The Kindest Cut

Ava had really short hair as a young toddler and about a year ago, we decided to allow it to grow out.  It grew really fast and though she didn't let us comb it, it had become very pretty.  Ava has hair that is as straight as they come and she doesn't even have to use a straight iron.  She likes having long hair, but she HATES getting it combed or styled.  So many tears and so many fights, I finally decided that with her starting school in the fall, she needed to get her hair cut.  We did our research and found that Pantene Beautiful Lengths had a program that took pony tail donations of 8 inches or longer.  I measured her hair and she was right there. So, we talked to her about the hair being used for a wig and how after you donate hair, the website said you were known as an ANGEL.  This was big news to her.  She always wanted to be an angel, so off we went to get her hair cut.

Here are a few final pictures I snapped of her beautiful long hair. I miss it and so does her daddy but we told her when she can take care of it herself, we will let her have it long again.  :)  She doesn't miss it at all. :) 

So, we called Nana, read up on the donation directions and headed to the mall.  When we got there, the first place we walked up to had no wait, so they took us right away. 

She was so excited but I could see she was anxious too.  She did good though and I thought I was going to laugh when she was getting her hair combed out.  She didn't scream and fight out loud but her little spirit was not happy.  She looked at me like, "what is going on, how can you let this happen mom?"  I just smiled knowing she was able to use self control better when someone else besides myself was combing her hair.

There it is, my little Angels ponytail.  The cut was made, now to finish it up and style her hair. It was shorter than I had even prepared myself for but I loved it already. 

Headband in, hair cleaned off, and off to get some cotton candy ice cream and some real cotton candy.  This was a fun day.  Now for the shocking reactions. I think for days, after her hair was gone, every time daddy saw her, he asked her what happened to her hair.  She would roll her eyes and say, "daddy, you know!!!"

She did ask me if she was a real angel now!  :) 

The finished product . . .she was too busy to pose for many pics, so we had to snap this one quickly. :)  It has been way cooler for her this summer though and sooooooo easy.  She flips her head upside down in the morning, shakes it around and flips it back over.  It looks perfect and she is done with her hair.  She is sooo proud of this.

Crowdtap Blessed ME!!!

I started a new journey a few months back. I had a cousin, Maria, who was also a stay at home mom and she had found some fun sites that had cash incentives to give your opinion. I was excited but skeptical too. However, I spent enough time on the Internet each day on facebook, I decided to swap some time out from facebook and try this new site.  Now my favorite site is asking Which experience that I've had on Crowdtap has been most significant and why?

Well, I have to say that in January, My hubby lost his job and went without steady work for four months.  We had enough to get by but barely and definitely not anything EXTRA. I love shopping and I was sad that I couldn't buy the little things here and there that I wanted. I joined crowdtap and within a few months, I was able to buy myself the digital video camera I had been researching, a hot iron for my hair, and a set of hot rollers for my hair.  These are things I wanted really bad, but wouldn't have been able to get for a long time. Crowdtap really was a beacon in the storm, It gave me hope and a chance to also give my opinion on many different topics and samples of things. It may sound stupid but it also gave me a sense of "helping out" financially when I as a stay at home mommy, I struggle with that factor sometimes.

I have also really enjoyed meeting new people and getting new opinions. It is fun to debate the good and the bad of all the topics.   The other thing that has just been a major blessing has been the OLD NAVY samplers. I was able to go shopping two days ago and get an entire outfit plus accessory for FREE!!! Thanks Old Navy, Fishful Thinking, and espeically CROWDTAP!!

If you haven't already, check them out. . . http://www.crowdtap.com/

Old Navy Does it Again!!!!

I won another sampler from OLD NAVY!!! I am sooo excited. This time, with Crowdtap.com, I won four coupons for myself and three friends. The coupons were to be for a pair of shorts, a top and a women's accessory . . .all free.  So, I wasn't sure who to invite and what to do. Then it hit me.  I have some dear friends of mine who have been in my life for 15 plus years.  We have been trying to figure out a fun girls night for awhile now and couldn't get it together, so I sent them the invite over my facebook event page.  We scheduled it for a Sunday afternoon, but it got cancelled due to an emergency, so we rescheduled for tonight!!! We had so much fun, but let me back up and tell ya why I picked these lovely ladies.

Fifteen years ago, I stepped foot into youth room at a new church we were visiting as a family.  I was nervous and there she was, the only smiling face, my youth advisor and (sister) Sharon. I didn't know her yet but within seconds I felt a warm welcome and I felt as though I had known her forever.  We hit it off and even when she was done being the youth leader, I still remained in her life and she in mine.  She had four beautiful children that stole my heart.  Her two eldest were Danielle and Shyanne and they were and are two of the most beautiful women you will ever meet, just like their mama.  I did a lot of babysitting and a lot of visiting over the years.  When I got married, they were all in my wedding and we got to dress up and have a GIRLS day then too. :)  A few months before my wedding, I had Danielle and Shyanne and my other Niece Sharon over for a girls night at my house.  We did make overs and then got in fancy dresses and practiced our "model walks."  I thought it would be so much fun to reenact our little night so many years ago, tonight. 

Sorry not a clear picture, but here is us about 10 years ago. . .

Here we are starting to shop and picking our our special items. It was so much fun and we having a blast.  we kept laughing like giddy school girls.

Four out of the five of us with our full outfits.  Three of us picked and got the same pair of shorts and we all loved them.  The sisters, Danielle on far left and Shyanne on far right, even picked out the same shoes in different colors. :)  The really sad part is that we were said to be heard from one end of the store all the way to the other with our laughter and giggling.  Too funny.  We did have so much fun.  no way that we were getting that smile off our face tonight.  Oh, and Kaitlyn was a family friend that came along and we really all just enjoyed each other.

Last and final pose, the SISTER POSE.  We have tons of pictures of these two doing this very pose so I made them do it one last time for my benefit.  :)

Hahah, who says great minds don't think alike?  These two bought the same shorts in a different color, the same shoes in a different color and the exact same top.  So cute.

Thanks Old Navy for the Great girls night out.  You brought tears to our eyes more than once.  What a great fun and easy way to make memories that LAST a LIFETIME!!!

Productive P Week

I have to say P week kind of was busy and at the end of two weeks, we still hadn't done everything we could with P for P weeks. :)  There is so many fun words and activities with P and the kids caught on to this one real quick. They realized pretty fast,  like the first day, that POPSICLE starts with p. . .so we had to eat at least one every day!!! Hmm, for that reason, it is good P week is over now. I did make Ava write the word Popsicle every day before she would get one. :)  Of course we practiced writing letter P numerous times anyway.

Ava's homework so she could have a Popsicle. :)

We made a picture for our pappys and we called them both to check on them as one of our P activities.  Some of the foods we ate were Pop tarts, Pancakes, Pasta, Popsicles, Peaches, and many more. 

We went to the Pet store to see Puppys and to learn about how we should take care of a puppy. This was a fun event and definitely made P week a favorite in my kids books.  They are trying to figure out how to make letter Q work for pet shop in some way.  I gotta love the creativity.  The pet shop was fun though, we got two little puppies out to see and pretty soon Ava had decided which one was HERS and Christian had decided which one was HIS.  They named them Angel and Nipper.  They were so in love with them that later on Ava and Pappy Sweethearts date consisted of McDonald's and then a trip to the Pet Shop to show Pappy her Precious Puppy.  All in the name of P week!!! Right?  While they were on the way to the pet shop, Ava asked Pappy if he knew where he was going.  He said he thought so and then she said, "well I will tell you how to get there, it is the door with the two fish painted on it."  Then he knew for sure. :)

The little puppy really liked to pull on Ava's Braids and the kids were so loud I kept having to tell them to Keep it down.  They were so excited.  Full of laughter and squeals. I can't wait till the day the time is right to get them a puppy.

Spending time with Pappy.  This worked out great that Pappy and Nana came home to visit right over P week.  He did take Ava on her promised Date Night and they had so much fun. 

Another activity we did was a Puzzle activity.  We sat for a good while and just put puzzles together.  Christian lost interest pretty quickly but Ava and I had the endurance for awhile. I was excited to see our end result. I can't wait till we can do the larger puzzles as a past time. :)

It doesn't look like much, but it was quite a bit actually. :)

Some of the things we discussed were our Pancreas and how our body uses it to help us function.  We discussed plants and why we need them.  Then we planted some sunflowers and watered the rest of our garden plants.  We discussed how People play, plan, and then we pretended to be purple people eaters. :)  Who knows, but they loved it.  Ava and Christian spent a lot of time in the pool in our back yard.  Ava played with her ponies in the pool and Christian just splashed around.  Then we even had friends over to join us in our Pool Party. :)

We had a PRINCESS PARTY with Cousins Alexis, Annika, and Natalie.  We had Pancakes & Chicken Gravy, Peaches, and Pink iced cupcakes for dessert.  They even made Pink Lemonade.  Then we decorated Princess Crowns with stickers and Grandma Hunsberger even got them all Presents or Party Favors.  The girls of course posed for Pictures and played princess dress up.  What a fun Party.

We also learned about what the word Prayer meant and we discussed why it is important to Pray to God and Petition God when we have a request.  We also talked about Police officers and what they do. How they are there to keep us safe and secure and we need to obey the rules so we don't get into trouble by the Police.  We also had a Pizza Party one night in our basement and we had so much fun.  The kids wanted to do it again the next night. :)

These were the highlights of our weeks.  We did have lots of fun and I think we may do P week at the end again, just because it was so much fun. 

The Fish that Won't Die

A few entries back I shared the story of Christian's little fish Edmond Nemo, may he Rest In Peace.  I was so sad for him and he keeps asking for another fish but we have not gone to get one yet.  So the other week, while my mom and dad were visiting from Missouri, they got a bright idea.  They found a cute item that was two plastic fish that swam when the bowl they were in was sat on the stand they came with.  The fish look pretty real when they are moving and as my parents pointed out, they are fish that won't DIE. :)

They brought the fish over to give to little man and he was so excited.  He didn't notice they were not real and he tried to feed them chips.  We had to clean the water and told him they only eat water.  Our next issue was Ava realizing they were made of plastic and trying to inform him.  We had to pull her to the side and explain to her that he thinks they are real and for now we are allowing him to think so. 

They stop moving when you take the bowl off the stand and he smiles and says, "look they is sleeping!!!"  He carried them around the house for awhile and he was super excited about them. He still shows them to anyone and everyone that comes to our house. Ava got one out the other night and held it in her hand to pet it.  I thought he was going to have a cow!!!

The Littlest Roman enters the World

I had the opportunity to be in the delivery room for the birth of my youngest nephew.  What an amazing time and what a beautiful miracle. I was so excited when I got the call from Brianna early in the morning of June 7, 2011.  She had woken up at 4:00 a.m and was laboring pretty good.  She was going to get ready to start on in.  Micah offered to run my kids over to Nana who was at Brianna and Ryan's house, so I was free to go in with Ryan and Brianna.  I was so psyched.  I am sure not as psyched as the mom and dad to be, but I bet Brianna would say she was in the room with two OVERLY EXCITABLE kids since Ryan and I were pretty much JUMPING  up and down. :)

Ryan was busy texting many people including Michelle Florh and the Grandparents.  He updated often. :) They moved her from the observation room to the delivery room pretty quickly since she was obviously in FULL labor.

I was busy reminding each nurse that entered the room that Brianna did want an epidural. I had told her before we got in there that I would pester them until they got it for her.  She wanted one and was in a lot of pain but they thought she was progressing too fast and they still had to get her two bags of IV fluid in before the epidural. :)  I don't think they thought there was time but we were determined to get it for her.  SHE STILL HAD TIME BY GOSH!!! 

We of course took time to pose after the epidural. Things were a tad calmer and more comfortable for all.  The whole process was so fast and She was admitted in to the room by around 6:30 a.m.  and Roman Louis Ryan Hunsberger entered the world at 9:26 a.m.   He weighed 8lbs and 4.2 oz and measured 21 inches in length.  We all wondered where she hid such a large baby in that little belly of hers. :)  Brianna was such a model patient through it all and very calm.  I will NEVER forget the first time I saw my littlest Roman.  He was so innocent and helpless and then he did it, he started to cry.  I looked at Ryan and we were both tearing up.  Brianna was still in labor so she was working hard but for me, that was the moment my heart melted and I knew he had stolen yet another piece of my heart that would always be his. 

He loved the warmer and just sprawled out under the machine.  He was so so cute and tiny and boy did he look like his big brother Reece.  In fact we all kept calling him Reece because he looked so much like him. 

Ryan, the proud daddy holding Romy for the first time. -  Finally, Mommy gets to hold him and she was in LOVE.  This little guy is a beautiful addition to the family.  We all love him and Reece even claims to love him more than Sofia.  That is alot because Reece Adores his little sister Sofia. :)  What a perfect Day!!!

Day at Cluggy's with Nana

We are trying to fit tons of events in while Nana and Pappy are visiting from Missouri.  One of the fun days we packed into our schedule, the day before Roman Louis Ryan entered our family, was a full fun day at Cluggy's.  The kids had a blast and we had time to sit and talk while they ran off some energy.

The food was great and the fellowship with Brianna and My Mom was even better.  Love those two women.

Waiting to go in to Cluggys.  This was the LAST picture of Nana with All four of her grandchildren, before number five entered into our lives. :)

Nana and her princesses.  :)  They matched.

It only cost a few bucks to get the kids into the play area and because it was a weekday, we had the place tou ourselves.  They had a toddler area for little ones like Sofi but she wanted the other kids to come into that little area with her so of course they did.  They had fun on the slides and the area where they could climb around too.  Nana bought them some tokens and they played games for tickets and then each got some prizes to take home.  What a fun day.  They were so excited to have Nana there with them.  SO was I.

Christian in his tube. :) They also really liked the BIG high slide.  Once they figured out where it was.  The moon bounce was of course another big hit.