A Heart of Gold...Round 2

Rewind to June 2007...Aidyn made her first hair donation and was beyond proud of herself. I must admit, I played the part of the proud mama pretty well too. Well, here we are again and my sweet Aidyn has once again made my heart swell with pride. We went in today to get her hair cut off to donate. This time the donation is going to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. It only has to be 8 inches to donate and since she had that much, there was no time like the present!
Here she is before:Snip, snip, snip...
Look at that gorgeous hair!!

A cute new style...
And look at that adorable little girl! (Can you tell I'm just a little proud?!?!)

I love you Aidyn!

Happy Birthday Nolan!!

My little baby boy is 4 years old today! He had a fun day including his special request to have his buddy Hudson come over and play.
We went out for dinner tonight and Nolan's request was The Green Mill so he could have Mac-n-Cheese pizza. Yum!! When we got home it was time to open his presents.
He got one present open... and then Sean & Shirley called...
Nolan is talking to Shirley in this picture. Look at his face. Translation:
"What the hell is she talking about? Speed it up lady, I've got gifts to open here."

He got a dinosaur excavation game. Think 'Operation' only with dinosaur bones.
Here he is in his new swimming trunks and muscle shirt. So cute!

He had a great day and is thrilled to be 4 years old. Happy Birthday sweet Nolan!!

Basketball Season

Another season of basketball has come to an end. This last session was awesome though because Nolan was old enough to play. I LOVED having both kids in the the same activity at the same time!Nolan seemed to take to basketball pretty quickly. He did a decent job of listening to the coach and stayed pretty focused on the game.
Of course, he's still Nolan...See this picture? It looks like he's shooting a basket, right? Except notice where he is on the court...right in the middle. So what is he doing? He just threw the basketball at Aidyn's head! Luckily he missed and it is soaring just over her head, out of the frame of this picture. Nice.
My sweet Aidyn...
Here is a shot during the game. Notice how aggressive the blue team is? Ferocious is a good word.

The whole team...

Aidyn, Brendan & Nolan

Both kids had fun playing and really seemed to enjoy being on each others team. Good job guys!

NOW what are you doing??

This is a question my dear husband poses to me on a regular basis. He will come home to find paint samples taped all over the walls or the tub of spackling paste sitting out or when he drives into the garage he sees this...'Hmmm, interesting...that looks like our bathroom sink.'

'Why yes dear, it is!'

The 1/2 bath on the main level of our house was fine. Nothing really wrong with it, except it was ugly. Not like UGLY, ugly...just ugly enough to bother me. I knew it could be so much more.

Here is what it looked like less than 2 weeks ago...
Lavender with all the contractor specialties....ugly white towel bar

standard crystal faucet

brass light fixture with tulip glass
and this mess...whomever did this sealing job around the toilet base was either drunk, blind or possibly both.
So I did this. Wow, this looks 1000 times better! Why stop now??
So I tore off the towel bar and the giant mirror. Along with the light fixture...and vanity top. Oh, and the faucet too. Bye-bye!
A fresh coat of paint, some elbow grease, a dozen or so trips to Home Depot and VIOLA! A new bathroom!
Remember before:And after:
Before:
And after:
Before: After:
Before:

And After!!!
It's hard to get a comprehensive photo because the bathroom is so darn small. But you get the idea. It turned out great & I love how it looks! Next time you're over, stop by and use the facilities. You'll love it, I promise!

You did what?!?

I made butter. Yes, I did. OK, it's super easy so don't give me too much credit. I had some cream in the fridge that I needed to do something with since we don't go through too much cream in our house. Basically this is all you do. Get out your mixer. Pour in the cream and turn that baby on. I put plastic wrap over it so the cream doesn't splash everywhere. I had it on medium-high speed for about 7 minutes or so.

Let it go until the butter separates from the liquid. Strain the liquid off (save it to use as buttermilk!)
Smash it around to bring it all together and Viola! Fresh, homemade butter!

Super easy and kind of fun!

Getting ready for summer

Aidyn is a crafty kid. She loves to do any sort of arts and crafts. She'd do them all day, everyday. Here is her latest creation...a sun hat. A construction paper & tissue paper sun hat. She is ready for those warm summer rays. Aren't we all?

Special Assignment

Everyday, Aidyn comes home with lots of school papers. I try to sort through them and keep special ones while recycling others. Last night as I was going through the daily pile I came across this special assignment.

The directions seem simple enough. Let's see how she does...The first one...a candy cane. Looks good, I like the addition of the stripes.

Next, a star. Nice, vibrant, yellow.

OK, a heart. Getting ready for Valentines Day. Sweet.
Um. Well, not sure about this one. Maybe more of a "statement" picture than an object picture? Is she telling me she doesn't like one of my rules? Was she mad at that little boy in her class that eats garbage? Maybe she's just copying something she saw Jeff do while he was driving. Way to set an example Jeff!

Check it out...

I believe that most of you who read my blog also follow my siblings blogs. But in case anyone out there doesn't check their blogs, please for the love of everything holy...read Troy's latest post. It will make you laugh out loud. It will make you slightly uncomfortable. It will introduce disturbing images to your mind. But mostly, you will just crack up. Trust me on this one.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Last night when I went to bed, I stopped to tuck in the kids. As I passed by Aidyn's dresser, I saw this money laying there. $11.02...interesting. I wonder what that is about?
This morning I asked Aidyn about it.
Me: 'What's the deal with that money on your dresser?'
Her response: 'Oh yeah, I need to put that in my piggy bank.'
'Why is it laying on your dresser?'
'Because I didn't put it in my piggy bank.' (duh!)
'OK, but why do you have it?'
'It's mine.' (this is like pulling teeth.)
'Where did it come from?'
'Nolan.'
'Why did Nolan give you $11?'
'He paid for something.'
'What did he pay for?'
'I sold him something.'
'What did you sell him?' (I'm getting frustrated with this conversation...)
'Wrapping paper.'
'Huh?'
'I sold him some of my old wrapping paper that I didn't want anymore.'
'And you charged him $11 for it?!?!'
'Yeah. He didn't have any paper of his own and he needed some.' (supply & demand)
'Aidyn, you can't take $11 from your brother for wrapping paper. You have to give him that money back.'
'Fine.'


So I went to investigate Nolan's room and sure enough...the exchange was made. This was sticking out from underneath his bed. $11 worth of Christmas wrapping paper. The $0.02 must have been tax.

Rock Climbing

While we had some extra time over Christmas vacation, I took Aidyn rock climbing. She LOVED it and has been begging to go again. I was surprised as to how quickly she took to it and how well she did. We both had a great time climbing and cheering each other on..