Taylor Got a Haircut

Taylor Got her hair cut yesterday!

 "Before" pictures of Taylor's hair. 

It was over halfway down her back.  

 The first cut!

Looks pretty drastic, huh!?!

 About a foot of length was taken off!

Taylor seems unsure about the haircut, 

but she ended up loving it.  

 We wanted a cut and style that would be easier to take care of.  

She could not stop looking at herself in the mirror and smiling.  She loves how light it feels.  She loves to shake her head and feel the hair just brush her shoulders.

She's super excited about it.  It was a pretty big change.  I was worried she wouldn't like it, but she absolutely loves it.   

Her hair hasn't been this short since she was 2 years old, and then it was that fine, baby hair.  Her hair has gotten so much thicker and darker in the last couple of years.   

Family Gathering

We had an impromptu family gathering the other week.  James' brother and family came to Oregon.  We were lucky enough to have them stop at our house. 

The kids' loved having their cousins to play with and go to church with them. 

James's sister joined us at their parents' house and suddenly there were even more cousins to play and craft with.  They made rubber band bracelets and duct tape wallets.  

The unfortunate part of the family gathering is that it happened because James' older brother passed away.  He was 45 years old.  

He was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when he was about 22.  For the next 10 years, he was able to live a fairly normal life.  He married and had four children.  

But gradually the disease took it's toll.  For the past several years he's been bedridden.  He fought through many infections and close calls and always pulled through before.  

This time it wasn't to be though.  His family were all able to say their good-byes and that is a blessing not everyone gets.  

We were handling this well enough until the funeral.  That was the hard part.  Very emotional.  My heart broke for all of Mike's family, including his parents and his siblings.  

James, his brother, his father, his brother-in-law and his nephew were pallbearers.  A friend of the family had made the casket.

It was a difficult day, despite the knowledge we have in the eternal plan of salvation.  But it is our faith in God that made it bearable.  

I know that families are forever and that we will all be reunited and whole again, someday. 

What Logan's Been Up to Lately

This is what Logan was doing while I was taking pictures of Taylor in her white baptism dress.  

Happy as a lark.  "Exploring."

When not climbing on rocks, he can be found at home, being very helpful.  He's great at loading the dishwasher, 

and vacuuming the car.  

Though, he would rather be out climbing rocks.  

He's into geology right now and loves his new rock hammer.  He chips off rocks, 

and then takes them home to inspect more closely.  

He cleans up nicely though.  ;)

When the weather doesn't cooperate and we have to stay inside, he'll enjoy a game of chess, 

with Taylor...  

until he can get back out to the rocks.  

We found some LOGANberry Jam at a nearby fruit stand.  We all thought that was fun. 

Logan's on his 2nd pair of shoes since we moved here less than a year ago.  He loves his new "hiking" shoes.  

 And they're great for climbing on rocks!  

If Logan had his way, this is where you'd find him everyday.  All day long.  

He also stays busy with school and scouts and reading and playing. I'm proud of him for being such a great kid and a big help around here.  He's awesome!  Awesome! Awesome!!  Awesome!!!  I love him so much!

Taylor's cooking skills & other Taylor things

 First of all, it was a beautiful sunrise this morning.  I tried to get the kids up to see it, but they just covered their heads with their blankets and rolled over.

So I documented it for them.  "See what you missed this morning!"

 In other news, Taylor has taken to making her own scrambled eggs.    

 She loves eggs and helping out in the kitchen.  So we put it all together the other day.

She now loves making a breakfast of scrambled eggs for everybody.  She's growing up and becoming more and more independent.

Taylor also loves to help me when we go grocery shopping.  Grocery shopping with two little kids used to be such a nightmare.

I was constantly telling them to stay by me, not pick anything up, to stop asking for everything, to not stand or stop suddenly right in front of the cart and to not climb or hang on to the cart.  

Now that the kids are older, (and after years of training them), they aren't so bad.  All I have to say to them now is, to not pick anything up, stop asking for everything, to not climb or hang on the cart...

But they are trying to be helpful and I appreciate that.  

Activity Days, a group at church just for 8-11 year old girls started up this week.  Taylor gets to go and she's so excited for it.  She has so much fun with the girls her age.  

We also recently acquired two, old school desks, thanks to James' sister and her husband, who have connections with the schools.  :)

The kids are enjoying them and having a school space of their own.  They can keep their books and pencils inside their desks.  Each desk even came with it's own chair.  

And we get our dining room table & counter back!  Yay!  No more school books and papers all over them.  

Taylor's also been very busy making rubber band bracelets with this kit she bought with her allowance money.  She didn't even know it existed, but luckily she saw it when we were at the store the other day.  And luckily she had her purse with all her money in it.  

Everyone in the family and many of her cousins now have rubber band bracelets of all colors.  She loves to make them and give them away.  

This picture is especially for my mom & sister.  Taylor's wearing her hair, "some up, some down."  

I was telling Taylor the other day about how my sister and I would bring a hairbrush to my mom (Nana) on school days when we were Taylor's age.  We'd then tell Nana how we wanted our hair done.  "All up."  "All down."  or "Some up, Some down."  

So Taylor asked me for "some up, some down" since she had never worn her hair that way before. 

And one last picture of the kids, goofy off at Dad's clinic, trying on all the glasses.  I think they look pretty cute in glasses.  They have great eye sight though.  So they don't need them.  

Logan's haircut

Between Logan's dislike of getting haircuts and my dislike of giving them, his hair got really long in December.  You can hardly tell he has ears under all that hair.  

I kept tucking his hair behind his ears and James would kid him about having a "mop on his head."

So, we finally attacked the hair with a pair of clippers.  I thought his faux hawk was pretty fun, but Logan didn't want to keep it.  

Ta-da!  Theeere's my Logan boy!  What a great looking kid!   He has huge eyes now, and ears too.  

Christmas 2014

I just saw a pickup truck drive by our house, with a large, plastic nativity in the back of it.  Christmas must be over.  I suppose Christmas decorations have to down. 

The kids and I are still enjoying Christmas music on Pandora though.  

Here are a few of the Christmas activities we did this year.

We made gingerbread houses and graham cracker nativities.  

 We got a tree and decorated it.  

 I think having a tree is my favorite Christmas tradition.  

That, and reading all the Christmas books we can get our hands on.  And hot chocolate.  

Ta-da!  This year's tree.  

Taylor, our late sleeper, woke up at 6am on Christmas morning.  I convinced her to come snuggle with me in bed and we both fell back asleep.  

Logan, our consistent sleeper, woke up at his usual 7:30ish.  Then the Christmas Day activities could begin.  

Logan made Taylor a fleece blanket out of two different kinds of Frozen fabric.

There's the other side of the blanket.

Taylor, (with Mom's help) made Logan a Wild Kratt's vest.  

 He also got his first pocketknife, 

 a geologist's magnifying lens,

and slippers.  He also got a couple of How to Train Your Dragon toys.  Can't have Christmas without some toys to play with, can we?

 Taylor got Frozen slippers, 

 a Frozen game (thanks Nana & Papa), 

and a Frozen calendar, 

not to mention the Frozen barrettes, Frozen bracelet, Frozen jellybeans and Frozen Pez dispenser she got in her stocking.  

 Then she got a package of hot chocolate.  Not very exciting, but she smiled politely anyway.

 But wait, it's not really hot chocolate.  

It's a pair of blue opal, dangly, dragonfly earrings!

A Christmas present for the whole family was, "Thursdays with the Crown,"  the 3rd book in a trilogy I've been reading aloud to the kids.

In the afternoon we went to James' parents house.  We spent the next couple of days with family, which was great fun. 

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.   We hope you all did too!