Trusting Friends!

Ok, NOTHING screams trust quite like letting your friend cut almost 18 inches of hair off!! Celeste totally let me do it. I'm honestly not sure who was having more of a panic attack; me or her!  We cut it all off then added highlights, layers and bangs!!

I think she's BEAUTIFUL... and not just cause of the hair!!

New Addiction:

About 2 months ago, I discovered pinterest.com  I'm SOOOO frickin' addicted it's not even funny. If you're not familiar with it; it's basically a virtual cork board. You follow friends on there and when you find something that you like, you "repin" it onto one of your own boards. I have gotten SO many cute ideas. I got my new hair cut off there, recipes, craft ideas....etc. The best part is that each "pin" usually has a link to the blog the idea came from so when you're ready you can just go to your boards, find the item and then go to the original website for the "how to" without having to actually bookmark it on your computer. There's even a PIN IT button you can add to your toolbar so that if you come across something while perusing the internet, you can simply "repin" it right then. They even have a PINTEREST app so you can pin on the go! Here are my boards. Feel free to check them out and join Pinterest so I can steal ideas from you lol  http://pinterest.com/jbanay/

A Whole Decade.

I seriously can't believe that my sweet little baby girl is 10 years old!! Holy cow, time has flown by. She's been begging me for years to get her hair highlighted but I wouldn't let her.  However, as you all know, I'll let her do subtle things to her hair. As part of her b-day, I let one of the girls at school put a "coontail" in her hair. Shelby thinks she's some hot stuff let me tell ya!

Today we spent the day in St. george and then came home for cake and ice cream.

She got an outfit and a watch

New rollerblades. (How stinkin' cute are these rollerblades?)

And a new scooter.

Shelby has grown up to be such a sweet girl. She's HILARIOUS, generous, smart and hardworking.  I'm so lucky to be her mommy!

'Tis the Season....

 Ok, so maybe it's the wrong season. Either way, ya'll  know I love Halloween. All of the students at Evan's got together to decorate our stations. Here's mine:

 The girls totally helped paint the Haunted House and Preston helped attach the ghosts. He even made a "Drago Ghost" (his dead lizard)

The girls were at dance, so Preston went with me to set everything up. He had fun for the first 30 seconds and then was bored to death! HA!

I'm soooooo excited that Halloween is finally right around the corner!!

Epic

Shelby got to spend the weekend at Epic Dance Convention in Midway (Provo) UT. I couldn't go, but my good friend Jana took her (Thanks, Jana)They had workshops for Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, and Lyrical. Apparently she had a blast!!!

Shelby outside of the hotel.

Shelby, Shaylynn and Kinley. I think she thought she was pretty cool hanging out with the "Big girls" lol

On Stage girls

Waiting for one of her classes.

She's already excited for next year!

Hair School Experience

After he finished doing cartwheels over the fact that I would be leaving my graves job, one of the first things Chris said when he found out I was going to hair school was, "Please don't go too short". Well I made my first cut the other day!!! It's shorter than I wanted, but I like it! I just keep telling myself it's "part of the experience" LOL

Mark..Get Set...Go...

Twice a month, our church does an activity day for the girls ages 8-11 years old. Unfortunately, my girls have dance during these activities and never get to go. We totally made an exception for tonight. They decided to do a Daddy/Daughter Powder Puff Pinewood Derby. Chris helped the girls make their cars, but he couldn't go because he was teaching. They had sooooo much fun though!

Morgan got the "Rockin' Roll Derby" award.

Shelby got the "Speed Demon" award. There were only a couple cars that could come close to Shelby, but if she was on one particular lane, there was NO beating her!!

Here are all the girls together with their cars. There was some VERY creative ideas. My personal fave was the one that looks like a Rainbow next to Shelby.

Still Alive

No we haven't fallen off the face of the earth... We've just been super busy!!! Since the last post, the girls have started back at dance, I've quit my job (ok so "cut back" apparently the term "quit" freaks Chris out!) and I started hair school!
So far, I LOVE school. I'm the old lady in class, but that's ok. This past week, we started learning to wrap perms and do manicures. We'll be cutting next week! (O!M!G!)
The kids are doing great in school. Soccer is almost done! (YAAAAY!!!) Dance is in full swing. Shelby is going to a dance convention in 2 weeks. Chris is BUSY as always.... lots going on!!! I promise I'll post pics in the next post.

Old School Skate

The kids have been begging me to let them have a play date at Old School Skate, but it just hasn't happened. I decided to FINALLY let them have a HUGE play date. We invited ALL of their friends to join us for a "Friends Get Together", where they could all just meet up at the roller rink and Chris and I would supervise. One of the mom's and I counted and I think there were about 27 people there from our group. I forgot my camera, so you'll just have to settle for cell phone pics. 

About an hour into it, Preston said his butt hurt and he was hot and wanted to go home. His little friends were leaving by then, so Chris took him home.

 I love this little group of girls. There is 9 or 10 little girls that all hang out together. There's little to no bickering or fighting. They don't get mad when there is some "pairing off"... it's great. I realize that it won't always be that way, but I hope that they can all stay friends even if they aren't all BEST Friends.

 This little girl's Mom was one of my first friends here in Cedar City. We even shared a baby shower when we were prego with Shelby and Baylee. She recently moved to our school and started taking dance classes with Shelby. Shelby just ADORES her!

 Ok, it's no secret that Shelby is..... timid!!! She's taken a little bit of time to get used to the whole "standing up on something that can and will move out from under her" thing. HA! Luckily, she has good friends that were willing to hang around the wall with her most of the night.

 Morgan doesn't have a timid bone in her body. This is the best picture I could get of her because she was CONSTANTLY flying by me.

Several of the moms and I talked about how much fun we used to have at the roller rink. The kids had a blast and I had just as much fun watching them. I think this is definitely a "must do again" thing.

Back 2 School

Once again, Back To School was a huge deal in our house!!! We started out with our annual fashion show. Yes, I'm still alive because NO Chris did not ask for receipts! HA! Actually I've been buying things on sale here and there all summer, so when the kids started pulling out all of their new clothes, they had WAY more than I realized they had! I just have to say that I think Morgan's lunch box is the cutest thing ever! It's the pink leopard print bag that looks like a purse.

Typically, Preston is pretty into the fashion show. Not so much this year. He made it through 1 shirt change before he decided it hurt too bad to pull his shirts on and off every time. So, this is what he did instead.

School began on Thursday, so we started the day with a big breakfast of french toast, bacon and fruit salad. I really think it's funny that each year they rotate who gets to pick breakfast on the 1st day of school, but they always choose the same menu no matter who is picking! I don't think they've made that connection yet! LOL  We did hair, packed lunches and took LOTS of pictures.

Morgan's outfit cracks me up. She got these pants for her birthday from some friends of hers, but didn't have anything to wear with them (they have sequins on them so she was a little iffy) Well we found this shirt with the glitter peace sign and a vest made of sequins. Then I found sparkly black Converse tennis shoes. Ok, so Mogo isn't exactly a "sparkly kind of girl" but she LOOOOOVES this outfit!

He got his stitches out the day before school started and the Dr. REALLY stressed the importance of wearing sunscreen to minimize scarring. Bless his heart, he walked around with his hand up like this for 2 days trying to protect his face from the sun HAHA
On an even cuter note: Words cannot even begin to describe how excited he was to wear his new shoes!! He has been BEGGING for Sketcher Z-Strap Hot Lights all summer.  He put on his own "laser light show" with the shoes. I have to admit it was DANG CUTE watching him bounce around. You'd have thought the child had never seen a light before.

See.... they do like each other sometimes.

Once again, I met the kids at school to make sure they found their classrooms ok. Preston was already at his desk trying to get started on his "Bell Work". I didn't go take pictures of the girls cause they're "too cool" for that stuff now!

All of the kids reported that they had A GREAT DAY!!!! Preston has the same teacher that the girls had for 1st grade, Mrs. Van Blaricom.  I wish her luck because he is NOTHING like them!!! Morgan has Mr. Niles. He's taught her Spanish for the last 2 years, so she knows him pretty well and likes him. Shelby's 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Hunt,  moved up to 4th grade so I requested him again this year. They all have amazing teachers, so I think they'll all have a great year.

****Friday afternoon, Shelby and Morgan found out that they both made Jr. Company.  they're pretty excited.  Let the sibling rivalry begin!!!

*****Update on Preston's face. How amazing does he look for only 1 week???? You can barely tell anything happened!!!

Poor Little Guy

Friday evening Morgan and Preston were playing outside with Zac and Tatum while Shelby and I hung out in the house. All of a sudden my front door flew open and I hear "MOOOOM!!" I also hear Preston's "hurt cry" (or at least as close to one as you get with him) I honestly figured Morgan had hit him or something and was running in to tell "her side" before he got to me. I wish!!! She yelled "PRESTON'S HURT!" and I see him running towards me followed by my neighbor. This is what I saw:

 My neighbor said that he came around their corner and fell so hard and fast that he didn't even have a chance to put his hands down to catch himself. He fell right on his eye and then slid across the asphalt. I loaded all the kids into the car and we rushed off to the E.R. I knew he needed stitches in his chin, but when they told me he needed a CT Scan on his head, I have to admit I was FREAKED!!!! Hello.... he's my baby!!! I finally got ahold of Chris and his Aunt and cousin were nice enough to come get the kids so we could stay with Preston. Preston was so brave. I'm impressed by how well he handles himself sometimes! They took him for  the CT scan and he didn't move a muscle the whole time. If you know him, you know that this is a really big deal!! He doesn't sit still for 2 seconds let alone long enough for a CT scan! Anyway, the scan came back clear of any broken bones and head injuries!!! YAY!!! They cleaned his road rash and stitched him up. This is him before the pain killers kicked in:

And this is him AFTER: The hospital gave all the kids goodie bags. He plays a mean game of ER tennis HA!

The best quotes of all time came about this time:
1)He wanted to see his face so I showed him the pictures. He said, "Dude, it's bad when your own face makes you want to throw up" and started making gagging sounds.
2)"Mom, can you ask them to take my blood temperature?"
"Your blood temperature? Why?"
"Cause I left a lot of blood on the road and I want to make sure I have enough to live."
"Well how do they check your blood temperature?"
"They use that squeezy thing on your arm"
  HOW SMART IS THAT??????????
The fun was short lived, cause a short time later they restrained him so they could "sew him up".  He's got 5 stitches in his chin. He's really ok. It looks much worse than it is, but he's pretty sore! He keeps complaining that his teeth hurt, but I don't know if it's because his jaw is so bruised and swollen or if he actually hurt his teeth. We'll take him in next week if they aren't any better or get worse. He has to go see the dermatologist next week to have the stitches removed and the road rash checked. The cut on his cheek is still pretty "oozy" and I personally think he needed a stitch or 2 there as well. I called our pediatrician and he said he felt like it would be ok (yeah, cause it's not his kids face) The ER Dr. says his face will be scarred, but advised us to try some of the over the counter ointments to help reduce scarring.
This is what he looked like this morning... his eye is swollen so he said, "Mom call the Dr. there's something wrong with my vision" I said, "Open your eye silly!" He opened his eye and said, "Oh that's better"  hahahaha

All in all, Chris and I are considering ourselves EXTREMELY lucky!! This could have been SO much worse. Thanks to everyone that has called or sent us messages! We both really appreciate it!