Always On the Move

Cox Farms fieldtrip

2011-10-10T23:47:00.002-04:00

Josie had her first ever fieldtrip last week. We went to the pumpkin patch at Cox Farms. They have quite the setup there. See:

And it just so happened it was on a Wednesday, the day Michael has off of school, so Daddy joined us! That made Josie very happy. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time together. First we took a class hay ride and then we were free to explore the area on our own. While all the kiddos ran to do the slides, Josie wanted to see all the animals. ALL the animals. :) But there were slides too, don't worry.

Family pic on the hay ride.

Josie was loving this sweet cow, Lily Mae.

Sweet little piggy. 8 days old!

In the hay maze.

Woo Hoo!

Fun for Dad too!

My Pumpkin!

Four year old in the flowers.

Visiting a Battlefield

2011-09-15T10:49:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we decided to take a day trip to visit the site of the Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run to you rebs out there ;). Michael and I tried to explain it to the kids but it was difficult to do. They know who President Lincoln is because of school history and the penny. We told them how the South felt they were being treated unfairly and they didn't want to be a part of the United States anymore. We explained that President Lincoln told them no and then they started fighting. I know there's much more then that. My poor brother is probably cringing at my explanation.
It's hard for me to bring my kids to places like this. I appreciate it from a historical point of view and I know it's terribly important to remember the past and to honor those that lost their lives. But that's just it, so many, many people died there. I can't shake that feeling when I'm visiting. It makes me sad. It's hard for me to understand. All I could think about while we were there was the confusion, the inexperience, and the fear of all those soldiers. This was the first battle. Union soldiers enlisted for just 90 days, everyone thought the war would be over as soon as it started. No one really knew what they were doing. I cannot imagine how LOUD it must have been with all the cannon and gunfire for those 10 hours. From a distance the land looks a little hilly but it seems you can see forever, but believe me, once you are walking around in those hills, you can't see ANYTHING! Any number of soldiers could be all around you and you wouldn't have a clue. I was pretty overwhelmed walking on those trails. Here are my pictures. It was a beautiful day.

What has this tree seen?

Family shot.

Looks flat---you wouldn't believe how hard it is to see!

The house survived but it's owner did not, she's buried next to it.

View of the battlefield.

Another view.

Memorial for the two battles here.

Stonewall Jackson.

Josie goes to school

2011-09-13T13:52:00.000-04:00

That sweet face says it all, doesn't it?! Josie is so happy that HER school has finally started. She is going to a Methodist school a mile down the road. Josie's teachers seem fantastic and all the kiddos are very friendly! I feel very blessed we found this school and they had a spot for Josie. (I found them online and applied back in March.)

Check out the new backpack and kicks for school. She's very proud:

TWINKLE TOES!!!

She found her name on the wall, spells it out: J---O---S---I---E! She learned that from her Aunt LeeAnn this summer.

All ready for class! When the teachers opened the door to the classroom, she was gone. No hug, no kiss, no goodbye, Josie just ran right in. Of course her Mom followed her to give that all important first-day-kiss! Today was another great day. Here's to many, many more!

Cats and Dogs

2011-09-08T09:24:00.001-04:00

Yuck! It's raining, again. In fact, it never really stopped. Started on Monday night, just in time to ring in the new school year, and it's still going. I miss my Vegas sunshine. I didn't take it for granted when I lived there and I do miss it so. The Weather channel says rain until at least Monday. Yuck. It's coming down in buckets:

On a brighter and happier note, Josie went in for her "Hello Day" yesterday at her preschool! She was SO excited.

We met her teachers and she played with almost everything in her classroom. Josie didn't really want to leave. Monday cannot come soon enough for our girl.

It Begins, Again!

2011-09-06T11:52:00.000-04:00

The title is two-fold, I promised my Mom that I would become a regular blogger once again AND more importantly SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION!!!

Deja vu. A new state, a new school, a new start. Luke's in 4th, Kaden in 3rd, and my Gabe's in 1st! Can't believe it! Last night I said a special prayer over each of the boys individually, what a precious time for me. A new year is always so exciting. My children love school which of course makes all the difference! I didn't have to wake them up this morning. Gabriel was dressed, shoes and backpack on, less then 5 minutes after he got out of bed! Not exaggerating.
I will eventually fill you in on our new (rented) house, it's beautiful and I seriously cannot believe we live here! It's on a gorgeous little cul-de-sac that is overrun, in the BEST sense, with kiddos. There were 11 of them waiting for the bus. We parents were debating whether the driver would actually stop or not ;)
One more photo to show off their self-picked first day clothes:

PS--in case you were wondering, Josie will start preschool next week. She is beyond excited! (I will be childless for hours everyday---you can bet there will be more on that later!!!!)

Back to School Celebration

2010-09-13T12:08:00.000-04:00

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

2010-09-02T14:40:00.000-04:00

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

2010-08-30T15:04:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-03-07T11:42:00.000-05:00

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. :)

Happy 7th Kaden-man!!!

2010-02-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

Wow! Just got over the shock of having my baby boy turn 5 and now my Kaden is 7!!!! SEVEN years old. Unreal. Happy Birthday sweetheart!

We were living here in Oklahoma when Kaden was born. 1st and 3rd child in Florida, 2nd and 4th, my evens, were here in OKC. Kaden was my most popular birth. I was joined in delivery room by Michael, my Momma, my sis-in-law Belva Jean, and one of my best friends Kelly. I won't soon forget any of my children's births but Kaden's left quite an impression. I was induced 2 weeks early because I had trouble with my leg, deep vein thrombosis, and the docs wanted to make sure I didn't throw a blood clot because it would go to baby first. Plus I was HUGE and they knew Kaden was a good size already. Showed up at the office and Kaden had no desire to be born that day, he was happy staying put. I was just mildly contracting even with pitocin. When I finally started feeling the contractions, they hurt and I was ready for an epidural. Really ready but the policy there was no epidural until 6 centimeters. Are you kidding me?! I was extreme pain and not getting to 6. Just when I was thinking I couldn't do that extreme pain anymore (I actually screamed out to my Mom to "make it stop please!") I reached 6!! Yay! The nurse left the room to get the anesthesiologist, who was next door by-the-way. WHAM! Next contraction hit and I screamed "I HAVE TO PUSH!!!!" And my sis-in-law jumps up and screams back "NO YOU DON'T!" I yelled again and Michael headed to the door to get the nurse right as she walked in. I'm screaming and she calmly walks over to check me. Yep, I was right. Time to push. 6 to 10 in one contraction. Thankfully the doc was close and he came in and barely had enough time to sit down. On the 2nd push out comes beautiful 8 lbs, 6 oz Kaden-man!!! Never have I felt that kind of pain, never will I forget it, and never was pain ever worth so much. I LOVE YOU my sweet K. Mom and Dad love you so!

Beautiful Boy:

Hospital photo:

1st birthday:

2 years old:

Kaden's 3rd:

4 already?!:

5th b-day:

He's 6:

And here's K-man yesterday:

Kaden's birthday/Superbowl Party today at Uncle James and Aunt Belva's house. Come and join us!

A couple of pics

2010-02-01T11:36:00.000-05:00

Day 5 of the inside. We've been iced in since Thursday. I haven't been out of the house since 11 am on Wednesday! (Okay, I did walk to the mailbox this morning but other then that houseBOUND!) The kids are doing great and I'm thankful. We had a visit from Uncle James, Aunt Belva, Logan, and Aurora on Saturday so that helped out a lot! Today I promised myself I'd be productive since I have been sick through this ice-in and haven't done too much. Here's hoping I do get some stuff done! This impending move has already got me a little freaked!!!
For now though, the pics. Here's the fam all watching Peter Pan together. Daddy's favorite, he was in heaven!

Last Wednesday was the 100th Day of School. All the kiddos were pretty excited about that. Kaden was supposed to bring in a collection of 100 things. We decided to bring in a puzzle. We built it together and then glued it to cardboard separated so you could see the 100 pieces. Kaden was very proud, as he should have been, he worked hard!

(it's a Toy Story puzzle, just in case you were wondering!)

When it snows, it pours!

2010-01-29T18:54:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of our 4 day weekend. Day 2 of closed schools and closed base. (Day 4 of my yucky cold but I'm 100% better then yesterday even!) We let the kiddos go out and play in the snow for a while today. They had so much fun but were pretty darn chilly when they came inside. I video-ed them playing and that's when Josie was outside. She didn't stay too long and didn't make it to the still camera pictures. She opted to come in and watch Peter Pan (her Daddy's girl!). Enjoy the photos:
Winter wonderland out the front door:

Michael vs. the driveway:

Our boys: (Luke with a school yard stare apparantly)

Kaden's the angel above :)

SD of the Year

2010-01-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

Michael was awarded SD of the Year yesterday for his squadron. (SD is for Senior Director, Michael's job on the AWACS) I cannot tell you how proud I am of him.
Now on a completely selfish note---this award means a lot to me as well. I easily get upset about how much Michael is gone or how he seems to always be the go-to-guy. I get jealous of the time he spends at work and on TDYs. I feel like the kids and I sacrifice our husband/father so he can be away. When Michael gets recognized this way at least I know he is appreciated at work for everything he does. At least I know someone understands how hard he works, how seriously he takes his job and how good he is at it! That makes it a little easier when he leaves. But just a little.

GO Caveliers!!!

2010-01-25T13:59:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't suddenly converted to being an NBA fan or anything. Caveliers is the name of Kaden, Luke, and my nephew Logan's Upward Basketball team. Go Cavs! They've had 2 games so far and the boys are quite impressive to say the least! We are SO proud of them. They all do such a great job listening to their coach and following his instructions! Each of them have already improved, I cannot wait to watch them grow through this season.
Game One, our boys are in blue:

Waiting for the inbound pass:

Get that ball boys!

Kaden dribbled out from all those defenders :)

Josie and Gabes waiting for the game to start:

Happy cousins, Aurora and Gabriel:

Game Two, we're now in orange. Luke and Kaden are 2 and 3 in this lineup:

Go Kaden!

Defense!!!

GO Logan!

Encouraging words from coach:

Luke watching his shot (go in by-the-way! :)

Silly Gabes:

Silly cousins:

Proud Papas: (GO TIGERS!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABRIEL!!!

2010-01-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

5 years ago today, my angel Gabriel was born! I cannot believe my baby boy is 5 years old.
Oh little one how I prayed for you. I couldn't wait to see you, hold you, and kiss you. Early on in the pregnancy we had a little scare and we thought I was going to lose him. I remember being at the emergency room and praying over this little angel of mine. While praying, for the first time in my life, I had a feeling of peace wash over me and I knew that everything was in God's hands and that all would be okay. No matter what was to happen, God was in control. It was a beautiful experience. The nurse came in for an ultrasound and there he was, my 3rd little guy. He was the same size in real life as his TINY ultrasound picture they printed out for me. I remember hearing that everything looked "real good" and things would be "alright". God what a blessing! What a blessing You have given us!
Gabriel was a name I had always loved, Michael took a little while to come around, but eventually he did :) (Heidi, I know you love that story so much but it's a little hard to explain on a blog!! But know I know you're thinking about it!) It was Michael that was the first to say we should name him after my uncle. Each of our boys have a middle name after someone whom we love very much and has touched our lives in more ways then just family. Luke Thomas for Michael's mentor and friend Thomas McNish. Kaden Thaddeus for my brother, who needs no explanation of why we wanted to honor him. And then came Gabriel Todd. Todd for my Uncle Todd, my Uncle T. Our love for him is beyond words. He has always cared for me in such a special and beautiful way. We have always had a special relationship and he knows that I love him as much as he loves me. My Michael loves him as well. He was hooked the first time he saw Uncle Todd using ketchup at a family BBQ. Yes it's an inside joke of sorts, you ought to ask Michael about it sometime. Together we wanted to honor Uncle Todd and show him how much he means to us. I pray that Gabriel turns out to be a man after Uncle Todd's own heart, what a true blessing that would be.
Gabriel Todd. Our angel, our love. We thank God for him and his sweet soul. My Gabriel, the little guy with the elvish ears. The sweet boy who loves to give kisses. Michael always says to me he is too cute to get mad at and I have to admit he does get away with quite a bit. He is a doll. He is adorable. He is our Gabriel and I cannot imagine life without him! Happy Birthday! :)
Gabriel's birthday:

Turning one!:

I'm two!:

Three years old!:

Happy fourth!:

I'm FIVE!!!:

Christmas #2

2010-01-14T13:46:00.000-05:00

We had a Christmas at home before heading off to my family in St. Louis. We opened Grandma Harmon and Grandma Short's gifts. How wonderful :)
Ready for presents: (Josie really is screaming with delight--promise!!!)

Happy kiddos leads to happy shopping:

More presents:

More Josie, just because I still cannot get enough of this girl :)

Thanks Grandmas for our wonderful Merry Christmas :)

Christmas #1

2010-01-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

Christmas with Michael's brother and his family. We had an incredibly great day! It was so much fun to be with each other and have the kiddos celebrating together! An experience I hope they remember. Both of us being Air Force families we can't always be together and so times when we are together are PRECIOUS! I'll let the pictures, the many, many pictures speak for themselves.
Waiting for present time:

Happy Josie with her Pony:

Gabe and his punching bag:

Kaden and a nerf gun:

My nephew Logan, Phineas and Ferb, a fav in these parts :)

Luke's getting a nerf too, check out K's face:

Aunt Belva's lovely AWACS pin:

Josie and Ariel:

Gabe and Wall-E, that face is precious!

Kaden and Goofy:

Luke and Pirates (I personally wish it was Johnny Depp's face instead of the skull...but what can you do?!)

Josie and Uno:

My niece, Aurora and her baby panda:

Me with one of my 4 piece Cherished Teddies Wizard of Oz set. TOO cute! (the bears, not me! :)

Michael and his Jedi Mickey watch from DisneyWorld:

James and his Captain America shield from us:

Playing with all the loot:

After presents, Michael and I left the kiddos with Uncle James and Aunt Belva and headed downtown to a Trans-siberian concert. It was interesting, I'll say that for it. It was wonderful to be with my hubby. That is for sure! Yay for the happy couple :)

Alrighty, was that too many pics?! Hope you enjoyed them!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2010-01-11T11:22:00.000-05:00

No, not really, I don't want any snow, but that was a cute title for my post, right? Here are the kiddo pics in our snowman cut out at school during the PTA Christmas Store. Adorable!

Aww, sweet faces! More Christmas catch up coming soon. :)

Party like it's 2009!

2010-01-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

On a warm, sunny, 60 degree Sunday in December we went to party. A friend of Michael's daughters birthday party to be exact. It was at one of those inflatable party places. We had such a fun time! All 4 boys had a great time running around and racing through the obstacle course inflatables. Josie was NOT interested at all in the bounce houses but did enjoy the little toddler area. At the end of the party we did get her in the little mini-bouncer that had the play balls. It took a lot of work but we eventually got her in there! I of course took LOTS of fun pics. Enjoy :)

Date Night!!!

2010-01-07T11:03:00.001-05:00

While we were home in STL Michael and I made it a point to have a double date night with my cousin Melanie and her beau Leon. We had a great time! Thanks goes to my Momma for watching the kiddos. We met at Kobe, a Japanese steakhouse. Neither Mel nor Leon had ever been to one and we knew they would like it! :) Afterwards we went to see Sherlock Holmes, I LOVED it! I smuggled in mint chocolates. Yum! What a fun night and what a great couple. We love you guys! :)

(I'm so so so so so so sorry about the red eyes. For some reason my photo shop isn't working and I can't fix it. Sorry! I'll fix it when I can!)

New year, new dedication to blogging!

2010-01-05T11:12:00.006-05:00

My Mom will be SO thrilled! I have been such a bum blogger. I just got a little lazy and a little frustrated with blogger. I used to be able to click and drag pictures and put them where I wanted to. Nice and easy. But then blogger didn't let me do that anymore and to get the posts the way I wanted to I had to go into the html part and cut and copy the pictures and post them throughout my writing. That made each post take 5x as long. I lost interest. I think I have found the answer and hope it works! (Update--it didn't work, I'm irritated but I'll get this done!)
So here we are at the start of 2010 and I made a promise to keep up my blog better. That way Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, and friends can stay updated on our kiddos. I know that is who you're checking on :) Here we go:
Basketball season once again. Kaden and Luke are playing Upward Basketball at our church, they are able to be on the same team :) Yay! And this year we are blessed because my nephew has joined them! All 3 on the same team. Awesome. Go Cavaliers! We had our first practice last night and they did great! (Josie---not so much!) Here are some pictures of the kids, notice I did not say good pictures of the kids. They are bad quality but still cute :)

Passing drills:

A quick pic of when Josie was actually where she was supposed to be and NOT crying.
Shooting practice:

Gabriel ran around the track a couple times during the end of practice. He stopped for a quick wave to Mom:
Here's to the start of a new season, a new year, and new posts :)

Turkey Day!

2009-11-09T16:13:00.004-05:00

I know, I know. I said that I was going to keep up my blog. I said that I was not going to let it get away from me. I'm still trying. Promise.

Here's a quick post for you all that have missed them:

Kaden had a turkey come home from school. We were supposed to be creative and decorate it. We came up with the idea for an American flag turkey and it turned out ADORABLE!!! K-man did a great job cutting and gluing! He took it to school this morning, I am excited to hear what his teacher thought of his turkey!

K-Man, Hawaiian style

2009-10-07T12:48:00.008-04:00

Kaden sang last night at school. He did such an excellent job! All the kiddos did. We first grade parents were quite thrilled! It's so fun to see all the pride on the parents' faces as they watch their babies!! Here are Kaden's many, many pics:
The state fish of Hawaii, the Humuhumukununukuapua, as colored by Kaden:

They sing a song about this fish and both Luke and Kaden can say it perfectly!

Michael ran both and schools' and our video camera:

Josie took this picture of her brothers while we waited for the performance to start:

Here is a video of the first song. The weren't singing as much as dancing. Pretty darn cute! I do have more videos but blogger will not load them. I promise, Momma, I will try again soon! Enjoy!!! Kaden's face is TOO adorable!

Big Girl Bed

2009-09-14T13:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday it became official. No more babies in the Harmon household...Josie is out of the crib and in her new Castle Bed! She was SO excited as Michael and I put it together. We had her try it out and she loved it, Josie hardly left her room yesterday evening! When it was time to go to bed she wasn't so sure. She played with the nightlight and kept putting more and more dolls and animals in her bed. She cried a little and I'm not sure what that was about. I found Josie in the hallway about 30-45 minutes later. I told her to go back to bed and she did. I don't know when she went to sleep but when I checked on her at 9:30 she was OUT like a light. This morning she came bounding out of her room VERY proud of herself. "I nigh-night Momma" she told me. Very proud. Goodness she is the sweetest thing! Here are a ton of pics I took, and yes Thaddeus I know they are basically the same but she is too beautiful not to post them all :)

Getting in for the first time:

"Smile Josie!"
Hold on, Mom's got to pull your hair back out of your face. "Smile again Josie!"
Daddy took this one:

It's time to get into bed, Luke wanted to help tug her in:
Happy Josie Claire:
Wait, I need some more stuff in bed with me. Come on WALL-E:
And here's a pic of Gabriel for good measure!

Silly Sleepers

2009-08-28T12:43:00.004-04:00

I took these pictures last week when our A/C was still out. That is why my angel baby girl doesn't have anything on but her diaper (SO sorry Momma! I hate it too but it was just too darn hot!) The house cooled off to around 90 degrees at night. Ugh. It was SO not fun. I went to check on my babes as I always do and saw how Josie had filled her crib. I'm sure she just kept asking Gabriel to bring her more and more animals. I used to sleep with tons of stuffed animals too. Like mother, like daughter I guess:

When I looked over in Gabe's bed, I noticed he wasn't there. Michael and I went searching for him to find him in the living room behind and ON toys just sleeping away. You can't really tell in this picture but his head is way below his body. I can't imagine he was comfortable. Such a goof:

$2

2009-08-23T11:30:00.003-04:00

Yep, it happened. I was right, I knew it would be quick. Kaden came home from school Friday with his other bottom tooth in a baggie. We forgot to put it under his pillow on Friday night so on Saturday Kaden saw his tooth bag sitting on the counter in the kitchen and asked me if the toothfairy was on vacation! HA! I said 'no, your tooth was just in the wrong place.' Well, under the pillow it went last night and this morning, TA DA! the toothfairy had left another dollar bill. Kaden is very proud of his 2 bucks.

Happy Birthday Momma!!!

2009-08-22T10:49:00.005-04:00

Happy Day Momma! Hope your day is wonderful!

Here are a few pictures of us from my visit to STL back in July!

Mom and I at the All Star Fan Fest with the world's largest baseball---oh yeah, it's real! No seriously, it is:

At the waterpark before our night of SO much fun:

At the zoo:

Mom and I at the (coolest) ESPN Party, thrown at J. Bucks downtown before the Home Run Derby.
Mom and I AT the Home Run Derby! (thanks Jackie and Thaddeus :)

Mom and Josie at the play park, "matchy matchy, green squared" (yep, movie quote)

Outside of 5 Guys, Burgers and Fries. Yum!

It happened one night....

2009-08-19T08:57:00.002-04:00

It happened last night. Kaden-man lost his first tooth! From out of nowhere both his middle bottom teeth were crazy loose. Had no idea, don't know how that slipped passed us but none-the-less they were. I knew one of them was going to come out in a day or two, the other has not even a week. Last night Kaden decided it was time to come out. We wiggled and wiggled, he pulled it down and back with tongue, out it came! He was a little upset at first, he didn't want to have a "broken tooth". We called Grandmom right away and he was a happier camper.

The tooth fairy brought him a dollar and he was (and still is) VERY excited about this!
Can't believe my babies are growing up so fast. :(

First Day of School :)

2009-08-13T13:35:00.005-04:00

Can't really believe it. Summer is over. School has begun. I'm SO excited about this year. Luke and Kaden LOVE school so much it's easy to send them off. Gabriel has been ready for school since he turned 4. He was sure he'd get to start in January right after his birthday. He had to wait till August. He waited and today he went to Pre-K! I can't believe it. 3 kiddos in school! Where has the time gone I ask you?! I don't think any parents have the answer to that question!!!

Today all my babes woke up in GREAT moods! They were ready to head to the bus 45 minutes before it came! "We just don't want to miss it Mom." said Luke, over and over again! The bus came and the big boys got on. Josie, Gabriel, and I were waiting in the van to head off to Gabe's school across the way. We got to school right on time and Gabriel headed off inside by himself (his teacher waits at the door for all of you thinking how could I let my baby boy walk into school by himself!).

Josie and I headed off back to Luke and Kaden's school where I'm PTA President this year. I got some good work done. It's CRAZY just having one child with me, I kept feeling like I lost one somewhere. It was N*I*C*E, I have to admit!
We left around 10:45 to pick up my niece from her first day of Kindergarten! Aurora had a great time and the K teachers were dressed as pirates. Pretty cool if you ask me!

The girls and I went straight to get Gabriel from his class at his school. (Yeah, 3 different schools, thankfully they are not too far apart. Aurora will get out about 20 minutes before Gabe giving me plenty of time to get back to him!) Now we are home for lunch and Josie's naptime!

I can't wait until the bus comes this afternoon to see how the day went for Luke and Kaden-man. So fun!

The boys so excited about the first day of school:

Can you tell where Michael just got home from???!!! Here's Gabriel on the way to school:

My niece. We took this one for her Daddy! What a beautiful smile:
Gabriel's reaction when asked "How was his first day?"

I have some other pics of our trip to Gabriel's class on Monday. He has the same Pre-K teacher that Kaden did. We LOVE her so! She remembered our family of course. Kaden hugged her so tight, it was adorable. Gabriel was excited, he about talked her ear off. Between Gabriel and Luke no one else got a word in! They were super cute there and we all had fun:

The 4th

2009-08-10T08:58:00.004-04:00

So obviously still playing catch up here. I took a few pics on the 4th, most didn't come out, it's hard to snap photos of fireworks! Michael's Mom and Grandma were still here visiting us and we all spent the day at James and Belva's house. Josie was sick (she had been to the ER and had croup AND some wheezing--this nastiness would spread to both Kaden and Gabriel. They were all pretty darn sick. I thought I was going to have to postpone our trip to STL to see my brother and sis-in-law and all my fam there...but thankfully they just needed some strong meds and it all worked out fine! But man they were SICK!!!) Got a little off my subject there--back to the fourth. James and Michael had both gone a little nutso at the fireworks stand and we had plenty at the house to keep us busy. I spent probably 3/4 the time inside with Josie, she didn't need to be breathing in the smoke and it was wet and spitting on us out there. The kids had a blast and loved watching their daddies run into the rain to light the fireworks. It was a wonderful night. Here are a couple quick pics.

Luke's Birthday revisited

2009-08-07T09:47:00.004-04:00

Luke turned 8! I know it's been a month but that is still kinda hard to take. 8, WOW! We had a another Superhero b-day party with a requested Scooby-Doo cake from Grandma Harmon. Here are the players:
The presents:

The cake:

Seconds please!

2009-08-06T09:24:00.005-04:00

Alright travel back in time with me again. It's still June 2009, my boys are STILL playing baseball. Even though the season was supposed to be over, it's not. Season was scheduled to be over June 12th. Luke was still playing his End of Season Tournament at that time and Kaden's didn't even START until June 25th. K-man played into July. Sorry to complain but I'm still not over it. Scheduling nightmare! Anyways...both boys' teams ended up in SECOND in their tournaments! It was wonderfully exciting! They played so well, it was so fun to watch. Lots of excited parents! And kiddos too :) First the Dirt Dawgs
Now the Yanks:
I know the pics aren't the greatest, my camera is difficult sometimes, but they're fun pics to share. The boys were so proud. So ends baseball 2009.

Like mother, like daughter

2009-08-05T10:36:00.001-04:00

We were over at Belva and James' house, the adults were talking, the kids were playing. Josie came around the corner jabbering away. She had a stroller and a toy cell phone and she was working it! Belva looked at me and said "Where has she seen that before?!" Super funny! She had her head cocked holding the phone on her shoulder while pushing that stroller...the girl is ready for my job! :)

So many things

2009-08-04T09:02:00.007-04:00

My goodness! I have so many things to blog about, it's almost ridiculous. I went to the Fan Fest in STL over all star weekend. I went to the Home Run Derby, I went to the ALL STAR Game! I went to a private ESPN party, went to the pre-ASG party too. ALL courtesy of my sis-in-law Jackie and her AWESOME Uncle! WOW! That will take days to blog about. But all in due time, I'm thinking I need to finish June, so back there we go...

Picture it, Kansas City, Missouri. June, 2009. Father's Day weekend. Michael, the kids, and I drove up to KC for a Cards/Royals game. My Momma and bestest cousin Melanie drove over from STL to join us. We met up on Saturday for the Sunday day game. Even though it was crazy, CRAZY hot we had the BEST TIME! Didn't hurt that the Cards whooped up on kc, 12 to 5, and that Albert hit not just a home run, but a grand slam as well! But all of this weekend started meeting at a mall...

The kiddos were playing as we waiting for our fam:
The happy reunion:

Time for the carousel:
Swimming at the hotel pool:

That Sunday was Fathers' Day, so we had a little something for Daddy:

Time for the BIG game and we're READY:
Lots of Cardinal red there:

My Dave McKay, I always have a pic of Dave!!!

YAY! We WIN!!!
I forgot to say that Saturday night my Momma sent Mel, Michael, and I to the movies. It was so much fun. We saw The Proposal and laughed a lot! Thanks Momma!!

What a fun weekend that was. It's a date for next year. We'll try for Saturday's night game though, it was a HOT Sunday!

June 19th!

2009-07-01T08:49:00.009-04:00

June 19th is a big day in our family. In 1999, Michael and I were married. In 2002, our nephew Logan was born! We were all together this year to celebrate.
We decided to go to the OKC Redhawks game to celebrate. Even though the game was dismal, OKC lost 11-2, we had a great time. The kids were SO good. It was H*O*T but they hung in there. I took lots of pictures. Enjoy! :)
Going to our seats, we are quite a crowd! Sharing drinks:

Messages during the 4th inning. They were of course "Happy Anniversary Mike & Jesse" and "Happy Birthday Logan". How fun!!

Josie with her souvenir ball:

Most of the group sharing dippin' dots. YUM!

Sharing with Daddy:

7 year old Birthday boy and his sweet new hat:

The happy couple 10 years strong:

Smoochin':

June 19th is our special day:

It's been a LONG time...

2009-06-30T12:16:00.009-04:00

Hello my blog readers. Sorry I haven't posted in such a long, long time. I have been pretty busy this month and once I get out of the habit of doing something it's hard for me to start up again. But I am going to try. I have SO many pictures to post it's just about ridiculous.

Let me give you a quick run down of what's happened since my last post---swim lessons were a success. Luke finished in second place in his post-season tournament! My brother-in-law and his family moved here! YAY! Michael and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary---congrats to us!!! We went up to KC to see the Cards THUMP the royals meeting my Mom and cousin for the weekend. The kids and I had a fun filled week of VBS, average attendance at the church was 1,209!!!! Kaden started his post season tournament. Kaden and Luke sang in the VBS church musical on Sunday. My Mother-in-law and Grandma-in-law came for a visit. Time keeps on passing and we stay busy, busy!

So where to start with the pictures?! I think that I will try and go in order. (There is still stuff from May that I haven't posted yet---isn't that pathetic!!) We'll start in June. So here goes the first few stories:

My all too YUMMY cookies from Jackie and Thaddeus to help my surgery recovery. They were SOOOOOO good! Thank you guys so very much!

Here are my boys floating in swim class:
Here are the boys on the diving board:
(Even though in this picture Kaden is being helped off, he eventually started jumping off and LOVES to do so now!)

Here are some sweet pics of Ms. Joce-ums at the pool:

Hang in there---just a few more :) These next pics are from Gabriel's end of the season Cougar Party. We met at a snowcone place that had a jumping house. The boys were beyond excited, you can imagine! We had pizza and cupcakes and all the boys were given trophies and certificates. It was a good time. Gabriel certainly loved it!

Can you find all 3 Harmon boys?!

Again, sorry it's been so long since I posted. I know my Momma (and probably Heidi) check the blog everyday just waiting for some new photos. I promise to try and keep posting more pics until we are all caught up!

Swim time!

2009-06-05T10:31:00.007-04:00

I know, I know. Long time no blog. Sorry about that. I am still recovering from my surgery. Let me get that complaining all done with quickly. I still have good moments and bad moments. This morning at 5:30 I thought about jamming a screwdriver into my ear to get out what feels like a large rubber ball stuck in there. It hurt SO bad. But an hour after I took a codeine it was better and I was able to sleep for another hour or so. I am not nauseous anymore---yay! That is an answered prayer I tell ya! I am taking things easy and I don't want to bend down so cleaning up or any kind of housework is pretty much out. I emptied the dishwasher yesterday and it took a good 30 min or so before my head got 'straightened out' again. That just means Michael's got LOTS of laundry to do this weekend! In fact, his honey-do list is quite long. Hope he can hang in there for me! :) Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts, I appreciate them so. Thanks to Belva for helping out with the kiddos while she was here taking her all-important teacher test. And a very special thank you to my Momma who stayed for a week to endure all the craziness around here to help me out. I love you so much Mom. I couldn't have done this without you and you know that! We miss you around here! Love you so!!!!!

--------------------------------------

Onto my real post---swim lessons! Yes, Aunt Jackie, I enrolled the boys again this year. They are so excited and are in their trunks by 8 in the morning. Our lessons are at 11. Gabriel is in the 3-5 year old class in the kiddy pool, same class as last year and he is doing great! And in case you can't tell--he LOVES his class!!!

Kaden-man is in Level 1 and is doing great. I can hear him laughing no matter where I am at the pool. He loves everything so much. He (of course) cheers for everyone in his class when they do just about anything. "Good job!" "I'm proud of you!" It's too adorable! What a sweet guy.

Luke is in Level 2 and doing just fine. He is a little nervous but everyday gets better and better. His teacher doesn't let him get out of things and Luke will be a full up swimmer when he is done I bet. Luke just gets SO cold in the water. He little body just shivers and shakes. He needs some meat on those bones! Here's some pics of my Josie Claire. She does such a great job while we are there. I am very thankful God blessed me with such a sweet angel. She listens and stays right with me. And she's darn cute!The lessons started on Tuesday while Mom was still here. That is when I took these photos. I know they are not the best but remember I'm on narcotics right now. Plus I could barely stand that long to take all of these! (Each day I am better, promise!) I will take the camera back next week and maybe get some better action shots!

Kaden's special night

2009-05-22T13:04:00.000-04:00

Warning: This post contains some scenes NOT suitable for loving Cardinal fans. Please look with at Kaden with shielded eyes, put on your Cardinal red shaded glasses and (try to) enjoy these photos.

Our youth baseball league scheduled a night with the Oklahoma Redhawks, the Triple A team here. Unfortunately they scheduled it for a night when 2 of my 3 boys had games. By the time they canceled the games so the kids could go downtown, it was too late for the teams to get tickets. Nice planning, huh? Well, it was crazy nasty and rainy day but Kaden and Michael headed down to the baseball field to meet up with Kaden's team. They were going to walk around the field before the game. Kaden was VERY excited. Michael and I knew they would cancel the game but our kiddos were supposed to show up anyways. So the hour they were down there Michael took some GREAT pictures of Kaden-man!!

With Mickey Mantle waiting to meet up with his team:

Kaden with the wet, tarp-covered field:
They are showcasing different parks this year at the stadium and there was a bunch of stuff from Chicago. Yeah, I know what you are thinking...it's BAD enough that my poor sweet K-man plays on a Yankee team, but then he had to take pictures with cubs stuff...are you kidding?! I warned you in the beginning! These pics are pretty darn cute all things considered:
Here is Kaden with the mascot, Rowdy Redhawk:
This one is for Grandmom. K-man with Bench-man.
Michael got himself some corndogs at the park (2 for 1) and took a picture because he knew I wouldn't believe him when he told me how big they were:
They did end up canceling the game but Michael said Kaden had so much fun down there anyways. They are going to schedule a make up day for our league so hopefully it's on a night where all my 3 can go and walk with their team.

Luke's great game

2009-05-20T11:37:00.005-04:00

Just like Johnny, a catcher that can hit! And hit well :) During Luke's second game on Saturday he went 2 for 2 with 5 RBI's. More impressively, his second hit went to the wall which allowed a inside the park GRAND SLAM! It was pretty incredible! I was there to see it and the rest of the fam was at home. But because I was childless (you know what I mean) I was able to take tons of pics and video parts of the game, so I got it all on tape :) Yippee! Luke ended up getting the game ball from that night as well. We came home and presented it all to Daddy who was mighty proud as you would guess :) Here is how the evening unfolded:
And at last, the HIT:

Extended B-day Weekend

2009-05-19T11:59:00.008-04:00

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart. Michael turned 32 yesterday :) Yay! We had a long weekend to celebrate together! He got home from Vegas early Friday morning and didn't go in to work. We of course had Sat and Sun together but it just so happened that Mon, his actual b-day was a down day--Daddy didn't have to go to work! So we had 4 days together and it was wonderful! Here's a run down of events:

Friday I put Josie's hair in 2 pigtails, she wouldn't let me get a good shot but here she is as adorable as ever:

They only lasted about 2 hours but they were sure cute while there! Michael flew all night home from Vegas so pretty much just slept on Friday. On Saturday Luke had a baseball tournament. He played at 2:45 and again at 7:45. They were exciting and wonderful games. Luke hit a inside the park grand slam in game #2! I got it on video on my camera and it's sweet!!!! But that will be a later post...

Sunday Luke had another game but lost and we were out of the tourney. We decided to go to Red Robin and get Daddy his free birthday burger! YUM! He was upset because there was no singing and no free ice cream. Sorry 'bout that babe but dinner was great all the same!

I tried to take an adorable photo of everyone but the sun wasn't cooperating. I am posting these anyways because they are too cute---just look at the faces on my sweet babes in the different pics, LOVE IT!!!

Monday morning the kiddos were so excited to give Daddy his presents, we did it right before the big boys got on the bus. I took this picture:and thought, now that doesn't look right, it's kinda foggy. I kept snapping and it obviously got worse:I kept wiping the lens and eventually it cleared itself off. Weird, huh?! More present pics: It was a hero kind of day for our hero. He got the Bourne Trilogy and the Spiderman Trilogy on blu ray from us and a super superhero shirt from Becks. He was sent many cards and much love on his happy day! Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you so.

Ice Cream Run!

2009-05-15T11:46:00.003-04:00

After Kaden and Luke's ball games finished, Uncle James had a brilliant idea to go and get ice cream :) We headed to Braum's, only some of the best ice cream EVER! (don't be too jealous Thaddeus) It was wonderful to be together, there are 10 of us and we take up some room but it's so joyful! "SMILE!"
Josie enjoyed Aunt Belva's cherry-lime aid a little too much, she didn't want to give it up!

Double Header

2009-05-14T12:34:00.007-04:00

One night of the other Harmons visit we spent at the ballpark. Luke and Kaden both had a game. It is SO good that these fields are across from each other. That way I can see both games at the same time. Sweet. But can you believe they hit at exactly the same time twice that night?! Unreal!

So here are some fun pics of the boys playing. Luke hitting:

Kaden batting and Kaden scoring: Kaden also caught an inning that night (and last night too actually!!!)
He was SO excited. He wants to be the catcher so badly. Some may think it's because Luke is catching but I have a different opinion. I think he wants to be in all the action. And not really the baseball action, the TALKING action. He can chat with the ump, with the other team and their coaches. He hi-fived every player that came in and scored. You know----the OTHER TEAMS' players----he cheered for them when they got a hit. He told the ump to tell everyone 'good job'. It was SO adorable. I feel it's safe to say that Kaden doesn't have the competitive spirit yet. But MAN!!, does he have good sportsmanship!!!

Luke catches almost every game now and he LOVES it. Watch out Johnny! Luke wants to be a hitting-catcher as well!
Josie visiting her bro at the dugout---super cute:

You know, Josie can find her brothers on the field no matter what position they are playing. She can tell it's them in the outfield even. I think that is pretty cool!

For the non-playing kiddos, the big deal of the night was getting to push Josie's stroller:

Can you spot all the Harmons?!

AWANA awards

2009-05-13T09:53:00.007-04:00

We had our Sparky Awards the last Wednesday of April. (remember I am still in catch up mode!) Fun for us that Aunt Belva and cousins Aurora and Logan came to church to help celebrate my kiddos! I do have some pics to share but most of them are so not good! I always complain about this when I take pics in our sanctuary, I just can't get good ones. I complain every AWANA awards and every VBS. Maybe someday I will figure out the secret... But I'm sharing the photos none-the-less! Here are almost all of our kiddos during opening ceremonies:
It's a huge undertaking we have many wonderful volunteers that make this program work my thanks go out to all of them! Here is Kaden-man getting his Sparks Award: Here is Luke getting his:

Aunt Belva, Logan, and Aurora:Thanks for coming and sharing this day with us! After the cookies and lemonade we headed to pick up Gabes and Josie. It was SO adorable watching Logan hold Josie's hand as they walked out. I tried to snap a quick pic and this is as good as I got. You get the gist and it was TOO sweet:And right before going out the doors I couldn't resist the open couch. Loaded 'em up and here they are:
I took a dozen pics but the first one was the only one that came out well and it's pretty adorable, huh? Great Grandma Short and Grandma Harmon you have a lot to proud of! :)

It's so wonderful so see the cousins all together! For those of you that don't know, my bro-in-law is Air Force as well and they are moving here to OKC next month! Our families are going to overlap at this base and we are all so excited! I feel so blessed that we will be with family (something that is sorely missed when you are a military family!!!) and that our kids will get to grow up together for a while! Praise God for this blessing! And just think how happy the Grandmas are to have all their babies together!!! We are surely all HAPPY HARMONS right now!

Really?!

2009-05-12T13:40:00.000-04:00

I wanted to share 2 fun(ny) pictures that Belva and James took while they were here. I was getting the big kiddos ready for school and I hear Uncle James asking Josie something about enjoying her breakfast and then he and Belva grabbed cameras. I knew it had to be good. And it was:

I guess if the blue bowl is good enough for Flash, it's good enough for Josie! :) No dog food was eaten, just the Frito's (if that eases anyone's mind!)

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T09:00:00.011-04:00

Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone had a great day yesterday. I had a great day that ended too quickly. Michael left again for another week in Vegas. Bummer. Why the Air Force put a base in Vegas I will NEVER understand!!! We celebrated my day until he had to go. It was wonderful, short but wonderful! In the morning when I got into the van to go to church there were Mom's Day gifts in my seat. What a nice surprise! After church we came home and Michael and I rocked out to RockBand for a little while. SO fun! I dozed on the couch while we watched a movie. That was nice and restful! Then it was time for Michael to go. It was a quick day I tell you! Here are my wonderful presents! Luke made me a beautiful tile at school:I started to cry (of course). I tried to read it aloud to Michael but was all choked up. Once I finally made it through Michael was a little overwhelmed as well. I cannot believe our children are growing SO quickly! I was given 2 blu ray movies as well. On Friday, Kaden gave me his card that he made, he was too excited to wait. I loved it!

Right before Michael left for the airport (5PM) we celebrated with one of my favorites---strawberry shortcake! The kids LOVED it!

I also received some beautiful flowers from my wonderful mother-in-law and my sister-in-law as well. Thank you two for thinking of me. I appreciate the both of you and Happy Mother's Day back to you!!!Mother's Day makes me so thankful, I am so overwhelmed with the 4 lives God has entrusted to me. What could be more of a blessing? I adore my children, they are my life and my love. I get caught up in being the mother on Mother's Day and then I remember that I have the most amazing mom ever! I love you Momma. You have always been there for me, always loved me, always supported me, always in ALL ways. I thank God for you everyday! I pray that my relationship with my children is half as wonderful as the one I have with you! Hope you had a wonderful day!

A Cougar Game

2009-05-08T12:46:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted many pics of Gabriel's t-ball so I figured I would show you an at bat for Gabes. He's pretty adorable and even though he is a 4 year old on a 3-4 team he is one of the smallest guys. He loves to bat and can handle that first inning in the outfield, come his second time to be out there and he is pretty much done. We are working on that though. So here are snapshots of my sweet #4.
And he makes it to first! What a happy guy. And here is a photo of my sweet girl. Josie does so wonderful at all of these games. I am so proud of her! (and happy for me!)Sweet baby cheese!

Happy Day!

2009-05-07T11:27:00.005-04:00

Oh-my-goodness, I have so much to blog! Sorry I have been slacking. For me few faithful readers I am sorry to have disappointed you. But now the posts will come often, I have LOTS to catch up on, so get ready!

Let's go back in time to April 27th. The kids had a Roadrunner Rally at their school. This happen once a month for the students. The kids come in 15 minutes before school starts and say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing a patriotic song, and then their school song. One class hosts the ceremony and it was Kindergartens turn. Kaden was going to make the closing announcement. This happened on a Monday that Michael was leaving but his flight was in the afternoon so he was able to be there! That was very exciting for Kaden-man!! Here he is sporting his Albert Pujols shirt:

Kaden's class and the other AM Kindergarten sang the restaurant song. I know all my Okie friends know this one "Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut. (repeat) McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut." And there are 3 more verses. Pretty fun and pretty cute. The whole song has fun motions that go with it. Here's the Mickey D's action:

Afterwards it was Kaden's turn at the mic, he and another little boy. His teacher sent home a note saying Kaden was to close out the rally so we needed to practice saying "Have a happy Monday!" This is how that went.

me: "Kaden, say Have a happy Monday!"

Kaden: "Happy, happy Monday!"

Michael: "No, HAVE a happy Monday!"

Kaden: "Have a happy, happy Monday!"

Goodness that kid is too cute! He did is perfectly at the rally. Kaden was not scared on that stage at all. And what a good looking guy he is too!

That last week of April we had lots of baseball and my family was in town, Mike's brothers family. We had such a great time together. I have some wonderful pictures! Promise I'll blog soon!

Attack of the Harmon boys

2009-04-29T11:02:00.006-04:00

So back to the carnival...it was time to bid on Mrs. Gann to put a pie in her face. This was Luke's wonderful Kindergarten teacher last year and he desperately wanted to "get her" again. The bidding started and we quickly got into a war with another family. Michael looked at me and said "Oh, we are NOT losing this." He let the kids bid and bid. At one point Luke and Kaden were raising each other! It's a good thing that the auction clown (yeah, I know, I feel the same way about clowns) was asking parents if the kids bids were okay. He quickly realized Luke and Kaden were on the same team! Well it went higher and higher and we eventually won! Yay :) Our boys were super excited to get on the stage. I am going to blog all the pics because they are TOO cute!!!I LOVE that picture! I am so disappointed because for some reason the red eye fixer on my computer can't fix these eyes! Maybe if I take it in somewhere they can do it. Oh well, it's still a great picture--clown and all. Mrs. Gan' sent a note and some candy home with Luke from school yesterday. She thanked us for being so generous and said that Luke is still one of her favorite students! He was pretty proud to read that!

Carnival

2009-04-27T15:40:00.008-04:00

The boys had their school carnival on Friday night. We were actually able to go as a complete family! (course that meant that Gabriel didn't go to his baseball game---shhhh, don't tell him, he doesn't know he missed it!) We had a really great time. There was a petting zoo:

Josie loved looking at the animals. She was literally squealing with delight! Everyone around thought she was the cutest thing and of course she was :) Daddy tried to help her touch the animals and yeah, not-so-much. That upset Josie. A lot. Look, but DON'T TOUCH apparently. We headed off to play games. Here's the kiddos taking us down the hallway:
Kaden and Gabriel doing the "pop walk", Gabe just won!
Ball toss:
I called "Josie, smile for Momma!" and this is what I got:
Hmmmm. Not much of a smile. After working the games we had a quick pizza dinner in the cafeteria while we watched the auction for the desserts and bid on some silent auction baskets. We ended up winning one of our baskets, Looney Tunes DVD's, lots of popcorn and movie candy. Yum! :) Up next was the "pie in the face" auction. Last year we won the bidding so Luke could put a pie in his Kindergarten teachers face. Would the boys get to do the same this year?! You'll have to wait and see but I'll tell you I have lots of fun pics to share :)

Here are our cowboys on the way out the door:

My new LOVE

2009-04-24T13:10:00.004-04:00

Yes, it's my new love, it's from my love. Thank you honey! :) On Wednesday Michael and I went and bought a 2009 Grand Caravan. I have always wanted a caravan, I was waiting patiently and it's certainly paid off. We got an amazing deal, over $8,000 off from Dodge--not too shabby, huh? I'm SO excited. I LOVE driving it. It's Cardinal red and pretty darn loaded. We are very happy to have such a fancy car. Bear with me as I post these pictures, I'm excited and I know our Mom's want to see these photos. So Grandma's I guess these are for you :)

Seats that fold down into the floor! (the middle seats are stow 'n go---I know you've seen the commercials!)Light gray leather interior:Fancy console with a touch screen that works all the audio/video stuff. Very cool :) It's got a 20G hard drive in there, we can save like 25,000 songs on it :) Cool feature, a mirror that shows the inside of the van. GREAT for Mom's to keep an eye out:It's has power doors, power liftgate, rear heat and air, all 7 seats are heated :), it has the back up camera that automatically comes on when the car is in reverse, oh goodness, too many things to list. The part the excites my hubby the most...it has 3 dvd screens. Yep, 3, one for each row! Pretty cool:Well thanks for looking. We are excited, maybe overly excited. I have cried over it like 3 times already. I'm such a goof. Come down for a visit and I'll let you drive it! :)

Remember April 19, 1995

2009-04-19T12:34:00.016-04:00

Words from the memorial:

"WE COME HERE TO REMEMBER

THOSE WHO WERE KILLED, THOSE WHO SURVIVED AND THOSE CHANGED FOREVER.

MAY ALL WHO LEAVE HERE KNOW THE IMPACT OF VIOLENCE.

MAY THIS MEMORIAL OFFER COMFORT, STRENGTH, PEACE, HOPE AND SERENITY."

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It is hard to believe it's been 14 years since this tragedy. I still remember the pain, the fear, and the loss of that day. I can still hear the reporters words ringing in my ears. I can remember seeing the people bleeding in the streets. I can see the heroes, the fireman, policemen, doctors, and nurses doing all they could to help. I can remember sobbing for all the families affected. I remember the overwhelming feeling of helplessness. I can tell you names of the beloved children that were killed and those angels that survived. I can also remember all the love, support, and encouragement that came from around the country. I remember the beautiful words spoken by Rev. Billy Graham and then-president Clinton. I will never forget these things. I do not want to forget these things. My heart is still broken for the needless, senseless loss of that terrible, terrible day. Today let's remember those lost, those that survived, and those that gave of themselves. God grant peace to Oklahoma today.

Our ONE day with Daddy

2009-04-15T12:42:00.006-04:00

Michael was gone all of last week, working hard in Vegas (of all places!). He came home about 11pm on Friday night, stayed Saturday with us and left 4am on Easter Sunday morning. Now he is somewhere, doing something, and coming home when he's done. Nice, huh? One of the perks of being a military spouse :)

Saturday was a beautiful and full day for us! In the morning we took the kiddos to see "Monsters vs. Aliens" at the 10:00 $4 show. The kids had a good time and liked the movie. Afterwards we came back had lunch and I watched the Cards stomp the Astros while the kiddos and Daddy played outside. Bubbles and catch, what a great afternoon!!!

When the Cards game ended it was time for dinner, we ate and then dyed our eggs. The kids really enjoyed this. I striped down the boys because I didn't want anyone to stain anything. Not a problem, I don't think we spilled a drop! From my family's tradition growing up we write names on the eggs with a crayon before we dye them. There is always a "Jesus" egg, always an "Easter" egg, and always an ugly egg--this one has no name but is dyed in all the colors. This year we didn't have too many eggs (Luke and I are the only ones who will eat them) and of the few I have 5 didn't make it through boiling so no one is to be offended if your name didn't end up on an egg. We went very generic this year but I promise you were mentioned by name! There were our family's 6 eggs, Jesus, Easter, God, Grandmas, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, baseball (uh, yeah!), Air Force, Buzz Lightyear, and the ugly egg. Yummy fun! Here are the pics:

And even though Michael didn't make it into any of the photos, I promise he was there. Did you see his green "Darth" egg? Now you know I wouldn't have made that egg! I'll be back soon to post some pics of Easter morning. :)

Josie's Cake by Daddy

2009-04-08T16:22:00.005-04:00

Michael made Josie's birthday cake this year. I bought the 'springtime' Pillsbury cake and icing from the commissary. It was pretty cute and pretty good. We had Josie's cake early Sunday afternoon right before Michael had to leave and Luke's baseball tournament started. I lit the candles and Michael carried the cake to Joce. She was NOT happy. Once she saw those candles Josie was desperate to get down from her seat. We finished singing and her Daddy just blew the candles out quickly for her. Josie was REALLY upset, crying like crazy. I have a video of it but blogger doesn't seem to want to load videos for me...so, sorry about that. I do have one pic of her upset:

She had already started calming down because the candles were gone. Her next move?
Yeah, that's my girl. Yummy cake. She put her hands right in the top of it. I'm glad she was excited for that part. Here's the fam and the cake:
Gorgeous baby:
Josie enjoying her Daddy's labors:

And are you ready for some of the cutest pictures ever?! Here they are:
Josie is such a sweet, sweet baby. Look at her beautiful hair, Grandmom I know you are loving it!! I am still overjoyed at having a girl. Every night when I lay her in bed and each morning when I lift her out of the crib I thank God for my angel Josie Claire. Happy 2nd Birthday sweetheart!

Oh yes, we went to the doc yesterday and Josie was 25 1/2 pounds and 33 1/2 inches. She is now ON the growth chart, right between 15 and 20%, we're SO excited! Way to go big girl!!! :)

too cold

2009-04-07T09:22:00.008-04:00

I thought I would give some baseball updates before getting back to Josie's cake time. You know, spice things up a bit for you readers at home :) Luke had that crazy tournament all weekend. He had 4 games on Saturday and it was his first time to catch. Here are a couple of pics from that day. Be prepared Grandmas, he looks OLD!!!!!!

Luke had another game on Sunday and man was it cold! It was in the 40's and the wind was insane! I had all the kids there because Michael left earlier that day to go spend a week in sunny Vegas---bummer! The only reason I stayed and watched the game (as opposed to going and sitting in the van) was that Josie fell asleep---it was her nap time---and I was able to completely cover her with a heavy blanket. I snapped a few quick pics at the beginning of the game: Last night, Kaden had a game and it was pretty miserable weather for that one too. Thank goodness there was sunshine!!! This time I was more prepared, I brought extra blankets, winter coats, hats, and gloves, the kiddos had on 2 pairs of pants! Poor Kaden-man, he was wearing a 2 shirts, a jersey, a sweatshirt, and his Yankee jacket, and of course extra pants! But I did my job and he stayed warm! We knew that he if won this game he would play another one. I was hoping for them to lose so I could take the kiddos home, it was too cold to be out there, it would be passed their bedtime, and I am still a little sick, I did NOT want to stay. Well, we came back and won the game. Darn! It was now 7:20, my kids go to bed at 7:30...Kaden had another game. The other team was already there and ready to go. Well, the umps disappeared. We didn't start the second game until 7:50 meaning it wouldn't be over until 9! 9, no way! I was too sickly, it was too late, I had 2 pretty stinky boys with me, and Josie was cold! Kaden played the first inning and then I told his coach we had to go, I tried to make it but it wasn't happening. He understood and we left! (Kaden did get to bat first in the 2nd inning so we stayed for that!) I maintain I did the right thing by leaving (don't judge me Thaddeus!!!) It was 45 degrees when we got in the van with some 30-40 mile an hour winds. TOO COLD FOR T-BALL!!! Here are some cute pics from last night despite the cold:

Don't worry I will not forget Gabriel's t-ball story. Craziness last Wednesday, here's the short story: Kelly (friend from high school) was over at the house visiting me. We had AWANA and Gabes had a game. I was counting on Michael taking Gabe to his game because I help lead at AWANA. Well Michael went MIA and so thanks to Kelly Gabriel was able to go to his one inning (big surprise to me!) game and receive his first ever t-ball trophy. Thanks Kelly for your help and for taking this super cute pic of Gabriel:There are more photos of Josie and her b-day weekend coming, they are too adorable!

Happy 2nd Birthday Josie Claire!

2009-04-05T10:07:00.007-04:00

Yesterday my sweet angel baby turned 2! I can hardly believe it. It does feel like yesterday that she came into this world, yet it feels as if she has always been with us. Yesterday was a crazy busy day and we were only together as a family for about an hour of it! Bummer. Today the celebration continues when it can, more on that later. Back to birthday day----Josie woke up (early!) and in a great mood :) We had a nutritious and wonderful breakfast of donuts! Yummy!

Right after breakfast we rushed the boys to get haircuts before Luke's baseball tournament. And what a tournament it was! He had 4 games yesterday! Yes, 4 and he is only 7. I think that is crazy! We played every other game ALL DAY LONG, so there was no time to go home and rest in between. And to make matters worse the first game of the day went over by 40 minutes! That of course threw everything else off. I am sick with a cold (yuck!) and was not feeling to well yesterday. We all went to Luke's first game but the kids and I left about 1/2 way through (about 12:30) so I could get them lunch and let Josie nap and I could nap myself. Mike and Luke came home right after the second game (about 3:30) and Luke was able to rest at home for a whopping 20 minutes before we had to head back to the field. I returned with Luke and watched his 3rd and 4th games. Mike stayed home and put the kiddos to bed. Luke and I didn't make it home until about 8:35. It was a LONG day let me tell you! Luke's games start again today at 1! Wow, this is nuts!

This morning we actually had Josie open her presents! :) She was a pretty happy girl:

So her celebration has continued today. We are going to have an early lunch and have Josie's cake today before all the craziness of this Sunday start. Mike is leaving for the week around noon (Uuuuuuuuugh!) and Luke has to be back at the field about 12:30. Oh sweet Josie, you didn't have a very conventional birthday...but we do love you so! I thank God everyday for my baby girl. I cannot imagine life without you. I love you angel!

Finishing Disney

2009-04-01T11:49:00.010-04:00

Get ready for a ton of pics! We went to Animal Kingdom on Friday and I forgot the camera battery. Oops. I was really upset! The morning started out with a character breakfast at Tusker House. We saw Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey :) It was super fun. We also had our pics taken with Pooh, Tigger, and my favorite Eeyore! Our new video camera took still pics for us that day and so when I get those I will blog the Animal Kingdom pics. That day Animal Kingdom closed at 6 so we headed over to EPCOT again so we could ride Nemo and Friends and do some other things. We had a super fun time again. We went back to the hotel for dinner and took dessert back to the room! Luke and Kaden with ice cream:
Michael with apple pie a la mode:
On Saturday morning we headed back to spend the day at Magic Kingdom again. Yeah, more pics from there :) Here we are taking shots at Buzz's ride again. I think we rode it 3 times that day :) The boys with Stitch:Waiting in line for the cars. Luke, Michael, and Josie rode together, while I had Kaden and Gabriel. I laughed the entire time because we were ALL over the place. K and Gabes aren't the best of drivers :)

We waited about 30 minutes to see Mickey. I am sad our picture didn't turn out better :( Maybe the one from the video camera is better and I think a Disney guy took one too... But here is fam with the Mouse with LOVE:Kaden and Mom on Big Thunder! The boys rode this 4 times that day! SO much fun. Kaden LOVED it! Daddy's favorite guy! The Harmons and Peter Pan:)By the Pirates sign:

Waiting in line. Don't know where the peace sign came from (much the dismay of his father!!!) but what a cute pic!!!
Close! But no cigar...(no one could really be Johnny!!!)

We got Mickey Mouse ears. I know, I know, it's the last day...but Michael was pretty insistent... We're cute, huh?!

Can you believe that face? Josie is too adorable!!! By the Toon Town sign where Goofy's roller coaster is, Kaden's happy place :)

On the people mover tram. The kids loved this too!We rode Buzz one more time and then left for dinner at the hotel. The Disney bus was coming at 4:30AM to take us to the airport Sunday morning. We went to bed around 9 that night. We had such a wonderful trip, all my prayers were answered. We were back in OKC at 1:30 in the afternoon. Most of trip was just like this:It's so crazy, the trip is almost like a dream. You get back home and real life starts again and I keep wondering "did we really just go to DisneyWorld?!" I am so glad that I took all these pictures and I am so glad that you kept coming back to look at them. We can't wait to go again! The kids are already asking when the next trip is. Soon, we all hope!

Real time!

2009-03-31T13:27:00.011-04:00

Hey all. Thought it was about time to catch up with what is going on now. I will finish our Disney trip, don't worry about that...I have too many cute pics left, I have to share! But for now, here is what is making the news. Baseball, baseball, and more baseball! The boys have been playing/practicing non-stop it seems. Every night we are busy busy! And so finally here are some baseball photos!

Gabriel Todd has his first game last night! It was adorable. He is playing with 3 and 4 year-olds. They don't have a clue bless their hearts, but they're SO cute! Gabriel is #4 on the Cougars!

Oh yes, Gabriel's other big news is that he was drawn in the lottery to go to the public school's pre-k program!!! There are a limited number of schools that have the classes and so the kids are put into a drawing. Gabriel gets to go to the same school that Kaden did, has the same teacher Ms. Marcie, I LOVE her!!!! I am SO excited. Gabriel is ready to start now! I keep telling him August will come quickly...

Back to baseball---Kaden-man is playing 6 year-old t-ball this year. He is with almost all the same kids and coach from last year. Again he is #10 on the Yankees.

Luke is playing his first year of machine pitch and is doing a great job! He is #18 on the Dirt Dawgs. He has great coaches and group of teammates!Now for Ms. Josie Claire. She is GREAT at these baseball games. Watches a little, walks around a little, and naps occasionally. We had 3 games on Sunday and she was just as sweet as could be!

Michael decided that since she will be 2 on Saturday (yeah, you read that right---2 years old!! I can't believe it!) that Josie should be out of her high chair and using a booster seat. Josie is THRILLED to be sitting at the table with her big brothers!
Onto Michael's news...he received his diploma and transcripts in the mail the other day! It's official, the boy has graduated with his masters. Congrats again honey, I'm SO proud of you!!!

Now you're all caught up. It will be back to Disney next time... :)

Magic Kingdom (part 2)

2009-03-30T08:29:00.012-04:00

Remember that this is the same day from yesterday, I just had too many fun pics to share... So here we go again. Here is Michael and Gabriel on Goofy's Barnstormer (little kiddo roller coaster). Our kids LOVED this ride. It's all Kaden could talk about for 2 days!!! Here is my fam with Rafiki of Lion King fame!

We went early and got a great spot for the lights parade and the fireworks:
Yeah, right there by the castle! It was incredible! More and more families showed up to stake their claim and the Disney folk brought out some hula hoops. Kaden was pretty good. Check out my kiddos:Jump ropes too. Hilarious! Our kids wanted to be in the middle of everything!
The castle started changing colors so I of course took a picture of the purple one! Oh to live in a purple castle...
We got Mickey ice cream sandwiches this night while waiting. YUM! All the kids LOVED them. Josie and I split one meaning I got a couple of bites of hers!!!During the parade Luke got a special treat. When Captain Hook went by Luke jumped up and pointed at his Hook shirt. The Captain started cheering on the float and made a big deal for Luke. Awesome! I'm sure the video is cool! My picture isn't that great, the camera had a hard time with all the lights but I just wanted to show Hook cheering for Luke.

Thumbs up for the parade:Now it was time for the fireworks, which were unbelievable by-the-way!!!!

What an incredible day! The next day was Animal Kingdom. We had loads of fun just not loads of pictures. I brought the camera, just not the battery...it was still plugged in at the hotel. I was heartbroken! We did take pics with our camcorder and so eventually I will get those on here for you all to see. There is still one more day at Disney, back at Magic Kingdom! :) More photos to come.

Thursday at Magic Kingdom!!! (part 1)

2009-03-29T09:18:00.015-04:00

I love the Magic Kingdom. Everyone LOVES the Magic Kingdom. It's got Dumbo, Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear! It's awesome and we had the best time. The place was completely packed and yet the wait for lines was not too bad at all, in fact some of the best wait times I have ever had!! Just another bonus to our blessed trip!! I actually got teary-eyed walking through there thanking God for such a blessed and wonderful time with my family. He was sure watching out for us!

Dumbo pics:

Winnie the Pooh--a family fav:

We WALKED on to The Haunted Mansion. Luke and Gabriel stopped for this pic:

Luke and I waiting for our train on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Oh, I LOVE this coaster!!!
Kaden excited about going to the Buzz ride after we finished at Space Mountain:On our way to the ride we saw Buzz himself. Gabriel was beside himself. He LOVES Buzz. Buzz is his 'Mulan'. What a fun time!!!On the ride, we got stopped for a few minutes on the ride so I was able to snap a photo:And the guns still worked while we were stopped so I ended up with my BEST score ever. Here's the proof!!!

And that was while holding Josie mind you! Next we headed over to Pirates and a family favorite was there. Captain Hook and the male Harmons:Luke was wearing a Hook shirt and Hook was thrilled with that! He made a big fuss over him. Fun!!! Josie really liked Hook from afar. She was pointing at him and calling him puppy dog (her term of endearment) but when Mike asked if she wanted to go over to him there was a fast shake of her head "no". Waiting in line for Pirates:I LOVE that picture because we have one with the boys and I from when we went in 2006. We tried to replicate it with our addition of Josie. What great pics these are. We will have to do this every time we are a Magic Kingdom. Here is the 2006 shot:
Isn't it fun to compare the difference in those 2 1/2 years?! What adorable babies I have!!!The boys lined up for a shot and Josie ran herself over there to be in the photo. Adorable!!!!Luke on Aladdin's Magic Carpets after getting soaked at a water stop:Here's most of the fam at Philharmagic---what an incredible show that is!!!! We LOVE it!!
Here we are on Cinderella's Carousel. Josie wasn't a fan, you can tell by the pic:
I had to add this one too because it's too fun with the boys at their different heights, lined up by ages. Cute :)Well there are just too many pics from this day so I will continue tomorrow. We had the best day there. It was incredible. The 'other' Harmons are going to Disney World this week and we wish them as much happiness as we had there! Enjoy you guys!!! Say hi to Mickey for us!!!

Wednesday was Disney Studios

2009-03-27T10:25:00.011-04:00

First and foremost---CONGRATS to my Elite 8 TIGERS!!! Woo Hoo! Mizzou-rah!!!! They BEAT Memphis last night against almost everyone's odds. Congrats to Coach Mike Anderson, truly the coach of the year!!!

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Back to Disney... There was only one downfall of this trip, Luke's allergies to Florida. Something in that state just does not agree with my poor boys and his eyeballs. His eyes starting itching almost right away. This is not a good sign. That means swelling is just around the corner. And bless his bones, he swelled. I brought some allergy eye drops with us but didn't think to bring Benadryl, but we got some and got those eyes under control. I needed to explain this so when you see this poor boy you don't think 1) that we smacked him or 2) that he was crying the whole time. Luke had a blast! Here are those eyes, prepare yourself:Bless his heart... Onto the park. We went to Disney Studios! I was SO looking forward to it because it has my Aerosmith roller coaster. Last time we were at DisneyWorld I was pregnant with Josie and couldn't ride. Not this time! I rode and I LOVED it! It's so awesome! There are no pics or anything but I know you can imagine my face there :) Joy! Bliss! Elation! Awesome! I love my Steven. After riding Tower of Terror and Aerosmith early in the morning, we did as much as we could---the place was PACKED! There were people everywhere. In fact I ran into one of my best friends from high school---Selene and her family! That was pretty incredible!!

Here are the boys waiting for Playhouse Disney Live :)

I told you those eyes looked bad :( Here is Cheesy Josie with her Momma. The girl was cracking me up!!We had lunch at Toy Story's Pizza Planet. The kids were really excited about that! Kiddos waiting for Daddy and Luke to bring our lunch (about 45 minutes later!):More cheese please!We took the kids to the playground but it was so packed you couldn't walk around, it was insane! We didn't stay long and even the kids were ready to get out of there. We headed for the parade and though Josie slept through it, we got to see most of our Pixar favorites. Kiddos were in heaven!

We saw the Indiana Jones stunt show and rode the Star Wars ride again and again. Kaden rode it this time and LOVED it! Here are our obligatory speeder bike pics. How can you not take pics on this every time you are there?!Kaden took this shot while Daddy was buying Luke a beloved Jedi Mickey lightsabre. He did a great job!

We saw the Little Mermaid show next and I LOVED it! Very fun. She's blurry but here's the beautiful Ariel:

We headed off to wait in line to wait to see Fantasmic, the incredible water/light/pyro/firework show. It started at 8. You can go in and sit down at 7. We got in line at 6:15 and there SERIOUSLY more then 1,000 people ahead of us! Good thing the place is huge! We had great seats and it was awesome. After a hotdog/pretezel/popcorn dinner (yum!!), Daddy went and got some Mickey ice creams. They were hit, if can't you tell:

After the show we rushed over to ride the long awaited Toy Story Mania. It was SO busy all day long and our fastpasses weren't until 9pm. It was SO worth waiting all day for. What a FUN and FASTASTIC ride it is! The decorations are just incredible. Disney/Pixar rocks! Here were are:

Josie wasn't a big fan of the ride but the rest of us loved it! We ended the night LATE but on such a great high! I snapped a shot of the hat on the way out:

The next day was my favorite---Magic Kingdom. And I have an incredible amount of pics. You can look forward to that :)

Tuesday=EPCOT

2009-03-26T09:49:00.014-04:00

At 6:30 AM we popped out of bed to go to EPCOT's early entry. Here we are happy on the bus:
The kids were so excited. Especially Kaden-man, they have a Nemo ride at EPCOT and as most of you know Kaden adores Nemo! So that is the first thing we went to. Kaden LOVED it! Posing with, well IN Bruce (Josie is there too):We rode "The Land" next. Someone volunteered to do a family shot for us! Yeah! Here we all are:
This is for Mom, Mel, and Michelle---EPCOT is working on growing HUGE pineapples! Sweet! Shawn and Gus would be in heaven:Turtle Time with Crush! Oh, I was SO excited to see this! The kids did it at Disneyland when I was sick :( The turtle talks to the audience in real time. It's just awesome! And though Kaden doesn't look happy, he was just playing for the photo. What a stink. Kaden was so excited, he thought of a question to ask Crush back in January. He couldn't wait!!! And he was wearing his Crush t-shirt: Here's Josie in front of the jellyfish doing her "cheese" face. Get used to it, you'll see it a lot :)
Story time---They did call on Kaden and he got to talk with Crush. He asked him "What's your favorite baseball team?" Crush just got a blank stare on his face for the longest time and then said "What is baseball?" All the kids and parents cracked up. Kaden giggled. He asked Kaden what his favorites were to which Kaden answered "American League, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and St. Louis Cardinals." Crush said "All of those are your favorite? What's your one favorite?" And the smart boy said "St. Louis!" Some parents cheered--yeah, that's right! They 'talked' for a long time and Kaden's part was most of the show. He was ecstatic afterwards. We got it all on video and if I can ever figure out how to put our video camera stuff on here I certainly will. It was so awesome!
Playing after the Figment ride (for you Aunt Jackie :)
Our first character, Donald, who was in the Mexico part of the World Showcase. Josie was NOT a fan and didn't make it into too many of the character pictures. But she did get better through the week and was all too happy to smile and wave bye as we left characters!
The kids in front of the lake:
The boys with a viking ship:
Another story---Kaden loves Nemo but he also LOVES Mulan. He asked us about her many a time before the trip and we told him that he would probably see her at the Fastasmic Show but not anywhere else. He was sad about that. While walking through the World Showcase, we headed into China and I, without thinking first, said "Kaden guess what...this is where Mulan is!" Oops. Kaden screamed "Where is she?!?!" Mike shot a quick look at me. I tried to explain, "What Mom meant was that China is where Mulan is from, I didn't mean she would be here." Oh, he was heartbroken. His shoulders slumped and everything! We went to go inside and temple and BAM! right around the corner was Mulan! Yeah, I know you are all cheering! Kaden hugged her and kissed her right on the lips! (I'm NOT kidding!) He was overjoyed. It was too adorable. Mulan kissed all the boys and left huge lipstick prints on them. You'll see them in the rest of the pics! Too fun!!! Kaden's entire trip was made in those few minutes with her! Thank you Mulan!
Michael and Gabriel with Hook and Mr. Crocodile. They were getting ready for a botanical show and had a ton of characters made out of plants and flowers. They were really cool:
With the Genie:
Jasmine and Aladdin. Jasmine noticed the boys kisses right away and asked what Princess they saw...she didn't hesitate and kissed them all on the other cheek!
This is for Grandmom. While we were eating dinner, Kaden was sitting up his knees, when he moved he noticed that there were hearts there. He told me "Grandmom would like my knees because they're hearts!" So we took a pic to show you!

I just realized that all of my EPCOT stories have been about Kaden. Interesting. I guess he had a really great day! :)

A girl and her dog. Josie was enthralled with Pluto and so her Mommy bought her one. She has slept with it every night since. Adorable!
The fireworks, Illuminations, was incredible! The kids loved them!!! Good stuff. Luke took this shot of Spaceship Earth as we headed out at 10 that night:
What a great day! I love reliving it through these pictures. Speaking of pics, if you think I posted too many I am sorry about that and you probably won't enjoy the rest of the Disney posts either. I know the photos make the Grandmas and Aunts happy :) so I'll post a ton.

Up next was Disney Studios, which you know has my favorite ride----the Aerosmith coaster. 1 and 1/2 minutes of pure elation :)

MONDAY--We go to DisneyWorld :)

2009-03-25T12:07:00.006-04:00

We're back! Our trip was absolutely amazing! It was seriously like a commercial. The kids were great, they were SO excited about every ride and every character they saw. They cheered at the fireworks and screamed for the characters in the parade. We stayed up until about 10 (or later!) every night and the next morning between 6:30 and 7, the kiddos popped out of bed ready to go another day! I am going to post a ton of pics so just get ready for that. I will break it up each day so that I can tell you some of the cute stories that go along with the photos. On Monday we packed up, dropped off Flash at "camp" and went to the airport. The kids have never flown before so we really didn't know what to expect. We were a little nervous and I had done a lot of praying beforehand. As it turns out my worry was not needed. All 4 did spectacular! They really enjoyed flying. Good to know! We left at 9 in the morning and got to Orlando at 3:30. We took the Disney bus to our hotel, Port Orleans Riverside. It was really nice! We quite enjoyed staying there. We dropped off a few things in our room and headed by boat over to Downtown Disney, where there is lots of shopping and food. The kids were so excited! We got to bed about 9 that night. It was a smooth and fun day traveling to DisneyWorld. Here's the day in pictures:

Waiting for Daddy as he parked the van (Kaden really was happy, I promise!)

Looking at the planes. They were amazed!

Fun on the plane:

So glad I had Michael there to help with the kiddos!!!

Waiting as Dad checked us in to the hotel:

The boys and a Lego clone trooper, all 4 were VERY excited:
On the boat ride back, the boys took some fun shots with the camera. Look at us happy Harmons:

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

2009-03-15T10:24:00.006-04:00

Mizzou won the big 12 Tournament last night! MIZZOU-RAH! And we were there!!! After our strong win against OSU on Friday night I thought to look up tickets for Saturday's game. We were obviously late buying them so ended up at the top of stadium but they were good seats to a GREAT game! We took all the kiddos with us and had an amazing time. We help of pretzels, popcorn, and lemonade the kids were content and did awesome during the game. They clapped, they cheered, they were Mizzou maniacs! It was TOO cute! My Tigers played incredible and we won! We won the Big 12 Tournament for the first time! Yeah, Tigers. Mizzou-rah!!! Here are some fun pics! Tomorrow morning we board our plane to head for DisneyWorld for the week of Spring Break. I probably won't blog while I am there but keep coming back here and celebrate my Tigers victory! M I Z . . .

Backwards Night

2009-03-12T10:07:00.004-04:00

Last night we had a 'theme' night for AWANA, it was backwards night. The boys and I got dressed backwards and were ready to go. The kids were SO excited about having their shirts and vests on wrong. Kaden even wore his pj's bass-ackwards last night! Before running out the door I wanted to take a photo of the boys. Afterwards each boy decided it was their turn to take the pic. So here they are.

Kaden's shot:
Josie decided to get in on this during Luke's photo, she was clapping away:
Gabe's turn:

I tried to get a silly shot of all 5 of us but Josie would have NONE of it! So it's just the boys and I:FUN!
Sorry I haven't been blogging. I know my Momma has been anxious for another post. We've been quite sick and busy around here. Last week a bug went through 5 of the 6 of us. Only Josie made it through. Good for her, I hate it when babies are sick :( Michael missed 2 days of work, one to stay with a sick Gabes, K-man, and wife and the other when he was sick. Luke had a random fever that lasted from Wed night until Sat night. Bless his bones. But we are all better this week and roaring to go. It's a good thing too, we've been crazy busy. Michael is gone this week and the kids and I have been going nonstop, they haven't been to bed before 9pm this whole week! That's a HUGE deal when your kids go to bed at 7:30!!! Monday night all 3 had baseball practice, different places of course, we got home at 8:45. On Tuesday, Luke had practice and I had a PTA meeting, we got home at 8:35. I was also elected President of the PTA for next year :) I said elected to sound more important---no one ran against me :) I am so looking forward to it! Last night we had AWANA and didn't get home until 8:40. EEK! Tonight Luke has indoor baseball practice and Gabriel is supposed to have practice as well but seeing that it's freezing raining right now, I doubt his coach will have it. And even if she does, I doubt I will let my 4 year old practice t-ball in 30 degree weather!

Now you are all but caught up, just a couple more things...we leave for DISNEYWORLD on Monday! We are all beyond excited!!! AND my Tigers are on ESPN2 tonight at 8:30. Mizzou-rah, baby!

Major Ceremony

2009-03-02T11:49:00.005-05:00

We had a very important Friday. Michael became a major. He had his promotion ceremony at the squadron. It was wonderful to see everyone there celebrating his achievement. The kids did a great job, we all helped out pinning on Dad's new rank. I am so proud of my Michael!! Here are some pictures taken by our friend Jessica.

Captain Michael and his commander:After the commanders wonderful speech it was time for he and I to put the leaf on Michael's shoulders. Josie came up there with me and with NO prompting took her Daddy's hand and though the room was 99% male there were many "Awwwwwws" in the audience:The commander told me to make sure and punch Michael's rank down, so I did. But I did it before I had the brads on the back of the pin, whoops! Everyone thought that was pretty funny:Commander's turn:Next it was time for the boys to put some more rank on. Gabriel started with Daddy's left shoulder---well Gabriel took the rank and gave it to Michael to put on. Very cute!

Kaden's turn for the right shoulder:Luke put the leaf on Dad's hat. They were pretty proud of themselves!
Next it was time for the swearing in. Awesome:
Michael then thanked everyone for coming and made a little speech. He thanked his friends, his commander, his mentors, and he thanked me. He said some very sweet, sweet things about me and how being the Air Force wife is the toughest job in the Air Force. And my Michael also gave me flowers. It was pretty wonderful! What a guy!
Major Harmon finishing his speech:

Michael, I am so proud of you. Proud of all you have accomplished and all that you will continue to do in our Air Force. I am excited to see where our next 10 years will take us and to see how far you will go! I love you!

My Valentines

2009-02-25T10:17:00.005-05:00

My sweet Michael sent me red, pink, and while tulips for Valentine's Day. What a guy! We got the kiddos some candy of course. They were very excited even though Luke doesn't seem to be in this photo:We bought Josie a Valentine's dog. She is obsessed with Flash (our dog) and follows her around the house saying "puppy dog, puppy dog". In fact when Josie gets out of bed in the morning the first thing she does is go and find Flash. She looks at me from the crib "puppy dog?" It's adorable. So we bought a big fluffy adorable dog for Joce. Well, it didn't go over so well. She was not in a very good mood on V-day. See, there's proof:

So when we gave her the puppy she cried and ran away. Later she went over to the dog, picked it up by the top of the head and threw it. She did that about 10 times that day. She wanted nothing to do with it.
But now the puppy is in her crib and she loves on him some. Not as much as I thought, but some. What a funny girl.

Thanks to Mom and Kelly for sending Valentines to my kiddos, they were thrilled! Love back at you both! :)

Dining Out

2009-02-23T09:55:00.006-05:00

On Friday night Michael and I went to our second dining out. For those of you that don't know, the dining out is a fancy military party, Michael had to wear his mess dress (Air Force tux equivalent and I got to wear a fun dress too :) We had a wonderful time in downtown OKC. We were on the 34th floor and the view was pretty spectacular. It is fun to get all dressed up and go out on the town. You'd think we would have made the most of it...but we were home by 10:45! I don't when we got old, but we did. We had a couple of girls over watching the kiddos for us. When we got here they weren't too far into "The Dark Knight" so we all stayed up and watched together, Michael and I still fancied up. Good times!

Unfortunately my pictures didn't come out very well. Some was operator error and other just lighting issues. But thought I'd share anyways.

Three of the 4 walls in our room were floor to ceiling windows. It was a pretty site:Here's the view down to the street. Look hard, you can sorta make out the cars down there:Michael and I:We're a little out of focus because our picture taker had been sent to the grog more then a few times! That's why I was laughing, it was quite hilarious watching him try to work the camera. Speaking of the grog...Michael took some pics of the bowls as well. At a dining out there are 2 grog bowls (toilet bowls) at the front of the head table. DISCLAIMER: For those of you military related---no knocking me for describing the grogs and mess. I am trying to put it easily and not getting into the bigger details. Thought others might want a little info on the grogs, especially since we took photos of them! I can just see Michael rolling his eyes at how I'll describe this. Oh well, my blog :) Okay, back to the grogs... Those who break one of the "mess" rules are sent to the grog. It's also a time for you to call out others on their behavior and send them to drink. Different parts of the squadron add different things to the leaded and unleaded grog. When you are sent you have to address the President of the mess, fill you glass, address the mess, drink it all down in ONE drink and then put the glass on your head to signify that you finished it all. The leaded version had scotch, beer, some fluorescent green liquor (so gross), vodka, and other fun stuff. The unleaded one was full of strawberry soda, cranberry juice, jalapeno juice (ugh!), O'douls and even some cocoa puffs. You know it's bad when people are chewing with their grog drink. Yuck. It was pretty interesting to watch everyone go and get their 'punishment'. I won't say if Michael had to go or not but he did. I won't say fully why except for those military readers (i.e. his bro so he can make fun of him!!!!), Michael had no R.M.O. He and about 40 others!!! Drink it up guys! The grogs:

Here are pics we took of each other. I knew my sis-in-law Belva and Heidi would be upset it they didn't get to see my dress. Here you go girlies:On another military note---this is Michael's LAST week as a captain. He pins on Major this Friday afternoon, Feb 27th! We are pretty excited and I am very proud of him! Congrats honey!

Slides

2009-02-19T10:23:00.006-05:00

Still playing catch up here. After going craft-fairing all day on K's birthday we decided to take them to the play park. They had a great time of course. Josie must have went down that slide 50 times! She LOVED it. Here are some of the photos I got.

Hilarious moment! Gabriel ran over from the slide and jumped onto this alligator, he was wrestling it. He won. The fact that the alligator doesn't move helped a lot! Crazy kid.
And this is my favorite pic from the day. What a gorgeous angel baby girl!

Dribbling Fool

2009-02-18T08:59:00.005-05:00

Luke is again playing Upward Basketball at our church. He is having a great time and learning so much. He has a 'real' coach as a coach and he works them hard. Every week they work on something specific in practice and at the games the coach makes the ref call them on it. (not going out of bounds, double dribble, being behind the line when they inbound the ball, etc.) It's awesome. He makes them dribble like crazy and they are all really good at it! Luke has become quite the defender, he steals the ball away 4 or 5 times a game. He is the smallest one on his team but doesn't let that bother him! I told him he better get used to that! Not much vertical found in our families!!! Here are some fun pics from the game when my Momma was here with us.

Before the game, Luke was sizing the other team:

Luke going up hard. He scored 3 times that game:
Talking with coach at halftime:
Kaden and Gabriel do a pretty good job at the games. Kaden wants to play so badly but he can't until 1st grade. Thankfully a teammate's brother brings a Nintendo and during some of the game they all play and watch each other. It's pretty darn cute to see them all huddled around each other. It's also nice for Michael and I because we get to spend a lot more time actually watching the game. See how cute:

Kaden's 6th B-day!

2009-02-16T16:21:00.005-05:00

Sat the 7th was Kaden's 6th birthday. I have am a little difficulty with that. I cannot believe he is 6. I just don't understand how they grow up so quickly! After a full day of Luke's basketball, shopping at An Affair of the Heart, and playing at the park, we eventually ended up back home to celebrate K's day with presents and cake. A cake made by me much to the dismay of my hubby, Kaden was happy though, so that is good :) He and I had a good time putting the sprinkles on the top!
Moon sand came in the mail from Aunt Belva and Uncle James--boy was that a HUGE hit!Thanks to everyone for helping make Kaden's birthday a happy one! Grandmom we are so glad you could be here to celebrate with us! (There will be pics to come of all the other stuff we did that day. And CUTE pics at that!)

Back in Time

2009-02-14T13:18:00.006-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted more. I actually was reprimanded by my mother yesterday. It's not totally my fault though---quick recap---when we went to STL over MLK Jr weekend, I left my camera there. My Mom brought me the camera last weekend when she visited OK. Michael left Sunday with the cords to the camera so I could not get my pictures. Well, I have the camera and the cords now, so here come the many photos! :)

I'm going back to Jan 17th when we celebrated Gabriel's 4th birthday with my family in STL. It always brings me such joy when we are all together. I love those times. See how crowded my Mom's living room is? Awesome! Present time:

Peter gives me a thumbs up. He knows after presents comes cake and ice cream! Yum!
Cousins watching Gabriel open his gifts:Daddy reading the cards for Gabriel:

Cake time. Gabe wanted Mickey Mouse, makes a Daddy proud :)Singing happy birthday:
Blowing out his candles:Let's get these off so we can eat!!! :)

Thanks to my family for sharing this special day with us! We love you so much Gabes!!!

Two Words:

2009-02-10T09:56:00.000-05:00

Tigers WIN!!!

Over the last few days

2009-02-09T10:17:00.004-05:00

Hey! Guess what? I finally have my camera back! Thank you Momma SO much for bringing it to me! The bad news is Mike took the only cords I can hook it up to my computer with him when he left yesterday. BUMMER! I took fun pics this weekend and I have all the old ones from Gabriel's happy birthday in STL. I guess you guys will just have to wait a little longer...

I did however, take some pics with my phone and I will gladly share those. On Friday I ran up to Kaden's class to bring cupcakes for his happy day! They were Power Ranger cupcakes and they were a HUGE hit! Here is the class (K's in the back right) and K-man smiling for Daddy:

My Momma flew in late Friday night :) Saturday morning we got up and went to Luke's 9AM basketball game where he scored 6 points I might add! Woo Hoo! We went straight to An Affair of the Heart (that huge craft fair). We sat down for lunch right away. Here is Mom enjoying her Indian Taco---it's the best, trust me!We stayed downtown until about 4 and then took the kiddos to a park to play. Kaden chose McDonald's for his birthday dinner. Surprise! We had dinner, opened presents, and ate cake. Yum. We all played some Wii before the kids hit the hay. Afterwards Mom, Mike, and I had some Chinese food and watched Psych. Then we jammed on Rock Band for an hour or so. Mom has some mad vocal skills I tell you!! SO fun!

Sunday we Wii-ed some more and said goodbye to Daddy for a couple of days. Kaden had his first baseball practice at 2. Yeah, you read that right---baseball practice! He is so excited! Then we took Mom to the airport where my tired angels bawled their heads off saying good bye to her. :( Thanks for coming to visit Mom. We so loved having you here.

One, two, three...

2009-02-07T08:21:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Kaden,

Happy Birthday to you!!!

I cannot believe it. My K-man is 6! Where does the time go? Why does it go so fast? Oh, we love you sweet boy! Here are some of my favorite pictures of my middle boy.

Actual BIRTHday:

First real photo:

Kaden's 1st b-day:K-man's 2nd:Sweet 3 year old:Preschool photo:Getting ready to fight the dark side, July 08:My Mom arrived safely last night WITH my camera! I will be able to take pics of Kaden's happy day!! I'm so excited! :)

Thoughts and facts:

2009-02-02T12:59:00.004-05:00

Can Mizzou play all their basketball games at home this season? We win there and quite handily I might add. Got some HUGE games coming up. Mizzou-rah!

Poor AZ. I wanted them to win so badly yesterday. Why didn't the last play get reviewed? Why no penalty for celebration? Why don't refs do their utmost to keep us from having questions like this after games???

Luke is loving basketball. He stole the ball 4 times during Sat's game. He is proud, so were we.

Who else is extremely disappointed in Michael Phelps? My heart is a little broken because of him. Why?! I will never understand.

I am missing my camera like it was my child. Which reminds me---MOMMA please don't forget to bring me my camera this weekend!!!!!

After about a year of being locked out of ebay someone was FINALLY able to reset our account. This is probably not a good thing...

My Mom is coming on Friday night! I am SO excited.

Saturday is Kaden's 6th b-day!

This weekend is An Affair of the Heart. A huge craft fair. Super exciting!

We are going to Disneyworld (for a week) in 41 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still waiting on 3 things to finish my taxes. Hurry up already, I'm anxious for our return...

Josie is now saying "puppy dog" "football" "bird" and baaa's like a goat. OHMIGOSH she couldn't be any cuter!

My bro-in-law is coming sometime this month to start looking for houses here.

It's Feb already?! That was a fast first month...

I'm so thankful for my friends and family. Love you all!

Last Day---Nassau, Bahamas

2009-01-29T10:22:00.007-05:00

So it's day 8 of the cruise. Do you feel like you went on it with us?! I know that I went kinda overboard (ha, ha) with the pics but I figured you guys can skip them or skim them as you please. I am sure I'll have way too many for our day in Nassau as well. :) It's part of my charm! We docked at 8 in the morning and had all day to walk around. We decided before the cruise to go to Ardastra Gardens, a zoo and conservation center, as well as the Pirate Museum. We hailed a cab about 10 miles to the zoo. Spent a good part of the morning there. It was extremely rustic and small. We waited around for the Military Drill Flamingos, world's only trained flamingos. (you don't have to be impressed----you should have heard how much trouble my Mom gave us!) Here are some pics of the zoo. I love these two!!!We cabbed it back downtown (yeah that's a word) to the Pirate Museum. They did a really great job with it. They had a small but pretty amazing collection of things in the last room. One of the guns, I forget whose it was and what it's called, but there are only 5 left in the world. Good story, huh?! They replicated some parts of a pirate ship and in one room made it look like your ship was getting attacked. There were flags of some of the most famous pirates and stories on how they came up with their flag, stories of what ended their piracy, etc. Very interesting! Michael loves pirates and he was excited to be there. We had a really good time.
Took this photo for my Momma! They had pirate movie posters along one of the hallways.
After the museum we went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. Yum! Found my Aerosmith stuff but it took a little while, I was getting antsy. It's Joe's guitar Becks :)After our late lunch we walked around town. We did some shopping and then headed back to our ship for the last time.

The moon was setting, how picture perfect was this?Our last towel friend:The next morning we were off the boat by 8:30, just in time to rush over to the airport and wait for our broken plane that would not show up. We had such an incredible time on our cruise. We must thank Mike's Mom and Grandma for watching our kiddos so we could enjoy this time together. It was much needed and much deserved I think! So thank you, thank you Mom and Grandma Short!!! We have our next cruise narrowed down to two places, Bermuda or the Southern Caribbean. It'll probably be at least another 3 years before we get to do this again. We're thankful we have so many wonderful memories from this one!!!

Day 7 and real time stuff!

2009-01-28T09:30:00.004-05:00

Hey all! Day 7 of our cruise was another day at sea as we sailed back up to the Bahamas. We hardly took any pictures so I figured I would catch up real quick with what is going on here. We are currently in day 2 of closings! We had an ice storm that started on Monday late morning. We picked up Luke early from school, it was suggested by the district. School was cancelled yesterday and today. Michael was let off of work early Monday and didn't have to go yesterday! We had a fun day at home together. Today Michael has to be in by 11. Church has been cancelled for tonight as well. The bad weather has stopped and it's warming up here. Should be in the 50's tomorrow. That is good!

Luke has started Upward Basketball. (Kaden is very disappointed, he wants to play but it's for 1st-3rd). Luke is by far the SMALLEST one on his team but he is doing a good job. It's hard for him to score because they can't lower the baskets in our church gym (hence no Kindergartners). His coach is wonderful. Is really great with the kids and is pretty close to a Quinn Synder look-alike! (especially the HAIR!!!) The first game was last Saturday and the kids did great. It will be a fun season!

We signed up all 3 boys for baseball this year! AHHHH! I don't know how we are going to pull this one off! I sure hope we make some quick friends that can help us get our boys to practices... I'll keep you updated. Kaden is playing with his same coach from last year! I'm thrilled about that! Luke has moved up to 7 year old machine pitch. He is SO excited!! He is dead set on being a switch hitter. I keep telling him it is extremely hard to do that and he replies matter-of-factly "Aaron Miles does it. I can too." So, there you go. Michael and I think seeing Gabriel in a uniform will be too adorable. Baseball should start in Feb/March.

Alrighty, onto the cruise. Day at sea. We spent this day sleeping in first of all. Afterwards we headed up to the very 'top' and played miniature golf. It was super fun and pretty windy. I lost. I lost bad. Michael was very proud of himself:

We decided to splurge on dessert today. There was a coffee bar that had this humongous cakes for $2 a slice. I ordered Fat Chocolate Cake:

Michael had Black Forest Cake:

Tried as we could, we just could not finish them. But it was a valiant effort. They were beyond delicious!!!!

Another AWESOME thing we did was "On Deck for a Cure". Carnival has started doing a breast cancer walk on their ships. I think that is just incredible! For $10 you signed up, received a t-shirt and pink bracelet. So at 4 pm we joined about 100-200 others and walked a mile around the track. Felt good to give something back while on vacation!!

And here was our Friday night animal. Again, we aren't sure what to make of this one...

That night we had a Beatles show and it was wonderful. We had the best time singing along with all the songs. By far the best performance on the cruise! The next day was our last day. Nassau, Bahamas.

Virigin Gorda (by way of Tortola)

2009-01-27T11:13:00.011-05:00

Day #6. We docked at the island of Tortola, B.V.I., but we didn't stay there long. We walked a couple of blocks over to the ferry station. There we bought our boat/taxi tickets over to the island Virgin Gorda (also B.V.I.). There we went to a place called The Baths. It's an extraordinary place with all these huge rock formations in the water. It was beautiful! Antigua was our favorite view by far, but this time at the Baths was our favorite excursion of the cruise. The pictures will show you why we had such a great time...

Our boat from the ferry:

We called this The Lex Luthor. It's a yacht with a helicopter pad, pretty sweet, huh?
When we got to Virgin Gorda we took an open bus about 3-4 miles to the Baths. When you first get there you have to climb down a relatively steep incline complete with boulders, rocks, and sandy places. It took us about 20 minutes to walk down this path. The man walking behind me was humming the Indiana Jones theme, it was hilarious! Once we got to the bottom there was an amazing beach right there but there was also another beach to get to. It was called Devil's Bay. To get there you had to follow a path that had you climbing through boulders, crawling through them, squeezing between massive rocks, wading through water. Some steep parts, some pretty far drops, tight places, COLD water...my goodness it was a blast :) Here is the view after we crawled through the entrance:
Michael's Captain Morgan:
Michael again. (I was also in my swimsuit---so you know that means NO pics of Jess :)

Water at last! We snorkeled here for a good 45 minutes or so. It was awesome! Michael is so proud of these pics, one is now the background on our computer! :)After snorkeling around, and again taking pics with our disposable water camera, we headed a little farther to a beach area. We were here for an hour or so. It was marvelous!
A hermit crab was crawling on the 'path' from the beach. Michael got him out of the way. He was HUGE!
Some photos on our trek out of there.
Uh, you go first! That was a tight squeeze!
Some views from the top (we'd climbed back up the Indiana Jones path already). A house we noticed on the ferry back to Tortola. Quite massive and impressive!!!
What do I always say I can't get over?! The water. Do you see why???We got back on our ship an hour before we left. Michael used this opportunity to go down the water slide. Some last island pictures from the ship. Good bye Tortola.Pretty cute little animal that night, huh?

Another day, another island----Antigua!!

2009-01-26T08:32:00.015-05:00

I'm really excited about this post! This was the site of the most beautiful breathtaking place Michael and I have ever seen! Are you excited now?? Read on my friends, but be forewarned---it's a SUPER LONG post!

Welcome to Antigua! (Correct pronunciation is AN-TEA-GUH, just so you know. It took me all day to learn that!) Again we arrived pretty early in the morning. Michael and I decided to rent a car and spend the day driving around the island ourselves. It was wonderful! We had booked through the Internet about 3 months before the cruise but that didn't seem to help much. We waited just around 2 hours to get our car. That was a little frustrating but it did give me lots of time to look in the diamond and emerald shops right there on the pier. :)

Hertz gave us a map of the island with fun/interesting stopping points on it. So that is what we did. Here's Michael in the car.

Yeah, that is just wrong! The steering wheel was on the wrong side as were all of the cars on the street! I was a little freaked the whole day. Got a little sick to my stomach winding through the mountains in this little car (Mike drove a little too fast for me!!!). But it was wonderful all the same! We started out right by the airport and discovered there was an US Air Force base on the island. Michael and I talked about being stationed here. That would be crazy! We went to the gate but the guard would not let us in. I was a little bummed but what can you do? He said we could ask the base commander (who is a MAJOR by-the-way----Mike will be a major on March 1st!) but of course we didn't. It was cool that we have one there though. Think ABMs are needed on Antigua??? We started our map journey and the first stop took us for a loop. We left the pier and drove up some hills to the airport area, got the car and then drove on a pretty gradual incline for about 20 minutes or so. When we got to the "top", the place where the road dead-ended we figured we would be at a lookout on the cliffs. We ran into this instead.... Pretty cool huh? Again the water was just spectacular. We didn't swim or anything that day. Just took some wonderful photos. We were not expecting to leave a dock and drive "up" to a beach. Awesome. Next we stopped at "Betty's Hope", it was a sugar plantation that started way back in the day (don't remember for sure when it started). It was interesting and very sad. Of course there was a slavery issue (British island) but the coolest part was a copy of the letter from the British Prime Minister abolishing slavery and telling the owners to let them go. (which reminds me, if you haven't seen the movie AMAZING GRACE, then SEE it and SOON. Wilbur Wilberforce---quite the soul!)You would see these windmills all over the island. Lots of sugar production in Antigua's history. We were driving around and saw a lookout through the trees. It was beautiful! The red tiled roof (we learned from our map) was Eric Clapton's rehab center where he wrote the "Crossroads" album. Interesting, huh? Another pull-off lookout. We had to stop!Here, we just stopped for a quick sec in the middle of the road for this shot. How unbelievable is that water??!!We now are our favorite view of the whole cruise!!!! We drove to the top of the mountain to a National Park called "Shirley's Heights". The map said we would arguably see the most beautiful view of the whole island. And it was SO right! It was a panoramic view. It started here and went like this. BREATHTAKING, I tell you!!! I have video but it will not load right now. Sorry about that, but at least you can look forward to seeing that later. :) Here are some more shots of us to prove we were there. That is the famous Nelson's Dockyards behind us. We actually didn't make it down there because of time constraints. That was a bummer.Next we went winding through the rain forest. That was awesome! We saw some people doing the zip lines--man, they go fast!!!This view was just after one of the most popular beaches on the island called "Jolly Harbour". Michael was so proud he got a little of the wave break. Nice photo, huh?

I warned you it was a long post...I'm kinda sorry about that. I just had too many good photos to share!!! We got back to town around 3:30, turned the car in and walked a few blocks over to this beautiful (and huge) church, St. John's. (from the 1800's) Our boat from the church steps: We went back to the boat and took a few shots before leaving. This one is especially for James (Mike's brother---inside joke, you don't have to get it!)
Good bye Antigua.Good night Antigua. Towel animal. I do know what this one is!!! :)

If you do choose to come back and see tomorrows post--it was our day at Tortola. AMAZING photos there too!!!