Whole lot of Potty traning goin' on.....

Yup, that is right, there is a whole lot of potty training goin' on in our house. Some animals are just better than others....

This lovely duck hasn't had any accidents yet....

Now this little animal on the other hand is a whole other story... (I told him to cover up for the picture, we don't need any of those embarrassing naked pictures)

Poor Plesiosaurus!!!! Funny thing is: right before this picture I asked Will if he had to go potty and he said "no". I had to take the picture to prove he was REALLY wrong about that!

Our new kitty has no problem using her litter box, it only took her less than one day. Some animals are just harder than others I guess.

I met Stephanie Meyers! O.K. so I was in the same auditorium as she was! Same thing!

Here is the whole panel of awesome authors!

I am trying to catch up on some of our recent memories and one that I forgot to write about happened on April 4th. Cassidy and I purchased tickets and went to an awesome benefit concert. It was called, "Project Book Babe!" and it was a benefit for a book seller that has breast cancer and so a lot of our favorite authors were there. They did a panel questioning thing with all the authors and it was really awesome to really see how they think and work, they are totally normal people that just write some awesome books. Of course, Stephenie Meyers was the biggest author there and a lot of questions were directed to her, and it was fun to listen to her. Then they auctioned off a lot of Stephenie Meyers stuff and I was so surprized at how much they went for, it was crazy! Two people bid on lunch with Stephenie Meyers for 13, 000.00. Wow! I hope that is some awesome food!!!!

It was also fun because we invited Cassidy and Lund's elementary school teacher, Mrs. DeGanahl, who is so wonderful, and her teenage daughter. It was a great mother/daughter day out and we really had an amazing time.

One of my favorite things was stopping at a huge bookstore for teachers that sells books cheap, plus you get a 30% discount if you are a teacher, so I stocked up! (they counted me as a teacher because I homeschool Sarah this year). Pretty sweet!

Cassidy was most excited to see Brandon Mull who writes the Fablehaven series that we love around our house.

Good times! Good times! Good times!

Cassidy and I holding our signed books and signed posters from the authors. A very cool gift!

Cassidy standing in front of the "Twilight" inspired car that was at the benefit.

Chicks and Turtles make great Spring Pictures

Our kids weren't exactly excited last Friday when I told then to take a shower in the middle of the day on a day off. I told them that we had an appointment with some baby chicks and we were going to take Easter pictures this year. It wasn't easy and I now know why I don't take then all the way into Prescott to get their pictures done 'cause I felt like I needed a nap once this photo shoot was over. (I was the one behind the camera trying to get their attention). Tara Sipes in our ward was so kind as to bring four of her baby chicks over to our house and I told her that if my kids somehow killed one of them, I would find a way to replace it. (Thanks Tara for putting up with us, your a doll!). We also thought it would be fun to add our recently purchased baby African Salcutta tortioses. They are six-months-old and were very cute in the pictures. And yes, they are the same kind pf turtle as Dot, so they will be getting very large before too long. I know this post has a lot of pictures, but it has been a long time if ever that I took Easter pictures..... p.s. Along with my children, we had Canyon Brimhall over getting his pictures taken with the chicks as well, so Lund and he had the opportunity to be in some pictures together. Those two are so silly together... such boys!

Lund and his buddy Canyon Brimhall laughing because I made the mistake of saying, "Say Chicken poo instead of the usual Say Cheese!" Boys seem to think all bodily functions are just hilarious, by the way!


They are trying to gain their composure...

Will trying to figure the chicks out... (hey buddy, you'll be trying to figure "chicks" out the rest of your life!)

Then we add one of our pet baby tortoises to the mix...

Goofy Picture time of Course!

Trying to get everyone to look at the camera, but the turtle is just to interesting.

Sarah is our little animal lover!

Cute kids!

Sarah and her little chickies!

This is a very risky thing that Lund did becuase another chick had just pooped on Cassidy's dress.

Will and his chicks!

Lund and his chicks!

Lund thought that maybe he was a gifted "chick wisperer", but they still pooped everywhere anyways!

My oldest and her chickies!

Will's profile

Lund and his new friend!

this picture is taken right after the chick that Cassidy is holding pooped and peed on her dress. Sorry Cass, I forgot to warn you that these things are pooping machines.

Will pretending to be a gentle soul

This is Sarah's worried look, she wears it often...

My goofy Lundy!

Will begs his brother for a turn with the chick...
And Lund helps him out!

Such a cutie!

Again, our animal lover!

Lunds favorite animals are birds, he is a "bird fanatic" and knows LOTS of facts about birds!

This was taken the first time Will held the chick...

Heavenly missionaries love slides too and other truths as seen through the innocent eyes of a three-year-old

Okay, so I have been debating and debating whether or not to add this blog entry to my blog site and all I can come up with is that this is my way of journaling and my way of telling my own story to myself and this is a big part of my own story, so here goes....

Logan Thomas Brimhall has been on his heavenly mission for about a month now and oh how we love our little missionary. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him up there in heaven teaching those unreachable souls that can and will only listen to him as he flashes his smile and tells of the gospel truths he knows. I am sure they see and feel of the warmth in his big brown eyes and they love him just they way we love him.

I have learned a lot about mortality in the last month and about that wonderful veil of forgetfulness that we all had to go through to get to this mortal experience...and that is the problem, sometimes my mortal mind can't wrap itself around a "spiritual experience" because let's face it--- I am a mortal and I don't claim to be anything smarter than that! I am stuck in this mortal body and mortal mind for the time being and so I need to get over that and I also need to listen more to the "spiritual me" that is inside this tabernacle of clay if you will.

Without furthur ado, let's move onto the slides, cause you know as well as I do that our mortal bodies do love slides... maybe we even rode a wonderful slide to come down to this earth, who knows?

Okay, I will first give you a little background about three-year-olds, or my three-year-old in particular. At three years of age kids can't quite understand death, or maybe the fact of the matter is that they understand this existance way better than we give them credit for. Maybe they understand better than we can with our cloudy adult eyes that this mortal existance is but a small moment in the scheme of things and that it is just a small part of a long process we are all involved in whether we like it or not. (we did vote for it you know, we all voted correctly or we wouldn't be here today).... Now I am getting a little off the beaten path, so let me stear back toward where I am headed. The point I am trying to make is that even though three-year-olds can't quite understand death (and by death I mean the absence of something or someone rather that was ever present and then is one day gone from this mortal realm), maybe they get the plan of salvation better than we give them credit for.

Case in point: (do I sound like a dorky english professor or what)??

Will was very close to Logan and they played together often. One of Logan's favorite things to do was to go down our slide in our backyard and we would often find his shoes there at the bottom of the slide when it was time to go home with mom. He also loved the "trampoeeen", but for an entirely different reason. He would use the trampoline to torment his poor momma by running to one side when she was trying to get him to get off and giggling with his rosy cheeks as red and ever and his eyes sparkling with mischief as they so often did. And then quickly running to the other side as Bek tried to coax him off. Not Bek's favorite game, but LoLo sure got a kick out of it!

Look, I am off the beaten path again.... Anyway, Canyon (Logan's older brother) has been over to play a lot lately and we love our Canyon and he loves to play with Lund and Sarah. So the other day Canyon was over to play and he and Sarah went to go jump on the trampoline and so Will and I were inside by ourselves and it was actually quite peaceful in the house. Will suddenly looked up at me and said, "I am giong to go slide with LoLo." I responded that it would be wonderful if he went to go slide with LoLo and off he went by himself to the swing set. I didn't follow him, I didn't watch, it was his own time with his buddy and I didn't want to interrupt that with my crazy adult mortal mind. I just know that he hasn't talked about Logan at all since the day he died and then all of a sudden, he wanted to go slide with him, and off he went.

I am not trying to profess anything or say anything but the facts of the situation so you can determine how you feel about it in your own mind.... oh forget your mind, when you think about this go to your heart and spirit instead, they are better at this kind of spiritual stuff.

All I know is this... in life, Logan loved that slide and he loved his big brother, both were in the backyard that day so maybe he took a break from his missionary work, "a p-day," to come and be with someone he loves and do something he loves....

Will talks about his buddy a little more these days, and this is what he says... "LoLo in heaven?" "yes Will, LoLo is in heaven." "Logan likes me!" "Yes Will, Logan loves you!"

*And don't worry all of you crazy people, of course I had Bek and Golden proofread this before I posted it....

Colter and Will

"Friends are the bacon bits in the salad bowl of life."- Anon