The Museum-Artville

We went to the Arizona Museum for Youth the other day. It has this big play place called Artville... what a fun time!!!

I just had to add this pic, cause I think Ty is so cute with a backwards hat! LOVE THIS MAN!!!

OF COURSE, he found a guitar!!!

Watching Cole rock out, is a sight to see! If you have never seen him do it, you are missing out!!

This picture below is CLASSIC COLE, because as you can tell, he is looking at himself in a mirror. He does this all the time!

So sweet! Ty and Bo.... yea for family time!

THE BOYS....

Cole Man, runnin' around with no pants on, found Daddys shoes.

I love this kid!!!

Wish this picture was in focus... still, how cute is Bo with this little tie on!

Linsey Lately

Life is good here with me and the three men in my life. We had Grandma DeWitts funeral on Friday, and it was such a great service all together. Tyler and I had a great date night Friday night with dinner at Rosa's and then a Temple Session, (its been a WHILE... and it was really good to go!) Saturday morning weighed in at Weight Watchers and lost 3.2! Yah, remember last week when I posted about being all "boo hoo" about my .4 gain? Yah, well this week was my biggest loss yet since I've been trying to get this baby weight off... there are just really no guarantees, cause this week, losing 3.2, I ONLY worked out 3 mornings instead of my usual 6 cause of the craziness of the funeral and all that... so what is that all about? My body does better with less working out? Who knew? Anyway, NOT complaining at all. Feeling pretty good. I really only have 7 lbs to get back to what I was when I got prego with Bowen! That's exciting! ( really the NUMBERS don't really matter to me, I don't care if I weigh a gazillion pounds as long as my stinking pre prego jeans will fit with NO muffin top!)
Like I said in an earlier post, I have been really trying to live in the now and constantly count my blessings. I am so blessed in so many different ways. I have this problem though that as soon as I start thinking about how good life is for us, how madly in love Tyler and I are, how fun and wonderful our boys are, etc etc etc, I almost immediately think, "HAH! Something bad is going to happen to us, no one's this happy!" Isn't that silly? I mean isn't the scripture, "Men are that they might have JOY!"? Doesn't the Lord want us to be happy? Duh! I also tend to forget that I have over come a lot and I have been dealt some pretty hard blows in my life... So I am deciding to be happy. It is a choice! Yippee!!! (tribute to Grandma DeWitt, who used to cheer this in a loud high pitched voice...) Life is good.

Grandma DeWitts Passing & Reflecting on Dad's Passing

So my Grandma DeWitt passed away this morning. It was completely expected. She is in her late 80's I believe. She has had arthritis for as long as I can remember, was in a wheel chair forever it seemed, and since November has been pretty much bed ridden, needing 24/7 care...her body just shutting down. My mom has been over there a TON taking care of her, along with my uncles and cousins etc. This week it was very apparent that it was very close to the end. She was under the care of hospice and was able to be at home to die. I think this is neat. Family and friends have been able to visit her and be near each other and it just is so much more intimate than dying in another "home" or a hospital. My grandpa Waldo DeWitt, ( kind of a legend to anyone who is from Mesa...) is still alive, surprisingly....we ALL thought he would die before her...Anyway, so this morning about 9 AM she passed. It has been a strange process for me personally. I live close, just a couple of blocks south of their little old yellow house on the corner, and so the boys and I would walk/ride bikes over there every day this week. To see her lying there in her bed, looking dead, but still breathing was weird. Two years ago my dad Troy Brinkerhoff at 59 had a heart attack and died. So my personal experience was more like, here today, gone tomorrow. I am not at all saddened by grandmas death. In fact, I do know she is finally out of pain, and at peace and in a better place. If anything, it makes me reflect on my dads life and his death, and makes me mourn for him. There is not much closure when someone dies suddenly like he did. And while I have come to terms with it and am at peace with it, I know my mom still wishes she had been able to say goodbye and have some of that time with him before he passed on. I do know though that his and grandmas deaths are both part of this great plan and that the Lord knows better than us. We'll miss you grandma, miss you calling moms house 15 times a day, asking "who's that" referring to Tyler ( she never quite could figure out who he was....) miss your Christmas programs, as annoyed as we'd sometimes get at them, and more. I hope you are there rejoicing with family members who have passed on already, surely getting to see Uncle Mitchell, and do me a favor, give my dad a BIG hug for me...

Our Sweet Boy Bo

So theres Bowen. I feel like I do a lot of blogging/journaling about Cole Man, "Cole Man pees in the toilet", "Cole Man rocks out on his guitar", "Cole said this, Cole said that... ", that I almost forget about Bowen. Ok not "forget". Its way too hard to forget the cutest 9 month old ever, who crawls so cute up on his toes, is already pulling himself up on to furniture, who LOVES water, claps his hands so cute, waves bye bye, etc etc... He is just the sweetest thing! Lately I have really been trying to enjoy each moment with the boys, and well, with life in general. This is hard for me, I wanna know what I am doing 5 years from now, always thinking about tomorrow, etc... so like I said, lately I am really trying to enjoy THE NOW. I got to thinking the other day, that these boys are going to grow up so fast, they already have. I have been doin pretty good trying to take in and really treasure and cherish all the little things. Bo's shirt in this picture says, "property of Mom forever." And I know thats not the case. So I am enjoying these two boys now.

POTTY IN THE TOILET!! (finally!)

This picture pretty much says it all... We have been "trying" to get Cole interested in big boy pants for a couple months now, ( He'll be 4 the end of February, and while I consider myself laid back, I couldn't handle the thought of my 4 year old still in diapers...) And up till now he has had no interest. I should have believed other moms who have said, he'll potty train himself when he is ready...sure enough, this picture is of Cole after he ran to the toilet all by himself and did his business... HOORAY FOR COLE MAN!!!

MESA ARIZONA TEMPLE LIGHTS!

We took the boys to see the Mesa Temple lights. Some cute pictures of the fam...

I LOVE this picture of Cole. Typical. Cole on Ty's shoulders with his dog Max ( who just had to come with us...) This is him looking at the natvitiy scene. He loved seeing baby Jesus.

Cole Man and Daddy...

I Love You More...

Cole Man and I have this little game we play. The "I Love You More" game. We say it back and forth to each other over and over again. The other night I had a realization as we were putting him to bed, and he and I started saying " No, I love YOU more", back and forth to each other. I don't know if one can REALLY truly understand how much a parent loves their child, until THEY themselves have their own children. In other words, nothing has made me realize how much my parents love me more than having my own children to love so much and so unconditionally. It definitely puts things in to perspective. Therefore, I think until Cole Man grows up and has his own kids, I think I win the " I love YOU MORE" game.

I love you Cole Man!!!!

A few of Cole's cute things he's said and done lately:

* Cole's new thing to say is, "I'm too busy!" Anytime we ask him to clean up his toys, eat his food, etc... its "No, I'm too busy!"

* Last night, we had tucked Cole in to bed, but had forgotten to give him his "Max", his stuffed animal doggie. He called to Tyler, saying , " I want my Max", so Ty went in there and gave it to him, kissed him again, and shut the door. A few seconds later, we heard his cute little voice say, " I love you Dad." Ty of course poked his head back in there and told Cole he loved him too.... Moments like this make ANY 3 year old tantrum seem like nothin'.

* Some time last month Cole Man in a store with Daddy sees something he wants:

Cole: Daddy I want that!

Ty: Ok we'll have to ask Santa!

Cole: I don't wanna ask Santa, I ask Daddy!

Ty: Lets ask Santa!

Cole: No I ask Mommy!

Ty: Cole Man we have to ask Santa to bring us what we want for Christmas!

Cole: I don't ask Santa. I ask GRANDMA!

Who needs Santa when you have Grandma?

* Cole Man has lately become fascinated with Spanish. It started over Christmas time when he'd watch Rudolph and Kris Kringle over and over. He pushed a button one time that got him to the Spanish option. He was then hooked, and watched those dvd's in Spanish only. He'd say, "Oh Spanish is so funny!". The songs were still in English and when they'd come on he'd yell, "English!" He also has now decided that he must say his prayers in Spanish too. Tyler went to Peru on his mission, so he translates and tells Cole what to say. We're just glad that Cole can differentiate since he's had his own language, Coleish, since he was a year old!

* Cole has decided that I can cure and bump or scrape with a kiss. If he gets hurt, he'll run over to me and say, "Kiss mom", and make me kiss the EXACT spot where his boo boo happened, and as SOON as I do, he is all better!