The Big Cut

Okay...I did it!! Here are some "before" pictures. (I didn't really style it...I just straightened it so it would be as long as possible to make the 8 inches without being too short.)

And here are the "after" pictures. Unfortunately, the pictures don't really do it justice. Its a really cute cut. But, you get the idea...its SHORT!

The ponytail ended up being almost 10 inches and then even more was cut off when it was cut to be styled.

Trauma

Friday night Brice and Dane had gone to bed and had been there for about an hour. Of course they still weren't sleeping, but we were ignoring them. Then Brice starts wailing. This happens pretty often. Brice is messing around and hurts himself by falling or something. Or Dane has done something to make him mad.
I went back, saw blood, lifted Brice down from his bed and then yelled to Dan. Brice's mouth was full of blood. Apparently Brice had wrapped his blankets around his head and was jumping on the bed. At some point he fell and smashed his front teeth on the bed frame (hence the wailing).

We brought him out and one tooth was gone, probably lost in the bedding. We still haven't found it. But one was hanging on by a thread. Brice was hysterical. I wanted Dan to wiggle it to see how loose it was. He told me that if he touched it he was going to pull it out. I called the dentist a couple of times trying to decide what to do. Basically my option was wiggle it out or bring him in and have the dentist pull it out. She thought it might be more traumatic bringing him to the office and the numbing shot would probably hurt more than pulling it.
So we decided to do it ourselves. We put on a little orajel, gave him some motrin. I held him and Dan grabbed on with some pliers and one jerk later, the tooth was out.

He was a more upset about loosing his teeth than he was about the pain until we convinced him that the teeth would grow back and that it was cool to lose baby teeth. More poor little boy!

For those of you with strong stomachs...here are some photos of my toothless 4 year old:

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a lot of work. We moved rocks, we swept dirt, we moved a sandbox, a trampoline and a swing set. We set up the pool...

And created...



sprinkler + 3 pieces of rope + hose + trampoline = homemade water park

A friend said we should start charging admission to our backyard. We are very lucky!

Weighed Down

I forgot I had uploaded these pictures a while ago waiting for time to post an explanation. So here goes. I was in my bedroom and they boys were supposed to be keeping an eye on Mackenzie. I come out and she is screaming. It wasn't a scream of pain it was a scream of frustration. This is what I found:

The foot of her pajamas was so full of sand she couldn't walk. Hilarious!

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Yes, a little untraditional (no pastels) but I liked the denim! (Not to mention the dress worked for our Brice Family pictures, which I will share later).

Decorating the Easter Eggs

Mackenzie likes to be just like her brothers (and they like her to be the same, too)...hence the shirtless little girl.

The hidden Easter Baskets.

The "Special" package from Uncle Hobie and Aunt Bre.

Getting ready for Church. Hilarious! She did this all by herself.

Snuggling with Daddy after a busy morning (just after church).

The ham bone that Mackenzie kept stealing from the dog. Gross!

Deals to Meals

I have tried out this website the last few weeks and have really liked it. The basic concept is they find all the sales...compare them to Wal-mart and Costco and tell you where to shop each week (similar to "grocery smarts") to get the best deals. But they take it two steps further... first, they incooperate food storage and second, they give you recipes to use all the food that you purchased on sale.

They are letting you try it out for a week or two free and then it is $4.95 a month. I am beginning to think its worth it. I actually like cooking but I really HATE coming up with a menu, ideas of what to make. This does it for me and supposedly makes it cheaper. The first week I did it I shopped at Albertson's. Virtually everything I bought was on sale. When they handed me the receipt they told me I had saved $96.34. Whoah! Now, I did spend about $150 but I got a ton of food.

My only problem is that I still had stuff to get at Walmart and Sam's Club, the stuff that wasn't on sale at Albertson's, to fill in the menu and the food storage for that week. That was more money than I spend in two weeks. They post the deals every week. I don't cook a full-on meal EVERY night so seven days of menu items lasts close to two weeks. That just meant that I didn't go shopping for the deals the next week but I still have all the menu ideas. And in fact, I had a lot of the things to make those meals already.

Anyway, I have really liked being able to try out new things. So far we have liked everything, some more than others. My kids, well Dane and sometimes Mackenzie, have even liked the food too (Brice doesn't like anything!).

If you are interested, email me: tiffyj@byu.net and I will forward you the emails.

Coordination

I have a couple of friends who have been very...hmmmm...shall we say, "supportive" of my new bracelet "business". One of my favorites has been my friend Ricci. She lives in Texas and emailed me pictures of four dresses that she has for her daughter for summer. She wanted a bracelet to match EACH dress. This was sooooo much fun! I found matching beads and came up with different combinations and patterns. I loved making each bracelet different. I even learned how to make a double stranded bracelet...by mistake. Stupid me! I guess I didn't end up reading the description well enough...I thought I was ordering a whole strand of little pink hearts. Instead I received one large heart. It was on sale and they wouldn't take it back. Argh! It matched the dress so I wanted to use it anyway but it looked funny on one small string of beads. See below for my creative solution. I hope it isn't too big for her hand :0)

Patriotic...my new favorite bracelet. I made one for Mackenzie too!

I also, thanks to a wonderful Mother-in-law, now have cute little jewelry bags to put the bracelets in when I give them to people.

So great! Thanks everyone for your support!

Easter Bracelets

I am having soooo much fun making bracelets. Every time I sell one I think of other combinations and possibilities. I haven't "made" money yet because each time I sell something I want to order more beads. I have branched out a little more and now I have some beautiful Swarovski Crystal Beads. See below for my latest creations**. I have more colors on the way.

If you see something you like, let me know! I would love to make an Easter bracelet to match that cute Easter dress for your Little Princess!

**click on the picture to see it in more detail