UPDATE!!

Well hello there, haven’t done this in quite a while have I? This is Brittany who is now 13 years old since Thursday, but lets not jump ahead of ourselves. Many things have happened since our last post, November 6, 2011!!! The milestones that have happened are Thanksgiving, Christmas, four birthdays, two birthday hikes, my mother and I making a trip to General Conference, but also lots of small stuff, like Dad (Aaron) going to Florida and Georgia for a week, Conner starting to walk and say a few words, and a beautiful light show garden in December of 2011. Enough words, here are some pictures:

Two delicious sundaes at the BYU Creamery (the chocolate one is Moms)

Moms reenacting her BYU days

Baby Bryn... She was tired!!

those three photos were at Leatherby's Family Creamery with my cousins. YUM!

that's on Justin's b day hike.

AJs B day Hike

they made lunch on the trail along with seeing pretty wildlife

At Alex's baseball game

Our Christmas PJ's

at the Garden D' Lights

this is a video at Garden D' Lights of the light pond

Halloween 2011

It seemed like Halloween lasted a week this year. We started with a trunk-or-treat/carnival at the church on the Tuesday the week before. On the Saturday preceding the day, we walked into a Halloween activity at the grocery store when we went to buy our pumpkins. They had booths and games set up through the store, and didn't mind that our kids were the only ones not in costume.

We carved pumpkins on Sunday. I only carved two pumpkins, the rest were pretty much done when I got home from home teaching. JT was quite pleased with his "Phineas." AJ carved the warrior with a scar on his left cheek. A's pumpkin has cheeks and B's pumpkin is a little nervous about angry birds in the area. I worked with D and we carved the one with the buck teeth for him. I also carved "Go Diego Go" for Darren, but he didn't know about it until after he got up the next morning.

When Monday finally rolled around we had already been working on the candy we had picked up earlier in the week. I guess you could say we were preconditioning ourselves for the upcoming sugar rush. JT went off to a costume party with friends. We didn't get any pictures of him. B went trick-or-treating with friends as a bumblebee, however she went to school as a blue crayola crayon.

AJ was a pirate. Candace made special pants for him and he was excited about the new sword that he got to stick in the sash around his waistband.
A. was a Western girl, not a cowgirl. I think she finally settled on the fact that she was the mayor's wife in a western town that definitely did not own or work with cows, but was still rich. It was too complicated for me to understand fully.

D. was a doctor complete with a medical kit. Candace made the scrubs and it took us a while to convince him that he shouldn't wear the witch dress for Halloween.

I took the younger three out into our new neighborhood to trick-or-treat. We were the only ones out on the street for quite a while. As a result the kids would get handfuls of candy from people who had overprepared for trick-or-treaters. They also got a number of full and even king size candy bars. D got picked up after about an hour. He was happy and got enough candy.


AJ and A stayed out for more than 2 hours and came home with about 5 lbs of candy each and most of it was chocolate! They had school the next day so they didn't get to sit and trade for very long. What a day! Now onto Thanksgiving.

Our Busy Intro to Autumn

(As if any part of our current life couldn't be described as busy) I am ignoring the fact that we haven't posted anything since March. Sorry. Anyway since I found myself with an extra hour this morning, I have some time to update the blog!

We started school this year with two kids in Junior High, two kids at Elementary School, and two kids at home. Everybody has settled in and I haven't heard any complaints about teachers or classes. Justin started early morning seminary (which starts at 6:00am) this year which starts 18 uninterrupted years of at least one of our kids in seminary! (I think I just sprouted a few gray hairs thinking about it.)

Alex and Justin both joined the cross-country team for their respective schools. Justin ran with the Varsity squad and did pretty well. Alex progressed through the year and his best finish was 4th place.

Rumor has it that we had a baby!

Well that rumor is true and after a few weeks, we figure it is time to update the blog. This is going to be a photo heavy post, because you already know the details.

Here is our son, CB, in the first few hours of his life. And below is proof of his birth weight.

Mom got a few hours of quiet time, before the invasion by the rest of the family began.

Conner discovers that he is the youngest of 6 kids and they all want a chance to hold him. So he got passed around a bit, with some supervision from dad.

We had a very patient nurse who completed a check-up while all the kids were there and gave all a chance to listen to his heart, lungs, and stomach.

Everybody was excited to bring him home, but that is the subject of another posting.

Thanksgiving wrap up

This year we headed over to the Tri Cities to enjoy Thanksgiving with the McCain's. We had a good group and decent travel weather.

Good food, good company and a good time.

Thanks Grandma for hosting our brood. We love visiting Grandma's and love to see Great Grandpa, Great Grandma and other family when we are there. (Aaron's Aunt and cousin joined in the festivities as well).

Yummy pies with as much whip cream as we wanted. Perhaps in some cases, more than we wanted!

Mother Nature provided the snow so Aaron and the boys spent an afternoon creating an awesome snow family.


I know they are slowly melting, but at least G-pa and G-ma had something to greet them after we left.

My kids were amazed at all the icicles in Kennewick. Aaron and I decided that the houses there don' t have rain gutters so they are more easily formed there. But, hands down, G-pa and G-ma's house had the BEST and BIGGEST icicle we saw. This picture is after it melted a bit, too. So impressive!


And last but not least, G-ma got the hot tub ready so everyone had to take a dip. Nothing like hot tubbing in the snow, right? That is the best weather to go out in! The kids did their own polar dip to make it even more fun!




We have so many things to be so thankful for, starting with family. Thank you Mom and Dad for housing us. We are grateful for safe travel in spite of frozen wiper fluid and icy spots. We are grateful to our Savior also and as we transition into this Christmas season, we are focusing more on family and friends and showing love for each other. We may be slow at posting but are enjoying life and the adventures that are coming our way.

Fall Dance Performance - Thriller

The girls had an opportunity to participate in the high school talent show with their dance group. Brit did "Thriller" and Manda did a cute duck song. I figure everyone will want to watch them as much as I do, right?




Brit is the one that looks like a zombie newsie. She is hard to see for alot of it just because of where we were in the auditorium. Sorry for the darkness, but it is Thriller...

Be Like a Duck