our weekend: lots of hair cuts and a santa fail

saturday morning thatcher had a rare work meeting, so i decided to take the kids to see santa. he was going to be at the greenhouse near our house, we got our picture taken there with him a couple years ago. azalea had been pretty excited about the whole idea of seeing him. she told me she was going to ask him for a doll, and asked me a lot of questions about why he was not at the north pole ;) i knew there was a chance she would be scared when we got there, but I figured she would just have me be in the picture (like we've done in past years) and all would be fine! we got there and there was only one kid waiting, so that was promising! i asked azalea to take off her coat and she refused while staring at santa out of the corner of her eye and backing up, saying "i'm not ready, mama...i'm not ready yet!" her calm protest quickly turned into frantic screaming. "i wanna go home!!!!!" i tried telling her i would stay with her the whole time, but she kept pushing me away and screaming. a cute girl a couple years older than azalea came over to try to tell her that santa is nice (which was so sweet!), but azalea wasn't having it. at all. if i had thatcher there for back up, i would have passed azalea off to him and gotten a picture of ashford with santa, but it just wasn't going to happen. so we left, and she sobbed all the way out to the parking lot....and all the way home. apparently it was traumatizing. so no santa pic this year. oh well, there's always next year :) 

earlier that day, i randomly decided it was time for a hair cut, so i made a last minute appointment with my childhood friend caylia who works at a salon by my house. i just started going to her a few months ago. it's been fun to catch up on each others' lives...and she does a great job! we used to spend hours braiding each others' hair when we were kids, so we joke that she knows my hair so well. ha! i chopped a few inches off, which felt really nice! 

i figured while we were at it, sunday should be hair cut day for azalea. it had been about 7 months since her last cut, so it was time. not to mention her beautiful blonde curls turn into a not-so-beautiful matted, knotted mess multiple times a week that takes a good half hour to comb through, so i wanted to chop a bunch off to see if that would help. she was excited to get her hair cut (the last one went well too). we went to the same kid hair cut place and she remembered that they had mickey mouse's club house on the tvs there. she was so cute sitting in the chair, chatting with the stylist. i asked them to cut about 4 inches off, which sounds like a lot, but i'm not super sentimental about hair (my own or azalea's), i figure it will always grow back. anything that makes life easier these days is a win in my book. plus...look at how cute she is with her new 'do: 

not to mention so grown up! 

we ended the weekend with pizza for dinner and christmas tree decorating at thatcher's parents' house. it's a fun tradition we have every year with them. in other news, i'm only about 1/2 done with my shopping...eeeek i better get going!