God Bless America

So it was really hard for me to sleep last night...which is really unusual for a narcoleptic...but I found myself thinking back 8 years ago and what I was doing when I heard about the attacks on our great nation. I felt very emotional and began to cry thinking of all the people that have suffered because of it. Of course there are those who have paid the price with their lives and for that we are grateful. But there are those who have gone and fought for our freedom that have come back and have to live with images and sounds that they have experienced and may never recover from. My heart goes out to all of those who serve this country we live in and am eternally grateful for the sacrifices you endure to keep us free...sometimes sacrificing true freedom yourselves...thank you for your service and may God hold you in the palm of his hand. God Bless America!!

picture dump!

Just got the camera back from Eric...really wish he would get his own!!! Here are some pix of what we've been up to the last few months...

A trip to Sea World...

Hailey

Cayson


Jaxson

Deni

OOPS!!! Didn't see the sign until it was too late...it says "ALL TIDE POOL ANIMALS MUST REMAIN UNDER WATER TO BREATHE!" Sorry little star fishies!!

More to come........

we are back!

Well...we have been back for 2 weeks but I haven't had a moment to myself to blog...as many of you have expressed to me...and I apologize! Just an update on Eric...he is doing better-for those of you who didn't hear...Eric was hospitalized nearly a month ago for a week due to blood clots in his lungs and one of his legs. Since his hospitilization...we have found out that he had multiple clots that, according to the many test results he had to endure, were about to pass from his lungs on their way to his heart...thankfully, he was scheduled to work at the hospital on a day that he wasn't supposed to be and his co-workers sent him to the ER just in the nick of time. It was scary leaving him while he was still in the hospital but it was nice that we were surrounded by family to help keep our minds on other things. Eric's co-workers were also nice enough to donate their sick time to him so that he wouldn't lose pay (he missed 68 hours of work all together). Our lives are truly blessed...but I told him if he tries to die on me again...there are no guarantees that I won't help him in the process (just kidding!!:-o)I didn't think I was THAT hard to live with! To show apprecitation to his co-workers...I baked 8 loaves of bread and sent 3 jars of freezer jam (we picked strawberries at Green Bluff the day we got home!) plus some cookies and some other yummy treats! I have MANY, MANY more stories to fill you in on (Reese, the new neighbors, my FABULOUS surprise that I came home to and more....stay tuned! Until next time.................

Be Patient With Me...

So, the kids and I are in Arizona for our annual visit. I'm not even gonna pretend that I am gonna be able to post while I'm here (exept this one)...but I got some great stories stored up for when I get back (3 airplane rides each way from WA to AZ and back, Eric's week-long stay in the hospital, Deni (who's 4) finally being reunited with Reese (a 17-year old lifeguard), a family reunion, and a visit to grandpa charlie's farm (in the wind, mind you...), and Roland's kids using juice to slip and slide in his kitchen while his wife was at girls camp...I bet y'all can't wait...hang on to your hats and glasses...I got some good ones comin your way!!! Until next time.............

There is a reason it's called "Jump ROPE"

So, we were at Young Women's the other day (I'm the new secretary and Eric teaches Wed nights...so the kids come with me!) and I was helping the Laurels sew aprons for their pioneer trek dresses. The kids were all in the nursery making a HUGE mess with all of the toys (there were my 4 plus 5 other kids) but at least they were quiet! After cleaning up, we took some girls home and went home ourselves. The kids went and got in their pjs and came downstairs for prayer. That's when I noticed it...Cayson's cheek was bleeding (how did I miss it? I don't know). It wasn't bleeding bad, just a little cut. I asked him what happened to his cheek and he just rolled his eyes and started shaking his head as he said, "Mom...it was so stupid!" Great! You never want to hear those words coming from a bleeding 7 year old...."Tell me what happened while I clean it up". He chuckles a little bit and says, "well, I was in the nursery showing off for the girls and tried to jump rope with a baby stroller and I forgot to bend my knees." Oh, brother! After processing this in my head for a minute...I just simply said, "Cayson, I am proud of you for recognizing that as probably not the smartest choice...what can you learn from this?" "Well, I think next time I will remember to bend my knees!!!" BOYS!!!! Until next time..........

LIlly Belle

So, Walt Disney loved trains! It was said that after Disneyland closed for the night, Walt could be found driving the train around the park...His wife's name was Lilly, and he named a train car after her. Not just any train car, mind you...his own personal train car. It is filled with antiques and personal photos. We were lucky enough to have been able to ride in this beautiful train car on a trip around the Magic Kingdom. Thomas was the name of our escort (there are expensive and irreplaceable things on the train car so whenever someone rides on it, so does an escort). Thomas gave us lots of interesting facts about Mr Disney and the park...such a great experience! If/when you get to visit Disneyland, make sure to go by City Hall and ask to ride on the Lilly Belle...they will even give you souvenir tickets...One of my favorite things in the car was a picture of Walt and Lilly (a rare picture of her, even more rare of them together). An experience my kids can't stop talking about! Thank you Mr Disney for sharing your dream with the world....Until next time...............

Breafast with the Characters...its a long one, bear with me!

So, the first day @ Disneyland...we decided to have breakfast with Minnie & Friends...we met a lot of characters and the food was scrum-delish! Cayson liked Captain Hook the best, I think...he took a picture with him and CH put his hook around Cayson's throat...he thought that was cool! The Fairy Godmother (i have been to DL lots of times and this was the first time I have met her...)she came and tied the kids' balloons on their wrists for them. Winnie the Pooh came by and gave the kids some honey. We got pictures and autographs of the characters and went about our business. The next day we noticed that our autograph book was missing! Aaaggghhh! Not that we had a huge amount of autographs...but we had quite a bit...so we went to lost and found to see if they had our book...the lady was gone for quite a while and she said that she went through about 100 books and couldn't find ours...bummer! So the third day, I decided to go to the breakfast and ask them if they would just take the new autograph book around and have the characters sign it again. One lady was not very nice (very un-Disneyland attitude, she had!) so I asked another lady who was walking around with the characters and she was very nice about it. She took our book and went around to the characters and had them each sign it (which was nice because there were characters there that we hadn't had a chance to meet before). I took the book and went to City Hall to give Tammy (the nice lady) a compliment...they get special things when they go above and beyond for the guests...she did something for me...I was gonna do something nice for her...so I was filling out the compliment sheet and the lady that was helping me asked me if she could take my book and have each of the kids' favorite character autograph it...SURE! She told me to come back in a couple of hours and she would give it back to us. So we went over to CA Adventures to the Aladdin show (which is great!) and then came back to City Hall...I picked up the book and ran outside (the kids were in line to meet Cruella DeVil and Mary Poppins and Bert). After we met them, we were sitting down contemplating our next move and I picked up the autograph book...Holy Cow! They had added about 30 or so more names in the book...now, I know that when you are hired to be a character, you have to learn all of the signatures so you can play any given character so I know that one or two people sat down and filled up our book...now that is Disneyland attitude! Anyways, I went back to City Hall to thank them and the lady said that the man that was "in charge" of the project had remembered my kids from breakfast and wanted to do something special...we got autographs of characters that have not nor will they probably ever be out doing autographs...that is something special! More to post later...until next time!




P.S....Grandpa really likes his picture taken with the characters!

Guess What I Am?!?!

So we have this game called Guess What I Am (target...$15-ish). Anyways, you put your face in the hole of these pictures and people give you clues as to what/who you are...my kids love it! We were playing a while back and Deni was a peacock and couldn't remember what it was called...we described it to her "Deni...it's the bird with feathers that look like eyeballs"...she would answer, "what's it called? Don't tell me!" Finally she yelled out..."i know...it's a POOCOCK!" She was so proud of herself! Here is a picture of the cutest poocock ever!

We Have Returned!

Okay...so we've been back for a couple of weeks but it has taken this long to get back into the swing of things! My vacation posts are going to be out of order 'cause Eric borrowed my camera with all my pics on it and still hasn't brought it back from work...if I don't get it back tomorrow, I'm gonna have to go repossess it...Anyways, these pics are our "in-betweeners". This is after our 3 days at Disneyland on our way to Sea World...the kids once again got carsick and we stopped at a little "rest area"(no bathrooms or trash cans...just a park your car and look at the ocean spot). Anyways, our kids look like orphans because it was a travel day...anyways, we stopped and got Jaxson and his car seat all cleaned up and let the kids get out and walk around a bit and look at the ocean. Along comes a military helicopeter right in front of us...they were doing practice drops that day for supplies...it was cool to watch. They saw the kids outside so put on a little show for them-it was fun to watch! Anyways, the spot that we were at, there was a little nest of chipmunks and Eric put a chip on the ground to see if the chipmunk would come close enough for the kids to see...it sure did...and they kept feeding it...it ate the chips right out of their hands...that is until mom came around and spoiled the fun (they were feeding it MY salt & vinegar chips...HOW RUDE...especially since, not 3 hours before, talked my mom into handing them over to me!) You can mess with a lot of things...but keep your hands off my salt and vinegar chips...it will get ugly! Anyways, after the hour we spent on the side of the road, we headed into San Diego to our hotel to meet another set of grandparents and another amusement park...such fun we had! I will post more pics in the next day or two...we had lots of adventures to share...Until next time!

Be Back Soon...

Okay, folks...I know it has been a while since blogging...sorry about that...a few things have happened that I will blog about when I get a chance...right now, I am sitting in a hotel room in Mesquite, Nevada on our way to Disneyland...I will try to blog about our trip along the way...no promises, though! We have had a fun time traveling here, though (7 stops for puking yesterday-saturday). On one of our puking stops on the side of the road, Jaxson had to go potty but couldn't pee on the side of the road because there were 9 deer on the other side of the freeway and he didn't want them to watch him...crazy kids! Anyways, our long day starts early tomorrow so...until next time...............

Greg Jones

Okay, family of mine...(friends can join in, too!)...We are getting ready for our trip to Disneyland...now, growing up, we used to go to Disneyland every year for Spring Break...spoiled...I know! We have had a TON of fabulous memories...so I was hoping that you would comment on YOUR favorite memories...here are a couple of mine....maybe they are the same...I'll start with...you guessed it, girls...GREG JONES!!! Greg was a bellboy at Quality Inn right by Disneyland and we all thought he was HOT HOT HOT...he was in his 20s and was tall, dark, handsome, and hairy!!! Well, one day he caught me playing in the elevator (I think I was 6 or 7-ish)and I thought I was busted (I was actually just infatuated with him and forgot to get off on my floor). Later on, my two sisters and our Aunt Shelley went downstairs and took a picture with him (I tried to find it to post but I think Kim has it...)Boy, it's sad that 20 years later we still remember his name! And, Denise...do you remember getting lost in Aneheim with Jean...I'm sure you will never forget the look on Mom & Dad's faces when they found you! And Brother...it's a good thing they don't have the "people mover" anymore, right?!?!? We really have been blessed with great parents that were able to take us on vacations a lot and give us great memories to share with each other...like....Kim and Denise...do you remember waving to the truck drivers while using the port-a-potty in the back of the camper!?!?!? Good Times!!!! Until next time................

Dedication....

I originally was gonna do this once a week...but I just can't wait for this one...this one is for my sisters, Denise and Kim....we had a '78 Ford SuperCab and when we went on road trips...this song was always a must...and poor brother was the recipient of our kisses on the cheeks....we always pretended he was Fred...hahaha...soooooo funny! I'm happy I found this song...it took me awhile but was well worth it...for those of you who don't have sound...the song is "Seven Little Girls in the Backseat" by Paul Evans and the Curls. A song from the 50's (I think)...sometimes, when my kids are being loud or my husband is being distracting...I belt out this song (I do NOT sing well...)it usually does the trick! We've had some good times, girls, good times! Until next time..........

This Week's Song Dedication

Disclosure: First of all...this is totally not meant to offend ANYONE...this song is one we grew up with and back in the day when you could live in peace and harmony and say things to people and they wouldn't be twisted around and have you being accused of being racist...which I totally am not (you should see our wedding photos...I think we had just about every race represented in our wedding party alone)...having said that...Okay, brother...this one is yours...Ray Stevens' "Ahab the Arab"...makes me laugh everytime I hear it! Brother would totally get into performing this song....I think Roland (cousin) would get into it too he liked the bone in the nose part...hilarious to think about all the trouble we used to get into...btw...here is a funny story about my brother...so, for a while, after we moved to Spokane, we were in the same ward. I would walk up to him and say, "hey, brother..." and thought nothing of it...well, one Sunday, he was sitting in the chapel talking with a guy named Bro. Duncan...anyways, I walked up to my brother and said, "hey, brother...do you want some jolly ranchers?" Brother Duncan said," His name is Brother Nelson"...confused for a minute, I said, "Yeah...so?!?!" He said, "You just called him brother...his name is Brother Nelson" I turned to Bro. Duncan and said, "I know...but he really is my brother, so I shortened it!" We had been in the same ward for, crud, I don't know...over a year...hardly anybody knew we were related...they thought I called him "brother" because I couldn't remember his last name! I still laugh everytime I run into Bro. Duncan...anyways, I had a bunch of songs that reminded me of you, brother remember the "eternal flame?!?!"... but this one made me laugh the hardest! I've got a good one in mind for my sisters...I just have to find it online...it's a good one...just be warned...it may be embarassing! Until next time..........

Song Dedications...

Yes, people...there is a method to my madness...I have decided when I put a new song on my blog...it will be a dedication to someone...so...I will start with this one..."My Little Buttercup" from "The Three Amigos" which, in my book, is one of the best movies of all time (my family hates it)...I could watch it daily! Anyways, this dedication goes out to my cousin, Brett. I think he sang this song at every family gathering...and I never got tired of hearing it! Probably one of the most nonsensical (it is a word in MY dictionary) songs EVER....but I love it...and it drives my kids nuts when I sing it to them...but it makes me happy...Thanks Brett for keeping the Amigos alive! Until next time..............

Please Help....

So, I am making my menu out for the next couple of weeks or so and am looking for some new recipes...I know you got 'em...are you willing to share 'em? Please do...post it in a comment or email me...tiphaine(dot)brewer(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks....Until next time...........