Cazee Family

100 Days

2012-01-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

I spent my afternoon in Charlotte's kindergarten class for the 100th day of school. It was so fun. They each brought in 100 things of something in a baggy. We weren't very creative, we just took in 100 fruit loops. Others brought in 100 pennies, 100 pictures of themself, 100 m&m's, 100 cotton balls, 100 beads, 100 stickers. I even saw a friend from the a.m. class with 100 tissues! ;-) One of the dads came in with 100 grains of salt...why? Why take the time to do that???
The kids wrote about what they would do if they had $100. Most of the boys wrote about legos, the girls about barbies. Charlotte wrote, "If I had 100 dollars, I would buy a barbie. It is 20 dollars for the wedding stylist." She has $80 left, what's she gonna do with it? :-)
The kids split up in groups and I helped a group with doing things in 100 seconds. They made predictions on how many sit-ups and jumping jacks they could do in 100 seconds. They also had to predict how long they could balance on one leg. Then see how many times they could write their name in 100 seconds. The kids were pretty funny.
I forgot my camera (surprise) and even left my phone in the car. But I snapped a quick picture of Charlotte with her crown on after school.

I can't believe she's already had 100 days of kindergarten. And that's in the end of January. Where has all the time gone??

School lunch

2012-01-23T11:19:00.001-08:00

Brooke is constantly begging me to come have lunch with her. I've been several times this year already, but went again on Friday. In other years, I have brought McDonald's or pizza to eat, but at this school you are not allowed to bring fast food in. Bummer. And her school is not close to any other restuarants so it's not worth it to take her out. So school lunch it is. At least it was pizza day...but why charge Charlotte an adult rate instead of a student rate? That irks me. I think she really just wants Charlotte there, as she doesn't hardly speak to me while we're there. We would've stayed for recess, but they had it indoors since it was below freezing.

One of these days I'll start taking pictures on my real camera again. I just never have it on me.

Home Depot

2012-01-09T10:05:00.000-08:00

Home Depot is the best. They have these cool kid workshops once a month. I've heard about them for yeeeeaaars (probably first in Big Rapids, MI; why we never went is beyond me)but never marked it on the calendar to go. I finally made it a priority and went on Saturday. I guess I should mention at the country fair at Conner Prairie a few months back, they participated in one. They enjoyed it so knew they would again.

The only problem is that I seem to lack the skills neccessary to build a simple project. Good thing dad is always there. The girls didn't want my help, since I can't seem to hammer a nail in straight. I'll have to work on that by going often. :-) So, I was the official picture taker...and that was fine by me. (Even though, I forgot my REAL camera)

We also used a gift card to Best Buy to buy Just Dance for the WII. Boy, is that fun...and a WORKOUT!! Who knew??? It's pretty hilarious watching the kids and Nathan do it...then again, it's probably pretty funny watching ME do it. Let's hope there's never a video posted...AAAKKK!!

The Rest of Christmas Break...

2012-01-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

is on my camera phone.

50 cent ice cream cones at Little America in Wyoming!

Playing with our friend, Riley, at McDonald's in Cheyenne!

Children's Museum fun!!!!

Having fun with our easy bake oven...

Not pictured...rock wall climbing, ice skating, eating and playing with "new" friends at Chick-fil-a (new for them, old for me), fun with cousins, playing with all our new toys, New Year's Eve fun and games, and more!

I'm so glad school is back in session! I'm tired of keeping these kids entertained! :-)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

We had a very, Merry Christmas. One funny thing that happened was on Christmas Eve the girls decided they wanted to sleep in their closet, so they would not see Santa...not really sure but they wanted to do it. Surprisingly, they actually slept and didn't mess around all night, and even went to bed very easily. They each moved back to their bed sometime during the night.

They didn't wake up too early, which was nice. It was about 8:15. We were going to just open our presents from Santa before church and wait to open the rest after we got home, but we couldn't resist. It was a little difficult pulling them away from all their fun toys, but we did it. They were happy to play with the rest of their toys when they got home.

Oh, yea, Brooke got some coal in her stocking...hehehe...She was being mean to her sister and parents the few days after we got back from Utah, and apparently Santa decided she needed to learn a lesson. She knew exactly why she got that coal, and I think she learned her lesson :-)

We had no plans to go anywhere else, but then we got a call from Bishop of our ward. Their family was planning on going caroling with the Sister Missionaries after dinner and had heard that we had been wanting to go. So the kids were very excited to finally be able to go. It was a wonderful treat. We went to several houses, but only actually sang to three families. Nobody else answered their door...must have heard us singing ;-)

Monday was a marathon day of Christmas. First my family in the afternoon, then Nate's in the evening. The girls were spoiled rotten by grandparents, aunts, and uncles, oh my! Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts.

So...my dad duct taped one of his slippers...he really needed new ones.

Utah...Continued

2011-12-23T19:33:00.000-08:00

Is anybody still reading? I believe we left off on Monday night. Tuesday was the funeral for my grandpa. It was good to see all of my aunts and so many of my cousins. I wish it didn't take a funeral to see everyone. You all know, the road runs both ways, right?

Anyway, so many sweet things were said at the funeral by my dad, brother, and cousins. They talked of his love for his grandkids, his generosity, and his love for Grandma Asay. We're so glad they are reunited once again.

We had to take a few pictures. One of my parents and siblings. You never know when you'll get that chance again.

Then one with all the cousins. Only two weren't there. Not too shabby. Oh, and you thought, I was short? Apparently it runs in the family.

Apparently, someone got a hold of my camera when it was left unattended. :-)

Tuesday night we headed to Temple Square to see all the lights. I haven't been in 12 years and the rest of my little family had never been, so it was a must see. We couldn't believe how crowded it was though! It was worse than shopping on Black Friday. But it was worth it to see all the amazing lights and displays.

We also went inside the Tabernacle. A lot of people were in there, just trying to stay warm, I think.

The next day we left. It was sad to have to be together because of a funeral, but happy to get to see everyone again and to play with cousins, even if for 24 hours.

We made it home again in record time, with Nathan doing all the driving on the way home. The first day I was sick, and laid in the back and slept most of the time. The next day, I guess I just never offered to drive, and he seemed to be doing such a good job of it. I was happy to read my books.

Speaking of Nathan, I really should give him a proper shout out. I am so lucky to have a guy that is willing to drive all the way to Utah, at Christmas time no less, to attend the funeral of my grandpa with me. And the funeral was on his birthday, but he didn't want any big fuss on the day of the funeral. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention we did get away without the kids Tuesday night to eat dinner of his choosing...steak. At a place called Squatters. Anybody heard of it? It was pretty good. So to him, his birthday was a success.

Bittersweet

2011-12-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

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As many of you know by now, we had to leave town last weekend to attend the funeral of my dear, sweet Grandpa Asay. He was going to be 92 on the 20th. We knew it was going to be the end soon, so we were just waiting. I got the call from my dad last Wednesday, and I was more emotional than I thought, even though I knew it was coming.
Nathan and I had talked about it, and knew we would probably drive out again like we did for my grandma in 2008. Thankfully, the funeral wasn't going to be held until this past Tuesday(the 20th, his bday, also Nathan's). So we had a few days to wrap up things at home and get packed and ready to go.
We decided to open a few Christmas presents early. Mostly because these gifts would help us all on a road trip 24 hours each way. :-) Brooke recieved her most prized possession to date and I have never seen such excitement on the face of that girl. It is a Nintendo 3DS, with a couple games to play, of course.

Charlotte got a movie she had been wanting. She was excited, just not as much as Brooke :-)

I got Nathan the new Toby Keith cd with the song, Red Solo Cup. I think we only listened to it 5 or 6 times on the whole trip. That beat my New Kids on the Block cd that we only listened to twice.

So anyway, our drive out went great and we made it to SLC in record time. We stopped Saturday night in North Platte, Nebraska and met up with Cam and Aliy and their cute boys Sunday in Cheyenne. They were nice enough to drive an hour out of their way just to see us. We visited with them for a couple hours at McDonald's before making the rest of our journey. We checked into our hotel around 7 p.m. Sunday night. After picking up dinner, we were pretty tired and just went to bed.

Monday morning we picked Robin up at the airport. We ate lunch at In n Out, a first for everyone. Not really that impressed, we're glad we didn't get a taxi in Vegas just to go there. Don't get me wrong, it was ok, just nothing to write home about. :-)

Next, we went on a tour of the Conference Center. I was excited for my kids to see where General Conference is and how big it is.

They did surprisingly well, considering the tour guide said it would only take 45 minutes, but instead ended up being more like 2 hours. We were pretty beat after that, so we decided to go back to the hotel to rest until the rest of the family came to town.

We didn't have to wait too long until the Asay cousins from Arizona arrived. Everyone was so excited to see each other, after 6 long months. Everyone needed to get some energy out, so to the pool we went. After swimming for a little bit, dinner was on the mind. After much driving around, we decided on Cafe Rio!! I'm not sure why that wasn't our first choice to begin with! So good! That will be a must visit any time we visit any state that has a Cafe Rio.

Not too much later after arriving back at the hotel, the rest of the family arrived. First the Hall's from Twin Falls, and then the G.P.'s and Lauren from Indy. The kids got jammies on and we loved that Taylor and Charlotte were twins :)

This was pretty much how it was for two days. Kids running up and down the halls, making lots of noise. We had 5 rooms, all grouped together. As far as I know, we didn't get any complaints.

Taylor and Brooke had a sleepover, and this is what they did first thing in the morning when they woke up :)

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To be continued...

A few more fun Holiday pics

2011-12-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

Charlotte's sweet kindergarten teacher sent this picture to everyone last week. Apparently Santa came for a visit. What's funny is, as we were driving into the carpool lane, we looked in Brooke's classroom (like we do everyday) and saw Santa! Charlotte was so excited and wanted to go see him. I figured he would show up in her class too.
Notice all the boys? There's like 15 boys in her class and 6 girls...feel so sorry for the teachers because those boys are all handfuls! Charlotte is in the bottom right corner.

A few weeks ago we went to Muncie for our Stake Nativity Exhibit. I was emailed this picture a few days ago.

Here's a couple pics from Conner Prairie that were on my phone. Nathan was having too much fun building a Rapunzel tower.

This was Charlotte's favorite gingerbread house...probably because it was pink. There were several other AMAZING gingerbread houses.

Santa's House

2011-12-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we visited Santa on the square. We didn't have to wait too long and they had free hot chocolate for us.

Brooke asked for an "I can be Barbie" and Charlotte asked for a barbie airplane.

After seeing Santa, we made a quick trip to Conner Prairie. They had some Christmas activities going on, including a gingerbread village. Those pictures are on my phone, I'll have to upload them later. There were some pretty amazing gingerbread houses.

The girls had fun building with lincoln logs that were supposed to be gingerbread houses??? Not really sure, but they had a good time.

They were trying to build Rapunzel's castle, I think.

They had more activities going on outside, but we didn't make it to those. I don't think anyone wanted to go back out in the cold. :)

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2011-12-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

We've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit around here. It has been slow going as just about all of us were sick Thanksgiving weekend at one point (except Nathan). We got to watch Adam again, although I was sick in bed the entire time. I did find a lovely picture of him on my camera though.

We did have a few hours of no sickness in our house briefly Friday after Thanksgiving. We went to the tree lighting in Downtown Noblesville. We love living in small towns, with their quaint shops and restaurants, but still close to bigger towns and better shopping. :-) First, they had a musical program inside the courthouse.

Then everyone went outside and they sang a few more carols, and then lit up the tree. It was a very nice night, so it was fun to walk around and look at some of the decorations. We need to make a visit to see Santa soon. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving started for Charlotte at school on Tuesday. The kindergarten classes had a Thanksgiving feast. One class was Pilgrims (Charlotte's), one class was Indians, and the other class was turkeys. They had turkey, cranberry sauce, cornbread muffins, pumpkin pie, and cranberry juice. Unfortunately, this was the only Thanksgiving meal Charlotte got to enjoy. :( She got sick on the way to Grandma's house...boy was that fun. She laid around at grandma's house most of the time, and then wanted to eat...bad idea. It came up again...

We drove home with a bucket and towel, just in case. Thankfully it was not needed. We passed by this amazing display of Christmas lights. I know, the pictures just don't do it justice. There was a Noah's ark, a grinch, farm animals, a moving train, and much, much more. We'll probably have to drive thru again, as Charlotte was not in the best mood. She enjoyed it, but could probably enjoy it even more when she is feeling 100%.

We have so much to be thankful for...too many to list. Hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Break Fun

2011-10-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

So we had a lot going on this past week. We had Fall Break so we packed in as much fun as we possibly could. Bounce houses, a trip to the park, fall parties at school, Headless Horseman at Conner Prairie, Zoo Boo, the pumpkin patch, and just plain fun with friends.

I've been having technical difficulties so it's all going in one post, and they're all out of order. Just know it was all fun!

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Trick or Treat!

2011-10-31T18:14:00.001-07:00

Brooke is Rapunzel from Tangled and Charlotte is Minnie Mouse. Our friends invited us to come trick or treating with them in their neighborhood. We only went up and down a few courts and the kids scored a whole lot of loot! And it was beautiful weather, perfect!!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-30T14:13:00.000-07:00

The pictures are all out of order, but we went to the pumpkin patch yesterday and then we carved our pumpkins. Russell Farms was really fun, and it was a little chilly, but at least the sun was shining. The girls had a great time running from one thing to another. The corn maze for once wasn't too difficult, but the mini golf course was HARD!!

Zoo Boo

2011-10-28T18:26:00.001-07:00

Time Out for Women

2011-10-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago, I had the awesome privilege of attending Time Out For Women in Cincinatti, well Covington Kentucky anyway. My friend, Amy in Kentucky started organizing a group long before I moved. It was fun too see some old friends and meet some new ones. We stayed up late playing a fun game and laughing really hard, which is always on Amy's to do list. :-) We ate at a yummy pizza place, La Rosa's. So good, I want to go back just to eat there again and not be so rushed.

The speakers were great, as always and inspired me to be a better person. Isn't that something we can all work on?

I really intended on taking lots of pictures, but failed miserably.

Fall Fun

2011-10-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

Conference Fun

2011-10-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

The girls were excited to watch cousin Adam on Saturday. They just love babies and wanted to do everything for him. In fact, they would fight over playing with him, feeding him, etc. They couldn't get enough of him.

Charlotte loved when he would kind of wrestle with her. She would egg him on and say, "He loves me!". It was so funny.

They also loved pushing him around in the baby carriage. He liked it too.

As if watching him wasn't fun enough, we also got to watch some of their favorite friends from church on Saturday night. Their mom works nights at the hospital and the dads were going to the Priesthood session of General Conference. I can't say I was excited about it after watching Adam all day, but I knew the girls would love it, so that's all that matters, right?? We turned a movie on about 9:00 and a couple of them fell asleep...not one of mine unfortunately, but oh well. The three girls are 6, 7, and 9. They all get along great.

I can't say that a whole lot was gotten out of General Conference this weekend. We did get Adam to sleep during the first session on Saturday so the girls actually sat and listened during that one and worked on some fun papers I printed out for them. I wasn't feeling so great yesterday so I had a hard time paying attention. What I heard, I loved and look forward to the Ensign coming out.

Here's one more picture of Charlotte playing dress up during Conference.

A Country Fair and a Fancy Party

2011-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Conner Prairie for a good, old fashioned Country Fair! There was all kinds of fun things to do and we didn't even see it all or do everything!

Highlights: The Apple Store! It had some yummy apple treats, but will we ever find yummy apple donuts like we had in Michigan??? :-(

BIG tractors!

A tomahawk throwing contest that Nathan has been DYING to participate in. hehehe. He actually made the landing on this throw!

Some really fun, really crazy bikes that we got to take a ride on. It was pretty exciting.

We made an egg-a-pault. (A catapault with an egg in it...you catapault it high in the air and see if the eggs cracks...ours did not)

We also took a hayride, made some crafts, and climbed up on big tractors.

Then last night I took the girls to Fancy Nancy party at the library. I wasn't sure if it could top the party we went to in Kentucky, but I still thought they would have fun. Click here to refresh your memory. Brooke didn't really want to go, but she didn't really have a choice. Nathan was out of town and so it was going to be our FHE. Charlotte threw on some dress up clothes and off we went. Of course, once we got there, Brooke thought it was awesome and wanted to participate. We read a couple books, watch a video of the author, made some masks, and had a snack. I didn't think it compared to the one in Kentucky, but the girls said this one was best. So whatever makes them happy.

Charlotte kept taking off some of her accessories, so Brooke would put them on, since she hadn't wanted to dress up, it worked out.

Morse Park and Beach

2011-09-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Charlotte and I recently spent the morning at Morse Park and Beach. It has a great playground right on the Lake. There is a beach but we never made it there this summer. Lots of fisherman were nearby and there was a nice breeze. I could've stayed on the swing all day...AAAhhh

Duck Race

2011-09-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

Have you missed me? Didn't think so...I haven't had much to blog about lately now that school has started. And I never seem to have my camera on me to catch fun things...but I always have my phone!

I love living in a small(ish) town...Noblesville always has something going on. Saturday was no exception. They had a rubber duck race down the White River! You could purchase a duck for $5 and watch the ducks float down the river..I know weird, right? Apparently the money was going to some kind of charity. We didn't make it in time to purchase our duck but we did stop at the park to wait and watch the ducks float by. Oh, some of the winners got nice prizes!

State Fair

2011-08-28T15:26:00.001-07:00

We really had no intention of going to the Indiana State Fair this year. We can't ever seem to get out of there without spending a fortune. We'd already been to Holiday World and Smoky Mountains where we rode rides and walked around in the hot sun. But, when I found out that the last Friday they were offering free admission to the fair, I decided we should go. It took my husband a little convincing though. We didn't do a whole lot, got our elephant ear, listened to some music, rode some ponies...

Free Family Fun

2011-08-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Nathan got some free tickets to the Moto Gp practice and qualifying on Saturday at the Speedway. The girls said they wanted to go, so we did. We weren't sure how long they would last and if they would even like it. But hey, they were free. They did get pretty bored/tired at the end, but we spent $10 on the most expensive ice cream to hold them until it was time to go. Nathan, on the other hand, was in heaven. We now know never to take our kids to that kind of race again.

Back to School

2011-08-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

School is back in session! Brooke started 3rd grade yesterday and seemed to have a great time in her 3rd school in 3 years.

Charlotte started Kindergarten! Yesterday we just went in for a 45 minute orientation type thing. She was so excited and wanted to go to school as soon as Brooke left. She wears her backpack around all day. Today was her first official day, and with her going in the afternoon, the morning seems to drag by for her. She constantly asks if it's time to go to school yet.

A Smoky Mountain Vacation

2011-08-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from what was supposed to be a relaxing family vacation in the Smoky Mountains. Not much relaxing when you have kids, right? They always want to be doing something. I guess it was supposed to be relaxing for Nathan, I had my relaxation in Minneapolis. And it was relaxing for him I guess, not having to deal with work for a whole week, which is hard since he has a company phone and has emails going to it all day and all night.

We left Wednesday morning and arrived to our cabin in the woods in the late afternoon. It was definitely nice to bring our own food and cook a little. Although, I learned after frying bacon for 1 hour on Thursday that I wasn't going to do that my whole vacation while everyone else was in the hot tub. So I guess it was nice to have a fridge and microwave and room to eat the food.

We saw a few shows: The Dixie Stampede, but can't say I was impressed. It's a dinner show, with yummy food, but you're supposed to eat and watch at the same time, while it's dark. Not so hard for me, but my kids hardly ate anything. And there was no silverware.

Of course we took a ride through the park in Cade's Cove. Really just to find bears, and we were not disappointed.

According to Brooke, the best part about the vacation was riding a tram up the mountain. Nathan thought it was a waste of money, but really, it's not something you get to do everyday when you live in Indiana. There was a whole other town up the mountain with rides, restaurants, shops, etc. The workers there left much to be desired. Pretty rude and unhelpful actually. I left a very long negative comment card with guest services. But I would do it again just to ride up the mountain...we'll avoid the rides the next time!

Oh, and we just HAD to go to a go-kart track. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) All we had to do was spend a bazillion dollars and we could ride everything we wanted all day long. Woohoo!!

We can't talk about how our 5 year old will go on the roller coaster, but our 8 year old won't. It's a pretty touchy subject so don't ask her. (the 8 year old)

Overall, it was a great trip. I think we're done traveling for a bit now since school is staring Wednesday!! Yippee!!

Minneapolis

2011-08-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... nobody wants to hear that I went on another trip with my husband sans kids. But let me clear something up...This was not really a getaway with my husband...I never saw my husband. He was tied up in meetings from 7 am to 10 pm. So I ate all my meals by myself (except when we were driving to and from), shopped by myself (don't really mind that) and went to a movie BY MYSELF! ( a little awkward, not sure I would do that again).

Let's see..I have absolutely no pictures to share with you from this trip...did I mention I was by MYSELF the whole time?? Who's gonna take a picture?

And I know nobody wants to hear that I got yet another pedicure, so I won't mention that. ;-) Or that I got my first ever manicure...no I won't tell you that either. I also won't tell you that I got a massage...I KNOW nobody wants to hear all about that.

I WILL tell you I spent a LITTLE too much money shopping, but not at the Mall of America like you might think. That place was just too big and too expensive. I stuck to my fave staple-Kohl's. A lot of money was spent there and I can tell you that I'm having buyer's remorse right about now. :-) Some of it may have to go back before my husband get's the bill ;-)

Dancing in the Streets!

2011-07-24T13:31:00.001-07:00

Last night, Noblesville had a street dance right downtown on the square. There was a girl I went to high school with that was in the band. I thought it would be fun to go and listen to the music for a while. And boy, was I right. The kids knew most of the songs and had a great time dancing and singing along!

Everyone was getting a kick out of the older couple that kept dancing through the crowds. It was awesome!

Apparently, the highlight of the night was getting some cotton candy. ;-)

Heat Wave!

2011-07-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wow! We have had some HOT weather here this week! We've have only gone outdoors if it involved water. ;-)

Good thing Noblesville has great parks! We met some girls from church at a splash park. They also had a fun playground.

Holiday World 2011

2011-07-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

We just got back from Holiday World, and boy was it fun! We've gone just about every year since Charlotte was a baby, and this is the first year that they both enjoyed the water slides and couldn't get enough! Years past, we've usually left around dinner time because they were so tired, but not this year! We pretty much closed the place down...not even stopping to eat dinner. Too much fun was to be had.

We learned a couple things while we were there.
1. Brooke is about 2 inches away from being TOO tall to ride some of the "kiddie" rides so probably won't be able to next year. She is tall enough to ride ANY of the water slides by HERSELF!!
2. Charlotte is abour 4 inches TOO SHORT to ride some of the water slides by herself. Maybe next year??
3. Charlotte has no fear...she will ride anything once. She had no problem getting on the "kiddie" roller coaster and loved it...Brooke, on the other hand, practically broke down in tears waiting in line.

If you remember from last year, Brooke did not like this ride. I finally convinced her to try again and they both did! Brooke wanted to go again but Charlotte was done the one time.

We can't wait to go back!

The Big 9-0

2011-07-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

While the Asay cousins were visiting, Great-Grandma Benjamin celebrated her 90th birthday! (Don't tell her I told you that...she doesn't like people to know how old she is!) My mom and aunt planned a HUGE surprise party for her on the Saturday after her birthday, but we had to do something on her actual birthday so she didn't think anything was up. My aunt and cousin Chelle came over and we had pizza and cake. Chelle brought her dog, Gus, to play with the kids in the backyard. They thought that was great! Chelle wanted to jump on the trampoline with all the kids but that didn't last long. Gus wanted in on the action and kept trying to jump up there too!

There are absolutely no pictures of the surprise party that was held at my mom's cousins house who has a pool. The kids were in the pool the whole time! I think Grandma was thoroughly surprised! Tons of family, long lost cousins, old friends, former co-workers, etc. And shame on me for not taking any pictures!

Arizona cousins come to visit!

2011-07-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

We are so glad the Asay cousins from Arizona came to visit (and their parents too). The last time we saw them was almost 4 years ago, so it was definitely time for a reunion. We jam packed lots of fun into one week, which again makes me wonder, is there such a thing as too much fun? There was one trip to the zoo, two trips to the Children's museum, laser tag, go karts, jumping on the tramp, swimming, sleepovers, bday celebrations, more swimming, and just plain fun with cousins. I didn't take nearly enough pictures and don't even have a single one of the baby. :( There are plenty of Brooke and Taylor though, cause they were pretty much inseparable from day one...which was great since the last time they saw each other they were 4 and 5.

Thanks for coming, and let's not have another 4 years go by until we see you again!

Brooke's Baptism

2011-07-11T13:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a great day. Brooke made the decision to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming. We had lots of family and friends there to witness the special occasion.

She has been inseparable from her "BCF" (Best Cousins Forever) Taylor who is visiting from Arizona. (I'll post later about all the fun things we've been doing since our Arizona cousins have been visiting). To celebrate, we had Taylor over to spend the night with us last night. The girls had a great time giggling in bed way past bedtime. So glad they are getting along ;)

Happy 4th!

2011-07-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July! We walked in Noblesville's parade with our ward. The kids got to ride in the float. The ward members handed out little booklets of the United States Constitution. It was a really cool idea, and I think people really enjoyed that.

After the parade, we went and got some dinner and then decided to head out to Cicero to watch the fireworks from the lake. It was a really great show!

St. Louis

2011-07-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

After leaving Nauvoo, we headed to St. Louis. The girls have been asking about where we got married (St. Louis Temple) so we wanted to show them! We drove by the temple on the way into town but didn't stop because it was late. We were going to try to go the next day. But in the morning we first wanted to try to go up in the Arch. Once we got downtown though, it was a madhouse! Some kind of 4th of July festival, complete with an air show. We couldn't even get anywhere near the Arch. So we decided to go to the Children's Museum instead. It was really crowded also, but the kids had a great time! By the time we left the museum, it was getting ready to storm pretty badly, so we didn't make it back to the temple. We drove in stormy weather for a few hours, actually. But I think the kids were satisfied with at least seeing where the temple was from the interstate.

Here are some fun pics from the museu. We didn't take too many, we were having too much fun!

City of Beautiful!

2011-07-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Nauvoo. I was so happy that the kids even enjoyed themselves and didn't hardly complain at all. We were only there from Friday late afternoon until Saturday late afternoon and we could've used another day. The kids favorite part were the shows. I just love those senior missionaries, they're so cute! They also enjoyed the pioneer pastimes, but we didn't spend nearly enough time there. It was the last thing we went to before we left and they didn't want to leave. Hopefully we can go back in a few years and spend a little more time there.

You can't leave Nauvoo without a Nauvoo brick!

Making rope!

We were serenaded by the Nauvoo Brass Band while we were eating lunch!

The Beautiful Nauvoo Temple

On the carriage ride to Inspiration Point

Favorite things: Summer 2011 Edition

2011-06-30T06:22:00.000-07:00

Favorite Park: Forest Park. I've never seen anything like it. This park has two different playgrounds, just a short walk from each other. One park is designed for smaller kids up to about 5 years of age. Right next to this playground is a carousel, mini golf course, and a snack shop. Also close by is a skate park and a train museum. The other playground is designed for kids aged 5-12. Brooke likes this park best. Fun, fun swings, rock climbing wall, three story merry go round, and more. This park also has a pool, where we did swimming lessons, walking trails, and a golf course. We love it and have spent many hours there!

Favorite past time: SWIMMING! The best part about living in an apartment complex is the pool! The girls could stay all day. We usually wait until after lunch and sometimes we go with our neighbor friends, or we make friends there. Brooke is really doing great getting around and has been venturing to the deep end. She never takes a break, she's just go, go, go. Charlotte has a great time too, she still has use floaties. She can get around better with those on. She'll take a few breaks now and then, and gets right back in. It's never really too crowded, which has been nice. We usually go during the week, but went on Saturday afternoon recently, and it wasn't crowded then either! It has been a great FREE activity to do, and it wears them out to sleep better!

Favorite mini-vacay-Well, I hope it'll be a fave, we're leaving for Nauvoo tomorrow! The last time we went with kids, Brooke was 2 and she doesn't remember it at all. We hope that they'll enjoy it and get something out of it. I'm excited to see it through my kids eyes. We're also going to make a stop in St. Louis. We got married in the St. Louis Temple and Brooke keeps asking where that is, so we're going to go there. Maybe go up in the Arch too...who knows??

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Little Treasures

2011-06-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

Our Family Home Evening didn't start out great on Monday night. We attempted to go geocaching, but had no luck. I guess we didn't look hard enough. But the night was saved when Nathan pulled into the parking lot of Dairy Queen. That solves everything, right?

Then I remembered a park I had happened to drive by one day with a covered bridge. We found it and stopped to play for a bit and walk through the bridge. The playing didn't last long though, because Charlotte fell down and really hurt her knee. She's got a nice, purple bruise on her knee now.

With all the rain we've had lately, we made a new friend. We found this little guy on our back porch one night after lots of rain. I guess I should mention we had a pond right outside our back door and at night we hear all the toads loud and clear :-)

Trip to the Zoo

2011-06-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

We picked the hottest day of the week to go to the zoo...Oy. We did get to see an elephant paint a picture though.

A couple sharks were putting on a show for us. This one was dancing straight up about the water. Never seen that before...

We may have started a new tradition...cooling off in the sprinkler park. Just wished I would've jumped in too... :D

Swimming lessons

2011-06-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

The girls did GREAT at swimming lessons this week! Brooke even liked her boy teacher (she has a fear/dislike of males in a new situation). I was a little worried the first day, but she had no problems. Charlotte ended up having an individual lesson, which was awesome! She loved her teacher too. They were outdoor lessons, and it was supposed to be a cool week. Thankfully, they moved the lessons to the indoor pool at the high school a few days.

Of course, the highlight is being able to go down the slide on the last day.

I don't know why Brooke couldn't go down by herself...it's not that different from the water parks we've been to...except maybe you're landing in deep water...

Conner Prairie

2011-06-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

In all my years of living in Indiana, I had never been to Conner Prairie...how sad is that? I knew when we moved to Noblesville that I would have to take my kids there since we would be so close. We actually drive by it on the way to church. So yesterday we made our first visit, but not our last. We got a membership so we can go as much as we want! Charlotte enjoyed the "play" areas where you could dress up or play pretend. Brooke enjoyed the historical parts of it, like the school house, the inn, and the homes. They did not like the Civil War re-enactment. It was a little too intense for both of them and we had to leave that part of it. But it was really fun and we will go back!

Heading into the Civil War zone!

Checkers, anyone?

For 12.5 cents, you can have a spot in the bed!

Tea party time!

We found a playground!

Water fight!

2011-06-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

The girls have made friends with a few other girls where we live. They like to play out back in the courtyard. The other day they decided to have a water fight with all their clothes on. Good thing it was the end of the day!

We are doing swim lessons this week. I always pick the worst week to do outdoor lessons. Springlike temps this week with rain in the forecast!! Normally I would love that kind of weather, but not for swim lessons! They did great today though, even if it was a little chilly.

A New Start

2011-06-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Noblesville, Indiana. Those of you unfamiliar with the Indianapolis area, it is about 20 miles north of Indianapolis. It's funny, because growing up on the southside of Indy, I never thought I'd be a "northsider". But I am and it doesn't seem so weird. I know we've been moving around a lot in the last few years, but I'm really hoping to settle down soon! The kids make friends everywhere we go and for some reason Brooke was really sad about this move the most. She talked to her BFF Katelyn every day for the first few days after we left. We are currently in a two bedroom/one and one half bath townhouse, so it's a little small, but we will make do...at least it has two toilets!! That was an issue for the last year. The closets are big so we have plenty of room to "stuff" extra stuff in. I can live with less now so we can have more later. Who wants to pay a lot of money on rent? Not us! We will hopefully save a lot of money so we can buy in the next year or two. That's the plan anyway.

We haven't done a whole lot yet, just unpacking. Our community does have a pool which we used on Monday. Not too crowded at all, which was surprising. Brooke got sick that night with an ear infection and we haven't been back since. Charlotte was sick the beginning of last week, Nathan the end of last week (while moving in, good thing we had movers) and now Brooke. Anyway, I hope to get to the pool often, so I can work on my tan ;-) And the farmers tan.

We did visit the Noblesville library to sign up for the summer reading program. They also have an adult summer reading program! I love it!! The library is very nice and very big. That is one of my requirements when moving to a new place- must have library!

I guess I didn't mention Nathan was just transferred to the Indianapolis office with his job. Not a promotion or job change, same thing, just different location. The office is on the northside of Indy, hence our northside location. :-)

I always feel like posts are boring without pictures. While waiting for Brooke's scrip at Kroger the other day, I snapped this of Charlotte. These small carts may come in handy while shopping. Brooke was so puny she couldn't even walk.

We went to dinner with our friends, the Anderson's, the night before they moved. We moved a few days after them.

Charlotte modeling some new birthday outfits.

Charlotte's 5!

2011-05-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

On Charlotte's actual birthday we went with her friend Gretchen to a fun kids place. It was half inflatables, half gymnastics. They had slides and tunnels and mazes, plus trampolines, foam pits, trapezes, rope swings, balance beams, and more. It was a fun day. Unfortunately my camera wasn't really working very well so I didn't get very many good pictures.

Saturday was the big day she was waiting for though. We had a few friends from church over for a Princess Party. Pretty much the same kind of party from last year, just different girls and Brooke. Last year the party was during school and Brooke couldn't be there, but this year Brooke requested she be able to attend. :D She was kinda like the party director. It was great. We played a few games like Pin the Crown on the Castle, and Pass the Glass Slipper. We had some snacks and played dress up. Then for the last 1/2 hour they just wanted to play with the barbies and princesses. So play they did.

Chuck-E-Cheese

2011-05-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to go to Chuck-E-Cheese as a family to celebrate Brooke's birthday. Since she was sick on her birthday we had to find another day to go. We finally got there the other day. We made it a combined birthday celebration since Charlotte's birthday is this coming week. We left as soon as Brooke got home from school and so we got there by 3:30. Perfect time to be at Chuck-E-Cheese!! We almost had the whole place to ourselves. We let them play for about an hour and then we ordered our pizza. By the time we left after 5:00, it was starting to get busy.

Hmmm...where did Daddy disappear to?? He's supposed to be helping one of the kids!!

Charlotte was always too distracted to actually look at the camera. lol

New couch

2011-05-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I went from this...

to this...

After 11 years of marriage I'd say it was time for an upgrade, wouldn't you? Not brand new, I scored it for $75 at a garage sale today!

Big Splash

2011-05-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

Brooke and I left Friday after school for a FUN girl scout trip. We went to a hotel/water park in French Lick with some of the girl scouts and their moms. They did such a great job selling cookies that we had to reward them in a BIG way. We got in about 5:00 Friday night and swam for a few hours. Then woke up on Saturday and swam for SEVERAL more hours! The girls hardly got tired at all. We didn't get home until about 6 pm last night but it was a blast!! Here are the highlights in pictures:

I have lots more pictures, but I will spare you all. Just know, it was a GREAT time! Brooke already wants to go back!

Field Trip

2011-05-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

Last week I was a chaperone on a field trip to the Louisville Science Center. I can't really say it was a fun time...I got a headache from sitting to close to the IMAX movie, one of the girls kept running away from me, and another kept complaining the whole time. Not to mention riding a school bus...But Brooke was glad I went and I'm glad I got to spend the time with her.

It's GREAT to be EIGHT!!

2011-05-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Brooke is 8 today! It would be GREAT except she is home sick from school today :(. She has a bit of a stomach bug, poor thing. The nice thing about it is dad is working from home today and he's not been too busy so they've played the WII for several hours. We had a plans to get pedicures after school (a friend got her a gift certificate--they know us too well)and then go to Chuck-E-Cheese for dinner. We may still do the pedicures if she's feeling up to it later.

She did have a fun birthday party with friends this past weekend. I had planned to do a park party since our house is so small. Then it had been raining nonstop and I didn't know if that would work out or not. The morning of the party was hit or miss showers, but the weather during the party was perfect! It was a great day!

Afterschool Adventures

2011-05-02T11:00:00.001-07:00

Brooke has been participating in some fun end of the year after school activities. Girl Scouts is winding down and last week the girls tie dyed some bandanas. It was a lot of fun and exciting to find out what it looked like the next day!

She also participated in Clay Club for a few months at school. Her teacher had a short program and open house displaying all of their beautiful work.

She was also in Choir and they had their end of the year performance last week. She has had a great time participating in all of these activities.

In a few weeks, the girl scouts are having their end of the year celebration as well. We're going to an indoor water park/hotel in French Lick Indiana. That should be exciting!

And, if you didn't hear on facebook...We're moving!! Nathan is being transferred to the Indy office. Still in the process of finding a place to live...stay tuned!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

The fun started on Friday when Charlotte and I went to the library for story time (like just about every Friday). Her best friend Gretchen met us there also with her mom and baby brother. But the best part of the story time was the Easter Egg Hunt!! That is probably one of Charlotte's FAVORITE things to do is go on an Easter Egg hunt. They hid the eggs in the adult section of the library...that was brave! If the day couldn't get any better, we invited Gretchen to come along to McDonald's with us. (It's kind of a Friday tradition because there is a McDonald's with a indoor playland close to the library). Both girls were so excited and kept saying that it was the best day ever!! I love when everyone's happy! They had a great time as always in the play area, and at one point Gretchen asked us if we would invite her to McDonald's the next time we went. Ha ha! Of course!

I called Gretchen's mom as we were leaving to tell her we were on our way. I was telling her how I had to go drop stuff off at church for our Stake's Day of Service (Swap and Shop). She offered to have Charlotte over to her house while I did what I needed to do. I was afraid that they were going to get tired of each other, but no! They were so excited to spend a few more hours together. Charlotte barely said goodbye as I dropped her off.

I got to the church to drop my stuff off and decided to stay a little while to help organize. There was a ton of stuff! Mostly clothes, toys, and baby items. Also, books, bedding, home decor, and furniture. Nathan brought Brooke over after school and she was quite the worker! She wanted to help in any way. She loved it and I was so glad! She was running items to different rooms and putting things where they go. She was there for 2 hours working hard and didn't want to leave. Is this the same child that won't hardly lift a finger at home???

Saturday was the Swap and Shop. There was also supposed to be an Easter Egg Hunt and carwash but they were cancelled due to the weather. It's been raining cats and dogs for 2 weeks straight it seems! So I was glad that Charlotte had her Easter egg hunt at the library the day before. They still gave the kids candy though..like they needed any more. :-)

Anyway, the kids each wanted to pick out a toy, of course. One picked a microphone and the other a small keyboard...great more loud things. They also got some movies and books. It was so crowded, I couldn't believe it. And it was POURING the whole time.

That afternoon after the swap and shop, we dyed our Easter eggs! Another favorite activity.

The kids woke up early Easter morning to find out what the Easter Bunny brought...I don't know why they think it's like Christmas because all it is is candy...Although apparently our Easter Bunny brought us toys last year, but not this year...Hmmm...either the kids weren't as good this year, or is tired of all the crappy toys...I mean, really? Do we really need any more toys? That's what I thought.

We went to church and then went to some friends for dinner. It was very yummy and the kids had a great time playing! We had a wonderful Easter!

Passing notes

2011-04-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

So, I know I have a lot of updating to do, but I just have to post this note that Nathan and Brooke were passing back and forth to each other on Sunday during Sacrament meeting...I know, I know, it was Easter and they should've been paying attention to the speakers, right? Well, our sound system got struck by lightning the night before and the microphone wasn't working. Therefore, it was very hard to hear and pay attention.

BROOKE: Hey dad, what are you doing?
DAD: Patty cake with Charlotte
BROOKE: What cake?
DAD: Patty Cake, Patty Cake, bakers man
BROOKE: I don't see any cake!
DAD: It's play cake, imagination cake
BROOKE: you mean there is no cake?
DAD: No cake
BROOKE: You mean it really is your imagination?
DAD: Your imagination. There will be salad and bread later.
BROOKE: Well I wanted to eat that cake
DAD: No cake for you
BROOKE: Please I'm starving
DAD: You should've had lunch
BROOKE: I ate lunch
DAD: Then you should not be hungry
BROOKE: You know this is all supposed to fake right?
DAD: The Real Real McCoy.
BROOKE: What does that mean?
DAD: It means this is the real deal
BROOKE: So this is starting to get real?
DAD: It has been real the whole time
BROOKE: So let's change the subject. you can
DAD: What is Easter about?
BROOKE: silly things

And that was the end of the note...Easter is about silly things? I guess we need to work on that some more.

Thunder over Louisville

2011-04-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Kentucky Derby is a big deal here in Kentucky. Kinda like the Indianapolis 500 in Indy. Thunder over Louisville starts the 2 week long festival leading up to the Derby. People go and camp out on the lawn down by the river and wait all day for the show to start. There is an air show from 3-8 and then fireworks at 9:30. I have been told that these fireworks are the best I'll ever see. They set them off on one of the bridges and also have fireworks on barges. Well, I really wasn't excited to go and wait around all day with the crowds of people. Maybe if it was just me and my husband, but I didn't figure my kids would think it was very fun. And it was really cold, rainy, and windy. So we just decided to see how close we could get without getting into too many crowds. There is a road that follows the river that has a few parks that we could possibly park at. We hopped in the car around 8 pm and Charlotte fell asleep right away. We drove down River Road, I saw a perfect spot to stop, and my husband kept on driving...Grrr...I'm not gonna lie, I was a little mad. I didn't want to go any further. He kept driving and driving...we ended up right downtown by the bridge. There wasn't a big crowd, but I didn't want to park and walk because 1. Charlotte was asleep. 2. There weren't a lot of people, but there were a lot of drunks 3. I didn't want to fight the crowd afterwards. 4.Did I mention it was cold and windy and a little drizzly?? Maybe if the weather had been nicer, but I just wanted to go back to the spot I had picked out earlier. My husband finally got the hint (it wasn't really a hint, I straight up told him what I wanted)and we EVENTUALLY got back to the original spot I had picked out earlier with no time to spare. The fireworks had already started. We didn't have the best view, since we couldn't actually see the bridge or the barges but the kids didn't really care. Oh yeah, Charlotte woke up in time to see the fireworks. I was really worried she wouldn't go back to sleep when we got home, but no fear! She fell right back asleep when we started driving home. So did Brooke! Score!!

Yes, Brooke is on top of the car. She saw some other kids doing it and wanted to do it too.

We didn't take pictures until the end and this isn't a very good one. But, it just shows how much the sky lit up every time the fireworks went off.

Here is what it actually looks like if you're up close and personal. Maybe next year....

Bowling

2011-04-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

We had a great time bowling together as a family last weekend. This was the first time Charlotte was actually interested in bowling, as opposed to just playing with the ball and running around. Maybe it's all the bowling on the WII we've been doing.

Picnic at the Park

2011-04-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today we met a bunch of friends at the park. We took sack lunches and spent the day there. Well, four hours seemed like the day. It was a beautiful day and I got a sunburn on my arms. I don't think anybody remembered to bring sunscreen. I hope my kids are getting worn out and will go to bed earlier tonight. They've been going to bed late and this morning they both slept in until 9:30! We're going to have a hard time getting back on schedule when school starts back up again on Monday...Oh well, here are some of our pics from our time at the park.

We also went roller skating yesterday with some friends. It didn't start out so fun with both my kids wanting me to walk around the rink with them holding their hands..at the same time(that doesn't work so well when they are both pulling you in their direction). But Brooke ended up doing ok with her friend that tried to help her and encourage her and in turn Brooke helped another friend get the courage to go without her mom. It was a great moment. Charlotte ended up just running around because daddy does a better job at helping her. So it ended up being a fun day after all.

We were trying to do the hokey pokey, but Charlotte wouldn't let go of me for me to get a very good picture of Brooke. And yes, they wanted to buy matching shirts...

Oh, and thanks for the love. Sometimes I just like to know someone else is reading...

Spring Break

2011-04-04T14:34:00.001-07:00

Spring Break is here and it started with a wonderful General Conference weekend. I really enjoyed the talks and have a desire to be a better mother, wife, sister, and friend. We tried to get the kids involved by having papers to fill out or color. That was one of the things Brooke requested at the beginning of the week when we started talking about Conference. She wanted to make ice cream (check), build a tent (hmm..didn't ask again) and have her "papers". It worked for a little while...they were in and out. But I feel like I can finally get something out of it without having to take care of kids...haha they can take care of themselves now. What was one of the talks though? It's like having FHE with the Bedlamites. They may not remember tomorrow what was talked about, just that we had it.

So my husband is the homemaker of the family or is trying to fatten all of us up (too late?). He made donuts, homemade strawberry yogurt, and bread. Sheesh. We had to call some friends to come take some donuts off our hands.

Here is Charlotte, amongst the mess, working on probably coloring someone's tie. For some reason, that is their favorite thing to do.

I couldn't resist going to get a pedicure today with my girls. What can I say, it's a great bonding experience. ;-)

By the way, will you show me some love today? Whether we've known each other forever, or barely know each other at all, leave me a comment. I just want to know if you're reading...or if I'm boring the heck out of people!

Service

2011-04-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to do some service for a local Women's Shelter. They were moving to a new location and really wanted some window treatments to add color and life to their new home. As a Relief Society (the largest women's organization in the world), we made some curtains and valances and then went to install them. (Well, I can't say I did it, most of you know I DO NOT sew. I guess you could say I oversaw and supervised as that was part of my calling at the time...but have since been released. I am now a Primary Teacher..YAY!) Anyway, it felt great to serve and see how much they really appreciated what we did. We took our kids with us to put the window treatments in and it was a great learning experience for them to see how other people live. Not everyone gets to live with both their parents and may have to work a little harder to get the neccesities of life. We hope that they will realize how good they have it. If not now, maybe some time in the future.

The hats say MIAMI, one of the directors said it stood for "Me I Am Mission Involved."

These are just a few of the pictures. We actually hung over 20 valances and curtains in the whole house. The bathroom needed a privacy curtain and that turned out really well.

The Musical

2011-03-25T05:49:00.001-07:00

Brooke's musical was great! Too bad she was in the back row where we could hardly see her (or get any good pictures)

I love this picture because they were jumping and I took it at just the right time that she's higher than most of the other kids.

She was a swimmer and sang and danced during "Under the Sea". I could tell she was a little nervous to be out in front of everyone.

We went to Dairy Queen to celebrate afterwards, and saw half of her girl scout troop there!

Reality Re-cap

2011-03-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

DANCING WITH THE STARS

Anybody else watching this season? I wasn't really excited for the "stars" this time around but was actually pleasantly surprised on Monday. BIGGEST SURPRISES: Ralph Macchio, Kirstie Allie, and Sugar Ray Leonard. I also think Kendra Wilkinson and Chelsea Kane will do pretty well.

AMERICAN IDOL

What was going on this week? All kinds of weird, crazy surprises. Somebody's leftover dinner, a crazy African dance, and Hulk Hogan.

Jacob Lusk-don't really care for him. Sure, he's a great singer. But he had a choir singing with him on the first week. Where do you go from there? I didn't think his performance warranted all those hugs.

Scotty McCreery- I love country so I don't mind him. In fact, I think I have a small crush on him. But, it's hard to get the country out of him when he's supposed to be singing Motown.

Paul McDonald- I definitely have a crush on this guy. I know he dances weird, but I like it. He's got such a great stage presence and is so comfortable and confident.

James Durbin- Love him. Just wish he would get rid of his "tail".

Casey Abrams-Love him too, even if he is a little crazy. I was also shocked he was going to be sent home. When the judges saved him, I thought he was about to faint or something. He was shaking life a leaf. I was a little surprised the judges used the save so early on, but glad they did.

Stefano-don't care too much for him. Wish he would've been sent home last night.

Pia-definitely has a great voice, probably the best of the girls.

Thia-great voice, but too young.

Naima-interesting...like her voice but that African dance was a little...different.

Lauren-like her, but also a little young.

Haley-thought her performance this week was one of her better ones.

Musical Preview

2011-03-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Girl's Night!

2011-03-15T05:05:00.001-07:00

Here's to proof that I do have friends in Kentucky. My friend Francine (back row right, with red vest) graciously hosted a Bachelor Finale Party last night. At first we didn't think anybody else would come, but word spread and there ended up being 12 other women there! It was a really fun night. I was so glad Brad picked Emily. After the Final Rose was a bit of downer though. They're together, they're not together...Just make up your mind!

I was disappointed they didn't announce the next Bachelorette...but found on-line that it's Ashley H! Apparently it was announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live?

Why didn't I think of that??

2011-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

I got this idea on a food blog. You set out some fruits and veggies in a muffin tin right before dinner to give something to the kids to munch on while they wait. I didn't know if it would work but I gave it a try. I'd just gotten some veggies from my dinner group, and they happened to be some of Brooke's favorites. Brocolli, cauliflower, grape tomatoes, and carrots. The empty spot was where the grape tomatoes were. Both girls love them and I need to buy them more often. I've tried it a couple times since then and it has been a hit! Anything to get them to eat more fruits and veggies!

Science Center

2011-02-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

We went with some friends to the Science Center today. We had never been so we were pretty excited to go! And going with friends makes it so much more fun! There was a really fun kids zone that had lots of interactive things, but it was really crowded. There were several school groups there so it was a little difficult to keep track of kids. But we're glad we went.

There was a "Germ Kitchen" that was really kinda gross but cool at the same time! It told about germs in trash cans, dish towels, sponges, ovens, the counters, and the sink. There were fingerprints all over the place and pretend food smudges. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever.

In Memory

2011-02-25T18:33:00.000-08:00

My one and only uncle,(by blood anyway)Edward Damrell passed away today. My mom's only brother, my grandma's only son. He collapsed and lost consciousness Sunday and never woke up. I'm grateful for the time we spent with him at my cousin, his daughter, Chelle's house in July.

I'm so grateful for the knowledge of eternal families and know that he is having a wonderful reunion with his son and father.

Fancy Nancy

2011-02-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

The library had a "Fancy Nancy Party" yesterday. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Fancy Nancy, it is a cute set of books for little girls. The little girl is named Nancy, and she likes to dress up fancy and say fancy words. Charlotte loves the series and I knew she would LOVE the party. We had to sign up for the party and I was a little late signing up due to being in Vegas. We were originally on the waiting list, but got a call Friday afternoon that some spots opened up. So we were pretty excited!

We had some girls from a ballet school show us some moves...is that proper for a ballerina??

First, they danced for us and then the little girls could join in. Not my girls though. Brooke is generally shy and I don't think Charlotte was feeling great.

They got to have some yummy snacks and some lemonade.

Ms. Shannon read some Fancy Nancy books. We love Ms. Shannon. She is awesome and always putting on great parties/storytimes for the kids. I want her job when I grow up...

They also got to do some crafts...a tiara and a flower picture frame. The craft is always their favorite part of any library activity.

Madame Tussauds

2011-02-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to go to Madame Tussauds. We couldn't both agree on a show to see, so instead of spending money on something we weren't going to like, we went to Madame Tussauds instead. It was pretty cool, but at the same time a little strange. Sometimes it was hard to tell from across the room if it was a statue or a real person. They were pretty believable!!

Some of our favorites:

Ok so that was a lot of pics. I guess I couldn't narrow them down. :-)

Vegas!

2011-02-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

Nathan was attending a conference in Vegas and I went with him to have a nice, relaxing time. (Remember Florida last year?) Unfortunately, relaxing it was not. I did not realize how loooooong the strip was. We stayed on one end of the strip at the Hilton. It was more of a business like atmosphere with no smoking and no casino, which was fine since we don't gamble or smoke. All the other hotels/attractions we wanted to see was on the other end: The Bellagio, the Venetian, Caesar's Palace, etc. The first night we got there, we were meeting some friends for dinner who were in town for business too. We knew where they were staying and hadn't heard back from them about where they wanted to eat, so we just started walking in their direction.(And by this time it was about 10 p.m. our time) We ended up walking about two miles to eat in the Venetian. And since it was night, I wanted to look nice so I wore some cute sandals with a heel. That was a bad idea. I think we ended up getting on the monorail on the way back to the hotel. But you still had to walk a ways to get to the station that ran BEHIND all the hotels.

I didn't get much smarter the next day. I wore the same sandals just a few blocks away to the Conference Center that Nathan was getting an award for a project he completed with his classmates from school in Michigan. It was a business casual event and I hadn't planned on going, but found out that morning he DID want me to go. All I had were jeans, capris, and a skirt. I really didn't want to wear the skirt so he suggested the capris and the sandals. On the way there, I ended up tripping and falling down on the sidewalk, and according to Nathan, I wasn't even chewing gum or talking on my cell phone. I did something to the top of my foot, and had a hard time walking the rest of the day. But after the conference, we walked around the strip for a little bit, but I had only changed into flip flops. We met some of Nathan's former classmates and professors for dinner, which turned into a 4 HOUR DINNER. We had a good time talking and laughing, but by the end of the night my foot was throbbing (the one I had hurt earlier in the day). It was only a few blocks back to our hotel but I made Nathan get a cab. Thank goodness there was one right outside the hotel we were at that took right to our hotel doors. I iced my foot that night and it felt a lot better in the morning.

The next day, I wasn't planning on going with him to the Conference, so I stayed back at the hotel. This was probably the most relaxing day. I decided I REALLY needed a pedicure and thank goodness they had one in the hotel. It was not cheap though but they gave me the royal treatment. My feet felt a whole lot better when they were done. After that, I went back to my room and had lunch and read a little of my book club book (The Book Thief). When Nathan got back around 2, he took a little nap and off we went to see more of the sights. This time I was smart and wore tennis shoes :-).
Some of our favorite sights: The fountains at the Bellagio-AMAZING and probably our favorite! We saw it two different times and it was different both times.

The main reason to go to Vegas. Two of his classmates that worked on the project.

This was our dessert one night...a strawberry tree with white and regular chocolate fondue. I didn't feel guilty about it since I had walked about 10 miles in two days. :-)

Next post: Madame Tussauds

Sledding

2011-01-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

We went sledding on Saturday with some friends. This hill was a little big for Charlotte though so she didn't last long. Brooke had a great time! The hill was also pretty icy. We need to find a smaller hill...

Brooke lost tooth number 8 finally. It seems like it was loose for months. She had to take a self-portrait.

We had another snow day yesterday. But not enough for sledding or snowmen. We are now in school until June 3rd.

We leave for Vegas in 2 days!! See ya on the flip side!

Snow Days

2011-01-21T18:01:00.000-08:00

So we've had more than our fair show of snow days around here. They cancel school when there is a THREAT of snow. Like yesterday. The snow wasn't supposed to come until the afternoon. But instead of going to school and maybe letting out early, they just canceled it altogether. Oh, the snow came. But it didn't really start until about 12:30. By 2:30 there was a lot on the ground. I've lost track of how many days we've missed. I think we're up to 7. We started earlier than everyone else, and now we're going to be going LATER than everyone else. What's wrong with this picture? Evidence that it did indeed snow:

All in all, I think we got about 4 or 5 inches. Nothing to write home about. It's funny just coming from Michigan, 4 or 5 inches would be nothing. People just went on about their day. School was NEVER canceled. Well maybe once or twice, but it had to be BAAADDD. What I disliked so much about Michigan was that it never STOPPED snowing. Once it started in November, it didn't stop until March. You never saw the grass, the sun didn't shine, it was FREEEEZZZZING. It was a little bit depressing. At least here, the sun shines and the snow melts within a couple days until the next snow comes. I can handle that.

Ok sorry for my rant, but it is my blog after all. So what did we do on our snow days?

Thursday, Nathan (with help from the girls) made donuts. Yummy! Yes, he is quite the baker, isn't he? Now if he would just do the dishes...
Friday we decided it was time to leave the house. I guess I should mention I've been sick all week and haven't left the house in 5 days except to go to the doctor. So I was definitely ready to leave the house. They decided they wanted to go roller skating! Good thing we had a free pass! Brooke invited a friend to come along to make it more exciting.
Hope you had a great Snow Day!

Go Baby, Go!

2011-01-15T10:02:00.000-08:00

Good news/Bad news

2011-01-14T18:28:00.001-08:00

GOOD NEWS: We've been having fun with Girl Scouts, selling cookies and we went to the Human Society to learn about pet care and got to play with a puppy.

BAD NEWS: Brooke is the only one in her girl scout troop who doesn't have either a cat or a dog. Fortunately, she doesn't seem fazed. But after a certain post on facebook about having pets as a child, it makes me wonder if I'm doing her a disservice by not having that experience. Hmmm...I think I'd rather have another baby. And NOOOOO, that is NOT an announcement.

GOOD NEWS: Look how cute these girls are!
BAD NEWS: Some of them will probably be taller than me in 1 year. Shoot, one girls mom is over 6 feet tall and I'm barely taller than her legs.

GOOD NEWS: I started a dinner swap with some girls from church and I'm loving it!
BAD NEWS: It's only the first week and I can already see myself gaining more weight in the near future. These are some good cooks!

GOOD NEWS: Brooke is waiting on tooth number 8 to fall out (for several months now-I don't know how it's hanging in there. I keep trying to bump into her, it worked once)
BAD NEWS: We need our favorite dental hygienist to pull it out! But she's on the other side of the country in Washington. :-(

GOOD NEWS: THE SNOW IS MELTING!!!
BAD NEWS: School was canceled for 2 days, but at least we got to sleep in...oh wait...we got the cancellation phone call at 6 am. No going back to sleep for me. But hey, at least the kids slept in, right?

GOOD NEWS: I started a book club. Our library has book club kits you can check out; how awesome is that?! They have a great selection of books to choose from too!
BAD NEWS: Our first book is The Book Thief and it seems to be a love it/hate it book. Either you love it or you hate it. I'm still neutral, but this is my second time trying to read it.

GOOD NEWS: We (Nathan and I) leave for Vegas in a couple weeks! Woohoo!
BAD NEWS: We fly through Atlanta so let's hope they don't get any more snow!!

Somebody got a haircut!

2011-01-05T17:08:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T19:28:00.001-08:00

We had a very low-key NYE. Absolutely no plans, which was ok by us. We stayed home and watched movies. We turned on Dick Clark's Countdown just in time to see NKOTB and BSB. Pretty much made my night. :-) I then waited for Ryan Seacrest to propose to Julianne Hough right on the air. It didn't happen though, and she wasn't even anywhere in sight. A girl can dream, can't she. Don't get me started on poor Dick Clark. When is enough, enough?

We had a pretty lazy morning. Which was needed after the last few days of ordering Nathan around getting things cleaned up from Christmas. We watched a little of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Charlotte decided to have a parade of her own. Well, at least with princesses standing on a truck. I thought it was cute. :-)

We then headed out to pick Brooke up from my parents. She stayed a few extra days after Charlotte and I left on Wednesday. She needed more time with gp's, cousins, and aunts, apparently. She had tons of fun, including a mani-pedi, Tangled, Great Times, eating out,sleeping in, and a birthday party. She needed to get home so she could use her new easy bake oven! We got the light bulb for it and she was excited to try it out.

She must've missed Charlotte...she was actually letting her help with stirring, and seen here, icing the cake!

YUMMY!!

Next on the list of things to do, was play the NEW Super Mario Brothers. We used a gift card to buy it this week when it was on sale at Target. Old habits die hard, and I think I prefer the OLD Super Mario Brothers on the original nintendo. But it was pretty fun trying!

That's pretty much all that's going on here. Looking forward to getting back on schedule on Monday, but not getting up early. It'll be a rough few days...

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T12:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks Halls!

Has anyone played Twister as an adult? It's much harder than I remember...OUCH!

We have had a very wonderful Christmas. Yesterday we were tracking Santa on google maps and it was very fun. We will have to make it a tradition every year.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2010-12-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

Nathan's birthday was on Monday, the 20th. I have no pictures to show for it because he walked in the door while I was making dinner and the girls immediately gave them the cards they made for him. Charlotte handed him his present and he opened it before I even had a chance to get my camera out. It all happened so quickly! But he pretty much knew what he was getting because it was the only thing he wanted. I think it may have been more of a present for Brooke though. It's been keeping her pretty busy the last few days. I found this picture on my camera as I was uploading to my computer.

Anybody else know what I'm talking about?

A Visit to Bethlehem

2010-12-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

Kentucky, that is. Who knew Bethlehem was only a 45 minute drive east?

Sing your heart out!

2010-12-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

Brooke loves to sing. She heard they were looking for people to sing in the Ward Choir for the Christmas program and wanted to do it! We have no problem singing, the problem was that they practice at 8 am Sunday mornings!! Yikes! We didn't make it the first Sunday, but then they had a practice during the week. A couple of her friends wanted to sing, but weren't interested in all the practice, but Brooke stuck it out the whole time. We even made it to the last 8 am practice before the performance. Charlotte happily colored in one of the pews while we practiced. Then during the service she sat with one of her babysitters. It was a fun experience for Brooke.

We also had an opportunity to go caroling. I found out that one of my Visiting Teacher's goes every year with her family. I asked if we could tag along one night. They go about 5 days straight before Christmas. I have very fond memories of caroling as a teenager, but have never been with my family. We had wanted to go Monday night for FHE, but it was Nathan's birthday, and it's not what he wanted to do. And he got Mario Kart and Brooke wanted to play that instead. But at 8:00, Brooke was done playing Mario Kart and wanted to go caroling. Sorry! Too late, maybe tomorrow.

So when it was time to go the next night, Brooke started to get nervous. She didn't know if she'd know all the songs, or she'd be embarrassed, I don't know. She wanted to bring her songbook with her. She almost backed out of going. I finally convinced her to try it out and she said she was only going to one house. One house turned into about 7 or 8. Both girls loved it! I didn't think Charlotte would really like it that much, but it was almost as fun as trick-or treating!

I think we have started a new tradition and will have to do this every year!

Snowballs, Santa mail, and a baby tiger?

2010-12-23T12:22:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we made a trip to Bass Pro Shops to see what their "Winter Wonderland" was all about. We had been stuck in the house after school had been canceled and needed to get out. We first ate lunch at Chuck-e-Cheese, then headed over. They had several activities going on. They had a snowball fight which the girls loved! The balls were only made out of pillow material, so it didn't hurt at all. The girls could've played in there forever!

Santa was there, but there was a line a mile long to sit on his lap, which both girls have already done several times. They did write him a letter though, and dropped it in his mailbox to read when he wasn't so busy.

We walked around the store a bit, it was bigger than I thought it was.

(Brooke likes to "pose" for the camera. Here she is pretending to be scared of a stuffed bear)

After walking around a little bit, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a tiger....WHAT!??! So Brooke and I went looking for it. It wasn't hard to find, there was a crowd following it. Apparently in this store, you can bring your cats and dogs and this man brought his cat :-) He said it was a nice tiger...Oh, and no jokes about Kentucky...We were actually actually across the bridge in Clarksville, IN!!

School's out!

2010-12-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

We had quite the weather here this week. First it snowed on Sunday so that school was canceled on Monday. Then we had an ice storm on Wednesday night which canceled school on Thursday and Friday!! The ice covered our driveway, our yard, the trees, the cars, everything. Our back deck was an ice skating rink to the girls. So we stayed busy by doing Christmas crafts, writing letters to santa, wrapping presents for family members of things they already own and love (Charlotte-it will be interesting what we find under the tree on Christmas morning), and baking, baking, and more baking. 2 batches of fudge, 6 batches of chocolate chip cookies, homemade oreo cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, and still more to do. They made gingerbread houses at the library on Monday. I thought it was a great idea to use someone else's supplies and not make the mess in our own kitchen. But then we had to transport it home. That didn't go so well. Charlotte sat on BOTH of them in the car.

Here's a funny picture. The girls were playing dress up and Brooke is wearing Charlotte's jeans and sweater. The jeans look like they are capri's on Brooke.

Hopefully we can enjoy the rest of our Christmas Break, without getting on each other's nerves!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest

2010-12-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had our Church Christmas party, complete with an ugly Christmas sweater contest. I was bound and determined to find something ugly to wear. But Goodwill had very limited options. So at 4:00 today, I decided to make my own. I found an old sweatshirt in my closet, turned it inside out, and went to work. I pinned old stockings to the front and back, glued green and red pom poms to the arms and taped a couple Christmas ornaments to the front for good measure. It definitely wasn't pretty, but that wasn't the point, right? We never really got a good picture of it.

Sadly, I didn't win. But I think I did lose some of my pride.

The wife portion of this couple won in her category. I think her husband was jipped in the men's category.

The Creche

2010-12-12T17:58:00.001-08:00

This weekend our Church has their first Creche event. If you don't know what that means, it just means Nativity. Hundreds of nativity scenes were donated to display and many people came to see them. They also had a live nativity, a children's room, and live music. It was really neat to go around and look at all the different nativities. I was helping in some of the rooms and so I never got a chance to take any pictures. Nathan took the girls around a little bit. But they were more interested in the cookies and playing dress up. These are the pictures he took with his phone.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2010-12-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had lots of fun Christmas activities planned. The best part (for the girls anyway) was that we woke up with 1-2 inches of snow on the ground! You'd think they had never seen snow before. :-) They immediately wanted to go out and play, pajamas and all.

They didn't play too long before it was time to go to Brooke's school for the Santa breakfast. They got to wear their pajamas there and see Santa and do crafts. It was a fun morning!

In the afternoon, Brooke and I were going with her Girl Scout troop to another Christmas activity in the park. We did more crafts, rode on a hayride, saw Santa (again) and Mrs. Claus too.

While Brooke and I were gone, Nathan and Charlotte made a snowman. Apparently, Charlotte never got out of her pajamas.

Oh Christmas Tree!

2010-11-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

We decorated our Christmas Tree tonight. We bought a new one on Black Friday, because the tree we had last year didn't make the move from Michigan. We'd had it for several years anyway, and it was time for a new one. I think it's also time for new decorations. What do you think? (Oh and I think it looks as if there's a big gap in the middle of the tree. It's been fixed) Also, excuse the mess. You know how it is, when you're moving everything around to put the Christmas tree up and all the decorations...

Speaking of decorations, I'm trying to get in touch with my crafty side. (Which is tough, since I have no crafty side) I have all this random leftover wrapping paper that's too small to wrap anything in. I need some ideas for easy homemade ornaments/decorations using this wrapping paper. A link with a picture would be nice. I need a visual. Please and thank you. :-)

In case you were wondering, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. No pictures to show for it, but you'll have to believe me. The best part of all was that the girls wanted to stay with the GP's and Lauren and my wonderful family agreed! Nathan and I came back home to Louisville for 2 days and 3 nights. We rented movies we've been wanting to see (well maybe I've been wanting to see), ate at restaurants the kids never want to eat at, got some Christmas shopping done (10 am on Black Friday, not 4 am!)wrapped presents, and got a little decorating done. It was so nice having some time together w/o kids. Thanks again family!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Another one bites the dust!

2010-11-21T12:45:00.000-08:00

Brooke lost tooth number 7 today. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting and she tapped me on the shoulder to tell me she lost it. She has a mouth full of missing teeth! We're still waiting for the other tooth on the other side to get a little more wiggly.

Not much else is going on here. Charlotte and I were sick this week. Charlotte's not all the way better yet. Still has a little bit of fever, but at least she's eating now. Needless to say, we've been cooped up in the house far too long. I'm going a little stir crazy. I plan to do some Pre-Black friday shopping tomorrow! I hate the crowds on Friday!!

Hope everyone has a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lunch with Brooke

2010-11-13T10:53:00.001-08:00

Thursday we went and ate lunch with Brooke at school. It was her half birthday, after all. Her friends were all so sweet. Brooke wanted Charlotte to play at recess. Mostly Brooke's friends played with her. They loved her and want her to come back every day!

Louisville Zoo

2010-11-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

Today was our first trip to the Louisville Zoo. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Brooke isn't a big fan of zoo's. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I never let them "play" on the toys. We're at the zoo to see the animals, not play on the toys. If we want to play, we'll go to the park. Today we went with some friends, which always makes it better, and we did stop and play a few times. We went today because today Brooke had an early dismissal AND it was 70 degrees. Perfect zoo weather. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right. And in the middle of November. I'll take it whenever I can get it. My camera wasn't working right so I didn't get a whole lot of pictures, but here are the ones I did get.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T13:01:00.000-07:00

Halloween started for us on Friday. Our church had Trunk or Treat, which is always a hit! There was a bounce hosue, hayrides, a bonfire, a parade of costumes, tons of kids, and of course, CANDY!!

Saturday, a botanical garden in town hosted trick or treating. Local businesses set up booths and handed out candy and free coupons. We got to go on another hayride, have our faces painted, and enjoy a magic show. Not to mention, we got to enjoy the beautiful grounds.

Sunday we were trick or treated out. We invited some friends over for some treats and games.

Ty's Baptism

2010-10-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday after church we headed to Indy for Ty's special day. He was getting baptized. It was neat to be there for that special occasion.

Pumpkin carving

2010-10-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

After our fun time playing in the leaves, we carved a pumpkin. The others are being painted. The girls are very serious about this job. We attempted to roast the seeds, but that didn't work out so well. As in, I burned them. I was trying to do too many other things at the same time. Oh well, there's always next year.

Leaf jumping

2010-10-25T19:51:00.001-07:00

Family Pictures

2010-10-16T18:35:00.001-07:00

I love, love, love these pictures! I can't stop looking at them. Thank you Rigel!

Frankfurt

2010-10-16T18:24:00.001-07:00

Today we decided to head to Frankfurt, Kentucky. It's the capital, did you know that? It's only about an hour away. We packed a lunch and ate it at the park. We then went to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Center. Nathan had been there for work and thought we might enjoy it. They had lots of different animals and interactive things for the kids to do inside. They had fish, deer, buffalo, elk, a black bear, bob cats, and more. It may as well have been a zoo. Brooke didn't enjoy the walking, as usual. But she enjoyed it better inside. Oh, and it was FREE!!

BOO!

2010-10-16T18:20:00.001-07:00

Brooke had the idea to "BOO!" some friends. You know, you make cookies, drop them off on their doorstep, and RUN! Try to get out of there before they see you. We did it twice this week to 4 different families. The kids think it is so much fun!

Heat Wave

2010-10-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

The last few days we've had a heat wave. It's been in the 80's and today it almost got to 90. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take it over cold and snowy weather. It's been perfect for bike rides, walks, and for just being outside. We spent a lot of time outside today. We met some friends from church at a farm to skeet shoot. Now, it's really not my kind of thing, but Nathan wanted to go so I just went to socialize. It was an excuse for a date, we just had to pay a babysitter. Somehow I was talked into shooting a few times. I wasn't really good at it. I thought all those years of playing Duck Hunt on Nintendo would somehow give me an edge. But I didn't. I didn't shoot a darn thing. Nathan was a little bit better, but it'd been a few years since he had shot anything.

Then this afternoon Brooke's school had their Fall Carnival. It felt more like summer though, but that's ok. There were sack races, inflatables, bean bag tosses, pumpkin painting, and lots more. Fun was had by all.

Favorite Fall Activity

2010-09-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's not fall until you've been to the Pumpkin Patch!

These little bikes were so cool...and good exercise!

They had all kinds of these things to stick your heads in (what do you call those?). Charlotte wanted her picture in all of them.

I love how Brooke is sticking her head out above in this one.

It was such a fun afternoon spent together as a family. I'm ready to go back! What's your favorite fall activity?