This has been an exciting and busy year for our family. The year began with a drive home from Utah last winter and our first (and hopefully last) toboggan run down the highway in Wyoming at 55 miles per hour. We've driven the roads between here and Utah many times now and usually the roads are clear and the trip is uneventful. This time, however, we came upon a little patch (about a quarter of a stinkin' mile long) of black ice. Before we realized what was happening we were whisking along serenely down the highway enjoying several 360 degree panoramic views of the Wyoming prairie. Fortunately this was followed by a soft landing in about 14" of snow on the shoulder of the road. The kids have always loved doing "doughnuts with dad" when we have snow in the winter. Yeah, this was a little different than that, given we had 
absolutely no control over it.
Apparently our work here is not yet complete and we were perfectly unharmed, no damage to the truck or anything. We all just kind of laughed and thought, "Phew, let's not ever do that again." By the way, 4-wheel drive is not enough to get you out of 14" of snow on the shoulder of the Wyoming highway. For this you have to wait for a very nice patrolman to come by and yank you out with a tow rope.
Some of the highlights of this year have been watching Lydia grow and develop. Lydia is one of a group of about 8 girls in our ward all born within about a 4 month window. Just like all our other kids, she was the last to walk (accomplishing this feat in just under 16 months - about 3 weeks ago). This was a little awkward since one of these little girls started walking about about 8 months!! This is made up for by the fact that Lydia can already say a handful of words (like "momma" "dadda" "Pease" "Mo" "BIGGS" (said with the loving tone often used when one is attempting to prevent a natural disaster from occurring at the hands of your 4-year-old son - more on this later), and a few others. One of the greatest things is the way Lydia's face lights up and she says "dadda, dadda, dadd" while scrambling to find Chuck when he comes in from work. They have this little routine where he will pick her up, give him a big hug, and then take his pen out of his pocket (she seems to know instinctively that keeping a pen in your pocket is a nerdy thing to do). He'll grab her and arm and pretend to bite her and she just giggles away.
Here's a clip of Lydia standing up for the first time without help (October 16, 2008, almost 14 months old).
About a month later she took her first steps while we were celebrating Liam's baptism. It was great because all of her grandparents were here to witness the event. This of course was quite timely considering some of them live 1200 miles away!!
Brigham has been fine tuning his tenacity during the past year. We've decided he has an old spirit that is frustrated at being trapped in such a little body with a 4-year-old intellect. He has been blessed with a great deal of energy and a strong preference for doing things his way. Perhaps he is not terribly unique in this sense, although we are unaware of too many other little boys his age who excel in this area quite as much as him. We have often said to people that Briggs has two speeds, Fast and.....asleep!
The following video is illustrative of this phenomenon (with superb videography by Liam)
Briggs is a deep thinker (like his older brother Liam). 
He has an uncanny ability to make us laugh with his attempts to use the big words he hears us using in rather unusual ways.
For instance:
“I don’t like this COLLEGE-FLOWER! (cauliflower) It is “constremely” fiery and I don’t like it! (Briggs, of course!) He went through this spell where he would say that something was "fiery" if he didn't like. I think "fiery" is the way he feels when something happens that he doesn't like.
9/15/08---
We were planning on going to the State Fair today after school got out. Briggs was very anxious and as I was getting ready this morning he came in and told me it was time to go and that I needed to get my clothes on for the fair. He then proceeded to take my jeans out as well as my bra. He said, “ you need your blue pants, and your…..this…..” So I said, “What is that, Briggs?” He said, “Your thing…..you know that you put on your shoulders….and your things!” I couldn’t quit laughing. It was soooo cute!
10/13/08---
“I want an egg that has no leaking yellow water in it!” (hard boiled egg!)
11/2/08
Sister Milligan, the primary president, told me that Briggs was on a roll in primary today. As they were singing “I am a Child of God” he sang…… “I am child of a PIRATE!” Can you tell what he was for Halloween? Then, as soon as the closing prayer was done, Briggs stood up and said, “Yo, Sadie & Liam…let’s go!” I guess he’d had all of primary that he could stand! Aughh….that boy!
12/5/2008 Briggs came running in and said “Mom, there is a bird in the tree and we have to get him out because it is OUR tree, not HIS tree!”
Lastly, when Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race, in agony we removed the sign from our yard and put it in the garage. About a week later Briggs found the sign and put it back in the yard. When asked why he had done that he said, "Mom, Mitt Romney needs to get back in the race!!" Apparently even a 3-year-old can understand this simple concept.
Brigham is very curious and expressive. He is always making silly faces, especially when someone sticks a camera in front of him. At right is a picture of Briggs with his friend Oden at school. They're a bit like Penn & Teller, it is quite comical.
When they put together the bulletin for the Sunday that the Primary kids sang in sacrament meeting they put a picture of each child on the cover. The primary president, our friend Amy Milligan, took the pictures. This is what she had to choose from.
She went with the middle one.
absolutely no control over it. 
He has an uncanny ability to make us laugh with his attempts to use the big words he hears us using in rather unusual ways. 
Brigham is very curious and expressive. He is always making silly faces, especially when someone sticks a camera in front of him. At right is a picture of Briggs with his friend Oden at school. They're a bit like Penn & Teller, it is quite comical. 
