Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! I know we did!! We left Big Rapids Wednesday morning and arrived in Indianapolis that afternoon. Wednesday evening I saw Twilight with Lauren and Robin (see post below). Thursday morning was the Turkey Bowl (again, see post below)and immediately following we left for the 1 hour drive to Bloomington to have dinner with Nathan's family. Brooke and Charlotte had lots of fun playing with their aunts. Unfortunately I have no pictures to show of our dinner or time in Bloomington. Friday, Grandma Asay agreed to watch our kids so we could go to the Temple. Grandma decided to take the girls, plus Robin's boys, Spenser, Cade, and Ty to the Indiana State Museum to ride the train and see Santa Claus. They had lots of fun and Grandma has some cute pictures. Hopefully she can figure out how to email them to us so we can put them on our blog. Friday night, Brooke went with her Aunt Jennifer to the lighting of the Christmas tree downtown and then back to her house to spend the night. She had a great time but I'm not so sure she got much sleep. Saturday morning we visited with family we hadn't seen yet like Grandma Benjamin and Derek, Jenny, Regan, and Brett who we missed on Thursday. We had a great time! Brooke is now ready to put up the Christmas decorations so we better get going!

Turkey Bowl

It has been a tradition for the last couple years, for my parents to host a Turkey Bowl in their backyard on Thanksgiving Day. A lot of guys from the ward come and bring friends. We've always thought they should do something with their backyard, like a trampoline or swimming pool, but then they wouldn't be able to have the Turkey Bowl! A great time was had by all. Nathan apparently designated himself MVP because he intercepted 3 passes. Sorry, I couldn't get pictures of that. It happened too fast!




Here's part of the cheering section: Taralee (who got engaged later that day. yay Taralee!!), Lauren, and Ellen.
Charlotte and Brooke enjoying some hot chocolate afterwards. The missionaries are in the background throwing the football around.

Sledding

We have had quite a bit of snow here in Big Rapids. And there is still more to come. We have a nice, big hill at our apartments to go sledding. I went with Brooke and our neighbor Landen last week to take some pictures. Some other kids had set up the ramp, which Landen loved! Brooke did not want to try, but loved going down the hill.

Twilight

SPOILER ALERT (Are you happy Gwen)

So I FINALLY went to see Twilight tonight with 2 out of 3 of my sisters. I say that like it's been out forever, it's only been less than a week. Too bad Nicole couldn't be there, but I don't think she read the books and she probably wouldn't like the movie.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I went in with very low expectations figuring it would be awful since the book was so good. I liked the fact that they kept most of the main scenes in the movie and didn't change too much. Some people have said they didn't like the acting but I thought it was fine. Although, I think they could've found a more handsome actor to play Edward. Robert Pattinson just doesn't do it for me. I liked the scene in science class where he looks like he's going to be sick when she comes near. It was funny when she smelled herself to see if she stunk. I do think the book portrayed their chemistry better than the movie. If you hadn't read the book, it would be hard to understand the chemistry so early on.

The movie did leave out a lot when it came to James and Bella's encounter. It left out the whole scene at the airport with Alice and Jasper and didn't show how Edward knew she was at the Ballet Studio. That was a pretty big part in the book it seemed to me.

I really liked Jacob. I thought he was pretty cute.

I totally missed the cameo of Stephanie Meyer in the restaurant. It was like a blink of an eye. I wouldn't have known she was even in it had Lauren not said something.

I liked how the ending opened it up for the next movie. I'm ready. Although, I think the second book was a little boring in the beginning.

So, I give this book a B. Go see it if you haven't seen it yet!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Big Rapids Holiday Parade

Big Rapids had an awesome Holiday parade tonight. Although, I have issues with people celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, but oh well. Brooke actually got to walk in the parade with her girl scout troop. So that was exciting. We took lots of pictures but it's hard to see them in the dark. There were lots of floats all decorated and the firetrucks were decorated. Many of the trucks strung lights around them. People were passing out candy and coupons to different restaurants. Brooke was given a teddy bear as she was walking in the parade. Santa Claus made an appearance, along with his reindeer. There was even a live nativity!! It was a really cold night though!! They were lighting the Christmas tree downtown after the parade but Brooke was too cold to stay so we just went home. But not before getting some free hot chocolate!!

Mom, dad, and Lauren are in town. Here we are waiting for the parade to start:

A couple of the floats:

Brooke is in there somewhere. She has the purple and fuchsia coat on and jeans. Second row.

The reindeer after the parade

This time last year

So this is where we were last year at this time. We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona in 80 degree weather with my brother. Oh, it was wonderful! I wish we could go back again!!

Playing in the snow

The kids had fun playing in the snow today. Brooke and our neighbor Landon enjoyed shoveling the sidewalk, even though most of the snow isn't on the sidewalk anymore. They also enjoyed shoveling front steps, which several people thanked them for. Shouldn't they be getting paid for that? We should start charging people.
Charlotte and Peyton enjoyed standing on the picnic table. In this picture they were saying "hi" to each other.

Here's Landon doing a really good job shoveling the sidewalk.
Brooke decided she needed to shovel off the picnic table as well.
Then we got the sled out and the bigger kids pulled the little kids. Everybody had a great time.
Charlotte was ready to come in after this, but Brooke, Landon, Peyton and their mom decided to sled down the hill that is in the distance in the picture. So no pictures of that, but I'm sure I'll get some another time.

Picture from Family Fun Day

So here is the picture I was trying to get on here from the Family Fun Day we went to on campus a few weeks ago. We're in front of a castle and Brooke and Charlotte are princesses. I'm not sure what I am but Nathan, well, that's Nathan for you.

Georgia

While I was at I.U. I met a girl named Georgia. To be honest, I didn't really know her all that well. We were only there at the same time for one year. But, she was the sweetest, nicest, most genuine person you would ever meet. She had the most awesome testimony of any 18 year old I knew. Unfortunately her life tragically ended way too soon in the fall of 2002. Nathan and I attended her funeral in Bloomington and the church was packed!! She wasn't even from there, she was from Utah going to school. You could tell by the people in attendance how much she was loved and how much she was going to be missed. The best thing about it though was that her family knew they would see her again. I think about Georgia often and of her powerful testimony that she shared with so many people. I wish everyone had had the opportunity to know her. The reason I write this tonight is because today is Georgia's birthday. Her sister made a blog in tribute of her. You should check it out and see the kind of person she was. Another friend wrote a wonderful tribute to her not too long ago. Read their blogs, they're much better at this than I am. Happy Birthday Georgia!!

First Snow

It has been snowing most of the day today. Hasn't really stuck so much. The picture is one looking out our back door. I think it's pretty.

Nathan's brother, David, came to visit this weekend. We didn't do a whole lot, just showed him all the sights around Big Rapids. We got out at our favorite park to play for about 5 minutes but it was just too cold. He wants to come back when it's warmer so he can golf, play ultimate frisbee, and go tubing down the river. Our next visitors come next weekend. The Asay's are coming!! And then we'll be home for Thanksgiving the next weekend.

Family Fun Day

So we went to a Family Fun Day at the Ferris University rec center on Saturday. I forgot to take my camera so I have no pictures to show for it. We did get an "old time photo" taken all dressed up in front of a castle. That picture is an 8 by 10 and Nathan scanned it but I can't figure out how to get it on here. It's actually a cute picture. Anyway, they also had carnival games, face painting, crafts, snacks, rock climbing, and prizes. Brooke didn't want her face painted though because a clown was doing it. In case you don't know, she has a fear of people dressed up. She's ok at Halloween but she doesn't like Chuck e Cheese (she'll go there, but doesn't want anything to do with the mouse), mascots (at Indians Game, Fever game, Ferris bulldog), and now clowns. There was also a person dressed up as a lion once at the Indianapolis Zoo. She didn't like him so much either. Anyway, the girls had a lot of fun. And it was free!! I think just about everything this town does "extra" is free. It's great. Gotta love free stuff! (By the way, Brooke's other fear is of men, but she's getting better at it. I thought for sure if she had a male kindergarten teacher she wouldn't go to school, but she lucked out and got a female) Sorry for my ramblings. My mind wanders sometimes...

Girl Scouts

So have I told you I signed Brooke up for Girl Scouts? Well, I did. She's been playing with too many boys: our neighbor, boys at school, boys at church. Most of the time she plays with boys at recess. That's fine if she wants to be a tom-boy but she needs some exposure to girls. So I thought Girl Scouts would be fun and it's even right at our community center every other Tuesday after school. So it's perfect! And I got my co-volunteer in her class to bring her daughter so she gets to know another girl. Here's a funny story. Last Wednesday, Brooke wasn't on the bus after school. I was watching from the sidewalk as I see Nathan GET ON THE BUS to find out where Brooke is. The bus driver has no idea. The bus driver gets on his radio to locate Brooke. I'm starting to freak out a little bit. Come to find out, she was at school for Girl Scouts!! We were like, No, she goes here on Tuesdays. So Nathan goes to school to get her. She was fine. She was having fun at Girl Scouts. Somebody got their papers crossed and thought she was supposed to go there. Today when she went to school we reminded her NOT to go to girl scouts, even if her teacher tells her to. She went yesterday. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, mostly all they've done in Girl Scouts is make little crafts. Now anyone that knows me knows that I'm not at all crafty. Even the simplest things end up getting messed up by me. But I've been impressed with Brooke. I stay and help her with whatever it is they're making and she gets the hang of it pretty quickly. If I'm not sure what to do next, she tells me. Here are the two things she made yesterday. Now I know these are not good pictures. But I told her to hold them up and she decided she wanted to take the picture.


So this is a bracelet she made. Lots of different beads and her name spelled backwards. But, hey, she put them on in the right order, doesn't that count?


This is called a situpon. Never heard of it? Neither had I? I was like, a what? I thought she was saying a cinnabon or something. It's basically a cushion. It has newspaper in the middle and we "sewed" it together with string. When they go to Girl Scout camp in July (yeah, I don't think so) they can take it to sit on the ground.
In other Girl Scout news, there's a Holiday Parade (Big Rapids loves parades)the weekend before Thanksgiving and the girls get to walk in it!! How exciting is that?! And, when Girl Scout cookie time comes, you know where to get your cookies!! Wink, Wink.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Twilight the Movie comes out in 2 weeks! Who's going to see it?

I've been tagged!

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. I just graduated from High School and was attending Indiana University
2. I wasn't getting along with my roommate
3. I just started dating a guy named Tim
4. I was supposed to be looking for a job
5. I was living away from home for the first time and missing my friends and family

5 Things on my "To Do" list today:
1. Go see High School Musical 3! Loved it!!
2. Hide all the Halloween candy from my children
3. Go to store
4. Update blog
5. Play with my kids

5 Snacks i love
1. anything chocolate
2. chips and salsa
3. ice cream
4. snickerdoodles
5. rice krispy treats

5 Things i would do if I were a millionaire
1. pay off our mortgage
2. pay off student loans
3. buy another car
4. donate to a charity
5. invest and save for retirement

5 Places i've lived
1. Indianapolis with parents
2. Indianapolis with husband and kids
3. Indianapolis with parents while I was married with kids
4. Bloomington
5. Michigan
(Guess I don't get out much)

5 Jobs i've had
1. McDonald's
2. Dairy Queen
3. IU Center for Survey Research
4. Union Federal Bank
5. Kohl's

5 People I tag: I'm not sure that 5 people even read this blog but I'll tag Aliy, Christine, Jamie, Gwen, and Aimee or anyone out there that wants to do it.

Halloween week

So Halloween somehow turned into a whole week here. I already posted about Trunk or Treat which was Tuesday. Wednesday the library was having their Halloween party. I forgot about the party until I was almost out the door. I had a book waiting for me so I was on my way anyway. So Charlotte didn't get dressed up. They read Halloween books and sang Halloween songs, paraded around the library, and got to have yummy snacks. That was the only way I got Charlotte to sit still for the whole thing. She wanted those cookies!! Here she is with her new friend.

Eating her long awaited cookie
Thursday was the day designated by our apartment community to go trick or treating. I was kind of mad about it at first but I got over it. It's a college town, what can I say. They had a fun little party at the community center. We think maybe they didn't want to work on Friday night.
We walked around with our friends, the Anderson and the Robertson's.
Here we are eating doughnuts again. We sure do love our doughnuts. They were really getting into it!
They had the WII on the big screen and there was quite the crowd so we said...

Hey Batman and Superman, just come on over to our house and play!!
On Friday, Brooke's school had a parade. Here is Charlotte waiting for the parade to start.




Since we already went trick or treating Thursday we decided to do something a little different. They have a Wildlife Center on campus that was open for trick or treaters. We've been wanting to go so we thought this would be a perfect time. They were also handing out a little candy. This center has all kinds of animals that one man and his wife have hunted and donated to the school. I couldn't believe the size of some of these animals! I think the kids were fascinated too!





It actually made me kind of sad that they hunted and killed a giraffe.

After we left the Wildlife Center, we headed over to some friends. They did even more trick or treating and then we had pizza and snacks and played some games. It was a fun week but I'm glad it's over! We have more candy than we know what to do with. Seriously! I have like four big bowls of candy! Hope everyone else had a fun time!!