The time has come

Most the girls have had hair cuts. Amber has had only a few. Samantha has been wanting one every time the other girls get one. I keep telling her "let's think about it" and hope she forgets or that I can put it off longer. I normally let the girls cut their hair as they want. Samantha has such long beautiful hair I didn't want to cut it.

Every time I brush her hair it takes a while and she cries because its tangled and has knots in it. Recently I was brushing Samantha's hair while she was standing on a stool in front of the bathroom mirror. As I brushed her hair, I saw her little face all scrunched up trying to be brave, trying not to cry, and I realized it was time.

I wanted her hair long, but poor girl was having a hard time each day we brush it. I asked her if we should cut her hair. She still wanted it. And we is.

I think it looks cute. Amber's hair got long again, and she asked if she could get her's cut too. Amber's hair is always awful to brush!

Two girls got their hair cut! And I think it looks cute! I hope brushing will be easier and quicker with less tears shed too.

Halloween 2012

Emily ran out before I could really get a picture of her. She wanted to be a "Girly Girl" is what she called it. She wanted things to be extreme and things she normally wouldn't wear... Lots of sparkles, dark makeup, her hair all done, pink stuff. Not that she doesn't like pink, but she always says she isn't a "Girly girl" and I agree, she isn't super fussy about all the glamorous things advertised for girls.

Lindsey wanted to be a voodoo witch. It was lots of fun making. She looked very gross! I could hardly look at her. Not sure if you can tell but she even had brown teeth. There were all sorts of things hanging from her skirt, snakes a bird, voodoo doll, spiders, skulls... many things from Halloween stuff. Even a rat! Her costume was lots of fun.

Lauren wanted to be a pretty witch, whatever that meant I wasn't sure. People would refer to the girls as a bad witch and a good witch. Lauren was pleased with her costume.

Amber was a princess, Costco costume made easy. We did spray her down with glitter.

Samantha was a fairy which also came from Costco which made it easy.

The grade schoolers, Lindsey, Lauren, and amber had a Halloween parade at school. Lindsey didn't wear her wig or much makeup for school. The individual pictures were taken right before school. I painted Samantha's face like 3 times and then just gave up.

It was my year to take the girls around trick or treating. We got way too much candy and I, myself ate way too much candy too!

Insufficient storage quota

So I got a cool app on my phone so I can download pics and post to my blog. I thought it would be easy. Although after all this time of putting pics on and writing captions and stories, it gives me some error message when I try to publish it. Anyone getting that too? Any ideas how to fix it?

The Dog

The dog is always in trouble, most days I am ready to get rid of him.  It may be because he chewed up someone's shoes or toys or he ran away and didn't come back when I called him.  And then when I go to chase him down he just runs further or barks and won't let me get him.  Then once I do get him, I will grab his collar, he will try to bite me then flop down on the ground making it nearly impossible for me to pick up this 80+ pound mut to take him home, as he continues to bike and scratch me as I attempt to drag him home. 
The girls love him, and sometimes I like him a little too.  He is quite a funny dog when he isn't running away or chewing up things.  He wants to be with the kids. 

When the kids are playing outside he goes crazy, wants to play with them.  He will be alittle too playful when the little ones ride their bikes as he chases them and knocks them over sometimes.

He seems to be doing pretty good with potty training and for the most part minding his manners in the house as far as food goes.  He still begs which I HATE!  He is funny because he will leave a hot dog on the table all night long, and yet if something is on the kitchen counter, which is higher, he seems to think that is better food or its okay to get.  I spent one night making this egg fritata breakfast for Robert and I to eat for the rest of the week, part of a fitness challenge we were doing, and the dog ate the other 5 servings of it.  This is what I found when I came back down stairs.

He left it on the counter and everything, but just ate what he could until I came down stairs. It was a big 9x13 dish with like 18 eggs in it.  Another day Lindsey had made a batch of no-bake cookies.  The cookies were cooling on foil on the counter, he ate EVERYONE of those cookies and part of the foil.  I was so mad at him.  I told him I hoped he got sick.  I basically cursed myself.  I was at a workout class the next morning and got a text that said the dog made a mess, if I didn't have carpet cleaner I might want to pick some up.  I got home with a bottle of carpet spot cleaner.  To spare you the pictures, lets just say it looked like I had a herd of cows in the house that went to the bathroom everywhere.  I guess Amber woke up and saw it and thought it was mud.  I spent the whole day cleaning the carpet.  I spot cleaned it then I shampooed the whole carpet.  He also threw up on my couch that morning too.  He was very close to getting booted out the door!

Whose idea was it to get this dog?

Ok, so maybe I had something to do with getting the dog.  This is what I saw in my mind when I got the dog, and it trapped me. Recently I saw some little puppies and the girls and I went over and looked at them, I felt myself weaken and I was almost pulled into the little girl and dog trap again.  I asked Rob if we could get one.  Seriously, isn't this the cutest thing ever?  Girls and dogs?  It's a trap I was once pulled into...  My mind turns into mush and I can't think straight.  I think how cute and how fun puppies are.  That just looks like happiness right there!

  The next morning was the morning of the carpet cleaning, I was so happy that I didn't get another one.  I'm afraid that one day I will be pulled into the trap again.  I hope I can be strong and think with my head and not how cute the girls are with this little cuddly puppy that will turn into a monster eating toys and shoes, have vet bills, expensive dog food, have to be boarded when we go out of town, and makes everything so hairy!  I hope I remember all that again when I see those cute little things.  Wish me luck!

Sept 2011 Gardens

The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point is one of the favorite places the girls like to go.  If you haven't gone and you have the oppurtunity to, definitely go.  They have many different sections of the garden that are different things such as the Rose Garden, Secret Garden and others I can't remember.  We went out to the pond or water part of it.  They have a little boardwalk over the water.  The lillies were very pretty and the fish were super fun to watch.  Unfortunately I didn't know they had a dispenser for fish food that took quarters, which I didn't bring any. 

 I think Lindsey took these pictures of the flowers. 

 The girls managed to find a few fish food pepples that got dropped on the board walk. 

 We found a little green frog toot hat was blending in with the surroundings, it was hard to see him. It took forever for the little girls to spot it.

 This was another part of the garden, Lindsey was upset so she stopped smiling in the pictures and at times didn't even get in the pictures.  I can't remember what her complaint was, but she did get better later and was happy again.

 There's that beautiful Emily!

 There's cute Amber too!

 Lauren wanted an action picture.  I am glad I caught it at the right moment.  I could have been in big trouble.

 Amber is delighted to get her picture taken again, Lindsey is still upset with me.

 Lindsey is back to her happy self again. 

 Samantha was getting tired of pictures, so she just sat and waited until we were done.

 This was in the secret garden.  Amber was missing from the picture.

 This was a fun little garden too, a carousel.  It's kind of hard to see how cute it is from the picture, Lindsey thought it was pretty fun too. 

 All the walking around made it tiring for the little ones, but they all had no problems rolling down the hill at the amphitheater. 

 The last thing we did was went to see all the waterfalls.  It was a fun time.

 The girls were ready to go home when it was time, but it was a place they ask to go back to often.  I wish we would have visited it more often when we had the membership.  Maybe another membership is in our future. 

Hair cut and back to school Aug 2011

Amber has never really had a hair cut, she is nearly 5 years old.  Her hair is thin and long, wavy and tangles easily.  She asked if she could get her hair cut, at first I told her no, then as I thought about it... my policy is if they want it cut, then that is their choice.  Her hair was so long though.... it was hard to do it.  I think the ease of brushing it was a helping thought too. 

Here she is getting ready to get her hair cut.

 Ready....set.....cut!  It was hard to do it, but I was pleased with the out come, and so was Amber!!

She LOVED it!!

You can see how much we cut off.  I was a little in shock but she was in love with her shorter locks.

August is always back to school time.  The girls picked their favorite outfits to wear for the first day of school.  Lindsey is styling her new outfit, and excited to get back to school.

Lauren is super excited to go back to school and see all her friends and excited about her new class.

Emily is going into 6th grade, she is excited for her new teacher, and I can't believe she will be in Jr. high in one more year.  That scares me!  She is growing up too fast!  She too has missed many friends during the summer months. 

All the girls were ready to go back to school.  I however felt the summer went too fast, and I still had a list of things I wanted to do with them while they were out of school.  I have the same feeling every year when school starts back up.  I am the one not ready for it. 

Aug 2011 Camping trip

We went camping with some friends up one of the many beautiful canyons here.  The girls love to camp, but it is so much work for just an over night stay that I would prefer to stay a few nights.  That is exactly what we did.  It was so much fun!

Amber turned into some creature... she was super funny and was easily entertained.

 We went on several little hikes.  One of which Lindsey fell and really hurt her leg.  It was scraped up really ugly looking.  Poor thing.  She was pretty brave still though.

 Samantha had an addition to the flash lights and laterns.  She kept playing with them even when it was day time.

 Samantha had a little friend her very own size and age.... and they have the same hair too.  When we get together with this same family, I always mix the two girls up because they are alike in many ways.

 These are the earrings that one of the cute girls made me for my birthday.  Wasn't that so nice.  My birthday was the first day I think we got there.  It just so happened, they matched my shirt pErFeCtLy!  And this is the only way Samantha would nap, which wasn't very often while we camped.

 Amber is entertaining herself again, she found dirt, that was enough.  She even moved her camp chair to this little opening of trees.

 Lindsey was entertained too, her and a friend tried to make fire by using the magnifying glass.  They got it smoking a little.

 I think this was called the Devil's kitchen.  It was a hike, but it was super short.  I do love the red rocks though.

 Here is another part of the rock formations.

 One night Robert's parents came up to visit and have dinner with us.  It was fun to have them come visit.  They couldn't stay the night.  They looked and looked for a little camp trailer so they could camp with us, but it never really worked out.  Then they had a scheduling conflict.

 We drove and looked around a little bit up around the canyon.  It was beautiful, but you won't catch me looking too far over the edge or getting close even. 

 Gorgeous!!  I didn't have to get any closer to figure that out. 

 Emily was enjoying the scenery too.

 There was only a few boys compared to all the girls, but these young teenager was a very fun part of it all.  He was so good with the girls, was helpful, and the girls thought he was SOOO funny!  He was funny.  It was great to spend time with his family too. 

 Everyone is waiting around for some yummy dinner and desert too, dutch oven style.  YUM!

 Lindsey and her friend are getting smoked out... 

When we packed up from camp on our way home, we stopped to go fishing.  We saw a little deer across the way coming down for a drink.

 Lauren thought it was pretty fun to fish. 

 Lindsey was having a good time too. 

 We spotted a little chipmunk too.  He was looking for left over food.

 Samantha and Amber were okay with fishing, but since there was just one pole, and it was too big for them, they just played in the dirt.  That was fun enough.

 Emily was getting the hang of fishing too. 

 Here's a whole line up of fisherman, I don't remember anyone catching anything.  We did find a dead fish, but that one didn't really count.  Robert also accidently threw his phone in the water, he thought it was his knife.  It survived okay, luckily.

 One last time to fish before we go home.  Robert and Lindsey are trying out a different place, but still no luck. 

It was time to go home.  It was a fun camping trip, a good way to end the summer before school started back up.  The girls always ask when we can go camping again.