We are loving fall and looking forward to pumpkins, turkeys, and stockings. We celebrated Janey's 2nd birthday and Alyssa's 4th birthday in Sept. We just love these little girls and they love each other. They are always together and remind me so much of my relationship with my older sister MaryAnn. Alyssa started preschool with our neighborhood friends and moms. We take turns teaching and the little girls love it. Two days a week she gets to feel like a big kid and I love that she is being taught by such great women. Janey wishes she could go to. She is my good little helper and loves to kiss and hug Cannon. She still loves her flip flops and loves to try to sing the ABC's. She is quite the independant little spirit and has learned to climb out of her crib and high chair, hates to be contained in a stroller, and screams everytime we buckle her in her carseat. "Set me free" should be printed on her forehead. Cannon is just a blessing and brings smiles to everyone. The poor child has had a snuffy nose for 3 months straight. We have tried everythings from herbs, to oils, to me going off dairy. Nothing really makes a difference. He is a good sport about it and sleeps ok despite it so we are thankful. He has his two front bottom teeth and it working on his two top ones. He now officially rolls from back to tummy and back again. He loves to stand in his walker saucer and watch the caos of our household go on around him. We love our Can Man!

It has been a GREAT weekend. Katy started the weekend by getting braces. She has had an appliance in her mouth for about 3 months and will now have braces for about a year and a half. She was very nervous but brave. They are having to pull her bottom tooth through the bone to get it up and into the right place, ouch! She has had a lot of popsicles and applesauce this weekend but is getting used to them and looks so cute! The boys and Emily have been collecting grasshoppers all week. They had an aquarium full of them by Friday. Hunter could hold up to 10 in his hand at a time. There are some benefits to living in empty fields of weeds. Free entertainment for kids.

We had a great 4th of July. We met Jonathan's family in Provo for the parade. The kids had front row seats and we got to be in the shade on the stairs of his nieces apartment. That night we had a neighborhood BBQ. We sent out fliers and weren't sure who all would come. We ended up with about 50 people and tons of great food and fireworks. We had one neighbor come who does dutch oven cooking and even competed in world competitions. She wowed everyone with cherry cobbler, cakes, and pies. Very all American. The party lasted until about 11pm and will definitely become an annual event.

Sunday Cannon was blessed. It was great to have family there and see Jonathan bless his son by the power of the priesthood. Cannon looked so sweet in his little white outfit. We had a full house after for dinner and it was great way to end a memorable weekend. We finally feel like it is summer!

We just got done with a great spring break, although there were days it felt more like Christmas break with all the snow. The good thing about spring snow is it melts fast and you know a warm day is just around the corner. We had a great Easter Sunday. We did have to go to urgent care with Emily who came down with strep (thanks to sister Katy who had it a week earlier) but we were still able to enjoy an Easter dinner with my parents and family. The next day Ali came down with strep and Thursday Janey came down with it. We are hoping that is the end of it and the rest of us will be spared. It was kind of a blessing to have an excuse not to have friends over and I felt like I had a great week with just my kids. On Wed. the kids had a good time organizing and putting on a Grandparent pampering lunch and afternoon. They hand made placemats, name tags, and thank you books for each of their 4 grandparents. We used our best china dn had chicken salad sandwiches. Emily gave each grandparent a hand and back massage, Jake and Hunter interviewed and videoed each one about their childhood and Katy painted nails and played card games. They all put on a talent show during dessert and gave each one a little of book of why they loved them. It was a really fun afternoon.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby boy. If anyone has a name suggestion or vote we would love to hear it. The top three are Matthew, Cannon, and Chase. It will be fun to see if we decide on one of those or a completely different name. Alyssa asks everyday what we are going to name him and says multiple times she just can't wait to see what he looks like. I'm with her! Jonathan and I have had some great training the past few weekends with EFY Session Director training and his area recognition dinner. Those combined with conference have really filled my spiritual bucket which was beginning to run low. We also had the blessing of being in the temple with Jonathan's family to perform sealings for some family names of his mom. His dad had arranged for Joseph McConkie to be the sealer and we were greatly blessed and taught.

We've had a great couple of weeks celebrating Valentine's Day and birthdays. Jonathan and I had a fun date at our ward Valentine's dance. We haven't danced in a few years and it was so fun although it was hard to get too close with my big belly. Jonathan and I watched a great movie last night called "Fireproof". It is a religious based film about marriage. They did a great job with it and it was nice to see something uplifting and promoting marriage being put out in the media. We are both very excited to have been asked to return to Calgary, Canada to be session directors for EFY. Calgary holds lots of memories for us from our EFY counselor days and it is also where we spent our honeymoon. We are looking forward to some fun things this summer with Hawaii, Canada, and lake powell. I better be getting in shape fast.

Hi, I'm Emily and I turned 7 years old this week. I had a birthday on the 19th. My party was on Monday. Where we went for my party was we went to the Legacy Center to swim. I had fun with my 4 friends. For my birthday I got a pull up bar that I use in the basement to flip around on. My grandma and grandpa Moon came over for my birthday dinner. We had spaghetti and I loved it. My grandparents gave me a mini pollypocket boat set. My Aunt and Uncle and cousins came for cake and ice cream. I had fun. Bye!

Yeah! Janey got her cast off and did great. She didn't even cry or move while they cut it off. She is such a tough little cookie. She went to her first week of nursery today and did great. It is a few weeks early but the leaders took pity on us. She went right in and never looked back. It is so strange to have her big enough to go into nursery. All six kids in primary, wow! Her hair is finally long enough to put in pigtails so I had to include the picture.

Ali has been fighting a sinus infection for 3 weeks and is hopefully on the mend. We've been pumping her full of herbs and nose spays and it is improving a little. Hopefully another week and we won't have to constantly carry a kleenex everywhere we go. She quite the little mother to Janey and loves to climb in her crib with her in the mornings. This week we even found her in the crib in the middle of the afternoon taking a nap. Funny girl, she climbed out at 18 months and wanted nothing to do with the crib and now she wants to be back in it. She also fell asleep in the couch this week. I had to take a photo. She couldn't have purposely positioned herself any funnier.

Hunter-I went to the BYU basketball game with my dad and brother. After the game we went down onto the court and got to slam the rims and got autographs from the players on our BYU baseball hats. I was so happy because I got to be with my dad and brother. On my birthday we woke up and my dad had put us in a jail made of string across our door. We went down and played on our new Wii fit that our uncle Don got us. We ate a Valentine's Breakfast and I got a box of Captain Crunchberry for my breakfast cereal. We went to the BYU Hall of Fame. My favorite was to see how tall Shawn Bradley was and to see how hight the highest volleyball jump was. That night was fun we made homemade pizza and got the rest of our gifts which included a flashlight lazer, spy kit and lots of football cards. There was even one with my picture on it. We watched National Treasure 2 which is one of my favorite movies.

Birthday Week!

Katy-This week I was in a Wax Museum. We had to be either a US President or someone in their family. Me and my friend Adi's president was Grover Cleveland. I dressed up as his daughter Ruth and Adi was his wife. It was kind of weird because I thought in a wax museum you would just stand still but in our wax museum the visitors could come and push your button and you would come to life and tell them about your president. It was fun standing still though. On President's day since there was no school Emily had her birthday party at the swimming pool with a few of her friends and I got to go with one of my friends. It was really fun swimming and the water was really warm. Yesterday I got to go to My freinds house that I don't get to go to very often. Her name is Rachel.

Jacob-My birthday was on the 14th. I turned 9 years old. I got a really cool army set with a boat, helicopter, guy, and gun from my grandma. Instead of a party I went to a BYU basketball game with my brother and my Dad. The game was fun. They won against the Colorado Rams. After we went down on the floor and some of the players sang us Happy Birthday and we got BYU t-shirts. It was so awesome. Before the game we got to get hamburgers and french fries. On our birthday we woke up and played and then went to the BYU Hall of Fame sports Museum. There were lots of Steve Young things and I wished I could have some of his football cards that we saw. I love football cards. I got a 4 packs for my birthday plus a folder to hold them. My mom even made me my own football card, "Jacob Brinley-Star BYU receiver".

February 8, 2009

Katy-Every other Friday at my school people come to teach different things. On Friday my class got to learn break dancing. We learned really cool moves. Also for Hope of America we are selling suckers during our lunch hour for a fund raiser. There are little cards on each sucker. All of the kids in every fifth grade class made a drawing to go on these cards and we voted on the best four. Mine was picked. It was a big heart that said "Happy Valentine's Day" with an arrow going through it. I also made a new friend and her name is Adi. She is in my class and she is really nice to me. I am in a city choir. Mr. Huish the director is really strict and makes us work hard. We are learning some really cool songs. I hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

Emily-This summer our whole family gets to go on a house boat with our Brinley Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. The houseboat has a slide on it and we will get to slide down in the water. We will get to sleep in the boat for 3 days. I am really excited. We are going to be there for Katy's birthday. This week in Girl Scouts we made cookies for two people in the neighborhood. It was fun to walk to their houses and take them cookies. We made Valentine cards for the people in the hospital. We were learning about being caring and considerate. I made cards for my family. i love to type. I love my family.

Alyssa-I like to play with Courtney and Molly. They are my friends. I like to do bubbles. I got a new car seat. I like to dance. I love hot dogs. I like toast and honey. I love to play with Emily. We play dress up and dance. I am a good helper to my mom. We found my birthday bike that was lost in the snow. Yeah! I really want to go to school. I have learned 12 of my letters and know my shapes and colors and some of my numbers. I love to go to grandma's house. I love to help my mom cook dinner. I liked going to the temple I thought all the things in there were pretty. I liked the chairs. I liked the curtains too. I like to change my clothes lots of times a day.

Janey-Janey broke her leg 2 weeks ago falling down the stairs but it hasn't slowed her down. She has a cute little pink cast. She crawled the first week but last Sunday figured out how to walk on it and has gone full force ever since. We can learn alot from a 1 year old about how to deal adversity. She is such a sweet girl. She loves pencils and pens and so far hasn't done too much damage to walls. She loves to play with her big sisters and brothers. She loves her sippy cup full of milk and a cracker or rice cake in hand. She finally hit the 20lb. mark so now faces forward in her car seat. She is a great sleeper both day and night, which mommy is very thankful for. Her curls keep getting bigger and softer and her smile is contagious!

Hunter-Last Friday we went to the Draper Temple open house. My favorite room was the Celestial room. After we went to Ty Davis' house to play. I was sad because Jake got sick and couldn't play with us. I was Steve Young for our school Wax Museum. I got to wear my friends BYU uniform with pads and a helmet. It was really tight on me. I had a hard time standing still when the people came through to see us. I kept changing position. I liked getting to tell my class about Steve Young after. I like to play basketball. We won our first two games. I made one basket. We lost our last two. I am a really good defender and yesterday I made lot of assists.

Katy-I have been going to Lakeview Academy, it is a charter school. I started there the second week of January. I have made some new friends, but I miss my old friends at Harvest Elementry. I got checked out on Friday and got to go see my brothers in the wax museum. When I was there I saw my old class coming through the gym. They were excited to see me and it made me feel really good because then I knew they really did miss me. At my new school it is fun because I get short day on Friday so I get to come home and play with my mom and sisters because the other kids are still at school. I also like that do lots of hands on things and lots of science. A few days ago we got to have Jr. Engineering Day. That is where Utah State brought different hands on modules for the kids to do activities with and learn science. My favorite one was the one where you pulled or pushed syringes and it made a robot's arm move.
Also, last Friday me and my family got to go to the Draper Temple open house. My favorite room was the Celestial room. It made me feel the spirit a lot. And now I know that when my parents go to the temple I can imagine where they are.

Jacob-This week at school I was in a wax museum. That is where all the third graders dress-up as a famous person from history. We stood in the gym and didn't move while all the moms and dads and school kids come and walk around and see us. I had to make a poster tha told about Theodore Roosevelt and then I dressed in my suit and tie with a vest I got from Grandpa Moon and had a mustache and old glasses. It was really hard to stand still for 2 hours. I am playing basketball. The name of my team is the Cougars. We won twice in a row and then lost twice in a row. Our game yesterday was really close, neck to neck. They won by 6 points in the end. I love playing and we played really really hard. I think when we went to the temple open house it was really cool and I felt the spirit. My favorite room in the whole temple was the room where you do baptisms for the dead. It was so cool.

Emily-I love to go swimming. I got to go with my friend Chloe and eat dinner at the swimming pool. I love to play with friends. I am a Girl Scout. I really like being a Girl Scout and I get to sell cookies. It is fun and I like to be a part of my country. My goal is to sell 100 boxes of cookie. My goal is also to make the world a better place. I had 100 day at school. I glues 100 puzzle pieces on a cardboard "E". I got to put it in the hall so everyone could see it. Monday we celebrated Chineese New Year's. I got to eat rice with chop sticks. It was really fun. We got to make dragon masks. It was really fun because I put it over my face. This morning I made breakfast for my dad but he couldn't eat it because it was fast Sunday.