The Man of 1000 Hairstyles

This is what Mike's hair looked like when we got married. I know it is kind of hard to see, but his hair was short with no facial hair. Since then the hair covering his face and head have been in constant flux, like the phases of the moon. This is partly due to the fact that my mom got him a set of hair clippers for our second Christmas.


He's done the "one length all the way around" look


The "short hair long beard" look


The mohawk (after which he shaved his head completely bald when I was napping one day - I didn't take any pictures of that)


He usually goes for a short period of time without a beard


But it always comes right back (this time with long hair)


He's had a handlebar moustache -- twice (once with long hair, once without, both times he looked like a trucker)



And he even did the "vampire with a ponytail" one night wearing a black silk shirt



But today he got his business/entering the real world/interview haircut, which means that he actually paid $12 to get his hair cut at a shady looking establishment called "Men's Haircuts" which was right next to "American Food Mart."



I like the new haircut, he looks hotter than Daniel Craig in the new James Bond. Now I just hope he can get a job.

Goodbye Dan and Welcome Home Kim and Megan

For the last three months we have had Mike's brother Dan coming to visit almost every weekend while he's been stationed in San Antonio for some sort of officer training. Although it has been hard for him to be away from his family for so long, we've loved having him here and he's kept Mike entertained while I work on Saturdays. As you can see from the top picture, he eventually won Megan over, which can be a difficult task for any strange males to accomplish, uncles or not. He graduated from his program yesterday (second in his class), and hopped straight in the car to make the 24 hour drive home to his kids. We'll miss having him here.



For the last two weeks Megan and I have been in Utah visiting with family and helping my grandparents move from Colorado.


It was great to see everyone, Megan especially loved seeing her cousins and playing with her grandparents.




Although we planned on returning to Austin after a week or so, the flights didn't look very good. With all the weather back east, spring break, and the SXSW music festival in Austin, we weren't able to get a flight when we planned to, so we caught a plane going the other direction and went to Reno to see Alisha and Cory instead. It was the first time that we've been to see where they are living while Cory goes to graduate school, and it was a lot of fun. Alisha taught Megan about eating "cheeseburgers plain" at In-n-Out Burgers.


And one night we left Megan and Noel with Cory and went to the Chocolate Bar. It was fantastic.


We even made the short drive to see Lake Tahoe, which was beautiful. The girls had a great time playing on the beach, even though it wasn't that warm.


It was a great trip, and we loved seeing everyone, but it's always nice to be back home again.

Happy Birthday Megan

Megan Favors Us With a Song

Megan takes after her dad with her love of music. She can regularly be found annoying our neighbors with her own little compositions.

By the way, we're sorry that the sound is always so far behind on these YouTube videos, it drives us crazy. We hope you can still enjoy it.

¡Chancho!

After watching Baby Mozart, Galileo, Van Gogh and McDonald (of the Baby Einstein series) about 3 thousand times, we decided to buy Megan something with a plot. Mike and I thought long and hard about what Megan might like to watch, and we finally settled on the "platinum edition" of the recently reissued classic tale The Little Mermaid, a movie that inspired a generation of little red-headed girls.


In a totally unrelated incident Mike and I received Nacho Libre for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Frost. Which movie do you think that Megan has decided to watch daily?


If you guessed any of the Baby Einstein series you would still be correct, but she has also fallen in love with Nacho Libre (which she calls "Chancho" due to the little chubby kid of the same name who lends Jack Black his sweat pants). Although we can't really understand her devotion to this movie, we are at least happy that she has learned some wrestling moves, and a little bit about the Oaxaca region of Mexico.




By the way, this is our new TV which Crystal so amazingly spotted in our prior post (can you find it?). After 25 years our previous TV had emitted its last cathode ray. If you haven't already seen it, you can watch its demise in the music video that Mike made here (if you are using any browser other than the new Internet Explorer), or the worse quality YouTube version here, if you are stuck with Internet Explorer.

Dan and Marcie Visit

As most of you know, Dan is down here in San Antonio for the Spring with the military. After about six weeks of loneliness Marcie was able to come visit him this past week and we got to hang out together. It turned out that Marcie and I had the same taste in clothes.


Mike and Dan made fun of us until they noticed what they were wearing.


After changing, we hit the town together. We enjoyed all that San Antonio had to offer (which isn't a whole lot).


We ate at "Mi Tierra", a famous Mexican place downtown.


Although Dan has been here six weeks, and we spend almost every weekend together, Megan is still not sure about him. 30 minutes after Marcie arrived, however, Megan had a new best friend.



We're glad Marcie could visit, and we've been glad to have Dan here. Anyone else interested in visiting beautiful Texas better hurry and make the trip, we may not be here much longer!

Megan on a Walk and Mike Goes Country

For a long time Megan has been more interested in pushing the stroller than riding in it. She likes to take her baby and go on walks around the apartment complex. Whenever we walk to get the mail she wants to be a helper and carry some of the mail. We can't believe how big she is getting.




And since it's been a while since we last posted, you get a two-for-one. Here is Mike's handlebar moustache. He was already planning on shaving his mangy beard, and Dan talked him into shaving it into this.


Dan and I thought it still looked too hairy, so he shaved it down to this.


Now he fits right in here in Austin.


Don't worry, he still doesn't like country music.

Convalescing

Megan has been sick off and on since Christmas. She caught something really bad while we were in Utah, and has seemed more susceptible to everything that has come along since. While in Utah her sickness was able to mellow her out for a few days, but other than that she has been an unstoppable force. She's almost two, and it definitely shows.


Here she is taking a hit on the albuterol that the doctor prescribed her. They think that Meg may have asthma, and in any case she has had some difficulties breathing with all of these colds and changes in climate. Grandma McFadden had a little song she sang when Megan used this inhaler about a "Jumbo Elephant", which is what Megan still says everytime she uses it. She thinks it's great fun to push the button herself. It has cut down on all of the coughing at night.


Recently she has also taken to sleeping with all of her favorite toys, which she asks for by name, one by one. If she forgets to ask for them when she lays down, we can count on her to wake us up a few hours later saying "Bear! Baby! Dolly! 'Raffe!" Since they don't know how to insulate down here in Texas, Meg's room with it's two windows becomes a meat locker at night. Hence the blanket and quilt. She is a wild sleeper, so in the morning her toys end up scattered all over the place with her on top of the blanket somewhere in the corner with her face pressed against the bars. It's nearly impossible to get a picture of since she is such a light sleeper, so you'll just have to imagine.

Texas Cowgirl

Not a lot to explain here, Megan loves to ride the horse at the store. We don't actually put in any money, she just pretends. She sure is cute, isn't she?





Oh yeah, that is a binky in her hand. For those of you who have known her since she was born, she has never sucked on a binky. She has recently become intrigued with them since our friends the Barlows have a one year old who sucks on one. In fact, that is her binky that Megan has stolen. What can you do?