Rebecca's Blog

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.

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!

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.

The 4th was on a Sunday this year, so we nixed the pool and settled for fireworks and a BBQ at my parents’ school for superheroes.  Take a look.

Sariah glows.  We’re not sure if it’s her personality or some chemical reaction, but we’re looking into it.  If we could bottle whatever it is, we would no longer need flashlights that need constant battery changes.  We could make a fortune!!

Benjamin is able to throw fireballs.  Apparently he’s strong as well.  Here he seems to be spouting fire and nonchalantly checking out his biceps.

Elizabeth is some kind of superhero, but we’re not quite sure what her power is.  Our theory is that those two fiery infernos work similarly to a black hole.  If you get sucked into one of them, you may just end up on the other side of the the universe or in a different time or something.  Nobody really wants to test the theory though.

After a long night of hero training, Monday was dedicating to rejuvenating their hero powers in the sprinklers

Apparently Josh thinks that the job is best done when pants-less.

Water is definitely a must on rejuvenation days.  It allows the body to return to their normal temperatures after creating all that light and fire.  They look forward to these days excitedly.

Happy very late Independence Day everyone.  Hope yours was as explosive as ours!!!  And thank you to our forefathers who made it possible for everyone to live in a country with the freedoms we enjoy daily – including superheroes.

OK, so I’m hoping not many people see this, but I needed to document Michael’s first time in the pool.  Hopefully Michael is so cute that all the focus in these pictures are on him and not the other person holding him.

As expected, Michael loved the pool.  He seems to have no fear of the water.

Speaking of fear, we wish Josh would get some.  He has no problem jumping into any water no matter how deep.  We’ve tried to get the fact that he could drown through his obstinate skull, but haven’t had much luck.  Hopefully this means he will pick up how to swim more quickly than his older siblings, who have been too scared to learn.

Like Benjamin’s stylin’ goggles?  He won’t go in the pool without them and mainly stays cautiously on the steps.  He will venture out into the shallow end occasionally on a flotation devise, but not often.

Sariah finally figured out that she’s tall enough to stand in the shallow end.  This has brought a little more bravado into her life.  We FINALLY (after several years of lessons) have made some progress in teaching her to swim.  Now that she’s able to just put a foot down when she feels she’s sinking, she’s not so afraid to try – well, sometimes.

And here’s our fish.  Elizabeth loves to go swimming.  She dives for stuff on the bottom and does cannon balls in the deep end.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t get the opportunity as often as she’d like.

All in all it was a very  fun evening at Papa and Gaga’s house.  We just need to get the younger 4 more comfortable in the water.  I guess I look at swimming like potty training.  Both skills are necessary and each child that reaches either goal is a load off my back.  The only difference is that they get more practice on the potty than in the pool.  Oh well.  1 down.  4 to go.

Look!  We’ve made it to April.  I bet you never thought we’d get here, but here we are in less than record time.  Let’s take a look, shall we?

Easter this year was a low key event.  It was nice this year to be able to hear from the prophet on Easter instead of rushing through Easter morning and trying, unsuccessfully, to make it to church on time.  We were able to sit in our jammies, eat breakfast and listen to conference instead, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  First, we did have to do a little preparation.

How could we celebrate Easter without the proper equipment?  Every Saturday before Easter, we ritually dye Easter eggs.  For those who have not done this with our family before, this is serious business not to be taken lightly.  All steps are taken to insure we are able to produce the best eggs possible.

Of course, this year baby Michael was unable to participate in this little event.  It doesn’t mean, however, that he was left out.  Daddy found a way to make sure he was included.

Sunday morning brought the unveiling of the Easter baskets that the Easter bunny brought.  This year, my kids left carrots out for the little (or big – we really don’t know which) fellow (kids’ idea – they thought it unfair that Santa got stuff and the Easter bunny didn’t).  Anyway, when we reached the table where Mr. Bunny left the baskets, we found the carrots had been gnawed on and baskets of books and treats had been left.

If you’re looking at the pictures below and wondering if Mr. Bunny also ate some eggs and left the yokes, the answer is no.  Those were my kids’ additions later that morning.  They figured the rest of the egg resting places on the plate needed to be filled.  After all, the Easter bunny left his leftovers there.

Anyway, after eggs and an abundance of chocolate, we settled down for conference.

Later that afternoon, we headed over to Gaga and Papa’s house for dinner and to search for the eggs of candy that the Easter bunny leaves hidden in their yard every year.  We ask him to hide them there, because my parents’ yard is much better for hiding eggs than ours is.  Well, that and Papa and Gaga like to see the fun.

Of course, you must be wondering about Michael.  Had he been left out of all the fun?

Never fear.  Gaga had her best intentions at heart by coming to Michael’s rescue with his very first candy cane.  No child need ever fear about being left out when it comes to candy.  The only thing they need fear is Joshua stealing it all.

Well, that was pretty much our Easter in a nutshell.  After hunting eggs and eating too much sugar, we had a fabulous dinner and headed home for bed.

Two days after Christmas we headed back over to Gaga and Papa’s house to spend some time with them and my brother and his family.  Not long after our arrival, the kids discovered that there was a job that had been left undone – the decorating of the gingerbread train.  After a little bit of arm twisting, they succeeded in persuading Papa to help with the assembly.

Papa, being the gingerbread building professional that he is, immediately grabbed the icing and started piecing the train together with the kids gathered around him.

Thrilled that Papa accomplished the job relatively quickly, the kids set to work decorating the train under the direction of Elizabeth.  Unfortunately, although Papa is an excellent dentist and expert gingerbread builder, he is not an engineer.  Not long into the delicate procedure of decorating the train, the exterior designers discovered that the structural integrity of this particular structure was poor as the engine’s walls began to tilt.

Slightly unnerved, but unwilling to give up the project entirely, Elizabeth held the walls up with her finger and called for help.

Fortunately for all involved, there happened to be a structural engineer relaxing in the house on that fateful day.  Rushing to the scene, Ryan immediately started to assess the structure.  The report came back that the load on the walls caused by the roof was too great and there was improper application of building materials – in other words, the frosting wasn’t dry before the kids started decorating.

Fortunately for the distraught kids, Ryan was truly a great engineer and came up with a quick, yet ingenious fix for the poor engine: a frosting-welded toothpick braced frame.

The kids, dizzy with relief and gratitude, thanked their father and uncle profusely for rescuing their little broken-down train.  Thanks to him, they would be able to finish their project.

Upon completion of their project, the kids moved on to bigger and better things – like eating chocolate and running around the house, driving everyone else crazy.  Unfortunately, Michael – the youngest of the designers – was beyond exhausted with all the stress and commotion he encountered during such an ordeal.  Luckily there was one who could sooth his angst.

Gaga was there to calm the five month old and send him into a world of precious dreams.  All was well in the world at last.

The end.

* A Note From the Author:

My husband says that I need to explain that this story is a little far fetched and that it all didn’t go down “exactly” as written.  I say it’s my story and I can tell it how I want.  The facts are all there, they’re just slightly embellished.  After all, aren’t authors allowed a little creative liberty?