Phoenix Children's Museum

A couple months back, my sister Stephanie and I went to the Phoenix Children's Museum for a fun filled morning.  I wish this museum had been around when I was a kid, because it is so fun and the kids really enjoy it.  The picture on the left is Sarah standing in the huge exhibit when you first get in the museum.  It is a huge climbing tower made out of all recycled materials.  It is hard for an adult to get around but it is possible.  Sarah is still too scared to go up by herself, but she sure likes me to come with her.

 

Peek-a-Boo!

The above right picture is of Sarah riding on a push bike.  There is a "car wash" the kids can ride all sorts of push bikes and tricycles through.  The pictures with the girls playing peek-a-boo are from a room with lots of items to make forts.

Payton is so cute in this picture:)  

The picture below with all the kids is in the craft room.  They have different crafts to do and they also have a castle the kids can paint.  You can kind of see it in the upper right corner of the picture. The craft for this day was rattle snakes.  They all made unique ones, and of course there were stickers involved which made it even more fun.

In the picture below Emily is in the room meant to be like a store.  There is also a room next to it with a pretend restaurant/kitchen with pizza making things.  This is the kids favorite 2 rooms.  There is tons of plastic food and cardboard boxes to fill up little carts with and then a few check out conveyor belts with cash registers.  There is even a stock room.

Then of course they have a room just for 2 year old kids and younger.  I like this room because it is quiet.  The only problem is I had to split my time between this room and the store/kitchen room to keep an eye on the older kids.  I really need to get GPS put on the kids when I am at this museum, this way I can go where I want and know when they leave the area I told them to stay.  Sarah loved this little room and had a relaxing time in this big green plush chair.

It was a fun day but by the end Stephanie and I were tired.  The kids of course could have stayed forever but tough cookies:)

Glamour Shots

These are some pictures Katie took on our camera after doing Emily's hair...she is beautiful. I love her eyes.

             

Photo Shoot 2011

Every year I try and update the kids pictures on our wall and on the blog. So we did a photo shoot while in Snowflake over 4th of July. I also just took a few of the kids playing. These are a selection of my favorites that didn't make the wall but are still cute.

        

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.