Wednesday, December 31, 2008

~KRISPY KREME AND THE FORDHAM'S~

We met up with the Fordham's (our short friends) yesterday and had a fun time with them. We met at McDonald's for lunch so the kids could play then off to see doughnuts be made. We have 4 kids and they have 3 so we made quite a crew. Look what just 2 couples can do! I have to tell you the ages of all our kids that are lined up. Their height differences are so funny!! First we have Hunter 9, Macazlyn 7, Brinlyn 4. Then we have their Colby 7, Sidney 5, Drake 2 and Olivia 2. But Olivia is 4 months older than Drake. At the bottom we have Brandon and Tom with some kids. They are so cute!!














~CHAD'S KIDS~




We went and got Chads kids the Saturday after Christmas and had them for "a spend the night", as my kids say. All the kids were so excited to see each other!! They came running to me with open arms. I loved it! It was fun having them over. I really enjoyed our time together. I love them so much.!! They are doing good and are happy, and that is so important to me. I got school pictures of them. Maybe I will scan them in and blog them for all you readers. Love ya kids and can't wait to see ya next time!! Here is everyone's names left to right. Michael, Hunter, Drake, Macazlyn, Brinlyn, Shanally, and Autumn.

Monday, December 29, 2008

~THE PICTURE TO GO ALONG WITH WHEN TOM AND I MET~


After my blog the other day I went looking for a certain picture of Tom and I, when we met, but I couldn't find it. But I did find this one, it is a little blurry but it will do. We met on the 23rd of December and this picture was taken on Dec. 31, 1996. This was New Year's Eve and yes, it is shocking how thin we are. And Tom with hair!!! And I thought I was fat. Girls....Sheesh!! We are going to do something about that this year. Our brother-in-law has inspired us!!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

~BRINKWORTH'S WITH BRINKWORTH'S~


We got to see Dan and Aubrey with we were in Grand Junction and the kids had a blast. I think Brinlyn enjoyed having Kayla all to herself without Macazlyn! I stayed the night at Tierreny's house a couple of nights and Brinlyn got to stay with Aubrey. She loved it and she loves her aunt Aubrey!! The picture of all the kids is Kayla, Brett, Brinlyn and Drake. Then just the girls and Aubrey and I. I always have a great time when I am with Aubrey and love her sooo much!! I am so glad she is my sister-in-law!!







Saturday, December 27, 2008

~GRAND JUNCTION TRIP~








































I had a great time in Grand Junction and am now getting around to posting some of the pictures. These are just some random pictures that I liked. My cousins Tierreny lives there now and her brother ValGene was was visiting with his wife. Kiessa is Tierreny's daughter. She is the blond with the black shirt.

~CUTIE PATOOTIE~


This is my brother-in-law Ben. He showed up at my house looking so cute today that I told him I was going to take his picture and put it on my blog and call him cutie patootie. So here it is. This is one of his many new Christmas outfits. He started working out and eating good last year in January and on Christmas Eve hit his goal of 70 lb lost. Yeah you Ben!!!! So all he wanted for Christmas was NOT his 2 front teeth, it was clothes. Anyway, he looks great and we are all proud of him

~WAY OFF THE SUBJECT~




Tom found these pic and wanted to scan them in so he could put them on his myspace with our other Halloween pics, so I decided to blog them. This was 3 Halloweens ago I think. We went with some good friends as The Adams Family. We went to downtown Denver and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was great fun and we got lots of comments. Everyone did a good job on their costumes and people knew who we were. It's Dana and James Christensen, Tom Brinkworth, Wendy Casto, Christina Brinkworth, and Sam Casto. They have all moved from our ward now so I miss them all!!

Friday, December 26, 2008

~CHRISTMAS EVE~
















We had a fun time on Christmas Eve with Ben and Vanessa. The kids wanted to make pizza with Santa Clause on it but that wouldn't fit so we had to just do S and C. But it was fun and Ben and Vanessa helped. We also did our gingerbread people that night to. We opened our usual 1 present and the kids got pj's. Hunter has now caught on and knows it is pj's but Brinlyn hasn't figured it out yet and was a little disappointed. It was funny. We read the Christmas Story and read our special book from Grandpa, Twas the Night Before Christmas. The kids loved it and loved looking at the bright colorful pictures! ( Thanks Grandpa) We topped the evening off with sprinkling Reindeer food outside and then off to bed. Oh, and Vanessa and Ben have 2 kids (their dogs) Sidney and Koda, we couldn't leave them out!

~CHRISTMAS BAKING~




















The night before Christmas Eve I decided to get in gear and do some Christmas baking. I got a new cinnamon colored Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas so we needed to put it to the test. It is a professional series 600 or something like that and it has a huge mixing bowl and the highest powered motor. So I decided to triple the banana bread recipe and see how it did. It was great and nice to get it all done at once. All the kids took turns being my helpers while watching Santa Clause (Lois will be so proud of me, having the kids watch Christmas movies)!! Drake is talking on the phone with my mom in the picture while we were baking so I told her we would blog that one. "Hi Grandma"!! I was sitting with the lights off and the fire going, listening to Christmas music, and decided to take some pic because it was so pretty. It looks like the lights were on but they weren't. It was nice to take the time to pause and reflect on my Christmas' growing up. Such good memories!! Grandpa and Grandma's house, the family and cousins that were there, even the food. There were certain aunts who brought the same thing every year and it is funny to remember. We always had a great Christmas at home too. Some with homemade gifts, some not but always great. I remember playing santa and reindeer with Chad and Angela in his room. We would tie someone to the chair and then one of us would sit on the chair and be santa while the others pulled. Silly I know, but a good memory. I cherish these memories, it is what makes Christmas... Christmas.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

~MERRY CHRISTMAS~







Here are some Christmas pictures. Enjoy!!

~MERRY CHRISTMAS PART 2~













Well, we had a fun Christmas Day and everyone is now tucked in bed and it is time to relax. We had a great time spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Ben and Vanessa! Macazlyn got a cowgirl barbie that looks like her and she thought that was great!! I made Vanessa and Ben their picture frame with Brenneis on it and I made the doll blankie for the girls when I was in Georgia with the Angela. Then I thought this last picture of Drake was so cute. He LOVES trains and when he saw this paper that shows all trains he just loved looking at it!! We all went up to Tom's parents house for Christmas dinner and it was very Yummy!! We got a Wii this year so we all had to have a turn at that. I think it is going to be pretty fun! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and We love you all the Days!!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

~12 YEARS AGO TODAY~

Tom and I met 12 years ago today. I was home from Utah (in Castle Rock) and he was home from Grand Junction (in Elizabeth). Angela and I were in my mom's big tub (in our swim suits, Sheesh) and we had been there for about 2 hours. Just chatting and laughing and such. We were quite the raisins when we got out...
In the mean time my brother Chad was working at the Castle Rock wal-mart and Tom was working there too. My brother needed a ride home and he said he was going to call his mom. Tom offered to give him a ride and Chad said sure. Chad went on to tell him that his sister was in town. Tom asked if I was tall like him and he said yeah and so Tom decided to keep going with that and ask if I was cute. This is always my favorite part of the story. Chad said in his low gruffy voice " I don't know, she's my sister." Hahaha. I have always got a good laugh out of that!
So we had just gotten out of the tub when they got to the house. I was in my bathrobe with my hair in a towel and no makeup. Chad called me downstairs and said he had someone for me to meet. But when he saw me he said (in the same gruff voice) "you might want to go comb your hair." (ok I love that part too) Tom was in the bathroom at this time so I took his advice and ran upstairs and brushed my hair. Not that it made a big difference, I was in a bathrobe and no makeup for heaven sakes! So I came down the stairs at the same time he came around the corner and he took my breath away. He was SO TALL and cute! What a smile and those eyes! I couldn't believe it. His massive height was definitely the first thing I noticed about him!!! He was so cute and TALL and funny and TALL. Did I say tall? Angela and I spent hours chatting with him and he kept winking at me from across the room. We stood to say our goodbyes (once again I was in aw) and he asked me for my #. We saw each other a few more times over Christmas break and went to a New Years Eve Party then we went back to Utah and Grand Junction and saw each other only 2 times before Tom proposed. He must have liked something he saw or heard because he proposed in March after only a few real dates. Met in December 1996, engaged in March, married on June 21, 1997 and the rest, as they say, is history.
As I sit and remember this, how can I not think about Chad. If Tom hadn't brought him home that night who knows how or if we would have met. Chad introduced me to my future husband and he loved to remind us of that. I miss him terrible at this holiday season and I have thought of him a lot. Our family will never be whole again here on this earth without him, and the few times we have all been together since his death, we all feel it. I miss the rest of my family and all my friends that have moved away this year too and I think that has made it even harder this Christmas season. I am feeling a lot of loss but trying to keep my spirits up. Sometimes ya just want to give in and not try so hard to be brave and just let the emotions come. Christmas and being with my family at my parents house has always meant the world to me, and it is hard to let it go now, but we will have Christmas together again I am sure, it's just this one is hard. It really isn't all this sad, it's just a hard night to write this because I am thinking of and missing Chad. Thankyou so much Chad, for bringing the wonderful man I now call my husband into my life!! I will always be grateful! I love you with all my heart and miss you!!! PS- This turned out sadder than it was supposed to be. It really is a wonderful memory, but sad too...so...what will be, will be.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

~COZY COUSINS~



I am in Grand Junction visting my cousins Tierreny and ValGene and their families. We are having a great and stilly time. I am so glad to see everyone!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

~PRECIOUS MOMENTS~



My mom and dad gave us this little tree a couple of years ago for Christmas. When we got it out this year Drake was is aw over it. He loves it!! He loves trains and this little tree just amazes him. He has very tender precise hands for his age. Very good fine motor skills and long delicate fingers. I am trying to draw a picture of how he holds this precious tree. With tender, loving hands!! There we go, I got the right words. Anyway, it is very sweet and I love him so much and can't imagine our family without him!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

~LITTLE FRIENDS~



We met up with Carie Fordham and her kids today to get some vinyl and have some lunch. The kids played for a while and Carie and I had a nice chat then went over to Wal-Mart after that and the kids got into the cart together so we both had to get out the cameras. Sidney is older that Brinlyn and Olivia is older than Drake. They are such cute LITTLE kids!! I had to cuddle Olivia a little today because she is so small...I just had to give her a squeeze. She is older than Drake and so much smaller. It's crazy!!

~SANTA~


We were at Aspen Grove Mall on Saturday as a family and we found Santa walking around with these Christmas Caroler's. He sat with the kids for a while and talked to them. They loved it!! They were just saying how they wanted to see Santa so I lucked out. No wait and some good one on one. Yeah us!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

~FASHION SHOW~




I got Brinlyn some new stuff, so today we decided to try it on and see what we liked the best. She loved trying different outfits and modeling them for a picture. We decided on the first outfit. It's the one we like the best!!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

~MACAZLYN~


We were just taking pictures for fun and I really liked how this one turned out. So I decided to post it here on my blog.

~HUNTER'S BASKETBALL GAME~



Hunter had his first basketball game for the Parker club team he plays on. He did great and had a great time. As you can see he is #55 (which was Tom's #). His team on 30 to 10. He as pretty excited and it was fun to go watch him. I really like basketball and it is even more fun to watch when you are watching your kid!!