New Haircuts, St. George, and a baby named Ellie

I decided to get haircut appointments for the girl after Hannah's fiasco with the scissors. After imagining taking a screaming and kicking Hannah to the hairdresser and trying to hold her down, I decided to phrase it as no big deal, and a fun time. I set up an appointment with my friend Nicky for Hannah and for Kenzie, just for a trim, and told them I'd take them to the library after.  On the way there Hannah got a little worried, because before she cut her own hair, she had planned to grow it as gloriously long as Rapunzel's.
"Will it have to be short as Daddy's?" she asked.
"Yes," I laughed evilly. Not really. I just imagined doing that.
"No, but shorter than it is, because you cut it. It will help it grow out nicely," is what I really said.
"No mommy! I don't want it short," she started to whine.
"Oh, it will be cute. Remember last time you guys got your hair cut short and all the compliments you got? How everyone said it was so cute? It will be fine."
When we got there Kenzie decided that she wanted her hair up to her ear. That was a surprise. Last time I talked to her she was just going to get a trim. I think she liked the idea of compliments. That girl loves to be noticed.
Hannah and I sat across from Kenzie and watched as she got her hair cut. Hannah was quiet and whispered all sorts of questions about the salon. Why was there a black pad on the floor? Why did they have a sink? Why do they wash hair before they cut it? Nicky helped me answer her questions.

Kenzie did really good and loved her new haircut.

Then it was Hannah's turn. She was very quiet while Nicky washed her hair and followed instructions to bend her head and turn it. Afterward they both got a sucker and we went to the library to read a few books.

It was a good experience. Nicky did a great job and they both look so cute.  I pointed out to Hannah that you have to have a license to cut hair, showing her Nicky's license. I hope she avoids the scissors from now on, because next time I'm buzzing it. :)


Well, that was long. Now for an abbreviated account of a short vacation to St. George:

Mike's grandparents own a house down in St. George. So we took a quick trip down to visit them and to pick up Shirley (Mike's mom), who had been staying down there.  While we were there we went to Pioneer Park and climbed around on the rocks. Pioneer Park is home of the St. George Narrows (Kenzie calls it The Crack. I've heard it called The Skinnies too). 

The girls loved climbing around and got along really nicely (after I gave them the choice of getting along or sitting in the car.)

Ohh, sweet sisters. They hiked a good long way. They were so distracted by climbing the rocks, they didn't notice that we were hiking! Hannah is wearing her favorite skirt in the whole world. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when she outgrows it (which she has).

Kenzie took this picture of Mike, Ellie and me. 

Kenzie kept asking us when we were going to go to "The Crack".  We took her there on our last trip to St. George and she's been excited about it ever since. We kept telling her we'd take her there another day. We didn't realize that we were at The Crack until we almost fell in it. Kenzie was so excited to climb up in it. Mike waited at the top, while I followed behind her. (Side note: It was easier for me this time! I've lost a little baby weight, hooray!)

As we neared the end Kenzie, a few feet in front of me, said, "There's a snake up there." 

"Oh really?" I said, unable to see anything beyond her little blonde head, and starting to imagine a rattlesnake striking. "Come back toward me." I refrained from freaking out too much. I think my voice only went up one octave. I wedged myself up a little bit more and saw a small snake up under the ledge at the end of the crack. I have no idea what kind it was. I tried to take a picture of it, but the crack is so tight I couldn't get a good angle on it. We could avoid it if Mike helped us out, so it was all good. And now Kenzie tells the story with gusto.

Doesn't Mike look attractive in that cute polka dot pink hat?  

It was a short trip--we drove down Thursday and came home Saturday, but we had some fun and it was good to see Gma Donna and Gpa Dickey. 

We decided that next time we go on a trip, we need some process improvement to help us get out the door. That's another post, for another time though. 

And finally, Ellie had her nine month appointment. She's fit as a fiddle and cute as a button. (I love how it's okay to overuse cliches with babies.) She is 28" long and 18 pds. Which put her at 60% on the height charts and 25% on the weight charts.  She's starting to crawl, in an inchworm like fashion, and makes the cutest little turkey noises. "Gobble gobble."  Having a baby in the house is nothing but joy (and a few diapers, and some screaming, and messes. But mostly joy).

Self-inflicted haircut

One day we were looking up hairstyles and trying them out, taking pictures so she could see.

The next day, I came home from working out at the gym, and this is what I found. Oh Hannah.
Lately, Mike and I have been joking that shortcomings in ourselves and things and people around us are actually "features."

So Hannah's new haircut is a feature of her stunning, headstrong personality. And it's really not too bad. You can't really tell. She managed to get the chunk of hair above her ear that when her hair is down is easily hidden by top layers.  I'm not quite sure how to handle this little episode. Banning scissors for the rest of her life? Check. Threats to cut her hair like Daddy's? Check. Threats aren't really an effective parenting technique though.
She fell asleep crying after she did it, and that was minus any yelling. I thought about buzzing it. That would certainly teach her. But teach her what? The reality is that I don't know what to do. When do the children that obey and are easy to parent start appearing? 

Oh look, here's one:

And even she is starting to develop free will, darn it. 

6 years old

Dear Kenz-

I never thought you'd grow up. Not that six is all grown-up, but your life is starting to flash before my eyes. I even catch myself saying, "Stop all this growing!" Six is a good age for you--you are learning so many things and you are anxious to grow up, but you still want me to cook your chicken nuggets and sometimes choose your clothes. 

 The word that comes to my mind when I think of you is sweet. You are such a sweet girl. You think of others almost always. You are a peacemaker. I love it when you and Hannah play together--often you will give up something you want to help her be happy. You work hard to make sure people get along, including your cousins and your friends. I agree with your teacher at school, Ms. Clark. She said that you are one of the kids who "bring the light." 

I love it when you laugh--it's the sweetest bubbling giggle. You are starting to understand some of the humor in those cursed Disney movies that you love so much. Also, you love stories of love--already! You love it when the prince marries the princess and this year you have planned to marry three different boys already. 

In fact we had our first "no dating until you're 16" conversation regarding your birthday party.  Aunt Summer heard you tell Gracie, "I'm going to have a ball. You have to invite a special friend. It has to be a boy. And you're going to dance with him all night."  Ummm. . . no. That will come soon enough sweetie. And your dad is hoping to discourage that by convincing you that boys are yucky. (Good luck, Mike. I saw her swooning over the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie preview where the boys meet the girls.) 

For your birthday we had a party at the church and hung up a sheet to watch Toy Story 3. For the past year you wanted a "Ball." But when we started to plan it you changed your mind and wanted a movie party. You really like Jesse and you loved all your toys from your friends. Mom and Dad were boring and gave you some snowshoes and Junie B. Jones books. You love those books and you would sit for hours listening to us read them to you, if we would. When Junie B. does something silly you say, "Jun-ie. B-uh. Jo-nes!" all scandalized.   

We love watching you in tumbling. Just yesterday I watched you do back handsprings and roundoffs and kickovers. You've come so far since you started taking lessons again. I can't tell if you really like tumbling, or if you just want to do it because Gracie does it and does it well and because your friend Rusti is good at it too. You are competitive, but I don't mean competitive in a mean spirit. Let me try to explain: With your back handspring you will do it over and over and over and you said to Gracie, "Let's practice so we can be the best in the class."  You are determined and amazing and we love you.  

Love, 

Mom 

One year older and my knees are barely hanging on. . .

Best Birthday Ever!
I'm thinking about starting every post with some sort of Best _____ Ever! That way reading this blog will be like reading an email in ALL CAPS, or watching the third Jason Bourne movie--one heck of a vomit-inducing ride. Mmm hmmm. But really it was the best birthday ever.

First Mike made me breakfast. We tend to eat only cold cereal for breakfast around here. Otherwise someone (Mckenzie and Hannah, that's you) throws a major fit and our day begins with hatred and tears. Always a good send-off for school. So I was happy with breakfast. Kenzie, upon learning that it was my birthday, and with promises of getting to choose her own cereal for breakfast on her birthday, smiled and ate the eggs.

Before Kenzie left for school they gave me my present--new AT boots! AT is the act of rebelling against ridiculous ski lift prices by paying ridiculous amounts for ski equipment that allows you to ski-climb up the mountain. Mike is a superskier and I enjoy "earning my turns." We've been talking about getting AT gear and going into the backcountry for a couple years now. Our lack of knowledge about avalanches and lack of equipment has kept us in check, but we went to an avalanche awareness class last winter, and we've decided to slowly but surely accumulate gear. With prices for ski gear as they are, by the time we pay off our house we might have all our gear, you know by 2030.

This is me saying, "Mike you spent too much money. Thank you." 

Next we waited for Ellie to wake up so we could take her to Summer's with the girls. And we waited. And we waited. Finally at 9:30 I went to check on her and she was rolling around in the crib, smiling and talking to herself. Cuteness abounded.

We dropped off Hannah and Ellie and we were off to the UofU to rent some skis and bacon. Haha. Not bacon, beacons. (Another mindbogglingly expensive piece of equipment that allows people to find your body after you are buried in an avalanche. Although I'm sure some bacon might make you more findable too, you know, for the search dogs.)

We drove up to Alta, geared up and headed up the mountain. It was hard. And awesome. I'm always good with going up the mountain, it's the going down (the part Mike loves) that freaks me out. Same thing with mountain biking. As we kept going up, and up, and up some more, I started to feel nervous. I've skied off and on for about 12 years now, but I am by no means awesome. Especially on my first run of the season.  The last time I skied was two years ago.  So as we climbed up the mountain in beautifully fresh powder, I started to picture myself with a ski impaled in my head. Not so awesome.

I may have been a little whiny, and perhaps even cross, up at the top. Good thing Mike is a patient man. As we took off our skins (things you strap to the bottom of your skis that make them so they don't slide while climbing up), I tried to remember how to snowplow. And then down we went. I've never skied powder; it was like floating. Until it was more like falling. I spent a good portion of the day trying to figure out how to stand back up.

The downhill lasted about 1/8 as long as the uphill (minus the time spent trying to pull myself up out of the powder). Then we put our skins back on and skied up a groomed road. We practiced some more powder turns and then it was time to go get my new boots fitted and return the other equipment.

What a good day of skiing!

On the way home we grabbed some dinner and an ice cream cake to eat with the girls, but when we got home they had made me an all chocolate cake with sprinkles! I forgot to get a picture with the candles in, but isn't it cute? My parents had brought the girls over to our house to get ready for bed, they were so nice. It was fun to do cake and ice cream with them.

The sequence of me blowing out my birthday candles is actually quite embarrassing. I think I have a picture from other years that shows me doing the arm-flapping thing while I blow the candles out. Let me explain. I believe that flapping your arms and thrusting out your chest help you inhale. And I'm starting to get enough candles on that cake that I need all the air I can get. So watch for more arm flapping to occur. I might even try it during my runs.

I used to think of my birthday as being during the most depressing time of the year, but since we discovered snowshoeing and now AT skiing, my birthday is during the best month ever!

Sledding the North Ogden Divide

Best Sled Hill Ever! On Saturday we took the girls to redeem Kenzie's Road To Reading coupons at Costa Vida. They hated it. But then we went sledding up on the Divide and they loved us again. At first, I was afraid it was a bust. We can usually handle about one activity a day before a major melt down, and lunch seemed to have been it. Hannah and Ellie fell asleep in the van on the way up to the Divide and we almost bagged it, but Kenzie was so excited and we had already packed up all the gear and were there, so we decided to see what would happen.

Kenzie is getting old enough that she's not as reliant on us to entertain her. She gets excited independently. We didn't have to convince her that sledding is fun. When we got there she geared up all by herself and headed out to enjoy the slight incline at the head of the trail with Mike while I stayed in the van to dress Ellie and wait for the sleeping dragon to wake.

When Hannah woke up she threw the expected fit. She just wanted her pillow. And no! (angry crying) She would not get dressed! But then when she saw what fun Kenzie was having, and when I told her it was just fine if she stayed in the van, she decided it was in her best interest to ask me nicely to help her get her snowpants on. Phew. After we got that out of the way, it was lots of fun. 

Ellie being shielded from a fierce wind  by Mike.

Here the girls are chasing a run away sled next to the road.

This wasn't really a sled hill, just a mild incline, parallel to the road. It was fun, but the wind was fierce and it was cold. So we decided to go check out the real sled hill up above the parking lot. 

Ellie was pretty good all snuggled up in her snowsuit and she rode in the backpack for the first time. If you do any hiking with a baby backpack, you need to get the Deuter Kid Comfort II Backpack. It's so amazingly comfortable. It's pricey, but less pricey than a chiropractor. It beats the Snugli and other cheap backpack carriers hands down.  My vertebrae thank me every time I put it on.

The real sled hill at the Divide is a rocking roller coaster that is probably a half mile long. I don't know how long it really is. We didn't dare go to the top for fear of garage sale-ing down the mountain. When we walked over to that hill it was shielded from the wind and we had it all to ourselves! Here's Kenzie enjoying her first run on just the bottom part of the hill.

Hannah loving it on the bottom of the hill.

Happy Hannah.

I was reluctant to let Kenzie go much higher than just the bottom hill. Sledding is fun, but I picture heads hitting trees and bodies crunching against hard snow if the hill is too long. Mike used to sled on this hill with his cousins, so he was a little more optimistic about the outcome. Here Mike and Kenzie test out the roller coaster bumps. We only rode the first three bumps. See how far it stretches behind them? Someday when we have helmets and feel a little more confident maybe we'll try it. Right now I fear for my children's brains too much. We didn't sustain any injuries, although we did crash into the outhouse at the bottom a couple times (the outside walls, not into the actual toilet) and Kenzie rolled off once. I love our tube. The little green sled is not as nice on the bottom, if you know what I mean.

The girls didn't even whine about having to walk back up the hill, and they even carried their own sleds (sometimes). 

We even saw a moose across the mountain, that Kenzie spotted. It's that little tiny black dot above the air escape on the outhouse. Fun stuff!

Look at me, look at me, look at me now!

The more children I have, the more I feel like the role of motherhood is sinking its teeth into me. I am still cobbling together my vision of motherhood, but I find myself less likely to be defensive when someone asks me what I do, and more likely to walk around with snot on my shoulder.  While once it was funny and unusual to can peaches, to brag about my children (instead of my wonderful self), and to sew, I find myself doing these things regularly, as if this is my natural state. (Not that motherhood is a natural state of canning and sewing, just my personal vision of motherhood.)  I am getting better at faking this whole motherhood thing.
(Kind of. Right now Ellie is screaming in her crib because we're trying the cry it out philosophy. And it is slowly. driving. me. mad.) (And  I took the door knob off of the girls' door the other day because Kenzie would not stay in there.) (And right now Hannah is in big trouble for sharpie-ing a book.) For the love of everything holy, there is nothing worse than a baby's cry. I'll be right back.

7 hours later:

And there is nothing better than this:

The girls are all wearing shirts from Stacie, who is serving a mission in Thailand.

Except maybe this:

[insert picture of Michael when the stupid server stops rejecting me] Yes I feel that this is a personal insult.

And since my brain cannot put together a coherent thought, this post is nothing if not an exact replica of my brain:
 
Hannah woke up this morning and said to me, "Mommy, I'm going to miss you when I grow big." Then she cried real tears. Awwww. I tried to reassure her that she probably wouldn't miss me much. I told her we could live by each other and visit each other and that she would be busy with her own little babies and cute husband.

"I don't want to grow big. I will miss you." She was so sad. "I had a dream that I growed big and I didn't see you."
[insert melting mommy heart]
I remember having this conversation with Kenzie. Now if only I can get them to remember that they like me.

[insert witty transition]

I have a new blog header! With new family pictures in my sidebar! Exciting! Must See! Come visit! My pictures were taken by my lovely and talented sister Alisha Siddoway. If you want her to take your pictures, she's awesome and in the Salt Lake area. Hooray! (And she didn't even pay me to say that. I just owe her for all the times I locked her out of our room and wouldn't play Barbies with her.)

Instructions on How to Make a Bottom Bunk Bed Tent

How to Make a Bottom Bunk Bed Tent (inspired by homemadebyjill's felt playhouse)
**Updated 7/8/2012--It's only taken a year and a half, but Pictures of the Top Bunk Bed Tent are posted here with very, very basic tips on how to make your own top bunk bed tent.

1. Measure bunk bed. At first I wanted mine to hang down from the slats underneath the top bunk, to avoid the ladder, but it hung so much nicer from the safety railing rungs. I think I might make the door way under the ladder next time, or something clever that would make it hang better right there. As it is I just put the ladder over it and it seems to be holding up okay.

2. Buy supplies. I bought snaps, ribbon, bias tape, two lengths of fabric in my measured size, and thread. I bought two pieces of 80" cotton fabric. I washed the fabric too. I don't know why. It just shrunk it and wrinkled it.  Next time I would totally buy felt (they sell it by the yard at Joanne's). I chose not to do felt because I didn't like the colors they had in stock and I thought it might be too heavy. But the time sewing on bias tape might have made it worth it. I also bought my straps from Joanne's. I wanted them a couple inches apart and I found the straps, which are a stronger webbing, in the ribbon section. They also sold it by the yard. I intended to use ribbon and just tie it on, but when I found this stuff I thought it would be much stronger, and I had the idea to attach snaps to it, so I could snap it on instead of having to tie it. Velcro would also be another strong, easy idea.

3. I sewed pellon on to reinforce the fabric where I was going to sew the straps, then I pinned the straps on, pinned both pieces of fabric right sides together and sewed them together, leaving a small hole to pull it right side out. After I flipped it right side out, I hand sewed the hole shut. Make sure your straps are facing into the fabric, not out of it, because when you flip it right side out, you might swear.

This is a close up of what my straps look like.

4. I cut my windows with my rotary cutter 15" long and 12" tall, which ended up being too big. They pouched funny at the bottom. That's why I ended up sewing/ hot gluing on the ribbon to help them not fall in. Next time, I would cut round windows (easier to sew bias tape onto), and I wouldn't cut them so big. But I like the ribbon. I think it's cute.  I sewed it on the edges and hot glued it at the crossings, because I got sick of sewing.

I also top stitched some curtains onto the backside of the windows for privacy :) 

5. Next  I cut my door by cutting two slits up from the bottom of the sewn together fabric. I made it 21" wide. I don't know why I chose 21". It just looked right at the time. I would probably make that smaller too. Probably more like 15-18".

6. I sewed bias tape around my windows and up and down both slits for the door. The corners were a pain for me. I'd never sewn bias tape before so I totally botched it. This bias tape video from Amy Karol "Angry Chicken" helped me figure bias tape out, but she didn't talk about corners and all the other videos I watched were about outside corners of blankets or placemats and I don't have the rendering skills to figure out how it applied to my inside corners. My brain does not work like that. That's why I'll do round windows next time. (Next time! Ha!) My mom did the corners that turned out nicely. (thanks mom!) I also sewed some big buttons and elastic loops at the top of the door to hold it up if the girls want. Usually, though, we just tuck it up into the rails when we want to put it up.

7. My roof idea is from homemade by jill as well as my mailbox. The butterfly by the window is a patch that I cut out from felt (using a butterfly graphic from Word) and then decorated with glitter paint and fabric markers. I cut the roof out of some white glitter felt and my mailbox from felt scraps leftover from my quiet book project and sewed them both on. I chose not to cut the mailbox all the way through and left it as a pocket on the outside. I top stitched almost everything. (And if you don't know what that means, join the club. I didn't until this project. It means to sew on top of the fabric.)

8. Using a snap setter tool set I set large snaps into the straps and then hung it on the bed. Viola! Beautiful bottom bunkbed tent. It was a pretty simple.

Look at these fabulous ideas for play tent embellishments from talented people all over the Internet in homemadebyjill's flickr group.  I plan to put a few of these on Kenzie's top bunkbed tent as another project for another day.

Mike sewed and put together the top bunk bed tent. I'll have to get him to write a tutorial. :) And I can't for the life of me figure out if bunkbed is one word or two. So I just randomly decided to try both throughout this post. Spell check says bunk bed. I say whatever.

Here's my schematic of what I initially planned. Those are my measurements too. Sorry it's hard to read because I used scratchpaper and then I made all sorts of notes all over it.