The Haircut...dun, dun, dun...

Hair is a touchy subject in this family.

I have really long hair

(most of the way down my back)

My husband is ex-military and 

keeps his short and neat!

He expects our boys' hair

to be the same as his

and likes long hair on girls.

So,

boys - short and neat

girls - long

I was blessed with a curly red headed boy

as our second child.

I fought and fought to keep those curls...

I eventually lost the fight 

and we cut it.

His curls/waves come back when his hair is long...

REALLY long!

And we get compliments on his hair

literally every where we go!

Literally!

I don't remember how old he was when we finally cut it,

it was cute, but it just didn't feel like "him".

Since then, 

I have always kept his hair on the longer/shaggier side.

Kid #3 was a girl.

Yeah!

I could keep this kid's hair as long as I wanted!

But no curls!

She has her daddy's total lack of curl

and her mom's fine hair.

So, she got her first official haircut at 2.

Just a trim to even things up.

Then along comes

baby #4...

another curly red headed boy!

He is now 2 years and 7 months old

and has yet to have a haircut.

Until a few months ago...

He was in the tub and there was this 

ONE straggler in the back.

It was just a lot longer than the others...

so I cut it.

Gave him his first haircut!

However, 

hubs said that didn't count...

Does that sweet curl being cut 

count as his first haircut??

This debate is not,

however,

the main issue in this posting...

Do you see how long this hair is here?

That is my daughter...

after 1 hair cut in her life...2 years ago.

I realized it needed trimming.

It was getting a little lopsided

(or cattywhompas as I say)

So took the above pictured scissors,

and trimmed her hair in the tub one night.

The next day,

I realized I had not done the most even job in the world,

so after another bath,

I stood her on the counter in the bathroom

and had another go at it.

Better!

Then within a couple of days,

during naptime

(supposed naptime)

there was a whole lot of thumping and 

bumping going on...

but I didn't pay any attetion.

She was quiet,

the boys and I were doing school work...

Whatever.

She came down...

I was at the sink doing something

Jackson was at the table doing school work...

then my sweet Jackson exclaims

"Lex, did you cut your hair?"

I whipped my head around

and saw it...

I was heart broken!!!!

I had left the scissors out where she could reach them,

on the counter in MY bathroom.

And all that thumping and bumping 

was her...

in my bathroom...

cutting her hair...

I found a tremendous amount of hair all over my

bathroom floor,

in the trashcan...

I was carrying my heart in my feet as I cleaned it up...

I texted my stylist and didn't hear back...

so I was on the hunt for someone to fix it...

I was able to find a place,

Wal-Mart.

NOT my first choice,

but I didn't have any choices!

The stylist looked at it,

and looked at it,

and looked at it...

trying to determine if she could salvage the length.

I had already determined that it could not be salvaged...

and eventually the stylist came to the same conclusion...

And off the rest came.

She asked me if I wanted to keep it,

I actually said no thanks.

Ms. Priss totally enjoyed getting her hair cut.

But the whole time I was reminding her

that she was NOT to cut her own hair!

Here is the after...

She likes it

and at the end of the day,

that is really all that matters!

(well mommy has to like it too)

Daddy had to get used to it - 

so did I.

He was not a fan at first,

mainly because she was 

totally different than when he had seen her 

the night before!

So now the debate continues about the 

baby's hair...

I agree it does need some taming,

but I am not sure how they are going to cut it

since the back & sides has grown 

SOOOOOO

much faster than the front & top!

But I have told his daddy that I would get his haircut,

before Father's Day...

I just didn't say how much...

Kamping with Kids!

We went camping!

Tent camping!

With 4 kids!

Ages 8 - 2!

Are we nuts?!?!

Not really.

We only stayed one night,

so we started off easy.

J got a fishing pole from 

papa grande for his birthday,

so we HAD to find a place to get his hook wet!

After purusing the internet,

we settled on Garner State Park...

in Texas!  

Yep, there is a Garner in Texas!

(There is one mere minutes away from our

hometown in NC, too)

It got a ton of great reviews,

the pictures on-line were great,

and their facebook page was VERY active

so we figured we would try it out.

We did J's little get together on Friday night,

then bright and early Saturday morning

we were up and loading the car for the camping trip.

The boys kids were bouncing off the walls

with excitement!

It was just over an hour drive from our home

in San Antonio,

which was perfect in case it didn't work out and 

we needed to hustle home for any reason.

(daddy and the boys rushed home from 

the last overnight camping trip they went on

because R got sick in the middle of the night)

Here is how it went in pictures...

my camera died half way through, 

so you only get pictures of day 1...

This is what we saw on the drive out...

a whole lotta nothin!  

Dry, brown...

nuthin!

The park was rockin!

There was a huge line to check in when we got there,

but luckily we had chosen the quieter side of the park.

I am so glad we did!

As soon as we got there,

everyone ran down to take a look at the 

river!

They also started to gather drift wood

for our fire...

we later learned 

from the kind park rangers

that what we did was TOTALLY illegal!

ACK!

Snapped this adorable picture too!

Then, Daddy put our cubscouts to work

making camp 

and 

pitching the tent.

R was even showing the littles what things were

and 

telling them how they worked.

"These are to hold the tent down 

if it gets too windy"

We saw this baby on our way to the river access that we backed up to.

Thankfully no one got poked!

This wasn't the only one of these 

bad boys we saw.

The Frio River!

It was REALLY low!

REALLY!

You can't see it very well, 

but all of the white you see on the ground,

used to be covered by water.

WOW!

I trapsed back from my quick view of the river 

and took a picture of my crew setting up camp.

We had a nice, quiet, private area

for our camp.

The boys successfully got the tent up!

(with a little help from daddy)

Then they started setting up 

sleeping bags and air mattresses.

Mr. T loved it!

So did Ms. Priss!

Yes, 

I said air mattresses...

mommy will gladly go camping,

but I am NOT using a rock for my pillow!

And this princess CAN feel the pea under her mattress!

Apparently those stakes R was showing the littles earlier

didn't get used!

Cause just a little breeze and this happened!

With the boys in it!!

Hahah!!

(no children were harmed in the rolling of this tent!)

Daddy finally finished "my" bed,

then Mr. T noticed how inviting it looked.

and decided he wanted to take a nap...

 

Then he was joined by two of the other youngins...

Wait a second

that's MY bed!!!

Don't get too comfy there youngins!

Then since it WAS his birthday

and HE is the WHOLE reason we were here

and he DID get a new fishing pole...

we figured we would take the 

birthday boy 

to the fishing part of the river

and let him throw his hook in the water

And eventually a tree!

Thankfully we were able to holler at these two in a kayak

and they graciously came over to try and assist,

while we were willing that boat NOT to flip over!

No luck and we called it a day...

since we weren't getting ANY bites anyways,

due to all the swimmers and kayakers and tubers...

but at least the boy got his hook wet!

And got to drown a few worms...

Here are some pre-tree fishing pictures:

My curly red-heads!

Ms. Priss givin it a go.

Then R eventually got tired of casting and reeling in,

so he started climbing...

trying his darndest to fall in!

The view down past the dam was pretty, too!

(if only it were green)

Then we headed back to our side of the park

and let the kids play in the river on our end...

there was hardly anyone else on our end wading 

in the river, so it was great!

The river was living up to its name and 

was kinda chilly...

and all the kids were doing their best not to get soaked

and freeze!

Then this happened and that was the end of swimming!

So we headed back to the camp site and lit a fire.

Due to the extreme dry conditions,

you are only allowed to have fires for cooking.

So since our soggy and frigid Ms. Priss

needed to warm up,

it was time to start dinner!

Unfortunately that is the end of the pictures...

but in a nutshell

we ate dinner,

Tony got sick,

no one got any sleep

because we were all so uncomfortable,

we woke up,

cooked breakfast (daddy did the majority of the cooking!),

went down to the river again,

chilled out,

packed up,

went back over to the main side of the park,

played a game of putt-putt

and headed home.

I honestly did enjoy laying awake in the tent, 

looking up at the stars,

hearing the river flowing meer feet away

and imagining that this is EXACTLY how

travelers, cowboys, outlaws, pioneers!

 camped and slept YEARS ago!

I know they stopped at this same place,

slepts on that same ground.

Had their horses tied up to the trees we were sleeping under...

THAT was neat!

We had a ball,

it was a wonderful family experience

and we WILL be doing it again...

but I really want a camper! 

Haha!

A Birthday Boy!!!

Well so much for being caught up!

Yes, I am still here,

Yes, I am still doing the blog...

Yes, we are VERY busy!

Yes, we have some crazy news...

but as you have noticed...

I like to keep this blog in the 

order of events..

so you are just gonna hafta wait

til I catch up again, before I spill

the news!

Which most of you already know by now anyways!

This posting is about my second child's birthday...

which was 2 months ago!

Well almost 2 months ago...

So again - 

we are going to play catch up...

Hang in there with me.

We had decided that we wanted

to do "experiences" with our kids, 

in lieu of parties every year.

We will still do little parties

and family parties...

but instead of the big gigantic

impress the other parents'

type parties...

that all the kids will forget anyways...

we wanted to try to do a family 

adventure

or experience...

So we asked J what he wanted to do

for his 7th birthday.

Is he really 7?  

I told him I wasn't ready for him to turn 7,

he basically told me, 

too bad cause he was turning 7

whether I was ready or not!

Haha!

We gave him a couple of options

(that we were willing to do)

and 

he chose a family camping trip!

(More about that in the next post)

So the theme for his cake was a camping cake.

And if you have been following me long enough,

you know I make all the kids cakes...

it is something very special to me.

And a gift I give them every year no matter

what kind of cake they want!

Camo,

army fighting cake,

Skylander portal of power,

Hello Kitty,

Princess-ish,

The kids are getting more and more 

creative with their requests as they get older...

which means mommy gets more and more 

adventerous with her cake decorating!

Anyways,

we had a small party at the house with just 

the fam and papa & mama grande.

J got to pick the food

(also tradition in our house)...

I am pretty sure we had

rotisserie chicken,

mashed potatoes & gravy

and

roasted broccoli & cauliflower

(those are his favorites).

After dinner,

it was time for presents:

This child has ALWAYS

had the BEST smile!

His smile is going to light up the world one day!

(it already lights up mine)

He never really asks for much,

so he is harder to buy for...

but I think daddy hit the nail on the head with this gift!

(more on this gift in another post as well)

Mr. T decided to "take pictures" with

"his phone".

(one of mommy's old phones that he 

trudges around with now)

More gifts,

this one is from me.

He is our "do-er"...

he loves building,

using his hands, 

cooking...

so I thought this block set looked fun.

They are called Keva Planks

And the final 

"wow" gift 

was a bubbler for our fish tank.

We got him a giant treasure chest 

for our teeny tank!

But that was the smallest one I could find...

I think he liked this too...

And here is the cake!

I made a camping cake!

I *love* how it turned out!

Complete with a tent, campfire, marshmallows

and yep, those are tall trees...

nope, we don't see those kind in Texas!

I attempted to put the candles

around the fire to make it look like the campfire

was lit.

Right before presenting it to the birthday boy.

We keep the cake a surprise right up until

they see it at the official presentation.

I think he liked it!

Actually, I know he did.

He told me many times how much he loved it!

Look at that smile!

Here he is...

cutting the cake,

also the birthday kid tradition!

They gave the Keva blocks a try.

The flooring was textured,

so they didn't work well,

but they gave it a good shot!

And had a fun time with them.

Parting birthday pictures:

Daddy and the birthday boy 

goofing around!