Friday, November 27, 2009

Turkey Day!

This year for Thanksgiving we stayed in Big Rapids and celebrated with our family away from home. All of our friends stayed here as well so we got together at church and ate and played games. The kids always seem to entertain themselves so well at church...

Running down the halls...
Making funny faces...
Or watching a movie (or climbing the chairs).
We had SOOO much food!!
But it was SOO good!!

Some of our friends...I don't know why it's blurry.

We had a great time playing Apples to Apples and visiting. I'm so thankful for great friends who are like my family while I'm away from mine. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Rock Star Brooke

Brooke had her Primary Program today and she rocked it! She loves to sing (I could show evidence if I could upload a video from our new camera) and sing loud is what she does best. Her leaders have been telling me how great she has been singing during Primary. I wasn't sure if she would sing like that for the real thing because she can be shy in new situations. But she did great! We are so proud of her!

I just realized today that Charlotte will be a Sunbeam in just over a month and will be able to join Brooke in the Primary Program next year! Where does the time go?
Here she is this morning playing with her dollhouse before church. This is her favorite toy and can play with it for hours and hours.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Holiday Season can now begin

Big Rapids had their annual Holiday Parade tonight. It was only our second time attending but it sure was a great parade. Brooke got to walk in it again with her girl scout troop so we found a good spot to stand and wait for the parade to start.

Charlotte and Nathan enjoyed racing each other across the road.
Charlotte found one of the Dawg's from the Year of the Dawgs.
The parade has started. The first things to drive by were fire trucks and ambulances all decked out.
Nathan liked this UPS truck because of the flames. I wonder where they keep this, because I've never seen it around town. (And it's not that big of a town)
I had to chase down Brooke because we were on the OTHER side of the street. She had fun walking and saw some people from school.
Lots and lots of tractors and floats.



Another bus all decked out.

Santa finished up the parade.

It was a great night. It wasn't even that cold. At least, not as cold as last year. One of the best parades I've seen in a long time.

Friday, November 13, 2009

New Camera

I finally got a new camera. I actually broke mine at Brooke's Halloween party which is the reason there are no pictures of trick or treating. Good thing we had other Halloween festivities where we got their pictures in the Halloween costumes.
So what have we been doing? Well, enjoying the beautiful, fall weather. The temps have been between 50 and 60 degrees. It's been really nice. We've been trying to play outside as much as we can. Last Saturday was really nice weather so we decided to take another trip to the Apple Orchard. The girls had a great time playing on all the toys and seeing the animals. And we got some yummy donuts!! We decided to drive to Grand Rapids after that to see if we could find a camera, which we did at Target. I miss Target. Probably a good thing it's not closer since we don't have much extra money to spend. We ate dinner at Steak-n-Shake, another thing I miss. The girls were so excited to get their shakes! It was like they hadn't eaten in days!
Brooke celebrated her half birthday the other day. She insisted on taking cupcakes with Hannah Montana rings to school. I'm not sure how many more years we will have to celebrate her half birthday. LOL
Here are some pictures with our new camera with some of our friends that live by us.

Charlotte is a little big for this swing, but she loves it. It's a little hard to get her out.

We were watching Kylee the other night and I couldn't help but take some pictures of her cute face.

I took some video's but can't figure out how to post them yet. Maybe we'll figure it out one of these days.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I know we did...did I mentioned that it lasted all week? I helped out in Brooke's class yesterday at their Halloween party and parade. Here is Hannah Montana telling her teaching that she will not sing a song. Gee, I don't know why not...she sings all day at home.

They usually parade around the block outside but it was raining so they paraded through the halls and into the gym.
Here's our friend, Batman (aka Dawson)
And our neighbor, Clara, the bride.
Our apartments had trick or treating on Friday night and had games and pizza at the Community Center afterwards. You'd think that would be enough trick or treating, but oh no. I tried to convince Brooke that we didn't have to go tonight too but she really wanted to. So we went to some friend's and went in their neighborhood. Now we have more candy than we would ever need. I can't wait until next year...

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Trunk or Treat...or bust??

Last night we had Trunk or Treat at church. It was lots of fun....I know Cinderella, Snow White, and Barbie had fun. (aka Peyton, Whitney, and Charlotte)There was pumpkin bowling outside...
Pumpkin painting inside...and face painting too!
donuts hanging from a string in the kitchen....
and several more activities...including the Trunk or Treat! I loved the missionaries set-up. They had Books of Mormon and pass along cards in their trunk...I think they even had some candy. I think they should have that set-up at the Farmer's Market downtown.
Nathan and Brooke watching the boys have a candy fight or something...
Why the bust part you ask?? Well I'll tell you. I had to stay and clean up and the building was just about empty with only about 4 people left. The floor in the kitchen had been mopped from the donut mess and I walk in to carry a GALLON of apple cider to the refrigerator. Apparently I didn't realize it was still wet, not to mention I was wearing flip-flops, and fell right on my butt. Apple cider went everywhere, including on me. Sometime during the fall, I really banged my arm against something. I think it was the trash can or maybe the counter. The other two people made sure I was ok, and then a nice young man went to get the mop to mop the floor again. Just so you can fully grasp the extent of my injury, here's a picture of my bruised arm the day after. No really, I'm ok, but it is really sore. It always looks worse than it is.

We've got mail!

Yesterday the girls got a special surprise in the mail. A care package from Great-Grandma Benjamin!! They were so excited! They each got a purse, some money, headbands, Halloween candle holders, and I think that's it. They loved it all. Thanks Great-Grandma Benjamin!