Happy Anniversary!

Jacin and I have been married 10 years today.  We met in high school and started dating when we were 15 so we've been together 16 years total!  Our parents told us we wouldn't make it and didn't want us to date.  We fought them every step of the way.  Now, both sets of parents love us!  I don't even know what it's like to go on a date or to "date" other than prom, hanging out at football games, and going to the movie theatre.  I've never been in love with any other man.  I've had lots of people ask what that's like, how do you know you're really in love if you've never loved anyone else, or you've never dated anyone else.  Well, let me tell you... we just know.  I guess we are just extremely blessed to have found one another when we were so young.

We've survived all the things life has thrown at us that make some couples separate:  all the high school drama, the transition into adulthood, graduate school, loosing a baby to miscarriage, infertility issues, multiple surgeries, post-partum depression... and we're still together and going strong. 

I would make the same decision today in 2010 that I made in 2000 and in 1994.  It's been an eventful 10 years: there have been high school graduations, college graduation, graduate school graduation, job losses, job searches, fun road trips, family trips, finding our path to the Lord together, and the biggest and most challenging task... raising children. 

Here are some pictures of us over the years:

The high school years

The college years

The mommy and daddy years

And I'll leave you with some pictures from our wedding:

Jacin and his mom

Jacin and his dad

(Yes, people.  He really wore that hat at our wedding reception!)

My mother-in-law and I dancing

My little brother dancing with meJacin and his brothers

My mom and dad

We took this picture at my grandfather's grave.  He passed away before my parents were even married so I never got to know him but I feel close to him through stories that have been told about him.  My photographer was at Fort Sam so we stopped by to take pictures at the Fort Sam National Cemetery where my grandfather is buried.

My bridal portrait.  My grandmother made my dress, all of it from the veil to the train.  It was very special because she also made her own wedding dress and my mother's wedding dress.  She used lace from their dresses and incorporated them into my train.

Playground

There is a playground at a church near our house and we like to walk there a few times a week for exercise and family time.  Last week Ethan was with us for one evening so we decided to take the boys for a little play time.  Since Ethan was with us I thought I'd take my camera.

At first, Ethan wasn't too sure about climbing the monkey bars to get to the slides but once Uncle Jacin showed him how he was a pro at it!

Shawn LOVES to climb the monkey bars to get to the slides.  Actually, Shawn just LOVES to climb!

He is so adventurous and fearless that I really have to watch him closely.  His newest thing is going down the slide head first.  I can see many broken bones in our future... but hopefully no head

injuries!

After Ethan conquered the monkey bars he was brave enough to venture over to the rock climbing wall but the small "rocks" were too small for Uncle Jacin's feet so Ethan didn't make it too far.

Shawn's favorite part of the playground is this old truck frame.  He likes to pretend he's driving mommy and daddy around.  He even pretends to use the imaginary blinker and sometimes speaks directions like the GPS.  He's very observant.

Company Picnic

Every year Jacin's company has a HUGE company picnic.  This year it was at Rio Cibolo Ranch and it was a blast.  There was good food, good friends, and lots of fun! 

There was a really nice playground which Shawn enjoyed.

and pony rides.

A petting zoo:

And a hay ride that took us to see some longhorn cattle and buffalo.  The kids got to feed the animals food pellets by throwing them through the fence.

My brother, Jacob, works for the same company so his family was there too.

My brother got married last year and his new wife has a five-year-old son.  Here are some pictures of Shawn with his new cousin Vince.

There was a nice deck overlooking the river where you could feed the fish.  Here are a few pictures of us on the deck.  I don't know why my face looks so strange here, we'll just say the sun was in my eyes. 

The boys were very excited to visit the clown who was doing face painting.  Shawn got a lion painted on his arm because I was afraid he would smear the paint into his eyes if it was on his face.  Vince also got his arm painted with Lilo or Stitch (I don't know who is who).

Shawn loves bouncy houses so he spent a lot of time jumping.

One of the nice things about the company picnic is that it is truly a family affair because Jacin's twin brother Justin also works there.  My dad originally started working there thirty-five years ago and is now retired. Jacin started working there ten years ago, Justin nine years ago and my brother six years ago.  Here are some pictures of Justin's kids (well some of them, he has six but I didn't get pictures of all of them).

Shawn and Aria

Jacin, Shawn, and Michael

Sierra, Cayden, Aria, and Elijah

And we also have good friends that we've gotten to know over the past ten years. 

Shawn and Brian 

The Lyon's and the Hollis'

All in all it was a fun family day and we look forward to next year's picnic.

I'm so excited...

Just wanted to share that I got my license in the mail today.  I'm now officially a Licensed Professional Counselor (Intern).  With this license I have to do my first 3,000 hours as an intern under supervision.  I don't know what my long-term plans are as of yet but I'm excited to be going back to Juvenile Probation to begin accruing hours. 

Sincerely,

Jayme L. Lyon, M.A., LPC-I

Potty Training... and stuff

We've been potty training for a while now but since Shawn just turned 3 we figured it was time to kick it into high gear.  He's doing really well with urinating in the potty, just not pooping.  But yesterday, after implementing a potty chart, he pooped twice in the potty!  Nothing like a little motivation to get the job done.  I am using a Thomas the Train sticker chart and the prize bag idea from the sleep intervention (which I did a horrible job of updating you guys on).  So, Shawn gets one sticker for urinating in the toilet and two stickers for pooping in the toilet.  Once a row is filled up (about 8 train cars) he gets a prize from the prize bag.  Once an entire sheet is filled up (6 rows of 8 train cars) then he gets to pick something out from the store (something less than $20, but once he's fully potty trained he will probably get a Thomas the Train add-on for his set).  I took a sticker chart to school today too, so we'll see how his teacher does keeping up with it. 

Since I mentioned the topic, the sleep intervention went okay.  Shawn now sleeps in his own bed through the night about half the time... which is more than before.  He always starts out in his own bed and then will wake up and come into our room about 3:00am.  The sleep intervention failure is completely my fault though.  Shawn had a night terror that really freaked me out the day before Easter and he slept in our room every night for about a month after that.  The night terror looked like a seizure; he woke up gasping for air, his body stiffened momentarily and then he started jerking his arms and legs for a few seconds.  He then rolled right over and slept for another thirty minutes.  There was no drooling and no urinating.  I called the pediatrician immediately and he wasn't worried about it, he said it didn't sound like a seizure but a partial awakening.  I did some research and found that night terrors sometimes look like this, he's had night terrors periodically since he was about 1.  Jacin and his family also has a history of weird sleep things.  I brought it up again at this three year check up and again the doctor said it wasn't anything he was concerned about and it was probably just a one-time weird sleep thing.  If it happens again then he'll follow-up on it.

I decided that I just needed to put it in God's hands and let him deal with it because there were nights when I wasn't sleeping or was only sleeping a few hours at a time.  I decided that if I let fear run my life... and my sleep... then there was no room for faith in God and his plan for me and my family.  For the last three weeks I've been putting Shawn in his own bed at night, saying a prayer and then sleeping mostly through the night.  I also started reading Max Lucado's new book, Fearless, which is all about living your life with faith instead of fear. 

I'll let you know how it goes...