Harris Chronicles

More Baseball Pics

2011-07-31T22:11:00.000-05:00

Christopher's last baseball game was earlier in the month, but I wanted to share a few more photos from different games. He had so much fun!

Dance Recital

2011-07-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

This photo pretty much sums up Ashlyn's behavior for the day. She was so stressed out that she made the rest of us miserable. She whined and complained and threw tantrums and complained about having a dance recital.

And then she started talking to her friends in the class.

And had a giant grin on her face during the entire performance.

Which continued after the performance when Grandma Vicki and PawPaw gave her balloons and a cat. I forgot the dozen roses I had purchased earlier in the day, so Allen bought these tacky fake flowers. Ashlyn LOVED the fake flowers. She was so excited that they would last FOREVER.

With Grandma and Poppy and Christopher

with Grandma Vicki and PawPaw

with Mom and Dad.

Ashlyn kept telling me that she didn't want to be in dance anymore, until after the recital. Now she tells me that she was "meant to be on stage!"

(yes, the recital was in May and I am just now posting.)

New Haircut

2011-07-05T15:14:00.000-05:00

Ashlyn hasn't had her hair cut in a year, when she tried a DIY style. She decided that long hair would be much better and would cry if even a trim was mentioned. Recently, she had decided that shorter hair would be nice again. At first I told her no, assuming that she would change her mind within minutes after getting it cut. Too many tears with every hairbrushing convinced me.

Before

We went with shoulder length this time. I even talked her into bangs, which she changed her mind about moments after it was too late. They are pretty wispy, so it won't take much to grow again.

After

Birthdays...

2011-06-30T14:02:00.000-05:00

Once again, Ashlyn had two birthday parties. Granny made her a heart cake for her family birthday (Ashlyn's choice.)

I don't think there could be a child more excited about their birthday. We only start counting down 364 days beforehand. She told me that she was "almost 7" now.

Both kids with Grandma Vicki.

Giving Paw-Paw a hug.

On Monday Ashlyn had a pool party, where she invited all of her girl friends. There was a frog near/in the pool that caused a lot of screams and attention.

Princess and the frog influence. Yuck!

Waiting for everyone to finish their lunch to get to the cake part is, apparently, very boring.

It was miserably hot here the day of the party- my poor icing was starting to melt. Ashlyn was very happy to get the first piece of rainbow cake. She was also happy to have a second slice of "tie dye" cake.

Ashlyn and Lilly, enjoying the pool.

More kid pool pictures.

Rather than handing out goodie bags, we gave all of our guests "surprise balls." I just wanted something a little bit different. However, it took a good long while (with my mom's help) to make 23 of them. (We had about 6 left over, so that was a few extra.) Overall, we had a good time, and it was nice to get together with the girls from Ashlyn's class and daisy troop.

Now you are 6!

2011-06-28T18:07:00.000-05:00

Oh Ashlyn,

it seems you will remain my dramatic child. Everything is either the best that ever was, or the very worst in your mind.

July 2010

I appreciate your passion for so many things. Starting school was definitely the highlight of your year!

August 2010

You love your family, and when things are good they are, of course, "the best ever."

September 2010

You LOVE to play with your cousins, and I appreciate that you can play independently so much of the time.

October 2010

You started Girl Scouts this year and are back to dancing. You also have started sewing this year, too. I do love that I have instilled in you the idea of making things for people.

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

I'm sad to see it all go by so quickly, but look forward to having a big first grader as you count down the time until you are 7.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

First Baseball Game

2011-06-17T10:15:00.001-05:00

Christopher was so excited about playing baseball! He was running in place and talking about it all day! This is before the game.

It's the FLAMES, not lame!

This is when baseball is going to be the most fun, I think. Or at least, the funniest.

Christopher is in the center of the photo here, sort of short stop position. Noone was throwing the ball towards the bases to get anyone "out." Every player was in the field, and when the ball was hit, about 5 or 6 would scramble to tackle the ball and hold it up in the air to be returned to the tee. Christopher mostly just stood there.

This is Christopher spinning around in a circle, attempting to hit the ball.

This is just as Christopher was about to hit the ball and trudge to first base. Hitting the ball is fun, running the bases, not so much.

Apparently , we are too cool to pose for more photos.

Last day of school and "Celebration of Learning"

2011-06-17T09:55:00.000-05:00

Just like the first day of school, we took a photo on the porch on the last day of school. Unlike the first day, Ashlyn was not at all excited. She was very sad about leaving Kindergarten. She didn't want to leave her teacher or friends for the summer. We've been working on getting her excited about first grade next year. She is happy now to be home, playing with her brother and having me home, too.

A couple of weeks before the end of school, the Kindergarten had a "Celebration of Learning," centered around Eric Carle.

First the students acted out The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Ashlyn was 5 oranges.

Next, the students told the story of The Very Hungry Kindergartener. They went through each month of school, talking about all that they had learned.

I was able to be there this time!

Ashlyn and Georgia

The table decorations..

On a sort of related note, I have missed blogging. I was looking back at something on my blog and liked seeing the photos of my kids all together, with me writing about their silly things. I tend to just write some silly things on Facebook now, but it just isn't the same. I'm making no promises, but I do hope to blog more frequently now. We'll see.

Kindergarten Drama

2011-04-03T01:25:00.000-05:00

My girl. My girl is beautiful and sensitive and dramatic. She is independent and sweet. Today she sobbed to me that "no one likes me." Whenever she is in trouble, she pulls out this phrase, because did I mention we're a bit dramatic? So at first, I just reassured her that we all like her. Then I realize that she was upset about friends at school. Her teacher had told me a few days ago that there was a bit of girl drama this week. Drama. In Kindergarten. Her teacher didn't fill me in on details, just that 4 girls were trying to play together and weren't meshing too well. I made sure that Ashlyn wasn't being mean, but now I'm thinking that Ashlyn is perhaps the one getting left out. Ack. These are such hard lessons. How to explain that not everybody will like her? How to explain that sometimes people are mean? How to put her in a bubble and protect her?

BASEBALL!

2011-03-23T21:34:00.000-05:00

This is Christopher's new "baseball face." You apparently bat better with this face. I couldn't help but crack up every time I saw it. He took this very seriously, and didn't like it when Allen made the same face for pitching.

...then you were 3.

2011-02-08T19:50:00.000-06:00

I could still call you my baby boy last year. You barely spoke. Not that you were quiet.

January 2010

The changes over the past year, so amazing.

February 2010

You called your sister "Mimi." Your prayers were "Mama-mommy. daddy. A-Men." (We kind of miss those.) We so worried about your language, then it just exploded. It was AMAZING. You have spent the last several months telling us EVERYTHING on your mind.

March 2010

April 2010

I cannot stress how much you love playing ball. Any kind will do.

May 2010

You are also quite happy to play dress up with your sister. Once Jackson introduced you to superheroes, you now often play superheroes and princesses.

June 2010

July 2010

You have adapted to going to daycare so incredibly. You like playing with the other kids and playing with Miss Susan and "Grandpa."

You still absolutely LOVE your sister. I am absolutely amazed with how well you play together.

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

I love watching you grow up, baby boy.

January 2011

Happy (very late) birthday, Christopher!

Last Week

2011-02-07T00:42:00.000-06:00

The weather was gorgeous last Saturday, so we spent a good part of the day outside. I traced the kids and Ashlyn added her own flair. She is sad (on the right) because Christopher is spitting at her (you can kind of see the dots of spit running along the tops of their arms.)

Christopher asked me to draw him. I didn't get too far because he kept sweeping the drawing.

Fast forward a few days to SNOW. Tulsa received 14+ inches, with lots of wind. We had major snow drifts in the front.

On Wednesday, the kids ventured outside to play.

Thursday, we started working on our Valentines for the kids' classmates.

More snow by Friday.

As a family, we put together the 300 piece puzzle of Snow White on Saturday. Since we still don't have school tomorrow, I might pull out the 1000 piece Seurat puzzle.

test

2011-01-01T20:43:00.001-06:00

Just testing blogging from my new phone.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T21:35:00.000-05:00

These were too cute not to share. My kitty and lion getting ready to go trick or treating. Apparently cats do not smile. And Christopher is roaring. Ashlyn designed the carved pumpkin.

Painting pumpkins.

Passing out candy was apparently more fun than getting it themselves.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

Maggie and Makena

2010-09-25T00:22:00.000-05:00

We had more family birthdays in September. Maggie turned 1!

Makena turned 7!

All of the girls!

Of course, my kid has to make silly faces.

A bit of cake for Maggie (which looked much better when we left Tulsa.)

Feeding Momma

With Daddy

At Makena's birthday party, bouncing.

Ashlyn on a slide

Christopher and Jackson, sliding.

All of the party-goers.

Happy Birthday, Makena!

The Kids

2010-09-25T00:13:00.000-05:00

Christopher has been improvising with a bat and ball. Allen finally had enough of the bubble wand bat and bought Christopher a tball set.

Ashlyn has started taking a ballet and tap class. She LOVES it!

I am still here.

2010-09-25T00:06:00.000-05:00

Starting a new job means something had to give. For me, this actually meant several somethings, blogging being one of them. Very little time, means post photos from the last month and call it good.

Last month was Paw Paw's 60th birthday, and we helped celebrate.

Paw Paw with grandchildren.

Singing

Christopher at the splash pad.

Ashlyn getting soaked with Hannah and Hayes.

First Day of Schoooool!

2010-08-12T21:17:00.000-05:00

I don't believe there has ever been a child more excited about the first day of Kindergarten than Ashlyn. (I still remember my first day of Kindergarten, waking up early, long before I needed to get to school. I've been told that I even wore my mom's knee highs to be more dressed up!)

Christopher and I walked Ashlyn to her bus stop, then we drove to school, meeting Daddy to take Ashlyn into her classroom.

I'm so glad that there are so many other crazy moms and dads that were standing by the buses, cameras aimed at the door, for their kid to get off the bus.

Ashlyn and her teacher, Mrs. Andrews.

Getting off of the bus at the end of the day. It was about 104, and the girl was dripping.
(Bus drivers and Kindergarten teachers need their biggest appreciation for this time of year.)

I thought I would be more upset about my baby growing up and starting school. Her excitement made it hard to be sad.

End of Summer

2010-08-07T17:43:00.000-05:00

The end of our summer is coming far too soon as Ashlyn starts Kindergarten Thursday. I'm not sure what has happened to our summer. Somehow, it doesn't seem like there was near enough time for all of the bike riding, splash pad visiting, swimming at the pool, and picnicking that I wanted to do.

Room Redo

2010-07-29T11:07:00.002-05:00

Before:

A few weeks ago, I read this. I loved her "peacock blue." I couldn't think of anywhere that color would work in my house. Then, last week, looking at the colors in our rug, I decided I could do a similar color right in my living room. My kids are at my sister's right now, so this was the perfect time to paint. So, I picked a darker version of the peacock blue. I was finished by 6 pm yesterday. It was very difficult to get the correct color in a photo. It isn't quite this: (needs to be a bit greener)

Or this: (too green and muted)

This was the closest I could get to the correct color:

Though, I would say it's still a bit brighter than this. (Yes, BRIGHTER.)

At first, I really liked it. Then, every time I would leave the room, I would come back in and think "Whoa, that's blue!" At one point, I walked in the room and start laughing. Allen is walked in and said "oh, my" a lot. He then started taking photos and texting his mom about the color. I don't know how I feel about it right now, but we're going to live with it for awhile.

Family Tour

2010-07-23T23:38:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I headed with my mom and kids on a mini family tour. We first drove to Denver, hitting the Denver zoo the first day we were there. We enjoyed seeing family (my aunt, uncle and cousins all live in the Denver area.) However, we managed to be there when everyone was sick! The whole group was never together, so I didn't end up with pics of everyone.

My cousin Dawn, with her husband, Brad.

Fortunately, the kids weren't sick, so Ashlyn and Christopher were able to enjoy playing with my cousin, Janelle's daughter, Paige.

Next on our tour, was a stop in the big city of Syliva, KS to see my grandparents.

Grandpa was a good sport when Christopher would say, "Play ball with me."

Grandma gave my kids all of her hats.

Next, we drove to Newton, KS to see more cousins, Kim and Kylene.

Kim gave birth the next day to Derek James, younger brother to Emma. Kylene has twin 3 year old boys and a one year old boy. Here she is with Wyatt.

The group: Emma, Ashlyn, Christopher, Wyatt, Colton, and Brody.

Emma and Christopher, hugging bye. They are just a couple of months apart.

After leaving cousins, we stopped at the Brockway home in Wichita, where we ended up swimming and eating pizza.

Ethan, Sydney, Ashlyn, and Joshua.

The Fourth

2010-07-18T17:39:00.000-05:00

We had a big family get together on the 4th at Donna's.

We arrived early, and Jim took the kids for a ride.

We helped Mark celebrate his 21st birthday!

Grandpa and Mary

Mamaw and Stan

Donna leading everyone in God Bless the USA.

Ashlyn's first time using sparklers.

Waiting for the fireworks with Leah.

Christopher got comfy with Mary, too.

Sporting patriotic clothing.

A five year old girl

2010-07-07T07:28:00.000-05:00

July 2009
You have been so excited about turning five. You've had your party planned and have talked about starting "American kindergarten" for more than a year.

August 2009

September 2009

I keep telling you to stop growing up so fast.

October 2009

You are still as dramatic as ever, loving all things princess, dance, and now Barbie.

November 2009

This past year, you've learned to write and know all of your letter sounds. I think you will be reading so soon.

December 2010

I'm amazed at how you learn. Sometimes, you just need one little thing to give you confidence, and it all clicks for you.

January 2010

February 2010

You've also gone from avoiding the camera to asking me to take pictures, posing and hamming it up.

March 2010

April 2010

You have your own sense of style, accessorizing your outfits each day, which almost always includes a dress.

May 2010

June 2010

Five is such a BIG deal to you, and you are always saying, "I'm a big five year old girl." It is a big deal, baby girl. Happy (late) Birthday!

Birthday Parties

2010-07-07T07:05:00.000-05:00

Apparently, when you are five, you need more than one birthday party. Ashlyn invited friends from school to a party at the pool. We swam, opened presents, and had cake.

The next weekend we had family at our house for another celebration. Ashlyn had a ladybug cake picked out for over a year, for Granny to make.

All of her cousins at the party joined us at the pool afterward.

End of a fun day!

Thanks, everyone, for helping Ashlyn celebrate!

Drillers

2010-07-05T13:41:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids to a Tulsa Drillers game.

This was their first game, so we weren't sure how it would go.

They ate lots of popcorn and cheered.

Ashlyn hammed it up for me with her megaphones.

They got tired, but we were able to stay through the fireworks at the end, which, of course, ended up being both kids' favorite part.

Splash!

2010-07-01T07:45:00.000-05:00

Hard to stay mad

2010-06-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

I told Ashlyn that she had to help me clean up all of her hair. She loved getting to use the vacuum, and asked to vacuum Christopher's room and the playroom when she finished.

The Big Cut

2010-06-22T17:02:00.001-05:00

She was only upset because I told her that her hair looked terrible, just terrible.

The scene of the crime.

During Ashlyn's quiet time today, she apparently had a pair of scissors in her room. So, of course, OF COURSE she cut her hair.

I was nearly in tears when I saw it. Some of the bits in front were only a few inches long. Part of the side was hacked up to her ears. Ashlyn had cut at least a bit of her hair all of the way around. This photo only kind of shows how bad it was.

I called a local kids hair place to make sure they weren't packed and took her immediately.

Her hair hasn't been this short since she was about 18 months old.

He did a decent job evening up the bottom, but without giving her a boy's cut, it was going to have some crazy bits.

Mug shots: You can see the worst of the damage on this side.

Berry Picking

2010-06-16T19:50:00.000-05:00

Blueberries were always my favorite thing to pick as a child. We spent much more time blackberry picking, which I hated. They were wild all around our house, but they were full of thorns, so we had to dress in long shirts and pants to pick them. I also didn't really care for blackberries, either. Blueberries were picked at the farm, in neatly spaced rows, with mowed stretches between. And they were SO good.

When I was 14, I also "worked" at the blueberry farm. I was paid $2 per bucket of blueberries. Since, I was pretty slow, that worked out to about $2 an hour.

I didn't really think my kids would enjoy picking blueberries, not yet. Christopher lasted about 15 minutes before he was done. He then finished eating the blueberries in his bucket and started eating handfuls out of mine. Ashlyn last about 45 minutes, before she started wandering off.

I still managed to pick a couple of bucketfuls before we left, hot, dirty and full of blueberries.

The Greatest Show on Earth

2010-06-12T19:58:00.000-05:00

Explosion

2010-06-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

Christopher's language skills have improved so much in the past 6 weeks or so, a language explosion. Not only does he have more words, he uses the ones he already knows more often! He strings them together into sentences! I've been so excited about this, I can't believe that it has taken me so long to blog about it.

Being a bit slow in language development, it is even more exciting to us. I love this stage. I remember feeling a bit this way with Ashlyn, but with Christopher, whoa! It has just happened so much ALL at once.

One conversation that we have at least once a day is after I change his diaper. Christopher says "I want to see that poop." When I comply, he says, "Ew. Do we eat that?" When I respond in the negative, Christopher finishes for me "We don't eat any poop."

While walking through Target, Christopher points out many different things, "What's that? Do we eat that? WHY?" Why is one of his favorite words, which is said with two whiney syllables. He wants to know why about everything. He also likes to point out colors, specifically car colors. As we drive down the road, Christopher is in the back seat with a running commentary of how many white (or whatever color he is attached to that day) cars he sees. "A white car. Another white car. I see three white cars, Mom."

Christopher talks slowly, often emphasizing the beginning of each word. He still needs help. He's still a bit behind other 2 1/2 year olds. But he is TALKING. (nonstop)

Summer!

2010-06-07T07:25:00.000-05:00

We're two weeks into summer vacation and have already been fairly busy with summer stuff. Since we lost Fred the first moment we were dog-sitting, Granny came to help look and stayed the night.

We celebrated Poppy's birthday with a blackberry pie.

We've been going on walks.

Riding in cars while eating popsicles.

Playing hide-n-seek.

Swimming. (We are not used to the heat/humidity here. I predict that we will be at the pool frequently.)

Painting on the sidewalk.

Eating ice cream with strawberries.

Going to the library, this time was the Asian American Festival.

And playing dress up. This was the first day that Christopher has been interested in more than Ashlyn's shoes.

Allen tried to brainwash him with talk about how "boys are princes. Girls are princesses." Christopher would have none of it as he ate dinner in the Belle dress. He said, "no, lala." (his word for princess.)

Fred was thrilled with being a princess, too.

Water Day!

2010-05-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was water day for Ashlyn's school. Parents were in charge of different stations by the playground.

Some of the boys really got into the shaving cream.

Ashlyn had a lot of fun, too.

I didn't take many pictures, because I was busy painting faces. Many kids wanted more than one thing painted on their faces.

Christopher came with me. I thought he would be a total mess, but he just stayed right by me the whole time. The teachers took the kids inside when it started sprinkling. That was when Christopher decided it was time to play.

More Leavenworth pics

2010-05-19T09:18:00.000-05:00

Allen's old battalion commander is at Fort Leavenworth, too. Chuck and Caroline (plus fam) are moving to Fort Lewis this summer for his brigade command. I'm glad that we got to see them while we are close.

(this picture looked in focus on picasa, I swear.)

The McQuiltons are moving to Heidelberg, Germany this summer. I didn't get any decent pics of our kids together.

We were also able to see our next door neighbors from Germany. Ashlyn took a bit to warm up to others, but not Bella. They immediately ran and played like they'd done in Germany.

Christopher and Harrison are only 5 weeks apart. They've both changed a bunch since we saw them last.

Always with the silly faces.

Damon and Allen

with Laura

Fish On!

2010-05-19T09:02:00.001-05:00

This past weekend, we drove to Fort Leavenworth, KS to visit friends. We know several people who are there, many of whom are moving this summer.

We stayed with Jason, Laurie and kids. We joined Robbie, Kelly and kids for the post kids fishing derby. Kelly had a few poles that the kids shared. Really, the kids spent most of their time doing this:

While the adults fished using princess and barbie fishing poles.

Sometimes the kids were just along to watch. (Robbie and Eavan.)

Of course, we did have two very small boys with us. Donnie is two months old.

And Josiah is not quite 4 months.

At one point, pretty much everyone was under cover. It was raining.

The kids had fun anyway. (Christopher and Ashlyn with Paige and Addison.)

The kids perked up a bit before the end of the derby when Christopher caught our first fish! He was so proud.

Maddie caught the second fish, but wanted nothing to do with it.

Christopher ended up being the biggest "catch of the day" after he fell in the pond.

Special Agent Oso is responsible for this post

2010-05-14T20:03:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to teach Ashlyn to swing for awhile. It wasn't that she didn't want to learn, but it just didn't seem to click. Plus, it was easier to have me push her. Last week, I walked outside to see both of my kids swinging. I asked Ashlyn who taught her how to swing, she said "Special Agent Oso." She then proceeded to tell me SA Oso's procedure for swinging (which was pretty much exactly the same as mine.)

I just laughed and wondered why I don't let her watch more television.

I'm not sure if Ashlyn taught Christopher, or if he learned from the same episode. It probably helps that these swings are hung much closer to the ground than the ones at playgrounds.

Silly faces

2010-05-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

My brother finished school last week, so he drove east to visit family. We were the second stop. He played with the kids nearly nonstop while he was here, except when he was working in the yard. (My brother's a good house guest.) It will probably be awhile before we see him again. I'm really glad that he took the time to see us.

I did try to get a cute, smiley picture of the three, but these were really much better.

Mother's Day Tea

2010-05-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

Ashlyn's Pre-K class had a mother's day tea on Friday. Here's Ashlyn with Mrs. Parker and Mrs. Ingraham (we LOVE them.)

Each child introduced themselves and their guests to everyone. They then sang a few songs and were presented with their PK certificates.

I was also able to meet my neighbor across the street, who's son is in Ashlyn's class.

Content

2010-05-10T10:41:00.002-05:00

While we were in California, I told people that my life would improve by at least 50% with a yard. I would say that was definitely underestimating. I believe Ranger would agree.

Family Wedding

2010-05-09T10:39:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday was a family wedding. This is not the bride.

Definitely not the bride.

Dress up for grownups.

Here they are: Lauren and Brett. Congratulations! (And, seriously, I know I didn't get a good picture of the two together.)

Flower girls with their mommas.

My boys before the ceremony.

Party pics:

Brad and Christal

Grandpa and Mary

Cake!

Allen and Lynda

The kids didn't want to stop dancing, but the adults appreciated that Donna had babysitters handy!

Allen, Brad, Matt, and Lauren

Leah and Lynda

Lauren and Jim

Lauren and Elaine

It was a beautiful wedding and great reception!

Bridal luncheon

2010-05-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, we went to a bridal luncheon in Fayetteville for Lauren.

Carmen and Leah

Toasts from Gina and Donna

Makena and Ashlyn

Three generations

Christal and Lauren

maggie grace

2010-05-09T10:15:00.000-05:00

Maggie looked so cute in her tutu, I couldn't help taking photos.

Fred, getting snuggles. Maggie getting them, too.

Maggie has the best smiles. Such a happy baby.

Baby tushie

Christal's Birthday

2010-05-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

The last weekend in April, we celebrated Christal's birthday.

Granny made a cake, plus lasagna. Yum!

Everyone helping Christal get her wish.

Apparently, you get to kiss the boy closest to you if you blow out your candles.

Sisters in law

Jackson and Christopher in Matt and Sharon's huge backyard after dinner.

ALS walk

2010-05-08T08:46:00.000-05:00

Last month was the walk for ALS in Little Rock. We met a few family members for the walk.

Grandma Vicki sporting a new look, while Super Jackson fought off criminals.

Christal and Maggie

Brad and Christal

We had a nice lunch with Uncle Bill and Aunt Mary as well.

SDC

2010-05-08T08:28:00.002-05:00

My mom took the three of us to Silver Dollar City for one of the early week days. This squirrel was really close to our lunch table, wanting something.

Christopher had a blast at the kiddie area with thousands of balls-Christopher's idea of heaven.

The kids rode every ride for which they were tall enough.

Mom was too scared to ride this with one of the kids, so I had to ride it twice.

None of us liked this one. Not a good idea.

The train was a better idea.

Poser

2010-05-07T08:57:00.004-05:00

Ashlyn has been in quite the posing mood lately.

Easter

2010-05-07T08:17:00.001-05:00

Trying to catch up on photos from the past month. Starting with Easter egg dyeing.

Katie found using her hands was the best method, while Christopher put every egg in yellow.

Amy set up a scavenger hunt in the morning for the kids to find their eggs.

They were on top of the dryer!

Photo shoot from Easter Sunday. Jacob

Ashlyn

For our egg hunt, we gave Christopher a 4 egg head start. He would give a little scream every time he saw an egg.

And they're off...

more screaming

Katie had a kite in her Easter basket, and Allen helped her fly it that afternoon.

All the kids posing.

The granddogs waiting outside during dinner.

Katie's Birthday

2010-04-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

Easter weekend, we also celebrated my niece, Katie's, 8th birthday!

The day started with painting pottery.

Food and presents to end the day

Taking a seat

2010-04-10T02:57:00.000-05:00

I carved this sculpture when I was 19. Both of the kids seem to think it makes a good bench.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T02:56:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Suburbia

2010-03-19T17:54:00.000-05:00

Santa Fe

2010-03-18T07:48:00.000-05:00

Ashlyn's Point of View

2010-03-17T23:16:00.000-05:00

Hoover Dam

Grand Canyon

Santa Fe

Grand Canyon

2010-03-16T23:33:00.000-05:00

Conversation from this morning:
Christopher: I want to go
Me: Daddy will get right back inside, and then we'll go.
Christopher: NO, I want to go. kicking and thrashing
Me: As soon as Daddy gets in the car, we're going to the Grand Canyon. Yay!
Ashlyn: YAY!
Christopher: NO, I want to go HOME.
Me: Christopher, we're going to get a new house, with a yard. Won't that be fun?
Christopher: NO, I want to go HOME. tears.

At the Grand Canyon:
Ashlyn: It's cold. It's too windy. I want to go HOME. I want it to be summer. I want to go home.

And this is where I am done with Allen trying to get a picture of the children and me, with the two wiggle worms who seem to want to careen off the edge.

Despite the whining, we still enjoyed the little bit of time we had there. BEAUTIFUL!

As mentioned in the last post, we got a bit of a late start from California. Plus, we are starting over with house hunting. Not a huge deal, really. Just the slow trip I'd imagined has become a bit faster. I am still enjoying what we are seeing of the beautiful Southwest.

Goodbye California!

2010-03-15T01:32:00.000-05:00

It's always a bit sad to say goodbye.

Our plans were to leave California on Friday, which turned into Saturday and then Sunday.

Now we are on our way, with our first stop in Vegas.

Parks, freakouts, museums, and family

2010-03-06T00:45:00.000-06:00

We'd had several rainy, cool days. So a beautiful day Sunday definitely called for a trip to the park. Ashlyn was trying to pretend that she was pregnant. Somehow, she just looks a bit chesty.

Monday was just about the worst parenting day for me. I was "that mom" at the library. The kids kept running in circles and shrieking while we were waiting in line. I tried to separate them. I put them in time out. I moved them away from each other to sit in time out. I knew that everyone was looking at me, and had just told the kids that we were no longer going to the park after the library. I was also thinking that I would probably just have to leave. Then, a librarian walked up to me. She said,"Can you keep your children quiet? This is a library." Allen suggested that my response should have been along the lines of "this is a library?" Instead, I told her that I was trying. Then, I grabbed the wrists of both kids and left. Christopher started screaming on the way out the door. Ashlyn just kept laughing. I was so embarrassed and mad.

It was free day at both the de Young and SFMOMA on Tuesday. After our day Monday, I just knew that taking these two to museums was going to be difficult. They were great! They had a tendency to want to touch stuff while walking, so I really had to be on top of them. Once they were in the stroller, they were fine.

Ashlyn saw this carousel on the way to the SFMOMA. Of course, during most of the visit, she kept asking if we could leave to go back.

Christopher would not smile for me, but he did have fun.

My aunt, uncle, and two cousins also live in the bay area. I emailed my uncle right after we moved here about getting together. I didn't keep reminding him or anything, and now I really regret that. We hadn't seen any of them since Christmas 1996.

Uncle Steve reads

Silly photos with Steve and Donna

I told Ashlyn that my cousin Maya was 17, but had only been 4 the last time I saw her. I think Ashlyn was expecting a 4 year old. As a bonus, Haile was home from college this weekend, too.

My baby cousins are all grown up.

Oh, questions from the last post. We are moving to Tulsa, OK. We do not know about the house yet, but don't really have a second choice. Just waiting...

This week

2010-02-26T18:55:00.000-06:00

We were gone on a short visit east this past week for a bit of family visiting.

And some attempted house purchasing.

A baby in the house

2010-02-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

Two of our good friends from Alaska have been in California for the past couple of weeks, adopting a baby boy. We couldn't be happier for Laurie and Jason, and were so happy to meet their new baby boy, Josiah.

They came over for dinner last Friday night, then we met them in downtown San Francisco for lunch on Monday. Small bits of site seeing.

Ashlyn felt like posing that day, and kept asking me to take more pictures of her.

This was Christopher's first time on a carousel.

Of course, he loved it!

More posing from Ashlyn.

Getting Christopher in on the action.

Jason and Laurie have hit some bureaucratic issues in their adoption process, which has left them here a bit longer than they expected. Laurie flew home to take care of their girls, but Jason and Josiah are staying with us for a few days.

We certainly don't mind looking at this face.

Valuable

2010-02-06T16:38:00.000-06:00

This rag is part of Ashlyn's sheet. Her lovely sheet. It has ripped, and been mended a couple of times. I mentioned that we should throw away this little bit. Ashlyn said we needed to keep it. I think we may need to hide this part in the trash.

So Random:January photo roundup

2010-02-03T22:13:00.000-06:00

We spent a lot of time doing this in January:

This was the day that all FOUR of us were sick. So fun.

Crazy kid!

It's definitely the rainy season right now. Between sickness and rain, we couldn't wait to get out of the house. The first day it was pretty, we loaded up the bike trailer and headed to the park.

Yay!

While I was getting ready one morning, Ashyn started folding laundry! I was so proud. (I didn't even refold them.) Later, she put them away! She'll be doing all of her own laundry soon!

Christopher is always the one to remind us that we need to pray before eating, even when it is just play eating.

They love each other!

They also love to help cook. They got to make their very own pizza, and it was such a BIG DEAL.

Christopher was helping roll out the pizza dough.

Christopher has been quite a MESS since turning two. Just a few examples from ONE day:

For a few weeks, he wouldn't wear pants.I struggled to put his pants on him one day, then went to take a shower. He removed the pants, then carried his pants into me, saying "Duh, duh, duh duh, DUH!" in quite the indignant voice and threw down the pants.

Christopher grabbed Ashlyn's doll and ran away with it, her running behind, screaming.

Later that night, when he again wouldn't put on pants, he removed his diaper and stood there, peeing onto the carpet.

Christopher colored on the couch with an orange crayon.

When we left the dentist's office, Christopher started walking into a HUGE, DEEP puddle. Fortunately, he stopped and turned around when I yelled, before his rain boots filled with water.

I have said NO more to him in the past month, then I think I have to Ashlyn EVER. I am definitely reminded of the forward from No, David! "of course, yes is a wonderful word, but it doesn't keep crayon off the living room wall!"

Allen's son

2010-01-18T14:57:00.000-06:00

Anytime I ask Ashlyn to get her finger out of her nose, Christopher sticks his finger in his nose and laughs. He also thinks toots and burps are really funny.

For Haiti

2010-01-14T09:08:00.000-06:00

Yele
Red Cross
Unicef
Doctors without borders

And, for another type of donation, Ree Drummond of Pioneer Woman is giving money to charities for Haiti based on the number of comments on her post.

Star of the Week

2010-01-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

Ashlyn is the "Star of the Week" at preschool this week. During their week, they make a poster all about themselves. This assignment is right up Ashlyn's alley. She LOVES herself. We were supposed to use photos and magazine pictures and stuff. We don't have a lot of old magazines lying around, so I opted to take photos instead.

She needed to include her age.

Her favorite food.

Some of her favorite toys. (The baby's name is also Ashlyn.)

(The cat's name? You guessed it - Ashlyn.)

She could also include pictures of family members and pets.

She had so much fun gathering items for photos and posing. I just had to share.

And now you are two

2010-01-06T09:31:00.000-06:00

You, Christopher, will always be my baby.

January 2009

February 2009

You still cuddle with your blanket, now with Elmo in tow.

March 2009
You now have many words, but still struggle with speech. I love how you say "Mama" and don't want that to change.

April 2009

May 2009
You continue to adore Ashlyn in the way only a younger sibling can. You will follow her around, quite the mimic, playing anything of her choosing (which is just the way she likes it.) Because of this, you love dolls, Fancy Nancy, and sparkly shoes.

June 2009

July 2009

Even more though, you want to play with BALLS, "ball-ball, ball-ball, ball-ball."

August 2009

September 2009

Daddy thinks that you are becoming a momma's boy. I think that you are still pretty attached to your daddy, too, though you might leave us all for Poppy.

October 2009

November 2009
You don't want to miss out on ANYTHING, and are quick to grab your shoes saying "I want go." If you can do something (put on shoes, get in your car seat) by yourself, noone had better try to help you.

December 2009

I love you. I can't wait to see what 2 holds for you.
Mama

Reflections

2010-01-06T00:41:00.000-06:00

2009 was a year of transition, and a year of the temporary. From leaving Germany and the Army, to staying with my parents for a couple of months, to moving temporarily to California. Travel this year has been limited to exploring the SF area or visiting family and friends. Really, we've seen our family more this year than we have in many years, even with living in CA. Ashlyn started preschool and is currently replacing the German she knew for a bit of Spanish. This has also been a big year of quilting for me, my main activity behind taking care of children and cooking.

For next year, I am AGAIN looking forward to moving near family. I hope to return to teaching and have a YARD. I will always be working on my patience and want to be a better mom and wife.

My resolutions for the past two years were to put my photos in an online site and put all of my photos into photobooks. Semi-success on the photos online. I'm up through August. Total FAIL on the photobooks. I still want to do the photo books. Perhaps I should just be more realistic and say I would like to unpack this year (our belongings are almost entirely in storage.) Along with the unpacking, I would like to elminate much of the extra items that we obviously don't need.

2009 certainly did not turn out as I had expected, but I have high hopes for 2010.

Christopher's Birthday Party

2010-01-05T12:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to you! Fire engine cake made by Granny.

Granny and Maggie

Parents with the birthday boy

The kids at the party, all the cousins from both sides.

The Harris men

We also had this cake. You should go make it.

Weekend in Branson

2010-01-05T11:10:00.000-06:00

Aunt Teri curled Ashlyn's hair before we went to Silver Dollar City.

The kids enjoyed seeing all of the decorations.

The tree lighting and parade were their favorites.

Attempt at a family photo.

We stayed another day without kids for a bit of kid free time with Jay and Andrea.

White Christmas

2010-01-04T23:07:00.000-06:00

It was more fun to have Uncle Mark pull her around the yard than me push down the little hill.

Our sad snowman

Playing with PawPaw

Williams Family Christmas

2010-01-04T22:49:00.000-06:00

The whole family!

JD got into the Christmas spirit.

Katie was so excited about her American girl doll.

Ashlyn got her own camera.

What an almost two year old thinks of all of this Christmas family stuff

2010-01-04T22:37:00.000-06:00

(These are actually two different days. He fell asleep in the car and slept in his clothes.)

Harris family Christmas

2010-01-04T10:42:00.000-06:00

This was the first time since maybe 2000? that all of the brothers were together at Christmas. Since that time, we've added 1 wife and 6 more children. Quite a different group since then.

Happy family photo

Dysfunctional family photo

Fun with Harris Cousins

2010-01-04T09:45:00.000-06:00

Since I didn't update while we were home for Christmas, I had in mind that I would do a quick Christmas recap and move on. Then I realized that I had way too many photos to share for just one quick post. The day after we arrived, Christal came over to my parent's house for part of the day. The kids made their own pizza. We didn't think they would eat it with the mounds of veggies they put on it. Apparently, the way to get your kids to eat veggies is to have them make it themselves. The frozen cheese pizza we put in the oven was a waste.

Later, we decorated a gingerbread house.

The kids posing with their creation.

And, just about the cutest baby on the planet.

That weekend we were with all 8 of the Harris cousins, which called for more baking, apparently.

A mess was definitely made.

Definite messes.

I hope you dance

2009-12-29T09:18:00.000-06:00

Cheneys at the Aquarium

2009-12-27T23:36:00.000-06:00

The Cheneys, Anthony, Mary and their 5 children, just left Alaska and were in California visiting family as they moved across the country. We were able to meet them at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

They had already visited the aquarium, so they knew where all of the good stuff was. We all had a great time seeing the aquarium and catching up for the day.

Tree Lighting and Christmas Party

2009-12-27T00:29:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of the month, we went to our town's tree lighting.

Ashlyn was fine until Daddy tried to hold Christopher, too.

The next day was Allen's reserve unit Christmas party. It didn't bother Ashlyn that Santa looked totally different, just that he didn't remember what she wanted.

Christopher was no more impressed with this Santa.

The kids decorated cookies and had a few other craft activities before dinner.

Santa! and Christmas toy review

2009-12-19T15:55:00.000-06:00

We are in Arkansas for Christmas this year, so Santa came to visit rather early.

Ashlyn was so excited to see if Santa add eaten his cookies. He did. Then, she turned to stockings and presents.

Christopher rode his new "bike" immediately.

Now for a quick toy review.

Furreal kitty. Totally cute. Better for a 4 year old than a real cat. (No food, litter box, it doesn't run away or get hurt.) Ashlyn loves it, far above other toys.

Schwinn Roadster trike. Sturdy trike, complete with a bell. Christopher loves it!

Crayola magic light brush. Return this toy! I do not like any crayola color wonder products. It takes a long time for the color to show up, even longer when you rinse your brush between colors. You can't see what you've already painted, so it is pretty limiting. The brush does light up momentarily when you first dip it into the paint, but it's pretty dumb. Crayola did a great job with their marketing to young children, though. Ashlyn really wanted it. Buy real washable paint instead.

Thanksgiving is out...

2009-12-01T23:32:00.000-06:00

Christmas is in!

On Friday after Thanksgiving, we got a Christmas tree, both for Ashlyn's room and the living room.

This tinsel tree is about the tackiest thing I've seen, but it's sparkly and Ashlyn loves it. Yes, she put all of the ornaments at the bottom, but that's how she wanted it.

Both of the kids LOVED decorating the tree. I put on the ornament hangers, the kids put the ornaments around the bottom of the tree, and Allen moved them around to the top while they were running to get more.

Christopher keeps taking ornaments off the tree now, and then pretending to be all concerned that the ornament is no longer on the tree. One ornament was thrown across the room as well. Fortunately, it was one of the plastic ornaments.

We don't have our Christmas decorations with us, so I ended up making a new tree skirt, stockings, and a garland. I was planning on making ornaments for the tree as well, but decided that I was doing too much.

That night we all went to see A Christmas Carol. We were a bit concerned that the kids would be scared, but they were fine. Ashlyn was excited about everything. Christopher didn't sit still quite as easily, but he did better than we thought. It was really good, and the 3D was worth the extra cost.

On Sunday we went to the Dickens Christmas Fair. Ashlyn was able to participate in a children's show. Here they were taught how to faint "like a lady." It was pretty funny. Ashlyn liked getting to be on stage, too.

Many characters from Dickens' books were walking around, too. Ashlyn was able to see Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas present, along with Marley. The highlight for Ashlyn, though, was seeing Father Christmas. Ashlyn was so excited to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas. Christopher...not so much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T21:06:00.000-06:00

We still have candy from Halloween. I think I need to start throwing it away.
I've been cooking and cleaning today like we are having company or something.
My favorite Thanksgiving foods are sweet potatoes and dressing. Five years ago, I liked neither of these things. I was missing out.
My favorite Thanksgiving dessert is Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie. Thank you, Kellie, for introducing me to this wonderfulness.
Last year I made Turkey Pot Pie with leftovers. So good.
I was carded when buying bourbon yesterday. I guess I looked a bit startled, because then the lady acted like "everyone" looked young to her. After looking at my id, she looked a bit startled, and said "no wonder you were surprised that I asked for ID." Yes, I'm old. Thanks.

I am thankful for the above mentioned Thanksgiving foods, a clean(ish) house, kids who love books, and tree lined streets.

Our plans

2009-11-20T10:06:00.000-06:00

couch resting-TV watching-ginger ale drinking kind of day

Teeth and Thankful

2009-11-18T17:21:00.000-06:00

Ashlyn missed preschool today. We had dentists appointments for both kids, just a regular checkup for Ashlyn and a follow up for Christopher's chipped teeth. The appointments were at 10:30, but we were there for 3 HOURS! (It was an hour before we were seen.) I was most concerned about Christopher, but Ashlyn, it seems, is our dental problem child. Apparently, there were calcification problems when her canine and molars were forming IN THE WOMB. Ashlyn needs 3 root canals, 1 extraction, 1 filling, 5 crowns, and a spacer. That is 7 teeth! One of the root canals and the extraction are from the teeth she had filled last year. One of them has abcessed. I couldn't believe it as I heard the dentist talking about all of the things wrong. I started crying and had to leave the room. She had already asked me if I took any medications or had any kind of complications in my pregnancy. Now, we just have to decide if we went oral sedation or general anesthesia. Ashlyn was awesome about everything. She kept saying beforehand that her teeth didn't hurt, and she already had clean teeth, so she didn't need to be there. The hygenist explained that they were going to make her teeth sparkle like a princess. So, she was totally cooperative.

We were at the dentist so long that Christopher fell asleep in my lap. That 5 minute nap ruined his nap time for the day. We didn't get lunch until nearly 2, and dinner is going to be late.

Now, Ashlyn has diarrhea. Lovely Wednesday.

Despite my day, or perhaps because of my day, I need to remember to be thankful.

I am thankful for a washing machine in my apartment.

I am thankful for baby teeth first. Hopefully, we will get things right with the second set.

I am thankful for a pediatric dentist who was very kind and, despite being very busy, took the time to explain everything about my children's teeth, to the point of drawing diagrams for me.

I am thankful for the couple in JoAnn's, watching my children climb on the cutting table and cart, and throwing buttons, who told me that it gets easier.

I am thankful for short ribs with polenta for dinner, hopefully they will taste as good as they looked in the picture.
And because there should be photos of cuties, here is snaggletooth

and his dancing sister.

Thankful

2009-11-11T17:44:00.000-06:00

(I meant to do a thankful post each week, then I missed the second week. oops.)

I am thankful for veterans.
I am thankful for footie pajamas. Even a 4 year old looks like a baby in them.
I am thankful for help in the kitchen.

I am thankful for two kids who love me and each other.

Recipes

2009-11-01T17:15:00.000-06:00

My favorite fall recipes:

Pumpkin soup I recommend more than 4 cups of pumpkin puree, though. And, I used allspice rather than cardamom, because that's what I had.

Pumpkin muffins These are actually chocolate pumpkin, but are good without the chocolate chips as well. I made them for Ashlyn's preschool without the chocolate chips, but frosted with cream cheese frosting, so not healthier. I recommend less than half a bag of chips or they overwhelm the pumpkin.

Apple Pie You MUST make this apple pie. I love it, and I don't like apple pie.

Molasses cookies I've actually never tried this one, but I'm making it this week. It looks fairly similar (or better) to the one I usually make, which is from Better Homes and Garden cookbook 1997ish version. Ginger snaps or ginger crinkles. I'd just type it out, but I don't have that cookbook with me.

oops, almost forgot
Pecan Bars Again, I don't have my recipe with me, but these look pretty similar.

Now I want to go cook or bake. Perhaps we will have pumpkin soup with molasses cookies for dessert.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T18:02:00.000-05:00

Ashlyn was so excited about Halloween! She has been talking about it to EVERYONE. "I'm going to be a beagle doggie, like my doggie, Ranger."

Ashlyn painted our pumpkins. She started crying after she painted the mouth, because it was "scary." (The eyes are black, the mouth blue.) She then got over it, as she continued to paint the entire pumpkin. And, the little ones, too.

Christopher looks a bit goth with his first painting experience.

Christopher's tail kept dragging, so he would carry it.

Rather than go from house to house at night, we opted to trick or treat downtown Martinez. This was Ashlyn's third trick or treating this week. We'd already been to the parade at Todos Santos last Sunday, and her preschool class went to the city offices on Friday, where she got a huge stash of candy! (Allen has now organized Ashlyn's candy into "candy that he wants to eat" and "candy he doesn't want to eat.)

The kids also sang some Halloween songs in English and Spanish that they've been learning this month. (Notice Ashlyn is the only little girl not wearing a dress.)

Christopher probably should have dressed as a hockey player this year. Week before last was a bit rough for him. First he chipped his two front teeth. Before the week was out, he had also swallowed what we believed to be a magnet (turned out to be a penny,) and had a black eye from falling off of the bathroom counter. I'll be accepting my mother of the year award next week.

The left eye is more swollen in this picture than black.

Allen celebrated his 34th birthday last week. Ashlyn decided that he should have an eye cake. Usually he has a birthday pie, but we went with the eye cake this year.

Rainy Day

2009-10-30T00:20:00.000-05:00

Grandma Vicki and PawPaw bought raincoats for the kids, and they were so excited to actually get to wear them last week.

They continued to wear the boots as much possible when it wasn't raining. I had to hide the boots!

Thankful for Real Life

2009-10-28T14:36:00.001-05:00

With life in the military, everything is temporary. If you like a duty station or not, you won't live there more than a few years. The jobs you have, churches you attend, social life, etc.-all temporary. When things are really bad(deployments) or more short term (1 year duty stations) things have the feeling of being not quite real. As if life is on vacation, and I am waiting for my "real life to begin." I think this is kind of the way school is treated as well. When you graduate from high school, "welcome to the real world!" Except then you go to college, where again, graduation is also "the real world." Which, I get that part of the exits from high school and college is an end to reliance on your parents' support. I think I've just kind of carried this with me into the rest of my life. Most of the time I've felt like this when Allen and I have been separated. For the most part, it's a coping mechanism. Job stinks? Lonely? Just wait, when we move/are reunited/whatever things will be better.

I definitely feel this way now. We will only be here for a year, and I don't love it. I'm not crazy about living in an apartment. I'm slow to make friends, so haven't really bothered doing it because we won't live here that long. I've been telling myself that it is just until the spring, then "real life can began." Part of my problem is that I set myself up for failure. We wanted to move close to family, so I went about 5 steps too far with dreaming. I thought about having family for birthday parties and seeing grandparents for the weekend. I've been feeling sorry for myself too long, and that's silly. That isn't to be right now, and that is ok. This IS real life, even if it isn't the life that I'd imagined for myself. I am going to focus on what is great right now, instead of just getting through life and thinking about all I am missing.

One way that I'm planning to do that is to write about the many things for which I am thankful. So, to begin:

Allen has a good job that enables me to stay home with my children for another year.
My daughter loves her preschool, both her teachers and her friends. I am grateful to have a place to take her which she loves.
My husband understood the importance of a good sewing machine. And, because I am home, I have time to quilt.
Autumn. My son is walking through crunchy leaves. We all are wearing jackets. Pumpkin soup (and muffins and pancakes,) molasses cookies, apple pie, and pecan bars.

More Cousins

2009-10-28T00:09:00.000-05:00

We were also able to get the 8 cousins from the other side together a couple of times. They were SO cooperative for photos.

Visiting Auntie Amy

2009-10-27T23:32:00.000-05:00

While we were in Arkansas, we drove down to visit my sister and her family for a couple of days.

Katie and Christopher

Cousins

JD, Jacob's Dog

JD was quite comfy on Christopher's blanket

Outside Play

2009-10-26T23:26:00.000-05:00

It rained nearly every day that we were in Arkansas. We did have one pretty day. The kids ran around the front yard, while I attempted to take pictures.

with Poppy

Sip and see

2009-10-25T23:46:00.000-05:00

Christal and her mom Jill

While we were in Arkansas, Christal had a sip and see to welcome Baby Maggie. These are just a few photos from the day.

Granny and Ashlyn

Christal, Maggie, and friends

We left Christopher, Ashlyn, Jackson, and Max to play, or create a mess.

Christal with Maggie, Sharon, and me

Maggie modeling a new hat

Christopher loved to hold baby Maggie. He was more interested in her than Ashlyn was.

Sweet Maggie

Ashlyn with her great granddad

Vacation

2009-10-21T00:15:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Arkansas on Saturday. Our trip was mostly about meeting the new little one above. We were able to see Maggie, as well as visit with many other family and friends, though there is never enough time. I have barely unpacked, much less gone through all of the photos. I'll update from our trip as soon as I can wade through some of this mess around here.

Tea Garden

2009-10-03T09:18:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, we went back into San Francisco to Golden Gate Park. There we visited the beautiful Japanese tea garden.

Ashlyn was all for posing when asked. "Cheese."

After the tea garden, we walked through the park to a playground. Christopher has no fear climbing. His momma does.

We're on our way to Arkansas now. See everyone soon.

Convicts and Sea Lions

2009-10-02T09:11:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday, we went to San Francisco, headed to Fisherman's Wharf. The kids always like seeing the sea lions on Pier 39. Recently, the number of sea lions has gone way up, around 1500. They were really piled up.

The kids liked it, but Bob just thought it was gross. They really did stink.

After lunch, we took a boat to Alcatraz.

It was smaller than I expected and not creepy.

Hardened criminals

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Alcatraz. (Ashlyn slept through the entire tour and return trip.)

Dragon boat Festival

2009-09-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we went to a dragon boat festival on Treasure Island.

Dragons

Rock climbing

dragon boats

Ashlyn wanted to get her picture taken with all of the characters

Awkward family photo

Bob

Renaissance Faire and Family Day

2009-09-23T19:33:00.000-05:00

Earlier this month, I took the kids to a Shakespeare Festival and Renaissance Fair. The kids had a great time.

They enjoyed the jousting, especially just looking at the horses.

They liked their turkey legs.

The Queen talking to Shakespeare.

In one area, they had a kids jousting area. The kids could joust wearing their horse or riding a stick horse. It was pretty funny.

When we first arrived, I thought we were one of the only people there not dressed in period clothing. A lot of people were there, acting the part. We also watched fencing and dancing, as well as watching several "parades."

The next day was family day at Allen's reserve unit. They had face painting. At first, Ashlyn said she wanted to be a pea. As in a small green vegetable. Another random face painting choice. Fortunately, after she saw the suggested options, she chose a bee. She cracked me up at her pose for these photos.

They also had a few people with balloon shapes, so Ashlyn had butterfly wings.

After eating lunch, Ashlyn played in the jumping castle, outlasting every other kid there, until they took the castle down.

Christopher would jump for a bit, and then go sit in the truck. He was in heaven.

Speaking of babies...

2009-09-22T23:24:00.000-05:00

With the addition of Maggie Grace, there has been lots of baby talk around here. Ashlyn patted my belly and laughed telling me my belly was going to get much bigger. She seemed to be under the impression that I'm going to have another baby for her. When I told her that mommy already had her two babies, Ashlyn decided to have her own.

Here she is in the "hospital" after she had her baby, Suzu.

Later, she took Suzu home to Wyoming (my closet, which used to be the monster's cave.)

" ff ff ff"

2009-09-22T01:08:00.000-05:00

How Christopher says "woof, woof"

It's a Virtual Baby Shower!

2009-09-17T06:15:00.000-05:00

It's a boy!
Welcome! We are all here to welcome a new baby boy! Sometime in the next few weeks, Laura and Wes (along with big brothers Bo and Sam) will be welcoming a new baby boy into their home and hearts.

If we were all in Alaska, we could shower Laura in person. Instead, we are showering her from afar!

So relax, have a piece of cake in Laura's honor,

there will be no games requiring you to eat baby food for this shower!

Instead, leave a comment with well wishes, advice, guesses on whether the baby will look like one of these two cuties, birthday predictions... whatever you wish.

BoSam

We will start with your hostesses.

Laura,

I am so excited for your family and this new little guy. I hope that you have an uncomplicated delivery and an easy transition to a family of five. I am predicting that you will have the baby on September 20th (yes, that's THIS weekend.)
Love,
Angie

Lola,

We love you and couldn't be happier for you, Wes, Bo, and Sam. I can't wait to see this little one... To hear what you name him and see if he has that beautiful carrot top hair like his brothers. As far as predictions go: I think he will bless us with his sweet little face on the 29th, have Wes' nose, and your chin. Good luck girl. Let us know if you need ANYTHING!

Lots of love,

Jame

Maggie Grace

2009-09-10T15:06:00.000-05:00

We have a new niece! I'm so excited. Go look at her.

First Day of School

2009-09-10T00:10:00.000-05:00

Ashlyn started preschool today. She was so ready, and I was so ready for her to go, too. She only goes 2 1/2 hours, 3 afternoons a week. The afternoon thing was rough. All morning she kept asking when she was going. I told her the time, so she changed the time on the clock in her kitchen. I had to keep showing her what time it was on my watch and phone, etc. She didn't even eat lunch, she was so excited. Here she is with her new teacher.
Afterward, Ashlyn was happy to tell me about playing with toys and friends, and she was singing a song from preschool at dinner.

On a less positive note, this was the First Day of preschool. We also had a short meet and greet last week. We already received a notice that the kids have been exposed to whooping cough.

New Haircut

2009-09-09T00:27:00.001-05:00

Ashlyn wanted her hair cut. She started telling me maybe a year ago that she wanted short hair, like Granny and Grandma. Or Daddy and Christopher. Um, no. I wanted her to still look like a little girl, but she kept saying that she wanted short hair. We still don't think that she understands that the hair grows back very slowly. Finally, I convinced Ashlyn (and myself) that maybe we could deal with shorter hair, but more like mine than Daddy. I told her that we wouldn't be able to have ponytails and braids anymore. She just reminded me that she always takes those out anyway. So, today I took the kids for haircuts.

I think the cut really suits her. Hopefully, her hair won't be as much of a mess at this length, either. (Christopher's hair cut didn't turn out as well.)

Public Service Announcement

2009-09-06T16:34:00.000-05:00

If you are not already backing up your photos in some way, GO DO IT NOW. That was my New Year's resolution. And I did it. Through 2008. I planned to continue putting a copy of my photos online at the end of each month. But, I didn't. On the 20th of August, I could not open my hard drive with ALL of my photos. With Brad's help, I was able to recover all but my photos from August, which was huge, but I still wish that I had those 1200 photos. I will now try to upload all of my photos AS I take them, rather than once a month.

Also, if you are inclined, the last day to send fabric for Iraqi Bundles of Love is Tuesday!