Friends

I am finally getting around to posting these because our friends, the Merx family, leave today for a 3-year job assignment in England.  When they moved to Canton, Owen and Brooklen were just babies.  For the first little while, Brooklen scared Owen half to death.  He loved to hug and wrestle with Owen and Owen just wasn't "feelin' it!"  As these boys grew, however, they became the very best of friends.  My head actually hurts trying to think about all of the things that they did together because they spent so much time playing together.  Then, a wonderful thing happened.  They both got little sisters!  And if you thought Brooklen and Owen were buddies, you should have seen Hurley and Ellika!  They could laugh and giggle together forever!  When we moved to Midland, Angie made a photo book for us.  I can't believe all of the memories we made together.

Since I don't have hours, I'm going to try to write down a few things that I want to remember:

1.  Brooklen's favorite team is MICHIGAN!  Why?  Because it is Owen's favorite team (why?  because it is RACHIE's favorite team).  Brooklen is the cutest little thing.  He wants to be just like Owen.  His favorite color used to be green, but now, it is blue and yellow (and green) because of Owen.  If Owen does something or has something, Brooklen just HAS to have it too!

2.  Hurley, on the other hand, is completely unaffected by peer pressure.  She loves her friends, but she prefers to be the ringleader.

3.  Hurley and LE used to get in trouble in nursery and have to be separated because they were disruptive (at 2!!!)

4. B and Owen played soccer and t-ball together.  What a hoot!  They would chase each other around on the field looking for the biggest leaves!

6.  Brooklen and Owen made up a game, This Is Our Land.  I'll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with this game.  They basically take everything they can find and put it in one, big, messy pile!  Unfortunately, putting everything away afterwards wasn't part of the game.  I had to nag to get that implemented!

While we were in Canton we made soooo many wonderful friends.  Brooklen and Hurley talk about Cali, Isaac, Kevin, Ali, etc. all the time.  About a year ago, the Anderson's moved into our ward.  Brody is a bit older than B and Afton is Hurley's age.  Ta-Da . . . another wonderful addition to our family!  Our kids just loved each other!

Before we left, I had the Owen, Ellie, Brody, and Afton over for a celebration.  We had kind of a hodgepodge of activities to celebrate.  We ate jello worms (just because) and then we made a Christmas craft (I know, a weird combination!).  I just love these simple photos of these kids together.  I hope that these relationships will exist forever.