Shave and a Haircut.....

Cameron got his very own shaving kit for his birthday from our sweet friends, Kevin and Alexa. He absolutely loved it! As it turned out, so did most of the other kids. They were trying to work out deals or trades to get their turn to "shave". They were pretty much all shot down because Cameron wanted it to last for a long time, and let's be honest, he was really enjoying this power and control he was feeling! The kit was put in Mom and Dads bathroom for safe keeping, which is where I found Ashlee on the day of this photo shoot! Every picture, though hysterical to me, also elicits incredible gratitude in my heart that this was not a real razor! I took this pictures of her in action and she was not even phased by my presence. This post could also be labeled "Top 5 reasons why Ashlee should NEVER shave!

#1- it is hard to see in the picture, but she is pressing hard enough that she is indenting her cheek...

#2-Eyes? Need I even comment on this one?...

#3- the lips... That would definitely not be pretty....

#4-I accidentally put this pic on twice which means I missed the one with the shaving of the nose....

#5- we can't forget the throat and again she is seriously pressing hard!

A day or two later, in the same bathroom I might add, another event took place. This would be the momentous first haircut for Kian. I had been putting this off since I love his curls so much and was very afraid that after his haircut they would be all but gone. But, alas, it was time to even things up and shape it a bit since it was starting to take on a mullet shape. This gives an idea of how long it was down his back. So we did the haircut and saved most of the 1 1/2 inch pieces that we cut off. We only took video at that point so there are no stills of the action.

But here he is afterwards still smiling(sort of!)!

And the curls remain!!! Yeah!!!

Painting!

John has been doing some more painting which has seemed to be a great stress reliever for him. He really enjoys it( when he's not frustrated that things are not turning out exactly as he pictured!) I have been trying to take pictures of each of his canvas's as he finishes them. Since some of them are just "practice." Kian had been watching and trying to help John with some of his paintings. John had finished this one about an hour before and I had not yet taken a picture of it. John had not been happy with it and left it in the office. We were getting things ready for bed when I walked down the hall to see this (thankfully the camera was close by!)

My first thought was that John had scribbled over it since it was not "perfect", though I thought that was a little out of character for him. Then I saw Kian and the brush, and he said, "see I paint."

Here is the close up of the damage. Thank goodness it was a practice picture!

This is John cleaning his easel which he was much more concerned with than the painting.

This is actually his most recent one and for some reason when I was uploading it, it was put on in this slot. Anyway, it is definitely my personal favorite so far!

and, this is one that he did a few weeks ago that has a little more " spring in the air!" We are all enjoying watching him paint. The kids are eagerly awaiting their turn. Tori even convinced him to buy her some canvas when they were on a daddy/daughter date yesterday. She has some beguiling ways, that girl does! Stay tuned for more to come!

ummmm.... a not-so-brief summary?

Well, in the craziness of life these past few weeks, I have kept a small list of thing that I wanted to blog about, as I consider this to be our family "journal". This is a picture of Cameron's B'day cake, decorated of course, by our resident artist, John. Cam turned 4 on August 10th and he has told me for almost a year that what he wanted for his birthday was a pinata.

So, this is a picture of the pinata after a few whacks when we realized that we hadn't taken a picture of it yet!

Here is Cameron in action! The stick broke before the pinata so we had to move on to a junior golf club. We were a little nervous, but thankfully no one was injured! Eventually the pinata gave in to the thrashing and the looting began!

It was a fun evening with our family and our friends the Galbraiths, and Cam was a happy kid!

My 15 year old brother Jake came for two weeks to hang out with us and the time really flew by! It was such a great experience to really get to know eachother and even more fun to discover how very much alike we are! The kids definitely appreciated having someone else around to play with. We did lots of fun things to try and keep him entertained. We went to one of the local museums and then out to lunch at BW3'S one day. That was quite the adventure!

3 of the boys using jake as a chair after they mummy rolled him

Funny moments!

We obviously had to take Jake to the Beach so that he could see that. That was also a really fun day. We were minus John, who had to work, so that was sad, but the weather was perfect! This is a picture of Cam doing a dance and if this picture were bigger you would be able to see the look on that girls face. It is very amusing.

Kian did not venture into the water, but had a good time on the sand.

a great candid of Uncle Jake and the 4 oldest kids!

Braxton

I was taking a picture of Ashlee and Kian and due to the camera delay and the bright sun, I was not aware I had caught this picture until we got home. It is Ashlee in the act of dumping an entire bag of crackers! She had earlier dropped a couple of the crackers, and was very excited when the seagulls flew very close to retrieve these! So, naturally, it would seem logical to dump the entire bag and have lots of seagull friends, right!? Exactly!

Camera scope, and once again, delay, did not allow me to catch the moment in it's fullness, but needless to say, she had many seagulls come to visit and she quickly began trying to catch one!

Tori being buried

Cam having his turn!

We went to Warren Dunes so that Jake could have a chance to climb the massive sand dune. Here is everyone starting the climb!

Jakey and Kian at the top!

Jakey and Kian back down at the bottom. Whew!

After Jake left for home we had one week left before school to entertain ourselves so I took the kids to the park a couple of those days so they could soak up the outdoors before they would be spending the majority of their days indoors! We had a few bumps and bruises, sadly but I did not take pictures.This is Kian at the top of a very big slide.

Ashlee on the monkey bars...very appropriate for our little monkey!

Kian taking chances!

The older kids after spending 45 minutes at a skate park with their skate shoes!







THE FIRST dAY OF SCHOOL

And so, the summer ended and the day arrived to begin another school year! This is my Ashlee in a dead run for the school bus as she was to begin her first day of Kindergarten. She was VERY excited!

Kian wanted to have his moment in front of the camera!

JJ Tori and Brax

Braxton, Tori, and Ashlee( the scab on the nose gives you an indication of some of the park induced ouchies!)

Braxton and Cam having a sweet moment! School has begun!!!

Is there anything he can't do?

A couple of weekends ago John decided to try his hand at oil painting, something he has talked about for years. We had seen a starter kit at Hobby Lobby that had the basics you would need, ie:paint, some brushes, an informational DVD,etc. So we bought the kit and one canvas and waited about three months to find a weekend when there wasn't 6 thousand things going on, and that weekend finally came!

The kids were pretty excited about this as well, so he had lots of company to start! When it was finally time for bed they wanted to be sure that the painting would still be in the house in the morning, and that he wouldn't be giving it away over night. The funny things that kids worry about!

It took him about 2 1/2 hours from the time he brought everything to the counter until clean up was complete. Not bad for a maiden voyage. As it turns out, he VERY much enjoyed himself and it seems he has another hobby. I love to watch him do things that make him so happy. Of course, the perfectionist side of him was frustrated throughout the process and at the end as I sat in awe and watched the picture develop before my eyes. How many people can watch a DVD and essentially repeat the process simultaneously? Not me, anyway. He has always been an artist at heart.

So Golf and Oil painting. John clearly has expensive taste in his hobbies! It would seem noteworthy to mention that we have since purchased 9 more canvas( they happened to be 50% of last week) more brushes and paint (thank you EBAY) and a few additional supplies. Let the fun, and the masterpieces, begin!!