Who's That Girl

Say so long to the curls. (Pause here and try not to cry) That's right, yesterday we took Maddie to get her hair cut at the mall. If you don't include the bangs and her own occasional chop with the scissors, Maddie has not had her hair cut since she was born. I could never bring myself to cut her beautiful curls off. I just knew that once they were gone, they would never come back. Alas, it was time. (pause again) Maddie was extremely excited to get her hair cut. She was excited about it all day and proudly climbed into the chair when it was finally her turn. I am not sure if it was the carousel ride before, the three DumDums she ate during the cut, or the promise of an ice cream cone afterwards if she held still, but she was a champ. She was even patient when, after finishing, I hauled her back up into the chair to get the back of her hair fixed because it was uneven. AND...TAAA-DAAA!!!

Here's Maddie Now!

She really is a cutie. She loves her new do and especially the "shinies" that were put in her hair. The only problem is that I find myself constantly asking, "Who's that girl?" After ice cream, Steve took the kids down to play at the tree while I took my camera to get fixed. (These pictures are from Steve's phone, but that's a whole other story I'd rather not get into.) When I returned I saw Steve sitting with Amelia and I began looking around for Maddie. She was right there in front of me and I didn't even recognize her. Oh my, WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!

Random Update

Hey everyone, it's Steve, so if you were looking for Lori, she will be back to you when her camera gets fixed. Now that everyone has stopped reading, I will update you with what has been going on with our lives. The server is down at work, so I am getting paid to do this. Cool, huh? Unless you're my boss and you are reading this, in which case I am working really hard on other stuff... Well, in the last two weeks, Lori had a kidney infection, Maddie had the flu, Mia had an ear infection, I had a sinus infection, and Bailey was a little stinky. I think we are all over our ailments, but as Lori went to her scrapbook weekend and made some totally awesome pages, I had one of the best days with Maddie and Mia. We started Saturday with a trip to the gym, had lunch at Sam's Club (Maddie was being a good girl so she got to ask the bakery people for a free cookie), went to the mall to ride the carousel, play at the tree, see the puppies at the puppy store, and ride the trolley. The Dougherty's had pity on us and had us over for dinner, and the kids played awesome. On our way home, we got in an accident by an alleged drunk/drugged driver while it was pouring rain in the car I just bought. Then when we got home Amelia was crying because she was ready for bed, I was stressed (papa grizzly came out in me really bad, I mean REALLY bad) and the dog started to bark. I asked Maddie to let Bailey out and she looked up at me and gave me a sweet look and said, "sure Daddy", and my heart just melted. Tears came into my eyes as the Spirit reminded me of our eternal purposes and nature in this world. I am grateful for the sweet tenderness the Savior affords us. Server just got back online. Later...

Please tell me Christmas isn't over?

Where has the time gone? Christmas has passed, we have welcomed a New Year, the girls have a new cousin, heck we even have a new president! There have been so many milestones these past few weeks and I feel like such a slacker because I haven't posted since before the holidays. I do have a good reason... My camera isn't working! Every picture we have taken has been trapped inside that darn contraption. (Imagine steam coming out of my ears as I tried in vain to figure out what was wrong. Very frustrating!) I finally got the camera to work long enough to upload the files so prepare yourself for the onslaught of photos that will follow in the next few days.

Snow Day? S'No Way!

We looked out the window and what did we see... SNOW!!!

HOLY COW! We left Utah to get away from this stuff. What happened to global warming? Maddie has been in snow before, but she was to young to remember. She was so excited to get outside and see that it was snowing "Oh boy, just like on TV!" There wasn't enough to pull together any type of snowman, so she was a bit bummed and took her frustration out on her daddy with a snowball.

Walking in a "Winter Wonderland" Maddie catching snowflakes on her tongue Check out Steve's snowball! It may be mini, but it sure is mighty cold. Brrr!

Play Time

"Bobbing for Birdie"

Amelia loves to play with her arches. She especially loves to torment the little red bird that hangs from it. The other day I caught her trying to catch it in her mouth, but the silly thing kept elluding her. She was getting so mad at it. I swear she was telling it to just hold still for a minute so she could bite it.

Mia also loves her Jitterbuggy. Since she is doing so well at sitting up, we decided this week to let her test drive the car. She loves to play with the controls. She will pull back the reverse handleand gum on it. The whole time it is going BEEP BEEP BEEP over and over. It is so annoying and so adorable all at the same time. Everything is changing so fast with her. It is so much fun to watch her grow into such a big girl.

I Have My House Back!!

Our home improvements are finally over!!! It's been about one month since we began getting the tile put in the house and completing all the projects that went with it. I am so happy to have my kitchen, bathroom and laundry rooms back. It was not easy living without a kitchen, but it was well worth the wait.

We also had the carpet removed from the entry and tile laid there too. It looks so much nicer and really defines the rooms around it. . Laying the tile on the diagonal was a lot more labor intensive than the workers originally thought, but the outcome is beautiful!! New tile meant new paint in the laundry room as well. The new color is a big departure from the pink that was on the walls. I will miss my cheerful happy room, but this color flows a lot better with the rest of the house.

My New Do

Well, here's the "new" me. I chopped about 5 inches off my hair yesterday. I went to the salon and told Michelle, my "stylist", that I wanted to look like a different person when I left. My motivations were: 1) Not have long hair for Amelia to pull and eat and 2) I had been letting my hair grow since Maddie was born! That's three years of only getting trims. Change was definately needed. How do I look?

Costumed Cuties

Maddie has recently fallen in love with the Angelina Ballerina series, so naturally she was a "Dancing Ballerina" this year. She loves to show us how she dances and does wonderful spins.

Amelia was a little cheerleader. It was so very fun to have her dressed up. Steve carried her around cheering, "Yay! Go BYU! Go Cougars!"

This was actually the first year that we have taken Maddie around door to door for trick or treating. Before we have just gone to the ward trunk or treat and parties at friends houses. She loved it. For her first offical house we took her to Ms. Diane's and then went around a few blocks. I ended up carrying her from house to house, but she did knock on every door herself. She would tell people that she was a dancing ballerina and then she would give a twirl. People adored her! They would say her twirl was worth another candy and then they loaded her bag with more loot. What a deal. She did her trick and got MORE treats! Maddie loved Halloween so much, she is already planning for next year!

Here we are at The Farm

For our ward playgroup we all met at Old MacDonalds Farm. It is this neat place that had so much for kids to do. There is an incredible amount of animals to pet and meet up close, "wild" deer, pony rides, a humongous sand pile, a hay loft, swings, play structures and a choo-choo train. You could easily spend hours there.

The first thing we did when we arrived was pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Maddie sorted through big ones and little bitty ones until she found her perfect pumpkin. I am glad it wasn't a huge one because I had to carry it around the rest of the day! Next we went to pet the sheep and goats and then we headed over to an open field full of deer napping in the shade. These were the most tame deer. They hardly batted a lash while Maddie and her friend Brenna pet them. While we were with the deer Maddie saw the horses and she was off running to them. She got to ride Joey around the arena twice and then we were off again. We pet the cows, pot-belly pigs, llamas, and rabbits. Maddie also chased some turkeys around with her friend Isaac. We did many more things and then had lunch.

Before we could leave we had to ride the train. It was one of those kind that is pulled by a tractor and I thought for sure it wasn't going to make it all the way around the park. It reminded me of the little engine that could... I think I can, I think I can. Both the girls had a great time and were asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot. HOORAY FOR THE FARM!!!

Mosaics

Okay, so I saw these on a friends site and thought they were pretty neat.

Here is how you can play too:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.

b. Using only the first page, pick an image.

c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:1. What is your first name?2. What is your favorite food?3. What college did you go to?4. What is your favorite color?5. Who is your celebrity crush?6. Favorite drink?7. Dream vacation?8. Favorite dessert?9. What you want to be when you grow up?10. What do you love most in life?11. One Word to describe you.12. Where You are from?

1. Lori 2. Steak 3. BYU 4. Red 5. Mark Wahlberg 6. Cherry Lime-aid 7. Santorini 8. Italian Cream Cake 9. Mommy 10. Steve 11. Stubborn 12. San Antonio

I had so much fun doing this that I had Steve do it too. Here is his:

1. Steve 2. Salmon Sushi 3. BYU 4. Red 5. Megan Fox 6. Monster Energy Drinks 7. Alaska 8. Jello Poke Cake 9. Park Ranger 10. Family 11. Intense 12. Scottsdale

Amelia goes to the Doctor

Amelia had her 4 month check-up this week. Our little girl is growing so big. She weighed in at 14.5 pounds and she is 25 3/4 inches long. She had to get 2 shots plus an additional oral vaccine, so it was a hard day for her, but she is in excellent health and is progressing very well for her age! Maddie came with us to the appointment. She was and exceptionally good helper to Mommy and the doctor. She read books and played with Mia while we waited. She also held Mia's hand while the doctor did her exam. She is a great sister.

Play Time

Amelia is becoming quite good at peek-a-boo. Every time the blanket pops up... presto!!! She gives big grins and giggles. It is so much fun to watch our little baby grow into such a big personality.

The other day Steve tried Mia out in the Bumbo so he could get some work done around the house while I was gone (Sweet, huh?). We weren't sure if she could do it - sit up alone that is - since she still topples over when we try it out ourselves. Well, the proof is in the pictures. Amelia loved it. Obviously she could tell she was doing something special because she was incredibly pleased with herself. Way to go big girl!

Painting Party

Aunt Lisa is the coolest! One night she brought paints over to Grandma's house and after dinner we went outside for a little inspiration and a lot of room. Colby painted too, but quickly went to swing when he finished his picture. Painting can be messy, but Maddie did great. Maybe, I will get brave enough to get Maddie paints too... maybe...

"Tub" Time At Grandma's

The tradition continues. Amelia had her first bath in Grandma's sink during our last visit. The big smile says it all. She looooved it! The sink is high enough so mommy's back isn't sore, and it's deep so there is plenty of room to splash. Plus, Grandma gets her dishes done and her sink scrubbed. Everyone is happy. Now that's good clean fun.

Let's Bowl!

While in San Antonio, Grandpa took our little clan along with cousin Hagen to enjoy a good old fashioned game of bowling!! We were set up on two lanes, the guys on one lane and the girls on the other with bumpers. Maddie insisted she needed a pink ball to bowl, no other would do.

Maddie had lots of fun at first and was a good sport considering we went during nap time. She quickly tired, but a little vanilla ice cream got her back into action. We all had a blast. Thanks Grandpa!