Mother Daughter Hair Cuts

Alisa has been wanting to cut her hair ever since she started Kindergarten.  I thought it was a phase, but when we got a note home in the mail about her school being partners with Locks of Love I asked her if she was serious about it.  She was so excited, but still didn't want to participate in the big school cutting event.  But when 14 other girls were getting their hair cut at the same time and she knew her Mama would be there, she decided to go for it. 

A couple weeks before her school assembly/ hair cutting day, she started asking me to get a hair cut too- just like hers.  I was really not up for it because I have been growing my hair out forever.  Then I thought about it and I was like- what am I even growing it out for?  I mean, it gets caught in the door of the car, under my armpits, super tangly all the time, takes 2 1/2 hours to air-dry...why do I insist on long hair?  I think I had this mental thing about being a mom but not looking like one.  And my long hair made me feel like I didn't look like a mom.  Weird- I know.  So after I got over it, I decided I would like to be rid of some hair and found CWHL who take colored hair.  So I got 10" chopped.  Which as you can see, still left a nice bit of hair- no boy cut for me :)

Here are the before pics:

I can't seem to take a straight smiling picture in my old age without a weird face, so I decided to beat em to the punch :)

 

Looks like her hair is more than half her little body!

All the girls at WS that were giving their hair away and the stylists

Sweet little peanut

Back view of what was gonna be cut off

 

Holding her pony tail

All the girls post cut- there were 15 girls and 2 grandmas :)

Her hair kindof got an a-symetrical cut at first because her pony was lopsided- I thought about keeping it but didn't want to force her into trendiness at 5 :)

Alisa's first hair cut ever!

 

Our Family's Anniversary

Happy 1 year to the Jones Fam!  We have officially been a family as of September 23 (2012) for one full year.  It both feels like it hasn't been that long and that it has been 12 years all at the same time!  It feels like I have been a parent for years, and also that I'm still not quite a mom just yet.  Sometimes I think, "Who let us (read: me, Eryn) be parents?".  Well, besides the state of Georgia and our adoption agency, I have to believe (and remind myself) that God did!  He chose me to be the mother of Alisa, Mia, and Braylen.  How cool is that?

 

 

 

 

We did not celebrate our family anniversary other than a quick, "Yay!", but we did have some fun times around the actual day.  We had a visit to Memphis and then Nana came back with us to spend some time. 

 

 

 

for the record: everyone is at least saying, "cheese" in this pic- Braylen's "cheese" face cracks us up!

these are at Alisa's Fall Festival at her school

 A quick note to self about large Fall Festivals: taking small children = a dreadful situation where I am constantly playing where's waldo, except waldo is my smallest child who loves to wander off as if he knows everyone and this is just a big family reunion!  Then add another child pretty much like that but not as loud and more sneaky with her getaways!   Maybe try it again when your kids are older!!!

It's Ponkin' Time

POHN-kyn is what the kids call pumpkins, and thus have we as well.  I love pumpkin decorating, but never have gotten to display them since David and I have been married.

Lately we have been doing October things and decorating for fall.  Here are some pics of what we have been doing with the round, orange field fruit at the Jones home :)

I love purple and orange together- hoping these mums last us a while

I tried making a pumpkin topiary that I saw in Southern Living- this was the result :)

In other Braylen news (aka mommie-type things I want to remember), Braylen has been dressing in Mia and Alisa's pj's today.  He kept asking for more of their clothes on.  He ended up with his Alabama shirt, Mia's white shirt, and Alisa's heart pajamas over all of that.  Then, later, he came in an exclaimed "Tada!"  We look down and saw Alisa's blue sparklie shoes on.  I think he was so proud of himself for making us laugh that he kept coming and and, "Tada!" - a new pair- Mia's red sparklie shoes- were on his sweet little Bubba feet :)  (Braylen, if you are reading this and you are 20, Mama is sorry!  It was just so cute when you were two :)  

Here are my favorite words he says right now:
Myloodloop = any magnadoodle, which he thinks are all his, also this is used for any noodle dish :)
hate-two-tree = an elephant (comes from "hup, two, three, four" song in The Jungle Book, and he can actually count to eleven if he just starts with "hup" instead of "one":)
The clean up song- goes something like this, "deen up, deen up, ederbaday, ederwear, deen up, deen up, ederbaday ewer seeeer".

trying on Mama's socks- he needed a haircut in this pic, which he got later on the day this was taken

Big Boy in the Tub!  Bubs was feeling sad about peeing on his giraffe costume that he took a nap in.  In the midst of his sadness he asked David if he could take a bath and pointed to the sink.  We wonder if he remembers having done that before.  He loved it!  Super comforted by it.  He kept saying he was "swimmin" even though he was barely able to move :)