No photos this week mostly because I didn't think pictures of pink eye would be too appealing to post. We have felt a bit like an infirmary around here the past 5 days. Alyssa started it with a fever on Tues. , then Emily showed up pink on Wed., by Friday Katy was so sick she barely had energy to eat her dinner and Janey had pink eye as well. They are slowly getting better. Thankfully Jonathan and I and the boys have been spared so far. I pray it lasts. We are thankful that it isn't worse. Emily had a marathon rehearsal yesterday for her Lehi children's choir. They met with their choreographer for the shoe and spent from 9:30am-6:00pm learning all the dances. That is a long practice for anyone, especially a 9 year old. She was a trooper and was rewarded by pizza (minus the cheese) from her teacher after. We are putting her back on gluten and she is doing really good. She is loving the fact that she can eat bagels, crackers, and granola bars again. We hope it lasts. We will test her in 6 weeks and see if you comes up positive on the blood test for celiac. She is really hoping she doesn't. We have a big week ahead with our first Dyslexia Center of Utah kick off Friday and Satur. We are praying all our gift baskets sale for a good price and the word spreads.

It has been birthday week here at the Brinley house. Monday morning dawned the boys birthday and Valentines Day. We had quick breakfast complete with cups full of dried fruit and nuts and new flower hair clips for the girls and off to the races we went. The boys had tutoring that morning but didn't mind too much because they got a box of candy from their teacher. I got them to school and home in just enough time to put all the games together for Emily's class party. I would be helping out in the boys class because of their birthday but I am the room rep for Emily and so needed to help with that party as well. I got done in just enough time to shower quick and give the little ones a quick PB&J sandwich and off we went to the school. My mom's that were going to help in Emily's class were late in coming so I juggled both classes for the first 15 min. The little ones loved being there and both parties ended up successful (the kids just really want to pass out their valentines and eat their candy anyway). I brought Emily home with me and started in on valentine muffins topped with cream cheese frosting and Hershey kisses garnished with fresh strawberries for my Visiting teachies. I probably shouldn't have tried to cram this part of the day in but I wanted so much to take them a little something for Valentines Day. I got them done just in time to deliver and take Emily to choir practice. As soon as I got back I got started on the boys angel food cake, thank goodness for Betty Crocker. I forgot however that the cake would take almost 50 min. to bake and I needed to get homemade french fries cooking for dinner in 2o min. My parents were coming at five thirty and now dinner wouldn't be ready till close to 6:30. Oh well. We had a great hamburger dinner and the boys loved their birthday gifts, especially their snorkeling gear for Hawaii. All in all it was a full and lovely day!

Emily's birthday was Sat. She had her favorite friends from Riverton over Friday evening for a mock "Emmy" awards night. The girls had fun getting all dolled up and then being picked up by the JDBrinley limo service. They came back from their drive to the Candlelight lookout restaurant (candle light for 4 set up in our front room). After a fancy dinner they walked the red carpet to their room for a little karaoke and then a movie projected on their ceiling. They had so much fun and Emily was totally in her element.

It's birthday time around here. Jacob and Hunter took their friends on a journey to Camp Half-Blood from their favorite books the Percy Jackson and the Olympians. They had 5 boys over and after receiving their official Camp shirts they went to the church for a game of capture the flag, the official game of the camp. They came back for pizza and blue jello, Percy's favorite color of food, and then went on a quest for the hidden treasure that took them to different scenes from the book. They climbed high into Zeus's liar, down into Hades underworld, and even fought off Medusa with worms(spaghetti noodles). It was a so fun. In the end they found their treasure, blue cupcakes with of coarse blue frosting. They played a Percy Jackson trivia game and won the coveted drachma (gold coin bubble gum) for each right answer. To finish the party they watched the movie. All in all it was a great success and we had fun putting it together. They are excited to celebrate their actual birthdays tomorrow along with valentine's Day parties at school. I can't believe they are really 11 and will be receiving the priesthood next year. Where does time go. They are such great young men.

Jonathan and I got to go out for a great Valentine's Day date last night. We had a gift card to Toucanos. We had a wonderful dinner complete with linen, candlelight, a take home long stem rose, and chocolate strawberries. We of course ate way to much and I don't even want to think about all the calories I consumed. We walked out of the restaurant into a wonder land of lights and fire. I don't know if any of you have been to the newly renovated Riverwoods but the courtyard at night is breath taking. We were able to stand by fire waist high fire pits and look and beautiful trees colored in lights and listen to a wonderful violinist. It was awesome and totally unexpected. We then went bowling, an activity that we haven't done in years. My scored reflected it. Jonathan on the other hand got multiple strikes and got a great score. It was fun but over all to fast for the money you pay. we remembered why we haven't gone for so long. We came home to a very fun decorated bedroom from the kids complete with paper hearts, and chocolates all over our bed. I had asked them to put up some hearts but they did a fabulous job. I wish I had taken a picture. We enjoyed foot rubs and a great movie, Inception. OK anyone who has seen it I would love to talk to year. That movie is mind bending.

We have a been a little jolted this weekend with two earthquakes. Maybe better described as earthshakes. The first one was Friday night during the boys party. It was at the same time all the boys jumped up yelling to go eat cupcakes so I thought they had just shook the floor until we got a phone call minutes later from MaryAnn asking if we had felt the earthquake. It shook the house enough to knock down a family picture from our shelf and shatter the glass. Then last night I was tossing most of the night with that movie going through my head when I felt the house shake again about 2:15am, this time much longer. My heart about pounded out of my chest. I was really awake then. Jonathan didn't even flinch so I wondered if I had imagined it although I knew I hadn't. Katy came in this morning asking if I had felt it. She too had felt it and it had knocked her letter off her shelf. It was nice to know I wasn't going crazy but unnerving to think the earth is starting to grumble!

Emily had the opportunity to be Helen Keller in her school wax museum. She enjoyed reading and learning about Helen Keller throughout the month and putting her poster and presentation together. She and her classmates stood (and sat) for over 2 hours as parents and student body came to see the characters from past and present who have made a difference in the world. It really is a pretty neat presentation and of course the kids loved dressing up. Katy tried out for her school musical this week with a song from "My Fair Lady" She did a great job especially considering she had never had an audition like this before and she didn't have a chance to practice with an accompaniast until the actual audition. She made call backs which was very exciting and ultimatley got put on the dance ensemble team. Her cousin Abbey was chosen to be the captain of the dance ensemble and Katy is really excited to get to work closely with her. Practices are going to be pretty intense over the next couple of months but so fun for her to be involved.

After much prayer and fasting and thinking and talking to others I have to decided to not be as involved with this new Dyslexic Center that I was so excited to announce last week. I have realized there is a time and season for all things and I only get my sweet little ones for such a short time. I still will be involved in helping raise funds but tutoring and being director of fund raising will have to be put on hold for a season. I am thankful for those who helped me work through a tough week of trying to figure this all out.

Katy and I got to demo our favorite GF product Saturday at a health food store in Spanish Fork. It was so fun to give people free samples of such a great product (SunflourMills) and talk to other people with celiac or who have kids with celiac. I felt like I got to share some of my knowledge about GF foods and hopefully help others. It was great to be there with Katy and we will hopefully be doing it a couple of times a month.

Birthday countdown has begun around here and Jake and Hunt are very excited for their Percy Jackson birthday party this weekend. We'll see if mom knows enough about the book to make it fun for them.