Harmon's Haven

SUMMER FUN!

2011-10-26T01:12:00.001-04:00

Wow...first I can't believe it's September (that's when I started this post...ha, it's the end of October now!), second I can't believe how fast time has gone! Life with three munchkins is fun but crazy! But we had such a fun summer that it would be a shame not to document it! Here it is in quick time:

McKay's BABY BLESSING

So neat having both of our parents. Though our missionary efforts were unsuccessful, it was a wonderful day and McKay was an angel. (My dad's favorite thing is to take naps with babies that will sleep in his arms :)

Bree's DANCE CONCERT She's a natural. Loves it. Dances all over the house all the time! Well, I should say we both do :) Now I'm just on the search for a dance studio I really like down here!

MOVING INTO A NEW HOUSE

Found a house! Loving it :) Still very much in the process of decorating and it will be a while before it's all furnished, but there is so much room for the kids to run around and play! Funny how kind of like potty training, no one ever tells you how much work owning a house is! Saturdays are filled with mostly all work (picture is of our backyard...have a great shed, a fun fire pit and a pool on the other side :) and more trips to Home Depot then we want...but it feels so good too! We have a guest room and would love to have visitors!

TRIP TO MOBILE, AL

McKay and I went to my favorite place to see some of my favorite people! I went there first in 2000 when I participated in and won America's Junior Miss...now it's called Distinguished Young Women to help move it away from the "pageant" label it gets sometimes from people who don't know what it is. Now I am the State Chairman for the state of Arizona and have the best committee in the world. I had such a wonderful time there this year and loved getting to bring one of my babies for my Mobile family to see!

FAMILY REUNION AT LAKE POWELL!

What can I say but I LOVE MY FAMILY!! Oh this trip was a blast. Awesome food, great converstations, Mas Que Nada dance party, neat devotionals, have to be the first on the lake mornings...and all with my favorite people in the entire universe! (You can see some pictures on my sister's blog :) Thanks Liz!)

4th of JULY IN PROVO AND A 10K

Oh I love Provo in the summer! We had so much fun with Robbie's family...the ranch is our all time favorite. Gabe talks about the horses probably every day still and is such a little cowboy. Bree informed us while we were there that her name is "Rosie" when she is a cowgirl. We went to Stadium of Fire and surprisingly loved Brad Paisley (like his music, but didn't expect much in concert...but he was great!). Even ran in to my brother who was sitting a few rows down! My brother-in-law Tanner and sister-in-law Kassi had signed up for the Freedom run 10K with her family and ended up having an extra number cause someone didn't want to do it anymore...so I decided to. Now this was July, my baby was three months old and I had barely started back running...and even then still with a double stroller every time. Now the cool part (sarcasm) is that Kassi is an all-american runner. Ran at BYU, set national records, was sponsored by Nike. Yes, she is amazing. My sweetest brother-in-law Tanner wanted to run with me, cause he thinks it's more fun to run with someone, even though that meant he was going WAY slower than he could have. It was so fun talking to him during the race, but surely I ran faster than I would have since I didn't want him to have to go too slow. I was feeling good, but they only had ONE water stop the whole race and I really started feeling dehydrated by the end! And then when we were a mile away Kassi ran back, already having finished the race...umm having WON the race...came to finish again with us! I finished the race and it was like I was in a cloud. My head hurt so badly I could hardly see straight. My pride was really hurt and I tried not to be embarrassed (not sure why I thought I would even be close to finishing with her?) Oh I felt so lame...inside and out. Why do I have to be so dang competitive! But after going home and sleeping it off I was ok :) And I just adore Kassi :) I'm such a dork. Thank you Harmons for such a wonderful trip!!

TWO WEEKS IN ST. GEORGE WITH MY SISTER SARAH!

My parents had to be out of town for two weeks, so the children and I went up to St. George to "take care" of Sarah! She's 16 and it's not like she needed a babysitter, AND as a busy Junior in high school she was hardly around. I did feel useful though, it was soccer season and so I got to make her food, do her laundry, feed the cat and dog, and cheer her on! It was SO fun watching her play! She is an awesome soccer player! AND I got to spend a little time with a few friends who I never get to see (love you girls!)! I thought I knew how hard it would be being a single mother just having Robbie travel once or twice a month, but I gained a WHOLE new appreciation :) We sure missed daddy! (And he missed us :) He had the sweetest date planned when I got back!! Oh I have the best husband.) But it was so nice having a little change of scenery and getting to spend time with Sarah. I love you sis!

Ahhhhh summer fun. But now I am excited for it to cool down so I can get out my sweaters and start making pumpkin everything! Can I just tell you how much I LOVE pumpkin :)

~A Birth Story~

2011-10-09T00:43:00.001-04:00

So here it is...six months later, but at least I'm doing it! This birth story is SO worth writing about. A beautiful experience for such a beautiful baby (can't believ he's six months already!!) If I would have shared my experience the morning of March 29th, it probably would have had a slightly different tone than it will here. That is because time has an interesting way of teaching, softening, and helping one realize certain things. That must be why as imperfect people here on earth we have "time"...cause without time we wouldn't be able to learn!

So Monday March 29th, contractions started early afternoon. They got more consistent and harder as the evening went on, but were still just light. We actually had Family Home Evening with Robbie's aunts and uncle and cousins and that was nice cause it distracted me a bit. I had decided part way through this pregnancy that I wanted to do it natural. I had an epidural with both Bree and Gabe, and had great experiences, But there was something in me that just wanted to try. Wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Around 9 PM I started timing the contractions. They were still 7-10 minutes a part, only 30 seconds long, and not too hard. I tried to go to bed, but just as I would doze off a contraction would start. So after about an hour after that I went out to the front room and turned on a movie (Meet the Parents...needed something funny), just needing something to keep my mind occupied. I was wishing it was the day time and I could be playing with the kids cause I could imagine Bree saying, "You can do it mom! You'll be ok!" But, Meet the Parents would have to do :) As they got harder and closer together I found myself on my hands and knees, just breathing through them. I wanted to get Robbie, but I knew if we ended up in the hospital that night it would be better if he had some sleep. And I could handle them. I was feeling SO grateful and really happy that my water hadn't broken and I could stay home and labor as long as I thought. About 1 AM I called my doctor because the contractions had gotten harder, were 3-5 minutes a part, and were about 1 minute long. (The cue to go to the hospital is if that stays consistent for an hour = the contractions 3-5 minutes a part, 1 minute long, and getting harder) Though it had only been 30 minutes, since I had tested + for Strep B (they test your urine a few weeks before you're due...everyone actually has it and it's not harmful, just at different times does it travel through your urine for a few months, and then it goes away...if you have it when you are delivering there is a possibility it can cause infection in the baby) they like to run an IV with antibiotics for the baby before you deliver. So I thought I maybe should go in a little earlier so they could start those for my baby. He said yes come in, and we arrived around 1:45 AM. On the way in the car the contractions were getting harder. (My legs get REALLY shaky when I'm in hard labor, and I figured out this time around that it must be when I am dilating.) I tried to prep myself the whole way to the hospital to not be discouraged if I was only dilated to like a 4 or something when I arrived...not trying to get my hopes up. But when they checked me I was almost an 8!! I was SO HAPPY!
The next hour was so intense. But the miracle was this sweet nurse named Leslie. I could NOT have done it without her! And without tips from my sweet friend Nicole who delivered her last baby naturally whom I had talked to a couple weeks prior. She said that she told her husband not to let her have an epidural...and if she asked for it to remind her that they didn't want one...so I told that to Robbie and he was so good..."Jesika you know you don't really want one. We talked about this, you can do hard things (thank you Janae! That was from you! I love that!). Just make it through this contraction..." He was so good :) And Nicole told me that with every contraction think about that it's just moving my baby down, bringing him out. That visual helped a ton. And then Leslie would just say the perfect things..."Your body was made to do this. Just breath through it, faster now, just make it through this one..." in this perfectly calm, serene, inspiring voice. There were several times when I would just cry out, "I can't do this!!" and Robbie and Leslie would just keep encouraging me. Leslie was an angel. Literally. I was SO exhausted. My mouth was SO dry and Robbie would give me ice. I think I had my eyes closed for that whole time of hard labor. And my sweet husband was so great (compared to our first delivery when he was "saying all the wrong things" bless his heart :) every time a contraction would come I was up on the bed on all fours and I would just breath and he would put the palms of his hands on my lower back (which was where the most pain was) and rub back and forth. It was really helpful and he was so patient with me...cause it had to be just right. I could hardly talk but I found myself yelling at him, "No UP! DOWN! HARDER! HONEY C'MON!" while he's cheering me on. So amazing they still love us after what we put them through sometimes! Then during the 2 minutes or so of rest in between I would just have my head in my hands and catch my breath, shaking like crazy. BUT, I was learning how to handle the pain. So it honestly seemed like as the contractions went on, instead of freaking out at the climax of the contraction and screaming, "I can't do this!" like I did for the first little while, they actually got easier because of my ability and knowledge of how to handle them. Leslie said when a contraction comes and I feel like I need to poop then she would check me...so after one where I felt like I needed to push she checked me and said, "The baby's head is right there, I'll go get the doctor!" Now with Bree and Gabe once they told me I could push since I had been restful on the epidural I got this huge adrenaline rush and felt like, "Ya baby! Let's get this baby out!" And I was so excited! But with this one, I was just so exhausted. I didn't know if I could do it! When Leslie said, "Ok when you feel the next contraction push..." I just yelled, "I can't! I just want to die!" (I'm laughing and crying as I am writing this!) I pushed the first push and could hardly breath afterwards. I did NOT know how I was going to push again. In my head it was like, I can't do this. I don't have anything left. BUT, there is no going back?! I can't just stop right here...like I have to go through with it. The only thing I could do was say a prayer for strength and then gave it my all. Nicole couldn't have described "the ring of fire" any better :) And as my friend Natalie (who just had her fourth baby naturally, and at home) said, "When that baby is coming out you roar your woman roar!" I'm pretty sure I roared. Two more pushes and he was out.
It was crazy. I was so completely wasted afterwards that when they put McKay on my chest I was bawling and just said, "I love you baby but I just need to catch my breath..." and was just shaking like crazy and was so happy it was over. (If this doesn't make you want to have a baby naturally then I don't know what will :) But I talked to my brother Mike a few hours afterwards, and it's neat thinking about it all now and the parallels with the gospel and the Atonement. What an amazing thing to experience. Doing something for someone else, who is totally incapable of doing it on his own. Made me love my Savior even more. I am SO glad and grateful I did it. I feel empowered, and humbled. If it wouldn't have been for Leslie though I honestly don't think I would have. She was my angel in the garden. And what a blessing to experience that. Michael asked if I felt closer to McKay because of doing it naturally. And do you know what? I don't. The spiritual experiences were there with the other two but just in different ways...like with Gabe I went in, light labor but my water had broken, got the epidural, a few hours later they said, "His head is here you're ready to push!" Got that adrenaline and pushed him out...everything was so calm and beautiful. They put him on my chest and Robbie and I just smiled and the spirit was so strong. He was here. He was healthy. What a miracle. The room was so peaceful. And with Bree it was amazing being it was our first. Having that little life, fresh from heaven, placed in your arms for the first time is unforgettable. But honestly I just feel more mature this time around. More like a natural mother with McKay. Nothing awkward, nothing new and weird. I knew my breasts were going to hurt like a mother in the next few days so it wasn't as bad, I new I was probably going to be emotional and tired, and that things would probably be crazy...and they were, but it was wonderful. Seemed SO much easier than the other two transitions. So I guess I can say my love for McKay is greater only because of my love for Bree and Gabe and my experience being their mother. So it's all actually quite equal. Maybe the father of the prodigal son loved and welcomed back his wayward son with such happiness and gratitude because of his love for his righteous older son? Because he knew the blessing of having a righteous son.
Whatever the case may be, it was a beautiful birth. Right after the experience all I could think about was how my next births I will get an epidural :) But now (don't hold me to it) but I'm pretty sure I'll do the rest naturally. I think I will get better at it too, cause after all, this is what God created us for, right? Ha, we'll see when the next one comes! Hopefully I can request Leslie as my nurse!

So Proud!

2011-05-27T23:51:00.001-04:00

My beautiful, wonderful sister Lizzy graduated Cum Laude from Fordham Law School in NYC last weekend! I honestly get emotional thinking about it...she has worked SO hard over these past three years and I am so proud of her! She said, "I really am grateful that I've been able to have this experience in Law School. I wanted to be a mom long before I ever wanted to have this degree, but it is amazing how God works and gives us what we need to make us grow. So I guess I would say that knowing that this is God's plan for me, I wouldn't want it any other way, and I know that everything is happening in his timing. I am grateful and really wouldn't change it." I know she has changed the lives of those around her and been an amazing light and example of good. I think everyone has experiences in life where you realize that you can't choose exactly how things are going to go. (I forget this too often!) And once you let go and trust in God you learn that God's plans are always better in the long run. I love you my dear sister...and as Bree says, "GRADULATIONS!" (Combination of graduation and congratulations :)

McKay update

2011-05-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

Our sweet little McKay isn't so little anymore! He is almost two months old and has grown out of all his 0-3 month clothes! At birth he was 7.1 lbs, at one month he weighed 10.1 lbs, and I'm going to get him weighed this week and am so curious how much he is since he has outgrown the size 1 diapers (which say 8-15 lbs...but there's no way he's 15lbs!). He has mastered the art of pooping out of his diapers, up onto his back...he's so good that he can do it numerous times a day, especially when I'm out running errands! He has been smiling so much this past week and we all get so excited :) His neck is getting strong, he is sleeping well, and is just a little angel! Bree and Gabe are still so great with him. Bree is getting really good at burping him and feels so big when she gets to carry him :) It has been a blessing to have her help! I can only imagine once she gets older what a great help she'll be!
Things are a little crazy around here though because we just bought a house (ha ha, nice timing with a newborn!)! We've been looking for a while, and though this one isn't in the location we eventually want (ideal location would be in Scottsdale really close to Robbie's work. But we'll have to save for a long while to afford that!), it is in a nice neighborhood in Mesa, closer to his office than our current house, and has a den where Robbie could work from home a day or two a week. It was a forclosed home that needed quite a bit of work on the inside...new paint, new carpet, new bath tub, cabinets, etc... and we're trying do all we can ourselves. We were supposed to close sooner, but just closed on Thursday, and we have to be out of this rental house by June 1st!! So we spent all weekend tearing out tile (well, Robbie and his awesome cousin Parker did :) buying supplies and fixtures, sweeping, planning, meeting workers...and we are just praying that everything will be finished by this weekend so we can move in! Needless to say, this week will be filled with packing and tons of work! But we are SO excited to have our own place! There will still be a lot of work once we get in, and it will be a long time before it will be furnished and decorated (we'll have to save for a while :) but the big stuff will be done and it will be such a wonderful place for our family to live and grow. I can already picture the kids and Robbie wrestling on the carpet!

Cute things from this week: We were driving in the car and Bree said, "Mom, when I'm a mom I'm going to teach my kids what you teach me." Me, "What do I teach you?" Bree, " Mmm (with a shrug), just good stuff." Made me smile so big :)
Bree and Gabe have been loving to watch the movie "Singin' in the Rain" (it's an old musical classic I grew up on) and I'll catch Gabe in our room in front of the mirror singing one of the songs, "Make em' laugh"...and he'll put on Bree's tap shoes and try to tap like the guys on the movie...it is so funny!

Here's to a wonderful week!

McKay is here!

2011-04-10T20:25:00.000-04:00

Our sweet McKay Joseph Harmon arrived at 3:41 AM, Tuesday March 29th. He weighed 7.1 lbs and was 19 3/4 inches long, and has a good bit of dark hair! The labor and delivery went so well...I was so wanting to do it naturally and feel so blessed that it all worked out!! (More on that later :) But he honestly could not be any more perfect so far...eats well, sleeps well, and hardly makes a peep. The worst he's done is pottied out of his clothes three times in one day. Really I think he hasn't woken up to the world yet (he was two weeks early) so we'll see how these next few weeks go! But honestly, the best part has been watching Robbie, Bree and Gabe...they ADORE McKay! Bree and Gabe get so excited every time "he wakes up" to eat and both are constantly asking if they can hold him. Bree is feeling quite confident (a little too confident maybe?!) in burping him and carrying him around...though I try and have her only do that when Gabe isn't watching! But she is such a wonderful helper. And Gabe can't get enough. He's the one that has surprised me with how much he loves his brother! He wants to hold him for so long and is always saying, "watch this Ma-tay!" as he jumps off the couch or something. There has been so much love in our home these past two weeks...I know the sleep deprevation will hit soon, but I have been feeling SO good and am so grateful for this precious little life that is blessing our family. I feel like I am so much more relaxed with this one and am enjoying him SO much! And watching Robbie with him...wow. He is amazing. By the time we eat dinner, get Bree and Gabe to bed, do the dishes, and finish some laundry it is late and we are both exhausted...but then he'll take McKay and give him a bath and sing to him and get him ready for bed. The other night as he was about to bathe McKay I said, "Honey you go relax, you haven't stopped since you got home." He said, "No way! I love this. The evenings are the best part of my day." I don't know what I did to deserve such a man. He is amazing. So far #3 has been the easiest transition...but we're only 14 days into it :) so I'll check back in a few!

Ahh ya baby!

2011-03-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

Every time I complain about how lame it is to feel like I am not doing anything productive being on bed rest, Robbie (and my mother :) tries to convince me that I am really doing the most productive thing any woman could be doing...incubating and growing a baby. Though I know it's true it hasn't made me feel any better...until I saw this picture. Ahh ya baby. Now I feel better :)

AND, at my doctor's appointment this morning he said that next week I can go off of bed rest since I'll be 37 weeks (which is full term)!! So only 10 more days! When I told Bree she clapped and squeeled with excitement! It's amazing how much more doable it is when there is an end in sight! And sorry that Top 10 Worst things list was so negative...I still feel bad for even posting it! But thanks for all of the helpful and happy comments!

~Musings of a mommy on bed rest~

2011-03-07T17:11:00.003-05:00

Yes, it is true. It's day #33 of being on bed rest and let's just say it's been a roller coaster. It's amazing how many girls after learning that I am on bed rest have told me about when they were on bed rest, and for many of them far longer than I. It's been nice feeling like I'm not alone in this, and if they did it for FOUR months, I can do it for two, right? Bree and Gabe have been little troopers. Bree is surely the sweetest little girl on the planet: Getting a washcloth to wipe hers and Gabe's mouths, helping Gabe get his shoes, getting a diaper and wipies for me to change Gabe, getting them a snack, being so sweet to her brother...and almost always helping with "Oh sure mom!" and a happy attitude. Gabe has had a harder time dealing with mommy on the couch, but in his own sweet way has been such a good boy. He will be getting ready to go to a friend's house or something and will ask, "Mommy come too?" And I'll say, "I can't, remember..." and he'll say, "Doctor say no." And then cheerfully say, "Bye mommy!" as he runs out the door. And of course the #1 husband I have has been amazing...couldn't be more perfect. Honestly. I am so grateful for him, and honestly this would be so much harder if he didn't already help out so much anyway!

So for anyone who is curious about life on bed rest, I compiled a Top 10 Best and Worst List. (Let's be honest, I wouldn't be showing a truthful picture if I just highlighted the Top 10 good things!) So here is goes:

Top Ten WORST Things About Being On Bed Rest:

10. Finishing your "To Do" list (of all the things from like the past year I haven't been able to to finish!) and then wondering what else I can do that is productive...Robbie jokingly suggested starting an online business to make us some money (ummm, only half jokingly...he told me about a friend of his whose wife did that when she was on bed rest "and made them a ton of money"...I started trying to think of some ideas but it didn't take me long to think about what time I could spend on it after the baby comes?! Ha, I was feeling pretty productive until he suggested that!)
9. Having to look at stuff left out all over the house, not being able to pick it up or cook for my family or clean, but trying to remind myself that if I over do it and end up in labor my baby will be in the NICU and I will be sorry!
8. Watching moms, friends, and my husband do EVERYTHING!
7. Having an emotional breakdown after 1 month and realizing that I still have 1 month to go...and it seems like eternity!
6. Taking anti-contraction medication that makes you feel like you had "coffee on steroids" (that's seriously how the doctor described it!) and being all shaky with a head-ache!
5. Yearning...dying to go for at least a walk outside!
4. Wanting to do something to thank all of the people who are helping me but not being able to come up with anything other than measly thank you cards!
3. Feeling like every muscle in my body is turning to mush, trying not to think about all of the extra weight gain sitting on my rear all day, and thinking about how hard it is going to be getting back in shape!
2. Hearing your child say when grandma is trying to help, "No! Mommy help me!" and not being able to (and then hearing her carry him away to the bath screaming!).
1. Bascially the feeling that your emotional well being is slowly declining and you don't have any control over it!
Phew! Oh that was pretty negative. Sorry. But now, the
Top Ten BEST Things About Being On Bed Rest:

10. Having some time to do all of those things I have wanted to do for the past year! (Like Gabe's 1st Year baby book, plan and organize food storage, file and organize all the bill records and stuff in the filing cabinet (don't worry Robbie got it down for me), get everything planned and ready for baby to come, write some letters I have been feeling prompted to write, planning family holiday traditions, read some books, catch up on my blog, etc...)
9. Getting to take naps.
8. Doing a meaningful scripture study every day.
7. Getting totally caught up on the news! I love feeling like I am informed (even though I know after baby #3 comes it may be a really long time before I have time to read the news again!).
6. Catching up on family and friends' blogs (that I haven't looked at for so long!)
5. Seeing SO many people who are willing to help: take my children, bring meals, calling, sending texts, and checking up on me...it's been unbelievable.
4. Being able to actually answer my phone when friends and family call.
3. Learning to let things go (like what Bree is wearing when she goes out the door...this morning it was a black skirt, dark pink shirt, different shade of pink with cream polka-dots button-up sweater, white tights with a huge hole on the shin and a dirt mark on the other leg, silver shoes, and a wooden beaded necklace from the West Indies...at least we got her hair done.)
2. Having my kids return from playing somewhere or being out with grandma or something and come running through the door towards me on the couch, "Mommy we're home!" and giving me the biggest hugs like they haven't seen me for days :)
1. Gaining a new appreciation for how much I love to be a mom who gets to dedicate all of her time to her family and home. How much I love to help my children, cook for my family, exercise, have a clean house, and be normal! (Honestly I think after this baby comes out I will just cry when I can pick up Gabe and hold him...or when I first get to go running...)

Yes, it has been a roller-coaster. But I must remember:
D&C 58: 3-4

"Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
For after much tribulation come the blessings..."

And my favorite by Elder Wirthlin:

"If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be the times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead to times of greatest happiness."

So for the next month (or less?) I'm going to try and focus on the Top 10 Best Things about this bed rest challenge :)

~My January Babies~

2011-02-22T19:47:00.000-05:00

My sweet BREE ELIZABETH

Sunshine to all she meets.

January 23rd, 4 years old now...

My little girl is not so little any more!

She is a kind friend, and a loving big sister.

She loves dolls, barbies, dance class, and dress up.

She loves to run fast, can ride her bike without training wheels, jump off of tall things, and wrestle with her brother.

She loves to paint, do play-dough, and sketches everyone and anything.

She knows and can write all her letters, and is starting to sound out words.

She sings like an angel, dances all around the house, and loves to help mom cook.

Her favorite movie is Cinderella.

Her fruit of choice is watermelon...but when it's not in season she loves strawberries and oranges.

Her vegetable of choice is cucumber...and loves when they are cut long and calls them, cucumber popsicles.

If she could pick any snack (besides candy) she would choose frozen go-gurts.

She enjoys testing her limits, and has quite a strong, independent personality.

Bree is the biggest helper around the house! Always willing to run and get me anything I need.

She loves Primary and loves helping daddy read the Book of Mormon each morning.

She says the sweetest prayers, and I think has more faith than anyone in our family.

I am so blessed to have such a sweet daughter! Happy Birthday Bree!

My little angel boy GABRIEL ROBERT

January 26th, I can't believe he is already 2.

He is rough and tough and can hold his own wrestling his sister.

He love balls and horses and trucks.

But he'll play dolls with his sister too :)

He is getting so good at riding his little green bike, and runs everywhere he goes!

He loves to eat...loves to eat...

He is saying more words every day, but my favorite is when he is hiding and pops out of his hiding spot and says, "Here me are!"

He knows most all of his colors, and his shapes...and pretty much every animal!

He loves Nursery and is the first to run and kneel down for family prayer when we call.

His fruit of choice is bananas or blueberries (he would eat them all day if I would let him!).

His vegetable of choice is avacado or edamame. And he can down a V8 in ten seconds flat.

If he could pick any snack (besides fruit snacks...and popsicles) he would choose go-gurts.

His favorite Christmas present (besides his bike) was the car vitamins in his stocking...he carried them around everywhere for a month! Even wanted to sleep with them!

His favorite movie is Toy Story.

He just moved to a "big boy bed" and loves it, so long as his four horses are along side of him when he sleeps.

He tries to do everything his sisters does, and says, "No me do" if you try and help him with anything else.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Oh what a joy! I am so blessed to have such wonderful children. It really is so fun having Bree and Gabe's birthday's so close. They both get so excited for each other and it makes both celebrations even more fun! AND, then we get to have parties for what seems like all week! I love my children and feel more blessed every day to be a mom...and not just a mom, but their mom. I just want to take advantage of this time because I know it will pass so quickly. And to think we'll have another sweet child join our family in just another month or so!
I love this life of mine.

2010 Wrap Up

2011-02-05T19:29:00.004-05:00

Yes, I've been out of the blogging world for a few months, but all for good reasons :) Life is so good!! But has been so busy! Here are some of the highlights from the end of our 2010:

Uncle Kurt's Return from the Helsinki Finland Mission! We were so happy we got to be there to watch him step off the airplane :) He looked so great and though he has an added sense of maturity and growth, he still has his wonderful sense of humor! My sister Lizzy and her husband Dave who live in CT couldn't be there, so we had them on Skype :) Bree had been so excited all day, and had been telling Gabe how much he was going to love Uncle Kurt. Even though she was barely 2 yrs. old when he left, she acted like she remembered him perfectly. She was so diligent about praying for him daily and could not stop talking about him all day. His plane didn't come in until 11 PM, and as soon as she saw him she got a little nervous, and went and hid under the benches! But it didn't take long before she and Kurt were best friends again! Gabe warmed up in no time as well...and as Bree said in her prayers just this week, "We are so grateful Kurt is home!"

NOVEMBER FUN! Our little Bree bird has had a busy Fall! She is LOVING pre-school (and all the fun things they get to make), hiking with daddy is a new favorite, she joined a soccer team and for the most part had a great time (though she is by far the fastest on her team, hopefully the connection between "running fast" and "kicking the ball" will come! I didn't think I would get so into it while watching her! Had to remind myself constantly, "...she's only three years old...she's only three..."), and of course, Bree loves dance :) She is a natural and did such a great job in the Christmas concert! Gabe of course is her biggest fan through it all! He LOVED the soccer games and never stopped cheering, "Ra ra ra ra ra, gooooo Bree!" And you would have thought Bree was the star of her dance class with how excited Gabe was watching! All smiles the whole time :) Such a proud brother!

~THANKSGIVING in UTAH~ Snow snow snow! Oh Bree and Gabe loved the snow...not to mention Robbie was in heaven as well. He loves to plow the driveway! (And yes, Gabe is in a pink snow suit...but we can't be too picky when we don't have any snow stuff!) The kids loved the carriage ride, the Christmas lights, and Thanksgiving at the ranch was awesome! (Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures there.) AND we got to spend a little time at Opa Rollie and Oma Phyllis's! I love my sweet grandparents and love that any time we are there our time is filled with music of some sort. Bree and Gabe love them! But of course the best part of being in Utah is cousins! Gabe couldn't get enough of baby Summer (sometimes we'd have to break him away from holding on to her!), and Bree and Grace were by each other's sides most of the time, laughing and running non-stop. So fun! Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for such fun!

~CHRISTMAS~ Then in no time at all we were back in Utah for a Christmas we have been waiting for...the first time the Henderson family has been together in EIGHT years!! Each of our missions have overlapped...I went to Hungary starting in 2003, Michael left for the West Indies in 2004, Lizzy left for Croatia in 2005, and then Taylor left for Russia in 2006 (then Lizzy came home and at least there was only one missionary out at a time, not two!), and then Kurt barely missed Taylor as he left for Finland the end of 2008. So this Christmas was a gift for our sweet mother...all of her children home at last! It was such a blessing to have that missionary spirit in our home though, and we all made such amazing memories, learned so much, and are each SO grateful we had the opportunity to serve! But oh Christmas was such a blast! My mom had the most delicious meals planned (and each of the girls got to plan a breakfast...nice work ladies! They were all delish!) We did a fun service project, played outside, the boys played golf (it wouldn't be a trip to St. George without a round of golf!), and we even had a mad game of Around the World ping pong (I even won a round!). The only damper perhaps was our fault...Bree and Gabe had the flu the weekend before we got there, and the Robbie came down with it the day before...we offered not to come, but Grandma Carrie said no way! Alas, after an amazing German meal on Christmas Eve, Kurt, Taylor, Michael, Rachel and Lizzy all woke up in the night with some variation of the flu...needless to say opening presents wasn't quite the same with half the family passed out on the ground! Oh I felt SO bad! Fortunately by the end of the day everyone was feeling much better, and we still had a fun filled three days afterwards :) A Christmas to Remember, that's for sure! Thank you mom and dad for such an amazing time! I LOVE YOU FAMILY!

All in all our 2010 ended with a bang. What a wonderful year!

It's a...

2010-11-11T21:01:00.001-05:00

BOY!! We are SO excited! Bree of course since she knew I was pregnant has been very vocal about wanting a girl. But Robbie and I always say, "but it could be a boy" and have referred to the baby as he OR she. Last week when we found out Bree didn't have school today, and my appointment was in the morning, Robbie said we should all go together! So we have been talking about it all week long and this morning Bree informed us that she, "would be happy if it was a girl or a boy." And boy was she! It was the cutest when the doctor said, "Well it looks like it's a boy!" Bree started jumping up and down and squeeled with delight. I am so happy that Gabe will have a little brother and that hopefully we can get some more boy stuff around this house :)

And just to report, Bree had a successful soccer game last week! I was amazed actually at how into it I got though...there was this girl on the other team that was really good, super fast and scoring like crazy. Well, Bree is actually really fast (fastest on her team by far) and I was like, C'mon! You are faster than her, go take the ball away! Then I'm like, oh gee mom, she is 3 years old and hardly even has a grasp around the concepts of the game yet! Funny.

Fall is upon us and I am glad becaue most all of my maternity clothes are for winter! We can't wait for Thanksgiving in Provo and just hope there is some snow for Bree and Gabe to play in! We got out the winter hats and gloves today for our morning walk (I know we're in AZ but it was chilly!) and they were SO excited...Gabe wanted to wear his all day :) I'm so grateful for my beautiful children who make me laugh every day. Tonight at dinner Robbie asked them what their favorite boy name was for the baby and Bree said, "Kee" and Gabe said something even more weird. But as we were talking about names I felt my first kicks! Three in a row! It was like, "Hey I know you guys are talking about me!" We can't wait for this sweet baby to join our family!

Where does the time go!

2010-11-05T00:44:00.003-04:00

Has it really been over a month since I've been on here?! Crazy! It's been a full and fun month here at the Harmon home. Here are a few highlights:

On our way to Provo for Robbie's brother's wedding, we spent a week in St. George! We enjoyed a wonderful General Conference, got to cheer on my brother Taylor in the St. George marathon (Go Tay!) and wanted to watch Sarah's last soccer game...but it got rained out :( we were SO bummed. The kids had a BLAST playing in the play room, on the trampoline, playing with the cat, feeding Sarah's dog Chooky, and Opa Ralph even came down while we were there! It's always a treat to see him since we hardly ever get to. And at 92 we treasure every time! He just LOVES Robbie :)

Then we went up to Provo where Robbie's brother Tanner married the wonderful Kassi Anderson. They were married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple by her grandfather. Everything turned out beautifully...after a week of rain, many prayers were answered when we had a clear sunny day for the pre-ception, and the day of the wedding was so nice too! We're so happy for Tanner!!

And then we got to spend the week after just playing! (Well, Robbie had to work every day, but could play in the evenings!) The highlight (as always) was the ranch... Gabe absolutely LOVED the horses. He couldn't get enough of feeding them...as you can see almost his entire hand is in the horses mouth, and he would squeel with joy!

He LOVED the four-wheeler, the scooter, and grandpa's truck. Such a boy! And it was so fun watching him. Bree loves it all too, but this was Gabe's first time being old enough to really enjoy the ranch.

Bree loved spending time with her cousins Grace and Summer, her grandparents and aunts and uncles...but for some reason, Uncle Adam just has a special place in her heart. And when he is around she only wants to be with him!

Bree loves being a princess at Grammy's. With so many fun dress ups and girly things, she is in heaven. (So fun...at Grammy's house :)

Gabe was a little bit of a stinker however...if I even left the room he would cry out, "Mommy! Mommy! And start crying if I didn't answer immediately. I don't know if he was afraid I was going to leave him or what, but it sure made it hard, especially since he wanted nothing to do with anyone else :( It comes with the age I guess, and living away...but boy was it hard! He was a little like that in St. George too. So sitting with Grammy to read a book was BIG! Hopefully Thanksgiving will be better!

Halloween was...halloween. We had fun and all, but after a ward party the weekend before, and then Bree's preschool halloween party, I was all halloweened out. I tried for a few days to just let the kids have candy when they asked so that it wouldn't be a big deal...but after six or seven peices and I said that was enough Gabe would lose it. It was like they never have candy or something! Well, ok, so at my house they don't. But they have other sweet things! So Friday all the candy suddenly was "gone" and we were done with Halloween :) On Sunday the kids didn't even know the difference :) But the best part about that weekend was a surprise visit from Grandma Carrie, Grandpa Lon and Sarah! They worked it out with Robbie and got in late Thursday night and he left the from door open and they just slipped in and slept in the guest room which is right by the front door. Friday morning about 6 we went out with the kids for breakfast, the kids were sitting on the bar stools and I went to get the cereal, I came around the corner and screamed when I saw them! It was the BEST surprise ever!! They hadn't been here since we've lived in Arizona and I had so been wanting them to come. And the best part was, Gabe was a completely different grandchild. He sat on grandpa's lap, went with them places, let them help him...and didn't care about mommy :) It was the best.

I was so excited too because they got to come to Bree's first soccer game! Well, I was excited until we were there. As you can see, the lack of nap that day and all the excitement didn't prove helpful to her soccer skills...yes, my child cried the entire time. We tried everything. Don't you hate when you are the mom that people are feeling bad for!

It was so much fun having them here though. I decided it's totally different having family here than being there. Though just being around family is great, letting them be around the kids when they are in "their" element is ideal :) We can't wait for Thanksgiving and Christmas! More fun in Utah!

AND...I guess I haven't posted anything about being pregnant yet?! I won't say much, but we're 18 weeks along and we find out next week what we are having! So expect another post soon!

My Sweet Little Girl~

2010-09-29T16:33:00.001-04:00

I have gotten better at my journal writing lately, and maybe that is why I haven't thought of blogging much. But Bree and I had the sweetest conversation yesterday that I just had to share (and I'll do a real update soon!). I had gotten Gabe up from his nap and we went in to wake up Bree, only to find her sitting down next to the bed by the iHome on my nightstand. I said, "Oh you're already awake!" She said, "Yes, I was just listening to songs." (For the past few days she has asked for music while she does her quiet time (that usually turns into a nap) so I always turn on a playlist of spiritual music. It has several hymns on the piano and then several EFY songs.) The song that was on at the moment was a song that reminded me of a city I served in on my mission in Hungary. I told her about when I first heard that song I was in a city called Gyor. We were trying to teach a family of a father, mother, and their five year old daughter about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While they would let us come over and listen to what we were teaching, they were never willing to go to church or do anything else. It made me so sad that they were missing out on the blessings they would receive from following Jesus, and when I heard this song it gave me hope that maybe someday they would want to listen. Bree thought for a minute and then replied, "Mom, when I am older I am going to go to that city too and that little girl will be bigger and she'll be my friend and I'll teach them about the Gospel. I think they will listen to me." I kind of just looked at her and smiled and said, "Oh that would be so neat Bree. I really hope so." And then she said, "Mom, I think they'll like me better than they liked you." :) "I think so too Bree. I think so too..." Oh I love my sweet little girl.

PLEASE VOTE!!

2010-08-30T17:23:00.000-04:00

So as some of you know I participated in and have stayed involved with the Distinguished Young Women program (formerly America’s Junior Miss...it was that thing I won my senior year). Since the city and county in Mobile, AL have had to cut their funding, this very important event for the Gulf Coast area is in jeopardy. This event has an economic impact of more than $2.5 million for the Gulf Coast area each year! This month Pepsi is giving away $250,000 grants to programs in the gulf and we are in the running! All we have to do is get the most votes! We have gone from 10th place earlier in the month to now 4th place!! The voting ends August 31st...so would you please vote? We are two spots away from winning! You must be my friend if you are reading this on my blog :) and I would be especially grateful if you could vote and forward this message to your friends as well (you can count it as my Christmas gift!). Just click: http://gulf.refresheverything.com/distinguishedyw
Be sure to click vote for this idea AFTER you log in for your vote to count.
THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Our first visitors!

2010-08-24T01:08:00.005-04:00

We love our new house. Plenty of room for the kids to run, a back yard to play in, and best of all, a guest room! And we had our first guests this month!! First came our dear friend the Lopez family. They lived downstairs in our building back at Baity Hill (grad-school days...oh so long ago :) and I loved Nicole from the second we hung out. She is just an amazing mom and just a real woman. Amazing. We were SO honored to have them in our home! Bree talked about Maddox every day from the time we heard they were coming. We had a blast at the pool, the train park, and just hanging out at the house. It was going to be Nicole's birthday the following week, so one night we got the kids in bed and made home-made Cafe Rio and celebrated early! I had been working on her birthday gift for the previous month and was so grateful she loved it (she made me feel like she loved it so much...it made me feel so good :) especially since it took a lot more work than I thought! (Thank you for the help Heather!) We really had such a great time and are so grateful they took time out of their San Diego vacation to come visit us!! We love you guys!!

THEN, last weekend one of my friends from Dancers' Company at BYU got married (Horray Alisa!). Oh she was such a beautiful bride. So two other friends also from company came down and stayed with me! Lisa and Amy were an instant hit with Bree. Bree had to wear her pink dress to the temple to match Amy, and she wanted Amy to "babysit" instead of me :) These girls are both amazing dancers and amazing women. I loved getting to talk with them and learn from them. We had such a wonderful time and I was blessed to get to spend time with these beautiful women!

So, now our guest room is available for anyone else who wants! (Hint hint family!!) You even get your own bathroom!

4th of July!!

2010-08-24T00:21:00.001-04:00

It seems like the 4th of July was ages ago, but I have to do a little recap because it was simply the best week of the year so far! The most special part about it was that my sweet 92 year old Grandpa Ralph was chosen with his three brothers and one brother-in-law to be honored as one of the Freedom Award Recipients. Every year they choose three or four people who have "Demonstrated unusual or extraordinary devotion to the cause of freedom and America’s traditional values" and honor them all through the week. They hold a beautiful awards gala where the recipients get their awards, give a little speech and they show a video recaping the reason they were chosen for the award. We got to go last year and this year too and it has been one of the most inspiring events I have ever attended. Then they get to ride in the parade (he's the one on the left), and they honor them at the Stadium of Fire (he got to meet Carrie Underwood...but after he shook her hand he leaned over to my dad and said, "Who is she?"). He was SO excited about everything, SO cute in his tux, and I was SO proud to be his granddaughter. I was priviledged to help him put his WWII journal into a book (with lots of historical context, maps, etc...) as my Honors Thesis in college so I have spent a lot of time with him talking about his WWII years. I have an amazing grandpa. And Carrie Underwood was amazing by the way. Probably my favorite perfomer! During "Jesus Take the Wheel" she broke out in "How Great Thou Art"... I get chills again just thinking about it. And since my grandpa was being honored we had lots of cousins in town whom I haven't seen forever! We had a breakfast at the park and a big game of baseball. As we were finishing my grandpa came over and said, "Well I want to hit!" Robbie was pitching and was so relieved when grandpa hit it after like 10 swings :) He didn't want to be the grandson-in-law who struck out the 92 year old grandpa!!

Also that weekend we had our first ever Henderson Family Reunion, with just my siblings and parents. We stayed together in a cabin at Sundance and oh how gorgeous. One morning the guys went golfing and us girls went for a run and then did yoga/toning exercises on the patio...it was so fun :) We had a family "talent show" which was hilarious, did family pictures, played games (Ya Big Booty!), and of course had delicious food. My parents put so much time and effort into making it a memorable weekend and boy was it. We all just can't wait to be together again for Thanksgiving when my brother Kurt will be home from serving in Finland! The first time our family will all be together in EIGHT years!! (All of our missions have overlapped!) I love my siblings (and their spouses) so much and can't believe how blessed we are to have eachother! It was truly a wonderful weekend. Thank you mom and dad!

To be that kind of mother...

2010-07-21T17:52:00.001-04:00

I just sat on the couch, working on a project for one of my dear friend's birthdays, crying at the movie "National Velvet." I saw that movie as a child and we were looking for movies at the library last week for a family movie night and I grabbed this one along with a few others. The kids haven't seen it yet, but since I didn't remember anything about it I thought it would be nice to have something on since I had to sit down to work on my project anyway. (My sweet angels were napping :) I wasn't crying because Velvet wins (she has a horse and the movie is about her racing) or because it was sad or anything, but I got emotional because I want so badly to be like Velvet's mother! I think after a morning like this one it hit me extra hard (a little more crying and fighting over toys than usual...I lost my patience a couple of times :( unfortunately). In the movie Velvet's mother, Mrs. Brown they call her, speaks in calm tones. Velvet has two sisters and a funny little brother and her mother always seems in control and calmly reacts to whatever was going on. Mr. Brown is a funny character who thinks he knows everything and is against the horse racing. But Mrs. Brown in her calm way makes funny comments that make him laugh and see things the way they should be. She sees what is in her childrens' best interest. Her face is always pleasant, kind and loving. And her relationship with Velvet is so strong, and Velvet even wants to win the race for her mother. Mrs. Brown was once famous for swimming the English Channel and as Velvet is getting ready to enter the race her mother says, "Win or lose it's all the same, it's how you take it that counts. And knowing when to let go. Knowing when it's over and time to go on to the next thing. Things come suitable to the time Velvet. Enjoy each thing then forget it and go on the next. There's a time for everything. A time for having a horse in the Grand National, being in love, having children, yes, even for dying. All in the proper order at the proper time." I feel like she got it. Life that is. She understood that her life was about using her gifts and talents for whatever was in front of her. At this point it was about creating a home with peace and laughter. Thank you Mrs. Brown. When the kids wake up I'm starting over. "Mrs. Brown" is my under cover name :)

And really my next post will be about our awesome 4th of July weekend :)

Summer Fun!

2010-07-08T00:00:00.010-04:00

Phew! What do you think the number 62 stands for? If you said the amount of hours my children and I have been in the car this past month you are right! Seriously. I think that moving "closer" to family doesn't mean as close as we thought :) But my sweet children have been troopers and we have had some great fun! First trip was to St. George for my 10 year reunion...for anyone who didn't go to theirs (or hasn't had it yet for you younguns) what a BLAST! Maybe we just have the coolest class, but it was seriously so fun! Starting with a 5k, some family fun at the park, and then an evening with a yummy dinner and some funny entertainment (thank you Micah, Shawn, Julie (great stacking!), Chelsa, Abby, Matt, Melissa (awesome tissue pulling!) and many others!). It was way more fun than I thought it would be and so fun seeing everyone and reminiscing a little. There are so many girls that I wish I could hang out with more (like my beautiful friends in this picture). As we were setting up for the evening event I seriously felt like I was back in high school for a minute. We had an awesome student council and everything turned out great!

The next week my family was supposed to go to Lake Powell...but things weren't coming together for that and so the plans changed to Rexburg, Idaho. (Ya quite the change!) While the extra 16 hours in the car didn't sound enticing, the extra time with family did. So the kids and I went along! This trip made me want to move to Idaho! The weather was cool and beautiful and it was SO fun spending time with some cousins we hadn't seen in a while! It's neat how time can change so many things. My cute cousin who twenty years ago I had nothing in common with (I was 8 and she was 2), is now a wife and mother like I am and we have so much in common! It was so fun talking and catching up with her. I love you Ash! It made me miss all of my other cousins I hardly ever see! We played some fun games (Uncle Ron I never knew you were so good at Big Booty!) and made some fun memories. The new temple there is just beautiful. Bree, Gabe and I went and walked around it one morning and I noticed that my children could sense they were somewhere special. We don't have a temple here real close to our house that my children see very regularly, but when we were in Provo every time we drove passed the temple (Robbie's family lives close to it) Bree would start singing, "I Love To See the Temple" and we would all join in and finish the song. I love the temple.

The next week we did get our Lake Powell trip...with the wonderful Harmon family! Though it was quick, we had such a blast with Robbie's family! Can I just say I LOVE Lake Powell! And Bree and Gabe had a blast! Though the huge lake was a big overwhelming for Bree, after she got used to being in "the biggest swimming pool ever" (thanks Markell) she loved it. The sand dune was also a big hit. Gabe was the cutest, we climbed to the top and were playing around, when he laid down and Robbie and Tanner starting putting sand on him...he was so funny! He starting closing his eyes and just relaxed like he was going to go to sleep! It was so funny! The kids loved tubing and the Sea-Doo. Gabe actually fell asleep on the Sea-do our last day! Family is just the best and I am SO BLESSED that I married into such an amazing one!

Next post will be about our 4th of July fun!

Ode to Trader Joes

2010-05-18T23:55:00.001-04:00

So I'm not a big shopper, I don't get excited to shop (maybe because I don't have money?) or think that is the most fun thing I could do with girlfriends...nothing wrong with it, I've just never been into it (and I think my husband is grateful :). BUT... I never knew that a store could make me so happy. This morning was crazy. Gabe is getting over the croup and yesterday I thought he was getting better but then this morning he still wouldn't eat hardly anything (he hasn't for three days!) and if I set him down he would cry (and he's almost 30 lbs!). Then the past week or so Bree has been extremely defiant. Like out of no where our usually happy and obedient child is yelling, "NO!" and "I DON'T WANT TO!" Another testing stage I guess. But today the combination of the two had me pretty stressed out. So I took Bree to preschool at 12 and then I had to go to the DMV. Earlier I had looked up Trader Joe locations and had been bummed that the nearest one was clear across town, at least 30 minutes away. But when I looked up directions to the DMV I noticed that it wasn't too far from Trader Joes and got excited. So Gabe and I did the DMV and then headed to Trader Joes. We pulled into the parking lot and from the moment I saw the shopping carts I was perma-smile. I walked into the produce section... fresh Spinach for $1.99...giant pile of bananas...the whole wheat bread with 5 grams of fiber for $2.50... around the corner for a taster of quinoa cucumber salad, mmmm yum! Gabe do you want some? No, good I'll eat yours too...oh my favorite whole wheat pasta! Three bags, different varieties...and the frozen section with shelves of treats above...just fun to look at...oooo another taster! Organic peanut butter cookies (like two cookies with the peanut butter inside!) so good! Oh Gabe you really don't want it? I'll take it sweet boy...around the corner...my FAVORITE fig cereal bars!! I'll take two boxes of those...oh the cereal how I have missed you! Where else can you get healthy cereal, packed with fiber, for under $2?! NOWHERE! Better get five or six boxes to last us a while...should I go back and get another cookie taster? Ok, no...Go through each aisle again just for fun...ooooo the yellow curry sauce I love! (easiest meal ever...just cut up veggies like you're doing stir-fry, but use this sauce instead, eat it with rice or noodles...delicioso!) then up to check out...Cashier: "Hi, how are you today?" Me: "Oh I am so happy to be at Trader Joes right now!"
I'm not even joking. I think people may have thought I was on something. I was almost skipping down the aisles. The food, glorious, healthy, fresh food that I didn't realize I missed so much. And I think too the familiar feeling...almost like I was back in North Carolina...made it even better. It was like Christmas. It totally made my day. Probably my week. Thank you Trader Joes.

Costa Rica Family Visits

2010-05-17T23:16:00.004-04:00

Our beautiful Costa Rica trip now seems like a dream...when people ask us how Costa Rica was it's really hard to answer with just one adjective. It was awesome, crazy, harder than we thought, gorgeous, super fun, challenging, stressful, relaxing...probably every adjective you could use, it was! The last month of our time there, April, was filled with LOTS of family fun. Robbie had finished classes and we had some wonderful visitors. It started off with Grandma Carrie, Grandpa Lon and Aunt Sarah. We had a blast!! Robbie drove us all around in a 12 passenger van (cause it was cheaper to rent than a mini van!) and it was hilarious :) We stayed at our place for a few days, showing them the city and the people we love so much. We took them to my favorite place, the Market, and my dad went crazy. So he's been a vegetarian for the past few years (not by choice really, trying to lower his cholesterol) and thinks that the more vegetables at the meal the better. So he wanted to buy everything! I had my favorite vendors that I would go to for certain things and so we went to my tomato guy and my parents were at another stand. They had insisted on buying everything since they were going to be the ones consuming it, but since they were at another stand I thought, Oh I'll just get the tomatoes. Well my dad saw me just as I was paying and he ran over and said to the guy, "No no, I pay. I Papa!" I looked at my tomato guy who speaks no English and just smiled thinking there was no way he would give me my money back and let my dad pay. But he did! He looked at my dad, then at me and shrugged his shoulders as he gave me my money back and took my dad's as if to say, "He's the boss, he's the Papa." Oh it was funny.

So Grandpa had been telling Bree to save a box because he wanted to make her a "car" when he came...and boy was it a hit! And my mom even brought fun stuff to throw a little graduation party for Robbie :) since he was officially finished with graduate school!!

Then it was up to the Arenal Volcano (a few hours away) for some fun on the zip lines, repelling, hiking and enjoying the cool mountain air. Our hotel was amazing and had a warm pool perfect for the kids. It was so fun being all together in a big suite, so there was a room for my parents and sister, then a room for us. But for some reason Bree wet the bed THREE TIMES in two nights! Oh boy. Too much fun = too tired. It made for some fun nights :) But it was still awesome and the flowers and foliage there was amazing! Then we drove down to Manuel Antonio, famous for beautiful beaches and lots of wildlife viewing! We thought we had booked a great hotel, but got there and it was an "intimate adult hotel" ...what?! They didn't allow children and though they were going to make an exception it just felt dark and not like a place we wanted to stay. So at 9:00 PM we went looking for another hotel and found the lovely little "Hotel Mandarin" - a super cute hotel that ended up being great! We had an awesome time boogie boarding, swimming and playing at the beach. Then we went through the national park to see some wild life...but didn't see anything! Except for one monkey that started eating out of the diaper bag when we were in the water, but that was it! My poor mom wanted to see monkeys so badly and even waited at a spot for an hour where they said monkeys would come...but nothing! And then we went back to our hotel and saw four cute little monkeys in the trees above us :) It was such a blast and we were sad when my family had to leave, but were SO grateful they could even come!

But we couldn't be sad for long because that SAME afternoon, my sister Lizzy came! (They literally missed each other by a couple hours!) Oh the joys of sisterhood! I am so blessed to have the sisters I do. And was oh so excited for Lizzy to come for a whole week!! (THANK YOU DAVE!!) It was like Christmas. We had a blast. And one thing's for sure...Bree ADORES her Aunt Lizzy.

We had a ton of fun: went to the Market (of course...and Lizzy loved it as much as I do :), got to go on a river rafting trip just the two of us (such great talking time!!), went to church (Bree wanted Lizzy to go to her class with her...and Lizzy doesn't speak a lick of Spanish, except for counting to 10. When I went in to check on them Lizzy had them all playing this hiding game where she counts to 10 and they hide :) They would have never known she doesn't speak their language! Yup, that's my sister.), went to the pool (a welcomed activity when she was coming from cold Connecticut!), tried to take some family pictures (Gabe wanted nothing to do with it all!)

went to a fair that was in town (Bree was so excited about this ride she's pointing to. But by the second time around she wasn't quite as thrilled! :).

And we went down to Manuel Antonio for a couple days and had a blast on the beach (Lizzy was a HIT with the vendors...one of the vendor guys said she looks like a model and another guy even said that if he wasn't gay she would be his woman! And when we went back with my in-laws the week after three guys asked me where my "twin" was!). We even got to go running together on the beach (I love exercising with my sister!). Overall it was just amazing having her all to ourselves for a whole week. THANK YOU my dear sister! And thank you Robbie for doing extra daddy duty so I could have more time with my sis :)

Then again, we couldn't be sad for too long because though Lizzy left in the morning, Robbie's parents, as well as his brother Adam and his wife Sami came that night! The fun just didn't stop! We all stayed for four days down at Los Suenos, a resort only an hour away from where we lived. Oh it was gorgeous! Grandpa Mark LOVES boats, and so he was in heaven since we were right by a marina with huge yachts to look at.

We had fun swimming, playing at the beach, kayaking, looking at fun lizards, going to Manuel Antonio (yes our third time...but this time we saw TONS of monkeys, sloths, and iguanas!), and just enjoying Robbie's wonderful family. Bree absolutely LOVED Aunt Sami and Uncle Adam.

Oh and Bree loved flying a kite for the first time. Yes, this is Robbie and I trying to get it out of the tree it was stuck in :) And Gabe just loved all the attention. We were so blessed to have so much family come and visit. And honestly we wouldn't have gotten to see so much of that beautiful country had our families not come! What a fun time!!

A Beautiful Mother

2010-05-09T12:11:00.002-04:00

This morning I feel particularly grateful for the many ways Jesika exemplifies true womanhood and motherhood. She is patient, kind at her very core, always finding ways to nourish others physically and spiritually, deliberate in the way she teaches, and in all of this...truly loving others and helping them FEEL her love! I am a blessed man to have her by my side...to face the challenges of life...and to be my eternal companion. Bree and Gabe are blessed beyond measure to have her influencing and shaping who they will become. She embodies and exemplifies the very essence of womanhood and motherhood! She has and is making the world a better place...one person at a time!

Happy Mother's Day Jesika!

Robbie

God is so good...

2010-05-05T02:09:00.002-04:00

So tonight as I was sitting on my couch, alone on our anniversary, trying to plan meals for the week my dad calls. My mother's surprise 50th birthday party that I helped plan was a success! Horray! But, we had failed to invite a couple that have been dear friends for years. My dad hadn't been real involved in the planning since his life is so busy, and I had tried so hard to think of everyone I could to invite and had given him the list, but he hadn't had time to really look over it. And they were forgotten. I felt awful. Then I tried to continue my meal planning for the week and was getting really excited because I could actually cook (unlike in Costa Rica where my supplies were limited), until I remembered that I didn't have any kitchen stuff to cook with (no bread pans, cookie sheets, 9x13, etc...) cause all our stuff is still in storage. Then all the feelings of wanting to find a house soon so that we can finally be permanent and have our own place came flooding in. I really started feeling down. I needed to call someone...but because of the time difference it was too late. I felt so alone. Then I remembered an email my husband sent to me earlier with this video clip. I just bawled. I thought back to my beautiful children earlier today laughing as they played in our rock and cactus backyard, scooping up those rocks as if they were sand. The amazing bouquet of flowers my husband sent me for our anniversary. Bree running to answer my phone when she heard it was "daddy's song" and telling him everything we did today and me having to beg her to give me the phone. Gabe saying, "Mom" every time you say, "Gabe say Dad." Bree being so excited about learning to ride her bike and the look on her face when she realized she could do the brakes....go, brake, smile, go, brake, smile... Gabe wanting to do EVERYTHING that Bree does, even when he wants on a turn on her bike he won't go unless he has on the flower helmet. Looking forward to seeing my husband after four days (way too long if you ask me!). But if life was always sweet and easy would I feel like I needed God? Elder Holland's comment from at the end of the clip, in "suffering we may in fact be nearer to God than we have been in our entire lives..." hit me so hard. My suffering is nothing compared to so many. Especially that sweet woman in the video clip. BUT, the stresses and trials of life do help me see the bigger picture, what life is really about. And if I'm learning what I am supposed to be learning, and becoming who God knows I can become, then through my trials I will grow closer to my Savior and my Father in Heaven. My new scripture for the month: "I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." (Doctrine and Covenants 88:84) Thank you Stephanie Nielson for reminding me.

And don't worry. I will do a good update with pictures soon :)

Another Costa Rican Adventure

2010-03-21T23:10:00.000-04:00

So my wonderful husband has officially finished school!! CONGRATULATIONS MY LOVE!! Oh such a happy thing! He has worked SO hard and been so amazing through it all. Boy are we glad to be done! So to celebrate I decided to throw him a surprise graduation party :) It was way harder than I thought keeping it a secret...but it was so worth it cause he was totally surprised! I spent all week getting things ready and then hiding thing at my friend's house and in the cabinets (which I had to tie closed so Gabe wouldn't get into stuff...but praying Robbie wouldn't notice!). One night I got up after we had gone to bed so that I could work on a little presentation "Top Ten Things Robbie Has Learned in Graduate School" (we usually always go to bed together) and fortunately Robbie was so tired that he didn't notice! So by Friday morning plans were going well. I just had to work on the food all day. The menu included: home-made bread and a veggie/meat marinara sauce (Robbie's favorite thing!), chicken cheese dip and tortilla chips (made by my friend Gretchen), fresh pineapple and cantelope, grilled zuchinni, a veggie tray, and brownie sundays. By mid-day I was feeling good, the kids were napping, the bread was baked and cooling (like six loaves!), the fruit was cut (and in my friend's fridge), the veggies and meat were browning for the sauce, the zuchinni and veggies were cut, and the balloons were blown up and stored in my closet (which was Gabe proofed like the cupboards). But before I could feel too happy Bree woke up crying. She had only been asleep for about a 1/2 hour and so I ran to take her to the bathroom (which is usually why she wakes up crying). She had been complaining about a stomach ache before lunch, but I was convinced that she was just hungry since she hadn't had a good mid-morning snack, so of course I made her eat most of her lunch. Bad move mom. She didn't go at all on the toilet, but had some gas so I thought, oh she must be having gas pains! (I get those all the time, eat a few prunes and they go right away...sorry, too much information!) So I took her out on the hammock (ah, the joys of Costa Rica) to calm her down and tried to get her to eat a couple of prunes, saying the whole time that it would help her tummy feel better. Little did I know that her little stomach was about to revolt. Yes, all over me, all over her and the hammock. I knew this day was going too well :) But I had a sweet feeling that everything was going to be ok...my preparation were pretty much done, and Gabe was sleeping so we could clean this up much more easily. We changed, bathed, and I set her up on the couch with a movie. I wish I could say that was all the throw-up fun we had, but no, she threw up FOUR MORE times over the course of the next three hours. Poor thing. I thought about cancelling the party, but a couple friends whom I consulted (one of whom is a nurse) said that if she doesn't have a fever (which she didn't) and is feeling a little better than we should still do it. The hard part was convincing Robbie that we should still "go on our date" even with Bree so sick. I had told him that I was planning a surprise date and that our neighbor who was babysitting was ok with Bree being sick. He was reluctant, but agreed to go. (He told me after that he thought it was so weird we were going, but because I had planned it he decided to go. Really though, if our daughter was throwing up of course we wouldn't leave! But, glad he didn't ruin it :) So he went up to a friends house who was "going to let us borrow his car for our date" and everyone came over and then SURPRISE! Well, he was surprised until he walked up to the house and the curtains were closed and the lights were out. So he really opened the door and said "Surprise!" to us - stinker. But it was a blast! And I was just so happy it all worked out!! (And then of course Gabe woke up two nights later throwing up, I had it the next day. And Robbie had it the day after that. Oh man. It was awful.) But we were grateful to get it over with before our month of visitors! More on that later!!)

Mi Amor

2010-03-01T13:44:00.002-05:00

I just saw this most recent post from Jesika. In response, I just want to say that the fact she sees the good in me (and sometimes needs a microscope to find it) is a testament to her Christlike character. She always overlooks faults and helps bring out the good. She always examines her own life for solutions to problems rather than pointing fingers and waiting for others to change. Just as Christ saw powerful leaders in humble fishermen, Jesika sees people not alone for what they are, but for what they have the potential to become. I am so grateful she is mine...and so grateful she helps me become a better me every day!

Robbie

My Wonderful Valentine

2010-02-20T22:16:00.007-05:00

Handsome

Honest

Kind

Smart

Strong

Loving

Creative

Competent

Spiritual

Thoughtful

Thorough

Musical

Robbie Harmon,

I can't believe you're mine!

The cake of death

2010-02-10T16:04:00.004-05:00

(Ok. When we first got here Robbie told me about the "culture shock chart"...basically that when you get to a new country there is the initial high and excitement, then things start to get hard and you get down for a little bit, but then you get used to things and start to climb up. Well, I thought that once you were going up you were going up for good...I didn't know that it was like a roller coaster! No seriously though, though I took a little plunge down again, I'm heading up for good now :)

So rewind to Bree's birthday weekend, the 23rd of January. Here's how it went. The week of her birthday we made cute invitations and took them to all our friends and neighbors (like six families). I was so excited to throw a fun party and show everyone that even though I can't speak Spanish I can throw a good party! (I know, I know, wrong intentions from the beginning...) Friday night before her birthday I was up super late baking two cakes and making these super cute balloon flowers (Martha Stewart.com) to hang up outside above where the tables were going to be set up. The next morning I went with a friend to the market (my favorite place with rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables! Like a farmers market times 20!), then came home to decorate the cakes and get stuff set up. While I was gone my sweet husband hung up the balloon flowers and was setting out the tables and chairs. Gabe was napping and Bree was out playing so I had plenty of time for the cakes. I had done a chocolate cake that I was going to turn out of the 9x13 pan onto tinfoil covered cardboard and put some yummy chocolate frosting on, then I had made some pink cake (per Bree's request) and done heart cut outs that I was going to place in a circle on top of the chocolate cake to look like a flower. So cute. Well, as I started trying to get out the chocolate cake I noticed it was stuck a tad bit on the bottom...no problem, grab another spatula and call for Robbie. He comes in to help and says, "Why don't you just leave it in the pan?" Well, I would, but then it wouldn't be as cute to present while we sing Happy Birthday. (Yet again, wrong intentions!) So he tells me he'll try and get it out and then if it doesn't work I can blame him :) Yes I have the sweetest husband. As you may already have guessed it didn't work so well. The sides and top were pretty crumbly once it was out (because it was so moist of course :), but I thought, no big deal, it will cover with frosting! I start spreading the frosting...and it took the cake right along with it. Awesome. Ok, it's ok. Plan B. I'll make cake balls! Robbie was like, cake balls? What the heck? My friend made these super yummy little cake balls that if I remember correctly were just made from mixing the cake with frosting! So I turn the cake into a big bowl and start to stir... but it doesn't seem like enough frosting. So I add almost another whole entire tub of frosting and continue mixing. Still feeling optimistic. But as I mix I start noticing that it's pretty moist. Um, WAY too moist. I grab some with my hands to roll into balls and... it's a sticky mess that won't even form into balls. At this point Robbie came in and told me that the balloons he had so sweetly put up three hours before the party were now popping and shriviling from the heat. He looked at my "cake" and said, "Do you want me to run ("run" in this case means find someone to take him or get a taxi since we don't have a car) and buy a cake?" BUY a cake?! I don't buy cakes. I make cakes! Forgetting about the ballons I say, "it's ok, I'll just go to Plan C." I turn to the pink hearts and start arranging them on the tinfoil covered cardboard. Ya, it's going to be cute and may still be enough for all the people we invited if we serve it with a lot of icecream. I had put them into the fridge overnight so they would be easier to frost... or so I thought. The sides weren't frosting very well, so I had the great idea of putting lots of frosting on top and then letting it ooze down the sides to cover them. While the sides were oozing I had another great idea to stack three hearts at the center (I know, what was I thinking?!), then put tons of frosting on top so it would ooze all the way down. But did it ooze, no. It plopped right down to the bottom on top of the other hearts. At this point panic set in. I looked at my disaster, then at the clock (11:25), then remembered the balloons, and almost started crying. I hadn't even gotten ready. Bree was a mess from playing outside. Gabe was up and had been outside with Robbie but was needing attention. At that moment a friend from church called. "Jesika, I'm at stopping at the store on the way to the party, do you need anything?" Yes. Please. I need a cake.
She brought a beautiful pink cake with, "Happy Birthday Bree" written on it. Bree loved it. A little miracle... one that I didn't really deserve.

Go ahead and laugh. When I talked to my sister the next day I was bawling and laughing at the same time. Do you ever look back and wonder how you were so dumb? But what is crazy, is that as I was writing about this experience did I come to some realizations about myself. It wasn't about making an awesome cake and cool decorations for my sweet daughter, it was that I was trying to prove something, to impress people... PRIDE! So lame that I haven't seen this until now! Crazy how the Lord always helps you when you ask him. Like when you pray for patience he gives you experiences to learn and practice your patience and then you wonder why you even asked for help :) Well this year my theme is "It's not about me." (Every year I always try and set goals around a bigger goal that I am working towards, kind of a theme for the year.) So it took me until now to realize that Heavenly Father is giving me all these challenging experiences here in Costa Rica to help me see that it really isn't about me!! I've got to get rid of my lame pride and really truly focus on what is most important. I listened to a great BYU devotional talk yesterday by Kim B. Clark called, "Are Ye Stripped of Pride" which led me to want to re-read President Benson's talk "Beware of Pride" today. I have read this talk several times, but SO many things are popping out in new ways. I LOVE that as you have different experiences in life the scriptures are opened anew. I've just got to remember what is most important and keep my priorities straight, and then everything works out :) Since "the birthday party" things have been SO great and I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who guides us and teaches us if we only let him!

But seriously, what was I thinking with that cake!

My little man

2010-02-05T15:27:00.008-05:00

My baby is no longer a little baby! Gabe turned 1 on January 26th; two parties in one week, that's how we roll at the Harmon home :) We just had a little family party and I'm pretty sure Bree enjoyed it more than anyone. She was so excited to "help" Gabe open his presents and was so sweet as she would open it up and exclaim, "Look what you got Gabe!" even though she helped wrap them and knew what they were :) He is such a sweet boy and I am loving seeing the differences between him and Bree.

Things Gabe is doing at 1 year old:

-He LOVES to cuddle and wrestle. The hardest part about having tile here is that we can't just get on the floor at wrestle! (We have to be on the bed where I am worried the whole time about someone falling off!) Seriously, it is so cute, if you are even sitting on the floor he comes over and throws his head on your chest and begs to be tickled :)

-He can do the signs for: food, water, milk, dog, bird, cereal, more, all done, and please. And he knows these words in Spanish because when I say them in Spanish he does the sign!

-There isn't anything he gets more excited about than going outside. And he is so sweet and patient when you are putting on his socks and shoes because he knows that it means he gets to go out!

-He has some strong vocal chords...and tends to raise his voice higher than ears need to hear when he wants or doesn't want something...which we are working on!

-He is such a good eater...as if you can't tell :) But he especially loves veggies. Funny though, when I give him a bowl of mixed veggies he is all about ones that Bree didn't like much at his age...carrots and beans are his favorite, when Bree was all about the peas and corn?! He LOVES frozen blueberries and has already tasted way more sweets than Bree at his age :(

-He LOVES animals.

-He always wants to be doing what Bree is doing. The other day he figured out how to pull himself up on the bed so that he could jump with her. (Tile floors and a 1 year old up on the bed, a mom's worst nightmare right!)

He is such a sweet boy, full of love for everyone! I love being Gabe's mama!

3 years old!

2010-01-28T14:49:00.012-05:00

On Saturday, January 23rd, my sweet Bree turned 3 years old! The whole two weeks previous she was soooooo excited....every morning she would ask, "Is today my birthday?" After saying no several days in a row we made a countdown chain. Then every morning she couldn't wait to cut off a link! Saturday morning she woke up at 5:45! It was like Christmas :) Daddy made a special birthday breakfast and then she opening the presents from us. Gabe "gave her" a new dress, which was her favorite gift :) Then we had a party at 11:30 with many neighbors and friends (the details of getting ready for the party will be another post...lets just say it was another memory that was depressing at the time, but can be laughed about now!). We grilled hotdogs and had watermelon (Robbie was SOOOO excited for the hotdogs :) and a veggie tray, and of course cake and icecream. Two neighbors let us use their little pools which we had set up for the kids which they had a blast with. Then Bree opened fun gifts (oh people were so nice!) and we finished off the fiesta with a pinata! All the kids loved it and Bree had such a wonderful time. She is such a sweet sweet girl and I am so blessed to be her mother!

Things Bree is doing at 3:
-She always wants to help me make dinner...and is getting better at pouring the measuring cup into the bowl without spilling :)
-She loves to draw, color, and read together.
-She speaks so well. But now the fun part is all of the Spanish she is picking up on. Not only is she saying the things I say in Spanish has also started saying things that the other kids and parents say, like "come here" and "watch me"...! It's SO cute and I hope when we get to Arizona we can both just keep learning. I would love if she could do a Spanish/English pre-school!
-She can recognize all of her letters and write many of them, including her name (even though she writes it BrEE with a lower case r...it's just so much easier :)
-She loves to sing and dance and has recently started doing "performances" for us (and grandparents via skype) on the coffee table...this includes a song and dancing.
-She can pump herself on the swings and loves it.
-She is really sweet with Gabe and is so willing to help him when he needs. When he is crying or I am changing a diaper and he doesn't like it she will run over with a toy and say, "Here you go Gabe!" And, since she has gotten really into sticks, after finding herself a big one she always finds one for him to (I'm not so thrilled about that as Gabe is :) He loves it!).
-Her new thing is coming into a room and asking, "Are you ok guys?" When we respond yes she says, "ok" and goes with whatever she was doing :)
-She is learning how to earn money and save it to buy something at the store.
-She has been successfully sleeping without a diaper at nap time and has gone almost two weeks at night without a diaper too! (With only one accident!)

I am SO happy to be a mother of sweet 3 year old Bree!

All we needed was a little whip cream :)

2010-01-17T17:08:00.032-05:00

We realized last week that we were deprived of sugar. I had bought some whipping cream for Bree's birthday party, but last week Robbie opened it and exclaimed he needed it now! I looked over and he was doing this! Bree got right in line and loved it :) We really haven't had many sweets since we got here...but thank heavens for Bree having a birthday and packages from Grandmas! So we have successfully made it through two weeks without daddy! He's back in school and though he is SO ready to be finished, he is enjoying his classes. I'm not going to say that being without a car, not knowing the language, and not knowing the area hasn't presented any challenges...but, we have had some fun! Some happenings from these two weeks:

~Gabe is walking!

Seriously, he hadn't taken more than two steps by himself and then suddenly last Wednesday night he just walked across the room! It's so cute watching him!

~Bree is the lone girl in the neighborhood with her new friends Ricardo (who is 5) and Andres (who is almost 4).

It has been weird realizing that my little girl is getting big enough to just "go play" at her friend's house! But I will admit it is wonderful if it's during Gabe's morning nap and I have a little time to myself! Cute Ricardo just comes over all the time. In the morning, afternoon, and often right when we are eating dinner (he usually ends up eating some of what we are eating even if he's already had dinner :) I realized that perhaps my best Spanish practice is with him, because he doesn't care how I speak! And if he understands I feel so good!

~Gabe had his first hair cut (Robbie did a good job, I was just sad to see his curls go. :( It makes him look too old!

BEFORE and

AFTER

~Fun with boxes and chairs and making forts with dad (who needs toys!).

~Craft projects (when Gabe is sleeping).

~A trip with our friends Diana and Vivi to INBOparque (we knew Diana from UNC where her husband did his MBA!) This was a kind of a zoo/playground/petting farm type of place. There were tons of neat plants with HUGE leaves, big iguanas, a sloth, turtles...but the best part was the butterfly room! It wasn't really a room, but an outside area that had netting on the top and sides with butterflies flying all around! I couldn't believe how much I loved it! Bright beautiful flowers and bright beautiful butterflies surrounding me...I felt like I was in a room in heaven or something! It was such an interesting, wonderful feeling. I hope there really is a butterfly room in heaven! But the best part was, I saw this amazing blue butterfly on the fence and I sat there for five minutes trying to get a good picture of it but every time it would open it would shut it's wings before I could get a picture.

Next thing I know one landed on Gabe's shoulder!

He didn't notice, but the girls were laughing and Bree was trying to tell Gabe to look. It stayed there for a long time actually, then Gabe turned his head and the butterfly brushed his cheek and gave him a real butterfly kiss! He turned again trying to reach for it and then he grabbed it! He had it in his hand and I was thinking, "OH NO HE'S GOING TO CRUSH IT!!" But then he suddenly let go. Oh I was so grateful :) They also had goats and sheep and rabbits...but it wasn't like in America where you look from outside the pen, here you just walk right in and they are all around you! Bree and Gabe loved it :)

When we were leaving Gabe was so cute pointing to the animals, when a goat poked his head out. I thought 'oh so cute I'll take a picture'...right as I did it nipped Gabe's finger!! Seriously! It wasn't bad or anything, but definitely scared Gabe! The kids had a blast and were exhausted on the way home :) Poor Vivi didn't have the most comfortable ride home :)

~And of course, the week couldn't end without another Costa Rica accident! Last Friday I had my first Spanish lesson. Our first Sunday here a lady in our ward told me her sister was a Spanish teacher for English speakers and offered to watch Bree and Gabe while I had lessons. Great! So we met at Olga's house (the teacher) and Bree was so excited because she had two hammocks (everyone here has a hammock and Bree loves them!). I left Bree and Gabe out there with Lillianna (the lady from my ward) and her 10 year old daughter (who Gabe loves) and went in fr my lesson. It couldn't have been ten minutes when I heard a scream. I ran out there to find Bree flat on the ground...with blood all over her mouth.

Fortunately this time I didn't start crying :) but once Gabe saw that his sister was crying and I was holding her of course he started crying. Oh boy. They distracted him while I cleaned Bree up a bit but she was hysterical so I just needed to get them home. I explain to Bree that Gabe is too little to understand that I can't hold him so she needs to be tough while we get in the car and they take us home. She was so good as we walked out and Gabe of course sees us and starts crying and wants me, I grab him and we gather our things and they take us home...the whole time apologizing and making sure we have medicine. They were so sweet. Once we got home we could see that her teeth punctured her lip. We debated taking her in to to get stitches, but after Robbie gave her a blessing we felt good about it healing on it's own.

Which was a huge blessing because taking her to the hospital here would have been quite the experience, and I'm sure would have traumatized her even more! Wow. I am grateful this time I was calm and collected...but gee whiz what is it with me going out with the kids and Costa Ricans?! Poor Bree. Her lip was HUGE the next morning, above her eye was scrapped up and bruised, and her head too. Then on Saturday Gabe fell outside and got a good bruise on his head! I'm sure these aren't the last of the accidents my children will have...but I pray that accidents won't continue to be a part of our outings with Costa Ricans! It did make her feel better though to come home to hugs from daddy and a little whipped cream :) Pura Vida!

I have no words...

2010-01-07T14:39:00.008-05:00

Get ready to laugh...

So this morning we went with my friend Mariselle and her daughter to a store to look for some things for Bree and Gabe's birthdays (which are coming up in a couple weeks!). I was at the checkout counter when I look over to see our cart go crashing to the ground!! I caught a little bit of it which hopefully took away some of the blow, but yes, it landed on Bree and Gabe hit the ground. The next few moments were like slow motion... I reach down and pull out Gabe who of course is crying...the woman behind us in line (who had already saved me when Gabe almost grabbed and dropped a bottle of wine while we were waiting to check out!) keeps reaching for Gabe like she would hold him, but speaking in Spanish that isn't registering at all...I'm kneeling on the ground and reach over and pull in Bree with my other hand, who is also crying...sweet Mariselle is kneeling next to me helping pick up my wallet and purse and stuff that has fallen...and what do I do? Normally I'm pretty sure I would just comfort my children, gather up our things and smoothly and calmly pay and leave. But no, I start crying!! Seriously, it wasn't even embarrassing, it was just plain pitiful. And now really quite funny. Three poor Americans sitting on the floor crying. Oh I can just picture it. And the sad thing was I couldn't stop! We got up, I looked at the cashier who was also almost crying herself and said, "Lo siento" (I'm sorry). We started walking out and one of the guys who works at the store had a plastic frozen bottle of soda and told me it was for Gabe's head. I learned this the other day when we were at our other friend's house, I guess in Costa Rica if someone hits their head they need ice. Ya, like Gabe is going to let someone put ice on his head :) But I said gracias and he put the bottle up to Gabe's head which lasted all of five seconds. It was a sweet gesture though. Then as we walked out of the store another man ran after us and told me to make sure to put ice on his head. Maybe they thought it was swollen? No, my child just has a large head thank you. And yes, all this time I am still crying. (Gotta love this time of the month.)

Needless to say I was completely at a loss for words. English or Spanish.
At least I can laugh about it now :)

Fun in the Sun!

2010-01-03T15:37:00.014-05:00

Here are a few highlights from the last two weeks...our first two weeks in Costa Rica: Here we have Mary and Joseph in the stable in our Christmas Eve Nativity reinactment. It was going well until Joseph decided to tear down the stable, which didn't make Mary very happy. They were sweet though, and Bree just loved singing Christmas carols this year! Since our children were still on eastern time (and still are!!) they arose around 5:00 AM Christmas morning...when Robbie went in to try and tell Bree she needed to go back to sleep she said, "Did Santa come yet dad?" Robbie said, "I think so..." and Bree said, "Oh good cause he's bringing toys for me and Gabe since we don't have any." She meant in Costa Rica...and it was true, I guess I thought she'd be fine without toys for a few months...but that broke our hearts and so under the tree Santa had written a note to them that said, "You get to go with your parents to pick out one new toy!" Since she hadn't told Santa what she wanted he didn't know :)
Funny thing though, Christmas morning she went past the gifts straight to the stockings (which were Robbie's dress socks!) And I was just grateful that she was excited about the fruitsnacks and fruit roll-ups that were in it! After a fun breakfast and morning our neighbors invited us over for Christmas lunch. The traditional meal for Christmas day is Tamales... and mmmmm were they good! It was so fun being with someone's family for Christmas (they had their aunt, mother, brother and his family and over)! It was a definately a different but memorable Christmas :)
The day after Christmas we rented a car and drove 1/2 hour to San Jose for the Tope! This is a traditional horse parade that happens every December 26th in several cities in Costa Rica. But the one in the capital, San Jose, is the biggest and horses from all of the coutry come! See the horses behind Robbie and Bree? That was before the parade started, once it started the street was FILLED with horses! It was crazy! We couldn't believe the horses didn't go crazy being so close together! And sidenote, if any of you ever plan on traveling in Costa Rica here is a tip...there are NO road signs! Even on the highways! Robbie did an AMAZING job navigating our way there and back home. I was so impressed with his sense of direction because it was crazy! On our way back we stopped in a town called Belen (which means Bethlehem) where the temple is located. There is a church right next to it. It was such a welcomed sight. We actually went to church there the next day (since we couldn't find the one close to us in Alajuela where we are going to go). Afterwards, we stopped to get dinner, our first time out to eat and oh so yummy! Bree LOVED dipping her chips in the black beans... delic! This is gallo pinto, the famous Costa Rican breakfast meal. (Beans and rice with eggs :) It was yummy too! Not like out of this world you gotta have it today yummy, but really good. Sunday after church we went for a walk around Incae (that is the business school Robbie is doing his exchange with) and outside of campus a little bit. Here we're walking up the hill just before our house, which is down at the end on the right. The flowers here are amazing!! Seriously, florescent pinks, oranges, purples, bright yellows... my favorite! I am such a flower person that just seeing these makes me so happy :) And remember how I said there are ants everywhere? Well, perhaps it's because they don't have ant hills, they have ant mountains! But we are really surrounded by such beauty :)

Onto week two: Here's just a funny picture, I had peeled this cucumber to slice for a snack for our trip to the beach and had set it down for a second and next thing I know she says, "Look mom! I have a cucumber popsicle!" We took a day trip out to a beach called Punta Leona. The drive out to the coast goes up, through, and down these huge mountains... it wasn't too bad except that poor Bree got super car sick and threw up all over on the way there! But, that didn't stop us, neither did a few wrong turns (which made a 1 1/2 hour trip into a 3 hour trip!), it was all worth it! We still had plenty of time to swim, and Gabe even made a friend (the little boy on the left just loved Gabe and played with him for a while! It was so cute!). The water was perfect and we hope to go back again soon! I'm just grateful my husband has converted to being a beach lover (thanks to our trip to Topsail in North Carolina!!)... being the cowboy mountain man that he is it took me three years in NC to get him to the beach there, but once he went now he loves the beach! A few days later we visited the Zoo that is just down the street from us. It was way more pricey that we expected :( but it was neat to see new animals, and even have them walking down the sidewalk with us! (Bree wanted to pet that peacock so badly!) We saw such neat birds, crocodiles, monkeys, and the huge iguanas that are all over we've heard.
Gabe was so good to sit in his stroller the whole time :) He couldn't see much, but was entertained anyway! We just LOVED having daddy all to ourselves the entire two weeks! (I was secretly happy that our internet didn't get set up until Saturday because then every evening was like date night!) We are definitely feeling settled and happy and we'll just see what happens once Robbie starts school tomorrow! Oh and we went to our ward today... SO GREAT! The people there are just the sweetest and everyone kept coming up to Bree and Gabe and holding their cheeks and kissing them. Gabe was eating it up, Bree wasn't so sure at first. The funny thing is there aren't any other little kids Bree's age so there isn't a nursery, but there are several kids like 5 and up. So they just have one big primary class and Bree was just right there with them! There was a little group of girls who were all like 7 and 8 who just gathered around Bree and were so sweet. She loved it :) I asked her what they did and she said they played games and sang songs, but she didn't sing because she didn't know those Spanish words :) Hopefully we will soon! Pura Vida!

Our Costa Rica Casita

2009-12-29T14:17:00.008-05:00

Hola! We have been waiting since Monday for them to come set up our internet...so we haven't had too much access. Once we have it in our home I hope to be better about posting! But here I am and welcome to the grand tour of the Harmon casita. We love it! The back of our house faces the road, so as you walk from the road you come around to walk up onto our porch then into the door and you see this. Next to the door are some double doors that also open if you want. You look to the left and you have our kitchen. Tons of counter and cupboard space compared to Baity Hill!! Beyond the kitchen is the little laundry room. Here you see all our clothes nicely hung after the first time I did the laundry... and waited two days for the them to dry and then noticed they were stinky :) Now we have a clothes line to hang them outside and I am much happier :) Then you look to the right and see this nice familiy room. A little couch, couple of chairs, desk and a book shelf. PLUS a white board on the wall to write up our Spanish words! Directly up the stairs is our bathroom with a sink and shower... and warm water for the first one who showers, or for no one if we have done some laundry already :) On the right side is the kid's room and on the left side is our room. All the floors are tile (which is easier to clean up after meal messes than carpet!) and with this nice weather our windows are open day and night. Costa Rica just finished with the rainy season (where it rains every day!) and now the dry season is brought in with about a month of breeze and sunshine. Then in February it gets a lot hotter. But the major humidity shouldn't set in until late summer. So we timed this just right! We are at the end of a cul de sac with the playground right next door :) and have some GREAT neighbors! Just a five minute walk up the hill is the main campus with an exercise room, the pool, and the buildings where Robbie will have classes starting next week. The campus is all gated in with security guards in several places, so we feel so safe.

This week has been SO much fun! It has been a huge blessing to have a whole week with Robbie home before he starts school next week. I will be posting about the Tope (cool horse parade) the beach, some cooking adventures, and the fun times with daddy home as soon as we get our internet set up! Oh and someone must have prayed for me because I found wheat flour at a store this week!! GRACIAS!!

Hasta Luego!

My totally awesome wife!

2009-12-27T22:51:00.002-05:00

I just want to quickly say how incredible Jesika has been since arriving in Costa Rica. She has learned how to make delicious (and nutritious) meals with very different resources. She made Christmas memorable for everyone, despite being thousands of miles away from family and friends and a bazillion things going on for weeks beforehand. She is full of faith. She is determined to learn Spanish (writing down words she hears during the day and looking them up at night). The list goes on. She's beautiful...she's sweet...and she's mine, all mine! I love it!

~ Robbie

Costa Rica!!

2009-12-27T16:38:00.003-05:00

Wow. Wow wow wow pretty much sums it up so far. As of December 22nd our home is here in Costa Rica. While I admit it hasn't all been a perfect happy vacation in paradise, there are some definite perks: The weather is perfect...cool in the evenings and sunny with a touch of humidity in the day time. We're surrounded by gorgeous greenery with bright beautiful flowers. We have a pool up the street, a nice little house all to ourseves with a playground literaly next door, and Robbie doesn't start school for another week still!! Bree LOVES getting to wear dresses and skirts any time she wants without leggings underneath :) I will be happy when Gabe starts walking though since all of the floors everywhere are tile...not super clean for a crawling child. Yes we have found all sorts of fun surprises in his mouth! But I think with all of the craziness of having a Christmas Dance concert with the four dance classes I taught all last semester, being in charge of our ward's Christmas activity, moving out of our apartment and putting all of our stuff in storage and saying good-bye to people and a place we have loved living for almost four years, oh ya and preparing for Christmas, I didn't get to properly prepare myself for this trip... let's just say there have been lots of surprises. Having been on a mission I was prepared to be discouraged about not knowing the language...but I knew I would hate not being able to speak and that I am going to learn, so that bit of frustration was to be expected. BUT, there are a few other things that have thrown me for a loop: Like our clothes take two days to dry (on a line) and if they aren't drying in direct sunlight they start to stink...it gets light at 5:30 AM and so both my kids are up then no matter how late we but them in bed...our legs are covered with mosquito bites...big red ants everywhere, especially in the grass... I can't find whole wheat pasta or flour anywhere :( ... and while we are grateful to have a stove I didn't think about how long it takes to make food, and warm things up without a microwave! :) All week I have just been waiting to go to church, knowing that with all of the unfamiliar, crazy transitions into a new culture at least I could go to church and feel that same familiar spirit, even if I couldn't understand what they were saying. I failed to remember however, that I have an 11 month old son, who can't sit still and won't stay in Sacrament meeting, Sunday School or Relief Society or Priesthood for more than about ten minutes!! (this was the age that with Bree I seriously questioned why I even went to church!!) Ah yes, and the halls in the churches in Costa Rica are tile and echo his sounds nice and loud. Robbie took him out during Sacrament meeting so during Sunday school it was my turn. I walked outside with him and almost broke down. The worse part about all of these "new things" was that it was causing me to have little to no patience with my children...and I really don't like that feeling. I wanted more that anything to pick up a phone and call someone...my mom, my dad, my sisters or brothers, in-laws, friends...ANYONE! But as has happened two other distinct times in my life when I have felt utterly alone and completely helpless, I knew that my Heavenly Father wanted me to talk to him. He wanted me to reach deep inside and let him help me grow from this experience. I plead with him to help me and asked forgiveness of my bad attitude. I hate even admitting all of this...because I feel like I am usually an optimistic person ready to take on any challenge life throws. But I know that the only way to learn and grow is through trials and challenging things. So I should be grateful right :) I came home and wrote down ways that I could overcome the little difficulties I was facing and goals for learning Spanish. I KNOW that I am going to learn so much here in these three months and that it's going to fly by and I'm going to love it. I'd better take advantage cause I'll never have this chance again! So, Pura Vida baby in Costa Rica :) Bring it on.

And don't worry, I will post pictures soon! This place is amazing!!

Oh how they love eachother!

2009-11-30T21:44:00.007-05:00

The older Gabe gets the more fun it is to watch him and Bree together. They seriously love each other so much! I love that since he is bigger and can crawl and stand up he can take it when his sister tries to pick him up (and kind of drops him), or when she plays a little too hard...now he just laughs! And then they both just start laughing so hard! I don't think there are many more beautiful sounds to a mother than hearing her children laughing together (well the soft silence when they are sleeping is pretty sweet too :)! And they get a kick out of the funniest things...

And then I had to add some of Gabe's latest: I was doing Bree's hair and I looked down and saw this! And I just discovered what was happening to the sides of the crib (notice the scrape marks!). All because of these bad boys! For some strange reason both of my children get their bottom two teeth, then the top side two BEFORE the middle two! And it happened for both of them right before Halloween. We should have dressed them up as vampires I guess!

If life is this fun with two, I can't imagine what it will be like with twelve! I'm kidding :)

Our Sweet Boy

2009-11-17T14:56:00.009-05:00

First, I'll warn you that the picture with this post is pretty graphic. So shield your eyes if you have a weak stomach! We have had quite an eventful couple of weeks here in the Harmon family. It started two weeks ago on a Wednesday after Gabe went in for his 9 month check up. He has always been great at the doctors, but this time he hated everything she did...which she said was normal for kids this age (and Bree always hated the doctor) so I wasn't worried. He got especially worked up when he saw them coming in for his flu shot, but quieted down after they left. We came home, started having lunch, and after a few bites he just stared crying and shaking terribly. I got him out of his high chair and thought maybe he was tired, a tooth hurt, something that ordinarily bothers a small child. So I tried putting him down for a nap. After sleeping for maybe 20 minutes he awoke, but when I went in he still had his eyes closed and was crying and making these grunting sounds like something seriously hurt. My sister Lizzy was in town visiting (oh how I love you sister!!) and was taking a nap, as was Bree, so I tried to calm him down. But no matter what I did he was inconsolable. I tried taking him outside, walking in the halls, playing with toys, nothing helped. Whether I was holding him or if he was laying down it was the same crying in pain. So after a couple of hours I called Robbie who came home and gave him a blessing and I took him back to the doctors. He calmed down a little bit, but was still doing that grunting like he couldn't really breath thing. She checked him out and just said we'd have to give it a little time to see what it could be. He didn't have a fever or anything so she just gave me her cell phone and said call her if anything changed. Well, he ate ok that night and actually slept. Then Thursday he was fussy, but ate and napped and acted semi-normal. We had planned to head to Jacksonville, FL for my best friend Laura's wedding, and since he was doing better (and it was my best friend's wedding!) we took off. It was an 8 hour drive, and we planned to leave before dinner so the kids would sleep at least half of the drive. Well, it would have been a good idea except that our poor little boy cried 3/4ths of the way! No matter if I was holding him or if he was in his car seat it was that same pained crying. We got to the hotel around midnight and after getting Bree in bed Robbie told me that he was taking Gabe out (since there was no way any of us could sleep with him in the room crying) to calm him down. I argued that he had just driven the whole way so I should take him, but his adamant comeback was that since I was in the wedding, I had to look refreshed so I needed the sleep. I reluctantly went to sleep and woke up at 6:00 and Robbie and Gabe still weren't back?! I went out of the room, looked around, had no idea where they would be, then saw he had sent me a message...the sweet hotel manager had let them use another room for the night for free! So I went down there and sweet Gabe was still whimpering, kind of asleep and Robbie said he had slept for only maybe an hour! We decided he would call our doctor and take Gabe to the ER and then when Bree woke up she and I would head down there. Then I heard nothing for two hours! I was dying. Then Robbie came back in! His phone had died, but Gabe had fallen asleep in the car so he drove around to let him sleep and thought he would get us before he headed to the ER. Well, it was better that he hadn't gone to the hospital that was close by, because we found out that there was a Mayo Clinic (one of the best hospitals in the country) ten minutes away. It was good we went in the morning because we got right in. The sweetest, funniest doctor checked him out and decided to do an X-ray....and thank heavens he did!! Our sweet little boy had a hole in his diaphragm! A diaphragmatic hernia. Apparently it is congenital (he was born with it) and they usually only see this in infants. Gabe's must have been so small that it didn't effect him (he's grown quite nicely up till now!) but over time his stomach must have put pressure and pushed his insides up making the hole larger. Basically, his small intestine was up inside of his chest cavity. I asked the doctor how we could fix it and he said surgery. Ya, I lost it. My sweet little boy can't have surgery! Well, to make this super long post a little shorter, they suggested we do the surgery when we got back to Chapel Hill. We stayed for the wedding (Laura was GORGEOUS! The wedding was so picturesque on the beach! And Bree was the cutest little flower girl!), even though it meant that Robbie was in the hotel room with Gabe a lot of the time and when they weren't Gabe just looked awful. The only thing worse that all the pain my son was in was that all these people who had never met my family didn't even see Gabe smile once! Nor did they get to be around my wonderful husband. The miracle of it all though was Laura's uncle who was there is a chiropractor. After we got back from the ER he did a couple of adjustments on Gabe that he said moved his stomach down, decreasing the pressure. Gabe actually slept better that night and though he was clearly in pain the next day, wasn't crying near as much. We did take off Saturday right after the wedding ceremony to drive home, and Gabe slept most of the way, which I think was also a blessing from above because the moment we got home at 3:00 AM he started crying again. I stayed up with him this time (Robbie had been amazing the whole Jacksonville trip) and after three hours I called my doctor. She suggested we take him into the hospital now (he wasn't scheduled to meet with the surgeon until Monday) and she called ahead to let them know we were coming. They scheduled him for emergency surgery on Monday and said he couldn't eat anything until then. The poor thing had hardly eaten anything the past three days so it hurt me to see him in pain and starving! All of Monday he was so miserable, but past the point of caring. He was just limp and so sad. He finally went in at 5:30 PM the next day. As Robbie and I handed him off to the surgical team we felt so much peace and that everything would be ok. (Gabe pooped right as we handed him off and Robbie was proud that his son would have a surprise waiting for them :) 2 1/2 hours later the surgeon came out and said everything went as well as it could have. As you can see in the picture they stitched up the hole (top right). The bottom left is the small intestine that they had to pull out of his chest cavity (bottom right is the actual hole). Dr. Lange told us that she was able to do it all laparoscopically, with just four small incisions. We found out later that she was known for trying if possible to do surgeries this way so that the recovery is better and there is less scaring...even if it takes longer. So even though poor Gabe had to wait almost 48 hours to get into surgery, it was a blessing to be the last one of the day so that she could spend that time. I only write this much detail for my family history purposes (since this blog acts as a sort of family journal), but because of all the detail, as I am writing this I am overwhelmed at the place God's hand had in everything. We were so blessed! From Laura's uncle being their to ease some of Gabe's pain, to my sweet daughter who was SO good through this all, even with so much attention being on her brother and not on her, to having energy on such little sleep, friends who were so willing to help out while we were in the hospital for four days, to family member's prayers, to my mom being able to come out, to a pediatrician who was always on call (oh she felt so bad!! She started crying when she came to see us at the hospital!), to having just the perfect surgeon and getting in at just the right time...the list goes on. If something like this has to happen what a blessing to know that God cares. And if he doesn't take the burden away, he will make it seem lighter AND make you strong enough to carry it. I don't think I have felt this loved before. Really. SO many people have been SO wonderful. I have never felt so much power and strength from the prayers of others. Thank you everyone who was there for us. And I am so grateful for a Father in Heaven who cares about us so much that he lets us experience things that will make us stronger. And it's only in recognizing his hand that we see how blessed we truly are. Gabe is doing so well now and I am SO happy to have my happy little boy back!! Don't worry, my next post will be happy pictures of Gabe!

Go daddy!

2009-10-26T19:11:00.009-04:00

This past weekend Robbie did a 10 mile race! He signed up with several of his friends a few months ago, and though he wasn't able to train totally like he wanted, he still did awesome!! We were so proud of daddy! Even though we forgot to bring the sign we had made for him :( It was on this trail that used to be a train track...so it was just cut out of the trees...so beautiful! Nicole and I barely made it to the finish line to see our hubbies finish (that's another story!). We were so proud of our men! I only wished I ran it with him! We're going to try and find a race to do while we're in Costa Rica!!
I have been meaning to post these next pictures for the past month or so...just some fun highlights of our past couple of months: Bree started Pre-school! (A little coop that I do with a few other moms...it's been SO FUN!!) Funny story, we were at Costco and there was a table of pajamas. Bree had been needing some and so I was looking through the pile; there were purple ones with crowns and jewels, there were pink ones with ballet slippers, and then there were these green ones with balls all over them. I grabbed them before she saw the others and said, "Whoa cool! How about these!" Bree was kindof excited, and then I saw some for Gabe and said, "You could be twiners with Gabe!" Then she was way excited. When we got home she was so excited to wear them. I was thinking, "Yes! Success!" (Nothing against all the princess stuff, I just want her to be well rounded...and she has a little too much "princess" influence sometimes!) But after putting them on she went straight to her room, got a necklace, bracelets, and her princess shoes... :) Well, I tried!
One of Bree and Gabe's favorite games is Bree will go to the far end of the room and she'll run straight for Gabe. He gets the biggest smile on his face and then laughs hysterically when she tickles him...one of those things you love to watch as a mom.

Never a dull moment around here!

The women in my life~

2009-10-18T22:09:00.003-04:00

I've been wanting to write this post since May actually...but the past weekend just impressed this point even more. I have AMAZING women in my life! First I have the most amazing mother (who just pulled off an incredible wedding!!) and most amazing mother-in-law (who never ceases to amaze me) in the world! Amazing grandmothers, sisters, cousins, and aunts from whom I learn so much every day. But God has also placed some of the most amazing friends in my life from whom I have also learned SO MUCH. I realized this last May when several of these amazing women moved away...living away from home has allowed me to get so much closer to women around me because I don't always have a mom to rely on. I think God knew that I would learn faster this way...they are all things that my mom probably did or does, but because I was so close to it I didn't always notice. I have learned things like stepping in when seeing a mother who needs some help (Ami how do you always know?!), how to be the perfect hostess (Lizzy Stevens I'll never quite reach your level!!), to loving being pregnant (I'm still working on that one Emily!)...and wish I could list everything and could name all of the women who have impacted my life so much, but that would take all night! This past week while we were in Utah for my sister's wedding (pictures from that to come!) I got to spend a little time with one of my dear friends. She came to the reception right as Robbie and I were about to run my sister's and Dave's stuff to their hotel room (since they were being driven from the reception in a cool old car to the hotel and then taking a shuttle to the airport in the morning). We were going to take our kids but she said, "Just leave them with me and you guys run...have a little time together!" I sat there thinking, wow! Did she really just suggest that? It's too nice to be true! It really was the sweetest thing, especially because she had come to the reception just to see me! As we were taking their stuff in the room Robbie brought out a bag Dave had given him with candles and rose petals to put all around. I thought about how fun that would have been with Gabe crawling all over eating the petals and Bree blowing out all the candles after we lit them...it would have taken twice as long! So she entertained them at the reception while we were gone for a 1/2 hour! So I have to THANK YOU!! Thank you to all the women in my life who have done something like that for me...and for others. Because of your service do I think of doing those things for others! And through you I see the example of our Savior whom I want to be like more than anything. I am so blessed and hope to be like you all in so many ways!!
THANK YOU!

Baity Hill

2009-08-21T20:28:00.008-04:00

So living at Baity Hill (the married student housing at UNC) has been amazing. We have been here for over three years and I have really loved it so much! Though I am excited to move to Costa Rica and then to ? (we'll know in a couple months!), I'm realizing that it's going to pull my heart out to leave North Carolina. It seems like every day someone asks me, "Oh are you getting excited for Costa Rica? When do you leave?" Yes I am getting excited, but I want to enjoy every minute of being here while I can!! One of my most wonderful friends just moved last weekend, fortunately just accross down, but it hit me just how little time we have left here! So, we are going to live up these next three months!

On a funnier note, one thing we love about Baity Hill are all of the international neighbors we have. They are so sweet and come from wonderful cultures with wonderfu languages...most of them are learning English and we have loved hearing some of their comments that I'm sure sound better in their language :)

From our neighbor from Turkistan after looking at Gabe just a few weeks ago in the elevator: "...oh his eye-balls are so different? So cool!" (eye-balls?)

From the sweet Chinese woman who just moved in after meeting Gabe: "...he's so fat!" (picture the asian accent... "hees soo faat!")

From our nicest custodian, Zlati from Bulgaria, who was a doctor there but moved here for his son's schooling and since he can't speak English very well can only find work as a custodian: "...what a beautiful lady! You are a movie star!" And he was talking to Bree :)

From the Korean lady whose name I can never remember because I can hardly pronounce it:
"...she is so skilled!" as Bree was climbing up the ladder at the playground :)

Oh so fun!

Sharing a room

2009-08-15T21:11:00.004-04:00

This is the first night we put Gabe in Bree's room...Gabe had been asleep for about 45 minutes and Bree was so good about being quiet as we sang songs and said prayers...and then ten minutes later I thought I heard laughing? This is what I found:

I think it's going to be a bit of a transition...I'm just expecting the worst for the morning! (Not to be pessimistic, just knowing that he'll probably wake her up, or she'll wake him up and it will take a few weeks for them to get used to each other's noises! And if I expect the worst I can only be delightfully surprised! But don't think that I live my life expecting the worst :) By "expecting the worst" I mean that anything can happen, so I'd better be ready!)

The sacrifices we make...

2009-08-12T21:25:00.003-04:00

This was so funny (and embarrassing, but you just may be able to relate) I just had to share it. So this summer I have been taking a dance class...first time since I got married and had two children. I am going to be teaching four children's classes in the fall (starting next week) and so to keep up my technique I really wanted to take a class. Robbie was so sweet and really wanted me to and can I say, I have been in HEAVEN!! It's crazy that it's been three years since I took a class when I have danced my whole life (except for on my mission I guess), because it doesn't even feel like I left it! I often talk to one of my girlfriends on my way home and she said tonight, "you're always on cloud nine after dance!" And it's true. I JUST LOVE TO DANCE! And afterwards Bree always wants me to show her what I "learned", and she just thinks I'm the best dancer. It's so cute.

Well, the class I am taking is an advanced modern/jazz. I absolutely love the teacher but tonight we had a substitute. She seemed nice, and at the start of class announced that she would be doing a strictly jazz class. The class was going great, I liked the teacher. Then she said we were going to do jumps. Fine. I hadn't done jumps (8 in first position, 8 in second, 8 in fifth, etc...) since ballet in college...and not that I can't still do repetitive jumps, it's just that...I've had two children!! For those of you who haven't given birth yet, the area where you birth your child doesn't exactly close like it used to...and so if you have any liquid in you at all...yup, you guess it, LEAKS OUT!! So I didn't think about this as I started jumping, about my third jump I thought, "Oh crap..." Of course I was on the front row and right about that third jump the teacher walked right in front of me. So I couldn't just run out when she was right in front of me!! So the lame "competitive, want to impress" inside of me proceeded with about 8 more jumps and finally she walked on and I ran out to the bathroom. So a little wetness in the pants...ok a lot of wetness in the pants. And the best part was, I was wearing grey pants! I walked back in and they were doing kicks across the floor. Ha. Needless to say I got home a little early from dance tonight!

All I can say is the sacrifices we make for our children...are totally worth wetting my pants :)

SuMmEr FuN!!

2009-07-31T13:50:00.010-04:00

So I need to post for two reasons...first, I haven't posted for way too long... and second, to get that huge picture of ME down so that it's not the first thing you see when you pull up our blog! The day after I cut my hair my girlfriend called me, "Jess your hair cut is SO cute! I just love it!" I was a bit confused because I hadn't seen her since I cut my hair, then she said, "I just saw the picture Robbie posted on your blog..." What?! Awe man! Did he really?! I immediatly sent him a text at work: "So what do you know about the picture of my haircut that was posted on our blog?" His reply: "You cut your hair? We have a blog?" He tricked me into taking a picture saying that it was to send to our families...But I will say that he is so good at making me feel "smokin hot" :) and I just love him for it!

We have been having some serious summer fun! My brother got married the end of June so it was back to Utah...but with Robbie, so it was WAY more fun! My brother married an absolutely WONDERFUL girl named Rachel Petersen, and the wedding couldn't have been more perfect. Bree loved the dress she got to wear :) and even though Gabe looked so cute in his little tux, he didn't love it (well maybe it was staying up so late!). Then we stayed through the 4th of July with Robbie's family and had a blast! We enjoyed all of the Freedom Festival festivities- Bree's first time trying cotton candy, seeing a giant snake, face painting, an airshow (Bree didn't want to get out of the little airplanes!), and Robbie and I were able to attend the Freedom Festival Awards Banquet. There they honored four individuals who have made a large contribution to the cause of freedom. (One of the original eight "Frog men" which became the navy seals, and even President Packer!) It was SO neat and SO patriotic! I left wanting to be a more active contributor to our country. My whole 4th of July week really helped me see how much our country needs patriotism! Patriotic celebrations have such a unifying effect. Someday I would love to start a Freedom Festival of sorts wherever I live! And it was so wonderful being with my handsome husband. He is such a great example to me of patriotism and looks up to our founding fathers so much.
Then we always love coming home to our little apartment, but it was a big adjustment this time; the kids getting used to the time change, and Bree getting used to not having ALL attention on her! Oh we will be grateful when there are more grandchildren :) But we have had fun teaching Gabe to eat "real food"...so far he loves squash, carrots, bananas, applesauce, and sweet potatoes. Bree loves to help (picture her inserting the spoon into his mouth and he gags because she puts it so far in :) gotta love siblings!). But Gabe really does love the food. Though it doesn't seem it from this picture (it was his first time!), he just wants more more more! Then we finally took our first trip to the North Carolina beach!! It was a B-L-A-S-T!! We went to Topsail, which is about 2 1/2 hours away. We took off first thing in the morning with some of our favorite friends, and spent the whole day just having fun! (Oh and on the way we passed Rocky Mount where my cousin Tanner is serving and honked and waved!) Bree seriously loved it! I had to ask her to eat (which is very unusual for her!), she just wanted to play in the waves and the sand all day!! And Gabe was an angel...he just sat under the umbrella and played with his toys. And the best part was, when we first got there and were unloading a man walked by and asked if we needed any help carrying stuff, then he proceeded to say that his beach house was just across the street and they had an outdoor, all enclosed shower that we were welcomed to use at the end of the day! (Since we all grew up going to Lake Powell and not the beach you have to know that beach sand doesn't come off in the ocean!! There was a little faucet by one of the bathrooms that we would have had to wash off with and drive home mostly sandy!) So this way we got all showered off, stopped at a park to have our picnic dinner (oh so delicious...just like dinners at Lake Powell :) and then let the kids crash on the way home (it seriously took Bree LESS than one minute and she was out!)! It was a perfect trip! Robbie actually enjoyed it WAY more than he thought, being a mountain/Lake Powell kind of guy. We can't wait to go back!!

Then this week on Monday for Family Home Evening we went to a Durham Bulls baseball game! Bree and her friend Maddox had fun running up and down the stairs, cheering when everyone else clapped, and kept saying, "throw the ball to me!" Maddox had a glove and really wanted a ball to come to us (we were sitting in the outfield seats). Well, the kids had to go to the bathroom, so the dads took them and Nicole and I stayed with Gabe. Sure enough while they were gone a ball got hit right to us...no joke! I would like to say that I jumped up and caught it, but I looked up in the air and saw it coming straight for us and since I was holding Gabe I got so nervous that it would hit us so I just screamed, closed my eyes, and covered Gabe!! It landed right behind us! Nicole and I were laughing so hard but felt so bad that our husbands had taken the kids!

Summer is the best. Life is good!

My Wife is Blazin' Hot!!!

2009-07-15T15:11:00.002-04:00

I just want to post a picture of Jesika with her new haircut. I am a lucky man to have such a good lookin' woman!

- Robbie

For Chris and Lisa!!

2009-06-16T23:19:00.003-04:00

This past weekend some girlfriends and I ran a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Race for the Cure 5K. As I was running I started thinking about cancer. It hit me in such an unusual way that there is no cure! NO CURE! I knew that obviously, but I'd never given it that much thought I guess. For so many other illnesses there are medicines, procedures, and recommendations for changes in lifestyle, that can cure you. But for cancer there isn't! As I was running I almost started crying. I wanted so badly for there to be a cure. I felt so helpless just running down a beautiful North Carolina street with thousands of others who had signs on their backs with things such as, "In memory of our mother...", "In honor of our friend..." It made me want to tell everyone about the Savior's love and his sacrifice that would bring them comfort, peace, and even reunite them with the one they lost. Though it doesn't make up for there not being a cure, it gives meaning and purpose to the suffering many experience. Oh that everyone knew this!!

We did have so much fun. There were TONS of people. The girls I ran this with are just awesome! Ceri, Ali and Kristen are the kind of friends you want to surround yourself with...happy, bright, and so much fun! Oh it was SO HOT...I was drenched in sweat the entire time :) Gotta love the good ol' North Carolina humidity! And it was so fun to have Robbie bring the kids there to see us at the finish line! I love when Robbie is Mr. Mom for a while :) He's so good at it. But it is always eventful (well, when is life with children not eventful really?)! Once we finished I ran to grab some stuff and Robbie went to hang out in the shade and feed Gabe. He called me only a couple minutes after we separated and said Bree had had to go to the bathroom while he was feeding Gabe but the port-a-potties were clear across the way...and they didn't make it. As you can tell in the picture Robbie forgot to grab the bag with extra underwear :) There were lots of fun sponsors, like Yoplait, so it was fun sampling some goodies afterwards! There was a band playing and Bree stopped to dance while she ate her yogurt and this lady noticed and just thought it was the cutest thing. She stood there by Bree for the longest time just dancing like Bree was and imitating her eating yogurt. It was kind of funny! And Bree acted like she didn't really notice! And as we were walking to the shuttle back to our car we looked down and Bree had been "sharing" her water with Gabe. "Look mom he likes it!" she said. He couldn't actually suck out of the cup, but he was loving chewing it!

It was a wonderful event. And while I hope to support it in the years to come, it inspired me to be better at sharing my knowledge and testimony of the Savior with those around me! Because ultimately that will bless them more than a cure ever could!

I included the website so that you can find a Race for the Cure near you! http://ww5.komen.org/

Together Forever!

2009-06-10T22:03:00.017-04:00

Where to begin!! We have had quite the past couple of months in the Harmon family.

Tonight Bree, Gabe and I were eating dinner (well, Gabe was technically pulling the place-mat and sucking on a toy) and Bree looked at me and said, "Mommy, I love you." I looked at her and said, "Wow. Thank you so much Bree! I love you too!" That was the first time she had ever really said that. Whenever Robbie or I say it to her she just nods her head and says "Uh-hu". Then a little bit later I said, "Bree I sure love you." She said, "Thank you so much mom!" and then she said, "I'm going to tell my daddy that tonight when I see him." It was like you could see her thinking about it in her head, like she really knew what it meant. I LOVE seeing my children discover things for themselves. I think that is probably how our Father in Heaven feels when we figure something out, or even learn from a mistake. I've been doing a lot of learning lately...How can you not with two children :) But the only sad thing about her comment was that her daddy is out of town! That has been our last four out of five weeks...without daddy!! It's been awful...much harder than I thought to be honest. BUT, we were all able to make some great memories, even though they would have been better if we were together!! First, my amazing husband was in Nairobi, Kenya for three weeks in May. He was chosen to go with four other students from the Business school here at UNC to redesign a business training curriculum for a micro-credit organization (in other words helping those who teach the people from the slums how to start successful businesses once they get micro-credit loans, teach better...so helping the teachers be more effective). It was really successful and he did amazing work, it was just TOO LONG to be apart!! AND the hardest part was that we could hardly communicate either. He didn't have much internet access, and when he did skype wouldn't even work very well. But he was good to post up pictures so we could see what was going on. I would look through them with Bree every time we saw new ones and it was so cute, one day she saw this picture and then this one of the three boys after, and she said, "Those boys are smiling because they're with my daddy!" It was the sweetest. She really missed him and was SO excited when we finally reunited! And this third picture is my favorite...yes, that is Robbie dancing in the middle of the group :) He had a good experience but the poor guy worked so hard, but only slept and ate little.

(I think cause he missed us so badly!)

While he was in Africa the kids and I went out to Utah. Yes, me flying with two kids. Fun. Well, maybe a more accurate description is, survival. Actually the whole trip I just felt like I was in survival mode. Don't get me wrong, it was so fun being with our families, but I think that having the kids away from home, off their schedules, without their daddy, was a little too much for me. And really I was just crazy being without Robbie. Honestly it was like my brain didn't work! Half of me was missing and it was awful. But I saw more clearly than ever before how perfect God's plan is. A father, mother, children, all learning and growing and helping together...it just works better than anything else and is the best way to live life! I just LOVE my life with Robbie Harmon! I thought that so many times while we were apart. Yes we were having fun with our families, but I just LOVE being with our little family more than anything else! And the fun just wasn't complete without Robbie there. Our reunion was so sweet in the Raleigh/Durham Airport! As I hugged my wonderful husband I couldn't help but hit him too...Don't you ever do that to me again!

Here are a few of the fun things we did in Utah: Gabe got to meet everyone! Grandpa Mark had been waiting for four months! And Gabe loved him right away! Our favorite thing: The ranch!! It was a little bittersweet being there because it's Robbie favorite place in the whole world...but we tried to enjoy it for him. This was Bree's first time on Buddy. And Gabe's too :) Bree loved "super dog" from Uncle Tanner (also known as under dog) and loved petting her first goat. I got to see my dear friend and mission companion Lauren Starr, and her husband Shane and daughter Lydia. She is just SO amazing and taught me everything about being the best missionary! I STILL want to be just like her! Bree also loved mowing the lawns with Grandpa Lon, doing dress ups with Aunt Sarah (don't be embarrassed by this picture Sarah :) And meeting soon-to-be Aunt Rachel! (We can't wait to have her in the family - Good job Mike!! AND, if any of you St. George girls think she looks like someone you know...she is Melissa Petersen's cousin! Their dads are twins too!)

And Gabe was just pretty much smiles the whole time :)

Oh and I have to include a picture of the Mother's Day breakfast we made...I tried them out on Robbie before he left and got good reviews... though nothing could do justice for my amazing mother who deserves the best of everything!

And now Robbie has been in Minnesota on business for the week...he was supposed to be home already, but his plane was delayed twice out of Atlanta :( And I don't want to go to sleep one more night without him! With him being gone so much Bree is getting confused I think...her prayers for the past week have been, "And please bless my daddy in Minnesota, and Africa, and Kenya..." Poor thing. He'll be home soon Bree!! I can't wait!

2009-05-02T21:55:00.002-04:00

Thursday was just one of those days. Everything that could happen lame did. I had to go to the store in the morning and on the way I locked myself out of our apartment and forgot the car keys (which meant I had to trek up the hill to the office to borrow a key)...on the way home Bree had an accident in her car seat (she's never done that)...not too big of a deal because accidents happen, but I got home and took some groceries up (which is always such a pain with two children tryng to carry things!) planning on going back down to get the car seat to bring up and wash, but then Gabe needed to eat. So after he was done I went down to get the rest of the groceries and the car seat and when I got the car seat out of the car there was so much potty that it went running out everywhere...gross. So stuff like that kept happening and I wasn't having the best attitude. Well, I had told a friend I would babysit for her and 45 minutes before she was coming over the missionaries called. They asked if there was anyway I could give one of their investigators a ride, right then. I knew who this investigator was, she's a single black woman with five children, none from the same father. She doesn't really work, and I felt like she was only being interested in meeting with the missionaries because of the help she received. But, since the kids had just gone down for naps and Robbie was home studying I told them I would do it. Well, I got there, and her five month old baby was laying on the couch in just a diaper, with a bottle proped up in his mouth, sleeping. And there was a hair straightener pluged in right by his hand! Tammy was needing a ride to the Social Security office because her rent was over due and she didn't have the money. They were going to evict her if she didn't have it by 3:00 (and it was 1:00 already). She got through to the SS office before we drove there and they told her that her welfare agency didn't have any money for her. Tears were coming down her face and I just looked at her and her situation and thought to myself, How in the world can I complain about my hard day! Though many of the things that were happening in her life were brought upon her by her own bad decisions, it was so hard to watch and not be able to help. I put my arm around her and told her everything would be ok, and as I left in tears I repented for my ungratitude. I was grateful for that experience and for the blessing of having a Father in Heaven who loves us enough to bring us down to humility and gratitude when we need it the most.

Happy Robbie Day!!

2009-05-01T14:12:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to let you all know that today, April 28th, has been declared
"Robbie Day" ... Because the day that Robert Mark Harmon was born should be a universal holiday! I am just overwhelmingly grateful for this sweet day. Our little family wouldn't be what it is without Robbie...the way he kindly and patiently teaches and loves me and our children is amazing. He is always thinking of us and does SO much to build our family and bring us closer to Christ. I don't know what I would do without him! I LOVE ROBERT MARK HARMON!! Happy Robbie Day everyone!

What a Woman!

2009-04-12T16:21:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to my smokin' hot wife, friend and sweetheart. Jesika is a tremendous blessing in all of our lives...but I feel especially blessed to have her as my eternal companion and the mother of my children! An experience she had at the pool the other day sums up how I feel on a daily basis. I don't recall the specifics of the story as Jesika related it to me, but basically it went something like this. After an hour or so at the pool, a complete stranger approached Jesika and struck up a conversation. She was a woman from St. Petersburg, Russia. She told Jesika that she had to talk to her because she was just so bright...like a light in the midst of a sea of people. That is how I feel every single day! No matter what challenges or frustrations I have in a day...at the end I come home to radiant light! Jesika reflects our Savior's love and His light as much as anyone I have ever known! What a blessing for Gabe and Bree to have that constant influence in their lives! What a blessing for me to have her by my side through life's ups and downs...and even eternally! What a blessing for all of us to have her as a friend, sister, daughter, mother or wife! May we all try to personify Jesus Christ more like our beloved Jesika Jean!!!

Happy Birthday, Jesika! I love you!

Roberto (I will now formally be known as Roberto until we return from Costa Rica!)

The best job EVER!!

2009-04-08T21:07:00.007-04:00

I decided yesterday that being a mom is really the best job ever. Not like I didn't think that before, but yesterday it really hit me. I was on a conference call with a group of women who were all national winners from one year or another of America's Junior Miss... one of them is the editor of In Style magazine, another one is on broadway in Shrek, one of them is a dermatologist, another one is a pediatrician, one is a broadcast journalist, and another works for an agency in NYC...but none of those I mentioned are moms who stay at home (and only two of those I mentioned are even married and they're almost all over 30). They are a group of amazing women whom I look up to and love being around. So I had been on the call for about an hour generating ideas about marketing and a new direction for the Junior Miss Program, and the kids had been asleep but Bree woke up and I turned on a movie (her new favorite, The Wizard of Oz) planning to get off soon. She was eating peas and next thing I know I hear, "Mommy, could you please help me get this pea out of my nose?" :) I just smiled, hung up the phone and ran over there. Soon enough Gabe was up and ready to eat and as I sat there feeding him and calling the Dr. for a recommendation on how to dislodge the pea (it was way up there!) I just got the best feeling - there was nothing I would rather be doing! I was just so grateful to be doing something that makes a LASTING impact on the world! I would rather "market" how fun it is to eat vegetables than be on some important marketing team. I would rather be "the family cook" then the best chef at an expensive, well-known restaurant! And I would even rather be a "house-maid" then be traveling for business staying at all the nicest hotels. None of that compares really! I get to "work with" the most attractive, wonderful man alive, and get to teach (well, mostly learn from) the most wonderful children...and those children will hopefully grow up to love God, develope Christ-like attributes, live happy lives, and keep on giving to the world. What a blessing to know there is more to life than what's on TV. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the perspective it gives! AND I am SO grateful for a mother who was the best example of true, successful, motherhood.

P.S. I couldn't get the pea out, but I knew Robbie could...he came home and tried sucking it out with a little infant nasal clearing thing, which brought it down a bit. Then he put his finger over the nostril the pea wasn't in (stopping the air flow) and told her to blow. She blew, the pea shot out into her hand, and she popped it into her mouth!! Oh it was hilarious!

A few of my favorite things...

2009-04-04T21:18:00.012-04:00

I thought I would share a few of my favorite things about this week:

COSTA RICA!! For those of you who were waiting to hear we found out this week we ARE doing a semester abroad from January-April 2010!! I can hardly wait! If any of you have any tips for learning Spanish let me know!

Grandpa Lon coming to visit! (Sorry for the cheesy picture dad, but it was so cute how excited Bree was to get someone to do play dough at 7:30 AM!)

My children who LOVE each other!

When Bree chooses her own outfits :) (Don't worry, we don't leave the house like this!)

Mary Poppins (This is Bree's FAVORITE movie...it's such a life saver when I need a second to do something for Gabe or whatever...she's always thrilled when she gets to watch it. She goes around the house singing, "Let's go fly a kite" or "Step in time step in time" and kicks her legs up... so cute! :)

Play dates (Cute Mya Robinson... they were sharing

"the sacrament" in this picture! After the water they told me they needed some bread to pass :)

My UNC boys (go Tarheels!! At the moment we are up by 10!)

And my very favorite thing is General Conference! Both sessions today were so wonderful and I know that I will be so sad, as I always am, when tomorrow is over. I am so grateful for such wonderful leaders who are so inspired. I just want to be so much better and am just thankful for repentance! (And I love that my husband will be home from Priesthood Session any minute wanting to be a better husband and father :) He doesn't have much room for improvement though!)

Raindrops on Roses...

March catch-up

2009-03-23T21:37:00.009-04:00

Hello! After a month of thinking every day, "Oh I should post about this!" I am finally here! Here is an update on each of us:

BREE: Oh so cute! This month she moved into a "big girl bed". The first few days she was so excited and slept great, but then she started doing what she did before (this is our second move in the bed) sleeping on the ground by the door. So Robbie had the idea of making a little chart. The week before we had gone out for ice-cream and she loved it! So he told her that if she got five stickers we would go out for ice-cream again. It worked like a charm! (The days it looks like she missed were a consequence for not obeying.) Ever since she has slept in her bed! A couple weeks ago I got together with some of my girlfriends whose husbands were all doing their final examinations for dental school and were out of town in VA for the weekend. I was invited because Robbie volunteered to be a patient for one of them (and get a free filling! It was a great $ saver, except that the poor guy had to sit with his mouth open for 6 hours!! Jacob just wanted to do it right for the test, but didn't realize it would take that long! Was it worth it honey?) The kids played dress up and we had a blast! You'll notice though, Bree has on a different dress in each picture... every time she put one on she would notice one a friend was wearing and want that one! Funny, she's never even liked dressing up until that night?! Also this month we have had some warm days!! Oh I can't wait until every day is warm and sunny!! Bree's new favorite thing is making sand castles. Also Bree is just talking up a storm. She is so polite and is really just the sweetest thing! Here are a couple examples of things she is saying...

While Gabe is sitting in the swing and I am cooking dinner... Bree- "Mom! Gabe say cracker!" Me- "Oh really? I didn't hear him say cracker?" Bree- "Mom! Gabe say cracker like this... " and she does the sign for cracker :) Me- "Oh, he did the sign for cracker!" Bree- "Ya!"
Robbie asks Bree to say the prayer for dinner... Bree-"Heavenly Father, thank you day, food, mommy, daddy, baby Gabe, Bree Elizabeth Harmon, missionaries, President Monsont (she always adds a "t" to his name?), my chair..." Robbie- "Please bless the..." Bree- "food..." Robbie- "Please help us to be..." Bree- "happy..." Robbie- "And please help me to feel..." (Bree has been really sick these past few days so we expected her to say "better"). Bree- "My Savior's love..." It was the cutest!
Me- "Bree that is a beautiful dress!" Bree- "Thanks!"

And this one is my favorite...

Robbie had turned on one of my dance videos from college while she was getting on her pjs. He pointed me out and she was just fixated watching the dancing. Then suddenly she turned to me and said, "Beautiful dancing mommy!"

Gabe just lights up when Bree is around and always smiles at her! She loves him so much and I can't wait for her to feel better so that they can interact again! She is the BEST big sister!

GABE: He is just growing too fast! One thing I love about having a second child is I feel like I am enjoying it so much more! Robbie and I are just more relaxed about things and it's just so fun! He is sleeping so well and is just so happy! He is already a tar-heel fan and is cheering them on to what we think will be a big win this month! And the beginning of the month was his baby blessing! We had some dear friends, the Ashidas and the Lopezs, come visit our church for the occasion. Robbie did such a great job, he included everything that I would have thought of and I know it will bless Gabe as he looks back on it!

ROBBIE: Oh what a wonderful month this has been for my wonderful husband! He secured summer work with a health-care consulting company out of Glendale, AZ. He'll be able to work here and just travel a little bit. It should be good experience! Also, the biggest miracle (of our married life probably!) is that we were finally granted residency! We have been denied for the past 2 1/2 years, and have been praying (along with our families) that this time it would work out. The reason being that it cuts tuition in HALF!! So such a blessing! AND our last bit of exciting news is still in the works but I am so excited I can't contain myself...we may be doing a semester abroad in Costa Rica! We'll hear for sure on Friday, but we've applied and our chances are really good they say. We would go for Robbie's last semester of his MBA from January-April 2010. (They have the top Business School in Latin America and it was actually started by Harvard.) So be looking for news in the next couple of days! (Well, let's be honest, it may be in next month's post :)

ME: Really I am just SO happy to be back exercising! Though it's harder to find the time with two children and a busy husband, oh it's so worth it! It makes me feel normal again!

Happy March to anyone reading this!

Gabe...

2009-02-20T20:07:00.015-05:00

First I have to say that I have the sweetest husband ever! I just saw his post today! Wow. I am SO blessed! (And wow that you actually posted something honey! Does that mean you actually look at our blog sometimes?!) As you can see, Gabe gets his good looks from his daddy! This is a picture of Robbie and Bree before going to the Daddy-daughter Valentine's Dance at our church. Bree was SO excited and they had a great time!

So I thought that even though blogging isn't the first thing on my list to do in the short (and mean SHORT) amount of spare time I have, I wanted to post some pictures of my beautiful son.

We are having such a wonderful time watching him grow, but especially watching Bree with him...

she just LOVES him! The cutest thing is how much she loves to hold his hand :) In the car, on the couch, while he's eating...I think it's because she always wants to hold her friends' hands, but they never want to. So finally someone who will hold her hand! (As if he has a choice right?!) Every time she holds him it's all about holding his hand too :) He is just the cutest little boy and we can't wait to see what he's like as he grows even more! Though, as a friend pointed out, the more children you have the less time you own for yourself, I am grateful that I have chosen this path and am trying to make every moment count! (Well, at least I am reminding myself of that when I am so tired and Gabe is sleeping but Bree is jumping off the couch!) God knew what he was doing when he let us be parents...adding a second child to our family is teaching me even more! Being a mom is the best!

Hot Mama!

2009-02-01T21:09:00.003-05:00

Wow! I am truly a blessed man! This is a rare event for me to post something on our blog...but I just want the world to know that I think Jesika is SMOKING HOT...a TOTAL BABE!

We have been so blessed with the arrival of Gabe and the constant laughter brought by our sweet daughter Bree. Most of all, however, I have been blessed by the love and friendship of my dear wife. I love these children and I love their mama!

He's here!!

2009-01-28T19:06:00.004-05:00

Monday morning, January 26th, 12:20 AM I awoke to some intense contractions. I didn't want myself to get excited and tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't and so I got up and walked around. Shortly after I got up I felt something coming out...yes! I went to the bathroom and it was the mucus plug (sorry if that's more than you wanted to know) and after going to the bathroom my water broke a little. WAHOO!! I went in excitedly and woke up Robbie and said, "this is it!" We got our stuff, took our monitor to the neighbors (so Bree could just keep sleeping in her bed...and don't worry, we live in an apartment so our neighbors are down the hall!) and went to the hospital. It was now 2:30 AM and they examined me, I was at 5 cm, fully effaced and was there to stay! Oh I couldn't believe it was finally here! The past two days had been really hard for me - Bree had come a week early, and so the whole past week I felt like he should be coming even though I was telling myself not to get my hopes up (but it wasn't working!). So though during the weekend I was a little bit down, after going to church on Sunday I knew that I needed to have that last bit of spiritual nourishment before the challenges of a second child came. So back to the hospital :) Robbie and I walked around the halls for a bit to try and get things going and the contractions really started coming. We debated about an epidural and decided to do it at about 4:30 AM. Oh it was wonderful! It was just so nice, Robbie did some homework and I took a nap, then we read a book together that we have been reading lately and it was just so fun hanging out together! They had to start a little pitocin drip after a few hours because I wasn't progressing very much, but then around 10:00 AM I was feeling some pressure and so the nurse came in and checked me. "Well," she said, "you're fully dilated and we can start pushing!" What? I was amazed! Everything had been so chill and I was feeling so good, except that I was starving. So she went out to get the mid-wife and actually didn't come back for 45 minutes! They got set up and I started pushing just before 11. I don't know why but I just LOVE pushing! I think it's partly because I haven't gotten to really work out for what seems like forever and so getting to push is just exhilarating! At 11:14 AM our sweet little boy arrived! They put him right up on my chest as they cleaned him off and I just cried tears of gratitude for getting to have him in our family. He was perfect. Robbie and I went through our list of names and quickly concluded that our little man was Gabe! Gabriel Robert Harmon. Robbie went home shortly after and brought Bree to see her new baby brother. She was so sweet from the start. Kisses all over and wanting to hold him right away. And she was thrilled that he would hold her hand :) (As if he had a choice!) We had a gift for her from him and she had a gift to him from her...hers was a little set of tea party dishes and oh boy, she pretty much forgot completely about Gabe once she got that! She loved it :) And the cutest was once she got everything out and set it up and informed us that she was making soup she brought over the first bowl and spoon and said, "Here you go Gabe!" It was so sweet.

We are home now and Grandma Carrie (WHAT A HUGE HELP!!) is here and things are so peaceful. I just look at my little guy and am so grateful I get to play a small part in his life, and SO grateful that he gets Robbie for a father. I love watching him with Bree and Gabe and don't think they could find a better daddy anywhere! Gabe definitely has Robbie's chin and it will be fun to see what he looks like as he grows older. What a blessing to have the gospel of Jesus Christ to guide us as parents! I know there will be hard times (like when my milk comes in tomorrow!) but I know that there is nothing more important than family and am excited for all I am going to learn being a mother of TWO!!

~Friends are blessings~

2009-01-20T13:44:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday a group of dear friends had a Baby Shower for me. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful gathering! Living far away from our family has given us such a great opportunity to make some wonderful friends. And as I sat there looking at all of the wonderful women I am blessed to know I realized how much I really learn from each them! I couldn't help but feel so much love for them! We met at California Pizza Kitchen (it was perfect, we had our own little spot at the back of the restaurant) and had a delicious lunch and wonderful conversations. The gifts were great and the advice I got was perfect! I just love each girl who was there and am so grateful for friends!

I thought I would pass along some of the advice I received:

-Exercise in the morning, it will give you energy for the day (oh I can't wait until I can exercise normally again!!), get out of the house and play with friends.
-Read to Bree when you are nursing baby boy so she won’t feel neglected. (I think Bree will love that!)
-Maybe the best thing would be to remember that you can never have enough photos, things written down or forgiveness. (Talk about great advice for anyone!)
-Don’t compare your children. Milestones are different for every child and they all eventually learn to walk, ride a bike, talk, etc… Enjoy every minute!
-Give Bree as much attention as you can while the baby is small. Help Bree fee like the baby is her baby too.
-Follow the spirit. He is the Lord’s son, so he will direct you with your sweet boy. (I love that...really that's the only way I have any hope of knowing what to do with TWO children!)
-In Japan they say talk to your baby a lot even when they are too small to hear and talk. Sleep with him whenever you can! (That was from my dear friend who is from Japan.)
-Follow your instincts. Do Parent-child date nights, and let the child pick the activity. So fun! Have the baby bring a present home to the older siblings from the hospital.
-Let Robbie be in charge of breakfast for Bree and do bath time so you can have a break. (We already do that and it is the BEST. Robbie is so wonderful to take care of bathtime and bedtime and it gives me such a wonderful break in the evenings! I love you Robbie!) Do “mommy-daughter and daddy-daughter dates. Getting that alone times becomes really important. Put Bree in charge of as much as possible, like choosing baby’s outfit or bib…
-You won’t have time to do all the things you want to do, but some how you do end up with the time for all the things your need to do. Also, you’ll never go to the bathroom by yourself again. (Ha, that's already a rarity. It is so cute though when Bree pokes her head in and exclaimes, "Good job mommy!" Ever since she has been potty trained we always say, Good job Bree! when she is successful...and now she says it to us when we go. So cute!)

It was such a wonderful shower! I love you girls!

Christmas Highlights

2009-01-12T16:20:00.008-05:00

We had a blast this Christmas! We were able to go to Utah for 9 days; we were in Provo from the 19th until the 22nd and then went to St. George until the 29th. There was tons of snow in Provo and Robbie couldn't have been happier! He couldn't wait to put on all the snow gear and take his daughter out to play...well, as you can tell she wasn't a huge fan :) Maybe next year she'll love it! I think there were a couple days when Robbie cleared the driveway more than once...and he was in heaven! We'll probably eventually end up living somewhere that has snow, for his sake :) Robbie's sister and brother were also going to be with in-laws for Christmas so we had the Harmon family Christmas a few days early. It was so great! We did something neat this year where Mark and Robin (Robbie's parents) sent us all $50 a few weeks before Christmas for all of us to do something for someone less fortunate. Then, before we opened gifts to eachother we went around and shared our experiences. It was really neat for the entire family and I think brought us all closer. And the best part was that besides exchanging gifts with the siblings there were only a couple other gifts given. It was really a more meaningful Christmas because the more memorable part was the time spent together...and not the gifts. Some other highlights were Bree getting to go to the Bean Museum with Grammy and Grandpa while Robbie and I were packing to go to St. George. She would go up to every animal and roar... "Raaaahhhh!" And we finally got to meet our new neice/cousin Gracie. Bree felt so special and wanted to hold her and give her kisses every time she cried. Oh we had a great time in Provo. Thank you Harmons!

Our Christmas in St. George wasn't necessarily white, but it sure was wonderful! My brother Taylor came home from serving a mission in Russia and it was so great seeing him! I was pregnant with Bree when he left so it was so fun having Bree get to know and love him. (First thing he said when he saw me was, "Haven't changed a bit sis!") It was fun having the real Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and both were filled with fun! Some highlights:

The Penny Game (this is a Christmas Eve tradition in our family...so fun and hilarious. It goes like this: My parents have several wrapped gifts on the table in front of us. Everyone is given 50 pennies. The first person chooses a gift (but is not allowed to touch it, shake it, move it) and the bidding begins. The highest bidder wins the gift and opens it. Now the fun part is that only two or three of the gifts are actually something good, the rest are all gag gifts from the dollar store. Robbie is notorious for winning the best gifts and this year he won an IPOD for 26 pennies! I on the other hand won a basket, candy, and some plastic fighting gear from the dollar store. It's always so fun to see eachother spend tons of pennies on the funniest things, and then others win gift certificates and ipods!);

We borrowed "Rock Band" from our neighbors (thank you Copes) and had a blast. Robbie was the best on the drums; Bear Paw breakfast...my favorite place! (So yummy!);

Skiing at Brianhead (of course I wasn't part of that, but the guys had fun!);

Bree deciding that she wasn't going to sleep until 3:00 AM (how random? It was the weirdest thing cause she's always a good sleeper. We tried everything, letting her sleep with us (and we NEVER do that), taking her to the bathroom, just letting her hollar. Finally we just shut the door with her in her bed and went and slept on the couch so we couldn't hear her. Something to remember I guess...or not);

Grandma's New Playroom!! This was the highlight for Bree. My mom and sisters painted and finished a little loft upstairs off of my sister's room and made it into the cutest little playroom! Bree was in heaven! (I'm sad I didn't take any pictures!) All she wanted was to "go upstairs" and play. Thank you Grandma!

Just being together was of course the best part of all. (Even though we are missing my brother Kurt who is on a mission in Finland) Families are the best!

It was the perfect amount of time away and then we were ready to come back home to NC. Robbie and I decided to save our gifts until we came home and we celebrated just the two of us on New Year's Eve. It was perfect. Our own little Christmas. I have the most wonderful husband who treats me like a queen. And I surely don't deserve it! Life with him just gets better and better every day!

2008 has been great...and we're excited for 2009!

Pre-Christmas Fun~

2009-01-03T20:16:00.006-05:00

We love December! There are so many fun things to do...
like getting a Christmas tree... (ours wasn't this big, but we found a perfect little one for our apartment!)
Going to a Christmas parade... (this was Bree's first parade and she LOVED it! She especially loved the candy :) and the marching bands! I thought I would take a picture by the fire truck because I realized that we're probably the only ones who have blue firetrucks! Go UNC!) Decorating the Christmas tree...
Having a fun date/celebration for Robbie finishing his finals... (He took a picture of our meal because he was impressed with my coconut shrimp...so easy and healthy cause it's baked, not fried! Yummy with a little mango salsa and side of canteloupe!) And of course all of the Christmas preparations, caroling, and getting ready to go see family was all so fun too! We can't wait to go to Utah!!

Our First Harmon Family Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T14:22:00.010-05:00

Yup that's right, this year it was just our little family for Thanksgiving...and it was wonderful! Of course I couldn't listen to certain Christmas music while I was cooking because it was making me homesick, but besides that we were so happy to be just our little family! The day started watching Robbie in the ward Turkey Bowl. He was awesome! He either scored or threw at least seven touch-downs! That's my man :) Bree made a new friend named Ty - I love watching her play with children who are a little older than she is (if they are a good influence of course) because she tries to do everything they do! Ty would run down the hill and say "Weeeeeee" and Bree would be right behind him with her little "Weeeeee"...Ty would pick up sticks and throw them in the little pond and Bree would do the same...they had a blast. The weather was perfect and it was great fun for all of us!

Then we came home for a light lunch, nap for Bree and cooking for me! (Robbie wanted to help, but I wanted him to enjoy the meal...and then he could do some work stuff.) The only unfortunate part was that the fire alarm went off in our building only 1/2 hour into Bree's nap! Fortunately my pumpkin pie was only half way done and didn't burn while we were outside waiting for the fire truck. Then Robbie had set up for us to go help out at a rest home. We thought it would brighten the resident's day to see sweet Bree...and boy did it ever! We helped set up chairs and then visited with them while they had a little concert. Bree was the star of the show! The chairs were set up in a circle and so Bree had the whole dance floor to herself! The sweet ladies clapped along while Bree just danced and danced. So cute!

Then we decided to take Bree to her first movie. We thought it would be fun to see Madagascar 2, and it was a really fun movie, but Bree just isn't that into movies and didn't want to sit for long. And it didn't help that she had wet her pants right before and I hadn't brought extra pants (hey I was trying to be optimisic cause she'd been doing so great!), so when she was sitting we wanted her to have a blanket on. (It was funny, she wet her pants right as Robbie was setting up the camera to take a little family picture. He quickly put her on his lap and we took a picture and then he felt the wetness... oh the joys of potty-training!)

After that we came home, finished up the meal preparations and sat down for a delicious candle lit Thanksgiving meal of mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberries, stuffing, homemade rolls (my best yet!), jello salad, and green beans. It was so perfect because it had just gotten dark and just felt so cosy. Bree was pretty tired because it was getting late, so we put Bree to bed and then got to enjoy our pumpkin pie just the two of us. It was such a fun day! Though being with all of our family would have been the best, this will be a fun Thanksgiving to remember! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-22T15:11:00.007-05:00

First I just have to say, We are so blessed!! I love this time of year and all of the things I am reminded to be so grateful for. The leaves are almost gone, the weather has turned cold, and Christmas music is filling our house! Bree asks me several times a day, "Fly airplane? Go Utah? See Mama Papa?" While I wish I could tell her, "Yes, today is the day!" it is exciting that we will get to 'fly in an airplane to Utah to see grandmas and grandpas' and the family we love in only one month!!

But before I get carried away with plans for the holidays, I'll catch you up on the fun things we've been up to this month!

HALLOWEEN!!

Boy did Bree LOVE Halloween this year. She was the cutest little ladybug you ever saw! (Robbie was probably the ugliest cowboy and I was the scariest pregnant lady :) Bree loved "daddy's silly teeth!) We had a ward trunk-or-treat the weekend before and though Robbie only took her around to ten or fifteen cars, she thought the candy in her bag was the best thing ever! Now she wants to go trick-or-treating every day! The only thing I didn't expect was her fear of people in masks. The week before we were playing at the playgroud and a little boy was dressed up like Batman...she ran to me so fast and didn't want to play anywhere near where he was. Then at the ward party there was a guy dressed up like Chewbaka (from Starwars)...you would have thought he was the scariest thing ever! She ran over crying and was so scared! She clung to me and wouldn't let me or Robbie put her down until she was outside and couldn't see him. The rest of the night we talked about how Chewbaka was just a nice bear. So a couple days later we called our friend and asked if he still had the costume and if he wouldn't mind if we came over to visit. We practiced how Bree was going to say hi to the nice bear and she was excited to go see him...well as you can see she still wasn't thrilled. But the funny thing is they only live a few buildings down from us and every day (no joke) when we pass his building she says, "Chewbaka's house!" She still talks about him!

NASHVILLE!

Then the weekend of actual Halloween we took a trip to Nashville, TN. Robbie had a conference there and so we decided to make a family trip out of it! The drive, though 8 hours long, was just gorgeous!! We drove through Ashville, NC and the hills of TN at just the perfect time to see all the leaves in their Fall glory. Oh it was beautiful! While Robbie was in his conference during the day Bree and I ventured out to the Nashville Zoo. Such a blast! The highlight for Bree was the playground...she LOVES to play at any kind of playground and can climb most anything the big kids can. But this wasn't your ordinary playground (where mom can just sit and watch), this was like the mammoth of all playgrounds! So while Bree was weaving in and out of the routes and tunnels and caves up to the slides, I had to be right behind her! Otherwise there were so many other children and the jungle gym was so huge that there wouldn't have been no way to keep my eye on her! And as you can guess, with a belly getting as large as mine that didn't last too long :) So we stayed with the swings and the bouncy house, which was great! We also saw the beautiful Opry Hotel, went out to a fun dinner, checked out the Farmer's Market (my favorite thing!) and a ran around at a huge park. Short trip, but lots of fun!

POTTY-TRAINING!!

Disclaimer: If you are eating food at this moment or are prone to getting sick when you read about human waste prehaps you shouldn't read this :) Well, I held off on writing about this until I could write positive comments :) The past couple of months I was really feeling like Bree was ready to potty-train. And though she's not two until January I decided I could help us save money by not having two children in diapers, she was showing signs of being ready and able, and I thought that it would be better to do it now, a couple months before the baby comes, when I still have the energy and to give her time to get used to it before the big change of having a baby brother comes. So, I did my research, chose a method (Potty-Training in Less Than A Day), cleared my schedule for the "big day" (November 6th), and we set off. Well, the first part of the method is you have the child teach a doll how to go potty in the toilet. This was great. She loves dolls and was SO excited about teaching the doll, giving her rewards, etc... I was thinking, "Awesome! This is easy!" Then came the first accident. I had been giving her lots to drink in order to make lots of opportunities for her to go, and fully expected a couple accidents to start. No big deal. We talked about where we go potty (she had gone in the toilet before and knew what it was like), did all the things I had read about, etc... Well, I didn't expect the next EIGHT accidents! After the last one I was a wreck. I just broke down bawling. I put a diaper on Bree and called my mom. Maybe Bree wasn't really ready? Was ALL of my carpet going to be potty-stained? Why couldn't children come already potty-trained??!! My perfect plans had been ruined.

Well, I did a little more research, called a few friends and after a much needed nap (for both me and Bree) we took a different approach. I decided that I just needed to figure out what worked for Bree...not just do some "method", but tailor to her needs and personality. I started just taking her to the toilet about 15 minutes after she had something to drink. We took books and read and sang songs, and I would have her sit there until she went potty. Sometimes it was immediate and sometimes it was like 20 minutes. But that afternoon she went in the toilet three times (even poop) and didn't have any accidents! We even left the house and went out to the play-ground for a little bit! I was so happy. It's now been a little over two weeks and I'm not going to say she hasn't had an accident since or that it's all been happy and easy, but she is doing well and I am so proud of her. I still do a lot of the prompting if she's had a meal or something to drink, or any time we are about to leave the house or right when we get back from somewhere. She sometimes tells me she needs to go, but often resists ...this is how it's been this week: Me: "Let's go in and go potty!" Bree: "No Bree go potty." Me: "Ya let's just try. Would you like to use the big toilet or the little toilet?" "Big toilet!" and she almost always goes. She is getting better at telling me when she has to go, but if she's playing with friends or toys she simply doesn't want to take the time (I have learned that she knows, she just decides she doesn't want to... the little stinker!). I am learning so much patience and after a week and a half of letting accidents ruin my day (seriously I would get so bummed and think, 'she'll never get it!' and go read Elder Uchtdorf's talk on Hope!) I decided that I needed to focus on her successes and not her failures! If I get down every time she messes up then it only makes my life harder! She just puts on clean pantys and goes on with her day! :) I have been trying to just take joy in helping her learn and make her feel successful for doing so well. If Heavenly Father threw up his hands and thought, "Oh she'll never get it" every time I messed up he would be very, very depressed!! I am grateful that I get to learn these lessons when my child is young so that when she really does mess up when she's 12 or 16 or 25, I will know that it's not the end of the world. There will have been so many sucesses in her life that we can just learn and move on from the mess ups.

I love being a mom! Thank heavens there is always a light at the end of every trial... Oh I have so much to learn!

Fall Break

2008-10-21T14:37:00.010-04:00

Last week was HEAVEN!! Robbie was off of school for the entire week!! It was wonderful having him around so much. Bree has always loved her daddy, but after a week of having dad around now she just wants to be right by his side!! It's so cute to watch! We started off the week with some canning...apples and tomatoes were so cheap at the Farmers' Market, and since I am working on building up our food storage, that I decided to make an attempt. Bree was such a good helper! Thanks to having dad around I was able to make quarts of apple-sauce, tomatoes, de-hydrated apples, fruit leather, and even some apple-butter. The applesause is SO yummy, and I didn't even add any sugar! I haven't tried the tomatoes yet...so I'm crossing my fingers that they taste ok! (I put all the tomatoes in the front row above our cabinets cause they match my kitchen!) While I was canning, daddy had the idea to make a fort. It's Bree's new favorite thing! She loves to read books in there. And Bree has always been a good helper with the laundry, but this week she found something else fun while I was putting away clothes :) But probably most fun was that we were able to go camping!! The weather was beautiful, even warm enough to play at the playground and swim too! Bree has recently become a little monkey and likes to swing on anything and everything! She hasn't slipped yet! After some fun in the water we made our camp and Robbie made some delicious tin-foil dinners, followed by S'mores of course! We all snuggled in our little tent and watched The Jungle Book on Robbie's laptop before falling asleep to the sound of a light rain. Bree actually did quite well, except for the hour she was sleeping on Robbie's legs and he couldn't turn over :) When we woke up in the morning the weather had turned chilly but it was perfect! We had some yummy oatmeal, cleaned up camp and headed home. On Saturday I had to be gone for most of the afternoon, and when I came back Robbie had made dinner AND bought me flowers! He called it our Fall Break celebration. I was so sad our week with Robbie was over, but it was a wonderful week filled with fun memories!

Fall is coming!!

2008-09-22T21:59:00.009-04:00

So I am getting quite anxious for Fall to come...it's been so nice these past couple of weeks with tons of rain and cooler weather. I love it! We love being outside any chance we get. One nice thing about being outside though, is that Bree can't get into stuff! She loves mommy's lip-stick... And has recently began wanting to wear mommy's earings... She even got into my knitting yarn (darn it Mom, Liz, and Sarah...I guess I can't finish that scarf!) After a good rain we get a huge puddle right next to our building. It's so fun!!

Bree LOVES splashing!

But probably Bree's favorite thing is her new little toilet. She would sit on it all day if I would let her. Of course only once has something come out (and she was completely surprised!), but it's been fun for her to get excited about potty training...which we'll attempt next month. Oh and we can't forget her other favorite thing to do, especially first thing in the morning, "rocky rocky"! Oh life is SO FUN with Bree!

Back in North Carolina

2008-08-30T20:26:00.014-04:00

It's good to back in good ol' NC! Though we are sad that Robbie is busy back in school, Bree and I have been able to spend a lot of quality bonding time :) We have been doing A LOT of dancing :) Bree loves turning, sliding, skipping, jumping...but her most recent love is falling! Yes, falling. She'll fall, then want "mommy fall?" or "daddy fall?".It works out nice when I'm not feeling very well cause she'll just jump off of me while I'm laying down :) It's fun to see what entertains her. But though she loves dancing we're glad to see she also LOVES kicking the soccer ball! She has also been singing along lately. Her newest song we call the "Applesauce Song".She made it up herself :) Bree also has found a new love for stuffed animals! Not just any stuffed animals, but a new
"moose" from Oma Phyllis and Opa Rollie. (Ok, so after I told her it was a moose I realized it is actually a reindeer...but she was doing the cutest moose noise so I decided to let it be a moose :) This is the first stuffed animal she has liked, and now she takes it with her often!
It has been raining a ton since we've been back...and here it doesn't just rain, it down pours like you've never seen! But that hasn't kept us in the house!
Also since we've been back I have been trying to trade babysitting with moms who have young children so that Bree will get used to having a baby around. It's been so fun because Bree is SO SWEET with every baby we have had here! She loves to feed them cheerios, crawl around on the ground, and loves to make the same noises. It's made me a little less nervous about having number two! Except for that she tries to pick them up...

Thank you Northwest Airlines!!

2008-08-17T20:34:00.005-04:00

I had to share one of the neatest things that has happened to me. This past week Bree and I flew back to North Carolina. Robbie drove back (poor thing) our car and some belongings two weeks earlier to get back for school...I don't know what in the world we were thinking having me stay an extra TWO weeks, but we are NEVER doing that again. It was way too long. Bree started thinking she could only see daddy on the computer! We left for SLC around 9:30 AM, then flew the first leg to Detroit. Though Bree didn't sleep a wink until the plane landed in Detriot (literally as we hit the run-way her eyes shut!), she was very good thanks to the games and books Grandma Robin sent us with! (Seriously Robin you were a LIFE-SAVER!!) We had a four hour lay-over in Detriot which was long, but they had play places and moving side-walks so I knew Bree would be entertained. Well, after an hour we found a neat water fountain and Bree got so excited. It was fun to look at until Bree thought she was at a water park and got her shirt completely soaked! Since I forgot to bring an extra outfit I thought it best we leave the water park. I went to check where our gate was but found it wasn't posted yet, being still three hours away from departure time. Bree was getting a bit cranky at this point because of not having a nap so I went to an information desk just to find our gate so that we could be in the correct terminal while we were waiting. I inquired and the man asked for my ticket. He looked at his computer and as he sighed he said, "Looks like your flight is going to be delayed." Yup, I lost it. I just started bawling. We already weren't going to be home until 11 PM and now it was going to be later! A longer wait in the airport and a longer wait to see my husband!! I tried to turn away so he wouldn't see the tears but he said, "I see you have a middle seat, let me move you to the window." I muttered a small thank you, just trying to stop crying. As he handed me my new boarding pass he said, "And here are three $5 meal vouchers for your wait. I have traveled with our three year old. I know what it's like." Honestly I had never had an airport meal voucher and thought, Thanks, but what am I going to want to eat on the plane at midnight?! Still I said thank you and was grateful for his kindness. As I walked away I just couldn't stop crying, thinking of being away from Robbie for that much longer and having to entertain a tired child in the airport for FOUR MORE hours!
Well, we found some empty aisles off to the side and I gave Bree some candy, told her to run to the window and I called Robbie. He of course was totally positive and told me that the time would go by quickly :) and then I mentioned the meal vouchers and he said, "How neat!" I replied my same ungrateful thought from earlier and he told me that actually the vouchers could be used anywhere in the airport! Wow! That lifted my spirits and Bree and I went to find something good to eat. Then, while on our way, Bree fell asleep in the stroller! I had some time to relax, enjoy some food, and even watch the news on the airport screens (that's when I wished I had a book, but I learned that when traveling with a child books only take up space cause I never get to read!). Bree didn't sleep long, but the rest of the time went quickly and soon we were getting on the plane. I looked at my seat number and it said 1D. I walked down the aisle and realized that the numbers started at 5A? So I walked to the back of the plane thinking perhaps the numbers started over, but when they didn't I asked the flight attendent and she said, "Oh that's first class." WHAT? That sweet man at the information desk not only gave me some food vouchers but moved me to first class!! I couldn't believe it. I wanted so badly to run and thank him but there was no way. The front row had so much room that Bree could stand in front of me and play...she didn't sleep again (and it was 11 PM!), but it was ok because she was so good! The sweet man next to us was a grandpa and he and Bree "talked on the phone" during much of the flight :) He with his phone to his ear and her with her play phone. It was so cute! Needless to say I am more then grateful for that dear man at the information desk and have prayed for him many times. Someday I hope that I can pay that kindness forward, because boy did it save me that day!

It's a...

2008-08-17T20:27:00.003-04:00

...BOY!! Don't be offended that I haven't even posted that we were pregnant, just be happy that I am posting at all :) Yes we found out a week ago that a sweet little boy will be joining our family next!! We are due the end of January and couldn't be more excited. This picture is from the 12 week ultrasound. SO NEAT that they can do 3-D pictures now! My sister Sarah and my brother Michael (and Robbie of course) came with me to this appointment. It was so fun having family with me. We just returned to North Carolina this week and found out that many of my friends are also pregnant! Though we lOVED being with family for the summer, we are so happy to be back in Chapel Hill with our own little Harmon family again.

It's about time!!

2008-07-08T14:17:00.010-04:00

Ok, ok, I have no excuses for not writing for a couple of months. However, being here in Utah with family has made it harder to spend time on the computer, AND the #1 reason I do a blog is for family to know what we're up to. So for the family who we aren't with and who we don't really see even though we're in Utah, I'm sorry!!

The summer has been a BLAST so far! We have loved having everyone be around Bree so much more then if we were still in North Carolina. Bree has been up to visit mama and papa Harmon at least five times, which is a blast every time :) Bree especially loves her golf clubs and can really hit the ball! And she loves bring around the horses! We can't wait until Aunt Brookie has her baby so we can have a cousin when we're in town!

One of our new favorite things about St. George is that they have these new splash pad things at the parks! Bree loves cooling off when it's so hot outside!

One of Bree's new favorite songs is, I love to see the temple (which she calls "pemple"), so we try and take her to visit since there is a temple so close here. (She definitely likes the outside better then the inside of the Visitor's Center!

And one of Bree's new favorite places is Lake Powell! We spent a whole four days out there a couple weeks ago with my family. And oh what a blast! The weather was perfect and Bree just loved the water. Bree loved riding on the boat any time and was such a good sport. She wasn't the biggest fan of tubing, (beacuse water would get into her eyes) but she rode on the jet ski like a champ! Something funny we did was my brother Mike had just returned from a study abroad in Israel and he brought some mud from the Dead Sea (is that legal?). The mud there is very mineral rich so of course we all lathered up! It was so funny.

The best part though was spending FOUR straight days with Robbie! No work, no school, nothing to do but be with us! It was the best! We LOVE summer!!

Fun week at the Harmons...

2008-04-13T20:38:00.004-04:00

So I finally got excited about sewing something and got out the sewing machine I got for Christmas. Bree loved playing with the packaging, while I made a few little dresses! I love my sewing machine! The dresses were quite easy, and there's nothing like sewing to make you feel ultra domestic (even if you're not :)

Here is a picture of Bree eating some vegetables...I am so grateful she loves vegetables! It's hard not to take pictures of her when she is so dang cute!!
Then Robbie and I got to do two super fun things this week. First on Wednesday we went to see STOMP. UNC has so many great groups who come and do shows and student tickets are only $10! So we take advantage. They were so amazing! What a great show.
But then on Friday night as a combined Birthday gift from Robbie's parents we went down to Charlotte and saw WICKED!! Holy cow it was awesome! We LOVED it and highly recommend it to any of you who have wanted to see it! Good music, great voices and acting, and such a neat storyline. Thank you Mark and Robin!

Spring Break Trip #2!

2008-04-05T20:49:00.005-04:00

What a wonderful trip! My parents and sisters Lizzy and Sarah came out to NC for the latter half of Spring Break. What a blast! We were able to spend three days in Southern Pines on the beautiful National Golf Course. Though the golfing was great, we made some delicious meals, and Bree could see ducks every day, the best part was just being together! The only thing that could have made it better was if my three brothers could have been there too! Bree of course loved Grandma Carrie. But the best thing was that Bree LOVED grandpa! (You have to know that when we went home for Christmas break, whenever she saw Grandpa Henderson she just screamed...and it lasted for two days! He was devastated!) So Grandpa couldn't have been happier. That's probably the only hard thing about living so far away...Bree doesn't get to know her grandparents or aunts and uncles. We can't wait to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Harmon so that Bree can know them too!

Oh it was just gorgous weather too. You should have seen Robbie golfing! He was awesome! There were so many great pictures though you have to go to our picasa site to see them: http://picasaweb.google.com/robbieharmon

Such a wonderful trip!

Spring Break Trip #1!!

2008-04-05T20:22:00.007-04:00

We love Washington DC!! Robbie's brother Tanner is doing an internship up there for the semester and so we decided to do a short trip up to visit him. Tanner hadn't seem Bree since Christmas (and she wasn't walking then) so he just couldn't wait to "hold hands with Bree while she walks". It really was so cute :)

Since Robbie and I both lived in DC at one point in our lives, and have even visited there since, we only went to one museum. Bree thought she could just walk around by herself, she never needs help! She loved pushing the buttons, and looking at the animal pictures with dad. We also went to the Zoo, which was awesome except that it rained the whole time so we didn't get many pictures. We went to see the pandas first and Bree got all excited when she saw it and started shouting "dog dog" while doing the sign. She did the same thing for the gorillas and the wolves. It was hilarious! (At least she didn't for the elephants and the birds!)
One of the best parts of the trip was trying out our new stroller! We just got a BOB jogger (it was a birthday gift from last year) and we LOVE it! We went running in the rain both mornings because it has a great cover for Bree.

And she loved looking at dad throught the little window.

Another fun/funny experience was that a guy in Tanner's ward is a speech writer for the President, so he arranged a West wing tour of the White House for us. Well, that would have been great, except that it was right in the middle of when Bree should have been napping.

You can see how much she enjoyed the tour! It was hilarious (well, actually it was awful at the time, but hilarious now looking back), but she actually threw quite the tantrum and screamed most of the time! I couldn't blame her, but it was a bit embarrassing! We had such a blast with Tanner! WE LOVE DC!!

Bree's Fourteenth Month...

2008-03-28T12:48:00.010-04:00

Bree has learned and experienced a few new things in her fourteenth month... She learned how to take out her hair-do during her nap...

She's learned how to open doors (aaaahhh!!)...and she even got to go to Charlotte, NC to visit Aunt Laura! (Ok, not really her aunt, but my best friend who could be a sister :)

The best part of aunt Laura's house was that she had a dog AND stairs! SO FUN! Laura's boyfriend also had dogs and Bree couldn't wait to play with them at his house in the country. However when she realized that they were bigger then she was, she wasn't quite as excited! But we had such a great time and loved the beautiful South Carolina country side!

Bree was worn out by the time we went home! We love aunt Laura!!

~Highlights from February~

2008-02-21T20:22:00.011-05:00

February has been a blast! Here are just a few of the fun things we did...

Bree had her first official play at the playground without eating rocks or dirt!! It was actually a huge day and I was so excited! So when the weather is warm enough we are definitely there!

Robbie and I went on a fun date to the Morris Planetarium and saw "North Carolina Skies". It was so beautiful and so cool!

We received some fun Valentine's packages from grandmas Robin and Carrie. Bree is wearing her cute Valentine's dress from Grandma Robin...

And as you can see, she loved the styrofoam from Grandma Carrie's package!

We had an awesome Valentine's Day! Robbie made me breakfast AND dinner! This is a picture of his candle-light dinner...twice baked potatoes, roasted chicken, green beans and sparkling grape juice. Home-made! And better then any restaurant we could have gone to. It was the best Valentine's because I have the best Valentine!

And we had a fun visit from Uncle Russell! Ok, so he's not really Bree's Uncle, he's our friend from Provo who came out for an interview for a Masters Program at UNC. But Bree just loved him!

And one more bit of exciting news was that Robbie's team took 2nd place at a case competition in Birmingham, AL! It was a ton of work, but worth the $2,000 they won! (Well actually I think Robbie said it worked out to be about 14 cents an hour :) It was a good experience!

It has been a fun month!!

This is AWESOME!!

2008-02-21T20:03:00.007-05:00

So this is my new favorite cookbook: Deceptively Delicious...I recommend it to everyone! The reason Jessica Seinfeld (yes Jerry Seinfeld's wife)created this cookbook was because she was having a hard time getting her children to eat vegetables. SO, she found ways to include pureed vegetables and fruits into ordinary dishes - even into desserts! I have tried out several dishes so far: hamburgers with carrots in them (Robbie gave it five stars), oatmeal with sweet potatoes in them (may sound weird but it was awesome - and again five stars from my number one critic), and even home-made mac n'cheese with northern beans (and whole wheat pasta of course)! We all know that Americans suffer from many health problems, mostly due to poor nutrition. We need vegetables and fruits! If I had enough money I would buy this book for everyone I know. There is even a recipe for chocolate pudding! (I'm going to try that one soon!) So if you, your husband, or your child has a hard time eating vegetables, or if you just want fun ways to include them in your diet, this book is for you! (Have I sold you on it yet?)

Birthday Fun!!

2008-01-31T20:38:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREE! I can hardly believe we have a daughter who is ONE...what a year of joy it has been! First we started off the fun with a birthday lunch with our friends Liz and Lilly. (Lilly and Bree have the same birthday, but Lilly turned two).

Bree didn't really like wearing the birthday hats, but it was so cute!

Then Robbie came home early from school (WAHOO!!) and we began our family birthday party. We decided to let Bree choose what to do first...and of course she wanted to go "ttt...ttt" As of last week she has partly learned the word "out" which she says at least four times a day as she stands pointing to the door. It is so cute! When the answer is, "no not right now" there are often tears. But when the answer is, "yes let's go out" the smile on her face is priceless!

Then we went "in" and opened some fun presents. Bree loved the books from Grandma and Grandpa Harmon (she goes in her room to her book basket several times a day!), as well as the fun activity book from Grandma Henderson. Though she doesn't understand the other gift from Grandma and Grandpa Henderson, she will be SO grateful someday! (They opened up a savings account for college and mission and will put in money each birthday! WOW!) Then she got some animal cards from me and Robbie...don't laugh, I know animal cards don't sound that cool, but these are the coolest! There are over thirty cards with bright real-life pictures of all sorts of animals. Then on the back it has interesting facts about those animals. I think they will be fun and useful the older Bree gets too!

We finshed off the birthday fun with some yummy banana cake...Bree and Dad loved it! It was a successful first birthday!

Our Sweet Prophet

2008-01-31T20:33:00.000-05:00

Our sweet prophet. Most of you who look at our blog know that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...and proud of it! The president of our church and God's prophet on the earth passed away last week. He was a man of God in every sense of the word and I will be forever grateful for his example and teachings. Though the work of God will move forward with the new President Monson, President Hinckley will hold a special place in my heart. My mom said it beautifully when she said, "He showed us his love by how he lived his life." I just pray that I too can show my love for my God, my Savior and my fellowmen by how I live.

This is a beautiful tribute to his life and his ministry. I am so thankful for this man!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONH655IR1E

Fun (and cheap) Date!

2008-01-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

"So we should go camping for our date this weekend," Robbie says to me last week. Camping? I was a bit confused because first, it's freezing outside, and second, I wasn't so sure how Bree would do. He then explained that we could campout in our front room!

Yes we did have to move the couch into the hallway, but what a blast! Just open the window, microwave some s'mores, and make sure your tent door is facing the TV so you can watch a movie! (We recommend a western like "Silverado")

HAIR!!

2008-01-20T20:52:00.001-05:00

It seems like Bree's hair has grown over night!

Dad's favorite new hair-do is the mowhawk!

Mom, however, prefers the pigails. (I couldn't believe that her hair actually fit...and it's SO cute!)

Christmas Fun!

2008-01-10T20:26:00.000-05:00

We had a BLAST this Christmas break and were blessed to spend FOUR whole weeks in Utah!

Bree was just as excited to see everyone as they were to see her!

She even gave uncle Adam kisses! We started off our vacation in Provo with Robbie's family. One of our first stops was to the restaraunt we have been missing the most...Bajio!!

Bree LOVES black beans...even though they leave a little mexi-goatee!

We have been teaching Bree baby sign language and it was so fun to watch her start using her signs! Her first word and sign happened this trip and was "dog"... She loved the Harmon's dog Libby! Every morning she would wake up and do the sign for dog and say, "dog, dog".

One of Bree's favorite parts of being in Northern Utah was the SNOW!!

It was so beautiful at the Harmon's ranch in Southfork Canyon. We wish we could have spent more time there!

Bree loved eating the snow so much that we brought some in the house for her!

Christmas Eve was interesting because Robbie, his mom and I were all sick! We'll spare you the details, but let's just say it was out one end for some and out the other for others! We're greatful Bree didn't get sick though. And by Christmas morning we were all mostly better.

One of Bree's new favorite toys was a stroller! She did laps around the house every day, only stopping to say hi to the dog, or to climb up and down the stairs!

She also got lots of cute new clothes, including this pretty dress... is she smiling because she's cute or because she's with uncle Tanner?

But as you can see her favorite thing about Christmas morning was the wrapping!

The day after Christmas we headed down to St. George for more Christmas fun!

We started off with a fun fondu dinner, which is a Henderson Christmas Eve tradition. They had waited for us to have Christmas, so we got TWO Christmas days this year!

Bree loved the new wagon she got from Grandma and Grandpa Henderson and pushed it around like her stroller. But she also loved when Uncle Mike pushed HER around in it!

Bree learned some new things in St. George:

...how to do a fish face...

... and how to do "SO BIG!" (Grandpa's favorite!)

And she always has fun with Grandma and aunt Sarah in the bath! And as you can see she now has her top middle teeth!

Unfortunately our trip came to a close much more quickly than we would have liked. But it was a blast! It was such a blessing to have Bree be around everyone. The older I get the more I realize that family really does bring the greatest happiness. You can have all the money, fame or beauty in the world, but if you don't have good family relationships than you'll never be truly happy. Sometimes it takes work, but it's SO worth it! We love our families!! Thanks for such a wonderful trip!

Santa Clause and music fun~

2007-12-04T11:32:00.001-05:00

Bree got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time this past weekend.

However, after a few seconds she'd had enough...maybe she was just mad that she couldn't tell him what she wanted!

But we know that she likes Christmas music! We had a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert on the computer and she LOVED it! She sat there in front of it "leading" the music with her arms like she saw the conductor do, dancing and even singing...it was so cute!

Robbie and I just laughed!

Thanksgiving fun in Ohio!

2007-11-26T07:31:00.000-05:00

This Thanksgiving was a little bit different than past Thanksgivings because we spent it in Ohio! Robbie had a job interview with the Cleveland Clinic so we decided to make a vacation out of it!

Bree wasn't too happy about having to get up at 5:45 AM to start the eight hour drive!
While dad was interviewing Bree and I got bundled up and walked around downtown Cleveland. By the end Bree was plumb tuckered out!
But we spent the next day in Kirtland visiting church history sights!
And the best part of the trip was that my cousin Kristin, Bill and Will, who live in Illinois, met us there! And it was so fun because Elder Losee (who is on the left giving us our tour) is a good family friend! We were happy to see him and his sweet wife!

We found a fun little restaurant called Mapleside Farms for a Thanksgiving meal. It was great! We hardly had room for dessert!

Bree was more interested in banging silverware on the table than eating!

They gave Bree this cute little Pilgrim hat :) Happy Thanksgiving!!