Grandma & Danny

For her Christmas present this year, my dad decided to send my mom out to visit us for a week. I think it was more of a present for me than for her. We sure loved having her here. We also got an overlapping visit from my youngest brother Danny. He's leaving on a mission to Costa Rica on the 16th of January. We always joke that I was his second mom (I'm the oldest so I took care of him a lot). He's such a handsome and sweet kid and I'm glad we got to spend some time with him before he leaves. I'm including my favorite pictures of when they were here, but you can check out the Haws Family Blog if you want to see more.


I just couldn't resist adding this cool one of Abby from the New England Aquarium.

I wish I were a photographer...

I had the kids pictures taken a while ago. They were cheap and I was disappointed with how they turned out, (I wished that I could take the camera from her and do it myself... better yet, I wish I could just borrow their lights...) The babies cried most of the time (which would have made a really cute picture but she wouldn't take it.) I thought Lila's ended up cute (I was really trying to get the babies picture taken but she was so funny I had to get hers too.) Anyway, I thought you'd like to see them!

It Ain't Christmas 'til Somebody Cries

Crying Over Curls

Zack needed a haircut.


It's been a few months now that we've been talking about it but I just wasn't ready to cut those soft curls off...


...until today.


Johnny was an expert barber. We were worried Zack might freak out a little bit but he did AWESOME! The only person who cried was... you guessed it, ME!!

When those long curls started falling into my lap I just couldn't help it. Then when my baby boy turned around and looked at me he just looked like such a little boy...


And, he got a real kick out of Johnny vacuuming the hair off of him!

No Explanation Needed

A Christmas Story

Most of the time we wonder if our kids are listening to us at all. We used to feel fairly certain that even if they listened they didn't actually remember anything. That was until Lila proved us wrong many times. Lila got "Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree" as a present on her birthday. So we have been reading with our other Christmas stories to get her excited for Christmas. Apparently she memorized the whole thing already! (make sure to turn your volume up, she is talking kind of quietly).


Video: Lila Reciting Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

Thug Life

Johnny: "Lila, what happened to your arms?"
Lila: "I got tattoos!"


Johnny: "What do your tattoos say? Do they say 'Thug Life'?"
Lila: "No! not 'Thug Life', they say 'Bug's Life'!"


There you have it. That is the real message all those Disney movies are instilling in our kids. Lila has been great about only writing on paper we have given to her and nothing else. This was her adventure into getting some 'ink' on herself. Mostly we are curious how she learned about tattoos.