SNOW!!

Bekah is all geared up for the cold in her cow hat!

Friday it was snowing when we woke up at 8:30 and then it kept snowing for 12 hours! It was pretty intense! Rebekah and I went outside to stand in it and watch the flakes piling up but we soon decided it was much better to watch from inside.

This is what it looked like out our front window

The railings looked so delicate!

Family Update

On October 7 my baby sister got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and she was radiant, of course! She always looks so good! Her reception was lovely and we loved getting to see family. Unfortunately, our trip was extremely short. I worked a grave shift from 12-6am, we loaded up the car and left by 8, arrived in Vernal in time to feed the baby and get dressed for the wedding at 1, helped get the reception ready, stayed at the reception till about 7pm and then drove home. I was exhausted!!! Between the wedding and reception, Garrett went to my brother-in-law's house to help him with something and in exchange, he earned a giant, beautiful, gorgeous, amazing tv! So now our living room is dominated by this glorious object, making all our college friends extremely jealous! Thank you Bortons!!!!

We went to Camille's house near Payson for an amazing Halloween party. She has a beautiful new house there and was an amazing hostess. It was so good to have most of the family all together.  The next week we went to Vernal for another Halloween party! We have been so spoiled to see our family so often. 

Rebekah has been such a delight! She is always so happy and loves to laugh with me. I could photograph or film her entire life and it still wouldn't capture her beauty and the love she shares with Garrett and I. I know I always put so many pictures of her on each post, but I promise I spend forever picking only the best pictures. There are dozens more I'd love to post! Here are the best from the past month:

This is for my mom. She dressed me in this hat and sweater when I was a baby.

This was our leaf adventure, she thought they were pretty cool.

I was surprised by how long it took for the leaves to be put in the mouth, 

but they eventually made it there!

Then the hood got annoying!

She just melts my heart everyday.

CAUTION: Icy Bridge Ahead

Unfortunately for the man on his bicycle this morning, there was not a caution sign near the bridge. I was driving home from work at 6am and on my way I crossed a tiny little bridge. There had been an extremely dense fog all night and as a consequence, the roads were coated in a fine layer of moisture, which had frozen on the bridge. The man on the bicycle was riding with his hands in his pockets to keep them warm, when all of a sudden his bicycle slid out from underneath him! I hit the brakes to make sure he was alright but slid forward several feet instead. Realizing that he was alright and that I would just further embarrass him by asking if he was okay, I just watched him in my mirrors as he got up, walked his bike to the end of the bridge and then continued on his way. Relieved, I too continued. Suddenly the hilarity of the situation hit me and I laughed out loud for the rest of the ten minute drive home. And I am laughing out loud again!

Motherhood is Beautiful

I think Rebekah has been teething on and off the last couple of weeks. She will be fussy for about a week and then super happy for the next week. Also, she has tiny bumps on her gums. I'm pretty excited to see her with teeth! She's just gonna get cuter! So a week ago she kept getting fussy so I'd try to help her be happy but it got to the point where I just had to let her whine while I did dishes and cooked and cleaned. So one evening she was fussy. I had just fed her, she had taken a nap recently, so I checked her pants and they were clean. A bit later, I checked her pants again. Still clean. A bit later I checked again. Still clean. Finally I just had to sing to her while I cooked and once I was done I picked her up. She stopped fussing. Right then a couple of guys from Garrett's class came over to study so I took Rebekah down the hall to get her ready for her bath when suddenly I realized my hands felt sticky. Poop. All over her back and legs. Oh well. I deal with that a lot. Then I realized my arm felt sticky. I looked down. Poop. All over my arm. All over my shirt!! GROSS!! I ran down the hall and yelled "Garrett, she pooped all over me!!" Good first impression on Garrett's friends, right? "Oh hey, guys, this is my wife, Emily. She's pretty awesome. I know you can't tell from the messy ponytail, the poop all over her chest and on the baby, or the crazed look in her eye, but she's pretty cool." Okay, he didn't really say that, he just laughed. But still, I felt dumb. I had to change my clothes, strip Bekah, bathe Bekah, scrub the tub,  hand wash all the poop out of our clothes, start the laundry, take out the stinky trash, and then take a shower. It was exhausting. But through all my tugging and pulling at the baby, and all my exclamations of "gross!" and my moanings and groanings, my little baby looked up at me and smiled and laughed. She is so sweet. She can make me feel happy even when it seems like everything is going wrong. She is my sunshine.

Beautiful Baby

Rebekah has been growing and changing so much this last month. I can't believe it. It's so sad to watch my tiny baby get older and smarter but so wonderful at the same time! She amazes me all day every day and I love her to pieces. Here are some of her developments:

On September 4 our amazing family came up to support us as we blessed little Rebekah June. It was so much fun to see everyone and it meant so much to have that much love for one tiny baby.
See that look on her face? She's trying to figure out how to get the shiny dress into her mouth. She did that all day.

She loves to be naked.

By the first week of September Garrett was too excited to feed Bekah solids so he broke out the carrots.
 She loved them!She couldn't get enough. See the furrowed brow?
She's about to cry because she ate the whole jar but still wanted more!
She was a pro from the start and knew exactly what to do with the food.

This girl loves her ExerSaucer, 

She loves books,

She loves her swing and her pacifier,

And she loves sitting up all by herself! This is a normal thing now. Saturday i was
amazed when she sat up by herself for about 20 seconds and on Tuesday
she sat up by herself for about 5-10 minutes!!!  Now you see why it's
bittersweet. She is going too quickly, but I don't think I could make it any
more obvious that I'm super proud of this little chunk!

She also has been very good for sitters. A couple weeks ago Brett and Jess asked if they could babysit her and Garrett and I both thought "Do they think our marriage is suffering?" We were a bit nervous. However, it soon became clear that Brett and Jess suffer from Bekaholism. (Yes, it's real) They just can't get enough of her. So we dropped the little bundle off and went out on the town. It was sort of nice to just be alone together but after an hour I started getting antsy. We went to dinner at Sizzler (my first time there) then we went to see Transformers. It was pretty good but I kept making Garrett check his phone to see if Jess had called or texted. I was nervous! And it was such a long movie! As soon as the credits started rolling I jumped up and dragged Garrett out of the theater. Of course when we got back we found Bekah cuddled up and asleep in Jess's arms. Jess reluctantly handed her over and reported that it had been an awesome night with no problems. And I had survived it! It's not that I don't trust other people to deal with her, I just can't stand the fact that I'm not the one kissing and tickling her for even half an hour!

Migmatites

So I realized that I don't know what migmatites are but I use the name in my url. So I did a little research:

According to Wikipedia, migmatites are rocks "at the frontier between igneous and metamorphic rocks." Whatever that means. It says they form under extreme temperature when pre-existing rocks melt and then crystallize. Then it says that migmatites occur in extremely deformed rocks. But they sure look cool. So by using the name migmatite for my family blog, I am essentially saying that we are pretty messed up but turn out okay! Sounds good.  

Don't have much to say, but I have pictures!

Some people write funny, smart, deep, or ... um... (insert adjective here) blogs that are entertaining or enlightening. I just have Bekah so I do photos. Whatever, that's my style I guess. Also, my baby is definitely cute enough to have a website dedicated to her. We went to Vernal this weekend and she was a doll. She handed out the smiles like crazy, but not until people earned them by complimenting her. She is a sucker for flattery. Right now she's in her bouncer doing jumping jacks. I looked at her and told her how gorgeous she is and she almost couldn't contain her excitement

Wal-Mart

Today I put on a navy-blue shirt and some cute tan capris. I thought I looked good. Then I was walking around Wal-Mart and a lady asked me where light bulbs were. I just stared at her like an idiot, looked down at my clothes, back at her, and replied, "They're about half-way down the south wall in the home supplies area."

So maybe my "cute" outfit looks like a Wal-Mart uniform, but at least my daughter looks adorable!

She loves being in the kitchen with me when I cook

Even when she's sitting she has to have her legs in the air!

The Joys of a Hysterical Wife

From Garrett's Point of View
(Written by Emily)

Last night I came home from work at about 12:30 and brushed my teeth. Emily was already in bed asleep so I turned off all the lights and went into the bedroom. Unfortunately, I tripped on something, making a loud enough noise for poor, sleepy Emily to think there was an intruder. She sat up in bed and screamed! And the scream kept going. And going. "Emily! It's just me! It's me, Emily!" Finally she stopped screaming and woke up enough to realize that it was me. She lay panting for a while till she calmed down and that was when we heard our upstairs neighbors walking around. Emily must have woken them up. That hysterical woman.

This is not the first time she's been a bit loopy in her sleep. She's tremendously difficult to wake up sometimes telling me over and over that she doesn't need to wake up. Other times she wakes me up. But not at the right time of day. A couple weeks ago I woke up because she gouged my leg with her fingernails because she thought there was a man in our room so she was trying to find me. I have a scar from that. The night before that, she kept waking me up saying she needed to find something. She got really frustrated when I told her to go back to sleep. She was sure she needed a flashlight so she could find the spider in the bed. What a hysterical woman.

She's also a bit hysterical during the day. I love to sneak quietly into the room she's in and watch how high she jumps when I start talking. Sometimes if I'm extra hyper I grab her sides to jump-start her. She loves it. Another way that she is hysterical during the day is with spiders. If she sees something dark on the wall, which is kind of frequently since our walls have all sorts of dents and scrapes, or on the floor, also a frequent thing due to stains, she has to do a double take to reassure herself it's not a spider. And if she feels anything tickling her she jumps and slaps at it till she realizes it was just a hair or a tag. She's hysterical.

But I love her anyway!

Bear Lake

On Thursday we got all packed up with the kyak and the tent and the baby in the truck and made our way up the winding Logan Canyon. Then we climbed the last hill blocking our view of Bear Lake and shouted for joy! Slowly, throughout the rest of the afternoon, more family kept arriving and we started having a good time. We spent the weekend in swimsuits, eating good food, and laughing. It was exhausting! Each night we had people in charge of games and each night was very different and each was very fun. Some of my favorite memories of the weekend are:

• Riley singing "Ghost Chickens in the Sky"
• Riding the Sea Doo that Kristy and Tyler so generously rented and let everyone take turns on
• Getting to know Dynelle better as I nursed Rebekah and she cuddled her sick little Audrey while everyone else played in the water
• The gorgeous sunsets over the lake
• William telling everyone his stories in his adorable voice
• Ally crying out for help in water then making an evil face while squirting anyone silly enough to go to her rescue
• Spencer so diligently holding his stitches out of the water
• All the awesome skits--I couldn't stop laughing!
• And all the moments when we were all together just laughing and talking

What a fun, fun, FUN weekend. It makes me wish we were having another reunion next weekend.

Bekah looking so adorable in her hat sleeping on our air mattress 

I think the mountain air was good for her

She hasn't stopped smiling yet!

Family

On Sunday we were only 5 minutes late to church (yes that is something I'm proud of since we've been at least 10 minutes late every week since we had Rebekah) and I'm so glad that I made it there. We had a wonderful lesson in Relief Society about families and how they prepare us for eternal life. The sister giving the lesson shared a story that gave me happy-bumps (goose-bumps when you're happy, not scared) and I would like to share it here:

A young man and an old man found themselves sitting next to each other on a train with the young man by the window staring out nervously. The old man picked up on the young man's anxiety and gently convinced the young man to confide in him. The young man told a story of how he had disgraced and dishonored the family by doing something wrong and getting put in prison. He spent three long years in prison during which time not one member of his family visited or wrote. He kept trying to convince himself that his family was too poor to travel and too uneducated to write and that they hadn't disowned him, but three years was a long time to try to keep his doubts at bay. He then told the old man that before he left prison he had written one last letter to his family letting them know when he would be let out. He said in the letter that he would like to come and see them but understood if they would rather not see him. His family's house sat next to the railroad tracks about 5 minutes before the station and he told them to tie a white ribbon to the apple tree near the tracks if they would like him to come home and to do nothing if they didn't want to see him, in which case he would simply stay on the tray and exit at some other town to start a new life.
As the train neared his home-town, the young man became increasingly nervous and as the train entered the valley the town was in, he actually turned himself from the window and cried out, "It is too much! I cannot look!" He then asked the old man to switch seats with him and look for the apple tree. The old man agreed and the next several minutes seemed to turn to hours for the young man as the old man peered out the window. Finally, after what seemed like days to the young man, the train pulled into the station and came to a halt.
Hesitantly, hardly daring to ask, the young man said, "Did you see the house?"
The old man nodded.
"Did you see the tree?"
Again, the old man nodded.
"Did...did you see...a ribbon?
The old man shook his head and replied in a voice heavy with emotion, "I did not see one ribbon in the apple tree. I saw hundreds. Each branch of that small tree had at least one white ribbon tied to it!"

I just want to say to all my family, that I love you so much. All the good times and all the trials just bring us closer and I will always love every single member of my family. No matter what. Family is more important to me than anything else in the world, they are the reason to keep pushing through trials, to keep going to church, and to keep smiling. There will always be a white ribbon tied to my apple tree and I hope that you can all keep forgiving me and love me despite all my faults.

Life in the Brinkerhoff Mansion

Crystal made this adorable patriotic dress for Liana and passed it on to us 

 When I woke up one of the mornings we camped, this is what I saw: no face, just little toes sticking out of the blankets!

Cute cousins!
 Lydia on the left and Rebekah on the right

 Enjoying a mid-day snack

She won't sleep without a blanket but in this hot weather I have to trick her sometimes with a burp cloth

Garrett got a model ship for fathers day and has been having a wonderful time spending hours working on it. It's pretty intense and I'm surprised at the amount of patience he's got for all the tiny pieces.

Beauty Shot

I made her laugh!

We went for a family drive on Sunday and I thought this looked like it's straight from  The Sound of Music. It was so beautiful on the mountain and all the flowers smelled so so good!

This picture is for Sherrie, she loves moose and I know she would have been so excited to be there and see it with us. It was just a little ways from the road and stopped to pose for this picture. You can see the little nubs on his head proclaiming that it's a bull.

We went to see Old Ephriam's grave. He was a huge bear (about 10feet tall when standing and 1100 pounds) that roamed the mountains by Cache Valley eating sheep and cattle. Some guy from Idaho finally killed him in 1926, I think, and they erected this monument that is roughly the size the bear would have been. I told Garrett to pretend to be afraid of it, I think he looks pretty scared. :)

Rebekah is already sitting in her bumbo from Aunt Kristy and she loves it. She likes to sit up and feel like a big girl. Also, I broke out the rattle but you can see how fascinating she found that.

We bought our first furniture since getting married, we finally own a nice set of couches! They have changed the whole feel of the house, making it seem more like a grown-up house! We love them so much. This one helps to close off the living room and make it feel more cozy.

Here is the lovely couch that we put under the window. We are so glad to be rid of the old, broken, dirty, floral couch . I guess I should have taken a picture of it for comparison but I was just so glad to be rid of it!

This picture is for my mom. She used this towel on me when I was young and I called myself a naked duck while wearing it (there's a duck sewn onto the hood of it)

This is her serious face. I almost feel like she's accusing me of something when she looks at me like this, it's intimidating!

I caught part of a grin!

We decided it was time for me to have a new look so I got new glasses,  got my hair cut at a salon for the first time in my life and Garrett died my hair.

So, as you can see, things have been busy at our house. We had a great 4th out in Vernal camping with the Coopers, Watkins, and Lon and Sherrie and visiting the Coons and the Sullivans. Fireworks were amazing and being with so much family all weekend was so fun. It felt good to relax, and of course I loved dressing up my little Rebekah and showing her off to the family. She was an amazing camper and we hope she keeps it up since we love camping so much.

Rebekah is growing and changing more quickly than I can keep track of. Yesterday was the three month mark since her birthday and already it's hard to remember life before her. She's come in and taken over Garrett's and my hearts completely. She has moved on from random smiles to smiling very easily and she's started laughing within the last couple of weeks. Sometimes I have to work at it, doing things I'd never do in front of another adult, but I can get her to giggle pretty hard. She just melts my heart and I'm so grateful for her and her strong personality that is already making its appearance!

Also, I'd like to make a note to her Grandpa B that she loves to watch people click their tongues and can't wait to hear his famous louder-than-anything clicking tongue!