Sick

We have a sick little one here at our house. Aspen woke up with a fever of 102 this morning so he wasn't able to go to school. Aspen was bummed that he was sick and Aiden was bummed that he WASN'T sick and had to go to school. He wanted to be sick and stay home too. I don't know what is making Aspen feel bad but it doesn't seem too horrible and with any luck he will be better before the end of the week. Aspen and Ash's classrooms are right next door to each other and Aspen's teacher said she would send work home with Ash so Aspen doesn't fall behind.

Great FHE

Check it out- two posts in one day! Don't expect it very often.

We had a great Family Home Evening tonight. It was Dallas' turn to come up with a lesson and he decided to watch Standards Night Live by John Bytheway. I had never seen it before and it was wonderful! He is an amazing speaker and gets me to look at things new ways and say, "Oh yeah! I had never looked at it like that before!" The video is about our personal standards and why they need to be high. It talks about how if we want to be like Christ, we need to act, dress, speak and be a certain way- not in a restrictive way but in an encouraging and protecting way. He is so much more eloquent than me but needless to say, my heart was touched and he made me want to live a better life because of the things he said. If you ever want to have a change of heart or want to better you own life, I would definately recommend this video. There are two links to the left if you want to watch a clip of it.

One part that I remember was a poem he quoted by Joseph Malins. I looked it up on the internet and found it. It goes like this:

'Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke and full many a peasant.
So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally;
Some said, "Put a fence 'round the edge of the cliff,"
Some, "An ambulance down in the valley."
But the cry for the ambulance carried the day,
For it spread through the neighboring city;
A fence may be useful or not, it is true,
But each heart became full of pity
For those who slipped over the dangerous cliff;
And the dwellers in highway and alley
Gave pounds and gave pence, not to put up a fence,
But an ambulance down in the valley.
"For the cliff is all right, if you're careful," they said,
"And, if folks even slip and are dropping,
It isn't the slipping that hurts them so much
As the shock down below when they're stopping."
So day after day, as these mishaps occurred,
Quick forth would those rescuers sally
To pick up the victims who fell off the cliff,
With their ambulance down in the valley.
Then an old sage remarked: "It's a marvel to me
That people give far more attention
To repairing results than to stopping the cause,
When they'd much better aim at prevention.
Let us stop at its source all this mischief," cried he,
"Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally;
If the cliff we will fence, we might almost dispense
With the ambulance down in the valley."
"Oh he's a fanatic," the others rejoined,
"Dispense with the ambulance? Never!
He'd dispense with all charities, too, if he could;
No! No! We'll support them forever.
Aren't we picking up folks just as fast as they fall?
And shall this man dictate to us? Shall he?
Why should people of sense stop to put up a fence,
While the ambulance works in the valley?"
But the sensible few, who are practical too,
Will not bear with such nonsense much longer;
They believe that prevention is better than cure,
And their party will soon be the stronger.
Encourage them then, with your purse, voice, and pen,
And while other philanthropists dally,
They will scorn all pretense, and put up a stout fence
On the cliff that hangs over the valley.
Better guide well the young than reclaim them when old,
For the voice of true wisdom is calling.
"To rescue the fallen is good, but 'tis best
To prevent other people from falling.
"Better close up the source of temptation and crime
Than deliver from dungeon or galley;
Better put a strong fence 'round the top of the cliff
Than an ambulance down in the valley.

First Day of School

We made it though the first day of school today! Everything went almost perfectly and there was not a single tear shed. (Things got a little blurry in my eyes but no tears actually FELL!)
Before we left for the bus, Ash told me that he knew exactly what to do on the bus because Alexis had told him. (Way to be a good big sister, Alexis!) Alexis, Aiden and Ash all wanted to ride the bus but Aspen wanted to drive to school with me. I put the three kids on the bus after taking a bunch of pictures then Aspen and I drove to school to wait for the bus (to take more pictures, of course!) We found each of the kids' teachers and they all promptly and proudly walked off with their teachers. I thought at least ONE of my children would cry to stay with me but noooo, they all wanted to run off to their classes. Just kidding of course. I am glad they were all excited.
In the afternoon I went to pick them up and it was total chaos. There were lines clear out onto Chandler Heights Road so we decided to park and find our children instead of driving through the pick up line. We found the two older kids without incident but Aspen and Ash were a bit trickier. They weren't at the parent pick up spot so I walked to their bus and had someone call for them to get off the bus before it left. The woman got on the bus and called for them but came back off saying they weren't on it. We went through the school to the parent pick up location again and found Ash but still couldn't find Aspen. Luckily we ran into his teacher and she said she had put Aspen on the bus. A second trip through the bus and we finally found him. He just hadn't answered the first time when they called his name.
On the way home I asked each of the kids how their day was. Everyone took turns talking about the first day- new friends, the teacher's rules, the playground. One of the first things Ash told me was that he didn't go to the principal's office. "Good for you!" I said. Unfortunately, later in the afternoon he came to me again and said, "Mom, I actually DID get sent to the principal's office because I kicked someone." I told him that I really needed to know the truth- did you or did you not get sent to the principal's office for kicking? I was again told yes, he was sent to the principal's office. There were no notes in his backpack to indicate any problem so I called his teacher, Ms. Okinowski. She reported that he had been an angel all day and that the entire principal's office story was just that- a story. Needless to say, I had to have a talk with Ash about fibbing and telling the truth. I'll never know why he said he got in trouble. I just hope Ms. Okinowski only believes half of the stuff he probably tells her goes on at home.
During dinner Ash made my day. It was all quiet and out of the blue he said, "I was sad on the playground today." Aspen asked why and he replied, "Because I wanted to play with you but I didn't see you and I was lonely." I made some comment about Ash loving Aspen and Aspen disagreed saying Ash didn't love him. Then Ash said, "Uh hu. I do tho love you Athpen." Awww..... it just melted my heart to hear him say he loved his brother and he was sad when he didn't see him. They may fight like cats and dogs somedays, but deep down they do love each other. What else could a parent ask for?

More Hairy Events

Last night it was Aiden who was turning heads with his hair. Tiffany came over and bleached it. Contrary to his fake sad face in the first picture, he loves it! Tiff is pretty proud of herself for how it looks too. She is in cosmotology school and it was the first time she has bleached someones hair. Thanks Tiff!!

Alexis and her twin

Alexis told me I needed a more recent photo of her on the blog. So, here is one of her and her twin seperated by birth, Hailey. They may not look alike and they have completely different personalities and likes/dislikes, but they are totally inseperable. The two of them have been best friends since before they were crawling and couldn't live without the other. Alexis is lucky to have such a great friend as a cousin.

AGHHH!! Cut it out!

Next week being the first week of school, Dallas took all three boys to get their hair cut yesterday afternoon. All of them looked so handsome! They love the shop he took them to because when the haircut is finished, they put in this styling gel that turns their hair blue for the day. It looks pretty cool. Well, late in the evening I sent the kids to get ready for bed and Ash decided he wanted the blue out of his hair and instead of washing his hair, he CUT it out! I don't know what bothers me the most- the fact that he ruined a perfectly good haircut the week before his first day of kindergarten (so much for the cute pics) or the fact that I wasted $10 on a haircut that we only enjoyed for four hours.

We went back to the same barber school today to have them fix his hair and the first person I saw when we walked in the door was the owner. He had Ash go sit in a chair then called out the kid who cut his hair yesterday. I felt bad but laughed at the same time when the owner played a joke on the student, asking him why he had cut this little boy's hair like that. He told the student that I was back in there to complain about the cut. The kid's eyes kept darting from me to Ash to the teacher and he was shaking his head denying that he had done such a horrid job. He was relieved when the teacher finally let him off the hook and said Ash cut it himself. The owner ended up buzzing his hair and while you can still see lines in his head where he is bald, it looks 100% better. Now he just looks like he has had brain surgery and has a couple bald white scars on his head.

question

Okay, I am still new to blogging and have a question. How do I put a slideshow on my blog? I have uploaded a bunch of pics to Picasa and I want to do a slideshow. I have found WHERE to do it, but it doesn't seem to be working. Could it be I have too many photos in a file? Any suggestions?

Amanda's First Stake Dance

Saturday night was Amanda's first stake dance. She came to me at 7:30 pm and said she wanted to go but there were a few concerns I had.

#1- None of her friends were going (How fun is a stake dance when none of your friends are there?)

#2- She didn't have a dance card and had no idea what one was

#3- She only wanted to stay for one hour, meaning I would need to drop her off, return home, then leave to pick her up 20 minutes later- not going to happen.



I did some calling around to different people in our ward and found two girls who had just left. Their dad said that they DID need dance cards but that the bishop always had them on him. Unfortunately, I couldn't get in touch with the bishop so I just chanced and took her to the dance, hoping that there would be someone at the door who could do a quick interview and let her in. (FYI, if you have no idea what a dance card is either, it is a card that allows you into church dances. Basically, it just has the rules on it [no rough housing, dress modestly, be nice....] and you need to review the rules once a year to get a card.)



After a little coaxing, I convinced Amanda to stay at the dance more than one hour. If anything went really bad I said she could call me, otherwise I would pick her up two hours later.



We finally got to the dance and there was a gentlemand outside the door saying the dance had been moved due to a bee infestation in the church that just occured Saturday afternoon. He directed us to the new location and I dropped her off.

After the dance I asked how it went and she gave a typical answer "good". When I asked her if she danced with any boys she said no but also said she had a good time. I am glad to see her beginning to go.

Here's a fun game

For those of you who have watched our boys grow up (and for those of our newer friends), can you tell the boy's baby pictures apart? No fair cheating by opening the photo and reading the file name. Incidentally, how many of you actually KNOW each of my boy's names, more than just "I know it starts with an A....." Hahaha. Enjoy!

Shannon, remember me telling you yesterday that one of my children had a lot of teeth at the first birthday? I figured out who it was and I counted- 6 teeth to eat this 1st b-day cake.

Oops! I killed a snake!

Last night Ash and I were on our way to pick Alexis up from Amber Call's home and I saw a huge rattlesnake in the road just a second too late. We turned around to see if we had hit it and sure enough, the insides were spread all over the ground around it. The poor thing didn't even know what hit it. When we got to Alexis' friend's house, Ash jumped out and told Alexis what had happend. Of course she wanted to see it so we stopped to look at it on the way home. I pulled up right next to it and opened my door so we could get a closer look. I must have jumped a mile high though when it lunged up at the open door with its mouth open wide! I slammed on the gas and drove off the side of the road because it scared me to death! The insides were seriously all over the road so the last thing I expected was for it to lunge up at me. We peered back at it just in time to see it flop over onto it's back and give a final breath (I think) with its mouth open wide.

This morning Aspen walked though the house into the den where I was to show me a broken egg dripping between his fingers. "Look!" he said. "I found an egg!!...then I dropped it." He was so proud of finding his first egg and looked so cute that I simply congratulated him and wiped up the trail of egg.

July 14, 2008

This evening we took the boys and Amanda to the store to buy school shoes. Alexis was at her other home (AKA Hailey's house) for the night so she didn't get to go. After shopping we came home and had Family Home Evening. Tonight we talked about puting on the whole armor of God. It isn't always like this, but the boys were actually REALLY good! They participated in the lesson by both answering and even asking questions, they sang and didn't get up to walk around at all. It totally made my day to be able to make it through an entire family home evening without anyone crying, pouting or me pulling my hair out because nobody is listening to the lesson. Thank heaven for small blessings.

At this exact moment, Kristin should be in town finally. My kids have been so excited for her family to move back home! Sunday morning I woke Aiden up and before he even opened his eyes or said good morning he asked me, "Are Jake and Ryan here yet?" He and our other boys can't wait to have a few more boy cousins to pal around with.

In my wildest dreams I would never have imagined that I would be raising turkeys and chickens. Growing up in Tempe I was involved in cheerleading, make up, friends and being popular. Fast forward a few years and here I am raising our Thanksgiving dinner and LOVING it! I know I sound like a dork, but I love these birds. They each have personalities and I feel like I am being productive everytime I recycle our paper shreds into the coop, feed them our scraps or collect eggs. So, enjoy today's picture of one of our turkeys. His name is Tom and I believe he is a Black Spanish Turkey. El nombre es Tomas. Es un muy guapo pavo, no?

Let's Get it Started!

I have kept a blog for the daycare for some time now but haven't begun a personal one yet. Now is as good of time as any, I guess. Writing in my journal has always been a joy for me so when Elder Ballard suggested we keep a blog I decided it was time to begin.

Here's the Reader's Digest version of what is going on right now in the Brimhall home. Dallas is working for Target and waiting for his classes to begin in August. He has an awesome garden (what else is new?) and we have been giving tomatoes away to friends, family and on craigslist for two weeks now because there are more than we can even process. Dallas has been having fun with the boys this summer making bottle rockets and working on the cars. He is a great dad!

I am still doing daycare here at the house. Right now I am watching four little ones and love it. They are all good kids and I enjoy what I do. I am slowly plugging away at school. Next month I will be able to apply for nursing school, graduating two years later. All the classes are internet classes that I am able to do once the kiddos are in bed. At church I work as the primary chorister for both junior and senior primary (about 100 kids). This year's theme is "I am a child of God." It is the 4th time I have held this position so it is all old hat for me.

Alexis is dreading the start of school on July 28th. She will be in the 5th grade, can you believe it? My baby is getting so old. She is so beautiful and the light of my life. My mom is giving sewing/craft lessons to her, Hailey and Lindsay this summer and they are having a blast.

Aiden is our clown. He is always making jokes about one thing or another. For example, last night Brittany and David were eating dinner with us and David spilled his drink. Aiden saw it and said, "Clean up on isle David". What a nut! He will be in the 4th grade this year and enjoys all kinds of sports. He isn't involved in any teams at the moment but I am sure that will change after we get in the swing of school again.

Aspen lost a tooth this week. It is his third one but his first one on top. Who can resist a toothless grin? He went up to the ranch this summer to spend a week working with Grandma and Grandpa and is still talking about it. Aspen is 6 and will be in 1st grade this year. His favorite things include cars, riding his scooter, Sponge Bob and sneaking up on people to scare them.

My baby, Ash, will start kindergarten next week. I thought watching Alexis get on her first school bus was hard but I think watching him leave will break my heart. Even though I know he is five and ready to go, I still think of him as my little baby. To anyone else it probably sounds horrible that he still sucks his thumb and carries a teddy bear but to me it is still endearing. He is my last one and I don't mind this one endulgence of being a mother. I am savoring his cute thumb sucking and teddy bear holding as long as I can because next week the kids will probably make fun of him and it is going to come to a quick halt.

Amanda is coming up on her two year mark of being in our family. We adopted her from Ukraine when she was 12 years old. As we approach this milestone, we can see how far she has come. There have been many many rough days and I am sure there are more to come but overall we are still glad we brought her here. If not for her, for us because of all the lessons we have learned. We look forward to seeing how our relationship with her will grow this next year.

That pretty much sums up our family for now and gives me a starting place for this blog. If you are reading this, enjoy the journey with us and feel free to comment along the way.