The every day (less Christmassy) part of December.

This should be my last post of 2013, and then I will finally move on to 2014. 

I have gathered every picture from December that have nothing to do with Christmas and put them in one post.  There are probably going to be a lot, which is kind of crazy since I have already posted about 10,000 pictures from the month of December.  These girls are just too cute not to photograph.

Two hats, pajamas, a coat, and boots—silly girl.  Elna’s baby doll spends a lot of time zipped up in her jacket.

Everything is fun and happy, until…it’s not.

 

Her first time eating spaghetti.  I think she liked it!

I love waking up to this sweet girl!

I love my mornings with her.  She often wakes up a little earlier than Elna and I feed her.  Then she plays on the ground in her room while I read my scriptures. 

Then we move into Elna’s room where we spend another 10-15 minutes playing in there. 

I hope I never forget these moments.

Then into my room to make my bed and clean.  Finally, we head to the kitchen for breakfast.

Sometimes Elna decides to feed  Harriet.  I’m loving Elna’s tongue in the picture above.

Then I do a ton of housework and this girl helps me sometimes.

Playing with dress-ups.

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Elna was taking her baby for a ride in Harriet’s carseat.  I love how she’s in her jammies with a fancy hat and backpack, riding a rocket, and tugging the carseat around the room.  She’s a funny little one!

During Hattie’s morning nap I try to spend some of the time reading with Elna.  Elna really loves it and so do I!  Here we are reading Alexander and the Terrible Horrible New Good Very Bad Day.  I read this a lot when I was little, but didn’t realize how great it was then—such a funny book.

One morning we woke up to snow and went out to play in it a little.  Elna loved it and I don’t think Hattie really knew what to think.

Elna wearing fairy wings and being silly.

Nakey babies.

Brian was craving sushi during an afternoon spent doing a little Christmas shopping.  Elna wasn’t really interested in the sushi, but she loved rice and soy sauce.

Elna and Mercedez eating apples and spending a fun morning together while Cedez brother was having a tooth pulled.

I really should start dressing this girl.  She doesn’t make the dressing process very easy, so sometimes I just let her have her way.  In the picture on the right I was trying out her bow that I made for her Christmas dress.  It was a little big, so I ended up scaling it back a bit.

Harriet doesn’t look as excited as she actually is here.  She LOVES riding in grocery carts and usually smiles and laughs the whole time.  I love Costco’s grocery carts because they are the only ones I know of that you can stick two kids in side by side.  The girls love it too!

Dinner with Brian’s family on a Saturday evening.  We love spending time with them, and Elna is especially in heaven when she is with her grandparents and uncles.

Look at these pretty blue eyes!

I took this picture after Elna had the sweetest conversation with me.  She was gathering all of her baby stuff to take to her grandma’s house and I said that she might need a diaper bag for all of it and that maybe Santa would give her one for Christmas (because he was and she might as well get excited about it).  She then said, “Maybe Jesus will give it to me.  Text Jesus”  I smiled and swooned inside and started texting the conversation to Brian—he texted me back and she heard the text come in and said “Jesus text”?   I’m not sure about all of this Santa stuff yet, but at least she understands how wonderful Jesus is—we’re at least doing something right.

Elna’s cute friends have a birthday a few days before Christmas and she was invited over for a little party at their house.  She sure loves these guys!

Having a little coloring time with her baby doll.

Hattie pulls herself up on basically anything she can.

Harriet loves going in Elna’s tent.

It took her all of 48 hours to go through the bandaids from her stocking.

Look at the cute Elna!  This was after a baptism we went to one Saturday afternoon—we were eating a little lunch on the steps outside the church waiting for Brian and Hattie to pick us up.

Elna after church, in a dress and coat that she got for Christmas from her Grandma and Papa.

“My tower is so big, Daddy”

Breakfast time with my girls.

Where’s Hattie?  Peek-a-boo!  She love love loves peek-a-boo right now.

This was on New Year’s Eve at Brian’s parents house.  We put Harriet down at 7 in one of the bedrooms and decided to play the night be ear, and last as long as Elna would last.  We stayed until about 10 p.m. and she was happy the whole time.  It was really fun!  We played Hot Dice with Brian’s family and Elna loved rolling her own dice while we played.  She had her own little score card and pen (behind her ear, of course) and would randomly shout “hot dice.”  I love watching this girl and the funny things she does and says.

Notice the pen behind her ear.  She comes up with all of this on her own.

Eating guacamole with Uncle Jared.

After we got home and put the girls down, Brian and I celebrated with rootbeer floats and were asleep by about 11 p.m.  The thing about kids is that it doesn’t matter what time you (or they) go to sleep, they still wake up at 7 a.m. (or earlier!)

And finally, we are done with 2013 and on to 2014.  2014 is going to be my best year.  I can just feel it!

Merry Christmas from the Harrises!

Since starting our family I have wanted to send out Christmas cards, and finally in 2013 I did.  I didn’t scan our Christmas card because I wasn’t a huge fan of how it turned out (a little dark).  Next year I will try a different company I think.  Here is our letter for 2013:

Despite living in the hippie capital of the world, we somehow failed to participate in this year’s naked bike ride through downtown Portland, we only went on one Columbia Gorge hike (a very rainy adventure, it’s primary purpose to jump start labor), have not yet gone camping as a family, only went to the Oregon coast once, and we failed to grow a significant garden for the second year in a row.

But, we did start managing $4 billion dollars (of other people’s money), commuted 23,000 miles, drank 35,040 ounces of water (Lucy!), hammered in 2,324 nails, nursed 1,500 times, changed 1,319 diapers, made 1,144 strawberry-chocolate chip pancakes, tolerated 365 trips to the park, swam 312 miles, baked 240 loaves of bread, tossed 104 pizzas, celebrated with 83 spontaneous dance parties, purchased 12 pairs of panties for Elna, spent 7 wonderful days at Wawona in Yosemite and another 7 days on the sandy beaches of the Sea of Cortez, birthed one ADORABLE baby (and thus endured 79 sleepless nights), and became the proud owners of a minivan!  

Brian — accepted new employment 47 miles from home in Hood River, built a new shed/home office, started running at 5 am to prepare for next year’s races, swam every day during lunch, patched many more sections of the roof, and continues to dream of what his next job, car, and house will be!

Lucy — kept at least one of her New Year’s resolutions this year, took a million pictures of the girls,   naturally birthed our sweet little Harriet (in a bathtub!), ran (without training weeks after giving birth) 3.1 miles to lead her triathlon team to a 2nd place finish, tried many new vegan recipes, and dreams of a time when she can fit yoga into her schedule every day and she can start and finish more than two novels a year.

Elna (very two) enjoys playing with her dolls, loves making Hattie laugh, is a comedian and a character, is compassionate yet has the verve of Nicki Minaj, is fearless, especially with water and heights, loves being read to, can do summersaults and the splits, and says the sweetest little prayers all by herself.

Harriet (8 months) is a delightful little girl who quickly learned how to sleep through the night, sit up, crawl, laugh, love, and steal hearts.  She has successfully gotten out of Elna's sleeper holds and is learning how to hold her own with her big sister.

We didn’t read nearly as much as we have in years past, but we are caught up on all of our favorite T.V. shows.  We didn’t have any trips to the ER, but it wasn’t for Elna’s lack of trying.  We didn’t get pregnant this year and we’d like to keep it that way, we didn’t kill or eat any animals much to Brian’s chagrin, and though we may not have accomplished all of our goals, we wouldn’t have traded this year for anything.  We are so blessed!

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Look for pictures of next years naked ride through Portland on our family blog:

brianandlucy.blogspot.com

Mexico—extended family pictures (part 4)

DeWin, Barbara and their four grandchildren—Elna, Jace, Harriet, and Callie

Our first attempt at a family picture—this was in the courtyard outside the front door of the condo we were staying at.  I actually prefer the ones on the beach that follow this one, but for our first attempt this wasn’t bad.

The people who made it all possible—DeWin and Barbara are wonderful people and parents and I feel extremely blessed to call them my in-laws.

The original 5 boys with their parents.

The token silly picture that I somehow missed the memo on.  I never know what to do in silly pictures anyway.

And my favorite of everyone.  I love being a part of this amazing family!

And, we’re done with Mexico!  Adios till next time!