Has it really gone by so soon?

I have been thinking about just how fast the days seem to fly.
Before I even know what has happened,
I look around and my children are grown.
It passes as quickly as a whisper on the wind.

And yet, at times seems so slow that I am almost surprised
when I see them at this age and think,
has it been that long already?

And despite wanting to stop the merry go round and get off,
it just speeds up.
And yet, they all remain my miracles.
So brave and strong and
able to somehow think their own minds and make that known!

I asked my precious son if he'd like to wear underwear and be a big boy like his brother Baker
(whom he continues to call his friend Baker)
and Griff very adamantly said
"no, Baker is a big boy, I'm mommy's baby!"

And so I wonder...am I teaching them well?
Are the things that matter coming across?
And what really matters to me?
With that in mind,
this month I am challenging myself
to teach my children about random acts of kindness
and hope that they will be
a bit kinder to everyone we meet.

Where's the camera when you need it?

So today has to rank high up there in my most embarrassing moment stories...

I got the brilliant idea to chop my hair to one length today. I figured then as I grew out the rest of my bangs it would all grow long together. So with a pair of scissors in my hand I went to work. Then of course I had to dye it because my gray/white hair is really emerging and all this led to me being late to church. Which is why I almost always go 1 hour early, because as you're about to see I get punished when I'm late...

I could hear the voices all singing the sacrament hymn as I walk into church laden down with a bag of church things (you know: toys, coloring books, snacks, everything I need for nursery calling, golf balls and paint so the nursery kids could make worlds...etc..etc...) also a bag with a baby gift for a lady in our church, a birthday gift for someone else and a thank you for another. Needless to say, I was heavy burdened.

I thought I would just sneak into sacrament through the back, drop off the baby gift (because I knew they sit in the back) and hurry to our row in the front. Innocent enough right?

I was walking fast so I could be in my seat by the time they said the sacrament prayer. So I quickly make my way to the family who was sitting six rows up from the back and leaned over and dropped the gift in their laps.

Now you might be asking why I didn't want to wait and just do this later but it is always a race to get into the nursery room before the parents who seem to run there to hand us their kid. and by the time I'm done, everyone is gone. plus I didn't want it to seem like I was advertising that I had gotten a gift for someone and have someone feel bad if they hadn't.

I also didn't want to cause a scene during sacrament so I quickly dropped the gift in their laps and turned to hurry over to my row. This is where it all went downhill. As I turned in my big black clunky clogs, I could feel that I had stepped on something. And immediately realised that Griffy had followed me and that I was on his foot. Not wanting to put my full weight on him I did that little hop jump, you know...the one where you sort of pick your foot up as fast as you can to make sure you don't bear weight and come down on the other one? only, as I jump, it caused my bag (remember, overfull of all that stuff?) to also swing forward.

The next part happened so fast I can only say too bad we didn't have a video. I ran forward about 10 steps trying to regain my balance (and making a sort of groaning noise that I somehow couldn't stop from coming out of my mouth) but the bag got the better of me and propelled me (dare I say caused me to fly?) face first into the carpet, and then to slide a few feet. And sadly, I was still trying to grab the bag so I put no hands up to stop myself. I crashed and then slid forward. the bag went flying and things flew everywhere.

I wasn't sure even how to react. I mentally took note and knew nothing was broken but that there was no saving face on this one. And to make it worse (yes folks, it could only go downhill from this point on) a few of the older men who sit on the back rows came flying out of their seats to check on me (and not very quietly I might add). I kept telling them to just sit down and let me slink out in shame but before I knew it, one of the Bishopric hurried off the stage and came. My humiliation grew as now even the people in the front (those who had somehow not heard the loud crash or seen what had happened because they were dutifully still watching the conductor) now turned as well to see me curious as to why the Bishopric ran off. Someone must have poked Andy because then he came back pretty quick.

I was grabbing stuff as fast as I could at this point and stuffing it into my bag and reassuring everyone that I was OK and praying that I could exit before the prayer was said. And should I mention at this point I was wearing one of my tighter skirts so it wasn't easy to be crawling on the floor in?
I finally managed to get one of the men to sit down and then one of the others picked up Griffy so I could sneak out and he began to wail (because we all know Griffy doesn't do strangers) and I knew if I laughed hysterically at that moment there would be no recovering. So I did the best I could, slipped out the door and hovered in the Nursery room for 3 hours straight.


Needless to say, had I not been the person teaching in nursery I would have left.

loving the summer

I look around at all the fancy blogs full of such creative things, look at all my old high school Friends on facebook who are doing such fantastic things like producing movies and winning Emmy awards and at all websites that spout all the things you can do to help people in life...
and I can't help but get overwhelmed with what my life must look like to others. How small I must seem. I am a mom. Sometimes it seems like it's not much but...

I LOVE IT!!! I repeat
i LOVE it.

because i love seeing this

Katie receiving a Valley Park Star award for great character (one of two first graders honored in the whole school, presented by her teacher) or this...Baker thoroughly enjoying the freedom of being a little boy and just running and jumping into water squirting up from the ground..

OR this...Baker and Griffy snuggled together after a long day on mommy's bed, simply because they wanted to sleep together and no other bed was big enough for them.

Those are my miracles and I thank God for them every day...

I love "just" being a mom. Sometimes (all times) the trade offs are worth it...

what innocence

So we are all sitting around the kitchen table after family night playing scattergories with 2 of our favorite families. Katie has asked repeatedly to be allowed to join the adult game so we play just one more round so she can participate.

The letter rolled is "B". The timer starts racing and before you know it, the dinger goes off and pencils are slammed down and now the fun really begins.

Everyone is shouting out their answers to see if they get points. And up rolls the category, "Body Parts". Imagine the silence and much supressed laughter of all the adults there as Katie very calmly announces "Balls". The shocking heart racing moment as every adult stares her down and says nothing.

So Katie looks at everyone as if they are idiots, points to her eyes and says "you know, as in eye-Balls".

I know, We rock as parents :)

what goes on when Andy's in charge

I wish I had a picture to go along with what I am about to tell you. And please note I love my husband to pieces and he has helped tremendously since I've been in the Hospital. so here goes...

We found out we lost the baby, waited a week to make sure and did a d & c. Thursday the 29th I went in. Wasn't a bad procedure and except for crying as I came out of the anesthesia, had little to complain about.

I went about my daily duties (perhaps a little too enthusiastically) and on Saturday gave Katie a bath and braided her hair with 2 braids for the talent show (which was great fun). By Sunday morning I was in the ER with complications from the d & c. My parents took my kids to church and then Andy drove my two boys to my sisters house (3 hours of driving..how I love Andy) so she could take care of them. We decided Katie would stay to attend school and help me.

So I spend the day and night and day in the hospital and was released Monday afternoon in time to race home to get Katie off the bus.

IMAGINE if you will, how bad my stomach was hurting and the complete belly laugh I had to hold in when Katie gets off the bus and runs up to me. She has on camouflage heels, white socks, bright red spandex tight pants, a very bright blue shirt with the word peace in sparkly pink writing with peace signs all over and then to top it off, she has one braid still in (yes...still from Saturday) and one braid completely missing and her hair hanging in all sorts of wild directions (you know mothers...the kind of kinky weird curls from being in a braid and having then been slept on and not combed at all) so can you imagine what her teacher must have thought?

She had no idea I went to the hospital and that Andy was doing awesome to get her there...no idea that this perfectly stubborn daughter of mine had gotten dressed herself! what she must think!

In the book The Secret Life of Bees the little girl mentioned that you could always tell who had a mother because those girls had their hair done. so I can only hope that the teacher could figure out Katie didn't have her mother there to help...

A little something Bunny...

Easter came and went and the Bunny left us with lots of baskets to find, jelly beans turned into Lollipops and egg hunts galore. We were especially thrilled to take on Aimee (Shelby's youngest) for the week while Shelby took in Disney world, beaches, palm trees and friends in Florida with only 2 kids. Need we say anymore? A true vacation I imagine :).

Baker must be looking more and more like his daddy because everyone comments on how alike they look...
And here's Griffith. The park where the Easter Egg Hunt was ended up being very cold. But all we had was this purple jacket so Griffy happily became my little girl for a few hours :)
And Katie pulled out her tooth so that the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy could meet up...she remains ever my daughter :)

How Do I Love Thee, Let me Count the Ways

Last week Heather stole my thunder. I was planning on posting a blog about the 36 reasons I love her so dearly. However, she posted about the 36 accomplishments she was proud of (which reading those was an example of why I love her). So I decided to wait a week and post it for Valentine's day. I didn't want her post to be lost in a new post. So here are 36 reasons I love her, although the list could go on and on. I told Katie that I was going to do it and she started listing a bunch of ideas. So have fun. Try and figure out which ones I wrote and which ones Katie said. Either way please know that we love her and can't imagine our life without her. She truly makes our life meaningful. She brings joy to our life.

1. She's beautiful
2. She's smart
3. She reads
4. She is nice
5. She is talented
6. She makes the most amazing cakes (I'll post a picture soon)
7. She is a great cook
8. Her eyes
9. She has a lot of options (Katie wasn't sure what this meant but it sounded good)
10. She loves to cuddle with us in the morning and at night
11. She sings me a web like a spider's web
12. Despite her saying otherwise she has a beautiful voice
13. Her laugh
14. She can make some seriously cute children
15. Her creativity
16. She likes being our mom
17. Her incredible ability and willingness to serve.
18. The fact that she takes time to figure out when people's birthdays are and celebrates them.
19. She tells awesome stories
20. She lets us pick what food we want
21. She's sweet like candy
22. She is a great person because she buys us toys
23. She sacrifices so that we can go see our cousins
24. She takes us on ALOT of adventures, like tasting sap from a tree
25. She invited a woman to our house that didn't have anybody to share her birthday with.
26. She makes sure that we celebrate holidays in a fun and creative way
27. She constantly challenges us to be better

28. She includes everybody, she is always texting the entire world to invite them along (Katie is questioning her ability to text to China, Japan, France, Washington, Australia..., she is still listing countries but I figured you got the point, by the way I know Washington isn't a country but I thought it was funny that she threw it in there).

29. She has a wonderful and I mean wonderful family

30. She is an amazing financial manager, she does more on, and with, our limited budget than most would be able to.

31. She absolutely loves to learn, she knows more in her bones than I've learned with years of schooling.

32. She takes care of us when we are sick.

33. She always is volunteering at the school, all of the kids go around saying, "hey there is Katie's mom"

34. She loves her kids and does everything for them.

35. She knows what plants we can, and which plants we cannot touch

36. She is perhaps the best example of Christ like living that I know!

What a wonderful woman I have the opportunity to spend my life with. I am one lucky man!

36 reasons to love...

Well, I can't believe it. I turned 36 today and I'm a little struck with how fast my life has gone. As a youth I made up a list of everything I wanted to do in my life and I feel like I didn't accomplish most of that list. BUT, within 36 years I've done some amazing things (in no particular order)...1) I've seen the pyramids and ridden a camel in Egypt, 2) I was Employee of the Year at Wasatch Mental Health for Child Services 3)I ran in the Provo Library race 4) Somehow I managed to get married to the most amazing calm man who so perfectly tempers my craziness 5) I graduated from College 6) Despite all obvious reasons why not, we've managed to have 3 beautiful children who have exceeded my expectations in so many ways 7) I danced in the middle of a fountain on a perfect day 8) I've been to the top of the Eiffel tower 9) I've had a poem published 10) I served a mission for my church 11) I became a Master Naturalist 12) I planned a fantastic National Letterboxing Conference 13) I managed to have a decade of Theme Parties 14) I've met a few of the angels from God 15) I climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Piza and explored the Catacombs of Rome 16) I passed Algebra 17) I've kissed someone I loved in a perfect snowstorm 18) I've skied the Swiss Alps
19) I got to attend several Olympic Games 20) I've played guitar in public 21) I visited the Garden Tomb and walked where Christ was 22) I've been in plays and worked the light board 23) I figured out that I was intelligent 24) I danced in a talent show 25) I've remained friends with at least 2 people from college 26) I was captain of my high school cheerleading squad and we won the Cheerleading championships 27) I sat in the rain in Ireland 28) I taught music/rhythm to kids and have loved it 29) I dance in the kitchen with my children 30) I've loved greatly and loss greatly and still open my heart 31) My family still remain my best friends 32) I am creative and love to plan things 33) I have gone on 2 perfect cruises 34) I have grown to learn who Christ is 35) I have changed someone's life and have been changed by someone and 36) I have discovered what "beautiful" means to me

Baker turns 4

These next few posts may be out of order. On December 22nd, Baker officially turned 4. And he swung into this birthday on Spiderman's back. Gone are the days of cars, trains and enter the next reality of webslinging, and fighting the bad guys (as he calls it).


The Green Goblin (who is Spiderman's #1 bad guy) was in for a shock as all the little kids threw their sticky spidermans at him and attempted to knock him out of the sky. The funny thing here is that Baker has never seen a Spiderman cartoon in his life (that I'm aware of) and doesn't even really know who the green goblin is. But he loved getting the bad guy, as did all the other kids.

We had two girls at this party (Katie and Taylor, who represented spidergirl well.) Baker tried to tell Katie she couldn't come since she was too old, but I happily explained that family comes anyway! The webslingers had to work their way through an obstacle course to prove they were real spideys in training. and Once they got their mask, we moved onto presents and cake.


And since I figured this year Spiderman as an action figure would be so much easier than trying to decorate his face in cake, we had this!
So Happy Birthday my dear 4 year old Boy. You have taught me much about wrestling, time management, laughing, how to karate chop, how to annoy your sister, how only two little boys can giggle, where toots come from, how to survive on Peanut butter and jelly and macaroni and cheese for every meal, and most of all, that small packages really do hold great things. I love you!

And to all a good night

Christmas started early in our house. In fact, I'm surprised we slept at all. This year I remade all the stockings. After last year of having them not quite fit everything, I super sized them. I Love stockings. I love that they are full of such prizes like coloring books, toothbrushes, candy, oranges, toys, nuts, lovies, cereal boxes etc. I think they are some of my favorite things on Christmas morn. So I was super pleased with how much could be stuffed into my new stockings. Plus we all had our names on them!!

Christmas Eve never passes without my dad reading the Night Before Christmas. I don't think it would seem like Christmas Eve if my dad didn't read this book to the children before we hustled them off to bed. It is what I grew up with and I love that my kids get to create this memory with my dad. I'm sure that one day it will fall to Andy, but for now, we love having the patriarch continue this long held tradition.

The boys made quick work of setting up and playing Shake and Go Race Speedway. Santa was good to them and they continued to play with it throughout the entire Christmas break with their cousins.

I helped Giff out with his stocking. He enjoyed just sitting back and watching until he realized there was candy in the stockings as well as gifts. He really liked Christmas then. He takes after his Aunt Missy.

Katie and I began to work on her decoding mystery paper once she opened her detective kit from Santa.




Katie received a detective kit from Santa this year. Along with that came a decoder with a mystery puzzle courtesy of the Backyardigans and her mommy and daddy that she had to solve.
She worked out that the mystery led her to the chalkboard in the toy room. She promptly figured out the word "coffee table" and came running back up stairs. All of this allowed me time to put out the prize.
Her very own male Hamster which she named Lucy!
The boys made quick work of their stockings and loved every minute of the fun of dumping them out.
The family shot of the Brimhalls in their Christmas Jammies. We take the picture first thing in the morning before gifts so that everyone is still happy.


Baker loved all of his gifts this year and many of Griffy's and Katie's as well. He just thought everything was so fun.The highlight of Griffy's Christmas was a lite brite travel kit my mom got him and this other ride along my mom got him. She must be a toddler whisperer because he was so thrilled and rode rampage on everything left in his path.

for Christmas we game my dad his very own critique book. He had made a comment at a dinner party about critiquing the guests and we turned this into one of the funniest jokes. We critique everything now and so for Christmas, we let him have on of his very own.

This is Christmas eve, but would take too long to rearrange the pics. We had a wonderful evening of clam chowder, potato soup, a Nativity play and new pjs with our dear friends and family.
Merry Christmas to ALL!
(ps. are you loving these jammies or what? I painted all the candy canes)