Evelyn's First Haircut

Evelyn's hair is getting long, and since it's so fine, it doesn't have a lot of shape to it. I saw a little girl of a friend who has a bob and was inspired! She tagged along to my hair appointment with Suzanne on Wednesday, and got her very first haircut! (I have tried to cut her bangs on my own, and it was an epic failure - lots of crooked lines - so it was worth it to have a professional do it!)

 

 

Feelin' like Lil' Miss Thang at the salon

 

The "Before"...Bella's hair is usually the one getting all of the attention since it's so think and long, but Evelyn's grows really fast, too! It was down to the middle of her back!

 

 

She was such a champ. Suzanne is amazing with kids, and Evelyn loved getting to sit in the grown-up's chair!

 

She has told everyone who will listen that "Miss Susie" cut my hair!

The finished product at the salon!

 

 

Once we got home, I used my hair straightener to try and curl the ends under. I think next time, I would go even shorter.

 

Girl knows how to work a camera.

I know I'm biased since she's my own child, but I can't stop looking at her. Suzanne did such a fantastic job and Evelyn looks adorable!!!

Programs And Parties

This past week has been filled with fun things that the girls were doing with their classes, and Steve even got to be in on some of the fun!

 

First up was Bella's last year doing Breakfast at Bethlehem. I was supposed to go with her this year, but at the last-minute, we decided to take Henry into the pediatrician's office for acid reflux, so Daddy got to do it again. She loves this event every year because of all the animals!

 

 

You can see why we call her Little Miss Sunshine...where's my emoji with an eyebrow raised?

The moment that animals came out, she was gone. Uncle Matt played Joseph and all of the men in our church's choir dress up like angels to sing. It's a pretty cool show!

 

Henry, Evelyn, and I got done at the doctor's early, so we snuck in the back to see the singing and the animals.

 

 

All of the kids get a chance to go up and pet the animals once the show is over. How in the world this rooster (rooster? chicken? I have NO idea.) didn't either die or peck some kid's eye out, I have no idea.

 

Next up was Bella's Christmas program! She sang the songs, did the motions, and didn't mess with her zipper at all! Winning! My favorite was Go, Tell It On The Mountain, and the girls are still singing it around the house.

 

After the program, everyone went to a "cookies and milk" reception. How cute is that?

 

She agreed to pose for a picture as long as she could show her half-chewed cookie.

 

Evelyn loved watching Bella on stage, and afterwards, she got to sit next to Bella's best friend, Kate. Evelyn loves Kate almost as much as Bella does!

 

Next came Evelyn's program, and she was a riot! She stood front-and-center for the entire production and spent half the time, calling out and waving to Bella.

I don't know what happened to my camera, but the stage lights made the camera's lighting really funky. I just want to show how much she moved around...

 

I'm praying this video works! It's long, but it's so funny!

 

The best memory that I have to record: halfway through Evelyn's program, she tried to hug her little friend, Jack. Well, Jack didn't want to be hugged, so her tried to brush her off and Evelyn starts fighting for the chance to hug him! Poor Jack just wanted to be left alone, and Evelyn would not stop trying to smother him...right in the middle of one of the songs, and very much right in the front of everyone!

 

As Evelyn was trying to hug Jack, two other little classmates came up and tried to hug her. I'm pretty sure she somehow misconstrued this as an attempt at a gang initiation, because she. threw. down. I gave up trying to film, because I was laughing so hard that my camera was shaking. She was in the middle of these two other kids, and they all just kept shoving each other. Evelyn would turn to one kid and shove him, and then turn around to the other little girl, and push her, too. It was hilarious! Jack's parents and Steve and I got a huge kick out of watching all the two-year olds go to town!

 

And FINALLY...Evelyn's class party was on Thursday! Henry and I stopped by to join in the fun. He slept through the whole thing, so I got to enjoy it with the Squirt!

 

Playing "Pin the Nose on Rudolph"

This is Miss Betty, one of Evelyn's teachers. We loooooove Miss Betty. The woman is like the Holy Spirit and a cupcake, rolled into one package. She's fabulous!

Henry's Baby Book

I finally got a baby book for Henry. I was at our Hallmark store yesterday, looking at ornaments, and found a perfect one!

I love the design, because it's not overly "baby" and doesn't have a lot of light blue.

 

 I love the "Mommy" and "Daddy" pages!

 I used the pictures I had from Instagram, so I need to add more pictures of our family besides just us and the girls.

Okay, these pages were hilarious, because I had to Google just about all of them. I felt a little ignorant searching for "World Leaders", "Top Songs of 2014", and "Sports Stars". Clearly, I really need to get out more. 

 

 

We didn't do a birth announcement since it was so close to Christmas, so I just put one of our Christmas cards in that space.

Love this little book! So excited to fill out the pages as they come!

 

I have a feeling he's going to fill the "haircut" space soon!

 

Hello There, Real Clothes!

I wore pants today that had a button. For the first time in, like, a year. I can't say it was a pleasant experience, but I was a little proud that I managed to get them on! At my 6-week OBGYN visit last Friday, I got on the scale and was pumped to see 159. I lost 20 pounds! I'm going to skip over the part about birthing a human and all of that water weight, and just focus on being 20 pounds lighter!

On the plus side, having Little Man permanently attached to my nipples seems to be helping lose some of my baby weight. On the downside, I'm still 30 pounds heavier than before I got pregnant with Bella. And let's face it, a LOT would have to happen for me to suddenly have the motivation to ever see 130 again. I have consistently gained 10 pounds with each child, and each time, those 10 pounds don't seem to come off. Granted, I don't work out and I'm not on a diet, so it's not like I'm expecting them to come off; I'm just saying, it'd be nice.

I may never see 130 again, but I'd love to see 140 or 145 again. Which probably means that after Christmas, I'm going to actually have to follow through on the cliched resolution to lose weight. It also means I'm going lot have to get back on the bandwagon of only eating real food. I don't really mind that part, but I'm going to miss the French fries...

In the meantime, the current trend of leggings and loose tops is working really well for me!

Our Santa Tradition

We love our Santa. We've gone to the same one every year since Bella was a baby, and he's always been phenomenal!

I hate the idea of paying to see Santa, because you just never know how the little humans are going to react (especially Bella). 

Our Santa is at the Chick-fil-A by our old house, and they do a wonderful job of putting the little kids at ease. This year, Santa walked into the room singing, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"! Evelyn was enthralled!

Evelyn asked for purple Skittles and Bella wanted a rainbow (she finally settled on asking for a toy rainbow).

That wish list sums up their personalities perfectly - asking for the simple, little thing and asking for the huge, impossible thing!

P.S. Don't you love their Christmas nightgowns! Those were courtesy of Grandma!

It was Santa's idea to pose like this, and I'm so glad he thought of it!

This was Evelyn's first year to know who Santa is and she was so excited! When he first came in, she started squealing and jumping up and down!

Christmas Pictures

Ellen came over on Saturday to take some pictures for our Christmas card. I'm probably supposed to "save" these pictures and not put them on the blog, but I really love them, so here they are...

 

 

 

 

 

And she took a couple of Henry and I, too. I really wanted just a couple of close-ups of us together, and I love how Ellen took these.

 

Thank you, Ellen!

 

I still haven't settled on which ones to put in our Christmas card, but I'm working on it!

Looking A Lot Like Christmas!

Some of our Christmas fun so far...

 

 

Unpacking all of the Christmas goodies for the house...

 

All dressed and adorable to go cut down our Christmas tree (pictures of that to come!)

 

Putting together a gingerbread house with Mel. I'm pretty sure they ate just as much candy as they put on the house!

 

Bella's yearly Christmas ornament from Grandma this year was a pink pony!

And Evelyn loved her little yellow fairy!

 

I surprised the girls and hung colored Christmas lights all around their room. They loved it and it looks so beautiful in their room!

 

I'm entering this picture in the "Awkward Family Photos" website. Oh my word! My eldest child!!!

 

 

Our mantle...love having mantles to decorate! I'm sure there are so many more pictures to show, but those are all I have for now. I love this season so much!!!