Playing Beauty Shop

Erin has been wanting her hair cut for a LONG time, and yesterday I finally cracked. I'd had enough of the tangles, hair in food, food in hair, messy hair...you name it! It was getting to the point that I was spending more time just brushing it and not enough time "doing" it (you know...braids, bows...things like that). We set up the beauty shop in the kitchen before bed and went to work.

The wash (she's posing)

The rinse (she's giggling)

24 inches!!!!

9 inches came off

She loves it!

Good Times

Our family traveled to Enid today for a little get together with some old friends from Spokane, the Brady's and Romano's. We took the kids to a kids discovery place and had a wonderful time. The kids all played together while the grown-ups chit chatted. We really had a great time.

Tina, Carolyn, and Heather

Can you believe we've popped out 10 1/2 kids in the past 8 years between the 3 of us?! Carolyn is expecting another baby this summer. :) Carolyn and I were pregnant with our oldest boys in Spokane together and they are only 3 weeks apart in age. They were great little buddies until the Brady's moved away when the boys were a little older than 2. The boys acted like best friends today, they were inseparable. Oh how I wish they all lived closer to us, now that would be fun!

On the way home we stopped by the temple for the children so see. It had just started snowing and they were all a bit chilly, so we only stayed long enough to take a couple pictures.

This is the temple Howard and I were sealed in way back in 2001.

Our White Christmas!

Our family has been praying and dreaming of a white Christmas for many years...we finally got it! They're calling it the Christmas Blizzard of 2009 and it smashed all previous snow fall records for OKC! The blizzard came on Christmas Eve and by Christmas morning it was GLORIOUS!

Some of the snow had melted at this point, but we were fortunate, the wind blew most of the snow across the street. We just had to shovel our front porch and the very end of our driveway.

The kids had a blast.

Howie wanted to eat the snow. They know not to eat yellow snow.

They mostly played in the middle of the street, there was a good amount there.

I love how blue the sky is.

Oh yeah...I used my Christmas present for all these pictures. A new camera!

I got the Nikon D3000. It's an entry level DSLR, but it's a million times better than our previous point and shoot.

One more thing...I bought all the kids snow boots awhile back, just in case. Most locals told me not to waste my money and that we just don't get much more that a couple inches of snow at a time. I'm so glad I didn't listen to them!

Note to Self: Tie down Trampoline!

The wind and rain kept waking us up last night, but it was the very loud BANG! that got us out of bed this morning. I looked out the window to where the sound came from and our new trampoline was GONE!

This is our backyard and where it is supposed to be.

Howard and I frantically got dressed and our neighbor called. "Um...your trampoline just hit my house and flew into the next yard over."

"Thanks, we just noticed!"

Howard and I ran 2 houses down to check out the damage. That house has not sold yet, so luckily it didn't damage any personal property (but we're going to have to pay for a few new rain gutters that got damaged).

Here's how it landed.

Sorry it's so blurry, but to top it off we're having freezing rain and very high winds (obviously high winds since that's what sent it 2 houses down). What a great start to our Christmas Eve day.

Howard and our kind neighbor just finished taking it apart and brought it back to our yard in pieces. It's salvageable, but Howard said he will have to order a few replacement parts.

Merry Mansions

There are some really nice neighborhoods near Erin and Howie's schools, so we decided to go there to look at Christmas lights. We didn't see any amazing display of lights unfortunately, BUT we did see some pretty amazing mansions. I'm not sure if they're technically mansions, but they sure look like it to me!

These pictures don't show the whole house or even do them justice, but I just had to share. Howard and I had our jaws drop on many occasions that night.

One of the funny things that night was how it's customary to drive slowly while looking at lights and we did, but sometimes Howard would drive down an unlit street very slowly just gazing at the beautiful homes. I had to keep reminding him that the kids didn't want to look at pretty house, they wanted to look at lights. I'm sure we'll go back during the day and gawk when we can see better. It was a fun night!

The Nutcracker

On Saturday Erin and I had a wonderful little date downtown to see "The Nutcracker".

It was our first time going to the ballet, and I sure hope it won't be the last. We had a magical time. There were lots of little girls, mothers, and grandmothers all dressed up in their holiday best. It was a great time!

One of our funny little conversations that happened at the ballet was regarding the men's attire. Here's how it went...

Erin: Giggling

Me: What's so funny?

Erin: It looks like the boys aren't wearing any pants...giggle...giggle....cause I can see their B-U-T-T.

Me: (trying not to laugh) Oh...well...don't look there then. (I was trying to think of something mature and intelligent to say. I was also thinking to myself that I was glad she didn't notice the front side, because in my opinion it was a lot more noticeable than their B-U-T-T. )

Master Bedroom

Here's a glimpse into our bedroom. As you can see we still need curtains up and eventually some paint. The walls are a tan/peachy color. Neutral, but it has a touch of color and it goes well with what we have. I think I may keep the color for a while, at least until I change my mind.

The door to the left is our bathroom, and our closet is to the right.

Now here's the other side of the room. All three of these pictures were taken at the same time. It's crazy how spacious my room is (compared to base housing at least) that I can have 3/4 of my room look spotless and the rest can look like a storage unit. Unfortunately the boxes are still in my room, but they're arranged a little neater. Luckily that's the last of the boxes in the whole house.

When we get curtains up and the boxes cleared I'll update the picture.

The Masterpiece

The hard worker...

the madness...

the mess...

the Masterpiece!

Last night was family home evening and yet again we had a lesson on reverence, but the fun came during the activity. It was our first year making a gingerbread house (I was inspired by my Okinawa friends). I was planning on doing things from scratch, but it was just cheaper buying a kit from the store. I'm sure glad I did! Maybe next year well try it from scratch. Maybe...