Happy 4th Birthday dear Eva

Eva has been talking non-stop about her birthday for the past month. And to everyone young and old she sees (some of whom are only acquaintances), she says, "You can come to my birthday." One night when Eric told her she couldn't have a treat or something she wanted at the moment she said, "You're not coming to my birthday!" He replied with, "Ok. Then you can go buy all of the cake and everything for your party." Now crying she said, "But I don't know how to drive!" Anyway, it has been pretty dramatic with the whole birthday thing. So to make things simpler for me, I decided to have a little birthday party during preschool that I happened to be teaching at my house that week. It required no invitations and I even told the moms not to worry about gifts and that we would just have a fun Rapunzel party. I was safe with that until one of the little girls said, "Where are Eva's presents?" Eva said to her, "Do you have a present for me?" Luckily she quickly forgot about the lack of presents. What kind of mom am I to throw a birthday party without a single present? Lame! Hopefully we made up for it when Eric came home with a little stuffed unicorn. She has been telling us she wants a unicorn and my Mom was the hero who went and found one for her when we were in Salt Lake visiting. Eric found another one and she has been quite happy playing with them. Eva was also excited when Grandma Julia surprised her with cupcakes and a fun Dora present. Maybe next year I'll be a better party planner... Doesn't my girl look pretty?

The cuties on Halloween

My favorite part about Halloween this year was watching Eva run from house to house with that big red wig flopping up and down. She had fun being Ariel. When she first tried on the costume she started singing, "Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah Ah...," just like Ariel does. We actually got Charlie's costume first from Emily and pretended the lobster was really Sebastian the crab. Cute, huh?

I made Eric put on this get-up so that he could be Prince Eric, which is what Eva introduces him as to everyone anyway. He is bending over so you can't see the nice red sash he had on. What a handsome Prince.

Clark cracks me up in these photos. He either has a mouthful of candy, or has his head in the bag of candy. And Brenner was the most handsome cowboy I've ever seen; not the most courageous at times when there were scary things on doorsteps, but pretty brave all in all.

Fun times!

Outer Banks, NC

After spending a couple days in Richmond, we drove to the Outer Banks in North Carolina to stay at a beach house with dental school friends and Craig & Julia. This is one of my very favorite places! The beaches are beautiful, quiet and the water is warm enough to play in. It was wonderful. We began to forget what day it was as we would wake up and walk to the beach each morning.

We were here at this lighthouse for probably 2 minutes, just long enough to snap this photo. There were swarms of mosquitos so we had to skedaddle!

Aquarium

Virginia

Oh, Virginia we miss you so, but it was fun to come visit! We took the kids back to Richmond to visit old friends, go to the branch where we went to church, see the dental school and to eat at our favorite restaurants. It was wonderful to see everyone and to reminisce about dental school days.

After church we went to Maymont, a beautiful estate that is open to the public with gardens and animals.

I like this photo because I feel like a celebrity with my two children out for a stroll and the paparazzi caught us.

Another Sad Hair Tale

These little girls are some pretty freaky hair stylists! Eva just had hers done by her 4 year old friend that lives next door. This is her cute little haircut that had just grown back nicely after the 2nd hair cutting incident:

I wasn't worried after the second haircut thinking these girls had learned their lesson and wanted to have princess hair like we kept talking about. I guess it is too tempting knowing there are scissors within reach. One evening when I was working in the yard Eva was next door playing with her friend. I went to go pick her up at about 8:00 to get ready for bed. I walked up the stairs of their house after being invited in by my friend (Eva's friend's mom) and screamed when I saw this:

Those poor people bolted up the stairs thinking that one of the girls was hurt. That's how loud I screamed. I overreacted. But look at that! "What do we do now?" I thought. Check out how close she got it to her scalp. Man! Kelli, my hair-stylist friend, saved us. The next day she came over and did a great job:

So now she has a cool, spiky haircut that no other girls her age have! Just for laughs, check out the first two haircuts (all three have been in the last 7 months):

This was the first time right before she turned 3 in March. The girls were caught with scissors on the trampoline at the neighbor's house.

This one was in July I think and I was so bummed because her hair was getting pretty long. All I can do is laugh and be glad that Eva doesn't care one bit about it. I would feel bad if she did. Actually, it's nice to have low maintenance hair. And haven't we all wanted Halle Berry hair but never have dared to do it? Now I can have fun with short hair and not have to cut my own! Let me know if you have any cute ideas. Moms of little girls: hide your scissors!

Happy Father's Day to the Best Dads

These dads mean so much to my children and me. They teach, play, lead, and most of all they love. We love you! Love, Nicky, Eva and Charlie