Thursday, June 20, 2013

Graduation

I am so excited to let you guys know that Cameron graduated with his B.S. in Family and Human Development. on Friday, May 10th from ASU. He graduated Summa Cum Laude. I couldn't be more thrilled and proud of him!!!! He has worked so incredibly hard and taken care of me and our two cute kids, working full time through school. Way to go, Cameron!!! You're our "Superman"!!!!

Cameron is now working as a graduate student in pursuit of a Masters in Marriage & Family Therapy at ASU. This program entails full time school work and a full time internship doing counselor work. You can follow highlights of Cameron's current studies on his blog Fam-Lee Guide at http://cameroonie.blogspot.com/

Friday, May 18, 2012

Take me out to the ballgame

Family night at Packard Stadium.


Lacey & daddy watching the Devils up to bat.

Payson & mommy concerned about our teams score.

Sparky has a soft spot for babies!

Lacey has long since referred to sparky as a monkey. Since his sticker is on our car, we frequently refer to it as the monkey car. Naturally, she was excited and scared to meet the real monkey.

Payson & daddy getting some father/son time at the baseball game.

Mommy & Payson posing at the game.

Lacey had such a blast!

Payson wearing his ASU onesie. He's a big fan!

Although not nearly as exciting as meeting Sparky, the kids also got introduced to the Chick-Fil-a cow at the game.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Marital Accountability


"As husbands and wives, we must remember that one of our primary objectives is to help our spouse become who they are supposed to be. In this way, we aim to protect one another’s eternal well being and act as a positive influence that encourages and promotes their development, growth and safety."

Full article avaialble at FAM LEE GUIDE

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Payson's Baby Blessing

Sunday, February 5th, 2012




Payson sporting a red sweater vest. He's not crying, he is singing a hymn to spiritually prepare for his blessing.




Payson in his white Tux for the blessing




The Nichols side of the family





Cameron, Grandpa Lee, Payson & Cassie


The Lee side of the family



Payson and Lacey veg out after the blessing.






Saturday, February 4, 2012

Groundhogs Day

Puxatony Phil-cakes!


Cassie and I spent part of the day making some groundhog cup cakes and Pennsylvania baked beans for our Groundhogs Day party with some friends. Pennsylvania baked beans feature Great Northern beans, brown sugar & lots of bacon. Yum!


A good friend of ours made some of the best Philly cheese stake sandwiches ever. Although Puxatony Phil saw his shadow and foretells of six more miserable weeks of winter, we had a great time using the occasion as another excuse to feast.






From left to right: Cassie Lee, Payson Lee, Easton Kleyn, Brady Kleyn, Tobyn Kleyn, Cameron Lee, Aaron Clark, Katland Clark, and Violet Kleyn. All big fans of the groundhog!

Brady Kleyn in the foreground. Me, Aaron Clark and the Kleyn boys in the background.



Aaron Clark enjoying his food.

Me getting surprised by the camera while eating.



Cassie and Emily Kleyn enjoying the traditional grub!
Later, we took a virtual trip to Puxatony, Pennsylvania and Gobbler's Knob by watching Groundhogs Day. It was a lot of fun.



The real Puxatony Phil!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Our new baby boy!

Announcing the arrival of our new son Payson Edward Lee, born at 9:10pm on November 15th, 2011 at Mountain Vista Medical Center. Payson weighed 6 lbs 7 ounces and was 19 inches long at birth. Mom and Payson are both doing great and are now at home with daddy and Payson's big sister Lacey. Our "Fam Lee of Three" blog will now appear as "One Two Lee Four!"

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Complex personalities of the toddller

Since I haven't done much blogging for the past year, I thought I'd record something here about Lacey's personality. Perhaps that would make my post about the Target pictures make more sense.

These were taken at her uncle Dallin's 12th birthday party in January.

Observation one: The need for constant attention and a mommy escort. Mommy, you must do everything with me! Sit right next to me to watch Barney, swing with me, swim in the miniscule baby pool with me, whatever it is.
Observation 2: Mom, I must have cake!!! And candy. And especially gum! What motivates a kid to chew up and swallow piece after piece of speriment gum. What makes it so good? And her 2 year obsession with fruit snacks. I had to ban them from the house. She would ask for a "Nack" at every meal.

Observation 3: She must be heard! She will use her outside voice 99% of the time. She will yell for whatever thing she wants and she will do it ALL day long. Our favorite is lately when she is with her good friend Olivia and she's playing nicely with her. There's mild-tempered Olivia and Lacey with her Stalin-esque demands. "LIBIA! LIBIA." Telling her what to do. And every time, I kid you not, every time she says her name I think of the country and its dictator Kaddafi. And then I think it's ironic that she is acting like a dictator. Is that the nerdy history teacher in me?


She will always probably be obsessed with swinging. Since the tender age of one. You will see ber married someday with an adult-size sing set in her back yard, and there she will be, swinging away.

This was immediately following my brother Shawn pummeling me in the forehead with a tennis ball on accident. Yes, folks, he did aim that well on accident.

If you observe closely you will see the red mark.


Now, a positive note. The title mentioned "personalities". That's because I am constantly amazed at the Jekyl and Hyde shifts of Lacey. Despite some of the difficult things mentioned above, there are so many things I love about her. She gives the BEST hugs. She says "i love you." She kisses my owies. She tells me, "You good girl." And also, "You big girl." (Which I think she thinks is a compliment because I have said it to her. Later we'll explain that's not nice to say to Mommy) She laughs and laughs at her own jokes. And she has this low deep voice she talks to me in and it's our little inside joke. She also growls at you a request when you're not responding to the first time. So there you have it. Many reasons to love my multiple personality, high maintenance child.



And since I'm on here now and who knows when I'll get my pregnant rear-end back on the blog. Let me make a few observations about how I'm feeling at Week 26. Well, you look at yourself in the shower and think, "I'm going to get bigger for 3 more months??? Look at this large basketball!! How am I going to walk around when it grows???

I get out of breath walking up the stairs in my house. So if you ever call me on the phone, I'll most likely huff and puff. PS, watching a 2 year old and being pregnant is a lot more tiring than teaching 150 high school kids like last time.


Did I mention I was excited?? I am!! I am cherishing the tiny tennis shoes my boy will wear that my sister-in-law gave us. I am excited for the little soft baby head on my shoulder. I'm excited to dress him up in a Santa suit for Christmas.


I'm excited for the next meal I will eat because I'm ALWAYs hungry and this time around, any treats is the desire of my heart. Different than last time. Bring on the brownies, icecream, candy bars. Bring on the 50 pounds I will gain! Uh oh. But for real, the doctor kind of lectured me that I was gaining a little fast last time and told me what foods to avoid such as "liquid calories, junk food, etc."


I promptly increased my intake of fruit juice and chocolate bars. Who wants to be a conformist, anyway?? Please stay tuned for future post when I complain about weight I need to lose.

The pictures coupons can take

So I found these coupons for a free portrait sitting at Target, plus a whole package of prints for $7.99 and I just couldn't pass it up. For people who have been around me the last 2 weeks, I discussed this and how worried I was about doing it. I had several "master plans", if you will. One was bringing Lacey's friend McKell with us to "show her how it's done." McKell's mom Rachel is always up for photo shoots. :) Plan B was bringing Cameron in a clown suit. Ok. minus the clown suit but Cameron can be quite entertaining for Lacey.

Neither plan worked out so I set out to do it alone. The appointment was for 11:20 which I had deemed in my head to be a potentially disastrous, hungry time for Lacey. I tried to be very pleasant to her all morning. I tricked her into putting her dress on. Then I came up with the idea to curl her hair as she ate a bowl of powdered parmasan cheese in the high chair. You see, Lacey has inherited my obsession with cheese. This worked swimmingly.

Next, I gave her candy on the way to Target. Yes, all you moms out there I do use junk food to bribe my kid. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way. Yes, for more CHEESE in the form of cheese roll-ups. This was science, people! Her tummy needed to be full! I have learned that food Lacey's currency.

Nervous as I was for the 11:20 event to start right on time, the photographer was finishing up the previous baby for another 20 minutes! My eyes shot daggers at her! (without her seeing of course) Inside I panicked. " This mood will not last!!!" (I screamed that inside my head.)

So I forgot these photos upload in reverse order, so I guess I'll narrate them that way. This, we think, is the best shot. I had to bring out the tickle monster to get it. I have many regrets about not making it the package picture because of her hand sticking there.
The package pic. How we got her to pose so professonally, I don't know! She would only hold still for about 1 second at a time. Most of the tmie I was sitting next to her and had to run out of the way.

When she was standing, you bet your bottom dollar she was running in circles and would not stand on the red light. I have to give props to the lady for getting any still shots.

This one is at the beginning. You observe the subject seems unsure, timid, if you will. But underneath that shy facade is a firework ready to burst out any second and smack her daddy in the face.

You gotta love the cute, laying down pose. She held still for half a second and I'm flabbergasted that her legs are crossed so nicely.

Can we say that it's also a feat that her bow was left in!!! She never touched it! She never does that. So honestly, people, I'm making a mountain out of this mole-hill of minutia that I'm writing about. But it's going to take me about 4 more kids to stop being so high-strung. So until then, you're all just going to have to suffer through it. Ha ha! I honestly think Heavenly Father answered my little prayers about it.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ghosts, Mice & Keys

For one reason or another, Cameron got on YouTube the other day and ended up watching a few videos about ghosts. Needles to say, he's been a little jumpy ever since. Heck, he's even been leaving lights on in the hall now. That's a biggy too, because he usually prefers it to be pitch black when he sleeps. I guess that will teach him. Anyway, the whole thing with all the lights being on is just one of the many new and extreme protective methods being employed around here. It's been an interesting summer. Quick question, are ghosts afraid of the light like we are afraid of the dark?

Anyway, I think we have a mouse in our Attic. After all, we've been hearing random scratching here and there, and Cameron was in ear shot of some rustling in the garage. In any case, I'm confident this rodent is playing off of the already uneasy feelings that are going on around here. Mice are like that though.

Then there was the whole front door fiasco. Despite being pregnant, Cassie's been waking up early and getting out to exercise. Cam's been studying into the wee hours of the night and consequently sleeps in at times. Without waking Cameron or Lacey, Cassie slipped out the door and hid a single house key in the sole of her tennis shoe. She then proceeded to jog around all of southern Apache Junction before anyone woke up.

Upon her return, she became alarmingly aware that her faithful key had bailed on her somewhere in mid flight! She was locked out, and Cameron and the kid were still pleasantly slumbering without a clue. As considerate as she had been in letting the others sleep in, desperate times called for desperate measures. And so began, a knocking frenzy of all knocking frenzies! It was all in vain though, cause no one ever answered. It's possibly our early rising neighbors witnessed this thing go down and thought Cameron threw his wife out?

To better pass the time, Cassie ventured over to a friend's house where the two of them shared a lovely breakfast together and made numerous calls to retry waking Cameron up. Surprisingly, he never picked up! Attempts were even made to retrace footsteps and recover the lost key, but it was no where to be found.
Cassie then returned back to the house where she resumed her frantic knocking and doorbell ringing. She even went around back and threw pebbles at the bedroom window and made additional phone calls at yet another neighbor’s house. Again, no one stirred. Then she wondered, did a ghost or mouse get passed the gauntlet of lights Cameron had hoped would save him? Had that small whiskered friend of ours chewed through the phone lines?

Eventually, Cassie sat down at the neighbor’s house while the neighbor's husband tried his hand at waking the household. No luck!

Finally, Cameron's alarm clock went off and he happily got up quickly and initiated his morning routine. The answering machine was clearly flashing, but the only calls he could see on the caller ID were from Cassie's friend and a neighbor whom Cassie usually associates with. No need to check the messages he thought, they are for Cassie. That's when the neighbor began calling again, and Cameron became aware of a crazy person pounding on his front door. Long story short, he finally came to the door well rested and a little confused. Lacey woke up 10 minutes later.

The moral of the story is, white noise drowns out everything, so keep a spare key hidden somewhere! Never underestimate the power of an Alarm Clock when it comes to getting the job done!