It's not me... IT'S YOU!!

I've got to break up with you..
Goodbye $15, cheap, no good, Wal-Mart special hair straightener... I will not miss you one bit.
Sure, I was desperate when you and I hooked up. I had just gotten a new cut, a short one. The style of it required some flat-ironing, some sass, and you were there. Your price was right, and you were okay. I needed you.
As time went on, I found that much was lacking in our relationship. You weren't as hot as I originally thought you were... you were pretty high maintenance for something I thought would make my life easier. You were not helpful with the little ones! You made their already unwanted time in the bathroom styling their hair even longer. You were just in the way after a while.. you weren't as skinny as others I saw. I did not look forward to the styling process after I would blow my hair out. It was usually a very unpleasant time spent with you after that. You required special product to work at least a little bit, and after that, I felt like I needed to wash my hair all over again! It took a while to get you "in the mood" too.. what a turn off for me. You weren't bright and bubbly, cute and fun to be around. You were quite drab and boring, to be truthful. We had to spend a lot of time to just get the job done, and I didn't want to be around you anymore, so, you've been replaced.
Her name is Pinky, very cute. She's much sleeker, funner to be around, HOT, she doesn't take a fortnight to heat up, she is also very helpful with the wee ones. I don't have to part and section off hair to get each layer to straighten. She's small enough to give us the perfect flip to our ends. She even lets me choose how hot I want it.. I look forward to those days when washing my hair is a must. I look forward to her company, and I don't have to be with her long, but sometimes I wouldn't mind if our time together was longer. I like to do the girls hair now. I am trying to bribe them to come and hang out with us.. I didn't want them to know you. You are like a bad friend who brings everyone down.
By far, this is one of the loveliest Christmas gifts ever! The only thing that might beat it out would be this:
A Dyson. A Dyson Animal to be downright specific..
My vacuum sucks so bad, it DOESN'T SUCK.. it is the only task that I loathe more than doing hair. (That is with cleaning up vomit, scrubbing toilets, and even Merrill's warehouse urinal included..) it will one day meet up with you in the landfill.. where you can reminisce together about how you two pieces of crap had it so godd when you didn't deserve it..
I know it wasn't as cheap as you were... but well worth it!
Merry Christmas, AND a HAPPY HAIR STYLING NEW YEAR(S) to ME!!
(Thanks Darlene!!)
**(hint, hint Mer.. my birthday is in 21 days.. I will gladly take a belated birthday gift after we get our income tax return back :) I will also save my Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons to help.. Love ya!)*

We do everything in tutus here...

We are enjoying our new tutus here.. we do just about everything in them now... no clothes, over clothes, over pjs... you name it! Peyton loves putting on her make-up while wearing her latest new accessory...

Christmas 2005...

I am almost caught up... there are a missing couple of pages. I need to get more pics printed!

Snipperoo...

Peyton needed her "Donald Trump-like stragglies" trimmed... it was really overdue. I had a hard time cutting her hair! She had lost so much of her beautiful dark hair, that I didn't want to cut what was left...
Now we won't have booger clad straggly hair in her eyes anymore!

11 months...

Can't believe it...
Here she is...
What's new:
-walking even better
-jumping
-2 bottom teeth
-2 top teeth
-pointing
-pats her bum and laughs during our "feet up" song... it's a diaper changing thing..
-stands on her tip-toes to get EVERYTHING!!
-waving "buh-byes" and "hi's!"
-stands up by herself, without pulling herself up on anything..
-talks on her toy phone

Missing Christmas photos...

Thanks Brookers and Jacks! Now I have some really fun pics to post... I think I have set a new record for pictures and posts in one day ;)...
Cousins...
Girls cousin pyramid...
Our little fam... the lecture about smiling + pictures = Santa, worked!
The boy pyramid...
The kids (Clint, Merrill, and MiKell) first attempt at the traditional shoulder pic in two years... it didn't end well...
Ah! Success! See the stress on Dixon's face?
Talent show... this was Ashley's (and my :)...) talent, Lynn performed many times... others did tumbling skills... Clint did a standing back tuck... impressed us all...
My girls.. do you think someone is tired?
Yup...
And last, but not least, mom and her quilt...
Thanks girls for sharing!

One gift...

These are something the girls LOVE!!
Rachael so conveniently dropped by clips that match! Watch out MiKell... with all your nieces, you have some competition coming up for the cute cheerleader!

Christmas...

I am missing a couple of pics. I could wait, but I just don't have the patience... I need to post Christmas!!!
Christmas Eve, we spent at Merrill's parents home, eating yummy food; prime rib, shrimp, crab legs... see, yum...
We played Catch Phrase which was new and fun... then we played memory. We opened our PJs and it was such a fun surprise! Darlene had gotten all of us navy shirts embroidered with the Best Western logo. Our pants coordinated. We looked dang cute. You can see the girls on them in the Christmas Day pics...
That night, we got home, put out our stockings, put out the cookies and milk for Santa (forgot the food for the reindeer... hope they didn't poop on the lawn which was covered with snow during the night :0...) and the girls brushed their teeth and then they, well, Lynn and Ashley, went to bed easily.
Christmas day...
I woke up with Ashley and Peyton in my bed, so I put them back in their beds, that was around 6 am. I thought that would be enough to wake them up for good, the moving thing. But, no. They didn't wake up until 10!! I got all ready, got the kitchen cleaned, had the pull- a-parts all ready to go into the oven... those crazy girls. Lynn was the first one up. She told Ash what she got and then told her sister what Santa had left for her too... Ash had a look of total shock. He really came... It was so cute, as we got downstairs, Ashley saw the plate that once held two sugar cookies and the cup that had had some milk in it... "He really is real!! He ate the cookies and drank the milk all gone!"
Lynn got a bike from Santa, and we got her a easel with a chalkboard on one side, and a magnetic white board on the other side... thanks for the help Christie ;)...
Ashley got a princess scooter from Santa, which Lynn loves as well...
Peyton got a little rolling pony... Santa made this a Christmas on wheels!
Lynn LOVED her snuggie... I totally misjudged her size...
Ash loves her Word Girl cape...
Peyton loves this VTech microphone... she carries it all over the house with her...
We got Ash a "new baby with yellow hair and blue eyes than hers..." just what she wanted. I made a doll quilt and pillow for our new addition.
The girls spent the morning playing... Dixon, Darlene, Kaitlyn, MiKell, and Grandma all came. They brought the girls each a "Fur Real" and a little cheerleader outfit (pictures will come SOON!) Peyton got a baby that plays peek-a-boo... so cute...
Mer and I got a cocoa maker... we've been having fun with that.
Peyton found her favorite place... she loved watching the snow fall.
We went to mom and dad's. Mom loved her quilt... I forgot my camera... Jaclyn has a pic...
The girls each got a toy, but the funnest has to be Lynn's easy bake oven...
I hid some last minute gifts too well... I forgot about them. I was reminded of them when Peyton was walking so good for dad, he said, "Looks like you should put a tutu on that girl!"
TUTUS!!
The girls had fun opening up just one more present...
Mer got me this cute hat and a new printer... check out the before...
...and the after...
We have had problems with our old one... couldn't find a new color cartridge... the scanner doesn't always immediately initialize... so Mer got a new one... what a sweet guy. But because I am so cheap, well, non-wasteful, I won't change it over until the ink runs out :)...
We spent the rest of the night enjoying Christmas movies on the TV which we left in the front room for a little while longer. It was nice to be using that room, together as a family.. watching the snow blow out the window as the girls played with their new toys...
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Traditions...

We have some current traditions we love... and some new ones we tried on for size this year that we'll be keeping around for years to come. We also have a small list of some we didn't get to this year, and hope to next year.
We always have our list of Holiday flicks that we watch, "Mr. Kruger's Christmas", "Joy to the World", "A Christmas Story", "Trapped in Paradise", "National Lampoon's", "Frosty", "Rudolph", etc... We'll keep that one up.
This year we tried to do something Christmas-y every night. We'll attempt to keep at that one.
This year we painted ornaments for FHE. That will be one that we will do every year. It's so fun to add to the tree and see what the girls create.
Another new one, a slumber party around the Christmas tree on the "eve of the eve". We will be doing that one again. We put up the queen sized air mattress, brought in a TV and DVD player (that room doesn't have that kind of stuff.. although we are re-thinking it for this purpose... and Halloween, and the fact that it was fun and different..) watched Christmas movies while we ate pizza and other goodies together as a family (even though my toffe didn't trun out right... must have been the humidity, stom came in :)..). The girls so enjoyed it! The only "party poopers" (meaning those who didn't sleep in the front room..) were Mer and Peyton, for obvious reasons... it was great fun... even with Peyton tearing apart the tree, Ashley our "special child" jumping on the bed despite us telling her to not do it over and over and over again... and Lynn asking a million and one questions about EVERYTHING during the movies. We'll do it again!
Since this Christmas, we really tried to pare down, we used a tried and true tactic, it worked on Merrill and siblings growing up, they could open a new gift every hour... we altered it a bit, our kids don't have that kind of attention span, and let them open one every half hour. That kind of forced them to play with their new gift and enjoy it. It worked out very well and that will be used every Christmas now.
We didn't get to a few others...
Ally mentioned Elf on the shelf. I am doing that one next year for sure!
We also wanted to implement a letter writing to Santa... but not your typical letter writing. We want the girls to write a note to Santa on Christmas Eve telling him of some of their accomplishments from the past year. I have heard that Santa will leave a note in reply in their stockings...
We also want to copy another of Holly Brimhall's traditions, the slumber party was one... and wrap 25 Christmas books, themes ranging from fun, to religious, place them in a basket underneath the tree, and every night leading up to Christmas, open one and read it. Cute, eh? I already have a collection started...
I also want to take a picture, one to represent each individual day leading up to our celebration. Then make a fun mini album..
I think that's it.. I do have some grand plans... and around 360 something days to get them all together...