Fam dam a Lee.

Hi guys! I'd like to introduce you to my family. Just 'cause I'm not sure if you know them or not.


Meet-

my family

Dean. Padre. Sir Dean. "Big Bud"

possibly the best picture ever
taken of any family. 

Lover of- talk radio, red, steak and mushrooms, Mo Tab choir, Gemma, Chocolate milk, hiding treats in his suit coat pockets, "watching" the news, the telescope, weird phrases, and kissing mom in the kitchen.
Hater of- non collared shirts, zucchini, sandals, shorts, cottage cheese, music in the car, awkward conversations.



Melissa. Madre. Melissa Sue. In charge.
Lover of- singing into hair brushes or wooden spoons, volumized hair, singing lady gaga in the car, night gowns, talking to the dog, air conditioning on full blast, singing the wrong words of primary songs to Gemma, giving out chores, saying awkward things to make dad blush.
Hater of- when I take her hairspray, dad stealing the covers, gemma having a wet shirt, when dad's hair is messed up, Quinton not wearing a shirt.

my first birthday

Ashleigh. Ash. Big sis. the married with child one. ashlay. ashlegha
Lover of- Gemma, Nathan, telling me I need a boyfriend, salsa, laughing till tears, dates, Dr Pepper, giving me advice, drying roses, doing Gemma's hair, rolling her eyes, the name James.
Hater of- school, work, olives, me not being married with child, mushrooms, not being a stay at home mom.

Nathan. Frederico. brother/son in law.
Lover of- His camero, giving me boy advice, hamburgers, his wife and childrens, "scum", caffeine, soda,
hater of- BK, finishing ash's food, {i don't know what else he doesn't like....}

what a cute cowboy

Me. you probably know me already.
here's what they probably say about me-

this is us.

Ash and I were so stylish in our barney
shirts and ruffle socks!

who needs toys when you have laundry baskets?

Brianna. Bri. {I don't have any cool nick names :(}
lover of- love, all things cute, all things domestic, tender moments, romance, talking, orange, editing pictures, french fries, falling asleep with Gemma, cowboys, green olives, talking about Europe.
Hater of- Bananas, not having anything to do, rude men, stress, drama, Berlin, unpainted nails.

mom thought we were 80's children

Quinton. Q tip. Q bear. Q. the only brother. "little bud"

sorry i was kind of being immodest.

Lover of- showing off his muscles, being shirtless, teasing his sisters, kissing people on the cheek, scaring everyone, friends, OHS, Football, being social, meat, kissing "the chunks", ESPN.
Hater of- pickles on hamburgers, doing the dishes, being slightly hungry, mountain view, water under his chin, playing the piano.



Emilie. Ems, Emmers. emilack patty wack. youngest
lover of- Books, the bachelorette, washington, cheesy movies, trying to make me go on blind dates with her friend's older brothers, getting excited, exclamation points, thinking she's the favorite aunt, sleeping in, baby sitting.
hater of- steak, scary movies, contacts, math, being the only girl left at living at home, Quinton bugging her, having nothing to do.

woohoo!

the day we got Kandi. emilie was 4.

Kandi. Pooch. puppy. chunkers. Chunkies. Chunky. chunk meister. chunky monkey. baby. tanders. tandy. kanders. mama's girl. the chunk. spoiled. {she has a lot of nick names.}
Lover of- going "bye bye", treats, warm towels, sun bathing, cherry tomatoes, lima beans, squash, hanging her head out the window, shredding toilet paper, getting into trouble, kissing Quinton, howling when mom leaves, the OHS soccer field, grandma, mom, tummy rubs, sitting as close to people as possible, playing hide and seek.
Hater of- the mail man, cats, people not paying attention to her, her kennel, the door bell, the beauty shop, the vent, pickles, nail polish.







Caitlin. Caitlin sue. cait.
Lover of- yogurt land, dancing, being held, holding your hand, jumping on the trampoline, painting nails, her aunt Bri, sleepovers, pink and purple, being girly, swimming, cousins, disney channel, high school musical.
hater of- most foods, being bored, holding still.

when we lived in California.

Gemma. Gemmamamamamama. Gemma Bear. gems. Gemma girl.
Lover of- chocolate milk, Quinton's weird noises, peek a boo, rolling over, talking, slobbering, chewing on everything, lights, sparkly things, snuggling when she's tired, watching t.v., her bopoo {pacifier}
Hater of- car seat, going under overpasses, being hungry, not being held, taking naps.

I LOVE being an aunt!

I have a cute lil niece named Caitlin. She is just a doll. She'll be 9 soon.

I kidnapped her last night and took her to Yogurtland. She'd never been to one of those places and she was soo giddy about it all. we got some sample cups, and she was so cute about trying them and deciding precisely what she wanted. She ended up getting dark chocolate, double cookies and cream, and i think peanut butter? And then 4 {yes 4} scoops of choc chips, 2 scoops of mini reeses pb cups, 1 scoop of brownie bites and 1 scoop of cheesecake bites. I'm pretty sure she had more toppings than ice cream. And i'm pretty sure her eyes were bigger than her little stomach because she made me eat the last 4 HUGE bites of her ice cream. haha.

the ice-cream up her nose

Oh, at yogurtland they have 3 colors of spoons. green, purple, and pink. they gave her a purple and she insisted on getting a pink one too. Her two favorite colors. :D


We had a sleepover and I did her nails with the water marble art way. She thought it was so cool that she told me, "you should be a nail-doer after you're done with college."
I told her I wanted to be a photographer and she responded, "you could take pictures of the nails after you do them!" haha. Isn't she so smart??

Things i learned-

• 8 year olds are very impatient when waiting for nails to dry.
• 8 year olds insist on setting a timer for the exact amount of 6 minutes 'cause apparently that's how long it takes for nails to dry.
• when they're not dry in 6 minutes, 8 year olds will make you feed them chips and then laugh so hard because you're hand feeding them that most of the chips will come back out of their mouths.
• 8 year olds will then want to do your brother's nails cause of how cool their own look. and he'll probably let you do one...
• when taking a picture of them at yogurt land and you tell them to make a funny face, they'll purposefully rub ice cream on their face and then when they get it up their nose, they'll insist on blowing their nose and show you that they really did get it up their nose, even if you believed them in the first place. 
• 8 year olds aren't that hard to put to bed when they're exhausted. 

I really had a lot of fun with her! :D

This morning we had breakfast together and she was going to shower because last night she smelt her armpits and said, "i forgot to wear deodorant today, I stink!" {i'm pretty sure i did not wear deodorant at 8....} But then she decided she didn't want to shower so i just did her hair instead. 

Today she came back over after my date with Taylor and she wanted to play 20 questions. First, she wrote out people, places, and things, on pieces of paper, then drew hearts around them and then made my dad cut them out. she put them in an envelope and we played with them. the people she had were-  me, her, ashleigh, and emilie. the places were-costco, provo, utah, and texas. Her things were- hair, banana, and bag. haha. It was super super funny. After we were done with her heart ones, she wanted me to make up a person and she'd guess who it was. It was hilarious. That girl has some attitude and can think of things to say really fast! 

We went to costco, and we looked at diamond rings, looked for samples {we were far too late} she picked out some socks for me, tried to do the code on the locks on the lockers on our way to the bathroom, and took 5x longer drying her hands after our potty break stop because the dryers were fun. 

On the way home from costco she licked an envelope to seal it and she said, "I thought it'd be cool to lick this, but i don't want to do that again because it tastes worse than boogers!" haha. then for the next 3 minutes she walked around with her tongue out of her mouth beacuse she could still taste it. She always keeps me laughing.

quinton's nails.

Mom made cookie dough before we went to Costco and we snuck out to the fridge in the garage several times and snuck spoonfuls. we came back in and she said, "grandma's coming! hide it behind your back!" even though i'm pretty sure "grandma" already knew. 

She is such a hoot! I wish I could play with her more often! but, I'm glad I got lots of time with her this weekend. 

It makes me so excited for ash and Nathan's baby to be here in less than 2 months!! :D 

Another niece. I can't wait!

also, I think i'm getting relatively close to figuring out her name. :D But she'd kill me if  I posted even my guesses up here. so ya'll will just have to wait till end of March.

that picture you've been waiting for, and s'more lists, Oh! and a poll..

I have no idea what to blog about. dumdedumdedum.

okay so because i'm really good at lists i am going to make a composite of all the things i have to do to get ready to leave for school-

• edit Ashleigh's wedding day pictures {because i've put it off for 4 months and still am trying to figure out why...}
• edit melody's newborn pictures
• do a photo shoot of Quinton and Emilie
• edit said photo shoots
• sell my metal canister and reels for the darkroom to buy plastic ones because i am really bad at using the metal ones.
• order film for my studio class.
• go through boxes i left at home this past year and give most of it to DI
• go through boxes still packed from last semester and figure out the stuff i don't need to bring so i don't have so much stuff that goes unused at school
• get my bangs cut again. {tonight at 8:20}
• transfer all of my pictures on my laptop to my external hard drives so that my computer has more space.
• print new pictures to go into my new picture frames that are cool colors to decorate my apartment with. :D
• find a rodeo and go to it and then find a cowboy there. {or at least the going part. ;) }
• wax Calvin, my car.
• go to the roberts craft store and buy supplies to make my journals for the next year.
• make those journals even better than the year before. {which were really awesome!}
• 
  
• survive 27 days of counting down

firsts-

• tried curry.
• match made.... welllll..... it's on it's way.......
• first summer cold. :( boo!!!

i think that's enough with my lists.

and because i love you people, i am going to post 2 funny pictures-

sorry but i couldn't help myself with this one. Kraig and I on cliff hanger. i love his face here. hahahahahahahahaha.

this is my niece, i came home to her sleeping in Emilie's bed like this. both of her hands were between her thighs and her legs hanging off the bed. note the journal i made her on the bottom left side of the picture. i made it for her for her baptism and she has written in it every night since then. like aunt like niece. i'm so proud. :D I love this little girl. She pretty much my favorite. :D

p.s. my dog snores real loud sometimes. like right now while she's laying next to me. it's real funny.

p.s. i am going to make a poll on here, you should vote in it.

it is entitled- which of my fabulous blog posts is your favoritists. {most favorite}

the first 3 are the ones that i have the most hits on-

adventures of finals week {which probably is the #1 because it's the first picture i put up of my new hair cut....and people like to look at my hair or something.?..... yeah never mind, i have no realistic idea. :P} this is about the adventures i had during finals week. haha

Ashleigh's engaged! this title is pretty self explanatory. i think a lot of people came to my blog to read about it because ashleigh was too busy making out with Nathan to make a post of her own. although, if you want to read a really funny post by ash of nathan's first proposal attempt you should read this and if you want the real one, read this.

The long awaited post- my kissing list! which i'm pretty sure got a lot of hits because it's about kissing {number one} and i think that a lot of guys secretly want to know of some good ways to kiss a girl. JOKE! i doubt that last one was one of the reasons. anyways, i'm a fan of this post.

and the next ones are my favorites....i think. the ones that don't have too many hits but are the funniest to read about. let's just say- they are under-appreciated.

being smart in college is easy. {MY PERSONAL ALL TIME FAVORITE} i'm telling you what's in it, because it'll ruin the grand surprise. okay i'll tell you. it involves public restrooms and TP. and other things.

when my thumb felt like falling off. this one is about a time that a frozen can of pop exploded and hurt the feelings of my cute lil' thumb. don't make fun of me, it's a true story! not even "based on a true story"

nude man, eating slugs, first win, and fun weekend. this one is pretty self explanatory too. only this one is real good because i won my first ever game of just dance. heh. which in itself makes this a good post. but mostly because it also has some pretty grandly hilarious stories.

yes mom, my liver is fine. this one is about some good and bad things about this week. a lot about my adventures in the photo lab. which honestly, i miss very dearly. almost as dearly as i love my liver that was fine.

so anyways, once again you should read them and then vote. over to the right! :D

infinite X's and O's.

funny work stories, poems, καλός, & ikke bra.

in case you need a translator for the last couple words- καλός in greek means good. ikke bra Norwegian means not good. how fitting. ikke "icky" bra. haha. thank you google translate.

my favorite part of work today goes as follows {i was doing a ridiculous 30 minute survey about Floridian [the inhabitants of Florida, hellloooo....] politics} -

"hi, this is Brianna from opinioinology, a national research company. Is so-in-so-there?"-me.

"are you an under cover cop?!"-them.

"....no"-me.

"so-in-so has a warrant for her arrest. They're looking for her! I bet you're an under cover cop!"-them

"i'm just calling to do a political survey...."-me

"WELL SHE'S NOT HERE YOU COP!"

"khaveanicedaybyebye!" **puts on do not call list real fast**-me

seriously. it does not get better than this.

The first week i worked there, this is a conversation i had-

"using a scale from 1-10 where 1 is the crappiest and 10 is the most celestial, how would you rate your experience"-me {obviously it was worded slightly differently}

"-18"

"using a scale from 1-10 where 1 is the least likely and 10 is absolutely positively, how likely are you to recommend FedEx Office to a friend or colleague?" -me

"I'd recommend it to my ex-wife."

*tries not to laugh* "so what would that be on a scale?"

"well can you make my ex wife take the survey next?"

people are so wonderful. :D

if any of you want jobs at this wonderful place, everyone gets the job who applies. you should apply real soon. here is the link. Because this job is so wonderful that i'm putting my two weeks notice in relatively soon. :D I love it that much. here are the reasons why-

• i only can work nights. leaving me between Harmons and this place with zero nights a week of freedom and fun
• i hate making people do surveys
• i don't think half of the surveys i do are all that honest and are worded in ways to get the result that the people paying us to do them want to get.
• it's not worth minimum wage
• i'm getting more hours at the better of the two jobs i have
• they always want me to stay longer and pretty much say you have to "or else" which is kinda scary...
• they will cancel shifts and not tell you until you are already there. do they realize that gas is a ridiculous 3.50 a gallon???? No. Did i until i bought a car? No. but regardless.
• i think there is some serious reverse discrimination going on. not kidding either.

some one please ask to see my hand. i should not complain this much.

so i came home from the lonestar concert and have a back ache from Caitlin. She decided that i was her personal jungle gym. here's what we did-

• i taught her a couple briannaized country swing moves
• we swung around in circles like 16 bajillion times.
• i tried to teach her a line dance
• we raced {well... }
• we did air plane acrobatics.
• she jumped all over me
• attached herself to my foot and made me walk around
• played horse
• then wrestled
• and then Brianna was done in and Caitlin still had enough energy for 15 adults to last a whole week. So then Ash and i made her run back and forth across the field 3 times for 5 M&M's.
• which gave her more energy to start this whole list over again.

to self: Candy is NOT for already active 8 year olds.

and now i'm going to write you my favorite poem-

there once was a boy named mutt

who sat on a railroad rutt

a big wooden splinter

did break off and enter

his soft little baby smooth butt

that was the pattern of aabba. fyi

and here is a free verse that papa anne {aka sara} wrote me-

The sun shines dappled light through

Crayons paint the colors of my sad, sad eggbeater

The trees

Good lighting, this makes

Goo-oo-oo-d lighting.

Brianna has.

A camera and she

Summer rain falls on the unhappy

Clown-fairy

Wants to take a

Picture of the lighting

And the tree.

isn't she the most talented girl ever??

anyways, i have some excellent news-

• school starts in less than 2 months. i'm going to get a little countdown thingamajig to put on the side next to my counter thing.
• i finished another book. it was called "a modest proposal" better than the other one i read, but not nearly as funny. i
• i am going to lagoon in one week. {ashleigh, email me the plan!!!} :D
• i got a calling at church. i'm the woman FHE group leader. not the mom. cause we're "not a real family."....
• my beta fish is still alive after more than a month!! his name is whisk. the next one i get will be named, "spaghetti getter"
• i asked my brother in law a really random question that resulted in a slightly awkward yet still very interesting conversation that Ashleigh though was hilarious.
• there is a baby cradle in my living room....... and a baby bath tub thing too. mom, do you need to tell me something?? :P
• i finally remembered to pay my tithing! That money has been sitting in my wallet for like 2 months getting larger.
• Betsy's mom still loves me. :D :D :D :D
• Quinton made the all star baseball team! :D
• i shot another wedding on saturday! you can see some pictures on my photo blog.

and here is the bad news-

• that book i read, yeah, t's a dumb trilogy. which means i have to read the next to or else i won't know what to do with myself.
• my nail polish is all chipped again.
• i have apx. 1500 RAW pictures to sort through and edit
• my bank account is at an all time low since i was probably a sophomore in high school.
• i'm nearly out of eye liner.
• no one recorded the bachelorette for me tonight so i have to watch it tomorrow on Hulu instead of tonight which is why i'm writing this here blog.
• i miss the dark room and smelling like rotten eggs and having dry crackling alligator looking hand skin.
• Quinton's friend Brigham enjoys spitting spit wads at me when i take him to Trafalga. Oy vey.
• quinton wants to grow a mullet. ew

okay, i'm going to hit the hay to get some beauty sleep.... as Grandpa Cobb would say.

loves and snuggles,

exciting title inserted here.

So, i haven't really blogged about life lately. Here's why. Summer makes me work a ton to make money for the next school year. I work nearly every night/evening and that is when i usually blog the best. I'm just not very into morning blogging. No idea why. But, this is a morning right now.

also, there's been a lot more going on. I met some kids that i've been doing some things with so that's good. And i took my brother and 4 of his friends to the movies.... yeah, that was an experience. They're really funny kids. During the the "main" kiss of the movie, they all stood up and were cheering! haha. The guy that was accross the aisle from us was pretty consistently ticked about the loudness of us. I wasn't exactly being quiet either. My friend, Kraig, and his bro and some friends came too. And no, Melissa Q. W. III, I wasn't "talking" haha. you wish... no actually, I wish. {it's so funny to me that I still use our quote wall quotes. :D}

My niece got baptized too. I gave her a journal and she's been writing in it. She's going to follow in her aunts everyday writing habit. *crosses fingers* she's such a cutie! I love having her here for the summer.

Ummm, oh! i went on an adventure with Lauren and Charlie. We saw a movie and then went to Target until they kicked us out. Because they were closing. what did you think it was for? it's not like we do dumb things....

ooh! and summer fest was fun! i got 7 cute headbands. Is it weird to say i think now that i have bangs, that i look good in those big bow headbands?? Well, either way, i just said it. I watched the parade through my camera. I hadn't gotten my DSLR out in about a week and i was having photography withdrawals. So i took a bunch of random pictures. I was trying for a more journalistic perspective this time. It was fun. here's a few of the ones i got-

I tagged along with Kraig and a few others for the fireworks. i shot a few of them in front of the ferris wheel. it was pretty fun. here's two-

and i'm calling this good enough for now. :D