Surprise!

we all know how much addison loves the water and wet n' wild just made that a little more clear. so daddy surprised addison and mommy when he came home from the grocery store with this:what a great daddy huh? we put her down for a nap, turn on one of the last episodes of prison break, and blew the whole pool up. i did the whale. man it took forever and i was really light headed! kyle put it on the back porch and we grabbed addison. bubbles, toys, the hose - she was a happy camper!

since that first day swimming in it, she has used it three times and loves it. we pass it every day to go out in the car. she sees it and tries to get in the dry pool with her clothes. she's so funny. i love my baby girl!

Wet n' Wild McCleves

On Saturday, the entire McCleve clan went to Wet N' Wild together. The water park was pretty awesome with their fun slides, kiddie area, and wave pool. We had so much fun and Addioson loved playing with her aunts, uncles, and cousins. We took many pictures and videos, here are some.Above: Brittney and Addison in line for the wave pool. Addison loved the pool until we put the lifesaver on her and then she was terrified. I think it made her feel like she had no control with that huge thing on her. Below: Aunt Kenna showing Addison around the kiddie playground. She loved it.
Above: Addison fell asleep on Brittney while taking a break to drink a bob. Brittney laid her down to take a nap while we went on some slides together. Great Grandma McCleve watched her for us until she woke up about a half an hour later. Below: Taking a quick rest from the sun. Doesn't Addison looks so cute?!


A few hours of swiming really wipes out your energy and makes you super hungry, so the whole family trekked out to the parking lot for lunch - three three-foot subs, potatoe salad, chips and veggies, and sodas!


Below: L-R. Kerstyn, Kasey, Aunt Jenell, Aunt Connie, Grandma McCleve and others enjoying the good eats.

Busy eating is Jesse, Michelle, and Jalee.All the food was gone when everyone went back inside the park. It was a great time to chat and fill up!

Below: L-R. Chealyn, Chad (Fiancee to Chantell), Chantell, Caden, Uncle Loren, and Aunt Brookie.

Girls Camp: Spiritual Edition

immediately after we moved into this new ward, we heard the bishop - a.k.a. my uncle loren - had some callings in mind for us. hearing that i became terrified that i would be put in as a relief society teacher or something. two weeks later i was put in as the beehive advisor and kyle was put in as the 13 and 14 year old sunday school teacher. whew, i blew a sigh of relief. we pretty much just left those same two callings in our last ward and i knew i could handle that one.

our ward beehive count is ridiculous. we have 15 girls in my class alone, compare that to my last ward where the beehives was also the largest class with an average of four to five girls per sunday. mia maids had two - three girls average, and the laurels class was virtually non- existent. i didn't go to girls camp with them since i was nursing, or trying to, but i remember my president ( i loved kim johnson) saying we only had eleven girls go to camp that year. then she told me we weren't the smallest ward to go. holy crap!

well, i went to girls camp last week and had a blast!

it was incredible how much i missed kyle and addison. i thought about that they were doing every day and worried about something happening to addison while i was so far away. she wasn't too happy to see me when i came home. she had been woken up very early from a nap and didn't warm up to me until that evening. and speaking of that evening. i went to take a nap at 5:30 and didn't wake up until 9:00 the next morning. i was exhausted!

but that's getting off topic. our theme this year was EXTREME MAKEOVER: SPIRITUAL EDITION. how do the leaders come up with these ideas?!? it was amazing. we learned a lot about building our foundation on christ, being strong for him, and what we want in our homes. each ward represented a different part of the home with a value assigned to them as well. our ward theme was the front yard where we talked to the girls the importance of how the curb appeal for a home reflects what the home will look like on the inside. also that it is one of the more important aspects of the home because if we compare it to our bodies we need to make sure the first impression of who we are and what we stand for is clearly visible on the outside, the first thing people learn about us. the motto the girls came up with was "how's your curb appeal?" i thought it was great.

not everyone likes it, but i know that girls camp changes lives. it gives the young women in our ward families a chance to learn more about christ and how to gain a stronger testimony of who they are and where they really want to go in life. i hear about girls who make excuses of why they can't go... work, vacations, they're not campers, or some other reason. these girls are really denying themselves a great opportunity to get away from the pressures and ugly things of the world and surround themselves with leaders and fellow girls who love them. girls camp is like drinking a huge energy boost, but instead of caffeine, they will be full of knowledge and experiences that will strengthen their testimony and fortify it against those things that will try to tear at them. nothing else can compare. it's a week of the best positive peer pressure out there. and if you have teenage girls you know they don't always listen to you, but at camp, surrounded by those that become best friends, you don't need to worry about their choices. they all choose the best together. and by the time the young women need a reminder, a year has gone by and girls camp is back again!! what could be more perfect? girls camp is truly inspired.

i told the girls in my ward how i went to girls camp all six years and after i graduated, i begged my young women's president to let me go again, but i wasn't allowed. i wanted to go because i knew what i was missing out on, and i cried. i know, somewhat dramatic.

as a leader, camp was still incredible. i loved getting to know the girls better and i gained a huge appreciation of all that my leaders did, starting months before camp. i really love megan and jessica - the second counselor in YW and ward camp director. we had so much fun together even though i was at least ten years younger than either of them. (yes, i got confused for a young women almost hourly).

one thing we did that i personally loved was the hike. i wasn't excited to go at first because i was already so dirty, but it was a great experience. at the beginning of the hike, we each received a paver (basically an over sized brick) to write our names and the date on. we listened to the hiking leader, brother olsen, talk about burdens and what they are. some that we talked about were anger, guilt, sickness, school, financial, and jealousy. he told us that as we hiked we were going to carry these pavers, representing our burdens, on our hands. he wanted us to constantly think of them as we hiked (leaders were asked to carry a paver too).

right away my five little first years, weighed down by their burdens, started to have a hard time ascending to the top of the mountain. we had breaks every ten to fifteen minutes and the girls talked about how much they hated their paver and wanted to put them on Lou the donkey to carry for them. i encouraged them as best i could to carry their burdens themselves and stay in lead of all the hikers, that helps you a lot mentally. at the top of the mountain we had lunch, rested for about an hour, and talked some more about burdens. some of the stake leaders shared personal experiences that helped everyone to really understand why we were doing this.

then we went back down the mountain and i was so proud of all my girls who stayed together in the front and had great attitudes. when we had hiked 3.4 miles, we were stopped and given bio-degradable pieces of paper to write down the burden that we have been carrying. hiking a bit further, we placed our paper under our burden in a path brother olsen had made for the entire stake. he explained that jesus, as part of the atonement, will carry our burdens for us, if we are willing to give them to him. when it rains, our burdens will wash away.

towards the end of girls camp, after we did singing trees, the whole stake walked on the path of "burdens" from each person and we had a devotional about christ. these are the kind of experiences the girls will remember throughout their life because of the physical things they did that represented spiritual things they need to do.

i love girls camp and i am so glad i got to go!

What to Give A Guy?

growing up with all girls in my family was so much fun. we had many of the same interests and loved doing things with each other. life was peachy. okay, maybe that's too brady bunch. there was chaos everyday with so much going on, but it was fun. i have to brag that my dad was great with us, better than most dads would be. especially considering he had six daughters, a female dog, and a wife who was a brown - and anyone who knows the browns, or breinholts for that matter know that you need to have a little bit of saint in you to deal with them sometimes. or just go insane slowly. but that's another topic. back to my dad. christmas and birthdays were hard every year for me. like i said earlier, i knew my sisters well and knew that kind of gifts they would love. but every year, i struggled when it came to getting a gift for my dad. he was a boy. what do boys like? what should i get him? what does he need or want? i remembering this bothering me even as young as second grade. in elementary, the teachers try to fix this problem by giving their students crafts to make like a paper tie, picture frame made out of Popsicles sticks, or a miniature christmas wreath with colored macaroni noodles and a pic of yours truly in the center. while these were fun to make, i knew these weren't true "gifts" that could help my dad. the gifts i wanted to give didn't need to cost very much or anything at all, i just wanted to feel like i did my best. i needed ideas. does this ring a bell with anyone? this was and still is a very real struggle for me, so when kyle and i started dating, i freaked. i have boyfriend - awesome. his birthday is coming up. crap. crap, crap, crap.

i told kyle my dilemma and he shrugged it off saying he didn't want anything. ha, yeah right.

all you women out there would know if you heard this it wasn't true. well i knew i had to get him something. now as i type, i just can't remember what i got him. for christmas that year, i got him a digital camera - i do remember that. mostly it was given so that we could start taking pics to go in our wedding video. so i guess in a way i bought the camera for me too. but i don't feel too bad about that now. remember valentines day last year with the laptop kyle gave to me?

point of this whole post is that father's day is in two days. that means i have been saying "crap" a whole bunch of times these past two weeks every time i think about what to get for my husband and father of my baby.

then, earilier this week i had an "ah ha" moment. i know what i want to get for kyle, turns out it might not be available. argh! finally i pick something i know he'll love (and needs) and someone else might get it.

i'm crossing my fingers that it will be mine and hopefully i'll know soon.

Fruits of Our Labor and Our Bug Man

our garden is AWESOME! tomatoe plants are huge. we have sixteen of them around four wire racks which are completely hidden now. buds and green tomatoes are everywhere and these ripe ones are our first harvest from the tomatoes. there were at least six more that i had to throw out because bugs and birds got to the first which is very frustrating. the corn is so tall and my cilantro has really shot up. i love cilantro, but the thing i anticipate most is the basil. ever since i went to oregano's and had their bruschetta, i have been obsessed with basil. so yum! the squash (we have four kinds) has taken over. thank goodness we made their boxes bigger. this zucchini was the first we have picked - isn't it huge?! making zucchini bread! we do have a problem with our green bell pepper which has brown rotted spots and we can't figure our why. it looks like a jungle. brookie says it's on steroids. i'm loving it. it's getting pretty hot though when we water it. argh!

now about the bees!

on sunday, kyle wasn't feeling well and came home early with addison. as i started to walk down the back porch toward our door when i got home, kyle was on the stairs and told me to go around the house. on our way to church, we had noticed about six bees flying around the grill. now it was around twenty. when i got in the house, i saw kyle was wearing my hoodie and he told me underneath was a windbreaker and his church clothes. he was wearing this to protect himself from the bees in the middle of JUNE! and he was dying. yuck. kyle also told me that he was pretty sure they were coming from the grill so he had turned it on earlier to kill them. he wanted to get a closer look at it, so he had me tape a net to his face and gloves on so he could go outside. so that's what the second picture is.

armed with bug spray, he started stepping on and misting the growing population of now 70 bees. once he began to get that under control, he went looking around the grill, tables, chairs, and other odd ends that are on the porch. not much. then BINGO! sure enough, when he opened the grill there was the hive like he thought. hundreds of bees were piled about seven inches high on top of the rack and even more below, dead from the flames and smoke. i was watching through the window and couldn't believe it! kyle finished killing as many as he could and the next day he cleaned it up. what a handy bug man!

Havasupai Adventure

Havasupai... Arizona's paradise! When my Dad said he was going down and offered to take Brittney and I, I was so excited. As the days were approaching we started making a list of supplies and food we would need down there. It was decided that I would carry the big backpack (weighing it at 45 lbs.) and Brittney would just carry her camelbak (10lbs if that) with water and snacks. We left Memorial day in the afternoon and got up to the rim later that evening. This was my third time going and memories started coming back and I told stories of my previous trips. We camped up on the rim and early Tuesday morning we began the decent into the canyon.

When we got to the Indian village, one of the girls was struggling with her pack so I had Brittney carry our pack while I carried hers. It was another 2 miles from the village. Brittney wasn't sore yet from the 10 mile hike we had just completed from the rim to village, but after those two miles, she became pretty sore, but she was a tough girl.

** note from brittney: i would like to clarify some things here. my camelbak was about 20 lbs with all my water, food, and other necessities - not 10 lbs like kyle says. plus our shared backpack was atleast 50 - 60 lbs not 45. so i was carrying 70 -80 lbs down a 3.2 mile hike (yeah the havasupai website will back me up on the mileage) again not like the two miles kyles stated. no big deal you think? well, when you got up at four am and started hiking ten miles for several hours, your already tired when 55 lbs gets added on your back. not to mention, kyle and i did nothing to prepare for hiking the grand canyon ( i assumed i would be fine since i was only carrying 20 lbs - or so i thought.) so the only reason that i pulled my groin, rotated my ankle, and basically did the havasupai shuffle every time i stopped moving for ten minutes was because of that dang backpack i had to carry 3.2 miles. thank you.**

We got to camp about mid morning and we rested, ate, and then got ready to go to Havasu falls. After the flood in 2008, the fall now only flows to the one side, but it still is as beautiful as ever. After hanging out there we went back to camp, rested, ate dinner, played cards, and got cleaned up in the river flowing next to us.

The next morning our muscles had stiffen up, so getting up was a real "pain." We ate breakfast and then got ready to go down to Mooney Falls (my absolute favorite). Mooney stands around 200 feet high (higher than Niagara). To get down you literally have to climb down a the cliff face with chains, latters, and stakes driven into the rock for hand grips. Being terrified of heights didn't work out in Brittney's favor, but she did a good job going down.

"DESCEND AT OWN RISK"

Exercise Extreme Caution!

Brittney descending down the cliff to Mooney FallsMooney Falls

About five miles down from Mooney Falls, is another fall called Beaver. We hiked through the river, jumping and sliding down from little water falls.

Mooney Falls in the Background

Fall hopping our way down to Beaver Falls

I think I'll name this "Garden of Eden" or
"Heard it through the Grape Vine"

Just Chillin'

Hanging Out

One of the best parts of the trip is that we didn't have to hike the whole way out. Dad paid for all of us to fly the helicopter out from the Indian village. It was a flipping awesome experience! The best part was when the we flew out and above the canyon. The pilot was heading right toward a canyon wall then the helicopter went straight up and over. It was intense. It was good to be in a car on the drive home, but I was already starting to miss our great adventure. Needless to say, we were both missing our baby very much and it was so much fun to see her.

My, How They Grow Up

this just shows how she is so much like her mommy who was videotaped trying to breastfeed her baby doll around three and couldn't wait to wear bras.