"I Want It Short"

I have been planning (and delaying) getting the girls a haircut for quite some time.

Eden was excited to go to our next door neighbor's little salon down the street.  Leila BEGGED for me to cut it.  I told her, "OK, I'll do it first, if it doesn't work out then I'm going to take it to Luisa's to get it fixed."  A deal was struck.

I put her in the highchair and she said, "I want it short."  She pointed to her chin....

...OK...

 (I love this picture...and also stand ashamed of my "less than responsible mommy moment" because Molly is on a regular kitchen chair where she easily could have fallen while bouncing, climbing, etc.  I let her stand and play on it while I cut the girls hair.  But it was so new and exciting to act like a big girl...that was possibly the only way I could get her to be happy when I chopped away.  I mean, look at her face!  She was one happy girl to be "big".)

Anyhow, I chopped and said, "oh dear...its DEFINITELY SHORT."  And seeing how much I had already cut and that it was a horrible hack job, I left it and said, "We're going to Luisa's."

Leila was making funny faces while taking these pictures, I couldn't quiet get a normal picture out of her....but she's still cute as ever.

 She LOVES her haircut and almost every day she looks in the mirror and says, "Oh, I am so beautiful!"  She thinks headbands are super cute and insists on wearing them...for about 5 minutes, then she insists on NOT wearing them.  But its OK.  She's super cute.

Eden wanted her hair cut as well.  She originally just wanted a trim but after seeing how brave Leila was she said, "maybe I want a few inches off...like this..." and pointed to about 3 inches.  So, I chopped three inches and then Luisa gave a few layers to her hair.

There's Something About Owning a Bathrobe...

...that makes you feel like you need a make over.

Take a nice bath...

Paint your toenails...

Put curlers in your hair...

You're own mini-spa really.

 Thanks Nana for the bathrobes.

While in the meantime, Tyson's working in internal medicine.

Wait, let me re-phrase that.

Tyson's working in the much anticipated and much dreaded internal medicine.

You know its lame when he needs to go to bed at the same time as the children every night to make sure he gets enough sleep and doesn't get to go to church for two months because "weekends" are a thing of the past.

Poor Tyson.

We're all lounging in bathrobes and he's working.

Poor, Poor Tyson.

Molly's 1st Birthday

She's one.  Time flies.  I don't remember my other children growing up this fast.

Molly is a ball of love.  It never ceases to amaze me how each of my children can be so different from one another.  She's been a joy in our lives, that's for sure.

A little about Molly:

• She's definitely got the lightest hair of all my girls
• Her favorite foods are lollipops. chocolate, avocados, and broccoli
• She doesn't talk much...
• Mom
• Dad (Da)
• Hello (Eh-Woah)
• Leila (Ya-Yah)
• Eden (Deh)
• Thank You (Day-Day)
• More (Mo)
• No
• Uh-Oh
• Banana (Na Na)
• Fishies (Shi)
• A few animal noises, mostly dog
• And maybe a few other words said here and there
• She thinks she's just as big as the other girls
• She's a REALLY good climber and LOVES slides
• She's under the charts on height and weight
• She gets really jealous if Leila tries to sit on Mom's lap
• She loves to pretend Dad's on the phone "Eh-Woah? Da?"
• She loves tubbies, being outside, and stroller rides
• She loves to give hugs and kisses and to blow kisses
• She's got 3 teeth and 2 more popping out
• She will blow her nose...unfortunately often on her own or other's clothes
• She loves baby dolls and taking care of them
• She loves peek-a-boo, reading books, and singing songs
• She loves sesame street songs with celebrities on youtube

Utah Fun

Although our little family is staying as a "little family" for Christmas this year instead of staying with "my parents" or "his parents" or, as often occurs, a little of both parents...we WERE able to visit for a few weeks during the holiday season.

Endless activities, snow play, and cousins accompanied by a serious lack of sleep.

No wonder my kids were so sad to leave and are currently suffering from "Utah withdrawals".

I had a great time as well...although, I admit that I definitely became sleep deprived (considering the first night back I slept in until 11...).

We were able to celebrate Molly's 1st birthday (for the second time...) with "decorate your own cupcakes and cake pops".

 Festival of Trees was lots of fun.  I thought Eden made an awesome choice to go inside the bubble machine. She thought that was pretty cool.

 Eden got her first "I miss you" love letter.  She went to visit Roman while in Utah and there was all sorts of boy-trying-to-impress-girl actions followed by lots of giggle-at-boy-trying-to-impress-girl actions.  She's just glad to be loved and missed.

 We went to Midway and did an early present exchange for the kids.  Leila got her first Legos and Eden and Eva both ended up getting each other the same gift, My Little Ponies.

 Then of course we were able to visit Santa (twice in fact).  Once at the JACL (Japanese American Citizen's League) party and another at my parent's ward party.

 Molly was a little worried when I handed her over to someone else to hold her...then she turned to see who was holding her and she was scared to death...*snap picture* then rescue the poor child.

There were several other activities that we did that were so much fun.  We went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert which was INCREDIBLE.  Eden and Leila sang a musical number for the neighborhood care center.  Alyssa and Ben hosted an AWESOME get together with family and friends where we sang Christmas carols and had special musical numbers and goodies to eat.  We were able to go see Frozen at the movie theater which they girls loved (they still dress up at home and play Frozen daily).

Oh, the activities seemed to go on and on.  It was such fun....the only sad part is that I'm not sure when we'll be back to Utah again....

Volunteering

 Eden and I were able to have a little mommy/daughter date on Saturday.  Our ward gave us the wonderful opportunity to do some community service.  A Lutheran church group in Kansas City holds a service project every year and they ask the LDS church to come because if there's a service project that is child friendly, you can count on us to be there.  They take food from a food pantry, fill up bags of Thanksgiving-ish food, and give it out to those who are less fortunate.  We put the food in bags, decorated the bags, and also made Christmas cards.

When we got home, Eden went to work decorating our refrigerator in the same way she learned to decorate the Christmas cards.  I love it.

What's Going On

Walking...that's what going on.  And boy does she love to be "big" like everyone else.  She also blows kisses which is one of our favorite things in the world.

We also added a few new members to our household....fish.

Eden has been BEGGING for pet fish for ages and we kept saying "When we move to Kansas City" and then we got here and we had to pay for this and that and fish kept getting delayed.  But we could break her heart no longer and finally got her fish.

We ended up getting guppies from a neighbor after her fish had babies.  So, they are teeny, tiny little guys....six of them to be exact (obviously they are small since the first picture looks just like an empty tank.  The biggest one (shown above) is named Bruce.  He is the only fish with a real name, partially because he's the only one we can tell apart from the others since he is quite a bit larger than the rest.  Eden is pretty insistent that she wants to name one of them Gloria...but we are unsure which one.

The girls love their little fish.  They supposedly get their fun colors as they grow older, but for now they are pretty colorless.  Eden doesn't seem to mind.  She loves feeding her fish and being with her fish.  It was well work it to get these fish.

Halloween...and the Rest of October...

Its strange how Halloween ends up a bigger and more exciting holiday for us.

Perhaps its because its the beginning of the BIG holiday season events...and its time to get our craft on.

Monsters...

 "BEWARE" signs (I wish you could actually read them...the kids made them up.  They say things like "Beware!  Vampires and Zombies live here!")

 Other little critters and creatures to decorate our windows.

 Pumpkin muffins with spider cream cheese frosting.

 

 Laura, Eric, Trey, and Ramona were able to come visit..which definitely added to our fun and excitement.  The kids were thrilled to see cousins again!

 We celebrated Tyson's birthday.  For his birthday present, he got 2 days off of work!  Wahoo!

More crafts...

 There were a few Halloween party get togethers that we had and were tons of fun.  With face painting, tons of candy, games, etc.

 Lady bugs are now EVERYWHERE.  The girls had a hay day trying to look at and collect ladybugs.  Although, we were warned to NOT touch the yellow ones cause apparently they bite.

 I end up making all food with a Halloween theme.  I actually made these with eyes...then Eden took one chocolate chip out of each and said, "they are eyeballs!"  I actually think her idea was better than mine.

 I found this online for meringue ghosts and wanted to try them.  They were fun and cute.

Daddy took them out trick or treating in the neighborhood.  Eden was a ladybug, Leila was a doctor (which she was SO excited to be able carry around daddy's real stethoscope around the neighborhood), and Molly was a little Indian (which she never keeps things in her hair...but for some reason she KNEW she was supposed to keep this Indian headband on and she kept it there the entire time).

Its all been fun!