14 inches

Last Thursday I went somewhere and did something pretty scary! I have had long hair for quite a while now. I really like long hair...I think it has something to do with the fact that my mother, bless her heart, always cut my hair short. Not really short, like pixie short, but short enough that I hated short hair. I understand that it looked better short because I have really thin, stringy hair and when it gets long, it looks kind of...um...shall we say unkempt? Okay, so I always wanted really long hair. Well, I have let it grow for a while now and David was kind of tired of my long straight hair...and I mean STRAIGHT hair!! It was heavy and the curl would not last very long in it so I would not spend much time on it and it ended up in a pony tail most days. So, I did it. I cut 14 inches of my long pretty hair off. The thing that gave me courage was the idea that I could help some kid that had no hair. Yes, I donated all 14 long inches to Locks of Love. So here it a picture of me with my new short, cute hair!! Just so you all know, it was also a selfish thing...I wanted a new haircut and I am cheap...I got it done for free, well, there was a tip involved. Also, Nephi had started to use my hair to help him stand up when we were sitting on the floor. Man, that really hurt!! Poor Nephi, I guess he will just have to start standing on his own!!

Another Busy Week

Well, another busy week is done, and we are so thrilled!! Faith played in her first basketball game on Thursday. They skunked the other team, 22 - 1. It was so cool to see her out there, unfortunately none of my pictures turned out - better luck next week! When she first got out on the floor she was so terrified of the ball that she would duck when her teammates tried to pass the ball to her! It took the whole first half to warm up to the ball and realize that she would probably not break another finger, then she did a fantastic job. She caught the ball a few times and had a really fun time.

After that game we made a mad dash in two separate cars to get some McDonalds before we had to be at Vilate's Kindergarten play, "The Granny Awards." Vilate was...the Granny. We spent many, many nights learning lines and singing songs. The play was about the granny from Little Red Riding Hood hosting an awards show for the fairytale characters. During the entire play, the wolf was trying to steal an award. In the end he won the award for Best Villian. Vilate did a fantastic job and had a great time. She really looked the part, but hated that her hair had to be up in a bun. She did love the silver spray paint that we used on her hair and the fact that the water in the bathtub turned silver was an added bonus!!

I failed to mention my previous posts that we got a new car...well, new to us! It is a 12-passenger Dodge van. We LOVE it!!! It used to be a passenger vehicle for a commuting company, so all the seats are captain chairs. It is so cool that no kids have to sit next to each other!! For my birthday last week, David took the van and got a CD player installed. The kids are thrilled. The love to listen to Radio Disney, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, The Beatles, and Hyrum's favorite - Elvis. Mom, he loves to hear how you have some of Elvis' scarves and that you got to go to his shows. He thinks that you are SO lucky!!!

On Saturday we took the kids outside to play. We live in a great apartment complex where we have a playground, similar to the ones at a public park, and a beautiful grassy hill where the kids can play catch and soccer. While we were out there, I was able to try out my new camera. Here are the latest pictures of Nephi and one of Helaman in his "I'm a cool baseball player" pose!!



Tonight Gloria was eating her ice cream drumstick and had the cutest milk mustache. We have the greatest nickname for her - she is The Gremlin. We just bought the movie and the kids all concur, she is out of control and totally a gremlin. If you will remember, Gremlins is a movie that came out in the 80s, I think, and there was a mogwai who was a super cute little bear-like creature, just small, like a stuffed animal. When Gizmo, the mogwai, got wet he multiplied. If you fed mogwais after midnight they became gremlins, these little green monsters that just loved to destroy. Gloria is not green, but she is a monster that loves to destroy just for the sake of a good time!! We truly mean the nickname as a term of endearment, but I often wonder what people must think when at the store, we all turn to eachother and say, "Where did the Gremlin go?" Then Gloria pops out and while laughing at herself, says, "Here I am!!" Oh well, I guess there are worse nicknames out there, anyone know of any?

Birthday Season is OVER

I am so thrilled!! Birthday season is over for 3 1/2 months! From Christmas until the end of February at our house it is crazy!! We had Christmas, our family sealing, Helaman's birthday, David's birthday, Faith's birthday, our 10th anniversary, Valentine's day and my birthday. It has just been a little crazy! So now we get to just get back to our boring life....yeah right!!! Faith is now playing basketball 2 - 3 days a week and baseball season starts in just a few weeks. Then you add David's school and my school and the busy time of year at Mission Ave, the kids' school, and you have our boring life!!!

Faith started basketball 3 weeks ago. She is really enjoying it. The bummer? Her first practice - she broke her finger. 15 minutes into the first practice she went to catch the ball and it hit her pinkie just right and it caused a chip fracture. When I went to get her at the end of practice, she mentioned that it hurt and I just brushed it off as a jam, but when she got out of bed 2 hours later complaining of the pain, I looked at it. It was swollen twice the size of the other one and it was totally purple. I asked her if she told her coaches...she said, "No, I didn't want anyone to think that I was a wimp." After x-rays the next day, it was determined that it was indeed fractured and she had to miss her first game! She will play in the game this Thursday and she just can't wait.

Happy 9th Birthday Faith!!

Well, we just celebrated Faith's birthday this past week - her actual birthday was on Feb 10th. The kids had the week off of school for President's week and we had a slumber party for Faith. She had 4 friends come over and we had pizza and lots of junk food while we watched Harry Potter movies and the girls all BeDazzled homemade purses with Faith's new BeDazzler! They had a blast! I don't know exactly when they went to sleep. but I did go out into the living room at 2:30 am and reminded them that we were trying to sleep and that Dave had work and school the next day!

Then on Wednesday, I got up and went to get donuts and we spent the morning eating more junk food and watching more Harry Potter! At 1pm I loaded up the car with all the kids and drove everyone home! That afternoon was a little crabby at my house as everyone was sooooooooooooo tired!!

Happy 4th Birthday Helaman!!

Helaman turned 4 years old on January 15th! He sure loved opening presents...he got a ton of Thomas the Train toys. I really enjoyed birthday shopping for this kid. My other kids have never been into any one toy or line, but Helaman sure loves his Thomas! It was really fun to go to Toys-R-Us and Wal-Mart and just go to the Thomas sections.

At the end of the day we had Diet Caffene Free Dr. Pepper (Helaman's favorite drink) and chocolate cupcakes. Isn't he so cute!

2 days after Helaman's birthday I was at the store and I happened to see the exact drum set that Helaman had been begging us to get him and it was marked 50% off!! I immediately called David and we had the quickest conversation..."Dave, the drums are clearanced to $99." "What?!?! Buy 'em"

So, I bought them and then I came home and Helaman was soooo excited!! The other kids got home from school and were immediately really happy that Helaman had a birthday!!

Later that day we went with a friend of Helaman's to a great pizza place in Roseville (about 25 minutes east of our house). It is called John's Incredible Pizza and the best way to describe it is Chuck E. Cheese's on steroids!! It was really fun. They have a huge pizza buffet, fun kids games where you get tickets, and even some rollercoaster rides. Helaman was thrilled when he discovered that there was a mini-bowling alley in the place!!