The BULL-CUT

The cut after the cut. Jake turned half of Naomi's head into a mullet. The other half was fine. A friend suggested I take my only daughter to "Famous Hair." And so I did as I was told. This is what happened. I guess that is what you get for taking your child into a place called, "Famous Hair." Lesson learned.

I will share with you three of my favorite comments I have received since this traumatic experience,

1. My friend and her girls hoped into our car to head to the Science Center. She glanced back. And then she glanced back again. In all seriousness she asked, "oh, what happened to her hair?" I told her. She told me that Jake actually did a better job. Apparently I should have left Jake's cut.

2. I took the kids to the hospital on Saturday to see their dad. One of the nurses came up to us asked about "the hair. " I told her I took her to a "salon" (I didn't tell her it was called "Famous Hair," I was too embarrassed. Her response, "you mean someone with a license cut that?"

3. I was walking around at my favorite new thrift shop yesterday looking through the racks of moderately used clothing. A lady turned onto our row and loudly asked, "oh, what...is that pixie cut back in again?"

I told her what happened and she kept pressing me. "Well, did your son get in trouble?" I was caught off guard. "Uh, yeah." "Well, don't worry about it honey. It will eventually grow back. The good news is, is that she is still young."

Is it seriously that bad?

I will never forget when our family was in New orleans when we were younger and my little brother, Joey, had a bull-cut. We were walking late at night and a guy walked past us and said, "nice helmet, kid."

Every time I see my baby girl, I always hear that same phrase in my mind.

"Nice helmet, kid."

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter Sunday!
We had some of our neighbors over. The kids were down in the basement for quite some time. After, of course, they didn't eat a darn thing. My fabulous Easter feast was not well accepted from the 5 kids 8 and under. Oh, well. The 30+ year olds ate it.
The kids surprised us with a fabulous puppet show. It ended with a Grand Finale of Ninja Jake and the defeat of the adults.

The kids taking their bows.

Easter egg hunt

Easter egg dying.

Until next year. We love you, Easter.

One of THOSE days

I love THOSE days. Not because I LOVE those days, but because I can look back and laugh my head off. It was one of THOSE days.

It started off with a breakdown.

We're on day 3 of Spring break.

Day 1: Pump it Up

Day 2: Cleveland Science Center

Day 3: was yet to be decided. I was too busy having a breakdown. My house was in complete disarray. The play room smelled like a mix between hard-boiled Easter eggs ground into the floor and pickles. Naomi has a tendency of getting them out of fridge and leaving them all over the house.

We HAD to clean the house. I even scrubbed the toilets. Amazing, I know. I don't know what got into me. Well, actually i do. It was the brown ring around the toilet seat that I couldn't stand looking at one more time. I realize now that my mom must have been pretty good scrubbing toilets when I was young because i never remember the brown rings inside the bowl. hmmm...

The doorbell rang. It was William's friend Ethan on his bike. I couldn't keep four kids inside all day on a rainy, wet day. We heading to the zoo.

One the way out of the zoo I made the boys sit (and I mean SIT) "right in that corner" because i had to run Nomi to the potty. I came out super fast and the boys were gone. Of course they were. Luckily I spotted them walking out of the gift sho. Jake was smiling from ear to ear. Apparently, he did some dirty work and fished out a quarter from the wishing stream outside the zoo gates. He decided to head on inside to buy something with his "lucky quarter" His brother and friend helped him find a lizard tattoo. The only $.25 thing in the store. I wonder what the sales lady was thinking when a six year old handed her a muddy quarter that he had just retrieved from the pond in front of her store.

They grow so fast. Already making purchases on their own. With their own money. That they steal from innocent zoo ponds.

When james walked in from work, I walked out. I headed to my favorite discount store. This doesn't even compare to T.J. Maxx. I mean, this is where all the stuff that doesn't sell at T.J Maxx or other discount stores goes. I love it. Well, suffice it to say, I don't always find myself being in the company that I would want my children to find themselves in. Tonight was awesome. I heard through the racks this lady yelling at her husband on the phone. "A PLANT holder. I want to buy a plant holder." "Oh, G** you can't even understand me. No, NOT a CRACK holder, a PLANT holder." "Listen to me. PLANT...PPPPP. As in, P for (I couldn't hear what she said), L as in LOOOOOSER, A as in A**, N as in NOT ,and T as in truck." Than she turns to her friend, "Oh, G** he still doesn't understand me. I can't believe this." "Here, she yells at her husband through he phone, talk to her." She shoved the cell phone to her friends ear. "She wants to buy a plant holder," she calmly told the husband. Apparently the husband understood and she handed the phone back to the yeller. "Gosh, I'm making him talk to you from now on. He can't even understand me."

I'm not sure if she bought the plant holder. But it sure made my night. What an awesome way, to end an awesome day.

Spring Break Day 4. Wait until tomorrow.

Easter 2011

Luckily, I took Easter pictures 2 days before Jake took scissors to his sister's hair. I think it may be a right of passage. A sibling cutting the little sister's hair. I'm glad it's over. Right of passage:COMPLETE.

This Kid

Is obsessed with dresses. Sparkly dresses to be exact. She chooses EVERYTHING that she wears. EVERYTHING. Which is why I had to take a picture of her before church in this dress. It's not sparkly. It's not pink. But she chose it. Why?

"grandpa geoff give it me."

And notice the unmatching bows in her hair. They were out by church start time. I don't think she ever had shoes on.

I Completely Forgot...

Someone in our house turned 35...

Happy Birthday Daddy

Thanks Aunt Stacy for coming up for the big day!

I loved general Conference this year. Why, you ask? Cause James was home...and I was in HEAVEN.

I sat and sat and sat. James scolded and scolded and scolded.
By about 4 PM I turned around to see James crouched in the corner. He looked exhausted. I laughed.

I heard things like,

"I said enough is enough"

"Why would you do that?"

"Stop that right now"

"That's it, go to your room"

"No, stop that."

"Why can't you just stop?"

Props to my husband.

I love him.

Change

The BEST part about being the yearbook person at your kid's school is being able to go in their classroom whenever you want and take pictures...even if you don't really need them. I just get to go in and pretend to take pictures while exchanging silent glances of love at my children. I love it.

The other night I lay in bed with my little Mooch. And then on to my Bug. Jake wasn't sure what he wanted to talk about. So I had to guess. We finally settled on my question, "what do you worry about most?" He started crying.

"I don't know if I can make any friends in Denver." A-ha. I had broken him. He didn't want to talk about it. But now he had too. I held him close. We talked for a long time. I told him that we could call our friends or maybe even come visit. Than he started crying even more. "No," he said, "if I visit them than I will be even more sad because I know that I have to go back to Denver." I continued to hold him. My Mooch. So scared. So little.

William has the same concerns. Last night at family prayer, he prayed, "please help us to sell our house and that each of us can move by people our own ages and that they can like us so that we can have friends in Denver."