This is Happiness

Here are some more pictures from our Thanksgiving trip this year.  We are so grateful to be members of such close and loving families.  It's hard to take turns,  Browns...Shinkles....Browns....Shinkles, but we enjoy every moment we get to share with each of them.  This year Thanksgiving was with my family and we will spend Christmas with Tony's.

A few of the boys I love the very most.

Add Hayden...too bad we're missing Pops.

Really, Jeri Lin?  A picture?

He's a little scruffy, but my favorite Bryton.

Hyrum loves to treat you like a jungle gym, and Grannie loves her boy.

Hyrum wore himself out with all of his playing.

Uncle Luke can do cool tricks...

...and he's really fun to wrestle with.

I think Tony realized that P90X goes out the window when you've got a bunch of bedlamites to wrestle with.  He just watched in amazement.  He's waiting for the day when he gets to be Hyrum's bear trap...

Too Much of a Good Thing

You've heard the phrase too much of a good thing?  In other words, excess can cause you harm?  Is there such thing as too much of a good thing when that good thing is FAMILY?

We had a blast in Thatcher celebrating Thanksgiving.  We had somewhere near 40 people coming in and out of Grams and Papa's house this week.  My grandparents spoiled us rotten with delicious food.  The best part, however, was just being together as a family [although we were really sad to be missing Dad this year].  I took so many pictures!  Over 100!  Most are of Hyrum, of course...he hit some major milestones.  He's crawling like a fiend and has started to pull himself up!  I am amazed with how much he improves everyday and how he figures things out. 

 "A grill?!" you say.  Why, yes.  Yes, that is a grill and that is our Thanksgiving dinner in the making.  Hyrum, with his green beans and turkey [Gerber style] probably had the most traditional Thanksgiving dinner...

 

Papa and all of his wonderful helpers put together Mexican Bar-b-que for Thanksgiving every year.  Thinly sliced, delicious steak on homemade tortillas with homemade salsa and homemade guacamole.  Then you add green chiles, cheese, queso, or whatever else your heart pleases and then you eat!  And if you try really hard to control yourself, you can have some jello salad and pie [chocolate if you're me, pumpkin if you're Tony]. 

 

And of course, "Look, Mom.  I pulled myself up!"  What a big guy!!  He really is compared to Gunner and Gavin, the two newest members of the family!

I'm so proud of my aunt Teonna and uncle Luke for making such beautiful little boys!  They have five kids under the age of five now, but they're cute as can be and such a wonderful example to us!

More to come in the next few days, because remember?  There's no such thing as too much of a good thing when that good thing is FAMILY!

Homework Makes You Ugly

When Tony was growing up he had a puzzle with a frog on it that said, "Homework makes you ugly!"  This week I've come to the conclusion that that puzzle was right.  Any homework that keeps a princess from getting her beauty sleep can turn her into the ugliest frog...

This last week was absolutely crazy.  You noticed?  Yeah, I didn't even have time to blog about my woes.  I had classes galore.  On top of that we had Long Term Care from 1-8 on Tuesday and 1-6 on Thursday.  And if that's not enough, the Long Term Care Project was due and we had an ATI test.  I ended up pulling an all-nighter on Wednesday so that I could complete my LTC project.  I only got about a total of 2 hours of sleep between 530am on Wednesday morning and 9pm on Thursday night.  I never do that.  I do my darn tootin' hardest not to procrastinate, but I've come to grips with the fact that when you're a mom, things never go according to plan.  I was trying to work on the project a little bit each day for the last few weeks, but something always kept me from getting it done.  Luckily, it did get done and I think I did an acceptable job as well.

This semester has been a tough one, but it has been a blast.  I loved Long Term Care.  I was a little surprised how much I enjoyed the elderly.  They reminded me of Grandpa Burgess and I love Grandpa!  I am grateful for the experiences I had there.  To the CNA who let me help her with giving a shower: Thank you for letting me help.  Thank you for teaching me as we worked.  Thank you for your smile.  I was able to give insulin twice.  It was exhilarating.  I had so much fun!  My favorite part, though, was feeding the Alzheimer's patients.  On our first day, I felt an overwhelming feeling of happiness as I did for someone, something they could not do for themselves.  I realized that I really do want to be a nurse!

 

Time Out for Women

During the first weekend in November, I went on a spur of the moment weekend getaway with my mom, aunts, Grams, and cousin.  Hyrum, of course, came along too.  I hadn't planned on going, but a friend of my mom's had a baby get sick and she didn't want a ticket to go unused.  Tony was going to be working most of the weekend, so I went.  I'm so glad that I did.  I love every bit of quality time I get with my mom, the most amazing woman in the world.  Plus, it was fun to be with the other women in my family.  They are such great examples to me!  Grams, Jonna, Sherra, Casey, Teonna, Rocki, and Brittney!  What spectacular women!

Time Out for Women is held on Friday night and then all day Saturday.  It was held at the Phoenix Convention Center.  Speakers such as Mary Ellen Edmunds, Brad Wilcox, Linda J. Eyre, and Shawni Eyre Pothier shared inspiring messages about what it means to be a wife, a mother, and most importantly, a disciple of Christ.  I loved hearing Hilary Weeks perform.  She has an incredible voice and such uplifting music.  Aside from Time Out itself, it was fun to chat with the girls, spend the night at the resort, go out for dinner together, and catch up on all that is going on in our busy lives.  We were sad that Teonna had to leave early.  She was a trooper for being there and being 36 weeks pregnant with twins!  Hooray for two happy baby boys, Gunner Wade and Gavin Edward, that joined our family this week!

I'm so grateful for my mother.  She is one of my biggest helpers.  She is always willing to watch Little Boy.  She goes out of her way to do anything she can to make us happy.  Most importantly, she has taught me what it means to be selfless and charitable.  She is one of the most Christ-like people I know.  I hope that I can learn from her example and become the kind of woman she is.  I love you, Mom!

Seminary

Tony's been teaching seminary for 4 months now!  He's grown a lot and is continually improving.  It's really stressful for him sometimes.  He always wants to have a lesson that will be applicable to a group of teenagers, but it also has to be fun.  On top of that, he never knows when Brother Moon will be stopping by to watch a class and critique him.  Brother Moon's feedback is phenomenal!  He always has great ideas for how to improve.  We always enjoy his monthly inservices.  They've asked him to be the guy to teach the teachers how to be teachers because he is a spectacular teacher himself!

Every now and again, Hyrum and I go to the seminary with Tony so that we can help him plan a lesson or just so that we can be with him for a little while.

As for whether or not Tony will be doing this for the rest of his life...

Brother Vellinga from Salt Lake came to visit last week.  He's the guy who watches ALL of the student teachers from all over the country and then ranks them.  He and Brother Moon watched Tony teach and gave him excellent feedback.  We were able to go to an inservice with him and he also came to our house for a home visit/interview.  He asked us about us, why would Tony be a good seminary teacher, where would we want to live if we could choose...  We really enjoyed visiting with him and hope we left an impression.  He will come back sometime next semester to watch Tony again.

The next step will be an interview with one of the Quorum of the Seventy, if they think we're good enough.  And if we make it that far, we'll have to get approval from someone on the Church Board of Education.  And then if they think we're good enough and if they have openings and if we're a good fit for that particular opening and if...if...if...if... THEN they could hire us full time and we would be ecstatic!  It's a very competitive position.  Tony is doing his best and we know that if the Lord has seminary in our plan that it will happen and if He doesn't and we don't get hired, we'll be all the better for it.  It has been wonderful to watch Tony progress.  He is going to be a better husband, father, young men's leader, etc etc etc because of seminary this year.

Uncle Bryton

Hyrum is so lucky to have an Uncle Bryton.  He's a silly guy, but he's a lot of fun.  He loves music and art.  He's currently working on his Eagle Project.  He's going to be painting two 15x20 foot canvases for a local elementary school.  The canvases are going to be for the Arizona centennial.  He had to design the canvases and will probably be getting a group together this week to paint them.  Hooray for being an Eagle Scout!

Bryton is also a great example of being missionary minded.  He is always willing to share what he believes with others.  He loves to share his Mormon Boy Swag on his blog.  We're so excited for him to leave on a full time mission in just about 1 year!  We will miss him, but we know he will do a great job.  Someday, Hyrum will follow in his footsteps.

The Latest on Hyrum's Mobility...

It would appear Hyrum is more interested in the camera now than the stackers.