Blake's birthday, Hershey and my hair

My poor 4th child.  This is the best I've got for his birthday.  He looks so grown up.  He got nothing but Cars stuff and he loved it.  His birthday was Sunday, right in between two trips so it was not much more than getting laundry done and repacking while he played with his new Finn McMissile, Holly Shiftwell (we found one!!) and Torgue.  But he is a fun kid.  I love him.  I know others who babysit him may not feel as endeared to him as I am but that's ok.   

Doesn't he just look so old?  Sad.

Saturday, before Blake's birthday, after a not-fun weekend I wanted something to make it exciting.  While Heidi was gone at a party the rest of us loaded up in the car and headed to the Grange-Coop and got Heidi a new bunny (the last one did not work out...he was a big time biter).  This new one is Hershey.  She is TINY and we all love her.  Even me.  I like to cuddle with her each night.  She even went to Kennewick with us.  She is so much more nice.  Heidi is thrilled with her.

Now, for my haircut.  I think it is so funny that people like my hair.  For the last few years I've had short hair and LOVED it. I love, love, love my short hair.  I'm not a good looking person.  I'm average.  Not ugly but just normal.  A little makeup helps.  And a great hair cut really helps.  While in Memphis my hair was short and I thought I was looking pretty darn good...or at least as good as it is going to get with me.  And everyone else loved my hair-Sheri Bate especially-so I felt like this was just my best look and the one that I'd have for a long time.  This was my favorite look.

Then we moved and Ben said "you should grow your hair out like this"

That comment threw me for a loop!  I loved my short hair!  And I thought everyone loved it but all the sudden Ben wants long hair???  What???  Had I been fooling myself thinking I looked good when Ben thought differently?  We had just moved and I was seriously missing Memphis and I felt like my Memphis identity would disappear if I lost my short hair.  My confidence was a bit shot at the time and I was just sad.  But being the good wife I am I started the long and horrible process of growing out my hair.  This is as far as I've gotten.  And guess what?  I cut it myself!!  Angelee will think I'm crazy and she's right.  I get these crazy moments every so often when I hate my hair and just decide to cut it!!  Those impulsive haircuts usually end up being my best ones.  So I like it for now but still miss my short hair (that will definitely come back when I'm older and don't want to mess with my hair again).  I'm not sure if I will make it to 'long and flowing' but I'm glad to hear people like my hair now.  Thanks for the compliments!

It's a little grown out in the back.  I had it more A-lined but the bottom section has grown out a bit and it doesn't look as nice.  It's time for another cut but I think I will let a real stylist do it.

Spring Break 2012

Life has been busy the last few weeks.  After the weekend of sickness we had my sister, Checka, come up and babysit while Ben and I went away for the weekend for a job interview, then Blake's birthday, then packed up the car to go back up to Washington for my niece's birthday party.  Of course I didn't really take any pictures so I had to steal these from my sister.  It was a princess party (like all five-year-old birthdays are).  There was a ton of girls there and luckily my sister and her husband were able to get the backyard all finished in time for the party.  It looked really nice.  My sister is great at party planning and nothing is done half way.  My other sister and I spent the morning making all the party hats...Yes, we MADE THOSE!!! I don't do crafts but I thought we did an pretty good job on them.  During the party the kids got their make up and hair done.  I was in charge of the blush and lipstick.  It was really funny because all the girls wanted the bright red lipstick instead of the pale pink, and then they went to Becca and all picked the bright pink eye shadow.

Here are my girls all dressed up.  Kaylee looking as happy as she always is.  This picture of Heidi is not her best but she looked so grown up with the makeup on.  

Before the party the kids were able to just play with cousins.  It was really nice.  I feel like in our family all the cousins get along so well.  There is never fighting or problems, just the kids all enjoying each other.  Our only problem is that Blake does not share his cars but he is very good at not letting it get even close to that.  Any time George or William even came close to see Blake's cars he already had them packed up in his arms or he was covering them with his body.  He's no dummy.  Oh yeah, another thing in our hectic week was that Heidi also got a new bunny.  The last bunny was way too wild-he bit a lot-so we had to let him go and after a few bunny-free weeks we finally found that was a perfect fit.  This is Hershey.  She is tiny!  But she is also so nice and we all really like her, me included. Heidi brought her up with us since we had just gotten her.  

It was a really fun week.  I had a blast just hanging out with my sisters.  We have a fun family and it is always so relaxing.  We just end up laughing a lot.  And at the end of the day I came home and looked up a few things on Pinterest and even pinned something.  My sister will be proud!  

Now that our first week is done we are home with a much more relaxed schedule.  I asked my girls what they wanted to do during their spring break and they came up with a pretty decent list.  We have some cooking projects Kaylee picked, some yard selling they want to do (I love my kids!), friends to hang out with and then Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked to rent.  They also want a slumber party with Mom which means Ben's kicked off the bed for a night.  I really do love my kids.  They've been so funny at home today.  Blake only had four of his cars in Kennewick so he has been excited all over again to find all his cars are available again.  The girls have re-enacted a few Charter commercials and Pee Wee Herman clips with my camera.  They think they are hilarious.  I just love having a family.

The good side of Kaylee

Kaylee is always my hard kid.  Just this morning she started crying/wailing because I had take a basket of toys up to her room, cried because Heidi was standing in her way, and then because I had to do her hair.  Everything is a fight.  But then there are times when she is so sweet.    Blake doesn't feel well-obviously...look how miserable he is and this is at 8:00 in the morning!-so Kaylee took it upon herself to sit with him while I got everything ready.  I have a Relief Society meeting this morning at 9:00 so I've been cleaning while Kaylee is taking over for me.

She can be hard at times but then there are other times where she is just as sweet as can be.  She goes back to be difficult pretty quick (she has already reverted back even before I got this post done) but it's nice to have those few moments in between. 

UPDATE: So I gave Blake a nap, took one myself but then felt completely guilty for spending a gorgeous day inside having my kids watch movies.  We decided to meet up at the park with some friends.  I was trying to be a good mom for my older kids and ended up being a bad mom for Blake.  Blake ate, puked, sat in it so the other kids could keep playing, puked again and then had an awful, awful diaper that I had to change before we could leave.  There was my sick baby naked to the world at the park with barf and poop getting spread all over my friend's park blanket!!  He's now bathed and back in bed.  At least the girls got to play outside though.