Hayley's Haircut

(Trying to catch up a bit here!)

A couple of weeks ago, I finally took Hayley to get her hair cut. I have been wanting to cut it for quite a while, but I don't dare cut it myself anymore -- there is something about her hair that is just too straight or fine or something that makes it very hard for an inexperienced person like me to cut it straight in the back.

I kept hoping we'd cross paths with awesome sister-in-law Julie so I could have her cut it for me, but since they were here over Thanksgiving while we were gone, I decided it was probably going to be awhile before I'd see her.

Hayley gets comments all the time on her beautiful blonde hair (which really stands out in our family unless we're around all the other blonde Humpherys cousins). But we needed to cut it shorter because there is also something about her hair that makes it tangle easily and hard to comb and she absolutely HATES getting her hair done. It is a huge battle each morning to comb through her hair. I was really hoping that having it shorter would help in that area, and it has, although there are still tangles and it's still a battle, just not quite so big. :-)

So I took her to see our kid's piano teacher, who I found out also cuts hair from home, and she did a great job cutting a few inches off. Here she is!

(If you want to see the "before" scroll down to the "Trimming the Tree" post.)

What a cute girl!

Dear Mom

I found this letter in Courtney's backpack today (they have some letter-writing templates in class that they can fill out during writing time).

12-16-09

Dear Mom,
I'm sorry to bother you agin about this. But will you get me a puppy for Christmas?
Love,
Courtney

Trimming the Tree

We finally got our Christmas tree up last week for FHE. We had to do some rearranging this year as to where we set it up.

We've been building lots of fires to help us stay warm (we are still having heating issues this winter in our poorly insulated house that's in the middle - still - of remodeling).

We decided that our beautiful piano was probably too close to the fireplace, so we moved it to another corner of the room. As a result, the tree got relegated to a different spot than last year too, but so far it seems to be working okay.

Brian helps get the tree out of the box and set up and then the kids pretty much take it from there. (Mom helps reach the higher places.) We're having more and more un-lit branches on our "pre-lit" tree, so we might have to supplement again this year with added light strands.

McKay is almost tall enough to reach the top! He is going to be taller than his mom before too much longer...

It's a race to see who can grab the most ornaments at once.

We continued our tradition of giving the kids their own special ornament for the tree that they will get to keep. Hayley was with me this year when I picked them out, so they weren't a big surprise the night we decorated.

Hayley got a little stuffed dog (yes, she chose it herself this time).

Courtney's is also along the puppy theme (no surprise there this year).

Hannah has a cat ornament (she's decided she prefers cats to dogs).

And McKay got a Texas ornament.

Now if I could just keep the kids from trying to play with all the ornaments and move them around!

Puppy Love [edited]

I told the kids this year to write me a list of ideas for Christmas with no more than 10 things on it. Here was Courtney's list (age 7):

1. Puppy Place books (Bear, Lucky and Flash)
2. Dog stuffed animal
3. Dog information books
4. Dog Webkinz
5. Dog wallpaper
6. Puppy
7. Play doghouse
8. Mini play dogs

Do you detect a theme here? Courtney has been the main one begging for a dog (preferably a puppy) since our dog died over the summer. And item #6 refers to a real, live puppy. She wants her own puppy (yes, a puppy), even though I keep telling her if we got a new dog (probably not a puppy), it would need to be a family dog and not just her dog.

So this evening she sits down at my computer to start writing another story. I tell you, this girl is learning from her Writer's Workshop at school -- she is putting so many details into her stories! Here is the first part of her story, just as she has written it (hopefully you can decipher her spelling and punctuation). I don't think she's finished it yet.
[edited: Courtney finished the story today after school so I've added her ending below!]

The Christmas Puppy
by Courtney Humpherys

One snowy winter day santa was looking at all of the lists the children had sent him. on a little girls list said alive germansheeperd puppy. Santa thought he wanted to give her the puppy But how? I know! ill find a stray if not ill go to the pound. So santa truged throuw the sparkleing snow crunch! Crunch! Went santas heavy boots. he passed by the tundra with all the reindeer. Santa herd rusaling sond comeing from a bush santa wonderd what it could be?

Just then out poped a germansheepered puppy "poor thing" said santa. Arnt you cold? Well some one is waiting for you. I geuss ill bring the reindeer with me. come on Dancer, and Prancer, and Donner, and blitzen, and all you reindeer. We need to get you hooked up.

So santa and the germansheepered puppy and the reindeer walked passed throu the tundra agin. well its time to pack you on the sligh. when the germansheepered herd his name he jumped up and licked santa.

Ho! Ho! Ho! that tickles. ok we better be on our way. so they all went back to the workshop and hooked up the reindeer to the sligh. And pakced up all the presents incloding the puppy. They went to homes all over the world. at the last stop it was the puppys turn. santa gentley picked up the puppy and carefully he went down the chimney. He set the puppy under the Christmas tree. The puppy softly yipped Hm Hm Hm Hm. the little girl sprang out of her bed and their was azactley what she wanted. I got my Christmas miracle this year.

I don't know how much longer we're going to be able to hold off this little girl from getting a dog somehow!

Photo Shoot

We made an attempt at taking some family pictures this past weekend with the trusty tripod. I have a black backdrop that I've used for pictures -- the biggest problem is finding somewhere in the house to hang it and have enough natural light (that, plus it's not very wide so we have to squish!). This time we settled on the kid's bedroom, so we were a little crowded, but it worked.

The other big problem I have when taking pictures inside the house is reflections on glasses from the windows. With three people wearing glasses, I suppose we're lucky the reflection was only bad on one person (me). I'd prefer to take the pictures outside, but there was too much cold and wind to do that, so we live with window reflections.

Here's a sampling:

And of course you can't have a photo shoot with kids without a few silly poses too!

Thanksgiving, Part 2

We left Wyoming the day after Thanksgiving and headed south to Utah. We decided that since we were driving right through Salt Lake, we should take the time to stop and see the lights at Temple Square. Since it was the first night the lights were on, we knew it would be crowded (it was) and the parking would be terrible (it was). But we were prepared for it, and it was so worth the effort!

We haven't been to Temple Square since McKay & Hannah were little, so it was neat to be able to take them. (Plus, we told them the story of how that is where Dad proposed to Mom.) They love Christmas lights, and there's no better place to see so many!

They were just as excited to see the Christus statue in the Visitor's Center and we even got to poke our heads briefly inside the Conference Center to see what it looked like.

We made it down to my sister's house in Spanish Fork, where we got to spend more fun time with cousins. Guitar Hero on the Wii was by far the biggest hit!

On Saturday, we went for a drive to see some of the old stomping grounds for Brian and me. The kids, of course, thought that this would be immensely boring (much more boring than Guitar Hero), but after a bit they warmed up to our outing. The most surprising discovery was when we tried to find the home in Orem where we lived in the basement apartment for several years. We found the spot, but the house was completely gone! Just an empty lot. It had been an old home when we lived there and Brian wonders if it burned down to just be totally gone like that.

We eventually made our way over to BYU. Courtney made a "Y" to match the one on the mountain.

A 20% off sale in the bookstore means everybody gets to pick out a new book for the drive home!

Brian and McKay took off to head over to the football stadium for the big BYU-Utah football game. (What an exciting game! BYU wins in overtime!) The girls and I hung out at the bookstore a little longer before heading back to Spanish Fork.

It's fun, yet strange, to be back on campus, even though we didn't see much of it this time. There are times when I feel like I just barely left my college days, but then I stop and think about how many years it's actually been (a lot!). Good memories!

We left Utah early Sunday morning for the long drive home. Fortunately, we had good roads and made it home tired, but grateful we could go and see so many family members.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

For Thanksgiving this year, we decided to make the trek to Wyoming again. We were able to take our van this year (thank you to Brandon for bringing the wheat back for us!), so it wasn't quite as crowded as the truck. We also didn't have McKay with us for the drive there. McKay decided he didn't want to miss any school, so he stayed here for a couple of extra days and then rode up with Brandon later in the week. Hannah made several comments during the trip that it was strange not to have McKay.

The kids were excited to see some snow in Star Valley, even though there wasn't a ton (which is probably good, since we really don't have the snow clothes for them to play in it much). As we started to see snow on the drive there, the girls kept exclaiming over and over again about how it was the most beautiful thing they had ever seen and they had never seen such beautiful snow.

Grandma's house is always fun too, with lots of cousins to play with. We were excited to meet our newest cousin/niece, baby Zoey.

Grandma was brave and took on the project of letting all the little girls help make cookies.

When McKay joined us, he and Brian spent some time splitting wood for Brian's parents.

Courtney and Hannah were great helpers stacking the wood.

For Thanksgiving dinner, 4 of the 8 siblings in Brian's family were there with their families. We were able to see 2 more of the siblings the next day before we left.

Even more girl cousins (or cousins-once-removed) to play with! The little girls had such fun playing together.

Brian and McKay were in charge of the homemade rootbeer. Yummy!

Brandon made several snazzy-looking apple creations.

We all ate too much, as usual. Well, except maybe for Hannah who even at Thanksgiving is as picky as ever.

Everybody needs a nap after dinner, especially Grandpa!

After dinner, the kids (and a few brave adults) played the paper bag game where you have to stand on one foot, bend over and pick up a paper bag with your teeth, then stand back up again without losing your balance. The bag gets cut smaller and smaller each round. Brian used to be a champion at this game in his younger days.

It's always nice to get away from your worries for a bit and just hang out with family at Grandpa and Grandma's house. We didn't make the trip up the mountain this year to cut Christmas trees, but we sure enjoyed our time in Wyoming!