THE HAIRCUT

 Does anyone else's little kids' haircut sessions look like this?

 The i-pad was not working.

 One second before before the mega meltdown.

 Mega meltdown

 Who knew he wanted his shirt off? Made things better for about two seconds until the hair started sticking to his sweaty little body and then I had to keep towling him off just so we could make it through the haircut.

 He looked like such a stud afterwards, but WOW what fight that kid puts up! Makes me want to just let him grow it long, but you can see below what his hair does when it grows long. As you can see, it takes an army to give him a haircut! I hope someday he grows out of it!

 Pre-haircut

 He had this weird peacock fan thing going on.

 Haivi was a poised princess. She went first because we thought that would help Taj see that it wasn't going to be scary or hurt. She didn't make a peep. She just kept turning her head to see what the heck we were trying to do to her hair.

We gave her a cute little bob. It was her second haircut. Her first was at two months. We just love our chunky monkey!

Americana in Monticello

 My two baby sisters holding my baby. I love these girls!

 Aren't they cute?

 Brian and Marci obviously had no problem with the heat in Monticello. They are used to that hellish heat in Arizona. There is no doubt if I lived where they did I would be in a half-crazed, irritable frenzy for at least 8 months out of the year! Aren't they the epitome of "hipster?"

 My brother Matt and his wife Ali are hopefuls for one of these of their own. Brannon and I are STILL the only ones with kids, so obviously people in my family have some catching up to do!

 My kids are pretty spoiled aren't they? Taj just loves his great grandma Martha!

 Taj STILL gets held. Look at him, he is pretty much as tall as my grandma!

 Taj was pretty much in heaven. Small towns parade rock! We have never seen so much candy thrown out. Taj sat down to his candy buffet after a little while and let us gather the candy for him.

 Of course we had to go check this out after the parade.

 Haivi does NOT like sirens one bit. She cried for about 20 minutes after the sirens stopped just to make sure we all knew how upset she was over it.

 I've probably written this in another post, but my best friend Sinamin and I used to play on this tractor when we were kids and it sat stationary at the park. We'd play in those huge wheel spokes and then we'd climb up inside and pretend to drive it. Not until a few years ago, did I find out that there are only four of these tractors left in the world.

 The haul. We only got two crummy salt water taffies at the Kaysville parade. We will never go to that parade again. Worst parade ever!

He rode the train twice and he did NOT want his picture taken. He is really weird about that still. He's okay with people looking at him, but not camera lenses.

This post is super late AGAIN, but like I said these pictures will come in handy someday:) These are all from the 24th of July parade in Monticello. We and by "we" I mean all of my siblings came home for the 24th and we had a mini family reunion. I don't believe we will all see each other again until Christmas, so each of us usually jumps at the chance to go home when everyone is going to be there. Anyway, it was good to spend time with family!

Small Town Meanderings

 We hit up the dinosaur museum in Blanding one afternoon. I think Taj was more interested on trying to climb on the exhibits than he was in the actual dinosaurs.

 Haivi was just excited to have her picture taken!

 I really like this one of Taj checking out T-rex. I think he was contemplating in his little mind whether or not it was a good idea to climb on this particular display.

 We also hit the carnival scene in Blanding. Can I say that place is definitely NOT as cool when you are an adult? It seemed so much...smaller, dirtier, windier, crummier, nauseatingly expensive. You can bet Great Grandma Martha and Grandma LeaAnn didn't care about price though as far as Taj was concerned! This is my grandma Martha holding Taj's prized monkey that we or should I say SHE paid $5 for when he used a big rubber mallet to hit one of those things that shoots a metal disc up a pole. I have no idea what they are called, but he got more than her money's worth hitting it!

 I think this was by far Taj's favorite ride. He rode it like 10 times. Made me sick just watching him!

 He is telling us which ride he wanted to go on next. This kid was so excited to be here, he couldn't stop spinning in circles trying to decide where to go next. Everything must seem so big and bright and exciting when you are that little.

 He OWNED this ride and you can tell too, can't you?!

 On this ride he was more preoccupied with how the gears worked than he was with enjoying the ride.

 I HATE these fun house things. What a rip off! I was trying to get Taj to pose for a picture with me and he ended up throwing a fit and kicking his boots off.

 Oh Taj could just not help himself when we finished walking through this goofy contraption. He ran back in there quicker than I could run to get him and then be both got stuck in that rickety, stupid wheel. I was trying to pick him up and I literally could NOT catch my footing.

 He is laughing. I am trying to keep us both upright, but you can see we are well on our way to halfway up the wheel.

 Where were my mom and grandma? Standing there laughing and taking picture the whole time. I thought we were going to make it out this time, haha, guess not!

 FINALLY, grandma Martha comes to the rescue.

 I was halfway worried Taj would suck her into that torrent of torture and then I knew we'd all be running in that wheel like hamsters and inevitably crash and burn. That wheel would have had no remorse and would have dumped us all out like dirty laundry.

 Yay grandma Martha! You saved us!

 This is attractive. Look at Taj, the little devil, he is already eyeing that stupid spook alley!

 We went through this TWICE! It was like walking in a pitch black, claustrophobic rat maze. That last time we went through a little boy decided to follow us through because he said he was scared to go by himself, so we went first and when I stopped to assess my surrounds, he rammed right into the back of me and I think it scared him so bad he yelled, "GO!" I couldn't help laughing as we walked by demented clowns and were serenaded by chain saws. There was a scary monster sound at the end and Taj could not stop talking about the "scawwy monstuh" for the rest of the night. Poor kid, I think he was traumatized as much as I was. I was halfway scared one of the creepy carnies working the booth would be hiding in there!

 I love this picture. Haivi cannot help herself when it comes to earrings. You can just see the intensity and focus on her face. I told grandma Martha that she was pretty brave to let Haiv's little fingers that close to her earrings!

Anybody else remember this ride? I only rode this like 100 times when I was a kid. I cannot believe that it did not make me sick! It was my favorite carnival ride by far and you can bet I didn't waste any time on the zipper or the swings! I saved up my $5 bills for THIS beauty when I was young and had an iron gut.

Haivi Girl

 This little girl loves food and eats more than her brother does, but I honestly wonder how much she actually gets in her mouth! It stresses me out when she eats because she's so messy and I'm so OCD about food in her hair, ears, nose, up her arms, on the floor, on the chair, squished under those chunky thighs of hers. I just have do a few breathing exercises to get through mealtime with her! Thank goodness for wipees!

 This girl definitely loves her blankey and her Minnie Mouse that her Auntie Ali and Uncle Matt gave her. I went in to check on her the other day while she was napping and I couldn't resist taking a picture. I just love that little diaper bum bum of her in those skinny jeans!

Unlike her brother, Haivi LOVES the spotlight. I think we already know that we have a little diva on our hands.

We went to Haivi's well check a couple weeks ago and here are her stats: Head circumference: 99% percentile (her nog is still growing! Incredible!) Weight: 60% percentile and Height: 80% percentile. Her weight is definitely starting to average out, but I'm thinking this girl is going to have some legs on her when she grows up. I really hope she is AT LEAST four inches taller than me.
She is still not crawling, but in the meantime has resorted to scooting around on her bum to get the toys she wants. She still loves clapping her hands when we say "Yay!" and today she waved "Hi" to me. She says "mamma," "dadda," "uh-oh," and tried her best to say "hi," today. I think we are going to have a little chatterbox talking our ears off pretty soon, which will be very good for her big brother. I think she will help him make big progress in the eating and talking department!
Other big news: she is working on six teeth! Three are fully in and the other three are trying to work their way in, so needless to say, we've had grumpy little girl on our hands the past two weeks. I hope for her sake they come in soon, poor thing. We love our little Haivi bug and her BIG personality. We definitely have a firecracker on our hands!

June Wedding

 Leave it to Taj to find a "twactuh" and bum a ride on it. The teenage boys operating this loader (not sure if that is the right name for it. I call everything like that a loader-shows how much I know about heavy equipment!) were so nice to take Taj up on there and let him check things out. I'm pretty sure he thought that was heaven.

 Love this picture. You can really see that attitude of Taj's come alive whenever he wears a pair of shades and you let him think he's in charge like Uncle Brian did by letting Taj hold onto the handle bars on the fourwheeler.

 Auntie Marci and Haivi baby

 Can you spot Lewis Lodge? Too bad we hiked in the wrong way, could've had a MUCH closer look! Leave it to the Nielson clan to learn things the hard way. Oh well, at least we had fun doing it!

 Haha-it was very windy!

Why would I title this post "June Wedding" you say? Well there is an explanation, just not a single picture to back it up. My youngest sister Macee got herself wedded to one Roman Black in June. So now my little sister is Macee Black and has joined the young and married club. It was the quickest wedding I have ever been too. There was no reception and the wedding ceremony and luncheon took all of about two hours and the happy couple was gone! We all stood around a little dazed and wondered to ourselves if they actually just got married. It felt something akin to a planned elopement (correct terminology? who cares!). Basically they told us the date and time and we all showed up and then they were off. My parents are nearly empty nesters now with four out of five kids married and one set to graduate high school in two years. It's crazy how family dynamics change once everyone starts moving out and getting married and having kids, oh wait, I'M the only one having kids. Why is that? My siblings are definitely a little behind! So I will post some pictures of my beautiful little sis and her handsome groom as soon as I can!