No down time

My Mom-in-law and Grandma-in-law showed up on Friday night to stay the weekend with us. They are on their way down to Florida to be with Michael's brothers fam for Thanksgiving. (You guys are going to have a wonderful time together!!!)

They were not here 10 minutes and Kaden grabbed his great grandmother and pulled her into the family room. He had her sit on the couch and shoved a PlayStation 3 remote control into her hand. "We're going to play soccer now, okay?" It was hilarious. I stopped my help in unloading Mom's awesome new van to take a picture. And of course they didn't come out so well. What is going on with that???

Luke ran right in to help explain the controller to Grandma Short. Bless her heart!We had a great and fast weekend with some good food and movies. We watched Wall E with the kiddos last night, SO much fun! I LOVE that robot!!! Mom and Grandma left this morning and will return to us in mid-Dec to spend Christmas and New Years with us! Have fun and safe travels you two!!!

Tagged Once Again!!

The rules with this tag:

Answer the following questions using just one word and tag seven people.

Where is your cell phone? charging
Where is your significant other? far
Your hair color? blond
Your mother? amazing
Your favorite thing? family!!!
Your dream last night? college
Your dream/goal? wildlife
The room you’re in? Raider
Your hobby? reading
Your fear? illness
Where do you want to be in 6 years? USA
Where were you last night? church
What you’re not? tall
One of your wish-list items? recliner
Where you grew up? everywhere
The last thing you did? slept
What are you wearing? pjs
Your TV? awesome
Your pet? perfect
Your computer? lifesaver
Your mood? joyful
Missing someone? aching!
Your car? suitable
Something you’re not wearing? shoes
Favorite store? Kohl's
Your summer? California :)
Love someone? wholeheartedly
Your favorite color? purple
When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
Last time you cried? Monday
I tag: Jackie, Brittyne, Kelly, Becky, Jeanne, Alisa, and Kellie. Have fun!

The Century Mark

For those of you who aren't counting, today is #100 of my deployment and it's been a good one. We are doing amazing things over here and unfortunately the news only reports the negative aspects of the conflict. Anyway, there is a song by 3 Doors Down called "Here Without You" that Jess and I like. The opening line talks about how he has been away from his girlfriend for 100 days and the rest of the song is about their time apart. Naturally I compared it to our situation with minor exceptions. I tried to put it on the blog but it wouldn't let me. If you don't know the song I recommend you check it out. I want to thank all of you who have prayed for and supported us over here. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope to see you soon. Jess, I love you.

Mike

Castless

It's OFF! Yes! We went into the base hospital this morning to get Luke's cast cut off and some more x-rays. Well everything looks great, the bone has healed and he is all good! Well, physically anyways. The boy started crying before she cut off his cast. He cried afterwards, he cried before and after the x-rays (during them he was really good). He cried in the room waiting for the doctor. Luke kept saying he wants his cast back on. He said his arm felt weird and he thought it had a big bump. That was the bend in his wrist. He won't hold his arm 'normal". Bless his heart, he is honestly quite freaked out about it all. The doc gave him a brace to wear when he is running around but other then that he is supposed to not wear it. Luke wants it on, he is afraid to have it off. I told him he can wear it for most of today and then tomorrow we start taking it off like the doc said to. He agreed, for now anyways, tomorrow is another day...

When we got home I washed and washed his arm. It was stinky and it was dirty! There are a few red sore spots but not too bad. I put lotion on and then he was ready for his pics:

It will be interesting to see how he will handle all of this. The brace is just for physical stuff for the next 3 weeks or so. Then he is done! Luke can play Upward Basketball with no problem!! He was VERY happy about that! Luke was also glad to hear that playing video games is good therapy for his wrist. The doc wants him to play to Playstation! We'll have to fit that in I guess, doctor's orders and all...

Snip Snip

I took the boys in for haircuts yesterday. I don't think Kaden or Gabriel desperately needed one but it is much easier to get them done all at the same time! It was almost without incident. Gabriel wasn't happy with the chair he had to sit in, he had picked out one across the room where no one was working. After some tears he was okay. Not a big fan of haircuts but thankfully the guy was quick and pretty good. When we got home I told all the boys to make silly faces for Daddy and we'll show him their new haircuts. They did and here they are:
See all of Luke's missing teeth?! So funny!
Josie came and laid her head in my lap right as I took Gabe's picture so I snapped one of her too. Sweet, sweet baby.

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Tomorrow morning we go in to take off Luke's cast :) Photos will come!

From the Coaches

Some of the soccer parents and coaches got together to get some team pics of our kiddos. Thought I would share my boys.
Yes, it was cold that day! Poor Kaden had a hard time with the bright sunshine!

He did much better with his individual photo:Upward Basketball starts in January. They are taking the enrollments now. We'll ask Luke's ortho doc on Wednesday if he can play. I'm hoping the answer is yes. We go Wednesday morning to the hospital again. They are going to cut off Luke's cast, x-ray him once again, and then hopefully send us home! Hopefully the cast gets to stay off! We are welcome to any prayers! :)

Soccer Celebration!

Oh my! How many times can I complain about my camera. What the heck am I doing wrong? I just don't get it! Outside photos (with the exception of some on Halloween) are almost always gorgeous but inside pics are hard for me to take, ESPECIALLY those inside my church. I'm frustrated and sorry I have to share such yucky photos! Onto the program...we watched a husband/wife illusionist team. My favorite part was when they made their dog appear on stage! Kaden liked their version of sawing someone in half and Luke liked when they made it snow at the end. Pretty cool. So here are my mostly stinky photos of our fun time:

The boys sat with their teams:

After a welcome from the head of our church recreation program, all the kids' names were called by team and they stood and we clapped.

Kaden's Salukis:

Luke's Tigers:
Gabriel and Josie entertained themselves with books for quite a while: Then Josie got super excited about ALL the clapping. Isn't she just the cutest?! Gabriel was very proud of his Buzz Lightyear jersey and wanted a special picture taken for Daddy. And so here it is:

Yeah, he's pretty darn cute too! One last shot for Dad. The boys received bags for playing with Upward, they are very excited to use them for their clothes on our Thanksgiving trip home to STL. So boys, smile for Daddy! Note Gabe made his same silly face. What a goof! :)

Another sports season down, just about 50-60 to go :)

"LOOK what I can do!"

Oh my sweet Josie. What in the world are you up to???

Josie started that yesterday and now I have to keep the bedroom door shut because all she does is run in there, climb up and JUMP on the bed! I have had enough of that with Luke! No more Harmons jumping on the bed! I am thankful that Josie can't climb on the couches yet. I swear I won't know what to do when she can do that!!!

This was her October trick. It's fun to climb through the island!

Yes there are baby cabinet locks on there, Josie has just figured out how to open them! Michael is in for a different world when he comes home. I keep telling him that Josie will just blow his mind!

So tired. MUST sleep:

Saluki's Season

We had our last soccer game on Saturday. Afterwards we headed to a pizza party with Kaden's team. It was a lot of fun, the boys were thrilled to go! Here are some pics from the last 2 soccer games:

Kaden as the "holder":

Luke cheering on his team:
Josie entertaining herself:
Last game, silly kiddos:
Pizza party. Here are my "Smile for Daddy pictures", they are HILARIOUS!
Both of them in that shot. So silly! "Come on Gabriel, good smile for Daddy!" I pleaded:
Yeah, that's what I got! Luke took a huge bite of his crust and just about lost his front tooth!
It was obviously loose before and it came out soon after this picture! Boy looks like a jack-o-lantern! Pretty funny!

We have our soccer banquet on Thursday night, the kids will get awards and such. Look forward to those pics!

Down for the count

On Wednesday night we had some pretty major thunder/lightning/hail storms. Check out what I saw when I let Flash out for the night:Yeah, okay so it's kinda hard to see in the dark BUT I could see a house when I was supposed to see a fence!

That kinda sucks, huh? It's almost the entire length of my back fence! UGH!! I was hoping my neighbors would come over yesterday (simply so I wouldn't have to drag all my kiddos over there...). They didn't so I stopped by there today. The man I spoke with was very nice and seemed not to know what we should do to handle it. I told him that I know a guy that helped me with another part of my fence and maybe he could help fix this part. I left him my phone number and he said he'll call. In the meantime I will go outside with Flash to make sure she stays on the right side of the open yard! Always something huh?

Halloween Con't

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a pretty incredible week. SO many answered prayers have come to me and my family this week, I am quite overwhelmed, I can hardly seem to catch my breath! Praise God! Praises all around in this house!

Congratulations to President-Elect Obama and VP-Elect Biden. What an historic election! I hope that everyone will join me in praying for their guidance, strength and courage as they lead us for the next 4 years. I feel the hope and am looking forward to the United States going in a beautiful new direction!

Onto more of my babes and their Halloween fun. Now remember my camera was crazy (or possessed that night as Kelly suggested) but I just had to post most of my pictures anyways. Enjoy!

The first shot of everyone, my kids and my friend Michelle and her 2 boys Jacob and Jonah. Gabriel wasn't looking...

Second shot was blurry...grrrr.

Every time I would put up Josie's hood on her costume she would instantly pull it down and give me this smile:

This is about the only shot of my candy corn toddling around, not a good pic but still share worthy.

Boys ready for the fight!
Josie Claire:
Trick-or-treating Happy Harmons:

Halloween Treats

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I am sorry my post took so long, I was terribly sick this weekend. I had a big 'ol nasty fever and wasn't doing much but laying on my couch. Thank goodness my kiddos held it all together while I was down and out! They did a great job, I'm proud of them! And SO thankful!

First let me apologize, my Halloween pics are pretty much terrible! I am so angry. My camera must have been on a weird setting or something. Some turned out fine but others were crazy like this:

What is up with that? Also, I couldn't fix the red eye on most of my pics. I'm so frustrated. GRRRR. Okay, now that my complaining is done. Here we go to our first set of Halloween photos. Getting ready to go. Luke the Red Ranger from Power Rangers: Jungle Fury (Casey, I'm told):Kaden as Black Spiderman, a happy one at that!!!:
Gabriel is my sweet Superman:

And last but not least my sweet Josie. My sweet Josie that did NOT want to wear the 'hood' of her costume. When I dressed her, she automatically took it off her head. I asked her to please leave it on for a picture at least and this is the look I got:
"Please Josie, a good picture for Daddy. Look here. Smile! Josie, Josie." I was calling her. This was her response:
Yep, she fell right over. It was almost a fit I think. She wasn't crying, just didn't want any part of a good picture for Daddy I guess.
Time to go outside and get ready to go trick-or-treating. All 4 Happy Harmons:

I have NO idea what Kaden is doing but you're laughing aren't you? Kid cracks me up :)
More photos coming soon!