IT'S ABOUT TIME!

So here I am a month later FINALLY getting around to Blogging.  Its been crazy since we got home and I still feel like I'm playing catch up.  We had a fantastic Christmas in Denver this year and were so blessed to see tons of family.  Thanks to Papa and LouLou for hosting us and putting up with all our crap scattered over your house.  This is a long post but I really tried to keep the commentary down to a minimum.  The above photo was taken at Brady's pre-school Christmas program.  Scroll down to enjoy more of our Christmas photos. 

Our Christmas began with...

BRADY'S EYE...AGAIN

As you can sort of see from this picture Brady had another mishap involving his eye.  We were at Lindsay's house and we had asked the kids to start cleaning up when Brady tripped and fell right into the corner of the coffee table.  The bonk re-opened his scar from when he got stitches last spring so off Marilee and I went to her doctor for a little dermabond this time. 

BYU vs. UCLA

Jackson was a lucky enough boy to get to go to the Las Vegas Bowl with Uncle Adam, Annie, Spencer, Uncle Ryan, Justin, Ben, Nana and Grandad.  They had such a blast and it was made even better when BYU won the last play of the game.  Thanks to everyone who played a part in getting Jackson to the game and taking care of him.  One funny thing was when he got back to Papa and LouLou's house we asked how the game was and he said, "What game?"  What a weirdy!

CUTE BABY COUSINS

Here are a couple of pictures of Brooklyn and Reecey.  They sure are cute!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a great time on Christmas Eve at the Smith's house.  They were willing to host all of us for Christmas Eve dinner and activities and we all had a wonderful time eating Ham, Cheesy Potatoes and everything that goes along with that.  Thanks to Grandma Loomis we learned some very important things on Christmas Eve...first is the TJ talks like a nut.  Second, marriage has made him look mangey (sp?) and third at one time he was the apple of her eye.  (Does that mean he's not any more?)  

Reecey in her Christmas get up.

Me and Colton having a snuggle

Brookie eating a plastic cup.

TJ and Ali

My kids, minus Reecey, in their Christmas gam gams.

CHRISTMAS DAY!

We enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning at the Smith's home.  We all slept there the night before and had a wonderful time on Christmas morning opening presents, eating breakfast casserole and scotch stew and being together.  It was a wonderful treat to have a white Christmas as it snowed and snowed and snowed all day long.  It was beautiful!  That night we went to the Christofferson's for some yummy soup and lots of fun.  It was very sad for Reecey though because she had the stomach flu and was not feeling her best.  Poor little thing.

One view of the chaos!

Another view of the chaos.

Jack posing in the snow.  (pardon the UofU hat.  He put it on before I could stop him)

Cute little babies enjoying their first Christmas!

Me and my Reecey.

Rock band at Christofferson's

More Rock Band

Sick little Reecey at the end of a long Christmas Day.

SLEDDING!!!

The day after Christmas we all went sledding (except for Matt and Erin and Colton and Papa cause Erin was puking, Matt was lending his moral support to her, Colton was at work, and Papa was de-icing).  It was so much fun and my kids haven't ever gone sledding on a hill that big since they always sled down the little hill behind my house.  Needless to say we all had a blast!

Madison and Lindsay

Annie pouting because on her first time down the hill she accidentally ran into someone and didn't want to go down again.  Mar finally convinced her to go down again and I don't know about you but I feel like its the responsibility of those walking up the hill to watch where they are going!

Joshy looking cozy and warm!

Madison wanted to be pulled up the hill everytime!  Good thing she's such a peanut!

Reecey!  She was the warmest of us all...except for Brookie who went to the car with LouLou to eat.

TJ and Brady coming up the hill.  Unfortunately for Brady he is much to heavy to be pulled up the hill like Madison.

Me and my boys!  Brady is awake in this picture.

We put all these little fools on the sled with Spencer and let them go down together.  It was hilarious!

Stay tuned for Natalie's birthday posting.  Hopefully I'll get it up in a few days, but even that is optimistic.

Tag Your It...Christmas Edition

Everyone can blame Heather Ward for this one! She emailed it to me but I thought I'd blog mine instead of emailing to here goes...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I enjoy OPENING paper but prefer WRAPPING in bags, so I split it 50/50 cause the kids like the paper better.
2. Real tree or Artificial? My Artificial 9 ft PRE-LIT tree that I bought at Costco a couple of years ago. I really love the idea of real trees but we're rarely home for Christmas and they do pose a fire hazard. As for the smell of real trees we have a lovely pine candle so we don't miss out.
3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime after Thanksgiving, depending on my mood, but no later then December 1st or 2nd.
4. When do you take the tree down? The day after I walk in the door from our Christmas Holiday.
5. Favorite gift received as a child? Don't remember. I do remember my parents always telling us that we would never remember our gifts. As a child I thought YEAH RIGHT but it seems they knew what they were talking about!
6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I have a couple but my favorite is my fisher-price Nativity. Its so cute and my kids love playing with it!
7. Hardest person to buy for? The Dad's. My Dad and Big T are next to impossible to shop for.
8. Easiest to buy for? Natalie. Its difficult to restrain myself, actually. Good thing her birthday is 3 days after Christmas.
9. Mail or email Christmas cards? I mail them. If you don't get one from me this year don't x me off your list...I'm just not doing them due to the recent craziness of my life and the fact that I just sent out Reecey's birth annoucements.
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Refer to number 5
11. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have too many to count! We love Christmas Vacation and watch it every Thanksgiving night. I also LOVE watching Elf with my kids. Jackson's got it memorized. Polar Express is also a favorite of mine in addition to Home Alone. TJ and I enjoy Family Man but I think my most favorite of all time for grown ups is While You Were Sleeping. Shannon, Angie and Jocelyn know why!
12. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Can't say that I have.
13. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I love all the cheese balls and dips but my mom's fudge is up there along with LouLou's carmelitas and slush! YUMMY!
14. Clear lights or colored on the tree? My pre-lit tree is white but I saw a tree the other day with colored and thought that maybe next year I'd do a "formal" tree with white lights and a kids tree with colored. Just call me Janet.
15. Favorite Christmas song? Clay Aiken's "First Noel" is great and I love Harry Connick Jr's Christmas CD. I also enjoy "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" and Holly Jolly Christmas. Alan Jackson sings a song called "Let it be Christmas" that is awesome and Matt B. introduced me to Carol of the Bells performed by the Trans Siberian Orchestra!
16. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We travel since we live away from everyone but starting next year we're staying home!
17. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? There's Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? RUDOLPH!
18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open PJ's Christmas Eve...and then the rest Christmas morning.
19. Most annoying thing about this time of year? "Happy Holidays" and Holiday Trees and that kind of crap! Whatever happend to Merry Christmas? I don't know about you but if a Jewish person told me Happy Haunukkah I wouldn't be offended. I like to think that if I accidentally told a Jewish person Merry Christmas they wouldn't be offended either.
20. Favorite ornament theme or color? My tree is kind of a peppermint candy theme. Every year I wonder if I should change it but then I get it up and decide I LOVE it.
21. Favorite for Christmas dinner? The traditional
22. What do you want for Christmas this year? My house to sell

TAG...the usuals...you know who are Lindsay, Shannon, Jocelyn, Heather E., Marilee, Ali, Erin, Kacey, Ego, Libby, Jeni, and I'll tag Angie, but I don't know if she'll do it! If anyone else would like to do it then I'll be happy to read!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Jackson the Academic

As some of you know Jackson got glasses! I had been thinking for quite some time that I needed to get his eyes checked due to some things I had noticed when we would read and hooray for Mother's Instinct cause sure enough, his eyes needed some help. So here he is. The little "Academic"

BEFORE

AFTER

Turkey Day Weedend

So over a week later here I am doing a quick update about our Thanksgiving! We had such a fabulous time with the Christofferson's (my sister Marilee's family). They arrived late Tuesday night and on Wednesday we woke up, had yummy breakfast casserole and then Mar and I took off to run some errands. We then met the guys and the kids for bowling and then we went and had authentic Chicago deep dish pizza at a place called Lou Malnati's! It was delish! Then Thursday our friends Chad and Alaina and their 2 girls came over and we had a fun day of cooking, playing, chatting and finally EATING!!!! The dinner was so yummers and we had a great time. Friday we were gonna go downtown but figured it would be a zoo so we went and saw Enchanted instead. It was such a super good movie. Then we went to Red Robin for dinner (of course we did) We had good intentions to go into the city on Saturday but after we polled the kids it was decided that we wouldn't go. Instead we took the kids to Benihana's, which they absolutely LOVED, and to a super nice mall to walk around. The mall didn't last too long due to cranky children but we had fun anyways. That night TJ and Adam headed out to see a crappy horror flick, and Mar, Alaina and I headed out to see a fantastic chick flick...Dan in Real Life. If you haven't seen it I HIGHLY recommend it! Sunday we went to church and came home to watch the Bronco's game. They played the Bears and since we dislike all things Chicago the loss to the Bears stung that much more. Monday mornig Mar and Adam left super early and we were all left feeling very melancholy and blue that our fun weekend was over. We will see them at Christmas though, so we can't feel too bad.

Annie and Jack before Thanksgiving Dinner

Don't ask


Logan and Reecey having a snuggle.

G-Man and Reecey. Her patience was up, however, due to her lengthy snuggle with Logan

Me and Brady at Benihana's

The bigger kids at Benihana's. They all felt very cool cause they got their own table.

The tree at the mall with all the kids, except Reece,

G-man and Brady. Handsome boys!

My kids before Church. They all looked so nice!

So that's about it. I just realized I have no pictures of Spencer. Sorry about that. Its not cause I don't love him!

Thanks to the Christofferson's for making the trek out here. It was very much appreciated and we miss you soooooooooooooooooooo much!

TAG

This one's about me and my hubby!



What is his name? Torrey Jay Nelson Brinkerhoff, Jr. Hence going by TJ
How long have you been married? going on 10 years May 29th! WTH??? How did that happen?
How long did you date? Tough question since we didn't really date. We were long distance and the most consecutive days we spent together before our wedding was 10. We kept joking that we knew we loved each other and we really hoped we LIKED each other. Turns out we did! But to answer the question we started "dating" in January, got engaged in March and married in May so that's 5 months. I'd known him for a year prior to that though.
How old is he? 31 Hehehe. He's getting old.
Who eats more? I probably could but I try not to so we'll go with him.
Who said I love you first? TJ
Who is taller? TJ
Who sings better? I'd say him but he'd say me. He auditioned for American Idol a few years ago if that's any indication.
Who is smarter? TJ all the way!
Whose temper is worse? Probably me
Who does the laundry? Ummm for sure me. He's willing but my OCD doesn't allow it. He might shrink the clothes
Who does the dishes? Both of us.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If we're laying in bed he's on the right.
Who pays the bills? Mostly me, except we discuss credit card bills together.
Who mows the lawn? TJ for sure. Our lawn is huge. He needs a ride on mower.
Who cooks dinner? Me...TJ acts like a fool idiot in the kitchen.
Who drives when you are together? Mostly TJ. I feel weird when we're all together and I'm driving.
Who is more stubborn? TJ all the way.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably me. TJ will admit eventually, but it usually takes a few days for him to admit it!
Whose parents do you see the most? Mine.
Who proposed? TJ did in the Denver airport with a huge audience!
Who has more friends? We're probably even but I actually keep in touch with my friends.
Who has more siblings? I do if you include my non-biological sibs. TJ does if you don't include my non-biologicals.
Who wears the pants in the family? I'd say him, he'd say me, which is probably an indication that its pretty even.

Tag: Lindsay, Heather E, Heather W, Mar, Libby and Jeni