He did what?!

Wait just a minute, how'd Thing One get in there? This is supposed to be an update on Thing Two!

Thing Two has moved further East for the semester, at least, and has begun welding school in earnest, which has been going well so far as most of it has been safety videos in addition to learning how to drive in city traffic. The combination of welding + living with family who have a well instead of city water has led to a huge change..... all of his hairs got cut! Send him good vibes for learning everything and protection from Pepe the 2005 Pilot turning into a Flintstone vehicle that runs by using your own feet...

 I'll leave you with the before and after photos.

 

And then there was none

 I should have posted this one after the next post, but I trust you all to be able to file it correctly chronologically in your own minds. This is Thing Three pre-summer haircut, which he debated getting. The deciding factor, I believe, was how much flipping of hair out of his face he would have to do at the pool this summer...

The end result. He looks humungous. How is our baby so big?!

Summertime, fuzzy hair for the win!

Imagine with me

If my LAUNDRY ROOM looks this bad, you can envision pretty well what the rest of the house looks like.

Imagine with me a place and time that doesn’t have this much mess and this many activities crammed into 31 days. Somebody please send me there! SOS!

We just did a haircut, so now there is a mess of a different sort:

He wanted fuzzy. I started with a 3 and he wasn't satisfied customer so we went to the 2 and he still wasn't happy. You probably heard the squeals of glee after I finished with the 1 when he exclaimed, "I never noticed how big my forehead is!" And the ensuing peals of laughter.

I imagine that I'd have less mess and less crazy without them, but that smile just melts me. 

And now there's a fuzzy head to rub.

And it isn't mine!

Family photos

Okay, Mommee, that should tide you over for awhile. Here's the last post for today. 

Some family members are fuzzier than others:

Happy belated Mother's Day to all you moms out there, especially mine because she has to put up with me. =D

It is bedtime yet?

I'm taking more and more after my mother, most often by necessity.

This morning, I've already made my bed, walked both big kids off to the bus, let the dog in and out (which actually involves going out with her, tying her out, undoing her tie and letting her in as the new house's yard isn't fenced), done breakfast, started the dishwasher, started a load of kid laundry, given Damon a haircut and a bath. I'm pooped.

As I was making my bed, I was musing about the places you love the most being the places you seem to spend the least amount of time. I love bed. I love sleeping. Yet it feels like my poor bed is a long lost friend. Most nights I fall into it and mutter, "yay! Bedtime! My favorite!" or something along those lines and Dada laughs at me.

But then I got to thinking about camp, and how there is, quite simply, never enough time spent there. We were only there for 3 days this year, over July 4 weekend. That's not nearly long enough to survive on for someone who started counting down the weeks until camp the day she got home from camp! There might need to be an intervention, and soon. We missed the Epic Fall Getaway of our Dreams; the third one was held this year but wasn't well advertised. I am really, really missing both the people and the physical place.

I suppose that has something to do with the fact that I've been running on almost empty for about a month now. The week before Thanksgiving Dada came home after a week out of town and a Saturday spent at an auction to find me curled up on the couch in tears because I was just so pooped out. Then the madness of Thanksgiving and all the wonderful blessings it brings hit. We had a houseful, 18 people, and it was wonderful. Then the germs hit.

Liam started coughing on Thanksgiving morning. By Sunday afternoon, I knew I was in trouble. We all stayed home Monday, even Dada, downing cough syrup like it was going out of style. Dada made it back to work Tuesday, the kids all went back to school Wednesday, then Thursday I got a call "to please come get Damon as he is not himself" when he spiked a fever and slept from about 2 minutes into the car ride home, all afternoon, all evening, and all night, when he wasn't coughing his brains out. I dragged him to poor Dr. Jon Friday, but I could already tell he was getting back to being his normal self. Sure enough, Dr. Jon said he'd be coughing less hard and feeling way better by the same time next week. I don't think I heard him cough at all last night...

I am feeling better, too, though I am still coughing. So is Carrie, who's been fighting it off and on for a month now. There is just not enough sunshine to keep me healthy in Ohio in the winter. Bah.

And, Mother, as I stated on Facebook, I find it completely ironic and cruel that we were all healthy and fine until we started taking the vitamins you brought us! Further proof Shick was right to save four years of his and return them to his mother. Pbbbbt.

Anyway, it isn't even 10 AM and I'm ready for a nap. Alas, there are more Christmas decorations that need A) found and B) displayed. As well as never-ending laundry, the dishes that need hand washed, etc.

We are very much looking forward to Dada taking this Friday and next Monday off so we can spend some time with him and not be running around like total nuts. I've gotten a handle on the Christmas shopping, though I'm pretty sure cards won't be happening, once again. As much as I'd like to bake up a storm, I just don't have the energy yet. I did, however, bake a chocolate cake with buttercream frosting all from scratch yesterday. We had friends over for dinner, so thankfully we only have half of the cake to finish ourselves. It is YUMMY.

Be on the lookout for how you see your Savior this Christmas season. He's always with you, but may you find Him in unexpected moments and encounters! Be blessed!

Liam's haircut

This boy has Uncle Rob hair. ;) I didn't want to buzz it fuzzy quite yet, but he needed something done before his Easter pictures, so I got out the clippers and did a 3-5-7 on his sweet little head. I'm pleased with the results. He is SUCH a handsome kid!

Spring Do's

I trimmed up Dada's hair and then turned around to find Liam requesting a haircut just like Dada's. So we whipped the clippers back out and used the same numbers on him. Here's before:

And here's after:

Pictures, pictures everywhere

Today was Picture Day at Carrie's preschool. I asked her how she smiled for the camera and she said, "like this." It was kind of a silly face, typical Carrie, so I asked what the photographer said about it and she told me, "he said I looked ridiculous." I giggled and asked what Miss Linda said and she said, "same thing. She said I looked ridiculous too." Sooooooo, having no idea if that's fact or fiction, I guess we'll just wait and see how she smiled! What a nut.

Yesterday I took Liam to get his 2 year old pictures taken and they'll be done next month. Y'all are going to love them. He was pretty funny and very... shall we say, active. Hehe! The photographer said boys are always like that, so I didn't feel so bad. ;) They'll be worth it though! He's been calling pumpkins "mah-tees" and we're not sure why. I've painted my toenails orange and did jack-o-lantern faces on the two big ones. He made me take off my socks so he could see them again. He pulled one of my socks off, saying "piggies, piggies" and then he cooed "MAHHHH-TEEEEEEES" when he saw them. Then he insisted I show him the other one too. Silly boy. Gave him another fuzzy haircut tonight too... not quite as short as summertime, but cleaned up some. It was getting pretty long! He can even say "haircut"... his language skills have really taken off this week. Lots of two and three word phrases all of a sudden. I think he knows almost every color and a lot of shapes. Amazing how fast he's stringing things together! Such a fun age.

Pap is here to help with the basement, again. Last night Dada and I finished painting down there so it's a very light, cool, minty green. (Not as dark as the room at the Last Resort that was going to be Liam's room had we stayed there, PaPa.) Pap is going to help with the tile. None of us are sure how it's all going to look once we get the pattern going. Jim, come save us! ;)

Have a great weekend, everyone. We're off to Nina's tomorrow for her birthday party and I get to snuggle babies at church on Sunday. Rather easy weekend for us. If you're close to the Highlands, go help this weekend if you can. They're painting G1, I hear. Get in touch w/ Dawson or Caves if you need more info. Wish we could be there too!