The beginning of the end

Of diapers that is! Today is the first day of potty training with Halli. I decided I'm ready for her to be out of diapers. She is excited and interested in it so we went and picked out some panties and have her running around in them today. She's already wet in 4 of the 7 pairs we bought....hopefully she'll figure this out soon. I'm taking her to the toilet every 20 minutes...I guess maybe I need to make it every 10. Any suggestions or help here would be appreciated-I don't like potty training!!!

This is the story of a girl (and boy)

There once was a young maiden who was ruler of her castle. Any wish she made was quickly granted. She had the entire household in the palm of her hand.
One lovely summer day she decided to get all dolled up and enjoy a nice afternoon outside. The king and queen thought she look especially nice so decided to take some photos.Princess Halli wasn't happy about it, but her older brother prince Carson got some pictures taken too.Then they had to take some together. She decided it would be better for the pictures if they held hands...at least for one photo.The queen requested that a photo be taken of she and princess Halli. The princess first tried to stand in front of the queen, and after many attempts the castle photographer was able to get a decent shot with Halli beside the queen...not directly in front.Today was going to be a special day for the princess. She had a big party to attend that evening, so she wanted everything to be perfect for it. She demanded that her carriage be cleaned and shined for the big party. Of course she put Prince Carson to working scrubbing and scouring. Once she saw how much fun Carson was having she decided to join in (an apparently do so topless...sorry)After all the hard work she took a break and stopped to smell the roses...or daylilies.Excitement and adventure were on her mind so she decided to try out tree climbing for the first time. She wouldn't let the queen or king tell her climbing was too hard. She went inside and found a box to use as a stool so she could step up into the tree. She found climbing to be exhilarating. Carson was there to make sure she was comfortable.At last it was time to go to the party. Her first item of business was to go on the blow-up toy/slide/maze thingy. She was appalled at the length of the line, and couldn't figure out why there was a delay in excitement. After a horrendous wait (in little princess time) her time arrived to do a run through. It was the most fun she'd had all day!The party continued on. She enjoyed games, treats, prizes, balloons, music, dancing, and face painting. As the sun set in the sky she thought to herself, this has been the most magnificent day I've had all week. She rode off her in carriage, and returned home to rest her pretty little head and get her beauty sleep.

HAIRCUT

These photos turned out darker on here, but hopefully you can get the idea of my new cut. Here is the before photo. Before the cut, but right after a shower-my hair is wet.Here is the new look. What do you think? I love it. I love having short hair. I've always been scared to cut my hair, but I finally got the courage to do it and I love it. When I go back to have it cut again though I think I want it a little shorter, and I don't want the bangs. I got bangs cut, and I just don't like them...you can't even tell that I have them in these photos though so it is ok for now.

Say say my playmate

So I've been thinking about putting up a post for a little while, but I don't have much to post about. I feel like we've been playing all summer long and my life has been kinda out of order. This morning I realized that this was true...we have been playing all summer long and we have no set schedule (except nap and bed time). I've posted about most of the fun things we've done, but here's whats been happening for the past 3 weeks.

• I've been working out again...I took a long break this spring/summer so it's time to get back at it. I'm going at 5:15am three days a week with a friend to YMCA.
  
• I got a job working at a grocery store as a cashier...yes, I feel like I'm in high school again
  
• Ryan went on his first business trip-I guess he is all grown up now. He got to go to North and South Carolina. He really loved Charleston and keeps saying he wants to move there.
• Ryan's sister Jenny came to be with us for the week Ryan was gone-we LOVED having her with us she helped me out so much!
• Carson completely occupied Jenny's time while she was here by making her tell stories and draw (two things she is AWESOME at) the entire week.
• Halli and I have been playing a lot with her kitchen set she got for her birthday
• We took 2 trips to Oklahoma (to retrieve and return Jenny)
• I've been listening to Catching Fire with all that driving...I'M TOTALLY LOVING the book, and am nervous/excited to see what is going to happen.
• The new Mockingjay book is on it's way to my house, via Amazon, so I can start reading it the moment I finish Catching Fire.
  
• My sister Aubry and hubby Michael came to visit for a couple days. They have to leave this morning, and we are sad to see them go. We always love having them here with us.
  

So with the departure of my sister this morning, our summer will officially be over. I guess it is time to get back on a schedule. So here's to the amazing summer of 2010!!

hot, Hot, HOT

It has been oh so hot here for the past couple of weeks so we haven't been going out going much of anywhere for the past while. I don't even like to go out and get the mail! So we've been enjoying out time inside doing silly things like thisIf we do go outside we stick to keeping in the water which has resulted in this a time or two...

Slow Going

I've been working on some projects, but it has been slow going lately. I've got a lot of plans and ideas, but running low on funds so I'm trying to find inexpensive things to work on..and get creative with my creativity. Here are my latest 2 projects #s 26 and 27
First I made some cupcakes, and a fun lunch for the kids one afternoon. The cupcakes took a while, but they were fun to make and really delicious to eat!
I also made some bracelets for Halli. They were so cute, and she loved them...too bad they were both broken 15 minutes after I put them on her. Hey though, at least I got a photo before they were ruined. I'll just have to put them back together one evening this week while I'm watching Lost. (We've been watching all the seasons so we could watch the final one-we're on 5 now so we're almost there!)I've got 2 more projects that are both half-way completed and will be done in the next couple of days. And another 2 that are in the works of getting started so hopefully I'll be able to stay on top of them.

Other happenings

We've been enjoying life since we've come home from our big trip this summer. Halli and Carson have been much nicer this week after catching up on sleeping and getting back to their regular schedules. They really did pretty good on our vacation too though, but it is always nice to get back in the routine. I went to girls camp with our church for a week 2 weeks ago. I had my friend Kristin braid my hair. I love it! It was so nice to not have to worry about my hair for a week. It kept me a lot cooler too. I think I'll have to have her do this to me once every 6 months or so. It was just a nice break from my hair.
We went on a rafting trip during camp, and it was a blast. These are the fun girls I got to spend the day with. I don't think any of them had paddled a boat before so it was fun to teach them how to control the raft. We only got stuck once!
This was after I took my hair out of the braids, but before I brushed it. It was a good bit bigger after I brushed it.
I'll be making another post soon, but I just needed to play catch up on all these posts. They aren't too exciting...the next ones will be more so-Promise.