This is What You Get

When you take your kids to a real salon for a hair cut. . .
(This is Kimberly's a Hair Studio in the basement of my sister's new house)

This is what you get.
When you let Dad do it in the bathroom at home. . .
This is what you get.
Carter, of course, loves his new "Reggie Bush" hair cut. Mom, on the other hand, prefers Derek's!

March Madness

This March, we have been rooting for the "Wolfpack." What?! You've never heard of them? It's a great little Nine Mile Falls team consisting of one clueless kid, a really tough defender, a couple of ball hogs, a super shooter, and above all, a really great, dedicated coach!

The Hamilton Crew

We had this picture taken at Christmastime. I thought it turned out really cute. I wish Derek wasn't hiding in the back, but 3 out of 4 kids looking cute is not bad!
From left: Karyna and Keith, Lori and John, Norm and Ele then us!

Baby of the Year

Contestant #1: Olivia Hamilton

Talents and admirable qualities:
Sleeping through the night (since 2 weeks old. . .with the occasional bad week, but never enough to make her cry it out).
A great eater! As you can tell by the squash on her face and the rolls on her thighs, this girl loves to eat. We have not given her anything she hasn't liked.
The girl is flexible (literally and figuratively). She loves to suck on her big toe and is guilty of constantly pulling her socks off to get at it. Her napping and sleeping schedule has to be so flexible because of preschool drop-offs, ballet, soccer, etc. She misses naps often but rarely makes me pay for it. In her short life, I she has spent more time in this seat than probably anywhere else!

Easily entertained. Give her a laundry basket to play with and she's a happy camper. Just the littlest bit of attention from a sibling or parent and she is giddy!

Congeniality? She is Miss Congeniality. She smiles at EVERYONE and makes you feel like you are the most interesting, exciting, and special person who has ever cooed at her.

Sadly, she is already leaving my favorite stage (sitting up but not moving much). She is officially crawling so we may be saying "adios" to our baby of the year. I am an experienced enough mother to know that things can change at the drop of a hat. For now? I am basking in the pleasantry of this AMAZING baby!

Monster Jam

Keith is such a fun uncle! He called and told Garth he wanted to take the kids to Monster Jam. The truth is, he was probably dying to see it and the kids are a good excuse to go!

We decided Carter and Syd were the only ones old enough to handle the noise (even with ear plugs). They had pretty good seats at the end of the arena so the trucks looked like they were heading right for them.






Mmmmm. . . cotton candy!

Right toward the end, Sydney looked at Garth and said "Can we go home yet?" Like she had been just tolerating the event. I guess the noise, the dirt, and the nauseating smell of exhaust had pegged her fun meter for the night.

Many thanks to Keith for initiating such a fun outing!

Cake, Cake, and more Cake!

It began last Sunday with cake at my Mom's to celebrate Sydney and cousin Sadie's birthdays.
And leftovers on Monday.
Then there were cupcakes Wednesday night to bring to preschool on Thursday.
Norm and Ele picked Syd up from preschool Thursday and since it was her actual birthday, gave her her very own cake.
We ate leftovers of that after a lasagna dinner (her request) and hours of playing with her new Littlest Pet Shop toys.

It continued Friday with this cake for her "friend party."

She requested an artist party so we went to Polka Dot Pottery to paint and eat more cake.





Finally on Sunday Garth's mom came to round off the celebrating. We ate the last of the cake.
The funniest part was Sunday at church when I got asked to bake a cake for the Relief Society birthday celebration this week. Just in case I hadn't eaten enough cake already.
How many hours of running do you think I have to do to burn off all that frosting?

Black History Month

Last week, Sydney told me she was going to draw me a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. When she got done, she looked at it with a look of total disgust. Then she looked at me and said "it looks like a GIRL. . . Oh well, I guess it is Martin Luther Queen."