Boys's 1st Haircuts

On Sunday for "Family Day," we took the boys to Cookie Cutters for their 1st haircut. We ended up purchasing the "1st haircut special" which came with a certificate and a little bag to keep their locks. Madison ended up gettting a haircut also. The boys did a great job. They sat still and were praised numerous times by the stylist! Now I know how to make them stop and sit still! Thankfully Cookie Cutters has a slide in their store because that is all the boys wanted to do. I was surprised to see that both boys climbed up the steps and even went down the slide by themsleves- after a little help from their big sister.

I can't believe how quickly these little guys are growing. My little men- my little BUSY men. Do you see any "baby" left in them? That's alright- I need to let go sometime, right? Here are some before and after pics so you can truly appreciate their 1st haircut.

BEFORE- Madison and Caleb

Caleb AFTER

Christian BEFORE- remember that he was mistaken

for a GIRL twice!

Christian AFTER - definitely looking like a BOY- it's amazing

what a haircut does!

Madison AFTER
A new look- now I can call their agents!

Finally . . . our trip to Texas!

I promised it to you and here it is! Our family vacation didn't start off so great since we forgot that we needed to have identification for our children and had to turn around to get it- and we were NEVER asked for it. Since that made us about 30 -45 minutes behind schedule, Archie sped all the way to O'hare to find out that our flight was delayed an hour and a half. Oh well. We were actually able to sit down to a decent meal together before take off. The boys ate well and drank almost all of their milk so we were hoping for a very pleasant trip since we all had full tummies- wrong! We found out on the plane that they did not offer milk and by that time the boys had drank all the milk that we had- Oops! What were they going to drink to alleviate the pressure that they would feel? Caleb didn't have any problems with the pressure, only sleep. Archie ended up standing the whole flight rocking Caleb to sleep. As for Christian, he pretty much slept during the flight and I was able to stay in my seat, but let me tell you about the air pressure. Christian + air pressure = bloody murder screaming and displeasure to all. For most of the ascending and ALL of the descending, poor little Christian screamed and cried. He refused to drink the water from his sippy cup and I tried EVERYTHING to calm him down. Madison encouraged me by reminding me that "life is life"- a lesson that we have taught her-but it was no fun at all. At least Madison was an angel so it was wonderful that we did not have to worry about her while we were attending to the boys. We were all finally happy and smiling by the time we saw Scott and Phoebe.

Here's our wonderful friends Scott and Phoebe with their 18 month old boy Jake and Madison outside of their home. We really had a good time hanging out and catching up. Scott and Phoebe are always so generous and they are amazing hosts. They truly made us feel at home. We did so much in our 5 days there: ate a lot, visited the Dallas zoo, had a barbecue with friends and family, went to church, chatted, went to an arboretum, swam at Lifetime, spent time outside, ate a lot. I ended up gaining weight with all the delicious food that we ate. Chick Filet, Thai, pizza, barbecue, icecream- you name it and we ate it! All of our boys were in bed by 7:00 so we had the evening to do pretty much what we wanted. The weather was overall nice. I think that we had 1 day that was overcast, but we mostly had sun and 60-70 degree weather. I wore my capris and the kids wore shorts so it was definitely warmer than Chicago.

Madison and Jake enjoyed riding a bull at the arboretum. We all loved seeing the color of the flowers and walking around. It was BEAUTIFUL. I cannot wait to see color here- it's starting to show- but it's very slow. My tulips should be blooming in May.

This was pretty much the boys' 1st time spending time in grass since they were so young last spring. Caleb LOVED it. He was so curious and inquisitive about this foreign green covering.

But his brother did not feel the same way. When we took off Christian's shoes so he could touch the grass, he immediately started crying. He did not care at all about it, he just wanted to be held. Can you tell how different these little guys are?

All I can say is . . . precious.

Scott and Phoebe have 2 dogs- Dexter and Tucker. Madison thoroughly enjoyed playing with them and misses them a lot. She did many things with them- walked one of the dogs, kept Dexter in a closet so he wouldn't run away- Oops, tied up Dexter and forgot about him while we were at the zoo- double Oops. But mostly Madison poured out so much love upon them, and them to her. She actually wants to move to Texas because she thinks that it's prettier there and she wants to be close to Dexter and Tucker. Too bad that she will never have a dog- well, maybe when she's an adult. Are we cruel parents?

Here we are at the Dallas Zoo having fun! Like I have said before, never a dull moment! See- I told you that we were cruel parents!

Our trip coming home was as interesting as our trip going to Texas. Instead of an hour and a half delay, we ended up having a 4 1/2 hour delay. Fun! Let me just say that we gave McDonalds a lot of business during that time- milk, fries, 2 meals, etc. yes- we learned our lesson about having milk at all times on a plane while traveling with toddlers. The ascending and descending was actually worse for Christian this time and I had the privilege of holding him. Fun! "Life is life."

We got back to Chicago in 1 piece and all of the children fell asleep on the car ride home so that was nice. Our vacation was officially over- sad but true. Well, I still had a few days before I had to go back to work so my friend Jen F. came up to visit for a day. It was fun and great to catch up with her. Spring Break has been over for 2 weeks and I have had A LOT on my mind- I'll tell you about that in my next blog- Teaching full time vs. part time.

Oh- since 2 flight attendants mistook Christian for a girl, the boys had their 1st haircut this past weekend. They are SO adorable- my little men!- upcoming blog!

Thank you to those who religiously read my blog- this will be short and sweet, but I promise to inform you more about our trip soon. Anyways- We survived our trip to Texas! It's funny how Archie and I have very different perspectives of our family vacation. Mine was that the kids were great overall and it was fun to be together as a family and Archie's was that the kids were everywhere and we had no real time to ourselves. I do agree with him, but it was wonderful to have extra helping hands everywhere we went. But, it is after 10:00 and I am REALLY trying to get to bed earlier . . . so, goodnight!