Haircuts for the Woolseys

...actually just one of the Woolseys.  I should preface this by saying that Rachel has asked me to cut her hair several times, and every time I put her off saying that I will do it the next time we do Daddy's.  So perhaps this is actually my fault.

How Rachel's hair looked pre-haircuts

   Rachel took matters into her own hands the past couple weeks. About two weeks ago I was running my fingers through Rachel's hair and noticed that it seemed like she had some bangs and that it was a little bit shorter in some spots. It didn't look bad and it was kind of hard to tell since she has curly hair, so I think it actually took me a couple days to notice. All the same I asked Rachel casually if she cut her hair.  She said calmly "Yes." Then in a whisper (as if we were keeping it a secret from someone else), " I sneaked my scissors and hid behind the play kitchen and cut it." I told her that only mommy cuts hair and asked her not to do it anymore.  Later that day I went and looked behind the play kitchen to retrieve the scissors.  I found the scissors... and a very large pile of curly hair.  It was a lot more than I thought she had cut.  I immediately exclaimed in despair, "Oh Rachel!" she happened to be in the room and shouted, "You said you would still love me!!"  (Explanation: One of Rachel's favorite books is about a little bear who breaks one of his mom's dishes.  He goes to tell his mom but first asks hypothetically if he were to do certain things, if his mother would still love him.  To each situation the mother responds "Yes I will always love you, but you will have to... clean up the mess or help wash baby, etc."  Rachel often likes to ask me if she does something bad if I will still love her. )  I assured her that I still love her, but she is not to cut her hair any more. I lock up the scissors.
    Fast forward to this week.  Rachel comes out with most of the hair along the left and right side of her head cut up to ears, leaving a very long curly rats tail in the back. Yikes. I am still not sure where she got the scissors. As I picked up dirty clothes in her room I kept finding little piles of blonde curls. But it is now time for more drastic measures.  I tried my hand at "fixing" it.

Before I cut her hair:

After I cut her hair:  Hayley Mills anyone?

It is not my favorite haircut.  I really loved her blonde curls, but still it kind of fits her zany personality.  It also requires basically no maintenance, not that I have ever been good at that anyway.

 ALL scissors in the house have now been hidden and locked up for an undetermined amount of time.

Easter

So Easter was a while ago, but it was fun.  Lots of candy, too much candy, but fun. We had some friends over for an egg hunt a few days before Easter.  The kids had a blast and ate almost all of their candy before the night was over.

Tried for a nice picture of the girls in their Easter dresses, but this was the best we could do.

Spring Break

Ryan was able to take two days off in April for a little spring break and so we planned some fun family activities and hit the road.

Saturday we went to find some snow.  It is kind of sad to me that we have to drive to go and find snow. Lauren is the only one of our kids who has ever played in the snow and she was only 18 months old so she probably doesn't remember.  Donner's Pass had some snow and the girls have been dying to build a snowman (not just because of Frozen, even though they did name our snowman Olaf).  It was pretty nasty, hard, crusty snow but we had fun.  We found half of a broken sled and that made it even better.

 

 

Monday we went to Fairy Tale Town

 Met this little person:

and ate homemade rocky road ice cream.

It was good.

Really good.

Tuesday we went up to Point Reyes.  We took a walk up to a replica of a tribal village.

They look miserable but they actually really loved it.  They decided that they wanted to live here instead of going home.

We also went down to the beach, which was fun as always.

Yay for day trips!

A New Place, More Space

In January I started casually looking the area for a bigger place to rent, we were planning on moving sometime later in the summer but I thought I would get a feel for what was out there and maybe come across a good deal. We found one. This little duplex, located a mile or two from where we were currently living, the price was right, it had three bedrooms and a great yard so we went for it.  We got the keys on Valentine's Day and moved in gradually over the next week.

The yard is amazing

I don't know what we ever did without one.
(Actually we walked to the park, every single day) 

Sorry for the crumby pictures.

We love it and I think we'll stay for a while.  I think one of my favorite things is our very own washer and dryer in the garage...that doesn't require quarters.

We Love Our Birthdays, Every One

So it's been a while but back at the beginning of the year we had a couple birthdays.  Rachel turned 3 and Emily turned one.

All Rachel wanted to do for her birthday was ride a carousel.
Lucky for us the mall has one, so that's what we did.

Trying out the new scooter.

Rachel's cake, cause she's a monkey.  One ear is missing
because she snuck in while I was making dinner, grabbed it,
hid behind the counter, and ate it.

Emily's cake

Our first kid to really go for their cake on their first birthday.

Yum. More cake!

Sometimes

Sometimes you have to do things that are not fun.  Sometimes you have to make your own birthday dinner with a house full of screaming children.   Sometimes the child you hoped and prayed for does not come or dies too soon. Sometimes your husband is out of town. Sometimes kids pee on your brand new couch. Sometimes you have to put all the kids to bed by yourself. Sometimes your kid throws up on you. Sometimes you find out you have cancer on your birthday (I love you Bonnie). Sometimes your car breaks down.  Sometimes you fail your test.  Sometimes you don't get the job you really wanted.  Sometimes your spouse is in grad school for a long time.  Sometimes you move to a new place.  Sometimes your kids wake up in the middle of the night.  Sometimes you find out your child has cancer. Sometimes you are overwhelmed. Sometimes you lose your job. Sometimes kids scream. Sometimes you miss your family and friends.  Sometime you feel like a bad parent. Sometimes there is too much to do. Sometimes you lock yourself in the bathroom and cry.  Sometimes your spouse has to work late.  Sometimes things don't work out. Sometimes you are sick. Sometimes you are depressed.  Sometimes you are tired. Sometimes life is hard.

Here's to all of you who keep your chin up, who keep moving forward, who keep a positive attitude, who throw in everything you have. Thank you. Thank you for your example of hope and faith, for pushing through your sometimes. I look up to you my dear friends.  Here is to better days ahead.

Neverland, Dry Ice, and Knives

Sounds exciting doesn't it? It was.

Way back in February when the girls were in their Peter Pan phase they decided what we would be for Halloween. Lauren would be Wendy, Rachel-Peter Pan, Emily – Tinker Bell (because she is small), Daddy-Captain Hook, and Mommy – just a pirate. And so that’s what we were.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan and Wendy

Tinker Bell

Off to Neverland! (or Candyland)

 This was our first year with ALL of us dressing up, usually adult costumes are too big of a hassle. Luckily Lauren has plenty of blue dresses, we inherited a Peter Pan costume, and some friends of ours had a fantastic Captain Hook costume. Easy peasey. The pirate and Tinker Bell were easy Goodwill finds. Yay.  With the ward trunk-or-treat, preschool party, and stake singing time party, by the time Halloween night actually came around we were all treated out (Basically we had more candy than three young children under 5 should have). So we made some yummy food, invited some friends over, and stayed home. Our new Halloween night tradition is eating egg rolls and homemade root beer and carving pumpkins. Just as we were sitting down to eat I went to give the root beer a stir and all the dry ice was stuck to the bottom of the glass jug.  (*Note: Ryan knew that glass and dry ice are not a good combination and advised me to make it in a stock pot. I started to and then decided the jug would be better because it has a spigot. Plus I made it in the jug last year and it was fine.)

I hit the dry ice with the spoon, hoping to dislodge it and the side of the jug blew out. All I could do was stand there and watch as a gallon of root beer spilled all over the kitchen walls, floor, cabinets, and fridge. Bummer.  So while everyone else was eating dinner, I mopped up the kitchen. I am still sad about the loss of all that root beer, I love homemade root beer.

 After dinner we carved pumpkins. I had the great idea of making one of the girls’ pumpkins into a Cinderella carriage.  Super easy carving wise, just carve a door, then you just need to add everything to the outside. After our friends left and Emily was in bed, I was trying to figure out how to make wheels for our carriage. I decided on poking bamboo skewers through plastic lids (the old yogurt container kind).  The skewers weren't strong enough to poke through so I grabbed a pairing knife since we had plenty out on the table. I was pushing hard to just poke a hole but the knife unexpectedly burst through the lid slicing my finger (classic boy scout mistake).  BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!!!!!!!(Ryan added this part) Ryan thought I had stabbed a skewer through my hand, but was relieved when he learned it was "just" a knife.  It was a pretty deep cut and I was pretty sure it was going to need stitches.  Luckily I have a good boy scout who knows basic first aid.  I then spent the rest of the evening with my finger wrapped tight and held up in the air above my head, no stitches necessary. Yay. Unfortunately Rachel’s pumpkin looks like Cinderella’s after midnight.

Rachel's, Lauren's and Ryan's pumpkin.  After stabbing
my finger I decided it would be best not to carve another pumpkin.