Uptight

You know, I've had several people with bees in their bonnets over the fact that I've taken a teensy hiatus from blogging. What, a girl can't take a five month break without raising eyebrows? Anyway, my true motive behind this brilliant and diabolical plan was to weed out the "sunshine patriots." By now, only the really devoted readers are still following this blog. And by readers, I mean reader. And by reader, I mean my Grandmom. Thanks, Grandmom!

So, let's do a brief re-cap of some of the previous months' events:

Ah, the Fourth of July. My main purpose in selecting this photo is so that you can observe Lily's hair and compare it to this:

The scene of a murder. The victim: Lily's hair. The weapon: the scissors at her feet. The scene: my craft room (where the accused had secreted herself away to commit the crime). The perpetrator: well, I think that's obvious.

A little backstory about this. I think I may have mentioned earlier that Lily had attempted cutting her own hair. Three times. After these incidents, we were much more careful with the placement of the scissors. Sadly, we did not account for the imbedded homing device that Lily has for destructive objects (scissors, markers, chocolate syrup, etc.). The scissors had become sticky in one way or another (it MIGHT have been from someone's Otter Pop binge -- hard to say for sure) and had been placed in the dishwasher. Why a two-year-old would search for scissors in a dishwasher remains unclear.

Anyway, I wasn't very happy about this fourth incident. When I removed her pigtails to survey the extent of the damage, this is what came out in my hand:

And this was the aftermath:

That scalp looks nice, huh? At least there weren't any important and photographable events on the horizon, like...oh, I don't know...Logan's brother's wedding, perhaps? Oh, wait! It was three weeks away!

It's a bit difficult to tell in the photo, but Lily's bangs start pretty much at the crown of her head. They are then combed forward to cover the bald scalp lurking below. All of this is held in place by a headband and copious amounts of hairspray.

Sigh. Now, five months after the fact, things are still pretty jaggedy-looking in the front -- but much easier to camouflage.

Right before the wedding, we took a trip down to Monticello to visit my grandparents and celebrate the 24th of July. While there, Amanda and Lily took their first crack at fishing. They were getting pretty discouraged after about 30 minutes without so much as a nibble, when suddenly there was a tug on the line...

...of the guy sitting a few yards away from us. Amanda and Lily watched excitedly as his line went taut and the fish splashed and struggled. Knowing how much they wanted to catch a fish that day, this man graciously invited Amanda over to reel the fish in and keep it for her dinner.

And one of sweet Benson, just because he's so stinkin' cute!

Late summer brought the birth of a new nephew! William Beckett Heaton (we call him Beck) was born to my sister Lisa and her husband Tyson. Here we all are at his blessing in October:

And just in case you don't know what children who adore their father look like...they look like this:And finally, Halloween. Benson's and Lily's costumes might look familiar (Amanda was the cat and Lily was the mouse last year), but Amanda's costume was the envy of many this year. A few months before Halloween, I was perusing the racks at D.I. (as I often do) and stumbled across what looked like a wedding gown -- in a girl's size 5! Darling, darling, darling. A little bit of jewelry and my wedding veil completed the outfit. A cousin has already spoken for this costume when Halloween rolls around again:

*Sidenote*

As Lily was just identifying everyone in this photo, I was reminded of a funny story. Amanda determined that she was Cinderella on her wedding day, that Benson was Gus Gus, and that Lily was the cat...whose name, in the Disney movie, is Lucifer. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, both Amanda and Lily would excitedly tell people that Lily was being Lucifer for Halloween. I very much enjoyed their reactions.

In other news, we are expecting our fourth baby in May! We'll find out in a couple of weeks whether it's a boy or a girl (we're crossing our fingers for a boy, as this would simplify our living arrangements greatly). We're very excited about this impending arrival.

Won't you be excited to see what the next five months will bring! See you then (or maybe even sooner, if you're lucky)!