Boy or Girl???

So-as you can see here to the right-I have put up a poll of what sex baby #3 will be!! I thought this would be something fun for all to do! So vote vote vote!! I go to the doctor January 7th, so this post will be up all week.
PRIZE: I've decided that whoever gets the sex of my baby right-along with the exact due date... I will give a free session away with a few free prints!! (The due date poll will be in may) If you want to join the game...just leave a vote on the poll as well as a COMMENT so I know who you are!!!

raking leaves

What a perfect way to end this year! Finally-after looking at my yard and seeing millions of leaves scattered everywhere...this is how it went
We were all in the house today enjoying having daddy home on saturday. I look outside and realize what a beautiful day it was and then I see my yard. not so happy. So I strike up a conversation
me: hey-me and the boys are going to go play in the leaves...and maybe rake a few!
this is how I would ask without "asking" to get him out to rake the leaves! 5 minutes later he puts on some warm clothes and heads out the door to meet us. A couple hours later the lawn is looking green and beautiful once again!! It was such a simple plan I had.
Afterwards we are admiring our work in the yard.
me: it looks soooo good!!! I can't believe how beautiful it looks!!
husband: I know
me: so do you think you would have gone out and done this yourself without me asking
husband: nope
Here are a few pics from our fun day:)

christmas

We had our tradional nativity on chritmas eve that our family started 4 years ago. It is open to the public and has had a great turn out every year!! All of the grankids are the wonderful "actors" you see here!



We then drive to my parents house for some traditional fun by making the gingerbread houses!!! It's quite the adventure and messy at that, but this year we all cheated and used a glue gun for the base of the houses!! We had rules and a time limit and there was definitely some creativity this year!!!



and the winner is...
Dad-1st
Mom-2nd
Quentin-3rd

christmas morning-the stockings were all hung, until they were all filled with goodies and presents!




Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays!

brinkerhoff family

One cute family home together for the holidays....
Hope everyone enjoys the time spent with their families as we roll into christmas and roll out into a new year:)

beautiful belly

One of my dearest friends... this was the night before she went to the hospital this week! She's beautiful and glowing, but ready to bring little Jackson Cash into the world. I couldn't help but take pictures of the most beautiful nursery I have ever seen. And Toby (the dog) of course, waiting patiently for his brother...






Jackson Cash was born today (decemeber 21st) at 4am this morning! 7lbs.8oz. 19 inches long.
CONGRATS you guys:)

through the years...

Believe it or not, I have not printed ANY pictures from this year!!! Since I got my camera in January and started doing my business, I have dropped my snapshot camera like a bad habit~who wouldn't! So, I am getting together some pictures that I need to actually print out and put in albums. These were all taken with my "other" camera when I used to snap candids all day long and not care about what they were wearing!!

It's fuuny to look back-it lets me know that there were always good time to be had:)

crandall family

It was freezing on this one day in november! The whole family pulled through and we had so much fun:)

perfect santa picture

Is this the best santa photo you've ever seen! Every kid is doing their own thing!! These are all the grandkids on my side...all boys!!! I had to post this one so we can all be reminded of what joy santa brings!! Happy Holidays!!

yes, one of mine is the one crying on the floor-scared of santa. We have talked about santa since then everyday and we think he may finally be cured.

what a week!

WHOA! I am glad this week is over... for a couple reasons.... The day we got home from the cabin last week, my youngest threw up a couple times. He looked pretty sick, but he didn't throw up another time and slept all night that night. So, the next day (tuesday) everything was great... He seemed better. Well, after the kids took a nap that day, my oldest came into my room and just layed next to me. Didn't really talk, or move for that matter, but when he got up to get a drink of water~ everything he had eaten that day was right in front of me on the floor. He starts crying and I try and console him and tell him it's o.k. to throw up! I bet you feel better right! From 3pm that afternoon until 2AM the next morning, he was throwing up every 30 minutes or less. Poor thing. He finally fell asleep in front of the t.v. around midnight and it was such a blessing to get to stare at him for a while. I haven't done that since he was little. I also noticed that he kind of sleeps with his eyes open! A little scary, but after waving my hand in front of him to see if he was really asleep, I felt a little better. So, now we're on to the 3rd day this week (wednesday). Everything is fine, the kids are feeling better-not really eating but doing better. We still are stuck in the house since it was rainy and cold and since my oldest had a pretty rough night the night before, we relaxed...... My husband came home from work that day around 6:45 ish. I go off to my church activity and enjoy just getting out of the house. I come back and lay on the couch because I felt a little weird. This is normal for me being pregnant lately. I've thrown up almost every NIGHT since I found out. Anyway. I suddenly dash to the bathroom and throw up all of my dinner and then some. I think to myself, that's just a normal night for me. 30 minutes later I'm a the toilet again, and again and again. I wake up the next morning (thursday) after getting about 2 hours of sleep and I fell like ABSOLUTE CRAP! I have aches in my stomach and my back and a little bit of a fever. I can't hardly get up. Grandma came over and took my oldest out and about with her...what a blessing:) she insisted on taking both of them, but I said I can handle one I think. LOL! I layed down on the floor of his room all day while he played next to me. I felt like a hopeless mom just trying to make it through the day. It's now Friday and I think everyone is doing better. I then start talking to my friends and family and here's who else got sick this week......
mom
grandma
brother
nephew(2)
cousin
my husband then got sick on saturday:(
and many more people to come I'm sure.

So here are some pictures of my kids on Tuesday when my oldest was sick...


and me and my youngest just played...before I got sick.


CAN ANYONE RELATE!??

bath time

my favorite time of day... nothing brings me more joy than a clean set of buns before bed. My kids LOVE the tub!! And what a scene to catch them laughing together... or pouring water on eachother.

our cabin getaway...

We had sooo much fun!!!! All we did was...nothing!!! RELAX was the word of the weekend. Well, we did do some things...

we ate out... A LOT!!!

Mark always got a to go cup...

I watched him play some games...

We went to a movie, did some shopping and walked around in 30 degree weather...

Then, most of the time, we were in our cabin watching a selection of over 50 VHS tapes and eating our leftovers...



It couldn't have been better!!!! I encourage everyone to get out there and spend some quality time with your spouse! ~without kids of course:)

getaway...

I'll be out from now until Monday!! My husband and I are taking a trip up north to a romantic cabin getaway! NO KIDS!! I'll miss them, but they're in good hands and love to stay at happy and poppy's house. Maybe I'll take some pictures while i'm there...
have a good weekend everybody:)

tagged...

So I was tagged a while ago and now that I've had time to think about it, here I go!!

1. Since I was little, my younger brother and I loved to dance. So much that we took the time (which didn't take long) to learn the moves to Michael Jackson's THRILLER! We loved it! Then as we got older, we were able to show off our cool moves-besides thriller- at a church camp (EFY) and ended up winning!!! as for thriller, I don't remember it, but I bet you anything my brother still does!!

2. Every night when I get into bed, it takes me awhile to actually fall asleep, unlike my husband who is out cold the minute his head hits the pillow. That really drives me crazy, why can't I go to sleep that fast? Maybe I need to invest in some pills or something!! Anyway, I automatically start singing (in my head) " A Child's Prayer" (a famous primary song). I don't know why, but no matter what, It just pops into my head and eventually-after 30 minutes or so, I'm asleep. It's also the only song that I can still play on the piano.

3. Since growing up into gymnastics and competitive cheerleading, I kept my love for the game in college and went on to teach gymnastics at a local gym in Utah. Well, at the end of every class, my kids always wanted to see me tumble. So, this particular time, my boyfriend was there watching me. So what's a girl gotta do to grab his attention!?! I go and do 3 backhandsprings (instead of 2) and go up for a back tuck and land my feet right smack dab onto the cement-instead of the mat. If I hadn't of added that backhandspiring, I wouldn't be here writing you this story and telling you that I ended up with a bruised right heel and a broken left one. Yes, I had 2 casts!! My point- I hadn't tumbled since that day for a very long time. Then this past summer, I joined a gymnastics class and was ready to go at it again. It was soooo hard!!! After having 2 kids and never working out...my muscles were hardly there anymore. BUT I went on and actually did a backhandspring back flip!!! And then I got pregnant, so I had to stop. ( terin and rachel-that story is for you!)

4. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am horrible at directions. I mean you tell me to go one way and I will totally second guess my knowledge and end up somewhere else. I've been this way since I was 16. Maybe it's a disease? Anyway, there was this one time in particular that my family loves to remind me about. We all went down to Waco to visit one summer and I wanted to stay a day longer. So, since we drove two cars there, I was able to stay and drive back all by myself! My dad left me with a map and specific written directions....like where you describe every store that's by that specific turn...yep, I was set. So, I set off that next morning. I remember it being a beautiful day and I was driving my brothers explorer. As I reached a point in my traveling where you take a turn to end up back in arlington... or you end up in Tyler, Texas. Yep, that was me, 100 miles out of the way. I laugh now, but it wasn't so funny then.

5.I had sooo much fun in college!! I had the best roomate who turned into one of my very best friends who I still keep in contact with. Anyway, we had this other roomate that wasn't so cool. She was 30 (we were 18) and she just stayed in the apartment the entire day. She may as well have had cats and she would have fit the title for "the cat lady!" Well, with all of our late nights and friends over all the time, she didn't like us to say the least. So much that one time, we forgot our keys one night and when we came home we knocked on the door....and knocked again, louder and louder. We knew that cat lady was home, but it was kind of late. No answer. We then went downstairs to the apartment directly under us(they were still up ), grabbed a broom and started banging it on the ceiling right were her bedroom would be. (Isn't that mean!!) Well, we didn't care, we knew she didn't like us, but we needed to get in our apartment! Well, nothing worked. So we called some of out big tough guy friends, told them the situation and they came to our rescue. She finally got up and we found ourselves yelling through the door to come inside. The guys said that the cops were on their way if she refused. HAHA!! Totally a lie. Needless to say, we got in and the cat lady eventually moved out.

6. Ever since I got married to my amazing husband-well, I guess since we were engaged, we started this "thoughts book." It's a tiny notebook that we would write anything in about the other person. So after I would write in it, I would leave it on his night stand, so he would know it was his turn to write something GOOD about me!! It's something that I'll always remember because it always made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It's like a little present! If you know my husband, he is also famous for making up long nicknames (aleast mine are long) So, in this book, he would have to abbreviate my nickname. And this was one of my favs..... honey lover baby doll. (HLBD) I'll never forget how goofy my husband is!!! That's what keeps our marriage going:)

7. When my husband and I went to Vegas to celebrate our 1st anniversary, (which was awesome by the way!) He surprised me by staying in 3 different hotels each night. First night was the Bellagio, second was the Venecian, and last was the Hard Rock Hotel. Well, while we were staying at the HArd Rock, we were on the elevator to go out that night and this guy in the elevator just asked us if we wanted to be extra's in this t.v. show they were filming downstairs. We were like sure! So we go down there, and there are tons of people and tons of cameramen. We were seated on some chairs next to a gambling table. Well, the whole time I didn't really know who these people were. I wasn't very familiar with the show. So I go home and we start telling our friends and they're like, "You got to be in an episode of the O.C.!!!" Yep, we were there, but left shortly after because we got bored. Too bad I never really got into that show. It would have been a lot different if it was an episode of FRIENDS.

So there ya go! that was pretty fun reliving some crazy experiences! I TAG: Sarah, Danielle, Missy, Haley
GOOD LUCK!!

nothin' but a swing...

Nothing but a swing could make this kid happy!!! That's exactly why my husband built a swing set in our backyard. So-when I'm too lazy or too tired (lately) to hit the cool parks around town, we head in the backyard for the swings:) And this is when I can get a good natural smile-with dimples showing:)