It's time for some haircuts!

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER!

AFTER!
Alex's hair was getting kind of messy-looking. He has such fine baby-like hair, and it was getting whispy and long by his ears.
I cut it using the clippers and several different guards. He did a great job! :)

Molly's haircut

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER!

AFTER!
Yes, Molly got her hair cut! She donated it to Locks of Love, an organization that uses human hair (must be 10" long or more) to make wigs for kids who don't have hair. She looks so cute with this shorter hair! She did a great job at the salon, too.
I'm not entirely happy with the cut, but I'll get over it. I asked for a bob and she did more of a wedge cut...shorter and layered in the back. It's still really cute, though. :)

Locks of Love

Here are more photos of the hair cutting experience.
Here is Molly in the chair. Look at all that pretty hair!

Here she is getting right before her pony tail was cut off.

Molly holding her hair!

Yay!

faces

Uncle Nick was here yesterday afternoon. Molly was SO excited to play her Diego game with him. See Molly's open mouth with tongue sticking out? That's how she likes to smile for photos now. Nice, huh?

Today we walked to a park, and Molly got to ride her bike there. While we were at the park, Alex stopped playing and came over to her bike. He wanted the helmet on, and he wanted so badly to ride her bike. He can't reach the pedals, but he was so happy to be on the bike. Look at his face. It's his, "I'm so proud of myself. I'm a big boy!" face. :)

Artwork and the messy eater

I was surprised to find that we have a new piece of art on our wall. (Normally we reserve the front of the fridge for all child masterpieces.) Molly drew this picture AND taped it too the wall. I think she used enough tape. :)

Alex will be 2 in November, and he is still really messy when he eats. The above photo shows what happens when Alex eats spaghetti. I was smart enough to take off his shirt, but not smart enough to remove the pants too. Oh, and bibs and booster seats are for babies, in case you didn't know. Alex will scream and scream endlessly until either he can get the bib off or until we take it off, so we've just given up on bibs. Nice. :)

Today we had tacos for lunch. This is what the chair and floor looked like after Alex ate (that's mostly cheese and black olives). Not only is he messy, but he'll also randomly spit out his food. It's a lovely habit. Often he'll stuff his mouth so full of food that after chewing a while, he'll realize he cannot swallow, so he spits it out. Other times he just sees something else he'd rather eat than what's in his mouth. Nice. I'm just thankful for easy-to-clean hardwood floors!

After we finished eating, I started to clean up the table, and Cory turned the TV on for Molly and Alex to watch. That's never a good idea if you want them to be helpful, but at least we can clean while they sit still watching. While we were cleaning up, Cory started singing the "clean-up" song, only he changed some words.
Cory: Clean up, clean up, every mommy and daddy everywhere. Clean up, clean up....
Molly: That's not how it goes, Daddy! It's clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!
Cory: Wow, that's a great song. Is everybody doing their share?
Molly: Yeah, you are doing your share.
Cory: I think I'm doing your share too.
Molly: I'm doing my share of watching TV.

Priceless.

More Stories

Molly rode her bike home from church today. Cory was walking next to her, and they saw some trash in the grass next to the street. Molly was NOT pleased.
She said, "Somebody threw their trash in the grass. That hurts our earth. Sometimes people throw trash into the river, and we have to save the fish!"

I (Emily) had a meeting after church, and Cory said he got home with the kids and told them that he had to figure out what to make for lunch. Molly told him, "Relax, Dad, I've got it figured out. We're going to have macaroni and cheese!"

Stories

We were at Mall of America this evening. We had told Molly and Alex that if they were good while we were shopping, we would stop and play at Lego Land before going home.

While we were walking in the mall, Molly said, "Mom, I want to play at Lego Land for 20 whiles."

At first I was confused, and then I realized that I'll often say she can play for "awhile" which Molly must think means 1 while. "1 while" apparently isn't long enough, so she asked for 20. :)

I told her that would be fine, and then she said, "Ok, we will play and then we can leave at fifty-four."

Ok, Molly. :)

When we were on the way home, Molly said that she wanted to play longer. She said she had gotten to play for only 11 whiles. I guess we will have to go back soon. :)

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I shared the photos of Alex trying to wrestle Molly in the pool. Well, now Alex has decided that he can wrestle Cory, too. He is so funny about it. This morning, Cory was standing in the living room talking to me, when all of a sudden Alex just ran at Cory and grabbed Cory's legs while trying to push him down and tackle him. It was hilarious. Cory got down on the floor and let Alex really tackle him, and Alex thought it was the best thing ever. It was funny.

Alex still loves to flirt with strangers. He will try so hard to charm people and get them to look at him, and then he'll act all shy and hide his face. Then he'll keep looking to see if they are watching him. Silly boy. :)

September!

Grandpa and Grandma Ehlebracht and Uncle Lee came here last weekend. Molly and Alex each got umbrellas, and they were a hit! Thanks for the help on the egress window holes, for Molly's birthday gifts, and for playing games with Molly. She loves that!

First day of Preschool!
Molly's first day of preschool for this year was yesterday. She LOVED it. :)
She will go to preschool on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons this year.

Fun at the State Fair!

We went to the State Fair on Molly's birthday. We LOVE the fair, and we all had a great time. :)
The foot-long corn dog was a big hit!

Alex liked it too!

The "Little Farm Hand" area is really cute. Molly and Alex thought it was great.

I (Emily) took Molly into the Butterfly House. It was a really cool building with an amazing amount of butterflies inside. You could put your fingers out in front of their front legs (when they were sitting on a tree branch or leaf), and they would walk right onto your hand. They also just randomly landed on people everywhere. There were people walking around with over a dozen butterflies on them.
Here is the funny part: Molly did NOT want them on her. She kept ducking and trying to keep them away. In the above photo, she had no idea that the beautiful blue butterfly had landed on her head! Eventually she was ok with having a tiny one on her, but not the huge ones. It was really funny.

Molly's Birthday Party!

Molly is 4! She had a really fun dinosaur party.
Here she and her buddy Calvin were goofing around at the table waiting for the cake.

Blowing out the candles! She didn't even wait for the song to end!

Molly and her friends loved playing "Stegosaurus, Stegosaurus, T-Rex" (like Duck, Duck, Goose).

Molly was excited to read a dinosaur book she was given.

Family Camp - Alex

We went to Family Camp at Trout Lake Camp last week. It was an AMAZING week. We had so much fun. There is just too much to write, but ask us about it sometime. We'll be back every year. :)

Fun at the beach.

Alex and Daddy at camp.

Family Camp - Molly

Molly rode a horse! She actually did it twice. She loved it! :)

Fun at the beach

Molly got her face painted at the carnival. She wanted a frog on her cheek!