New Blog, Finally

So with the craziness of packing up and flying down to the lower 48 for a month, combined with Christmas Chaos, I have not had time to do any blogs. So here is one although it won't have much because I dumped all of my pictures onto my home computer before I left so I don't have access to those until I get back. Oops, at least you can see Christmas morning spent at my parents' house:This is the annual Stair Picture. We had to wake up our girls for Christmas morning due to the 2 hour time difference and the complete lack of sleep from our red eye the night before. We had planned on the late flight thinking the girls would sleep most of the time but they thought that a 45 minute nap on the planes would be a better idea. Thanks heavens for their portable DVD player from Grandma Brenda/ Santa!Kylie was a big fan of the poodle purse that she and Macy each got from Santa. The M&M's were a popular item as well.Macy loved her camera that she got from Grandma and Grandpa. My mom was wise to get one for Owen as well(but blue- not pink) so there wouldn't be fights and tears over the camera. She walked around all morning telling people to "Say Cheese!" and then clicking pictures of mostly arms and legs- she will hopefully get the aiming concept down soon.

I loved getting to spend Christmas with my entire family. It was the first time we had all been together since March for Ashley's wedding and I thought it was wonderful. I loved the chaos and wrapping paper mess and excitement of all of the presents and people. Thanks Mom and Dad for getting us there! I was most excited about the $50 bill in my stocking from Santa that allowed me to go and stock up on some great quilting fabrics on Friday. We found some great clearance sales so I got multiple designer fabrics for $4/ yard! I was thrilled to get to built up my stash and to have that money go so far. I even bought most of my fabric for next year's Christmas quilt because it was such a killer deal. Tonight I finished cutting my first real quilt and I can't wait to piece it together as soon as I get the chance. It is just a throw for Valentine's day but I think it will look great!

We drove down yesterday to see Justin's family for a few days and we had Christmas- The Sequal. We were completely spoiled all over again and we have been having a great time getting to see his family and Aunt and Uncle while they are visiting here too. We are off the Park City tomorrow and it should be another fun filled day!

Officially Hooked...

These were supposed to be gifts but I don't know if I can part with them...
I really want one for our couch like the orange one, only much bigger :) This is way too much fun.

And today, Macy kept calling me Princess Mommy and insisting I call her Princess Macy.

I asked her if she wanted pancakes for dinner and her response was "Wow, that sounds great!"

She has been trying to mother Kylie a lot lately. When I remind her that I am the mom and Kylie is my daughter and I ask her to leave Kylie alone, she very sincerely replies with "But she's my Kylie!"

I also wanted to mention that the post titled "Macy's Funny" was done by Justin. I was so thrilled he was finally willing to "blog."Good times...

My First Quilts...

Ok, well kind of anyway. They are baby doll sized for Macy and Kylie for Christmas but I figured it was better to learn how to cut, piece, baste, quilt and bind on mini versions that I won't stress about if they aren't perfect. And they aren't even close, but I am proud of my first two attempts at quilt making. I learned a lot and now I feel confident that I could attempt bigger things in the not to distant future. They are actually much straighter and neater than they appear in the pictures, I guess I just hadn't laid them down very neatly. And thanks to lacy for lending me her cutter and a board from her store! I will get them back to you soon, I promise!

I am pretty proud of myself and I am excited to try my next project. Justin will be flying out of Kenai for the next two days so I will be able to work on fun things all evening without feeling guilty because I am neglecting him.

Macy is funny

Dad: I want to buy you stuff.
Macy: You can't bite me....I be all gone!?

Macy: (walking out of the closet carrying a coloring book she had discovered that had been hidden for Christmas) This a great book!

The temperature has been in the single digits for the past couple days and the ice fog has turned everything into white crystal formations, making us feel like we live in an ice box.

I should be asleep...

But I am waiting for Justin to get home. So here I sit online, reading and researching. I just have to share how excited I am about some projects I am going to start when I return from my month long trip to Utah and Idaho. This is all thanks to me new favorite blog which is here. This lady is nuts but amazing. Anyway, here are the two big projects I want to get to: A Ragged Square Quilt and this Christmas Quilt. I have been reading and trying to learn how to do the big things I will need to figure out before I take these projects on. I have decided on starting with this Doll bedding so I can get some practice in before I do the big expensive quilts. The actual quilting part seems to be the scariest and everywhere I have read I am told that it is doable, but it just takes practice, hence the unneccesary but adorable doll quilts. Plus, I think the girls would love to have some doll blankets, even though they are usually satisfied with playing with my fabric scraps.

So I may have to admit that sewing might be my new addiction/ passion. Its pricier than baking but at least I won't gain quite as much weight. :) I was thinking about Justin and my upcoming vacation away from the kids and though that its a shame I won't be able to sew without child interruption during that time- then i remembered that this was supposed to be a fun vacation with my husband. Oops, maybe I have a problem. Justin- I promise I won't do any projects, I will just have fun with you! He has been so supportive and understanding with my new hobby. He even tolerates the mess I make of the kitchen and living room. He hates it- but he tolerates it so I can be happy. Thanks babe!

I am also listening to every version of "O Holy Night" that I can find on You Tube because I love this song more than anything. Ahhh, what a relaxing night. Thanks to my friend, Sherstine, I discovered my favorite so far is the one by David Phelps. If you appreciate the beauty of this song, his version will bring you to tears. Just search it on YouTube. The Celine Dion and Celtic Woman (I love them!) ones were also some of the best. However, I can never resist a little Josh Groban, who makes everything he sings incredible. I have to add that I love this song, not just because the music is beautiful but because the words are really a testimony of what Christmas is about. I love how full of praise and rejoicing this song is in anouncing Christ's birth to the world. If I could sing at all, I would sing this song everyday!
Merry Christmas!

What I did yesterday...

I regularly have people ask me what I do all day as a stay at home mom. These people usually don't have kids yet or they have children and work full time. Besides the mundane tasks of laundry, cleaning, feeding children, dishes, etc. I do lots of fun stuff.
This is what I did yesterday:
I made Sugar cookies, Snicker's Bars and Fudge. My friends Lacy and Shug came over and also made Ginger Snaps, Mexican Wedding cookies and Snickerdoodles. And, no, I did not eat half the pan of snicker's already (I know some people who know me well were thinking it)- we split up what we made so we could have a little bit of everything. We had so much fun! And what could be more fun to do with Justin out of town?

And here is Macy, kind of spelling her name. I couldn't get her on tape doing it correctly even though she had many times before I pulled out the camera. I will just call it stage fright.
She actually did pretty well, just added and extra "Y" this time.



And, yeah we didn't leave the house yesterday so forgive the "orphan child" look she has going for her.

Its getting to us...

Yes, and we still have over 2 weeks for it to get worse. I should mention that on days where it is overcast (most days lately) it is fairly dark all day. Typically we lose over 5 minutes of light a day so I don't know what was going on with today. You know it is bad when your 2 year old is convinced it is almost bedtime before 5:00 everyday and insists on putting her pajamas on.
At least they got cute new ones from Grandma Brenda!Yes, Kylie is kissing Macy.

Finally, The Big Unveil!

Yesterday morning I finally finished the girls' Christmas dresses. After Macy's I had taken a break because hers at had been so stressful. And then I took another break halfway through Kylie's to make some Christmas presents for people. So yesterday, I finished just in time for us to go get our Portraits done at Sears (NEVER GO THERE!!!). I think they turned out pretty nice, just don't look to closely!
I had them model this morning so I could get these quick pics. Yeah, now on to quicker projects!

Great injustices...

Kylie feels seriously left out whenever she notices her sister and mother brushing their teeth. She stares at us and cries, wondering why she can't have a tooth brush as well. I try to console her and let her know she can have one as soon as a single tooth breaks through, but she doesn't seem to get much comfort from this...

It was 1 degree today when I left the house. I repeat, 1! It was in the 60's in Colorado

And what has me most upset? My babysitter canceled on me two hours in advance, which means no date night with Justin, no Pub Quiz, no hopes of breaking 50 Points tonight, no evening away from kids spending time with fun adults, no visit to Humpy's and a total waste of 40 minutes that I had just spent making my hair look perfect. The saddest part? Justin doesn't even know it yet. He is flying and will discover the truth once he rushes home to go out. Pity me. Please...

Would I be a horrible mom if I fed the kids Ice cream for dinner? That's all I want right now.

We played hooky...

After a long night with two sick children and Macy's (and our) first experience with night terrors (thanks to Justin's DNA) we decided not to take our children out into the blizzard to attend church and thus infect the other child attendees. So while we played hooky Macy and I decorated our house for Christmas. She was very helpful with the Christmas tree ornaments and I am sure you will be able to pick out the spots on the tree that the did. She also insisted on dressing herself this morning as well...

Its been so much fun with her getting to really experience and understand Christmas this year. We watched the Polar Express Friday night and she loved it. Justin also bought her the Christmas TV Classics Movie pack at Costco the other day and she keeps asking to watch the "Reindeer Show" again. I love taking her out and seeing her get excited over Christmas lights and trees that are everywhere. She has figured out that Santa brings her presents on Christmas and also that Christmas is Jesus's birthday. She's been excited to go on an airplane and see her grandparents and aunts and uncles. But as far as she is concerned, the cousins are just competition for attention.

We are excited to see you all in a few weeks and I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

Thankful...

I am grateful for:
Chocolate,
Justin having a job as a pilot (which he loves) when so many pilots are out of work,
My Sewing Machine,
My KitchenAid Mixer,
My Two Miracle daughters,
A great family and great in-laws,
Having a second car so I am not stranded home while Justin is at work,
Phones with free long distance,
the internet,
Airplanes so I can travel,
My church and beliefs,
and...

Rare, peaceful moments, such as this:

In between children's screams, laughs, cries and giggles...

Since our laptop has been getting repaired it has been difficult to find a spare moment to do a blog. The kids both follow me into our room whenever I try to escape for a brief moment to do anything on the computer and it drives me insane. Mostly because they get into everything they can get their little paws onto and I can't stand it. But Anyway...
Recently Justin and I have been enjoying a wonderful part of not having a nursing baby in the home... babysitters! Every Tuesday night we now ditch our loving babes and head off to a local bar/restaurant called Humpy's where they have "Pub Quiz" which is a big trivia game where each table is a team trying to get the most correct answers. We go with a couple from our ward, Ned and Rachel, and then a bunch of her lawyer friends and who ever we can get to come along, and we have a great time. Maybe I will post pictures if we do well this week!
Yesterday we hired a Young Woman from our ward to watch our spastic toddlers so we could go to a sports bar (again with Ned and Rachel, AKA Our "bar buddies") to watch the BYU -Utah game...yeah, I don't really want to talk about that one. Except to say how nice it has been to actually get to go on regular dates with Justin and to get socialize with other adults besides at play times (which are great but still involve the children).
Also this week, I was sick for 2 days or so and on the second day a wonderful lady from my ward with a 3 and 4 year old girl took Macy for half of the day. I will love her forever for this! I was able to rest and take a nap when Kylie did, it was wonderful. Plus I didn't have to listen to the two of them fight, so it ended up working out well.
Not much else happening! I am almost finished with all of the banners I have been sewing and I am anxious to finish Kylie's Christmas dress and some other projects I have planned. I will post more when more happens!And here's Kylie gearing up for yesterday's game...
And today we enjoyed a Sunday evening of no bake cookies and child torture for our entertainment.

Why Justin Rocks My World...

1) Yesterday he brought me home a dozen roses for now reason at all. How nice is that? After he gave them to me we realized that our vase assortment had not made the cut to travel to Alaska with us so they had to be trimmed down and put in a Nalgen bottle. I call it a bouquet with an Alaska flair.
2) Today he got his score on that big military test, you know the one that would determine our future? In the pilot section- the one that is obviously the most important to us- he scored a 98%. This is after he came home feeling like he didn't do as well as he could have. Yeah...I know, right? He's awesome. He did great on the other sections as well but we were extremely excited about that one. I know he will be embarrassed that I posted that on here, so don't tell him I told you, OK?
3) He took Macy out to play in the snow today when I was far too cold and sleepy to do it myself. He taught her to make snow angels, snowballs and a little snowman. She was thrilled to get to go out and play with him.

While Daddy was gone...

Macy kept asking, "Where'd Justin go?"

Kylie started saying "Milk," "More" and "Thank you."

Macy decided to "fix" the toilet like she had seen Justin do a few days earlier. I discovered her in the bathroom with the toilet brush in hand and toilet water Everywhere.

Macy told Kylie to get out of the bathroom because she needed her "Privacy."

Macy started begging for things by saying "Pretty pretty pretty please?!?"

I restrained myself from beating my children as they played in bed last night, keeping each other up past eleven. What was worse was the girls sleep deprived grumpiness in the morning.

Macy got to see a snowman, Santa Claus and Christmas Trees at some Christmas craft and food show we went to yesterday downtown.

I ate the rest of our left over butter cream frosting. It was wonderful...

I spent way too much time checking to see if any of my friends had posted new blogs. People don't do enough blogging on the weekends.

Justin's in the Dog House

Not really, but last night it seemed like it. The sad reality is that last night something happened that has happened only a handful of times in our 4 1/2 years of marriage- Justin and I slept in separate beds although we were in the same house.
The only times this has happened before has been for one of the following reasons:
1) Just after Justin's shoulder surgery he couldn't lay down flat so he slept in a recliner in the living room for a week.
2) When Macy was 8 months and I was deathly ill and recently knocked up, she would not sleep unless I was holding her, so we slept on the couch so I could prop my arms up on the arm rest. Not a fun few nights...
3) Our entire family of four was ill with a stomach bug so I slept holding Kylie and Justin slept in the other room with Macy. And by slept I mean, dozed between periods of one of the four of us vomiting or running to the bathroom for... other purposes.
4) And then a couple of times Justin slept in another room when Kylie was a newborn who liked to wake up multiple times a night and this was not conducive to Justin getting as much sleep as possible before his 4 a.m. flights.

That's it, really. I have to say, I am not a fan of not sleeping with my husband. There is no one to cuddle with, to help warm up the bed, to scratch me with his talon like toenails, no chance of making out once the kids are asleep. It really isn't a cool thing. So why did this rare event occur last night? Well, I have a lovely cold which prohibits me, and as a result, Justin from sleeping well. This would not do for he had to report at 6:00 in the morning to the recruiting office for the Air National Guard to take some see-if-you-are-smart-enough-to-fly-our-planes-without-killing-yourself-and-costing-the-government-14 million dollars-for-crashing-the-plane test.

He has been studying for weeks and hopefully once this test is over and he is able to apply to the units we have talked about, we can make some decisions about our future. Right now, everything is in limbo and I seriously despise Limbo.
So wish us luck as we try to plan our future....
And I am going to the fabric store in a couple of hours so if anyone else wants a banner, let me know soon! I am happy to ship or Justin may even be able to take some to Utah this weekend when he goes.
thanks all!

P.S.

I also am willing to do tutu's like the ones pictured below. Those will be $15 a piece as well and they would be easy to mail. I promise they will look better than my girls' ones because now I have had practice ;)
Anyway, just let me know if you are interested.
Thanks for all of the positive response so far! This will give me stuff to do this weekend while Justin leaves us to go to a BYU game!
thanks again!

Help Baby Mia

So I was reading my friend's blog today and she had a link for this little girl on hers to here.
I couldn't stop crying while I read the blog that one of their friends started for the family. I can't imagine the stress of having a baby who needs a heart transplant and then not even being able to hold that child. My heart really goes out for that family!
Anyway, I am always looking for an excuse to make something and I know many people are into banners now (like the one I made for Halloween) so I have decided to sell them to whoever wants one and then donate the profits to the family. I am going to make Thanksgiving and Christmas ones (or even birthday ones if someone requests) so let me know if you are interested. I am going to advertise on Craigslist but if anyone of you out there wants one, just let me know ( I will ship to people who email me if they don't mind paying a small amount for shipping). They will be $15 a piece and $10 for a single sided one.

I know how hard it was for me having Macy in the Hospital for over three weeks and we were blessed that nothing was wrong with her and we didn't have to pay a cent for that stay (thank-you double insurance coverage). I just want to help them so if you are interested at all, leave a comment or email me. If you aren't, just go to their blog and and give them a few bucks.
thanks!This is the back. Each flag is the same on back but this makes it nice to hang in a hallway or archway.
Each banner is 3 yards (nine feet). Please leave a comment with a way for me to contact you if you are interested! I also just had a request for one in certain college colors. These would be fun to have during football parties so that would be an option as well!
thanks!

Unfortunately, with an average camera and average house, if is hard to get a good picture to show off how cute these turn out.

Things I have come to understand, learn or remember this week...

1. Taffeta melts very, very easily. This I learned when I first started Macy's Christmas dress and I went to press the first seem. Not a big deal, I had just started the dress. It was more of a problem when I went to press the seem for the zipper (yes, one of the finishing touches) on what I thought was the delicate setting on the iron. I was wrong and my nearly completed dress now has a hole in the bodice. At least it was way to big for Macy anyway so I will just redo the bodice and reattach everything to it. Oh well, lesson learned.
2. Butter cream frosting is a gift from God. Canned frosting is some horrible imitation that the devil came up with. I mean, really. Who would settle for that canned junk when homemade butter cream is so easy to make and is also heaven on a cookie, cupcake, spoon, finger, or whatever. Macy learned this as well when she got to decorate her Halloween Cookies yesterday.
3. On a similar note, three sugar cookies with frosting do not a dinner make. It does however result in a slightly ill tummy and a sugar rush induced headache for the rest of the evening. This is a mistake I hope to not repeat again in the near future. At least not until Christmas cookie time.
4. Two toddlers+ one mother's lap+ library full of books= two screaming children fighting over the one available lap and mother to read books that they do not want to share with the other toddler and glares from the parents who a reading to their one well behaved toddler.
5. While a child sized broom may seem like a good toy for toddlers so they can imitate Mom sweeping and help clean without hitting everything with the big people broom, it isn't. The little cleaning instrument becomes a club for one little girl to beat the other little girl with. That's a mistake I won't be repeating.
6. When a package arrives via UPS at 7:30 at night and I tell Macy it is something from Grandma Brenda, she immediately starts asking for the toy that she is certain is inside. When we open it and it is two matching blankets for the girls with their names embroidered in each one (thanks Breanda and Margo) Macy will also insist I take a picture.
7. Have their names embroidered on the blankets, however, does not keep Macy from trying to convince me that she should sleep with both blankets that night.
8. Teenage fashion (or lack thereof) is horrible. I am reminded of this every time I sub at high school. Let me enlighten you as to how the majority of next generation dresses:
A. Boys wear jeans that are way too tight. Not like hot Wrangler cowboy butt but skinny boys whose jeans are tight all of the way down to their ankles. Shudder...
B. Girls also wears these way too tight jeans. There are some girls that actually look good in these. And buy some, I mean little 14 year old prepubescent girls with no hips or body fat. Most other girls have a muffin top hanging out and it is not cute. Why they can't buy flattering pants, I do not understand.
C. Boys and girls wear ratty, nasty looking skater sneaker looking shoes. They look as if they were trampled on by a heard of cattle and that they smell that way too.
D. Both genders style their hair in the super messy frazzled look. Some get out of bed and don't touch it again. Others get out of bed, decide it looks descent and then mess it up to fix it.
E. It is not uncommon to see these adolescents wearing sweatpants, pajama pants, workout pants and scrubby T-shirts to school. Who taught these kids how to dress? When did it become appropriate to where these things in public when a person is not going to the gym or being checked into the hospital?

There are exceptions but those who seem to take pride in their appearance and dress with any style or to make any effort and trying to look like presentable, fashionable young adults are far and few between. Apparently it is "cooler" to fight the norm and try to be an individual by dressing like a scrub like no one -everyone else. I love teenagers, really, but come on kids. Maybe it is just the schools I sub at but it seems to be an epidemic.

Cinnamon Rolls

I had to take pictures because the girls were being so cute at breakfast. Last night Justin came home and said that he had been craving cinnamon rolls. The hopeful look in his eyes clued me in that he hoped I would make some. I was thrilled to indulge him because he usually isn't usually that into sweets, but I don't think he realized that it would several hours for them to be finished. We ate ours at 10 last night and then the girls got a special treat for breakfast in the morning.

I love this one. Kylie says "Please Mom, can I have some more?"

Halloween Town

Every year they have a thing called Halloween town in a big warehouse in midtown Anchorage. They have numerous booths where kids can go trick or treating indoors (without their full winter gear) and then there is entertainment, jump houses, food and other booths with things to look at. We had planned on going to an activity in the park but the 20 degree temperature scared me off so we forked over the money to buy some tickets to Halloween town and I am glad we did. The girls looked adorable in their costumes and Justin and I have been snacking out of their trick or treat bags ever since (this is also now Macy's potty reward supply). It wasn't ideal for our little ones because they had to walk in a line most of the time to go to each booth and toddlers have the tendency to want to run, unrestrained, but it still went well and was enjoyable.
Here are the girls checking out the big spider.

Daddy and Miss Mary.
Mommy and the Little Lamb.

Macy was so excited about this "polar bear"... until he picked her up- then she was terrified.

It was a fun day. We have trunk or treating at the church of Friday but it will be cold so the costumes won't be quite as exciting when they are in coats and hats.

Dear Santa...

Today I learned about the coolest little gadget EVER. Seriously, I am thinking about selling my plasma so I can get one. I decided to turn on Oprah today and she was introducing her favorite toy. I am now in love with it as well because it is the perfect thing for me and all you out there who love to read. It is called a Kindle and it is awesome.
It's an electronic book where you can download up to 200 books (400 more if you buy a card) and it stores them all in one little computer for you. This is prefect since I don't want to buy books because I have no where to store them and I don't want to pay to move them when we leave the Great North. If you are reading and don't know the meaning of a word, you simply push a button and the definition pops up before your eyes. Want to look something up on wikipedia? You can do that from your Kindle as well. You can download your desired book right from the Kindle without having to use your computer and it is there less than a minute later. Plus, since the books aren't printed on paper, they are much cheaper than if you were to buy a copy in the store (all less than 10 bucks a book!). There is no monthly wireless charge, its all included. Thanks to Oprah, if you go to Amazon.com in the next 7 days and put in the coupon code "oprahwinfrey" you can save $50! I am totally excited except...
The full price is $359 ($309 with the discount) :(

So, Santa, please help me out here. I don't think my husband is going to spring for one of these for me since he already got me a kitchen aid (thanks again Dearest Love). I could sub three days straight and that would pay for it except I am currently saving for a romantic get away with my hot hubby.
Until then, I will dream of the joy that this great item would bring. :)


I know I am dreaming, maybe someday I will buy this so I can be cool like Oprah. But for any of you people out there who have cash to burn and you love to read, you really should get this!

Tutu's

I had been wanting to make the girls some cute tutu's to play in since they love to spin and dance around the house. Tuesday we had a little play date at my friend Kara's house with her three little ones and we needed a good activity to do. They were pretty easy and are super cute. I finished Kylie's up this morning and I think my girls are adorable in them although next time I would definately do a darker pink for Macy's. The light pink blended in with the yellow and white too much.
I obviously had to do a photo shoot with them this morning. Macy kept telling me she was a "cute princess" and she would not stop dancing and twirling once she had it on.

Night-Night

Apparently nearly 2 hours of nursery completely wore out Macy on Sunday. We got home from church and within a few minutes of laying down on the couch she and I had passed out. Kylie was content to drink her milk and watch the movie. I woke up when Justin got home and he snapped some pics:

I then had to get up to change Kylie and make dinner. Justin happily took my spot (I was so robbed) and he happily hung out with Macy for the next 45 minutes.

Halloween Craft Day

Justin left town yesterday to work in Fairbanks and Kenai for a couple of days so I prepared a few Halloween crafts for Macy and I to do while he was gone.
We painted mini pumpkins...This was Macy's first experience with paint and she loved it. Every time she went to clean her brush in the water she would recite "Rinse it and Dry it" and then dab it on the paper towel. She literal said it each time, I thought it was pretty cute. They are now being displayed in the place of honor on our mantel.We also made jack o lantern faces out of felt. Apparently, Macy is going through her abstract, Picasso period.

And my crowning achievement is this Halloween Banner. I had seen these a few places and thought they were adorable. It didn't take too long to make and now it is filling the empty space on the wall above our dining table. There are a few ways to make these but I made mine two sided in case I ever want to hang it somewhere where the back can be seen. I just did one fabric for all of the backs and I think that side is just as cute, if not more. I also managed to buy about three times more material than I needed so now I have about 50 extra triangles sitting in my sewing box. Any suggestions on what to do with them? I guess I could always make a new banner. I got the fabric dirt cheap too because all of the Halloween fabric at JoAnn's is 50-60% off and I get a 15% teacher's discount because I sub for the Anchorage school system. Good deal, eh?

I'm not sure what we will do today, maybe make some Halloween cupcakes. Anyone want to come over and play?

Super Scary No More

Today was good. It was very very good because I was finally able to get my hair done by someone in Anchorage without it costing me my first born child (although I may have been willing to make that deal after the way she has been today). There is a lady in my ward who does hair out of her house for pretty dang cheap so we scheduled an appointment for a day when we actually knew that Justin wouldn't have to work (as opposed to the usual finding out the night before). I think she did a great job and the price was definately right. I am relieved to finally feel like a human being again and not some shaggy haired mutt. (ok, maybe its not the best picture, but at least you get the idea)

Oh, and notice how Macy is admiring my new hoodie. Yes I have sunk to a new low, I actually bought clothes at Walmart- but hey, it was nine bucks, and looked decent. Who cares if it falls apart after 5 washes, right?

Daddy, Mommy, Macy Date

Thanks to Debi who hooked us up with vouchers for free tickets, Justin and I took Macy to a family chorus show last night called Young at Heart. We left Kylie asleep in her bed with Randy and Debi to watch her and took our two year old to her first real show. She loved that she got to get dressed up and go out with Mommy and Daddy. I thought it was funny that she immediately grasped the concept of "a special date" because she was excited about it all night. She bounced with excitement when the lights went down in the big theater and everyone started applauding. Any time it was time to clap she would beam and clap as loud as she could. She obviously didn't know almost any of the songs the choir sang or the orchestra performed but she sang along anyway. (Fortunately, there were a lot of kids there so her noise didn't stand out too much) The first half of the show was a little boring and she was very antsy. We were sitted in the orchestra section next to the wall by the door so she kept sneaking out and laying in the aisle to watch. She was so tired but so interested in what was going on. After intermission things improved drastically. The Little Mermaid came down in a swing from up in the rafters and sang "Part of Your World." Macy's smile and excitement at seeing "My Mermaid" come down from the sky and sing was worth every tantrum she had thrown that day. She was very sad when the mermaid left and she regularly asked, through the rest of the show where her mermaid went. The orchestra also played some Star Wars songs and they had some characters come out and play- I mean "fight"- with their light saber things. Macy thought those were pretty neat too.
When we left the woman who played the Little Mermaid was standing in the lobby, right next to our exit. I don't think I will ever forgive myself for not having a camera then. Macy was so excited to get to see her up close and she could hardly contain herself.

Earlier in the evening Randy and Debi were over and hanging out. Randy made some great whipped topping to go over strawberry short cake. A week or so ago I had discovered online how to make butter in my mixer and I have been itching to try it ever since. Justin informed me that most people make butter in a jar in elementary school- apparently I missed out because I thought this was about the coolest concept in history. Anyway, we made the butter with the left over whipping cream and it was really good on my homemeade bread.
So yesterday was a fun day!

Sneak Peak

I know I should wait for Halloween to reveal Macy's costume so she can be presented in all of her made-up glory but I am just too proud of myself to wait. I finally got my sewing machine back from the repair shop today so I finished off the costume. She will be able to wear the dress to church afterwords and the pinafore will be cute for dress up clothes. I am pretty pleased with my imperfect but first dress making attempt. Macy loves to spin around and show off how cute she is to anyone who will admire her. I had a very difficult time getting a decent picture because I couldn't get her to stop jumping and twirling.

And our other big news:
Yesterday we went to Target. Yes, Target. Not such a big deal to you southerners but I have very anxiously been awaiting the store's Alaska entrance since we moved here and I didn't believe the day would come. The Grand Opening is actually Sunday but we learned that they had opened a few days early so we went over last night and discovered that half of Anchorage knew of the same early opening secret. It was crowded and crazy but worth the fight- which is saying a lot because those who know me well know I hate fighting through crowds. We got some food, socks for the girls and a winter had for me. I was very pleased with our excursion and I can't wait to go back. I just wish it wasn't all of the way across town.