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.