Halloween Pics

As promised, here are the photos from Halloween.

First, photos from when we went to a church Halloween Party, accept these were just taken at home as we were ready to leave:

Incidentally, Acadia got the Most Original Costume award at the party! :)

Then it really was Halloween so they got to dress up all over again, this time Cadi accessorized with a fan instead of her parasol:

They both had a lot of fun - both nights and brought home way more candy than any kid would really need.  But that's part of the fun of it!  lol

Back-to-School

Kids hate it, moms love it... it's the first day of school!!!

This morning I didn't mind the early alarm because I knew that it meant I was just hours away from peace and quiet and... sweet freedom!!!

I love my kids.  I adore my kids!  But that is not going to stop me from appreciating the joys of an empty house for a few hours everyday!

Ironically, those hours are going to include a lot of cleaning, not my favorite thing in the world, but just knowing that whatever I get done will stay done for a few hours makes it worth it! :)

Last night, we set the girls' hair for curls today and they both sported fun, cute, curly dos as they left the house this morning.

Don't they look happy?  Well, at least I know one of them is genuine, the other is too experienced to be fooled. ;)

Happy First Day of School to my kiddos... and ME!  :)

"I'm six!"

Rori had her 6th birthday one month ago and still, every time she sees anyone, even if she's already seen them since her birthday and told them, the first thing she says is, "I'm six!"

This is apparently VERY exciting news!

We had fun celebrating her birthday with her.  She wanted a My Little Pony party...

She had a lot of fun with her friends!

Have a great year, Rori!

"The hair is the richest ornament of women." ~ Martin Luther

When Acadia was little, I tried to play with her hair but she was just not interested.  Add to that, the fact that I didn't really know how to "do" hair anyway, and it's easy to see why I just didn't get into it much until recently.

For the last couple of years, I have been braiding Rori's hair.  Her hair is long and thick and beautiful... and gets tangled very easily!  So, braiding it, or putting it up into pony tails at least, helped keep it out of her way and tangle-free.  As her first year of school came upon us, I also happened to learn about a few hair blogs*, YouTube channels*, and FaceBook pages* that all shared tons of ideas on cute, fun, and often easy ways to do little girls' hair.  We tried a few... and were hooked!  Well, I was hooked... she was tolerant. ;)

I didn't think much of it, just had fun doing her hair every morning and sending her on her way.  Sometimes I would hear the kids at the bus stop say, "Woah, Rori, your hair is cool!"... and I have to admit, that felt kinda awesome. :)

After some time, however, I started hearing comments from adults.  Teachers, friends' moms, people at church, etc. who all exclaimed how much they love seeing Rori's hair whenever they see her.  To the point that sometimes teachers would seek her out to see what her hairdo was like that day!  I had no idea it was getting that much attention!  I was not just being introduced as Rori's mom, but as Rori's mom-who-does-her-hair-every-day-in-the-most-incredible-ways!  And even though it was a little embarrassing at first to realize how much people were noticing, that still felt pretty awesome, too. ;)

Now, we do not do an elaborate hairstyle every single day.  But we do try new hairstyles frequently and often do fancy styles for holidays and special events.  I've shared several photos here and will probably share many more.

I don't spend nearly as much time on this as I do on Family History or Disney, but it has (unintentionally) become something that does now define me, to many people.  And I don't mind, because I do enjoy it so much!  I don't claim to be very original, we copy almost all of the styles we do, and I doubt I'll ever become one of the bloggers, YouTubers, or FaceBookers giving tutorials or anything like that.  But I do like sharing the photos, knowing that lots of people are enjoying them.  :)

*These are some of my favorites. :)

Friends

I just wanted to share a couple pictures of Rori with one of her friends from church.  Her friend played in the piano recital that Acadia was performing in, and before the recital began, these girls were happily playing together in the back of the room. :) 

Rori is so social!  She always wants to play with friends.  She has MANY friends and is not shy about making new ones.  :)

Rori's Wish Comes True

Rori has been sick for the last couple of days.  Poor girl. :(  Yesterday, as she lay on the couch with her head in my lap, I asked, "Is it boring to be here with Mom?  Wouldn't you like to be at school?"

And she said, "Yes"...!!!

lol  I shouldn't be surprised.  It is no fun to be sick, even if it does allow you to lay around all day watching TV and sipping juice and soda.

After that, I asked her if she missed school and she said, "I miss Shakira."  (Her BFF.)

This morning, Rori woke up fever-free and feeling great!  It is only a short school day and with her feeling better than she's felt all week, I happily sent her off to school.

Her wish came true!

And my prayers were answered!

Ryan and I have an appointment to do some work at the temple later today, in preparation for my trip home this weekend.  I had arranged for a friend to watch Rori but with her being sick, I couldn't ask my friend, or anyone, to do that, so Acadia volunteered to stay home - even though it would mean missing a YW activity that she wanted to go to.  I was glad to know that the work would still get done (I want to have family names ready for everyone who will be going this Saturday.) but felt bad that Cadi would have to miss YW.

But now, with Rori well again, everyone is happy!  My friend is fine with Rori coming over still, Cadi gets to go to her activity, and Ryan and I get to do the work that I need to have finished by this weekend.

:)

Easter

I mentioned that I just haven't been very good about taking photos lately.  But I do have a few from Easter this year.  Just not a ton, and what I have isn't all that great. :S

We always have fun dying eggs.  We like to dye a lot, and it's way more than we can eat ourselves, so then we went around and shared some with some of the older, single ladies in our ward.  We figured they probably wouldn't have colored eggs to enjoy but might like some spring fun.  They all seemed to really appreciate it - and the little visit that went a long with it. :)

After the eggs were all dyed, the girls decided to dye their hands!  lol

There are even fewer actual Easter photos. :(  So, this collage includes the fun girl-trip we took to the nail salon to get our toes done, as well as a picture of each girl and her basket, and of course a pic of the girls in their Easter Sunday dress.  At least I have this much. ;)

I am really going to try to be better about taking pictures again.  I do love it, usually.  I guess I just needed a little break.  Break's over! ;)

More Pretty Hair

I really enjoy playing with Rori's hair.  I thought I'd share some of the "do's" she's been sporting lately...

I loved this messy bun - so cute!!!

This was a fun one that we did on dance class day.  The ribbon laces made me think of a ballerina. :)

This is a Hunger Games inspired braid.  Acadia approved. ;)

Here are just several other random ones we've done...

It is a lot of fun trying new styles.  She is usually pretty patient, even though she would usually prefer I just put her hair in a simple ponytail. ;)

Pretty Hair

Rori and I tried a new hairdo today that I absolutely love!

Inspired by The Story of a Princess and Her Hair.

This is definitely more of a Sunday or special occasion hairdo, not one I'll be able to send her to school in.  I think if I want to do this on a school day, I'll have to stop at the flower, not continue braiding down the back.  But I really liked how it turned out and I'm sure we'll be doing it again!  :)

St. Patty's Day

On Friday morning, I quickly tried a St. Patrick's Day "do" for Rori's hair.  We were running a little short on time, so I couldn't put as much effort into being as neat and clean with it as I'd have liked, but it still turned out pretty cute.  I figured I'd master it "for reals" the next day (on the *real* St. Patrick's Day).  Good thing I took a pic of it instead of waiting for the "real" one...

Because in the wee mornin' hours on St. Patty's Day, Ryan and I heard a wee li'l knock on our bedroom door, followed by...

"Dad, my tummy hurts and I think I'm hungry."

She asked for Dad, so I was happy to let him take this one.  I questioned the idea of giving her food in the middle of the night and when she said her tummy hurt, but he said, "Don't worry, I'll just give her something simple."

Oh, okay, that's a good idea.  I went back to sleep.

About 15-20 minutes later I heard, "Dad!" called from the other room.  Conveniently, he didn't hear it.  Then, "MOM!"

When I got to her room, she said, "I barfed."  Hoping for only a little mess, I went to check out the damage.  It was not little.  And I knew right away that whatever he had given her a few minutes earlier was NOT simple.  I called out to him, "What did you feed her????"  ..."String cheese."  "Not the best choice, Hon!" (Not said in the most loving tone.)

Figures.  He has the wussiest stomach when it comes to this.  He gags at the very thought, so I knew I couldn't even make him clean up the mess.  I will spare the details here, but she was thorough and it was not fun.

After stripping the bed, bathing her, and starting the first load of laundry, we set her up with a bed on the couch... and a bowl, which she unfortunately did end up having to use but thankfully, this time, it was contained and easy to take care of.

Needless to say, St. Patrick's Day wasn't so jolly and we didn't do any fun hair-dos.  Instead we lounged about eating soda crackers and watching movies.  :S

In Like a Lion

That's how they say March starts, right?

We've had a very mild winter (along with almost everyone else in the country) so it was fun to wake up to this on March 1st.

All my plants and flowers looked so cold... They are tough though, they can take it. ;)

It really wasn't a lot of snow.  I wouldn't say this was "in like a lion", more like a lion cub.  They didn't even call it a snow day or delay schools.  The roads were clear without any plows or anything and by lunchtime, almost all of the snow was gone.  But knowing that would be the case, I got Rori ready a little early for school so she would have some time playing in it before the bus came.  Ryan was leaving for work about the same time, so they engaged in a little snowball fight in the front yard.

Sure enough, as the bus pulled up to take the kids to school, we could see the sun trying to break through the clouds.

And just like that, the snow was gone.  But it was fun while it lasted!

Peek-a-boo

I keep playing a disappearing act.  Then just when you think I'll never post again, I pop back up... and lately, only to disappear again the minute you turn your back.

Don't know why.  Busy.  But I'm always busy.  And I'm less busy now than I used to be... but then, I didn't always post very frequently then, either.

I have more photos that I need to upload and will post on.  I have a couple videos, too.

But first, I'll update on stuff that I don't have photos/videos for since that will be quicker.

• Rori took gymnastics for a little over a year but then told me she wanted to try dance classes instead.  So, this week she'll be taking her first dance class.  It is a ballet/jazz class, which I think she'll love.  She is SO EXCITED!!!  She already picked out what to wear today and wanted to sleep in it last night.  I reminded her that she still had to go to school in the morning first, so she'd have to put on school clothes when she woke up.  In the end, she decided to sleep in pjs.  Good choice.  ;)
• Ryan had been serving in our church as the ward executive secretary for a little over a year and was recently released from that calling and instead called to serve as a Sunday School teacher for the 16-17 year olds.  I think it's cool that we both use the same manual.  I team teach with someone, but on the weeks I do teach, we'll be mostly using the same material.  I'm sure we'll be able to have some good discussions as we each prepare. :)
• We recently booked our flights for a visit back East.  It has been awhile since we've been back for a visit and we are very excited to be going!  We plan to take a trip up to Acadia National Park while we're there and since we love it there so much we know it will be awesome.  We'll be able to celebrate Cadi's birthday and Father's Day in Massachusetts with Ryan's dad, and that will be really cool, too.
• The weather around here has been weird.  We had a very mild winter, too mild, actually.  Now we keep switching off from absolutely gorgeous days and totally crummy days.  I'm just waiting for it to make up it's mind so I can do some gardening.  I've got tons of bulbs coming up that I had planted last fall, so that's been fun to watch.  I need to decide what else I want to plant now and what I want in my vegetable garden this year. 

I'm hoping to upload the photos and videos soon, and when I do, I will be sure to post them!

Overheard

As the girls were going to bed...

Rori: I wish someone was sleeping with me tonight.
Cadi:  Well, Rori, if you sleep with your Zulie Zebra and I sleep with my Zulie Zebra, we'll be sleeping with our zebras together.
Rori:  Okay!

And that's what they did. :)

Rori's Valentine Hair, pt. 3

This will be the last of our heart hairdo's... for now. ;)

I only did it today because we actually did this on Sunday but I forgot to take pics, and I really wanted pics. ;)

This was another one that I copied, and I found it on The Story of a Princess and Her Hair.

The only thing we did differently on Sunday, was that I used normal braids for the pieces that formed the heart, while today I did twist braids, and we used a flower instead of a bow because it matched her outfit better.  Cute, easy, fun! :)

Rori's Valentine Hair, pt. 2

Yesterday's do was something I came up with myself, and I think it turned out really cute!  It even held the entire day at school, which isn't always the case with these extra cutsie dos. :)

Today's do is totally copied; I could never have been clever enough to come up with it myself! lol  Here is our attempt (mine isn't as neat and tidy as the original, but I think it still looks pretty good), followed by the link to the blog with instructions on how to do it.

Shaunell's Hair: Valentine's Hairdo Contest Winner

Rori's Valentine Hair, pt. 1

Rori doesn't love for me to play with her hair, but she endures it because 1) I love it, and 2) she loves all of the compliments and attention she gets when we do something extra cute/fun.

For Valentine's Day, I had a couple of ideas.  Okay, well, I had one.  And then I stole a couple. lol  Yesterday I used one that I stole, but I forgot to take a picture, so I will just have to recreate it later this week and post a pic later.

But, today's hair was my idea and I think it turned out cute!  It was super easy, too. :)

Directions:

Pull top half of hair into a pony, divide the pony into two equal sections and braid each.  Join both braids at the ends with an elastic to keep them together.  Then pull each braid up a little and bobby pin into place to form the top half of the heart shape, allowing the ends of the braids to hang down, naturally forming the bottom half of the heart.  Gather remaining hair, along with the braid ends, into one low pony.  Secure with elastic and add a bow - Super easy!  And really quick. :)

Christmas Hair

I'm almost 2 months behind, but I'm fixin' to do some catching up.  Are you ready?  Get set...  Let's go!

I contemplated for weeks about what to do for Rori's hair on Christmas.  Being on a Sunday morning, I wanted it to be gorgeous, but easy.  I was looking for that "WOW" hairdo, I admit it.  I decided to try a new way of curling her hair, using nylons.  We've used the sponge curlers in the past but they are not comfy to sleep in.  Using the nylons was much more comfortable, easy to take out, and gave us the same cute curls.  I took pics of the girls with Rori in her nylon curlers and them both in their Christmas jammies.  Rori got a little crazy... lol. 

Acadia rarely lets me do her hair.  She usually just likes it down and straight, and it is beautiful that way, so that's okay.  But after we took the pics above, she decided to let me put the nylons in her hair, too.  Her hair is very thick and heavy, so it didn't hold the curl quite as well as Rori's but it still gave her a nice, soft curl that she pulled up and I think she looked beautiful!  (While we were taking the pics, she kept blinking - every time!  It had us laughing as we tried to get just one decent pic of her with her eyes open. lol)

For Rori, we did something a little more fancy and I LOVED how it turned out!!!

The pictures don't quite do it justice, and I definitely did get the "wow"s that we were going for. ;)

Here are a couple of the girls together right before we headed to church...

Just doing her homework...

One day, after school, while I was out raking leaves in the yard, Aurora got out a flier she had brought home from school.  It was about healthy habits.  When I came back inside, I couldn't find her, but I saw the flier laying out, with "checks" on each thing that a person should do to be healthy. 

We happened to have some grapes out on the table to snack on that afternoon, so she must have eaten some, then washed her hands, coughed into the crook of her arm, and then...  I chuckled to myself and went to look for her in her bedroom.  Yep, sure enough...



She was getting some sleep, just like it said to do in her schoolwork! 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This is Halloween... or was... or... you get the picture...

Acadia dressed as a nerd... quite a stretch for her... NOT!  She is not a "nerd" but is very smart and loves to wear those socks no matter what day it is... and may or may not have sported those glasses just for fun for days before and also days after Halloween... oh no, not a nerd at all. ;)

Aurora was Minnie Mouse and it was extra fun this year since we had just been to DisneyWorld and she had several chances to meet Minnie in person.  It was fun to "be" her for a night! :)  And for the record, she did not wear the vampire teeth with her outfit, lol.  She got those trick-or-treating and really wanted to wear them as soon as she got home (and washed them). ;)

Ryan took the girls out trick-or-treating and they had great weather - which meant they were out for quite a long time!  They ran into lots of friends along the way and ended up trick-or-treating with them for part of the time.  Extra fun! 

I stayed home to pass out candy but we didn't get as many trick-or-treaters as we normally do.  So the ones that came got a handful each! lol

Our girls made out pretty dang good and had a lot of fun... it was a pretty Spooktacular day!

A Month of Thanksgiving Day 10

As I mentioned at the start of the month, these are in no particular order.  If they were, this would have been among the first 3 days.  Today, I want to share how grateful I am for my kids.

Everyone thinks their own kids are the best.  And everyone would be right.  And so I know I'm right when I say that I really do have the best kids!  I am so thankful to be their mom and that they are here with us, blessing and enriching our lives daily.

We have been spoiled by Acadia.  Cadi is so good.  She just is purely good.  She isn't perfect, but she is sincere, honest, obedient, faithful, smart, and ... well, really, really easy.  I am sure that she is the reason why I still have my natural hair color.  It has been so easy with her.  She wants to make good choices.  Sometimes she makes mistakes, but she always tries to do what is best.  That being said, her room is almost always a mess and I usually have to remind her at least once a day to practice the piano and violin. ;) 

Aurora is not as easy, but she is still really, really good.  She started out a little wild but is becoming a bit more tame as she grows.  She loves to learn and do.  She is always busy.  But she also loves to help and she still asks to cuddle with me so I know she's not entirely ready to grow up yet.  I don't her to grow all the way up yet, so that is good.  I tend to have more patience with Rori but that is probably because I need to.  And it is also probably because I'm older and wiser now, too. 

I love both of my girls so much.  Acadia is my Mini Me, but better.  She is who I wish I had always been.  She teaches me a lot and she is a testimony to me of how strong these spirits are that our Heavenly Father is sending to the earth right now.  Aurora is my saving grace.  She saved me and I know it.  I didn't know how much I needed her until they placed her in my arms the moment she was born.  Her spirit is strong, too.  It is my deepest desire for her to direct her path to the right course.  We have been doing all we can to help her do that but we know that eventually it will be up to her.  I see glimmers of her future and I know she wants to be good and happy.  I just hope and pray that all that we do for and with the girls will be enough for them to want to choose the right. 

Ryan is the single most important person to me on this earth, but these two girls are right behind him.  I cannot imagine eternity without them, either.  And all I want is for us to be able to achieve that together.  In the meantime, I am so grateful that they are apart of our family.  They make life extra fun and meaningful and it truly is such a joy to raise them and watch them grow. :)