St. Patrick's Day

A Leprechan came to our house this morning and made a mess. He even made it so Eliza's coat ended clear up on the fan.In the mess he left us a note saying that he had come looking for gold but couldn't find any. So all day Eliza tried to look for some gold so the Leprechan would come back. She set out some pennies for him and indeed he did sneak back during the day to get them. He left another note saying that he would bring her a treat later on.
We kept trying to have Liberty tell us where the Leprechan was hiding but she would not divulge the secret. Eliza wondered if he lived in the heater vent. Hm? Seems a little small to me.

She kept waiting in her green clothes and all, but he didn't come back until late that night after she had gone to bed. He left her some green snacks to munch on.

P.S. Thanks Desiree for telling the Leprechans about our house. We hope they come back next year. It made it a really fun day and something for Eliza to smile about.

Eliza gets her first major haircut

Eliza got her haircut once before when she was about 18months old to cut off her horrible mullet. But it was given by mom so this was her first time at a hair salon.

She was a little nervous about it as she first climbed into the chair. She was very explicite earlier in the day that she only wanted a trim and she was afraid that Don would "cut it short like mom's hair, and make it look like a boy."Eliza loved the cook sink that you got to wash your hair in. She thought it was pretty funny that you would wash your hair in a sink instead of a bath tub.

Don suggested that we take a little more off than a trim to get most of the hair the same length. We talked to Eliza about it and explained that it would make her look like Snow White. (Snow White is her favorite princess so she was convinced.) She thought it was funny that she had so many clips in her hair.

Another happy customer.

From Behind

Before

After

From the Front

Before

Hooray!

After

(Don let her pick her own special new clip to keep. She picked purple of course one of her favorite colors, pink being the other. She felt like a princess.)

She was a very good girl the whole time during the hair cut and Don was very impressed.

Libby is movin' now!

Liberty is walking like crazy now! I think I can even say it is her preferred way of getting around. She took her first step when she was about 10 months old. She took here first walking steps when whe was about 11 months. It was getting so frustrating because she would take a few steps and then loved to throw herself to the ground. She thought it was so funny. So I kept feeling like she had the ability to walk but just didn't want to. Then suddenly one day it clicked and she decided she liked walking. She has been a walking fool since. (This actually happened a couple of weeks ago and I kept waiting to post it because I wanted to have a video but I guess a picture will have to do! This is Eliza's photo work.)

My dream Twin Falls Trip

A couple of weeks ago we went up to Twin Falls for the weekend. It was one of my favorite trips (minus that Steph, Brandi, and their kids weren't there). We drove out to see the steel head fish farm. Rob wanted us to see these big fish so bad. He even tried throwing rocks into the pond. You could kind of see them from up top and they looked huge, but it was also just fun to look at the huge trout they had. Then we went to "Balanced Rock". It was a short fun little hike and perfect for Bob and the kids. ;) Just kidding Bob. It was pretty interesting to see and sad that someone had tried to destroy it. A chunk at the base of the rock had been blown out and then repaired. Interesting I thought. Now we'll never know when it would have naturally eroded and fallen. Anyways it was a really great time. Then later Rob got to go hunting with the brothers. I felt like it was a perfect combination of hanging out with the family and also letting Rob have some guy time. (I'll have to find out if Rob agrees.) I hope to do more outdoors things in Twin Falls because it really is such a beautiful place, especially that canyon.

Eliza's Lip Job

Last Friday, just as our two friends we had set up were arriving, Eliza split open her lip. Rob and I were both out of the room but later Eliza told us that she jumped from her feet to her bum on the couch and then went flying forward and hit her chin on the coffee table. After calling our expert brother Nate for advice we decided the cut (shown) should heal ok. So we decided to eat dinner. At the end of dinner Rob was concerned at how weird and swollen Eliza's chin looked so he looked more at Eliza's lip and found that she had a another cut right were the lip meets the jaw bone (like where you store chew, that is if you are a tobacco fan). It was more of a gaping cut so we called Nate again and he said he wanted to see it. So we ruined Nate's date night (sorry Des) and drove up to South Jordan.
After examining and discussing different options we decided we wanted to have Nate stitch it up. So we got Eliza mezmorized with a movie and then Nate gave her some laughing gas. I felt so bad because Eliza was just so scared you could tell. I could see that she was trying to be so brave but just at the verge of breaking into hysterical crying. She did pretty good just during the shots to numb her lip did she really scream and cry. She ended the event with some great kids prizes and a smile.

The next day her lip was so swollen. It looked like she had gotten a lip job and Rob thought it was so funny. He kept getting her to say that she had gotten a lip job to other people. Her stitches did not survive too long (I think they were bothering her and she bit some of them so much that they came out.) but it did seem to help with letting it heal closed. She still has one left on the bottom cut. Bost most importantly she is on some anti-biotics so that she won't get an infection. It was an adventurous night and I just thought wow am I glad to have brothers who are doctors.

Right after it happened, before we discovered the second cut.

Zoning out with laughing gas and the TV. Wearing her "elephant nose" and feeling a little nervous.Her "Princess Shoelaces" aka stitches
The finale of the lip job.
Doesn't it look extra pouty now?
GRRRRR

Day at the Park teaches a great lesson

So today we went to the park with the Teemants. It was such a beautiful day. (We even got kind of sunburned.)
While playing a city worker came by to dump some wood chips into the park play area. He backed into the area and dumped the wood chips. During this he had tried to move forward and the wheels just sunk into the ground. Long story short he got himself completely stuck in woodchips/mud. There were like four other families there (including 2 men) and we all just stood and watched as this man kept trying to get himself unstuck. I felt so laim just standing there watching, but I thought there are men here who will probably help, this guy doesn't want some girl to help, and I have kids to watch. I kept thinkin' "man I wish Rob was here, he would definitely go help this guy and most likely get him unstuck. I started talking to Amy about this and she agreed that her husband would do the same and that we were surprised these guys weren't helping. The man continued his attempt to get unstuck and finally we decided to approach him and see if he wanted help. He was more than happy to have some help. On the first try I thought we were going to get him out, but we didn't and it seemed to get worse after that. Another guy came over to help after a few tries but then said he didn't think the pushing was helping. So we abandoned the pushing. The truck was making slow progress, but progress.
Then these two guys dressed in all black with big chains and many peircings came by and asked if the truck driver wanted help. Again the driver was happy to have some help. It was so impressive these guys were the ones to assert themselves and offer to help. (They had walked by earlier before the truck had gotten stuck and I remember double checking to make sure I knew were Eliza was.) With their help the truck still couldn't get out. Finally a guy dressed in army clothes stopped by and had a big truck to tow the dump truck out. Everyone shouted hooray. There was a quite a large hole now in the playground and Eliza had brought her gardening tools, so the kids went to work repairing the playground. (see pictures)
Me and Amy chatted about what a good lesson this was on judging. The two guys who I would have thought to be the least likely to help were actually the ones who did and seemed so kind. After learning that I thought I probably shouldn't have judged the men who didn't help, maybe they had health problems or something and couldn't help.
It also was a good lesson about not waiting around to help and being sexist about it. I should have offered help much earlier and not have left it up to someone else, thinking they should offer. It was a great day. (I wish I could have described this in a more interesting way with less rambling, but I'm not that good of a writer. I just want to be able to remember this great moment of learning.)