Madison's Room Redo

We celebrated Madison's 11th birthday this month with a plethora of activities. We redecorated her room as her gift this year. The full size furniture set that was my Grandma Watley's has been moved from our guest room into her room. She changed the color of her walls from a pale lavender to "aqua spray" and "brown tee pee"- two walls of each. We shopped at IKEA to get a new duvet cover, sheets, and other room accessories. After we had collected everything and we were actually getting ready to paint she asked "Will it take about an hour to paint?" We had to laugh at that one.

We also ate out at Azteca- her choice- and had them sing to her. She got a fun picture taken of herself wearing a huge sombrero which we accidentally left with our leftovers, so it got thrown away. I was leaning in to be in the picture too, so now Madison and I lamentably refer to it as our "long lost sombrero picture". She also had a slumber party with a few friends. At one point during the month Jeremy was questioning if the birthday festivities were ever going to end. But now they've become part of the tapestry of memories for her and hopefully it will remind her of how much we love her (our little Madison la la, boo boos, chicky, girlie).

Serious James

This is a serious little man. He seems to have his brow furrowed quite often contemplating the world around him. Watching his personality begin to emerge has been enjoyable. He'll hold things we put in his hands now and he's holding up his head steadily now. The days of the bobblehead boy are fading away. It's astounding how quickly babies learn and grow. I marvel at the new things he does on a daily basis. This boy is serious....seriously cute.

Spending time with family

The Harris clan loves to play GAMES. Some of our favorite board/card games are: Blockus, Apples to Apples, Guillotine, Farkle, Quiddler, Scrabble, Scategories, and various card games. We actually have a small room connecting our living room to our garage that we call "the game room" because we've collected so may games in there. My mom's collection of grandchildren is growing as well. It was so much fun getting to visit with my family over the holidays.

NEW YEARS BABIES

Nothing like bringing in the new year with some new little people. James is nearly 3 months old and Keegan is 7 months old. My brother Joe and my sister Hollie are visiting, so James got to meet his newest cousin. We love these boys!

On Christmas Day in the Morning

We had a fun morning- another Christmas has flown by! I hope yours was a memorable one.

Our favorite present for 2008- JAMES

Feelin' Grinchy?

Warning- I'm about to complain. Skip this section if you don't want to read my murmuring. I've been sick for almost a week, we've been overflowed with snow, I'm not done shopping, my Christmas cards are not sent- ERRRRRR! I have been sending out Christmas cards for the last 10 years. To know that I'm not sending them out this year would normally make me feel ill, if I wasn't sick already! Procrastination is a plague.

Celebrating the birth of Christ

It's time to celebrate the birth of Christ. The kids participated in the Nativity pagent at our church- Madison sang with the angel choir, Carter was an innkeeper, Grant was a donkey, and James had the starring role of Baby Jesus. Some moments of interest during the Nativity came when Grant's costume started tearing and he walked over to us (we were in the front row) to ask us to fix it. He proceeded to ask us, in a loud voice, why he had to be a donkey AGAIN this year. We fixed the donkey's costume and sent him back to the animal grouping. That's when we noticed our innkeeper crawling around with the animals, mooing and braying. Baby Jesus continued to sleep during the entire event, soothed by the beautiful choir of angels.

Ooooohhh!

James loves to make this "ooh" expression. It makes us laugh when he does it and I finally captured it on camera. I wanted to post a one month picture of James, but his baby acne was a mess. It's finally clearing up and he's almost two months old. Even though he's only been here a short time it feels like he's been with us forever.

Largey Christmas Letter

My favorite talk of General Conference this past October was given by President Thomas S. Monson called Finding Joy in the Journey and a part I loved was...
"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly. Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know."

I'm smack in the middle of that child-raising time period and I'm trying the best I can to enjoy it while it lasts, although I don't think I'll ever miss the piles of laundry!

My children are growing too fast, as usual. Our newest baby- James Harrison Largey- was born in October. We are all in love with sweet baby James! We had forgotten how much fun it is to have a baby in the house. Grant is no longer our littlest Largey and at 5 years old he thinks he's his own boss. He loves to do gymnastics and we suspect he's part monkey. Grant is the biggest giggler in our family and is currently obsessed with Star Wars. Carter, our 7 year old, tried soccer for the first time this fall and he loved it. Since he runs everywhere he goes naturally, it was an easy transition to run towards a ball during soccer. He's working hard at school and soaks up new information like a sponge. Plus he occasionally leaks out a new thing he's learned spontaneously during the day. Madison is becoming quite the pianist and we're all enjoying the Christmas carols she's been playing this month. She's like a second mom to James and I am enjoying the help she gives me immensely. She will be 11 next month and I'm trying to get her to enjoy her last year of Primary instead of wishing she was already in the young women's program at church.

Jeremy and I are busy with our jobs (Engineer and Mom) and our callings (Young Men's Prez and Miamaid Teacher), but we're trying to find joy in the journey and appreciate each moment as it comes.

Love to you ALL and wishes of merriment this Christmas,
Jeremy, Shauna, Madison, Carter, Grant, and James Largey

Comforting Stuff

I am thankful for the comforts of life. Homemade rolls, good books, loving families, comfy pajamas, cozy beds, a warm home, lots of friends.... The list could go on and on. There are so many good things to love!

Bugging Out

We went to a bug exhibit at Woodlands Elementary this week and Carter told me he'd like to have a pet tarantula someday. And not just any tarantula, but a goliath bird-eating tarantula. Those are the size of a dinner plate. I told Carter he'd have to move to South America and live with a different family to have one of those as a pet...I think he's considering it.