ain't THAT the truth

"i want my hair cut to here 

{insert max pointing to a specific length on the back of her neck},

but long in the front so i can put it behind my ears and not have hair get in my face."

{i kid you not...she was THAT specific.

because after 6 months of asking to cut her locks, 

the girl had plenty of time to really think about what she wanted. 

i loved that she knew just exactly what she wanted...life skill my friends.

LIFE skill.}

...

meet amanda.

we both had our boys enrolled in the ever glorious 

first time mom heaven 

known as gymboree:)

not the clothing gymboree.

oh no,

i'm talking about the money sucking learn and play class gymboree.

i was pregnant with maxine...

or maybe it was just before that.

whichever.

so there we were with our about one year old boys,

letting them climb all over the gymboree foam climbing equipment,

with the best bubbles known to man on planet earth,

and it was friends at first sight.

we'd hit the zoo, the children's museum, gymboree, and the aquarium all in one week.

then we mamas would meet up for frozen yogurt once the babes were snug in their beds at night and talk about our favorite shows on tv, our big dreams for life, and traumatic childhood shaping experiences. stuff like that.

SUCH a fun time in my early mothering days,

where everyday was get up and play in the morning with our friends,

come home to a perfectly clean house, 

feed my ONE child without opinions a healthy and delicious lunch,

shower without interruption EVERY SINGLE DAY,

feed myself lunch AND dessert,

watch 5 million shows i recorded on my VHS tapes,

{oh how i miss THE HILLS!!!!!},

and have my ONE babe wake up from his nap, 

just in time for sean to walk in the door home from school...

at which point he would scoop brennan up to play outside,

while i would make dinner WITHOUT interruption.

geez, i remember when all of that seemed hard!

soooooo anyway, back to reality...

here we are 7 years later still getting together with our kiddos,

except now we are yelling at the boys to stop spraying the girls with the super soakers,

telling them a THOUSAND times that no, they cannot play any more video games today,

all while bouncing new babes on our hips the entire time.

there ain't NOTHING like a best friend:)

but my favorite part of the entire day,

was a private little conversation max had with amanda while she was cutting her hair,

{lord knows i can't take 4 kids to the hair salon,

and good gracious, thank goodness she brought the salon to us...

at the pool...oh yeah. that's love.}

so, like i was about to tell you,

while she cutting max's hair on the grass,

and i was rocking the babes and watcing the boys swim under the shade of the giant weed tree,

the following conversation between max and her hairstylist amanda occurred...

max: "my mom says i can cut my hair however i want."

amanda: "oh yeah?"

max: "yep, but i can't get ANY tattoos."

and THAT my friends is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

{insert laughing/crying/monkey covering the face emoji here}

{because when amanda told me about it after, 

i don't think we've ever laughed so hard together ever.

but really though.}

because a girl can only be as honest as she is with her hairstylist,

while she's getting her locks cut.

ain't THAT the truth.

and that's a wrap folks!

god bless amanda.

and god bless gymboree.

we thank you for taking all of our money,

so we could meet and be friends.

but REALLY though!

heaven sent.

the end.

cousin IT

it had to go.

because cousin IT couldn't see through his bangs.

oh this boy.

i love him.

the other ones too.

who still snuggles me like a baby man.

he couldn't see through his hair.

it was there,

and then it was gone.

just

like

that. 

and then all of a sudden i had a little boy.

who still snuggles me like a baby man.

phew:)

we almost shaved two heads

"brennan, you look like an old man!" -cade

...

usually it takes me until july to talk him into shaving his head,

after two months of sweating it out in the utah summer heat.

this year, on my second offer to buzz it off, he said yes,

so i went running for the clippers.

5 minutes later and the job was D-O-N-E done.

chase stared at brennan without moving for a good 5 min. off of the back porch after.

if i could only have known what was going through his baby man brain.

there was just something missing,

and he couldn't quite place it...

hahahaha 

at which point max decided she would ALSO like her head shaved.

and while i wanted to be open minded and not restricted to 

social predispositions on gender correct hair styles,

i just couldn't bring myself to be supportive of such a task.

for 2.5 minutes i was sure there would be life long psychological implications 

and repercussions of this event in her teenage years if i did not agree to her wishes.

i imagined a 15 year old max with a half shaven head and neon green hair that remained on the other side.

call me stereotypical if you must.

i just really wanted to avoid shaving her head.

instead,

i talked her into 4" off the bottom.

seeing as the tangles were really the root of the problem.

and once i explained that you can't do Rapunzel braids with no hair she changed her mind anyway.

AND as i discovered, by asking me to shave her head,

she didn't ACTUALLY mean shave her head like brennan,

and PANICKED with eyes bigger than the state of texas
and a shriek higher than mirah carrey's octaves
when i said that shaving her head meant having NO hair.

"just a little shave of the tangles" really meant trimming out the tangles from the bottom.

shaving=scissors trimming.

mental note NOTED.

phew.

really dodged the bullet on that one.

i only meant to take 2" off,

but by the time i finished the first time around,

one side was 2" shorter than the other.

{cutting a 3 year old's hair who is constantly moving proves harder the second time you do it},

so i had to go back around and even it out.

goodbye tangles and tears.

our mornings just got a LOT easier:)

and i can still braid it.

i'm just not sure about buns...

welcome summer.

she was so proud.

and brennan keeps asking me every morning if we can go ride bikes out front.

so he can "show everyone his cool bald head."

AND about every 5 minutes he asks me if his head is still bald like an old man.

and when i confirm that indeed it still is,

he always wants to know if we can shave it again when it's not.

clearly, he won't have any psychological implications from his haircut.

good thing.

fish bone. {AND it's GIGI's BDAY!}

this weekend my kids opened their letters from santa.

i just can't get over how fun it was to get a letter back from the REAL santa:)

my aunt tracy is in town for GIGI's birthday.

she came over to squish baby chase's chubby legs,

and taught me how to "fish bone."

we talked about how she says that's its real name,

but all of "us girls now" call it a fish tail.

anyway,

we all agreed it was the easiest braid you'll ever do,

and looks fancy in a jiffy.

we also talked about chicken poop for my garden soil.

she swears by it.

i promised her i would pick some up in the spring to rotatille it to fertilize my vegetables.

then we talked about how messy hair is in right now,

and about how much we love making smoothies with kale in them.

it was grand.

 "FISH BONE" tails.

aunt tracy did mom's to teach me.

i did max's to make sure i had it down.

there's just something great about braiding hair that is so relaxing.

over a nice long chat.

....

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIGI!!!

can't wait to eat chocolate cake with you NEXT year too;)

firsts {haircut}

yesterday i took little miss max to miss kim 

{who's been cutting my hair since i was the right bold age of 18 i might add}. 

i had never cut her hair before.

and the whole thing intimidated me.

the stars aligned and it grew it evenly with bangs from birth.

amazing.

but the ends have been looking a little frazzled lately,

so i scheduled her to get the star treatment from the ever lovely miss kim.

complete with a princess braid at the end.

she clung to me when we walked in,

burried her head in my neck,

and cried through the entire cut once i set her in the chair.

she wouldn't look up in the beginning,

just held her eyes down.

i thought for sure she'd try to get down or run away,

but she just sat there looking down.

scared to get in the big chair and do something she'd never done before.

{both of the boys have had haircuts by 4 months old by yours truly}.

by the end she slowly warmed up and gladly agreed to have her newly trimmed locks braided,

with a pink sucker for all to be forgiven.

pink ice cream, as promised on the way home.

oh so fun to enjoy my little max.

and while we drove home we talked about how sometimes new things are scary at first,

but then they're not so bad at all.

b/c sometimes they end up really sweet.

THANK YOU KIM!!!

:):):)

baby doll max

buh bye!

 he FINALLY agreed to let me cut it:)

and then admired himself in the mirror all night.

HAHAHA!

no more bieber.

dear emily,
do not cut bieber fever's hair in the bathtub. do not think it will just go down the drain. it will not. the once was scout master will have to spend an hour plunging and drain-o-ing to get the water to go down. do not think it will be a quick thing to give bieber a haircut. it will not be a "quick thing." it will take over an hour. and bieber will be standing there naked and cold and acting 2 while you beg the once was scout master to hold his phone over the tub so bieber will be entertained by youtube. also, less is more when cutting hair. although, you could shave his head bald and he'd still have more hair than chubacka. DO leave chocolate cake on the counter for him after his nap. he will love it. and it will be a really good memory.
love,
yourself

the beauty box

i escaped to the beauty box while the kids took naps.
babysitting courtesy of mama nacho.
and it was there that i discovered how i'd forgotten the simple pleasure of hair pampering.
the feeling of sitting under a dryer with nothing to do, trashy gossip magazines a plenty.
i spent the entire time busy on my phone.
no one to attend to.
solitaire,
sending my self portraits to my regulars.
it still didn't cure the bewitching hours when i came home.
5:30-8 really takes it out of me.
good thing my hair is pretty.
b/c the good lord knows that greasy, undone hair makes everything feel worse.
i guess this means we've made it another day.

they're related, minus hair.

the hair is what might throw you off.
brennan 4 months, or something close to that.
inches and inches and inches of hair.
fun for baths.
and gel.max 5 1/2 months.
possibly milimeters of hair.
maybe less.
bubbles make the mohawk.
fun for obscenely large bows.

brennan 5 1/2 months

thick as a brick.

max 5 1/2 months.

skinny as spaghetti.

eats like a horse.

and i absolutely put that bow on just for the picture.

now i wish i would have run for the tutu as well.

twins i say!!!

it blows me away.

minus the hair.