Yep, I Chopped My Hair Off

I had a wild hair (so to speak) and decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love. So I called my cousin's best friend Alesia at Dexterity Salon and she cut my hair tonight!

Before:

Aaaah am I really cutting my hair off!?

You can't tell much from the phone picture but there was over 10 inches to donate there!

Alesia is awesome - go see her!

Easton didn't recognize me, Brandon thought it was cool and Jane is completely indifferent. I feel different!

Oh, and......the baby turned 1 month old today! Happy 1 month birthday BabySteals.com!

Just when you think it's going well...

...it gets better! It's funny how much things can change in 24 hours. Last night about this time when I went to bed (2am MST) I was thrilled that http://www.babysteals.com/ sold out that day and was excited to see what was going to happen with our 'baby shower' theme today. I am astounded to report that our site was getting so many hits that many times the server was too busy! Amazing. Orders started coming in immediately upon the 9am switch and it's a total buzz watching them come in. Needless to say, we have been up all night shipping orders and we're still not done. Thank goodness it's Friday. Wait, Saturday now. Luckily I'm not alone, my partners Rett (smartest dude ever) and Emily (web princess) are up as late as me on google chat, working too. We sold out of a lot of things today but the party online continues through the weekend! Back to one deal a day on Tuesday.

I should try sleeping one day

Today was the best day yet for babysteals.com - we sold out in 2 hours and had over 2,200 visits to the site! Crazy plans for BabySteals.com this weekend! Grab some mints and peanuts and mix them together and put them in a cute little cup. That's a clue. The craziness starts at 9am tomorrow, (which is today because its so late!)

Gulp

My favorite time of year!

In case you didn't already know, I love to garden. There is no better way for me to chill out and de-stress than planting or pruning. My favorite time of year in my garden is definitely May and June. I am a huge Iris collector and they are just starting to bloom! I have been more busy than ever this year between my career at KSL, starting www.BabySteals.com, and lots of other odds and ends not to mention the family! I'm trying to spend as much time in the garden as I can and the pressure is on because of winning Yard of the Month in Taylorsville last year! Anyway, here is a picture of my first Iris to bloom. Many more to come!

I really wish you could smell my lilacs. I have 7 of them scattered throughout the yard. I absolutely love lilacs!

The kids and Caroline (next-door neighbor) were in the backyard throwing rocks in the ditch last night.

Spring evenings are the best!

Apparently He Hasn't Quite Learned Yet...

"The girls go for the boys. The boys just go for the food."

--Easton, right before leaving for Mutual last night, to a Young Men/Young Women Etiquette Dinner & Dance.

Jane's Debut

Jane today after sidewalk chalk, spaghetti, and putting dress shoes on backwards.

Before I start this story, keep in mind the three things Jane absolutely does not like are: baby food, highchairs, and bibs.

Today and yesterday Jane filmed for the upcoming DVD's of Baby Signing Time. If you've read my blog you know how much we brag about her signing. She knows too many to count! So on the big day, when it's time to shine, what do you think she does? A signing strike. Yep, no signs. "Jane, sign Apple." Usually, she proudly displays the sign. Today, nothing. Nothing but a "NO!"

Allow me to rewind. Yesterday for the first shoot Audria and I made sure she was very full and not hungry at all so she wouldn't be cranky. When we got to the beautiful home where they were filming at, they mentioned that Jane was going to display some food signs today, in a high chair eating baby food with a bib on. Ah-oh- quadruple whammy. She's full, hates highchairs, baby food, and bibs. I kept a good attitude because you never know how 2-year olds will react in different settings. But I was nervous. After Marcus got her outfit all perfectly straightened and darling, (she looked sooooo cute) they filmed me putting her in the highchair. She didn't complain too much and I was relieved. We opened the baby food and they were filming her hopefully eating and signing "pears". Nope. She played with it, but refused to put the spoon to her mouth. When I tried feeding her, same thing. Since it wasn't her idea, it was bad. Very bad. Quickly the bib flew off across the room with a "No!" Not a crying no, just a very commanding "dream on, I refuse to wear this NO". She wasn't freaking out or having a tantrum, she just wasn't cool with doing things our way. Strange lights, strange house, strange big cameras, strange 5 guys looking at her, so what can I expect? Day after day of filming babies, they are loaded with patience and experience on how to get them to do things for them. All in all she did ok, she just didn't want to do things the director's way. They did get some great footage up in a kids' bedroom (where they followed her to) of her playing with some toys and signing 'game'.
Also some footage of her on a couch playing with a 'telephone'.

Today, it was the green screen day. She looked so incredibly cute and Marcus got her outfit all perfect and straight. When it was her turn to go back, she seemed very happy to walk back there, she even said "Cool Dude" and "Okie Dokie". Enter dark room with huge lights and a big green screen and floor, and the same 5 guys looking at her. Hmmmm. At first she was pretty enthralled by seeing herself on the teleprompter with the Baby Signing Time background. She could immediately recognize what was going on. But the first request to sit on a bench and show us as sign was met with a "No", and she walked out. I quickly grabbed her and put her back but she wanted out. Once we realized she wasn't in the mood to perform we gave her a while and let other kids go. I tried everything to get her to realize the green room wasn't bad, even watching the other kids behind the glass. On the last attempt about an hour later she did sit on the bench for us without running out, but no signs. Notta one. She just wanted to watch Rachel on the teleprompter. Luckily they had her do some contextual shots by holding different fruit and balloons and they got some cute shots that way. Sigh - movie star diva!

Happy 2nd Birthday Jane!

...and now a Happy Birthday video from my EMMY nominated friend Rachel!

I Need a Vacation!

Day 3- I've been meaning and meaning to post updates on BabySteals, but I'm very sleep deprived and have minute brain capacity. For a business update, go here: www.babysteals.com/blog

For a kid update, here's what's up:

Baby Jane:

• Princess Baby Jane turns TWO tomorrow! How, may I ask, did that happen? I'm literally tearing up just thinking about it. More on my reflections on her tomorrow. I'm taking the day off from KSL to have a special day with her. We're going to get her haircut and maybe a photo shoot at my mom's. (I haven't asked you yet Mom, is that ok? Or maybe Saturday) We're having her birthday party Strawberry Shortcake style tomorrow night at 7pm. Everyone is invited!
• Jane was picked among lots of awesome baby signers to film for the next series of Baby Signing Time! See the video bar below for some of our outtakes from her audition videos, as well as the one we finally had to use because she wasn't in a signing mood when we were shooting the original audition footage.
• Right after being chosen to film for this, Jane fell on the tile and chipped a good part of her front left tooth off at an angle! It was so heartbreaking because she was in a lot of pain. We of course took her immediately to our dentist who immediately referred us to a pediatric dentist who tried to fix it right then. Unfortunately she screamed uncontrollably and would not hold still even a little. They told us the only way was to take her to Primary Children's on their allocated surgery date, and have her put under for the procedure. Knowing it was our only option we booked the date but I was sick about it. Day after day it didn't feel right so the day before I chickened out and cancelled it. I couldn't bare to have her 'put under' to fix a tooth. We scheduled another attempt for Tuesday to try again at the pediatric dentist. We made very sure she was exhausted before and would be totally asleep. She was completely asleep for the beginning and we were sure it would work. The dentist even did. About 25% into it she jolted awake and freaked. Failed miserably - we'll try again in 2 months. Poor thing.
  

Brandon:

• Brandon is playing Taylorsville Baseball with boys from our neighborhood. Boy can that child hit a ball! At his game last night he came about 1 inch from catching a hit right above third.
  
• He's upset today because most of the kids in his school are going to Hollywood Connection for a work completion reward. He can't go because there was one assignment he forgot to turn in. I feel for him today because he is devastated. I almost kept him home this morning from school in protest but wasn't sure that would send him the right message about responsibility.
• Brandon is loving skateboarding and has some natural talent. He is very coordinated and gets very excited when he masters a new trick!
  

Easton:

• Easton is completely obsessed right now with two things:
  
• building and rebuilding skateboards, and like Brandon, mastering new tricks.
• Solving Rubix cubes. With his eyes closed and his arms in the air. Literally.
• I can't believe he is an 8th grader and is almost done with school this year. The kid is way taller than me and has the thickest arms. He has a body just like his dad.
  
• Everyone confuses Easton and Eric's voice now. They can pose as each other on the phone easily and consistently trick people. Be skeptical if you call.