Memorial Falls August 2009

We went to Memorial Falls which is about an hour from Great Falls and did a little hiking. It is a beautiful drive and we had a lot of fun. The first picture is a scenic overlook on the way back called the Sluice Boxes. Braden was ready with his cape and walking stick, and was disappointed we didn't see a bear.

August Temple Trip

We took a family trip to Billings in August. We watched some friends' kids while they went to the temple and then they watched ours while we went. It was so nice to be there. We wanted our kids to be able to walk around and see the beautiful temple. They were most interested in picking the flowers. They had fun staying at the hotel and we went for ice cream later, which they really enjoyed:) That was until Braden had to go to the bathroom and was so worried about letting go of his ice cream cone, that he had an accident. He went from cloud 9 to screaming and whaling at the loss of his ice cream (and the loss of his pants) that Bill had thrown in the trash so he could maneuver the situation better. It was a memorable trip.

My first 5K and biathlon

This summer I competed in my first ever 5K and then later in a biathlon. For some reason people assume I enjoy or am good at running. This is far from the case. I am a speed/power athlete and jogging is not that fun to me and I get sideaches. I wanted something to work at and train for. By the end, I did start to enjoy jogging more, although I would certainly always prefer about any kind of sporting activity over it:)
The biathlon was supposed to be a triathlon, 500 meter swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 5K. We showed up for the race and some replacement worker the night before had forgotten to close a valve on the pool and about half the water was emptied. So they finally decided to just do a biathlon. I was upset initially, but as I was nearing the end of the race, that I swore in my head I would never do again, I was quite glad that some ditzy person had let the water out(I'm an even worse swimmer than jogger). Of course, after the race and when the pain had subsided some, I thought I might want to do one again:) I had a lot of fun training with my friends and felt a great sense of satisfaction in training and completing the races

Alicia Kay Ladybug Cookie Monster Big Bird Brimhall

So when I was little, I added a few middle names to my original given name, the first of which was ladybug. The next two because I was a bit of a Sesame Street fan. Anyhow, I had a little ladybug dress that I LOVED, and was inspired (at around 2 or 3 years old) to add ladybug to my name.
My mom saved the dress and this is Kaytlin wearing the ladybug dress now. She is riding her bike down the street and I got a kick out of her in my dress on her bike with her unkempt hair. What a girl:) She loves to wear dresses. I don't know where she gets it from because other than my love for this particular dress, I can say I have never loved wearing a dress.

I know, I know, it's been 6 months!! Time marches on, Part 1

So I had a goal to update my blog today, and I quickly realized why I struggle to keep up on it...three little kiddos! So I think I will post in parts. Here's about April-early July. Now I'm only three months behind. Maybe tomorrow:)



Best Buddies. I only wish they spent more time napping and reading on the couch:) Of course you might notice Kaytlin's book is upside down. She's advanced and can read upside down.















For summer vacation we headed home to AZ. We spent the 4th of July in a cabin in Pinetop with the LaDuke family and had a great time. We celebrated 4 birthdays that weekend: Jacob, Betina, Gage, and Lily's.

Jacob turned one on July 2nd!!!! Jacob is such a fun little guy. He started walking around 11 months. He really likes balls and already likes to tease his sister. He is into everything right now. He loves his binkie and blanket, he's like Linus with his blanket. We're so happy he came to our family.





















We spent a few days camping at beautiful Hawley Lake for the Brimhall Reunion and had a great time.

















Here we are fishing on my birthday (May 22). We tried fishing several times this summer, but weren't all that succesful:( I did catch two fish on this outing. We also traded in our old Lexus car for this used truck. Someone on base bought our old car from the dealer, it's pretty funny to see it driving around here. I feel like apologizing to the family who bought it, but maybe it's awesome to them:)
















Braden "Graduating" from pre-school. He's still in pre-school this year too, so I'm not sure why they have a graduation, I guess any reason to get dressed up and celebrate.















Incredibly, this is the first weekend of May. It was the most snow we had at one time for the whole year!! This is Montana after all:)


















Easter 2009
We got together with several families at our friend's house for a fun Easter Egg Hunt.

















Coloring Easter Eggs
















We made some yummy Strawberry Jam in the spring. Braden loves to help out in the kitchen.


















and what better to go with strawberry jam than homemade bread....yummy!!

Dreadlocks?

I think if CPS stopped by on any given day they might suspect neglect. Just look at this naked girl with the crazy hair and soggy diaper--but hey, she is almost never without her white Sunday shoes!
She likes to try things on and mostly likes to take things off, although lately she wants to wear her favorite pajamas all day long. Her room is always torn apart, usually shortly after picking up. She prefers easy access to her treasures, which means she puts everything on the floor. I find signs of her everywhere: stickers all over the place, drawings on the wall, and dirty laundry strewn about--she is a pistol. We enjoy her so much.
In regards to her hair, some days--and by some days I mean most days--I just don't want to fight the ensuing battle over combing the rat's nest that is the back of her hair. It looks like this most mornings when she wakes up. Sometimes we just dowse some water on it to tame it a little and head out the door. I thought if it was short it wouldn't get as matted, but now I wonder if long would be easier to manage. I've tried leave-in conditioners. What about corn rows? Please, any suggestions?

Sunny Lovely Arizona...Home

We hadn't been home to AZ in 9 months and it was so great to enjoy our families and the great weather. We stayed up with my parents in Snowflake for 6 days and had a great time seeing everyone. We always love to eat Mom's home cooking. We drove by Grandma and Papa LaDuke's house; they are on a mission in India right now and we missed getting to stop and see them. I got to see some friends from highschool, which was really fun. We then went down to the Valley and stayed in Gilbert for about 5 days and enjoyed family and friends there along with 80 degree weather. We were able to eat at a few of our favorite places as Great Falls is somewhat lacking in this area. We were sad to come back to Montana--our visits are never long enough and we don't get to see or do all the things we hoped. However, it is nice to be back in our own home and in a routine again. Thanks to everyone. Thanks again Rob and Betina for letting us borrow your vehicle and staying with you guys.
Whenever I go through my pictures I'm sad I didn't take more. Of course from my posts you're probably wishing I didn't take so many. I just didn't catch some of the fun moments we had, but here are a few.





One of the things the grandkids love to do when we visit Snowflake is go feed the mules with Grandpa. Sometimes feeding them is a bit of a stretch. Sometimes it is dropping their food on the ground as the mules approach. This year the kids were quite brave and hand-fed the mules.







Grandma and Grandpa Brimhall's house in Snowflake is always a lot of fun. We tease that it is Grand Central Station, and it is. There is almost always someone stopping by to say hi. We get to see a lot of friends and family, and the kids get to play with a lot of cousins. My mom's brother Jim stopped by one day.
Braden loves my mom's Disney movie collection. I think he likes to sleep in that room just to be surrounded by all those movies. He loves to watch movies, if you didn't know. One night Rikki was staying the night when her husband was out of town and so she was sleeping in the movie room. We had Braden downstairs. In the morning I went upstairs and saw Braden asleep on the bed and thought he must have joined Rikki in the middle of the night. What really happened was Rikki was asleep and Braden woke up and went upstairs to the room and turned on the light. Rikki asked him if he wanted to find his mom and dad and get in bed with them?....nope. Did he want to come lay down by her?...nope. He then announced in no uncertain terms that she was in his bed and to get out!! Rikki felt like he if he was that determined to come up there in the dark in the middle of the night, she better get on out. She slept on the couch:)



Kaytlin found my lipstick. She got it on more than her lips! Her feet, legs, and face were all adorned with the lipstick--the little stinker.



Braden had so much fun with his cousin Gage's Indiana Jones costume. He really looked the part:)







I got to meet up with some friends from my old work at Phoenix Fire Department. It was great to see them again. Kaytlin was very tired and started to unwind in the sand:)







We stayed with Betina and Rob in the valley--thanks again for hosting us. We had a great time. The kids had a blast playing on the swingset in Aunt Betina and Uncle Rob's backyard. They played and played with their cousins. We also had a get together on Super Bowl Sunday--unfortunately I didn't get any pictures that day. We had some exciting moments watching our Cardinals almost win and were pretty downtrodden when they lost in the end. Cam and Addie came up and it was great to see them again. We saw Nathan and Mary Kay and Aaron and the girls (minus Chloe who was sick) the day before on our first fishing outing. The kids had a lot of fun throwing their lines out and mostly playing with the worms, yuck!



We went fishing three times at a lake not too far from Rob and Betina's where Rob guaranteed a fish. We had fun fishing even if we didn't catch anything...it's okay Rob. I don't know why I didn't get a picture here of someone actually holding a fishing pole?:)