Hair

For most of my life I have wanted to know how to french braid my own hair. I tried several times to teach myself, but the end result was always... well, embarrassing. But not too long ago I was on a long car ride, I think it was on our way back home from DC, which ended up being an 8 hour drive. So, out of sheer boredom I started fidgeting with my hair, not even really paying attention to what I was doing. Needless to say, I ended up with a french braid! WooHoo! Life long goal: accomplished. I can french braid my hair!

Confession #2

The other day I was sitting on the couch with my two little girls when I noticed Ailsa had a REALLY long toe nail. I decided it needed to be clipped right then and there. So I grabbed the clippers and got to work. As I was clipping away I noticed that Amber was climbing off the couch, and didn't really think much of it... that is until she hit the floor and started screaming. Oh yeah, she's the one who's only 8 months old and doesn't know how to climb yet! Ooops! =/

Size 3T Dress

When Ailsa was a small baby we got a lot of clothes for her from our friends and realatives, and I mean A LOT. There were tons of new and used treasures I sorted and picked through. Most of them were for newborns, but some were larger, reaching all the way up until 18 months sizes. But there was one dress I remember her getting that was a size 3T, and I remember thinking that it would be SO long until she would fit into that. Well, she grew really fast. By the time she was 6 months old she was 20 pounds and wearing clothes for a 12 month old. And by the time she was 12 months she was wearing all her 18 month clothes. Well, I thought that she'd be up the the 2Ts in no time, but then she started to slow down a bit. (Praise God! I'm short and pretty little, and it was getting really tiring carrying her everywhere!) Truth be told, we still can fit her in her 18mo jeans, that were always meant to be capris, and finally really are. Anyways, today I was going through the one small box of clothes we got when Amber was born (funny how things change with the second) when I saw lying next to it the 3T dress from way back; and since Ailsa was right there with me, not yet dressed, I decided to put it on her. Not only did it fit, but it was almost too small! Oh my, how time flies! I almost started to cry, not because I really liked the dress, but it just made me see how big she's really gotten. So, not knowing what else I could do, I went over and grabbed Ailsa and gave the biggest hug and told her how pretty she looked in her "new" dress.

Cards

I don't really consider myself an artsy person, but I like to make cards. Here are Three I've made recently. The first is for a baby girl, the second is a wedding card, and the third is birthday card, even though it almost looks Christmas-y. To make it a little more "fun" (aka challenging) I use only paper, a large pair of scissors and a glue stick. No templates, stickers or fancy tools. :) Maybe it's silly, but I really like how I didn't glue down the hair on the second one to make it look a little more realistic :)

Confession #1

I hardly ever do the dinner dishes the night we use them. Usually I wait to wash them until the next morning when baby #2, aka Amber, is taking her first nap of the day. I justify it by every once in a while getting baby #1, Aisla, to help me, which gives us some good quality time. The only real problem I can see with this method is that I rarely have time to fold the laundry...

Content in any Circumstance

*These pictures are totally unrelated to anything, I just really wanted to get a couple pictures of my girls up because I love them so much! These are from our recent trip to DC.*

Now, on with the blog...

I had to go in to the doctor's office yesterday, and of course, that meant taking my two little girls with me. This was a new place, since the last place I had been to was dirty, slow, and an all out pain to visit. I decided I had nothing to lose by venturing out, and so I did - and I was pleasantly surprised by this "new" place. The people were friendly and talkative, very helpful, and aside from the dead cockroach I found in the room, the facilities were very clean. The lady at the front desk even offered my older girl, Ailsa, a lollipop. Of, course, she asked me first, and I was all for it, knowing full well that it would help keep us from an embarrassing outburst of loud impatience.

Later that afternoon as we were all sitting around the table after dinner, Ailsa saw our very own stash of lollipops. (we got them a while back for her birthday party and have yet to finish them) So, what does she do? She asks for another one, over and over again. Of course we can't give her another one, so we say, "no" and she has a minor meltdown. This really isn't surprising. I would never expect her to be satisfied after one piece of candy; in fact, I would expect just the opposite, that it would spark her hunger for candy and create a desire for more. I console myself in times like these thinking, "She'll grow out of it. One day she'll understand the importance of moderation." But this time I got to thinking and I realized something. This tendency in people rarely goes away, it simply changes form. Like when we are young we are happy to have one, kinda ugly car, but as we get older we want a nice newer car, no, scratch that, we want two cars, one for everyday use, and a nice sporty convertable, oh, and add to the list a nice RV for vacation, well, I guess we'd need a truck to pull that with, too... See what I mean? It's human nature alright weather it's candy or computers. I guess it can be a life long struggle to learn to be content in any circumstance. I guess this will be be my prayer for today.

Hmm...

This morning the family and I went out to Five Guys. We decided to sit outside on the shaded patio, and as it turns out, the whether was completely perfect. Even though we sat surrounded by the hustle and bustle of life, my heart felt as though we were in a mountain pasture. Hmm... I could've sat there all day :)

Car Troubles

We bought a 2002 Mercury Sable for $900 that had a blown head gasket. JJ didn't know a thing about it, but he bought a manual, a few tools and got to working. About a month later he fixed it! We officially became a two car family! That is, until about a week and a half later... Now our first car is leaking oil... and by leaking I mean gushing :( And after a not-so-quick self diagnosis, it looks like a pretty major fix, like one we'll need a real mechanic to do. What a bummer! And he's a delivery driver, so he needs his car for work which means I definitely can't just drop him off at work. (well, if you must know the truth, I'm 24 years old and have never had a license in all my life =/ It's a bit embarrassing and really really annoying, I'm working on it, though, and I really hope this is the year to change all that.) *Side note, I now have a license, but my car is broken again...back down to one car.  That might change at the end of this week, though...we'll see...