the joy of love 05: love to hate

i have loved doing hair ever since i was a little girl.rylee loves to pull her hair out.

i hate it.but i love her.

she loves life.

she brings me more joy than i can say.

crazy, tangled hair and all.

the joy of love {days 1-4}

I found out about this free online photography class for the month of February from my cousin's blog a few days into the month. I've been wanting to learn to use my camera (really use it, not just on the automatic settings) since I got it, but haven't managed to take the time to do so yet. Well, that's not completely true. I started a photography class a couple weeks ago, but so far have been thoroughly disappointed by the content; just to give you an idea, we spent two hours this week practicing using the auto focus and transferring pictures from our cameras to a flash drive...I'm going to stick it out a little longer in hopes that it gets better, but we'll see.

Anyway, I am excited for the daily "assignments" from this class - something that won't take long (so I can squeeze it into my busy days) but will give me a chance to spin the dial out of the "portrait" mode on my camera.

So here are the pictures from the first four days' prompts...my attempt to capture a bit of the joy that radiates from some of the people I love.

01: what they do

read together

02: how they look

proud

{choosing a sticker for her "poop chart"...and hugging Oopsie Bear - her reward for getting 5 stickers on said chart}

03: then and now

then...

...and now

{this may not be an amazing photo, but I am quite proud of it; I took it at 2am (after calming Cailyn down from a nightmare) with no flash - the only light was from a nightlight across the room, which involved me playing around with a few manual settings!}

04: what they wear

on her fingers

while baking

Hairy Situations

A few weeks ago Rylee ran out from my room with Cailyn at her heels and proudly announced

"Mom, look at Cailyn's new haircut!"It could have been much much worse, but I had been so excited by how long Cailyn's hair was getting that it kind of bummed me out.

Luckily, Shellie came to the rescue and fixed her up with some layers.
The next week I missed a call from Rylee's preschool; I tried to call back right away, but it was busy. I started to panic a bit - I've never gotten a call from the preschool, and they have always answered when I call, so I was just sure that Rylee was on the way to the emergency room or something! As it turns out, the line was busy because Ms. Jenny was leaving a voicemail for me saying that Rylee had flubber in her hair and they couldn't get it out.
She told me they tried water, ice, oil, and maybe a few other things, but nothing was working.
(Considering I had spent a minute or two envisioning Rylee on her way to the ER with a cracked skull, this was great news!)
Rylee recounted the incident to me (hand motions and all) "Mom, I just swinged the flubber up over my head and it got stuck!"
It really was stuck in there pretty good!Luckily, all it took me was a quick google search and a few cups of white vinegar to get it out!

The girls keep talking about wanting Rapunzel hair...but I'm not feeling so confident that we'll ever get there.

Quotes of the Week

Rylee clogged the toilet in the girls' bathroom by using half a roll of toilet paper in one sitting.

When Cailyn had to go to the bathroom I took her to my room and told her that her potty was broken.

She asked "It needs new batteries?"

**********

We were driving past a park and I pointed out some kids hitting a pinata. Rylee said "It's someone's birthday! Can we go?" I told her we couldn't because we weren't invited and we didn't know them. She said "Yes we do know them! I'll ask them their name and say my name's Rylee and then I'll ask them if they want to be my friend."

(I just LOVE how she loves to make friends with anybody and everybody.)

**********

We went to the beach today. Tonight we went to get ice cream. In the car, Cailyn asked "Where the sun go, Mommy?" I told her that it went to bed and she asked "It tired?" Rylee piped up "Yes, it's very tired cause it was very busy shining in my face all day today."

Happiest Place on Earth

We've been wanting to get annual passes to Disneyland since we moved back to California.

We got them this week! (So if anyone wants to come meet us there sometime in the next year, we're game!)

Quinn's birthday was on Tuesday, and he had the day off, so we decided to make that our Disneyland day.

Last time we were there, Rylee was just about Cailyn's age and Cailyn was 5 months old; it was so fun to go this time with both kids being old enough to appreciate it!

The first character we saw when we walked in was Goofy. The girls' faces lit right up!

The birthday boy...29 years young! What a fun dad to spend his birthday at Disneyland with his kids (:

Next stop was Pixie Hollow...

Just love this one!

When we asked the girls who they wanted to see at Disneyland before we went, Cailyn always said "Fairy God Mother!" I didn't say so, but I seriously doubted that we would bump in to her. Well, I was wrong! Bibbidi Boppidi Boo and there she was!

The Dumbo ride is of course always a favorite!

Our CindeRylee managed to kick off and loose one of her shoes while on the Merry-Go-Round...

Luckily we had a stroller, and even luckier when we went back an hour later, it had turned up and the princess got her slipper back!

Cailyn didn't want to see Aladdin and Jasmine for some reason, but Rylee sure was happy!

What a fun day!

Come on out and visit us...give us a reason to go back (:

The Surprise Un-Birthday Party

Uncle Colin turned 18 on December 12, but was so busy with school, plays, etc. that there wasn't any time to celebrate...so it caught him totally off guard when his friends came to our house last week for a surprise birthday party!

Mom planned lots of fun "minute to win it" type games, and everyone had a blast!

We love you Colin!

Why do little pictures never line up how they look in the preview on here? Sigh.

Sister Anne

The girls had lots of fun with "Sister Anne" when she was in town. (I think they called her this because whenever they hear me talk about her I say "my sister Anne." At any rate, it was pretty funny!)

In addition to having Anne here for Rylee's birthday and going to the beach, she helped the girls paint the tea set that she brought for Rylee's birthday present, took silly pictures with them on her computer,
and went on a walk.

Thanks for coming to see us!