Christmas Time is Here!

Every year we kick off the holiday season by decorating our tree and watching this classic. I just love Charlie Brown.
This year was a little different though...Harrison has been sick the last few days and Jeff and I each caught a touch of it. Although, it has just been a cold, Harrison stayed home from church yesterday and got to relax in bed with Daddy. I still went to teach our little Sunbeams!

There is nothing like a good book in Mom and Dad's bed!
We got our tree up last night and I love the feelings of Christmas that it brings into our home. Harrison loves the lights and we actually have our tree in the main room of our house instead of hiding it from him this year.
Now, when we are all feeling better, we will hopefully get some pictures of us smiling in front of our Christmas tree this year!
Here's to hoping everyone has a wonderful, low stress holiday and truly remembers the spirit of the season and our Savior's birth.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With all the holiday traveling that normally goes on, we usually lay pretty low on Thanksgiving. We try to just relax, cook a good dinner and enjoy time as a family. This year was no exception. We cooked a 23 lb. turkey (by we I mean Jeff!) and many of the sides. Jeff really enjoys cooking on Thanksgiving and also baking a few pies. This year he did the turkey, raisin pie, apple pie, homemade rolls, gravy, and cranberry sauce. I took care of the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing (from a box) and a peanut butter pie. We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed all the food (and leftovers we will have!). Harrison wasn't much of a fan of most of the food but loved the cranberry sauce. That and some turkey with rolls is about all we could get him to eat.
Our feast...
After dinner we played out in the backyard and went on a walk.

It was so warm still yesterday and the cold front blew in last night. Just in time for black Friday, which Jeff and I both took advantage of! We are almost done with our Christmas shopping now!

We truly are so blessed and are so grateful for all we have. We have great family, friends and we have the truth of the gospel. We have so much to be thankful for and are grateful for a day to reflect on all those blessings!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Well, I can hardly believe it has been another year and another birthday for Jeff. I still can't believe he turned 27 today! We had a great time and got to celebrate most of the birthday yesterday. Being the day before Thanksgiving this year, he didn't want to have 2 big dinners 2 days in a row so we split it up. We had a nice shrimp dinner with hush puppies and then had presents.
My parents sent him a game and Ohio State shirt.

I made him some new rice bags.
Harrison made sure to have the party hats! He loves a good excuse to get out the party hat!
And Daddy was a good sport, but I guess they were both sick of me snapping pictures.
Then we had a great chocolate cake.


It's amazing what a little sugar can do!

I am so grateful for a wonderful husband (and father). Jeff is truly a blessing in my life and I feel so lucky to be his wife. He is smart, dedicated, loyal, loving, funny and adventurous (just to name a few). Love you babe!

Chestnuts Roasting and Visions of Sugar Plums?

So this time of year we should have chestnuts roasting on our open fire right?! Well, not in Houston. With a lot of humidity and 80+ temps for most of the last week, we instead still have our grill out and after finishing the meat, I thought we should let Harrison enjoy roasting marshmallows. He didn't really like waiting for it to cook, but loved the gooey marshmallow! Maybe we can do a Texas version of the song and call in Marshmallows roasting...




And I am pretty sure that this little guy was thinking about something (maybe visions of sugar plums) while he fell asleep leaning over his bed...
How can you even do that???? It is beyond me! I was gone on Monday night and when I got home, Jeff had already fixed him in his bed, but snapped these great pictures to show me how creative our son is. I guess when you tell him not to get out of bed, this kind of counts!
This toddler bed has been a really hard transition for us. Harrison is waking up SOOO early still and there is a difference in my mothering when my child gets up at his normal time after 7 vs. this new thing of being up between 5-6. It is getting a little better now and 6:30 is becoming more the norm. Oh, how I miss my quiet mornings to myself! I guess I really was spoiled with a good sleeper and I am feeling it now!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Jeff has been gone all week and we go pick him up at the airport this afternoon. Both Harrison and I have gotten very used to having him around a lot. We have both missed him this week, but Harrison has been such a trooper. We are still working on the sleeping (which was on the fritz before Daddy left) but he was really good about understanding that Daddy was gone for a trip. He did not like that Daddy left on an airplane. The cutest has been at some point every day, Harrison stops what he is doing and knocks on the study door. He is used to Jeff opening it up and having a little daddy time whenever he needed it. It was sad to watch him knock, get no answer and start yelling through the door for "daddy!" But like I said, we was a good boy so this morning we had a special breakfast.
Harrison has found a new love in Mickey Mouse. Almost a year ago, I bought him some PJs with Mickey Mouse and just recently he started watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I get ready in the morning. So, this morning, I made Mickey Mouse pancakes. He got to wear, eat and watch Mickey Mouse all at the same time! He loved every minute!


Like I said, today we pick up Jeff and we are both really excited. Since Harrison didn't get to ride on the airplane with Daddy...he gets to wear an airplane and go pick up Daddy.
We are so glad when Daddy comes home!

When I'm home alone...

Jeff was gone on a business trip from Tuesday-Friday this week. To keep myself busy, I got to work on several projects that have I have been wanting to try. A little while ago, I made Harrison this applique shirt using felt...
I thought it turned out well and Harrison loves it. I have a friend who does applique and said she just used regular fabric. So, I figured I could make at least 3 shirts for the price of 1 character shirt. (All 3 fabrics and shirts cost about $7) So, I finished all 3 of these shirts this week. They are going to be one of Harrison's Christmas presents...
Then a little while ago I saw a great idea on making a wreath out of tulle. Then I saw somewhere else, they used a wire hanger. Again, all I have to do it buy the tulle and grab a wire hanger and I made a fun fall wreath...
I thought it turned out well, so I got more tulle and made a patriotic one. I don't really have a lot of 4th of July/Summer decorations.

Then last week when Emily visited, we talked about freezer paper t-shirts. I didn't really understand how it worked, so she (and her sister) helped me walk through the process. So I got a few shirts and made these two shirts for Harrison...

I have quite a few more stencils to try, but I only had few days with Jeff gone. The rest will have to wait. I did have to take some time to work on a little present for Jeff's birthday too. (Sorry, no pictures or description...unlike Harrison, Jeff does read this blog!)


In the mean time, I still have to finish this book (also a Christmas present for Harrison).
And a Go Fish game that I have the stuff for, but am still putting off starting. I have had this one on the idea list for a long time. Hopefully Harrison will still want to use it by the time I get it done!
Now, it is time to focus on Christmas presents. I do have a few more crafty ideas to whip up for Christmas presents, but those will have to wait until after the gifts are given.
And I am excited to pick up my husband tomorrow! As nice as it is to get a lot done, I miss having Jeff here and I'm glad he doesn't go on many trips!

I'm in trouble!

So as many people already know, my wonderful husband has a bit of a soft spot (cough, cough) for sports. (I am trying to be really nice! I love you Jeff and I knew all about your love of sports before I married you!) Anyway, I would say he is mostly into football, specifically college football, but he will sit and watch just about any sport if it is on and he has time. I can only think of 1 sport (including fishing, hunting and most other random sports) that my wonderful husband will not watch. He is not a race car or NASCAR fan. Thank goodness! Most sports I enjoy sitting down with him to watch, but I just don't understand how driving around in circles, faster then everybody else is fun!
Well, tonight as Jeff was checking what was on ESPN, Harrison noticed the racecars. Cars, the Disney movie, is a favorite at our house right now. We thought for sure, he wouldn't be interested, but we were wrong! He was glued to the race. It was the tail end so he got to watch just the last 5 minutes or so.

I guess mom trying to snap a picture just bugs a true NASCAR fan!
When it ended, we had some serious tears and it took some time to calm him down again! I guess now there is not a single sport that will not be watched in my house! Oh well! I love my boys!

A Visit from Friends

This last week was AWESOME! I got a call from one of my college roommates and great friend, that she wanted to come visit me! Emily and I met our freshman year at BYU and after living a dorm room away, became great friends. Then we became roommates until I got married (or broke up the band as my old roommates tend to remember it!) I was so excited. Emily has a little girl 9 months younger than Harrison so we were excited to get the kids together to play and spend some time catching up! We don't get a ton of visitors and she is the first non-family visitor for us. I loved every minute they were here and despite our children not always getting along, some minor sleeping problems and sickness, I think we had a great time.
She got here on Monday and after an afternoon trip to the park to run around, we found a few fun spots in Houston to take them.
Tuesday we spent the morning at the botanical gardens and then had lunch at the park and let the kids play...the weather was great and we had a good time.


They both loved the water...
and it made me so happy to watch them play so well together.
The dirt and rocks are always fun too!

More water and this one has fish!


Then on Wednesday we decided to spend the morning at home and then went to the great indoor play gym. The kids had a great time but by this time you could see that they were not going to be the greatest of friends. They had more fun playing separately at the play gym.

A great chance to review our colors. We are still working on them but I'm pretty sure Harrison's favorite color is Orange...he misses most of the colors but he always gets orange.
Loving the slides


We had big plans to visit a few more fun parks, take a trip downtown and go to the Children's Museum, but of course with kids, the best laid plans don't always work out. Harrison has been a beast of a sleeper lately. After switching him to his toddler bed, we have had short naps and very early mornings. Then Emily's little girl was teething so she wasn't feeling well either. So we stayed close to home and enjoyed the quiet times when everyone was happy.

I love the surprise face!
Saturday came way too quick, but we loved the time we had together. I am pretty sure that it will be a long time before we are able to see each other again, but will be happy to be wrong. Either way, Emily and I had a great time talking, catching up and laughing. Granted, in college, most of that was done in the late night hours and now we both prefer to be in bed early! I just hope next time comes soon.
Harrison woke up this morning asking for "Lydia" aka Olivia! We miss you guys already!