five for friday

some random bits of life on this friday that feels like a saturday.

one. happy new year!

we welcomed the new year with good friends, yummy food, card games and of course, rock band!

at 12:15am, ethan walked up to me with a droopy face and his arms up, my signal for me to hold him. once i scooped him up he started snoring on my shoulder within three seconds. poor guy. new year's eve isn't really condusive with a toddler's sleep schedule.

two. i took a self portait with taylor the other day, only to find that he has to scrunch down quite a bit to get both of our faces in the shot.

i swear he grows in the middle of the night and i can't get over how lately he just seems like a giant - especially compared to me.

three. speaking of the teenagers, my boys have been begging me to have an xbox "all nighter" party with a couple of friends. we don't do sleep overs so i wrestled with this request for a while, but i finally caved and said yes. i knew they would end up with some fun christmas break memories and i loved stuff like this when i was a kid. rich got them all set up (multiple xboxes and tv screens) before we went to bed, and when i got up around 3:30 they were still playing strong.

(crappy photo taken in the pitch dark - james is also missing, he had to leave early)

they're determined to play all night, we'll see in the morning how long they actually lasted.

to be fair, allie headed to phil and lauri's for a harry potter movie-marathon with lauren.

update: at 9:30 this morning, they were STILL playing. crazy cats.

four. rich set up skype on my computer so we could chat with my grandpa in alaska on christmas. it was fun to see him, but i didn't think i would use it much outside of special occasions. last night while i was working on some photos, my screen started ringing, it was my mom calling to chat for no real reason. we skyped for almost an hour, it was so much fun.

it's especially entertaining when the video freezes in the middle of a word or great facial expression.

i love technology!

five. said good bye to the soldier brother in the middle of the night tonight, his flight leaves super early.

to be honest, i wish we'd had a bigger chunk of his time while he was here, he's a popular guy you know. still, it was reassuring to see him well and healthy and with his spirit still intact, and to spend christmas day with him. we will look forward to the beginning of summer when he's home again for a few weeks.

oh, and one more thing - a couple of days before christmas i went in to my hair dresser for some fresh color on my sad roots, and decided on a whim to chop all my hair off!

(photos taken at the salon which explains why my neck is all hairy)

i am liking the new style, but am missing lazy pony tail days and brrr, i can't go anywhere without a scarf!

have a great weekend!

project 365 - 1/365

sometimes, all a girl really needs to feel better, is a really good hair day. when your new hair cut that you just can't get the hang of styling, finally comes together and lays the way you hope it will and you stop feeling like a big mushroom head.

as a side note, i've decided to try to participate in project 365 (i don't know the link), which is basically trying to take at least one photo every day for a year. i think it started as a scrapbook idea, and maybe some day i will put a book together, but i'm also going to try to post as many as possible, at least the ones that represent what's going on in my little world. starting today.