We're Back!

Hello everyone! We are back from Vegas and what a trip it was! :) Pictures will be posted later (have to sort through the, etc.) but here are some details to hold you over!

We did a TON of walking but really enjoyed seeing the different casinos/hotels ~ we went into at least 12 different ones including Paris, New York, New York, MGM, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Planet Hollywood, etc.!!!! We saw the volcano explode at the Mirage, watched the fountains at the Bellagio from across the street. There are some really awesome shows and we were lucky enough to go see Howie Mandel and TWO Cirque du Soleil shows! Everything in Vegas is bigger, there is more of everything, and it was totally overwhelming yet wonderful all at the same time!

I'm not sure what else to say about it besides the fact that it was AMAZING! Definitely a trip that I would do again!

The boys did a wonderful job of behaving themselves at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They went to the zoo, played outside, watched movies and just hung out with everyone! Chris even went on a 4 mile bike ride with Grandpa!!!! He made it and was perfectly happy...they have plans to go on a longer one next time!

We are back in Kirksville and life is returning to normal. School starts again in about a month and Chris is very excited about that! We are going to be working on a brick patio at the bottom of our deck so life goes on!

Pictures will come later....thanks for stopping by!

I Found Some Pictures!!!!

In the post below I had mentioned more pictures...well I found them!!!! I also spoke of where would we be without brothers??? Well, we definitely wouldn't be having as much fun with laundry baskets!!!!! :)
Then, in the true spirit of his Uncle Tony, Daniel had TONS of fun while eating spaghetti!!!!! Here are some pictures from that fun meal and I will leave how he was cleaned up to your imagination!!!! Although his Uncle Tony still wins the prize for messiest spaghetti eater! :)

Avalanche Ranch ~ VBS

This week we are on an adventure at Avalanche Ranch! :) I'm teaching (all of the older kids) and Chris is participating in the VBS for our group of churches. He is loving it (he's in a group of preschoolers with lots of friends from various places) and it's nice to be teaching although a little odd in the middle of the summer!

Sunday night we got the opportunity to go the Mann/Magruder ranch right outside of Kirksville (and of course I didn't take my camera!). It was a blast! Chris rode a horse (with someone leading it) without hesitation! It was amazing...those of you who really know Chris know what I'm talking about! Daniel got the chance to pet a very calm white horse that he kept calling a doggie! We got to eat roasted hot dogs and s'mores and hang out with friends from our church and the churches around ours! It's amazing how many people you can connect with in such a short amount of time!

VBS is just the first three days of this week so we are over halfway done - one day to go. Chris is sad at the prospect but I'm sure that a week with his Grandma and Grandpa Harman will help ease that tremendously!!!!

That's right...Chris is off for another adventure! This time though he is taking his brother with him and mom and dad are off to Las Vegas! :) Greg and I are very excited but we will be missing our boys terribly while we are gone! Grandma and Grandpa Harman (along with Uncle John, Aunt Becky, Uncle Mike and Uncle Nathan - sorry Tony!!!!) are all ready to go with keeping the boys busy with swimming, etc! Chris has been walking around the house picking out a TON of things that he wants to take with him - his GeoTrax, his pillow, his comforter, his movies (all of them!), his sleeping bag, his sweatshirt (in case it's cold he says!), and so on! I think you get the picture! :) He has also been picking things out for Daniel much to Daniel's dismay! Chris keeps pulling things out and setting them in a pile which Daniel promptly yells about and then moves the things elsewhere. But where would we be without brothers, right? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Pictures as Promised!

A week or so ago, we went swimming at the wading pool at Brashear Park. This is a shallow pool that is free for anyone to go and enjoy! We got there early and ate a McDonald's lunch and then played for a little while before the pool opened. Once it opened, the boys had a ton of fun playing!!!! We went to the pool with our closest friends and all of the kiddos had a blast! Chris insisted on wearing his sun glasses in the pool while swimming! He spent a lot of time "swimming" by pushing himself along the bottom of the pool and running around with the other kids.



Daniel had a lot of fun hanging out in the ver shallow end of the pool and dumping buckets of water on himself, Miranda, and on the sidewalk at the side of the pool! Every once in a while he would venture away from the side, but one tumble ended all of that!

Thanks for checking in and I will post more later!!!!!!

Update!

The next time I post I promise to post pictures!!! I have some cute ones that I have to get off of my camera!

What's been going on with us...hmmm...here is a run down and more details will be coming soon!

* Chris spent a week with his Grandma and Grandad in Des Moines (he had a blast!) with his cousin Peter.

* Daniel has cut 2 more teeth - FINALLY - we are now up to 10 teeth.

* We have painted our kitchen a reddish color and the living room/dining room area a tan color.

* We have been setting of fireworks in anticipation of the Fourth of July!!!!

* We now have a backyard that has been partially torn up and will soon be fixed! :) Then we can put in a swing set!

* I spent 2 days last week in Columbia at meetings for school.

And I'm sure there is more but mainly it's been hanging out with friends, having fun together, trying to sleep in, etc! :) I will post pictures tomorrow or the day after so please check back soon!

Nicole

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!! That is the word for us these days! We've been busy doing a lot of things around our house and with friends! Today we decided to paint the shutters and the front door on our house to spruce/spice things up a little! We picked a green color that I was very nervous about at first (the first coat made them look grey!) but after the second coat I was extremely excited! Here are some pictures of our newly painted door and shutters!

We also took Daniel for a haircut yesterday. The poor boy had a rough day yesterday and we just added to it by making him get this haircut! Here is what his hair looked like before (this was our hair style each time we woke up):

After 20 minutes of crying, fussing, screaming, sniffling, and bribing him to sit still...here is what his haircut looks like:

Now, towards the end of his haircut, he sat up from leaning on me (I held him through the whole ordeal) and I was shocked when I looked at him. HIs hair has turned redder by the day and the expression on his face plus the haircut made him look exactly like my younger brothers! I have thought that repeatedly since. All four of my younger brothers have red hair and the expressions on Daniel's face and his face shape just look a lot like them! Chris looks a TON like Greg and I have thought that a lot about Daniel but just the other day it hit me that he looks a lot like my family as well...the haircut did it! :) I am loving his haircut and Chris is excited because it looks a lot like his! Here's another picture with his new haircut!

Now, this next picture was inspired by a picture that my mom took of my brother John when he was little! I have tried to get one of these pictures many times from the other angle but every time he sees the camera through his legs he falls over so this will have to do I guess! This is one of his favorite things to do when he is getting tired...he gets silly and he stands on his head!

One final note is that Christopher has officially learned how to read words. He is now starting to sound things out and he can spot a TON of sight words. I'm not really sure how I feel about this simply because I don't want him to grow up...but I know he must. I'm very excited to see how excited he is about this new world of words and I'm thrilled to know that he enjoys it...but I'm sad that he is big enough to start reading. Ahhh...parenting. Here is a recent picture of Chris...part Chris, part Spiderman!

Thanks for stopping by! More later on!

The Past Week...

Man! Time sure flies during the summer! I realized tonight that I hadn't updated the blog in a while and I thought about everything that has happened in the last week so let me update you!

Last Thursday's T-ball game was cancelled due to heavy rains in the area and the ball fields were a soggy mess! We took a trip to Columbia on Saturday with friends and did some shopping and went to Bonkers (a great place for the kids to play). Sunday we cleaned out our basement more and then each day this week we have played with friends and I have worked on reading curriculum with a fellow teacher (that part is over now!).

In the midst of all of that, Daniel has learned a new facial expression which I haven't been able to catch on the camera yet but as soon as I do I will post it! He has learned to turn his mouth into an "O" while making the oooooo sound....it's adorable and he uses it A LOT! He is getting big so fast and I just can't believe it! Soon he will be 18 months old and he's already more of a little boy than a baby. I would like to add though that he is great at following directions which I LOVE!!!!

Same old, same old and yet new each day! We had play group this morning which was tons of fun (as always!!!!!). We had friends from around town over with their kiddos and then neighborhood kiddos were out playing as well so I think around our front yard we had about 14 kids running around playing! I love having so many kids for my boys to play with. I also love all the parents I have to chat with while the kids play! :)

The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy as well. We have T-ball again tomorrow night and I am going to be attending a Hip Hop dance class (wish me luck!). On Friday, we are going to go to St. Louis to snag my sister and bring her back up here so she can visit some friends and help us out!

Well, enough for now...keep checking back and we will be updating our pictures!