Hair

I love baby hair!

Both of mine started with a full, dark head of it.




Then came a bit of an awkward phase as it all fell out.




Then came the blond fuzz. My favorite!




Nathan finally required a haircut last week. My mom did the honors.


Maybe I waited a little too long.


Cutting a baby boy's hair makes him look more grown-up. Instantly.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

This blog is supposed to be about the babies but, seriously, my last post was about my filthy house. An actual trip is big news! Scot and his coworkers earned a trip to Huntington Beach, California. We left the kiddos with Grandma and off we went.

We had a blast wandering around California for four days, looking like complete tourists. I rented a fancy-smancy camera and got some pretty good pictures.

The hotel and beach...




Winery in Temecula. The entire place smelled like flowers.




What did I take pictures of before kids? Here's me taking a picutre of me taking a picture of the vineyards.


At Laguna Beach we shopped, ate and walked on the beach.



Without the babies around, Scot and I actually got a picture of us.


That's our trip, in a nutshell. We also ate at some amazing restaurants but I resisted pulling out the camera at dinner.

Now we're back home with loads and loads of laundry that I should be doing instead of blogging. The babies are worn out and coming off their week-long sugar binge. It was so fun while it lasted.

It's Snowing

One of my Facebook friends quoted Phyllis Diller in her status a few weeks ago. The quote said something to the effect that cleaning up after your children is like shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

I think I understand.

Here's my bathroom. Seriously.


Where do you keep your stuffed duck-billed platapus? We keep ours by the sink, apparently.


And now for a little experiment. Hypothesis: my two will tear this room up in about 5 minutes. This is the "before" shot.



Ready, go!


Brooke likes to pretend she is a princess sleeping in the dress-up box. Of course, this requires taking all the clothes out first. Pretty sure this is just a way to torment me.




That's right, Nate. Get in there and pull out all the books. You may be little, but you're mighty.


At the 5 minute mark the room is a disaster. I was right, but somehow, I'm still the loser here.

Really, I don't mind the mess. Usually. That's us right now and that's totally fine. So come on over and play. You may have to move the grocery cart to go to the bathroom, but these guys will show you how to have a good time.

A Little Less Talk...

...a lot more pictures!

I have a few favorites right now.


This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Brooke. Her expression is so serious, but the sand in her ear tells a whole different story.



Nate HATES the grass. If I put him in it he gets up on his toes and alternates hands so that as little of him touches the grass as possible. Like a good mama, I plopped him in the middle of the yard and got the camera.



After our photo session I rescued Nate from the grass and we tickled and played. Daddy grabbed the camera and got this one.



My girl loves her pink toes. I love that my girl loves her pink toes.



Every girl needs some shades.



The other day the city changed the light in the street lamp in front of our house. This is exciting stuff around here.



A (very) unexpected sweet moment. Ahhh...

More Food

It seems like I discuss food an awful lot on this blog. What can I say? We like to eat around here.

When I feel like cooking something outside my normal rotation I check out a blog called "My Mommy's Kitchen." It's written by a mom that has tons of recipes, complete with step-by-step instructions and pictures. And I need that kind of guidance.

Anyway, I found a recipe for strawberry yogurt popsicles and tried it out last week. They turned out really good. (Well, the second batch did). Plus, they're pretty healthy. I can remember making popsicles when I was little. For some reason there was something special about making them ourselves.

Like I said, the first batch didn't turn out great. If anyone is reading this and decides to make them, be sure to use plain yogurt and not vanilla. Also, don't use lime jello. Even if you already have lime jello. Even if you go to the store to buy strawberry jello and your 10-month-old gets a hold of the blueberries and dumps them ALL over the floor and it takes three people to clean it up and your two-year-old is screaming "Nafan spilled the blueberries! Nafan spilled the blueberries!" and all you want to do is forget the stupid jello and run out of the store and never come back. Deal with it and go get the strawberry. Totally worth it.

Here's Brooke eating my vanilla-lime concoction. Yuck.

Cry It Out

We're helping Nate learn to fall asleep on his own today. That's a nice way to say that we're putting the poor guy in his bed and letting him scream his little head off until he exhausts himself and finally gives up and falls asleep. Checking on him and patting him periodically, of course.

I hate this. I think I can actually feel my blood pressure rising. I keep reminding myself that this is not torture. He's fed, clean, dry, tired and laying in his bed. We should all be so lucky. But something about this must be horrible.

I know I need to let him cry. My doctor said so, my best friend with a child development degree said so. I did it with Brooke, so I know it works. I want him to sleep and I want to sleep. But it's still hard.

Obviously, I'm not capturing this moment with my camera, so here are a few pics of my little guy back before I scarred him for life.

This is the Day

I got off on the wrong foot today.

We're tired. The baby was up at 5:30 and went back down for his morning nap at 7:50. Brooke woke up bright and early, too.

I opened the fridge to see that our breakfast choices were salad or eggs. Eggs it is. Brooke dropped one on the floor as she "helped" me make breakfast. The floor that I scrubbed yesterday, Cinderella-style, down on my hands and knees. Sigh.

As I mentally counted the hours until naptime (6!?!) I noticed this on my egg carton:



It says, "This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalms 118:24

Right there on my egg carton. Whoa...hmmmm...

What if I treat today as a gift? I know that in a few more years I will wish I had that two-year-old, dressed as Snow White over her pjs, dropping eggs on my kitchen floor. (Did I mention I had just scrubbed it???) I will remember when my grocery cart was so full of babies that I had no room for groceries. I will think of that smiling little boy, happy, healthy and raring to go in the wee hours of the morning. How great is that?

Today is a beautiful gift. And I am so glad for it.