Merry Christmas

  We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.  

Sunday Morning With Dad

What a treat! The girls went to church today with Dad.  Mom had to attend a baby shower and left all duties to Dad for Sunday morning.  The girls had a blast. They first took a shower and sat on the floor with their towels laughing and being silly, so Dad had to take out the camera and capture the moment.  Ella still has a mustache from the Acai berry drink she had before her shower. I guess we need to work with her on washing her face in the shower a little more carefully.  Emersyn could not stop saying cheese and the giggling.
After Dad got them ready for Church he was so proud of himself that he had to take a few more photos.  Impressive that he was able to place bows in their hair.  Way to go Dad!!

Oak Glen Apple Orchards

We spent Saturday in the mountains visiting the apple orchard and sampling a variety of apples.  The kids loved running through the orchards.  Ella did not like the fallen apples on the ground as they were a little rotten and the bees were hovering over them.
Ella refused to take her picture with the girls. Finally she decided to peek around the corner. So stubborn!



As you can see they loved the apples and their new favorite is the Arkansas Black.  They are delicious. Somewhat tart but oh so good!

Halloween

Witch cupcakes Mom made for Ella's Halloween party at school. Oh wait, Dad did decorate the witch hats with frosting and sprinkles.
That sure looks appetizing!! The eggs and toast actually tasted better than it looks...really!
Emersyn sure had a great time trick or treating.  We had to empty her bucket several times because it was getting too heavy for her to hold.  Each time we emptied it she threw a fit because her candy disappeared.
Ella decided she wanted to be a 50's girl for the second year in a row.  What a relief that was! No costume buying or for that matter costume making this year.

Our Praying Mantis

Once upon a time a little girl had a pet.  Let's call it Praying Mantis. Now this Praying Mantis was no ordinary pet.  It was special!  This green creature loved to attack its prey and eat them alive starting with their head first.

Now this little girl was fascinated by Praying Mantis and wanted to feed it cookies and she wanted to hold it, but the child's parents would not allow it.  

Praying Mantis loved grasshoppers twice its size, moths and even yellow jackets.  Nothing could stop the eating frenzy of this creature.
After two days of watching and caring for the Praying Mantis it was finally let go back into the wild to survive on its own.  It was released in the rose garden at grandma and grandpa's house never to be seen again.

LA County Fair

Here are some shots of our annual trip to the LA County Fair.  

Did they ever love the cotton candy!  Grandpa does not seem to realize that kids don't need that much sugar before bed!!  It was however a fun evening.

First Day of Preschool

Our little one is growing so fast.  Although she would not pose for her picture she is still precious.  This was a picture before her first day of preschool. At last after a month and a half she finally stopped crying when we would drop her off at her class.  

TOP TEN EXCUSES WHY WE HAVEN'T BEEN BLOGGING

Well we haven't fallen off the face of the earth but maybe close to it. Let's just say we have been busy with stuff. The problem is we are not sure what kind of stuff we have been busy with!

Just a little update on our lives:

Excuse #1 Brian was recently called to teach seminary so the blog has not been updated since August and Brian is the one who uploads all the photos. He is used to waking up at 8:00am for work and now has to wake up at 5:30 am every morning and teach 15 juniors and seniors the new testament, which is quite exhausting. Needless to say he is learning a lot and preparing lessons each night for the next day. So blogging has been put on the back burner.

Excuse #2 Brian is looking for another JOB!!

Excuse # 3 Aubrey has been getting MRI after MRI. First on her left knee then the right one and now on her left hip again. For those who don't know, Aubrey had hip surgery in 2005. She underwent a greater trochanteric osteotomy with anterior dislocation to repair an anterior and superior labral tear. So for those not interested in the all this medical jargon, she had her femur bone cut and her hip dislocated then had two cartilage tears repaired in her hip. It was then put back in place and two screws were used to attach the bone back on the femur.

This was supposedly going to fix the hip pain she was having but the pain seems to be returning. The left knee recently showed a 60% medial meniscus tear, so on Friday Sept 26th she had a left knee arthroscopy to remove the shredded meniscus.

Excuse #4 Aubrey has now become a Pampered Chef consultant and wants to buy everything in the catalog. That is for another post altogether. http://www.pamperedchedf.biz/aubreysplace

PARTY ANYONE??? (We really need the money) Please I am begging you (Brian)

Excuse #5 Emersyn is driving us crazy all she does is grunt and eat everything in sight.

Excuse #6 Ella started preschool is is making up stories at school.

Here is one example: Ella told her teacher that she went to the fair and won a sparkly teddy bear. The teacher asked her if she would like to bring it to show the class and Ella said," Oh no my mommy won't allow me to bring it." Well at meet the teacher night Aubrey was talking with the teacher and this story came up . First Ella did not go to the fair, second there is no teddy bear, and third our child might be a pathological liar.

Excuse #7 Aubrey is now an official taxi driver taking Ella to school, dance, and gymnastics while lugging Emersyn along for the ride.

Excuse #8 Aubrey is busy thinking about what meal she is going to cook next. While in bed at night instead of doing what couples should be doing in bed (hint, hint to all the women), she is thinking about recipes. (boring!!)

Excuse #9 Aubrey is still trying to make bows and has a convention at the Disneyland hotel in October. (I really wish she could have bows made in China so I don't have to see another spool of ribbon again. While I am wishing, I wish they would find a buyer for those bows so they could be in stores across America and then I could retire and just live the life of Riley)

Excuse #10 We are just lazy and haven't wanted to update the blog!!

So there you have it, an almost complete update of our lives. Stay tuned. Please check back we'll post photos soon.

They say, "It's The Greatest Show On Earth"

Nothing like a circus hat while you eat cotton candy and stale popcorn.  That's right (stale popcorn).  I think the popcorn was from the last show they performed a week ago.  Other than popcorn that tasted like cardboard we all had a wonderful time.  

The highlight of the day was when the elephants came out to perform.  A couple of them must of had IBS because the crews were constantly scooping poop!  Everybody thought it was pretty funny.

One digital camera for pictures- $250

Disneyland passes for 3 kids-$807

Three 4 yr old cousins only six weeks apart and best friends - Priceless

Tempan Dinner

The famous VOLCANO! Aunt Kristin and Aunt Krissy were the Sioux Chefs. When you are cooking for 16 people you need at least 2 Sioux chefs.

We begged Uncle Mike to cook "tempan style" for us as our last meal together before they went back to AZ. It was so delicious. He went all out. We had soup, salad, fried rice, veggies, shrimp, chicken and fillet Mignon( Oh, and Grandpa got scallops too). All of the little cousins (Pico, Switzer and Brinegar) had a front row seat and enjoyed the show. Uncle Mike can do all the tricks; spinning the egg, tossing shrimp into the kids mouths and the volcano. Check out the flames on that volcano! Thank you Uncle Mike for such a yummy dinner!

The cousins posing before a great Tempan dinner prepared by Chef Switzer.

Ashley, Noah, Ella, Isabelle, Charlie, Aubrey, and Annie.

            

Hannah Montana Mania

Our vacation with the cousins would not be complete without a Hannah Montana concert.  We recorded Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert and made it an evening. The girls went crazy dancing to every song performed.  You would have thought they were actually at the concert. Here is a glimpse of what took place for an hour and a half.

Spending time at Newport Beach

Noah, Ella and Sophie having fun collecting sand crabs at Laguna Beach.
It was overcast so we thought we would take the kids to the tide pools and then head over to Fashion Island to do some shopping. Just as we got to the tide pools the clouds cleared and we ended up staying at the beach the rest of the afternoon. We had no sunscreen and no towels.To say the least, we were very ill prepared (Mom in her capri pants),but we had so much fun.
Uncle Mike and Ella playing in the sand.
                                                 Emersyn wadding in the tide pools.


Emersyn eating one of her favorite foods, Tillamook cheese!
Noah and Ella boogie boarding.

Little Emersyn

Emersyn at her best.  Always happy when she is eating.

Great Grandparents

We took a trip to Sun City, AZ to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Brinegar for their 92nd birthday and to celebrate their 69th wedding anniversary.  We had a great time and loved spending time with family.

Emersyn Walking

Emersyn began walking on July 5th and loves the new experience. It's the moments like this that keep you from killing your kids when they are not so adorable!