We love the PARK!

We love living by so many wonderful parks here in Washington. Sometimes we hang out at a park after school until Madison is done with her activities. Carter likes to turn over rocks or logs to hunt for bugs and Grant likes to check out the discoveries Carter makes. Boys, bark, dirt and various other things end up accompanying us home after a fun trip to the park.

Buddies

Grant hangs out with his friend Sam nearly every Wednesday. They love riding their scooters, staging army attacks, building with Legos, doing video games, and just being silly. It's good to have a buddy.

Fire Station Field Trip

Grant's preschool always does a trip to the fire station to learn about fire safety tactics. Grant said his favorite part was when the fire truck shot water "way up into the air", followed closely by the fireman who was breathing like Darth Vader when he was dressed in all his gear.

My Funny Valentines

Loving Siblings

Watching my children love one another brings me joy. They are my greatest accomplishments. I love being their mom!

Happy Love Day!

I got to go to each of the kids classrooms for their various Valentines day happenings. I tried to make sure that each of them felt loved. I photographed, munched, and laughed my way through the day. The only thing that was missing was a date with my love (which we'll have this weekend). Last year for Valentines day Jeremy and I found out we were expecting; I enjoy thinking about that memory.

3 months ALREADY?

Time is flying and Jamesy James is ever changing. He is starting to grab things, and will put anything you give him in his mouth (which Carter and Grant think is hilarious). He has shunned the pacifier and will have nothing to do with it because he has developed a passion for his right thumb. His expressions and gurgles delight us continually. He is the reason I have fallen behind on many of my chores because I just want to play with him all day long. Although Jeremy and I had a conversation recently that lifted my spirits about not getting as much done at home. He said we've been overly concerned about what gets done around the house and should try to redirect our focus on spending more time with our kids and have them help us out with more of the house stuff. I'm making sure I keep a record of that here for the days when the house looks really thrashed so I can have a reminder of what is truly important.

Halftime at the "Souper Bowl"

I got to teach the activity day girls (8-12 year olds) a dance to perform at our church and it turned out souper douper. Here are some of them hamming it up for the camera.

Hangin' Out With My Homeboys

Jeremy likes to do tricks with our babies. Balancing them on one hand is one of those. I just hold my breath and try to take comfort in the knowledge that he has never dropped any of our children. It makes me happy to see how much Jeremy is loving our Baby Boo.

This is my new do (please disregard the drool on my shoulder that is now my constant companion). I got my hair cut and highlighted this month when I was teaching some choreography in CA. I gotta say- I'm diggin' the new do. It looks good with minimal effort required and I am a time saver.

The boys are helping more and more with James now that he's getting older and less floppy. They adore their little brother so much. Carter kisses James more than I have ever seen him kiss anything in his life. And Grant is pround that he's finally become the BIG brother.

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.