Brinkerhoff Family

Homeschooling

2011-08-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and I made a decision awhile ago that we would be homeschooling Analyce. this is a big decision and one that will take a lot of devotion and dedication. i know that i have made the right decision for my family at this time. i don't know if i will be homeschooling my kids all the way thru high school but i do know i will be doing it for the first year at least. people who know we are gonna be homeschooling have mixed feelings but the majority is against it. i have no problem being the different one i went through all of those comments about how we were crazy when people found out i was having a home birth, and i still did it. i know the decisions i have made are the right ones for me and Analyce. i am so super excited to start her school and she can't wait. one of the joys of homeschooling is you can pick when to start and stop! our school year will begin in September and Analyce is counting down the days. i have always wanted to be a teacher and i get to be the teacher to the best student ever.....my baby girl! Wish us luck on our new adventure!

Hawaii

2011-08-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Me and Jeremy had the opportunity to go to Hawaii for 10 days and let me just tell you it was a BLAST!! we left the kids with their aunt Celesta and we left on a jet plane. i was a little nervous leaving my babies for 10 whole days but it was totally worth it! i have a lot to post about our little trip and i will be doing that later. i just wanted to put a little bit in here so it will remind me to get busy on my vacation journal!

The big 3!!

2011-08-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is a late post but better late then never right.....I still can't believe that my little baby boy turned the big 3 on July 10! It is a bitter sweet moment, of course i want my kids to grow up and enjoy the joys of life, but i secretly want them to stay little forever. i can't believe how fast they grow i just wish they would slow down a bit. it seems like yesterday i was giving birth to my sweet Jaren boy. oh how i miss him needing me for everything and when he would wrap his little fingers around mine i would feel like the most important person in the world to him. now he is all grown up and he stills needs me but it usually involves some temper tantrums ok a lot of them. we were all surprised when he all of a sudden wanted to be potty trained and didn't need much help in the matter. he finally became a really big boy wearing big boy undies in May 2011 and has been perfect ever since. he is such a boy these days well when it comes to what he talks about, all he ever talks about is poop, toots, and poopy diapers. he still loves all the girly stuff just like his sisters but how could we blame him the princess shoes look so much prettier then the cars and stuff. i'm sure that when he starts to hang out with more boys he will get over those pretty shoes real quick! Jaren has a new love and that is playing Super Mario Bros. with his dad. he waits all day long for daddy to get off work so he can play, and Jaren isn't half bad! Jaren loves being the big brother to Makayla and they get along so well, always giving hugs to each other. we don't know what we would do with our sweet little stud in the family, we love him to pieces. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE BOY!

Disneyland!

2011-06-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

since Jeremy and I were going to Hawaii for 10 days and were leaving the kids behind we wanted to take them on a little fun vacation. so we took them all to Disneyland!!! and they had a blast. Jeremy's whole family got to go with us and it was so fun since a lot of them hadn't been there in years or at all. we only got to spend one day at Disney and we wanted to fit in as many rides as possible. so we found a sweet program called Ridemaxx that is made by a family of engineers. all we had to do was put in all the rides we wanted to hit in the one day and they put together a itinerary of what times would be the least crowded for every ride. it is supposed to cut your line waiting down by a lot! we were all pretty skeptical about the program at first but we went ahead and gave it a try and boy are we glad we did. we had so much fun running from ride to ride and having minimal waiting time. we only had to wait in line for 2 rides and it was 10 minutes at the most. this is pretty impressive since we went in June so the park was very busy and it had shortened hours because it was Grad night the night we went. we managed to go on 20+ rides all from 8am to 9pm. it seemed impossible but u pulled it off and we all had Disneyland hangover the next day. we we all so worn out from running ourselves ragged the day before, but it was so totally worth it. along with all the rides we managed to squeeze in the big parade during the day and all of the kids LOVED! i think the parades are my most favorite thing there. after an amazing day at Disneyland we spent the next day at the beach and it was horrible! half of the family hadn't ever been to the beach and there first time was not impressive!! it was so so cold and for whatever reason the waves were not friendly. they were strong strong waves with a strong undertow. so for the people who were brave enough to go out into the ice had to then worry about get knocked over on the behind. by the time we would make our way back up from getting thrashed we would be a lot farther out then we would have liked. the only good thing about the ocean in Cali is it's always cold and our bodies are pretty amazing at handling it by turning numb. so after 30 minutes of shivering it felt like a warm bath water, until you hit something and then it felt like you finger was gonna fall off. for all the wimps who thought it was to cold they all sat in the sand with jackets on. even though it wasn't the best beach experience we all still had so much fun! we then went to the Mormon Battalion Museum on our way home and that was really fun. we learned a lot about the pioneers and also got to pan for gold! all the kids thought they were rich and couldn't believe they got to take 2 whole pieces of gold home with them (only if it were real gold) we then made one more stop at Jamba juice and then headed the 5 1/2 hours home. it was a short 3 day trip but we made some great family memories. we all took the next few days off from life to get over the vacation hangover!!

The Happenings!

2011-04-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

I know it has been to long time since i last updated and i wish i had the discipline to do better. i just get to busy with life and little ones running around. we have had a lot happen in the last 5 months or so and i am not gonna even try to update on all the events. i will just write a few important ones so that i can remember them. we of course celebrated Christmas and the kids we ever so excited to open their presents. this Christmas was a little bit on the sad side since my kids and hubby all had the flu on Christmas day. as mommy was trying to do Santa stuff on Christmas Eve i got stopped to some crying from Jaren and come to find out he had thrown up while he was sleeping, so needless to say it was not my favorite night:( we at least got to spend the whole day together as a family starving, since nobody wanted to eat in fear of throwing up. the excitement for the kids really still made the day so much for us, but they did miss out on seeing extended family. we look forward to the next Christmas and hope it turns out to be better.
the next big event that we celebrated was my baby turned 5 and it was a little bit of a bitter sweet moment. Analyce was so excited to be 5 so that now she can go to school, but mommy still wishes she was my sweet little baby still. i dont know where the last 5 yrs have gone and where my baby went. she has now turned into a sweet, tender, loving, helpful, energetic little girl who is always wanting to help mommy. i feel so blessed that Analyce was sent to our little family because i learn from her every day. she didnt have her birthday party until the middle of March just because of her dads schedule, but she was very patient in waiting for it to come. she had a princess party at Freestone Park and got to even do a princess pinata. she was so excited for everyone to do the pinata and of course get some candy. we all enjoyed the fun sunny day eating pizza and cupcakes. Analyce is already talking about turning 6 and cant wait for her birthday party next year!
we also celebrated Jeremys birthday on March 10th and he turned the big 29! he says he definitely feels like a old man now and is a little sacred to hit the big 30! we decided to repeat the fun horse back riding that we did for Jeremy's birthday last year, but this year we had about 9 other people join us. we had so much fun riding horses and a lot of fun since some friends could enjoy it to. we rode through south mountain and then had a delicious dinner at t-bone steakhouse and then rode back through the mountain. we think we might just have to do the horse back riding thing every year for his birthday, well at least until Jeremy can handle it, since he is getting pretty old!
we also got to send my other baby into nursery since Makayla turned 18 months and she didnt do as well as we thought she would. she screamed uncontrollably for a good 5 minutes or so and then had to be held the rest of the time. i did get to check on her periodically since me and Jeremy are only 2 doors down in the older nursery class. fortunately we dont have either one of our babies in our class, which is a good thing because they would have a hard time transitioning when they move on. so i at least get to check on both of them throughout class time and that is comforting for me.
we also made a huge decision and got ourselves a minivan. i have never been a van person and never wanted a van, but we needed a larger vehicle and the van seemed like the smarter choice. after researching SUV i decided that economically the van was the best choice. with our minivan we have more room for the price, better gas mileage, and a newer model then we would have been able to get in a SUV. so we ended up with a Chrysler Town and Country Touring 2007, it was a year newer then our truck with less miles and cheaper payment every month. with all of those benefits we figured we couldn't say no. we have had the van now for a little over 2 weeks and the kids not only love it but it has been growing on me to. the kids love to have so much space and i love the fact that my kids can get in and out all on their own with automatic doors. i also love how i have a lot of storage room, and dont have to fill up my tank every couple of days. so for all you van haters out there just do your homework because with an every growing family the van just makes more sense! when my kids get older i still would love to get a Yukon since i am more of an SUV mommy, but for now i am enjoying my minivan:)
well i believe that is the big events that have happened in the last few months and i hope to be adding some photos soon once i locate them all.

New Address!!

2010-10-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

We finally have our own place again. After a very long process of getting the house in Prescott to rent, we are glad to say that we have our own place again. We are renting a beautiful house in Queen Creek that has 6 bedrooms and a pool. We can't wait until the summer comes again so we can use the pool in our backyard. We understand that our new place might become the hotel for when family comes into town, but we are totally o.k. with that! We are just happy to be on our own again, but was grateful for the time we had with family. Pics to come

I'm Getting Old!!

2010-08-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well today was my 26th birthday, which means I am getting really old. I can't believe that I will be almost 30 in just a few years. My birthday was wonderful, thanks to my wonderful husband. He first took me out to IHOP for breakfast, which was delicious. Then we went to the store to put all my pictures (800 of them) onto Cd's. I have been meaning to do that for quite sometime and just never had the time. I was so glad to finally get that project done with. After the picture adventure we went to see a movie (Salt, with Angelina Jolie) and we both loved that movie. Then we went back home for a little bit, because we both wanted to see Julien (Jeremys little brother) with his new braces. He was a little shocked at how much they hurt and how he didn't want to eat, because of the pain. He realizes that all the pain will be worth it in the end when he has beautiful teeth. After that we went to my favorite restaurant, Mi Amigos, with my sister and her boyfriend. My wonderful sister HAD to tell the waiter it was my birthday, so they unfortunately came out and sang to me. After being humiliated by wearing a sombrero we went to get some yummy frozen yogurt. I decided that after all the eating I really needed to do something to burn some calories, so we went and bought some roller blades to have some fun. We ended up going rollerblading around the neighborhood, and I must say I am not as good as I remember. I think we also forgot how hot it was outside and we both melted even though it was after 8 pm. We did have a lot of fun and were glad that neither of us fell on our faces. My birthday was a lot of fun thanks to wonderful people in my life, and I am glad I don't have to celebrate another one for a whole year!!

New Address

2010-08-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

So a lot has happened with our little family over the last few months. The biggest change would be that Jeremy got a job transfer to Gilbert Er. I couldn't be away from my love for too long so we packed up our house and put it all in storage, and moved in with the in-laws. We will be with the Brinkerhoffs temporally until the house in Prescott rents. We are breaking the lease on the house in Prescott so we are having to wait it out until they find new owners. In the mean time we are enjoying ourselves down in the valley, except we picked the wrong time of the year to move back. I think we all forgot how horribly hot and humid it is in Mesa. I guess its the price we have to pay to be close to family and friends. Jeremy seems to be enjoying his new location at the Gilbert hospital, and he loves the newer paint job that's on the helicopter. Jeremy in not only keeping busy at the hospital but he also got a second job on his weeks off up at the Grand Canyon, flying tours. He forgot how much he hated them when he worked there before. He does enjoy getting the extra flight time and the paychecks don't hurt either. While he is at work, me and the kids have been just hanging out at Grandmas house and staying quite toasty, since she only has a swamp cooler. I have been trying to stay busy, by helping my in-laws get organized. This has been a big task for me to take on but I enjoy going through things, especially if its not my stuff. Analyce has been having so much fun playing with her aunts, and friends. She missed all her friends so much when we lived in Prescott, so she is making up for lost time. She recently started a dance class that she seems to really enjoy. She doesn't have very much natural talent for dancing but she picks things up pretty quickly, and she loves to go to class. Jaren has had a little bit of a hard time with the moving experience. He is afraid that mommy is going to leave him at Grandmas house, so I cant do anything without him following me and crying. As the time goes by he seems to get a little bit more comfortable, so I am hopeful that he will be my big boy soon. He has also started talking so much since we have been here, he loves to say everyone's name over and over. He also enjoys the jumping on the tramp with a hose to get wet, and aunt Mariah likes to take him on walks and he seems to really enjoy getting all hot and sweaty for those. Then we have Makayla, and she has gotten so big over the last couple of weeks. She weighs in at a whopping 20 lbs and has chubby legs. She is the most mischievous baby that i have had, she loves to get into everything that shes not supposed too. She also puts everything into her mouth and eats it, and she has played in the toilet a couple of times. She has gotten really brave over the past couple of days and started to take some steps. She will be running around the house before we know it. She is also a big Daddy's girl, she gets sad when he leaves and clings to him when he gets back. She just started to wave bye to her dad when he leaves for work and it is so adorable. All three of my kids are getting so big and it makes me so sad. i want them to stay little forever so they can be with me. I am going to have such a hard time when they have to go to school, that's why I think I am going to home school for as long as i can handle it. Analyce already tells everybody that she is home schooled and that she loves it.