Lake Powell 2012 Part 1

I am very behind on blogging, but really wanted to get it done before all is forgotten.  Back in June, right as the kids were getting out of school, we took a trip to Lake Powell.  This was not our ordinary trip that we take though, we took our good friends the Milner's and the Alleman's and beach camped there. My dad was VERY generous and allowed us to take not only his boat but also his truck to pull the boat with. Thanks so much dad, we are very appreciative of him letting us borrow such valuable equipment! We had so much fun with our friends and they too had a blast!  None of them had ever been, so it was really fun introducing them to the Lake that I grew up on every summer since I was like 4 years old.  We wanted to take this trip because it was one last hoorah before our dear friends, Alex and Jamie Alleman, moved to North Carolina for graduate school.  When Tom told me of his idea of this trip way back in March, I rolled my eyes at him.  I wasn't too keen on the idea of beach camping (I have been very spoiled with my parent's house boat), and I also didn't think that my dad would let us borrow his boat and take it clear to Lake Powell.  I mostly thought the idea of the trip would fizzle out, like other ideas in the past have, but as the date of the trip grew closer and my dad surprisingly told us we could take the boat, I knew that I couldn't back out of it.  And BOY, am I glad that I didn't!!  It was such a fun and memorable trip for us with such close friends that we have had over the years.  I think my biggest hesitation about the trip was simply just borrowing my dad's stuff.  I was extremely nervous about being responsible for such expensive things and I was nervous about the safety of everyone there.  In fact, I couldn't sleep the night before we left, because I was freaked out of my mind.  But once we were there at Powell, my nerves were calmed and I was able to relax and have so much fun.  I also gained an appreciation for Lake Powell again,  I think because I've been there so much, I've just taken it for granted all this time.  But I was able to see it through our friends' eyes and realized how really awesome that place is.  We took our kids, except for William, (left him home with grandma) and they all had so much fun playing on the beach, swimming, and just being the goof balls that they are.  The big kids had fun too, meaning the 30 and older age range.  Probably more fun the little guys.  And I also have to admit that I didn't mind camping on the beach either.  It was a lot of work and a little messier, but very fun!  I would do it again in a heart beat!  We are already planning our next trip.

The BOYS!!

                               

Jamie and Aria tubing.

                                                         Andrea and Shiloh tubing.

Captain Thomas.

                                              Me and Xan Man!

The boys watching the girls tubing from the back of the boat.

       Alex and Scott showing off their warrior dance    before jumping off this rock.

Carter and Xander playing on the boat.

                                               Shiloh and KC.

Andrea, Mac, and Scott.

      The kids in the bow of the boat, a favorite spot.

Me and the cute captain!

                                        Swimming at the beach.

The kids wanted to be buried, so we obliged.

The dads did not want to be buried, but we obliged anyways!

A shot of our camp.

The Milner family.  Tom has known them since middle school, and I'm so grateful to have such great friends. Love them.

The Alleman family.  Tom has been best friends with Alex since middle school. We love them and miss them a lot!

         Our cute family, minus William, who got left at home because mommy didn't want to chase him around the beach.  Next year baby Will.

The whole group. Such a fun trip.

I'm to lazy to post pictures post...

I've been neglecting this blog.  And I feel kinda guilty about that.  Not guilty that my readers can't keep up with my life, because I know there aren't any readers out there who really follow this blog, except for my sister who lives in St. George and whines when I don't post often enough, but doesn't keep a blog of her own...hmm.  I feel guilty because I consider this blog my journal and a way to record my children's lives.  I'm a horrible journal keeper and scrap booker.  Each of my boys have a baby book of their own, but not much is in any of them.  One day I will make that a project.  Our life is so busy lately, and I get nervous that life is passing by me so quickly and I really don't want to forget these little moments and memories that we are making with our children.  My baby will be 16 months old in a week, and I will have a nine year old this fall. A nine year old.  Wow.

Thomas and I will celebrate ten years of marriage this weekend and I can't believe this milestone has come so quickly.  We have had ups and downs and it hasn't always been a bed of roses, but I can say that I would not change anything.  Our marriage has been mostly ups and not downs.  We have had a really good life, and I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring us. Thomas is my rock. My best friend.  I turn to him when I am scared. I turn to him when I need to make decisions that I feel can't be made with out his help.  He is my person.  I love him. He makes me laugh every day.  Even when I don't feel like laughing, he gets it out of me.  These last two years have been rougher for me.  I have had to share him a whole lot more with people.  He is very involved in his church calling and is gone a lot.  I have taken a back seat.  I am home with our children by myself more.  There are times when I don't mind sharing him, and others when I get frustrated with it. Those are times that I know I am feeling weak and not close to my Heavenly Father.  Yesterday was one of those days.  Thomas came in from being at the church all day.  I was in the kitchen trying to hold it together and clean up the dishes.  He immediately came in and wrapped his arms around me.  I cried and he just understood.  Not much was said, but we knew what each other was feeling in that moment. And then I felt better.  Immediately.  Thomas is my best friend.  We just get each other.  I will always be grateful that I picked him.

We have had a busy summer so far.  The first week the kids were out of school, we took a trip to Lake Powell with our friends, and had so much fun.  Then had a quick weekend getaway to our friends cabin up near Heber.  Next Thomas and I went to our ward's Youth Conference. I really enjoyed that because it was at Snow College campus, which is where I went to school. And this last trip was spent back in Lake Powell again with my family this time.  Pictures to come soon, when I'm not feeling so lazy.  Last week Thomas spent a few days at scout camp and then this weekend we will get away to Salt Lake for an anniversary getaway. Hopefully August will slow down a little for us before the kids have to go back to school. That's about all I have for now, I just wanted to get some thoughts written.

William's Birthday

Our sweet baby keeps growing, and has reached his first birthday.  I can't believe it's been a whole year. It seems like just yesterday I was at the hospital, in labor and so excited to meet my new baby.  We didn't find out what we were having, so it was extra exciting to be there that day and anticipate if we would have a girl or another boy.  Both Thomas and I had a feeling, as we waiting during contractions, that we were having another boy.  It was probably the fact that the baby's heart rate was so low.  Both KC and Xander had low heart rates also.  So, while I labored, we debated over a name for our new son.  Thomas was watching Sports Center, or some show like that, and they were talking about some athlete and his name was William. We both liked it and agreed that would be his name if he were a boy.  I have to admit, my heart dropped a tiny bit as the Dr. announced it was another boy.  But as I held my 3rd son for the first time in my arms, and as he gazed up into my face, I felt so proud to be the mother of 3 sons.  I love it.

William is such a joy to have in our home.  He is always so happy, especially in the morning when first waking up.  He greets us with smiles and cuddles.  Tom usually has a hard time getting out the door in the morning for work, because William is usually grabbing all of his daddy's attention.  I think that he is leaning on towards being a daddy's boy, which I'm okay with.  Here are some things about William:

He no longer nurses.  He is drinking 100% from the bottle, whole milk.

He is small!!  Only the 5 to 10% for his height and weight.  His head size is in the 90%.  I always have to laugh when people say that he is a big boy, because he surely is not!  It must be the large head and all the hair that throws people off.

Some of his favorite foods are: peas, carrots, mac n cheese, noodles, mandarin oranges, strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, cheese, jello, pancakes, and crackers.  Just to name a few.

He does not give kisses. Ever. Which makes me a little sad, but he makes me feel good when I pick him up out of his crib and pats me on the shoulder a few times.  He mimicks what I have done to him.  It always makes me feel extra special when he'll lay his sleepy head on my shoulder and give me a few pats on my shoulder.

He LOVES his big brothers.  LOVES them to pieces.  Thomas and I are always saying to each other that he will want to grow up way too fast, so that he can catch up and compete with his brothers.  There is a 5 and 7 year age difference between them, so that's a lot of growing up that I'm not quite ready for.

He is very active and wants to get into almost anything that he shouldn't be getting into.  He keeps me busy and I am constantly baby proofing things around the house.  He loves stairs and most of the time is not allowed to climb ours because they are hard wood with no carpet.  When he is able to climb them though, he literally squeals with excitement.  It's pretty darn cute.

He babbles a lot.  The only recognizable word he says is Dadda.  He has said Mama before, but only when he is crying and needs something.

He started walking about 2 weeks after his birthday, and he loves this new freedom of his, and I do too.  He especially likes it when we are outside and he can roam where ever his heart desires.

William has taken a real liking to balls, of any kind.  He loves to throw them and then chase them and pick them back up again.  He recently decided to try and join his big brother's basketball team and try to play with the big boys.  Sorry buddy, you have a good 5 or 6 years to go before that happens.

He loves our cell phones, and manages to push buttons and change browsers and settings on them.  It leaves Thomas and I baffled, because he can change things on the phone that we have no clue how to do.  If he can't get his hands on one of our phones, then he will pick any object, toy, or piece of garbage nearby  and put it up to his ear and babble at it.  He sure is a funny boy.

We celebrated his birthday a couple weeks after his actual birthday, due to painting our home and then Thomas' grandma passing away.  I don't think he knew the difference though.  We had our family over and the Alleman's over too.  I made some monkey cupcakes, I found the idea on the internet and had to try it. Some of the pictures are a little blurry, not sure what was going on with my camera.

 Opening presents . . .

 Presents . . .

 Presents . . .

 and more presents!

 Pushing around his new toy.

 He got this big grin when we started singing to him. It was so darn cute!

 Not sure what to think about that candle.

 Pulling it apart.

 Really enjoying it now!

William and Auntie Em.

I love this boy so much!  He is a our little ray of sunshine. Happy first birthday William!

Xander's Birthday

Xander turned 6 on March 1st, and wow, what a fast six years it has been!  He is such a good little boy when he wants to be.  I love him so much.  He tries my patience every day, but can be such a sweet tempered little guy also.  Xander is one that wears his emotions on his sleeve, just like his mom.  He can scream at his big brother, and the next second burst into tears over something that has happened.  Here are some things about my little Xan Man.

He loves candy and sweets. Any holiday where he gets candy he has it eaten within a couple of days.  Quite the contrast of his older brother who forgets he even has the candy and never finishes it.  Again, he gets this from me, unfortunately.  This addiction is probably the culprit of his 8 cavities he had filled last year.

He reminds us every night to pray and read our scriptures. Every night.

He says he hates church and complains every Sunday morning, but he always comes home and tells us everything he learned that day.  His primary teachers, Sister Cooper and Sister Peterson love him.  They tell me that he asks "out of the box" questions.  I believe he gets this from his daddy.

He is spiritually minded. A few years ago when my grandpa passed away, he was so curious about this. Where did grandpa go?  We talked to him about how his body would go into the earth and his spirit went to heaven. And then explained how they would be joined again at the ressurection.  He was even so curious as to why we couldn't see grandpa's legs in the casket (this part was covered by the lid), the guy from the mortuary lifted up that part of the lid so that Xander could take a peak at grandpa's legs.  It reassured Xander that his whole body would be put in the ground.  Xander had a dream two nights after my grandpa died, and he told us about it.  He said that he saw grandpa, and he was happy.  He was with his friends and he was happy.  About a month ago Thomas' grandma passed away.  The day that it happened and after we heard about her passing, he said to me, "Mom, Tutu is the reason why I'm an eighth Hawaiian."  It made me smile, and I was proud that he made that connection to her.  While at her viewing, he often wanted to go up to her casket and look at her.  He often asks us when we are going to go see her grave at the cemetary.

He is so funny!  He is constantly saying some funny things.  He still has an accent like he's from Boston and can't pronounce certain syllables.  I know it's important to work on his speech, but I have to admit that I will be sad when he starts talking like the rest of us.

He is constantly leaving pairs of socks around the house.  He takes them off and forgets where he puts them when he needs them again so he gets a new pair.  I'm not sure how to brake him of this obnoxious habit.  Sometimes I just have to laugh over it, otherwise I'll go bonkers trying to correct him on it.

He just recently learned to ride his bike with no training wheels.  It took him awhile to learn, but I knew that he would do it in his own time.  He can be pretty stubborn when it comes to learning new things.

 His best friends are Elliot, Carter, Sierra and Suhani.  He loves to play with his friends, and recently is outside all day long playing with them.  He and the neighbor friend, Suhani, recently tore a hole in the fence between our houses so that they could go from eachother's house much quicker than before.  Funny kids.

He doesn't love school.  He tolerates it. When I go into his classroom to volunteer, I notice that he is pretty quiet at school.  More so at the beginning of the year, he has opened up a little more recently.

For his birthday he really wanted a Stars Wars themed party, which is what KC had when he turned 6, so we couldn't say no...  he was so excited!  Here are some pictures of his party/birthday.   I love my Xander boy so  much.  He has brought a lot of joy and laughter into our family!

thoughts of the moment....

11:38pm, Monday night on the eve of the tax filling deadline for 2012.  Yep, finally got it done!  Today was a great day.  The morning was a nice one.  The alarm went off as usual at about 5am (the days are always attempted to start with a bang), about 25 hits of the "snooze" button later Little Will finally has his morning moment of glory.  He announces to the world (or the Harris House anyway) that he has arose from his deep slumber and is ready to be removed from his soaking wet underpants (don't freak out, he still wears diapers).  Alas, he is changed and the Harris House is operating at full capacity. "K.C., are you ready yet?"  "Xander, you need to wear clean underwear (seriously, do any of you have to remind your kid to wear clean ones?)."  I love being home in the morning.  It is a work of art to watch my beautiful bride quarterback the events of the morning.    As the boys left for school I realized that I was late for work.  aaahhh, To be able to witness the majestic performance of my little family in the furry of a late start, it was worth it.  Man, they are fun.  Are other families this fun?

Off to work.  Sports talk radio?  Na, what's on the FM dial?  NOTHING!  Oh yeah, the greatest app for the iphone ever, Pandora!!!!  Let's do this thing!  Over the past few weeks I have spent the bulk of my "listening" time with the songs of Hawaii.  I have felt a great need to connect to my grandmother.  She loved her songs and music.  Man, I feel good!  That's right, I am one quarter Hawaiian and DANG proud of it.  "How is grandpa?  What is it like to be physically alone?  Is he listening to her music as well?"

"I'm curious about your allocation Mr. Smith.  I would like to review that with you in greater depth."  There is such a thing as diminishing returns, it's real.  To much stock exposure is an actual concern.  "Mr. Smith, what is the money for?  How are you planning to spend it?"  Is there any topic in this world that has a sorter fuse to "metaphoric dynamite" than a persons money?  If there is, don't choose a career focused on helping people with it!  It's been a successful day.  Goals were met and exceeded, even the freeway was smooth sailing.

Alexander Kali'i Harris : "Dad, will you be at my tee-ball game tomorrow?"  "Dad, can I buy my teacher some flowers?" " Dad, is it family night or bishopric night?  If it's family night can we get Slurpee's?"  "Dad, whens can we go camping? This day or another day?"  "Dad, is moms your girlfriend?"  What an awesome kid!!!!

Omelets  for dinner.

She is asleep!  So beautiful, she has earned this slumber.  Non stop, all day everyday.  Someone is needing her, someone is waiting for her.  Always moving, always working, always loving.  How did I win her over?  The picture shows that the last ten years have not touched the youth in her skin or the light in her eyes.  She is as beautiful today as she ever was.  "Son, she is worth the risk of putting your whole self out there.  Take the higher road, leave the door open."  These are the words of a father to a son who was heart broken and angry. (Don't dear john your missionaries girls!)  Dad- thank you!  She is everything and more!

12:26 am, Tuesday Morning.  I suppose it's time for bed.

Hola! Se habla espanol?

    After Christmas break, Xander and I made a commitment to pass off his sight words by the end of January.  He was pretty close to knowing all of them, but had about 10 or 12 to solidy.  Well, he surprised me and went for the gold and was able to pass them off in the first week of January.  I credit his Dad.  I have spent hours helping him memorize them, but all it took was one night of Tom helping him out and he passed them off the next day at school.  Thank you Daddy!   

    The week after that Xander recieved an award from his principal at school, because he was nominated by his teacher for meeting his goal of passing off his sight words.  Good job Xan Man!  I love the little guy so much, I can't believe how far he has come this past school year.  Since September, he has hated doing any reading or homework, but in the last few weeks he has not minded doing his assigned reading and writing homework.  I'm so proud of him. 

     Also, back in January, we entered him into a lottery for the Dual Immersion program through the district.  Well, to our surprise, he got in!  He was accepted to go to a school 5 mintues from our home for the rest of elementary school.  He will learn Spanish.  For those of you who don't know what the Dual Immersion program is, it's a program that starts in 1st grade.  Every year the students will have two teachers.  One will teach them all in Spanish for half the day, and the other teacher will teach them in English for the second half of the day. We are really excited for this opportunity he has to do this.  I've read that students who have done this program, test higher in their standardized testing.  The downfall of him doing this are him and KC will not be in the same school anymore, which I kind of feel bad about, but I also feel that this is too good to pass up for that reason alone.  PLUS, I could always see if KC could test into the SALTA (an accelerated learning program) for next year (which is also at the same school) and if he passes the testing, they could be at the same school again.  We'll have to wait and see what happens there.  So far, Xander seems excited about going to a new school and speaking Spanish!

Xander getting his award from the principal.

The whole group of students with their awards.

Re-cap of December and January

      Well, I haven't felt like blogging so sorry its been a couple months.  We had a lovely December and January.  We really enjoyed Christmas, especially with a new baby in our house again.  The boys were, as always, so excited for Christmas.  We enjoyed having Christmas on Sunday this time, I think I would prefer it like that every year in fact.  Our sacrament meeting is at 9 am, so a few weeks ahead of time we told the boys that we would not open up any presents before church, but would do it after church was over and daddy got home from collecting and counting tithing, so around 11:00 or so.  I know, we are such mean, cruel parents.  We thought it was going to be hard on them to wait that long, but those sweet boys surprised us and waited so patiently after church for their dad to get home.  I suppose talking about it weeks ahead of time prepared them.  We started opening gifts around 10:45.  KC and Xander each got a Nintendo DS and  some games to share.  Along with a bunch more presents that I'm forgetting now.  William got some baby toys and clothes and shoes.  Tom and I got some new coats and iphones.  I made a yummy hashbrown quiche, which I think will now be a Christmas morning tradition.  It was super easy to make, easy to clean up, and everyone in the family ate it and loved it. Christmas afternoon, Thomas' family came over and we exchanged gifts with them. And then later in the evening we went to my parents for dinner.  I love being around family at Christmas, I think that's why its my favorite holiday.  And in recent years, I've found that just being at home with our three boys is just as fun as going to visit extended family.  I love that feeling of having my kids and husband home and creating traditions on our own.  My most favorite part of Christmas this year was that Thomas was home and didn't have to work for 10 straight days!!  Just a nice benefit of his job, lots of paid time off.  We really enjoyed sleeping in, being lazy, watching movies, playing video games, eating yummy food, visiting family, and all the rest that entails of having no school or work for that long.  It was awesome.
       In January, we took a quick weekend trip down to St. George to visit my sister's family, but not before having to replace our water heater the day we were suppose to leave.  Seems like those type of expenses always come when we are going on a trip or something like that.  So, we ended up leaving a day later than planned, but still had a lovely time down south with my parents and Kalyn's family. My sister and her husband are such great hosts when we visit and make it all seem flawless while doing so.  It was great to see my nephew,  Ethan receive the priesthood and become a Deacon.  I can't believe he is twelve already!!!  Seriously.
       The following weekend we were hit with food poisoning, every one of us, except for William.  We were seriously down and out for 2 days.  Thank goodness little Will didn't get it, because it was awful.  Just plain awful.  I'll spare you the details, just believe me when I say I wouldn't wish that on anyone.  Thomas ended up missing a scout camp that weekend.
       The last weekend in January, which was my mother in laws birthday also, we went to Ogden with Thomas' family for a weekend getaway.  We stayed at the Marriott, went Snowboarding at Snowbasin, and swam a lot at the hotel pool... it was fun.  Tom's parents were kind enough and watched the boys for us all day while we, and Tom's siblings went to Snowbasin.  Me and Emily and Tate snowboarded for the first time.  It's not something I would suggest trying to take up for the first time at 30 years old, but I did have fun doing it. Definitely no good at it, but I laughed a lot!  And two and half weeks later, still have the bruises on my behind to show for it!  It was great to get out and do something like that with Tom's sibs, because we really never do anything together.  Tate, for a beginner, did great and was able to keep up with Adam and Tom.  I personally loved seeing Tom and his brothers have something to do together that they all enjoyed.  It was great middle ground for them.  Thanks again, to my in laws for watching our kids!
         It's now February, and tomorrow is Valentine's day.  Where does the time go??  The older I get, the more I say that.  Last night we went to my parents for dinner and made and decorated sugar cookies with the kids, it was fun. My boys always love seeing their cousins, especially Abby.  She is a cutie.
        Xander and William's birthdays are right around the corner.  I better get the ball rolling and plan some parties for them..I can't believe Xanman will be 6, and my baby is going to be a year old?!?!?!  I seriously feel like just yesterday I was counting down the days till I was going to deliver him!  Crazy stuff.  I also, need to get my bum in gear and get my house painted...  I took down all pictures and art off my walls two weeks ago and have yet to start my painting project.  Tom is already teasing me about this and taking bets as to when I will start.  He claims that he doesn't have to help me, because he painted the downstairs last year when I was 8 months pregnant.  Whatever.  Hopefully I'll get the motivation I need and have some before and after pictures to post soon.
        I regret that I didn't take enough Christmas pictures, but here are some that have been taken over the last couple of months.  They are not in order, but I'm too lazy to fix it.

 This is the before picture taken of us before heading up to go snowboarding.

 These two were the after pictures, we all survived.

 KC, Connor, Abby, Xander, and William

 Abby and Xander making cookies.

 KC, Abby and Xander

 Cute one of Abby

 KC decorating his cookie

  Xander eating his huge cookie

 Christmas morning, I love KC's face in this

 Daddy helping William open a present

 Mama and two of her boys

 Happy baby!

 Sweet KC

 His new camera smile.  Cheesing it up!

 Love his blue eyes

         Celebrating Grandma's birthday at the hotel in Ogden