Beauty and the Bruiser

Here's our little Beauty all ready for church.

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Did you notice the headband?

I made it myself and totally adore it!

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And here we have our Beast....oops, I mean Bruiser.

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This is what happens when you take on Dad and Tyler at the same time. I love when they all wrestle, but someone usually gets hurt. This photo was taken 4 days after the incident. You know, in the ugly greenish yellowy gray healing stage.

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I'm sure it won't be his last black eye,

but I can hope, right?

I am loving the cooler weather!

Genevieve and I decided it was perfect weather for hot chocolate and what goes best with hot chocolate?

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Homemade Marshmallows, of course!

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They are totally worth the sticky mess.

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Oh, and I came across a recipe for homemade pumpkin spice marshmallows yesterday. Can you imagine pumpkin marshmallows all melted and gooey in a cup of hot cocoa? Yeah, that's gotta be amazing! I'll let you know soon.

seven years old

Can you believe it? My Hayden is seven! CRAZY!
Wow, that means I'm like.....well never mind.
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Hayden woke up (at 6:45 very excited to start his celebration!) to this delicious baked french toast thingy. It was so yummy.
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Then we opened presents. Dad and I gave him 12 date cards. He can choose to take me or Dad on these dates throughout the year.
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Tyler picked out this star wars guy.
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Genevieve should never have gone with Dad to pick out presents because she really couldn't keep her mouth shut! I kept telling her to shhh and that it was a secret. But the next thing I know, she's saying....quite loudly and too clearly for a 2 year old...."I got an idea, give Hayden PEANUTS!" So, this next present was not a surprise at all.
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He loves peanuts and especially when they're in their shells.

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Let the party begin!

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We had a birthday party for Hayden on Friday. He was soooo excited! He decided to have a Halloween themed party.

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It seems as though all Hayden's friends knew how much he LOVES Star Wars. What a lucky boy to have such great presents from fantastic friends!
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Thanks to Kayla's fella, Bowe, we taught Hayden's friends how to sing Happy Birthday in Mandarin Chinese. They all just looked at us like we were totally crazy.
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This girl thought I wasn't looking and helped herself to another cupcake. Two cupcakes doesn't sound all that bad, but when you add in all kinds of candy plus a juice box....yeah, she was pretty sugared up!
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And here they all are with their pumpkins all dressed up like bats. It was a fun craft that I could not have pulled off without Teresa's help! Thank you Teresa for sticking around!!! You are my hero!
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Well, it looks like I am next on the birthday list. Hip hip hooooray!!!

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I love birthdays!!!

all dolled up

So, I was doing my hair and this cute girl comes in to get some supplies. She then sat outside my door and played beauty shop.
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Don't worry - the curling iron wasn't plugged in.
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Here she is.... all dolled up for the day. Lucky me had to take her out of the house looking like this. She insisted that she looked beautiful.

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Which of course she did......

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from the front.

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The back was.....let's just say.....interesting.

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After our detour....

Here is the reason for our whole vacation
Shane (on the left) was baptized and we wouldn't have missed that for anything!
We're so proud of you, Shane!
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The boys sure do love hanging out with their cousins.
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And Genevieve enjoyed following Cadence around. Cadie is 2 years older, but they're pretty much the same size. It was cute to see them interact.
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And of course it's always great to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa! Genevieve is still talking about feeding their horse a carrot.
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I really have nothing to say about this photo except....
HOW CUTE IS SHE???
I love that she's finally got enough hair to play with.
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We need more excuses to drive out and visit with family. It just doesn't seem to happen enough.