The age old question: Why do we cut hair?

Our entire family needs haircuts. There are always tears shed with who goes first. Today we did eyeballs & bumpers (heads & tails) to decide if Cullen or Geremu will go first. Geremu won and he chose to go second.

Geremu hates the noise of the clippers, it makes him shrug his shoulders so cutting his hair is a challenge. Geremu does not want his haircut and I'd grow his hair out if he still didn't take naps. His hair requires a little styling/fluffing-up if it is long and he lays on his head. Styling his hair is also a bit of an ordeal, he doesn't like it. So in the mean time, his hair is cut to a manageable length. So the following conversation is what took place after Geremu said, "No cut hair Mom."

Cullen: "Geremu, getting a haircut is like mowing the lawn, right Mom?"

Me: "Um, sure..."

Cullen: "If the grass doesn't get mowed it turns into a field. But if the grass gets cut, it's a backyard. So if you don't cut your hair it will turn into a field."

Cullen certainly enlightened me with his elegant speech and it was enough to convince Geremu to get his haircut. I guess Geremu prefers to sport a backyard on his head as opposed to a field:)

Happy Birthday Nick!

Nick had a birthday today and the boys helped him celebrate in style! We got up early and decorated the kitchen after Nick went to school. The babysitter (my lifesaver) did some crafts with the boys to add to our decorations and made some delicious cupcakes. We had a meal tonight that Nick enjoys before celebrating the big day. Here are some pictures of the night.
After the formal celebration we headed upstairs to play before bed. Cullen yelled to me to come in his room because "an orange jumped into his bed". Um, I'm pretty sure he put it in his bed.

Geremu got a hold of the camera and I got this picture of our family dragon.

I learned that our family dragon can also fly but only if he flaps his wings "like this mom".The dragons landings are not graceful.

In the words of Geremu, "Happy Birthday Big Papa!"

In the words of Cullen, "What the heck?"

Tonight I was busy snuggling with Cullen when Geremu came running into the room. He appeared to be foaming at the mouth with his tongue hanging out and spit dangling. There was clearly something on his tongue, face and shirt that I didn't recognize. He was gagging and dry heaving/making funny noises- I jumped up and couldn't figure out what was going on. In a panic I start yelling at him, "What did you eat?" He wasn't making any sense which made me panic even more. I then start to yell at him, "Show me what you ate, where did it come from?" I was not even a little bit calm. Geremu started scrapping his tongue with his fingers and points at the kitchen. I run in and see something all over the counter. Then I see it, the pepper container with the BIG top open laying on the floor, empty.

I have no idea how it happened or what Geremu was thinking but somehow he got pepper all over his hair, face, shirt, the counter and floor. His mouth was so full of pepper, it was unrecognizable to me. Honestly if I had to guess what it was, I would have guessed dirt with fertilizer. We spent a bit of time by the sink trying to get it all out of his mouth.

Geremu has a habit of putting things in his mouth that don't belong there; dirt, pebbles, rocks, fish eggs. I'm hopeful that Geremu learned something from this but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm open to suggestions on how to stop this habit.

Ringing in the New Year- Early!

We went to my parents house today. My Mom pinned Geremu down to get a laugh out of him, some things just never change. I remember my mom doing this to me when I was little... And last week.

Then we watched the early 6pm fireworks display and pretended it was midnight. Yelled Happy New Year before throwing the kids in bed.

Geremu seemed to like the fireworks today more then he did on the 4th of July. Wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that he was watching them inside with the big guy? Tonight my parents and I headed next door to the neighbors for a CrAzY New Years Party!

Overheard...

Last night I cut Cullen a grapefruit to eat for dessert while I washed dishes. Shortly after that I overheard Cullen say to Geremu, "Here have a try little buddy, this is my favorite recipe."

If you would like to try Cullen's favorite recipe grab a pencil and paper and feel free to copy it.

Ingredients= grapefruit, Utensil= spoon- enjoy!

Sledding with Friends

The boys slept good in the tent and were ready to go early this morning.

We meet our friends Billy, Carson and Sophia at the sledding hill in the morning.
A fun time was had by all. Geremu insisted on going down the hill by himself today. He did pick up a bit of speed but never fell off and seemed to enjoy himself. Below is the infant sled that Billy brought for Sophia. I would NEVER send a kid down a hill by themselves in this sled and it's clearly not big enough for more than one person. I think it's for just walking around and pulling a young kid. I decided to give it a whirl on the hill, it is FAST and if you don't go down straight the lip of the sled can catches the snow... It's enough to knock the wind out of you:)
Nick took Geremu and Carson snowshoeing for a bit after they were done sledding.

Then we headed over to Carson's house for some lunch and hot chocolate before nap time. It was another beautiful fun day.

Katie our blow-up sled lasted about as long as yours did. The plastic seemed to get really hard in the cold weather. Cullen and I were both on it going down the hill (which was probably way too much weight in the first place). We were going at a pretty good speed and the next thing I know is the tube is out from under us and we were sledding down the hill on our body. We tore a HUGE hole in the bottom of it and it deflated so fast, no slow leak to warn us. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Outdoor Play Day

We came home yesterday to have a little family time with just the four of us before we head to Iowa for Nick's family Christmas later this week. Today was a beautiful, breezy day so we went to a park with trails early to snowshoe and enjoy as much of the sunlight as possible. It was really windy and cold until we got into the woods, then the wind seemed to die down.

The boys enjoy snowshoeing as much as we do. They don't have the endurance to go long distances but it's still fun to get out, eat snow and enjoy each others company.

At one point the boys were standing on this little bridge over a small stream, I asked them to turn around so I could take a picture. The next thing I know things seem to happen in slow motion. As Cullen starts to turn around he jumps off the bridge onto the ice and breaks through. It was not deep (perhaps only a foot in depth) and only his feet fell through (his entire body landed on ice) but it still scared me. I never saw that coming from Cullen, I would sort of expect that from Geremu (my future stunt man), not Cullen- ugh...

Below the boys race down a hill, Geremu's usually the fastest but he is also the one that has the least amount of body control and usually ends up falling down head first. In his defense, he also has the young kids snow shoes without big claws to grip the snow making it a bit slippery.
After a morning of snowshoeing we headed back to the car to grab the sleds.

There were very few people out and the boys were champs at walking up the hill themselves, which is a HUGE improvement from last year.

Cullen attempting to pull me up the hill.

Nick hitching a ride from Geremu.

The boys are now "camping out" in a tent in their room with Nick.

They told me it was for "Boys Only", Yee-haw!