Baker Trivia-You Be the Judge

The picture quality on the second picture is not great but you'll get the idea. One of Baker's favorite things to eat for breakfast is "Cheesy Eggs" (in fact he is getting so good at "helping Daddy" that he can almost make the entire meal all by himself). The first picture is of him eating this delightful delicacy.
Well this request was never problematic until this year at Easter. Every year at Easter Heather pulls out our Resurrection Eggs. It is a set of twelve eggs, each egg holding something that represents the last days of Christ. Although advanced, Baker wasn't quite able to pronounce resurrection eggs. Instead he decided to refer to them as "Jesus Eggs." The picture below shows them playing with these wonderful eggs.
So here is the challenge. Easter morning Baker woke us up at the crack of dawn constantly repeating the following phrase, which he decided to reenact later that morning with a little pizazz! Your task it to try and determine if he was indeed asking for cheesy eggs or if he was excited for Easter and wanted to play with the Jesus Eggs. (Hint: You may be at a distinct advantage if you saved your secret decoder ring from the sugary cereal box you at last Saturday). Good luck and may the force be with you.

Baker wanted to send his love and let you know that he is grateful you are willing to play his little game. Here is a picture of him sending his love. This picture was taken last week after Baker and his friend Abbey tried out for a talent competition. They were looking for toddlers they could use for magazine shoots, etc. We thought our little man could do that. Him and his friend both got a call back for next Saturday. Isn't he adorable?

Mary or Martha?

Last Saturday night Heather and I truly had a Mary and Martha experience. While I went to soak in the counsel of our Stake presidency at the adult session of Stake conference, Heather stayed home and slaved away at our Easter outfits. She literally bought the fabric on Saturday afternoon (probably about 3 p.m.), cut out the patterns, and sewed like Betsy Ross on cocaine (is that sacrilegious?). So I will let you decide who chose the better half. Here is the pictures of our family on Sunday morning (can you tell by looking at the pictures that we were up until 1 trying to finish the dresses?). Unfortunately, it was Stake conference, which meant that her dresses got much more exposure but not to the people that really mattered. Our few friends that did see us oohed and aahed and once again marveled at Heather's crazy abilities. They call her Queen Midas, a little play on words from the story of king Midas and his golden touch. She truly is an amazing woman who turns everything around her, including us, into something much more valuable than it was to begin with. I am a very lucky man. Fortunately for me she had a minor lapse in judgement when she decided to marry me. In reference to partners, I definitely have chosen the better part (even if that wasn't true for my choice of activities). Heather truly is Amazing!!!

Looking at these pictures one might find themselves saying, "what a perfect Mormon family? I bet they don't have a care in the world. Let me tell you about Stake Conference. It began by Katie and Baker fighting over the crayons until they got to the point where Baker was screaming bloody murder. After several visits in and out of the cultural hall (a building whose sound structure amplifies the sound of a yelling baby even better than the chapel) I finally was able to calm him down. Looking back I realize the two mistakes I made was to let each of them bring one Easter toy that they received in their Easter basket. Katie brought a little Easter bunny that you could throw back and forth and catch using velcro "mitts." Well it didn't take long before Baker was throwing the bunny at every person in the congregation he could lure into his web.

Finally, I was able to wrestle the bunny away from him and send bunny to timeout for being such a terrible distraction for the poor members who sat in our wake. What was Baker's response? He looked at me, and with contempt in his eyes, simply decided that he would move on to the next battle; the toy airplane filled with Easter sweettarts (mistake #2). As always, within minutes he was able to figure out how to open the package and extract the hidden treasure in side, a feat that I was hoping would take him until the end of the meeting. Rather than trying to fight him on this as well, I decided I would give them each two pieces of candy and that they would thank me for my overwhelming graciousness by climbing into their chairs, folding their arms, and quietly praying to the Lord for such a generous father.

Guess again. Baker demanded more candy and when I decided enough was enough he decided he would retaliate. He looked at as if to say, "if you thought my first series of tantrums was impressive, just you wait. I'm going to take my game to the A-level; I am pulling out all the stops." Needless to say, this time he worked himself into such a frenzy that he was almost choking on his tears, literally. The poor boy couldn't breathe. Not to be outdone by her younger, more novice brother, Katie decided that she wanted in on the action. Needless to say, a morning that started with a beautiful family all dressed alike, ended with a mob of angry saints chasing a frustrated father out of the building carrying his two howling hulligans. What a blessed Easter Day!

The Rain Came Down, and the FLOODS Came Up...

So, apparently our little town of Valley Park has made national news. We have received many calls asking about our well-being (take that Ashley Pace) which we've appreciated. Neither Heather or I have been through anything of this magnitude so we never got very worried. We thought, "well, how bad could it get?" Just to give you an idea of the type of flooding that we're talking about, here is a picture of the street that goes to our neighborhood. This picture was taken on Thursday afternoon at about 1 p.m. As a family we decided to walk down to the levee (a link for those of you in the dark, as were Heather and I) to see what all the fuss was about. On Thursday we walked right on top of that green hill in the background, the one where you see a person walking. We were able to walk all the way back there and see the Mighty Meramac.

The next day, barely 24 hours later, I was atop that same levee (this time I had to walk up it from the backside) because that very street, shown in the picture above, was several feet under water (the two trees that you see in the middle of the first picture are the two trees on the very left hand side of this picture). You'll notice that the water goes quite a ways down the street. For those of you that have been to our house, the water almost came as far as the gas station at the bottom of our street. For those of you that haven't visited our house, shame on you. It was amazing to see the amount of water in such a short period of time. Truly remarkable. It gave us a new appreciation of the primary song referenced in the title, and the importance of having a firm foundation. Of course, living on top of a hill isn't a bad idea either.
Despite having spent $50 million dollars building that very levee that we walked upon Thursday afternoon, experts were predicting that the river was going to crest at 43 feet (3 feet higher than the current levee) and as a result we received a telephone call on Friday afternoon asking volunteers to come "save the school." Below you will see a picture to the front door of Katie's school. The picture itself is kind of leery, it makes you feel like you are in the middle of some end-of-the-world-action-thriller. Of course, it didn't help that Heather and I watched, "I am Legend" with Will Smith the night before.
To top off the weekend my friend (Reid Sullivan, the one in yellow on top of the wall) called me on Friday night and asked if I would go down to Arnold (a neighboring city) on Saturday and help them save some homes. In the picture below we are in a person's back yard, trying to build the wall high enough to prevent the water from coming in. For those of you who don't know, there are three main jobs associated with sand bagging. The first is filling the bags. This generally requires two people, one to hold the bag and one to shovel the dirt. The second it tying off the bag, a job that is very important based on the third job. The last job is to form a line and throw the sandbags from person to person to build a wall. As you'll see below, the person that tied the bag becomes a very important person. On more than one occasion you would hear the cry of "open bag" come down the line, only to turn and receive a face full of sand.

When I arrived at the Arnold site, the organizers took one look at my physique and said, "Son, you better stand in the line!" After panting two minutes later (my stamina doesn't match my physique) they changed their minds and had me hold the bags. As far as I know we succeeded in our goal and the initial scare for these homeowners has passed.

In fact, this morning I woke up extra early to go to seminary (a drive that normally takes 5 minutes) and wound my way around the city to arrive 25 minutes later at the church. The irony? On the way home I decided to drive down the street I normally take (just to see if it was anywhere near being unflooded) and it was totally open, all the water was gone. Except for the fish on the road you couldn't even tell that a day earlier it had been submerged. I guess I got up early for nothing. All in all it was a very eventful weekend and this doesn't even include our Easter activities (which will be shared in an upcoming blog). We love you all and are very grateful for a loving Father and a community of helpful friends. Overall, we are very blessed.

Cousin Idol 2008

One of Katie's favorite family activities is to watch American Idol as a family. The whole time we watch the program she dances along to the performers and tries desperately to imitate them. She will often do extra chores just to earn the right to stay up late for this special treat. This desire was greatly enhanced when we were recently visited by Katie's cousin Brinley. The two of them are natural entertainers and feed effortlessly off of one another. They love to dance, they love to entertain, and they love to have people watch them. Well, while they were here Grammy gave them a special Valentine's rose that sang them a special song. Within a day they had the words memorized, a dance choreographed, and were asking Daddy to film them for his posterity. I quickly obliged and the following was created. Pay special attention to the exciting twist at the end of Senatra's old classic "Fly me to the Moon." Hopefully, Katie's flare for entertaining will support us in our old age!

Which one is Griffith Jack?

Number 1:

Number 2:
Number 3:

Since we have received many questions about whether or not Griffith Jack looks like his siblings I decided to have a little contest. The following three pictures are not of the same child, buth rather one of each of the children. Therefore, one is of Katie Pearl, one is of Baker Scott, and one is of Griffith Jack. So, all you friends, family members, and other interested guests that think you know the Brimhalls let's see you put your money where your mouth is. In the comments section vote for which one you think is Griffith Jack. Five points for every person that chooses correctly. An extra 3 points if you are able to correctly identify the other two. Therefore, you are playing for a grand total of 11 points. Good luck and may the force be with you. Either way aren't they all adorable?

Introducing Griffith Jack Brimhall

I decided, due the amount of pictures that I wanted to share, that rather than uploading each picture individually I'd do a slideshow. So here are some of my favorite pictures of us during our visit to the hospital. Now several of you have asked about the origin of his name. Well, two things. Many of you know that Baker is named after Heather (Baker is her maiden name). In order to continue that trend we went up the line and used her mother's maiden name, which is Griffith. It also comes from a young man that we love in Lubbock Texas. He once spun us a tale of little dwarfs that could mine diamonds in a far off country of Africa. Any man that can weave a tale like that deserves to have a namesake. Jack, comes from a man I love dearly. Heather and I thought about some of the qualities that we wanted to emulate for our little man. Some of the qualities that rose to the top were selflessness and a willingness to serve/sacrifice for other people. There is not a better example of these qualities than my dad. He is always giving of his time, his energy, and his resources to help another individual. He is a wonderful man who is constantly looking out for the needs of others. I have been the recipient of many of those sacrifices and I'm not sure I've ever thanked him sufficiently. He has instilled within me an excellent work ethic. I hope that I can teach Griffith Jack to live up to the ideals of those who have built him a powerful legacy. Enjoy the photos and know that we love you.

Name that Superhero

The other day as I was working on the computer and as all good children do they were trying desperately to distract me. Their goal was made easier by the fact that we had just recently did some spring cleaning in our laundry room and as a result had uncovered some of their long lost items. One of these items was Katie's mermaid scuba outfit, don't ask me where we got it or why. Katie (who is wearing the outfit that I mentioned in an earlier blog), upon seeing said dress up, decided she was going to play mermaid dress up and swim around the downstairs.

Not to be undone, Baker grabbed a piece of her outfit, and played along. As a result, I thought it would be fun to have a little contest for all those family members that frequent my site. Here is a chance to test your creativity. Let's all create a name for this fearsome superhero, one that will do his super powers justice. Happy creating!

Party Time

Yesterday I had a faculty meeting at work. To my utter amazement, my co-workers surprised me with a baby shower/party. Among other things, they gave me some balloons. Nancy, one of my colleagues, told me to take the balloons home and let the kids play with them. Well, I wanted to let her (and the others that contributed to this wonderful day) experience some of the excitement they felt when they woke up this morning to several balloons awaiting them. They truly are amazing kids that bring so much joy to our life. I am also blessed to work with such wonderful people who would go out of their way to make somebody's day. Heather and I are extremely lucky.

A Little Breakfast Entertainment

I thought you all might like a little breakfast entertainment. Katie wore an outfit today that I've wanted her to wear for many days, so I was already thrilled. Then she decided to humor me with a little song. Enjoy!

Can you do that when you're 7 1/2 months pregnant?

The circle of friends that I walk in currently consists of at least seven pregnant women (my apologies if I left anyone out). Among those friends there is a wide discrepancy on how they do or do not follow the doctor's orders. Some are incredibly cautious and follow the rules to the t. Others, I shan't mention any names, are a little more relaxed. None, however, are as uber cool as my beautifully pregnant wife. Don't fly within the last trimester? To heck with you all. I'll do it anyway. In fact, I may not come back until I have three and a half weeks left.


Be careful what you do for exercise, for you may not want to over exert yourself. Pish Posh. I've been doing the Baker bop, a slightly provocative dance move that originated with Mrs. Virginia Baker, for years. Doing the Baker Bop on a consistent basis is not only fun but it allows you to keep that pregnancy weight down to a minimum.

And finally, you should be careful not to do anything where you might risk falling because falling can be potentially dangerous. I'll see your caution and I'll raise you one. I'll go ice skating on a rink in the middle of Sacramento where it is 59 degrees outside, the ice has more bumps in it than a elementary school parking lot, and I will do it all while looking super hot! Doctors beware. This may not be your ideal patient, but she does make for a phenomenal wife, not to mention mother of the year. We are truly blessed to have her in our midst.

Remember, I'm a Baker

This blogging site was originally dedicated to the Brimhall/Baker family, with the intention to teach people what it meant to be a Baker/Brimhall. I'm not sure I've met that objective, until now. They say a picture paints a thousand words. Now I may not want to know all of the words this picture paints but at least it gives you a little glimpse into my life as a Baker.

Imagine walking down the streets of Sacramento and seeing this herd of...walking blueberries, smurfs, Kevin Feterline wantabees, fill in your own blank here ______. It is a site that is hard to comprehend. 15 people dressed exactly alike, from middle aged to 8 months old. Would you find it even harder to believe that Shelby and Heather found these hats the day of? And they matched the sweaters remarkably. They definitely made the outfits, not to mention the night, a little more lively. Overall, I think Baker and Lindsey get the reward for pulling off the outfit the best.

Although Uncle Jim gets an honorable mention:

Baker Turns Two--Part Two

WANTED!

Lest you think Baker's Birthday Bash went off without a hitch, let me introduce you to Lip-Smackin' Lindsey Louise. From all accounts she is wanted in several states. You may ask yourself, what is such a sweet, young, innocent child wanted for? Don't let her crocodile tears and pouty lips fool you. While we were all minding our own business Lip Smacking Lindsey Lou snuck into the dining room downstairs, where the train cake was securely fastened under several layers of the finest protection. Once there she dismantled any attempt to keep the cake secure and laughed in our general direction. Unfortunately, she did not plan on getting caught. Now she is doing time in the Prison of Shelby, a small isolated cell in central Florida. Her sentence has yet to be determined. However, in talking with other criminals that have spent time in the Prison of Shelby, the outlook is bleak. I happened to catch up with "Table Knawing Nathan" a few years after serving time. According to him, he's never had to wash as many garbage cans as he did after being locked up there. "It's amazing," he said. "One minute I am the life of the party, thoroughly entertaining all of my cousins, the next I'm up to my elbows in garbage pails and toilet bowls." All we can say is that we hope that moment of delicious, unresistable, frosting was worth your years of servitude. Good luck Lindsey Louise!

Though witnesses claim she tried to deny it, here is a picture of the aftermath:

Baker Turns Two

On Saturday, December 22nd, Baker finally turned two. It is an event that we have been anticipating for several weeks. We are still trying to adjust our schedules and family traditions around having a birthday boy in December. I wish I could say that we've successfully managed it thus far, but I know it doesn't rival the parties we've thrown for Katie (although you'd never know due to Heather's ability to create magic from the Internet and a couple of pipe cleaners). Perhaps we will consider more earnestly celebrating his half birthday when he grows older.

As for now, we had to wake the poor boy from his nap to let the festivities begin, hence the glazed look above. If not it was going to throw our carolling off by an hour. Although it took him a little while to become coherent once he did he was alive.

For those of you who don't know Baker has recently developed a love for anything Thomas (which he calls "choo-choo" in his soft little high pitched voice--perhaps the cutest thing you've ever heard,--except for when he wakes up and says, "Choo-Choo pan cakie, Daddy?"). You can imagine how a little boy who absolutely loves choo choo trains would react to this cake, a cake that Heather made from scratch in about an hour (see previous comment about Internet and pipe cleaners). A modern day McGyver. The kids were in candy heaven.

Except for Baker! When he found out he couldn't eat the cake until after pictures he began to slowly dawn his pouty face, another very cute feature that Baker has perfected.

Finally the time came where he was free to indulge. Here is a picture of him next to the magician herself, stuffing his face with a...? (Can anybody guess the item he choose to devour first? Hint: He takes after his dear old dad.)

Here is another picture, several minutes later, of the entire family. You'll notice that again Baker was not thrilled that right after he was given free reign of Thomas the Train cake (who was making a special delivery from Cavity Land) that he was being asked to pose for a family picture that was at least three feet away from the cake.

After we were done feasting on the cake the festivities began. Heather had purchased special little conductor hats and had spontaneously created three fun activities that the children could do. As the kids were eating cake we put about 70 little black stripes of construction paper in a line (resembling a train track) throughout the house. The kids were told that they were conductors and that they had to follow the tracks in order to discover a special surprise. Along the way they had to do several things that helped the trains continue to function. For example, at one stop they had to "coal," which consisted of rolled up black socks (Thanks poppy for letting us raid your sock drawer), and throw them back into the engine car.

Overall, it was an enormous success, except for one thing. Before going to CA we began to notice that Baker had a slight nervousness whenever he encountered a dog. We informed Grammy and Poppy, who have two dogs of there own, that they made to initially watch their dogs until Baker could warm up to them.

Well, in order to win over Baker, Grammy and Poppy's dogs, being the nice dogs that they are, gave Baker a little gift; a gift that would welcome him to the family. It appears, however, that Baker didn't seem to appreciate their humor. Even though the dog in the picture below was stuffed he about flew out of his chair. I guess we'll have to bill Chelsea and Diego in a few years when Baker is receiving treatment for his paranoia of all things furry ferocious!

Introducing the next GQ cover model

Several months ago I was at church and I saw this cute little kid enter church wearing a little suit with a tie. It took me a second to realize that the little boy was mine. I was so used to thinking of Baker as our little Baby Boy that it took me a second to realize that he is quickly turning into our little man. Seeing him in his little outfit was so adorable. Well, you'll notice that he isn't wearing a tie in this picture. That's because a week or two ago I turned to Heather and said, "did we ever get a picture of Baker in that cute little suit that he used to wear to church?" She said no. As usual we had great intentions of taking his picture but back in those days I was in the Bishopric and Heather had two kids, an entire music lesson, and several other things to all juggle Sunday morning before church all by herself (needless to say those generally are not the most priceless Kodak moments). On the flip side Baker had usually been in nursery for two hours, eaten snack, and wrestled with several kids during that time. As a result he usually crashed in the car on the way home. Again, waking a sleeping child for a parent's picture gratification is generally not a great idea. Either way, we never got a picture. So imagine Heather's surprise the other day when she came out before church and her little boy was wearing his suit. Why the surprise? Well the suit is for 6-9 months. For those of you who are counting Baker is now less than a month away from being 2. While it may be a little small for him (his vest looked like he was a high priest still trying to wear his mission vest; which we know there are several of those that exist in the church) I think the overall look was fetching. He certainly is a fun child to have in our lives.

I also wanted to show you a picture of Katie and Baker together. I love this picture because it really illustrates how Katie treats Baker. She is an absolutely wonderful big sister. She will play with him and entertain him for hours. The two of them have a very special bond and Baker will often follow her around the house and do everything she does. Katie is not in his vocabulary but one of the very first words that he learned to say was, "cis-sy" (Baker for sissy). It seems that Katie can get him to laugh and play faster than anybody else in the family. For example, the other day I went in to get him out of bed in the morning. After several minutes of catering to his every need (changing his diaper, getting him a drink, changing his pee soaked jammies), during which time Baker hardly acknowledged I was there, Katie walked in the room and he jumped up and yelled, "CIS-SY" We certainly are a lucky to have two such beautiful and loving children.

Do you ever wish you had a recorder?

So I'm driving in the van with Katie, Baker, and her two neighbor friends Tyler (the one with the monkey face; not that he looks like a monkey but the one literally pulling the monkey face) and Josh (the one in the stripes). As I'm driving them home I have one of those moments where I think, Man I'd pay money to have a tape recorder right now. So I decided I'd hurry and sit down and try to recapture some of the magic. We'll see how I do. Many of you may not realize this but in St. Louis they require you to tell a joke in order to "earn" your trick-or-treat candy. As a result the kids were all well versed on their latest jokes. As I got in the van I received a chorus of "do you want to hear a joke?" My thought, "who wouldn't want to hear a joke created by a five year old?" (although secretly in my head I set a timer to see if we would make it all the way home hearing progressively more creative jokes; my hypothesis was yes; my hypothesis was confirmed).

First Joke:

Katie (K): Why did the kitchen cross the road?

Answer (A): to get some food to cook and eat

then a variety of jokes that followed, each child taking their turn. Katie's second joke:

K: Why did the squirrel cross the road?

A: because it was attached to the kitchen. Rounds of laughter, where does she come up with these things.

Later, Tyler, asked: Why did the Thanksgiving dog cross the road?

Josh: to meet his girlfriend.

Katie: that's silly Josh, dogs don't have girlfriends.

Josh: Yes, they do. My uncle Rick has a dog, and his wife's name is Lasso (?) and she has like 10 kids.

Katie: Oh yeah, well why did they Thanksgiving dog cross the road?

Tyler: because he wanted to eat some turkey.

Katie: wrong

Tyler: because he wanted to be with his family and friends while they ate turkey.

Katie: Wrong again.

Tyler: b bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb (that isn't actually what Tyler said Baker simply decided he needed to share computer time with his daddy). Back to the conversation.

Tyler: because he wanted to kill the turkey so he could eat it.

Katie: How did you get it?

Tyler: Hah! I got it right. In your face!

Katie: Allright, here's another one. This time I'll make it easier so you can get it right on the first time. Why did the house cross the street?

Tyler: to eat turkey with his friends (noticing a theme?).

Katie: NO! because he had feet.

Tyler: You mean he didn't like his neighbors so he decided to walk to the other side of the road to find new neighbors that he liked better?

Katie: Yeah you got it.

Tyler: Hah! I got it right. In your face!

Oh the wonder of kids. They literally could keep you entertained for hours. By the way, for those parents that have had similar experiences and as a result found themselves placing a mental wager on how long the conversation would last? We drove from our stake center to my house. Approximate traveling time: 19 minutes. So the essence of the story? Come to St. Louis, where for the small price of a candy bar you will meet our future comedians. We love you all and hope to see you soon.

Nauvoo, here we come

Our spontaneous, last minute Nauvoo trip to see where the Pioneers lived, included a special friend, Madeline Rozeski, for Katie. We drove the short distance (3 hours) to get there and see the Nauvoo pageant (which both girls slept through after a hot day in the sun).

It was a day filled with laughs, tears, and more than a few "when do I get my ice cream cone?". Riding the oxcart became a joyous experience as Katie and Madeline wowed us with their rendition of "here comes the oxcart" over and over again. But it was well worth the experience since they were so proud that they could be on a pioneer wagon.

Calling All Relatives

One of the things that we absolutely love about Saint Louis is the variety of activities that they have for families absolutely free. Take for example the Clayton Art Festival. Every year they block off a significant portion of Clayton (a suburb of St. Louis) and bring in artists from all over the nation (but mainly from the midwest). As part of the celebration they bring in food, entertainment, and most importantly free children's activities. One of the things that Baker and Katie were able to make this year is crazy paper hats:



Next we went over to the table where they got to make marble art. As you can see they put a paper in the box, cover a varitey of marbles with different color paints, and then let the kids have at it.




These are only 2 examples of the activities we did that day. They also had sand art, clay sculpting, and a variety of other activities. And the best part, all of it was F-R-E-E free. Music to a cheap man's ears. The great thing is Saint Louis has 60 other activities exactly like this one going on each and every weekend. We've absolutely loved living here and invite all of those interested to come and visit and partake of this beautiful city.

IT'S A B-IRL!!!

After weeks of questioning and guessing we had our ultrasound today and we found out that it was a little baby B-IRL. For those of you who don't know what that means, let me explain. Heather and I for the past month and a half have been toying with the idea of waiting until the birth of the baby to find out if it is a boy or a girl. My main reservation was how Katie was going to respond; she has been convinced that it is going to be a little girl. I was afraid that if she didn't know until the day of that it was a boy then she would be very disappointed. However, for the past several weeks she has been very open to the idea that it might be a boy or a girl. So finally I asked her. I said, "Katie, what if mommy and daddy don't find out what we are having until we go to the hospital." Her response, "whatever, I'd love it either way" (what an angel she is). With my major reservation deflected I had relatively little justification to not take the plunge; despite the fact that we were still questioning ourselves as we walked into the Dr's office. So long story short: we still don't know what we are having. Although Heather swears that she saw a little device floating in the amniotic fluid. I told her that her mind was playing tricks on her because she was trying as hard as she could to find out, without finding out. Overall, it was a fun experience (although it took everything we had to not look at the screen when they told us to look away). In the end, we still feel fairly confident that it is a girl but Heather's "UFO sighting" (Unidentified Floating Object) has introduced a small glimmer of doubt. Either way we are thrilled and look forward to holding this little baby in our arms.

I'm Singing in the Rain

The other day Heather and I were in the kitchen finishing a project (as we are known to do). After a while of complete silence we looked at each other and asked, "where are the kids?" After a brief search in the house, to no avail, I glanced outside and saw a topless little girl roaming the rain drenched streets. She was hopping from puddle to puddle, enjoying herself immensely. Upon seeing this Baker decided that it was unfair that his sister was having fun without him so he darted out the door and immediately dove into a puddle. Before long the entire neighborhood was out laying in the puddles. The two older girls (Alyssa and Mallory) seemed to find particular pleasure in getting Baker to lay on his belly in the puddle and do his best Shamu impersonation. That kid is quite a character. The experience was too cute to not capture on film. Although I captured some of the footage on our camcorder I didn't think to get a little digital clip that I could add to the blog page. You'll be happy to note that we finally dressed our daughter (we didn't think it would be proper to let her roam the streets topless). However, somehow we failed to put our son in something more dashing. You can't see it well in this picture but he had on a 2T onesie. By the time he was done playing in the puddle the part that was suppose to cover his bottom was dragging on the ground in between his legs. It is amazing they let us take our kids anywhere.

How Many Kimballs does it take...?

We were very forunate to have our amazing friendss visit us over Spring Break 2007. The Kimballs are a family that we met while we were in Lubbock, TX. Tom and Andy played basketball on Saturday's and worked together at school (Tom was, and continues to be, a wonderful mentor) . Heather and Melissa became close friends through their heated discussions at book club, some of which actually focused on the book!

Knowing that the Kimballs would be visiting us on their Spring Break I devised a few science projects to keep their minds alert because you know what they say...an idle mind is the devil's workshop. I knew that if they didn't keep their minds occupied they might start concocting bizarre stories like diamond mining dwarfs that save small African Villages. So, in honor of the old tootsie pop commercials, I decided to see how many Kimballs it took to outweigh a Brimhall. What started out as a joke quickly turned into an increased desire to renew my South Beach Diet. I mean look at all those kids. I wish I could say that this experience help me increase my excercise and cut back on sugar. But alas, due to a sweet tooth and a weakened will, I simply have to say, add another small child to the pile. I've heard the saying that it takes a village to raise a child, but, who has heard the one about it taking one large man to raise a village!

Happy to be a Brimhall

This week was a special one since it was Heather’s 33rd Birthday. Yep, she is officially well into her 30’s. And how did she celebrate?? Andy told her she could sleep in, but who really sleeps in with dishes being washed and a baby screaming and Katie yelling for a bowl of cereal, so she just hid in her room and read a book until Andy finally opened the door and caught her red handed. But he made her breakfast and then the first
activity started. And what activity is worthy of a birthday? That’s right! You guessed it, cleaning house. This went on for about 2 hours and then the real fun began. Heather had told Andy that all she wanted to do was letterbox for her birthday. So unbeknownst to Heather, Andy created a box and cleverly planted it for her, in her honor. It is published on atlasquest.com under the title Grover the Groundhog. This had to be about the best gift ever. So off we went (after figuring out the clues online) and in 20 degree weather, ran to the box, grabbed it and headed to Fritz’s restaurant and rootbeer bottling plant for lunch.
It was so fun. They brought you a rootbeer float sundae for your birthday and we all gobbled it down rather quickly. Katie especially loved it as all the kids meals came in little cars. Plus, you could watch them actually making, filling and labeling the rootbeer bottles while we ate. Once back in the car, we stamped into the logbook of Grover and then rehid the box where it went. Andy is so very clever.

Then we were off to find the box at the Deer Creek Rocket Slide Park that we had Searched so diligently for last weekbut could never find. The kids fell asleep on the way there but were quickly awakened and actually excited to go in below freezing weather and swing. What kids we are raising. I’m not sure what that says about us that we encourage this behavior when we are all sick. But it was fun. The day continued with sharing cake with our friends across the street and playing Sleuth. A game that Andy won for the first time (or so he says). What a wonderful night! Thank you!!

Andy was busy this week preparing letterboxes and teaching. He has struggled with whether to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday and decided against him though this meant missing out on a fun party with friends. It’s not always easy to try and follow gospel principles. This was a big week for him with presenting. The Stake had a couples sweetheart ball and Andy was a key speaker at it. He spoke on communication is marriage. Everyone was relaxed in his presentation and really enjoyed it. He spoke about trying to avoid pitfalls, changing your perspective and made an excellent analogy between Moroni, Ammoron and Pahoran that everyone talked about in the next class. The entire night dancing was spent fending off comments from people on how great Andy was. But we did get to dance (well except for the weird single teddy bear mixer that left everyone uncomfortable) and we loved every minute of our date night without the children. But we did miss our friends that would dance with us in Lubbock. Everyone here was embarrassed or said they didn’t dance.

Katie started the week on a low point. She got so mad at Heather asking her to clean her room that she told (well really screamed) her: “I’m going to kill you.” Now where our nice, sweet daughter got this kind of language is of no consequence, and while Heather wanted to really explain that actually she was her favorite person and how Katie really loved her and should want to be like her, Heather marched her straight to time out. Katie sat on the chair and cried. Once she was cried out and Heather thought that Katie was ready to apologize for her comment, she told Katie to come talk to her. Katie then said, Mommy you need to pay me all your money for being mean to your kids. (Heather making Katie pay her money everytime she wants to do an activity or earn something). It took all she had not to laugh. The week continued with Katie playing dress up. And lacking a sister certainly didn’t stop her from having a partner. She played the fairy godmother and with a little bibbity bobbity boo, Baker was quickly transformed. She loved telling Heather that even though Heather wasn’t as pretty as Katie was, she could sit by her while they played. Obviously self esteem is not an issue with Katie.

Baker had a busy week of cruising around while he held onto chairs, toys and even the cats back. He will be walking in no time, which will perhaps help him escape from his sister. He loves to play exactly what she is and while Katie gets frustrated when he puts the littlepet shop animals in his mouth instead of talking with them as his brilliant sister does, she tries to understandand teach him how to play. He babbles more and more and Katie insists he is talking and that she understands, and her interpretations of what he says are priceless. He babbles one sound and she’ll interpret an entire sentence. It’s like watching a bad voice over of a Japanese movie. But he keeps us happy and laughing and loves on us just enough to let us know that he is happy to be a Brimhall.

Time for a Whitening?

Heather and I decided for Christmas that we wanted to upgrade our digital camera in order to enhance our family pictures. We have loved our first digital camera immensely but have recently realized its limitations. So with the help of Heather's father, Shelby and Jim, and three separate trips to Circuit City (exchanging cameras everytime we went) we picked a camera that we were satisfied with. One of the features that sold us on this camera was the fact that you could set it to only pick up a certain color within the photo and it would take the rest in black and white while enhancing that particular color. We weren't sure we believed their claims so we decided to take it for a test spin. Here are the results of our experiment. You'll notice in the picture above that we decided to focus on blue.

Next, we changed it to red. Look at that cute little devilish vixen. Isn't she adorable.



Now, here is where we were truly amazed. You'll notice earlier how I mentioned that it takes any hue of the color and truly enhances it. Notice poor little Baker's nose and cheeks. The red is faint but noticeable. Overall, we were very please with our new purchase. That is until we tried the yellow. Again, I remind you that the goal of the camera is to take any hue of the accent color and enhance it (or maybe I am just saying that to make myself feel better). Either way, it doesn't feel like I have an inch of yellow fuzz on my teeth. But you know what they say, the camera never lies. Let's just hope (like the myth that the camera adds 10 pounds) that it's really not as bad as it seems. At least Katie came out looking like a princess!