Here Comes Santa Claus...

Christmas has come and gone... and what a wonderful Christmas holiday it was!  The best Christmas morning I've had since we became parents, assuming the role of Santa.  Our holiday began Friday, on Christmas Eve Eve when I woke up that morning.  Jamie and I have always exchanged our gifts to one another on this particular day, since Christmas Eve and morning are so busy.  I was very surprised to be the recipient of any gifts from him since we had agreed that instead of buying gifts for one another, we would try to purchase tickets for the National Championship game and take a trip to New Orleans after the New Year.  But Jamie enjoys surprising me with gifts just as much as I love being the recipient of a surprise!  He definitely accomplished his goal and I was thrilled to receive an iPad and a gift certificate to the Spa at the Marriott.  That evening we went to my parents house to exchange gifts with my family.  This was something new that we don't normally do but decided to do since Christmas fell on Sunday and we would be pushed for time trying to get ready for church (as well as eat a family breakfast and let the boys play with their gifts).  It was fun extending the holiday into one extra day than normal!

Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, we were at my grandmother's house at 9am for a delicious, although slightly chaotic breakfast with all 40 members of my immediate family.  My dad has 5 brothers and sisters, who are all married, with kids of their own (my 11 cousins, plus me and Lindsay), 6 out of the 13 cousins are now married and combined we have 7 kids (my grandmother's great grandchildren).  And yes, that's 40 people in one rather small house.  However, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I enjoy all the commotion, conversations, and laughter.  Plus there's so many people to help entertain and love on my boys that I can enjoy family time as well!  Following breakfast, the kids opened their gifts.  It was quite a sight, with the 7 great grandchildren excitedly ripping through the bows and wrapping paper to get the presents inside.  My boys equally racked up with plenty of toys to last us for the next year.  After the kids were finished, the adults playing a rousing rendition of Dirty Santa and a yummy lunch of appetizers and dips was served.  One of my very favorite childhood memories is spending Christmas Eve at my MawMaw Powell's house with all of my cousins, aunts and uncles.  Of course, our already large family has grown considerable since I was a kid, but that just creates for more fun! We left shortly after noon so that the boys could get in a good nap before our next stop in the Christmas Eve rounds.

Once the boys were good and rested, we all headed to my in-laws house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner.  One fun thing that my mother-in-law Debbie still does, despite the fact that we are all in our late twenties and early thirties is "The Mouse" game. Its a calendar with a pocket for each day during leading up to Christmas, that hangs on her kitchen wall during December.  Each day  of the month, the little stuffed mouse makes his way towards the pocket with 25 on it (Christmas Day).  Debbie slips money in the pocket that corresponds with each day and the boys will all race to their parent's house each morning to see who wins "the mouse".  Some mornings it may just be a $1, sometimes $10.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, the money in the mouse is a larger bill, such as a $20 and they frequently replenish the money throughout those two days.  It's become a pretty competitive game that we all enjoy on Christmas Eve and whoever wins the mouse, wins bragging rights, as well.  Yes, we sound like kids, but it is fun, and who refuses money?!  When we pulled up to their house on Saturday afternoon, it hit me immediately that we were the first to arrive! I didn't say a word and as soon as Jamie put the car in park, I JUMPED out and ran in the house, winning the first $20 of the night!  Everyone thought it was hilarious, that I literally jumped out of the car and ditched Jamie and the kids to win a $20 bill!  Throughout the evening, Jamie won $15 and Haley and Wes won $20 a piece.  See what I mean, it's quite a nice bit of money at stake.  And there's no rule that you can only win one time (a couple of years ago, I scored $60!)  It doesn't necessarily go with the significance of what Christmas is all about, but it is pretty funny to see 6 adults run towards that calendar trying to be the first to get to th money.  It's a Brink tradition that provides us with alot of laughs... like when Jamie whispered to Haley, "you should go check the mouse" and she takes off running only to find that he had put a whooping 35 cents in there!

We enjoyed delicious steaks, along with a few casseroles and side dishes to compliment.  And WHO can forget all of the desserts and candies? YUM.  Following dinner, we all exchanged gifts with one another and took our slew of pictures around the tree.  The kids had fun playing together and running wild but after the busy past few days, they wore down quickly.  Around 8 we packed everything up and headed home to put our boys to bed.

In the past we have tried to read The Night Before Christmas as well as the story of Jesus's birth to the kids before they settled in to bed, however we stayed out too late to do so this year.  The kids had fallen asleep in the car so we took them straight to bed, assembled Santa's goodies, and settled in for our long winter's nap.  The following morning, Jamie and I woke at 7:45am since my parents, Lindsay and Derrick were coming over to see the boys' reactions to their gifts from the jolly 'ol guy.  We ended up having to wake them up at 9.  I brought Collier in, while Jamie helped Noah.  The looks of excitement on their faces was priceless.  Noah was thrilled to see his brand new realistic choo choo train circling it's track and blowing it's horn. Collier seemed taken back by it all but loved waking up to the whole family in the den.  He would check out a gift, then crawl up on the couch to sit with my dad or Derrick.  Then a while later, get back down to check something else out.  After both boys played for a little bit, we enjoyed Coffee Cake and a breakfast casserole, then my parents, Lindsay and Derrick left for church.  We decided to stay at home so the kids could play and nap before we had to be back at my parents later that afternoon. 

We met back up with my family at my mom and dad's house for our traditional Christmas lunch of turkey and dressing, gravy, broccoli cheese casserole, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, green beans, rolls.  It was delicious.  We ate so much that not a single one of us cut a slice of the Spice Cake we had all requested my mom to make!  Fortunately, I remembered to take some home because Spice Cake is delicious for breakfast in the morning.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing at my parents house and enjoying each other's company until well in the evening as our Christmas Day was coming to an end.  We had a wonderful Christmas spending time with the ones we love, enjoying food, conversation and each other's company, but what's even better is to experience the wonderment of Christmas through the eyes of your children.  There's nothing like that magic and excitement!  It was a breath of fresh air after the difficult past year we've had in watching my dad fight his battle with cancer, losing Jamie's uncle Freddie in April, then his grandfather Papa Jim in July.  Circumstances such as those really makes you grateful and appreciative of these treasured times together as a family.  The memories from our Christmas of 2011 will last me a lifetime.

Opening gifts at my parents on Christmas Eve Eve

Noah, Dad and Collier (with his "bubba" teeth paci that my uncle bought him as a joke!)

 Tickling the ivories with his cousin, Lynley

Collier and my grandmother, MawMaw

 Christmas Eve at the Brinks

Me and Jamie with the boys, Madelyn and Eastlon

Madelyn, Wes and Haley

sweet cousins in their matching pj's

 the older 3 Brink grandkids

Noah helped his little brother by pushing the 4-wheeler...

until Collier figured out how to make it go on it's on

sweet :)

Oh, how I LOVE this picture

Our family of girls has been outnumbered by boys!

Collier loving on his Mimi

From our Family to Yours...

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas season and a new year filled with peace and happiness!

Love,

Jamie, Whitney, Noah and Collier Brink

14 Months

Our little boy is 14 months old! I can recall this time of year last year, just a few days before Christmas when we had a 2 month old... my how things will be different this Christmas!  I can't wait to see both boys on Christmas morning when they see all of their new toys.  Collier is quite the little character, still the happiest kid with such a friendly personality.  He smiles and talks to every stranger that passes our way.  He has learned a few new "tricks" in the past month, one being that when we say "touchdown!" he'll raise both arms in the air.  Another trick, is we'll say, "Collier, shhhh..." and he'll repeat "shhhh..." then we'll go "Ahhhh!" and scream outloud and he'll do the same and then laugh.  It's so cute! :)  He's become a really good walker and goes so fast that he's almost running at times.  He likes to be chased and will walk/run as fast as he can, giggling uncontrollably.  He has so much energy that he literally walks in circles around the den, back and forth across the room. He LOVES blankets.  He'll lay on them, grab one end and roll around, wrapping himself in the blanket like a little burrito.  We took him to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend for a birthday party and he wasn't the least bit interested in riding the rides, he wanted to walk all over the place! I literally followed him around as he circled the building, just giggling.

As I mentioned, he's right under 20lbs and seems kind of small to me (although his stats put him in the 50%).  He's in size 3 diapers and can still wear some 6 - 12 month clothes.  His 12 month clothes that we bought him for his birthday are kind of big on him.  He doesn't say a whole lot of real words but jabbers like crazy.  He has conversations with people where it's like he's telling this intense story, all the while he'll shake his hand while he's talking.  It's hysterical and people always comment on how funny it is to hear/see him do this.  The only real words that he currently says: are 'hey', 'bye', 'mama', "ooice" (for juice) and 'dada' has now evolved to 'daddeee'.  He has begun saying "ho, ho, ho" but it sounds more like "ha, ha, ha." He has started shaking his head up and down and from side to side and will sign "more" and say "moh."  One of his favorite toys is a old, empty medicine container (the kind with the childproof top from the pharmacy) that he found in one of our cabinets. He carries it everywhere.  He also is a little shoe thief and carries our shoes all over the house.  For the most part, he has left our Christmas tree alone but will test me at times, by trying to touch the ornaments.  I'll respond with "no, no Collier" and he'll look back at me and smile and try again.  The more stern (sterner?) my voice gets, the more he takes me seriously and when I say, "Collier, Mama said NO" he knows I mean business.  Sometimes, when we get on to him, it hurts his feeling and he'll cry (just from us telling him "No.")  He does have a bit of temper at times and doesn't like things to not go his way.  He especially gets upset when we try to take something away from him (like our shoes or other items he doesn't need to play with).  He's just a mess and keeps us on our toes but so much fun to be around!

Collier is such a fun child to raise.  I just love his little personality and know that it's only going to get more and more fun the older he gets.  I love this little guy with all of my heart and am so thankful that God chose us as his parents!

"Touchdown!" 

Pictureless

I really haven't had much to blog about lately... well, I take that back, I have, but have failed to take any pictures therefore, didn't feel like any posts would be too interesting.  The first weekend in December, the entire family (minus the kids and Chris b/c he was having some pain from a recent surgery) took the Annual Brink Christmas Shopping Trip to Birmingham.  Debbie and Tony always give us our Christmas money, as well as money for our kids, treat us to a trip out of town for a weekend, and let us do all the buying for ours and our kids' Christmas gifts (although they do still buy us some surprises for Christmas morning).  It's much easier on Debbie to do this because she doesn't have to try and buy for all 10 of us, plus we all love it because we are guaranteed to get the things we want and need for Christmas!  Not only that, but we also do breakfast, lunch and dinner together so we have a really good time being together as a family.  It ended up being us girls shopping together on Saturday, while the guys finished their shopping early in the day so they could watch the SEC Championship game that afternoon.  By late afternoon, Haley and I still had a large portion of our money left over after having visited The Summit and Brookwood Mall, so Haley, Stacey and I headed to the Galleria for a marathon shopping excursion.  We split up in order to get more accomplished and literally didn't leave the mall until after 9pm.  More than 12 full hours of shopping.  My back was hurting me so bad, I wanted to cry! I've never thought of shopping as a sport, but that day, it sure felt like it! However, I got a lot of great things that I wanted, including a new handbag and some leather boots that I LOVE. 
The next weekend was our Sunday School Christmas Party.  It was a Tacky Christmas Sweater Karaoke party.  Lots o' fun!  We definitely saw the "wild side" of some of our class members as they sang and danced to some of the latest hits.  However I failed to take a single picture!  The very next night was a Phi Mu Alumni Christmas dinner at Dale's where we played Dirty Santa and I met several older Phi Mu alums that I've never met before, as well as reconnected with some that were there during my 4 years at UNA.  We have 2 more Christmas parties coming up this weekend and then the BIG week of Christmas.  I'm looking forward to it this year with both of the boys.  Last year, Collier was around 2 months old but it will be much more fun this year now that he's older.

On top of all the holiday craziness, our boys have been sick.  During the past 3 weeks, both of the boys have had terrible colds. I finally took them to the doctor early last week but was told to give them a decongestant (which I had already been doing) and if they weren't better by the end of the week, call them back for an antibiotic, which I ended up having to do.  Now that we are about 6 days into taking the antibiotics they are doing better.  Since I took them to the doctor's office, I know what each one weighs... Collier at 13 1/2 months is 19lbs 14oz. I was surprised that he's still not reached 20lbs! I guess it's all the walking he's doing now but he's only gained 2 oz in the last 6 weeks.   Noah at 4 years 7 months old is 43lbs and 42 1/2" tall.  He's our tall, lean boy!

AND to add to the fun (no sarcasm, right?), Noah came home from school yesterday vomiting.  I kept him home from school today, but thankfully, he hasn't gotten sick since last night.  He seems better, but is still weak and tired, but he's at least able to eat a little without getting sick.   Hopefully, we are on the downhill slope of this stomach virus and so far it appears that the rest of us have managed to avoid catching it.  Thank the good Lord for that!

Thanksgiving 2011

We began Thanksgiving by having lunch at Deer Step, my sister-in-law's hunting lodge. 

As you can all see, the views are GORGEOUS.   



MawMaw Smith with 3 of her great-grandchildren (Eastlon was napping)



Friday evening we had our Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. 

Instead of the traditional turket and dressing, we had grilled pork tenderloin.  Delicious!



We had a great Thanksgiving week and have so much to be thankful for! 

We ended our weekend by watching the Iron Bowl with Kenny, Shana and several of their friends in Athens.  We had a blast and a victory over Auburn made the evening even better! 

Looks like AL is New Orleans bound to play in the National Championship against LSU.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!