New Haircut

I got my hair cut today and donated it to Locks of Love. It's pretty short. I really like the back.


Here's the front. It's hard to take my own picture. I asked for side swooped bangs, but the stylist said that my hair insists on parting almost in the center and bangs would look funny.


Bill doesn't care for it, but perhaps it will grow on him.

I decided to write Sandy a memo today. I realize it doesn't do any good since she can't read. However, my explaining it to her doesn't seem any more effective, and it might make me feel better.

Memo to Sandy

Re: Sage, the Dog

1. If you drop food on the floor, the dog will eat it.
   
   
2. If you offer the dog a bite of food, she will take the whole thing.
   
   
3. Once the dog eats the food, it is gone. No amount of crying, screaming, "No! Sage! Mine!" or sticking your hands in her mouth will bring the food back after she has eaten it.
   
   
4. The dog's water dish is not for you to drink out of, bathe in, or fill with dog food.
   
   
5. Please don't pick up the dog's water dish. It is heavy and you will drop it on the tile floor and it will break. Just like the last water dish broke. And the one before that.
   

Fun Day

We had a really fun day today. First, we went to Bouncin' off the Walls for their mom-n-me bounce. For those that are local, you may want to check it out. Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. is for kids 5 and under. $5 per kid, adults and kids under 18 months are free.

Sandy had a great time! There was a gigantic slide that we went down five times -- and by lugging her all the way to the top I sure got my workout for the day. Sandy took a great nap today, though, maybe we should do this more often!

This afternoon we made Valentine cookies. I gave Sandy her own ball of sugar cookie dough, a roller, and a spoon. She had a lot of fun and it entertained her for longer than I expected.


Here's a short video of her playing with her dough:

Messes at Our House

The other day I was putting away cans I bought at the case lot sale. Sandy was "helping" me by retrieving cans as I stacked them in the storage room and making stacks in the living room. I went upstairs for a few minutes to make lunch and came down to find that she had found an open bag of flour. She decided to decorate Sage with it.


I'm glad I stopped to take some pictures, I don't often remember to do that. I often feel like cleaning at my house is a losing battle.

However, Sandy really does try to help. She knows she's not supposed to unroll the toilet paper. So this morning I found this:
I guess she figured it was okay as long as she put it back!

Markers

Sandy loves the washable markers my mom sent her. So far, she is pretty good to keep the markers on the paper, but if I don't watch her closely, she likes to decorate her dolls' faces (I hope we can break her of that before Abby arrives!). Today I was catching up on emails while Sandy was coloring next to me. Then I felt something wet on my face....


I guess I was really engrossed in my email because she got three good strokes before I realized what she was doing.

Name

Now that we know we are having a girl, the question everyone asks is, "Do you have a name yet?"

Yes...although, Bill reserves the right to change the name if he sees her and doesn't think it fits. (Of course, I'm already calling her by her name so by the time she comes out I think it would be hard to change.)

Abigail Aloha Buhler

We decided before we were married that we wanted each of our children to have at least one scripture name and one family name. Abigail Aloha was our first choice, but when we were pregnant with Sandy, we felt strongly that she needed to be named Sandra Ruth. (Sandra is after my grandmother.)

We love the story of Abigail in the New Testament. It also happens to be the name of one of Bill's cousins who died as a child so we've been a bit hesitant to share our name until we'd communicated with Bill's aunt to let her know first. She is quite ill, but her daughter was able to read her an email from us and sent back a lovely note. Abigail was also about the only scripture name we liked that we thought would work with the middle name.

Aloha is my great-grandmother's name. The "h" isn't pronounced (AH-lo-ah) rather than the Hawaiian (ah-LO-ha).

I'm excited for my daughters to have names that connect them with the scriptures and with their ancestors. We've picked women whose examples we hope they will follow. I'm excited to share with them my feelings about each of these women.

Videos & Baby Clothes

Here are a couple of new videos of Sandy.

First, a short one of Sandy playing with her roller coaster beads. I was trying to get some pictures of her playing with this first and so by the time I started the video she was almost done playing. Notice her black church shoes. She insists on wearing them every day now.



Second, here is a rather long video of Sandy playing with the doll my mom sent. She talks quite a bit at the end.



I really am very excited to have two girls, but today as I was looking through clearance racks picking up some things for Sandy for next year, I was sad not to be getting anything for the new baby. But she really doesn't need clothes - even Sandy's holiday outfits should fit her. Then it hit me. Every set of sisters needs matching dresses, don't they?

Check out these Christmas dresses for next year:

We Love Giraffes

Check out this adorable giraffe outfit:

And here's a close-up of the coat:Everywhere we go we get comments on this coat. If they had it in my size, I'd get one for me!

Projects

I thought I'd share pictures of some projects I've been working on. First, these crocheted flowers on barrettes:
I found this video tutorial on crocheted flowers.

I also have two sister-in-laws that had baby girls in December, so I made matching nursing and carseat covers. I'd made a set this summer while I was visiting my mom. It was a lot easier and faster with her there helping!

Here is Julie's carseat cover:

Here is Julie's reversible nursing cover:

Here is Heather's carseat cover:

Here is Heather's reversible nursing cover:

It's a....

GIRL!

We are having another girl, I'm glad she cooperated for the ultrasound this morning. I'm excited for Sandy to have a sister, and it doesn't hurt that they will be born in the same season so that we can use all of Sandy's clothes.

Happy Birthday, Shaun!

We celebrated Shaun's birthday on New Year's Day. I thought it was adorable how the cousins in attendance all crowded around to watch him blow out his candles.



Sandy's last chance for awhile to see her Uncle Richard, she'll miss him when he is back in Atlanta:

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with the Elliss Family. It was a fun evening with yummy soup and great company. Of course, due to Sandy's bedtime, we were home by 8.

She stopped to say good night to her kitchen:
And then crashed on the floor with Sage:
Then Bill and I watched a movie. We didn't quite make it to midnight either. Ah, how our lives have changed!