Bobs & Rat tails

Note to self: Never google "rat tail"...unless I am prepared to view the following:

We decided it was time to rid Hazel of her self-grown rat tail/mullet. Here is the before picture:

Pretty cute, huh? It makes me so sad that she had so much hair when she was born and this is all she has left in the back and sides! I've since cut it, but haven't taken a picture b/c sadly, I think it still needs to be cut more :( I'll post one once I do the full job. And then there's Maddie, who got her 1st bob from my friend, Nicole, the other day.


Cute for Kindergarten?

My Baby is 5!

I cannot believe my baby is 5! We celebrated with pink & green and summer all over! Her only request for the day was a chocolate cake with polka dots. I kept asking her what she wanted for her b-day and all she said was..."whatever you think I would like." Talk about easy to please!

{the snacks.}

{the banner.}

{some of} the presents.


{the craft.}

{ the cake.}
please don't zoom in on my cake, it won't impress :) i'm still learning and don't have patience for tricky cakes. this one was as easy as they come! and it cracked overnight!

{the finished product. }
being me--i had a hard time trying not to tell them how to decorate their flip flops (so control freakish, i know)...and look, they still turned out cute!

{the b-day girl.}
too bad for her cold sore :( kinda looks like she has food on her lip in every picture!

{the party goers. }
she was a little sad that more of her friends couldn't make it (guess i picked a bad day), but they still had fun, nonetheless.

{the outside fun.}
we did some relay races, water balloon volleyball, playing in the pool, and jumping on the tramp.

{the end!}

a little getaway.

We've decided to try & make the most of our time on the East coast and do a few things we've been wanting to do. First, we headed to Niagara Falls for a little fun. Can you say R-A-I-N! That was the official word for our trip. It was pouring most of the time we were there, which made things a little more interesting. But, we had a good time despite the weather. Our little troopers...

Good thing we were supplied with HUGE ponchos for the Maid of the Mist. We couldn't tell what was from the waterfall and what was the rain.

that's our baby, named hazel, which appears to be a bag of binkies in these poncho pictures.




pretty cute, i know.

riding the trolley to the aquarium to see the sea animals and seal show.

Next stop on our trip was to Palmyra, NY to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. What an amazing show and experience. Unfortunately, we got poured on halfway through, so they had to stop the show. Maybe we'll get to go back next year to catch the full show! I hear we missed out on a lot!

and then on to some church history sites--

Joseph Smith's log home

the Palmyra temple

The sacred grove--an amazing place. I felt the spirit so strong, as we walked through the forest. It was so quiet and peaceful. My testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God was confirmed and strengthened while we walked through this sacred place.

After all the years I lived on the East coast, I'd never been to either of these places. What a great little trip we had!

Fourth Festivities

We had a great 4th of July! We started the day with a birthday party for our friend's little girl. "Born on the 4th of July..." I have that song stuck in my head when I think about her. Anyways, then we headed home for Cam to take nap. When he woke up, we went to see "Up", which was a daring move with 3 kiddos, but went pretty well. We made sure to have lots of treats on hand, which we ate so much of that we didn't even have room for dinner. What a bad mommy I am! My mom would NOT be proud. Then as it turned into evening, we headed downtown to watch the fireworks. We found a good parking spot and slipped away pretty quickly after the show, which is always a bonus. We enjoyed a good show, yet I still miss the days growing up when we would go to Herndon High. Nothing seems to quite compare (even the ones I saw in DC). They always seemed to have the best fireworks...so close you'd get hit with little pellets. What could be more exciting than that? So here are our pics from the day.

Camden was quite camera shy all day.

Doesn't matter what color it is, a bike is a bike.
A rare photo of Benny & I...

Shy Cam once again

I've never seen such a cool 4th of July ( I had a big sweatshirt and blanket for the fireworks!). I think I felt a drop or two of rain during the day, but other than that a very coolish, windy day--hence hazel's hair (are you loving my alliteration?)

Is it just me or is she getting WAY too big...and by big I mean old. She's such a skinny little thing.

Cam snuck away to play with some trucks...maybe he didn't want to share??

Wish I'd gotten a better photo of the kiddos...they were so cute at their little table

And then there was Cam...
(he insisted on sitting by himself at this table...and then he invited me and only me to join him. Guess the hustle and bustle of the party was too much for him.

Daddy & his Hazel

Cam perked up when the sprinkler ball was turned on. What a hit!

Enjoying her Daddy.

And that was that. Hope you all had a great day!

In clippy news...

Guess who's in a magazine this month?? That's right...me! One of my pacifier clips made it into a magazine called Viva La Moda on page 43 of the July 2009 issue. Somewhat new & online only, but cool none the less. Check it out here and go to page 43...#7 Pretty crazy, huh?