Beauty Parlour

Leaving my kids to play "house" in Lexi's room while I hurried and worked on an Usborne order, I noticed I hadn't heard Lexi screaming about Skye not sharing with her, which was unusual, so I thought I'd check in on them and see how things were going. Alexis met me halfway down the stairs as I was coming up and I thought "her hair looks a little different...not as cute as it was when I put the clips in this morning". And indeed, to my utter surprise and discouragement, it was different, and completely irreparable. On the other hand, Skye's new set of bangs is her grandma's dream come true- grandma never did like the bangs in her face anyway. Thank heavens we got our family pictures done last month! At least we have a nostalgic memory on our wall of Lexi's old cute haircut for the next year.

Before:


After:



If you've read "The Secret" and know about the law of attraction, you won't be surprised at how this came to be. You see, my relationship with Lexi has been strained over the past year due to the fact that I'm the one who has to comb her hair. Nothing works: treats, magnets, incentives of any kind, not even force- although at least her hair gets combed that way. Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was doing a homeshow and the lady's daughter had short, spiky hair of which I shared my opinion of how nice that haircut would be for my daughter (for the previously mentioned reason). The lady told me how a neighbor kid had cut her daughter's hair, and pointed to a recent photo of a 3 year old with long, flowing blonde hair. I just kind of laughed with surprise and joked that I thought it would be great if something like that would happen to my Lexi so our mornings could be more peaceful. Well now I know there is truth in the phrase "Be careful what you wish for".


How am I going to fix this?

Redneck Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year! The girls decided they wanted to be dogs and Cody planned to be his usual redneck- wanabe self. For weeks I mulled over ideas of what I could do to fit in with Cody and his 2 hunting dogs... a dead bird? Road kill? A coon? A redneck wife? Nothing seemed very easy to put together. Finally the day before Halloween, Cody asked, "Why don't you just be my huntin' buddy? So that's the story of our costumes this year.

Redneck Halloween

The girls had to dress up 5 times this year. Grandma and Grandpa F's ward party, Boo at the Zoo, Lexi's playgroup party, Halloween day at school and trick or treating, and our neighborhood chili cookoff the next day. We're glad it's finally over and are excited to pack the face paint away.

We had a grandparents party on Lexi's real birthday and they even got to participate in the frog hop too! Alexis is going to be mommy's little helper with her new broom and mop.

Alexis turned 3!!

Alexis had a frog-themed birthday party. I was hosting playgroup and was assigned the color green to teach the kids, and it turned into a frog party. Lexi and all of the kids loved the frog cupcakes. They had fun doing the hokie pokie, a "frog hop" on lily pads (instead of a cake walk) and searching for hidden toy frogs in the bushes. We had a "hip hoppin" party! Now Skye has all of the decorations hung in her room and she has been asking to paint her room green : )

First Day of School!

Today was Skye's first day of school. She was so excited last night that she couldn't sleep. She said she had a fun day.

Outdoor adventures

Cody took a Friday off and we had a little mini vacation. We got to go hiking (for 15 minutes until the kids got crabby and tired) and then went down and ate lunch by a lake and river. We waded across a shallow spot over to a little muddy island and tried to get Penny to swim. She didn't do too much...except shiver uncontrollably with doggy "brrrrrrr" sounds. It was fun for the rest of us though.

The next day, we took our canoe to Payson Lakes and spent some hours paddling and walking around the lake. Penny took an unexpected swim this time when she leaned a little too far over the side of the canoe to get a drink. ; ) Later that evening we got to see our good friends at the Trailer Trash Bash...from those good old days when life was so simple....

Skye turns 5 July 19!

Skye celebrated her 5th birthday a couple days early since we'll be driving for 13 hours to WA to visit family on her real birthday. She's been using 5 as a landmark to put things off for so long. For example: "I won't be scared to ride my bike when I'm 5." "I'll learn to tie my shoes when I'm 5." Etc... Well, now that she's 5, she's going to have a lot of things to figure out all at once!

More birthday party pictures

Skye had a fun birthday party. We did relay races and games with wet sponges.

The Cabin

Fun times at the cabin!

We went to the cabin over the 4th of July. Cody and I and some of our other family went to the
Oakley rodeo, which was fun...for us...not the poor steers who were getting their necks twisted around 360 degrees. The guys spent a whole day working on the garage roof, while the kids and moms hung out. We had a lot of fun!

This summer has been great. It's been fun living closer to family so we can be involved in family gatherings. These are my brothers. Alex on the right is the lead singer of some awesome band! Let me know if you want his autograph. His dog just got neutered. Poor thing : (

Lexi

I thought I'd include a recent picture of Alexis (and Grandma) at the zoo- since Lexi was so scared of Penny the pup at first, she didn't get included in any of our other photos.

More puppy pictures

Our newest family member

Skye is almost 5 and Alexis is 2 1/2, so of course it was natural add another member to our family. Our newest "baby" is no different than Skye and Alexis were. We are getting up with her every 2 hours of the night, and I'm doing intensive potty training with her and Alexis all this week. We named our most precious chocolate lab puppy "Penny"... and yes, she cost us a pretty penny alright. Anyone else who has had a pet knows the up front expenses that go with getting set up for one. She was worth every penny though. She's got the sweetest disposition and was quick to fall in love with us, as we were her. She fits right in amongst Skye's other stuffed animals. She gets to be carried around the house all day long. Since it's been a while since both Cody and I have had a family dog, we could always use some suggestions on training, or just things you wish you had or hadn't done with your dog. She's going to be an indoor/outdoor dog. We'll probably build her a kennel outside eventually but maybe until then, we'll consider crate training her. We're excited to be dog people!