Brooke's Hair Cut

A few weeks ago Brooke asked me to cut her hair and I have been forgetting that I needed to do that. This morning she reminded me once again, so we did it before JD went to work. I had her sit on a stool in the bathroom and I was brushing through her hair when she said, "Mom, I want you to cut it short, like yours." I could not believe it! First, she never wants me to trim her hair. Second, every time I do she freaks out that I'm going to cut more than an inch off!! So I had to call JD into the bathroom so she could tell him that herself, he wouldn't believe it coming from me. She told him and he told her not today, but on another day. We did cut her hair, about 2-3 inches off. I was worried for a bit that I may have cut all the curls out, but she is JD's daughter. I don't think she will ever go without curls! It's hard to get used to seeing her hair be so much shorter than it was, but it's cute. Brooke gets worried that when she wakes up her hair won't be the same length as it is now. I've told her several times that her hair will be fine, and that it take a while for it to grow back. It's so fun to watch Brooke grow up and she her brain working and her personality coming out more and more. I'll have to post pictures soon of her hair!

Spring is here, sort of...

We've been waiting for a while for nice warm spring weather. This is my first official winter, where it has lasted more than what seemed like only a month. So last week we were enjoying weather in the 60s and 70s, in fact the temperature on Friday was a pleasant 75 degrees. Then on Saturday, the day Spring arrives, the weather turns bitterly cold and we have rain on and off all day. By nightfall it was snowing very lightly, but still sticking. We were expecting a light dusting to an inch. To my surprise and my children's joy we woke up to 6 inches of snow and more still falling!!! Luckily for me, with my first experience driving in snow... (JD's out of town, and we had to go to church) the streets were clear or just slushy, so we made there and back alive. To my surprise as we were leaving church the snow was already melting and quite quickly!! So we got home and out of our church clothes bundled up in our warm ones and went to play for a little bit in what snow was left. Today we are again enjoying spring weather! You never know what you'll get in good ol' Texas!

Snow Days

A couple weeks ago we had a big snow storm blow through. This made our third one of the season, which I guess is highly unusual for this area, I didn't think that much would amount from it because the past two we had a total of maybe a 1/2 inch to an inch of snow combined! But this time it snowed A LOT for two days!! And by the time we were done we had at least 6 inches of snow at our house!! We had so much fun!! On Thursday before JD got home the kids and I started playing out in the snow. We went out a couple times and tried to make a snow man, using a baby carrot for the nose and blueberries for the eyes. He wasn't that big and we knocked him down! When JD got home from work he built a larger one with the kids because we had even more snow to play in when he got home!! Luckily, JD had Friday off work and we had a ton of fun that day!!!! We had to run some errands and then after that we had a huge snowball fight where Brooke and I surprised attacked JD and then Brooke became a traitor to me and fought against me on JD's side. We all got little colds from playing out in snow without proper snow gear, but what else could I expect for living somewhere that I thought it never snowed!

Brooke and Nixon out playing for the first time in the snow. Nixon was so funny when he'd through a snowball he'd say, "Ow!"


Brooke worked a lot on perfecting her snowball!

Nixon loved the snow! He tromped all over in it! And loved picking it up and throwing it at whatever he could.

This is the pitiful little snowman that I helped Brooke make while JD was at work that fell apart after more snow came, so that none of it was left by the time JD got home.


The kids helping JD build their snowman.


The finished product. We didn't have enough branches on your tree to break off and use as arms so we used black hangers.


The view from our front door on Friday morning.
(I know this might not seem like much to those who have lived or live in places where it snows, but it was pretty amazing to me!)


The view of our house.


Looking east from our house. This picture does not do it justice!! It was so incredibly beautiful!

And our poor snowman lost his arms during the night. Good thing they were just buried under the snow.

It is the kind of snow that JD and I like, comes for a few days and then is gone! We had so much fun and made so many fun memories!

And The Verdict is....

Today I had my ultrasound to find out whether we were having a girl or a boy. I have never had such a long ultrasound, and I've had my fair share of them, but we checked out just about every body part there is to check out without checking for the sex of the baby. Finally at the end the technician was looking to see, and it was a little difficult because the baby was laying on their tummy and had it's legs pretty tight together. But he said he was 80% sure that it is a girl!! So Brooke was super excited for a little baby sister, and I'm sure Nixon will think why have I been stuck with all these girls. I may have cursed him with the opposite of what I had. He'll survive! We are really excited though! Now it's time to decide on a name. :)

Brooke's tutu and Nixon's hair cut

Last week at Hobby Lobby they had tulle on sale for 77 cents a yard, so I decided that to make a tutu for Brooke. She was so excited and wanted to help me. Yesterday we cut the tulle, sewed the elastic and tied the tulle onto the elastic.

She LOVES it! She put it on and ran to find her fairy wings that just happen to match and wanted to find her wand. She was so excited that she could be a fairy, and we decided that she could use that as her Halloween costume and it all cost less than $5!

Last Saturday JD and I gave Nixon a hair cut. I should have taken a before picture to compare, but I didn't. He hates getting his hair cut. Last time we did it his hair did not turn out so well, but this time we got it all even. We just you the clippers to cut his hair. He has to sit on JD's lap while I buzz. The poor little boy cried the entire time and he loves to suck on his fingers, so he would try to do that to soothe himself, but he couldn't even do that because he would get hair in his mouth. But he survived and his little curls in the back had to go. He looks so big when he gets his hair cut. He's turning into my little boy, so that I don't have a baby anymore.

Nixon loves to get his picture taken and all I have to do is get the camera out and he comes running. I tell him to say cheese and he does, it's so cute. He's pretty much yelling "CHEESE!" in this picture.

The Cardinals Win!!

So, of course it's playoff time and for the second year in a row the Cardinals have made the playoffs. We watched to game today and it came down to the end of the game and overtime. JD and I were on the edge of our seats. Brooke went a put her cheerleader outfit on with her pom poms and was cheering for the Cardinals near the end of the game it was so cute. But all throughout the game any time there was a high five, Brooke and Nixon were right there to give one! At the end of the game when the Cardinals recovered a fumble and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown to end the game we were all up on our feet cheering. Nixon even had some pom poms and was cheering and hooting and hollering along with the rest of us. It was so fun to just see the kids dancing around and being loud! It made for a fun evening!

This is Brooke and Nixon sort of celebrating after the game. We couldn't find the camera really quick while the were being really loud, but it was so fun and cute!!

Christmastime

Well we were busy this month, but we had a lot of fun and a wonderful Christmas. The kids had so much fun getting all the decorations out and decorating the house for Christmas. Brooke will be sad to see it all come down this weekend. I mostly am going to post a ton of pictures from over the past month (more like the past couple of weeks).

I love having the kids help decorate the Christmas tree because we wind up with bunches of the same ornament in the same spot! But it never fails every year Brooke gets the urge to add her own decorations to the tree. We never know when she's going to do it. One year it was after we had opened all the presents and we found hangers and stockings and anything that you could find. That year she even put the car keys in a hanging container and hung it on a tree, that was a problem when it was time to drive over to Grandma's! But this year we go ALL her wonderful play jewerly on the tree. She put on her necklaces and bracelets. And was very proud of how the tree looked in the end.

A couple days before Christmas, JD had the day off and so we took the kids down to the mall to see Santa. That was such a fun experience! It was Nixon's first time seeing Santa and he did great. He just sat there, but didn't cry. Brooke was so excited to see him and let him know what she wanted. One of the best parts of the experience was when we were waiting in line there were three other families around us with little kids. All three families had sweet little girls around Nixon's age and he made fast friends with two of them, definitely flirting with them. Another little girl saw this and came right up to Nixon and just started hugging him. Nixon wasn't to sure about her. It was fun for all of us in line and kept us a little entertained.

One very fun and unexpected surprise was that we got a snow storm on Christmas Eve! It was so beautiful to watch the snow fall. We all bundled up and played in the snow while it was falling. We are all kids at heart so we had a ton of fun!

Nixon after we were out in the snow.

This is what our car looked like on Christmas Eve night when we went out to give some goodies to our neighbors and grab a pizza for dinner. I don't have much experience with snow, so I had never had my car doors frozen together. I told JD that I couldn't get the doors open and one of them he had to push on the inside while I pulled on the outside! Oh the fun things you learn!

Christmas morning coming down the hall!! We had to wake Brooke up because Nixon woke up first and we were pretty sure he wouldn't wait for Brooke.

Nixon with his new beanie and banana from his stocking. He LOVES bananas. I think that is honestly an understatement!! He wouldn't wait for his banana so that was the first thing he did.

Nixon's backpack from Noah, that he loves!

Santa brought us a new Wii game and it has been so much fun! I think I'll have very strong arms in a couple of months, it's a good work out. JD gets frustrated because we can all (excluding Nixon) beat him in ping pong.

Brooke with one of her favorite presents, a barbie fairy from Grandma Burns. Her other favorite gift was a robe and slippers. I love when they are so easy to please!

When we went to Arizona for Thanksgiving, Nixon found Noah's Handy Manny toolbox and the tools bounce up and down in it and it plays music! He loved it and played with it a lot and would dance to it, so Santa brought him one of his own. It was been fun to watch him dance to it. Him and Brooke also love chasing his cars that you shake and then they go on their own.

We're all bundled up and ready to go play in our little amount of snow.

Brooke throwing her first snowball. She had to ask how to make one! It was so fun. The snow was so powdery that it had a hard time sticking together and would fall apart as we threw it.

Nixon watching Brooke and mom have a snow fight and not sure if he wants to join or not.

Running around the yard trying to avoid the snowballs. The sidewalk was icy so we had to be careful and after Nixon slipped twice on it we went inside to have hot chocolate and get warmed up. It was a wonderful month spending time together as a family, spending time with friends celebrating the season, and most importantly remembering the birth of our Savior.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!