Mckenzie's First Hair Cut :)

Today I took Mckenzie to get her first haircut! We have been talking about this for awhile. I introduced her to Tiffany (the fabulous girl who I've recently started going to) a few weeks ago. She has been talking about her since that day. When we would see pretty girls in magazines or out somewhere she would say "Look! It's Tiffany!" We have all been excited. So today we went over to the salon and Kenzie threw pennies in a fountain while we waited. When we went back she sat in the chair and Tiffany put on the cape (see picture). For the first several minutes as the back was being shaped up she was fine and sat (with a confused look on her face) quietly and mostly still. But after the back was neatly cut and stacked, and while the front was still quite long, she decided that she was over it. First we had to take the cape off b/c she didn't like it. Shortly thereafter she went from sitting quietly to a complete Mckenzie meltdown. "I don't want my hair cut anymore! Tiffany, don't cut my hair!!" Yep, seriously. I'll have to say I just sat, like an idiot, and waited for Tiffany to tell me what to do. This woman is a pro. She pulled out everything from chocolate, to sparkles and finally even a picture book full of High School Musical actors whose hair she had done. With a book full of High School Musical Mckenzie finally (somewhat unknowingly) allowed the haircut to be finished. Although getting her to be still for a good picture has been impossible, I have a before during and after for now. More pictures to come.

Art

The kids have really had fun with painting lately so I took a few pictures of their work. I also should mention that Konnor is really into the Red Hot Chili Peppers right now so they are getting their "inspiration" for this particular day from the By the Way album. :)

Just so you know

If you are craving McDonald's fries and ketchup, it will not make you crave them any less to eat a Morningstar Black Bean patty on a sandwich thin. That is all. :(

It's Been A While

Yeah, it has. The end of the year was filled with ups and downs (as seems to be characteristic for year endings in our family) So here is a summary of the past several months and a few pictures to go along with some of this post. In October our van broke down, that week we found out I was pregnant again. The van was out for two weeks, Thanksgiving came and went and other than me being sick and exhausted, was nice. About 2 weeks before Christmas I had another miscarriage. I'm sure we all know we don't need to go into details here. Let's just say this has been really hard for Aarik and I, but that the past couple of years have made our family firm believers in the fact that God knows better, and more, than we do. Christmas was actually much better than expected under the circumstances. The kids had a great Christmas and Aarik and I did too. We all enjoyed spending time with family and got to have a very low key Holiday season. It's amazing how much LESS stressful, and MORE fulfilling, holidays can be when you have less commitments. We rang in this New Year being VERY glad to say "good bye" to the old one and excited for something new. We accomplished several of our goals last year and decided that we should try a few new ones this year. NC has had a crazy winter, this of course means you have to spend at least a few hours without power. We got to spend almost two full days without power. It was kind of fun though once the kids got the hang of the flashlights. We had a campout in the big bed. Right now the kids favorite things are board games and a show called Caillou. I dont think that is spelled right.They are always doing new and exciting things. They are hilarious and smart and we are never lacking for entertainment. They're really grasping holidays at the ages they are at now and so Valentine's was really fun. We got to make LOTS and LOTS of Valentine's cards (most of which are still sitting at this desk as I type) and a few fun treats. We have a lot of fun things to look forward to this year. Hopefully lots of fun things will happen so we will have something to blog about!