A Hairy Situation

Moments ago I was holding Adam and I marveled at the fact that as he rested his head on my shoulder, his feet were resting in my lap. When did he go from being a tiny dark haired boy I could hold almost in the palm of my hand to a ten month old who moves, laughs, and babbles at siblings and toys alike? A lot has changed in the last ten months. One thing that hasn't is that hairy little head of his. When Adam was born, I remember the nurses commenting on his beautiful dark hair, and as I looked around at the other babies, I saw it was true that his teeny head the size of a lemon had been blessed with more hair than most. Even as his growth has stayed below the chart levels, that hair has excelled in wild growth. This rapid hair growth is not foreign to us. Noah was born with and kept quite a head of hair as that wanted to lay any direction but down and preferred to point sky high. Chloe, my only girl, whose head I would have loved to be full of beautiful thick hair to style at an infant age, did not fair as well, only acheiving a comparable level of hair at around 18 monthes.

Joe, who since I have known him has always kept his hair very short, felt that Noah's hair was too long and silly, took clippers to his hair at around 9 months, and now is requesting to do the same with this head of hair:

So do I hold firm to keeping that crazy mane that has been with him since birth and let it continue to sit wild and crazy atop his head? Or do I let Joe cut it, remembering that I thought Noah looked just as handsome if not cuter after his first trim, and embrace the changes that come with his wonderful physical growth? I know it's a random this to worry about, let alone give any thought at all, but I'm on the fence with this one. Opinions anyone?

Summer Fever

Most days I consider us to be a pretty good looking group of people. My kids are beautiful, my husband is handsome, and you know I bring the hotness, us McBrides, we aren't hard to look at... Until stir craziness starts to prevail on summer days filled with rain, and boredom sets in on cold afternoons with no sun. When that occurs, the iPhone comes out, as do the monsters in all of us:

Joe

Jen

Chloe

Noah

Adam

June, July, and August: Please continue to give us the weather we have enjoyed the past two days so we don't have to look at ourselves like this ever again! The end.

Beus Canyon Trail

With the weather warming up, one of our summer goals this year is to try and go on a hike as a family once a week. We have so many trails near our home as well as kids that love to be outdoors we hope that this is successful. We started on Friday and hiked a ways on the Beus trail. Our goal isn't to cover a lot of ground, it's to have a lot of fun. In this days adventure, I think we succeeded.

Adam was a trooper too, he held on as long as possible, but finally gave up and took a nap. Dad excited the kids by himself and each of them their very own hiking sticks. Let's hope we can find them this week for hike number two.

Preschool Graduation, Year Two

Chloe finished her second and final year of preschool the first of this month, and her graduation was so much fun. Watching her, and then watching some of the videos back, I am amazed at how much our little girl has grown. From those first days in her first year, when she wouldn't sing and was shy to share, she has blossomed into a hip shaking, outgoing girl and I have loved every minute of watching that growth. She is so excited to start kindergarten in the fall, but was also a little sad to say goodbye to her teacher, Ms. Halladay, and all her friends, all of whom she loves. Here are some highlights of her day:

Playing the song, Bunny goes to G

Chloe and Cadence

Chloe and Ms. Halladay

I promise to TRY to not be as much as a bawl baby when Chloe starts kindergarten as I was when she started preschool.

Brrrrrrrrrr Lake Trip

In years past, my visits to Bear Lake have been warm and spent mostly on the beaches of the lake's teal water as evidenced here and here. This year we spent the week in a cabin with my family, the last trip together before my brother leaves on his mission and lets just say the weather was not as cooperative this time around...

Although cold temperatures and high water levels kept us off the beach, we still managed to find fun in the trip sailing makeshift boats down streams, playing at playgrounds, and just having fun being together. Plus, Adam decided this was the place to finally decide it was time to sit up!! In no particular order, here are some highlights from Hubbard Bear Lake Trip 2011:

If you have been invited to view my sister, Christa's blog, click here for more pictures of our fun and a hilarious talent show video. Heather is going to kill us.