Monday, November 26, 2007

BYU vs Utah 2007

Here's a recap for those who didn't see the game.. or for those who want to see it again. Go Cougs!

The epic battle between good and evil...

... was decided on Saturday, November 24, with BYU prevailing over the archenemy, 17-10. Here's a shot of our newest BYU fan when she watched the game-winning touchdown.


Friday, November 02, 2007

Grandma and Grandpa Briggs

The Briggs grandparents came into town for the weekend before Halloween, and the kids had a great time getting to know them better. Max and Grandpa are best friends - we were very impressed that Grandpa could keep up with Max's imagination! There are more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem/BriggsVisitOctober2007.

Halloween

Max's obsession with the Solar System is stronger than ever. He wanted to be the planet Mars for Halloween, so we decided to all be a planet! All the boys loved it! If you aren't planet savvy, here is the line-up. Dan is Jupiter, Karen Saturn, Max Mars, Doman Neptune, Lincoln Earth, and Cali is the Sun. :)




Cali made a cute Sun




The boys starting the trick-or-treating trek.


We will probably get some more pictures posted soon at http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem


Here's a short video of Lincoln trick or treating. :)

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Cali's first month


This month has been predictably crazy, as Cali Anne moves into her spot in the family. While it is pretty tough to get Cali to go to sleep, once she is out, she can always stretch for several hours at night. We're still trying to figure out which of the boys she resembles the most - our current guess is a mix of Doman and Max. The boys still adore Cali and have been really great with her.

Max started preschool again, and he looks forward to it every day (even though he loves to be at home so much!). Doman has a little preschool group with some ward friends, and he also goes to speech therapy twice a week. His talking progress has been phenomenal lately. It turns out he has a funny little sense of humor. :) Lincoln is quickly becoming more compatible with the older boys, as he learns to respect their stuff and respond to directives a lot better. He is one funny dude, as some pictures we post might reveal.

The boys and I have been having a great time on our afternoon excursions to parks and museums. They are really fun to take around in the car, and they love to play at the many parks in our area. It's a good bonding time for us.

Karen and Cali generally hold down the fort at home while we are gone in the afternoon, although Cali has adventured out to a park with us once. Karen has enjoyed tweaking the smaller-than-ever apartment to accommodate our new arrival. We switched rooms with the boys to give them the bigger room, in anticipation of Lincoln joining the two older boys in their room soon.

We had a great time visiting with Dave and Milena on their long layover coming back from their Europe trip. We kept them up really late, but it was party time baby! Then, we were lucky to spend some time with Barbara on her way back from Hawaii.

We are all really excited to come back to Utah for Christmas this year. The boys will love seeing all of their cousins and I think they'll appreciate the snow even more than last year. If you will be in Utah for the holidays, we'll see you soon!

We have posted a few pictures at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tannem/Sept07

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Cali Anne Briggs

Hi family and friends!


It's time for our semiannual update (hopefully we get these coming a little faster). This one was prompted by the birth of our first baby girl, Cali Anne... named after California and our time here at Cal, and Anne after both of our baby sisters. We are so happy to add a girl to the family. At birth, 6:49 am August 22, she was a healthy 8 lbs 8 oz, 21 1/4 inches long. There was a brief complication, as we waited for her blood platelet count to rise, but she made her platelets really fast and avoided a blood transfusion and a long stay in the NICU. Everyone came home on Friday and we are enjoying crafting a new schedule for these kids. The boys have been very sweet with Cali so far.

We may add some more updates later, but for now I'll get this up with some pictures.




















































































Thursday, February 22, 2007

February update

The past few months have been eventful! Here's a little peek. I am writing this while I sit at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) doing experiments at 2 in the morning, so if anything I write is illegible, or poorly styled, ...

We enjoyed Christmas break in Utah. For the first time, our kids remained relatively healthy during the break, aside from Link losing his lunch a few times. I went running twice in the frigid cold weather before giving up on that crazy idea. We appreciated the opportunities to visit with friends and family at various reunions and shindigs. Karen and I particularly enjoyed spending some time with Grandpa and Grandma Pike in Gunnison.

After a delayed return flight home to sunny California, we settled back into life. Max is really enjoying his preschool, which meets every morning. He loves planets, and nearly every night, I am called upon to sing a "silly planets" song to him. This consists of singing a song about the planets (learned from the popular kid's show, Blue's Clues), but replacing all of the planets' names with characters from other shows, or family members, or whatever else we can think of. I think we have done at least 20 different "silly" versions of the the song so far.

Doman loves trains, and puzzles. We have been busy with Doman's pediatrician and a developmental specialist, trying to figure out how to help him gain weight and develop his muscle strength. The best news yet is that he doesn't have Celiac disease (i.e. we don't have to go gluten-free!). He is quite a happy child and has a natural peacemaking tendency that is adorable... one can often observe him willingly breaking off a piece of his snack to share with a marauding Lincoln.

Speaking of the devil, Lincoln is quite a handful! I like to call him "little chort" (chort = Russian for devil). It is hilarious to watch Link try to copy everything he sees his brothers doing! I'm sure Link is a typical baby, doing the things babies have been doing from time immemorial, but we are still enchanted watching him. He lumbers about, nigh unto impossible to stop. When he finds something he likes to hold, sometimes it will stay desperately gripped in his stubby little hand for hours.

If you haven't checked out BYU basketball lately, you're missing out. For the briefest of updates, you can always peruse the headlines at
http://cougarfan.com/teams/basketball_m/
March Madness is right around the corner!

I will try to post some pictures on this blog from time to time. I haven't been on top of our family media lately.