I LOVE MY SIBLINGS

Hyrum (10), Hannah (12), Haley (14) and I spent our Sunday morning having a 1940's dance party with my thrift-store-only-slightly-1940's dresses and my mom's dress up box. These are pictures we went down to my room to take after our little dance party where we made up our little dances because we're little and know little about dancing, of course ;)

I got no pictures of Haley, although her dress was one of the best ones. We love my red lipstick Hannah gave me for Christmas! It's been put to good use on so many people for the strangest reasons. But that's a story for another time...

"Hi-bum's" so weird and everyone who knows him loves him because of it.

I was going to title this post 'Our 1940's Sunday', but the title you see up there just fit much better with what I am feeling right now. This past month, my brothers and sisters have been my BEST FRIENDS. And. It. Is. So. Much. Fun. I doubt you have any idea until you are in the house of the Hallsted's for a Sunday or two- yes, people, morning 'til night. 

You might think it's wild. Our yelling, raspy voices might give you a head ache for a while. And, sure, the constant singing might get out of hand. We Hallsted's have so much energy cooped up inside us, we have to let it out by bouncing off the walls or yelling at each other. Either way, we'll end up dying laughing and it's too much fun.

Let me explain these friends of mine...

Hyrum (Hi-bum, Hyguy or SweetUms) loves to make up songs about poo and is always talking to himself. If you listen, he's making up imaginary "game-games" with himself- he'll deny it. We just created a fabulous snow-cyclops yesterday. Breton never wears a shirt (or pants for that matter) and talks the loudest out of us all. Hannah pretends to be a man but loves to make flowers and jewelry (she's a little mixed up, huh, Hannah?). Haley has "anger issues" that gives us something to do in our spare time. And when she's not reading and I'm not writing, Haley and I stand in front of our mirror and make up songs about boys and socks. 

My old siblings who have ditched our party for better things? Amanda and I love to criticize everything that passes- Manda, we can't deny it. And I can't deny that I love it. We talk about everything (and we know I love to talk and especially about babies. Though Manda's a little closer to that goal than I am, dang it :) But, really, she shows me that people can accomplish anything they want to. She will always surprise me with that persistence and I'm jealous of her. Ammon? I love Ammon. I didn't at first and that's why I think I love him so so so much now. I loved swing dancing with him when I was little. If Ammon's around, I literally cannot be sad. Can anyone? 

I love my family. They are honestly my best friends. I love that I'm keeping them forever and ever. 

Can I even say that? Or is that going against everything a teenager's supposed to believe in? "Jeez the Weez", what is the world coming to when a teenage girl would rather hang out with her brothers and her sisters on the weekend?

But, don't be too jealous... because you have one too...

let me call you Sweetheart...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Manda (and anyone else who would like to read my blog... but mostly Manda :), I have decided that this blog will mostly be for you! Now that I'm tired of teenage- poetic, same-old-same-old blogs, I'm going to put pictures on here so that you can see what is going on here in this crazy Cedar Hills of ours while you live in "The Big Apple". We miss you so much and I hope you can forgive me for being so mean while you stayed with us after your surgery. Love ya! ~BrynnieBamboo

I went to SweetHearts with, no, not all of these people, just with Cameron:) But all these kids were hiding in my house when he picked me up for the dance (in his giant 15 seater van). My mom had everyone come in after we took the picture below. Little did we know that she was just trying to give the 15 little girls, Breton and Hyrum more time to sneak into the back of Cameron's van. We got into the car and drove quite a ways before we realized there were so many more voices making kissing noises and laughing than the other two couples I could see in the back. And what the heck! There were hundreds of little 12 year old girls from the 8th ward joining us on our date! Emily Skousen yells, "Don't make out too much!" and Halie Olsen yells, "Kiss 'er good!" and brother Breton yells, "Pickle Surprise!!". It was so funny (but I think Cameron was a little annoyed b/c we were late already). But I was dying laughing. I love the Beehives in my ward! 

They decorated the 15 seater van for the date (this is when the 17 children were hiding in the back:).



 

So, there's this boy named Tayvin who hates me. So, I decided to pretend to be obsessed with him. My mom helped me make this shirt to embarrass him. He hid from me at school so I posted this picture on his facebook wall.

Valentines Breakfast
(at dinner time)



My mom decorates our kitchen for the day of love breakfast every year. I love our strawberry pink milk tradition and the love notes she writes us and sets at our plate! 

This is the picture Hurum put on his school Valentine's box :)

As close as we can get it.

What if we had a giant piece of paper- the size of this house? We could fold it into a paper airplane and travel across the valley on it. The wind will pick up and take us over the mountain to that small Heber City. We'll get ice cream at that place like when we were kids and traveled in that bumpy white Jeep listening to Colors. I loved that Granny's place where I discovered fry sauce and gummy bears in vanilla ice cream. But, they tore it down and we got a new Jeep that was red and fancy and didn't bump so much (besides, my mom told me how fry sauce was fattening and I've never forgiven it since). So, everything changed except for the point that *Colors still makes me car sick, in or out of the car.


Things change so fast and I can't remember so many things that I wish I did. I can't remember my 8 year old baptism like I was supposed to. I only remember that the Carmichael's gave me a weird plastic doll thing with pink spaghetti hair. 


The only thing I remember about Mrs. King's class in elementary school is that she made us pick up garbage and, one time, Clay Francis and I went for the same piece of crap and our hands touched. Did I ever notice him the day before? Nope, but we were going to get married, of course (until I found another boy to be secretly engaged to the next week- "So that's when it all started" quote Tyler George- yes, I'm still ridiculous). 


Every one of my memories are that bizarre and that random. Are yours? 


I write in my journal avidly now, but then... not so much as to even have the colored pages make sense to a single soul. So, my mother gave me an idea(for what else are the odd creatures for than birthing and scrap-booking?). Mother told me to maybe write down all the childhood memories I can remember so I don't lose any more than I already have. See? Their ideas are grand! So, if you can remember only a few memories, write them down in a new childhood journal... or, it'd be kinda cool to add on to the old journals too.


"Let your memories grow stronger til they're before your eyes"
Love, your barefooted blogger, Brynnie


*Manda, isn't that the band that Derek gave you a c.d. of? If so, cute! and lucky. No future husband of mine will give me a c.d. b/c nobody gives c.d.'s anymore.

What a splendid get together!

Wednesday night, I had my long awaited Old Fashioned Christmas Party! My Kumquats, my little sisters and a few of their friends all came over and picked out some of our dresses.

{Dani Rogers, Marisa Oswald*, Me, Maddiey Beardall and Brenna Bergeson} 

{My Gorgeous Kumquats}

{Emily- Dani's sis, Hannah- my sis}

{Shelby- Brenna's sis, Haley- my sis, Annika Goodman}

We made the classic popcorn and cranberry on a string decoration with a needle and thread. It was so fun!

My personal favorite part of the entire party was making the old fashioned Christmas postcards. We printed out pictures of old postcards in black and white and on the back printed the writing side. We colored them in with colored pencils. We didn't have a picture, but, to make them look extra antique, my mom showed us how to rub tea bags on the postcards. It was very fun for me.

{Maddiey coloring her post card}

{Shelby rubbing her post card with a black tea bag}

The food was delicious! We had Turkish Delight, Broccoli Quiche, Lemon Bars, Orange Marmalade on freezer rolls:), incredible Wassail, Popcorn and other things. Haley gets all the credit for the food preparation. Except the Turkish Delight- it's in Narnia, how could I pass up an opportunity to make that? 

We dipped strings in hot wax then into cold water over and over again to make homemade candles. My were quite an odd shape because I struggled. But otherwise, everyone's were beautiful and old fashioned! 

We watched Little Women with Winona Ryder (who is my favorite) and Christian Bale (who is Gotham's favorite-- and everyone else). I absolutely LOVE that movie and it happened to be quite Christmasy.  

{I like this picture b\c it happens to have Teddy's face on it- We decided that we will waste our wishes on hoping that a boy like Teddy will move into the Hammer's house. I'll tell you if it ever happens:)}

*not as if anyone reads this, but I didn't know Marisa's new address so I couldn't link hers :)

If anyone reads this that wasn't actually at the party, I hope that you will try to have an old fashioned Christmas Party next year too. It was a lot of fun, at least for me. 

Love, your old fashioned (on-and-off Blogger), Brynnie

faces are for sitting on- nothing more

As dearest as friends can be, they are. I have been a bit of a jerk myself, but I have these friends who have stuck with me all the way through it.               I know how Thanksgiving's already past, but I am thankful for you guys. 

Dani, Maddiey, Brenna, Marisa... I love you three. One cannot function with out girlfriends to lay in the roads on their stomachs with, doing our recently discovered Dani's Mating Call Dance and making Brenna pee her pants. Without you three, who would sit on my head and try to get that dang pillow to engrave the flower into my face? Tyler... Tommy?! No, no. No one would. Because that might be a strange thing to do.

(besides John Hansen- I can tell that that boy would like to sit on my head sometime)

{p.s. Hey, Dani. Thanks for letting me sit on you for so long on the 4th year hike when all I had was lost, broken or forgotten. It must have been painful for your hawt legs.}

Love, your friend, Brynnie

{Psst: I can't take credit for taking these pictures. Maddiey Beardall did most of them}

"I'm all toasty inside... and I'm leaking!"

From here and now on, I am going to post pictures that I take. With my father's beautiful new, big camera, and the right settings (I've been playing around with it all day), and the Christmas lights that Haley put up for the holidays, I decided to give you a tour of my bedroom. I enjoy loading it with messy crap, but Mom, it's an organized mess, you see?

{stars are hanging from my bedroom ceiling}

{notice the collection of 16 scarves on the door- I've only worn 5}

{that wall there? that is My Blessing's List :) When I am feeling really grateful for a person, I write their name over again. Notice the big black box in the corner? I was feeling quite blessed to have that person this morning, so I simply colored it in :)}

{Me and Haley}

{not in my room- but we have ornaments that look just like bubbles!}

{on this setting... our tree looks like a tree from heaven!}

Did you watch the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional too, perchance? If not, find some way to read Elder Uchtdorf's talk from 2011 and 2010. Both are incredible and the second talked about the Grinch. We watched that after the devotional and I wrote down about half the movie into my journal. I found quotes and a whole new vocabulary for myself to use! Umbrella- Pumbercella  Recorder- Blabbacorder  Refrigerator- Sub-Zero Chililibrator

The Grinch: Those Whos are hard to frazzle, Max. But, we did our worst, and that's all that matters.

The Grinch: Oh. Bleeding hearts of the world, UNITE. 

The Grinch: The nerve of those Whos. Inviting me down there - on such short notice! Even if I wanted to go my schedule wouldn't allow it. 4:00, wallow in self pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me - I can't cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing... I'm booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. But what would I wear? 

Maxy, help me, I'm feeling! Chayse (favorite boy to babysit) calls me Blynn. So- Love, Blynn