Breinholt Field Day

Aimee and Liz were put in charge of a field day for the kids while the men spent the day at Ben's family ranch to 4wheel and shoot guns. It was a perfect day for playing hard!

Sack Race

Beth, Tess, and Ashley

Suzanne

3Legged Race

Aimee and Jake

Suzanne and Tess

Liz and Elise

Mom and Beth

Andrew and Kim win the race

Water-balloon Volleyball

Stephanie is sooo much fun!

Duck Duck SQUISH

Ashley squishing Aimee

Andrew squishing Liz

This little guy is the cutest ever. Nathan found a water balloon that happened to have a hole in it and joined in the game spraying people with complete delight! Ken only speaks Chinese to him, it is so cute to hear his little voice speaking Chinese!

Turns out my Abby, we have two Abby's in the family, doesn't like the feel of grass! So, I was able to put her on Kim's blanket and she stayed put the entire time! Ahhhh, I could actually go play, it was perfect!!

We also played crab soccer with a huge ball and had a water balloon toss/fight. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Aimee for your awesome teaching skilz!

Breinholt Reunion...the beginning

It is time to play catch-up. We have been traveling for most of August and now I need to document all the fun we had. First up, the Breinholt reunion.

The Breinholt Reunion August 2nd-6th

Mom (and Dad) did an amazing job organizing our week of fun which was quite the task considering there were 37 of us (16 adults and 21 kids)! We stayed in a big log cabin in the mountains near Heber. The day we arrived Mom and Dad introduced the theme for the reunion...The Breinholt University. We all received a syllabus with a schedule and note taking space available for the classes we would be teaching throughout the week.

The Classes: Each family was in charge of a 30 minute class to teach each night.

Brad and Donna-- "Celestial Bodies in Motion"

Emily and Ben-- "Trigger Happy: Fundamental Aspects of Gun Safety"

Steve and Steph-- "Anyone can Act"

Chuck and Kim-- "Magic Aplenty"

Ken and Alli-- "Shanghai for...Geniuses"

Liz-- "Living the Happy Life"

Bec and Dan-- "Aerospace Engineering"

Here are the few pictures I took during our classes:

Tess's favorite spot to sit, with Aunt Stephanie!

Jake's Big Day

Today was Jacob's first day of Kindergarten. He has been so excited for the last year to be headed to Kindergarten but this past weekend, with the time drawing near, his mood changed. We went to the Open House last Friday where he met his teacher and was asked to put a sticker indicating his excitement for school on a big poster-board. Well, he was the only one to choose a nervous face for his sticker! All weekend he has been nervous! Last night Dan gave him a father's blessing and this morning he told me he felt better.

We ALL walked Jake to school and watched him walk down the hall to his classroom. At which point I had to give Dan a tug to head back home ( Dan wanted to go and have nap time too, I know better! :)

I had a busy day to keep me from tearing up. Tess truly missed her play-mate! Luckily she had a friend come for a visit this morning and then turned her attention to her baby sister for the rest of the school day, which Abby loved. It was cute.

Upon picking Jake up at school he told me his day was good and then immediately told me he didn't have time to eat his sandwich today. When I asked him about making new friends he told me "well, mom, I gotta get use to it first and then I can." We had special school bus cookies for a snack and called Dan. After taking to Dan for a few minutes he informed Dan that he needed to go...Tess was waiting for him on his top bunk (bed) so they could talk about pre-school and kindergarten. I snuck up there and listened to the cutest dialog. They both took turns telling about their day and then Jake gave Tess advice about starting pre-school. I had to muffle my giggles. (Of course my camera was out of batteries when I tried to record their conversation, doh!) Jake got the biggest kick out of talking to Grandma Barnhurst about school and finding out that she use to read the exact same book to her kindergarten class that he heard today.

Jake had quite the adult attitude when he came home from school...he came home instructing Tess! (that isn't new, just the manner in which he is doing it today makes me laugh)

Dan and I have a child in Elementary School, CRAZY!

ONE!!!

Our baby is ONE!

SHE:

--babbles non-stop.

--signs the words up, more, finished, and please. And says several words.

--is a sponge: mimicking and learning new things so quickly.

--sings on demand.

--says "hi" and waves at everyone!

--loves to eat any pasta.

--is always moving! We call her our little "wiggle worm"!

--is close to walking on her own.

--loves to play like the big kids do and be included!!

We had a simple birthday celebration and were lucky to have Grandma Barnhurst with us. Grandma, with the help of Jake and Tess, made her a brightly colored butterfly cake. Jake and Tess helped me wrap some "new" toys for Abby. She didn't know quite what to do with the icing on her cake but soon was devouring it all!!

Abby had all the help she could ask for...only she didn't ask! This picture of Tess just cracks me up! Tess is definitely a Branham (gritting her teeth at Abby all the time)!

UT, CA, and SC

We are off to Utah this week. We have a straight flight, hallelujah, and Dan gets to take care of the kids since I don't travel well! Hopefully dramamine will do the trick this time. Abigail--please oh please be good!! Dan and I will be hiking Mt. Timpanogos this week and visiting with his family and friends! We have our Breinholt reunion next week, then Dan is headed to California for training (I will be joining him his last 2 days thanks to my mom watching the kids for us!!!!). When we get back I will be heading to SC with the kids for a week for one last visit before Jake starts KINDERGARTEN! Crazy! Lots of FUN over the next 4 weeks!

Since I won't be posting anything for awhile I wanted to do a quick update on Abby. Abby is 11 months now. She is a very busy baby but oh so cute! She loves to clap still, blow, say Da Da, she walks all around the furniture and is getting better at standing without any support. I think she will be walking very soon! She competes with any noise and sings with me! She loves water and wants her freedom in it (which makes going to the pool a wrestling match) She will only eat "big kid food", she has been that way for awhile. She has started to give people the biggest grin when they smile at her (it reminds me of when Tess was her age and we would ask "where's your happy face?" and she'd grin so hard she was shaking:). Abby's first year has gone by so fast.

Tess is FOUR!

My sweet, adorable, red head had a birthday. I can't believe my baby is FOUR! We made her day special (Sunday the 11th) with breakfast in bed and a little party after church with the family and Cara, a close friend of mine from high school. Tess requested Lucky Charms for breakfast and Spaghetti and Meatballs for dinner (just like Lady and the Tramp).

She got princess light up shoes and helped me make a rainbow birthday cake.

Tess is so kind and giving. She wants to make those around her happy and is a great friend to everyone. She told us she wanted two Buzz Lightyear's for her birthday, one for her and one for Jake.

She keeps us entertained and laughing often! For instance, last Monday during FHE she had us ALL laughing to TEARS! Dan and I decided we wanted to teach them about tithing. Dan told them the scripture that starts "Will a man rob god...?" After he was done with the scripture he asked the kids what the first part said? Dan started by saying "Will....a.....man...Rob....." and Tess jumped in with "ROB...INHOOD". What???? Then Dan went on to share with the kids some reasons why he has a testimony of tithing. He asked the kids if they could name something downstairs in our living room? Tess quickly and excitedly said 'ELVES!" What??? That one had us in tears laughing so hard. Dan was looking for the answer of the PIANO. ( We were given our piano a month after we had given up on ever buying one due to how expensive they are...a blessing from paying our tithing.)

Tess loves her stuffed doggies so, we had a "doggy" themed birthday party. I made puppy dog ears and a paw birthday cake and cupcakes. We played the M&M game, Doggy Doggy Where's Your Bone, and Pin the Bone in the Doggy's Mouth (artwork by one of my talented young women). I put Dan in charge of the pinata, which he did to perfection with the kids help. To end our party we had a treasure hunt. It was an hour and a half of sugary fun. Tess LOVED it -- mission accomplished!

We love you Tess!