EM Excitement!

The box (unfinished)

The boys
The barrier

So what is EM? It stands for ElectroMagnetic and are we excited about it? On July 16 we had our demonstration to show some big wigs this new system our company has been working on. (the picture above is not the big wigs, it's our boys, seeing what dad's been up to) The meeting went better than we could have hoped, and the jobs are beginning to line up. This is such a blessing in this economy when so many in the construction industry are out of work. We have had so many people helping to get this together; a great freind who let us use their warehouse and nice offices to facilitate; a couple of amazing engineers who have worked for next to nothing for many hours; office staff who put so much together; and my sweet hubby who never sleeps (seriously I wake up in the middle of the night and he's not snoring, he's thinking) - he eats and breaths thoughts of EM! He's pretty amazing! And thanks to God on high for helping this come together!

Girl's Fun Time

It is really starting to hit us that Brandee is moving out soon. We'd better enjoy every minute that we can. We were having fun one night playing Skip Bo & Ligretto, in between Jenny making this yummy strawberry cake, listening to music and playing with the dog, when it suddenly hit me that we were all girls, right down to the dog! This house has in the past, been mostly MALE, and here we were, no guys around and having an unplanned girls night! It was so COOL! The next day we even went out and took a bunch of pictures of the girls in the front yard. And let me tell you, they were the "models", striking poses all over the place (see facebook, I'll post more there). It was hilarious Brandee put her leg out and said "Jenny touch my leg", meaning to sit on the bricks too, and make their feet meet. Well Jenny being so obedient strikes a pose and puts her hand on Brandee's leg in such "Vanna White" style. It was so funny! We laughed and laughed! I love these girls!

Independence Day 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4S10D6SdCs
It's been a fun & relaxing day! I love the 4th of July! I get all my cheesy decorations out and have my side of the family over and swim and eat! It's one of the few days I actually play in our pool. We had a mean game of volleyball going! My nephew, Matt Platt, must have just gone to see the Transformers movie, cuz he was playing like a transformer, it was hilarious! Brookie & Heather spent the night and we had a blast doing Karaoke, making "cottage cheese" shakes, and playing Lagretto (cards). Wow does she have a set of singing pipes! Be watching for her on American Idol in a few years! I included this youtube video so you'd know that we did also think about our great nation today. Celine Dion has an amazing voice (almost as good as Brookie's) & the pictures are great. I am so thankful for those who founded our country; their courage and strength and inspiration. God Bless America!

Transformer seen here with baby transformer

From 1 to 90

June 6 Charlie turns 1 year old (seen here with his sweet mama)

And on July 3 Grandpa Breinholt turns 90!

(seen here with his 2 favorite daughters)

Grammy & Papa to the rescue

Not that we did all that much, but both Chuck and I have gone back to Washington to help out Nikki & Shaun in their move. They renovated a house and recently moved in. It's amazing the work Shaun did for 4 months everyday after a full days work at Boeing. He basically gutted the inside and made this house so beautiful. Nikki in the meantime has been raising two beautiful boys, Jayon & Gavin. She's the best mom! They don't have any family there, and since they are our other adopted kids (even named Brown!) we had to come help.

The Storm is Here!

This is a cool picture I found, and it reminds me of the monsoons that have now hit Arizona! Wow, I haven't blogged in 2 months! So much has happened in the past 2 months, not all bad, but just enough to show me that the storm certainly is here. (I refer to President Hinkley when he said a storm is coming) In the past 2 months we have seen &/or lived through a friend who went a little crazy and committed a horrible crime being killed in the process; a young friend who tried to committ suicide; loved ones who are deceived into thinking temporal things are more important than they are; another loved one who had to appear in court; friends dealing with stress & hard times in their family or from losing a job; a nation which is heading towards socialism & greater debt faster than we could have imagined. It's unbelievable! It seems like it has been one thing after the other, but we are holding on and having FAITH that this all leads to a loving Heavenly Father and His plan for us to learn from these experiences. We will weather this STORM with God's help!

May - the Birthday Month

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Chuckie, Paul & Jerry!
Oops! How could I forget my sweet daughter in law, Stephanie too!

(we got this family picture taken in May, so there are more of us than the birthday peeps)

Charlie Crawls!

YAY! He did it! And does it all over the place now!

Five Generations!

We had Grandpa Breinholt over for dinner, then Grandma Brown stopped by, then low and behold C.J. & Steph & Charlie came! I was thrilled especially when Stephanie suggested we take a 5 generation picture. This is quite a feat, all five generations together! That is rare and we are blessed to have them all here on earth at one time! (We sure love and miss those on the other side too) Note that sweetest little baby smile! He knows this is a special moment!

Office Staff

Okay, I promised pictures of the office guys, so here they are! Danny Sutton, Operations manager (left) and Stephanie Simmons, "everything else" operator (right). We had a hard time coming up with that name. She does everything from computer drafting, web designing, general organizing, to icy beverage runs. Josie (below pictured at girls camp) is our part time secretary, and comic relief. She keeps us in stitches (and sometime when I have an hour I will list her and Steph's quirks - they have some doosies)

Speaking of girls camp, I believe I fired Josie after she wouldn't go to sleep. Danny can affirm this, as he was our priesthood there and could hear me from the other room yelling at 3 a.m. She keeps showing up at work however - and we're so glad. She's actually had a little leave of absence and we're glad she's back. I still need to get a picture of Brenda on here. She won't let us take a picture, and she actually works for Curt, but she is such a part of the family down there, so I'll keep trying. Chuck is pictured here at my old desk. When he was working out of town I was in this office, but now that he's back and I share a desk with Josie. I don't mind, until I hear Chuck snoring in the other room (heehee, it's actually only happened once or twice, after a night when he can't sleep cuz he's thinking about things at work) He's one hard worker and I'm so glad we have this big job at Sky Harbor so he'll be in town for a while. If anyone is wondering about Korea, it is still a possibility, but we have no more details than that.

These guys are the best and we couldn't have CB or K12 without them! (I'll work on getting our field staff next, so stay tuned)

Aaaaccchhooo!

Bless you, or as C.J. used to say when he was little "flush you". Poor Chuckie has been sneezing so bad this past couple of months. It's driving Kyle crazy! And it's thanks to all these beautiful flowers in bloom. Sad that something so pretty could tickle your nose so intensly! These tulips are on my front porch and the African daisies are covering many of my neighbors yards. I just had to post a few of the flowers around our place, they are so pretty and last such a short time. I'm enjoying them, but . . . ah . . . ah . . . whew!

Brandee's Birthday! (woohoo 19 Big Ones!)

Just some cute pictures of our beautiful Brandee on her special day! She celebrated with friends till long after midnight, then after a few hours of sleep, went with a friend to watch the sunrise on her special day! (sounds like college age life to me - no sleep!) Later we'll have Crab & Steaks (her favorite) and Cake & Ice Cream!
A cute story about Brandee. She loved crab from about 5 years old. (THAT was our mistake - letting her taste it!) She'd talk about it all the time, wanting us to make it for her. We couldn't really afford to have it be a regular dinner item, but we decided on her 7th birthday we'd take her to a fancy seafood restaraunt, Laundry's, and then go see Beauty and the Beast at Gammage.
We got to Laundry's and couldn't wait to see how much she was going to love this birthday dinner. Well she decided she was not in the mood for crab that night, so she is one of the rare few who has had a corndog at Laundry's. From then on she decided she loved Corndogs rather than Crab! However, she wouldn't go for corndogs for dinner tonight! (DARN)