April and her hair

To say April has a lot of hair is an understatement. Not only is it very long, but it is thick. She likes to wear it straight down. And it gets tangled very easily. One friend used to say that you could tell what kind of a mood she was in by how crazy her hair was.

Every morning she wakes up, and it is an ordeal to get all the Charlie Snarlies out. For a little while we would braid it before she went to bed, but most mornings she would wake up with the braids out and lots of snarls.

Today she went out and laid on the trampoline. When she came back in, she had pine needles, pine cones, little pieces of branch, and Old Man's Beard in it. It was quite funny.

She has been wanting to cut the "dead ends" off for a while, but we haven't gotten around to it. We have tried to talk her into getting it and donating it to locks of love, but I don't think she understood that she would still have some hair after donating. Her aunt Dawn cut her hair recently and donated it, and April saw the pictures, so today when she announced that she wanted to cut her hair and donate it to Locks of Love, we quickly responded and got out the scissors.

So the picture above is her before picture:


And here is her after one. It almost doesn't even look like my same April. I am sure she will find a way to have CRAZY HAIR even with it being shorter. One plus to the new hair cut, is that the bangs we were trying to grow out now just look like part of her hair.

Carlanna Lake

After living here for 7 years, you'd think we've been to most common places.

Not true!

Yesterday, I ventured where I had not before - Carlanna Lake. I think Cody and some of the kids have been there on trips with the Youth or friends.

It was a beautiful day so I thought North and I would go do something between he got out of school and the girls did. We got to have an extra friend along with us, and I decided to venture to the Lake.

It's just about a ten minute hike up to the lake, but then there is also a path that goes part way around. After peeking into the water right at the lake, we decided to take the path to the end.

North and Aspen Peeking into the water.

They were looking for fish and being careful not to fall in.

(They may have been looking for Alligators. They asked on the hike up if

there were alligators in the lake and I told them they'd have to check.)

Letting me take a cute picture of them and the Lake.

North often has funny faces for pictures, so it took me a few tries to get a good one.

At the end of the path.

The path does not go right along the side of the lake. It goes next to it, but in the "woods." For a little while, North was quite worried that we were going to run into a bear. When we stared on the path he said, "We should have brought guns in case we see a bear." Luckily, we met a man who was walking the other direction so North asked him if he had seen any bears. He hadn't, so North was not worried anymore.

North and Aspen kept talking about the Jungle we were in. I told them it was a rain forest. Then they wanted to know where the monkeys were. It was a pretty fun walk.

North's First Day

Aug 30 was North's first day of Preschool.

It was a good day for him, although it did not go quite as planned.

His school starts at 9 am and my work starts at 9 am, so I have the bus pick

him up at my work which is about 3 blocks away.

We were told the bus would come at 8:50 so we got there at 8:40 just in case it was early.

At about 8:58 I decided I'd better call the bus company. They said they had come a long time ago and were on the other side of the school, but they'd come back. My school didn't start for a few more days, so I just took him to school. He was not very happy

that he didn't get to ride the bus.

After school, they dropped him off and told me that they drive by my work at 8:15, so they thought they'd just pick him up then. I told them I didn't get there until about 8:45 so the bus driver put North back in his original position on the route. (I loved that she changed the time to pick him up just because she wanted to without letting me know)

North had a good day and says they just PLAY. He had PE and I asked him if he had fun and he said, "No, they made us play." I asked him what he wanted to do, and he said,

"I wanted to just run around."

And They're Off!

Yesterday, the girls started school. I can't believe how old they all are getting.

It is also fun to see the sizes of them when they are together.

Autumn kind of cheated because she is wearing boots that give her

a few inches added to her height.

However, Abby and April really are almost the same size and

April was standing on the downhill side of Autumn

(not too steep but still a little).

Autumn is in 6th grade this year.

Abby is in 4th grade.

April is in 1st grade.

I wouldn't let North get in these pictures.

He starts preschool on Monday so I will take more then.

Plus, he had dressed himself and was wearing

black pants with an orange stripe down the side

and a green horizontally striped shirt.

Cute things they say

It is fun to watch the kiddos grow up. They really do say some of the cutest things. I am going to try to post some of these before I forget them.

This year North is a Sunbeam. The week before the first Sunday this year, the girls were very excitedly talking to him about how he wasn't going to be in Nursery any more and that he would be a Sunbeam. Well, this just brought tears to him. He didn't want to go to a new class. I suggested that they not talk with him about it, and it would be better. We did however, sing "Jesus wants me for a SUN-BEEP" all during the week.

Sunday morning I woke North up and started singing to him,

"Jesus wants North for a Sunbeam..." He at least didn't cry this time.

A little later in the morning he said to me,

"Mom, I am ready. Jesus wants ME to be a Sunbeep."

Another fun thing with North is that as his clothes get too small

we put them in a box and eventually send them to Tyler (my sister's little boy).

One day we were at Walmart and North saw some pajamas that he wanted.

I told him they were too small for him and he replied,

"Well we'd better get them for Tyler."

I told him that we weren't going to buy them for Tyler, and he told me,

"But we didn't give Tyler any pajamas. He needs Pajamas."

Along the same line, a few days later we were in the car going somewhere

and North randomly told me,

"When Tyler's clothes are too big for him, he needs to send them to me."

Last night as I was putting him to bed, he was not happy with me.

He wanted to watch a movie, and told me,

"If you do not let me watch a movie, then you are not part of my family."

I told him he was part of my family, but he insisted that I was not part of his anymore.

When I asked him who's family I was part of he replied,

"One of my friend's"

So I got up and left his room, and he cried and cried.

He quickly told me I could be part of his family again until we lay back down.

At that point as he held on tight around my neck he continued,

"If you don't let me watch a movie, you're not part of my family anymore."

He does make me smile.

Switching gears away from North,

One day I sent the kids with brownies for lunch.

When Autumn got home, she was emptying her lunchbox and

realized that she had not eaten her brownie. Next we heard,

"How dare myself?"

She couldn't believe that she had forgotten the brownie.

Now April, sometimes comes up with things that you wonder where they came from.

One rainy Saturday evening April said,

"I think I didn't get enough fresh air today."

We talked about how it was rainy and asked if she wanted to go stand outside

in the cold, dark, rain.

She didn't want to, but a few minutes later

she was throwing up.

I guess she needed that fresh air.

I'm sure Abby has done something, but I can't remember right now.

Maybe she'll get her own post later.