Bird Egg

Derek found this pretty blue egg with speckles outside on the ground. It had a hole in it all ready. So I removed the yolk very carefully and then he was left with a hollow shell. Of course he wanted me to try and find out what kind of bird, but do you know what happens when you type blue speckled bird egg into google images...too many hits:)

So, we are still not sure what kind of bird layed the egg but oh well.

Emily's 4th Birthday

In case you can't tell, Emily wanted a princess cake, and since I'm too cheap to buy a pre-made one, I came up with my own decorations which I thought turned out cute. I just printed up princess pictures, covered with contact paper and taped toothpicks on the back. Emily absolutely loved it!! Of course the cake did not turn out good. I've made plenty of cakes from scratch in the past that turned out good, but I don't know what went wrong with this one, but it was terrible. Oh well...at least the decorations were cute, and that is all that Emily noticed.

The cake was too crumbly and you can tell by Sarah's face. I wish I had a picture of her plate...what a mess!!

The princess theme carried through to the presents. She received a Rapunzel barbie doll, princess bubble bath, and some Disney princess barbie doll dresses. She loved them all. I love her please smile, it makes me happy:)

The Rapunzel doll has "magic" hair that changes color when ice water is applied...that was a hit.

Sarah the Banker

A little over two weeks ago on Saturday night our sweet baby girl Sarah was holding 2 pennies and a dime. (yes we know...coins are not for 2 year olds, but she is around tiny objects all the time considering she has two older siblings, and she has held money before with no problem.) So, back to the story. Saturday night she was holding 2 pennies and a dime for over 2 hours. Darrell and I were getting ready for a date and she came to Darrell with a sad face and said "money," in a very pouty voice. Darrell asked "where's your money." Continuing with the pouty voice, she points to her lips and says "mouth." Darrell says "did you put your money in your mouth." Sarah pathetically nods her head yes.

So of course now we wonder what to do. She is not having a difficult time breathing and for goodness sakes we are going on a date!! So we decide she will probably pass the coins in a day or two. All goes well. No incident while we are away from home and she wakes up Sunday morning her normal perky self at 6AM. So I made breakfast...cocoa and toast (a Brimhall tradition that my kids want every morning). Sarah takes one bite and coughs it up. So we attempt another morsel of food and that comes back up too. Well, that must mean something is in the way!!!

So Sunday morning Sarah and I head to the emergency room at Phoenix Children's to get her x-rayed to see if the coins are logged...which of course they are. Six and 1/2 hours later after anesthesia with subsequent coin removal in the operating room she has her coins back. These picture were taken at home after the adventure. She was still very tired and took a nap on our bed. Her throat was swollen and scratchy and so she was snoring...it was cute.

This is now Sarah's favorite thing to say "no money in mouth, just food..." of course it comes out in 2 year old mumble talk, but we understand completely:)

Dr. Darrell Brimhall

In May we had two family members graduate. One graduation was slightly more important though. Darrell graduated from the University of Arizona Phoenix Campus Medical School, and is now a Doctor. The graduation ceremony was very nice. It was hard to get pictures because there were so many people, so some of these pics are from the school. The ceremony was held at an Art museum in Phoenix. It was very nice.





After the ceremony there was tons of chaos in the lobby as the graduates met family members and had pictures. Pretty much everyone was able to attend the graduation including Darrell's Aunt Nan and Uncle Mike.



This picture is Sarah being shy about me wanting to take a picture with Darrell's graduation hat on. The second picture is prior to the ceremony. We had to be there an hour early and that is a long time plus the actual ceremony for kids. Our kids were pretty good considering. But thank goodness for my parents who took them out when they got to disruptive, I was so appreciative of that.

It's been a long road to get here and it was a relief for Darrell to be done with another step of the journey. Next is residency which will be at Phoenix Baptist here in the Valley. He applied to every residency in the valley and when he interviewed at Baptist he felt if fit just right for him. He actually never thought that would be in his top 5 choices. He loves the small feel of the hospital and he loves that the family medicine program is the only residency at the hospital which means there are not tons of residents competing to get enough patients and experiences. He matched at several of the other hospitals we know simply because they sent a survey wanting to know why he didn't choose them. So now begins another adventure. Only 4 more years in the valley. A 3 year residency followed by a 1 year fellowship in geriatrics at Boswell hospital and they we are off to cooler higher country.

And then of course the second graduate: Derek Brimhall. He graduated from kindergarten:) A much smaller affair...well at least I thought so, although when I showed up at the graduation you would have thought by how some people were dressed and the amount of flowers and balloons they brought that this was at least a high school graduation. Boy was I amazed...or maybe I'm just a bad mom:) Although he is cute in his cute little Velcro button gown and paper hat. My favorite part was watching the kindergartners all sing and do hand motions to a song together.

July 4th Weekend in Snowflake

July 4th weekend we spent relaxing in Snowflake. There were no fireworks in Heber due to the heavy fire restricitons in place because of massive fire in the white mountains. But it was still fun and nice to get out of the valley heat. Gary filled in a huge hole that was on their property and Derek loved riding along. He even got to ride in the dump truck.

On Sunday we went to church. Darrell's Aunt Nan had given Sarah a few little girls dresses to use when grand kids visited, so Emily and Sarah wore them. They were cute and the girls loved them. Little Sarah's socks are a little big and so it looks like they cover her legs.

On the morning of July 4th, Derek went to the flag raising ceremony. I stayed in bed and slept:)

See the lovely clouds in the back ground...LOVE IT!!! Darrell's grandpa owns a wagon that hooks onto a truck. Gary borrowed it for a young mens activity and we also got to ride in the wagon a couple times. The kids loved it. They especially love riding into McDonald's in the wagon.

Lake Powell 2011

Yes....another late post. We went to our annual Lake Powell trip in June. We were only able to go a couple days this year because Darrell had to start residency, but it was a blast and one of the best Lake Powell trips I have been on. We met Darrell's family in Page to do some extra shopping on Thursday. This is Sarah finally falling asleep 5 minutes before getting to the Lake...of course she was whinny and cranky for a long time before this, but she wouldn't fall asleep until we almost got to the Lake.

We stayed the night on the house boat Thursday night while it was still docked at the marina. We then launched on Friday morning. This is Emily and Derek driving the house boat...scary! Derek took the job pretty seriously.

Here is Emily and Sarah enjoying the breeze in their hair as we look for a place to anchor. Friday was overcast all day and is was beautiful. It was still warm, but with the sun hidden it was actually not bad. Even better was that the water was still warm enough to swim in. Emily loved the water and spent as much time in it as she could. She also loved burying herself in the wet sand.

An early morning picture after arising too early. Gotta love the girls' hair. The kids were always up at the crack of dawn ready to go again. It was hard to keep them contained in the down stairs bedroom until a decent hour.

And of course you can't have Lake Powell without lizards and fish bones. Derek would spend all day trying to catch lizards if he could. There were times his face was so red because it was so hot and he was chasing lizards.

Snapshots of the sweet girls in their life jackets.

Prescott Trip with Kids

Before going to the annual Brimhall gathering at Lake Powell in June, we took the kids to our favorite hotel in Prescott. We did alot of swimming and having fun. We went to Red Robin for dinner the first night and were very unsatisfied. Derek then got sick all over the Wal-mart parking lot...fun:)

The kids love this pool because of the animals. Derek was a little fish. Emily was good if she had floaties. Sarah was so cute. She would wear floaties and just relax on her back.