Tribute to Rob's Dad

Goodbye Summer

It has been a good week. All is well in the Brinton home!

I'm a dork

For those of you not on facebook I thought you'd get a kick out of this. The other day I drove around for 2o minutes not realizing that I was missing one of the lenses. I turned around to say something to Gemma and she was like mom whats wrong with your glasses. I felt like such a dork. Oh well. Maybe I should get my eyes checked.

Happy Easter from Tanner

Project Complete

I'm finished. It took a little longer than I anticipated, but I'm happy with how it turned out. We decided to take the mirror out of the door, and we lined it with padding and material. Well Rob did all that. He also lined all the drawers with material. Thanks babe for all your help! I'm just thrilled to have a place for my purses and necklaces. Rob is too! He thinks it's obnoxious that I have ten purses:)

New Project

I'm excited to get to work on my new craigslist find! I've been looking for months for something to store all my purses and jewelry in and I finally found it. Now I just need to find some cute material and knobs. Of course I will show pics when I'm done.

HaPpY VaLeNtInEs DaY!

Where Have I Been?

2010 was kind of a crummy year for me and I have been writing about it on my other blog http://www.findjoytoday.blogspot.com. My last post on this blog was March 9th, 2010. The day before I found out I was going to lose the baby that I was pregnant with. And like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air my life got flipped turned upside down. You see after I had my daughter 5 years ago I struggled with a form of postpartum depression known as PPOCD. I was too ashamed to talk to anyone about it and so it went untreated. After my miscarriage it all came back and it was a really scary time for me. My husband tried to keep up the blog, but I think May was the last time he posted anything. Something about minivans being cool. With the help of medication and therapy I have come a long way in the last 11 months, but you can read about all that on my other blog. I just wanted to let you know that I am back. I'm feeling more like myself, and I'm excited to start posting cute pictures of my kids again and the funny things that they say. Have a great day!

This goes out to all you minivan families

This has got to be the best comercial/ad I've ever seen. Give it up for minivans!

"Mason-isms"

For a while my sister Staci used to record some of the funny things Mason used to say, as she had kids of her own her focus rightfully turned to her own children. But Mason continues to humor us daily with his phrases and thoughts on life, I'll try and do better at recording some of them;

Tonight at the dinner table:

Rob: "Boys you need to hurry and finish your dinner, Gemma is already done with hers"

Mason: "Dad I just like to take my time" (No kidding, mason has always bee a very slow eater)

Mason: "You know what they say dad, you can't rush art"

Rob: "what does that have do to with dinner"

Mason: "This dinner is a work of art"


Last Week:

Mason: "Dad, I know the secret to being a parent"

Rob: "oh yeh, whats that?"

Mason: "pretend like you are listening"

Letters from Craig

We have a blog up for those that want to read Craig's weekly letters and emails. It's pretty basic right now, we'll make it "prettier" later, but for now you can read his first couple of emails. He did write a couple of hand written letters prior to these two emails, we'll see if we can type those up and put them on the blog also. Go here to see the blog.

Princess Gemma

Even though we really miss Craig around here, us girls were excited for him to go. Emily and Gemma have been sharing a room for the past 3 years. It was pretty crowded in there, and Emily had given up on trying to keep the room clean. Now that Craig is gone they each have their own room! I think Emily was moved into her room before Craig even boarded his plane to Utah! I was excited because my mom and I made this tent for Gemma for Christmas and I finally had a place to hang it up. It has been nice with Gemma being immobile because she can't make as many messes.

This is Gemma's foot 9 days after the accident. Not good. I got her in to see an orthopaedic Dr. last week and they felt like there might be a crack in her fibula, but with all the swelling it was hard to tell. They put her foot in a cast splint and wanted to see her back in 4 days. I had to cut her pants to get them off of her that night. Wouldn't fit over the cast.

So here is Gemma's leg after her appointment yesterday. So pretty! Just for St. Patricks Day! Gemma loves it! I was amazed at how much better her foot looked when they took the splint off. All the bruising that you see in that picture was pretty much gone and the swelling had gone down a lot. They decided to treat it has if her fibula is broken. She will have this cast for 2 1/2 weeks. After that they will x-ray it again and be able to determine if it really did break. Either way this cast is giving her ankle the support that it needs to heal. My goal this week is to get her walking again!

Get Ready to Rumble!

Rob took Mason to Monster Jam again this year. I think that makes 4 years in a row now. Mason still loves it! This year he took a couple of his friends from church. It's hard to tell from the video, but I think they had a good time!

Farewell Elder Roberts

Here are just a few pics from Craigs open house last Sunday. THANKS again to all those who came and supported him. We are so blessed to have such great family and friends!!!

Poor Pookie

Emily is always so good at playing with the kids and keeping them entertained, there is nothing they would rather do than spend time with Aunt Emily. One of the fun things they like to do with her is ride on the back of her bike. Well, the other night it was Gemma's turn and some how she got her foot caught it the wheel spokes of the back tire as they were riding down the street. And well, the pictures tell the rest. Immediately it was bruised, swollen and bleeding. We thought for sure it was broken because of the large bulge and the way her ankle looked so bent.
Rob took her to urgent care while the rest of the family met for dinner for Craig’s last night home. Fortunately it was not quite as bad as it looked and according to the x-rays it is not broken. Just a pretty good sprain, with some tearing of the soft tissue around her ankle and of course some really good bruising.

Elder Craig Roberts

When Craig received his mission call to serve in the New Jersey, Cherry Hill mission, Spanish speaking it seemed like his departure date was so far away, but just like always time flew by and this past week we took him to the airport and just like that he is gone. We are so proud of him and his decision to serve a mission. He has been such a wonderful addition to our family these past few years and we are very grateful to all those friends, family member, ward members and leaders that helped him to get to this point. He has been looking forward to his mission for so long, and has done such a great job of preparing himself to serve. I think his suitcases were all lined up and packed in his room for almost a month before his departure date. And he would review his "list of items to bring" almost nightly to make sure we were not forgetting anything.

We can’t wait to hear from him and how his first few days in the MTC are going, we will try and get a blog started for him where we can post his letters and emails for friends and family to read.

Love Advice From Mason

We were sitting at the dinner table talking about how cute it is that Tanner thinks he has two girlfriends. Mason asked Tanner if he would like some love advice.

Mason said, "what do you want to know first? How to love a girl, or how to dump a girl." Tanner picked love.

How to love a girl according to Mason: "First lay down on the ground and pretend to be dead. When the girl leans over to pick you up, wake up and tell her she has beautiful eyes and that you love her."

How to dump a girl according to Mason: " Tell her she has smelly armpits."

What a Lovely Day!

Goodbye summer!

Hello 2nd grade round 2! Mason has been soooo good about me deciding to hold him back. It was a hard decision. One that I thought about after kindergarten, and 1st grade. His teachers just kept saying Mason is so smart don't hold him back. I know he is smart. His IQ is in the 99th percentile but it wasn't showing in his work. He has struggled every year. So I went against the teachers advice and made a MOM decision to hold him back. He used to be the youngest in his class now he will be the oldest. He was one of the tallest kids in his class last year, so I hope he doesn't stick out too much this year. I love you Mason. I hope you have a great day and make lots of new friends!

These 2 will be in the same preschool class starting in a couple of weeks. We are all very excited! Bless their teacher. They better behave themselves!

9 amazing years down, an eternity to go

Today it’s my (the husband of the most beautiful bride in the world) turn to use this blog to publicly tell my wife how madly in love with her I am. It was 9 years ago this very day that she made me the happiest man in the world. At that time I was sure life could not get any better, I mean what could be better than marrying your best friend? Well I was wrong, it does get better! Better every single day for 3,285 days! I never could have even imagined back than the absolute joy she would bring into my life. She has been so kind, so patient, so loving and so supportive. I know for many, 9 years is nothing, but when you’re putting up with all that she has, me included, she gets credit for at least double that amount of time. Besides she shared with me her love and friendship for 5 years before we were married.

Julie has given me 3 beautiful children who light up my life, she is so good with them, and they love her so much. She is so good and patient to put up with taking care of their every need. I know it’s not easy, they sometimes try my patience and I’m only with them a fraction of the time. There is no greater sacrifice than that which a mother makes, and I want her to know I will love her forever for being willing to give of herself so selflessly. She has also been a shining example for her siblings as we have been blessed to have them become a part of our family.

Julie has always stood by my side, a couple of years ago when the opportunity to open our own business arose; it was her support that made it all possible (and a gracious loan from loving parents). I know she was nervous about the amount of risk we were assuming but her vote of confidence made me fell like I could do anything. That means so much to me, I am so blessed to have someone that believes in me and supports my dreams. Sometimes at night while she is sleeping I lay there staring at her, wondering how it is that I am so blessed, surely I don’t deserve all that she has given me.

Happy anniversary Julie, I wish I could say it in better words, but always know, I love you, oh so very much!


She was hot back then, but somehow she just keeps getting prettier each day!

That's Better

So I know you all thought to yourselves wow she really does look like JoJo. It has been requested that I post a picture of myself all made up. So here it is.

Just kidding. This picture was taken at the youth museum where we just got a membership. The kids loved this place and the exhibit right now is about monsters. We can't wait to take cousin Parker with us, but it will have to wait until the monsters go away.

Here I am all made up. I like the darker color. I don't think my husband loves it though. His response was, "you mean you're going to keep it that way."

This is my brother-in-law Matt. He told me that I must have a lot of self confidence to post a picture of myself looking the way I did. He also said it's great that I know how to laugh at myself. I'm pretty sure Matt is the same way.