new profession??

Nope just an awesome dad!

Christmas morning

before

after

we really simplified this year but everyone got
something they wanted. It was a good day!

so peaceful...

more temple lights

it was raining and cold the night we went but it was still fun seeing the lights

Temple Lights...

is another family tradition that we really look forward to. Its fun to go and see if there has been any new lights added. This year they added this beautiful star above the nativity scene.

True meaning of Christmas

Sometime before Christmas the Brimhalls get together for dinner then we have a program. The little people dress up as Joseph, Mary, Wisemen, Shepherds and Angels. While one of the teenagers read from the scriptures the younger children reenact the birth of Christ. There have been years we've gone through the story several times since all the little girls want to be Mary. This is a fun family tradition that the kids love and at the same time reminds us all of the True meaning of Christmas!

Big helpers

Gabe had been buggin for about a week to get the lights on the tree so when I finally got around to it the lights I've used for several years had a short. So I went the next day and bought new ones. My kiddos were having fun helping me decorate(or in Kortney's case undecorate) the tree.

Anber Winter Performance

Anber is taking 2 different dance classes, 1 is during school and the other is after. She's having alot of fun learning new dance steps. This last Wednesday the choir and dance had their winter performance, it was a really cute program. The above picture they are dancing to 'Sittin on the dock of the bay'

Turkey Day Round 2

For as long as I can remember my dad has left Thanksgiving Day to go quad riding at the dunes. This year he still wasn't feeling good from his last surgery in October so he didn't go. Since most of us already had plans at the in laws we had our get together the Saturday after turkey day. With 17 grandkids our get togethers are VERY LOUD but the kids all have a blast and enjoy spending time with each other! I look at this picture and wonder why I'm the oldest of 5 and I have the OLDEST and YOUNGEST grandchildren?!?

Pictures of the Kiddos

It's that time of year when you send out the Christmas cards and you just HAVE to get new pictures of the family. So we went down south of our home to some Pecan Groves where I had alot of fun taking pictures of the kiddos. I'm nowhere near professional but hey I thought they turned out pretty darn good. If you want to be models so I can practice, let know. I'm sure thankful for my little family, they are all growing so fast it makes me a little sad. Now I have to decide which picture to use for the cards. Lets put it to a vote! Which one is your favorite?

Santa is REAL!

On our way home from Brimhalls I told Meghan and Anber they needed to get a Christmas list together. So the girls were talking back n forth about what they wanted and Meghan turns to Anber and says 'why don't you tell Santa you want that' well Steves reminds Meghan that there is no Santa. Anber pipes up 'Yes there is he has brown hair, red beard and a big belly"(aka Dad)!! We got a good laugh outta that one.

Turkey Day- Round 1

We spent Turkey day at the Brimhalls. Steves sister that lives here went to Utah to spend time w/ their other sister and 1 of his brothers went to the inlaws, so that left only us, Jareds family and Steves parents. I was nice to visit with them without the commotion of 3 other families. The older took ALL the little people to the park, we enjoyed the quite while the kiddos got to play. In all it was a nice day and on Sat we'll do round 2 and to spend time with my family.

I LOVE my dryer....

especially after not having it for almost a week! With 7 people in this family I do tons of laundry. I had one load drying(so I thought) and one washing when I realized the stinkin dryer was taking forever so I opened the door NO heat. Steven takes my dryer apart and the heating element is bad so the next day I go get the part and he replaces it that night. Still no heat so he tests everything again, it all works. After about 30 mins I hear this "You've got to be kidding me!" One of the wires wasn't completely on. Yay, my guy was a little frustrated! But, I now have a dryer that works like new. Thanks hon, love ya!

Dirt, dirt and more dirt!

We live in the middle of acres and acres of dirt and of course its just a huge kid magnet. Well this last Saturday I was in a craft show, while I was gone Meghan & Anber were watching the 3 little people. The girls hadn't checked on them in a whole 3-4 mins and when we drove up this is what we found....

Modesty!

So if you follow my blog at all you saw the pics of my girls before homecoming and Meghans dress was way too revealing. Well, I have this awesome friend who is also a great seamstress and since I wouldn't let Meghan wear the hootchi dress till it was altered Jen came to the rescue! She made(without a pattern) a shrug to cover the shoulders and put an inset in to cover the cleavage. Meghan is in ROTC and this last Friday there was a Marine Ball that she was able to wear her dress to and guess what?! She was the ONLY modestly dress girl there.

It's about time...

Gabe is 6.5 and until today had not lost any teeth. Weird huh? Heres how our conversation went...Gabe gets into the truck after school and says "mom look, I lost my tooth!" Of course my response is "Cool dude, lets see it." "I can't, I lost it" "I know you lost it, let me see it" "I can't, I lost it in the cafateria. Maybe it got stuck in my food or something." He didn't even realize it was gone till he was back in the classroom!! So, in order for the Tooth Fairy to pay him for his lost tooth he's gonna draw a picture of it and hope she'll still pay him. I'm sure she loves him enough to pay.

a Ghost, a Dancer & a Kortney

When we lived in Gilbert we were soo glad that our ward did the trunk r treat so we didn't have to do the door to door thing since we didn't know half the neighbors. Well now that were in the boonies where we know everyone but we'd need to drive to get to all the neighbors homes to go trick r treating! But, our ward did the trunk r treat and the kids had fun all while loading up on the candy. Meghan and Anber hmm not sure what they were but I didn't get their pics since Meg was gone to a bomb fire with friends in the ward and not sure where Anber was but Gabe and his friend Seth were both ghosts, Beth was a dancer who (per dr.s orders)was confined to the wagon for the night. She had a breathing episode Thursday afternoon. She went from slightly weezing to hardly breathing in about an hour. Dr Mike debated on sticking her in the hospital but luckily her airways opened up enough he let her go home. Steve & I were up every couple hours giving her breathing treatments, shes doing pretty good now. Then theres little Miss Kortney she absolutely refused to where her costume...so she went as herself! Don't know what she ate but man is she a mess!

WOW!!

I can't believe it but Meghan is 17. It seams like just yesterday I was laying in a hospital bed with my feet in the air and flat on my back for 5 weeks all while I was totally drugged up trying not to have her! BTW my feet didn't touch the floor the whole time I was there(yah, it sucked). But she was determined to get out and was born 13 weeks early at a whopping 2lbs 14oz and 15" long, her head was smaller than my fist! Now she is taller than I am and you'd never quess she was soo tiny.
On her bday(the 23rd) I picked her up from school and we had lunch at Taco Bell she didn't want to go back so I let her ditch the rest of the day. Meghan then wanted pizza(which she could live on) and cheesecake for her b-day dinner, she was happy to have all favorites in one day.

My Sweet Baby...

For the last week or so any blanket Kortney gets her hands on she has to have it spread out on the floor. She doesn't care if its her favorite(the one my good friend Belinda made her), or a comforter or a burp cloth. As long as she can lay her head on it shes good! Well, I was busy most of the day getting all the vinyl orders ready for Souper Sat and wasn't able to stop when she was ready for her nap, so I told her lay down on the blanket we had put on my office floor. About 5 mins. later I was at a stopping point - she was too tired to wait for me :(

Homecoming

Coolidge High Schools homecoming was lastnight and both my girls went stag with a group of their friends. They both had alot of fun hanging out with friends and dancing. I do need to say I'm not enjoying this too much...proves that I'm just getting old! Its hard to beleive hpw skimpy ALL the dresses were. I finally gave up(and ran out of time)trying to find modest dresses for these girls. We'll be making some sort of jacket before Meghan wears that dress again.