highlights!

here are some brief highlights of what's been going on in the past little while - an abbreviated version of the adventures of (super big kid) Molly-Moo! (above wearing some of the gifts she got for her bday from her friends at her bday party, shown below)

Molly turned 4!




for Molly's big day, Grandma Nancy once again came to town and we went to the beach, flew a kite, made some sand castles and celebrated!







she was a Super Dragon for Halloween!

she spent lots of time with her old friends and made some new ones, too!







no, we did not get a hamster, but we did hamster-sit Wilbert over Thanksgiving and it was awesome!

she got ready for Christmas and wrote a letter to Santa and son!





this year, because Santa was so busy, he sent his son, Nick Jr to the local toystore and Molly got to meet him and deliver her letter. and because she was such a good girl, she got exactly what she asked for!



we spent a wonderful Christmas in sunny Arizona with the Feeney clan.

she went to sniper school at the neighbors.our fabulous neighbors the Mitchells watch Molly for us, and on one occasion she got to play with Keeton's nerf guns. they let me know that she giggled with absolute delight. like father, like daughter i guess. :)

she continues to be very creative in her art, sculpture, dress and play!
[sorry about the very abrupt ending! but it was too cute not to post]













and most recently, she very much enjoyed a magic show with her school friends!




so there you have it, five months of Molly at lightening speed! hope you've enjoyed, we sure have!

1st haircut!

yep, it's true! Molly has gone from the flowing golden locks seen here (with headband a la jazzercise and ensemble from flash dance)...


to the smart, sassy, strong girl you see here (yes, she has peanuts in her mouth). ok, so she's always been smart, sassy and strong, but what i'm saying is, this haircut REALLY suits her.

i was really reluctant to get her hair cut. i thought part of who Molly was, was all that long hair (down to her waist before we cut it!) and we were being mean by cutting it off. she hated to have anything done to it, you couldn't comb it, or put it up, or even pull it back from her face. i thought maybe she used her hair as a kind of shield...

but now i see Molly as Molly truly seems to be!
here she is post haircut with her friend Mishya, who also got her hair cut! and then they they painted their faces with sidewalk chalk mixed with water. it was like Lord of the Flies in our backyard (but without the really bad stuff).

so as i mentioned, Molly wouldn't let us touch her hair, so it was becoming quite the problem. Zero was absolutely done with the whole thing and we decided it was time. i made an appointment with the man who cuts my hair but then i remembered our wonderful neighbor Josh cuts his family's hair (Mishya above is his daughter, he also cut her hair!). Molly adores Josh, so i figured if he was game, that would be a more low-key, less stressful way to go. and it certainly was!

Josh was totally willing, and even fit it in while Grandma Nancy was visiting so she could come too! we washed it really good, and put it in pigtails (i think the only reason she let us do any of this was because she knew Josh was going to cut her hair, so she was willing to put up with it). we put it in pigtails so that we could keep 10-11 inches of her hair and send it off to Locks of Love. a really wonderful way to memorialize Molly's first haircut!

so we headed over and Josh pulled out his very professional hairstylist kit. he's been cutting hair since he was 16! oh and he also heads up a major part of the IT dept at Multnomah County. oh, and he plays the guitar and sings really well. oh, and he makes his own pasta. and the list goes on and on (Diana, you are a lucky lady!)

so here is a slideshow of the big event! the first two shots are of Molly with the long hair...the first she's wearing my Neighborhood Emergency Team helmet and the second she's in her pigtails ready for her haircut!
you'll note our neighbors even made up a "first haircut" certificate for Molly! and we all signed as witnesses and Josh signed as the stylist - does it get any better?! yes it does! because Mishya gave Molly a teddy bear as a present for her first haircut and Molly's been sleeping with it ever since!

and here is my beautiful daughter, a couple mornings after her 1st haircut with her daddy.

i'm a very lucky lady (right along with Diana!)!

---UPDATE---

Here is Molly at the Post Office getting ready to send her hair off to Locks of Love!

Yay!