Curly Top

I still remember every Saturday night bathing and then sitting in front of the TV while my mom wrapped mine and my sister's hair in pink, spongy curlers. I remember feeling so pretty with my long, curly hair. I just knew everybody was starring at me wishing they looked just as cute.

This is a tradition I'd like to carry on. Tatum's had short hair for quite a while and now that she's growing it it's long enough to curl. She was willing to hold still and even hand me the curlers and thought she looked funny in the mirror. She was worried that they would be uncomfortable to sleep in but thankfully she happily managed. She couldn't wait to take them out. She was SO excited!

I finally took them out and here's the product, tight, ringlet curls. It was all fun and she was full of smiles until it was time to tame the forest of curls.

They proved nearly impossible to manage and a melt down was coming. I wasn't about to let her take a shower and destroy her curly top, I'm mean I know. There were many tears and over and over she said how ugly she looked. "I look like an orphan," she yelled. She didn't, she looked darling. I promised her curls would fall a bit and assured her she'd like them better when they did. I could totally empathize with a bad hair day! Chris managed to get her in the car and we were off to church with an angry girl. She walked in covering her hair and spent the majority of sacrament meeting covering her lovely locks with both arms. Thankfully she got over her bad hair day and went to class. By the end of the day she had gotten such a response from church she decided that she did indeed like her hair but says she's done with the curlers.

Coming Soon...

Jersey's headstone placed, cemented, and so very sweet!!

Gateway Airport Field Trip

Tucker and his preschool class went on a field tip to Gateway Airport. It was a major hit. The kids thought this air evac was SO neat. Little did they know they were going to touch, crawl, and learn about it.

Tuck LOVED this air evac paramedic. He thought he was amazing and talked and talked and talked. He told him all about how he is 4 and a half and about Tatum and about anything else that came to his mind. The man was so sweet, he listened so well and validated everything Tuck was saying.

The pilot let the rugrats crawl all over the airplane and ask anything they wanted. Tucker couldn't get enough.

Aren't these cupcakes darling! They were all so excited! After they got their fill of the helicopter we toured the airport and saw "awesome army airplanes", million dollar airport fire trucks, and "huge airplanes". It was fun, Tuck decided when he grows up he's going to be an airport fire fighter.

TODAY!

I've learned this before, with my Jersey, and still I continue to put things off until tomorrow. With Jersey we didn't take any new born pictures. Not that she was a typical new born but still, we could have done something. I never video tapped her, we had only a couple days where she looked "normal". I wanted to wait until tomorrow when she'd be extibated, untapped, no lines, awake, home, the list goes on. How I WISH I had something. I wish I videotaped her chest rising and falling, she was alive then. I wish I would tapped her sleeping. Those rare times she was awake I would softly rub her cheek near her mouth, she would move the side of her mouth in that direction, SHE WOULD RESPOND to me, I wish I would have tapped that. It showed personality. It told me she knew I was there. I kept waiting, hoping she would get better. I kept telling myself I wouldn't want to remember seeing her like this, now I WISH I would have done more. I thought we would have a life time to tape and photograph her. I never guessed what tomorrow would bring. I should have done those things TODAY, not tomorrow.


We recently went to the beach, we LOVE the beach! I was relaxing in a beach chair enjoying the ocean breeze and scenery and the blondies kept asking me to play with them. Many times I did but near the end of the day I wanted to sit, be lazy, be left alone. We had another beach day ahead of us tomorrow so in my mind I put playing with T&T off until then and sat. Tomorrow came and it was a cold, rainy day. We tried to 'beach it' hoping the weather would clear but it never did and we left. I never got my tomorrow. I didn't play with them the way I promised myself I would. I missed out on memories and making them feel loved.

My new resolve is TODAY! I'm trying to enjoy TODAY. I will look back on TODAY either: fondly with no regrets happy that I lived in the moment, satisfied at the memories we made, remembering when.... OR I will look back sadly seeing missed opportunities wishing I would have made more of an effort. I want my children to remember me as a mother who was fun, who did activities with them, who played instead of cleaned. I want them to know I love them by my actions. I want their childhood to be precious, happy, fulfilled. So TODAY I choose to let my house be a little less tidy, laugh more with my blondies, let them eat a cookie for breakfast, and enjoy their finger prints on the glass. I choose TODAY, right now, and hopefully tomorrow will be just as happy and productive as TODAY.

A Beachin' Good Time!

The summer wouldn't quite be complete if we didn't get to the beach to get our fill of sandy toes, frigid waters, and yes, a sunburn!
We got to Mission Beach in the afternoon. There was NO WAY the blondies could wait until the next day to beach it so we suited up and headed out. It's REALLY nice when you can walk out your door, across the boardwalk and there you are. Grandma and Anutie Brooke invited us and even though Tatum missed 4 days of school and Tucker 2 there was never a question of whether or not we'd go, the only question was WHEN!

It's funny how kids never notice the zero degree water. T&T ran into it as if it were bath temperature and played and laughed and thankfully wore themselves out.

They were not too tired to go down to Bellmont and ride the carousel.

The next morning began early by looking for sand dollars. They were so disappointed when we didn't find any. Oh well!


It was a beautiful beach day, sunny, warm and the crowd did not disappoint. One of the best things about the beach is crowd watching, people are fascinating!


Tatum and Tucker loved spending time with their Grandma and I'm pretty sure she enjoyed them as well.

We couldn't go to Mission Beach and not go to Konos for breakfast. It's this tiny restaurant that makes amazing food, usually the line is out the door and around the corner.

Who knows what Tuck has on his shnos but he's a cutie and absolutely insisted he bring and wear his "surfer dude" necklace the entire time!

Tuck's favorite thing to do at the beach this visit was getting buried. Sometimes Tater and I buried him and sometimes he did it himself. He loved playing in the sand and was content to even play by himself.

Funny story. We brought a bag of Cheez-its to snack on while we played, we love Cheez-its! All five of us were down by the water playing when we looked over to our beach spot to see a zillion birds all over our towels, chairs and sand and not only had they landed but they were quickly attracting more sea gulls! We stared in disbelief when we saw the Cheez-it bag go flying, we quickly snapped out of it and chased them away. So, Tatum thought she'd out smart the sea gulls by building a "bird trap". The idea is the bird goes to the hole to see what it's all about and then crawls in and we quickly fill the hole with sand trapping the bird. Sadly we never got to try out her trap, there were surprisingly no birds that came our way.


We also couldn't go to Cali without stopping by the Guiraradelli store. We loved walking in and being handed a sample. We made sure we entered more than once.

It was difficult deciding which delicious dessert we would order. We ended up with a peanut butter, hot fudge ice cream sunday!! SO scrumptious!

Auntie Brooke, Grandma, and Tater enjoying their treat.

I'm so glad I have these two, they are such good friends. They were best buddies all week. They built sand castles together, buried Tucker, laughed at how the waves "got their keesters", sea shell hunted together, chased away the pigeons and sea gulls together, and had a slumber party every night together in the "hidden bed".

Tuck enjoying the water!

I love these pictures because if you look closely Tucker is making a face in every one. I think they capture his personality and a bit of his nerdy-ness! This kid, he's hilarious.

Then there's Tatum, always darling and usually happy. She wasn't very happy when her swimming suit broke. She was forced to get another and was excited about her new suit.

This may sound weird but I absolutely LOVE Tucker's fuzzy shoulders, especially in the summer when his fuzz becomes white silk. I think it's SO cute.













I am a bad mom, I failed miserably. Because Tatum got a new swimming suit there were parts of her back showing that weren't previously. She got fried and cried about how bad her back hurt. It hurt her for 3 days. I'm such a bad mom. Nonnie came to the rescue with REAL alovera and rolled her eyes and shook her head at my irresponsibility. I deserved it.

We had SUCH a fun week! Thank you Grandma and Auntie Brooke for the fun memories and the new tan!

A Very Wiggly Tooth and A Very Mean Mom!

Tater lost her second tooth last week! While she was anxious to have it out she was dreading pulling it out. I'm a really mean mom and not afraid of teeth pulling. Her tooth was barely hanging on for days, she showed us ALL THE TIME how loose it was but refused to let us pull it or help her do the deed. We were headed to California and as extra insensitive told her the tooth fairy wouldn't know where she was if she lost it in California and so she needed to have it out before. She didn't care, she said the sand fairy would come. So there we were in sacrament meeting and sweet, trusting Tatum let me feel how loose her tooth was. Wiggle, wiggle, it went and then WHAM! I pulled down hard, it didn't take much. She was so very angry at me and cried and cried. How irreverent are we! Chris took her out into the hall and I followed to pull it the rest of the way out. There were many tears but the second it was out she quit crying and was SO excited about her even bigger hole. She was furious at me but quickly forgave me and was anxious to leave her tooth for the tooth fairy!

Angel Ethan

This is Ethan, Ethan the Brave. He is just that, brave! This sweet little guy fought quite the battle these last 6 months. How heartbroken we are he earned his angel wings this weekend. We love him and his family and pray for comfort, peace, and the reassurance that all is well.