2010 Christmas Letter

Hello Friends and Family,

We hope this letter finds you healthy and happy. We have enjoyed an especially busy year. Besides all the normal happenings of a family of 5 we also had our share of unexpected events, including: a wind storm that toppled our tree onto our garage (we built a new one!), a hail storm that pockmarked our van, a drunk driver that hit the van while it was parked in front of our house, a second wind storm that knocked a large limb onto the back window of our car (we replaced that too), and a deer that decided to run into the side of our car while we were driving 55 mph down the highway. After all of this, we're looking forward to an uneventful 2011!

As a family we enjoyed a 10 day vacation in Utah visiting family and a camping trip along the Mississippi River. Here are some individual highlights:

Liam-turned 1 in October, learned to walk, and is cutting teeth. He is a happy kid who is quick to smile and loves to make others laugh, but he also has a devious side. He knows what "no" means but often decides not to listen. He's such a cutie, but we still can't decide who he looks like.

Paige-Oooohhhh our little Paige! She keeps us hopping every minute and has enough energy for two kids her age. Paige will be four in January, is in pre-school and gymnastics and attends speech and occupational therapy once a week. She loves dogs and babies and will be friends with anyone.

Dylan-turned 7 in September and is in the 2nd grade. He is our braniac who frequently gets extra assignments at school to help keep him interested and motivated. He loves dinosaurs, reading, video games, and baseball. He is growing up too quickly and already resists having to spend Saturdays (his "only day off!") helping around the house instead of playing all day.

Jen-is busy being the full-time mom and part-time music teacher. Besides running the kids to their various activities she has 18+ piano students and is serving in the Young Womens presidency at church. She has become quite serious about running as of late and puts in multiple miles on the treadmill each week.

Bill-continues to enjoy teaching at Morningside College. He was recently awarded one of three excellence in teaching awards from the college. Travels this year took him to San Diego for the Entomological Society of America Meeting (aka the bug nerd extravaganza!) and to India for two weeks with students. He also rode RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) putting in over 500 miles for the week and has plans to do it again next year. He is still serving as 1st counselor in the bishopric.

We hope you each have a blessed and peaceful Christmas season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love, the Heybornes

Who Stole the Candy from the Christmas Tree?

Notice days 16 through 23 are missing the little gold candies?

Notice the pile of empty gold candy wrappers?

Wonder who could have eaten all those in the 2 minutes it took me to go to the bathroom?

Nativities

A few years ago our church started an annual Nativity Exhibit. Bill and I were in charge of it again this year. This is the 3rd year we've done it, and it was by far the best. We had a total of 99 nativities and a few hundred people that came through to look. We also had quite a few people ask to include their nativities next year- we're already planning a different layout as we are expecting over 100 nativities next year.

Here are a few pictures from this year's event.

It's definitely a lot of work but well worth the effort.

For the Grandparents

Here are a few short videos of Liam's newest skill.

Liam's 1st Haircut

We finally took Liam to get his first haircut. I didn't get to take a before picture so you'll just have to enjoy the cute after pictures.

He looks like such a little kid now - he's quickly outgrowing the baby stage.

Deja Vu

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We've had a whole week of Halloween fun. On Wednesday, the kids all went trick or treating at the college where Bill teaches (all the students decorate their halls and pass out candy). On Thursday Paige had her preschool party, on Friday Dylan had his class party and on Friday evening we went to the church trunk or treat party. Lots of fun and lots of candy.

I asked the kids what they wanted to be for Halloween. Dylan wanted to wear his transformer costume from last year and it still fit so that was easy. Then Paige saw her tiger costume from last year and she said she wanted to be a tiger. Luckily the 2T-3T tiger costume still fits so that was easy too. Then I dug out the frog costume that each of the kids have worn when they were younger and it was the perfect size for Liam. Presto - 3 costumes without spending a dime!

Once again we tried taking pictures of the kids. Some turned out, some didn't. You get what you get, I guess.

Pumpkins

Tonight for our family home evening activity we decorated our pumpkins. I found this great sticker kit so the kids were able to each design their own pumpkin face. It was quick, clean and fun and I think they turned out really cute!

We tried to get a picture with all 3 kids and their pumpkins. Out of 20+ pictures, this was the best one. At least we tried.

The Birthday Boy

Yesterday we celebrated Liam's 1st birthday. I still can't believe that he's already 1. He's finally started teething and he's getting 6 teeth at once so the last few days he hasn't felt that great but we managed to open presents and have cake and ice cream so that's the most important part I guess.

Enjoy the overload of pictures!

Reading a birthday card (that looks like it's bigger than his head) :)

Getting some pointers from his older brother and sister on the proper way to open a present

Digging into the frosting

Enjoying some cake

The end result

Happy Birthday Liam!

I Can Play the Kazoo, Can You?

Liam is such a fun and funny kid. He literally cracks us up every day with his funny faces and mannerisms. The other day we discovered he can play the kazoo, really loud, and he loves it.

Look at his puffed out cheeks blowing - so cute

All Things Dinosaur

Today was Dylan's dinosaur birthday party. We had it at a local park and it was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect, which was a relief, because its been rainy and cold the last two days. My plan was to get pictures of each activity to include with this post but I found myself a little busy trying to manage a very active group of boys.

The dinosaur cake

The dinosaur fossil dig

The boys showing off their dinosaurs

Other activities included decorating dinosaurs, dinosaur bingo, and making dinosaur fossils, along with opening presents, of course. Then they went and ran off all their energy on the playground. It was great!

Paige's 1st Day of Preschool

Paige started preschool this week, so we took some pictures on her first day. She had a busy first day. So busy, in fact, that she fell asleep on the couch at 7 p.m. So we put her in bed and she didn't wake up until the next morning. That has never happened. Usually she lies in bed every night talking to herself for at least 30 minutes and then is awake well before 7 the next morning. There's a first time for everything, I guess.

Her favorite part of preschool: playing outside on the playground. That's pretty much all she talks about when she comes home.

Happy Birthday Dylan!

I'm a few days late in posting these, as Dylan's birthday was last week, better late than not at all, I guess. We had fun celebrating Dylan turning 7. He opened presents, got to pick his lunch (a pizza luncheable), picked McDonald's for dinner and ate cake and ice cream for dessert. He told me it was the best day ever, almost as good as Christmas, he said.

Since his birthday usually falls around Labor Day and a lot of friends are out of town, we are having his party this weekend. He picked a dinosaur fossil theme - should be lots of fun. We'll have more pictures to post soon.

9 Years and Counting

Bill and I are celebrating our 9th anniversary today...and by celebrating, I mean, he's at work all day and I'm running kids back and forth to various activities and getting ready for Dylan's birthday tomorrow. But we did text a Happy Anniversary to each other. Romantic, I know :)

Ready-Set-Tumble!

We signed Paige up for a 3-4 year old tumbling class. Today was her first class and she was really excited to go.

She was so excited to get to wear her "gymnastics clothes", as she calls them.

Practicing on one leg

Up on tip-toes

This was so cute. She's suppose to be grabbing her ankles with her hands and lifting her head off the mat. She couldn't quite get her head to stay up but she tried really hard.
( Sorry for the slightly blurry picture)

She was really cute and had a lot of fun. It was fun to watch her. Dylan and I kept laughing at how cute she was. She really was trying her best to do everything the teacher was showing them. We hope these classes will help strengthen her muscles and help with her coordination. If nothing else, at least she's enjoying them.

Bedtime Stories

Dylan loves to read and Paige loves being read to. So we've combined the two and have Dylan read Paige a book before bed each night (or at least on nights when it's not too late and everyone's still somewhat happy).

Tonight's selection was poems from Shel Silverstein's "A Light in the Attic".