Rebecca's Blog

When it comes to having fun, the Briggs and Mutter kids know how to have it in spades.  Get 11 kids of almost every age ranging from 1 – 14 together and you never know what will happen.  The amount of fun they can cram into a short amount of time is astounding and Memorial Day weekend was no exception.  You've already seen our beach trip and now I bring you …

SWORD PLAY!

Of course, to have sword play, we must have swords and trust me when I say, we were not lacking in swords.  We had an abundance of swords in every shape, size and color – all made from those wonderful building materials known as cardboard and duct tape.  Oh, and a little bit of wood trim – perfect for a stability and just the right amount of injury infliction.

Shall we begin?

Let me start off by introducing our lead knights: Benjamaster and Tylenator!  They save the world from each other's families.

Here's Sariah the Mighty.  With her slight figure she may look harmless, but that's only a guise.  You DON'T want to get this princess mad as her high pitched scream can cause unrepairable damage to the eardrums.

Looks like Christian the Brave may be preparing for battle.  Mighty meditation is the best way to clear the head.

Let the battle begin!

As with all sword fights, anything goes.  This proves the case when the 14-year-old pulls out a sword almost twice as long as the 11-year-olds. 

I wondered if such a stunt reeked of foul play, but luckily Queen Elizabeth proved to be up to the challenge.  She never has been one to back down from a fight.

Seeing his brother in such a predicament, Tylenator has decided to rush to Christian the Brave's aid, giving Queen Elizabeth a mighty wack on the back.

The Benjamaster won't stand for such interference, especially considering the already unfair position that his sister is in.

With a rush of adrenaline and the ferociousness of a tiger, Benjamaster rushes to his sister's side.

Thwarted, Tylenator flashes his most intimidating face in order to scare away the competition.

After much warfare, the battle is finally done and the victor walks away from the carnage.

Haha!  Seriously, the kids had so much fun eating lunch and playing by this nasty little stream.  The swords were Ben's doing.  He made one with his Daddy at home and brought it down with him to his cousins' house.  Once the cousins saw it, they all had to have one – even the 14-year-old, so Uncle Andrew took them all out back and helped them create an abundance of weaponry.  The cardboard and duct tape alone proved to be a little flimsy, so the wood trim was added to bring a little stability.  Well, hind-sight is 20/20.  As I mentioned, it also added a little more pain when it came to blows.  Once they learned to fight without hurting one another, they had a lot of fun.

Apparently I'm not doing my job as "Good Mommy," because I'm not keeping up with my blog, so – to appease the complainers – here is my next post.  Unfortunately, this post took place way back during Memorial Day weekend, so I don't have all that much to say, except that I was stupid enough to get into a bathing suit and I managed not to step on a sea urchin this time.  Seriously though, we had a fantastic time.  My kids were meant to be beach bums.  Too bad we live 300 miles away from one.

This outing was to Chrystal Cove – a beach off the Southern California coastline.  There's a bit of a hike to get down there, so it's less crowded and absolutely gorgeous!

Michael loved the sand and enjoyed letting it run through his fingers.

Ben loved playing keep away from the waves.

Elizabeth boogie boarded almost the entire time we were there.

Yep.  That's me in the horrid swimsuit that was WAY too big.  Can't believe I put this on here.  Don't expect to see anything like this on here again.

More boogie boarding.

OK, so Ryan's going to kill me for this, but there were just so many cute pictures of him and Michael on the beach.  They just HAVE to go up.  Let's face it!  If there are pictures of you with baby, they are subject to blog fodder.

This is the only close up I managed to get of Elizabeth.  She is getting more difficult to photograph as she refuses to cooperate.  In this one she is actually trying to run past me as fast as possible to try and make it so I couldn't get a picture of her.  What she hasn't figured out yet is that she can run, but she can't hide!

This picture made me sad.  There's a similar one of me as a teenager.  All this picture says to me is that my baby girl is growing up into a young woman.

When it comes to throwing sand, Josh is a pro.

I was so proud of this picture.

Remember when I said Michael loved the sand?  Well he didn't love the waves so much.

Not quite sure what she's doing, but she's cute!

Ah.  Brother and sister with their youngest children.  This actually took place first.  Actually, I believe all the pictures are in reverse order.  Oh well.

Like I said, we had a great time.  Can't wait to go again!

I love Easter.  It's a holiday where the kids have a bit of fun, but – most importantly – we are able to remember our Savior and the sacrifices he made for us. 

Our Easters are fairly low-key.  They start with the unveiling of the Easter baskets left by the bunny and the traditional breakfast of Easter eggs and sausage.    Every year the bunny brings something to remind us of our Savior and who we are – children of our Heavenly Father.  This year it was jewerly.  Elizabeth got a young women's values bracelet, Sariah – a CTR necklace and the two older boys received tie tacks with their favorite Book of Mormon heroes on them.  Being a little young for jewelry, Michael was given a board book about our Savior.

After all that, we headed to church.  Or course, that means they get to wear their highly anticipated Easter clothes.  Say CHEESE!

Ben, stop sucking your thumb.  Joshua SMILE!

Yeah, well, what can I say?  The more kids we have, the harder it is to get decent shots with everyone smiling and looking at the camera.  I gave up and decided you will be getting personality instead of perfection.  Personality is more fun anyway, right?

After church is the part everyone looks forward to the most – the Easter egg hunt at Papa and Gaga's house.  Even Elizabeth still enjoys this.  I love that you get a great view of the temple from their backyard.  Kind of appropriate for the occasion, don't you think?

All in all we had a wonderful day.  There is no better way to spend the day than with family.

I want everyone who reads this to know that I have a testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I am grateful that he suffered and died for us that we may live again in the presence of our Father in Heaven.  I am grateful that he made it possible for me to have this beautiful family forever, not just until death do us part.

In March, Elizabeth had her second orchestra concert of her sixth grade year.  She was so excited, and, as she is reaching puberty, she wanted to look her very best for the performance.  Having been told by her friends that she would look good in loose ringlets – and the style being popular at the time with the girls around here – Elizabeth decided she wanted to give them a try for the concert.  Little did she know that it would take over an hour to complete as she has insanely thick hair.  Being the cool mom that I am, I assisted her in this endeavor, but, though she loved the outcome, she has decided that it's just not worth the effort.  However, she was glad she tried it once just so she could see what it looks like.  What do you think?  Was it worth it?

As soon as we were finished, we rushed her down for roll call – we were running a bit late due to the amount of time above hairstyle took – and I returned to get the family for the concert.  Below is the video for any grandparents who missed it and would like to see/listen to it.  Sorry for the poor quality.  In true Briggs fashion, we were late and had to stand by the entrance.  Unfortunately, Elizabeth was clear on the other side of the gym.  Also, I was wrestling two boys while filming.

Every year at Christmas, we have an entire week of activities planned, starting with Christmas Eve and ending New Years Day (or a day or two later depending on what days of the week the holidays fall on).  This last Christmas season was no different.  With spending time with my family Christmas Eve and Day and going to California the week after, there was nothing but fun to be had.

Unfortunately, our schedule of events wasn’t quite what we had anticipated, so, instead of a blog outlining our schedule of outlandish fun, we’re going to outline what really happened with some blips of fun mixed in.

2010 Holiday Schedule

December 20-22:  Clean, clean, clean in preparation for Santa’s arrival.  He doesn’t come to dirty houses.

December 23: Michael has stomach flu.

December 24:  Last minute Christmas shopping.  There was a mistake made in a purchase that didn’t get caught until the night before.  After nap time, head to parents’ house for annual Christmas dinner of fried shrimp and egg rolls with the extended family.  Have a really nice program of scripture reading and caroling.

December 25:  Wake up 5:30 am thanks to the discovery of a new friend, Venus, at the house.

Parents, having had 2 hours sleep, shove kids back in room and tell them they have to wait to do anything until 8 am.  Kids grumble, but relent.

Once it’s a reasonable hour, go downstairs and open gifts, followed by traditional breakfast of apple oven pancake, sausage and the cruddy sugar cereal Santa brought the kids.  Play.  Eat chocolate from stocking.  Nap.  Head to Gaga’s house for additional gifts, dinner and dessert.

December 26th:  Josh and Sariah get stomach flu.  Illness lasts half a day.  Go to Gaga’s and Papa’s for left over dinner.

December 27th:  Travel to California.

December 28th:  Ryan and Benjamin get stomach flu.  Open presents from Grandma and Grandpa B.

December 29th:  Elizabeth and Mommy get stomach flu.

December 30th:  Grandma B. gets stomach flu.  Grandpa B. and our family go to see Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D.  (It was quite good and there’s definitely eye candy in it for the females.)

December 31st:  Mommy and Grandma B. go shopping.  Have a pizza and pie party for New Years.  Stay up late watching movie.

January 1st:  Mommy spends day in bed with a gall bladder attack.  (For those who don’t know what a gall bladder attack is, it’s about 1000 times worse than the stomach flu and as painful as contractions during labor.  In fact, I would much rather be in labor than be having a gall bladder attack.  If you want to know how truly terrible one is, ask me.  I’ll tell you, but I’m not going to gross out the readers with gory details.)

While Mommy is sick, Daddy takes kids to the park to finally play with the cousins they’ve been dying to play with all week long.

January 2nd:  Mommy has second gall bladder attack, delaying the drive home one day.  Severly dehydrated, Mommy goes to ER with Daddy when, at 10 pm, the attack shows no signs of ending.  Mommy learns to love pain and nausea medications.

January 3rd:  Trip home delayed again due to bad road conditions.  Mommy does laundry and recovers from illness.

January 4th:  Go home.

Bet you wished you spent Christmas with us!

I feel so bad.  I completely glossed over the fact that last November Elizabeth turned 11.  I really don’t know where the time goes.  How I have a kid that will be in young womens by the end of this year baffles me.

Anyway, we did celebrate – first as a family and then she got a party with a few friends a couple weeks later.  Unfortunately for her, she was sick on her birthday so she wasn’t able to blow out her candles on her whole cake.  We just crammed them onto a single piece instead so that the rest of us wouldn’t get sick.  I don’t think it worked, however.

For her friend party, Elizabeth has reached the age where she just wants us to supply the food and then stay upstairs out of their way while they watch movies and play games.  I find this to be both sad and a relief.  It makes life easier, but it shows my little girl is growing up.

We have a budding musician in our family.  Thanks to our middle school’s orchestra, Elizabeth got the opportunity to pick up the Viola and she loves it.  In fact, her new future career depends upon her doing well with the instrument as she has decided to become a professional violist.

Now, I don’t even want to think what all this entails for her parents.  Lessons, instrument purchases, multiple time commitments and a lot of “joyful” noise will surely be in order at some point.  For  now though, she is content in her beginning orchestra class.  She loves her teacher and is having fun.  If the truth be told, I’m actually a little jealous.  I would have loved to learn a string instrument.  Ah well.  At least I’ll have one in the family, right?

Anyway, in December they had their first concert.  For those family members who were unable to attend, here’s a glimpse of what you missed.

Q:  What do you get when you combine several months of no blogging with hundreds of stored pictures?

A:  A picture heavy post.  And that’s what this is!

Last Fall we were lucky to be able to spend quite a bit of time with Ryan’s family.  We had a lot of fun and some good adventures.  Unfortunately, my son broke my camera, so we’ve gotten kind of lax taking pictures.  Fortunately, I have a father-in-law that take stunning pictures, so he’s the one to thank – or blame – for this very picturesque post.  Lucky for you, since there are so many pictures, you won’t have to hear much from me on the subject.

September 18, 2010 – Mt. Charleston

I know, I know.  You’re tired of hearing about Mt. Charleston.  We spend a fair amount of time up there, so you’d think we’d be over the whole picture taking while we’re there thing, but this was my in-laws first time up there, so it had to be documented.

I must say we had a lot of fun showing them this little piece of greenery in a sea of brown desert.  The kids did fabulous on this hike categorized as super easy – a hike that climbed nearly 1000 feet in a little over a mile.  I don’t know how that qualifies as easy, but we made it up and down safe and sound.  That’s what counts.

At the end of the trail, there was a small bit of a waterfall that the men and Elizabeth had fun trying to climb.

Then, of course, there’s the necessary family picture to prove we all made it.

Apparently Sariah decided she was going to be a mountaineer when she grows up – or perhaps she already is one.

A family photo reminding us how hard it is to actually get Elizabeth to pose for one.  When she finally agrees, she can’t help but be silly.

Down, down, down we go.

Michael enjoying angel food cake after a long and exhausting hike.

September 25, 2010 – Little Corona

The end of September took us down to California for a baby blessing.  While there, we spent a warm September Saturday at the beach.

We had smilin’ babies…

Dirt throwin’…

Hand washin’…

Fortress makin’…

And cousins.

Lots of cousins.

Grandma was there, along with Grandpa.  He took the pictures.

But, if you ask Elizabeth, aside from the cousins, the best thing was the boogie boarding.

Check her out!

In fact, it looked like so much fun that Josh wanted to give it a try too!

But where was I?

Here.  Sitting.  Doing nothing.

Why? … Because I stupidly stepped on a dead sea urchin – an injury that would keep me off my feet for a month before it healed completely.

What will we be purchasing before we head back to the beach?  …  Water socks!!

October 30, 2010 – Oak Glen and Halloween

Halloween was a five day weekend for us last year, so we headed down to California once again, thinking it would be fun to spend Halloween with the cousins for a change.  You know what?  IT WAS!

Growing up, October was never complete without a trip up to Oak Glen.  A couple years ago, I introduced this little tourist trap to the in-laws and I guess they liked it ‘cuz we went again this year!  We picked apples and had a picnic.  I must say it was a really nice day.

Before we go on, I must point out the bandannas.  At some point during our trip up there, we all had one on.  No, we don’t belong to a biker gang.  The fad got started somehow last time we went so I guess the tradition stuck.

YEAH RIGHT!!  It’s always him!

Michael with Uncle Jared.  He looks scary (Jared), but he’s really nice.  How scary can he be when I can beat him in arm wrestling?  (Bwah hahaha.  Love ya Jared!!)

This is how the younger kids got back to the car.  It was a bit of a hike from the car to the orchard.

The farmer and the dell, the farmer in the dell…

11 our of 13 grandkids.  We missed you Sam and Owen!!

The Briggs Clan minus 4.

That night we went to a trunk o’ treat with the cousins.  We didn’t get a whole lot of pictures, but here’s a group shot.

Notice the quality difference?  Yep.  These were taken on Ry’s camera phone.

And the cutest costume award goes to MICHAEL!!

He wishes!!

Well, I probably ought to end this little post.  If you’ve made it this far, well, I’m honored.  It was quite long.

First, let me reassure you all that, yes, my family and I are still alive.  We have been since birth and plan to continue to be for a number of years to come.  However, due to our increasing numbers (no I’m not pregnant, I’m speaking in general terms) I find that I no longer have the time I once did to spend time writing blog posts, no matter how much I’d like to.  I do plan on writing more, though.  I have much to catch up on and aquaint you with.  Having said that, on to my post.

If you’ve been my internet friend for a while, you may have wondered if I have parents.  You may have observed that an awful lot of posts revolve around adventures with Ryan’s family, but not much is said about my own.  Let me put your curiosity (if you have any) to rest.  Yes, I do have family.  In fact, I have a mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law and two little nephews (one brand new).

Now, before you jump down my throat for rarely acknowledging them in my posts, let me explain.  My lack of post equality arises not from lack of seeing my family, but rather the opposite.  You see, my poor parents live but 20 minutes away from us, allowing us to wreak havoc in their lives almost once a week.  Unfortunately, this close proximity causes me to forget to document time with them, thus the oversight in the blogs.  Ryan’s family, however, lives 4 hours away, so much ado is made about visiting them and documenting these visits.

Now, I’m not making excuses or saying it’s OK.  It’s not.  I fully accept responsibility for my neglect.  In fact, to even the score a little more, this post is dedicated to them – proof that I do have parents.  Unfortunately, I can’t take credit.  These pictures were taken by my dad in July of 2010.  I just received copies of them a couple of weeks ago – thus the lateness in posting about them – and, of course, since he was the one to take them, there are no pictures of him and only one of my mom as he was focused on capturing his grandkids.  I will try to do better in the future.

SO, if you are curious about what a typical day with my parents looks like, continue on.

Mt. Charleston

When my brother and his family visited in July, we thought it would be nice to show them some of the surrounding area.  Despite the fact that Chris and Triana had been married 5 years, she had never seen some of the nature type places that surround us – and we thought it about time she did.  Thus the picnic to Mt. Charleston was planned.  Unfortunately, in true Ord spirit, we were quite late and arrived up there just in time for the picnic areas to all be closed.  Thus our picnic turned into tail-gating.  It was still a lot of fun, though.

Swimming

One of my kids favorite things to do in the summer is to go swimming at Papa and Gaga’s house.  On this particular trip, not only did Sariah finally learn to swim, but my dad (Papa) got out his under-water camera and had some fun with the kids.

On September 11th, our family was in desperate need of getting out of the house.  We were all so tired of being cooped up that we were really grating on one another, so we headed to the library to find some much needed books and then decided, while we were out, to drop by the park next to it – which just happened to have a splash pad.

Now, being a spontaneous activity, we were unprepared for such an activity, but if you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you know that doesn’t stop us!  Oh no!  We just get wet anyway!

Apparently there is no age limit for this activity, because Elizabeth was having the time of her life.

I think this was Josh’s favorite place to be.  We have several pictures of him here.

He did manage to squeeze in some time to get wet, though.

Yep, he’s on it again!

Sariah was a little hesitant at first.  She was worried that, due to the color of her shirt, she would have issues with modesty once she got wet.  It took quite awhile to convince the poor thing – who most desperately wanted to join in the fun – that her shirt was of a thick enough material not to be a problem. . . and it wasn’t.

Yay! With a smile finally on all our children’s faces, our mission is complete.  Five more minutes and it will be time to go home!