Brooklyn's Baptism Photo Shoot

Brooklyn is getting baptised this week. Tuesday was a beautiful day, dry and clear, and in the high 50's. So right when Brooklyn got home I fixed her hair up, slipped her white dress on and we took off for a quick photo shoot. You don't mess around with a nice day in February in the NW!
Brooklyn is so sweet. You can see it in her pictures!(I am a LITTLE bias.) She did so great. The quickest little shoot I've done. They were all so good. I think the dress I made her turned out pretty cute too. I tried a new bubble dress pattern and added the ruffles in front and the rose on the side.
She has been preparing for her baptism for a while now. Her G.May gave her some cards with the A of F and she has already memorized about 5 of them. One day I jokingly told her that her baptism is coming up so if she was going to do something stinkin' she better hurry now. She then very seriously told me that even if she doesn't have the Holy Ghost yet she should always do what is right. I was put in my place! She is so sensitive to the spirit and is such a wonderful example to her younger brothers and sister. I am a lucky mom to have Brooklyn for a daughter.








The big day is tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to keep it together!

Nancy Drew #8 The Mystery of the Birthday Bash

My little Brookie is 8 years old!

She is so excited for all that comes with this age and has been counting down all year. Especially since November.
In January she had here birthday party. We tossed around some ideas and decided on a Nancy Drew birthday party. Brooklyn loves to read and this year has been loving mystery books. She has read a ton of Cam Jansen books and we tried the original Nancy Drew, but discovered the Clue Crew series which is about Nancy when she was 8.
She got alot of crafty gifts from her friends (Brooklyn is all about crafts and reading.) A set of scriptures with her name on them from Grandma & Grandpa May,and a cute scripture bag from her mom and dad. (Made by my awesome friend Rebecca.) Here's some pictures from the party.

These are the invites I made on Photoshop. Brooklyn is quite the actress!


This is what was on the inside of the card.

These were what each girl took home. A sleuth kit.


I had muddy foot prints coming in the house. I printed them onto my laminating sheets then ran them through the laminator and cut them out and taped them to the floor.

I also did hand prints and finger prints throughout the house.



Instead of a cake I got doughnuts and put in craft sticks to look like magnifying glasses.


Each girl got a "Clue Crew" badge. They drew their picture and I laminated it.

The "Clue Crew" right before solving the mystery.

I hid clues throughout the house to follow to find out where someone hid the presents. We did two teams. Brooklyn and Olivia were on different teams. Brooklyn wanted to read each clue and think about what it meant, and Olivia would inform everyone each time that she couldn't read it but that she knew where the clue was and would take the whole team off running. I got pretty wild for a bit.

My sweet little 8 year old!

Daisy Diva

Brooklyn outgrew her Barbie bike. (Her knees were practically hitting her chin when she pedaled.) We went back and forth on what bike to get her, then I found this. Daisy Diva! It has old fashioned fenders, a basket, and seat with springs. Plus it is baby blue! Sooo cute! I ordered it and the whole family was excited to watch Casey put it together. It took Brooklyn a couple tries to get used to a bigger bike (she got a little emotional and almost gave up.) but eventually got used to it. Olivia was excited too, because we added a basket to her bike also. (She just learned to ride without training wheels last month. Now everyday that it isn't raining she gets her bike out and rides around the back yard. She can often be found riding her bike, wearing her swim suit, suede winter boots up to her knees, and her helmet.)

We took the kids to "the jumps" on Monday. (an empty lot with a ditch about as deep as I am tall.) Casey kept telling Brooklyn that her bike couldn't do jumps because the handlebars are so big. But I thought that was what they were all like 20 years ago. So we went. Nathan can't go because he has training wheels. Then he runs in front of Olivia, so crashes and her handlebars come loose. Then before I can finish with her, Brooklyn crashes. So I'm helping her, and Olivia crashes again! (Casey couldn't help because he had Cody on his bike.) This was my first time at "the jumps". (Casey has taken them a few times, and they go on and on about what fun it is.) Let's just say it wasn't what I expected.

Breakfast with DAD

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday Brooklyn's school had a Green Eggs and Ham breakfast for the 1st Graders. Casey took the morning off work and met her at the school and had breakfast with her. The really had green scrambled eggs (food color) and some ham, an apple and a fruit roll-up (Casey gave her his roll-up). The kids all got a Cat in the Hat hat. Casey said Brooklyn was a little shy to wear it at school, but by the time she got home she was loving it. She so excited that she was the only one in her class to get a rainbow one.

The "Perm" is back Baby!

Brooklyn has curls again!!! Yay! She looks sooo cute!
Callie Permed her hair last Thursday. She is so awesome! Brooklyn has alot of hair and I knew it would take forever, but I was going through so old photos of Brooklyn and she used to have such curly hair. It was so cute and EASY to fix. Just scrunch and go. But as her hair got longer and thicker so went the curls...
Brooklyn was so excited. Callie said she giggled the whole time she put the rollers in.

Then came the solution. She suddenly she was silent.

But the giggles returned when she saw her curly hair.
These are her natural curls years ago. I think I'm as excited as she is. I've had 5 perms in my life. All I wanted was long wavy hair. Each time the rollers came out, my hair was still strait...I've learned to love my strait hair. But I do have to say, Brooklyn has the hair I've wanted all my life!!! Lucky Girl!

Snow Days!

What a wild week! The news kept reporting an "Artic Blast" and I was getting so tired of hearing about it! We were just having little snow flurries, no big deal. They canceled our stake Christmas Devotional, and the kids didn't have school on Wednesday. I thought everyone was overreacting!

On Thursday I was able to go to Brooklyn's school and help with her Winterfest.

Then Brooklyn's school was canceled on Friday. Olivia's preschool was not. So, since Olivia goes to pm preschool we had time to head over to the neighborhood park and go tubing. I thought we had better take advantage of the snow because it would probably be gone the next day. And of course afterward we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate with peppermint icecream!

After tubing Casey met me at Olivia's school to see her Christmas presentation. She was so excited to be the Shepherd girl. She got to wear the "rainbow" hat. She looked so cute.

Friday we celebrated Callie's Birthday at the restaurant Beaches. It was so fun! The snow was falling and the Christmas boats were going by on the Columbia river.


Saturday night there was freezing rain, which put a layer of ice on top of the snow. Brooklyn started picking it up so that she could get to the snow to build a snowman.



Saturday it snowed even more and so the whole family went tubing. It is so much more fun when you don't have to drive an hour just to get to the snow!

Sunday church was canceled. So we worked on our annual Christmas lip sync video over at my parents.

Today is Monday and it is continuing to snow. Casey went in to work anyway and took the suburban, so I am home bound...Then his office called and said they are closing today. So he tried to catch a bus home and they are running an hour late. He's been standing outside for an hour waiting. I called my parents to go get him, so now he's on his way home.

So, I was wrong. This really is an "Artic Blast"! Wild fun!