A Trip to Thatcher

While Jared went on his elk hunt for a week and a half (returned home empty handed - bummer) the boys and I took a trip to Thatcher. Trips to Thatcher are always as great as I imagine they will be - the perfect blend of relaxtion and productivity. Here's what we did this time:

Played racquetball at EA
Painted 5 shelves and 4 picture frames
Went to yard sales and thrift stores
Watched movies
Replaced the alternator in the Tahoe - glad we made it safely there! Thank you Dad for fixing it!
Bottled 84 pints of peaches (next time I'm gonna do quarts... for sure!)


Sewed 27 pumpkins (still need bows and raffia)


Played outside in the PERFECT weather


Brexton wore these Potato Head Glasses for a majority of our time there. Cracks me up! He's also sporting his FAVORITE jammies of all times. He calls them his "monkies"




Garrett caught onto throwing the frisbee pretty efficiently. His wind-up is quite a sight to behold though. Hilarious! LOTS of twisting back and forth before finally releasing it...






For FHE we learned about paying tithing. The boys thought counting those shiny pennies was great fun! I have such a testimony of tithing and the blessings of happiness and peace that come from returning 10% of our increase to the Lord. Our activity was to play trains at the table. And of course have POPCORN!



I love that my parents continue the tradition of family scripture reading in the morning even when it's just the two of them. To gather everyone together my Mom plays a hymn on the piano. At the end of our reading we kneel for family prayer and follow up with a group hug - which we've now termed a "Family Squish Hug." Garrett and Brexton LOVE "Family Squish Hugs."

It is neat to see how the boys really do catch on to glimpses of understanding in the scripture. If you ask Garrett about Samuel, he'll tell you that he jumped off the wall. He LOVES to talk about Nephi, Lehi, and Abinadi. He loves that Ammon served King Lamoni by feeding his horses. While in Thatcher we read about how Nephi and his people built a temple and were industrious with their hands. It was exciting for us to drive by and see the temple being built right there in the Gila Valley!

While Jared was hunting and I was in Thatcher we found out from some friends that we had a water leak at our house (we'd asked them to water some plants for us). Luckily the leak was outside in the water line from the street to our house so there was no internal damage. A blessing for sure! Even so, we had to turn the water off to our house. It was a nice "lower stress" opportunity to learn how to better use our water storage - thank goodness for that! We enjoyed a whole case of bottled water those 3 days and used water from our 55 gallon drums for flushing toilets, washing hands, etc. I wasn't brave enough to try and give baths with that water or wash any laundry by hand though :)

We're all put back together again thanks to Jared and his handyman plumber skills. Count your blessings - running water better be one of them! And clean water at that!

And because I just can't resist a cute little guy in Grandpa's cowboy hat...

ANNOUNCING...

Announcing the opening of my very own Etsy store. At StylishStockings you will find just that - Christmas stockings that will add style, beauty, and function for years to come. These are all handmade by yours truly and are completely unique. Stockings within the same collection coordinate perfectly, although I think that mixing them up would be equally stunning!

Check out the selection and pick out your favorites because they are bound to go quickly - especially as the season approaches (or at least I'm hoping :)

Check back for newly added items soon...
A huge thank you to Holly Brimhall Photography for her amazing skills in capturing these Christmas Stockings - don't I have the most amazing sister in the world?

I'm looking into having one of the decorating blogs I follow do a giveaway for me to spread the word. I'll keep you posted :)

A day spent outside...

It's not every day you can actually enjoy a day spent outside in Arizona during the heat of summer. But as luck would have it, we got to do just that on Sept. 5th...

We went to Tucson for the Labor Day weekend to spend some time with Jared's parents and I'm glad we did. Since the weather was picture perfect for a day outside we all took advantage of it. Jared and Gregg went hunting (unsuccesful in their search) and the rest of us began with a trip to Brandi Fenton Park - fabulous!











Although they loved the playground, Garrett spent most of his time doing this...







This park also has a "splash park" and while we didn't come equipped with swimwear we couldn't resist a run through the water. Our favorite part was the buckets that would fill up with water and then randomly tip over.






Our fun hadn't run out yet so we headed over the the Reid Zoo - my favorite of all zoos! The perfect size, great proximity to the animals, and shaded with big trees.

Where should we go first?


Monkeys...


Then Giraffes...


Brexton needed a break already...


Pose for a picture in the Aviation Path - proof that I really was there...




With the help of some other zoo visitors we realized that we can feed the giraffes bean pods as we "meet in the middle." No camera zoom going on here! Those tongues are amazing!





The whole clan...

B-13 Reunion...

It's a bit shameful that I haven't posted anything in 6 weeks, don't you think? Well, be prepared for a make-up session...

First up, it's the B13 Reunion hosted by yours truly, the Stapleys. (Thank you Aunt Carolyn for all your planning and preparation). The theme was "Way to BEE" as a knock-off of President Hinckley's "6 B's" which I think have been turned into 9. Anyway, after a long list of "Be _____," the last one was "Be a Brimhall!" Being a Brimhall certainly is the thing to do around there. We made a big Beehive containing the names of each decendent of my Great Grandparents Logan and Mary Brimhall. Each honeycomb stood for one decendent and had been labeled (handwritten) with that persons geneological (is that even a word?) link back to Logan and Mary. The final count of decendents? 943! Now that is multiplying and replenishing the earth! I love it!

While there our boys enjoyed playing with dirt, being with cousins, visiting the horses on the ranch, roasting and eating marshmallows/smores, eating an occasional sucker, and much, much more.

Broc DeWitt, Jonathan Pulsipher, and Garrett doing what boys do best...


Garrett and Grant




It's always been a joke in the Brimhall family that FIRST cousins can hug, SECOND cousins can hold hands, THIRD cousins can kiss, and FOURTH cousins can marry (did I get that right?). I guess you only have to be first cousins or brothers to slobber all over the same sucker...


Look Mom, I did it all by myself!


We're so glad Becca and Brandon got to come down. :)

Sundays at our house...

Growing up we had popcorn EVERY Sunday. In fact we've got a little song for it "For we all love popcorn, it's our favorite treat. When it comes to havin' fun, popcorn's hard to beat!" (Although Jared would beg to differ... he'd rather sing it with "ice cream" as the favorite treat). But as a kid Dad would make at least one or two huge bowls of popcorn - sometimes it would even count as "dinner."

We don't have popcorn very often at our house these days. Jared doesn't love it and we've kind of reserved it as a special treat when babysitters come over. This last Sunday we were needing a little excitement in our afternoon so out came the popcorn popper. The boys were SO excited about that. We even somehow brought ourselves to enjoy it in our backyard - I'm sure it was 108+ degrees outside, but we did it. Ice-chilled apple juice helped a bit.




Oh, and the funniest thing happened on Sunday too. Jared's mom recently brought the boys some mini "potato heads." They haven't hardly stopped playing with them. Anyway, Jared calls to me and says "Hey, we've got our own little Ammon!" Sure enough, Brexton had gather all the potato head arms he could find and was toting 7 of them around. Ha! Our very own Nephite warrior/missionary...

Another trip to the Children's Museum of Phoenix

My childhood friend and second cousin (but really more like a first cousin) Kim Carroll texted me on Sunday with an invitation to go to the Children's Museum with a big group for a smokin' deal. I only had to pay for one kid - totally worth it. As I expected, we had a BLAST! We got to play with the exhibits that we didn't get around to last time. I don't know how we missed it or passed it up because it had everything to do with cars! A boy's dream world. I could hardly pry them away from that spot...





They loved the carwash and even got lucky - scoring the bike with passenger towing capabilities. Garrett escorted Brexton and Kim's little girl Kinsley around for the longest time. (I don't know how I managed to not get a single picture of Kinsley's cute face!)



The three cuties...



I've gotta get a Culture Pass to that museum at least one more time because it definitely beats paying $27 each visit. So fun! Thanks Kim!

A New Look...

We've had the same shower curtain for 6 years now and I was ready for a little change. I've been on the lookout for fabric in the RedTag section at Joanns and finally found a pair that I liked. Here's a Before and After...

BEFORE



AFTER


Now I kinda want to paint the walls the light sage green/blue undertone that is in the floral fabric. That just might take another 6 years though :) I think I also want to get a dark bronze shower rod and hooks, hang it 6 inches higher, and add 6 inches of the gold knotted silk-like fabric to the bottom. What do you think?

Goals...

I'm learning once again the power of setting goals. I've often "thought" of goals but they thought usually ends there before ever making it into action. It hasn't been until recently that I've started to change that habit... slowly. Here are some success stories and while I know I'm nowhere near perfect I feel the need to compliment myself and encouragement to keep going. Maybe you'll feel inspired too.

FAMILY HOME EVENING
For the first time in our married life we have Family Home Evening every Monday night. It was a real struggle to get started because we didn't know how to connect with our little boys in a "spiritual" way since they couldn't sit still for hardly a moment. Through our perserverance and practice we're getting better each week. We've gone from our initial FHE's of trying to look at the Friend together as G and B fought over who held it and who's turn it was to turn the page... to a more organized, reverent, and brief lesson with songs, prayers, and treats. The results have been staggering to say the least. Their reverence in church has GREATLY improved, they get SO excited for Family Home Evening, they stay sitting in their individual chairs for all of FHE, and they LOVE the treats and activities. My favorite part is that they actually remember what we talk about and show excitement about it. The two most memorable lessons were about temples and prophets. Garrett gets so excited at a picture of any temple and says with great determination "I go to the temple." He can recognize and say "President Monson" and often looks for him in the Ensign and Friend.

When I tell Garrett it is FHE time he excitedly runs through the house in an effort to gather everyone in the family room as he screams "It's Family Home Evening TIME!" Then we pull over two kitchen chairs to put in front of the couch. The boys sit in the chairs while Jared and I sit on the couch. We sing, pray, have lesson, bear testimony, sing, and pray. We always have a treat and sometimes have a game or activity. I LOVE the power of FHE and the power of bearing simple testimony even to small toddlers.

GOAL: Hold FHE every Monday night for the next 3 months.


COMPUTER TIME:
I may be the only one like this but I suppose I kind of got "addicted" to my computer time checking emails, blogs, facebook, craigslist, etc. Initially I would find myself doing this in the morning and completely shutting out my kids and getting frustrated when they wouldn't leave me alone. Then I progressed and made sure I only did it during their nap time. But even then I would get on the computer for the sole purpose of checking the email and then getting on to other important duties I had: laundry, dishes, cleaning, meal planning, sewing projects, ________ (fill in the blank with any other needful/good thing). But once I started I would conveniently start blog hopping, or google searching, or craigslist surfing until I'd wasted away all of nap time. This happened nearly every day and while I enjoyed it I didn't feel good about it. So what did I do? I set a goal.

GOAL: I will allow myself daily computer time to check emails but will reserve time for blogs, facebook, etc for Mondays and Thursdays and as a reward when I actually update my own. (e.g. I updated my blog last Friday so I got to check blogs that day too). If you look back you can see this pattern of Mondays and Thursdays :)

It may sound silly, but life as a stay-at-home mom is still kind of a challenge for me since it's not structured like the life of a student. There aren't teachers that tell me what my assignments are and when they're due, no one to evaluate me and give me a grade. It's up to me now. I'm still figuring out how to manage my time effectively to ensure that I am a good housekeeper, mother, and wife. Since I've made this goal my house is cleaner, I read from good books (Ensign) more, I play with my kids a more, and I'm happy more.


EXERCISE :
As I mentioned in a recent post, I went running for the first time last Thursday morning. I never really made it a goal but the thought had crossed my mind that I should do something to burn some calories because even a small something would be far more than the nothing I had been doing. So that small thought turned into action. But still I had no goals or real drive to continue a pattern of running. After posting to the world my courageous effort to run (because for me it took a LOT of courage), I felt obligated and motivated to do it again. It was kind of strange how I couldn't not run on Friday. I can happily say that I have worked up a serious sweat EVERY day since then with the exception of Sunday. Already it's getting easier, not any more fun yet, but easier in the sense that I know I'm capable of pushing myself, capable of having my mind and determination win out over my mortal body.

GOAL: Work up a good sweat at least 5 days a week for the next month.


Take a moment to set a goal for yourself. Make sure it's realistic, measureable and has an end. For me the goal has got to have an end so that I can say "I finished" because really if I made a goal that said I would work up a good sweat at least 5 days a week for the REST of my life I KNOW I would fail. You have to believe that you can do it. At the end you can reevaluate, see if you want to make some changes, work on something totally different, or extend the same goal for a longer duration of time. Share your goal with someone and report back to them regularly. (Every day I tell Jared how far I ran with specific landmarks so that he can celebrate my success with me).

Can you IMAGINE?

I'm loving this stage Garrett is in. He cracks me up! It brings a smile to my face every time he asks in his adorable voice "Whatcha makin' Mommy?" He LOVES to help me with everything - laundry, preparing meals, scrubbing bathrooms, sweeping, setting the table, etc. I know it won't last forever so I'm really trying to enjoy it.

Another of his favorite phrases is "That's disgusting!" Hilarious! He says it about several things... messes, poopy diapers, some meals that I make :), anything with an abnormal texture, etc.

His imagination is really starting to take flight. Here are a few of my favorite "imaginings."

(1) We were unloading the dishwasher and it's Garrett's job to help with the silverware. He grabbed two butter knives, put one under his chin, and then used the other to stroke back and forth on the first as he says "I play my Geetar, Mommy." I said, "Oh that's a violin, not a guitar, but very creative. Here are some wooden spoons instead." After switching he says, "No violin, I play my Geetar."

(2) We have a child-sized blue folding camp chair that the boys were really "in to" for a while. Garrett imagined it was all sorts of things, but I remember most how he pretended it was a piano (or "planno" as Garrett refers to it as). He would bang and bang on that chair singing at the top of his lungs inserting words into his songs such as "mommy," "daddy," "Bennen (Brexton)," "Cable" (Caleb), "home," "ride in the car", etc. He would also pretend it was his own personal computer with the back of the chair as his screen.

Like I say, this guy cracks me up... and I love it all!

There's a first for everything...

This morning I woke up intentionally at 4:45. That wasn't a first for me, but what I did after that definitely was. I went running, if you could call it that. But for the first time in my life I, of my own free will and choice, decided to go for a run... or jog... sometimes just a brisk walk... and when I thought I would just pass out, throw up and die, I walked slowly.

I need to find a way to exercise but even when I have tried to go for a walk with the boys at 7:15 in the morning it's already 95 degrees and poor Garrett and Brexton miserably sweat away in the stroller while I get my exercise. So, I tried it... all by myself at 4:45 in the morning. It's still hot, but it was nice to do it in the quiet morning hours, get home, get showered and dressed all by 6:00. I went for 3 miles, but only ran for half of that. We'll see if I can convince myself to do it again sometime since consistency is really the key.