Hair Mom Envy

Let it first be said that I have always been a little annoyed with moms who walk into the store, gym, preschool, whatEVER with their children all in bows, ribbons and curls. I refer to those perfect mothers as "hair moms". But as of a few short weeks ago, I am a hair mom. Okay, not really. I still can barely master a simple braid (and french braids? NO WAY!), but I am making an effort to play with the girls hair every morning this summer and I found some super cute blogs that have different ideas with step by step tutorials for low life mothers such as my (previous) self who felt that a bathed and brushed head of hair was as much as a person could handle. My husband was horrified at the amount of money I recently spent on hair bows, hair FLOWERS (yes, i am a true convert), and flowery bobby pins. I hope to make them in the future since it cost me a small fortune to buy like 6 things. Anyway, I hope to turn a lot of heads and cause a lot of envy from any of you NON hair moms, but if it makes you feel any better...now that their hair is done every day, I rarely get a shower and my house is a wreck...and a lot of cursing, crying, and gnashing of teeth occurs during hair prep time. Just think of that next time you feel hair mom envy at the grocery store! :)

I am woman...

So most of you know that I made a trek to Utah BY MYSELF (as in without my husband). I have to give credit to my Garmin as she helped me get there without a glitch. My kids were pretty much awesome the whole trip (a few exceptions, of course) and we had an AWESOME time. Next time, I won't pack so much and I might have a suit case for each house/hotel we stay in as unloading and loading and then unloading and then loading again 6 large bags FIVE times by yourself while carrying an 18 month old is less than fun. Oh how I appreciate a man to carry my overzealous packing after this trip!! Here is a recap with lotso pix:

The new Smith Family Living Center. I can't believe how different BYU looks!! This is with Sam and Val's family. We had so much fun hanging out with that cute family!!
In front of the BYU law library where I spent many of my days studying (in hopes of hanging out a little bit more with a favorite law student).
At the creamery where Levi is wearing his newly purchased BYU beanie...I spent way too much money on brainwashing BYU paraphanelia...with ice cream to seal the deal.

On another day of our trip we visited Kif and Stirling and gang and went to "Color me Mine" a pottery store and the kids painted plates and mugs and absolutely LOVED it.
Had to document the lovely cheapskate hotel I splurged on. Here was the first time I nearly lost it on the trip as I had 6 bags a stroller, 4 very tired, hungry and wound up kids and went to find the elevator to take us to the top floor where our room was...only to discover that $40/night hotels don't HAVE elevators. Hmmmm....
The pioneer village MIGHT have been our favorite part of the whole week (though it is impossible to choose one favorite as we had so much fun everywhere!). The kids dressed up in pioneer clothes and had free reign to roam all over the village. They had "Deseret bucks" that they handed out to hardworking kids and then a town store where they could buy candy and toys with their money. This was highly motivating to Levi! There was a train they could ride at will and games, crafts, it was so much fun! (Mostly b/c of all the older kids, I got the chance to sit and visit with my SIL's).

all in all, a great trip. I hope to do it again in the future, and though trips with Spencer are a million times more fun, I am happy to know I am not housebound when he can't take off work.

Our Hungarian Missionary Returns!

The long anticipated arrival of Uncle Trent finally came two weeks ago (June 25th to be precise) much to the joy of my family. We waited forever with our 15 signs at the security gate and you can see the look of awe and amazement on the faces of my star-struck kiddos. They were so happy to see him. Even Caden joined in for big hugs for the never before seen to him uncle. It was a great reunion and we are so happy he is back and I am so grateful for the example he is to my kids.

Two wheels?

My darling, brave, little Emma started to ride her bike without training wheels this w/e. At first it was wildly successful as she had encountered a cousin who (briefly) younger than she was quite good at navigating a two wheeler. Emma had some decent balance, speed, and agility on her initial attempts. After a multitude of both painful and painless falls she would bounce back up with a tear in her eye and say (with thumbs up) "I am fine. Let's do it again." Things were going more or less swimmingly until (I have to add here that it was ME who brought this fatal thing to her attention) we taught her to use the brakes to stop rather than her shoes and consequently her knees and hands...which unfortunately resulted in both RAPID and CONSTANT braking. Now, for those of you who try and ride your bike, balance, and hit the brakes repeatedly at the same time, you are probably well aware that it is substantially more difficult to make forward progress. After many (many) inch long "retries" we put the bike back in the garage. Hopefully she will forget about the newly discovered brakes soon and we can move on to bigger and better things!!