happy birthday rayna!

i can't believe how fast you're growing up!

and happy breakfast!

a couple more cute pictures

these were last sunday, seriously folks, what's not to love?!

little lady



big girl

 

hehehe...



hair cut

just before easter i decided to chop it all off... it took weeks of me thinking about it before i determined that i wouldn't cry this time (like i did last time i chopped it). it just seems such a shame to not cut enough for locks of love, that i feel like i have to, but chopping 10+ inches of hair can be traumatic if you're as vain as i am.

before:

after:

i didn't cry (didn't even want to, maybe that means i've matured?). i did go back and even it up a bit in the middle especially. and i did "hide" the cut for a few days in buns and the like, til i got used to it. no one noticed til well after i started wearing it normally again, which sort of cracked me up (it's 11 inches folks, that's a lot of hair for a trim!). i'm still debating getting it styled or shaped or something, though i don't really have any ideas. it seems the only long hair styles now-a-days are long layers, and my hair is too thick for that. please send suggestions! (especially if they come with pictures)

mom run

today i participated in my first ever 5 km race! i know that's not far for all the marathoners in my extended family, but i was still proud of myself, and wonder if i have to keep signing up for races to motivate myself to keep running... i can tell it's good for me, but i still don't like it very much (though it should get easier as the semester ends for paul and he's home more evenings, it's really hard to find the motivation to go running at 10 pm!) it was an especially fun race i think, because kids <5 could do a little 50 yard dash and they all won medals, so afton and rayna had a blast doing that. some of our good friends ran with us, and i think we all felt okay about how we ended up too. i was in 7th for my age group (out of only 17, but who's counting?!) at 31.5 minutes. here's some pics from our morning:



afton stretching



rayna "stretching"



yep, another stretching picture, they cracked me up! i've never seen them stretch before running around before i didn't even see anyone else stretching out around them!



me and my girls getting ready to run! (ps, the lime green and dark purple were intentional)



all the kids lining up to dash 50 yards. they ran lots of small groups so 4-6 kids ran each "race" (we're right in the middle with our friends)



rayna wanted mommy to run her race with her, we did good! that's rayna's best friend dallin with his daddy next to us. dallin's actually a great runner, but he was having a 2-yr-old moment. i think he ran his own race later.



afton with her "badge" (she didn't want a medal).
*note the tip-toes




and rayna won too!




baby birds

we'd been watching a little nest in the bush just outside our front door for about a week when suddenly on malachi's birthday, we saw something new! (i wish i'd thought to take a picture of the eggs before they hatched) here they're all asleep, but the first time we saw them after they'd hatched, they were all awake and crying for food, it was cute, but i rushed the kids inside rather than take a pic because i knew the parents avoid the bush when we're outside (gee, a trio of crazy kiddos under 5, i'd avoid them too... if i were a bird!). they're really cute though! and we check on them probably 3 times a day now :)

it's hard to get a good picture cause i'm so short...

malachi's birthday

as i mentioned earlier, malachi had a birthday! we had a fun day playing with friends and not taking naps (at least, not long enough!); and we were happy to have grandma and grandpa bring some aunties down for dinner and a little party. i'm just sorry we were all so tired and had to keep it so short :(. 

in other news, afton and rayna had a great time opening presents:



a new lawnmower!

can you guess what this one is?

grandma also brought balloons, which all three kids had a blast playing with all afternoon today!

there were also some other toys: a blue baby doll (chi LOVES babies!), a truck and car set, a rubber duck, and some treats and cards. 

and of course, there was cake!!!



malachi didn't hesitate to pick up his cake as soon as it hit the tray (the girls 'helped' him blow out the candle before we gave it to him) and shove it in his mouth. i love this picture because you can see how he scrunches up his nose as he takes a bite :).




and after some ice cream too, this was one happy 1 yr old!

  and for those that might care, this was the cake before we cut into it:

1 year

this past year has gone by so incredibly fast... i still can't believe that i have a baby, let alone a toddler! so here's a quick year in pictures, hopefully worth more than my thousands of words could be:

brand new

 

peek-a-boo




1 month



2 months

  

blessing day

 

yummy



and all of the sudden, he's standing!

 

goofy sisters



new teeth (though they don't show in this pic)



on the move



ta-da!!!

happy birthday baby boy!

dance parties

we like to dance a LOT around our house (no we're not any good at all, but it's fun!) and we frequently have mini-dance-parties, some of them in costume. (ps, when we have costumes we don't even need music!) here's a few pics of some of my recent favorites:

i don't even think the kissy-face was intentional, but it cracked me up!

can you see the concentration as she shakes those hips?!



afton's surprisingly graceful when she keeps her feet still ;)

 

too cute! maggie, this party was in honor of your birthday (and early bath time), they got to dress-up before bed :)



we also LOVE kung-fu panda around here, and watch it roughly 3x/week, at least in part. and the girls' favorite parts are the fight scene at the end (aka, the funny part) and the credits. there's always a lot of kung fu, dance, and jumping mixed together. the tv's pretty quiet, but you can hear the kung fu fighting song in the background,

and some more of the jumping,

 i LOVE this girl's curls!!! (and even her dress floating up!)



i think this one may be my favorite action shot ever!!! afton's got jump!!!!!!

first hair cut

so, i've always though malachi's curls were cute :)

but a cousin pointed out he's started to look a little like an oompa-loompa...

 unfortunately, daddy and grandpa both agreed he was getting a little girly, and needed a trim at least around the ears... which would have meant a mullet, which i was not going to let happen. so this is what happened:



(sorry he looks a little drunk, he was blinking when i snapped the shot)



he doesn't seem to mind at all... and i've evened the last of the curls up a little too