Girl Scout Ceremony

Brooke had her dedication into Girl Scouts tonight. There were a lot of girls so it was pretty crazy. Here she is waiting in line to get her Daisy pin.
Getting her pin from the troop co leader.


Trying to get a serious pose, but she had to be silly.

The tooth fairy comes to our house tonight

Yay! Brooke finally lost her tooth. On the bus this morning of all places. As told by Brooke: "The kids on the bus were trying to get me to wiggle it one way and then the other, and then I felt something on my tongue and I spit it out and it was my tooth. Somebody told the bus driver who gave me a kleenex and when I got to my class I told my teacher and she gave me an envelope. After I got back from recess my name was on the board for teeth lost." (Her teacher has a chart that shows what students have lost teeth).

So we'll find out tomorrow what the tooth fairy brings. She is very excited.

Lots of firsts

We've had lots of firsts here these last few weeks. Here is a recap of what we have been doing.

1. We got to go to the Detroit Temple for the first time. We got to go with the youth on their Temple Trip. It was a 3 hour drive, but it was worth it! I love the Temple! The Detroit Temple is a smaller temple, practically identical to Louisville.

The fabulous Young Women minus Holly who wasn't feeling well.
2. Brooke and Charlotte had their first ever slumber party. Because Nathan and I had to leave so early in the morning, our friends volunteered to let them spend the night on Friday night and keep them all day! That was so nice of them. I was a little nervous because they have never slept over anywhere besides family, but apparently they did great! On Saturday Charlotte was invited to her first and second birthday parties. Our friends took her to the one in the afternoon and we were able to go to the one in the evening. Here is Charlotte holding her goody bag from the afternoon party.

3. Brooke has her first loose tooth. It is very loose at this point, but she won't let us in her mouth to try and pull it out. I know this is a silly picture but she won't let me get a very serious one, with her teeth.
4. We survived our first winter here. But maybe it's not over yet, because it snowed today. But we have been playing outside a lot and enjoying the not so cold weather.
5. We are almost done with our first year of school. Nathan finally has his internship lined up for the summer and it looks like we'll be in Indy! We will be living with my parents for not the first time, but hopefully the last! No offense to my wonderful family!

Twilight Party!!

My friends and I had nothing better to last night between 10-12 (besides sleeping) so we went to Walmart for the Twilight DVD party. Not much of a "party" besides this cake.


Nikki got a piece of James. Oh, how cute is he?
This is the crowd, before the storm. Notice the poor, innocent sales boy in the khaki's.

We just wanted to see the crowd go crazy, and crazy they did. Here they are handing out doorhangers. You'd think they were handing out money.

Here's the movies!!

This is right before they trampled the poor sales boy.


They got their movies!!


The "over 21" Club.

So, actually I didn't buy the movie, nor did most of my friends. We just thought it would be fun to go because this is Big Rapids, and nothing exciting ever happens here. But Walmart was quite the happening place last night. Oh yeah, we did get some shopping done too while we were waiting. :-)

Spring Break Trip

We just got back from Indiana. We took a quick trip because it was Nathan's Spring Break. Brooke's isn't for a couple more weeks. (I don't know why they're not at the same time. Apparently there were 40 plus kids not at school on Monday) Anyway, I picked up Brooke and Nathan at their schools on Friday and off we went. Unfortunately, Brooke wasn't feeling well and was sick the whole time we were gone. We loaded her up on meds and tried to have a good time. We were making good time until we heard our tire pop. We ran over a nail almost to Peru.

Nathan fixed it in 30 minutes flat! I sure am glad he knows how to change a tire! He did it like he does it all the time.
Charlotte and Brooke were sleeping until we stopped. I don't think they were very happy to be woken up.

We arrived in Indianapolis at the Asay's around 9:00. Saturday was such a nice day we played outside a lot and Robin and her family came over later in the day for a cook out. The kids had fun playing together.

Sunday afternoon we drove south to Bloomington to visit Great-Grandma Ison. We stayed at her hotel so we could go swimming! Brooke didn't last long in the pool, she started coughing. So Charlotte and I played in the pool for a while and had fun.

Daddy and Brooke tried out the treadmill. If you haven't seen Cannon on the treadmill on facebook, you should check it out! Hilarious! That's why Brooke wanted to get on the treadmill.
We left Bloomington Monday afternoon and met Aunt Jenny and Aunt Rachel at Chuck E Cheese. Had lots of fun there but unfortunately our battery was dead in our camera. Rachel and Jenny took the girls to Build a Bear on Tuesday. Hopefully Rachel will email me those pictures but in the meantime here is Charlotte with all the bears. I've never been but it sure does sound like fun! I think they had a great time.

We met up with them at the movie and saw Bolt. The kids liked it but I don't think anybody else did. Charlotte fell asleep on the way home, about 5:30. Brooke fell asleep about 6:30 playing on the computer. I couldn't get either one to wake up for dinner or anything so I finally put them in bed. Charlotte woke up briefly at 10 P.M. and was up for a bit and slept until 8:45 a.m. Brooke woke up a couple times in the night wanting a drink or needing to blow her nose. We were waiting for her to wake up so we could head back to Michigan. I kept checking on her and trying to get her to wake up. At one point I think she told Lauren to "Go away, I'm sleeping". She finally emerged from the basement after 11 a.m! She slept for over 16 hours! It was a record. I guess she was just so wore out from being sick and playing so much she just needed her sleep. We finally left and got home to Michigan to snow! And it was so nice in Indiana. But the sun has been shining and the snow is about gone.

I finally took Brooke to the doctor yesterday and she has an upper respiratory infection with some pharyngitis. We went to McDonald's and got an ice cream cone while we waited for the prescription to be filled.
So hopefully we're on the mend and will stay healthy for awhile. Tomorrow we're going to Grand Rapids because I have a meeting. Then we're going to go do something fun, maybe see a movie.

Deer in the Headlights

So it was a warmer day today, maybe in the 30's. The snow is melting, and apparently all the deer have come out of hiding. I'm fascinated with the deer. People here think I'm crazy. They're like "haven't you ever seen a deer before?" Well, yes, I have, but not in groups of 5 or more. I just think they're so cute and want one as a pet. Just kidding but I would like to pet one. Anyway, as I was driving to Young Women's tonight, I saw a group of deer. They kept coming out of the woods. I kept counting: 4, 5, 6, 7! 7 deer! I just sat and watched them. (until somebody came up behind me) I had my camera so I decided to pull over and take their picture. They ended up in the intramural field. I couldn't get a great picture because the fence was blocking my view. Am I crazy to be fascinated with the deer? Does anyone else feel this way?
Aren't they cute? Sometimes they'd look up at me. Were they wondering why I was taking their picture?
The reason I happened to have my camera was because we were making this Candy bar card for Holly. Her surgery went well and she is home now but has to be on crutches for at least 6 weeks. Here is what the card says:

Hey Sweetart! The 3 Musketeers were Rolo down the Mounds of Ice Cubes and tried some Twix and hit a Sour Patch. Your Whatchamacallit fell into Pieces and you heard a Crunch. The Lifesavers came on the Winterfresh day. Hopefully your surgeons weren't Nerds and didn't have Butterfingers. Hopefully your Sugar Daddy will have money left after Payday. Thank goodness it was a Fast Break. We can't wait to hear your Snickers. Take 5! Love the Young Women

We had lots of fun making it.
Another random picture for the day. I washed the girls sheets today and when I was making Brooke's bed, Charlotte decided to try and make her bed too. I thought it was so cute and had to take a picture.

Brooke's get well card

So Brooke has been very concerned about Holly, the girl who was in the sledding accident. Which, by the way, she has a crack in her hip socket. She has to have surgery tomorrow. Anyway, Brooke has been asking to go and see her at the hospital. The youth went tonight and I told her she could come. She decided to make her a get well card. It was so cute and Holly loved it.
The front says "Get well soon!"

She drew a picture with Holly laying in her hospital bed all by herself. She even wrote "This is you in your hospital bed" Then she drew the sun and wrote "This is the sun". I'm not exactly sure why she drew the sun, but it was cute.
The back just says "from Brooke and Erin". She was so proud of her card and I was so proud that she cared so much about Holly. What a sweet girl.

And I just have to put in a cute picture of Charlotte. Brooke actually took this picture today. For some reason she is wearing bunch of belts. Poor girl needs her bangs cut. I think she wants her grandma to do it this weekend.


The Young Women are making one of those fun candy gram poster board messages for Holly on Wednesday. It'll be fun so I'll post some pics!