Hair Style #12

I started this one as a "hair headband" with just one progressive ponytail across her head, but the one fountain coming off the side looked a little silly, so I made two rows. By putting a diagonal part between the two rows, the fountains are approximately the same distance from the front of the head. As I did this hairdo a couple of days before Halloween, we decorated A1's hair appropriately, but this could be decorated in any way or with no decorations at all!

top view

front view

A little tip for those of you who would like to try this: section off each row and the back of the hair (that is left hanging down) and hold it in a rubber band while you work, then do the back progressive ponytail before the front progressive ponytail (basically you're working with the middle section of hair while the two outer sections are held in rubber bands).

Hair Style #11

This hairstyle would be elegant on just about anyone. I've been seeing casual versions of it pop up on a lot of TV shows recently. I started with an off-center part, then twisted the hair toward the back, taking new bunches hair with each twist (kind of like french braiding, only it's french twisting), until I reached the back. I like to put in a flower clip to hide the rubber band.

back view
side view

top view

Hair Style #10

I love messy buns. They are the greatest thing to happen to little girls' hair for a long time. I pulled her hair up in the front in three flippies, combined those into two flippies, criss-crossed those to become two messy buns.

top view

back view

Hair Style #9

I think this is a beautiful up-do, but maybe a bit too grown up for my little girl. I started with a part off to the side on top of the head, then combined all her hair into a ponytail in the back. I then flipped the ponytail up and pinned the hair around a beautiful flower clip (of my own design!).

front view

side view

back view

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We had a great holiday, spent with Uncle Gary and Aunt Debbie and some of their friends. Thank you for inviting us to spend the holiday with you.

R had to work all Thanksgiving day (darn those people who continue to need medical care on holidays; why can't they just miraculously be better just so I can have a nice time?!), so we had our own Thanksgiving on Saturday. It was wonderful, and I'm still enjoying many leftovers!

I am grateful for a fantastic family who would do anything for each other, for loving children who continue to amaze me everyday, for a wonderful husband who is working so hard just so we can have a better life in the future. I am grateful to be a part of the true gospel and to have God's influence guiding my life. We are very blessed.

Cheers and Boos for Black Friday:

Cheers for online sales! We got most of our Black Friday shopping done Thursday morning (I know - Black Friday shopping on Thursday doesn't sound right to me either).

Cheers to Best Buy for putting their doorbusters online so that I didn't have to stand in line for hours with two cranky children.

Cheers to Toys R Us, where I picked up the very last princess toy for A1 available. Or maybe that's just cheers to me for happening to see it sitting there far away from the aisle where it should have been and, therefore, no one else saw it. Either way!

Boos to Kohl's for having the most perfect skirt available in stores, but not online. It wasn't just an "in-store only" special that was full price online. They actually have no record of the perfect skirt at all online.

Overall this Black Friday was a positive experience as I didn't have to fight any crowds other than the kids yelling for my time while I was on the computer.

Creative Juices

I'm a scientist at heart, which means I'm rarely artistic (artistic, not autistic - very different things). So I'm very proud of myself for the following creations:

1) necklace and earring set made from topaz - designed by me!2) necklace made of black onyx - designed and strung together by me!3) Halloween hair clips and any time hair clips - made by me!4) large and small flower hair clips - made by me! (I think my favorite is the dark pink one in the middle of the bottom picture.)A1 had to get in on the creative juice action too:

1) painting - made by A1! (isn't she cute?)

Bonding Time

I love when my kids get along while doing things together. What do you do to bond with your family?

A1's Third Birthday

My amazing daughter had her third birthday last week. We had a rather large party with her friends and the pure joy in their little faces was totally worth the three solid days of work I (and a few friends I recruited) put into it. A1's favorite thing recently is all things princess; she requested a crown cake and a princess party, so that's what we did!

The little princesses and knights arrived to decorate their goody bags for holding all the treasure they would soon find.

A real live princess came to read about a princess and a knight that team up to defeat a dragon. (A great, big, gigantic, I-can't-thank-you-enough thank you to my amazing cousin-in-law, the beautiful Princess Gloria, for doing this incredible favor for me.)The guests acted out the story by defeating a dragon......and conquering a castle......in order to be crowned knights and princesses.Then we had the crown cake that A1 had been asking for months to have at her birthday.

I'll admit that I may have cheated slightly by making the actual crowns out of sugar cookies and the cakes to look like pillows, but I think I made up for it by providing each party guest with several personal crown cookies. I had a lot of fun decorating these cakes, but none of it would have been done without a ton of help from my good friend Jaime, who decorated the cookies and did most of the second cake and then watched the kids while I decorated for the party. (Thank you so much, Jaime!)

Happy birthday to you, A1. We love you and are so happy to have you in our family.

I'm How Old Now?

Now that I'm definitely in my fourth decade of life, I thought I should celebrate in style. So I convinced R to take the kids and me to dinner with some friends. A few days later I really celebrated by taking the kids to Disneyland - the first of many, many trips. We spent the day in long lines, meeting the characters (mainly so that I wouldn't have to do it again next time we are there). We met the Winnie the Pooh characters, with Tigger as the favorite, of course...
...and four of the princesses (Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White).

We did manage to go on a few rides, but we were having too much fun to take pictures of that part. I caught this last one on the carousel right before we left for the day.

All in all it was a great birthday. I think Disneyland is a great place to celebrate getting old, yet refusing to grow up!

And I Rolled My Eyes

A1 and A2 asked me to make them waffles for breakfast this morning. Being the loving mother that I am, I immediately got to work to make them a wonderful breakfast that they could brag to their friends about, dirtying a whole lot of dishes and all the counters in the kitchen. When I went to call them to the table, I found this in the living room...
... and this in the bedroom...

... on top of this that I still had to fold.Later a friend stopped by to ask me what I did with myself to keep from being bored all day.

And I rolled my eyes.

What makes you roll your eyes?

Happy Halloween

Halloween was great this year. I love that A1 is old enough to get excited about and enjoy the holiday and that A2 gets excited about anything that A1 gets excited about. We made cookies and went to a couple of different parties and played games and, of course, went trick-or-treating. A1 continues to talk about how much she loves dressing up in a costume (she would only answer to "Tinkerbell" all day). A2 learned that he loves suckers. All together, a successful day.

Trick or treat!

Tinkerbell

Cookie Monster

The Animals Went Marching Two By Two

And the kids went marching four by four!

Our good friends, the Johnsons, invited us to go to the zoo with them. So off we went - in the rain! Actually the rain was good because it kept the temperatures down and the crowds small. We basically had the zoo to ourselves so our kids didn't disturb anyone and they could stand and look at their favorite animals as long as they wanted.

The giraffes were high up on the list of favorite animals...
... as were the gazelles.
However, I think the favorites were the gorillas.

We stayed forever at the gorilla exhibit, watching the whole family eat and interact. Then we got a show from our own little monkeys...Bentley, Gaige, and A1 (from left to right) loved the zoo more than just about anything. In fact, A1 and A2 will be getting an annual pass to the zoo for Christmas (shhh, don't tell them).

Where have you been lately that has made you buy (or want to buy) an annual pass?

Our First Field Trip

Last month A1's preschool had a field trip to a farm. The kids got to pet and feed animals, go on a hayride, pick their own pumpkins (just in time for Halloween)...

...and play on pretend old-time vehicles (trains and cars and stuff).
I tried to get some cute seasonal pictures of A1 and A2, but only A2 cooperated...

... A1 was having way too much fun playing. I'm glad that their first field trip was such a success!

3 Milestones in 1 Day

Apartment living has severely limited some of A2's learning opportunities, especially learning to climb stairs. To overcome the lack of stairs in our apartment, I took A1 and A2 to a nearby playground that has a toddler slide with stairs just perfect for beginners. I set him down at the bottom to figure out how to lure him up to the top; while I was thinking, he simply crawled up the stairs, no problem! We tried it a few more times, just to make sure that he knew what he was doing. On the fourth try A2 thought, "This is not a challenge; let's try something else." So he held onto the railing and walked up the stairs! I guess our lack of stairs hasn't limited him that much.

On a somewhat related note, A2's first tooth made its appearance last night. It is now officially time to ween him.

When You Give A Boy A Cookie

Question: What happens when you give a boy an oreo and turn your back for a few minutes?

Answer:

Has It Been A Year Already?

A2 had his first birthday a few days ago. I can't believe that he is a year old already! He's an adorable boy who loves following his sister (especially now that he is walking), loves playing with his daddy, and loves cuddling with his mommy. He has brought so much joy and fun to our family.

Naturally we had a party to celebrate and invited a few friends over to join us. I made a train cake (my first attempt at carving and truly decorating a cake).

Did I do an okay job? Tell me it's good.

We gave A2 his own little train car to eat while everyone else devoured the rest of the cake.

Signs of a good party

A2 loved eating the cake. You can't tell in these pictures, but he had cake all over his belly, in his eyelashes, and even in his hair.

Before

After

And we opened presents. A2's favorite present?

The boxes and bags that the presents came in, of course.

Overall, it was quite the party. Thanks to everyone that helped us celebrate. Happy Birthday to You, my darling boy!

Happy October!

I know I'm a few days late, but A1 received these adorable Halloween clothes from her grandma, and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the beginning of the month than dressing up.

On Your Mark, Get Set...

...GO!!!

A2's first steps caught on camera! I now officially have two kids that can run in opposite directions; which one should I run after and which one should I let go?

Book of Mormon Stories

In our ward, we have two nurseries - one for the younger kids (younger than 2 years old) and one for the older kids (older than 2 years old). The older nursery gets to go to singing time with the Primary kids, which is A1's very most favorite part of Church. She sings her favorite songs on the way home from Church, while we're eating, while we're walking, while we're taking a bath, and most especially while she is supposed to be sleeping. She will stay up for more than two hours after we have put her to bed just singing to herself. We may have a performer on our hands; what do you think?

Let the Learning Begin!

My sweet girl started preschool this week. She is so excited to learn with other kids. And she is adorable with a backpack that is almost as big as she is.
And my happy, happy boy is learning how to walk. Look how proud of himself he is:

Photography Lesson #3

More photos of my adorable boy.