I, Cali, will never, ever, ever, ever cut my own hair again. Ever.

Ever since Cali's self haircut (here), she's been begging me, asking me when Andalin is going to fix her bangs.

Everyone needs a friend like Andalin.  She's the cutest thing ever.  And not only can she cut a mean head of hair, she makes house calls.

She'll come and cut hair in my kitchen so I can continue to do the things I need to do, like make dinner (or order a pizza), go over homework, and watch the season premiere of Vampire Diaries...

Also, the kids don't go crazy waiting around a salon.  They can just be home doing what they need and want to do until it's their turn.

Repeat after me:
I, Cali, will never, ever, ever cut my own hair again.  Ever.
Or anyone else's hair.  Ever.
If I need my hair cut I won't do it myself.  Ever. 
I'll call Andalin to do it for me.  Because she knows how.  And she won't cut it to my scalp.

Cali kept telling Andalin, "just cut my bangs so they're fixed," and I started to wonder if she was thinking Andalin could cut them to be long again.

So I told Cali, "you know, Cali, Andalin can't make that hair longer.  She can only cut your other hair so it covers it and hides it.  The only way to fix that cut hair is to just let it grow on its own."

She pouted.  Which told me I was right in wondering if that's what she thought.

Which also reminded me of a time when Brynn was two or three years old.  Brynn looked at her big sister Casidee, who had longer hair than she did and she would cry to me,

"Mom, please cut my hair long."

And I would smile at her and tell her that I couldn't cut hair long.  Cutting hair makes it short.  You just have to wait for it to grow long on its own.

And she would look at me, "but Mom, please cut it long.  I want long hair."

And I would again tell her that it wasn't possible to cut hair long.

She would melt into big crocodile tears, not understanding why her mom would be so mean as to not let her cut her hair to be long.  She just wouldn't grasp the concept.

Which is especially funny now since Brynn is not at all a fan of long hair.  If her hair is touching her shoulders, then it's too long.

I've only made the request that it not get cut above her chin.

As it goes, if Andalin shows up to cut one head of hair, the others are all going to want to follow suit.

Jayme got some bangs and a few inches trimmed off.

Cas got side sweep bangs and layers on the front.

Tayler got layers added all around.

They all look adorable.

Thanks Andalin, it's always fun to have a beauty salon show up in your own house.  Especially with someone who is always so happy and smiling, who talks and jokes with the kids, and listens to the incessant talking of a seven year old.

We all agree, you're the best! Ever.

My new favorite song right now is from a Utah band that's hopefully making it big. 
I'm so in love with this song. 



Happy weekend y'all.

We're carving pumpkins with Ert and Sam.
And...
huh. 

I guess we'll have to make the weekend up as we go along.

Here's to hoping you get all the good things in life that you're looking for.

Rainy days and... Wednesdays. Road Rash and Crazy Hair. Today I Need Coke.

Lately, when Casidee gets home from school she can be found on her skateboard with a handful of boys.

Skating down the big hill in front of our house.

This type of activity usually results in something that looks like this:

Which I suppose it's only fair that she scraped up this elbow.

Now it can match her other one (that's almost healed).

I think it's time to wrap her in bubble wrap.

Just for the record, Cas thinks she is now old enough to tell me which pictures of her I'm allowed to post on the blog.

Apparently she's right, because I listened to her.

So also for the record, these pictures have been Casidee approved.

Yesterday was rainy, which I love. 

I love a good rainy day, and better yet, throw in some thunder and lightning.

The only thing about rainy days is that The Man works out in the wide open great outdoors and rain and snow can greatly affect his work day.  Sometimes he can work through the snow, but rain... rain is a different story.

You just can't do much with the wet and the mud.

But sometimes, if I'm a lucky wife, rainy days mean lunch with my man.

Even if he does show up at Red Robin covered in mud.  The hostess gave him a good look up and down, and then chose to ignore it, smiled, and seated us.

He's handsome, even covered in mud.

The Man tried to kiss me good bye while I was still curled up in bed this morning, only to catch my elbow square on his lip.  That's what happens when it's dark and you can't see each others movements.

Good morning baby. How about I give you a fat lip instead of a kiss?  He kissed me anyway, because he's forgiving like that, but I guess I better make it up to him tonight.

Today is crazy hair day at school.

Brynn chose the bun mohawk, Tayler went with Cindy Lou Who (tutorial on that here),

And cali chose what she likes to call "the palm tree braid."

The trick to pulling off crazy hair, is that it still needs to look good. 

Otherwise it doesn't look crazy, it just looks ridiculous.

I struggled this morning.  Even aside from giving The Man a fat lip, I over slept by an hour because I just couldn't get my brain to kick it into gear.  Which would have been okay except for the fact that I had to take the time to do crazy hair.  And Cas also overslept which left her frantic and ornery when her friends showed up and she couldn't find her glasses and didn't have her shoes on. I didn't get dinner into the crockpot this morning and have no idea what I'm going to make tonight now.  Also, the fact that I woke up to two peed beds this morning sent me into a tailspin.  I loathe peed beds.  Abhor them.  It makes me want to slam my forehead against the wall repeatedly, I'm so sick and tired of the smell of pee permeating throughout the house.  It seriously stresses me out.

And this is the mood that I'm left with today. 

I've been trying to be conscious of what I've been eating, but I think today calls for a McDonald's coke.  Not for the caffeine, but for the simple fact that I love it and I want something soothing today.

Also, I wouldn't complain if someone sent me chocolate covered strawberries.

My Tummy Just Burped

{picture source}

Reason number five on my long list of reasons of why I love my job, is that I get to be home long enough in the mornings to do my girls' hair.

I love those moments with them.

For some reason, it's always exciting to have Mom do your hair, even if it happens every morning.

I'm totally okay with this.

I find it's also good one on one time with them. 

We talk about who the cute boys are.  We talk about homework.  We talk about recess.  We talk about what we should do after school or next weekend.  We talk about what they want for Christmas/birthdays.  We talk about being nice.  We talk about the scripture we read that morning.

I love hair time.

This morning I was brushing out Tayler's hair.  She had a specific request for hair that we'd found on one of our favorite hair blogs (here) and I was brushing and parting when her stomach rumbled loudly.

Tayler giggled.

"Mom, my tummy just burped."

I just can't beat that, so I'm going to leave this post at that.
But I'll be back tomorrow to tell about how The Man discovered a thing called Toma Toes. 
That's good stuff right there.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I have a whole list of hair blogs that I like to look at but here are my three favorites:
Adopt A Do
Hair For the Mini Diva
Redpunzel

the weekend was busy... and a diy menu chalkboard

Do your kids ever do this?

The Circus makes up menus and names of a restaurant when they're making themselves breakfast or lunch.  They do this all the time.  I came home on Friday and found this lying on the counter.
One or two of them will write out the menu, have their siblings order, and then they proceed to prepare and serve the food.
They crack me up.

This weekend I got my hair done.

Before

After

 It's called the melt.  We faded my hair into lighter tips.
I'm in love.
I think next time I'll go with a slightly lighter color so it's a little more obvious.
I love how soft my hair is after I go to the salon.  Maybe next payday I'll have to go buy the products they use so my hair will always feel ultra soft.


This weekend we pulled the Navi up onto the grass for a car wash and the girls were a major help in getting it done inside and out.
Cali provided me with some entertainment:

Saturday I was crazy busy.
I got the grocery shopping done which included stops at three stores. 
I cleaned the car inside and out.
I took the steam cleaner to Tayler's mattress.
I steam cleaned the dinning room carpet.
I got my laundry done.
I made homemade pizza.
I babysat my niece and nephew.
And I made a chalkboard in the kitchen.

I'm so in love with this chalkboard.

Thanks to Tayler for taking pictures.

I had to make sure I hung plastic everywhere on the cabinets and I hung it from the ceiling in front of the pendulum light so the mist wouldn't put a chalkboard film on other surfaces.  I also covered the pink counter top, although seriously, I think a chalkboard counter would be an improvement over the pink counter.

Jayme was mesmerized.

 That stuff really misted while I sprayed and there was a fine film everywhere.
I thought I had covered up plenty, but I was wrong. 
We were immediately wiping counters and cleaning out the sink with soft scrub.

When we were "finishing" our kitchen (here) for our refinance, The Man put a frame around this cabinet end.  It used to connect with more cabinets which hung over the bar, but we took them down to open up the room and to make the room feel bigger and lighter.  So The Man put a frame around the end piece to make it look more finished.

The Man also had some left over chalkboard paint in the garage from when he made Sean's closet doors a chalkboard before I met him.

We happened to have the plastic and painting tape from our remodel adventures.

All I had to do was buy chalk at fifty cents a box.  I bought a box of colored and a box of white.

This project cost me a whopping dollar.

Beth would be so proud.

Next I want The Man to put a frame around a partial wall that we have in the kitchen so I can make that into a chalkboard.  It would be great to keep the shopping list, kid's friend's phone numbers, and school project due dates on it.
He's not quite sold, but I don't think he's against it either, so I'll keep up with asking him about it :).

While I'm working on getting him to agree to the wall chalkboard, I'm going to get busy with making our towel tree in the bathroom (here).

I really need to get that done so the kids will stop leaving wet towels on the floor.

Yeah right.

Grandpa Brent, Grandma Julie, and Aunt Kristin came over for ice cream and brownies on Saturday night.

We decided to surprise them with some candles and a robust round of Happy Birthday to celebrate both Grandpa and Grandma's recent birthdays.

We sure had a lot of kids at our house.
And that makes me giggle because really, all but three of them live with us.

Sunday was lazy.
We watched Mirror Mirror finally, loved it.
Except Snow White had some serious eyebrows going on.
It was distracting.

I hope your weekend was as perfect as mine was.
The chore to-do lists got completely finished, we have good food in our house, we had fun projects, and we were surrounded by people we love the best.

What more can you ask for?

4th of July plans

Have I mentioned my love for McDonald's cokes recently? I'm saying it again. It just tastes better than other cokes. AND it's only a DOLLAR. Well, a dollar and some cents with tax. I can handle that.
I've found a new love.

Oh my melt in my mouth chocolate minty heaven.

And I have BIG plans for the 4th of July. BIG PLANS. The 4th of July and Halloween are by far my favorite holidays. And I haven't had my kids on the 4th of July for the past three years, so this year is going to be amazing. Complete with these ideas:
Credit for these strawberries goes to Family Fun here And Family Fun shows this one hereAnd last but not least, I'm certainly going to have to try one of these cake ball ideas! Found here

And you know that, with five girls, I'll be hitting up my favorite hair blogs for some 4th of July hairdo ideas. I'm especially in love with Adopt a do's firecracker hair do idea, but her star idea is pretty great too! Though, let's not leave out A Princess and her hair... she has a ton of great ideas too! You'll just have to go look. Good thing I have five heads, that way I can do more than one :).