gel party in back

this is a sample of where maddux feels gel belongs. love.

buy stock in hair gel

because maddux is fixing his own hair! i told him that he needed to fix his hair if he didn't want it to be short. his solution is gel. lots and lots of gel. but look how cute he is! love.

another BIG haircut

it was time. i was starting to feel a little 'sister wife-y' because it was getting SO long. 

i was able to donate 14 inches and lost maybe 16 by the time the cut was finished. this time i donated to wigs for kids which happens to be located in ohio. i spend so much time growing it that i try to research which organization would be the best choice.

i was able to make my appointment while the boys were at preschool. i did tell the kids that i was going to cut and donate my hair. the little boys were not very excited. manning just wanted me to still "look like elsa." maddux was so upset when i told them about the haircut that i almost reconsidered. his reaction after school was pretty much the same:

oh well. at least i like it! love.

crazy hair

manning did this to his hair and was extremely pleased. he asked me for the picture. love.

hat hair

manning was rocking some serious hat hair when we got to the dentist this morning. love.

going shorter

mason likes his hair on the longer side (maybe it is all of the compliments he gets on it), but he also really, really wants a mohawk. so tonight we took him a little shorter. love.

crazy hair day

we were going for a jasmine (of the movie aladdin) type ponytail but after two rubber bands turned into a look madelyn liked much better for "crazy hair" day at school. love.

crazy hair, don't care

even fresh out of bed, mason's hair is sort of awesome. love.

alien hair

madelyn had to perform a play at school today where she plays an alien. she wore all green and i braided her hair forward so that it would act like antenna. i pinned them to her head like a crown for going to school but she left them down for the rest of the day because she loved them flopping around.

(here she is drawing a pretty good pumpkin after school.) love.

i'll braid your hair

crazy hair

all of the boys are known for their hair - maddux because it is so crazy. but even he thought this hairdo (that reminded me of uncle brad a la middle school) was a little too crazy to be serious. love.

mason's haircut

mason is our long haired boy. he likes his hair long and it really does suit him. but i do like to trim him up every now and then. he wasn't feeling up to it when i cut the other boys' hair last week so today we got it done. 

this time he and i looked at some shorter haircut styles and decided to try a sort of mohawk style where it is shaved on the sides and longer on top to be swept to the side, slicked back or spiked up into a mohawk. 

sectioning off the top

i didn't get it quite short enough on top for the mohawk, but we are both happy with the final look. love.

hair like daddy

i was planning on trimming up the boys' hair tonight. maddux decided that he wanted to go short "like daddy." daddy was so moved that he wanted to do the clipping himself. well, maybe "moved" isn't the right word - "giddy" might be more appropriate. love.

before

a delighted after

the haircut

madelyn asked for three things for her birthday - to cut her hair short, to pierce her ears and to decorate her room. she said that she didn't want toys. so today we took care of part one.

madelyn could not have been more excited! she is donating her hair to "children with hair loss" this time. she was pretty excited about that part of it too. it was so cute because she let us watch the initial cut, but then wanted us to wait in the lobby to be 'surprised' by the finished look.

i generally don't care about hair because it can always grow back, but i was a little sad because her hair is so pretty. she hates having long hair and rarely lets me fix it for her so why not? i didn't take an 'official' picture of her final cut, but there are lots of pictures to come. love.

orange you glad we're going to the doctor?

we had a relaxed morning at home since no one had school and we didn't have any specific plans other than a doctor appointment at 10:30. the kids worked as a team to get dressed today. apparently, the theme was "orange". it included maddux asking madelyn to wear his new shirt that he thought would fit her better, maddux wearing pajama shorts, mason wearing everything with any orange in it and manning even picked out an orange shirt and socks (but he refused to sit down for a picture).  

mason asked for a picture of his shirt.

i had made an appointment for maddux to check a spot on his head where his hair is thinning. i wasn't super worried about it but he had been having scabby build up in a spot about the size of a quarter for at least a month and the thinned hair was starting to be noticeable. i just wanted to make sure that this wasn't something that would cause him to permanently bald.

(i loved madelyn's super long, stick legs in this picture.)

well, the doctor is pretty certain that it is ring worm. i learned that ring "worm" isn't a worm at all, but a fungus. she took a swab to have cultured but said that it takes a week for preliminary results and a full month for a complete diagnosis. she felt this was a pretty classic case so she went ahead and called in the medicine that he will have to take orally for 4 to 6 weeks. (it has to be treated orally when it is on the scalp.) it is contagious and he shouldn't share combs (which we do) or hats (which we do) or bath water (which we do). oh well. no one else shows any signs yet and at least we know what to look for on the others. she wasn't really worried. it isn't contagious enough to have to notify the school or anything and she said it is impossible to know where he might have picked it up.

it is always something new and exciting when you have children, right? love.

epic bedhead

before and after

even though maddux is pretty sick, he insisted that i cut his hair "short like daddy" last night. it pains me but i try to let the kids wear their hair how they want - within reason. so short it is.

the before

the after

i think he looks pretty cute both ways. love.

a different boy

since it was just manning and i tonight, i thought i would go ahead and cut his hair.  i like the boys with their longer hair but i am never quite sure how to cut it away from their eyes without it looking like a mullet. sometimes i am successful, sometimes not so much...  this time i decided to use the hair clippers to give manning more of a 'little boy' cut.  

what i did not consider is that he had a blob of peanut butter in his hair from lunch and the clippers got stuck when i went to do the back.  he was not happy and would not let me clean up around his ears (he barely let me finish the haircut!).

so here he is looking so grown up in his new shorter hair on our date.  (he was not happy that i wouldn't share my phone.)

no more babies here...  love.

manning's first haircut

i haven't been satisfied with any of the kid's haircuts we have gotten, so we just did manning's first haircut ourselves.  matt held him while i got a few quick snips.  i am going to have to go back and fix things when he isn't so tired, but at least he shouldn't be confused for a girl any more.  it was getting really bad - at least one comment a day about me "finally getting a girl".

so here are the before...

and the after...

it was way more blunt cut than i wanted but he would not let me get more than two snips

the biggest change is the departure of the "rat tail".

and he looks so much older too.  that is why i have waited until they turned one, but manning's hair was so long and hanging in his eyes all of the time that he really needed it now.

our last first haircut.  love.

valentine hair