Haircut

It got late the other night when Stephen and I were playing games with some friends so we put the girls to bed.  They wouldn't go to sleep and just kept playing so we put Bailey to sleep in our bed and left Maddi in her room.  Well I had been sewing that day and some of my stuff was still out in sight in my room...I blame myself.  Stephen went to check on Bailey and found her hiding in my closet with scissors.  He didn't see anything damaged so he put her back in bed.  Later when everyone left I found a small clump of hair on the floor.  Bailey then got up to go pee and wanted help so I went to help her and noticed tons of hair all over the back of her shirt.  Then I raced to the closet and found more and more and MORE hair.  Bailey realized what I was finally realizing and hid under the covers.  I calmly told her I knew what she had done and we'd talk about it the next day.  Luckily she didn't cut too much.  She gave herself some long-ish bangs and cut some pretty short layers in the back of her hair.  It's not bad enough where she needs a whole new haircut and it blends pretty well.  The bangs actually look kinda good!  I am soooooo glad it wasn't worse.  I guess it's my fault for never getting her scissors of her own and showing her how to use them properly. 

You can't see anything really from this picture but here's just some of the hair I collected.

Baby Nikolas is here!!

This past week was a bit CRAZY. On Thanksgiving night my brother's girlfriend went into labor!! She wasn't due til just before Christmas but Nikolas had other plans. So while I was trying to get some rest before my Black Friday shopping we got the call and decided there would be no sleeping that night. My mom had to be at the hospital so my sister and I decided to just start our shopping at midnight and check in at the hospital after each store. It was great! Nikolas was finally born at 10:03 am on black friday. He was a healthy 7 lbs 5 oz at 3 1/2 weeks early! He is so stinkin cute and I am so excited to have a baby in the family again!!

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom turned 60 last week!!!  If you know my mom you know she doesn't want a big deal made of her.  This is just impossible when you turn 60!  A while back when my sibs and I suggested having a birthday party she quickly shut our idea down and absolutely DID NOT want us doing anything for her.  We even were told not to buy her gifts.  Well that is just unacceptable.  So we got planning a surprise party for her...

El Corral Steakhouse is a special place for my family so I decided to make reservations there. We got a room all to ourselves since we had 30 people there. We had to change our plans on who was delivering the birthday girl at the last minute. It was so great though, she had NO IDEA! At least she had no idea until she got there and like a a little snoop she peeked in the window where we were and saw my nephew and then all the rest of us! It was still great and we all had a wonderful time celebrating my wonderful mom. Happy Birthday Mom, you're the best!!

Happy Birthday Stephen

Stephen turned 34 last week!!  I can't believe how old this guy is (makes me feel young).  I woke up early and made him some yummy waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.  Oh, and don't forget the cold can of pepsi max.  The girls were so excited to get their waffles with chocolate chip smiley faces.  I'm such a boring mom that I've never given them that before!  Stephen sat and played on his computer game all day like he wanted to.  Then we had plans to go out to eat and see Harry Potter...but Stephen didn't feel up to it when it came time.  Can you believe that?!  Who turns down PF Chang's and HP!?  An old man that's who.  :(  Maybe next year I'll force him to do something fun for his 35th.

Merry Christmas - this never gets old

HaLlOwEeN 2010

I'm super late on posting about Halloween. The girls both dressed up as dragons and Ethan was sort of a skeleton (just wore a cool skeleton sweatshirt). Ethan is just getting too cool for dressing up. We trunk or treated at our ward's party on Friday night and then at my mom's tri-ward trunk or treat Saturday night to trunk or treat with all the Tucson cousins. We had tons of fun, especially becuase we got the always delicious caramel apples at Butterfield Ward!!!

BuNcO!

I hosted a Halloween bunco at my house this month and it was super fun!  Everyone dressed up and we had tons of yummy treats to eat.  And even though my carmel apples stuck to the wax paper they were delish!!

Projects, Projects, Projects

Lately I have been in one of my "wo-is-me,-i-wish-i-didn't-have-to-work-and-then-i'd-have-all-the-time-in-the-world-to-do-what-i-want-to-do-and-just-be-a-mom" moods. So I decided to do a few of the projects I've been putting off and wanting to do.

I got these chairs from a friend who was donating them to our ward's drop 'n' swap.  They just had a few stains on the old beige fabric so I covered them with this pretty burnt-reddish fabric.  I love them!  They look like new!

This is a semi-failed project.  This was supposed to be a Halloween advent calendar on a cookie sheet but I didn't like how it turned out.  I mod-podged all this ribbon though and didn't want to trash it so I put magnets on the backs of the ribbon and put it on my fridge!  Just as fun.  So if you can't see, each of the circles are paper numbers cut out and glued to the bottom of those marbles that you put in the bottom of vases.  Then each of those has a magnet on the back.  I put a magnet on the back of a milky way and every day it gets moved so we can count down the days til Halloween.  My kids love it!

I love this little flower box!  I got the idea from a craft blog.  I just cut scrapbook paper, folded it, glued it, buttoned it, and planted it in some foam and a cute painted $1 box with tissue paper cut up and crumpled on top.  Cute, right?!

How long have I had these pictures and never hung them up??  Well this was Maddi's 1 yr and Bailey's 3 yr pictures so that tells you.  (Ethan's picture is only a year old so not nearly as bad...)  So I put some cute ribbon on the back and hung them up with a bow on top.  I'm going to make some cute flowers to go on the girls' frames but I think they're even pretty cute the way they are!

Last one...I saw some bags and stuff with zipper flowers on them and I have been thinking about them daily ever since.  I HAD to make some of these super cute hair bows.  I made black and grey and I love them!!  They even gave me some motivation to create even more ways to make the hair bow which I am also loving!  The best part is, my girls actually LOVE these and WANT to wear them!! Hooray!

Time Out For Women

My WONDERFUL mom took my sister, Jana, and I to the Deseret Book Time Out For Women this month. It was AWESOME!!! We stayed in Phoenix overnight and enjoy a day and a half full of great speakers and amazing inspiration. I hope that we can go every year. It was especially fun spending time with my mom and Jana...even if i was fighting back the pukes all day the second day. I regretfully came home to a puking kid (Maddi). I swear I can't leave without one of my kids puking their brains out while I'm gone. :(

                                    Jana and I trying to be as cool as the chairs in our fancy hotel

pLaY gRoUp!

Since school started Bailey has been participating in a little girls playgroup.  She's had so much fun going to a different friend's house each week.  This week was at our house.  We painted t-shirts, played red light-green light, played in the bunkbed fort, and ate some yummy snacks.  I think the girls had lots of fun and I know my girls loved their new shirts.  They had to wear them the rest of the day and were upset the next morning when I wouldn't let them wear them again.

Primary Program

I forgot to take a picture of the kids Sunday before the primary program... Since this was Bailey's first primary program here's a pic of her (I never think to take an oh-you-look-so-cute-in-your-Sunday-clothes picture of Ethan). Bailey and Ethan both did a great job. Bailey had her part memorized and when she got up there and the teacher tried to help she said into the microphone, "No, I'm gonna DO IT MYSELF," and that she did. I am so proud of her. Ethan's part was bearing his testimony-which he has never done- and he did a great job and I am so proud of him too. Bailey knew all the signs for the song they did in sign language and pretty much all the words to each song. Ethan on the other hand seemed to have been absent for singing time cause the kid didn't know ANY words. He said he just got nervous up there. Anyhoo, I was super proud of the kids and I love them so much!!

(this isn't even what she wearing that day but a cute pic i had from a few weeks ago)

Maddison's artwork

In case anyone is wondering why I'm a mean mom who doesn't let her kids color very often at home...

Thankfully it was only crayon and only on my counter. But it still gave me a headache.

Goofy Girls

Day trip at Madera Canyon

This past weekend we headed out to Madera Canyon with our friends, the Quinns. We had a fun picnic and small little hike. It was nice to get outside and super nice weather for it. The kids had fun throwing rocks and sticks into the little creek and Stephen had fun dramatically leaping over the 2 foot wide water. Very serious stuff.

Dallen got baptized!!

My wonderful nephew, Dallen, got baptized!! I am so proud of him and excited for him to officially belong to our wonderful church. We went up to Mesa to celebrate and witness him being baptized. We had tons of fun hanging out with cousins swimming and eating lots of yummy food. Thanks Jana! My awesome sister Jana really helped me feel the spirit when she bore her testimony to Dallen. Jana you're such a cool person and I admire you for being such a FANTASTIC mother. Another great part of that day was when we were singing the closing song, "I am a Child of God," and Maddison sang super loud and super off key but she knew every word. It was a proud mama moment.

Ethan is Eleven!!!

My wonderful step-son, Ethan, turned 11 last week! I'm a crappy step-mom so I'm not blogging about it til now but.....things have been crappy. Anyhoo, Ethan is the coolest kid I know. He is:

1. funny
2. fun to play games with
3. good looking
4. the best big brother my girls could ask for
5. helpful
6. kind
7. caring
8. smart
9. ambitious
10. willing to do the boring stuff
11. counting down the days til he gets the priesthood and can do baptisms!!

I love this kid!!

He'd never been to Wing Stop and he loves chicken wings so that's where we ate for his b-day.

Hungry growing boy
I know, boring cake Becca. I had no time. At least it's a confetti cake!

Girls Night(s)

Lately I've had a few much needed girls nights. The only one I took pics at was this one with my long time great friends, Jeannette, Miranda, Sylvia, Jessica and Ashle. We had yummy costco pizza and played games and laughed lots. I love these girls!!

Then, my girls camp buddies got together for some serious Cheesecake Factory action!!! It was AWESOME!!! I loved seeing my buds, almost all of them, altogether again. We had sooo many laughs and ate some delish cheesecake!! I even got told off by our server, "Don't juuuudge her! You don't knoooow her!" So funny! You had to be there. And thanks to Kathy Johnson I now know some places to avoid and some certain blue drinks to stay away from. :)

Summer Swimming

This summer has been full of swimming. Bailey has learned so many new things: plugging her nose, holding her breath while swimming with her face in the water, doing all sorts of flips into the pool, and she's almost ready to swim without her floaties! Maddison has also learned many things: how to swim with floaties, kick her feet, bravery to jump in the pool or be thrown in from the side, and how to NOT get water in her nose and mouth when her head goes under water. I am so impressed with my girls. It's been sooo nice being able to take them swimming all the time and not have to hold either of them the entire time. We're loving swimming right now since school is back in cause we pretty much have the pools to ourselves!

Pumpin it Up!

The girls and I went with our awesome friends, Julie, Caylee and Cambree to Pump it Up this week. It was so much fun!! Especially since I only had to pay for 1 kid. I'm really bummed I didn't get any pics of all of us together but I only had my phone to take pictures with and there were about 60 kids running around in the way...