Christopher the Creative Cat

I can remember summer vacation as both fun and exciting. I can also remember wanting school to start about 2-4 weeks earlier than it was supposed to.

During these hot (and somewhat boring) days, while a couple of my other kids are sleeping, I engage Christopher in play of his choice. Being the constructional engineer that he is and having such a great imagination, he usually wants to "build" something. This day he picked buidling a castle with his Leggos.

I let him build most of the castle (what fun would it be for him to watch Mom build the whole thing anyway?), but I added a few details so I could interact with him. I just love Christopher's imagination and it helps him self-entertain when needed. He inspires my imagination and that's one of many reasons I love him so much.

We named it Christopher's Chateau! Pretty catchy I think and so...I took a few pics.

Here is the castle with a roof on top...

He immediately decided that the roof carried too much weight and the entire castle would come crumbling down. So, he removed the roof to save his masterpiece, phew...good thinking on his part!

Close up view of the drawbridge that actually slides up and off rather than down and out.

What a nifty little idea, I think. :)

View of the drawbridge sliding up and off...

Final view with the drawbridge successfully removed, revealing the spacey interiors. This thing has a room up at the top, as you can see from this photo. However, what is impossible to capture with a camera (unless, I were to disassemble the castle and take photos as I progressed) is that Christopher's Chateau has a secret compartment "downstairs" with two trap doors. It's actually quite impressive, if I do say so myself :)

4th of July...

tad bit late, I know. A few days after the holiday, I tried to upload pics from my camera and they wouldn't budge. Did I mention that I accidentally left my camera, full of nice photos, in my hot car for 2 days? After that, my camera didn't "know" how to connect to my computer. So, I waited a while and now, I have successfully uploaded them onto my computer, phew!

I made some hairbows that were for Marley to wear on this great holiday. As usual I was running late with getting her ready and I wasn't able to get photos of the boys. So, here she is in her outfit and July 4th Bows...

We went near Rawhide with the Siler Family (Heather's clan), opened up our "trunks" and sat in the back of our cars while watching the fabulous display.

I am actually quite proud of myself for this nice picture!




All of our kids were in awe, screaming and jumping as each one burst into the otherwise silent sky.

Photos are starting to turn crazy in some areas...

Heather's youngest (Ethan-20 mos) wasn't so amused. He whimpered, burried his head into Mom's chest and held onto her arms for dear life! Then he dozed off right then and there! I have to say, that was adorable!

So, this was the first year I had a camera with a "fireworks" setting and I think they turned out okay. However, I was disappointed with a few blurry/strange photos. Take a look at these crazy pictures, all on the same setting of my camera as the above pics!

So, all in all, this was a fabulous evening, spent with dear friends. I am so thrilled that I actually got photos of the event this year...unlike last year when my kids fell asleep before we could watch any fireworks at all!

Take a Bow...a Boutique Hair Bow, that is!

So, not only am I constantly fixing Marley's hair, but I am now making hair bows. So far, I have attempted Boutique, Pinwheel and Stacked Bows and Loopy Surround-A Bows.

Today I put Double Lattices on Marley's Hair with an angled off-center part.

Side view of the Lattice.

She was wearing this outfit (which her Nana bought her) which mostly consists of White, Pink and Green. We don't have any matching hair accessories, so I decided to whip up a couple Boutique Bows. It only took me 20 minutes to do 2! Not bad considering I just started 2 days ago!

Modern Style

Close up view of one of the bows I made for her outfit today. I used lime green 7/8" Grosgrain for the main bow and pink with lime green dashes 3/8" grossgrain for the center knot.

Finished Hair 'Do with 2 Boutique Bows to match her outift. Ouila!

Girly Bows

Here is a Stacked Pinwheel Bow. I still need some practice with this style of bow because you are suppose to see the dovetail ribbon ends at the top & bottom. I used light pink 7/8" grosgrain ribbon, white 5/8" grosgrain ribbon and light pink with white dashes 3/8" grosgrain ribbon.

Patriotic Bows Here are 2- 4th of July Loopy Surround-A Bows. I used quite a few ribbons for this bow. These were the very first bows I made and I think they turned out pretty good. There is definitely room for improvement in these bows (it took me 2 hours to complete these), but I think I will get better and quicker with practice.

Close up view of Patriotic Bows.

I am excited to see them in my little girl's hair on the 4th of July!

Cascading knots with flippy ponytails...phew, what a mouth full!

A couple days ago I tried a variation on knots. I love this hair 'do and it keeps Marley's hair out of her face for swimming, slip n' slide or whatever!

I started with a zig-zag, off-center part.

Then I did cascading knots on each side of the top part.

I made a zig-zag center part down the back of her head. The cascading knots ended in flippy ponytails finishing with a ballet ribbon (meaning the bow is underneath the tie as opposed to above, which is usual) underneath each. Oila! I think this hair 'do is pretty cute and I will definitely use it again!

Bath time = Fun time!

Bath time is a time my kids enjoy very much. They think it's fun to play (or fight!) in the bath and usually want to stay in longer. I think it's pretty cool that I get all 3 of them bathed in one session. I also enjoy the fact that since they are getting older, Marley & Christopher can wash their own hair and bodies. Plus, Marley, the little mommy, likes to wash Jaxon's hair. So, really the only thing I have to do is wash Jaxon's body and supervise for water safety. I love the spirit of children who make anything fun!

A rare pic of the 3 of them looking (sorta) at the camera. They pretty much have no choice but to look at the camera given their positions :)

Jaxon typically runs around all day with his hands full of some sort of toy. Out of the water he seems to want to hang on to Matchbox Cars. In the water he picks these little boats with Sesame Street characters. What a cute face :)

Marley usually likes to bring her Surf's Up Barbie (who wears a swimsuit) into the bath with her. I didn't take a photo of Marley & Barbie, but I am sure she is under there somewhere...drowning (poor Barbie)! Marley is definitely not camera shy, she makes me smile :)

Christopher enjoys playing with his Go Diego, Go! boat and Diego action figure or Bath time Finger Paints. He is in the middle of saying "cheese" in this pic. Christopher likes taking pictures, but often won't look at the camera. We are pretty sure we will need to watch him since he will most likely be the "class clown". He's always ready to play some joke on you or figure out a way to make something funny. He's great!

Things That Go...OUCH!!!

On Friday evening Javier and I had plans to go to dinner with our friend Melissa, who was in town from Florida for surgery. My mother-in-law, Julia was kind enough to babysit, but this evening she preferred to watch them at her house. This plan is nice because generally they fall asleep there and we get a rare opportunity to sleep in just a little. We were minutes from being out of the door, when Marley informed us that Jaxon needed a stinky diaper change. Usually she is correct in her observations, so Javier decided to help out. While Javier took Jaxon off the top bunk-bed, Jaxon was hit by the ceiling twice in the head. One of the hits was right in the center of his forehead and it must have been at the perfect angle because it gave him a decent laceration. I think it's pretty cute that he seems to be pointing to the injury =]

Poor Jaxon and poor Javier (he still has guilt, even though is was an accident) for being in this unfortunate predicament. I know that facial injuries bleed a lot, but oh my there was lots of blood. Jaxon, being 2 didn't want to stop touching his forehead and wouldn't leave a band aid on. We considered taking him to the ER to get stitches or the glue stitches, but within 10-15 minutes it stopped bleeding on it's own. Jaxon actually left a band aid on his head for a record time of 15 minutes and that really helped to stop the bleeding.

Again, with the finger. I love those little hands.

I always take pictures of serious injuries, I guess I find them a little interesting (I'm sure it's part of my medical genes, which I have no interest in pursuing=]). As a result, Christopher and Marley are pretty terrified of getting even remotely close to the ceiling fan, not that I blame them. Jaxon, on the other hand, is still kinda fearless and that makes me nervous. However, both Javier and I are extra, extra cautious while chasing down our cute little troublemaker from the top bunk. Oh, and after I took these photos of Jaxon, he decided he didn't like his scab and yes, he picked it completely off! Gross and OUCH! I would imagine that would hurt, just a little (or a lot)!

I realize posting a picture of the bloody t-shirt he was wearing at the time of the accident may be a little gory, but it's more for my documentation than anything. I apologize in advance if this photo is unsettling, but I had to include it. I'm sure this shirt is ruined (WalMart shirt, oh well), but that's okay as long as he's okay. And that he is...OKAY, Thank God! Oh, and his diaper was clean...

All Girls Are My Dolls...

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to fix my 2 nieces, hair. On the same day of Marley's Curly 'Do, Mirella and Angelique (aka Geli) came over to play while Chuy (their dad) went to work. Since they live with their dad at Nana & Tata's house (none of whom have any "hair skills"), I often see their hair looking plain. It's no offense to anyone in that household because not everyone (especially 2 men or a 63 year-old mother of 3 boys) has the skills to fix hair. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and hair happens to be one of my strengths. Anyway, since my nieces were in my house I was eager to try any of the styles on the new blog-site I visit...Hair Today. I let each of them choose the style they wanted and then I got to work. Both Mirella and Geli have hair all one length, well past their shoulders. Also, the both of them have thick, strong hair, but Mirella in particular has very thick locks...I'm talking about putting your middle finger and thumb together and her ponytail is slightly thicker than that!!! I mean, this girl will never go bald! I am very proud of how darling both of their 'dos looked.

First up is Mirella, she is 9 years old and she chose the "Loopy Messy Bun". The finished product could practically be considered an Up-Do! Her hair is so thick that this 'do took me about 35 minutes! Also, this is my very fist attempt at this style, so with practice I hope to get faster.

Front view with an off-center part.

Side angle view.

Rear view with spiral curls and a white ribbon wrapped gently around base of bun. See what I am talking about with the massively thick locks?! The products I used in Mirella's hair are Biolage Leave-In Conditioner, ThickSexy Volume Gel and loads of TiGi Hairspray.

Next up is Geli, she is 5 and she picked the "Lattice Ponytails". So far, I have always done this style with the ponytails ending towards the nape of the neck. I am slightly proud to say that I came up with this style over 2 years ago, all on my own. I temporarily forgot about this style since my Princess Marley had such short hair for the last year. Then as I was browsing this wonderful site, I saw it again. About 2 years ago I fixed Mirella & Geli's hair for a church meeting and Chuy told me they received tons of compliments and the girls absolutely loved it. I think Geli may remember this style because she picked it without looking through the blog-site very much. That being said, here are her pics.

Front view with center part. I parted her hair into a total of 6 sections. I think next time I will do 8 sections and maybe try a zig-zag or off-center part to spice it up a little =].

Side angle view. I love that she is trying to look at the camera, too cute!

Rear view of the lattice ponytails. I finished off the look with cream ribbon and spiral curls. The products I used in Geli's hair are Biolage Leave-In Conditioner, ThickSexy Volume Gel and TiGi Hairspray. Again, I used my Neo Hot Tools Curling Iron which is a 1-inch barrel and it works fine for my nieces long, thick hair. However, for Marley's shorter, less thick hair, I believe I need to invest in a 1/2-inch barrel Curling Iron. So, there you have it...this was a Hair Frenzy Day! I loved it!