Lloyd

As much a fan I am of long-haired boys, Little D's was getting a little shaggy and falling into his eyes too much.  

I decided to give it just a little trim, which turned out very uneven and chunky.  Not to worry.  A new Great Clips just opened up and was having a $4.99 haircut sale.  So I took him to have a professional clean it up, making sure to tell her that I did not want his bangs to be cut straight across and I just wanted a tiny bit taken off.  

You know the saying "You get what you pay for"?  

It's completely true.

This is what we left with. 

Do you see a resemblance? 

The only difference between Lloyd and Declan was that Declan sported a great curly mullet in the back.  I do love the "Business in the front, party in the back" look, but not so much on my baby.

I thought about having the lady just give him a "big boy" cut with the clippers, but having seen her talent level already, decided to keep my mouth shut and fix it myself.

So here is the new Declan.

You can tell that he's pleased with the results.

Me?  Not so much.  

But we are beginning to grow out the curls again... starting tonight. 

Our weekend

We had a really great weekend.

On Friday, we got to hang out with our good friends the Tobiassons, who were our neighbors in Bountiful and now live in Vancouver, Washington.  We had dinner, went down to the beach, and had a good time catching up with old friends.

On Saturday, we went to the annual Easter egg hunt that ConocoPhillips puts on for employees and their families.  The kids had fun, and it didn't take me too long to get over the embarrassment of slipping and falling in the mud in front of my husband's co-workers.  Awesome.

They had one of the refinery's fire trucks there for the kids to play in.  Declan was in heaven.

We always love General Conference weekend.  Early Sunday morning, Liam came downstairs all dressed in his church clothes.  When we reminded him that it was conference and we got to stay home to watch it on TV, he said, "I know that, Mom.  But it IS still Sunday."

After the afternoon session, we headed out to hike a new trail at Sehome Hill Arboretum.  

We climbed this big tower...

...which had an amazing view of the bay.

The forests are really starting to green up and we saw lots of signs of spring, like this:

(This butterfly was hanging out on some moss on a tree stump, but incidentally, that moss is the exact same color and texture of the carpet in our first newlywed apartment!)

We also found this really cool tunnel and spent lots of time exploring and climbing.

Fun family weekend.  We are enjoying spring break and can't wait to head to Oregon in a few more days!

I also wanted to give an update on what is happening with the foster kids.  Surprise, surprise, DCFS is taking much longer than they said and we are not sure when we will be getting them.  (We really shouldn't be surprised about this - we've been foster parents long enough to know how completely inefficient the state is, but it's still disappointing.)   

As far as we can tell from what we're hearing from the caseworker, they are still working on getting our ICPC (inter-state agreement) in place and plan on getting them up here as soon as possible, but when that will be, no one knows.  It's frustrating, but we've decided to take advantage of the time to get some much-needed work done around the house so we can try to be an organized family of eight!  (I'll post some pictures soon of our new TEAL family/toy room upstairs - I love it!)

Thanks to everyone who left such kind comments and encouragement about our new adventure.  We love you all!

Cousins and sisters...

...might be the only ones interested in this, but I'm really excited about it, so here goes.  

My great-grandma Afton (my dad's grandma) took up oil painting when she was in her seventies and I have really fond memories of her little studio in the corner of their living room.  She even gave me a few art lessons when I was a kid.  I have a piece that she and I did together (a lovely sky and background done by her and a very simple sailboat and lake done by a young, untalented me).  After she passed away, I always felt bad that I didn't have one of her paintings. 

 

Then about a year ago I was going through some of my things in my parents' basement and came across a beautiful painting done by Grandma Afton.  The best part of all was turning the canvas over and seeing her handwriting: "To Erin.  Afton Ellis Beckstead, January 1977." Of course, I took the picture home and a few weeks ago, had it framed.  

Here is the finished result.

It means so much to me to have it.

101 Dalmations

This year Liam decided to be in the primary school's play, "101 Dalmations."  He's been rehearsing for three months and had his performances last week.  It was an amazing production, especially considering there were over 100 kids in it!  Liam was a natural, and we were so proud of him!

The night of the play, Sam sensed the formality of the occasion and chose his attire accordingly.

Liam and Mrs. Akers, his music teacher and the director of the play.

Decorating Easter Eggs

And in unrelated news, Declan's birthday shirt from the Brandts is my new all-time favorite kids shirt ever.

Gang Violence on the Rise in Bellingham, Washington

 This is a photo of Garreth and representatives from about 20 of the contractor management personnel at the refinery. Garreth was obviously not paying attention in the meeting prior to this photo, when they announced that afterward, ConocoPhillips would be taking a picture to run a full page ad in the Bellingham Herald celebrating over two years without a serious contractor injury. Garreth was representing ConocoPhillips Management at the meeting and in the picture, but thought that the picture was just going up on someone's wall somewhere. So of course, the obvious thing to go was to throw up a gang sign for this very serious picture. This is the picture than ran in a full page ad in the paper today.  

Yes, that is the gang sign for "Bloods."  Way to "reprezent" yo.

We are really hoping he is not fired tomorrow.

Sunday at the State Park

It is finally starting to feel like spring!  

Today was a beautiful sunny day and we spent part of the afternoon down at Birch Bay State Park, throwing rocks, collecting shells, and exploring tidepools.   

Today was so lovely that I couldn't help but get really excited for another summer on the coast.

  I know I say it all the time, but I am so in love with living close to the ocean.  

I love the smell and the way the air is just different here.  

I love that summertime brings a constant grit of sand to my floor and never-ending layers of dried seaweed to my sandals.  

I love that my kids are little naturalists and can spend hours on the shore.  

I love the calm, peaceful feeling that being near the water brings me.

After all, I am an Aquarius.  Maybe this is just where I belong.