Peyton's first hair cut!

I know you are getting sick of seeing so many pictures of the kids, so I will take a break after this post! Peyton had her very first hair cut today. I was so proud of her because she did a wonderful job. I was apprehensive about taking her because we are going through a shy phase again where she is completely uncomfortable talking to strangers much less letting one touch her. I found a hair salon just for kids and decided that would be the best place to go if they provided fun distractions. Peyton sat in that chair like a big girl and did exactly what the lady asked her to. Her hair had gotten pretty long and was just looking really ragged and uneven. I love her long hair so we just had about 2 inches taken off to even things out and make it look healthier. The staff was really nice, but I don't think I'll go back to this particular hair place. It took about 5 minutes total! They sprayed her hair wet with a spray bottle, did the quick cut, and then charged me $15. Yes, that was $15...no wash or style. I guess that is the going rate for dealing with fidgety children these days or the built in compensation for dealing with brats who don't want their hair cut. My child was neither of these on this particular day so we should have gotten a discount! :-) Anyhow...sorry I don't have any after pictures of Peyton. My camera is currently in China with Brandon so I had to borrow my mom's camera and it has some issues. Like I said, it was just 2 inches so she doesn't look that different. We did get a neat keepsake certificate for our haircut as well as the first lock of hair that was cut.

What Bluebonnets?

Friday afternoon we decided to take a roadtrip with some friends to the little town of Burnet, Texas. This is about an hour drive from where we live in Hutto. I had heard that Highway 29 from Austin to Burnet and Llano was suppose to have some of the prettiest bluebonnet displays in the state. The Bluebonnet Festival was going on in Burnet starting Friday and that is why we decide to take our road trip because I look forward to bluebonnet pictures every year. So I got my kiddos all decked out in cute WHITE outfits and loaded up the van. The trip there was torture as Peyton has decided she doesn't like riding in her car seat again for some reason and cried or screamed almost the entire hour there. The friends who were following us are new friends so I resisted the urge to pull over on the side of the highway and beat her. I didn't want them to think I was crazy or ever have them be fearful of me watching their kids so I tried to tune her out with the radio. My poor mom was riding with me and I'm sure she was wondering why I wasn't taking care of the situation. Either that or she was laughing inside thinking there is justice in the world after all (I supposedly was a little bit difficult the first half of my life!) Either way, we finally made it to Burnet. I expected to see signs everywhere for this festival but that wasn't the case. So I stopped at a gas station to ask directions and was surprised to find out the owner had no idea what I was talking about. So, I asked the least scary looking motorcycle man filling his tank outside and he told me to turn around and go back 3 blocks. Hmmm....no signs for what is suppose to be the biggest event in their town all year. How good of a festival is this going to be???
After driving around a little while, we found a small fenced off section of streets downtown and that was the festival. Mainly a bunch of vendor booths with all kinds of overpriced goodies. The carnival wasn't open yet so that was a bummer. So, we drove all that way to sit and have lunch at a little cafe in the town square. I did enjoy visiting with our friends and Peyton managed to behave during our little lunch. It dawned on me though that I didn't see any bluebonnets on the highway on the way there. We all wondered where the heck we were going to take our pictures. That was my main goal for this trip. Surely there was some hidden majestic field around there that we hadn't discovered yet! I asked the local security guy and he told me the bad news that we didn't get enough rain this year and there weren't any pretty bluebonnets anywhere around Burnet. Well, that is just great I thought to myself...not that it mattered since Peyton's dress was no longer white and pretty after lunch. On that note, we decided to load up and head home. Peyton was tired enough that she feel asleep 15 minutes into the drive so we had some blissful quiet on the way back to Hutto. I hate feeling disappointed and defeated when I've spent time and energy planning something and then it doesn't work out. That's the kid in me that pouts when things don't go according to MY plan. That is the only reason I decided to take my cranky and exhausted children to a park 10 minutes up the road from home to see if they had any small patches of bluebonnets to take a least one picture! So before we went home from our road trip we stopped at Settler's Park and managed to find a small field with a few bluebonnets. How much easier the day would have been if we had just done that first instead of trying to drive an hour somewhere to get the best pictures! The pictures above are definately not wonderful, but hey, you can't see the stains on Peyton's dress and at least neither of them is crying! Maybe we'll get enough rain next year to have the "magical fields of bluebonnets"! I don't think I'll be going back to Burnet though!

One of those weeks!

Now before you feel the need to call Child Protective Services and report me I must tell you this was his father's fault! (Of course the bottle is empty, but I am surprised he even put that nasty smelling thing in his mouth) I leave the house for 10 minutes to visit a neighbor and come home to find Ryan walking around the living room with Daddy's beer bottle just grinning because he has something he knows he's not suppose to touch. Brandon was so involved in the Final Four games, he didn't see him sneak off with it. So of course I had to grab my camera! As I sat there watching him proudly show me his new "toy" I had a vision of him 17 years from now holding that beer standing around with his buddies at a frat party giving all the pretty girls his adorable flirty little grin and it freaked me out a little. I have days with these two kids of mine that feel like they last a month, but I am amazed when I look at them sometimes as to how fast they are growing and changing!
Ryan is walking now too, as I mentioned above. He still prefers to crawl when he really wants to get somewhere since that is so much faster, but he walks more everyday. He is very concious of sister though since she will knock him down in a second so that may be why he has taken a little longer than I expected to get going. Poor baby has had a rough week...he's had a cold and I think we are getting a 4th tooth right now. We've also gotten rid of the formula and are trying to get regular with milk so that has had his tummy a little upset. The boy won't give up the bottle though and to tell you the truth, I'm going to let him hang onto it for a while since he'll be my last baby! I was so set on following the "rules" with Peyton that I had her on a sippy cup as soon as she turned one and the baby food was gone at that point too. Funny how much more relaxed we are with the second one...we even let him have a beer now and then!