken right before I did a big swooping fall as I got off the boat on to the moving platform. Baby and I were totally fine, I was just a bit embarrassed by it all. It was a super fun ride down the creek, though!

In front of the triceratops made of legos.

A full-sized car made up completely of legos.

A replica of the Taj Mahal

Part of the replica of Las Vegas, this is of the Treasure Island hotel.

The New York Skyline, I think...

Our sweet little baby, who turned out to be a fabulous traveler! He didn't complain at all about being in a car seat for most of the four day excursion. Now his big brother Big B was a different story...

This was the only happy picture of Big B in his car seat. Let's just say that by the time we got home on Sunday morning, he was hoarse from the amount of output from his toddler-sized vocal chords. He sure is cute, though!

In Dash's World

His collection of airplanes, mostly military aircraft models.
He wants to be a jet fighter when he grows up.

Our beautiful and dynamic Dash.

Nine years ago we were blessed with the birth of our oldest child, Dash. I remember the labor, 25 hours long. His Aunts Marianne and Geneva and Uncle Joe were all present for the birth, though in retrospect they may wish they'd skipped it. I'm certain that this experience convinced my sisters that they'd never do natural childbirth! It was a long hard day. As we approached the wee hours of the morning, we thought he'd never come. It was such a joy and relief when he finally arrived. He was 7 lbs. 9 oz., 19 in. long, born at 3:45am. He came yelling at the top of his lungs, anxious to tell the world that he wasn't happy with it so far!

I fell in love with him the instant I saw him. Squirmy, alert, healthy, with dark eyes. I was a mother. I had no idea how to be one, but I was excited to learn. He was the happiest, most entertaining baby I've ever known to this day. I remember one time when he was about six months old, we went to get his shots at the UT county Health department. He was so busy laughing and interacting with the nurse, he didn't even flinch or acknowledge that needles were being stuck into his chubby little thighs. To this day, I've never met another baby or toddler that had as much energy and intensity as Dash did at those stages.

The ensuing years with him have taught me so much. His soul is distinctly passionate, curious, energetic, uncompromising, and honest. When he tries to lie, it is unconvincing. He can also see through even the slightest superficiality or hypocrisy in others. Since the time he could put two words together he's been asking profound questions. I noticed early on that once he learned what a word meant, it was in there. We'd hear him use it in conversations thereafter. From the time he could lift his head and crawl around, he has been an explorer. With Dash, there really is no room to answer him in a watered down or "child-appropriate" way. He demands that you give it to him straight. This trait reaches over into his personality. He will be blunt and even rude to others, but often delivers it with a smile and energy that is hard to resist.

I still don't understand the mystery that is Dash. I've been able to get little glimpses of who he is. When I've prayed over his needs and anguished over his unique struggles, the Lord has blessed me with specific instructions. I'm not perfect or even great at following His counsel, but I am still trying. It's worth everything I can do to provide Dash with the help and support he needs. I'm so thankful that Michael and I have been given stewardship over five precious spirits from God. We've discovered that He is anxious and willing to give us the keys that will bless each child. Such has been the case with our oldest son. All we have to do is "ask, and it shall be given." I just hope that above all, I can teach him that this is the key to all of life's great questions. When we figure out what God wants us to do, we just need to do it. As Sheri Dew has said: "Though we must each walk through life on our own, we don't have to do it alone."

Baby Blue Eyes, our fourth holiday baby

Here are some pictures of our sweet baby Blue Eyes. He was born on Lincoln's 200th birthday, making him our fourth child whose birthday falls on a holiday. Dash is an Easter baby, Freckles came on Christmas, and Big B came on Martin Luther King's birthday. We might have had five holiday babies, but Sparkle came late. She was due Thanksgiving week. So how is that for timing? Of course it also makes winter time an expensive season for us. But that's ok, we wouldn't change it.

P.S. As an interesting aside, these are pictures from my cell phone camera. Big B (2) had a dunk-Mommy's-new-digital-camera-in-the-toilet party a few weeks ago. We bought it in December to replace the old digital camera, which had also been placed in a toilet by a toddler (who will remain nameless). This time around, I discovered him just seconds after he immersed it: Soon enough to hear the glee in his giggles, and see the pure joy on his face, but too late to save the camera. Now there's a shining moment for you.

What's in a Name?

Ever since I discovered lilacs for the first time in Carolyn H's backyard, they have been my favorite flower. The fresh, pungent scent was intoxicating. That was in 1982, when we wandered the fields and foothills near our home all summer long. We'd just moved from California, where I'd never seen lilacs before. Back then all eleven of us kids were still living at home. Life was simple and carefree. I was eight, and never thought I'd grow up.

But as all of us thirty-somethings have discovered, childhood passes quickly. So does youth and young adulthood. I married my sweet husband Michael almost ten years ago. It's been a happy marriage, which brought us five beautiful children. I love them dearly. I have been guilty from time to time of wishing they'd "get past this stage or that stage," and "make my life easier."

Every time we've moved to a new house in Utah, I've planted lilac bushes. Unfortunately we haven't stayed in one place long enough to enjoy them for more than a couple of seasons. It occurs to me now that this serves as a useful metaphor. I don't want to look back regretfully on these years of my kids' childhood. If I don't stop now to enjoy the moments of joy, I will have nothing of comfort to recall when they are grown.

Hence the title "Our Lilac Tree". In my part of Utah, they bloom once a year for a very short time. Childhood is as a lilac bloom: beautiful, intoxicating, and fleeting.