4th of July Weekend

The morning of the 4th of July the clouds were looming but we went to the parade anyway.
Emma got to hug our local newspaper!



The boys loved the parade. It was perfect for their age.
They got some candy.


Abby had quite a stash.

Can you see the girls in this piccture?

After the parade we went to the Jubliee (kind of like a festival).

I love Nate's face in this picture.
We saw our friend Jacob there.

Nate had to wear my sunglasses because the sky was "too bright" to see the....
skydivers!

Emma holding a baby bunny at the petting zoo.
Christian petting a baby cow. The girls rode horses.

And then we had to wait in line. Lots of lines and you can tell who was not handling this well...the grouchy two in the front.
Finally, after waiting in line, the kids got to jump on several inflatables.

I could not believe Christian went down this giant slide. He didn't hesitate for a second.

We went home and had some cousin time!
Then we celebrated Mimi's (Amy) birthday.
We actually got a decent family picture.
We set of our very own little TNT fireworks show.
Christian's decided that he likes fireworks now.
Nate, not so much.

We ended the weekend by going to the real fireworks. Christian wasn't too impressed with them. Ten minutes into the show he wanted to go home. He likes daddy's better.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!!

We've survived another fireworks season.

These pictures are just a preview of what's to come.

No time to really blog right now :)

We always try...

We always try to get a picture of all the Brinkley cousins together! It used to be easy with just the girls.

The girls took some pretty good pictures.

And then in 2005 we added three boys to the bunch and it became a little bit more complicated.
This one actually isn't that bad considering there's seven kids under the age of five in this picture.
Then everyone became mobile and it became almost impossible to get everyone to cooperate.

This was our attempt this past weekend. Our first attempt with all eight!
They have their hands up because all of the adults were cheering and clapping and trying to get them all to look at the camera at the same time. It didn't really work out that well.

Notice McKenna in this one!

Retirement Party

My mom and my cousin Debbie both retired from teaching this year, so we had a big family picnic to celebrate. I took over 130 pictures because I was given strict instructions to take a picture of everyone and everything. I ended up doing a decent job, I only missed getting pictures of 3 people (Christi how on earth did I miss getting your picture? I even have one of Carl for heaven's sake, but not you. I guess I was too busy talking to you instead of taking your picture). I made a slide show of some of the pictures but for some reason I can't get it to post here. So if you want to see pictures of my extended family, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page and check out the slide show. Sorry to be complicated about it :0)

"A little child shall lead them"

I've got to blog about this because it's something that I really want to remember, something that I want to sink into my heart.

Christian's faith in God amazes me! And trust me, it's not because he has super spiritual parents or anything like that. I have made it my prayer since before he was born that God will be real to him and that he would grow up to be a man of faith and integrity. Here's a few examples of how that prayer is being answered:


1. When Christian was sick with pneumonia a few weeks ago we were riding in the car and he started coughing really hard. I looked in the rearview mirror and he just look miserable. I told him that I was sorry that he felt bad and his response was; "Mommy, you pray for me to be better. It will work."

2. Today we were riding in the car and McKenna was having a fit. She was screaming her head off and there wasn't much I could do about it. This went on for about 10 minutes and finally Christian says; "Mommy, she's too loud. You pray for her to stop it. God will make her happy." So I prayed (not with much faith that it would change the situation) and lo and behold she stopped crying.

3. Tonight McKenna was having a rough time again. She cried for about 40 minutes while I was putting her to bed. This is not like her at all. She had applesauce for the first time today so I'm wondering if it didn't bother her belly. Anyway, I was in McKenna's room rocking her, bouncing her, pacing the floor with her, trying anything to get her calmmed down and Christian sticks his head in the door. I glare at him, as if to say "you had better be quiet and not make this worse and don't you dare ask me for a snack right now." And Christian whispers; "Mommy you pray for her yet?"

The Zip Line

I'm dedicating an entire post to Emma going down the zip line because it was such a big deal. If you read my previous post about swimming lessons you know that this girl has overcome a lot of fear to be able to do this!

This video (above) is of the first time Emma went down the zip line. All of us were so excited. We had no idea that she would do it about 15 more times. Her arms are going to be sore today.

A visit to the bay

My Aunt Betty lives on the Chesapeake Bay, so all eight of the cousins got to spend some time together there yesterday. It was a little cloudy but they had a blast swimming, sliding, going down the zip line and playing in the sand. The picture above is of Emma and the twins.
Christian had a great time getting bucket after bucket full of water.
I was on the shore when I took this picture. That's Nate standing at the top of the slide. Notice the water pouring off the slide... there is a hose hooked up to it so you can really get some speed. Nate ended up being rescued by PopPop. He changed his mind once he got up there and saw how high he was.

Grandmom and Adam
Elizabeth trying to warm up. It was a cloudy day, so once the kids got out of the water it was rather chilly.
Auntie Erin and the twins
This trio just liked the sand.
Isn't Abby hysterical in her goggles, life jacket and water shoes?


Nate just liked playing in the sand.
My brother Tim's kids; Adam, Hannah and Elizabeth
My dad and Uncle John
My mom's sister, Aunt Betty, and my mom.
Emma, the ever present big sister, and Nate walking out to the slide.



It was so fun to be together with all the Brinkley cousins. We had a great afternoon and made lots of wonderful memories! Thanks Aunt Betty and Uncle John. We'll be back!!!

Happy Birthday Amy!!

Amy and I making Christmas cookies!
Playing with Dad in our playroom.


Happy Birthday Amy!! I just thought I would honor you with a few retro pictures! I know that your 32nd year of life is going to be one of your best. Continue to honor God in everything you do and I know that His blessings will continue to be poured out on you and your children. It's an honor to call you my sister! Love you!

"O LORD, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come." Genesis 24:42

Swimming Lessons

Emma has been taking swimming lessons for a week now. She's been staying with my parents so they can take her to her lessons everyday (If I had to do this you know the circus that I would be dragging along with me, so it's been great that my parents are keeping Emma for 2 weeks, taking her to lessons and giving her lots of special attention). Anyway, Emma is the girl who hates to have her hair washed because she doesn't like water in her face. She's the girl that wore a swim ring in my pool when I first set it up, even though the water was barely up to her waist. Water makes Emma nervous, but her dad has been working with her at the hotel pool when he comes to visit and the real break through has been these lesson. I was utterly in shock at the stuff she was going. I'm including some videos on here because her mom and dad have got to see her awesome new skills and the lack of fear she now has. Keep in mind that I was trying to take these pictures and video from a balcony so they're not that great(that's where parents have to sit).

I can't believe that she's swimming for real with her face in the water!!!

As we were walking across the parking lot when we first got to swimmiming lessons, Christian tripped and skinned both of his knees pretty badly. Then I had to carry him, all 35.6 pounds of him and his bloody knees up two flights of stairs to the balcony. He continued to cry and whine about his knees for the next 30 min. He finally stopped and started paying attention to Emma when she started making the "train" you see in this video. You know Christian loves anything that involves trains. His knees were quickly forgotten and all of a sudden he really wanted to take swimming lessons too.