Lorelai's hair

Lorelai's hair is beautifully long and silky, and has grown out into what looks like a perfectly layered cut without ever having it styled. She's come a long way since her reverse mullet. Just about everyone comments on how long and pretty her hair is. She loves it and calls it her princess hair. I love it. Adam loves it. The boys even love it. In fact, at Christmas, we were on Grandma and Grandpa's porch and the light and a breeze hit her just right—Logan said in awe that it looked like her hair was glowing.

That said, I'm pretty sure we're at the point where she needs her first REAL cut. And when I said as much at the dinner table last night when Adam mentioned making an appointment with our hairdresser, I got a unanimous "NO!" from everyone at the table--Aidan and Logan included. But the thing is, it tangles so easily and I'm the one who has to comb it all out every morning and every night. Her ends are crazy split. It's so long that she always has to wear it pulled back to school. We've even gotten into the habit of doing sock buns at night to keep it from tangling so much while she sleeps. But of course that ends up looking like this in the mornings, making me completely rethink cutting it at all, because holy hair envy, batman!


Too bad it doesn't look like this for long though--the curls are pretty much all gone by the end of the day.

She actually got her first official hair cut back in August, which she really needed to get rid of 4 years of dead ends. But we were all so very against losing any length at that point, so our hairdresser worked her magic and you couldn't even tell she got a cut--it just looked smoother and healthier at the ends.







Who knows--I may end up chickening out when the time comes, but for now, I'm going to start trying to convince the masses that shortening it just a few inches will really not be such a big deal. And no, it won't turn brown and lose magical powers (poor Rapunzel!).

It's a cliche, but...New year, new me

2014 most definitely did not live up to the expectations I had of it. In fact, it will go down in history as one of the suckiest years in memory. Sure, we had some great times as a family, but oh my goodness--the deaths. There was just so much more death than I've personally ever dealt with, and each one just had a cumulative effect on me, piling on top of all the emotions I had surrounding my dad's death in May. From July to December, we said goodbye to two of Adam's wonderful grandmothers, his aunt, and my uncle.

And to top it all off, I've been struggling with the worst acne I've ever had (yes, including my teenage years and pregnancy) for the last 6+ months and it's really taken a toll on me emotionally. I know it might be vain, and I know I don't have it as severe as many, but at 34 years old, it feels pretty ridiculous to be dealing with this. Not to mention painful. When you cry looking in the mirror and slather on the makeup even when you're not leaving the house because you can't stand the sight of your own face, something's got to change.

The hitch is, I've become more aware of all of the chemicals we put on and in our bodies, so I've been trying to avoid running to the dermatologist for an Rx to some chemicals that aren't really good for me. And I'd really rather not stain any more of my clothes with Proactiv. So I joined DoTerra as a wellness advocate in May of last year and have loved using my oils. But I'm pained to admit that they're just not working on my face. I eventually came to the conclusion that I have to take a more holistic approach to healing and start from the inside. It's either hormones or my gut, but something is out of whack.

Enter the Whole30.

I actually gave up dairy for a month at the end of October hoping that might be the culprit, but I only saw marginal improvements. My face got worse again after indulging in too many Thanksgiving treats, so I decided to significantly cut back on my refined sugar intake (and still had very minimal dairy). Then I went off the rails on Christmas day with several desserts. Sure enough, my face was a painful cystic, zitty wreck a couple of days later.

Conclusion: I HAVE to kick my sugar habit. And it certainly won't hurt to eliminate other inflammatory things that could be wrecking my gut and making their way out through my skin. So for 30 days: no sugar, grains, alcohol, soy, legumes, dairy, or other nasty things like MSG or sulfites.

It initially sounded too challenging and restrictive, but my skin issues are enough motivation for me to go as drastic as I need to. I'm a week in, and so far I'm doing great! Probably since I already eliminated some of the things on the list, I haven't had any kind of withdrawal symptoms, anger or unbearable cravings. I've been eating well, and it really feels like I'm accomplishing something. I might even be seeing an improvement in my skin.

Of course I still have a ways to go till day 30, but I'm really motivated to keep going. Which is no small feat with something as restrictive and psychologically challenging as the Whole30 is.

Whole 30 day 8: that big old pot of spaghetti (squash) with mushrooms on the
side means I'm certainly not feeling deprived tonight! YUM

I fully welcome 2015 and as many positive changes in myself as I can. And I'm using all of the positive mental attitude I can muster to believe it'll me MUCH better than last year. But the bar is pretty low...:)

Happy New Year!

Merry & Bright

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!



I'm currently lounging on the couch watching the kids play in their fort after a morning watching Elf. A lazy morning turned into a lazy day when our plan to visit with family were cancelled due to Adam's sister and her kids coming up from Atlanta and promptly coming down with the flu. :( Our fingers and toes are crossed that they all start feeling better soon so we can see them before they have to go back home. We love spending time with family, and Aidan, Logan and Lorelai really want to play with their cousins!

In happier news, I've successfully achieved a (mostly) stress-free Christmas season for the second year in a row! After years and years of holiday stress getting the best of me to the point of not fully being able to enjoy the season, I think I finally have things figured out. They keys are simplicity and online shopping. Oh, and setting the bar just a little bit lower for myself. :)



We've shopped for others, donated gifts, decorated our house, read Christmas stories, watched Christmas movies, listed to Christmas music, enjoyed our elf on the shelf, trimmed my mom's tree, made chocolate covered popcorn (my version of "baking"), and I've personally enjoyed some eggnog. I think our bases are pretty covered as far as holiday festivities go. The last thing we need to check off the list is opening presents and hanging out with family!



Now we just need to wrap the last few gifts and wait for Santa to arrive. Hopefully he'll bring a Christmas miracle and our family will feel better tomorrow (and no one else gets sick!).

Thankful

To be honest, this year hasn't been the greatest. Too much death, sadness, pain, and frustration. But amidst all of that emotional turmoil is when it's probably most important to be thankful and focus on the positive. Because regardless of how sad you are, there's ALWAYS something to be thankful for.

I really do have so, SO much to be thankful for. And as always, these amazing little people are at the top of my list.



Lorelai: "I'm thankful for Mommy and Daddy and the boys. I'm thankful for Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Ellie."

It was on Thanksgiving 5 years ago when we found I was pregnant with her. I so love that I always have that memory to look back on every Thanksgiving.




Logan: "I'm most thankful for family."




Aidan: "I'm thankful for my family, the toys we have, TV..."


We're hanging out at home this morning and then packing up our broccoli salad, purple cauliflower and apple crisp and heading to Adam's parents for our "Turkey Day Feast" as Lorelai keeps calling it. So of course I'm thankful that my awesome in-laws are handling the turkey this year. :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Not a pumpkin picking post

I've talked up my love for farm fun many (many many) times, so it's no surprise that we made our way back to our favorite farm for their corn maze and other activities.





But we almost didn't make it. Between soccer on Saturdays, neighborhood picnics, rainy weekends, and our trip to Great Wolf Lodge at the beginning of the month, it was down to the wire--we went the Sunday before Halloween.





I had every intention of us picking pumpkins off the vine--something I was so mad we missed last year. But because we waited so long, it was really slim pickings. The pumpkins some people were coming back with were fugly. So after all my ranting last year, not only did we not pick our own pumpkins, we didn't get any at all. Total fail.

But that just left us more time to do all the fun farm activities they have. Top of this list, always: bouncing!








There was also sliding and riding (holy wow, that tractor ride went through part of the corn maze this year and bounced us around like crazy! I think my bruises might still be healing!).






Pedal carts...



Goats (awwww!), football, pumpkin slingshots, tether ball...




Little brother hits big brother in the nards, then points and laughs. :)


We had hours of fun on a surprisingly warm fall day. I almost didn't even miss the pumpkins. Maybe the yummy kettlecorn distracted me. :)

Halloween '14

Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year. One would assume a Friday Halloween would be ideal--all week to anticipate, and then no alarm the next morning. But one would be wrong, if you're me. A busy week at work completely distracted me, and the (very unusual) 5:45 wakeup call from Lorelai the next morning had me completely regretting the extra candy and later bedtime.



We also completely neglected to get any real pumpkins, so I had to go with fake ones on the porch. We put off going to the pumpkin patch until the weekend before, and by that time, it looked like really slim pickings on the field (based on some fugly ones people were bringing back), plus we were busy doing other things at the farm. So I figured I'd just stop by the grocery store on the way home one day that week...but it completely skipped my mind. Who forgets to get pumpkins for Halloween?!

At least the costumes were easy this year. Lorelai had been asking incessantly to be Elsa, but I told her probably not--those costumes were expensive! But just my luck, my sister-in-law had a beautiful Elsa-ish dress that no longer fit Lorelai's cousin Luca, so she brought it to us when we met them at Great Wolf Lodge. Lorelai LOVES this dress. It also has hip things (no idea what they're called) but that makes the dress lean more towards the Cinderella side, so Lorelai left them off for Trick-or-Treating.






Since she couldn't do a bounce house at her school carnival or run around a park with a full hoop skirt, we put together a second costume with her butterfly wings and a tutu.




Aidan and Logan ended up deciding on beards from Target, without any real plan. They just really liked the funny beards. In hindsight, we totally should have gone the ZZ Top route because we have a couple of play guitars--oh well. People assumed they were Duck Dynasty guys, but they were just non-specific bearded men. Grandpa and dad, according to Lorelai. Or, bearded Man...Chester United fans according to me (since they wore their jerseys to go with their Man U beanies they had to wear to keep the beard elastic in place).





Since the kids got almost a whole bucket full of candy last week from ToTing at my work, we only hit a few houses on Halloween night. Then they just hung out on the front porch giving out candy. Fun was had by all!

I'm still here

Hello...anyone still there? {Dusts cobwebs off this long-neglected blog of mine...} I'm still here. I've just been completely unmotivated to write anything. Or take many pictures. Or do anything with the few pictures I have taken. Sigh.

But we've been busy! The boys started soccer, we went to Great Wolf Lodge on their fall break, gave Lorelai's room a complete makeover, rode ponies at a neighborhood cookout, went to our favorite farm for some fall fun, did school projects, took Logan to urgent care for an infected wound, went to birthday parties and Halloween parties and fall carnivals and overloaded on candy. Whew!

So I've got lots to write about, and a handful of half-written posts that sit neglected on my computer. I just need to find some motivation and make time to finish them.

I miss my little blog and I know I will regret not documenting our happenings lately.