2025 Snapshot

Grace had the opportunity to spend two and a half weeks in Portugal this month. She was absolutely glowing on FaceTime every time we talked. The adrenaline of living life to the fullest pumping through her on this trip she and her roommates had worked tirelessly to plan. On one of her calls we got talking about the beauty of record-keeping.

Right in the moment, we think it will last forever. That exhilaratingly incredible view from the cliffs over the ocean.

All that thought poured into travel itineraries. And surely that cancelled flight after five hours on the tarmac when all the power went out in Portugal would stay in her heart and mind forever, right? Same with in parenting or life in general. We think we’ll always remember how it feels to snuggle up reading a book with our kids. They way they say certain words when they’re beginning to talk. Or how the schedule went in the mornings getting them off to school. What we talked about. How we felt.

But then someone is asking you about such-and-such five years later and you think, was there a special book we read? Why did we do that thing in that particular way? Who was even with us for that special occasion? The details get all hazy.

And then your last child is standing there in her graduation cap and gown. And those memories that seemed so poignant in the moment…so thick you just knew you would “taste” them forever, have crept into the crevices of your mind. And you suddenly cannot remember how it felt. Who did what.

With the end of the school year looming ahead of us, and walking the plank into the great unknown of summer and “life-beyond-kids-in-school,” I realized I haven’t done my annual “snapshot” of life as we know it lately. That snapshot of what everyone’s doing, and how life is working.

And OH! I want to remember these days.

So with that long introduction, here we go!

2025 Snapshot

We have one child at home and her name is Lucy.

As most parents of multiple kids can probably relate, we are different parents with our first kids and last kids. All those things that we kept zipped up and strictly in a line in the beginning have started to unravel a bit. Perhaps that’s because we have realized some things aren’t as important as what we thought. Or perhaps we realized we were focusing on some of the wrong things. We have learned to pick our battles. We have learned, in some things, to “watch the waves” rather than diving in with no life jacket. And we are also tired.

But most importantly, Lucy is a different kid than all our others.

So we have adjusted.

She gets to take her phone in her bedroom since she is an avid reader, and can’t “read” without audible books. She doesn’t have a job chart plastered to the wall filled with her “to-dos” to be filled out before she can hang out with friends. Partly because this girl knows her schedule and does it religiously. And also partly because her social life isn’t something to be bargained with.

Dinner Time

But other things remain just the same. We still prioritize dinner time like nobody’s business. Of course, we get knocked off our schedule from time to time, but there is something so magical about having a moment to come together at the end of the day. Lucy makes sure we talk about our “happies” and “sads.” Sometimes we use this “question box” our friend gave us for Christmas you see on the table below:

Other times we use our “conversation cards” we love so much. We can be having the worst day and somehow sitting down together makes a difference.

We also try to do devotional at dinner now that our morning routine is messed up (see below). But I’m here to say, we are doing really horribly at that! When we do, it’s mostly it’s just reading a few verses of scripture or listening to “We Believe” together. But I LOVE how attentive Lucy is for these things. She has the best questions.

Morning Routine Independence

For twenty-three years Dave and I have hustled around helping our kids get out the door in the mornings. Helping pack lunches, make breakfast, have devotional, etc.

But after Christmas this year we switched it all up. Because we were helping Lucy too much. If she’s going to be ready for college next year, she decided, she needs to do all that stuff on her own. Dave and I agreed. We were doing way too much for this girl.

So our mornings have looked different. There have been only maybe three mornings since Christmas where Lu hasn’t done all that morning stuff herself. This isn’t really that easy. You see, even things like making sandwiches and homework sorted and ready to go is trickier when you can’t see. But the toughest thing?

Hair.

For some reason hand coordination is tricky when you have BBS and Lucy, even after practicing with all her might hundreds of times, still struggles to get her beloved braid in some semblance of order. (She is very opinionated and there is no sweet-talking her out of the braid.)

But at Christmas we made a commitment to be hands-off, and she doesn’t seem to mind going to school with her hair sticking out every which way most days. I’m sure some people must look at that hair and wonder what in Heaven’s name is going on. But we have let it go and it’s good for all of us.

Other Things at Home

Lucy’s job is to walk Bo every day. And she’s been stinking at that lately, right Lu?? Ha! She has so many mountains of homework that she can’t seem to get out the door much.

But we are still tandem bikers.

And she is still addicted to her jean jacket.

Love gathering with friends whenever we can to catch up on life as our kids continue to grow up.

Church Stuff

I am still in charge of the Relief Society activities at church. It’s a big job working to gather all these women with so much going on in their lives, but I LOVE the opportunity it gives me to get to know them better.

Dave still serves in the Bishopric and it’s the same story: lots of work but he would never trade it for all he’s learning from everyone he gets to work with. Service in the church is such a great way to fall in love with everyone you get to serve.

It’s funny that the only photo I have of him in the bishopric happens to be the time we got to go to the lake together recently:

Those are some good men (and women) right there!

“In the Arena with the Eyre Sisters” Podcast

We just finished our latest season of our podcast and I’m so grateful for it!.

Not only do we get to dissect mothering ideas, we get to have an excuse to be “together” and I’m so grateful for that!

Listen to any of those episodes you wish on Apple, Spotify or any other podcast platform! Follow along on Instagram too if you want, we plan to do some fun things with more engagement this summer.

We had some fun ones this season:

The Kids

Claire Returns from her Mission

This is an old picture below, but serves three purposes on this post:

• It’s good to remember that the Turkey Trot still runs every year. And keeps getting bigger and bigger.
• We love when our big kids get to join us.
• We MISSED Claire for many things like this while she was gone on her mission.

Claire served valiantly as a missionary in Australia, Mandarin speaking for a year and a half.

We were both so grateful for the experiences she had there AND beyond grateful to get her HOME!

The Arrival of Baby Ada

Max and Abby had their second baby girl and and we are over the moon about her. We were on sacred ground over spring break when we were in Utah and got to meet her.

I want to document that when Abby got so sick after she arrived (mastitis), my sister was there to step in and help with the kids. Seriously, Charity rocks.

Max, Abby and Girls

This little family has our hearts. Max and Abby continue to be such amazing parents juggling this new addition and Murphy’s advancement to the “twos.”

She is not a “terrible two” because just look at this girl:

She will do that on command when you tell her to smile and she melts us. She definitely has her own spunky personality and we love her so much.

We make every effort to visit whenever is humanly possible.

So fun Claire and Grace are up there too.

And when we can’t visit, thank Heavens for FaceTime, and pictures from Abby.

Elle & Carson

These two are living the life in Palo Alto, working so hard and soaking in all that place has to offer.

Elle works from home on her graphic design freelance as well as for an agency, and Carson is just starting his second year of residency.

This place is unreal with redwoods growing out of the very sidewalk in front of their apartment and endless places to explore. But I do think these two would find fascination and beauty if they were living in a box of rocks. They’re just like that.

Grace and Claire went to visit right when Claire got home from her mission and I loved getting pictures of them all together there, basking in the glory of that beauty and sibling-hood.

Lucy and I got to visit a while back, and Dave finally got to made the trip to explore with them last week.

Elle and Carson are travelers at heart and know how to make it happen. They did a big trip to Southeast Asia last Fall, and figured out how to get themselves to Japan last month.

They are so busy with work, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Grace

Grace is working her tail off at school and work. She wants to be an ultrasound tech so she got the perfect job to give her some experience:

Fetal Fotos and she LOVES it.

She has a good group of friends and is maneuvering her way to finish her degree in Communications.

She and a few of those friends, who happen to be her roommates, put together a pretty epic trip to Portugal and Morocco at the end of the semester. As I mentioned above, I LOVED seeing her face pop up in these new incredibly beautiful faces, just shining in delight.

Claire

Claire was with us for a month when she got home, and then headed up to Provo to work and start school. She is living with her two cousins in a little house and is pretty much living her best life with so many good friends around.

I LOVE that one of her cousins sent me a “first day of school” photo of her as she headed out the door to start spring semester:

HXP

Claire has a pretty rare opportunity to be an HXP leader this summer. This would take a post all on it’s own to explain. How it came about, the decision-making process of whether she should take it or not, the “location assigning” process (she could go anywhere in the whole wide world). But for today, I’ll just post these funny photos of the orientation weekend with a Harry Potter theme:

Ha! Claire and her crew were “house elves” in case that takes some detective work to figure out:)

Man there was a lot of energy there, so many good people to get to know, and so much to learn as she gets ready to shepherd forty kids through two different adventures in Hong Kong. But she is SO grateful for the decision she made to do this, and for all she is learning through it.

She will leave for Hong Kong in a few weeks.

So glad we got her home for a minute a couple weeks ago to celebrate a friend’s upcoming wedding. Why do we have to keep letting kids go?

Thank Heavens for FaceTime I tell you!

Lucy

Yes, we already talked about Lucy but I don’t want to forget how much she lives for sunsets:

How much she loves MCO:

How she is still going strong on running her own cookie business:

How she (and we) have worked on everything in our power to keep her able to learn new piano pieces:

That’s a post all on it’s own some day as well!

Hobbies

As per usual, I have too many hobbies. Still going strong on the cello:

My kids have picked up on my travel hobby and it makes me so happy:

(This was our FaceTime to have everyone show photos from their adventures.)

I’m finally to the “maintenance” dose of my ongoing immunotherapy shots. So I’ve spent a LOT of time in this waiting room!

Book club keeps me reading and learning and connecting with all these women:

Salad group keeps those greens coming…and is a BIG job. But a worthy one…I love it so much.

And sometimes I get to join Dave for his biggest hobby: Pickleball.

I need to gather some photos of his group he gets together with any time he can. He feels so grateful for those guys!

Oh and we can’t forget my flower hobby:

This year’s batch just all “expired” and I went through the work of preparing for next season:

Oh and a favorite hobby? Our dates to workouts almost every morning.

PHEW! If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! There’s always so much I want to remember, and I could go on and on, but there’s a snapshot of life as we know it here in the year 2025.

There are so many ups and downs. And the “downs” haven’t really shown up here on this post. There are so many things to worry about. Especially with adult kids who are making their own way in the world. But I’m so grateful for it all. The good, the bad and even the ugly. Because we’re learning and growing from it all. May we continue to remember to surrender the heaviest parts to God. Because I believe He is there. And will send angels round about to muddle through it all.

Sending lots of love out this graduation week!