Labor Day

I took the kids and went up to Snowflake for the Labor Day weekend. It was great to get out of the heat, but it was too crowded up there. One day while we were up there we went and rode the ski lift and Sunrise. I want to tell you a little story about my family.
I love crocs for my kids. I think they are ugly, but super convenient in the shoe department. My dad had watched Jayden and Jolie for me for a few a little while one day while my mom and I went to Zumba. He told me after how much he hated her pink crocs. He said they were the worst shoes ever and that they kept falling off. Well really it is her usually kicking them off. She hates to wear shoes. Every time I get in the car she is kicking her shoes off. Annoying!
So while we were riding the ski lift my dad was holding Jolie and she fell asleep and she kicked her shoe off. So my mom yells back at us on the ski lift and tell us they lost one of Jolie's shoes. Well I am instantly kicking myself because I had a thought before hand to just take her shoes off, and I didn't. I learned my lesson. I was annoyed we lost the shoe, but I didn't want to walk back up or down looking for it so in my mind it was gone. Big deal, I'll buy her another pair at Nordstrom Rack(best place for crocs). Well on the way back down we were looking for her shoe, but we never did see it. We did however see a girl totally eat it on her mountain bike and it was pretty sad. I had said that I wanted to see someone wreck, but never did I want to see someone get hurt. Her stellar boyfriend probably broke up with her after that because she couldn't hack it. Anyway, off track. Well we get to the bottom and my parents tell us they are going to go back up and look for the shoe. Well I thought whatever, they aren't going to find it so we (James, Becky, Jolie, and I) stay at the bottom. Then it begins to rain and we wait and wait. Sure enough, my mom comes back down on the lift, without my Dad. They saw the shoe, and he is now walking down the mountain to retrieve it. I feel so bad at this point because it was those blasted shoes that he hated, that now he is really going to hate. Then it begins to rain harder and harder and I finally see my Dad coming down the mountain, with a pink shoe. Bless his sweet heart he was soaked. He is such a sweet man. I love him so much. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he said oh yes he did, my mom made him. I love my mom too. They are just such amazing parents and grandparents. It was a great morning. If you ever have the chance to ride the ski lift in the summer, do it, just don't wear crocs.

Oh Boy, I Got Joy

This little boy started Joy School today. We are all pretty excited about it. I am always worried he isn't going to behave, or will be behind, but so far so good. His primary teacher told me last week that he is probably the best one so I think he'll be fine, but I forget that sometimes and I get worried that he is going to be too goofy. He's a sweettheart I tell you.

Still Hot

I have been pretty proud of myself this summer. I really wanted to change my attitude about the heat and enjoy summer instead of hating it. We took advantage of having a pool at our constant disposal. It's sad but my kids don't really get excited to get to go to the pool anymore. This week though has been especially hot. I hate even having to put my kids in the car(all black) when as soon as I sit them in their seats they tell me how hot it is, or worse, start screaming about it. Today I did my VT and when I put Jolie in her seat she proceeded to scream for 5 minutes. I feel so bad, but what can I do. I just need a garage.

Last year when we moved into our apartment I had the mindset that it would only be for a year. I could do it. Since we found out that we will be staying we've been searching and searching for a house but our search has come up empty. So we are staying here. I have mixed feelings about this decision. I know it is the right decision for us at this time, but it's hard. I have been so ready to have a back yard, a garage, space for my kids to play and run around. I am trying to remember the positive things about living in our apartment like we feel safe, it's clean, no maintenance, pool, but then things like climbing up the stairs 5 times to unload my groceries hit me and I feel defeated. We are trying to make adjustments and hopefully will be able to get a bottom floor apartment. I know people have endured worse so I'll try to keep that in mind. Did I mention it was like 105 at 9:00 today. Oh boy. Send prayers our way for rain.

She's Two

Our sweet girl woke up the morning of her birthday and I think she had the theme song playing in her head of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to." It was her birthday and I think she could tell. My goal was to make her feel extra extra special for her special day. She had a breakfast of crepes, lunch of hot dogs, and dinner of homemade pizza, then cake, all of which are her favorites(maybe not the hot dog but I was in the middle of cleaning out my closet). Can I just say that I love simple birthdays! I enjoy them so much more. I tend to focus more on my child(which is where the focus should be) and less on "Oh I hope everyone has a good time, or is impressed by the food, or think she looks cute." My parents had it where on the even birthdays we would have our own family thing, then if we wanted a party it was on the odd birthdays. I think I might be leaning towards that as well. As fun as it is to look at pictures and pictures of amazing parties, I don't know if my kids get enough out of them with the amount of work that goes into them. That's just me though. To each his own. I sure do love this girl. I can't believe she is already two.

This Girl

This sweet little girl turns two tomorrow. I can't believe it, I really can't. She has changed so much from a year ago, but I can even see huge changes in her from just the past month. She is talking way more, and she has quite the attitude. She has the pouty lip thing going on and Matt just can't seem to discipline her when she uses it.







She is so special to us. Jayden loves her, we love her, and she is so loving to us as well. Jolie has always been a dream baby. She slept through the night so young(maybe 4 weeks), goes to bed so well, throws only the occasional fit, is a great eater and will try most any food. I love hearing her start to sing and see her excitement about girly things. She's a tough cookie though too. We love our Jolie Kate and can't wait to celebrate her being Two.

me, a to z

This is my blog, but rarely do I talk about me. I think as a mom and a wife, we can get so caught up in everything and everyone around us and we forget about ourselves. No I don't think it's bad, but I am going to take a little time and talk about me.

a. age : 27(I still feel like I'm 19 though.)

b. bed size : queen

c. chore I hate : grocery shopping, it never ends

d. dogs : none, Matt and I had a dog Ella during our first year of marriage. I'll make a long story short and just give this one piece of information, we have never fought so much as we did when we had this dog. I am pro dogs though, no matter what my family really thinks.

e. essential start to your day : a coke.

f. favorite color : as of right now this very minute, gray & yellow

g. gift giving or receiving : giving

h. height : five feet nine inches

i. instrument : some piano, some clarinet, love to sing

j. job title: mama, babe, aunt Katie

k. kids: Jayden Monroe, Jolie Kate

l. live: Glendale, AZ(but I will always say I'm from Snowflake)

m. maiden name : Brimhall

n. nicknames: Only nickname I had was from a softball coach, Katydid

o. overnight hospital stays : twice with my babies.

p. pet peeve : chewing gum, being late

q. quote : "You can't control how you are going to be perceived, you only have control at how you are going to present yourself."(something like that)

r. right or lefty : right

s. siblings : Leslie Coy, Darrell Monroe, John Howard, James Martin, Jeanie Pearl

t. time you wake up : Between 6 and 6:30. You don't sleep in if you come from my parents.

u. university attended : this is a little embarrassing but oh well, NPC, Dixie State, and MCC.

v. vegetable you dislike : raw onion

w. what makes you run late : my adoring husband, or Jayden not being able to find his shoes.

x. x-rays you've had : teeth @ dentist, then chest x-ray(I supposedly had asthma, or so they said)

y. yummy food : fettuccine alfredo(Kitchen Boss style), chips & salsa(Don Ruben's) pizza(Spinatos or mine)

z. zoo animal favorite : elephant, orangutan

So this is me. I'm pretty excited for today. It's my parents anniversary and I get to celebrate my best friends birthday a day early with dinner. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!! Here's to 33 more.

First Day of School

Here is our big medical student on his first day of medical school. You can't even imagine how long we've waited, and how long we've worked for this day to finally be here. I know he's pretty excited, and a little nervous for the fire hydrant of information that is going to be coming his way. I know he will do great. I know it's going to be pretty difficult, but I have all the faith in the world in him. It's one of the reasons I picked him for me you know. More to come on that later.

Over 1900 Miles Traveled

That is how far we traveled in the last two weeks. Immediately after Lake Powell, we headed up into Utah, then Idaho for the Waite Reunion. Matt and I got to go river rafting which was great. I secretly, okay maybe not to secretly think we could have handled something a little harder, but it was good to get our feet wet. We went into Yellowstone a few of the days and it's all of Eric's(BIL) fault that we didn't see a bear. I told him my trip would be ruined if I didn't get to see one. I was pretty sad. While we were driving around I kept thinking to myself, "If I were a bear, where would I be?" Apparantly not anywhere people could see me I guess.
It was fun to see all of our Waite cousins. Can you believe there were 6, two year olds there(counting Jolie who is almost two). That's a lot of carseats. As we were driving around and admiring how green it was, the wild flowers everywhere, the rivers and streams that were so pretty, I kept trying to tell myself how bad it must be here in the winter. "Oh Katie you don't want to live here. They have horrible winters. They can't even leave their homes it's so bad. They have to stay inside for five months." Don't tell me if this is not the case. I don't want to know. So if you haven't been to Yellowstone, go. It's incredible.

Could We Have Had Any More Fun?

The answer is probably, but that would have meant our kids would have liked the water. One of the things that I find the most interesting/frustrating about raising kids is that you really can't MAKE them do something if they don't want to, right. I remember when I was little and my mom would fight with John about eating fruit(he hates fruit). It would go on forever, and I remember thinking why doesn't he just do it. Why can't she just make him do it. Or with me and wearing dresses to school. My mom every now and again would make up this rule that I had to wear one dress a week to school. I'm still not quite sure what her reasoning was(I'm sure she had one) but I hated it. It would be the longest drawn out process, and yet, she could punish me, threaten me, but I was still not going to wear a dress to school. It would have been the end of the world or something. Now as a parent, I get to have those same fights or trials I guess you could call them. Last year Jayden loved the water, you couldn't really get him out. This year, nope, he wasn't having it. I think having immediate access to a pool may have spoiled him a bit. The Lake Powell water isn't clear, it's cold(colder than our pool), and for an OCD kid who doesn't like to be dirty, the sand is tortuous. Then for Jolie, she turned on us as well. Our "happy go lucky" girl was more of a "crabby hold me all the time because this environment is different and so therefore I'm going to be difficult" kind of girl. Oh don't you worry your pretty little heads though, Matt and I still had a great time. I mean when you are getting a tan how can you not be happy!?! Of course we had a great time with our family and we had the BEST spot this year and the water was so high. It was seriously amazing. Not five minutes after pulling our boat out of the spot, someone else took it like bam. Oh how we love the lake. Until next year.

3 Down, 1 To Go

Last week Matt graduated with his Masters at Midwestern University which brings his degree count to a whopping 3. That's a lot of money you know. It was a quick program, and we are all so proud of him. I think he looks super sexy in his robe. His Dad was able to hood him since he has a doctorate degree. We are looking at a future Dr. in the making. Jayden was so tired and did not want to take pictures, he just wanted me to hold his hand, plus he was upset that he had to stop drawing for two seconds. Oh that kid and drawing. Jolie is pretty dang cute if you ask me.
Good Job Babe! We all love you so much!

Jeanie Pearl, Baby Girl

Snowflake High School will sadly not get to educate(hahaha) anymore students from the Gary & Sarah Brimhall children. The last, Jeanie Pearl Brimhall graduated and we are so proud of her. Jeanie is the baby baby of our family. I was in third grade and I still remember Lashelle Schneider asking me if my mom was pregnant. I said no because James was the baby, and there was no way my mom was pregnant with another baby. Well a while later, it was a Sunday afternoon and my Dad was saying the prayer for dinner. He was blessing the food etc. then he said, "And please bless mom, while she is pregnant that she won't be so sick(something like that)." So she was pregnant and we were getting a new baby. I was so excited. Then came the day when my mom went to the hospital to have the baby, then she came home without a baby. I remember being so mad at her. I mean didn't she know I was ready for that baby to come out. Well eventually Jeanie Pearl was born and we evened out the numbers to 3 boys and 3 girls. We all adored Jeanie. I remember this one thing we did with her particularly well. We had this smaller chair and we would put her in it. Then we would gather all of our jewels(dress up jewelry), money, etc and we throw it at her feet and chant and bow,"We praise, thy name, to Jeanie Pearl Brimhall." Kind of sacrilegious probably, but we just loved her so much. Jeanie is everything I wished I was more of. She is confidant, smart, independent, brave, adventurous, and so much more. I am so proud of the woman she has become. I am always so proud to call her my sister. I am especially excited because she will be attending ASU West in the fall, on scholarship mind you. ASU West just happens to be about 4 miles from where we live. No I am not going to smother her, but I am excited that she will be close by. Congrats Jeanie. We are all so proud of our sweet Jeanie Pearl, Baby Girl.

AT LAST!!!

"AT LAST" is the title of my favorite Etta James song. Well we can now say, AT LAST, Matt got into Medical School. We heard last Monday that he has been accepted to Midwestern, here in Glendale, and we couldn't be more happy. It's been such a long hard road getting here, but I knew we could do it all along. Matt has worked so incredibly hard and finally no longer will he have to say that he is pre med. We are so grateful that it happened when it did. I feel like Matt has learned so much doing his Masters that will only help him for the next four years. There were times when we were both so frustrated and discouraged, but he kept on going. He's amazing, he's amazing, he's amazing. I can't say it enough. We were willing to go anywhere for school, but lucky enough are we to get to stay here in Arizona. Oh how I love Arizona. I love it over here in Glendale too. Matt also has been put on the wait list at A.T. Still University in Mesa as well. He loves Midwestern though so it all worked out great. During the whole process I kept asking myself what does Heavenly Father want to teach us, or want us to learn in all of this. Well I can say that I have learned to trust in Heavenly Father, and know that he does hear our prayers and knows the desires of our heart. I have also learned patience, and to put my faith in him. I came to a conclusion a few months ago that even if we didn't get in to Midwestern and we ended up in the Caribbean, that everything would still be okay. He knows what is best for us. I am so grateful for the wonderful family that we have. They have helped us out so much, and I'm so happy to be getting to stay close to home. We really are so blessed. So here's to us. Oh it feels good.

So Proud

My sweet older brother Darrell graduated this past week from...Medical School. It was a great experience being able to attend his graduation and see the look on his face now that he's done(minus residency of course). I remember sitting at his white coat ceremony 4+ years ago and I remember thinking how long 4 years seemed. Now that it's here, it feels like such a short time. Darrell went to U of A, Phoenix Campus. He was apart of the first class and we are all so proud of him. Ever since I was a little girl he always said he was going to be a doctor, and now he is. I am so lucky and grateful to have him for my brother. He is so sweet to Matt and myself and he has done so much for us. Darrell has been so supportive of us and our efforts to attend medical school. At one point we even lived with them when we both lost our jobs so Matt could stay in school.

After the graduation we went and celebrated. We were probably a little too rowdy, but how often does someone graduate from Medical School. For the past eight or so months I have been switching off babysitting Darrell and Kendra's kids while she has been working and I have been so grateful for that. I really do love their kids, almost as they were my own. I caught myself a few times looking at them and wondering if they had any idea the hard work their dad, and mom had gone thru to be there that night, celebrating. It made me ache, long, excited for what the future holds for Matt and I. I only hope that in 4+ years it will be us celebrating with family.

Zumba, Mothers Day, THE FIT SHE THREW

For Mother's Day, I went and spent it with my mother. Matt had to study so up Jayden, Jolie and I went. There was a Zumba thing going on Saturday so Becky(James' wife), Jeanie, My Mom, and myself went and danced our buns off in the bright sun for a few hours. I had a lot of fun shaking my tail feather and getting a pretty NOT awesome tan line. I always want to do something special for my mom because she has been the greatest mom to me, but she is a horrible gift receiver. I still love you though Mom. I wanted to get her something nice for her house, but it's her house and if she wants something, then she'll pick it out, in her style. So Jeanie and I decided to give her a work day. Perfect Right. My parents have a train car that they've been using for storage and over the last few years it just became disorganized and messy. So we cleaned out the train car and I my mom said it was the best gift we could have given her. I miss those kind of days. I live in an apartment and it's rare that I get to get outside and really get dirty and sweaty and gross. I love that feeling though, like I've accomplished so much. It was a great day.

So Sunday comes along, and we made crepes for breakfast for my mom. Punks Jayden and Jolie didn't do anything for me. It's like they didn't know or something(can you tell I am being sarcastic). Then we get to church and my child(Jolie Kate) is horrible. Now Jolie has been such a good baby, child, toddler etc. No she isn't perfect, but I can usually get her to be well behaved. Well this particular Sunday she was not having it. She was horrible the 1st hour, annoying the second, then Satan the third. I sat in primary with her in my moms class and the little boy gets up to give his scripture and he has trouble finding it so there is a huge moment of silence. Jolie starts yelling "GO, GO, GO!" So I take her out and let her roam the halls. Too much freedom for the little chick and she just kept throwing herself on the ground, making me look like I had no idea what to do with a kid. I finally had enough and decided to just sit in the car with her. So I take her out to my parents car, and start to strap her in her seat(she was already throwing a fit when we got there). As soon as I begin to put her in, she does the annoying arch back thing, so I am basically pinning her down so I can buckle her in. Once I get her in she starts smacking her face with her hands, pulling out her hair(literally), like ripping her mouth with her hands, kicking, and then she looks at me in the eyes as she's yelling and screaming and says, "MOMMA, MOMMA, MOMMA!!!" I just sat there in shock. Never has she once acted like this. She did this for the next 5 minutes. She quickly wore herself out and fell asleep and did the whimper in her sleep until we were home. Seriously, what happened to my child? What possessed her? Let me tell you it was not the Mother's Day present I was looking for. So I figured Mother's Day is really for when you are older . That's when you can really enjoy it. When your kids are grown and they treat you so well, and they appreciate all the things you did/do for them. So I guess I will just have to wait a few years before I get to really feel special and loved on Mothers Day.
P.S. When Jayden got in the car and I told him the story of how horrible Jolie was he just kept laughing and laughing. Then I asked him to give me a kiss, and he said, "Wait Mom, Give me a kiss on the lips." It was pretty sweet so I guess I had a good day after all.

Still In LOVE

Do you ever have those days when you can't imagine being any happier? Well I experienced quite a few of those days this last weekend. Our amazing Jayden Monroe turned 4 years old on Sunday. He was due April 25th, but didn't come until May 1st. At the time I was so annoyed that he would be a May baby and that I had to wait, but he was well worth the wait. May 1st is such a special day for me. Not only is it Jayden's birthday, but it is the day I became a mother. It is the day I realized how much love a parent has for their children. It is the day that I realized how much my mom went thru in order to bring all of her kids into the world. It is the day that I really realized how strong of a woman I can be. I was amazed by my own strength and it was the most empowering experience I have ever had in my life.
Jayden has truly been such a joy. He has such a special spirit and I am so lucky to be his mom. Jayden is so kind and thoughtful. He is also very protective of me and also to others he cares about. He is not your average rambunctious boy. He is gentle and soft, quiet and loud, funny and creative, and he is a perfect combination of both of our families. I have a special place in my heart for all of my brothers, each for a different reason. Jayden reminds me so much of my youngest brother James. I remember James being such a sweet and soft hearted boy(still is). James had these dark huge eyes when he was little and Jayden has those same eyes, just blue. He is so special to me and to so many others.
Jayden has a bit of an obsessive personality I guess you could say. He has a passion for Star Wars and Superheros and that is what his birthday was all about. He finally decided on a Star Wars cake. I really wanted it to be great and had marvelous plans for it. Well he wanted to help so badly and at first I wasn't wanting him to help because I wanted it to be perfect. Well I quickly realized that it was Jayden's birthday and if helping make his cake was what he wanted, than that was all that really mattered. He is very detailed oriented like Matt and it's so fun to watch him when he gets creative. It was a great weekend. These past four years have blown by and I am so excited that I get to watch him grow.