Grandma Kathy's Visit

I am finding myself with a couple minutes when both Anya and Evan are sleeping, so I'm going to attempt a blog posting about our recent visit with Grandma Kathy. We had a busy few days with her at our house. We got a lot done and had a lot of fun. As always, Kathy was a working machine!



On the first day she was here, we took Anya to get her hair cut. She has been really resistant to me doing anything with it (pigtails, clips, etc.), so I decided it had to get a significant trim. I warned Anya the night before that I would be putting her in pigtails one last time for a picture before she got her hair cut. The next morning, as I was putting her hair in my favorite style of low pigtails, she said to me, "Mama, I'll let you do this every day. You don't have to cut my hair." As cute as this reaction was and as cute as she looks in pigtails, I just didn't trust her. So, we stuck with the plan.

But we did a photo shoot before leaving the house since she looked so cute.





Ahhh...my melancholy daughter.



This picture below cracks me up. It was right after she tried to convince me that she would let me do pigtails every day. And if I didn't know better, I would think that she was mourning the coming loss of her hair. But really, that's just how she often looks. Contemplative.



She had asked to go to "Dylan's Place," a kids' salon called Lollilocks where we went with cousin Dylan one time to get her hair cut while they were visiting. Anya remembers everything about Dylan's haircut - the kind of chair she sat in, the color of the lollipops, and the color of the bows in Dylan's hair. And she wanted to experience it herself. So, we headed to "Dylan's Place" to get several inches cut off of her hair. It really does look adorable on her and is so much more manageable, especially when she doesn't let me mess with it. And she looks so much older now, I think. I look back at these cute pigtail pictures and think for a second that I made a mistake. But then I look back at previous pictures we have on our computer that are not so good because of her crazy hair and the fact that you couldn't see her face for the stringy hair and I don't regret it. And hair grows, right?

After she cut her hair, the stylist gave her some little pigtails with some bows. Anya had been talking about getting bows (like Dylan) forever! So, she was super excited. And super excited to get her current favorite color - GREEN! And she had a green lollipop. And her tongue turned green! It was a great day. Oh yes, and she was wearing green pants.





One of our major projects while Steve's mom was here was to reupholster our dining room chairs. She also did some mending for us and made covers for our couch throw pillows to match our new slip cover that we got at Target. We went to JoAnn Fabrics every day for three straight days. Whew!

Before our work, the chairs had a black velcro attached cover. But we took off the covers and upholstered the actual seat cushions for a cleaner look. It was a lot of work taking out all the staples and stapling down the new fabric. Hopefully we soaked them with enough fabric protector to not show too many stains.

Here's the before picture...



The picture below shows the new look of the chairs. Thanks, Kathy! We love them! So far, no stains.



Here's a photo of Evan "helping" grandma take out some staples. He wanted to be right in the middle of the action, so she tried to entice him with Anya's play tool set.



On Monday, we hit up three local thrift stores. Anya scored big at each place. She got to pick out a recipe box for her kitchen and a trash can for her bedroom (no more Kleenex's strewn all over the floor every morning). And at the last place, I found a great deal on some dress-up clothes. She got a boa, necklace, wand, hat, wings, and two pairs of high heeled shoes for $4!





You might think that the above outfit under the dress-up items was part of the costume, but you would be wrong. Anya is into picking out her own clothes every morning. I tend to let her do it, although I do try to steer her into combos that don't look totally hideous together. It has been hard for me to relinquish control.In general, she has a good sense of what matches, but sometimes she just looks a little funny. This particular shirt/skirt/tights combo actually turned out to be pretty cute, so I had to take some more pictures.



As you can see, she is actually being quite cooperative with being photographed lately, so I'm taking advantage of it and taking pictures like crazy! At this particular photo shoot, she dropped down on her knees and started crawling toward the camera. Maybe she's considering a career as a model!



Here are a couple shots of Evan and Anya that I just had to include. They are both so cute lately! Evan was enjoying getting to nibble some rice off of his tray.





We had a great visit with Grandma Kathy! Thanks again for all your help around the house and with Anya and Evan.



Sorry to past and future visitors who don't get such a detailed post. It does not mean we love you less, it just means that this time I was fortunate to get a chunk of uninterrupted blogging time. Hopefully I'll catch up on past and future visits at a later date! I still have a post in my drafts folder entitled "Christmas in Ohio."

Until next time...thanks for reading and we love you all!