Yep, asking for a raise after this one...

It took me about 2 hours to notice, and only then it was because I couldn't figure out why there was hair all over the upstairs.
Sorry for the poor picture--but all of a sudden she looks like me!

Ellie didn't want to be left out of the hair chopping action, so we took a few inches off hers, too.


I figured as long as I had the scissors out and there was hair all over the bathroom, I might as well trim the little girls up as well.

Haircuts for the girls

Today was haircut day. I cut their hair myself, mostly because I swore I would after receiving a very mediocre haircut with Ellie when she was 2. I mean, seriously, how do you mess up a 2-year old's hair? This lady did. So ever since, I've been doing it myself, usually with help from some online tutorial. I figure, with three girls, I'll eventually figure it out, right?

I was very pleased with the way Ellie's turned out. Her hair is so, so thin, that I think short haircuts look better on her. And, I'm a sucker for short haircuts. Those of you who knew me in high school and college can attest to that. It wasn't quite what I had envisioned, but with a squirming 4-year-old standing naked in the tub trying to escape, I was happy with what I got. Generally even, no obvious missing chunks:




Laura's turned out well, too, though she wasn't willing to ham it up for the camera in quite the same way as Ellie :) I'm trying to grow her bangs out, a little at a time. So when I trim her bangs, I trim fewer and fewer of them, and pull the long ones back with a clip. It works pretty well, until she pulls the clip out.


But the true test is Dad's opinion when he gets home! We hope he likes them!

Photoshoot with an Orange

Laura update

At the suggestion of my Dad, I took Laura to the pediatrician yesterday. I really should've been clued in by the fact that she had been waking up every hour for 4 nights, but it was only when she stopped being able to hear me yesterday that I realized she might have an ear infection. Sure enough, she has a double ear infection and one burst eardrum. Fortunately, our favorite pediatrician and antibiotics can make it all better! And, much to our relief, she slept through the night last night! Thank you, Lord, for modern medicine!

Laura and Colored Glue

I got a new homeschooling book this week called Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready. It has an activity for every week of your child's life, up until their 5th birthday. The idea is that these activities will be right at their developmental level, and get them ready for kindergarten (we'll do the activities, and skip the kindergarten part :) Here's Laura's activity for the week: colored flour and water in a ziplock that she can play with. I'm supposed to show her how to make different kinds of lines and just enjoy the texture. For tomorrow, we put it in the fridge, and she can feel how cold it is. As you can see, she had to fight Ellie off!

Peaches!

Laura's 2!

The pictures are a little overdue...

Pigtails!

No Princesses Here...

The rule with toy guns in our house has been that Carver may not shoot at unarmed innocents (Ellie, Laura, ME), but he may shoot at armed villians (Dad). About a year ago, Ellie no longer wanted to stand by and watch the Carver-Dad shoot-outs, so she figured out how to make a gun "shooting" sound, and started participating. The other day, I caught Carver in the kitchen shooting Laura. I reprimanded him, and told him he may not shoot his sister. He looked at me and said, "But mom, she was shooting me!" Yeah. Right.

Today at lunch, I watched as Laura "shot" Carver with a Dorito (don't worry, Mom, it was a special treat). I am not kidding. She had figured out how to make the same gutteral shooting sounds that the big kids make. Amazing. Carver burst out laughing and immediately started shooting back. Lunch dissolved into a shoot-out, and I went to clean the kitchen.

Something Old...

This is the quilt my grandmother made for me. It served a long and faithful life on my bed growing up, and now it gets to be displayed with honor in the girl's new yellow room.




Here are the girls, climbing into the bunkbeds, which now belong only to them. Ellie loves being on the top. In fact, when we told her that she would get to sleep up there, she came running into the room, climbed up on the ladder, and yelled, "Sweet!" Laura likes her bottom bed, though she still has a little trouble climbing up into it. She's a pro at getting down, though, and we haven't had any trouble with her falling off.

Eating with a Spoon!

Laura usually eats cereal dry, so that I don't have to feed it to her. This morning, I put soymilk on it, gave her a spoon, and let her go for it! She was pretty sticky by the end of breakfast, but she loved it.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road...

Caramel Apples!

Our moms group at church made caramel apples as the craft today. The kids loved it! The big kids were all done eating by the time I got the camera out, but Laura munched on hers for a long time.

Playing at Grandma Bray's

Uncle Dan was well loved by everybody and generally viewed as a punching bag. Ellie particularly found a friend in Uncle Dan, though. It took a few days for her to warm up, but he was persistent, and by the end of the trip, they were best friends.



Little Laura found a rocking chair that was just her size, and amazingly hard to tip over. Here she is, having just climbed up and turned around, just about to sit down in it.
L