Back to School Celebration

Friday morning all the school gathered to release balloons into the sky, it was a Back to School Celebration.  Josie and I went to watch and cheer with the boys.  When we arrived they were blasting "Viva Las Vegas", and then "Celebration", etc.  So much fun.  I found all the boys took their pics:

Josie was excited to see Luke and get her balloon!

The principal annouced a few guests and then we all said the Pledge of Alligence.  Afterwards, with the flag still high on the roof of the school, the principal released some yellow balloons in honor of our active duty and veterans.  We had 30 seconds to reflect on our brave men and women.  They asked for all military families to raise their hands.  That was pretty cool and it meant a lot to me.

Next it was time to release the balloons:

They looked really cool floating away, we watched them until they were gone and then Josie looks at me and says "Where's my balloonie?  Where's MY balloonie?"  I told her that we let them fly away and she did NOT like that.  This is what happened next:

 Yes, she sobbed and sobbed.  Bless her heart.  I never thought about the fact she'd be upset to lose her balloon.  Oops.  All in all it was a pretty fun morning.  Josie and I were already out and so I decided to run down to Family Christian Bookstore about 15 or so miles away to get some bibles for the boys.  Little did I remember that the school gets out 40 minutes early on Fridays.  Whoops.  I forgot Gabriel.  He gets out at 10:14 on Fridays, 10:55 M-Th.  I received a call at 10:25 saying, we have Gabriel waiting for you.  I was still shopping.  Well, we made it back in good time, picked him up at 10:42.  I felt so bad.  I know I cannot be the only one to ever do this at school but still.  Gabriel didn't mind at all.  "I'm sorry I forgot you."  "That's okay Mom.  That's O. K."

AWANA

Last night was our first AWANA.  Again for those of you who don't know, AWANA stands for Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed (from 1 Timothy), it's a wonderful program centered on memorizing bible verses with story and game time.  This AWANA, while the same program, is run quite different at our Vegas church.  It will take some getting used to but I know all 5 of us are going to enjoy it!  Yep, now have 4 clubbers :)  Josie is a Cubbie, Gabriel and Kaden are Sparks, and Luke is in TNT (Truth and Training).  I am a Sparks leader again, same as the past 3 years in Oklahoma.  I tried to take pictures before we left last night but my camera is acting up, time for a new one I'm afraid!, and then Josie didn't really want to join in the fun.  She was ready to go to church to see her friends.  But here is what I do have (Luke's green shirt has been ordered, just not arrived yet):

I told ya she didn't want her picture taken.  She was in a good mood, just didn't want that photo!  All the kids had a good time last night.  I am SO happy with our church here.  I'll have to do a separate post on that later.  YAY for Canyon Ridge! 

And one more bit of info.  K-man lost his "number 6 tooth" (as he calls it) last night.  He is very happy!  And Gabe has his first loose tooth, the tooth fairy should just set up shop here for a while.  :)

And so it begins again

Today is a big day.  Luke began 3rd grade.  Kaden started 2nd.  My Gabriel is in Kindergarten.  And boy am I thankful!  I have been longing for the start of school.  I seem to think that school is going to fix all our problems.  Luke and Kaden won't fight so much.  I can finally get Josie out of these pull-ups, we are SO close.  I'll start exercising regularly.  We'll get on a tight budget.  I will have "free" time to do all my projects that are cluttering up the house.  Our routine will save my sanity.  I have such high hopes for this year and these hopes were set to start with school.  And that's today.  I'm so thankful.
It's no secret to anyone that I really didn't want to move to Vegas.  We've been here since Memorial Day and I'm still not sure I want to be here.  Something I need to get over, I know it, but it's a struggle for me.  I know that many won't understand but that is simply how it is.  This summer has been a huge emotional rollercoaster.  A rollercoaster I don't wish to ride again.  I have had some amazing times and I have been deep in some valleys.  But that is all behind me now.  You see, school started today.  Everything is going to change, you'll see :)
Onto the photos.  The REAL reason you're here :) 

Day 2 at Epcot

Day 2 at WDW.  After Luke spent all Thursday night throwing up, we decided to delay our start by a little bit Friday morning.  Luke was looking pale but kept saying he was ready to go.  The bus ride made him a little sick to his stomach so poor Luke had to lay on a bench for about 10 minutes when we arrived at the park.  He was a real trooper though and felt better quickly, thank you God for answering our prayers!  By noon he was scarfing down his lunch and ready to go!  We had another great day at Epcot.  We rode a few of our favs--Soarin! for sure is one of the best!  Got to see Nemo and Crush so you know Kaden-man was thrilled :)  We met the fab 5 characters on this day.  It was good times for the Harmons :)
Here are the boys waiting in line for Nemo and Friends:

The boys with Chum:

The boys in Bruce (they LOVE this picture!)  Michael's there too, don't miss him:

The fam with Anchor:

Here's Kaden waiting for Test Track.  He was a little nervous about riding this and ended up LOVING it!  Nice pose, huh?  What a goof!

Here are my boys under the sea, Josie wanted no part of this but I promise she was there :)

Here come the characters.  M-I-C:

I know, my eyes were closed.  Darn it all!  Here's sweet Pluto:

Minnie.  This was a memorable moment.  For the first time Josie wasn't completely freaked out and actaully touched Minnie, blew kisses, and waved goodbye.  It was adorable!:

Donald:

Goofy, or Goopy as Josie calls him:

And here's our parting shot:

We decided to forego the fireworks that night because we wouldn't have gotten back until after 11.  With everyone still recovering we went back for a 'full' night's sleep.  We were sleeping by 10:30.  The next day, my favorite day, my favorite park, my favorite place: Magic Kingdom :)

Disneyworld 2010!

We weren't planning on going to Disneyworld this year.  No really, I mean it.  But then Disney offered the military 4 days for $100 and gave us 40% off hotels.  Still we weren't 100% convinced.  The airfare is killer, espeically now that Josie counts as a person.  We looked kind of half-heartedly and found Frontier Airlines with their non-stop from OKC to ORL $88 each way.  Well, that's not too shabby.  But then there's the kids school, my PTA stuff, and of course all of Michael's TDY's, office inspections, ORIs, OREs, etc., etc.  The stars aligned and we got it done!  We went in February so decided it was a trip for Kaden's happy birthday!  It was a fantastic trip looking back but it started off pretty rough.
The Thursday before we left Gabriel got a little bug.  He threw up during the night and then seemed pretty much fine the next day.  Hhmmmm, anything to worry about?  We were leaving in 6 days.  The weekend went fine but then Josie threw up Monday night.  Our flight was Wednesday.  At this point I was NOT worried about Josie being better, I was worried about Kaden and Luke catching the bug.  All seemed fine.  We flew down on Wed. afternoon, kids SUPER EXCITED and they did a great job.  We got to the hotel about 7 and decided to grab some food to eat in our room.  We walked outside and BAM!!, poor Kaden-man started throwing up in the bushes.  I was up with him all night, once or twice an hour as he forced out his bug.  We, of course, had the whole trip planned but were forced to change things up.  Kaden said he was feeling better and wanted to go to a park.  We decided to bite the bullet and just go.  We chose Animal Kingdom because he had the most shows and least amount of rides.  We arrived at noon and our fun started!!!  (okay, so that's a BIG deal for us, we are usually there BEFORE it opens and stay until they force us out!)  I wish I knew then what I know now...Kaden was fine that day but I spent the entire time stressed that he would start throwing up during the shows and we'd be packed in with all these people not able to get out.  I was pretty freaked but then it was all good.  We ended up having an amazing day :)  Here are the pics from our day at Animal Kingdom!
Our kiddos ready to head to the bus depot to start our day:

Timon was outside the gate ready for pictures, the boys were very excited to get autographs again:

Gabes and K-man waiting for Finding Nemo, The Musical, one of our favs!

Happy Gabriel and Josie Claire:

Smilin' Luke:

Kaden-man showing off his Mardi-Gras beads.  We stayed at Port Orleans and they were handing them out like candy to the kids.  Our babes wore them the entire trip!

My family on the safari:

Josie watching the parade, what a beautiful girl!

The fam with Pumbaa after The Lion King show:

Ta-da!  Here we are with the Mouse himself :)

Stopped for a quick pic with Terk:

Saw Donald as well:

Kaden wore his Happy Birthday button the whole time and EVERYONE made such a fuss over him, it was awesome and he LOVED every minute of it.  We were walking away, ready to go home and Donald grabbed K for another squeeze.  I love this picture!

We headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep and to rest up for the next day at EPCOT.  And then Mr. Bug came back.  At 10:30 Luke started throwing up and didn't stop until 5 am.  I was heartbroken and was questioning why this had to happen on our vacation to the Happiest Place on Earth.  I prayed and stayed positive.  (Sneak peak to the next post, Luke bounced back quickly---just as everyone else did and we had a GREAT day at Epcot.  :)