Locks of Love

"Locks of Love is a public non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis. We meet a unique need for children by using donated hair to create the highest quality hair prosthetics.
Our mission is to return a sense of self, confidence and normalcy to children suffering from hair loss by utilizing donated ponytails to provide the highest quality hair prosthetics to financially disadvantaged children. The children receive hair prostheses free of charge or on a sliding scale, based on financial need."

I made a drastic change last night. I have been talking about cutting my hair for a month or so now. I really wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love but I didn't think that I had enough.

The last time I cut my hair was when we moved to Ogden after Dillan was born. So it has been just under two years since scissors have touched my hair. Well, Grandma had her hair cut yesterday and I mentioned to the hairdresser that I wanted mine done, but I wasn't sure. She said she had time and knew what needed to be done for Locks of Love.

We found a measuring tape and voila! My hair is now gone. We cut 12 inches in the pony for Locks of Love and then she trimmed another inch or so off to make it even in back. It is way shorter in the back than I wanted, but it had to be to get enough to donate. I figure even though I hate the back, in a month it will be long enough that I can handle. From the front, I like it. I guess that is all I can see anyway, but I can feel the shortness on my neckline and I feel like a boy. But all for a good cause I suppose.

Happenings around the House

We have been doing some indoor gardening. I don't have a green thumb at all, but Grandma insists on keeping a garden inside that I have to water twice a week.

It is tradition to grow an amaryliss flower around Christmas in the Tolman/Haddock families. My mother in law gave me one this year to try out and Grandma of course has the new one and the one from last year that we were attempting to get a second year blossom out of. It came back, but no blossom, just leaves. They are almost ready to flower at this point. The buds have broken open and you can see the flowers, but no blooming. I will post pictures of our beautiful blossoms when they come. For now, here is what you get.

We also got a new stove. I don't know when Grandma replaced her's last, but when we moved in 2 months ago 2 burners were already not functioning. It is hard to cook for a family of 4 with only 2 burners. Well, 2 days ago, one of the 2 functioning burners...the big one...started to spark at me. That scared me so I decided it was time to replace the stove. We are on a budget and so is Grandma. Plus we don't know how long we will be in the house so we didn't want something top of the line and fancy that we won't get to enjoy. I found a used one on KSL.com and Jeremy picked it up yesterday. Not too shabby for $55, and the best part is that it all works. It will work for us for now. Thanks for Harris for letting us borrow the truck to go to Brigham City, and not having to pay for gas. What a nice job Jeremy has. Here is a look at the old and the sort of new.

Look What I Can Do

Dill is obsessed with playing basketball and thinks it is very funny to throw the giant ball in the hoop. The problem being that he can't reach the ball to get it out and keep playing. The usual scene is him getting it stuck and then screaming and whining "Stuck! Stuck!" until someone comes to pop it out for him. Well, he figured out how to get it unstuck without help now. I am glad he can do it himself, but not sure how much I enjoy the method yet.

Grandma Time

Dillan loves to color and he loves his Great Grandma. The two combined was too cute not to capture. He squeezes into the chair with her and colored away for a half hour before I actually forced him to get up since it was time for Grandma's lunch.

USU vs. Fresno State

Harris Research had tickets for the entire company for Thursday's game. We didn't get the great seats on the floor like last time, but we got to go and watch the game. Plus, they catered dinner from the Coppermill for us in the Champ room before the game.

We took Dillan to the dinner portion and since we did get the parking pass that was right outside the doors of the spectrum in assigned parking, we figured we would take him home right as the game started so that we could enjoy the game for ourselves. 2 years olds don't sit through 2.5 hours of basketball games right? WRONG!

The whole time at dinner the only thing Dillan could talk about was basketball, b-ball, and balls. We felt bad that he was so excited to get to see basketball live we had to let him stay. We figured he would last about 10 minutes and then we would have to drive him home to stay with Grandma and Great Grandma. Thanks for coming up Mom! Dillan sat there very happy and enjoyed himself thoroughly.

Big Blue was the highlight any time he came on the court. Dillan would yell "Blue!" He came up close to us at one point. So, Dill just sat/stood there the entire game! I got him a bag of popcorn and he ate, watched, cheered, clapped, and danced his little heart away.

Ever seen a 2 year old do the Scottsman...we have. He swings his arms right along with the crowd. He would dance to the music and scream "yeah!" when the crowd would roar. The only problem is that he doesn't yet distinguish when the crowd is screaming with excitement and when it is screaming because of a bad call. He just cheers no matter what.

We always knew he was in love with basketball, but for someone who can't sit through anything he sure was a pleasure to have at the game last night. We will definitely take him again. There were even some people before we went in to the stadium that said, "Oh, he is so cute with his red hair. He could be a little Wilkinson." For those who don't know, Gary Wilkinson is the red headed, starting center, and star of the team.

Boise on Harris

Jeremy had a quick business trip to Boise/Nampa Idaho last week and we were able to tag along thanks to several people. Thanks to Jotham for making the suggestion that Jeremy take his wife along. Thanks to Mom and Dad Haddock for watching Grandma for a couple days. Thanks also goes to Harris Reasearch for footing the bill. Yeah!

We made arrangements to have Grandma stay in Ogden for a couple days. Dillan and I took her down there Wednesday at lunch time and came right back to get in the car with Jeremy to drive to Boise. Dillan was excellent on the drive. He ususally is really good in the car. He slept for an hour, colored for an hour, and played with the school bus for the other couple hours.


4.5 Hours after leaving Logan, we finally arrived and checked into the hotel in Nampa, ID. They were so friendly and nice and had a crib set up already before we got there. They even gave us a DVD player to watch Baby Einstien for a few days. We had dinner at the local TGIFriday's and then came back to do a little swimming in the pool. It was indoor, but the water was a bit chilly for Dillan's liking. He enjoyed it a lot, but didn't get to stay in long. He really likes swimming with his dad.


We put him to bed after a warm bath and hung out in the lobby for a while watching TV on the big screen while he fell asleep. Then we snuck in the room and got in bed too.


Jeremy got up early to get ready for his all day training he was conducting. He met Shaun, the other HRI employee that was there to help out, during breakfast and took off. That left me and Dillan to do whatever we wanted with a car all day long!

We showered and changed and headed to Boise, 20 minutes east, to the outlet mall. We spent a little time there and then went to the Boise Discovery Center at the recommendation of the hotel manager. Dillan had a lot of fun. It wasn't geared toward Dillan's age group, but we found a few things that kept him busy and happy for a long time. After spending a hour or so there we had lunch together. Dillan told me he wanted "chic-kin" and "fies" so we went to McDonalds. He ate an entire happy meal by himself and then asked for some of my lunch. He is a big eater for not a very big kid.

We drove back to the hotel to have a nap. I put him down and hung out in the lobby forever while he slept. I read my book and watched TV. The kid sleeps forever! I put him in bed at 2:30 and he didn't get up until we walked in the room at 5:30 when Jeremy got back.


We had dinner together at a local mexican restuarant and then did some more swimming at the pool. And then the same routine for bedtime. We had to be up early in thr morning to drive back to Logan since Jeremy had a meeting at 1pm. We left just after 8 and made it just in time.

All in all, we had a great time. It was nice to get away for a day. It was very nice to spend the day with Dillan and devote an entire day to just us. He plays by himself so often at home while I take care for Grandma. He deserved to have some mommy time. Plus the best part is that with what Harris pays to Jeremy for going in gas, food, and hotel we actually come out slightly on top of things. It was great!

Pink

I was getting ready in the bathroom this morning and Dillan was in the tub. I had the XM radio turned on as usual and we were rocking out as he played. Then a song came on that featured Rhianna called Live Your Life. I don't care for it, but Dillan yelled out "Ana!" I thought it was strange and then he started to dance around in the tub. I laughed at it and kept getting ready. Then the next song came on. It was Pink's So What. He immediately yelled out "Pink!" during the intro and that made me turn around quickly and he started to dance again. I thought that was so crazy! I haven't purposely done anything that would make him realize songs were by certain people...and specific songs at that.

I have noticed that he really likes songs by Rhianna, Britney, and Pink, and Michael Buble. He dislikes country music, rap, and Brandy for some reason. He will let you know what he likes by dancing and what he doesn't like by plugging his ears with his fingers. Too cute!

We have a 2 year old!

It still boggles my mind that he is 2. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday so that it could be with all the family and his cousins. We ordered in pizza and I made a fabulous cake. It was a big hit with everyone, especially Dillan. Bert and Ernie turned out much better than anticipated.

Dillan opened presents much better at his birthday than at Christmas. I think there was less going on and we limited all the distractions until he was done. He got a wiggle car which he rides around grandmas house. Thanks for picking that up mom! He also got a set of Fisher Price Easy Link stuff. He enjoys the computer so much. It is nice that it locks down the whole computer and I can just leave him to do what he wants and not worry about getting to sites he shouldn't and files on the computer he shouldn't.

He got a cool peg board from Grandma and Grandpa with a reverent book. Larry gave him some pattern blocks. Even great Grandma has been in on the peg board.

He had his 2 year old check up this week and the doctor says that he is really smart for his age, and then said, "And he is really cute!" I said, "Thanks, we think so too." He said, "No, he really is." That was nice. We think he is as cute as can be. His hand eye coordination is was above what it should be and he talks more than average for his age, even though I think he should talk more. He is still short, skinny, and has a large head. Hopefully he hits a growth spurt here and becomes average. It is strange because everyone always says he is big for his age, but I guess not according to the doctor. Oh well!

Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas, the week of, down at my mom's house in Sandy. It was nice for both of us to have some time off.....me especially. Aunt Shirley came in Monday afternoon and stayed until Saturday morning and then some of the cousins were here until Saturday night. So, I got the whole week off! It was fabulous.

Dillan and I left Monday afternoon and headed down on our own. Jeremy had to work Monday and Tuesday. He came down right after work on Tuesday. Monday was spent hanging out with my mom and sister. She had driven in with her daughter, Gillian, from San Diego on Sunday. Her husband had to work too and was coming in Christmas Eve.

Tuesday we got up and spent the day shopping together and having fun with the kids. We went to the mall and shopped, had lunch, and rode the carousel. They loved it. Gillian sings, "Up and down on the merry-go-round!" Tuesday night Jeremy and I were lucky enough to have family babysit and went out to dinner with some friends. We met Clint and Carrie are McGrath's and had a nice dinner. I am sure the waitress was sick of us sitting around after dinner, but there were plenty of open tables so I didn't feel too bad. Thanks for dinner Carrie!

Wednesday we headed up to Ogden to spend the day up there doing Christmas with Jeremy's parents. They drove to Kansas late that night, to miss a storm, to spend Christmas out there with the other kids. I didn't get any pictures and I should have. We had a great night. Dillan got a book, hooded towel, cookie monster legos, mr potato head, and cars. I got this great bag that my mother in law made, and salt city candles....mmmmm. Jeremy got running clothes. As a family we got some cool decorations for the house to personalize it a bit. I am sure there was more, but I can't think right now.

Since the kids don't quite understand Christmas yet we got to sleep in until 8. We opened stockings and had some breakfast and then started in on the presents. Dillan wasn't keen on opening presents because Santa had left him a semi-truck that had matchbox cars in it and that is all he wanted to do. I opened a few of his just to get it done. We got a framed family picture, food storage, cash, and a nice pyrex dish from my mom. Dillan got a big hummer that matches daddies remote control one, a toddler bed, cars, a monkey, and too much other stuff to think about. The highlight of his christmas was his train table. I had picked it up months ago for $60 after taxes from Toys R Us on sale with a coupon on top. Awesome deal! He plays with it constantly.

Jeremy gave me a gift certificate for a massage at the Sports Acadamy and cash to go shopping! YEAH!!! Plus it included him watching Dillan for the day. He got shoes for work and running, a new watch, socks, yaktrax, and more. We had a pretty good Christmas.

Friday my mom and I went shopping all morning. That was nice to get out without the kids. Then all 3 girls had manicures done that afternoon. I have a hard time with polish on my nails so it is already gone, but it was nice to have the massage and pampering. I found a place here in Logan to do it for $10. That might be a good release for only $15 including tip.

Friday we went to Temple Square on Trax with Lisa, my brother's girlfriend, and Iris, his daughter. Jared had to plow all week and was exhausted so he stayed home and slept. There was another storm coming in and needed all he could get. Iris spent a lot of the week with us.

Saturday we did Dillan's birthday party even though his birthday wasn't until Sunday. We had to be back in Logan Saturday evening and wanted to spend his day with the family. I will do another post dedicated to his birthday, so look for that.

New Pictures!

I can't decide if it is a blessing or a curse to be able to do pictures for birthday and Christmas all at once. Sometimes I wish that he could be wearing something cute and summery, but he is always dressed for the weather and the backgrounds they have are only winter. But, we only have to go once a year, so that is very nice.

These were all taken the week before Christmas. I haven't copied them to put them in cards yet, so don't fear if you haven't recieved one. I don't know when it will get done. I have the cards and everything. Where does time go? Don't forget the other two that are posted at the top of the page and on the side.