funny story

While I was in helping Brytlee's kindergarten class with their Christmas party a little boy came up to me and said,
"you need to buy a new TV"
Me
"Why"
boy
"Because Brytlee said she can't watch Sponge Bob because it say's swear words, and my Sponge Bob on my TV doesn't say any swear words"

I had a hard time not laughing.  I didn't really want to explain to him that I just don't think it is a good show so that is why she can't watch it but I did let him know that our tv wasn't swearing. 

Emotional

Yea, it is Christmas break!!!  I went to the school a couple of times on Thursday for the girls last day and it as so crazy how emotional it made me.  After the horrible shooting that happened in Connecticut, I have not been able to look at a small child the same.   I teared up all through Elizabeth's Christmas singing program because the children were all close to the same age.  They were all so sweet and innocent.  There is something so wonderful about children that I know everyone should be able to see and feel, so it has been so hard for me to understand how someone could do this horrible thing.  On Sunday I was so emotional... I am not an emotional person so it was so weird for me to break into tears again and again.  Everytime Ryan walked by me and saw my eye
s all teared up he would just say "stop it" and tease me a little.  I wanted to change the mood and get my mind off of the shootings so we went to watch a happy Christmas movie with the girls and instead we watched the saddest tear jerker in the world.  It was called the heart of Christmas and it was about a little boy that gets cancer and loves Christmas so much that they celebrated Christmas instead of Halloween... such a sad movie. 
Anyway, I am very ready to have a good and Happy Christmas with my family.  I love this time of the year and love to feel the Christmas spirit.  I have had to get on my girls about fighting and yelling at each other because I just want Christmas to be more about love in our home than anything else. 

Baptism

 Although it felt like this day was never going to come... it did!  Ryan was home and could baptize his little girl Elizabeth!  It was such a great day and she was on cloud nine!!!

 My parents and Annette and her family were able to drive from IF to come and be with us on this special day. 

 Adison is SO in love with my dad.  She will not leave him alone.  I feel bad in a way because I know that it wears him out, but it is also really cute to see her play, and talk with him.  As soon as she saw him, she took off running and yelling, "Grandpa, grandpa!"  It was so impossible to keep her quiet during the baptism. 

 I was a little surprised that Ryan's dad felt well enough to make it to the baptism.  He had a hernia surgery the day before.  You would have never known anything was ever wrong.  He is such a tough guy, and we were so glad that he was able to make it.

 I think almost all of Ryan's side of the family was able to come except a couple of uncles.  It was such a great day and I am so grateful that we have such wonderful family on both sides to come and support my girls on day's like these!

 this is all the Harris grandchildren that have been baptized now.  Next month Will will be baptized so that will make one more.

Black eye

 So my girls are all in gymnastics and they are loving it.  They are getting so good at cartwheels and all the other tricks... Alexis loves to do cartwheels and back walkovers ect.  One night she was doing a cartwheel and Liz walked right into it.  It was the worst sound and just hit her right in the eye so hard.  I took this picture within five minutes of her getting hit so you can see how fast it turned black and swollen up. 

 Alexis felt horrible and just ran up to her room crying and said she never wanted to do another cartwheel ever again.  I had to tell her a story about when I was young and I did a back handspring and hit my mom on her glasses and cut her eye and made her bleed.  I remember feeling so bad and I also never wanted to ever do it again... but after a while it healed and so I was able to move on.

 But we now have a rule that you can not do any cartwheels in the living room!!!  After a while these two also made up and we were able to play a great game of monopoly...

 This is Liz after one day... she couldn't even open her eye and it was all weepy for a day....

this picture I took the morning after it happened and she didn't want to go to school... she asked if dad could make her a eye patch or something and Alexis said, "you just want an eye patch to impress all the boys" 
I thought that was so funny... cause that is what all us girls do to catch a guy right.
I felt so bad for Liz, she said at school everyone kept staring at her and all the teachers would stop her and ask her what happened. 
Alexis overheard me telling Annette the story about what happened and she freaked out on me and was so mad.  She said that I didn't have to tell everyone and it hurt her feelings that I would tell someone.  I felt so bad and didn't even think about it like that.  So after this is all over I will be so glad....

tree problems.....

This year I really wanted to get a bigger tree, but I didn't really want to spend a ton of money on one.  I already had a seven foot tree, and saw another nine foot tree at the di and thought.... I wonder if you could somehow combine the two tree's and make a 16 foot tree.... So Ryan helped me out and put the two poles together and that worked out perfect.  I started to put the tree together and it looked great and was working like a charm until I put the very top on the tree.... then it tipped over.  The base of the tree was a very little plastic thing and it was not strong enough to hold the tree up.  So rather than having it fall on one of my kids I decide it wasn't such a great idea.... but with the right base... I do believe it would have worked.
So then we tried to put the little tree up in the playroom for the kids to decorate and as soon as we got it all put up... Brytlee gave it a great big hug and it tipped over and broke the base to that tree.... I was so sick of putting tree's up and down at this point I was ready to throw them away and say never mind. 
After three tries, we did get the tree upstairs to work.  (the main key to that was DUCT-TAPE)
I got on Craigslist and found a 12 foot tree and emailed the person and decided to buy it.  When they called me back, it was Lindsey Shippen.  Such a small world!  I had my parents pick it up an now it is all set up and looks BEAutiful! 

little monkey

 Rule number one,  when it gets quiet or feels like life is to easy... you should run and check on the kids. 
Brytlee and Adison were playing together and Brytlee thought Adison needed a bath of lotion... on her head...

 Alexis and Adison are such great little buddies.  Alexis has become such a great helper and has grown up so much.  I feel like she is responsible, and I can really trust her when I need her help.  Ryan and I have left her in charge a few times to babysit now and she just makes me so proud each time.  The first time we left her she watched the kids for five hours and even put them to bed at 8.  She made pancakes for dinner, and cleaned everything up after they were done.  After the kids went to bed, she mopped the floor, and even vacuumed.  The house was spotless when we got home and she was hanging out reading a book. 

 Adison and her little cousin Kinley

 One of Adi's new favorite places to play.  She likes to get in and throw the laundry in the basket.  Then shut the door and play peekaboo. 

The girls took Adison outside to play and had a great time covering her with the leaves....  She looks happy in this picture that they took... but there was a lot more, and they didn't look as happy.....

Congretional Hearing

 Alexis and her class worked  SO hard this year to learn a lot about the constitution and other things about our government.  It was going on before the election, so it was so neat to see how much she was learning and how much she really knew about it.  She could come home and have a great conversation with me about things that were bothering her about the election, or how she really felt about it. 

 Her subject was freedom of religion.  She did such a great job on her speech and when the judges asked a question to the group she would answer almost ever time.  I was really impressed with the entire class.  They all knew so much and did such a great job presenting everything they had learned.

 Alexis and her BFF

Alexis with her great teacher Mrs. Tueller, and her two cousins Rett and Shylee. 

I am a VIP

Brytlee was the vip at her class room a while back.  She was able to make a poster and tell the class some of her favorite things and what she likes to do.  All the things she said she loved was her family and her sisters!  (so cute)
She loves to play sports, she loves school, her teacher, and to color.  She loves to read books, and her favorite foods are german pancakes, and watermelon. 
Brytlee is doing really well in school, and she really loves going and learning new things.  (even if sometimes it is things like... I am sexy and I know it and I am not afraid to show it)  (she came home from school one day saying this over and over until I had a little talk with her....

once there was a snowman

 I am still wondering if this is all the snow we are going to get this year.  It is so crazy to have such nice weather this late in the year.... it is December already and it feels like fall or spring.... so crazy.  But we did get ONE day of snow so the girls all took advantage of it and played ALL day outside.  They played with the neighbors and built a little snow house

 Then they built this cute little snowman all by themselves. 

 They all wanted to have a picture with the snowman by themselves.... it was funny because they all tried to jump into each others pictures.  I had to crop them out of the ones I put in but I thought this one of Brytlee was so funny I left her in. 

Crash

Why is it that you can do so good on eating and health, and then once you cheat a little... you almost can't stop yourself??? I am so mad at myself right now, I was doing so well, and then I feel like I have just given up almost.  Why can't it just be easy......