McKenna's first "real" haircut

I trimmed McKenna's bangs about one year ago but haven't ever taken anything off of the length. RJ loves her long hair and didn't want me to cut it. I love her long locks too but it was a fight to brush her hair and it was getting close to that line where hair goes from beautiful to drab. The ends were dead and I convinced RJ to allow it to be cut. I don't know that he agreed to let me do it but I wasn't about to spend $20 on a child's haircut.

She was excited the morning I told her we were going to cut her hair. She brought out the clippers (that I use on Hunter) and the cape. She climbed up on the stool and sat more still than I have ever seen her sit. I was happy that she was enthused. I put a rubber band in her hair so that I could keep her little pony in her baby book. When I tried pulling the rubber band down so as not to cut off too much, she screamed and wiggled because it was pulling on her hair. I stopped and decided to cut it off where it was.
"Before"

"After"

She saw her curly pony tail sitting on the counter and said, "mommy, put my pony back on." I tried to explain that I couldn't. I tried to cheer her up with compliments and Hunter joined in. She was not having any of it. She was mad.

Nasty glare

She cried and I had to cuddle her on the couch with her pink blanket for quite a while before we could move on with our day. I had no idea that it would be such a tramatic experience for her.

House Hunting Trip

RJ told me on the phone before I got to Minnesota that he was given a sporty-ish car to get around in for a few weeks.

I didn't think much of it until I saw how popular he was everywhere we went. He got comments from every Tom, Dick, and Henry on this car. I didn't realize how much power a car could give you. My theory is that men who drive expensive cars must be lacking in some area in their lives. I think RJ is just as hot (if not hotter) standing in front of our 2002 minivan. It shows that he's a family man. He is committed and has priorities. He is not at the top of his own list.

We had extra time between most of our appointments. We decided to stop by the local park, eat our lunch and play for a minute. If Beth had seen us, she would have confronted us for being at a park without children. It was weird not pushing the kids on the swing or hearing them say "watch this mommy." I had fun with RJ but I missed the kids often too. We tried to utilize our "free" babysitting time. We went out to eat twice, enjoyed a clean comedy club impromptu show, a movie, a temple session and sitting around a quiet apartment.

I'll catch you dear! Wee!

3,2,1 blastoff!

On Saturday, we went to the St. Paul temple. It looks a lot like the Medford temple. It is small. You have to bring your own temple clothes and they only have a handful of sessions a day. We were asked to be the witness couple. It was special.

I was amazed at how "small" the church is out there with such a large population. I assumed that there would be at least one ward building in each city (if not more). I never saw one of our churches while driving around but there were tons of other denominations with huge cathedrals.

We took a long walk on Sunday and found a few of these churches in the area.

This is a picture looking back at the city as we started entering a more residential area.

We rested on a bench in the park after walking for more than an hour.

It's kind of ironic that I don't have any pictures of houses on my house hunting trip but I didn't have batteries in the camera for the first few days. We saw some pretty dumpy places as well as real contenders. The process was not near as smooth as I anticipated it would be. We waffled between choice A and B. Finally we committed to option B. We went to the temple, attended their church meetings and made a special trip to get the information we needed on the application. When we called to make sure we could meet with the management team first thing in the morning, they said that they had already received an application. Option A became our fall back incase we couldn't find anything else. We went back to the drawing board and came up with two other viable options. We couldn't see either of them while I was still in town since I was flying out Tues. morning. One of the places that we felt good about was all of a sudden no longer available the first of September. After one more let down in Inver Grove Heights, we decided to go to our fall back option. When we called him, he said he had another couple interested who would get back to him by noon the next day. We could not believe our luck (or lack thereof)! We were in a major time crunch with giving the movers the appropriate length of notice and arranging for Hunter to start school. Fortunately, "the other" couple didn't get back to Adnan by noon and he accepted our application! We sqeezed by on the criminal back ground check and now we have an address!

Around the House

I should have taken a picture before RJ rented the tractor and leveled the dirt. It would have made a better "before" picture.

It was quite a mess. There was dirt all over the sidewalk and mounds in the driveway.

Here is an "after" shot of the backyard with the new fence. Wow! What an improvement!

RJ worked like a dog for several days and did a great job. We will be sad to say good-bye to this house.

Hunter had a great time digging up potatoes.

McKenna loves daddy's garden too.

Baby Shower/Going Away Luncheon

My super sister, Beth, organized a baby shower/going away luncheon for me at Applebee's. I looked forward to it all week and it was great fun.

I had my glucose test on Monday before the shower and the phlobotomist said that I looked further along than I was. It wasn't the first time I had heard that. A lot of people have commented on my size. I decided to wear a sign to explain it all so people would stop asking. It said, "I know I am HUGE but I am not having twins and I am not due until Nov. 5th."

My wide shot

Mom drove over for the event and bought my lunch and dessert (YUM). Thanks for coming Ma.

My go-to girl

Laura Leon (surprised me by switching her plans around and driving up from Eugene. We went to High School together. You're awesome Laura!), Beth (and Gannon who's not in the pic), Me, Mom, Carda (drove down from Hillsboro. What a great sister-in-law), Jaylyn Nunn (who squeezed me in between work and tutoring) and Tara McIllmoil (who had to scramble for a babysitter at the last minute to make it). I'm so grateful to those who came. I had so much fun. I also have to mention my dad who stayed home with my little munchkins.

Present time! Jaylyn gave me binkies of all varieties. I hope this one will take a binky but not be overdependant on it.

side note* so Beth drove me over to Applebee's and had several gift bags in her car. I assumed that some of them were intended for other people but she told me to grab them all and bring them in. I had previously threatened her and mom with their lives not to give me any more gifts since they have already given me a plethera of wonderful things.

I opened bag after bag from Beth because she wanted me to have a lot to open. She ordered this cute diaper wipe container disguised in material and ribbons. She also made me an awesome necklace and bracelet and a bracelet for my little wonder.

Christine wasn't able to make it but delivered these great burp clothes to Beth to bring me. She also gave me a special cover for the carseat and fun headbands with detatchable flowers.

Tara gave me these adorable slipper/shoes and hat. I'm so excited to put them on the baby.

As mentioned earlier, mom has also gone overboard on gifts. She gave me a bag of the necessities (nursing pads, lanolin, gel pads, and baby bath stuff). She also made this cool collage of what the blessing dress will look like and the materials she used. It is going to be beautiful!

Here we are with satisfied tummies

Special women (and Gannon)

McKenna really likes to look at and hold Gannon. I hope she is equally fond of her own baby sister.

Hunter is happy to hold Gannon even if the feeling is not mutual.

I really like how he's looking down at Gannon in this picture. I think he is going to be a big help with our little girl.

RJ's 32nd Birthday!

I made RJ a triple layer lemon cake from scratch with a lemon curd filling. I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. It may not have been the most beautiful cake on the outside but it sure tasted good. Don't you love birthdays?

We ended up celebrating RJ's birthday at Matt and Carda's because they were so kind to take the kids for a few days so we could get things moving with the house. We drove up to pick the kids and capitalized on our opportunity to share some cake and BBQ too.

I don't know why RJ chose to put 6 candles on the cake but even then, he needed Hunter's help.

McKenna's gift to daddy was to throw away all of her sippy cups. In all honesty, I'm the one who threw them all away. She was totally caught unawares and not very happy about her offering.

I recycled a bag that I received containing a baby gift for our little girl. RJ was a grateful recipient reguardless.

He's going to have to wear a shirt and tie to work 3 days a week in Minnesota so I found this fun set. I also got him some socks and ordered "The Mocking Jay" the third book in a sequal that we are reading together and really enjoy.

Happy Birthday Babe. I love you!