Meatloaf beatloaf, double meatloaf . . .

Why is it that when kids have meat-loaf, they make it look as disgusting as possible and then don't eat it.  It could have lettuce, ketchup, pickles, and a bun on it and they still won't eat it.  I'll admit I added the spoon to recreate the "Christmas Story" scene (minus the mashed potatoes on top of the spoon), but really, it just looks gross on her plate.  Needless to say, she only had a few bites, but that's been happening a lot lately.  She is not mommy's little piggy!

We had the neighbor kids over today. I couldn't help but think of my friends who have their babies one after another and think, "So

 this is what it's like to have 5 kids 5 years old and under."  I'm glad Brooklyn was able to have some fun this week with friends. It was sad this morning when she said, "Mom, can we have some fun today?"  You have to understand, she has been around kids as much as a full time job for at least half of her life.  Taking her away from that has been quite the shock to her system.  Thank goodness for neighbors!  

Pajamas

I just noticed that the last few pictures I've posted of Brooklyn. She's in pajamas!  I promise she doesn't spend her life in them.  She does get changed eventually.  Since we've stopped going to school/work, there really isn't anything to get ready for until maybe lunchtime.  But wouldn't that be great if your whole wardrobe was made of pajamas?

Daddy's girls

Mike went back to work today. I've really enjoyed the last two months of paid paternity leave and having my husband home every day. I'm actually surprised he lasted that long, but very grateful as well. I love you honey! We miss you!

Keepin' busy

I've been trying to find things to do while Mike is still home from work on paternity leave.  I want to take advantage of every minute he's here.  So I came up with this little crafty idea that was completely funded by my Joann's Gift Card I got for Christmas.  Thanks Mom H!  

Brooklyn's also needed some help finding something to do.  However, holding the baby is always going to be her favorite thing I think.

Taylor falls asleep in the weirdest positions sometimes.  I think this time she was dreaming about the Cardinals.  TOUCHDOWN!  Congratulations AZ!  See ya at the Super Bowl!

Christmas Rocks!

Christmas was awesome this year.  These are just highlights of the awesome day.  From my cousin-in-law Julie, I got a piano!  Okay, so it was already mine, but it's been sitting at her house until we had room for it in a place of our own.  Since we moved in our house last July, I've been begging Mike to get it over here.  So for my secret Santa gift from Julie she brought it over and gave me money to spend at Milano's.  Thanks again Julie!  

Not only that, but Mike's secret Santa was his Uncle Wade who knows Mike is in to guitars and stuff.  Well, he gave Mike this mandolin.  We were both totally stoked to get these and we're very grateful to have them.

Brooklyn also got something she'd been wanting for a while.  Her first bike!  We got her a 16" since she's so tall.  Hopefully it will be the right size for the next couple of years.  She loves practicing on her bike.  She's already taken a trip down to the mailbox and back with no help at all.  

When we got to grandma and grandpa Harris', she was even more excited to see she got a 3-wheel scooter.  It's easier for her to ride and smaller too.  She loves to ride this in the house.

Christmas tends to wear us out.  This is the routine Mike and Taylor have every morning.  She really fell asleep like that for like and hour and a half.  Mike just loves to stay in bed.

Brooklyn doesn't sleep in, but she does fall asleep in funny ways.  One night she made a bed for her Minnie Mouse.  She liked it so much she wanted to sleep there too.  She fell asleep on the floor and as you can see, we don't have carpeting, so we took a quick picture and put her back in bed.  Good times!

How can you mix up night and day?

Our little Taylor turned 5 weeks old today.  I am now coming to grips and accepting fully that she has night and day totally mixed up. I had it coming.  Brooklyn was such a good baby and easy to keep on a schedule that I knew this one would be different.  Not only does she want to play at night, but she also must eat more at night, then sleeps pretty much the whole day.  For instance, last night I was up every hour and a half to feed her.  That means get up at 1, feed and change her (takes about a half hour) then attempt to go back to sleep, only to be woken up 45 min to an hour later to do it all again at 3:30.  This lasted till 8am when the sun is up and smiling and my eyes are rolling so bad I can't even read what's on the tv guide channel anymore. That's when Brooklyn gets up and wants breakfast and watches Sesame Street so I guess it doesn't really matter anyways what show I get to semi sleep through.  Once breakfast is on the table my day starts and there is no turning back.  

Now I sit here, 11pm, feeding Taylor, typing one handed, dreading to go to bed knowing what kind of routine awaits me in just a few short minutes. Feel free to drop any advice. I'm not quite desperate, but I can feel the time soon coming.

Baby Pictures!

Isn't she lovely . . .

My sister offered to take pictures of Taylor.  She's not a real photographer, but loves to play with her camera.  We had lots of fun at her house this morning getting some cute pics.  Big sisters are awesome.  Thanks again Traci!

Merry Christmas

We hope you strike gold!

Elf Yourself!

I had too much fun making this. Merry Christmas!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Xm7qIT9DNm181r7w

It's about time!

Okay, so she's been home since Saturday and we've spent so much time loving her I haven't updated the blog till today.  We got the phone call as we were on our way to my niece's baptism.  The doctor started out by saying, "How would you like to take your baby home today?"  We were shocked. 

We are so happy to have Taylor home with us, especially Brooklyn.  She wants to hold her, hug her, and kiss her all the time.  She's always coming to me saying, "Mom, Taylor is so cute!"  Brooklyn's been a great big sister getting burp rags, throwing away diapers, getting pacifiers, and making sure that Taylor is happy.  

When we were bringing Taylor home, Taylor started to cry and Brooklyn plugged her ears and said, "Mom it's too loud."  I had to explain to her that Taylor might do that a lot, so the whole way home Brooklyn kept her fingers in her ears not knowing what else to do. 

 

We've kept her in the house all week due to the wet weather, but soon we'll be planning some outings while Mike is home for paternity leave.  I'm going to cry the day he has to go back to work.  At least we're all together for the holidays.  

The Mom Song!

Check this out!  So funny and so true.  I'd post it as a video, but I haven't learned how to do that yet.

http://blogs.northlandchurch.net/2008/08/11/the

Proud sister

On Monday, Brooklyn got to hold her sister for the first time!  She was so good and sat very still.  She is so happy to be a big sister and prays for Taylor to come home every night.  

Taylor now weighs 6 lbs. 6 oz.  She no longer has an IV, but is still on oxygen and has a feeding tube.  When they do her feedings they feed her by bottle first to see how much she can do, then if she doesn't take all that she needs they give her the rest in the feeding tube.  I fed her this morning and she took her whole bottle!  As long as she can keep that up, the feeding tube will come out. They are also starting to ween her off the oxygen.  Looks like we'll have her home within the next few days!  We'll keep you posted.

Update

Every baby needs a picture of them crying so they can see later what we had to put up with. :)

But honestly, most of the time she looks like this.

However, this is my favorite.  It's like she's winking!

The current update on Taylor: 

Today she got her chest tube out!  Now she's only hooked up to the nasal oxygen tube, an IV and has a feeding tube.  They started giving her breast milk today and if she tolerates that well through the feeding tube, they'll start her on a bottle tomorrow.  Thanks for your prayers!

Surprise!

So a big surprise came monday night, or should I say Tuesday morning.  I went into the hospital around 1am with small contractions about 4-6 minutes apart, not really sure what was going on and by 2 am Taylor arrived (1:51 am to be exact).  No time for an epideral, I did it all on my own.  Wow! That hurts!  She weighed 5lbs 14oz and was 19 1/4 inches long!  Who knows how big this baby would have been had I carried full term.  She's only 2 weeks further than what Brooklyn was, but almost twice as big!  Average time for a 34 week baby in the hospital is 7-14 days (thank goodness none of this 6 week stuff).  She does have a c-pap that helps her with her breathing, and because of the c-pap she had a air pocket develop in the lining of her lung and pop so they needed to put a chest tube in to help it heal.  She'll have that in for at least a couple days.  So once we can get her breathing and feeding well on her own she can come home.  My recovery on the other hand has been very quick thanks to no meds and no tearing.  I just get tired in the afternoon and need a nap so I really can't complain.  It's been a very exciting week for us and your thoughts and prayers are still needed.  Thanks everybody for your love and support!  Pictures will be posted soon! 

Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

Her favorite movie . . . for now

So I finally understand why my brothers hid "Little Mermaid" from me when I was a kid after watching it daily for a couple of weeks.  I gave Brooklyn this movie the day it came out and she watched it everyday that week.  Anytime she sees anything that has to do with the movie she immediately yells "MOM, SLEEPING BEAUTY."  I mean anything!  Commercials, billboards, coloring pages, roses, castles, it just doesn't stop.  After watching it for a week straight, I found I could use it as a tool to get her to do stuff for me like helping clean the house and her room, doing homework, etc.  I don't know what I'd do without bribery. 

To my loving husband

Happy Birthday!

(yesterday)

I have to have the most loving husband in the world.  I want him to know how special he is to me.  He's a wonderful father of soon to be 2 girls and a very hard worker.  He has many talents such as writing, playing guitar, singing, a sense of humor, and listening.  I love my husband and hope he had a special day. 

(P.S. He is so hot in this picture!)

It's a...It's a....

GIRL!!!

We went in for another ultrasound today and the baby was finally cooperative.  We will be having another little girl (much to the sadness of my sister who was mostly excited for a craft idea that only works for a boy).  We're very happy.  Of course I would love to have a boy, you know, to carry on the Harris name, but maybe next time.  We're pretty set on the name Taylor Hope Harris.  Brooklyn picked out Taylor and Kristi added the hope.  Her plan is to have three girls with the middle names Faith, Hope and Charity.  I should totally give my boy(s) a middle name from the scout oath or something.  Like Cheerful or Thrifty, something snappy, something catchy.

The great part is that we already have a bunch of girl clothes so that helps out a lot.  The baby is right where it should be developmentally.  The doctors are paying more attention Kristi and her body.  This is where things started to go south when she was pregnant with Brooklyn.  But, the pregnancy has been extremely different and incident free so far that we are very hopeful that there should be limited set backs if any!  We're a little more experienced this time around and so we're a little more aware what is and is not supposed to happen.

So, for all those of you who were just dying to know...It's going to be a girl! 

Help me out . . .

So I love getting ultra sounds at the OB/GYN office.  My doctor seems to do them just for fun.  I don't mind cuz he always gives me a picture to take home.  So the last time we went (Aug. 25) we were supposed to find out what the baby's gender was.  I'm a planner, I've got to know.  Well, these are the pictures we got.

Cute profile!

Okay, now this SHOULD be the shot!  That little plus sign is right between two legs.  However, the doctor said this isn't really a good shot to tell what it is.  He's saying a girl, just because he's not seeing anything else, but he wants to check again next time (Sept. 23).  I'm okay with that cuz maybe we'll get some more pics!  Sorry to all of you who I left hanging with no response or answer.  It's simply because I don't really know myself.  I'm waiting to find out what happens at the next appointment.  To be continued . . .

What a beautiful world . . .

So seeing as blogs aren't really fun unless there are pictures, I'm finally posting some of my own.  Here's some pictures from our trip to Greer.

What happened to August!?

Wow time flies when you have too much to do!  So yes, we moved and I love our house!  I love the whole moving process so much that some of our stuff is still in boxes (note sarcasm).  Luckily it only took us two weeks to get our internet working, but by then I had started "school" with Brooklyn at Noah Webster Basic and it's pretty much taken up all my energy.  Starting a new job can be so exhausting but I really like it there.  

Mike started school too at ASU.  He's working on getting a degree in Graphic Information Technology which he's totally interested in.  So hopefully that means he'll finish!  I don't care how long it takes, just as long as we can keep living in our 3 bedroom house, I'll be fine.

Other fun things . . .

I read Breaking Dawn! Everybody's opinion of it is pretty much my opinion.  I liked it, but didn't.  I can honestly say that I've never been so mad and happy in a book before.  There was one point I was going to throw the book across the room and call it quits, but I plowed through it before school could start.  I just hate not finishing something I started.  I'm glad to say that I finished it and got my closure.  Eclipse is still my favorite by far. 

And P.S. . .  Did you know that a partial draft of Midnight Sun is on Stephenie Meyer's website.  I guess someone illegally posted it on the internet and she was pretty upset about it.  But instead of just getting mad she was nice enough to provide it on her website so her fans wouldn't have to go find it and be dishonestly reading it.  Some people say she'll still publish it, but she almost made it sound like she's postponing the whole book indefinitely.  I sure hope she still publishes it.  I read her draft and loved every minute of it.  I want more!!!  She didn't even get to the meadow scene.  That's what I was getting excited about and then it stopped in the story like 2 days before it happens.  It's not like I don't know what's going to happen in the book, but I want to know what He was thinking!  Ugh . . . we'll have to wait for more from her . . . again.

We went to Greer over Labor Day weekend!  A much needed vacation I must say.  Although staying in a hotel on a squeaky double bed with a 6' 4'' husband isn't really a fun vacation.  I'm glad we were able to get queens the next night.  We slept much better and enjoyed our time with family.  Brooklyn caught her first fish!  A small blue gill, but still quite the adventure.  Apparently she went to touch it and the spine poked her.  Once that happened, she didn't want to have anything to do with fish or fishing.  We're just so glad Mike's grandparents have a trailor there so we have a fun place to "hang" and fishing equipment to use.  Thanks Old People!  

Moving...gag me with a spoon!

I’m pretty sure our family and friends hate us by now with as many times as we’ve moved in the past 5 years (Thanks, Kris). We’ve pretty much moved every year for the past five years. Heck, I hate me for moving that much. Moving is pretty much one of the most unpleasant things one can do. Include moving in the middle of a nasty, humid summer and it’s pretty much the equivalent of childbirth for men. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration but with all the lifting and sweating and pain, it’s all we’ve got, ladies. Let us think we’re really suffering even though you really know it’s nothing.

Our new house (yes, I said house) is on the campus of ASU Polytechnic (or ASU East). It’s all the old military housing that ASU now provides to student families at wicked awesome rates. We just moved out of a two bedroom apartment and now live in a 3 bedroom/2 bath house w/ den. It’s about 1300+ sq. ft. and we’re paying roughly the same in rent. Is that nuts!? Oh yeah, and they include water, not to mention free cable and high speed internet! It’s almost like we’re making money on this deal, except we’re not because we write them checks and not the other way around. Anyways…

So, we’re all moved in and in the process of unpacking (ugh.). At least the unpacking is inside an air conditioned building. However, still unpleasant. The good news is that we have a ton of space to put all of our stuff (read crap). We also have enough space to have more than two people over to visit. Yeah!! So we’ll probably be planning a get together in the future. Hopefully I’ll have a grill by then and we can have a barbecue when it starts to cool off.

To anyone who reads this blog that helped us move in any way, big or small, THANK YOU. We’ve been horrible at moving in the past, unorganized and scatter-brained. This time around was so much smoother. We had a ton of help loading up the U-Haul and even more unloading. It went much faster than I had imagined. Thank you Emerald Bay Ward and Family and Friends.

We love our new house. We’re happy in our new ward but will miss the friends we've made (you can always move out here by us, you know!). Please keep in touch whether you’re moving to Connecticut or not at all. Thanks for you friendships, kind words and all the help.