A Look Back at 2009

Here is a copy of our Christmas letter that never quite made it out this year. Oops! Sorry. Well, hopefully by posting it here, a few people will still be able to enjoy it.


Life is full of surprises, Full of ups and downs.

This line from a Thomas the Tank Engine song summarizes 2009 for us. Although this year has had it's share of downs, we have enjoyed many wonderful ups that far outweigh the others.

On April 1st, William turned 8. He was baptized along with his friend Devin Clare on the 18th. It was a wonderful day and so exciting to see William take this step in his life. William is in third grade and loves spending time with his friends. He continues to enjoy writing stories and drawing. He is also a fantastic big brother and keeps asking how old he has to be in order to babysit, although I think that is more about the money he will earn than the actual babysitting. He has also learned how to cook a few meals and enjoys helping Mom in the kitchen any time he gets a chance.

Jacob just turned 7 on the 20th of December. Much to William's dismay, he is now the tallest of all the children in the family and outweighs his brother's by about 20 pounds. He is also still the biggest softy of the bunch. He loves to snuggle and with very little attention, he will become your friend for life. He loves to ride his bike, play soccer, and read. He is in first grade and is often asked by his teacher to read to the class, which he does so very willingly. He is looking forward to turning 8 next year so that he can be baptized and join cub scouts.

Spencer started kindergarten this year. He is doing well and is picking up reading and math amazingly well. He has had his own struggles this year trying to find his place in the family. Being the middle child can be tough! He continues to keep us laughing with his funny faces and little comments that he makes. He is a very happy boy with a great imagination. He loves playing games with his older brothers and is learning to ride a bike.

Bryce has been a very busy boy this year with many therapies, Doctor's appointments, and hospital stays. After a year full of tests, he was diagnosed in June with Unspecified leukodystrophy. We are currently working toward getting in touch with doctors around the world who specialize in this rare disorder. Although he continues to regress, that regression has slowed considerably this year which is a true blessing. After loosing weight for 8 months, he had a feeding tube placed in September and has since gained 2 pounds! He continues to bring smiles and joy to everyone who meets him! We are all very blessed to have this celestial child as a part of our family.

May was a wonderful month as we welcomed our little princess, Annalise, into our family. She has been a true blessing and a wonderful baby. She is 7 months old and began crawling on December 30th! She is completely adored by her brothers who love to make her laugh. She has the greatest little personality all of her own. Mom is thoroughly enjoying having a little girl and is learning all about bows, dresses, and everything pink. It's nice to have another girl in the family to help balance us out a little bit!

John turned the big "40" this year! He has been busy throughout the year with many projects and honey do lists. He has just recently finished building a laundry room onto our guest house which is much appreciated by our current renters. He is loving his job at Orbital Sciences and we are hoping that he continues to have that job for many years to come. In June, he played the part of Issachar in the Community Theater Play production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. He sings well and has had many opportunities this year to share this talent. He is down to only having 2 horses and a few chickens to take care of for now. He also has a busy group of boys to teach as he teaches Jacob's class in Primary at church.

Tammy keeps herself busy as a full time wife and mom of this crew. Although her job often seems overwhelming, she loves it and wouldn't trade it for anything. However, she wouldn't mind getting a good night sleep once in a while! She is sad and sorry that she has not been able to keep in touch with friends as much as she would like to this year, and hopes that when life slows down a little bit, they will be able to reconnect. She enjoys keeping family and friends updated on our life through our family blog and Bryce's website. Feel free to visit them anytime you would like to. www.lifeontheclaytonfarm.blogspot.com and www.caringbridge.org/visit/bryceclayton She is helping John convert his old workshop into a sewing, craft, scrapbooking, escape area for herself with hopes of using it someday soon. She is thankful that we are able to have good renters whose rent money helps to pay for some very needed help around the house.

We look back on this year with much joy and look forward to what 2010 may bring. We are grateful that the Lord has blessed us with such wonderful friends and family members. May you all enjoy the upcoming year!

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We stayed in town and spent Christmas together, just the seven of us.

CHRISTMAS EVE














The boys right after bath on Christmas Eve wearing their new PJs from Grandma Stephens.














Annalise also got some PJs, but they were a little too small so she is just wearing her little Christmas outfit.















A look from Santa's view.














Annalise thought she needed to make sure everything was in order before going to bed.

































Sweet baby girl on her first Christmas Eve.














Checking out her stocking.













I GOT WHAT?!!! Actually I think this was a yawn, but I thought this was pretty funny.














CHRISTMAS DAY














The boys loved the swords they got in their stockings.














Present time!



















































Perfect for a boy who loves magic and science.




















Trying out the magic wand.






































Spencer was very excited about his pitching machine.













Bryce enjoyed opening up his gifts.

He loves airplanes.

Annalise opening her first Christmas present

Thanks Aunt Becca for the dress!

Santa was smart enough to leave a block of batteries this year!

Thanks Grandma Stephens. Bryce loves his book.

Everyone enjoyed the Legos that the boys got from their cousins. Believe it or not, this is the first set of real Legos they have ever had!

Bryce enjoying one of his new books and his airplane.

Lots of Good Things!

I know that I still need to write about Christmas, but good things just keep happening that I want to share. First of all, today is the first day that Bryce's temperature has been normal again. And no pain medication needed! He is still working on getting all the stuff out of his lungs, but he seems so much better. I am truly relieved!

Also, today my Mom called and said that they are thinking of coming for a visit. Hopefully that will work out! We would all love to see them again.

Tonight we hosted a pizza party with some old roommates of mine from when I was going to BYU. It was fun to visit with them again and see how much their kids are growing. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. I guess I was too busy talking! It sure was fun though. I've decided that how you can tell who your true friends are is if you can go without talking much or seeing each other for a year or so and then when you do get together, it is like no time has passed at all. That's how it was tonight with Janel and Lynette. The kids all had a good time together also, although the boys aren't looking forward to helping me clean the toy room tomorrow. I don't think there is much left on the shelves at the moment!

My sister, Sheri, came down yesterday and took all of my kids on a walk down to the candy store for some ice-cream. When they returned she took the three older boys up to her house for the night. These are a couple of pictures of the boys all dressed up to go. Jacob had just gotten that sombrero from John and decided that he needed to wear it to Sheri's house.

While the older kids were gone, John, Bryce, Annalise, and I went out on a date. For Christmas John had surprised me with a "Chinese knock-off" iPhone. After playing with it for a while we discovered that, even though it was cheaper, it was not worth the price he had payed. OK, it was really a piece of junk. So, Tuesday night the four of us went out looking at and trying cell phones. There are a few specific things I was looking for and since John has been out of the cell phone business for a while now, we really didn't know what was out there. It was really weird to be buying a cell phone. Up until a couple of years ago when John left Motorola, we would just use the old phones he had been working on. It was great! Until this morning when we finally made our choice, I had never had to pay for a cell phone! Anyway, so we looked at a lot of phones and then had dinner at Paradise bakery...one of my favorite places. By that time both of the little ones had had enough and were beyond ready for bed. We went home, put them down and did a little more work online. Then this morning we called up AT&T and got set up with the iPhone 3GS! I am loving it! Actually John and I are both having a lot of fun with it. When Sheri brought the boys home this morning, she gave me a few tips about the iPhone as well. It is going to take a little getting used to, but I think I can handle it! =)

She Crawls!!!

Well this morning Annalise finally took the plunge! She has been working on it for a while now and today it seemed to all come together for her. These aren't the best pictures of her crawling, but this is what I have so far! She is still very cautious and has taken a couple of good face plants, but she just gets right back up and tries again! I can't believe how fast she is growing.

Great News!

I got the best call ever today!!! Bryce's communication device is being shipped today!!! This is the call we have been waiting for since August when he was evaluated for one. We should have it by next week! Soon our little boy should be able to tell us what he is thinking and what he needs!!! Oh happy day!

Trip to the ER

This morning, Bryce and I spent a few hours in the ER. On Christmas day he began running a slight fever. About 2 AM Saturday morning I checked on him and he felt very warm. He was running a fever of 104. John noticed that his heart was beating very fast. We immediately went to work trying to get the fever down. We got him some medicine, put cool towels on him, and John gave him a blessing. We considered taking him to the ER right then, but his fever began to come down a little bit, and we felt that he would be OK until morning. Throughout the day his fever hovered around 100 degrees. He whimpered a little and wanted to be held more than normal, but otherwise didn't seem too uncomfortable. Then during the night, Bryce's fever was back up over 104.5 and even with Motrin in his system it was still at 102 at 6:30 this morning. I called his Dr and a friend of ours who used to work as a nurse. Both agreed that I should take him in and have him seen. I'm so glad that I did. I gave him more medicine at 7:30 and headed up to the Gilbert hospital on Power Rd. By the time we got to the hospital his fever was back up to 104. The ER doctor walked through the door and said "Oh, I can hear that from here, we're going to need a chest x-ray." He then came over and checked Bryce's ears. He even let me look into them which I've never done before and I could see how red and swollen the inner ear was. They immediately put numbing drops into his ears for the pain and gave him Tylenol to help bring down the fever. He then got a chest x-ray and within a few minutes the doctor was back and said that he had severe ear infections in both ears and the beginnings of pneumonia. He explained that there was some "gunk" (I love it when doctors talk my language!) in his left lung and that if I had waited another day or two to bring him in, it would have been full on pneumonia, which would have most likely landed Bryce in the hospital. They gave him a shot of penicillin in each leg and had us wait there for about an hour to make sure that Bryce was responding to the medicine. At that point they took his temperature again and it was down to 101 degrees, so we were able to come home.

Bryce fell asleep on the way home so I put him into bed as soon as we got here. Already I could tell that he was breathing better and seemed so much more comfortable. Since John and the other kids were all at church, I decided to lie down next to Bryce and take a nap as well. We both ended up sleeping very well. He slept for about 5 and a half hours and I slept for about 4, which is more in one sitting than I usually get, even during the night. It felt great!!! The only problem was that when John left for church he grabbed the keys for the other van and that key ring did not have a house key on it. Well, when they got home from church I guess they knocked on the door, rang the doorbell, called our home phone and my cell phone and I continued to sleep right through all of that. I must have been really sound asleep!!! They ended up going over to the Pickens house, some people from our ward and hanging out with them until they were able to call again a couple of hours later and I woke up. Oops!

Tonight Bryce seems to be doing a little bit better and is doing a lot of sleeping which I think is a good sign. Poor little guy. I feel so bad for him. It is so sad that he is not able to tell me when he hurts. I am so thankful that he is home with us tonight! I am so thankful for the wonderful staff at the Gilbert Hospital. I had heard really great things about that place and it was all true. We didn't have to wait at all and the Doctors and nurses were all very friendly and attentive, to both me and Bryce. It makes a big difference to me when people treat my children with respect even if they may not understand everything they are saying to them. The staff there all fell in love with Bryce of course! I don't enjoy going to the hospital, but if we ever have to go to the ER again, I would definitely go back to this one. Everyone we worked with there was amazing.

Also, a huge thanks to everyone who helped us out! To Valeen for your advice both Saturday and Sunday, to Heather, Laurie, and everyone else at church who helped John with the kids. To everyone for your prayers, phone calls to check up on us, and well wishes. They really do make a difference! And again thanks to Heather for entertaining and feeding my family while I slept! =) It was wonderful! I owe you!!!

First Days of Winter Break...Anything But Boring!

MONDAY

I have to mention Sunday evening first. After we had gotten the kids all down for bed, John and I decided to watch the movie Julie and Julia which we had rented the day before. Just as we began watching, some friends of ours who own a doughnut shop, stopped by with a box of doughnuts for us. So nice! So we had a little snack while watching our movie. Actually we only made it half way through the movie before we got too tired and had to go to bed. We're getting old! It's really pathetic!

Monday morning, the official first day of winter break for John and the boys, came early and began at 8:30 with Bryce's quarterly review. This will be the last one with Bryce's current case manager since he will be turning 3 in January and will be moving on to another one. Bryce's physical therapist was there for the meeting as well and then did some therapy with him afterward. She helped us get his gait trainer all set up for him.

For now we are just using the gait trainer as a stander to help strengthen Bryce's legs and hips. Right now he seems to have enough strength and energy to stand in it for just 5 minutes or so, but he sure seems to like the time that he is able to be "up" on his own.

Monday afternoon Spencer had his appointment with the urologist at PCH, so he and I left about 11:30 to head up to that. After an ultrasound, x-ray, and exam, the doctor has determined that Spencer has a spastic bladder. He is now on medication that hopefully will relax his bladder a bit and help him be able to feel the urge a little more and also be able to hold it a little longer. Hopefully it will work well for him. Everyone that we worked with while there was great with Spencer. He ended up with multiple stickers, suckers, and a smelly pencil by the time we were through. It was about 5:00 by then, so we decided to have dinner in the cafeteria before heading home. I told him he could choose whatever he wanted to eat and he was very excited to get to have his very own sausage pizza, caramel flavored milk, and ice cream for dessert. We then made a quick stop at Walmart on the way home and got home just after Spencer fell asleep in the van.

While we were in Phoenix, John decided to take the other 4 kids to the McCormick Railroad Park in Scottsdale. We used to go there all the time when William and Jacob were little and we lived just 10 minutes from the park. We haven't been for a while and they had a blast. I told John to take the camera and get some pictures, but he said that although he took the camera, while he was there he didn't have any time to do anything but take care of the kids. He even had taken a book thinking that he would get a chance to read, (ha, ha, ha!) but soon learned that it was not going to happen how he was imagining it. It just makes me smile to know that he had a little taste of true fatherhood and to realize that it is a lot of work to take care of our little ones right now. Maybe by the end of this "vacation" he will have a little more appreciation for what I do all day! I'm sure he will be ready to go back to "work"! I am glad that they got to get out and have a good time together. I'm sure it was good for John and the kids!

That evening we finished watching the movie we had started on Sunday. We really enjoyed it!

TUESDAY

Tuesday was a fun day. Bryce's therapist canceled their appointment because she was sick, so we just spent the morning at home. The boys and I got some work done in the morning and then while the little ones slept, the older boys played outside. At one point they came in and wanted me to come out and see what they had done. So I went out and this is what I saw:

a whole bunch of grapefruit peels. The boys said that they had picked and peeled 10 grapefruits. When I asked them what they did with the grapefruits, they took me out a bit further to see.

They had lined them all up on the dirt and put sticks in them as antlers. They had made reindeer out of grapefruits!!! I got a kick out of that. They are always coming up with something. Last Monday they made "pink lemonade" by adding sugar to juice they had squeezed out of some grapefruits! =) I love the way boys minds work. My boys sure can make me smile!

They said that they would leave the grapefruits out for Santa and his reindeer this year. I guess they figure he gets enough cookies and milk...this year it will be grapefruit!

While we were out looking at the grapefruit reindeer, I noticed that it was becoming quite cold and windy. We went inside and within just a few minutes we heard rain. It was pouring rain and within minutes it had turned to hail. So of course the boys grabbed an umbrella and headed out into the hail, but within a couple of minutes, the hail had ended and it was just drizzling again. Weird little temper tantrum storm, but it was fun while it lasted.

Tuesday afternoon my sister, Sheri, was in town. She came down and watched our kids so that John and I could go out on a date! We went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and saw the movie Avitar. We loved it!!! What made it even better was that they took our free passes even though it was still a special engagement. We did pay the extra $3 each to see it in 3D. It was totally worth it. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed the film. We both really loved it! It truly is amazing what he has done with this film. I have to admit that there were a few cheesy parts and by the end, you know what is going to happen and want it to just happen all ready! Like many movies it was drawn out a bit at the end for the drama of it. However, even with that, the movie did not seem long at all and was so worth seeing and very enjoyable to watch. One of the best movies we have seen in a while!

WEDNESDAY

Sheri spent the night last night and this morning took all 5 of my children to the zoo! She is one brave girl! While they were gone, I went to the dentist and had a cavity filled that has been needing to be taken care of for a long time. I then finished my Christmas shopping and headed for home. I got home just about the same time Sheri and the kids did. Since the cleaning crew was still here, I took Bryce in with me to feed him and get him ready for therapy while Sheri took the others to Burger King for lunch. John had to pick something up in Phoenix this afternoon and decided to stop in at work to get something done there while the plant is quiet, so the kids and I just hung out for a while, had dinner, and now they are sleeping! I think I need to go get a little wrapping done tonight before I head off to bed myself! Christmas Eve is tomorrow. I can't believe it is here already!

Family Birthday Party

On Sunday December 20 which was Jacob's actual birthday, we had a little family party for him.

We had just enough cupcakes left over from his party that we decided to just add new candles and then finish it off.

Getting ready to open his presents.

He Got the remote control duck tour boat that he has been asking for. He saw it in a magazine a while back and has been wanting it ever since.


He loves his light saber also.

The kids all had a lot of fun with the remote control vehicle! Bryce was totally cracking up when William was trying to jump over it. Fun for everyone!