Brinley's Scripture for Family Home Evening!

Oh my, we laughed so hard during our Family Home Evening tonight!!! We have been having the kids take turns picking a favorite scripture and reading it aloud after which we try to discuss it a little bit. Well, tonight was Brinley's turn. She was pretty excited and felt very important. She had the page number and verse all written down on a paper. We prayed, sang and then it was time for her to share her scripture. She can read most of it but has a little trouble with some of the words. Quincy was so kindly helping her...which made this all the more funny. This was the verse that they were reading out loud together:

Leviticus 20:17 - And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of thier people; he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

When Quincy came to the first "nakedness" her eyes got so big I thought they were going to pop out of her head. She went ahead and whispered the word to Brinley and then I thought her eyes were going to pop as well. Needless to say we lost it from there. We were laughing so hard that we were all crying!

Oh, it was a good Family Home Evening. We might not remember the great lesson Quincy gave on the Holy Ghost tonight, but I am pretty sure we will never forget Brinleys scripture!!!

Birinley's "sick" day! NOT

A couple days ago Brinley was coming down with a cold so I wanted her to lay low for the day and not play with friends.  The other kids got busy and she was the only one left home a couple of times.  I also got busy and just let her do her own thing for awhile.  Oh man, that girl has an active imagination and she makes some MESSES!!  After asking a million times to clean up various messes that she had made, I walked in the room to find her yet again laying out a big plan.  I said to her, "what are you doing now?" to which she replied, "Sorry, I'm sick - I have to entertain myself". 

Just for the record, here are a FEW of the things she did to "entertain" herself during the day...
    
     - got out about 15 small plastic cups and poked shishkabob sticks into them to create something
     - popped her own popcorn in the air popper...complete with melted butter and salt
     - dragged out loads of books to read to herself
     - dug a box and milk jug out of the recycle and drew all over both of them with permanant marker
     - painted her own fingernails...pink and white stripes!
     - made snowcones with our snoopy snowcone maker
     - drew on about a thousand pieces of paper
     - found an ice cream bucket in the garage and cleaned it out with a half a bottle of dish soap
     - chopped up part of a block of cheese to make herself a snack of cheese and crackers
    

I thought kids were supposed to lay around and watch TV when they weren't feeling well!!  It's just a good thing she is sooo cute and we love her so much!

Brinley's 6th Birthday!

Wow! My Brinley is 6 years old!!  Hard to believe.  No more babies around this house anymore.  Brinley had a great birthday.  On the day of her birthday she got to open a box of "sugared" cereal and some candy and a cute princess singing card that her Dad picked out for her.  On the following Sunday we had her family party with the Hadley's.  We had dinner, she opened her presents, and ate her yummy dessert!

 She got a pile of presents.  Some from Mom and Dad and some from Grandpa and Grandma.  She could hardly wait to see what was inside.  It took alot of patience to wait all day until it was time!

 She mostly got clothes.  Luckily she still thinks this is OK.  She got some really cute summer shirts and a pair of shorts.

 You have to have at least one toy on your birthday so she got a pack ot 6 different 3D princess puzzles.  Her three older sisters were soooo jealous.  Anything princess at our house is pretty hot stuff.  She was excited to try them out.

 Brinley didn't want the traditional cake for her birthday...she chose ice cream cookie sandwiches rolled in sprinkles!!  Doesn't that sound so much better.  They were really yummy!!

 Brinley loves her Grandpa Tom.  She isn't quite as willing to snuggle with him now that she is getting a little older (much to Grandpa's dismay) but he can still get her to pay him a little attention sometimes!

You are so much fun Brinley.  We all love you so much and are sooo glad that you are a part of our family.  You make everyone smile and we love your funny outgoing personality.

Some of the things Brinley likes at the age of 6 are...

* Playing with her cute freinds Kate, Olivia G, Brooke & Breeanne.

* Going to Kindergarten and especially Mrs. Kimber

* Winning - she has one competitive spirit.  She will beat you at anything even if it takes her a lifetime.  It should be fun to watch her as she grows up!

*Being 1st in the bus line every afternoon - those poor other little Kindergarteners don't have a chance.

* Ipods - she is always sneaking the older kids away and begging to play them.

* Her sister Quincy - they are best friends (well, most of the time)

* Still loves her "zone" time.  She will make believe, draw, add with a calculator, play with her baby dolls all by herself.  She loves her mornings with just her and I so she can do whatever she wants.

* Riding her bike incredibly fast down the road without a helmet...we have to work on this one.  It makes her Mother crazy!

* Riding on her plazma car outside and shooting hoops in the basketball hoop.

Happy Birthday Brinley...We Love You!!

Quincy's Valentines Box

Quincy created this awesome Valentines box mostly by herself with a little help.  I am not sure where she got the idea but this was what she wanted to do.  I thought it turned out pretty cute!!

She is very creative and pretty darned determinted when she comes up with an idea!!

Kade's 12th Birthday!

I do not know why we don't have any pictures of Kade's Birthday...but we don't!!  So sad!  I know one thing for sure...even though we didn't take any pictures we had a great birthday party and he got his favorite ever Birthday present.

For his Birthday dinner the most important part of the meal was...we had "whole white" rolls.  He's kinda a funny kid. He doesn't like anything to do with my wonderful whole grain foods!!  So that was his main request!  

He actually already had his Birthday present because we let him get it early.  He got an IPOD!!!!  He was sooo excited to finally get that thing.  We told him he had to be 12 first and he had finally arrived.  We cheated a little though and let him get it early so he could have it for the long drive to California in January.  He even earned half the money to buy it...but according to him it is worth every penny!

Some things Kade loves at the age of 12...

* Soccer - indoor, outdoor, any kind

* Golf - his Dad has him completely brainwashed!

* Playing on his Ipod...now it's my job to limit the use!

* His friends - hangs out mostly with Chayse,  Justin and Trevor.

* Finally being out of primary...He is a deacon!  Yay!!

* Math - he is so smart at math!

* Teasing his sisters - he never seems to get too old for this one!

Happy Birthday Kade!  We love you!

We are so proud of the wonderful young man he is becoming.  He got the Priesthood with the coming of this birthday and it was a great experience for him.  I was so impressed to see how excited he has been to participate in collecting fast offerings and passing the sacrament.  Very cool!!

Kade's Snowballs!

Kade scored an awesome "snowball maker" at the DI.  I'm not sure if that is really what it actually is, but it is at our house and it makes some awesome snowballs.  On a snowy January day he made this nice snowball pyramid!

Origami for Family Home Evening!

One night for the activity for Family Home Evening Quincy was really excited to teach us some origami.  She had just learned how to make these cool swans.  We all got to make one!  Fun times!!

Brinley's projects!!

One day Brinley was bored and couldn't find anything to do so Chris helped her make this little guy!  They raided the recycle box outside and found their supplies.  Good thing Brinley has the best Dad in the whole wide world!!!!

Disneyland 2012!!!

We have been so blessed to go on so many fun trips lately.  Dad had enough points built up at work that we were able to combine the points with our Christmas money and go to Disneyland.  We all voted to wait until January though so that we did not have to deal with the lines over Christmas break.  We left Saturday, January 14th and came home on Sunday, January 22nd.  We headed to St. George where we ate at The Pizza Factory and then spent some time visiting with Dan, Lilly and Kara.  We went to church the next morning and then headed to California.  We stayed in an awesome condo right across the street from Disneyland.  It was perfect.  Here is a brief rundown of what we did

Monday - Newport Beach & Down Town Disney

Tuesday - Disneyland

Wednesday - Disneyland

Thursday - Newport Beach & Whale Watch

Friday - Disneyland

Saturday - Disneyland

Sunday we headed for home!  It was one of the best trips we have ever taken to California.  The weather cooperated pretty well and our kids were the perfect age for Disneyland.  We had sooo much fun together.  None of us wanted to come home to cold, snowy Utah!!  

 The Whale Watch we went on turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.  We have done this before in San Diego, but this time was sooo much better.  We got so lucky and ended up being there on the one to two days of the year that they see this many killer whales.  They were everywhere and so close to us.  They swam right under our boat.  It was so amazing to see.  I don't know how we lucked out.

We love Disneyland!!  I think we could go every single year and never get tired of it.  It is such a happy place and our kids seem to enjoy it so much.  I just love spending the time together! 

Hopefully we will be back in the future!!

Family Goals for 2012

If you want to reach a goal, you must "see the reaching" in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/goal.html#P778AXTqQBipl6AW.99

For Family Home Evening in January we set some Family Goals for the year.  These are the ones we decided we would work on.  I will feel really good if we can accomplish these things this year.

Southwick Family Goals 2012

* Talk and treat each other with Respect &  Kindness

                - soft voices

                - tone of voice - POSITIVE

* Work on Healthy Eating

                - Whole grains, fruits & veggies

                - Kefir and vitamins in the mornings

* Morning Family Scriptures

                - Everyone ready to read by 6:50am

* Family Prayers

                - Family prayer morning & night

                - Food prayers - remember when eating alone

*Family Home Evening

                - Every Monday Night

                - Everyone takes turns teaching lesson

* Work Together

                - Jobs done...mark chart  :)

* Look to the Temple

                - Mom & Dad go at least once a month

                - Kids do baptisms for the dead at least quarterly

* Fun Family Activities

                -Do something fun together once a month

               

* PPI's

                - PPI with Dad in between General Conference on Sunday

* Pay off House in 4-5 years

* Humanitarian Service Trip!!

Kids Favorites

I love to ask the kids a few of their favorite things so that we have them recorded each year. Don't have this for every year..but a few here and there. Here are a few of their favorite things for 2011

Kylee:
Candybar: Reeses peanut butter cups
Cereal: Captain crunch...no crunch balls
Dinner: Turkey steak
Dessert: 4 Layer pudding dessert
Memory: Swimming in the ocean in January with Uncle Bill's family
Holiday: Christmas

Emilee:
Candybar: Take 5
Cereal: Peanut Butter crunch
Dinner: Turkey steak
Dessert: Oreo pie
Memory: Dinseyland
Holiday: Christmas

Kade:
Candybar: Sour skittles
Cereal: Cookie crisp & Trix
Dinner: Steak
Dessert: Oreo pie
Memory: Washington DC
Holiday: Birthday, Christmas & 4th of July!!

Quincy:
Candybar: Hershey's cookies-n-cream
Cereal: Cookie crisp
Dinner: Chicken Taquitos
Dessert: 4 Layer pudding dessert
Memory: Swimming
Holiday: Christmas

Brinley:
Candybar: Tape gum
Cereal: Cookie crisp
Dinner: Nachos
Dessert: Popscicles
Memory: Swimming
Holiday: Christmas & Birthday

Christmas Day 2011

This year...as in years past...we have been blessed enough, mostly through points at Chris' work, that we are going on another trip for Christmas!! Back in October the kids started asking if there was any way that we could go somewhere together again instead of getting presents. We told them no. They even volunteered to earn part of the money themselves. Then miracles happened and more points showed up than we thought. When we got to figuring it out we could see that it would work. It was not a surprise this year...we had them help plan it. They of course wanted to go to Disneyland. We decided we did not want to be there during Christmas break this year because of the crowds, so we are going in January instead. So...for Christmas they each got one Santa gift, a pair of PJ's each that their mother found very cheap on black friday, and their favorite box of cereal. I am always amazed that this seems to be plenty and we have a great christmas every year!!

When you have 5 kids you can fill up a tree with presents with only a couple each...amazing how that works!
Santa was good and left them each a present wrapped in Disney wrapping paper!!
Waiting patiently on the stairs before they were allowed to enter the family room downstairs. Brinley was so funny this year. Kade had been working on us all week about letting him set his alarm and waking up at 6:00am. We told him 7 would be great! Well, little miss Brinley showed up on the side of my bed at 5:30!! She said she just couldn't stand it anymore and she needed to see what Santa had brought. She woke up Quincy and Kade when I sent her away and had them help convince us that it was time to get up. At 6:00 we finally realized that she was not going to let us get anymore sleep and she woke her big sisters up.


Kylee had a "getting ready for College" Christmas! She got a Bed-in-a-bag set (which she helped pay for) and some tupperware. She opened up the tupperware and said, "I got lids"?? That was the joke the rest of the day. It's hard to grow up...especially on Christmas!



Emilee always wants to be surprised. She would not tell Santa what she wanted...so she got a skin for her ipod and a shirt! She was happy and surprised. Mission accomplished!!

Kade gave Santa two ideas and wanted to be surprised to see which one he would get. Luckily Santa was smart and picked the one he was secretly hoping he would get!! He got a wii hunting game.

All Quincy has wanted for two months was a Figit Friend. Luckily Santa honored her wish...it was a little hard for Santa to do this! It looks like a purple alien and tells jokes and dances to music.

Brinley wanted a Baby Alive...the doll that eats and poops!! Oh how fun! Santa was also crazy enough to honor her request. She looooves it!

The kids drew names and traded gifts with each other. They did a great job with this. As a mother, this was probably my favorite part of getting ready for Christmas. The older three spent their own money and they spent a lot of time thinking about what the other person might want. Kylee gave Em this shirt and some lotion from Bath and Body Works.

Quincy gave Kade this big tin of popcorn that he has been drooling over every time we have walked past it in Walmart for the past month! See that big smile on his face!! She also made him a cute note on the inside of a rolled up wrapping paper tube with a picture of him and her together.

Brinley had Kylee and she gave her a big princess coloring book, some crayons and this cute picture that she drew of her and Kylee.

Kade had Brinley and he gave her a memory game that she loves, a big box on Nerds and a candy neclace.

Emilee had Quincy and she got her a huge fuzzy poster to color and a box of candy.

The kids were so nice and gave Chris and I this cute picture of them with their names signed around the picture. We got a basket full of hot cocoa, mugs and our favorite giant sized candy bars!! It was the biggest present under the tree!

Later that afternoon we went to Grandpa and Grandma's for Christmas Breakfast...which had to be at noon because of church! We exchanged gifts after we ate. Brinley and Quincy both got princess dolls for their present.

Kade got this cool watch from Grandpa and Grandma

Kylee and Emilee got clothes...every teenagers love. Kylee got a wool coat and Emilee got a hoodie and some pajama pants.

Grandma was one busy bee this year. She sewed us all these cool aprons!

Dad is modeling his "big bib". Grandma told everyone that the women's were aprons and the men's were bibs. I think that is appropriate.

What a bunch of macho guys in their bibs!!! Hahahaha

Christmas this year was on Sunday. I decided I wouldn't care if it was on Sunday every year. I loved going to church on Christmas morning. We had the choir program and the spirit was as strong as I think I have ever felt it. It was a wonderful spiritual feast and a great time to remember why we celebrate the day.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!