By far the most exciting news from the weekend is the engagement of Randy and Ashley! There's going to be another Ashley Cochran and I couldn't be more excited! Congrats you two!

We celebrated Christmas with Dusty's family on Saturday. I have TONS of pictures to go through so today we're just going to share these two gems. Dusty and I got all the kids matching Christmas PJs this year. Don't they look so cute as Santa's little elves?!

Thank you Tara for helping iron on all the initials, that was one fun mess of trial and error!

Dusty and I also surprised everyone and decided to one-up our ugly Christmas sweater and tie from last year. As shown here. We got ourselves matching one piece footie pajamas. Don't we just make an adorable and awkward family?!

I'm so excited to show off more pictures, I may do another post later today if I get time!

Max had his first public meltdown yesterday, and thankfully Daddy and the hairdresser were quick on their feet, as it only lasted a minute at most.

The background: Dusty has been cutting Max's hair and it's cute, Max tends to cooperate, and it's free. (Big bonus!) Lately though he's been losing his patience faster and Dusty isn't able to buzz his head enough to get rid of most of those scraggly long hairs. The result leaves all sorts of random long hairs sticking out from Max's head and it was driving me CRAZY. (Yes, I totally realize this is my problem but we all know that Mom wins on the crazy arguments.) So last night we all loaded up and took Max to get his hair cut by a "lady", as he so calls her.

The meltdown: After numerous conversations in the car where Max told us "Daddy cut my hair, Lady cut my hair, Mama no cut my hair", we arrived. Lady, we're just going to refer to her as that as I never got her name and that is what Max insisted on calling her, went to get Max a sucker so he could suck on it while she cut his hair. As she came around the corner she grabbed at the sucker and Max said "No take off wrapper". But since Lady wasn't fluent in Max's speak she continued to remove the wrapper as he said this. Max stopped with big sad eyes, said "Don't take off wrapper" and then flung himself down onto the wet, hair spotted floor where he proceeded to cover his face and cry. While he was down Lady quick stuck the wrapper back on the sucker and Dusty was able to convince Max to look at the "new" sucker that Lady got for him with the wrapper on.

The best part: Max gets up, takes his arm and wipes his face, grabs the sucker, says "Thank you" and proceeds to follow Dusty over to the chair as if nothing had happened. Seriously people? For our first public meltdown I couldn't have asked for it to go better!

The adorable pictures of Max's first haircut in a salon:

I don't think we'll be doing this again anytime soon. Max did amazing and sat still for the whole ordeal but Daddy's haircuts are free and conveniently at our home so we'll try using scissors after the buzz and hopefully cut down on the number of long random hairs. And we at least got a new tool, the sucker, to help bribe our child to sit patiently!

Oh, and because I'm sure you're curious, Rory played with the toys, walked all over the salon, and grabbed every bottle of hair product within her reach. I was exhausted chasing her around!

Kitchen pots and pans? Say hello to Maxwell and Lorelei!

House? Clean yourself up!

Some quick stories from the last couple days, then we'll get back to some of the pictures I took this weekend!

Yesterday I dressed Rory in Max's old Minnesota Gophers sweatshirt. Max decided he needed to wear his maroon and gold sweatshirt too. Then he walks over to Rory and pulls her hood up so that it is on her head like he was wearing his. Seriously?! My kid is trying to match his sister. I just about died laughing - I'm so in love with those two!

Also, I'm proud to report, that since the night I let Max cry and return to his bed unassisted, we haven't had an incident. I'm crossing my fingers that we guessed right and that's all we needed to do!

So back to last weekend...

Saturday after we put up the tree (and vacuumed all the loose needles, hence the clean house Jean!) Max had found some Christmas candles and insisted we use them. So I got out my martini glasses, which have never contained martinis, and floated them. It was pretty and festive!

Then we got the kids down for their naps and Dusty helped me dip pretzels in almond bark for daycare and neighbor gifts.

Didn't they turn out nice with the green sprinkles? And don't the floating candles just make it that much prettier?!

Since we were stuck inside all weekend we were always finding creative things to do. This one I can't take credit for. Rory found her Daddy's hat and thought it was hilarious to put it on and take it off and say "Boo!" So simple yet so entertaining!

I know, she's adorable. I think I've told you that before though...

Saturday morning was spent decorating for Christmas. I ordered our Christmas stockings this year from a seller on Etsy and I couldn't be happier. From left to right is Lorelei's zoo animal, Maxwell's skiing monkeys, my deer, and Dusty's Christmas tree shopping theme. Seriously, so cute!

Decorating went really fast as all four of us were involved. Dusty strung up all the lights. (Purple and clear because it is MY tree after all.)

Max was really good at putting the ornaments on, he just had a tendency to stack them all on the same branch!

Rory needed some assistance. And that ornament we're hanging there? It's a dog inside a stocking. She has removed that ornament more times then I can count now. She likes to take it and show it to whomever is around and say "Woof! Woof!" My baby girl is getting so smart!

And I had to get a picture of the giant box of ornaments we will not be hanging up this year. I think all my beautiful Precious Moments and other glass ornaments can wait until I know the kids will leave the tree alone. I just don't want to add that stress to the holidays this year.

After all our hard work we definitely needed some milk and cookies!

I know, I'm a genius with my little bowl idea for Rory. She gets to dip and it makes minimal mess if she tips it over! (Which hasn't occurred yet, thankfully.) And now our house is decorated for Christmas!

I know everyone already knows we had quite the storm this weekend, but since I keep this as an online journal I feel I have to document it here.

To recap:
The snow started falling Saturday morning and didn't stop until Sunday morning. We received almost 2 feet of snow in that 24 hour period. The International airport completely shut down, Mall of America closed and the roof of the Metrodome collapsed. Yeah, talk about "this day in history".

The snow drifts at our house were taller then Max.

So we were stuck home all weekend. Thankfully we had planned ahead and decided to pick up a Christmas tree Friday evening instead of cutting one down during the weekend as we had originally planned. Say hello to our perfect, little, Christmas tree!

The kids had fun running through the little lot the Boy Scouts had setup, and apparently they did really well this year as the local Walmart didn't sell trees. Good for them!

Yeah, I don't know what prompted Rory to sit down in the snow but she sure thought it was funny!

Her little tushy all covered in snow!

The rest of the weekend was spent at home, inside from the snow mostly. We got the tree all decorated, Dusty and I made some holiday treats, and lots of messes were made. I'll post more pictures throughout the week!

Some stories to share:

Story #1:
The last few nights Max has been waking up screaming and crying. It started while we were with my parents for Thanksgiving and it's been happening more and more regularly. Max has also decided that the only person that can console him is his Mommy. While this does melt my heart, I also feel bad for Dusty since he'll go to Max only to get yelled and swatted at and told "No, Mommy!" Plus? Since Dusty isn't working everyday like I am? It'd be nice to sleep while Dusty deals with the issues on the days he can sleep in. So last night I tried something different.

We used the Cry It Out Method, and I am a big fan of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. (You can follow their blog here, I love that I can go directly to the Author/Dr's with my questions!) The book discusses bad habits, and how children can actually start waking themselves up with the goal of getting attention during the night. So I did a little test last night. We did not go to Max when he woke up crying and screaming last night. We heard him get out of his room, and even come down the stairs where our bedroom is located. Instead of coming into our room though, he went into the family room then turned around and went back upstairs and returned to his room. He was crying this whole time and I was sitting waiting to see if he got scared but he never did. He just fell back asleep after his little expedition.

Keep in mind this whole ordeal didn't last more then 3 minutes, but of course I was wide awake after it since I was so stressed out waiting to see what he'd do, if I'd need to go to him, it was exhausting! Oh, and he did wake up with a dry diaper. So that threw out one of our earlier theories that he was waking up having to go potty. I'm sure making him go only escalated the situation as it required waking up even more. So now we'll see what happens tonight.

Story #2:
I rocked at Christmas shopping last night. I rarely enjoy shopping anymore. Especially in the evenings when I feel rushed to get home as soon as I can because there are always things waiting for me. Yesterday I was actually able to talk myself out of rushing as soon as I'd feel it start (which was numerous times), I spent as much time as I wanted debating over gifts, and I got almost everyone knocked off my list . It was invigorating! And to top it off, Santa even found Mommy some gifts. Seriously? Shopping for myself is horrible nowadays, but yesterday? I was able to find a few things for myself even. It was an amazing shopping day and I felt great when I got home.

Sidenote: If you're getting a gift from us this Christmas and don't like it? Well then I guess I failed, but I still don't care because that was one of the best solo shopping experiences I've had in a while.

Story #3:
My daughter's hair is just killing me! I refuse to cut bangs, I'm just not into them, but why does the front of her hair insist on falling over her face? Ponytails work great, so do clips, but Rory just plucks them out when she notices they are there. When is she going to realize that her hair stays out of her face if she leaves the hair piece alone? Oh the agony! Other then this small annoyance, her hair is absolutely adorable and getting longer and longer by the day. She's going to slay the boys with those curls, slay them!