They love their Daddy

No one can make my kids smile like their Dad, I am so grateful for the time he spends with them- he's their hero.

And mine too.

Road Trip

For a couple of Law Schools, John has to go do "a visit" where he tours the campus, sits in on a class, meets with the admissions committee and stuff like that. One of those schools happen to be

UNLV (his number one choice.)

So week before last, when John's boss said he didn't have work for a couple days, we figured,

Heck lets go to Las Vegas!

And so we did.

(picture disclaimer...our camera was broken...and is now dead...so our pictures are random, but at least we got a couple, and they are in a random order...so excuse me please.)

Caity: "This is my outfit for Las Begas!" Flashy.

Johnny's ready to go! (he is obsessed with jewelery- it cracks me up. His Dad- doesn't find it funny.)

First, along the way, we had to stop by Grandma Brassell's house to tell her the plan,

And get a piano lesson from Spencer.

And then Grandma Partridge's to have grilled cheese and chat.

And then the looooong road trip,

Right after the Welcome to Arizona sign (dumb camera.)

Right after the Welcome to Nevada sign. (dumb camera again. I'm glad you're dead.)

 It was beautiful! I have never seen red rock before, so driving through Ceder City and St. George was breathtaking, driving through canyons, seeing cactus...it was so cool. Even passed through Arizona for like 20 minutes, now I can say I have been there just in time for the state's 100th birthday, in fact. It is nuts, one second you are driving through the desert and the next KAPOW! Las Vegas, this enormous chunk of civilization in an otherwise waste land.
Driving through the city was so cool, so many crazy things to see for my little custom-to-Rexburg-eyes.

And when we finally made it, what was the kid's favorite part?? The hotel window...they would dance in front of it and watch all the people below. (check out those Palm trees! I am living in the wrong state.)
We stayed at The Flamingo- I thought it was so AWESOME! Every thing was bright pink, with flamingos on every surface, it was so flashy and exciting with all this shopping right in the hotel. (I know, I am sounding like a country bumpkin.) We couldn't help but think, "Wow, this is the Vegas experience." Everything was so showy.
 And of course we crossed the street to the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace and realized,
"Oh great, we're tacky." haha- some of those hotels are so spectacular.
The Flamingo's indoor shopping consisted of Men's felt coats and Donny and Marie Memorabilia, The Bellagio's consisted of oh, you know, Tiffany's, Giorgio Armani, Channel, Louis Vuitton and all those kind of names- It was so cool to see all the beautiful clothes and shoes and bags.
We also watched the fountain shows, so pretty.

While dad was sitting in on a class, Caity made herself at home. Unfortunately as soon as we got off our bright pink elevator and into our hotel room, the admissions secretary called and canceled her appointment with John. Bah! What an almost waste. Good thing we were there to make a Vay-kay out of the ordeal. He was still able to tour the campus and sit in on a class though, which was nice.

We walked the strip to the M&M store and the Coke factory. The walk down was one of my favorite parts. So many interesting people and performers- Dancers, Snake Hypnotists, Acrobats, Character Impersonators, Singers, Robots, you name it. And different music playing surround sound every 10 feet. Caity was workin' the strip- (and I mean in the most innocent way possible- that came out wrong.)

At the M&M store... the closest we got to the picture we really wanted.

Waiting to watch the 3D M&M movie.

All along the streets people were dressed up as characters trying to earn a buck.(or as John says, "Pedophiles in costumes.") I guess that is possible. As soon as Caity saw Woody, she flipped a lid. The girl was in love and HAD to take a picture with him, she blew him kisses, waved to him a block away and talked about him incessantly- The whole trip and since the trip.

On the way home we stopped by Cove Fort- it was so cool! It is an LDS church history site. Gordan B Hinkley's grandparents were called by the church to build and live at the fort to help traveling families on their way to Salt Lake.

A picture during the day, you could really feel a special spirit here as we got an idea of how these people tried to serve others and God. It is nuts the simplicity of this life style compared to Las Vegas.

On the way home we also grabbed some ice cream and stopped by the St. George Temple, it was so beautiful. The white of the Temple against the red of the rocks. A small part of me loved St. George so much I would move there! A bride was taking her pictures while we picnic-ed, Caity of course couldn't keep her eyes off her.

Back to Las Vegas (told you my pictures were out of order.) On day two we went to Circus Circus. That was so cool. Up to that point we saw maybe one or two children all together, but then we go to Circus Circus and oh my goodness, there were kids everywhere! There were rides, carnival games, clowns walking around and arcades. Of course since we were Las Vegasing on a budget, rather than rides or carnival games we just pretended to play the racing game for 20 minutes. Yes, 20 minutes. It was THAT entertaining (for the kids.) Every 30 minutes there were free circus performances- it was really awesome.
A picture of the hotel:

Oh and here is Caity and John in front of our Hotel as we were crossing an over pass. But you can't really see it so here is a better picture:

Isn't is all flashy and Oooo la la? That weekend Nascar was visiting for some races, so Thursday night the city shut down the strip and their was this parade of blingin' semi-trucks driving down the strip holding the race cars or as Caity pointed out, "Not just a race car Mom, Lighting McQueen." When I saw these crazy suped up Semi's- I couldn't help but think how redneck sorry John's poor hay hauling semi looked!

In short, if I was to go again, I would drop the kids, pick up some cash and gamble the weekend away. KIDDING! But maybe I would go see Phantom of the Opera, Donny and Marie (with the old ladies at our hotel,) Celine, and Penn and Teller.
It was a fun trip and good family time.

We be truckin'

Sometimes dad is gone for a very, very, very long day...and we just miss him (and he misses us of course!) (no, I don't have to remind him of that.) So we decided we need to see what the deal is with this whole trucking business and hit the open road with Dad.





Playing with trucks...IN the truck, so fitting.
(and yes, we had car seats strapped down for when the truck was moving.)



Johnny's so excited! Caity is probably explaining something to us that makes no sense.

Never thought I would fall for a trucker!

Caity was like, "Ok, I'm ready, take another one!"

Caity going to pay for gas with her Daddy. She looked so cute among all these truckers, they all looked really rough and grizzly and they would just melt when she walked by and smile and wave at her, it was so sweet.

It was SO windy!!

Helping Dad  'fill her up'

Ok, so Johnny was obsessed with kissing this thing it was so funny and gross at the same time! haha

It was a fun trip to Dillon, Montana and back to Rexburg. I definitely appreciate what John does a lot more. It is such a boring job. He hardly ever complains- I don't know how he does it- but I sure am grateful for his hard work.  We are both grateful to have a job during this inbetween time before law school.

Girls just wanna have fun!

Caity is typically surrounded by boys. Her whole primary class, preschool class, not to mention all of our friends happen to have boys. We love them, she loves them (and is going to marry each and every one given the day;) however, this girl is frequently outnumbered!

So when we got the chance to have McKazelyn over to play we were so ecstatic.

Caity said,

 "A real girl? A real girl is coming to my house?"

Really, what good are dress up clothes, dolls and tea sets if you only end up chasing your baby brother down to get them back?

(Special thanks to my Brother, David for the Cinderella Tea Set, Cinderella guitar, Cinderella crown and Cinderella outfit- among a million other toys for Christmas.)

A tea party, they had impecable manners, I must say.

They took turns singing songs they knew, "wow, you know that song too?" "You have such a beautiful voice!"

These girls had too much fun, I am so sad Kaz is moving away in two days!

Speaking of Boys vs Girls.

Today, Caity was watching Thomas the Train, and said,

"All the boys in my school like Thomas the Train even though trains aren't supposed to have eyes! Or a mouth! They just don't!"

Something I don't boys take the time to think about.

Organization...ha!

At first I was like,
that would be cool...
then I was like,
for Johnny to pull everything out of and scew all over the floor for me to clean up everyday.
then I was like,
confirmed, never having this at my house.

Boy, I love my curious little boy.

Caity's Party

Recently we went to visit our parents.

My dad so kindly introduced the following clip to Caity:

Yesterday while driving in the car I heard Caity eating her apple, singing,

"Oh yeah, oh yeah- there's a party in my tummy, oh yeah oh yeah! Apple, you want to go to the party? Oh yeah, oh yeah, there's a party in my tummy!"

I personally found the clip funny and Caity singing the song in her polka dot shirt and tutu hilarious.

I thought, this is good- I can probably get her to eat anything now!

Scene: Lunch Today.

ME: Caity the carrots want to go to your party!

HER: No, carrots are boring, they have to sleep. Yeah, they're not invited. Sorry Carrots. Maybe you can come to my next party.

(She walks away and at first I am stumped)

ME: Ope- they're crying now.

HER: (big sigh as she dramatically turns around.) FINE! Come oooon in!

(sits on the chair and takes a bite.)

 There's a party in my tummy, oh yeah oh yeah, carrots in my tummy, oh yeah, oh yeah.

I can't go to the party because eating myself is just crazy.

I can go to Matt's party though!

(my brother teases her by "eating" her legs, arms, face, etc.)

Sorry about that...

Well, THAT was a long post! It has just been so long I guess! Sorry!

Brassells Lately

Awww...look at us all happy for Dad, except Cate- who KNOWS what she is doing!

John

• Graduated in December with a degree in English and Professional Writing. 
• Has applied for all his anticipated law schools- where we will be...I know not! He applied to....alot of schools...we like choices! (and back up plans, since those tend to be the ones most taken by us.)
• We definitely won't be going to Michigan or Texas, but may possibly be going to Virginia- depending on what the other schools tell us, we should know around the end of April? Maybe? Who knows...I don't. 
• Is driving semi-trucks to Montana to pick up hay to drop it off in Idaho falls area. He is up at 3:00 am most days and back as late as 10:00 pm on the most terrible days, usually like 5:00pm though- he stays positive most our time spent together consists of sleeping. I am grateful for how hard he works at job he pretty much hates. What a stud.
• When he gets a chance is still playing basketball with friends in the mornings.
• Is on the hunt for a truck. (again.) I mean a truck beats a mistress and all- but what is it with boys and their trucks?? He is lucky he looks so cute driving them, I am sucker for that boyish grin. 
• Still wants to be an attorney for the FBI when he grows up.
• Constantly has pillows being thrown at him by both Caity AND Johnny now...a perpetual self inflicted war if you ask me. The kids love it and if I hear exploding giggles from the kitchen I can assume they are having a pillow war.
• Is planning a hike up Teton this summer.
• Finished a proposal to do a presentation with his Professor he TA'ed last semester on Leadership in Vegas next fall.

Caity

• Loves pre-school
• Loves dressing up everyday and playing Goldilocks and the five bears, the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, the ponies and the bad guys, ghost forest and whatever other story games she can rope Johnny into playing with her.
• Loves spelling her name for EVERYONE, "Hi, My name is Caity, c-a-i-t-y. Yep, C is the beginning of my name! What is the beginning of your name?" 
• Is starting the beginning stages of reading- has it really come to this? Do kids really grow up so fast??
• She is quite the story teller, though her stories tend to be quite morbid 
• ie- "and I was in the forest with Johnny and the Prince came and put the sword up to the step mother's neck and said 'Do you want to DIIIIIIEE?' (like this mom,) and she said, 'No! No' and the prince said 'I....Don't....CARE!' and he cut her throat like this (hand motion here) and she fell in the water and the fish ate her EYES!!!......(pause)....then the prince texted me and Johnny and said 'Hey Caity you want to go to balls, get married and ride my horses?' and I said, 'no way! I'm going to kill you and get married to Johnny in the Temple! WhahahahahHAHA' "
• Yes, I know we have some work to do, you can murder someone then go to the temple to marry your brother....it doesn't work that way.
• "Mom if I eat food in my bed the ants will come all over me and get in my ears and eat my hair and eyes and make me suffering and say "THIS IS OUR BED NOW! GET OUT!" That is why I can't eat food in my bed, right mom?? Cause the ant are freakin' me out!"
• you get the idea...but seriously everything has to do with death and getting her eyes eaten out.
• The other day I asked her how she what she was doing (she was stretching her body all over) and she responded  in strained breaths, "I am trying to grow up so I can be a mommy and watch Harry Potter...(sigh) its hard!"
• Loves Primary and the Primary songs. Loves "Choosing the Right" and loves her teachers. She is the only girl in her class which she says isn't fair sometimes.
• Her punch line to every joke when she gets tired is "poop" and every time it is hilarious to her.
• She claps her hands once when she asks a question, finishes something, or needs me to do something for her- it is very grown up looking and cracks me up every time.
• She calls Johnny "Chunker Man" Because that is what his dad calls him and calls her self, "Big girl Man." 
• She loves her all her grandparents and aunts and uncles- they are her imaginary friends, Utah is like a fantasy land to her!

Johnny

• Is my sweet little boy who will never grow up!
• His first word(s) was "Hey Guys!" and that is what he calls me.  He also says Bananananananana, baby....and other words I just can't think of! He is always talking though, he explains, lectures, complains, describes- it is so funny.
• Nods his head when you are doing something right (like getting him food or his blankie)....and the nod is very controlling and almost sinister- if he wasn't so cute!
• Loves helping me unload the dishwasher
• Runs up to me and gives me hugs multiple times a day.
• Thoroughly enjoys anything with wheels and "Vroooooooms" them around the house. 
• Likes following his sister around and laughing at her craziness
• Hates socks
• Loves the outdoors and makes a break for it every time the door opens.
• Loves being chased and hugged so tight his eyes pop.
• Enjoys Patty-cake, popcorn, do your ears hang low.
• Is an absolute handful at church
• is always lining things up then putting them in a bucket then lining them up.
• Always finds Dad's cough drops, opens them, licks them, spits them out (all of them) before we can find him.
• When I go to get him in the morning he sees me and jumps up and down and runs around his crib giggling then reaches for me saying, "mamamama, Hi guys!"
• He is particularly picky- one day he LOVES yogurt next day he hates it. Same with everything- it is always a guessing game!

Mary

• (Beautiful as always...)
• Finally got my Associates Degree- I know I know...took forever, now I will finish my bachelors online. BYU-Idaho now offers full, complete majors online (not just the university studies) so I can get my degree in English! (I think...gosh, I am indecisive...)
• I have enjoyed being home with the kids this semester, it has just been so much fun spending the time with them every day- they are both at fun stages in play and learining and I am loving (mostly) every  minute of it.
• Reading Anna Karenina....Loooooongest book. ever. Pretty good though....just long. I am on pg. 650 and have 300 more to go...it was written originally in Russian back in well....not exactly sure but VERY long ago- it is very Jane Austen-ish, a very interesting time period.
• Speaking of Jane Austen- watched Persuasion yesterday...why does she make all the Mary's awkward??? Oh Jane- why must you do this me? (I wrote this previous to inserting the picture....)
• Training for a half marathon half heartedly....its not me....its the snow! Would love to follow through with this goal! 
• Enjoying the time I have to cook more in my closet-kitchen.
• Re-reading the Book of Mormon- this time I am trying to read it as I would a leisure book and finish it beginning to end in about a month, so far I am on track, and I am really appreciating the regularity of my reading now....life is so busy until this goal I hardly had (or made) time to read. I am not taking time to study verses as much as I probably should, but the consistency has been wonderful for me.
• Teaching Primary- 9 girls all 7 years old. Crazy, but I love it. I might or might not bribe them with Skittles.
• Maintaining my sweet tooth...just not my weight (why can't the two just work together!)
• Went with John to Madison Gymnastics open gym and reaquainted myself with the beam- oh I loved it! What a work out! The flexability and strength I took for granted as a teenager (not to mention ability to look good in a leo...bleh.) It was a blast and want to go again, I am still sore three days later!
• Mostly I am just trying to keep everyone sane, myself included. Life is good, I have no complaints (besides that one to Jane Austen.) Looking forward to spring!!