If you give a kid a haircut...

I gave Rigby a haircut, which I wanted to show to Nick (who was at work), so I took a picture.  The picture was so cute, I wanted more pictures.  Taking pictures looked like so much fun, Curie wanted in on the action.  Having pictures of two kids, I wanted to complete set of individuals, so I snapped Pierce (Bethelle was at school).  Having so many pictures, I needed to do this blog post.

(These was all taken at the end of February.  Still catching up!)

One Last Party

We are sad.  Everyone is leaving us.

Let me set this up for you.  Nick and I were born and raised an hour from where we currently live.  We may have come and gone a bit for school and training assignments, but ultimately, we came back.   We have been in this area for nine of the ten years that we have been married.

You would think that we have friends and family here.

Ok, ok, let's not discount the friends and family that we have.  I said that more for shock than out of truth.  But there's at least some truth to that statement.  Let me 'splain.

All of my best friends from high school live far away.  Many live in other countries, on other continents.  I grew up nextdoor to my cousins.  My six cousins.  My parents and their parents owned those homes for about 30 years.  But now every one of them are gone.  Again, one is in England.  Of my own siblings, most were still around until recently.  My oldest brother just left for three years in England, taking some of our favorite cousins with him (We love them all.  I'm just playing with the word, "favorite.")  Now I just have one brother left in the area.  My parents are still here though, and will probably stay forever.  Phew.

Nick's family is as large as mine.  Of his three siblings, all but one were around here until recently.  The youngest is newly on a mission in Las Vegas (we couldn't be happier... but we miss him).  His parents threaten us with a love for Arizona, where Uncle Casey lives, and just recently, Trish and Josh (Nick's sister and her husband) announced a move to Phoenix.  These are the cousins who have a matching child with each of our oldest three.  Twin cousins.  And just to rub salt in the wound, they are pregnant with Piercy's little pair, and just learned that it is even a boy.  Four for four on matching genders.

We had one last, long sleepover with the kids while Trish got the move ready.  I don't know why I assist and support these things.  Except maybe because I love these people.  But that is the only reason.

There was a lot of dressing up.  This picture is the curtain call of a play they put on for me.

 

I made them sherbet floats in Strawberry pop.  Whoa!  We are not accustomed to that much sugar.  That'll last me a while.  

Here are all the cousins.  Together.  It's going to be a while.

And here are the pairs.  These pictures make me happy.  And sad.

Could anything be better?  No.  Not even a job and sunshine, right?  Right?

Why do I feel like I am talking to myself?  Who turned out the lights?  Hello?

Cookies, Cookies, Everywhere

I am still swimming in my guilt.  Having done the bare minimum as a mother while pregnant, I am trying to set new expectations with these three siblings.  I am hoping that they will think that I might sometimes say, "Yes!  Let's do that!"

With this in mind, we took cookie sales to a whole new level this year.  I probably didn't need to say that.  A picture is worth at least the 14 words in that sentence.

There were pre-sale orders.  There were pick-ups and deliveries.

There were grocery store booths.

There were office visits.

Who wouldn't want to buy cookies from this crew?

 And if you were able to make it past them, ain't nobody gettin' past this guy.

 Rain or shine, the cookies must be sold!

 All in all, I'm proud of her courage and effort.  She earned most of her money for girl scout camp this summer and got some prizes too, plus additional money for her troop.  They have lots of fun plans for learning and enrichment.  Nice work, team.  (Oh, and think of us next year.  We'll be back.)

DON'T READ THIS if love makes you gag

Watch out.  This one's about Valentine's Day.

Our family Valentine tradition is to have a yummy, red breakfast.  I think I have figured out why I love breakfast foods so much.  It is because they have a lot in common with desserts.

 Our "breakfast" consisted of strawberry milkshakes,

 red velvet crepes with cream cheese filling, and chocolates.  And what is breakfast without a little gift?

 I guess you could say that I love them.  Yeah.  I do.

I went out to dinner with my handsome man, too, who turns out to be just as smart as he is handsome.  He made dinner reservations for a time that would generally be considered too early to be romantic.  But it was the perfect time to catch this view from the restaurant.  Take note, men.

 Mmmm.

 And the dinner looked good too.  I had lobster bisque and this salmon concoction.

 Then I wanted to walk around the mall for a few minutes while we still had a sitter.  Check out these babies.  Too bad you could only wear them one day a year.  Can we say, "over the top"?

 And speaking of over-the-top, thanks for my mounds of roses, Nick!  They are beeee-utiful.

Brownie Sleepover

Bethelle has a fantastic girl scout troop with an ideal leader.  We love it.  And a Brownie sleepover?  What could be better?

Here is the troop: Bethelle on the left, her bestie on the right.

 The theme was Nocturnal.  As I recall.  They made crafts and learned to draw animals and studied constellations with a black light.  Then there was a dance party.  It was right up Bethelle's alley.  I went with her, including sleeping on a concrete floor.  Next year, I will invest in one of those fatty folding mattresses at Costco.

We've Joined the Crowd

The green smoothie crowd.  They're awesome and my kids love them.  Who wouldn't want to drink that?

That's all.

Glasses with my Posse

Glasses give me a headache.  Literally.  And it's been getting worse.  I generally wear contacts, but I don't like to depend on them because in my heart of hearts I think that the world will end someday and we'll all be scraping to survive and contacts really won't be readily available.  I should stop watching movies.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that 90% of my headache is due to my prescription being too strong.  My prescription actually improved!  So I took my little fleet out to pick some new glasses for Mommy.  It's always a good idea to bring an honest friend with you when trying on glasses.  I brought four.

 I did not buy these.  I guess I'm just not hipster.