Cleaning Out and Catching Up

My apologies to those of you who thought our family disappeared. We are still here. I am always fighting with myself about blogging because I love to blog, but when I do, I blog for hours and then I have this horrible guilt about wasting time on the computer instead of having play time with Harrison or precious me time while Harrison is napping. At any rate, here I am. I am back for now. I am cleaning out my memory card for the first time since last December, and I am finding lots of good pictures and things we've done that I've forgotten about. So for now, I will just make up for lost time by posting some of them. I also finally took some pictures of our new digs, so I will post those too. Speaking of which, we love our new house. We are in a great neighborhood and are loving how quiet it is here. Coming from a townhome/condo community where there are always cars coming and going, the quiet is a welcome change. We are tucked in the very back of a neighborhood where there are no through-roads. We have fields around us with horses and barns and crops. Harrison and Maisey tend to wander off outside and it is pretty much heaven for a little boy. We will enjoy it while it lasts. The very best part about our house though is the garage. I love getting into a car that isn't boiling hot or snow-dumped or walked on by cats or pooped on by birds. It is fabulous. I highly recommend having a garage.


Anniversary road trip to Jackson Hole. Although the weather was nice here, there is nothing going on in Jackson in April. There was still 2 feet of snow, so we took a long drive to Yellowstone Park entrance and turned back around.

There is nothing like Temple Square in the Springtime.

We tried our hand at surfing for Zac's birthday in May. Lots of fun, but oh so painful!



Wheeler Farm with friends. Harrison didn't think milking a cow was as much fun as we did.

Me and my honey at the George Strait concert. Yeehaw!


At the Bees game with friends

Harrison and his uncle Jeremy







Our new place

Harrison waiting to meet his Uncle Audy for the first time.


Halloween

Making brownies

I was watching my parents dog for the weekend and when I let her and Maisey out I didn't know what was waiting outside. Enough said.

And the Bad Mother Of The Day Award goes to...

Me. I have had this fear ever since Harrison was born that I would accidentally lock him in the car and it finally happened. I am carrying Harrison in one arm and my keys in the other hand and the whole way to the car he is saying "Dat, dat, dat, dat..." pointing at my keys. So I let him hold them, no harm done. I open the car and hear the horn honk a million times because he is punching the buttons but I am in a hurry and don't think anything of it. Out of habit, I set him in his car seat and throw my keys into the driver's seat. After he is all buckled in nice and snug and he isn't going anywhere, I grab my purse from off the seat next to him and shut the door. I go to open my door and realize that it is locked. Crap. I don't know how many times Zac and I have talked about getting a third car key made just for emergencies and now I am really wishing we had broken down and spent the $20 for a key. So feeling like an idiot I call the police and they say they are sending somebody over. Meanwhile, I am standing in the garage where Harrison can see me so he doesn't think I abandoned him and after a few minutes he starts to cry. It is the saddest thing to see your baby crying and you can't get to them. Sniffle. So the police officer gets there and was so nice about it. He says it happens all the time. It makes me feel a little better I guess. And for all the complaining I have been doing that the weather isn't warmer, I am so glad it wasn't today. Have any of you ever had a police officer unlock your car for you? It is the craziest thing. He wedges the door open, puts a blood pressure cuff inside and pumps it all the way up so that the door is cracked about an inch or so. Then he takes a metal pole that looks like it was made for such an occasion as this, and unlocks the car. I should probably keep a blood pressure cuff in my purse. Or I could just make an extra key. I pull Harrison out and calm him down, put him back into his carseat and pull out of the driveway, only to be met by a mob of children standing in the road staring at the police car, wondering what who was hurt or where the bad guy was. Here. We are both here. I ducked my head in shame and drove away as the kids just watched. Needless to say, Harrison got a lot of kisses and extra chocolate milk for lunch. Heaven forbid I ever lose him at the store.

Lame and Nostalgic

So I got on and checked out blogs today, something I haven't done in I think 2 or 3 months, and realized I am lame. I don't know why I took a hiatus for so long. I love blogging! It just took me logging on to realize how much fun it is. Actually, i do know why I took a hiatus for so long. We are living with my parents while our house is being built, and as opposed to life in a house of our own, there is so much more to do at grandma and grandpas! And i am sure I am not the only one who has neglected the kid and the husband because there is just so much fun stuff to read and write about! Anyway, I am back. And I am committed to blogging only when the boy and the husband are sleeping and working. The other positive thing that has come from not blogging is I finally decided to figure out facebook. I have had an account for over a year and never used it. I still don't know how to use it really, but at least I check it.

So, we are halfway done building our new home! They are sheetrocking it right now, and the closer they get the less patient I get. I can't wait to be in our own place again. With a garage! And a yard! i will have to take some pictures and post them.

This morning I took out my video camera just to see what videos we have on there. We haven't transferred any videos off, ever. So I started watching recent videos of Harrison, and the further back I went, I got so nostalgic. I cannot believe how big my baby is. He isn't a baby anymore. When did that happen? His chubby little cheeks are gone. His dark blonde, long hair is now a buzz cut that makes him look much older than he really is. He learns new things every day. He dances. He says "Buuuuu...." (Like Brr, only like he can't say his R's.) when we go outside into the cold. He waves and gives kisses. He points to everything and says "Dat?" He cleans. Everything. Any time he sees a janitor at the mall or a busboy at a restaurant, he is fascinated. Every time he hears somebody get surface cleaner out of the cupboard, he is right there demanding that he gets to do it. He sweeps. This morning my mom was vaccuming and he followed her around the house the whole time going "Whoa!" I wonder if this cleaning obsession will last?? I won't bet on it. It is so much fun to see him learn new things and see what he loves, but I can't help but miss his little baby body and little baby sounds. Here are a few pictures of what we have been doing since we have been at grandma and grandpa's house.

Sold... Kind of

Wow, it's been a long time. We have had such a fun holiday season and to top it all off, we got an offer on our house. There have been a few hiccups in the process, but if all goes as planned we will be moving out this weekend. I am really sad to leave our little home because we have been here since we were married and I am so attached, but it will be fun to start a new chapter in our lives. The plan is to live with my parents and save the mortgage payment while we build a house in Syracuse, but that is still in the works. So right now we are just gonna hurry up and wait and breathe a big sigh of relief when it's time to close the sale of our house. I am not a big fan of the new real estate contracts - they are so not seller-friendly and it is giving me serious anxiety. Poor Zac has to put up with my craziness. On another note, has anyone been involved with the recall of Jardine cribs this past year? I got an email saying that Harrison's crib has been recalled and i am wondering how smooth of a process it all really is. I am pretty happy about it though because whenever I go to get Harrison out of his crib Maisey can't stand the excitement and jumps up and scratches at it, so it will be nice to have a crib that looks new again. Harrison finally started climbing stairs. I was not looking forward to this one so i was in no hurry for him to take interest, but he figured them out yesterday. He climbs up just great. It's the going down part that is going to take some work. He gets to the top of the stairs and tries to walk down them. Zac spent probably 20 minutes last night trying to teach him how to crawl down stairs backwards, but Harrison just kept trying to go up. So much easier. He learned the hard way this afternoon. Luckily our flight of stairs is "L" shaped so he only fell down half a flight. Poor guy. He'll learn...

Meeska, Mooseka, Mickey Mouse!

Harrison turned one. I am so happy and so sad. I can't believe how big he's gotten and all of the new things he's learning. It's so crazy to me that a person can change and learn so much in just one short year! To celebrate, we went to a place called Jumping Jacks, which is pretty much a big room with lots of blow up slides and bouncy toys. He loved it! I have never seen this kid more hyper.

The next day we had his birthday party with my side and zac's side of the family. It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party. My mom and I spent all afternoon decorating and we were pretty happy with the results.


Harrison loved his party. He had so much fun opening all the presents and eating his very own cake, as you can see, and his tummy is still paying for it!





Happy Birthday Harrison!

Starstruck

Last night was Zac's work Christmas party. It was a beautiful dinner, and the decorations I am sure cost so much more than our whole wedding. One of the perks about Zac's job is that we sometimes get to go to parties with some prestigious 65+ers , which is fun for me just as long as I don't have to talk to them, because a room full of them is really intimidating. No big deal, we'll just sit safely by Zac's work friends... the other 4 people in the room in our demographic, right? Uhm, no. They had place cards and seating assignments, all meticulously planned out so that us little people would have no chance but to sit next to and eat with the ones that make us nervous. Gulp. After the initial 2 minutes where we were politely and zealously bombarded with questions (one of these couples is not like the others) it was really fun to listen to everyone's intelligent conversations and politely nod. Does anyone else get really freaked out by being with important, fascinating people? In the end we had a great night and left without saying anything really stupid, and we even won one of the beautiful centerpieces.

And because it wasn't the type of place to take pictures since apparently no one else was starstruck, we decided to snag some sort of momento from the night. So after he left, we snatched the placecard of the gentleman sitting behind us who, I must admit, I have a little crush on.

Mr. Destructo

Oh Harrison. This boy keeps me busy. He started walking and needless to say is into EVERYTHING. I was making cookies last night and Zac asked Harrison if he wanted to give Maisey a dog treat. We are trying to teach him the difference between his toys and food and Maisey's toys and food. Either way, everything pretty much goes into his mouth and it grosses me out. So anyway, Zac pulls out the dog treats, hands the bag to harrison and says probably ten times "No, give it to Maisey." then "Good boy!" After a couple of minutes I realize it is quiet, which is weird. I look down and see Harrison and Maisey sitting on the kitchen floor, surrounded by dog treats that Harrison somehow opened the bag and dumped all over the floor. Maisey is going crazy eating treats and Harrison looks up at me with his cheeks all puffed up. Yes, he was having a feast too. Disgusting. These aren't just like little dog bones. They are called "Mar-o Treats"...gag... and they are stuffed with a nasty meat substance. No more lip kisses for awhile, at least until I forget about this whole incident. Maisey is just as naughty. As you can see in the picture below, she is right there with him when he gets into trouble. She follows this boy everywhere, and anytime she knows food may be involved I swear I can hear her tell him "Get some for me too!" Gotta love my two troublemakers.