Hope's 1st haircut

The before.

She wasn't that thrilled with getting her haircut but once she could watch a movie she was just fine.

Miss Teresa has been cutting my hair for years and she also cuts Halli's hair. I wouldn't trust anyone else to cut my girls hair. She is wonderful with the girls!

The after! We only cut 1/2 and inch off. I didn't want the curls cut off. I'm afraid once there gone they won't be coming back. Can't wait till the front is as long as the back.

Good job Hope.

Gingerbread House Time!

This is Halli's gingerbread house. She had so much decorating it.

But what I think she most wants to do is..... eat it!

I love this sweet girl!

She does love getting her hands dirty. With a good project you should always get a little dirty!

Decorating the snowman. She was much better this year at decorating it herself. Next year she will probably do it all herself and Hope will have to get her own.

Let's get started! Halli has been asking to do her house since Dec 1st. It took awhile to find a gingerbread house and the time to sit and enjoy doing the house together. I didn't want to rush through all the Christmas activities this year. Some things got done later than usual but I think we enjoyed it more.

Hopefully my girls will have memories of doing fun things together

and not always being in a hurry.

Bakerella Comes to Portland!

I love Bakerella! She has an amazing blog! Cake pops are one of my favorites. I was so excited that she added Portland to her book tour stop. She was in Newport for Cupcake Camp. I'm sure it was amazing. Maybe someday there will be a Cupcake Camp in Portland.

Look at some of the goodies at the signing. Very cute!

Here she is doing some Q/A. Learned some hepful hints. Can't wait to start baking!!!

hmmm.....

It seems that I can't keep my blog updated like I should. I think I'm going to start posting every Monday and give an update of how our week has been.

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend. I went to take a picture of the girls jumping in the bouncy house and my camera didn't have the card in it. So, I couldn't take any pictures. I was very disappointed. I knew Hope was going to enjoy the pumpkin patch this year so much more than last year.

Halli and Hope loved doing all the fun things at the pumpkin patch. They loved the hay maze and going down the slide. I didn't enjoy the slide as much as they did. The landing needs to be worked on. Maybe add some padding at the bottom so the landing isn't so abrupt. My tail bone would appreciate it!!!

Halli loved the pony ride. Hope did not. I think mostly the girls just loved being outside and running around. Hope did want to take every pumpkin home. Halli wanted the biggest. They both got to take home a small pumpkin. They will be getting larger ones later that we will be carving.

Also this weekend we got to visit with our friend that lives in New Orleans. It's always nice to see him. Wish his wife and kiddos could have also come. We'll have try and get back there for a visit again. This was his first time seeing Hope. Of course he thought she was cute but could tell she is a hand full. Which she is!

That's pretty much our weekend. I'll have to remember all my camera next time so I have pictures to post. Off to the mall now to see Bakerella and get my cakepops book signed!!!

Birds

It's been awhile since I posted again! An update on Halli. After Halli's birds died I went on-line to the Humane Society. I found they had two canaries. Halli was beyond excited! We went that night and got the birds.

These birds like to fight. We think they are both females and that's not good. The smaller one keeps picking on the larger one. Halli want's to separate them. That's not going to happen. One bird cage is enough. Hopefully over time they will calm down and get along.

Will post pictures of the birds later.

Sad Halli

My sweet Halli has such a love for animals. She wants to be a vet. I think she just might do it. A few weeks ago Halli got to bring two birds home from Grandma's house. One of the birds she watched it hatch from an egg. She would sit by the cage and watch the mama bird take care of it and was waiting for the day that the baby bird could come home. It took awhile, but baby bird was finally ready to come home with Halli.

We went to Grandma's house to pick up the bird and Grandma had a surprise for Halli. She had bought a pretty orange canary for Halli. So now we had two birds. I'm not a fan of birds but Halli loves them. So we got the huge cage that Grandma bought into the car and the small bird cage with the birds into the car sitting right next to Halli. Halli couldn't stop smiling.

Halli has taken care of her birds every day. She loves to sit in her room and watch the birds. We can hear them make their little noises of the baby monitor.

Welll last night when Halli was going to bed I heard a horrible cry. I ran upstairs and dad was holding a crying Halli. Both of the birds had died. I held my Halli and cried right along with her. My heart breaks to see her in such pain. I know the death of a pet is part of life. I still remember when my cat died when I was in 4th grade. I think Halli will always remeber this as well. The birds will be buried at Grandma's house today. There is one other bird buried at Grandma's and Halli wants her birds to be next to the other bird.

We will see how the day goes. Halli may need some extra mom time today. It took three hours for her to fall asleep last night. I'm sure we will have more tears today. I'll will hold her and probably cry right along with her.

Summer

Well, it looks like it has been awhile since I posted. We are having a fun summer. We spent a week at Sunriver. The girls really enjoyed it! Halli learned how to swim and Hope wanted to swim. Hope thinks she can do everything by herself. She doesn't realize that she just not quite old enough to do everything by herself.

I took Halli to see a movie, "Ramona and Beezus". It was a very cute movie. Halli LOVED it. It was even better that Halli had read the books and that had parts of the book in the movie. Halli laughed so much through out the movie. Afterwards we went out for ice cream. It was nice to have some one on one time.

Also while on vacation, dad took Halli fishing. She really liked it. She liked it so much that she asked if she could go again. So they did. Sad to say, no fishes where brought home. That was ok. Halli liked playing with the worms and playing in the dirt.

We have been keeping busy this summer. We are currently having really hot days. I can't wait for it to not be in the 90's. I will try and get some pictures up of the girls.

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer!

1st camping trip of the summer

Enjoying some ice cream!

Baby girl loves to dance and sing.

Her own sand castle.

Miss Hope getting used to sand.

It was a wonderful weekend at the Oregon coast. It's not very often when you can wake up at the coast and not have a cloud in the sky. It actually was in the 70's the whole weekend. Halli spent most of her time outside playing. I think that girl could live outside. Hope was more interested in her Elmo video.

But, Hope did love the pool. I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get any cute pictures of Hope jumping into the pool. Next time!

Next trip is to Sunriver. :)

Kinder Graduation!

I can't believe my little girl has graduated from kindergarten! The year has gone by so fast.

I am so very proud of Halli. She has had an amazing year. Hal goes to a Charter school and it's amazing! She has learned so much in one year.

Halli's wonderful teacher, Mrs. Quigley. I don't know how she can get 24 kiddos to learn so much. She has such control over her classroom. Mrs. Quigley will be teaching 6th grade next year. So maybe Halli will have her again in a few years.

My sweet graduate!

Halli and her best friend, Sarah. Thank goodness they live close by each other so we can have lots of playdates this summer.

http://papertrunk.blogspot.com

Please visit my friends awesome blog to see her Rockabilly paper. Can't wait to get some and do some projects!

Poetry Night

"Sing a Song of Sixpense"

Halli had poetry night at her school. Each kiddo had to memorize a poem, recite it, have a costume and another project that reflected the poem. It was very cute to see all the kiddos. They did very well. I am soooo proud of her!

Texas here we come!

I am in Sweetwater TX today. My Grandpa had surgery and wasn't doing well. So my mom, brother and I hoped on a plane and headed to Texas. After waiting 2 to 3 hours for my suitcase to arrive and I already had, we headed out for our long drive.

It has been very nice visiting with my Grandpa and seeing other relatives. I will have to post pictures later.

My Girl is doing track!

Halli getting ready for the long jump. She jumped 5'4". I can't believe she jumped that far.

Look at her go!!!

Hall do the 100meter sprint. As she was running she was trying to find me. I was close to the finish line waving my arms so she could see me. I've never seen her run so fast. She came in 5th place out of eight girls. I'm so proud of her!!!!!

Mac Powell Family Testimony

Please turn music off at the side. I should probably just take that out.



ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Le4p6P8y8&feature=player_embedded

We finally got to spend some time outside this weekend. The weather was wonderful! Hope got to enjoy her first bike ride. She loved it! She also finally got to play on the outside toys. Too bad they weren't clean. Oh well, we can always wash clothes. The girls had a wonderful time. Enjoy the photos.

That really is a big smile even though it doesn't look like it.